VIII
The Ministry was in absolute chaos this morning. Someone reported Voldemort had broken into their home over the weekend and performed the Imperious curse on them, making them kill their four neighbors. Due to the nature of the claims, a full-scale investigation had been launched. Potter and Weasley were assigned to the case as part of their Sacred Golden Trio. But it was the missing element to their trio that grated on Draco. Now with the two remaining twats on a search for Voldemort, there was no way they’d place their focus on Granger.
Draco wracked his brain. There had to be a reason for their falling out. The Golden Trio wouldn’t just fall apart for no reason. Granger and Weasley called off their engagement months before Granger vanished. Potter was too involved with Weasley’s sister to focus on Granger. Not to mention it wasn’t easy to be the constant source of all goodness and light in the world. He rolled his eyes at the notion.
Draco thought back to his time at the ministry with Granger. She was always so frantic. She was bouncing from one meeting to the next, one department to another. She was the first to Floo in and the last to leave. She lived here. Her face was sunken in. She wasn’t eating. She wasn’t sleeping. She existed to serve the ministry. So what happened?
The trace on her wand turned up nothing. It was likely broken and discarded shortly after her disappearance. The ministry sounded a missing person’s report, and the Prophet surmised about her kidnapping on a fairly regular basis. But within the Auror office, everyone was tight-lipped. Potter and Weasley had a list of potential locations she could be, but those turned up nothing. Weasley was moving against the Were-Community, citing they had been the ones that wanted to see the Trio disbanded. But that didn’t add up to Draco. The list of possible kidnappers was constantly changing. But none of the leads led to anything. Potter and Weasley hadn’t interrogated anyone in weeks.
Draco made another trip by the twat twins’ cubicle. Hermione’s file was stuck haphazardly in a metal tray on Potter’s side, and he slipped it into his hands and proceeded to his own desk. He opened it and looked over the familiar information again. The picture they used was her from her Ministry identification badge. It was her first day, and she was smiling so broadly that she looked like she might burst. Her cheeks were flushed with excitement and promise. She looked nothing like the hollowed-out ghost she became a year later. Her face was round and vibrant, not gaunt and gray.
Lisa and Daniel Granger had a muggle photo halfway down the file. Hermione looked so much like her mother. A nearly identical replica. They were both listed as dentists, whatever that was. Draco turned the page and noticed a footnote next to them both. Found deceased. Cause of death: unknown/magic. Two days after Granger went missing.
Her badge slipped out of the file and fell on Draco’s lap. He picked it up and looked over it. The same grinning face as the file photo above smiled back at him. The bottom read her department access. It wasn’t Level 2 like the rest of the Aurors. In shimmering letters, read the access for Level 9, The Department of Mysteries.
***
Draco rode the lift to the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes and went to the Muggle Liason office. A very unpleasant sort of witch gave him access to the file room where he found the reports on Granger’s parents. The ministry had to keep tabs on every muggle that died by magic and run full reports of their deaths. If Granger’s parents died by magic two days after she disappeared, they could have been a major breaking point in the case.
Draco performed a simple duplication spell and pocketed his copy of the parchment. The last thing he needed was to be caught rifling around in Potter’s case. Though he wagered, Potter had missed this connection entirely.
Once Draco was home, he studied the materials. Granger’s badge, handwritten note, and the file were all connecting pieces. Draco just had to see how. The file explained that her parents weren't victims of Avada, nor were there traces of poison. It read too similar to the other deaths he’d been studying. Crabbe, Goyle, Carrow. All former Deather Eaters had been executed with an unknown spell or potion that wasn’t traceable by Ministry magic. So why were Granger’s parents in that same group? They weren’t associated with Death Eaters. And they certainly weren’t a threat to the magical community as muggle dentists. Though Draco did make the fascinating discovery that these dentists were actually just muggle healers of teeth. Imagine!
Perhaps Granger didn’t cooperate with her captors, and that’s what led to her parents’ demise. Though he doubted they would have any leverage left over her now that her parents were out of the picture. She did seem tenderly attached to them. He remembered how she’d speak about them with anyone who would listen back in school.
“Good break, Hermione?” one of the Patil twins asked before Transfiguration class third year.
Draco was seated behind them, trying very hard to ignore Crabbe’s mouth-breathing.
“Yes! My parents took me to Disneyland Paris. It was magical at Christmas time.”
“Isn’t that the muggle rat park?”
Hermione laughed.
“He’s a mouse, but yes. It’s meant to be cute.”
Patil made a face. Draco couldn’t help but agree.
“You’re always running off somewhere with your parents,” Patil said. “It seems like you actually enjoy their company.”
“I always have,” Hermione smiled. “We’ve always been close.”