Chapter 5: Of Potions and More Surprises

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Once the initial danger of 'borrowing' the jobberknoll feathers had passed, the brewing of the potion was no problem at all. Harry and Ron kept Hermione company in her room while she worked - the procedure wasn't difficult, but it did require semi-constant attention for a few hours each day. The boys would go over quidditch plays while she stirred, measured, or added ingredients; when they decided that it was time for a break, they'd simply grab her around the middle and use her as a substitute quaffle. Invariably, these spontaneous sport sessions would quickly degenerate into a sprawling, giggling puppy pile on the floor. For the first time all year, Hermione didn't feel as if there was an unresolved issue hanging in the air between them. This potion, and the motivation behind it, gave the trio a common purpose; it was easier to concentrate on that than to confront the issues that were likely to only create friction.

That's why Hermione felt a twinge of sadness as she corked the small vial of finished potion on Sunday evening. The preparations were finished; they would only need to wait until Malfoy received his next owl to put their plan into action. And then... well, who knew? It was possible - however unlikely it seemed - that this would all turn out to be nothing, the letters harmless. In that case, things would return to the way they'd been all term; overly polite and aggressively sincere conversations that never once touched on post-graduation plans, and those (thankfully infrequent) moments when Hermione had the distinct and unpleasant feeling she'd interrupted a conversation about herself. Ah well, she thought, scrubbing the last traces of precipitate out of the cauldron in her bathroom sink. No use worrying about that until you have to.

Unfortunately, she found that time came sooner than she might've hoped. The next morning, bright and early, the now-familiar owl soared into the hall and dropped yet another envelope in front of Draco. Ron dug his elbows into both Harry and Hermione's sides; rather unnecessarily, as a matter of fact, as they were all three paying very close attention. When Malfoy had secreted the letter away in his robes and picked up his fork again, they turned to each other, faces laced with anticipation and apprehension. Harry's lips soundlessly formed one word: Tonight.

***

Classes seemed to stretch on forever that day. Hermione thought it was rather like the day just before Christmas break, except for the knot of anxiety slowly twisting in her stomach. She seriously doubted that Harry and Ron got this nervous before any of their various escapades; perhaps if they did, she thought, they'd be less eager to jump right in. Well, at the moment, she was nervous enough for all three of them. They'd been doing this for long enough that it was high time for something unexpected to happen; she only prayed that they would be prepared when it did.

After dinner that evening, they decided that an empty classroom would be much more suited to preparations than the common room, mostly because, once invisible, they wouldn't have to wait for someone to open the door before they could leave. Harry shook out the invisibility cloak, newly enlarged, while Ron activated the Marauder's Map with a certain amount of odd reverence. Hermione, for the tenth time that day, checked the vial of memory potion in a pocket of her robe.

"Remember, if Malfoy spots us, just smash the bottle on the floor at his feet. The aerosolized spray will ensure that he doesn't remember us being there at all. Just be sure to not breathe it in." Harry and Ron nodded. When everything was in place, Harry swept the cloak around the trio, and thin air swallowed them whole.

***

Finding their way to the Slytherin common room wasn't hard. They'd become quite adept at walking in step with each other, and a couple of years ago they'd discovered a charm to muffle the sound of their footfalls under the cloak, so that was no danger. It was simply a matter of finding an out of the way nook where no one would be likely to accidentally bump into them.

Once settled, they turned their attention to the map. The dot that said "Draco Malfoy" was currently settled in the boys' section of the Slytherin dormitories. Harry met Ron's eyes and sighed. It was shaping up to be a long evening.

About two hours later, Hermione nudged her companions and indicated the map. Draco's dot was steadily moving towards the common room door. The three of them silently prepared to follow. A minute or two later, the stone wall opened, and three figures stepped out... Avery, Crabbe, and Goyle. No Malfoy in sight. Yet the map still indicated that he had exited the common room, and was now standing not ten feet away from them. There was not time to think before the three Slytherins turned right down the dungeon hallway, while according to the map, Draco went left. Suddenly Hermione was struck with realization. She grabbed Harry and Ron's wrists and shook the silvery material covering the, mouthing "Cloak!" as understanding dawned on their faces. Of course Malfoy would have an invisibility cloak of his own; it wouldn't be like his parents to deny their son such a potentially useful gadget. Harry led the way, and they set off down the hallway, following at a safe distance.

Draco seemed to be taking no chances on being followed; he made a nearly complete, although winding and roundabout, circuit of the castle before finally slowing in the third floor corridor. The third floor was no longer forbidden, considering the Sorcerer's Stone was long gone, but students still tended to stay away, fearing that perhaps Hagrid had not found a better place to stash Fluffy after that year. Harry paused as Draco lowered the hood of his cloak, looked carefully around, and then removed it completely, draping the liquid-like cloth over his arm. He proceeded to open a heavy door on the perimeter of the hallway - Harry, Ron, and Hermione managed to just slip in before he shut it again.

The room was dark, lit only by the pale fall moonlight drifting through the window to settle on the carved stone surfaces of the walls and fixtures. A dark figure stood, apparently lost in thought and looking out the window. Hermione's breath caught in her throat. So Harry and Ron hadn't been wrong after all - this was who Draco had been meeting, this mysterious wizard masked in black robes and moonglow and shadow. She shot a look in Malfoy's direction, unwilling to take her eyes off the other wizard for more than a few seconds. Draco, for his part, was clearly nervous, kneading the silky fabric of his cloak in his hands. He took a step forward and cleared his throat.

The figure at the window startled out of its reverie and wheeled, visibly relaxing when Draco came into its line of sight. "Draco," an unmistakably feminine and strangely familiar voice said, as the shrouded figure raised her hands to lower her hood. "You surprised me, you're early..."

Hermione shook her head to clear it. She was not hearing this. Wasn't seeing it, either.

The witch had shrugged off the fabric covering her head to reveal a shock of bright red hair, and Ginny Weasley stepped forward out of the shadow - and straight into Draco Malfoy's waiting arms. His voice was thick as he buried his face in her hair, nuzzling just below her ear. "I couldn't wait." She giggled and threaded her fingers through the slight blonde curls at the nape of his neck.

Hermione warily turned to look at Ron and Harry, wanting to believe that what she was seeing was some sort of glamour, that they had witnessed something completely different. Seeing the looks on their faces, though, she knew that wasn't the case. Harry's expression, she was pretty sure, mirrored her own: disbelief, worry, and somewhere, a tiny bit of relief that Draco hadn't been sneaking off to meet the newest incarnation of Voldemort. Ron, however... Ron was standing stock still, mouth slightly open, eyes as big as saucers, as if a basilisk had managed to slither past without their notice. Hermione wondered briefly if he'd gone into shock, until she noticed the two bright red spots of anger quickly rising in his cheeks. She'd seen that look before... on Mrs. Weasley, right before she loudly started in on whichever of her sons was making her life difficult that particular day. Hermione realized it was only a matter of seconds before Ron would blow their cover. Sorry, Ron... She leveled her wand at his and whispered "Petrificus Totalis".

Harry realized what she was doing and was ready to grab Ron as he stiffened and fell backwards. Working in tandem, they managed to haul him back towards the door and get out; Hermione suspected that they weren't being very stealthy, but Draco and Ginny were lost to the world. They wouldn't have noticed had a herd of hippogriffs had stampeded through. Once they were outside, a well-applied mobilicorpus got Ron floating down the hall, and Harry and Hermione made it back to the dormitories as quickly as humanly possible.

***

Harry shut the door to Hermione's room firmly and propped Ron's unconscious form against the bed. Hermione slightly winced as she raised her wand. "... Finite Incantatum."

Ron didn't miss a beat. "MALFOY! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY SISTER, YOU SLIMY, EVIL, SON OF A BLAST-ENDED SKRE..." He paused as he realized that Hermione's room was not, in fact, an abandoned classroom on the third floor. "Killed 'im for me then, have you? Thanks guys, knew I could always count on you..."

Harry and Hermione gave each other a slow look. Perhaps they should have discussed how to deal with this situation before unfreezing Ron. Finally, Harry took a deep breath and clapped him on the shoulder. "Ron, maybe we should all just sit down and talk about how to handle this before anyone does anything... hasty..."

Ron sat up indignantly. "What's there to talk about? I'm just going to curse every single part of his body that he ever let within a foot of Ginny, that's all." Harry winced slightly.

Hermione had had enough. "Ronald Weasley, you will do nothing of the sort. I cannot believe the two of you," she stormed, eyebrows narrowed. "Ginny did not look anything like an unwilling participant in... whatever that was, and I will not allow the two of you to go rampaging up there and 'save' her from whatever you think she needs saving from. I'll admit I don't understand what she sees in him, but we have no reason to distrust her judgement in her own life. And you have to admit, Draco's been much less of a prat to us this year than usual. If you think for one second that I'm letting you out of here so you can tell yet another girl what, in your infinite wisdom, she should be doing with her life, you have another think coming. Are we clear?" She paused, noticing for the first time that her hands were balled into fists, fingernails almost painfully dug into her palms.

Harry and Ron sat on the bed in front of her, clearly stunned at the outburst. Ron started, "Hermione, I cannot believe that you are defending that -" He stopped when Harry elbowed him in the ribs and shook his head fiercely. Now was most definitely not the time.

Hermione sighed. "Harry, just take him back to your dorm, will you? And make sure he doesn't do anything stupid..." Silently, Harry helped Ron, who was clearly still very much processing these recent events, to his feet. On the way out the door, he paused.

"You've really changed, Hermione... I... well, I'll see you tomorrow." And they were gone.

Hermione's righteous furor lasted all of five minutes before she wilted into her windowseat, leaning her forehead against the glass, watching the rain and her tears streak down the pain. No, Harry, she thought. It's not that I've changed. It's just, for some reason, I'm not afraid anymore to show you who I am. And that, she was afraid, was the loneliest thing of all.

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A/N: Sorry this is so late, guys! Like I posted in a comment a couple of days ago, this past week has been incredibly busy for me. Finals, traveling home, spending time with my family, doing all my Christmas shopping... not to mention Lord of the Rings! But here's your new chapter. Hope you liked it! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and I'd absolutely love it if you'd continue to. Expect a new chapter in a few days. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!