Finding Granger
Chapter 2 - Meet the Grangers
21 November 10:50am
Dressed in appropriate light clothing for an Australian summer, the unlikely pair took a taxi to an address Hermione provided. They got out in front of a clinic and sat at a cafe nearby in a window table with a good view of the dentistry. Barely a few words had been exchanged between them since last night as Hermione used breakfast as an opportunity to read. Draco was happy to oblige to the silence.
Even in the cafe, they had their own books out to read while occasionally glancing up to check on the small dentistry. Granger seemed to be reading her notes and Draco had charmed a copy of 'DNA for Dummies' to look like an old book.
There was no way he wanted Granger to know he's learning about Muggle practices. But when the bookworm mentioned that Muggles had created a method of determining paternity tests, he was rather shocked and baffled. All the words like DNA, chromo-sun or whatever made more sense than a Hippogriff writing poetry. It had been an interesting read so far and it explained why Granger had came up with the plan that she did.
He glanced out of the window, where cars rolled past under the beating sun. Then a tall man holding the hand of a curly haired woman walked out of the dentistry. They looked as they had done in the pictures in Granger's home. The Grangers were leaving for lunch.
His chair scraped back as he pointed the parents out.
"That's them right. You can introduce me to them," Draco was putting away his book when Hermione grabbed his arm.
"We can't just randomly walk up to them!" she was noticeably panicked.
"Why not? Surely they'll be happy to see their daughter."
"We can't. They don't know me," Hermione gaze fell and her lips dropped in sadness.
Draco felt uncomfortable at the implications of it all, the sacrifice she must have made for a war that he didn't want to have any part of.
"Did you obliviate them?" he asked carefully. Hermione nodded in response.
"I'm sorry you had to make that choice."
"It's fine. I'm just glad they're safe." It was an awkward depressing silence between them and if Draco had known her better, he could have patted her on the shoulder.
"What shall we do then?" Draco asked. Chocolate caramel eyes met his pewter ones with determination.
"Let's follow them and maybe we can manage to get some hair off them."
Out of a surge of sympathy, Draco offered his arm but indecisiveness came immediately. This was new, risky and out of character for him. But after a moment of staring at his proffered arm, she rested hers in it and they walked out of the cafe.
They walked silently in the direction the Grangers went and soon had them in sight. Staying back considerably, they watched as Hermione's parents went into a busy restaurant, being seated in the outdoor seating area.
Walking up to the hostess stand, they requested an outdoor table. Eventually they were seated two tables away from the Grangers, who were talking to the waiter with a warm familiarity. Father Granger laughed at something that mother Granger said and Draco could see the pained look on Hermione's face as she stared at them longingly.
"Have you seen them since the war?" he asked.
"First time in two years," she yanked a napkin from the dispenser and dabbed her eyes.
The waiter handed them menus and the possibility of lunch gave some distraction to the task at hand. Although Draco doubted his companion was hungry, noticing she barely looked at the menu. Her eyes were fixated on her parents, who were so close yet so unattainable. Draco couldn't allow her to breakdown in the restaurant. Not just because it was embarrassing but it would scupper the reason why they were here in the first place.
Waving his hand across her line of sight, he had her attention.
"I know it's hard for you. But you need to put those thoughts aside, and focus on our mission." His hand reached across and held her chin. Steadying her to concentrate on him.
"You need to take a deep breath in and on the exhale, let go of your feelings."
With a large intake of breath, Draco watched as she gently blew out, it tickled across his hand.
"Keep doing that and imagine all your feelings are shaped into easy to hold objects. Hold those objects carefully."
Her eyes fell shut as he observed her lips purse into a slow exhale.
"Imagine putting those objects into a box. They're still there but no longer present."
Hermione's body relaxed into her chair and slowly Draco let go of her face. His hand tingled where it grazed against her soft chin and his stomach knotted as she almost pulled her lips into a half smile.
"Alrigh', can I get you lovebirds something to eat?" a chirpy waiter asked and Hermione's eyes snapped open. Their bubble of calm popped, evaporated out of existence.
"Could I have a BLT and some lemonade please?" Granger responded quickly.
Draco in his panic over Granger's state, hadn't glanced at the menu.
"Same again please."
The waiter relieved them of their menus and left the pair alone in awkward silence.
"Thanks for pulling me out of a downward spiral." Granger confessed silently. She gazed longingly at her parents' table. Draco noticed how relaxed they were with each others' company, he's not sure if his parents were anything but formal with each other in public. Never did he doubt they loved each other, but it was visible how strong the Grangers' relationship was.
"How do we get the hair off them for this paternity test?" Draco asked.
"I thought one of us could go up to them and distract them, while the other takes a sample." Hermione proposed.
"We have wands, we can just summon their hair." It seemed like stating the obvious. "Also you're a terrible actress." He smirked.
"That's not fair. Also they might notice if their hair was yanked off their heads. Not only that, but papa's hair is starting to thin out."
Granger pouted in thought, and Draco watched the cogs in her brain move. Finally his companion spoke.
"I'm going to distract them and when they look surprised, I want you to summon a few strands of hair."
She stood up and Draco watched the witch begin to walk past the table. With a swish of her wrist, a large glass fell across the table and spilled all over her parents.
"I'm so sorry about that!" She protested as she frantically pulled napkins from neighbouring tables and dabbed it on the table.
Draco knew it was his moment. Frank Granger had sprang out of his chair and with seeker reflexes caught the strands of hair that were plucked from Frank's scalp.
Stuffing them into a vial, he waited for his second opportunity with Mrs Granger. Watching as Hermione walked away to go to the counter and speak to the waiter, Draco wondered how long he has to wait. When Hermione began to come towards him. But she stopped to apologise again to her parents, who smiled and seemed relaxed about the whole debacle. His parents wouldn't have done that. They would have berated and punished anyone who would cause such an accident over their table.
Realising he still needed Elizabeth Granger's hair, he summoned it quickly just as her head turned. She did a double take and checked the back of her chair, before returning to face her husband.
Hermione sat back down just as he corked the vial with the second lot of hair.
"Ready?"
Draco looked at her in puzzlement. "You want to leave now when we just ordered food."
"I prefer if we ate somewhere else," she replied rather insistently, looking visibly shaken.
Pulling out some Muggle money from his pocket, he put them on the table as he rose.
"Let's go then Granger."
22 November 12:30pm
Hermione tried keeping her nerve as she focused on convincing the lab technician to process the hair samples, whilst also trying to make sure Malfoy didn't touch anything in the laboratory.
With a carefully slipped in suggestive potion of the Weasley Wizarding Wheezes kind, the technician quite happily helped Hermione with her request.
"What is this box?" Malfoy asked as he tapped a white box emitting a whirring sound.
"That's an ABI PRISM 7500 Sequence Detection System, for ensuring the extraction of DNA is human rather than from another source such as bacteria. This works through quantitation of-"
"I'm sorry to be rude, but we're in a rush. How long will this process take?" Hermione interrupted at the overly enthusiast descent into Muggle science. But she needed answers to find out more.
"Sorry 'bout that. Will take forty eight hours. Come back when it's ready," the technician explained and Hermione thanked him before dragging Malfoy out of the laboratory. That meant only two more days in Sydney with Draco Malfoy. Which shouldn't be too hard. Really easy.
22 November 15:00
"I'm going to read by the pool."
Draco looked up from his book as Granger emerged from the bathroom in a very short kaftan and a towel on her arms. Blinking twice to make sure he wasn't hallucinating that the prim Gryffindor was wearing swimwear.
"Be my guest," he said and turned back to his book as if he was startled by the expanse of her exposed skin.
"You're welcome to join me," she asked timidly.
Smirking in response, he imagined what people back home would say if they saw the two of them hanging around a pool together.
"Thanks but I'm content here." Draco heard her leave him alone in the dim hotel room.
22 November 15:40
"Turning the pool into a library?"
Hermione gazed up from her book of Nobility and took a deep breath. She didn't expect to see Draco clad only in a pair of swim shorts, revealing a lean set of abs.
"Not at all." Silently thanking her lucky stars for sunglasses, surprised by the unfamiliarity of seeing her former tormentor almost nude. Not that she thought he looked rather attractive. Definitely. The blond rapped his knuckles on her books.
"Want to make room for my drink?"
Staring at the side table covered in her books. She hastily stacked them up into a pile to make room for the ice-cold drink he had.
"Try not to interrupt my research time," she said before turning back to the Pureblood-extolling book and tried to ignore Malfoy taking a dive into the pool.
23 November 10:30
"Only a bookworm like you would prefer to read beside a pool than take a swim in it."
Hermione glanced up, sunglasses falling to the tip of her nose as she glared at Malfoy. There's no way she noticed how his wet blond hair fell across his face and those biceps flexed as he pulled himself out of the water.
"With your pale complexion, you're going to burn if you stay too long in the water." She rebuffed.
"Come on Granger. We're working on your ancestry and waiting for the Muggle to finish his job. You can put the books down for a few seconds."
With a deep sigh, she threw her book and kaftan onto her lounger. Hermione smirked back at Malfoy who looked a bit stunned as she jumped into the pool.
23 November 18:50
"You look less like a ferret and more like a lobster." Hermione could barely contain her giggles as the bathroom door opened to reveal Malfoy looking displeased and very pink in his bath towel.
"Not another word about this Granger." The pink wizard growled back threateningly but it was hard for Hermione to take him seriously.
"I did warn you." With a flick of her wand, a stream of cold icy air swirled around her burnt roommate who sighed with relief.
"Once we get the results tomorrow, we are leaving." Malfoy said as he carefully pulled a shirt on. "What do you want for dinner?"
"Oh I don't know. Lobster?" She suggested with a smug smile.
24 November 17:30
They stared at the brown envelope between them on the table. Draco couldn't resist it anymore.
"If you're not going to open that. I'll do it for you." His hand reached for the envelope and thanks to his quick Quidditch reflexes, he managed to get it before Granger pulled it away from his reach.
"Please don't. I want to open it," Granger begged him with her chocolate eyes.
"You can if you do it now," he said, holding the envelope far away from her reach.
"Fine. If you insist, I will."
Offering her the envelope, Draco snatched it back just as Granger went to grab it.
"Promise you will," he smirked.
Through gritted teeth, Hermione glared at him, "fine. I will."
Slowly he brought the envelope to her and Draco watched the witch frantically rip open the envelope. Her eyes darted back and forth across the page, while he waited with bated breath. Then he saw her lips quiver and Granger's face crumbled into heaving sobs.
"Granger?"
The witch's sobs only gotten louder and Draco felt incredibly uncomfortable. How was he supposed to calm her down when the news must have been this terrible? Pulling out his handkerchief from his pocket, she took it heartily.
"It's alright if they aren't your parents. They still loved you," he said in his way of trying to reassure her.
"That's not it. They're definitely my parents," she sniffled.
"Oh," he responded.
Now what? He's truly stumped on what to do.
"I'm just so relieved." The witch kept wiping her red eyes and Draco almost wanted to mention that she should wash her face as it was all blotchy from crying. But that didn't seem very sensitive to her predicament. Also he was still red from his sunburn, so it would have been a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
"Since finding out about my bloodline status, it has made me doubt what I had with my parents. As much as I needed to know, I was also terrified of what might have been the truth." She confessed.
They sat in silence as they stared at the document Hermione placed on the table with the definitive results.
"Does this conclude our stay in Australia?" He finally asked.
"I suppose so."
"What's next?" But Hermione only shrugged in response to his question.
"I'll think about it on our journey back home. I'll keep you updated on it."
"Sure. In that case, I'm going to start packing." Draco got up and left the brunette to her own thoughts.
The mystery deepens! Thanks for reading and your review is welcomed.