Dislaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 3: A Slice of Personal Hell
"When I call your name, please step forward for your assignment," the wizard called Porter said. He was strangely chipper. However, Hermione had already accepted that everything would be strange. He didn't seem any different than the woman she had encountered at the Ministry when she first returned to England. Now that she knew, Hermione could see something in their eyes, an emptiness. She had seen it in the faces of every witch and wizard she had passed today. Luckily, she had not seen anyone she had known before. That, she knew she couldn't have bared.
The wizard looked at his list. "Albright, Shardae."
A witch stepped forward, the same empty look in her eyes. Hermione looked around subtly again. She wondered if these were the loose ends that needed tying up, the last ones to hold off being controlled in the new world. But they couldn't have resisted could they? After all, she had seen what the potion did to those who resisted. They became like Ron. She tried not to wince when she thought of him.
"Granger, Hermione."
She took a deep breath, plastered her most lifeless look on her face and move to the front, standing in front of the desk. "Hello," she said sweetly. Harry had warned her, she had to be sickly sweet. They could suspect nothing.
He looked up at her, a bright smile on his face those it did nothing to bring life back to his eyes. Hermione wondered who he was before they had erased him, and had to fight hard to keep the bile from rising in her throat. Sickly sweet, she reminded herself.
"Miss Granger," Porter said. "It is a pleasure to have you rejoin society again as we rebuild the Wizarding World."
"It is great to be here?" She tried to not make it sound like a question, but she knew she had failed. She had heard the rise in her voice at the end, and she was sure he had to. She had blown it.
Or so she thought. The man made no inclination to have noticed. Instead, he pleasantly handed her a folder. "You are to report to Level 2. You have been assigned the rewarding role of Secretary to the Head of Magical law Enforcement, Mr. Draco Malfoy."
She forced herself to refrain from rolling her eyes. Could this situation get any worse? First, the Ministry had fucked everything up after years of war and turned everyone into mindless slaves to their will, and now they were mocking her. Being secretary to her arch nemesis, though recently and secretly turned ally, Draco Malfoy. And how the hell did an ex-Death Eater become Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Department? This was a nightmare from hell, and she wondered why the hell she had ever convinced herself to leave Australia for this.
"Miss Granger?" Porter said worriedly when she did not move or respond. "Is there a problem?"
She fixed herself quickly. "Oh no, no problem at all. I'm very honored to be serving Mr. Malfoy in such a capacity. I was just wondering - um it's been a while since I've been here. Where are the um the lifts?"
He smiled again at her and pointed her to the far end of the wall. "Have a pleasant day, Miss Granger."
"You too," she smiled back as wide as she could before she turned and walked away with her assignment folder towards the elevators.
Deep breaths, she reminded herself. She had lessened her smile slightly since turning away from the Porter, but she had to keep up pretenses still. She wondered how long this hell would endure before they found a way to fix it.
She noticed they were holding the elevator for her and ran forward to catch it. As soon as the door closed, she wished she had just waited for the next one, or taken the stairs.
"Mr. Weasley," she said in surprise. The man turned and it took him a moment to recognize her. That was enough time for her though, to see the same lifelessness as Porter and every other witch or wizard in attendance at the Ministry today. This was what she had not been prepared for, no matter how many times she had told herself she could handle this. Seeing Mr. Weasley like this, a sort of surrogate father to her in the Wizarding world killed her. It was him, but it wasn't. There was no excitement in his eyes, no joy. Just emptiness.
"Hermione, my dear!" He leaned forward to shake her hand vehemently. "I heard from George you were back! It is very nice to see you."
Her heart broke to see him, to know what the Ministry had done to him. They had made him half a man, their mindless pawn. "Yes," she said pleasantly, despite the inner turmoil she found herself in. "Just arrived yesterday actually. It's very nice to see you too, Mr. Weasley. How's Mrs. Weasley?"
"Splendid," he said as the elevator jerked forward. "She was saying this morning we should have you over for tea."
"That would be lovely."
The elevator stopped, and a female voice stated, "Level 2: Department of Law Enforcement."
"I'll pass along the message," he nodded at her, smiling as she hurried out, forcing the tears back.
Mr. Weasley had always had a pleasant demeanor. That wasn't what killed Hermione. It was the fact that his very essence had seemed monotone. His eyes were as empty as the others. His spirit was not there.
She hurried along until she saw Draco's office. There was a pretty girl sitting out front, writing on parchment. She looked up and smiled as she approached. "Miss Granger? I've been expecting you."
"Or er right. Are you Mal- I mean Mr. Malfoy's secretary?" If he already had one, why had she been assigned here?
"Me? Oh no, I am just a temp. I move around the office quite a bit where I'm needed. Go right in, I'll be cleared out of your desk before you come out," she promised.
Hermione nodded and knocked on the door before opening it. Draco looked up from behind his desk. "Ah, Miss Granger, finally. I have been expecting you," he said, his tone pleasant. Even though she knew it was an act, it unnerved her. "Please have a seat, and we can go over your duties."
She closed the door and quickly sat down across from him. "Well then, let's begin, shall we?" he smiled, taking out his wand. He whispered a quick, "Muffliato!" at the door and looked at her, his eyes growing colder immediately.
"Your fucking secretary?" She demanded. "This must be a joke."
"No joke, Granger," he rolled his eyes. "Though I'm sure it's no accident. I saw Thicknesse this morning and he was especially gleeful to tell me about your assignment. This is revenge."
"It's ridiculous," she fumed. She knew they had done this on purpose. "I'm the brightest witch of our age and I'm a fucking secretary, your secretary."
"Yes well, I can't say I'm too pleased about it either, but I do see the advantages," he mused.
"And what advantages would those be?"
"Well, I can watch you, for one, make sure you don't bloody screw this whole thing up."
"I know perfectly well how to be pleasant," she said coldly.
"Pleasant perhaps, but what about when someone like Thicknesse or some other top bloke tries to demean you? What about when they mock your position subtly? I know how heated you and the Potter groupies get."
"You'll recall it was my ability to not get heated that kept Harry and Ron from pummeling you to the ground back at Hogwarts on several occasions," she rolled her eyes.
"It was also your inclination to get heated that slapped me across the face," he smirked. "It wasn't meant to be an insult, Granger. We all get heated, and it's only with practice and a very cool and aristocratic upbringing that I've gotten by this far."
She sighed, knowing he was right. She had enough sense to not make a scene most of the time, but if Thicknesse made some kind of joke to her about this or Merlin, about Ron, she knew she would react. "Okay, okay fine."
"Good, moving on," he said. "I'm sure you know what a secretary does, so try not to fuck anything up, will you?"
"Again, I'm the brightest witch of our age, I think I'll be able to handle your secretarial duties just fine, thank you," she rolled her eyes.
He just nodded once, looking at her for a moment. "How's the potion coming along?"
"I have most of the ingredients separated," she explained readily. This is what she had most been looking forward to for her next encounter with Malfoy. Harry wasn't the best at Potions, so it felt good to be able to discuss this with someone who might be able to help. Or at the very least, someone who would know what she was talking about. "The antidote's going to take some time though. So far, I've got 75 ingredients and I'm not even done. And the way some of them react together - it's difficult."
"It's brilliant," he agreed.
She sighed. "As horrible as it is, I can't disagree with that. It truly is a work of brilliance." It killed her to admit it, seeing as what the potion did. But she was Hermione Granger, after all, always thirsty for knowledge. She couldn't help but appreciate the brilliance behind it, even if she wished such a terrible thing had never been concocted.
"You better not be wasting time reveling in the potion's beauty, Granger," he said, snapping her out of her thoughts.
She glared at him. "I spent hours last night trying to get all the ingredients, Malfoy," she snapped. "Don't you dare say I'm wasting time as if I don't care about this."
"You didn't care about this for 5 years when you ran off like a coward after the war," he replied coldly.
"I am not a coward," she said with as much venom as she could muster. How dare he? She was a bleeding Gryffindor. She was Harry Potter's best friend. She had helped stop Voldemort.
"No? You ran after the war instead of staying here and facing the horror of the aftermath. You didn't even bother to come back once, not until your precious Potter wrote to you, asking you back. You and your little twit friends made a mess of everything and then left it for everyone else to clean up. And guess what, Granger? They did. For 5 years, they did."
"This is what you call a clean up?" she shot back. "They didn't clean anything. They erased it. They forced the world from fearing one mad wizard to become a world of them." He opened his mouth to retaliate, but she wasn't done just yet. "You call me a coward? Do not presume to know me, Malfoy. You don't know why I went to Australia or why I stayed. You of all people have no right to call me a coward."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"You put on a fucking act! You willingly follow their tyranny. You work for them! And what's worse is that you could actually do something about it, but you choose not to." She knew it wasn't just him she was saying these words to. It was Harry too. It was George. It was everyone who submitted to this. But more than that, the words were for herself. She didn't willingly follow them yet, but she was about to. Granted, she was going to work on fixing it, but she had left. She had abandoned them all.
"It's more than your precious Potter is doing," he seethed. "At least I have enough mind to go about and not hide cowering in my home."
"Don't you dare talk about Harry," she said firmly. She didn't know why she was defending him really. After all, she was thinking along the same lines. But he was Harry, and she knew she would always defend him. It was just what she did. "You have no idea what he's been through."
"Right the war and all that," he said. "Grow up, Granger, we all went through that."
"Right and too bad you were on the wrong side," she shot back. "Tell me Malfoy, how did you get such a prestigious position as Head of Department of Law Enforcement?"
"I play my part well," he said simply after a moment. He was glowering at her. He looked dangerous to her, but she held her ground. Just because they were allies now did not make him her friend. After a moment, he seemed to contain himself. "As much as I would like to sit here and argue with you all day, we have other things to do."
"Right, as I get to be your bloody secretary."
"Yes well, it's not a picnic for me neither, I can assure you," he said. "Either way, it'll be easier to deal with this whole thing for you. When you get tired of the fake smiling, you can come in here. You know I'll always have a sneer for you."
She sighed. That was true. Somehow, Draco Malfoy was her only ally here. She wouldn't have to pretend with him. She just nodded and stood. "I suppose I'll go be a good secretary now, shall I?"
"That's what you're here for," he shrugged. He looked her over. "Tomorrow, Granger, try a little skin. I do have a standard, you know."
She glared at him and let the office before she hexed him. She had a feeling hexing your boss was not a side effect of the potion. As she settled into her new desk (the temp secretary had been gone before she came out true to her word), she grew more and more certain that Malfoy was right. This was Thicknesse's revenge, and her personal hell.
"You know, the Weasleys try to turn Ron in every now and then," Harry said quietly. They were sitting across from each other at the dinner table, eating a small dinner of grilled chicken and vegetables that Harry had cooked for them.
"What?" she gasped. She knew everyone but George had taken the potion, but still, to turn in their own child? She didn't think it of Molly and Arthur.
"Yeah," he said. "George usually sends me an owl when they are thinking about it. I go over and get Ron to stay here for a few days. He convinces them otherwise in the meantime."
She sighed in relief. At least they wouldn't really turn Ron in then. She shuddered to think what would happen. "Why did they take it? They all fought in the war, they knew what Thicknesse was like. Why would the other Weasleys take the potion?"
"After they lost Fred, I don't think Arthur and Molly were ever the same," he sighed. "They heard the potion would make it easier, and with Arthur at the Ministry, they wanted to set an example. It wasn't just Thicknesse after all, it was many of the powerful people in the Ministry. They thought they were helping the world rebuild."
"But George didn't?"
"He was in Romania," Harry explained. "He went there after the war. Being in England was just too hard for him after Fred. So he was there for a year, expanding the business. By the time he came back, we had a good idea of what was going on, and I convinced him to pretend he had taken it."
Suddenly, she remembered something. "Harry, where is Ginny?"
"Um" he said, he looked away.
"Ginny, where is she?" she asked again. Not once since she had come back had Hermione seen her old best friend.
Harry sighed and looked at his plate sadly. "They – took her."
"No! How? Did they turn her in?"
"No," he said. "You see Ron, right? Ginny was worse. I mean, you remember her. You know how she was. She was forced to take the potion, tricked into it actually by Mr and Mrs Weasley. But she fought it, just like Ron. We don't know why that is, some people can fight it and others can't. I can think of a dozen people who should have been able to fight it too. But they all complied, and fell into this - emptiness. Ginny, well sometimes she was like that, you know, one of their drones. But most of the time, she was herself, kind of. It was driving her mental, just not in the same way as everyone else. She would have these episodes where she just went off. Most of the time she could control it, you know. I took her to Diagon Alley for lunch one day. She swore she was okay. She hadn't had an episode in a while and we thought that meant she was getting better. But – she had one of her episodes. There were Aurors patrolling, and they saw her. They took her." His voice was low, and his head was bent down. She was looking at a broken man.
"W-when?" she wasn't far from breaking herself.
"Two years ago," he said quietly. "I haven't seen or heard from her since."
"Is she – is she dead?" she asked, even though she knew there was no way Harry could really know that. But she had to as. She had to hear it.
"I don't know," he said after a moment. "Sometimes, I think she is. But then, I would know, wouldn't I? I would feel it deep down if she were?"
She didn't think that was true, but being Hermione Granger, she said, "Yes." It was a lie. She just wanted to comfort him. She just wanted this all to go away. She knew Harry could do it. But she also knew he was broken. And being Hermione Granger, she felt it was her responsibility to help him. She got up and hugged him as tight as she could. She wanted to tell him so many things, but she didn't. She let him feel them in her embrace. She wanted him to know she loved him, she was here for him, and she wasn't going to leave him again. And as Harry wrapped his arms around her, she knew he felt it.
"Harry, why don't they force you to take it?" She asked when she sat back down. She knew he had explained it before, but there was still something she didn't understand. "I know you're the Chosen One and the savior and all that, but if they wanted total control, why didn't they start with you? Surely they know if anyone could rally the troops against them, it would be you."
"Hermione, I told you yesterday, there's no one left to rally," he said sadly. "They're all gone besides you, me, George and Malfoy. And you were gone. I was here on my own. I don't think they saw me as a threat on my own. There was nothing I could do."
"So they think you'll just let it continue?"
"As long as I'm quiet and don't cause trouble, they let me go on without taking it," he said simply. "Malfoy was actually the one who told us that. Yet another thing I owe him." He shook his head.
"I wish you had owled me sooner."
"I thought you deserved a chance at a normal life," he smiled sadly.
"Harry, I'm your best friend," she smiled at him. "From the day you saved me from that troll, my life was never going to be normal."
"I'm glad you're back, Hermione," he said, taking her hand.
"Me too. You're not alone anymore, Harry. I'm here, and we're going to fix this. I don't know how, but we will."
New chapter :) I posted this on granger enchanted before but this chapter is really where the differences are coming out. Anyways I hope you liked it. Thoughts anyone? X