Life is hard as it is. Too many rough roads to travel. Too many chains to untangle. But no matter how cruel the world may be, life becomes less hard when you've got a good friend.
-Unknown
At first it wasn't chaos. It was dull. The champion from Beauxbatons had entered the maze and then everyone almost simultaneously realized it was hard to see what was going on. It was boring. It hadn't occurred to anyone that watching a hedge maze so tall they couldn't see anything would be dull?
Apparently not.
But then chaos. Potter just appeared outside the exit of the maze, holding the large tournament cup in one hand, and the still form of Diggory in the other.
Chaos. Draco's blood ran cold. The world tilted and he wondered for a small moment if he was about to pass out, of all things. Theo was there. He was shaking Draco. His mouth was moving and his eyebrows were drawn down. Was he yelling at Draco? Really, Theo, this must stop. You'll lose your reputation for being quiet. But Blaise was there, next to Draco. And they were dragging him out of the stands.
"We have to get to the common room, Snape's orders!"
Maybe if people would stop screaming he could think. Diggory laying still, Potter… This was because of Potter. All of it because Potter was the biggest bleeding target in the wizarding world. Target. His father, so wound up this past summer. Theo's dad, bad summer...
Draco came to his wits before they reached the entrance hall and shook his sleeves out of Theo and Blaise's hands. "I can walk, you know."
Blaise scoffed, though he still looked worried. "I thought you were going to pass out." So had Draco, but he wasn't about to say so.
Theo was ignoring Draco in favor of getting up to their dorm. The common room was full of panicked children making noise, Snape hadn't arrived to tell them what was happening yet. The seventh years stood guard around the first and second years, who had huddled together on the floor in front of the fireplace. A common room campout looked likely tonight. Draco wouldn't be surprised. It was a well-kept secret that the Slytherins, cold-hearted, nasty bunch that they were, often camped out in the common room. No one had to join, of course. Somehow, the younger students convinced the older students that they needed to stay out for comfort, and they did. No one was really sure how it started. But everyone knew they were welcome to stay in the common room, especially after big upsets at school. Snape, for his part, turned a blind eye to the slumber parties. He had to know, there was no way he didn't. But he never said anything about them. It was good for morale in a school that was convinced you were evil for wearing a green tie.
They slipped past the groups of students and up the stairs into their room. Before Draco could, Theo pulled out his wand and locked the door, warding it against intruders. Warding it specifically against Crabbe and Goyle.
Draco sat on his four-poster and raised an eyebrow.
"I don't need the stress of having those two burst in on our conversations."
Blaise nodded. They would likely stay down in the common room, but Draco wasn't inclined to disagree so he stayed silent. He was prepared to wait for his friend to talk.
Theo flopped backward onto his bed and put his hands over his face. "My father wrote me a letter a while back."
Theo's father had two modes when it came to communicating with his son; raised voice and violence. A letter was unpleasantly out of the norm.
"And?" Blaise prompted when Theo stalled.
"His mark has been getting darker." The whisper was so quiet, muffled behind Theo's hands, Draco almost missed it. "Draco, If you were to ask your Father," Draco snorted, "his is too. He didn't say much."
Blaise looked on sympathetically. "The usual?"
Theo huffed and rolled onto his side, facing away from them. "The usual."
The three of them, huddled in their four-posters, found it difficult to find sleep that night. Finally, when Draco could bear the silence no longer, he sat up and cleared his throat. He was about to risk everything. Everything. But maybe they could help each other.
He started out slowly, certain that they were both awake, until his words came rushing out faster and faster. When he finally looked up at his classmates, they were both grinning at him.
"Finally," said Blaise.
/
Hermione resisted the urge to shake the jar she trapped that awful woman in. It's her own fault. She was breaking laws. She should have known better than to meddle in people's affairs. She shoved the jar down into her bookbag and looked up at her friends. Ron was asleep, Harry gazing out the window.
"Harry?"
He didn't say anything, just glanced at Ron before moving to sit next to her. Hermione was unsure what to say. Did he want to talk about it? Or would talking about what happened set him off?
After a beat, Harry leaned heavily against her until he was lying on the seat with his head in her lap. She scratched his back a few times. It was a tradition they started when needing comfort that year. Sitting in silence, sometimes snuggling. She imagined that was what it was like to have a close relationship with a brother, for that is what Harry was for her. Over the past school year their friendship had deepened until his friendship was more dear to her than any other relationship she had ever known. Even that with her parents. She didn't want to leave her parents behind, but she knew that eventually they would grow too distant to understand her life.
It was her fault. She could not be honest with them and remain in this world she loved so much.
Harry broke the silence sometime later. "I've done something. Possibly bad."
"Oh?" She couldn't imagine what he thought he'd done.
"Remember how the winner was supposed to receive a purse?"
"One thousand galleons, that's right. Oh, Harry, they didn't deny you that, did they?"
Harry shook his head and sighed. "No. But I didn't want it, Hermione."
She made a noise of understanding, but didn't prompt him.
"I gave it to Fred and George," he whispered.
Hermione felt her shoulders start shaking before she realized she was laughing. It was unreal, laughing at a time like this. "Harry!" She finally admonished in a whisper. "You gave them the means to start their business, and oh think of the things they are going to get up to!"
Harry relented and chuckled a bit. "You knew about the business idea?"
Hermione sat up straighter, "I am quite clever, you know."
"Yeah."
"And the twins are so incredibly obvious."
"Are they?"
She nodded. "As if there were any other job in the world that would suit those two so well," she murmured fondly. Then said in a firmer tone, "But they had better mind themselves, they are clever but have a tendency to get into the worst sorts of trouble."
"I thought that was me."
And with that small insertion, the happy mood that had been building promptly died.
Hermione didn't know what to say, "When you're ready to talk -"
"I know, thanks."
And he fell asleep. Hermione levitated a book in front of her, refusing to prop it up on Harry's ear, as he'd so often suggested over the year.
He would talk to her when he was ready.
And she would be ready to talk back. It was time they confronted some truths that had been presenting themselves to Hermione recently. He wouldn't like them, but something had to be done.
/
As Hermione waited for her parents to find her on the muggle side of the train station, Hermione noticed two of her classmates looking out-of-place in their school robes. They had their trunks with them and looked to be in an argument. She squinted at their ties. Slytherins. She tried to place their faces. Definitely in her year, but she couldn't quite remember their names. They occasionally spent time with Malfoy. She casually walked to the pillar they were sulking by and leaned against it. Her mother would be appalled. Eavesdropping.
"I am not staying at his house the entire summer, Theo."
"You don't have to, just floo back and forth!"
"I don't want to be around for -"
"Me neither, but I am learning wards. I think I can ward Draco's bedroom, and we'll have a place to practice. His father doesn't monitor wards like mine, and he hasn't restricted the floo since third year. And, I'm sorry mate, but staying with your mother is completely out of the question."
There was a pause. "She'll expect an appearance from me. Once a week for dinners ought to suffice. Depends on the husband, usually."
"Right, well we need to learn. Draco's got occlumency down but needs to practice legilimency. And we need to practice both. Not to mention -"
"Theo this is literally the worst place we could discuss this. Muggles."
"Right. Well, my father won't realize I'm not home for a few days at least, so I say we go check on -"
A cough from Blaise. "Our project," Theo continued on. "Then I'll stop by the house so one of the elves sees me, and we'll go straight to Draco's."
"Which train is it?"
"I've got it here, you'd think -"
Hermione stopped listening when she realized her parents were almost upon her. She hadn't seen their approach, she was concentrating so hard on her classmate's whispered conversation.
As soon as she was safely shut in her room that night, Hermione pulled out her notebook and recorded the conversation, word-for-word in code. The notebook wouldn't be protected like she'd had it at school, but she'd planned the code for that. And her parents weren't the type to snoop.
With that off her shoulders, she changed into her nightclothes and went to bed, mind spinning.
A/N: Hello hello! Fourth year at Hogwarts is just a struggle for me. This chapter did not want to be written. *Sighs*
Okay. So - Housecleaning: My schedule just had a big change. Meaning I have less time to write, and I have other writing projects that I prefer to give more time to. At most, I anticipate to slowing down to post every three weeks. Every other week is more likely.
Embarassingly enough, I also anticipate a bit of a style change. The snapshots were too snapshotty short. But I don't want them long for this story. I'm wrestling with it a bit.
Writing is hard, and feedback is appreciated. *winks at you with both eyes*
My spouse woke me up with the new Star Wars trailer yesterday morning and we spent the rest of the day debating various minutia of the trailer. *Squeeee* What did you guys think (you guys that are into Star Wars, that is)? So excited? I'm dying of excitement.
Thank you for following along with the story, I hope you're enjoying it thus far. I'd love to hear from you, and... that's it.
Ta-ta!
LL