Chapter 20
A/N: Long time no update...well another one will hopefully be coming within the next couple of days! Thanks to everyone that reviewed!
Walking speedily down the deserted school hallways, Hermione Granger could not help but wonder how a day that dawned with such promise was now reduced to...this. Hermione had actually been looking forward to today, although at the moment she couldn't possibly think why. Up until her potions class everything was just fine, pleasant even. Then it seemed that things had gone downhill rather suddenly.
First, Hermione had nearly been killed by the mischievous poltergeist Peeves, who had knocked over a large stone statue of Rowena Ravenclaw on the first floor. Apparently he was angry at Filch and wanted to take revenge, and hadn't even seen Hermione who had the poor luck of passing by just at that moment. She nearly had the shock of her life when the statue came toppling down right at her feet, crumbling into chunks of cracked brown stone. As the great cloud of choking dust began to drift away, Hermione did her best to keep her composure. Of course Peeves didn't even bother apologizing, but the few professors and students that had come running to her aid were more than happy to fuss over her.
"I'm fine, no, really." Hermione had said to a furious looking professor McGonagall. "I just want to go to class now."
Hermione's heart was still beating wildly, and she felt like her knees were about to give out at any moment, but that was beside the point.
"Peeves!" Filch exclaimed wildly as he turned the corner and laid eyes on the terrible mess. "This is the last straw, you come out here right now..."
"I really have to go!" Hermione gasped, really not wanting to be a part of what was turning into a very entertaining sideshow.
Giving a quick nod to McGonagall she nearly ran out of the hall and down the stairs, her eyes burning from the cloud of dust that appeared as she tried to frantically shake out her robes. Rubbing her eyes, Hermione pushed open the door to the potions classroom nearly stumbling inside.
'Oh no.' She thought, forcing her painful tear filled eyes to stay open. 'Class has already started.'
All of the students already had their cauldrons out, and were adding ingredients one by one with intense looks of concentration of their faces. Snape was poised over Neville Longbottom's cauldron, waving small vial of nightshade in front of his face, hissing at him in a low in dangerous voice. Hermione cringed at the sight, Neville had told her himself that the only reason he had managed to get into Snape's N.E.W.T. level potions class was that McGonagall had thrown a fit, claiming he was horrible at potions only because Snape had never given him a fair chance in the first place. It seemed that professor Snape went out of his way to humiliate Neville at least once every class, and apparently Hermione had just walked in on today's round of abuse.
Hermione watched as Snape became aware of her presence, slowly turning around ready to issue an insult and perhaps a detention. To Hermione's great surprise his jaw hardened upon seeing her, taking in her watering eyes and her pale and sweaty face, and said absolutely nothing. He merely turned around as if she wasn't even there, and continued to hiss at Neville, but with much less enthusiasm than before.
"What was that all about?" Harry whispered out of the side of his mouth as Hermione dropped her books on the table.
"I don't know." Hermione whispered, grateful that she could finally sit and calm her quivering legs. "I don't really care either, I just narrowly missed being squashed to bits by..."
"Potter!" Snape cried, his face looking unnaturally flushed. "This is not social hour, move over there...now!"
Snape pointed at the empty seat beside Neville, his hands shaking ever so slightly as he did so.
"But sir, I've already started my potion." Harry protested, looking very unwilling to move.
"Evanesco." Snape hissed, causing the contents of Harry's cauldron to disappear. "Now you can start it again Mr. Potter, move!"
Harry looked positively furious, and was about to open his mouth to protest when Hermione jabbed him in the ribs.
"Just go Harry." She whispered in a tired sounded voice. "You don't need another detention."
Harry sighed, and making a great show of his annoyance, he grabbed his cauldron and his books, crossed the room at a furious pace, and then brought them down with a loud bang right next to Neville. Hermione shook her head at him, and then carefully began to prepare her own potion. It wasn't an easy potion by any means, but it still gave Hermione's mind time to ponder. Mostly on the fact that Snape seemed to be avoiding her table personally. In fact, he hadn't even come down here once. He usually made a habit of checking over students shoulders from time to time, it was the best way to avoid accidents and bothersome explosions. But he hadn't even looked at Hermione's once, he seemed to be avoiding her section of the room all together. It slowly dawned on Hermione that he was avoiding her gaze as well. As soon as she would look at him, he would quickly look away under the pretense of correcting a student's mistake. It was all really too odd...
"Professor Snape?" The door creaked open and Luna Lovegood ducked into the room.
Snape glanced at her, sending her a chilly sneer. It was clear that he often mistook her flighty nature and unconventional wisdom for stupidity.
"What is it now?" Snape asked in a low voice, looking throughly annoyed.
"I ran into Professor Dumbledore, and he asked me if I could deliver a message." Luna said in an airy voice, looking unfazed by Snape's hostility.
"Well what is it then?" Snape sighed audibly, looking very sour indeed.
"He needs to speak to Ms. Granger in his office now, if you don't mind."
A few of the Slytherin's began to snicker at this, but Snape gave them a withering stare that caused them to quickly shut up.
"Granger go, now." Snape commanded, sounding rather indifferent.
"Should I leave this here sir?" Hermione asked, very confused that Snape hadn't insisted that she stay. He hated having his classes interrupted for anything...
"You'll take half credit for the day." Snape said, emptying Hermione's cauldron with a flick of his wand. "Now get out of my sight."
Hermione gathering her books and followed Luna out the door, giving Snape a very confused stare as she passed.
----
"You wanted to see me Professor?" Hermione asked, taking a seat in an overstuffed flowered chair that Dumbledore had summoned just for the occasion.
Dumbledore smiled at her in a way that reminded Hermione of her kind old grandfather, who always kept sweets for her in his pocket.
"Yes, and I'm afraid today does not bring happy news." He said in a low voice, looking over the edge of his glasses at her.
"Is it about what happened with Peeves professor?" Hermione said quickly. "Because if it is I just want to say..."
Dumbledore shook his head at her, his smile now had a visible hint of sadness to it, one that made Hermione's mind reel with the possibilities.
"I am glad to hear that you were not hurt, and Peeves will be hearing from me later, if only I could catch him."
Hermione gave a short laugh, despite the fact that she did not feel very much like laughing at the moment.
"What is the bad news then Professor?"
Hermione was surprised that she had even asked, because the truth was, she really did not want to know. She would rather walk out this office in a happy oblivion, never being the wiser.
"It's not my parents, is it?" Hermione asked quickly when Dumbledore did not immediately respond.
To Hermione's relief he shook his head, and then leaned forward as if he was about to tell her a terrible secret.
"I'm afraid that there has been another plot to end your friend Harry's life." Dumbledore said in slow careful words. "And I am very sorry to say that it involves you."
"What?" Hermione said, feeling a sudden violent chill rip through her body. "I don't understand, how? Why?"
Dumbledore sat in silent contemplation for a moment, while Hermione twisted her hands in her lap while her mind frantically tried take stock of the situation.
"How is this possible?" Hermione asked, breaking the heavy silence. "I thought Harry was protected at Hogwarts?"
"As did I Ms. Granger." Dumbledore said sadly. "As did I."
It was then that Dumbledore told Hermione of the plot, of Snape and Katherine's lie, of Voldemort's ambitions. When he was finished Hermione sat in stony silence, feeling more venerable then she had in nearly all her life. Just the knowledge that she could be used as a weapon against one of her best friends, that the danger itself had come from within Hogwarts...
"I will trust that you will recover from this unpleasant shock Hermione?" Dumbledore said, crossing the room to pat her warmly on the shoulder.
"Do you think I should tell Harry?" Hermione asked in a very small voice.
She was shocked at how wounded Dumbledore looked just then, it was almost the same look that sprang up in Harry's eyes whenever someone mentioned Sirius' name. Such intense pain was rare in life, but Hermione knew it when she saw it.
"What do you think?" Dumbledore asked, squeezing her shoulder gently.
"I-I think if I were Harry..." Hermione said slowly. "I would be angry that I hadn't been told. But then I wouldn't have understood that maybe it was for the best. I mean, he has enough to worry about without thinking his friends might be trying to harm him. His own friends!"
"Someday when this is all over, I will tell him myself." Dumbledore whispered. "I will not stop you from sharing this with him, but I do not think it would be very wise."
"I don't know yet." Hermione said honestly, "But there is one more thing I want to know. What are we going to do about this? If the potion has been destroyed like you said, won't Snape and his um...wife...be discovered? Won't Voldemort start to ask questions if he doesn't see results?"
"Not to worry Ms. Granger, I have something of a plan..."
---
Potions class had long since ended by the time Hermione returned to the common room. A few students were still wandering through the halls, but most were at lunch or out on the grounds, enjoying the cool autumn weather. Walking through the portrait hole, Hermione was surprised to see Harry and a very sour looking Ron sitting in a shadowed corner.
"What's the matter?" Hermione asked, dropping her books on an empty table and crossing the room to sit with them.
"I got a letter from Fred and George at lunch." Ron said, his eyes narrowed in anger. "Guess who's come crawling back to the family?"
"What are you talking about?" Hermione said, rasing an eyebrow at him. "You don't mean..."
"Percy!" Ron balled up his fists in his lap and huffed loudly. "The bloody git! Came back to the Burrow this morning, and of course Mum was beside herself..."
"Oh Ron!" Hermione scolded. "You should be happy that your parents and Percy were able to set aside their differences."
"Yeah, I'm just thrilled!"
"Be fair Ron! Maybe he's really sorry..."
"Or maybe he just got tired of living on his own." Harry said in a tone that showed he meant to be helpful.
"He doesn't deserve us!" Ron cried, leaping out of his chair and heading for the stairs. "And I don't care how many times he apologizes, I'm not going to forgive him."
Ron banged up the stairs, as if trying to cause as much a ruckus as possible. A small first year stuck her head out of the stairway across the room, and then shrugged and disappeared again.
"He seems upset." Hermione said, sinking down into her chair and sighing loudly. "Maybe I should knit him a hat, I've got loads of extra yarn. Do you think that would cheer him up?"
"He's not Dobby!" Harry snorted, smiling at Hermione.
"I know! I just care about him, that's all."
Hermione sighed, and put a hand on her rumbling stomach. Maybe if she ran she could still catch lunch...
"What did Dumbledore want anyway?" Harry asked through a lazy yawn.
In that moment Hermione realized that there really was no decision. She suddenly understood very well how Dumbledore must have felt, the guilt of keeping things from Harry that would only harm him, but that he ought to have known.
"He just wanted to talk to me about Peeves nearly killing me this afternoon."
Hermione tried to smile reassuringly at Harry, but her heart hurt too much at the very thought. At the moment, she felt very much like a dementor was in the room. That feeling that she was never going to be happy again.
"At least you got to miss potions." Harry commented dryly. "I would take a run in with Peeves over that any day!"
Hermione sighed, and gave Harry a playful shove as she rose out of her chair. She would eat lunch, she would act normal, and she would try to forget that the entire world seemed to be plotting against them. No wonder Snape wouldn't look her in the eye! Harry was like a brother to her, what if something really did happen to him? Shaking her head, Hermione forced herself to think of other things. She had a transfiguration test to worry about, and maybe she would knit Ron a hat after all. Even if he didn't wear it...
"Hey Hermione!" Harry called as she wearily climbed the stairs up to the girls dorms. "Cheer up, its not like anybody nearly died or anything!"
Even though Hermione knew the crack was directed at her run in with Peeves, she nearly felt sick from the wave of guilt that flooded through her.
Cheer up indeed...