Chapter Ten

"Why are you still here?" Hermione asked, whipping around. The look on her face nearly sent Malfoy running, but he had to stay.

"You have to fend off a group of Death Eaters. I want to help. Plus, Dumbledore said you should get other students together," Malfoy said.

"What if we don't need your help?" Hermione snapped. Ron gave her a questioning look, but she ignored him.

Malfoy sighed. He hadn't wanted to tell her this, but he knew there wasn't another option.

"You do. I… I know what their plan is."

"Whose plan?" Ron asked. He looked more suspicious the more Malfoy talked, but Hermione's faces had sunk. She'd figured out what was coming. Malfoy tried to ignore her expression.

"The Death Eaters… I… I was part of it. I was supposed to, ah, kill Dumbledore, then let the Death Eaters into the castle." At this point, Malfoy had given up trying to avoid looking at Hermione and just stared into her eyes. She didn't look surprised. Just depressed that she'd guessed right. Despite this, Malfoy kept talking. "Eventually, I came to my senses and stopped trying to kill Dumbledore. Somehow, I managed to figure out that I needed to stop acting like I was better and help the good guys. Only I didn't know how to do that until now."

Hermione shook her head, while Ron stared ahead, dumbfounded.

"So… you tried to kill Dumbledore?" he asked.

Malfoy stopped.

"When did you realize you shouldn't do that?"

"We shouldn't even be talking to him, let alone asking him questions about his 'epiphany', if it's real!" Hermione exclaimed.

"He can help, Hermione! And I doubt it's a trap. He looks like he means it," Ron said. "Get whatever you have against him out of the way! Now, let him answer the question."

Malfoy didn't hesitate before answering. He looked at Hermione again. "When I started doing flying lessons with you."

Hermione made a weird choking and crying sound in the back of her throat and finally hung her head. Ron looked a little disgruntled, like he didn't understand what was going on and didn't like it.

"Can I help, please?" Malfoy asked, his voice breaking. "I need to do something."

Ron nudged Hermione, who straightened.

"Yes. You can. Get any Slytherins who will help to meet in the Great Hall. And don't bring any of the bad ones."

Malfoy nodded. "What will you do?"

"We're going to get some Gryffindors and try to get into the other Houses," Ron said. "Make sure they're fifth years and older. We don't want any young ones to suffer."

"Okay. Great Hall in twenty minutes. We'll figure out how to get into Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw then, and I'll explain how to stop the Death Eaters," Malfoy said, then turned and walked out of the stadium.

Hermione looked after him with a tortured expression on her face. Ron stared at her. He didn't like the way she was looking at him.

Twenty minutes later, Malfoy walked into the Great Hall, followed by two sixth year Slytherin girls who seemed to have gotten the nicer end of their family tradition. Luckily, he'd managed to keep his mission quiet to keep too many rumors from flying around.

Hermione and Ron were sitting on the floor in front of the four House tables. They were surrounded by a large group of Gryffindors, including all of the Weasleys, Neville Longbottom, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, and a few other ones Malfoy didn't recognize.

As he got closer, he started to see Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, too. But that was impossible. They didn't know how to get into either of those Houses.

Surprisingly, when the group of students saw him, they didn't glare at him and yell at him to go away. Most nodded respectfully. Some even smiled. This confused him more than anything.

"Why isn't everyone jeering at me? And how are there Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws here?" Malfoy asked as sson as he got to Hermione and Ron.

"Sit. I'll explain." Hermione patted a patch of ground next to her, and unreadable expression on her face, so of course Malfoy immediately sat down. The two Slytherin girls found places among the crowd.

"What's going on?"

"We found a Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw that were out for a midnight walk. They were really eager to get their Houses to help, so they retrieved volunteers while we went to Gryffindor." Hermione's eyes were bright and she was smiling.

"And the not-glaring thing?"

Hermione looked less excited. "Oh, we explained that you're betraying the Death Eaters. Giving away their plan. For some reason, they only care about that. They don't seem to remember what you were like just a few hours ago."

Malfoy sighed and turned away from her. There wasn't any use in arguing, no matter how much it tortured him to see her hate him.

Finally, Hermione and Ron stood up. The quiet chatter in the group silenced.

"Hey, you guys. Thanks for volunteering," Hermione said loudly. "So, we have to stop a group of Death Eaters tonight." Utter silence. "This is going to need bravery, so if you don't feel like you can do it, you can head back to your dormitories. There will be no hard feelings." No one moved. Hermione smiled. "Draco Malfoy was once in on the Death Eaters plan. He was supposed to kill our Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, but, just a few hours ago, he came to us, saying he knew he was wrong and wanted to help us protect the castle against the Death Eaters. He's here to tell us their plan and how to get around it. Malfoy?"

Malfoy stood up, but before he could speak, Hermione leaned over.

"This castle needs protecting and we can't be distracted by each other while we're in the middle of a battle. Let's agree to be civilized until after, alright?"

"Agreed," Malfoy whispered.

"Good. Impress me, Slytherin."

Malfoy raised his voice. "In a few hours, we are going to be facing some of the most dangerous people in the world. They know more spells than five of us do combined. They're servants of You-Know-Who, so they're ruthless and not afraid to kill." Malfoy paused, scanning every face. There wasn't a bit of hesitation anywhere. "This is going to be a bumpy ride."