Meet Your Match

23. Broken Souls

When Hermione opened her eyes, she was struck with the sudden knowledge that it was the first of September. She laid still, taking a moment to appreciate the day that had marked the stages of her life for so long. She would never forget the anxious anticipation of boarding the train that first year—she had never felt so ready or so terrified to face her future. And though the day no longer held any official significance to her, she supposed that there was no reason it couldn’t still be a measure of her growth. Just the other day, Ron had stopped by her office, looking just remorseful enough as he asked whether it would be possible for him to make things up to her—as a friend—for her to agree to let him try. She was tired of holding onto the past, and recently she had learned that having grace with others often began with having grace with oneself. Draco had taught her that.

The thought of Draco reminded her where she was, and she rolled over to ask if he knew what day it was. But upon turning, she found that she was alone in his bed. She sat up and immediately spotted a note on his pillow.

Have I told you lately that you’re beautiful when you’re sleeping?
Early meeting for a project. Stay as long as you like.

D.M.

Hermione shook her head and grinned stupidly. Merlin, he’s good at this.

She dressed and gathered up her things. As much as she would love to wait around for Draco to join her back in bed, she had no idea how long he’d be and she had a veritable mountain of laundry waiting for her at home.

She was just about to Disapparate when she realised she should leave a sweet note for him in return. Cursing her near carelessness, she crossed to his desk and pulled open one of the drawers. Not immediately spotting any blank parchment, she was about to close it when the sight of the letterhead from her Ministry department caught her eye.

She would have liked to believe that that wouldn’t have been enough for her to pick up the paper. She knew he’d submitted documents to them; it wasn’t a surprise. But even if the letterhead wasn’t enough, the sight of her own name definitely was.

Printed in the box marked Special Instructions on a form she’d filled out hundreds of times was one sentence in red ink:

Student requests a case manager other than Hermione Granger.

Hermione picked up the paper. Her eyes ran over the sheet until she spotted the list of institutions Draco had requested transfer documentation for.

Yale Law School
Stanford Law School
Harvard Law School
Columbia Law School
University of Chicago Law School

Her mind was racing as she took in the list. Law schools? In the States? What—

Her eyes fell on the paper she’d uncovered when she picked up the cover sheet. Her hands were on it before she had time to think. 

His transcripts from the past year. 

She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. It seemed like he had taken the full three years’ worth of courses within the last year and few months. She knew he was brilliant, but when had he had time for this? Her eyes ran down the list of classes.

Contract Law
Public Law
Criminal Law
Jurisprudence and Legal Theory
Human Rights in the UK
Philosophical Foundations of the Common Law
Writing for Legislation