Chapter Seven

Common Room Frenzy

"Oh, hold still child, I'm nearly through with you," Madame Pomfrey snapped to the uncomfortable, fidgeting student before her.  Hermione regretted listening to Dumbledore when he asked her to stop by and see the school nurse just before she left.

"Do you need to be so thorough, Poppy?"  Hermione had been on a first name basis with the head nurse for years from all the times she came in.  Being friends with Harry and Ron made her a regular at the hospital wing. 

"Yeah," Ron complained, "her head's still there, what else are you lookin' for?" 

"Mind your manners, Weasley, or you'll be sprawled on the floor looking for yours," she shot back to the flushed red head. 

"You have a bruise on your back," Pomfrey inquired Hermione.  "Where did you get it?"   Hermione looked confused until she remembered the incident with her and Snape. 

"Oh, I bumped into a tree on my way up last night," she lied. 

Madame Pomfrey looked at her suspiciously and shook her head.  "Well, it's a pretty deep bruise.  You must've bruised the tree as well, then."  "Let me see it."  Ron jumped up from his stool and tried to peek over Madame Pomfrey's shoulder before she shooed him away.

"All right, go on you're fine, but take some of this potion so you can get some rest."  

Hermione looked at the potion then grabbed it and flashed a smile to the vigilant nurse.  "I'll know if you took it, I always do," she shouted from inside as they left the hospital wing.

"So, tell us Hermione, how'd you really get that bruise?"

"I told you Ron, I bumped into a tree last night," she said more confidently this time and quickly changing the subject.  "Let's go have some breakfast, I'm starving and I want to get the morning paper.  There's something in there I have to read."

When Hermione, Ron, and Harry arrived at the Great Hall, they sat down at the Gryffindor table just in time for the owls to arrive with the morning mail.  A small tawny owl with thick, yellow-spotted feathers swooped down and dropped Hermione's copy of the Daily Prophet right in her hand.  

"Wow, good aim," Ron shouted excitedly.  Hermione opened it up as she searched eagerly for any news and sure enough, there it was in the front page:

Unidentified Man Found Murdered Near Hogervow Village

 A young wizard who was walking out of the Galadon forest after a three day hunting trip with his father found the head of an unknown man skewered near the village of Hogervow, two days ago.  The father of the boy requested that we not disclose the boy or the family name.  The man's head was badly beaten, and his face was not visible for identification after specialists examined it.  What's more is that his body is also missing.  The ministry was questioned about this mysterious murder and commented: "We have no leads as to who murdered this man, let alone his identity.  We are doing everything we can to bring this man's death to justice and to catch his murderer.  If there is anyone out there who could give us information on the culprit of this treacherous act of lunacy, please contact the Ministry as soon as possible," says Minister Cornelius Fudge….

Hermione continued on reading silently to herself.  She looked sympathetically up at Harry, knowing how much this news would affect him. 

"What is it?  Is there something there on Voldermort?" he whispered.

"Let's get out of here Harry.  We'll go to the common room.  C'mon Ron, you've stuffed your face enough this morning." 

Hermione, Ron, and Harry were walking out of the Great Hall when Hermione snuck a glance at the Slytherin table.  She saw Malfoy sitting between Pansy and Crabbe, smacking the cinnamon roll out of his hand whilst he pointed at his love handles.  He was obviously unaware of what went down last night, Hermione thought.  Well, it won't be long before Daddy writes him and tells him to keep an eye on her.

While they were walking down the hallway on their way to the common room, Hermione explained to Harry and Ron what had happened the previous night. She started from when she went up to the Gryffindor tower, with many interruptions in between, up to the point she arrived at the party. 

When she explained to Harry and Ron what she had intended to do with Malfoy when she got up to the tower that night, they stopped abruptly in the middle of the hall and rolled over on the floor.  Tears spilled out of their eyes as they laughed hysterically.  Ron and Harry were practically entangled in a thick knot, and Ron laughed so hard that he farted right in Harry's face. 

Harry socked him playfully in the stomach, which only induced the gassing.  Hermione kicked both of them and told them to shut up and act like grown ups.  She had to stand there for a good ten minutes to pull them up only to have them relive the image of Malfoy as Slytherin Drag and fall back to the ground. 

"You two are a bunch of idiots.  I almost got killed last night, and all you can do is laugh like morons.  Get up damn it!" 

Hermione took out her wand and both boys stopped laughing instantly and got up quickly. 

"Sorry bout that 'mione," they said wiping the tears from their eyes and still trying to suppress their laughter. 

Ron wished he had woken up to a dressed up Malfoy in stilettos and a tiara, hanging above the common room hearth.  He would have roasted marshmallows all day under Malfoy. 

Hermione turned around and started walking towards the stairs to get to the common room.

"So, what happened," Harry asked.

"Hmm.  Oh, Snape showed up and, well…he got me out of there and brought me back, but not before that-- 

"What do you mean 'he got me out of there, and brought me back?'" Ron inquired suspiciously.  "How exactly did he get you out of there and why would they let you go?"

Hermione, who had planned on only telling Harry about Snape, had also intended to leave Ron out of that part of the story. 

"Well that's what I wanted to talk to you about when we got up to the common room," she lied again.  "But as I was saying," she said changing the subject, "Snape showed up but not before that bastard Macnair tried to assault me. And Malfoy's father was there too, and I was--"

Hermione stopped talking when she realized she was alone.  She looked around for the boys and noticed that had stopped a few paces back leaving her to walk by herself. 

"Harry?  Ron?  What the--?" Hermione walked back towards them wondering why they had stopped when she saw the familiar dreamy expressions they had on their pathetic faces when a certain someone was near. 

Ron and Harry were staring at a figure that had just walked out of a door to their side, and Hermione realized what it was exactly that was happening to them.

"Hello boys," said an illuminating silver-haired Fleur when she walked towards them.

"Hi," they replied with misty, coveting eyes and thick wet tongues lolling out of their watering mouths. 

"Beauziful day iz it not?" she said through pouty lips and perfectly white teeth. 

Both Harry and Ron nodded fervently with huge grins on their desperate looking faces.  Ron licked his lips, and Harry licked his hand before running it across his messy hair to pat it down.  Staring after her, they didn't notice Hermione creep up behind them and SMACK!! 

"SO SORRY I EXIST," she screamed in their faces.

"Ow," Ron and Harry bellowed rubbing the back of their heads.  "Cheeses cries, Hermione," Ron said after snapping out of oblivion.  "You know we can't help it when she gets near us."

"Cheeses what?"  Hermione asked before Harry leaned over and whispered in her ear.  "I think he's trying to say Jesus Christ.  He got it from 'Ghostbusters' that one summer we went to the cinemas."

Hermione sneered at both of them and vowed to find a way to record their ugly faces so they could see just how pathetic they looked whenever Fleur was around them. 

Fleur Delacour had been working at Hogwarts since their sixth year.  She wanted to move back to Hogwarts and find a job that'll help improve her English.  So Dumbledore got her the job in the library as Madame Pince's assistant.  But everyone knew the main reason behind her move was to be closer to Wood, who she had been dating since the summer after Harry and Ron's fifth year. 

Oliver Wood had joined the Chuddley Cannons after he left Hogwarts and then resigned when he heard from his uncle Sturgis how bad things were getting.  He came back home and joined the Order and would stop by every now and then to report to Dumbledore and check on Fleur.

When they finally got up to the common room, they settled themselves in the back in their usual seats.  Ron had walked over to Neville and Colin who were playing chess and Hermione took it as the perfect opportunity to tell Harry about her and Snape.

"So, what you're telling me," Harry said after Hermione told him about the previous night, " is that Snape told the Death Eaters that you were giving him information about me, because you're in love with him?"  Harry stared at Hermione in disbelief.  "C'mon Hermione, you know they didn't fall for that; you're both screwed." 

"Well, if you put it that way," she scolded.  "You see Harry," she stammered.  Her voice faltered as she looked straight down at the tiny pale hands she unconsciously tucked between her thighs.  "It was sort of… like - more of an illustration rather than a persuasion," she said timidly.

"What do you mean illustration?" Harry growled.  "Did he touch you, because I'll go up there right now and castrate the son-of-a-bitch?" he said flying out of his seat. 

Hermione grabbed his arm and pulled him back down in his seat.  "He didn't touch me, you idiot," she lied convincingly. 

"Who didn't touch you?" Ron asked from behind her.  Hermione's eyes widened when she heard Ron's voice from behind her. 

'Damn Harry and his loud mouth,' she thought.  'Good thing no one else heard.' 

"Who's touching you?" Ron repeated. 

Harry and Hermione exchanged worried glances then looked back at him and said nothing.  "Well, what the hell are you two talking about?  And who the hell's touching you Hermione?"  

"Oh, shut up Ron and sit down!  I'll tell you everything."  Hermione put on the best poker face she could mask so he wouldn't think anything of what Harry just let out.  She explained to him that Snape had gotten her out the mess she was in last night by telling the Death Eaters that she was giving him information on Harry because she was in love with him.  She made sure to leave out the other bits.

"And they believed you?  C'mon Hermione; who the hell would believe that anyone would fall in love with that arrogant piece of shit?"

"Well they did, obviously, so now I have to figure out what to do.  I mean what information, am I going to give them?"

"Well, you can just tell them that Harry wears satin knickers and jacks off to the 'Banshees'.  Why the hell do you care?  You're back aren't you?  You don't have to tell them anything, just tell them to kiss my arse."

"What about Snape's cover, Ron?  They'll know he lied and, well who knows what they'll do to him if they found out he's been betraying them the entire time.  The Dark Lord would kill him."

"Are you kidding me?  If that's what's going to happen, then what the hell are you waiting for?

Ron had barely finished his sentence when Hermione smacked him flat across the face.  "I don't care what your feelings are towards Snape," she hissed, "but he saved my life, and I'm going to do this for him whether you," she looked at Ron and then to Harry, "or you are going to help me or not." 

A flushed Ron with his hand still rubbed over his face, simply snorted before he looked shamelessly away.  The three of them were quiet for a few minutes before Ginny joined them.

"Why the glum faces," she said plopping down in the arm of Harry's chair.  She leaned over and planted a kiss on his lips. 

Ron curled his lip in disgust as Harry slapped Ginny's hand away when she tried to run it through his messy hair.  Ginny glared at him and smacked him across the head before she got up to leave.  Harry was too busy avoiding Ron's eyes to notice. 

"I already know about you and Ginny, Harry, so you can stop pretending like I'm the idiot you all take me for.  Besides, I'm perfectly okay with it," he said with a calm, cool smile on his face.. 

"So, if there's anything you want to talk about, you can tell me Harry." 

Harry stared intently at his friend whilst he attempted to figure out if he was faking or not.  He relaxed in his seat when he was convinced that Ron was serious.

"Ah, that's great Ron.  I knew you'd understand," he said leaning back on his chair.

"It's no problem mate."

"No, I'm serious you don't know what it means to me for me to say that."

"Well, like I said, Harry.  It's not a problem."  Ron was getting slightly disconcerted with Harry.  He did not want to get into the subject of his relationship with Ginny.

"I mean all this sneaking around was really getting on my bloody nerves."

"Harry."

"Oh, and Ginny; I've been dying to talk to someone about this."  Harry lowered his voice so no one else heard him.  "See, she does this thing when we're having sex right, and it really--"

"Ah, shit, no, no, no, no, no, no, Damn it.  What the hell do you think you're doing mate?"  Ron was trying to drown out the information Harry had just let out.

"But you just said--"

"I know what I said, but I don't want to hear about you shagging my – aaaaaah!  No, no, no!"  Ron shook his head when the image of his innocent, naked sister under Harry's bare naked, gaunt, and undernourished body doing the – "Aah fuck!  I don't want to hear this," he said putting his fingers in his ears. 

Ron stood up to leave but not before slapping Harry behind the head for the revolting image and information of him and his sister.

Hermione who had followed after Ginny came back to talk to Harry when it hit her that she had forgotten to tell him about the paper.

"Harry, there's something I forgot to tell you." 

"You're not going to hit me, are you?" he asked as he rubbed the back of his head. 

Hermione threw Harry the newspaper she had read earlier and caught it.  After a few minutes of silent reading, he quickly looked up terrified.

"Tell me this isn't Sirius, Hermione!  "Tell me it isn't him!" he said.  Fear was evident in his shaken voice.

"I was hoping you'd say that," Hermione replied.  Harry looked incredulously at her and opened his mouth before she stopped him and explained: "it's not Sirius, Harry, I was only hoping that you would think it was him so that when I tell you who it is, it wouldn't hurt as bad.  It's Pettigrew. 

Ron who had been sipping on the leftover butterbeer Neville handed to him earlier spit it all over Harry's shirt when he heard what Hermione had said.  He was a few feet away from them and quickly made his way back when he overheard them. 

Harry, whose jaw had dropped as far down as it could, was in disbelief. 

"I heard Snape telling Dumbledore last night that Nott had told him Peter had been found with his head skewered near the forest.  He didn't know anything else about it, but he thought they'd have something in the paper about it.  But it looks like they don't even know who it is.  Pettigrew's face was so messed up they might not ever find out that it's him.  They don't even know where the body is." 

Ron looked as if he was going to puke.  Harry who realized that with Peter killed there was no way Sirius was going to be proven innocent, unless of course by some miracle, Peter would come back to life.

"Well, I'm fine with that," Harry spat viciously, the anger penetrating in his veins.  "The bastard finally got what he deserved.  I only wished I was there to see his face."

"There's something else Harry.  I heard Snape tell Dumbledore that Nott was angry it wasn't him who killed Peter.  I know I shouldn't be telling you this, but you deserve to know it.   

"But, what do you mean?  Why would he want him dead?  I thought they were on the same side?"

"That's what I thought.  But, I don't know Harry.  It's all very confusing.  Snape said he was missing or hiding but I don't know from whom.  I have a feeling Dumbledore knows why but he wouldn't say last night.
Harry got up from his seat and tucked the paper under his underarm.  "I'm going to write Sirius -- Ron you coming?  Ron?"

Ron had been sitting completely still in his arm chair staring across the room as if he were lost in his thoughts. 

"RON!"  Ron looked up and cleared his voice before turning to Hermione and Harry. 

"You know, there's something really weird going on with those two," he said suspiciously.  Harry and Hermione were looking towards the area in the room Ron was fingering at.  They saw Parvati and Lavender sitting close together in at the foot of the stairs alone, and talking in a very private conversation.

"What are you talking about, Ron?" Hermione asked. 

"I mean they've been doing that for a while now."

"You aren't making any sense," Harry said.  "Those two are always together."

"Yeah, but they're never quite like that."  Ron stared quietly at the pair and then shook his head and dismissed the topic before getting up to leave for the owlery with Harry. 

Meanwhile, Hermione went to her private quarters to shower and take a quick nap before dinner. 

When Hermione woke up, she noticed that she had nearly slept through the entire night.  She got up quickly and saw that it was 11:46.

"Damn it!  I missed dinner," she mumbled to herself.  She put her head back down on her pillow and noticed that her stomach had made a rumbling sound in agreement.  'I wonder why Harry and Ron didn't wake me up', she thought. 

Feeling queasy, she sat up and straightened her spaghetti strap when she remembered that she was supposed to meet Snape after dinner. 

"Shit!  How the hell could I have forgotten?  This is just great," she said, throwing her slightly damped, tangled hair into a loose bun.  "One more thing he can throw in my face," she mumbled again.  Hermione threw her slippers on and pulled her night cloak around her before going down to the dungeons to check if Snape was still, hopefully, awake.

Hermione noticed a bit of light flickering from beneath the doors as she arrived at Snape's dungeon.  She began to feel squeamish and slightly nervous. 

"What the hell is wrong with you?"  She steadied herself when she got to the door and knocked hard enough for Snape to hear her.  She felt nervous all of a sudden. "But this is normal," she said to herself.  "I mean the man's a beast.  Who wouldn't feel tensed. 

Hermione, feeling a bit disconcerted, when no one answered her knock, thought that maybe he was not there.  She waited patiently for a reply, and was caught off guard when seconds later she was startled by the door Snape had flung open with surprising force.

With malicious eyes, and a sneer that would've scared a goblin, Snape looked ready to kill.

She was turned on.

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