A/N : Chapter Six is here!!!! YAY!!! This is a pretty good chapter, Hermione's intuition really kicks in on this one. I just feel sorry for Ayumi, being Hermione's guinea pig and all. Book 5 Spoilers start here, so if you haven't read the book stop here and come back when you have. ^_^ I'll be waiting, no rush. Anyway, on with the story!!!
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Chapter 6: Revelations (Hermione)
The mark wouldn't go away. She tried using a spell, taking a shower, scrubbing it till it turned bright red, but nothing worked. Not even the school nurse could do anything. Hundreds of people came filing into her office the next day, but she wasn't able to help any of them. The school was still treating it as a really well played prank. Hermione on the other hand, was sure this was the doing of Draco Malfoy. It screamed of something he would do. That's why she was excited about the date him and Ayumi were having that afternoon.
They already had it planned, now they were just making sure that everything would run smoothly. Hermione had enchanted some things to make it easier for her to listen and they were running through how Hermione would be able to stay behind them without Malfoy noticing.
"Now don't worry, I'm going to be able to hear everything that you two say, even though I'll be pretty far away," Hermione explained to Ayumi, who was changing in the closet, "I enchanted the hair pin on the desk. You put it on and I'll be able to keep track of you."
"Okay!" Ayumi yelled from inside the closet, "Do you think I should wear yellow or red?"
"Red. The darker, the better. Bright colors may scare Malfoy away." Hermione joked, "I'll try to stay around your without him seeing me, you know just incase..."
"That's good." Ayumi came out wearing a knee-length Chinese style dress in a deep crimson with a golden dragon pattern throughout. She looked as though she was going to a ball instead of just going to Hogsmead.
"Wow, don't you think you're a little dressed up?" Hermione asked her.
"No, I think Malfoy would prefer me to look my best." Ayumi walked over to the desk and put the pin in her hair, "Do you think this plan will work"
"As long as you lean the conversation in the right direction we will most likely get some information." Hermione sighed, "I just hope we can catch him before he actually hurts someone."
"Yes, and with the marks, it will be much easier for him." Ayumi looked over to Hermione and sighed loudly, "Are you sure he's behind all of this?"
"You don't think so?"
"I don't know. I know he doesn't like you, but he has always been nice to me," She shrugged, "and I can't help but think there is something that he isn't saying."
"Maybe he's just trying to manipulate you." Hermione grumbled under her breath.
Ayumi smiled, "I know you have a bad history with him, but I do not. Maybe you need to have an open mind."
"Maybe you need to have a closed one." Hermione snapped, "He's dangerous, the quicker we prove that, the better."
"I don't know Oni, I think there is something underneath all that anger... I would like to make up my own mind about him." Ayumi smiled again, "And I still think you should be a little more open minded."
"Yeah," Hermione looked down at her watch, "We should go, he's going to meet you there in an hour."
They walked down to the train station practically in silence. Ayumi was trying to start up conversations with Hermione, but she didn't feel much like talking right then. What Ayumi had said weighed heavily on her mind and forced all the old memories into her head. She was trying hard to control her anger, but it was hard not to get angry when she said to have an open mind. An open mind? About Malfoy? The idea was absolutely absurd. It wasn't like he would ever have an open mind about her. After all she was just a Mudblood to him, as he had told her many times before. He was harsh and cruel, how could she ever think he was decent? It made her so angry just to think about it, but she didn't want to lash out at Ayumi, it wasn't her fault for not knowing about the past. She didn't know that Malfoy, all she knew was this "new" Malfoy, the seemingly nice Malfoy. The one who was proven innocent of all charges as a Death Eater and got to come to school with everyone else. The one whose father was forcing him to be the way he was, and act the way he acted, because he was working for the Dark Lord. The one who was venerable and just needed a hug.
Hermione knew the truth though. He couldn't hide it from her. He wasn't an abused child who was a product of his environment, he reveled in the act of torturing those he deemed unworthy. He manipulated everyone around him in his web of lies and deceit, trying to make himself out to be the good guy. That was the Malfoy she knew, and that Malfoy was trying to manipulate Ayumi into thinking he was the victim in all of this. He just wanted her to be his friend on the inside, someone who could be his eyes and ears and watch whatever Harry was doing. He knew Harry and the rest of them would suspect something as soon as the attacks started and he would need someone to defend him to them. Why not someone whom they considered a friend? She knew that was the only reason he was even talking to Ayumi.
The whole thought process made Hermione so eager to get started she continually ran over the plan with her friend over and over again. When they got to Hogsmead, they quickly went to the designated spot and Hermione quickly walked a few hundred feet away from Ayumi, making sure she could still see her but Draco wouldn't spot her once they actually met. Ayumi stood there for what seemed like hours (It was actually only about 15 minutes) before Malfoy decided to show up, five minutes late.
"Ayumi!" He yelled to her, overly cheerful. Hermione watched as Malfoy, dressed head to toe in black, ran up to Ayumi with a smirk on his face.
"Malfoy-san!" Ayumi replied with the same amount of cheerfulness. It almost sounded phony, but Malfoy didn't seem to notice.
"Are you hungry?" He asked her, "Do you want to eat first?"
"Uh... we should walk around a little bit first." Ayumi struggled out, "Get to know each other a little better."
"If you want to." Malfoy shrugged and the two of them began walking. Hermione stayed within eye distance as they walked down every street. At first they weren't really talking about anything useful, mostly what classes they were taking and Ayumi's life back in Japan. It seemed like they were never going to talk about anything Hermione could use, it was getting frustrating, not to mention boring.
"So then I decided to come to Widdlewall," Malfoy said, finishing up another one of his droll stories, "My dad said it was the best after all."
Ayumi seemed to perk up a little bit, "Your dad? Isn't he in Azkaban?"
Malfoy's walking pace got slower, "Yes, you heard about that all the way in Japan, eh?"
"Voldemort was a name known very well in Japan. He wasn't a threat there yet, but the Asian Ministry was very worried."
"Well, they should have been." He scoffed. Hermione couldn't tell if he was bragging or being fearful though.
"Your father was a...." Ayumi stopped and sighed, "One of his followers."
"Yeah."
"Were you?"
Malfoy actually stopped walking at that point, "I should say I wasn't, after all the Ministry cleared me of all charges."
"So you weren't?" Ayumi questioned, "Because Oni said–"
"Who's Oni?"
Ayumi laughed, "Oni is my roommate! Granger-san. Her name is too hard for me to pronounce, so I call her Oni."
"Granger said I was a Death Eater?" Malfoy smirked a bit, "She would say that. That Mudblood wouldn't believe me if I said I had a stick in my hand then showed it to her."
Hermione would have been insulted, if it wasn't so true.
"Well, from what I hear you weren't very nice to her..." Ayumi mumbled.
"She deserved everything she got. Always walking around Hogwart's like she owned the place just because she read a few more books then everyone else." Malfoy sneered, "What did she expect? That everyone was going to bow down at her feet? She was as bad as that Potter, maybe worse."
"Oh... well, you know, she says you're the one behind all of this stuff on campus." Ayumi baited him. Hermione laughed, she was using his hatred for her as a way to make him confess. He would slip if he was mad, and she was one of the things that made him very angry.
"She does, does she? She would..." Malfoy said through gritted teeth, "If I was behind it, I would have gone after her instead of some random Mudblood."
Hermione had to admit that was true. It was strange that he didn't come for her first. Of course, that would have made it obvious as to who was behind it all. She waited for Ayumi to say something, but she just sighed and turned away from him.
"You believe her don't you?" He asked Ayumi.
"I don't know. I don't have a history with you so I can't pass judgment as easily as Oni does."
"History..." Malfoy laughed, "I've been at war with those three since I met them. All of them think they're better than everyone else, don't have any regard for status and order."
"Status?" Ayumi asked, "Your status?"
"I'm supposed to be better than they are," Malfoy began to pick up his pace a little bit, "My father had more status then the Weasley's and the Potter's. And Granger... she's not even a blip on the radar screen. Of course, my dad did blow it all by getting involved with Voldemort again."
The way that Malfoy spat out the name "Voldemort" struck a nerve with Hermione. There was no respect in his tone, only a vile hatred that she could feel all the way from where she was hiding. It actually shocked her, it was like he resented Voldemort instead of being one of his followers. His tone of voice seemed too real for hom to be lying about it. She wanted to see if Ayumi could get more information out of him but it was clear he didn't want to talk about it any longer. So instead the two quickly changed the subject and didn't go back to it the rest of the afternoon. He did, however, seem to like talking about Ron, Harry, and herself. In fact that was pretty much all he talked about unless he was bragging about all of his accomplishments. It began very boring very quickly, and Hermione found herself not wanting to follow them any longer. She would have to let Ayumi know the next time she was alone that she was free to end the "date."
The thought of what Malfoy said about Voldemort stayed on her mind the entire time. Every time she thought about it, the less she thought that he was lying. There was a resonating truth in that sentence that made a bell fo off in her head. It wasn't the bell she thought it was going to be either. It was a bell telling her that he was innocent.
"Oni!?" Ayumi suddenly appeared next to Hermione by the wall where she was hiding.
"Ayumi! What are you doing!?" Hermione exclaimed.
"I came to see you while Malfoy is talking to some friends." Ayumi explained and looked at her frantically, "I just wanted to say I don't think he is guilty and here's why, see--"
"I don't think he's guilty either." Hermione said quickly, making Ayumi stop talking, her mouth still hanging open. Hermione laughed, "Shocked?" – Ayumi nodded her head – "I am too. I'll explain why once we get back to the college."
"Well, if you think he's innocent," Ayumi looked at the ground, "can you please get me out of this? He's a bit boring."
Hermione laughed even harder, "I think I can do that. I'll just act mad at you for going with him, okay?"
"Okay." Ayumi smiled and then grabbed Hermione's arm, pulling her out of her hiding space, "Let's go!"
The two girls walked to the middle of the brick lined street and waited for Malfoy to notice Ayumi wasn't by his side. When he finally did, Hermione put on her mad face.
"What are you doing here!?" She yelled a little too loudly. As soon as she did, Malfoy quickly decided to make his way over there. She laughed in her head, that boy would give up everything just to make her life miserable.
"I..." Ayumi paused, waiting for him to make his way to them, "You knew where I was going to be Oni."
"I told you to stay away from him. He's dangerous." Hermione declared, watching Malfoy closely as he came up behind Ayumi.
"Granger, what are you doing here?" He spat out at her.
Good question. She had better come up with something fast or he would suspect something. Malfoy was evil, but he wasn't stupid, "I... noticed Ayumi gone when I got back from the library and I wasn't going to let her hang out with the likes of you." That sounded convincing enough.
"What? I wouldn't hurt her, she doesn't have a mark like you do." He said snidely, "I hear you think I'm behind that mass branding of the Mudbloods."
Hermione looked at Ayumi, trying to have anger in her eyes, "You told him!?"
"I'm sorry! I just don't believe he is behind it." Ayumi shrugged.
"Of course he is, after all, he was a Death Eater." Hermione rolled her eyes dramatically, "If he isn't behind it, then who is?"
Malfoy stepped closer to Hermione in a threatening way, "I think I know more about this then you do. If I were you I would stay out of the way before you get yourself killed."
"Is that a threat Malfoy?" She stepped closer to him, "I'm not afraid of you, you know."
"It's not me you have to be afraid of." He crossed his arms and smirked a bit, "It's dangerous for a Mudblood to get involved in this, if I were you, I would lay low... unless you want to be killed."
"What do you care anyway?" She gave him a cold, hard stare.
"I don't. I'm just giving you the facts." He shrugged. They stared at each other for a while then she grabbed Ayumi's arm.
"Come on, we're leaving." She snapped, actually mad now. Ayumi waved a quick goodbye to Malfoy and stumbled a little bit because Hermione was walking so fast.
"See you in class!" He called after her and started laughing. A horrible reminder, she had Herbology class with him tomorrow.
When they got far enough away, Hermione let go of Ayumi and stopped walking, "He really makes me angry," she said, "He may not be behind it all but he's still a git."
Ayumi laughed a little bit, "It sounded like he was warning you."
"Warning!?" Hermione yelled, "Yeah..."
Ayumi sighed, "I think he is too complicated to ever understand."
"Who would want too?" asked Hermione, then she began to laugh, "Come on, let's go get some ice cream."
*******
The next day Hermione decided to meet with Harry before going to Monday's classes. Harry seemed to be just as interested in finding out who was behind it all as she was, so he was obviously the first person she was going to go to. Truth be told, she would have rather gon to Ron about all of this, but he was so paranoid and really just wanted to pretend that none of this was happening. With all the history they had with Voldemort and his followers she could kind of understand, but she didn't see why he didn't want to stop the threat. Then there was her roommate. Ayumi knew everything and wanted to help, but she didn't really understand. Not only was she a world away when Voldemort was rising in power again, but she didn't experience the first hand loss like she and the others had. That made it hard for Ayumi to even grasp why Hermione was so worried about this when she had only read about it all in the Japanese version of the Daily Prophet. No, she knew the only person she could expect to understand completely was Harry.
"So you really believe it's not him?" Harry asked her as they walked on the wet grass on that cold, grey morning.
"Some of the things he said struck a cord." Hermione sighed loudly, "My mind is telling me he has to be behind it all, but my instinct is telling me he's innocent."
"Well, at least you can trust your instinct." Harry grumbled slightly and looked down at the ground. He seemed a little down that morning, and it made her wonder what his problem was.
"My instinct hasn't steered me wrong yet." Hermione told him, "Of course, that means I have no idea who's behind it all. Guess I'm going to just have to question everybody." She laughed, but he didn't.
"I don't like the idea of you getting involved." He said, looking at her with serious eyes, "You've been marked, looking for them is an invitation for them to find you."
Hermione sighed, "Listen, I know you're going to go after whoever is doing this anyway, that's just how you are Harry. So, I'm still high on their target list because I'm friends with you, I might as well try to help you. Besides, I'm not going to let you do it all by yourself."
Harry looked at her, "Do you have to be so stubborn all the time?"
"Do I have to answer that?" laughed Hermione, "Besides, you're one to talk."
Harry laughed, "That's true."
"Still, where do we even start?" She asked him as they walked passed on of the many fountains, "We could look into Malfoy some more, he may know who is behind it all."
"It's probably the best place to start, he probably is pulling the strings and having someone else do all the dirty work," Harry agreed, "which is just as bad as him doing it himself."
"But, he can claim innocence if the plan fails." Hermione shrugged.
"Think that's the case?"
"Don't know, I don't think he's the one doing all this, but it's a good possibility he's influencing it in someway." She sighed, "I just can't wrap my brain around him being completely free of guilt."
"That's because Malfoy is never innocent." Harry smiled at her, making her chuckle a little bit.
"I'm sorry. We should probably talk about something else for a change." She shook her head, "You seem a little down, what's the matter?"
"I don't know," Harry shrugged, "I just thought that once... it was over, we wouldn't have to deal with it anymore."
Hermione looked at him with a sympathetic look. He must be feeling guilty that he couldn't stop everyone on Voldemort's side. She knew that even though this had nothing to do with him, he was going to blame himself. After all, he was always the hero, good or bad.
"It's not your fault Harry," she said before he had the chance to say anymore, "You know that, don't you?"
"I keep telling myself that," He shrugged, "I'm just not convincing myself."
"Harry, you saved the world from Voldemort, how is this your fault?"
"I should have known that some of his followers would want to try to continue his work." Harry sighed and kicked the ground.
"They didn't before, most of them pretended they had nothing to do with him." Hermione explained.
"Most of them, but not all." Harry reminded, "Don't you remember Professor Quirrell or Pettigrew?"
"Yes, but neither of them were killing people." She sighed, "You can't be expected to know what everybody is doing all the time."
"But if I don't do it, who will?" He asked her, "There are people out their counting on me."
"Who cares about them? You're not Superman."
Harry's eyes flashed with a sudden anger, "You don't understand."
"I don't understand what? That you're responsible for every life that is taken by magic?" Hermione spat, "You're right, I don't understand that."
"I'm not responsible for every life taken by magic," He scoffed, "It's just..."
"Is this about Sirius?" She asked him calmly, but the question only seemed to enrage him more.
"No." He said bitterly and turned his head away from her. That was a sure sign that he was lying.
"Harry, that wasn't your fault, it's been two years, you need to stop blaming yourself." Hermione was trying to console him, yet everything she said only made him angrier.
"Yeah, whatever..." He sighed, "I have class, I'll see you later."
With that he walked away from her, without even giving her a second glance. She absolutely hated when he got like that, she wanted to run up to him and tell him what a jerk he was being. Instead, she just stood there and watched him walk away from her.
*******
Throughout her day all she could think about was the little fight she had with Harry. She barely paid any attention in Advanced Alcemetic Chemistry, which annoyed Professor Yullinty to no end since Hermione was usually the one who answered all the questions. Of course, this made the students stop glaring at her for raising her hand first, so she made a note to herself not to answer so many questions in the future. Also, she was pretty much ignoring all of Malfoy's remarks that he made under his breath to her in Herbology class. This seemed to annoy him more than if she actually said something back to him, which was another thing she made sure she would remember in the future. Basically she just tried to concentrate on what the Professor was saying instead of Malfoy or the fight with Harry.
"This plant here," Professor Kelsin pointed to a yellowish plant sitting on her desk, "is called an Armain, It's a potent magical ingredient that can cure almost all poisons once mixed with certain other things. It's a nice thing to keep handy just in case you find yourself poisoned by God Knows What."
Hermione wrote about the plant and it's effects in her notebook. No one seemed to be doing the same, in fact they all seemed to be almost asleep.
"I hope all of you are paying attention." Professor Kelsin glared at the class, "Because in two weeks we have our first trip to Mulsen Mountain. I expect all of you to be able to not only find the plants I ask, but to also make a potion with them."
The class groaned in disdain, and Hermione heard Malfoy mumble something under his breath, which meant she was the only one excited about the prospect of a field
trip. She was always good at identifying herbs and things, so she knew that she would ace that day. Of course, there wasn't much that she couldn't do when it came to the wizarding world... except get Malfoy to stop bothering her whenever they were in the same vicinity. It made her wonder if there was a spell she could use for that.
"For the next two weeks we're going to study each of the ingredients that you are going to have to find on Mulsen Mountain. Call this your first big project as it will be a huge percent of your final grade." When Kelsin said that a lot of people suddenly sat up at attention, "I thought that might get all of you to listen. Now, if you'll get in pairs of two I'll pass out the plants."
Hermione quickly asked the girl who always sat next to her, Alison Merriweather, to be her partner, very glad that Professor Kelsin didn't assign partners like she usually did. Maybe it was because Malfoy and her weren't muttering to each other under their breaths.
"I'm kind of scared about going on this trip to Mulsen." Alison told Hermione as the Professor handed out the strange yellow plants.
"Why?" Hermione turned to look at her with a confused look upon her face.
"Because I hear there are a lot of bad things there, like vampires and werewolves..." Alison shivered a bit, "And things nobody knows the names of. It doesn't sound like a pleasant place to me."
"I'm sure that Professor Kelsin will make sure we aren't in any danger." Hermione reassured Alison and the two quickly got to work on the assignment. She reminded herself to talk to Harry though, hopefully he would still be mad at her.
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A/N: So.. Is Hermione right? Is Draco really innocent? He hasn't been the nicest guy ever, why is her gut telling him that he is? Hmmm, and if it's not him... who is it? Also will Harry ever believe that the death of Sirius wasn't his fault (If that's even true, but that is up for debate). It seems to be effecting him two years after the fact.... hmmm... so many questions. So little answers!
Haha. Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out my other story called "Hogwarts" Thanks!!!