Okay, guys. Here is the second chapter! Hope you like it.
Chapter 2
Hermione nodded thanks and received the hot chocolate gratefully. Sipping the scalding, sweet drink, she felt the almost-familiar warmth seeping down her throat.
All of a sudden, the door bursted open, and in ran a very worried Ginny Weasley.
¡§Hermie! Oh, are you alright?! You could have been killed!¡¨ Ginny grabbed her best friend and sobbed, causing Hermione to spill her scalding drink on her lap.
¡§Ahhhhhhhh!¡¨ Hermione screamed and Ginny jumped up, alarmed. Harry soothed Hermione and cured her leg with a wave of his wand.
They were sitting in the Minister¡¦s office, located at the top-most floor of the Ministry Building. The Weasleys clustered themselves around the office, leaving the most comfortable sofa for Hermione.
The door opened again, and this time, the Minister himself entered, followed by Mad-eye Moody, Dumbledore and a big, black dog.
¡§Professor Dumbledore!¡¨ Harry cried. ¡§Sirius!¡¨
The black dog trotted to Harry and ¡§pop¡¨, it became Sirius Black, Harry¡¦s godfather. Sirius had been cleared right after Mr. Weasley had overthrown the former Minister. He had been working for Dumbledore and preferred to stay in his dog shape as much as possible. He said that it made him a less likely target for Wormtail, who had been trying to murder him several times already.
Sirius rushed over to give Hermione a big hug. ¡§I¡¦m feel so sorry for your parents¡X¡§he started.
¡§Please, Sirius.¡¨ Hermione said firmly. ¡§You know I¡¦m made of stronger stuff. You have known me for years now.¡¨
Dumbledore chuckled a bit at that.
¡§I fetched Dumbledore from Hogwarts as soon as I arrived.¡¨ Moody was saying, ¡§And we are going to question the Death Eaters now. Dumbledore thought Miss Granger and Mr. Potter would like to come.¡¨
Hermione stood up and followed Harry out of the office. Moody led through shifting corridors, down moving staircases, until they arrived at the Aurors section of the building. They moved through hundreds of massive offices, with many uniformed people bowing their heads at them. They walked down much more moving staircases, and finally to the damp and dim dungeons, where the Death Eaters were temporarily imprisoned, still tied up and masked, locked in a big cell. Moody put his hand on the lock and it sprang open, and they entered in single file.
Moody pulled a Death Eater to his feet roughly and growled, ¡§Name?¡¨ The man just spat on his face and smirked.
¡§You think we¡¦re going to tell you so easily?¡¨
¡§Filth.¡¨ Moody muttered as he moved to remove the white mask from his face.
¡§Professor Moody, calm down.¡¨ It was Hermione. ¡§Put him down. I¡¦ll deal with them.¡¨ Moody just stared at her with a bemused look.
¡§Well, I did knock him down, didn¡¦t I? Therefore I should be the one to question them.¡¨ Hermione said sweetly. Moody looked a bit doubtful at that, but he dropped the Death Eater to the ground and backed away, while exchanging strange looks with Mr. Weasley, Harry and Sirius. But Dumbledore kept silent and looked on.
Hermione knelt down and helped the Death Eater to a more comfortable sitting position.
¡§So tell me.¡¨ She smiled sweetly and smiled. ¡§Who are you?¡¨
¡§Do you think I will be stupid enough to reveal my identity, mi¡¦lady?¡¨ he smiled.
¡§So you want to play it rough, don¡¦t you?¡¨ she placed a single finger on the man¡¦s chest and traced upwards towards his jawline and stopped at the catch of the Death Eater mask just below his earlobe.
¡§Listen to me, Miss Granger.¡¨ The man spoke. ¡§You are wasting your time with those Mudblood-lovers over there. The Dark lord knows of your talent. Why do you have to throw away the chance of joining him, as you are not of their class?¡¨
¡§Tell me who you are.¡¨ Hermione didn¡¦t answer his question.
¡§No way, love. Now, listen to me for a moment¡X¡§
Hermione clearly had enough. She yanked away the mask so suddenly that the man winced in pain.
¡§Crucio!¡¨ Hermione pulled out her wand and shouted. The man writhed and screamed.
¡§Hermie! No!¡¨ Harry shouted and tried to run towards her, but without looking at her best friend, Hermione pulled up her other hand, and placed it in mid-air, with her palm facing towards Harry. At this instant, Harry bumped right into an invisible barrier, smashing his glasses and forming a purple bump right on his lightning scar. Dumbledore swept to Harry¡¦s side and helped him up, while healing his forehead and mending his glasses with a wave of his wand. Harry started to speak, but Dumbledore stopped him and pointed to Hermione, gesturing him to pay attention to the brown-haired girl.
Hermione was indeed doing a very good job. She moved among the Death Eaters, forcing out their identities with the Cruciutus spell, and Moody wrote their names down on a piece of conjured parchment as soon as their names came out of their mouths. It turned out that most of them were low-rank Death Eaters and quite a few of them were working at the Ministry.
Finally, Hermione moved to the last Death Eater, who was shaking and sputtering in fear. One look at his body could tell who she had captured. Sirius growled.
¡§Hello, Scabbers, long time no see,¡¨ Hermione said. ¡§Don¡¦t worry; I¡¦m not going to kill you. It¡¦s just a little bit of torture that your master loves, only worse.¡¨ She turned to the spectators and said, ¡§Who wants to have revenge? If you do, just hand me your wand.¡¨ Harry and Sirius handed theirs over eagerly. Turning back to Wormtail, she stuck the two wands into each of his ears and shouted ¡§CROCIO!!!!!¡¨
if seeing the other death Eaters being tortured was horrible, this was terrifying. Scabbers, Wormtail, or Peter Pettigrew spasmed inhumanly as he shrieked. At last, Hermione pulled out the wands , and the plump man crashed, bleeding-eared and half-dead, onto the floor.
Hermione staggered backwards and fainted away right into Harry¡¦s arms. Moody was still staring at Hermione in awe.
They left, and Harry carried her all the way up to the top floor. When they arrived back in the office, Harry placed her on the sofa again.
¡§Everybody, I think that you know very well that you are not to spill one word about today¡¦s events.¡¨ Dumbledore announced. ¡§Then why don¡¦t you all troop down to the café to have a drink or two while Miss Granger, Alastor, Arthur and me stay here to have a little discussion.
The others did as they were told. Mr. Weasley sealed the door, and made the room soundproof before conjuring coffees for everybody and made them settled comfortably around his desk.
¡§So, Hermione, that was quite a surprising performance down in the cells.¡¨ Mr. Weasley remarked.
¡§Ahem,¡¨ Dumbledore cleared his throat dramatically. ¡§Arthur, I do not believe that we are going to waste our time discussing Miss Granger¡¦s altitude, instead, we must thank Miss Granger heartily because we are going to do it anyway, and she helped us to save quite a lot of time.¡¨ His eyes twinkled. ¡§So why don¡¦t we start talking about the attack now?¡¨
¡§I apologize, Albus.¡¨ Mr. Weasley looked a bit embarrassed ¡§So, Alastor, can you brief us on the whole thing?¡¨
¡§Certainly, Minister.¡¨ Moody said. ¡§The attack happened at about six fifty-five. Five Death Eaters Aparrated in Knockturn alley and flew to Diagon Alley on Firebolts. They Stunned your family, Minister¡K¡¨He continued to drone on and on about the attack.
Suddenly, Hermione frowned. Fishy¡K
Moody finished speaking and a heavy silence downed on them. It was Hermione who broke the ice.
¡§There is something nagging at the back of my mind ever since my parents were captured, and until now do I realize¡X¡§ She stopped. Do I really want to say it?
¡§Realize what?¡¨ Moody asked.
¡§From what I read about the past attacks, Voldemort was known to kill as many as possible during his famous raids. But this time, it seems as if old Voldie changed his unique style. And this time, Harry Potter, whom he wanted to kill for a long time, was not his target.¡¨
¡§So what are you suggesting?¡¨ Mr. Weasley stared at her in awe.
¡§It¡¦s obvious, isn¡¦t it? Voldemort¡¦s targets are my parents!¡¨
This time, the silence was so heavy that one could even hear a pin falling in the room.
¡§But it didn¡¦t make sense, Hermione. Your parents were muggles, right?¡X¡§ Hermione didn¡¦t answer. ¡§¡Xthen there are no special reasons on why they are Voldemort¡¦s targets!¡¨ Mr. Weasley exclaimed.
¡§This is the nearest conclusion I can think about.¡¨ Hermione shrugged. ¡§If Voldie just wanted muggles, then why doesn¡¦t he just send two Death Eaters onto the London main street? It¡¦s much, much easier then tracking MY parents down in Diagon Alley, or¡K¡¨
¡§What?¡¨ Moody growled impatiently with his quill placing above the parchment he was writing on.
¡§Oh, nothing.¡¨
¡§I do think that it is something, Miss Granger.¡¨
¡§Oh, alright. But you may think that I¡¦m nuts.¡¨ Hermione sighed. ¡§Maybe he is serving a master of his own.¡¨
¡§That¡¦s impossible!¡¨ Mr. Weasley sprang up from his chair as if his butt had caught fire. ¡§How can HE be serving another person? He¡¦s one of the most powerful wizards in the world!¡¨
¡§That¡¦s very true, ¡§ Dumbledore agreed, ¡§but I think that Miss Granger¡¦s logic and ideas cannot e overlooked.¡¨
¡§Right, ¡§ snarled Moody as he scribbled down Hermione¡¦s suggestion.
¡§Now, no one must tell a SOUL of what had been discussed here, is that understood?¡¨ r. Weasley aid. ¡§Especially you, Hermione. I know Harry and Ron will be plastering you with questions, so be careful. So why don¡¦t we all go home and take a nap to relax?¡¨
Nodding, they all got to their feet. Suddenly, the door shook rather violently and shouted something unrecognizable to someone outside the door. Mr. Weasley quickly pulled it open to reveal a panting Severus Snape. He turned to Dumbledore and spoke, ¡§Headmaster, I saw the Grangers, they¡¦re still pretty alive, in good health and all. They¡¦re just unconscious. Far from death¡K¡¨
¡§Thank you, Severus. Is there anything more?¡¨
¡§Voldemort was furious when Malfoy turned up with two other Death Eaters and the Grangers. When he knew that twenty- something of them were taken down by a seventeen-year-old girl, he flew into such a fit of rage that he started greeting everyone with ¡¥Crucios¡¦.¡¨
¡§Thanks very mush, Professor Snape.¡¨ Hermione said softly. ¡§I caught them and greeted them with ¡¥Crucios¡¦ also,¡¨ Hermione beamed. ¡§So I gathered that they don¡¦t like me very much. But I also hate them when they tried to persuade me to join Voldie.¡¨
Snape gulped and turned into a lovely shade of green.
¡§Professor Dumbledore, I believe that we can leave now, right? Because I am starting to develop a rather nasty headache. ¡§
¡§Go on,¡¨ said Dumbledore, ¡§and I will owl you personally on how the investigation is going on.¡¨
¡§Thanks.¡¨ With that, she followed Mr. Weasley out.
¡§One more thing, Miss Granger.¡¨ said Moody. ¡§Do you know the art of Martial Arts?¡¨
¡§No, I don¡¦t.¡¨ Hermione replied. ¡§But I know ballet and gymnastics pretty well.¡¨
Like it? Any suggestions (esp. about pairings), please email me at AngelaWong844@hotmail.com .