Chapter Text
May 2008
Hermione rushed down the dimly lit street in Muggle London clutching the parchment in her hand. It was a cool May night, but she’d left in such a hurry she’d only been wearing a light cardigan over her dress. Her racing heart and high anxiety kept her from barely noticing the cold. The repetitive sound of her heels on the sidewalk matched her breathing as her eyes roved over the door numbers of various buildings as she searched for the right address. She checked the map on her cell phone before putting it back in her dress pocket.
She found the door she was looking for and steeled herself. She ran her hands over her hair to tame any fly-aways and wiped her sticky palms on her sweater. It had been almost nine years since the last time they spoke and she had no idea what kind of reception she should expect. She took several deep breaths and knocked. What felt like an hour, but was probably less than thirty seconds later, the door opened and she heard him laughing.
“Blaise, you never use the Muggle door—Granger…what?” Hermione heard his breath hitch and saw him look around her on the street as though he expected someone else to be with her. He looked back at her and paled.
“Malfoy, we need to talk,” she interrupted before he could speak again. She didn’t even know if he was going to speak again but she felt like he might slam the door in her face. He stared at her like he had never seen her before. His left hand gripped the edge of the door and she could see his knuckles were white. She made a choice and walked past him into his own flat. She knew it was rude and decided to feel bad about it later. Her reason for being there was more important than her manners.
Hermione could see two people seated on the squared black leather sofa. Of course his sofa would be tailored black leather with chrome accents. Of course he would be spending the ten year anniversary of the Battle with Pansy, Theo, and Blaise. It seemed they were still waiting on Blaise, who apparently never arrived by the Muggle door on the street. For a second she had a fleeting thought about walking into the snake den but shook that away quickly. It had been ten years, they weren’t those children anymore.
“How do, Granger? Fancy seeing you here,” Theo said and raised his glass in a mock salute.
“Especially because we never see you,” Pansy smacked her deep red lips and was elbowed by Theo.
Hermione took note of how grown up and attractive they both were. Theo Nott was in a Navy blue suit and expensive cognac leather shoes. His hair was wavy and a light brown.
Pansy Parkinson had far outgrown the pug nosed girl with the sharp bobbed hair. Her face had thinned and her cheekbones were sharp. Her golden brown skin and black hair added to her poise and Hermione had a moment of jealousy at how well her long legs looked in her black jumpsuit.
Malfoy walked into the room behind her and she turned to look at him clearly for the first time since she arrived. He looked…scared? Nervous? Confused? Yes, all of those, she thought. But more than that, Malfoy looked good. Hermione felt herself flush at the thought. It had been a long time since she had a thought like that about him. Her eyes catalogued how he’d changed. He was no longer a boy with the roundness of youth in his features. He was a man who had grown into his aristocratic features that set him apart as a boy. His jaw was sharp and muscular and covered with stubble that she wanted to reach out and touch. His frame had filled in and she could tell by the cut of his white dress shirt that he was still quite fit and had retained his Quidditch Seeker’s body. His sleeves were cuffed up his arms and his necktie was loose showing the top buttons of his shirt undone. She noticed he had tattooed his other arm and she could see some on his chest as well. She wanted to run her hands up his arms to his shoulders to see if she could feel differences between her memory and the person stood before her.
Malfoy cleared his throat and spoke. “Granger, this is unexpected. It’s been a long time,” his eyes roamed all over the space behind her and he ran his hand through his hair. “Um, drink?” He moved to walk to the bar on the other side of the room.
“No, we need to talk. I’ve had a letter from Luna,” Hermione said, and held the parchment out to him. He stared at it like it was going to explode.
“Luna? You mean Loony Lovegood? Why do I care if she wrote you a letter?” Malfoy flashed a smirk to his friends and they both giggled at a joke Hermione didn’t find funny.
“Grow up. Don’t play dumb and don’t call her that. You know exactly who I mean,” Hermione spat. “Just take it.” She thrust the parchment out to him again and he backed up to a chair at the dining table.
“I’m good, thanks. Just say what you need to say and get it over with.” He looked down like he expected her to yell at him. She thought his mood had soured when she said she had a letter from Luna, and she didn’t understand why that would bother him. His ears were pink and he seemed equal parts scared and disappointed.
Hermione said, “Oh, okay. It’s about Cobie. She’s been arrested and she needs our help.”
Theo and Pansy jumped off of the sofa just as Blaise Zabini stepped out of the Floo and said, “Cobie? What’s going on? Why is Granger here?”
Blaise wore the dark green uniform of a Ministry Forestry employee. The muted forest tones gave his brown skin an earthy quality and Hermione caught the smell of pine and oak from the heat of the fire. She thought his face still carried a seriousness that she recalled seeing on him often when they were in school.
“Theo, we’ll talk later. Take Pansy and Blaise to your place.” Malfoy dismissed the three of them without a glance, but his breathing gave away how the mention of Cobie affected him.
Pansy, Blaise, and Theo all talked over one another. Hermione caught bits of, “that’s not your choice”, “we owe her too”, and “we’re staying”.
Malfoy finally reached out and took the parchment from Hermione. He gestured to a chair and invited her to sit. She sat in a leather armchair that matched the sofa. The others sat on the sofa and second arm chair that surrounded a low coffee table in front of a fireplace. Malfoy read through the leather and passed it to the others. Hermione knew what they would all read.
Dear Hermione,
Rolf just received an owl from his grandmother. His cousin, Cobie, is in some kind of trouble with the International Confederation of Wizards. She’s been arrested and stripped of her MACUSA Auror title. Hermione, this is serious. They’ve taken her wand. Porpentina didn’t give us a lot of details but it seems that the ICW was aware of something she may have done for you and Draco after the last battle. I won’t pretend I don’t know what she did for either of you, but if there’s anything you can do to help her, we would all be grateful. I will keep you posted on anything we learn.
Your friend,
LS
P.S. - You should go to Draco. His address is below.
Malfoy sat down in a chair at the dining table hard. The wood gave a creak as he did so. He reached out to the table in front of him and poured more Ogden’s into an already half full glass. He finished the drink in two large gulps and he looked around at everyone sat in his living room. Hermione lurched at the look on his face. It seemed both pained and relieved and she could tell he was processing things in his brain. One of her favorite things about him was the way he thought about things before he spoke when he knows it’s important.
Theo was the last to read the letter. He stood as he crumpled it and threw it into the fire as hard as he could. Hermione noted the pained look on all of their faces as though they were all in their own heads. Her own memories crashed into her.
“This is bullshit. I won’t allow it. I’ll send my best barristers. Malfoy send yours,” Theo ordered.
“That’s not enough,” Pansy shrieked. “It’s the International Confederation. They don’t give two knuts for whatever arse of a barrister you send. Odds are good they won’t even let them represent her.”
“I apologize, but why do the three of you care?” Hermione asked and looked at the two of them, confused. She was unsure how they factored into any of this.
Indignant, Pansy slammed her hand on the low table, “You weren’t the only one she helped, you know. Believe it or not, she saw some good in us too. She gave us all a chance.”
“I didn’t know,” Hermione said quietly.
Cobie helped them. Cobie helped everyone in this room and she never knew about it. She liked to think she was emotionally aware but there were times like this one that reminded her of just how short-sighted her teenage emotions had been. She had just never asked if Cobie was helping anyone besides Malfoy and herself. She just assumed they were it and in hindsight, that made no sense considering how many people were involved in the war.
“That was the point, Golden Girl. Well, if Cobie helped you maybe more like Tarnished Girl,” Blaise chuckled at his own joke. He was the only one.
“Enough, Zabini. She didn’t know. It doesn’t mean she assumed the rest of you weren’t worth helping. This is a shock for all of us and on an already emotionally charged day. I need to think. We all do. Come up with some suggestions and meet back here tomorrow morning.” Malfoy said, and Hermione could see his white knuckles for the second time that night as he gripped the edge of the table.
“Draco…” Pansy started.
“No, I need to think. Go home,” he stood and walked out of the room.
Pansy looked around at the rest of them, “I don’t understand.”
“Let’s go, Pans. He’ll be okay,” Theo put his hand on her elbow and started moving her towards the Floo. “Granger, do you need an escort or can you see yourself home?” His eyes trailed down the hallway after Malfoy.
Hermione added Theo’s attempt at assistance to her pile of surprises for the night.
“I’ll be okay,” she said. “Thank you for asking.”
Theo nodded and stepped into the Floo with Pansy and Blaise.
After their departure, Hermione stood alone in the room. She wrapped her arms around herself. This didn’t go quite how she expected. But she was the one who stormed in here, and expected what exactly? She shook herself and headed back to the front door. As she opened the door she heard the click of expensive shoes on the hard wood floor.
“Granger, I mean, Hermione. Don’t go.”
His voice was deeper now, but her name on his lips still made her want to melt into him. His next words were so soft that if she wasn’t holding her breath, she might have missed them.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, above a whisper but still at a volume as if he were telling the air around her.
Three little words, she thought. Always three words between them that say more than what a thousand could ever say.
She turned quickly and stared into the crystal grey abyss. The darker outer rings of his iris were still a beacon that called her. His jaw was firm and she could tell he gritted his teeth together. She took a stilted breath, “What for?”
Malfoy sighed and ran his hand through his hair. She wanted to smile when she saw he still had the nervous tic he picked up after he stopped wearing his hair slicked back to his scalp. She wanted to reach out and see if his hair was still as soft as she remembered. She wanted and yet, she didn’t.
“I think you know. I should have said it to you in person a long time ago.”
She wanted him to tell her everything he could never say when they were younger.
“Why...” That’s the wrong question right now, she stopped herself from asking something so broad. She also didn’t think she was ready for the answer yet. “Why didn’t you?”
“I thought you’d slam the door in my face,” the corner of his mouth lifted in a small, embarrassed laugh.
She started to laugh nervously and then harder. She could see Malfoy looking at her with a confused grin on his face. He seemed relieved she was laughing but also unsure as to why. She caught her breath enough to say, “I was so sure you were going to do that when you opened the door and saw me. You should have seen your face, you looked like you swallowed a pygmy puff.”
Malfoy laughed with her and said, “There was a part of me that wanted to. I was so scared.”
His laughter died out, “Will you stay a while? I do want to talk about this but I was overwhelmed with everyone else in the room. It’s been…it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you and then the letter, I couldn’t process everything.”
Hermione looked down at her shoes and shuffled her feet on the floor.
“Yes, I’d like that. Tea, perhaps?” she asked.
He smiled at her and she felt her stomach flip. “I can make that happen. Be right back.” He started to turn away and she looked at him surprised.
“Oh, no house elf?”
He smirked over his shoulder and said, “I spent a long time learning how to do things for myself and it feels over-indulgent now to use an elf or magic just to boil water.”
While Malfoy was in the kitchen, Hermione walked around is living room. Open concept living and dining room, really. It was elegantly furnished, she expected nothing less. But there was an ease to it that gave it a comfortable lived-in feeling. Dark woods on the furnishings and walls mingled with soft and muted slate blues, with the very Malfoy-esque blacks and chrome touches. His walls reminded Hermione of the ocean after a storm. She’d seen the color in person and in his eyes a time or two. Malfoy loved to go to the ocean after a storm.
She found herself gravitating towards his bookshelves and ran her hands over the spines. The bottom half of the shelves were covered with doors and only the top portions were exposed. She thought he might have another library somewhere in his flat because there were a lot less books than she would expect him to have. There were mementos of his life mixed in with volumes of history, alchemy, musical biographies, and several well-worn books of guitar tabs. There was one book in particular she recognized and was certain she could remember every song it contained. One of his guitars was hanging on the wall in the room.
As she reached for the book, something on the lower half of the shelf in the corner caught her eye. It was in its own place on the shelf, not shoved in there like it was meant to be forgotten. There was a CD case and on top of it was a small conch shell. She lifted the shell as if it were the most precious of belongings. She knew, this was her corner in his life. This was where he relegated their past and these two items were his memories of it. She understood this was where he kept their time together.
The shell was about three inches long and it had a beautiful spiral top and a golden color like the sunset. She turned it over, unsurprised to see the reddish and purple tones inside. What also didn’t surprise her were the small initials carved into it: D+H 1998. She set it back on the shelf and a delicious and warm feeling of melancholy washed through her.
Hermione grabbed the CD case and smiled at the liner that claimed it was Nine Inch Nails. Her smile broke ear to ear when she opened it inside was the missing CD that she still had the empty case for under her bed.
“Come back to steal your Goo Goo Dolls CD after all these years?”
Hermione jumped and turned to see Malfoy standing there with two mugs of tea. He sat them down on the coffee table and walked over to her. He took the CD case from her hand and closed it and set it back on the shelf. His eyes fell on the shell, he picked it up and closed his hand around it for a moment before he set it back on top of the CD in its place.
“I know they belong to you, but I don’t feel ready to part with them yet,” he said and looked down into her eyes. “Or talk about them if that’s okay. For now.”
His eyes were stormy grey and matched the dark outer ring and his breath hitched for a moment.
“For now,” she breathed.
He took her arm and led her back to their chairs and tea. She didn’t have to ask him about the tea, she already knew it would have two sugars and a splash of cream. Hermione just smiled at him as she wrapped her hands around the mug.
She took a deep breath, “Right then. About Cobie.”