Disclaimer: Want to know how great owning Harry Potter is? Ask J.K. Rowling! Alas, I wouldn't know.
A/N: ACK! Sorry this took so damn long—I hadn't intended to. Thank you all so much for reviewing! It makes me feel so special. Sadly, this is the second last chapter, so I hope you enjoy it. Be sure to review again!
Snape's Hairy, Hairy Legs
Draco quickly pulled Hermione back to her feet and searched for the source of the scream, much like everyone else in the room was doing. The band stopped playing, and everything went deadly silent.
Parvati Patil ran into the Great Hall, looking thoroughly distraught. She ran into the middle of the room, breathing heavily. "It's horrible!" she screamed. Hermione ran up to her.
"Parvati!" she cried. "What happened?"
The shaking girl fell to her knees but still holding on to the prefect. "I saw…" she began. After taking another deep breath, she went on. "I saw Snape's hairy, hairy legs!" Then, she promptly broke down into tears.
"That's IT?!" someone yelled from across the room.
"Oh and there are hundreds of Death Eaters storming in from the Forbidden Forest," she stated calmly.
The effect of this news was tumultuous. In a word, it was chaos. Nobody wanted to be caught in one place if the Death Eaters were coming. The younger students were running about fearfully, while most of the older ones looked as if they didn't know what to do—if they could do anything at all.
"SILENCE!" Dumbledore then yelled, effectively shutting everyone up. "Prefects, please escort the students to you house common rooms. Move quickly and quietly, and do not come out of your dormitories under any circumstances. Teachers, you know what to do."
Instantaneously, everyone started moving. The teachers followed Dumbledore, setting their faces and slipping out of the Hall. Prefects were shouting to the students, trying to herd them up. Hermione turned towards Draco.
"I'll have to see you later," she said, sounding calmer than she felt. "Promise me you won't try to do anything about this."
Draco looked into her eyes and wondered how she knew what he was thinking. He felt that he should fight against these people—the ones he was brought up to be like. It would be something that would finally prove that he had changed.
"You don't have to prove anything," Hermione interjected, cutting into his reverie. Again, she seemed to know what he was thinking. "Promise me." She repeated.
"I promise," he whispered, pulling her into a quick kiss. "And you better not do anything either."
"I won't." With this, the pair separated and went to round up their house students.
"Everyone, follow us," Hermione cried to the Gryffindors, standing alongside Ron. "Get into one line and stay calm!" All of the students quickly obliged, heeding Hermione's authoritative voice.
When everyone got into line, Hermione turned towards Ron. "I'll lead the front, and you can bring up the rear, okay?" Ron nodded his assent and then moved towards the end of the line. Feeling confident that all the students were present, Hermione led the way to the Gryffindor tower.
14.14.14
Harry slipped around the corner, trying to draw as little attention to him as possible. He knew very well that he should be in the Gryffindor common room at the moment and not out looking for trouble. "I have to do this," he whispered, as if trying to justify his own rebellion. "I have to."
He turned another corner and was met with Mrs. Norris. Figuring that he was already in heaps and heaps of inescapable punishment, Harry quickly decided to give the frickin cat a swift kick in her furry little bottom side. He also just a quickly decided to give a battle cry of "Who put the bomp in the bomp-a-bomp-a-bomp?!" The cat, wholly not expecting such a violent assault, gave a yelp of surprise and scurried away once she was securely on solid ground again.
"That one was for you, Ron," Harry said into the enveloping darkness of the corridor. "May that damned cat never cross our paths again." With a moment's reflection on whether that statement would ever prove to be true, Harry continued on in his quest of severely maiming as many Death Eaters as he could—for his, his parents' and Sirius' sakes.
Finally, the raven-haired boy stopped in front of a stone gargoyle. Harry rechecked the Marauder's Map, which he carried with him everywhere now, and made sure that the passage behind the sculpture would lead where he wanted to go. After confirming his suspicions, he put the map away, muttered a spell, and crawled into the opening that the gargoyle left.
Harry reemerged on the far side of the castle. He wanted to be able to sneak up on the attack, so no teacher would spot him and make him return to his common room. It was about time that he started helping in the physical fight against Voldemort, if he had any intention of finally defeating him by himself later on.
He walked towards the sounds of shouts and screams, only to be met with a terrible sight. The teachers and Professor Dumbledore were trying to fend off at least two hundred Death Eaters. The former seemed to be doing well enough, but Harry knew that they couldn't keep doing it alone for much longer.
"Well," he whispered to himself as he saw this. "It's now or never…" With this, the Boy Who Lived mustered up his courage and prepared to head into the fray.
14.14.14
"Hermione!"
The addressed girl turned her head to see who was calling out for her. It was a miracle that she could hear at all, considering everyone from Gryffindor was crowded into the common room and talking very loudly about what could be going on downstairs. However, she managed to spot Ginny rushing through the crowd towards her. From the look on her face, Hermione decided that something was really wrong.
"What's wrong?" the brunette asked quickly once Ginny was within earshot.
"It's Harry!" Ginny exclaimed, looking around worriedly. "I can't find him anywhere."
"Are you sure?" Hermione asked, already searching the crowd. "Maybe he's with Ron. Let's find him."
The two went in search for Ron, direly hoping that he would know of Harry's whereabouts. It was hard for them to push around the students, because Hermione insisted on comforting every group of first and second years she encountered—she didn't know what else she could do. Finally, they spotted Ron coming down from the boys' dormitory.
"Ron!" Hermione yelled once they got to the edge of the staircase. He came all the way down to them and looked at them inquiringly.
"Where's Harry?" Ginny asked, obviously trying to sound calmer than she actually was.
Now Ron was seemed confused. "You mean he's not with you guys?"
Hermione, Ginny and Ron looked at each other and then all realized the same thing. "He went to fight," they said in unison. Immediately, the three of them started to push their way back through the crowd and to the portrait hole.
"Wait," Hermione said once they got outside. "Maybe we should think about this for a second. I mean, we are about to head into a 'battle' with no adults and no substantial training, look for one of our friends, and at the same time managing to not die!" Promptly, she began to hyperventilate.
"Breathe, Hermione," Ginny said, gently shaking the older girl's shoulders. "Just breathe."
Hermione followed her instructions and effectively calmed down quite a bit. She randomly thought about how weird they must look—creeping about the corridors in their costumes, willingly searching out trouble. At this time, Ron felt the need to speak up.
"What other choice do we have? We can't just leave Harry out there all by himself and depend on him not to get himself killed. You know he believes he has to save everyone, so doesn't it make sense that we should be there to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid?"
Hermione, never one to argue with logic, simply nodded. As much as she didn't like this, she wouldn't be able to live with herself if something happened to Harry because she wasn't there to help him.
"Alright then," Ron stated. "Let's go." He then started walking resolutely down the corridor, in the direction of the Great Hall.
"Ron!" Ginny hissed. "Don't just go barreling along—you do realize that a Death Eater may have sneaked in, don't you?"
"Oh, right," he replied. The three of them then proceeded in a much quieter manner, with their wands out in case they came upon anyone along the way. They went on in this fashion for the next ten minutes, occasionally stopping because Hermione's paranoia made her hear footsteps in the slightest noises. Once they reached the Great Hall, however, she was certain she heard something.
"Did you hear that?" she asked the other two for the fifteenth time that night. "I swear I hear someone!"
"No…" Ginny and Ron both replied in the same tired voice. If they weren't sure they would need Hermione in this fight, they would have left her in the common room. "C'mon."
Hermione reluctantly followed them, but didn't let her guard down. Again, she heard footsteps from somewhere in the far corner of the Hall. "There it is again!" she whispered frantically. Suddenly, a tall figure came out of the shadows and walked towards the trio. Ginny and Hermione jumped while Ron stepped in front of the two—all of them had their wands out and a spell ready on their lips.
"Don't worry," said the figure. "It's me." He stepped into a shaft of moonlight that was falling across the floor and they were able to see that it was Draco.
"I told you I heard someone," Hermione stated in a whisper to Ron and Ginny. Then she rounded on Draco. "And I thought I told you not to go out!"
"I thought I told you the same thing," Draco retorted while pulling her into a tight embrace. "What are you doing anyway? Where's Potter?"
"Well, we think he is out there," Ron replied as he gestured outside. "So we figured we should go find him before he gets himself killed. What are you doing?" He added this last bit in a suspicious tone, still not trusting Draco in the slightest.
"I figure this could be a chance for me to prove I'm not one of them—and that I never intend to be," he replied. Ron had a look on his face that said he highly doubted Draco wasn't, in fact, already a Death Eater. Catching this, Draco rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt to his elbows, revealing his sinewy forearms. "Look. No Dark Mark."
Ron, Ginny and Hermione could see quite plainly that the Slytherin was telling the truth. Hermione would never admit this to Draco, but she was really relieved—even though they were together, she still wasn't one hundred percent sure that he could shake his father's influence.
"Alright then," Hermione interjected, trying to alleviate some of the tension between the two boys. "So I think we should set some ground rules here."
"Yes," Ginny agreed. "We only go out there to find Harry and then bring him back. No one is going to try and play the hero with taking on every Death Eater out there. That means you, Draco and Ron."
Both boys looked at the ground sheepishly and wondered how they became so predictable. Once they nodded their understanding, Hermione picked up with where Ginny left off.
"If we do have to fend off a Death Eater, which," she paused, looking around at the other three people. "Is very likely, then we only aim to injure, but never kill. I don't care what you might say; I know none of us wants that over our heads."
"And we stick together," Ron added firmly. "No matter what—we are not going to leave each other." The four of them nodded their assent to all of these ground rules and then walked in a line towards the heavy oak doors. Ron and Draco opened one of the doors and they stepped outside.
They were met with a sight that would be scary to anyone, let alone a couple of sixteen year olds…and one fifteen year old, of course. Teachers and Death Eaters were shouting spells all over and flashes of red, green and purple were flying everywhere. Ron, Hermione and Ginny noticed that some of the members of the Order had shown up and were fighting as well.
"How can there be so many of them?!" Ginny cried, voicing exactly what Hermione was thinking. "I mean, I thought a lot of them were arrested after the Ministry of Magic raid last year!"
"I know how," Draco spoke up, looking grave. "It's a new generation of Death Eaters—students who have recently graduated or who are the children of Death Eaters. I know a few people from my year that are probably out there—the ones that are way too eager to please Voldemort."
"Draco," Hermione said, turning towards him. "Please tell me you didn't know anything about this. Please."
He seemed surprised that she would think something like this. "Of course I didn't!" he shouted. Draco grabbed her by the shoulders. "Look at me, Hermione. I would never keep something like this from anyone, okay?"
Hermione nodded to show that she understood and then he pulled her into a hug. "Please be careful, Hermione," he whispered frantically into her ear. The four of them knew that they would be discovered soon and had to find Harry as quickly as they could.
"I will be," Hermione replied before giving Draco a short kiss. Together, they all went off into the lawn, trying their hardest not to be seen.
They moved quickly, keeping close to the edge of the building. Hermione figured that Harry would have taken a secret passageway out and wouldn't go too far into the battle. Or, at least she hoped that was what he would do.
"Stupefy!" Draco called out from behind her. She quickly turned around to see that he had stunned a Death Eater that was creeping up from behind them. Hermione added a binding spell on top of that.
"Well, that's one down," Ron said, looking around for any more Death Eaters. The majority of them seemed to have been held back by the teachers near the Forbidden Forest, but some of them had managed to get past. These escapees were the ones that the members of the Order took care of.
"Let's keep moving," Ginny spoke up, "The sooner we find Harry then the sooner we can get back inside."
The rest of them silently agreed with her and pressed on. Thankfully enough, they were only met with six other Death Eaters, all of which were easily taken care of with a stunner, a binding spell and a disarming spell, just in case. Thus, the four of them were acquiring quite a collection of wands. After the sixth person, however, Hermione suddenly stopped and pointed.
"Is that Harry?" she shouted about the noise. Upon closer inspection, she didn't need the answer—she knew for a fact that it was. Only one problem though—he was lying on the ground, seemingly tied up, with a Death Eater looming over him. "Hurry!" she yelled.
The four of them ran up to Harry, frantically thinking about what to do. When they were in five feet of him, they heard something that was about to make their worst fears come true. The Death Eater had his wand pointed directly at Harry, who was thrashing about on the ground, and was speaking all too clearly. "Avada Ked…"
"No!!" Ginny and Hermione screamed in unison, somehow frozen in their spots. It seemed to them as if time was now moving in slow motion. Suddenly, Draco sprung into motion.
The blonde Slytherin jumped between the Death Eater and Harry while yelling, "Silencio! Stupefy!" in rapid succession without even taking a breath. This seemed to snap the two girls and Ron to attention. He and Ginny immediately ran over to Harry while Hermione went over to Draco and the Death Eater.
"Incarcerous!" Hermione said once she reached them. This bound up the unknown Death Eater—Draco already had his wand in his back pocket. Instantly, Hermione flung her arms around him. "You could have died!" she yelled.
Draco, feeling thoroughly smothered, croaked, "If you don't let go then I will!"
"Oh, sorry…" Hermione replied quietly. For a moment, she looked up at him in something close to amazement. "I can't believe you did that. It's just…wow." Just then, Ron and Ginny came over, supporting Harry between them.
"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed once she saw him. "Are you alright? What did he do to you?"
"I'm fine," Harry stated, even though he was physically drained. "He snuck up from behind me as I was dealing with him," he said while gesturing to about five feet from then. It was only now that they noticed another stunned Death Eater nearby. Ginny and Ron bound him and took his wand before Harry continued. "He used the Cruciatus Curse on me—and then tied me up when I was still on ground."
The four of them gasped at this news, and Hermione had a new found hate for the person under the mask. Finally not being able to take it anymore, she stooped down and ripped off the hood of the Death Eater's robes. She recognized the face immediately.
"You whore!" she yelled at the stunned body. Under the mask was Theodore Nott—one of Hogwarts' very own students. Hermione, in a fit of rage, went so far as to repeatedly kick him the ribs.
"Whoa, there," Draco said, restraining his girlfriend from murder. "You don't want to kill him, because then you wouldn't be any better than him."
"Oh, I won't kill him," Hermione retorted sweetly. "Just maim him enough so he can't do anything like this again!" However, she was no match to Draco's strength and had to finally submit herself to attending to her other friends.
"Draco," Harry said after he was finished with Hermione. "I just…I want to…thank you. I have no idea how I will ever repay you."
"Hey, don't worry about it," the Slytherin replied. "Just consider it a sort of payment for all the years I was a total arse to you and Weasley here. Deal?" Draco stuck out his hand for Harry to shake.
"Deal," the slightly smaller boy said, shaking his hand. "I don't know about Ron though…"
Ron, who was standing nearby, voiced, "Nah. I'll accept that too." He also extended his hand and shook Draco's. From this moment on, the two boys could not help but trust their once sworn enemy.
"Okay, well I hate to break up this little moment here, but we really need to get the hell out of here," Ginny interjected, bringing everyone back to earth. "Hermione, you and Draco go first and we'll be right behind you."
"Wait," Harry voiced. "We can go back through the passage I came through. So we'll go first and you two bring up the rear. Alright then, this way." He started off back in the opposite direction of the front doors.
"I'm having a bad feeling," Hermione whispered to Draco as they walked along, wands out and vigilant for and Death Eaters. "Something's not right."
"What do you mean?" Draco asked looking at her with worry etched in all of his features.
"I mean that I feel like someone or something is watching us…or is going to come out at us," she tried to relate to Draco. "I don't know…let's just get inside."
The five of them didn't come across anyone for the majority of time that it took to get to the passageway. It seemed like all of the Death Eaters had been held out and contained by the Order members and professors. However, Hermione just couldn't shake that feeling.
Just as they got to the entrance, someone suddenly jumped out from a bush on Hermione's left. "Diffindo!" yelled a woman's voice, with their wand pointing at Hermione's stomach. The prefect screamed and then crumpled to the ground.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Draco bellowed at the unknown person. Unfortunately, his spell missed and the person had already run away. He dipped down to check on Hermione and looked at her with shock. The spell had created a long gash across her midsection. He quickly cast a temporary healing charm and then, picking her up in one smooth movement, started running with her towards the entrance.
"Potter! Where does this lead?" he called out frantically, breaking into an all-out sprint.
"Right outside the Hospital Wing!"
Draco carefully emerged from behind the stone gargoyle and ran to the Hospital entrance. "Madam Pomfrey!" he called out. She immediately appeared at his side and led him to an empty bed. He briefly noticed that most of the beds were already occupied with other people who were in the battle.
"Out, out!" Madam Pomfrey cried once Hermione was lying down. "She'll be okay but I need you to wait outside for her."
Draco was reluctant to go but decided that it would be best for Hermione. Already, he was beating himself over the fact that he couldn't have prevented this. Soon, Ron and Ginny joined him after getting Harry a Replenishing Potion.
The three of them sat in silence—too anxious and worried for Hermione to talk. The minutes seemed to creep by as the waited to be able to see her. At some point, Draco got up and started pacing outside of the door.
"Would you stop that?!" Ron cried. "Your pacing is driving me barmy!"
"Sorry," the blonde boy said absentmindedly. Finally, Madam Pomfrey came out. "How is she?" Draco asked right away.
"She's perfectly fine. Whoever cast the spell didn't know fully what they were doing and therefore the wound wasn't very deep. Hermione is resting now, but you can still go in and see her."
The three of them followed her back into the room and went over to Hermione's bed, where Harry was already in a chair waiting. She was sleeping peacefully and was changed from her costume into hospital robes.
"I've given her a Dreamless Sleep Draught, so it will be awhile before she gets up," Madam Pomfrey explained. "But I really must suggest that you lot get back to your common rooms. Under the circumstances, I don't think Dumbledore will be entirely angry with your going out. So I say get some sleep—and take these." She handed each of them vials filled with the Draught.
The four of them nodded, and then got up to leave. Ron, Ginny and Harry all gave Hermione a small hug, while Draco placed a simple kiss on her forehead. They walked out of the Wing together and then went their separate ways back to their common rooms. At least the Gryffindors did.
Draco got halfway back before he decided that he couldn't leave Hermione alone. He snuck back to the Hospital Wing and did something Malfoys never did—beg.
"Please, Madam Pomfrey, I really can't leave her by herself. I promise I won't try and wake her up or bother any of the other patients…I just need to be here."
"Oh, alright," she said. "But only for a little while…you need your sleep too." She then left the two of them alone.
Draco kept his promise and only whispered softly in her ear for most of the night. However, he did not leave and get his own rest like he was supposed to, but he doubted it would help him anyway. Just before dawn, Draco summoned some parchment and a quill and wrote a long letter to Hermione. His father was coming in an hour, and he had a feeling that he wouldn't very much like seeing Draco with her.
Twenty minutes later, Draco sealed the letter and placed it on Hermione's bedside table. "I'll see you soon," he whispered as he kissed her on the forehead again. "I promise to be right back at your side when you need me…I don't know how just yet, but I will."
