A Truth Revealed

'As you all know, the past year has been a rather productive year for the Ministry. As always, I'm seeking to improve on that. Gathering all the Division Heads for a meeting is a complex task in itself. So now that we're all finally here together, I want Division overviews and all the propositions you can throw at me.'

Hermione looked up at the Division Heads seated around the oval meeting table before her. This meeting was not going well. She had to stifle a sigh as she watched fully grown witches and wizards squirming in their seats, heads bowed down with the occasional nervous glance over Hermione's shoulder. Hermione's gaze turned to Harry whose face had turned an alarming shade of burgundy as he tried to hold back his laughter. She gave him a vicious glare before pushing her chair back from the table.

The chair's wheels may have accidentally-on-purpose rolled over Draco Malfoy's foot, since he was standing close behind Hermione's seat. However, when she turned to him his face showed not even the slightest flicker of pain. Looking up at Draco, Hermione could see why her Division Heads - some of the greatest witches and wizards in Britain - were feeling apprehensive. Malfoy stood just behind Hermione's right shoulder with his arms crossed in front of his chest, and a nonchalant sneer on his face as he eyeballed each and every one of the Heads at the table. He paused in his menacing perusal and leaned in closer to Hermione when she indicated she wished to speak to him.

'Stop acting so surly and intimidating my Division Heads, Malfoy, or I'll send you to a far-away corner and you can stand there looking at the wall,' she whispered sternly.

'I'm a bit old for that, don't you think, Minister? However, a good spanking would get your point well and truly across.' Draco replied quietly with a deadpan expression.

Hermione scowled at him, then with a satisfied smile she pulled her chair back to the table, once again rolling over his foot.

'Alright, ladies and gentlemen, since we don't seem to be getting anywhere with this meeting how about I put your minds at ease with an introduction. You might not all know him, but this is Draco Malfoy of the Auror Division.' Hermione said with a careless wave in Draco's direction, 'He's going to be hovering around me for a little while. His job is to stand there and look pretty, so if we could all just do our best to ignore him and get on with this meeting I would be very grateful.'

Ron, who had just happened to take a sip of water, sputtered it out in a guffaw. Beside him, Harry hid his laughter behind a hand as he patted his friend on the back. With an irritated flick of her wand, Hermione siphoned the water off the table.

'Thanks for volunteering, Ron. Let's hear how the International Games and Sport Office has been doing.'

Ron stood up quickly with a flaming magenta face, shuffled his parchment and began with a mumble, 'Uh…Well, not too much to report on my side. Everything for the World Cup is on track. Location and stadium are set. It's now just a matter of which teams are going to be there. Um… The Division's been trying to open up discussions between schools to organise inter-school quidditch matches. It's a chance to get the students to interact and engage…without putting them in life-threatening situations.' He said this with a meaningful glance at Harry. 'And…er… that's going well. I've scheduled a meeting with Dumbledore and we'll go fom there. Our main problem right now is actually the upcoming Olympics: which is the muggle's major sporting event. They haven't seemed to notice the number of "really good athletes" who just appear from nowhere yet. But it'll only be a matter of time before they start to suspect more than performance-enhancing drugs. So the Division's been working on a way to lure those witches and wizards who are falsely entering the Olympics for the glory and honour away. And we decided that the best way to do this would be to hold our own multi-sporting event.'

'Great. Get your plans written up and have them sent to me A.S.A.P.' Hermione said with a nod at Ron, who gratefully sat back into his chair. 'Okay let's move right up to our Improper Use of Magic Office. Susan, I believe you have a proposition to share with us.'

Susan Bones gave Hermione a small smile and stood up with her scroll of parchment.

'Our proposition today has a focus on the detection of use of magic by under-aged witches and wizards. As many of us know – some of us at first hand –' This was followed by yet another pointed look at Harry Potter, 'the detection of under-age use has too long been far too general. We've have always only been able to detect under-age use in witches and wizards living among muggles, leaving the improper use of magic by those living in the wizarding world to be punished by parents. However, magic sightings over the nation are continually on the increase, and our magic-reversal squad are getting hard-pressed to be in three places at once. Studies have shown that more than eighty percent of these cases have been improper use of magic by the under-age. These kids just don't seem to realise the consequences of their actions. My team have been working for a few months now to combat the increasing number of improper use, and we believe we've come up with a revolutionary and effective plan.' Susan paused and reached into her robe to pull out her wand. She held it nimbly in her fingers in front of her for everyone to see. 'Every wand ever made is uniquely and subtly different, very much like the human fingerprint. And just like the fingerprint, I believe we can use the differences in wands to help with identification. If each wand is tagged with an identity spell, we will be able to monitor usage and thus better control under-age use. Since it is mostly students, who feel the inclination to experiment during the holidays, I would like to propose a trial tagging for the students at Hogwarts. Because of the nature of the identity spell, we would not only be able to monitor any inappropriate use, but also detect different users of the wand to further identify perpetrator of the illegal spells.'

To Susan's right, a blond dreadlocked wizard began to shake his head. 'Wand tagging is a complete invasion of privacy,' Jamie Newton, Head of the Environmental Division, boomed in his deep voice. 'Besides, if you're tagging these kids, won't your detection system be going crazy 24/7? I mean, they are students after all. And students need to do magic in order to learn, right?'

'Thus the spell would only be activated at certain times: holidays, weekend trips, etc. And the tagging would not be an invasion of privacy since we aren't planning to monitor the children themselves but simply watch over the use of magic to ensure that the students aren't performing magic beyond the safety of their schooling environment. I'm certainly not suggesting this to get some sort of voyeuristic kick out of watching some spotty teen trying to perform an anti-acne spell.' Susan's voice was calm but everyone could see the passion she had for this project in her sparking eyes.

'Alright, thank you, Susan…and Jamie. I, like Susan, have looked over the statistics and I agree that this is a problem that needs to be tackled. However, I think that you're going to be hard pressed to get Dumbledore to agree to your tagging his students.' Hermione rationalised.

'I understand that Minister, and for that reason I've arranged a meeting for you and Professor Dumbledore to discuss the merits of this project.'

'Oh really?'

'And Harry, who's agreed to be our… "Poster Boy" for wand tagging.'

'Oh really?' Hermione turned to look at Harry archly, 'Spreading ourselves around aren't we?'

'Anything for a good cause.' Harry replied with a wink.

Rolling her eyes, Hermione turned back to Susan.

'Susan, this project has been your baby for the last few months now, why on earth wouldn't you want to push this yourself?'

'Because you know how to make Dumbledore listen to you.'

Hermione sighed and then nodded, before turning to Ron and Harry. 'Looks like the Ministry's going back to Hogwarts.' After making a quick note to herself, Hermione looked up once more. 'Okay, let's move right along. Jamie, give us the latest…'

When Hermione was back in her office, she groaned as she stretched out her muscles. She remembered now why those meetings only took place every so often. Although they gave everyone insight into the different occurrences around the Ministry and an opportunity to discuss these occurrences, they were long, convoluted and very tiring. Hermione turned to the silent shadow behind her.

'So Draco, did you enjoy your first Division meeting?' she asked as she rolled up some pieces of parchment she wanted to take home and peruse.

'Yeah, so many of my childhood fantasies came to life in that one meeting.' Draco responded dryly, 'How can I ever thank you for that?'

'Hey! I told you that I didn't need a body guard. Ninety percent of the time my body is in a meeting, so if you're going to insist on guarding my body, you're going to have to enjoy even more of those fun-filled meetings.' Hermione laughed at him, while closing up her briefcase.

'What? You mean you don't spend most of your time officiating nude beaches? I could have sworn that was a clause in my contract.'

Hermione rolled her eyes at Draco but he didn't see her because he was busy lighting her fire.

'That's it, then. I'm off home. I guess I'll see you tomorrow.' She told him politely.

Draco ignored her and reached into the pot on her mantelpiece and threw the powder at the fire as he said Hermione's address. Hermione stared in shock at the spinning figure in the green fire. What in the name of Holy Merlin, was Draco thinking to simply go to her place like that! Clutching her briefcase tightly, she grabbed her own handful of floo powder and followed Draco home. She barely waited till she was out of the fireplace to start her tirade of indignation.

'What do you think you're doing, just flooing into my place like that? Univited, I might add. When I say I'm off home, it means I'm off to my home and you're off to your own.'

'Would you calm down?' Draco muttered as he took her briefcase from her to set it on the floor. He didn't want her getting any ideas about throwing it at him in anger. 'You keep forgetting the fact that I'm your bodyguard, Minister. Therefore, I have to ensure the safety of your intended locations before you get there.'

'Where's the logic in that? What if, when you invited yourself over to my place, I decided to stay at the office? Then some bloody axe-man came in and chopped me into tiny bits of stir-fry, what then? You wouldn't have been around to perform your bodyguarding duties eh?'

'I was fairly certain that when you knew I was going to your place you wouldn't want to linger behind for too long.' Draco grinned.

Hermione was seriously considering turning him into a toad. She was the Minister of Magic. She was pretty certain she could get away with it.

'I forgot to ask you last time, whether anything was missing after the break in.' Draco's voice cut into her vengeful thoughts.

'Well that's the thing, Draco, my flat was turned inside out but nothing was missing.' Hermione muttered, 'Adds another point to my random break-in theory.'

'You're sure? Did you check all your valuables? Jewellery?'

Hermione frowned at him suspiciously, thinking about the ring that was nestled at her chest, 'It's all there. I don't own that many valuables that I need an inventory.' She knew that there was really only one piece of jewellery he was concerned about. But unless Draco openly asked for the return of his ring, she wouldn't bring it up. For some inexplicable reason Hermione felt the compulsion to keep the ring close to her.

Draco simply nodded and continued his inspection. Hermione followed him, suppressing an urge to stamp her foot in protest.

'If you think I'm paying you overtime for this you're deluding yourself!' she called after him, 'You can go home now. I can ma-'

The doorbell rang. Hermione tensed as she watched Draco stride towards the door.

'Don't you dare answer my door for me!'

Draco opened the door. Hermione stormed up behind him, deciding that Draco would look fabulous as a toad.

'Um… Is Hermione in?'

When she reached the door, Hermione tried to shove Draco aside but he didn't move. She looked out to see her fiancé standing awkwardly on her doorstep, holding a rather wilted looking bunch of gladioli.

'Greg… What are you doing here? I thought you were busy with your new project.'

'I…uh… wanted to see you, Herm. Haven't seen you since Harry and Ginny's wedding.' Greg mumbled in way of explanation, before turning to Draco, 'Have we met before?'

Draco extended his hand, 'Draco Malfoy. We met at Harry and Ginny's reception.'

'Oh yeah. I remember. It's nice to meet you again.' Greg said, glancing from Hermione to Draco.

'I work with Hermione.' Draco explained offhandedly, 'Well, I guess I better leave you to it.' He turned back to Hermione, 'I'll be back tomorrow to install the security measures I was telling you about. See you tomorrow, Granger. Good to meet you again, Greg.' With that, Draco slipped out of the doorway and left Hermione's flat.

Watching him leave, Hermione stepped back to let Greg in. Draco was not two houses away when he turned back to Hermione, gave her a wink and dissapparated. She quickly slammed the door shut, hoping her fiancé hadn't noticed Draco's sudden disappearance. When she turned, Greg had already taken off his light coat and was holding out his bunch of sad-looking flowers. As Hermione took them from him, she realised that she was still in her work robes. Although Greg hadn't said anything, she knew her attire must look somewhat strange. She hastily scuttled towards the kitchen.

'I'll just put this in some water and I'll change out of my work clothes, hey? Go ahead and take a seat in the living room.' She called out as she went.

With a quick check to ensure that Greg wasn't following behind her, Hermione summoned up her crystal vase and quickly filled it with water before popping into her room to change. She walked into the living room holding her vase of flowers and set them down at the coffee table. She smiled at Greg, who sat on the edge of her couch, but saw that he was somewhat distracted.

'You okay, Greg?'

'You should watch out for him'

Hermione frowned in surprise at Greg's unexpected words, 'Draco? He's just a part of the security division at work.'

Greg looked up at her with a strange look in his eyes, 'He wants you, Hermione. And he seems like the kind of guy who will go to any length to get what he wants.'

'You came to this amazing conclusion after speaking to him for thirty seconds?' she laughed incredulously, 'Besides, you seemed to like him when you met him at the reception.'

'I know what I know, Hermione. I'm a guy… I can just tell, alright. I just want you to be careful around him.'

Hermione scoffed, 'Oh come on, Greg. Please don't tell me you're letting your testosterone shrink your brain. Even if Draco was lusting after me, I am a big girl and I can look after myself.'

Greg grinned at her sheepishly, then frowned once more, 'Wait…He said something about security measures. What was he talking about? Why would you need extra security?'

Hermione sat down beside Greg, guilt tingling at her stomach as she realised that she hadn't yet told him about the break-in. She hadn't yet told Greg about quite a few important things. 'Um… well…My flat was broken into a few days ago. Nothing was taken, but Draco offered to give me a hand with all my security stuff.'

'Why didn't you tell me?' He looked almost outraged, 'I could've been here for you. Are you alright? I mean-'

'Greg, don't. I'm fine. I didn't call you because I didn't want you to worry, okay.' She said as she placed her hand in his, 'I haven't seen you in so long and I don't want to spoil this visit talking about the break-in. Just let it rest.'

He sighed before entwining his fingers with hers and leaning over to drop a kiss on her forehead. That shock of guilt gnawed at Hermione again. It was definitely time to tell Greg that she was a witch. Way past the time, in fact. She couldn't believe she had let it get this far, that she had gotten engaged to a man who didn't even know the truth about her. It was definitely time to tell Greg the truth.

'I'm…I'm going to make us some tea and uh…No, no you stay here…there's something I need to tell you.' Hermione mumbled, pushing herself off the couch. As she entered the kitchen, Hermione hit the heel of her hand against her forehead several times. This seemed to help her prepare herself for the task ahead. She absentmindedly conjured up some tea and marched out determinedly, holding the two teacups in front of her.

'That was quick.' Greg said lightly.

Hermione swore silently, 'I hope I didn't forget to put the tea bags in.'

She set the cups down on the coffee table and sat back down beside Greg. Without even giving him a chance to reach for his tea Hermione began, 'You know how I told you that I was a government office worker?'

'Yes,' Greg smiled, 'I've always had a secret fantasy of you using that to hide your espionage career. Lovely images of you running around in tight clothing, high heels and very fashionable wigs… a la Jennifer Garner.'

'Uh huh,' Hermione couldn't help but laugh at his little ramble.

Greg grinned sheepishly, 'Sorry, I forgot you didn't have a tv.'

'Right, well…The thing is: I'm not just a government office worker…and no espionage career. I'm actually a minister. In fact, I'm the Minister…of Magic. I'm a witch, Greg.'

Greg's reaction flew in the face of convention. There were no hysterical giggles, no scoffing, no frantic run out of the flat. He simply sat there staring at her searchingly.

'And you're telling me this now?' he said softly.

Hermione had no idea to respond to Greg's reaction. She had prepared herself for hysterics and scoffs but this calm, almost sad acceptance threw her. It made her want to storm around in anger.

'Well, it's not exactly first date material, is it?' she retorted defensively, as she stood up with Greg following suit, 'Hey, by the way, I'm a witch. But bad luck, because I still have to pay normal adult movie ticket prices.'

'Okay, not first date material, but what about after six months of dating? Or even when I proposed? You couldn't tell me then?' Greg didn't raise his voice but his words were hardened with an anger that left Hermione feeling cold. She fell silent and looked away.

When she finally spoke again her voice was quiet and trembled with emotion. 'I was scared Greg. I was scared that when you found out, you would leave me. And I don't want to go through that again.' Hermione covered her mouth when she realised what she had unconsciously said.

'You didn't even give me a chance not to let you down. You didn't trust me enough to tell me. How the hell can you marry someone you don't even trust?' Greg shook his head in bewilderment and strode out of the room without waiting for a response.

Hermione fell back against her couch feeling drained. She knew she hadn't handled that well and that she should probably go after Greg and explain but his words had really struck her. She knew she was far too emotionally scrambled to do anything now.

'I came here today for a reason, Hermione.'

She turned in surprise to see that Greg had returned. His golden brown hair was dishevelled from his furrowing hands and he looked uncertain.

'I came because I wanted us to set a date. I even finally went out and got you a ring.' He whispered as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a box. Greg dropped the blue velvet box into Hermione's lap. 'I don't want to change anything, Hermione. I don't want us to change, but I think that I need some time to think about this.' He leaned down and gently pressed a kiss on her forehead, then walked out of the room once more.

When Hermione heard her front door click shut, she picked up the box in her lap and opened it. It was a simple gold band inset with a swirl of diamonds. It was beautiful. She pulled the ring from its setting and slipped it onto her wedding finger. It was then that the tears Hermione seemed to be holding back burst forth freely. Even through her tear-blurred vision she could see that the ring didn't fit her finger…

A/N: Sorry it took so long to update guys. I sort of lost track of the weeks with exams and all. I sincerely hope y'all enjoy this chappie and continue with my story. Thank you for all of you who have reviewed. It's great to receive constructive criticism and comments…HobYtLaH