Author's Notes

Happy Saturday everyone! It's a bit wet and rainy here, although apparently everyone else in the UK seems to have snow, so if you need something to take your mind off of the dismal weather hopefully this will do the trick!

Thank you all so much for the continued support on this story, I love every single comment or kudos that we get on ao3, and every follow or favourite on fanfiction. They make me smile and inspire me to write more, so if you're liking what you're reading and you have the time, then come and say hi!

Many, many thanks to champagneandliterature, the most amazing alpha/beta that I could ever wish for.

Lastly… We have made a little facebook group! Come join us at Phoenix of slytherin and Champagne and literature for sneak peaks of stories, fanfic related art, and hopefully other goodies, we'd love to have you along. Till next week… XXxxx

Cupid's Arrows

Chapter 8

The first thing Hermione was aware of when she woke up was that she was feeling incredibly hot. She was also trapped and unable to move, and as she opened her eyes, the reason for both problems became apparent. She was sandwiched tightly between Draco and Theo in the magical dome with the duvet tucked snugly up over them all. Draco was holding her tightly in his sleep, and Theo's back was pressed firmly up against her as he snored softly. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes, wanting to change position but being unwilling to wake either of them by moving just yet. It was still dark, although the very first glow of predawn was glimmering in the sky to the east, and the stars were starting to fade.

A dull ache between her legs reminded her of what else had happened last night, and she smiled, remembering the perfect evening. She shifted slightly, suddenly desperate for the toilet and wondering how best to extract herself from the bed. She was thirsty too, and worry was beginning to gnaw at the pit of her stomach. Had they meant to spend all night here? What if the teachers noticed that they were all missing, and despite their eighth year privileges, they were in trouble when they got back to the castle?

She carefully slid up the bed, trying not to wake either of the boys, but Draco's hand tightened on her arm, and she sighed. "Sorry," she whispered as he opened bleary eyes, "I need a wee." He nodded and reluctantly let her go.

She stepped into her shoes and wrapped one of the boy's quidditch robes around herself, then stepped outside. It was freezing. Thick white frost covered the ground, and the icy leaves crunched noisily under her feet as she made her way towards the trees. When she was done, she paused, checking that she was still wrapped up decently as Blaise grinned at her from the door of his and Ginny's dome. "Isn't that the wrong color for you? Or are you switching allegiances now?" he asked.

She looked down at the emerald green robe and laughed. "Never. I'm Gryffindor till I die. Unfortunately, I don't have one of these robes, though. They're lovely and warm."

"They are, yes. Did you have a good night?" she nodded and blushed as Blaise laughed.

"That good, huh? Well, I wish you luck in getting Theo back to the castle in time for breakfast. He's not really a morning person."

"And you are?" she blinked in the growing light. He was already dressed and looked to be tidying up when she had interrupted him.

"It's the best time of day. Ginny thoroughly disagrees with me, though."

"She would!" Hermione knew from experience how grumpy Ginny was before mid-morning. "Don't take it personally. She hates the whole world before about ten o'clock!"

"Ditto for Theo. Best of luck!" Hermione grinned as she opened the door and slipped back inside her dome.

"Morning beautiful," Draco was sitting up watching her as she hovered awkwardly by the door, "Who on earth were you talking to at this time? Wait, no, the only one who'd be bright and breezy at this hour would be Blaise. Am I right?" she nodded with a smile. "Did you have the hood up on that robe while you were chatting? just out of interest?"

"No, why?" she frowned as she wondered what to do. She was naked under the cloak, and he was watching her. If she opened the robe to get dressed, he would see everything, and she was still a little shy.

Draco smirked, "I've just never seen hair that screams I spent all night shagging better than yours does right now."

"Oh no!" she reached up to smooth it down and sighed. It felt like a bird's nest under her fingers. "No wonder he had such a twinkle in his eye!"

"Ah well, I'd wager that they did more than we did last night anyhow. Never mind. Morning sleepyhead!" Draco turned to grin at Theo, who had just prised one eye open and was glaring at them both.

"Blaise, uh, mentioned that Theo's not really a morning person," Hermione said. Draco laughed as Theo just groaned and stuck the pillow over his head, mumbling something about it all being lies.

Draco pushed the covers back, smacked Theo loudly on his naked bum, and stood up. He stretched and started to look for his clothes as Hermione did the same thing. Ten minutes later, the pair of them were ready, and Theo still hadn't moved. Draco rolled his eyes and finally sent a stinging hex at him, all while muttering about the time and grumbling about missing breakfast.

Once Theo was up, it only took a couple of minutes to pack away the bedding and the domes. Hannah and Greg had already left, as had Parvati and Luna, with Dean and Lavender sticking close to their tails. Ginny was still grumbling sleepily as Blaise kicked off, and Hermione couldn't say no to Draco when he asked her to fly back to the castle on his broom. "Okay, but no acrobatics, please, " she said as she stepped apprehensively over the hovering Firebolt.

"None," he promised, and she nodded as Theo soared up into the sky in front of them.

She snuggled backward into Draco's cloak and felt the difference in his flying as soon as he took off. While Theo flew steadily and felt relatively safe in the air, Draco was much more agile and precise. Flying with him felt just as terrifying as flying with Harry did. However, she reasoned, he had promised not to drop her, and it seemed to be the time for trying new things. "What about just a little bit?" she asked tentatively after a few minutes.

"A little bit of what?" Draco asked over her shoulder,

"A little bit of, you know, fancy flying?" she asked and felt his smile widen against her cheek.

"How fancy?"

"Fancy-ish. Just promise you won't drop me? I don't know how the balance thing works."

"I promise I won't drop you. Relax into my chest." She did as he asked, and he pulled the broom handle up so that they gained height. The ground seemed to fall away sharply and she fought every instinct she had to try to stay relaxed. He wheeled around, flying higher still, and changed direction smoothly. She felt like a bird. It was incredible. The wind whipped tears from her eyes as they flew against the sun. higher and higher, circling around and swooping up and down like an eagle. "Do you feel it now?" Draco asked, and she nodded, suddenly feeling rather emotional. "This is why I love to fly. We're higher than the birds. No one can reach you up here. Even the darkness can't catch you if you fly fast enough."

She had the feeling there was more to that statement than just casual words, and she was sad when he started to slowly spiral back down. "Yes. I feel it." She nodded, suddenly feeling very vulnerable as he took both of his hands off the broom to wrap his arms around her and kiss her cheek as he lazily flew back down to land on the quidditch pitch.

When Hermione finally got back to the common room, she was still feeling exhilarated. She kissed Draco goodbye and let herself into the girl's bedroom, then leaned back against the door, closed her eyes, and relived the swooping feeling of flying. As she let out a slow breath, she registered that Lavender and Parvati's chatter had abruptly stopped, and the room was now silent. She opened her eyes to see them both standing frozen with indecision beside her bed. "What's wrong?" she asked automatically.

"Umm….." they exchanged glances, and Parvarti stepped forwards, looking nervous, "we just found this. It was pinned to your curtains when we walked in." She held a piece of parchment in her hands, and Hermione looked at it curiously. What she saw made the bottom drop out of her stomach. She gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth as she read the three words scrawled across the parchment in scruffy writing, Death Eater Whore.

"We don't…. I mean…. It was just there. We just found it!" Lavender cried desperately.

"We don't think that way!" Parvati said as if needing reassurance that Hermione didn't blame them for the incident. "We didn't put it there. It wasn't from us!"

Hermione stared at the parchment, all feelings of exhilaration and afterglow fading abruptly as reality came crashing back in. Cho's departure from the game and Ginny's assessment of her motives flashed through her mind once more. "I know you don't think that way," she said as reassuringly as possible, then she grabbed the parchment, turned on her heel, spun around, and headed to the showers before they could see her crumble.

She felt terrible that entire day. By the time evening came, Ron had sensed that something was wrong. He had been watching her in concern all afternoon, and clearly he had reached the end of his ability to remain quiet. He cornered her in the common room after dinner and steered her into the Gryffindor boy's dormitory. Harry was lying on his bed idly flicking through a quidditch magazine when Ron cleared his throat, beckoned him over, and sat Hermione down on his bed. Harry raised his eyebrows and regarded them both quizzically. "Out with it 'Mione. What did that blonde git do?" Ron practically growled his displeasure at seeing her so upset, and she smiled softly. His protective familiarity was reassuring, and she felt her bottom lip tremble as she pulled out the offending piece of parchment.

"It wasn't Draco. Or Theo," she admitted, and Ron frowned. "They were both perfect. It's this." She handed the parchment to Harry, and both he and Ron looked at it in horror.

"What the bloody hell?" Ron said, leaping up off the bed as if the parchment had bitten him, "Have you shown your two, I can't call Malfoy your boyfriend yet 'Mione, I'm trying. Honestly, I'm trying, but still! Have you shown this to…. them?"

She shook her head while wiping away a tear. Everything suddenly felt a bit too much for her to bear. She leaned sideways into Harry as she cried, feeling Ron stroke her back reassuringly while he stared at the note as if he could destroy it with the force of his glare alone.

She wasn't sure how long they sat like that, but the next thing she was aware of was the bed hanging being yanked open and Pansy staring at them in shocked disbelief. "Hey, Pans," Harry said as Hermione straightened up and wiped her eyes. "Wait a sec!" Harry shouted as Pansy spun on her heel and marched furiously away.

"You need to show this to Draco and Theo," Ron said as Harry caught up with Pansy, and their furious whispers suddenly abated. There was a moment of quiet, and then Pansy hurried back to the bed.

"What's up, Granger?" Pansy asked, seeing her tear streaked face and puffy eyes and jumping up onto the bed beside her.

Ron passed Pansy the note and her face contorted into a scowl as she read it. She snatched it furiously out of Ron's hand and marched out of the dormitory and into the packed common room before anyone could stop her. "Alright, Listen up!" She shouted, abruptly cutting through the idle chatter. "I have a question, and I want an answer." She glared around the room as every person in it stared at her in confusion. She held up the parchment, and there was a collective intake of breath. "Which lowlife, which absolute, fucked up, cockwombling fucktard left this on Hermione's bed hangings last night?"

Harry nudged Hermione forwards out of the boy's dorms as Pansy held the room captive. "That girl saved the whole fucking wizarding world, and this? This is the way you repay her. Whoever did this is a wanker. I want whoever did it to step forward, get on their hands and knees in front of her and grovel out an apology right now. And if Hermione's got any sense, she'll kick you in the face while you're down there. Well? Has anyone got anything to say for themselves?!"

Nobody moved a muscle, until to Hermione's absolute amazement Hannah Abbott stood up rather shakily. "I don't know who did it," Hannah said in a small voice, "so I can't help there, but I got one of those notes on my bed hangings too."

Worse than the shock of getting the actual note was Draco's reaction to the whole thing. He and Theo had been out of the common room during Pansy's tirade, and when they came back, and Hermione had shown them the note, Draco had blamed himself for the whole thing.

"Malfoy, stop being a dick." Greg had spoken quietly as Draco had stood up, quite prepared to storm away in a fit of self hatred, and to Hermione's surprise, Draco had listened to him. "Dorms." Greg had fixed him with a look that Hermione couldn't quite read, and Draco had nodded and followed the rest of them inside the Slytherin boy's bedroom.

"You need to get a grip on this, Draco," Greg said, sitting down on the nearest bed and holding out his own marked left arm, "You, me, we're just the same. I'm not running from it, and neither should you." He looked up as the door opened, and Blaise blinked in surprise, "I'm really hoping you lot aren't planning an orgy on my bed, not without me involved anyway." He grinned. "Alright, who sent the notes? Who do we need to curse?"

"That's just it. We don't know." Hermione said, shaking her head as there was another knock at the door.

Theo opened it with his wand, and this time Harry and Ron stood in the doorway. "If you're looking for somewhere to discuss this properly, I just spoke to Sirius. We're welcome at Grimmauld. Remus is good at piecing together clues and picking things up. We might get something helpful from them."

"Grimmauld Place?" Theo asked with a grin, "I've always wanted to see inside that house. It's the stuff of legends! Come on, let's go!"

It wasn't a small group that went through the floo either. Harry went first, taking a somewhat unsure Pansy with him, Ron followed with Millie, Ginny with Blaise, then Hannah and Greg, and finally, Hermione and Theo with Draco supposedly following. As they landed in the kitchen, though, Hermione realized that Draco hadn't followed, and she abruptly abandoned Theo to go back for him. When he finally set foot into the kitchen, he looked up at Sirius and gave a defeated sigh as Sirius just stared passively back.

Sirius and Remus had obviously been busy, having been warned they were coming. There were various snacks and nibbles piled haphazardly on the table, and Sirius made himself busy pouring hefty measures of Firewhisky for anyone who wanted them. Remus jumped up from his chair as Hermione greeted him. "Are you okay?" he asked, searching her face with a worried look.

"I am now, yes." She nodded as she set the offending piece of parchment down on the large farmhouse table. Hannah added her similar one and everyone in the room stared at the notes in disgust.

"Have we got any ideas who did it?" Sirius asked, still handing out glasses and rolling his eyes when Hermione asked for a measure of lemonade in hers. "Anyone else want to dilute vintage Ogden's?" he asked, muttering about sacrilege as he added half a glass of mixer to Hermione, Millie, and Hannah's glasses.

"I've absolutely no idea at all, I'm afraid," Hannah admitted, still looking upset.

Remus had picked up one of the notes and was running his wand over it, trying to pick up any clues about who the writer could be as the boys started hungrily on the snacks. "And there was nothing left on your curtains, Ginny?"

"Nope. Ginny shook her head. "But I'd have been surprised if there was. That would mean that whoever did this got into Gryffindor tower too. Remember I'm supposed to sleep up there still, aren't I?" She looked at Blaise, and he just squeezed her hand.

"Thereby insinuating that you don't currently?" Sirius asked, and Ginny grinned.

"Um, not for a while, no."

Sirius just grinned back, "I hope you're looking after this one," Sirius said to Blaise as he ruffled Ginny's hair affectionately, "She's quite special, you know. Anyway," he nodded as Blaise confirmed that Ginny was special to him as well, "it's easy enough to get into Gryffindor tower if you're determined and have enough nerve. Is there a chance that a note is there and you just haven't seen it yet?" He asked.

"No." Blaise confirmed, "we went up to check, and there was nothing on my bed either. I think the writer was selective. Draco and Greg were marked Death Eaters, Theo and I weren't, although both of us could be easily linked to the cause. I think that's why only Hermione and Hannah received the notes."

Remus nodded. "So it's someone who knows their stuff then? Or is that fact common knowledge?"

"I'd say it's fairly common," Blaise agreed, "more so about me. Theo has an interesting tattoo on his left arm that could be mistaken for a Dark Mark if you weren't looking properly. He seems to enjoy courting the controversy it causes."

"What?" Theo threw back the rest of his drink as Sirius looked away to hide his amusement, "courting controversy, me? I don't know what you mean," he retorted sarcastically.

"It wouldn't matter anyway," Blaise raised a perfectly groomed eyebrow in Theo's direction, as Pansy snorted with laughter. "You're with Hermione too, so one note would cover both you and Draco and get its point across nicely."

"I'm not sure which is the most offensive part of the whole thing, to be honest," Remus frowned, "Referring to the boys as Death Eaters or the girls as whores."

"The slur at the girls!" Pansy said indignantly as Harry nodded his agreement, "I swear quite a lot if I'm honest, but I would never use an indefensible word like that. There are some words you just don't say!"

"I'd say both slurs were meant to be equally upsetting," Greg said, speaking for the first time as he took Hannah's hand. "And very specifically targeted too. Which makes me think that the writer knows us quite well. Both slurs would upset Draco. Theo and I wouldn't care about being called Death Eaters, but both of us would simply kill whoever said that about Hermione and Hannah. I was what I was. I can't change that, and it doesn't bother me like it bothers Draco. So this is less about me and more about Hannah for us. I didn't say anything in front of other people because my record goes against me, but I'm not just standing for this. People can say what they like about me, and I probably deserve it, but they're not dragging Hannah into anything."

"Alright mate," Theo put a hand on his shoulder, "Well said. We're not just standing for it either. I'm taking it the same way you are. I couldn't give a flying fuck about the Death Eater slur, but Draco could, and I'm protective of him. I'm also incensed that someone would say this about Hermione. So I feel aggrieved on both of their behalfs. So," he looked around the room and noted both Sirius and Remus giving him and Greg approving if rather surprised smiles, "Greg, you and I both have fiery tempers. Is it someone trying to provoke the pair of us?"

Hermione glanced at Draco, who was twisting the signet ring on his finger, almost compulsively and not looking at anyone. "You can add me into that too because whoever they are, they insulted my girlfriend. And difficulties in this area aside, I'm not just taking that lying down."

"Have you thought that it might be someone who wants you for themselves and therefore wants to scare the girls away, or that it's just simply someone with a grudge against the girls?" Harry asked.

"For what reason would someone want us?" Draco asked in confusion, but Blaise smirked.

"Oh, come on, Malfoy. You know you're highly eligible, particularly to someone interested in all the pureblood nonsense. Theo and Greg are coveted too in that regard. If whoever wrote this wants one of you and supports the cause, then they stand much more of a chance with you if they've chased the girls off, don't they? Neither Hermione nor Hannah are shining beacons for the dark arts. I hope you don't mind me saying so, girls?"

"Actually," Remus leaned back in his chair as Hermione frowned, "all of your theories make a lot of sense. Have you got anyone in mind as a suspect?"

"Unfortunately not," Blaise admitted, holding his glass out for a refill as Sirius went round with the bottle, topping up glasses again. "Thanks."

"I think it's more likely to be someone who feels like Cho does. Oh, I don't think it's her for one moment. She's far too meek to do something like this, but maybe someone who shares her sentiments." Hermione said.

"Which would be what, half the bloody school?" Draco asked, still looking rather skeptical. "Whichever way we look at things, we haven't ruled anyone out. It's either someone who likes us or someone who doesn't."

Sirius laughed. "Good being notorious, isn't it? Welcome to my world!" he lifted his glass in a toast, and Theo and Greg clinked their glasses with him.

"Oh, come on, grumpy guts, cheer up." Theo nudged Draco, and he rolled his eyes. "And what about you two?" Theo asked, turning to Hermione and Hannah. "How do you feel about it all?"

"Annoyed!" Hermione snapped. "Initially, I was shocked, and hurt, really hurt, both on my own behalf and yours, but now I'm just pissed off. How bloody dare they do this to all of us?"

"Exactly!" Hannah agreed. "I feel the same."

"Well, in that case, I think the thing to do is to carry on as normal, girls. If you get any more notes, then we may change tacks. Just be aware and alert and see what happens next. If anything does." Remus said. "I think between us we can probably pull a few decent hexes together should the need arise." His eyes twinkled as he looked around the room, "don't you?"

There was a chorus of approval and glass clinking, and even Draco smiled as talk turned back to other, more pleasant things and the night they had all shared underneath the stars.