Green and Silver Tie
Thank you for your patience with my update:) I had a nasty run in with my ex, so I took a little break.
Anyway, I hope you are all very fine. Let's make it to 160 reviews!
Chapter Twenty-Six
The morning after, at breakfast, everyone scooted away from Hermione at the Gryffindor table. Perhaps it was because of the way Harry had ranted on and on about her the evening before, or the way he was shooting them unsettling glances if they attempted to be friendly to her.
Bitterly, Hermione saw some sense in all of the things Ron had said to her about Harry's true persona.
She reached for the pumpkin juice, and the first-year students on the other side of the table scooted back, as though she was contagious. Hermione gritted her teeth but remained impassive.
Though in contrast to this morning, last night had been wonderful.
They had ignored Snape's meeting (which she was nervous about now), then proceeded to read under the wand light under the sparkling stars. The breeze had been freezing, so she had been lying with his arm under her head and her cold fingers entwined with his.
Her gut tingled.
Hermione stared blankly at the baked beans on her plate. Absentmindedly, she used her fork to spread them out, before moving them around her plate.
She sipped her pumpkin juice and looked over at the Slytherin table, where she could spot Ron's wildly orange hair. Her heart jumped when he looked up at her in the middle of his conversation and smiled at her.
Her eyes slid down the table, resting on Malfoy.
He sat beside Crabbe and Nott, his face pale and ashen grey. His jaw was clenched and his shoulders tense. He looked odd sitting there so rigidly beside his relaxed housemates.
Ron hadn't noticed his best friend's strange look. It seemed that he was ranting animatedly with one of the members of the Slytherin Quidditch team.
She was in the middle of moving her beans around again with her fork when she suddenly heard the scraping noise of metal on wood. The breakfast had disappeared, and it was time to begin the first class of the morning.
The other students filtered out through the door. She waited in the back, hoping to catch Ron on his way out. The teachers looked at them suspiciously but left anyway.
Malfoy grabbed Ron's arm and walked to her, his shoulders squared. Then, they were all alone.
Miserably, she thought, 'We're going to be late for class'.
Willing the thought away, she focused on Malfoy's sickly-looking face. He had dark bags under his eyes, bloodshot as they were.
"What is going on with you?" Hermione blurted out.
His mouth was drawn in a thin line.
"Granger, Ron," he said strictly, then grimaced, "I have finished fixing the Vanishing Cabinet. Before you say anything, I'm sorry,"
He furrowed his brows, and for a moment, she thought she saw his eyes water up. Malfoy shook his head, then continued with blank eyes.
"I tried to delay it as long as I could. I'm sorry I couldn't last longer. The Death Eaters are raiding tonight. At sunset," he said, "You have to leave Hogwarts,"
"You cannot mean this!" Hermione exclaimed, "We will go and tell Professor Dumbledore. We will destroy the Cabinet,"
"And destroy my family with it?" Malfoy said, his jaw clenched.
It hit her in the chest hard. She could feel the coldness spread into her shoulders, her back.
"What is your plan?" Ron asked.
For a moment, everyone was silent.
"I don't have one,"
They looked at Malfoy, then at each other questioningly.
"We are not going to leave you, Draco," his first name felt far too personal on her lips.
"Thank you, Hermione, but you have no choice. There is nothing I or you can do. I don't want to lose my mother," he said, "If you tell Dumbledore, then you will be her murderer. I trust you to keep this a secret,"
Ron nodded solemnly.
"What about the other students? What about the teachers? There must be something we can do, surely. Snape already knows of your mission," Hermione argued.
"But Snape has not done anything, has he?" Malfoy said acidly, "All he has done is delayed the inevitable. And as for the students and the teachers – Hogwarts has safety routines. Most of them will be fine, locked up in the Great Hall where nothing can touch them,"
Hermione didn't believe a word of it.
"Please, do me a favour and leave. I don't want your lives in danger. If anything happens, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself. I hope to see you both again after the battle," Malfoy said, "Now swear it,"
"I can't," Hermione said.
"I swear," Ron said and took Malfoy's arm, "Be safe,"
Then Malfoy said, "Good,", and saluted them grimly, before he walked out.
"We have to warn the others," Hermione said.
"We can't," Ron said, "I swore,"
"I didn't," she swallowed, her voice wavering, "And I will go straight to Dumbledore with it. If his mother dies, sadly, it's a trade I'd be willing to take to save the school,"
He looked at her sombrely.
"You can hate me for it," she said.
As if on cue, the doors of the Great Hall split open, the sound banging through the dining hall. She heard screams, and shouts, and the sound of running. Rock crumbled somewhere outside, and Hermione was on full alert, her heart pumping hard and fast in her ears.
"They didn't," Malfoy screamed as he stumbled in, "They didn't wait!"
"What!"
"They deceived me," Malfoy panted, "They are here! The Death Eaters are here!"
Ron cursed.
He grabbed her arm roughly and did the same with Malfoy.
"We are leaving," Ron said, the line of his jaw set, and he was pulling with a strength Hermione didn't know he possessed, "There is a Portkey in Snape's office – that's where we're going,"
So that's what the meeting with Snape was supposed to be about, Hermione realized.
Malfoy protested, then tore his arm away, "I can't. I have to stay and fight, or they will kill Mother. I will cover for you, but you have to run,"
Ron's eyes blurred over.
Then they ran.
They ran through the doors of the Great Hall, and then through the fleeing students. She saw Pansy Parkinson, the girl she had laughed at for obsessively caring about her looks. She saw Dean Thomas, his blank stare locked on his unresponsive friend. She saw Harry, for just a fleeting moment, his eyes set in a determined stare.
She saw, but she did not really want to see. Because on the floor, where her feet became trapped and she tripped over so much, she knew the rest of the students to be.
Finally, as if through a blur of coloured curses and bodies, they arrived at Professor Snape's old office.
"Good luck, Draco," Ron said, his voice broken.
Malfoy's face split and crumbled, his eyes glittering with unshed tears.
"See you after," he said to Ron.
"See you after," he agreed, but there was a shatter in his voice that told her he didn't quite believe it.
Then Malfoy nodded and slammed the door shut. They locked the door of Snape's office, hoping it would slow the Death Eaters from outside just a little bit.
They went through his office, pulling out drawers and knocking over bottles with old potions.
Suddenly, a drawling voice sounded beside them. Although out of breath, it kept its coolness.
"It's in the box by the Poison Begonia," Snape's voice said. She turned around to find, not the man, but his glowing Patronus in the shape of a large doe.
She looked for the Begonia plant, it's fruits red and yellow and ready to burst with ripeness.
Hermione turned around to thank Snape's Patronus, but found it gone. Whisked away in the wind as if it were never there.
Suddenly, she heard shouting from the hallway. They, no matter good or evil, were drawing closer.
"Found it!" Hermione shouted to Ron, and he came scrambling over to her.
Inside the box was an old, wrinkled shoe.
"Are you ready?" he asked.
"Just a moment," she said, then fished out her wand.
The noise was coming closer. Someone rattled the door.
Ron shook her shoulders, "We have to go!"
She muttered to herself, drew her wand in a few swings, which produced twinkling light from the end of it. The light kept streaming out until it filled up the shape of an otter. Her own Patronus.
"Tell him that it was Malfoy who repaired the Vanishing Cabinet that let them in. I am safe, and so is Ron, that's all I know," Hermione whispered to it, "Tell him that I'm sorry I didn't stop it earlier."
Something metal broke through the door. The wood splintered in a loud creak. She spotted wild eyes on the other side, and a maniac grin. A shout, then more rattling of the door.
She ushered the glowing animal – the extension of herself – "Now run to Hagrid. Be sure he's safe,"
The door broke off its hinges and fell deafeningly to the floor.
She looked at Ron, whose eyes widened. The man was coming at her from the side.
Then, they touched the Portkey, and she felt the familiar surge in her gut.
Hermione and Ron were knocked hard into the ground. Initially, pain bloomed from where she'd hit the floor, her arms and legs tangled with Ron's. She shook, bubbles growing in her chest.
She laughed and Ron smiled at her.
They had made it.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Feel free to leave a review on what you think about my writing so far. It really does warm a heart;)