Chapter 10: White flower

She was sitting on the couch in the common room reading something as usual. Her hair was tied into a messy ponytail and her eyes were gleaming like they always did when she was interested in something. Her lips were in a small pout, moving with the words she was trying to repeat while reading. Even if she was wearing her pyjamas with small penguins, she looked beautiful. He stood by the doorway and just observed her. He took the moment to inscribe this into his memory. Why did his mother have to remind him of what he knew himself? It would not last. He was not naïve, he had known all along. But they had been only dating two weeks, barely anything really. Why couldn't he at least have had the end of the school year and then be shown that dreadful Malfoy family tree? He hoped he still had enough time with her. Although he couldn't say how much time was enough.

She noticed him standing in the doorway and stirred from her place on the couch.

'You're back.' he nodded. 'How is your mother?' – she politely asked.

Draco sat down next to her on the couch and put his hand on her cheek to look into her eyes. Honey colored, the color when she was calm. They would turn much darker when she was angry.

'She's fine. Kept saying that there was something more to that letter, but I can't decipher what.'

Hermione was taken aback by his intense stare. His silver orbs were unmoving from her eyes and it made her slightly uncomfortable.

'Maybe we'll look at it together tomorrow. Are you… okay?' she was afraid something had happened to upset him, for he was being far too quiet and too gentle. Draco shook his head slowly and leant in to give her a kiss. She pulled away looking a little dazed and he smiled.

'Been a good girl, have you? Didn't do anything reckless today?' – his voice was teasing and immediately she tensed up. Her eyes turned darker.

'Don't make fun of me Malfoy.'

'I'm not making fun of you.' – he said, but his smirk was telling her a different story. 'Well then, if you were a good girl, I have something for you. Don't go saying no, it's a loan.' He pulled out a pocket book with old black covers and gave it to her.

'A book? 'Secrets of the damned...an introduction to dark magic?' What the… Malfoy! I can't read that, it's illegal probably... I could get in trouble for reading it. Where did you get that?' Hermione was livid, but her hands somehow bypassed her words as she already took it in her hands and began to browse through it. The pages were quite thin and fragile and the text was done in small but neat handwriting.

'It's from our own personal library. Don't fret, it's won't kill you. It's about dark magic and spells but it tells you nothing how to actually perform them. I thought maybe it would be helpful to browse through and maybe it would give you some ideas on what you've been wondering about. '

'Okay, thank you, it might be helpful. Thank you Malfoy.'

'Would it kill you to call me by my first name once in a while?' Draco raised one pale eyebrow and she stuck her tongue out.

'You were the one who told me not to get too comfortable with name calling as "it could make us forget to pretend to hate each other in public", remember?'

'I kind of changed my mind about that, Hermione.'

Her name rolled off pleasantly from his tongue and she felt warmth spread to her cheeks. It was very intimate and different to hear him say her name.

'I didn't change my mind, Malfoy.' and with that she ran off towards her door with the book in hand. 'You should go to sleep , it's late already. Goodnight!' he regained his senses and chased after her.

'Not until you say my name, hey!' she just slammed her door in front of his face. As he was about to knock hard on it, the door opened, she gave him a small smile and said 'Goodnight Draco.'

He smiled and turned around towards his own bedroom door.

They were woken up at four a.m. by a patronus of a cat in their bedrooms. 'Come to the astronomy tower. Immediately.'

Both of them met up in the common room and ran towards the astronomy tower without speaking. Something bad had to have happened for the Headmistress to wake them in the middle of the night. Something she couldn't deal with herself. What they saw was something they couldn't have anticipated.

There was a group of several people standing near the staircase. Professor McGonagall was holding one hand over her mouth the other was holding the hand of a trembling Sybille Trelawney. Next to them was Proffessor Slughorn and Snape, both looking quite still and pale. Next to them were the prefects, one of which was Harry. Hermione looked over to the southern wall where everyone was looking. The wall was splattered with blood and human tissue and on the ground there lay a dismantled body of a girl.. she guessed because the body had a skirt on. It must have been a slytherin, as her clothing was green. An arm lay two feet in the opposite direction as did a foot and further a leg, all bruised and torn. The trunk had ribs protruding through the clothes, the face was distorted beyond recognition under a pile of short dark hair, sticking together with tangy red fluid.

Before Hermione could put together who it was, Draco spoke up first. His voice was so broken and soft that she hardly recognized it.

'Pansy..' he said. He had always found her annoying and irritating, but she was still… Pansy. He had known her practically his whole life.

'I'm sorry everyone to have called you here. It's completely selfish of me to expect you to help us out at a time like this. But please… can you inform your houses? Tell them she passed away peacefully...tell them she fell from the astronomy tower? Make sure no one speaks and no one knows what has occurred here tonight.' her voice was trembling and Hermione saw her proud and strict teacher crumble for the first time in her life. Harry took Hermione by the hand and led her downstairs. She turned around to look at Draco, who was still looking at the scene with horror and wanted to go back to him, to take him away from there, but Harry was pulling her along far too forcefully.

The next days turned chaotic. To say Pansy's parents were devastated was an understatement. They alerted the whole Ministry of Magic to do a complete and thorough search of Hogwarts to find whoever had done this. Word spread round that Pansy hadn't fallen from the Astronomy tower but was found killed. Strict measures were undertaken: all the prefects and heads had to stay in their respectable houses and no one was allowed to wander or patrol at night. Every hallway was protected by at least one auror. The Ministry of Magic also found out about the previous attacks.

The funeral of Pansy had commenced the following Tuesday and everyone had attended. Hermione met up with Harry and the Weasleys had arrived in four: Molly, Arthur along with Ginny and Ron. They were all carrying a white pansy as instructed by the invitation that The Parkinson's sent out. It was a gloomy looking cemetery, she could tell the moment they apparated there. The gates were tall and slightly worn with some dried up greenery growing around it. When they entered the gloomy looking cemetery, they saw Mr. and Mrs. Parkinson talking to Draco and his mother. There was something different about the four rather than the group she was in. They all had an air of aristocracy as they were talking. The mourning parents did not shed tears, but were rather composed looking, talking fondly with the blondes, or at least it seemed that way. Mrs. Parkinson put a hand on Draco's shoulder and he was nodding uncomfortably.

'It is such a great loss for your family as well, Narcissa. Even with what's unfortunately happened to Lucius, I was still harboring hope that Pansy and Draco could have created a union, made us all a family.' the woman with slightly curled black hair said, touching the white handkerchief to her eyes to drain her nonexistent tears.

'Yes, we are deeply grief stricken, dear Rose. Deeply. I didn't even have the heart to write Lucius to tell him. He was looking forward to working with Cassius when he came back.' Narcissa bent her head to the side, eyeing the tall man next to Rose. He was looking rather bored and stoic as Hermione noticed, not like someone who had just lost his only daughter.

'Yes, well. When will that exactly be, Narcissa? When is Lucius coming back?' Mr. Parkinson silently asked, not leaving his stoic expression, but looking slightly pleased to taunt the smaller blonde woman.

Narcissa's façade cracked for a moment, but she regained herself, when Draco silently looked at her, taking her hand in his.

'That shouldn't be too long. Father is awaiting his second trial in a month.' Draco forced a smile. 'Our great condolences once again Mr. Parkinson, Mrs. Parkinson. We'd better head on then, there are more guests waiting to speak with you. ' With that the Malfoys left onward towards a small crowd that was gathering.

When Hermione, Harry and the Weasleys walked up to the couple she felt slightly awkward. It seemed that she wasn't the only one. From the coldness radiating between the two families she guessed that the Parkinsons and the Weasleys had not been close friends. Mr. Parkinson eyed Harry, then looked at her condescendingly at Hermione before settling on the ginger family in front of him.

'Arthur, Molly. Such a pleasure to see you've come to share our grief. It is such a tragedy for us, the more…friends come, the better.' Mrs. Parkinson said, forcing a polite smile that ended up looking more like a sneer.

Arthur nodded his head to Cassius and the taller man did the same. They did not exchange words.

'Yes, Rose, we know how hard it is to lose a child. We have lost one due to the war... we hardly recovered from it yet.' Mrs. Weasley smiled sadly.

'But it's not the same, is it now? We lost our only daughter and you have… so many.' Molly Weasley was beginning to become red in the face, but her husband stopped her from saying anything, reminding her that the Parkinson's had just lost their daughter and were still grieving. 'Two of your children are here, they should be loved as long as you can, for who knows how much time you have left with them.'

They went along after the Malfoys as Arthur Weasley was having difficulty containing his wife's anger any longer. They saw most of Hogwarts there, the teachers having arrived as well. They all put their white pansies on the grave and Mrs. Parkinson waved her wand to make them all grow on the barren piece of land. Then they all stood in silence. Some were crying. Some looked forlorn. Draco was standing two rows behind Hermione, stealing a glance at the brunette. He wished he could be there to brush his hand against hers to feel her skin. He grimaced when he saw Weasley and Potter take both her hands in theirs.

Hermione briefly looked over her shoulder and noticed the Malfoys. Draco's eyes were looking at the ground and he was looking a bit angry. Then her eyes drifted a little to the left and she saw a girl smiling slightly. It was strange. This was a funeral. When the girl lifted her gaze, Hermione saw the familiar black hair and pug face of... Pansy. She looked alive and breathing and in the middle of her own funeral. Hermione turned her head back to Harry sharply and whispered for him to look back quickly. However Pansy was gone. Harry wondered what Hermione had wanted to show him, but she shook her head. Maybe it had been all in her head.

They left the funeral quite briskly as the Weasleys really didn't feel like staying longer and talking to the Parkinsons any more than necessary.

xxxxxxx

The next few days passed quite calmly. Aurors were still guarding the castle and no attacks had been recorded. However the Ministry didn't come any closer to solving the mystery of Pansy's murder.

It was Friday - Harry, Hermione and Ron were sitting at their table eating breakfast.

'Listen to this: "Minerva McGonagall failing as Headmistress! Multiple students attacked and tortured and one student brutally killed without informing the Ministry. Is this school really safe for our children? How can we call this Headmistress responsible? What will it take for her to be alarmed- should half the school be killed for her to take notice?" How can they write that! She has been going out of her mind to try and find the culprit and so have we, but they write like nothing has been done! I mean for Gryffindor's sakes, the students that were attacked didn't actually receive serious injuries!' Hermione showed Harry the Daily Prophet, waving it about frantically.

'Yes, well Pansy was still killed. It means whoever was practicing unforgivables has gotten a lot better at dark magic. '– Ginny intervened.

'I know, but still... I don't understand why we're no closer to solving this. Harry, do you have any ideas?' Hermione stared at Harry, who looked over slightly towards the slytherin table.

'I'll bet you anything its Malfoy. He was the one that initially led the deatheaters into Hogwarts. I bet he's trying to go in the footsteps of his dark lord.' Ron spat out, looking over at the Slytherin table as well.

'Ronald Weasley! That's completely rude to accuse someone like this. He's head boy. I've been living with him so far and he has done nothing wrong to cause any suspicion.' It did hurt that her friends still considered him the enemy, especially when she so blatantly felt the opposite.

'I'm sorry Mione, but I have to agree with Ron. '- Harry pushed his bacon further on the plate with his fork. 'He has a good cover up. Malfoy has free access to hallways any time of the hour and he has been looking rather uneasy now that they've prohibited nightly patrols. There is also something else.' Harry leant in to whisper so he wouldn't be heard by anyone else. 'When the aurors checked the students, they found a book in Malfoy's pocket. It was Introduction to dark magic I believe. Now Hermione tell me if you don't find that the least bit suspicious?'

The two gingers and one dark haired boy all stared at her and she felt rather uncomfortable. Draco had probably taken that book out of her bag when he knew they would be searched to save her from any trouble. She bit on her lip and lowered her eyes.

'I guess, maybe... it could just have been something he was lending someone.'

'Who'd want to borrow a book about dark magic? Seriously Hermione? Why are you defending him?' Ron was rather disgusted with her, but she was downright angry that she could say nothing to prove him innocent without exposing their secret. And if not for herself, for him she swore not to do it until they both decided so. Hermione decided to not speak of it again, so she kept quiet. She looked over at the Slytherin table and spotted Draco. His hair was slightly messy as if he had been running his fingers through it constantly, his eyes were void of the usual glow they had and he had dark bags under them. His finger was nervously tapping on the table and he paid little attention to what Theodore Nott was so eagerly trying to explain to him. He looked worn out.

When Hermione resumed her focus on her own table she heard Harry say '…it's a good thing I was in the room when they were checking wands. I did something to Malfoy's wand. If he does any dark magic at all, I'll be the first to know.'

'Good thinking Harry, I'm sure Malfoy is bound to slip up eventually. Then he'll join his father in Azkaban where he belongs.' Ron was more than approving.

'That's completely unacceptable, Harry.' Hermione said and stormed off out of the Great Hall. She stomped her way through the aurors guarding the doors and she caught sight of ginger hair bouncing up next to her.

'Hermione, wait!'

The brunette turned around, her lips set in a straight line, not wanting to continue the discussion she had just left.

'Remember the talk we had in the library? How did that turn out?'

'What? What do you mean?' Hermione batted her eyelashes nervously.

'You know… you told me you kind of liked... um... DM and you said he liked you? How did that work out?'

The brunette deliberated for a second before she decided that the best option was not to tell Ginny how everything developed.

'He told me it had been a joke all along. I wasn't too surprised… I'm fine now really. This has nothing to do with anything... I just don't like innocent people being accused of anything. I mean we had head duties together and he was perfectly okay. Now I'd better head on to Ancient Runes, because I really have to start preparing for that um... assignment today.'

'Right… okay. I'll leave you to it then.' Ginny said, but continued to stare into Hermione's back as she walked away.

Hermione, perhaps for the first time in her life, had told a friend two lies. First about Draco and the second about having to go to a lesson. She didn't have ancient runes for two whole periods. She was actually free to do what she wanted. Hermione found a quiet secluded corner in the library and took out her notes.

She had written down everything she could gather from Draco's book. She found a chapter that intrigued her particularly. It said:

'One of the forms of dark magic is necromancy. It can be used to make pets or minions that are neither dead nor living. It requires an inborn connection with the world beyond. ' But that was all there was to it. "Neither dead nor living" had particularly caught her eye as that was exactly what she thought Bellatrix and Tonks was.

She saw for a moment that Madam Pince went to the bathroom and sneaked into the forbidden section of the library. She had already learned how to undo the wards hiding that particular section during day time. The Golden girl browsed through the shelves until she found a volume on Necromancy. She quickly scanned through the pages: Inferius and… there were a couple pages completely smeared. She could only make out a couple things: "blood strengthens the bond to the world of the living", "extremely loyal" "indestructible if properly taken care of", "difficult to make unless one has aptitude for it", "neither completely dead nor alive". She wondered what was written in the text that was incorrigible, but she had to close the book pretty fast as Madam Pince was walking straight towards the forbidden section. Hermione put the book back and escaped through the shelves.

She barely concentrated on the following lessons as her mind drifted back towards the library and she couldn't wait to discuss it with Harry and Ron.

They were sitting on the couch near the fireplace talking Quidditch when she saw them. Hermione found a seat in front of them and steered the discussion into another direction.

'Harry, I don't think Malfoy's the culprit.'

'Why, do you know who it is?' Harry seemed clearly interested.

'No, but I have to confess something. Remember when I told you I saw Tonks Sunday? Well, I think I saw Bellatrix before that, when Katie Bell was hurt.'

'Hermione, McGonagall already said that Tonks was probably just a hallucination and Bellatrix could have been as well. No one actually saw them both apart from you, did they?'

'Well, no but... I think that someone is bringing back the dead and using them to curse people. That's what I think it is. That's why we can't find the culprit.'

'Oh Mione, Mione, Mione. Please don't take this the wrong way, but maybe you've been reading a little too much into it? Do you even hear what you're saying? Bringing back dead people?' Ron put a hand on her shoulder and looked at her calmly as if she was talking crazy.

Hermione wacked that hand from her shoulder as she was getting quite angry.

'I'm not reading too much into it. I read a book in the library about that, it's possible! '

'It may be possible... but I don't think that's likely. I still think it's someone alive and very much at this school that's studying dark arts cursing those people. I mean what purpose would a ghost or whatever is it that you think you saw would do something like that?' Harry was looking back at her intently and she blushed and fought back tears.

'I don't know. I know it sounds unreasonable, but... well what about Snape then?'

'That's quite easy. McGonagall told us herself when we asked that Snape was brought here from his painting by a powerful magical lightning.' Ron sat back on the coach looking relaxed and pleased with himself.

'And besides, Hermione, even if I do believe you, how would that be possible to bring back people from the dead? The only way I know is Voldemort doing it with Horcruxes, but I don't think Bellatrix and especially not Tonks made Horcruxes. I am pretty sure Voldemort was the only one with that kind of knowledge. So I'm not completely saying it's impossible, but let's try to concentrate on something more... palpable?' Harry smiled serenely at her, but Hermione nodded and walked off towards her bedroom.

'Is it just me or is Hermione turning mental?' Ron eyed his best friend and Harry just shrugged. 'First she was defending Malfoy, of all people, if you can call him a person and now she thinks someone is out there raising dead people. Ha! I think the girl just needs to relax.'

Hermione walked into hers, Ginny's and Parvatti's bedroom and waved her wand to slam her door with full force. She was extremely angry. Not only at Harry and Ron, but at herself. She had to agree that her theory about Tonks or Bellatrix sounded a little out there, but that was all she had. She wished they had at least had a civilized discussion with her instead of looking at her like she was Luna Lovegood on a bad day.

'Ugh!' she roared and plopped down on her bed. Hermione had to admit that she missed Draco. They hadn't had a chance to even talk to each other this whole week. At least he would listen to her, not like her friends.

"Thud". She heard a faint knock on her window. She sat up immediately and looked around. "Thud" she heard again. She took her wand in her hand and carefully walked towards the window the sound was coming from. Hopefully it was just an owl with a message, trying to get it. Hermione hid behind the wall near the window a little and opened the window with her wand, then when nothing happened, she stuck out her head to the side looking intently at what was there. She saw a slightly messy head of blonde hair and gleaming grey eyes.

'Hello. Fancy meeting you here at this time.' Draco's smirk tainted his perfect face as he hovered on a broom at her window level.

'Draco! Thank goodness no one else is here or they might have seen you. What are you doing here?" She turned back around towards the door to check for any movement, but she didn't hear anything, relieved she turned back around towards him.

'Oh I accidentally flew here. So lucky of me it was your window. So, how about an evening flight with me, lovely?'

'Yes, you accidentally managed to fly near my window. How very lucky of you indeed.' she looked out the window all the way down and gulped. 'Not really a fan of flying, you know that...'

'It's alright. I'll fly us down somewhere so it's only going to be just a little while.' He extended one hand towards her to join him and she reluctantly stepped on the window sill and on to his broom in front of him where he secured his arm around her waist.

'How did you manage to come here? Weren't you afraid they'd catch you after curfew?'

'Well I though fuck the curfew and fuck their rules. I just felt like seeing you.' He steadied her and sped off into the distance, going even higher up. Her heart did a summersault. She wasn't sure if it was because of the thrill of flying or because of what he had just said.

'Hey, you're flying higher, let us down, now!' She held on even tighter to him and began to tremble.

He laughed and kept hovering high in the air.

'But if we go down, we'll be spotted by the aurors and I'll have lost my precious time with you.' She couldn't argue that and he grinned some more. He bent down and kissed her. When his lips touched her, he felt an electric spark going through his whole body, igniting him with life energy he had been missing recently. When he wasn't with her he felt like he just wasn't. He could have went on longer like that but she was still tense from the fact that they were a hundred feet in the air. He pulled away to look into her brown eyes.

'How have you been?' Hermione asked him.

'I've been… ok.' the dark circles under his eyes and his tired expression said he had not been okay, but she didn't question him more. Hermione knew he hated talking about feelings. 'Also I hate sharing a bedroom with two other people. Theo snores and Blaise likes to stay up reading.'

'You're such a spoiled brat!' she tried to hit him with her palm on the shoulder, but she trembled and thus grabbed onto him tighter.

'How are you? Weaselbee and Potter not driving you nuts?'

'They're my friends we're talking about, so no. It's just annoying that I told them about Bellatrix and Tonks and that I think it has to do with necromancy. They waved it off me being crazy.'

'I don't think you're crazy. Necromancy as any other kind of dark magic is highly possible.' Draco said sternly.

'You think so?'

'There are many things, Hermione, that are far beyond Potter's knowledge. If there are say, thousands of books on good magic, there are at least double as many on dark magic. And if I have learned at least one thing, it is that there are enough crazy psychos out there who'd love to try their hand at them. I'm not as naïve to think that Voldemort was and will have been the only powerful dark wizard out there.'

Hermione thought for a moment and knew that Draco was right. Just because they didn't understand it, it didn't mean that it wasn't possible. Anything was possible. She hugged him and tried to kiss his cheek softly. He turned face and she kissed him on the lips instead.

'Cheeky, aren't you? It's getting late, you should bring me back now.'

'What if I don't want to? I'll be the bad wolf and you will be my prey. I'll never give you back now.'

'Malfoy...' her gaze was turning dark and she took out her wand to look more menacing. He just chuckled.

'You do know that if you curse me, I'll drop you on the ground?' Hermione blushed and looked down, immediately regretting her decision. 'Don't worry, I'll fly you back. One thing before I do though. You know tomorrow is the Match with your house, right?'

'Oh… Quidditch...' –her face turned sour. So now Malfoy wanted to talk about Quidditch as well. Typical. Boys were all the same. 'Yeah?'

'I need something from you' Malfoy stated simply. She looked at him uncomprehending. His eyes were determined and his lips were set in a straight line. When a moment later she said nothing, he continued. 'Something of yours I could use as a good luck charm?'

'Oh!' – she blushed. This was something couples did yet she never had and felt slightly awkward. 'Um I have nothing on me I could give you right now… I'm sorry.'

His silver eyes scanned her and stopped on her left wrist. He pulled up her sleeve and saw a bracelet with wooden beads.

'Take it off' – he instructed and she did as he asked. He rubbed it between his fingers and one bead magically separated without breaking the bracelet. 'Thanks. This should be enough to beat Potter.'

He turned around and sped towards the castle. He however did not stop near the Gryffindor tower, but stopped at the windows of the Girls Bathroom. It appeared deserted inside and she climbed in through the window.

'Speaking of Harry, you know he suspects you are to blame for cursing everyone and for ... Pansy.'

Draco crunched up his face into a scowl.

'Of course he's blaming me. Saint Potter… Well, fuck what he thinks. All that matters is what you think.'

'You shouldn't take it lightly, the Ministry of Magic is eager to find anyone to pin the blame on. They might find Harry's suspicions credible.' She was still leaning out the window looking at him.

'So what?' his voice was rather dismissive.

'I'm just trying to warn you to be careful.'

'I'm not doing anything wrong! Stop worrying for fuck's sake. See you at the match tomorrow.' With those words he flew off into the distance, leaving Hermione alone.

She was quite taken aback by his reaction, after all she just wanted him to be careful, what was wrong with that? She hurried off towards the Gryffindor common room looking at the ground in deep thought. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn't notice when she accidentally bumped into someone.

'Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to...' she said, but the person brushed a hand on Hermione's shoulder and walked off without saying anything. Hermione only managed to look at the back of the person and saw it was a girl with short black hair wearing a Hufflepuff uniform. The girl seemed familiar, but since she was hurrying off back to her room, she didn't really think about it.

When she entered through the portrait door Harry and Ron immediately looked up at her.

'Wait, weren't you in your room? I swear we saw you go in there... just twenty minutes ago. How did you end up… there?' Ron was looking towards the stairs to their rooms and back at Hermione.

'Don't be silly Ronald, I never went to my room, I went to the girl's bathroom instead. All that pumpkin juice you're drinking must be messing with your head.' with that she went up the staircase. Harry noticed her hair was rather messy and there was a lone leaf stuck in it. He found it slightly curious.

xxxx

Hermione saw herself with Tonks and a woman she didn't recognize. The other two kept guard near the Entrance to the Headmistress office and she whispered the password and entered. The headmistress was nowhere to be seen and it was quite dark.

She illuminated her wand and kept walking around. She walked up to the desk quietly and searched all of the drawers without any success. Then she ascended the staircase and looked at the bookcases only to come up empty handed. Then she descended down the staircase on the other side to briefly catch reflection in the mirror. Pansy Parkinson was staring back at her in a Hufflepuff uniform. Hermione woke up in her bed panting.

(I have to say the first draft of this chapter had turned out quite boring, so I rewrote half the chapter. That has never happened before. Inspiration is difficult when I feel so down. And I did feel quite down as I seem to have disappointed you with the last chapter. I really hope this one won't disappoint you as much. Please comment, I really need your feelings and ideas on where this is going! Please read and review, I read every review with great glee : ) )