"Ah, Granger, Potter, Weasleby! Here to celebrate?" came the reply of one Draco Malfoy. Matt's modest apartment, which to him always seemed large, now appeared quite small. Matt was sitting on his couch, bent over a coffee table. Across from him in a lounge chair sat Malfoy. At the opposite end of the couch was Pansy Parkinson, looking smug and far too relaxed. Between her and Matt was Blaise Zabini, leaning back and grinning from ear to ear, as if it was all very entertaining. In Matt's kitchen, sitting on the countertop and looking imposing was Gregory Goyle, the last remaining member of Malfoy's old gang, Vincent Crabbe had died when he set the Room of Requirement on fire with Fiendfyre and nearly fried Matt, Hermione, Ron, and Harry at the same time. Lounging on a stool beside Pansy was Daphne Greengrass, and at her feet was her younger sister Astoria.
"Matt…" Hermione began, trying to find her voice, it now laced with worry. Whenever Draco Malfoy was involved, good things could not follow.
"Hermione, I didn't know you were coming…" Matt replied, he sounded apologetic. His face was red with embarrassment. Hermione could not blame him. He was surrounded by a number of people who most likely would not have his own best interests at heart.
"Why is Malfoy asking if we're celebrating?" Harry asked, trying to keep the disgust from his voice. Ron was merely scowling at the entire crowd. Matt, Ron, Harry, and Hermione had all been victims of this group's abuse during school at one point or another. The Greengrass sisters were perhaps the one exception. They remained true to their familial code of being neutral in the war and thus, did not get involved in Malfoy's conflicts with the D.A. at school either.
"Didn't Santini tell you?" Malfoy drawled, with a wicked grin, the same one he got when he knew something no one else did. He loved holding information over people's heads. Hermione recalled specifically their train ride to Hogwarts at the beginning of their fourth year. Malfoy knew the Triwizard Tournament was happening before it was announced. He had teased them mercilessly, to the point Ron had shattered their compartment door window in frustration. Hermione herself had repaired the damage, while Matt and she wished that Malfoy had been sent to another school entirely.
That same old desire now crept into Hermione's throat like a piece of food that did not go down right. She would give anything to undo the last twenty minutes and arrive before Matt signed whatever he had just signed. That could not be good for him, she knew it.
"Tell us what, exactly? That you're a slimy git? We don't need him to tell us that. We already know." Ron retorted. Harry and he were now standing at either of Hermione's shoulders, the three of them making a wall, and would gladly take on anything that Malfoy or his cronies would throw at them.
"Watch yourself Weasley." Malfoy said as he stood, glaring, his hand inside his robes.
"Everybody just calm down. I'll explain." Matt said standing up and outstretching his arms between Malfoy and his closest friends.
"Matt? What's going on?" Hermione asked, very gently.
"Malfoy approached me. He's got a solution to my problem," Matt began. Hermione's brow creased and she frowned. How had Malfoy found out? The only people in the Leaky Cauldron were them, plus Neville, Ginny, and Luna. Cho Chang had been there with Hannah Abbott but despite Cho and Harry's rocky relationship, there was no way she would go to Malfoy to ensnare Matt in a trap. Cho and Matt had only ever spoken a handful of times, and they were not enemies by a long shot. This did not make sense.
"He's agreed to find me someone to marry…" Matt continued.
"In exchange for what?" Hermione asked and moved forward, concern lacing her voice.
"In exchange for my work on Project Lykos." The words pained Matt as he spoke. It was obvious he was not comfortable with this. Alarm bells were ringing inside Hermione's head. No one outside of the Weasley, Longbottom, and Lovegood families knew about Project Lykos. How did Malfoy find out about it? There would be no way he could. No one in the room, except Matt, worked at St. Mungo's. It was not like Malfoy could have discovered a top-secret project like this one, without someone telling him, and Matt would not have dropped that so lightly. Malfoy could not have had the paperwork drafted after he arrived at the apartment.
"No, you can't!" Hermione exclaimed, pain now registering in her voice. "It's your life's work!"
"That's the beauty of it, Granger!" Malfoy grinned and took command of the conversation. "See, Matt here will go to his boss tomorrow and declare the whole project a failure. That nothing more can be done. And then he's going to copy everything he has, from his potion's notes, down to his pictures. Even the samples will be listed as destroyed but he's not going to do that, are you?"
Matt bowed his head and shook it.
"And then, he's going to get married, like a good Pure-Blood," Malfoy drawled on. "And then, in about, oh, say, six months' time? Malfoy Potions and Apothecaries will release a completed cure for lycanthropy. It'll be a huge seller. The latest thing, all thanks to Matt Santini!" Malfoy's grin was so evil, Hermione wanted to punch it off his face.
"What?!"
"No!"
"Matt…" came Harry, Ron, and Hermione's responses. "It'll destroy your reputation!" Hermione pleaded. Matt nodded his understanding.
"Oh yes. He'll be fired for sure for violating his anti-compete clause in his contract with St. Mungo's. Everyone who works in research and development there has to sign one, you know." Malfoy said. "And with such a public discrediting, naturally he'll be disgraced and never work for anyone other than me again." There was something in Malfoy's tone that bothered Hermione.
Before she could even contemplate what she was doing, her wand was drawn and she was shouting,
"Accio contract!"
The parchment flew from Malfoy's grasp and into Hermione's hand.
"What's the meaning of this?!" Malfoy said and shot to his feet, Goyle moved into the room now as well, lumbering and glowering at Hermione, Harry, and Ron.
"I don't trust you, Malfoy." Hermione said.
"Well, too bad for you. He's signed it, and it's magically binding," Malfoy was truly looking like Crookshanks when he knocked over cream and got to it before Hermione could clean it. "Astoria, be a dear, and go fetch Santini's new bride," Malfoy strode over to her and handed her a piece of parchment. "And give this to her father. Tell him his business with the Malfoy family is concluded."
Astoria, the younger darker-haired sister of Daphne, got to her feet and moved to the door before turning on the spot and Disapparating with a loud crack. Hermoine flinched. Her own Apparition abilities had improved so much from their time hunting Horcruxes and traveling to work, that now she Disapparated, it barely made a sound. Astoria was still clearly perfecting her skill with the ability.
Hermione nervously tapped the piece of parchment in her hand against her leg. She was sure there was some additional trickery hidden in the fine print. Malfoy was too ambitious not to, and this was a perfect scheme. He would be able to open a new shop, shell out cheap and low-quality potions. Because he would be the only person with the recipe and instructions on how to brew the cure for lycanthropy, it would not matter if he was selling poisonous sludge, he would make galleons hand over fist.
Six months was oddly specific as well. That was the exact timeframe Matt said it would take for him to move vaults from Gringotts in the U.K. to the U.S. That would mean, once his reputation was destroyed, he would not have any choice but to move back to the U.S. and start over there. He could, there were numerous wizarding hospitals and potion shops dotted across America alone, to say nothing of Canada and Mexico. He would be able to survive certainly, if disgraced.
Hermione turned it over in her head more, though. Even if Matt were fired and disgraced, he still had options here in the U.K. He would not need to move back. The only reason he would need to move out of the country is if his mother disowned him! That was it. Malfoy must have a divorce clause in the contract. When Matt loses everything, his name dragged through the mud for being underhanded, whoever his new wife to be would be allowed to divorce him. She would take half of everything he could lay claim to, including his vault, and the cure! That would mean whoever it was, could agree to control the entire cure recipe, forcing Matt to never brew it again, allowing him to retain his entire vault, but gets disowned anyway.
This was truly insidious. Matt would be all but annihilated. This was the most publicly humiliating way for him to be destroyed, without killing him. Malfoy would finally have won. Hermione had to stop this, somehow.
"Matt! Wait…before you go through with this…there's something you should know…" Hermione began but was cut off as a loud crack echoed through the apartment. Astoria had returned and brought along with her Matt's bride-to-be. Hermione's jaw dropped at who was with Astoria. Standing in Matt's apartment was none other than Millicent Bulstrode. The post Hogwarts years had only seemed to enhance her characteristics.
Millicent's hair was still dark, but her figure seemed to have grown larger and even more square than it was before. Her jaw looked heavier than ever and seemed to have grown a second or third chin to go along with her massive frame. She sneered looking at Harry, Hermione, and Ron.
"You can't be serious." Ron said.
"Oh, I'm afraid so Weasleby!" Malfoy sneered with a pleased look. Matt looked like he was going to be sick.
"Draco…" Matt rounded on Malfoy, his tone threatening. "This is not what we agreed on!"
"Oh, but it is! You needed a bride to be. That is her." Malfoy said pointing at Millicent Bulstrode. "You see, the Bulstrode family owed my family, me, a favor. This is their repayment. They get to marry off their daughter to a pure-blood: yourself. Since it's at my request, we're calling the debt paid."
Matt scowled his fist clenched.
"All we need now is some food to finish this transaction off with…Granger, I hear you're a good cook, whip us something will you?" Malfoy said and sat down in his chair, propping his feet on Matt's coffee table.
"No food. This meeting is over." Matt said. "Get out, Malfoy. And take your friends with you. I need time to think." Matt said, he looked ill.
"What's the matter? Not liking the deal? You agreed to it. Better face up." Malfoy replied.
"Just get out Malfoy!" Matt snarled.
"Fine, fine. Let's go!" he called to his entourage, and they all stood and moved to the door. "It doesn't change anything." Malfoy reminded Matt as they all Disapparated. Hermione, Harry, and Ron were the only ones left, and they turned to Matt. He sat down on the couch and ran a hand through his brown hair and moaned up at the ceiling.
Immediately Hermione, Harry, and Ron moved in. Harry sat in Malfoy's chair, while Ron took the far end of the couch, leaving Hermione to sit next to Matt. She opened the contract and looked it over. After a moment of studying it, she found it, her suspicions were correct. The divorce clause was there and stated specifically if the husband should fall into desperate or hard times, financially or otherwise that the marriage could be viewed as unprofitable and could be annulled if this occurred within a year's time of the marriage being finalized.
"What is it Hermione?" Harry asked and leaned forward in the chair. Ron sat forward as well.
"Here, read this," Hermione said and placed the parchment onto the table, tapping the small paragraph she had just found with her finger. "Did you know this was in there?" she asked concern lacing her features and voice. Matt leaned in now to read with Harry and Ron as they turned the parchment for each of them to clearly see.
"Blimey, that's bad mate. Malfoy's set you up." Ron observed.
"Yeah, he's got you good." Harry agreed.
Matt hissed in anger.
"No! I didn't see that! I was told it was all above board." He sat back and bowed his head, his hands running through his hair again in frustration. He almost looked like Harry with how it was sticking out everywhere. "I'm fucked."
"No, no you're not. We'll figure this out." Hermione said biting her lower lip. "If, we can't though…If you get married and then she divorces you in six months…"
"Then my mom will disown me, and I'll be deported." Matt confirmed Hermione's suspicion.
"Bollocks!" Ron swore.
"No, no we've got to find another way." Harry said desperately.
"Matt…I came here today for a reason," Hermione started as she turned to look fully at him, who appeared more distressed than ever and was looking wilder than he had in a long time.
"Yeah, I was wondering what brought you to my doorstep."
"I went to see you, and well, I saw your mother…" Hermione continued. Matt winced in pain.
"Great…" he said and stood to start pacing.
"It was rough, but she gave us your address here. I-I wanted to tell you something…" Hermione now stood as well, screwing up all her courage inside her to tell Matt what she had set out to do that morning.
"Okay?" Matt asked and gestured for her to keep going as he paced back and forth between the kitchen and his living room.
"I-I wanted to tell you how I feel,"
"How you feel? Wait, you're not sick, are you?!" Matt's voice became distressed, and he stopped pacing. He moved over to stand in front of Hermione.
"No. Not sick. I…" Hermione took a steadying breath. "I have feelings for you, Matt!"
The whole world seemed to stop for a moment, as Matt gazed into Hermione's chocolate brown eyes and processed what she just said.
"You…you have feelings for me?" he asked.
Hermione nodded.
"You're sure?" there was hope rising in his tone.
Hermione nodded again.
"Oh Hermione! I…I've always had held a…a special place in my heart for you. I just assumed it would…you know…be just that. But you're serious? You like me, like me? Romantically?"
"Yes Matt, I do." Hermione almost whispered it as her gaze turned down. He then did something entirely unexpected and embraced her. Hermione gasped at the sudden affection and quickly returned the hug. They held onto each other as if the world were ending. They would have carried on if there had not been a clearing of someone's throat. Whose it was, Harry or Ron, neither was sure but regardless the couple disengaged but remained standing very near one another. One of Matt's hands found its way into one of Hermione's, grasping her fingers gently. She blushed and smiled at this as they turned their attention to the other two.
"We've got to find a way to dissolve this contract." Hermione said.
"I know someone who we could turn to. You're not going to like it though." Ron said sheepishly.
"Who?" Matt asked, grabbing onto this statement like a lifeline. If he could get the contract dissolved, he would be free of being married to Millicent Bulstrode and he could then marry Hermione quickly.
"Cornelius Fudge."