Chapter Text
May 2006
Ch 1- Draco
Draco Malfoy hates the month of May. For most people, May represents spring, new beginnings full of fresh possibilities. But all Draco sees are the looks, Merlin, the never ending looks of disdain and hatred. He sees them in the hallway of his office at the Ministry of Magic, he sees them in the pub on Friday after a long week at work, he sees them while he is shopping for quills in Diagon Alley. The Battle of Hogwarts was 8 years ago but people never really forget do they? Time does not heal all wounds. Sure, he was cleared of all charges thanks to Potter and Granger’s heartfelt testimony at his trial. At least he never ended up in Azkaban.
After finishing up his 1 year of house arrest, he reached out to Potter to sincerely thank him for testifying on his and his mothers behalf. That was the beginning of Draco’s ‘apology tour’ and boy, what a tour it was. Reaching out to anyone he could think of, including all of his old classmates that he wronged, attempting to fix the damage that his cowardice caused.
He was no Gryffindor, and to push his pride aside for the tour was…difficult to say the least. Over the years, it became easier for him and he felt that he could finally move on with his life. Until every May, when strangers who never knew of his penitence judged him and his namesake.
He was currently sitting in the Ministry cafeteria at lunch, staring at his Auror partner while he crammed some sort of vile sandwich in his mouth.
“Potter, what in Merlin’s beard are you eating!?” The disgust on Draco’s face was evident. Harry lifted his head, confused.
“What? It’s peanut butter and jelly. A perfectly acceptable lunchtime meal Malfoy”.
“Acceptable to whom? You look like an American child eating that sort of” he waved his hand in his general direction. “Meal? Did you call it?”
Next to Harry, Ron Weasley snorted. “What is your deal today Malfoy? It’s not like you to get so worked up over Harry’s lunchtime habits”. Draco narrowed his eyes and gave Weasley his most practiced Malfoy sneer.
“Do you really have to ask that question, Weasley?”
Harry slowed his chewing and swallowed the sandwich before looking over at Ron with an exasperated sigh.
“Ron, it’s May 2nd today” Malfoy's eyes snapped back to Ron as the realization hit him. “Ah, sorry about that mate. Really put my foot in my mouth there, didn’t I?”
Ron paused, hesitation in his face before he said, “You still sore that you technically can’t complete the ‘apology tour’”?
Draco flexed his jaw, “I would be able to complete my tour, if you two knobs would just tell me where she is”.
The table fell silent, Ron looked down at his plate, face turning red. Harry’s eyes bore into Draco’s, they’ve been doing this dance for around 5 years and Draco was damned if he was going to break eye contact first. That is when Potter said something that Draco never would have expected.
“Fine Malfoy. You win”. Ron’s head snapped up in surprise. Draco stumbled over his words,
“y-you’re really going to tell me what happened?”
Harry nodded, “not here though. Let’s meet up at the Leaky tonight. We’ll tell you what we know”.
‘What we know’… not a whole lot of detail.
But Draco took a deep breath. Finally, after 8 years of agonizing, Draco was going to get an answer to the question that has been burning his mind.
Where the hell is Hermione Granger?