Chapter Three: A Mishap Occurs

"Come with me if you want to live."

My eyes met those of none other than Pansy Parkinson, wearing a hood like mine with a scarf pulled up over her nose. I only recognized her because of her voice—this year, we have many classes together. Definitely not on purpose. She wasn't my favorite person in the world at the time, although that was about to change.

I stared at her blankly. "What?"

"Well, it was only sort of a joke. Now come on!"

She grabbed my wrist again and dragged me along after her, running much faster than I would have liked, zigging and zagging down streets I'd never even known existed.

Finally, we showed up at the door of a large mansion that didn't bode much better than Hangleton House had in my mind. It looked just as creepy that place. But, I figured, it couldn't get much worse, right?

She led me up to the front door, causing me to wonder about what we were doing here. She glanced cautiously over her shoulder as we approached and she started digging through a small purse she'd been carrying. As she did this, I finally got up the courage to voice my wonders. "Where are we?" I finally asked.

"My house." It looked exactly like the kind of place she'd live. It had a similar dark vibe to it. "My parents live right in town. It's really nice for me because I can stay there while going to school instead of having to be in one of those gross dorms. Anyway, they're not coming home until late, so you don't have to worry about meeting them." She finally found her key and jammed it in the doorknob.

I briefly wondered why I would have to worry about her parents, but chalked it up to standard teenage embarrassment. I had other questions that needed answering first.

"And why, exactly, are we here?" I prodded.

"Well, you don't want to lead them right into school, do you?" She pushed the door open, which creaked as it went open. Actually, so did the front steps. And the first few planks of the interior wood flooring. Perhaps everything about this house creaked. "It'd be better to wait here until they pass. That way they can't confirm where you currently live."

"I have two problems with that. First, why doesn't it matter if they know where you live? If you're so worried about them following me to the school, don't you think that they'll follow you here?"

She paused for a second. "Well, my parents are… sort of involved, I guess, so I am too. They already know where I live. If they find you here with me, we can both pretend not to have realized the other's involvement. Make sense?"

"Yeah, I suppose. Didn't they see you grab me, though?"

"Didn't see my face," she said. "Anyway, I trust you to figure it out. You're pretty smart." She patted me on the back.

"Er… thanks? I guess?" It came out as a question.

"You said there were two questions," she prodded, already having moved on.

"Right. Why are you helping me? Especially since you're somehow part of them?"

"First, let's put a name to 'them.' 'They,' as I am sure you may have already guessed, are Death Eaters, and they are trying to help Voldemort return from his current state of being… well, almost dead."

"Right… okay, but that still doesn't answer my first question."

"That's none of your concern right now."

"But—"

"Scratch that. It's dangerous for you to know too much. If you know nothing, you can neither tell them anything nor can you get yourself into more trouble accidentally spilling information."

"Why can't I know anything?" I felt like a child whose parents had told them that they weren't old enough to watch some movie.

"I literally just said," Pansy snapped at me. "Oh, and feel free to take off your shoes and put them right there." She pointed at a pile of shoes in the corner near the door and a coat rack.

I gave a huff, but my next spout of indignation was cut off before it could even begin when a voice rang out, "What is she doing here?"

The voice had a serene touch to it, which made me think it was Luna. These suspicions were confirmed when I turned around to see her standing on the spiral staircase behind me.

"What are you doing here?" I shot back, shocked to see her. As far as I knew, Luna and Pansy weren't friends. I was pretty sure I had never even seen them speak to each other, except once last year when they were paired together for a group project.

"I'm here because I am," Luna replied, absolutely unhelpful whatsoever. "What about you?"

Pansy seemed to be trying to suppress a smile as I grumbled, knowing I wouldn't get anywhere.

"I guess it doesn't matter," I resolved. Then, I decided to change back to my original topic—questions about what the heck was going on—and asked, "That place was something of Voldemort's, right? So what was Ginny doing there?" Pansy had given me the answer to the first question, but the second… Not so much. I wanted to know how she was involved with all of this. After all, that's how everything had started, right?

"You shouldn't go back there," Pansy said, avoiding the question, much to my chagrin.

"That's not an answer."

"The answer doesn't matter."

"Yes, it does," I countered, annoyed.

"No, it doesn't."

"Well, it does to me!"

"Well, then, you're going to be disappointed." I looked away.

Why couldn't they just let me in? I was part of this now, too!

"I'll figure it out on my own, then!"

"Don't go back," Pansy told me again. She sounded more concerned this time—like now she thought I might actually be brash enough to do it.

"You shouldn't meddle in this," Luna agreed after I was silent for a little while.

"Weren't you the one who told me to follow Ginny tonight?"

Luna winced. "I didn't know everything that was going on at that point. I knew bits and pieces and…" She trailed off, staring out the window. "What pretty stars," she said, smiling. "Sorry, anyway… I started on this long before you did. I had most of the story… Then Pansy finally filled me in on all the little details. I knew basically everything. It just wasn't everything everything."

I pursed my lips.

"I'm sorry, Hermione," Pansy said. "I can't have you messing everything up, and to keep that from happening, you have to drop this. Besides—this is really dangerous."

I sighed. I wasn't going to get anywhere like this. "Fine. I'll drop it," I lied.

Pansy watched me skeptically for a moment. I wondered if I'd given up too easily. I never had been great at lying. But then she said, "Okay. Good. Thank you. Why don't you stay here for tonight, just to be safe? What you did tonight was really dangerous—we can't have them following you around."

"What about your parents?" I asked. "Won't they care that I'm here?" My parents definitely would, but perhaps they were stricter than some.

"They're out of town for a while," she said. I frowned. Hadn't she said earlier that they were coming home today, just late?

I decided not to press for information—she already seemed testy enough; I wasn't about to go snooping through her family business.

"Okay," I said slowly. "I'll stay." It couldn't hurt, right? I could defend myself well enough and I had my phone with me in case she tried to pull something, but I didn't think she was like that. Besides, I had known Luna well (ish) for a long time now. She wouldn't be hanging out with a bad person.

Ginny

It was getting late and he hadn't decided to see me yet. There had been a large disturbance—probably Hermione's fault—and he had kept me waiting for a few hours now.

I hoped she was okay, though, even if she'd caused such a ruckus. She probably hadn't meant to.

I had tried to tell her to be quiet, to stop following me so closely, but she hadn't taken the hint—last I'd seen, they'd been chasing her out, which meant she probably hadn't paid too much attention to not being noticed.

I hoped that I hadn't been found out—or worse, that Hermione had been hurt. I had been counting on her help, but not at her own risk.

"Weasley," Rookwood snapped at me.

I jumped. "What?"

"He wants to see you now."

"Finally," I grumbled.

"You be respectful, now, dear," he said. I hated it when he called me that. "He's been very busy these past few hours. Be grateful you get to see him at all today—he could have kept you waiting here until morning."

I nodded absentmindedly, having already tuned him out. I really didn't care what he had to say.

"Just let me in."

He sighed and opened the door to the Office. The "Office" was what we called it—don't ask me why. I wasn't here when someone came up with that wonderfully creative name.

Regardless, I walked into the dimly lit room, silent as a ghost.

"You have a tail," came a sleek, slithery voice, which sounded as cold as the room felt. "And she must be cut out."

"Yes, my liege," I replied calmly. I hated calling him that, but, I supposed, he could probably kill me for not referring to him properly.

"That Granger girl caused quite a commotion today." I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up on end. He knew her name. "She was smart enough to find this place—and then to enter unopposed—without us knowing. That is dangerous. Now, you're a smart girl, too. Can you ditch her, or will she end up in a ditch herself?" It was a threat.

"No, sir. I will find a way to stop her from following me, sir."

"Excellent." He gave me a cold smile that drew any remaining heat from the room. "I knew I could count on you, my dear. Now, go, do whatever you must do."

I stepped out of the Office, glad to be out of that badly-lit monstrosity that the others dared to refer to as though it were a place one could actually work in. Excuse the minor rambling of that sentence.

Hell, scratch work—I doubted anyone could focus on anything besides their grave fear of him in that room—but I supposed that was the point.

I let out a sigh as I slipped first into the loud main room—the club—and then out into Hogsmeade, relinquishing my prior thoughts I had been hung up in. Now it was time to do the difficult thinking.

I had a problem now, as I had assumed that Hermione wouldn't be dumb enough to get caught. Evidently, I was wrong. That set me back quite a bit. I had been counting on her help. Counting on it.

I willed myself not to start crying and to keep my composure.

There was no one else I trusted to put the pieces together—none of my family were smart enough or brave enough to go the extra mile, and none of my friends cared enough.

Besides Hermione.

But I couldn't put her in danger like this—if she died while trying to help me, then I would feel worse than if I were just stuck here.

I had needed her to put things together.

Now I was on my own.

Hermione

I found a coffee maker in the kitchen.

At least it meant that Pansy was semi-civilized.

I was extremely tired after last night's ordeal, plus I hadn't fallen asleep until nearly four in the morning due to anxiety and stress that wouldn't leave me alone.

Regardless, I was on my sixth (or was it seventh?) cup of coffee when Pansy finally came out of her bedroom. She was in sweatpants and a tank top and her hair was a mess.

She looked tired, too.

"Coffee?" I asked, jittering a little.

She gave a grunt of agreement and snatched a cup from the cupboard, allowing me to pour some for her.

We sat in silence for a few minutes, sipping our coffee together.

"I'm part of an investigation," she finally said. "I've gotten permission to share some details with you, but not all."

"Alright," I said, hopefully. This was progress. "Are you investigating Voldemort, then?"

"Well, yeah, I guess." She was quiet for a little while longer, slurping some of her coffee. "We're trying to shut down his operation, really," she said at last. "The—my organization," she caught herself, careful not to let me know who was backing her, "has been tracking the movements of his followers since he was first apprehended. They wanted to catch as many of them as possible. In recent years, the flow has stopped a little, but as soon as he escaped, they realized that they needed to get back in as deep as they could. Apprehending him was of the utmost importance. I don't even know how I got involved in all of this… It's all a bit of a blur, really, and it doesn't really affect you."

I wondered how much of this she'd really been authorized to tell me. It didn't sound like the sort of thing I would just be allowed to know, but I didn't push it. Instead, I asked, "Does this have to do with why what you said about your parents didn't line up?"

She frowned. "I don't know. What did I say?"

"First, when I got here, you said that they would be home late. Then, later, you said they were out of town for a while."

She laughed. "Sorry. The first one was the old story. This isn't my house. It belonged to my parents up until this most recent August, but they moved out of it at the end of summer. I'm letting my organization use it as a sort of safe house. Plus, I can stay here, and bring others here, without it seeming weird—most people will either not think twice, since my parents used to be here all the time, or they just assume that my parents are away. Which, I guess, they are. They're helping with an operation of Voldemort's up north."

I nodded. "What is your organization? Police? Some sort of private detective group? Or is it higher up? FBI?"

"Well, I'm really not supposed to say."

"Okay. FBI, then?" It seemed like a logical assumption.

She laughed slightly, then started to open her mouth, but whatever she was going to say next was cut off by Luna walking out of the same bedroom that Pansy had been in.

"Good morning," she said tiredly. She was wearing an extremely thin nightgown. "Oh," she said belatedly. "Should I change?" The question was directed at me.

"Er… no, you're fine," I said awkwardly, looking away.

She smiled. "I'll go change." She vanished back into the room for a moment.

I raised an eyebrow at Pansy. Now I had an answer as to what Luna was doing at Pansy's house.

"Are you two…?"

She blushed, then nodded.

"Wow."

"I know!"

"I never would have thought you two would work well together in a relationship."

Pansy shrugged. "Me neither. But we do." She got an adorable smile on her face as she continued, "I really like her."

"That's good," I said, and then we fell into silence, sipping our coffee.

Breaking the uncomfortable tension, she said, "Anyway, Ginny wasn't initially involved with me and my own, but now one of my jobs is to keep an eye on her, keep her safe. She's a valuable asset to us."

"An asset?"

"That's how my agency views her."

"She's a person," I said, annoyed. "If you're protecting her, it should be to protect her. She's just a kid."

"So am I, and yet here I am. Listen, we need her to be able to testify for us if it comes to that. If it were up to me, we wouldn't put her through that. I agree with you—she's just a kid."

"She went to a bar with lots of Death Eaters in it," I told Dumbledore later that same day.

We were in his office again, and he was watching me apprehensively. "That still isn't much proof, but it's more. You cannot follow her out of school again."

"Why not?" I got that people wanted to keep me safe or whatever, but them constantly telling me what not to do was starting to get on my nerves. Of course it was for the best, but still—what teenager likes to be told what to do over and over again?

"It isn't safe, as I am sure Ms. Parkinson already warned you."

"How do you know about Pansy?" I asked. I hadn't mentioned any of what had happened with her, as I didn't know what I was allowed to tell others.

"That is not your concern right now," he responded calmly. I was getting frustrated by how often people kept telling me that, too. Sooner or later, I was going to get answers, no matter what. "Keep an eye on her during school, but no more than that," he concluded.

"Fine," I agreed. He was probably right, as much as I hated to admit it.

Ginny cornered me after dinner. We hadn't sat together that day, the way we had been doing. In fact, I hadn't even seen her since the following night.

"You have to stop following me."

"So everyone says." Were people reading from a script?

"Who have you told?"

"Just Pansy, who saved me from your buddies last night."

Ginny let out a breath. "You can't mention her in that sort of context."

I frowned. "Why not?"

"Just trust me, alright?"

"I'm really starting to get sick of no one giving me any answers," I snapped. It was true. I was invested now; there were things I really wanted to know.

"I'm sorry. I really am." She was the only one who sounded even a little bit remorseful for keeping me in the dark after I was already so involved. "I just don't want to land her in any more hot water than is necessary. She's on our side, though, but people are always listening. I can't have someone hear something they shouldn't."

"And what is 'our' side, exactly?"

"Not his."

We both understood what she meant by that, even though she couldn't say any more.

"Give it a rest. Please. Before someone gets hurt."

Chapter Release Date: December 25, 2018

A/N: Happy Holidays!