Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Blinded	By : ssdawn Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 26887 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own the world of Harry Potter, it's characters, nor make money from writing this.

Chapter List
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Welcome to all of the new readers and those following this story. Thanks to those that took the time to review. I’d love to hear back from more of you.
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Blinded: Chapter 6
Hermione stood still for the longest time staring at the box, and then she looked over at Draco. She knew that she needed to do something, but so many feelings and thoughts were rushing around her. She knew professionally what she should do, and she knew what her human side felt like doing. The professional in her won out.
“Dean, the first thing that must be done is to see if we can identify whom the…evidence belongs to.” In the past few years Muggle forensic science and wizarding spells had been combined for use in cases like this. Much like identifying DNA was done in the Muggle world, wizards could now do this with their specimens. It had been a huge breakthrough in many of the cases Hermione had worked on.
“Malfoy,” she walked around her desk to stand by the man’s side. He still was bent forward, holding his stomach like he wanted to throw up. He didn’t respond to his name. “Draco, you need to go with Dean down to the lab so they can take a sample of your DNA to see…” The words didn’t want to leave her mouth. She hesitated trying to find the right way to say what needed to be said.
“You want to see if that could be Scorpius’s finger, right?” Draco sat up to meet her eyes. With a self depreciating tone he said, “You’re probably wondering why I can’t tell you if it’s his finger or not?” Hermione hadn’t even thought that at all. None of them had really looked too long at the digit.
“You see, it’s hard to tell when it’s not with the rest of him.” His voice broke off in a choked whisper. “I miss holding his hand.” Hermione could see that he felt so lost. This was a familiar sight with the parents left behind. There always was survivor’s guilt whether the child died or not. They just knew that they weren’t able to protect their child and it almost killed many of them.
Hermione took Draco’s hand and guided him up out of his chair. “You can come back here when they are done taking your sample.” His face was so crestfallen. “Or, if you want to go back to the manor that would be fine.” He simply nodded to her and walked out the room with Dean holding the box.
Hermione dropped into her chair and fell apart. She could feel the tears as they coursed down her cheeks. This had never happened before. She had never had these cases affect her so personally, but somehow Draco Malfoy and his son had changed it all for her. Seeing that tiny child’s finger had grabbed her heart, along with seeing how Draco had reacted when he looked at it.
Quickly wiping her tears away, she gave a big sigh and then bent her neck back and forth to get rid of some kinks that had landed there. Taking a deep breath she opened up the file and took out the pictures of all of the missing children. She narrowed it down to the children who would be around the age of having a finger the size of the one that had been in the box. It always hit you in the gut to see the children’s photos lined up together. What kind of monsters stole children away from their loving parents?
Hermione looked around her sterile office and realized she really hated her job. The realization was, the last several years of solving case after case was only a way of not facing her personal life. Becoming absorbed in the sometimes-morbid task of finding missing children had only been a
way to avoid coming back here and resolving the past mistakes, received and given.
Hermione called in her secretary, and asked her to owl the remaining parents to come in for DNA samples. Maybe they had no clue to where the children were at the moment, but they could at least figure out which child had been dismembered and could possibly have been killed. Her instincts told her this child was still alive. If they had killed the child they would have sent back more than a finger like the case a few years ago.
Still feeling restless, she left her office and took the lift to the lab to wait personally for the results. Then she mentally made herself ready to deliver the news, good or bad to Malfoy Manor, and possibly the other parents depending upon the results. Thankfully those results would come back within hours and not days.
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Hermione picked up her hot cup of afternoon tea. The Darjeeling with its light and delicate taste gave her a refreshing lift as she waited. She had been in the lab offices for over an hour trying not to show her impatience. She’d sent an owl off to Harry requesting him to come to the ministry, even if it was his day off.
Watching the door waiting for Harry helped to kill some time. Lunch came and went, but her stomach could only handle the tea. Without noticing, her toe started tapping a nervous rhythm that would have driven some people crazy. The office door swung open and a concerned looking Harry Potter came in.
“Any news yet?” Harry came to stand by Hermione.
“No, but it should be soon. I sent all of the parents home saying we’d send messages when results came in.” She kept sipping on her tea hoping somehow it would help her sagging spirits.
“Have anymore clues been found concerning who sent the box?”
“That’s the biggest problem. Whoever sent it covered their tracks effectively by involving the Muggle Postman.” Hermione felt this was the most frustrating thing of all. “It’s like all tracks leading to the kidnappers disappeared once the package got into the postman’s hands.”
“What about the wrapping paper on the package? Could any prints be taken and analyzed?” Harry seemed to be as frustrated as she was.
“No. With as many people handling the package, including myself, there were too many prints to get definitive results. I should have known better.” Hermione’s anger surfaced, and her hand slammed down knocking into her tea. “In fact, this whole department should have known better. This is the first procedural change that will be put into place tomorrow.”
Harry ran a hand through his hair. He’d also felt that this should be something changed in the way that evidence was handled in the department.
Hermione looked up and saw the head of the forensics team was coming out of the lab, his face unreadable.
“Ms. Granger, we have the tissue results linked up to the correct parent. The digit does belong to one of the missing children.” He handed the report to her and left the room.
Hermione held the report against her body not wanting to read the results, even though she had waited over an hour and half for them.
“Well, what does it say? Whose parents are we going to be delivering the grim news to?” Harry asked the questions that she was wishing she could hold off answering, even though she knew it was inevitable.
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Hermione was about to apparate to the manor to speak to Draco.
“Do you want me to go with you?” Harry asked, even though she knew that was the last place that he wanted to return to.
“I appreciate the offer, but it’s best that I go alone.” She actually was able to find a slim smile to give him. “Just be here early tomorrow morning when we start a shake down with your Aurors and others in the department. I’m putting you in charge of the training.”
“Wow, thanks Hermione. It’ll be my pleasure to lecture them about what idiots we’ve all been for years.” Harry tried to lighten the mood for her before he left. “Good luck Hermione.”
“Thanks Harry. I’d rather trade you places and let you go talk to Malfoy.” She scrunched up her face, “It’s all been rather odd dealing with him as an adult.”
“Oh, I know Hermione and we’d end up killing each other so the git is all yours.”
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The longest walk is the one where you have to deliver news whether that news is good or bad. She felt like she lived at Draco’s house now from how often she had been there the last few days.
She’d considered sending a message that she was coming, but either way he’d been waiting for a few hours and a few minutes wouldn’t make any difference. This visit unfortunately would not be her last until the case was solved.
Once again the gates opened to her and she slowly walked up to the front door. Staring at the extravagant doorknocker, which she had never used once the past few days, she contemplated whether or not it was time to use it. The house elf beat her to it once again and opened the door while she was in the process of raising her hand. It made her wonder if surveillance cameras were on the grounds. Of course that would be utter nonsense, because no one had figured out yet how to intertwine Muggle electricity and magic. Maybe in her older years or when this case was solved, she’d hide away somewhere and spend all of her time figuring out this mystery, But for now she had news to share to a very distraught and nervous father.
Hermione was taken upstairs back to the nursery. She wasn’t surprised at all that she would find him up here as he awaited news concerning his son. It had become a familiar place to find grieving parents spending hours in their missing child’s room.
Draco was lying down on his son’s bed grasping the red, toy dragon in his arms. His eyes were closed, but his body was tensed up, and she wondered if he was really asleep. She almost hoped that he’d been able to get some rest, because from the circles under his eyes, it looked like he hadn’t been able to sleep at all since his son’s disappearance.
The house elf walked over to Draco, “Master, I’ve got the Ms.’s Granger here to see you.” He made no movement at the elf’s words. The elf’s hands reached up to slightly shake his master.
Without any warning, Draco jumped out of bed and almost trampled down his servant. The tiny house elf squealed and fell backwards hitting its head on the floor. Hermione screamed and ran over to the elf to help. Draco realizing what was happening, turned around to help his elf and ran straight into Hermione.
“Ow! Bleeding Hell woman!” Draco bellowed as he held onto his chin.
“You big oaf! What were you thinking?” Hermione reached up to feel the lump now forming on the edge of her eyebrow. “You have the pointiest chin in the world!”
“It’s not my fault that you both were sneaking in here while I was trying to take a kip.”
“Well, maybe some of us are here on official business and didn’t want to wait any longer to give you some news.” The words instantly stopped Draco from what he’d been planning on saying. His eyes found hers and his mouth closed. The sarcastic words that he’d been planning on saying seemed to disappear. Hermione felt something else coming from Draco: fear.
“Well? Are you going to spill or just stand there staring at me?” Hermione wished that the words had been said with some sarcasm, but he’d been serious.
Hermione stepped forward, “Let’s go sit down,” she put her hand on his arm to steer him towards the bed.
Draco’s hand came up to bat her hand away, “No, I don’t want to sit down. Just tell me.” The words came out as a plea.
“Draco…it wasn’t a match.” He cocked his head still looking at her like he hadn’t heard her. “It wasn’t Scorpius’s finger. It wasn’t his…” Before she could finish she felt herself being scooped up in Draco’s arms. He swung her around and around, holding her tightly against him. Setting her down, his arms still encircled her. His forehead came to rest against hers. Hermione found her arms reaching around Draco. They stood there holding each other for several minutes. The only sounds heard were from their own breathing.
“Thank you Hermione.” She looked up at him with surprise at hearing him call her by her given name. Yes, it had been awkward, but nice.
“I had nothing to do with it. A small bit of luck was on your side today.” She smiled at him, but she felt a small stab to her heart thinking of how she still needed to go to the Goldsteins to deliver the bad news to them.
“Then thank you for being here for me.” He leaned forward and kissed her brow where his chin had rammed into her. “And for not sending Potter to deliver the news.” Just for a second she saw a light in his eyes and saw the old sarcastic Draco Malfoy. Hermione couldn’t stop herself from giggling.
“I need to go now,” she stepped out of his arms. “I have other parents that I must meet with.” The smile left both of their faces.
“But, I promise we can meet up again tomorrow. I have some theories to bounce off of you. I need another brain that thinks like mine.” Somehow those words seemed to bring some comfort to Draco.
“Are you implying that I’m as smart as the brightest witch of our age Hermione Granger?” Draco lifted an eyebrow as he folded his arms.
“I’m just saying, there’s no need to wear out my brain while yours is sitting idly here doing nothing.” She tried to keep a straight face while Draco smirked at her response. “Good night Draco.”
Hermione left a quiet Draco and hurried down the stairs. It had been a tiring day and she still had to deliver the bad news that she’d been dreading all day.
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Thoughts? What do you think about the relationship between Draco and Hermione? It’s slow, but bits and pieces are building along the way. This is not the kind of story where things would move that quickly…for many reasons. I’d love more reviews from all of you! Check out my other stories I’m writing currently…Time Changes All Things (Hermione and Tom Riddle Jr. time travel) and Living (Hermione and Snape post war fic)
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Blinded