Chapter 25
As one might imagine, Hermione had a very difficult time sleeping that night. She tossed and turned and generally lay awake in the dark contemplating what was beneath the floorboards in that locked room in the third floor corridor, why on earth there would be a Cerberus guarding it and why there had been a voice coming out of it that only she and Luna could hear.
It had been deep and whispery and ancient and menacing and she got chills up and down her spine just thinking about it.
Absently Hermione wondered as she rolled over for the fiftieth time that night if her father might know something about the voice she had heard.
It was obvious that the headmaster was hiding something and Hermione had a feeling that it was potentially dangerous and sinister.
But the one thing it had managed to do was cite her curiosity about what he was hiding and she knew it wasn't going to let her go until she found out what it was.
Finally at about six thirty, Hermione decided she wouldn't be getting anymore sleep and got up quietly so as not to wake Tracey and Daphne.
After dressing in her robes, she slipped quietly out of the room and headed down to the common room where she was surprised to see Malfoy already dressed and sitting down in one sofas in front of the fire reading a book.
As she walked closer, she could see that it was their defense against the dark arts textbook and grimaced. Everyone she knew hated that class. Professor Quirrel was stumbling stuttering mess of a man who seemed afraid of his own shadow. Hermione had no doubt that the man didn't kill any zombies or werewolves or monsters of any kind.
He stunk of garlic, which he claimed was to ward off vampires but there weren't any vampire colonies for miles around so why on earth did he have it? And what the hell was with the purple turban that he always wore on his head? He claimed it had been a gift, but the whole situation smelled off to Hermione, literally and metaphorically.
"You couldn't sleep either?" she asked plopping down on the couch next to the blonde.
After a minute, he shut the book with a snap, sighed and turned to her. "Granger what the hell was going on last night?"
She frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"You know what I'm talking about. Three headed monster aside for a minute, I had a second when we were standing with our backs to the door facing down that animal and you had the scariest look on your face."
Hermione's frown deepened but for once she didn't know what to say and the blonde took it as a cue to continue.
"You looked as if you had gone into a trance," he said and his tone dropped to a whisper. "Your eyes went to an almost crystal blue shade where they looked almost white and your eyes closed as if you were half asleep. You looked as if you're being hypnotized. And then I find out from Lovegood that the two of you had heard some kind of voice coming beneath the floorboards that looked like it scared the living hell out of you. You know something, what is it?"
Hermione had to give Draco credit, he was very astute in the fact that while anyone else would have been screaming bloody murder as they faced down a monster, he had been looking at her facial expressions because they had been the most glaring thing. He obviously knew her well enough in the past six weeks to know her mannerisms and last night, she had portrayed that something was very, very wrong.
"I don't know anything," she said calmly. "All I can feel here," and this time she pointed at her gut. "Is that something is very wrong with what happened last night. There is a monster in our school guarding something or someone potentially dangerous and sinister and that only a few people can hear it. I don't know if the headmaster is behind this, but I do know that he put this thing here. The rest well…..that's up for grabs."
Draco was quiet for a long minute. "Do we tell people about it?"
Hermione chewed thoughtfully on the edge of her lip. "I want to do some research first. I'm not sure this is any of my business, but if there's something dangerous in this school threatening us, we have a duty to root it out and see that that things are taken care of. It's our school too. Why should we feel threatened?"
Draco took a deep breath and nodded. "Alright, but if you see an enormous three headed dog running rampant in the halls, consider it our business."
Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Our?"
"Maybe it's time I considered another perspective."
Ω
Hermione kept her eye on Luna for the rest of the day, but the Slytherins only had the Ravenclaws in charms and from what she could see, the small blonde seemed no less affected than if nothing had happened the night before.
I need to talk to her, Hermione thought as she followed her friends out of charms.
She hadn't realized she had stopped in the hallway until Dudley turned around and called out: "Are you coming Mione?"
The strawberry blonde blinked. "Yeah, I'll be down to dinner in a second. I just want to talk to Luna."
The three of them shrugged, though Draco gave her a severe look before they turned a corner and disappeared.
Luna, sensing that Hermione wanted to talk to her, eased off from the rest of her classmates and stood waiting by the door of the Charms room. Hermione waited until there was a good distance between herself and Luna and the rest of the students before she turned back around.
"You look troubled Hermione," the small blonde said. "Have the Nargles been at you all day?"
The strawberry blonde chuckled. "No, not the Nargles Luna, something bigger. Can we go for a walk?"
The two of them walked slowly down the moving staircases and were about to head out the doors when they were stopped by a voice.
"There you are," Susan called out from the doors of the Great Hall. "I've been looking for you two all day."
"Hermione's suffering from a case of the Nargles," Luna explained cheerily. "We were going to go for a walk and talk about it. Do you want to come Susan?"
The red head blinked but recovered pretty quickly. "Alright let's go."
The three girls slowly walked out of the castle. Hermione had been thinking all day and as a result hadn't eaten much. She could hear her aunt Petunia getting on her case about eating a healthy diet but at the moment, there were some things that were more important than food.
Once they were down by the Black Lake and settled comfortably on the shore, Hermione took a deep breath and told Susan what had happened the night before.
When she had finished, she looked up from the grass she was tearing up with her fingers to meet the red head's incredulous expression.
"That's insane," Susan whispered. "I thought Professor Dumbledore was just keeping something in that corridor that he didn't want students poking around in. I never thought he would be hiding something…..dangerous."
"That's the thing Susie," Hermione said using her nickname for the red head. "It didn't just feel dangerous, it felt…..sinister. As if whatever was hiding down there had a mind of its own and was using it to manipulate people in an ancient and….evil way."
Susan stared at her for a long minute. "So what do you want to do about it?"
"It had an ancient voice," Luna put in, for once not sounding dreamy or whimsical at all but rather that she was here and had joined the conversation. "It didn't come from this earth….it's old and from a universe far more powerful than ours."
"What do you mean?" Susan asked.
"That's what I've been trying to get out of her," Hermione explained. "I don't know how she knows that what we were hearing wasn't from this earth, but I don't have much of a reason to doubt her."
"Well then Luna," Susan said. "Why don't you tell us how you know that this…thing….is from another world. And what exactly is it?"
"I can't tell you exactly what it is Susie," Luna said cheerfully. "I haven't seen it yet. But my daddy told me that long ago, there was a race of gods who came to earth from exploring the galaxies beyond the stars and they were the ones who gave magic to humans."
Hermione and Susan exchanged glances. "Okay, go on."
"No one knew where they were from, but they were warriors beyond anything the world had ever seen. There was a time where they ruled over men but after a while decided to return to their home beyond the stars but gave a few select mortals magic and magical artifacts that are as old as the universe itself."
"Luna how do you know all of this?" Susan demanded.
The fairy like blonde looked at the red head as focused as Hermione had ever seen her. "Because my daddy and I are descended from one of the mortals the gods gave magic to."
Hermione and Susan exchanged glances.
"And what sort of…..magical abilities did the gods give to the humans?" the red head asked.
"Elemental powers," Luna said, "Powers over the dead, powers over the mind, powers over the physical form, and powers over nature. The founders were descended from them. And legend had it that the gods drew their power from several mystical objects."
"What were these objects?" Hermione asked, enthralled.
"No one knows," Luna said truthfully. "The stories said that the gods took them with them, but other stories claim that they were left here."
Hermione's heart was racing. If the gods were from where she thought they were from and her father had been descended from them, than that might mean that whatever was hiding beneath the floorboards in the third floor corridor was from Asgard.
She didn't want to think that far ahead yet, and she definitely didn't want to tell her mother just yet. She would just worry and her work was important enough. But this would definitely require some research.
Susan looked thoughtful. "Before my parents died in the first wizarding war, my dad would tell me stories about the founders and the history of magic. He always mentioned objects of power in his stories but I never asked him what he meant.
Hermione was about to reply when they were interrupted.
"There you are!"
The three girls looked up and saw Harry, Dudley, Draco and Neville walking down the hill toward them.
Neville and Draco looked pensive after the night before but Harry and Dudley looked a little annoyed.
As soon as they were closer, Hermione cast her eyes at Neville who was kind of avoiding them and knew that the word had gotten out.
"You told them," she said.
"This is not the kind of thing you hide Mione," Harry exclaimed. "What the hell happened last night? I thought the idea was to avoid the third floor corridor."
"Trust me, I would have been doing exactly that if Malfoy hadn't come up with the brilliant solution of hiding in that room to avoid Peeves!"
"Oh so this is my fault?" the blonde demanded. "You certainly weren't saying that when you followed me."
"Can everyone just calm down for a second?" Susan interjected. "This whole exchange isn't really helping things. Sit down and we'll talk it out."
Her tone betrayed no room for argument and even though Draco looked like he wanted to protest, he slowly sat down with the rest of them.
"Right then," Susan said. "So I wasn't there last night either, but it sounds like big things went down. Mione why don't you give the reader's digest version for anyone that's still confused?"
Just like her aunt, she's a damn good negotiator, Hermione thought.
She explained how they had met up with Luna and Neville near the third floor corridor and had been about to head back down to their dorms before they had been cornered by Peeves and had made a dash for the only hiding spot they could get to: the third floor corridor.
There had only been one room inside the hallway and after bundling inside and waiting for the ghost to pass by, all four of them had become aware of an odd smell and a noise behind them.
Turning, they had seen the enormous three headed dog and had nearly passed out at the sight of it.
Here, Hermione grew a little vague. She wasn't sure that she wanted to talk about the fact that she had heard a voice floating up through the trapdoor in the room but it turned out she didn't have to.
Luna broke in then and explained in her dreamy voice that she had heard an ancient voice coming from the trap door that Draco and Dudley couldn't hear. She was glad that the small blonde didn't give it away that she had heard the voice as well, but from the looks Harry and Dudley sent her, they had a feeling that had been the case either way.
When she had finished, everyone was quiet for a long moment.
"Well then," Dudley said after a moment. "It sounds like the headmaster is hiding something potentially dangerous in the third floor corridor."
"It's not just dangerous Dud," Hermione said quietly and they all turned to her, confused. "It…..it felt evil."
Even though it was a sunny day with gentle breezes, a chill swept over the group of first years and even Draco, pompous Draco who didn't seem fazed by a whole lot, shifted uncomfortably.
"So…..what does this mean?" Harry asked. "What do we do?"
"As far as I can see, nothing," Draco said. "We don't know what's going on here and for me, as long as my face is as far away from that dog's claws as possible the happier I'll be."
"As much as I don't like to give him credit so he won't become even more arrogant," Harry said. "I think Draco has a point."
"I am not arrogant!" the blonde protested. "I'm a realist."
Susan coughed into her hand, but it sounded suspiciously like she said the word prat quietly too.
Hermione smirked to herself, although she was still feeling a little worried.
Draco looked like he was about to say something when all of a sudden there was a voice from the hillside behind them.
"Neville mate, there you are! I wanted to ask you something."
Hermione looked up in time to see Ron at the top of the hill starting down toward them. He got close and locked eyes with Draco and there was a momentary pause in the group. Draco's upper lip curled into a sneer before Harry elbowed him hard in the ribs and he coughed and glared at him.
"What was it Ron?" Neville asked quietly. Ron noted Hermione and smiled at her which she returned.
"I didn't know we were taking in stray weasels," Draco muttered and Ron glared at him, about to open his mouth.
Hermione did it for him and Harry elbowed him in the ribs.
"Shut up Malfoy," the strawberry blonde said before looking up at the red head. "Don't mind him Ron, his perspective of the world is changing and I don't think he quite knows how to deal with it."
"Hey!"
"Okay," the red head said and slowly sat down next to her and Neville. They soon got into a quiet conversation about Herbology and the topics of conversation drifted to other things. Twice in the half an hour that followed however, Hermione looked up to see Harry looking at her severely. She knew he wanted to know more about what had happened.
That particular conversation came when the four of them were walking back to the Slytherin dorms later that evening.
"Why didn't you tell us about this right away Mione?" Harry asked. "This isn't exactly like you skipped out on homework or something. There's a monster hiding in a room in the school guarding something potentially dangerous. Why didn't anything?"
"I didn't really know what to say," the strawberry blonde defended. "It's not as if this particular topic of conversation is an easy one to have. Draco and I got back narrowly missing getting caught after curfew and I wanted to process just what the hell it was that I saw."
"Oh trust me, I think we all needed to process that," the Malfoy scion muttered, but the other two boys ignored him.
"Are you considering going back there again?' Dudley asked slowly.
"What?!" Draco exclaimed.
"I don't know," she said. "I'm not entirely convinced that I need to. I want to trust that the headmaster knows what he's doing but on the other hand….."
"Bullshit."
All eyes turned to the blonde who was looking at them incredulously.
"You can't possibly be serious," he continued. "My father always said that Dumbledore was one of the worst things to ever happen to this school and now I'm beginning to see that he was right. What kind of imbecile keeps something like that locked up in a school?"
For once, Hermione didn't have an answer.
And that worried her.
"Draco does have a point," Dudley put in. "Maybe Harry and I should go and check it out and tell you what we think."
"And nearly get mauled by a three headed dog like we almost were?" Hermione asked sarcastically. "Absolutely not. "No one is doing anything, we don't even know that we need to do anything. For all we know, it might be nothing."
Even Draco looked at her like she had three eyes in that moment.
She sighed. "Alright, then let's do some research at least first. I don't want to walk into anything I'm not prepared for,"
Ω
The week leading up to Halloween was pretty quiet, the friends went to classes, swapped tables in the Great Hall to sit with their friends in other houses during mealtimes, did homework and occupied the library.
But ever present in Hermione's mind was the threat of what might be hiding in the third floor corridor. She remembered her mother telling her to pick and choose her battles but when she's nearly mauled by a monster guarding something dangerous?
Well stuff like that gets kind of personal.
It wasn't like she had just heard a story about someone getting mauled by the thing, it had actually tried to maul her and her friends, so Hermione was a little…..offended to say the least.
Besides, this is what her mother did for a living, and Hermione wasn't anything but her mother so she considered this a personal challenge to figure out what the hell was going on here.
The first thing necessary to deduce this puzzle was finding out where on earth the three headed hound from hell had come from.
Luna provided the first clue to that. She just had a nose for sniffing out magical creatures and one day after charms, she came up to Hermione in the hall.
"You looked troubled Hermione," she said. "The Nargles haven't been bothering you today have they?"
The strawberry blonde chuckled. "No Luna, not the Nargles. But it is a mystery that needs to be solved."
"You mean about the third floor corridor," the small blonde said and Hermione nodded. Luna fell into step alongside her.
"I've been thinking," she said.
Hermione smirked. "Have you?"
"Where would get an animal like that to guard something dangerous?"
Hermione paused for a moment and blinked at her. "I was wondering the same thing myself today."
"We could go to the headmaster and ask," Luan suggested. "But that doesn't seem to be a good plan because then he'd know that we were in the third floor corridor and saw things that we weren't supposed to see."
"All of this is redundant Luna, what are you getting at?" Hermione asked.
"Who else knows about large strange creatures on this property?" the blonde asked, her eyes glittering dreamily. "Who else knows about animals and can be around strange ones without getting a limb ripped off?"
"Of course," Hermione whispered. "How could I be such an idiot? Hagrid would know!"
Of course the time constraints surrounding their day didn't allow them to go and see Hagrid right that minute and so Hermione went to class with her friends and tapped her foot anxiously awaiting a time when she could go to the half giant's house for tea and wrest the truth from him.
But then something happened that night which was Halloween which turned out to be another clue into the goings on of the school.
Although this one was much more…violent.
Hermione had forgotten her sweater in the Slytherin dorms and Harry had needed to fetch something from his room.
The two of them were heading back up to the great hall when all of a sudden there could be heard the sound of pounding feet from the stairs in front of them leading to the second floor.
The two best friends exchanged glances frowning.
All of a sudden, Ron came barreling down the stairs. His red hair was all askew, his eyes were wide and he was panting hard.
Upon seeing them he skittered to a halt in front of them and bent over at the knees to catch his breath.
"Ron mate, what's going on?" Harry demanded.
It took a few seconds before the red head was able to answer.
"I…I just saw…..troll….in the school…..heading…..for the second floor. Luna…was…..there."
The two didn't ask any more questions like what the hell a troll was doing in the school and how one had gotten in in the first place.
Just as they moved to follow Ron, there was a loud scream from the Great Hall which could only be identified as Professor Quirrel.
"TROLL! TROLL IN THE DUNGEON!"
This brought about a mass of screaming from all the students inside the hall and then there was the loud voice of professor Dumbledore calling for silence.
"Everyone will please not panic! Prefects escort the students back to their house common rooms. Every teacher to the dungeon."
Needless to say after that speech with a troll running amok in the castle, Hermione had no intention of leaving her blonde best friend wandering somewhere in the castle.
She locked eyes with Harry and Ron and the three of them dashed up the stairs to the second floor.
The minute they came level with the landing however and stared down the corridor, a stench the like of which they had never smelled before hit them and sent Harry and Ron coughing and gagging back to the stairs.
"What the bloody hell is that?" Ron demanded.
"Troll," Hermione said staring quietly down the hall.
So much for Professor Quirrel's claims about the troll being in the dungeon.
The ground beneath their feet had begun to vibrate as if something was pounding the ground with large mallets.
"Get back," Hermione hissed.
She and Harry and Ron flattened themselves against the wall and had no sooner done so when the hulking figure of a monstrous beast came into view. It was at least seven feet tall and the top of its head brushed against the ceiling of the corridor. It was green and brown with slimy looking skin and a dirty loin cloth tied haphazardly about its waist.
There was a long club dragging along the ground from its left hand Hermione heard Ron gulp at the sight of it.
"I thought Professor Quirrel said it was in the dungeons," Harry whispered.
"Yeah well I wouldn't put much stock in what Professor Quirrel says after this," Hermione muttered. She turned to Ron. "Where did you say you saw Luna last?"
The red head swallowed hard before lifting a shaky finger and pointing toward the second floor girls toilets that they were directly in sight of.
Unfortunately, the troll had also spotted the door and was lumbering straight for it.
"L-Luna went in there," Ron stammered. "After charms, those bints, Cho and Marietta were making fun of her and she wanted to be alone."
Hermione cursed under her breath in Russian causing Ron to look at her oddly.
By this time, the troll had lumbered to the door and pushed it open before stepping inside and it slammed shut behind him.
Hermione and Harry nodded at each other.
"On three," the latter whispered.
Ron swallowed hard again, but got a determined glint in his eye which endeared him even more to the strawberry blonde. There was a lion in there somewhere.
The three of them dashed for the door and all counted to three before Harry seized the door handle and yanked it open for Hermione to dash in so he could cover her.
It was something Aunt Tasha had taught them in basic training.
Contrary to what her father had said, Hermione had chosen to bring her blades with her to and from class and had carefully disguised them in her shoes the way that her mother had shown her how to do if she wanted to hide something.
Hermione rarely held her wand in her hand. Like her mother, it was simply easier to strap it to the inside of her wrist. Natasha had discovered that as long as the wand was touching bare skin, she perform magic with the same dexterity as if it were still in her hand. Plus it would make people think twice about trying to disarm you if they thought you could perform wandless magic.
Which Hermione could given what her father was, although her mother thought it best that she keep that part of herself hidden.
When the three of them had dashed into the bathroom, they came upon one of the oddest and most bizarre sights that Hermione had ever seen.
Against the right and left sides of the wall were a series of stalls where the toilets were located. In the middle of the bathroom was an enormous circular sink.
Directly across from the sink was a large window well and sitting in the window well was a familiar blonde in a blue blouse and skirt, swinging her feet back and forth, humming to herself.
She didn't seem to have noticed her three friends, or the monstrous troll who was standing by the left side of the sink who had turned in their direction.
Up close, the stink of the monster was even worse and it looked even uglier. It's head was hilariously small in comparison to the rest of its body and its ears stuck out like two lumps of lettuce on the side of its head. It had two abnormally large front teeth and black beady eyes.
The troll gave a great roar and lumbered in their direction.
"Duck!" Ron yelled and the trio dove out of the wave just in time as the troll brought his club smashing down onto the floor where they had been seconds before.
Hermione rolled and came back onto her feet, her back hitting the door of one of the stalls of the toilets.
"Are you alright Luna?" she yelled up at the blonde who was still sitting in the window well.
"I'm fine Mione," she said dreamily. "I just came here to get away from the Nargles."
"I hate to break it to you," Harry yelled as he ducked under one of the troll's swings. "But I don't think it's the Nargles you need to be worried about right now!"
"We need a distraction!" Ron yelled. He had his wand in his hand, but he wasn't using it and for a brief second, Hermione wondered why.
Then she remembered that when adrenaline and fear collide its very difficult to remain cohesive enough to perform as a functional unit. Ron was only eleven and the only reason she was an eighth as good as her mother was because Natasha had been drilling it into her since she was four.
"I have an idea!" the red head yelled and though he looked terrified, he swallowed hard, gritted his teeth and dove for the sink.
The troll was just turning towards him when Ron grabbed hold of the faucet and wrenched the water on full blast causing it to shoot out of the pipe and into the troll's startled face.
"Immobilise!" Harry yelled and a jet of yellow light shot from his wand towards the troll.
A spell like that would have worked if it had been a smaller animal but because this was an enormous troll and a magical creature to boot it had built up a bit of a resistance to spells which was to their detriment.
The troll swung its enormous club and all three first years dove to the ground. The club wiped out the top half section of the stalls on the right wall completely sending a shower of shards of wood everywhere.
"It's not working!" Ron yelled.
We need something stronger, Hermione thought, or we're all going to be turned into hamburger before anyone realizes that we're in here.
All of a sudden Luna let out a startled yelp and Hermione twisted in her direction.
Somehow the troll had managed to lumber in her direction and seized hold of one of her feet which were dangling down from the window well.
Hermione was in the motion of diving forward and reaching for her knives when something strange happened.
The moment that the troll touched Luna, the small blonde reached down with her hand and placed it palm open on the trolls face. The second she did so ice spread forward from her palm and began to cover the troll's forehead.
It must have been painful because the troll let out a strangled howl and stumbled backward towards the sinks.
Deciding to ignore what she had seen for now, Hermione yanked her knives from her shoes, darted forward and slashed the backs of the troll's knees. In every living creature there was a tendon in the back of the knees that aided in the ability to stand. If it was removed, a person would do the same as the troll was doing now and fall to their knees.
Even on its knees however the troll was still formidable because it still had its club. It let out a roar and swung at Hermione and she ducked the wood whistling past her ear.
Thankfully its brain wasn't as big as its muscles because the club became embedded in the top of the column of the sinks causing water to explode everywhere and drench everyone.
"Will someone bloody do something?" Ron bellowed. "Or we're going to end up like mum's Christmas pudding only not as tasty!"
I'd like nothing better! Hermione thought grimly to herself as she ducked under one of the trolls wide swings.
Dumb as it was, it seemed to have figured out that the club wasn't coming loose and had so taken to attacking them with its fists instead which were just as dense and meaty as its club.
"Stupefy!" Harry yelled and a jet of red light hit the troll directly in the head which caused it to stagger a bit as if it were drunk. It raised itself onto one knee in an attempt to get to its feet.
Fortunately, it gave Hermione the opportunity that she needed to ensure a kill shot.
She dashed forward, blades drawn, leapt onto the knee of the troll and lunged upward slashing her twin knives across its throat completely decapitating the troll before she fell into a roll and came up standing as the body of the troll crashed to the floor.
There was a moment of silence between the four first years. Hermione was panting slightly and her knives were covered in gore.
She turned and gave Harry a weak smile who returned it.
"B-Bloody hell," Ron stammered gripping the edge of the sink so hard his knuckled turned white. He was staring at the troll's head as if transfixed and his face was so pale his freckles stood out as if someone had thrown red confetti on his face.
"You alright mate?" Harry asked uncertainly.
Ron swallowed hard again and nodded shakily. "I just need to wait for me knees to stop shaking then I think I'll be okay."
Luna had jumped lightly down from the window well and was staring at the troll dreaming.
"That was a nasty Nargle," she said. "Thank you Mione, Harry Ron. I don't think I could have handled that by myself."
Hermione meanwhile was staring at the frozen spot on the troll's forehead that Luna had touched.
I don't know, she thought. I'm beginning to think you are capable of far more than you let on Luna.
Just then there was the sound of pounding feet by the door and it was wrenched open to reveal Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout, Snape and Dumbledore.
They stared at the scene in front of them from the demolished bathroom stalls to the troll club embedded in the top of the sinks to the water everywhere to the decapitated troll to the four soaked first years one of whom was carrying two long knives covered in gore.
McGonagall had spied Ron who was shaking now even worse than when the troll had been attacking them.
She stepped forward, her eyes blazing. "Explain yourselves. Now."
Hermione stepped forward and seized one of the still dry rolls of toilet paper and proceeded to wipe the gore off of her blades.
This was going to be a long night.
"Mum's going to kill me," Ron whimpered.
Ω
Hermione and Harry stumbled back to the Slytherin common room two hours later, the both of them completely exhausted from the rigorous questioning from all four of the heads of house as well as the headmaster.
Hermione had watched the headmaster closely throughout the exchange but he had been strangely quiet. His eyes had been far away and she wondered he if couldn't be bothered to talk to them at all.
When she and Harry entered the Slytherin common room, it was all but empty except for two blondes sitting in tense positions on the couches.
As soon as they stepped inside, they jumped up.
"Where the bloody hell were you?" Dudley demanded. "Draco and I couldn't find you in all the hustle and when we got back down here you had vanished into thin air. We were worried sick!"
"Well Dursley here was," Draco said absently checking his nails as if he didn't have a care in the world. "Malfoy's are known for their iron clad nerves."
"Shut up prat," Dudley fumed. "So where were you?"
Harry glanced at Hermione. "Do you want to tell them or shall I?"
She stifled a yawn. "You go ahead. I'm tired. I'll see you in the morning."
She left the three of them with Harry looking amused, Dudley looking furious and Draco looking a bit of both.
After their questioning, Hermione had noticed a few things off about some of the teachers. Professor Quirrel for instance looked uncharacteristically non stuttery while Professor Snape was trying to hide a terrible limp and when he turned slightly to the side, she caught sight of a bloodied knee, almost as if it had been torn by something.
What on earth was going on here?
Throughout the entire questioning period Snape had been sending threatening looks at Quirrel, even more so than the ones he reserved for the students. Hermione wondered if there had been some kind of exchange between during the troll attack because she couldn't recall them ever even speaking before it.
Quirrel's purple turban had been slightly askew and once when she had looked closely at it, the strawberry blonde had been sure that she had even seen it move. There had been no wind in the headmaster's office, but she was certain she had even heard something like a whisper.
No one else seemed to notice it but Hermione had seen Luna sit up a bit straighter when she thought the sound had emitted.
This was getting stranger and stranger.
Over the next few days, Hermione's friends plied her and Harry and Ron and Luna with questions about what had happened in the bathroom. She told them, leaving both Luna's strange power out as well as the existence of her knives.
Ron and Draco were still being frigidly polite to each other, but Hermione knew it was just a matter of time before the influence of his father gave way to the influence of his friends and old differences were put aside.
The troll incident was miraculously put to rest with very few people finding out about it and for this Hermione was grateful.
November passed without incident rendering all of her friends so busy that they had no time to go and see Hagrid about his potential connection to the monster upstairs.
Christmas arrived and everyone went home for the holidays. Neville and Luna opted to remain at school however and Susan promised everyone a box of homemade truffles for the holidays.
The train ride back was a lot of fun as it allowed everyone to relax and forget about the strange things that had been happening around school.
Hermione promised to write to all of her friends and she, Harry and Dudley all piled into Aunt Petunia's car and went home to Little Whinging.
Natasha was even allowed a few days off work to go home as well.
They celebrated in the Dursley-Black household on Christmas morning around an enormous tree that Regulus had dragged in with the help of his brother. Sirius had arrived from France a few days earlier and everyone was thrilled to see him. He was full of stories for Harry, Dudley and Hermione about how stuck up and pompous the French were, especially the Veela.
They were a species that had originated in the far north of France during the renaissance period when a fairy crossed with a human.
They had this allure that was impossible for men to resist, but ironically, perhaps because of his years of imprisonment, Sirius was one of the few.
This made him intriguing to many of the Veela women, in particular, one called Emmeline. The two had begun a tentative relationship a month before but Hermione could already see that her uncle Siri was smitten.
She, Harry and Dudley kept mum about the events going on at the school because they weren't entirely sure themselves what was going on.
Petunia, despite the fact that she was almost six months pregnant and quite noticeably showing insisted upon cooking a lavish Christmas dinner.
The children all received presents, but the one that Hermione cherished the most was one that wasn't even for her.
On Christmas morning, right before they were to go over to the Dursley Black residence, Hermione discovered a beautiful slim brown box sitting on the kitchen table by the glass doors.
Hermione had a feeling right away that it wasn't for her. This belief was confirmed by the look on her mother's face when Natasha came into the kitchen.
"I think it's from Dad," Hermione said quietly holding out the box.
Natasha gingerly took the present from her daughter and opened the latch with deft fingers. Hermione leaned closer to see what it was, and gasped quietly when she saw the simple but beautiful ruby necklace.
There was no note but when they both looked at the underside of the lid of the box, there was a symbol there that was exactly the same marking that adorned Natasha's arm. The symbol that meant heart.
Hermione pursed her lips and glanced up at her mother to see that there was a small smile on her face.
Natasha wasn't extravagant, so the small ruby necklace that was about the size of a dime was perfect for her to wear and no one would notice.
Even when he's not here my dad is quite the romantic, Hermione thought smugly to herself.
Later on that day she found a bracelet made of silver with the same colored stones as her eyes.
In fact, it seemed that presents were coming from everywhere. Hermione Harry and Dudley received presents from all of their friends. There was a box of chocolate frogs and a Weasley jumper from Ron, a green one for Harry a yellow one for Dudley and a blue one for Hermione. Neville sent plants from his greenhouse that Dudley had to swear to his mum wouldn't come alive and eat her. Luna sent Hermione a bottle cap necklace that she swore would keep away the Nargles and Susan sent them a book on the history of wizarding law which Hermione started in on right away.
Regulus and Sirius were both rather shocked that they had made friends with the Malfoy scion, Regulus was pleased but Sirius was a little suspicious. His frown changed however when Natasha wacked him upside the head.
Regulus announced over Christmas dinner that he was being promoted. Ivan had been so impressed with his work that he was elevating him to senior agent and that he would have a team of junior agents under him. It also meant a pay raise and a bigger office as well.
Natasha knew that Regulus liked his new job and the experience it was giving him, but the end game for him was ultimately SHIELD. She was already contemplating ways that she could go to Fury and talk Reg up.
And speaking of Fury, he had finally called her into his office and given her her marching orders. She was to become part of Tony Stark's legal team and a part of his inner circle. The entire world knew that he was Iron Man now and because of that, there would be many people who would want to use his technology. After the Christmas holiday, she was to fly to Madrid where Stark would be participating in some sort of Indy 500 race.
Merlin if she didn't dislike the man already.
Natasha had simply been observing him quietly from an apartment in California just down the street from where Stark Industries was.
She knew there would be a time coming when they would have to interact with each other.
God, she wasn't looking forward to that.
Hermione meanwhile was extremely pleased to find out that her mother would be shadowing the infamous Tony Stark and Petunia had announced that she was having a baby girl which of course was cause for a toast among all gathered.
All in all it was a good Christmas. The most surprising gift came later that night when she was in her room at Number 5 putting her gifts away.
A midnight black owl came and landed on the window sill with a green wrapped package tied with silver twine.
"Well hello there," Hermione said opening the glass so the owl could hop inside. "You're certainly beautiful aren't you? What's your name?"
Rynden trilled a few notes at the sight of the owl and the black bird sounded back.
It stuck out its leg for Hermione to untie the package and when she had done so, she realized there was a small note on top
Granger
She smirked, there was only one friend who referred to her and all the rest by their last names. He always said making friends in Slytherin house was dangerous and that he preferred to make allies instead. Referring to them all by their last names was his way of doing that.
Hermione untied the silver twine and her eyebrows rose when a pretty blue scarf with her initials monogrammed on it in silver tumbled out of the wrapping.
It was soft and smooth and perfect for the winter. She put it around her neck and when she looked in the mirror, it made her already copper locks appear like red flames.
She glanced down at the note.
Granger
Happy Christmas
D. M
He was never much for words, Hermione thought to herself.
She put the scarf away and went to bed, wondering about what the new year would bring and whether or not it would be just as strange and exciting as the last.
With dangerous creatures roaming the classrooms and suspicious teachers as well as evil demonic voices, it wasn't difficult to think that this year was going to be a hell of a ride.
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