Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Les Mis. I don't make money from this fic.
November 22, 2000 London, England - The Time Office
Draco sat at his desk and debated banging his head against it. Even with the book on schematics they'd found, there had only been rudimentary designs for anything even remotely as sophisticated as a particle accelerator. That being the case, Draco had four or five diagrams laid out in front of him whilst trying to figure out which part were necessary in his design and trying to decipher the notes in the margins so that he could determine if a part was useful or not. Already there was a pile of scrapped parchment bulging from the garbage can and littering his desk.
Theo seemed to be having a bit more luck dissecting the original plans for the tempus device and figuring out how it did what it did. The prototype was placed carefully in front of him and he studied it and the papers strewn in front of him with equal vigor.
Hermione was hunched over her desk, running numbers and working equations that the men weren't able to figure out. Each of them had given her several complex formulas that they had found in their various schematics which they just simply didn't understand. Draco knew that, while Theo had done his internship in the archives, Hermione had served hers under an Unspeakable who was a theoretical physicist. She picked up theories and calculation from her mentor exceedingly fast, and even surprised her superiors when she had been able to apply her knowledge on her own instead of just repeating back what she had learned.
Draco let his head drop to his desk loudly, causing Hermione to jump a little.
"Don't die, Draco, we need you for things." Theo called, not looking up from his work. He was prodding the little silver basin at the bottom of the tempus device with the nub of his quill, eyes squinted in focus.
"Thanks for that vote of confidence, mate. Means a lot." Draco mumbled into his desk, raising a thumb into the air to emphasize his point.
"Merlin." Theo said, wondrously. "I think I figured it out." Hermione and Draco both lifted their heads to look at the man.
"Figured what out?" Hermione asked.
"I was trying to figure out what the power source for the device was. With the time-turner, the moving parts are what provide most of the power for the wormhole, while the hour reversal charm keeps the wormhole stable. For this device, it seems the memory itself provides the energy source. So once you place a memory in the basin, it begins energizing the wormhole, and it seems there are a few spells stabilizing the wormhole so that the data it gathers from the memory is gathered and displayed, then able to be used on demand. The only downside I see to this method is that the memory would be destroyed in the end."
"That's highly feasible, Theo. The physics behind it is solid enough. Do you think you're ready to attempt to build one?" Hermione asked. Theo shook his head.
"No, I have a few modifications to make before my version of the schematic is final, but it shouldn't be too long, two weeks tops, before I enlist your expertise for the practical implementation of these spells and equations." Theo told her. Hermione nodded, then turned to Draco.
"I have some of the equations you needed solved. I think they'll help you out, Draco." Hermione said, sending a small stack of papers to his desk with a flick of her wand. Draco looked over the few equations before his eyes lit up.
"Actually, yes, Hermione, these are exactly what I needed." Draco said, hunching over his desk and getting back to work. "What would I do without you?"
"Crash and burnout. But that's okay, cause I'd do the same without you." Hermione shrugged. Theo chuckled and Draco rolled his eyes.
"Hermione?" Draco said, suddenly. His mind returned to the euphoria he'd felt after their first real date. "Dinner tonight?" he asked as casually as if he were asking about the weather, hardly looking up from his work. He peeked at her and her face showed that she was a little taken aback by the suddenness of the request, but that was soon replaced with a smile.
"Pick me up at six?" Hermione smirked.
"I'll be there." Draco dropped a wink in her direction and Theo chuckled at the two, shaking his head. Draco made a mental note to buy Theo something especially good for Christmas for everything he'd done for him.
That Night, Wiltshire, England - Malfoy Manor
Draco had opted to cook dinner for Hermione as opposed to taking her out to eat. Over the last few years, he'd learned to cook for himself and his mother, as he'd had no other option. He found that cooking was much like potion making, and as long as he followed the recipe, things turned out at the very least, edible.
He'd gone with a simple chicken marsala dish with a side of mixed vegetables. He'd fried the chicken before he'd gone to fetch Hermione, so now he was preparing the sauce for the chicken while Hermione sat at the little table in the kitchen, sipping on a glass of wine and watching him cook. He turned to her while the sauce was simmering to find her watching him with a smile.
"What?" Draco asked, curiously.
"I'm trying really hard not to compare you to my exes, but so far both of our dates have been so much- more than anything I've ever experienced." Hermione grinned. Draco snorted.
"Drinking wine and watching me cook? You like this?" He asked. Hermione nodded.
"I was the primary cook with Ron. He had no problems taking me out, but if I wanted a quiet night in, I'd have to cook or order takeaway. Not that I mind cooking, I just feel like it should be something that is shared." Hermione explained.
"I agree. Everything in a relationship should be shared." Draco said, returning to his skillet and adding the chicken in for the last step. "Cooking can be fun, but it can also be extremely stressful, especially after working all day. I understand." Draco pulled out two plates and piled the chicken marsala and mixed veggies on Hermione's plate and set it before her before making his own.
They sat down to eat,following their tradition of making small talk during the meal and saving the bigger conversations for after they were complemented Draco cooking, stroking his ego a bit. But as the dinner waned, the couple started talk about deeper subject matter.
"Have you talked to Theo lately? About how he's doing? I know he says he's doing a bit better, but with the anniversary coming up, I worry." Hermione asked. Draco shook his head.
"He hasn't been sticking around long enough for me to talk to him. Whenever I try to ask anything deeper than 'how are you' he kind of shuts down. I thought we'd gotten through to him. But I suppose I'd thought I gotten through to him then, too." Hermione frowned.
"What do you mean, then? In school?" she asked. Draco sighed.
"I hadn't wanted to tell you this, as it's not really my secret to divulge, but I need to get this off of my chest. I need someone else to share the burden with." Draco took a deep breath and let it out heavily. Hermione merely sat patiently, attentive, with one hand reaching out to hold Draco's as a sign of support.
"So in sixth year, I was working on the vanishing cabinet, as I'm sure you're aware. Theo and I weren't as close as we are now, but at the time of this event, we had already begun meeting in the astronomy tower when we couldn't handle things. One night, the night that I know now was the night of Theo's mother's death day anniversary, I was working on the cabinet nearly all night. I lost track of time, should have been back to check on him, but I wasn't." Draco felt the familiar pang of regret at not checking on his friend that night.
"Anyway, I had gone to find a book from my collection in the Room of Hidden Things, and when I returned there was a note stuck to the cabinet. It read, 'Go to the tower immediately. Your secret is safe with me. Signed, a friend.'" Draco shook his head. "To this day, I have no idea who wrote that note. But whoever did must have known the state Theo was in." Draco shivered at the thought of his best friend standing at the ledge of the astronomy tower.
"He was suicidal. He'd been in the tower all night, just standing at the edge and debating falling. I got there as the sun was rising, and Hermione, I've never seen a more broken man than Theo was that night." Hermione nibbled at her bottom lip, a frown tugging at her features.
"We can't let him be alone this year." Hermione said finally. "Before this, he hasn't had anyone to be with him. But he's been there for the both of us through the hardest times lately. We have to be there for him." Draco nodded.
"I don't care if we have to break into his house and refuse to leave until morning, we'll be with him." Draco confirmed.
"Glad we're on the same page." Hermione smirked. "As for the note, I have no idea. Did anyone else know about you and Theo hiding up in the tower?"
"Hermione, you're the only one we've ever told about half the shit we did in school, and this is years later. It's impossible for you to have been there." Draco said with a frown. Hermione looked at him bemusedly.
"Draco, what is our current project at work?" Hermione asked.
"The tempus device. Wait. You don't think that-" Draco gasped. "Is it possible that you warned me about Theo? Through the device?" Draco asked.
"I think it's something I would do. And it certainly seems plausible at this point. But let's not tell Theo if we can help it until the time comes. I have a feeling the knowledge won't do much but stir emotion." Hermione confided. Draco agreed with that assessment.
He looked Hermione over, noticing how the light hit her eyes and the stray curls here and there that refused to stay in their place. He noticed the slight blush of her cheeks, and as he watched her, she drew her bottom lip up between her teeth. He smiled absently.
"You're beautiful." Draco murmured. He smiled wider when the light blush darken. He loved knowing he had been the cause of that. "You know, I've thought you were beautiful ever since the Yule Ball. Everyone in the room could see it then. But now," Draco traced a finger lightly along the back of Hermione's hand. "You look just as beautiful now as you did then. More so, if you ask me." Draco confessed.
"How? I'm not even wearing makeup." Hermione said.
"That must be it. This is you when no one is looking. This is the real Hermione Granger. And there's something about you that drives me crazy."
"In a good way or a bad way?" Hermione asked, looking up into his eyes with a small frown.
"Depends on how you define 'good'" Draco muttered, his voice dropping to a rough gravelly timbre. Hermione blushed furiously at the response, smiling as she dropped her eyes to the table.
"I swear, you and Theo are just alike sometimes." She huffed playfully.
"Yes, but when it's me saying these things, you don't brush them off as the ramblings of a pervert." Draco teased.
"Oh, no, I still do that with you, too. I just also recognize it as a genuine attempt at winning me over, and not just because I'm a girl." Hermione giggled.
"I can't tell if that's a win for you or for me." Draco chuckled.
"Both?" Hermione suggested.
"Both." Draco nodded. "Let's go with both." He trailed his fingers over her hand still, reveling in the proximity to her.
"Why do you do this?" Hermione asked. "Not that I don't enjoy it, it feels quite nice. I'm just trying to dissect that brain of yours to see how it works."
"It's comforting. It lets me know you're right here, and that you're really. I spent a long time alone. Sometimes it's just nice to feel someone else's body heat so that you know you're not alone." Draco looked down at their hands. Hermione turned her hand briefly, squeezing his before returning it to its original position.
"I know what you mean." She said. Her brown eyes met Draco's grey and for a moment, he saw a scared little girl instead of the confident woman he had come to know. Draco felt honored that she would let down her walls that much in front of him, the walls that he knew she'd spent years carefully constructing so that not even her best friends could see through them.
Walls that Draco was all too familiar with, because he'd built them too. He promised himself then that he would do everything he could to make sure that scared little girl behind those walls didn't have to be scared anymore.