A/N: Here is your chapter. I've had quite a lot going on lately (APs,
Finals, Graduation, College Orientation, etc.), and I hope, but don't
promise that all of the madness is over and that the next chapter will be
out soonish. But it's going to take some time, so just be patient. Sending
me 100 reviews asking me to update soon just isn't going to help anything.
So instead, just let me know you liked it, or didn't(and if you didn't, why
not), because if I don't get reviews then I don't think anyone reads - and
there are so precious few of you who do read that I really need to keep all
of you. So thanks for putting up with me!
Chapter 29
"And at last we come to our final note of business. Those of you who wish to hold the position of Head Boy or Girl next year should see me after the meeting," Professor McGonagall announced. "The rest of you are free to leave." Very few of the sixth year prefects left. McGonagall smiled at the students who stayed behind. She wasn't surprised. Hermione Granger was front and center, and directly behind her was Draco Malfoy. Though she knew she had to be fair and address all the students who stayed, she knew that those two were the strongest candidates. She cleared her throat before speaking again.
"There are no surprises here. For those of you who are interested, you know that the position is one of utmost honor and with it comes utmost responsibility. The students are selected by a council of teachers and approved by Professor Dumbledore. However, a good way to demonstrate your eligibility is to take leadership. Help your younger housemates with their work and keep them in line in the hallways. You should also speak up in class and be sure to keep your marks up. Remember your O.W.L.s will also have a say in determining if you get the position or not. Does anyone have any questions?" she finished. The students shook their heads no. "Alright, then you are free to leave," she said, smiling warmly at them all.
Hermione stood up and gathered her notes. Behind her, Draco stepped around the desk he was sitting at to stand behind her. She didn't notice him, so he reached forward and twirled one of her soft curls around his finger before moving his hand to her shoulder. Instantly she jerked away from his touch and almost fell over her chair trying to step away from him.
"Someone's a little jumpy," Draco remarked. Hermione shrugged. "Can I talk to you?" he asked.
"Talk away," she said. He took a sideways glance at Professor McGonagall and smiled at Hermione.
"Well, I just wanted to discuss some ideas for the Yule Ball with you on the way to dinner," he tried to emphasize the last words so Hermione would take the hint that he wanted to speak to her in private. Hermione glanced at the Professor who was pretending not to listen intently.
"Why don't we discuss them with Professor McGonagall right now?" she offered. Draco gave Hermione a look, which Professor McGonagall happened to see as she looked up to be consulted.
"Oh, um, why don't you two go on to dinner, I have some things I need to get done right now," McGonagall suggested. Draco felt like kissing the old woman. Hermione on the other hand was getting upset.
"You don't have just a minute?" she asked dejectedly.
"Miss Granger, I believe that Professor McGonagall has made it clear she has no time to help you at this juncture. I suggest that unless you want to ruin all chances of being Head Girl next year, you and Mr. Malfoy take your discussion elsewhere," Professor Snape's voice rang across the classroom. Draco seized the opportunity and took Hermione's hand before proceeding to drag her out of the room.
"Ouch!" she exclaimed, when he finally let go of her hand.
"You are incredibly dense for making such good marks," he chided. Hermione shook her hand in pain.
"What are you talking about?" she asked.
"You honestly believed I had given any thought to the Yule Ball so early in the year?" Draco asked. He watched as Hermione put the pieces together.
"Not everyone knows how to tell the truth from a lie, Draco. You've obviously mastered the art of lying, how was I supposed to know?" Hermione struggled to find a good comeback.
"Oh, that cuts deep, Hermie," Draco mocked, clenching his eyes shut and clutching his chest.
"Ugh!" Hermione stalked off down the hall, absolutely disgusted with Draco's behavior. Draco chased after her.
"Hermione, would you just listen to me?" he asked. Hermione shook her head and kept walking. "What if I said there was extra credit involved?" he said tantalizingly.
"Draco, if you are lying, so help me-"Hermione began to threaten him, as she stopped to listen.
"Or you'll what?" Draco asked, enjoying himself immensely. "Hex me back in time? Lock me in a broom closet with Snape?"
"No, that's one of your tricks, Draco," Hermione started to laugh. Then she stopped suddenly, trying to remember when Draco had ever locked someone in a broom closet.
"I did do that right? I'm not insane and imagined the whole thing, right?" Draco asked her, his eyes growing wide as the memory grew fainter in his mind.
"I thought so, but now I'm not so sure," Hermione paused. "We can't both be imagining the same thing, can we?"
"No way. It had to have happened. I'm sure it will come back to us," Draco said confidently, even though a little voice in his head was nagging him.
"Extra Credit?" Hermione asked, changing the subject.
"Yes, Snape wants us to try out another experiment. Like the one we did last year with the Muggle plants and spells," Draco paused. "But I told him I didn't think you were interested."
"Draco! Tell me the rest of the project," Hermione demanded.
"Well, I wrote it all down, but I don't really remember the details. Why don't you meet me in the library later?" he offered. Hermione heaved a sigh but agreed to meet him. She hurried to dinner before she realized that an extra credit potions project wasn't anything he couldn't talk about in front of Professor McGonagall.
* * *
Draco paced in the library, waiting for Hermione and hoping things would go so much smoother than he anticipated they would. He had no idea how to tell her what was going through his head. The ring was still on his finger, even though it scared him. It scared him more to take it off, but he could not figure out why.
Hermione came into the library just then, and Draco quickly sat down at the table. An open book lay in front of him and he pretended to be very interested in what it had to say while he desperately racked his brain for something to say.
"Draco?" Hermione asked, sitting down across from him. He looked up and gave her a small smile. Hermione took a deep breath. "Listen, I know you didn't ask me to come here to talk about potions, you could have said something in front of McGonagall. So whatever it is, maybe you'd better just get to it."
"Fine," Draco agreed. He stood up and walked over to her side and took her hand in his. He slid the ring off her finger and tossed it onto the table and then took the ring off his finger and tossed it down next to hers. "I lied to you," He said after a few minutes. "But I was scared, and I'm sorry," he finished. "Look at the rings," he added, when she just sat there.
"I don't have to," Hermione said, when she found her voice. "I saw mine last night and realized you'd been lying," she told him. Draco nodded and sat down next to her.
"So what do we do now?" he asked her. She didn't respond for a while. Neither one of them could think of an explanation, and they really had no idea what to do about the situation.
Hermione turned her head slightly so she could study Draco's face. His clear blue eyes were focused on some distant point, and she could see he was very troubled by the events of the school year so far.
"You know, Breena and Sorcha are moving," Draco said suddenly, his train of thought had run completely off course.
"I know, Ron's been on about it for weeks now," Hermione sighed, almost annoyed to have to hear about it again. "You'd think the world was coming to an end."
"Funny, isn't it? Just a year ago you and I were-"Draco stopped, as a confused look came over his face.
"Go on," Hermione waited for him to complete his thought.
"See, that's just it. I can't remember what I was going to say. I think I'm going insane," Draco stood up and unconsciously started pacing behind Hermione. She turned to watch him as he elaborated on that thought. "I keep having these dreams about fighting a war, and my father being alive, and there's this funny old man who has a lot of money," Draco looked up at Hermione, whose sympathetic eyes were trained on him. "You probably agree that I must be insane, I don't even know why I'm telling you all this," he added. Hermione stood up.
"I have weird dreams too, Draco," she said softly.
"Hermione, you don't understand," Draco snapped. "My father's been dead since I was a baby. He was executed for being a Death Eater. I've never even met him, so dreaming about him just, it's weird, it's beyond weird."
"I didn't know," Hermione was stunned by the news that Lucius was dead. Although after a few minutes she felt like she ought to have known.
"I didn't expect you to," Draco said after a moment. The two stood there in the middle of the library looking at each other in silence until they were interrupted.
"I suppose I should have known my two favorite students would be here together," Professor Snape said, setting a hand on each one of their shoulders, an uncharacteristic smile on his face. Hermione and Draco exchanged looks. "I'm afraid you're both going to have to come with me."
* * *
Pansy sat on the end of her bed, watching Breena pack. Her long hair, currently dyed blonde, fell around her shoulders, perfectly straight. Stretching her arms out in front of her she studied her fading tan.
"Draco and I broke up," Breena said holding a purple robe up in the mirror. She tossed it aside and picked up another one, which was very similar to the previous one. Pansy was still silent. "Did you hear me?"
"Hmm?" Pansy looked up. "Oh yeah, that color's great on you."
"Pansy, you're not paying any attention," Breena accused. Pansy raised her eyebrows. "I said Draco and I broke up."
"Oh, why?"
"I don't really believe in long-distance relationships," Breena said firmly. Pansy thought for a moment.
"Didn't you just say a few days ago that you thought Draco was worth it?" she asked. Breena rolled her eyes.
"Am I not allowed to change my mind?" she asked. "Besides, he's gotten a little weird since this term started, haven't you noticed?"
"Not really," Pansy mused. Breena heaved a disgusted sigh.
"He's been so absent-minded, and you know that's completely unlike Draco. He starts to talk about something and then stops mid sentence and cannot remember at all what he was going to say. Sometimes he talks about things that never happened. Like last year's Halloween Ball?"
"We didn't have a Halloween ball last year, did we?" Pansy asked, confused.
"No! Hogwarts has never had a Halloween Ball! Honestly Pansy, what's the matter with you?" Breena sighed and looked around the room. She picked up her wand and quickly made a circular motion with it. All of her belongings sorted themselves into her two trunks in a neat and tidy fashion. "Better," she pronounced.
"I don't understand why you didn't just do that in the first place," Pansy said, yawning.
"Never mind," Breena muttered. "I'm going to go wash my hair."
* * *
"I hope you both realize the severity of this offense," Professor McGonagall was saying. Hermione's mind was racing, trying to remember everything she'd put down on her application for head girl. She didn't dare sneak a look at Draco for fear it would make the situation worse.
"Professor, I'm not sure I fully understand the problem," Draco spoke up.
"You both wrote the exact same essay, Draco, word for word. I'm not talking about a minor infraction here; this is a very big deal. It's really not that difficult to comprehend. One of you used a cheating spell. I really believed that you both were above such a disgraceful practice," McGonagall said. Draco looked away. Hermione wouldn't cheat, would she?
"So, are we being disqualified?" Hermione asked softly. Professor Snape sighed.
"No, Miss Granger, you are not. Professor McGonagall and I have discussed this at length and we feel that based on the strength of your records you deserve the benefit of the doubt. You will be permitted to write another essay. However, you will both be given anti-cheating quills and parchment, and you will complete your essays in separate locations," he informed her. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. "So, Draco, if you'll come with me," Snape said, standing up. He and Draco left the room. Professor McGonagall stood up from her desk and came over to where Hermione was sitting.
"I just want you to know, Hermione, that if you need to tell me anything, I am more than willing to listen," the older woman offered. Hermione smiled, touched by the gesture.
"I'm fine, Professor. I didn't cheat on the essay, I wouldn't ever cheat on anything," Hermione said firmly. A smile came across the professor's face.
"I didn't think so. Let's just get on with this, shall we?" she said, handing Hermione a quill and some parchment.
* * *
Draco wrote his essay easily. Snape hadn't been as friendly to Draco as McGonagall had been to Hermione, but he had provided Draco with an opportunity to admit anything he needed to. Draco had assured the man of his innocence and quickly wrote a replacement essay that he was sure would be satisfactory.
He strode confidently out of the potions classroom and wondered if Hermione had finished her essay yet. They hadn't had any time to discuss their extra credit project, but the library would be closing soon, and curfew was soon after that. Draco decided that he would probably just visit the kitchen briefly and then head off to bed.
On his way down into his and Hermione's lounge, he remembered their rings, which had been quickly forgotten once Snape and McGonagall had professed their concerns over Draco and Hermione cheating on their applications. Draco quickly ran up to the library and thoroughly searched the area they had been in for the rings, but they were nowhere to be found. He even asked Madam Pince, but she hadn't seen them and assured Draco she would keep an eye out for them. He thanked her and headed back to his room, confused.
No one would have been in the library that time of night. He and Hermione had been alone except for a few other students who were sitting on the other side of the room. And even if someone had found the rings, they clearly belonged to Draco and Hermione. He definitely would have heard about them by now - it would cause a huge scandal if they were found. A scandal that Draco wasn't sure he really wanted to deal with at this point in time. Dejected, he kicked at one of the stones in the floor.
"Draco!" Hermione's voice pulled his thoughts back to the present. She looked furious, and he realized she must have thought he was the one who had cheated on the essay.
"Hermione, I know what you're thinking, and I didn't do it," He said quickly. "I wouldn't cheat, you know that. In all the time we've been working together I've never even let you do more than your share of the work, let alone ask you to let me cheat off you or anything."
"But Draco, there has to be a logical explanation for it. Our papers were identical; Professor McGonagall showed them to me!" Hermione was near hysterics. Draco sighed.
"Hermione, a lot of things have happened recently that don't have a logical explanation. Think about our rings," Draco reminded her. Hermione's face suddenly changed as she remembered the forgotten rings.
"We left them in the library!" she exclaimed, and headed off down the hall. Draco caught her quickly.
"They're gone," he told her. "I've already looked."
"Oh no! Draco, what if someone found them? What's going to happen when the whole school thinks we're engaged?" Hermione was in a state of panic that Draco had never seen before.
"Calm down," he said, almost laughing at her. "It's going to be alright."
"I don't know how you can say that!" Hermione lashed out at him. He took a step back from her. She stood there in front of him clenching and unclenching her fists. "Draco, I don't want to have to deal with a bunch of rumors about us. All I want to do is go back to my room, get a good night's sleep, and start a fresh day tomorrow without any of this on my mind."
"Wouldn't that be nice?" Draco commented under his breath. "Hermione, seriously, it's going to be alright. When Madam Pince cleans up tonight, she'll probably find them, and if she doesn't, one of the house elves will. I made her promise she'd keep them for me if she found them."
"I hope so," Hermione sighed. "I guess I'll just go back to my room."
"You could," Draco said, a thought crossing his mind just then. "Or you could stay and keep me company while I get a snack," he suggested. Hermione shook her head.
"I'm so tired," she protested. Draco stuck his lip out.
"You're just going to leave me all alone?" he asked. Hermione smiled. "Besides, you could use some cheering up," he added. Hermione consented and they headed down the stairs to the kitchen. As usual, Hermione waited outside while Draco retrieved the snacks. They headed for their lounge, and sat on the couch together to eat.
The house elves had really outdone themselves. They'd given Draco two huge mugs full of steaming hot cocoa on a tray full of cookies, mince pies, rolls, soft pretzels, and every kind of pastry imaginable. Hermione wasn't sure she and Draco would be able to finish all of it, but then she decided it didn't really matter.
"I'm sorry I accused you of cheating," she said after a while.
"It's alright; I thought the same thing of you at first. What else were you supposed to assume? We both knew we were innocent, so it's a logical conclusion," he dismissed her apology.
"But I should have realized," Hermione tried to reconcile the problem.
"No, really, Hermione. It's a very weird thing that's happened. When did you write the essay?"
"Right after dinner, I turned it in before I came to the library. How about you?"
"Same, right after dinner," Draco said. "That doesn't tell us much except that we both wanted to get it over with right away." Hermione nodded in agreement. She sipped her hot cocoa and stared off into space.
"Can we talk about something else?" she asked, after they'd sat in silence for a while. Draco looked at her.
"Sure," he agreed. "What do you want to talk about?"
"Anything but all the weird stuff that's been happening lately is fine with me," she said. "I just want to put all of that stuff out of my mind right now."
"I don't blame you," Draco agreed. "So how was your summer?"
"It was good," she said. "I traveled a lot."
"With Pansy, right?" he asked. She nodded. "Well, I sat around a lot and did nothing. It was a nice change of pace. But it seems like a very long time ago."
"Doesn't it? It's the strangest thing," Hermione said.
"I thought we weren't talking about the weird things," Draco teased. Hermione sighed.
"Maybe we have to talk about it," she conceded. As much as she hated to, it wasn't just going to go away without some discussion.
"I think you're right," Draco sighed. "The rings are very weird."
"They are very weird, but they could just be a coincidence. It's possible that some Draco and Hermione were once married and then when their marriage ended the rings found their way to a jewelry store or pawn shop and we happened to buy the rings from the same place at different times," Hermione suggested.
"And we both just have really impeccable taste," Draco finished for her. "That's a bit too coincidental, if you ask me."
"Far too coincidental," a third voice broke in. Both Hermione and Draco cast nervous glances at each other before turning to see who had interrupted their conversation. "What, no hot cocoa for me?" Professor Snape asked, walking around to sit on the couch across from the two students. Hermione and Draco looked at each other again. "What I also find remarkably coincidental is the fact that both of your essays were perfectly identical once again, even with the anti-cheating spells placed on the quills and parchment." Hermione gasped.
"You can't be serious," she burst.
"I believe the muggle expression goes, 'serious as a heart attack,' am I correct, Miss Granger?" Snape asked. She nodded. "So I am as confused as you both are. There is no possible way you could have both written the same essay on purpose this time. And there is no logical explanation for these rings either," He added, pulling them from his pocket and placing them on the table in front of them. "But I suggest you keep a closer watch on such personal possessions next time," he said menacingly.
"Thank you, sir," Hermione said, slipping the ring back on her finger.
"What are you doing?" Draco asked her.
"I just," Hermione looked down at her hand. "It felt weird not to wear it, my finger feels bare," she tried to explain. Draco shook his head and Hermione took it back off. She examined it again, and suddenly a thought came to her. "My necklace! Come with me," she said, taking Draco's hand. Then it occurred to her that he couldn't follow her to her room, and she dropped it. "No, no, wait here," she decided and ran out of the room, leaving Snape and Draco alone, very confused.
Hermione ran past Ron, Sorcha, Ginny, and Seamus who were all sitting in the common room by the fire without so much as a word. They all exchanged confused glances, which grew even more confused when they began to hear crashing noises from Hermione's room.
"Maybe someone should go check on her?" Ginny suggested, getting out of her seat. She ran up the stairs and paused in the doorframe, just observing Hermione throwing all of her belongings around the room. Hermione finally pulled an enormous jewelry box out of the bottom of her trunk and ran past Ginny out of Gryffindor Tower. Ginny returned to her friends and shrugged. "I guess she found what she was looking for," she said, sitting back down.
"She's been a bit off lately," Ron remarked. The others nodded in agreement.
* * *
"It's awfully near curfew," Professor Snape remarked. "Perhaps I should be heading off so I don't find any students out after hours," he suggested pointedly, gazing at his watch as he stood up.
"Hermione and I will go to bed right after she shows me what she ran off to get," Draco promised as Snape left the area. Hermione came running in a few short minutes later.
"Snape left already?" She asked, coming to sit next to Draco. She put the box down on the table and started to paw through the contents. Draco's eyes widened at some of the pieces she was tossing about so casually.
"Hey, wow, those are really rare gems," he said, lifting a necklace out. It was all black, but the beads glowed red when the light shone through them.
"Gosh I have a ton of those," she remarked, gesturing to the pile on her lap. Draco was taken aback at her blasé attitude. Even his mother didn't have as many intricate and precious pieces as Hermione had - and Draco didn't know anyone with much more money than his family.
Hermione finally grew impatient and dumped the contents of the box onto the table. Draco quickly caught three tiaras that fell out, before they could be bent.
"You know, these things are fragile," he scolded, setting them gently in the box.
"It's not like I ever wear them anymore," she said pointedly. Draco froze, trying to remember anything about Hermione's family.
"What do your parents do?" he asked. Hermione continued to dig through her jewelry.
"They're dentists- muggle teeth healers," she said distractedly. Draco thought this over.
"Do they make a lot of money?" he asked after a while.
"Kind of," she said absently. Then she had a thought. "They didn't buy me all this stuff if that's what you're asking."
"I was wondering," he agreed. "When did you wear the tiaras?" he asked.
"Last- um," Hermione thought for a second. "I wore them with my dress robes, so it had to have been sometime recently, wait, this- no, hmm. You know, I can't remember," she said. She stopped what she was doing and looked at him. "It was recently, I know it, because I remember it like it was yesterday, but I don't remember where I was or what I was doing. Maybe it was this summer?" she looked at the tiaras as if they would answer her question. She gently lifted one of them out of the box and set it on her head. "I remember this one, it was so heavy. I was at a party and there was a big cake, so it was someone's birthday, and then I got lost in the hall," she paused to remember more, and shut her eyes.
"I found you, in the hall," Draco said suddenly. "I remember that. It was so weird that you would get lost; I was really worried about you. Where were we?" he asked.
"We didn't spend any time together this summer though," Hermione protested. "Except at your end of summer party and I didn't wear this. There was no cake."
"That's right," Draco agreed. "But I remember finding you in the hall, and sending for a healer because I was so worried."
"I don't remember that part. I just remember getting lost and you finding me," Hermione said. "Draco, you don't think someone has hexed us, do you?"
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Well, I mean, we both have these memories that are all mixed up, and we can only remember parts of them. It's like someone has performed a memory charm or something."
"You're right about that," Draco agreed. "But I don't necessarily think that's what happened. It's just strange, that's all."
"I'm not so sure, that certainly would explain a lot, wouldn't it?" Hermione asked.
"It would, but I think it's a little irresponsible to blame a bit of memory loss on magic," Draco said. "Let's give it some time, maybe it'll come back later."
"But what if it goes away completely?" Hermione asked, thinking back to some earlier memories she'd tried to remember unsuccessfully.
"Then it goes away," Draco said. "Just wait it out."
"If you're sure," Hermione agreed. She looked at the pile of jewelry sitting on the table and then carefully extracted a silver chain which had a heart in the middle of it. The heart was engraved with the letter D.
"Oh boy," Draco said. He took the necklace away from Hermione and examined it carefully.
"I remember a voice saying that the D could stand for anything I wanted," she told him. "But I was in my room alone," she added. Draco turned to look at her. She was telling him the truth; he could see it in her eyes. This was getting stranger and stranger by the minute.
"Let me borrow this, alright?" He asked. She nodded, and began to put all her jewelry away. Draco slipped the necklace into his pocket. "I promised Snape we'd go to bed as soon as you showed me this, so we'd better get going. He's bound to come check up on us," Draco said. Hermione nodded and they hurried off to bed.
Chapter 29
"And at last we come to our final note of business. Those of you who wish to hold the position of Head Boy or Girl next year should see me after the meeting," Professor McGonagall announced. "The rest of you are free to leave." Very few of the sixth year prefects left. McGonagall smiled at the students who stayed behind. She wasn't surprised. Hermione Granger was front and center, and directly behind her was Draco Malfoy. Though she knew she had to be fair and address all the students who stayed, she knew that those two were the strongest candidates. She cleared her throat before speaking again.
"There are no surprises here. For those of you who are interested, you know that the position is one of utmost honor and with it comes utmost responsibility. The students are selected by a council of teachers and approved by Professor Dumbledore. However, a good way to demonstrate your eligibility is to take leadership. Help your younger housemates with their work and keep them in line in the hallways. You should also speak up in class and be sure to keep your marks up. Remember your O.W.L.s will also have a say in determining if you get the position or not. Does anyone have any questions?" she finished. The students shook their heads no. "Alright, then you are free to leave," she said, smiling warmly at them all.
Hermione stood up and gathered her notes. Behind her, Draco stepped around the desk he was sitting at to stand behind her. She didn't notice him, so he reached forward and twirled one of her soft curls around his finger before moving his hand to her shoulder. Instantly she jerked away from his touch and almost fell over her chair trying to step away from him.
"Someone's a little jumpy," Draco remarked. Hermione shrugged. "Can I talk to you?" he asked.
"Talk away," she said. He took a sideways glance at Professor McGonagall and smiled at Hermione.
"Well, I just wanted to discuss some ideas for the Yule Ball with you on the way to dinner," he tried to emphasize the last words so Hermione would take the hint that he wanted to speak to her in private. Hermione glanced at the Professor who was pretending not to listen intently.
"Why don't we discuss them with Professor McGonagall right now?" she offered. Draco gave Hermione a look, which Professor McGonagall happened to see as she looked up to be consulted.
"Oh, um, why don't you two go on to dinner, I have some things I need to get done right now," McGonagall suggested. Draco felt like kissing the old woman. Hermione on the other hand was getting upset.
"You don't have just a minute?" she asked dejectedly.
"Miss Granger, I believe that Professor McGonagall has made it clear she has no time to help you at this juncture. I suggest that unless you want to ruin all chances of being Head Girl next year, you and Mr. Malfoy take your discussion elsewhere," Professor Snape's voice rang across the classroom. Draco seized the opportunity and took Hermione's hand before proceeding to drag her out of the room.
"Ouch!" she exclaimed, when he finally let go of her hand.
"You are incredibly dense for making such good marks," he chided. Hermione shook her hand in pain.
"What are you talking about?" she asked.
"You honestly believed I had given any thought to the Yule Ball so early in the year?" Draco asked. He watched as Hermione put the pieces together.
"Not everyone knows how to tell the truth from a lie, Draco. You've obviously mastered the art of lying, how was I supposed to know?" Hermione struggled to find a good comeback.
"Oh, that cuts deep, Hermie," Draco mocked, clenching his eyes shut and clutching his chest.
"Ugh!" Hermione stalked off down the hall, absolutely disgusted with Draco's behavior. Draco chased after her.
"Hermione, would you just listen to me?" he asked. Hermione shook her head and kept walking. "What if I said there was extra credit involved?" he said tantalizingly.
"Draco, if you are lying, so help me-"Hermione began to threaten him, as she stopped to listen.
"Or you'll what?" Draco asked, enjoying himself immensely. "Hex me back in time? Lock me in a broom closet with Snape?"
"No, that's one of your tricks, Draco," Hermione started to laugh. Then she stopped suddenly, trying to remember when Draco had ever locked someone in a broom closet.
"I did do that right? I'm not insane and imagined the whole thing, right?" Draco asked her, his eyes growing wide as the memory grew fainter in his mind.
"I thought so, but now I'm not so sure," Hermione paused. "We can't both be imagining the same thing, can we?"
"No way. It had to have happened. I'm sure it will come back to us," Draco said confidently, even though a little voice in his head was nagging him.
"Extra Credit?" Hermione asked, changing the subject.
"Yes, Snape wants us to try out another experiment. Like the one we did last year with the Muggle plants and spells," Draco paused. "But I told him I didn't think you were interested."
"Draco! Tell me the rest of the project," Hermione demanded.
"Well, I wrote it all down, but I don't really remember the details. Why don't you meet me in the library later?" he offered. Hermione heaved a sigh but agreed to meet him. She hurried to dinner before she realized that an extra credit potions project wasn't anything he couldn't talk about in front of Professor McGonagall.
* * *
Draco paced in the library, waiting for Hermione and hoping things would go so much smoother than he anticipated they would. He had no idea how to tell her what was going through his head. The ring was still on his finger, even though it scared him. It scared him more to take it off, but he could not figure out why.
Hermione came into the library just then, and Draco quickly sat down at the table. An open book lay in front of him and he pretended to be very interested in what it had to say while he desperately racked his brain for something to say.
"Draco?" Hermione asked, sitting down across from him. He looked up and gave her a small smile. Hermione took a deep breath. "Listen, I know you didn't ask me to come here to talk about potions, you could have said something in front of McGonagall. So whatever it is, maybe you'd better just get to it."
"Fine," Draco agreed. He stood up and walked over to her side and took her hand in his. He slid the ring off her finger and tossed it onto the table and then took the ring off his finger and tossed it down next to hers. "I lied to you," He said after a few minutes. "But I was scared, and I'm sorry," he finished. "Look at the rings," he added, when she just sat there.
"I don't have to," Hermione said, when she found her voice. "I saw mine last night and realized you'd been lying," she told him. Draco nodded and sat down next to her.
"So what do we do now?" he asked her. She didn't respond for a while. Neither one of them could think of an explanation, and they really had no idea what to do about the situation.
Hermione turned her head slightly so she could study Draco's face. His clear blue eyes were focused on some distant point, and she could see he was very troubled by the events of the school year so far.
"You know, Breena and Sorcha are moving," Draco said suddenly, his train of thought had run completely off course.
"I know, Ron's been on about it for weeks now," Hermione sighed, almost annoyed to have to hear about it again. "You'd think the world was coming to an end."
"Funny, isn't it? Just a year ago you and I were-"Draco stopped, as a confused look came over his face.
"Go on," Hermione waited for him to complete his thought.
"See, that's just it. I can't remember what I was going to say. I think I'm going insane," Draco stood up and unconsciously started pacing behind Hermione. She turned to watch him as he elaborated on that thought. "I keep having these dreams about fighting a war, and my father being alive, and there's this funny old man who has a lot of money," Draco looked up at Hermione, whose sympathetic eyes were trained on him. "You probably agree that I must be insane, I don't even know why I'm telling you all this," he added. Hermione stood up.
"I have weird dreams too, Draco," she said softly.
"Hermione, you don't understand," Draco snapped. "My father's been dead since I was a baby. He was executed for being a Death Eater. I've never even met him, so dreaming about him just, it's weird, it's beyond weird."
"I didn't know," Hermione was stunned by the news that Lucius was dead. Although after a few minutes she felt like she ought to have known.
"I didn't expect you to," Draco said after a moment. The two stood there in the middle of the library looking at each other in silence until they were interrupted.
"I suppose I should have known my two favorite students would be here together," Professor Snape said, setting a hand on each one of their shoulders, an uncharacteristic smile on his face. Hermione and Draco exchanged looks. "I'm afraid you're both going to have to come with me."
* * *
Pansy sat on the end of her bed, watching Breena pack. Her long hair, currently dyed blonde, fell around her shoulders, perfectly straight. Stretching her arms out in front of her she studied her fading tan.
"Draco and I broke up," Breena said holding a purple robe up in the mirror. She tossed it aside and picked up another one, which was very similar to the previous one. Pansy was still silent. "Did you hear me?"
"Hmm?" Pansy looked up. "Oh yeah, that color's great on you."
"Pansy, you're not paying any attention," Breena accused. Pansy raised her eyebrows. "I said Draco and I broke up."
"Oh, why?"
"I don't really believe in long-distance relationships," Breena said firmly. Pansy thought for a moment.
"Didn't you just say a few days ago that you thought Draco was worth it?" she asked. Breena rolled her eyes.
"Am I not allowed to change my mind?" she asked. "Besides, he's gotten a little weird since this term started, haven't you noticed?"
"Not really," Pansy mused. Breena heaved a disgusted sigh.
"He's been so absent-minded, and you know that's completely unlike Draco. He starts to talk about something and then stops mid sentence and cannot remember at all what he was going to say. Sometimes he talks about things that never happened. Like last year's Halloween Ball?"
"We didn't have a Halloween ball last year, did we?" Pansy asked, confused.
"No! Hogwarts has never had a Halloween Ball! Honestly Pansy, what's the matter with you?" Breena sighed and looked around the room. She picked up her wand and quickly made a circular motion with it. All of her belongings sorted themselves into her two trunks in a neat and tidy fashion. "Better," she pronounced.
"I don't understand why you didn't just do that in the first place," Pansy said, yawning.
"Never mind," Breena muttered. "I'm going to go wash my hair."
* * *
"I hope you both realize the severity of this offense," Professor McGonagall was saying. Hermione's mind was racing, trying to remember everything she'd put down on her application for head girl. She didn't dare sneak a look at Draco for fear it would make the situation worse.
"Professor, I'm not sure I fully understand the problem," Draco spoke up.
"You both wrote the exact same essay, Draco, word for word. I'm not talking about a minor infraction here; this is a very big deal. It's really not that difficult to comprehend. One of you used a cheating spell. I really believed that you both were above such a disgraceful practice," McGonagall said. Draco looked away. Hermione wouldn't cheat, would she?
"So, are we being disqualified?" Hermione asked softly. Professor Snape sighed.
"No, Miss Granger, you are not. Professor McGonagall and I have discussed this at length and we feel that based on the strength of your records you deserve the benefit of the doubt. You will be permitted to write another essay. However, you will both be given anti-cheating quills and parchment, and you will complete your essays in separate locations," he informed her. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. "So, Draco, if you'll come with me," Snape said, standing up. He and Draco left the room. Professor McGonagall stood up from her desk and came over to where Hermione was sitting.
"I just want you to know, Hermione, that if you need to tell me anything, I am more than willing to listen," the older woman offered. Hermione smiled, touched by the gesture.
"I'm fine, Professor. I didn't cheat on the essay, I wouldn't ever cheat on anything," Hermione said firmly. A smile came across the professor's face.
"I didn't think so. Let's just get on with this, shall we?" she said, handing Hermione a quill and some parchment.
* * *
Draco wrote his essay easily. Snape hadn't been as friendly to Draco as McGonagall had been to Hermione, but he had provided Draco with an opportunity to admit anything he needed to. Draco had assured the man of his innocence and quickly wrote a replacement essay that he was sure would be satisfactory.
He strode confidently out of the potions classroom and wondered if Hermione had finished her essay yet. They hadn't had any time to discuss their extra credit project, but the library would be closing soon, and curfew was soon after that. Draco decided that he would probably just visit the kitchen briefly and then head off to bed.
On his way down into his and Hermione's lounge, he remembered their rings, which had been quickly forgotten once Snape and McGonagall had professed their concerns over Draco and Hermione cheating on their applications. Draco quickly ran up to the library and thoroughly searched the area they had been in for the rings, but they were nowhere to be found. He even asked Madam Pince, but she hadn't seen them and assured Draco she would keep an eye out for them. He thanked her and headed back to his room, confused.
No one would have been in the library that time of night. He and Hermione had been alone except for a few other students who were sitting on the other side of the room. And even if someone had found the rings, they clearly belonged to Draco and Hermione. He definitely would have heard about them by now - it would cause a huge scandal if they were found. A scandal that Draco wasn't sure he really wanted to deal with at this point in time. Dejected, he kicked at one of the stones in the floor.
"Draco!" Hermione's voice pulled his thoughts back to the present. She looked furious, and he realized she must have thought he was the one who had cheated on the essay.
"Hermione, I know what you're thinking, and I didn't do it," He said quickly. "I wouldn't cheat, you know that. In all the time we've been working together I've never even let you do more than your share of the work, let alone ask you to let me cheat off you or anything."
"But Draco, there has to be a logical explanation for it. Our papers were identical; Professor McGonagall showed them to me!" Hermione was near hysterics. Draco sighed.
"Hermione, a lot of things have happened recently that don't have a logical explanation. Think about our rings," Draco reminded her. Hermione's face suddenly changed as she remembered the forgotten rings.
"We left them in the library!" she exclaimed, and headed off down the hall. Draco caught her quickly.
"They're gone," he told her. "I've already looked."
"Oh no! Draco, what if someone found them? What's going to happen when the whole school thinks we're engaged?" Hermione was in a state of panic that Draco had never seen before.
"Calm down," he said, almost laughing at her. "It's going to be alright."
"I don't know how you can say that!" Hermione lashed out at him. He took a step back from her. She stood there in front of him clenching and unclenching her fists. "Draco, I don't want to have to deal with a bunch of rumors about us. All I want to do is go back to my room, get a good night's sleep, and start a fresh day tomorrow without any of this on my mind."
"Wouldn't that be nice?" Draco commented under his breath. "Hermione, seriously, it's going to be alright. When Madam Pince cleans up tonight, she'll probably find them, and if she doesn't, one of the house elves will. I made her promise she'd keep them for me if she found them."
"I hope so," Hermione sighed. "I guess I'll just go back to my room."
"You could," Draco said, a thought crossing his mind just then. "Or you could stay and keep me company while I get a snack," he suggested. Hermione shook her head.
"I'm so tired," she protested. Draco stuck his lip out.
"You're just going to leave me all alone?" he asked. Hermione smiled. "Besides, you could use some cheering up," he added. Hermione consented and they headed down the stairs to the kitchen. As usual, Hermione waited outside while Draco retrieved the snacks. They headed for their lounge, and sat on the couch together to eat.
The house elves had really outdone themselves. They'd given Draco two huge mugs full of steaming hot cocoa on a tray full of cookies, mince pies, rolls, soft pretzels, and every kind of pastry imaginable. Hermione wasn't sure she and Draco would be able to finish all of it, but then she decided it didn't really matter.
"I'm sorry I accused you of cheating," she said after a while.
"It's alright; I thought the same thing of you at first. What else were you supposed to assume? We both knew we were innocent, so it's a logical conclusion," he dismissed her apology.
"But I should have realized," Hermione tried to reconcile the problem.
"No, really, Hermione. It's a very weird thing that's happened. When did you write the essay?"
"Right after dinner, I turned it in before I came to the library. How about you?"
"Same, right after dinner," Draco said. "That doesn't tell us much except that we both wanted to get it over with right away." Hermione nodded in agreement. She sipped her hot cocoa and stared off into space.
"Can we talk about something else?" she asked, after they'd sat in silence for a while. Draco looked at her.
"Sure," he agreed. "What do you want to talk about?"
"Anything but all the weird stuff that's been happening lately is fine with me," she said. "I just want to put all of that stuff out of my mind right now."
"I don't blame you," Draco agreed. "So how was your summer?"
"It was good," she said. "I traveled a lot."
"With Pansy, right?" he asked. She nodded. "Well, I sat around a lot and did nothing. It was a nice change of pace. But it seems like a very long time ago."
"Doesn't it? It's the strangest thing," Hermione said.
"I thought we weren't talking about the weird things," Draco teased. Hermione sighed.
"Maybe we have to talk about it," she conceded. As much as she hated to, it wasn't just going to go away without some discussion.
"I think you're right," Draco sighed. "The rings are very weird."
"They are very weird, but they could just be a coincidence. It's possible that some Draco and Hermione were once married and then when their marriage ended the rings found their way to a jewelry store or pawn shop and we happened to buy the rings from the same place at different times," Hermione suggested.
"And we both just have really impeccable taste," Draco finished for her. "That's a bit too coincidental, if you ask me."
"Far too coincidental," a third voice broke in. Both Hermione and Draco cast nervous glances at each other before turning to see who had interrupted their conversation. "What, no hot cocoa for me?" Professor Snape asked, walking around to sit on the couch across from the two students. Hermione and Draco looked at each other again. "What I also find remarkably coincidental is the fact that both of your essays were perfectly identical once again, even with the anti-cheating spells placed on the quills and parchment." Hermione gasped.
"You can't be serious," she burst.
"I believe the muggle expression goes, 'serious as a heart attack,' am I correct, Miss Granger?" Snape asked. She nodded. "So I am as confused as you both are. There is no possible way you could have both written the same essay on purpose this time. And there is no logical explanation for these rings either," He added, pulling them from his pocket and placing them on the table in front of them. "But I suggest you keep a closer watch on such personal possessions next time," he said menacingly.
"Thank you, sir," Hermione said, slipping the ring back on her finger.
"What are you doing?" Draco asked her.
"I just," Hermione looked down at her hand. "It felt weird not to wear it, my finger feels bare," she tried to explain. Draco shook his head and Hermione took it back off. She examined it again, and suddenly a thought came to her. "My necklace! Come with me," she said, taking Draco's hand. Then it occurred to her that he couldn't follow her to her room, and she dropped it. "No, no, wait here," she decided and ran out of the room, leaving Snape and Draco alone, very confused.
Hermione ran past Ron, Sorcha, Ginny, and Seamus who were all sitting in the common room by the fire without so much as a word. They all exchanged confused glances, which grew even more confused when they began to hear crashing noises from Hermione's room.
"Maybe someone should go check on her?" Ginny suggested, getting out of her seat. She ran up the stairs and paused in the doorframe, just observing Hermione throwing all of her belongings around the room. Hermione finally pulled an enormous jewelry box out of the bottom of her trunk and ran past Ginny out of Gryffindor Tower. Ginny returned to her friends and shrugged. "I guess she found what she was looking for," she said, sitting back down.
"She's been a bit off lately," Ron remarked. The others nodded in agreement.
* * *
"It's awfully near curfew," Professor Snape remarked. "Perhaps I should be heading off so I don't find any students out after hours," he suggested pointedly, gazing at his watch as he stood up.
"Hermione and I will go to bed right after she shows me what she ran off to get," Draco promised as Snape left the area. Hermione came running in a few short minutes later.
"Snape left already?" She asked, coming to sit next to Draco. She put the box down on the table and started to paw through the contents. Draco's eyes widened at some of the pieces she was tossing about so casually.
"Hey, wow, those are really rare gems," he said, lifting a necklace out. It was all black, but the beads glowed red when the light shone through them.
"Gosh I have a ton of those," she remarked, gesturing to the pile on her lap. Draco was taken aback at her blasé attitude. Even his mother didn't have as many intricate and precious pieces as Hermione had - and Draco didn't know anyone with much more money than his family.
Hermione finally grew impatient and dumped the contents of the box onto the table. Draco quickly caught three tiaras that fell out, before they could be bent.
"You know, these things are fragile," he scolded, setting them gently in the box.
"It's not like I ever wear them anymore," she said pointedly. Draco froze, trying to remember anything about Hermione's family.
"What do your parents do?" he asked. Hermione continued to dig through her jewelry.
"They're dentists- muggle teeth healers," she said distractedly. Draco thought this over.
"Do they make a lot of money?" he asked after a while.
"Kind of," she said absently. Then she had a thought. "They didn't buy me all this stuff if that's what you're asking."
"I was wondering," he agreed. "When did you wear the tiaras?" he asked.
"Last- um," Hermione thought for a second. "I wore them with my dress robes, so it had to have been sometime recently, wait, this- no, hmm. You know, I can't remember," she said. She stopped what she was doing and looked at him. "It was recently, I know it, because I remember it like it was yesterday, but I don't remember where I was or what I was doing. Maybe it was this summer?" she looked at the tiaras as if they would answer her question. She gently lifted one of them out of the box and set it on her head. "I remember this one, it was so heavy. I was at a party and there was a big cake, so it was someone's birthday, and then I got lost in the hall," she paused to remember more, and shut her eyes.
"I found you, in the hall," Draco said suddenly. "I remember that. It was so weird that you would get lost; I was really worried about you. Where were we?" he asked.
"We didn't spend any time together this summer though," Hermione protested. "Except at your end of summer party and I didn't wear this. There was no cake."
"That's right," Draco agreed. "But I remember finding you in the hall, and sending for a healer because I was so worried."
"I don't remember that part. I just remember getting lost and you finding me," Hermione said. "Draco, you don't think someone has hexed us, do you?"
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Well, I mean, we both have these memories that are all mixed up, and we can only remember parts of them. It's like someone has performed a memory charm or something."
"You're right about that," Draco agreed. "But I don't necessarily think that's what happened. It's just strange, that's all."
"I'm not so sure, that certainly would explain a lot, wouldn't it?" Hermione asked.
"It would, but I think it's a little irresponsible to blame a bit of memory loss on magic," Draco said. "Let's give it some time, maybe it'll come back later."
"But what if it goes away completely?" Hermione asked, thinking back to some earlier memories she'd tried to remember unsuccessfully.
"Then it goes away," Draco said. "Just wait it out."
"If you're sure," Hermione agreed. She looked at the pile of jewelry sitting on the table and then carefully extracted a silver chain which had a heart in the middle of it. The heart was engraved with the letter D.
"Oh boy," Draco said. He took the necklace away from Hermione and examined it carefully.
"I remember a voice saying that the D could stand for anything I wanted," she told him. "But I was in my room alone," she added. Draco turned to look at her. She was telling him the truth; he could see it in her eyes. This was getting stranger and stranger by the minute.
"Let me borrow this, alright?" He asked. She nodded, and began to put all her jewelry away. Draco slipped the necklace into his pocket. "I promised Snape we'd go to bed as soon as you showed me this, so we'd better get going. He's bound to come check up on us," Draco said. Hermione nodded and they hurried off to bed.