Chapter Thirteen
Growth
Draco changed quickly, not sure where exactly they were going or what "muggle stuff" would entail, so he tried to remember what she was wearing and match it the best he could. He closed his eyes and seemed to remember a light green dress and a black coat, so he went to the wardrobe and started looking. He pulled on black slacks and a light green button up shirt, it matched well enough, but it was times like this that he missed having his wand. He could have transfigured the outfit that he knew she had seen him wear before into something newer, but that wasn't an option now. So he made sure to roll up the sleeves of his shirt because he knew that she liked when he did that, and pulled on his socks and black dress shoes. He stopped by that bathroom long enough to brush his teeth and make sure that his hair was in place. The routine of dressing seemed simple enough, but it was something that he had allowed himself to get out of the habit of. Being stuck in the house most of the time he had gotten used to muggle pajamas, stretchy shorts or pants, and t-shirts, clothing that he wouldn't have ever thought that he would be comfortable in before coming here.
His whole life had changed though, he'd been spending all of his time here at the house, and even though it would have been confining and irritating for most people, he had found that he liked the solitude of it. Even with Jane there all the time and Hermione visiting more and more often, it was relaxing to just live in the small bubble of the house, and not having to worry about the outside world. He knew that calm safety of it wouldn't last forever. As soon as his sentence was complete, he would be back in the world, and he would have to make his way in it even with all the stigma against him because of his family's former mistakes.
He tried to redirect his thoughts to better things, as he looked at himself in the mirror. He looked the same as he always had, but somehow he felt completely different. Not a bad different, but more than he had ever been before. He smirked as he shut the light off and headed back downstairs. He found Hermione pacing in the living room, if he didn't know better he would say that she looked almost nervous. He smiled at her as he found he had remembered her outfit well and was happy that in his idle state of living he hadn't lost his eye for details.
"So…. Muggle stuff." He said confidently as she stopped her pacing to watch him descend the last few steps. He felt himself standing slightly straighter as she slowly swept her gaze over him from his shoes up to his face, her eyes stopping to lock on his.
"Muggle stuff." She gave him a smile but didn't break their eye contact. He smirked back at her, knowing that she liked what she saw. She closed her eyes and seemed to regain her composure slightly. "I called us a cab… it's waiting." She pointed at the door and glanced back over at him.
"Well then, after you." He held his arm up as if to usher her forward, following her out to the cab waiting on the curb.
He watched as Hermione leaned forward to give the driver directions, he took a moment to appreciate just how beautiful that she really was. She always had been beautiful, even when she was awkward with bucked teeth she had been pretty, but when they were in school he'd never allowed himself to really dwell on the fact that she was growing into the strong, beautiful woman that she was. She was gorgeous now, and she was too good for someone like him. He liked to think that his muggle life was changing that fact and when this was over and done with he would be free to go forward in life without any complications. He wanted to think that, but he knew that wouldn't happen that way though. The choices of his family would stain their name and their reputations for generations to come, and she deserved better than that. She deserved someone who was on the same side as her in the war, someone that fought just as hard as she had to make the world a better place. Not the man that watched his Aunt torture her in his own house. He knew this, and she had to know it too, but that didn't stop her from sitting back in the seat next to him and smiling as she reached out to take his hand, their fingers entwining together.
"What do you want to do first?" she asked, he could tell that she was looking forward to their outing, even if he could still sense some of her nervousness. "Eat or shop?"
"Shop?" he raised an eyebrow at her as she glanced up into his eyes.
"Yes, shop… You haven't been shopping since your first week here, and it's getting cold." She looked at his rolled up shirt sleeves and he felt her a finger on her free hand trace the skin right under the dark mark. He resisted the urge to shudder under the touch.
"I don't have any money." He kept his voice down, not wanting the driver to think that they didn't have the funds to pay for the ride.
She watched his expression closely. There was something else in his eyes that almost looked like embarrassment, but Draco Malfoy didn't get embarrassed. He was the face of cool and collective, but… for someone that had always had, not only, everything he had ever wanted, but also the best of what money had to offer. She could see where not having the funds to get his own winter wardrobe would be unnerving for him.
"Don't worry about it," she said, squeezing his hand slightly. They both fell into silence, both watched out the windows without really seeing anything and both remained lost in their own thoughts the rest of the ride. Hermione knew that her feelings for the man sitting next to her had been changing over the last month or so, but she also knew that when his rehabilitation was completed he would be back in the magical world, and things wouldn't be like this anymore. As soon as he was back in the magical world he would be dealing with the prejudices of those that wanted him to rot in Azkaban for his father's crimes, and that few would approve or accept a relationship between the two of them. She glanced over at him to see a scowl on his face as if he was thinking the same thoughts that she was. She traced her fingers over his knuckles and he looked over at her, his steel eyes softening instantly.
"I'm all right." He answered the question in her eyes. "Not used to having someone else buy everything that I own, that's all." He had tried to keep the displeasure of the situation from his voice, and failed miserably. She didn't flinch from his honesty though.
She gave him a slight nod. "You should see about doing something for yourself, now that Jane is working…. Maybe you could get a job too."
"I could do that?" The thought honestly hadn't even crossed his mind.
"I could teach you everything that you need to know about Muggle money and such, you could get a job in a shop. Something that wouldn't be too missed when you could come back into the Magical world, but enough to give you money for yourself now."
He looked back out the window and thought about her proposal, working a muggle job didn't sound as bad as it might have before, but at the same time, something about it didn't set with him. He would have a year and a half to invest his time into something, just to walk away from it at the end of his sentence. Even though it sounded like a good idea, he just didn't want to throw his time away like that.
The cab came to a stop on the curb and he helped her out of the backseat. "You didn't answer my question." She said as she looped her arm in his. "Lunch or shopping?"
"Definitely lunch." He said, giving her a smile. "I've been shopping with you before. If we don't eat first, we won't eat at all."
"I do not know of what you speak of." She said in a mocking tone and laughed at him as she pulled him down the street toward the restaurant on the corner. "Come on, you're going to love this place."
It wasn't long into lunch that Draco figured out that Jane had been holding out on him. She had introduced him to Italian food, some American dishes… but Chinese food…. Wow, just wow. He was pretty sure that he needed more Chinese food in his life but even better than the food was the company. Hermione was amazing, and they fell into easy conversation about anything and everything. Her work, his family, his mother's progress, and she even told him a few details of some of his friends that had gotten rehabilitation too but weren't on her caseload. Blaise Zabini, Vincent Crabbe, Theo Nott and even his old one time girlfriend Pansy Parkinson. Draco was surprised to know even though they hadn't seen one another, the host families were all fairly close to one another, and where his mother, Theo, Vince and he were in homes with only one other person, Blaise and Pansy were with married couples that had children.
Hermione had never liked Pansy, but you would never guess that now as she told the story of Pansy and the potty training 2-year-old boy in her host's house. Apparently, Pansy had taken to babysitting the boy while his parents worked, and she was a natural when it came to small children. Draco couldn't imagine her working with any age children, but hearing Hermione's stories about it made it seem like it was something that Pansy was really happy with.
"She's going to University for Elementary Education," Hermione concluded as she took another bite of her noodles.
"University?"
"School." She said and smiled at me. "It would be like after finishing Hogwarts we went on to further our education, but it would specialize in whatever field we were wanting to work in. Except this is Muggle school so it specializes in the different fields that Muggles would need."
"And Pansy is thinking about going into Muggle education?" Draco asked, truly intrigued by the thought.
"Not entirely. I know that she wants to finish the Muggle education, even after her sentence is over, but she's also voiced morphing the two worlds together. Using the education to tutor and teach the younger children of wizarding families before they are old enough to go to Hogwarts." The expression on her face told Draco that she loved this idea very much. "I think that it's brilliant." She added as she took a sip of her drink.
"It's intriguing for sure." He said, filing the information back into his mind as she went to pay the bill. He hadn't thought about Muggle education before, he always knew that they had some form of an educational system, but it had never included him, but Pansy might be onto something though. With a muggle education in process at the end of her rehabilitation, it would make it harder for anyone to say that she hadn't lost her family's prejudice, and the fact that it could be used for her own benefit in their world was an added bonus.
"All right! Shopping!" Hermione said as came back to where he was waiting. She pulled his arm gently and then put her hand in his, they laced their fingers together as if it was nothing new to either of them and went out back into the street.
They went to almost every store in town, and she made him try on almost everything that she could get her hands on. Hermione felt a moments elation when she talked him into getting the navy blue coat versus the black one that he kept leaning towards. She thought that the color looked amazing on him. He seemed to be having a good time but she could tell that her buying everything was bothering him more than he let on. She could see it in the way that he watched the transactions being rung up, and the constant stream of questions about Muggle money, credit cards, and hourly wages. He was surprised that the Muggle form of taxes was almost identical to the taxes in the wizarding world. There was quite a bit that he was surprised at about the day, and by the time that they were ready to head back to the house, it was getting dark outside. Some of the stores were already closing up and they both were hungry again.
"Let's get takeout," Hermione suggested as she leaned into his arm and laid his head on his shoulder. He wasn't used to such affection, but he couldn't deny that it felt good.
"Sounds good to me. It'll keep Jane from having to help cook too."
"I hope her day got better," Hermione said as they walked towards the Italian restaurant that is near the middle of the street. They both knew that Jane really liked the Alfredo from there, and they both knew that she would need something familiar by the time that she got home.
"I'm sure it did," Draco said, thinking about all the things in the magical world that he had taken for granted. He had been raised around it, and it was just the way things were. He hadn't really thought about what it would have looked like for someone who had never seen magic before. "She'll get used to it though, she's a smart girl."
They ordered too much food for the three of them but didn't even care as they piled themselves and all their packages into a cab. The ride home was nice, Draco watched the street lights pass as he put his arm around Hermione's shoulders, pulling her closer to his side. She laid her head on his shoulder and he laid his head over on top of hers. He would've never thought that he could be so relaxed with the witch, but here they were. He had been with witches before, but never in this sense. Not holding hands, subtle touches, and kind words. Hermione was different in all regards. She was one of the only two people in the world that treat him like was a person and not an evil object. He didn't even want to know what the rest of the wizarding world thought about him, but with her… with her he was just Draco. He wasn't a Death Eater, or a stuck up Malfoy, he wasn't Pure-Blooded or superior to anyone. He was just himself, happy, content, and… something else. He couldn't really place the other emotion that had flooded him throughout the day, but it was there none the less. It was there when she would take his hand, or when she would trace his knuckles with her soft fingertips. It was present when she would laugh at something he said, or when their eyes would meet. That unnamed emotion was new, and he liked it.
Jane Sharpe was having the most terrifyingly amazing and overwhelming days of her life. She had heard through the grapevine that Hermione Granger had left her office shortly before lunch, and then she had the pleasure of hearing the rumor mill that was the Ministry of Magic. The speculations of Hermione and her hidden lover were everywhere. She learned that everyone had thought that Ron Weasley and she would be married by now, and when that didn't happen, Ron had moved away with Lavender Brown. The scandal of the whole situation, which had happened months before, was appalling to Jane. Apparently, when you had the magic to do anything that you wanted with the flick of a wand, it gave one all the extra time in the world to talk about everyone else.
Not that she was being fair, muggles liked to gossip too. It was just that Jane wasn't accustomed to the ones getting gossiped about being her friends, and her life wasn't usually the one under the microscope. Everyone already knew who she was, and they knew that the dreaded Draco Malfoy lived with her. That in itself was enough to get plenty of looks of either pity or disgust; She wasn't sure which was worse, thinking that he actually came from this world and that this was the opinion of him that most shared, or to think that people thought that she would feel the same way they do about him just because they said some horrible things about him.
She liked to think that she knew him better than that. She had read the files, she knew what he was in the past, but that wasn't the person that cohabited with her now. He was kind, thoughtful, and almost timid. The world seemed new to him in a way that was almost innocent, and she liked that part of him. He wasn't evil, or hateful… and she wanted nothing more than to tell all these people to go to hell for the things that they were saying about him.
"Ignore them." Minister Shacklebolt said from beside her. He had told her to call him Kingsley, but the informality of it felt all wrong, he was the one in charge for Christ's sake. She had a hard time thinking of him by his first name only.
"Do I have another option?" she said, the bitterness coming out in her tone.
"They don't understand," he said, giving her a sideways look. "They all have had some bad things happen in their lives, everyone has. Some are worse than others, but I can tell you, there isn't anyone here that the war didn't touch… That Voldemort didn't touch"
"And in extension, Draco didn't touch." She said sarcastically.
"I know that he didn't cause this, but he's a well-known member of society here. He is a recognizable face, who unfortunately favors the father that did cause a lot of this."
"You're saying that he has to live with the fact that he's the scapegoat for everyone else's sorrows just because he looks like his father?" She let out an exasperated sigh. Poor Draco.
"I think that it will get better with time," Shacklebolt said matter of factly. She guessed he wouldn't have the same kind of thoughts on the situation though, seeing how he wasn't the one in Draco's shoes.
"It's getting late… You should go home, get some rest, and we will see you back here in the morning." He said as they stopped in front of the visitor's entrance. He knew that they would have to make another entrance for the Muggle employee's, but for the time being this one was what they had. He watched her as she stood in front of him with her arms crossed and her foot tapping the floor in aggravation.
He allowed himself a small amount of amusement imagining what everyone else would think about Draco and her's friendship, their real friendship, not the make-believe one that everyone seemed to think that they had. She was the Muggle that was ready to take on every Magical person in this building to defend the man that she had grown to know. He also wondered what everyone else would think if they knew what he did about Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy. Hermione had left earlier in the day, and he had a feeling that he knew exactly where she had gone after she apparated out of her office in a hurry.
"Things have a way of working out in the end." He said and smiled at her kindly.
"You sent him to me because you thought that I could fix this." She gestured towards the massive atrium around them, "I don't have magic, how am I supposed to help? What do I have to do?"
The determination on her face touched him, he knew that he had made the right decision by pairing Draco with her, but even he couldn't have imagined how well that decision would pan out. She was strong enough to hold her own against the boy, but she was still soft enough to see through his insecurities to the good man underneath.
"You know, a wise man once said, "It is our choices that show us what we truly are far more than our abilities". You don't have magic, but you have something else that a lot of the people here don't have. You have hope."
"Isn't everything here supposed to be built on hope. It's right after a war, and everyone's still envisioning the perfect future and all?" She looked around the immaculate atrium again, there were only a few witches and wizards still roaming around. A few of them were huddled around a parchment that one was suspending in the air in front of them, she could tell by their expressions that its content was important to them, probably work related. Other's were talking and laughing, she liked to think that they were making plans to go out to eat together, or maybe their families were friends and they were going to all get together this weekend to hang out. She smiled slightly at them, they were normal people, but she already knew that they were still scared people.
"The funny thing about people envisioning the future is they like to imagine all the unpleasant parts going away without them having to do anything. The people that are in rehabilitation aren't going away just because the majority doesn't want to be uncomfortable enough to deal with them. They're all going to have to learn to forgive and start new. Letting go of their own prejudices, or risk becoming exactly what they hated to begin with." He looked down at her and he could see her expression soften as understanding washed over her.
"The new department…"
"Is needed for more than one reason." Kingsley nodded. He could see her putting all the pieces together in her mind.
"I don't need magic for that." The determination in her voice reminded him so much of the other youth that had fought this war and won. The Golden Trio had fought Voldemort and won the new beginning, and now it was people like Jane that would help mold it into the future that was needed.