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Chapter 8
Hermione woke up late the next day, still feeling tired to her bones, but she still had work to do. She got up, throwing her hair up in a messy bun on her head and started down the staircase where she could faintly hear voices. The closer she got the louder the voices became and Hermione realised she was hearing a fight. She tiptoed down to the last step, listening intently. She could hear Harry on the one hand, sounding agitated and possibly pacing the room and then she heard… Ron, it was definitely Ron. Hesitantly she walked towards the living room, staying by the doorframe.
"Can't believe you're trying to use that against him!" Harry said exasperated. "It was years ago Ron."
"And yet it still applies. Do you even know how much shit his dad has done? He's a snake."
"He is not his dad." Harry was getting angry.
"How would you know Harry? Their family is neck deep in dark magic, do you know how many raids have been done on their house? Probably more than the Malfoys'. Nott is a slimy dirtbag with too much money and doesn't face any consequences because of it!"
"Theo is not his dad!" Harry yelled over him.
"He uses his money doesn't he?" Ron yelled back. "Money gotten from some shady ass business. Business that Nott jr is probably dipping his fingers in too. You're really going to let him fool you?"
"Shut up, Ron! Just fucking shut up." Harry rubbed his face. "That's enough. You say you're a supportive friend and then you react like this? I haven't even told you everything, you prick, and you're already throwing shit in my face. You think I don't already know this because I don't come from a 'sacred 28' family - which you are a part of, something you haven't mentioned much. But Theo told me all of this, he's really blunt about pretty much everything. Something I really look up to actually and I'll try it out now. I'm dating Theo Nott." Harry threw his arms up in the air.
Hermione could see Harry's back and Ron's face, and suddenly Ron's whole demeanour changed. Yes, he was surprised, but there was something else there too. Something Hermione wouldn't have recognised had she not gone to therapy with him. He was realising he had overstepped and that he was in the wrong.
"I am in a relationship with Theo Nott," Harry continued. "Maybe it won't work out, who knows? Relationships sometimes end, whatever. But this is what I'm doing and it is keeping me fucking sane while the auror department tries to bury me with paperwork and hide me behind a desk instead of out in the field like you are." Harry sighed, moving his hand through his hair, making it stand even more on end. "The point is… I like Nott- Theo. And…" he sighed. "I think I might be gay."
Hermione could tell this was the hardest thing for Harry to admit to Ron. Not only because he was unsure of it himself, but because he didn't know the wizarding world's stance on different sexualities. Ron seemed to be figuring out how to respond and strangely, his anger had completely melted from his features.
"I'm sorry," Ron said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I was being a right tosser. I didn't realise…" Ron seemed a little uncomfortable. "You happy?"
That took Harry off guard, wherein he didn't answer for a moment. "Yeah," he said eventually. "I am, Ron."
"Well that's all that matters, isn't it?" Ron said with a shrug.
Hermione smiled to herself, pretty proud of her two friends. She tiptoed backwards and went into the kitchen to get herself some tea and a little breakfast. Ron really was doing his best to improve, the way he accepted and admitted he was wrong. A couple of years ago he would have been stewing for days in his anger. Hermione was impressed.
"There you are," Ron said, coming into the kitchen. He grabbed a biscuit and sat down at the table. "You hear all that?" He said, nicking his head towards the door and taking a bite out of his biscuit.
"Some," Hermione admitted.
Ron nodded, but seemed to be fine with that topic ending there. "I managed to get the info for you. The ministry appointed lawyers are supposed to be handed cases mostly at random, but you're right that something's been off with these Death Eater cases. Most of the lawyers that get preliminary cases are ones who have recently started out, usually with quite good percentage of winning. But the lawyers assigned to the Death Eater cases are ones with years and years of experience. I think you're right and they are helping to tank the cases so they get the kiss."
Hermione's jaw dropped. "Sweet Merlin, how did you get all of this information in one day?"
Ron grinned. "I'm pretty good at my job." He shrugged.
Hermione shook her head. "Ron this is amazing, this is like… I can't even explain how big this is. Thank you. Do you have-"
"Proof? Yes I do." He reached into his pocket and took out a tiny blue rectangle and handed it over. Once it was resting in Hermione's palm, he waved his wand over it and it turned into a massively thick folder, and she almost dropped it to the ground. "Sorry," he said with a smile.
Hermione shook her head. "This is crazy. This could genuinely help me win the case and finish my thesis while I'm at it. Thank you, Ron."
"My pleasure. But if you do want to thank me, I suppose you could do it over dinner, tomorrow night?"
Hermione hesitated, looking up at him. His face seemed hopeful but cautious. Hermione did want to mend their relationship, but she wanted to mend it back into a friendship. To her their romantic relationship was over, and maybe that was harder for Ron to understand or accept, but she needed him to start moving on from her. She was not the right person for him. Especially with how broken she still was. He deserved someone who was as well put together and as willing to evolve as he was and as he had. She was so proud of his progress, and she felt if they tried things again she would just revert him back to his old self.
"I'm sorry, Ron, I just… don't think we should just yet."
Ron nodded. "Right," he said, pushing his lips together, accepting her refusal. "Well I hope this helps," he said, tapping the folder she had eased onto the table. He got up. "Good luck with all this. Let me know if there's anything more I can do."
"I will. Thank you Ron."
She watched him leave the kitchen and felt a stone of guilt settle at the bottom of her stomach. With a sigh she set the folder down and ate her breakfast. She needed a small pick-me-up after the morning, so she made herself a hot chocolate and settled down on the sofa in the living room, surrounded by pillows and blankets and started rifling through the folder Ron had brought her. She stayed seated on that sofa for hours, letting pages on the floor float up to her when she needed to check something she had written. Sometimes she had to admit it was handy being a witch.
The inside of interrogation room 9 was depressing. Sure it looked about the same as any other interrogation room in the place, except this time when Malfoy sat in his chair, the chains on his hands were connected to a chain around his neck. And those were fastened to the top of the table. Then he had chains on either leg which connected to the floor by either table leg on his side. It was so ridiculously over the top, so incredibly demeaning it made Hermione feel sick. To top it off she had to listen to Kroms drone on and on. Every single time Kroms opened his mouth to speak, it felt like the acid crept further up her throat. She loathed the man. She loathed what he was doing, ruining her plans completely. Any sort of bond or trust she had formed with Malfoy was completely out the window now. This was their last meeting before the trial and Kroms was recounting every single incident that had happened since Malfoy was incarcerated. Then he listed all the crimes he was being convicted of at the trial. Hermione was at the end of her fuse. She had fantasised about setting his hair on fire, cutting up his suit, turning his shoes into molten lava - to list a few. But instead she bit her tongue and settled for staying quiet and digging her nails into her arms.
"Obviously," Kroms continued. "We will look into how to combat what the warlocks will say, talk about your family naturally, especially your father, who was convicted himself for his crimes and-"
"Don't."
Malfoy had interrupted Kroms.
"Excuse me?" Kroms said, looking up at Malfoy from his pile of papers on the table.
"Do not talk about my father."
Hermione could immediately tell by Malfoy's tone that they had gotten into dangerous territory. She glanced at Kroms and knew he was going to use this to his advantage. This could turn disastrous. She had to step in.
"Mr Kroms, maybe would she take a little break now, you could get some coffee, I noticed you finished yours quite a while ago, it might be a pertinent time now to-"
"You are in no position to make demands, prisoner 8-4-7," Kroms said, emphasising every number. "We will talk about your father, there's no way around it."
Hermione nibbled her lip, glancing over at Malfoy and seeing that his usually blank demeanour had been replaced by a sneer, his shield was breaking and emotion was showing on his face - and he was livid. Hermione swallowed, calculating the risk to what she could do. She glanced at the guard in the corner and back to Kroms as he started speaking again. She bit hard into her lip as she fingered her wand subtly by her side.
"If we don't mention him the warlocks definitely will, and we should definitely be ready for the way they'll talk about good old Lucious Malfoy, the corrupt and slimy Governor, politician and shamed ministry worker who-" Kroms stopped, blinking. "Coffee sounds good." He stood and walked out the door, the guard followed after him.
Malfoy, with his fists clenched hard on the table watched after him with utter loathing. Once the door closed he let out a run of expletives under his breath, finally saying loudly while punching his hands on the table: "Fucking prick!"
"Malfoy," Hermione said gently, getting his attention. "We don't have a lot of time. I've gotten loads of stuff that can help us in the trial. Things that can actually prove the discrimination you're facing here."
Malfoy was clenching and unclenching his fists on the table. Frustration and anger clear on his face, twisting his lips and tightening his jaw. "It doesn't fucking matter, haven't you realised yet? It's all a fucking game to them. Nothing you throw at them will work, they've already decided, my death date has already been penned down in ink and they all know it."
"No," Hermione said, adamant. "I won't let it happen. Theo and I went to Azkaban and we found lots of stuff that-"
"That you can't use because you obtained it illegally." He looked up at her. "I know what Theo did and what he was planning, and it was stupid on his part to involve you."
She hesitated. "I can still give it a try. And I got info on the lawyers and ministry higher ups that have been in charge of the other Death Eater cases that ended in the kiss, and it all points to it being rigged and I have proof. Proof I can use and that they can't possibly deny."
Malfoy shook his head. "Your level of naivety is amazing, really your positive outlook on the world is troubling. Everyone in this building, everyone in the ministry, is corrupt to their core," he said emphatically to her. "No matter who you talk to, it will be shrugged off, either because they are involved and getting something out of it or because they know I was a fucking Death Eater and only a fool would try to help a convicted criminal."
"But-"
"Granger, you fucking tried. Okay? But you are going to fail, everything is set up against you to fail. And I am going to die. That's what's going to happen." She saw his face falter for a bit, the intense anger wavering for a moment of what looked like sadness, maybe grief? "You should back out before you have to be involved with any of it. Save your clean record before I taint it…"
He looked away, his hair covering his face and she wondered if he were trying to hide tears or simply hiding his emotions. Carefully, but without much thought, she put her hand over his, thinking it would be a friendly gesture, a professional way to tell him he wasn't alone. At first his cold fingers stayed still, but then they shifted and both his hands held tightly to hers as if she were his only lifeline, as if he were drowning and she was the hand reaching down to save him.
"I'm not going anywhere," Hermione said softly.
The door opened up again and Kroms and the guard re-entered. "Ahh, where did we leave off?" He said, sipping a cup of coffee. Hermione quickly retracted her hand from Malfoy's, straightening her back.
"We were talking about the protocol on escort to the trial," Hermione supplied.
"Ah, of course," Kroms said, taking his seat and thankfully spending the rest of the meeting talking about protocol and not on Malfoy's family or history or his crimes. Or his impending death.
When the meeting finished Kroms stood and went to the door to speak to the guard outside while the other guard got Malfoy to stand and unfasten his chains from the floor and table. Hermione got up and moved to stand just behind Malfoy, the guard took a step in front of him to hear Kroms speak. Hermione took the chance and reached to touch her hand to Malfoy's again. But this time, from the moment their fingers touched, she recognised it was different than before. The air around them shifted, she could feel a heaviness, an almost electric current, that pushed on her skin to pebble, raising the hairs on her arms and rolling up to leave a light blush on her cheeks. His fingers stroked over hers and lightly squeezed them.
The guards came back through to get Malfoy and they let go of each other's hands, Hermione taking a couple steps back to give them the wide berth they demanded. Just as they turned past the doorway Malfoy looked back to lock eyes with her. Then they were gone.
Hermione was writing in her thesis, then her hand stilled and she flexed her fingers, remembering the touch. She shook it off and continued to write, only to repeat the action five minutes later. She was barely getting anything done. Setting the quill down she went downstairs to get a snack and waste time. Trying to distract herself from thinking about that electric tension she had felt when she touched Malfoy's hand.
The front door opened and closed with a sharp bang. Harry stormed into the kitchen. Hermione watched him without saying a word, sipping her hot chocolate. He paced around the table twice, until finally going into the cupboard above the sink and taking out a jar of nutella and sitting down opposite her, handing her a spoon.
"That's gross," she said.
"I know," he said, then took a spoonful of the nutella and ate it.
Hermione shook her head and did the same. "Usually people do this with ice cream."
"We don't have any."
"You're angry," she observed.
"I'm fed up actually." Harry spooned more nutella into his mouth. "I quit. I quit my job, Hermione." He groaned. "What is wrong with me? I can't quit my job, what was I thinking?"
"That you're not happy. That you've been slowly losing your mind in this job?"
He had another spoonful then started twisting it in his hand. "All I've done is tried to become an Auror, my Hogwarts exams…" he sighed. "And I just threw it all down the drain."
"Oh come on, Harry." She shook her head, setting her spoon down. "You know that's not true. There's so much you can do other than being an auror." She hesitated. "McGonagall probably has the position still open for application."
"Hermione," he said with a sigh.
"No, Harry. Just listen. You were so good at teaching everyone in Dumbledore's Army-"
"That was seven years ago!"
"Irrelevant. You're a good teacher Harry, and I saw how much you liked doing it. So why are you being so stubborn about it? Is it really just because I mentioned it?"
He set the spoon down carefully, keeping his eyes on it. "No…"
"Harry…"
"I can't fill his shoes."
"Who's? Snapes?"
Harry shook his head. "No, Lupin." He looked up at her, fiddling with the spoon between his fingers. "How can I take his job?"
"Harry," she said, laying her hand on top of his. "You wouldn't be taking his job, at least ten other people have had that job since he did."
"Yeah, I know but… I don't know, he was the best defence teacher we had and I feel like there's no way for me to be as good as he was. If I do that, get that job, I can't fail. I can't… let him down."
Hermione squeezed his hand. "You couldn't. Harry, he loved you, and believed in you. If anything he would be so proud you were thinking of doing what he did."
He clasped her hand in his. "Wouldn't it be like I'm stealing what he had? I'm already helping Andromeda with Teddy… and then this… It's like I'm stealing his life."
"Or preserving his memory. Harry, you're worrying about ifs. You're worrying about a dead man's possible opinions," she said as gently as she could. "Remus would be so grateful you're taking care of Teddy, he wouldn't have made you godfather if he didn't want you to do it. The most important thing is, do you think being a teacher will make you happy?"
"I don't know." He shook his head. "I did enjoy defence classes the most, other than quidditch."
"Which technically isn't a class you can get grades in." Hermione pointed out.
"Except flying lessons," Harry said with a smirk.
"They barely count."
"Just because you suck at it doesn't mean it doesn't count."
"Bite me," she said and smiled.
"I guess you're right though," he said eventually. "I did enjoy teaching DA. But I thought I'd like being an auror and was obviously wrong about that."
"You won't know unless you try."
"When did you get so wise?" Harry said with a smile, squeezing her hand.
"Not everyone can be the chosen one," Hermione said, smiling too. "Some of us need brains."
He shook his head. "And I don't have brains because?"
"You died, so you gave up your brain power when you died, obviously."
He chuckled. "Obviously." He patted her hand and then let go. "Thank you Hermione, what would I do without you?"
"Stuck in devils' snare. Still looking for the chamber of secrets," she said, listing them off on her fingers.
"I get it," he said hastily. "How's your case going?"
Hermione sighed and shrugged. "I don't know really. I've progressed my thesis quite a bit. But I'm about 98% sure Kroms is going to deliberately tank the trial. Malfoy seems to think so, he's certain he's a dead man walking." She shook her head. "I can't have that. I don't like the situation at all. I thought…" she sighed. "I thought after all we did to get rid of Voldemort, and his minions that infiltrated the ministry, that we would go to a time where people weren't corrupt. I suppose that's foolish and naive. But I kind of hoped we had changed the world for the better. But really, all we did is get rid of one of its evils."
"Sadly, I think you're right. Even in the auror department… at first I was welcomed with fanfare, right? Then gradually they didn't want me doing my work. At first the publicity worked in their favour, they were getting a good reputation - hey look, here's the chosen one, still fighting crime and keeping your neighbourhood safe. Like I'm spiderman or something. And then suddenly they want me doing solely paperwork, out of the spotlight, out of the streets. It's like they're hiding something."
"Corruption is everywhere," Hermione said. "And sadly, the power hungry are often the ones that abuse that power. I don't know if I'll be able to save him, Harry." She was genuinely worried and scared, not only to fail, but to fail Malfoy after trying so hard to prove to him she could do it, that she would on tenacity alone - win this.
"What will you do?"
"Keep trying and doing my best. I guess I can try to speak louder than Kroms but he basically has seniority."
"No, what will you do if you lose?"
"What do you mean?"
"Hermione, if it's true that the odds are stacked against you, that the game is rigged, then why aren't you making a plan B? If you lose the trial and he gets sentenced to get the kiss - what will you do?"
Hermione gnawed her lip. "I don't know. There's not much I can do…"
"Legally, yeah."
"I can't just go around breaking the law Harry, I'm trying to become a lawyer."
"I realise that Hermione, but are you really going to let them take his soul?"
Hermione looked into his eyes and felt that heavy stone in the pit of her stomach again. "No."
"Exactly. We've helped someone get their soul back before, we can do it again."
"That was mostly you, though," she said, smiling a little.
"You got us there, something I never would have been able to do. I just waved a stick in the air and said some words."
"Screamed some words actually."
"Yeah yeah," he said with a roll of his eyes. "I'm loud, ha ha. Did Theo talk to you?"
Hermione laughed. "He did say something about your inability to be sneaky."
"I can be sneaky if I have to."
Slowly Hermione's smile faded as she thought more about what he had said. How had she not thought about the possibility of them losing the trial? Being optimistic was one thing, but completely ignoring the - admittedly - more likely outcome? Not very smart on her part. What could she possibly do to stop it?
"Whatever I do, I can't do it alone."
Harry nodded. "I can help with that." He reached into his pocket and took out something that glitted gold.
"Is that…"
"Yup, I keep it in my pocket everyday, wherever I go."
Hermione shook her head. "You kept the galleon, you are ridiculous Harry Potter." She picked it up from his hand. "Doesn't mean anyone else kept it…"
"Only one way to find out."
Hermione nibbled her lip and then pointed her wand at the galleon, the gold warmed up in her hand and started glowing. "The usual place?" She asked, looking up at Harry.
"Why not?" He said with a smirk. "It'll be a nice reunion."
Authors note: What characters are you looking forward to seeing in the next chapter? There will be some old friends joining the story.
