Chapter 2
Ever since Harry had been arrested, things had been difficult for Hermione. She had watched as police searched the apartment that she shared with her fiancé, taking anything, they thought could be used as evidence, including both of their laptops. It had been disconcerting to know that they were looking through her things.
And then there was Chief Riddle.
He was a constant support to her, keeping her appraised of the situation with Harry, assuring her that they would get to the bottom of this. That Harry was in protective custody, he was safe.
She was grateful for that.
She knew they wouldn’t find anything on those computers, after all, Harry was being framed and Hermione was very diligent about keeping her own secret life well, secret.
She had been even more paranoid about her secrecy once she had met with Grindelwald. He had all but confirmed that Pettigrew was one of his men, that he had faked the death. Pettigrew had fucked up though, his wife ha decided to file the insurance claim, unfortunately the insurance adjuster had been there. Pettigrew was in prison, and whoever had actually helped the man had framed Harry.
That was where she had hit a wall. Grindelwald refused to cooperate on who his inside man was. It pissed her off to no end. Never before had she wanted that man’s head on a platter.
For now, she just had to wait. She had members on the inside, trying to get to Pettigrew, to get his contact out of him. It would just take time.
It was a week after Harry had been arrested when Chief Riddle had texted her, asking her to come down the station, there seemed to be a break in the case.
She was grateful, that he had reached out to her, and she didn’t hesitate to go down to the station.
He saw her before she saw him, greeting her politely before guiding her to his office. He closed the door and gestured for her to take a seat.
“Hermione, I have bad news,” his voice was cautious, as if he was about to break her heart.
Dread filled her stomach. Was Harry dead? Had one of Grindelwald’s men gotten to him?
“Harry?” she squeaked, ashamed that she sounded so terrified. “Is he dead?”
“No! No, he’s fine. Safe. But we found evidence on the computers that were taken from your home that shows he was involved in some rather… illicit activities.”
That was impossible.
Hermione never used her home computer or Harry’s for her work, she was more careful then that. Had someone planted more evidence against him?
“What evidence?” she asked. She noted how he seemed hesitant to tell her, “Please Tom” she used his first name, reminding him that she was his friend, they had known eachother for a long time, had gone to school together. She would never tell another soul. He could trust her.
With a deep sigh Tom pulled out a folder, handing it to her. Inside she found the search history, files that had been printed from the computers.
“How is our search history evidence?” she asked, confused. Sure, the search history wasn’t grand, but it had nothing to do with insurance fraud. What was more, it was from her laptop, not Harry’s.
“Hermione, Harry obviously isn’t the man you thought he was. He was looking up poisons, torture methods, and so much more. He is obviously hiding things from us all.”
“This had nothing to do with the supposed fraud though Tom!” she said “Plus, this isn’t even Harry’s search history. It’s mine.”
The words were out of her mouth before she could even think about them. Tom’s eyes bore into her skull.
“Yours?” he repeated, seeming unconvinced.
Hermione nodded, “yes, as awful as it seems. It is mine.”
“Forgive me Hermione, I know you care for him, but lying to me about this won’t help Harry.” His voice was coaxing, soothing.
She could understand why he had trouble believing her. She never even had a parking ticket, he would think she was completely innocent, would never think of those things.
“I’m not lying” she replied pulling her phone from her purse and pulling up her tumblr account, showing him the phone “It’s a hobby of mine. I make writing prompts for Tumblr, and I share them. Recently some of my followers requested I put together a Horror/Angst list. As I obviously don’t have experience in anything of the sort, I had to do some research.”
The silence that fell over them was thick, and she swore if someone dropped a pin, they would be able to hear it. She watched as Riddle scrolled through the phone, obviously looking at her Tumblr, seeing where she had answered the ask, had written the prompt list.
It had been innocent.
“This is good then” Tom finally broke the silence “Though, I’ll admit I never expected it from you, it helps Harry. We weren’t able to find any evidence other then the logs that he had anything to do with the fraud.”
“He thinks he was framed Tom, and I know he is innocent. Isn’t there anything more you can do?” she pleaded. She knew there wasn’t. He was doing everything he could, and so was she, though he didn’t know that.
“I’m sorry, the only thing we can do now is wait” he said. I do have something for you though” he said pulling out a box that had both her and Harry’s Computers in it. “We are done searching these, so you can have them back” he placed the box on the desk. “Thank you for coming in and discussing this with me Hermione. I know this has been hard on you.”
Hermione smiled sadly, taking the box and placing it in her lap “It has been, but you have been a great help, you have made this all the more bearable” she replied. Slowly she got up from the chair “If that is all, I should get going. I have a surgery scheduled in a few hours that I should prepare for.”
Tom nodded, standing up and walking with her to her car. She thanked him, giving him a quick hug before she got inside and drove off.
Tom stared after her, watching as she disappeared from sight, though not for long. He had hoped she wouldn’t have known about the search history, that he could turn her away from Harry. He had not expected her to be the one who had done those searches.
He had known the girl for years and didn’t know she had such a dark hobby. It was intriguing. He would be interested to see what other secrets she hid. Did Harry know?
The idea that he knew something about Harry’s fiancé that Harry didn’t was thrilling, intoxicating.
It was unfortunate Harry would never find out. Tom had made sure that tonight would be his last, and Hermione would be parted from him anyways. He had merely hoped to lessen the blow of his death.
Pity.
At least he knew for sure that she would come to him when the news came, for support. After all. She trusted him enough to tell him what Harry had not. That he was being framed.
If only Hermione knew he was the one to frame her fiancé. Then she would never had told him.
Then again, he wouldn’t get what he wanted if that were the case, and what was the fun in that?