Chapter 10:

The group had been sitting in silence in the interrogation room for what semed like hours, but must have only been a few minutes.

Ron was the first to speak. "Now what?"

Hermione took a deep breath and then spoke. "Well what do we know?"

"Nothing," Harry said, standing from his seat. He began walking in circles. "I don't feel like I know anything anymore."

"Calm down, Potter," Draco said rubbing his forehead. "Stop it with the melodrama." Harry looked like he wanted to snap back but he let it go. "Granger, make a list of everything that happened. Starting at the beginning."

Hermione found her bag and pulled a notepad and quill from it.

She stared at the paper for a moment trying to remember what happened first. What did it start with? "Pansy's attack that happened first," she said, writing it on the paper.

"Yes," Harry said, "Then there was the Dark Mark over Andromeda's."

Hermione scrawled that down as fast as she could.
"Yes, and then my mother's vault was broken into. Or at least that's when they found out about it," Draco said. Hermione wrote that down too.

"Then Malfoy was attacked again," Ron added.

"Then me and Her-Granger were attacked," Malfoy said. Hermione paused her writing for a second and looked at him. He had almost called her Hermione. She didn't say anything and kept writing.

"Wait, no," Harry said. Hermione paused her quill. "Azkaban was attacked before you were both attacked, right?"

"Yeah I think that's right," Ron agreed.

Hermione crossed out what she had just written and wrote Azkaban attack, she then wrote down her and Draco's attack.

"Then Malfoy's mother was killed," Ron said.

Hermione started to right that before Draco's words stopped her. "No the order was started before that. When did that happen?"

All three boys began to talk at once. Hermione couldn't understand a word they were saying.

"Stop it," She said, "Everyone needs to slow down." She drew an 'X' through the page and flipped to the next piece of paper. "Okay now start again from the beginning, slowly. Make sure it's in the right order."

They went through everything again and finally had the finished list.

Pansy's Attack

Dark Mark at Andromeda's

Narcissa's vault break in

Malfoy's second attack

Azkaban Attack

Hermione and Malfoy's attack

Order Restarted

Narcissa Malfoy dead

Muggle London Attack

Bellatrix

Ron's leg

Kingsley dead

Second Horcrux?

Grimmauld Place is attacked

Move to Manor

Bill and Pansy go out

Manor is attacked

Draco is killed

Hermione sends memories back

Hermione ripped the paper off of the notepad after reading it over and handed it to Harry. "Put this somewhere safe with the rest of the evidence."

Harry nodded and took the paper

"Now we need to figure out how, when, and why Bellatrix came back," Draco sad leaning back in his chair.

"We should check on Pansy. Her attack happens first. We have a little over a month's head start," Harry said.

"We need to figure out why she targeted who she did. Some of it just seems random," Hermione said standing she began to pace.

"Well I can figure why she attacked me and my mother and even Andromeda," Draco said. "Revenge. Payback for being traitors in her eyes."

"Yes but why Pansy?" Hermione asked, turning to Draco.

He simply looked back at her seeming unsure if she actually wanted him to answer or not. Ron interrupted the silence.

"We need to start by protecting anyone that could be attacked and that includes the two of you," he said gesturing to Hermione and Draco.

"We don't have the resources for that, Ron," Hermione argued.

"She's right, Weasley. And besides, we won't get anything done if Granger are locked up in Potter's house," Draco said. "If we're being watched and we make too drastic of a move, it will get noticed."

"You're right, Malfoy," Harry said. His arms were crossed and he was staring at the floor in front of him, thinking. "We don't have the power to protect everyone right now and I don't want to get the order involved yet. We start with Pansy and work from there, but none of us should be alone if it can be avoided."

They all nodded in agreement.

"I'll talk to Pansy and Blaise. Keep an eye on them. Try and figure out why Pansy was attacked, or may be attacked I guess," Draco said.

"Harry, you should recheck all the recent records to see if there's any dark activity that you missed," Hermione said. Harry nodded. "We also need to get into Narcissa's vault." Hermione looked to Draco.

He looked up from the ground at her and nodded. "I'll work on that too."

Hermione nods and then looks at the clock hanging on the wall. It was getting late and there was only so long they could all stress about this. "We all need to get some rest. We can start again tomorrow." The boys nodded in agreement.

"Are you sure you'll be okay by yourself, Hermione," Harry said.
"Yes, Harry. Draco was right, if I move out of my house now, we'll get noticed."

Draco's eyebrows perked up slightly at the mention of his first name, but Hermione pretended she hadn't noticed.

"At least let me bring you home." Harry said.

"Harry stop. You should go see Ginny. Stop worrying about me," Hermione said. She then stopped Ron as he opened his mouth. "You too Ronald. Go see your mother for merlin's sake."

They both went to argue again but this time Draco stopped them.

"I'll take her home," he said. "She's clearly not going to let either of you do it, so for fucks sake just go home to your bloody family, and I'll make sure Granger doesn't spontaneously combust."

Neither Harry or Ron looked too happy with this and Hermione wasn't sure how she felt but no one argued with him.

They all began to gather their stuff and leave. Hermione grabbed her notepad and placed it back into her bag.

Then Harry and Ron left headed off to the burrow and Hermione left with Malfoy.

Hermione stood next to Draco Malfoy on the sidewalk outside of her flat. They had apparated from the Ministry to her street.

"Why did you offer to bring me home?" she asked, breaking the silence as they walked towards the door.

"Because they weren't going to let you go home alone and you clearly weren't going to let them come with you, so I offered. That way everyones frustrated and no one got what they wanted," he said.

Hermione laughed at that. It was a surprising but genuine answer. "Well thank you I guess," she said as they got to the door.

"This whole thing doesn't make us friends, Granger," he suddenly said. "You don't need to thank me. I'm just doing what I have to."

That made Hermione confused and frustrated. "Well, you don't have to do anything."

They just stood and looked at each other in uncomfortable silence for a few moments before Draco turned on his heel and walked down the street without saying anything else.

Hermione let herself into her house and closed the door behind her.

Draco didn't know why he had said that. He knew he believed himself, this didn't make them friends, but then why was he so confused and angry about it?

He had basically walked the girl home just to tell her to fuck off.

He didn't seem to know how to interact with Granger without being a prick to her. He tried to do something nice and then all of a sudden just turned around and was an arse.

He groaned and apparated to the Manor.

He didn't know what to do about Hermione Granger. He didn't care how Weasley or Potter felt, or what they thought of him, but he didn't want to disappoint Hermione Granger. He didn't necessarily want to impress her, but he didn't want to give her another reason to hate him.

He had really helped himself out with that one tonight.

He groaned again as he made his way through the Manor to his room. He needed this day to be over and for him to just go to sleep.

Hermione had woken up the next morning and went into the Ministry to meet the boys just like she said they would.

As she stepped out of the floo she saw a familiar blonde head a couple of paces in front of her. She jogged slightly to catch up. "Are you on your way to meet Harry and Ron too?" she said, not really sure of what else to say.

Malfoy looked at her slightly confused. "Yes?" He said. "That is what we agreed we would do yesterday."

Hermione nodded but didn't say anything.

The two of them walked in silence together all the way to the Auror department. They had attracted a few strange glances here and there but they both pretended not to notice.

When they arrived to the Auror department, Hermione could see Ron and Harry down the hall talking to a coworker.

"Harry. Ron," Hermione called out, getting there attention.

Harry and Ron said their goodbyes to the coworker and made their way over to Hermione and Malfoy. Harry did not stop to talk to them but instead nodded his head as a gesture to follow him.

Harry led them to his office and shut the door behind them.

"Today I'm going to look into everything I have to see if theres and dark activity, or anything pointing to Bellatrix being back," he said to all of them. "If any of you hear, see, feel, anything. You tell me. And if you can't find me then you tell another one of us."

"What do you want us to do, Harry?" Ron asked.

"I need you guys to just act normal. We're going on absolutely nothing right now. We don't even know if she's back yet. We're chasing smoke. If we're being watched and we get more noticed then we may already be, she'll disappear and we'll never get her. At normal, but don't get comfortable. Constant vigilance."

Hermione's mouth quirked at Mad-Eye's coined phrase.

"Potter, I'm going to set up a dinner with Pansy and Blaise," Malfoy said. "I'll see if I can get any information out of them. It's quite normal for the three of us to be together. It won't be suspicious."

"Good," Harry said.

"So that's it?" Hermione said. "We just sit around and wait? For what? At what point do we do something?"

"Well first we need to get into the vault and see if she's even back yet," Harry said.

"And if she is?"
Harry didn't seem to know how to answer.

"We might have to just wait until the day of Pansy's attack," Ron said.

Harry rubbed his forehead, seeming distressed. Malfoy crossed his arms and began slowly pacing the office. Hermione wasn't very fond of the idea either.

"Ron's right," Harry said.

"I know he's bloody right, but that doesn't mean it's good," Draco said turning back to the group. "Pansy's attack is the first thing we have on the timeline. There's a really good chance we're not going to find anything at all until then."

"Which means-" Ron said.

"Which means, that in order to stop Pansy's attack, we're going to have to be there," Hermione finished.

"Stop it," Harry demanded. "We're not there yet. We still have time to try and figure this out. We have a month's head start."

No one said anything else.

They had meetings like that every morning for a week and a half with nothing happening. One morning Draco finally had some semi good news.

"I finally got a dinner together with Blaise and Pansy," he said. "For tonight."

"That's good," Hermione said.

Harry was still stressed. "What about your mother's vault?"

Malfoy sighed. "She's harder," he said. "My mother doesn't like people having access to her private things and on top of that she works at her own pace. It's hard to convince her when I can't tell her why."

"Well try harder," Harry half shouted.

"You-" Draco went to jump at him.

"Stop it." Hermione had gotten very good at defusing all of the boys anger over the past week. Everyone had gotten quite stressed out and high strung which made fights quite frequent.

Draco took a breath and then continued speaking. "I have mostly convinced her to let us into the vault, but she has to be at least in Gringotts when it happens and she saying 'she'll get around to it'."

Harry groaned, took a breath and recollected himself. "Alright, keep working on your mother and go to dinner with Blaise and Pansy."

Draco nodded.

"Should he really be going out with them alone," Ron said. Hermione seemed surprised at Ron's slight gesture of concern. "I mean, we know that they're being targeted."
"We're all being targeted, Weasley, and besides it will be more suspicious if any of you are there. And Pansy and Blaise won't talk if they think this has anything to do with you," Draco said.

"Malfoy's right," Hermione agreed. She looked at him. "Be careful."

He nodded.

"Alright we'll meet again tomorrow and talk about what Malfoy found out," Harry said.

Draco sat at a table in a fancy restaurant waiting for his friends to arrive. He gently adjusted his dress robes as he saw them walk in.

Pansy wore a fitted black dress which matched her pale complexion and her blunt black bob and bangs. Blaise wore black dress robes which reflected a tinge of green when he turned in the light. Blaise always wore a grin on his dark skinned face.

"Hey Draco, Blaise said sitting down to Draco's right.

Pansy seemed a little irritated Blaise hadn't pulled out her chair for her, but she didn't say anything. Pansy was like that, quite a priss. "Hello, Drake."

He didn't like that nickname. But Pansy persistently called him Drake. He had heard her call him that in the memories and was disappointed to see it had stuck in the future.

Pansy sat down across from Draco and next to Blaise.

"It's good to see you both," Draco said. He was oddly tense. He felt like he was lying them, and Draco had no problem with lying, he lied all the time, but it felt like there was a lot more riding on this lie then usual, and it was more likely he was going to get found out.

Blaise and Pansy were two of the only people that could call his bluffs, and on top of that they were also two of the pushiest people he knew. If you wanted someone to get answers Blaise and Pansy were the people you called. They were not, however, the people that gave answers.

"So, Draco. Why have you been spending so much time with the golden trio?" Pansy asked, not even opening her menu first. Draco internally groaned.

"How would you even know I was spending time with them, Pans? You don't even work at the Ministry," Draco said. Pansy didn't have a job. She was an heiress, that was her job. She spent most of her time shopping, bossing people around, and occasionally helping her father out with their family business.

Blaise, on the other hand was a Magical Law Enforcement investigator. They were both always telling Pansy she would be good in that department. Draco had been feeling like an investigator a lot lately, but really he worked in the Department of International Cooperation.

"I have my ways of knowing things Draco Malfoy," Pansy said.

"She's right you've been around them a lot lately," Blaise added.

Draco internally groaned. This is exactly what he hadn't wanted to happen. "It's for work."

"I mean we figured that much Draco," Blaise said.

"What the hell does the Department of International Cooperation have to do with the aurors?" Pansy asked.

"Why does it matter?" Draco said picking up his menu trying to move past this conversation.

"Because it's suspicious enough that the golden trio is working together again," Blaise said leaning towards Draco. "Why are you working with them too?"

"Does it have to do with your attack?" Pansy leaned in closer too. They were all whispering now.

Draco considered it for a moment. "Yes." It was almost the truth and maybe that answer would get the two of them off his back.

"Well then why don't you just talk to us about it?" Pansy said.

"Just drop it okay? I'm not allowed to talk about it even if I wanted to so drop it," Draco said. He then leaned back and took a deep breath. "So what's been going on in your lives?"

Pansy and Blaise looked at each other seeming to consider if they wanted to push Draco anymore. They decided against it. "Things have been good."

Draco mostly made conversation with Pansy. For the first time in his life Blaise didn't seem to have much to say. He would still smile and laugh and interact with them, but he seemed focused on something else.

"How's your family Pansy?" Draco asked at one point.

"They're….good," she said. Something didn't seem right. Even Blaise looked suspicious at that.

"Pans? What's up?"

"I don't know," she said looking between the two of them. "My father has just been acting really strange and I don't know why."

"How so?" Draco asked putting his fork down.

"He's just been very closed off. He's constantly on the floo with someone and I don't know who it is. He's always sending out letters himself rather than giving them to the elves to send out. It's just strange," she said.

That doesn't sound good, Draco thought to himself.

"I'm sure it's fine Pansy, probably just business," Draco said. He needed to tell someone this. Now.

Hermione sat alone in her living room watching the muggle news. Suddenly there was banging on her door.

It was late at night. She had no idea who could be at the door. She wasn't expecting anyone.

She stood up and grabbed her wand, slowly making her way over to the door. The banging happened again.

She opened the door with her wand ready, but was shocked at who she found. "Malfoy?"

"Pansy's father is talking to death eaters."