Hermione Granger loved her friends dearly and was glad to help them
whenever they needed her wits and cleverness, but for once in her life, she'd like to get the attention that her best friend Harry always received. It was just a silly little dream and that's all, she told herself, but deep down she wondered what it would be like to be "the Chosen One".
"Hermione, what are you thinking about now?" Ron asked, interrupting her
thoughts. They were studying in the library, well she was studying in the library. Harry and Ron were playing Wizard's Chess for the millionth time. Hermione couldn't believe how her friends could love such a barbaric game so much that they would play it over and over and over again! If only she could introduce them to the joys of reading, oh! They could start a book club! If only…
"Hermione?" Ron's voice startled her again.
"Oh— what did you say?" She asked, knocking over her bottle of ink and
spilling it all over her parchment. She sighed in frustration, she'd have to start her essay on Sleeping Draughts all over again! At least it wasn't due until next week, but to stay on track she'd have to do her Ancient Runes homework earlier than scheduled.
"Don't worry, I'll get it." Harry smiled at her and cleaned up her mess before
she could even touch it. For some reason she felt guilty about her dreams of being admired and praised, but she didn't know why. They were just dreams after all.
Ron chuckled and teased, "Hermione, where has your head been today? A bit
too full of crazy?"
Hermione snapped back to reality and replied "At least my head is filled,
Ronald, unlike yours." Before Ron could respond with some very witty remark, Hermione assumed, he was interrupted by Harry who told them of a new conspiracy theory he was concocting. Hermione tried not to yawn. Though Harry's hunches were usually correct, they came about quite often and one could get bored of them after hearing them all the time.
"—and Hagrid told me that all the grass on the front lawn has DIED." Harry
said gravely. Ron looked shocked, but Hermione was bewildered at the serious tone of the subject.
"Dead… grass? That's the big emergency?" She asked skeptically.
"Hermione! Hogwarts is magic, grass doesn't just die. There has to be some
reason behind it." Harry said confidently.
"It must be Voldemort!" Ron chimed in, He was always trying to make himself
helpful which Hermione admired… but the whole conversation was absurd.
"You think that Voldemort killed the grass?" She said very slowly, trying to get
the boys to figure out on their own that they were going completely insane.
"That's the only explanation!" Harry exclaimed like the idea that Voldemort
was poisoning the grass was so obvious that everyone should have figured it out by now.
"I think I'm going to go to bed now." Hermione said, cleaning up her stuff. She
had had enough of this conversation for one night and she needed some time away from the boys.
"But it's so early!" Ron whined. Hermione checked her watch, it was nine
o'clock.
"It's a school night and we have a Herbology quiz tomorrow, which I hope you
both studied for." She gave them a knowing look and they shrugged sheepishly.
"I studied!" Ron said defensively.
"Sure you did," she rolled her eyes, "goodnight boys!" She grabbed her
belongings and headed out of the library, which was closing soon anyway. She bet that Harry and Ron would be kicked out in the next half hour. She walked down the long corridors by herself, lost in her thoughts like usual. Sometimes it was hard to talk to her friends because they weren't interested in the same things she was. They never cared about S.P.E.W or books like Hogwarts: A History, and sometimes it made Hermione feel very lonely when she considered the fact that she was the only one in the world who liked those things.
The corridors gradually started to become darker and darker and Hermione
was just about to take out her wand to cast Lumos, a light spell, when she heard two people talking in harsh tones to each other just around the corner from her.
"Hogwarts is never safe, so why is it still open?" The first voice asked.
"Dumbledore is stubborn, as long as he is around, the school will never
close." The second voice sounded eager to help, a lot like Ron did around Harry.
"Are you suggesting we assassinate Dumbledore, you moron? Dumbledore is
the most powerful wizard alive!" The first voice snarled.
"No, no! I would never! I-I—"
"Stop your insolent babbling, someone could hear us."
Hermione suppressed a gasp, hoping that they wouldn't find her.
"Why'd you choose to meet in a public place, you idiot?" The first voice asked.
"I-I'm sorry, forgive me." The second voice begged.
"Let's get out of here and I'll consider it." Hermione heard footsteps and
assumed that the first voice was walking away. She quickly enchanted the space around her so they wouldn't see her, she would blend in with her surroundings.
"Are you coming or not?" The first voice snapped.
"Yes sir." The second pair of footsteps followed obediently. The two men
passed Hermione without even glancing her way. She studied their faces to the best of her ability and felt like she knew the first face somewhere, but she couldn't put her finger on it. He was tall and skinny with sharp features, but she couldn't see him very well because of the darkness. As for the either man, he was short and had spiky hair. Hermione didn't know him at all.
She waited in the darkness until the sound of their footsteps couldn't be heard
anymore, and then she hurried down the hallway. As she walked quickly down the hallway, her mind was racing. Were they evil? Were they working for You-Know-Who, or were they other people who wanted Hogwarts' downfall? Why? Hermione was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't see the figure heading towards her until they collided into each other.
"Ow! What the-" The other person exclaimed. Hermione knew that voice, she
looked up and glared at the boy with disgust, "Draco." She said curtly.
"Ugh, mudblood." He rolled his eyes, but he looked a bit shaken up, Hermione
didn't know if it was because of the collision or maybe… had he heard the men speaking too?
"What are you doing out here, by yourself?" Hermione asked, trying not to
give any information away.
"How's that any of your business?" He spat at her. There was no point in
trying to talk to him, he was insufferable and no amount of politeness would ever change that.
"Forget that I ever asked." Hermione sighed and continued down the hallway.
She took a few steps until she heard him call out, "Hey!" from behind her.
"This is gonna sound stupid, but did you hear anything just now?" Draco
asked.
Hermione turned around and glared at him, "just the sound of your obnoxious
voice."
"You didn't hear anything before you ran into me?" Draco asked again,
Hermione noticed that he had a scared look in his eye.
"Why? Did you hear anything?" She took a step closer.
"Yes, actually, but I won't tell you what I heard unless you tell me what you
heard first." He said defiantly.
"Fine," Hermione sighed, what did she have to lose? "I heard two men plotting
to take down Hogwarts. Now your turn."
"I heard two men planning to slaughter the pure bloods." Draco said shakily.
"What?! Why would anyone… that doesn't make any sense." Hermione
mumbled to herself, trying to figure out what was going on. "Are you tricking me? If this is a joke, Draco, I swear I will—"
"Does it look like I'm joking? I thought maybe you would know something
because it's obviously your kind that's planning to do this." Draco said.
"I can't defend murderers, but I understand why they'd want to do this, with
you and those snobbish pure bloods looking down on the rest of us all the time… that's still no excuse. We have to do something about this!" Hermione exclaimed.
"So what should we do? You're supposed to be the 'smart' one, right?" He
asked.
"You're not gonna like this… but I think we've got to talk to Harry." She told
him.
"Why? What's Potter got to do with this?" Draco asked, his host scrunching up
in disgust.
"Dumbledore takes everything Harry says seriously. If we can convince Harry,
we can convince Dumbledore." She explained. Draco sighed, she could tell that he didn't like this plan at all. If he told his friends about any of this, they'd think he was crazy. He was stuck with her.
"Fine. We'll work together until this is over and purebloods are safe. Deal?"
Draco stuck out his hand. Hermione hesitated, she'd have to put up with his snide remarks and insults for awhile… but maybe, just maybe, she could change him. That's why she reached out her hand, shook his, and replied, "Deal."