Chapter 7
Hermione sat at her desk with her head between her hands. She had so much paperwork piling up because of this case, and she hadn't even gotten through half of it. The worst part of it was that no matter how they tried to spin it, the Daily Prophet was insistent on going their own direction with the story, which sadly was close to the truth.
The deaths were related, and they were both purebloods who were former unconvinced Death Eaters. With the sixth anniversary of the final war right around the corner, it seemed as if everything was just lining up to make the perfect story for the writers.
It seemed as if the trail was going cold at both houses, and while both bodies had a few substances of unknown origins, there was nothing to tie it to another person, meaning the killer was free to go after their next target, whoever that poor soul was.
It didn't help that she was still upset over the incident with Draco yesterday. She knew that it was none of her business to protrude in his business with his wife's sister. That was a matter that was entirely his, and if he didn't want to share his problems with her, then he had absolutely no obligation to. After all, they weren't friends. Hell, they weren't even colleagues. They had nothing in common other than the fact that he was an acquaintance of one of her murder victims.
Speaking of which, Hermione picked up her quill. One thing they hadn't looked at completely was the spells used on both victims. Before now, they were looking for obvious details; anything on the surface which could tell them physical attributes about the killer, such as sex, age, or race. But there were other things they could test still. She made a note to get Seamus and Patrick to look over spells used on both victims and cross reference them. If any were used in conjuncture between the two, it could help them. Certain rarer spells were all but lost to the wizarding word, and only accessible in certain rare texts. Ones like those would be easier to trace, as a limited amount of people would have access to them.
'Yes!' she thought to herself as she scribbled a quick note down on parchment to send to Seamus and Patrick. Zachariah was still working on checking over any similarities between the two bodies, and as her second (something which she sometimes despised), he had just as much responsibilities when it came to paperwork as she did.
She got up and attached the note to the Ministry owl and released him out the window before returning to her desk. She was aware of how much of a long shot it was. For all she knew, all the spells used were common, and just the mere accumulation of them is what resulted in the severe damage to both bodies. Hermione closed her eyes and returned her fingers to her temples, praying for her sake that it wasn't the case.
"Miss. Granger?"
Hermione looked up to see Diane standing in the door. Normally, she was Harry's personal secretary, but she acted as if she were for the rest of them to, in the chance that one of them had a floo call or someone needed to get in touch with them.
"Yes, Diane?" Hermione said, as she placed both her arms back down on the desk to give the girl her full attention. Diane was ambitious, but she was also serious about her job, even if was currently not the most elite job. She was studying on the side to get into Wizengamot as a lawyer, however this job helped her pay her way through. Hermione had already told her on several occasions that when she needed it, she would be glad to be a reference.
"There's a man here to see you," she said. "He said he had to talk to you about something, and wishes for your audience."
Hermione's burrows furrowed, "Did he give a name?"
She shook her head, "No, but he's exceptionally good-looking," she winked. "He even brought flowers! Tell me where you met him! I want to pick one up just like him."
Hermione nearly snorted, "I don't even know who you're talking about." She stood up from her desk to see who it was that had come to see her, who apparently couldn't wait to see her.
She opened the door wider to reveal Malfoy standing on the other side. True to Diane's word, in his arms were the biggest bouquet of flowers she had ever seen.
"Can I speak to you?" he asked her as he gestured to his office.
She stood there speechless, but managed to nod as she opened the door to let him in.
Diane elbowed her slightly to remind her to enter her office.
Her confusion was justified. Whoever thought Draco Malfoy would be standing in her office, wanting to talk to her, with a bunch of flowers? It definitely wasn't normal.
He sat down in the chair that was opposite to her desk, "I'm sorry," he said, breaking the silence between the two of them.
"Sorry?" she asked in confusion. "For what?"
He simply stared at her, "For the way I acted yesterday. You were only trying to see if I was okay, and I took out my frustrations on you. It was unwarranted and completely out of line on my part. Please forgive me?" he asked, as he handed her the flowers. "I wasn't sure what kind you would like, so I got an assortment of roses."
They were red, white, and pink. Her mind automatically began to analyze them before she stopped herself. She doubted that Draco thought too much about the meaning of the colours of roses.
"You didn't do anything wrong," she said as she conjured up a vase to place the beautiful bouquet. "I shouldn't have pried into your business."
"How about we accept that we were both wrong, and you let me buy you a coffee to make up for it?" he asked her.
She looked down at the work on her desk. "I have a lot of papers I still have to sift thought. I don't know if I have time…"
"Nonsense," Draco said. "Have you gotten anywhere lately in while looking into the case?"
"No…" she said slowly.
"Take a break, Hermione," he said, with emphasis on her given name. "No one ever preforms well when working under pressure without taking a break."
Hermione closed her eyes, knowing she was going to regret what was about to happen, "Fine! But only an hour, okay? I still have so much to do, and that's the most I can afford to take right now."
Draco's eyes visibly widened, "Really? I had another five arguments ready to persuade you to come out with me. Your secretary warned me that you would not be easy to convince. I even had something to blackmail you with."
She raised her eyebrows at him, "Oh really. And pray tell me, Mr. Malfoy, what did you have to blackmail me with?"
He laughed and shook his head, "Oh no, I'm not telling you. I'm going to save it for next time. Besides, if I told you know, then it wouldn't have quite the effect that I would want it to when I use it again."
"Do you plan to make a regular occurrence of coming to pester me at my place of work?" she asked him with a sigh.
Draco smirked at her. "Now that I'm aware of how fun it is? Of course!"
She glared at him, "Maybe I just won't go out with you today, then! That way I get to work, and you'll stop bothering me."
He held his hand to his heart. "I see how it is, Granger. Fine, then I won't give you the good news that I had planned on. I was rather excited about it too, but see if it matters to me. I have better things to do anyways. Who knows, maybe your cute receptionist is free and wants to go to coffee with me."
"I hate you sometimes," she grumbled as she stood up from her desk and grabbed her wand and purse.
"Does this mean you do intend to come out with me tonight?" he asked her teasingly.
"Shut up, Draco," she said, as she stuck his tongue out at him.
"Mature, Granger. I think my son has more manners than you."
She grabbed his hand to yank him out the door. "Let just go, shall we? Before one of us decides just to ditch the other and go out with someone else."
"That would be slightly tragic. Yes, let us prevent that. Do you need to tell your secretary when you plan to get back to your work?" he questioned her.
"Yeah," she said. "Diane, I should be back in an hour, okay?"
Diane had a look of shock etched on to her face. "You actually got her to leave? Not even Ron Weasley got her to do that!"
Her face tightened at the mention of her ex's name.
"Well it's a good thing for all of us that I am not him, isn't it?" Draco said smoothly as he placed his hand on the small of her back.
She shot him a grateful smile, as Diane blushed, "Of course, Mr. Malfoy. Take your time, Miss. Granger. I'll hold all your owls and floo calls and tell them that you will return their message once you return back to work."
Less than fifteen minutes later they were seated in a private booth at a new restaurant in Diagon Alley. She had allowed him to order for her, seeing as he had been here a few times before and knew the menu far better than she had.
"So what's this good news?" she asked him as she leaned slightly forward.
Draco smiled as he took a sip of the coffee in front of him, "I talked to my supervisor about allowing you to help me research in on Jamie's case. At first she seemed a bit hesitant, but I was able to convince her to let you in on it."
"Smooth talk her, did you?" she asked him with a smile, knowing what kind of strategy he would have used.
He laughed, "Just a bit," he admitted. "She's always had a bit of a soft spot for me, but more in a maternal sense over anything else. Knowing it was Hermione Granger who wanted to help pretty much sealed the deal. Who better to consult than the best there is in research?"
Hermione's cheeks reddened, "I'm not the best there is. I'm good at my job, but there's plenty other witches and wizards out there who are far better at this than I am."
Draco wiped a dab of coffee off his lip, "Don't be so modest, Hermione. There will probably be someone better than the best out there, but at the same time, give credit where credit is due. Research is your forte, and it's something you are well known for. If there's anyone who can help me find out what's wrong with Jamie, it would be you."
"Thank you," she said softly. Complements weren't something she was used to. At school people loathed her for having a brain, and now that she was a 'war heroine', people pretty much expected excellence from her. But it was rare for someone to give her praise for it. She felt warmth spread across her chest.
"You deserve it," he said gently.
She began to feel embarrassed, so she decided to change the subject, "How is Scorpius doing today?" she asked him.
"He's great," he said, eyes glowing with mention of his child. "He wouldn't stop talking about the 'nice lady who bought him ice cream' all of yesterday. I swear I've never heard him so energetic about another person before."
"He's a really sweet kid," she said softly.
Draco was silent for a minute, "He is. He's so good; sometimes I can't believe he's mine."
She furrowed her brows, "Draco, he looks just like you," she said, unsure of what he meant.
"I know," he said, a bit frustrated. "It's just that I'm not sure how someone like me could have created something as perfect as him."
"Draco-" she started.
He held up his hand to silence her, "No, listen. I've screwed up so much in my life, and even now I still have so much crap in my life. But there's Scorpius, like a perfect little beacon of light. I might not have done a lot right in my life, but he's absolutely perfect. That's why I got so angry yesterday at Daphne."
"You don't need to tell me this," she said gently. "You don't owe me any explanations for what happened. It's a private matter, and I intruded into something that didn't concern me."
"Hermione," he stopped her again, as he briefly placed his hand on hers, before quickly removing it again. "I consider you to be a friend, even though we barely know each other. And I know so much happened between the two of us in the past, so it makes it really unreasonable for you to want to even consider it. But with that said, I like your presence in my life, and I want you to know just how sorry I am for everything I did and said in my youth. I wish I had an explanation that could justify it, but I don't. There is nothing that could justify what I did or said to you, and half the student body at Hogwarts."
It was her turn to stop him, "Draco, I don't blame you. I'm not going to lie, some of the things you said were hurtful, and I wish it could be taken back. However, I told you this already; what happened during the war was not your fault. We both partook in the war to keep the people we love safe. You were just on the other side because you cared for your mother, and your father, but you did not join because you intended to kill or hurt anyone. All of this was proven during your trial for the rest of the world to see."
She paused before continuing, "I think I would like to be your friend too. I enjoy your company, and I like being able to have discussions with you. But I don't want you to ever feel obliged to tell me something you don't want to tell me."
Draco smiled at her. "I want to tell you about it. It'll be a relief to be able to tell someone who is on the outside of it all. My marriage to Astoria was not one of love. We had a betrothal contract signed at the time of our birth, and if we didn't go through with it, then both parties would end up dead. It's a horrible, gruesome old Pureblood tradition to ensure good families merge. However our contract apparently had a loophole. While Astoria had to give birth to my heir, nothing said she had to stick around after. She found a lawyer, and has served me papers, asking for a divorce."
Hermione was stunned, "Does she at least want Scorpius in her life?"
"Not full time. She wants to be able to see him every now and then, but as far as she's concerned, she doesn't want to be in his life"
"Did you see it coming?" she asked, instead of what she really thought. What kind of person, what kind of mother, would not want to be involved with her child's life?
"A bit," he admitted. "After she gave birth to Scorpius two years ago, she's been staying at one of the summer homes. I guess it just took her a while to find a loop hole with enough cause to grant her a divorce."
"And Daphne?" she asked, wondering where she fit into the equation.
"I have no idea. Maybe Astoria told her this whole thing was my idea. We've never seen eye to eye," he said, sounding slightly distant.
"I'm sorry," she said, meaningfully. "For all of it. I know what it's like to be left by someone."
"You don't have to talk about it either, if you don't want to," Draco said quickly.
"No," she said. "I want to. Like you said, it'll be nice to talk to someone on the outside of it all. Everyone in my life pretty much is trying to stay out of it, and I just want to talk to someone without worrying about what I say."
Draco gave her a soft nod, "Of course. Whatever you want."
"I think it started directly after the war. All of a sudden, everyone knew who we were. The Golden Trio, they called us. Everywhere we went, everything we did, people knew about. It was like there wasn't a single moment of privacy. It was the worst for Harry. Everyone just wanted to show him their gratitude, you know? But Harry just wanted to get away from it. He didn't want any of it, he never has. I was the same; I hated it. All I wanted was to finish school and get a job because of my hard work, but everyone wanted me, because then they could say they were the ones who Hermione Granger chose to work for. Few people actually cared about my skills or my merits. Kingsley, however gave me exactly what I wanted. He gave me a job because he knew what I wanted to do. He let me create my own little division and help people, all while being able to research what I wanted."
"It was different for Ron though; being the second youngest of seven children means often being overlooked and going unnoticed. He grew up in the shadows of his brothers and their achievements. The only reason it was different for Ginny, was because she was a girl and had long learned to stand his ground. Ron loved all the attention the media gave him; he devoured it. And then he became a Keeper for the Cannons, and his popularity increased tenfold. He got so caught up in the lifestyle that he forgot that he was still a man as well. He lost track of things like ideals and morals, and lived superficially. Eventually he told me that I wasn't pretty enough to be his girlfriend, and that I just didn't care enough about my looks."
Draco began to protest, but she ignored him, wanting to continue before she lost the nerve.
"He cheated on me," she said, and that instantly silenced him. "I've never told anyone that before. He told me that he'd been screwing around with some French model for the last year, and that she was the kind of girl he needed on his arm. I wanted to be angry, and I wanted to be livid, but I didn't have it in me. I was so tired of everything; of his lies, of his desire to be famous, of him."
"You deserve better," Draco said, cutting in. "You deserve someone who appreciates every aspect of you; someone who challenges you, and someone who cares for you unconditionally."
"Be sure to let me know when you find someone like that, okay?" she said dryly.
He chuckled, "Of course."
They spend the next couple of hours talking with each other, not even realising the time flowing by. It wasn't until she saw the on flow of customers for the dinner rush that she realised. But by then, Draco had insisted that they just stayed to eat dinner as well, seeing that they had been there for so long. She knew she was going to owe Diane an explanation, but she pushed the thoughts out of her mind for the time being. Instead, she chose to enjoy her present company for a while longer.