I Love(d) You (Once)
Chapter Thirty-one: Cheese in the Trap But Who's the Cheese?
The sun was dull and did nothing to warm the reddish-black dust Hermione and Draco sat on as they crammed their mouths with as much chocolate as they could stuff in. The dunes stretched far and wide across the barren wasteland. They were on top of a dune which served as a look-out point. There was no one to be seen and in five minutes the port-key would activate again.
"He would have been watching," Hermione insisted, brushing the dust off her palms. "He must be near."
"If he's not here," Draco said, staring out in front of him and seeing no one, "I might as well take this opportunity to do something I've always wanted to do."
A frown crossed Hermione's brow and a bemused smirk tugged at her lips. "What might that be?"
"I've always wanted to proclaim my affection for you at the top of my lungs but was afraid someone would hear me. After all, I have a reputation to uphold."
Hermione rolled her eyes again. "Sometimes I wonder how I put up with you."
"Careful, if the wind changes, your eyes might get stuck like that. Then who will want you?"
"You will," she said.
"Can't deny that."
"DRACO MALFOY IS AN IDIOT!"
DRACO MALFOY IS AN IDIOT. DRACO MALFOY IS AN IDIOT!
Not to be outdone, Draco lifted his free hand and cupped it over his mouth to amplify his shout. "HERMIONE IS A KNOW-IT-ALL!"
HERMIONE IS A KNOW-IT-ALL, HERMIONE IS A KNOW-IT-ALL, HERMIONE IS A KNOW-IT-ALL!
He gave her the most self-satisfied smirk she had ever seen in her life as if to say she could never possibly beat him. Her competitive nature rearing its head, she was about to yell even louder than him when they heard shuffling and turned to see a tall man frowning at them. Late nights of study and paranoia besieged deep trenches on his forehead and his perceptive eyes were sunken deep in its sockets.
Horrifically embarrassed—as both of them had forgotten the severity of the mission for a short moment—they made faces at each other before dashing forward and standing up to greet the man.
"Dr. Hwang?" Hermione asked. "I'm—"
"Yes, I know who you are. I've seen you many times in the newspapers and even if I've been hiding under a rock, I would've learnt your name from all the noise you two were making."
Hermione blushed and looked down. Draco more used to handling and being around unpleasant company stepped forward. "Since you're still here, you've gathered we're not here to hurt you."
"Correct," Dr. Hwang replied. "And no doubt, you're trying to bring me back. I'm telling you now, I'm not going. This is the safest place for me to be. Someone is after my research and my invention will not fall into enemy hands. I knew this might happen one day. As soon as I heard Phillip had died, I grabbed everything and ran. There is a plot at work and I will stay here until it ends."
"But what if the Dementors attack?" Draco protested. "Even if you can cast a Patronus, it'd be impossible to keep it up all the time."
Dr Hwang pursed his lips and paused to think of how to answer the question. But his silence informed Draco enough.
"Well, I'm glad that you've developed some form of method to avoid Dementors," Draco said. "We need some information about The Organisation you're talking about, do you know who is in it?"
"No, I do not. But I suspect, they have worked their way through the Ministry. But knowing their identity and containing the threat isn't my job," he admonished with a slight sneer. "It's yours."
"So, you mean to live here until it blows over?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, the facilities provided are more than sufficient," he replied. "And we conducted quite a lot of our preliminary work in this location."
"You wouldn't have people randomly walking in I guess. So, this is where Adrian works," said Draco. Adrian for all his Slytherin schooling had been a horrible liar. He claimed he went to Egypt but was no tanner than when he left. "I suppose you could have chosen a worse spot."
"I'm surprised you found me so quickly," Dr. Hwang admitted. "The Ministry can do whatever they want after the crisis has been avoided. But I will stay here until The Organisation is dealt with. I hope this won't be a problem." He pulled out his wand faster than the two could react and waved it between them.
Draco stood up and put himself between him and Hermione. "You can put that away. I agree this is the safest place in the world and it seems counter-productive to getting you killed. We're tasked to find out who's responsible."
Hermione looked at Draco and she nodded. "We promise until whoever is behind all this is caught, and then you can come home."
Back in their office half an hour later, Draco asked Hermione, "Think there is some kind of plot behind the Ministry?"
"Maybe," she said carefully. "Someone within the Ministry is fishy."
"We just have to lure them out, interrogate them and find out the truth," he said, drumming on the table. "But how? I mean, it's not like we could go out on the street and parade about, asking for the people responsible to come forward." Draco leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes tiredly. He basked in the sunlight, trying to warm himself up from the Azkaban chill, he unwrapped another chocolate bar.
"Of course not," she said, stealing it out of his hand and she took a large bite out of it before returning it to him. He scowled at her. "If that worked, we might as well invite them to a tea party!"
"We can bring our special guest: The Boy Who Lived. Wouldn't that be fantastic?"
"Would you stop picking on Harry? Without him, we would still be stumbling about!" She kicked him hard on the shins instead and he winced and pouted at her. Then inspiration hit her and she snapped her fingers. "That's it. We'll invite them!"
Draco let out an exasperated sigh. "If you mean them as Ginny and Harry to a double-date…"
"I'm talking about work," Hermione said, shaking her head. "We're going to lure the potential killers out with an invitation they won't want be able to refuse."
"And that is?"
She leant over and whispered the beginnings of the largest plan they would pull off to him.
"It'd work," he said, thinking hard. "You want to be the cheese?"
Hermione nodded, glad Draco wasn't going to kick up a fuss and insist he'd protect her. She would take the more dangerous part of the mission. Become the secret keeper so the Evil would target her. "It's not like I would be in much danger."
A pause. "Really?" he asked.
"Really."
"Then I guess," he said with an odd look on his face, "that's fine then."
A moment before Draco had cast a Fidelius Charm on Hermione and she had become Dr. Hwang's secret keeper. The only way for the Evil People to find out the scientists' whereabouts (and thereby the blueprints to the weapon) was through her. His location now could not be seen, heard, touched or plotted now that it was protected by the charm. She then had Obliviated their tiny trip to Azkaban from Draco's memory.
After a lengthy discussion. they chose to use e-mail to spread the 'secret' and send an Owl.
.
To: Head Auror Lupita Williams
Subject: Scientist Moved
Message: Confirmed persons and blueprints secured and the only way to find them is to ask yours truly due to a Fidelius Charm.
Hermione Granger
- END MESSAGE -
.
.
Unbearably tense, Draco nodded and flicked his finger over the left side of the mouse.
Click.
"It's done," he said with an odd sigh. "The rat in the Ministry will intercept this and come knocking."
They had embarked on the first act in a play with inexplicable dumb-shows and noise—who would reveal something so important on an email?—and they were counting on the Evil to respond.