A Tale of Two Dragons: A Dramione Story

Chapter 2

Hermione Granger, despite all the unpleasantries of her job, loved her office. She enjoyed the ever-present smell of parchment and the fact that the Ministry paid for her quills. Her drawers were bursting with books on magical law, elf welfare, and wand rights of part-humans. Her beloved nameplate gleamed from the light streaming from her street-facing window, reflecting shimmers of light onto the walls. She kept a flier from the wizarding war on her wall as a joke. UNDESIRABLE NUMBER ONE flashed underneath the image of the pained face of her dear friend, Harry Potter. He always laughed at the flier on her wall whenever he came to visit.

Five enchanted memos drifted above her head, waiting patiently to be addressed. Hermione reached and grabbed the nearest and unfolded it from it's original airplane-like shape.

Request to give all Hogwarts house-elves a sickle monthly wage denied by board of school governors. Please sign and send any thoughts to Memo Reception.

Oh, Hermione steamed, I have several thoughts. She scribbled a signature, pressing hard enough on the parchment to cause the poor memo to wheeze and cough. She folded it back up and sent it on its way. She hurriedly snatched the next memo from her aerial inbox.

Visitor at Reception for Hermione J. Granger: Draco Malfoy. Agreed to appear at six this evening if invited. Please sign and send reply to Memo Reception.

Miss Pemsly looked up from her work as she heard a very loud scream of disbelief, and several curses, issue from Miss Granger's office next door.

~~~***~~~

I only have to make it to six o'clock, Draco feverishly repeated to himself. He was now laying in his bed, the box containing the damned scroll shoved into a corner and covered with two blankets. Draco tried to not think about its voice, the voice of his own failure echoing back to him. Don't think about it.

~~~***~~~

As the clock ticked towards six, Hermione was now pacing in her office, her heels long discarded and laying underneath her polished desk. Hermione seized the next memo as it barely passed the doorframe.

Mr. Draco Malfoy is on his way to your office.

She crumpled the memo in her hand. Sitting down, she smoothed her skirt and tried to look less anxious than she previously was. She heard a knock on the door, and Draco let himself in. She could only stare as he stood in the doorway. It had been five years since the battle of Hogwarts, and now he was here, in her office. Hermione noted that he looked rather the same as he ever had, but perhaps a bit taller. Today he was carrying a small locked trunk under his arm, and looking rather more pale and rumpled then she'd ever remembered him being.

"Please, sit, Malfoy. You are not looking well," she stated cautiously.

He set the box on her desk and collapsed into the soft leather chair. Draco tipped his head back and chuckled. "Nice Potter mugshot."

Hermione laughed. "Everybody gets quite a laugh from it." Hermione took a more serious tone. "Have you come all this way to the Ministry to comment on my office decorations? If so I would really like your opinion on the color scheme for my stationary."

Draco shook his head and spoke in a shaky voice. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news. But I had the incredible misfortune of finding this today in an abandoned Gringott's vault I bought from auction." He quickly flipped the lid before he could think too much about it.

Hermione looked inside the box and immediately shut the and locked small trunk. She brought her voice down to a whisper. "How do you know what this is?"

Draco just stared back at her. "He lived at my house, Granger. Don't forget that I was once in his pocket. I know about the cup and the diary. I know how you defeated him. And I sure as hell know what this is." He leaned back in his chair and sighed. "I can't decide if I'm relieved or not knowing that it's not his."