The Silver Envelope

The Missing Motive

"What?" she said. "What makes you say that?"
Draco set the papers down on the low table in front of her, seating himself in the chair directly opposite her seat.
"If I wanted to kidnap and enslave a bunch of elves for my nefarious reasons, who's the one person in the world who would be most likely to catch me?" he asked, staring into her eyes meaningfully
"Me," she responded with a shrug. "But we already knew that the intruder in my flat was after the information I had on the missing elves. What does that have to do with Johanna?"
"Well, if I wanted to enslave a bunch of elves without getting caught, wouldn't it be rather convenient if, say, the president of the Society for the Protection of Elfish Welfare were to suddenly become very busy fending off reports of corruption?"
Hermione's mouth fell open.
"The missing motive," she whispered.
Draco nodded.
"That's Johanna's motive for going after you. I'd bet my wand on it," he said.
The moment he had said it, Hermione was certain he was right. All the pieces fit.
Hermione got to her feet, her mind racing. She began to pace in front of the sofa, thinking out loud.
"It seems unlikely that Johanna herself would be doing everything. Ruining my reputation, running a radio show, kidnapping elves, and breaking into my flat that's a lot for just one person," she said. "Either she has an accomplice, or she's part of some sort of group."
Draco pulled something out of the stack of files in front of him. He handed the sheet of paper to Hermione. She took it, reviewing it curiously. It looked to be a list of names. She recognized a few names, but the list meant nothing to her.
"Before she went missing, I had Ignoma look into Johanna for me, make up a list of her associates.
Ignoma is a surprisingly good spy," Draco said. "I bet that if we looked into the people on this list, we could find a connection to the missing elves somewhere."
Hermione looked at him, shocked.
"You've been investigating Johanna?" she asked.
Draco didn't respond. His eyes lowered back to his files, where he was shuffling the papers around.
Hermione didn't know what to say.
He hadn't spoken to her in weeks. Hadn't written more than that one letter she hadn't opened.
She'd assumed, after what he'd said at the wedding, that he was done with her. Now, as she peeked at the papers he was shuffling around, she saw that he had been following the news about her the entire time even attempting to protect her by catching the person responsible for it all. Among the
dozens or news articles was one she recognized immediately her engagement announcement
Draco had believed that she'd gone back to Ron, and had still continued trying to catch Johanna.
All for her.
His silver eyes pierced her.
Something in her chest was burning as she responded, "I think you're on to something. But I'm not sure how helpful I'll be with that. I don't know any of these people very well." She gestured limply at the list of Johanna's possible accomplices.
Draco shrugged.
"I think I can round up a few mutual contacts, see if anyone knows anything," Draco said. "In the meantime, we should keep reading up on elfish magic. See if we can find anything else that's
USern r
"I brought some books from home," Hermione mentioned.
"Good. I'll order us some food and we can work on that tonight," he said.
Hermione pulled out her books while Draco handled dinner, lost in thought.
After what had happened this morning, Hermione had been prepared to set down some boundaries between them. She didn't know what had gotten into her. When she'd awoken to find his arms
around her, holding her like she was the only thing he cared about in the world...something in her had just snapped.
But now, it seemed as though Draco was the one creating distance between them. Was he as uncomfortable as she was with the idea of a relationship between them?
The attraction she felt to Draco was undeniable, but a relationship simply wasn't a good idea.
Hermione needed time on her own, away from romance and sex and everything that had gotten her into such a difficult situation with Ron.
Though her engagement to Ron was fake, it wasn't that far away from what her life might have been like had she not broken up with him. Only months ago, Ron had brought up marriage himself, asking what she'd thought about the idea. Hermione was sure, thinking back on it, that he had been considering proposing to her.
Suddenly, she looked down at her ring. The diamond in the center of it shone brilliantly. Was it trulv a fake?
The question made her feel sick. She tugged it off, sticking it into her pocket.
"Did you discover anything else out of place at your flat this morning?" Draco asked, walking into the room behind her.
"No," she said. "As far as I could tell, nothing else was missing."
He sat down next to her, looking through the books she had laid out. She found herself momentarily distracted by the sight of his bare forearms, revealed by the rolled-up sleeves of his jumper. He looked strong, she thought. Wiry muscles led down to long, callused fingers, which deftly flicked through the pages of one of her books.
The thought of what those hands felt like on her skin was interrupted by the sight of a tattoo on his left wrist.
Without thinking, Hermione reached over to take his arm, pulling it closer to see the design there.
It was not the Dark Mark, as she had first thought, but rather the spiraling form of a black dragon.
The artwork was exquisite, with detailed scales and a tiny glimmer of light in its eye.
"I had it done a few years ago," Draco murmured.
Hermione looked up, suddenly realizing how odd she was behaving, grabbing his arm without permission. She let go, feeling a blush form on her cheeks.
"I thought it was the Dark Mark at first," she admitted.
Draco looked at his tattoo, a strange expression on his face.
"That disappeared when the Dark Lord died," he said quietly. "But I always felt the impression of it there, even though I couldn't see it anymore. For a long time, I thought my arm would never again feel like it belonged to me."
Hermione could barely breathe. Draco's eyes looked haunted as he stared at his arm.
"So one day, I decided to get it tattooed. Something that represents me-the real me. Not the person everyone else wanted me to be."