Chapter 4

Harry sat at his desk, running his hand through his full head of raven hair. Ginny had often joked about how he was lucky to have any hair, after the stress of his job. He would be lying if he said that it was a walk in the park, because Merlin forbid something was easy for a change.

He couldn't complain though. Not when he chose this job. He had signed up for it, and all the responsibilities associated with it. After years of fighting against Voldemort, it seemed hard to settle into a normal life; believe him when he said he tried. After the war, he took a good several months to recover from all the stress and losses of the war. He didn't blame himself for any of it; Merlin knows he was just as much of a victim as anyone else; he just happened to have a target on his back.

In those months off he reconciled with Ginny. She had yelled at him for his recklessness, but had launched herself into his arms, and forgave him. He had felt so lucky to have her back in his life, and the fact that she was relatively unharmed made it easier for him to forgive himself for all the pain he had put her through.

Within a few months of their relationship, he had sought out her parents for her hand in marriage, and they had immediately accepted. He proposed to her within the week, with the help of Hermione to pick out a ring. Ginny had cried when he asked her in the Burrow, in front of all their friends and family, but she had accepted without much thinking.

The couple elected for a short engagement, and married within the year. But even with that, they had decided to wait for a bit before having children. Both their lives had been spent with other things on their mind; Harry with the looming threat of Voldemort, and Ginny in the shadows of her six older siblings. Between all of that, they just wanted some time for themselves, to live together and not have to worry about a family just yet.

They had enjoyed the last four years blissfully together, but then four months ago Ginny had found out she was pregnant, and Harry could not have been happier. They had reached a stage where they were financially stable, but also emotionally ready for the responsibilities a child would bring for them. While Ginny had been a chaser for the Holyhead Harpies, she had been granted a maternity leave, with the promise that her position will be waiting for her when she was ready to return.

It had been a good five years for him and his family.

He was interrupted from his thoughts when he heard his secretary knocking on his office door, "Mr. Potter?"

He looked up to see Diane standing at the door, with a rather frazzled looking wizard standing behind him. Harry looked at his watch and saw that it was nearly 8 pm. What would someone want with him at this hour?

"Send him in, Diane," Harry said, as he ushered in the man at the door. Once the man was seated Harry began to talk to him.

"Now, what seems to be the problem, Mr…?" Harry asked.

"Kettlegreen, Peter Kettlegreen, Mr. Potter," The man said as his voice was shaking. "I own this shop, yeh see, Peter's Potions. It's right in the middle of Diagon Alley. Had it for years now, and never once there's been a problem. But yeh can never be too safe, yeh see. So I placed a couple of security wards on the premises in case there was a break in. Heard about them in the Prophet, I did. I closed up the shop, like I usually do tonight, and placed the usual charm over the place to alert me if anyone enters the building. I usually remove it first thing in the morning; that way I know it's up when I need it and not when I don't. So when I got home and my wand lit up, I knhew somethin' was up."

Harry nodded, taking in what th/e man was saying. "I see. So what happened next?"

"It's not the first time the alarm's gone off. Every now and 'hen some kids set it off by stumbling around the alley after leaving the Leaky Cauldron. However I always check; never can be too safe yeh see. But something was different this time. When I got there, I realised someone was inside my store, Mr. Potter! Someone's been thievin' from me!"

Harry looked up slowly. "Mr. Kettlegreen, is someone in the store right now?"

The man nodded rapidly, "That's why I came to yeh Mr. Potter!"

Harry got up of his chair, to go alert a few aurors to go to the premise. Breaking and Enterings had not been that common. However, over the past several months the amount had been on a rise. Especially in potion supply stores…

"Mr. Kettlegreen, I hate to ask, but what exactly does your store sell?"

"Some pre-made potions which I brew myself," he said proudly. "Also cauldrons, mixing sticks, and the supplies necessary to make the potions…"

What were the chances that the majority of the break-ins were for potions stores? The only logical conclusion was that they were all connected. But why steal from a potion's store? None of the supplies were that expensive individually; a few rarer items had been taken, but nothing of significant value. Unless…

…unless they didn't want to have any records of buying the items. That meant that whatever they had planned for those items could not be used for anything good.

His gut feeling was telling him that there was a lot more to this than a simple breaking and entering, and that was more than enough for him to go check it out himself. After all, it was rarely wrong

In that second he changed his mind. He would not send a team of Aurors. No, he would go investigate himself. He grabbed some parchment and scribbled a quick letter off to Hermione, who he knew had been working those cases in her free time, and one to Ginny apologising about having to work late, before grabbing his wand and flying out the door.

Hermione didn't know if she should be angry or concerned for Harry at the minute.

When she had received his owl, she had been in the middle of going through some cases files in her living room. It had been exactly one week since she had seen Ron at the Burrow and had been doing everything in her power to avoid it, and avoid him. The last thing she needed was to have a half-assed conversation with him, where he attempts to justify his actions to make himself feel better. She knew from past experience just it would turn out. He would ask her how she was doing, and he would look down and shuffle about awkwardly. Then he would pretend he's glad when she lies and says she's doing well, which she clearly isn't. Then he would try and say that it was for the best, and that they weren't all that suited for each other, and she would probably agree to avoid conflict. But she would inevitably say something to piss him off and it would lead to him pointing fingers and say somehow that it was her fault that he broke up with her, and if she weren't such a _, probably bitch, that he would have stayed with her.

No, she rather would have avoid it all together.

It was probably because of her clouded mind that she took so long to see the owl holding the letter, and because of that she took so long to find Harry.

When she had arrived on site, she could tell something was wrong. It was too…quiet; especially for a break in. If Harry was indeed on site somewhere, then she knew that she would have to be stealthy. The last thing she wanted was to alert the bugler that she was there.

"Homenum Revelio," she muttered. The spell showed the presence of one person, but she couldn't be sure just who it was.

She had walked around the premise once completely, as protocol dictated, before entering the building. Upon her entry, she could see several shattered bottles, as if the thief was in a hurry and was being careless. In the letter, Harry had quickly said that he thought all the thefts were connected. But in all the other locations, it was done cleanly. There was something different about time.

The thief was either long gone, or in custody, because from what she could see, it didn't appear as anyone was in the building. But that begged the question of just where Harry was. She lit her wand, and looked around a bit, remaining quiet just in case she had been wrong.

Hermione had freaked out when she saw something she didn't expect; Harry knocked out on the ground. She had panicked at that, and immediately checked for a pulse.

At that moment, the Aurors had arrived on site, and she had quickly assigned them various roles, such as making sure the thief was gone, and to collect any evidence they found. She had apparated him to St. Mungo's and had admitted him in a hurry, probably scaring the nurses while at it.

That had been over an hour ago.

"Granger, Weasley?"

She looked up, to see Malfoy standing above her, holding a clipboard, and wearing white robes.

"Malfoy? What are you doing here?" she asked in surprise. She had owled Ginny about what had happened, who was currently sitting beside her at the minute. But besides the two of them, no one had known that Harry was admitted. Because of that, she was shocked to see Malfoy standing beside her in the hospital.

"I'm the healer assigned to Mr. Potter's case," he said with a slight smile.

She looked shocked. Well, that would explain the white robes, and clipboard. "I didn't know you went into healing!" she exclaimed.

"We didn't exactly talk about my career when I came into your office, now did we?" he stated. "It took a lot of hard work to achieve the grades I needed to convince the board that I was worth being let into the training program five years ago, despite my family's past. Honestly, if it weren't for your's and Potter's statement at my trial, I'm sure they wouldn't have given me the chance regardless of it all."

"Like I said last week, you didn't deserve what happened to you. You were as much of a victim as the rest of us, and you shouldn't lose the chance to make something of your life because of your circumstances."

Ginny cut in at this point, "Could you please tell me about Harry?"

She saw him swallow hard, like he wanted to say something to her, but instead he just said, "It's rare for me to take a case like his, but I was one of the few healers on-call tonight so they gave it to me. But he seems fine for the most part. He was stunned, however there were traces of dark magic in the spell the caster had used, as if they changed their mind last minute to change the spell. He's still unconscious, but there was no lasting damage. We removed the remnants of dark to magic so he'll be good as new. We just need to keep him overnight just be safe," he said.

"Would I be able to go sit with him?" Ginny asked him.

Draco nodded, "Of course, Mrs. Potter."

Ginny looked at Hermione, but she shook her head, "You go to him. I have a few things I need to take care of anyways."

Ginny shot her a weak smile, before going into the room.

Hermione let out a breath of air as she turned to Draco, "Thank you," she said sincerely. "I don't know what I would have done if something worse had happened to him."

"It's a bit ironic isn't it," Malfoy said with a slight smile, "that for once, I'm the one helping him."

She laughed at that, "Yes, I suppose it is."

"So what are you going to do now?" Malfoy questioned. "Are you going to spend the night watching over Potter, or are you going to head back to your place."

She frowned, "I was planning on staying with him, but after everything, I'm not quite sure if he needs me to. Like you said, he's going to be fine. But I do want to yell at him when he wakes up for being so reckless. Merlin knows how furious Ginny is going to be at him."

He looked hesitant, as if he wanted to ask her something.

"Is there something you wanted?" she asked him politely.

"When I said this kind of case was rare for me, I meant it. For the most part, I deal with rare magical diseases or ailments which aren't as common to the magical world. Because of that, I see a lot of strange things, but I also see a lot of poor wizards and witches who suffer because of it," Malfoy started.

Hermione nodded for him to continue, even if she had no idea where he was going.

"One of my patients, Jamie, has a rare condition, and I'm not quite sure how to heal it. He has days where he looks like he will pull through, but he also has days where he looks like he's upon death's door. Because of this, I go out of my way to research his case to see if there have been any similar outbreaks anywhere else, but I also try to spend time with him. He's an orphan, so he has no family and few friends at the orphanage. He's spend a good amount of his life here, so he never really had the chance to get to know anyone. Jamie loves to read, and I know Hogwarts: A History is one of his favourite books, and he dreams to go there. I thought that maybe, since you liked it too, you could go talk to him?" he asked her sounding nervous.

Her breath caught in her thought at the sound of this poor kid's life, "How did you know I liked Hogwart's: A History?" she asked curiously

"You carried that book around with you nearly everywhere and were always quoting knowledge from it. I swear, it was almost as if you had that book memorized," he joked.

She wanted to ask him how he knew that, or why he had bothered even paying attention to her in school after everything. But she didn't, because it didn't matter.

"I would love to visit Jamie. Merlin knows it's been ages since I've meet someone interested in discussing literature, particularly that book, with," she said, as a smile tugged at her lips

The brightest grin lit up his face, "You have no idea how much this will mean to him, Granger," Malfoy said.

"Are you sure it isn't too late to go see him?" she asked him with a frown. "It's nearly 10 pm!"

He laughed, "Try telling it to that kid! I swear, he stays up as late as he want, and doesn't even think to sleep."

She nodded with smile, "Lead the way!"

The room was on an opposite wing, but it didn't take that long for them to get there. Hermione was slightly nervous. After years of being followed by news reporters, she still had issues with dealing with her fame.

Malfoy turned a door knob, but stood in the doorway, "Jamie?" he asked a kid who looked to be around eight years old.

"Yes, Healer Malfoy?" the boy said with a grin upon seeing him. "Have you come here to give me a new book?"

Malfoy shook his head, "Remember a few days ago when I said that I knew someone once who loved Hogwarts: A History just as much as you?"

The brunette nodded, "Of course. Your friend, Hermione, right?"

Malfoy didn't bother correcting him, "I got a surprise for you," he widened the door, to reveal Hermione to the boy. "I brought her here to visit you. I thought it would be nice for you to get to talk to her. So Jamie, meet Miss. Hermione Granger."

She entered the room, and gave the boy a wide smile. Malfoy pulled out a chair close to the bed, for her to sit on, before choosing another for himself.

"Merlin, Hermione Granger?" the boy breathed. "Healer Malfoy, you didn't mention that it was Hermione Granger who you knew! Do you have any idea how much cool stuff she did in school?"

Hermione smiled at his enthusiasm, "I imagine it's going to be a fraction to the amount of adventures you have, right?" she asked him.

Jamie's face lit up, "I hope so! I've been dreaming about going there for so long! Is it true that you figured out how to get past Headmistress McGonagall's own chess set? Or that you were the one who organized the rebellious Dumbledore's Army? Did you use the secret passages all the time? I would them to sneak around, but probably just to get to class quicker if I'm late!"

Jamie continued to ramble on for a bit, but Hermione didn't mind. She had been so enthusiastic about Hogwarts when she was eleven, but if she had known about it from a younger age, she probably would have counted down the day until she got to go.

The next few hours passed as she, Malfoy, and Jamie talked about Hogwarts and all that had happened during their eventful time there. She and Malfoy had some friendly banter, but also got into a few heated debates. Jamie seemed to be loving it all, and fought passionately on what his stances were. She was enjoying herself, more than she had in months, and it wasn't until Jamie announced that he was exhausted that she even realised what time it was.

She and Malfoy walked back together to check on Harry, before she left to go home and get some well-deserved sleep.