Chapter 14: Unexpected events
Hello everyone! Thank you for taking an interest in this story so far! I know I'm somewhat unfaithful when it comes to making new chapters quickly, but I get very distracted. School started up again as well, which kind of mucks it up a bit.
So, reviews:
*~*Crippled Butterfly: I'll do as much as you recommend I should, and once again, thank you so much for your comment on how I'm pacing out the Hermione/Draco relationship thing.
*~*ILUVRONWEASLEY: yes, mockery day shall be good. I've really gotta think about it . . . make sure it isn't too lame and stuff like that. The potions experience was very much similar to an LSD experience, as described by George Harrison in Beatles Anthology. I think I did that well. Anyway, hope you like this next chapter.
*~*coolcat411: Cool man! Yes, I hope I can manage to write up the mockery day well. What did you think of my Halloween?
*~*Serena: Course I'll keep writing. And thank you so much for the compliment
*~*Mickey Sky: lol! Yes, school torture is plentiful. My drama teacher is horrible (. Righto, well, keep reading. But don't let my writing distract you from your homework!
*~*bombshell: hurrah! Keep a-reading
*~*electra: I'll make sure I tell you :P
if I missed anyone on the review thing I'm very sorry, but it's hard to remember everyone sometimes.
OK dudes, just a warning. I have a new email address. It's gillay_mccartney1965@hotmail.com and I've tried about 3 times to change my address on fanfiction and it hasn't worked so far. I'll have to keep trying. Hopefully fanfiction will eventually figure it out.
Disclaimer: Umm, I now own a series of really cool books for school, and a folder! Oh, the folder is so cool. It has all these pictures on it . . . it's so great. Oh, and a cat, which just walked across my desk. Aww. . .
Right, let's get to it!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The next day Hermione woke up feeling somewhat excited. A meeting with the Prefects at Five o'clock was always fun.
She bounded down the stairs and fell over on the last two. She had school shoes that were a little bit high on the heel, and she tended to trip on them a fair bit.
'Ow!' she landed on her head.
She heard feet running, and strong arms lifting her up. Harry and Ron looked at her, shaking their heads.
'Honestly Hermione. Those shoes are a health hazard.'
'Only if I'm being stupid with them on.' Replied Hermione, brushing herself off. 'What have we got first?'
'Transfiguration, I think,' said Harry, pawing in his bag for his timetable.
'Yeah, it's Tuesday,' replied Ron. 'Then afterwards it's Arithmancy, remember?'
'Oh yeah.'
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Class that day was a somewhat uneventful affair, unless you count one point during transfiguration where Neville accidently misaimed his wand and turned half the class into money boxes. Ron was turned into one, and Harry and Hermione couldn't stop laughing for another 3 hours. Hermione spent all of arithmancy with her head in her text book, covering her face which turned red every time she remembered Ron with the porcelain eyes and the slot on his temple. . .
At 3:30 Hermione sat down at a table and began her transfiguration homework, still chuckling slightly. By 4:55 she'd finished it. She packed up her books and began walking down to the meeting place. Susie and Edward caught her up on the way there.
'Hi Hermione,' they said. 'We've got some brilliant ideas,' continued Susie.
'Cool. Such as?'
'OK. Imagine we all dress up like donkeys-'
'WHAT?'
'Kidding, kidding. We could have people jumping off buildings because someone mentioned Romeo and Juliet.'
'No Susie, no,' replied both Hermione and Edward.
'Rats. Well all right, how about this. The people can dress up as famous couples, or whatever, but have the men dressing up as the women, and vise versa. Make it an opposite day kind of thing?'
Hermione and Edward eyed each other. 'I like that,' said Hermione. 'That could very much be the sort of thing Malfoy's looking for.'
'How come you never call Malfoy by his first name?' asked Edward.
Hermione shrugged. 'Don't want to. We have this thing going. He calls me Granger, I call him Malfoy. We feel funny calling each other Hermione and Draco. We never have before. Oh, we're here.'
The three of them opened the door and entered the room, to see Malfoy there talking to the other Prefects. The three of them had been the last to arrive.
'Took you long enough Granger,' said Malfoy, shaking his head. 'I was beginning to think I should call the guard.'
'Ahh, but what?' asked Hermione. 'They don't take kindly to insults you know.'
(A/N: That's just a line from a movie people. Neither of them have gone insane or anything.)
'Has anybody here thought up anything so far?' asked Susie, taking a seat near Portus towards the back of the room.
'Nada,' replied Malfoy. 'Other than we definitely need Grangers brain to think of something.'
'Well, you're in luck then,' said Hermione. 'Except I didn't think of something. Susie did.'
'Oh?' Malfoy looked at Susie with interest. 'What's the idea?'
Susie told Malfoy her idea. Everyone listened with interest, and when Susie was done Malfoys face broke into a grin.
'Brilliant,' he said. 'That's fantastic. The whole school would be in on that -'
'Except a few of the teachers,' Hermione said, thinking of Professor Snape adourning a pink Cinderella gown.
'It would only be the students I'm sure Granger,' replied Malfoy.
'And how about,' Portus interrupted, clearly with an idea in his mind, 'anybody that wants to confess to some other person that they are in love with them or whatever, gives a message to the trusty helpers -'
'I reckon we should hire some fairies for that,' said Hermione.
'Whatever. And then the trusty helpers fly around to the classrooms and tell the people the message.'
'Sounds stupid enough to work,' said Malfoy. Portus shot him an ugly look.
'I reckon it'd be better if we just had every boy at the school bowing down in front of their crush and yelling out 'Oh I love you! Please be my boy/girl!' said Susie.
Everyone laughed really hard and loudly at that. Hermione was in tears. So loudly were they laughing that they didn't hear someone knocking at the door. Edward picked up on the knocking eventually though, and went over to the door and opened it.
There stood Professor McGonagall. She strode into the room and everybody looked up at her, confused as can be.
'Sorry to disturb you all, I know you must be planning something really exciting, but Professor Dumbledore wishes to speak to you, Miss Granger.'
Hermione looked around at the others, each was identical expressions of puzzlement. . . except for Malfoy, whos expression was more of worry. Hermione stood up and left the room, feeling very confused.
As she walked to Professor Dumbledores office, a whole bunch of thoughts were colliding in her head. Things like: has something happened to Harry? Has he had another vision? Have I done something wrong? Professor Flitwick knows I was sick when that Charms assignment was due. . .
She'd arrived at his office. She looked up nervously at the big door. With one last breath, she knocked on the door.
'Miss Granger?' came Dumbledores quiet voice.
'Yes,' she replied nervously.
'Come right in.' Dumbledores tone was monotonous. This made Hermione all the more nervous as the door opened and she walked up to his office.
She entered the huge room to find it identical to how she'd left it the last time she'd been, but it felt somehow more eerie. She was beginning to get a very, VERY bad feeling about this.
'Please sit down Miss Granger,' said Dumbledore from his chair behind his desk. 'I have news.'
'News? What about? The Dark Lord? Harry should be here too then. Where is he? Shouldn't we wait for hi-'
'Neither Mr Potter nor Mr Weasley need to be here. This concerns you only at present.'
Hermione was confused. 'What then? What news is there that's only of my concern?'
Dumbledore looked at Hermione with apparent concentration. Perhaps he was trying to figure out what would be the best way to tell her the news. 'This is about your parents.'
'My parents?' asked Hermione. 'What about them? They've been getting better, you know, Professor. Mum remembered me from a different memory she had of me. She'll be better real soon-'
'No Hermione, she won't.' interrupted the Professor.
Hermione was shocked 'Wh-what?'
'Hermione, I wish I wasn't the one that had to tell you this, but you must know. Hermione, your mother died last night.'
All of Hermiones nervousness vanished right there. She was now more confused then ever. What did Dumbledore mean? 'No . . . how . . .'
'The doctors think,' replied Dumbledore, 'That her insanity peaked, and she couldn't handle it anymore, and she suicided. She wasn't killed magically.'
Her confusion began to subside, and instead, pain began to slowly seep in. Horrible, unbearable, mourning pain. 'What about my dad?' she asked, in a surprisingly steady voice.
'He's sane again,' replied Dumbledore. 'It often happens what when someone close to an insane person dies, he or she becomes sane again. He wishes to collect you straight away. I advise you go to your dormitory and pack your bags. Your father isn't sure how long he wants you there, so be prepared for a long stay.'
Hermione nodded, but her mind was in a blur. She could only really concentrate on one thing: She's dead. Her mother was dead.
'May I go and get ready?' she asked vaguely, standing up.
'Certainly,' replied Dumbledore. 'You're dismissed. And Hermione?' Hermione stopped and looked at the Headmaster. 'I'm so sorry.'
Hermione nodded, and walked out of the room.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Instead of going to her dormitory however, Hermione pulled out her little key, and asked it to take her to the Quiet Room. She arrived there 3 seconds later.
The Quiet Room. Her safe haven, her peaceful spot. It seemed the only place to be. As soon as she got there, she walked slowly around, unable to really think, unable to really breathe. She couldn't believe this was happening. She tried to breathe, while thinking about what this all suddenly meant.
Her mother had died. She wasn't alive, she wasn't breathing, she wasn't consciously aware of what was around her any more. She hasn't been consciously aware of what was around her for the past 6 months, but Hermione had always sort of known, inside, that her mother would one day get better, and everything would be all right again. Now that would never happen.
Hermione couldn't believe she'd been so stupid. Why hadn't she remembered that life wasn't a fairytale? Why was she always so sure that her mother would get better? Wasn't she smarter then that? Why hadn't it occurred to her?
But why does it matter now? Would it have been less of a shock, if she'd remembered that?
Hermione collapsed onto the floor in exhaustion. This was all too much to bear. She wanted the pain to go. She wanted to tell her mother to not do this to her. She couldn't do this to her. She was getting better. Why didn't she see that maybe, with a little bit of hope, everything would be fine. This wasn't like her mother, sane or insane. Why did she do this?
Hermione heard a noise, but chose to ignore it. More noises came, until eventually she saw something before her. She felt her shoulders being lifted, and was looking directly into Malfoys eyes.
'What's happened, Granger?' he asked. His tone seemed slightly stern.
Normally Hermione wouldn't have told him. She would have just said nothing, because she didn't feel close enough to Malfoy to tell him what was on her mind. She didn't want him to know that she was a weak person who thought these sorts of things.
But she couldn't fight him any more. And she didn't want to fight him any more.
'My mother . . .' she said. 'She died.'
Malfoys face stopped being stern. It became sad, and sorry, for his friend, who was in agony. He held Hermione there, as she began to cry. And neither of their positions would change for the next half hour.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Harry and Ron, meanwhile, were in the Common Room, playing exploding snap, feeling thoroughly bored.
Then suddenly, right when the pack exploded, Harrys scar exploded . . . in pain. He gasped, pressing his hands to it, and closed his eyes . . .
He was in a hallway, his shoes squeaking on the floor. What floors make shoes squeak? He entered a room, and approached a bed, seeing a woman lying there.
'She'll die with you,' he heard himself speak, in a voice that wasn't at all his own. It was a woman, for one.
He felt in his pocket and pulled out a blade, and with his other hand, held up the womans arm. Exposing her wrist, he lifted up the blade, and with a swooshing movement, struck the womans skin with it -
Harry was back in the common room. He looked at Ron with wide-eyed horror.
'Hermiones mother's been killed,' he said, not quite believing what he was saying, to Ron.
'Wh-wh-what?' asked Ron. 'But . . . but why . . . but who . . .'
But they both knew who.
'Voldemort.'
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Wow! THAT was an interesting chapter to write. I know it is the shortest chapter so far, but it's also the deepest, I think. Lengthening it any more would probably destroy the impact.
So what do you all think? Please review and tell me, because I'm anxious to hear what your opinions are.
Hello everyone! Thank you for taking an interest in this story so far! I know I'm somewhat unfaithful when it comes to making new chapters quickly, but I get very distracted. School started up again as well, which kind of mucks it up a bit.
So, reviews:
*~*Crippled Butterfly: I'll do as much as you recommend I should, and once again, thank you so much for your comment on how I'm pacing out the Hermione/Draco relationship thing.
*~*ILUVRONWEASLEY: yes, mockery day shall be good. I've really gotta think about it . . . make sure it isn't too lame and stuff like that. The potions experience was very much similar to an LSD experience, as described by George Harrison in Beatles Anthology. I think I did that well. Anyway, hope you like this next chapter.
*~*coolcat411: Cool man! Yes, I hope I can manage to write up the mockery day well. What did you think of my Halloween?
*~*Serena: Course I'll keep writing. And thank you so much for the compliment
*~*Mickey Sky: lol! Yes, school torture is plentiful. My drama teacher is horrible (. Righto, well, keep reading. But don't let my writing distract you from your homework!
*~*bombshell: hurrah! Keep a-reading
*~*electra: I'll make sure I tell you :P
if I missed anyone on the review thing I'm very sorry, but it's hard to remember everyone sometimes.
OK dudes, just a warning. I have a new email address. It's gillay_mccartney1965@hotmail.com and I've tried about 3 times to change my address on fanfiction and it hasn't worked so far. I'll have to keep trying. Hopefully fanfiction will eventually figure it out.
Disclaimer: Umm, I now own a series of really cool books for school, and a folder! Oh, the folder is so cool. It has all these pictures on it . . . it's so great. Oh, and a cat, which just walked across my desk. Aww. . .
Right, let's get to it!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The next day Hermione woke up feeling somewhat excited. A meeting with the Prefects at Five o'clock was always fun.
She bounded down the stairs and fell over on the last two. She had school shoes that were a little bit high on the heel, and she tended to trip on them a fair bit.
'Ow!' she landed on her head.
She heard feet running, and strong arms lifting her up. Harry and Ron looked at her, shaking their heads.
'Honestly Hermione. Those shoes are a health hazard.'
'Only if I'm being stupid with them on.' Replied Hermione, brushing herself off. 'What have we got first?'
'Transfiguration, I think,' said Harry, pawing in his bag for his timetable.
'Yeah, it's Tuesday,' replied Ron. 'Then afterwards it's Arithmancy, remember?'
'Oh yeah.'
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Class that day was a somewhat uneventful affair, unless you count one point during transfiguration where Neville accidently misaimed his wand and turned half the class into money boxes. Ron was turned into one, and Harry and Hermione couldn't stop laughing for another 3 hours. Hermione spent all of arithmancy with her head in her text book, covering her face which turned red every time she remembered Ron with the porcelain eyes and the slot on his temple. . .
At 3:30 Hermione sat down at a table and began her transfiguration homework, still chuckling slightly. By 4:55 she'd finished it. She packed up her books and began walking down to the meeting place. Susie and Edward caught her up on the way there.
'Hi Hermione,' they said. 'We've got some brilliant ideas,' continued Susie.
'Cool. Such as?'
'OK. Imagine we all dress up like donkeys-'
'WHAT?'
'Kidding, kidding. We could have people jumping off buildings because someone mentioned Romeo and Juliet.'
'No Susie, no,' replied both Hermione and Edward.
'Rats. Well all right, how about this. The people can dress up as famous couples, or whatever, but have the men dressing up as the women, and vise versa. Make it an opposite day kind of thing?'
Hermione and Edward eyed each other. 'I like that,' said Hermione. 'That could very much be the sort of thing Malfoy's looking for.'
'How come you never call Malfoy by his first name?' asked Edward.
Hermione shrugged. 'Don't want to. We have this thing going. He calls me Granger, I call him Malfoy. We feel funny calling each other Hermione and Draco. We never have before. Oh, we're here.'
The three of them opened the door and entered the room, to see Malfoy there talking to the other Prefects. The three of them had been the last to arrive.
'Took you long enough Granger,' said Malfoy, shaking his head. 'I was beginning to think I should call the guard.'
'Ahh, but what?' asked Hermione. 'They don't take kindly to insults you know.'
(A/N: That's just a line from a movie people. Neither of them have gone insane or anything.)
'Has anybody here thought up anything so far?' asked Susie, taking a seat near Portus towards the back of the room.
'Nada,' replied Malfoy. 'Other than we definitely need Grangers brain to think of something.'
'Well, you're in luck then,' said Hermione. 'Except I didn't think of something. Susie did.'
'Oh?' Malfoy looked at Susie with interest. 'What's the idea?'
Susie told Malfoy her idea. Everyone listened with interest, and when Susie was done Malfoys face broke into a grin.
'Brilliant,' he said. 'That's fantastic. The whole school would be in on that -'
'Except a few of the teachers,' Hermione said, thinking of Professor Snape adourning a pink Cinderella gown.
'It would only be the students I'm sure Granger,' replied Malfoy.
'And how about,' Portus interrupted, clearly with an idea in his mind, 'anybody that wants to confess to some other person that they are in love with them or whatever, gives a message to the trusty helpers -'
'I reckon we should hire some fairies for that,' said Hermione.
'Whatever. And then the trusty helpers fly around to the classrooms and tell the people the message.'
'Sounds stupid enough to work,' said Malfoy. Portus shot him an ugly look.
'I reckon it'd be better if we just had every boy at the school bowing down in front of their crush and yelling out 'Oh I love you! Please be my boy/girl!' said Susie.
Everyone laughed really hard and loudly at that. Hermione was in tears. So loudly were they laughing that they didn't hear someone knocking at the door. Edward picked up on the knocking eventually though, and went over to the door and opened it.
There stood Professor McGonagall. She strode into the room and everybody looked up at her, confused as can be.
'Sorry to disturb you all, I know you must be planning something really exciting, but Professor Dumbledore wishes to speak to you, Miss Granger.'
Hermione looked around at the others, each was identical expressions of puzzlement. . . except for Malfoy, whos expression was more of worry. Hermione stood up and left the room, feeling very confused.
As she walked to Professor Dumbledores office, a whole bunch of thoughts were colliding in her head. Things like: has something happened to Harry? Has he had another vision? Have I done something wrong? Professor Flitwick knows I was sick when that Charms assignment was due. . .
She'd arrived at his office. She looked up nervously at the big door. With one last breath, she knocked on the door.
'Miss Granger?' came Dumbledores quiet voice.
'Yes,' she replied nervously.
'Come right in.' Dumbledores tone was monotonous. This made Hermione all the more nervous as the door opened and she walked up to his office.
She entered the huge room to find it identical to how she'd left it the last time she'd been, but it felt somehow more eerie. She was beginning to get a very, VERY bad feeling about this.
'Please sit down Miss Granger,' said Dumbledore from his chair behind his desk. 'I have news.'
'News? What about? The Dark Lord? Harry should be here too then. Where is he? Shouldn't we wait for hi-'
'Neither Mr Potter nor Mr Weasley need to be here. This concerns you only at present.'
Hermione was confused. 'What then? What news is there that's only of my concern?'
Dumbledore looked at Hermione with apparent concentration. Perhaps he was trying to figure out what would be the best way to tell her the news. 'This is about your parents.'
'My parents?' asked Hermione. 'What about them? They've been getting better, you know, Professor. Mum remembered me from a different memory she had of me. She'll be better real soon-'
'No Hermione, she won't.' interrupted the Professor.
Hermione was shocked 'Wh-what?'
'Hermione, I wish I wasn't the one that had to tell you this, but you must know. Hermione, your mother died last night.'
All of Hermiones nervousness vanished right there. She was now more confused then ever. What did Dumbledore mean? 'No . . . how . . .'
'The doctors think,' replied Dumbledore, 'That her insanity peaked, and she couldn't handle it anymore, and she suicided. She wasn't killed magically.'
Her confusion began to subside, and instead, pain began to slowly seep in. Horrible, unbearable, mourning pain. 'What about my dad?' she asked, in a surprisingly steady voice.
'He's sane again,' replied Dumbledore. 'It often happens what when someone close to an insane person dies, he or she becomes sane again. He wishes to collect you straight away. I advise you go to your dormitory and pack your bags. Your father isn't sure how long he wants you there, so be prepared for a long stay.'
Hermione nodded, but her mind was in a blur. She could only really concentrate on one thing: She's dead. Her mother was dead.
'May I go and get ready?' she asked vaguely, standing up.
'Certainly,' replied Dumbledore. 'You're dismissed. And Hermione?' Hermione stopped and looked at the Headmaster. 'I'm so sorry.'
Hermione nodded, and walked out of the room.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Instead of going to her dormitory however, Hermione pulled out her little key, and asked it to take her to the Quiet Room. She arrived there 3 seconds later.
The Quiet Room. Her safe haven, her peaceful spot. It seemed the only place to be. As soon as she got there, she walked slowly around, unable to really think, unable to really breathe. She couldn't believe this was happening. She tried to breathe, while thinking about what this all suddenly meant.
Her mother had died. She wasn't alive, she wasn't breathing, she wasn't consciously aware of what was around her any more. She hasn't been consciously aware of what was around her for the past 6 months, but Hermione had always sort of known, inside, that her mother would one day get better, and everything would be all right again. Now that would never happen.
Hermione couldn't believe she'd been so stupid. Why hadn't she remembered that life wasn't a fairytale? Why was she always so sure that her mother would get better? Wasn't she smarter then that? Why hadn't it occurred to her?
But why does it matter now? Would it have been less of a shock, if she'd remembered that?
Hermione collapsed onto the floor in exhaustion. This was all too much to bear. She wanted the pain to go. She wanted to tell her mother to not do this to her. She couldn't do this to her. She was getting better. Why didn't she see that maybe, with a little bit of hope, everything would be fine. This wasn't like her mother, sane or insane. Why did she do this?
Hermione heard a noise, but chose to ignore it. More noises came, until eventually she saw something before her. She felt her shoulders being lifted, and was looking directly into Malfoys eyes.
'What's happened, Granger?' he asked. His tone seemed slightly stern.
Normally Hermione wouldn't have told him. She would have just said nothing, because she didn't feel close enough to Malfoy to tell him what was on her mind. She didn't want him to know that she was a weak person who thought these sorts of things.
But she couldn't fight him any more. And she didn't want to fight him any more.
'My mother . . .' she said. 'She died.'
Malfoys face stopped being stern. It became sad, and sorry, for his friend, who was in agony. He held Hermione there, as she began to cry. And neither of their positions would change for the next half hour.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Harry and Ron, meanwhile, were in the Common Room, playing exploding snap, feeling thoroughly bored.
Then suddenly, right when the pack exploded, Harrys scar exploded . . . in pain. He gasped, pressing his hands to it, and closed his eyes . . .
He was in a hallway, his shoes squeaking on the floor. What floors make shoes squeak? He entered a room, and approached a bed, seeing a woman lying there.
'She'll die with you,' he heard himself speak, in a voice that wasn't at all his own. It was a woman, for one.
He felt in his pocket and pulled out a blade, and with his other hand, held up the womans arm. Exposing her wrist, he lifted up the blade, and with a swooshing movement, struck the womans skin with it -
Harry was back in the common room. He looked at Ron with wide-eyed horror.
'Hermiones mother's been killed,' he said, not quite believing what he was saying, to Ron.
'Wh-wh-what?' asked Ron. 'But . . . but why . . . but who . . .'
But they both knew who.
'Voldemort.'
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Wow! THAT was an interesting chapter to write. I know it is the shortest chapter so far, but it's also the deepest, I think. Lengthening it any more would probably destroy the impact.
So what do you all think? Please review and tell me, because I'm anxious to hear what your opinions are.