Author's Notes

Hi…. and happy Saturday everybody!

Here we are then, I got the update out on time this week! Thank you again for the Kudos and comments (ao3) and the follows and reviews (fanfiction,) every single one of them make me smile and write faster!

Thank you champagneandliterature for your wonderful alpha/beta work and skills, I appreciate all the help you give me.

Until next week then….. I hope you all enjoy the update!

Cupid's Arrows

Chapter 11…. How Dare They?!

Sunday evening's game meeting was much shorter than the previous ones had been. Because they were two weeks into the game and already three couples had been disqualified or had left through choice, nobody was voted out by the game's magic, and the only task was for Theo to announce the theme for the coming week; Skills Exchange.

The idea behind this was that each member of a pair would teach their counterpart something new, thereby increasing everyone's skill base and hopefully bonding each pair closer together. "What are you going to get Draco and Theo to teach you?" Ginny asked Hermione once the meeting had finished. Both girls had retreated to the Gryffindor boys dormitory for some time alone with Harry and Ron. Although the last two weeks had been lovely, Hermione had found that she was missing the tight-knit bond the four of them had formed during the time between the war ending and their return to Hogwarts, and a private catch up was long overdue.

Hermione and Ginny were lying on Ron's bed, with Ron and Harry sitting opposite on Harry's. It felt calm and comforting to talk like this, and it reminded Hermione of summer evenings at the Burrow when they had all retreated to Ginny's room to chat, closeted away privately from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the house.

Hermione blushed as some rather X-rated thoughts ran through her mind. "Wait a moment," Harry held up a hand, "I'm still traumatized by what I overheard Theo say to you earlier 'Mione, Do I want to hear your ideas if the mere thought of them has you blushing like this?"

Hermione fixed him with a teasing grin, "well, since I happen to know exactly what you and Pansy got up to in the showers directly after you both eavesdropped on us, I don't think you're in any position to hold the moral high ground here, Harry Potter."

Harry had the good grace to flush, and Ron stared at Hermione slightly agog. "What the hell did you do in the showers, mate?" he asked, turning his blue eyes to stare at Harry instead.

Ginny's grin was huge as Hermione giggled, "Draco heard you, did you know?"

"Were you and Pansy shagging in the showers?" Ginny laughed at Harry's mortification, "Damn, why didn't Blaise and I think of that?! And anyway, Harry, you've changed." She softened her eyes and regarded him thoughtfully. "You were never like this with me. No, wait a sec," she waved a hand to hush him gently and watched him intently, "I'm not jealous or being weird here, I promise, I'm just concerned about you. Pansy seems to be bringing out a side of you that we never knew existed, and I just want to know that you're okay with that."

Hermione blinked at Ginny's directness but didn't protest her sentiments. She had been wondering the same thing herself. Harry stared back at Ginny for a moment as the heat left his cheeks, and he smiled. "You're right, Gin. I think it's similar to what Remus said yesterday. We never had the chance to be young and carefree, did we? I guess that now the responsibility of saving the world has gone, this side of my personality can come out more. And yes, Pansy does dare me to do things that I wouldn't normally do, but I quite like it." He paused to grin wickedly, "we knew full well Draco was next to us in the showers, that's why we did it. He's Pansy's ex, and he's well, he's Malfoy, isn't he? We both wanted to wind him up a bit. What did he say?"

"Not a lot in all honesty," it was Hermione's turn to flush at her memories now, "Theo didn't give him a chance before he, well... let's just say we took Draco's mind off of it quite well."

Despite his bravado, Harry pulled a disgruntled face as he nodded, "anyway, Gin, to be fair, you seem to be doing some fairly wild things with Blaise, so the same question goes to you. Are you happy with him?"

Ginny's smile said it all as she nodded happily. "What about you, Ron? Are you happy with Millicent?"

"Yes. I am," he said with an equally satisfied smile. He turned to Hermione without elaborating any further either, "so you and they, you've? I mean, with both of them?"

Hermione nodded. "Don't you talk about this during your boys' nights?" she asked, laughing as Ron's obvious discomfort warred with his curiosity, and he ended up pulling a rather confused face.

"To a degree." Harry said, "but we stray onto sport and other things more often than not, and no one goes into too much detail about the finer points of their relationships."

"Oh, we go into great detail on our side of the room," Ginny laughed, "Very descriptive detail. Don't we Pans?" she looked up as Pansy opened the door and stared at them all with a frown. "What's up?"

"Every time I see my boyfriend near one of you lot, you're all lolling about in bed together," she teased, not looking at all angry as she crossed the room and ruffled Harry's already wild hair. "I know he's irresistible and all, but still, he's mine. Can I join you?" Harry just laughed and took her hand, nodding as he pulled her down to sit between him and Ron. "It's skills exchange week then Potter, what are you going to teach me?"

Harry turned and nuzzled his face into her sleek black hair. "What do you want to learn?"

"How to cast one of those shiny silver Patronus things that you're so good at." She grinned as Harry agreed. "What do you want me to teach you?"

Ron raised an eyebrow as Ginny mimed throwing up over the side of the bed, and Hermione laughed. "How to dance properly," Harry said after a moment's thought. "You've invited me to your parent's Yule Ball, and I don't want to make a fool of myself in a room full of purebloods who can all dance a proper waltz."

Pansy looked at him happily as Ginny and Hermione exchanged looks of disbelief with Ron. "You're on, handsome," Pansy said, leaning forwards to seal the deal with a kiss.

"What's Blaise good at?" Ginny asked, clearly attempting to bring the conversation back onto more familiar ground. It seemed that she, Hermione, and Ron were all struggling to process the fact that Harry Potter had just willingly asked for classical dance lessons from Pansy Parkinson. "Apart from the obvious, I mean," Ginny added, still looking disconcerted by Harry's request.

"Art," Pansy said after a moment more of staring soppily at Harry. "Ask him to teach you how to draw. You won't draw anything of note, but you'll be a quivering mess in moments. It's the way he describes things and the way he sits behind you and guides your arm." She cleared her throat as Harry pulled a face, "just," Pansy shivered, grinning back at Harry, "yeah. Just ask him."

Ginny nodded. "Gotcha. What about you, Hermione? Ron?"

"Karate." Pansy said, giggling at Ron's confusion, "Millie. She's a black belt, which is apparently pretty good. It's a muggle self-defense sport." Pansy clarified, and Ron nodded. "As for you, Granger, oh Gods! The possibilities there!"

Hermione blushed, "I was going to ask Draco to teach me how to fly," she said, trying to ignore Harry's stunned look of outrage.

"I've been offering to teach you to fly for years!" he complained, and Pansy put a consoling hand on his knee.

"I know you have, and I'm really sorry, Harry. It's nothing against you. It's just that after flying to the domes and not feeling like my life was in peril, that I was about to fall off of a dragon or be chased by murderous Death Eaters, flying actually turned out to be quite enjoyable. I didn't know I liked it."

"Get Theo to take you into the forest and show you the unicorn then," Pansy said. "He knows how to find them safely, and they are so beautiful."

"What can I teach Millie?" Ron wondered aloud, making Pansy stare up at him appraisingly as she stretched out and lay down on her stomach between them both.

"How a man should treat a woman." She said thoughtfully and then looked down at the bed covers. "Alright, Weasley, I know you and I have a past, but I have to admit you're a decent bloke. Millie, well, she's never had a father figure in her life, and her mother was a bit unstable too, so she practically brought herself up. You can show her what family is. What it means to have someone that she can rely on." She stared at Ron until he dropped his eyes, and she sighed. "And I think that's enough sappiness from me, so before I make an even bigger fool of myself and admit that I might have been wrong about you in the past-"

"I'm sorry too, actually, Pansy." Ron said, cutting her off, "I'm sorry for the nasty things I've said about you-" he broke off as a knock sounded at the door, "come in?"

The door opened to reveal Hannah, standing with tears streaming down her cheeks and Greg holding her hand while looking murderous. "Hannah!" Hermione, Ginny, and Pansy all jumped up and Hannah stumbled forwards into Ginny's arms. "What's wrong?"

"Have you been in your dorm tonight, Granger?" Greg asked as Hannah tried and failed to speak. The bottom dropped out of Hermione's stomach as she saw the folded up piece of parchment clutched tightly in Hannah's hand.

Slowly she shook her head. "No. We came straight in here for a chat after the meeting."

Greg nodded. "Someone needs to find Draco and Theo then. I'm not being held responsible if they find out about this from someone else and Draco hurls himself off the Astronomy Tower or Theo murders someone." Greg prised the crumpled parchment out of Hannah's hand and passed it to Harry. "These aren't pretty, and if you've got one along the same lines, Hermione, then yours will be worse."

Hermione frowned in confusion as Harry opened the folded parchment note. She gasped, It appeared to be a direct copy of the transcription of Greg's Death Eater trial, a list of the crimes that he had been found guilty of, and the terms the Wizengamot had laid out for his probation. There was also a photograph showing him holding hands with Hannah outside what looked like the herbology greenhouses. The words "Death Eater's Whore" were once again splashed across the moving picture in untidy red writing.

"To make matters worse, I found this on my bed hangings, and these on Draco and Theo's," Greg said, holding out three more pieces of parchment. They showed both Hermione and Hannah's family trees, with the muggle side of Hannah's family highlighted and Hermione's whole family underlined in red. The caption on Hannah's read "Muggles and half-bloods," and Hermione's simply said "Muggles." "As if any of us bloody well care about this sort of thing now?!" Greg said crossly.

"Where are Draco and Theo?" Hermione asked as dread pooled low in her belly. She remembered the hatred that had been aimed at both of the boys at breakfast when they had stopped by the Gryffindor table, and her heart constricted with anger and grief that there was still this amount of discrimination in Hogwarts.

"I was hoping they were in here with you," Greg said, as Hannah wiped her eyes and pulled herself together with a sniff.

"We haven't seen them since the meeting." Hermione said, her stomach still churning in horror."

"Right. Let's go and check your bed for notes, Hermione, and then let's find them." Pansy said, and they all hurried from the room.

Hermione sighed deeply as she approached her bed. As predicted, pinned to the hangings were two sets of trial notes and two lists of criminal convictions, complete with their corresponding sentences. There was also a picture of Hermione, Draco, and Theo holding hands in what looked to be Hogsmede, and the now familiar words "Death Eater's Whore" scrawled underneath the carefree image. Hermione sighed, torn between wanting to incinerate the parchment without even looking at it and reading it thoroughly to learn the specifics of the boy's criminal records.

"'Mione," Ginny put a hand on her arm, and Hermione realized she was shaking. She bit back furious tears as Ron took the parchments from her and raised his eyebrows. "Don't read it," Ginny advised Hermione gently, although she was surreptitiously glancing over Ron's arm at the written notes herself.

"We need to find them," Pansy said. "I can imagine what's on there and-" she rubbed her forehead with her hand, "Harry, we need to find them now."

"Let's go then. Wait here, girls." Ginny tugged the parchment out of Ron's hand as he turned to follow Harry and Pansy out of the dorms.

"Let's wait in our dorms instead." Greg said, "I can guarantee it's not any of us behind these notes. There's only four of us in there, three of us have been targeted, and I'd stake my life on these not coming from Blaise." Hermione nodded and blindly followed as he led her, Hannah, and Ginny into the Slytherin boy's dorms.

They all sat down on Greg's bed, and Hermione unfolded the parchment with a sigh. "What do your notes say?" Hannah asked, and Hermione passed Theo's transcripts to Ginny and looked at Draco's one herself.

After a moment, Hermione closed her eyes and let out a long sigh as she wiped away another tear. "It gives the date of his trial, the verdict, which was guilty of all charges, his sentence which was mostly suspended due to his age and mitigating circumstances, namely being in fear of his life and certain crimes being committed under duress. Then there's the actual list of crimes, and," she covered her mouth with her hand and gasped, "Oh Gods!" she gave a choked sob, "It's huge!"

"Don't read anymore, 'Mione," Ginny advised, squeezing Hermione's shoulder sympathetically as she continued to read Theo's transcripts.

"I think it's impossible not to." Hannah said quietly, "I had to read Greg's."

Hermione nodded, feeling thoroughly sick as she glared at the long list of unforgivables that Draco had been found guilty of performing. She groaned as the dormitory door opened, and Blaise stepped inside. "At least there are no actual murders on here, I suppose," she said, trying in vain to make light of the horrendous situation. "Two attempted ones, though, both missed aims apparently, and that doesn't even count Dumbledore."

"I saw Harry, Pansy, and Ron in the common room," Blaise said by way of explanation as he kissed Ginny hello. "I thought you spoke at Draco's trial?" His face was unreadable as he took the note from Greg's hand to read, "I thought you knew what he was accused of?"

"I spoke about the time we were captured and taken to Malfoy Manor, and I vouched for him not identifying me to Bellatrix and Lucius when he could easily have done so. Also, I spoke about how he was fighting for our side during the Battle of Hogwarts. I've never seen a list of his crimes and accusations before," Hermione admitted.

Blaise nodded. "May I?" Hermione handed him the parchment, and the room fell silent as he read without a flicker of emotion. "Okay. Do you want my thoughts on this?"

"Yes, please," Hermione said in a small voice.

Blaise took a deep breath, "Imperious curse, Madam Rosmerta. Cursing Katie Bell. Poisoning Slughorn's mead. Letting Death Eaters into Hogwarts. Attempted murder of Albus Dumbledore. You know all about these crimes already. His and Narcissa's lives were in danger, and this whole string of crimes was a desperate attempt at self preservation and the protection of his Mother. He was sixteen years old."

Blaise paused and looked up as everyone nodded. "Then we have accusations of the use of the Imperious curse five more times, all with a guilty verdict. You have to ask yourself why he did that. Draco's not one for controlling other people, Hermione. Personally, I'd say it was pure desperation again. Crucio, multiple counts, I don't know the specifics of these exact spells either, but I'm telling you now, Draco hates hurting other people, and Crucio would not be his spell of choice. Greg, can you shed any light on these?"

Hermione turned, and Greg nodded. "When we were in D.E. meetings, the Dark Lord liked to see how we were doing with our training. He'd get us to Crucio each other to see how magically strong we were and how vicious we were willing to be. If we didn't comply, he'd use the same spell on us himself or get someone like Bellatrix or Dolohov to do it, and believe me, that was to be avoided at all costs. Myself, Draco, and Theo all learned pretty quickly that taking each other's Crucios was a hell of a lot better than the alternative. A lot of these were aimed at Theo and me, look, mine's the same."

Greg took his own list of crimes back from Blaise and held it out for Hermione to read. It was very similar to Draco's, minus the sixth year crimes, and Hermione nodded, still feeling distinctly sick. She took Theo's transcript from Ginny and read his similar detailed accusations. "Why wasn't Theo marked?" she asked, not understanding why their crimes were so similar, and yet Theo had never received the Dark Mark.

"He was going to be," Blaise said, "but his father hid him and lied to the Dark Lord to protect him. He said that Theo had dragon pox and was near to death. If he recovered," Blaise made air quotes with his fingers, "he was due to be marked straight away."

"Theo had exactly the same training that we did," Greg agreed, "but the one decent thing his father did was getting him out of the marking ceremony."

Hermione's eyes finished scanning down the three lists of crimes and glanced back up at Greg. "Did any of you," her eyes flickered to Blaise and back to Greg again, "I'm sorry to ask this, but I need to know, did any of you kill anyone? Ever?"

Greg held her eyes as he shook his head. "No. Not unless it was a side effect of a different curse used during the Battle of Hogwarts. None of us have ever used the Killing Curse effectively if that's what you mean to ask." Hermione nodded and took a deep breath before reaching out to take Hannah's hand.

"Then these don't matter. Do they?" she swallowed hard and bit her trembling lip. "Nothing's changed. You're still the same people you were before someone pinned a vindictive bit of parchment to our curtains, aren't you? You've all stood trial, and either served time, or are still serving probation for these crimes," she wiggled the parchment in the air, "therefore debts to society have been, or still are being paid-"

She looked up with a jolt as the dormitory door banged open, and Theo stood silhouetted against the brighter light that flooded in from the common room. He stared at Hermione nervously, as if unsure of his reception, and she gazed back at him, seeing fear and doubt written all over his usually confident face. "What does it say?" his voice was quiet and unusually hesitant.

"It doesn't matter what it says," Hermione said fiercely as Pansy shoved them all further forwards into the room and closed the door. "It doesn't matter what any of them say. There's nothing listed here that I didn't already suspect, and if anything, confronting it all like this just gets everything out in the open sooner. There are no secrets or unspoken truths between us anymore, I know the gritty details now, and in some ways, I'm glad that I do."

"Same." Hannah said bracingly, "if whoever did this was hoping to split us up, then they've failed. They've actually just brought us closer together.

"Look at your face Theo," Hermione said gently as she stood up and walked towards him, "you're terrified. Do you think I'm going to reject you now that I've seen a list of your crimes?"

"Well, it wouldn't be an unreasonable thing if you did now, would it? There'll be some really nasty crimes listed there. A lot of unforgivable curses, I'm guessing, too."

Hermione nodded. "There are, yes. But I think I've seen enough of you both over the last few weeks to know who you are. So if you're not about to be put off by my less than pure wizarding genetics, I think I can cope with both of your rap sheets."

Theo visibly sagged in relief as Hermione stepped closer. He closed the gap between them to wrap his arms around her and bury kisses into her hair. "Can I see your family tree?" Blaise held the parchment out to him, and Theo took it with a brave attempt at a smirk, "all I see on here is people, Hermione. People who've produced the girl with the biggest heart I've ever known. Do me a favor please?" she nodded as he pulled back and smiled down at her, "Go hug Draco, he's fairing worse than me right now, he's a nervous wreck."

Hermione sniffed as she nodded and looked up to see Draco holding onto Pansy as if she was a lifeline. He froze as Hermione smiled gently at him. "Come here?" she invited, and he moved closer to her, still looking wary. "I spoke at your trial. You can't possibly think this would put me off?"

He raised his eyebrows until they disappeared into his hair. "We all know you spoke about certain events at my trial. Not the details of the crimes. There's attempted murder on there Hermione, three counts."

"Two. They didn't count Dumbledore. Why did your aim miss on the other two killing curses you tried to cast?"

Draco sighed and closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose and looking distraught, "because I couldn't do it. He was holding his wand to my Mother's heart both times, so I had to try. I uttered the curse, but the thing with an Avada is it takes true intention to cast. You need to want to see the other person die cold heartedly. I flicked my wand away at the last possible moment, not that anything came out of it anyway because I just don't have that intention inside of me. The spells that hit those particular prisoners came from other people, and the Dark Lord missed our little deception. Someone else shot the lethal curses for me, to protect me because he knew I couldn't do it." Draco strode away from her and paced the room by the window as Hermione covered her mouth with her hand in horror.

"Who?" she asked, her voice trembling with shock, "who did that for you?"

Draco spun with a bitter laugh, "does it matter?"

"I suppose not-" she faltered, and Theo stepped up to Draco, stilling him and turning him around to face Hermione.

"I think…. In this situation, it actually does matter," he said.

Draco nodded grimly. "Fine. It was Theo's Father. But it may as well have been me. I'm just as guilty."

If the Wizengamot had thought you guilty, they would have put you in prison." Hermione said, her heart breaking for both of them.

"They did find me guilty. I was in Azkaban for nine months, Greg served six and Theo four."

"And when the time was up, they let you out, right?" she asked, and he nodded. "How long did your fathers get?"

"Three years," Draco said.

"Five," Theo added

"Three," Greg said.

Hermione sighed as her brain spun wildly. "You couldn't help how you were born, any more than I can help my parents being muggles. It's the same thing as Harry being branded as the Chosen One. He didn't choose that himself either. Other people have decided all of our fates for us, and I think I've had enough of their interfering and meddling. Now quit hiding in the corridor Draco, I'm not changing my mind about wanting to be with you. Or you, Theo. Whoever wrote these notes has gone too far this time. This goes beyond glares at the breakfast table. They've pissed me off, and I'm going to find out who's behind it all and bring them to justice. Whos with me?"

"Me!" Pansy said, and Ginny agreed. Harry nodded, as did Ron, Blaise, Theo, Greg, and finally, everyone in the room turned to stare at Draco.

"Alright!" he finally conceded with an incredulous laugh, "Merlin Granger, you're something when you're riled up, you know." He finally relaxed as Hermione hugged him fiercely. "And I'm pretty glad you're on my side in all of this and not against me this time."

"That's better," she said, nodding in satisfaction. "I've always found that I work best as part of a trio actually, don't you agree, Ron? Harry?"

"I'd totally agree. And I'd also say that I'm bloody proud of you right now 'Mione," Ron said, and Harry nodded his agreement.

"I couldn't have said that better myself." Harry said, turning to face Theo and Draco, "good luck with her, you two. It looks like we're all in for a hell of a bumpy ride until this note writer is caught."