Chapter 21: Big Reunion
As Hermione and Draco parted from a long kiss Hermione realized that if their lie didn't come true than Harry and Ron would suspect that something was amiss.
"Draco, we have to do that radio show thingy! Otherwise-" she began, but Draco put his finger to her lips softly.
"Don't worry Hermione. You are way too stressed out. I already thought about that while we were lying. We just tell the old windbag, I mean Professor Dumbledore about our little lie and everything will be fine." Draco said calmly.
"OR we can relate it to the group thingy! Let's go find Nina." Hermione jumped up.
"Or we can continue what we were doing before?" Draco suggested
"Or not? Let's go find her." Hermione winked at her boyfriend before walking towards the door, swinging her hips slowly.
"Tease!" Draco called after her.
"And you love me for it" Hermione smiled. "Are you going to the common room?"
"No thanks, I think that I am going to go to the Slytherin common room." Draco said. As soon as Hermione closed the door behind her, he rushed down to the dungeons. "Toadstool!" he told the portrait.
Draco casually strolled into his former dorm room. Blaise was there, reading a book.
"Malfoy, just the man I was hoping to run into." Blaise said as he looked up.
"In the dorm room?"
"Whatever. Listen, I was thinking, there's this hot chick in the school who I wanna get some action from. She's also intelligent, so maybe it can be more than just a one-night stand. Y'know, like a girl with brains and breasts." Blaise told Draco.
"So what is the problem?" Draco asked plainly
"Well, I was thinking about settling down. So I was thinking about what I want. First I thought about that Nina girl. She has breasts, brains and ain't too prude, as you know. But she's a total traitor, player, and she seems unstable. So I thought about the entire group of girls here, and I narrowed it down to one. But she's a mudblood"
"What?" Draco was taken aback, but didn't let it show.
"It's Granger, man. What should I do?" Blaise looked nervous. The second biggest player/sex god in Hogwarts looked nervous about a girl, let alone that he wanted to settle down.
"Well, what do you see in her?" Draco asked, curious as to why someone would be attracted to his girlfriend. Man, that sounded weird in his head.
"Well, she's intelligent, so there will be conversation and not just sex. She's H-O-T HOT! She also shows potential. Maybe with the right work, she could become more girlfriend material, but for now, she's the only one who will do. But she's a Gryffindor, a mudblood Gryffindor!"
"Why again do you want to settle?" This question haunted Draco's mind.
"I was thinking to myself one day 'Blaise, you always have these short flings that are only good for a few hours tops. Wouldn't it be better to have a girl to always have whenever I want? And also what if I don't feel like doing my homework? I can always have someone to persuade me, if you know what I mean'. Stuff like that came to my mind. It wouldn't be so bad I guess." Blaise shrugged.
Draco was ready to explode! How dare anyone think of Hermione as anything other than perfection! 'She's the only one who will do'?!?
"I think that she has a boyfriend" Draco said emotionless.
"Wh-" Dumbledore's voice cut off what Blaise was about to say.
"WILL DRACO MALFOY, HERMIONE GRANGER AND NINA PLEASE REPORT TO THE HEADMASTER'S OFFICE?"
"We'll finish this conversation as soon as I get back. Until then do not do anything" Draco ordered.
Draco stepped out of the room and made his way to the headmaster's office.
Hermione made her way to the Gryffindor/Slytherin prefect common room. (If you guys still don't get the common room thing ill explain it now.)
Hermione thought about the common room on her way there/ If you thought about it, it was like Mickey Mouse's head. Each of the ears was the bedrooms and smaller common rooms and the head was the larger common room. And in between the ears, the empty space was like the bathrooms (happy?).
"All for one and one for all" Hermione told to the portrait. The password had changed earlier that week.
"Hermione, how is the radio thingy going?" Ron asked her as she stepped into the room.
"Fine. Have you seen Nina?" She asked
"Oh, um she said something about going outside." Ron said as he quickly went back to the essay he was writing.
"Ron, look into my eyes and tell me the truth" Hermoine said in a stern voice.
"All I know is that she told Harry and me to tell whoever asked that she was outside. I don't know why, but that's all she said." Ron informed his friend, not wanting to be blown up.
"What do you mean! Oh my!" Hermione ran up the stairs to her room. "Shit!"
She looked around the room. Nina's duffel bag was gone, along with her pouch of floo powder.
"Damn-it Nina!" She yelled out when she caught sight of a muggle newspaper on her bed with an article cut out.
"WILL DRACO MALFOY, HERMIONE GRANGER AND NINA PLEASE REPORT TO THE HEADMASTER'S OFFICE?" she heard.
'I hope Dumbledore is in a good mood right now' Hermione thought as she angrily made her way to the headmaster's office.
"Hermione, good thing I found you alone before we got to Dumbledore's office." She heard Draco call to her from the gargoyle.
"Draco! Nina's" Hermione began
"Blaise wants you!" Draco interrupted.
"What! But this is more important. Nina ran." Hermione told Draco.
"What?"
"Yes, she is somewhere in China. There is a protest there to free Tibet" Hermione and Draco spun around quickly.
"How do you know that?" Hermione asked the elderly man
"Well, I read about the protest in the paper, the muggle paper. Knowing of Miss Nina's history, I am one-hundred percent positive that that is where she shall be heading, after a quick stop" There was a teinkle in the man's eye.
Nina looked around the room. There was a lit fireplace of stone. The room was chilly.
She was in Durmstrang.
"Conor, where is everyone?" She asked the boy behind her as he came down the stairs.
"Nina? Is that you?" He slowly made his way to the beautiful girl.
Her beautiful brown hair that went down to the middle of her back, filled with highlights of all colors looked like fire. He saw that her jeans and her spaghetti strap green shirt clung to her body. She turned around and looked into her beautiful brown eyes, but they weren't brown. She was apparently wearing color contacts that made her eyes look green. Freckles were speckled around her nose in the cutes that just made you wanna kiss each one. Her lips, her soft, luscious lips were coated with a shimmery cherry lip-gloss.
Conor just wanted to taste those lips again. Ever since she left him all he could think about was the girl before him, and now here she was.
"Conor, does a student by the name of Jared go here, just started this year, our age." Nina asked, breaking the long silence.
"First off," the boy began with a smirk (where have we all seen that?) "What are you doing here? I heard that you got sent off to a different school by the ministry of magic, the world ministry of magic."
"I got out" she said in a cold voice. The boy brushed the stray brown hairs out of his face. His blue eyes gazed at her. "Now pl-"
"I'm not done." She rolled her eyes.
'He never is done' she thought with a sneer.
"So, what are you doing here?" He tried to lead her to the blood red couch, but she grabbed her hand away violently.
"None of your business."
"The school has been empty without you."
"Most places are when I'm not there" she paused "and it's know that I'm not"
"So you ran again?" he looked at her strong face. She had guilty written all over it. "I'll keep your secret, for a price."
"How about you keep it, and I'll let you have children?" she said with a smile that said 'don't mess with me'.
"But I can still tell, and I hear the nurse tell the headmaster that she was finally able to heal Jay and the other guys"
"Fine, then how about this, I just wipe your memory"
"NO! I have a date with Miranda tonight!"
"That slut from our year? She's done every guy in the school. The only reason why you have a date with her is because she wants to sleep with every guy in our grade 'cause then Lynda will give her one hundred galleons."
"Do I detect a hint of jealousy?" Conor smirked Nina rolled her eyes and kneed him where it hurts.
"Buh bye baby." Nina said with a smirk as she walked up the stairs to the boys' dormitories.
At once, Nina recognized a t-shirt that was carelessly thrown on the floor. Nina walked to the bed that it was closest to and heard voices through the curtain. She was about to rush out of the room, knowing that she could get caught, but then she recognized one of the voices, and names.
"NIKKI!" the girl jumped out of the bed, holding a blanket to her body, trying to cover herself.
"Nina?" she shrieked. Jared looked up and his face dropped. "What are you doing here? I thought you got sent to a boarding school"
"I did, but I decided to pay my little friend Jared a visit." She turned to the boy. "Hello Jared. How are you?"
"Well,"
"Well, I think that it's time for me to go. Bye" Nina rushed and took out what she got from Gringotts, accidentally letting Nikki and Jared see what it was.
She disappeared in a flash of light, which only happened in certain cases.
BACK IN DUMBLEDORE'S OFFICE
"Professor, why are we here? We should be looking for Nina!" Hermione said after an hour of silence.
"Professor Dumbledore? Are you in here?" A voice came from the fireplace. Everyone turned to it to see who was speaking.
Hermione saw Lee Jordan's head in the green embers.
"Hello Lee" She said politely
"Hello Hermione, ah, professor Dumbledore, there you are. I was hoping to speak to you about a student of your's." the head told the headmaster. Hermione practically jumped out of her chair, hoping that it was Nina.
"WHICH STUDENT LEE!" She asked
"A girl named Nina." This time she did jump
"WHERE IS SHE?" Hermoine asked him.
"Wait," Draco said slowly. Hermione had forgotten that he was in the room. "How do you know her name?"
"What do you mean Draco? All that I care is that he knows something." Hermione told the blond boy
"Um, Hermione" Lee whispered, signaling for her to come closer "What is Malfoy doing in here and why did you call him Draco?"
"Ugh, Draco and I accidentally drank a peace potion" she thought up quickly.
"Oh" he nodded hid head and Hermione walked back to her seat. "Well, anyways, I was working in the shop in Hogsmead when she walked into the shop. She asked me if we were hooked up to the floo connection. Said that she was running an errand for one of the professors. Fred then walked in right when she was about to tell me why she had a duffel bag with her. I turned to him for one second. When I turned back, all I saw were green embers dying in the fireplace"
"Did you happen to hear where she was going?" Dumbledore asked.
"No, sorry. I was speaking to Fred at the time." Lee informed the group quietly.
"Thank you Lee. Is there anything else?" Dumbledore asked the head
"No professor, but I was just wondering-WAIT! She asked me if the fireplace went to Diagon Alley!" Lee suddenly remembered.
"DIAGON ALLEY? OUTTA THE FIRE JORDAN! IM GOIN' TO DIAGON ALLEY!" Hermione said. She tried to jump up, but Draco caught her wrist and pulled her seat next to him so she could sit in it while he held onto her.
"Calm down Hermione. Now Jordan, how again do you know Nina?" Draco looked at the older man with stern eyes.
"I used to know her." Lee said quickly "But that's all professor, so now I must be getting back to the shop. Farewell!" With that his head disappeared.
"I have to go get her. She is my best friend and she would have cut off your hand by now Draco if I was the one missing. She wouldn't let anything stop her." Hermione was ready to do as she said Nina would, cut off his hand so that the cold not hold on to her, but the fireplace then went ablaze once again.
"DUMBLEDORE!" a voice roared from the fireplace.
Everyone turned to see who it was.
Hermione gasped, it was-
"Ah, Karkaroff. I see that you are back from your little vacation" Dumbledore said to the head.
"DON'T YOU BE SO CHEERFUL WITH ME! ESPECIALLY AFTER WHAT YOU HAD DONE TO MY FINEST STUDENT SINCE KRUM!" he continued to roar.
"Sir, was it a short female with redish hair?" Hermione asked politely.
"We heard that she was blondish brown from one student and a deep brown from another, but that is not the point. The point is that one of your students sent one of mine to the infirmary. She is a former student of mine, I could tell by the way the boy was injured. She did it to several other males while studying here."
"Um, sir, could you please tell me of the student who she injured, like name and of the other person who saw her?" Hermione asked.
"Yes. One boy's name was Conor. The two, I heard, used to as you kids say go out while she attended the school and the other boy's name was Jared. He was suspended though after being caught in his bed with a girl from a different school. Her name is Nikki. She was under the influence of a potion though because she is a muggle."
"NIKKI?" Hermione was shocked. Nikki was one of their best friends.
"Excuse me" another head popped into the fireplace. It was Fluer Decleur.
"This is getting crazy!" Draco yelled to himself.
"Hello Fluer" Hermione said politely
"'ello 'ermione. Excuse me, professor Dumbledore, but I was wondering eef Mees Neena has returned from Diagon Alley yet." She asked.
"What do you mean?" Hermione tried to jump up, but Draco continued to hold on to her.
"Well, she came into ze Gringotts bank and took out a small item, saying zat it was for one of 'er professors" Fluer informed them.
"NO! I knew that she was unstable, but this is just, Mr. Malfoy. How pleasant to see you" Hermione said with a forces smile at the adult who had walked into the room.
"Draco, what are you doing, touching that mudblood?" Lucuis demanded.
"Professor Dumbledore insisted that I had a hold on her, knowing that she may hurt someone otherwise." Draco coolly explained. "But what are you doing here?"
"I have come for Dumbledore. The ministry requests your presence at a hearing" he took out a roll of parchment and handed it to the old man. "Ah, Karkaroff, what a pleasant surprise. You shall be at the hearing to I presume?"
"Yes, but now I must be off. Farewell to all, and Dumbledore, do not think that this shall be going unpunished." With that the head disappeared with a pop.
"I too must be off. Farewell Professor Dumbledore, 'Hermione, Draco, Mister Malfoy" Fluer's head too disappeared with a pop.
"Now that the girl is gone, I must say that she" Lucius spat out that word as he pointed at Hermione "must accompany you to the hearing."
"Excuse me sir, but I have a name and it is not She. Furthermore I would appreciate it if you would inform me of my invitation rather than-"
"Hermione, don't make him angry" Draco subtly whispered into her ear.
"Hmph! Farewell Dumbledore. I shall be seeing you in a few weeks. Farewell son, and do not forget to wash your hands thoroughly when you leave here." With that Lucius left the room with the swish of his robes.
"So we know that she was at Durmstrang, Hogsmead and Diagon Alley where she picked up something from Gringotts." Hermione thought aloud.
"Hermione, I just thought of something. She has to go to that final trial soon, right? Well, she likes that Jared guy, but she just found out what he did to that Nikki girl. Well, what if she went to that beach? The one where I met that fat guy?" Draco suggested.
"It's worth a shot. May we professor?" Hermione turned to the silent headmaster with pleading eyes. Dumbledore nodded his head.
"Here is the recipe for a potion to create a vortex to take you to where you wish to go. It should take no more than ten minutes, knowing your expertise. Please hurry to find your classmate, and friend." Dumbledore handed them a piece of parchment.
The two quickly left the room and ran to the dungeons.
'I hope that those two get there in time.' Dumbledore thought to himself. 'And I hope they pass'