listen. here’s the thing. he’s just so normal! so ingrained in her day to day. neat and hardworking and remorseful and normal. still, she knows she’s right. but she can’t seem to feel scared or upset about it.
so it’s true that hermione granger and draco malfoy didn’t get along growing up. he bullied her. rather a lot, actually. but… then he grew up and so did she.
he served his sentence– greatly reduced thanks in part to harry and hermione sharing their versions of events in the manor, harry recounting the night in the astronomy tower, and also thanks to andromeda agreeing to sponsor him.
he finished his NEWTS. he got his Potions Mastery and his Theoretical Runes Mastery simultaneously. (She got both as well as a supplemental degree in Arithmancy, thank you very much!)
he passed his rehabilitation checks with flying colors.
and then he joined the Department Of Mysteries a year after she did. he did his work in a timely fashion, he was thorough in all avenues he explored on his cases, and he contributed well to his team.
he gave her a detailed apology for every instance he could recall belittling and bullying her in the time they had known one another and a separate apology for the incident at malfoy manor. he also gave her a blanket, but heartfelt, apology for any instances that happened without her knowledge or that he couldn’t recall.
when he had started joining some of the people from the department for drinks it wasn’t unusual for them to end up conversing. they just had similar interests. and intellects.
when he started staying after to have drinks with her and harry, it only made sense that the natural progression was theo popping up to bother him.
and for theo to keep popping up to bother them.
and, eventually, for theo and harry to become more than friends.
when theo had finally moved into grimmauld, she thought it was probably time to find her own place. give the couple some privacy, you know? she didn’t expect draco to offer up theo’s old room to her!
she didn’t expect it... but she was glad of it.
it took a while before it clicked but once it did… she couldn’t really describe it, she just knew, okay? she knew he was behind the string of cases that harry had been moaning about at the leaky for months. and she also knew that she was honestly… fine with that.
one of the perks of being an Unspeakable was definitely the approval to use spells that could potentially flag someone as a suspicious person upon entering Ministry grounds. as Unspeakables, hermione and draco were not subject to the particular wards put in place at the Ministry to run analyses on their magical signatures. if their wand were to be inspected, almost every spell could be written off as being necessary for classified DOM-related cases.
she felt he was definitely using this to his advantage. but the people he seemed to be choosing to do his experimenting on… well she can’t say she feels bad for them in the slightest.
-
hermione is acutely aware that draco malfoy loves buffy the vampire slayer and anything containing chocolate.
she is more acutely aware that he won’t admit to these things.
that is to say, he puts up a good show, but there are scant many things that could cause that man to miss a night containing both of these vices of his. he (secretly) loves spike almost as much as she does, the absolute narcissist. so when seven months ago she had asked him if she should make chocolate chip cookies or an orange and chocolate tart for their nice weekly showing of btvs, she knew something was amiss when he said he needed to beg off.
she didn’t make the connection then, but in hindsight she realizes that this is about when the whispers about sightings of antonin dolohov begin to taper off. he is later found dead near piccadilly circus, his skin discolored an awful shade of purple, with his rib bones turned to jelly.
-
hermione granger has a bit of a... thing for the hands of her roommate. she’s not proud of it, per se, but she’s not embarrassed to admit it (to herself!) anymore. she would go so far as to say (in her head!) that she is even familiar with draco malfoy’s hands.
so when five months ago she noticed an unusual shimmering on his left hand near the knuckles, and an equally glitch-like quality around the wrist of his right hand, she filed it away. but it had bugged her for hours. what could he possibly have been glamouring his hands for?
three days later thorfinn rowle is found, missing all of his teeth and with bruising on and around his mouth, eyes, and abdomen. he is also covered from head to toe in stings, some stingers left dislodged into his epidermis.
upon inspection of the stingers, it was found that they came from billywigs.
-
draco malfoy is a very meticulous man. his spices are hand labeled in glass jars and they are sorted alphabetically, as are his potions ingredients stores.
his side of their home library’s shelves are organized using the Doxy Decimal System for magical tomes and the Dewey Decimal System for the muggle books he’s collected.
he sends his laundry off every sunday to be tended to by his mother’s (freed, thank you) house elves. while doing this boppy and mippy also tend to any necessary upkeep.
so when one thursday, about three months ago, as they were rushing around before heading to the floo (read: she was rushing around, draco was eating a piece of toast and collecting their outer robes from the closet in the parlor), hermione noticed that a clasp on his favorite outer robes had been replaced. the patina not quite the same, she took note. when she remarked on it, he brushed it off, changed the subject. she pushed it from her mind.
looking back, this is approximately when corban yaxley is found dead in the forest of dean. he was missing his left arm and was completely riddled with wounds consistent in those who have been repeatedly splinched.
hermione formed a hypothesis.
-
she did not expect for her hypothesis to be proven correct, however. and so casually, too!
she mentions dolohov's death, then devolves into a tangent about the spell he hit her with in the prophecy room in fifth year, over an orange and chocolate tart (they’re finally getting caught back up on their rewatch) one night. his eyes flit between her own, his lips quirk at the corners as he glances back to the television screen, and he hums. noncommittal.
she makes a remark to theo during their monthly game night they have at grimmauld about rowle’s teeth and the irony of her having obliviated both him and her parents. and about how her obliviated parents were dentists- theo those are teeth healers, do you not listen?- and anyway billywigs are native to australia, did you know? and really she’s quite tipsy, but isn’t that just an odd coincidence? she doesn’t catch theo’s reply as draco snorts from his seat beside her and asks if she’d like for him to refill her wine glass while he’s topping up his own.
when the case files come across her desk– all obviously having a distinctly death eater-y quality to them, which is presumably what prompted the DMLE to request a consult with their department– she takes one look at the photo attached to the top file while passing it to draco and asks him to remind her to restock on essence of dittany. he gives her a nod as he glances down at the photograph, his mischievous little smirk falls into place before her very eyes. he shoots her a look with a sparkle in his eye like they’re in on a secret together.
these things are not what shocks her.
-
this is:
it is a friday night, and hermione is laying across the sofa on her stomach with a teacup full of berry ocky rot on the floor below her and a magically extended straw between her lips. she is watching a knight’s tale and envisioning a life with heath ledger, obviously. her night is going to plan. small mercies after the week she's had.
and then draco emerges from out of his room and heads straight for the cushion currently being occupied by her lower legs. he lifts them up and out of his way and settles into the sofa, rearranging her back into a semblance of how she had been positioned before he got there, but he seems off kilter. not like anything is wrong, but like he is excruciatingly bored. when she turns
her head to look at him, his gaze is fixed upon the television screen but it seems as though he is not seeing it at all.
a few moments pass as she examines him, and then she maneuvers her foot to tap on his outer thigh, drawing his attention down to her. shooting him a questioning look, a raise of her brow and a slight tilt of her head, he merely shakes his head and looks back to the screen.
upon feeling the continued weight of her gaze, she hears a small sigh exhaled through his nose before he remarks, “things are just running behind on the timeline for that putrid pink toad. the azkaban aspect is a bit more difficult that anticipated. it’s nothing for you to worry yourself about, hermione.”
at the further raising of her brow he turns his face to her and speaks again. he chortles a bit, the sound coloring his words, “anybody for me to… you know… in the meantime? i’ll admit that i'm getting rather bored with the delay.”
another slight chuckle escapes him at the widening of her eyes, his hand moving to circle her left ankle and beginning to move up, massaging at her calf, “oh come now, i’m sure you’ve gathered i only bother if they’ve made your shit-list. i suppose i could arrange for it to be maclaggen but i’d honestly rather keep harry's team stuck with his lackluster skills for the upcoming interdepartmental quidditch tournament.”
and then he moved the massage he had started giving her to her other calf and inquired what she’d like for him to attempt making for his turn cooking dinner that evening.
-
so, while floored, no.
she really, really can’t say she feels bad about any of it at all.