"Miss Granger," ordered Professor McGonagall sharply. "Take Mr Malfoy to the hospital wing please."

Hermione stepped forward shocked to see those greyish blue eyes sunken within Draco's deathly pale face. She made feeble attempts to lift his arms onto her soulders but then Goyle tapped her on her back motioning for her to move aside.

"Yo, boy." She heard Goyle whisper to Draco. "It's ok."

She accompanied Goyle to the hospital wing and left him on the double bed when she suddenly noticed that Draco's left hand was scrunched up tightly into a fist, his arms tense. She peeled back his fingers gently one by one until she found a tiny ball of parchment. She looked round anxiously and as Goyle turned around, dropped it into her cloak pocket.

She would read it later.

*

Up in her dormitory she crept uner her blankets revealing the blackish yellowish parchment. She ran her fingers across the crumpled piece of paper finding the uneven bumps of a seal.

"Lumos!"

Black Ring. Black Ring seal? She thought wildly. So it wasn't from Pansy Parkinson after all. She ran through her mind searching high and low for mention of the Black Ring. Had she heard it somewhere? It wasn't in Hogwarts: A History, of that she was sure.

Black.Black.Ring.Black! The Dark Lord! Few words could be made out from the letter. It looked like a letter.

Dear.kill.power.me.mudbloods.ger.po.black ring.do you father proud.mal.

Her eyes opened wide in utter disbelief as she focused her entire concentration on the few words that she could see on the wrinkly parchment. She was very sure that this letter had been sent to Draco by his father, figuring the phrase 'do your father proud', but even then it may have been form someone who knew his father well.

Being unusually well co-ordinated in her right and left brain she pushed her logical-mathematical and linguistic powers to the limit. So. She'd worked out it was from Draco's father. Deducing that black meant the Dark Lord left her in the middle of nowhere. What about ring? Lord of the Rings. A journey? What's Draco got to do with a journey? Hang on. A fellowship. Hermione felt a surge of excitement sweeping up her spine.

A fellowship. A group. An organisation.

Oh! An organisation for the Dark Lord!

*

She struggled to put together the rest of the jigsaw pieces together when the door of the dormitory opened and she looked up, carefully placing the letter under the pillow. Lavender and Parvati entered the dormitory, smiling slyly.

"Hermione!" Lavender squealed and they both came to sit on the edge of her four poster bed.

"Oh. Hi." Hermione sat up and leaned against the head of her bed and smiled warmly at the two girls.

"You got to carry Draco to the hospital wing! What was it like?"

Hermione's smile quickly faded from her face. "I did not carry Malfoy. Gregory did. Plus he's a jerk, what do you see in him anyway?"

"WHAT DO WE SEE IN HIM?" Parvati exclaimed. "You can figure that out even if you just look at him for a milli second!"

Hermione shook her head. "Plus, I'm going out with Gregory."

Both girls pretended to gag. Lavender sat at the end of the bed, smoothed the sheets with her perfectly manicured fingers and launched into a deep long lecture.

"Hermione, this is the way you classify worthy guys."

Hermione sighed and closed her eyes.