Hey! I'm sorry for the wait with this chapter, but my muse was taking a temporary hiatus in Bermuda. (Union rules, she/he/it had vacation days coming. . .) =D Enjoy!

~NayNymic

Chapter Five: White

Midnight found Hermione Granger in the library, searching frantically for any information she could find on either Carpe Enspiritus or bonding. Though it was true that she had been looking through these very volumes the day before in preparation for her own bonding-the idea that something could go this drastically wrong had never occurred to her.

Well, that wasn't entirely true-she had briefly considered that something might happen . . .but . . . they had taken precautions, they had been so careful . . . she HERSELF had checked through every text she could find, and Merlin only knew that she was more than thorough in her research.

She sighed, rubbing her brown eyes tiredly. How the hell did it happen?! It should have been her in this-this. . . mess. Not Harry.

Hermione winced slightly, a wave of guilt washing over her. This was all her fault, really. It had been she that asked for Harry to be her second; she who had taught him the spell for reinforcement purposes, yes, but still. . . It had been she who had put him in danger. And now he was bound to Draco Malfoy. And it was all her fault.

//If only I had been more, careful, more observant, more open to the bonding. . . more everything,// she thought despairingly. //This might never have happened.//

In the immediate moments after the "incident," as she called it, Hermione had pulled Dumbledore aside and asked him why this terrible thing had happened. His response had been, at most, ambiguous, at worst alarming, but she had gained at least this much; the lack of power in the bond between Hermione and Malfoy had invoked a need for a different source of magic. A different partner altogether. It had just so happened that Harry had been in the way.

Overall, that explanation didn't satisfy Hermione's curiosity in the least. It was all just too. . . convenient, she supposed was the word for it. It fit too neatly-and if there was one constant in Harry's life, it was that it was neither tidy, nor was it convenient.

And it left far too many questions unanswered. Such as the need for Voldemorts blood for the bond to work. Hermione herself had ingested numerous potions and been subject to several spells in order to create a temporary likeness of her blood to the Dark Lords. But Harry, her brow furrowed, had not. Neither she nor Professors Snape, MacGonagall, or Dumbledore had seen the necessity of making him take those particular precautions. So how had this occurred? By mere chance as Dumbledore supposed? Hermione had her own theories, all unproved. . .

No, she mused, leaning her chin on her open palm. There had, after all, always been something about Harry. Something. . . special. This unique quality had always gained Harry no small amount of unwanted notoriety, true, but now. . . well, this was just too crazy.

//Argh! Harry's going to mutilate me. . .I need to get him out of this mess.//

With renewed purpose, the studious Gryffindor opened another thick, dusty volume, and began to read.

~~~~~~~~

Three hours, eight books, and one extremely achy neck later, Hermione had still gleaned a distressingly small amount of knowledge concerning Harry's affliction. Hell, she was just about ready to pull out her hair. It was driving her completely nutters.

"Oh, snap out of it, Granger," she told herself furiously. "Just remember-you're doing this for Harry, your best friend. . ."

Sighing for what she was sure must be the quadrillionth time that evening //-no, morning,// she corrected absently, she opened yet another large book. Though she'd never thought it possible, she was actually getting tired of reading. After all, research just wasn't the same at three-thirty in the morning. . .

Bonding: Colors, Properties, and Meanings.

Absently twirling a single strand of hair with her left hand, Hermione re-read the title through a yawn. Well, at least this sounded a bit more promising than all the other rubbish she'd looked through thus far. As she read, only have paying attention, she toyed briefly with the idea of just taking the humongous book up to her dormitory with her. It was Friday-no, Saturday, she corrected herself again. She could just read it in the morning. . . well, later in the morning. . . after she woke up. . . in the afternoon. . . she rolled her eyes at her apparent inability to come up with the correct noun. . . verb. . .oh no. Not again.

But even as she thought this, a segment of writing on the parchment before her caught her exhausted eye.

It was, for the most part, just as the Headmaster had told them in his office the day before. Still, she decided stubbornly, there might be something. . .

RED: PASSION

BLUE: FRIENDSHIP

GREEN: ENMITY

YELLOW: COMPANIONSHIP

WHITE: TRUE LOVE

GREY: INDIFFERENCE

BLACK: HATR—

//Wait!// Hermione started, her mind returning rapidly to reality. //True Love?!//

In her shock, she didn't hear the book drop heavily from her suddenly lifeless hands, nor did she realize that she had raised one of the aforementioned nerveless hands to her open mouth in horror.

//Oh, no. . .// she thought. //What have I done?!//

. . .TBC. . .

Well, there it is, I hope that you all enjoyed. And don't forget, REVIEW!!!!! =D

~NayNymic