A Beautiful Surprise

Hermione woke up feeling refreshed and ready to start her morning routine. She took a nice warm shower and used a drying charm on her hair. She decided to step out of her comfort zone and wear a black pencil skirt with a light blue blouse.

She walked over to her mirror to check herself before grabbing her bag and heading out. She was planning on heading to the coffee shop before going to work. She woke up twenty minutes early in hopes of beating Draco to work.

The sun had just started to turn the sky orange and red. She liked the sunrise, but she was much more of a sunset kind of person. She walked into the coffee shop and immediately saw a wide smile on Alessia's face.

"'appy birthday, Miz. Granger." Alessia said, handing Hermione her morning coffee and biscuit.

Hermione gave her a kind smile. "Thank you, Alessia." After grabbing her coffee and biscuit, Hermione turned out of the store and went to the alleyway before apparating to the Ministry.

Thirty-one. Hermione sighed as she made her way into the elevator. Turning thirty was hard for her but thirty-one just felt like another day. All she wanted to do was go to work, spend the night soaking in her tub and eat her favorite ice cream.

She took a deep breath as the elevator came to a stop and she stepped out into the quietness of an empty floor. She started walking toward her office when she noticed that the light was off in Draco's office and the door was shut.

A smile formed on her face as she realized she had beat Draco to work. She walked into her office and propped the door open before heading to her desk. She froze right as she was about to sit down in her chair.

A small box was sitting on her desk wrapped in paper that she swore looked to be periwinkle. She looked around her room almost expecting someone to be hiding. There was nothing but silence.

Hermione sat down in her chair and picked up the small present. It was a lighter package, and the wrapping was impeccable. She unwrapped the paper to find a black velvet box. She let out a small gasp when she opened the box.

Inside, a silver bracelet rested which was engraved with a single name. Cassiopeia. Hermione smiled as she picked up the bracelet only to find that the Cassiopeia constellation was engraved on the inside.

Hermione slipped the bracelet onto her wrist before searching the wrapping for the name of who it was from. The paper was completely blank, which stirred her interest even more in who could have left it. She was sure that she had locked her door when she left her office the day before but maybe she had forgotten.

She brushed it off for the time being and checked the files that were sitting on her desk. Over the past week, she nor Draco had the time to investigate the Jenkins case. They were jammed with cases the entire week before and were out of the office disarming cursed objects for most of it.

Looking through the files, she noticed there were only two that needed immediate attention, meaning that if she and Draco each took one then they would be free after lunch to work on the Jenkins case.

There was a knock on her door and she looked up expecting to see Draco but instead was met with Harry's green eyes. "Happy Birthday, Hermione."

Hermione smiled at him. "Thank you, Harry." She then looked down at her bracelet and back to him, holding up her wrist. "Did you by chance get this for me?"

Harry squinted his eyes and walked over to inspect the bracelet before shaking his head. "No, but it's nice."

Hermione furrowed her eyebrows. "I found it on my desk when I got here. There is no note or anything indicating who it's from."

"That's odd." Harry crossed his arms. "Maybe Ron or Ginny?"

"Maybe," Hermione said, twisting the bracelet around her wrist.

"Well, I just wanted to say happy birthday before heading into the office. I'll ask Ron about the bracelet when I see him." Harry started off out of her office.

"Thank you."

"Anytime!" He threw the words over his shoulder. The moment he was out of sight he spoke again. "Hello, Whitey."

"Potter."

Hermione perked up the moment she heard his voice. She grabbed the two case files off the top of her desk and made her way to Draco's office. When she walked in, he had just as down in his chair. She looked down at the files. "We have two cases today that need immediate attention. I was thinking we could each take one and then-"

"Happy Birthday."

Her head popped up to see Draco looking at her with a smug smile on his face. She didn't realize he had known her birthday. "Thank you." She whispered out of shock before remembering what she was saying. She walked over to his desk and set both of the files down for him to look at. "If we each take one then we should be done by lunch which means-"

"We can work on the Jenkins case," Draco said, flipping through the files before looking up at her.

Hermione nodded.

"Okay," Draco stood with one file in his hand while handing the other back to Hermione. "I will take the quote on quote possessed child's doll and you can take the scarf that is supposedly choking people."

Hermione took the file and walked with him out of his office. "Okay, we'll meet back here at noon." She stood in the hallway outside of his office looking in.

Draco stood inside of his office with one hand on the door. "Sounds good," He paused, looking down at her wrist before finding her eyes again with a small smile. "Nice bracelet."

Hermione froze, looking up at him from the file that was in her hand. "What-"Draco shut the door in her face. The last thing she saw was the smug look he was wearing.

~

Hermione spent an hour trying to remove the curse from the scarf, but nothing was working. She decided to take the scarf back to the office with her for further review. There was a chance that the reason she couldn't remove the curse was because she was pretty sure Draco had gotten the bracelet for her, but it was a small chance.

She sat at her desk waiting for Draco to return as she stared at the scarf in front of her. She was smart enough to make sure the scarf was concealed in a box so that no mishaps happened. Her fingers twisted the bracelet on her wrist as she watched her daughter's names shine in the light.

Ron walked into her office and took a seat in front of her desk. "Happy Birthday, 'Mione."

She was thrown off by the abruptness. "Thank You."

"Harry tells me you received a gift from someone?" Ron stretched his legs out onto the chair next to him.

Hermione nodded and grabbed the wrapping paper from her desk. "It was in this." She handed the paper to him. "There isn't a name on it and I'm guessing you didn't get it for me?"

Ron shook his head, examining the paper. "No, you know I can't wrap gifts very well." He set the paper back down on the desk and looked up at her. "What was in it?"

She reached her arm out to him to show him the gift. "It was this. It has Cassie's name on the outside and her constellation on the inside."

Ron looked over the bracelet with his eyebrows furrowed. "Yeah, I would have never thought about something as clever as this." He leaned back into his chair. "Are you sure that Gin' didn't get it for you?"

Hermione started to chew on her bottom lip. "I might have an idea of who got it but I'm not completely sure as of right now."

"Well, when you figure it out let me know." He stood from his chair. "I wanna know who got my best friend a better gift than what I got."

"Wait," Hermione looked up at him. "What did you get me?"

Ron smiled and shook his head. "Not happening, 'Mione." He started to walk out of her office. "You'll just have to wait and find out."

Hermione sighed and threw her head back. She didn't have plans to see anyone after work, but Ron said that she was going to have to wait to receive his gift, which meant that something was going on that she didn't know about.

There was a scuffle at her door which made her lift her head to see who it was. "You're back?"

Draco nodded, leaning against the door frame with his hands in his pockets. His eyes caught the scarf that was sitting in a box on her desk. "Couldn't figure it out?"

Hermione huffed. "I didn't have a clear mind, so I brought it back with me."

He took a deep breath and stood up straight. "Are you ready to start working on the Jenkins case then?"

Hermione nodded and stood from her desk grabbing her own copy of the Jenkins case. "We'll be starting with the archives. This could take a while, so I hope you ate."

Draco let out a small laugh. "Don't worry about me, Granger, I had a four-course meal for lunch and even brought some grapes to snack on."

Hermione rolled her eyes and walked past him out of her office. They rode the elevator down to the 10th floor as the archive room was on the same floor as the courtrooms. Really it wasn't a room. The archive room was nearly the size of a quidditch pitch.

They walked silently side by side, the sound of their shoes against the marble floor echoing throughout the corridor. They made their way into the archive room and realized no one else was inside. Hermione was grateful for that fact because she worked better when there was no unwanted noise.

She made her way to an empty table, Draco not too far behind her. "Records on death eaters are going to be in section 810 row 7. I will be working in section 412 row 13 if you find anything."

Draco nodded. "Okay, I'm going to grab the cases of death eaters who are not in Azkaban and will meet back at this table."

Hermione nodded back to him. "Okay, see you soon." She watched as Draco disappeared into the rows of shelves. Suddenly it was silent all around her and it made shivers run down her spine. She took a deep breath and started off to section 412.

She pulled two boxes off the shelf that were marked as cold cases. If the internal wound had been looked over or completely healed when the body was examined, then there was a chance the case file never made it to her division. She would have to look through all of the cold case files that she had never seen before.

She made her way back to the table to see that Draco had returned with his own box and was pulling files out of it. "I win."

Draco looked up at her with furrowed eyebrows. "What?"

Hermione smiled and pointed to her boxes. "I carried two boxes and you only carried one."

Draco shook his head in disbelief and took a seat across from her. He opened up his first file. "It's not my fault there was only one box."

"One?!" Hermione sat down and leaned forward. "That can't be."

Draco flipped through the first file he had pulled out. "I'm only looking into death eaters who are not in Azkaban today." He looked up at her through his lashes. "Those case files only fill one box."

Hermione let out a small breath. "For some reason, I thought there would be more."

Draco shook his head and cast his eyes back down to the file he was holding. "It's only been 12 years since the war happened and most death eaters got life sentences. Plus, most minimum sentences were 15 years."

Hermione nodded her head slowly with her arms crossed. "Right. Well, I guess we should get started."

Draco nodded as they both dove into their cases. Hermione was going through many of the same cases with no new information. Visibly stabbed, shot, Avada'd, asphyxiated, drowned, decapitated, tortured... the list went on and on but there was nothing she could find about unknown causes of death.

After getting through both of her boxes she looked up at Draco and noticed the tension resting in his brow line. His brows were pulled together and causing wrinkles to appear on his forehead. One of his hands tried to knead the tension away but it didn't seem useful. Even his shoulder seemed to be tense.

Hermione summoned two glasses and a bottle of fire whiskey. She knew that looking into the case files of people he used to be associated with would probably cause him stress, so she had prepared.

Draco peered up from his file. "What's this for?"

Hermione shrugged her shoulders and poured the whiskey into both glasses. "Just figured we might want something to get through the cases. I know it's already stressing me out."

Draco studied her for a moment before taking one of the glasses. "Thank you."

Hermione nodded once, taking a sip of her own Fire Whiskey. "You're welcome." She stood from her chair and levitated the two boxes with her wand. "I'm going to go return these and get two more. I'll be back."

She didn't wait for a response as she turned and floated the two boxes back over to their rightful place. It had only been an hour, but it seemed that Draco was taking a while on each file. She didn't know his thought process and she didn't know how he could tell who might have the knife.

She floated two more boxes back over to their table and started looking through them. She was starting to get frustrated at the lack of information she was receiving. Each cause of death was already known.

She and Draco were both on their third glass before something finally made itself known. Hermione pulled a case file from the box and opened it to see an unknown cause of death for a woman in her late thirties. Her name was Christina Watson.

Her death was exactly a year to the day after Jenkins' death. Hermione grabbed the Jenkins case and put them side by side. Jenkins died on December 17th, 2002, and Watson died on December 18th, 2003.

She bit and chewed on her bottom lip as she looked at the medical report. The unknown cause of death was due to there being no external wounds to the body. A healer had thought there had been a wound on the woman's lung but when she went back to look, the wound was gone.

"What is it?" Draco asked and Hermione peered up to see that he had set down his file and was looking at her curiously.

Hermione stood with both of the files in her hand and walked over to Draco's side of the table. She set down both files side by side. "Look at the cause of death and then at the date of death."

Draco furrowed his eyebrows as he looked over the files. "Unknown cause of death and they died one year and one day apart." He looked back at her.

Hermione nodded, looking down at him and then the file. "Now look at the medical report on Watson's file."

Draco scanned over the report, finding his way to the Healer's notes. "The Healer saw a wound and then it just disappeared?"

"Yup," Hermione nodded, making her way back to the side of her table. "She was also found in an alleyway in Knockturn alley. The same alley that Jenkins was found in."

"So same alley, same weapon, and around the same time as the previous murder?" Draco shook his head in disbelief and looked up at her. "Look for files with unknown causes of death that happened around the same time as these two."

Hermione pushed one box to him as they both started to look through the case files. Soon they started to find a pattern:

"December 19th, 2004. Derek Hughes."

"December 20th, 2005. Jessica Langston."

"December 21st, 2006. Jared Johnson."

"December 22nd, 2007. Brooklynn Davis."

"December 23rd, 2008. Brandon Lincoln."

"December 24th, 2009. Alayna Raymond."

Hermione and Draco both stood back from the table and stared at all of the open case files. Everything fit together and everything was a pattern.

"One day after the other and one year apart." Draco ran his hand through his hair.

Hermione took a deep breath. "The killer alternates between genders every year and all of the bodies are found in the same alleyway in Knockturn Alley."

Draco walked over to the table and analyzed the Jenkins case. "Are there any files before 2002?"

Hermione walked over and stood next to him. She shook her head. "No, Jenkins was definitely the first case."

Draco sighed. "Then we're looking for someone who was released from Azkaban before December of 2002."

"That would only be someone with an, at the most, four-year sentence."

Draco nodded, leaning onto the table. "That's if they went to Azkaban and that's if it's a death eater."

"You think there might be a chance it's not?" Hermione asked, looking up over at him.

Draco shrugged his shoulders. "We have to look at every possible suspect. There is a chance it was stolen from the Manor during the war when our wards were down. Even if it wasn't, there is also a chance that the death eater who took it ended up selling it."

Hermione nodded along to his words. It made sense. No one was safe when it came to something as serious as this. "There has to be a reason that the murders are leading up to Christmas."

Draco grabbed his wand and summoned a calendar. "Yes, but at least we know when the next murder is going to take place."

Hermione watched as Draco flipped the calendar to December and pointed to Christmas day. If they were both right and the murderer kept up with his or her schedule, then the next murder would happen on Christmas day. "What is the estimated time of death for each victim?"

They both looked at each other for a moment before they started to look through the files. They looked at the medical report on each one before coming to their conclusion. "10:00 pm." Draco whispered.

Hermione looked up at him. "That's what I got." She let out a frustrated sigh. "So, on Christmas day around 10 pm in Knockturn Alley, someone is going to die?"

Draco rolled his shoulders and put his hands in his pockets. "It would seem like it, but this time he isn't going to succeed."

"Because we'll be there." Hermione looked up at Draco as he met her eye and nodded. She never worked on Christmas day because it was the one day she and Cassie spent the entire day together, but this year would be different. She was sure Cassie would understand.

Hermione and Draco started to dig back into the cases, both looking through the death eater files. They both continued to drink Fire Whiskey as they sorted the files between death eaters who were released from Azkaban before December of 2002 and after. 

When they were finished, Hermione was feeling tipsy, and they only had eight death eaters. She and Draco fell into their seats as they looked over the names. They were all low-ranking death eaters with low-level crimes. Bradbury, Sanford, Williams, Harris, Burton, Stevens, Wilson, and Augustus. 

Hermione leaned back into her seat, finishing off her sixth glass of Fire Whiskey. If she was being honest with herself, she didn't know what glass she was on. She knew the names, but she didn't know the faces of the eight death eaters. She knew Draco knew exactly who they were by the way he was looking at the files. 

She took a deep breath, which was a little too loud, to get his attention. It was almost eight in the afternoon, and she was ready to get back to her Flat. "I think we should wrap it up. We've drained ourselves and need to rest."

Draco sighed, rubbing his eyes. "You're right." He stood and started to organize and close all of the files. 

Hermione went to stand but her knees buckled and she had to catch herself on the table. It was as though all of the alcohol in her system didn't hit until she stood up. 

"Are you good?" Draco asked with a smirk starting to form on his face. 

Hermione nodded drunkenly. "I'm fine. I- I just need to get back to my Flat."

Draco shook his head with a small laugh. "You've never been able to handle your Fire Whiskey."

"Hey!" Hermione yelled, trying to point at him. "That was rude."

Draco laughed and walked toward her. "Whatever you say, Granger. Let's get you home in one piece."

Hermione shook her head fervently, which made the entire room look like it was spinning. "I can do it myself!" She looked like a child.

"Sure you can." Draco smiled, grabbing her bag for her and putting her arm around his shoulders to keep her upright.

"I don't need your help," Hermione said under her breath as she dragged alongside Draco. 

Draco walked her all the way to the elevator and held onto her as she swayed back and forth. When they made it to the lobby, Hermione's vision became blurry, but she could tell that no one was near them. Normally there weren't many people in the lobby in the afternoon. 

They made it to one of the Floo's and Hermione prepared herself to be twisted and pulled while also being drunk. The moment she made it into her Flat, she knew she would need to head straight to the loo.

"Are you ready?" Draco whispered to her in a calm voice that was soothing. 

Hermione nodded her head slowly as she heard Draco speak and guide her into the Floo. Her head spun and twisted and stretched as it felt as though she and Draco were spinning circles around each other. 

The moment her feet hit the ground of her flat she was trying to figure out why all of the lights were out. She turned her head in the general direction of Draco. "Why are the lights-

"SURPRISE!!"

Draco and Hermione were both met with a bright light and when their eyes adjusted, they saw the faces of every single one of her friends. Ginny, Harry, Ron, Susan, Luna, Neville, Theo, Pansy, and even Blaise. Every single person stood in front of them and saw a drunk Hermione Granger leaning onto Draco Malfoy to help keep her up. 

Hermione looked is everyone with her eyes wide before the alcohol finally got to her and everything she had eaten or drank in the past twenty-four hours ended up on her lounge room carpet. 

~

Hermione groaned as she lay in bed. Draco walked over and set a cold cloth on her forehead as he kneeled down next to the bed. "It's funny how many times we've been in this position."

Hermione looked at him with her best "go to hell" look. "Shove off, Malfoy."

"How's the birthday girl?" Theo walked into the room followed by Pansy and Blaise. 

"She's fine," Draco said to them before turning back to Hermione. "She just needs to sleep it off."

Pansy let out a small laugh. "She has never been able to hold her Whiskey."

Blaise chuckled. "Remember her 25th?" 

Pansy, Theo, and Blaise all laughed at the memory as Draco was completely clueless. Hermione was going to roll her eyes but knew it would only cause her to become sick again. "All of you need to shove off."

Everyone laughed and Theo walked over to the bed. "Well, we were just coming in to say Happy Birthday and bye. I guess we'll have to celebrate another day."

Hermione sighed. "I told Ginny I didn't want a party to begin with."

Blaise walked over to the bed. "You know her and Pansy will never let you not celebrate your birthday."

"He's not wrong." Pansy laughed. 

Hermione closed her eyes and smiled. "Well thank you for coming. I wish I was in better conditions, but we'll have to get together soon."

"Of course," Pansy said, leaning down to place a kiss on Hermione's forehead. 

Theo, Blaise, and Pansy all walked out of the room only to have Ron, Harry, and Ginny walk in. 

"Who would have known that you would get drunk before your actual party." Ginny smiled down at Hermione.

"I didn't ask for this, Gin'." 

Ginny rolled her eyes. "I know, I know."

"Your cake is in the fridge so you can enjoy it whenever you want." Harry leaned against her bedpost. 

"Thank you, Harry." Hermione smiled. 

"Next time you decide to drink on her birthday at least wait until we're all together." Ron laughed, leaning up against her wardrobe.

Hermione shook her head at all of them. "Whatever you say, Ronald."

Everyone laughed and said their farewells, leaving Draco and Hermione alone. Hermione found peace in the silence between them. "You don't have to take care of me," Hermione whispered, rolling over on her side to face him. "I'll survive."

She could almost swear that something of disappointment flashed across his face before he covered it with a smile. "Are you sure?"

Hermione nodded her head against her pillow. "I'm sure you want to get back home and get some rest before work tomorrow."

Draco looked her over before standing up. "Yeah." He didn't sound sure. He collected what things he had and walked over to the doorway. He turned back and looked at her over his shoulder. "Not home."

"What?" Hermione asked as she squinted at him. Her eyes felt heavy. 

"That place will never be home. Not ever again." He looked lost in the darkness as he took a deep breath. "Goodnight, Granger."

Hermione studied him for a moment before sighing. "Goodnight, Malfoy." 

She watched him disappear out of her doorway. She heard his footsteps getting farther and farther away until suddenly they were gone. As Hermione lay in the silence, she wondered if she actually wanted him to stay.