"Hermione."

Harry peered into my office. I looked up from my papers and smiled when he came through the doorway, dark hair messy as always. His auror robes were slightly wrinkled and swayed around him as he walked. He hadn't changed that much in the last few years. He still had a boyish face but being an auror had definitely helped put some meat on his bones. He had grown a few inches as well, a little late, but better late than never. I could tell he always hated being so much shorter than Ron. He had done a good job catching up, being only an inch or so shorter now.

I worked for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in the Ministry of Magic. I usually worked with the aurors in their investigations though mine was mostly a desk job. I had enough of chasing dark wizards and witches around during the War. The aurors would collect the information and I would process it, trying to make sense of it. It was like a big puzzle and I really did like puzzles.

My office was neat and well decorated. In the middle was a dark mahogany desk with matching high backed office chair. There were two bookshelves on either side of the desk against the wall full of books on curses, wards, dark magic, evidence collecting and other useful topics. Not to mention a couple of Sherlock Holmes books just because they made me smile. I had a filing cabinet behind me with a vase of flowers on top of it. And of course, the walls had a few pictures, mostly of Harry, Ron and the Weasleys waving at the camera. A still photo of my parents sat on my desk.

"Hi Harry!" I said as he sat in the chair in front of my desk. I put the papers in front of me into a pile on the side of my desk. I would have to continue to work on those later. "How're things?"

"Not bad. Work hasn't been too busy. But, Ginny is still dropping hints that she wants me to propose. She's losing her subtlety too! Yesterday, there was a jewelry magazine that was 'accidentally' left at my flat and just happened to have her ring size on it." Harry ran his hand through his hair while shaking his head slightly.

I couldn't help but laugh. "Wow...she...really...isn't...subtle..." I gasped between breaths while trying not fall off my chair laughing.

"You're not helping." Harry deadpanned. But then he cracked a smile. "It's not that I don't want to marry her eventually, I just wish she'd let me do it on my own. I mean, we're only 23!"

"Yea, I know..." I was in the middle of agreeing with Harry when all of the sudden Ron burst into the room. His blue eyes were wide with panic.

"Harry! Quick! An unforgivable has been used at Malfoy Manor! We need to go! Now!"

Harry was already out of his seat and heading to the door when I piped up, "What happened?"

Ron looked back at me and gave me a half smile that apologized for forgetting I was even there. His bright red hair was still kind of shaggy and eschewed. He hadn't gotten much taller over the years, I'm fairly certain he stopped growing at 17. But like Harry, Auror training had filled him out. The little bit of pudge he had on him at Hogwarts was gone and replaced by muscle. He wasn't as tone as Harry, but he was bigger.

"Oh, hi Hermione. The wards we placed around the manor just alerted us that an unforgivable was used. We don't have any details but I'm sure anything or anyone we find will be sent to you. We'll start sending things back as soon as we can." With that Ron and Harry were out of my office and I'm sure were apparating with a team of Aurors to Malfoy Manor.

I knew that the Ministry had put up wards on the Manor after the War. It was part of Narcissa Malfoy's sentence. Lucius had obviously been sent to Azkaban but Narcissa had been given a lesser punishment due to helping keep Harry alive. Instead, she was put under house arrest for 2 years. Part of the agreement was to allow the Ministry to put wards up, not only to keep tabs on the Malfoys but also for her own protection. They had put up wards to alert the Ministry if an unforgivable curse or dark magic was used. Draco had been pardoned due to his age and the fact that he was only following Voldemort because the lives of his parents were at stake. Harry had testified what he heard the night Dumbledore died and what he had seen in his visions. That was enough for the Wizengamot to pardon him.

The next thing I knew, evidence had started to show up at my office. Pictures started to appear on my desk. Small things usually showed up in my office, the bigger things usually went to a storage room down the hall. I picked up a picture of the Manor. I felt a shiver run up my spine knowing that the last time I saw the house was during the War. Those were memories I didn't feel like reliving so I quickly pushed them down. I focused on the next picture; it looked to be the entrance of the Manor. Next was what looked to be a sitting room. I picked up the next one and my breath caught. There, on what looked like the floor of the sitting room, was Narcissa Malfoy. She was lying on her stomach, her face looking to her left. She looked like she had fallen, maybe tripped over something. Her arms were raised above her head and it looked like she hadn't even tried to brace for the fall. She was wearing a dark green dress, a very expensive dress by the looks of it. I looked at her face and noticed the vacant expression in her eyes that said she was dead. I felt my stomach do a flip. The unforgivable must have been Avada Kedavra. But who and why?

Someone cleared his throat and alerted me to the fact that someone was in my office.

I looked up and tried to put on a small smile despite what I just saw. I put the picture back down on my desk. "Oh, hello Seamus. I thought you would be with the other Aurors at the Manor." Seamus Finnegan was standing in front of my desk. He ran a hand through his sandy hair and looked at me. He had a small frown on his face and looked a bit disheveled.

"I was. However, I had to bring someone back for you to interview." He didn't look straight at me when he said this and I realized that he had to have brought back Draco Malfoy. "It wasn't a pretty sight at the Manor. We're still trying to figure out exactly what happened."

"Is he a suspect?" I asked, needing to know how to handle him.

"No, at least, not yet. He was at the scene though. We need information. Don't let him go."

"Okay, got it. Send him in then. Good luck at the Manor." I said, pushing my hair back behind my ears and sitting up straight. He smiled slightly and left the room.

It must have been only a minute but it felt like forever. I hadn't seen Draco Malfoy since the War and I really had no desire to see him again. Ever. I took a deep breath and then he came in. He looked awful, really. He was wearing black pants and a white collared shirt that had the first two buttons undone. His sleeves were rolled up past his elbows. His white blond hair was everywhere and his hands were balled up into tight fists. The knuckles on his right hand looked red as if he had punched something recently. He was looking at the ground and stood in the doorway. He looked taller than I remembered, his frame filling most of my doorway. I might have been slightly intimidated if I didn't know that I had the entire department of Aurors outside my door.

"Malfoy." I said, trying my best to be civil. I couldn't let my personal feelings get in the way of my job after all. He looked up and I gasped slightly. His face was paler than I remembered, but perhaps that was due to this situation. His silver gray eyes were cloudy. I couldn't tell if it was anger or sadness, maybe it was both, in his eyes and his lips were set in fine line. He had a red welt on his cheek that I could tell would turn into a bruise.

"Granger." He bit out. He stared at me for a little bit before he looked around, as if only now realizing where he was. "Why the hell do I have to talk to you?" His eyes traveled back to my face.

His condescending tone brought me back to myself. "Sit down, please. I'm part of the investigative committee. I am to interview you about what happened." I tried to be professional but his withering gaze was starting to get to me. I started to fidget more and I tried really hard to keep from tapping my fingers on the desk.

"What if I don't want to talk to you?" He sneered.

"Then we have a problem but nothing a couple of Aurors and veritaserum can't fix. We could do this the easy way or the hard way." I bluffed. I couldn't administer veritaserum without him being a suspect, but he didn't need to know that. Geez, I hadn't seen him in 5 years, how could he shake me like this still?

"Fine, I'll talk to you but then I want to get the hell out of here." He said as he sat down and stared at his hands.

"No promises on whether you can leave. But I'll try to make the questions fast." I said as I grabbed my quill and notebook. I loved the quills that wrote everything down for you. It let me focus more on the conversation and less on writing. "So, let's start with the obvious. What happened?"

Malfoy looked up at me and then saw the picture on my desk. He paused for a moment as he looked at the picture of his mother dead on the floor. I saw him take a breath and said, "Fine, you want to know what happened? I'll tell you what happened and then you can use your little know-it-all brain to figure it all out."