So that was how Teddy ended up walking into the Ministry with the famous Hermione Granger trailing behind him. Needless to say, they made quite a stir. As they passed, most of the people did double or triple takes as they recognized her. When they stared for too long, Hermione would do a little wave. Sometimes those people would take it as an invitation. Then they would stop her in the hall. They exclaimed on her being alive, welcomed her back, and asked what she was doing at the Ministry. This would, in turn, draw even more people who had to say the same thing.
Nobody, Teddy noticed, brought up her being a werewolf. There were a few oblique references, usually in hushed tones reserved for speaking of the dying. Hermione wasn't so delicate about the topic, often directing conversations towards her talking points about magical creature rights and other things she had said in her newspaper interviews. This was usually met with uncomfortable agreement from whoever was her current conversation partner.
The conversations were even longer when Hermione met with someone she had known from before her attack. There was the usual small talk of catching up but then there was also the subtle networking from Hermione's end. Gentle prods of the conversation to feel out the Ministry's state of affairs, especially around the Department for Control and Regulation of Magical Creatures. Teddy, who didn't have a political bone in his body, was ready to climb the walls after a few of these kinds of conversations. However, he understood the need for it. That is was both important to Hermione personally and possibly for the well-being of werewolves generally.
Eventually, after taking at least five times as long usual, they made it to Teddy's desk.
Hasan stood as they approached and looked between them. "Are we doing a follow-up interview?" he asked.
"We are doing the full interview," Teddy responded, trying not to sound too irritated about how botched this whole investigation was getting, since it was at least partially his fault.
Hasan raised an eyebrow and then did a complicated movement with his wand. "I've reserved us one of the interview rooms if we're going to start right away."
Teddy glanced around the room at the lingering Aurors and other DMLE employees that had found excuses to linger. "Sounds good."
Hasan waved a hand for them to follow him. "My name is Hasan Shafiq, by the way," he told Hermione as they started walking. "Though I hope you won't hold that against me."
Hermione reached out and grasped his hand quickly, mostly ignoring the stares they were still getting. "Why would I do that?" she asked with a puzzled air.
Hasan quirked a smile. "The Shafiq family is one of the sacred twenty-eight. They might not have been so bad as to follow Voldemort back in the day, but they still value a lot of things I don't agree with. If there is anything I can do to help you reintegrate into your life and society, please let me know."
"Oh," Hermione said, blinking quickly. "I- Thank you. That is very kind. And of course I wouldn't hold that against you."
Hasan smiled easily. Teddy noticed it was one of his genuine ones that made him look extremely handsome and charming. Hermione apparently noticed as well because, after getting the full force of that smile, she bit her lip and smiled shyly back.
Hasan continued to direct them through the maze of desks towards the hallway. He looked over his shoulder at Hermione, still smiling, and said, "Teddy and I were talking about how dice-y it is going to be for you being outed as a werewolf in this political climate. I don't know if you could actually use any of my connections, but please let me know if it ever becomes relevant. Or if we can be of help as Aurors to the werewolf community." Hasan threw a casual look over the rest of the department just as they were leaving for the hallway. His smile was not so warm anymore, though maybe not very obviously. He added in an undertone, "It might be beneficial to have some Aurors who are firmly on your side."
Hermione watched him with wide eyes, seeming to pick up on the undertone of the conversation. "Oh dear," she said. "I mean, thank you very much for your generosity. I will reach out once I have a better idea of my needs."
Hasan nodded and lead them all into the one of the interview rooms off the hallway. As Hasan summoned tea for all of them, Teddy set about erecting privacy spells. Given the nature of their conversation, he chose to be more thorough than they usually were. Hasan noticed and smiled in approval.
Teddy felt stupid about how relieved he was to be getting Hasan's smile as well. It was idiotic to be jealous about something like that. He hadn't even realized how much he was used to being the only one in the Auror department who got those sorts of smiles.
Once the charms were up, Hasan asked, "So why are we the ones doing this interview? It seems like Auror Potter would have been interested in doing the official one himself."
While Teddy was trying to come up with something tactful to say, Hermione started in on an explanation. "Oh, well, Harry didn't prioritize it as I can't remember anything new."
This pronouncement was met with awkward silence for a few seconds before Teddy and Hasan both tried to speak at once.
"What do you mean-"
"New since-"
Teddy gestured for Hasan to continue, trying to ignore the awful suspicion that had begun at her words.
Hasan turned on the gentle tones of his 'good Auror' persona and asked politely. "Generally we have some spells we use to record official interviews. Do you consent to having this interview recorded with the understanding it may be used in future court cases?"
Hermione agreed and Hasan set up the spells, explaining them again after they were turned on so that Hermione could officially give her consent for the records. Then Hasan continued in the same tone, asking, "You stated before this interview that you do not remember any new information since your attack. Could you please clarify what you meant?"
"I don't actually remember the attack," Hermione said apologetically, confirming Teddy's fear. "We've tried a few tactics to see if we could retrieve it. Pensieve. Mind Healers. Obliviators who specialize in memory restoration. I've done some reading myself to see if there were other possibilities for magical or muggle ways of somehow getting it back. However, I haven't found anything that has worked yet." Then she added, as if she couldn't quite help herself. "Have you used the Muggle internet? It really is something. The Wizarding World really needs to find a way of emulating it for information retrieval at least. Only imagine-" then she cut herself off. "Oh, sorry. Not relevant to this."
Hasan nodded reassuringly, "There have been some attempts, actually, but you are right. We'll have to talk about that later." Then he returned to his Auror interrogation mode. "Can you walk us through your last memory before you woke up in the hospital?"
Hermione pulled her tea closer to her. "I think I was walking into Muggle London. I had agreed to meet up with Harry and Ron at Prezzo."
"Why were you meeting at a Muggle location?" Hasan asked.
"We get too much attention at Wizarding establishments… or got attention, I suppose," she said frowning into her tea.
"Erm… were you aware of attention from any one particular?" Teddy asked.
Hermione shook her head, still apologetic.
"Did anyone else know you were going to Prezzo?" Hasan asked.
"I don't think so. I don't think Ron or Harry had told anyone. It would be unlikely, in any case."
Hasan nodded wearily. "Alright, then please give us a walk through of the last couple of days leading to the attack." At Hermione's worried glance, he added, "Or what you can remember."
She nodded and nervously took a sip of her tea again before launching into a recount of the last few days before her coma. Pretty much everything that she had recounted could also be found in the file notes. She had kept thorough records before she was attacked, and so her testimony had little to add. Her most recent line of inquiry had been whether there was a location or product that linked the victims together. The last movements of the victims had already been mapped. Hermione was just comparing products like potions or magical supplies and following up with any that most of them appeared to share. The magical world was small enough that there had been a lot of products to follow up about. Even hearing about all of it was exhausting to Teddy.
The longer they interrogated her, the less animated Hermione became. She abruptly stopped talking in the middle of recounting visiting an old man who ran a shop of hair and hygiene potions.
"Did you remember some-" Teddy started to ask.
"He's dead, isn't he," Hermione said in a flat voice. "I could tell things were going badly even then. Does that shop even exist anymore?"
"I suppose we could-" Teddy started.
Hermione made a dismissive gesture. "Anywhere I went during this whole case probably is gone or run by different people. And anyone who hasn't left probably barely remembers any encounters with me let alone anyone suspicious. Even if we got a warrant for Pensieves they would basically be useless at this point."
"Probably," Hasan agreed. "But we have fresh evidence from this recent murder. Our case doesn't hinge on anyone remembering anything twenty years ago except you. And luckily for us, it wasn't twenty years ago for you." He gave her another of his reassuring smiles.
Hermione grimmaced and rubbed at her eyes. "No, you are right. What happened twenty years ago doesn't matter for most people." She stared at the dregs of her tea, lip quivering between her teeth.
"Er, tea?" Teddy asked.
Hermione's grim smile returned and she pushed her cup out so that Teddy could refill her cup.
The air was heavy with the grief Hermione wouldn't express. Teddy was starting to get an idea of the magnitude of it. What the absence of twenty years meant. None of her friends were the same. All her old acquaintances had moved on into worlds she didn't know or understand. Whatever the underpinnings of her life had been, they were gone or shifted. Like a house devastated by an earthquake, all she could do was pick through the old life and try to find anything salvageable.
Teddy had had enough empty platitudes about Lilith's death. It would taste particularly bitter to try to offer similar platitudes to someone else who was grieving something he couldn't fully comprehend.
Hermione visibly tried to regain her composure several times before burying her face into her hands.
Hasan raised his wand and muttered the order for the quills to stop their documenting. "We aren't being observed anymore, if you need to a moment," he said.
Hermione raised her head from her hands and gave him a dark look, angrily dashing at the tears that had started to fall down her face. "Don't you know that being nice just makes it worse?" she asked, her voice cracking at the end. With an angry noise of frustration, she buried her face into her hands again.
Teddy was used to suspects and witnesses emoting violently during interrogations. He had come to think that the whole process of interrogation was designed to break down anyone, innocent or not. However, he didn't want to press the advantage this time. There was no advantage to be had from pushing Hermione to this or anywhere beyond it. If he was being perfectly honest with himself, the process to break suspects was rarely helpful. The only ones who truly broke were the ones who didn't have the hope of connected relatives swooping in to save them. And then once the Aurors had found that crack, they just pushed as hard as they could without worrying about what the victim's life would look like afterwards.
Hermione wasn't as bad off as those who had no potential rescuers, but her situation still reminded him of those his colleagues often went after for crimes. Those on the outskirts of society whose disappearance wouldn't bother anyone in power. He had always thought it was an unconscious bias, but now, after seeing how little regard his colleagues had for protecting the innocent members of the werewolf pack, he wondered how much was truly unconscious. Uncomfortably, he topped off his own tea.
Hermione was still clearly grieving, hunched in on herself and rocking a little.
"We could finish this later?" Teddy said hesitantly and was subjected to another angry look.
Still, she straightened and then rubbed at her ear with her sleeve. Her facial scars were diverting her tears to the side of her face and ear. Her scars weren't that noticeable. The divots were still there, but the healers had been able to return the pigmentation to almost normal. However, the light glistened off of the tears that followed those divots, highlighting another thing she had lost.
No matter how much they made nice to her face, it was becoming clear to him that most of the Wizarding population would not be able to look past those scars or the so-called loss of humanity that they represented. He knew that many people still said that those of his kind were only pretending at being human. People were a little more careful about him, given his father, but sometimes they forgot. It wasn't surprising, given what lengths Harry had gone to try to help them forget.
"I'm fine," Hermione said imperiously, even though it was obvious to everyone that she was not. "That old man was the last person I visited. Then I dropped everything off at St. Mungo's to be tested. After the tests came back negative, I left to go to Prezzo's and presumably I was attacked."
They had already gone over how the attacker might have found her out. She had been careful about disguises, making sure to change her scent as well. She had switched disguises while she tracked the movement patterns of the victims. It would be incredibly unlikely that anyone had been able to track her or understand what she was trying to do.
Could they have asked more questions? Sure. However, it had gone long enough and Hermione wasn't in any shape to continue this.
"I think we're good," Teddy said, looking askance to Hasan. At Hasan's nod, Teddy continued, "We can always bring you in if anything else comes up. Hasan, want to wrap things up with the quills?"
Hasan restarted the charms so they could go through the last of the protocols. Teddy banished everyone's tea mugs as he waited until any recording spells and mechanisms were done.
"I think that that covers anything official that we would have talked about. Would you like to go somewhere and have a less formal conversation outside of the Ministry?" Hasan asked.
Hermione looked up, confused. Hasan raised an eyebrow that smoothed out when he saw Teddy's meaningful glance at Hermione.
"I never did get anything to eat for lunch," Teddy said in way of agreement.
"Not that you usually need an excuse to eat," Hasan said with a light smile.
"Oi," Teddy said, feeling his face heat. "Qian's biscuits are bloody delicious. Don't be sore that I manage to grab one before they disappear."
Hermione smiled a little, looking more relaxed as she followed them out the door.