The Marriage Decree

Chapter 41: Get Out!

Draco knocks on the front door once more and waits a few seconds longer than he usually would before turning to head back home. However, he only takes a few steps when he hears a door open.

"Mr Malfoy?" A small voice calls after him.

He glances over his shoulder to find a small woman stood on the doorstep of the house next to Blaise's.

With a hopefully friendly smile, he turns around. "Yes."

"They're not in." She tells him, nodding towards his friend's house.

"Yes, I figured that out myself, thank you." He tells her and turns to walk off again.

"They had an argument last night." She says, making him stop in his tracks.

"When did they argue?" He asks curiously since he and Hermione had been with then from late last night until early in the morning.

The woman shrugs. "Around half three this morning. Luna stormed out around four. It sounded like Blaise was throwing things around for a while after that. Then everything went quiet for a few minutes before their front door slammed again. No one's been back since."

Draco stares at the woman for a moment to take it in. Neither Blaise nor Luna are the kind of people to shout and throw things during an argument. He knows from experience that Blaise hates to argue, instead choosing to walk away from an argument.

"Did you hear what the argument was about?" He questions the women.

"Something about the future. That was brought up a lot. Although most arguments around here are about the future." She nods as though that's common knowledge so Draco nods back.

"Well, thank you." He offers her a smile, then turns on his heel and walks out of the gate where he disapparates away.

Hermione apparates straight to the disapparation floor of the Ministry then sets of straight for the lifts to take her straight to sub-level 47. She's hoping to be in and out before the Ministry Official has time to inform Alexander Vyner. She's not sure if she's fortunate or not when the Official sat at the desk isn't the same one as yesterday.

The new Official is leaning back in his chair, feet resting on his desk, with today's copy of the Daily Prophet open on his lap. He glances up over the top of his glasses when her footsteps sound closer. His eyebrow rises slightly at her appearance but he quickly goes back to his newspaper. With a flick of his wand, the door to the archives open for her.

"Thank you." She nods as she walks pass, entering the corridor.

The door shuts softly behind her as she quickly sets off towards the archive door. She's not sure how the Department of Registration knew she had looked in the Zykan's filing cabinet, probably a tracking charm that transfers information onto a particular piece of parchment, but she needed to be out of the archives before Mr Vyner's informed. The new official most likely would have been told to inform Mr Vyner when she or Draco arrives but by the look of him, the official will probably wait until he's finished his current page of the Daily Prophet. Hermione estimates that she had at least five minutes at most.

Not wanting to waste any valuable time walking down a corridor, she jogs to the door and keys in the combination to open it. Making sure the door is closed properly behind her, she turns the lights on. Before they've reached the other end of the archives, Hermione's opening the 'JO – JY' filing cabinet.

She has to flick pass many Jones' before she reaches 'Gwenog Jones'. When she reaches it, she whips it out but then hesitates before opening the file. She's about to find out whether Sophie's related in any way to the Quidditch Queen, Gwenog Jones. She's not sure she's ready but knowing that she only has two minutes at the most to leave the archives, she opens it.