"Theo! We need to talk!", Blaise shouted as he entered the apartment with Dean through appatation.
"What?", Theo asked in a tired, scratchy voice as he walked down the hallway. Theo absolutely hated being bothered while he's asleep or very tired.
"We need your help with the Grindelwald file. Since you work in the Runes and Symbols Department, we were wondering if you could help us out. Have you ever seen this before?", Blaise asked as he pulled out the picture that was taken at the location of Grindelwald's last attack.
Theo yanked the picture out of Blaise's hand as he was still in his tired and moody state. He glared at it for a second before looking back at them. He had seen it before, but the memory was buried somewhere deep in the back of his head and he just couldn't seem to be able to find it. Suddenly a noise came from the fireplace and he saw Luna Lovegood enter their flat. "I can't be too sure, but I'll look for it when I go in tomorrow." He suddenly felt the urge to fix his appearance, and he didn't know why. He straightened his shirt a little bit so the feeling would go away before returning his attention back to the people in his flat. "So why is Looney Lovegood here? Things going downhill with Pansy?"
"You're a git, and her name is Luna." It was amazing at how similar Draco and Theo actually were. Both of them could say every insult that they could think of and not feel a single ounce of regret, but they were Slytherins after all.
"Sure", Theo said without a care in the world. He looked over at her before bringing her attention back to Blaise. ".. but seriously, why is there a Ravenclaw and a... Gry.. Gryffindor in my flat?", he forced himself to choke out the word Gryffindor. He loathed them with a passion.
"Dean, Luna, and I are working on a case. I had them tag along just invade you did have some information to give us."
"Alright then", Theo said as he hoped off the counter. He picked up an apple from the fruit bowl in the middle of the counter and tossed it in the air far enough for Luna to catch it. "Good luck on your case."
Blaise, Luna and Dean shortly after headed back to the Ministry, but as Theo glanced at the photo, he couldn't help but feel like an idiot for not recognizing the mark, and it would haunt him until he found out.
* * *
"Do you ever miss it? Hogwarts?" Draco and Hermione sat at the table in her apartment. She thought it was a good idea to have a decent conversation over a nice meal.
"Sometimes, but not as much as others. Granger, you need to understand that I didn't really enjoy going to Hogwarts." She knew that his statement was in deed the truth. He always thought of himself as already out of there and his own man as he would walk down the corridors on weekends in his black suits.
"Come on, Malfoy. Isn't there one thing that you enjoyed during our school years? The dark lord couldn't have killed all the joy in the world, unless you let him." Even with all the chaos that went on every year at Hogwarts, Hermione found it hard sometimes to find something which would bring a smile to her face, but she wasn't going to let the dark lord kill all of her light. She sat there as he thought about her question, and she only hoped that he thought of something that he enjoyed.
"Friday night Quidditch", was immediately the first thing out of her mouth.
After the war had ended, all the students were allowed to return for their seventh year, and Blaise thought it would be a good idea to sneak out every Friday for a fun game of late night Quidditch. It was usually two houses against the other two, and of course, Slytherin and Gryffindor were always competing against each other. Hagrid was the only teacher to find out about it, but they begged him not to tell the other teachers. However, he would come to watch the game play out, but they didn't complain.
Sometimes it would even involve them playing in pajamas. "Malfoy, you're going to slide off your broom with those silk pajamas." Theo said as Draco walked out onto the Quidditch pitch.
Luna and Hermione were the judges of the game since neither one of them ever had any interest in playing. "Foul on Malfoy."
"Seriously, that's like the tenth time tonight! There are other players you know! I know I have my charming good looks, but Granger, at least try to control yourself." She could actually see the smirk on his face even from 30 feet away. She rolled her eyes at his egotistical remark and started speaking into the mic again.
"I wouldn't call it if you actually played fairly." Hermione shouted through Jordan's mic.
Theo and Ron's favorite part of late night Quidditch was the junk food buffet that the house elves would prepare for them since they basically ate their weight in food, and sometimes they would even crash at each other's dormitories. (A/N this part about the Quidditch was a head-cannon that I found on Pinterest. This part is not my actual work but for whoever's it is I would like to give them credit)
"Welcome to the Slytherin common room, Granger. Enjoying the lake view?" Draco said as he approached Hermione who seemed to just be staring out the window, and not pigging out on the food like everyone else. Draco didn't seem that interested in the food either.
"It's finally peaceful. It took 17 years, but we finally got it."
"The late night Quidditch games were the times that we could enjoy some fun, and no teachers were around." Draco said as he finished up his meal.
"Alright then, what made Hogwarts so terrible?" The look on his face already gave his answer away. She wished she could take her question back, but it was too late. "Actually just forget that I said anything.."
"No, Granger. It's fine. Each one of us had to grow up too quickly with something that was bigger than ourselves. Those first years now are probably thinking that they're going to have the time of their life at that school. I know, I thought the same thing, however, they don't get any interesting interruptions like we did." Draco tried to finish his sad statement with a joke. "That part was probably seeing Dumbledore's disappointed face, especially when he glanced at the mark on my arm. It's almost as though he was disappointed in who I had made of myself rather than what was about to happen what night. I regret that night so much, and it's like he saw what I was dealing with."
"Long ago, I knew a boy who made all the wrong choices. Please, let me help you."
"But you're an Auror now. You've come far from where you were. You may think you're a bad person but you're not. You just come from a bad place."
He placed his knife and fork down on his plate and looked up at her before leaning back in his chair. "What about you, Granger? What was the best part about Hogwarts?"
"The library."
He scoffed at her answer. Of course that would be her answer. Why did he even ask? He simply rolled his eyes. ".. and the worst?", he asked.
"Snape's classes." After Hermione answered his question he looked right into her eyes.
"You're lying."
"What?"
"You're lying. You say it's Snape classes, but you're using it as a cover up. Come on, Granger. Tell me the truth. It was me calling you a Mudblood wasn't it?"
She moved her hair behind her ear and tried her hardest to not make eye contact. "Well, it wasn't exactly something I enjoyed."
"I was a spoiled pure-blood git who was taught that Muggle-born were scum, and it was my fault to believe their words. You're so brilliant that I wouldn't doubt it if you became Minister of Magic." He saw the smile on her face as she stared down at her plate. "You know why I hated you?"
"Because of my blood?"
"No, because you made me question everything that they ever told me."
* * *
It was three in the morning when Ron appeared at Hermione's front door. "Ron, what are you doing here?", she asked in her tired state. In a few hours she would have to get up and do more training with Draco, so they could see how battling together will work out. As she caught him in her arms as he started to fall forward she smelt the powerful stench of alcohol.
Getting him over to to the couch was quite difficult. He resisted a lot, but the minute Hermione felt a sharp pain in her eye, she removed her arms from him and let him fall on the couch. His fist had made contact with her eye.
Ron's drinking habit had begun two years ago. At first, Hermione didn't do much since Ron usually drank no more than one bottle or two. Later on, Harry and Hermione had told him to seek help. If Harry knew this had happened then he'd freak out, especially since Hermione still loved him.
"If you don't want to sleep then fine. Feel free to look like an idiot when you go in to work tomorrow, but I have important things to get done tomorrow. I'm going to bed. Please, don't destroy my home." She walked down the hallway, stopped right in front of her bedroom door, and contemplated about turning around and helping him. However she decided it would be best if she continued on inside her room. She would never admit to anyone that she cried herself to sleep that night. Once again, wasting tears on Ronald Weasley.
* * *
As the next day of work came around, Ron came to his office twenty minutes late. "Where have you been?", Luna said. Dean and her were surrounded by books. The entire desk was filled with open books. It looked like they just finished a conversation with Hermione Granger.
"I accidentally overslept. I'm really sorry guys." He looked down at the copy of the Daily Prophet that laid on the table. "He was sighted in Hogsmeade?"
"Yes, just a few days ago. No one was hurt though", Luna said as she glanced through the different pictures.
"Why would he go there is he didn't plan on hurting anyone?", Ron asked.
"The same way you snuck into Gringotts before the Battle of Hogwarts. Because you wanted something. Grindelwald wants something badly. The question is, what is it that he wants so badly?" The three of them talked about the case for the next hour and a half until Ron left for lunch, and Blaise quickly joined Luna shortly after.
"Good afternoon, Lovegood."
"Hi, Blaise. Any information on the mark?"
"Unfortunately no luck." Blaise looked at the mess on the table before looking back at her.
"I'm actually about to head to lunch, but I'll look more into it when I return." She grabbed her glasses off the table desk and headed out the door.
Blaise started to look through the many different books that were open on the tables, but all of them seemed to give out the same information which wasn't helpful at all. Gellert Grindelwald was kicked out of Durmstrang because of his use of Dark Magic.
Not even five minutes after Luna left, Theo walked in. "The Deathly Hallows!", he said as he tried to catch his breath.
"Sorry?", Blaise said in confusion.
"The Deathly Hallows. That's the mark he's been leaving on these attacks, but I've never known what it truly is."
"Neither have I. The Deathly Hallows. I don't think I've ever hard of that ever heard of that before in my life." If only Luna had stayed behind.
* * *
"What are your strengths?" Hermione said as she messed with the control panel.
"Blocking." Draco said boldly.
"Alright then, what are your weaknesses?"
"Knowing my surroundings. It's hard for me to battle one person in front of me and make sure there's no one behind me ready to kill me."
"Noted. Alright, time to fight."
Both of them had their wand at the ready and waited for the first task.
Dark wizards started to appear, and Hermione and Draco were back to back fighting them off. That way, neither of them would end up with a hex in their back. "I think that's all of them." Draco said as he looked down at the guy he had just stunned. The room stood empty other than the two of them, but shortly after Draco said that, a troll came into view. "Blimey", he said as he looked up in shock. He had never fought a troll before, so he wasn't quite sure on what to do. The troll had a large wooden stick that could knock someone out with one hit to the head.
However, Hermione had dealt with a troll before. "Draco, duck!" She ran toward him and pushed him out of the trolls hitting range. The troll slammed the stick of the ground and didn't even check to see what he was hitting. The stick slammed hard on Hermione's leg, and she winced in pain at the contact.
"Stupefy!", Draco's hex had no effect on the troll. The next thing he did was use rope tying hex on the troll's limbs, and bound the huge stick he had so he wouldn't hurt anyone else, but all of a sudden it turned into Ron.
Draco had never seen Hermione so worried. The look on her face showed that she didn't know what to do. "We can do great things in life, my dear", he said. She simply looked forward at the ginger in front of her. "All you have to do is trust me."
"Stupefy", but instead of hitting Ron, she aimed for the control panel instead.
"Wait, what happened?", Draco watched as the lights came back on and Hermione placed her wand back in her pocket. "Granger?", he asked in confusion.
"Look, I think we should stop here. I'll see you tomorrow." Without another word, she walked out of the training room and left him alone in there speechless.
* * *
The next day, Hermione sat down at her desk. She placed her elbows on the desk and slid them sideways until her face laid on her arms. She was dead tired. Tired to a new extent. She looked up once to look at her wrist. A fresh bruise was placed in purple right next to her vein.
Last night she tried to get Ron to go to bed early. He had once again showed up to her apartment, but he had other ideas. She groaned in frustration as her head was back on the desk, and promised herself to only sleep for five minutes......
Hermione smiled as the person she loved held her in his arms. "I love you, Hermione", he said as he kissed her cheek.
"I love you too, Ron", but he suddenly got up from the couch, walked over to the window, and began to pace back and forth.
"Then why do you keep lying to me?", he said sadly. "I can see it in your eyes. The way I act, the things I do. I know you hate it, but you never say a thing to me about it when I'm sober."
"I still love you. I know that we can work this out eventually." Or at least she kept telling herself that. He picked up her arm and looked at the bruise.
"This isn't love", he said boldly, and her heart started to break at how correct he way. "You're in love with someone else. You may not see it now, but you will in time. Goodbye, Hermione." He slowly started to fade away, but she still tried to reach out to him.
"Ron, don't leave."
"Goodbye, Hermione." That one phrase seemed to repeat in her head over and over again, until suddenly she was back in her office.
"Hermione", Draco said as he tried to shake her awake. "Hermione!", he said again just a little louder, and he watched as she stirred a bit.
It took her about a minute to realize that she slept way later than she should have. "Six o'clock? Harry's going to kill me!" The minute she stood up, Draco's eyes fell on hers, and he froze in horror. "How mad was he in the meeting?"
"Granger, calm down. I covered it and said that you were training other Aurors." He began to walk forward as he talked. "Who did this to you?", he said as he placed his thumb under her eye, and gently rubbed back and forth in a very slow manner on the purple bruise.
When she reached her arm up to her eye, he then noticed the purple bruise on her wrist. "A little mishap in training. It's not very fun when dealing with two trolls instead of one. Nothing to worry about. Honestly, I've survived through worse." His heart was telling himself that she was lying, but now may not have been the time to push it.
"Better keep that big bushy head down Granger."