Empty Spaces

Chapter 40

Figuring he should probably get out of his own head and start paying attention to his friends– that's what they were, right?? Friends?? They weren't family, but they had all shown up for him nonetheless– Draco looked around the table and tuned himself back in. Granger and Yamamoto were engaged in a rather animated discussion about something.

"It's so true," Yamamoto was saying, "Family connections are everything. There was another healer in my trainee program who was only there because his uncle knew the head of the department. If you don't start with someone on the inside, it's so much harder to work your way in. I'm so sorry to hear, that really sucks..."

"It's okay Sachi," Granger replied, shaking her head, "I mean, I was upset at first, but now that I think about it, I don't know how much I want to start my career like that anyway."

"Wait– I'm sorry, what?" Draco asked, trying to put pieces together in his head. "What did I miss...?"

"Hermione's application was rejected," Harry explained as Granger raised a scathing eyebrow at him.

"I can explain my own situation, thank you very much," she chided while Draco smirked inside at Harry's face, "I received a letter last week that my apprenticeship was 'conditionally denied' due to a need for 'further investigation' into my background," she explained darkly.

"Fuckers," Draco said.

"Hermione, if you'd just let me–"

"No, Harry, don't you see?" Granger interrupted again, "If I let you waltz in and force Ironbark to accept me into their program, it's just perpetuating the exact same problem! This sort of prejudice and corruption works in both directions. What we need is a properly impartial governing body, and you throwing your name around to get me in the door is just continuing the broken system!"

Harry sighed in a way that told Draco this was not the first time they'd had this conversation.

"But I appreciate the offer, I really do," Granger added as an afterthought.

"What's your latest plan then?" Draco asked. Knowing Granger, she probably already had three alternative routes mapped out.

"I've started looking into apprenticing for private practices, and am also considering going abroad," she replied, "But I think it would make more sense to stay, since my long-term goal is to bring about changes here. Prejudice runs deep, and many of the people caught up in it don't even realize they're doing so. But if I'm going to have any shot at changing the system, I have to take a hard look inwards and make sure that I'm not getting caught up in it myself. Sorry, Harry."

"Yeah, I know, I get it," Harry replied. "Come on, it's not all bad, the only reason Aberforth was able to spring Draco out of Azkaban was because he's a Dumbledore."

"And the only reason why Draco was brought there in the first place was because he's a Malfoy," Hermione replied, "I still can't believe that's where they brought you," she turned towards Draco, "Anyone else would have a trial first, a fair and proper one, not this disaster you were subjected to."

Draco raised an eyebrow– how would she know what was going on in those chambers?

"It was all over the news," Granger explained, "Painting you in this awful picture, saying all these biased and terrible things–"

"They weren't wrong," Draco said, feeling the familiar pangs of guilt. He was a terrible person, everyone knew it.

"No, I've met terrible people," Yamamoto spoke up from her spot at Granger's side, "Like actual terrible people, and I have to set everything aside and treat them like everybody else. But that's not you."