It was a weary group that gathered for breakfast that morning. Hermione bore half an hour of watching her friends nurse black coffees and slices of toast before frustration broke her silence.
"So. Any good ideas?"
.
Ginny glanced up, dark rings under her eyes. "Nope." She popped the "p" and rubbed at her eyes tiredly. "I don't know a thing about thing about Dark Marks and tracking through them. It's not like we know any other Death Eaters- short of the greasy bat in the dungeons."
Hermione winced. "If you mean Professor Snape… well, I… Dumbledore trusts him…"
The rest of the group offered her looks of horror, aside from Draco.
"He's dirty as, Hermione," Harry protested. "We know he's an Occlumens and a Legilimens. He's probably been lying all along- I heard him trying to help Malfoy!"
.
All eyes flashed to Draco.
"I… don't know," he admitted. "He offered to help me, yeah, but, I mean, he's my godfather, and he made an Unbreakable Vow with my mother to protect me. I think he was just trying to do right by me, and- by my books- I think that makes him trustworthy. You don't know him as well as I do."
Ron coloured. "If you're suggesting that we trust the bloody Dungeon Bat, you've got another thing coming. I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him. I say we contact Bill."
"Bill?" Hermione repeated, dumbly. "Why-"
Ginny's expression brightened. "Yeah, Bill. It's obvious isn't it? He's a curse breaker, 'Mione. He'd know what to do."
Draco stared at the excited expressions of those surrounding him.
"I don't want to sound stupid," he said quizzically, "but who the bloody hell is Bill? You can't expect me to trust any Tom, Dick, or Harry you pick over my own godfather!"
.
"Bill Weasley," Hermione explained calmly. "He's a curse breaker. He's actually engaged to Fleur- Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons? Remember, from the Triwizard Tournament?"
"Of course I remember the bleeding Tournament," Malfoy responded, scathingly. "And I'd be hard pressed to not remember Fleur Delacour. Fittest girl to walk Hogwarts' corridors in a long time-" Hermione flinched minutely "- so, that's lovely trivia, I'm sure. But, this Bill- he's the one that doesn't deal with dragons, right? And, I'm sure he's great with whatever curses get thrown his way, but my Uncle Severus has first-hand experience with him and the Dark Mark!"
"Oh, yeah, I bloody bet he does!" Harry snarled. "First-hand experience of licking his feet and begging to please, please be allowed to kill more filthy mudbloods!"
Hermione pinched the bridge of her nose. "All right, children."
Both Draco and Harry spun round to glare at her, angry flushes still creeping up their necks. Hermione raked a hand through her unruly hair tiredly and cast Draco an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, Draco, but Professor Snape's a spy. His role in the war is to feed information to both sides and we might never know which side he actually supports. He's too smart for that. I say we speak to Bill and-" she held up a hand as Draco looked to have every intention of interrupting "- if, if Bill can't help, we contact Professor Snape. Okay?"
.
Again, Draco and Harry leaned forward, their lips already parting to form another argument. To Hermione's relief, Ginny came to her rescue. "That's a fab idea, 'Mione."
Hermione threw her younger friend a grateful smile as more members of the party began to voice their approval too. Harry and Draco settled back into their chairs from their stances glaring face-to-face across the breakfast table, both wearing matching sulky scowls.
"So, how do we contact Bill?" Hermione asked, directing her question at the various Weasleys sitting around the table.
Ginny shrugged, glancing over at the twins expectantly. Fred and George exchanged a confident look for a long pause. Hermione had to wonder if they were communicating telepathically; she'd heard that twins had a rare type of innate Occlumency whereby they could talk mentally using Occlumency and Legilimency. Her fingers itched for a quill and piece of paper to start making notes.
.
Eventually, however, the twins turned back to the rest of the table, wearing matching impish grins.
"Yeah, we've got it sorted, folks."
Hermione so didn't want to know their plan- judging by the look of their faces, she wouldn't agree with it. "O-kay," she said uncertainly. "How long before you'll be able to get hold of him? A few days?"
Fred (or perhaps George) smirked. "Ye of little faith. Today."
Hermione couldn't help but be a tad impressed.
.
Seeing as she had become the group's leader, however inadvertently, she turned back to the rest of the group and rose to her feet uncertainly. "Um. I'm aware you don't really know The Plan at the moment, but d'you reckon you could hang on 'til we've got Draco sorted, 'cause it's kind of important… um."
Again Ginny came to her rescue, with a radiant smile. "Yeah, 'course, 'Mione. We'll just keep out of your, Harry, Ron and Malfoy's way, right guys?"
There was a mumble of agreement from the rest of the group. Hermione made a mental note to get Ginny an extra-nice Christmas present this year. The little fiery red-head deserved it.
.
Hermione and Draco spent the day "skulking" (as Harry put it) in the Library. Like Hermione, Draco was an avid reader. Hermione was thrilled to finally have someone to show around the Black's massive Library, filled with books so rare she nearly squeaked with excitement whenever she saw them. To be fair, amongst the ancient texts were books of a rather darker nature, covered in blood stains and Merlin knew what else.
.
Though they didn't necessarily speak to each other as they read, Hermione and Draco still felt the comfortable warmth of companionship as they sat side by side on the windowsill, books in hand. It amused Hermione greatly to peek over the crinkled, aged pages of her book and see Draco wearing familiar expressions of interest and excitement as he pored over the words in his book. She could tell instantly when he was sucked into the book, as he began to flip the pages more rapidly, eager to glean knowledge. For all he was a Slytherin, she mused, Draco Malfoy would have been a fantastic Ravenclaw.
.
"What?"
Hermione nearly fell off her chair as Draco's voice cut across several hours' worth of silence. He smirked at her startled expression. "You're staring," he clarified.
A rouge spread across Hermione's cheeks and she shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Well, you were so… wrapped up in the text, I … it was… nice." She finished, unconvincingly.
Draco sucked his cheeks in to hide his smile. "Nice."
Hermione blushed deeper. "Yeah."
An awkward silence fell as they both avoided one another's eyes, hiding secret smiles, then-
.
"OI! What the bloody hell!"
At Draco's startled expression, Hermione gave him a tiny smile. "Looks like the twins have brought Bill."
Draco placed his book down gently, and followed her in silence downstairs. By the time, Hermione had reached the bottom step, Mrs Black's portrait had joined in the ruckus, her shrieks mingling with Bill's angry yells.
"Fred? George? What the bloody hell were you thinking? You can't just turn up at work and Apparate me away! My boss-"
"FILTHY BLOOD-TRAITORS! SCUM OF THE EARTH! HOW DARE-"
"-sacked, and it'll be all your fault!"
Hermione exchanged a grimace with Harry and Ginny, who were wrestling the curtains back over Mrs Black's frame. Draco, meanwhile, looked slightly petrified.
"-FILTH! AND IN MY OWN HOME! DIRT-"
Harry and Ginny finally yanked the curtains closed, and silence fell as Bill peered up the dank hallway, fang earring dangling amidst his flame-red hair. Fred and George were stood either side of him like body guards grinning at Hermione.
"… Hermione!" Bill gasped, eventually. "Harry. Ron."
"Oi!" Ginny yelled, from her position next to Harry, giving her older brother a cheeky grin. "Miss someone?"
"Ginny!" Bill said, with a startled laugh. "What-?"
Hermione ignored the question, striding towards the twins with a half-amused, half-irritated look on her face. "When you said you could contact Bill, I didn't realise you meant kidnapping him."
George shrugged. "Well, that was rather silly of you, don't you think, Fred?"
Fred grinned. "Well, contacting… kidnapping… similar enough aren't they?"
Hello! I saw some comments asking for a new update on wattpad so here's a new chapter- finally! I'm sorry it's so short but I thought it was better than nothing!
I'm quite busy at the moment with school work, and, to be honest, when I write my priority is more my original work and my other fanfic Of Snakes and Lions. Since I write shorter chapters for Enlightenment, hopefully I'll still be able to update it relatively frequently as well though :)
Hope you enjoyed this, please review if you did :D
