Hermione awoke in the early afternoon; this being her day off, she'd decided to make the most of it by catching up on her sleep. She grabbed the morning post and a snack, heading into the living room and settling down on her overstuffed couch. Sifting through all of her mail, she was thinking about what a waste of parchment all of the stupid junk mail was when she finally came upon something of interest; a letter from Albus Dumbledore…
Hermione-
Please meet a friend and I at the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix at 9 P.M tomorrow evening. I ask that you do not miss it, as it is of great importance.
Sincerely,
Albus Dumbledore
Hermione chewed thoughtfully on her bagel, wondering whom Dumbledore's friend was and what she would be assigned to do.
Voldemort hadn't been very active in the last few weeks, and she knew that a lot of the Order was becoming suspicious. Her old professor at Hogwarts, Severus Snape had been spying for the Order, posing as a Death Eater until his death around two years ago. Voldemort had discovered his treachery and had finished him off, reminding them all of the dangers and risks that they were taking every single day.
*
Surprising no one, after Cornelius Fudge (the previous Minister of Magic) had resigned, the young and ambitious Percy Weasley, had become the youngest Minister of Magic ever. At twenty-five, he was doing his job quite well, according to the Daily Prophet and most citizens of the wizarding community. Percy was seeking help from Dumbledore at least every other day, if not more.
Albus Dumbledore, of course, was still the Headmaster of Hogwarts, and the unofficial leader of the light side.
The Ministry was sending out all of their Aurors to search for loose Death Eaters and other dangerous Voldemort supporters.
*
The next day, after another tedious day at the Ministry, Hermione hurried home a couple of hours before her meeting with Dumbledore, feeling anxious and excited; she hadn't done anything even moderately exciting for the Order in a while.
As she was eating her supper, she heard a little 'pop!' behind her, spinning around, she found Harry's head in her fireplace, the emerald flames dancing around his dark head. Hermione let out a slow breath of relief, her heart rate slowing to its normal pace once again.
"Hey, 'Mione, what's up?" He grinned. "Didn't scare you, did I?"
Hermione laughed, "No, I'm just a little tense, that's all."
"Why, what's wrong?" He asked quickly.
"Oh, no! Nothing, I'm just a bit excited," she answered.
He then proceeded to enthusiastically explain to her every little piece of action from the quidditch game he had attended the night before until Hermione realized (much to her chagrin, I'm sure) that it was time that she'd better be going if she wanted to make it to the meeting on time.
Hermione apparated in her customary spot; just a little away from Number 12, Grimmauld Place, in a small patch of bushes. She smoothed out her skirt as she let herself into the dark house.
"We're in here!" A voice called out to her.
She headed into the kitchen, where the sound had come from. As she entered the room, she saw Dumbledore sitting calmly at the table, and… sitting next to him was Draco Malfoy.
Her eyes widened and she stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of the familiar face that had haunted her dreams and too many of her waking thoughts for the past five years.
Draco's reaction was not quite so dramatic. He stared at her for a brief moment, his expression unreadable, but he obviously had known that she would be here.
Hermione finally gained control of herself and quickly averted her eyes.
She had known that Draco still did a lot of work for the Order, as the war was not over yet, but, miraculously, she had never seen him in any of all of the meetings and such that she always attended. She privately suspected that Dumbledore had something to do with this, as it was quite well known that if Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy were in the same room, good things weren't likely to come of it. She so wished that things had turned out differently, but as they hadn't, she tried to make the best out of the situation.
"Come and take a seat," Dumbledore said.
Numbly, she nodded, taking the seat on the other side of Dumbledore and sank down in the chair. Draco was now ignoring her.
The old man eyed them gravely over his half-moon spectacles. "Please forgive me for not informing either of you who else would be here, but I thought it best to keep it from you, given past events. I have called you both here this evening. Do you both agree to fully hear what I have to say… peacefully and without preconceived decisions?"
Hermione and Draco glanced shiftily at each other, but nodded.
The old wizard beamed at them, " Good, good. You are both well respected and trusted members of the Order, and you are quite well aware of Voldemort's whereabouts and doings. Each of you knows what he is capable of, and so I have chosen the two of you to do this particular mission for the Order. If you can get along, that is."
Draco glared at Hermione coolly, "I'll try, if she promises that she won't walk out in the middle of it again; I don't know if I could take it if you left twice in 5 years," He sneered at her.
"Yeah? Well, you didn't exactly try to stop me either!" Hermione snarled. "And it was your own bloody fault, I wouldn't have left if you hadn't been a total control-freaked idiot!"
Dumbledore raised his hand for silence and cried over their bickering, " Children… children! I'll give you a week to please work out your differences. We will need Hermione's wit and cleverness and Draco's cunning and quick mind for this difficult task. We need you to find out exactly what Voldemort is up to. As you know, we lost one of our best spies two years ago. I am talking, of course, about Severus Snape. Since his death, we have had a lot more trouble getting our hands on information before Voldemort and his Death Eaters strike again. We have made, what I suppose you would call an…er... educated guess," he smiled at his own words, "That he is planning something big- perhaps his biggest and most destructive scheme yet. We need you two to find out what it is before it happens." He finished, looking up as the great grandfather clock in the corner rung loudly, startling them all.
Dumbledore stood up, "I really must be off, but I'll be in touch with you both next week, in the mean time, please make a serious effort to work out your problems. The lives of many potentially depend on your ability to get along. I bid you both a good night." And with a swish of his cloak, he walked out of the room.
Draco and Hermione sat in silence for a couple more minutes until, Hermione, the Gryffindor, spoke up. She cleared her throat hesitantly, "So… so how've you been?" She asked tentatively, her voice unnaturally high.
"What is it to you?" He snapped back.
"He told us to get along, so I was trying to be civil, you arsehole!"
His voice softened a little bit, but still contained a hard edge. "Sorry, I guess I'm a bit tired. I really have to go too…But I guess we should get together sometime in the week and talk…" He finished grudgingly.
"I - ok, sure," she squeaked.
He turned as if to leave, but she summoned up all the courage she could muster and called to him, "Wait! I – I'm sorry," she said clearly.
"Yeah? Me too," he ground out. And with that, he turned on his heel and exited the room, leaving Hermione with a fresh stream of tears. Why is he so impossible? She miserably asked herself.