A/N: It is finally here! Chapter 7! And, this is NOT a D/H. It's an H/H. Okay, here it goes…(Sorry if you think I'm being rude…I'm just really hyper!)
What She Thinks: Chapter 7:
Once again Hermione was led into the old abandon shack. Reaching the familiar engraving on the wall she realized it had caved in around the edges. She stared deep into it and thought the eyes on the stone pheonix had blinked. Stepping cautiously, wanting to run and find Harry, she bumped into something, something hard. Whipping around she saw, to her relief, Harry. Wrapping her arms around his neck she hugged him, only to feel a piece of ribbon pulling on his neck. Tracing the ribbon down she cane to a Medallion on the end of a red ribbon. She gaped at it. Harry just smiled, but didn't speak. On it was the pheonix. But the medallion was hole, not broken. Running her fingers over it she realized there was writing on the back. Squinting to read the small print she sensed someone behind her.
Turning wildly on the spot she screamed as a blinding green flash lit the air along with a high cold scream. The medallion was pulled away from her as Harry fell to the earthy, dirt floor.
Flying up in bed, sweating madly, she tore open her trunk and began to search frantically for the medallion. Finding it in her school bag she flipped it over and over. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of the chisels taken out of the rock, none of which Hermione recognized…Probably in a different language.
'It must say something about Harry!' She though vaguely.
"HARRY!" She screeched, tearing out of the room, as Parvati hit the floor in a tangle of sheets and Lavender Brown, looking confused, groggily peeked through her hangings.
She continued to shout to the top of her lungs, racing to the boy's staircase she made to run up it but someone caught her hard in the stomach.
Fighting tooth and nail she continued to struggle towards the boy's staircase. It was only when the person spoke that she fell quite. The whole Gryffindor house was now awake, peeking out of their dorms. She knew that voice. Turning slowly around she stared, wide-eyed at Harry.
Lifting her from the ground he hung her over his arm and marched out of the portrait hole. He shoved open the door to the nearest boy's toilet and set her down on the sink before stepping back to look her in the eye.
"What was that all about?" He asked in disbelief.
"I had a dream," She answered in a small voice, looking down a t the floor.
"A dream," He said nodding vaguely, "A dream, yah I have lots of those. But I have yet to have one that sent me on a rampage through the castle!"
"It was about you," She whispered, "You died…"
His expression suddenly softened.
"And the medallion, you had it around your neck, and it had words on the back. And when I woke up--It did! It really did!" She explained, trying hard to show him the medallion, still clutched tightly in her hand. But before she could say another word he had wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug.
"I'm sorry," he whispered into her hair, as a tear, escaped Hermione eye, though not even she knew why, "You've just been acting really strange lately."
Hermione didn't even have trouble admitting it to herself. Yes she had been acting weird. But she had her reasons…
Grabbing his shoulders she hugged him back.
"So what do you say? We going to try and get that chip of medallion or what?" She asked, pulling way.
"From Malfoy?" Harry said, looking at her as though she had lost it.
"Well, yah!"
Harry shook his head, smiling.
"What did you have in mind?"
The following morning Hermione spent most of her Quidditch practice with Ron and Harry, discussing ways of stealing ("Though it wasn't really stealing if you were taking it from a git like Malfoy"--Ron added.) the chip of medallion away from Malfoy.
"Well, we could just stun him and take it." Ron suggested, catching the ball Harry had thrown for him.
"Malfoy wouldn't let any of us within ten feet of him with a wand." Harry reminded him.
"Well, he'd probably let me," Hermione mumbled under her breath bitterly.
Ron stopped and stared at her, letting a ball hit on the top of his head, an insane smile spread across his face.
"What?" Harry asked, watching Ron. Then, catching sight of Hermione he too grinned.
Hermione shook her head in denial.
"No," She said firmly, crossing her arms infront of her and managing to stay on her broom at the same time. "No, I will not."
They didn't seem to be listening.
"Guineas." Ron muttered, floating slowly closer.
Harry nodded, "You'll do just fine." He agreed.
Harry and Ron spent the next 3 days begging Hermione to help them.
"I'll help but I'm not going within ten miles of Malfoy." She repeated stubbornly for the fifty-ith time that day.
"C'mon Hermi we need you!" Ron moaned desperately.
Hermione looked pitifully around at their grief stricken faces. Thinking merrily of what Harry may say if she went along with them.
Sighing heavily she smiled, "Okay, What do I have to do?"
It was carefully planned. Harry and Hermione would follower a Slytherin to the common room tomorrow night, listen for the password. Harry had slipped a not inside Draco's bag saying it was from his secret admirer, and to be in the Slytherin common room at two o' clock in the morning. Hermione would go in to find Draco waiting for her.
"It all really just flows from there," Ron said confidently.
"Easy for you to say," Hermione moaned over the top of her thousand-paged Arithmacey book.
Hermione didn't feel comfortable with what she was about to do. So many things could go wrong. And she would be breaking so many school rules. Harry and Ron seemed okay with the fact that they would be the last anyone would suspect to be involved if Hermione was caught.
"Don't worry, if you get caught, well tell them it was our fault." Harry assured her, covering the two of them with the invisibility cloak. However, Hermione's comfort hadn't changed.
They found two Slytherin girls, Pansy Parkinson and Emily Gordon, to follow down to the dungeon.
Hermione couldn't believe what they were conversing about. Not just about boys, but about things married people do.
"Bloody Beast," She giggled, stepping into the dungeon room hidden behind the stone wall. Hermione's stomach churned at the sight of Draco, sitting in the far corner of the common room before the wall closed on them.
Hermione quickly took out a piece of parchment, scribbled down the password, and stuffed it back in her pocket. She knew she wouldn't forget it, but took it as an extra precaution.
They headed back to the Gryffindor tower to wait for the next five hours.
The clock shone 1:30 next to Hermione's four poster. She stepped out of bed, (she had never changed out of her robes) and descended the stairs to the common room. Harry was sitting on a chair in front of the fire, the invisibility cloak draped across his lap, clearly deep in thought.
She tapped him on the shoulder and he jumped.
"Are you sure you'll be okay?" He asked, concern in his voice.
Hermione shook her head. "No."
Harry had decided to escort her to the dungeons were he would wait outside for her, only coming in on her signal.
"If I scream you'll be sure to come and bet me, right?" Hermione whispered outside the entrance to the Slytherin common room.
"Of course," Harry breathed. And to Hermione great surprise, he pecked on the cheek.
Slightly flustered Hermione entered the eerie dungeon room.
Without taking time to examine it, her eyes fell on a silver speck, pocking out over the top of a chair with it's back turned to her.
The sound of her feet must have startled him, because at that instant, the chair swung around.
A/N: Okay, I'm leaving it there. Next Chapter: What happens while Hermione's in there…Will Harry have to save her? Or will she be unable to reach him if she needs to? Find out! If I get 15 reviews I'll continue!
~Gabbi D.