50 km west of Aberdeen
October 14, 2006
Hermione was holed up in her lab for three days. During that time, Draco did his best to decipher the puzzle that was Hermione Granger – or 'Granger' as he had started calling her in his head. Unfortunately, rather than coming to any conclusions, he found himself with more questions than answers. For example, in spite of her willingness to answer his questions, she had yet to actually say why and what she was doing. Like why she was out in the middle of nowhere? And what was she researching?
He had started to look through the rest of her book collection and was surprised and somewhat horrified to find four different books on magical genealogy. These were books that Purebloods kept secret from Half-bloods and here she was, writing her chicken scratch and notations as if it was an academic exercise! Draco couldn't understand what any of her notes meant – he even tried to use some of her horrid muggle science books to find definitions. But whatever she was doing, it eluded him.
"Sorry again for being MIA the last few days – I have a few particularly sensitive experiments going at the moment that required my absolute attention," Hermione explained around midday, placing two small bowls of pasta on the coffee table and pulling the kitchen chair up to sit with him. "How are you feeling about everything?" she asked, her tone sincere.
"Alright," he replied, grabbing a bit of the pasta and taking a bite – a bit bland, he thought before shrugging and swallowing. "So," he started, watching as she ate contentedly, "what exactly is it that you're doing out here?"
"Research," she said matter-of-factly.
"Yes – you've said that – but what research?" he questioned again with a slight eye roll.
Her eyebrows furrowed as she contemplated answering his question. She took another bite, giving herself more time to think before finally responding, "We're in the middle of a magical nuclear wasteland. The fact that a forest exists here at all is mind blowing. Its study could tell us an assortment of things about life and magic itself!" she exclaimed before returning her attention to the pasta.
Draco mulled this over. "How long have you been out here?"
Hermione looked up and pondered this for a moment before responding, "A little over two years I believe."
Now Draco looked incredulous. "You've been out here – alone – for two years?"
She blinked at him, "Yes. Is there something wrong with that?"
"Don't you get lonely?" he asked.
"Sure," she said, "but my work is too important."
"No – it sounds like you think maybe one day your work will be important," He said smugly.
Her eyes narrowed. "Well what about you? What are you doing here?" she asked with a slight smirk.
His smile immediately dropped. "Alright..." He watched as she froze, fork inches away from her mouth, and looked at him with surprise. "If I tell you why I left the Death Eaters, will you tell me why you're really out here?"
She paused for a moment to consider this. Her mission wasn't exactly classified so to speak, so much as she had been thinking of Draco as a foreign agent – nothing wrong with talking with him and being polite, but no reason to say more than necessary.
But she was so curious. She had never even heard of a non-magical encountering a real Death Eater! As far as she was aware, they were a proper cult – once you went in, you never went out. She had so many questions, and this seemed as good an opening as any.
"Deal," she told him finally, eyes lit up. "So?" she asked expectantly.
"Well," he started, struggling to maintain eye contact. "I left because I was bored." he said with a shrug.
She scoffed, "I don't believe you."
He returned the gesture. "Excuse me?"
"You're telling me you took off into the wilderness, leaving behind presumably everything you know because you were bored? I find that utterly unbelievable." She crossed her arms over her chest.
"Believe what you want, Granger." Her eyebrows raised at his use of her last name. "But you wouldn't understand," he finished.
"Try me then." Her arms came down to her sides as she leaned in ever so slightly.
He exhaled. "The Death Eaters – there are only maybe 500 of us. So – I've been very close with nearly everyone my age since – well since the Event more or less," he shrugged. "One of my best friends – Millicent Bulstrode – well..." he struggled to maintain his composure.
"Take your time, Draco," she reassured him.
"The Dark Lord's goal is for us to live in a pureblood utopia. Part of that is ensuring the continuation of pureblood lines – particularly lines as untainted as the Malfoy bloodline," he stated with a hint of pride. "The Dark Lord doesn't allow just anyone to be together. He has powerful foresight and an unmatched ability to detect compatible magic. He, and he alone, assigns witches and wizards to marry."
Hermione started to see where he was going with this. "So what happened?"
"The last few years, we've noticed fewer births in our community. The Dark Lord was not happy with this but couldn't fault any of our people who were doing – well – everything they could to procreate," he explained clinically. "But to hurry the process along, the Dark Lord paired up my entire generation," he finished.
"And you were paired with your friend Millicent?" Hermione surmised.
"Yes," he didn't quite meet her gaze. "If that had been it, I would have been fine. I trust the Dark Lord to know what's best for me and our people." Hermione watched him unconsciously rub at his right shoulder, feeling as though there was something off with his explanation.
There was an awkward pause. "But?" Hermione asked.
"Millicent was already with someone – another close friend of mine, Vincent Crabbe," he finished.
"So," she wrapped up, "you left so that they could be together?"
He shrugged. "More or less. But," he paused now, finally looking at her, "I think I had this moment, after the Dark Lord told me he wanted me to marry Millicent, and I saw my entire life – like it was some sort of play." He shifted on the couch uncomfortably, his fork moving the remaining bits of pasta from side to side. "I saw myself, just moving. Fulfilling my duty. But for what reason? I didn't love Millicent and I knew she could never love me – at least not in the way a man and wife should."
Hermione had half a mind to point out that the survival of the species rationally should outweigh some vague notion of 'love'. Given her own studies, she understood Voldemort's reasoning, though she suspected Voldemort was using less than the scientific method to select his pairings. "So you left?" Her voice was somewhat incredulous.
He shrugged yet again, in a what do you want from me type of gesture. "Yeah – I guess it was all too much. I'm not sure what I was thinking really; I just – had to get out of there."
Hermione looked at him carefully. Something about his demeanor seemed disingenuous, and she found his explanation dubious. She felt that, even if he was telling her the truth, it wasn't the whole story.
"So," he sat up straight and continued, "what are you really doing here?"
"I'm trying to save the human race," she told him.
This was not what he expected. "What?"
"You mentioned the Death Eaters were experiencing less and less births in the last few years?" She waited for him to nod his head in understanding before she continued. "You aren't alone. The entire world is experiencing a rapid decline in birth rates. So severe, in fact, that at the current rates, I've predicted humanity will be extinct within 200 years," she finished.
"And you're what? Sitting here alone in the middle of nowhere contemplating this?" He frowned.
"Of course not," she scoffed. "We have not, in spite of extensive research, been able to identify the cause of the declining birth rate. At first, we assumed it had to do with the radioactivity – multiple nuclear events resulted in extensive pollution in the upper atmosphere, which we surmised may have caused humans to become impotent," she explained logically.
"However, extensive studies have failed to corroborate this hypothesis. Witches and wizards have conducted their own studies, aiming to see if there was some sort of magical cause - but so far no one has been successful in finding an answer," Hermione finished.
"So you're out here - investigating the forest?" he asked dubiously.
"I'm not sure if you noticed before radiation sickness set in, but this forest is a remarkable thing. The uninhabitable zone we're currently in was the subject of not only a nuclear explosion – but one that was enhanced with magical properties. The resulting travesty was the elimination of nearly all animal life in an 80 km radius." She paused for effect, obviously expecting more of a reaction then she got from him. She tried to hide her disappointment. "The bomb completely transformed this area of land in unprecedented ways! The wood doubled its size! And between here and Aberdeen a new desert was born!"
He thought he understood the significance of what she was saying but couldn't quite bring himself to express the response she seemed to be expecting. He instead nodded dumbly, urging her to continue.
She bit back a cruel remark that had been at the tip of her tongue. "What has been the most – fascinating – thing I've seen thus far is that the wood has bloomed. No animals – save for the most basic of insects and critters – can survive. But the wood itself? It's become something incredible. Magic seeps through everything in a way I've never seen in proper civilization.
"So I've hypothesized that it wasn't something strictly magical or non-magical that caused the birth rate to decline. I believe it's something that sits in both worlds – and I believe this wood, which most encapsulates this blending, holds the key to solving it," she finished, self-satisfied.
Draco thought of something. "Is that why you have the wizarding genealogy texts?"
Hermione nodded, "Yes – since wizarding procreation has an element that goes beyond simple DNA, I had hoped to develop a better understanding of how magic is able to influence sexual reproduction."
Draco eyed her suspiciously. "OK - let me get this straight." He cleared his throat. "You volunteered to live out here – all alone – to research this?"
"Well," Hermione hemmed and hawed for a moment, "I didn't exactly volunteer. I received my doctorate after receiving my Corps Officer certification. In my doctoral thesis, I had done some rudimentary research on the uninhabitable regions that now make up about one-fifth of the previously habitable world. My wizarding mentor suggested to one of the Corps lead researchers I would be an asset on the project, so I was asked if I would be willing to come out here and perform the research. And, well, I couldn't exactly say no!" She stated the last part as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"You're saying that this is – what – potentially the best chance at saving the human race and they sent a lone Muggle?" His voice was incredulous, and it took everything for Hermione not to huff at him.
"I understand you are prejudiced, but I'm considered the top scientific mind of a generation!" she ground out.
"Alright," he lobbed back at her, "let's ignore any prejudice – why wouldn't they send a wizard along? Why wouldn't they send a more senior researcher?" This was something he just couldn't understand, and it had been eating at him for three days – why did they send her out here all alone?
"When did you become an expert in Corps procedure?" she asked, her face closed off.
"I've been reading." And sure enough, he held up a book titled Corps – A History and Procedure Manual. His eyes lit up as hers narrowed. "The whole point of the Corps is the effective blending of the muggle and the magical. So you're telling me that for this effort, which as you so dramatically have stated could save the entire human race, they have decided to forgo the very core of their existence and send a single Muggle?"
She was seething – mostly because he did, in fact, have a point. She took a breath and attempted to look at the situation rationally – methodically so to speak. She wasn't exaggerating – she really was considered the greatest scientific mind of her generation. Of course, her intelligence had also led to a rather lonely existence.
When she was offered the opportunity to study in the Scottish uninhabitable zone – and possibly save mankind – it was a dream come true! The only person she even missed was her wizarding mentor. Otherwise, her life for the past two years had been a solitary one, and she had been content to focus exclusively on her work.
Now though, Draco's words bounced around her head – all of his whys, which she had previously found adorable and childish, now scratched at her mind like nails on a chalkboard. As she looked at the situation, trying to remove her emotions from the matter and consider it as an outsider – a Death Eater perhaps – she could see: It didn't make sense! She had been so distracted by her own belief in her ability to solve this problem – to save mankind – that she hadn't for one moment questioned the fact that they'd sent her out here alone. Until now.
Because Draco was right - the Corps wouldn't send a lone non-magical Lieutenant on an assignment all alone in the middle of nowhere. Beyond simply Corps procedures, which would typically require more than one Officer on such an assignment, there were the psychological implications of sending a person, alone, to the uninhabitable zone!
And - she suddenly realized – it had been over two years since they'd assigned her to this outpost! Her superiors were always delighted with whatever progress she made – never rushing her or making her feel as though she were on some sort of timeline, when she knew very well she was on one. Was it possible the Corps was sabotaging their own efforts to resolve the matter? But that, too, made no sense.
She looked at Draco who smirked at her as these revelations hit her, one by one. Her face reddened in pure embarrassment. She was smart, dammit! She was logical and cold and – well, human, she had to admit. And most of all, she realized, she had been arrogant. So quick to believe in her own ability to become a savior, she hadn't thought to question any of the fundamental assumptions in the matter.
"What made you think there was something off about my being here?" she asked once she collected herself, hoping to come off as calm and unbothered.
"Well – being you're the first Muggle I've ever come across, at first I figured maybe this was how you all lived," he started. "But after reading a few of your less scientific books, I deduced that you're something of an oddity – at least as far as your living conditions are concerned."
She looked impressed. "Your deductions were correct."
"You sound surprised."
She shrugged. "You seemed," she paused, "less intelligent when you first showed up." A smile played at the corners of her lips.
He looked up for a moment – were he a non-magical, Hermione would have thought he was praying. "I was a bit – out of my element when you found me." She snorted at his understatement. "It took me a few days to get my bearings, to understand the new situation I found myself in."
"You've adapted," she pointed out, her head once again tilted. She was reassessing him, he realized. He had made her acknowledge a fundamental flaw in her logic, and now she was reevaluating all of her preliminary assumptions about him. "It's very impressive."
"Thank you," he said, not really sure if he meant it. She was looking him over, assessing every inch of him in an effort to identify some sort of flaw. Her gaze made him feel vulnerable – naked – and he attempted to shrug it off and return to the point at hand. "As we were discussing – once I determined this situation was not usual, I more or less suspected what was amiss."
She looked directly at him, eyes wide. "What is it?" He was right – her being out here alone didn't make sense. But then 'why'… She couldn't for the life of her figure out why they'd sent her here by herself – it was the point that eluded her.
"Isn't it obvious?" He asked. She squinted at him, as if to say of course it's not obvious; if it were I wouldn't be asking you.'
He looked directly at her and smirked. "You're a witch."
A/N: As always, I appreciate any reviews/comments/feedback. I'm also figuring out Tumblr at canttouchthis87
Much appreciation to my Beta ElizColl.