Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Don't own Les Mis. Don't make money from this fic.
September 21, 2000 Wiltshire, England - Malfoy Manor
Hermione stood in the foyer of Malfoy Manor, shaking like a leaf. She had known it would be hard to come back to this place after the time she spent here during the war, but she didn't know it would be this hard. She felt Harry slip his hand into hers, squeezing gently. She returned the firm pressure.
Theo, having been the son of a Death Eater, knew why Hermione was so anxious. Hermione glanced over at him, her warm brown eyes meeting his icy blue. He leaned nonchalantly against the wall, waiting for Hermione to compose herself. He wasn't mean about it, merely matter-of-fact. Anxiety happened, he was well aware of it. But Hermione had learned that he was nothing if not patient.
Hermione and Theo had consulted with Malfoy the day before about where they should look in the house for clues. He was still waiting to hear back from Robins about the job, otherwise he would have been able to go with them. Draco had given them quite detailed instructions, discussing the hiding places in both his father's study and the manor library quite freely. Hermione had jotted down the list, and clutched it in one trembling hand, but she found herself unable to move past the foyer.
She could see the twin marble staircases just past the wide, ornately carved entrance. She knew all too well that if she were to go to the left, she'd be standing in the room she was tortured in by Bellatrix Lestrange.
"Hermione." Harry murmured. "We're not going to look left, okay? We're going to look straight ahead. Nott will walk in front of you. I want you to focus on him, okay?" Harry said, nodding to Theo. She nodding, meeting Theo's kind eyes and knowing smile.
"Now, your eyes don't leave him, got it?" Harry said. She nodded and they began walking, slowly at first.
"Hermione, what're the Five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration?" Harry asked, knowingly. Hermione frowned, but her eyes didn't leave Theo's back.
"Um. Well first there's food." Hermione said, frowning.
"Right, you can't make food from nothing. Next?" Harry prodded, attempting to speed up their progress a bit. They were nearly through the main entranceway.
"Money. You can't transfigure currency." Hermione said, a bit more confident. She allowed Harry to speed up their pace. He walked on her left, as though to further shield her from the room.
"Right, what else?" Harry said. They were just about even with the base the staircases. Almost home free.
"Clothing. You can't create more fabric than you started with." She said, taking a deep breath as she saw Theo turn to face her, having reached the next room.
"Last two Hermione, we're almost there." Harry said. Hermione took a deep breath.
"Shelter and a body part removed by Dark magic." she said on one breath, just as they crossed the threshold into the back hall. Theo smiled at her, then turned on his heel and lead the way to the library and attached study. Hermione had finally stopped shaking so violently and she was actually able to focus on the task at hand. However, she hadn't realized exactly how massive the Malfoy library was, and they spent nearly three hours just gathering documents that they deemed important from the main files in Lucius's desk.
Hermione looked up at Theo from across the room, watching him leaf through the a filing cabinet drawer.
"We're going to have to bring Malfoy, whether he gets the job or not. This place is entirely too massive for us to search on our own. Theo nodded.
"I think we've gathered enough to keep us busy for at least a few days, though. Let's head back to the office." He said, gathering a fairly large pile of journals and sheaves of parchment into his arms. Hermione did the same, and they made their way back through the house. Hermione cringed when she realized she'd have to pass the drawing room yet again, but was taken aback by Theo turning into a little room off the back hall. The room looked like a large sitting room or lounge, and at the far end, there were a pair of french doors that lead to the front of the house.
"We could have avoided the main entrance and you made me endure that hell anyway?" Hermione shrilled. Theo merely grinned.
"Never asked me if there was another way, now, did you? Besides, I think it did you some good. You needed the coping skills." Theo threw back over his shoulder at her.
"Damn Slytherins." Hermione muttered darkly as she left the house.
September 26, 2000 London, England - Hermione and Theo's Office
Hermione and Theo sat quietly going over their findings of their first venture into Malfoy Manor when they heard a small knock on the door. They both frowned; they rarely had visitors and their boss never bothered knocking.
"Come in." Hermione called, turning in her seat to see who it was. Malfoy opened the door, peeking his head in.
"Am I interrupting anything?" He asked, cautiously. Theo grinned at his friend.
"Nothing major, no. Come in. What brings you here?" Theo asked, grabbing a folding chair from behind him that he'd taken to keeping on hand, and motioning for Draco to sit.
"Actually, I was sent down by Robins. I got the job." Malfoy beamed. Hermione smiled up at him, relieved.
"That's amazing! Now we can actually get something accomplished and cover some ground." Hermione said, pulling out her notepad. "Malfoy, when would you be available to go to the manor and help us track down the data we need?" She asked.
"As long as it's before four-thirty in the afternoon, I should be fine. I'm also available after six. I have an, erm, prior engagement that I've let Robins know about. He's cleared it for me." Draco said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. Hermione frowned a little, but jotted down that note and drew a box around it, so she could find it later.
"Alright. Then we should be set to start back into the manor tomorrow, bright and early. Your first, official duty as an intern, Draco, is learning how to file things correctly." Hermione smirked, handing him a stack of folders they'd finished with. Theo laughed.
"Should be a breeze for him, considering the filing system in the manor." he chuckled.
"Alphabetically, chronologically, or otherwise?" Draco asked, a small smile playing at his lips.
"Alphabetical by cabinet, chronological within the drawer, and alphabetical by case name." Hermione explained, pointing to the top of one of the files to explain the sorting system. Draco nodded, then adjusted his hold on the stack and left the office for the archives room. Hermione sat back, scrubbing a hand down her face.
"Do I want to know what his prior engagement is?" Hermione asked Theo without looking at him.
"You probably do, actually." Hermione looked up at him. His deep voice was grave and when her eyes met his, she sat up a little straighter. "His mother is extremely sick. She's in St. Mungo's, but there's not much they can do for her and she refuses to go to a Muggle hospital. Draco goes by every night to make sure she's eating. Apparently, she only eats when he's there," Theo explained. Hermione covered her mouth in horror.
"So that's why he looked so bad when I saw him in Knockturn Alley. Poor thing!" Theo nodded.
"I'm actually putting aside some money to get him into a decent flat. The house he was living in with his mother was condemned, and Mungo's suspects it's how she contracted her illness. In the meantime he's staying with me. Only problem is he's too bloody proud to accept charity." Theo said, scrubbing a hand down his face. "His father is still in Azkaban, has at least ten more years to serve there. He's got nothing and no one."
"He's got you." Hermione corrected. Theo smiled at that, nodding once in agreement. "Let me do some digging. I may have to use my charm, but I think I know a way to get Draco his house back." Hermione said
"By 'use your charm', you mean a Confundus, don't you?" Theo smirked. Hermione placed her hand to her chest in mock outrage.
"Me? I'd never Confund someone as a means to an end. What do I look like, a Slytherin?" Hermione giggled.
"Mhm. And I'd never give up half my life savings to help my best mate get his house back. Much too Gryffindor." He winked at her.
"Glad we're clear, then." Hermione said with a smile, standing and marching out of the office to check on Draco's filing.
October 11, 2000 Wiltshire, England - Malfoy Manor
It had been nearly three weeks since Hermione's last excursion to the manor with Theo and Draco. They'd found enough material to keep them busy for quite some time, even with Draco doing the menial filing and classifying. Draco's part saved Hermione and Theo loads of time, and they also gained a new respect for their predecessors, who'd taught them to work quickly and efficiently, or the whole of the research was slowed.
Much of what Hermione was subject to was scanning scores of documents, and, once determining that it was not pertaining to their case, she returned it to it's file. This went on endlessly, with a few needles in the haystack poking them sharply every now and again. She'd managed to scrape up two or three documents that held details about the device Draco had shown them., which she then placed in a neat pile before returning to the swamp of documents.
Now, they had to return to the manor to replenish their stock of ill-fitting documents in search of striking gold. Around the third or fourth hour of leafing through musty books and cobweb-ridden cabinets, Draco pulled out a folder with a very distinct label.
"Tempus Memoriam. Hermione, Theo, I think I've got something." Draco said, waving them over. Theo and Hermione exchanged a look upon reading the title.
"It's Latin," Theo said, "Time Memory." They sat the folder on the table beside them, flipping it open and spreading out the documents, eyeing them carefully.
"Just from a quick glance, they look like magical theorems. There are several equations I've never seen that we'll have to analyze." Hermione said, pointing to a few passages.
"There's an appendix as well. Draco, do you recognize any of the names?" Theo asked. Draco scanned the paper before nodding.
"Yeah, I remember seeing one or two of these in Father's study. We'll have to look and see if we can track any of them down." he said, checking his watch. "I have to go, it's four. Theo, what time will you be home?" Draco asked, packing his things up.
"Doesn't matter, Draco, you won't be staying with me tonight." Theo said, looking up from the papers. Draco paled and Hermione felt a tug at her heart.
"What- what do you mean, mate?" Draco stammered. Hermione's heart broke a little at his defeated tone.
"Theo, just tell him. I can't stand to watch him suffer." Hermione said, elbowing the dark-haired man.
"Tell me what? You're in on this too, Granger?" Draco's eyes darkened, his face falling even further.
"Yes, she is. Wouldn't have been able to do it without her, actually." Theo admitted. " Draco, you won't be staying with me tonight because you'll be staying here, at the Manor." Draco blinked once.
"Excuse me?" he asked, shocked. "In case you didn't notice, the Manor no longer belongs to me." Theo smiled.
"Draco, do you have a galleon on you?" Hermione questioned. He turned to her.
"What? Why- have you two gone mental?" Draco demanded.
"Yes or no, Malfoy." Hermione said, smirking. Draco turned out his pockets, but only came up with a few knuts and a sickle. He shook his head.
"S'pose it'll have to do." Hermione declared, plucking the sickle from his hand.
"Oi, what's going on here? Give me that back, it's all I've got." Draco complained, looking close to tears.
"Sorry, no can do. Have to collect some payment in order for the transaction to be completed. Wizarding properties and deeds are very complex, you know." Hermione said, pulling a yellowed sheet of parchment from the inside pocket of her robes, and tapped it with her wand before handing it to Draco.
It was the deed to the mansion. As Draco watched, the text began changing, the value for which the property was bought altering, the names rearranging. He saw his name clearly written as the recipient, replacing Hermione's. He looked between Theo and Hermione in confusion.
"What did you two do?" He asked, suspiciously. Theo just grinned broadly while Hermione explained.
"Harry told me that they'd finished the investigation in regards to the property, but that they were within their legal rights to sell the property and use the money for reparations. Which was brilliant because it made legally purchasing the property infinitely easier. Once we'd found out the price and talked to the correct sources, Theo used some of his savings, and I threw in a bit of my war stipend to buy the place." She said with a smile. Draco stared at her like she was from another planet.
"Why?" he whispered. Hermione shrugged.
"You're a good friend to Theo." She said. "Also, he told me about your mother." She said gently. His head snapped to Theo.
"You what?" He demanded.
"Relax, Draco. She isn't helping me throw you a pity party, she's helping me get you back on your feet." Theo said, his eyes conveying more emotion than his voice.
"Draco, I know what war can do to a family. I lost my parents, was shoved into adulthood face first and told to find my way alone. I can't understand exactly what you're going through, but I know it's hard. I'm just trying to help you. Like you once tried to help me." Hermione told him, looking into his pale grey eyes.
"But I couldn't. Help you." Draco said softly, his eyes dropping to the floor.
"But you tried." She insisted. "I remember the night I spent in your drawing room well, Draco. You tried. And that's all that matters to me." Hermione pledged.
"That's why she paid off your mum's medical bills, and I set up an account that they can charge future expenses to." Theo said. Draco's eyes snapped back up to Theo. He looked his friend over, as if waiting for him to tell him it was all a joke.
"You were my only true friend in school, Draco. Everyone else was just afraid of my father or impressed by my name. You didn't care about that. Those last few years, when things at home got- bad-" Theo looked down. "You saved me once, Draco. I owe this to you." He muttered. Suddenly, Draco nearly knocked the thinner man down with an embrace, tears streaming down his face. Hermione was a little surprised to see Theo clutching Draco just as firmly. It seemed their friendship ran even deeper than she'd suspected.
The men stood like that for several minutes, the emotion palpable the air, before Draco released the other man and swiped at his eyes with a little laugh.
"Look at me. Blubbering like a schoolgirl. Thank you, both of you. Really. If there's anything I can ever do for you-" Draco started, but Theo raised a hand to stop him.
"We're even, Draco. Like I said, I'm repaying a debt. I'm not sure if Hermione feels the same, but as far as you and I stand, we're even." He said, blue eyes firm. Draco squared his shoulders, adopting a posture Hermione hadn't seen from him in years as he nodded. Hermione checked her watch.
"Draco, your mother." she warned, and he glanced down at his watch.
"I've got to run. I'll see you when I get back?" Draco said, moving to the fireplace on the far wall. Theo nodded, answering for them both. Draco beamed at them once before turning and disappearing in green flames.