A Better Man, A Better Life

Chapter 5

It had been 4 months since Draco's first day as Hermione's assistant. In those 2 months not much had changed. Every morning Draco walked into the office, said hello to Hermione, did his work, said goodbye to Hermione and then went home. Draco wouldn't call their interactions friendly, more cordial if anything, and still odd. Day in and day out, Draco repeated the same routine.

One Friday afternoon in September, Draco had just returned from his lunch break to find Hermione packing up earlier than usual. He stood in the doorway waiting for her to notice but soon realized she was too absorbed in her task to notice. Clearing his throat, Draco stepped into the office.

"Oh, hello Draco. I have a few errands to run today so I'm leaving early," said Hermione. Hermione was more frazzled than usual, Draco noticed. He shrugged. It really wasn't his business as to where she was going or what she was up to. Draco sat down at his desk and rearranged the files that had been sitting in his inbox.

"Is there anything for me to finish once you leave?" asked Draco.

"Actually, yes." nodded Hermione. "This stack of files here still needs to be processed, organized and then sent to debriefing."

"Shouldn't you do the debriefing though?" questioned Draco. As Assistant Director of the Auror Department, it was part of Hermione's job to process, analyze and debrief the cases the department handled on a daily basis. Every Friday afternoon she also attended the debriefing meetings with the Minister of Magic, Head of the Auror Department and a few of the Aurors employed by the ministry. Since working for Hermione, Draco had been required to join the meetings as well. Draco had yet to see her miss one.

"Well, technically yes, but I really do have to go, and you've seen me do it hundreds of times, so I figured you could do it today." Her voice had a hint of pleading in it, and it struck Draco as odd.

"You can do that, can't you?" inquired Hermione. This time Draco noticed her tone was becoming impatient.

"Of course," he said. Draco took the files Hermione had handed to him during their exchange.

"Good. Well I'm off to run some errands. Have a good weekend Draco," said Hermione as she walked about of the door.

After Hermione had left, Draco walked to the window and looked outside. It had been an interesting four months. Draco was pulled out of his trance; however, when he saw movement. It was Hermione. As he watched her leave the steps of the ministry he watched her turn right. It was the second thing that Hermione did that struck him as odd. Any errands that a witch or wizard needed to complete was always done in Diagon Alley. But Diagon Alley was located left of the Ministry, the opposite of where Hermione had disappeared to.

Draco couldn't prevent his brain from wondering where she was going as he continued to stare out the window.