Summary: It's not that Hermione was stupid and thought he'd change someday for her, it was more like if she said anything, she knew she'd be in trouble.  It's just luck that Draco becomes her partner and new best friend at work that finally gets her out of it.

Twigger warning: domestic abuse

Hermione felt like a muggle zombie. Not only did she have the motivation of a slug, but she was pretty sure that if she were to remove the dozens of undetectable glamour charms she'd put on herself, her skin would be purple enough to match that of the undead. Of course, glamour charms could only go as far as to make her look less like a human punching bag; they couldn't make her feel less like one. As long as Malfoy brought her regular coffee, though, she was certain she could get through what was sure to be a very long day. If the large file on her desk and the recent end to a big case was anything to go by, she'd probably not get a lunch break.

"It won't combust," Malfoy said, startling Hermione from where she was glaring at her desk.

She turned around to see Draco standing behind her in the doorway to her small office and holding a cup of coffee for her and a tea for him.

"I made sure to inform Dockens to fireproof anything he puts on your desk after last time," he teased, handing her the warm coffee as he said so.

"That was probably wise," Hermione muttered before taking a large gulp of her coffee. It was, of course, just how she liked it. Draco Malfoy was nothing if not observant and meticulous with everything he did, even when it came to her coffee order.

Malfoy moved further into her office, claiming his usual chair opposite her desk and twisting it slightly. Hermione knew she should quit trying to keep it straight since it was always the first thing he did when he arrived, but it was a small attempt to keep something in her life controlled. At least the chair didn't fight back when she corrected it.

"So, I was thinking," Malfoy said, taking a sip of his tea before continuing. "Since we have all the paperwork remaining for that Jansen case and Dockens assigned us the lovely task of organising all our case files, we should pull an all-nighter."

Hermione raised an eyebrow at him skeptically. She doubted Theo would like her coming home late, let alone pulling an all-nighter at the office with Draco.

"Hear me out," Draco rushed to say. He set his tea on her desk and leaned forward to say, "I'll bring tons of pillows and blankets and you can bring your muggle music thingy and we can see how many cookies it takes to finish that case of files."

"I don't know, Draco," Hermione said warily, taking a seat behind her desk. Draco gave her a look and Hermione sighed. "Theo worries when I'm not home on time so I don't—"

"Just tell him you're with me," Draco said.

Hermione absolutely was not going to do that. If she told Theo anything, it would be that she was staying with Ginny for the night. Even that was a bit of a stretch.

"I'll consider it," Hermione lied. Draco pursed his lips, staring at her for a moment before nodding and dropping the subject. "Now, you said Dockens wants us to organise all our past case files?"

Draco groaned at the reminder, slowly spinning around in his chair. Hermione smiled and shook her head, waving her wand to send all their old cases into the air. Spells weren't the most efficient way to file case files, so they would have to review and organise all the files by hand. Thankfully, Draco was good company and Hermione rather enjoyed boring office days with him. First, though, she had to get through the hassle of convincing Draco Malfoy to sit still and focus.

* * * * *

All things considered, they were making pretty decent progress. By lunch, they were halfway through organising their case files and Draco had conned a new intern into buying them both lunch. After apologising on his behalf to the intern, Hermione had only scolded Draco for a minute. She'd bullied Draco into finished the organisation on his own while she finished up the paperwork for the Jansen case. With ABBA blaring through her muggle Bluetooth speaker and Draco's favourite quilt wrapped around her shoulders, Hermione forgot to check the time until it was well past time for her to be home.

"Bloody hell!" Hermione gasped, forcing herself to leave her comfortable pillow bed and hastily pack up her things. Theo was going to beat her for this for sure, but if she hurried, maybe she could convince him not to be too upset.

"What? Did you find a spelling error?" Draco teased. He sat up when he realised just how much of a hurry she was in, though. "Are you really leaving?" he asked, "We only have another hour or two before we're done."

"I know, but I have to go, Draco," Hermione said, hardly paying him attention as she threw on her jacket and grabbed her bag. Her desk was a mess and her office was covered in blankets and pillows, but she'd worry about that in the morning. "I was supposed to be home hours ago and Theo's probably worr—"

"Why not send him a Patronus?" Draco suggested. Hermione sighed and glanced at Draco who was looking at her expectantly. "Surely he'll be okay with another hour. It's not like you're out clubbing."

"No, I have to go," Hermione insisted. She slipped around her desk, turning off her muggle speaker and snatching her wand up from where it was buried under Draco's favourite quilt. "Look, you can stay here and work, I'll clean it up in the morning, but I have to—"

"Hermione—"

"—go. You don't understand, Draco," Hermione sighed, running a hand through her hair. She'd taken it out of its bun hours ago and regretted it now. "I'm already in for it, I can't stay."

Draco frowned at her and Hermione wished she could just apparate out of the Ministry from her office.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Hermione just shook her head, muttering once more that she had to go.

She slipped between Draco and her desk, but Draco grabbed her wrist to stop her. Immediately, Hermione flinched, trying to pull away from him as he pressed on fresh bruises. Draco frowned at her grimace and Hermione knew she was screwed when he pulled her jacket sleeve back. Thankfully, her spellwork with glamour charms was flawless and undetectable, hiding the purple and black rings around her arm just like she needed it to.

"What was that?" Draco demanded, keeping a firm hold of her wrist. Hermione attempted to pull herself free of his grip, but all she accomplished was hurting herself more.

"You're grabbing me too tightly," Hermione said, trying to play it off as his fault. Draco wasn't stupid, though, so she wasn't too surprised when he didn't believe her.

"Don't lie to me, Hermione," Draco said. He released her wrist nevertheless, but she didn't try to escape the room. She was too busy avoiding his eyes by looking out her office window, waiting for him to move so she could leave.

As the room remained quiet, Hermione had to bite her lip to keep from telling Draco anything. If he found out, Theo would know she'd told him. There would be no escaping the inevitable rage and Hermione rather preferred living a pain-free life.

Hermione was so insistent on ignoring Draco in an attempt to keep from accidentally telling him the truth, she didn't hear him mutter the spell to remove the glamour charms. In a panic, she jumped and tried to leave as all the glamour charms lifted from her skin. She hardly managed to tug her jacket over her arms and turn away in time. Using her loose hair to cover her face, Hermione kept her head turned away from him.

"Hermione, look at me," Draco said softly, grabbing her hand gently. Rather than hold onto her tightly like he had before, he laced his fingers through hers and gently tugged on her hand.

Hesitantly, Hermione turned to face him but kept her eyes on the ground. The sharp intake of breath told her all she needed to know and she closed her eyes tightly. She felt more than saw the hand that reached up to lightly touch her face and she recoiled, pulling her hand from Draco's as she stepped back.

"I have to go," she whispered. She tried to grab her bag and leave, but Draco stopped her.

"Theo did this?" he asked. Hermione hesitated before looking up at him. 

Draco's frown deepened as he saw even more of Hermione's face. It had been clear when he'd removed the glamour charms that she'd been seriously injured. He could see the dark mark on her chin and knew there'd be bruises elsewhere as well. Staring at her face though, it was hard not to notice her purple cheek and how her left eye was just a bit swollen as if it was healing from an earlier hit.

"Take off your jacket," he said. He wanted to make sure he wasn't just imagining this, but he was silently hoping there wouldn't be more bruises.

When Hermione didn't argue with him and took off her jacket, however, Draco almost wished he hadn't asked. Where he'd grabbed her earlier, dark purple and black rings wrapped around her wrists. Her forearms were scratched and bruised and what he could see of her upper arms was bruised as well.

"You can't say anything," Hermione said suddenly, grabbing hold of his hand tightly.

Draco looked up to meet her eyes and was unsurprised to see she was worried. She was chewing on her lip, a nervous habit he'd noticed early on in their partnership, and holding onto him tightly.

"I can't just not say anything," Draco told her. In fact, he was probably going to go beat the ever loving shit out of Theo himself here in a few minutes. How was he supposed to act like he hadn't seen Hermione covered in scrapes and bruises?

"Please, Draco," Hermione begged. Her eyes were watering and Draco knew she was desperately trying not to cry, but he refused to lie and promise her he wouldn't say anything.

"I can't ignore this, Hermione," Draco said. He pulled away from Hermione and left her office hastily. If he couldn't apparate from anywhere other than the Ministry lobby, then he would get his cardio in today hurrying there.

Unfortunately for Draco, Hermione seemed just as determined to stop him from leaving as she raced after him. The lift doors remained open as she threw a spell at them to keep them from closing and Draco didn't deflect it in time. As she dove into the lift with him, Draco kept her from toppling over entirely and hurting herself further. However, that didn't keep her from twisting around to argue him out of telling anyone once more.

"He'll know I told you if you confront him," Hermione said, grabbing hold of his hand again.

Draco wasn't interested in hearing what Theo had threatened Hermione with if she told anyone, but it did motivate him further to make him regret his very existence.

As they cleared the anti-apparation line, Hermione grabbed hold of Draco even tighter. He turned to face her, lacing his fingers through hers with one hand and reaching the other up to brush her hair away from her face.

"You're staying with me and Blaise for now," Draco told her softly, resting his hand on the back of her neck. "I'm going to take care of Theo while Blaise makes you hot cocoa and tells you that ridiculous story he told me."

"No, Draco," Hermione protested. Draco pressed a warm kiss to her forehead then to her purple cheek and one more just under her swollen eye.

"I promise he won't touch you, Hermione," he promised, "Just stay at my flat until I return and everything will be fine, okay?"

Hermione didn't say anything for several minutes and Draco was worried she'd refuse and continue begging him not to do anything. Just before he tried asking one more time, she nodded, looking down as she did so. Draco held his breath.

"Alright," she whispered. She nodded to herself again then looked up at Draco. "But you can't do anything that could make this public, okay?"

Draco briefly wondered if injuring Theo beyond consciousness would count, but decided against asking her just in case. Instead, he nodded and held onto Hermione tightly as he apparated them both to his shared flat with Blaise.

"Holy banshees!" Blaise screamed, falling off the sofa when they appeared in the kitchen.

Before either of them turned to Blaise, Draco looked at Hermione to make sure it was alright. She nodded and held onto his hand tightly as he turned them both to face Blaise.

"—at the very least—Oh shit!" Blaise interrupted himself as he looked at Hermione. He tried not to stare at the sight of Hermione's bruised face, but struggled. He brought one hand up and opened his mouth to say something, then stopped and shook his head. His hand fell to his side and he tried to speak again, this time managing to ask, "Rough case?"

"Theo's a bag of shit," Draco said in answer. Blaise frowned before the realisation hit him. Draco was talking before he could though. "Hermione's staying with us and I'm going to go deal with Theo."

"Wait, I'm obviously coming—"

"No," Draco interrupted, letting go of Hermione's hand and nudging her towards Blaise. "You're staying here and telling her that ridiculous story you told me the other day. Also, hot cocoa."

"Draco, I—Hi, Hermione," Blaise said, trying to step around her to catch Draco. Draco apparated away before Blaise could snag his sleeve, though, and he and Hermione were left alone in the flat.

With a sigh, Blaise turned back around to Hermione and quickly looked her over.

"Let's start with some hot chocolate," he suggested, walking into the kitchen and pulling out a pot. "Then you can tell me what's been happening."