Hermione sighed. "Okay, Mr. Billings, I'm going to explain it again: This," she held up a plant with her right hand, "Is wild ramson . The plant you were looking for, it tastes like garlic. This, on the other side," she showed the bald man before her another plant with her left hand, "Is lily of the valley . Poisonous, toxic, in other words: bad . They are easy mistaken for another, so the next time you want to collect wild ramson, take a botanical book with pictures with you, yes?" The man nodded, solemnly. "I know, Dr. Granger, you already told me that last year. And the year before." "And I haven't given up hope that you are going to listen to me once, Mr Billings!" With a mock exasperated huff, Hermione went to rant on, when the hospital speakers called out for her. " Dr. Granger to Accident and Emergency, Dr. Granger required!" Hermione said a hasty goodbye to Mr. Billings and rushed along the hospital's halls. When she was called to A , it meant there were toxic substances or severe neurological damages on a patient involved. Hermione Granger was one of Britain's top experts in these fields, often surprising her colleagues with unusual knowledge and facts. She entered the room her emergency patients were usually brought to and slipped into a fresh pair of medicinal gloves. "Jenny, what do we have here?" she addressed one of the nurses that hurried around. "A woman in her twenties. She suddenly appeared at the backdoor of the hospital, unconscious. We called you immediately." Jenny stepped aside, giving Hermione access to the young woman on the bed. She started the examination and realised why Jenny had called for her. The dark haired patient possessed widely blown pupils, and her skin was radiating with heat. But she wasn't sweating like in a fever; instead the olive skin felt dry like sandpaper. Hermione looked at the monitors that showed the patient's vital signs. "She shows first signs of a central anticholinergic syndrome, and has hot skin with dilated pupils. I suppose we have a case of atropine intoxication, perhaps experimentation with herbal drugs. We will try with physostigmine first." What Hermione heard next made her stiffen in horror. "I think a bezoar would be a better choice." Spinning on her heel, Hermione turned around, instinctively reaching for her wand. That wasn't its former place in her pocket. Hadn't been for years. She looked into a face from her past. He stood there, dressed in dark slacks and a pale blue button-down shirt, leaning at the wall in an absolutely relaxed posture. His hair was still irritating platinum blond, and his eyes still a scrutinizing grey, and he still wore this damn, infuriating signature smirk. This man simply couldn't not look handsome, could he? "Ladies, I want you to exit this room. Leave the gentleman and me alone, please." Hermione, used to giving the staff orders, controlled her voice. "But-" Jenny started. "Now!" The nurses left the room, startled at Dr. Granger's unusual behaviour and strict tone. Inside the room, Hermione breathed out slowly. Knowing the patient behind her wasn't in real danger, she demanded, "What do you want, Malfoy?" Casually taking a bezoar out of his pocket and walking to the bed, the man held his smirk. "I came to free you from this poor muggle existence Granger, and give you a task more worthy- even for you . Your talents are wasted here, and you are needed where you belong: The wizarding world you so, ungracefully, left."
"Jesus, Malfoy! How long did you take to come up with your little speech? Did your head hurt?" Hermione's voice dripped with sarcasm. The blond man gazed unimpressed as he put the bezoar in her patient's mouth, closing it afterwards. When the woman opened her eyes some seconds later, Hermione automatically slipped into doctor's mode and gently touched her shoulder, looking into her bright blue eyes. "Hello there. My name is Dr. Granger, and you are in a hospital. We found you unconscious, but, for now, you are okay. What is the last thing you can remember?" The patient wanted to answer, but Malfoy was faster. "Don't bother, Granger. Trainee Meyers is fresh as the morning light, isn't she?" He winked at the young woman. "Did I pass the test, Auror Malfoy?" she asked with big eyes. "Test? You poisoned her with atropine as a test ?" Hermione interjected, clearly furious, her brown curls flying as she moved her body in agitation. "Relax. It's a standard procedure in the Auror training to experience different expositions of poisons. You can go back to headquarters now, Trainee." Trainee Meyers quietly left the room, feeling a storm coming up between the two. When she closed the door, Malfoy pulled his wand from a holster on his arm to lock and sound-proof the room. "I'm asking again, for it seems you are too dumb to understand it the first time: What do you want from me? You can use small words, if it's easier for you." Brown eyes clashed with grey, and, from one second to the other, Malfoy turned serious. "Do you really think I'm here on my own volition, testing an unsuspecting Trainee? If you ask me, you could happily rot in this hell hole of a hospital." Hermione snorted, quite unladylike, but she gave a damn about that. How dared he? "I'm on a mission, Granger. Shacklebolt - he's the Minister of Magic, should you have forgotten-himself sent me here to bring you back. We have a case for you." " We have a case for you." Hermione mocked in an admittedly good imitation of Draco-she had to listen to him for some years, after all. "Are you mental?-Wait. I know you are. Your entire family is!" ' That was a bit low,' Hermione thought after the words had left her mouth. She breathed in sharply, fighting for control over long buried emotions and quarrels she left behind that had nothing to do with the man in front of her. He also had to reign his temper in, judging from his slightly reddened cheeks. "Sorry, Malfoy. But seriously, why me ? What kind of case is it that demands my immediate attention and drags me back into a society I no longer have a place in?" Draco thought about his answer quickly and decided to drop the bigger bomb firstly. "Potter." Hermione blinked, unbelieving. One name and her old wounds opened again. "Ah, I see, now you're willing to listen." Malfoy said, mistaking her shock for irritation. "There's only so much I can tell you before you commit yourself to the cause. -Potter is in a coma; has been since an unknown confrontation while working on a case three weeks ago. The healers at 's have reached a dead end with their knowledge, and they suspect it's a muggle kind of disease, or poisoning, or whatever he has been hit with." The brunette did her best to show him her cold shoulder, while shaking inwardly. "So what? Send him to a muggle hospital! I'm sure I can recommend a good one." Draco grew impatient, the muscles in his jaw hardening. "Potter is just one reason Shacklebolt wants you involved. Four months ago, a drug started circulating in the wizarding world; highly dangerous and addictive. It's called 'Morgana's touch'. We presume it's distributed and sold by a small, but organised, ring of drug dealers-and it's the case Potter worked on when injured. It's more than probable that there's a connection." By the end of his declaration, Draco had calmed and turned professional again, his arms folded in front of his chest. Hermione, on the other side, was still fuming. "You tell me that you essentially want me to hop back as if there hadn't been reasons I left, play doctor, solve your drug problems, and afterwards return to my meek muggle life?" "If that's what you want to hear? Yes!" Malfoy replied. He hadn't calculated that the scrubs-clad woman in front of him would stomp her foot on the floor and yell, "Fuck you, Malfoy! You and your whole screwed corner of the world!" With that, Hermione turned and stormed out of the room as if he hadn't magically locked it, leaving a seething Malfoy behind. She stormed the way back to her lab, fists still clenched, not even noticing the concerned calls from Jenny. She couldn't believe what happened-how dare they? Sending Malfoy after her? Why not directly partnering him up with Ron,
Ginny or Voldemort? She had problems thinking clearly, her head swirling of anger, sadness and shock. All she knew was she needed a release, preferably with lots of alcohol - against her better knowledge as a doctor-involved. She lunged her hands in the white scrubs pocket and produced a phone out of it, dialling an intern number. "Hey Juliet, when does your shift end today? What about a girl's night out?" When they met at the club they often frequented, they were in a group of four young doctors: Hermione, her friend Juliet (who worked in paediatrics), and Anny and Eileen (who both worked in orthopaedics). Making themselves comfortable in their usual niche, they ordered their usual first round of tequila shots. Knowing that there had to be a reason for Hermione's spontaneous behaviour (because she was many things, but never spontaneous in her private life), Juliet asked, after drowning the first and ordering the second shot, "What bug ran over your lunch today, Miss Best-toxicologist-in-the-western-hemisphere?" Hermione frowned at both, the question and the title. "A face from the past I'd rather forget." "Your ex, this Ron-guy?" Juliet and the other girls knew that Hermione had a nasty break-up with her ex-boyfriend some years ago, and that it had caused quite a split between her closest friends and her. "No, thank God it wasn't Ron. But another git I know from school, he doesn't even move in the same circles like Ron and Harry, the arrogant bastard." Hermione gulped down her third glass that magically had refilled. Unconscious magic was something that still happened to her when in a certain mood. "A blond, handsome man?" Anny contributed to the conversation. Hermione was a bit startled. "Yes, why?" ' Gods, did I really admit that Draco Malfoy is a handsome specimen? Either I have to stop drinking or I should drink a lot more to forget that!' she thought. "We heard some of the nurses gushing over him- he left quite an impression. Isn't he the perfect candidate to end your dry spell, Hermione?" Eileen piped in, twirling one of her perfectly straight black hair around her index, referring to the long time Hermione had already just cared for her work, and, finally, noticed some weeks ago that she needed some 'physical' outlet for her stress - yoga and martial arts didn't help anymore. "I'll forget that you mentioned that! Malfoy and I have a history: he called my awful names, and my experiences with his family are far from the best. That and he is still prejudiced, self-absorbed, arrogant-" "-and standing directly behind you," a well-known aristocratic drawl sounded behind her shoulder. "Malfoy!" Hermione jumped up and spun around, the fast movement causing a dizzy spell in her head, due to the amount of tequila she had in her system. "Granger, what a pleasure to meet you again. You left so suddenly this morning. Why don't you introduce me to the lovely girls in your company?" Hermione wanted to scream at Malfoy's perfectly aristocratic and charming behaviour, nearly sensing her friend's knees weaken at the sight of the, again, impeccably dressed man-if only they knew. Instead, she deadpanned, pointing out her friends one after the other, "My colleagues: she's married, she's engaged and she's a lesbian. Now go and take your big ego with you!" The women in question were surprised at Hermione's rude language. "Not so fast, Dr. Granger! After you insulted the poor guy, you could at least dance with him!" Juliet (married) all but shoved Hermione at Draco. "Go dancing, have a nice evening, enjoy yourself, and send me a message when you're at home, okay?" Draco smirked. Now Granger had either the option to throw a fit in a club, where she was known, or go and dance with him-which gave him the opportunity to confront her with his mission again. And he didn't even have to stun her! A visibly pissed off Hermione pulled Draco to the dancefloor, where many women and men danced and had a good time in the bass-heavy rhythms, some dancing closer to each other than appropriate in public. With a swift move, Draco had Hermione in his arms, his hands at her waist and started swaying to the music. The contact send shivers down Hermione's spine. ' This is Malfoy! Get your act together, girl….oh I really need to get laid.' "Play along, Granger- you don't want to cause a scene in the public, do you?" his calm voice next to her ear sent another wave of shivers. "Malfoy, you are an idiot. I said no, didn't I?" Against her will, Hermione started moving to the rhythm Draco's hands guided her into and rested hers on his shoulders. She couldn't very well stand like a statue on the dancefloor now, or…? "Actually you didn't. It was more like fuck you', but not a clear 'no' to the minister's pleading. And I'm the idiot with the Auror badge now !" "That is a 'no' as clear as it gets! I won't come back!" Draco decided to go for a different approach with the stubborn woman in front of him. He could feel the warmth of her skin with his thumbs where her top rode up over her tight jeans. Why did women in the muggle world have to wear such sexy outfits that made even Granger look appealing? "Who of your so-called friends over there…" he spun her around with an expert move, so she now was with her back to his front, their dancing forms now blending in perfectly with the grinding pairs around them. Despite their conversational topic, both felt the excitement of the close contact they had. "-Knows that you can create flames out of nowhere, that you searched for pieces of a madman's soul, that you rode a dragon? That you killed men with simple words rolling from your lips?" he whispered, his hands pulling her flush to him.
' Merlin, I don't know why, but this woman makes me nearly forget my professional training!' Draco thought to himself. Angry and infuriated as she was, Hermione couldn't help but feel heat coil in her lower abdomen. ' Heavens, this is Malfoy. Remember all the mean things he said to you! Keep cool!' she reprimanded herself. She didn't know what on Earth made her feel this in the middle of an argument with the former Slytherin. "No, they don't. Remember the Statue of Secrecy and all?" she answered, her voice stronger than she had anticipated. "Then they don't know you at all, little witch." Draco said, his tone bordering seductive, but not consciously so. "I am a doctor, and, as such, it is my duty to help ill people." "Meaning?" Draco needed confirmation. "Meaning that I'm going to help Harry. Nothing more, nothing less. The Ministry will comply with my conditions." Hermione had to concentrate hard on her words, distracted by the influence the tequila, and the man behind her, had on her body. "Okay, you're in." Draco sounded nearly relieved upon completing his mission. Without giving her further notice, he grabbed her hands and led her to the nearest backdoor, checked the empty alley and apparated them to a world Hermione had left heartbroken and disappointed nearly ten years ago. Feeling the sensation of apparition around her again, Hermione simply thought. ' Well, here goes nothing.'