Project 137.43.M.D.

XXXVI. | ACCUSIATO

XXXVI.
ACCUSIATO
(indictment)

She unfolded the memo with trembling fingers. The seal of the Wizengamot, with which Hermione was all too familiar, already had her speculating about the contents of the message, but she still held her breath as her eyes darted quickly over the few lines.

The Gamot requested her final report. Draco's inheritance had been released and the project was drawing to a close. Of course, Hermione had expected that, after all she had been aware that the Rehabilitation Phase could end earlier if the interim report came off positive. And that had been the case. Still, she was shocked that even the date had already been set.

Three days. She only had three sodding days to finish the final report and give her opinion on Draco's rehabilitation. Also, she had to think about how to proceed after the project was completed. How she wanted to fight for the justice Draco deserved. Technically at least.

Hermione wasn't sure anymore if she really was able to fight for him at all, although she was aware that she actually had to keep this matter strictly separate from what Vivian Pressler had blurted out in the pub.

Draco had slept with Pressler.

Hermione didn't know when. Maybe before her last shag, maybe after. It didn't really matter. But it hurt, and that's why she was mad at herself.

How stupid had she been? Draco had made it very clear that he didn't feel the slightest bit for her. He had wanted to sleep with her, which he had finally managed to do several times without much effort, but that was all there was to it. He had proven that when he had let her go on the day of his last broom flight. So she could hardly blame him for dating other women. After all, she wasn't Draco's girlfriend, but his Mentor. It was her own fault that she was so hurt by the news that he had slept with someone else.

She sighed softly and lowered her head to the tabletop. Of course, secretly she knew that she would still look for a solution, even if they probably wouldn't talk to each other in three days at the latest. Even her anger that the prat had actually managed to break her heart a little wasn't going to stop her from getting to the bottom of Thomas Parkinson's intrigues. So there was no point in telling herself that she could just drop it. She knew herself well enough, after all.

Hermione jumped when there was a knock on her cubicle wall and was abruptly snapped out of her tiring train of thought. Harry stood a few feet away and looked at her with a mixture of concern and incomprehension. Hermione couldn't blame him. She probably made a pretty pathetic picture, slumped on her desk like that. So she slowly sat up and blinked in embarrassment.

"Harry, what can I do for you?" she asked, trying not to sound like she felt: exhausted, sad and hurt. Harry entered the cubicle and dropped into one of the visitors' chairs that were in front of her desk among countless piles of files.

He got straight to the point.

"I know why you asked me about Parkinson. I spoke to Kingsley and he confirmed my suspicion: Parkinson was on duty when Malfoy was interrogated." His green eyes met hers and Hermione nodded wearily. Harry continued. "I did not request access to the file. Firstly, I think it would be too conspicuous if I asked for it just a few days later, and secondly, I trust your judgment. I don't know what you've stumbled upon, but I suspect it has something to do with Nott's odd behavior in Diagon Alley?"

She cleared her throat nervously and, in a reflexive displacement activity, unconsciously folded an origami out of the memo, the contents of which had been burned into her memory by now.

"Don't panic. I know you've signed a non-disclosure agreement, so I won't ask you any more questions. I just wanted to let you know that as Head of the Auror Office, I'll have your back should the need arise."