Disclaimer: Why can't I own Harry Potter? D': this girl needs a spa day. *Sigh* But I don't own it, so work it is.
Understandably, Hermione was pissed. It had been early morning, the sun hadn't even risen yet, and the boys were gone. A million thoughts ran through her head, each one more gruesome than the last. She popped out of bed and pocketed her wand, stormed out of the tent - and bumped right into the two boys. They were sopping wet, shivering, their lips blue and their bodies visibly banged up, but their arms thrown over each other's shoulder and a grin on both their faces... until they bumped into her. The bushy haired brunette crossed her arms, her lips pressed together in a terribly Aunt Petunia-ish way, her foot tapping impatiently.
"Explain. Yourselves. Now." She grabbed both their ears and tugged them into the tent to a loud chorus of 'ow's. She pushed them into the chairs in the dining area and noticed with wide eyes the sword Malfoy - Malfoy! - was carrying.
"I heard something a little while ago. I dunno what it was exactly, but I followed it outside the tent. Then I saw a... er. I saw a light," Harry darted an uncertain glance at Malfoy, and Hermione narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "and it lead me to a small frozen lake. I looked down into it and saw the sword." He shifted in his chair, uncomfortable at their eyes raptly on him. Hermione was leaned forward in her chair, Malfoy simply looking at him intently. "And, er, I realized I'd have to swim to it. So I broke into the ice with my wand, stripped so my clothes wouldn't weigh me down, and dived in. But when I started getting close, the locket tightened around my neck and dragged me down further." Hermione gasped and frantically tugged Harry's scarf off and examined his neck, squeaking at the strangle marks the horcrux had left.
"And that's about when I came in." Malfoy smirked, a shadow of his past self almost, except the smirk was without disdain, and less arrogant than usual, but he clearly was pleased with himself. "I'd heard some noise too and was up just in time to catch Harry going to the edge of the clearing, so I followed. When I caught up to him, the necklace was strangling him underwater so I dove in and pulled him and the sword out. Then we worked together and killed the horcrux." Malfoy gave a small smile as he wrapped up, but Hermione noticed the tiny glance the boys had exchanged, with a slightly grateful look from Harry. Hermione made a mental note about it.
"You two..." Hermione began, and the boys shared a proud smirk with each other, "are absolutely stupid bloody gits! What on earth could have possessed you, either of you, to have just wandered off?! There are Snatchers. There are muggles. There -"
"Aw lay off, 'Mione." Everyone froze. Hermione's eyes filled with tears and she slowly turned, already gathering from Harry's expression that it was who she thought. The skinny, pale, freckled redhead boy held out his arms. "Missed me?" He grinned uncertainly. Hermione flew at him, and he had the sense to cover his head at the last minute.
"Ronald! Bilius! Weasley! How! Could! You!" Each of her words were punctuated with a smack to his head, arms, chest, wherever she could reach. Harry jumped in and grabbed her, but she pulled out her wand and summoned her canaries.
"No no no no, Hermione no! Not again!" Ron's eyes widened and he took off outside the tent as her canaries took off after him. He cast a shield charm but it was barely strong enough to keep them at bay. Malfoy watched all of this from his chair. His head pulsed when he tried to think why the ginger's face looked so familiar, and why it aggravated him so badly. He shrugged and let it go, settling for giving a low whistle and thinking he never wanted to be on Hermione's bad side. Why did that make his nose twinge? After everyone finally settled down, Hermione got rid of her birds, Ron sat far away from Hermione with his arms cut up everywhere and an abashed look on his face, Harry settled himself between them and made an attempt to start the conversation again.
"So. Ron, you may not have noticed, but we have a guest." Ron was startled, and looked to where Harry pointed - and nearly fell out of his chair.
"Malfoy! What are you - what is he - what...?" Ron had drawn his wand but stopped, looking confused as to why the other two of his friends would be traveling with... Malfoy.
"He lost his memory." Hermione huffed, refusing to look at Ron. Harry and Ron exchanged a look, Harry shrugged, and Ron mouthed 'girls' and shook his head. Then turned pale as Hermione whipped her head around and snapped, "I heard that!" Cowering in fear of another canary attack, Ron held up his arms in surrender.
"Ahem. So... who might you be?" Malfoy stood and held his hand out to Ron to shake. The redhead narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the blonde, and ignored the hand, eyeing it as if it might grow teeth and bite.
"I'm... Ron Weasley. Basically your nemesis... are you guys sure he lost his memory?" He stared at Malfoy like he was a three headed dog and the blonde sat back down uncertainly. Was that... sadness? Rejection? Ron was surprised to see actual emotions written plain as day on the other boy's face, where he was used to seeing nothing but narcissism, disdain, or hatred.
"Um... so Ron, why don't you tell us how you found us... and if we should recast our protective wards?" Harry suggested, sending a glance at Hermione. She realized what Harry had just said and jumped up in a panic, and began casting protective wards all around them frantically. Ron pulled out a silver device from his pocket and clicked it, and suddenly they were sitting in the dark of early morning. Malfoy jumped and shouted out, concerned he might be blind. But Ron clicked the object again, and the lights returned to their lanterns.
"The deluminator! What... how -" Harry was in awe and stared to Ron for his explanation.
"Well, I was sitting in my room at the Burrow, bored and just keeping to myself. The twins were especially mad at me for coming home, and kept pranking me really bad anytime I left my room. Mum was also pretty disappointed in me. Anyways, so I was sitting in my room, clicking and unlocking the deluminator, when I heard voices. It was her voice," they glanced over at Hermione, who had stiffened with her back to them, and refused to turn around to face them, "and well, anyways, I unlocked the deluminator and a ball of light floated from it. It got louder and closer, and it floated up to me until it floated straight into my chest. And then I knew."
"You knew what?" They jumped as Malfoy spoke, the pleasant look on his face unnerving Ron, reminding him too much of Lockhart, their second year Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who had unwittingly obliviated his own self.
"Well... I knew where to go. I don't know how, I just did. I gathered up a bag and apparated out to this lake. Then I heard Harry's voice, and so I followed it here. And here I am!" He smiled up at Hermione, who turned her head and sniffed angrily. His smile faltered.
"Well, good to have you back mate. We have a little bit of good news." Harry held up the destroyed horcrux, grinning in satisfaction at the small 'o' shape Ron made in surprise with his mouth. "And even more surprising, Draco did it. And more surprising still, he did it with this." Ron's jaw dropped completely as he looked from Harry to Malfoy to the sword of Gryffindor, and he slumped in shock in his chair.
"So that means... we have - "
"Yes, we have five more horcruxes to go." Hermione interrupted. They all looked at Malfoy as he spat out his tea in disbelief.
"Five more?! You're barking mad! That thing nearly killed Harry! And you have five others like it? This is insane." Malfoy stood up and started for the tent flaps, unsure his own self exactly where he was headed.
"Impedimenta!" Hermione shouted, surprising all the boys and locking Malfoy's legs. "Are you all mad?! You can't just walk away Malfoy! For one, if your memory really has been wiped, and you get picked up by Snatchers, the odds are that they'll believe you abandoned your fellow Death Eaters and hurt or kill you. If you have your memories, you'll obviously go running off to them and tell them about us. Best case scenario, you'll be left to wander around and freeze or starve to death, since we're in the middle of nowhere." Malfoy sighed and nodded miserably, then gestured to his legs. Hermione undid the charm on his legs and pulled him back from the tent entrance.
"So... what now?" Everybody blinked as Malfoy pointed them to the realization that they had no plan beyond this point. Hermione's hand lingered on Malfoy's shoulder, making Ron stare, but she dropped her hand, evidently wrapped up in her own mind more than anything.
"Well... I suppose we'll need to figure out what and where the other four are, and the last being You-Know-Who himself." Hermione sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"What?!" Everyone turned to look at Malfoy, on his feet again and looking shocked. "You mean to tell me that you've all been out here for how many months, and only have gotten rid of two horcruxes?!"
"Er... well technically three. Tom Riddle's diary I destroyed in our second year; Dumbledore said that was a horcrux. And technically dumbledore destroyed Marvolo Gaunt's ring. So... we've only found and destroyed the one for now." Harry mumbled, not quite meeting anyone's eyes. Malfoy sighed and crossed his arms, looking surprisingly like the typical Malfoy they all knew and disliked. Ron cleared his throat nervously and stepped forward to say something, but just then, a scratchy noise began emitting from Ron's backpack.
"Er... Ron? Your backpack is screeching." Harry pointed out. Ron started, and pulled his pack off. He unzipped it and pulled out a small box which resembled a muggle radio, although they all knew otherwise. He sat it on the table and hurriedly pulled out his wand, tapping it on the thing and muttering words and phrases.
"Polyjuice potion... Moony... Padfoot... Tonks' hair... Snitch... yes!" He exclaimed in triumph when they began to hear voices coming through the speakers.
" - and I'd like to meet Mr. Moldy and give him a big kiss - of the dementor variety to be specific." A chorus of appreciative laughing and chortling sounded in the background.
"That's Lee Jordan!" Ron whispered excitedly. "It's like a news and talk show broadcast but they change their frequencies a lot and the password daily so they don't get caught. It's a radio station for the underground rebellion!"
"It's like the underground train!" Hermione whispered, disappointed at the blank stares she got, although Harry caught her eye and smiled apologetically, understanding it was something muggle, he just didn't get that far in muggle school.
"Mr. Lobe, can you clarify something for me?" Ron sniggered, mouthing that that was Fred, and Mr. Lobe apparently was George, the Weasley twin who was now missing an ear.
"What would that be, Mr. Ear?" They all were now chuckling at the twins' dark humor.
"Well Mr. Lobe, I'd like to know where our trio of friends are at? What is going on?"
"Mr. Ear, our friends are currently at the Ferret Manor," at which they all shot apologetic looks to Malfoy, who shuddered at the word ferret without quite knowing why, "and they're battling to the death against Mr. Ferret senior, Miss Psycho, and our hometown famous Mr. Moldy. Say Mr. Ear, did you know, our Mr. Moldy is himself a muggle born?"
"Why, no Mr. Lobe, I didn't know that. Maybe we should call him Mr. Crit from now on... Hippo Crit!" Everyone groaned at his lame joke and the audience on the radio laughed uproariously.
"Good one Mr. Ear!" Lee chuckled. "Now, a lot of you may be wondering just what else is happening out there right now, what with all this doom and gloom. We have a guest speaker here with us today, give it up for... Mr. Cufflightning!"
"That's Kingsley Shacklebolt," Hermione said matter of factly, sounding worried and chewing on her lip. "He must be going to make a big announcement."
"Hello everyone. I have a few announcements I would like to make. Our friends in the Order are working hard with the resistance efforts and trying to make these dark times a little less dim." His voice sounded grave and serious, and everyone leaned in close. "First of all, if you are muggle born, I advise you and your family flee the country. It is not safe for you right now; the dark forces at work are putting in place sinister plans of bigotry, and they have already begun placing their seeds of darkness at the Ministry itself. Muggleborns, please. Take your families and go into hiding. Witches and wizards who have aligned themselves with us; you must put on a brave face. If you or your children are to be attending Hogwarts this year, and you have distinctly allied yourself against dark forces, I recommend you go into hiding as well. It won't be safe for you. Dark witches and wizards are being put into teaching positions as we speak -" they all gasped.
"He can't be - I mean that wouldn't. I..." Hermione looked flabbergasted. Malfoy simply looked confused and worried, as the tone suggested very grave news.
"Erm... what is the matter exactly?" he said, hating how uninformed he felt.
"They're going to make Death Eaters teachers at Hogwarts." Hermione mumbled, her head plopped resignedly into her folded arms on the table.
"Sorry, uh... what is a Death Eater?" He blushed crimson at the looks they all gave him and looked down self consciously. Hermione got to her feet and walked over to him, and carefully rolled up the sleeve on his left arm. Her touch was very soft, and he felt the other two boys' eyes on him, Ron's especially narrowed in suspicion once again. He looked down at the tattoo Hermione grazed her fingers lightly across, sending chills down his back. It had been burning, but he'd thought maybe it was new and just adjusting to his body.
"This is a Dark Mark. You are a Death Eater Draco. A Death Eater is a servant to You-Know-Who. They are killers, and pure bloods. They are nefarious, and you, Draco, you simply were just born into the wrong family. Your father was a Death Eater during You-Know-Who's first reign. He still is a Death Eater, and you got roped into it because of him. On top of that, you have been getting punished because of the insubordination your father has shown, his continued failures for You-Know-Who, and also to kill our headmaster last school year. What's more... you already know all this... don't you?" Harry and Ron looked at Malfoy, their mouths hanging open and startled expressions on their face.
"I... I... I mean look, I can explain, okay? Don't -" Malfoy made no move for his wand, but the other two boys rushed towards him, wands drawn.
"Expelliarmus!"
"Incarcerous!"
They both shouted at the same time. Malfoy's wand flew out of his pocket and ropes appeared and wrapped tightly around him.
"Stop!" Hermione yelled at the boys running in front of the blonde boy before the other two could continue flinging spells at him. They hesitantly lowered their wands. "Could we please sit and talk like civilized human beings rather than instantly attacking?! Don't let your fears play you into becoming what we're fighting against." She glared angrily at the two, who finally lowered their wands looking appropriately abashed. She knelt in front of Malfoy and undid the ropes around him gently, the muggle way, then walked to Harry and took his wand back, plopping it into Malfoy's lap and then sat back down in her chair next to him.
"Explain yourself." Harry said, his voice hardened a little, feeling duped. Malfoy sighed, placed his wand on the table in front of them, and sat back.
"It's a long story. I'll just start at the beginning." His eyes looked distant as he traveled back - back to about seven years ago, when it really and truly began.
AN: I'm SO sorry for the delay at posting this next chapter. I've just started working two jobs as well as having a 7 month old teething baby. I don't get a lot of sleep. ;_; I'm hoping to be hitting on a little bit or Dramione soon, for any of you reading for your OTP. Don't worry, I have lots of great things in store for them. C: Thank you for the follows and reviews! 3