AHH! I'm SO sorry, everyone, I'm not trying to make this into a habit,
REALLY, I'm not, I've just had so much homework and adding answers to
reviews would have made this delayed even longer!!
Thanks to:
articshewolf, pathos, angie5, alka, crazzieaddict06, willowfairy, mudpie, crystal369, aquilastor, Dreaming One, SnOgFeSt, truluv438, BellaWilde, Vu, DarkMoon of Shadows, Lynseyax Hepparedds, Artemis MoonClaw, Cupidas-arrow, freakyfairy, ILUVRONWEASLEY, clichet, Ickle Ronnikins Girlie!!!, blueamber, and ~*influenza*~.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR REVIEWS!!!
On with the story. Nearing the end, don't ya know?
~+~
Mind reeling and blood thumping loudly through her veins, Hermione thought about what she had read and what she was gathering from the words, even if the sound of her blood was rather annoying, but her mind was no further from the sound of her blood than it had ever been before.
Memories flooded into her mind, some wanted, others completely unwanted. She hadn't thought this much since - since - since - well, she didn't know when the last time she had thought this much had been, but it had been a rather long time ago.
While the thoughts flooded, she wasn't entirely sure what she was thinking about. Perhaps if she thought about it for a minute, ah, yes.
She was thinking about her father, his letter and the last piece of him that she would ever have. She had an unexplainable lump in her throat and she felt crazy, almost as thought she should be is St. Mungo's or something, because she wasn't normal anymore. She didn't feel or seem to act normal.
She was something alright. Reeling and bloody insane. She had to be, it was all that would make sense in her harrowed world, for happiness and sadness seemed to be lumped together into one emotion.
Hermione walked slowly up to her bed that night with a mixture of emotions welling up in her heart. She hadn't felt this confused since she had begun thinking that her emotions for Draco Malfoy were different from the fierce enmity she had sworn she felt.
While her thoughts were quick, her pace seemed to say that if she walked slowly, her memories would be with her longer. It was almost as though she didn't want to make it to her dorm, where she would then be forced to sleep and leave the thoughts that blessed her when she was conscious.
She didn't know exactly what had happened inside of her when she read the letter, she didn't know whether she would be fine tomorrow, or the next day, or even the next, she knew she was different today. She still wasn't sure what happened, but she knew that it had somehow helped her and she felt almost whole again.
She would never be completely whole without her father, but she knew that now her mind and soul were at peace. She had some closure and she could trust her feelings again, a feeling that she had thought she had lost a long time ago. It felt good and right to be able to trust herself once more.
Hermione stumbled blindly into her dormitory and she was so wrapped up in her thoughts and feelings that she didn't notice the other person that was in there. In fact, the only way that they caught her attention was when she felt herself being swept up in someone's arms.
She was in a warm embrace - figuratively and literally - and she was enjoying it, not bothering to think, which was a luxury she was not accustomed to.
Hermione's mind stumbled blindly for a few seconds before she realized just who it was that had caught her in their arms.
A small smile crossed her lips and she let her body collapse onto them and she just relaxed. She couldn't have felt any better about herself and her life than she did now, a sense of closure was settling in on her body and soul, and she didn't think that it could have been a happier moment. She had read the letter, she was actually on the road to healing and she was in the arms of a guy.
"Hey, Draco." She said quietly and she could almost feel his amusement, which was the way that she, as she realized later, had always been telling his emotions. Emotions weren't prominent features on his face, but if you know how and where to look you could tell how he was feeling.
Her words seemed to hang in the air for a moment before he answered, and Hermione had almost turned to look and make sure that he was really there.
"'Mione, where've ya been?" he asked in reply and Hermione didn't answer right away. She didn't know exactly how to answer his question, because it wasn't completely clear in her mind.
What would she tell him? How would she tell him? She wasn't sure whether he would completely understand what had happened to her when she had read the letter, and she wasn't quite sure whether she was going to try to tell him.
Not yet, anyway.
She wasn't ready to share everything with him right now - not now, definitely not now, but perhaps later.
She let herself absorb his warmness and scent, closing her eyes lightly to allow herself to soak up the moment. She would never forget this day, as long as she lived, and not only because of the letter. This was. . . it was. . .
Okay, maybe because of the letter, but she still wouldn't forget it. Not until the day she died.
Which, she realized, could have come a lot sooner than she had ever thought it should or would have come. Without Draco, whose arms were around her protectively, she would have been dead right now, at this very moment.
This thought was enough to make her shiver. He had saved her life.
Had one of them been facing the door, they would have noticed that it was open and that there was a professor standing there, eyes twinkling behind the spectacles and amusement shining through every feature.
Long had he awaited this day, he had known it would happen, but he was somewhat unsure of when exactly.
When Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger had come, and their instant dislike had erupted he had known that it would be the two of them that would fall in love.
The old professor watched for a few more seconds with Draco's arms wrapped around Hermione before her interrupted them.
He cleared his throat and their reaction was instant. Both of them whipped around and it almost seemed as though Draco had forgotten that his arms were around Hermione. Hermione had a look of utter and complete shock on her face and she looked like she, too, had forgotten about Draco's arms.
"Professor!" it was impossible to tell who this exclamation had come from but it was apparent that it was a mutual feeling. Dumbledore hid his amusement.
Hermione was indignant. How could he have just walked in to the dormitory?! What if someone had been changing or sleeping or. . . it took her a second to register what she was thinking, and in that brief moment she realized that there were a pair of arms around her.
She was sure that she looked completely panicked and she ducked out of his arms, her eyes never leaving Dumbledore's face. There was something wrong with the way that he was looking at the two of them, almost as if. . .
Well, almost as if he had known. And that was preposterous.
The thunderstruck look on her face absolutely matched the thunderstruck one on Draco's face, which was rare because he never 'showed his emotions to the enemy', so it was obvious that he was taken by surprise.
Hermione was beginning to feel aggrieved and annoyed by the look of amusement on Dumbledore's face. It was rude and very untactful. How could he stand there and not feel bad about himself in the slightest when it was apparent that the two teens in front of him were embarrassed and shocked?
She felt invaded. Nobody was supposed to know. None of the teachers, anyway. It was impossible to keep students from knowing, but the Professors would have brushed it off as gossip. Now that was impossible.
"P-professor," Hermione said, and the first thing that she noticed about her voice was the fact that she was stuttering. When was the last time that she had stuttered in front of a professor? Lockhart?
"what are you doing here?" Hermione managed to choke out, still unable to mask her feeling of shock and discomfort. He had seen her with Draco, there was no way to cover it up and make it look like she hated him now.
Her stomach turned over on itself when she thought of what it would be like to face a room full of teachers that knew about her and Draco. What would McGonagall think? What would Snape think?
Ohhhh, Hermione's mind moaned. Oh no.
"I need to talk to the two of you," Dumbledore said. "In my office." He added, and the way he said it made Hermione feel the blush beginning to creep up her cheeks. She hoped that nobody saw it. Ever.
"Alright." Hermione said, and Dumbledore turned and walked out of the room. Hermione's eyes met Draco's for a minute and then the two of them turned and followed the Headmaster out the door.
Hermione wondered, her mind slightly numb, just how long he had been standing there.
~+~
Dumbledore turned to face them once they were in his office (Hermione hadn't even been interested in examining the staircase that turned or the odd birds that chirped on their way to the office.) and gave them an appraising look.
"Sit." He said and he gestured toward the chairs that were in the room. How ironic that now they were accustomed and accepting of each other that there were two chairs, but in the heat of their enmity there had been only a single chair for the two of them to share.
They sat like obedient dogs and Dumbledore then took his seat behind his desk. He eyed the two of them for a little while, each of them squirming from his gaze and looking rather uncomfortable.
It was painfully obvious that they wanted to leave his office as soon as they possibly could.
"I think there are a few things that you would like properly explained - as would I." Dumbledore told them, and Hermione suppressed the feeling that she needed to glance in Draco's direction.
"Alright, me first." Draco said instantly, and Hermione was debating whether to smile or hit him. Insufferable git. Still, even if she liked him, he was an insufferable git and he always would be.
"Yes, Mr. Malfoy?" Dumbledore asked, and Hermione now longed to rid him of his amused expression and the twinkle in his eyes. It was bothering her. Why did he find such amusement out of these things, when it made her angry and annoyed?
"Alright," Draco said, and he silently ticked things off on his fingers before he even began to speak. Hermione watched as it looked like he had thirty or forty things that he was planning on asking. Now, even to her, this was quite a lot of things to be asking the headmaster, or anyone for that matter.
"So, Dumbledore," Draco said, his tone reflecting no respect for the man in front of him, whatsoever. Just like him too, he really wouldn't change, and she was lucky that she realized this now, because she wouldn't waste years of effort and time trying to change someone that was obviously unchangeable.
Hermione sighed and turned her attention back to Draco, who was now interrogating Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
"Why-does-it-seem-like-you-knew-everything-was-going-to-happen-and- why-are-you-not-telling-us-everything-that-was-happening-and-why-did-you- assign-us-to-the-time-reversal-stuff-and-why-was-it-me-and-Herm-Grang-HER- that-had-to-do-it-and-why-did-we-end-up-in-the-same-dormitory-and-why-did-" Draco said, but Dumbledore held up a hand to stem his questions.
"One at a time, Mr. Malfoy."
Hermione threw Draco a warning glance and Draco wrinkled his nose in response. She eyed him for a moment, not liking the look that he had given her, and she almost snorted, but managed to hold it in.
She was completely planning to turn back to Professor Dumbledore but her human instincts told her that she was not going to let him think he was better than her - no way, no how - because it was her turn. Her well deserved turn at that.
Hermione threw her head slightly forward in an aggressive advance toward him, challenging him to an unknown battle. He responded to her gesture with one of his own, quite similar, but with an air of 'Malfoy greatness'.
Her hands then joined into the exchange, her head movement staying almost the same but her hands spreading apart as well, challenging him to this battle of gestures head on. He responded with an even more violent movement than she had.
Eventually he gave her a look that said, 'You know what you're doin'?' and to answer his question she put on a smug look and gestured with her hand in a gesture that clearly said, 'Bring it on.'
Distantly, back on planet earth were people besides Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy existed, someone cleared their throat. It was then that she remembered that they were in the headmaster's office and that the headmaster of their school had been watching their entire gesture duel.
Very quickly the two of them turned back to him, almost in complete unison, and sat, watching him, almost as though they were waiting for him to say something about what they had just done, but he completely ignored what had happened, or so it would have seemed.
"Alright, questions, but one and a time and start from the beginning." He said, his amused look never leaving his face but just becoming slightly masked by the look of fake concentration.
Draco began firing off questions that answered nothing that she needed to know, and she had a feeling that he was just asking questions to be annoying, because he was certainly annoying her, and she wasn't the one that had to pay enough attention to what he was saying to actually answer his questions.
Not for the first time, Hermione wondered what she had been thinking and feeling when she had let herself kiss him. And let him hold her in his arms. At some points in her silent argument with herself, she would tell herself that he was really sweet once you got to know him and that he wasn't the person everyone had come to expect him to be, but then she would see something happen - such as the pointless display of questions happening now - and she would tell herself that there wasn't anything remotely special about him to begin with.
"Miss Granger?"
Hermione's head snapped up and she was looking into the cool, blue eyes of Professor Dumbledore. She couldn't be sure, but she was almost sure that he was. . . smirking?
No, the headmaster didn't smirk.
Right?
"Yes, Professor?" Hermione answered, mentally smacking herself for even thinking that he would be someone that would go as low as to smirking. That was something that was reserved for Draco Malfoy, and him alone. She hoped, anyway.
"Do you have anything you would like to ask?"
'YES!' her mind screamed, and she began mentally running through everything that she had questioned through this school year. Nothing had really gone the way that she had hoped it would, in fact, she couldn't even remember how she had hoped things would go anymore.
What would she ask him?
Advanced Transfiguration. . . why had it been set up in the first place? Why had she been able to transform into a phoenix, wasn't that impossible? Why was it that only a few people had been chosen - she was sure it wasn't based on grades, seeing as some people that got top marks hadn't been there. Why was it her that had had dreams, and did he KNOW about her dreams?
Time reversal. . . surely it was impossible, yet he had put her a Draco Malfoy - at the time, sworn mortal enemies - together on the project. Did he know something that nobody else knew? And why had she been in that room? Did he even know about that room and what had happened? She had the strange feeling that he did know.
And what about that time that she had cast one of the Unforgivable Curses on Malfoy. Why wasn't she completely punished? Why had she been let off so, so, easy? Why - she shuddered to think she wanted this - hadn't she been expelled and her wand snapped? She had done something against the law. The ministry had been there, yet they hadn't seemed concerned with the curse. Why was this so confusing?
And what about the hospital? Why had Lucius been tracking her - she was sure that his only reason hadn't been because she had the 'special powers'. So why had he been after her?
And what were those 'special powers' anyway? Why hadn't she ever read about them in a book or heard something about them in classes? It would seem that something so powerful would have been mentioned to her at least once - once in her millions of classes and hours of independent study - so why did she know nothing about them?
Then, why could she almost read Draco's mind? Nobody else ever knew what he was thinking, but she could read his thoughts, almost as though she could see his thoughts, fears, dreams, ambitions. . . everything.
She shivered despite herself. Something was up.
"Well, Professor. . ."
---
A/N: Ah, I know I'm evil, but I wanted to give you a chance to help me write this. What questions do YOU want answered? Anything you've been wondering, anything at all, and I'll try to incorporate the answers in, except the ones that would ruin part of the storyline.
Happy hunting!
--Saquoia--
Thanks to:
articshewolf, pathos, angie5, alka, crazzieaddict06, willowfairy, mudpie, crystal369, aquilastor, Dreaming One, SnOgFeSt, truluv438, BellaWilde, Vu, DarkMoon of Shadows, Lynseyax Hepparedds, Artemis MoonClaw, Cupidas-arrow, freakyfairy, ILUVRONWEASLEY, clichet, Ickle Ronnikins Girlie!!!, blueamber, and ~*influenza*~.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR REVIEWS!!!
On with the story. Nearing the end, don't ya know?
~+~
Mind reeling and blood thumping loudly through her veins, Hermione thought about what she had read and what she was gathering from the words, even if the sound of her blood was rather annoying, but her mind was no further from the sound of her blood than it had ever been before.
Memories flooded into her mind, some wanted, others completely unwanted. She hadn't thought this much since - since - since - well, she didn't know when the last time she had thought this much had been, but it had been a rather long time ago.
While the thoughts flooded, she wasn't entirely sure what she was thinking about. Perhaps if she thought about it for a minute, ah, yes.
She was thinking about her father, his letter and the last piece of him that she would ever have. She had an unexplainable lump in her throat and she felt crazy, almost as thought she should be is St. Mungo's or something, because she wasn't normal anymore. She didn't feel or seem to act normal.
She was something alright. Reeling and bloody insane. She had to be, it was all that would make sense in her harrowed world, for happiness and sadness seemed to be lumped together into one emotion.
Hermione walked slowly up to her bed that night with a mixture of emotions welling up in her heart. She hadn't felt this confused since she had begun thinking that her emotions for Draco Malfoy were different from the fierce enmity she had sworn she felt.
While her thoughts were quick, her pace seemed to say that if she walked slowly, her memories would be with her longer. It was almost as though she didn't want to make it to her dorm, where she would then be forced to sleep and leave the thoughts that blessed her when she was conscious.
She didn't know exactly what had happened inside of her when she read the letter, she didn't know whether she would be fine tomorrow, or the next day, or even the next, she knew she was different today. She still wasn't sure what happened, but she knew that it had somehow helped her and she felt almost whole again.
She would never be completely whole without her father, but she knew that now her mind and soul were at peace. She had some closure and she could trust her feelings again, a feeling that she had thought she had lost a long time ago. It felt good and right to be able to trust herself once more.
Hermione stumbled blindly into her dormitory and she was so wrapped up in her thoughts and feelings that she didn't notice the other person that was in there. In fact, the only way that they caught her attention was when she felt herself being swept up in someone's arms.
She was in a warm embrace - figuratively and literally - and she was enjoying it, not bothering to think, which was a luxury she was not accustomed to.
Hermione's mind stumbled blindly for a few seconds before she realized just who it was that had caught her in their arms.
A small smile crossed her lips and she let her body collapse onto them and she just relaxed. She couldn't have felt any better about herself and her life than she did now, a sense of closure was settling in on her body and soul, and she didn't think that it could have been a happier moment. She had read the letter, she was actually on the road to healing and she was in the arms of a guy.
"Hey, Draco." She said quietly and she could almost feel his amusement, which was the way that she, as she realized later, had always been telling his emotions. Emotions weren't prominent features on his face, but if you know how and where to look you could tell how he was feeling.
Her words seemed to hang in the air for a moment before he answered, and Hermione had almost turned to look and make sure that he was really there.
"'Mione, where've ya been?" he asked in reply and Hermione didn't answer right away. She didn't know exactly how to answer his question, because it wasn't completely clear in her mind.
What would she tell him? How would she tell him? She wasn't sure whether he would completely understand what had happened to her when she had read the letter, and she wasn't quite sure whether she was going to try to tell him.
Not yet, anyway.
She wasn't ready to share everything with him right now - not now, definitely not now, but perhaps later.
She let herself absorb his warmness and scent, closing her eyes lightly to allow herself to soak up the moment. She would never forget this day, as long as she lived, and not only because of the letter. This was. . . it was. . .
Okay, maybe because of the letter, but she still wouldn't forget it. Not until the day she died.
Which, she realized, could have come a lot sooner than she had ever thought it should or would have come. Without Draco, whose arms were around her protectively, she would have been dead right now, at this very moment.
This thought was enough to make her shiver. He had saved her life.
Had one of them been facing the door, they would have noticed that it was open and that there was a professor standing there, eyes twinkling behind the spectacles and amusement shining through every feature.
Long had he awaited this day, he had known it would happen, but he was somewhat unsure of when exactly.
When Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger had come, and their instant dislike had erupted he had known that it would be the two of them that would fall in love.
The old professor watched for a few more seconds with Draco's arms wrapped around Hermione before her interrupted them.
He cleared his throat and their reaction was instant. Both of them whipped around and it almost seemed as though Draco had forgotten that his arms were around Hermione. Hermione had a look of utter and complete shock on her face and she looked like she, too, had forgotten about Draco's arms.
"Professor!" it was impossible to tell who this exclamation had come from but it was apparent that it was a mutual feeling. Dumbledore hid his amusement.
Hermione was indignant. How could he have just walked in to the dormitory?! What if someone had been changing or sleeping or. . . it took her a second to register what she was thinking, and in that brief moment she realized that there were a pair of arms around her.
She was sure that she looked completely panicked and she ducked out of his arms, her eyes never leaving Dumbledore's face. There was something wrong with the way that he was looking at the two of them, almost as if. . .
Well, almost as if he had known. And that was preposterous.
The thunderstruck look on her face absolutely matched the thunderstruck one on Draco's face, which was rare because he never 'showed his emotions to the enemy', so it was obvious that he was taken by surprise.
Hermione was beginning to feel aggrieved and annoyed by the look of amusement on Dumbledore's face. It was rude and very untactful. How could he stand there and not feel bad about himself in the slightest when it was apparent that the two teens in front of him were embarrassed and shocked?
She felt invaded. Nobody was supposed to know. None of the teachers, anyway. It was impossible to keep students from knowing, but the Professors would have brushed it off as gossip. Now that was impossible.
"P-professor," Hermione said, and the first thing that she noticed about her voice was the fact that she was stuttering. When was the last time that she had stuttered in front of a professor? Lockhart?
"what are you doing here?" Hermione managed to choke out, still unable to mask her feeling of shock and discomfort. He had seen her with Draco, there was no way to cover it up and make it look like she hated him now.
Her stomach turned over on itself when she thought of what it would be like to face a room full of teachers that knew about her and Draco. What would McGonagall think? What would Snape think?
Ohhhh, Hermione's mind moaned. Oh no.
"I need to talk to the two of you," Dumbledore said. "In my office." He added, and the way he said it made Hermione feel the blush beginning to creep up her cheeks. She hoped that nobody saw it. Ever.
"Alright." Hermione said, and Dumbledore turned and walked out of the room. Hermione's eyes met Draco's for a minute and then the two of them turned and followed the Headmaster out the door.
Hermione wondered, her mind slightly numb, just how long he had been standing there.
~+~
Dumbledore turned to face them once they were in his office (Hermione hadn't even been interested in examining the staircase that turned or the odd birds that chirped on their way to the office.) and gave them an appraising look.
"Sit." He said and he gestured toward the chairs that were in the room. How ironic that now they were accustomed and accepting of each other that there were two chairs, but in the heat of their enmity there had been only a single chair for the two of them to share.
They sat like obedient dogs and Dumbledore then took his seat behind his desk. He eyed the two of them for a little while, each of them squirming from his gaze and looking rather uncomfortable.
It was painfully obvious that they wanted to leave his office as soon as they possibly could.
"I think there are a few things that you would like properly explained - as would I." Dumbledore told them, and Hermione suppressed the feeling that she needed to glance in Draco's direction.
"Alright, me first." Draco said instantly, and Hermione was debating whether to smile or hit him. Insufferable git. Still, even if she liked him, he was an insufferable git and he always would be.
"Yes, Mr. Malfoy?" Dumbledore asked, and Hermione now longed to rid him of his amused expression and the twinkle in his eyes. It was bothering her. Why did he find such amusement out of these things, when it made her angry and annoyed?
"Alright," Draco said, and he silently ticked things off on his fingers before he even began to speak. Hermione watched as it looked like he had thirty or forty things that he was planning on asking. Now, even to her, this was quite a lot of things to be asking the headmaster, or anyone for that matter.
"So, Dumbledore," Draco said, his tone reflecting no respect for the man in front of him, whatsoever. Just like him too, he really wouldn't change, and she was lucky that she realized this now, because she wouldn't waste years of effort and time trying to change someone that was obviously unchangeable.
Hermione sighed and turned her attention back to Draco, who was now interrogating Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
"Why-does-it-seem-like-you-knew-everything-was-going-to-happen-and- why-are-you-not-telling-us-everything-that-was-happening-and-why-did-you- assign-us-to-the-time-reversal-stuff-and-why-was-it-me-and-Herm-Grang-HER- that-had-to-do-it-and-why-did-we-end-up-in-the-same-dormitory-and-why-did-" Draco said, but Dumbledore held up a hand to stem his questions.
"One at a time, Mr. Malfoy."
Hermione threw Draco a warning glance and Draco wrinkled his nose in response. She eyed him for a moment, not liking the look that he had given her, and she almost snorted, but managed to hold it in.
She was completely planning to turn back to Professor Dumbledore but her human instincts told her that she was not going to let him think he was better than her - no way, no how - because it was her turn. Her well deserved turn at that.
Hermione threw her head slightly forward in an aggressive advance toward him, challenging him to an unknown battle. He responded to her gesture with one of his own, quite similar, but with an air of 'Malfoy greatness'.
Her hands then joined into the exchange, her head movement staying almost the same but her hands spreading apart as well, challenging him to this battle of gestures head on. He responded with an even more violent movement than she had.
Eventually he gave her a look that said, 'You know what you're doin'?' and to answer his question she put on a smug look and gestured with her hand in a gesture that clearly said, 'Bring it on.'
Distantly, back on planet earth were people besides Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy existed, someone cleared their throat. It was then that she remembered that they were in the headmaster's office and that the headmaster of their school had been watching their entire gesture duel.
Very quickly the two of them turned back to him, almost in complete unison, and sat, watching him, almost as though they were waiting for him to say something about what they had just done, but he completely ignored what had happened, or so it would have seemed.
"Alright, questions, but one and a time and start from the beginning." He said, his amused look never leaving his face but just becoming slightly masked by the look of fake concentration.
Draco began firing off questions that answered nothing that she needed to know, and she had a feeling that he was just asking questions to be annoying, because he was certainly annoying her, and she wasn't the one that had to pay enough attention to what he was saying to actually answer his questions.
Not for the first time, Hermione wondered what she had been thinking and feeling when she had let herself kiss him. And let him hold her in his arms. At some points in her silent argument with herself, she would tell herself that he was really sweet once you got to know him and that he wasn't the person everyone had come to expect him to be, but then she would see something happen - such as the pointless display of questions happening now - and she would tell herself that there wasn't anything remotely special about him to begin with.
"Miss Granger?"
Hermione's head snapped up and she was looking into the cool, blue eyes of Professor Dumbledore. She couldn't be sure, but she was almost sure that he was. . . smirking?
No, the headmaster didn't smirk.
Right?
"Yes, Professor?" Hermione answered, mentally smacking herself for even thinking that he would be someone that would go as low as to smirking. That was something that was reserved for Draco Malfoy, and him alone. She hoped, anyway.
"Do you have anything you would like to ask?"
'YES!' her mind screamed, and she began mentally running through everything that she had questioned through this school year. Nothing had really gone the way that she had hoped it would, in fact, she couldn't even remember how she had hoped things would go anymore.
What would she ask him?
Advanced Transfiguration. . . why had it been set up in the first place? Why had she been able to transform into a phoenix, wasn't that impossible? Why was it that only a few people had been chosen - she was sure it wasn't based on grades, seeing as some people that got top marks hadn't been there. Why was it her that had had dreams, and did he KNOW about her dreams?
Time reversal. . . surely it was impossible, yet he had put her a Draco Malfoy - at the time, sworn mortal enemies - together on the project. Did he know something that nobody else knew? And why had she been in that room? Did he even know about that room and what had happened? She had the strange feeling that he did know.
And what about that time that she had cast one of the Unforgivable Curses on Malfoy. Why wasn't she completely punished? Why had she been let off so, so, easy? Why - she shuddered to think she wanted this - hadn't she been expelled and her wand snapped? She had done something against the law. The ministry had been there, yet they hadn't seemed concerned with the curse. Why was this so confusing?
And what about the hospital? Why had Lucius been tracking her - she was sure that his only reason hadn't been because she had the 'special powers'. So why had he been after her?
And what were those 'special powers' anyway? Why hadn't she ever read about them in a book or heard something about them in classes? It would seem that something so powerful would have been mentioned to her at least once - once in her millions of classes and hours of independent study - so why did she know nothing about them?
Then, why could she almost read Draco's mind? Nobody else ever knew what he was thinking, but she could read his thoughts, almost as though she could see his thoughts, fears, dreams, ambitions. . . everything.
She shivered despite herself. Something was up.
"Well, Professor. . ."
---
A/N: Ah, I know I'm evil, but I wanted to give you a chance to help me write this. What questions do YOU want answered? Anything you've been wondering, anything at all, and I'll try to incorporate the answers in, except the ones that would ruin part of the storyline.
Happy hunting!
--Saquoia--