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"There's an easy way of dealing with the prick," he stated lightly. The second figure turned to the first in question.
"How?" he asked. The first just smiled.
"Just tell Oliver we have Granger's first little test, Zambini."
"Hermione."
She didn't answer.
"Hermione, please," he tried, touching her arm. She closed her eyes, trying not to cry as she got up and left the common room.
She hadn't talked much since she had reappeared from her room and Ron was starting to become extremely nervous. She was being really cold towards him especially, exiting the room when he came in or just ignoring him when he tried to speak. It wasn't that she wanted to; it was just… if she allowed him to get closer again and she'd end up spilling everything. She had answered questions about Leo's death, saying that she had left him alone earlier before the attack ever happened. Lying was becoming common for her, though when it came to Ginny, it was becoming difficult.
"Hermione wait!" Ron called, running down the hall and stopping in front of her, forcing her to stop as well. He reached out to take her hand but she pulled away.
"Hermione, what's going on?" he asked quietly. She finally looked up at him and saw the concern in his eyes. She shook her head.
"There's nothing going on, Ronald," she snapped, trying to pass his tall frame. He grabbed her arm.
"Don't give me that crap, Hermione. There's something wrong with you and I know it has nothing to do with your parents," he growled, dragging her into an empty room. She wrenched away from his grip, glaring at him.
"Look Ron. I don't have anything to tell you, so stop!" she hissed.
"Then why are you avoiding me?" he asked. She bit her lip, trying desperately to think up a good enough excuse. Unfortunately she took to long and Ron figured out what she was trying to do.
"Dammit, Hermione! What the hell is it?" he yelled. Hermione could feel her eyes well up and she pushed past him and yanked open the door, stalking off down the hall. Ron followed her, falling into step beside her. Ron knew her mood and decided to wait until she was ready to speak. They walked together in silence for a while until Hermione finally stopped and looked at him. He could see in his eyes that she was fighting with herself. She opened her mouth to say something then stopped herself, her eyes flooding with tears again. She looked down the corridor which was starting to fill up with students exiting classes. She turned back to Ron.
"Look Ron… I think we-"
"Oh will you look at that, Draco. Granger's almost as tall as Weasel's shoulder," Blaise Zambini sneered. The couple turned to see Malfoy, Zambini and Oliver Verland standing there. Ron started forward.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" he growled. Malfoy stepped forward.
"As a matter of fact, Weasley, we were looking for Granger." Hermione jerked at the sound of her name and then paled significantly. Ron glanced back at her and then back at Malfoy.
"Piss of, Ferret," he snapped. Oliver stepped forward.
"I'd watch it Weasley. That mudblood isn't exactly worth defending, if you get my drift," he said with a smirk, his eyes roving over Hermione's body. Her eyes widened and she suddenly grabbed Ron's arm.
"Come on, Ron," she whispered, pushing off towards the crowds of students. As they walked away, Hermione glanced behind her with scared eyes.
Hermione yelped in pain and looked down at her arms. She let out a strangled sob at what she saw. The patterns had returned, the thorns shining brightly through her blouse. Luckily, she was alone in her room. Grabbing a sweater, she put it on and walked out the door. Walking down the deserted corridors, she had absolutely no idea where she was going. She stood by a suit of armor for a while, ignoring the curious glances of the paintings on the wall. What was a student doing out this late at night?
"There you are." Hermione jumped and whirled around to find herself face to face with the wand of Blaise Zambini. The black boy grinned and held out his hand.
"Hand over the wand. We wouldn't want you to use some stupid little spell now would we?" he sneered. She glared at him as she handed him her wand. Pocketing it, he motioned her to follow him. Keeping up, she soon found herself heading to the Slytherin dormitories. She stopped.
"I'm not going in there," she mumbled. Zambini turned back to her and shook his head.
"If you want to see your parents again, I suggest you follow me," he growled. Shivering she followed him. He said the password and they entered. Though she hadn't actually gone in, she had heard plenty from Ron and Harry to not be surprised. It was exactly as they had portrayed it to be. Hermione froze when she spotted that the common room was full of seventh and sixth year Slytherins. They all grinned at her as she followed Zambini up some stairs. Very aware that she was being watched, she chewed her lip nervously as she entered a room.
"Granger… there you are," drawled Malfoy. Oliver was standing to the side, whispering quietly with some girl, who was giggling. She didn't seem to be more than fourteen. Hermione glared at him.
"What do you want?" she hissed. Oliver finally stopped talking to the girl and turned around to face Hermione.
"We've got your first test, Granger."
"Test?" she asked uncertainly. They nodded.
"Yes, well you've already proven that you can lie, but we need to know you would do anything to save your parents," Oliver said. Hermione didn't like the sound of it. She looked around.
"What do you want from me?" she asked, her voice quivering.
"Well, you see. We've noticed that you have a couple of bodyguards around you. Now we can't have that if we're going to get through this whole thing without any…. Complications. Now… for now there's nothing we can do about Potter, but Weasley…" Oliver's grin widened as Malfoy continued to speak. "Well, he's a different story..." Suddenly realization dawned on Hermione as to what they were hinting to. Her eyes welled up and she started to back up, shaking her head.
"No… No!" she yelled. Malfoy rolled his eyes.
"Now you see, that's where you have three choices. One, you could choose to do nothing and end up killing one of your parents. Two, you could still choose to do nothing and have us take care of him for you, or three…" he trailed off, giving her a pointed look.
"I could do it…" Hermione finished her eyes down. Oliver handed her a piece of paper.
"You have twenty four hours to make your decision. Tonight, an eagle owl will fly into Gryffindor common room. You will write your choice on this paper and give it to the owl," he told her. She just stared at the paper in silence. Oliver smiled and leaned in to her ear.
"If you choose number three, I'd be happy to help you in that department," he murmured. Hermione's eyes widened and she backed away from him. She looked down at the paper and then back up at him and then ran out of the room. Malfoy sat down on the couch.
"Oliver, I don't care what you do with the thing, but please refrain yourself when you're around me. I can hardly stand the creature," he sneered, reaching out and grabbing the girl in the corner. Oliver rolled his eyes and turned to Blaise.
"Make sure she's followed all tomorrow. I don't want her getting any ideas," he ordered. Blaise nodded and left the room.
Hermione woke up the next morning and started to cry into her pillow. She had the day to think of what to do and then only choice that her heart kept telling her to make was the third one. The first one was obviously out of the question but… if she chose the second one, Malfoy would most likely have Ron killed. But if she chose number three…
Morning classes were horrible. It seemed that the whole Slytherin house knew about Hermione's dilemma and were doing their best to make sure she remembered it as well. They were constantly making rather rude hand gestures at her and making rather suggest comments about her. Ron and Harry had already received detention on her account because some sixth year had said that Hermione was screwing around with another guy. Though there was no proof, Hermione's increasing avoidance of Ron was starting to raise questions from several Gryffindors, including Ginny.
Afternoon didn't go any better. Malfoy seemed to enjoy Hermione's discomfort and seemed to bring up the conversation again during Potions class. Professor Snape had stepped out to do something.
"Hey Blaise, do you think it's true that the mudblood's shagging some other guy?" he asked loudly. Hermione didn't look up, but Ron and Harry did, along with several other guys from Gryffindor.
"Why don't you throw yourself off the Astronomy Tower?" Ron snapped. Malfoy grinned.
"I would, but I hear that Granger's occupying it with her nightly exploits," he replied. Ron shoved his chair back and stood up, starting over to Malfoy's table with a knife in hand. Hermione noticed that all Malfoy did was take out a piece of paper. Hermione's eyes widened when he glanced over at her and winked. She stood up and grabbed Ron's arm.
"Ron, no! Don't! You'll get in trouble," she begged, eyes on the paper. Ron seemed to listen, though his anger didn't seem to quell. He sat back down and started to chop up his ingredient angrily.
When class was finally dismissed, Malfoy made one more comment before retreating.
"Tell me Granger. Is shagging a Slytherin better than shagging a Gryffindor?" Malfoy took off out the door, followed by a raging Weasley. Hermione tore after them, followed by a crowd of Gryffindors and Slytherins. Ron seemed to have caught up with Malfoy. There was a huge crowd forming in front of the Great Hall. Hermione shoved her way through and gasped. Ron was pounding Malfoy's face in brutally, cursing as he did it.
"Ron stop!" she yelled. No one seemed to listen.
"Ron! Please! You're going to get hurt!" she cried. She looked around the crowd and spotted him. Oliver was shaking his head with glee. His eyes met Hermione's and he pulled out a paper. She shook her head, silently begging him not to. He just grinned and pulled out his wand. Hermione's eyes snapped back to the fight. She pulled out her wand and pointed it at the two.
BANG!
The whole crowd screamed in surprise and backed up as the two fighters fell apart in pain. All eyes fell on Hermione and her smoking wand. She looked around through teary eyes then shoved her way past everyone and ran up to the Gryffindor common room. As Malfoy was helped up, his eyes met Oliver's and the two smiled knowingly.
She would do everything they wanted her to do.
That night in the Gryffindor common room was a quiet one. Ron and Malfoy had been sent to the hospital wing and given detention. Harry and Ginny were sitting in the love seat, staring at Hermione, as was everyone else. She would constantly keep looking up and glaring at anyone she caught staring at her before she turned her gaze at the window and then down at the paper she was holding in her hands. She looked as if she had been crying.
"Where is she?" came Ron's angry voice from the portrait entrance. Hermione jumped to her feet as Ron came storming into the room, glaring at her.
"What the bloody hell was that about?" he growled. She glared back at him. She didn't know why she was mad at him; she had no reason to be. Maybe it was because he had no idea of what she was giving up to save his ass and her parents.
"Well if you hadn't run after him like that, I wouldn't have had to do it!" she retorted. He rolled his eyes.
"Hermione. Since when do you care if I beat the hell out of Malfoy for something he said to you? If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were defending Malfoy." Hermione blanched and then looked away.
"Ron, I…" she trailed off, her eyes catching sight of something at the window. To her dismay, a first year opened the window and a large black eagle owl flew in, flapping over to her and resting on the couch. Ron looked it over and frowned.
"Isn't that Malfoy's owl?" Ginny asked. Everyone knew what Draco Malfoy's owl looked like. Hermione paled as eyes slowly went to her again. She straightened.
"What?" she asked. Ron was giving her a funny look and she looked away, walking over to the bird. She took out a piece of paper and tied it to the thing's leg. It squawked and flew back out. Hermione remained in her stance, not wanting to look into Ron's eyes. She had made her choice…
"Hermione… what's going on?" he asked in a hoarse voice. Hermione closed her eyes, trying to fight the tears that were threatening to fall out. Ron reached out to grab her arm when she shrunk away from him. She looked up at everyone and bit her lip. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes. When she opened them, they were cold and uninviting. She turned to Ron.
"Oliver was right about me…" she murmured so that only he could hear. She then left the common room and a shocked Ron.
