6th Year Part Four: Chapter 32
"You can't force someone to see the truth, just like you can't force a blind man to see."
~Marilyn Manson
~.O.~
As Hermione and the other school age Weasley children enter into the bustling alley on their way to Fred and George's joke shop that might as well be Diagon Alley's version of Zonkos, the curly haired girl heard the two heads of the family speak to one another.
"I am surprised that there have not been more raids, Arthur." Molly told her husband, taking care to keep her voice low and under cover of all the noise going about them, but it was clear to Hermione's own magically enhanced ears as she eavesdropped. "This time during the First War, He- Who- Must- Not- Be- Named was prominent, everything was in ruins, what is he waiting for?"
"I don't know, Molly." Arthur told his wife, placing his hand on her back to guide her through the jostling crowds they were looking anxiously at for any sign of hidden Death Eater activity, although that in itself would have been an anomaly. They had never hidden their presence for want of being seen and being part of a spectacle. "But be grateful, you remember how Diagon Alley was a nightmare, and we didn't have children to buy school things for then."
Hermione paused as they came before Ollivander's open wand shop, watching as the man bustled around the many boxes stacked up upon one another to find the perfect one for the small child standing with his parents before him. But as the man suddenly jerked to a stop when seeing the small girl standing just outside his door, raising her hand to wiggle her fingers at him, he turned pale and quickly disappeared into the darker part of his shop. The girl shaking her head, remembering how off kilter he had been when her and Severus had visited his shop themselves just weeks ago before leaving Malfoy Manor for the summer. Simple questions on the fabled Elder Wand and it's real life counterpart outside of the children's tale of The Deathly Hallows causing him to turn ashen and stutteringly tell them he wished for them to leave. No doubt the wand's reputation for causing death and destruction whenever it changed hands leaving him with no choice but to deny it's existence outside of the story, her and her love leaving the shop willingly yet with a warning to tell no one of their questions or presence in his shop that day. Thankfully Hermione had been able to convince her brother of his complete ignorance to it's whereabouts, but she knew not if it was the truth.
The trio made off to Madame Malkin's for new robes once Mrs. Weasley once again began chuckling over the fact that it would do no good to have Ron's ankles showing beneath his Hogwarts robes, Hermione giggling distractedly as well at his expression. Her thoughts still on the Hallows, she trailed slightly behind the two boys while they ran to the fact that no one truly knew of what form the three artifacts took if they did indeed embody something able to be held. If they were not simply objects within a story being told of how death is in scary, but can be kind and is possible to greet without fear. The fabled wand, was it truly made of wood from the elder tree with a thestral hair core? Or was it made of common ebony and dragon heartstring? Was the Resurrection Stone made of black stone much like the ring she held on her finger, or was it of the clearest diamond, or blood ruby? Was the Cloak of Invisibility a simple black cloak, or a thing of shimmering blue and pearl like beauty as Harry's was sitting currently in her beaded bag strapped around her chest?
Tom has such faith in the truth to becoming the Master of Death that he has restored his soul to it's former state… for the most part… we can only hope the blessed objects are not simply of the mind of a creative person seeking fame for a most loved children's story…
Harry suddenly spread his arms out on either side of him as if preparing widely for a hug from someone in front of him, causing both Hermione and Ron to come to a halt as they ran into him. They both look to each other confusedly before asking the boy who held them back why exactly he was doing so, all the while they stood in the middle of the street while people bumped them from all sides without an apologetic glance backwards.
"Harry, what are you looking at?" Hermione asks, exasperated and on the verge of hissing at the very next person who decides her long robes were their next piece of walking space.
The dark haired boy said nothing, content in his silence and jostled stillness before simply and without warning yanking on their arms as he caught sight once more of a slightly shifty looking Draco and Narcissa Malfoy disappearing into the dark corner leading to Knockturn Alley. As they came to the spot he last saw the two blondes, he violently yanked open Hermione's beaded bag, causing it to dig into the side of her neck hard enough to most likely leave a red mark and slight bruise. Batting at his hands with several stinging slaps, he drew out the Invisibility Cloak he had given her for safekeeping over the summer before he draped it over the three of them. Squeezing together to all fit, Hermione and Ron continued to grumble as to why they were doing so in the first place as the cloth was made to fit a single full grown wizard, and did not contribute the width of a half- giant even if the height of it might have.
"Would you to be quiet, please?" he finally hissed at them as they came to the front of Borgin and Burkes shop window that boasted two familiar heads of platinum blonde hair.
"We can't understand parseltongue, Harry." Ron hissed in his own way back to the boy in the middle of the two of them, causing her a slight surprise.
No wonder Harry never knows when he is speaking the snake language… or hearing it anyway… it sounds exactly like their normal tongue as opposed to several hisses and spits that could have been attributed to the boy's whispered impatience or anger…
Hermione cursed in her head and casting a glare to Harry, not having known this was the day the two Malfoys were to come into the shop to carry out her brother's orders. "So much for being friendly anymore, then." She says under her breath, causing Harry to send her a glare of his own.
He avidly watched as the owner of the small antique shop begans painting a disgruntled mask onto his face as his arms wove around in the air while apparently arguing with Draco as Narcissa occasionally input a word or two before being dismissed by the proprietor, "Damn, I wish I could hear what they are saying."
Hermione knew exactly what they were saying, their rising voices allowing her to clearly hear each damning and irritated word the Borgin said to Draco and his mother. Ron then speaking up, his earlier irritation at being manhandled without explanation forgotten in his curiosity, "We should have gone to Fred and George's earlier, we could have gotten one of those extendable ears they had to spy on the Order meetings at Grimmauld."
Sighing heavily at the events unfolding around her, she had to be even a little grateful to Harry for following Draco for no reason at all with his renewed distrustfulness of him as she grabbed her side of the cloak.
At least she was here to clean up this mess today rather than having even more to deal with once Hogwarts began… Tom would have used very different methods than she was about to at the moment…
Shaking the two boys off of her once she ducked out from beneath their cover after checking for people watching their small invisible spot, she ignored their furiously whispered questions before carefully shaping her mouth to say in careful human language, "Stay here!"
Opening the wooden door to the jingling chime of the bell above her head, the three inhabitants of the shop paused their argument before continuing once they simply saw the small girl immediately disappear behind an ornate cabinet she ran her fingers over before stopping before the wall of leather bound books in a corner of the store. Narcissa turning away from where she had sent the girl a brief pleading look, attempting to to ask once more that the disagreeable man behave somewhat civilly so that they could come to an agreement. Reverently tracing the gold written words upon several of the spines, Hermione browsed the darker section of the shelves while keeping a keen ear on the trio for several more minutes and Draco's attempts to resolve his own issues before pulling one large tome off from the section on soul magics.
Borgin, seeing his young customer appear once more around the various objects he turned to her, "May I help you with something, dear?"
Hermione smiled patiently before stepping up beside Draco, sweetly saying and holding out her item with both hands, "I would like to purchase this tome." The man nods as he gently accepted the old and rare book before turning back to the mother and son standing beside her to tell them they must leave as he simply can not allow what he has been asked to do, but Hermione cut the end to their conversation at the heels. "Mr. Malfoy will be paying for it."
The man and boy beside her both turn to her surprised, Draco still with a slightly agitated look about his fact as Borgin parted his mouth before welding it firmly shut and nodding curtly, continuing behind his counter.
It really is a weird thing to call anyone other than Lucius Mr. Malfoy… but to any others within the wizarding community Draco would claim the title in Lucius' absence… and be treated as such… not that Borgin seemed to be much bothered by Pureblood attitudes and expectations…
The shop remained silent for the purchase, and Hermione was immensely thankful for the placement of the check out counter as it sat out of way from the window's view. As well as the two curiously nosy boys and prying eyes should she be forced to resort to drastic measures. Hovering her fingers over the opal necklace just beside the register, clearly marked in loopy cursive beneath it Cursed: Touch at your own peril. To be cursed is to pay your dues. Pulling away from the dark energy surrounding it, she turned back to Borgin as he slid the cloth wrapped book towards the trio before him, cleary glancing pointedly at the door in a silent request for them to be on their way.
Hermione ignores his wishes, cocking her head just so, "So Mr. Borgin, there is nothing we can say at all that will change your mind as to leaving the Vanishing Cabinet within your store for safe keeping?" Borgin froze suddenly from where he had been preparing to scamper off back into his warded back office, looking between the cursed necklace Hermione now examined with her bare fingers and the two Malfoy's beside her.
He says nothing for a moment, expecting any moment for Hermione to fall to the floor in agony due to the object she allowed her thin fingers to run over, "I do not discuss private business with others girl," he said shakily, never having seen anyone pick up an object within his store with such nonchalance as this young girl before him and live to tell others.
Save one… many years ago… one who, now that it runs across his mind… also had the same cheekbones as the girl before him… his most celebrated assistant who vanished just a year after he came to him with such promise…
Neating back the necklace onto it's stand, Hermione flexed her magic in the air, allowing the man to finally come to terms with the fact he faced a clearly powerful witch who would not allow simple words to speak for her as the young Malfoy heir had. The beautiful piece of jewelry jingled slightly before them, and his Adam's apple jumped in fear while Hermione tapped her left forearm with her wand and quickly hissed out a few words. Rolling her sleeve to just above her arm, she exposed the white skull and snake that seemed to almost blend into her pale skin.
"Do you recognize this mark, sir?" She asked him as he took a step backwards.
The mark that matches the man… that cursed boy that walked into his shop with all the confidence and charm of this girl…
He nods silently, so Hermione smiles once again before righting her fitted sleeve once more, "Good. Now that is out of the way, the Malfoys have already purchased this Cabinet, correct?" She motioned to the elaborate object beside the entrance to the shop and continued without waiting for him to answer, "We simply ask you to hold it here within your shop as it's twin is mended elsewhere, and my brother as well as an acquaintance will occasionally come in to check on the linking process." She pauses to make for certain that he was following her words, "Your time will be compensated for of course, as there can not be anyone within the shop while it is being tested. We are also paying for discretion as well as storage, as I am sure you know of the raids being made against Malfoy Manor. The Ministry may construe the cabinet as a, dark artifact shall we say? And we wouldn't want them digging in to where it was bought would we?"
Borgin nodded jerkily, hesitatingly asking, "And who should I expect within my shop, My Lady?"
Hermione grabbed up her book and hugged it to her chest, "My brother's name is Marvolo, he will tell you of the others that will come into the shop."
…
Harry and Ron were both balls of anxiety once she exited the shop with Draco and Narcissa just behind her, leaving Draco with a kiss on the cheek and Narcissa with a short curtsy that was returned. Walking back down the almost empty streets of Knockturn Alley to the entrance of the main street that would begin a hasty visit to Madame Malkins and the joke shop, she was pulled into a corner by the suddenly appearing boys.
"What took you so long?"
"Did you hear what they were saying?"
"What was that kiss on Maloy's cheek about, 'Mione?"
"You actually bought something in there? How do you know it is not cursed?"
The dark and red headed boys looked to her expectantly, but she just rolled her eyes before continuing unconcealed through the darker streets with the boys right behind her beneath the cloak, shiftily looking at those few people who passed by them. Hermione was unconcerned even as their anxiety permeated the air around them in any case, nodding to the few people who simply bowed slightly or curtsied to her as they recognized their Lady and sought to acknowledge her. Yet, each of them knew better than to stop her outside the halls of Malfoy Manor due to her extremely precarious situation as a figurehead for both the Light and Dark.
Telling Harry a lie would ease his mind she tells herself, even knowing the answer would simply not be enough, "They were arguing about a shipment Draco had ordered for his mother's birthday, and wanted his money back as it had been delivered damaged. Nothing sinister happening as far as I could tell, and not everything in that store is cursed." She shook her book at his face as an exhibit A.
As they finally made their way to the main street of Diagon Alley that had drastically more light than Knockturn, Harry and Ron once again were made visible and the Cloak was stuffed into Hermione's beaded bag. Making their way to Madame Malkins to quickly order their new robes, Harry made such a sudden leap of thought that she had no idea of where it came from.
"He's joined the Death Eaters!" Harry whispered to them out of the blue as Ron stood on the platform while Madame Malkin disappeared into her back storage room. Although Hermione threw him a silencing glare each time he opened his mouth to begin another tirade, it seemed to have no effect on him after all these years of receiving them. Most of the time anyway, when she was truly angry at him it was altogether a different kind of story.
"By the Gods, Harry." Hermione groaned as she stepped up for her turn on the platform after Ron went to take his own place beside Harry. "There is absolutely no evidence to that fact, and you need to stop talking such nonsense."
Harry finally saw how irritated his friend was with him while holding her bag in his lap, fingering the tassels along the long strap as he turned to his other friend and last resort to convincing someone that Draco Malfoy was now a Death Eater. A fact he just knew.
"Do you believe me?" He whispered to him.
The red head looked hesitatingly to the back of Hermione's curly bouncing head, saying lowly so as to not be overheard, "Yes."
~.O.~
Harry was left alone to walk to his own compartment as Hermione made her way to the prefect's meeting in the middle of the train, feeling very irritated with her best friend as she just knew he was thinking of Draco after their sojourn at Borgin and Burkes. The fact that he went so far as to pull Arthur aside after their errands to speak of his concerns simply furthered her irritation. Knowing that it was an argument she simply could not win at the moment, she stalked off, sitting in almost silence between Draco and Ron unless asked a question until the end of the meeting where she grabbed Draco's hand to the surprise of the other prefects in the carriage as soon they were done. Ron's especially if the twisted look on his face told her of anything, but she was on a mission and would not be deterred.
He followed behind her and the Slytherin as she told Draco to come with her as if she was giving him a choice while he raised his eyebrow at her, "What are you doing bringing a Slytherin into the Gryffindor compartments, Hermione?" Ron asked from behind them, but she ignored him as she did the other Gryffindors around her watching with wide eyes as she drug the most known blonde of Slytherin house behind her by the hand.
Stepping right inside their normal compartment that had only one blonde girl who could very well be twin to Draco such as their complexions and hair matched each other, Hermione greeted her before sitting beside her. Ron taking a seat opposite her, Draco, and Luna all squeezed into one the bench while Hermione talked to the other girl as she calmed herself.
After asking how Luna's summer was, she asked, "Where is Harry?"
"Him and Neville both were invited to join the new professor in his compartment for lunch," the other girl told Hermione who all the while watched as Ron glared at her and the boy leaning onto her shoulder. She smiled and nodded to Luna in thanks while Draco began whispering in her ear.
"Why exactly have your brought me with you into enemy territory to be subjected to Weasel- Bee's absolutely rude looks that speak of him wanting to murder me?" He hid his lips into her curls as he spoke.
Her irritation bleeding away as she calmed right down at the distraction, she craned her own neck up to speak into his ear as Luna opened up a Quibbler beside her to begin reading. "Harry thinks you are a Death Eater." He jerks back to her in flinching surprise, to which she raised an eyebrow to before jerking him back down to her level by his black shirted collar. "They were nosing around Knockturn Alley the day we needed to iron out the agreement with Borgin, the reason why I was there at all. So now, I am going to show both the boys your bare arm to prove you don't have a Dark Mark."
He continued on imitating Severus with his pale eyebrow raised high, "Is that why you insisted I buy that 100 galleon book?"
Ron, suddenly fed up with their whispering and being kept out of a conversation he was clearly dying to hear, leaned towards them looking completely alarmed and flabbergasted. "Why in Merlin's name would you pay 100 galleons for a bloody book?!"
Both turning towards the youngest Weasley boy, Hermione icily replied, "It was a very rare book, Ronald."
Harry and Neville finally broke the tension between the three teens while Luna simply read on obliviously beside Hermione, occasionally making a comment on something her father had written or she had contributed to. Neville continued on inside the compartment to sit beside Ron after saying hello to Hermione and Draco while Harry shifted to an abrupt halt and held tightly to the sides of the doorway with both hands.
Hermione stood while pulling on Draco's arm to signal him to stand, which he did with a roll of the eyes and allowed her to push up his left forearm sleeve. Baring the unmarked limb to the surprise of Harry as his eyes widened behind his glasses, she asks her friend, "Does this look like the arm of a Death Eater, Harry Potter?"
The boy slid his eyes wildly to the others behind Hermione, Neville and Ron speaking lowly and avoiding Hermione's ire for the moment by not meeting their friend's bespeckled and pleading eyes. Draco sighed heavily before righting himself, "Can I leave now, Hermione? I have more important things to do than hang around with a bunch of Gryffindors."
Luna chimes in behind her Quibbler, "I'm a Ravenclaw." Smiling brightly at Draco's affirming nod.
"You may," Hermione tells him sweetly before flouncing back into her seat in the now silent compartment as Harry sat slowly beside her.
After a moment he spoke up once more, "I am sorry, Hermione. I know I was bothering you."
But there is still something up with Malfoy…
It was just a matter of stilted minutes before yet another thing interrupted the suffocating silence that had just begun fading back to normalcy, "Is he who you are sleeping with, 'Mione?!" Ron asked loudly, referencing Fred and George's damnable purity marble that had outed many Hogwarts student's sexual status to their peers.
Hermione gave him a disgusted look over her new tome she had pulled from the bag strapped across her chest, but it was Luna who spoke for her, airly saying, "He is quite handsome, Hermione. I wouldn't fault you for it, except for his attitude sometimes. But I rather think that darker haired guys are more to her liking, Ron."
The pale boy's face turned red as a sunburn all the way up to his forehead, eyes flicking towards Harry who had buried his face behind a Quibbler he had taken from the stack balancing on Luna's lap. Never occurring to him nor Hermione that his other friend now thought he was sleeping with the girl he was beginning to develop jealous tendencies towards.
~.O.~
Harry watched Hermione and their new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor carefully, observing their interaction for anything he may have previously missed to indicate they had a deeper relationship than that of student and professor. He saw nothing out of the ordinary to signal romantic feelings between the two of them, even as he knew the truth.
As they must have their luggage checked by each Head of House not their own so as to be impartial, something Dumbledore apparently thought necessary for some reason or another, Hermione gave her single beaded bag to the professor to check for dark objects. Or Weasley products as it seemed Filch had given the Headmaster much grief having to clean up after them when the twins had still been students with their developing products being given out to first years. The dark man's arm disappearing into the bag up to his elbow, Harry suddenly wished to grab it up out of his hands knowing his invisibility cloak was being kept deep within it's confines, but the man simply withdrew his hand with the shrunken tome Hermione had been gifted from Borgin and Burkes. Harry watched the side of Hermione's face as she grinned sheepishly for a reason unknown to him, the book seemingly one of the ordinary variety one would find within the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts library.
If he only knew the kinds of blood magic to bind souls together written within it's pages… Hermione had been overly grateful Severus had been assigned to search the Gryffindor's bags… it would have taken much effort to convince one of the other Heads of House the book was really harmless… despite the clear aura of mischief and darkness caressing your hands when it was held…
"Draco had to buy it for me," she told the man so quietly as to not be overheard by those around her, except for Harry who was actively listening for an indication as to exactly why a book needed such a flimsy excuse to move past check- in.
Severus simply shook his head slightly with no questions, "You may proceed to the Great Hall, Miss. Granger."
She smiled brightly up to him, stepping to the side to wait for Harry and Ron to be scanned by Severus' wand for any contraband on their person despite deigning to run his wand over the previous Gryffindor prefect, "Thank you, Professor Snape."
As they continued into the candle lit Great Hall, Harry looked down to the small girl who had taken hold of his arm. As he once again looked away from Malfoy towards her, he was intent on allowing her to believe he had let his renewed vendetta against the Pureblood fly away on the wind. Even as he had to admit the other boy was not as horribly tempered as he once was after having banded together within Dumbledore's Army, he still could not help but be wary of his allegiances. His obvious loyalty to Hermione notwithstanding, it no doubt coming about through her new love interest, loyalty to your blood family would always challenge that trait towards even the friends you would burn the world for. A trait towards his family and father who had clearly been one of the Death Eaters attempting to obtain the prophecy, something to which he could not seem to understand how his best friend could forgive and forget so easily. Running his eyes over her curly hair and subtly changed features, that once again a sense of unattainable deja vu rose to the surface of his mind as he also began feeling a curiosity as to what exactly the professor knew of them through Hermione's words and actions.
As the Headmaster began his yearly speech as the first years were sorted into their houses, Harry asked Hermione lowly while the man's booming voice echoed through the large room, "How long did you know of the Defense and Potions change?"
She looked to him while dropping the death glare she had been giving Ron who had made a comment that maybe the defense position's jinx would cause another falling out of the professor like all their previous years, she cocked her head to the side, she says, "Since the end of term, while I was in the Infirmary Professor Dumbledore told Severus if he was able to convince Slughorn to return to his old post he would be able to gain the position."
Harry shook off the weirdness that was hearing a professor's first name come out of his friend's mouth, once again wondering how such a thing as the girl and that man who seemed to hold a severe dislike of his person came about. "Do you know why they changed their positions now? Why not just stay how it was?"
Hermione chuckled slightly, "I am inclined to think that there have been less to no offers for the Defense position than previous years seeing as each professor since we began school succumbed to the jinx." She once again threw a glare towards Ron's bent head as he shoveled food into his mouth, talking picking up around them now that Dumbledore bid them to finish their dinner before retiring for the night. "Umbridge's little incident certainly didn't help matters as she has been speaking out to anyone who will listen in St. Mungos that a student threw her to the centaurs and the forbidden forest." She took on a shocked mask as Harry stifled a small laugh, "As if the all powerful former Headmistress with the might of the Ministry behind her could not handle them herself, but unfortunately, if has impacted our choices of professors."
Harry, as a mimickry of his earlier deja vu, got a sense of something within Hermione, as if he were not seeing the full person that was his best friend and simply the good parts of her, even while he had to admit there was something within her over the years that had been growing. With her choice of actions on dealing with Umbridge and Marietta Edgecomb, it was something beginning to peek out once again just as it has when she had threatened Ron years ago for hurting Crookshanks. He shook his head, letting his thoughts once again fall away from him so that he would not have to acknowledge the niggling thought that maybe she was becoming such a person due to the influence of the man she claims to love. He was a dark spy after all. But most of all, he did not want to acknowledge the other side of the coin, that she was simply this way all along and was just not caring who saw the true her anymore.
But he has seen the true her all along… never once had he felt horrified at the things she has done… even as their friends… Ron, Ginny, Neville… found out that their most sweet and loving friend had scarred more than one person for life… not once had he felt anything close to their disgust at the girl who loved him unconditionally… who he… loved…
Hermione continued speaking as she filled her plate with food once Ron's grabby hands finished picking clean the trays and piling his own plate high, "It is why I was banished to the Burrow so early." At Harry's questioning look at the word banished she smirked, "He insisted on making his own lesson plans for Defense instead of taking the Ministry's or Dumbledore's, so he made me leave because I kept distracting him from it."
His face adopted a slightly green tinge to it, turning abruptly away from her with all attempts at further questions falling away as a sudden image of Hermione wrapped around their dark professor caused him to shudder so violently that his food fell from his spoon. Seeing this, the curly haired girl began giggling loud enough to cause those around her to throw indulgent smiles her way as they didn't often hear her in such a carefree way that Harry often did.
"Best not to ask anymore questions of us, Harry. Given how you look now, I think there is only so much you could stomach if you want details."
A pouncing on his feet dispelled the green tint to give way to red as he yelped loud enough for those same people who had looked to Hermione now glanced at him. Looking beneath the table, he came face to face with a large orange monster who placed his paws on his knees to meow cutely up to him while bumping his hand with his head to demand pets and chin scratches, as if he had not made his Mistress' friend heart jump into his throat. Hermione's laughs turned into hiccups at this point, so Harry pushed her arm as his own lips turned up at the corners in happiness that he could make at least one person in the world as happy as he apparently made her.
Ron looked up to him with a full mouth, asking, "Why exactly has 'Mione gone mad, 'Arry?"