Chapter Four
The body was discovered a little after four in the morning. Hermione Granger had been awoken by Harry's patronus flashing through her room delivering the news. She'd climbed out of bed in a rush, accidentally stepping on Crookshanks in the process. He meowed loudly and ran beneath the bed. She muttered apologies as she dressed. She took one look at herself in the mirror and grumbled at her frizzy curls. She struggled for a moment to twist her hair into a messy knot a the base of her neck. Once she was dressed, she flooed to the ministry, directly into Harry's office.
He wasn't there. Instead, Malfoy turned from where he was staring out the window, his eyes sharp. "Granger," he said, "where's Potter?"
"He's probably at the crime scene. We should wait for him in case he has anything he needs to tell us."
He nodded, eyes drifting to the window once more. He looked as good as ever, not a hair out of place, his robes just showing a hint of the slate gray suit he wore underneath. She felt jealous of him; she was exhausted and it showed. There were dark smudges under her eyes from lack of sleep and curls were already starting to escape her bun. She smoothed her hands over her skirt, then cursed herself silently.
She could not become nervous and self conscious around Malfoy just because he was good looking. She was above this! She should've never have gone to that lunch. Their relationship had shifted… She no longer felt hostile towards him; instead, she felt like talking to him, trying to get him to laugh, as if they were friends. She wanted to ask him what his opinion on the new policy that the International Magical Cooperation Department was proposing next week. He'd had such an interesting take on the bill passed last month prohibiting the testing on magical creatures…
"Granger?"
She blinked. "Yes?"
"You're staring."
She flushed. "Sorry. I'm having trouble remaining awake. Haven't been sleeping much..."
He smirked at her, folding his arms and resting against the edge of Harry's desk. "Things keeping you up at night?"
His smug smile lit something in Hermione; call it habit. "Some of us have a heart and lose sleep when people die, Malfoy," she snapped testily
His expression turned dark. He pushed away from the desk, striding towards her, the shadows of Harry's office playing off the side of his face. He stopped in front of her."I want to catch him as much as you do, Granger," he said darkly, voice soft. She took a step back as he advanced on her. His voice was low,"I was trying to be friendly- tease you, even- but if you want to go back to the way things were before, I can do that as well. I can do it in a heartbeat."
She swallowed, looking up at his face. He hovered over her, surrounding her, smelling of leather and something different. "You say that like things had changed."
He smirked, eyes cold. "They had. Deny it all you want, but something's changed between us," his eyes dipped to her mouth, then back to her eyes, "do what you will with that information."
And he was gone.
"Mione!" Harry said upon seeing her. Hermione stood up from the chair, rushing around Harry's desk.
"What happened?"
"This one is… different," he threw his robes across his desk, voice heavy with stress. His wild black hair was as messy as ever and his glasses seemed to be sliding down the bridge of his nose.
A chill crawled up Hermione's back and she folded her arms. "What do you mean, different?"
"There was a letter this time."
"Letter?" She asked in disbelief. "Let me see it."
"It'll be delivered to your office later," he fell into his chair and scrubbed at his eyes, shoving his glasses into his hair in the process. "It was disturbing to say the least. Mckinley is looking over it now in his office, scanning it for traces of magic.
"That's not even the worst of it. The body… it was in a much worse condition than the others."
Hermione took a seat in the chair opposite him. "What do you mean?"
"It was obvious who had done it; traces of the cruciatus, throat cut, wand snapped. But there was also… mutilation. It looked as if the murderer had carved a dozen or so symbols into her skin."
"Symbols?" She hissed, leaning forward. She summoned her back and whipped out a paper and quill, shoving them towards him. "Can you draw it?"
Wearily he nodded, tugging the parchment towards him. He scribbled a quick, crude drawing, then spun it so that it faced her. She frowned. Triangular, the bottom line slashed through the top two at an awkward angle.
"It's an A," she muttered.
Harry frowned, twisting his head to get a look at it. "Doesn't look like an A to me."
"I'm telling you," she rubbed her bottom lip with her thumb, lost in thought, "it's an A."
"Do you want to discuss your theories with Malfoy?" Harry asked. "The pair of you are supposed to have a meeting with the aurors discussing your theories next week, aren't you? The minister is going to have our heads if we don't find this guy and fast."
Hermione stood, not meeting Harry's eyes as she reached for her bag. After the conversation with Malfoy, she didn't really want to discuss him. "I'll speak with him about my ideas," she shouldered her bag, "we'll help you catch him, Harry. Malfoy may be a git, but he's smart."
"Malfoy will never be as smart as you, no matter how hard he tries," Harry gave her an encouraging smile. "So don't worry too much. If anyone finds this guy, it's going to be you, Hermione."
She was sure he'd meant his words to be encouraging, but they just added to the weight on her already heavy shoulders.
Normally, she went straight to Malfoy's office. They'd been working together for a few weeks now and had fallen into the routine of working in his office. It was quieter, in a more secluded part of the department and fewer people walked by. If they were to get into a shouting match or -on the rare occasion- when they started throwing hexes, nobody was bothered. But today, Hermione enclosed herself in her office and waited for the letter.
Malfoy had come looking for her.
"Granger!" He bellowed from outside, pounding on her door. She eyed the door as if it had offended her. She hoped he'd go away. When he didn't, she waved her wand at the door, irritated that he'd made a scene. A few people loitered outside, looking interested. Malfoy stormed in, kicking the door shut behind him.
"What?" She snapped.
"You were supposed to come to my office after your meeting with Potter."
She turned her gaze towards the window. "I don't appreciate you making a scene, Malfoy. You could've sent me a note."
He glowered at her. "What did Potter say."
"I'm waiting for the evidence from the crime scene."
"And he said nothing about it?" he looked irritated with her. He strode forward, resting his hands on her desk, leaning forward. His white hair was falling into his eyes. She tried to ignore the twist in her stomach at the what his nearness was doing to her.
"I don't appreciate you barging in here, Malfoy," she pushed to her feet, "and I certainly don't appreciate the way you cornered me in Harry's office earlier. You are not my superior, so stop acting as if you are!"
His eyebrows shot up, disappearing into his white locks. His usual smirk slid onto his face, but this time there was something… suggestive there. "I rather like when you boss me around, Granger," his voice took on a soft quality, "it's as if we're back in school."
She opened her mouth to say something just as a letter appeared in the air in a sharp spin, landing on the desk like a top, twirling on one sharp corner before tipping and landing on the desk. The moment between them was ruined and Malfoy leaned backwards as Hermione reached for the thick envelope.
She shook out the contents and they spread across her desk. She gaped at the photographs. The woman had been horribly disfigured, the crude- nearly illegible- letter A carved into her skin. Malfoy cursed, reaching for a photo.
"He's escalating," he said.
"It's probably because Harry won't let anything into the papers," Hermione said absentmindedly. Harry hadn't wanted to cause a panic. The wizarding world was still trying to find peace after the fall of Voldemort and he didn't think that publicizing such a vicious crime would do any good.
Hermione hadn't agreed.
"This is madness," Malfoy spat. "Potter can't expect to keep this quiet for much longer. Look at this woman! And what on earth does this letter A mean?"
She turned sharply towards him. "You think it's an A as well?"
"Of course I do," he frowned at her, the picture hanging forgotten in his hand. "Do you not?"
"No, I came to the same conclusion." She started to shuffle the pictures out of the way, scanning the auror report quickly before finding what she really was looking for. She fell into the chair, holding the parchment, her heart sinking and her stomach twisting as she read.
"What's that?"
"A letter," Hermione mumbled, reading through it once more.
Malfoy moved to stand behind her to read over her shoulder. "From?"
"The killer."
To whom it may concern,
I was born with blood that others crave.
Blood that is better
Than the woman you seek to avenge.
I cannot help the need to kill
No more than a poet
With the inspiration to sing.
I hope the infamous Miss Granger can solve my puzzle.
I wish her luck.
"He threatened you?" Malfoy reached forward and plucked the paper from her fingers.
"It wasn't quite a threat."
"It most certainly is a threat!" Malfoy shot her a look of disbelief. "And Potter didn't mention this to you in his office? Has he lost his mind?"
"He mentioned the letter," she picked at a piece of lint on her skirt, not meeting Malfoy's intense gaze, "but he didn't think to tell me that I was addressed personally."
"Of course he didn't," Malfoy snarled. "This psychopath is threatening you and Potter doesn't even mention it? He's a bloody idiot, Granger, I don't care if he's your friend."
Hermione said nothing, reaching for the letter. Malfoy released it without a fight. She started to gather them into a pile, shuffling them until they were neat enough to slide back into the envelope. She stood. "Let's go back to your office and look over this."
He eyed her. After a long moment of staring, he tore his gaze away and strode towards the door, yanking it open. He stood there, waiting for her. She hurried through the door, muttering an advanced locking charm on her office that had Malfoy raising his eyebrows. She started towards his office, but something caught her eye. A young woman was sitting at her desk reading a magazine, her face hidden as she held it up close to her face. Hermione gaped at the cover of witch weekly.
Blossoming Office Romance between war hero Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy
Beneath the caption was Hermione and Malfoy sitting in the cafe, leaning in towards each other, laughing and smiling, looking much to interested in one another.