Ok! So here is the second chapter. We'll give you two more chapters to guess our age. Then we'll announce it on the fifth chapter. Just so you know this chapter is 5 years after the other one so don't get confused. So here is the chapter.
D.P.O.V.
Draco woke with a start. Sweat was dripping down his back and his hands were shaking like mad. It was the usual nightmare. In his head he could still hear Hermione's scream and he could feel her icy, lifeless skin as he touched her face. Stop it Draco! She's dead...dead and gone. Hermione is never...coming...back.
Shaking his head out of his sorrow, Draco stood up and pulled on his usual robes. They were black and were expensive as with everything he owned. He would never stop mourning the one he loved. As he turned around to grab his comb, something caught his eye.
A great grey owl, imposing and haughty, stood on his window sill. Draco and the bird stared at each other for a moment before the owl stuck out his leg and shook it impatiently.
"Yes Benito, what is it now?" Draco asked it bitterly, snatching the letter. He tore the seal and read quickly over the messy script. Like always, Potter's note was short and secretive.
Draco:
Come by my office at noon. Level 2, third door on your left. I have a task for you. Don't be late.
H. Potter
What could he want? Draco wondered. He swiftly walked downstairs listening as his footsteps echoed eerily in the empty Malfoy Manor. He turned his head to the right to glance at the old grandfather clock. It read 11:30. Of course I overslept. There hadn't gone a day since Hermione's death where he had woke up early after a nightmare-free night.
Pulling out his wand, he apparated and moments later he was striding down the streets of London towards the Ministry of Magic. He stepped carefully into the old, visitor's telephone booth. "I can't believe they still use this" He muttered irritably as he dialed the numbers into the phone. Six...two...four...four...two.
A cool, almost unreal female voice answered immediately. "Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business."
Draco cleared his throat. "Draco Malfoy here to visit Harry Potter, Auror in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
Draco waited impatiently as the woman's voice answered "Thank you. Please take the badge and attach it to the front of your robes." Draco reached for the silver badge and quickly glanced over the words. Draco Malfoy, Appointment with Head Auror.
"Visitor of the Ministry," Continued the voice, "you are required to submit to a search and present your wand for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far side of the Atrium." The floor began to slowly descend and the streets of London disappeared, opening up to a long majestic hall.
"The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant day."
Attaching his badge, Draco walked swiftly over to security. This was his most dreaded part of visiting the Ministry. Even though it's been three years since the war, Draco's name and face was still associated with distrust. In fact, it wouldn't really surprise him if he was thrown in Azkaban at any given moment. Hesitantly, he took out his wand and handed it to the man at the desk.
The man took it, dropped it on a set of golden scales and waited as a strip of parchment slid out of the scale's base. In a low, bored voice the man rattled off the wand's specifics. Draco confirmed and the man handed the wand back. Potter must have tipped him off that I was coming. Draco decided.
In a few moments, Draco was standing in front of the office on the second floor with the name 'Harry Potter' listed on it. Draco instinctively reached for the handle, hesitated, and instead knocked.
"Come in." Potter's voice answered.
Draco opened the door and walked inside. Potter's office was square and small. Every inch of the walls were covered with pictures, most of which wanted posters of Death Eaters. A shiver ran down his spine as his eyes fell on faces he had hoped never to see again, including his father. There were also pictures of the people Potter loved like the Weasley family and members of the Order of the Phoenix (both dead and alive). In large frames behind his desk hung two large portraits. One was of his fiancé the Weasley girl and the other was of Hermione. His heart ached as he looked into the brown eyes once more. Draco wanted her back so much, he wanted to kiss her and to talk to her and to hold her warm hands in his. But that was never going to happen.
Draco pulled his eyes away from the photo and focused on the reason he came. Harry Potter was attempting to fix a sneakoscope.
"Um, may I ask what you're doing, Potter?" asked Draco, shaking his head.
"This sneakoscope has become extremely sensitive and I'm trying to fix it. It even goes off every time someone enters without knocking, including myself!" Harry responded without looking up.
"I didn't think an auror would need a sneakoscope." Draco sneered.
"They're actually quite reliable." He said, between muttered spells.
"Then why exactly are you wasting your time fixing it? Why don't you just get a new one?"
Harry waited a long time before answering. "Hermione gave it to me." He said quietly. "That's why."
Harry set down the sneakoscope and looked at Draco with his green eyes for the first time. "I have a task for you if you are interested. It will gain the trust of the other aurors if you still want to become one."
"I do have a job you know." Draco snapped. He had inherited his short temper from his father and hated it, but there was no fixing it now. "You can't just send me off on some journey without my consent either. Tell me what this task is and then I'll think about whether or not I want to do it."
Harry sighed, "Malfoy Incorporated is not going to burn to the ground without you there for a week. Besides, you are going to be staying in one of your Wizard Hotels: L'italiano Malfoy."
"So you're sending me to Italy. Why?"
"There is a Death Eater there, the last one who isn't accounted for. I am asking you to go to Italy, find him, and decide whether he is changed or whether he deserves...harsher treatment."
"Who? Who is the Death Eater?"
In answer, Harry handed Draco a picture from his desk. "Macnair" Draco said. "I thought he was chucked across the Great Hall by Hagrid and died. He probably snuck out and apparated off the school. Lucky for him, Voldemort wasn't able to chase him down. So you want me to go to Italy and capture him...and do what with him?"
"Side apparate him to the gates of Azkaban."
"When do I leave?"
"Immediately, if possible." Suddenly Harry wasn't staring into his eyes but slightly below them, just avoiding eye contact.
"There's something you're not telling me." Draco said curtly.
Harry sighed once again. "You're right; there is something I'm not telling you. Ron is coming home from Romania this week and I can't guarantee your safety if your here. He won't know that you have gone to Italy."
Anger rushed through Draco once more. "You don't always have to play the hero, Potter! I actually know how to take care of myself and I don't need you to be able to take him on! Anyways, shouldn't he be in Azkaban for killing the brightest witch of our age!"
"I know, I know. But Ron is still considered a war hero and most people take it as an accident. Ron and I need to figure out our friendship and if you're not there to provoke him, the easier it will be to talk to him. That's why."
"Fine. Whatever. I guess I'll be going now." Malfoy muttered.
"Good luck."
...~oOo~...
The next day, Draco was walking casually by himself down the streets of Italy. So far, he hadn't seen any sign of Macnair. The midsummer sun was beating down on him and making him sweat. For a moment, Draco felt like calling it quits for the day and going to the muggle gelato shops. The feeling didn't last long. Immediately, he heard Hermione's voice.
"You could change, Draco...make your own path."
"What do you want that to be?"
Hermione smiled, "Break away completely from your family...become an auror, Draco, you'd be good at it. The best, in fact."
Draco had kissed her for that. To this day he was determined to become what many thought was impossible. To become an auror, he would have to earn the trust of the Ministry of Magic. Not an easy task, but Draco was going to try anyway; for Hermione.
Suddenly something disturbed his thoughts. A sound was it? Or was it more of a feeling? Draco spun on his heels and ran toward the source.
There, at the head of a deserted alley was an unmistakable figure in a black cloak. Macnair.
But what really caught Draco's attention was not the Death Eater, but his victim. Bound and gagged with magical spells was a familiar looking woman with brown hair. It couldn't be...could it? She turned her face toward Draco's and their eyes met.
Hermione!
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