Secrets In The Room of Requirement
By- RobinTheSlytherin
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Chapter 3
Working Together
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"You're…a Death Eater?" Hermione asked in a tone barely above a whisper.
Draco opened his eyes and stared at Hermione with an unreadable expression.
"What do you think, Granger?" Draco asked as he pulled up his sleeve to reveal the Dark Mark burned painfully into his pale flesh.
"But you're only fifteen!" Hermione gasped, shaking her head in disbelief.
"So?" Draco sneered, lowering the sleeve of his black robes delicately.
He seemed suddenly absorbed in the folds of his sleeve and smoothed them out with the palm of his free hand. His piercing grey eyes didn't bother looking at Hermione to acknowledge her, which only infuriated her more on the Slytherins behalf.
"Draco—"
"I haven't given you permission to use my given name- so I suggest you don't take liberties unworthy of your station, Mudblood." Draco snapped, trying to steer the conversation away from his mark.
"But How could your family do such a thing to you? You're their son!"
"DON'T!" Draco roared leaping to his feet like a shot, all control gone. "DON'T YOU DARE UTTER A WORD AGAINST MY FAMILY, YOU FILTHY MUDBLOOD!"
He pointed a shaking finger in her direction, looking positively murderous. His pale blonde hair began falling out of place, fringing over his piercing grey eyes.
"Its wrong!" Hermione flinched back as if she'd been slapped, her lower lip quivering "You're their son, and they gave you up to Voldemort! No one deserves that!"
This time it was Draco's turn to flinch. A look of disgust flitters over his face at her words, and for a moment he considers her.
"Shut up Mudblood." Draco warned, his voice beginning to quiver slightly.
Harry held Ron back who looked on murderously. Harry on the other hand was staring at Theodore Nott with a concerned expression clouding his emerald green eyes. The Slytherin looked down helplessly at his covered forearm, as if it were an alien thing that didn't belong there,
"None of you deserve it." Hermione continued, unafraid. "Your parents were wrong to do so."
This time it was Ron who leapt to his feet.
"Fuck them Mione! Stop wasting your breath on these Death worshiping monsters!" Ron shouted, pointing at Draco who looked on unfazed. "and when we get out of here, I'm going to make sure these slimy snakes are thrown into Azkaban where they belong!"
And then Hermione did something none of them expected.
She stood and moved to stand in front of Ron very slowly.
And slapped him.
Ron's face jerked to the side, and remained there. His red locks covered his eyes, which was just as well, since Hermione didn't want to look into them
"When did you become so cruel, Ron?" Hermione whispered , as she turned away from her friend "They. Didn't. Deserve. It."
Both Pansy and Theo stare at Hermione, as if she had just voiced what they had always believed, but never accepted about their own families.
Tear tracks ran down Pansy's face, causing her black eyeliner to run with it. She looked at Hermione, clutching the hem of her skirt in her fists.
Theo, on the other hand, smiled solemnly. His expression glazed over, and then just as suddenly cleared all emotion from his stoic face.
This time it was Draco's turn to speak, ignoring Weasley as if he weren't there.
"Yes… they gave me to the Dark Lord." Draco laughed darkly at Hermione "but I wouldn't expect you to understand their reasons, or the intricacies of our world."
"Hermione belongs in our world just as much as any of us." Harry replied sharply, holding Ron back from assaulting the Slytherin. "it isn't her fault your Death Eater parents fed you nothing but hate and lies all these years!"
Draco and the other Slytherins consider Harry for a moment.
Then Draco , still standing, turns back to Hermione , elegantly lowering himself into his purple armchair.
"You are nothing but an aberration to this world, Granger." Draco sneered, clutching his bottle of whiskey for dear life "Your kind are inferior, and your very existence is a mistake."
Then, just as Hermione opened her mouth to reply, a terrible scream pierced her ears.
Beside Harry, Ron crumpled to the floor in pain. He continued to scream uncontrollably: twitching and jerking violently as if he were under the Cruciatus.
"RON!" Harry shouts falling to his knees beside his best friend. His frantic green eyes searched Hermione's helplessly.
Draco's venomous expression faltered. The color drained out of his face as he watched Ron Weasley writhing in hideous agony.
"He skipped his turn!" Hermione exclaimed, as Ron's screams caused him to arch his back off the ground. "The room said there would be consequences if any of us skipped a turn! Oh God, Ron!"
"Oh, for Merlin's sake!" Pansy shouted, shoving past Hermione "Move the fucking furniture away from him! Don't any of you Gryffindor's have any sense!? All that thrashing around is going to hurt him even more!"
To Hermione's surprise, Theo began dragging the armchairs and table away from Ron as soon as he saw Harry doing it.
Blood began to pour from Ron's nose as his voice strained, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head.
His screams strained himself hoarse.
"Mione, what do we do?!" Harry shouted angrily at Hermione.
Hermione shut her eyes as she tried to think. Her heart hammered wildly as she scourged her mind for a source- any source that she remembered reading about.
"HERMIONE HE'S DYING!" Harry screamed panic stricken "DO SOMETHING!"
A second passed and then Hermione opened her eyes with a focused expression on her face.
"Everyone, gather around Ron!" Hermione shouted, falling to het knees beside Ron, who continued to scream silently.
"W-we may be able to counter it if we work together! I don't have enough power or training, and I only saw Madam Pompfrey do it once- so we're all going to have to focus! Place the palms of your hands over his torso!" Hermione instructed, tears of panic blinding her "Malfoy, Nott, Parkinson! You get on that side—"
"Why should we?" Draco spat "He retaliated against us and forced us to reveal one of our darkest secrets! He threatened us with AZKABAN! And you want us to help? No. Let the Bastard die."
"Please Malfoy!" Hermione cried out, unable to keep the tears from spilling over her eyes "He's my best friend! I'll do whatever you want- okay? I swear! J-just help him!"
In that moment the charms wore off the bottles, allowing them to unstick from their hands.
Everyone's broke except for Malfoys, who took one last swig of the drink before setting it aside.
Draco stood, stunned silent by the sight of Hermione Granger sobbing uncontrollably.
Draco watched her try and contain herself. He could see the cogs in her mind turning faster and faster. Even without her wand, her mind was sharper than any sword.
And yet that didn't stop her emotions from boiling over.
Draco Malfoy didn't like to see the Mudblood so vulnerable. As if she had no right to such an emotion or human display. He didn't want to think of Granger as human. It made Draco feel uneasy as if her tears were something private he shouldn't witness.
"Malfoy please!" Harry shouted at Weasley's convulsing side. "For Gods sake, help us!"
It was then Theodore Nott stepped forward with a sheer of sweat across his forehead.
"I'll do it." Theo muttered kneeling opposite of Harry, and placed his hands over Ron's chest. "C'mon Pans. We can taunt the idiot for fun when he wakes up."
Rolling her eyes Pansy knelt down and placed her hands on Ron's Torso a well.
"This better be worth it! Merlin, I'm so jealous of the people who don't know you lot!" She grumbled, flashing Draco a cold glare "Hurry up Draco! I hate being on my knees!"
"Fine! Let's save the bastard!" Draco snapped in irritation, then pointed a pale finger in Pansy's face "But just know- I could make sooo many blow job jokes right now!"
"Shut up and get down here!"
And then all five of them were kneeling around Ron who seemed to be in the middle of a seizure.
"Repeat the words 'emendare corporis', with your hands placed on his chest. We haven't reached maturity in our magic, so I need everyones to center your magic!" Hermione said quickly in a panic "channel your magical energy into Rons."
"Use that massive thing you call a brain, Granger!" Draco looked up, heart racing in his chest. "Our magic is GONE!"
"We don't know that for sure! Our cores are still inside us, they must be! Focus on it, and allow your power to flow through you!" Hermione shouted back with the force of an unstoppable freight train "NOW FOCUS!"
All color left Dracos face at the force of Grangers passion.Remembering how she stood up to Weasley and slapped him, he grudgingly place his hands on the red heads seizing chest, furrowing his brow in concentration.
"EMENDARE CORPORIS!"
"EMENDARE CORPORIS!"
"EMENDARE CORPORIS!"
Their voices raised as they focused on stopping the onslaught of whatever punishment curse was affecting Ron.
"EMENDARE CORPORIS!"
Light began to glow through the veins on their hands, and out of their palms. Raw magical power poured from their hands into Ron's chest.
The light absorbed into Ron's cheat and slowly, very slowly the color began to return to his cheeks.
"EMENDARE CORPORIS!"
"EMENDARE CORPORIS!"
And like a shot of adrenaline through his heart, Ron shot uptight and heaved in a great strained gasp.
His bloodshot blue eyes sprang open, darting around the Room of Requirement.
Ron was hyperventilating and fell onto Harry, who began gently rocking and shushing him.
"Ron! Shh, it's okay, it's okay! You're okay Ron!" Harry cried, his voice breaking "I've got you- breath Ron!"
Pansy studied the terror that filled Ron Weasley's eyes, and for a moment felt something akin to sympathy.
Pansy knew what it was like to suffer the Cruciatus Curse. All Death Eaters went through it as a right of passage. It was intended to harden them, and remind them to whom they truly served.
Seeing the Weasley so broken was like looking into a mirror to a time not too long ago.
"He needs water and rest." The words tumbled out of Pansy's mouth before she could stop herself. "His throat probably tore from his screams. The water will help sooth it, unless the room can supply him with pain reliver potion."
Hermione looked up with a deep expression of gratitude towards the Slytherin, and nodded.
"Room! We require a pain reliver potion!" Harry shouted.
Nothing.
"Room! Please give is a pain reliver potion!" Harry called again in frustration.
Still nothing.
"He's going to be in pain when he wakes up! Why won't you help us!?" Harry began to shout now, his voice rising to a near scream "You did this to him- now help!"
"Harry," Hermione said pulling on the boys sleeve "I think the room wants Ron quiet for a bit…Maybe the Room wants Ron to learn to listen instead of shouting without thinking."
"But Malfoy said worse things to you, and he isn't being punished!" Harry demanded
"Maybe exposing his secret was the punishment…I don't know."
"Fine. Room! I require a glass of water!" Harry shouted venomously, nearly falling back in surprise when a glass pitcher and a cup filled with water appeared out of thin air beside him.
Slowly Hermione turned to meet Draco's cold grey eyes, holding the same expression of savage determination that her own held.
"It seems I owe you debt Malfoy." Hermione whispered, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end.
Ron moaned, his breathing becoming easier as Harry helped him drink.
"No, Mudblood." Draco muttered darkly in reply, glancing down at Ron.
He turned on his heel towards his armchair, snatching up his unbroken bottle of Whiskey, and sat with stylish grace.
"You both do."
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A/N- more to come!
