Hi! This is my third Draco/Hermione story and the result of an idea that would not leave me alone last night. I hope you like it and trust me there will be more!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
Hermione stood on the platform with her children, Rose was bouncing on the balls of her feet she was so excited to be starting Hogwarts. Hugo stood next to his sister looking around for someone.
"Mom, didn't Uncle Harry say that they would be here today?" asked Hugo impatiently
"They will be honey; they do need to get James and Albus on the train after all." said Hermione towards her youngest, "Rose would you please calm down, I know it's exciting but that hardly means you can be jumping around."
"Sorry mom." said Rose as she tried to keep herself from moving too much
Just then Hermione spotted Harry and Ginny making there way through the crowed, James, Albus and Lily behind them. Hermione was glad that Harry and Ginny could also be here to show Rose off to school, ever since Ron vanished on an auror mission when Hugo was three it had been hard raising her two children.
"There they are!" shouted Hugo having finally spotted the Potters
"Ready for Hogwarts Rose?" asked Harry as he hugged his niece and nephew
"You bet!" said Rose excitingly
"She's been talking about it all morning." Hermione chipped in
"Yeah and all summer." said Hugo
"Oh be quiet, you'll be excited when you can go too." said Rose glaring at her brother for trying to ruin her mood
"Harry can you get Rose's trunk up on the train?" Hermione asked
"Sure thing." said Harry
As Harry got both Rose's and Albus' trunks on the train, the two cousins began to talk.
"What house do you think you'll be in Albus?" asked Rose
"Gryffindor of course! Well at least that's what I hope, James keeps telling me that I'll be in Slytherin." responded Albus "What about you?"
"Ravenclaw most likely, although I would like to be in Gryffindor it would have made my dad proud."
Hermione heard this last statement her daughter made and glanced worriedly down at her. Rose and Hugo may have accepted that their father was most likely dead but it still never made certain events any better. It also didn't help that their Grandmother, Molly Weasley, was so sure that Ron was still alive that she never referred to him as dead. Even when the family held a small funeral four years after his disappearance, Molly still wouldn't believe it, it was very hard for the rest of the family to see her deny what was most likely true.
"Your dad would be proud where ever you end up Rose." said Ginny, "And Albus don't let James get to you, the hat will place you where it thinks is best."
Rose smiled at her Aunt before turning to her mother to say good bye.
"Bye mom." said Rose giving her mother a big hug
"Bye sweetie, behave got it? And make sure you do all your school work, and make lots of friends alright?" said Hermione
"I will mom, I promise and you really should go on a date or two before I get back at Christmas."
Hermione laughed a bit at her daughter's antics, about two years ago Hermione had decided to go back to her maiden name since Ron was listed as dead; Molly hadn't liked that one bit and refused to speak to her for almost a whole year before the rest of the family could get her to understand that Ron wouldn't want Hermione to be unhappy the rest of her life. Ever since then Rose and Ginny had been tag teaming to get Hermione to go on dates, while Hermione didn't want to replace Ron as Rose and Hugo's father figure she did want them to have a male figure in their life that wasn't one of their uncles.
"I'll do my best dear." said Hermione with a smile
"Good, see you at Christmas!"
Rose hugged Hermione once more and then Hugo before getting on the train with Albus. Watching the train leave the station, Hermione once again found herself wishing Ron was there to share this moment with his kids; while she had moved on it was these little things that she had always pictured Ron at her side.
"Mom, are we going to head home now?" asked Hugo getting his mom's attention
"Of course."
"Hermione and Hugo said goodbye to Harry, Ginny and Lily before heading in the direction of the barrier to get back to the muggle world; as they made their way Hermione happened to notice a flash of blonde hair as a tall man walked through the barrier in front of them. Once they reached the other side the man had vanished but Hermione found herself wondering who the stranger was.
The next morning, Hermione found Rose's owl Comet sitting on the back of a kitchen chair when she walked into the kitchen. She removed the letter from the owl before giving her a treat and starting breakfast. Just as Hermione placed the pancakes on the table Hugo walked in.
"Did Rose send a letter?" asked Hugo sleepily as he sat down and piled pancakes on to his plate
"She did, her letter is on top of the stack of mail, why don't you read it while I go and get ready for work."
Hermione left the kitchen and hurried back to her bedroom to finish getting ready for work. That afternoon she had a meeting with the other members of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. A knock at her bedroom door surprised her and when the door opened she found Hugo standing there.
"What is it Hugo? You really should be getting ready for school."
"I'd thought that you'd like to read Rose's letter before going to work."
"Is she saying how she's so proud to be in Gryffindor with Albus?"
"Not exactly."
"Rose and Albus aren't in the same house then."
"Oh no, they're in the same house."
"Well then what house are they in dear or should I just read the letter myself."
"They're both in Slytherin."
"What!" Snatching the letter from her son, Hermione read her daughter's letter and sure enough both Rose and Albus had been sorted into Slytherin. Ron would flip if he could see this, Hermione thought as she read Rose's thoughts on what her father's view of her being in Slytherin would be.
"You're not mad at her are you mom?" Hugo asked timidly from the door
Hermione looked puzzled at her son, who she noticed looked nervous. Truth be told she had been hoping that Rose would be in Gryffindor or even Ravenclaw, never in a million years had she pictured her daughter in Slytherin; but if Albus was there as well then the hat must have had a reason for putting her in that house. She knew perfectly well that Ron would hate having Rose in Slytherin and would probably storm up to the castle himself just to put her in Gryffindor. However, Hermione found herself strangely fine with her daughter's house, she couldn't explain it, but part of her mind told her that it made perfect sense.
"No Hugo, I'm not mad with her, the hat placed her where she belongs and at least she isn't alone, she has Albus, now please finish getting for school Ginny should be here soon to pick you up."
After Hugo left the room, Hermione glanced back at the letter focusing on Rose's brief mention of her new friends in Slytherin house. Amongst the names of a few girls was one name that stood out Scorpius Malfoy, she hadn't realized that Malfoy had a son let alone was married; after the war the Malfoys had essentially dropped of the press radar and stayed that way. Maybe that's who I saw yesterday, thought Hermione, it made perfect sense, but why was he walking back into the muggle world. Hermione was pulled out of her thoughts by Hugo shouting that Ginny and Lily had arrived, gabbing her bags she left her room without a second thought.
Arriving in her office, she placed her bags on her desk as she flipped through the memos that had shown up over night. Her door opened as her secretary stuck her head into her office.
"Mr. Potter is here to talk to you Ms. Granger." said Amanda
"Thanks Amanda, he can come in." Hermione said as she read a few of the more important memos
"You don't think that I could ever get her to just call me Harry." said Harry as he sat down at a chair in front of Hermione's desk
"Not until I can get her to just call me Hermione, which I don't think will ever happen, did you need something before the meeting Harry?"
"First off I had want to say that Albus was worried how Rose was feeling being in Slytherin, I'm assuming she sent you a letter?"
"Yes she did and she mainly sounded nervous about what Ron would think other than that she seems to be enjoying herself so far, I just need to reassure her that it doesn't matter where she ended up when I write back to her later."
"Good, well then on to this meeting, it's just between my Department and your Department we need the Auror Office and the Investigation Department in constant communication on this mission unlike in the past."
"Harry, usually we don't inform you of what or who we are investigating until we have a strong lead, why would we need to now?"
"You'll understand at the meeting, oh and please don't kill me when you see who your partner is for this one."
"Why would I have a partner? I haven't actually done field work in five years I've stuck to tracking down leads or doing other things."
"That's why, you need a partner for the field work, please the rest will be explained at the meeting which we really should be going to right now."
Harry and Hermione walked down to the meeting room and Hermione was surprised to find the Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt sitting there as well as Frederick Meyer the head of the Hit Wizards section of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Nodding to both men Hermione sat down next to Harry and across from Frederick, which left the chair to her left open for the last person who was joining them.
"I believe we will start this meeting, the auror I asked to join us is running a little late this morning." said Kingsley "Now I know some of you are unaware of why we are gathered here so I will cut to the chase, over the last five years a series of underground wizard groups has been surfacing throughout England and Europe, it appears that the main group is located here in England and recently there has been an increase in dark magic."
"So you think that this is a neo-Death Eater group?" questioned Hermione wondering why her Department hadn't been involved in this investigation until now
"That is the assumption, Meyer has tried to get a member of his team on the inside but they proved too hard to even track down."
"Well why wasn't I briefed on this five years ago?"
"Because the groups weren't brought to our attention until you were injured on the raid of the meeting place in Durham, it took us this long just to confirm that the group who attacked you was connected to this neo-Death Eater movement, we've only recently been in contact with the other Ministries about the matter."
Hermione nodded and rubbed her hand over her left arm, while the scar from Bellatrix still resided on her arm, five years ago she had nearly lost the arm all together in the raid along with having the cruciatus curse used on her and very nearly lost her life. Had Harry not been there along with the rest of the auror team she might not have made it to St. Mungo's in time, after that she had sworn off field work all together which was just fine for her children who had been petrified at the thought of losing their mother.
"So what is our job then?" Hermione asked
"You and your partner are to work on locating the neo-Death Eater group that is located in England, any field work will be done by your partner and If you have a strong enough lead then Meyer's team of Hit Wizards will go in with Harry and some of our top aurors to arrest them." explained Kingsley
"And who is this mysterious partner that everyone keeps talking about?"
"That would be me Granger." came a sharp voice from the doorway
Hermione turned to face the speaker and was shock to find herself staring at Draco Malfoy, who was standing there with a smirk on his face.
"Seriously! Since when are you an auror?"
"I've been an auror for the last seven years." Draco answered as he sat in the chair next to Hermione, "I'm surprised your husband hasn't mentioned it."
"Ron's been dead for six years your information, you really should pay more attention, I've been using my maiden name for two years now."
"Really? I must have missed that announcement, he was missing last time I checked."
"Well you better check again because four years ago we held a funeral for him."
"Didn't you just say he died six years ago, why would you want a corpse lying around for two years."
"He went missing on an auror mission six years ago! He wasn't declared dead till two years later, got it Malfoy."
"Yes, I believe that brings me up to speed."
"Good, now if your done aggravating Hermione we can continue with this meeting." said Harry "And please don't be late again Draco."
"Sorry about that Potter, some of us have to deal with annoying lawyers and an ex-wife who think that it's a good idea to show up at eight in the morning to bother me, it took two hours just to get rid of them."
"Well that's all very unfortunate, but can we get back on topic." said Hermione now very annoyed
"Of course, essentially you and Draco have access to any records you need in order to track down this group, you'll both be looking at the records but as I mentioned, only Draco will be going out into the field." said Kingsley
"Sounds fine with me, when do we get started?" questioned Hermione
"As soon as possible, if you need anything come and see one of us directly, no one else is to know about what is happening, understood?"
Hermione voiced her understanding while Draco simply grunted in acknowledgement. Everyone at the table stood up to leave and Hermione grabbed onto Harry as he tried to walk past her.
"Why is Draco my partner?" She whispered sharply
"He's one of my best aurors, alright."
"He's arrogant, pig headed and is going to drive me insane, and don't you remember what he was like in school."
"He's not the same person, sure he may still be a little arrogant but he doesn't really insult me that much anymore, just now and then when we joke around, it'll be fine."
"I swear Harry if anything happens I will kill you."
Hermione stalked off to her office, leaving Harry hoping that nothing went wrong with this mission.
Arriving in her office, Hermione was surprised to find Draco sitting in her chair with his feet up on her desk.
"And what do you think you are doing in my chair?" Hermione said harshly
"No need to be mad Granger we are going to have to be some what civil to each other when we work."
"What are you doing here Malfoy?"
"I figured I'd stop by and see when you wanted to get started on this mission."
"Lets meet tomorrow morning at eight; I need to finish up some things first."
"Fine by me Granger, nice kids by the way." Draco said while nodding to the picture that was on her desk
"Thanks." She said a little unsure of why he was mentioning them
Without saying another word Draco stood up from her desk and walked past her, leaving her office. Hermione shut the door and sat back down at her desk, looking at the picture Malfoy had been referring to; it was taken the year before and showed Rose and Hugo both in Quidditch gear and holding their brooms over their shoulders, both had big grins on their faces. Maybe Harry is right, thought Hermione; Malfoy will have to work hard to prove it though.
And there is the first chapter! Leave a review and let me know what you think. I have no idea how long the next chapter will take but trust me there will be more!