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Chapter 5: Day Five Tuesday

Day Five

Early Tuesday Morning:

Draco was already at his desk when Hermione arrived to work on her second morning. She popped her head in to say 'hello', but saw that he was with the Minister of Magic, as well as Scott Cohn. She paused at the open door when she saw them, and waited outside for a moment. She heard Percy Weasley say, "I really do wish you would change your mind, Draco, but if that's how you feel, then I will respect your wishes. I hope you know what you're doing."

Not wanting to eavesdrop any longer, Hermione walked in and said, "Hello Percy, how are you?"

Percy got up from his chair and embraced Hermione. "Hermione, I'm so glad to see you. You know my mother still misses you at Sunday dinners. Should I tell her you'll be there this Sunday?"

"I don't know Minister, perhaps. I'll let you know."

Percy told them all goodbye and left the office. Draco looked at Hermione and asked, "How's the hand?"

"Still throbbing, actually," she said truthfully.

"What did you do to your hand?" Scott asked. Hermione told him she cut it on a knife, and he asked to see the cut. He told her to stay there and he would return with some ointment to put on it.

"What did Percy want?" Hermione asked timidly.

"Nothing." Draco responded curtly.

Scott came in and unwrapped Hermione's hand, and then applied the ointment on the cut. He then conjured some new bandages and re-wrapped her hand. He told her when she was ready to work, to come to the lab and find him. She thanked him and then turned to Draco, who had a somewhat angry expression on his face.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked.

"Scott was being a bit forward, don't you think. You could have applied the paste yourself. And why did he think he had to be the one to wrap your wound?" Draco complained.

"Oh for goodness sakes, Malfoy, are you jealous or something? The man is married after all," Hermione rolled her eyes as she said this.

"Yes, and we all know married men never cheat on their wives," Draco said sarcastically.

"Listen, if you don't trust Scott, at least trust me. I only have eyes for you," she joked.

Draco stood from his chair and shut the door to his office. He seemed in a very serious mood this morning. He walked over to Hermione and held her hands. "I trust you Hermione, but I know Cohn can be a real cad sometimes. He lets on like he's a nice person, but he has cheated on his wife before, and he's very self-serving. Just be careful," he said as he kissed her fingertips.

She turned to go, and Draco added, "Oh and I only have eyes for you, too." She smiled, and he stated, "See you at lunch. I have someplace to take you." She nodded her head and left his office.

She walked to the lab and she and Scott got straight to work. They spent most of the morning trying different ingredients, but none of them helped the potion on which they were currently working. Hermione suddenly got an idea. "You know Scott, I happen to remember that there's a certain plant that grows in the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts, called Aspergilla, and if I remember correctly, if infused with Wormwood, it can elevate the effects of many potions. Perhaps we could try to add it to the new Veritaserum potion, and see if it makes the Veritaserum antidote ineffective. Maybe we should make a day trip there tomorrow and collect some, and just try it out."

"That's a great idea, Hermione," Scott began, "but I have to take tomorrow off, my wife has a very important appointment, and she wants me to go with her." Hermione thought that was very sweet of him, that he would go with his wife to an appointment. She was beginning to wonder if Draco lied about him cheating on her, when he added, "Maybe we could go tomorrow evening though, and spend the night, and get up early the next morning to search for the Aspergilla."

"Maybe I could just go tomorrow by myself. Or, I could take one of my assistants," Hermione told him. She didn't think it was necessary to 'spend the night' anywhere with him.

At lunch, Hermione went to find Draco. Scott agreed that Hermione should just go by herself, even though she was pretty sure when she told Draco about it, he would want to go with her. At least, that is what she hoped would happen.

On the way to her own office to collect her bag, she was surprised to find Draco sitting at her desk. He said, "About time, it's 15 minutes past noon."

"Sorry, didn't know we had a set time," she joked. She grabbed her bag, and walked down the hallway with Draco to the lifts. Once they got on the lifts, Hermione turned to Draco and said, "I'm going to Hogwarts tomorrow to look for a plant that grows in the Forbidden Forest. I already got approval from the Head Mistress."

"Is Cohn going?" Draco looked at her as he asked.

"Well, he said he couldn't go during the day, so he suggested that we go in the evening, and stay the night and then look for the plant on Thursday morning," Hermione told him. She waited to see what he would say, but he just had a very set look on his face. He continued to look at the lift doors until they finally opened.

He finally spoke, "So, you're leaving tomorrow evening and coming back Thursday afternoon then?" He was walking toward the floo network, still not even glancing at Hermione.

"No, I told him that I would just go tomorrow morning, by...my...self," she said with emphasis on the last three words. He turned to her and smiled.

"You can't go to the Forbidden Forest by yourself; I'll go with you," and he took her hand to wait their turn to leave. Hermione smiled this time. She had hoped he would want to go.

"We'll meet here tomorrow morning and floo right to Hogsmeade. We can worry about how to get to Hogwarts from there," she responded, "by the way, where are we going?"

Malfoy turned to her, took her arm, put in some floo power and said, "Malfoy Manor" and they were gone.

They arrived at the manor, and house truly looked abandoned. All the furniture in the Foyer was covered with white cloths. Two old house elves met them at the fireplace, and asked Draco if he would be staying, and did they need anything. He told them no, and then asked Hermione if she would like a tour. What a stupid question. She always wondered what the rest of Malfoy Manor looked like.

The tour of the house took over an hour. Hermione lost count at 42 rooms. She was in awe of the library. It was almost as large as the library at Hogwarts. She said, "It's a shame this place is going to waste. These books could really do some people some good. This whole house would make a wonderful school actually."

"You want to turn my ancestral home into a school?" he said dumbfounded. "Do you ever think of anything but books and learning?"

She merely gave him a dirty look and they continued their walk. When they arrived at the steps, which led down to the dungeon, Draco said, "I don't want you to go any farther, okay? I need to go down to our family vaults and get a few things. Just wait here, or go back to the library, but do not wander off. There are many secret passageways and strange things that go on in this house, and I don't want to spend the next ten years looking for you." He proceeded down the stairs, and she sat on the top step for only a few moments, when she decided she would go back to the library, if she could find it again.

Draco was gone for a very long time. It was after three o'clock when he returned. He walked into the library and asked, "Are you ready to get back?"

"For goodness sakes Draco, we've been gone three hours! What will people at work think?" she pleaded.

"They'll think that we went home for lunch, had a good long shag, and then came stumbling back into work three hours later," he told her, with no hint of humour on his face.

"Yes, I know that's what they'll think, and I don't want them to think that!" She walked on to the great foyer by herself, and stood by the fireplace to wait for Malfoy.

When he finally came up to her, he said, in complete seriousness, "You know, sometimes you're no fun at all. You're so uptight and wound-up. Would it kill you to just let go and have fun once in a while, Granger?"

"What does my being afraid of office gossip have to do with letting go and having fun, Malfoy?" she argued.

"Never mind, your little uptight brain can't process the idea of 'letting go' anyway," he retorted. He grabbed her arm, threw the floo powder in, and took them back to the Ministry.

This time he walked ahead of her all the way back to the office. Why was he upset with her? She didn't make them late coming back from lunch. She went directly to her office, and decided to look up as much information about Aspergilla as she could. Before she knew it, it was 5:30 pm. Most of the staff had already left, including Malfoy. He didn't even tell her goodbye. This would be the first day all week that they didn't spend the evening together. She went home, and decided to floo Harry and Ginny to see if they wanted to go out to dinner tonight. They weren't home, and neither were Ron and Lavender. Finally, at about seven pm, she got a bath, put on a t-shirt and shorts, and made herself some tea and toast for dinner.

"Looks like it's just you and me tonight, Crookshanks," she said as she sat at her kitchen table, with a book opened, ready to be read. She kept expecting Malfoy to knock at her door, or to floo, or something. For goodness sakes, what made him so angry today? Was he seriously angry because he thought her incapable of having fun? Was that any reason to be angry?

She decided to ask him that directly. She was going to go to his apartment and just ask him outright what his problem was. She changed to some jeans and a button-up shirt, and apparated to his building. She knew he had wards up, so she couldn't just enter, so she knocked on his door. Before long, Hermione heard a woman's voice say, "I'll get it, Draco." Before Hermione could make sense of this, the same woman opened the door. "Hello," she said to Hermione.

At first Hermione thought, 'maybe this is the wrong apartment', but he lived in the penthouse, which meant he had the entire top floor. She must have looked confused, because the woman spoke again, and said, "May I help you with something?"

"Is Draco here?" Hermione finally asked.

"He's taking a shower, but I suppose you could come on in," she said as she opened the door for Hermione, but Hermione was having serious second thoughts about entering.

"That's alright," Hermione finally spoke, "I work with Malfoy, and we have a business trip to take tomorrow, and I was just going to go over a few things with him, but I'll just see him tomorrow at work before we leave." Hermione turned to go.

The woman said, "No, come on in. We were just getting ready to eat, but you can join us if you'd like. I'm sure Draco wouldn't mind, especially if you're coworkers." The woman still held the door open, and at that moment, Draco came walking out of his room and down the hall toward the woman, in nothing but a towel. He did not yet see Hermione in the doorway.

"Who is it, sweetheart?" Draco asked the woman.

"Someone who works with you. She didn't give me her name," the woman answered. Draco came closer to the door, and opened it further to peer out in the hall and all he saw was the backside of Hermione, as she was running down the hall toward the lift.

She pushed the button and looked back. She looked directly into Malfoy's eyes. It took him a second to realize it was she, and he called out, "Granger!" just as the lift doors opened and Hermione ran in. She felt like such a fool. Since she could not let loose and have fun, he decided to find someone who could. Or else, maybe he was seeing this woman before he even started seeing her. After all, Hermione and Draco had only been seeing each other less than a week. There was no commitment. No obligation. Right? By the time the lift reached the bottom, Hermione was crying. She ran out of the lift toward the foyer of his building, when she saw Draco standing at the front doors. She could have just apparated directly back to her flat, but she had to take the lifts, and now she had to deal with him! Great!

She looked at him and didn't know what to do. He was still in his towel. He started toward her, when she decided to get back on the lift. She tried to push to button to close the door, when she saw his hand reach out and push the doors back open.

"What the Hell!" he yelled, "What do you think you're doing? Stop running away from me and tell me what the hell is going on?" He stood so close to her that water from his still wet hair splashed on her face.

"Leave me alone, Malfoy," she yelled back. She tried to push the lobby button on the elevator, but instead, Draco reached the buttons first and pushed the "Stop" button.

"What are you doing, woman?" he asked her again, while tightening his towel around his waist.

"Well apparently I'm interrupting your date. Why don't you just go back upstairs to your companion, and have your dinner. Let loose and have some fun! I'll see you tomorrow." She turned from him, and tried to wipe the tears out of her eyes.

"You're stupid," was all he said.

She turned back toward him, looked at him with shock in her eyes, and said, "EXCUSE ME?"

"I said, you...are...stupid," he exclaimed again.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked.

"Well, generally, it means someone is not very smart. However, if you want the dictionary definition of the word, I'll look it up for you later," he said as he leaned against the wall of the lift.

She walked up to him and with each word spoken; she pointed her finger directly at this chest and said, "Don't Ever Call Me Stupid Again."

"I just call them like I see them, Granger," he said arrogantly.

That made her so angry that she screamed and then she did what she did best. Yep, Hermione Granger slapped Draco Malfoy right across his freshly, showered face.

He quickly grabbed her wrist, and pulled it behind her back, in doing so he also pulled her up against his chest. She tried to hit him with her free hand and he grabbed it also and put in behind her back. Holding both of her hands in one of his, he took his free hand, grabbed her chin very roughly, and told her very deliberately, "If you ever strike me again, Miss Granger, I believe it will be the last time. I don't believe in hitting women, but with you, my dear, I will make the exception." He had her in such a tight hold, that every time she tried to squirm out of his arms, he would just tighten his hold more.

Finally, she screamed, "LET ME GO! You're hurting me, Malfoy!"

He didn't want to hurt her, so he let her go so suddenly that she lost her footing and fell to the floor. He honestly didn't mean for that to happen and he looked quite shocked. He reached down to help her up, but she slapped his hand away. She stood on her own and reached for the "Stop" button to release it, but he got there first and stood in front of the panel of buttons.

"You aren't going anywhere, Granger, until you tell me why you're so upset. What happened up there to make you so angry?" he said slowly, with no more malice in his voice.

"Let's start at the beginning, you prat!" She started to pace around the elevator as she talked, almost like a caged animal, and Malfoy was more than a little afraid.
"First, you get all jealous today because you think I can't be trusted around Scott. Then you take me to Malfoy Manor, leave me for hours by myself, and make me late getting back to work. Then you make light of my feelings about what people will think, and then you more or less tell me that I'm a tired old stick in the mud, who wouldn't know fun if it came up a bit me on the arse. THEN, you leave work without even telling me goodbye. I can only assume you're angry with me, so I come over! I COME OVER! To apologize. APOLOGIZE!" she continued in a rage, "and I find that you have a beautiful woman over for dinner, and I see you walking out of the shower almost naked, and THAT IS WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON, MALFOY!"

He seemed genuinely confused. "What?" he asked.

"Then you have the gall to call me STUPID!" she added. She turned away from him, but she could hear him laughing. He was actually laughing at her. She turned back toward him with complete fury in her eyes, and inquired, "Why are you laughing, you idiot?"

"You really are stupid, Granger," he said between laughs.

Hermione could not take it any longer. She pulled out her wand and put it under his chin. This he took quite serious, and stopped laughing immediately. "What are you going to do with your wand, Granger? Are you going to hex me? For what? For laughing at you? Calling you stupid? Or for being jealous that I was with another woman?" he asked slowly.

Hermione walked closer to Malfoy, and pushed her wand firmly into the middle of his chest and said, "I've hexed plenty of Death Eaters in my day, Malfoy, so don't tempt me."

He grabbed the wrist holding the wand, and said, "Well, do it, Mudblood".

Still Tuesday Night:

Hermione only saw red. She was that angry. Therefore, she did hex him. Before she even comprehended what she was doing, red sparks came out of her wand and she hexed him, with a silent spell. He collapsed, unconscious, before her. She was in shock. She couldn't believe she did it. She bent over his unconscious form, and shook him. He was out like a light. He was also now completely naked as his towel fell away. She transfigured the towel into slacks and said a spell to dress him. Then she released the "Stop" button. Hermione knew she was in a lot of trouble. She would probably go to jail for this, but more important, any kind of love that Malfoy had previously had for her was surely gone now. The lift doors opened, and she ran over to his body, performed the Rennervate spell to reverse the Stupefy, and before she even looked down to make sure he was alright, she jumped over his body and ran out into the night, not even sure where she was going to go.

She knew she would have to turn herself in. Malfoy would certainly press charges for this. She cringed when she thought of what she did. When the authorities ask her why she did it, what was she going to say? He called me stupid, oh yeah, and added a Mudblood in there as well. Hermione couldn't stand the thought of going to the Ministry to report her crime, so she decided to go to Harry's flat and surrender to him. She apparated in front of Harry's door and rang the bell. He opened his door, and she fell into his arms crying. "What's wrong?" he asked her.

"I did something so terrible. I hexed Malfoy. I left him on the floor in the middle of the lift at his apartment building. You need to go send someone there to check on him, and then arrest me. I'm turning myself in," she cried.

"What do you mean?" he asked, as he forced her to sit.

"I don't have time to explain it all to you, Harry. Please, please just go get someone over to his place to check that he's alright, and then I'll tell you everything," she sobbed.

He decided just to go himself. He told her to stay there, and to wake up Ginny and tell her he would be back shortly. Harry left and Hermione felt so awful and alone. How could she do something like that? Now she would lose her job, and be prosecuted, just like what almost happened last Friday. Hermione was so distraught that she got up and left Harry's flat. She started walking the streets of Muggle London, crying, and trying to figure out what she was going to do now.

When Harry got to Malfoy's apartment building, he was no longer in the lift. He went up to Draco's flat and banged on the door. Malfoy answered, and said, "What the hell do you want, Potter?" Draco was holding a towel up to the back of his head, where blood was freely flowing. He was now quite alone.

"Hermione told me to find you. She said she was turning herself in, and that I was to arrest her, because she hexed you. What happened, Malfoy?" Harry sat down opposite Draco on the couch and looked at him, pleading.

"Nothing happened. She's delusional. I was not hexed. I fell and hit my head in the shower. Go tell her no one is getting arrested tonight, and to go home and get some sleep and I'll see her tomorrow morning before we leave for Hogwarts." Draco stood up and opened his door for 'the Boy Wonder' to leave.

"Draco, she didn't seem delusional. If she said she hexed you, then I believe her, and if that was what happened, then as an Auror I have to take this seriously. She could be in big trouble. What happened tonight to make her hex you?" Harry asked while standing.

"Nothing happened, Potter! Listen, it was just a big misunderstanding. She saw someone here with me and misunderstood things, and took some things I said the wrong way. It's as much my fault as hers. I'll not have you arresting her, because I refuse to bring her up on charges. Let me go get dressed and I'll go talk to her myself, alright?" Draco finished. He headed toward his bedroom and in a matter of minutes he was dressed and standing beside Harry.

"Do you want to see about that head injury first?" Harry asked.

"No, I deserved it. I called her a Mudblood," Draco responded flatly.

Harry turned toward Draco so fast that Draco was scared for the second time that evening. Harry said, "I told you last Friday at dinner that if you ever, and I meant it, Malfoy, if you ever did anything to hurt Hermione, that I would kill you. That was not an empty threat. I will not go to prison for it, because there won't be any evidence. Did you not take me serious when I told you that?" Harry spoke very firmly, all the while twirling his wand between his fingers, and then pointing it at Draco's chest.

"Listen, Potter, she gave as good as she got tonight, okay? I didn't mean to call her that, but she called me a Death Eater first, so to get back at her I called her that name. I'm sorry about it, but I cannot undo it. Now take me to her so I can explain all of this mess to her myself." Draco pushed Harry's hand, with wand, out of his way and walked out the door. Harry had no choice but to follow.

When Draco and Harry arrived at Harry's apartment, all they found was Ginny, standing in the middle of their living room, demanding that they tell her why she just saw Hermione run out of their front door crying.

"Oh my god, Potter, she could be anywhere. She's afraid, and she thinks she's going to be arrested," Draco spat.

"Why would she be arrested?" Ginny demanded.

"She hexed Malfoy tonight, and she came to me to turn herself in, and I told her to stay put, but she must have gotten scared and ran away," Harry explained.

"What did you do, you stupid ferret?" Ginny gasped as she actually grabbed Malfoy's collar.

"Make your little wife unhand me, Potter!" Draco exclaimed. "I'm going to go look for her. Come if you want, Potter, but I'm leaving now." Draco stormed out of the Potter's flat, with Ginny and Harry close behind.

They spent hours searching for her. They went to the Ministry, and then went to her flat; they went back to the graveyard where Malfoy found her at last Friday. They went everywhere they could think. It was close to dawn and they were running out of options. Harry told Draco to go home, get a few hours of sleep, and then he would meet him at the Ministry later. Harry was going to have some of the other Aurors look for her as well. They all decided to keep the reason for her disappearance to themselves, and just to tell everyone she had not returned home after visiting at Harry's flat that evening.

End of Day Five