A/N Not a lot happens in this ch. Okay, SOMETHING happens, but nothing lifechanging. To Hermione, anyway. Oh what am I going on about? Just r/r, okies? Okies!
For the Love of the Land
~I pledge my loyalty to Honor, Justice, and Hogwarts~
Part Eight
Though the Hogwarts Express was as majestic as ever, it only carried two people, one of which was the conductor. The large scarlet steam engine raced along the tracks, like an overworked factory employee eager to get home for supper.
Hermione Granger sat in her lonely compartment, staring out of the window with only her backpack for company. Dumbledore had notified all of her teachers of where she would be for the next two weeks, and she had all her work from them. But, for the first time in her life, Hermione wasn't even thinking about her studies.
She couldn't even see the beautiful English countryside that flew past outside the window. She kept seeing memories, like still Muggle photographs, of times she had had with Aunt Charlotte. She would also, from time to time, completely forget where she was and immerse herself in a memory.
~~~~~ "So Penelope and I turned the corner and WHAM there it was, the basilisk!" Hermione said enthusiastically. Aunt Charlotte laughed.
"Careful there, dear." She said. "Your getting flour everywhere! You roll THIS way. That's it. Now, remind me again what a basilisk is?"
"It's a giant snake." Hermione explained patiently, carefully monitoring how she was rolling the piecrust. "If you look at it, it kills you. But, like I said, Penelope and I saw the REFLECTION of it, so we were petrified, which is like turning into stone."
"Really, now?" She replied, her soft cinnamon eyes, identical to those of Hermione and her father, laughing. "Well, continue."
"Well, being petrified is like being asleep." Hermione said. "So the next thing you know...BAM! I'm awake, shrieking about the basilisk!" Hermione said this with wild gestures, sending flour settling into the hair of both her and Aunt Charlotte. Both the twelve-year-old and the twenty-eight-year-old looked as if she had aged thirty years. They collapsed into a fit of laughter...~~~~~
Hermione was jerked, both literally and theoretically, out of her memory as the train jolted to a halt outside the platform at King's Cross. She lifted her backpack and stepped out of her compartment. The platform was completely devoid of anyone. Hermione blinked back tears as the train pulled away again.
Without thinking, she crossed the magical barrier. Luckily no one noticed but Charles and Elizabeth Granger, her parents, who were waiting outside platform ten. They saw their daughter and rushed to her.
"Oh, Honey..." Her mom said as Hermione began to cry bitterly into her mother's shoulder. Her father only watched with compassion. It was his sister who had died, so he was hardly in the frame of mind to comfort his daughter. But he tried, squeezing her tightly and trying to be strong. Charlotte and Hermione had been so fond of one another.
"C'mon," Elizabeth said, taking her daughter by the hand. "Let's go home." Charles shot a grateful look at his wife before taking Hermione's other hand and leading her out of the station, as if she were four instead of sixteen.
* * *
Harry and Ron were in Divination, pondering over Hermione's odd behavior.
"Why was she crying?" Harry demanded in frustration to no one in particular. "And WHY did she go crying to Starlight, of all people?"
Ron had been uncharacteristically quiet, considering they were in transfiguration discussing something seriously wrong with his girlfriend. Harry had noticed this too, and it puzzled him as much as Hermione's actions. Ron had always talked with Harry about the strange things she did, and it had only gotten worse since they were a couple.
"I wonder..." Ron said, and then shook himself out of it. They were both talking in whispers and trying not to inhale too much of Trelawny's nearly toxic perfume, which just seemed to get stronger every term. Luckily, Trelawny was babbling about...something or other, and not paying the two Gryffindor boys any attention whatsoever.
"You wonder what?" Harry asked, both curious and annoyed.
"I had this weird dream last night..."
"Hermione went crying to Professor Starlight and completely blew us off and your worried about a DREAM!" Harry hissed, now really annoyed.
"I saw a Muggle woman." Ron continued, as if Harry had never interrupted. "Death Eaters swarmed her house and killed her. Then I saw Hermione in Dumbledore's office. He handed her an envelope..." Ron said this squinting as if trying to remember it. The details were quite unclear, but Ron was pretty sure that was the basic gist of it.
"And...?" Harry replied, not making the connection. Ron rolled his eyes.
"Harry, I think-" But he was cut short by an owl that was tapping impatiently on the window. The entire class turned to look at it as Harry opened the window to let it in. It glided over to Neville and dropped a little red summons into his lap. Neville didn't even look at it; he just stood, waved at the class, and walked out.
"Lucky bugger." Ron hissed, staring at Neville's back.
Neville wasn't even thinking about what was going on in the Divination classroom. He was glad Luna had sent him a summons, because he had had a funny feeling all day. He raced down to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, and found Ginny, Draco, Cho, and Luna were already inside.
"Where's Hermione?" He asked, looking around and instantaneously noticing the empty chair where she usually sat.
"That's what I summoned you all about." Luna said, gulping.
"Hermione's constant absences?" Draco asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Don't get smart, Draco." Luna replied. "Hermione won't be here for the next couple of weeks."
"WHAT?" The remaining Defenders exclaimed. Luna quieted them with the raise of her hand.
"This is very serious." She said. "Hermione...she went home. Her Muggle home."
"Why?" Draco asked, the only one who dared break the 'silence' rule.
"Because," Luna said, ignoring Draco and looking as though she was trying not to cry. "She has to go to a funeral. Her beloved Aunt was found dead this morning. Murdered by Voldemort." At these words, everyone reacted differently. Cho's eyes widened and the sucked in breath as if winded. Neville started rocking back and forth, looking as though he were trying not to be sick. Draco went very rigid, as if trying to control something. Ginny put one hand over her mouth so that all of her face that you could see were her saucer-sized eyes, and her other hand flew to Draco's arm, and she clutched it desperately. Luna did nothing.
"I told you that Voldemort has taken something from each of you that you hold very dear. If you remember, Hermione didn't know to what I was referring. That was because nothing had been taken from her yet. Hermione loved her Aunt dearly. She wrote letters to her more often than to her parents. Hermione turned to her for advice that she could not get from anyone else. She was her role model, and the only of Hermione's Muggle relatives, other than her parents, to know of her magical studies. This was a tremendous blow to her and her character. Dumbledore will be (briefly) explaining this to everyone tonight at dinner, but I wanted you to know in advance. I'm going to leave, but you may stay for the remainder of the class, if you wish."
Luna left before any of them could say anything, mainly because she didn't want them to see her blink and blow her nose like she was the one whose Aunt had died.
Everyone else just stared, until Ginny, speaking slowly, broke the silence.
"Well, now we know what Voldemort took from Hermione." She said, forcing herself to say the Dark Lord's name. "I think it's fair that we all know what...he took from us." She looked around cautiously to see how the others would react. To her great surprise, every one of them nodded or mumbled agreement.
"Not until Hermione gets back though," Cho whispered. "I want some...time." Again everyone, including Ginny agreed. Her face was determined, although she was really in turmoil. Telling them this was betraying one of her family's darkest secrets, and she didn't know if she could bring herself to do it.
Everyone at different times got up and left. Soon it was only Draco and Ginny. Ginny scooted her chair next to his, and he took her hand.
Ginny looked at his face, and was overcome in a wave of worry. His eyebrows were drawn together and he was looking downward at the floor, as if something there could answer a question.
"Are you okay?" She whispered. He looked up, and smiled weakly. Then he pulled her over until she was sitting right on his lap.
"Promise that you won't leave after I tell you." He whispered. Ginny nodded, and Draco sighed with relief. They heard the bell ring, although it sounded far off and distant.
"C'mon," He said, "We'd better go to lunch."
* * *
Sirius Black was hungry. No, no, no, STARVING was a better word. Hungry is when it's 8:00 and you had lunch at 11. Starving was when it's 4:00 Friday, and you haven't eaten your last *very* small meal since 8:00 Wednesday, thus you see the difference.
In any case, he was, in his canine form, on the prowl for some form... ANY form of food. Therefore he was overjoyed when he smelled a rat. The hunt began, and he sniffed and sniffed until he tracked down its hiding place. Looking around to make sure no one was near, he transformed. It was much easier to catch the rodent in his human form.
In next to no time he had caught it. He pulled it out and grinned at it maliciously, as a vulture would grin at the carcass below, if vultures could grin. He was looking at it hungrily; examining it, when something in the sunlight glinted. With a frown, Sirius examined it more closely.
He felt his eyes widen. This rat had a silver paw.
* * *
Harry and Ron were still puzzled as they walked down to the Great Hall for lunch. They waited for Hermione at their usual meeting place, but she never showed. They stopped Lisa Turpin, a Ravenclaw in her Arithmancy class, to ask about her. She told them Hermione never came to class, but Professor Vector hardly seemed surprised, which only served to further puzzle the boys.
They were about to enter the Great Hall, when a hand fell on Ron's shoulder. He looked around, and saw Dumbledore standing behind him. He was looking unusually solemn.
"Mr. Weasley, there is something we need to discuss. It will only take a second. You too, Mr. Potter." The Headmaster steered them both out of the crowd and into the nearest classroom.
"Whatever it was, Professor, I didn't do it, I swear!" Ron said wildly. Dumbledore raised his eyebrows.
"It's nothing of that sort, Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore said, and the boys let out a sigh of relief. "It's about Miss Granger." So much for relief. If her odd behavior was of the Headmaster's concerns, then it probably wasn't good news.
"I'm going to explain a little bit to everyone in the hall, but I wanted to tell you two first." He sighed, making him look nearly as old as he really was. "Hermione has gone home for a few weeks. Her Aunt Charlotte was murdered. Voldemort, of course." Harry and Ron stared at Dumbledore. This was the last thing they had expected.
"But..." Ron said, dumbfounded. He had heard Hermione speak of 'Aunt Charlotte' before. She had loved her aunt like a second mother.
"Why Hermione?" Harry asked, something that was also puzzling Ron. He wasn't about to say it outright, but Harry seemed the obvious suspect for confusing and pulling out of school.
"The Dark Lord works in mysterious ways," Dumbledore replied cryptically. Harry and Ron suspected that he knew more, but knew that it was useless to ask. If Dumbledore wanted to tell you something, then he did, and if he didn't, you knew it.
* * *
As her father gave the eulogy, Hermione cried bitterly. She hated Voldemort, hated him, hated him, HATED HIM!
Why Aunt Charlotte? She had never done anything against him except have a niece. She had never raised Muggle resistance or any such nonsense. She had never done...anything, as far as Hermione could see. But then, out of nowhere, the sound of her father's voice was overpowered by someone else's...Luna's.
~ "The Dark Lord has taken something from each of you, something you hold dear..."
Then Hermione's voice, sounding childish and far away.
"What did she mean, the Dark Lord has taken something you hold dear? What was she talking about?"~
Now I know, Hermione thought bitterly. Everyone else already had someone killed, now me. This is my fault.
No! No it is NOT! You cannot start thinking like this Hermione Granger, she scolded herself.
But that didn't stop her or her father from crying all the way home.
For the Love of the Land
~I pledge my loyalty to Honor, Justice, and Hogwarts~
Part Eight
Though the Hogwarts Express was as majestic as ever, it only carried two people, one of which was the conductor. The large scarlet steam engine raced along the tracks, like an overworked factory employee eager to get home for supper.
Hermione Granger sat in her lonely compartment, staring out of the window with only her backpack for company. Dumbledore had notified all of her teachers of where she would be for the next two weeks, and she had all her work from them. But, for the first time in her life, Hermione wasn't even thinking about her studies.
She couldn't even see the beautiful English countryside that flew past outside the window. She kept seeing memories, like still Muggle photographs, of times she had had with Aunt Charlotte. She would also, from time to time, completely forget where she was and immerse herself in a memory.
~~~~~ "So Penelope and I turned the corner and WHAM there it was, the basilisk!" Hermione said enthusiastically. Aunt Charlotte laughed.
"Careful there, dear." She said. "Your getting flour everywhere! You roll THIS way. That's it. Now, remind me again what a basilisk is?"
"It's a giant snake." Hermione explained patiently, carefully monitoring how she was rolling the piecrust. "If you look at it, it kills you. But, like I said, Penelope and I saw the REFLECTION of it, so we were petrified, which is like turning into stone."
"Really, now?" She replied, her soft cinnamon eyes, identical to those of Hermione and her father, laughing. "Well, continue."
"Well, being petrified is like being asleep." Hermione said. "So the next thing you know...BAM! I'm awake, shrieking about the basilisk!" Hermione said this with wild gestures, sending flour settling into the hair of both her and Aunt Charlotte. Both the twelve-year-old and the twenty-eight-year-old looked as if she had aged thirty years. They collapsed into a fit of laughter...~~~~~
Hermione was jerked, both literally and theoretically, out of her memory as the train jolted to a halt outside the platform at King's Cross. She lifted her backpack and stepped out of her compartment. The platform was completely devoid of anyone. Hermione blinked back tears as the train pulled away again.
Without thinking, she crossed the magical barrier. Luckily no one noticed but Charles and Elizabeth Granger, her parents, who were waiting outside platform ten. They saw their daughter and rushed to her.
"Oh, Honey..." Her mom said as Hermione began to cry bitterly into her mother's shoulder. Her father only watched with compassion. It was his sister who had died, so he was hardly in the frame of mind to comfort his daughter. But he tried, squeezing her tightly and trying to be strong. Charlotte and Hermione had been so fond of one another.
"C'mon," Elizabeth said, taking her daughter by the hand. "Let's go home." Charles shot a grateful look at his wife before taking Hermione's other hand and leading her out of the station, as if she were four instead of sixteen.
* * *
Harry and Ron were in Divination, pondering over Hermione's odd behavior.
"Why was she crying?" Harry demanded in frustration to no one in particular. "And WHY did she go crying to Starlight, of all people?"
Ron had been uncharacteristically quiet, considering they were in transfiguration discussing something seriously wrong with his girlfriend. Harry had noticed this too, and it puzzled him as much as Hermione's actions. Ron had always talked with Harry about the strange things she did, and it had only gotten worse since they were a couple.
"I wonder..." Ron said, and then shook himself out of it. They were both talking in whispers and trying not to inhale too much of Trelawny's nearly toxic perfume, which just seemed to get stronger every term. Luckily, Trelawny was babbling about...something or other, and not paying the two Gryffindor boys any attention whatsoever.
"You wonder what?" Harry asked, both curious and annoyed.
"I had this weird dream last night..."
"Hermione went crying to Professor Starlight and completely blew us off and your worried about a DREAM!" Harry hissed, now really annoyed.
"I saw a Muggle woman." Ron continued, as if Harry had never interrupted. "Death Eaters swarmed her house and killed her. Then I saw Hermione in Dumbledore's office. He handed her an envelope..." Ron said this squinting as if trying to remember it. The details were quite unclear, but Ron was pretty sure that was the basic gist of it.
"And...?" Harry replied, not making the connection. Ron rolled his eyes.
"Harry, I think-" But he was cut short by an owl that was tapping impatiently on the window. The entire class turned to look at it as Harry opened the window to let it in. It glided over to Neville and dropped a little red summons into his lap. Neville didn't even look at it; he just stood, waved at the class, and walked out.
"Lucky bugger." Ron hissed, staring at Neville's back.
Neville wasn't even thinking about what was going on in the Divination classroom. He was glad Luna had sent him a summons, because he had had a funny feeling all day. He raced down to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, and found Ginny, Draco, Cho, and Luna were already inside.
"Where's Hermione?" He asked, looking around and instantaneously noticing the empty chair where she usually sat.
"That's what I summoned you all about." Luna said, gulping.
"Hermione's constant absences?" Draco asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Don't get smart, Draco." Luna replied. "Hermione won't be here for the next couple of weeks."
"WHAT?" The remaining Defenders exclaimed. Luna quieted them with the raise of her hand.
"This is very serious." She said. "Hermione...she went home. Her Muggle home."
"Why?" Draco asked, the only one who dared break the 'silence' rule.
"Because," Luna said, ignoring Draco and looking as though she was trying not to cry. "She has to go to a funeral. Her beloved Aunt was found dead this morning. Murdered by Voldemort." At these words, everyone reacted differently. Cho's eyes widened and the sucked in breath as if winded. Neville started rocking back and forth, looking as though he were trying not to be sick. Draco went very rigid, as if trying to control something. Ginny put one hand over her mouth so that all of her face that you could see were her saucer-sized eyes, and her other hand flew to Draco's arm, and she clutched it desperately. Luna did nothing.
"I told you that Voldemort has taken something from each of you that you hold very dear. If you remember, Hermione didn't know to what I was referring. That was because nothing had been taken from her yet. Hermione loved her Aunt dearly. She wrote letters to her more often than to her parents. Hermione turned to her for advice that she could not get from anyone else. She was her role model, and the only of Hermione's Muggle relatives, other than her parents, to know of her magical studies. This was a tremendous blow to her and her character. Dumbledore will be (briefly) explaining this to everyone tonight at dinner, but I wanted you to know in advance. I'm going to leave, but you may stay for the remainder of the class, if you wish."
Luna left before any of them could say anything, mainly because she didn't want them to see her blink and blow her nose like she was the one whose Aunt had died.
Everyone else just stared, until Ginny, speaking slowly, broke the silence.
"Well, now we know what Voldemort took from Hermione." She said, forcing herself to say the Dark Lord's name. "I think it's fair that we all know what...he took from us." She looked around cautiously to see how the others would react. To her great surprise, every one of them nodded or mumbled agreement.
"Not until Hermione gets back though," Cho whispered. "I want some...time." Again everyone, including Ginny agreed. Her face was determined, although she was really in turmoil. Telling them this was betraying one of her family's darkest secrets, and she didn't know if she could bring herself to do it.
Everyone at different times got up and left. Soon it was only Draco and Ginny. Ginny scooted her chair next to his, and he took her hand.
Ginny looked at his face, and was overcome in a wave of worry. His eyebrows were drawn together and he was looking downward at the floor, as if something there could answer a question.
"Are you okay?" She whispered. He looked up, and smiled weakly. Then he pulled her over until she was sitting right on his lap.
"Promise that you won't leave after I tell you." He whispered. Ginny nodded, and Draco sighed with relief. They heard the bell ring, although it sounded far off and distant.
"C'mon," He said, "We'd better go to lunch."
* * *
Sirius Black was hungry. No, no, no, STARVING was a better word. Hungry is when it's 8:00 and you had lunch at 11. Starving was when it's 4:00 Friday, and you haven't eaten your last *very* small meal since 8:00 Wednesday, thus you see the difference.
In any case, he was, in his canine form, on the prowl for some form... ANY form of food. Therefore he was overjoyed when he smelled a rat. The hunt began, and he sniffed and sniffed until he tracked down its hiding place. Looking around to make sure no one was near, he transformed. It was much easier to catch the rodent in his human form.
In next to no time he had caught it. He pulled it out and grinned at it maliciously, as a vulture would grin at the carcass below, if vultures could grin. He was looking at it hungrily; examining it, when something in the sunlight glinted. With a frown, Sirius examined it more closely.
He felt his eyes widen. This rat had a silver paw.
* * *
Harry and Ron were still puzzled as they walked down to the Great Hall for lunch. They waited for Hermione at their usual meeting place, but she never showed. They stopped Lisa Turpin, a Ravenclaw in her Arithmancy class, to ask about her. She told them Hermione never came to class, but Professor Vector hardly seemed surprised, which only served to further puzzle the boys.
They were about to enter the Great Hall, when a hand fell on Ron's shoulder. He looked around, and saw Dumbledore standing behind him. He was looking unusually solemn.
"Mr. Weasley, there is something we need to discuss. It will only take a second. You too, Mr. Potter." The Headmaster steered them both out of the crowd and into the nearest classroom.
"Whatever it was, Professor, I didn't do it, I swear!" Ron said wildly. Dumbledore raised his eyebrows.
"It's nothing of that sort, Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore said, and the boys let out a sigh of relief. "It's about Miss Granger." So much for relief. If her odd behavior was of the Headmaster's concerns, then it probably wasn't good news.
"I'm going to explain a little bit to everyone in the hall, but I wanted to tell you two first." He sighed, making him look nearly as old as he really was. "Hermione has gone home for a few weeks. Her Aunt Charlotte was murdered. Voldemort, of course." Harry and Ron stared at Dumbledore. This was the last thing they had expected.
"But..." Ron said, dumbfounded. He had heard Hermione speak of 'Aunt Charlotte' before. She had loved her aunt like a second mother.
"Why Hermione?" Harry asked, something that was also puzzling Ron. He wasn't about to say it outright, but Harry seemed the obvious suspect for confusing and pulling out of school.
"The Dark Lord works in mysterious ways," Dumbledore replied cryptically. Harry and Ron suspected that he knew more, but knew that it was useless to ask. If Dumbledore wanted to tell you something, then he did, and if he didn't, you knew it.
* * *
As her father gave the eulogy, Hermione cried bitterly. She hated Voldemort, hated him, hated him, HATED HIM!
Why Aunt Charlotte? She had never done anything against him except have a niece. She had never raised Muggle resistance or any such nonsense. She had never done...anything, as far as Hermione could see. But then, out of nowhere, the sound of her father's voice was overpowered by someone else's...Luna's.
~ "The Dark Lord has taken something from each of you, something you hold dear..."
Then Hermione's voice, sounding childish and far away.
"What did she mean, the Dark Lord has taken something you hold dear? What was she talking about?"~
Now I know, Hermione thought bitterly. Everyone else already had someone killed, now me. This is my fault.
No! No it is NOT! You cannot start thinking like this Hermione Granger, she scolded herself.
But that didn't stop her or her father from crying all the way home.