24The Ministry for Magic was facing one of its busiest mornings of all time. An American senator had portkeyed to the British Ministry to discuss controversial proposals to end the investigation of the apparition incident six months ago.
For reasons that were unclear, six months ago the wizarding world had woken up to a world where they could not apparate for 24 hours. Wizards and witches would turn on the spot and simply fall over. Thus ensued a day of chaos. Floo powder prices skyrocketed and ran out within a few hours. Unable to fly in broad daylight, wizards and witches worldwide were forced to catch buses, attempting to slot galleons into ticket machines, shaking in fear on underground subway systems, and getting told off by muggle ticket checkers on trains.
The American senator argued that the apparition system was now stable and people were apparating comfortably once more, without fear of what might happen mid-apparition. He argued that there had been no casualties so we should just get on with business-as-usual.
The wizarding public disagreed, still deeply suspicious of apparating, demanding a thorough investigation.
The Ministry atrium was full of journalists, protesters, and American wizards. There were shouts and jinxes causing flyers to explode in the air before multiplying onto wizarding folk below.
Amongst the chaos, a young married couple was feeding their way through the crowd towards the elevators, bickering as they walked.
"I still cannot believe you managed to fall into that fountain!" said Hermione. She shook her head as she walked hand in hand with her husband through the Ministry atrium, ignoring the noise of the protest.
"It was an accident!" replied Ron, eyeing the beautiful fountain suspiciously.
A few months after the fall of Voldemort, a wizard from abroad was invited to the Ministry to carve a new fountain; it was now of a goddess called Nampula, rumored to be a veela, riding a unicorn. Her arms were outstretched as she sat on the marble creature's back, smiling at the ceiling as water gushed out of her palms. Six months ago, on the frightful day that the apparition system went down, Ron had run towards Hermione in the atrium, shouting with happiness, having not seen her in hours. However, he had managed to trip and fall into the fountain. Shivering, Ron had climbed out, soaked through to his bones, his face burning with mortification. Much to Ron's and many onlookers' shock, the statue of Nampula had pointed at him and boomed with laughter.
"It was extremely embarrassing actually, Ronald," chuckled Hermione. Ron craned his neck, looking over the sea of heads and cameras, still watching the fountain. The statue's marble eyes blinked into life as her face titled slightly towards him. She winked before looking up as usual and stopped moving.
Ron scoffed. "The bitch still recognises me," he said under his breath.
The couple joined the end of the queue for the elevator, watching hundreds of paper planes fly overhead and squeeze into the open elevator ahead of them. "Our one mutual day off and we're coming into work," Hermione said, shaking her head at her husband.
Ron smiled. "We'll go straight to the Holly Leaf after I grab my folder and wait out the protests. On the plus side, we get to say hi to Harry!"
Hermione smiled back. "I'm still worried about him, you know. Both of them."
"…Me too, babe," replied Ron, frowning.
When Hermione and Ron stepped out of the elevator on level two, they held hands and walked side-by-side.
The couple turned a corner and went through a pair of giant wooden doors. There used to be dozens of tiny cubicles sat next to each other, row after row with newspaper clippings stuck to the walls and parchments and spells flying in every direction. However, two years ago, the entire Auror department had been revamped after a petition against the lack of space and privacy.
"Should I be going in elevators?" Hermione asked, sounding worried.
"…What do you mean?" her husband asked as they walked, knowing he would probably regret asking.
"I mean, it may be just as bad apparating. Elevators are also controlled by magic. is it good for the baby?" she said, concerned as she rubbed her ballooned belly.
"Uh, I don't know, Herm-"
"Because, if you think about it, it's an enclosed metal space, rising and falling with just magic holding it up, therefore, has very little physical stability and it's filled with compressed air that has probably been festering, some of it, for a good few hours, well, judging by how lax magical maintenance has become, so really I-"
"-Hermione?" Ron interrupted, halting in the corridor.
Hermione stopped and asked, "Yes?"
"You're hardly going to use stairs, are you?"
A pause followed as Hermione deliberated this. "No, I guess not…"
The Weasleys were so engrossed in their conversation that when they turned a corner, Ron collided into a wizard walking towards him. The wizard was also distracted, walking so rapidly that he managed to make quite an impact, forcing Ron to fall onto the floor,
"IF YOU HAD HIT MY WIFE, I SWEAR TO MERLIN I WOULD HAVE-" stammered Ron at the top of his voice like a mad man as he pushed and scrambled on the ground. His head was throbbing slightly from the collision. Only when he noticed that his wife was consoling the other man did Ron register who he had knocked into. Ron should have realised when he collided into so much blonde hair.
"Shit, Malfoy, mate, you alright?" asked Ron as he got up.
Draco Malfoy had also been sent backward, hitting his head against the corner of a wall before falling to the floor. Draco winced, adding head trauma to his list of problems. When he heard Ron rambling, Draco waved a dismissive hand in his general direction and muttered, "I'm fine."
Draco tried to get up only to be forced to sit back down by both Hermione and Ron who were both tutting and saying words of disapproval. Draco was breathing heavily, blood rushing to his face. His head hurt, his palms felt clammy and he really wanted to get away from this floor since his brain was screaming 'Potter knows you love him! Potter knows you love him! YOU'RE FUCKED!' over and over again. However, Granger and her stupid husband would not let him get up.
Draco rolled his eyes, wondering what it was with the golden trio and ruining his day.
"I'm fine," Draco repeated, louder this time. Draco winced at a sharp twinge in his crown.
Hermione noticed Draco's discomfort so knelt down beside him. "Draco, just calm down, alright?" Hermione said tentatively.
Draco kept looking over his shoulder and was shaking. Hermione frowned, knowing Draco was troubled. She scooted carefully onto the floor to sit next to Draco and signaled angrily to her husband to join them. "So what's been happening?" Hermione asked.
Draco turned a worn out, hurt face to look at his friend, hoping his expression would convey enough so he would not have to explain. 'It's sweet, them sitting on the floor with me like this, even though we probably look ridiculous,' Draco thought. From how embarrassed and uncomfortable Ron looked, he clearly thought the same, much to Draco's amusement.
Draco sighed and felt his stomach and eyes ache. He was tired, drained, heartbroken, and wanted to go to bed and not leave his house or see anyone. Draco looked at Hermione and rubbed the back of his head. "I told him, Granger," Draco said in a feeble voice.
There was a pause before Hermione, wide-eyed, took a deep breath, and replied, "…You did?"
"I did," replied Draco sadly.
There was silence between the three.
Each of them knew they should not be silent. Each of them knew someone should say something so that they would not hear the distant sounds of muffled footsteps or the movement of heavy elevator doors or the Ministry's old magic purring in the walls. All three knew that jokes were needed; that is what acquaintances do in situations with too much emotion.
'Plus, Draco clearly needs comforting, meaning it did not go well,' Hermione thought, looking at her friend with sympathy.
Draco chuckled humorlessly at the awkward silence. "And now I'm here, on the floor outside his office, with you two Weasleys."
Ron and Hermione glanced at each other.
Ron bowed his head, biting his lip, wanting to defend his friend by saying Harry was just being silly, childish, or anything else that he called Harry whenever he denied his obvious crush on Malfoy but it did not feel appropriate. Ron kept quiet, feeling it was not quite his place to say something.
Hermione opened and closed her mouth like a fish, hopping between angry, defensive, and sad. After a while, she too decided to stay quiet.
Suddenly, Hermione started to rut around trying to force her pregnant self to stand up.
"Right…this has…gone…far enough," huffed Hermione, heaving herself upright.
"Wh-What do you mean?" stammered Draco, looking slightly worried and amused as he watched her struggle to get up.
Hermione rested her hands on the curves of her hips, trying to catch her breath.
"This whole Harry being a prat business and me not being allowed to get to the bottom of it! It's reached its limit!" Hermione looked between the bemused look on Ron's face and the worried look on Draco's. She lifted a hand and pointed at Harry's door. "I'm speaking to him about this."
Ron chuckled, knowing that this should be entertaining.
Draco instantly looked horrified.
"NO!" Draco hissed loudly. Draco sprang up and grabbed Hermione's arms, who tugged and damned her pregnant belly for tiring her out so easily. "Hermione, Her-, Hermione, listen, LISTEN, listen to me-"
Eventually, she stopped protesting.
"You promised you'd never say anything," Draco pointed out, holding her wrists whilst looking deep into her brown eyes.
Hermione looked into Draco's and felt a thousand anxieties. "…You're suffering, Draco," said Hermione, her lip quivering. The sad smile she got in return triggered something. She felt the sadness in her heart, remembering Ron's idiotic behaviour at Hogwarts when they were teenagers, when Ron had suppressed his feelings for her. She remembered how hurt she was when he did not ask her to the Yule Ball, or when he'd ran off with Lavender Brown. It was so obvious that Harry was infatuated with Draco and Draco loved Harry so much and yet Harry was acting this way and it made no sense and-
and-
and-
and it all became too much.
Hermione's jaw dropped as Draco and Ron looked at her apprehensively. Draco shook her slightly, glancing at Weasley as he also stood up. Ron shook Hermione too, to which Draco said, "What? Is your shake better than mine?"
Ron resisted the urge to bite back as he started poking his wife gently. "Hermy?" Ron asked sweetly, tapping Hermione's cheeks.
The two wizards watched as Hermione turned her head and looked at Ron, fear in her eyes. She gulped and looked completely terrified before taking a deep breath and stuttering, "I…I think my water just broke."
Draco beamed. Ron did not, holding his wife.
"The…the...protest have only just started downstairs.. we'll never get out…" Ron said, eyes wide. Draco's grin faded as he looked between the couple, unsure what they were talking about.
Hermione held Ron's face and muttered, "I know."
