Chapter 12
"I can invite Snape and Bellatrix over again," said Astoria, shifting her green eyes from Draco, to Hermione, and to Harry as the four of them sat at a table in the muggle coffee shop. "They are both quite close with my family, so it wouldn’t be weird if I just have 'em over for a casual dinner this week. I can try to see what I can get out of them, regarding their involvement with Arthur and Ron."
Harry clenched his teeth, his face turning red. "I guess that's why Arthur wanted to hide the files of Pansy's rape. If Ron was doing it under the Imperius Curse, he wouldn’t want to have any evidence of his son doing something he never….would've done in his normal state of mind." He turned to Hermione, who was staring at the table with a distracted look in her eyes. "What do you think, Hermione?"
Hermione didn’t answer.
"Hermione?" Harry raised an eyebrow at her.
Hermione gasped and then turned to Harry. "Oh! Yeah…I agree."
Harry blinked. "You okay?"
Hermione huffed and turned to stare back at the table. "Of course not. Now I'm not sure if I'm still angry with Ron or not."
Draco, who was sitting across from her, was also fixing his eyes on the table with a distracted look. "Well the git is at St. Mungo's. And the healers didn’t seem hopeful about his mental state."
Hermione lifted her eyes to gaze in Draco's direction. He looked like he was going to add something spiteful, but he didn’t. He then lifted his eyes to meet hers, and as soon as they locked gazes, they both immediately looked away.
Hermione felt her face grow hot as she had a brief flashback of their moment by the loo. If Harry hadn't spoken, she would've easily found herself sucked into the memory.
"Astoria," said Harry. "We'd definitely appreciate it if you could talk to Snape and Bellatrix somehow….perhaps not at your house since they will be careful about what they say in front of the surveillance cameras. But if you could at least keep this recorder with you when you discuss things with them, that would be great." He handed her a pocket-sized square device. "It's something we started using as Aurors-- Arthur seems quite excited about being able to integrate this new muggle technology with our magic without the traditional barriers."
Astoria nodded. "I'll see what I can do."
Hermione turned to the dark-haired girl. Then she shifted her eyes to Draco, who was sitting beside Astoria, staring distantly at the table. Then Hermione gazed at Astoria again and spoke carefully. "Astoria, you and Blaise are quite close, right?"
Astoria narrowed her eyes. "Not since he started hanging out with Ginny. But yes, we're still good friends. Why?"
"Well…." Hermione suddenly wasn’t sure why she had asked the question. She tried to think quickly. "Oh! Well, I remember another deleted file that showed Arthur talking to Snape and Bellatrix, and….Blaise, Theo, and Luna were seen with Ron in the background. I was just wondering if you knew if he knew anything about what they could've been talking about…"
Astoria blinked. "Um….from what I remember, Blaise was there because he and Theo were just passing by, and found Luna trying to get a hold of Ron so she can perform some weird spell or whatever. They were too occupied with Ron and Luna to noticed anything Arthur, Snape, and Bellatrix were discussing.
Harry frowned, looking a bit confused. "Yeah….Hermione, Draco and I already talked to Theo about that."
"Okay then," said Hermione, shaking her head awkwardly. "Never mind. Just wanted to know if there was any chance we could find out anything about why that particular footage was deleted."
Astoria shrugged. "Maybe Arthur was discussing the rape with them, so he removed it as well." She turned to Harry and gave a nod. "Anyway, I'll find a way to talk to Snape and Bellatrix and keep this recorder. I'll let you guys know when to expect to hear anything from me."
Harry nodded. "Thanks, Astoria." He then shifted his eyes to Hermione and Draco. "I guess we don't have to hold anymore meetings, until then?"
No more meeting with Harry….or Draco. Hermione felt a sudden wave of despair. Whoa….where did that come from? She took a moment before responding, "Um….no, I guess not."
She noticed Malfoy's jaw clench. He said nothing.
Harry raised an eyebrow at Hermione. "Okay. Cool….let me know if there's anything else I can do, Hermione."
They headed out of the coffee shop. As Harry and Astoria parted ways, Hermione found herself rushing up to Draco.
"Hey!" She hissed through clenched teeth. She stood in front of him and faced him with a glare. "What was that all about?!"
Draco froze, staring at her with a look of fright in his eyes. "What in Merlin's name are you talking about?"
"By the loo!" She felt her face grow hot again as she held his gaze.
Draco stared at her for a silent moment, then looked down and walked around her. "That never happened," he muttered.
Hermione whirled around, about to run after him again, but then she paused. Draco had stopped in his tracks, staring across the street where he saw Lucius and Narcissa talking to a tall, brown-coated man. Both his parents looked shocked and disturbed, and seemed to speaking in hushed voices with the man.
Draco began to back away. "Shite…." he muttered. "Shite, shite, shite…"
"What's going on?" Hermione asked cautiously. She then felt her heart skip a beat. She recognized that tall, brown-coated man. He was the new Head Guard of Azkaban. He did not look happy as he spoke with Draco's parents.
Suddenly, Lucius shifted his gaze and noticed Draco. The long-haired Slytherin gave a wide-eyed glare, then gestured with his hand for Draco to come over.
Hermione watched as Draco tensed up and then made his way over. Hermione then looked away and stepped behind a crowd of people passing by, before Lucius could notice her as well. But then she made her way around the crowd and walked up to the building that the Malfoys and the Azkaban guard were standing by. She was able to hear a bit of what they were saying.
The Azkaban guard was currently speaking. "I don't know how long this breach in the suppression spell has been present, but thanks to your sleuthing in the area, we were able to discover that it's been there for a while. We will continue to do more investigation if you haven't seen any suspicious activity in the area."
Draco then spoke. "No, sir. As I said, I was only there for a few moments to fetch Ron Weasley, since he had apparated to the area with Luna Lovegood. And I wasn’t even inside the building-- only Harry was since he had the Auror spells to grant him access inside."
"Well, apparently, you could've easily came into the building just like he did," said Lucius, his tone stiff. "Since apparently, a prisoner has been apparating in and out of the building. And that prisoner was a Slytherin."
The Azkaban guard gave a grunt. "Like I said, we will do some more investigation. I'll speak to Arthur Weasley about this and see what he wants us to do."
When they parted ways, Hermione stepped forth to see Draco sitting on a bench, looking like he was going to collapse from stress.
"Draco…" Hermione murmured. "Are you alright?"
Draco huffed, staring across the outlet. "Damn. I thought that guard was going to arrest us all over some stupid nonsense Arthur made up. This is why I can't stand to be in our house…with all those damn cameras. It's like Arthur can use anything we say or do and make that an excuse to send us to Azkaban."
Hermione watched as he clenched his fists and ran a hand through his hair. "Not to mention…" Draco went on, "….Arthur's gonna know that a Slytherin prisoner as been sneaking out of Azkaban, bypassing the suppression spells and dementors. He's probably going to make the restrictions on Slytherins even harsher now."
Hermione felt the pang of pity return to her. She had not expected Draco to express this much distress over the situation-- if anything, a Slytherin would've been scared to show any sign of sensitivity.
But Hermione was grateful that Draco was sharing what he was sharing. She found herself sitting beside him. "Draco….what Arthur is doing to your family-- to all Slytherins-- is awful. No one should be discriminated against and monitored like that."
Draco slowly turned to her, his expression both calmed and surprised at the same time. Then he turned and looked at the ground. "Yeah…" he muttered distantly. "No one…."
A moment of silence passed, but this time, it wasn't awkward. Hermione somehow found herself at ease as she sat beside the blonde-haired pureblood. She noticed Draco even began to look less tense as he sat beside her.
Then Hermione stood up. "Anyway….." she looked at her watch. "I should get back to some Ministry stuff. I guess I'll see you….when Astoria finds out anything?"
Draco bit his lip. "Yeah….I guess." He then looked up at her. "Is there not anything you, me, and Potter can investigate together till then?"
Hermione found herself already trying to think of an answer to that, before he had brought up the question. But then she shook her head. "I need to go through all the camera footage of Snape and Bellatrix…..Harry's probably gonna get even busier investigating that prisoner who's been sneaking out of Azkaban." She clenched her fists. "We…we don't need to see each other until me or Astoria finds out anything. Which could be a while since….there's a lot of footage I'll have to go through."
Draco stared at Hermione as she had her back turned to him and the bench he was still sitting on. He then said, "I could look through some of that footage with you. I mean-- Harry and I could look through it with you. Whenever Harry has the time, of course."
Hermione pursed her lips. "That could work." She looked over her shoulder and locked eyes with him. "I'll ask if he can meet up tomorrow."
Draco gave a slight nod, not taking his gaze off her. "Sounds good."