Hermione attended all her classes that week trying to avoid Malfoy as much as possible. She felt that whenever she glanced up from her work, he was staring meaningfully at her. Hermione knew that he wanted her to help him open the journal, but now that she knew what it contained she would never disgrace herself by allowing it to be opened.
Saturday morning came again, and Hermione decided that she would visit the library in hope to find something that may put her mind at ease about her families past. She walked among the many shelves, wondering where information about long-lined pureblooded wizard families may be.
After searching through umpteen books with no results, Hermione began to get despondent. She ran her finger down the index of a book called 'Purely famous families.' Most families written about were such as the Fudge's; pureblooded wizards with a high status.
"Longbottom, no…Ludac, nope…" Hermione kept reading down the page. "Aha! Here we go…Malfoy, page 81." She walked over to her table in the back corner of the library and seated herself down. Hermione found the correct page and began to read.
'The Malfoy family is one of the only families left in the wizarding world who have never had the influence of muggles in their breeding line. They pride themselves on this fact and ridicule many families who are not of the same pureblooded background.'
"Blah, blah, blah. I know all this." Hermione muttered, scanning the page. Her eyes stopped on a relevant paragraph. "This is more like it."
'The Malfoy family is well known for their fondness of the Dark Arts. Throughout the Malfoy's
history, there has been no member of the family who didn't attempt to dominate over lesser wizards. (See other published work; 'Evil Reasons.')'
The book then went on explaining about Lucius Malfoy, the most recent leader of the Malfoy family, and his position in the Ministry of Magic. Hermione shut the book and slid it back on its shelf.
Hermione had only been into the restricted section of the library a few times, and in those times she had noticed many books. She recalled 'Evil Reasons' being one of the mysterious books that she wished she had reason to read. Now she did.
Hermione was in her seventh year at Hogwarts and was well known by Madam Pince, therefore her walking into the restricted section and walking out again with a slightly larger stomach then she had entered with, went unnoticed by all in the library. Usually Hermione would have no hesitation to borrow a book from the library, but Madam Pince must have a reason for why an older student wants to borrow a book from the restricted section without a note from a Professor.
And Hermione had no legitimate reason that would be accepted.
She made her way back to her dorm room and quickly shut the door behind her. Her dorm mates Lavender and Parvarti had gone to the Quidditch pitch to watch the Gryffindor team train for the upcoming match against Ravenclaw, so she knew she could research Malfoy's family without being disturbed for at least a couple of hours.
Hermione pulled the book out from underneath her cloak and lay down on her bed, propped up by her elbows. She flipped through the pages until she found the page that displayed information about the Malfoy's. It read:
'The Malfoy family is well known for their close relationship with the Dark side. In the history that the average wizard is aware of, they have always had this connection. However,' Hermione pulled the book closer in interest. 'Over a century ago, a Mr. Derek Malfoy worked secretly with an anonymous witch to form a Prophecy. This Prophecy speaks of the alliance that the Malfoy family will have with a most powerful dark wizard, but how it will only be so until the Prophecy is uncovered and completed.'
The writing ended there, and began a new chapter on the next page.
Hermione's eyebrows knitted in concentration. The Prophecy was spoken of again. She had never heard about a Prophecy, and she had researched many interesting things in her time. Hermione wondered whether the journal might contain any information on the Prophecy. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to help Malfoy open the diary after all.
The weeks went by, with Hermione's concentration set on her schoolwork, avoiding Malfoy and spending time with Harry and Ron. They visited Hogsmede a few times and spent many evenings on the Quidditch pitch and walking around the grounds in between snow showers.
The Gryffindor Quidditch team won their match against Ravenclaw and was training hard for the next match against Hufflepuff. However, Hermione's motivation was needed as the match drew nearer.
"Guys, you play on Saturday. That's tomorrow morning. Shouldn't you be out training, or at least thinking of the strategies you may use?" she asked.
Harry nodded unenthusiastically. Ron stood up and walked over to the window that overlooked the grounds. "Hermione, its hell out there. You can't really expect us to go out and train when we don't actually need to. We're pretty good already." He said smugly.
She raised her eyebrows at him. "Come on. You have to win the Quidditch Cup this year. Gryffindor hasn't won it since Oliver Wood was captain. This is your last year at Hogwarts, surely you want to kick Slytherin's butt?"
"Alright." Harry agreed. Ron followed Harry up to their dorm to get their brooms and was plunging through the thick snow within 10 minutes. Hermione went down with them to keep them company and also to move around a bit. She had been confined to the castle for so long.
Harry and Ron kicked off the ground and zoomed through the falling snow around the pitch. They used snowballs as Quaffle's and Bludger's and after half an hour, both were completely soaked. The training slowly turned into a snowball fight, and Hermione sat on one of the benches with her teeth chattering but enjoying watching her two best friend's pelt each other with snow.
She soon noticed them both looking at her. Harry said something to Ron and flew over to where Hermione was sitting. "Hey Hermione, wanna join us?"
"What? I don't have a broom Harry." She answered.
"You can hop on mine." Hermione raised her eyebrows at him. "Come on, it'll be fun" Harry insisted.
"Alright." She grudgingly agreed. Hermione stood up, wrapped her cloak tightly about her and sat on the broom behind Harry. He flew off towards Ron at top speed, which made Hermione cling on to Harry's back in a moment of fear. This was her first time flying.
Ron smiled at her. "Go Hermione! It's not that scary now is it?"
"Yes it bloody well is." She answered, even though she was smiling back. She noticed Harry had snowballs stashed in his pockets. She reached forward, took them out and pelted them at Ron then smashed the last one over Harry's head.
Both the boys laughed and flew towards the ground to stock up on snow. Once their pockets were full again, they flew around the Quidditch pitch laughing and screaming as they hit and got hit with the freezing snow. Hermione changed onto Ron's broom after a while because he began complaining that it was two against one. Together, Hermione and Ron cornered Harry and covered him in snow until he looked like a snowman.
Once they couldn't stand the cold any longer and realised that they would be late for dinner if they didn't hurry, the three friends flew back up to the castle, dismounted and walked quickly through the halls hoping to avoid an encounter with Filch.
They promised to meet each other in the Common Room before they went down to dinner, then Hermione went up to her dorm and had a hot shower. She changed into dry, warm clothes and went back down to the Common Room where the two boys were already waiting.
They arrived at the Great Hall as it was emptying out after the dinner rush. The three seated themselves next to Ginny and loaded their plates with a steaming roast meal.
"You guys look exhausted." Ginny said to them. "What have you bee doing?"
"Hermione made us go outside and train for the Quidditch match after classes tonight. It turned into a massive snowball fight, and I'm stuffed!" Ron said, grinning at Hermione and Harry.
Ginny's eyes widened. "Is the match tomorrow?"
"Yep. And were going to whip Hufflepuff's arse." Harry said enthusiastically, receiving dirty looks from a group of Hufflepuff's sitting at the table behind them. "Whoops." He said quietly, pulling a face.
They finished eating and walked back up to the Gryffindor tower chatting and laughing. As they passed the library Hermione guiltily remembered that she had not yet returned 'Evil Reasons' to the restricted section.
"I think I'd better grab some homework and head to the library." Hermione said as they entered the Common Room. "After slacking off all afternoon I feel like I'd better get some work done before the weekend."
"Oh, do you have to Hermione?" Ron whined. "You're always studying. Why don't you sit with us for a while?"
"I shouldn't be long Ron. Maybe when I get back." She answered, receiving disappointed looks from all three of her friends. She turned her back and went up stairs to get the book. She then made her way to the library and slid unnoticed into the restricted section. She walked back out again with the book returned.
Hermione slowly passed the shelves of books, glancing at some of the covers uninterestedly. Suddenly, she felt a hand grab her wrist and pull her to the back corner of the library, where she usually sat to get peace and quiet to study. "What do you want Malfoy?" She asked as she saw who it was. "And get off me." She added, shaking her wrist free from his grasp.
"Granger, you've been avoiding me for months now. Usually, I'd be flattered that you're going out of your way to not contaminate my vision with a mudblood like yourself. But I need your help, and you know it." Malfoy said to her quietly.
"Piss off, you jerk. I don't want to help you, so leave me alone." Hermione told him icily. "And I'm not a mudblood anymore."
Malfoy's eyes narrowed and he slipped his hand into his robe and pulled out the journal. His fingerprint was as clear as ever on the back cover. "Please." He asked, gritting his teeth as if saying please had nearly killed him.
Hermione looked from his face to the journal clamped in his hand. He extended it out to her. Hermione remembered her research and the rumor of a Prophecy. She reached out her hand and gently placed her index finger in the groove next to Malfoy's. Instantly her fingerprint was outlined in gold ink and her signature scrawled itself underneath.
She removed her hand and watched as Malfoy turned the journal over and slowly opened it…