Decided to keep the other chapter. However, I'm going to take it away when the chapter comes up.
I'd like to see some suggestions for the following chapters - except for Harry and Draco getting back together and Moranna getting her ass kicked (or something as vigorously).
Chapter 11 – The Devil's sleepMorning came to Hogwarts, the air cold and holding promises of that winter was not far away. The sun shone through the high windows in the Hospital wing and onto its inhabitants, one of them in particular, that lay curled down in the bed, looking thoroughly peaceful. She stretched in her sleep, yawning and then opening her eyes.
Bewilderment was on her face as she at first didn't recognize herself, but then she remembered.
The library.
Memories flooded to her and she caught a glimpse of that page she had been looking at, the fine hand-written text from the middle 1500's. She shot up in bed, knowing that she had to warn everybody about it. They were all in grave danger.
"Ah, Ms. Granger. So you have finally decided to join us again." A voice called out from her left, and she turned her head there quickly, upon seeing the Headmaster.
"Professor Dumbledore, Moranna Sankryo is a-" She started, but stopped herself when the elderly man held up a hand.
"There is nothing to worry about when it comes to Ms. Sankryo. She has my full trust here. She will harm anyone as much as Remus Lupin would harm a student."
"But Professor, she is hexing Malfoy," Hermione said.
Dumbledore looked closely at Hermione from behind his half-mooned glasses; seeing that worried face-expression she wore.
"Hermione," he begun slowly, choosing his words carefully. "She has not placed Mr. Malfoy under any love-spell. Nor is she punishing Harry for whatever reason. And neither did she place you under the Devil's sleep. Yes, I am aware of that she could very well do all of this, but I have my reasons to say that she is innocent of all of your charges."
"But still, professor. I believe that she is dangerous."
The professor's smile faded and he looked quite disappointed at Hermione.
"Of all people on the school I believed you to be the one with the least prejudices."
Hermione had the grace of looking embarrassed, but she still looked somewhat uncertain.
"I'm sorry Headmaster," she murmured, then raised her head as a thought struck her. "How long have I been unconscious? And who did it to me?"
"Merely for the night." The professor smiled again. "Harry and Ron have been here as much as they could, they were very worried for your sake."
Hermione lay back in bed. Feeling the numbness of her right hand, she slowly started opening and closing the palm, feeling how blood flowed back into it.
"You mentioned a spell… something with the Devil?"
"Ah, yes," Dumbledore said, and told Hermione what he knew of it.
"And Sankryo is capable of performing it?" She said, with some doubt and mistrust in her voice, but Dumbledore also detected a hint of jealousy in it.
"So I have been told. But as well as some of the students are capable of performing the Unforgivables, that does not mean that they go out and do it on any suitable victim. Many go through their lives without ever needing to use some of the spells they have learned."
Hermione nodded slowly and then closed her eyes, sighing deeply. There was something in the back of her head that told her she had forgotten something, and it bothered her that she could not remember what.
"Do you think that I'll be able to go to my classes today, professor?" She mumbled and opened her eyes to look at the elderly wizard.
"That is for Madam Pomfrey to decide. However I must leave you now."
He rose from his position and went for the drapes, but stopped and turned his face back to look her deeply in the eyes.
"I trust you not to bring forth anything about Ms. Sankryo. She cannot help what choices have been made for her."
And with those words he left, leaving Hermione alone, thinking about what he just had said.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -Madam Pomfrey let Hermione leave the infirmary a few hours later, and she joined up with Harry and Ron, who both hugged her and were overly joyous that she was back to normal. She said nothing of her meeting with professor Dumbledore, just wavered away the questions the two boys had. She was just happy to be back and enjoyed the way Ron hugged her.
Yet that does not say that she stopped watching Moranna whenever she got the chance. Harry noticed what she was doing, saw the way she would look at the other girl with a frown, and then nod to herself as if something was confirmed.
It was after their last class the Friday before Halloween that he confronted her, blocking her way when she was heading up to the Gryffindor Tower to place away her books. Her brown eyes widened when he gently took a hold of one of her lower arms, dragging her into an empty classroom and shutting the door behind him.
"Harry, what are you doing?" She asked, her voice just the slightest higher than normal.
He took a few steps towards her and then stopped, looking as if it took a great deal of power to do so. His face seemed very tensed, his eyes filled with anger and worry.
"I need to speak with you," he settled on saying, though there was something about the way he said it that told that it was not the original thing he had planned to say.
"And that required that you dragged me here?" A laugh escaped her lips, but Harry heard the strained edge to it.
"I know that you are up to something. Against Sankryo." He spoke calmly, and all the time his eyes were locked on her face to determine the way she would react.
The flicker of guilt that passed over her eyes was quickly hidden away, replaced by coolness.
"And what if I am?"
"Then I want to be in on it too."
Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but the words died on the tip of her tongue. She merely shook her head, her face determined.
"I am not up to anything when it concerns Sankryo. It is vice versa. I believe that she is up to something, however I'm not sure what."
Hermione leaned against the teacher's desk; musing and a lot more relaxed than a few moments earlier.
"Because if it wasn't she that cursed me I have no idea who might have done it. I checked in the library for something about the spell, and what little I found about it and the requirements to perform the spell… " Hermione shook her head and gave a faint shudder. "I don't know anyone that would give up that much for being able to do the spell. Nobody but You-know-who, that is," she added thoughtfully.
"What are you talking about?" Harry wondered, now thoroughly confused.
Hermione looked at him for a few seconds and frowned.
"It is quite complex to explain. I'm not certain about it all, there were some paragraphs that were in Suman language, things I can't translate."
Harry's eyes widened. There was something about this that made him sure that Hermione was frightened, someone had finally outsmarted her, and that knowledge she had found out she didn't want to bring forth.
"Please tell me. I'm sure you've made out something."
She hesitated only a mere moment and then went into her lecturing state, in where she was completely absorbed by what she was doing.
"Of what I've been able to make out there are a lot of requires you have to fulfil the demands of knowing the Devil's sleep. First of all, it demands the right heritage. To be pure-blooded – as pure as one can ever be, and that you have inherited a certain condition that is so rare that only a few hundred exist at all." Hermione paused here and then started pacing around as she counted up the different demands. "Then the exact time when the sun, moon and earth stand in a correct line. Third it says something about that at least ten others that knows the spell have to be present, fourth about that the chosen place has to be absolutely drenched in blood."
Hermione stopped pacing and turned to look at Harry, who looked as if the Hogwarts' express had hit him square in his face.
"You mean…" Harry begun, unable to finish the sentence. His mouth suddenly was very dry, as if he couldn't swallow properly.
"Yes. Human blood. I couldn't translate the last of this part, but it had to be someone special's blood. It couldn't just be anyone at all that was sacrificed."
She grew silent; leaving out what she knew about that Sankryo had done all of that to achieve her knowledge of the spell. And the fact that you could not be merely mortal once you knew those few precious words just happened to slip her mind.
"That's so weird. And cruel," Harry commented. "Isn't just the requirement forbidden?"
Hermione shook her head.
"Most likely it's because it is so rarely used that it has fallen into the shadows, forgotten."
They were both silent for a while, contemplating what just had been said, and then Harry shrugged his shoulders.
"So what are we going to do?"
Hermione's eyes darkened. "You are not going to do anything," she informed him rather coolly. "This is my problem, not yours. And don't you dare interfere with me in your stupid Gryffindor manor."
Then she spun around; leaving Harry alone in the classroom, staring a little dumbfounded after her.