My bed. My nice warm bed with the curtains closed and no one to bother me.
That is all I want, Hermione thought.
Hermione thought back to the last 22 hours she had spent on duty at St. Mungo's. It had certainly been grueling. Those three patients with their legs twisted up and over their heads like a giant pretzel had caused her to work eight unnecessary hours as she a few nurses desperately fought to untangle them.
She gripped the handrail on the subway a little harder as it slowed in to a stop at Regent's Park. After her second year of working as a healer Hermione had decided that she would forgo the magical transportation to and from work, which was an uncomfortable squeeze through faucet at a dingy old pub. No, she preferred to take the muggle tube straight into work.
And, going the muggle way, she was able to avoid the clinic. The clinic was Hermione's worst nightmare, having to diagnose people with a sinus infection or the flu was utterly pointless when she preferred to diagnose and help people with serious life threatening diseases.
Not to mention figuring out what the disease was gave Hermione a challenge, and she always liked to be challenged.
She clutched her purse a little tighter to herself as she made her way to the doors and walked gleefully out the doors as she heard "Piccadilly Circus" and "Mind the gap" come from the loud speaker.
She smiled slightly and shuffled her way through the crowd and up the escalator and out onto the busy street. The sights and smells of London always surprised her after a long day in the sterile and monotonous St. Mungo's. She wound her way through the throng of people and into the mildly deserted street before walking three houses down to her flat.
She mumbled a few grumbling negative remarks as she climbed four flights of stairs. Hermione gave a sort of happy dance as she finally saw her door and nearly running to it she promptly opened the door, flew into her bedroom, plopped on the bed, and was asleep as soon as her head hit the mattress.
"Hermione"
"Hermione"
"Mione wake up, please!"
Bloody pricks, I grumbled to myself as I felt myself being woken up by Harry and Ron. Could they not just let me sleep? With a foggy brain I opened my eyes to see my two best friends peering down at me.
"What do you want?" I grumbled while I flipped on my stomach and buried my head in a pillow. I could feel the uneasiness in Harry's voice as he said, "We are having a very urgent Order meeting"
I flipped around back onto my back and stared up at him. His eyebrows were knit with worry and he was staring down at me with a strange look… pity, no that couldn't be it
Well….maybe it could
"Where is the meeting at?"
Ron blushed a little from his uneasiness and picked at his ear, "Your living room"
Interesting, meetings never took place at my place… "When does it start?" I asked.
Harry ducked his head and pretended to examine my bed sheets as he mumbled, "about twenty minutes ago"
"What?" I yelled as I jumped off the bed, "How dare you hold an order meeting in my house with me not even being notified!"
With a fury I jumped off my bed and stomped into my living room to be greeted by a room full of members of the Order.
Shit, I thought to myself, this must be serious. I turned and looked back towards my room as Harry and Ron shuffled out sheepishly and ushered me to take a seat next to them on the couch.
I looked across the room at all of the worried faces; this could not be good….
Minerva broke the discomforting silence first. "We have reason to believe that an underground resistance is planning an attack against the Ministry of Magic. They appear to be old Death Eaters or the sons and daughters of Voldemort supporters."
She paused and wiped a stray tear from her eye.
"Professor Sprout was murdered on her way to the Care and Protection and Magical Plants and Organisms Centre by a believed supporter of this underground resistance. "
She took a moment to steady her breathing and then continued.
"Neville Longbottom found her hours later stuffed in a women's toilet stall, what he noticed immediately was that on her arm there was written in her blood that said , 'first of many'."
Shocked I shrank back into my couch and Harry patted my thigh.
I took in a shuddering breath and said, "We need to stop them as soon as possible. An attack on the Ministry would be devastating to the Magical Community."
"Yes, Precisely", Mr. Weasley said, "Dean in his investigations found that an expat or sorts community of previous Voldemort supporters has been established and that everyone is moving in on Friday"
"Expat?" Ron asked, confused, as always. Honestly, did he ever not have a question?
"Expat is a group of like minded individuals who move to a designated location to either escape the government, taxes, or due to public suspicion of them"
Realization dawning upon me I continued, "Meaning that if members of this underground resistance moved there they could formulate a plot to take down the Ministry without anyone investigating."
"Right", Harry said, "Therefore we have made it our mission to plant a spy in this community to figure out what it is that they will be doing. We can't go in there and kill them all because they are to powerful, it would be like the Battle of Hogwarts all over again. Except, this time, we are not prepared."
He looked around the room and upon receiving a nod of confirmation from Ginny, he continued.
"We believe that if we put a spy we can figure out what and when the attack will be and then stop it, meanwhile giving us the time to prepare for a possible war."
"But how could any of us get in? And who would be the spy?" Ginny asked.
A sudden tension filled the room as hard as a diamond. To my horror I watched as multiple pairs of eyes all looked at me.
No
Not me, I won't do this.
Harry squeezed my thigh and I braced myself for impact.
Please don't say my name, don't say my name, not me, not me, please Merlin don't make it be me.
"After debating it we decided the most logical pick would be", a paused as his green eyes locked with mine, "Mione".
A heavy weight filled my heart. They were right; I am the most logical fight. I am cool headed and logical and wouldn't go blow everybody up like Ron or Finnigan would. And harry couldn't go he had to train everybody else.
But I don't want to, however selfish that though may be, I bloody well don't want to do it. I have absolutely no desire to hang out with some cold blood killers for God knows how long!
"And", Harry stuttered, "The only way we think you will be able to gain information is if you seduce…"
He paused and looked shyly down at his shoes.
"Draco Malfoy"
No. no. no. no .no no. no.
Please
Anyone else
Anyone but him
I look over at Lupin who looks at me expectantly and then allow my eyes to wander across every hopeful face in the room.
The hope of the order rests on my shoulders
"I'll do it" I said
I just hope I don't fail