Chapter Text
His watch buzzed with the reminder of the bi-annual meeting that day at noon. With a gentle tap of his wand, the buzzing ceased. The golden glimmer of the watch reflected in the light; the Malfoy crest etched into the face. The watch ticked silently, its hands indicating it was only ten. He had two hours before he was needed down in the meeting room where he would have to listen to two departments meet and collaborate. Outside his office, junior Aurors, assistants, and techs bustle through the office going about the day’s task with the normal hum that eased the tightness between his shoulders. Draco leaned back in his chair and watched the morning sun filter through the magic windows. He knew the sunlight was fake, but he still enjoyed the warming sensation it radiated. He had to hand it to the Magical Maintenance Department for their diligence in following Muggle weather predictions every day.
Draco shifted through the reports on his desk with the tip of his wand, tilting his head to examine the sheer amount of bureaucratic redundancy he would have to get through before he would have to pick up Scorpius from Andromeda. Some reports should have been done two weeks prior until last night but as the tenth anniversary of the end of the war was approaching, it seemed all that lurked in the shadows wanted to come out to play. He barely had time to do any of the work before him.
Draco set his wand on the desk and settled into work, tucking a spare quill behind one ear. “Morning, Potter.”
“Damn!” Harry muttered, stepping into the threshold of their shared office. He dropped his cloak off on the hook near the door, and with a flick of his wand, a cup of coffee gently followed him to his desk. “Thought a silencing spell would be enough to sneak past you.”
“Wards, Potter. Auror training 101, always disable the wards.” Draco muttered without looking up.
Harry chuckled before turning his attention to the absurd amount of mail and paperwork piled on his desk. Draco did not envy him. “You bloody warded the door with twelves wards, one of which would have triggered an alarm so loud you’d wake a sleeping troll in a deep mountain cave. All the way in Nepal. Don’t need that this early.”
“Potter.” Draco looked up from his paper. He eyed his partner, the dark-haired wonder boy avoiding Draco’s eye. Draco knew too well that Harry wasn’t prone to avoiding him unless he wasn’t saying anything. “You are Head Auror, my wards are child’s play to you.”
Harry let out a long sigh and shook his head. “You underestimate yourself, Draco. Your wards make me want to pull my hair out. Not even Hermione could de-ward this room.”
Draco shot Harry a look, his fingers tightening around his quill. He put the quill down and turned in his chair. He watched his partner closely. Harry watched him back with curious green eyes. Something else glittered there that Draco couldn’t figure out. “I will take that as a compliment.”
“You should,” Harry Said. In ten years, Harry had lost the boyish appearance that Draco had been familiar with. Gone was the small skinny boy, now stood a tall, muscular man who still couldn’t figure out how to tame his hair. His long robes rustled as he moved about the room. “By the way, she will be at the meeting.” There it was. The reason for avoiding his eyes.
Draco whispered a soft curse under his breath. “I did not realize she was back from Australia. I thought she would be gone longer. Her latest paper indicated a high chance of success in retrieving memories and undoing intense oblivation.”
“And if- when she succeeds, I would have told you. I didn’t want to get your hopes up after you donated so much to her foundation. It will be nice to see her again.”
Draco just nodded before turning back to his pile of paperwork. He took a deep breath and concentrated. Needed to get this work done before he faced Hermione again. He held the air in his lungs and closed his eyes for a few seconds before exhaling sharply. “She is going to be a piece of work at the meeting, Potter. I will be on my best behavior around her but I am still angry with her.”
Harry hissed, raising his hand to eye level, blood welling from a cut on his hand. “I will deal with it, Malfoy. I promise she won’t be a problem, but you will have to behave because if you provoke her, she will bite your head off..” He grabbed a muggle bandage from the inside of his desk.
“Can you not go a day without some form of bodily harm?” Draco said, making a face at the bandage. “Don’t you know how to heal yourself with a simple healing charm?”
Harry snorted. “You know one of my few weaknesses is healing spells and charms, I am absolutely abysmal. I always left the healing to Hermione…”
“Didn’t want to bother the Head of St. Mungo’s with a paper cut?”
“Exactly.” Harry grinned, sipping from the still-steaming coffee cup. “She has enough on her plate than worry about me.”
“She is going to see the bandage at the meeting, you know,” Draco said with a smile. He turned back to his desk and smoothed out the parchment in front of him, grimacing as an additional report magically filtered into the room. Adding another to his pile. From the confines of the drawer, Draco pulls out a bewitched Conway-Stewart.
“That is cheating, Auror Malfoy.” Harry chuckled, opening a confidential envelope. As his eyes scanned the contents before him, his eyebrows furrowed and concern crossed his expression.
“It is a pen, Potter.”
“It is bewitched to do the work for you.” Potter hadn’t looked up from the contents in his hand. Draco waited for an explanation but one did not come.
“Efficiency. So, I can prioritize more important paperwork.” Draco set the pen down on one stack of folded parchment and tapped it with his wand. The pen came to life and began to sign his name on not-so-important documents he dealt with on a way too frequent basis. He shifted his focus to the more important papers in front of him. He breathed a deep breath, focused on the memories of recent cases, and began writing down his observations in a careful, small, neat script to fit it in the section of the scroll. Vampire attack in Kent where blood rage killed half a village. A muggle girl was attacked on a hike by a mountain troll in the Highlands. Six werewolf attacks in twelve days through Cornwall, Devon and Somerset. Whispers of Death Eaters returning in the dark of night. Draco had to admit, they had their hands full.
He and Harry worked in silence for an hour of the time before the meeting, as they each made headway into their unfortunate stacks of work.
Harry dropped his head to his desk with an audible thump. “Merlin, I miss the old days,” he sighed as he raised his head back up from the desktop, rubbing the spot gingerly. “I hate all this paperwork. I thought as we climbed the ranks, it would get less burdensome. But no Merlin, just got worse because we must sign off on everything.”
Draco ran a hand through his hair. “I know,” he said with a nostalgic look. “But we shouldn’t travel back in time every time we don’t want to do something.”
“The was one time,” Harry choked out a laugh. Harry went to say more than their fireplace crackled to life. The Auror’s department secretary’s face appeared in the soot.
“Head Auror Potter and Second Auror Malfoy, are you two getting any work done?” She looked at them, her face neutral of any expression. The wrinkles on her face caused her face to look perpetually a frown.
“Of course, we are, Gladys.” Harry smiled at the fire. She looked at his smile and rolled her eyes.
“Mr. Potter, how many times do I have to remind you that you are Head Auror and you have responsibilities.”
“Every day.”
“Yet you cannot seem to remember.”
“You wound me, Gladys.”
Gladys snorted. “Get your work done, Mr. Potter. When you finish what you can, I have notes for you to take to the meeting. Head Healer Granger and Reginald Azomodian would appreciate these notes.”
“Thank you, Gladys dear.” The woman only passed a soft smile before turning to Malfoy.
“Mr. Malfoy, dear, Andromeda sent an owl-“
“Is Scorpius okay?” His heart jumped to his throat. Merlin, he was quick to jump these days with that boy.
“If you would let me finish, Mr. Malfoy, she just wanted to let you know that she wants you to pick him up from the British Museum instead of her home. She took the boys out for an outing into London for lunch and an activity.”
Draco cursed himself for jumping to conclusions but Scorpius was the only person he had left. And despite his best ability, Draco was extraordinarily protective of his son. “Thank you, Gladys. Can you let Andromeda know that I will be there promptly at five? I will leave for there as soon as the meeting is over this afternoon.”
“Yes, of course. Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley invited you to lunch with him before the meeting.” Without a word, the embers fizzled to nothing and the partners sat in silence for a moment.
“I am going to see Ron, would you like to join?”
Draco made a face. Not even after ten years and working to better himself and aiding the community, Weasley still punched him every time Draco showed his face. Weasley had only ever landed one hit, the first, and an unofficial war between the men was re-ignited. “As much as I appreciate the offer, I am going to pass.”
“Right. I will let him know you say hello.”
“Are you really going to lunch at eleven in the morning? Don’t you have work to finish?” Malfoy questioned.
“Yes. I will finish it later. Maybe I will even start sleeping in the office. Since I am already behind on three weeks’ worth of work, what is one more day? I haven’t seen Ron in nearly a month because of how busy we have been.”
Draco turned back to the paper he was reading through and signed his name with a flick and a flourish of his name. “I do not think your wife will appreciate you sleeping here.”
Harry laughed. Humor glistened in his eyes. “Pansy definitely would not be too happy with me. She would even blame you for the idea.” Harry pushed his glasses up his nose.
Draco grimaced. “It wasn’t even my idea. I suggested you skip lunch with Weaselby and make headway on work. Your wife is loud and insane when she thinks it is my idea that you did something. She was always like that.”
“Weasley, Malfoy. His name is Weasley. I will see you at the meeting, Malfoy. By the way, Pansy and I are hosting a birthday brunch for Teddy tomorrow at the house. Bring Scorp by. Pansy swung by the shop and made sure everything fits his allergies.”
Draco hummed in acknowledgment as he filed another piece of paperwork into the done pile. “Tell Pansy thank you. She goes above and beyond for that boy. You both do.”
“He is family.”
Draco’s heart tightened but he grinned, nonetheless. “I am glad he has you.”
Draco got to the conference room almost fifteen minutes earlier than he had planned. Now he had twenty minutes until the meeting would start if it were to start on time. He thought he wouldn’t have to wait too long since he had stopped for a croissant and coffee. Clearly, he was overly prompt.
As he was settling into his seat, the door opened with a soft squeak as the hinges moved. In the doorway, framed by infiltrating magical sunlight was Hermione Granger.
“Malfoy.” She nodded curtly. She had rolls of parchment piled high in her arms, and as she stepped out of the doorway, three from the top fell to the floor. “Oh, sod it!” She yelped as they tumbled.
“Granger.” He said softly, his gray eyes assessing her as he went to pick up the scrolls from the floor. “Here, I’ll get them for you.” He promised Harry he would be on his best behavior and he planned to do so.
“No, I got it!” Both bent down to grab the fallen paper. And bumped heads that caused instant headaches and the other scrolls to liter the floor. Insufferable, couldn’t accept help.
“I said I’d get it,” Draco growled, grabbing a few of the scrolls into his arm before offering his hand to Hermione to help her up from the ground.
She stood prompt without taking his hand and went about grabbing her other scrolls. “I said I got it and did not need your help.” She hissed. Her brown eyes burned holes into his face.
“For Merlin’s sake, why can’t you accept the smallest bit of help? No need to be insufferable.” He deposited the scrolls to where he assumed Hermione would sit, which was farthest from him.
“Insufferable? How dare you.” Hermione huffed hotly. “I did not need any help, nor do I need help. Not now. Not ever from you.”
Draco slumped into his chair and dragged his attention to his now cold coffee. “Whatever, Granger. Don’t come crying to me when you need anything since clearly, you don’t want anything to do with me. Still.” Draco could feel his control slipping and from the way she was looking at him, so was she. Where was Harry?
“I have not needed anything from you since we were eighteen, Draco. The only reason I tolerate you is that Harry likes you and Harry is married to Pansy. Just because your best friend got married to mine does not make us friends.” That stung. Merlin, what had happened in their eighth year to make being in close proximity like this.
Draco rolled his eyes, attention pulled back to Hermione as she sat down with an audible sound of annoyance. “I hope your bedside manner is better than this, Head healer Granger. It is awful. Maybe Astoria was lucky you weren’t her healer..”
“I reserve this tone just for you, Malfoy.” She glared at him.
“Lucky me.”
“Sod off, you bloody bast-“
“Hi, Hermione!” Harry’s voice broke through the room, silencing Hermione and stopping the retorting boiling on Draco’s tongue. Both just glared at each other. Harry sent them both a look to stop it and behave and both listened. Draco shot Harry a look that clearly said what the hell took you so long, but his partner only shrugged
“How was Australia?” Harry asked innocently sitting near Draco, the folder from Gladys in his hand. He started organizing the notes by importance, all marked by a colored ink spot on the top corner.
Hermione quickly turned her head away and sucked in a breath. Her shoulders trembled. Clearly, the spell she had been working on hadn’t worked again. She turned back to face them, and her eyes were full of unshed tears. “We can chat tomorrow at brunch at yours. I heard it’s Teddy’s birthday? Eleven?”
Harry nodded and smiled happily at the conversation change. “Ten. We have one more year before Hogwarts.”
“Oh wow. I cannot believe it’s been that long…”She trailed off in thought. For ten years, Hermione never really talked about the war and Draco had lost track of her after the war ended. Had to deal with family affairs.
“Draco’s son, Scorpius turns two this year,” Harry said casually, sorting through the notes. Surprise passed past Hermione’s eyes.
“I didn’t realize you had a son, Draco,” she said softly, “How is Astoria?” Her voice was gentle, kind almost. Different from before.
It was Draco’s turn to look away from them. “Astoria died, Granger.”
“Oh my… when?”
“She died in childbirth with Scorpius.” Draco’s voice thick with emotion and grief cracked his heart in two. He thought about his late wife every day when he looked at his son. While Scorpius had gotten all his coloring from Draco, Scorpius looked like a Greengrass with Astoria’s nose, smile, and crinkle in his eyes when he laughed. He seemed to be starting to develop her wavy hair.
“I am so sorry, Malfoy. I had no idea.” Pure guilt crossed her face, sympathy that Draco did not want. Not from her.
“I don’t need your sympathy, Granger. I needed you here to save her as you promised. You promised to save her yet left for Australia for two years to never be heard from until you decide to bless us with your presence.” Draco muttered bitterly, lost deep in this sudden wall of grief. Draco bowed his head, and his heart clenched with an ache he knew would never go away. “Two years too late.”
Hermione’s hand twitched across the table as if she stopped her from reaching for him.
“If I had known the curse had gotten that bad, I would have come back.”
Draco gave her a tight smile, lips pressed together that only made him look more solemn. “You shouldn’t have let your personal life get in the way of your patients’ lives. I wrote to you and begged you to come back. I never got a bloody response.” He closed his eyes, head bowing as the memory hit him like the Cruciatus curse.
A fragile, soft hand held his hand, clenching tight. Sweat dripped down her thin face, skin the color of death. Her nails dug into his flesh. Groans and moans of pain echoed off the walls. Groans and moans turned to shrieks and wails of pain as the cry of a newborn announced itself into the world. Her hand fell from his… a smile plastered on her dying face as a wiggling baby was placed into her arms.
“A boy! Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy.”
“Astoria?” Her eyes did not move from the bundle in her arms. “Astoria!” His voice grew panicked as her head lulled to the side and the medi-witches took to the crying baby away. “Astoria!” He shook her shoulder with no response. Her life-less hazel eyes stared at him.
The head medi-witch cast a diagnostic spell over her and a black orb appeared above her body. Grief burned his flesh and heart, hoarse screams echoed off the walls and his world ended.
“I am so sorry, Mr. Malfoy. She’s gone.”
Draco cleared his throat after a moment and opened his eyes. Harry had his hand on Draco’s shoulder and gave him a reassuring squeeze. “I am okay, Potter,” he said, his voice calm and collected. He removed himself from Harry’s grip.
“Doesn’t mean I can’t be there for my friend. Grief isn’t easy but it is not something to suffer through alone.”
“I am sorry,” Hermione asked, leaning forward in her chair. She anxiously tugged on a piece of now-smooth hair that had fallen in front of her face. “I thought I would have more time to figure out her curse, I did not know.”
“I know,” Draco said. He took a slow breath, to steady his thoughts. “We did not know having a family would make things worse. I put too much hope in your medical abilities. You helped countless other families from magical maladies that many had never cured before. You even helped Longbottom’s parents get some sense of sanity back that they recognize him. But not Astoria’s curse.”
“If I had known a baby would be detrimental to her health, I would have advised against it. Her health was important to me. I had no idea the depth of that curse given how long it had been in her family.”
“Then why did you disappear for two years when some many were relying on you with their loved ones. Because you were not there, my son grows up without a mother, Granger.”
Hermione watched him intently, sadness clouded her eyes. His words hit their mark. He had been too harsh and even the look from Harry was telling. But Draco wouldn’t apologize, couldn’t at this moment.
Hermione went to say more but the door opened as the other departments started to file in. Hermione took a breath and plastered a smile on her face, masking what she was feeling from everyone else. Draco studied her now as her attention was elsewhere. She had changed in the last decade. During the war, Hermione had become nothing but skin and bones. She looked like death itself had settled into her bones. Now though, her skin a soft tan from the Australian sun, her brown hair the color of warmed caramel and smooth as silk where it was once a brushy mesh. She had filled out for the most part though Draco sometimes worried she was too skinny. Why he cared anymore was not something he understood. Hermione severed their tentative friendship during their eighth year the moment they finished school, leaving him behind to try and save her family.
They sat in the eight-year common room, a garish conglomerate of all the houses as not many came back. There were maybe twenty of them total, of which there were four Slytherins. Draco, Pansy, Blaise, and Theo. None of them were liked much given the climate of the time. But Hermione Granger, Golden Girl had gotten stuck with Pansy as a roommate. Both girls hated each other for a month before succumbing to one another’s charm.
At that point, Draco had no idea what charm Granger had. But before he even knew what was happening, Granger and Longbottom would sit with them. Then that girl Lovegood would join. And there would be laughter. Pure, unconditional laughter. When he heard her laugh for the first time, he swore the world had frozen. Her smile and laugh thawed something in him.
Draco shook his head and leaned back in his chair, a half-grin lifting one corner of his mouth. He saluted colleagues as they greeted him. He had pulled on the same mask he just watched Granger adorn. So he settled back and waited for the meeting to commence, glancing at his watch to make sure he would have enough time to grab Scorpius and run a few errands.
Harry stood before the table; his face solemn as he read the news before everyone. Draco watched him with surprise in his eyes. They hadn’t talked about bringing this up to everyone yet because they hadn’t been sure. It was the contents of that envelope. That damned envelope.
“It has been brought to my attention that there has been a slew of murders across Australia through Eastern Europe, the most recent victim a muggle-born in Budapest. What I can say is that these murders have several notable concepts in common that point to a serial killer. Whilst we do not know for sure, we do know this: each victim is in their twenties, typically late twenties. All are female. All are muggle-born. The other notable thing we know about them is that each woman was successful. Notable names. All missing their wand hands and bodies completely drained of blood.”
Draco pulled a cigarette from his pocket and lit it, casting a containment spell so it would not bother those around him, as he watched the shift in the room.
Everyone was whispering. Draco could smell their fear, it radiated off them like the stench of sweat filtering in the room.
“Harry,” Hermione raised a hand to speak, “Where were the other murders?” Something swirled in the back of her eyes and Draco raised an eyebrow at her, but she could not meet his eye.
“What concern is it of yours, Healer Granger?” Reginald Azomodian injected, watching her closely. “The murders were all in different countries. We do not have to worry. The moron wouldn’t try to enter England.”
Hermione looked at him with a mixture of anger and curiosity.
“Mr. Azomodian, you are no Auror. Nor are you involved with Magical Law Enforcement, but Ms. Granger asked an important question. What is significant about those locations? Well first, they were all in major cities. Majority magical populated areas. This killer is targeting powerful muggle-borns and that is unacceptable. We need to be prepared.” Draco stood from his seat and moved about the room until he was next to Reginald. The wizard paled and looked ready to puke.
“Take your seat, Mr. Malfoy. Why would someone like you care about muggle-borns?”
“What does the great House of Malfoy care?” One voice echoed.
“Given your past, you must be happy to hear about the deaths of muggle-borns.” Another voice taunted.
“Absolutely not. We will not accuse Second-in-Command Auror Malfoy of this. He has worked hard to protect all within the magical community.” Draco gritted his teeth. No matter how much he did to help and prove that he was not his father, no one believed him,
“Doesn’t change the choices he made in the past.”
“I have made my mistakes and I have paid the price for them. But my beliefs are not important at this moment in time. What is of concern and should be for the whole community is the fact that there have been a dozen murders in the last two years from Australia across Europe that could be making their way here. It would mean many of our muggle-born friends and family would be in danger.”
“Thank you, Draco but you do not need to defend yourself here. We honor and value your contributions to bettering our society.” Dorothia Durkin, Head of the Accidental Magical Reversal Squad, spoke clearly. Many murmured their agreement; it was most of the room. Even Hermione seemed to nod in agreement. “Auror Potter, I recommend increasing patrols of Aurors throughout London for a while. We do not know who this killer is but if he does come here, then we must be ready.”
Harry agreed and began to plan with the other departments a contingency plan in case something did happen.
Draco sat with a silent sigh and inclined his head as thanks. Turning his head to Hermione, he noticed she still hadn’t looked up but looked to have grown paler with each passing second. He couldn’t pull his eyes off her, trying to get into her head but his legilimency couldn’t get past her mental wards. He would just have to ask Potter to follow up with her. Reginald Azomodian and many who still disliked Draco stared at him. Draco paid them no mind and tried to school his features into a bored-bastard face that he knew bothered others.
The meeting passed without further incident, but fear still hung in the air as everyone worried about a killer that may or may not is headed their way. Draco swiftly left before anyone could question or speak with him. He was ready to go. And so, he did. He moved with his characteristic smooth grace and nodded to Harry to let him know he was leaving.
He apparated out of the ministry without a second thought, aching to hold his son.