Chapter 2

Having read the owl from Harry, Hermione rushed to grab her things. Homicides weren't exactly rare in the wizarding world, however after the war, they were not as common. It had been at least a few months since she had been involved in a case involving one, and in that, it was a case of accidental magic, where the wife of an abusive husband had accidently caused a rather large box that was on the shelf above him to fall and hit him on the head. When Hermione had arrived at the scene to analyze what had happened, she saw the witch in tears, claiming she didn't mean to do it, and that she just wanted her husband to stop, and had in turn, made it stop. It was an easy case to solve, seeing as it was very clear that while she had caused her husband's death, she did not intend to. However Hermione had dug deeper and found that her husband had also been involved in a series of highly illegal business, and actions. The case was closed with the witch being subjected to a screening at St. Mungo's to make sure there was not permanent damage after such a traumatic affair. She had also lost her wand for six months, just to make sure nothing of such could happen again.

Hermione was a bit nervous about going in. It's not like any danger remained after the crime, which was one of the reasons she loved her job, because she didn't have to pursue the criminals. All she had to do was go in and with her team, try and find any evidence left behind. Then, she would bring it back to her office and analyze anything she found, and research any unknown items to try and find out anything that could help point fingers at the guilty.

Having gathered all of her things, she grabbed some floo powder from the blue bowl she had bought a few months back from a street vendor by her house, and stepped into the fireplace.

"Auror's Office," she said, before dropping the green powder.

When she landed, she stepped out, to see the office full of life, with everyone running around in different directions, doing different things.

She spotted Harry at his desk, looking as if he were writing some very important owls. Hermione walked over to where he was standing to ask him just what was happening.

Last year Kingsley had stepped in as the Minister of Magic, and that had left an opening as the head of the Auror office. At that point Harry only had four years of Auror training, but it had been widely accepted that he take over; after all, who had more experience with dark wizards other than The Boy Who Lived? Harry had been shocked, and even attempted to turn it down, however Kingsley was having none of it and told Harry that if he attempted to turn it down out of modesty, he would find himself out of a job. Of course, Kingsley was joking, but Harry had accepted it soon after.

It had technically made him her boss, even if he was more in charge of on-site work, and she was in the off-site area. She didn't mind it though. Harry never gave her preferential treatment, just because they were friends, nor did he treat her as anything less than she deserved. In fact, he treated her like an equal, as he did with all his employees. It was one of the reasons why everyone enjoyed having him as their boss.

"Harry, what happened?" She asked when she saw him. "Who was the body they found?"

Harry looked up at her grimly, "We think it's Adrian Pucey, but we're not entirely sure. We need to still run the tests on the body, but we need you and your team to look at the site first to see if you can find anything before we move the body."

She narrowed her eyes, "What do you mean you think it's Adrian Pucey?"

She remembered him from school, as he was only a few years older than themselves. There was nothing special about him really. He didn't stand out in any way other than the fact that he was on the Slytherin Quidditch team. He was good looking, however she never knew him well enough to get to know him. Instead, she generalized him to be like the rest of the arrogant pureblood Slytherins, which to be fair, was highly likely.

"You'll see what I mean when you get there. The body has been highly tortured, however from what I can see, most of it was inflicted prior mortem. We've secured the estate, and made sure that no one gets in unless we intend them to, and we have several Aurors posted just in case the murderer returns," Harry said, as he stood up and offered her his hand. "The estate is named Pucey Manor. Not very original, but apparently purebloods enjoy naming their houses as such."

She followed him to the fireplace, and grabbed some more floo powder from the cup to use once more. Hermione waited for Harry to go through before she followed.

Her first thought was that the house was unnaturally silent. She was used to her flat, where the lack of sound was justified, or the Burrow, which was booming with life. Even at 12 Grimauld Place always had some sort of noise, even if was just a painting.

The house seemed dark too, as if it knew that it's Master had died.

Hermione looked over at Harry, "How did they find the body?" she questioned, knowing it probably wasn't due to another occupant of the house.

"One of the house elves came to ask Pucey what he wanted for supper, when it found the body. Poor thing was so devastated when it came in to report it. Could barely ask it any questions without it bursting into tears," Harry said, as he led her to where the body was.

She entered what she assumed to be the master bedroom, to find Pucey's body mangled on the ground. There were a vast amount of cuts on his body, some seeming to be self-inflicted. His left arm was bent at such an angle that Hermione knew to be broken.

Hermione could see what Harry meant about being unsure if it was Adrian Pucey or not, because his face was so badly damaged, that it was near impossible to tell. His skull seemed to be cracked, even though it did not look to be the cause of death. There was blood staining his cheeks and hair, which derived from various scratches on his face.

"Where's the rest of my team?" she asked Harry, as she got out her wand to analyze the scene.

"Dean Thomas is looking around the lower floors, Patrick Haynes is looking through the area which we presume is used during social gatherings, and we left Zachariah Smith with you, so the two of you can go through this room, and then send him to cover the rest of the floor later."

Hermione wanted to groan at the fact that she would be forced to work together with Smith. Sure he wasn't as bad as he was in Hogwarts, however he was still annoying. And to top it off, he was sexist, and had trouble accepting Hermione as his supervisor and Harry as the head of the department. However he was good at his job, and because of this, Hermione tolerated him.

"Granger, I thought I would go through the other rooms, then meet up with you here after so I can take a look at this room, and give it a second opinion. You know what they say about a new pair of eyes being able to find things others had missed," Smith said, as he made his entrance into the room.

There it was; a tiny jab that might go unnoticed to someone who was just watching the interaction, but she knew exactly what it meant. However, she held in any snide mark she may have been tempted to make. It was way too late at night for her to care.

Harry squeezed her shoulder, "I'm going to go talk to the Aurors sweeping the grounds. They may have found something that the perpetrator left behind."

She nodded, but didn't say anything, as she had already began to analyse the room. It was rather large, however based upon the rest of the estate, she assumed it to be typical. The room was probably the size of her entire flat all together, even if that wasn't really saying much to begin with. There was little pictures of family and what not, however there were a few shots of him with the Quidditch team, and a few of him in recent years with a few friends, only a few he could identify. The lack of family suggested a strained or distant relationship with any relatives he had, so she made a note to get someone to look into all living relatives. There was not a lot of décor in to the room, but what it did have was all high end, and highly coordinated. The room was decorated a Slytherin green, and the entire room followed a colour scheme that matched.

Hermione walked over to his closed doors, and opened it to find clothes lining the shelves, all neatly organized by type, material, colour, and probably a dozen other features. Seeing as his house elves couldn't touch the clothes, it suggested that either he, or another person, was careful enough to put away the clothes as such, showing a highly organized or compulsive mindset.

She made her way over to the dresser, on which seemed to be several letters. Because it was in the bedroom, Hermione knew them to be more personal and less business, which would be in the study. She grabbed the one on top and saw it to be a letter to Draco Malfoy.

Hermione's eyebrows rose. She hadn't thought that the two knew each other, but then again, they both were Slytherins, so it would be a logical guess. To be fair, she didn't really know much about Malfoy anyways. She didn't really keep tabs on those she went to school with, unless they were friends, and she and Malfoy certainly were no such thing. Going through the letters, she could see nothing that lead to suggestions that the two had a negative relationship.

"Find anything useful?" Harry asked from the door as he returned.

She shook her head, "The murderer didn't leave behind anything that I can see from first glance. I think you can move the body now, but leave the scene closed off for now. I'm going to return to it later. Also, can you send a letter to Draco Malfoy, and the rest of the people who were in touch with Pucey based on these letters? It might be good to talk to them and see if they had any insight on what happened, or why it did," She said, as she handed over the letters from the dresser.

Harry nodded, "Sure; I'll get someone on that right now. I'm also trying to find any living relatives to notify as well."

"Oh and can you send Smith in here? I'm sure that prat has been waiting to come look at the scene and find whatever it is that he thinks I'm missing," Hermione said.

Harry laughed, "Don't let that git get to you. Why don't you go home and get some sleep? The scene will still be here when you wake up. Besides, we can only schedule an interview with the people you want t see tomorrow anyways,"

She closed her eyes, "Sleep sounds like a great idea," she said as she rubbed her temples.

Draco stepped into the Auror's Office at the Ministry of Magic, holding a letter in his hand. When he had received it, he had been On Call at work, and he hadn't gotten any sleep since. He remembered reading over the words, and dropping the coffee he had been holding. Adrian Pucey had been murdered.

The letter had been from the Auror's Office, asking him to come in for some questioning. He was nervous, seeing as the last time he had been questioned was during his trial. Did they think he was guilty? Had something in Adrian's home somewhat implicated him?

He walked to the secretary's desk, "I got a letter to come in for questioning about Adrian Pucey's death?" he asked the blonde.

She looked up from the paperwork in front of her, and gave him a smile, "Yes, Mr. Malfoy, right? I'll let Miss. Granger know that you're here."

Okay, it seemed to be going well so far. Wait…Granger? As in Hermione Granger? Her last name wasn't exactly common, but what where the chances that it was her?

Before he could think about it any further, Granger came out of her office. Damn, it was her.

"Mr. Malfoy?" he heard her ask. She saw him standing by the secretary and gave him smile.

He saw her beckon for him to follow, and obeyed stoically as he walked into her office.

"Please, take a seat," she said gently. Apparently she must have noticed his discomfort, because she smiled at him again. "You can relax, Malfoy. I'm not here to question you about being involved. If I had even suspected that you to be the reason behind Adrian Pucey's death, then there would be a lot more Aurors in here, including Harry."

He let out a breath that he didn't know that he had been holding in, "Nice to know, Granger. So may I ask why it is that I am here?"

"When we were investigating Pucey's house, we didn't find much telling us about his personal life. He seemed very closed off from the world, and the only things we could find were letters that showed his correspondence between the two of you, as well as a couple of other Slytherins. Because of this, I was hoping that you could give me some insight into his life, such as his personal life, and the people he was acquainted with," She said calmly.

It bothered him to an extent. She wasn't exactly treating him like an old friend, but at the same time she was kinder to him than she had ever been. The best way to describe it would be to say that she was treating him as if they were strangers; something which because of their history they most certainly were not.

"Like you found, Adrian was very closed off," Draco replied. "He never liked attention much, or liked to stand out. He didn't really have job per say, but had taken over the accounts of his family, and made investments to gain a profit. He didn't really date either, but had a few flings with a few pureblood girls. Because his family wasn't all that well know, however, he was able to stay out of the limelight," Draco said.

"I wouldn't exactly say that we were friends either," Draco said honestly. "Our families knew each other, and as such, we had met in the many social gatherings we had been to over the years."

Granger had been sitting in front of him, writing what he was saying at a rapid pace. He took the break to take her in. She hadn't really changed so much from her younger self, but had grown into what she had. Her body had filled out beautifully, and her once frizzy hair had calmed down into gentle curls. She didn't wear much, if any, make up, but her face had a natural beauty that suited her.

Her desk wasn't filled with many mementos. There was a picture of her and Potter, and also one with what he assumed to be her parents. He noted the lack of Weasley in any of the pictures. What had happened to the Golden Couple? He remembered reading about a split between the two, and the disgusting pictures of him and his many string of flings. Had it been an unpleasant break up?

"Malfoy?" he heard Granger call out to him.

"Sorry, what were you saying?" Draco asked, as he looked at her.

"Did he have any enemies? Any crazy girlfriends, or people he might have offended?" she asked, not seeming surprised at his momentary lack of attention.

Draco frowned, "Not that I can recall. If I think about it, there were very few people who might have had a problem with him. To be honest, he didn't interact much with others, so I can't really think of any one off the top of my head."

Hermione seemed disappointed at this, "Can you tell me about the wards around his house? Could nearly anyone get in?"

"Just the opposite. He preferred them up at all times, so to even get in, you needed to give him a floo call, then he would let you through."

"Is there a chance he might have taken them down for any reason?" she questioned.

"It's possible," Draco said, not really believing it to be true.

She frowned at this, "I see. Thank you for your help then, Mr. Malfoy. I shall contact you if there is anything else need you for."

"Good luck on your investigation, Granger," Draco said, addressing her in the least formal way since he had arrived. But he lingered slightly, wanting to say something.

She looked back up from her papers, "Is there something else you need?" she asked him politely.

"I wanted to thank you," he confessed.

"Thank me?" she asked, puzzled.

"For what you said during my trial. I'm sure that if you and Potter had not spoken for me, I would have been chucked straight into Azkaban without a second thought and left to rot. It is because of your testimony that I even had a chance to have a normal life and make something of it. So thank you for that, Granger. I wish I could have said it that day, but I didn't have the guts to face you, not after what happened at the Manor…" his voice trailed off.

She looked a bit distant for a minute, but smiled. "It was what was right. You didn't deserve to go to Azkaban; not for doing what you thought would keep you alive. You deserved better than that, and I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I let an innocent man rot there."

He felt a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach. "I'll leave you be with the investigation. I hope you catch whoever did this. Good bye, Granger."

"Good bye, Malfoy," she heard him say as he left her office.

What was it about her that brought back everything he had once felt for her?

A/N: Omg guys thank you so much for the reviews, follows, and favourites! I really enjoy writing this story, and I find that the words just seem to write themselves. I was a bit worried that I would be delayed with this chapter seeing that I had to move back into university today, but I did it!

Happy New Year to you all, and hope this year brings you happiness and joy!