"Hermione? Hermione, is that you? It is! HERMIONE! YOU'RE ALIVE! WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?" screeched a voice close by Hermione's ear.
Hermione jumped a foot high into the air, her head jerking up from it's resting place on her arms. The next minute Hermione felt herself being squished by none other than Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil as they hemmed her in by both sides.
Hermione groaned, she had already gone through all this with Professor McGonagall... now she had to get through this pair…
Hermione sat huddled opposite the roaring fire in Professor McGonagall's office. She sipped hot chocolate from her mug as the Head of Gryffindor sat behind her desk, peering worriedly at Hermione over her square shaped spectacles.
They had just discussed Hermione being attacked in the bathroom...she had kept to the facts but for some reason she didn't mention Malfoy or being kidnapped by him...maybe it was just because she felt ashamed to admit that MALFOY was better at dueling than her... Great! Now she'd missed what Professor McGonagall had just said...
"Hermione, let me rephrase the question…Where have you been for the past two days and nights?"
" As far as I'm aware, professor, here... The last class i went to was Herbology on the 16th of September which was yesterday..."
Professor McGonagall sniffed. " I'm afraid to break it to you…but today is the 19th of September," she lifted up the latest copy of The Daily Prophet.
"What?" Hermione exclaimed. "You mean that 2 days have passed? You mean I missed my 18th birthday yesterday? What happened?"
Just at that moment the door opened and Hermione turned around to see Snape in all his greasy finery.
"What is HE doing here?" Hermione wailed, her already lousy day going from bad to worse. First nearly being drowned by a random stranger and now this…?
"Miss Granger!" reprimanded Professor McGonagall, " That is no way to address a teacher to his knowledge or not! You must always refer to him as sir!"
" 20 points from Gryffindor," Snape said in his oily voice.
Hermione snapped her head to Professor McGonagall to find her nodding her head slowly.
"If that is what it takes for you to learn your lesson than so be it…" Professor McGonagall replied. "Now Miss Granger, are you sure you have nothing else to tell us?"
"Yes!" Hermione cried, throughly frustrated now. Why did Professor McGonagall look so shifty all of a sudden? Hermione leaned forward. Was that a red tint she could detect in Professor McGonagall cheeks?
"Well you see, it is an almighty coincidence that Mr Malfoy also went missing for the same period as you…"
"What?" Hermione cried again.
"And we have two sources which have sighted you both with each other…well maybe the second source is not hundred percent accurate...we're not sure..."
Professor McGonagall continued as if Hermione had not spoken. "I do not believe this for an instant, but we have to take all considerations into count…"
Hermione gawked barely believing what she was hearing.
Professor McGonagall reached forward to a pensieve Hermione hadn't noticed before sitting on her desk. Hermione had never seen a pensieve before in her life but she had read about it in books before and of course, Harry had described it to her .
She looked on in wonder as the professor touched the silvery substance in the pensieve and she shrank into her chair as a life size form of Ernie Macmillan rose, silver in colour, his hair caked in blood, a intense expression on his face as he stared into the distance. This corporeal Ernie opened his mouth and Hermione jumped as he said...
"I saw them Ms! Entwined like lovebirds they were…their hands were all over each other! Then Malfoy picked Hermione up and he was about to spank her and she was getting all excited and then Malfoy saw me…I guess he was angry that I interrupted their fun…but he stupefied me! I guess I understand why…I presume that right now they are somewhere in the castle doing…" the corporeal of Ernie's cheeks turned darker. It was obvious he was being asked what he thought Hermione and Draco were doing… "you know…IT. It was obvious from their body language they did..err..IT..ermm...often."
Memory Ernie sunk back into the pensive and Snape faced Hermione his mouth slightly open, his black eyes wide as Hermione blushed at Ernie's suggestion.
Professor McGonagall tapped the pensieve again and the figure of a second year girl that Hermione had seen around rose. The second year girl opened her mouth, clearly frightened.
"I saw them Ms! High up in the air…on a broomstick... I recognised Mr Malfoy and I saw him supporting a girl with brown hair in front of him on the broom... heading towards the forbidden forest."
Hermione opened her mouth in protest, "That could have been anyone Professor!"
Snape was positively gawping now.
"Snape…I want you to perform Legilimency and delve deeper into Hermione's mind. See if she's hiding anything from herself,"
Hermione opened her mouth-but Snape inclined his head and whipped out his wand before she could do anything...
"Legilimens!"Snape raced through her memories and Hermione squirmed as he payed more attention to some memories than the rest…
Finally he reached the memory of Draco approaching her in the library, wrestling her to the astronomy tower, Hermione being stupified…Snape exited from her mind.
"There's nothing," Snape announced. Hermione's head snapped towards him, incredulous. He wasn't going to tell Professor McGonagall that Malfoy had harassed her? So that was how it was ? Snape shot her a look that seemed to say, 'If you open your mouth I'm going to fail you in every potions assessment.'
Hermione gulped. Geez! Snape drove a hard bargain! Snape exited the room, his black robes billowing around him.
Hermione's stomach rumbled. God was she hungry! She couldn't be bothered to go to her dorm so she quickly 'scourigified' her clothes.
She looked at the warm thing covering her that she'd picked up from the bathroom floor and saw it was a robe...she checked the emblem engraved on the chest...and saw a snake...this proved whoever attacked her was Slytherin...
She brought the robe to her nose and inhaled. It didn't smell like Malfoy...she didn't know if she was relieved or disappointed...
Hermione realised her robe was back in the astronomy tower and she didn't want to 'accio' it. Surely Professor McGonagoll would notice a robe zooming into her office? She raised her retrieved wand and lightly tapped the emblem, changing it to a lion...and then she slipped it on after throughly scourigifying it of course...
And that was how she found herself in the great hall, the only person sitting there waiting for the food to appear.
And now her peace was interrupted by the two worst gossip queens in the history of Hogwarts…
Hermione looked towards the door of the great hall and jumped with happiness when she saw Harry and Ron. Now she had an excuse to escape Lavender and Parvati!
"HARRY!RON!" Hermione yelled as she twisted around in her seat, got up and ran all the way into Harry's and Ron's arms. It seemed ages since she'd seen them!
"Hermione!" roared Ron, "Where have you been? We were worried sick about you!"
Hermione had been hugging ferociously a slightly taken aback Harry but hesitated in front of Ron.
"I'm sorry Ron, but I had to go to Durmstrang. You see, Professor McGonagall sends one exceptional student there each year for 2 days, She was impressed by my hard work and commitment and sent me to Durmstrang to further my knowledge, she thought I could cope with it...I'm so sorry... I thought I told you guys beforehand...?"
Hermione crossed her fingers. Professor McGonagall and her had come up with this excuse until they figured out the where Hermione had diappeared too...she didn't want her best friends to needlessly worry...
"Durmstrang! Do you know they teach dark arts there!" Ron spluttered. He felt slightly guilty as there had been numerous times when he'd tuned out of her ramblings and she might as well have mentioned it...except he wasn't listening...
"Ron! You know the school's totally reformed under the new headmaster…who happens to be a good friend of Professor Dumbledore. Durmstrang got especially connected to the floo network just so i could go..."
Ron sniffed. "Well we happened to prepare a birthday bash for you but what use is that when the birthday girl's not there?"
"I'm sorry Ron…" Hermione replied somberly. She was relieved Ron wasn't asking more questions but why was Harry looking at her wierdly?
" That explains why you weren't on the marauder's map…" Harry wondered out loud. He was still looking at her strangely but thankfully he didn't say anything...
"Yeah," Hermione replied but inside she was screaming. What? I wasn't at Hogwarts for the two days I was missing! That means I could've been very well the girl on Malfoy's broomstick!
Harry and Ron sat down and Hermione followed suit.
The food appeared magically on the table and Hermione sat down, raising a muffin to her lips. She looked up and froze as she saw Malfoy and his cronies enter the hall. His short blonde hair looked very windswept, like he'd been flying for some time, Hermione realised in panic. His face looked very tired as if he had been up all night.
Glad to know I didn't suffer alone…
His grey eyes haggardly scanned the Gryffindor table until they settled on her. Malfoy and Hermione locked eyes for a moment, dark eyes against light and then he looked away as if reassured….
He was looking for me….now why would he DO that?
She turned her concentration back to her muffin. "Ron," she said distractedly , "Can you pass the jug of pumpkin juice, please?"
"Su..mmph..dore," Ron said with his mouth full. Hermione grimaced. Ron gulped his food down as he passed the jug over and Hermione accepted, their fingers brushing each other's lightly. Ron turned beet red.
Ron began turning back to his plate when he noticed something shiny catch the corner of his eye, he faced Hermione sharply, glaring at her left hand on the jug poised to pour a glass of pumkin juice.
"What's that on your fourth finger, Hermione?"