A/N: Trying to make up for lost time by posting this chapter relatively soon after the last one, in hopes that at least by spring I will have posted the final chapter of the story. I say 'relatively soon' because it would have taken less time if it weren't quite so big, but I do have an outline of all the remaining chapters, so... I need to fit certain scenes in each one, and then sometimes a scene inspires me so much that I write it longer than originally intended. This chapter is obviously the longest by far - I'll try making the next ones shorter because I realize it's easier to read that way and I can also post faster if the chapters are shorter.
Enough about my writer troubles, though. Time to switch back to Hermione's point of view, as her feelings get more and more confused where Draco is concerned. The story continues and the plot thickens - both similar and yet not quite how we know it from J.K. Rowling's books, but you'll have to read more to find out how it differs ;)
Enjoy this new chapter!
Chapter 9 – You can't push it underground/You can't stop it screaming out
(Hermione p.o.v.)
Was it a good thing that Draco had gone back to asking for meetings with her, Hermione wondered as she made her way, alone, to the Great Hall to have breakfast. Hermione had slept poorly, as a consequence she was late in getting up and in the Common Room there was no sign of Harry, who was probably long gone with the rest of her friends.
If she hadn't been already late, Hermione might have considered stopping by the Hospital Wing, for a quick visit to Ron - although Madam Pomfrey assured everyone that he was going to be all right, Hermione herself wasn't reassured that he was out of the woods.
Draco was the most likely culprit for the poison in Slughorn's mead, and that made her feel disheartened, because if he was still capable of such horrible things, it meant her influence on him - if any - wasn't as strong as it was supposed to be, at least according to that prophecy which said that somehow she was supposed to work miracles and make Draco see 'the light' and join the fight against Voldemort. And that was one of the many reasons why she hated prophecies: they were often vague and confusing and Hermione would have preferred if the Headmaster would be more like Professor McGonagall in this respect, placing little importance on Divination and all such nonsense.
'Over here, 'mione!' Harry called out to her, his face stuffed with one of the various delicious dishes prepared by the Hogwarts house elves for breakfast that morning.
She hadn't realized she was already in the Great Hall, but before she sat down next to Harry, she cast a glance in Draco's way: he was lost in thoughts, his face drawn, and once again he wasn't participating in his colleagues' discussions. Not a good sign for sure.
"Have you been to see Ron this morning?" she asked Harry, as she starting filling her plate with food at random - she wasn't feeling hungry, but she didn't want to worry Harry either, he had enough on his plate, so to speak.
"I've seen him - he's looking much better but he's starting to get crabby about being stuck in bed for at least one more week."
"That's definitely a good sign - Ron's starting to sound like his old self", Hermione agreed.
"The only problem is, apparently he's been pretending to be asleep whenever Lavender comes visiting and she's making it a habit of complaining about it to me - it's bloody annoying, almost more annoying than McLaggen and his endless lectures about Quidditch... honestly, I can't decide which one of them I want to jinx most!"
"If Ron doesn't want to be with Lavender anymore, he should pluck up the courage to tell that to her face, she deserves as much... I guess", Hermione said ruefully. She was trying hard not to gloat about there being trouble in paradise, but she couldn't help but empathize with Lavender... it couldn't be nice to feel that her boyfriend was avoiding her.
Still, this type of troubles 'of the heart' seemed of little importance compared to everything else that was going on at the moment in the Wizarding world. And yet, Hermione herself was fighting some matters of the heart, because she'd enjoyed some of the stuff Draco had done to her in the Prefects' Bathroom. Not the spanking, obviously, but other things, like the kissing, and feeling his skin on her skin...it had been such an incredibly pleasant and arousing feeling, despite being so wrong, so forbidden at the same time.
"I'd rather face the Hungarian Horntail again than be in Ron's shoes when he finally breaks up with Lavender - I'm thinking it's inevitable now... but she's more his problem than mine, no matter how often she comes complaining to me. I just can't wait for him to get out of the Hospital Wing and back on the Quidditch team so I won't have to put up with McLaggen anymore."
"Today's match versus Hufflepuff is the only one you'll have to bear with him on the team, right? By the time the next one comes around, Ron will surely be back on the team!"
"That's my only consolation. You'll come cheering for us, won't you, Hermione?"
"Of course!" she assured him, although she wasn't feeling particularly cheerful. Still, it was important to support her team so she joined her fellow Gryffindors in the stands, although throughout the game her mind was back to Draco and whatever he might be planning next. It was clear he was under duress to achieve some dark mission of sorts, and Hermione had to find a way to discover what that was and try to prevent him from doing any further harm.
She was snapped out of her dark thoughts when Harry was hit... by fellow teammate Cormac McLaggen himself. She accompanied Harry to the Hospital Wing, where Ron was in a violent mood, having heard Luna's commentary which let him know what had happened.
As Madam Pomfrey examined Harry, he kept on commenting on McLaggen's idiocy, ignoring the school nurse's admonishments.
"That bloke is bloody useless, despite of how knowledgeable he wants to appear to everyone - it's because of him that Harry's in this situation and the game is lost!"
"Harry's health is a bit more important than the outcome of the game, Ron!" Hermione pointed out. "If Coote and Peakes hadn't caught Harry after Cormac hit that bludger at him, Harry might have been hurt much worse"
"It's nothing to worry about, Miss Granger - just a cracked skull which I can mend quicker than you can say 'Quidditch", Madam Pomfrey assured her.
"Great news!" Ron said excitedly, but then became sad all of o sudden. "Though I suppose that means Harry'll be free to go once he wakes up and I'll be left alone here again."
"Oh, stop complaining, Mr. Weasley, you haven't had a moment alone what with all your family members and friends visiting all the time! Besides, if it's any comfort, I'll be keeping Mr. Potter under observation overnight, so he's not going anywhere just yet!"
"Brilliant! Just like Luna's commentary, did you hear her?" Ron continued, jubilating, but Hermione didn't share his mood.
"I didn't catch much of the commentary, Ron, but I'm sure Harry will be happy to hear all about it, as soon as he wakes up - it'll probably take his mind off the fact that Gryffindor lost. I'll go now, but do tell him I'll come by later, OK?"
She left before Ron had a chance to reply. Hermione was still a bit annoyed with him about evading Lavender, so until he made things right, she didn't want to be around him too much, especially if 'Lav-Lav' was going to accuse her of trying to steal her boyfriend or something.
As she was heading towards the library, she ran into Draco on the grand staircase - he was going down.
"Where have you been? I didn't see you at the Quidditch match", she observed.
"You do realize I don't answer to you, don't you, Granger? But you should be happy I wasn't there to see the game, I understand Gryffindor lost spectacularly, that's not something you should want to show off!"
"How do you know who's won if you weren't there? And I still insist on asking where you were, because it seems suspicious to me that you'd have business on the upper floors."
"I've been patrolling the corridors like a good little Prefect - and it's on the corridors that I heard about Gryffindor's defeat - it's already all over school! Now do you want to return the favor I just made you by answering you about my whereabouts and tell me about Potter and Dumbledore's meetings?"
"Certainly not!" Hermione replied, outraged.
"I figured - then you'll be serving 'detention' by meeting up with me on our next Hogsmeade trip."
"It's not like I can refuse, can I?" she said bitterly.
"That's right, Granger, you can't, so you'd better be there if you care about your pretty neck. I'll let you know exactly where and when to meet via the paper lion."
"But that trip is only for the ones who will have turned seventeen years old by the time of the apparition test, which is in April - so you can't come!" Hermione realized.
She wanted to kick herself for saying that out loud though, because it was an admission she'd found out when his birthday was and that denoted an interest that she shouldn't have had in the first place, but it was too late to take her words back now.
"Impressed though I am that you know when my birthday is, let me worry about getting to Hogsmeade, all right?"
He left without saying another word, and of course thoughts of him made her first half an hour at the library a total waste of time - she couldn't focus on a single word she read. Eventually she managed to focus, but she was still pretty unsettled given the big mystery of what Draco might be up to next.
The following Monday, both Harry and Ron were free to leave the Hospital Wing, so Hermione went to greet them... which turned out not to be a very good idea because they ran into Lavender who wasn't pleased to see her with Ron, nor was she happy with the fact that apparently Ron hadn't informed her that he was going to be released.
A storm was brewing there, and Hermione couldn't help but smirk: it served Ron right, for postponing his inevitable confrontation with Lavender.
Harry seemed to catch on to the fact that she was in a rare good mood - lately Hermione had to admit she hadn't exactly been a ray of sunshine - and took advantage to ask her to 'look over' his Herbology essay... she gave in, knowing she needed to be a better friend to her friends.
He left her soon because he had another meeting with Professor Dumbledore.
As she watched him go, Hermione thought that there was no way she was going to tell Draco that these meetings were about Voldemort's youth and probably leading up to information about how to bring him down in the war to come. Hopefully the Headmaster would give Harry some valuable information this time, because so far she hadn't identified anything that could help in a battle.
Once he returned from his meeting, Harry told both her and Ron about what he found out, but unfortunately Voldemort didn't seem to have any weak points or vulnerabilities, unless one could call an interest in rare objects (like items which belonged to the Founders of Hogwarts) a weak point, but that was, at most, a hobby... sure, anything that held Voldemort's interest was worth looking into, but Hermione wasn't very hopeful at the moment. Especially as it was now a pressing matter for Harry to obtain an important memory from Professor Slughorn, and the Potions Master was extremely reluctant to do so, which meant they were at an impasse.
Harry was intent on trying to find a solution in the insufferable Half-Blood Prince's potions book, which she told him was useless.
Veritaserum was probably not going to work either, according to professor Dumbledore himself, as for the Imperius curse, it was out of the question, of course, being illegal.
"Only you can get the memory, Dumbledore says. That must mean you can persuade Slughorn where other people can't. It's not a question of slipping him a potion, anyone could do that..." Hermione argued.
"How do you spell 'belligerent'?" said Ron, as he shook his quill hard, all the while staring at his parchment. "It can't be B—U—M—"
"No, it isn't," Hermione replied, exasperated, as she pulled Ron's essay toward her. "And 'augury' doesn't begin O—R—G either. What kind of quill are you using?"
"It's one of Fred and George's Spell-Check ones, but I think the charm must be wearing off."
"Yes, it must," she replied, "because we were asked how we'd deal with dementors, not 'Dug-bogs', and I don't remember you changing your name to 'Roonil Wazlib' either."
"Ah no!" Ron exclaimed. "Don't say I'll have to write the whole thing out again!"
"It's okay, we can fix it," Hermione said, as she took out her wand and started repairing the damage from the expired Spell-Check quill.
"I love you, Hermione," said Ron, sinking back in his chair, rubbing his eyes wearily.
Hermione could feel herself blushing, as she replied "Don't let Lavender hear you saying that."
Ron could be so oblivious, blurting out things like that out of the blue. And he obviously didn't mean it in the romantic sense, although she was pleased he had such affection for her. Draco would probably say it was all thanks to her always helping Ron out, like she was doing now, but Hermione knew it wasn't just that.
"I won't," said Ron into his hands. "Or maybe I will, then she'll ditch me."
"Why don't you ditch her if you want to finish it?" asked Harry.
Hermione tuned them out as she focused on fixing Ron's essay, handing it back to him once it was finished and accepting his gratitude with a smile. It was good to be back to doing what she was best at, and having at least an hour of normality, with her two best friends, in the Gryffindor Common Room which was like a safe haven for her.
Just as Hermione was contemplating the tranquility of the scene, a 'crack' was heard, and she let out a little shriek of surprise.
"Kreacher!" Harry said, and once Hermione's heart stopped beating wildly, she noticed that it was, indeed, the old house elf, who had just apparated.
"Master said he wanted regular reports on what the Malfoy boy is doing, so Kreacher has come to give —"
Another 'crack' was heard and Dobby apparated alongside Kreacher.
"Dobby has been helping too, Harry Potter!" he squeaked. "And Kreacher ought to tell Dobby when he is coming to see Harry Potter so they can make their reports together!"
"What is this?" asked Hermione, still shocked by the sudden invasion of house elves. "What's going on, Harry?"
Harry was hesitant in answering, which was suspicious and certainly didn't bode well.
"Well… they've been following Malfoy for me," he said.
"Night and day," said Kreacher.
"Dobby has not slept for a week, Harry Potter!" Dobby said proudly, which only inflamed Hermione, who had already gotten upset by hearing how Harry had been using the house elves.
"You haven't slept, Dobby? But surely, Harry, you didn't tell him not to..."
"No, of course I didn't," Harry said quickly. "Dobby, you can sleep, all right? But has either of you found out anything?"
"Master Malfoy moves with a nobility that befits his pure blood," croaked Kreacher at once. "His features recall the fine bones of my mistress and his manners are those of..."
Despite her annoyance with Harry, Hermione almost burst out laughing at Kreacher's admiration of Draco - he did have fine bones and his manners could be impeccable when he wanted to act graciously.
"Draco Malfoy is a bad boy!" squeaked Dobby angrily and Hermione could empathize - Dobby had seen the true face of the Malfoys, wasn't blindly lost in admiration like Kreacher...
She turned her attention back to what Harry and the house elves were saying.
"Dobby, you tell me," said Harry, interrupting Kreacher. "Has he been going anywhere he shouldn't have?"
"Harry Potter, sir, the Malfoy boy is breaking no rules that Dobby can discover, but he is still keen to avoid detection. He has been making regular visits to the seventh floor with a variety of other students, who keep watch for him while he enters..."
"The Room of Requirement!" said Harry, smacking himself hard on the forehead with Advanced Potion-Making. "That's where he's been sneaking off to! That's where he's doing… whatever he's doing! And I bet that's why he's been disappearing off the map — come to think of it, I've never seen the Room of Requirement on there!"
"Maybe the Marauders never knew the room was there," Ron said.
It was unlikely, as the Marauders had known Hogwarts inside out - it was clear from how complex their map was, a perfect replica of Hogwarts, down to the smallest detail.
"I think it'll be part of the magic of the room," Hermione offered. "If you need it to be unplottable, it will be."
"Dobby, have you managed to get in to have a look at what Malfoy's doing?" Harry asked.
"No, Harry Potter, that is impossible!"
"No, it's not," Harry objected. "Malfoy got into our headquarters there last year, so I'll be able to get in and spy on him, no problem."
"But I don't think you will, Harry," Hermione told him. "Malfoy already knew exactly how we were using the room, didn't he, because that stupid Marietta had blabbed. He needed the room to become the headquarters of the D.A., so it did. But you don't know what the room becomes when Malfoy goes in there, so you don't know what to ask it to transform into."
"There'll be a way around that," Harry dismissed her concerns. "You've done brilliantly, Dobby."
"Kreacher's done well too," said Hermione kindly, although instead of being grateful, Kreacher croaked at the ceiling, "The Mudblood is speaking to Kreacher, Kreacher will pretend he cannot hear —"
"Get out of it," Harry snapped and Kreacher disapparated. "You'd better go and get some sleep too, Dobby."
"Thank you, Harry Potter, sir!" squeaked Dobby, and he, too, disapparated.
"How good is this?" said Harry enthusiastically, turning to her and Ron. "We know where Malfoy's going! We've got him cornered now!"
"Yeah, it's great," said Ron glumly, who was attempting to remove the ink that had spilled on his almost completed essay. Hermione pulled it toward her and began removing the ink off with her wand, using 'Tergeo'.
"But what's all this about him going up there with a variety of students'?" she asked, puzzled. "How many people are in on it? You wouldn't think he'd trust lots of them to know what he's doing—"
"Yeah, that is weird," said Harry, frowning. "I heard him telling Crabbe it wasn't Crabbe's business what he was doing… so what's he telling all these… all these…" Harry's voice tailed away. "God, I've been stupid! It's obvious, isn't it? There was a great vat of it down in the dungeon… He could've nicked some any time during that lesson…"
"Nicked what?" asked Ron.
"Polyjuice Potion. He stole some of the Polyjuice Potion Slughorn showed us in our first Potions lesson… There aren't a whole variety of students standing guard for Malfoy… it's just Crabbe and Goyle as usual… Yeah, it all fits!" Harry jumped up and started to pace. "They're stupid enough to do what they're told even if he won't tell them what he's up to, but he doesn't want them to be seen lurking around outside the Room of Requirement, so he's got them taking Polyjuice to make them look like other people… Those two girls I saw him with when he missed Quidditch — ha! Crabbe and Goyle!"
"Do you mean to say," Hermione said quietly, "that that little girl whose scales I repaired —?"
"Yeah, of course!" said Harry loudly. "Of course! Malfoy must've been inside the room at the time, so she — what am I talking about? — he dropped the scales to tell Malfoy not to come out, because there was someone there! And there was that girl who dropped the toadspawn too! We've been walking past him all the time and not realizing it!"
"He's got Crabbe and Goyle transforming into girls?" Ron laughed. "Blimey… no wonder they don't look too happy these days. I'm surprised they don't tell him to stuff it."
"Well, they wouldn't, would they, if he's shown them his Dark Mark?" said Harry.
"Hmmm… the Dark Mark we don't know exists," Hermione pointed out, trying to sound skeptically, although she knew too well that the Dark Mark was indeed there, on Draco's arm.
"We'll see", said Harry confidently.
"Yes, we will," Hermione said, getting to her feet and stretching. "But, Harry, before you get all excited, I still don't think you'll be able to get into the Room of Requirement without knowing what's there first. And I don't think you should forget"— she heaved her bag onto her shoulder and gave him a very serious look — "that what you're supposed to be concentrating on is getting that memory from Slughorn. Good night."
As she went up to the Girls' dormitory, Hermione wondered whether she'd managed to side-track Harry. She was scared of what Draco might do to Harry if he thought he'd been discovered... not that even she knew what Draco was really up to, because whatever he was doing in the Room of Requirement was clearly some other plot, not directly connected to the cursed necklace and poisoned mead.
She wondered whether she should confront him about it - after all, Draco was already tormenting her, what more could he do to her, even if he thought she was onto him?
But that was a question for another day - she'd had quite enough for the moment. Still, she couldn't sleep untroubled, because on her nightstand, a message was written on her origami lion - a time and place for her next meeting with Draco.
The following weekend, Hermione, Ron and the rest of the sixth years who would turn seventeen in time to take the apparition test in a fortnight went on their Hogsmeade trip. Harry had to stay behind and Hermione warned him that his time would be better spent trying to get Slughorn to give him his real memory rather than trying to get into the Room of Requirement while Draco was there.
She could confidently assure him his efforts would be wasted in that direction because she knew Draco wouldn't be in the Room of Requirements in the next couple of hours. Despite Draco being too young to take the apparition test, he'd probably found a way to go on the Hogsmeade trip because he'd asked her to meet him at 11 o'clock, in J. Pippin's potions shop. It was an apothecary which few students frequented, so as far as meeting places went, it was a good choice. Most students hated Potions while Snape was teaching it, and despite Professor Slughorn's more pleasant disposition, the dislike for Potion had stuck in most cases.
As soon as she completed her practice run for the apparition test (and managed to apparate successfully), Hermione used her new learned skill to get to the apothecary unseen.
She entered the shop and noticed that no one was there except for the owner, who didn't seem to pay her much attention, as focused as he was on mixing some questionable substances into a boiling cauldron.
"This way, Granger", a disembodied voice called to her quietly from among the high shelves stocked with various potions and potion ingredients.
Normally she would have taken her time to analyze all the shelves, because this particular apothecary wasn't her usual haunt in Hogsmeade (Tomes and Scrolls was her favorite, being a bookshop), but she resisted the temptation to learn more and made her way towards the voice and found Draco there, his lithe frame leaning against one of the shelves, a small vial in his hand - he was playing with it, and Hermione wondered what it contained. But she had other questions first.
"How did you manage to get out of Hogwarts? You didn't tell me that the last time we talked."
"You know, Granger, I'm starting to think I'm not going about the right way with our meetings seeing that you're not one ounce more humble than you were at the beginning of the school term. So again I ask, why should I explain myself to you? You do remember that I'm the one that has power over you, not the other way around?" he asked, probably chanting his foul little incantations, because a moment later Hermione felt the choker tighten around her neck.
"But since I don't want you distracted because of curiosity, so I'll tell you. There is a secret passage that connects Hogwarts to the Honeydukes shop in Hogsmeade."
Hermione knew all about that particular tunnel - known to the few who were aware of it as 'the One-Eyed Witch passage' due to the statue of Gunhilda of Gorsemoor which hid it from sight- because of Harry and the Marauders' Map. Harry had used it a couple of times to get into Hogsmeade when he wasn't supposed to, but she wondered how Draco knew about it.
"Your friend, Potter, made me think there might be a hidden way to get into Hogsmeade without permission - remember when he came on one of the trips despite McGonagall explicitly telling him he has to stay behind at Hogwarts?"
"I would have thought you'd want to forget all about that incident", said Hermione, thinking about the visit to the Shrieking Shack when an invisible Harry threw snowballs at Draco and his minions, making utter fools of them.
"Yes, well, as much as I would have wanted to forget about it at the time, the indignity of it made me very motivated to find out how he managed to get out of Hogwarts and eventually I discovered the passage."
"How did you know the password?" asked Hermione, very curious, because she knew that finding the secret tunnel wasn't enough - one had to have the password, too!
"How did you know there was a password?" he asked her in return. "My, my, the perfect Prefect knows about secret passages in Hogwarts, what an outrage!" Draco teased.
"Stop dodging questions and just give me a straight answer, Malfoy!" she demanded.
"Bossy as ever - I must be doing something wrong!" Draco mused aloud much to Hermione's annoyance. "But fine, I'll satisfy your curiosity in this regard as well. It was from the tweasels themselves."
Hermione gave him a blank look, although she caught on soon enough.
"Do you mean Fred and George?" she asked frostily.
"The very ones... they're twin weasels, so... tweasels. Witty, isn't it?" Draco bragged, but Hermione wasn't interested in such nonsense.
"I don't believe for a moment that they'd give you the password of their own accord, so I can only conclude that you spied on them."
"Precisely, Granger. After all, being sneaky is a key part of being a Slytherin. Now that I've told you, do let's get back to the purpose of this meeting."
"Which is...?" Hermione trailed off, because she wasn't sure she wanted to know what he had in mind.
"Information, what else?" he asked with a smirk, which only served to further infuriate Hermione. As if Draco were after information all this time - sure, that was the reason he'd given her and probably the lie he was telling himself, too, but the reality was he wanted to torment her, and underneath that twisted pleasure, was probably a cry for help, and Hermione knew it in her heart that she needed to answer that call.
"Like I've already told you numerous times before, I'm not going to tell you anything about Harry and the Headmaster, so you might as well get on with whatever on you have on your mind - save us both some time!"
"Don't get ahead of yourself - this time it's something else I want to know, or confirm, really. It was Potter who sent my former house elf to spy on me, wasn't it?"
Hermione tried to keep her face straight, so as not to give herself away.
"Dobby?" she asked innocently, but apparently Draco wasn't in the mood for games - not this type of games, anyway. He grabbed her arm and squeezed hard. That's definitely going to leave a mark, Hermione thought glumly.
"Yes, Dobby, and don't pretend like you know nothing about it, I'm sure Potter told you all about it."
Hermione pursed her lips and refused to say one word, although Draco was increasing the pressure and she was afraid he'd snap the bone soon.
When the pain got too bad, she bit on her lip, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of hearing her cry out.
"Fine, don't tell me", he said, releasing her hand. Hermione gladly rubbed the sore spot, hoping to ease the pain. "Dobby as much as admitted it anyway."
"You spoke to him?!" Hermione asked, her voice incredulous.
"We do go a while back, Dobby and I, seeing as he used to serve us Malfoys until Potter managed to free him."
Hermione gave him a pointed look, remembering how Dobby had called Draco 'a bad boy' - that look was, apparently, all Draco needed to understand what she wanted to say.
"Oh, you think he wouldn't have talked to me because he was treated badly while serving my family?"
It was uncanny how he could sometimes read her mind - he might have been a good Legilimens, but Hermione herself was pretty good at Occlumency and besides, she kind of hoped that no matter how far Draco was willing to go to achieve his ends, he'd stop before crossing lines like invading someone's mind.
"Although this might come as a surprise to you", Draco continued, "it wasn't I who treated Dobby the worst - that was mostly my father or my 'dear' aunt. I got along rather well with bat-face... I mean, sure, I got pretty nasty at times, but it was mostly snarky comments. In any case, you know how house elves are, they won't betray anyone's loyalty, but Dobby's were divided, given that he used to serve me... so I read between the lines and figured out that Potter is spying on me using house elves. Not very ethical of him, is it? I mean, let alone the whole spying thing, what about poor Dobby who had to follow me day and night? I thought you were an advocate for house elves' rights - you created that organization, STEW or something, didn't you?"
Hermione was impressed he knew that, so it took her a few moments to respond.
"It's S.P.E.W., actually - the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. And yes, I don't quite condone what Harry did."
Hermione wondered why Dobby hadn't mentioned that Draco had discovered him spying, but it was probably because Harry had sent the house elf off to sleep before he could say any more... or maybe Dobby's loyalties were divided, but in any case, she knew the house elf would never hide things that might place Harry in danger, Dobby was very devouted that way.
"I'm pleased to hear Potter hasn't made you lose your moral compass - I mean, if anyone is going to do that, it'll be me!"
He suddenly pushed her back so that Hermione's back was against a shelf, and with nowhere to go, she had no choice but to allow him to mold his body onto hers.
"Since it'd be a bit harder to punish Potter for his impudence of having me spied on, you'll do just fine as a surrogate. Besides, I think I enjoy punishing you more than I'd enjoy punishing Potter - and the punishment definitely wouldn't have the same nature", Draco added as he crushed his mouth to hers so fast and hard that she stumbled backwards, almost knocking down the shelf.
Hermione dreaded to think what a dreadful noise all those potions vials would make if broken so she had to stand still, her body molded to his.
He continued kissing her deeply, and soon she forgot all about even wanting to fight back, as her dread turned to pleasure, despite Hermione hating herself for it.
Grabbing the back of her neck, Draco bit hard on her lip until she produced the sound he was probably after, a moan that had sat at the back of her neck ever since their first meeting.
"You realize that's like an admission that you like what I'm doing to you, don't you, Granger?" he asked smugly and Hermione could have punched him in the face if her hands hadn't been trapped between their chests.
She said nothing, uncharacteristically, fearing that instead of a protest she might urge him to go on doing whatever he wanted.
"Look into my eyes!" he ordered. "I want to see that admission in your eyes - you lips might deny it", he continued, tracing her bottom lip with his thumb, "but your eyes won't."
Hermione didn't look into his eyes - she couldn't, because she wasn't sure what he'd see in them. She shook her head, but Draco wasn't about to have any of it.
He took her hair into a fist and pulled hard, forcing her to look at him.
Whatever he saw made him give a low growl as he suddenly lowered his hand and lifted her thigh up, curling it around his waist. The feeling was exquisite and exciting and for a moment Hermione forgot all the reasons for which she should not like it, and just gave in to it all.
When his lips left hers to move downward, she rolled her head to the side, giving him access to her neck and he worked some magic there with his tongue, tasting her around the edges of the choker and biting her occasionally, but nothing of the usually cruel bites. On the contrary, they were, by all definitions, 'love-bites'.
"As good as that felt, it's time for the next level of punishment, Granger, since you seem to be enjoying the first a little too much!"
As he said that, Draco released her and took out a small pocket knife from his robe, tracing her carotid artery with its blade - well, as much as he could, considering the choker got in the way.
"You might want to remove that choker for my neck if you want that", she pointed to the knife, "to be more efficient!"
"Nice try, Granger, but the choker is staying on. Besides, I'm sure I can find better spots for this", he continued in a voice that was so eerily even and quiet that it sounded sinister.
Hermione couldn't understand his sudden mood swings, but then again, she'd known all along he had darkness in him, and if she could exorcise it this way, then she couldn't really protest... much.
He made his way through her robe and lifted her sweater to make a precise cut just above her navel.
Despite the horrible sting, Hermione didn't utter a sound in reaction. Instead, she tried to talk sense into him.
"You do realize that everything you do will catch up to you, you can't push it underground and ignore it... and it'll be worse the more you do!"
As if to spurn her words, Draco not only ignored her, but did worse, cutting a bit deeper, and this time Hermione couldn't help but cry out.
He quickly covered her mouth with his hand.
"Unfortunately that's all the screaming we can afford - this place might be empty of patrons, but that's all the more reason why sound carries and we wouldn't want Mr. Pippin to hear us, now would we?"
She pried his hand off - realizing that he allowed her to do so, otherwise she would have probably failed in that endeavor - as she gave him a look intended to wither any living creature.
"You can't expect to keep hurting me and not make me scream, just like you can't stop it screaming out, all this evil that you're doing not just to me, but to others like Katie and Ron, because no matter what you say, I just know it you were behind those incidents! Stop now, before it's too late to go back!"
"Back where, Granger? I'm not like you, I don't have a safe, loving Muggle family who is all about everything nice and good, I don't have the 'Chosen one' as a best friend, nor am I the teacher's pet for every single professor at Hogwarts."
She heard the hurt behind those words and instinctively raised her hand to caress his cheek.
"So maybe that wasn't the best way to phrase it - I meant that it's not too late to choose good, to choose the light. You were the one who told me about that prohpecy, remember? Why not give course to it?"
"I might be more inclined to do that if you were more forthcoming with me, but you're not, are you?"
"Don't try to blame this on me", she protested. "And you can bet I'll do more screaming and then Mr. Pippin will come and you'll be outed and that won't go very well with whatever dark plans you have!"
"I can probably have the choker prevent you from screaming and still do whatever I want, but I grow tired with your talking, Granger. You're off the hook for now, but you might consider talking about what I want to hear for our next meeting."
He left abruptly after that, but not before throwing her the small vial he was toying with at the beginning of their meeting.
Hermione was left reeling from everything that had transpired. She couldn't afford the luxury of wasting time though - so she quickly read the label of the vial he'd given her and then opened it, applying the Murtlap Essence on the cuts on her abdomen. Apparently Draco only wanted to scar her soul, not her body.
Luckily, the cuts were more painful than deep, so they should get cured without leaving any marks... which was surely what Draco had intended. He seemed to like her unmarred skin as much as he liked cutting her...The fact that he was so twisted anguished her, but there really wasn't any time to entertain these dark thoughts now - she needed to make her way back to the group of Hogwarts students, lest Ron or someone else noticed her absence.
On the 21th of April, the apparition day test, Hermione was sitting with Harry and Ron in a sunny corner of the courtyard after lunch. She and Ron were both very nervous about taking their tests that very afternoon, and Harry was getting on Hermione's nerves by not focusing all of his attention on obtaining Slughorn's memory, but rather on catching Draco in the act in the Room of Requirement, something she'd already tried to make him see was nigh impossible.
"For the last time, just forget about Malfoy," she told Harry firmly. Hermione knew that she was the one who had to figure out a way to make Draco stop whatever he was planning, and Harry getting into the mix wasn't going to make things easier. But Harry didn't know about her meetings with Draco, so he insisted on catching Draco in the act, which was a great nuisance.
Ron was also getting on her nerves, by trying to hide behind her every time a girl came around.
"It isn't Lavender," she told him, wearily, when another girl approached them.
"Oh, good," said Ron, relaxing.
"Harry Potter?" said the girl. "I was asked to give you this."
"Thanks…"
The letter turnout out to be from Hagrid, who informed them that Aragog, the acromantula whose numerous offspring had almost eaten Harry and Ron in their second year, had died and that Hagrid didn't want to bury him alone.
Hermione felt for poor Hagrid, because as horrifying as an acromantula is, Aragog had been Hagrid's pet... sort of... The problem was that they weren't supposed to leave the castle at night, for obvious security reasons.
"Harry, you can't be thinking of going," she said. "It's such a pointless thing to get detention for."
"Yeah, I know," he said with a sigh. "I suppose Hagrid'll have to bury Aragog without us."
"Yes, he will," said Hermione, relieved. "Look, Potions will be almost empty this afternoon, with us all off doing our tests… Try and soften Slughorn up a bit then!"
"Fifty-seventh time lucky, you think?" said Harry bitterly.
"Lucky," said Ron suddenly. "Harry, that's it — get lucky!"
All of a sudden, the solution was clear to all of them: Harry had to use Felix Felicis to obtain the real memory from Slughorn. There was some reluctance on Harry's part, which, in Hermione's opinion had everything to do with him wanting to use the potion on something else, something that had to do with Ginny, but Harry eventually gave in.
With at least one worry off her mind, Hermione managed to pass her apparition test - which, of course, turned out to be easier than she'd worried about... The same couldn't be said for Ron, who failed because of half an eyebrow that he left behind.
When it was time for Harry to finally take the liquid luck potion, he alarmed both her and Ron with his erratic behavior, but Hermione had no choice except to trust that the potion worked, and that Harry going to Aragog's burial would somehow result in him obtaining the desired memory from Professor Slughorn.
She tried doing some studying but as time went by she found she couldn't focus, knowing that Harry was out there, potentially in danger. However, as it was getting late, she had no choice but to go to bed and try to sleep, hoping Harry would have good news the following day.
And just as she'd hoped, during next morning's Charms lesson, Hermione found out from Harry good news.. but also some bad news - the good news was that he obtained the memory from Professor Slughorn, but the bad news was that Voldemort had made six horcruxes - objects that stored part of his soul and which had to be destroyed before the Dark Lord himself could be killed. There was some comfort in knowing two horcruxes were already gone (Tom Riddle's diary and the ring that Dumbledore had destroyed, but not before it had destroyed his hand).. but as for the rest of them, apparently they were a Slytherin locket, Hufflepuff's cup and Nagini, as well as another unidentified object that, most likely, had once belong to the Ravenclaw or Gryffindor founders.
The more shocking news was that the Headmaster thought he'd found one of the horcruxes and that he wanted Harry to come with him in order to destroy it.
"Wow," said Ron, when Harry had finally finished telling them everything; Ron was waving his wand very vaguely in the direction of the ceiling without paying the slightest bit of attention to what he was doing. "Wow. You're actually going to go with Dumbledore… and try and destroy… wow."
"Ron, you're making it snow," Hermione warned, grabbing his wrist and redirecting his wand away from the ceiling... she quickly retracted her hand though when she noticed Lavender glaring at her.
"Oh yeah," said Ron. "Sorry… looks like we've all got horrible dandruff now…" He brushed some of the fake snow off Hermione's shoulder which made Lavender burst into tears.
Ron admitted that he and Lavender had broken up and that he didn't mind.
"It was pretty bad while she was yelling, but at least I didn't have to finish it", he said.
"Coward," said Hermione, feeling slightly amused. She didn't approve of Ron's way of 'breaking up', but she was glad it was finally over... the way he kept hiding behind her to avoid Lavender had been extremely annoying. "Well, it was a bad night for romance all around. Ginny and Dean split up too, Harry", she said, knowing the news would please her friend.
To Hermione it was clear that Harry was attracted to Ginny, and she knew for a fact that the feeling was mutual - in fact, Ginny was in love with Harry and had been for quite some time now, so perhaps Harry would finally get over his fear of Ron's disapproval and do something about it, before Ginny took another boyfriend just to make Harry jealous.
After Charms, they had a rare free period, so they headed to the Gryffindor Common Room where, to their surprise, they ran into none other than Katie Bell, who had been in St. Mungo's Hospital until that point.
Unfortunately she couldn't remember who had given her the cursed necklace, only that she was about to enter the bathroom in the Three Broomsticks when she was Imperiused.
As Katie left, Hermione thought about that piece of information, wondering whether she should dare hope it hadn't been Draco after all who had cursed Katie.
"So it must have been a girl or a woman who gave Katie the necklace," said Hermione, "to be in the ladies' bathroom."
"Or someone who looked like a girl or a woman," said Harry. "Don't forget, there was a cauldron full of Polyjuice Potion at Hogwarts. We know some of it got stolen… I think I'm going to take another swig of Felix," said Harry, "and have a go at the Room of Requirement again."
Clearly Harry still thought it was Draco behind the incident, and, unfortunately, so did she, despite the wishful thinking that it was otherwise.
"That would be a complete waste of potion," she told Harry flatly. "Luck can only get you so far, Harry. The situation with Slughorn was different; you always had the ability to persuade him, you just needed to tweak the circumstances a bit. Luck isn't enough to get you through a powerful enchantment, though. Don't go wasting the rest of that potion! You'll need all the luck you can get if Dumbledore takes you along with him…" She dropped her voice to a whisper.
She had to make sure no one heard anything about Harry and Dumbledore's plans - it would be absurd if, after all the time she resisted telling Draco about it, he'd find out because of her carelessness.
Hermione pondered the idea of brewing some Felix Felicis herself, in order to make Draco end their twisted meetings and consent to fighting against Voldemort... but the potion took too long to prepare, given that it had to stew for six months... Besides, she wasn't fully convinced that she had the ability of persuading Draco to join their side, against Voldemort, in which case drinking liquid luck would be a waste of potion, as she had just told Harry.
Harry had also told her something useful, something that actually Professor Dumbledore had told him during their last meeting. The Headmaster had pointed out that Harry shouldn't give the prophecy about him and Voldemort so much importance: Voldemort was evil and had killed Harry's parents and so many others, so Harry wanted to finish him off, whether a prophecy said so or not.
In a similar way, Hermione reasoned that she shouldn't be so focused on this newer prophecy that was, allegedly, about her and Draco. Even without it, she could clearly see that there was good in Draco so of course she wanted to help him choose the right side in the war to come.
Hermione also realized that her wanting to make Draco choose the right side might also have something to do with her feelings for him - not that she knew exactly what they were, but they were strong... It was probably more than not wanting to abandon a lost soul but saving it instead.
In any case, she had so many things on her mind that Hermione knew now was not the moment to try to sort out her feelings for Draco. Hopefully, there would be time for that later, once she'd convinced him to fight against Voldemort.
At least she now knew that it was her choice that made her want to achieve this goal, and not that she was forced by some stupid prophecy, and this fact made her feel immensely relieved somehow.