Chapter Five
As they parted ways after their shopping excursion, they had made plans to meet up the next day at a muggle cafe to go over the case files together in more detail. Hermione insisted that that it was important to do so in a muggle environment to witness how well Draco handled himself in alien terriority and generally have him practice fitting in as a muggle. Draco had luckily convinced her that ten o'clock in the morning was a much more humane time to start work, thank you very much. She hadn't seemed happy about waiting until halfway through the day (her words) to get started, but she had begrudginly agreed nonetheless.
And so, Draco was able to go about his morning leisurely. In addition to his eggs and sausage links he decided to pop down to the bakery a block away from his flat to pick up some nice croissants. He had quite a perfect morning savoring the delicious buttery pastries, sipping a warm cup of tea, and reading the rather engaging book he'd picked up the week before from Flourish & Blotts (a thrilling mystery novel about a quidditch player being blackmailed to throw the World Cup game).
By the time Draco was leaving his flat to go meet Hermione, he was in high spirits. He'd gotten over eight hours of sleep, hadn't had a pesky owl screeching to wake him up, had eaten a hearty breakfast and read two chapters of his book. Not to mention it was actually a sunny day in London, the golden rays fighting off the early autumn chill.
Whistling, Draco entered the cafe to see Hermione was already seated at a table near the window with a latte steaming lightly in front of her. An empty plate suggested she had also indulged in a flakey pastry for breakfast.
"Hullo," Draco said cheerfully, taking the seat across from her.
"Good morning," she said slowly, eyeing him distrustfully. "You're in an awfully good mood for…well, you."
"Ah no, you see, this is who you get when I am allowed to start work at a normal hour," replied Draco. Everyone thinks him so serious, he thought, when really they are just unwilling to accept the consequences of a structure that was ill-suited to him.
"Right," said Hermion skeptically, arching an eyebrow. "Do you want to get a coffee or anything before we start?"
Draco nodded and got up, making his way towards the counter and ordered himself a capuccino. When it was ready he wound through the other patrons back to their table. In his absence, Hermione had covered the table with stacks of papers and several spiral-bound muggle notebooks.
He sat down, casting his gaze over the collection. "Care to give me a tour?" he asked, gesturing over the table.
Hermione pinched her lips slightly at his teasing tone, but refused to be baited.
"I've transcribed the case files along with both of our notes into these notebooks," she explained. "We'll need to reference the cases and take notes in the field, which we clearly can't do on parchment."
"Clearly," Draco agreed, causing Hermione to stare at him suspiciously.
"I took the liberty of purchasing a couple notebooks for you to use, along with some pens," Hermione placed two notebooks in front of him, one large and one pocket-sized, along with a long narrow plastic case. He opened the case to see it filled with a dozen or so pens in different colors. He picked a purple one up out of the case.
"Purple?" Draco asked, "You expect me to make my notes in purple?"
"I thought it would be nice to have options," Hermione sniffed, "They're mostly black or blue. I even included a nice dark green one for you."
Draco grunted, taking out a black pen and closing the case.
"You're welcome," Hermione said pointedly as she busied herself organizing her papers. Draco pretended he didn't hear.
"I divided the cases into three categories," she continued, "Disturbances, malfunctions, and manipulation."
"You couldn't come up with a third m word?" Draco teased.
Hermione glared.
"Mayhem, perhaps? Or mischief? Really Granger, I would have expected you to be ahead on something like this. It's really good that I'm here to set us on the right course."
"Will you stop being annoying if I use mayhem instead?"
"Oh I very much doubt that, but let's go with Mayhem anyway," Draco replied cheerfully.
Hermione groaned, tilting her head back in frustration. "Fine," she said, "Mayhem, malfunctions, and manipulation. The mayhem is for cases where the result is a general disturbance of muggle life, like the pink dolphins showing up in the Thames. Malfunction is for cases where muggle technology is behaving strangely. This does occasionally cause a disturbance itself, like the ATM machine spitting out bank notes for an hour, but given that muggle technology has been tampered with, I'm going to assume the magic is distinct, even if the intended result might be the same. Are you following me so far?"
"Yes, Granger," said Draco dryly, "though you make some truly brilliant leaps of logic, I have managed to follow your train of thought. Please, continue."
Hermione did, seemingly trying very hard to not let Draco get under her skin.
"Manipulation, to me, seems potentially the most nefarious, as it involves cases where someone has directly and deliberately interfered with muggle behavior. These cases seem less common, but using a Confundus Charm, or maybe even an Imperious Curse, on a muggle is obviously very serious."
Draco frowned. "What are you talking about? I don't recall any cases like that."
Hermione sifted through her notes before pulling out and opening a folder. It contained three sheets of paper with neat even handwriting.
"These three stood out to me," Hermione said, "this one, where a man who was a known gang member for over a decade suddenly started leading an environmental rights activist group, and this one where a local politican openly confesses to some quite salicious behavior, in excrutiating detail, on live television…and this one, where at least five terminally patients at the Royal Marsden Hospital were completely cured within a single week."
Draco remembered the cases, but hadn't considered them important. In fact, he had only included them in the bunch to make his case to Tonks stronger so she would agree to his proposal. He didn't need to solve all the cases, just enough of them to prove that his theory was correct. Nobody would fault him if a few cases ended up being unimportant or unsolved.
"Hermione," Draco said seriously, "don't you think you might be overreacting? I mean, those are all mostly good things, right?"
"You would think it's right to mess with a muggles head," Hermione snapped.
Draco felt his temper flare, only to be smothered by his shame. Why wouldn't Granger expect so little of him? To her, he would always be the boy on the wrong side of history, the boy who stood by while his family carved up both her life and her body. He fought the urge to defend himself, knowing it wouldn't make a difference. They didn't need to be friends, he reminded himself. They just needed to get through the next…however long it would take to solve the case. Well, if Hermione wanted him to be less annoying she had certainly said the right thing.
Draco cleared his throat and opened a folder on the table labeled Malfunction and started laying out the papers to review. He flipped open his notebook and picked up his black pen.
"I expect malfunction might be the best place to start," Draco said, "if I recall, they were all located in proximity to one another."
He started jotting down the various locations in his notebook, making a point to focus on writing and not looking at Hermione.
"Right," she said after a long pause where he sensed her shifting uncomfortably. She opened one of her notebooks as well, and Draco could see from the corner of his eye that it already had several pages of notes.
"The malfunctioning ATM, overflowing garden, and the magically extended community center are all just north of the Tower of London," Draco said. "We can likely tackle those together. You classified the trash chasing down muggles who littered as malfunction, but I think that clearly belongs in Mayhem." He handed her that case file, finally looking up from his notes.
Hermione was looking at him thoughtfully, eyes slightly narrowed. Draco wasn't sure what she was hoping to find. He gestured more agitatedly with her paper.
"Fine, but only if you don't gloat at the misclassification," Hermione said, her tone gently teasing as she took the paper and slid it into the Mayhem folder.
It wasn't exactly an apology, but it felt like an olive branch.
"I wouldn't dare," Draco replied, forcing his mouth into a half smile, "at least, as long as you don't make any comments when I ask you what an ATM is."
Hermione broke into surprised laughter. The sound burst forth into the cafe, drawing looks from muggles at nearby tables. Draco couldnt help but crack a genuine smile as she blushed and reined in her giggles.
"Don't worry, now that we've decided what to tackle first, I'll make sure we have a thorough curriculum in place," she said. Draco couldn't help but notice the mischievous sparkle in her brown eyes. It made him want to keep teasing her, to push and see what she'd do next. He held back, her cutting remarks from earlier still fresh on his mind, though he was surprised to find the sting had lessened some.
"An ATM," she continued, "is a machine that lets muggles take out money from their bank accounts. Like going to Gringotts, but you just go up to the machine."
"Huh," said Draco, "that's convenient, actually."
They spent the next couple of hours going over the various cases, Hermione jotting down notes, presumably so she could update the lesson plan Draco had no doubt already existed, Draco offering commentary while twirling his pen around his fingers. It was roughly lunch time by the time they wrapped up their planning, and Draco's stomach growled loudly as Hermione re-organized her notes.
Hermione looked up at him with a smirk. "Hungry?" she asked.
"Starved, actually," Draco replied with a sigh.
Hermione shifted from foot to foot, and Draco could practically hear her brain working. She settled in place as she seemingly came to some conclusion.
"One of my favorite pubs is around the corner," she said, "I was going to go there for lunch."
"That's nice," said Draco, tucking the mostly empty notebooks Hermione had given him into his bag.
"Doyouwanttojoinme?" Hermione asked quickly.
Draco looked up, confused. "Try again?" he asked, his tone teasing.
Hermione took a deep breath before replying.
"Would you like to join me for lunch?" she repeated.
Draco stared at her, blinking. Had she just…asked to have lunch together? After they had already done their work for the day?
"Sure," he replied, not sure when he had decided on that response.
Hermione seemed equally surprised, and they spent the next minute staring at each other in disbelief.
"Right, well, let's go then!" Hermione said, her voice pitched high.
Draco cleared his throat. "Lead the way, Granger."