The questions
Hermione rubbed her temples, nothing made sense anymore.
She’d been doing research all morning, the mermaid scales and dragon eggs could incorporate into about 8 different potions that were all class A controlled substances. Most of them altered the mind, like muggle drugs, but a few would have potent effects, resulting in powerful potions, on the same level as felix felicis, but more direct. Invenies quod periit allowed the taker to return whatever they’re needing that was lost to them. The potion called for fertilized dragon eggs, as well as powdered mermaid scales, but Roberts called her this morning letting her know that there was something missing from the evidence locker.
He seemed upset when he walked into her office this morning, shutting the door after checking around outside. His entire demeanor could only be described as twitchy, as he told her that there was murtlap venom missing from the evidence locker.
Her heart still dropped into her stomach looking at the pictures he’d brought over to her. The beginnings of a file revealed nothing. Even after interviewing the guards on shift, no one saw anything. Or this case was wider spread than she thought. The problem is, there’s nothing linking the Murtlap venom back to the dragon eggs or the mermaid scales. Maybe she was crazy, maybe she was looking into this too deeply and all the cases were unrelated.
Hermione groaned leaning back in her chair. Maybe looking at the cases like they weren’t related would help. Pushing all thoughts of the murtlap venom and mermaid scales aside, she pulled out the destroyed dragon eggs file. There was nothing throughout the file she hadn’t read before, but it was worth another look.
Scanning through it, she looked for anything that stood out, noting every odd detail she’d noticed before. The locations, the reports, the necropsies. Maybe something was missing? None of the reports mention anything about diagnostic charms and what the results were, nor was there any testing reported on the albumen. This has to be a mistake, they had to have performed the testing and not reported it.
Hermione rubbed her tired eyes, every fact that she looked at didn’t add up. Her head throbbed as she pulled up the Case of the missing mermaid scales, skimming through it for the necropsy reports for incongruencies. The diagnostic charms were missing again. Her mind began spinning, throwing open the case of the Murtlap venom.
No, it doesn’t make any sense. The murtlap venom was a basic theft case, there wasn’t going to be any diagnostic reporting. Hermione’s heart sped up as she turned the page to see the substance-species testing report. She quickly read through it, noting the missing diagnostic spells and make-up reports. Shit, Hermione’s breathing sped up, running a hand through her curly mess of hair, her eyes scanned through the reports splayed across her desk. She needed to get down to the department of regulation and control of magical creatures.
Hermione sprung out of her chair, frantically scooping up her jacket, she threw herself through the door, directly into a body blocking her path. Strong arms caught her before she could fall, letting her jacket fall to the ground, only to look up to see Malfoy smiling down at her.
“Excited for lunch, I see?”
His eyes were like whirlpools, drawing her in and making her lose any sort of sense she had, “Uh, l-lunch?”
His eyebrows furrowed, “Yes, lunch, that I said I would bring you,” He looked pointedly to the clock on the wall across from her secretary’s desk, “At one,”
She looked to the clock too, “At one?”
Malfoy rolled his eyes, “Yes, I told you I would be here, did you forget?”
“Um, I-I must have,” She squirmed in his grip, pulling her way out of it, “Look, I appreciate it, but I don’t have time right now, I need to go visit another department quickly for some research,”
Malfoy looked over her shoulder into her office, strewn with paperwork, “When was the last time you ate?”
Hermione frowned taking a step back, “Why do you care, Malfoy?”
He scowled down at her, “Let’s step back in your office for a second, Hermione,” he said quietly, quickly stepping past her, take-out bags in hand, and taking her wrist in his hand to pull her with him.
As soon as he closed her office door behind him, Hermione spun to face him, her fury at being interrupted palpable “Malfoy, what do you think you’re doing?”
He pulled his outer robe off, throwing it over the the reading chair in the corner before turning to face her, the anger rolling off him in waves, “I am making sure you actually get fed, you absurd overly self-sacrificing Gryffindor,”
Hermione sputtered, ”I am not overly self-sacrificing, you absolute prat!” She spun around her office, quickly putting files back together to avoid his vision, “And you have a lot of nerve walking in here to order me around like you’re my fucking keeper, Malfoy. Why do you even care if I eat, anyway?”
Malfoy’s eyes went silver and his entire posture straightened as he took a step forward, “I care because someone should, Granger, answer the question: When was the last time you ate anything?”
“Yesterday, now get out of my office, I’ll eat again when I’m hungry,” Hermione squared her shoulders, trying to make herself taller. Malfoy took another step forward, nearly toe to toe with her now.
“I’ll leave when I know your swotty little ass is fed,” he smiled down at her with his stupid smug little smile.
Hermione ran her hands through her hair, “I don’t have the time for this, Malfoy, I’m on the verge of a breakthrough here. I’ll eat when I get back,” she tried to sweep past him, striding quickly for the door, only for his arm to reach out and catch her around the waist.
“No,” His voice quiet, he pulled her back in front of him, wrapping his other hand around the back of her neck, “That’s not how this is going to work,”
Hermione’s brain when completely blank, she couldn’t remember what she was speeding off to do if her life had depended on it now. His thumb brushing against her cheek, she felt as though he infused her entire body with petrol and set it aflame. She stilled, unable to do anything but stare back up into his eyes, the silver back to whirling in a deeply hypnotic motion.
“Now, you’re going to sit and eat the lunch I brought for you, and tell me about your day and your big discovery,” his voice stayed quiet, while his thumb came down to trace her bottom lip, “Understand?”
His voice broke through her daze, and she scowled up at him, batting his hand away from his face, “Fine,” she huffed, turning to desk and going behind it to put as much space between them as possible.
Malfoy chuckled, pushing a stray blond lock off his forehead, “Good enough for now,”
Hermione sat hard in her chair, glaring up at him. Every instinct she had should be telling her to hex him into next week, but, merlin, the second his voice lowered, all she wanted to do was curl up on his lap and breathe in his scent. His pull was overwhelming and regardless of all the reasons not to, she found herself completely entranced by him.
Malfoy put the take-out bag on her desk, putting a few containers in front of her. The scents of spicy mayo and eel sauce filled her nose and her stomach rumbled, just now coming to realize how hungry she was.
Malfoy eyed her knowingly and Hermione averted her gaze down to her food when he handed off a pair of chopsticks. She flipped open the top of the takeout container while he pulled her reading chair up to her desk to use as a table, immediately tucking into the sushi with gusto.
Hermione nearly groaned at the perfect spicy-salmon combo before catching Malfoy’s eye as he watched with amusement.
Swallowing quickly, she looked away from his eyes, “Thank you for bringing me food,” she said quietly, hands in her lap.
Malfoy nodded with a smile, “I figured you would be hungry, if I had realized you didn’t eat breakfast, I would have brought you something sooner,” He cracked his chopsticks apart and began eating himself. Hermione followed his movements closely as she quickly devored the rolls he had brought for her.
Finally slowing down, she looked up at him suspiciously, “How did you know what sushi I like?”
Malfoy leaned back in his chair, wiping his mouth with a napkin and throwing his trash into the takeout bag, “I didn’t, good guess I suppose,”
Warning bells rang in her head as she watched his smug face, there wasn’t anything she could counter him with other than just general suspicion of him. She looked at her remaining food, “Regardless, this can’t happen anymore. I appreciate you bringing me lunch, but much of my work is classified to a certain extent due to the nature of internal inquiries, plus we can’t be seen together anymore. It’s bad enough you left a comment saying we were courting, I can’t keep being seen with you and forwarding that narrative,”
His eyebrow arched as he watched her finish her spiel, “Granger, I think you’re mistaken, we are, as a matter of fact, courting. Just because you haven’t signed any paperwork attesting to that, does not make it any less true,” He took her now empty takeout containers and threw the trash into the bag with the others, pulling out a folded document from his inside jacket pocket, “Now, if you would like to sign this now, you’re more than welcome to, or I will save it for later when you’re ready to,”
Malfoy laid the paper in front of her to read, the document spelled out their terms of courting and eventual engagement. Hermione’s eyes widened looking at it, “You’ve got to be kidding, Malfoy?”
He settled back in the chair once more, looking haughty as ever “I assure you, I am not,”
“I said it before, and I will say it again, Malfoy, you have gone mad if you think I will let this farce progress past where it already has,” Hermione’s heart sped up as she skimmed the contract once more, rubbing her face to look up at him, completely thrown, her voice came out quietly “I don’t even get it, Malfoy, you’ve hated me. Not a small amount either, the number of times you’ve cornered me just to call me a mudblood or throw something at me or make fun of me as kids, I don’t even know where this sudden change of heart has come from,” Her eyebrows drew together in confusion as she looked at him, she was completely at a loss. Every person she knew, she was able to put the pieces of their lives into place and predict their feelings, their movements, their actions, but Malfoy sat in front of her completely unreadable, just propping his foot on his knee as he listened, seemingly unbothered by her confusion.
He frowned at her, “Feelings change, Granger,”
Hermione paused, shaking her head at him, waiting for more, “That’s it?? ‘Feelings change’? That doesn’t explain anything. Why should I believe you have any motivations that are different from every other unknown pure-blooded man coming up to me to propose without even introducing themselves?”
His eyes faded to grey as he looked at her with a straight face, refusing to say anything, “Merlin, that’s it? Isn’t it?” she examined his face for a reaction, anything at this point, “You’re trying to do the same thing and elevate your status now that the war is over, and who better to do it with then the war heroine mudblood herself, right?” Hermione felt her anger rise to boiling over, as he remained stony-faced, refusing to give her any reaction.
They stared at eachother for long moments, Hermione crossed her arms, refusing to loose this childish staring contest. She waited, for anything, a change of expression, a word, a shrug, a refusal, anything. He simply glared at her from across her desk, his demeanor casual as he leaned back in her chair.
Hermione finally leaned back, pinching the bridge of her nose, “Fine, as I said, I appreciate you bringing lunch to me but we are not courting and I would appreciate it if you maintained your distance from now on,”
She shook her head, disappointed as she gathered her files and tried to maintain her line of thought, head fuzzy as his scent clouded her thoughts.
She straightened, standing to summon her jacket from where he hung it up next to her office door, facing him down where he sat at her desk. She shook her head at him, “Anything at all?”
He leaned forward in the chair, watching her intently with his hypnotizing eyes, remaining silent.
Hermione paused, closing her eyes, trying to fend off the growing disappointment that someone, anyone, would be interested in her for who she was and what made her, rather than what they wished her to be or what they could gain. When she opened them again, his face had softened, as though sensing her internal struggles, “Well then, please leave my office, I need to visit another department,” She walked swiftly to the door, opening it to stare back at him in dismissal.
He stood slowly, frown returning to his face as he walked across the office taking the door from her grasp to close it. His sneer was gone, but the frown remained fully in place as he walked towards her, backing her into one of the bookshelves that crowded the room. Pausing in front of her, his hand reached up, wrapping around the back of her neck when she tried to side-step him, “Is that what you think?” his voice was barely above a whisper. Hermione’s breath caught in her throat as she watched the grey of his eyes swirl back into the ice-blue, “Do not compare me to the weak-willed pansies that continue to harass you,” his voice was firm as he towered over her, “I am not here out of some misguided attempt to restore my family name, we are courting, and I have never hated you,”
Hermione’s breath finally left her body in a shaky rush, leaving her gasping as she grasped at whatever thoughts she could manage, “I apologize for our past as children, I never should have treated you the way I did, and I struggled for years to reconcile my feelings with the ridiculous blood-purist ideaology that my parents made the mistake of teaching me,” he leaned his forehead against hers closing his eyes, letting their breath mingle.
Hermione’s breathing finally calmed, every muscle in her going lax in his hold. Her eyes drifted close, touch-starved body humming with pleasure at the human contact. He was so close, all it would take would be the smallest of movements to touch her lips to his own. She was practically vibrating with anticipation, praying he would take control of her, dominate her body, play with her until she came alive beneath his grasp.
Her breath rushed from her body, eyes springing open, body burning with disappointment when he abruptly released her from his grasp to step back and gather his coat along with the trash. She nearly sagged against the shelves, watching him intently as he adjusted the coat on his broad shoulders, struggling not to groan when he pulled on his cuffs, mind caught on his agile fingers.
His eyes caught her gaze, a frown frozen on his face as he looked her over. He walked to the exit, stepping to her, right before he hit the door, wrapping those long fingers around her throat before his mouth took hers in a fury. Lips, teeth, tongue, it was a battle for dominance as he held her against the books behind her. His tongue infiltrated her mouth, nipping on her lips, marking her. She felt it in her soul, her magic filled the room, thrumming through the air, meeting her match as his rose to conquer it. She met him move for move, practically challenging him for more as she pushed against whatever control he had. His hand kept her against the bookshelf, reminding her of who controlled who. How much would it take to make him lose that iron-willed control he wielded like a weapon?
He pulled himself back suddenly, hand still holding her throat. He chuckled down at her without smiling, “And if I ever hear you refer to yourself as a mudblood again, I will not hesitate to tan your ass until you cry and leave you tied to my bed, begging for release for the rest of the night,” He ran his thumb over her swollen bottom lip, watching her pupils dilate at his threat before he released her and stormed out of her office. Leaving Hermione, sagging against her shelves, aching desperately, as the one man she should never desire left her office.