A/N: Well, if you guess that I'm out of quarantine you would be correct. Kid tested negative and is back in school. Then, of course, now that we can leave the house I'm sort of obligated to taking the littles out in the world to run wild. Oh, and all the appointments. I've been jotting down all the funny shit my 4yo has been spouting at me this week.
Um, also. The HP reunion coming out for the 20th anniversary! Yes PLEASE! I remember going to see the first movie for my older brother's birthday. I instantly swooned for Tom Felton (I was 10, so it wasn't weird). Hm, I guess it's no wonder Dramione is literally my favorite pairing.
So, I've had thoughts of a new story rolling around in my head. It'd be a muggle AU with American Hermione and the relationship would be Hermione/Draco/Theo. So, if anyone would like a quick summary mention it in a review and I can add it in the next update notes.
More notes at the end. I'll tell you a funny story.
Chapter 15, Looming Threats
Hermione already knew that she was running late for her appointment with Hestia, her department head, and she hoped that she would be understanding for her reasoning why. It's not as if she was ever late, but after yesterday's events, she'd found it almost impossible to pull herself away from Aurora that morning. Thus, why her usual arrival time of six to seven in the morning was now pushing eight.
"Aurora, mummy has to go into work for just a little while and then I'll be right back." Hermione was running her hands up and down on her pouting daughter's arms. It wasn't a lie, Hermione had to go in for this meeting with Hestia and then she planned on working from home for the afternoon.
"I want mummy to stay and play with me!" Aurora had broken away from Hermione's soothing touch to throw herself onto the floor and continued her muffled protests that Hermione couldn't decipher regardless of how well she spoke 'Aurora'.
"Oh, for fucks sakes." Hermione muttered to herself looking up at the ceiling of her porch and spun on her heels to walk to her parents' house. The screen door to her porch slammed shut behind her, and Hermione hurried her steps not wanting to leave Aurora alone for long. She wouldn't care if her mother needed to go over to her house to watch Aurora, but today the contractors were coming in to try and finish up her kitchen. The sooner they were able to get done, the sooner Hermione would be able to have Bill come over and help her with setting the wards.
Hermione rapped on her parents' door when her mother threw open the door with a forced smile on her face. The façade dropped as soon as Helen noticed that Hermione didn't have her granddaughter with her and gave her a questioning look. "Hermione, is everything alright? Where's Aurora?"
"Mum, I have a meeting with Hestia in," checking her watch with a groan, "ten minutes. She's curled up on the floor on the porch, I can't wait any longer otherwise I'm going to be really late." Hermione said giving her mother a pleading look. Helen gave Hermione's arm a soft touch and a calming smile, in an attempt to soothe her daughter.
Hermione gave her own sigh with her own ease rolling over her body. "Yes, alright I'll get her. No worries, just get yourself to work." Helen patted Hermione's cheek with a sad smile showing on her face. Without another word, Helen moved past Hermione and towards her house where Aurora was waiting. When they entered the porch, Aurora was still curled up where Hermione had left her in the same spot still muttering non sense to herself.
Hermione bent over to kiss the top of her daughter's head before and gave her mother a quick hug before going back into the house and stepping into her fireplace to be whisked away to the ministry atrium. Hermione checked her watch again as her heels clicked against the marble floor and picked up her pace as she ran to try and catch a nearly full lift.
Her attempts were in vain, however, because just as she was reaching the lift she crashed into a large sturdy man, causing her to fall to the ground just as the lift closed in her face. "What the fuck." She mutters looking up to glare at whoever had now ensured that she is going to be late to her meeting with Hestia. Hermione let out as gasp as she looked over the menacing grey eyes looking down at her.
Lucius Malfoy stepped over Hermione and past her, only giving her a quick glance, before moving along to the next open lift and being taken away. Hermione's head fell forward with a groan as she looked around to make sure that nothing had fallen from her tote and was grateful to see that was the case. Seemed to be the only thing going in her favor this morning. Standing and brushing the dirt off her pencil skirt, Hermione finished getting herself put together and inside the next available lift. Another glance at her watch told her that she was already late for her meeting, but she would just have to beg Hestia's forgiveness.
With her hands shaking as she walked onto the floor of the DMLE, Hermione turned in the direction of Hestia's office as opposed to her own. No sense in wasting more time by going past her office and dropping off her tote, she could just bring it with her. Breath in, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Breath out, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Hermione repeated this exercise with each step towards Hestia's office, but no amount of breath was going to calm her nerves in time. Because at ten after eight, Hermione was standing in front of the department head's office waiting to knock. Taking one last deep breath, raising her fist, Hermione gave her usual quick taps against the wood and heard Hestia's voice yell "come in!"
Hermione pushed the door open and looked around to survey the occupants, inside sat Harry and Hestia, but also Seamus and Sasha? Wait, why? Oh gods, were they going to arrest her for Aurora blowing up a nursery school? Yes, probably was somewhere in some magical being's code that they weren't allowed to use their magic against humans. Since Aurora was a child, it would only be logical that any blame would fall to her parents. Oh gods, she was going to be arrested for sending her daughter to a muggle nursery school and Draco was going to take Aurora and never let her see their daughter again. Yes, that's what was going to happen. Maybe that's why Draco left the country, so he could go prepare a home for himself and Aurora to live in. He must have known that this would be the case.
Hermione's internal panic continued to rise while keeping a cool face on. She wasn't going to freak out, what happened had happened. All that was left was to present her case and if she freaked out too much then Hestia wouldn't be open to listening to her.
Hermione quickly looked past Harry and resolved to only watching Hestia, and squared her shoulders. Hestia raised her head from where she was bent over reviewing a case file. When she saw Hermione, her eyes only squinted a bit, giving nothing away of what she was thinking. Taking a deep breath, Hermione prepared for the worst, but was shocked when Hestia just said, "oh good, you made it! Sasha, can you give Hermione one of the packets so she can get caught up?"
Packet? What packet?
"So, we are going to need two teams, I think. However, there's a leak somewhere in the department and we can't have it getting out that we're going under cover in the black market. Sasha and Hermione, you two can be team B, this is a recon mission only. If you can retrieve some merch then by all means, but it must be done completely undetected. Seamus, I'm thinking of bringing Dean on to work with you since he has a lot of experience with pixie dust and other narcotics and I suspect this might be linked to a big supplier. I want the rest of the week going into planning and then for you all to go in Saturday during the day while they're busiest. Understood?"
Hermione looked up at Hestia and back down to the file that was still in her hands. This had nothing to do with Aurora or her nursery school. This was all about the Borgin case and sending her in to see if there was anything else that she could identify in the black-market trading center. Magical creatures, runes, drugs, weapons, they were looking for anything and Hestia just wanted to have her expert eyes on this. They weren't firing her, or arresting her. This was just about throwing her out in the field and having her do observations.
Hermione finished looking over the notes and plans that had been handed to her while the other four finished talking and making plans for what everyone needed to be doing this week. It seemed like there wasn't any prep for Hermione beyond just sitting in a meeting on Friday to go over their plan for Saturday. When they were dismissed, Hermione stayed back giving Harry a little bit of a wave with her hand to silently let him know that she would come find him when she was finished. With a nod and a wink, Harry followed behind the other two and shut the door, leaving her alone with Hestia.
Clearing her throat, Hermione waited for Hestia to lift her head again to meet her eye. "Hermione, what can I do for you?" She asked setting the quill down that she had been using to make notations on the report in front of her, already having moved onto the next piece of work that required of the department head.
"I wanted to talk to you about what happened with my daughter at her nursery school yesterday." Hermione cleared her throat and took another deep breath to steady herself. "I wanted to apologize, as I should have had the foresight to realize that a muggle nursery school wouldn't be the best place for a child with Aurora's, unique abilities." The only response Hermione got from Hestia was an eyebrow being raised before she chuckled and shook her head.
"Hermione, you're a muggle born witch, it only makes sense that you would want your daughter to experience a muggle education so she understands her heritage. I can't blame you for that, my mum was a muggle born and she did the same for me. It's okay, for us as parents, to stumble and not always make a decision that in hindsight we wish we could change. No lasting harm was done. Now, if there's nothing else you needed to talk about, I have a floo call in" Hestia stopped speaking to look down at her watch before looking back to Hermione "five minutes that I need to get ready for."
Hermione shook her head and was treated to a warm smile by the usual stoic Hestia before she turned and made her way back out of her head's office. Hermione had hardly shut the door behind her before she heard the floo coming to life and a deep voice speaking in a language that Hermione didn't recognize before Hestia responded to him in a very clearly annoyed tone scolding the man in the same language. Hermione had just turned to head towards her office before Jasmine waved at her from her desk to get her attention. "Hermione, Harry wanted me to catch you before you went back to your office."
"Oh, sure. Can you send Kenneth a memo that I'm in, but wandering the office so he's not looking for me." Hermione said as she passed the young assistant who's only reply was jotting down a quick note and tapping it with her wand and giving Hermione a wink.
Hermione knocked on Harry's door and let herself in where she found her friend standing and pacing around his office reading that morning's newspaper. "So, I'm not getting sacked or arrested." Hermione said walking over to his desk and throwing herself into one of his open guest chairs before dropping her head onto his desk.
"Obviously…wait, did you seriously think that you were getting sacked or arrested? Merlin, Hermione. Sorry, I couldn't put in the letter last night what Hestia wanted to meet with you about, you know classified case. Anyway, enough about work, have you seen this yet?" Harry tossed the paper he'd been reading on the desk next to where Hermione's head was laying, making her look up. Looking back at her was a picture of Kingsley meeting with the French minister for some trade deal they'd just established. Hermione raised her eyebrow, and Harry rolled his eyes at her. "Not that, page nine."
"Could have started with that." Hermione murmured as she flipped until she found what Harry was talking about. "What the fuck!?" Hermione's jaw dropped as her eyes scanned over a small article that had been released. A picture of Astoria Malfoy being restrained and dragged into some French rehab facility had leaked been leaked to the press. The picture showed Astoria looking slightly manic as two healers walked on either side of her thrashing body. Under that was a picture depicting Draco sweeping into the same building that Astoria had been escorted into.
A small article filled with speculation as what she was being treated for was paired with the pictures by Rita Skeeter. It was suggested that whatever Astoria was being treated for might have something to do with living at the Malfoy Manor and being exposed to so much dark magic there. Basically, blaming being married to Draco for her poor health. There was no mention of her use of pixie dust, so it was safe to assume that her addiction still wasn't public knowledge.
"Fuck, so what, did she try running away?" Hermione asked looking up from the paper to Harry who was now leaning against his desk taking a sip from his mug with a shrug.
"I guess, Theo said that when Draco was there last night that he said she tried to escape and he had to go deal with her. Pixie dust is really addictive, some people die during the detox from their body going into shock from not having it in their system. That's why a magic induced coma is used in the more severe cases. She honestly probably ran out to go try and find more, but obviously it'll all stay hushed up." Harry took another sip from his mug and leveled her with a look. "You never said how he reacted to the news about Aurora when you told him."
Of course, Harry would ask her about that. Hermione was only left with now rolling her eyes back at him. "Honestly, he didn't say anything, I think he was in shock. I mentioned that you and Theo are her godfathers, gave him some pictures of her, told him she's a veela, and then you showed up. I sent me a letter last night" Hermione opened her tote and dug out the letter Draco had written and handed it over to Harry for him to read. "Oh, he did somehow get her birth certificate sent over from fucking New York and signed it." Hermione threw her head back on Harry's desk letting out a sigh of frustration remembering that her daughter was now officially a Malfoy.
"No shit?" Harry said glancing up from the letter now in his hand to meet her eye before going back to reading. "Theo just told me that he came over and was pissed off that he never told him about thinking Aurora was his." Harry ran a hand through his hair making it stand on end even more than normal as he finished reading the letter, handing it back to Hermione.
"Oh yes, changed her name for fucking Aurora Jean Malfoy. Didn't even know that was a possibility without me agreeing to it, but you know, wizarding world." Harry's eyebrows shot right up into his hair line at the news that his goddaughter's name could just be changed and shook his head. Before Hermione could start on a rant about Draco over stepping, Jasmine's voice rang through Harry's office reminding him that his meeting was to start in five minutes in conference room three.
"Well, shit. Okay, we'll talk later. Yeah? Lunch?" Harry asked as Hermione gave him a nod.
"Yeah, lunch sounds good. I've got to run down to legal for, something, hm." Hermione paused not really thinking there was something she needed from legal, but she felt compelled to go down there. "But I'll meet you here and we can go out and get something deep fried." Harry smirked at her then gathered up all his notes for his meeting before they walked out of his office together.
Hermione again skipped walking over to her office, and instead headed back to the lifts. She stepped into the one that had just arrived and waited to be taken to legal. She figured that Draco wouldn't actually be in his office since he said he would be in France, but for some unexplained reason, Hermione felt that she needed to try anyway.
Stepping off the lift, Hermione easily spotted the top of Draco's gray-haired assistant, Ingrid, sitting behind a copy of this morning's paper. Hermione made her way straight over to her desk and was shocked when the paper dropped and instead of sweet old Ingrid, she found Rachel sitting with gray hair and wearing glasses with a wireless extendable ear sitting in front of her.
"Hermione?"
"Rachel, what, um, what are you doing?" Hermione asked of the younger witch, who looked past Hermione and then quickly grabbed Hermione's arm and pushed her to the floor and under Ingrid's desk with a slight kick to Hermione's rear. "What the fuck, Rachel!" Hermione scolded as she felt the rug burn on her bare knees as she was shoved into an uncomfortable crouch. Hermione thanked her lucky stars that Rachel had decided to wear trousers today instead of her usual skirt, because she in her current position she would have had an eye full of Rachel's very intimate places.
"Hush, Lucifer's talking. I can't hear what he's saying if you keep it up."
Before a protest or any questions could come out, Hermione heard Lucius Malfoy's voice coming from the extendable ear. "Yes, well I wouldn't be surprised if my idiot son slipped that picture to the press."
A second voice that Hermione recognized as Tiberius McLaggen came through, but was slightly muffled, as if he wasn't actually in the room with Lucius. "I've had all records of both Greengrass girls' arrests destroyed, so regardless if any journalist goes snooping, they aren't going to find anything to connect her stay in France to an arrest. You have nothing to worry about, this won't taint your family's reputation."
"Yes, obviously. If there was something left then we would have to end our partnership. I still need to know more about this Rachel Brooks. You've disappointed me, and there's only so far that my, generosity can extend."
"Rachel Brooks? The American mudblood? What do you want with her? She's just some busy body lawyer that sticks her nose in places it doesn't belong. She's not a threat, she's a no body that no one is going to listen to." Rachel snorted to herself, but otherwise made no comment.
"What I need to know about her is of no concern of yours, Tiberius. The only thing you need to know is that you need to get me her employee and personal files. Speak of this to no one, and don't disappointment me again."
When no reply came Hermione couldn't help but hold her breath as she heard Draco's office door slam open and footfalls neared the desk that Hermione was currently hiding under. She could hear as Rachel shuffled the paper she was holding in front of her face as the steps continued to fade away from her hiding spot.
"Alright, come on, I need you." Rachel reached back under the desk and forcefully yanked Hermione from her cramped position and straight to her feet with surprising ease. Hermione watched as Rachel threw down the newspaper that she'd been hiding behind and the reading glasses on top of it before tapping her head with her wand and changing her hair back to its usual auburn brown colour.
"What are you doing spying on Lucius Malfoy, Rachel? Don't you know how dangerous he is? Also, your disguise was shit. Just so you know."
Hermione followed behind Rachel as she shoved an empty file folder into her hands and some loose parchment. "He's been sniffing around this morning since Drake isn't here. Some reason, he's gotten an interest in me and I'd like to know why. Also, I'm not very gifted at glamours, sue me. There's a reason I don't try to do anything with my face. Last time I tried I ended up with a beard for a week."
Hermione paused for only a second trying to picture what exactly Rachel would have not only looked like with a beard, but also why she would have needed one. Hermione quickly rearranged the paper to make it look like it was a full case file that she was carrying with her as they continued their walk towards Rachel's office. Rachel threw open her office door without any hesitation and the two women were instantly face to face with Lucius Malfoy.
"Oh, Lucifer, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were here. Did we have an appointment this morning or are you just here to make a nuisance of yourself?" Rachel acted as if she were truly shocked to find the man standing at her bookshelf casually browsing Rachel's collection of framed photos. Lucius for his part, didn't act at all surprised to see Rachel walking in or that she was casually insulting him, only giving her a seething look as his reply.
"Ms. Brooks, I'm positive that I've told you to call me Mr. Malfoy. And yes, I had something that I had wished to discuss with you, but I can see that you have company this morning. Ms. Granger, nice to see you not sprawled out on a floor." Lucius said as his eyes glanced over at Hermione who couldn't stop the blush of embarrassment creeping up her face as she remembered physically running into him that morning.
"Alright, well you're foul. We already know that though so no reason to remind us, now why are you in my office? If there's nothing you need, I'd highly suggest you move along Mr. Malfoy." Rachel, who obviously thought that Lucius was referring to the time Hermione was tortured on his drawing room floor (who knows he might be), and not to the fact that she had been laid out in front of the lifts was glaring daggers at the older man.
"Why, Ms. Brooks, I was just wanting to get to know the witch that my son has such a – fascination for. No ill intent on my behalf." Lucius stated, completely ignoring Rachel's request for him to exit her office.
"What is there to tell you, Lucifer? I'm an American muggle born. I moved to London five years ago so I could work with my hero, that's Hermione by the way, and when I found out she wasn't living in England at the time, I was crushed. Luckily your son doesn't have any of your personality or prejudices and was and has been a great mentor and friend since I met him." Rachel replied now motioning towards the door with her free hand, "now if you don't mind. I'll remind you that you don't have an appointment and I am a very busy woman."
Narrowing his eyes at Rachel's insults, Lucius for his part did continue to hold his tongue and not lash out at the young woman standing before him. "I'm sorry, Ms. Granger, I didn't realize that you had moved out of England for a time. Welcome back." He said now flickering his eyes towards Hermione with slight interest where she stood rooted to the spot. His threats from five years prior rolling through her head, Hermione knew that engaging in a verbal sparing match could only cause her trouble. The less attention she drew to herself the better where this man was concerned. No need in putting herself on his radar where he might look into her and find out that she was the mother of his granddaughter, especially since Draco had already gone and signed her birth certificate.
"Yes, it was a shame to find out that I came all this way when I could have just stayed home and worked for MACUSA to be able to work alongside Hermione. But, then again, if I'd never come to England, I would never have gotten to meet Drake and become like a sister to him, you know how important family is to him. Now, if you'll excuse us, Hermione and I do have a classified case that we are needing to discuss and you're still standing in my office, uninvited." Rachel snapped at him, turning the attention back away from Hermione and onto herself once again.
Hermione, who had been watching Lucius for any clue wasn't given anything as his features stayed schooled and in an unreadable mask. With one last glare between the two women, Lucius pushed his way past them and out Rachel's door without another word. As soon as his body had passed the doorframe, Rachel flicked her wrist and snapped the door shut with a loud thud.
"Fuck, sorry about that. Oh, right, what are you doing down here by the way? Drake is in France for a few days and won't be back until Thursday, if you were looking for him." After Lucius had walked out, Rachel had walked around to her bookshelf and had begun rummaging through what Lucius had been studying when they'd barged in on him. "Just looking at my family pictures and pictures of me and Drake. Fucking bastard, I know he was looking for something just what the fuck that something is, I'm not sure. I'll have to let Drake know, fucking man is a menace, I probably shouldn't goad him the way I do, but eh, life's too short and he's an asshole." Rachel was now waving her wand over her bookshelf checking to see what all had recently been opened, showing that Lucius hadn't been interested in any of her books.
"Uh, actually I'm not entirely sure why I came down here now that I'm thinking about it. I haven't even made it to my office yet this morning." Rachel looked up from where she had been riffling through what all Lucius could have been looking for with her pictures and gave Hermione a concerned look.
"Uh, Hermione it's almost noon." Rachel commented stopping what she was looking at and walked up to face Hermione and waved her wand at Hermione muttering "Finite Incantatem." As soon as the spell took effect, it was as if a fog she hadn't known was there was lifted. Hermione no longer felt like she needed to stay away from her office or have other places that she needed to visit before she went back there causing concern to rise up in her chest.
"Um, I need to go." Hermione said as she turned back around and walked out of Rachel's office without giving the other woman a backwards glance. Hermione hadn't even heard Rachel calling after her as she sprinted off down the hall and towards the lifts. Hermione couldn't shake the nervous feeling that was blossoming inside her; someone had cast a spell repelling her from wanting to go to her office, but why? Hurrying her way onto the lift past a group of ministry solicitors, Hermione was bouncing on the balls of her feet as she waited for the chime announcing she'd reached the DMLE.
The lift hadn't even opened all the way before Hermione shot out and was down the corridor heading straight for her office. Kenneth, who never was missing from his desk when she needed him, was nowhere to be seen. In fact, at a quick inspection, it looked like Kenneth had never even made it to his desk that morning. Memos and reports that were needing filed away were stacked up, clearly not having been touched. Unopened notes were stacked so high that they were spilling over and onto the floor.
Turning away from her assistant's desk, Hermione waved her wand and quickly checked to make sure that her office was empty and no one was sitting and waiting for her. Once she confirmed that it was indeed empty, she unlocked it with a quick flick of her wrist and let the door swing open.
Laying on the top of her desk with, a letter still attached to its leg, was a dead owl.
A/N: Well that's a cliff hanger… Next update will be either Monday or Tuesday. My cat has an appointment with the vet Monday, that's why I'm saying it'll be either day.
A funny story. Hm. Oh, I know. So, when I was a freshman and sophomore in college, I did volunteer work at an elementary school once a week in a PE class. This was the year that the silly bandz were REALLY popular and all the kids in my classes had them (I had K-5th graders).
Well, anyway, I grew really close to all the kids and was a total sucker for all of them. I ended up with an insane collection of silly bandz because they were constantly giving them to me. One of the boys got really bold one day and walked up to me and asked me if I'd be his partner.
Obviously, I couldn't say no, so we were off playing catch or something and he just casually says "you're not wearing a ring. That means you aren't married." No, not married. "Well, are you single?" Uh, yeah? "Well, you aren't now."
And that was the day I crushed a 2nd grade boy's heart.
