Chapter 13
Harry followed 'mione and Em all the way to their private rooms before he brought his courage forth and stepped out of the shadows. However he did not expect to have two perfectly polished wands pointed at his neck the second he made a sound.
"woooooo, wait, hang on, I… I ...just wanted to talk to you. I know that I'm not your favorite person in the world right now 'mione but I need you. Please, can we talk, I…...don't trust him." The last word was said in a whisper and 'mione knew exactly who Harry meant. She wasn't sure if he had actually 'seen the light' about Dumbledore but she was willing to give him a chance, it was the least she could do for him. She still thought of him as her older brother and loved him as one too.
"Come on in Harry, it has been a while since we had a good talk, huh?"
"I'll go and get some food from the kitchens I am a little hungry." Emily quickly excused herself from the situation knowing that 'mione and Harry needed to be alone for this talk.
"Bye Em, see you in a bit, Thank you." Hermione said in a whisper that Harry couldn't hear.
Harry didn't even noticed Hermione enter the room behind him, he was in awe, looking at his surroundings. The room was huge at least the size of the Quiditch pitch, with book shelves covering half the walls. There was dark wood incorporated in everything and there was an amazing fireplace that was surrounded by marble. With a beautiful painting of a herd of Thestral horses over it that looked as if it was hundreds of years old and painted by a true master of the craft. But the thing that caught his attention beyond anything he had ever come across was the potions lab that was set up next to the study area in the room. There was twenty stunning golden cauldrons in four rows of five all bubbling away, there was even three separate work stations just for preparing the ingredients so that highly unstable ingredients didn't have to be near each other until they were added to a the potion. The cabinets were rare natural dark birch, they were so neat and tidy, every ingredient had its place and there was a row of shining new scales and stirrers all made of different metals to be used in conjunction with volatile materials. Harry had always loved potions even when he was being yelled at by Professor Snape it
was still his favorite class. He had always felt comfortable around Snape because the potions master never tried
to cover up the hatred he held for him, it was right there on the surface and Snape never tried to hide it from Harry. Even though the feelings from Snape were negative it felt nice to have someone that wasn't trying to deceive him, so Harry always held Snape in a high regard; the only ones above Snape in Harry's respect list were Sirius and Hermione.
"Would you like to sit down Harry?" Hermione asked in a soothing tone.
"Are you sure this place is safe to talk? We are still in the castle there could be spies everywhere." Harry whispered as he made his way over to the comfortable looking sofa.
"Don't worry we took down all of the human paintings and portraits and we have cast secrecy wards around the rooms, anyone trying to listen in won't be doing much of anything for the next two weeks except laying in a hospital bed and eating through a straw."
"He uses the paintings???????" Harry asked shocked
"Yeah, that is how he knows exactly what is going on throughout the castle 24/7.It's rather ingenious really…….. well except when people start messing with the portraits and giving them false information. It's hilarious to see Dumbledore storm into slytherin common room at 3am 'cause one of the paintings told him that you had been captured by pansy and were being tortured." Harry shivered at the thought of being captured by Pansy, he would be more worried about catching something from her than the actual torture.
"Hermione, what happened to you?" Harry asked in a serious voice.
"You mean about becoming a muggleborn and then finding out I wasn't one?" After receiving a nod Hermione explained how she had been kidnapped by Dumbledore and placed with the Grangers and about her dreams of another life and her trip to Italy
"wow that is pretty messed up, how could he do that to a four year old kid?"
"How could he leave a baby with abusive relatives?"
"That is different he had to leave me there because of the protection."
"Harry, I thought you had finally figured out that Dumbledore does things for his own reasons and not for the good of others. He just does a really good Public relations job."
"Public relations??????? What are you talking about." Harry said very confused.
"He makes up a story to tell people so it looks like what he is doing is the right thing. With you it was that your mothers blood gave you protection."
"It does." Harry cut in.
"No Harry it doesn't, there was never any blood magic against Voldemort. Blood magic requires a ritual to be performed, which is dark magic. Your mother cast the spell but not against Voldemort; she cast it against Dumbledore, she thought that he was going to take her baby from her and she wouldn't let him."
"Why would Dumbledore take me away from my parents? I don't understand, it doesn't make any sense."
"If you are strong enough to beat Voldemort you are strong enough to beat him. He thought that your strength was a good enough reason to take you away from your mother. Maybe even kill you, we have yet to determine the exact course of action that he was going to take as that series of events never happened. Dumbledore was hoping that your relatives would end up starving or beating you to death because Lilly's magic prevented him from finishing you off himself. It was Dumbledore who killed your parents not Voldemort."
"NO no no no no" Hermione was worried that Harry wouldn't believe her and run to tell Dumbledore all that he had found out. "I have trusted the murderer off my parents, I even thought of him as a grandfather, how can this be happening? I knew something wasn't right but I didn't know what. I thought he was behaving strangely, trying to manipulate me, constantly putting me in danger but this is beyond anything I imagined." Harry broke down and cried as Hermione walked over and sat next to him cradling his head on her shoulder. "How do you know all of this?"
"Emily and I have been doing a lot of research, we have had so many meetings with different people and, well Emily knew quite a lot of the dirt on Dumbledore because of her research into my disappearance all we had to do was put the pieces of the puzzle together."
"Did Sirius know about Dumbledore and my parents?" Harry asked urgently.
"Not that I am aware of, I don't think Lilly ever told him her fears and she was not part of Voldemort's ranks so there is a million to one chance that Sirius knew." Hermione made Harry lock eyes with her before she continued "I believe that Sirius knew absolutely nothing about Dumbledore's plans or your mothers fears, he has been truthful with you Harry."
"Wait, if it was Dumbledore who killed my parents and tried to kill me why was Voldemort destroyed the same day?" Harry asked trying to find a hole in Hermione's story.
"Well, we have been trying to figure that out and there are several possibilities that we have narrowed it down to. One being that it was shear coincidence, the second being that you are his soul mate, and the third being that Dumbledore was messing with a prophesy that had to happen so nature was trying to set the record straight so that the prophesy would come true so it ended with Voldemort's temporary death. However the last one is a little far fetched." Hermione was waiting for the explosion from Harry but was surprised when he said calmly
"So the third option is far fetched and the first seems very simple and unrealistic, what was the second one again?" Hermione gave Harry an uneasy look before repeating the second possibility.
"WHAT THE HELL11111111111111 I AM NOT VOLDEMORT'S SOUL MATE…. WHAT ON FREAKIN EARTH ARE YOU THINKING. THAT IS COMPLETELY STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Harry screamed at the top of his lungs right in Hermione's ear.
"Have you ever been attracted to anyone Harry?"
"I dated Cho Chang."
"But did you feel anything for her."
"Well no not really"
"And her kisses seemed wrong to you, correct."
"I could just be gay."
"But have you ever looked at a guy and thought 'wow he is hot'?"
"No."
"So it is possible, is it not?
"Yes it is." Harry admitted, although he only admitted it was possible not that Hermione was right.
"So what did you really come for Harry?"
"To see if I could train for the competitions with you. I miss you Hermione your like my little sister and it is horrible not talking to you."
"Oh Harry you don't know how happy you've made me." Hermione grabbed hold of him and hugged the life out of him. It was at this moment that Severus Snape walked through the door to be met with the sight of Harry and Hermione being far to close to each other for his liking.
"Public displays of affection are not permitted in this school, 50 points form Gryfindor." Snape said in his most dominating voice.
"What….. You can't do that, we weren't in public." Harry protested
"You were still participating in a disgusting show of emotion." Snape turned around and whispered "bloody hormonal teenager."
"Eeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwweeeeee she is like my sister what are you suggesting exactly." Harry said
"Another 50 points for talking back to a teacher." Severus said but with slightly less hatred.
"Oh come now Severus, really, is being mean to Harry a necessity for you?" Hermione asked.
"Yes actually it is, I hate the chit." Severus answered
"Well I'm afraid you will have to put up with him, he is training with Marcus, Emily and me for the competitions."
"That doesn't mean I have to be anywhere near him."
"You aren't going to help me train?" Hermione said in a strained, sad voice and gave him the puppy dog eyes.
"That won't work on me Hermione so stop trying that look, I will not be near him." Snape said pointing at Harry accusingly.
"Fine Snape, then you'll be the one dealing with my father when I get hurt in a competition because I'm not ready for it." Hermione really hated using the threat of her father but Snaoe was being stubborn so she had to.
"Oh that is low Hermione, just plain low." Severus said "Fine I will put up with him but he has to show me some repect."
"He already does respect you Severus." Hermione said as she got off the sofa and throw her arms around his neck and touched her lips to his. She squeaked and pulled back as she realized what she had done and ran off towards her bedroom leaving Severus and Harry in the room together. Snape stood stock still not believing that Hermione had just kissed him, well if it could be considered a kiss, in front of Potter and then RUN AWAY. He turned around and stalked to the door saying over his shoulder
"Make sure Hermione remembers her detention at 7."
"uhhhhhhhhhhhh, did she just kiss you?" Harry asked before Severus managed to get out of the door.
"I would say that she just did, do you have a problem with that Potter?" Snape responded.
"Well yes I do, but I suppose that is her problem as she kissed you and I want her to be happy. You better be good to her." Harry said in a threatening tone.
"Don't start with me Potter I have class's to be getting too and so do you so GET OUT." Severus said snidely.
HI, thanks for reading, sorry for such a long wait for this chapter but I have been working on a joint story with Sassy mione's pride under the name dark-light side. It has been taking up a lot of my creative thinking. But here it is I hope you enjoyed it and PLEASE REVIEW, it will keep me writing I swear.
-Thestral Horse-