Poisoned Heart
Inches of snow continued to cover the Hogwarts grounds as February arrived, Valentine's Day drew nearer as did the third dance of the year, and along with that, came Harry, Ron and Neville. Ginny sang her rounds of,
"I'm so excited…" and jumped all around the common room.
"Hey Hermione." Said Demelza in the common room,
"What?" asked Hermione,
"I never got you a Christmas present, thanks for the bracelet by the way, anyway, here it is." Demelza handed Hermione a package and Hermione tore it open, it was a short red dress with pink, heart shaped sequins dotted around it and a larger pink heart on the centre chest area, "It's a dress for the Valentine's dance, do you like it?"
"Yes. It's great, I love it, thanks Dem." Hermione did love it. Suddenly a silver hare burst through the portrait hole, it spoke in Luna's voice,
"Hermione, urgency in the kitchens, get here right away, no time to explain." The hare evaporated into silver vapor,
"I have to go, thanks for the gift." Hermione rushed out of the portrait hole and ran to the kitchens.
When Hermione got there she saw Luna and Danielle both looking very sad, three scary looking men and elves in shackles,
"Danielle, Luna, what's going on?" Hermione asked them,
"Someone tipped off the ministry about the elves using wands and now they're taking them to Azkaban." Luna sobbed,
"Who tipped them off?" Hermione was worried about the elves; they would surely go mad in prison,
"We don't know, well, at least they'll keep their sanity since Kingsley got rid of the dementors." Danielle frowned,
"a'righ' elves, off you come to Azkaban." Said one of the scary looking men,
"No they won't!" Professor McGonagall now entered the kitchen and her lip was thinner than ever,
"Sorry lady, bu' this really don't 'ave nuffink to do wi' you." Said one of the men, "You can' stop us."
"Maybe I can't," started McGonagall, "But he can." Kingsley Shacklebolt entered the kitchen,
"Men, I want you to let these elves go and leave the premises, now!" boomed Kingsley,
"Yes, Mr. Minister Sir, of course, righ' away." The men released the house elves and left,
"Thanks Kingsley." Hermione was happy that the Minister for magic was on her side,
"Now this is only temporary." Said Kingsley,
"What do you mean?" asked Luna,
"Well, the law is the law, elves can't use wands, to change the law you'll need the votes of ministry officials and a hearing must take place by July." He explained,
"Well, how do we get votes?" asked Hermione,
"Well I'm sure you already have professor Ruperts here, and you'll probably have Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Arthur and Mr. Longbottom on your side, and me and people generally tend to follow in what the Minister believes in votes like this, sorry I can't do more, goodbye Miss Granger, Miss Lovegood, Professor Ruperts, Professor McGonagall." Kingsley left, so did McGonagall.
Hermione spent a lot of time worrying about the elf hearing but soon enough Valentine's Day had arrived and Hermione woke up to find a bunch of roses, a heart shaped box of chocolate cauldrons, a small silver heart and a small silver bow and arrow. Hermione fastened the heart and the bow and arrow to her charm bracelet and opened the chocolates. Ginny and Demelza were also receiving their Valentine's gifts,
"Sweet gesture but he forgets that I don't like the kind with nuts in, any of you want them?" Hermione offered the box to Ginny, she shook her head but Demelza was happy to take them and began eating. Hermione magicked up a vase and filled it with water and put the bunch of roses in it,
"They look nice." Said Ginny, "Is there a card?" Hermione looked at them and saw that there was a card tied around the flowers, she pulled it off and read it:
Dear Hermione,
I love you forever
Love Ron
Hermione thought that it was very sweet of Ron.
She went downstairs after she had woken up fully with Ginny and Demelza and saw that Harry and Ron were standing there, Hermione hugged Ron, as did Ginny to Harry before asking,
"Isn't Neville with you?"
"No, he's waiting for Luna outside the Ravenclaw common room." Explained Harry,
"Thanks for the gifts." Hermione told Ron,
"No problem." Said Ron
The dance began; Hermione wore the dress that Demelza had given her and Ron wore a similar outfit to what he had worn to the Christmas dance except it was in red. When they entered the great hall, everyone they saw was wearing red or pink.
"I hope this dance goes okay," said Hermione, "The last two were very, memorable, well not the Christmas one but you get what I mean."
"Why, what happened at the Halloween dance?" asked Ron,
"Nothing, never mind." Hermione started to dance with Ron as did many couples with all of the single people standing at the side; Hermione did not see Demelza among anywhere though.
After about half an hour of dancing Ron went to get some refreshments and Hermione waited to the side of the dance floor. She saw Katrina Walker laughing with a group of Slytherin girls, Hermione moved in closer and heard what Katrina was telling them,
"Of course it was me who told the ministry about those ridiculous spew people and the elves with wands, what a shame they didn't all go to Azkaban, that would have destroyed the mudblood Granger." They all laughed and Hermione felt a huge surge of anger writhing through her, she couldn't control what she did next. She pushed passed all of the Slytherin girls and went face to face with Katrina, "Hey mudblood, what do you wa-ahhh!" Hermione had punched her in the face.
Katrina tried to trip up Hermione but failed and just slapped her round the face. They then began a fight, Hermione jumped on top of Katrina and wrestled her, they rolled to the centre of the hall and everyone moved to the side and stared at them. Katrina got to her feet and kicked Hermione in the side; Hermione sprang up and punched her repeatedly in the face. Hermione saw red on her hand but it wasn't blood,
"How much bloody lipstick can you wear!" she yelled and saw the masses of red smudges around Katrina's mouth and punched her in the nose, now she was bleeding, Katrina grabbed Hermione's hair and began to pull, she then succeeded in tripping her up. Hermione lay on the floor, Katrina standing at her feet, Hermione kicked her legs and Katrina fell and smacked her face on the floor, Hermione saw one of her teeth fly out of her mouth.
They both got up and grabbed each other's arms, they swung each other across the great hall, and they crashed into the refreshments table, people cleared out of the way and the table went over, the food and drink fell and smashed onto the floor. Hermione and Katrina stood facing each other and stared to run but they both flew backwards before they got near one another. This was caused by the invisible shield created by Professor McGonagall,
"That is quite enough! Both of you back to my office NOW!" she screamed Hermione and Katrina left the great hall with McGonagall; Hermione had now caused a huge scene at all three of the school dances.
They got to McGonagall's office,
"You have both shamed the school tonight with your muggle dueling, I think detention would be an understatement but here goes, DETENTION!" McGonagall yelled, "I expect you both here every night for the next two weeks, Miss Walker, return to your dormitory," Katrina left the office, "As for you Miss Granger, I think that you had better come with me, I shall collect Miss. Weasley and Miss Lovegood as well.
McGonagall lead Hermione, Ginny and Luna to the hospital wing, when they got there they saw Demelza lying in a bed,
"What happened?" asked Luna,
"She has been poisoned, lord knows how, lucky Professor Slughorn was present with some bezoars, otherwise I think that she would be dead." Said Madame Pomfrey, she and McGonagall left.
"Hey Dem, how did you get poisoned?" asked Ginny,
"I don't know, I had this stomach ache all day and then I just collapsed and- and-I was really scared…" Demelza looked sad,
"Have you eaten or drank anything odd recently?" asked Hermione,
"No, I don't think so, all I've had is the meals at school, oh, and this morning I had your chocolates Hermione." She said,
"You don't think that-that someone was trying to kill Hermione with those chocolates do you?" said Ginny,
"And Demmy got in the way." said Luna, Hermione nodded,
"Demelza, I'm sorry, this would be me if only I liked nuts." Said Hermione,
'Don't blame yourself, you couldn't have known; do you think Professor Ruperts did it?" Demelza asked, Hermione thought about this question and came to the conclusion of a nod.
Mitchell then entered the hospital wing,
"Okay, we should leave you two alone, bye." Hermione, Ginny and Luna left the hospital wing and Mitchell sat next to Demelza's bed.
Ginny and Hermione returned to the common room, Harry and Ron were there,
"That was some fight Hermione; I was rooting for you, what's wrong?" Ron noticed a tear run down Hermione's cheek and hugged her,
'Demelza's in the hospital wing because she was poisoned by the chocolates you sent me." Said Hermione,
"Well, when I bought them I didn't think that they were poisoned." Said Ron,
"They must have been replaced." Hermione concluded,
"Who replaced them then?" asked Harry,
"I have a hunch but I might be wrong, anyway, I just want to go to bed now." Hermione was very angry, sad and tired at the same time,
"Yeah, we best be going anyway." Ron kissed Hermione, he was about to leave with Harry,
"Oh, and you two, try and get some ministry officials to support S.P.E.W, please." Hermione pleaded,
"Yeah sure." Ron left the common room with Harry
Hermione and Ginny went up to the dormitory; Hermione couldn't sleep, not when she was staring at the empty bed that Demelza should have been sleeping in.