*CHAPTER UPDATED* December 22
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Hermione reached out her hand and grasped her wand, the soft, firm rosewood settling familiarly in her palm. She cautiously looked up at Krum, who withdrew his arm back through the bars and returned her stare with an assured glance.
"It is okay, Herm-own-ninny," he said, "I am here to help."
Hermione's heart did a funny skip as he gave her a small smile. The feeling of someone watching her and smiling at her without the expectation of an answer to a question made her blush ferociously, just like it used to when she first met him. She bit her lower lip, finding herself suddenly thinking about Josh.
"Thank you," she managed to say, gripping the ends of the inflexible wood, "but why are you trying to help me? You're the witness."
"It is a long story, and you need to know that I haff a reason for everything." Viktor's eyes lifted from the ground and focused on Hermione. "Vould you listen to me tell?"
"I don't have much of a choice, do I?" She said, gesturing to the locked door.
He shook his head. "No, you should choose. If you do not vish to hear it, then I von't force you to listen."
Hermione scratched the back of her neck, trying desperately to sort out her thoughts. 'What's the harm in listening? The fact that he's giving me the choice to listen or not is noteworthy. But he's the one who got me into this mess. Why else would he give me the wand? Maybe he wants me to get into even more trouble.'
Memories from the summer rushed through her mind's eye as she thought to herself. She had had a wonderful time with Viktor, but they both agreed it would be best to just be friends. He had always been so sweet; the scant animosity he had in him only surfaced when they had gone to a pre- professional Quidditch match and the referee was blatantly ignoring dangerous fouls. 'Get him down!' Viktor had yelled. 'Someone vill get hurt!' It was hard to believe he would just turn to Voldemort.
"Herm-own-ninny?"
She looked back up at Krum. "Okay," she sighed. "Yes, tell me everything." Hermione walked over to the bed and sat on its edge, hoping she was prepared to hear whatever he might say.
"I am very sorry about saying bad things about you, but. . ." Viktor looked back and forth down the dungeon hallways. ". . . but I haff no other choice," he whispered.
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.
"You cannot tell anyone," he warned gently, "but I got a letter that told me if I did not say I saw you kill Harry, that my family vould be harmed." Krum shook his head. "I could not let something happen to them, so I did it."
Hermione swallowed dryly as he continued.
"It vos a letter from You-Know-Who, or von of his followers, and I belieffed it." Krum gripped the metal bars tightly as he talked and Hermione could see his knuckles turning white, even in the low torch light of the dungeon.
"What about before all this happened?" She asked.
Viktor nodded as he said, "They told me you lost your memory. How much haff you forgotten?" His eyes became concerned. "Haff you forgotten. . . our summer?"
"No," Hermione couldn't help but smile a bit as he sighed. If she had been him, she wouldn't have wanted to forget that summer, either. "No, I remember up to the train ride."
"Ahh, I remember," Viktor said. "It vos in the Daily Prophet. The train stopped because the dark mark vos ahead on the tracks."
"Really?" Hermione asked. "What happened?"
"Nothing," he said, "the mark didn't mean anything, they thought. But the train vos very late, the newspaper said, because it stopped for so long making sure it vos safe to keep going."
Neither of them said anything for a few awkward moments. Hermione shifted her weight atop the bed, mindlessly picking one of her curly hairs off the sheets and dropping it to her side.
"I suppose you vont to know why I came to Hogwarts?" Viktor asked.
"It was because of Quidditch, wasn't it?"
"Yes."
Hermione's heart began to beat fast. "It wasn't only for Quidditch, though?"
".no, it vos not. Herm-own-ninny, you cannot tell anyone this, but I haff been here as a spy for the Bulgarian Ministry of Magic."
There was a very long, uncomfortable pause as Krum and Hermione tried to read each others' faces at the same time.
"What kind of spy?" Hermione asked cautiously.
"Vell, the Ministry in my country has been very curious about Dumbledore. They do not think he tells them everything he knows, so I came here for them to tell if he vos or not."
"Why?"
"Because they are not exactly hearing the same things from their own aurors as they are from Dumbledore. They think he keeps secrets about You-Know- Who."
Hermione instinctively felt like she should defend her Headmaster, but her lips pursed together, spitefully remembering the new, unsympathetic Dumbledore that had placed her down in the dungeon. "Did I ever know you were a spy?" She questioned.
Krum sighed. "You vere not supposed to find out. One day you found a picture of a house elf or something and vere very upset about it." Hermione's eyebrows rose. "You looked for me and found me as I wrote a letter to the Minister of Bulgaria and you kept asking questions until I told."
Hermione dry tongue licked her lips like sandpaper. Professor Kinsley was lying. Viktor didn't show her the picture, she had found it on her own. Why would she say that? Unless he was lying.
"Herm-own-ninny are you all right?" Krum looked at her through the bars. "You keep looking like you are haffing daydreams."
"Sorry, I'm fine," she said. "So I found out you were a spy-" she prompted, waiting to hear how similar his story would be to Professor Kinsley's.
"Yes, and you told me you voodn't tell anyone. Vell, you told your teacher and you said she got mad at you and told you to stay away from me."
"Which teacher?" Hermione asked. 'Professor Kinsley?"
Viktor nodded.
"Why was she mad?"
"I am not sure," he said, "but I do not think you should believe anything she says to you. she is not on our side."
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, suddenly angered by his accusation. "She's a teacher! And besides, she's the one who came down here and told me everything before you or anyone else did."
Krum's eyes subtly changed as Hermione spoke. "Vhat did she tell you?"
"It's not your business, Viktor Krum!" She said turning away from his stare.
"But she is not safe!" he said. "You should not think that everything she says is the truth just because she vos the one to talk to you first. She could have made everything up and she knew you voodn't know any better."
"Go away!" Hermione said, feeling tears burn behind her eyes.
"Herm-own-ninny," he pleaded, "I am telling the truth."
"Well you should have thought about telling the truth before lying to the aurors about seeing me kill Harry."
"I had no choice!" he said. "My family."
"Well what about Dumbledore?" Hermione asked. "Why did he turn against me?"
"Because you tried to get him fired," Viktor said. "Professor Kinsley's father is a Death Eater and she let him met you early in the year. He told you if you didn't get Dumbledore fired he vould kill you. He told your teacher to make sure you did it."
Professor Kinsley's father. kill her. Hermione let her tears of frustration out.
"Don't cry," Krum sighed.
"Shut up!" she sobbed with her eyes shut, gripping her wand tightly with both hands. "I can't believe you."
"Why not?"
"You don't know what it's like!" Hermione screamed, tears running down her cheeks and into the corners of her mouth. "I can't believe anybody, not even myself! Something happened to me, and everyone thinks I'm either a murderer or a liar. I don't even know if I did it or not!"
"Herm-own-ninny-"
"Stop!" she yelled, the sound of her voice echoing through the hall. "Even if you are telling the truth," she said quietly, staring at the floor, "it means Professor Kinsley is lying. I trusted her." Hermione wiped her eyes and thought out loud, "How can I trust anyone?"
"I brought your vond so you voold believe me," Viktor said. "I vant to help you out of here. She did nothing for you down here except lie to you so you voold not listen to me when I could talk to you." He paused. "You know me, Herm-own-ninny, from before all this happened. You do not know her."
*~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~*
Severus Snape began working on the complex Veritaserum at midnight, the time when the first two ingredients were required to be mixed. He moved the Truth Potion from the classroom to his office, careful to not burn his fingers on the small cauldron while walking. He spotted the young security guard sulking outside his office.
"Can I help you?" he asked the guard. The boy snapped out of his daze.
"Oh, no, sorry. I was just walking around."
Severus got an idea.
"Young man, do you have security clearance to go to the dungeons?"
"Y-yes." he answered hesitantly.
"Could you tell Ms. Granger that she will be given Truth Potion in two weeks time?"
The boy's face changed. "Is she. I mean. do you still think she might be innocent?"
Snape nodded, knowing this was the guard who helped get her wand tested.
"Yes sir! I'll go right now!"
Josh practically ran down to the dungeons, eager to apologize to Hermione about everything. If Severus Snape thought there was a chance, perhaps she really was innocent. Josh's feet slipped down the stony steps and he raced around the corner at the bottom of the stairs into the dark hallway.
He stopped.
The corridor was filled with gray and brown dust; the torches burned eerily through the tiny particles.
"Hermione? Are you okay?" he yelled.
He walked closer, stepping over large chunks of stone. He squinted through the dust and saw her cell, opened. The heavy door had been blasted off from the inside. Hermione was gone.
KeeperOfTheMoon - Yes, Dumbledore turned a little bit nicer. It took a lot, obviously, to get him to change his mind because he's very preoccupied with Voldie right now.
LizzieDiagon - Thank you for your kind review, hope you keep reading.
Tomfeltongirl - What an interesting review. lol, and a humorous one at that : ) I give you more!
An Ebony Flame - Thanks for putting me on your favs! Your Petunia story is great, I hope you update it soon. I dished out more for you in the meantime ; )
TaMara R - Yeah, I'm not a huge Snape fan, but I thought it would be ironic if he would be on one side, because of his undercover work.
Amorya - Hey, I hope you like the new chapter as much as the last one
Hpdigital - I dunno about Dumbledore. I mean, I tried to show that Hermione was suspicious enough for even him to not believe her. We still don't know exactly what she did to him to make him not trust her, but I tried to make him more Dumbledory as the story progressed
Emma Malfoy - yeah, I like to stray from the usual HP fanfiction. I try to create really out-there plots, but try to keep the characters and the language the same as the books. Hopefully I've done that.
Cous-cous - Well. Josh is in the picture again, at least. I guess it's the readers' opinion if things are actually looking up for her or not.
Trisana - I think this cliffy was probably worse. well, there ya go!
Hermione reached out her hand and grasped her wand, the soft, firm rosewood settling familiarly in her palm. She cautiously looked up at Krum, who withdrew his arm back through the bars and returned her stare with an assured glance.
"It is okay, Herm-own-ninny," he said, "I am here to help."
Hermione's heart did a funny skip as he gave her a small smile. The feeling of someone watching her and smiling at her without the expectation of an answer to a question made her blush ferociously, just like it used to when she first met him. She bit her lower lip, finding herself suddenly thinking about Josh.
"Thank you," she managed to say, gripping the ends of the inflexible wood, "but why are you trying to help me? You're the witness."
"It is a long story, and you need to know that I haff a reason for everything." Viktor's eyes lifted from the ground and focused on Hermione. "Vould you listen to me tell?"
"I don't have much of a choice, do I?" She said, gesturing to the locked door.
He shook his head. "No, you should choose. If you do not vish to hear it, then I von't force you to listen."
Hermione scratched the back of her neck, trying desperately to sort out her thoughts. 'What's the harm in listening? The fact that he's giving me the choice to listen or not is noteworthy. But he's the one who got me into this mess. Why else would he give me the wand? Maybe he wants me to get into even more trouble.'
Memories from the summer rushed through her mind's eye as she thought to herself. She had had a wonderful time with Viktor, but they both agreed it would be best to just be friends. He had always been so sweet; the scant animosity he had in him only surfaced when they had gone to a pre- professional Quidditch match and the referee was blatantly ignoring dangerous fouls. 'Get him down!' Viktor had yelled. 'Someone vill get hurt!' It was hard to believe he would just turn to Voldemort.
"Herm-own-ninny?"
She looked back up at Krum. "Okay," she sighed. "Yes, tell me everything." Hermione walked over to the bed and sat on its edge, hoping she was prepared to hear whatever he might say.
"I am very sorry about saying bad things about you, but. . ." Viktor looked back and forth down the dungeon hallways. ". . . but I haff no other choice," he whispered.
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.
"You cannot tell anyone," he warned gently, "but I got a letter that told me if I did not say I saw you kill Harry, that my family vould be harmed." Krum shook his head. "I could not let something happen to them, so I did it."
Hermione swallowed dryly as he continued.
"It vos a letter from You-Know-Who, or von of his followers, and I belieffed it." Krum gripped the metal bars tightly as he talked and Hermione could see his knuckles turning white, even in the low torch light of the dungeon.
"What about before all this happened?" She asked.
Viktor nodded as he said, "They told me you lost your memory. How much haff you forgotten?" His eyes became concerned. "Haff you forgotten. . . our summer?"
"No," Hermione couldn't help but smile a bit as he sighed. If she had been him, she wouldn't have wanted to forget that summer, either. "No, I remember up to the train ride."
"Ahh, I remember," Viktor said. "It vos in the Daily Prophet. The train stopped because the dark mark vos ahead on the tracks."
"Really?" Hermione asked. "What happened?"
"Nothing," he said, "the mark didn't mean anything, they thought. But the train vos very late, the newspaper said, because it stopped for so long making sure it vos safe to keep going."
Neither of them said anything for a few awkward moments. Hermione shifted her weight atop the bed, mindlessly picking one of her curly hairs off the sheets and dropping it to her side.
"I suppose you vont to know why I came to Hogwarts?" Viktor asked.
"It was because of Quidditch, wasn't it?"
"Yes."
Hermione's heart began to beat fast. "It wasn't only for Quidditch, though?"
".no, it vos not. Herm-own-ninny, you cannot tell anyone this, but I haff been here as a spy for the Bulgarian Ministry of Magic."
There was a very long, uncomfortable pause as Krum and Hermione tried to read each others' faces at the same time.
"What kind of spy?" Hermione asked cautiously.
"Vell, the Ministry in my country has been very curious about Dumbledore. They do not think he tells them everything he knows, so I came here for them to tell if he vos or not."
"Why?"
"Because they are not exactly hearing the same things from their own aurors as they are from Dumbledore. They think he keeps secrets about You-Know- Who."
Hermione instinctively felt like she should defend her Headmaster, but her lips pursed together, spitefully remembering the new, unsympathetic Dumbledore that had placed her down in the dungeon. "Did I ever know you were a spy?" She questioned.
Krum sighed. "You vere not supposed to find out. One day you found a picture of a house elf or something and vere very upset about it." Hermione's eyebrows rose. "You looked for me and found me as I wrote a letter to the Minister of Bulgaria and you kept asking questions until I told."
Hermione dry tongue licked her lips like sandpaper. Professor Kinsley was lying. Viktor didn't show her the picture, she had found it on her own. Why would she say that? Unless he was lying.
"Herm-own-ninny are you all right?" Krum looked at her through the bars. "You keep looking like you are haffing daydreams."
"Sorry, I'm fine," she said. "So I found out you were a spy-" she prompted, waiting to hear how similar his story would be to Professor Kinsley's.
"Yes, and you told me you voodn't tell anyone. Vell, you told your teacher and you said she got mad at you and told you to stay away from me."
"Which teacher?" Hermione asked. 'Professor Kinsley?"
Viktor nodded.
"Why was she mad?"
"I am not sure," he said, "but I do not think you should believe anything she says to you. she is not on our side."
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, suddenly angered by his accusation. "She's a teacher! And besides, she's the one who came down here and told me everything before you or anyone else did."
Krum's eyes subtly changed as Hermione spoke. "Vhat did she tell you?"
"It's not your business, Viktor Krum!" She said turning away from his stare.
"But she is not safe!" he said. "You should not think that everything she says is the truth just because she vos the one to talk to you first. She could have made everything up and she knew you voodn't know any better."
"Go away!" Hermione said, feeling tears burn behind her eyes.
"Herm-own-ninny," he pleaded, "I am telling the truth."
"Well you should have thought about telling the truth before lying to the aurors about seeing me kill Harry."
"I had no choice!" he said. "My family."
"Well what about Dumbledore?" Hermione asked. "Why did he turn against me?"
"Because you tried to get him fired," Viktor said. "Professor Kinsley's father is a Death Eater and she let him met you early in the year. He told you if you didn't get Dumbledore fired he vould kill you. He told your teacher to make sure you did it."
Professor Kinsley's father. kill her. Hermione let her tears of frustration out.
"Don't cry," Krum sighed.
"Shut up!" she sobbed with her eyes shut, gripping her wand tightly with both hands. "I can't believe you."
"Why not?"
"You don't know what it's like!" Hermione screamed, tears running down her cheeks and into the corners of her mouth. "I can't believe anybody, not even myself! Something happened to me, and everyone thinks I'm either a murderer or a liar. I don't even know if I did it or not!"
"Herm-own-ninny-"
"Stop!" she yelled, the sound of her voice echoing through the hall. "Even if you are telling the truth," she said quietly, staring at the floor, "it means Professor Kinsley is lying. I trusted her." Hermione wiped her eyes and thought out loud, "How can I trust anyone?"
"I brought your vond so you voold believe me," Viktor said. "I vant to help you out of here. She did nothing for you down here except lie to you so you voold not listen to me when I could talk to you." He paused. "You know me, Herm-own-ninny, from before all this happened. You do not know her."
*~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~*
Severus Snape began working on the complex Veritaserum at midnight, the time when the first two ingredients were required to be mixed. He moved the Truth Potion from the classroom to his office, careful to not burn his fingers on the small cauldron while walking. He spotted the young security guard sulking outside his office.
"Can I help you?" he asked the guard. The boy snapped out of his daze.
"Oh, no, sorry. I was just walking around."
Severus got an idea.
"Young man, do you have security clearance to go to the dungeons?"
"Y-yes." he answered hesitantly.
"Could you tell Ms. Granger that she will be given Truth Potion in two weeks time?"
The boy's face changed. "Is she. I mean. do you still think she might be innocent?"
Snape nodded, knowing this was the guard who helped get her wand tested.
"Yes sir! I'll go right now!"
Josh practically ran down to the dungeons, eager to apologize to Hermione about everything. If Severus Snape thought there was a chance, perhaps she really was innocent. Josh's feet slipped down the stony steps and he raced around the corner at the bottom of the stairs into the dark hallway.
He stopped.
The corridor was filled with gray and brown dust; the torches burned eerily through the tiny particles.
"Hermione? Are you okay?" he yelled.
He walked closer, stepping over large chunks of stone. He squinted through the dust and saw her cell, opened. The heavy door had been blasted off from the inside. Hermione was gone.
KeeperOfTheMoon - Yes, Dumbledore turned a little bit nicer. It took a lot, obviously, to get him to change his mind because he's very preoccupied with Voldie right now.
LizzieDiagon - Thank you for your kind review, hope you keep reading.
Tomfeltongirl - What an interesting review. lol, and a humorous one at that : ) I give you more!
An Ebony Flame - Thanks for putting me on your favs! Your Petunia story is great, I hope you update it soon. I dished out more for you in the meantime ; )
TaMara R - Yeah, I'm not a huge Snape fan, but I thought it would be ironic if he would be on one side, because of his undercover work.
Amorya - Hey, I hope you like the new chapter as much as the last one
Hpdigital - I dunno about Dumbledore. I mean, I tried to show that Hermione was suspicious enough for even him to not believe her. We still don't know exactly what she did to him to make him not trust her, but I tried to make him more Dumbledory as the story progressed
Emma Malfoy - yeah, I like to stray from the usual HP fanfiction. I try to create really out-there plots, but try to keep the characters and the language the same as the books. Hopefully I've done that.
Cous-cous - Well. Josh is in the picture again, at least. I guess it's the readers' opinion if things are actually looking up for her or not.
Trisana - I think this cliffy was probably worse. well, there ya go!