A/N: Hello, hello! Wow, the amount of Ron hate, not going to lie… I'm loving it. The Ron/Hermione relationship is based off of a real relationship I witnessed. Is Hermione settling and why is she settling for this Ron? Well, obviously she's settling. He's familiar, he's safe, and she's tired of being alone. I think I added a tag of a broken Hermione, and well she is. She's got to grow, can only go up from where she is now, yeah? How could she be with someone who is so dismissive of her children? Her kids are at boarding school a majority of the year and spend part of their holidays with their grandparents in Australia. So, while she can have a wonderful relationship with her children and Ron not, it's not a day in and day out part of something that's being shoved down her throat so she's not going to constantly see the issues.
Why was Draco being obliviated brought up right at chapter two!? Well, it had to be. The story isn't sniffing that bit out. It's about Draco and Hermione building their relationship AFTER the fact and the twins going on their own journey that I'm not going to talk about because it's a spoiler. Methods to my madness, and you'll see WHY it wasn't a long-drawn-out discovery in this coming chapter.
Finally, how could Hermione accept Draco wanting to get to know her kids. Well, you can see how much Mila is struggling. She's willing to do whatever her children might need and going to follow their lead on this. Hermione not telling them that Astoria died? Well, that's how I would have handled that situation (kind of have). My own daughter's biological father bounced when she was little, and as I've found out more about his life since leaving her, I have had to make decisions about what to and not to tell her.
Okay, I think I addressed a few of the concerns I saw across comments. So, can we skip to the good part now. This chapter is a Hermione only POV and well, enjoy….
More notes at the end
Chapter 4, Department of Mysteries, Memory Division
Dear Mr. Malfoy,
I am writing on behalf of the Ministry of Magic's Department of Mysteries, and requestion a meeting with you on the 14th of September at nine in the morning. If this time or date is not able to fit into your schedule, you may contact me by owl to cancel or change this appointment.
I look forward to meeting with you.
Hermione J. Granger, DOM, Unspeakable
It was the Thursday that Hermione and Draco were scheduled to meet, and Hermione couldn't contain the nervous energy that was pouring out of her. Of course, it would be Draco Malfoy who would could possibly be the breakthrough of her research and case study. If that isn't the universe spitting right in her face, Hermione wasn't sure what else it possibly could be.
Over the last almost two weeks of correspondence with Draco, Hermione as at least been able to avoid seeing him in person since they'd seen their children off to Hogwarts. Regardless that he had requested them meeting at a variety of different locations numerous times, Hermione was just not interested in actually being around him.
Hermione had spoken with the children and let them know of their father's interest in getting to know them and had received a mixed response. Milo, had simply said 'not interested' and then had refused to talk about his father anymore than that. Mila, on the other hand, had written her a fifty-inch letter outlining all the reasons why he wasn't worthy of meeting her and her brother, that included bullet points and counter arguments to back up her reasoning. However, the following day, Mila sent a second letter saying that they would think about it and get back to her at a later time.
There was no surprise in how they reacted. Hermione had a suspicion that Mila was simply wanting to rub into Malfoy's face just how wonder her and Milo's lives were without him in it. While Milo would continue with the radio silence until he had to chase after his sister and bring her back to Earth and would be forced to interact with Malfoy because of it.
She had taken some time to gather up some basic information and then some pictures of the kids to send to Malfoy so that when they finally did decide to meet him, he wouldn't be caught off guard and would have an idea of who they each are. Even though Hermione wasn't forgiving him for what he'd said during their break up, she suspected by his actions now, that if Malfoy hadn't been obliviated he would have eventually sought her out to meet his children. When he had written back and told her that Scorpius's birthday was the twentieth of April after she had told him the twins was the nineteenth of April, she'd gotten a good laugh at the thought of Mila's reaction when she found that out. It was always safe to say that Mila had a flare for the dramatics, just like Malfoy had when they were in school.
Remy had already been in contact with her that Mila and Scorpius weren't exactly getting along very well. Of course, Hermione was irritated finding out that bit of information, but she wasn't surprised. When Remy had written her to let her know that he suspected Mila had charmed all of Scorpius's pants to turn to dust while wearing them, Hermione had quickly written Mila and told her that she needed to behave otherwise she would be coming to the school to talk to her.
Since her letter, Hermione hadn't heard from Remy again and assumed that either Mila had ceased her actions (unlikely) or she had also started targeting Remy in her 'pranks'. With Pansy Parkinson being Mila's head of house and Pansy not being Mila's biggest fan, Hermione doubted that it would be much longer until she was hearing from the witch and needing to go have a few words with her children, seeing as there was no way that Milo wouldn't get dragged along with whatever Mila was getting up to.
With the thoughts of her children still fresh on her mind, Hermione was pulled away from her worries of what they were up to when a knock came at her door. Waving her wand to permit entry, Hermione plastered on a fake smile as Draco Malfoy slowly opened the door and stepped inside.
"Malfoy, glad you could make it" Hermione greeted him, gesturing for him to step inside and take a seat in one of the overly plush chairs. "Tea?" She asked as he took the seat she'd gestured towards.
"Uh, sure. Three sugars and a splash of milk." He replied looking around her office.
It was a modest space, at almost fifteen years with the DOM, there was a lot of crammed into the room. Tomes on anything and everything that had to do with memory, memory charms, memory potions, or general memory alterations. In the corner she had a small cauldron that she used to brew experimental potions whenever she needed with a few basic ingredients, as she didn't keep on hand a full potions supply. She had more parchment and notes shoved into cabinets and files than she had space for, even with the extendable charms in all the drawers.
On her wall was a white board outlining some of her research and test subjects, her boss had been amused when she came storming into the department pulling it out of her beaded handbag one day complaining that she needed to be able to see her thoughts in front of her.
She also had awards and certificates from all her accomplishments and pursues in her education, showing off to anyone that walked in that she really did know what she was doing. In the back corner was a trunk that she'd enchanted with an undetectable extension charm to house a personal library that she could use a ladder to climb down into whenever she needed to visit it.
On her desk were two pictures. One of her and the twins that was taken the morning of their first year when she'd dropped them off at Kings Cross. The other was her, Harry, and their families posed all together smiling at Izzy's (Isabelle's) fifth birthday party and their Christmas celebration. It was before Ron had come back into their lives, so he was not included in that particular group shot.
After handing the cup she'd just prepared for him across her desk, Hermione settled into her own chair and folded her hands on top of the newest file that she was hopeful to be able to start filling. "Malfoy, I'll get straight to the point of this meeting." She stated meeting his eye, taking a sip of her own tea to settle herself.
"I'd like to study you, and do experimental tests on your brain" she said with a mask of indifference plastered on her face.
"I'm sorry?" Malfoy asked with his eyes growing as big as saucers, clearly this was not what he had in mind when she'd invited him to meet her at work.
"I research memory charms for the ministry. I'm not sure how much you know about the subject, but I've spent the last almost fifteen years researching the different ways to recover obliviated or altered memories." Hermione started pulling out some of the smaller cases that she'd been able to work on, just in case she needed them to try and persuaded him into agreeing to this.
Seeing that Malfoy was a bit lost for words, Hermione pushed forward and continued on her pitch.
"I started with volunteers for my smaller case studies, so people who would allow an associate of mine to say, obliviate a meaningless memory. For example, I had one subject who for a month picked up a coffee for a co-worker and then we obliviated that action and the instruction to do so from their memory.
"Now, before I began working on this research, only whoever preformed the memory charms would be able to reverse the effect and restore the memories. We progressed to erasing, say that coffee order and delivery from their memory being gone for a week, to letting it be gone for a month, six months, and ultimately a year. The longer the charm is in place, the more difficult it is for someone who is not the original caster to recover. On the other side of the coin, the large or more impactful the memories the more difficult it becomes to recover and restore those memories." Malfoy took a sip of his tea and nodded that he understood what she was saying, so Hermione continued.
"As you can imagine, it becomes rather difficult to find persons who have been obliviated and had these larger more impactful moments erased from their lives. Finding volunteers for this type of research has proven to be impossible, as no one is willing to have say a family member erased from their minds.
"This is a two-fold problem for my research purposes, no one remembers the obliviation of such a large event nor do they typically ever even realize that they've been obliviated in the first place. The other side is, it is immoral and unethical to erase say, an important person's entire existence from someone's memories and then let it stay that way for years." The last part of her speech causing Hermione to wince at her own words.
After a brief pause, Hermione continued on, "that's why I've asked you here today. You present a unique opportunity for me, to say the least. And frankly, if you're willing, this is not something I can pass up, if you're willing, that is."
"You want to try and recovery my memories? Of you." Malfoy said, clearly understanding where she was going with this.
"Yes."
"Because you didn't erase my memories."
"Yes."
"And you were obviously an important person in my life."
"Yes."
"Okay."
"Okay, just like that?" Hermione couldn't help but gape at him. "I haven't even gone over the risks of the experiments and what methods I'll be using or even how long it might take."
"You are the mother of two of my children and I don't even remember speaking to you after the war ended. I want those memories back, and I want to know what happened to us." Malfoy said looking up at her through his thick lashes that reminded her so much of her children.
"You were a right foul git, that's what happened!" Hermione snapped before sitting back down and leaning her head against the back of her seat trying to collect herself before she spoke again. "I apologize, Malfoy, I shouldn't let my own personal issues cloud this research."
Taking another steadying breath, Hermione continued, "I'm only doing this because it will help advance my research, my work, and ultimately help the wizarding world as a whole. I did not invite you here today because I want to rekindle or reminisce with you."
"Granger" he all but whispered her name, causing Hermione to make eye contact with him again. The mix of emotions being so close to him and seeing so much of her son looking across the desk at her was un-nerving.
"Look, I don't know what happened to your memories. The last time I talked to you was when you were throwing me out. You were fully aware of who I was and our history at that time. I don't know if you asked to be obliviated yourself to forget what you'd done with me and our life together or if someone did it to you against your will." Hermione paused and took a breath, because she had to get through this conversation with him.
"I understand that now, today, you know that we have children together and you are regretful that you don't know them and haven't been in their lives. I'm more than willing to help you establish that relationship with them, because I believe that it would be beneficial for the two of them to get to know you and maybe bring them peace and find something they've been searching for.
"Now, I've spoken to my boss and had to get special permission for this meeting since you are a conflict of interest for me, being the father of my children and all and that the memories we are recovering involve me. So, I will ask you again, and take out of you mind that anything besides me messing with your head will happen within these walls.
"Are you willing to partake in my case study?" Hermione asked him looking across the desk with her hands cross in front of her.
"Yes" he said without hesitation.
With a heavy sigh, Hermione looked at him without a smile. This was, after all, only going to be a working relationship and nothing more "Okay."
The next few hours turned into a blur of going over the contracts and binding him to his silence on the project per the DOM regulations. The risks that he would potentially be undergoing by allowing her to dig around in his mind to unlock his memories, that she might have to preform Legilimency and that he wouldn't be allowed to preform Occlumency to keep her search at bay.
It also included that whatever she discovered from his mind while she worked with him would be kept to herself and that she would not be able to speak about it with anyone, aside from himself, without his expressed permission. Nothing she found could be used against him in a case or taken to the DMLE, so if he had any illegal activities (aside from the use of an unforgiveable or murder) she wouldn't be allowed to turn him in for it.
It took the rest of the morning before they were done going over the paperwork. While Draco had paused his quill when they'd discussed the possibility of her using Legilimency on him with no Occlumency shields, he'd still signed the consent without putting up a fight.
When Hermione pulled out the form for the compensation, Malfoy simply rolled his eyes and told her to keep her gold. "Well, someone has to receive payment for this experimentation. It's part of the contract, so go on and sign it. I don't care if you use it to buy a crate of Ogden's to have every other week after I get done digging through your mind, or if you have it donated to a non for profit. Take the damn gold, Malfoy." She'd snapped at him when her irritation had reached its breaking point.
Malfoy had eventually given in and signed the parchment leaving the place where to have it deposited blank, simply saying that he would have that figured out before the following week when they would meet again.
"Is there a day of the week or time that works best for you?" Hermione asked now that they were at the point of scheduling. "I obviously don't want break your mind, so we can't just do this in one sitting. It'll be a slow process. We have to have your sessions spread out at least two weeks, so having a consistent day of the week will be the best course of action." Hermione said as she looked over her calendar.
Leaning back in his seat, Malfoy crossed his arms over his chest and looked her over with a smirk. "I am the CEO of a multibillion-galleon corporation. I can't say that there is a best day of the week for me is, but typically Friday afternoons tend to be the calmest time of the week because everyone is excited for the weekend and don't schedule very many meetings."
"Okay, Friday afternoons work for me too. That might be best, because with even my easiest cases, participants tend to have a bit of a headache for the rest of the night and sometime lingering into the following day. This way you'll have an entire weekend to recover, I really believe that you'll need it." She said tapping her wand on the following Friday and scheduling the appointments with Draco for the foreseeable future.
"If there's ever a Friday that you can't make it, just send me an owl by that morning so I'm not expecting you." Hermione finished as she sat back in her seat looking him over. "I wouldn't want this to completely disrupt your social life." She spat at him, remembering how it seemed every issue of Witch Weekly would have a full spread of him out on a date with some witch or another.
"Granger, I don't have a social life." He said rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"Sure, Malfoy, was there anything else you wanted to talk about? If not, I'll see you next Friday at one. I'll have a calming draught for you to about fifteen minutes before we begin, but if there's anything else you do to help yourself relax like flying or running, feel free to do so before your appointments." Hermione said watching him for any signs of what he might be thinking.
"What if it doesn't work? Is there a set amount of time that we'll keep trying?" Malfoy asked watching her again.
"We have an eighteen-month contract, however if at anytime you decide that it's too much or too intense you can always back out. There's nothing legally forcing you to continue working with me, just that you have to keep your silence on the project. It's intense, Malfoy, I'm not exaggerating or trying to scare you. I just want you to be prepared for what you're signing up for." She said giving him a pointed look.
"I get it, Granger. You're going to be ripping my mind apart" he replied.
"And it might have been your decision at one point to lock your mind, so if we are able to recover it and we find out that you wanted this obliviation you can't come after me for doing this." She pointed out tapping the forms that she'd used Geminio on for him to have his own copies.
"Granger, I really doubt that I would have asked for someone to obliviate me and erase the knowledge of our relationship and our children's existence from my mind." He said, in an attempt to restart the conversation about them again.
"If that's all, I'll see you next Friday, Malfoy." Hermione said standing up and pushing her chair in as she rounded her desk to show him out. "I trust you can find your way to the lifts." Knowing that she was being rude, but not exactly caring in that moment.
Without another word, Malfoy let out a heavy sigh and stood up, holding out his hand. Rolling her eyes, Hermione put her much smaller in his with the intention to shake his hand, instead Malfoy let his lips brush over her knuckles.
"See you Friday" he said as she strolled out of her office and down the hall.
Hermione watched him until he was out of sight and then leaned back against her closed office door. Why couldn't it have been anyone besides Malfoy that she stumbled upon to use for this damn case study.
A/N: Did that clear a few things up? I hope so. If not, ask away and I'll make sure to answer them best I can.
The schedule that Hermione and Draco are going to have their appointments is coming straight from when my mom had to do chemo in 2019. This story came to me after I had my last sleepover with my mom.
Next chapter will be a Mila only POV. Quidditch try outs, what could possibly go wrong? Look for it Wednesday!