Hi, so here is another chapter and this is the first part of the Christmas mass loading! There should be at least one other chapter after this if not the end of the story, at the very least I expect the last three chapters to be up before New Years.
This chapter does gloss over the Norbert situation a little but I really wanted to focus on the Forbidden Forest and then the next three chapters will deal with the trapdoor, the stone and the end of Hermione first year.
Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.
This chapter does have some dialogue from the film but a lot of it is from the book, again this story is not heavily dialogue focused.
Please read and review.
Tougher Than The Rest
Chapter Seven
They were in deep disgrace.
Oh, not for the dragon, oh no…somehow, they had gotten away with hiding, smuggling and worrying about Hagrid's prized pet. But they had gotten caught in the process and now were in disgrace. Well…she, Harry, Neville and she supposed Draco Malfoy were, but she didn't really think he cared much compared to what his worst enemy was going through. Hermione however found that she could bare it.
With the exception of Lavender and Parvati the girls in her dorm still smiled at her in the morning and still said goodnight as they went to bed, Fay and Alice were not malicious people, they were disappointed because they had lost the points to be sure, but they did not outwardly flounce or speak loudly as if you weren't there like Lavender and Parvati did.
But again, that didn't bother her. this was not the first time Hermione had dealt with stupid little girls before that mocked her and teased her, her own mum had told her once when she was very little that someone smart once they had made a stupid decision would always attract the distain of others, so she found she could easily block them out of her mind.
She didn't put her hand up anymore, but she was instead choosing to focus on her exams. Was this a deliberate choice? No? Seamus Finnegan had gotten into the annoying habit of imitating her whenever she did it and while Professor McGonagall gave him detention the first time he did it to raucous laughter she had still had to bite her lip to tamper down the tears that had suddenly rushed to her eyes.
However, she had been more than a little touched when Ron had turned around and thrown his ink pot at Seamus the second Professor McGonagall's back was turned. This had resulted in Seamus bemoaning that the ink was down his front, Ron winking at Hermione who couldn't help but blink back the tears and smile a watery smile in the direction of her red headed friend who grinned back. Professor McGonagall gave Ron a lunchtime detention that was cleaning out the mouse cages that they had been using to transform into spoons.
Harry was taking it hard as well. He had been the reason why they had got so many points in the first place. He had won the second match (and where Ron had apparently had a fight right behind her without her noticing which was kinda hard to believe if she was being honest with herself) and then he had managed to lose most of them in one night. She and Neville were in some parts insignificant, Malfoy was almost laughable in comparison, but Harry Potter was well…Harry Potter and therefore Hermione suspected that like usual, Harry was suffering the most and pretending that he wasn't which was backed up by Ron stating that while Harry's nightmares had stopped he was still spending a lot of time sitting in the corner looking out of the window until the early hours of the morning. Even his flying seemed to have suffered and while the twins were frosty but polite whenever Hermione or Harry were with Ron she didn't know what was happening to her friend when the changing room doors closed.
But that was not the worst of it. Hermione had somehow thought that the silent treatment, the worry over weather or not Professor Snape was going to steal the stone from under their noses and the fact that they had broken she was sure several laws smuggling a dragon out of the school. Somehow, she had thought it was the worst thing that could happen this year, and she had already faced down a troll.
But no. No that wasn't the worst thing that could happen. The worst thing that could happen came a warm spring day in May just as the last few days of spring were turning into summer when she was gifted a note by her head of house telling her, her detention would be taking place at night and that it would be with Hagrid. She supposed that wasn't too bad, but to be honest Hermione was still a little cross with him about Norbert. While it had been fascinating to see a dragon up close there was the fact that they were in this mess because of Hagrid and Norbert, they had all spent countless nights worried about what would happen if the damn thing was discovered, Neville had gotten dragged into something he shouldn't have (she couldn't care less about Malfoy) and Ron had almost lost a hand after the thing had bitten it.
Give her some lines to copy and she would have been fine she thought grimly turning back to her eggs and toast and crumpling the parchment up in her hand until her knuckles turned white.
Hagrid was in his normally cheerful mood. He smacked Malfoy into submission with one biting sentence which made Harry grin, and had she not been so bloody terrified of stepping one foot into the Forbidden Forest (which must have that moniker for a good reason right?) she would have probably smiled too. As it was she had Neville trembling like a leaf on one side of her and Malfoy the colour of skimmed milk on the other.
"Here" Hagrid said pointing out silvery blood on the leaves as they split up.
"See that? That's unicorn blood that is?"
For a split-second Hermione forgot she was in the forest, that Malfoy and Neville were god knows where with a dog that was apparently as good as useless and that she had Harry were traipsing after something that apparently didn't walk or trot but seemed to slither. She bent down to have a look at it, unicorn blood was rare and precious, there was a reason why they only learnt about the tail and the hair in potions and she suspected there was a reason why Professor Snape never mentioned the blood. It was incredibly valuable she knew that much, nearly everything that came from a unicorn was because they were so difficult to catch but the sight of it spilled needlessly on the floor by her shoe made her feel kind of sad in a way that she couldn't describe.
But before she could bend down and get a good look at it they were interrupted by two centaurs and had Hermione been anything other than cold or terrified she might have picked up on what they were trying to say about "Mars is bright tonight"
As it had it she couldn't because Hagrid chose the exact moment her brain started working again to unceremoniously shove her and Harry behind a tree and go off in search of Neville and Malfoy who were (if the red sparks were anything to go by) in need of help.
She wasn't worried about Malfoy…ok so maybe she was…deep down, the forest was dark and gloomy and cold and by all accounts there was something horrible in here slithering all over the place and while Malfoy was an idiot he didn't deserve to die.
That being said she had to confess to being more worried about Neville than she was Draco Malfoy. She looked at Harry and from what little she could see of his face that he agreed with her. They had dragged Neville into it, Malfoy had thrown himself into it and Hermione didn't think that this would be the only time that he would put himself in danger trying to get them in trouble. She also thought somehow, that this wouldn't be the first time that she and Harry and perhaps even Ron would get into trouble and Neville would be there the saviour that would pull a miracle at the eleventh hour.
There was a pause when she stood there shivering in the wind breathing heavily in the dark forest Harry biting his lip to shreds next to her and then rubbing his scar one minute. Hermione could see watching him, shaded by darkness and struggling to compose himself and she could see what Ron was saying. Ever since they had found out the truth of what Fluffy was guarding and ever since they had learnt that it was more and more likely that Professor Snape was going to steal it, she could see that Harry was on some kind of auto pilot where his brain seemed to be running on two separate loops. The one that allowed him to focus during the day and the one that kept him up at night wondering what or who wanted to be immortal so badly.
Hagrid choose that moment to come back crashing through the undergrowth with a hysterical Neville and a smirking Malfoy. Hermione was so busy trying to calm down Neville who was shivering and covered in dirt that she missed Hagrid directing Harry to go with Malfoy and their disappearance. In fact, once she had gotten Neville to stop sobbing into her shoulder they had already walked quite a distance with Hagrid. The giant patted him on the shoulder once but that only sent him careening into Hermione and nearly pushing Hermione into a holly bush-or what she thought was a holly bush and she was really not in the mood to deal with it if it wasn't.
They carried on walking for what seemed like twenty minutes before the screaming started. It was Malfoy, Hermione was sure of it because…well she didn't know anyone who could be that shrill and girl-like. Instantly Hagrid started running towards the sound and Hermione and Neville had to pick up their robes and run after him off the path, through the mud and the tree roots that nearly tripped them up.
Draco Malfoy was running towards them terror in every inch of his face and Hermione realised with a pang of genuine fear that this was no joke. Something had happened to Harry or was happening to Harry and even as Hagrid loaded his crossbow and Draco began shouting about dead unicorns and drinking blood they were off now the four of them.
They only got a little bit further through the trees and then there was the sound of yelling and hooves. They pushed their way through some bushes into a clearing and there was Harry dismounting and looking slightly shocked and white faced to boot, from a centaur's back. It was a different one to the two Hermione had already met but they were there as well and the three of them were already having a heated argument that Hermione did not wish to be a part of. Harry was not trembling as Neville was nor was he whimpering every so often like a mouse like Malfoy was but all four of them were ignoring the argument in focus of the unicorn dead on the floor.
It was a painful sight, it was a lovely unicorn, a creature like the ones you would see in a book or a movie, soft white with a horn and bleeding silvery purple on the floor. Hermione couldn't take her eyes of it and was still thinking about it when Hagrid walked them back to the castle. Even Malfoy seemed subdued, Harry wasn't speaking, and Neville was shivering even as he bade them goodnight and went up to bed while Hermione tried not to take a great amount of pleasure in prodding a warm and dry Ron awake.
As soon as they sat down though Harry was telling his story. He got up and paced someway through it and he was feverish sometimes his eyes alight and flashing. Hermione listened to what had happened in the forest, she listened to what Harry was proposing, to what the centaur had told him, and she tried not to feel cold at the thought of Voldemort, the darkest wizard alive coming back to live, to a body, to hunt Harry.
Ron had gone pale. He had grown up with the horrors of what the darkest wizard alive could do. He had grown up with it, had lived it through his brothers, had no doubt seen what it still could do to his parents, hell Hermione knew that there was no way that someone could be known simply as 'He Who Must Not Be Named' without good reason. Hermione knew that she did not know the half of what Voldemort was capable of-Harry had lost both his parents, Ron had lived in an, world still haunted by what he had done and had Harry died that night-probably still would have done. Hermione saw all of this in this brief moment and then looked down at her hands as she thought back on all she had read in the early days where books were her friends.
There was always a chink in the armour. Even if it was a little chink in the armour.
"Your forgetting something" she said trying to remain calm as two fearful sets of eyes swivelled round to stare at her.
"Who's the one person that You Know Who was ever afraid of?"
Four eyes blinked at her. Hermione sighed internally.
"Dumbledore" she said feeling slightly relieved. She turned to face Harry and she knew in that moment what he was thinking, he was thinking if Snape got the stone he would give it to the man that tried to kill him, and Harry would be first on the list to die when he did.
"As long as Dumbledore is around Harry your safe, as long as Dumbledore's around you can't be touched"
Ron breathed again staring into the depths of the fire and Harry sank into the seat next to her and Hermione stared into the fire watching another log turn to ash and tried not to think about the stone that would grant immortal life, tried not to think of the darkest wizard alive coming back to a life, tried not to think of her best friend in danger or of the unicorn dead across the forest floor as someone tried to use it's blood in order to give something…monstrous a chance.
Instead she stared into the fire and then up at her bedframe for a long time wondering what would happen, if someone…anyone would make a move on the stone, and if she would have the courage to stand and fight against the darkness when they did.
Next chapter should be up with this one so enjoy.
