Fated Lovers

Flashback | Fifth Year 
October 1995

Dolores Umbridge was presented as the new DADA professor and her lessons were anything but interesting. 

Hermione didn't usually hate teachers, on the contrary, she could even respect the ones who were offensive, like Professor Snape. But Umbridge was horrible. Her classes were simple, boring, and made for first graders, and Hermione, as well as her classmates, were utterly annoyed at this. 

“Hello, Children.”, Umbridge greeted students in her first class. “Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations, commonly known as OWL’s.”, she proceeded to hand them a basic book on theory of defensive spells. No magic, only theoretical knowledge.

“It’s our fifth year”, argued Hermione, “we should learn proper defensive spells.” 

Harry had also argued that fifth graders should have a curriculum full of defensive and offensive spells, but he was soon dismissed and put up in detention.

Detention, in Umbridge’s ideas, was more like torture. Harry came out of detention with his hand completely carved down with the phrase, ‘I must not tell lies.’

Professor McGonagall had soon realised these acts of madness, and asked Umbridge to calm down with her aggressive and archaic methods of detention, yet, she didn’t stop.

Soon enough, the nasty pink clothed woman was appointed High Inquisitor of Hogwarts and even sooner, she was interrogating every single professor at school as well as creating a long list of new laws for students to follow.

It was clear that proper learning and teaching was not in Umbridge’s agenda when she almost expelled Professor Trelawney. She wasn’t Hermione’s favourite teacher, in fact, she was the one Hermione respected the least, but expelling her was way too much.

After that, Hermione Granger came up with an idea. So far, Harry was the most prepared student in terms of defensive and offensive knowledge, and the idea of creating a group of extra curricular support for students where Harry would tutor them on defensive and offensive spells, was a great idea. 

For the first time in her school life, Hermione found an incredibly interesting way to avoid the rules. She gathered a group of students at the Hog’s Head and talked them into forming the club. Dumbledore’s Army, they called it. Although they needed to find a place where they could practise it, without Umbridge finding out.

A week later, Neville had found the room of requirements, and the group began their training behind Umbridge’s back. They began with the basics, like disarming charms, and the group quickly progressed, learning jinxes, hexes, and reduction charms before the Christmas break. Umbridge didn’t give up. She formed a group of Slytherin students, called them ‘Inquisitorial Squad’ and offered them house points in exchange for information on students. This group began the interrogations, using Snape’s most refined veritaserum as their weapon. They were also allowed to dock house points for any reason they wanted.

Draco Malfoy was part of the Inquisitorial Squad. He loved being somehow important and since Umbridge was friends with the Ministry of Magic, he assumed being part of this would be nice for his future. At first, their job was quite simple, and fun. Each time a member of any house, except Slytherin, had their shirt untucked, their skirts too short, or they heard them saying anything out of the ordinary, they would dock house points out of them.

Some time later, Umbridge had decided to put them up to interrogate students about illicit behaviour and Draco was one of the best interrogators, as Umbridge concerned. 

“Granger!”, Malfoy exclaimed, intercepting her right outside the room of requirements. “We’ve been looking for you.”
“What do you want, Malfoy?”, she answered, her look piercing.
He showed her the badge on his chest. “Inquisitorial Squad”, he smiled. “We just want a little chat. Follow me.”
Hermione followed Malfoy and his minions to Umbridge’s office. She wasn’t there, but they were allowed to use the space for interrogations, it seemed.
“We know you guys are doing… illicit things.”, Malfoy began. “And, if you tell me what those things are, I can spare you a few house points.”
“I don’t know what you're talking about.”, she replied.

One of the members handed him a vial. Veritaserum. 

He looked at the small thing, so powerful yet so out of principles. Veritaserum was all he needed to make Granger confess, but a part of him wasn’t convinced enough to use it.
He got closer, the vial in his hands, as she looked with fear in her eyes. 
“Malfoy”, she begged. “I swear to you. I’m telling the truth. I don’t know anything.”

He doubted. He didn’t want to admit he still had a soft spot for Hermione Granger, and he would deny it with all his strength, but seeing her like this, pleading to be spared, it just made him feel weak. 

“Well… We’ll see about that, Granger.”, he said in his meanest tone. He couldn’t be frail, he couldn’t show himself weak in front of the rest of the squad. But he didn’t want to use Veritaserum on Granger, he just felt it was like stepping out of her boundaries. 

He quickly took another vial from his robe pocket, and in just some sly and fast movements, as he ordered two members to grab Granger to the chair, he switched both vials. 
“Now, Granger.”, he ordered. “Be nice and drink it.”

Hermione hadn’t seen the switch of vials, so she fought until one of the members threatened her. She opened her mouth, and Malfoy poured a sweet liquid from a vial into her mouth. 

She immediately recognised the taste. Pumpkin juice. She looked at Malfoy in complete confusion, but his look was still serious. Was he aware of this? Did he do it on purpose?

They went on with the interrogation, as verbally aggressive as Umbridge required them to act, and of course, Granger denied every single thing. Soon enough, she was dismissed from the office and they wrote everything on a parchment, explaining how Veritaserum proved that Hermione Granger, was absolutely not involved in illicit activities.

“Why did you do that?”, Hermione asked Malfoy in one of their library encounters. 
“Did what?”, he replied, completely lost in conversation. 
“You exchanged vials, right?”, she said. “In fifth year, you gave me pumpkin juice instead of Veritaserum… why?”
Malfoy remembered that moment. He chuckled at the question. 
“You’re asking me why I chose not to coerce you?”, he raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know Granger, it didn’t occur to you that maybe I have… morals?”
She shook her head in denial. “You don’t.”
“Well yes, you’re right.”, he said. “But at that moment, I guess I was struck by kindness, and thought using Veritaserum on you would be a bit extreme.”
“Sure…”, it was clear Hermione didn’t buy his argument. “You used it with Cho Chang.”

Shit, thought Malfoy. Now he had no excuse. “That’s also true.”
Hermione waited for further explanation but he was out of words. She raised an eyebrow and got closer. “Malfoy? Why Cho and not me?”, she asked.
He kept his silence, trying to come up with something believable. She smirked. “I knew it!”
“You knew what?” he asked, confused.
“You were jealous. Cho Chang liked Harry, and you were jealous because you liked her, that’s why you used Veritaserum on her but not on me.”, she explained with her most know-it-all look. Malfoy thought she was a beautiful idiot, and he laughed.
“No.”, he replied once he stopped laughing. “I never liked Cho Chang.”
“Then, what’s your reasoning behind your strange interrogation pattern?”, asked Granger.
 He doubted for a few seconds. Should he explain himself at the risk of being showcased as an idiot, or should he wait and think until he could come up with a good excuse?
“I didn’t think it was fair.”, he simply said.
She didn’t understand it, so she waited for him to continue talking. He took a deep breath and finally decided to, for the first time, speak the truth.
“I guess you already knew it.”, he said. “Especially after the things I said when I argued with the weasel.”, he looked at the floor, avoiding her sight. “Back in fourth year, I was… interested in you. It took me a while to get over that, so when I had to interrogate you back at Umbridge’s office, I thought it wouldn’t be fair to use Veritaserum on you. It would tempt me to ask more, personal questions.”

Hermione Granger was shocked. Draco Lucius Malfoy had been interested in her, and she hadn’t even noticed. All that time, she thought he despised her because of her blood.

Suddenly, she revised Malfoy’s words. ‘After the things I said when I argued with the weasel’, he had said. The things… 

“You undermined her self-esteem, you played with her feelings, and you did the one thing no man would ever dare to do to a woman as precious as her. You broke her bloody heart.”

The memory hit her right back. It wasn’t a dream, it had been real, everything had been real. Draco Malfoy defended her, calling her a precious woman, and standing by her side as Ronald casted a cruciatus curse on him. It wasn’t a dream, she had saved Malfoy.
Malfoy thought he had fucked up real bad when Granger didn’t say a single word. She was silent, like processing all the information. He decided he had to do something before it was too late. “Anyway…”, he said, “I finally lost that interest at the end of our fifth year.”
Hermione looked at him. Draco didn’t notice the small hint of disappointment on her face… She let out a sigh and acted as if nothing had happened, “So, Ron’s crucio was also real?”

Malfoy was astonished. She didn’t remember that? He had just given her the proof that everything she thought was a dream, was actually true. 
“Yes.”, he said. “That was also real.”
Hermione stood up and quickly threw herself into Draco’s arms. “I can’t believe he actually tried to curse you, are you alright??, she looked at his sides, trying to figure out if there was any type of harm on his skin.
“I am. You threw a protego at me.”, he said nonchalantly. 
“I know- I know I did but I was bedridden!”, she yelled, “You should’ve been more careful!”
Malfoy chuckled. “Sorry for not thinking your ex would try to hex me to death.”

She made an angry pout. “I can’t believe he actually did it! I’m going to hex his balls off.”
Malfoy laughed. “As beautiful as having you as my personal protector might sound, Granger... I wouldn’t like to get too used to you saving my ass… And, I don’t think he’ll do it again.”

“Can I ask you something stupid?”, she said, a few minutes later. 
Malfoy nodded in return. 
“Did you really mean it?”, she had never been shy, but Malfoy knew she was trying her best not to show how ashamed she was. “When you said those things in the infirmary…” 

He suppressed a smile. “Every single one of those words.”
She looked down and smiled. “Then, thank you, Draco.