Hermione looked through the stack of papers one by one. They were sorted into piles of different newspapers. The Prophet, three other smaller ones named The Scoop, Scopers, and to Hermione's utter surprise, The Quibbler.
And on top of them, a bright acid green sealed envelope. Thick parchment made up the envelope, but Hermione suspected the contents were slim.
Rita?
Hermione pushed it off to the side and looked at the cover of The Prophet . It was dated a year after the war, when all the trials had gone into full swing as families had begun coming forward, admitting their guilt, or other family members were volunteering information on their own to save their skins.
That year the Ministry was swamped, and Hermione remembered Harry and sometimes Ron being gone for weeks as they hunted Dark Wizards as she completed her year at Hogwarts. It was around then that her relationship with Ron grew weaker, and her friendship with Harry grew stronger.
The moving photo on the front depicted Lucius Malfoy, smug and looking directly at the camera. He was not struggling, he was calm; flanked by two Aurors and utterly cold.
Hermione noticed silver tabs sticking out of the top of the pages and turned to the marked page to find the article in question, continuing from the front page.
And so were the rest of them marked. All the relevant articles detailing Draco and Lucius' trial in August of 1999. And then she found articles with Theodore Nott Sr. and Theodore Nott Jr. She compiled the articles in a way that made sense to her, separating them. Theodore's articles were marked with green tabs which made it easier to separate.
Articles of Lucius and Draco went on for pages. The reporting was not done by Rita Skeeter and Hermione wondered why that was. The result was a concise, no nonsense, unbiased reporting that stated and described everything that was done in the courtrooms.
Lucius acknowledged all his war crimes. He protected Draco. Draco stated his case and testified against his father in return for the Malfoy fortune to be handed to him so that he could manage their estate. His mother was co-signed and co manager to the funds.
There were more in depth details of their crimes, more confessions and verification that Voldemort did indeed torture Narcissa and had encouraged Draco to do the same. Hermione read all of this and sadness engulfed her. Because she was now seeing that he was a 17 year old boy trying to save his family the only way he knew how.
He was a cold, clever, calculating Slytherin and he was using everything at his fingertips to save his mother and father. Lucius's sentence was 25 years. Narcissa was to be under watch until deemed no longer necessary. Draco was free to go, but if he were to cross the line, he would be arrested first, questioned later, and sentenced quickly.
Hermione saw in all the photos, the bags that darkened under his eyes, the worry in his face, the small nuances she never thought she would have noticed about him before without the past few months occurring.
Narcissa hung onto his arm every photo she was in, or her eyes were intently staring at him as he stood in front of the Wizengamot and made his case. She wondered how it felt to be loved that fiercely and that protectively.
All she knew was kindness and caring from her parents. They were never made aware they had to protect her from anything. And her parents were muggles, how would they have protected her?
She carefully set all read articles aside, including a surprisingly non-whimsical, very factual account done by The Quibbler , matching all the details of The Prophet . The Scoop and Scopers had different voices, both tainted with disdain for Dark Wizards. Hermione found herself irrationally annoyed with their prejudices and had huffed out loud a couple times before she realised the sound echoed back to her in her lonely silence.
Theodore Nott Sr was indicted by the proof and testimony of his son Theodore Nott Jr. Theodore Nott Sr, the inheritor of the Nott estate, younger brother and Theodore Nott Jr.'s uncle, Bertrand Nott, were both sentenced to 25 years in Azkaban.
The trial was ugly. Wandless magic injured Theodore Nott Jr. before an Auror could deflect it. Draco was seen reacting the instant the spell was cast and Hermione couldn't see beyond the moment. The article mentioned that the injury was minor, but spoke volumes as Theodore Nott Sr. screamed that his son was a traitor and he would live a life in squalor.
Another article in November of 1999 outlined shortly that a matter concerning Theodore Nott Sr. versus Theodore Nott Jr. in the estate's claim was denied and passed to a distant Nott relative in Sweden. Theodore was comforted by friend Draco Malfoy who had never left his side.
Less than court case articles, was a gossip column in both Scopers and The Quibbler . Photos peppered the articles as Theodore Nott Jr. was seen with various rich witches, wining and dining, even though it was known he had lost all his money.
He had become rumoured to be a swindler. The articles were very gossipy and gave room to a lot of errors, Hermione wondered if it would have been a bigger deal had he ever been caught. Or if anyone cared. She felt her stomach swoop when she remembered how easy he was to talk to, how easy it might have been to donate to causes like the Library on Diagon Alley and to see that money completely vanish without visual confirmation that it was being spent wisely.
It wasn't solid proof, but, with how the articles compared to each other from the different newspapers, Hermione allowed herself to assess that they were truthful, even if sometimes they were tainted with the writer's negative opinions of their subjects.
Out of curiosity, Hermione browsed The Prophet articles, skipping over the Malfoy centred ones that were already read.
She was surprised to find three articles- two more in The Scoop and Scopers- titled, 'Malfoy set to marry Astoria Greengrass', 'Malfoy and Astoria Greengrass engaged!', 'The coming together of Powerful families: a Pureblood lineage'.
It was all dated in 1999, and Hermione knew Draco wasn't married. She wondered then, if the engagement was real. And why hadn't she heard about it before?
Finally she opened Rita's letter. It was acid green ink that looked dark and shimmery in the blue light of the fire.
My Dearest Ms Granger,
It's been forever hasn't it? I don't know why I am not sending this to you directly, but I was told by Mr Malfoy to write this letter to you. It doesn't particularly make any sense to me.
I appreciate that you haven't reported me to the authorities by the way, you're such a doll. You know, we journalists have to report the juiciest of stories and you make such a fine cover, dear, it would have been a waste not to give the public something to feast on.
Anyway, Mr Malfoy indicated that you wanted me to verify that Teddy dearest is a little scoundrel of the worst sorts. He has indeed been wining and dining ladies all over London and swindling them out of hundreds and thousands of Galleons under the pretence of charity.
He didn't mention to them that he was the charity.. Unfortunately for me, I'm the only one he swindled that was willing to come forward with the stupid story, to stop him from targetting others. However, he knows my buggy secret. And I can't have that getting out now, can I?
I don't know what Mr Malfoy expects you to do with this information, but hey, girlie, if he swindles you out of your muggle money, come to me and we can take him down through an anonymous article, what do you say?
The Amazing as Ever,
Rita Skeeter
Hermione read and reread it. A lot of the information was nonsense and felt like a fluff piece that had no real value. But Hermione found some comfort in knowing Rita was robbed.
She shivered when she thought of Rita in bed with a young Theodore Nott Jr.
Blinking away the imagery from her mind, a small letter fell from behind the envelope that held Rita's ramblings. In slanted letters she had become familiar with, her name was written in a care that Hermione came to crave. It was dated weeks before Luna and Neville's wedding.
Hermione,
I must once again ask your forgiveness, I preemptively asked Skeeter to write you a letter and I thought it best to leave it with the articles you might or might not choose to read. This way, all available information will be given to you without you having any unanswered questions.
I know this is more times than you care to hear from me. Allow me again to apologise for how my actions have affected you, both in the past and present. I hope that even if you still retain unhappiness with me, that you can at least do so with all information known.
See you around, Granger.
Yours,
Draco
Mine.
Hermione folded it delicately and pocketed it. Then, being satisfied with her readings, she reassembled the piles of articles as they were presented to her and stood. Her knees ached from their stagnant bent position and Hermione stretched them before stretching her arms to the ceiling and looking around.
"Hello?" She called into the echoing darkness. There was a small shuffle and Junie reappeared, her glasses shining in place of her eyes before she came into the radius of the light. "Hi, I'm finished. Do I just leave these here?"
"Yes, Ms Granger. Is there anything else I can get for you?" Junie extinguished the light and plunged them into darkness. Hermione blinked rapidly, urging her eyes to readjust to the dim surroundings.
"No, no thank you. I-" Hermione tried to look around and realised she didn't know which way was out. "I don't know which direction is the exit?" Her sentence went up at the end in a question and Junie chuckled softly.
"Right this way, Ms Granger." Junie turned and Hermione was able to follow her as her eyes gradually adjusted. When Junie cracked the door into the hallway, the light felt like a knife's blade and she had to clamp her eyelids shut as she heard the door close behind her.
Angry red seared back at her until she peeked and the light hurt less. She wondered how long she had been in the dark for the usually dark hallways of this floor to hurt her. She glanced at a small wrist watch her mother had bought for her on her 17th birthday and saw that she had been reading for four hours.
As if on cue, her stomach rumbled. Hermione took quick strides to the lift and went to Mr Weasley's floor. She found his receptionist, ducked when she thought she heard Arthur's voice booming down the corridors, left her resume without explanation then left as quickly as she came.
The Atrium was less busy now that it was 10 am. Witches and wizards arrived more sporadically and Hermione could walk in a straight line without hitting someone's shoulder. The rhythm of steps was slower and the chatter was reduced to the business of a sidewalk patio before dinner rush.
And before she could lose her nerve, before she would grab lunch at The Leaky Cauldron, she walked into the Library, and requested contact names she could write to and left her resume at the front desk. The witch seemed offended, thinking that Hermione was applying for her job particularly, but Hermione had no patience in her to explain. She gave a courteous smile, and retreated to a warm soup at the bar accompanied by firewhiskey.
She was going to need it. The final stop of her day was Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes.
She left a Sickle with Tom who smiled widely at her, eyes followed her and whispers too.
Heat bloomed courage in the pit of her stomach and rose through her chest.
Draco Malfoy was a good man. Theodore Nott Jr. was a cheat and a liar.
Draco loved her.
Hermione might be falling in love with him.
She hiccuped.
Laughter and brightness erupted around her, loud pops, the sound of people retching, tinklings and a tiny dragon's roar all filled her ears.
She walked past the swarms of people, dodging sticky soap bubbles that stuck to people and refused to pop for hours, she avoided hiccuping children who were licking lollies and giggling, she found the source of the dragon's roar, the little thing giving firebreath popcorn to paying customers.
Then she found him, George, in his rare moment as he poured over the books under lamplight in an office space behind the stricter items they sold.
"George?" Hermione called into the space so that her presence wouldn't startle him.
"Mione!" His face lit up in the opposite of his previously worn frown. "You're a sight for sore eyes, it's been ages!"
"It has been, business seems to be doing well!" Hermione nudged her chin to the door behind them where the sounds were loud, but muffled like it was filtered.
"Yup!" George stood now and pulled her into a Weasley hug, warm and inviting. "What can I do for ya?"
"I…" Hermione blushed, unsure how to ask for a job without asking for it specifically because it's her. "I know things might be hard for the joke shop, to have an extra employee on payroll and especially someone not a family member, plus with the recession and everything, I totally get it-"
"Mione, stop, stop. Use less words." George pressed a finger to her mouth to shut her up in an oddly intimate way that somehow didn't make Hermione uncomfortable. Like a brother shutting up a little sister and she felt longing to belong to the Weasley family overwhelm her for a brief moment.
"I was wondering if you and- Ron- would want some help with inventing some products?" Hermione sighed. "I know it's a lot to ask-"
"Hermione Granger wants to help the youth of the world break rules? Who are you and what have you done with Hermione Granger? Did you have Ginny take polyjuice potion again?" George pinched her forearm and Hermione swatted him away.
"Seriously, George. I won't do anything like that , but I can help. Like on a commission basis. I invent or collaborate on an item, you pay me based on the sales of the item." Hermione looked up at him and blinked her eyes the way Ginny taught her.
"You don't need to do that stupid doe eyed shit that Gin uses, you got me at Hermione Granger wanting to help the youth of today break the rules!" George rolled his eyes and then grinned. He held his palm out and Hermione blinked, staring at his hand.
"Wait, yea? Just like that?" Hermione looked from his hand and back up to his brown eyes; it was here that Hermione was hit again by how much like her brothers that Ginny was, because he bore the same mischievous twinkle Hermione loved about Ginny.
"Just like that. You're family, Hermione. Even if you don't end up marrying my idiot brother. And boy, did he mess that one up." George left his arm out waiting for Hermione to grasp it. He had said everything with the serious tone of a business man, and after Hermione weighed how fast everything just happened, she wrapped her hand around George's, their fingers closed around each other's palms, and they shook, strong and firm.
Hermione Granger was now a partner to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes.
Draco Malfoy loved her.
She might be falling in love with him.
On her desk, later that evening, was a beautiful blue parchment envelope with intricate writing that Hermione had come to associate with invitations.
In it, the names Cho Chang and Viktor Krum shimmered up at her in baby blues. The wedding was in two weeks, two weeks before her birthday.