Disclaimer: The pieces were fashioned by J.K. Rowling, and so was the chessboard. But the game is mine. Understand?
Author's Note: Again thank you to Phinea for the disclaimer. This is a rather dull chapter, I must say, but I am really working on getting the next one out fast so I don't lose many readers to it. Anyway, I haven't much to say except I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I know I took in more calories than should be legal in one day, but hey, maybe that's just me. I have a big announcement, so listen very carefully- this is a Draco/Hermione fic, however much it may seem to be taking a slight triangle turn. So, to everyone concerned, don't worry. Things will work out- I promise! Thank you so much to my great reviewers. I love you all so much!
ThousandI: Thank you so much for telling me about Grill. I absolutely love her stories. You're right; they're very much the same style as Severusgirl.
InDreams: I know, I miss Draco too. Hopefully, this chapter won't get you so down.
SailorMoonRose: Don't worry, my dear. The punishment seems to be relevant for everyone. But don't worry, everything will work out, and you're very perceptive. We seem to be on the same wavelength about this story.
runaway mental patient: May I just say, I love your pen name. The title works for me too. I'm glad you've read it and I'm sorry it was sad. I hope the happy factor will be up in this next portion.
Paprika90: Of course Ron will find out, and it was cool of you to think of him. As for the rest of the school, you will have to read and find out…
Eve-Providence: I'm so glad you're enjoying my story. I really owe a lot to you because when I read your review I got an idea for a plot twist. Thanks. I'll work more on the in-character thing. I really have been trying.
sweetbutsour253: Thanks for reading.
Alenor: No kidding. I'm so glad I don't have to write much of Lucius anymore.
Perfect by Nature: I know. I'm not big on Harry/Hermione fics either. Too realistic.
Chapter 18: Truth Hurts
McGonagall ushered the two down the hall as discreetly as was possible, trying to avoid the few stragglers hurrying to their next class. She was striding down the hall in her characteristic flowing black robes and tall hat, looking as sober as ever.
"Professor McGonagall," Hermione asked quietly from beside her.
"Yes, Miss Granger?" the professor stopped and turned to her student, fully prepared for whatever concern this troubled castaway had for her.
"We're going to the staff's quarters, right?"
"Yes."
"On the ground floor, sort of beside the Great Hall?"
"Yes, my dear, what's your question…"
But McGonagall didn't have time to ask, for as soon as she had affirmed Hermione of their destination, Hermione bolted down the hall with Harry by her side and disappeared behind a corner and down a flight of stairs.
"Wait, children!" McGonagall cried as she held on to her hat and ran after them. "Mr. Potter!… Miss- oh! - Mrs. Potter!"
But her old body couldn't catch up with the ravenous young adults who could almost taste the feast the house elves in the kitchen would prepare for them. They arrived far before McGonagall and had already placed their requests with one of the house elves.
Hermione and Harry sat at the end of the table, facing each other and talking in a hushed voice. When McGonagall opened the door, she met Hermione laughing hysterically and Harry with a satisfied grin, as if he had just made a particular funny joke. Hermione clutched her side and slowly breathed back to normal before either of them noticed McGonagall. And when she had been noticed, the pair sobered considerably.
"We already ordered, if that's okay," Harry told McGonagall as she sat a couple of seats down the table from Harry and summoned a house elf to take her order.
They sat for a moment in relatively awkward silence, Harry and Hermione looking at each other every once in a while and suppressing erupting giggles, making it their every effort to stay composed.
"May I ask," McGonagall smiled as she situated her napkin in front of her on her lap, "what you two find so funny?"
Harry and Hermione looked at each other as if sending telepathic messages. After a moment, Harry turned and asked McGonagall very seriously- "So, there's two pirate boats sailing towards each other and one of the boats is carrying all this blue paint. The other pirate boat is carrying all this red paint. They crash, and you know what happened?"
McGonagall narrowed her eyes and asked, "What happened?"
"They were marooned!" Harry and Hermione broke into laughter so violent they had tears forming in their eyes and their stomachs were hurting from the intensity of it. McGonagall looked at them curiously because the joke hadn't really been that funny. I mean sure, it was a little clever, but nothing to get this worked up about.
They were only calmed when a succession of house elves brought plates of food to them and set them before them. Without a word, the two were devouring food with a focus unlike anything McGonagall had ever seen. It was at least fifteen minutes before they began to feel the effects of the food take place and sat back in satiation.
"Now that I can call your concentration," McGonagall said, setting her fork down as well, "I would like to sort your schedules right away so that you can begin bright and early tomorrow; if that's all right with you. What with all you've already missed, I don't see any reason to wait longer."
"I very much agree," Hermione said, eager to start classes and be back in her element.
"Mr. Potter," McGonagall said, "Your schedule will be just the same as you left it. Do you remember it adequately, or would you like me to get you another copy?"
"I think I can manage," Harry said, also happy to be back in his normal routine, "If I have any trouble, I can ask Ron…"
Harry and Hermione's eyes met and they both gasped a bit at the thought of their best friend.
"Ron," Hermione said quietly and a smile lit up her face as she turned back to McGonagall to finish the job as quickly as possible so they could get to their friend.
"Yes, and Mrs. Potter," McGonagall said, all three of them still slightly wincing at the sound, "I will have to make a schedule for you, but I think that can be done now, so…" a piece of parchment and a quill fell before her and she prepared herself to write. "Now, you will of course be taking Advanced NEWT Transfiguration, Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Arithmancy, History of… pretty much every Advanced NEWT class that's offered, am I right?"
"Yes, Professor," Hermione's smile grew even larger.
"Now then, you still have a couple of places open. What would you like to fill them with?"
"What are you taking?" Hermione turned to Harry.
"I help Madam Hooch in her first years' flying class and I do the DA."
"They've made that a class?"
"Yeah, for fourth years and up."
"Wow. I'll definitely do that, Professor," Hermione paused while McGonagall wrote, "How many more do I have?"
"One."
It took Hermione only a moment to realize what she wanted to take, "I'll take Ancient Cultures. I heard you added it this year."
"Yes, and it's a wonderful class. I'm glad you'll be taking it."
After finishing dinner, the Potters hastily left the staff quarters to find Ron and all their other friends that had missed out on the adventure. Heading straight to the Gryffindor room armed with their schedules and all the new passwords they'd need to remember, Hermione and Harry felt happier than they had in a very long time. It seemed that their dismal circumstances were slowly melting away from their memories with the Hogwarts walls themselves.
They arrived at the portrait of the fat lady out of breath and hurriedly said the password, blessedly changed to 'Nemean Lion' from Parvati's silly ode to Trelawney and the art of Divination. The fat lady opened up to them just as she had for the last seven years, and they entered the Gryffindor common room, relieved to see it empty, save two busy first years catching up on what looked like extra potions homework.
"Shh," Hermione whispered and grabbed Harry's hand, pulling him up the staircase to the boy's dormitory, finding his old door and flinging herself into the room and on to his old bed. "Oh, I've missed Hogwarts!" she cried as she smashed her face in the pillow and settled herself on the soft mattress.
"Me too," Harry plopped down beside her on his back.
She rolled on to her side to face him and took a free string of his sweater and played with it in her fingers, tugging it lightly as if to try and pull it loose. They remained this way, Harry staring absently at the ceiling and Hermione subconsciously playing with his sweater while her thoughts drifted to other things.
"Harry?" she asked quietly.
"Mm hmm?" he turned his head to face her.
"We're married," she said slowly, her voice returning to conversation level. "I mean," she continued, letting go of the string and raising herself more on her elbow, "we are actually married. How strange is that?"
"I don't think it's sunk in yet," Harry said, the same normal level as Hermione.
Now came a pause before Hermione looked Harry straight in the eyes and asked, "Will it ever?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I'm lying here next to my husband in his empty dormitory and yet I feel absolutely no compulsion to have sex with him."
"Gee, thanks."
"No, I mean honestly, I still think of you as my friend- Harry Potter. Not my husband, my soul mate, or whatever you want to call it." The perplexed expression on his face showed that he did not fully understand where she was going with this. "Come on, Harry, do you really want to have sex with me?"
"Well, now that you mention it…"
"Harry," Hermione said with a laugh. "Sorry to suddenly spring this on you, but, I don't think I will ever look at you in a romantic sense."
"Why are you suddenly so open?"
"You are my husband."
"That's completely contradictory to every point you just made."
"Okay, then, you're my best friend."
"Point taken."
"I love you, Harry," Hermione laughed and flopped back on to her back and stared off into space, fidgeting with her fingers, "but as nothing more than a friend."
Harry fell back on to his back as well and said after a pause, "You didn't use to feel that way."
"I don't know. Maybe I just liked the idea of spending the rest of my life with a man I knew I could tolerate."
"No, for a while there you really did love me. Or at least you thought you did."
"Yes, I suppose I thought I did."
Harry reached his hand across his chest and stroked Hermione lightly on the arm. "It was Malfoy."
Hermione jerked forward at the suddenness of the name. "Malfoy?"
"Of course, Malfoy. We both know you are madly, passionately and undividedly in love with him."
"I think that's a bit strong. Sure, I care about him, but…"
"Whatever you say. I suppose you could have chosen worse," he paused for a moment, a look of confusion lining his face, "I can't believe I just said that. I just gave my wife my blessing to love the man that has been my rival for seven years and is in line as a possible Death Eater." The statement had strangely been made more to himself than Hermione.
"It's okay, Harry. I think we're both a little tired."
"Yeah, a little."
"What do you say I go back to my room and we sleep on all this stuff and tomorrow morning we can figure out precisely how to deal with it."
"Sounds good to me," Harry yawned stiffly as Hermione rose from the bed.
She pressed his hand affectionately andwalked to thedoor, turningbriefly to say, "You know it's the truth, Harry."
Harry nodded. "The truth hurts."
Sheleft the room, heading straight to the girl's dormitory and a good long night's sleep.
When she arrived at her room she fell on to her bed in a convulsive heap, stretching in jagged movements, as if too tired to even comprehend the concept of sleep. When she finally made her body accustomed to the idea of sleep, she laid her head on her pillow, falling asleep upon impact.
Unfortunately the sleep did not last long, for after a couple of minutes, she awoke from a sharp pain in her temple. She lifted her head to investigate her bed.
Lifting her pillow, she found the problem. A book that had its corner tilted upwards. And upon inspection, she realized that it was not just any book, but the very journal that had kept her company at the Malfoy prison.
At this revelation, she was so gripped with terror that she actually crept backward on her bed, holding her breath, as if the book would jump out and bite her. Slowly, she reached out her hand and opened the book. Sure enough, the very first page had the excerpt from The Rape of Lucrece.
She flipped through the book reading through all the things she had written, some drearier than others and some strangely random. She laughed at a couple of the entries she had made, such as the commercial for Vitameatavegamin from I Love Lucy, an entire Dr. Seuss story, and the lyrics for "Yellow Submarine."
'But,' she thought carefully, laying the journal back on her pillow, 'how on Earth did it get here?'
Her thoughts were interrupted by a scurry of girls running into the dormitory room, all nearly talking at the exact same time.
"Can you even believe," Parvati Patil shrieked while her minions followed closely, "that Doug asked Anita to the dance?"
"Especially since it's only been a week since you two broke up," Magnolia Hornflower said as they rallied around Parvati's bed to comfort her.
"Yes, Maggie, I don't want to think about it! It's hard enough, having my heart broken by that scum so close to Valentine's Day, but for him to 'get over' me and ask that little slut!"
"How degrading," Lavender Brown shook her head sadly and passed Parvati a handful of tissues.
"Thank you," Parvati blew her nose profusely and continued to rage while Hermione crept out of her corner, assuming defensive mode. To be back in Hogwarts was one thing, but to have to deal with Parvati Patil and her band of tarts was something Hermione was totally unprepared for. There was no hope for sleep now, so Hermione tried unsuccessfully to creep to the door and sleep either on a couch in the Common Room or up in Harry's bed.
"Hey, who's that?" Theodora Fawning asked, cutting the conversation clean.
"Hey," Parvati Patil called into the dark corner, "Who are you?"
Hermione wanted to fall through a hole in the universe or possibly spontaneously combust. The moment she revealed herself she would fall into a rapid volley of interrogations, each question more awkward than the next. However, since she could see no way out of the situation, she was left with no choice but to expose herself.
"Um," her voice came out faint, "Hermione."
She stepped out from the corner and met the faces of five completely awe-struck girls.
"Hi Parvati," Hermione said as friendly as she could muster and giving a big smile, "Lavender. Theodora. Maggie. Jill. How are you all?"
"How are we?" Lavender squeaked, "What does it matter?"
Oh dear, it had started already.
"Where have you been?"
"Does Dumbledore know you're here?"
"Is Harry back?"
"Did merpeople really kidnap you and offer your carcass to the Sea Gods?"
"Stop!" Hermione shouted to get the group under control. "Look, I'm sorry I've been gone so long. It was just a little complication I had since last year when my parents took me out of school. And, no Maggie, I wasn't kidnapped by merpeople."
"Oh, well that was what I heard."
"Really?" Jillian Moss asked with wide eyes, "I heard she moved to California and was performing in the Magical Theatre Troupe in Los Angeles."
"Is there a Magical Theatre Troupe in Los Angeles?" Lavender asked.
"There must be."
"Wait," Hermione stopped them, "What's everyone been saying about me?"
"Oh, Hermione," Parvati said, "There's been talk ever since you and Harry and Malfoy disappeared. Nobody knew what to think about it, so everyone just sort of came up with their own theories."
"That's comforting," Hermione said to herself.
"So," Parvati said, "Seriously, where have you been?"
Hermione had slowly backed her way to the door and said, "I don't know how much I can tell you. Maybe Dumbledore will announce something tomorrow."
With that, Hermione made a quick escape out the door, slamming it in the faces of the five gawking girls.
End Note: I'm sorry there was no Draco in that chapter. I'll really try to make my next update quick so we can get Draco back.