A/N: Thank you to my reviewers! It always makes me so happy to see people responding to my writing. I am hopeful to get a few more in the coming chapters! Bludgerwombat: I am glad that you are liking it so far. I hope you will enjoy the upcoming chapters! AutumnRose12452: I am so happy that you are enjoying my story! I am sorry that you are finding it a bit slow going, but I really didn't want to make things move too fast. I want the characters to grow before they get too close. Nikki Pond: Thank you for your enthusiasm! And now on with the story!

CHAPTER 5

"Thank you for all the work that you have done here at Hogwarts, Mr. Malfoy."

Draco was surprised. He had been working for nearly three months at the castle, and the Headmistress had barely spoken to him. She had given him instructions, but had not gone passed that. Draco nodded to her.

"I have a lot to make up for, and helping to fix Hogwarts was not only a duty but a privilege." Draco said.

"Your help here will not be forgotten," the Headmistress did not offer Draco a smile, but he noticed that her lips looked a little less thin than they had when he first arrived three months earlier. He had spent every other day at the castle, fixing, building, and planting. He had started in the Great Hall, and then was moved to one of the towers, and finally had been put in charge of the grounds.

"Would it be alright if I went and said my goodbyes to Hagrid while you are contacting Chaz?" Draco asked.

McGonagall looked surprised, "I supposed that would be fine."

Draco had grown a slow friendship with the half giant while working on the grounds with him. The two of them had started off with not a word between them, but after a few days a friendship had started. Draco would have never thought that he would ever consider the man a friend, but he found that a lot of things had changed for him in the last nine months. As he made his way down to Hagrid's new home, which he had to say was a great improvement over the one he had lived in when Draco was still at school, he realized something. He was going to miss helping here at Hogwarts. Going back to his desk job at the Ministry would seem excruciatingly boring after the work that he had been able to do here at the castle.

Hagrid greeted Draco at the door, and offered him some tea. Draco declined, explaining that he had only come to say goodbye.

The two talked for a bit, and after Hagrid insisted that they meet for drinks after Draco's two years were up, they parted ways. Draco heading for the gates were he knew Chaz would be waiting, and Hagrid heading out to round up Fang who was running amuck in the back garden that Draco had helped replant.

As expected, Chaz met Draco at the gate.

"How does it feel to be done?" Chaz asked.

"It doesn't feel as good as I thought it would. There is still so much to be fixed," Draco let the sentence hang in the air. He hadn't meant just the castle, and he thought that Chaz picked up on that, but if he did, he didn't say anything.

Xxxxxxxxx

Draco went back to work full-time, and he was feeling a little lost. After doing so much work on Hogwarts, he felt like there were so many other things he could be doing than filing reports. After a month of working full time, a plan started to develop in his head. He would need to speak to Chaz and see if it was even possible, but he could not help his mind running a little wild.

Just yesterday, he had overheard an interesting conversation between one of his co-workers and her friend. His co-worker, Janella had been one of the kinder people to work with. She had been nothing but kind to him, and he had been grateful to her for it. Because of this, he felt a bit bad when he listened in on her conversation, but he had heard a name that peaked his interest.

"Are you sure?" Janella asked.

"Yes, I heard her in there today. She said they want an orphanage. Said that there are too many children that the regular orphanages will not take. What with…well you know. But her boss told her that they didn't have the funds for a project that big right now. She looked downright murderous when she left the office."

Janella smiled lightly. Draco had no idea what they were talking about, but he knew who they were talking about.

"Hermione will figure it out, she always does. She helped with the Goblins two months ago. Remember?" Janella said in response.

Draco tried to process all that he had heard. Hermione was trying to get and orphanage built for…someone, but she did not have the funds. This gave Draco a very specific idea. He had felt in debt to the witch after she had stood for him at his trial, and now he had an idea how to start repaying her for this debt. His idea from earlier really started to take shape and he knew he would have to bring it up to Chaz at the next possible opportunity.

XXXXXXXXX

Hermione felt murderous. She had been asked on this assignment ten months ago. Since then, nothing had been accomplished. She had been assigned to start a line of communication with the werewolf population through Sam Trinkly, and the first time he asks for something from the Ministry, they deny the request!

Not enough funds! What a load of dragon dung.

She had no idea how she was going to tell Sam, she had become good friends with the werewolf and had a great respect for him. Even though she was not worried about their friendship, she was worried about the fragile line that they walked with the Ministry. She had been informed by her boss, Daniel that it was important to work with the werewolves…well it seemed pretty one sided to her! The Ministry had done diddly for the werewolves as of yet. They had helped a few out of trouble, but that was it.

She thought for sure she would be granted the funds in order to build the orphanage. It wasn't as though she, herself, hadn't done anything for the Ministry lately. She had negotiated a very sweet deal between the Ministry and the goblins just two months ago! And before that she had gone to Romania and helped settled a matter at one of the dragon reserves. And before that she had come to a very peaceful treaty between a group of vampires and wizards that were fighting over land ownership. And before that she had helped improve the rights of house elves all over the Magical World. She had done all of this in a way that did not draw any attention to the Ministry of Magic that was not positive attention. She understood that the Ministry was trying to rebuild and snuff out the corruption that had bled through it before Harry killed Tom Riddle.

She was frazzled and she knew she couldn't return to her office just then. Instead, she decided to head home for the night. Not one would miss her anyway. She has been out of the office more than she has been in the office in the last ten months since she got her first assignment. Her boss had called her a natural. Telling her that he had never had an ambassador that was so blessed at liaisons with magical creatures. She had blushed and tried not to notice the glares that she was getting from a few of her co-workers.

Hermione couldn't understand way it was so difficult for the Ministry to give up a little of its precious money in order to build an orphanage for children who had been changed during the war. Glaring hard at the wall, Hermione tried to put the thoughts out of her mind. The last thing she needed was to make a scene. She walked quickly to the line of fireplaces in the atrium. She floo'd home to her apartment and sent a quick owl to Harry, asking if he would like to do lunch the next day.

XXXXXXXXXXX

The next day, Hermione was still fuming about the lack of help she was getting from the Ministry. She had explained what happened to Harry and he had tried to make her feel better, but so far, he had no luck. He decided to try something a bit dramatic and enacted a sudden subject change.

"I saw Malfoy the other day."

Hermione snapped her lips shut and looked up from her salad. Her rant about the Ministry effectively ended. Harry wanted to smile, but did not want to seem too obvious about what he had done. Neither one of them had brought up Draco since the trial.

"You did? Where?" Hermione asked.

"I went to Hogwarts a little over a month ago. Had to stop by to talk with Professor McGonagall. You won't be able to guess who I saw him with."

Hermione raised an eyebrow and didn't say a word. Harry knew she didn't like the guessing game, and she liked it even less when Harry forced her to play.

"Oh all right! I'll just tell you. He was planting a garden, with Hagrid."

Hermione choked on her pumpkin juice. "What!" She tried to compose herself, but was stunned. Draco Malfoy had hated Hagrid with every fiber of his being. He had been rude to the half giant all through school, he had even tried to get Hagrid fired on several occasions.

"I know. I asked McGonagall about it. She told me that it was part of his probation, to come help rebuild the school. She also told me that he had become friends with Hagrid! She seemed pretty impressed with the work that he had done on the castle and she told me that it seemed like he was growing as a person. Realizing his wrongs and trying to move on."

As Harry told Hermione everything McGonagall had told him, her mind was racing. Draco growing as a person? What kind of world was this?

"I guess we did do the right thing at his trial," Harry said, trying to read the look on her face.