Chapter Eleven.
After Blaise's visit with the pensieve he didn't return for another three days and when he did return he had Theo with him. Hermione let the three boys catch up while she made some lunch. As they settled down to eat the conversation turned to the reason Theo was visiting, to keep them up to date with news back home.
"Is it bad?" Hermione asked.
"Pretty bad, yeah." Theo nodded, grimacing as he thought of the horrific headlines and the articles that painted Hermione as a monster. "I've got copies of all the papers, but you don't have to look at them."
"No, I want to." Hermione said, knowing she had to face up to what was being said about her.
"Let's finish lunch first." Draco suggested, not wanting to get the papers out while they were eating.
Everyone else nodded in agreement and the situation they were in wasn't mentioned for the remainder of the meal. However the second they finished eating Hermione cleared the plates away while Theo grabbed the stack of papers from his bag and placed them on the kitchen table.
"Are you sure about this?" Draco asked Hermione as she eyed the newspapers warily. "You don't have to read them."
"Yes, I do." Hermione replied determinedly.
The next hour and a half passed by in silence as Hermione and Draco ploughed through the stack of papers Theo had brought with him. It was very clear from what they read that Hermione was the Aurors only suspect and on several occasions they only just stopped short of actually calling her guilty. Draco had also been dragged into things as word had quickly spread that he was involved with Hermione. The fact he hadn't been seen since before the wedding hadn't gone unnoticed and he was just as much wanted by the Aurors as Hermione was.
"This is not looking good." Hermione announced as she threw the last of the papers back onto the table. Her guilt seemed like a forgone conclusion and Hermione knew if the Aurors ever caught her she'd be thrown in Azkaban without question and after some of the hateful articles she'd read she knew she would never get a fair trial.
"No, it's not." Theo agreed. "The Aurors and the press have made their minds up about you. Everyone thinks you're guilty."
"Not everyone." Draco said, wrapping his arm around Hermione. "I know Hermione's innocent, I just need you two to prove it."
"How are we going to do that?" Blaise questioned. "Don't get me wrong I want to prove Hermione's innocence as much as you, I just don't see how we can achieve it."
"If you look at this logically there's three explanations. The one the Aurors, and everyone else, have chosen to believe is that Hermione killed Weasley and fled to avoid capture." Draco said. "We know that's not true, so we're left with the other two options."
"Which are?" Blaise questioned.
"First, someone is trying to frame Hermione for some reason. They've killed her husband, not knowing the real situation, and set her up to take the fall." Draco answered. "And second is my personal choice, someone killed Weasley and just used Hermione's drugged state to frame her."
"That second option sounds pretty plausible." Blaise nodded thoughtfully. "Weasley was an Auror, he'll have dozens of enemies."
"There's plenty of people to choose from." Theo laughed bitterly. "Azkaban is full of people vowing vengeance on the people that put them there."
"Surely we can rule out people in prison." Hermione said. "They're locked up, they can't have killed Ron."
"Just because they couldn't have done it in person doesn't mean they can't be behind it." Theo told the witch. "A lot of people in Azkaban still have solid connections to the outside world and if they really wanted Weasley dead, they could achieve it."
"Before we start jumping to conclusions, we need to check out Weasley's life in greater detail. We need to know everything about him." Draco said, taking charge of the meeting. "We also need a list of anyone who might hold a grudge against him."
"Theo and I can do that." Blaise reassured Draco. "Give us a few days and we'll have a complete picture of Weasley's life."
"Thank guys, we appreciate it." Draco smiled at his two best friends, grateful for everything they were doing for him and Hermione.
"Don't put yourselves in any danger though." Hermione warned the duo, knowing that like Draco they both had a bit of a reckless streak. "I don't want either of you getting arrested or anything."
"Don't worry about us Hermione, we're Slytherins. We're used to being sneaky and getting away with things." Blaise grinned at Hermione.
"Just be careful." Hermione insisted, smiling softly at Blaise's confidence.
"We will." Theo reassured her. "I promise."
Hermione smiled gratefully at Theo. She knew Blaise was actually taking the situation seriously but she appreciated Theo's reassurance that they would be careful.
"We should be off." Blaise announced as him and Theo stood up. "I need to be getting back to Milan and Theo should be heading back home."
"Yeah, I told Daphne I would be home for dinner." Theo said.
"Thanks again." Draco told his friends. "Hopefully we'll be seeing you soon."
"Hopefully with something that will help." Blaise remarked as the foursome left the house and wandered down to the dock.
At the dock Blaise and Theo jumped into the boat and promising to keep Draco and Hermione updated they sped off back to the mainland. Draco and Hermione stood watching the boat for several minutes before turning back to the house.
"Do you want to go for a walk?" Hermione asked, stopping Draco as he began to head up towards the house.
"Sure." Draco nodded and turned back towards Hermione.
Hand in hand the couple set off along the beach, discussing what was going to happen next. It was hard for both of them to remain on the island and let other people do the investigating for them but it was their only choice. They would just have to trust that Blaise and Theo could discover something crucial that could help prove Hermione's innocence.
Theo sighed in relief as he neared the bottom of his stack of newspapers. It had been five days since he and Blaise had agreed to help poke around in Weasley's life but he hadn't expected it to be so tedious. Blaise had immediately announced he would look into Weasley's private life, meaning Theo was stuck looking into cases he had worked on as an Auror.
Obviously Theo had no access to official Ministry documents so he was having to make do with scouring the newspapers for mentions of Weasley's cases. Luckily with his connection to Potter and the part he played in the war his career was widely reported on in the press. Unluckily he'd been involved in a lot of cases, meaning Theo's list of potential suspects was pretty long.
Looking at the long list in front of him, Theo could only hope Blaise had something a bit more solid to go on. It would take months to investigate everyone on his list, not to mention the friends and family of the people Weasley had been responsible for incarcerating. However the previous day he'd seen Blaise and his friend had hinted that he was onto something, Theo just hoped for everyone's sake he was right.
"Theo." Daphne Greengrass, Theo's fiancée, called as she entered his study. "Dinner's nearly ready. You need to go and get changed before Pansy arrives."
"Why is Pansy coming for dinner?" Theo grimaced. He wasn't fond of Pansy Parkinson, a witch they went to school with, but she was a good friend of Daphne's so he often had to tolerate her.
"Because I invited her." Daphne replied, glaring at Theo. "Now go and get dressed, and don't be rude tonight."
Sighing Theo packed up his work and locked it in his desk. It wasn't that he didn't trust Daphne with what he was doing, he just wanted to keep her out of things in case anything went wrong. The Aurors had already visited him asking about Draco and if they returned he didn't want Daphne to have to lie to them as well. Luckily he was a fairly good liar and had claimed not have seen Draco since just before the wedding, but Daphne wasn't such a believable liar and would soon end up tripping herself up if she knew anything.
Once everything was packed away Theo headed upstairs to get changed. Just as he was coming down the stairs there was a knock on the door and Daphne let Pansy into the house. Greeting Pansy in a friendly manner, Theo led the way into the dining room and poured drinks for everyone as Daphne sorted the food.
Over dinner Theo's conversational skills weren't needed as the two witches were quite happy to talk to each other. Pansy happily chatted about her shop and the new pieces of jewellery she was making while Daphne was more than happy to talk about the wedding plans she was just starting to make. However after dinner the trio headed into the front room and they were no sooner seated then Pansy brought up Draco.
"Isn't it awful what's happening with Draco?" She gushed. "Can you believe he's gotten himself involved with a killer?"
"We don't know she killed him, Pansy." Daphne tutted at her friend. "The Hermione Granger I know would never kill anyone."
"Look at the facts, Daph." Pansy argued. "Her husband was found dead in their bed, his face beaten to a pulp and she was nowhere to be found. Clearly she's as guilty as sin."
Theo frowned at Pansy's words, something she had said didn't sit right with him, but before he had a chance to work out what it was she was speaking to him.
"Sorry, what did you say Pansy?" Theo asked, not quite hearing what Pansy had asked him.
"I asked if you've heard anything from Draco." Pansy said. "I've tried getting in touch with him, but I'm getting nowhere. I know all the papers reckon he's hiding Granger, but if he is I'm worried that he's not safe with her."
"I'm sure wherever he is, he's safe." Theo reassured Pansy.
"Do you know where he is?" Pansy asked, scrutinising Theo closely.
"Not a clue." Theo sighed, feigning ignorance. "I actually saw him the weekend of the wedding, but he said he wanted to be alone so Blaise and I left him to wallow in his misery."
"You knew about him and Granger?" Pansy asked in surprise.
"Yes." Theo nodded. "He'd brought her over for dinner a few times."
"She always seemed so nice." Daphne sighed wistfully. She'd only met Hermione a few times but she had really liked her. "I thought she and Draco were the real thing, I was so shocked to hear she was marrying someone else."
"Weren't we all?" Theo said.
"I can't believe you knew about them and didn't tell me." Pansy huffed. She'd only found out about the relationship by accident when she'd visited Draco's flat one night and spotted them together, she had no idea they had been telling some people about their relationship.
"It wasn't our place to tell." Daphne told her friend. "Draco and Hermione were keeping it quiet for their own reasons."
"Yeah, you know Lucius would never have approved. Even from Azkaban he could have been a problem for them." Theo said. "Not to mention Hermione's friends and how they would have reacted to her being with Draco."
"I guess." Pansy shrugged, inwardly smirking as she thought of how Ron had reacted when she'd told him of their relationship. To be honest she could understand why they wanted to keep their relationship quiet if Ron's reaction was anything to go off. "He still could have told me though." She pouted. "I'm his friend, I could have kept the secret."
Theo snorted quietly, but didn't say anything. He knew that Draco hadn't told Pansy because he didn't trust her. Pansy may have accepted she wasn't ever going to get Draco for herself, but she was still so obsessed with him that she would have hated to see him happy with Hermione. Draco had feared she would become vindictive if she knew the truth and reveal his relationship to Lucius.
As Daphne expertly changed the subject, Theo sat and pondered on what had bothered him earlier. However he couldn't find anything amiss as he replayed the conversation in his head. If there was something it would likely come to him later, when he wasn't trying to force the issue. For now he pushed the previous conversation to one side and joined in on the girl's current conversation.