1994 – Third Year
"We still won though, so the jokes on them!" Harry boasted to his fellow Gryffindors in their common room. Despite an attempt from Slytherin to sabotage the Gryffindor team by scaring their seeker, Harry had still successfully caught the Golden Snitch before Cho Chang, Ravenclaw's Seeker, winning the game for Gryffindor.
"And those smarmy bastards got detention!" Fred sang, the room erupted with cheers all around at the news of the Slytherins who attempted to distract Harry having to suffer through detention.
Harry laughed at the at the happiness it brought his housemates knowing their rival house were being punished. These were always his favourite kind of moments, just after a quidditch match they had won, the common room was filled with extasy, students were celebrating together, even those who didn't enjoy Quidditch, everyone laughing and getting along, nothing worried them and nothing could dampen their mood, everyone was happy.
'Almost everyone.' He thought to himself as he looked towards Hermione who sat glumly beside Ginny. Harry made his way over to the sofa where the girls sat and plonked himself beside Hermione, wrapping his arms around her shoulders.
She noticeably winced at the action as she felt his arm draped around her shoulder, he had after all, played a full match of Quidditch earlier that day and was yet to change out of his kit.
"What's the matter Mione?" he asked whilst squeezing his hand against her shoulder.
"Well Harry… you smell." The shock on Harry's face caused both girls to laugh hysterically, only deepening the crimson glow that was forming across his cheeks.
"Rude. But, that's not what I meant, and you know it."
Hermione's laughter died down a little as her eyes flickered towards Ron, who was in the middle of having an eating contest with Shamus.
"Don't let Ron's disgusting food habits get you down." Harry joked, causing Ginny to chuckle whilst Hermione scowled at him. With a more serious tone, he sat up and continued.
"He will get there in the end. He just needs to realise all by himself what an idiot he's being, he won't see it if others are pointing it out." Harry comforted his friend once more, she smiled back, ever so slightly, not entirely convinced Harry was right.
~X~
"Don't pout Draco, it doesn't suit you." Hermione teased, earning herself a scowl, if looks could kill, he'd have hit her with a killing curse from halfway across the room.
"I hate detention."
"You didn't seem to hate it so much in first year."
"That's because I was with you, this is different, there's no way it will be fun."
"If you hate detention so much, start playing by the rules."
"Pot Kettle Black, Granger."
"Hey, I play by the rules, Malfoy." Draco's face relaxed from a scowl as he smirked at playful mood Hermione was in.
"Either way, you brought it on yourself and it is what it is, so stop whining like a baby and deal with it." Hermione teased him some more as she fiddled with the strand of grass she held between her fingers.
With that, Draco rose from the rock he had perched himself on beside the Black Lake and made his way towards Hermione.
Her face fell as she saw him gaining on her with intent, the light of the half-moon hit the sharp features on his face causing shadows beneath his eye and cheeks, making visible to her the mischievous look in his eyes, there wasn't even a small part of her that wanted to know what he was planning to do. She quickly stood up off the patch of grass she was sprawled out along and started to turn away from him when she felt his hand clasp firmly around her arm.
Using the arm he had a hold of, he pulled her towards him as he crouched and quickly enough to throw her over his shoulder as she let out a small squeal. It took just a few short seconds to figure out the direction he was going in - towards the lake.
"Draco Lucius Malfoy! If you put me anywhere near that lake, I'll-"
"You'll what? I'm not quite ready to stop acting like a baby so I figured my last act needs to be epic."
"Throwing me in the lake is not epic, it's stupid, and you're only putting yourself in danger!"
"You're not going to hurt me for throwing you in a lake, Hermione." He chuckled as he reached the edge. The water was not deep where he stood, but he could already feel how cold it was without touching it, the corner of his mouth pulled up to a slight grin, proud of himself for having thought of the idea to throw her in the lake.
"Do you think so?" She said quietly, before an idea sprung to mind. "Because I'd put money on me hurting your manly hood." She threatened, her last attempt to remain dry.
She felt him spin on his heals beneath her, resulting in her now facing the lake, the frosty air that loomed over the surface brushed softly against her cheeks. He pulled her from his shoulders and placed her firmly on the ground, a weary look spread across his face.
"You wouldn't dare…" said Draco, unable to believe his own words.
It took every ounce of self-control to keep a serious look on her face, but not before long her face faltered.
"No Draco, I wouldn't. But, you did threaten to throw me in the Ice cold lake."
"I knew you wouldn't, you couldn't. You don't have it in you to be that cruel, leave that to me." He said, smugness written across his face as he shrugged his shoulders at her, moving his hands from protecting himself below to folding his arms across his chest.
Hermione didn't want to be cruel, so she wasn't exactly offended by what he had said to her. He had, however, successfully pushed enough buttons to warrant an arguably equally childish reaction to his own.
With an innocent smile on her face, she pretended to agree with his statement, edging closer to him she watched as his expression began to change. Placing her hands on his folded arms, slightly squeezing them, she craned her neck to look up at him properly. She could see the moment he had become unaware of his surroundings, solely fixated on what was going to happen next. Before he had chance to do anything, Hermione tightened the grip she held on his arms and used everything she had inside of her to push him backward whilst swiftly moving one of her feet to hook around the back of his, causing him to tumble backwards.
Hermione's hands shot to her mouth instantly, both to hide her half smile and to cover her shock in her own actions. The water would have probably only measured up to Draco's knees had he stood in the lake, but instead, he was sat with his arms out stretched and his knees bent, nearly completely under the water except for his head and shoulders.
The shock Hermione was feeling did not compare to what Draco was feeling, although his face was entirely unreadable to her. For a few short seconds he remained in the lake until finally he stood, water dripping off him heavily, the heat from his body reacting with the sheer artic temperature of the lake caused steam to omit from his body. He trudged slowly over to Hermione without a word, not wanting to startle her, other wise she would flee.
Frozen on the spot, Hermione could not bring herself to react to what she had just done. She wasn't sure whether or not to laugh or apologise. Before she decided Draco had lunged for her and threw her over his shoulder once more, she knew no amount of pleading would stop him this time so instead she wriggled on his shoulder and squealed for him to let her go, trying to make it as difficult as possible for him.
"I sure hope you can swim." Where the last words she heard before she felt his grip release her and she hit the water.
He had thrown her further into the lake, just deep enough that she wasn't able to stand, resulting in her being completely submerged beneath the lake. Rising to the surface, she gasped for air, the bitter chill of the water tightened around her chest, restricting her breathing.
Draco couldn't decide if it was his body reacting to his wet clothes or the look of panic on Hermione's face that caused his body to go numb, but his quick reaction resulted in him running in after her. He reached her almost immediately and cradled her in his arms, he swiftly walked out of the water and sat on the floor with Hermione bundled up in his arms as he reached for his wand.
"Incendio." He muttered, pointing at some broken branches from a tree that lay beside them.
"I'm sorry, I don't know any heating spells." He told her before he started to move his hands up and down her shoulders In attempts to warm her quicker. He could feel her whole body shaking in his arms, the noise of her teeth chattering together drowned out the crackling of the fire beside them, but soon enough her shivering lessened and she gained control over her mouth once more.
"It's a bit chilly in there." Hermione said quietly, a burst of deep loud hearty laughter erupted from Draco. He smiled down at her and pulled her into his chest closely, resting his head on top of hers as he watched the fire.
"It's getting late. I should imagine everyone has gone to bed by now, we should probably head back to the castle." He told her with regret. This was easily his least favourite moments with Hermione, when they had to go off to their separate groups, pretending their friendship didn't exist, acting as though they mean nothing to each other.
"Lets just stay a little while longer, to dry off some more." She suggested and hugged herself closer into him.
Draco shuffled backwards an inch and positioned himself again the rock he had been sat on top of earlier in the evening and rested himself against it, even on his best day, this was not something he could refuse.
~X~
It was close to dawn before Hermione found her way back to the common room. The pair had fallen asleep watching the fire together, the soothing noise and heat made for a comfortable enough setting that neither could fight off the tiredness that grew from their Black Lake antics.
As the portrait door closed behind her, Hermione felt a shift in the atmosphere, like something dangerous was waiting for her deeper in the common room. She walked with caution, without making a sound, her eyes darted around the common room, but nothing suspicious seemed to be occurring.
She continued her journey through the common room, entering her dorm where her fellow house mates remained asleep. Falling onto her bed, still fully clothed and slightly damp, she felt her the heaviness in her eyes overcome her as she began to drift once more.
Just as she felt herself falling into a deep slumber, the sound of a scream echoed through the dorm room. Lavender Brown rose from her bed immediately, eyes wide and alert as she scanned the room. Hermione shot up out of bed and headed towards the door which she swung open to find the noise had come from the boy's dormitory.
"Harry, I promise, it was him, it was Sirius Black!" Ron yelled frantically.
"Did he say Sirius Black?!" Parvati asked sleepily as she pulled herself to an upright position in her bed.
"Look at the curtains and tell me that!" Ron argued, clearly in response to Harry's disbelief. The door to the boy's dormitory opened, Ron walking out with haste, Harry and Shamus followed closely behind.
Hermione mouthed a question of what was happened to Harry who shrug in response as he followed Ron down the stairs sleepily.
The paintings in the Gryffindor common room worked quickly as the portrait from the entrance swung open to reveal McGonagall, still wearing her night coat looking very flustered from her journey to the common room.
"What seems to be the cause for all this commotion?" McGonagall demanded.
"Sirius Black tried to bloody kill me, that's what." Ron blurted out.
Professor McGonagall stared at Ron with nothing but confusing plastered across her face, her want for more information evident in her silence.
"I woke up and he was trying to get past the curtains to my bed, he shredded them and I could hear him snarling and snapping. Go look for yourself if you don't believe me."
McGonagall made her way up the stairs to the boy's dormitory, only to discover that the drapes that surrounded Ron's beds were in complete ruins. She quickly turned on her heal and marched back down the starts to the entrance of the common room, but before she left entirely she stopped and faced the Knight in the portrait.
"Sir Codogan, did you let anyone into the Gryffindor common room late last night or early this morning?"
"Yes, but nobody who shouldn't have had access." The Knight responded.
Hermione, who had descended the stairs not longer after Harry had, was overwhelmed with panic as she heard the Knight speak. She had not intended to need an excuse as to why she was entering the dorm at such an early hour and the Knight in the portrait was just about to force her into having to come up with one.
"Who?" McGonagall asked impatiently.
"Miss Granger arrived around 30 minutes ago." He explained, McGonagall's eyes darted to Hermione, judgement dripping from them, however no blame evident in her glare. Although she was unaware as to the reasons for Hermione being out of bed at such a time, she knew she was not careless enough to have let in an intruder.
"And who else?"
"Well, there was a man who arrived just a few moments before Miss Granger."
"Did this man look familiar?"
"Well… No Madam, he did not. But he did have the list of passwords to the common room."
"Thank you Sir Codogan, I shall be speaking to you again shortly no doubt."
McGonagall walked back into the Gryffindor common room, this time to be greeted with nearly all of the Gryffindor students who where now out of bed waiting for an update.
"It seems there was in fact an intruder in the common room this morning, who gained access through a misplaced list of passwords. If someone would like to come forward later today to confess to such a foolish act, you know where to find me."
She already had her suspicions on who had lost their list but knew it would do no good to humiliate him in front of everyone when the tensions where so high already.
"Extra security measures are going to be put into place, along with restrictions of curfews and travelling around the castle alone. I will go speak to Professor Dumbledore so that I can find out exactly what they're going to be. Miss Granger, could you follow me please."
Hermione followed her professor out of the Gryffindor common room and into the corridor, only when the portrait closed behind them did McGonagall begin her lecture.
"These are dangerous time we are living in Miss Granger, there is a killer on the loose, you better have a good explanation for being out of bed and wandering around the castle so early by yourself." McGonagall demanded.
Hermione knew she couldn't say the real reason as to why she was out of bed, although the professor may understand why she was having to keep her Slytherin friend a secret, that didn't warrant her being out of bed all night.
"No professor, I don't have a good enough reason. I wanted to get to the library before everyone else, I never considered the danger." Hermione lied, something she had had to do more times than she had liked over the years.
McGonagall's face softened before she spoke again, "I understand that you are taking your studies very seriously Miss Granger, you would not have been trusted with the Time Turner otherwise. However, this was reckless of you and you do need to think about your actions in the future, before not after. I am going to have to deduct 20 points from Gryffindor for this I'm afraid. In the future, use the common room. It's just as quiet and I'm sure the schools house elves would happy fetch you whatever you needed from the library."
Hermione decided it was not the time or the place to voice her opinion on the use of House Elves for such a menial task, instead she bit her tongue and nodded at her professor before heading back into the common room.
"Here she is." Fred Weasley announced once he spotted Hermione entering the room.
"The dirty stop out." George added, earning himself a scowl from Hermione and his twin.
"So, why were you out so early?" Fred asked.
"Or so late?" George winked.
"I was studying, I wanted peace and quiet, but I needed the library."
"See, I told you it wasn't anything untoward." Fred told his twin who rolled his eyes, disappointed and no longer interested, he moved across the room to his younger brother to hear the story of his near-death experience once more.
"Are you ok?" Harry asked, moving along the sofa to make room for her.
"I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?"
"I can't imagine there was much time between you arriving and Sirius arriving, did you not see him?"
Hermione shook her head, only now realising that she could've come face to face with the man that was responsible in aiding in the death of one of her closest friends parents. A shiver ran down her spine and the fine hairs all over her body stood on end.
"I'm fine, honest, I'm just tired."
Harry examined his friend closely, he knew when she was lying, but he knew she never lied without good reason.
~X~
"So, why were you late this morning?" Ginny asked Hermione as they travelled back to the common room together after supper. One of the new security measures that had been put into place after the second attack by Sirius Black was that no students were allowed to travel the corridors alone.
"It's like I said, I was-"
"At the library, yes, I heard. But I don't believe that, because I know you too well. I also know you've been up to something." Ginny said, giving her friend a knowing look.
Hermione rolled her eye in response and said nothing to either confirm or deny her friends suspicions. As they stepped off from the moving stairs and reached the common room, Hermione felt her necklace burn beneath her robs, with the new restrictions having been put in place earlier that day, Hermione wasn't sure it was the best idea to go to their secret room so soon after she had already been docked house points.
"I've just remembered, I've forgotten something at the library, I'm just going to pop back and get it." Hermione told Ginny. She decided this could be the last time for a while that she may get to see him and the earlier in the evening the less dangers could be lurking.
"In the Library?" Ginny asked sceptically. "I'll come with you."
"No its fine, I'll only be quick."
Ginny smirked at her friend and nodded before walking through the portrait into the common room. With a quick glance around, Hemione checked to see if the coast was clear before she ran up the stairs to the seventh floor.
"Did you run all the way here?" Draco chuckled as Hermione stumbled into the room, panting beside the chair she leant against.
"I didn't want to risk being caught, I've already lost Gryffindor 20 points today for being out of bed past hours."
"You were caught?" Draco asked, his complexion paled slightly.
Hermione allowed herself a few moments to catch her breath as she walked over to the window and sat down, Draco following closely behind.
"I arrived just a few moments after Sirius arrived. He must've already been in the boys dormitory when I entered the common room. Its weird because, I felt like something was off, I just could put my finger on it."
"So it's true then, Ron was attacked."
"Yes and no. The drapes around his bed were the only things harmed, but yes, Sirius Black did break into the Gryffindor common room. What I can't figure out is though, is why he targeted Ron when Harry is supposed to be who he is after."
Draco suddenly realised that he hadn't yet told Hermione about his discovery over Christmas, the conversation he had with his father on this very topic.
"I'm not entirely sure that's true." Draco started. "On my last night at the manor before I returned back to Hogwarts after Christmas, my father and I had a conversation where he mentioned Sirius."
Draco re-positioned himself to get more comfortable as he explained, Hermione remained still and focused on every word.
"He said that the rumours about Sirius being responsible for the Potter death was just rumours, nothing more. He said he never fought for the Dark Lords side."
"But that doesn't make any sense, why was he blamed if he didn't do it?"
"I'm not sure."
"I don't understand." Hermione mumbled, mostly to herself as she tried to piece together the bits of knowledge she had on the subject, to form some sort of sense out of it all.
"Me neither, and that's what I told father. All he said was 'You will, in time."
"Well I definitely don't like the sound of that."
"That makes two of us." Draco agreed.
"I'm just trying to figure out what Sirius' motive is for breaking into the castle if not to attack Harry."
"Maybe he's after someone else. Like you said, it was Weaslebees bed who was destroyed."
"Mmm… he could've been looking for something else rather than someone."
"Have you spoken to Weasley about it?"
"No, he still isn't speaking to me. I spoke to Hagrid about it a while back and he told me to just ignore him and he will apologise in his own time."
"He doesn't deserve your forgiveness waiting this long if you ask me."
"Well then, it's a good job I didn't" She said with a wink.
~X~
"Hagrid, I know that I need to be careful, Mr Weasley has given me the run through already." Harry whined as he sat beside Ron in Hagrid's hut.
He knew when the letter arrived inviting him and Ron down to his hut for tea and cake, it would mean pretending to enjoy his infamous rock cake whilst listening to his lectures on their rule breaking antics.
"You'd do well to listen to him Harry." Hagrid said judgingly, handing over a cake each to both boys.
"And how're yer doin after the attack Ron?"
"Fine, he didn't get to me fortunately. I'm just not sure why he attacked my bed when Harry's supposed to be the one he's after."
"I suppose Hermione has some theory's on that." Hagrid wasn't a very observant man, but he'd have to be blind to not see the looks exchanged between Harry and Ron at the mention of Hermione's name.
"Wa's goin on?" He asked, Ron bowed his head as Harry looked at him for a response to Hagrid's questions, when one didn't come, Harry took it on himself to answer.
"Ron still isn't speaking to Hermione."
"You wasn't either until about a week ago!" Ron interjection, as though his words defended his actions.
"Yer still fightin? And whys that?" Hagrid huffed.
"Well…" Harry started, a little embarrassed as he spoke. "I received a Firebolt at Christmas-"
"Blimey Harry! That's a gift n'alf, who got yer that?"
"That's the thing, I'm not sure. Hermione thought it was suspicious."
"And so she should, especially at a time like this."
"I know, but at the time, I didn't see it that way. She told McGonagall and I had it confiscated."
"Not to mention her cat killed Scabbers!" Ron interjected, with an eye roll from Harry before he continued.
"I now know that it was stupid of me to stop speaking to her, I've apologised since however, Ron still has his issues."
"Because Scabbers is dead!"
"And how d'ye know that?" Hagrid asked bluntly, with a tone neither Harry or Ron had witnessed from him before, Ron's cheeks shone red before he answered.
"I haven't seen him since before Christmas and that cat was always after him."
"So, what yer sayin is, he's missin?"
Ron couldn't bring himself to answer, instead he nodded and bowed his head down, preparing for Hagrid's next words.
"I thought you two'd value yer friend more'n broomsticks or rats." Hagrid said, and with that, both boys felt more guilt over their fight with Hermione than they had all together over the last couple of months.
Hagrid rose from his seat and wandered over to the fireplace to check on the teapot. Ron turned to Harry and sighed in defeat, having just received a telling off from the person he thought least likely to ever give him one, he was finally able to see the error of his ways.
"I need to speak to Hermione. To apologise."
Author Note:
Sorry this is a small chapter, It's the next chapter I'm most looking forward to, I just needed to tie off some loose ends in this one. I hope you're all still enjoying it and I haven't lost any of you on the way. Also - I've recently had some art work done for me by the amazingly talented Avendell, which means I now officially have a cover for my story! So check it out, its just as I imagined.