Thank you again for your kind reviews! Some backstory and lots of conversation here, after the action of last post.
DISCLAIMER: Characters are not mine, but please respect my idea and don't go whoring Hermione off everywhere.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
They were still there an hour later when Ginny returned with three bulging bags of food. 'I went a bit overboard, sorry.'
'Careful, it's my money you're spending,' Draco said, faking outrage.
'Yeah, and 15 galleons is really going to make a dent in your fortune,' Ginny replied sarcastically. 'Have you found anything interesting?'
'Dolohov was a regular during 2003, as was Mace,' Draco replied.
'Dolohov senior or junior?' Ginny asked. She was serious now, in work mode.
'Senior,' Hermione replied. She paused before adding, 'we all hated him, he's a dirty old man. And he has syphilis – half the girls who end up in Haettenschweiller's are his. But there's a potion he uses, it's easily cured. That's what's so despicable about Dolohov, that he didn't have it cured himself. He thought it was amusing that he could infect other people.' She couldn't bring herself to look at Ginny, but she could feel both her companions' eyes burning into her.
'Who else?' Ginny continued.
'Goyle, Faustus, Vernon and Kant are the only other patrons to be known Death Eaters, and they each return several times,' replied Malfoy.
Ginny raised her eyebrows. 'It was popular. The other patrons, have we heard of any of them?'
Draco and Hermione glanced at each other. Hermione pressed ahead. 'There's one name, Titus Gormen. He was in Ravenclaw, two years below us. We used to talk about him a lot, he was really handsome and…' She paused. 'I guess charismatic would be the right word. But there was something wrong about him. He was exactly like someone you'd find in a romantic novel someone who seemed wonderful and perfect but actually he was really cruel and dark at heart.'
'So… might he be someone worth looking in to?' asked Draco.
'Possibly.'
'May I look through this file?' Ginny asked, pulling 'January-June 2004' towards her.
'No!' Hermione said suddenly, staring wide-eyed at the date on the file. 'I mean, uh, do I smell something burning?'
'The potatoes!' Ginny shrieked, leaping up and running into the kitchen.
Draco paused, thinking. 'When did you start?'
'November 17th, 2003,' Hermione replied quietly. He knew so much already, what did one more date matter?
Supper was a simple meal of baked potatoes with various toppings, and Hermione rushed through to get back to Matilda's side. She was doing better, her fever had broken and she was sleeping properly. Hermione's mind dwelt on the words of Haettenschweiller: that she would be ready to return to work tomorrow. She wouldn't be fit to even leave the flat tomorrow. Madame Moreau's greed and disregard for the health of her wards disgusted Hermione, to send girls back to bed while they were still sick. Only in that twisted world was a bed the last place a sick girl should be. No wonder Haettenschweiller was so successful, she knew girls who were down at his clinic every week, but Madame took every Knut it cost out of their meagre earnings.
Sighing, she reached over to the wicker basket containing their meagre belongings and pulled out a tattered notebook, a couple of photos falling out towards the back. She remembered this well – the guilt she had felt for weeks knowing that she had taken this from the pile on the bookshelf beside her teacher's desk without asking, back in primary school, before she knew she was a witch. It seemed disproportionately long ago, that final year of primary school. Looking forward to the big High School, growing up with her childhood friends, gossiping over boys, meeting in town on weekends, arguing with her parents… And then that letter had come from a strange place called 'Hogwarts', saying she was a witch, and her whole life had changed.
She flicked through the scruffy notebook slowly. Page after page of photos – herself with Harry and Ron, the Weasleys, holidays with her parents, the past 10 years spread out before her, up until two years ago when everything went wrong. Hermione picked up the photos that had slipped out of the back. These were different – two Muggle photos of an apparently happy couple, grinning frozen smiles and holding frozen hands. She had never stuck these in, and she wasn't about to now. She looked at each one for only a second before ripping them both into pieces.
Matilda sat up suddenly, making Hermione jump. 'Merlin, Tilly! You scared me! How are you feeling?'
'I'm so thirsty,' she replied.
'Hold on,' Hermione said, thrusting the notebook back into the wicker bin, 'I'll get you some water.' She returned soon and sat at the end of the bed while Tilly drank greedily.
'Thanks, Georgette.'
'Don't call me that,' Hermione said, almost sharply.
'Oh, sorry. Your real name's Sally, right?' asked Tilly in a daze.
'No, I gave a fake name. My real name is Hermione, Hermione Granger.' Hermione watched for some recognition, but after five years she was relieved to see that Tilly, at least, did not recognise her.
'Right. Hermione. Where am I?'
'You're in the apartment of an Auror, called Draco Malfoy. Do you remember either of us from Hogwarts?' Hermione asked gently. She couldn't remember any Matilda Caster, but she did not know many of the younger students, especially in younger years. Besides, maybe she had given a false name as well.
'I… I didn't go to Hogwarts,' Tilly said slowly. 'I'm… I'm a Squib. Madame Moreau's was the only place I could find work. I lied about my wand falling in the river.'
'Why are you telling me this now?' Hermione asked after a pause.
'Because… if you want anything out of me, you should know I can't fight back,' Tilly said defiantly, but Hermione could tell she was getting scared.
'No, Tilly, don't think anything like that, please!' Hermione gushed. 'We brought you here to protect you. Malfoy – the Auror I mentioned – he went to Madame Moreau's looking for you, because he thought you could help him with something. He found me, and together we got you out of Haettenschweiller's.'
'He was going to send me back, wasn't he? I remember his voice, saying I was alright, I wanted to argue but I was under the sedative.'
At that moment Malfoy entered. 'I thought I heard voices. Miss Caster, I hope you are feeling better?'
'Yes, thank you,' Tilly smiled. 'Although I'm still quite tired. Geor— Hermione told me about how you got me here.'
'It was no trouble,' Draco replied.
'But it will be trouble, for you,' contradicted Tilly. 'I'm almost the best earner behind Veronica and Madame's not going to let me go as easily as she'd let Hermione. Sorry,' she added. Hermione shook her head. 'But if I go back she'll ask questions about where I've been.'
'Don't worry, we'll sort it out. The Ministry will provide you with safe accommodation as long as you need it,' Draco replied efficiently. He turned to Hermione. 'Would you please excuse us?'
Hermione left the room, trying not to smile at his odd show of manners.
'Hermione, can we talk now?' Ginny asked, passing her friend a cup of tea. Hermione nodded, and they both sank onto the couch. Neither said anything for several minutes. 'Why did you leave?' Ginny's voice was quiet and serious.
Hermione dropped her head. 'I'm not ready to tell you everything yet,' she admitted. 'If you told Harry and Ron – and it's ok, I don't expect you to hide anything from them – I don't think I could bear their reaction.' She had never been as close to Ginny as to Harry and Ron, and although it would hurt to be abandoned by her, Hermione knew she would be able to accept it in time. But being rejected and becoming an object of revulsion to Harry and Ron, that would rip her apart.
'You have to tell them some time,' Ginny pointed out. 'If you had told me not to tell them I wouldn't have, but thank you for letting me. I will tell them Malfoy found you, but I respect your decision to want to tell them your reasons before you tell me.' Hermione smiled gratefully. Ginny paused before continuing. 'Were you ever hurt, in Madame Moreau's?'
'I wasn't… as popular as some of the other girls,' Hermione admitted. 'I never had to go to Haettenschweiller's; if you can still work Madame just gives you a Pepper-up Potion, takes it out of your wages and makes you get back in there.' She took a deep breath. 'But some of the men… I could hear girls crying, during the day when we were supposed to sleep. None of us could sleep, not properly. It haunted us…' She couldn't go on.
Ginny hugged Hermione to her. 'You don't have to tell me any more today,' she whispered. 'But would you like to meet Harry and Ron yet? You can come over as soon as you like.'
Hermione shook her head. 'Not yet. It's still a huge adjustment for me, living here with Malfoy of all people, and seeing you again… I need a break.' Ginny laughed. Hermione hesitated before asking, 'Malfoy has changed so much since school. Why?'
Ginny thought for a while. 'I don't know exactly why. If you ask him, he'll probably tell you more than I can. But I think it has something to do with us saving his life, in that last battle, even if Ron was a bit insensitive about it. When I started working at the Ministry I was put on a job with Draco, and when I asked Harry what had induced him to work for our side, Harry just said 'there's hope for everybody who repents'.'
'When was this?'
Ginny looked at the ceiling. 'I started in 2002, when you were living in Muggle London.' Hermione avoided her friend's eyes, but Ginny didn't notice. 'He was quite new then too. I've heard that he spent a long time travelling the world after Voldemort was defeated; he was probably 'finding himself' or something.'
Hermione sighed and rolled her head back to rest on the arm of the couch. 'This is all so much to take in. I was desperate, when he came. It was my last chance to fill my quota before—'
'Your quota?' Ginny interrupted.
'We… uhh… have to have at least three clients a week to stay otherwise Madame chucks us out. She was already warning me because for several weeks I've only had the bare minimum, while all the other girls have had at least… five…'
Ginny could scarcely conceal her shock. 'She would throw you out if you didn't sleep with three men in one week?'
'That's how it worked. She said there were plenty of other girls out there who would kill to be in my position, and I'd better stop mincing about or I'd be on the street quicker than you can say Wingardium Leviosa.' Hermione shuddered at the memory. 'I was sitting on the bed, knowing my next client would mean the difference between a proper room and a cold doorway, when Malfoy walked through the door. I didn't recognise him at first, and I made such a fool of myself…' Tears were rolling down her cheeks. Ginny was silent as she listened. 'And he rescued me, it was so exciting. Whispering, making a plan, sneaking around to get his wand back, it was an adrenaline rush. I completely forgot how he treated me at Hogwarts. He was so nice, and then he kept being nice, and even though I was thinking 'this is Malfoy, he tortured you for six years, get a grip on yourself', my heart wasn't in it. I could tell that he was sorry, that he had changed. Now after all we've been through, I'm pretty sure we're becoming friends.'
Ginny smiled widely. 'That's so wonderful, Hermione. All of us actually like him now, and I'm so grateful to him for saving you. I'm glad you can see how different he is, he makes such an effort and it's all genuine. Sometimes he flickers back, when an intern makes a mistake or something, but he's learning.'
'I should think so, it's been five years,' Malfoy grunted. The girls spun round.
'How long have you been there?' Hermione asked, shocked.
'Since 'all of us actually like him now'. Why? Were you talking about something you want to keep private?' Hermione blushed.
'It's getting really late, Harry will be getting worried,' Ginny said suddenly. 'Congratulations, both of you, today has been really successful.' She hugged Hermione tightly, whispering in her ear. 'I'm so glad you're home.'
Home. Ginny just threw the word into the air carelessly, but Hermione stiffened. She hadn't had a home for over ten months. Could Draco's apartment become a substitute?
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Next chapter: plot bunnies galore!
