Chapter Six

The Office of Theodore Nott

Hermione blinked as the pressed tin ceiling of an unfamiliar room came into focus. Her head swam as if she had drunk half a bottle of firewhiskey. She tried to sit up but a hand pressed against her shoulder stopped her.

"Easy bella. Don't sit up just yet. Your head must be in quite a state." A slightly accented voice told her and she turned towards it.

Deep chocolate eyes met hers and Hermione froze. The man crouched next to her was insanely beautiful. A dusting of dark freckles across his chestnut skin and high cheekbones, a very white smile, waves of obsidian hair roguishly falling into those warm eyes. She wasn't entirely sure he was even real, he looked too perfect to not be a figment of her imagination.

"Am I hallucinating?" She whispered and when the man laughed it was rich and deep. He brushed long elegant fingers across her forehead brushing back some wayward strands of her hair; she wondered if he played piano.

"No Granger you are going to be perfectly alright. I'm afraid you gave us a bit of a scare though and we reacted rather instinctually. Old habits, you understand. Mi dispiace." The use of her surname snapped her out of her dazed ogling of the man. He knew her, something had happened before she had passed out, something important but it kept slipping from her.

She looked around the room to try and orient herself. By the window stood a tall slight man. He was dressed impeccably, from his perfectly polished shoes to his finely tailored suit and accented pocket square. He too looked oddly familiar. He had short sandy brown hair and an aristocratic nose which reminded her of a bit of a statue of Alexander the Great she had seen at a museum with her parents.

"Apologies Granger." He was nervously rolling a large silver coin across his knuckles as he offered her a weak smile.

"Yes, apologies. Maybe though next time don't go poking about other people's private business. Didn't your parents ever teach you it's rude to snoop?" A sarcastic drawl came from the desk behind them.

Hermione's stomach dropped to somewhere below her knees. But when she sat up and grabbed her wand (or where her wand should have been) the man sitting in the chair with his feet resting lazily on the desk wasn't Lucius.

Draco Malfoy looked awful. He had deep purple crescents under his eyes and his pale skin had an unhealthy tinge to it. With his hair shoulder length and loose he did look strikingly like Lucius at first glance. His eyes took on a haunted look of understanding as he watched her hand frantically grasping for her wand but hardened to unreadable as he met her eyes again.

"Ta da. It's me." He said waspishly flipping his hands out in a mock gesture of welcome. "Well, me and Blaise and Theo. Since you were hunched outside the office door like an eavesdropping gremlin, you seemed to have needed a word with us. Unless you're stalking Theo in which case I will applaud your taste in men improving since the Weasel and we can leave you two love birds to figure out a restraining order in privacy."

Right. It was coming back to her.

"You stunned me!" She said incredulously.

"We have that effect on women. Well mainly Blaise and Theo these days but still." Draco said airily. "What did you expect when you ambushed three death eaters?"

"You're not- oh never mind. Can I have my wand back?" She demanded.

Blaise stood up with a flourish and handed Hermione her wand before going to lounge against the desk with Malfoy. He was very tall and the way he moved with almost liquid grace, reminded Hermione of a cat.

"What brought you to my office?" Nott asked her, moving from his place at the window to stand behind the chair Draco was in.

"I've been trying to contact you for months. Haven't you been getting my owls?" She demanded incredulously.

Draco raised an eyebrow at Theo.

"My secretary left me. A cursed letter took off one of her ears and part of her nose. I haven't been keeping up with the mail." He shrugged defensively.

"What did you need with Theo?" Asked Blaise.

"I was trying to talk to him about his connection to a potion supply store. His name is on the lease to the building." Hermione told them. The room felt like it was spinning under her feet. "Do you mind if I sit down?"

Draco stood up quickly but Blaise already had a chair zooming to him from across the room and up the other side of the desk. He gently took Hermione's hand and helped her sit.

"Theo, go get her some water. Blaise, there's a pepper up potion in my bag in the hall. Granger looks like she's about to pass out again." Draco told them as he slowly lowered himself back down to his chair.

"There's really no need I-" but Draco raised a hand to interrupt her.

"The last thing we need is to have to take you to st. Mungos. How would that look? Us three and the body of the Golden Girl?" He scoffed.

Blaise raised her hand and brushed a kiss against Hermione's knuckles before following Theo out of the room.

Once the door shut and it was just the two of them the room seemed oppressively small. Draco watched her unblinking from across the desk and Hermione tried to look anywhere but at him.

"Have I got something on my face or is there another reason you're gawking?" She snapped after a moment, unnerved.

"You haven't changed much. Still as prickly as ever" He said with a shadow of his old smirk.

"I'll take that as a compliment coming from you." She said, rolling her eyes.

Draco's chuckle turned into a hacking cough. Hermione watched in alarm as he brought a white handkerchief to his mouth and red bloomed across it.

"Are you alright?" genuine concern creeping into her voice as he doubled over, his face tinged pink.

"Oh I'm fine." He wheezed "Right as rain. A model specimen of health and wellness"

The other two re-entered the room and Blaise immediately went to Draco's side, kneeling down and speaking softly in Italian.

"What's wrong with him?" Hermione asked Theo quietly as he handed her the small potions vial and a bottle of water.

"I'm sure it's nothing serious. Blaise has it under control." Theo assured her but he looked unconvinced as he watched his friends.

"Blaise I'm fine, stop fussing." Draco gasped, collapsing back into his chair. "Right. On to business." Blaise perched on the chair's arm and Draco leaned slightly against him. "Let's start at the beginning, Granger. I can practically see the questions bursting out of you, try to contain yourself while we explain."

A half hour later Hermione's head was swimming. Theo had walked her through their involvement, Blaise and Draco offering small interjections and clarifications. She thought she had an idea of what was going on but she didn't trust them.

"So this is all to help him" she asked. They was quiet for a moment, thinking things over. She didn't particularly enjoy the idea of Malfoy opening a potions business and she really wasn't sure she believed them. After all, who would be buying potions from a renowned Death Eater except other Death Eaters?

"You haven't done anything illegal.. yet, so I will inform my department head about what you told me and be on my way. Good luck with everything!" She made to get up and leave but Blaise stopped her. "No one can know about this outside of us." He said seriously. "We need this to succeed and to succeed it needs to be kept secret."

"That's nonsense. No one at the ministry is going to care if you're setting up a potion's shop as long as it's not for anything nefarious." She told them exasperated.

"The ministry can be bought or even reasoned with no problem" agreed Theo fidgeting with his coin. "But they aren't the only reason we're keeping this from being associated with us."

"If our involvement gets out we will have to give the shop up. There would be too much danger, for us and for our customers." Draco snapped. "Do you think our suppliers would want to be associated with our business openly? Do you think that they wouldn't deny our business or worse, tamper with the ingredients? Just think for a minute Granger, at how dangerous that would be for our customers."

Hermionie sat back down considering. The violent targeting of Death Eaters and their associates was less than it had been at the end of the war but it was still prevalent. There was a reason so many of Malfoy's previous friends had taken their business and lives to other countries. She understood, if they were telling the truth, why they were taking these precautions but it didn't sit well with her to not tell Ms. Worthington.

"Fine. But even if I don't say anything you'll still need to explain Nott's signature on the lease." Never in her wildest dreams did she think she'd be agreeing to keep secrets for former Death Eaters. "You will need to respond to my owls and make a statement of some kind in person at the ministry. You have until the end of day Monday to sort this out before I go and tell the department everything."

"Well that went marginally better than expected." Draco said tiredly after Hermione had turned on her heel and strode out of the office. "Any ideas on another cover story for the ministry?"

A/N: Y'all, it has been a week. I bought a sticker that says "Serotonin? In this Economy?" And let me tell you I feel that.