After their meeting at Hogwarts, Ezra and Hermione spent almost every day together working on their project. It wasn't necessary that they do all the tasks with each other but one of them always ended up asking and neither had yet declined.
They worked well together, a swift and efficient team, almost a good cop, bad cop, the roles reversing depending on whom they were trying to get information from.
Hermione was enjoying herself, she hadn't had such a riveting or satisfying job in quite some time, and doing it with Ezra made it all the better. Since the evening in the library they had definitely become closer, the gap between partner and friend getting ever smaller, but they had yet to venture too far back into personal territory.
It wasn't until Friday that they went their separate ways, Ezra having an appointment he needed to make, assuring her he would be back for the meeting they had with the Minister later, and Hermione decided to use the time to do something she had been meaning to for the past week.
The more time she spent with Ezra, the more she found it hard to believe that barely anyone seemed to know him, this magnetic man, and the curious reactions people had had to him didn't help to quell her suspicion that something wasn't quite right. She liked him, she really did, more then she would perhaps care to admit, and this drove her to investigate further, wanting to put her feelings of unease to rest.
So, it was with this goal in mind that Hermione found herself talking with the one and only Miss Pansy Parkinson in the Department of Records. Suffice to say that Pansy was not Hermione's biggest fan, never had been, but ever since she and Draco became friends it had gotten significantly worse.
"Good morning Pansy." Hermione greeted as warmly as she could given to whom she was talking, deciding that she would try and make this as painless as possible.
"Granger." Pansy replied coldly as she looked up from her desk. "And what is it you want? Surprised you didn't send one of your underlings here to do your work for you…"
Ignoring the unfounded jab with some difficulty, Hermione pressed forward. "I require access to the Death Eater files, please would you escort me to the record room?" She requested as politely as she could.
"You need level 7 clearance or higher to access that room." Pansy said with a smile that really shouldn't have been there.
"Well, it's a good thing that I have level 9 clearance then isn't it." Hermione informed her feeling just a little bit smug, especially when the smile fell from Pansy's face.
"But that's a level below the Chief of Security and the Minister himself!" She protested in disbelief.
"I can produce the documentation if necessary but I really don't have the time." Hermione said calmly but with an edge of irritation she was sure she had picked up from Ezra. "So, if you'd be so kind, please take me to the files."
Pansy looked about to argue, but with a sigh she stood up and started to lead Hermione through the winding corridors, dispelling various security measures as they went, until they came to their destination.
"Here." She said shortly as she unlocked the door and began to walk away before waiting for any response. "And put the files back where you found them!" She called over her shoulder as she disappeared.
Despite Hermione's dislike for the girl, she could not deny that she did her job well. Although Pansy's allegiances were questionable in the past, when it came down to it she had a very strong sense of loyalty, and currently, that was to her department. From what Hermione had heard, Pansy upheld all the security measures, kept all the records in excellent order, and, despite her clear inability to be civil to certain people, she performed excellently in her role and would probably continue to do so for many years to come.
Hermione wasn't exactly sure what she was looking for, or even if she would find anything of use, but she supposed if nothing else she could perhaps put her suspicions about Ezra to rest. Besides, she still needed to find out a little bit more about what the dark side had been up to for her project, so this would be a great opportunity to look for anything they had missed too.
She looked through the files of many of the major Death Eaters and some other high ranking members of Voldemort's and found a few things of use for her project, but to her it paled in comparison to what she found out about Ezra.
He was listed as finding valuable evidence against all the Death Eaters in their trials, information Hermione was clueless as to how he had obtained. At first, to the casual reader, perhaps even to an intelligent reader, you would probably miss it, perhaps come to simple conclusions about how the information was gathered, but if you looked closely you could see. It was well disguised, the way the evidence had been presented, but it became obvious that some of what was written could only have been known by someone who was there at the time.
Hermione's mind began to race but she did not panic. She had thought about this before, knew Ezra must have been in some slightly darker situations due to his job, but now was convinced that that was the case. She knew many of the Death Eaters were trained to resist veritaserum, so perhaps torture had been used to extract information from them? Hermione dismissed it, she doubted the ministry would resort to that, but perhaps something else? Maybe Ezra was a very talented legilimens, it would explain how he sometimes seemed to know things about her that she was surprised he knew after all.
Deciding that that was the simplest, not to mention most optimistic, explanation, Hermione resolved that she would ask the Minister about it the next time she saw him.
That was, until she looked at the last file in the pile stacked in front of her.
It was one she had always wanted to read, having been curious about the verdict since the day she'd heard it, the case file of the one and only Lucius Malfoy.
His sentence had been, strange, to say the least. It was much more lenient than many, including Hermione, had been expecting or desiring. As the trials went on the results had been getting worse and worse, that is, until they came to Lucius. Malfoy had been given a minimum of five years house arrest where he was not permitted to leave his estate, he was ordered to give 80% of his money to the war recovery effort and, well, and nothing, that was it.
There had been public outcry at the verdict but, the judge insisted, that with the evidence presented that was the maximum sentence she could have given him.
And now, here Hermione was, finally able to see all the evidence for herself. There were a lot of crimes listed but none of them as awful as what she had read in the other Death Eater's files. There was a charge for funding Voldemort's war effort, participating in raids, a few kidnappings and a couple of kills in battle, and, although not as bad as some of his comrades, Hermione still believed he deserved more punishment than he had been given.
Something else was bothering her but she couldn't quite work out what it was at first. Sure, the crimes weren't as bad as she'd hoped they'd be, strangely enough she hadn't expected them to be too bad, she'd always pegged Lucius as more of a figurehead than a pawn, not one to get his hands too dirty, but still something didn't feel right. Re-reading it for the third time she finally realised what was wrong with it.
There was no evidence given by one Mister Ezra Godtro.
Hermione got to the conference room early this time, sitting in the same spot as she had before, and continued to think as she had done ever since she'd looked through the case files hours ago.
Many questions needed answering, but the one she felt she needed to solve first was why Ezra hadn't given evidence in Lucius' case. So far, she had thought of several explanations.
It was possible, if the mechanism Ezra was using to get his information was legillimecy, that Lucius was too strong an occlumens to give anything away. Alternatively, perhaps Ezra had investigated but found nothing that wasn't already known. Potentially Lucius had bribed Ezra not to present any of the more horrific crimes he had committed, it could explain all of Ezra's fine robes after all, but Hermione doubted that Ezra was a man bothered with such a simple thing as money.
She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she barely noticed as the room filled up around her, only being snapped out of her reverie when a certain man entered whose presence one could simply not ignore.
Ezra smiled as he sat down opposite her, inclining his head in greeting. She smiled back but knew it would look forced, knew Ezra would see that something was bothering her immediately, and she really hoped he wouldn't be able to work out what it was.
The meeting wore on as the Minister updated them on the progress that had been made and informed them of any changes, and yet again, Hermione paid little attention.
She had come to the decision that she wouldn't ask Kingsley about Ezra for now, nor would she be asking the man in question about anything, and had come to the conclusion that there was only one route she could now take.
She was going to have to talk to Lucius Malfoy.
The meeting came to an end and Hermione was hoping to get away without having to talk to the Minister or Ezra, but was disappointed when it looked like she would be failing on both fronts, Kingsley heading towards her and Ezra waiting by the door.
"Hermione." Greeted the Minister as he approached. "Is everything going smoothly?" He asked in a slightly hushed tone.
"Yes, we've been making excellent progress." She assured him with yet another forced smile, one she was sure that, unlike Ezra, he wouldn't notice.
"Good, good. So am I to assume that this means Mister Godtro is still performing well?"
"More than well, he's been outstanding." Hermione replied, still curious as to why the Minister thought he would be doing anything else.
"Well, that's very good news then, very good news indeed." He smiled. "Right, I've got to get going again, I have a phone call scheduled with the muggle Prime Minister in…" He paused as he checked his watch. "Oh Merlin, three minutes!"
"Thanks for all you hard work Hermione!" He called back as he swiftly exited the room, people parting for him as he left.
Hermione took her time collecting up her belongings, hoping that Ezra might have left by the time she was done, but no, when she looked up she was met with those bright grey eyes that she had become accustomed to seeing of late, his presence like that of her own shadow, she just wasn't sure whether she should be scared of it yet or not.
He didn't say anything as he followed her from the room, simply falling in stride beside her. The silence began to eat away at her but she knew what he was up to, he was trying to get her to tell him what was bothering her without it seeming as if he wanted to know, something which usually would have worked.
Hermione however, stood her ground, and pushed him into conversation.
"How was your appointment?" She asked.
"It went very well." Ezra replied smoothly, clearly deciding to give up his little game for now. "Far better than I was anticipating in fact."
"That's good." Said Hermione, not entirely sure what the appointment had been about, but glad to hear it had gone well. Her mind however, could not help but think that this 'appointment' could have perhaps been him getting up to whatever potentially strange things he got up to in his line of work.
Pushing the thought out of her head as they reached the atrium she turned to face him. "So, are we still on for talking with that archivist this weekend?"
"Don't you have some studying to do with Severus?" Asked Ezra.
"Normally I would but, believe it or not, Severus has actually taken this weekendoff. He gets one a term but usually doesn't take it, I expect Minerva threatened him with something awful like a holiday so that he would actually agree to it for once."
"I'm not surprised." Said Ezra with a laugh, Hermione not failing to notice yet again his apparent familiarity with people she didn't think he knew. "But yes, we should go and see the archivist as soon as we can, but I'm afraid it will have to be on Sunday as something has come up that I must attend to tomorrow." Ezra explained.
"Sounds great." Agreed Hermione. "See you on Sunday."
Despite not sleeping very well, even Leku failing to cheer her up, Hermione arrived at the gates of Malfoy Manor early the next morning. She had decided to take Ezra's absence and not having to go to her lessons with Severus as an opportunity to investigate. She knew she really should have talked to the aurors first before coming here but she had decided that there really wasn't much point, they couldn't say no if she didn't ask after all.
When Hermione thought of the Manor it was always dark, full of painful memories, felt as though the air was thick with poison, but as she saw it now she barely recognised it. The grounds were immaculate, the house in near perfect condition, and it was clear to see that the estate had been restored to its former glory once its unwanted house guests had been removed. Perhaps Lucius had needed something to occupy his now very free time.
Hermione wasn't entirely sure how to go about doing this, there wasn't exactly a protocol for getting into private estates uninvited as far as she knew, and was about to knock on the large black gates when she was startled by a loud crack. An old but not overly grumpy looking house elf had appeared, surprisingly wearing clothes and not appearing to have any bruises.
"Who goes there? And what is your purpose here?" He enquired as he looked her over, a hint of suspicion in his large eyes.
"My name is Hermione Granger, I work for the Department of Research at the Ministry, and I need to talk with Mister Malfoy." She informed him.
"It is not possible." He replied and Hermione's heart sunk. "Because Master is not here today."
Now that really took her by surprise.
"What do you mean, 'not here'?" She asked, utterly confused. "He's under house arrest isn't he?"
"Master has been given a trial release from his estate." The elf explained matter of factly. "Starting today."
"Oh…" Said Hermione, feeling a little bewildered. "I guess I should go then, thank you."
The elf bowed and then with another crack was gone.
Well, there went her plans of asking Malfoy about her suspicions. She could always come back again, or owl him perhaps, but she had been so anxious to find out if he knew anything today that she couldn't help but feel disappointed.
She was surprised to hear that Lucius had been released having only just fulfilled the minimum sentence for his house arrest, especially since she hadn't heard much about him since his trial. Perhaps keeping quiet and out of trouble was the reason for his early release.
Deciding she may as well enjoy what would probably be her only day off in a while, Hermione disapparated straight to Diagon Alley, a certain book store that she hadn't visited in far too long in mind. It was a sunny day and the streets where busy when she arrived, Flourish and Blotts however looked mercifully quiet though, most likely due to the sale that was on at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.
She was about to enter the shop, her hand a mere inch from the handle and certain bliss, when someone called her name. No, not someone, her ex-friend and lover, Ronald Weasley.
"Hermione." He called again, an edge to his voice Hermione wasn't so sure she liked the sound of, and she begrudgingly turned to face him.
"Ronald." She greeted coldly.
"How have you been lately?" He asked, most out of character. Since the break-up, which he had shown little remorse for causing, they had barely been on speaking terms, so it seemed odd that he would be approaching her now. Sure, they saw each other every now and again at reunions or events, but nothing much more than that.
"I heard you've been seen around a lot with some man." He added, and Hermione's blood began to boil, barely registering the light tinkling of a bell as the shop door opened behind her.
"And what does it matter to you if I've been seen around with 'some man', who by the way, is my current partner on an important job for the Minister." She informed him brusquely, beyond irritated at his petty jealousy which he had no right to feel.
"Oh, so you're just working with him." Said Ron with poorly disguised relief, almost seeming to lose interest in the conversation as soon as he found that out.
It was then that Hermione felt a familiar presence at her side, her heart starting to beat just a little bit faster, but as soon as the person spoke she realised that it was not who she thought it was.
"Dear me, Mister Weasley." He drawled. "Still jealous after all this time? How odiously dull." He said with thinly veiled disgust. "Although, I imagine most men would be jealous to see Miss Granger with another man, especially if they'd been a fool and lost her in the first place."
"This is none of your business Malfoy." Spat Ron. "And what the hell are you doing out of your estate?"
"Well, considering I'm out an about in Diagon Alley and not sneaking around in the darkness as I imagine you would expect, perhaps, if you used the few brain cells that you probably have, you would work out that I have been released from my house arrest." Said Lucius with an arrogance Hermione was sure only he could pull off. Well, maybe there was someone else she knew that could do that too…
Ron spluttered a bit, clearly unable to think of a response, and looked about to reach for his wand when Hermione stepped in.
"Ron, it's probably best that you go now." She said calmly, her words laced with an undertone that told him it was more an order than suggestion.
He frowned, the grip on his wand tightening visibly with his frustration, but he decided to be sensible, for once, and heeded her words, storming off down the busy street after trying, and failing, to give Lucius a menacing glare.
It took a minute for Hermione to come to her senses before finally realising who she was now alone with, his presence so similar to Ezra's that she felt far too relaxed.
"Thank you, Mister Malfoy." She said politely, finally turning to face him. Hermione didn't like him, perhaps in the past she had even hated him, but right now she appreciated his help.
"It was nothing, it has been a long time since I've had the misfortune of seeing a Weasley, not long enough however, so it really was my pleasure." He said with a slight smile.
Hermione couldn't help the single laugh that escaped her lips, agreeing with his somewhat unpleasant words. As she took in Lucius, she realised why her subconscious had mistaken him for Ezra. They were a very similar height and stature, both of them wore robes of a high quality, and, now that she had an up close look at his face, she noticed that they had the same striking grey eyes.
"Mister Malfoy, do you have time to talk?" She blurted out before she had time to think, suddenly remembering her earlier mission.
"Well, after five years of near solitude I suppose I do, yes." Lucius agreed far more politely than she would have expected. "Although, why you want to talk to me I'm sure I have absolutely no idea."
"Books." She said, panicking.
"Books?" He questioned, another smile appearing on his lips. "I thought that was a subject you were more than well informed on."
"Well yes, it is, I just-" Hermione flustered, unsure as to why she felt so uneasy around him, and not in the way she would have expected herself too. She felt nervous, but not because she was scared of him, or angry at him, or filled with the animosity she was sure she felt towards him, it was almost the type of nervousness you felt when…well, she didn't want to think about that.
"Shall we go into the shop then?" Suggested Lucius saving her from any further opportunities to embarrass herself. "If you want to talk about 'books'." He added with a raised eyebrow which told her that he was thoroughly unconvinced that that was really the case.
"Sure." Hermione agreed, trying hard to come back to her senses.
As Lucius led her through the shop to a quiet corner near the back, Hermione could not stop thinking. What in Merlin's name was happening? Why was Lucius Malfoy being friendly towards her, let alone civil? And why was she following him without any hesitation? Perhaps he had changed during his five years of relative isolation, or maybe he didn't want to risk upsetting one of the golden trio and get locked up again, although, that hadn't stopped him from putting Ron in his place. Sighing, she decided just to go with it for now, she needed to talk to him and now was a good a time as any and she supposed she should take advantage of it.
Asking Lucius Malfoy sensitive questions in a dark corner of a book shop, what could possibly go wrong?
Not sure how I feel about this chapter, but it needed to be written so here it is.
At least a certain Malfoy has finally made an appearence...