Chapter 15
Draco woke up next morning, somehow feeling more rested than he had felt in a while. He checked his phone. Still no text from Harry.
With a heavy heart, he figured there would be no meeting with him today….which meant no meeting with Hermione.
He found himself texting Astoria, asking her how long would it be until she was able to talk to Snape and Bellatrix. Anything to give him, Harry, and Hermione an excuse to meet up over something.
Draco then packed his stuff and headed downstairs, ignoring whatever inappropriate things Bellatrix was playfully shouting at him from the kitchen.
He drove to the muggle coffee shop and sat at a small table in the corner, hoping to get lost in his work throughout the day.
As he pulled out his laptop, he suddenly noticed someone walking his way. His heart skipped a beat. Granger was approaching him, dressed professionally like usual, and carrying her laptop.
Her expression was unreadable as she stopped by his table and met his gaze.
"Harry's unable to meet today," she said, her tone rather formal.
Draco nodded, keeping a straight expression. "I figured."
Hermione blinked then spoke again in a formal tone. "I could still use some assistance looking through all the camera footage, though. And since you happen to be here….you're welcome to help me out if you want."
"Sure," Draco replied rather quickly. Then he blinked. "You'd have to show me how to access that crap though."
Hermione gave a quick chuckle. "I'll just email you a bunch of files you can open up. Then you can watch as much as you can."
She sat at the table beside him and pulled out her laptop. Draco pretended to be working on something on his own laptop as he focused his attention on the pleasant aroma that came from Hermione's perfume. Had she always smelled this nice?
When she finally sent him files of Snape and Bellatrix to watch, he found himself cringing at some of the scenes that involved him in the background.
"Okay," he finally spoke up. "Granger, I swear. If you are looking at any files from the 17th of last August, just know that Theo and I were really drunk that day-- I never would behave that receptively to Bellatrix's psychotic endeavors otherwise."
Hermione started laughing, her eyes fixed on her laptop screen. "Don't worry. Seeing Bellatrix kiss your head then wildly dancing around the house with you is more disturbing than amusing for me to watch."
"Well you certainly don’t look disturbed," said Draco flatly. Then he added in a sarcastic tone, "And that is actually even more disturbing."
Hermione whipped her head to give him a playful smile. "I'm more amused with how ridiculous you looked, not because I admired anything I saw."
"Sure, Granger."
Eventually, Draco found himself slowly transitioning into a lighthearted banter with Hermione, as both of them pointed out embarrassing background footage that Draco had appeared in. Although it made Draco loathe the cameras in his house even more, he had to admit that he was grateful that they gave him and Granger some stuff to poke fun at together.
He found himself a bit disheartened when the coffee shop was closing. Had they seriously spent the whole day bantering and laughing over footage?
"Wow," Hermione's face was suddenly serious and she began packing her stuff. "Well, I guess I should get going. That was a third of all the Snape and Bellatrix footage….we made great progress, actually."
Draco was slowly nodding, then began to pack his stuff. "So we'll continue tomorrow?" He asked casually.
"Yes," Hermione replied rather quickly. Then she paused and turned to Draco. "By the way….you're living with Snape and Bellatrix. Why aren't you trying to arrange a time to talk with them outside your house so that you can get some clues about their involvement with Arthur and Ron?"
Draco sighed and turned to her. "Snape knows me too well. He knows how angry I was to hear that Ron was raped by Pansy. He's going to be careful about what he reveals to me."
"Hmm," Hermione gave him a studious gaze. "What about Bellatrix?"
Draco laughed. "Granger, do you really think I'll get anything useful out from that crazy woman?"
She gave a quiet chuckle. "I dunno. I thought you Slytherins are crafty enough to get whatever you want out of any person."
Draco's gaze faltered. He suddenly remembered that Bellatrix had tortured Hermione in his own manor, back when his family still lived in it. "Well….we can," he said carefully. "But it's hard when another Slytherin is using the same craftiness to prevent such a thing. Snape's always with Bellatrix, in our house and outside of it. He's going to make sure she doesn’t reveal anything he doesn’t want her to reveal."
Hermione slowly nodded. "I guess we'll just have to wait till we find something useful from all this footage….or until we hear back from Astoria."
Draco gasped. "Crap. That reminds me…" he pulled out his phone, remembering he had sent her a message this morning. He read her response:
Talked to them today, actually. Important news. Meetup tonight?
Draco suddenly felt a surge of dread. Hermione noticed he looked extra pale.
"Everything alright?" She asked.
Draco put his phone down and met Hermione's gaze, an urgent look on his face. "Astoria was able to talk to them today. She wants to meet and discuss…tonight." Damn….I should've checked my phone earlier….
Hermione raised her eyebrows. "You going to meet up right now?"
"I guess so…" he checked the time. It was 9:30 PM. "I guess we'll meet at Theo's bar. It's the only place that's open and devoid of Ministry cameras."
Hermione nodded. "Let me know how it goes."
"You're not gonna come?"
"I…" Hermione looked to the ground. "I was planning to visit Ron earlier today. I didn’t realize how much time had flown, but….since there's still some hours left in the night, I might as well go now."
Draco was going to shoot a teasing remark about how out-of-character it was for Granger to blow off work-related matters for relational matters. But he decided not to. He didn’t find the idea very funny himself.
He gave a curt nod. "Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then." He turned to head toward the door, then stopped and turned. "Wait…shall we exchange numbers?"
Hermione got up, and then gasped. "Oh yeah…good idea," she muttered.
They exchanged numbers, and then parted ways. Draco called up Astoria and told him to meet him at Theo's.