Chapter 9 for you, it's quite a bit shorter so sorry about that, hope you enjoy it though and it answers a few questions.
Red Garden Gnome - yeah, you're right now that I come think about it, I guess I was just trying to get across that she had been a bit silly but maybe took it a bit far but thanks though :)
xXMizz Alec VolturiXx - thank you!
jmullinax - here you go!
- HermionesPolyjuice xoxo
Chapter 9
Mr Weasley spat his orange juice over the front page of the Daily Prophet. Everyone stared at him in shock but he continued to read the article.
"What is it Arthur?" Mrs Weasley asked impatiently, slowly losing the colour from her face, from the other end of the breakfast table when he finally scanned the last sentence. He turned the paper around to show the rest of the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione. They stared in surprise.
'DEATH EATER BREAK IN AT HOGWARTS' was printed in large writing above a picture of the Hogwarts ruins. Hermione gulped.
"What does the article say, Percy?" Charlie asked his brother, as Percy was the closest to the paper.
At approximately 3:30 yesterday afternoon some Death Eaters broke into the site of the recent battle, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Aurors appeared at the scene to find the library subject to occupation. One elderly man thought to be in his mid-forties, who is yet to be identified, was laying unconscious under a collapsed shelf. There were skid marks and marks from spells around the area, it is thought there were others involved in a skirmish, how many is unknown. No one else was to be found, although the Restricted Section's door was unlocked. It is believed the Death Eaters were trying to get books about Dark Magic before being caught by a member of Dumbledore's side. Whoever it was got away using a Portkey and can be thought to be unharmed. The other Death Eaters did, however, get away. The public has been warned that there are likely to be some Death Eaters about, who escaped from the battle before being captured. If you see one do not approach them but rather contact the Ministry immediately.
There was silence around the table. Everyone looked shocked. Everyone except Hermione. She had known it was going to replace the marriage law as the headline. Charlie glanced over at Hermione, unsurprised by the look on her face.
"I thought the Ministry had caught them all. Dad you said they were all in Azkaban," Ron finally blurted out.
"We thought we had," Mr Weasley replied loosing the colour in his face. He and Percy stood up simultaneously, not even looking at each other, both of their faces looking grim.
"Where are you going?" Mrs Weasley asked them both.
"We had better get into work now Molly dear," Mr Weasley answered hurrying to the fireplace. Charlie continued to stare at Hermione but Hermione averted her eyes.
"Harry. Ron. I'll see you in Ginny's room in 20 minutes," she said standing up and leaving the kitchen and heading for the stairs.
{-/-} [-\-] {-/-}
The day continued, surprisingly, without any interruptions. Everyone was anxious to hear anything from Mr Weasley but nothing came, they assumed it wasn't a bad thing. Harry, Ron and Hermione started on Herbology, Potions, Charms and Transfiguration NEWT revision. Hermione had decided to dedicate that week to revising 6th Year.
"She's crazy," Ron moaned grumpily to Harry as they left Ginny's room and headed downstairs at 5 o'clock that evening. Hermione had worked them almost harder than any of the teachers had.
"Just go with it. She's doing what's best for us," Harry answered as they grabbed some snacks from the kitchen.
"Doesn't make it any better though," Ron muttered.
"How's work going?" Ginny asked perkily looking up from her Holyhead Harpies magazine.
"Awful," Harry said.
"Dreadful," Ron replied.
"I've forgotten everything."
"Hermione is driving us crazy."
"And this is stuff we've already been taught."
"She's nuts."
"We're going to fail."
"Doesn't she know we're not as clever as she is?" Ginny laughed at the cranky boys as they sat down either side of her.
"What'cha reading?" Harry asked giving Ginny a peck on the cheek.
"Oh, nothing exciting just the latest Holyhead Harpies' magazine," Ginny said returned Harry's kiss. They made eye contact and their lips met for a long kiss.
"Alright LoveBirds, either break it up or leave." Harry and Ginny laughed and pulled apart blushing slightly, Harry not letting go of Ginny's waist and looked to where the voice had come from. Fred and George had just walked in through the door. Their hair was wet so the other three took it that it was still raining. It had started raining at 10 o'clock that morning and was still going.
"Where is everyone?" George asked pulling off his dripping jacket and hanging it up.
"Why are you so wet?" Ginny asked, ignoring her elder brother's question.
"We took a walk."
"In this weather? You've got be mad."
"I wouldn't say we're not but we needed some ideas for new products and they come to us better when we're outside in the natural habitat," George answered, "But as I already asked and you all kindly ignore me, where is everyone?"
"Dad, Percy and Charlie are still at work. I guess it's been manic after what happened at Hogwarts. Mum's writing a letter to someone and Hermione's upstairs," Ginny answered picking up her magazine. Fred and George headed over to the kitchen and returned a few minutes later with biscuits.
"Exploding Snap anyone?" George asked summoning the pack of cards. Harry and Ron nodded.
"I'm just going to check on Mione, I'll be down in a minute," Ginny said setting her magazine down and hurrying to her room.
"Mione?" she asked as she pushed open the door.
"Hi, Gin. Everything OK?" she replied looking up from the book.
"Yeah, fine thanks. Fred, George, Harry and Ron are playing Exploding Snap and I just came to see if you wanted to join in," Ginny walked over and sat on the end of her bed.
"I'll just finish this section and will come down." Ginny tried to have a look at the book but Hermione had strategically covered the title with her hand.
"What are you reading?"
"Oh, nothing exciting. Just the Potion textbook, trying to remind myself of some of the potions we need to know," Hermione lied.
"OK, well we'll be downstairs," Ginny replied, knowing full well Hermione wasn't telling the whole truth but not wanting to argue.
{-/-} [-\-] {-/-}
Mr Weasley, Charlie and Percy arrived back at The Burrow much later than normal that evening. Everyone else was waiting for their return before eating. The conversation at the dinner table slowly drifted towards the break-in at Hogwarts.
"Have you caught any Death Eaters?" Ron asked with a mouthful of lasagne.
"No, not today. We're still looking though, mainly trying to find out how many Death Eaters there were at Hogwarts," Mr Weasley replied.
"How many do you think there were?" Ginny asked.
"We're not sure, we reckon four or five."
"There were only two." Everyone dropped their cutlery to their plates and stared at Hermione, Ron choking on some food, Harry's mouth growing ever larger in size and everyone else unblinkingly. It was so quiet a pin drop would have been heard.
"W…What?" Fred finally managed.
"There were only two Death Eaters," Hermione repeated looking down at her food.
"How…how do…do you know?" George stuttered.
"I…I was there," Hermione said quietly, avoiding everyone's eyes and looking down at her food. This was too much for Mrs Weasley, who let out a shriek and started to cry.
"You didn't go to St Mungo's did you?" Harry asked her reaching across the table and giving her hand a squeeze. Hermione shook her head not lifting her gaze up from her plate.
"I needed some books from the Hogwarts library. So…so I went there but…but two Death Eaters were also there." Hermione told them the whole story, just how she had told Charlie the night before.
"Do you know why there were there?" Mr Weasley asked once Hermione had finished.
"No idea, they obviously wanted something from the Restricted Section though."
"Hmm…interesting, but why did they chase after you?"
"Honestly, I don't know. It must be something to do with defeating Voldemort. They knew who I was and that's the only thing I can think of. But, it could be anything – maybe they thought I was preventing them from finding what they needed," Hermione shrugged.
"How did they know who you were?"
"Well, I mean my photo has been all over the Daily Prophet," Hermione suggested averting her eyes from Mr Weasley.
"But how have they been able to see the Daily Prophet. That would have required going into the Ministry or Diagon Alley," Mr Weasley asked curiously.
"Owl post," Hermione replied. The Weasleys nodded in agreement.
"I might need to get Kingsley to enforce a ban on owl post –"
"What help will that do though?" Percy asked. Everyone stared at him.
"It will stop any other Death Eaters from being up to date with what is going on," Mr Weasley answered.
"But that's not going to help us catch the Death Eaters," Charlie said. Everyone looked over at him, "I mean surely you could trace each of the owl's to find out where they are all going and check out all of the houses. Obviously the vast majority will go to wizarding houses, such as here, but there could be a few going to unregistered sites and you may be able to catch some Death Eaters that way." Everyone nodded to show their support with the idea and Hermione flashed Charlie a bright smile, who returned one just a large back at here.
"But what I don't get is why there were Death Eaters a) at Hogwarts and b) still roaming the country. I makes me feel that there are a lot more about," Mrs Weasley voiced everyone's thoughts.
"You say there were only two Death Eaters, do you know who they were?" Mr Weasley finally asked Hermione, ignoring the murmuring at the table.
"Arthur," Mrs Weasley growled, "Stop interrogating the poor girl."
"No, Molly. It's fine – I can help," Hermione looked over at Mrs Weasley who shrugged. She turned back to Mr Weasley, "I didn't recognise the older man. But the one who got away. It was Draco Malfoy."
(A/N: just a little twist, hope you enjoyed this chapter, please do leave reviews as they really help!)
