Harry Potter And
The Curse Of The Forbidden.
Part IV
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"No nO NO! Ron this is all wrong! Girthed was not killed by Ethrel! His own son Breetharn murdered him when he found out his brother, Darlerk was inheriting the throne! Think of Macbeth, that should help." Hermione sighed, furiously scribbling down notes on a piece of parchment.
"Mac-who?" Ron stuttered, looking utterly confused.
"Macbeth! William Shakespeare made a play out of it!" Hermione looked thunder struck.
"Who the heck is William Shake-a-spear" Ron asked.
"Take a leaf out of your brother's book, take Muggle Studies!" Hermione Cried, throwing him the torn piece of parchment.
"What? And spend the rest of my life loosing sleep over an ink blotch on a cauldron bottom report? No thanks!" Ron said, biting into a large amount of his sandwich.
Hermione sighed. " I don't know why I even bother!" She grabbed her books, and stormed into the Prefect's room at the end of the Tower.
"What's gotten into her?" Ron asked, his mouth full. Harry looked surprised.
"Ron, you're forgetting something…exams are ONLY 7 months away!" Harry said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Oh, right. Chess?"
"No thanks, I need to go to the library. See you later." Harry said, and crawled out of the common room, leaving Ron alone with Anya, who was sitting by the fire, reading a book.
Ron sighed, and walked towards the armchair opposite her.
"Hi. I don't believe we've met. I'm Ron Weasley. He put out his hand for her to shake. Anya looked up startled. She bit her lip, almost like she was about to cry.
"M-m-my na-name I (gulp) is An-Anya Se-Se-Se-(gulp) Searu." She stuttered and shook his hand very quickly with her fingers, then went back to reading her book, positively shrinking into her chair. Ron looked slightly put aback, then decided to try a different approach.
"What book are you reading?"
She glanced at him, flashed him the cover (The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts: You-Know-Who) and pressed the book to her face. By then Ron was starting to wonder whether or not the Sorting hat had make one huge mistake.
"Is it any good?"
She nodded, the book not leaving her face. Ron sighed.
" My friend, Hermione, has read that, you should ask her if you want to know anything about it.
"Oh…Ok…I-I wi-wi-wi-will." She murmured, barely audible to Ron, who sighed, again.
"Do you want me to shut up and leave?"
Anya looked shocked.
"No! I didn't say that!"
Ron laughed.
"You didn't say anything for that matter!"
Anya looked put aback, then smirked at his joke. Ron only saw her smile for a brief moment, but it was enough for him to decide that he had to make her smile a lot more. She looked prettier and a lot more relaxed than when she wasn't as stressed as a lamb that knows it's just about to be sent to the slaughterhouse.
" Fair enough." She relaxed visibly. "Have you read this book?"
"Nope, can't be bothered."
Anya smirked again
"You should. It's really interesting.
"Oh not you too! Hermione's bad enough!" Ron cried. Then saw that he'd made a huge mistake as Anya looked like he'd just hit her on the head with a sledgehammer.
" I'm sorry." He muttered, "It was a joke, but I…"
"It's Ok." She got up. "I'm going to bed now. I'll see you around. Bye" And rushed off to her dorm.
Ron shook his head and walked to his dorm. There was no doubt in his mind now that the Sorting Hat had made one HUGE mistake…for the first time in centuries perhaps.
Hermione, on the other hand, couldn't care less if the Sorting Hat has misplaced Anya. In fact, at the same time as Ron was angrily scrounging his brain for a different horrific type of death for him to die of to appease Professor Trelawney, Hermione was angrily tearing apart her room, searching for her Potions exercise book. Finally, she let out a long angry wail, and stormed out of her room, already having decided that Harry had nicked it to copy her homework. When she found Harry, he was running his fingers along the spines of the books in the Transfiguration section in the library.
"HARRY! WHERE ON EARTH HAVE YOU PUT MY POTIONS EXERCISE BOOK?" She shrieked.
Harry jumped out of his skin.
"Hermione!" He hissed, "This is a library! Not an echo hall! Madame Pince is giving you the evil eye!"
Hermione glared at him, turned around, gave Madame Pince her sweetest smile possible, and turned around again so fast she flicked Harry in the face with her hair.
"Where did you put it?" She hissed.
"Put what?"
"My potions exercise book you twit!"
"I don't have it!
"Don't lie to me Harry!" she hit him on the arm.
" Oh dear, Potty! Is Granger beating you up? You can defeat the Dark Lord but you can't stand up to a girl…. a mudblood for that matter!"
Ginny Weasley, who was sitting at a table nearby, looked scandalised. But Hermione ignored him, though she had to grab Harry's robes to stop him from tearing Malfoy apart.
"You stay out of this Malfoy. You have your own business to worry about don't you. I heard your Dad got caught with 15 bottles of Dark Arts poison recently. Surely that'll be enough to get him kicked out of the Ministry. Oh wait, sorry, he can't! He's already been kicked out!"
Draco sneered.
"That's none of your business Mudblood."
"Oh yes it is, Malfoy. Your Dad was caught poisoning my Uncle Freddie. Thanks to your kind, Uncle Freddie is now sleeping in his grave. It's more my business than you think."
"Hermione, let's go." Harry said.
"Stay out of this Harry! Malfoy and I have unfinished business to take care of. Isn't that right Draco?" Hermione hissed. Harry took a step back. He'd never seen Hermione this angry. Her entire body was trembling, and her hair was getting severely tousled.
"Indeed it is," Malfoy shot daggers at Hermione. "I may make a 'nice ferret' as you put it, but you would make a fantastic ant. You have no idea how much pleasure I'd take in crushing you." He spat. Harry grabbed Hermione's arm. Something told him that unless they got out of the library fast, there wouldn't be much left of both of them apart from a pile of ash.
"Get off of me Harry!" Hermione shrieked,
attracting several snickers from a table of
Hufflepuffs, and angry glare from Madame Pince and an unwelcome visit from
Professor Snape.
"What's going on here?" He demanded
"Well, Professor Snape, sir, Mr Potter was harassing Ms Granger here, so I came to tell him to stop, since, as we all know, flirting with a member of the opposite sex in a library is unheard of. I'm sure the rule book would agree with me. But Mr Potter here found it in himself to tear up the rule book. Surely a crime such as this should not go unpunished."
"That's not true! Professor Snape, Harry and myself were simply looking for a book for our Transfiguration homework, when Mr Malfoy here decided to interrupt our research."
"Potter, studying? You must be joking!" Snape sneered. "Somehow Mr Malloy's version of your encounter seems more probable. Mr Potter, Ms Granger, I will tell Miss Pomfrey that you will be cleaning the bed pans for the next week or so. Don't bother arguing Potter," He said as Harry's jaw dropped so low it could have cleaned the floor. "It's your own fault Miss Granger and yourself decided to carry out your romantic expedition here, instead of in your common room." He turned on his heel and walked out of the library, a satisfied grin resting on his face.
If Hermione had been angry before, it was nothing to what she was now. She pointed one, severely trembling finger at Malfoy and whispered, in a voice that was much unlike her own.
"I swear Malfoy, one day, you will pay for what you tried did to Uncle Freddie."
"Oh my! I am very scared!" Draco rolled his eyes and laughed, then strutted out of the library.
Harry turned to look at Hermione, and was amazed to see the tears cascading down her face. He reached out to hold her hand and whispered.
"Come on Hermione, let's go back to the Common Room."
She nodded and let herself be directed out of the Library, her robes getting drenched by her tears.
"I swear," she whispered " One day I'll kill him. I swear…I swear."
Harry shook his head and took her in his arms, her head buried in his chest.
"Shhhhhhh…don't let Malfoy get you so upset like this."
"I swear…I swear." Was all she could say. Harry stopped in front of the fat lady.
"Hello, what's gotten into her?" She asked, looking mildly surprised.
"Malfoy. Gargoyle grimace"
"Dear me." She shook her head, and swung the portrait open.
The Common room was packed, but nevertheless, everyone noticed Hermione's tear streaked face, and Harry's worried look. Hermione took one look around her, burst into tears, and ran into her room. Ron was the first to break the uncomfortable silence.
"What happened?"
"It's a long story." He sat down in one of the arm chairs by the fire and buried his face in his hands.
"Tell us, we have more than enough time." George said. Harry looked up, and told them what had happened at the library. Once he'd finished, Ron was trembling with anger, Fred had a petulant look on his face, George was wringing his hands and muttering to himself, and Ginny, who had been a witness to it all, shook her head and buried her head in her arms.
"Malfoy's dad murdered Hermione's uncle?" Neville asked.
"It would appear so." Harry answered, looking at his feet.
So one had noticed Anya, in the armchair opposite Harry. No one noticed the look of horror and shame on her face. No one. No one except the little boy sitting on a table that no one could see.