Chapter 12: A Death and A Return

Blaise blinked before grinning knowingly. "It's been a while, but I still remember the ropes. I knew one day you would get tired of being 'the Chosen One.' So, how are we killing you off, Potter?"

Harry looked a bit perturbed. "I like my life as it is, thank you."

I snorted. He better like his life after all the planning we put into his proposal. If Harry ever decided to disappear I would hunt him down myself.

But I forced my tired mind to return to the task at hand. Locking eyes with Blaise, I said, "We need your help faking Draco's death."

Blaise didn't react at all; he merely nodded. "I was waiting for you to ask for help, Granger. Draco Malfoy will be legally dead by lunchtime."

Harry looked unnerved. "You can legitimately fake someone's death in a matter of hours?"

"I haven't done this since university when Granger caught me," Blaise said in a hurry. "She made me swear not to unless it was for a good cause."

Harry raised a critical eyebrow at me, and I defended, "It's not our fault that your department is terrible when it comes to missing person cases. Besides, Zabini has a gift, so it would be bloody foolish to make him renounce something that could save lives."

Zabini puffed up a little with pride. "Yeah, Potter. I have a gift."

"And an insufferable ego," I said reflexively. "Now shall we go kill Malfoy?"

As always, it amazed me how prepared Zabini was. Without hesitation he pulled out potion upon potion, explaining that they would accomplish, and what spell or charm it would be paired with.

With that we left the Ministry just far enough to apparate away. We ended up in a pretty heavily forested area a few kilometers away from Malfoy Manor. No one really owned this land to my knowledge. It was near a few of the places Harry and I had camped during the war.

Blaise rubbed his hands together. "This is perfect."

All three of us procured our wands, and Blaised passed us various potions, each with very specific instructions. With the three of us working together it didn't take long, maybe an hour.

I stepped back, admiring the convincing murder scene. "Well done, Blaise. Remember boys, you were here because I'm a weak, vulnerable female. Now let's document this and report our findings."

The documentation process for the Ministry was only slightly more thorough than searching for missing persons, but I had my suspicions that it was because Harry was an extra-vigilant Auror, not because the Department of Magical Law Enforcement cared.

True to Blaise's word, we were done before lunch. Thanking him and promising to treat both of them to lunch, we made our way to Thaxton's office.

Thaxton looked as disgruntled to see me as ever. "What is it?"

"Sir, Auror Potter and Mr. Zabini agreed to help me search an area of interest, and we found enough evidence to prove that Draco Malfoy is deceased," I said with as much gravity as I could.

"How recently was he killed?" Thaxton asked with a minimal amount of interest.

"Within the last twenty-four hours," I said.

"Very well. Leave the report, Miss Granger. As of this moment you are no longer a member of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Mr. Zabini, to be clear you were never authorized to be a part of this, and as such while your efforts today are appreciated, you will receive no compensation. Auror Potter, you have assignments of your own, especially now that you can do field work as you now have a partner," Thaxton said with a minimal amount of condescension.

Harry looked confused. "Was I assigned a temporary partner? Sir, I can-"

What Harry could do would never be voiced, because a very distinctive laugh interrupted him.

I didn't think it would affect me so drastically. At the sound of his voice I tensed up, my hand unconsciously clutching my wand.

My hand shook as I placed the report on the desk. "I'll take my leave, then."

Blaise got to the door before I did, and upon opening it he ushered me out, his hands planted firmly on my shoulders. With Blaise steering me we almost made it without Ronald seeing us. But alas, Ron spotted us when we were about a meter from the door.

I wanted to punch Ronald in the face for his smirk. He called, "Hermione, what brings you here?"

My hand clutched my wand a little tighter. I itched to hex his freckles off and turn his ring into ash. I smiled thinly and said, "Just some business. We can't all go on vacation whenever we please."

Blaise cleared his throat. He had never liked Ron, and now the same arrogant Slytherin we had grown up with came back in full force. He looked down his nose at Ron, capitalizing on the little height he had on Ron. His face was one of utter disgust and disdain. "Weasley, if you'll excuse us, Hermione and I have real work to do. We also have a few crimes to commit, but that's going to be the agenda for our lunch break, but you don't need to know about that anyway."

With that Blaise pushed me out of the door and all the way to my office. Once there, Blaise closed and locked the door. "If I see that git outside of work I swear I'm going to curse him."

I laughed, but it sounded shaky and flat. Mustering a wooden smile I said, "Maybe you'll get the chance when Ron decides to investigate us for all those crimes we're apparently going to commit."

Blaise grinned wickedly. "We've already committed our crimes. My favorite part is that Potter helped."

I chuckled a little. "You Slytherins called him Saint Potter, but the three of us got into more trouble and broke more rules than you could even dream of."

Blaise laughed. "And somehow you are in a top position in the Ministry."

I finally smiled a real smile. "That is the beauty of it."


A/N: And I'm back! Sorry for the wait, I have a strong suspicion that college finals are meant to kill students off. I finished my last one today, but now I get to move out of my apartment. It's always a party. Anyways, as always thanks for follows and reviews. I'll try to write a lot more over the summer, as long as people are reading!