Disclaimer: Not mine, wish snape were though, and not making any more, that's why I'm broke!!
I AM SOOOOOOOOOO SORRY!!
I know it has been ages since my last update and I hope you can all forgive me!!
This Chapter is for Snow white (if that is your real name) who was talking to my friend Lolita and she suggested to Snow white to read this and found out that she already was!!
I am in a writing mood today so I am hoping to get the next chapter up today too but if not I don't think there will be any time over the weekend so the next one WILL be Monday at the latest!!
Chapter 10
The morning of the first day of the school holidays arrived, and she was nervous. Hermione had spent a large amount of time trying and planning. One small mistake and everything would be ruined. Grabbing her trunk and the invisibility cloak from her bed she quickly locked the door from the inside. A moment later Hermione heard the signal and quickly opened the window into her room. Harry sat on his broom, hovering inches away from where she stood. She passed the trunk through to him before throwing him a quick thumbs up and wrapping the invisibility cloak around her.
"You know 'Mione, you could just come down on the broom with me." Harry spoke to the floating head, the only part of Hermione still visible.
"I am not that desperate Harry. I will be fine. See you on the train." As she finished speaking she lifted the hood of the cloak over her head and disappeared completely. A moment later the window shut, seemingly of its own accord, and Harry watched as the door that lead to the bathroom opened and the shut a moment later. Sighing, he turned his broom back towards his dorm.
Dobby was happy to accept two trunks instead of one from the boy who had set him free and did not even think to mention it as he and the other house-elves collected the trunks to be packed onto the Hogwarts express.
Ron and Ginny couldn't help but notice Harry's strange behaviour throughout breakfast, which was a good thing because it took their attention away from the absence of Hermione. Professor Snape, however, noticed her absence keenly and decided that he would pay her a visit after breakfast, just to make sure that she was ok.
Although she claimed to be getting plenty of sleep, he could see clearly in her face that the nightmares still plagued her, even if they were less violent. Turning his attention back to his meal he could not help but be angry with the man on his right. It had been almost a week since he and Miss Granger had argued about her destination for the holidays and since then they had barely spoken a word to each other. He purposely ignored her in class, despite her attempts to gain his attention, and had avoided her at all costs outside of class. He would not lie to his wife, even for Albus, and if that meant not talking to her than he guessed he had no other option.
Her friends did not yet seem to know about her staying at Hogwarts for the Christmas holidays as they all looked around them in confusion while they waited on the platform for the train to arrive. Ron went so far as to ask Draco if he had seen her. To which Draco spat angrily back that he wouldn't waste the time of day to even look at her, let alone find out her whereabouts. Only Severus caught the tiniest flicker of worry that crossed his eyes. Before he had a moment to question the boy on his fears, however, a loud whistle blew and the train arrived. Students quickly bustled on, rushing to get a carriage with only their friends. No one noticed Harry hold the train door open for longer than was necessary, nor did they notice that he seem to, very briefly, have a conversation with himself.
Harry, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna sat in the six-seater carriage talking quietly amongst themselves. None of them noticed the extra trunk above them, nor did they wonder why Harry and Ginny sat so close together, leaving one whole third of the seat empty. It wasn't until Draco entered for a bit of pre-holiday taunting that anyone besides Harry and Hermione knew that she was even there.
As it was, Draco needed to talk to Harry privately, he knew that Hermione had told him about their friendship but he didn't know who else knew. Knowing that if he tried to get Harry by himself Ron would be sure to follow, he had written a note that he planed to pass to Harry. As he opened the door and spied the empty seat beside Harry he couldn't believe his luck. After a few minutes of teasing and taunting he descended into the room with all of the grace of a Malfoy and took his seat next to Harry, but not before he distinctly felt someone quickly stand up from the supposedly empty seat. Change of plans.
"Potter," he drawled, "I hear you have lost one of your precious golden tri."
"What do you want Malfoy?" Harry bit back; keeping in the forefront of his mind that Malfoy was now good friends with Hermione and could be genuinely concerned for his friend.
"Tell me, is she lost, or has she merely-" he paused, hoping that Harry would understand his meaning "-disappeared?" Harry glared at the blond boy. He had taken Hermiones seat, so there was a high chance he had felt her get up. She hadn't had much time.
"Disappearing is one of her specialities, or didn't you know that she can do just about anything she pleases." His eyes narrowed. Hermione had never told him why she had to leave in secret. At first he thought that it had something to do with Krum, now he had other suspicions.
"Your bad habits must have rubbed off on her Potter, she never used to disobey teachers." Harry was obviously confused by this comment. Draco paused for a moment, he wasn't sure if Harry knew the reason why Hermione was meant to be staying behind at Hogwarts but he had assumed from his previous comment that he did. He knew that he needed to have a private conversation with Harry before something was said that shouldn't be. Slipping Harry the note without anyone noticing, he stood up and left the carriage without another word.
Four members of the room looked around at each other in complete confusion while both Harry and Hermione read the note without anyone seeing. After a good five minutes of waiting, in which the conversation had turned from the odd behaviour of the head boy back to the usual gossip of the group, Harry stood and quickly excused himself. Hermione silently followed.
Completely unaware of Hermiones presence, and not even realising that she too had read the note, Harry walked as fast as he could without being conspicuous towards the meeting place that Malfoy had said. The Head toilets. They would not be disturbed in there, Draco had purposely not told anyone except Harry the password and as far as either of the boys new, Hermione did not know it.
Checking quickly that no one was watching, Harry slipped into the Heads compartment and hurried to the other side where the door to the bathroom stood. Hermione had not managed to squeeze in after Harry into the heads compartment as he had been too fast, so she waited a moment until she was sure that he would be in the bathroom be she too quickly checked that no one was watching and slipped inside. She stood at the bathroom door with her ear pressed firmly against the panel but could not hear anything. Typical, she thought. On a muggle train everyone would be able to hear so well that they would know what part of the bowl you hit. In the magical world, they but up silencing charms. Knowing that even if Draco didn't know she was on board he was about to find out anyway, she whispered the password and stepped inside. Both boys turned to face the open door and watched as it shut on its own accord.
"Hermione?" Draco whispered. Removing the cloak to reveal herself seemed to put Draco at ease, but only for a moment. "Merlin Hermione do you know how much trouble you are going to be in. he raced up and enveloped her in a hug, Harry's presence all but forgotten. "You know there are reasons for rules. And Snape never does anything without a reason. What are you doing here?"
"Snape?" Harry burst out, though his voice no longer held the same amount of anger at his name as it used to there was defiantly still hostility in his words. "What does Snape have to do with this?"
"I take it that means you don't know that he forbade her from leaving Hogwarts on pain of death over the Holidays then?" Draco released his hold on Hermione and tuned back to Harry.
"Snape was the reason you wanted to be snuck out of the castle. If I had know that-" he paused in mid sentence, knowing that he was treading on thin ice.
"What Harry, you wouldn't have helped me?"
"No, of course I would have helped you, but Malfoy is right, don't you think that the professors would have had a good reason not to let you leave."
"Yeah, they don't want me to see my parents." She bit back angrily.
"But why?" Harry tried to reason with her logically.
"I don't know Harry, no one would tell me anything. For all I know my parents are on the verge of death and they don't want to tell me so they keeping me locked up." The tears that had been welling up in her eyes came spilling down her cheeks as the fear and frustration from the last couple of days finally surfaced. Harry ran to give her a hug. He understood how she felt now. He hated the Dursleys, but he still feared that they would be attacked. How must she feel, she loves her parents.
"Don't worry 'Mione." Draco spoke up. "They would only do that if your parents were actually dead, not just on the edge." As soon as the words left his mouth Draco regretted them. Harry glared at him and Hermiones sobs turned into full-blown crying.
"Good one Malfoy." Harry bit as he turned his attention back to the girl in his arms. "It's ok 'Mione, they are gonna be fine."
…………………………………………………………..
Professor Snape tore though the castle in a rage. He could not find her anywhere and he knew that it would not be too far fetched to believe her capable of escape. Reaching the Heads rooms in record time, he proceeded through the common room and began banging heavily on the head girls' door. There was no answer. After five minutes with still no answer he began to throw every possible unlocking spell at it that he could think of. When still he could not enter he tried Dracos' door. This door did not stop him, nor did the next into the bathroom but he came across the same problem as before when he tried to enter Hermiones' room from the bathroom.
Rushing back down to his own quarters and ignoring the looks of concerned teachers and students alike as they feared for their own lives as well as his sanity, he reached his quarters and began the assent again to the head girls' rooms only this time through the narrow corridor that the Headmaster had build. Just as he suspected, the room was empty. Her trunk was gone and so was she.
"Dobby!" the infuriated professor shouted, within an instant the happy house-elf was at his side, it was less than an instant later when his smile dropped.
"You is calling for Dobby Master Snape." Taking a moment to control himself, Snape rounded on the small creature.
"Yes, was a trunk removed from this room but you or any of the other house-elves?" Dobby shook his head. "Did you or any of the other house-elves remove anything from this room?" once again Dobby shook his head. Deciding to be more direct, he paused for a moment. "I am looking for Miss Grangers trunk, do you know where it is?" Dobby nodded at this. "Well, tell me."
"It is on the train Master Snape, on its ways to London."
"If none of you removed it from this room then how did it get there?" Snapes irritation was rising."
"It was with Mister Potters' trunk. He is asking Dobby to take it for him." That was all Severus needed to hear. Dismissing Dobby with a wave of his hand, he rushed back down to his own quarters; there was only one way that he would be able to catch up with the moving train now. After a shout but angry floo to the Headmaster, Professor Snape grabbed his broom from the cupboard and raced towards the Great entrance, praying that he wasn't too late.