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Disclaimer: I don't own this and I am evidently making no money from it so if you sued it would be rather pointless.

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Chapter 3: Dangerous Owls

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"" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" ""

To Miss Hermione Granger,

Gryffindor tower,

Hogwarts.

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Hermione stared at the front of the letter as she sat down on her bed. Carefully she turned it over and looked at the wax seal, branded with the Malfoy family crest. It wasn't a fake, but why would Draco Malfoy of all people send her a letter?

Curiosity getting the better of her she ignored all of the ways she had learnt letters could be trapped in her fourth year when she had received hate mail and broke the seal. Nothing happened.

Almost feeling let down, she took the letter out and unfolded it. The parchment was very fine and, she guessed, was part of a writing pad, due to the faint imprints left from the letters before it.

At the top of the page, was the Malfoy family crest again, glowing gold and obviously enchanted. The ink was a shimmering dark blue, and also enchanted to glitter, giving the feeling that the person who wrote it had either cared about the person they were sending It to, enough to waste ten minutes on spells or were extremely bored and wanted something to do.

Taking in the fact that Malfoy would generally favor a piece of slime on his shoe over her, she took it to be the latter.

Finally turning her attention to the words she quickly read the letter as the bird was getting impatient.

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To Granger,
Don't flatter yourself with the ink; it was the only one I had that was cheap enough to waste on you.

I write to arrange a business meeting, between us, with you as the liaison for Potter, Weasley and Dumbledore and I speaking on behalf of my household. You want information? So do I. I'll exchange if you will. Tell any of the afore mentioned of this meeting, and it will become void. It is going to be today; you arrange the time and I will send the portkey to front gate. Hurry up and reply, I won't wait for long.

Signed: Draco Malfoy

Reply here:

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"Arrogant prat" Hermione said to herself as she glanced at the bird in case it decided to avenge its master's reputation again. When she decided it wasn't going to move, she looked for a quill. Not knowing quiet why she felt compelled to go along with this and ignoring that nagging little voices in her head that were warning her of every conceivable trap, she finally found a quill and took out her best ink.

She dipped her quill and held it poised over the parchment, thinking about her answer. As much as obeying the command of Malfoy was unappealing, she did see his point. If Harry, Ron or even Dumbledore got wind that she was leaving the castle, let alone going somewhere with Draco Malfoy, it would become expressly forbidden in a matter of seconds.

Suddenly an idea struck her. Scribbling her reply hurriedly, she read it over twice for spelling mistakes before folding it back up and giving it back to the owl.

"Take it back to your master" she said as she let the Eagle owl out of her window and watched it soar off over the snow covered trees of the forest out of sight, silently reviewing her reply over in her head.

She would have been stupid not to accept the offer, even if it was extended from Malfoy. If he wanted information he would get it, but it was going to come at a cost. If there was any way that the order could get a foot up on information from the other side, she wasn't about to ignore it just because of a stupid schoolyard grudge.

Deciding that there could have been at least three more insults that she could have added in her reply, but realizing that there was not much to be done about it now, Hermione smiled and closed her window, moving to the chest at the bottom of her bed and opening it, staring down into her own personal library.

Hermione smiled at the memory of it. She had got the idea in her fourth year of Hogwarts and although it was technically and strictly not legal, she had found a way to loosely copy the idea and still keep within the realms of the law. The chest was actually the size of an amphitheatre from the inside and was lined from top to bottom with a copy of almost every book in Hogwarts library, with a few exceptions she had personally bought, or written herself.

It was her escape, and no one, not her other room mates, the professors or even Harry and Ron, knew about it, and right now, that was where she needed to be. Hermione figured it would be at least an hour before Malfoy finished seething over her letter and had calmed down enough to reply, so she had plenty of time to stuff about, and think about how to ask him the questions that were currently jumbled in her head, and get a halfway decent response.

So it came as quiet a shock when his owl appeared a moment later, tapping furiously at her closed window.

Shutting the chest quickly, she marched over to the window and threw it open in a rather annoyed air. How could he have replied so fast?

Taking the note off the owl she didn't bother opening the resealed envelope carefully this time, simply ripping it off and tossing it to the floor as she unfolded the note. As soon as her eyes fell on the paper, she couldn't help but laugh at the abrupt change of attitude, but it died in her throat as soon as she saw the results of the questions that she had asked.

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Dear 'Mudblood' Granger,
Fine. Front gates, four this afternoon if you absolutely insist that it can be no other time. Answers: Yes. No. And Yes. Have an absolutely rotten day.

Regards,

An Arrogant Prat.

P.s: There, normal enough for you?

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The answers were as she expected, but at least in the case of two of them, not what she wanted to hear. Taking her quill she scribbled 'fine' on the bottom of the parchment and gave the letter to the owl, practically throwing the poor creature out of her window.

Closing it and locking it she turned to the wooden chest that had felt so comforting before she had received the letter back.

Now it just looked like a cold and uninviting box.

Looking at the time keeper on her bedside table, she sighed. It was only nine, which meant the grounds were still off limits for another two hours, restricting the only activity that she felt like doing.

Walking through the snow.

Sighing, she snatched her copy of 'Hogwarts: A history' from her bedside table and decided to go for a walk up to the astronomy tower and read. At least it would give a feeling of the outdoors, even if she wasn't walking around the grounds.

Hurrying down the stairs and through the common room, Hermione avoided Ron and Harry's gaze, although rather pointlessly. They were both so entranced with their game that they hardly noticed her pass. Rather annoyed at the fact that they were ignoring her, she paused behind Harry's chair and watched the board that held their attention so completely. " I bet you three of Fred's fake wands that you don't win again" Ron grinned as Harry considered his pieces.

"Two out of three?" Harry said moving his knight as Ron nodded and shook Harry's hand before frowning.

"Hey your knight can't do that" Ron burst out as Harry's knight destroyed Ron's queen.

"Yes I can, the pieces don't move if you tell them to cheat, that move is within the rules" Harry shot back as Hermione sighed and moved Ron castle.

"Check mate" she said turning on her heel and walking out of the common room as Harry and Ron stared dumbfounded after her.

"Have you ever seen Hermione interested in a chess game?" Harry asked turning back to Ron as the portrait door closed.

"Have you ever seen Hermione win a chess game?" Ron countered back as Ginny walked past and rolled her eyes.

"She's a genius, do you think she couldn't play or something?" Ginny asked exasperated before starting for her dormitory.

Harry blinked. Today was turning out too strange for his liking, and with the way his year had gone so far, that was saying something.

"I should have just stayed in bed" Harry sighed as he picked up his chess pieces and started to set them up again.

"I hear you Harry" Ron muttered doing the same. "So three out of five?"

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