Chapter 9-The Twists in Normality
Hermione's POV:
Scurrying down the echoing corridor with Ginny at my side, I willed my heart to steady its rapid beating. The mind-numbing adrenaline, which was no stranger to me by now, was cursing through my veins and encouraging me to sprint away from the scene. Although I often experienced the surreal sensation that invaded your body when adrenaline took over-due to my many years as Harry Potter's friend-and it had assisted me through numerous great perils, I was not finding its company too gratifying right now. In every other situation that I had been granted access to my full potential as a human being, I had been in an extremely dangerous situation where every ounce of my strength and power had been greeted with pleasure. But right now it wasn't so helpful. The unexpected surge of motivation and force that was ploughing through my body was also screeching words of motivation to my muscles; preparing them to be pushed to their maximum. However, I didn't need them to do that. Even though my mind was trying vainly to overpower my animal instincts and regain control, deep in my bones I felt the prehistoric urge to dash forward and not stop. I wasn't accustomed to breaking school rules and it was taking everything I had to remain calm.
We had just held our first 'Dumbledore's Army' meeting. After many weeks of preparation and planning we had finally found a secure location. And after said weeks, all of our exciting-yet stressful-scheming had lead to something that hadn't quite lived up to our expectations. Of course we had been thrilled with the amount of people that kept their promise of attending. And the little things that I had created specifically for the purpose of the DA-such as the coins-had worked smoothly. But we had all been expecting to dive straight into work at our first meeting-which had not happened.
"Hermione are you alright?" Ginny's soft voice trailed through the air towards me, shattering the peaceful but lonely cloud of reflection that my quiet reverie had offered me. I snapped my gaze up to meet hers. My red haired friend was watching me with a concerned expression as we walked almost briskly away from the Room of Requirements.
"Yeah I'm fine. Why?" I tried to keep my tone as casual as possible as I replied but my urge to run was making it difficult.
"You seem pretty tense."
I shook my head rapidly as if batting away the very idea with my flailing brown curls. But Ginny didn't seem convinced. I threw her a brief reassuring smile before turning my head forwards again.
Ginny hadn't been in as many life-threatening situations as I had. (Yes she had experienced a few but she had never been aware of the immediate danger that she was in.) So it was understandable that she didn't feel the need to flee as strongly as I did. After five perilous years as Harry Potter's best friend, the fact that adrenaline meant danger had been drilled forcibly into my mind. But Ginny also had a certain talent for not over-reacting about simple things; something which I lacked. So naturally, I had panicked when Harry had instructed us to act normal as we left the Room of Requirements. And of the course the mention of us possibly being caught had increased my worries even further. Furthermore, breaking school rules made me instantly uncomfortable. These things had done nothing to Ginny. Therefore she was incapable of understanding exactly how all of these different yet crucial aspects were piling up inside my mind, gaining strength from one another and making me jittery.
I focused my gaze on the delicate bouncing of Ron's ginger hair as he strolled in front of me. His nonchalant appearance was making me angry but it was the only distraction that I had from wanting to dash.
"Oh, hello Harry." The dreamy and soft voice of Luna Lovegood drifted towards us from along the corridor. Harry and Ron-who were walking in a relaxed formation in front of Ginny and I-were the first to respond. Their heads whipped in her direction and their stares locked onto her. Following their example, I glanced up at our blonde Ravenclaw friend.
Luna was stood absently at the very end of the corridor with Neville Longbottom and Cho Chang on either side of her-all three had previously left the Room of Requirements and separated from us to prevent any suspicion. A thick curtain of light blonde hair cascaded down past her shoulders and she had her head tilted to one side as she watched us trail forwards. Beside her, Neville stood rigidly with an awkward smile on his face; one hand bunched up inside his robe pocket and the other dangling down next to his torso. The black hair on his head looked slightly dishevelled-as it usually did. Cho Chang also seemed perfectly normal. Her black hair was tied back into a loose ponytail and she held herself confidently beside her two companions. Everything appeared completely normal. But as we came closer, I could see them more clearly. So upon further inspection of their facial expressions, I could see that everything was not normal. I noticed that Neville's smile-that I had previously mistaken for being simply awkward-was being forced. Cho was also gnawing on her lip nervously. And beneath the distant look on Luna's face, a warning was hidden. Her eyes were wide and the silvery grey pupils in them were flickering to her side and back again. Was she indicating to Cho?
At that moment, I heard a clustering mumble of irritatingly familiar voices coming from the corridor that lead off to the left of where Luna and her companions were standing. Shadows began to dance along the walls in the candlelight as the group came closer. It was Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. Then it dawned on me like a sudden blow to the head. Luna hadn't been indicating to Cho. She had been warning us about the approaching Slytherins. And her greeting was clearly a method of getting our attention without arousing the suspicion from anyone that happened to hear.
Harry suddenly whipped around on his heel to face us with panic laced in his features; his wild black hair falling underneath his glasses and into his eyes.
"Quickly go that way." He instructed in an urgent whisper and pointed to the side corridor that we had passed moments ago. We all spun around, darted back along the empty hallway with our robes floating and our footsteps echoing before we each skidded around the thin corridor that Harry had directed us towards. Ron almost fell over in the process. Harry hurriedly followed behind us and grabbed a handful of our rather hopeless ginger friend's robes to drag him along without him falling onto his face.
Once we had reached the safety of the corridor, we slowed our pace but didn't stop.
"Harry, we need to find somewhere to hide; otherwise they'll see us when they walk past." I said urgently. Harry simply threw a shaky nod back at me before he began to frantically rake the surroundings with his almost deranged green eyes.
"Why do we need to hide? We're allowed to be up here." Ron half moaned stupidly. I turned my icy gaze onto him.
"Ron, we explained this before we left. Umbridge has been watching us-or at least she's been watching Harry-so she'll have people-especially Slytherins-coming to her with news of our sneaky behaviour." I barked at him, annoyed that he even had to ask that question.
"But how is this sneaky?" He raised an eyebrow at me.
"Oh really Ronald? There were a lot of us that left at the same time; which wasn't exactly well thought out but that will seem quite suspicious to anyone paying any attention."
"What will?"
"The fact that there are about thirty people that range from different year groups wandering the seventh floor for no apparent reason and that the only connection they each have is that they are associated with Harry!" I snapped, thoroughly irritated due to Ron's ignorance and the stress of escaping.
"Oh." He replied simply as we stopped our walking. There was hurt in his voice and I longed to fix it. As Harry and Ginny whipped their heads around, searching for a helpful hiding spot, I took the opportunity to go to Ron.
He stood with his posture slightly slumped and his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his robes. Nearing him, I hesitantly placed a delicate hand on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry." I mumbled. Ron didn't reply. He simply turned his head towards me with a slight nod as his ears grew steadily pink. Knowing Ron like I did, I guessed that it was because Ron always experienced certain awkward feelings when faced with any form of physical affection. This uneasiness was probably intensified by the fact that Ron and I hardly ever displayed attachment for each other in this way. I dropped my hand to relieve him of his discomfort.
"There!" Ginny suddenly exclaimed as she bolted for an archway a little way down the corridor. I jumped at the sound of her voice and was sure that she would have been heard by the approaching Slytherins. But they didn't appear.
Harry, having lightening quick seeker reflexes and a small body to match Ginny's equally tiny female figure, darted after her and was able to match her pace. The pair slipped inside the archway and out of sight. But Ron and I were much slower to react. We began to run after them, hoping that it wasn't too late to slink into the shadowy archway and conceal ourselves along with them. But Ron had a larger build than Harry and wasn't used to putting it to speed. And I was tiny but lacking in the strength that Ginny had gained from playing quidditch. My body was not at all equipped for any kind of sport so I fumbled clumsily at Ron's heels. But then I heard Malfoy's cruel voice echo away from him and travel towards me, almost as a warning.
"Ron."
He didn't react.
"Ron! Ron stop!" I grabbed at his sleeve, planted my feet firmly on the ground and tugged which caused him to come to a hasty halt.
"What's the matter with you? They'll see us!"
"Exactly; we're not fast enough...so they're going to...see us...whether we run or not. And it'll look worse if we're running." I explained between panted breaths.
"But before you said that-"
"I know, but they can't see Harry. It won't look as bad if it's just us." I cut him off with a short wave of my hand. At the back of my mind a nagging thought occurred. What if the others had been spotted? It would make this situation remain bad. But I shook my head, sweeping the thought out of my mind. I had to hope that they had been smart.
"So what, we just pretend to be walking? Or talking? What?"
"Yeah we'll just walk. It'll be fine; we won't even have to interact with them." I smiled reassuringly at Ron before turning to see Harry and Ginny staring at us with puzzled and slightly horrified expressions. I allowed them a single fleeting smile.
But then I heard Draco's voice again. This time it was closer and hadn't echoed from the dark shadows in which he had crawled out of. No. It was much closer. Recently I had been able to avoid contact with Malfoy. But that seemed to be about to change.
I couldn't help but turn around. And when I did, I wished that I hadn't.
My gaze travelled swiftly all the way along the deserted corridor, sweeping easily over every detail of my surroundings, until it found the group of Slytherins swaggering past the opening to the corridor in an arrow formation, Draco at the front with Crabbe and Goyle behind him. Like wolves; scouring the hallways of Hogwarts until they happened upon an easy target. Draco was their leader; their alpha. He led them with a confident-and arrogant-stride that screamed power and authority. The spiteful blonde Slytherin boy knew he was feared.
Watching them, I noted how unusual it was for Draco to be alone with them. Recently he had only been with his friends-or former friends it appeared-if Blaise was among the group. In other cases he would remain alone. Despite this information, something at the back of my mind was telling me that this was normal; comforting almost-comforting because I knew what to expect of Malfoy when he was with Crabbe and Goyle. I had learnt that this was the order of things. Malfoy and his mindless minions.
As I lingered absently in my own thoughts, I forgot to look away from Malfoy. So when he stopped muttering to Goyle and turned his head towards me, the smirk slipped from his pale face and warm brown met stormy grey. I froze; forgetting how to operate my body. Our stares locked and neither of us seemed able to look away. At once I was hit by the harsh blow of memory. The scene in the empty cupboard that Malfoy and I had shared filled my mind. My chest tightened in an anxious breath. He knew. He knew about my mother. Did he care? Was that the cause of his sudden forgotten arrogance?
"I heard Looney Lovegood say hello to Potter but he's not even here. It's just Weasel and mudblood out on a date. She's a lunatic." Crabbe spat. Goyle laughed idiotically beside him. This comment broke my imprisonment in Malfoy's eyes where a storm of uneasiness was raging amongst the grey. Instead I whipped my head around to glare at Crabbe. He was snorting away at his own comment like a pig. Draco had not reacted but his eyes were now locked firmly on the floor in front of him, his jaw set tensely.
It felt like it took forever but the trio of Slytherins eventually passed the entrance of the corridor and were gone, like a wisp of smoke floating into the sky.
I released a breath I hadn't known I was holding and my entire body relaxed. I had survived the encounter that I had been dreading. In lessons he hadn't been able to reach or acknowledge me, so I had felt safe. But the fact that nothing would stop him from using the information about my mum to viciously attack me in the many empty hallways of Hogwarts had been constantly probing at my mind for days. But he hadn't. And that probably meant that he wouldn't at all. It was over...mostly.
I felt a sudden hand on my arm near my elbow. I spun around with a sharp intake of breath to see that it was only Ginny. Her light brown eyes were swarming with worry and anger.
"Are you alright?" She asked with a sympathetic note in her voice.
"Of course I am, why?"
She gave me a puzzled look.
"Because Crabbe called you..."
"Oh!" I exclaimed. "No I'm fine. He's just stupid; I didn't really register it anyway."
Ginny and Ron both stared at me as if I had grown another head. So I was grateful when Harry emerged from the shadowed archway to join us.
"We seriously need to be careful around Malfoy now." Harry muttered, staring off down the corridor to the place that the Slytherins had been.
"Why?" Ginny inquired, turning only half of her attention to Harry. She would return to question me later. I knew it.
"He's in the Inquisitorial Squad. Didn't you see the badge?"
The two ginger siblings shook their heads. Harry rolled his eyes at them before turning to me.
"You saw it didn't you Hermione." He grinned, already expecting me to have used my sharp mind to see the tiny details. His encouraging-and almost proud-expression made me feel guilty for not picking up on this information.
"Yes." I lied casually. In truth I hadn't been able to glance at any other part of him than his eyes. It had been a fleeting moment of panic and surprise. Harry's smile didn't fade as he watched me.
I had been getting myself back on track since the last incident with Malfoy. I had avoided him. I had focused on schoolwork. I had reconnected with my friends. I was strong again. None of my emotions leaked out of me during the day or when I was with people. But this second-long meeting with Malfoy was far too different. It wasn't normal. And it would no doubt have an impact on other aspects of my life. I groaned inwardly at this thought.
I'm sorry that it's late again :( But at least it's here :) Ok so I just have a few questions that I'd like you to answer:
1. How is the pace of the actual Dramione? Do you think that it's too slow, too fast or is it alright?
2. Are the characters being portrayed well or not so well? I want to try and keep their personalities as much the same as possible because I know that some people-like me-don't like it when Draco is completely changed to make it easier for the Dramione to happen. So I just need to know if you think they're acting how they should or not?
3. Is there any parts of this fanfiction that anybody really seriously dislikes? I just feel sort of like there are some aspects of it that people might not like so I'd like to know what you think is and isn't working.
Thanks for reading, reviews are much appreciated :)
