Just as most of the people had left and only Harry, Ginny, Ron & Padma remained, a glowing patronus burst into the pub summoning Harry & Ron to the Ministry urgently. The Magpie Patronus wasn't one that Hermione recognised. With the night cut short and the boys gone, Ginny offered the girls to crash at Grimmauld Place which they happily agreed to. A grumbling Kreacher serving them breakfast was a far more pleasant idea than nursing a splitting headache and hangover alone. Although Kreacher had grown quite fond of the lot, it seemed like the grumbling was to keep up appearances. He had been well compensated over the years for his service even though he refused to take a salary. Harry had finally asked him if there was anything he could gift him instead and Kreacher had asked if he could get Walburga's portrait. Harry had very happily obliged. He had gifted him the entire wall with the portrait and moved it to the dungeons which had now been converted to comfortable living quarters for the old elf. Ginny and Harry were over the Moon to have gotten rid of her and Kreacher was happy to be united with his old mistress.
The three of them had been dead asleep as soon as they hit the sack but with morning came a terrible hangover. "We are too old for this shit." groaned Ginny, nursing an Invigorating Potion. Padma had gulped it down with a disgusted face and Hermione was halfway there.
After the three had freshened up and were feeling a lot more alive they sat around the breakfast table eating toast that Kreacher served. Ginny suddenly sighed, "I still don't like it when Harry gets summoned like that and I don't know why. It's like the War all over again where he's in danger and I am in the dark."
Hermione placed her hand over Ginny's and Padma hugged her from the side. The three young women sat quietly for a while. Just as they were wrapping up breakfast the Floo came to life. In walked a soot-covered and pretty battered Draco Malfoy. "Harry needs the Invisibility Cloak." In typical Malfoy fashion, there were no pleasantries exchanged. It was straight to business.
"Hello to you too Malfoy," said Ginny sarcastically as she went to fetch the Cloak. "Manners aren't lost on you, I see." Granger retorted. "Not when there's a maniac on the loose Granger. I just apparated from France and I walked into an ambush."
"Is everyone okay?" The healer in Padma kicked in. "There are a few minor injuries. It seems like a muggle IED bomb was set off to distract us. Everyone had checked for spells, nobody accounted for muggle weapons."
Padma started collecting her things. "I should check in with the hospital. Malfoy you better come see me later at St Mungo's after this wraps up. You need to get checked."
The healers at St Mungo's knew his penchant for being annoying about getting medical attention even if things were serious. Once he had fractured several ribs while on a mission and decided to self-medicate with Skele-Gro. While that fixed his ribs, a slight but critical internal bleeding was missed and only when he got hit on another mission and lost his consciousness did it come to light. It could have been fatal but Malfoy was nothing but a stubborn prat.
It was a known fact amongst Potter's friends that post the War he had turned into a great auror but a giant pain in the ass because he outright refused help and was constantly in pain. A few even speculated that he was so grumpy because he was constantly in pain. Everyone knew he was in pain but Hermione thought he was a bit of a sadist to pretend he wasn't. His reasons were obvious but nobody ever discussed them outright. They let him be for the most part, life hadn't been easy for him post the War. Whenever they knew he needed help, the general idea was to piss him off enough that he does what you need him to do as a challenge. Ingenious really and all thanks to Hermione. She had briefly worked at the Auror department, quickly moving on to work as an Unspeakable and currently as a world-renowned researcher for various fields of magic. During her brief stint as an Auror, she and Malfoy had trained and joined the force together which caused them to collaborate on several missions. He was quiet and completely guarded which pissed her off to no end. He refused to ever work as a team and kept putting himself in harm's way constantly. A rather sadistic way to atone for his sins, she assumed. Talking to him and trying to understand was not something that worked with him so she simply riled him up to do what she needed. It worked.
She wasn't sure if he had caught on or not, but it seemed to work out for everyone in the end. They were not close friends by any means, nobody had seen or spoken to him in three years as he was undercover on a foreign assignment. But being an Auror meant he had to team up with Harry & Ron often enough that they eventually warmed up to him. It wasn't very difficult to pity the man with random civilians hexing him or throwing nasty things at him for simply existing. He never retaliated or stopped them.
Harry and eventually Ron came around and became his champions in the Ministry & outside. Hermione had also testified at his very public trial but she stayed out of the limelight once the dust settled. Now he was an accomplished senior Auror with a team of his own.
Ginny had given him the Cloak and pushed a remaining bottle of Invigorating Potion into his hand. He quirked up an eyebrow but said nothing before he guzzled it down. "Take another for Harry," she said as she handed him another. With that, he was gone. He hadn't even stepped away from the fireplace properly. Just stood there stoic for the most part, across the room from where Hermione sat.
Padma had left straight for St Mungo's in a rush. About an hour after Malfoy had left, Hermione hugged Ginny goodbye as she stepped into the Floo to finally crash for the weekend with a prayer that her boys were safe.