chapter 10 - Revelations
"Harry, do you think the sorting hat knows everything?" Hermione asked almost two weeks later.
The wizard looked up from his book, surprised his best friend had spoken at all. The usually bubbly, outspoken Hermione had become introverted since coming to the Burrow after her danger in Italy. It was not unusual to find her staring intently into her breakfast or having a glazed look in her eye as Harry and Ron flew around her practicing on the Wealsey's Quidditch field.
"Well 'Mione," he started, noting the tiny flinch her body made at the sound of the affection. "I do believe it knows a lot, look at the school songs it creates every year. I have to admit, there's definitely a lot of magic involved."
"Hmm." was the response Harry received. Hermione continued to stare past his head with a furrowed brow.
Just then Ron walked into the room. "Harry, are you still doing homework for Flitwick? You had loads of time, how did I finish it so quickly?"
"Ron, you only finished it quickly because you wrote down all the wrong answers!" Harry exclaimed, shooting a grin at Hermione - they both knew Ron liked to be done early rather than have right answers - but she had taken no notice of them and her Charms book was slowly slipping out of her loose grip.
Ron followed Harry's gaze and sighed. "'Mione, I know we've asked a dozen times, but when are you going to tell us what happened in Italy? You-Know-Who was after you and we don't even know how he knew you were there!"
"Please Hermione, tell us what happened." Harry said, his green eyes staring intently. The princess struggled to meet his gaze knowing once she did she would have to either lie or tell the truth when neither were preferable.
Finally she willed herself to speak. "Voldemort knew I was there because he had spies. I don't know if they were Death Eaters, but they were spies."
Mrs. Weasley bustled in before she could continue. "It's almost time for dinner, why don't you three pick up your school books and come outside, we're eating in the garden."
A chorus of "Of course, thank you." was spoken and she left to find Ginny, who had been spending a lot of time in her room since the beginning of the summer.
Hermione frowned at her best friends, trying to decide if she should tell them everything. "Can we talk more later, maybe?" she asked, hoping she would know what to say by the time dinner was over.
"Yeah," Harry said and Ron nodded.
As Hermione gathered her parchment and books one thought rang over and over in her head.
Would they kill me first, or Malfoy?
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Meanwhile, at Number 12 Grimmauld Place, Draco was so frustrated he could hardly stand it. He had been cooped up inside with no company except his mother, who wouldn't give Draco any information from the outside world, and Aries, who was, as Draco reminded himself daily, just an owl. To make matters worse, school would be starting in less than a week, which meant seeing Hermione again.
All Draco ever thought about anymore was Hermione. If she hated him - of course she did, was always his conclusion;if she had told Potty and the Weasel about him and if they were going to hurt him as much as he had hurt himself by keeping the truth from Hermione.
Nothing could distract him from thinking of her. All the books he had hastily thrown into his bag were from a stack at the end of his bed, ones Hermione had recommended during one of their midnight strolls. His naturally fair hair was still a dark shade of brown – in their stealthy exit, Narcissa had refused to let Draco risk being seen by his father and go to the library to retrieve the book with the counterspell.
Draco and his mother had left less than five minutes after Narcissa had returned to Draco's bedroom. They had apparated onto a residential street in London, and, although Draco had known magic his whole life, even he was startled when a house materialized from thin air without being noticed by any of the surrounding abodes.
Once inside, Narcissa had pointed Draco to a disgusting, ragged room with two twin beds, a wardrobe littered with moldy owl treats, and an empty frame with its invisible owner snoring with as much grace as Neville Longbottom in potions class. He had grudgingly accepted her command to unpack his things and meet her downstairs in the kitchen in half an hours time.
As Draco walked down the staircase to the basement kitchen, he took in the dusty banister, the presence of several house elf heads on the wall and the eerie silence that reminded him of Malfoy manor and a time before he was introduced to a carefree, magic free summer with Hermione.
When he entered the kitchen, Draco stopped in surprise. Standing at the counter was his mother, slicing a loaf of bread. She had already set out two plates on the table with goblets of pumpkin juice next to them and the platter next to her held a stack of cheese slices and hunks of ham.
Working hard not to let his wonder show, Draco cleared his throat and said "Mother, I didn't know you could cook."
Narcissa looked up with a strange, half smile on her face. Draco then realized he'd never really seen his mother smile, at least not since he was a small child, before he went to Hogwarts and had stopped spending time with her. Holidays had been filled by parties and visits to important places with Lucius while summers were spent wondering the streets of Gaeta or taking vacations abroad with his Slytherin friends and their families.
"Well, Draco, this isn't exactly cooking, but we will have to make due for now."
She began stacking the bread on the plate and then picked the platter up and motioned for Draco to join her at the table. After they had made sandwiches and sat eating them for a few minutes in an awkward silence Draco decided to get straight to the point.
"Where are we?"
"This is the headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix. It used to belong to my cousin, Sirius Black, but he left it to Harry Potter in his will. Sirius was living here for a year before he died, and meetings were held regularly, but once Sirius passed the members found it more difficult to be here and also worried that Bella and I would be able to get in because we are the last remaining Black relatives, besides Andromeda.
Of course, that isn't a problem any more, because I am in the Order and Bellatrix remembers nothing of this house from our childhood."
Draco pondered this for a moment then asked, "How did you come to be in the Order? How long has it been?"
Narcissa paused before answering, wondering if she should tell him of the prophecy when she knew it would be a long time before he and Hermione reconciled. Deciding against it, she responded with, "At the end of the school year I received an owl from Dumbledore requesting my presence in his office one evening. When I arrived, hoping you weren't being expelled or you weren't in danger, the headmaster assured me you were safe and well, but could be in danger in the near future. I had been thinking a long time about leaving Lucius, but didn't know where to turn. Dumbledore knew I had never been in strong favor of the way your father was used by the Dark Lord, and he offered me security and protection when the time came. He knew that you were going to be sought out as a Death Eater by the end of the summer and he wanted my help to prevent that."
She had been staring down into her goblet, watching the still liquid with concentration, as if it were a pensieve. After relating this information she looked up into her son's eyes, to see him looking just past her shoulder, his brow furrowed in concentration, as if working on a particularly hard puzzle.
"But why would Dumbledore want to keep me safe? What use am I to him?" Draco finally asked.
"Draco, there are some things I still am not able to tell you. You are my son, and I want you safe. That is all the reason you need right now. We are going to be here until school starts. You will travel to Hogwarts by floo powder in two weeks, the day before the train will arrive. Now, if you're finished eating go get some rest. It has been a very long night."
Nodding, Draco pushed his plate away, thoughts swirling around in his head. After trudging upstairs to the dank bedroom, Draco chose to sleep on the bed closest to the door. He lay down fully dressed, clutching his wand. When he closed his eyes, all Draco could see were the stars above the ocean in Gaeta, and as exhaustion over took him, he sighed, whispering a name in his semi-conscious state.
Hermione.
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After dinner, Hermione led the boys all the way up to Ron's bedroom and sat down on Harry's cot while Ron yelled for the ghoul to be quiet. After placing a charm around the room so they wouldn't be overheard by Mr. And Mrs. Weasley or Ginny, Hermione snapped out of her silent reverie and began to talk, not meeting either pair of eyes sitting across from her.
"To put it simply, I thought I was in love. You both know how much time I was spending with..with Will. I thought he wasn't even magical. But I was wrong. He must've put me under a love spell. He had to of, for me not to realize..."
Harry, realizing Hermione was no longer explaining, but arguing with herself, interrupted with, "Was it Will that was spying on you for Voldemort?"
Hermione looked up into his eyes for the first time in days and hesitated, finally replying with one word. "Malfoy."
Ron raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Lucius? He was in Italy? The man breaks out of prison and goes on vacation to find you?"
"No, not Lucius." Hermione sighed, finally deciding to just say it. "Draco. Draco William Malfoy. It was Draco that tricked me, Draco I thought I was falling for."
Before she could stop herself, a sob escaped. Harry glanced quickly at Ron, and saw the hotblooded Weasley trying to suppress his anger at discovering Hermione had spent so much time with their enemy. Harry got up and sat down next to Hermione, putting an arm around her shoulders as she buried her face in her hands, trying to calm down. After a moment she continued, slightly muffled from speaking into her hands.
"I was such a fool. I don't know why I was so drawn to him, from the moment I saw him. And he seemed so sincere. He listened to me, and never once did anything to make me become suspicious. When Narcissa was sent to get me and explained..Harry, I should have listened to you."
"Hermione, if Dumbledore trusts Narcissa, how do we know he didn't trust Draco too?" Harry questioned.
Ron let out an exclamation of disbelief and jumped up off of the bed, glaring at Harry. "What? Malfoy has been nothing but a thorn in our sides since we were in first year. You got into a fight with him not one month before school let out! And now you want to stick up for him? He put a love spell on our best friend and almost turned her into his father and a horde of Death Eaters!"
Hermione let out a shuddering sigh and finally looked up from her hands, shrugging out of Harry's comforting arm and sitting up straight. "Ron, I messed up. I don't know what happened."
Turning to Harry she said, "You both should be furious with me for not realizing it was him, for letting him manipulate me. He is evil, just like his father. Even Narcissa, who I only fleetingly trusted on Dumbledore's word, said Draco was to become a Death Eater this summer, and that bringing me to his father was to be part of his initiation."
"What are we going to do if he's in school this year?" Ron asked. "We can't let Malfoy treat 'Mione this way and get away with it."
Harry sighed, trying to think of a way to say what he was thinking without upsetting his best friends. "Dumbledore trusted Narcissa to watch out for Hermione, and she saved her from Lucius. What if Draco didn't know it was Hermione until Lucius told him it was? She didn't recognize him."
"Harry! I can't believe you'd think he is innocent." Hermione's voice was pained. "He is worse than anyone else I've ever met for treating me this way, for using my emotions to try to kill me. If he didn't know it was me, why did he have dyed hair? Why were we never allowed to hang out in day light? Why didn't he ever introduce me to his family?
No, Harry. He knew it was me. Draco was thrilled with the fact that he tricked the smartest witch at Hogwarts. I'm sure he's sitting around laughing about it right now." Her voice had formed a sharp edge, and Harry could tell that she was on the brink of crying again.
"I think we should sleep on this, and all three of us should talk about it again tomorrow."
Hermione got up immediately, whispered a "goodnight" to the boys and left the room, muttering "finite muffliato" as she walked out, to end the sound barrier spell. When she walked down the stairs to Ginny's room that they shared, Hermione could hear talking on the other side of the door. Listening closer, it sounded like Ginny was arguing with someone in a very distressed voice. Knocking, Hermione moved to open the door, when Ginny called out a frantic "Just a second!"
Pausing, Hermione knit her brows in confusion and waited a few more seconds. Just as she reached again to open the bedroom door, Ginny flung it open. She looked flustered in her pajamas, her eyes bright, as if the had been holding tears moments before.
Realizing that she had been too caught up with her betrayal of the heart to notice Ginny's odd behavior since she had arrived, Hermione bit her lower lip and hesitated. Ginny turned away from her and walked back to the bed, collapsing on it as if she was much older than she looked. Hermione followed her inside, shut the door and began to change into her own night clothes. Pulling back the covers of her bed and turning around, Hermione looked at her fierce, ginger haired friend and said "What's going on?"
Sighing, Ginny looked up and rolled her eyes with a sheepish look. "I'm dating Blaise Zabini. What's going on with you?"
"I was dating an amazing boy in Gaeta who turned out to be Draco Malfoy in disguise and I don't know if I really love him or if he had me under a spell, but I had to leave because he was supposed to kidnap me for his Death Eater initiation."
Ginny looked at her, dumbfounded. "You win."
And both girls lied down and rolled away from each other, knowing there would be much to discuss in the morning, when the initial shock of these new discoveries had worn off.
Closing her eyes, Hermione's thoughts started to slow, until a single image surfaced, and she drifted off to sleep.
The star constellations, as seen from her favorite spot on the beach in Gaeta.