Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Beauty and the Beast	By : Nocturne Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 14406 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: All characters belong to JK Rowling. I do not own the Harry Potter fandom, nor do I make any money from this fanfiction.

Chapter List
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Bellatrix pressed the tip of her wand against Hermione’s cheek, releasing a piercing scream from the young girl and sending her into a whirlwind of pain. It was like nothing she’d ever experienced. Death was ever present, wearing the mask of one of Voldemort’s most loyal followers. She couldn’t see. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t breathe.
She didn’t dare look to the left, where he stood. She’d seen it in his eyes. He knew what had to be done, but cowardice had no cure. Instead he watched her wriggle and writhe in pain.
Everything faded into blackness, until all she could hear was Bellatrix Lestrange’s maniacal laughter. The world grew smaller and smaller, along with the hopes of being saved from this torture.
Hermione jolted upright, gasping as a pot of ink spilled over her desk. She took a glance around the dimly lit room and realized she was still in her office, at work. Her life had become work. She was only twenty-two years old and any form of a social life had disappeared the moment she’d been hired to work for the Ministry of Magic.
“Knock. Knock.”
The former Head Girl shifted her attention to the door. “Harry? What are you doing here so late?”
“I could ask you the same question,” shrugged the spectacled young man, taking a seat across from her desk. “You should really take a day off, or a month. Either way.”
Hermione rolled her eyes. “I’m devoted to my work. Is there anything wrong with that?”
“No…” he decided, avoiding eye contact. “But there is something wrong with throwing yourself into work to avoid problems in your personal life.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Harry gave her a knowing look. “It’s been three months.”
“Since?”
“Don’t be that way. You what I’m talking about.”
Hermione did her best to keep her composure. “I do, but I don’t see how that’s had a negative impact on my work life. In fact, I’d go so far as to say I’ve only seen the benefits of parting ways with Ronald.”
“Ronald? That’s your problem right there.” Harry sighed, as though they’d had this conversation dozens of times. “You loved each other. You were bloody engaged, for Merlin’s sake. There’s no way you aren’t hurting from that.”
“Who said I’m not?” she retorted, a little sharp. “Wasn’t.”
Harry reached across the desk and put his hand on hers. “Go home, Hermione. Get some rest.”
“Why? I have so much to do right here.”
“Ginny mentioned something about a girl’s weekend with Luna. You should join them.”
Hermione’s bottom lip twitched. She hadn’t spoken more than a few words to Ginny since breaking up with Ron. It was an awkward situation all around. “If either of them wanted me there, they would have invited me without your assistance.”
Harry didn’t even attempt a response to that argument. He usually stayed out of girl problems. “What can I do to help? Name anything. Please.”
“Doesn’t helping me go against your man code, or whatever it’s called.”
“No,” he answered firmly. “You’re my friend, too.”
She knew what that meant. Ron didn’t need Harry’s help. He was doing just fine. Hermione sighed. “I don’t know, Harry. I need work. Some people drink away their sorrows. Other people find a distraction in someone else. But I work. That’s what I do. That’s what I’ve always done.”
Her best friend paused for quite a long time. She figured he’d finally given up but just as Hermione let her guard down, Harry spoke. “Here,” he said, handing her a folder he’d been carrying around. “You want work? You have work.”
Hermione eyed the folder with obvious skepticism. “What is it?”
“It’s work, just not the kind you’re used to.”
She took hold of the folder and revealed its contents. It was an assignment for her from the Head of Harry’s department, an assignment to bring a mysterious creature to justice. “I can’t do this,” deduced the young woman. “I’m not an Auror.”
“Yet,” corrected the young man.
The brunette read her best friend’s expression, as though it were handwritten on a piece of parchment. “My application went through?”
“With flying colours,” smiled Harry. “I was going to wait until the morning to give you the good news, but I figured now was as good a time as any.”
Hermione drew a blank. She’d applied for a position in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement ages ago, before her life had taken a nosedive. “Erm…I…I…I don’t know what to say.”
“Say you’ll do it,” suggested Harry, visibly excited for her. “Come on, Hermione. It’ll be good for you to get out and change things up a bit.”
In every logical sense, he was right, but Hermione didn’t know if she was ready. It had been Ron to persuade her into joining the Auror Office. “I don’t know, Harry.”
“Just keep reading the case and if you don’t like what you see…I’ll do it myself. I promise.”
Hermione frowned, glancing back down at the parchment until her eyes turned the size of Galleons. “Malfoy Manor?” she asked, staring between the print and Harry’s face. “I thought that place had been reduced to a pile of rubble since the war. What could possibly be there?”
“We don’t know, but there have been a slew of bodies scattered around the area.”
Hermione arched an eyebrow. “And you’re asking me to investigate? I’m a little under qualified, aren’t I?”
“You won’t be alone, and I know you’re more than capable of doing this,” explained Harry. “I wouldn’t be half the wizard I am today, if it weren’t for you. Everyone in the department agrees.”
Her mouth twitched into a smile, but she shook it away as soon as it came. “No more flattery.”
“It’s not flattery. It’s the truth.”
The look in his eyes confirmed it. Hermione had figured they would give her some petty theft cases for her first dozen. “Interesting locale,” she said, flipping through the parchment. “Most people believe the place to be haunted.”
“Actually, the bodies recovered around the area aren’t the work of a ghost.”
“What do you mean?” asked the young woman.
Harry gestured for her to keep flipping through, to the back, with the photographs.
Hermione did as he indicated and felt her insides freeze. She couldn’t move. The images were far too gruesome to handle. There were dozens upon dozens of corpses. “This is…outrageous.”
“I know,” he agreed. “The autopsy reports specify a large, feral creature with little to no control.”
“Werewolf?”
“That was my initial guess,” offered Harry. “But I’ve never encountered a werewolf capable of dealing that sort of damage.”
He was right. The claw and teeth marks on the bodies looked nothing like that of a werewolf attack. It had to be something else. “What do you think it is?”
“Take a look at that last photograph.”
Hermione timidly flipped to the end of the stack and clapped a hand over her mouth, horrified. It was definitely not a werewolf. In fact, she wasn’t sure what it was, only that it was peering out of the topmost window on the topmost floor of Malfoy Manor. “…What is it that?”
“We don’t know,” frowned Harry, also disturbed by the images. “But a few lads in the office are calling it the Mutant at Malfoy Manor.”
It sure looked to be some sort of mutant creature, though Hermione wasn’t sure. In the magical world, anything was possible. That was the curse of their kind. “When do I leave?”
“In the morning.”
“So soon?”
“We haven’t much time,” explained Harry. “You’re partnered with Nott and I’ll be joining you, along with three others, by the end of the week.”
“Nott? As in, Theodore Nott?”
He nodded.
Hermione shrugged it off. She hadn’t encountered Nott since their days at Hogwarts. He was one of the few Slytherin students that didn’t openly terrorize her on an hourly basis. “I suppose it’s settled then.”
“I suppose so.”
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Beauty and the Beast