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Chapter 9; Part of the Truth/Truce.
"Right then Miss Granger, you may leave. Everyone has been informed of your recovery and I'm sure you'd like to get back into the thick of things." Madam Pomfrey said, giving Hermione her last medication before she was allowed to leave.
Thankfully, madam Pomfrey's unusual mood yesterday had seemed to have dissipated and she was back to her normal self. Hermione was still glad to be leaving.
She took her medicine and started to change. She was wondering why her friends hadn't come to see her. How had she survived? She still had no answers. Heading out of the hospital, her main objective was to find her friends and get some answers. It felt like things were a lot more complicated than just turning up and rescuing her.
* * * * *
Harry and Ron were sitting in the Great Hall. They hadn't spoken to Malfoy since he had helped to save Hermione. Ginny was with them. They couldn't bring themselves to go to Hermione after they had found out that she had come around last night. They wouldn't know what to say to her. The time to start worrying though seemed to come to a head as Hermione walked into the Great Hall, all heads turning her way.
Both boys did not look over at the Slytherin table to see Malfoy's expression.
She walked over to her friends and whispered. "Outside now, the pair of you! I have questions and they need answering"
Harry and Ron exchanged tiny glances but complied. They stood up and headed out of the hall, following Hermione.
* * * * *
All three of them were now sitting outside on the grass. Hermione didn't look angry, brassed off or annoyed. She was mostly confused.
"Are you going to tell me what happened?"
Ron shrugged. "We saved you."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "I got that part. What with me still being here and all. I just want to know how you did it. Voldemort said that no one knew where that place was and so I do not believe that you just happened to stumble upon it while you were out for a nightly walk."
Harry laughed. "Cool it Hermione. Yes we did have help."
"In the form of Draco Malfoy." Ron added.
"Malfoy?" Hermione's eyes narrowed. So that meant the Madam Pomfrey was not bonkers when she said that Malfoy would want to know how she was. "What about Snape?"
"He was there. The teachers came to bring you back to the castle and Snape was there."
"Oh." Hermione was in a muddle. She didn't know why either of them would care about what happened to her. They were Slytherin's and generally didn't care what happened to any Gryffindor. Or so she had thought. "What did Malfoy get out of it? He must have asked for something right? Something in return."
Harry shook his head. "Nothing. He stayed back and fought the Death Eaters off when we went to take you to safety."
"See, head spinning." Hermione said, putting her head in her hands. "How many people came for me?"
Ron started to count them off on his fingers. "There was Harry and I. Seamus, Dean, Terry, Jason and Malfoy."
"I still don't understand how all of you got out of there alive. You did all get out of there alive?!"
"Yes," said Ron, "We all got out of there alive."
"But how?"
Harry thought hard about that. "Wicked good luck and a lot of power I'm guessing."
Hermione cringed. Her friends could have been killed and it was all because of her. "Never do that again!!"
Ron wasn't going to take that. Looking her in the eyes, he said with a lot of force. "Never fly out of bounds again! We didn't even know that you flew."
"I didn't want you to know and now that I have most of the information, I want to go and sleep. Okay? Bye." Hermione stood up and left. Harry and Ron didn't try to stop her.
* * * * *
How am I going to thank Malfoy?! Hermione wandered the second floor corridor where they entrance to her common room was located, with the same thought racing through her head. What would she say? She didn't have to wait long. The entrance opened and she dreaded to see the person she was sure that she would meet. She didn't meet him. It was Terry Chang.
"Hi Terry." Hermione said, terribly relieved.
"Oh good, you're well again Hermione. Come inside." Off her scared look, he added "Don't worry, Malfoy's out so you can put off talking to him until you are ready to."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Or until he walks through the door, catching me completely of guard and I end up fainting. Then I'll have to be taken back to the hospital and the crazy nurse won't ever let me leave, making me insane and eventually having to be shipped off to Saint Mungo's."
Terry smiled kindly. "Well at least you've given it some thought. So do you want to come in and face him with all of us, or wait outside and face him alone."
Hermione took a beat and said "You're right. I'll come inside. I did fight with him not so long ago after all and I don't care to repeat the performance. Especially after he saved my life. It would just seem bitchy, right?"
"I agree, it also seems that you a more nervous than usual."
"Well I can't remember the last time someone saved my life. Had it not been for Malfoy, I'd be dead now. Oh and by the way, thank you for saving me too. It was very kind." They entered into the common room.
"Yes well…" He said lightly "What use is a Head Girl if she's dead?"
Hermione nodded knowingly. "You know, that's always been my motto."
Hermione didn't get to say much more as a huge weight was shoved right into her midsection at that very moment. Hermione grunted and backed off, not that is helped. The thing that had been thrown into her seemed to be stuck to her.
Hermione looked down to find Ginny, hugging her quite tightly. "Hi Gin, enjoying yourself are you? Think you could let me breath now huh?" she smiled at the redhead.
Ginny let go of her friend and resumed her place at the sofa. "I was just so worried and then that stupid turtle of a big brother of mine said that I could come and help rescue you and that made me feel even worse and how come you are out so early?"
Ginny barely took a breath in her rant.
Now it was Hermione's turn. "I got better quickly and I am glad that you didn't come. In my opinion, they were barely holding their own up there and it was very foolish of them to do it. Have they been punished by Dumbledore yet? I sure hope they have. God, I think what could have happened to them."
Ginny shrugged and lay down on the sofa, making it impossible for Hermione to sit down on it so she had to do with the floor beside the sofa. "Harry can hold his own. He proves it time and time again. And you have been his best friend ever since he found out the he was a wizard. After the troll incident. Hmmm…well I guess that was wrong. Well you've been his friend for a very long time. Harry and the turtle would not let you just die. Lucky for Malfoy huh?"
Hermione glowered at the fireplace as Ginny was too high up for Hermione to look directly at. "And what do you expect me to say to that holier that thou idiot now, huh?"
"How about thank you?" Malfoy said calmly from across the room.
Hermione put her head in her hand again and groaned. "God, just kill me!"
Ginny sat up. This was better than those soaps her father was always talking about. She had no idea why he would want to talk about something that you wash yourself with but he seemed happy about it and as Virginia Weasley had always said 'To each his own' even if it was totally obvious that he was mad.
Hermione got up slowly. She was kicking herself mentally now and it really hurt…mentally. She always put her foot in it. Why could she never keep her mouth shut?
She got to him and took a deep breath. He raised an eyebrow, slightly amused. "You're looking well, considering. Last time I saw you, you were bleeding to death. The miracles of magic huh?"
Hermione let out a breath. "I guess. Look, I just want to say thank you for what you did. I was willing to die out there than put Harry in danger. I didn't want to die but that's not the point. You saved me and you really didn't have to. It's not like I've ever been nice to you or anything. So just wondering, why did you do it?"
Malfoy shrugged. "No one deserves to die or be murdered. If I could prevent that, and this time I could, I would."
"But you compared me to that muggle-hating prick." Hermione wasn't going to let him off that easy.
"You got me angry Granger. I'm not anybody's lapdog." Malfoy said evenly and calmly. He walked over to his emerald green sofa and sat down. He leaned his head back so that he could see her and said. "And you're welcome."
Hermione nodded and joined Ginny on the couch, seeing that she had finally gotten up. Ginny smiled kindly "Do you want to go to sleep Hermione? Lessons aren't back on yet and I think that you could do with it. You have been through a lot."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "That was just an excuse so that I could escape the Turtle and Harry. Do I have to go with the turtle analogy? I'm fine. Trust me."
"Fine, but if you collapse, I'm not getting Madam Pomfrey."
"Oh, please don't, she's mad. Not going to go into it. She thinks that she's brilliant or something."
Ginny laughed out loud. "I knew that she's finally crack. Being wound that tight, it was bound to happen. I wonder if it'll happen to McGonagall soon." Ginny said it with too much enthusiasm.
Hermione raised an eyebrow and stood up. "I'm hungry. Do we have any food here?"
Ginny shrugged. "I don't know."
"Over by that table." Malfoy said.
Ginny wasn't shocked at all. She had gotten used to Malfoy being helpful in these odd occasions. Hermione hadn't as he made a point not to be kind whenever she was around. She was after all, a part of the 'trio'. Although, now it didn't seem so necessary.
"Thank you." Hermione walked over to the food and took as much as she could. She wasn't like the boys so thus, ate her food slowly, making sure that she chewed it before swallowing. Something Ron never did. No wonder he choked so often.
Hermione had returned to the couch with her food, Ginny didn't like the silence so she decided to strike up a conversation. "So, are you ever going to fly again?"
It was obvious that Malfoy could hear everything they were saying, but not in a rude way.
"Oh yeah, sure, maybe in a few centuries. I might actually use the broom to sweep the floor now, unless I'm too scared to touch it."
Ginny put her arm around Hermione's shoulders. "Hermione, Voldemort doesn't scare you, you proved that and that is why you should not let him get the upper hand on something that you clearly love doing."
"Yeah, and people are supposed to learn from mistakes and flying that day was one of them."
"Ok, change of subject. Are you going to do any work related to school?"
"Well, I was gonna do lots and lots of homework, but darn the luck, they went and cancelled lessons." Hermione grinned, normally, people didn't hear her say that she wasn't going to do work.
Ginny nodded. "Ok, but I do have work to do so would you mind if I bailed?"
"No I don't. Work comes first." Then she whispered "I want to talk to Malfoy anyway."
Ginny grinned wickedly again and left.
Hermione sat at the end of the Gryffindor sofa that was closest to Malfoy. This was pretty close due to the fact that the Gryffindor and Slytherin sofas were practically touching. She spoke to him. "I have to know why you helped me. The real reason Malfoy. I believe what you said but that wasn't all of it. How did you know where to come?"
Malfoy leaned back on the chair and turned to look at her again. "My dad told me where they were taking you. Told me how much time I would have left to rescue you."
Hermione was nodding mutely. "Oh…hang on, did you just say rescue me? As in he wanted me rescued?"
Malfoy took a deep breath. "My dad turned from the dark side a little while after Voldemort returned. Voldemort doesn't know it of course. He still thinks that father is 'loyal'."
"But why?"
"I supposed that it was partly to do with some good rubbing off on him during the 13 years that Voldemort was in hiding. Also, the fact that the slimy bastard made my father torture my mother while under the Imperius Curse. It nearly killed her. She's fine now but my dad has to act as if he can't remember doing it. Painful memories and all." This talk seemed to be taking a lot out of Malfoy. What was more shocking was that he was telling all of this to Hermione Granger of all people.
"I'm sorry Malfoy." Hermione really meant it. No one deserved to go through that.
He grimaced. "Call me Draco, Malfoy's my father."
Hermione smiled. She supposed that she could be nice to him now, seeing that she was still here and most of that was due to him. "Ok…Draco. Call me Hermione then."
"Done."
They smiled at each other. At least now they could get along. Hermione guessed that this year wouldn't be so bad.
* * * * *
Right, that's finished for now.
Please review. No flames thanks.
