A/N: So hi, it certainly has been a while. I would like to apologize for not updating soon enough. A lot of things have happened. If you've been reading my previous ANs, you'd know that I recently got married. So, what comes after marriage? Babies! So I got pregnant a month ago, and unfortunately lost the baby early. I even had to undergo emergency surgery and am still recovering from it.
I don't mean to bother you with my life's drama especially when you're here to read some fanfiction, but I just want to say that, life goes on. And though I feel devastated, the only way to go is forward. And if you're having a difficult time as of this moment, I hope and I pray that you'll also have the strength to overcome it.
After that terrible nightmare, Hermione decided that it was best to avoid Syrine for a while. Not that she had a difficult time doing that. Her 'twin', was also quite skilled in pretending that she did not exist.
Hermione didn't want to admit it, but she felt guilty whenever she saw Syrine. The young version of Iris accusing her that it was all her fault that she had to go through all that grief kept Hermione awake every night since she had that dream. Although she knew that dreams were rarely based on reality, she knew that what she witnessed was a part of her sister's memories. She remembered the spark that she felt when she touched Syrine up in the astronomy tower, she concluded that the contact may have deepened the existing connection between the two of them, leading her to witness that horrific memory.
The whole school calmed down a bit since the initial report of the mass deatheater break out. Although the atmosphere remained tense, the constant presence of Umbridge in the school meant that any more speculation regarding the return of You-Know-Who's supporters were kept to a minimum.
Regardless of the pressure that Umbridge was imposing on the student body, the DA still continued their secret meetings. Majority of the DA members were now hungry to learn more spells, they knew what the breakout meant. Despite the ministries constant cover ups of You-Know-Who's return, they knew what was coming. They no longer thought that Harry was crazy for believing that the Darkest Wizard of all time had returned.
They were now more adept at casting advanced spells, even Neville was now a decent dueller. Hermione made sure to keep Syrine's words to heart, it was no use to use spells to defeat a boggart. What they needed were proper knowledge and skills to defend against actual dark wizards. Her only worry was that, despite being equipped with good defensive spells, duelling a real death eater would be much more different. She could only pray that when the time comes, all this training would benefit everyone when their very life counted on it.
The DA meeting finished, Harry made sure that all the members got back to their common room without getting caught by Filch or the members of the newly formed Inquisitorial Squad, a group of students mainly composed of Slytherins who acted like miniature versions of Umbridge. Nobody was surprised when they found out that Draco Malfoy was a member, what was surprising was the fact that Syrine Lestrange refused to have anything to do with them.
It was finally time for Harry and Hermione to leave the Room of Requirement, Ron had already left since he wanted to make sure that Ginny would be able to return to their common room without any trouble. The two of them hid under Harry's invisibility cloak as they used the marauder's map to guide them safely back to the tower.
The two members of the Gryffindor trio were half way there when Harry suddenly stepped in his tracks, "Wait, Hermione."
"What is it, Harry?" she said as she stopped as well.
Harry handed her the marauders's map and pointed to a corridor just a corner away from them. They could see two dots on it, one named Draco Malfoy and the other, Syrine Lestrange.
"It's past curfew, what do you think they're up to?" Harry asked.
Hermione wasn't really in the mood to spy on her 'twin' again, but the look on Harry's face told her that they were about to. She sighed, she then turned to Harry and signalled him that they should go and see what the two Slytherins were doing.
"They're probably just snogging." Lie. Hermione said, trying to convince Harry that they weren't doing anything wrong.
Harry shrugged, "I think that's unlikely. Lestrange doesn't seem to be the touchy feely type."
They reached the corridor where the two Slytherins were hanging around. Hermione concluded that the two were in some type of argument since Draco looked incensed while Syrine continued to look bored.
The Gryffindors positioned themselves a few feet away from the two snakes, Hermione made sure that their footsteps were muffled as they walked so the two were unaware that they were being spied on.
"Why haven't you joined the Inquisitorial squad yet? Professor Umbridge has been bugging me to get you to join." Draco told Syrine harshly.
Syrine crossed her arms in front of her and sighed, "Because I don't want to. Is that not enough of a reason? Besides, I don't fancy spending anytime with that toad."
Harry snickered; Hermione elbowed him in the rib. It was a good thing that they were also under a strong silencing spell.
"You don't need to fancy her. You should just join so you could enjoy the benefits of the squad." Draco said, still trying to goad her to join.
Syrine pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers, she was already looking quite annoyed. "Benefits? Like what?"
"You know, docking points, no curfew, spying on Potter and his 'secret meetings'" Draco answered with a sneer.
The two Gryffindors who were present didn't appreciate the fact that Malfoy knew about the DA meetings.
Draco's answer caught Syrine's attention, "Secret meetings you say? Where do you even get the information?"
"Filch has been noticing a pattern for a few months now, I know their meeting somewhere up in the 7th floor corridor, we just haven't caught them red handed yet. But we're close, I can feel it."
Syrine finally lowered her hands and smiled, "And what are you going to do once you catch them? Dare I ask."
Draco grinned, "Umbridge will punish them ofcourse; all the more reason to catch them. I heard from someone that Umbridge's detention are quite painful."
"Not interested then, I don't fancy using my time to spy on Potter and his 'meetings'. I've got better things to do." Syrine said in a bored tone. "Can we go now? I don't even know why you bothered to take me here just to tell me something so useless."
Draco frowned, "Spying on Potter is not useless. I know he's up to something."
Syrine grabbed Draco's hand and started dragging him back to the dungeons, "Whatever. I won't join but you will tell me once you've figured out more about this secret meetings, won't you?"
Draco perked up, "Of course, I will."
Syrine smiled at Draco, "Wonderful."
Once the two snakes were completely gone, Harry and Hermione stared at each other worriedly.
"Maybe we shouldn't have DA meetings for a while? Just to throw Filch off our tracks." Hermione suggested.
"One more meeting, and then we lay low for a while." Harry said. "We still have the map, we can avoid Filch one last time."
"But Harry -"
Harry stared intently at Hermione, "Teaching our friends how to defend themselves is much more important than being scared of getting caught by Filch. You have my word Mione, just one more and we take a break."
Hermione nodded, she trusted Harry. "Let's go back then, we have to tell Ron about what we just heard."
*HP*
Hermione was running down one of the corridors, she was running late for their final DA meeting. She didn't expect that Peeves would be the cause for her tardiness, the resident poltergeist decided to lock the girl's bathroom and barricade the door from the outside. It took a while for Hermione to get out since she was alone. It took a few threats before Peeves decided to remove the barricade from outside, but she was already late.
She was now just a floor away from the room of requirement when she passed by a few class rooms, it was sudden but as she passed one of the empty rooms, somebody grabbed her hand and dragged her inside. She didn't panic since she had an idea who it was, so she waited until they were safely inside the room before she got a good look at Syrine.
"You don't even look surprised anymore."Syrine observed, looking a bit impressed.
"Dragging people inside classrooms is your thing. This doesn't surprise me anymore." Hermione replied with a smile.
The 'twins' stared at each other for a while before Syrine's expression turned serious, "You have a snake in your group. The Inquisitorial squad is preparing to catch all of you as of this moment, don't go to the meeting. Don't get yourself into trouble."
Hermione didn't even bother to verify Syrine's warning, she knew that the Slytherin was telling the truth. She didn't even bother to reply anymore, she just ran out of the room as fast as she could so that she'd be able to warn the others who were already there.
Syrine, not expecting the reaction, ran after her.
"What the hell, Granger! Are you stupid or something?!" Syrine shouted as she ran after the curly haired Gryffindor, she was quite lucky that no one else was there to witness the scene.
"Not stupid, just foolishly loyal!" Hermione answered as she finally reached the stairs to the 7th floor.
Syrine didn't bother to follow her anymore; she knew she wouldn't be able to do anything else even if she followed Hermione upstairs.
The raven haired Slytherin sighed as she started running the opposite direction, "Seriously, the things I do for that swot."
A/N: I'll be posting another update soon. Recovering from surgery is a perfect time to catch up on writing fanfiction. So, any thoughts?