Forgetting the Past

Chapter Two: The Kitchen Table

Upon returning home Harry instinctively checked his mailbox. He yelled as soon as he opened it while a furry red beast dug its teeth into Harry's fingers. He had forgotten Ron and Hermione were staying, and that Ron needed many unusual places to keep his "pets" in. Harry glanced down at his finger, which was steadily turning green and purple in spots, and hoped that this one wasn't deadly. Well if there had been any mail that day, it was gone now.

Being home made all the confusing events of the day better. Harry loved the old manor he had bought with the money he'd made working at the ministry after graduation. It had expansive gardens out front and the inside itself was impressive. He opened the side door, entering into the kitchen, and smiled to see Ron and Hermione sitting at the kitchen table, leafing through touristy brochures.

"Ron that stupid frenzitti bit me again!" said Harry in a mock anger.

"Do you want me to make Hermione kiss it better?" asked Ron grinning, happy to see Harry return.

"Excuse me!" Hermione objected.

"Well actually mate that might make it a little better..." but that was as far as he got before Hermione left the room rolling her eyes.

"Finally she's gone!" sighed Ron. Harry knew though that this was all a farce, he had never seen two people as in love as Ron and Hermione.

"I did want to talk to you actually Ron," started Harry as he sat down across from him at the table.

"What's wrong?" Ron asked suspiciously.

"Nothing is wrong exactly but I did have a visit from Malfoy today."

"And you say nothing's wrong!" said Ron only half joking, "What did he want?"

"A job," Harry admitted reluctantly. After all Ron had come looking for a job himself a few years ago when he and Hermione were down on their luck but Harry had, kindly, turned him down. No one could forget Ron's mishaps in almost every subject at school, not even his best friend.

"Ha ha and he thought he could get one at Hogwarts! What a loser!" Ron said this laughing but there was a question hidden in there as well. Ron needed Harry to laugh, to agree that Malfoy was wasting his time. Unfortunately Harry could not do this for him.

"Well...it might not be that bad of an idea," continued Harry treading carefully, "After all we do need a potions professor and he was top of our class."

"Harry, come on mate! It's Malfoy! He almost killed Dumbledore, he almost killed you and he wanted desperately to kill me. Now you want to give him a job?" Ron exclaimed. 'And didn't give me one' he thought but didn't say. Harry heard it though just as loudly as if he had said it.

"Dumbledore told me to think about it and I will," he said this with finality as he stood up and started for the door to the garden to find Hermione.

"He always was too soft!" Ron yelled after him before storming upstairs to the guest room where he and Hermione were staying.

Harry found Hermione walking by the roses, although a muggle flower they had always been her favourite. Harry assumed this was because she had grown up in muggle surroundings. He came up to her and she smiled at him,

"Don't mind Ron," she said consoling Harry, "he'll get over it soon enough."

"You heard then?"

"It was hard not to."

"What do you think about it?" Harry asked then looking at Hermione and waiting for her honest opinion, one he trusted almost as much as Dumbledore's.

"How did he seem to you when you spoke to him?" she asked tilting her head to one side. Ron complained that she always did this when she was considering a problem and it drove him nuts. Harry liked it though; it gave him the feeling that she would solve whatever came up.

"I really think he may have changed," he admitted, "He seemed sincere and sorry about the past and truly desperate for a job. I just worry about trusting him."

"You worry about trusting everyone though don't you?"

"Why do you say that?"

"I see it in your eyes whenever we meet a new person they are full of distrust."

"Do you not think that there is reason not to trust Malfoy?" asked Harry surprised at Hermione for noticing something he had not yet admitted to himself.

"We must tread carefully I agree but why not try him out?" she said this as she started to steer him back towards the house, "In the end though it is your call. Neither Ron nor Dumbledore nor I can make it for you; after all you are the one who has to work with him." Harry considered this last comment as he realized that they were back in the kitchen.

"Do you want me to start the kettle?" Hermione asked him. Harry nodded absent mindedly and sunk into one of the kitchen chairs to think.