When Was The Last Time You?
Chapter Eleven: When Was The Last Time You Preserved?
A Tale By: In The Shadows I Dwell
"Love is the immortal flow of energy that nourishes, extends and preserves. Its eternal goal is life."
I could barely contain the happiness that seemed to be glowing within me, being in the presence of Harry and Ron was slowly lifting my dampened spirits, raising them above the crashing waves that seemed as though they were going to consume me whole. The bell rang out across the school grounds and I watched as slowly the ghostly figures of Harry and Ron vanished slowly. I was left staring at the almost invisible figures of Harry and Ron, the wall clearly visible behind their bodies I slowly stretched out an arm longingly towards them.
"Please stay." I whispered.
As usual, they said nothing; it was as if they could not hear me as I could not hear them. I felt lonelier as they slowly vanished from sight leaving me alone in a deserted corridor my hand outstretched awkwardly at the stone wall.
"Please?" I asked again, knowing that it would do little to bring them back to me.
Suddenly the loud earth shattering sound of footsteps drawing towards me awoke me from my day-dream like state, I leapt to my feet quickly and with as much grace as I could muster, only to realise that I had another class to be getting to, I ran as quickly as I could to the Gryffindor Tower were I retrieved my potions equipment and book and ran all the way down to the dungeons, finding myself only several minutes late.
"Ahh Hermione my dear, so glad you could join us!" Horace Slughorn boomed.
"Sorry I'm late Professor, I err, got um caught up." I lied quickly taking my seat head down.
"Not to worry my dear." He said before turning his attention to the class once again.
I glanced over at the empty spaces either side of me, Seamus was the only remaining Gryffindor in the entire class. I was given several encouraging smiles from several Ravenclaw students, and Ernie McMillan was sure to give me a large beaming smile as I took my seat, times like these reminded me of the friends I had made during my time in Dumbledore's Army. I smiled at Seamus who in return gave me a crooked smile, the door burst open and Draco walked in not bothering to take his usual seat with his fellow Slytherins. No, the Precious Pureblood had to go one step further and take a seat at the same table as Seamus and I. After everything I'd been through today I didn't need his presence once again to screw this lesson up as well.
"Today our lesson is simple. I would like you to open your text books to page one hundred and forty nine; there you will find all the instructions needed for you to begin brewing a particularly fiddly little potion known as Broken Heart's Restorative. Can anyone tell me what the potion actually does?" He asked looking around the room hopefully.
I slowly allowed my hand to rise.
"Yes Miss. Granger." He said.
"Broken Heart's Restorative was a potion discovered by Brokyn Harte during the late eighteen century. It is said to cure a broken heart if correctly brewed and taken at the full moon by a supposedly broken hearted individual. It's a particularly difficult potion to brew and requires an entire lunar cycle to fully mature. If incorrectly brewed it is most likely to lead to more heart ache or even death."
"Correct m'dear!" He beamed. "Take ten well deserved points for Gryffindor! Now as Miss. Granger has correctly stated this is a difficult potion to brew, particularly as in this potion we shall be using lacewing flies. Can anyone name another potion in which these interesting creatures are used?"
I once again placed my hand in the air.
"Yes m'dear?"
"Lacewing flies are a common ingredient in potions such as The Polyjuice Potion, it is for this particular ingredient that the potion takes almost a month to correctly brew."
"Correct five points for Gryffindor, ten if you can tell me how long they take to stew."
"Twenty one days sir." I replied.
"Correct. Now allowing for this we shall over the course of the next month be brewing this particular potion. Now seeing as we have precisely eighty nine minutes of our lesson left to us please begin, all ingredients can be found in the store cupboards and the lacewing flies can be obtained from my desk." He said in a loud voice. "Begin!"
"Oh joy!" Draco exclaimed in a sarcastic voice. "Yet another boring and pointless potion to brew, perhaps I'll give mine to Granger, cure her Mudblood heart of Blood Traitors absence." He added in a cruel and harsh tone.
"You don't have to bully her constantly Draco." Seamus added in a low voice.
"And I suppose you're going to stop me." Draco noted.
"Yes. It's unnecessary." Seamus said proudly.
"Seamus it's alright." I said in a small voice. "Draco's just afraid, insecure if you will. That's why he see's the need to bully those he perceives as 'smaller' than him." I said calmly.
"Insecure!" He scoffed. "Afraid? Of what?"
"Who knows, perhaps you are burdened by a task that's seemingly impossible or you are trying to live up to a legacy that you feel will never be yours. Who know? I know you Purebloods have very different ways of life to us mere mortals." I said with a laugh.
I watched as his jaw as well as Seamus's fell agape.
"What did you just say?" He hissed.
"Never mind Draco, I'm sure one day you'll realise that it's not all blood status that matters but friends. That of which it would appear you have none."
"How dare you speak to me like that!"
"Oh but I already did." I said standing and gathering my books and moving to a table in the far corner of the room with several Ravenclaw students including Padma Patil.
Essentially, as far away from the Precious Pureblood as I could possibly find myself, short of being in another room entirely. I carefully gathered, weighed and prepared my ingredients for my potion, feeling sorry for Seamus having left him alone with Draco in the corner of the room after he had stood up for me. However now was not the time for guilt, I soon realised that even the potion ingredients had to be chopped and sliced in the correct manor in order to produce the correct potion. I looked down at all the ingredients, remembering the precise nature of the Polyjuice Potion, which seemed like a walk in the park compared to this one! If this potion looked any more complicated I would say that it was impossible to brew to its full potential, however I seriously doubted this potion could be the mere result of only a few years research by Brokyn Harte as the book had stated. It would have taken decades particularly seeing as each would take a month to brew.
Soon, the entire dungeon seemed to be filling with the vile almost putrid smell of the stewing lacewing flies, a smell which I remembered most vividly, I watched as slowly the green of the lacewing flies begun to become ever so gradually transparent. I glanced over at the hourglass upon Professor Slughorn's desk, the one which he had enchanted to allow us enough time to carefully place our cauldrons in the side room for stewing until our next lesson. I carefully carried my cauldron over to the room and placed it carefully aside carefully not to make it conspicuously mine; it would be an excellent target for Draco to gain his revenge for my commentary I assumed.
I carefully placed everything else I had used away carefully and sat back down in my new seat hoping that the bell would bring an end to this class sooner than the hourglass was predicting. I sat and placed my hands on either side of my face, elbows upon the desk waiting for that moment when freedom would be upon me, for a mere hour – lunch. Finally after several minutes the bell rung and I walked briskly from the room, at an almost jogging pace. I made my way quickly to the Great Hall where hundreds of students were pouring in readily awaiting lunch. I sat down next to Ginny, who to be honest looked as though her day was going about as well as mine, if not worse.
"You okay Gin?" I asked pouring myself a goblet of pumpkin juice.
"You haven't heard from them have you?" She whispered.
"No sorry, I haven't."
"You'll tell me won't you?" She asked again a desperate look in her eyes.
"Yeah, I just don't know whether it's a good idea to have our hopes up." I replied sadly.
"Why? Do you think they're not going to write?" She demanded.
"It would be difficult. They'd risk being caught." I whispered.
"Ron told Mum, that he'd, that he'd… write."
"I think we'd all like to think they will, I'm just not sure if they will and you know at least we know that they are still out there fighting for what we believe in."
"But I miss him." She replied the tears welling up in her eyes, a rarity for Ginny. "I really miss him."
"Who Ron?" I asked casually.
"Yeah but Harry more so."
"I miss them too." I said hugging her.
We needed to be strong in times like these, yet at times we all, no matter how strong we seemed need the comfort of a loving hug or kind words, or even as the Ravenclaw students had shown me, a smile. In these dark times, we all needed something to keep us going, for Ginny it was the knowledge that Harry would write, for me it was the strange visions I kept having, showing me that they were still out there, even if it was my mind conjuring them from thin air. We each needed something to keep on going for, something that showed us life was worth living, Ginny held her memories of Harry near to her heart, and as much as she pretended otherwise she needed her older brother Ron with her too.
In some ways we all needed each other, pushing everyone away from us would inevitably lead to problems, but at times like these the uncertainty made friendships rocky and fighting and bickering among friends was becoming common. I wanted more than anything for this stupid war to end, for it all to come crashing back down upon Lord Voldemort who had done nothing but cause large and unnecessary amounts of pain to countless people, even Muggles who knew no different. At times likes these love was our greatest weapon, the one thing worth fighting for, the thing worth dying for, because without love we would have nothing. I glanced over at Neville and pulled out the fake D.A Galleon I had found in my trunk earlier. I threw it over to him.
"Had any luck?" I asked.
He nodded, in response simply, I glanced along the teachers table, where already all the staff excluding Snape had taken their seats for lunch.
"We need to be careful." I whispered.
He nodded once again, throwing the galleon back to me and withdrawing his own.
"Ernie's checked, most of the Hufflepuff's have theirs, and according to Luna all the Ravenclaw students still have theirs, well those that returned to school anyway."
"Good, because I think it's time we sent out the first message. We're going to meet – Tonight." I whispered.
"Tonight?" He said sitting up straighter in his seat.
I nodded in response, "Better now than later."
He nodded simply once again. We had a lot to learn about the way the world now was. There were new rules to be upheld, punishments far more terrible than the one's we would have previously been handed if caught building a student army within the school, particularly with a Head Girl leading them. There were aspects of the Old D.A we could retain, such as our meeting place, our random timing and means of communication. But there were precautions that needed to be made for the sake of the students involved, we could no longer risk open communication between members, we would not have our leader returning to us. But these were things that in order to survive we needed to adapt to. As with everyday life there were the things you persevered over time, such as habits and there were other practices that needed to change in order for survival, for now I was content with preserving my visions for even with their sudden nature I felt more happy than I had in weeks.
Dedicated To: Those who help me preserve who I am – they know who they are, they help me stay sane.
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Author's Note: I find there are times when I want nothing more than to make the presence of Harry and Ron real, it seems almost cruel taunting poor Hermione. But then I remember there is an ends to justify the means. I am being overwhelmed by the support I'm being shown from this FanFic, never have I received so many reviews so early into a story and I'd just like to say thank you and to keep reviewing! I love reading your thoughts and questions on the story, good and bad! So let me know what you think!
Want to listen to the song I did while writing this chapter? Listen to Prodigal by One Republic.