Broken

Discrimination

Hermione and Draco sat in front of the fireplace in Hermione's living room, sipping mugs of hot chocolate while Rose snored quietly on the sofa.

Despite all their bickering, Rose and Scorpius had a lot of fun playing at the park in the brisk, January cold. They had then headed back to Hermione's house to warm up. Rose had fallen asleep for her afternoon nap halfway through a Disney film, but Scorpius was entranced by the TV and was still staring in wonder at the dancing animation.

'This is all looking good,' Draco said, putting down the pieces of parchment he had been reading. 'You've got everything ready, so what you waiting for?'

'I've been working on this so long, I want it to be perfect. I feel like I've just got one shot at getting this Act passed by the Ministry. If the case isn't strong enough...' Hermione sighed.

'Granger, you practically revolutionised the Ministry already. You were a driving force behind getting non-humans to be able to represent themselves in the Ministry. You've essentially eradicated blood-status discrimination. You've fought to get fair treatment for House Elves. Why would this be any different?'

'How do you know I was part of the teams working on all those things? You're not in my department, you're not even on my floor!'

'I keep an eye on the people turning the world upside down, that way I don't get tipped over with it. So, what's the problem? What are you so afraid of?'

'I don't want to let them down.' Hermione looked sadly up at the photos above her fireplace.

'Who?' Draco tried to see who drew her gaze, but couldn't see them properly from where he sat.

'Remus, Tonks and Teddy. I owe it to them all. Remus was such a good man, full of so much love, despite everything. I owe it to his son, and I need to honour his memory...'

'Well, there's what you're missing. You've got all the facts, the figures, the main aspects of the case for ending discrimination against werewolves, but now you need to put a face to it all. Humanise them. Get someone up there to talk about Professor Lupin, about everything he did, everything that made him who he was. Hell, get his son up there to talk about his dad. Humanise him and everyone afflicted with lycanthropy until the Ministry's heart bleeds with the injustice of it all!'

'You're quite the smooth talker when you want to be, do you want to be the spokesperson?'

'Me?' Draco scoffed. 'Sure, if you want the whole thing to go up in flames. You may as well throw all this work on the fire now and save yourself the hassle.'

'Why do you do that? Put yourself down so much, all the time?'

'I'm just realistic. I'm Draco Malfoy. Slytherin. Bully. Death Eater. I come from a family of infamous Dark Wizards and pure blood elitists. I let an army of Death Eaters into Hogwarts and Dumbledore was killed. It was meant to be at my hand, no less. My home was literally the Dark Lord's HQ. I spent three years in Azkaban after the war. Half my family have been there at one time or another. I'm not the world's most favourite person.'

'You were a child! You were just a kid, dragged into a terrible situation and trying to protect your family!'

'Even before that I was an absolute douche, though. I bullied you mercilessly, why are you trying to defend me right now? I don't deserve it.'

'You were just repeating the vile beliefs you had been grown up with. Hogwarts was meant to be a place of education but at no point did anyone try to overcome those prejudices you held! We arrived, having each been raised in a certain way, then we were segregated into houses that did nothing to teach us that those beliefs might be flawed! Everyone just turned away from the Slytherins - at eleven years old a quarter of the school was written off and labelled as "bad guys". You were all put into a house together, shunned by the rest of us, which just further reinforced all the things you had grown up thinking! How could you learn otherwise when no-one bothered to teach you?!'

Hermione was breathing heavily, her face flushed with indignation. Draco stared at her, speechless.

'Everyone spent so much time and energy helping Harry to make the right choices, even when those were the hard ones, but at what point were you ever given a choice? Really? When did anyone try and help you?!'

'Dumbledore did try, he knew the task I'd been given and I think he did try and help me...'

'Great! So when you were almost of age, someone finally tried to stage an intervention, by which point you were in so deep it was too damn late! You aren't even sure if he did try and help, you just said you "think" he tried to help you! He was so damn concerned with your soul at that point, but what about your mind and your heart in all the years leading up to that? What about the rest of Slytherin? What was ever done to help you all?! You know, in the Battle of Hogwarts, Slytherin children were put in the dungeons because they didn't want to fight. They were scared and wanted to believe Voldemort when he offered everyone clemency if they handed over Harry. Just one boy, in the face of hundreds. People boo-ed them! Children! For not wanting to go and fight against their parents for Merlin's sake! How twisted is that?!'

'Um...' Draco looked thoroughly shell-shocked. 'So, you're taking on Hogwarts as your next project...?'

'They're still a separate entity, independent from the Ministry, so I don't actually have the jurisdiction. Minerva and Neville are doing a pretty great job, though. It's like a whole new school these days. So many teachers have retired over the last few years that it's a quite a young staff and they've brought in a lot of new ideas.'

They fell silent for a few minutes. Draco still reeling from the intensity of Hermione's defence of him and his Hogwarts house. He never thought he would see the day! He couldn't help thinking about how beautiful her eyes had been when they flashed with righteous fervour. His gut twisted guiltily, Astoria's face coming to mind.

'Sooo,' Draco drawled, trying to distract himself. 'Are you going to ask Teddy if he'll help be a spokesperson for the Lycanthropy Anti-Discrimination Act?'

'I can't ask a 10 year old to stand up in front of the Ministry...'

'Why not? It's his dad we're talking about here, I think you should ask him. He deserves to make that choice himself.'

'I'll talk to Andromeda about it...' Hermoine looked unconvinced.

'I don't still think those things, just so you know. And I am sorry for how I treated you.'

'I know.' Hermione smiled brightly at Draco, and he smiled shyly back.

Damn, she was so pretty when she smiled like that.