Draco didn't know what ever happened between Granger and Weasley. He hadn't spoken with any of the Gryffindors at all since that day. It had been weeks. He'd heard a rumor about Granger fighting with Brown and pulling her hair or something. But he wasn't sure he believed it.
For the past couple of weeks he didn't notice any sorts of exchanges between her and the weasel. He did notice her subdued behavior in classes and her unwillingness to look at Draco.
He jogged down the steps of the castle toward the greenhouses. His NEWTS herbology class was on the tropical magical fawna of Central America and the greenhouse would be sweltering. Granger's hair would be a mess about five minutes in. He enjoyed watching it expand in the humidity. It was an incredible specimen. No matter what style she attempted to control it beforehand, it always escaped.
He opened the greenhouse door, thinking about how her white shirt would end up sticking to her skin and how he could see what color bra she was wearing today. She surprisingly was not a plain white type of girl. They varied in hues and patterns. He'd come to love this unit and this greenhouse.
And there she was, removing her outer robes and hanging them on the hook. She rolled her sleeves up and loosened her tie, undoing the top two buttons. She pulled her hair up, twisting it around and around before securing it with a band. The bits around her face already spiraling out of control. She donned her dragon hide gloves and picked up her notebook, making her way over to the front like the good little swot she was.
Draco dropped his bag and shrugged off his robes. "Dude." Blaise nudged him. "Some guys work on being a little less obvious when they stare at a girl." He raised a brow, removing his own robe.
"Shut up. I was not." Draco refused to believe he was so blatant. Besides, it's not like he thought about her all the time. Just when he'd see her during the day. Usually about five or six ish times, depending on the day. And sometimes at night, before bed. Sometimes in the shower in the morning. And usually he just thought about her wild curls and how she'd styled them. Or about the color of her nails that week. About the curve just above her bum, or the soft bit of her earlobe and how it felt on his tongue. Or how she never looks at him anymore. Never acknowledges his presence. Rushes out of every door first to not ever be caught alone near him. Turns around and takes another route when it seems they might cross paths.
No. He rarely thinks about her.
"Alright class, today begins the final project of this unit. You will need to germinate and then prune and grow the mariposa dittany with your group. If everything goes well, you should be flowering the day you return from the Christmas holiday. I have the assigned groups and your stations listed here. Follow the instructions on page seventy seven of your textbook. See me for any questions. You may begin." Professor Sprout waved at them to get going.
Granger was the first to the group list, she moved her head around frantically for a moment, searching the lists, as Draco stepped behind her. Her hand trailed over the parchment until she found her name, making it extremely easy for him to find his, as it was written above hers in group 3. He grinned.
She turned, growling about it and jumped when she noticed him behind her. "Jesus." She muttered, clapping her palm above her tits. They bounced a bit with the movement.
He smirked, now she would have to talk to him. "Something wrong, Granger?"
She cleared her throat and pushed past him, finding their station. He turned and followed, not interested in seeing the other names in their group, nor the station. He had all the information he needed right here.
She ignored him as she flipped open the book to the right page and began reading through the instructions. Her hair tried to burst from its band. He thought about reaching out and helping to free it.
Blaise joined their table along with the she-weasel. "Well well well, groupies. How did I get so lucky?" Blaise chided.
Potter's girlfriend looked anxiously at Granger who didn't look up from her textbook. She pulled out her own book, flipping to the page.
Draco leaned over Granger's shoulder instead of taking out his own book. She cleared her throat and stepped away, searching for the proper pot to get started with. He followed, sending a smirk at their group mates before he turned.
Granger stared at the shelves, assessing the sizes and materials of the different planters available. She had her eyes fixed on one just out of reach, she raised up on her toes to see if she could reach it better. Draco stepped in, touching her back with his palm to stop her from the inevitable jump she would make at his intrusion. The tip of his middle finger could feel where that curve started. He easily lifted the pot off the shelf and held it out for her.
She still wouldn't make eye contact with him, she snatched the pot from his hand and rolled her eyes, storming back to their station.
The she-weasel cleared her throat, looking between them. Then she said "so it says here we need extra moist and fertilized soil mixed with black volcanic ash at a ratio of 2:3. Zabini, why don't you get the soil and Malfoy you get the ash..."
"Great idea, Red!" Blaise said too energetically. He took off in search of his girlfriend first. He'd be back with the soil in approximately ten minutes or so.
The youngest Weasley looked to him next and he raised his brow, crossing his arms and getting comfortable against the table. She rolled her eyes. "Ok, I'll get the ash." She left.
Granger made a show about looking for the right spade, still avoiding him. "You're not going to talk to me at all, then? Even about the assignment?" He finally asked.
"Of course I'll talk to you about the assignment." She snapped. The first words she'd uttered to him since that day. The day she'd asked him why he would use her and leave her for weasel to pick up the pieces. Her sad hurt-filled eyes haunted his dreams still.
"Have you heard anything about McLaggen?" He asked.
She froze, staring at the textbook a moment before clearing her throat. "Of course I haven't, you'll know as soon as I do. It's a closed case, they haven't even gotten wind of it in the papers yet."
"Why did I hear a rumor about you yanking out Lavender Brown's hair?" He grinned at her unschooled reactions.
Granger brushed some wild curls out of her face and cleared her throat. "She was paid by McLaggen to take my photo with him that last day. I found it in her bag and reacted to it. She was only involved that one time and it didn't include you so I didn't tell you about it." She hurriedly explained.
"So you did yank out her hair? Fuck," he shook his head with a grin. She finally, FINALLY fucking looked up at him. He missed those eyes. "I owe Blaise five galleons."
She rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh, looking back down at her textbook.
"So... you and Weasley...?" He started.
"DON'T talk to me about Ron." She slammed the spade into his chest, eyes flickering with warning. He lifted his hand to take it, covering her fist with his palm, watching her for a reaction. She jerked her hand away and left to go get the soil that Blaise still hadn't attempted to find.
He left herbology class with an inkling of possibility. He wouldn't call it hope, because that sounded pathetic. But he could work with possibility. He was a slytherin after all.
"Are you going to be able to work with him? I can ask Sprout to change the groups." Ginny offered as the girls walked back up to the castle.
Since everyone from Ginny's year and everyone from Hermione's year were all taking the same NEWTS courses, they had to split the classes up for most of the main ones that were too full. But instead of doing it by house, Mcgonagall split them up at random, to encourage more inter house friendships and get people out of their comfortable cliquey groups. Ron and Harry weren't in herbology with them. Thank god. Hermione had three classes with both Ron and Malfoy, transfiguration, charms, and defense. All three were excruciating to get through. Then she had herbology with Ginny and Malfoy, and potions with Harry and Malfoy. Luckily Ron didn't have any other classes with Malfoy without her. But she did have ancient runes with Malfoy and without any of her friends. She'd managed to avoid him in everything thus far.
Ron hadn't spoken to her once since that night. Everything he said was true. And she didn't blame him one bit. But it hurt. She missed him.
She grudgingly came to the realization in the last couple of days, though, that she missed his friendship. She missed spending time with him, talking to him. But as she spent the past few weeks evaluating her feelings, she realized she would never get back what they had. And she felt sad and stupid about it, because it had been her own fault. But what she truly mourned, was his friendship.
Out of respect for Ron, she didn't try and push anything. He would come to her when he was ready to. She had Harry and Ginny both assuring her that things would get better with time. And she trusted that they said the same things to Ron, and nothing negative about her.
She didn't feel caught in between them this time, which she thought was a testament to Ron's maturity and growth. If he walked into the common room and she was sitting with Harry and Ginny, Ron would go find Neville or Dean, without animosity. And if she walked into the great Hall and he was sitting with Harry, she'd go sit by Luna. It was working out.
Hermione spent the majority of her free time studying in the library. She was very ahead in all of her classes.
"It's fine." She waved her hand in a quick dismissal. "I don't want to inconvenience the professor and the rest of the class because of a personal issue. Besides, with the watering schedule I created, we won't have to see each other outside of class time at all." The tropical version of dittany needed to be watered three times a day until germination in a week. She had them on a rotation with the slytherins taking midday. Because if they missed their shift it wouldn't derail everything too much. And she could make sure it got enough moisture when she went back in the evening. She had no faith in Zabini doing his part whatsoever.
"Alright, but if anything changes, let me know. I'll get him moved in a heartbeat. I'll make up a disease, or slip him a skiving snackbox thing. I don't care." Ginny promised.
"Ready for the match this weekend?" Hermione asked, mostly to change the subject.
"We should be. Replacing McLaggen with Dean has actually been a pretty good move. And our two little third year beaters are great. They give the twins a run for their money. Hufflepuff won't stand a chance." Ginny chatted about their practices and plays as Hermione listened politely.
As they walked up the steps to the entrance hall, Professor Mcgonagall spotted them and approached quickly. "Ah, Miss Granger. I was just about to send you and Mr Malfoy a message. The aurors will be here in half an hour to go over the details of the investigation with you both. If you could meet in my office sometime before then."
Hermione nodded quickly "yes of course, thank you. Will be up shortly."
The headmistress left and Hermione turned to look at Ginny, anxiety creeping in. "There had better be some answers finally." Ginny said.
Hermione nodded, lost in thought.
"Want me to meet you with Harry and Ron after? I'm sure they both would like to hear about it. Or you can just come talk to us when you want to. No pressure." Ginny offered.
"I'll wait and see what the aurors have to say. Thanks though. It's possible they don't even have the answers we want anyway." Hermione said, wringing her hands already. "I'm going to the loo. I'll find you later.
She left Ginny in the entrance hall and jogged up the stairs. She did stop at the loo, to relieve her nervous bladder and to kill time. She wanted to race to the heads office and demand answers now. But the aurors weren't even there yet.
This whole ordeal had derailed her entire life. Ok, she conceded that it was an exaggeration. But it had derailed her relationships. Both with Ron and Malfoy. She wouldn't even be talking to Malfoy if it hadn't been for the dosings. And now... well. She was back to not talking to him. But she was also not talking to Ron. And it was all put into motion by McLaggen's vendetta against her. She would finally know why.
She reached the eagle statue at the same time as Malfoy, who came from the opposite direction. He only cleared his throat and gestured for her to go first. She forced herself to walk at a normal pace.
Inside the Headmistress's office, Professor Mcgonagall waited with the two aurors. One of them held a large thick brown envelope.
"Sorry to keep you both waiting for so long, you know how government is." One of them chuckled at his own lame joke.
"So why'd he do it and how long will he be in Azkaban?" Malfoy drawled, adopting a bored stance with his hands in his pockets. "Or are you incapable of doing that job too?" He added with a sneer.
The two aurors bristled at his audacity. The second man spoke this time, less friendly than his partner "it would seem that Miss Granger here was the target, as was Mr Weasley. Because of your infiltration of the Ministry last year." He handed the thick envelope to Hermione.
"I'm sorry, what? I don't understand." Hermione shook her head in confusion, looking at the brown paper.
"The details are all copied there. You are free to look at them and keep them in your possession. The department won't make an official statement until the final sentencing to be held this Friday afternoon. You are both welcome to attend. If you'd like to testify in person you may have your solicitors contact our department to coordinate. We are expecting him to get a six year sentence minimum. Miss Brown will most likely get community service for her part in the offense."
Hermione flipped open the envelope, pulling out a thick stack of paper. She began skimming through.
"So that's it? A vague hint at an answer? And we have to read through that whole fucking report to get the truth?" Malfoy scoffed at their incompetence.
The aurors were losing their patience with his attitude and insults. "I'm sure the reasons will be clear to Miss Granger once she reads through. As far as your part in it, Mr McLaggen seems to have chosen to dose you because he thought you the most likely person to cause Miss Granger to fight the potion, and he wanted to make sure the formula would not allow for that." The second auror said in response.
"Then why'd he dose me and not her the second time? You're not explaining anything at all."
Hermione ignored them, reading the documents quickly and trying to make sense of the case notes. Mcgonagall was intervening and sending the aurors away.
"You may both stay here to read through the documents together, so as not to be disturbed by other students. I must attend to another matter of business but I will return shortly to discuss things with you. Should you wish to testify in the hearing, the school will provide you representation, Miss Granger. Mr Malfoy, I assume you have your own representative that your family has used in the past, however if you need one, you're of course welcome to the same solicitor for students." Mcgonagall left them alone in her office.
Malfoy sighed deeply at the idea of extra homework. "Give me half, I'll read through it." He held a hand out to Hermione.
"No." she shook her head, "I don't want to get them out of order." She flipped a page to the back and continued skimming through.
He sighed deeply again. She imagined he was rolling his eyes at her. She continued skimming. Pages on each reported dosing. Pages on the arrest. Pages on the medical care he had to receive. Where is the interrogation transcript? She was flipping through quickly, still standing in the middle of the office.
There was a sound of a chair scraping across the floor and then Malfoy stood in front of her and gently pushed her down to sit.
She looked up at him briefly and said "thanks". He perched himself on the arm of the chair and read over her shoulder. Finally she reached the interrogation section. "Ah, here it is. Jesus. It's like twenty pages long."
She read through it thoroughly. Malfoy was faster than she was, making comments after each page before she'd made it to the bottoms.
"So you polyjuiced as a senior ministry employee and inadvertently got his uncle caught funneling money to the death eaters?" He concluded.
"I guess so?" She skimmed through that section again. Because she'd become Mafalda Hopkirk and stopped her from getting to work on time that day, the real Mafalda had arrived at the precise moment to intercept Tiberius McLaggen doing his shady business deals. Mafalda collected intelligence on everyone involved with the death eaters and when Voldemort fell she was able to work swiftly to incarcerate all of them.
"Alright, but who the fuck cares? Why would that mean McLaggen needed to take revenge on you?" Malfoy asked.
"Holy shit, Tiberius McLaggen orchestrated the murder of Rufus Scrimgeour." Hermione covered her mouth in shock. She looked up at Malfoy who shrugged. "You knew this already?" She asked him.
"I didn't know. But I'm not surprised by any of this. I was a death eater. Continue to the part where McLaggen decided to fuck with me." He gestured back to the papers.
Hermione rolled her eyes but did look back at the transcript. She flipped through a few more pages and found the first dosing. "He did what? Hang on, this is a lot." She read through a second time and then summarized. "He brewed the love potion on his own, he aerosolized it, and floated it in front of our faces, disillusioned, and popped the bubble. With magic."
Malfoy reached over her shoulder and touched a spot on the paper. "'He tried several methods to dose you previously, all of which were unsuccessful.' What methods? They didn't follow up on that? Those fucking aurors are completely useless."
Hermione flipped the page to see if they did follow up on it, they did not.
"He was disillusioned in the potions lab that night, behind the professors desk. He'd attempted to float the bubble to me but when you walked in the room the air in your wake pushed it off course and popped it prematurely. Causing you to be dosed instead of me. He decided to let it play out." She continued reading.
"What about the quidditch match?" Malfoy asked.
Hermione flipped a page and paused. "He did come back in, to the party. After you kicked him out. He knew we'd both been dosed and snuck back in after enough time had passed." She shook her head in disgust.
"The quidditch match says he knew you were tailing him and that his cover was blown so he did it just to fuck with your match. And then he moved to take me himself the same day because he felt he was running out of time. He'd seen Ron drop me off at my dormitory and heard that he was planning to meet you at lunch. He got Lavender to agree to take the photos. And waited for me to leave the girls dorm."
"God this all sounds pathetic. So his uncle was high up in the wizengamot and McLaggen thought he'd get some job handouts and you got his uncle thrown in Azkaban. And to avenge him, he attempted to drug and rape you? And Weasley was just there? He wanted his position on the gryffindor team?" Malfoy tried making sense of it.
Hermione stared at the case file, absorbing the new information. "I suppose it makes sense, in a sociopathic sort of way. He still doesn't know about the confundus I cast sixth year..." she trailed off, still skimming through the report.
"What confundus?" Malfoy asked from over her shoulder.
She looked up at him and just then realized how close they had been sitting. She cleared her throat and stood, walking away from him. "Oh, it was nothing." She tried avoiding it. She flipped a page but wasn't really reading anymore.
"Uh uh, Granger. Share with the class." He sat himself in the chair and got comfortable, looking at her with interest.
She huffed and rolled her eyes, trying not to look too guilty. "I just confunded him..." she met Malfoy's eye and his brows raised up, "ONCE." She emphasized. His brows inched higher and he titled his head. "At quidditch tryouts." She feigned interest in the report but glanced up at Malfoy once more. He was a sporting a wicked grin.
"And McLaggen doesn't even know you destroyed his quidditch career for your boyfriend's sake and he still has reason to fuck up your relationship?" His eyes twinkled with delight.
"He wasn't my boyfriend at the time." She snapped. "He then got with Lavender and I took McLaggen to Slughorn's Christmas party to make Ron jealous and I thought all of that might have had something to do with all this." She shook the report. "But apparently it doesn't?"
"You weren't even with the Weasel and you were pining for him enough to cheat for him?" Malfoy crossed his heel over his knee, sitting back and shaking his head at her.
"Shut up," she snapped again. She decided to change the subject, things were getting uncomfortable. She didn't like talking about Ron with Malfoy. It was all too raw still. "Are you going to the trial?" She asked.
"Absolutely I am. Aren't you?"
She chewed her lip, looking at the report. "I suppose so. I don't him to weasel his way out of a proper sentencing. And I want him to see my face, to know that I now know everything. That he didn't win."
Malfoy stood and walked over to her, holding his hand out for the report. "Great. Then we'll use my solicitor. The school one is shit."
Hermione looked at him apprehensively, "isn't your father in Azkaban with a life sentence and you only got out of it because of Harry?" She raised a brow.
"Yeah, and my father didn't get the kiss, and my mother isn't serving any time at all, and my record has been expunged and I'm a free and clear citizen. Ask the other death eaters how their sentencing turned out." He snatched the report from her hands.
"Fine, that's a good point." She conceded.
The headmistress returned and they discussed how they wanted to proceed. Hermione was relieved to let Malfoy take the reins with all the legal stuff. He seemed competent with all of it and she trusted him to want sufficient punishment for McLaggen.
She left the Head's office to find her friends, wondering if Ron would speak with her finally. If being able to put this behind them would allow them to begin to heal what they'd broken.