Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love

Chapter 25: Nearness of Granger, Perils of

Draco awoke, groggy and small-eyed, to the sound of a gasp.

Granger was on the stairs, her fingertips on the balustrade, a foot frozen in midair above a step.

She was looking him and his new accessory – the sleeping cat, curled about his neck like a hirsute scarf.

"Er – good morning," said Granger, when she saw that she was being observed.

The cat stirred at the sound of her voice. It leapt off of Draco, using his face as a launch point, and sauntered towards its mistress.

Granger asked Draco what he would like for breakfast. He requested a cup of coffee to wash away the piquant flavour of cat foot.

Granger made a very decent cup of coffee.

The morning passed in a flurry of meetings. The first was with Tonks, who they met at Auror Headquarters, to hear what she had discovered in the course of her interrogations.

"You will be delighted to learn that No-Hands' hands were successfully reattached," said Tonks as they arrived.

"Too bad," said Draco.

"That's what I said." Tonks closed the door to her office and sat at her desk. "Murderous little bastard. Right. Sit yourselves down. Robards cleared the use of Veritaserum on our friends last night, so we had a wee chat. Neither man knows the identity of the person who gave them their instructions. However – I did discover something rather interesting. Both men are werewolves, and both participated in the harvest moon attacks."

Tonks placed a slip of parchment on the table. "The mediwitch's post-mortem confirms that the other one was a werewolf, as well."

Tonks looked from Granger to Draco and back again. "Thoughts? Reactions from the two luminaries before me?"

The luminaries looked at one another.

Granger shifted. "I think it's time I told you what I'm working on. Malfoy, would you do the honours for the Vow of Secrecy?"

The Vow was cast. Granger summarised her work and findings for Tonks, and Draco added the equally interesting (and distressing) discovery that Fenrir Greyback had returned and appeared to have reassembled something of his old pack. They were probably the ones responsible for the full moon attacks, on top of targeting Granger.

"Bonkers," gasped Tonks. "The whole jolly lot of them."

Granger concluded with the same cautionary language that she had used with Draco the night before, about uncharted waters and the uncertain outcome of the clinical trials.

Tonks took the news of Granger's lycanthropy cure with laudable neutrality, given Lupin's condition. Only her mohawk betrayed her, turning a few shades paler than its blood red.

She gave Granger a long, adoration-filled look, whispered, "Incredible," and then she turned brisk. "Bring Potter and Weasley up to speed under the Vow. We'll also have to inform Robards and Shacklebolt. That would be the extent of it at the moment, I think. We'll involve others as needed. Take the conference room. I'll join you in a moment."

Tonks shooed them out of her office.

As they left, Draco stole a backward glance at her. Tonks was sitting at her desk, her hands clasped before her, her knuckles pressed to her mouth.

Her eyes were unusually bright.

In the conference room, Potter and Weasley were apprised of the situation under the Vow. Their reactions were predictable, but there was something comforting in their clasping of Granger, in their chest-puffing, gung-ho declarations to keep her safe, and in their table-pounding promises to find Greyback if it was the last thing they did. As the lead on the WTF, Potter looked to have found a fresh determination to catch the werewolves. There was a dangerous green light in his eye.