Disclaimer:
I do not own Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. They're J.K. Rowling's and J.R.R. Tolkien's.
Summary:
Thirst for knowledge can lead to dangerous roads, especially when books are not what they seem. In her seventh year, Hermione discovers that not all myths are based upon reality, and not all fiction is based upon the fantasy of the author's mind. When chance offers power beyond anything imaginable, how can she refuse?
Author's Notice:
This story contains elements of Lord of the Rings. Characters may be very OOC, but it is my intent if they are. I'm just borrowing them and this story is not a seventh-year story that is supposed to fit into the canon.
Chapter 2
The next morning, Hermione woke up feeling like she had been drinking far too much the night before, which was, of course, ridiculous. There were no alcoholic drinks allowed in Hogwarts, and Hermione would never get drunk anyway. She had been once, and had decided that it was enough to last for a lifetime. She had hated how she had not been in control of her voice, words, thoughts and movements. Fortunately, she had been with her family when it had happened, and so no bad blood had been aroused by her thoughtless babblings.
Slowly, she pulled back the curtains of her four-poster. Blindingly white light streamed in and she immediately regretted her actions. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the sunlight and thus reduce the immense headache that was pounding inside her head. Part of her wanted to pull the curtains shot again and just sleep through the morning lessons, but most part was aching to get back to lessons.
Very reluctantly, Hermione opened her eyes again and pulled herself to a sitting position. The light was not hurting her eyes as badly this time, and she decided to progress with dressing.
When she finally went over to have a look in the mirror, she gasped with shock. Not only did she feel like she had a hangover, she also did look the part. What the hell had happened? She could not remember anything abnormal about last night, and so far she had always slept peacefully without any nightmares in Hogwarts.
Determined that she would let no one else see her bleary eyes and bluish rings under them, she applied a simple make-up charm that would cover most of the bad-looking parts. For once, Hermione was very glad to have her own room as Head Girl. Had she been in the dormitory with the other seventh-year Gryffindor girls, everybody would have bombarded her with questions about the night before.
As she went downstairs to the Great Hall, the pounding in her head started to subside and Hermione shrugged it off as nervousness about her first day as Head Girl.
Apparently she was early, as there were only a few students scattered across the various tables. The prefects, and Head Girl and Boy, had a separate table that was close to the teacher's table. The last two years this had been an awkward arrangement for Hermione, but this year she felt glad that she could have some time without her friends from Gryffindor being around.
Draco Malfoy was already there, poking his bacon with a bored expression. She hesitated, but then went to sit with him. What the heck, they were Head Girl and Head Boy after all. People had to adjust to them being friendly to each other.
"Morning," she said, not really feeling in the mood for a conversation, but she did not want to sit in silence either. It was her usual morning dilemma; Hermione was not a morning person by any standards.
"Morning," Draco replied, still looking bored. He was not a morning person, either, which was a thing Hermione was incredibly thankful for. Harry and Ron were almost insufferable in the morning, they jumped and joked and poked and did everything which Hermione would have found funny, but not in the morning. They had so far ignored her pleas to stop it at least when she was near, in fact this rather made them do even more annoying things.
Draco looked up from his bacon. He looked slightly more interested than before. "I have talked to Snape yesterday," he said. Hermione made a face. Draco looked exasperated. "Anyway," he said. "He was telling me that final-year students are allowed in the restricted section."
Hermione raised an eyebrow in Draco's manner. "Oh?" she drawled, using his usual bored tone.
Draco mimicked her, raising his eyebrow as well. "Oh," he said. "Honestly, Hermione, I would have thought you'd be more excited, seeing how often you had to sneak out using Potter's cloak!"
Hermione smirked. "At least that gave it an air of excitement. After all, not everybody has an invisibility cloak, or have they? Now it will be all common people, including you, roaming the restricted section," she finished with a mock-sad look.
Draco smiled down on her. "Of course, that is something I have forgotten," he drawled. "Snape said that only students who'd be showing enough academic interest are allowed into the restricted section. "
"That rules you out, then?" Hermione quipped.
"In fact, Snape –--" Draco paused, looking at someone behind Hermione.
Not Snape? Hermione thought, turning around as well. Normally Snape left the Slytherins, especially Draco, alone, but seeing that she was sitting with him…
It was, in fact, Dumbledore. He looked at both of them with a twinkle in his eye, although Hermione thought that she could percept some other emotion as well, which normally did not show in the Headmaster's face. "Good morning, Headmaster," both she and Draco chorused.
The twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes deepened. "Good morning, Miss Granger, Mister Malfoy," he said, smiling. "Congratulations for being the Head people this year, I trust you both will do your job excellently." Something flickered briefly across his features. "Good luck," he said, and turned to sit at the staff table.
Hermione and Draco looked at each other, then Draco shrugged. "He probably meant that we're Slytherin and Gryffindor, you know, House rivalry and all that."
"Hmm," Hermione nodded, staring at Dumbledore who was now talking to Professor Flitwick. "He probably meant that. But did you see his expression? As if he was – I don't know, very worried or something…"
"Don't know," Draco said lazily. "Look, the others are coming in. Seems like Potty and Weasel are the first ones." He smirked. "They were probably wondering why you weren't waiting for them, like a good lapdog should do."
At Draco's words, Hermione first snorted with laughter, but then shut up, guiltily thinking that they were her friends and she should not be laughing at them. Also, she remembered that what Draco had said was quite true – she had promised to wait for them. Ouups…
Draco laughed even harder at her guilty face. "True, was it?" Hermione nodded guiltily, noticing that at this point both Harry and Ron were staring at her, wearing a look that clearly said, 'Why are you talking to Malfoy, Hermione?'
"Shush," she told him. "We wanted to take it easy, remember? This isn't helping."
Astonishingly enough, Draco did shut up, looking guilty himself now. "Well," he said quietly, "seems like we missed the opportunity to introduce everyone slowly to, ahem, the situation. Look, the whole of Gryffindor and Slytherin are staring!"
He was right. As all the students filed in, they threw confused glances at the Prefect's table. Thankfully, they seemed to ignore them once they were seated. That is, apart from Harry and Ron, who were still staring at the table, wearing the same look that they had had when they entered the hall.
"Heck," Draco said. "You can't just ignore them, Hermione. Go to them and say something about Head Girl business. It is only making it worse if you sit here and continue to talk to me as if you hadn't seen them!"
Of course, he was right! Hermione wanted to smack herself in the head, but instead she nodded and got up to meet Harry and Ron, smiling brightly at them. "Morning," she said.
Harry wore a deeply suspicious frown. "Why were you talking to Malfoy, Hermione?" he asked.
"Head Girl business," Hermione told him smoothly, pointing to her badge. "He's Head Boy, you know."
Harry and Ron looked dumbfounded for a moment, but soon this changed into a look of outrage.
"He can't be Head Boy!" Ron exclaimed. "Do you believe that, Harry? Ferret Boy turned Head Boy? I bet he bought his way in," he added bitterly.
"Oh, come on!" Hermione snapped. "You can't buy a position in Hogwarts, it's –"
"- in Hogwarts, a History," Harry and Ron finished, still looking outraged. Hermione stiffened. "No, I was going to say it's impossible."
Harry looked disappointed. "Still, it would have been much better if one of us could have been Head Boy. Just think of how many points he'll take from us!"
"Hermione will take just as many from Slytherin," Ron said, trying in vain to sound cheerful. It was clear that he, too, had hoped to be in this particular position. Hermione fought the urge to roll her eyes and tell both of them off. They had not even been Prefects, for God's sake! How could they expect to be made Head Boy?
But wisely, she didn't say anything and pointed instead to Ginny, who had just arrived, late as always. "She'll be Head Girl next year," she comforted Ron.
"Who'll be Head Girl?" Ginny asked curiously, not having heard that part of the conversation.
"You," Ron answered promptly, looking much more cheerful at that prospect. He adored his little sister, although he didn't show it. "Can you believe Malfoy's Head Boy?" he asked indignantly. "'Mione just told us!"
"Well," Ginny said slowly, frowning a little. "He does have the second best grades in your year…"
Now it was Ron's turn to frown. "That little git has better grades than, say, Harry?" he asked, outraged. It was no secret that his grades were not the best ones, but Harry had not too bad grades.
Ginny snorted. "Harry's way down. Most of the Ravenclaws occupy the space in between." She was the best in her year, and although she had not had as many O.W.L.s as Hermione, it had been quite a record.
Harry looked deeply unsatisfied. Apparently he, too, had thought of himself being second or third place. Ginny giggled. "We have to go," she said, taking Hermione's arm and pulling her back to the Prefects' table. "See you later!"
On their way, Ginny looked slyly at Hermione. "So," she said, "When are you going to tell them that you and Malfoy are no longer sworn enemies?"
Hermione choked. "What? How…"
Ginny looked very superior. "Not everyone has their heads filled with only Quidditch, like these two morons. Almost half the school has noticed by now that you seem to get along quite well," she smirked. "I'm really surprised that nobody has told them so far, but then, considering that at least one of them would go off into a major temper tantrum, I suppose it is not that surprising."
Hermione was still staring open-mouthed at Ginny by the time they reached the Prefects' table. Draco looked at her quizzically, but did not dare to ask because of Ginny.
She must have noticed because she turned to smirk at him. "Seems like your secret isn't as secret as you thought, Ferret Boy."
Draco looked even more confused, and did not even register the insult. "Huh?" he asked.
Ginny's smirk grew even wider, and she pushed Hermione back into the chair next to Draco, then flopped in the chair next to Hermione. "And there I was thinking that Slytherins were supposed to be the cunning, scheming ones. Oh well, I suppose one can always be wrong. You see, what I meant was that I was just telling Hermione that half the school is aware that you seem to be getting on with each other quite well, and apparently she was surprised."
"Oh," Draco said weakly. "Half the school meaning whom?"
Ginny looked delighted. "Meaning everybody up from forth year, apart from Harry, Ron, your two cronies, and maybe one or two other people who would be too stupid to notice."
Draco looked faintly amused. "You know," he said. "I always thought that we Slytherins were cunning and scheming as well, but apparently this does not account for sheer blindness. But say – I hear you say the names of Potty and, umm, your brother, in the same breath as Goyle and Crabbe? Whatever happened?"
Ginny grinned nastily. "They are quite similar. Well, maybe Harry and Ron have the better grades, and, by the way, you can say Weasel if you really want to, I don't mind a lot."
Draco replied something on the same lines, and so the two went on bickering, totally ignoring Hermione who sat in their midst, feeling a bit forlorn. What had happened to the old Ginny who was blushing all the time when she saw Harry Potter? When did this new Ginny turn up, the sarcastic, witty Ginny who did not seem to care at all about Harry?
She was confused. She had been friends with Ginny since fifth year, because by then Ginny had been going out with another boy from Ravenclaw, and had started to show a lot more interest in study. They had been studying together quite a lot, apart from the times when Hermione was studying with Draco, of course. But Ginny had still retained some of her old characteristics – she had been far more… well, Gryffindorish. Her sarcasm was rather disturbing, not that Gryffindors weren't sarcastic, but it was in a different way. Ginny's sarcasm blended perfectly in with Draco's.
Hermione felt the eyes of Ron and Harry on them, again. They had the same look as before, and were heatedly discussing something. She smiled faintly. They probably couldn't believe that Ginny was talking to Draco. But then Minerva McGonnagal, who was going around and handing out timetables to the students, distracted them, and they instead bent down to examine their timetables.
Hermione looked at hers. She felt a slight twinge of guilt when she struggled to remember what subjects Harry and Ron had taken. She could not believe that they were carrying on with Divination. Harry, of course, was taking Defence against the Dark Arts, and Ron, not knowing and not really caring about his subjects, had joined him. This was the one of the two subjects that Hermione had together with them.
Harry and Ron had the exact same four subjects for their N.E.W.Ts, which were Divination, Defence against the Dark Arts, Care of Magical Creatures (why they had chosen to take that particular one, Hermione would never understand) and Charms, the other subject in which they would join with Hermione.
Hermione, being Hermione, had taken up far more than the mandatory four subjects. Her timetable was almost fuller than it had been in her second year, but somehow, she felt very confident that this time, she would be able to handle all of it quite easily. Apart from Defence against the Dark Arts and Charms, she was doing Transfigurations, Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, History of Magic (she still could not believe that she was actually carrying on this subject, but some of it was quite interesting, despite Professor Binns' boring voice) and, although she could not stand the teacher, Potions.
She smiled fondly as she remembered the heated discussion she had had with Professor McGonnagal at the end of her fifth year. It had been hard to convince her Head of House that she really would be able to cope with the extra three subjects. Some of the Ravenclaws and other, more studious people, were taking five, but Hermione was an exception with her seven.
Draco was taking all her classes as well, that is, apart from the two that Harry and Ron were taking. He had declared that he did not need DADA and Charms, having learnt enough already at home.
Hermione sighed as she examined her timetable. Double Potions first… well, at least she did not have to talk to Harry and Ron so soon, then. She could already see the discussion coming up. They had clearly not been satisfied with Draco being Head Boy, and she did not want to join in their ranting against him.
"Double Potions first," Draco said from beside her, looking pleased. Potions was his best subject; over the years he had developed more knowledge than Hermione, much to her chagrin. They were constantly competing for being the best in this subject.
"Let's go then, shall we?" she sighed, and they gathered up their books and bags and filed out with all the other students to start their first day back at Hogwarts.