Chapter Eleven.

Realizations

The Ministry of Magic bustled more than usual as Hermione Granger hurried across the atrium hand in hand with Narcissa Malfoy. Neither woman wanted to draw attention to themselves, so they kept their heads down and tried to pass as unnoticed as possible. Everyone scheduled for the Dementor's Kiss had been scheduled for their visit that day, followed immediately with their sentence and it seemed that not everyone in the magical community was happy about it either. While most of the crowd was Ministry workers, family members coming to visit and the extra Aurors brought in for heightened security, some of the crowd were people demonstrating.

"What are they doing?" Narcissa said as they dropped their heads lower and hurried past the crowd of angry people.

"They're not happy about the Death Eaters getting to say goodbye to their family members when they didn't get to say goodbye to their family members the Death Eaters killed." Hermione said. She knew that it was as good as slapping Narcissa across the face to admit this so bluntly, but she couldn't shield the woman from the crude comments getting thrown in their direction, so she didn't try to pretend that it was something that it wasn't. Hermione had always thought that at the end of the war that everyone would be ready to move on from all the hate, but it seemed that all the hate just got moved to new outlets.

"Do they realize how difficult this really is?" Narcissa whispers into Hermione's ear as she squeezes her hand tight.

"I don't think that they care." Hermione gave the demonstrators a harsh glare as they approached the lift that was supposed to take them down to the visitation wing.

The lift was magically barricaded off from the others in the atrium and had two guards on either side of it. As soon as they made it across the barrier the guards ushered them into the lift, and everything went silent as soon as the doors closed behind them. Both women took a deep breath, but for different reasons. Hermione had been dreading this day since the letter had been delivered to Jane and Draco's house two weeks ago. She wholeheartedly believed that Lucius Malfoy deserved the outcome of his trial, the list of war crimes had been so extensive that they had had to take extra time just to go over everything. It made her stomach turn to think of how many times those crimes and offenses were against his own son. She had held Draco while he cried it out, and she didn't ask him any questions because she didn't know what to ask. His whole life had been controlled and misdirected by his own family, and the people that were supposed to care for and protect him threw him to the most evil wizard in recent history. Poor Narcissa wasn't much better off, it seemed that shortly after the Dark Lord's return she realized what was happening and went on the offensive to keep her son safe, but it was really too late to save Draco at that point. Still, those actions were the only reason that she wasn't here today scheduled for a kiss herself. Hermione glanced over at the other woman and saw that she looked pale and slightly green. She reached out and took Narcissa's hand again giving it a small reassuring squeeze.

"You sure about this?" Hermione asked.

Narcissa looked over at her and nodded her head slightly. "He made horrible decisions… but it wasn't all horrible."

Hermione was the one to nod now. She knew that she didn't know Lucius like Narcissa did, but she wasn't a strong enough person to try to find the good that might be in him. Instead, the vision of the Dark Mark burned into Draco's flesh flashed in through her mind. No… Lucius wasn't going to have her pity at all.

The lift opened and Harry Potter and Kingsley Shacklebolt stepped forward to collect them. Narcissa froze slightly at the sight of the two men, but Harry gave her a kind smile and offered her his arm. She took it, but Hermione could see the tension showing in her shoulders as Harry led her down the hall towards the room that held her doomed husband. Kingsley fell into step next to Hermione and watched Narcissa walking on the arm of the boy that she lied to Voldemort for. She was wearing a beautiful green dress in a muggle fashion, he never in his life thought that he would see a Malfoy dressed in such a way, but it suited her. She looked healthier than he had seen her look in a long time, and despite the obvious fear of seeing her husband, she was holding her composure quite well. After anazlying the Malfoy woman in front of him, he turned his attention to Hermione. He could tell that she was nervous for the other woman, something that not everyone would've been able to be. Hermione had been able to hold onto her empathy during the war and he was glad to see that she cared enough about Narcissa Malfoy to show remorse for her loss, even if she wasn't going to miss Lucius herself.

"How is Draco doing?" Kingsley asked her. He watched as she closed her eyes for a second and took a deep breath before answering.

"He's handling it about as well as can be expected." Hermione said, "He didn't want to come say goodbye." She glanced up at Kingsley with a sadness in her eyes. "I'm worried that him not getting this closure is going to hurt him in the long run, but I couldn't make him come today either."

Kingsley heard the sadness in her voice and chose not to comment that she was the person over his case and she could have made him come if she had really wanted to. Hermione wasn't the kind of person to force anyone to do anything like that though, and it was one of the qualities that set her apart from other others in her department. It was also one of the reasons that he had chosen her to be over Draco and Narcissa's cases. He, of course, threw other cases in her file too, but the two Malfoy's had been manipulated and used their whole lives and they needed someone kind-hearted and empathetic to help guide them back into the world. He had to say that he was pleased with the results so far.

"You're worried about him?" Kingsley asked her.

A ghost of a smile touched her lips before she answered. If he hadn't been watching her so closely he would've missed it, but he was watching her that closely and didn't miss it.

"Of course I worry about him… I'm his caseworker." She added the last part of her sentence like an afterthought and he didn't miss the color that came into her cheeks.

Harry and Narcissa paused in front of a plain wooden door. Hermione could see other Aurors lining the long hall outside of closed doors. She knew that they were monitoring other visitors that were with their condemned family members as well. She had known that there were quite a few of them to be punished, but the number of people lining the corridor and the number of closed doors made her feel like she had swallowed a large stone. So many people condemned. So many lives forever changed.

Narcissa looked back at Hermione, and she could see the fear in the older woman's eyes. She stepped forward and took her hand. "It's going to be alright. No matter what happens in there, you have people that care about you."

Narcissa swallowed hard, "Will you wait here for me?"

Shock flashed on both of the men's faces, but Hermione's attention was only on Narcissa. "Of course. I'll be right here." She stepped forward to give Narcissa a hug before Narcissa took a deep breath, put on a mask of indifference and nodded at Harry to open the door. Without another word, she stepped through and it was closed behind her.

Jane watched Draco carefully as he watched the clock, he had been watching the clock all day, and he was unusually zoned out from conversation so she had given up trying to talk to him and resigned herself to just being there in case he needed her. The time for his father's visitation had came and went. Hermione had told her that his mother was going to say goodbye to her husband and that she would come over as soon as she had his mother back at home. Like Jane, Hermione knew the fact about Draco too, the fact that even though he had said that he didn't want to say goodbye to his father, that there was a part of him deep down that very much wanted to see his father again. Draco sighed and ran his hand through his hair again, he had done this so much throughout the day that his normally neat hair was tousled and wavy. Jane would say that the look suited him if it weren't for the tension around his mouth and eyes. He looked like he had aged a decade in span of a few hours.

"You want to go out and do something?" Jane tried to make her voice light, but it still held some of the weight that she was feeling.

"Hermione will be here soon," Draco said without looking at her.

"Yes…. But we can leave her a note to meet us." Jane said walking over to where he was leaned back on the counter. "Come on… the only time that you've been out of the house was the disaster night of clubbing and when we went shopping. Let's get out of here and do something."

"What's there to do?" He still didn't turn to look at her, but his voice held a level of curiosity that told her that she might just be able to get him out of the house for a while.

"We could go out for lunch instead of making something here." She glanced up at the clock to check the time, and confirmed that it was close enough to lunch time to go out to eat. "I know a great restaurant in town that you're going to love."

He tore his eyes off the clock and turned his grey gaze on her. She could see the pain behind the mask that he was wearing. "Maybe another day," he said, she could tell that he was trying hard to keep himself under control. "I'm really not hungry."

"Yeah, rain check." She mumbled and turned to go back into the living room.

"Jane…"

The level of pleading in his voice made her stop instantly and look back over her shoulder at him. He looked broken, just like he had right after Mr. Weasley had taken his magic from him. "I'm sorry… I…"

"It's okay, Draco." She said and meant it.

She had barely made it back into the living room when the sound of a pop came from the study. Hermione came through the door and gave her a look that told her that the day had gone about as well as they both had expected.

"You okay?" Jane asked her, and Hermione started to nod but stopped herself. She closed her eyes as if she was reliving the morning all over again and then shook her head. Jane walked closer to the other woman and gave her a reassuring hug. "I'm sorry."

"How is he?" Hermione asked.

"About as well as can be expected," Jane answered. "He's been staring at the clock most of the day and hasn't eaten a lot."

Hermione nodded and started towards the kitchen. Jane knew that they both needed some time. She had never seen a Dementor, but she had heard about them. She had also heard about all the backlash the ministry was getting for using their services, they had supported Voldemort after all. She let a shutter run through her at the thought and decided to go get lunch for everyone, since she knew that none of them were going to want to cook.

Hermione paused by the doorway and watched him. He was leaned back against the kitchen counter, staring at the clock. His short-sleeved button-up had the top few buttons undone, and his blue jeans fit him perfectly. Her eyes lingered on the Dark Mark on his left arm, and noted that he had finally stopped trying to hide it all the time. He was barefooted and his hair was a wavy mess on the top of his head. It took him a few minutes to feel her stare and look over at her. As soon as he saw her expression his expression softened. He didn't say anything as he stood and came over, wrapping her up in his arms. She allowed him to hold her as she was the one to break down this time.

"I'm so sorry." She said into his chest and he just shooshed her. She could feel him kiss the top of her head.

"There's nothing for you to be sorry about." He whispered.

"I know it's not my fault, but…" she stopped herself. She couldn't tell him the details, about how his father kept a brave face until he saw the Dementors. She couldn't tell him how he had begged and screamed for his son, or how Narcissa had fainted before the kiss was complete. She couldn't tell him the horror of what she had witnessed and how the whole time it was happening she couldn't stop from thinking that Harry was the only reason Draco wasn't set for the same fate.

"Hermione…" he pulled her away from him to look at her in the face. "I've seen a Dementor's kiss before… I know." He looked her in the eyes and Hermione had the sensation that he could see into her very being in that moment.

Her tears seemed to be renewed as he pulled her back to him and kept whispering how it was alright, how it was over, and how his father had deserved it, into the top of her hair. She couldn't stop herself from thinking that deserved or not, the act itself was something that Voldemort would have done, and it didn't set well with her to think that the new order was making the same mistakes over again. There had to be a better way.