Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Seamus and Hermione
Time Period: Deathly Hallows
Written by colour-of-forgetmenots
Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Characters and canon settings all belong to J.K. Rowling. I made no money out of this, as this is simply fan-made
Author's Note: This chapter was heavily inspired by angroradebs's Harry Potter fanfic "All Fall Down". Also, special thanks to sbolzzz for review-ing and following me and also to maryn90 who favorited my story.
Surprise
CHAPTER TWO
The last rays of sunlight streamed in through the windows of the room he was closest too. They rays reflected on his glasses, and made him feel slightly warm where they touched him. The sunlight had managed to pierce through London's usual grey skies, and shed some natural light in the house for once. The slight dripping noise of leftover rainwater falling from the gutter and onto the windowsill was all he heard for a while.
His green eyes scanned the crumpled and soaking piece of paper in his hands. He ran his hands through his messy black hair, as he read the Daily Prophet article for the third time. He could not believe what was in the paper; he could not believe what he was reading. The news was about Hogwarts, and it was not good news.
The news was more specifically about who would be this year's new Headmaster at the school. Dumbledore had died, so of course it was not him. Professor McGonagall was not the Headmistress as she had kept her job as Transfiguration Teacher. The position of Headmaster (or Headmistress) was not taken by any of the school staff.
Well, with the exception of one person. Out of all the people who could have been picked to be the school's Headmaster, it had to be him. The man that killed Dumbledore – Severus Snape
Snape would be the Headmaster, while Alecto and Amycus Carrow would be taking over the position of Defence against the Dark Arts teacher (or in this case, 'teachers'). The Carrows, before teaching, would be responsible for collecting the Hogwarts Express tickets.
The tickets were used in the past, simply to show that you were heading onto the train. They would only signify that you were accepted into Hogwarts, and that was that. Starting this year, each ticket would be an important part of a student's trip to Hogwarts. Each ticket would be custom made, and on the back, there would all sorts of personal information on the student; blood type, information on a student's parents and their full name, were some examples of what would be included. When collected, the tickets would be punched with a ticket punch and returned to the student.
Another difference that year, and to quote the article, was: "Rule Number 24: No Magic Is To Be Used On The Train, In The School, At Hogsmeade Or In Dormitories Unless Told To Be Done."
More unfortunate news came as well in that article, to his great dismay – Umbridge was running a Muggle-Born Registration Commission. One of his best friend's was a risk, and he could not afford to lose her. She meant too much to him ... and besides, without her, he and Ron would be completely lost.
"He" was Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived. Harry was currently in hiding. Searching for horcruxes, but also in hiding
It had all begun the night of Bill and Fleur's wedding, when the Death Eaters attacked, and Harry, Ron and Hermione were forced to Disapparate to safety. They Apparated at Tottenham Court Road and after being found by two Death Eaters (Dolohov and Thorfinn Rowle) they had been forced to Apparated again. This time, to Grimmauld Place - it was a safe-place. Mr. Weasley's patronus came later, telling them to not contact them but to stay safe.
He sighed, and slumped down to the floor. Harry leaned his head against the wall, and closed his eyes. He kept hearing, the late, Mad-Eye Moody's voice in his head, "Constant vigilance!"
He let himself be submerged into the eerie silence that was always at Grimmauld Place. He closed his eyes, listening to the sound of the floorboards as they creaked, and then feeling the hand tap him on the shoulder.
"Harry," Ron said softly, "Harry mate, wake up. 'Mione made dinner."
Harry slowly opened his eyes, and stood up, the Daily Prophet lay folded up on the floor. His scar was throbbing, but he did not want it to bother his friends
"You alright, mate?" Ron asked, a look of concern on his face
"Yeah," Harry said, forcing a smile, "just tiered."
"Right, well, after dinner you should get some rest," said Ron, patting Harry on the back
"Yeah, yeah I will" Harry replied, running a hand through his raven hair and straightening his round glasses.
Downstairs, the smell of Hermione's fresh mushroom soup, wafted upstairs, making both boys hungry.
"Hey Ron," Harry said, making an attempt to lightening the mood, and to distract himself from the pain in his forehead, "I'll race you downstairs."
Ron freckled face, broke into a grin, "And I'll win!"
"Love to see you try." Harry replied, smirking, as both boys raced downstairs.
The stairs creaked and groaned, the heavy sound of boots running downstairs followed, and they nearly made Hermione jump. She had gotten used the silence in the house, and the sudden noise surprised her,
"Boys" Hermione exclaimed as they both bolted downstairs, "be more careful! You almost made me spill our dinner!"
"Couldn't have that, now could we?" Ron said
"Yes, it could have burnt me-"
"I mean, we would have no food them."
Hermione looked taken aback, and seemed although she was ready to scold Ron, but Ron's face broke into a wide grin, "Only joking, 'Mione!"
Harry and Ron exchanged glances and burst out laughing, Hermione relaxed and joined them. She regained her composure first, and lay down the pot of soup on the table.
"Pass me your plates," she said, as she took out a ladle from a drawer, and began to serve the soup.
In the end, Ron ate three bowls, while Hermione had two, and Harry barely managed one. His scar was throbbing more, and it was getting harder to hide.
"Harry," Hermione asked as she began putting the food away, "Harry, are you alright?"
"Just put the stuff away with magic" he said, not answering her question
Hermione nodded, still not using magic to put the leftover soup away and wash the dishes, she asked again "Harry-"
"I'm -umm- going upstairs," Ron said sheepishly. He could tell Hermione needed to talk to Harry alone, and he being there would not help, "gotta go check on Kreacher. Don't trust that ugly bastard."
"Ron," Hermione called out after Ron, as he made his way upstairs, "Kreacher is a house-elf. Not an ugly bastard."
"Right," They heard Ron say as the creaking of the steps, eventually stopped and they heard the door to Ron's room close.
Harry sighed, as Hermione turned to him, "Listen Harry ... is it your scar?"
"Does it matter?"
"Of course, it matters Harry," Hermione said, "It could mean, that He's trying to get in."
"How do you know, Hermione?" Harry asked
The amount of dishes in the sink were starting to bother him, so he took out his wand, and before Hermione could offer to put them away the Muggle way, with swish of his wand, they were in their rightful place.
"Harry," Hermione said, "you can tell me when it hurts next time. I'll be there for you."
"Where would I be without you, Hermione?" Harry sighed, running a hand through his hair
A smile crept on Hermione face, "Long-ago expelled from Hogwarts."
Harry laughed, as he slipped his hand in the pocket of his sweater to pull out the Marauder's Map, but was left with only an empty space in his pocket. No map.
"Do you wish we kept the map?" Harry asked
"No, I don't think we would need it," Hermione said, "because if we somehow got caught, and it ended up in the wrong hands... things would be bad at Hogwarts."
"Not bad, but worse" Harry said
Hermione frowned at him in confusion
"Have you seen the Prophet?" he asked
"No, can you bring it to me?"
The Gryffindor boy's dormitory, was very quiet and dark that night. There were two empty beds, and only three full ones. The three full beds were Neville's, Dean's and Seamus's.
"Dean," hissed Seamus, "Dean, are yeh awake?"
"I am now, came a groan from the bed to his right."
"Same here," said Neville from across the room
"What's so important to wake us up at...?"
"Five in the morning, Neville" Dean finished
"Somethin' doesn't feel right... I feel like somethin' bad is gonna happen." Seamus replied
"Maybe you had too much pumpkin juice," suggested Neville, "and you have to... you know..."
"I didn't have too much pumpkin juice. I wasn't thirsty," said Seamus
A silence fell upon the three boys, until Seamus tore off his sheets and snatched his wand off his bed stand
"What are you-"Neville began
"Lumos"
"Seamus!" Neville hissed
"Shhh!" The Irish boy growled. Seamus used the silvery light coming from the tip of is wand, to pull out his school trunk from under his bed and open it.
"Accio Marauder's Map," he said a bit more quietly. The silvery light vanished, and there was a moment of objects hitting other objects inside his trunk, but then he felt something lightly hit his chest.
"You found it?" came Neville's voice
"I think I found it..." Seamus murmured. He crawled on his hands and knees, until his fingers felt paper. "Lumos"
The silvery light appeared from his wand, and he picked up the Marauder's Map from the floor. He brought it over to his bed and tapped it with his wand.
"I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good." Seamus said.
The opened a bit slower for him than it did for Neville or Dean, because of his accent.
'Old codgers who made this, didn't make the thing fluent in Irish' Seamus thought
Neville and Dean pulled off their covers, and went over to sit with Seamus.
"There's us," Dean said pointing to the drawing of the Gryffindor Tower, where there were three labels – Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas and Neville Longbottom.
"Lemme see," said Dean, grabbing for the map, "after all, Harry gave it to me."
"Gave yeh the best gift out of all three," yawned Seamus
"What you got was... good" Said Dean, running a hand through his short hair
"I got meself a coin." Seamus said
"Well it's one of the D.A. coins. With it, you can contact anyone who's got one," Neville said, "that can be pretty useful."
"I guess... but it's nothin' like what you got. Your gift's got thought."
"A picture of my parents, that's what I got," Neville said, "but yours is important too. I mean, it shows to everyone you were part of something important."
Before Seamus could say anything, Dean cut him off
"Who's that?"
His finger was pointed a label saying names Seamus thought he would never see at Hogwarts. Names, that were not supposed to be able to get through the Hogwarts protective barrier – but if they did get in, then the barrier was broken, and Hogwarts was no longer safe.
The labels made their way across the map with great speed. They were the following:
Bellatrix Lestrange, Rodolphus Lestrange. Walden Mcnair.
"Death Eaters," whispered Seamus
"Snape must've let them in!" exclaimed Dean
"What do we do?"Neville said
"Look!" said Seamus, "it's-"
The door to the boy's dormitory burst open, and in rushed Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, still in their pyjamas. Just as they shut the door behind them, it was opened once more, and in stumbled Luna Lovegood, who unlike the other two girls, was fully dressed.
Pavarti was out of breath, as Dean laid the map down, to go over and hug her.
"Pavarti!" he exclaimed as the poor girl clung to his shoulders, "Are you alright?"
"We- we heard noises outside," Pavarti said through tears," and-and G-Ginny went to see what it was. We saw her f-from t-the window and- and-"
"They killed her," Lavender shuddered, "just like that. Maybe they found out she was connected to Harry, we don't know."
Seamus's eyes traveled to Luna who looked rather terrified. Her eyes were large and she was missing her left radish earring.
"Seamus!" she cried out, as she suddenly noticed him. Luna ran over, and hugged him very tightly, nearly knocking him off the bed. She eventually pulled away, and said with a small smile, "I needed a hug."
"How'd yeh get here?" he asked Luna
"Guessed the password, it's not that hard."
"Change" Pavarti suddenly ordered. She had stepped away from Dean, and was viciously wiping away at the tears on her face
"Change? In front of yeh? Yeh can't be serious." Seamus said
"Oh come now, "Lavender said, "Just do it! The Death Eaters could get in at any minute, and if we need to escape-"
"How would we escape?" Asked Neville
As Lavender was about to reply, the door was once more opened and in stepped Colin Creevey. He carried several things in his hands that threatened to fall to the floor at any minute
"Try looking the door next time guys," The younger boy said, "I could have been a Death Eater."
"Good idea," said Luna as she pulled out her wand, "Colloportus!"
The door closed with a bang, and Colin lay down objects he had been carrying, on Ron's old bed.
"Brooms?" said Dean
"We're using them to escape;" said Colin, as he rubbed his eyes "as you can see, Hogwarts isn't safe anymore. Now, if I were you, I would change into something warmer than pyjamas – it's pretty cold out there."
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