“Perfect Potter would not approve of what you’ve been doing these last five years.”

Hermione gave him a glowering look, “That hardly matters. If I ask him, he’ll help us.”

“You.”

“What?”

He put his head in his hands and said quietly, “He’ll help you, Granger. In case you’ve forgotten, I’m Draco Malfoy, schoolyard bully and boyhood bane of The Boy Who Lived.”

She met his eyes, “You’re just afraid to ask him.”

He narrowed his eyes, “Think of someone else.”

“Who? Greg Goyle? Wait, I’m a Mudblood, so that won’t work. Pansy Parkinson? She was on the list, that’s a no. How do you feel about Luna Lovegood?”

“What about Anthony Goldstein?”

Hermione had been hoping that he wouldn’t suggest Anthony. He was one of the few competent alternatives to Harry. “I don’t trust him at my back,” she said, throwing his words back at him.

“As I said before, Granger, I don’t trust you.”

“Harry can do this. He was born to do things like this. We don’t need to worry about him betraying us because even if he would turn on you, he won’t do it to me.”

“Comforting for me,” he continued, “Has it occurred to you that Saint Potter may not care to fight another battle? He spent most of his childhood living under a death threat. He has fought these people before, and he won. He has no need to do it again.”

“Harry and I weren’t Slytherins, Malfoy. If a friend needs help, we’ll come to their aid.”

“Once he knows how deeply I’m involved, he’ll say no.”

“It can’t hurt to ask.”

“How would you contact him, seeing as we have no fireplace, nor do we have an owl?”

She sat there, silent for a moment, and then said, “I usually don’t contact him. It would only be suspicious if I did.”

Malfoy looked like he was going to say something, but he remained silent.

A few minutes passed before Hermione said, “What do we do once we’ve finished?”

He looked confused.

“Do we turn them into our Ministry? The Swiss? What happens?”

“I was under the impression that there wouldn’t be enough of them left to turn in to the Ministry.”

Her eyes widened. “We don’t kill unless we have to! You’re playing with the good guys now, Malfoy, we have mercy.”

“And I wonder how a group like this popped up?” He deadpanned.

“A group like this?” She narrowed her eyes at him, “Your aunt would never have received mercy from us. She and her cohorts were never caught.”

“Then why can’t we kill them now?” He raised his eyebrow.

She was silent, thinking for a moment. “We’re not at war anymore. Sending them to prison may not be as satisfying as killing them, but it’s enough.”

“Are you sure?”

She crossed her arms. “Yes.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“And I don’t care. Do we have any information on the building we’ll be infiltrating? It may prove useful.”

“Yes.”

She nodded, “Good, is it accurate, and how did you get it?”

He sighed, “You need to learn to trust me. It should be accurate, and I looked in my dear auntie’s pensieve.”

“She just leaves that sitting around for anyone to look at?”

“Yes,” he deadpanned, “It’s in the front hall with a little plaque next to it inviting anyone who pleases. Would you like me to tell you what it says verbatim?” He pointed his wand at the bed. A large piece of parchment appeared on the sheets.

Hermione picked it up. The map showed Las Brujas on a hidden floor, 4 and a half. “This is very detailed.”

“Yes, I know.” He was ever so modest.

“I don’t want to make any plans until we have Harry. We’ll leave at nine o’clock tomorrow morning.”

“Very well.”

She handed him the pieces of parchment that were the dossiers of the Las Brujas members. “Study hard,” she said, and picked up her money.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m hungry, there’s a fish and chips place down the street.” She opened the door and heard Malfoy moving behind her. She turned around and saw him putting money in one of his pockets.

“I’m coming with you,” he said.

She raised an eyebrow, “I consider this a break, Malfoy. I don’t want to talk about Las Brujas, or anything else for that matter.”

He shrugged, “I just want food, Granger. No need to talk.”

“Whatever.”

They exited the hotel and onto the dark street. There was silence between them, but it was comfortable. It was a fairly warm night, and the walk was pleasant. A few minutes later they were in front of a building proclaiming Fish and Chips for the world to see. Hermione went in first, she ordered her meal and thanked the girl behind the counter. Then she sat at one of the tables outside. She was surprised when Malfoy sat down across from her.

“Be careful,” she told him, “You’re starting to seem friendly.”

“I thought we weren’t going to talk.”

“That’s better.” The rest of the meal was eaten in silence. She finished before him and started back to the hotel alone, but, jogging, he caught up to her quickly.

“Just going to leave me there alone?” he asked.

“We went there at the same time, Malfoy, but we didn’t go together.”

“Sorry to presume otherwise.”

She stopped walking, and, as she suspected, he stopped with her. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Excuse me?”

“You’ve…you’ve been running hot and cold for the past few days. You snap at me for trying to make casual conversation, but then you were offended because I didn’t wait for you to walk back. So, what the hell is wrong with you?”

He rolled his eyes, “Don’t analyze me.”

“I don’t want to, but I want to understand what’s going on here.”

He laughed a little, it wasn’t joyous, “You and me both.”

“What?”

“Nothing,” he abruptly walked ahead of her into the hotel, leaving her standing in the street.

When she walked into the room, he was sitting in one of the chairs. He ignored her. She grabbed one of the books and sat on the bed. She fell asleep on top of the sheets with the book resting on her chest.

When she woke up, there were covers up to her chin and the book was sitting on the table. She shot a strange look at Malfoy, but he was sleeping. She reasoned that she could have covered herself sometime in the night. Maybe the book slid to the floor and Malfoy moved it so he didn’t stand up in the morning, trip on it, and kill himself. It was farfetched, but it made much more sense than any other theory.

At eight thirty, Malfoy’s wand started poking him. After a few seconds, he woke up and stumbled to the bathroom. He came out a little before nine. They shrunk down all of their bags and went to check out of the hotel. Once that was done, they went into the alley.

“Grab onto my arm.”

“I’ve done this before,” he snapped. He clutched her arm, and she concentrated on apparating to Harry’s house. A few seconds later, they were there.

“Everything intact, Malfoy?” She grinned fiercely.

He looked a little nervous, but he nodded.

“Good,” she knocked on the door.

“Shouldn’t I hide, or something?”

Harry opened the door, his eyes widened, and before either of them saw anything, his wand was out. “Hermione,” he said rather calmly, “Would you care to tell me what the hell is going on here?”

“We need your help.”

“That’s not what I was asking.”

Malfoy touched her arm, “I told you this was a waste of time, Granger.”

“Touch her again, Malfoy, and you won’t have that finger anymore.”

Malfoy raised his hands, as if to show he had no weapon. He wisely stayed quiet.

“We know where Bellatrix Lestrange is, Harry. And we need your help to capture her. She has an entire operation here in Switzerland, and we can shut her down.”

“How is he involved?”

“We’ve been working together for the past few weeks, gathering information and the like. We just found out about the Headquarters recently. We can shut it down, but we need your help.”

Harry lowered his wand, slowly, “Come in.” He kept his eyes glued to Malfoy as they made their way inside. Once in his living room, Harry said, “Take a seat, Hermione.” Malfoy understood and remained standing as the other two sat. “So, what do you know about Bellatrix?”

“Her base of operations is in Zurich,” said Hermione. “Malfoy has a map of the inside.”

“And how do you know it’s not some trap on his part.”

“That’s it,” said Malfoy, “I told you he wouldn’t work with me, Granger.”

Harry pointed at him, “Don’t speak about me like that in my house.”

“Harry,” said Hermione.

“Yes?”

“Grow up.”

“Excuse me?”

“I don’t like Malfoy, but he’s been helping me for the past few weeks, and we’ve made real progress. If you help us, we can take these people down. These are the same people you faced years ago, and they got away. Isn’t it time for them to pay? Get over your petty differences with Malfoy and work with us, or tell us to get the hell out.”

“I’d hardly call our differences petty.”

“Fine, they’re not petty, but you’re not fifteen anymore. So, are you going to be a man and get over this, or kick us out?”

He was silent for more that a minute. Hermione stood up and was already half way to the door when he said, “Wait, I’ll help you. Capturing Lestrange is too important.”

“Good.” She and Malfoy sat down. Malfoy pointed his wand at the coffee table and the map appeared along with Hermione’s dossiers. “This is what we know.”

Harry shuffled through the papers, “So, what’s your plan?”

“Go in, gather incriminating evidence, capture whoever’s there. It won’t be easy with just the three of us against them, but we can do it.”

“Wait,” said Harry, as if something were just dawning on him, “Why are you two working together? How?”

“You want to tell him or should I?” Malfoy asked her mentally. She could hear him grinning.

“We were working for Las Brujas, Lestrange’s group.”

“What?”

“Here’s the quick version. I was recruited right after Ron died by a man who said he was working for an international wizarding organization. He said that their goal was to stop terrorism in the wizarding world. I signed up. Five years down the road, I was working for them as a spy in a Muggle company called SecureCo. Then Malfoy came along and said he’d been assigned as my partner. We agreed to work together to find out who and what we were actually working for. Then, two days ago, we were told that we had seventy-two hours to find and hand over a security system that could be used to obliterate the wizarding world. We dug deeper, and then it became clear that we were members of Las Brujas and we didn’t know it. Now we want to go in and take them down.”

“It’s really very simple,” added Malfoy.

“I think I understand,” said Harry, “And someday you’ll have to tell me the long version. Let’s come up with a plan then.”

“Good idea.”