I don't own Harry Potter or any of its characters (sadly).
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"We can try Lucius on use of unforgivables and interfering with law enforcement, but he cannot be tried for the attempted murder of Rosalinda, because technically by law it is still legal. We will confiscate the wand he was using, then interrogate Narcissa as to her involvement," Kingsley said, wrapping up their meeting. "Hermione, I want you and Draco to solve this case as fast as you both can. You don't need to come into the office unless you need to speak with me or you need something. Lucius still has people in the Ministry, and I want to prepare for the chance he doesn't go to Azkaban. I don't want him to hurt Rosalinda again. Realize that if somehow he gets away from charges, he can just request Rosalinda and we have to give her to him," Kingsley explained in a solemn voice.
All Hermione could do was nod. She didn't have time to process everything that has happened. She needed to check on Draco, Rosalinda, and Laura, then start putting all of her time into solving this case. While the list of tasks she needed to accomplish began piling up in her mind, Hermione zoned out of the conversation to attempt to organize her next few steps. First step: Visit St. Mungo's. Second: Sort out Rose's living arrangements with Laura, Draco, and Kingsley. Third: List out everything we do and do not know about the law. Fourth: Start contacting known helpful members of the Sacred 28, and giving them enough information to want to help the cause. Fifth: Figure out Draco Malfoy.
"Hermione?" Harry called, shaking her arm to rouse Hermione out of her thoughts.
"Huh?" she asks, wading out of her mind.
"Kingsley wanted to know what you believe are the next steps in solving the case," Harry explained gently knowing Hermione can be irritable when she is taken away from her musing.
"Oh," Hermione muttered, not expecting questions. "We have already sent out owls for family journals. We need to know exactly who sealed the set of laws, because we believe each set of law is not only protected by curses, but also a hidden bound item. Most old families prided themselves on their lengthy history, so we figure whichever family sealed the law used a family relic as a seal. We also need the blood of all the members of the Sacred 28 to dissolve the final protection, luckily Draco has the blood of about half of the families in himself alone, and hopefully that will work, because not all of the families are still active. So basically, we need to read through journals to find the family, research to find a precious item of theirs and find it. All the while we need some curse breakers to find the counter curses to the layers of protection, and convince members of the families to donate a drop or two of their blood." Hermione finished and let out a breath. She had a lot to do and saying it out loud made it even more real.
"Well," Kingsley began, brows furrowed. "I will contact Bill Weasley to see if he can contact you about the curses put on the laws. Talk to Joseph about writing formal letters to the families with an invitation to personally meet with you and me in the coming week. Does Friday work?"
Hermione nodded, numb.
Kingsley gave her a questioning look but decided to mark her unusual behaviour down as concern. "Meeting adjourned," he announced giving Hermione one more appraising look before he turned to leave.
"Are you okay?" Harry asked, approaching Hermione with wariness. She was slowly getting out of her seat, blank eyes still in thought not even hearing her friend. He touched her arm to get her attention in a lapse of judgement. She immediately became alert, pulling out her wand and flinging the first spell that came to her mind at the person who touched her.
Harry fell to the floor, stiff as a board, before Hermione registered that she was in no danger. After looking around and seeing no danger did she see her friend on the floor. "Oh Harry!" she cried, embarrassment flooding her cheeks. She muttered a quick Finite Incantatem, and Harry immediately leapt up from the ground rubbing his back.
"Remind me to never touch you when you're thinking," he groaned.
"I'm so sorry!" Hermione said, rushing to his side to check for injuries. Once she gave him a good inspection and found nothing more than a bruised head, which is promptly healed, she let out a thankful breath. "Please don't do that ever again."
"Lesson learned," Harry assured her with a smirk playing at his lips. "Now, I think I deserve to know what you were thinking about so hard you forgot I was here."
Hermione's facial expression hardened as she remembered her train of thought. "I have to go to St. Mungo's," she said deep worry lacing her tone. Harry followed, waiting for an explanation, as she began walking towards the Ministry atrium. "I don't know how much damage Rose took. Draco had a large cut on his hip. Laura was tortured so much I don't know if she survived." Hermione was nibbling her bottom lip in worry as she picked up her pace towards the floos, only to be stopped by her concerned best friend.
"Hermione," Harry began soothingly, "I'm sure they will be fine. It's in the hands of the healers now. What I want to know is are you okay?" His eyes were boring into her own with the intensity of a very worried Harry Potter.
"Harry," she said, grasping his shoulder with her good hand for emphasis, "I'm fine. I just need to check on everyone else. Then, I will be back to torture- I mean- question Lucius." She grinned a wicked smile, the very same one she had when she finally caught Rita Skeeter.
Harry appraised her expression. Although her feelings may be genuine, Harry had developed a keen eye since the war, and he knew when Hermione wasn't fine. "Give me your hand," he commanded. When she laid her good hand in his palm, he raised an eyebrow to say 'nice try'. Huffing, she laid her broken hand in his palm, the very act of touching his hand caused her to flinch in pain. "You need to have this looked at," he said admonishing her for not getting it looked at sooner.
"Don't give me that, Harry," she said glaring. "I was not the one that demanded that I come to the Ministry without going to St. Mungo's first." Her leveled glare made him blush and apologize. "I understand, Harry. I can handle a little bit of pain. Don't worry so much about me. I really am fine," she smiled.
"How is it going with Ron?" Harry asked quietly, hoping no one would hear. They all valued their privacy, and after the war, they were practically celebrities. It seemed nothing was too private for the press.
Her face fell ever so slightly. "I'm getting over him," she said simply.
Knowing not to question Hermione when she used her clipped tone, he decided to try to lighten the mood. "With Malfoy?" he asked, wagging his eyebrows.
"Harry!" She whacked him on the shoulder despite the grin on her face. "I think you're jealous," she said with a smirk, "after all you and Draco always teased each other in school, maybe it was just flirting."
Harry almost sputtered. Hermione was funny, but never so explicit, it caught Harry off guard. Her tinkling laugh told Harry that everything was alright again- as it always was when she was laughing at his expense. "I have to go to St. Mungo's," she reminded him, holding up her injured hand. "I could, however, use an auror escort," she said winking cheekily.
Grinning at the offer, Harry took her good arm and lead her towards the floos like a proper gentleman. He even let her go through the floo first before shortly joining her in the St. Mungos waiting room.
(~)
Draco was anxious. He was lying in a bed with healers around him fixing his hip wound, but all he could think about was Rose and Hermione. His daughter was rushed off to another ward, he couldn't get information because no one knew he was her father, and Hermione has disappeared off to the Ministry with Potter. All he knew was walking was going to be a bitch for the next week, and Laura was not doing so well.
Even though he hardly knew the woman, he felt tremendous guilt settle in his stomach. She was only in this situation because he didn't take his responsibility as a father seriously enough. He could hear the healers whispering when they were wheeling her away. Like the Longbottoms they said. The three words tore at his soul. She might be permanently brain dead and he would have only talked to her twice in his life- one time that he doesn't remember and another polyjuiced and talking about the child he wouldn't be a part of. As his mind tore at itself with the sharp knife of regret, he didn't even notice two people enter the room.
"Ms. Granger," a female healer squeaked, surprised. "He's not suppose to have-"
A male voice cut off the young healer. "Ms...Findlay," he began in a soothing voice, "Hermione here has a broken hand and wanted to be treated in the same room as Mr. Malfoy."
Hearing his surname, he peered up to see none other than Harry Potter and Hermione standing by the second bed in the room. He wanted to twist around and either make a snarky comment to Potter about being feminine enough to nurse Hermione back to health or check on Hermione, but the healer working on his hip thumped him hard on the temple when he attempted to turn. Resigning himself to his fate, he decided to make his comments at a later time. Maybe then he would have enough time to make them better.
It seemed no matter how much guilt Draco faced, he never lost his cutting wit.
(~)
"Can I take a look at your wrist?" the tall, blonde healer asked Hermione kindly.
With a small amount of reluctance slowing her movements, she laid her broke, bruised hand in the healers outstretched palm. The act of both moving her hand and touching the healer's pained Hermione greatly, but as a war-heroine, she refused to show pain. Only Harry could see the discomfort in her eyes.
As the Healer examined her hand with a beautiful braided yew wand, Hermione turned to check on Draco. It seemed the wound had a good amount of debris lodged in it as there were five healers pulling out scraps of stone and wood one piece at at time. When she turned back to Harry, he had a curious look about his face. It was a mixture of both regret and envy. Then as soon as she saw it, it was gone in a flash, instead replaced with careful impassiveness. She lifted an eyebrow in his direction as if to ask 'what's wrong'. He just waved her off and mouthed that he was fine.
Hermione usually would never take that answer from Harry, he was never just fine, but the healer pulled her attention away to tell her that they would need to regrow all of the bones in her hand as she had shattered a good amount of them. Harry gave her a sympathetic shoulder squeeze and said, "I will stay here the entire time if you want me to."
Hermione gave him a grateful smile in return and replied, "I would be honoured." She was truly grateful to have a friend like Harry. While they moved her into a bed close to Draco and began to remove her shattered bits of bone, she thought about the man gripping her good hand.
Harry had been beside her since the troll attacked her in the bathroom their first year. It pained her every single time he had to go into danger alone; knowing he went alone to face Voldemort killed her on the inside. She had never truly felt loss until she saw her best friend's limp body in the arms of Hagrid. He was a magnificent person. He had seemingly endless courage. He cared for everyone.
She laughed in her head as she thought back to the years she had a crush on him in Hogwarts. She didn't think he ever noticed. After all, what girl who didn't fancy a boy would spend as much time as she did researching anything he needed? Not that it hurt to read all day. She got to watch as he mooned over Cho, which was unpleasant, so she began turning her attention elsewhere. The reminder of her school-girl crush on him brought a thought to mind. Why didn't she end up with Harry?
Honestly?- She didn't feel like lying to herself would be efficient, so Hermione decided to peruse down a line of thought she had told herself was too dangerous. She wasn't with Harry because he never reciprocated. He would show hints of more-than-brotherly affection on occasion, but Hermione wasn't willing to settle for that. She was not going to be with someone who mostly treated her like a good friend and sister. She just didn't think Harry had the capability of showing her any other types of affection. She had heard the odd rumors of course, thanks to Lavender and Pavarti, that the boy-who-lived had a crush on her, but she could never believe them. Maybe he had an odd way of showing it, but Hermione never felt like he solidly held those kinds of thoughts towards her.
She let her mind wander in an attempt to ignore the searing pain of the Skele-gro. Her brain meandered about down a long path of scenarios. Some scenarios lead her to a happy life with Harry, a few peered at her with images of a lovely marriage to Ron, but most showed Draco. Even though Harry would always be her best friend, and she truly believed in marrying her best friend one day, he didn't have that same easy affection that Draco could show. Although her cozy relationship with Draco has been a few weeks at the best, there was a sort of effortlessness about it. She had to try very hard to connect with Ron, she always had to make sure Harry recognized she was there for him, but with Draco they were content to be near each other. It just felt right.
So, that was why Hermione Granger put aside the overwhelming urge to make her best friend explain his feelings. Instead, she let the moment pass knowing she was passing up a different ending to her story. She joked with Harry and counted down the moments when she could talk to Draco again.
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Hermione. Hermione.
The soothing voice lifted her from her dreams to the antiseptic filled reality of St. Mungo's. Searching for the source of her wakefulness, she looked around the dim ward until she found him.
"I never took you for a snorer," Draco said in a half pompous, half sleep-drunk tone.
"I never took you for the type of man to wake a woman. I thought you were one to creep away in the middle of the night," she shot back teasingly.
"See, I tried to rid myself of you, but my heroic war scar and several angry healers prevented me from stealing away into the night."
"I understand. They weren't too fond of my trying to get up to strangle you after you started talking in your sleep."
If Hermione could see Draco, she was sure she would find a humorously over-dramatic look of outrage on his face. "I will have you know, Ms. Granger, that I sleep perfectly silent."
Deciding to abandon the comfortable humour in favor of sedating her curiosity, Hermione asked, "do you know what happened to Laura?"
"Do you know what happened to Rosalinda?" he shot back.
Understanding his anxiety, she decided her question could wait so that she could relieve him of his worries. "When I came in, they told me she was doing well. We can see her in the morning. They just wanted to take her to the children's ward with no visitors, so they had time to give her an answer about her mom and to watch her to make sure her physical injuries were just superficial."
Draco let out a sigh of half relief from his bed in the dim room. "I didn't know whether I would be granted access to her if I told them I was her father. They don't like me too much around her," he whispered, emotion building in his voice. "I didn't hear much when the healers were looking at Laura except they mentioned 'like the Longbottoms'. Merlin I hope not."
The breath practically left Hermione's lungs. The thought of Rose visiting the hospital every month to visit Laura in a perpetually trace-like state brought a fresh wave a dread pooling in Hermione's heart. She would never forgive herself if she was the reason for Rose losing her mother.
"It's not your fault," Draco said softly as if answering her thoughts.
"I know," Hermione muttered, "but that doesn't make me feel any less guilty."
Without warning, Hermione's bed starting moving. Startled, she let out a small cry until she realized that it was being pulled towards Draco's. When her bed was snug against her's, he put his wand back on the bedside table and turned back to face her. Using the softest of touches, he stroked her hair lovingly and whispered over and over in her ear, "it'll be okay." Whether he was comforting himself or her was of no consequence. After no more than ten minutes of being near each other, they floated off into the peaceful realm of dreams.
It was needless to say hospital staff was surprised to find both Draco and Hermione holding hands and sleeping soundly. The sight shocked one healer to the point of fainting, calling the other healers to her aid, only for the group of concerned medical staff to wake the young couple up with their gasps of shock.
A.N/ Yes, this did take too long, but this semester gives me more free time, so hopefully I will be able to update normally again. No, I am not giving up on this fan fiction. If you have any comments, critiques, or thought, please review. I hope you have wonderful week full of good books and sunny days.
