Chapter 9
Harry
"You idiot," I said, as Draco and I were being "escorted" down the corridor by several large Slytherins.
"I know," he groaned, sounding as if he didn't believe what he had done either.
"I thought it was kind of stupid myself," said one of the Slytherins who was holding Draco's arm. Sixth year, I think. Jeremy… Robert Jeremy, that's right. "I mean, even I can tell the difference between Pansy Parkinson and my girlfriend."
"Shut up," Draco said.
"Fine," Jeremy said, sounding hurt before he and his Slytherin buddies threw us into our original room, slamming the door behind us.
I sighed, not sure what to do now. Ah ha! I'll make Malfoy feel worse. "So," I spat angrily. "How do you feel right now?" Not the wittiest of remarks, but I felt that it would do.
"How do I feel?" Malfoy asked, dropping back onto the couch. "Well, I feel terrible about not recognizing that it wasn't Hermione. I feel disgusted that I let Pansy Parkinson sit on my lap. Oh, and let's not get started on the fact that I feel fucking dumb that now I have to kill Hermione!" He finished his statement shouting. In fact, he even sat up a bit to project better.
"Kill Hermione?" I asked. "How'd-"
"What else could they possibly want me to do? Kill you? That wouldn't be very entertaining now, would it?" He flattened himself down on the sofa again. "Someone just Avada Kedavra me."
"If only I had my wand," I said, taking a seat on a chair.
"There has to be something we can do," Malfoy muttered.
"Besides disprove that guys don't talk about their feelings? Not much," I said, reaching for a butterbeer. "All we have at our disposal is a couch and a couple of chairs and there's no way we can get them into that room." I punctuated my remark with a gulp of the drink.
"Yeah," Malfoy muttered. "Damn it!" he threw an empty bottle which he had left by the sofa earlier against a far wall. It shattered, and glass rained down upon the carpet. And that was when I got an idea.
And apparently so did Malfoy. "Oh," he breathed as it was obviously just coming to him.
I sprang up and went to the drink cart. "Quick," I said. "See how many butterbeers you can conceal on yourself."
Malfoy got to his feet well, though in a much more elegant fashion, and began to hide butterbeers under his robes. "You know, Potter," he said. "Sometimes, the fact that we accomplish anything at all amazes me."
"Yeah, me too. But then, your eyes are actually matching your hair right now, so I wouldn't think that we're too productive," I told him, pointing out that his eyes were still changing colors sporadically. Yeah, my fault. I know.
"And then there's that," Malfoy said and I swear I saw him smile.
Ron
"Alright," Cho said as soon as the door closed behind us. She began to pace back and forth across the room. "We're stuck in a room and we're going to die. Right?"
"Er… yeah," I agreed, not sure what she was getting at. I already figured that out a while ago. So, I just stood motionless by the door.
"There are others here as well. And since we don't know where they are, we can't escape directly from this room."
Ah ha. She's thinking of strategies for escape. Smart woman. "However, once we leave the room we're surrounded by large Slytherins with wands pointed at us."
She nodded and continued. "And even then, we're not all together. When we are together, however, we're chained up."
"And we don't have wands," I added, shaking my head.
"No…" she said, smiling. "We don't. But I do."
It took me a second to register what she was saying. When it finally hit me, I sprung forwards and wrapped my arms around Cho in a hug. "Thank you!" I said with emphasis.
She started laughing. "No problem. Calm down, Ron."
I backed off, smiling now. "So, do we have a plan?"
"Not quite. I have my wand so I can unchain us… but that still leaves a room full of guards to deal with. Now if we could only stupefy them all at once…" She began her pacing again.
"Who are you?" I found myself asking. I froze, not knowing where this came from.
"Who-" she started, but I didn't give her time to get the wrong impression.
"I mean, when you were in Hogwarts, you never acted like this. You were, forgive me, a bit of a ditz. When did you change?" I hoped that didn't offend her. From what Harry had told me about her, I expected her to burst into tears.
I was close. Her smile disappeared. "My cousin was killed. August of last year. By Death Eaters."
And yes, I am stupid. "Oh," I said. "I'm sorry."
"It's alright. It just kind of woke me up. Made me realize that this You-Know-Who thing won't just go away on its own. Anyone can help and anyone includes me." She looked very determined, as if she had said this speech a few times before.
I couldn't help myself. "So, what do you do?"
"I work in the Department for Experimental Charms. Well," she said with a smile and a shrug," I will. Right now, they just load me with charms research, even past NEWT level. In a year or so, I can start with new ones."
"Wow," I said, genuinely impressed. "That's… that's… wait. Haven't we discovered some charm to make an object follow you?" Yes, I was off topic. But trust me when I say that I knew what I was doing.
"Yeah," she said slowly. "It was developed a few years ago. Why?"
"I think that I might have a plan," I responded, a slow grin creeping onto my face.
Ginny
We had been quiet for a long time after the door closed. Neither of us said a word; we just sat.
I didn't want to die. That was the only thought I was capable of thinking right then. It just kept echoing around in my head. I wished I could have ran, or hid, or something. But I was trapped.
There had to be a way out. Somewhere.
Right, Ginny. They stuck you in a room where there's a way out. Yeah, that's likely. "We need to get out," I muttered under my breath.
"Obviously," Hermione said, her voice cold.
"Can you think of anything?" I asked hopefully. If she could, then I could live. I remember being at the hands of You-Know-Who before, even if it was you You-Know-Who, and I didn't want to have it happen again. It was terrifying, plain and simple. The way he looks at you, sneers at you…
"No, Ginny, I can't," she practically shouted. "And you can't either. Because we're stuck in here and there isn't a way out."
Alright, me and fear, not too close. I hate being afraid. When I am, I sometimes get irrational, maybe even cry. I didn't want that to happen now. I wanted to be strong. I didn't want to be another blithering blob on the floor when I came face to face with the Dark Lord himself. So, I switched modes. Fear, not fun. However, anger is not something I have a problem with. "Well, you don't have to get all bitchy about it, for Christsake!" I shouted back.
"Why the hell not? My boyfriend is stupid, I'm going to die, and you're a slut! This seems like the perfect time to get bitchy!" Now she was losing it. She apparently couldn't deal with anger or fear. Maybe it was just both together that makes her like this. I mean, you should have seen her. She was scary looking right then.
"I am not a slut!" I yelled.
"You are a slut! You just kissed my boyfriend because you couldn't keep your filthy little hands off him! And you know what? This is all your fault! Yes, I blame you for this! If you had only guessed about Cho-"
"That's not why I did it," I interjected. I figured, if I was going to die, I wanted to at least be understood.
"What?" Hermione said, shocked that I interrupted her flow.
"I kissed Malfoy," I told her, my voice steady, "because you two aren't meant to be together. You should be with Harry."
For a moment it was quiet. I thought I had finally made her see. And then she laughed. Yes, that's right, she laughed. "Ginny, you can't really believe that," she said in between laughter.
"Why not?" I told her, a little disappointed that she hadn't realized my point. "You two are the heroes. Without you two, we'd all be dead. You two have so much in common-"
"That we'd make the most boring couple imaginable," she said. "Think, Ginny. Think how dull it would be. We're too alike. For one thing, we both want to be the leader. Another, we both are incredibly stubborn. So when it wasn't boring, it would be terrible. We'd conflict."
"But you and Draco-" I started but she interrupted me again.
"Well, it is a bit unconventional. But, we need each other. He needs a medium, something to bring him back down to earth. I need to learn that sometimes life bites you in the butt and that I just need to take it. I never saw it coming either, Gin, but it's the way it works."
Oh. Well… yeah. It looked like I'd made a misjudgment. My head spun. For the last year, I was sure that Harry and Hermione would be perfect together. And this new information...it wasn't wrong. All of it made sense. And really-
"And besides," Hermione told me," Harry's in love with you."
