A/N: Hello people of the internet! How lovely it is to virtually see you all through favs, follows, reviews, and views :) I just wanted to take this time to say thank you very much for reading my story, it makes me happy that I can get people interested in something that I wrote.
Also, sorry for any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. I looked it over but I don't have a beta and even if I look over something ten times I still miss things.
And now please enjoy this next installment of Choosing Sides ~ !
Chapter 7
Hogsmeade
Hermione woke up one cold Saturday morning in late October to the sound of girls giggling and loudly getting dressed. That's when she remembered that is was Hogsmeade weekend. She and Bellatrix had planned to meet at the Shrieking Shack today. This thought brought a smile to Hermione's lips and jumped out of bed. She used her wand to make her bed and then went to her trunk to pick out today's outfit.
"Hermione, you're all chipper. You got a big date or something?" Ginny asked as she put her hair up into a neat ponytail. Hermione blushed, she tried to stop herself but she couldn't. She wasn't blushing because she was going on a date, which she swore to herself it wasn't, but recently every time she thought of the notorious Death Eater she couldn't help but blush. Ginny did not miss her friend's red cheeks.
"It is! Who is it? It's Ron is it? I know you guys are close and all but he's just so..." she trailed off, not knowing the proper words to describe her brother.
Hermione shook her head. "I'm not going on a date Ginny, but from what I've been hearing you are." Now it was Ginny's turn to blush. Before the red haired girl could respond she was pulled away by the other girls in the room and the only person that was left was Hermione.
She pulled out a pair of black jeans, a purple shirt, and her grey overcoat. Lately she had noticed how her interests and choice of clothes had begun to change. She no longer enjoyed her colourful clothes that she mother had picked out for her, and now mostly wore blacks, greys, and the occasional purple, like today.
Hermione headed down the stairs from the girls rooms and into the Gryffindor common room where she saw Harry and Ron played wizard's chess. She walked over to them and gave a large smile.
"Morning Hermione. Going to Hogsmeade?" Harry asked casually not looking at Hermione, he was concentrating on the chess game which he was currently losing. Hermione said yes and then Ron shot his head up.
"But 'mione you said that you'd do my potions essay...er I mean help me with my potions essay," he said, correcting himself. She shook her head before answering.
"Ron we can do that tomorrow. Today is Hogsmeade. If you really want to do it today then do the introduction and conclusion and help you with the paragraphs, okay?" she asked and she hurriedly put on her gloves. He didn't answer and instead moved his white rook.
"Check," Ron said and Harry made a face. Hermione waved goodbye, but they were too occupied in the game. This didn't bother Hermione though, she just wanted to see Bellatrix. Over the past two months they had been exchanging letters talking about anything and everything, with the exception of Bellatrix being a Death Eater and Hermione being muggle-born. It wasn't that they thought that they would get into an argument about it, they just knew that it would be an upsetting reminder that they were on opposite sides of the looming war.
She contemplated going into the Great Hall for breakfast, but she was so nervous and didn't feel like she could stomach anything if she tried. So Hermione made her way out of the castle and quickly went to the Whomping Willow.
She looked over her shoulders to make sure that no one saw her enter the tree, and when she was satisfied that she was alone she muttered immobulus and the tree's flailing branches stopped moving. Going through the tunnel was a lot harder for Hermione then it had been three years ago. Now she had to squeeze through the passageway, tripping over large roots as she went.
Eventually, after traveling through the passage, she made it to the Shrieking Shack. It looked the same as it had the last time she was there. The bed was broken from Harry casting a spell on Professor Snape which caused him to rebound into the bed. There was blood on the floor from when Ron had been dragged by Sirius Black in his animagus form, and there was dust and abandoned spider webs everywhere.
Hermione checked her watch and it read 09:12. She still had another hour and fourty-eight minutes before Bellatrix was supposed to show, so she decided to tidy the place up and make it look presentable. She started with bed which took a very long time, seeing as it was quite damaged. Next was the dust and the cobwebs, casting a silent cleaning spell and then went to fix up the bed. Afterwards she cleaned the blood which did not take very much time at all. She looked around and was almost satisfied but she was having a hard time seeing the room, so Hermione lit the candles that had dried wax surrounding them which reminded Hermione of how the Marauders used to come here during their time.
By the time Hermione had finished it was 10:17, so she sat down one of the newly cleaned chairs and pulled out Dark Arts and Everyday Life. She had read all the books that Bellatrix had given her except for the spell book. Hermione was still timid about it. So until she felt comfortable looking through it, she opted to study the other books into great detail.
She was so engrossed in the book that she didn't notice when Bellatrix had entered the room. To scare her, Bellatrix carefully walked behind Hermione so that she didn't make any sounds and whispered in her ear.
"Boo."
Hermione leapt out of her seat, which sent the book flying across the room. She looked frightened until she saw who it was. Bellatrix started laughing a sincere laugh, not one of her cackles, but a soft, light laugh. Hermione, however, did not find it amusing and proceeded to to hit Bellatrix.
"It's not funny! You've just taken two years off of my life. Add that to the two from the last time we met and I'd say that you owe me four years," Hermione concluded and stopped hitting Bellatrix.
"You need to be more alert to your surroundings anyways, so I don't owe you anything," Bellatrix said childishly, sticking out her tongue and had her hands on her slim hips. Before Hermione could respond, Bellatrix spoke again.
"This place seems different," she noticed.
Hermione nodded her head. "I arrived here early and thought that I'd clean up. It was an absolute mess before you arrived. There was dust and cobwebs everywhere, and blood too. Also their was barely any light and the bed was completely broken."
Bellatrix smirked. "Let me guess. You fixed the bed first didn't you?" She said teasingly, which caused Hermione to blush. Although she quickly turned away to pick up the book, so that she wouldn't see her cheeks.
"What does the order matter? The place looks nice, does it not?" Hermione questioned, quickly regaining her composure.
Bellatrix walked around the room as if debating on giving her the compliment. Finding nothing wrong, she agreed with the brunette and sat down on the bed.
'Of all places to sit, she chooses the bed. Of course. But not that it matters, right Hermione?' she mused to herself. And looked at Bellatrix who was staring at her intently. It seems Hermione had missed something that the Death Eater had said.
"Pardon me?"
Bellatrix rolled her eyes dramatically before answering. "I asked if you were going to sit down. Pay attention when someone is talking to you. Well, actually you can ignore Snape, and McGonagall but pay attention to me at least," she said it almost as if she was saying one of her desires. This didn't go unnoticed by Hermione, but she chose to ignore it and instead sat down next to Bellatrix on the bed.
"Speaking of McGonagall, is she still trying to get you to talk to her?" Bellatrix asked curiously. Hermione had written to her that McGonagall seemed to be worried about her and was always trying to help her with whatever Hermione needed.
"Yes she is. It's very kind of her, and I can tell that she cares, but I'm not the kind of person who talks about their problems," she said, taking off her shoes and crossing her legs then turning to face Bellatrix.
Bellatrix turned around and crossed her legs as well, her long skirt covering her thighs, not bothering to take off her black boots. Hermione made a mental note to scourgify the bed before they left.
"So you have problems?" Bellatrix asked, looking down at her boots. Hermione shrugged.
"Don't we all?" Bellatrix just nodded her head. She didn't want to get into her problems. No, she definitely didn't want to scare Hermione off. It was silent for a little while after and Hermione was about to apologize for perhaps crossing a line but Bellatrix stopped her.
"You have nothing to apologize for Hermione so don't," Bellatrix told her. "If anything I should apologize for prying into your personal life."
Hermione took Bellatrix's hands in hers to emphasize her point.
"You're aloud to pry Bella, I feel comfortable talking to you. And it isn't that I don't want to talk to you about it, it's that I just don't want to talk about it. Please don't confuse the two," Hermione said. This was the first time she had ever called Bellatrix by a nickname and thought that perhaps Bellatrix wouldn't like it, but she didn't say anything and instead smiled at her. "And I hope you know that if you ever need to talk about anything..." Hermione trailed.
"Then I'll come to you," Bellatrix finished for her. This made Hermione smile. They both sat there, holding hands and smiling at each other for awhile until Hermione's stomach grumbled.
"Oh right, I skipped breakfast this morning," she said shyly.
"McGonagall is going to notice you know, and she'll ask you questions. Have fun with that," Bellatrix said smirking. Hermione nudged her and said shut up before they both erupted into fits of laughter. It was so out of character for the dark witch that her voice cracked during her laughter, which made them laugh harder. After a few minutes of that, the witches were clutching their stomachs and Hermione was practically lying down on top of Bellatrix. As the laughing died down they just stayed where they in were in comfortable silence, each content just being in each others company.
They sat like that for awhile before Bellatrix broke the silence.
"Hermione?" she asked as she began to lightly stroke her hair. Hermione gave a small smile and slightly leant into the touch.
"Yes?"
"Harry and Ron, what are they too you?" she asked, for the first time not calling them Potter and the Weasel.
Hermione turned her head so that she could look into Bellatrix's eyes, but made sure that Bellatrix's hand could still reach her head.
"They're my friends. Why?" she asked. Bellatrix chose to ignore the question and instead asked Hermione another question.
"You aren't dating either of them?" she asked quietly, almost as if she was afraid of what Hermione's answer was going to be.
Hermione looked at her in a confused manner.
"No, of course not. Well I think that Ron might like me, because he's been hinting at it and has been trying to hang out with me more but I'm not interested. Why?" Hermione asked again.
Bellatrix stayed silent, trying to figure out how she should answer before saying that she was just curious. Hermione didn't believe her but didn't push it. She knew that if Bellatrix didn't want to say something then there was no way that she could possibly change her mind. She tried not to dwell on what Bellatrix's wariness might mean and just kept talking.
"Everyone loves Harry though. He's always getting these flirtatious letters and looks because everyone thinks that he's the Chosen One. Well, they aren't wrong but I can tell that Ron is getting annoyed, wishing that he would have all that attention. And I always think that one of the girls are going to attack me or something for hanging out with Harry. They can get very jealous, it's quite scary sometimes," Hermione went on. She knew that it wasn't really important but it seemed to come out of her mouth anyways.
"Do you wish that it was you?" Bellatrix asked, and moved her hand and started gently stroking Hermione's arm.
Hermione shook her head.
"No, I prefer to not be crowded and have people talking about me all the time. I'm perfectly content being ordinary and boring," she said, catching a sigh that was about to escape her lips.
Bellatrix stopped her hand which made Hermione look back at Bellatrix.
"You are anything but ordinary Hermione Granger," she said as if it was an everyday fact that everyone should know. Hermione smiled at her kind words and started playing with the hem of her skirt.
They stayed like that until Hermione had to go. The students of Hogswarts were only allowed to be out at Hogsmeade until two o'clock and that time was fast approaching. Hermione got off of Bellatrix and put on her shoes and the dark haired witch stood up as well and watched the younger witch tie up her laces.
The two looked at each other for a moment, deciding on what to do and say. Hermione stepped closer to Bellatrix and wrap her arms around her. Bellatrix stiffened for a moment but quickly relaxed and returned the gesture. Once they parted they just smiled at each other and Bellatrix watched as Hermione left the Shrieking Shack, leaving the Death Eater alone in the once dreary room.
