Blood Below the Stars

The Tramp

Hermione Fucking Granger

He stomped down the stairs of the ministry towards the only outdoor exit. He needed air.

He knew it had been a mistake to work in her office. But he thought she wouldn't be there. With the muggle world falling to shit surely there was a million other things she could have been doing then prancing into work with a bloody baby in tow. He thought of her face, defeated and lost. How the almighty fall. She hadn't really changed that much, he thought. She could still be that same girl, laughing with the rest of the Gryffindors in the great hall at some stupid joke that Irish calamity Seamus had told. That girl that would steal herself away to a dimly lit corner of the library, reading some old book that hadn't been checked out in decades.

He remembered watching her once when had first started Hogwarts. He stood on a small pile of books so he could peek over a shelf at her, sitting alone and engrossed in her Potions homework. She was scribbling mad at the end of her parchment, an essay that easily extended Draco's three-fold.

That's a Mudblood

His father had told him all about them, but she hadn't been what he had expected. She was normal looking, entirely plain. Nothing special, or unusual. He was disappointed. He wanted the monster in his father's stories, not this mousy little girl that sat before him. He rose his wand carefully and concentrated. Slowly, a goblet of water that sat on her desk slid towards her. When it was close enough he flicked his wand and the goblet tipped, soaking through her parchment. Devastated she tried to smear it away, but only smudged the ink more into the paper. She bit her lip hard and Draco could tell she wanted to cry. He sneered and hopped of the books and left, the sound of quiet sobs starting up behind him. That was the night he had decided that Mudblood's weren't the thing of nightmares like his father had said. They were meek, talentless, pathetic.

He took a fag from his pocket and lit it with a swish of his wand. He leaned back against the wall and took a long drag. He dropped his head back and closed her eyes.

He thought of her again, walking through the office door. Of how weak and small her body had looked, gripping onto that baby with everything that she had. A small unfamiliar feeling had tugged at Draco when she walked in, seeing her stand there shattered -

Forget it.

It didn't matter now. He'd left her office and there was no way he was going back. He probably wouldn't even need to speak to her again. He was working as an 'advisor' for the Auror Office, and she worked in The Department of Mysteries. In a few days' time, he would probably be back int that forsaken bloody cell. Still, it had woken him up somehow to see her. A relic of an age gone by. Part of a scab on a wound that wouldn't quite heal.

He walked out further into the sun and squinted into the day light. Oh he had missed the sun. He closed his eyes and let the warm wash over him, the golden rays dancing on his skin. He rolled up his sleeves and undid his top button and breathed in the humidity. It had been tricky sneaking out without anyone looking, but after four years incarcaerated nothing was stopping him. Most of the entrances had been blocked and under some of the highest security he had ever seen, but he remembered a few secret ones his father had told him about. Lucius was good for a few things at least. He found himself a bench a little down the way and sat for a moment, watching some pigeons faff in the middle of the main road. The rest of the world was still. Everything was like a photograph. The cars were frozen, most with doors still open. The glass towers loomed over everything, colossal and cold feeling. Everything empty. The city had died with everything else.

In such stillness, Draco found he could be anything but. He stood up again, stretching his long legs and carried on down the road. He took one last pull of his cigarette and threw it down the opening of an alley. He watched it arch and fall, finally landing by a pile of rubbish. He went to walk on but something caught his eye.