Hermione stared at her best friend. He was filthy and dishevelled but for the most part seemed unharmed.
"Back to my office, now. Your mother too, Malfoy," he said, and turned back to the fireplace, scooping up the pot of floo powder.
Draco shouted for his mother, rather than going to her room. She appeared in the doorway almost immediately, looking tired and irritable. She opened her mouth to speak but Hermione cut her off.
"Harry, wait!" Hermione gasped. "What happened? Astoria-did you find her?"
"Not here," he said sharply, and saying nothing more, Harry threw the floo powder into the fireplace and disappeared with a yell and a blur of green flames and his black robes.
Hermione took a deep breath and followed Harry's lead. She could feel Draco's eyes watching her every move but refused to meet them. Finding out what had happened to Astoria was her main priority now. Their kiss was a temporary lapse of judgement, and there would be no more talking of it.
When she stepped out of the fireplace in Harry's office, he was pacing the floor in the centre of the room, one hand running through his hair and the other gripping his wand tightly at his side.
She felt a hand brush the bottom of her back, indicating Draco's arrival. She quickly darted away from him and perched herself on the edge of Ron's desk. Narcissa thankfully arrived last and missed the moment between Hermione and her son.
"Harry, can you please just tell us what's going on?" Hermione asked.
He stopped pacing and turned to face her. "We haven't got Astoria."
"What?!" both Draco and Hermione asked in unison.
Harry launched into an explanation about the raid, the members of the Knights of Walpurgis that were arrested, and his interview with Markus, who had revealed that there were more members that weren't at the Riddle house that night. He had also told Harry that they had means of communication in the group, and that the other members would know by now about the Auror raid. Harry voiced his suspicions that the Knights of Walpurgis had access to something along similar lines to the Death Eaters' dark marks, or Hermione's fake Galleons.
"So, that's everything," he concluded. "We had to bring you both here because if they have managed to get messages to other members that weren't at the old Riddle house, then your safety is compromised. I'd rather have you here."
He said this last part to Hermione rather than the other two, but Hermione had quickly turned her attention to Draco after she had heard about Astoria's betrayal. He had taken a seat at Harry's desk on the other side of the room, both of his elbows were placed on the desk and he was rubbing his temples. His forehead was lined as was usually the case when he was deep in thought. Hermione found herself wondering what could possibly be going through his mind. She was barely able to process the idea herself and Astoria was nothing to her.
"What's the plan now then?" Draco asked, finally lifting his head up from his hands.
"Gawain and a few others have gone to get Astoria. Markus told us, after some persuasion, she's been hiding at his house the whole time." Harry said the last sentence through gritted teeth. Hermione could tell by this and the heavy dark bags under his eyes that he was more than ready to be done with the investigation.
"I need a strong cup of coffee," Narcissa announced and Hermione remembered that she too was in the room. She had made no comment and given no indication about how she felt about the recent developments. She swept out of the room, pausing momentarily to touch her son lightly on the shoulder.
Harry watched Narcissa close the door gently behind her and then turned to Draco. "Are, er…you alright?"
Draco raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Are you talking to me?"
Rolling his eyes, Harry replied, "I'm looking at you aren't I? You haven't had much of a reaction to the fact that your fiancée, who you thought had been kidnapped by dark wizards, has actually been faking the whole thing."
"Well, I'm pissed off, obviously," he replied dryly.
"Are you?" Harry asked. "Because it doesn't seem like it. If anything you looked relieved."
"I'm sorry, should I be yelling? Throwing some furniture around?" Sarcasm dripped from Draco's every word. "Of course part of me was relieved, it's nice to know my fiancée hasn't been murdered and that the scum I call my father has been returned to Azkaban where he can rot. Of course, the fact that she was in on it all along is a bit of an inconvenience but I'm not going to behave like a three year old having a tantrum. Whatever you're getting at, Potter, just spit it out."
"Fine. I think you're relieved because you've got an excuse now to get out of your engagement with Astoria and worm your way in properly with Hermione." Harry said bluntly, and Hermione gasped.
"Harry!" she exclaimed. Harry ignored her and kept his eyes firmly fixed on Draco, who had now stood up but kept his expression calm and slightly amused.
"This case has gone to your head, Potter. Fancy yourself as a private investigator now, do you?" Draco spat.
"It wouldn't take a private investigator to work out you two fancy each other. Do you think I didn't notice the way you two jumped out of your skins when I got to your flat? Hermione's face was as red as Ron's hair. I know that look, she's been my best mate since we were eleven. I saw her go through all of this with Ron, the silly arguments, the looking when she thinks you're not watching her, the way-"
"Harry James Potter!" Hermione shouted, interrupting her friend's analysis of her behaviour. "Even if anything you were saying had a shred of truth to it, now is not the time! Don't you have some work you should be doing? Or at least getting yourself cleaned up? You've got wood splinters in your hair."
"Fine, but don't think for a second this is over, Hermione," Harry told her stubbornly. He shot a last scathing glance at Draco before leaving his office, shutting the door a little too hard behind him.
Hermione made a move towards the door, as if to follow Harry. Her hand was on the brass handle when she changed her mind. She turned on the spot and leaned against it instead, sighing heavily as she did so. Things had gotten too complicated. The kiss with Draco gave her enough food for thought when it was just between the two of them, but now it seemed as though Harry knew exactly what he had interrupted and it seemed to magnify the problem a hundred times.
Draco stepped out from behind Harry's desk and walked slowly towards her. He took both of his warm hands in hers and pulled them to his chest. Hermione didn't have the mental strength to protest.
"Hermione…" Draco whispered. "Look at me, please."
She lifted her head but couldn't bring herself to look into his grey eyes. She knew all too well what had happened the last time she had done so. Instead she focussed on his nose; a safe area.
"Why are you resisting this?" Draco asked her. "Even Potter can see there's something between us. You can't even look me in the eye because you know it's true. I'm more certain than ever about this, things are more than over between me and Astoria."
He rested his forehead on hers and Hermione could feel his warm breath on her face. It was familiar and comforting…and wrong. She pulled her hands and head away from him and slipped around his left side before crossing the room to stand by the false window. It was dark outside, stars dotted the magical view in the cloudless night sky.
"Hermione, please. I'm-"
But exactly what Draco was, Hermione didn't find out. The door clicked open again, Draco jumped forward out of its way. It was Harry again.
"Gawain and the team are back. Astoria is in one of the interview rooms with Julia questioning her, it won't take long though, there's probably nothing new she can tell us. She'll be going to Azkaban soon." Harry's tone was sombre, professional. He was Harry the Auror now, not Hermione's friend who was angry with her.
"I want to speak to her," Draco demanded, and reached for the door handle behind Harry.
"I thought you would. Not on your own though, you'll need one of the team with you."
"Bollocks!" Draco exclaimed. "I'm a fully trained Auror and she's wandless. I'm pretty sure I can handle myself."
"You're not an Auror on this case. You're lucky Gawain is letting you in there at all, in any other case like this you would have to wait for visitation at Azkaban. Take what you're offered and don't argue, Malfoy." Harry spoke in a softer tone now; advising Draco, not ordering him.
Draco sighed and nodded in defeat. He and Harry left the room without a word to Hermione.
Astoria Greengrass sat alone in the cold, grey interview room. Her eyes were on her hands in her lap, picking absentmindedly at the blood red polish Pansy had painted her nails with just two days before. She had been so relaxed then, confident that Draco would give in to the 'demands' for her return soon. She wanted to look her best for their reunion, distraught and relieved, but still pretty. Pansy had been giving Astoria some weight loss potions she'd acquired in Knockturn Alley so that she would look as though she had survived on the bare minimum of food, not the three course meals prepared by the Parkinson's house elf she had actually been eating.
Her efforts had been for naught, it seemed now. Perfect Potter and his team had done their job well, and Markus Parkinson had spinelessly given her secret and location up. Now she was facing a sentence in Azkaban and potentially lost Draco for good. She wasn't going to give him up without a fight though.
She heard voices just beyond the door and immediately began to fill her eyes with tears. Fake crying had always been a talent of Astoria's. She had used it to get out of Slugohorn's potions homework on many occasions at school, to get her parents to insist that Narcissa Malfoy arranged a get together for her and Draco, and more times than she could count to get her own way in her relationship. Sadly, they had failed her when she tried to convince Draco not to take the Auror job with Harry Potter that started this whole fiasco.
When the door to the room opened, it was Potter himself that walked in first, closely followed by Draco. She had forgotten how handsome her fiancé was. He was wearing the Muggle jeans she loved him in, they hung low on his hips, paired with a dark grey shirt, long-sleeved and collared, with the top buttons opened and revealing the top of his pale chest.
"Draco, darling," she half-sobbed and half-gasped. It came out even better than she had anticipated. She certainly couldn't have predicted his response, however.
He crossed the space between the doorway and the table and chair opposite her in two strides, grasped the table with both hands and flipped it in one swift move. Astoria screamed and leapt out of her chair, dashing to the far wall and pressing her back against it.
"YOU BITCH!" he yelled.
He managed to pick up a chair and hold it above his head ready to launch it before Harry reacted, whipping out his wand and casting a full body-bind curse on Draco. The chair clattered to the floor at his feet. His eyes darted wildly between his captor and his fiancée as he was levitated out of the room and Astoria was left alone once more.
Back in Harry's office, Hermione had seated herself at a desk and helped herself to a quill and piece of parchment. She was mindlessly drawing a pattern and casting nervous glances at the open door every now and again. Eventually, she was interrupted with the sight of Draco's body being levitated into the room, feet first, followed by a furious looking Harry with his wand stretched out in front of him.
"What on earth?" she stammered.
Harry let Draco down on the floor, a little rougher than necessary, and cast the counter-curse for the body bind. Draco immediately leapt to his feet with his fists balled by his side. He made a move to charge at Harry who responded by pointing his wand at Draco's face.
"Don't even think about it," Harry warned, "or I'll bind you again. Care to explain what the hell that was about back there? You were so calm outside of the door and then you decide to start chucking tables and chairs around?"
"What?!" Hermione rounded on Draco now. "Are you stupid? Whatever would possess you to-"
"Are you really going to finish that sentence, Granger?!" Draco snapped. Hermione winced at the use of her surname. "That witch faked her own kidnapping, sent me threatening notes, worked with a group of dark wizards including my father who I thought was in Azkaban, then I walk in there and she calls me darling? How did you think I was going to react?"
"Draco, you-" she began, but again he cut her off.
"No, Granger. You don't get to tell me what I can and can't do, or feel. I am not your problem and you've made that quite clear. I don't know what I was thinking. Maybe I am stupid after all!" And with a look of disgust, he stormed out of the office leaving Harry fuming and Hermione's eyes brimming with tears.
A/N- I know, I'm rubbish at updating! I am so sorry. Forgive me?