Draco walked into Number 12 Grimmauld Place and looked around, no matter how much work or paint, time or love they put in this house, he would always remember what it looked like after the war, when he hid there for a while. It was dark and stank of rot, mildew, sadness and death, the smells were gone but the memory remained, and it was suffocating him. A house-elf appeared in the room and told him to follow her as she led him to the kitchen. Mr. And Mrs. Weasley sat at the table with their son and daughter as well as Potter, he took in the scene with his trademark sneer and took his seat.
"What is it that I can do for you, Potter?" Draco asked, looking from one person to the next, before they rested again on the emerald eyes of the man who lived to irritate him to death.
"We need your help getting Hermione Granger out of a muggle mental hospital" Harry answered, his eyes never leaving the frozen grey stare.
"What makes you think I will help?" Draco scoffed "I don't care if she dies in there"
"You do this for me and I will forgive the life debt you owe me" Harry said, his only and extremely heavy chip in the game. He smiled slightly to himself when he saw a muscle twitch in the blondes jaw.
"Technically, Draco, you owe me two life debts" Harry told him "I will combine them and clear them both with this one little bit of help"
"Two?" Ron asked, confused.
"I saved him from certain death in the room of requirement in the final battle and kept him out of prison after the battle...two" Harry explained "So, what is it?" He flattened his hands on the table "Help me and all is forgotten or don't help and continue to owe me until I think of something else you can help me with"
"Explain the situation to me, carefully" Draco sneered, he set a quill above a piece of parchment, getting ready to take notes as Potter spoke "Don't worry, Potter, this isn't like Rita Skeeters quill where your eyes will be 'filling with the tears of your past' it's normal"
Harry and Ron spent an hour explaining about Gwen Granger, her search and how and where she found Hermione, which was, as they stressed numerous times, an insane asylum. While they were speaking Draco waved away a communication patronis, the only form of a patronis charm he was able to produce. It came back when they were finishing up, gave him a scroll and disappeared. When they were done speaking he read whatever it was that the scroll said and nodded his head as if it was speaking to him.
"Quarry Place" He said "Lots of sign-in's" He sighed "Pretty much no sign-outs" He sighed and looked over the notes "Does the muggle have a DNA sheet saying that she is who she claims to be?"
"No" Harry answered "But you can tell"
"Doesn't matter" Draco muttered as he made a note "We can charm a piece of paper to look like a DNA sheet, I can also put an Imperious charm on the paper" He saw the look on everyone's faces and snorted "Not the Imperio curse, it's a manipulation charm, makes them believe what they see on the paper...muggle's are stupid"
"Thanks" A voice said from the doorway to the kitchen "I didn't know that"
"It's a known..." Draco stopped as he turned and took in the sight of the woman standing in front of him "Fact" Her hair was the same color as Hermione's but straight and smooth as glass, her eyes were far more beautiful and her skin and teeth were perfect, he felt heat rise to his face.
"Really?" She asked, walking into the room "I've never heard it"
"The cousin, I take it" Draco said, standing to his full height "A muggle, I'm not surprised you don't know that fact. However, Wizards have proven that muggles are too dumb to understand simple charms and how to throw off simple spells like Imperio"
"I can't throw it off" Ginny said with a challenging tone "What does that say about me?"
"Nothing" Harry said quickly, not wanting to hear them fight again. He watched with an amused but weary expression, he wanted to see her put Malfoy in his place, but was also worried if she did, he wouldn't help.
"Can you" Gwen said, walking across the stone floor, the heels of her black shoes clicking loudly "A full-blooded wizard make a simple phone call without the use of magic?"
"W-well" Draco stuttered, his face turned blood red and his eyes darted angrily around the room and Harry was suddenly very sad that Gwen hadn't gone to school with them "N-no, but..."
"Then which one of us is dumb?" Gwen asked, her icy blue eyes locked on his "You for not knowing my world or me for not knowing yours...seems all a bit unfair, doesn't it?"
They both stood there, eyes locked on one another, both appreciating the sight of each other and both feeling rather breathless. They were like two feral cats circling around one another and getting ready to pounce and fight it out until one of them came out with the dominance they were both sure they deserved. It was exciting for both of them. In the end, neither got the win, Mrs. Weasley saw to that with a quick and simple 'we both have a lot to learn about both worlds' and left it at that. Something that Harry appreciated, though he'd have loved to know which one would win that particular fight, mainly because they both had strong cases.
"Okay" Draco sighed "Miss Granger" He smirked to himself when he thought of his godfather, Severus Snape, as he spoke her name "What is it that you want from this, some kind of personal gain?"
"You have to forgive Malfoy" Ginny said quickly, shooting a glare at the blonde "He comes from a highly suspicious background"
"Ah" Gwen said, nodding her head in amusement "I come from a past with a mother who told me to believe everything unless proven otherwise, and you were raised with a family that told you to believe in nothing until proven there was something to believe"
"Sounds like your family was kinder than mine" Draco muttered "It hasn't been an easy life and I was..."
"A deatheater" Gwen finished for him "I read it in Hermione's diary"
"Yeah!" He snapped, suddenly angry "And what else does the great Hermione Granger have to say about me in there?" There was a pain in his voice that pulled at Gwen's heart, a pain that she understood only too well.
"That you were highly intelligent" She continued "Tied with her in all classes and would have been an asset to their side of the war" She walked over and leaned down to his ear and whispered, so no one else could hear this part "And she thought you were pretty cute in your school uniform" His face turned a little pink.
"Okay" He muttered, he quickly looked at the rest of the people around the table "Has she lost her mind in there?" Anger filled Ron and Ginny's faces "I'm not trying to be rude when I ask this, but an insane asylum creates as many lunatics as it "cures" because if you're around the insane for so many years, you slowly go insane...look at my aunt Bellatrix"
"She was insane going into prison" Ginny started but he shook his head.
"No, she wasn't" He informed her "Bellatrix was always dark and always had a thing for the dark lord, that is true, but before Azkaban she had been coherent, smart, driven and ambitious. The monster that came out of that prison was not the same person that went in"
"How can you know that?" Ron asked "You were a baby when she was arrested"
"He's right" Molly said "Bellatrix was a lot of things before prison, but not insane"
"Hermione was able to hold conversation" Harry said, looking at some notes he'd made "She knew where she was and what was going on, she's scared and lonely, but who wouldn't in that situation?"
"Okay" Draco sighed, looking at his notes "Give me a couple of days to get everything in order..."
"A couple of days?!" Ron roared, standing up and pacing angrily around the kitchen "God only knows what they could be doing to her in there?!" He raked his hand through his red hair "A couple days..." He scoffed.
"Look, Weasel" Draco snapped "It's Thursday, it's going to take me at least two days to write up a convincing release form, another day to find people to properly act out the parts I need them to act out and I need time to talk to Gwen Granger here" He looked around the table "I'll be moving as fast as I am able to, but I won't be properly ready until at least Monday"
"But she's..." Ron started.
"I understand" Draco said softly, putting on his best 'work voice' the one he used when working with overstimulated clients "She's in there, we're out here. We don't know what's going on and that is terrifying, but if they were going to do something truly terrible to her and she is as with it as you guys claim, then they would have harmed her when she was weak and vulnerable...there is protective magic and it is more likely to form now that she is aware of who she is than when she first got there" Everyone was still on edge but not quite as terrified, he had successfully soothed them, but added just a bit more just in case "My guess is that they will keep her in isolation this weekend and then we will be there on Monday to free her"
"You're sure you can get her out of there, Draco?" Molly Weasley asked gently, she put one hand on his shoulder and one was firmly over her mouth "I've worried so much for so long, and I would hate to know she is where she is and not be able to help her"
"I am confident that this will be easy" Draco assured her, slightly uncomfortable with the touch "I mean no offense to anyone here, but muggles are...well, easily influenced with the smallest things, this shouldn't be too hard"
With everyone soothed, Draco took his leave. At his manor he locked himself in his office and got to work right away. He told himself that he was putting this much work in because he wanted to get this done and over with and be out from under the debts that he owed Potter. However, he wasn't convincing himself at all, he knew that while he would have worked this hard no matter what, a part of him, the part he'd been sure had died with his wife, wanted to impress and help Gwen Granger. He was horrified with his immediate interest with this woman, this muggle, his father would be so horrified with this interest of his. But he wasn't his father, he had made sure of that and wasn't he allowed to be happy if that was in the cards? He asked himself that question and yet the answer was always the same, no.