Scrooge
"Oh. Hello, Ginny. Are the boys in?" Hermione shifted where she stood in the corridor outside Harry and Ron's Shoreditch flat. In the unit across the way, someone was blasting Muggle rock music rather obnoxiously. Ginny showed Hermione in and said,
"They're playing Wizard's Chess. You know Ron. He likes to demolish people at the things he's good at and… well, Harry likes to fight, so."
The two witches laughed a little, and Hermione stepped slowly into the kitchen, where the boys were sitting at a linoleum table.
"Knight to E-7," Ron said very imperiously, apparently not noticing that Hermione had come. His piece started sliding across the board, and Ginny cleared her throat softly.
"Hermione's here."
"Oh, hi. Hold on one second." Ron watched intently as his chess piece smashed Harry's. Harry threw his hands up and declared,
"I hate playing this game with you."
Ron smirked and then finally looked up. He raised his orange eyebrows and said,
"Bloody hell. You look pretty."
Hermione's cheeks went hot. All she'd done today was put her hair into a braid down her back, apply just a little mascara and lip balm, and dress in smarter clothes than usually. Apparently, that was enough for a compliment. Well, she'd take it, she thought.
"Listen," she said meaningfully, "I know you're playing a game, but… I need to talk with you. All three of you."
Ron seemed to sense the gravitas in her words, so he and Harry started to pack the game up into its leather box. Ginny used her wand to start brewing up some tea, and Hermione went to sit in one of the rickety chairs at the kitchen table. She sat between Harry and Ron, looking at each of them, and Harry frowned.
"Has something happened? Is it your parents?"
"No, it's not my parents." Hermione watched as Ron poured a cup of tea and put just a little milk and sugar in, just how she liked. He pushed the teacup toward her and asked,
"Well, what is it, then?"
Ginny looked worried, too, and finally Hermione wrapped her hands around the hot cup of tea and murmured,
"As Ron knows, I met with Draco Malfoy the other day."
"Yes. Ron told Harry, and Harry told me," Ginny said sharply. "Tell me you haven't seen him since, Hermione."
"Well." Hermione lifted her cup and let the tea scald her throat as she sipped at it. The other three looked horrified, and Hermione tipped her chin up a bit. "Harry, even you're a Half-Blood, and you were famous by the time you went to Hogwarts. None of you, none of the three of you, understand what it has meant for the past decade to be Muggle-born. And for decades before that. None of you really know."
"I don't exactly think throwing accusations at us is going to help whatever's going on," Harry said, shoving his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "You don't mean to… to forgive him."
Hermione was quiet, and Ginny scoffed loudly.
"That bleeding idiot was nothing but hateful to you, Hermione, and I don't need to be Muggle-born to know that. He was evil to everyone. To all of us. You'd betray us by -"
"Us. Them." Hermione raised her eyes to Ginny's, then to Harry's, and finally to Ron's. She shrugged. "Pureblood. Half-blood. Muggle-born. Gryffindor, Slytherin. Wealth and poverty. What stupid, silly lines have divided us, the entire wizarding community."
Ron looked like he was going to throw up. "Draco Malfoy is a Death Eater."
"There's no such thing anymore," Hermione reminded him. "The ones who refused to renounce Voldemort are in prison. Most of them died. There are, surely, families left who hold grudges, who are discriminatory and bigoted. But Draco Malfoy is different now."
"Finite Incantatem." Ginny Weasley jabbed her wand at Hermione, who scowled and barked,
"I'm not being compelled by any curse to say this, Ginny. Harry, Ron. You and I traversed Britain searching for the Horcruxes. We fought this evil together. Ginny and Ron, you lost family in the battle at Hogwarts. But we must honor those we lost. We must honor the fight we waged. What was it for?"
"It destroyed Voldemort," Harry snarled, and Hermione said through desperate tears,
"Yes, but what venom did Voldemort spit at his followers? He rewarded them for being hateful. He sowed division. He intended on instituting policies that would still be welcomed by too many. It is our duty, our obligation, as the so-called 'heroes' of this war, to find a way to unify the wizarding world again."
"Well, perhaps you don't know, because you are Muggle-born, 'Mione, but the wizarding world has never really been united," Ron said bitterly. Hermione felt her mouth drop open in surprise, but Ron continued, "For quite a long time, Hermione, there have been certain people who -"
"Oh, come off it, Ronald. I know history - Muggle and Magical alike - far better than you do," Hermione snarled. She took a shaking breath, reading hurt in Ron's eyes, and she gulped down some tea. "I am going to try and establish a movement."
"What, like Spew?" Ron asked bitterly, and Hermione grimaced.
"A movement," she said again, "to attempt large-scale, real, deep, meaningful reconciliation between those of us who fought against Voldemort, and those who either fought for him or supported his ideals. I think there are more Dracos out there. More people who realise the wickedness of the cause that -"
"Sore losers, then," Ron sniffed, but Harry pointed out,
"First there was Grindelwald. Then Voldemort. Someone else will rise up. Hermione's right that we need to come to a place where there isn't space for that of hatred. But, Hermione… Draco Malfoy. It's a big ask to say we should be friends with Draco Malfoy, of all people."
"No one's asking you to be his friend," Hermione assured Harry, who pinched his lips and adjusted his glasses again.
"Don't you remember," Ron began, looking as though he might cry, "the way I vomited up slugs for hours because my spell backfired? Because I wanted revenge on Malfoy for calling you a Mudblood, Hermione. I still want revenge on him. I don't plan on cosying up to him any time soon."
"I'm telling you, Ron; he's realised the error of his childhood. He knows he was wrong." Hermione glanced around the table again, and Ginny asked pointedly,
"What did you say to him? To Malfoy?"
Hermione gulped hard and stared at the ugly plastic surface of the table. "He lives in a house he bought with his own salary. He has a painting… a painting of a woman with a baby begging from -"
"I don't care about his art collection," Ginny whispered, her face going very stern. "What did you say, Hermione, to Draco Malfoy?"
Hermione hesitated just long enough for Ron and Harry to lock glances and look very alarmed. Finally, Hermione admitted,
"I forgave him. Wholly and completely. For every slur, for every act of haughtiness, for every time he was a bully or an outright villain. For being a Death Eater. I forgave him for all of it."
A weighty, almost suffocating silence fell, and then Ron's cracked voice demanded,
"Why?"
Hermione met his pleading eyes, and she said with confidence she hadn't known she'd possessed,
"Because, Ron, it is the only way forward."
He scoffed and dragged his fingers through the red hair that desperately needed a trim. He shook his head, slowly at first and then more wildly.
"You're being stupid," he barked. "You're not a stupid witch, Hermione Granger, but you're being stupid now."
"Ronald." Hermione's chest felt like she'd been punched, and she looked frantically to Harry and Ginny.
"I agree with you that there needs to be a move to unify society," Harry said carefully, "but if that involves any kind of kindness toward Draco Malfoy, I want no part of it."
"Hermione, I think… perhaps you ought to go," Ginny said, rising from her chair. She looked at her brother, who was practically foaming with anger, and she said, "Ron, write to Hermione when you're ready to have a civil discussion over all this. It isn't worth a fight."
"Oh, yes, it is," Hermione insisted, staying where she sat. She reached for Ron's arm, and when he snatched it away and glared at her like a wounded animal, she informed him, "You're just as prejudiced, you know. Just in the other direction. Do you honestly believe that no one is capable of performing wicked deeds and then finding redemption? Do you really believe that?"
"I believe that Draco Malfoy is beyond saving," Ron nodded, "and I'm absolutely disgusted by the fact that you thought it was a good idea to forgive him. Ginny's right, Hermione. You should go."
Two days later, Hermione stood outside the door of the boys' flat again. She'd had to go to three different bookshops to track down the tome in her hand, but once she'd found it, she'd been determined to get it to Ron. She knocked firmly on the door, and after a moment, she heard Harry's voice call,
"Just getting out of the shower, Ron; can you get it?"
"Yeah!"
Hermione took a trembling breath as the door flew open. Ron's face immediately darkened, and his small neck bobbed as he gulped. He leaned against the doorjamb and said quietly,
"I'm not quite sure I'm ready to talk yet, 'Mione."
She shoved the book in her hands toward him, nearly pushing him back through the doorway. Ron frowned down at the book and read,
"A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Why am I not surprised that you've decided to punish me in this argument with a book?"
"It is absolutely imperative that you read this book in its entirety," Hermione said sharply. "It isn't very long, so you've excuse. If you've cared for me, as a friend or as anything more, please read this book. The whole thing. Promise?"
She watched Ron thumb through it, and she thought of the way Scrooge had cheated others and profited from their misfortune with delight. She thought of how he'd seen the grave misfortune of those who suffered under his yoke, the way he'd seen his own doom if he did not change. She thought of him becoming a new man, a better man. And then she thought of Draco Malfoy.
"Ronald, please promise me that you'll read this. Start today. Send me an owl when you've finished."
Ron shut the book and reluctantly nodded. He leaned forward and put a careful kiss to Hermione's lips, and he whispered,
"All right. I promise."
Author's Note: In the next chapter, we'll see Hermione's Ministry interview. And did someone say something about lifts at the Ministry? Hmm… thanks as always for reading. Fifty points to your House if you review. ;)