For the next two weeks Draco stayed in his wing in the manor, obsessing over the room and its contents. Every day there were more items added, though none yet as interesting as the locket.
The morning after he showed his parents the locket he went back into the room to find the locket no longer on the floor, but laid out on a beautiful yet simple wooden vanity. It still twinkled in the light of the hallway just as it had the day before.
Over the next few days even more furnishings were added. A window, a small settee, an undressed bed, small end table, a couple of unblemished Hogwarts textbooks (Ancient Runes and Transfiguration, to be exact, showing up in that order), three more pieces of jewellery (two pairs of earrings and a pearl necklace), a soft rug, a purple dressing gown that was far too small for him, a pair of matching purple slippers, and just yesterday a single silk covered sleeping pillow. Two weeks of slowly adding items to the room, and he wasn't any closer to finding this mystery woman.
He spent his time pouring through his Hogwarts yearbooks, especially after he saw the standard issue textbooks appear in the room. He looked in his year, then the year above and below, and when that proved unfruitful he looked at every year he had available to him, even through some of his parents' older yearbooks. None of the witches he saw matched the photo in the locket. He even tried looking for the man, thinking he could at least lead him to the witch, but he too was nowhere to be found.
The strange thing about the photo was the more he looked at it, the more familiar it seemed. Not all together, but small pieces. Like the arch of her nose, or the shape of her eyes. It still wasn't enough to form a real strong association, but he couldn't ignore the feeling he was getting that on some level he knew who she was.
He was now sitting with his parents at breakfast, contemplating what he was going to do with his day and considering it might be time to finally leave the manor after spending the last two weeks cooped up and obsessing over the new items in the ritual room. His mother was enjoying a bowl of fruit and yoghurt, and his father was alternating bites of soft boiled egg with sipping hot tea. Draco enjoyed coffee in the mornings and tea in the afternoons, and this morning he'd paired it with a couple slices of buttered toast.
"I've been thinking about the locket, and the photographs inside." Narcissa's words cut through the silence of breakfast, seeming abrupt and out of place. It took Draco a moment to parse what she'd said, but when he did he was extremely attentive.
"And?" he prompted when his mother remained silent. She looked like she was considering her words heavily before proceeding.
"I don't think the image of the woman is your partner." She gave Draco a soft apologetic look, as if it were her words condemning him to his fate rather than this bloody ritual passed down through his father's side.
"I've been thinking about the gemstones on the outside of the locket. Ruby, sapphire, and emerald. They're all birthstones, and when used together in jewellery tends to symbolise family. The other items that have appeared in the room allegedly seem to be personal belongings of your witch." Narcissa emphasised the word to show her distaste at being barred from the room when there was much important sleuthing to be done.
"As one doesn't tend to put photos of oneself in one's own locket, and since there is a photo of a man and a woman of about the same age, I would guess the photos in the locket are your witch's parents."
Narcissa paused here, waiting for either Lucius or Draco to make the next connection. It didn't take long for Lucius to comment. "And if neither your mother or I recognize the girl's parents in the photos, and the Hogwarts textbooks in the room are indeed hers, then she is very much unlikely to be a pureblood."
Silence blanketed the table once more at that revelation. Blood didn't mean the same to the Malfoys after the war as it did before. Going through those battles and seeing Voldemort torture muggles and muggleborns was enough to change their ways, replacing all resentment with empathy and sorrow.
But that didn't change the expectation that Draco would marry a pureblood anyway. That's what was planned, that's what the whole fucking ritual was for, wasn't it? To make sure the Malfoy line continued to be strong and proper, to fill it with as many pureblood babies as he was able?
"Well," Draco broke the silence, tired of waiting for his parents to follow up with their opinion on that new piece of information. "Whoever she is, the sooner I find her the sooner I can figure out how to move on from this and live the rest of my life."
That seemed to be enough of a confirmation for now that his parents didn't have any serious reservations about the possibility of the witch being halfblood or muggleborn. Draco quickly finished his breakfast and left without speaking another word to his parents.
After checking in with Blaise and Theo, Draco made plans to meet them for dinner and drinks at Hemlock later in the evening. He sat in the ritual room for a while, flipping through the Hogwarts textbooks trying to find any identifying marks on the books or other clues to their owner. They looked absolutely pristine, like they'd just come out of a bookshop. He'd toyed aimlessly with all of the other items in the room, trying to find meaning where there certainly was none. What could the type of wood in the furniture have to do with anything? Was the colour of the pillowcase really going to lead him to the identity of his mystery witch?
He'd managed to make enough time pass that it was finally late enough that he could be early to dinner and be a drink or two in by the time Blaise and Theo arrived. He was looking forward to catching up with them, as he hadn't seen them in weeks.
After a quick check in the mirror he apparated from his bedroom straight into Hemlock's receiving room. Blaise and Theo were nowhere to be seen, as expected, so Draco grabbed a seat at one of the overlarge booths near the back where they often sat.
One of the servers came by and asked him what he'd like to drink. He and his friends came out here often, but not quite often enough that he was a regular with a standing drink order. After requesting a gin and tonic with an olive plate for an appetiser Draco was once again left to his thoughts, which inevitably led back to the bloody same place it always did.
Thankfully Draco didn't have to wait long. A few minutes after his drink was delivered he saw Blaise appear, followed just a few moments later by Theo. Soon they were all sat around the table nursing their respective drinks and taking turns munching on the olives from Draco's plate.
Theo was unusually silent, his eyes shifting around the table. It didn't take long for Blaise to call him out on his odd behaviour. "What's up with you, mate? C'mon, out with it."
"I, um… well, I may have done a thing."
Draco groaned. With Theo, having 'done a thing' could mean anything from having knocked over his juice glass in the morning to accidentally burning down half of his manor. It was hard to know what to expect with that kind of lead in.
"Go on," Draco urged, not quite sure whether he truly meant it.
"You see, err, well, I've had eyes on a particular wizard for a while-"
"We know," both Blaise and Draco said simultaneously, cutting him off. It was no secret to them that Theo was interested in blokes, and it was even less of a secret which bloke in particular had captured Theo's attention. Theo had been taken with Harry Potter during their last two years of Hogwarts, and even if he had wanted to hide it from his friends it would have been impossible to miss the look in his eyes whenever Potter was in the same room.
"Yes, well, of course you do. That's silly of me. So, you see, we happened upon each other in the hallway today at the ministry and-"
The door between the receiving room and the main restaurant opened, and Harry Potter walked out and gave a little wave.
"and-I-kind-of-invited-him-along-for-drinks-tonight-I-hope-that's-ok!" Theo's explanation for Potter's presence rushed out in one breath before he stood up and turned to greet his friend.
"Potter," Draco greeted indifferently as Harry sat at the table beside Theo.
"Harry," was Blaise's contribution, along with a nod.
Potter, for his part, seemed completely unfazed. In the time since the war, all four had run into one another at various functions or Ministry events, in the halls while on Ministry business, or even at the quidditch shop in Diagon Alley. While certainly not friends (to Theo's eternal disappointment), he and Potter were amicable to one another and were able to leave the war mostly in the past. They'd all been through so much trauma at the hands of Voldemort on either side of the war that the common theme with everyone in their year was just try to heal and move on, and let go of everything else.
As such, Harry was used to the somewhat aloof nature of the Slytherins and took it in stride, never faltering in his Gryffindor friendliness.
"Malfoy, Zabini. Pleasure to see you both again." Potter turned to Theo. "Thanks for inviting me." A pause before finishing the sentence. "Nott."
Theo grinned. "Was that a joke, Potter? You know that's 'Nott' the first time I've heard that." The emphasis on his surname was something that Draco, Blaise and Theo often joked around with when they were children. Draco could clearly see the glint of amusement in Theo's eye, and if it was anyone other than unobservant Potter on the receiving end he'd think them blind for not noticing.
Draco had known Theo had been speaking to Potter more and more at the Ministry, but apparently it had been more than he'd thought for Theo to invite Potter out for drinks, and even more for Potter to accept.
"Hermione should be here any minute, she was just running a little behind at work."
Draco gave Theo a look. Granger was coming, too? What next, was Ron Weasley going to pop up from under the table? Theo's sheepish return look did not make up for springing this on them in the first place.
True to Potter's word, not five minutes later Hermione Granger was also sitting at their table. She'd slid next to Potter in the booth and smiled at Nott, giving him a far more friendly greeting that Draco would have expected.
"Theo! So lovely to see you outside of the ministry. Thanks for the invite today, it's been quite a day and I'm looking forward to a nice glass of chardonnay." She beamed at Theo in a way Draco had only ever seen her look at Potter and Weasley. What was happening?
Granger then turned to the other Slytherins at the table. "Blaise, Malfoy." Draco was the only one she called by surname, and he wasn't quite sure what that meant. "Nice to see you again." Her voice was more genuine than he'd expected, and he couldn't sense any trace of malice in her words.
"Hello, Hermione," Blase answered, finishing off the extended round of hellos for the evening. Draco settled on a "Granger" to complement her "Malfoy".
There was a somewhat awkward atmosphere as everyone got settled with their drinks and a few snacks for the table. Potter and Granger were talking to each other and Theo about work related business - Theo had taken up a part-time job at the Ministry assisting with going through all of the confiscated dark artefacts. He was a good person for the job considering nearly 30% of them came from his house. Apparently Granger was fascinated by Theo's new career choice and she hounded him with questions.
Draco wasn't even sure what she did at the Ministry. He knew she was in a middling position - not part of the bottom lackeys, but not as close to the top as he'd assumed she would be. Some sort of middle manager parchment pusher, he thought.
By the second round of drinks the conversation was flowing much more naturally.
"There is no way you brewed Polyjuice potion in second year." They were discussing who had brewed the most difficult potion recently when Granger came out with a ridiculous story of brewing an incredibly complex potion in second year in the girls' lavatory of all places.
"I did," Granger insisted. "You were there, Harry. Tell him."
"She did," Harry repeated as directed.
She smacked his arm lightly. "Oh, as if they'll believe you with how convincing your voice just sounded." She eyed Potter almost playfully. "I think you owe me a drink for that one, and while you're on it, you might as well get one for everyone else at the table too."
Potter scoffed. "Why's it me that has to buy these rich arses their top shelf booze when they have galleons spilling out of the windows of their manors." His tone was in jest, but the words were true.
Granger shifted in her chair to give Potter space to get up and flag down the server for the next round. As she leaned over Draco caught a small reflection of light from her neck. He watched as Granger's hand rose up to her neck, clutched a silver chain, and carefully placed a locket with three gemstones back underneath her shirt.
Draco's face paled immediately. No. No. It couldn't be Granger. Her eyes landed on him, questioning why he was looking at her. He realised belatedly it looked like he was staring at her chest. It was because he was looking at her chest, just not for the reasons a wizard might typically look at a witch's chest. He cleared his throat and tried to compose himself. Thankfully Potter had just arrived with the next round of drinks and a chorus of cheers echoed from around the table.
That was definitely the same locket, he was sure of it. The same gemstones on the outside, in the same places. When was Granger's birthday again? Was her birth month one of the stones on the front?
He supposed there was a chance if this locket was not one of a kind that some other photos resided in the locket instead of the photos he'd seen in the ritual room back at the manor. But the more he thought of those photos and looked across the table at Granger's face, the more he convinced himself that the bridge of her nose was the same as her mother's, and the shape of her upper lip the same as her father's. Merlin knew where she got that wild mess of curls she called hair, though; it wasn't present in either of her parents' photos.
Draco managed to distractedly make his way through the third round of drinks before announcing that he had to get back, bidding everyone an enjoyable rest of their evening. Granger apparently also decided this would be a good time to leave, and she copied his farewell before offering to walk with him to the apparating room.
"Thanks for tolerating me coming out tonight, Malfoy."
Draco scoffed. "While it wasn't my decision, Granger, I'd hope we can both acknowledge that the time in my life that I would be unable to tolerate your presence has passed." Unable to resist adding a barb, he continued with "Unless, of course, you begin reciting excerpts from our seventh year transfiguration textbook, of course."
She laughed, and the sound was…. Different than he'd expected. Nice, even.
"Noted," she confirmed. "Transfiguration is out, but Ancient Runes are on the table."
Draco wondered what it meant that the two textbooks they'd named were the same two sitting in the room beside his back at the manor.
Her posture changed as they reached the door. Just before he reached out to open it for them, she spoke in a small voice. "I'm just so tired of all the hatred, of constantly being reminded of things in the past that I'd just rather move on from. So being out here tonight, having Harry and I sitting at a table filled with Slytherins and genuinely having a good time, it was nice. Gives me hope for the future, I guess."
She shook her head. "Sorry, seems I get a little morose after three drinks. I think five is where I start to get fun."
Not really sure what to say to all of that, Draco opened the door for her and offered for her to head into the room before him. Just before she turned to apparate away, he offered with a small smile "I think it's six drinks for me. We'll aim for that next time."
He carried the image of her return smile with him all the way back to the manor.