Chapter 50

"Draco!", Blaise's voice called out from the living room.

He groaned and with a wave of his hand he shut the bedroom door in front of his friends.

"Get up you lazy bugger", Theo shouted, banging his fist on the door, "We know you got your results from Hogwarts!"

Hermione's head shot up and she turned to him.

"You got your results?", she asked him anxiously. She didn't even dare to ask for her own.

With a smirk he summoned the envelope from across the room and handed it to her.

With a tight frown she opened it and he watched her closely. Mesmerised he saw her frown transform into a brilliant smile, lighting up her entire face.

"This is so good Love!", she exclaimed, throwing herself in his arms. "I'm so proud of you..."

"I know", he grinned, "I'm amazing."

He would never grow tired of goading her, he was sure.

"Prat!", she scolded, swatting his arm. "What's with the note though?"

"I don't know", he answered as her frown returned.

Just like me in your First Year, Slytherin vs. Gryffindor.

Severus Snape

Hermione pondered over the riddle for a bit while they got dressed.

"Oh!", she exclaimed suddenly and started rummaging through her bag.

"What's she doing?", Theo asked after Draco opened the door for them.

"Who knows?", he shrugged. "What are you doing? Please don't light the Manor on fire Sweetheart."

Hermione rolled her eyes as the others watched the jar of fire in her hands with distrust. When would he learn that she knew what she was doing?

"Just watch", she answered, opening the jar.

Carefully she lid the note on fire. It didn't burn to ashes as Draco had expected it to do, but the fire swirled over it, revealing the underlying message. Her eyes widened.

"What's it say?", Blaise asked curiously.

Without a word she handed the parchment to Draco. He looked it over and his gaze snapped back to her, the surprise evident in his eyes.

"It was a note from Snape...", he said.

She just nodded.

"But... These... These are your test results..."

"Yes...", she said a little breathless, "So..."

"Snape knows you took your exams."

"Holy shit", Blaise exclaimed, "Snape's on our side? He's a double agent?"

"We can't be sure", Draco frowned, his eyes never leaving Hermione's.

"You're right, we have to be careful", Theo said. "All we know for sure is that he's not 100% faithful to The Dark Lord, allowing magical education for a muggleborn. And he did kill Dumbledore."

Everyone was silent for a few minutes, pondering over this new information.

"When do you have to leave for the meeting Draco?", Blaise interrupted their thoughts.

"I don't have to attend today", Draco dismissed, "Father gave me the day off to get my school supplies."

"So, does this mean we're going to Diagon Alley?"

Hermione and Theo looked at Draco expectantly as Blaise asked this.

"I'll wear a disguise", Hermione said when she saw him hesitate.

Before he could answer she disappeared into the bathroom. In Draco's absence she'd been studying anything that could help them, including disguising spells.

"Theo!", she called after a few minutes, "Can you help me for a minute?"

"Sure Princess", he answered, grinned as he saw Draco's scowl, "Anything you like."

He disappeared into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

"What do you think?", Hermione asked 15 minutes later, doing a little twirl when she came back out. Theo followed her with a proud look on his face.

"Well... I have to admit that very few people would recognise you like this", Draco said eying her up and down.

Hermione was wearing some high black pumps, black snakeskin leggings and a white shirt with a bold design. Theo had given her some heavy dark eyes and wild red hair. Smirking she showed off her arm, where Theo had given her a faux tattoo with a skull as a hint to the Dark Mark.

"Can we go now?", Blaise asked, his eyes trained on her arse.

"Fine", Draco grumbled, swatting Blaise to the back of his head when he passed him, "But keep your eyes open and stay together."

--

Hermione's eyes went wide as she saw Diagon Alley. The usual relaxed atmosphere was gone and the few people in the street were hurrying to get their shopping done, head down.

"Let's go Princess", Blaise said taking her arm.

She chuckled as Draco swatted his head once more and pushed him aside, taking her hand.

They actually managed to have a nice day on Diagon Alley. When they got their shopping done, they decided to end the day in Florean Fortescue's Icecream Parlour.

Hermione was halfway through her blood orange ice cone with chocolate when all hell broke loose. Three Death Eaters broke into the Parlour and started shooting hexes around. Draco pushed their table over and crouched behind it as Blaise and Theo both cast a Protego to protect their little group from the flying spells and rubble.

Two of the cloaked figures disappeared behind the counter and returned, dragging a struggling Florean Fortescue with them.

"They can't do that", Hermione hissed, "We've got to save him!"

Draco stopped her as she tried to get to the Death Eaters.

"We can't", Draco growled, "We can't interfere. Stop it Hermione!"

He had great difficulty holding her as Florean was dragged outside.

"No, let me go!", she full out screamed at him now. "They just went through the door, we can still save him!"

"No we can't", Draco said, shaking her a little. "Calm down! Listen to me, there is nothing we can do."

She met his worried eyes and slowly he saw the fire leave them. She tried to keep her face in check, but she was crumbling down, he could see it.

"We can't talk here, we have to get back", Blaise interrupted, looking around nervously.

Without a word they gathered their belongings and headed to the apparition point.

--

Cautiously Draco pushed his bedroom door open. Hermione had disappeared into it hours before and hadn't come out since.

He found her curled up into a ball on his bed. The makeup and wild hair was gone and he could see her eyes were red rimmed. For some reason there was a swarm of canaries flying around his bed.

"Hey", he said gently, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "What's with the birds?"

"I thought they might make me feel a little bit better", she sniffed. With a wave of her hand the birds disappeared into some sparkles.

"Is it working?", he asked.

"Not really", she sighed. "I should have done something... I feel so useless."

"You couldn't have done anything Sweetheart", he said, gathering her in his arms. "If you had, we'd all be hunted down and killed."

"But still...", she said hesitantly.

"But nothing", he interrupted firmly, "You couldn't have done anything. All you can do is keep yourself safe and prepare as much as you can... For the day you can join Potty again."

That last bit left a bad taste in his mouth. He didn't want her to leave, but he knew the day would come.