In case you guys are wondering, yes I do love Silverchair, that's why their lyrics keep popping up at the start of my chapters. This chapters song is 'Miss you love'. As usual, replies to those kind people who reviewed will be found at the bottom of the chapter. This chapter is for Tara, who probably won't read this, but since she put up with my prattle and helped me iron out details of the plot it's only fair :) A million kisses from Lucius for your troubles oh fair one :)
Chapter Two: Whispers
I'm not, not sure,
Not too sure how it feels
To handle everyday
Like the one that just past
In the crowds of all the people
- Silverchair
It was a very ordinary day. The Great Hall was filled with mostly mindless chatter – hardly anyone even bothered to make an attempt at an intelligent conversation. It was way too early and they didn't have enough caffeine in their systems. Most students had yet to reach the age when Monday mornings were considered a good thing. In fact, most people in the Great Hall would deny the existence of such an age – they'd claim that it wouldn't matter if they were twelve or thirty, they'd still hate every chilly morning that made them arise from the comforting embrace of a warm bed. Especially if the need to rise had anything to do with Professor Snape.
Perhaps Everyone's mornings weren't quite that bad. Not everyone had to put up with snarling, glaring, general unnecessary favouritism, bigotry and a rather dramatic obsession with twirling one's cape forbiddingly. But for Hermione Granger, this was how every week started. Such an ominous note was bound to have repercussions on the rest of her week, semester and school year.
The sixth year Gryffindor girl sighed as she looked toward the Professors table. There he was, still batlike with a hooked nose and shrewd black eyes. At that moment he was conversing rather intensely with Minerva McGonagall (the Professor of Transfiguration and Head of Hermione's Gryffindor house) and Albus Dumbledore (newly reinstated Headmaster of Hogwarts, newly reinstated head of the Wizengamot, newly reinstated recipient of the Order of Mer—).
Her scrutiny of the discussion was cut short by a strange sound to her right. "Wha—Neville!" Hermione's eyes widened in shock to see one of her fellow house mates collapsed face first into his bowl of blueberry porridge. She shook his shoulder, but the only indication that he was still alive was his content snoring. She turned to the chuckling girl on her left. "Ginny, someone cursed Neville, did you see—"
"No, they didn't." Ginny laughed.
"Jus' lee 'im." Ron slurred through a mouthful of food.
"What?" Hermione frowned across the table at him.
He swallowed.
"Leave him. He'll thank you for it, believe me." He then continued to pile his plate with a rather large assortment of fruit, bread and sausages.
Hermione grimaced in disgust as she saw the juice from an orange slice dribble along his bacon strips. Ron didn't seem to care that foods, which by cardinal law should never touch, were all thrown haphazardly together on his plate. He picked up his cutlery, grinned with masculine triumph and proceeded to scoop it all into his mouth at a rather alarming speed.
"Slow down a bit Ron, you're frightening the pancakes." His sister laughed as she sipped her pumpkin juice. Ron's head snapped up, a piece of bacon hanging over his lip.
"Ancaes?" He mumbled. Eyes darted over the table as if he hadn't seen food in days (his plate was clearly protesting against that reasoning however).
A pretty blonde girl to Ron's left indicated a plate and Ron grinned with triumph. "Thanks Lavendar." He quickly stood up and scooped the pancakes on top of the orange, on top of his bacon, on top of his eggs and sat back down on the bench. "Has anyone seen the—oh thanks, Gin."
Ron reached across the table to where his sister was sitting to remove the jar of strawberry jam from her hand. She was smirking at him with familial amusement. Ron's appetite was legend even amongst the Weasley household.
Neville was still snoring contently in a cushion of congealed oats, Hermione was too shocked by Ron's behaviour to bother trying to wake the boy up again. Ron spared him a brief glance before he smeared the jam messily on his pancakes and continued guzzling like a true glutton.
Ginny looked around Hermione's curly locks than whispered into her ear, "he won't drown will he?"
Hermione followed her gaze. "I don't think so, the liquid is too dense."
"Just leave him then, serves the git right." Ginny laughed.
"I'd ask why Neville's so tired," Hermione continued loud enough for Ron to hear, "but Dean and Seamus are nowhere in sight and Ron seems to have regressed to the intelligence of a Neanderthal."
"Wahootay?" Ron said through a mouthful of food.
"Point proven." Hermione raised an eyebrow disapprovingly before her entire face melted down into a frown. Ron gulped.
"Settle down," he wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his robes, "I've had about two hours sleep you do not want to aggravate me this morning."
Ginny smiled at him mischievously, "don't worry Ron, I think everyone has seen you on your menses before."
"WHAT?! Ginny!" Ron hissed.
Parvati and Lavendar laughed into their pumpkin juice, discreetly avoiding the glare that Ron was shooting in their direction.
"There's no need to keep it a secret, Ron," Ginny continued. "Everyone here has been confronted with your mood swings on many occasions. Embrace the hermaphrodite within."
A couple of people tapped their spoons on the table as if to say 'here, here' and Lavendar was now struggling to keep the pumpkin juice inside her mouth.
Ron scowled and mumbled something.
"What was that, Ronald?" Ginny inquired sweetly.
"I said, I think Harry knows more about mood swings than I do." Ron's eyes quickly flicked to Hermione's face, but averted even more quickly when he saw that the scowl had yet to fade. Hermione's facial features were taut and pale; she said nothing though Ron could see she badly wanted to. Instead, she turned to Neville and pulled back on his shoulders until his head was safely out of the bowl, then she let him fall back onto the table, clear of his breakfast but still snoring contently.
Hermione had been continuously telling Ron over the last couple of weeks that Harry's temper was not his fault, they should let him be how he needed to be to deal with Sirius's death, show him some compassion. This had caused many arguments between the already frequently squabbling friends. Ron insisted that she had no idea what she was talking about since she didn't have to sleep next to him all night. Or rather...she didn't have to NOT sleep. The thought made Ron chew on his meal more slowly. Hermione would have definitely severed several parts of Ron's anatomy if she knew everything about the Harry situation.
"We've got Herbology with Sprout in fifteen minutes, maybe we should wake him up," said Lavendar as Hermione poked Neville experimentally in the side. He mumbled something incoherently and Hermione had to bite back a smile. He looked as if his breakfast had tried to eat him for a change.
"Ok, Ron, what's with Neville?" Hermione asked. "Surely he couldn't be this tired."
"None of us got any sleep last night. Last night was...bad. Dean and Seamus were still sleeping when I left. Lucky gits."
"And Harry?" Hermione asked nervously.
"He's what kept us up all night."
Ginny smiled, "Dean didn't tell me you were all so close, I'll remember to spend more time in your dormitory if things are that friendly. Rowr." Ginny laughed at Ron's appalled face. His ears went red and he actually growled at her. He was way too tired to have his manhood threatened by his most annoying sibling (well...since he didn't really consider Percy a 'sibling' anymore).
"Shut up or I'll tell everyone here what Ginny really stands for."
Ginny flushed. "You wouldn't dare!"
"Are you sure about that Gin—"
"The bat-bogie hex will be the least of your concerns! I promise swift retribution if that name comes anywhere near escaping your lips!" She hissed in panic. Ron smiled at her.
"Doesn't it stand for Virginia?" Hermione asked Ron in interest.
Ron winked at her with a satisfied chuckle. Hermione paused. Unfortunately for him, he missed the shocked flush encasing Hermione's cheeks. He was too caught up in Ginny's livid glare as she mimed cutting her own throat. Tell her and die, Ginny's eyes were chanting viciously, but he had pretty much already translated that message from her hand signals. Nasty. It would be worth it though. Ron looked over at Hermione again, expecting to see a maddeningly inquisitive look on her face (she hated not knowing something that Ron did), instead he found her looking away. She was pretending to inspect Neville's slow progress to the bottom of his bowl. Ron was completely clueless if he hadn't realised what he could do to her heart sometimes without even trying.
"Did he..." Hermione coughed. "Did...Harry have another nightmare?"
She shouldn't have asked really. Harry hadn't had a 'peaceful' sleep for well over two months. She'd originally tried to persuade him to ask Dumbledore or Madam Pomfrey for some dreamless sleep potion but Harry had reacted so violently against the idea that Hermione assumed she had insulted him in some way. Harry had become a sore spot with Ron and her too. They barely saw him and when they did he was never really there. Harry didn't sleep, he screamed and twisted and begged for mercy from a force that none of them could protect him from. When they asked him what was happening he simply shrugged and ignored them. The morning light brought shame and anger for Harry, he was frustrated for a weakness marked by a lightning bolt scar, a scar that none could blame him for having. He never told them what he was seeing, whether it was Voldemort, guilt or bad memories. His friends protested that they could help him cope; they all were partially glad that he refused to confide. What could they say that would take away some of his pain? No one felt comfortable asking him any more. Ron originally had felt torn up with guilt and worry for letting Harry slip so far out of his reach. Then he was just annoyed.
When you don't get any sleep for two weeks it's hard to be compassionate. So Ron had copied his friends and put silencing charms on his bed. He felt guilty at first because Harry was suffering alone, but it was hard for Ron to be compassionate when he had pillowcases under his eyes big enough to support Hagrid's head. This had gone on for a couple of weeks until McGonagall had happened to overhear Neville and Ron talking about it. She had dragged Ron into her office and severely chastised him. She reminded him that Harry's distress had saved his own father's life and if Ron was thinking of abandoning Harry to suffer alone then he was not a real friend. Ron had been speechless for hours and when he finally talked it was to tell his roommates that there were to be only two sleeping charms each night. Two of them every night would be there, listening to every moment, ready if he needed them.
"What would happen if you-know-who tried to possess him? How would we know? What if he has another vision? Or hurts himself? How can we just close the curtains around our beds and pretend it isn't happening? He needs to know we're there for him and if that's all he needs, then stop complaining! That's easy. If any one of you guys has a different opinion on that matter, I have more than one brother willing to help me convince you." Ron had stood over them as much as he could. It was hard for him to intimidate people who had helped him collect cards from chocolate frogs and witnessed him unwrapping a Weasley jumper every year. It just had to be done. Seamus, Neville and Dean had simply nodded. Who would have the gall to argue? Seamus was especially adamant considering he'd all but called Harry insane the year before and had much to atone for.
Harry knew none of this. Nor did Hermione. Ron was too ashamed to tell her that he'd held sleeping in higher regard than Harry's well being.
Neville and Ron had been on 'Harry watch' on this occasion, but apparently the screams had been so horrible that Dean and Seamus had got no sleep either. Silencing charms can only do so much when you're still an amateur wizard.
"Is Harry still sleeping?" Hermione annoyingly persisted. Ron suppressed a groan, she was using that voice that made him think of chalkboards, nails and bludgers. All having a party in his head.
"Harry doesn't sleep. Not really. I only got to sleep at about 5am this morning. Which probably means he wasn't in the room then. Took off is my bet. I woke up and he was gone. Again." He said bitterly.
Hermione frowned. "I'll talk to him in Potions. He was probably just flying."
"When you see him tell him McGonagall is after his hide. She ambushed me this morning demanding to know why he had skived off her last four lessons. I didn't know, which made her more mad and you know what that woman's like – complete harpy. I swear she would have given me a detention if she hadn't needed me for this Friday's Quidditch game. Told me so too."
"Don't call Professor McGonagall a harpy, Ron, it's completely disrespectful."
"Yet so true." Ron heard Lavendar mutter. He smothered a grin with his hand before replying.
"Glad to know I'm able to articulate my feelings."
It was Ginny's turn to choke on her pumpkin juice, she was not very good at hiding the hearty giggle, but with the juice still present it sounded like a hacking cough under water. When she regained control of herself she actually had to wipe tears from her eyes. Ron had resolved to ignore her somewhere during breakfast obviously because he didn't even bother to glare.
"Doesn't anyone else find it a bit off that he is avoiding Transfiguration like a bludger to the head, yet he's still going to Potions? If there was any indication he's completely mental – it's that."
"Maybe Transfiguration reminds him too much of—"
Ron scoffed. "And potions wouldn't? You should hear the things he mutters about Snape when he's sleeping, Hermione. Let's just say The Daily Prophet would have loved to sick that Skeeter wench on him this year."
Ginny glared at her brother and leaned closer to him. "Don't you go saying stuff about Harry for what he says in his sleep. You don't even know if it's him thinking those things. I know what it's like to lose control of yourself to that...thing...Harry is helpless in his dreams! So just you shut up Ronald Weasley!"
"Shhh..." Hermione said to try and calm them down. The concept of 'calming down' however was a bit foreign in a Weasley feud and Ron was not to be outdone.
"It's him alright, I doubt you-know-who's first choice of weapon would be a Firebolt, and if it was he certainly wouldn't be that imaginative with it." Ginny screwed up her nose in confusion. Ron grinned mirthlessly and returned to his breakfast.
"Now don't yell at me Hermione but I'm starting to think Harry is only going to Potions because he's waiting for an...opportunity."
Hermione rolled her eyes, she'd heard this one before, right before she'd whacked him with a copy of 'Know thy Kneazle' if she remembered correctly.
Ginny chuckled. "What for? to declare his undying love for the hooknosed bat? You're a stupid git Ronald Weasley!" Whenever she was mad she seemed to find it necessary to say his entire name, perhaps she thought he'd be confused about whom she was addressing.
Ron turned to her in exasperation "what is with you and the sex jokes this morning?"
"Unlike you, I had good dreams." Ginny replied, exaggerating her movement as she bit down on the end of a carrot and smiled mischievously at him. Ron absorbed that for a moment before he made a sound of disgust and shoved his plate away. Hmm, it seemed there was a way to kill his raging appetite.
"Ron!" Hermione snapped and he looked at her again, finally coming back to their conversation. She was almost sad to have his attention fixed on her again. Ginny had made his eyes come alive, now they shaded with worry and fatigue. Too late to turn back now.
"I know you disagree with me, Hermione, but—"
"Harry isn't completely daft. He'd never attack a teacher, especially one of the special teachers." She intoned meaningfully.
"You don't know Harry, Hermione. He'll never be the same as he was before—"
"What makes you an expert!? At least I'm trying to understand what he's going through you blockheaded prat! All you seem to be interested in is making out that he's about five sleepless nights away from a Hogwarts massacre!"
"Merlin! There's no talking with you in this mood!"
"What mood? The rational one? You're right I should bash my head against a wall for a couple of minutes and bring myself down to your level!" Her eyes shot fire at him, fire he was gladly returning as his blue eyes darkened and his cheeks turned red.
"My level....don't you call me stupid you snotty little—" But whatever he was about to say was thankfully cut off by a very loud snore from Neville. Several sticky clumps flew up into the air from the corner of his mouth. One of those clumps landed in Hermione's hair as she continued to rail at him. Ron's anger dissolved and he burst into laughter.
"WHAT?!" She hissed. Ginny twirled her hair subtly, until Hermione followed Ron's line of sight and began to run her hands through her own hair. "Oh drat!" She said as she came across the gooey clump in the process of cementing her already knotty hair together. "I just hope your well rested Neville Longbottom!" Ginny's condition must be catching. Hermione pulled her wand out of the front pocket of her robes and pointed it right at Neville's drooling mouth, "Enervate!"
The charm, when combined with her frustration, was so strong that Neville immediately shot up from his position and mumbled "But I don't like Trevor that way Grandma!!" His knees hit the table and then he fell over backwards onto the floor. For several moments he was frozen in shock, staring up at the cloudy sky charmed into the Great Hall's ceiling. Sticky clumps of congealed oats dribbled from his face onto the floor in soft plopping noises. There was a stunned pause before the whole hall burst into laughter, even Hermione who was trying to keep her voice steady while she simultaneously whispered 'scourgify' and pulled him to his feet – face now clean. It seemed Neville was too tired to care that for the rest of the year people would be politely inquiring whether or not he more strongly recommended the creamy honey or blueberry porridge as the best place for a quick nap.
The sound of flapping wings could be heard approaching, then the call of more than three dozen owls. Hermione looked up at the same time as most students, waiting patiently for her copy of The Daily Prophet. Were there more owls than usual?
Ron ducked as two owls collided mid air and almost fell on top of him and his abandoned breakfast. One of those owls was Pig, a zippy little character in the process of picking itself off the ground behind Ron. Ron seized his opportunity to get the package while the overzealous bird was dazed. He reached out and snatched the post free from its talon and smirked down at the confused creature. Ron had, had far too many experiences trying to snatch the excitable Pig out of the air while it was buzzing around his head for him to not be smug about stealing his mail from it.
When he turned back to the Gryffindor table, Hermione was detaching a small package from the talon extended by a familiar owl. It took Ron a moment to recognise the brown and white bird, in fact it was only Hermione's cheeks that gave it away. Her face was blushing and Ron felt a very dark emotion seize hold of him again. He recognised that owl all right, and suddenly had the urge to attack his pancakes with more vigour than necessary. Vicky's owl.
"What's that you have there, Hermione?" Ginny asked with a grin.
Hermione shrugged, placing the package next to her rolled up copy of The Daily Prophet. Her breakfast plate had disappeared as well. Ron frowned at the package; it was a small red box, maybe two inches tall with the same width.
"Go on, Hermione. Open it." His sister encouraged.
Hermione grinned and pulled at the silver bow on top before quickly popping off the lid. She didn't want to do anything so completely predictable as gasping and raising her hands to her lips – but the gestures came anyway. Inside the box was the most exquisite charm she was ever likely to lay her eyes on again. It was a small gold lizard, a salamander, dozing on its back one clawed foot wiggling every now and then as it shifted in its sleep. Its belly was quite plump and Hermione's eyes widened when she saw why. Its stomach was made from a fine transparent bubble, that appeared to be crystal on first inspection. Inside that bubble was a fire still burning in slowly swelling in orange-red waves. It amazed her that the flames, that twirled and danced inside, were not starved of oxygen, or were not charring the small round pocket it raged inside of. This was the wizarding world and nothing should surprise her, but this piece of jewellery was just exquisite. She could not speak. It was the most adorable necklace she had ever seen, which of course meant that she didn't dare touch it. Instead, she reached for the small piece of white parchment that came with it.
Dear Hermione,
I is very sorry not to send to you before now. It were not ready and I must give you only the best I can. Happy birthday! I will write more soon in details – best not wear it before that.
Love always,
Viktor
Hermione frowned. So brief. Viktor was usually quite profuse in his owl's, he was the best pen friend she'd ever had. Lavendar reached across the table and snatched the parchment away from her.
"Hey!" Hermione hissed. Her voice had no effect on Lavendar or Parvati who was now giggling over the message beside her. It did however wake up her new necklace. Hermione jumped when two red eyes slid open and peered up at her with interest. The little creature yawned, exposing two very sharp teeth. She could have sworn the little charm smiled at her before it stretched and rolled onto its feet to look over the edge of its box. Neville gasped but no one else had noticed that her necklace was quite alive so Hermione put the lid back on and glared at him to be quiet.
"Awwwwwww. He's so sweet." Parvati said, her eyes frowning over at Hermione as if asking why such an undeserving creature was the object of such divine affection. Hermione scowled.
"I know."
"He's got to be mental if he thinks you aren't going to wear that though, it looked absolutely beautiful," Lavendar added with a flick of her hair. The blonde strands caught Ron across the face and he glared at her, rubbing a hand across his whip-lashed cheek. "Why was its stomach glowing?" Lavendar asked with an excited grin.
"Fire...there's a little fire in its stomach. Quite pretty really." Hermione said with a silly grin.
"Wow. Can I see?"
"No!" Hermione said, putting her hand over the box for safe keeping. She could feel the little salamander scratching at its enclosure beneath her palm. She swallowed. "I think I'm just going to take Viktor's advice and wait until he can write me again. It's obviously really heavily charmed...actually I'm not sure it would be a nice sensation to have a little salamander crawling over my chest."
"I don't know, if it's got a fire in its belly maybe it will turn out to be really...uh stimulating." Parvati giggled, Lavendar joined her, even Ginny looked like she wanted to blush foolishly and start telling stories about all her presents from admirers. Hermione sighed.
"That's one of my concerns. I think it's for the best if this little guy stays exactly where he is."
"Good idea." Ron said. Hermione almost threw a carrot at his head.
Lavendar rolled her eyes, flicking the parchment into the middle of the table. "How very Hermione of you."
Ron's eyes looked down at Viktor's obviously rushed scrawl, "Love always?"
"What of it?" Hermione snapped, snatching the parchment back and shoving it in her pocket.
"I just thought you'd grown out of that phase, that's all."
"What phase would that be? You're not still on about that whole 'fraternising with the enemy' rubbish are you? Honestly Ron, do grow up some time soon." She said with more restraint than she normally would. Ron ignored her and looked down at his own Owl. He could tell from the writing who it was from. His jaw tightened and he left it sitting there, he hadn't opened an Owl from Percy since the parchment he'd torn up the year before about Harry's 'violent' tendencies. He was brought out of his fantasy of borrowing Harry's imaginative Firebolt torture technique to use on his brother, by Hermione's voice.
"I shouldn't accept this, should I? It must have taken a great deal of his salary."
Ron grunted. "I thought you'd have kissed him off by now," he hissed. "You obviously do what you like anyway, so why ask me?" It was wrong to take out his angst on her; he could see it in her face. But she said nothing, merely tilted her chin up at him and looked to his sister instead.
Ginny grinned, "Well I'm sure she'll get right on top of the kissing thing the next time she sees him, won't you Hermione?"
Hermione blushed, but was secretly grateful, it was nice to have someone else fight with Ron for her. It was beginning to tire her. She could feel Ron's gaze on her cheeks and so looked away from him. It was only then she noticed something very strange. Most of the Gryffindor table was leaning over a copy of The Daily Prophet, muttering in circles, shock on their faces. She couldn't hear laughing any more and beneath all the urgent whispering there was a sort of ominous silence. No. There was laughter. Her eyes followed the direction of her ears over to the Slytherin table where Pansy Parkinson's head rested on her boyfriend's shoulder while she giggled joyously into his smiling face. None of the senior Slytherins had The Daily Prophet out. They already knew... Hermione stiffened as the lull in their conversation brought the strange atmosphere to the attention of her surrounding Gryffindors.
"What's going on?" Neville whispered, fearing that raising his voice to his normal level would somehow be wrong.
Hermione snatched up her copy of The Daily Prophet and quickly unwound the brown twine that held it closed. It unrolled in front of her quickly and held it up for quick scrutiny. She'd moved so fast but as her mind absorbed the front page she'd never felt the world move more slowly. A concentration of time, that's what this was, with her heart pounding in her chest and her eyes darting all over the news spread without absorbing anything but random phrases and a grinning pale face.
The muttering around her was growing in intensity but she didn't need to hear it anymore. Malfoy...father...innocent...free...murderer...you-know- who...second in command some say...used to be a school Governor...complete autocrat...Lucius Malfoy....innocent....
There was Lucius Malfoy shaking the hand of the new Minister of Magic, before turning and walking to freedom through the gates of Azkaban. He looked as smug as ever and why not? He'd been found with a wand in his hand, wearing full Death Eater robes, threatening to kill Harry Potter and it still hadn't been enough to lock him away forever. He'd told everyone he'd one day walk free, but most assumed he meant you-know-who would break him out. Who could ever think that the law would fail them now? That they'd actually let him walk out of there, grinning and jovial with those ludicrous words above his head. Blasphemous words that made the last year a complete and utter joke.
"MALFOY INNOCENT"
Beside her Neville and Ginny gasped, reading over her shoulder. But they said nothing. Just stared at what she was staring at. Completely entranced. Smouldering with hate.
His back was turning...he was walking...to freedom.
"R-Ron..." she choked.
His cruel grin, so twisted, so elated...victorious. Walking away...to freedom. Freedom.
"What?" He asked with a quiet voice, knowing something bad was about to be revealed to him. She said something to him, she didn't know what exactly, she was too angry, too perplexed as to how this had happened. It must have been intelligible though because in the next instant Ron snatched the paper from her and screamed loud enough for the whole hall to hear, "WHAT?!! THAT SLIMY SHIT-EATER!"
The quiet muttering paused, but no one found the outburst amusing except for two. Their laughter was light, smothered between lips trying desperately to remain closed and let the heartily, smug guffaw into the quaking atmosphere. It appeared to be a rather hard struggle from the way Draco Malfoy was holding a hand over his mouth. His eyes were fixed on their table, on them. Absorbing their reactions and filing them away to relish at a more appropriate time. She was glad for once that Harry wasn't there.
The Gryffindor table moved as one to that strange sound, so out of place in a room buzzing with anxiety. Hermione watched him, sitting there casually sipping from his pumpkin juice as Pansy giggled in his ear. There in the stillness she found a new depth of hate. He looked across at her, silver eyes flicking between the only members of the Golden Trio present. He stared, letting his entirely arrogant mentality bash against her like waves to a cliff face. He had never scared her and this travesty had nothing to do with him, he had nothing to be smug about. She narrowed her eyes. His returning grin was like the flash of a knife across her heart.
"Where's Harry?" Neville said.
No one answered for a long time.
"He'll be in Potions." Hermione whispered still entranced by the sheer happiness coming from the Slytherin table. Another Death Eater was free. It always threw her off balance. For most of the year that house was still just a part of Hogwarts, those people matriculated to the same place, studied the same subjects, she always fooled herself into believing they shared the same values. It was at moments like this, on this ordinary day that Hermione remembered what was really happening here. The houses would never be united, all was divided, and inside even now there were whispers of joining sides and fighting in the war. Inside and out. On both sides.
"Actually..." Ron said turning his back on Draco in disgust,"I almost want that prat to rub it in Harry's face."
"Ron!" Ginny hissed in shock.
"Yep, I think it's something he needs," Ron continued, "I'd even volunteer to scrape that ferret's body off the walls when Harry's through with him."
TBC...
Ah the plot thickens. I am going to enjoy writing Harry's character so much in this story, mwhahahaha. Don't forget to review, I always love feedback - good or bad.
Love B xxx
Fractured Faerie: You know I have a story in another fandom with the exact spelling of your user name. :) Thanks so much for agreeing with me about the Malfoy's. I hope you enjoyed this chapter despite the lack of Draco ;)
Athena Lalaine Ebony: I hope you enjoy this explanation, though it does rely on certain factors not present in canon. I hope you keep reading :)
Alley Mack: Thanks so much! It really reassured me that you think the relationship was convincing, I was so worried no one would like it but everyone seems to have taken to it nicely. :)
Snow-Queen1: Thanks for sticking with me :) I'm so happy you liked Pansy's characterisation. A couple of people have been a bit concerned about how different she is from how she is perceived in canon. I took it that Rowling's book were told through Harry's perspective - with a heavy Gryffindor bias. Since this story is centred around the Slytherin house it would annoy me to write such a two-dimensional character. I hope you keep reading, I always enjoy your thoughts on the story. I hope you like how I'm going to tweak Harry too :)
IHeartDrakieRonnie: Thanks for returning for the first chapter :) Draco's evolution is very central to Lucius, but not entirely so. Sorry for making you read some Draco/Pansy moments. As you probably noted, Draco was emulating Lucius and Narcissa's relationship in that scene - which should settle your worries a bit. Using emotions to control was one of the first things he learnt from his father, so it's highly probably he wasn't being sincere. This is not my first story, it's my first Harry Potter story. I have been writing original stuff and Roswell fic for years. Though I'd like to say I'm a natural, that's not true at all, though I am really unfamiliar with these characters. Hence the nervousness. I hope you found this chapter interesting. :)
