Chapter 9
You're falling back to me
You're a star that I can see
I know you're out there
Somewhere out there
You're falling out of reach
Defying gravity
I know you're out there
Somewhere out there
Draco and Hermione strolled into the Great Hall a few minutes later to find a few of their teachers waiting for them. Professor Dumbledore was there, of course, as well as Professors McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout. All of the Heads, with the exception of Professor Snape who apparently wasn't done tending to his 'urgent business', were there.
The room was set up differently than it was during the school year. Since there were no students at the school over the summer, there was no need for the four house tables to be set up. Only the staff table at the far end of the room remained and it was smaller than usual because not all of the professors stayed at Hogwarts during the holidays. Draco and Hermione took their seats at the table and looked expectantly at Professor Dumbledore.
"As I'm sure Professor McGonagall has already told you, we are all very glad that you requested to come to the school early this year," he began.
"We were glad to be able to as well, Professor," Hermione said.
"I'm going to explain to you your responsibilities and privileges as Head Boy and Head Girl and then I'll answer any questions you may still have. Is that alright?" They both nodded. "Alright, as you both know, you are now allowed to take points from the students and to give detentions. Your decisions regarding this privilege are a matter for you own discretion. However, if any of the Professors think that your decision was too harsh, or not harsh enough, they can overrule it and change the punishment. Also, you are now permitted to enter any area of the school, including all of the House dormitories. You will need to know all areas of the school well as you will be doing rounds together four nights a week for two hours after curfew. Any questions so far?" Dumbledore paused.
"Is there a limit on how many points or detentions we can give to the students?" Draco asked.
"No, but as I stated before if any of the Professors feel the punishment is unfair, they may change it. This will stop either of you from playing favourites or targeting any particular students." Hermione began to open her mouth, but Dumbledore continued. "Not that I'm saying that either of you would do such a thing."
"Of course Professor," Draco said with only a hint of a smirk.
"Ok, moving on. You will also be allowed access to areas of the school that no one else is. While you both will remain in your House dormitories, there is a Head's Common Room and Bathroom that will be for you use only. You may be there at any time of day in order to ensure that you have enough time to get all of your work done as well as have personal time without interruptions. You will be allowed to walk from your House Common rooms to the Head's Common Room after curfew, but please don't take advantage of this privilege, you are not to be wandering the school at all hours of the night," Dumbledore said with a smile.
Over the course of the next hour, the professors explained everything to them. Hermione sat quietly and absorbed every word. She hadn't realized that there would be so much work! Not only would the two of them have to do eight hours worth of rounds every week, they would also have to run an hour long prefect's meeting every week as well as help keep track of all of the clubs that Hogwarts had to offer. She hadn't even thought about the clubs. They would be responsible for approving new clubs and posting sign-up sheets for existing ones. Hermione began to worry that she wouldn't be able to keep up with all her schoolwork.
Draco also sat quietly while the professors spoke, but not for the same reasons. He had tried to listen to Dumbledore, but soon after the headmaster had started speaking Draco had begun to feel a pounding headache come on. Hermione had found a potion that helped with the pain, but it had been working less and less over the last few days. He hadn't told her yet, he didn't want her to worry even more. He had pretended he was listening as best he could and had posed some comments and questions.
"Ok, I think that's everything," Professor Dumbledore finally said. At this point, it was all Draco could do to keep his eyes open. "If you two will just follow me, I'll show you where your Common Room is."
Hermione trailed right behind Dumbledore as he led them through the corridors of the school. Draco followed behind Hermione so that neither of them could see the grimace of pain on his face.
"I must apologize to you Hermione, the Common Room is much closer to the Slytherin dormitory than it is to the Gryffindor," Dumbledore said as he led them past the kitchen's portrait. They finally stopped outside a portrait of two crowns, one feminine and the other quite masculine. "There is no password," Dumbledore explained. "You must place the palm of your hand on the respective crown and the portrait will open."
Hermione reached out towards the painting, placing the palm of her hand on the more delicate of the two crowns. The painting felt soft and strange beneath her touch. As soon as she pulled her hand away the portrait swung open. Professor Dumbledore stepped inside and gestured for the two to follow him.
The Common Room was much smaller than a regular House Common Room, but much more space than they would need. There was a large fireplace as well as three couches, four chairs, and two low-resting tables. There was a winding staircase off of the centre of the room. Hermione assumed that it led to the bathroom.
"I'll leave the two of you alone to your thoughts now," Dumbledore smiled as he left the room.
As soon as the portrait was closed, Draco collapsed onto the nearest couch. He leaned forward and placed his head between his knees. Hermione could see that he was gasping for air, his hands clutching the soft material of the couch.
"Draco!" she yelled. "Is it a headache? When did it start?" He didn't answer at first, just gulped and tried to catch his breath.
"It's alright now," he said. "I was just trying to hold the pain in for too long."
Hermione frowned. She knew that he was lying.
When Severus arrived back at the school, hours later, he was exhausted. As usual, the Dark Lord had rambled on way longer than necessary. He had finally told Snape his assignment: track Draco and keep an eye on his symptoms. What a surprise, Snape thought to himself. The Dark Lord always had him doing the obvious.
Not only was he exhausted, he was irritated. All he had wanted to do was find Hermione and Draco and then go to sleep. Of course he couldn't just do that. He had to, as he always did after a meeting, go and speak with Albus first. He sighed to himself and walked towards the old Headmaster's office.
Hermione had left Draco alone in the Common Room after she was certain that he was feeling better. She hated to leave him after an episode like that, but she was just dying to get to the library. After weeks of having only her own books to pour over, she was ecstatic about the idea of having the whole Hogwarts library (including the restricted section now that she was Head Girl) at her fingertips.
She was even more pleased to see, upon entering the library, that Madam Pince wasn't there. She really would have free roam of the library, if only for a little while. Her fingers were almost tingling with excitement and anticipation as she made her way quickly to the restricted section.
She stepped over the rope that blocked it from the rest of the library. She smiled as she remembered all of the times she had snuck in here with Harry and Ron after hours to sneak peaks at books that had previously been forbidden. She raised a hand and trailed her index finger over the spines of the worn volumes on the shelves.
She smiled, it was nice to back on familiar ground.
Severus entered Dumbledore's office only a few minutes later. The Headmaster was seated behind his desk reviewing the list of first years that would be arriving the following week. Severus cleared his throat to alert Albus of his presence.
"Ah Severus, I've been expecting you. What's the news?"
"About what we thought it would be Albus," Severus said, taking a seat in front of Albus' desk. "The Dark Lord wants me to keep an eye on Draco, monitor his symptoms, that sort of thing."
"So what do you think we should do?"
"Well, I'm worried that if I tell him the truth, that his symptoms have not been too terrible, that he will repeat the attack. I think it might be best if I try to lie to him, make him believe that Draco is worse off than he is."
"Do you think it is wise to try and lie to him right now? Will you be able to make it believable?" Albus asked quietly. He knew that Severus had been more stressed lately than he would care to admit.
"I think that it would be worth taking the risk. We cannot play with Draco's mind, we cannot allow the Dark Lord to do anymore damage to it. I will have to lie and I am confident that I will be able to make it believable."
"Very well then Severus. You are free to go, I know that you are eager to see to other things," Albus said with a twinkle in his eye.
Severus was gone from the office almost before the Headmaster was done speaking.
Hermione stumbled down the hallway, her arms laden with books. She had taken as many books from the library as she could carry. She wanted to be able to do as much research as possible without having to go back to the library. She didn't want Madam Pince looking at her selections and wondering what she was up to.
She balanced her load on her knee and reaching towards the small crown in the portrait. She wobbled on her feet but did not fall over as the portrait swung open in front of her. She entered the room and heard the door softly shutting behind her. She slid the books out of her arms onto one of the tables.
The utter silence of the room led her to look around for Draco. She found him fast asleep on one of the couches. It was not a peaceful sleep as it had been on the train to Hogwarts. His face was contorted and his hands clenched at his sides. She sighed to herself and sat down in front of the table.
She was reaching for her third book when a soft knock came from the outside of the room. She had found a little bit of information by this point, but nothing particularly satisfying. She hadn't found a solution and anything less than that just wasn't good enough. Hermione sighed as she walked over to the portrait hole. She wasn't getting anywhere.
She opened the door to find the tall, dark figure of Severus Snape outside the door. He looked terrible. His hair was greasier than ever and there were deep purple circles under his eyes. He looked even worse than Draco, who hadn't slept properly for a month. Hermione suddenly realized the stress that all of this must have given the Potions Master.
Draco was his Godson, but Snape was also a Death Eater. Not only just a Death Eater, but one of the most trusted Death Eaters. He had all of this to deal with, as well as being a double agent for Dumbledore. The things that he had been putting up with the last few weeks suddenly made Hermione's researching seem like a simple task.
"Hello Professor, please come in," she said finally.
AN: I know this chapter was really short and uneventful, probably not really worth the wait, but it was necessary. I wanted the conversation with Snape to wait until the next chapter, so that's why it ended here. Hopefully the next chapter will be up soon.
Please review to let me know what you think.
As always, thank you so much to those of you who reviewed. Your feedback and encouragement are what keeps me going.
Oh, and the song at the beginning of the chapter is Somewhere Out There by Our Lady Peace. Can you tell they're my favourite band?
