Note to all my readers: Please leave reviews and let me know whether you
like what I'm writing or if you think its stupid. I like constructive
criticism, and I would like to know whether I should change anything about
the story or whether its ok the way it is. Anyhow, back to the story.
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Chapter 27 - Headlines
Hermione was considerably more quiet after leaving the meeting with Professor Helsing. Harry and Ron were a little concerned, but weren't sure how to approach the topic, so they didn't mention it, hoping that when Hermione was ready, she would tell them.
The next few days went by quickly, with Ron and Harry practicing quidditch at every spare opportunity and Hermione rushing off to the library to get her homework and essays completed. Friday was upon them before they knew it. As they made their way to breakfast, Harry and Ron were discussing quidditch strategies for the first game of the season, which was to take place the next weekend due to the time constraints left by the inter-school competition.
As they entered the Great Hall, Harry was surprised to find that Megan was at breakfast that morning. She waved to them from her seat between Ginny and Neville, then bent over near Neville and started talking animatedly, pointing to a piece of parchment as she did. Harry frowned, but was distracted from the scene by Ron pulling him down into a chair at the other side of the table and asking him about a quidditch move.
During breakfast, Harry looked up at the head table, where the teachers seemed to be acting a little strangely. Professor Helsing was standing next to Professor Dumbledore's seat, saying something in his ear, holding a copy of the Daily Prophet up and pointing at it. Dumbledore looked down at the paper, then his expression darkened and he turned to say something to McGonagall. McGonagall's eyes widened and her hand flew to her mouth in shock. She nodded to Dumbledore and he and Helsing left the Hall quickly.
Harry looked over at Ron, who had been eating his breakfast and was oblivious to what had just happened at the head table. Harry started to say something to him, but heard someone gasp. Both Ron and Harry turned to see who it was and saw Hermione looking down at a copy of "The Daily Prophet", looking extremely pale. She looked up at them and wordlessly handed them the paper to see for themselves. The headline jumped out at them first, in big bold letters.
"Ministry to enact new policy against dark creatures"
Ron and Harry looked at each other in shock before they started to read the article.
'Due to the rising amount of deaths through deatheater attacks in the past two months, the Ministry has seen fit to employ a new policy. The policy requires all who, under the policy, are considered 'dark creatures' to report to the ministry for registration.
The ministry has defined 'dark creatures' to include "any magical being with the ability to communicate with humans that has a distinguishing feature which sets them apart from ordinary witches and wizards" says Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge. The exceptions to this definition include vampires, house-elves and dementors.
Upon registration, the creature will be required to hand over their wand, if they have one, and will also be subject to the incarcerous spell, which will prevent them being able to use offensive magic against a witch or wizard. Any dark creature which does not come forward for registration will be considered dangerous by the ministry, and aurors have been instructed to kill on sight, any dark creature who has not been registered.
This is the first in a number of new initiatives hoped to prevent He-who- must-not-be-named from recruiting the aid of dangerous creatures as he did in his last rise to power...."
The article went on, but Harry had lost interest and turned away, thinking of the implications of this new policy, and wondering if that was what the teachers had been talking about. Ron handed the paper back to Hermione.
"So what's so shocking about that?" He asked, piling more eggs onto his plate.
Hermione and Harry both looked at him in disbelief.
"Didn't you read the article?" Hermione asked, sounding exasperated.
"Yeah" he replied as he shoved another mouthful of food into his mouth, "so?"
"So, by the ministry's definition, Remus is a dark creature" she hissed.
Ron's eyes bulged as he realised the relevance of the article and he choked on the food he was eating. Once he had recovered, he went to say something when someone came up behind them.
"Move along you three or you'll be late for class" McGonagall said.
They looked around and realised that they were the only ones left sitting at the table. They quickly got up and headed out of the Great Hall. They were about to head off to class, when they saw Megan walking towards them.
"Hermione!" She exclaimed. "I need some help for a project that I'm doing. Is there any way you could meet me in the library at lunch?"
Hermione smiled and agreed. Ron and Harry shook their heads.
"Can I talk to you for a minute Harry?" Megan asked quietly, as they were about to leave for class.
Ron and Hermione chuckled as they walked towards class, leaving Harry to talk privately with Megan.
"Have you got practice tonight?" she asked as soon as they were out of hearing range. Harry shook his head.
"Good" She said with a smile. "Can you meet me in the astronomy tower after dinner? There's something I want to show you"
He agreed, then Megan looked at her watch.
"We're going to be late if we stay here any longer" she said, leaning over and kissing him on the cheek. "See you tonight then"
With that, she raced off down the corridor. Harry turned back and headed off to Defence against the dark arts, wondering what it could be that she would want to show him.
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Hermione entered the library at lunch, feeling exhausted. Defence against the dark arts had been a practical test of all the defence spells that they had learned since 3rd year. Her second class had consisted of Ancient Runes, where she had spent the lesson unsuccessfully trying to decipher a particularly difficult inscription. Now all she wanted to do was rest, but she didn't have the heart to cancel her study session with Megan.
She looked around the tables and saw Megan sitting at the far end of the library poring over a book that was nearly half the size of her. She looked up as Hermione approached and waved her over excitedly. Hermione fought the urge to groan as she set her things down on the table and sat down in the chair, her muscles still aching from the morning's lessons.
"So what did you want help with?" She asked. Megan's eyes lit up and she smiled. Hermione was surprised, as she rarely saw the girl smile.
"I'm researching muggle methods of medicine" she said. "At the moment I'm focusing on the studies muggles have done with respect to the functions of the brain, brain wave patterns, brain damage and its effects on those patterns, things like that"
Hermione blinked. This was definitely not what she had been expecting.
"Why are you researching that?" she asked.
Megan hesitated a moment before answering.
"It's an assignment for muggle studies. We have a major project due in two months and I chose muggle medicine as my topic, but I realised when I started to research it, that it would take too long to do a general project, so I decided to focus on their studies of the brain because it seemed to be the most interesting topic" she said in a rush.
"Alright" Hermione said slowly. "So what do you need my help for?"
"Well" she said, looking down at the book in front of her. "I've done quite a bit of research already, but I don't know muggle methods enough to know exactly where I should be looking for this sort of thing. I've tried looking through the muggle section of the library, but I can't seem to find much here. I was hoping that you could help me look through, or maybe you know someone who might be able to suggest some titles of books and we can order them in" she explained.
"Order them in?" Hermione asked, looking confused.
"Yes," Megan said, sounding a little distracted as she flipped through the book once again. "I have permission to order in any books I need. If you can get the names of any books that would help, just tell Madame Pince and she'll order them in. Just tell her that they are for me"
A look of disbelief crossed Hermione's face, closely followed by suspicion.
"Why would they specially order in books for your project?" She asked.
Megan looked up at this and frowned.
"I spoke to Dumbledore when I couldn't find the information I was looking for" she said, looking irritated. "He fixed everything so all I have to do is tell Madame Pince what I want and she'll order it for me"
Hermione crossed her arms across her chest.
"I don't believe you" she said. "I've talked to Dumbledore about the lack of resources here before and he never did anything about it then. Why would he do that for you?"
Megan's expression turned from irritation to anger.
"I can't believe you! I thought we were friends! Friends are supposed to trust each other!" she said, glaring at Hermione.
"Friends aren't meant to lie to each other either" Hermione said, glaring back.
"I'm not lying!" Megan said, a little too loudly. Out of the corner of their eyes, the two girls saw Madame Pince giving them a dirty look. Megan then took a deep breath and calmed down before speaking again.
"Look, if you don't want to help, then just leave. Otherwise, go and have a look in the muggle section and see if you can find anything relevant"
With that, she bent back over the book and started to make notes. Hermione looked shocked, but quickly recovered and went over to the muggle section of the library.
After searching for about 15 minutes, she was beginning to feel extremely frustrated. It seemed that Megan was right about the lack of information in this section. She couldn't believe that she hadn't realised this before, but then again, when she had needed books for muggle studies, she had written home and her parents had sent whatever books she needed. As she was searching through "Outdated medical techniques of the Muggle world" she heard someone behind her. She spun around and came face to face with Malfoy.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the mudblood" he drawled.
Two muffled 'gaffaw"s announced the presence of his stupid sidekicks.
"What do you want Malfoy" she hissed.
"Nothing at all" he said loftily, looking around the section with distaste. "Tell me, what are you doing in this section Granger? I know that you don't take muggle studies anymore. Have you finally seen that mudbloods aren't welcome among decent wizard folk and decided to return to where you belong?"
Hermione felt anger rise up inside her, but before she had the chance to respond, someone grabbed Malfoy's shoulder, turned him around and punched him squarely in the nose, causing him to fall back into one of the bookshelves. The bookshelf looked as if it were going to fall, but suddenly righted itself again. Hermione guessed that it must have been protected with magic to stop it from falling over. Malfoy groaned as he raised his hand up to his injured nose, which had started sprouting blood over the floor. Hermione wrinkled her nose and stood back from the flow, then looked over to see who had punched Malfoy. She saw Megan standing there looking furious.
"Don't you ever call her that again" Megan said to Malfoy in an icy voice which sent chills down Hermione's spine. Crabbe and Goyle came up behind her and she spun around, wand in hand.
"Oblivate Amentos" she said, pointing her wand at them. They both froze as the spell hit and their eyes glazed over just as Madame Pince came over.
"What happened here?" she demanded, seeing Malfoy bleeding over the floor and groaning.
Hermione was about to answer when Megan stepped forward.
"Draco was about to hex Hermione when she used a deflection charm and the spell backfired on him. It was self defence Madame Pince. Even ask Crabbe and Goyle here" she said.
Madame Pince turned to Crabbe and Goyle and they nodded. She looked back at Megan suspiciously. Malfoy stood up.
"She's lying! She used obliviade on dem" he said.
Madame Pince waved her wand at the two boys, doing a quick scan for recent spells. "I see no evidence of spells here Mr Malfoy" she said, looking irritated. "I want the three of you out of here now. You should go to the hospital wing and get that checked. I will be speaking to your head of house about an appropriate punishment"
Malfoy looked furious, but after glaring at Megan, he left anyway, with his two sidekicks following closely behind, looking a little confused.
"You two go back to your studying. I don't want to hear another peep out of you" Madame Pince warned, after waving her wand to clean the blood from the floor.
"Yes Madame Pince" the two girls chorused, and Madame Pince walked away.
Megan slowly turned around and chanced a glance at Hermione, who was looking a little shocked. Once Hermione recovered, she turned to Megan.
"Where did you learn that spell?" Hermione asked, sounding a little frightened. "I've never heard of it before."
"It's not exactly something that they teach in school" Megan replied softly, rubbing her hand unconsciously. Hermione looked at her curiously. She noticed and held up her hand with a rueful grin.
"I think it hurt me more than it hurt him" she said.
They both laughed, then Hermione took out her wand and pointed it at Megan's hand. She didn't notice when Megan flinched slightly. She muttered a simple numbing charm on the hand, then put her wand back in her pocket. Megan gingerly flexed her fingers, then smiled at Hermione.
"Thanks" she said softly.
They stood for a few moments in silence.
"Are you going to tell? About before I mean" Megan said softly. Hermione thought for a moment, before shaking her head. Megan smiled shyly before picking up a book.
"Have you tried this one yet?" she asked.
The tension between them eased as they went back to work and by the end of lunch, they were both joking and laughing as they packed the books back onto the shelves.
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Chapter 27 - Headlines
Hermione was considerably more quiet after leaving the meeting with Professor Helsing. Harry and Ron were a little concerned, but weren't sure how to approach the topic, so they didn't mention it, hoping that when Hermione was ready, she would tell them.
The next few days went by quickly, with Ron and Harry practicing quidditch at every spare opportunity and Hermione rushing off to the library to get her homework and essays completed. Friday was upon them before they knew it. As they made their way to breakfast, Harry and Ron were discussing quidditch strategies for the first game of the season, which was to take place the next weekend due to the time constraints left by the inter-school competition.
As they entered the Great Hall, Harry was surprised to find that Megan was at breakfast that morning. She waved to them from her seat between Ginny and Neville, then bent over near Neville and started talking animatedly, pointing to a piece of parchment as she did. Harry frowned, but was distracted from the scene by Ron pulling him down into a chair at the other side of the table and asking him about a quidditch move.
During breakfast, Harry looked up at the head table, where the teachers seemed to be acting a little strangely. Professor Helsing was standing next to Professor Dumbledore's seat, saying something in his ear, holding a copy of the Daily Prophet up and pointing at it. Dumbledore looked down at the paper, then his expression darkened and he turned to say something to McGonagall. McGonagall's eyes widened and her hand flew to her mouth in shock. She nodded to Dumbledore and he and Helsing left the Hall quickly.
Harry looked over at Ron, who had been eating his breakfast and was oblivious to what had just happened at the head table. Harry started to say something to him, but heard someone gasp. Both Ron and Harry turned to see who it was and saw Hermione looking down at a copy of "The Daily Prophet", looking extremely pale. She looked up at them and wordlessly handed them the paper to see for themselves. The headline jumped out at them first, in big bold letters.
"Ministry to enact new policy against dark creatures"
Ron and Harry looked at each other in shock before they started to read the article.
'Due to the rising amount of deaths through deatheater attacks in the past two months, the Ministry has seen fit to employ a new policy. The policy requires all who, under the policy, are considered 'dark creatures' to report to the ministry for registration.
The ministry has defined 'dark creatures' to include "any magical being with the ability to communicate with humans that has a distinguishing feature which sets them apart from ordinary witches and wizards" says Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge. The exceptions to this definition include vampires, house-elves and dementors.
Upon registration, the creature will be required to hand over their wand, if they have one, and will also be subject to the incarcerous spell, which will prevent them being able to use offensive magic against a witch or wizard. Any dark creature which does not come forward for registration will be considered dangerous by the ministry, and aurors have been instructed to kill on sight, any dark creature who has not been registered.
This is the first in a number of new initiatives hoped to prevent He-who- must-not-be-named from recruiting the aid of dangerous creatures as he did in his last rise to power...."
The article went on, but Harry had lost interest and turned away, thinking of the implications of this new policy, and wondering if that was what the teachers had been talking about. Ron handed the paper back to Hermione.
"So what's so shocking about that?" He asked, piling more eggs onto his plate.
Hermione and Harry both looked at him in disbelief.
"Didn't you read the article?" Hermione asked, sounding exasperated.
"Yeah" he replied as he shoved another mouthful of food into his mouth, "so?"
"So, by the ministry's definition, Remus is a dark creature" she hissed.
Ron's eyes bulged as he realised the relevance of the article and he choked on the food he was eating. Once he had recovered, he went to say something when someone came up behind them.
"Move along you three or you'll be late for class" McGonagall said.
They looked around and realised that they were the only ones left sitting at the table. They quickly got up and headed out of the Great Hall. They were about to head off to class, when they saw Megan walking towards them.
"Hermione!" She exclaimed. "I need some help for a project that I'm doing. Is there any way you could meet me in the library at lunch?"
Hermione smiled and agreed. Ron and Harry shook their heads.
"Can I talk to you for a minute Harry?" Megan asked quietly, as they were about to leave for class.
Ron and Hermione chuckled as they walked towards class, leaving Harry to talk privately with Megan.
"Have you got practice tonight?" she asked as soon as they were out of hearing range. Harry shook his head.
"Good" She said with a smile. "Can you meet me in the astronomy tower after dinner? There's something I want to show you"
He agreed, then Megan looked at her watch.
"We're going to be late if we stay here any longer" she said, leaning over and kissing him on the cheek. "See you tonight then"
With that, she raced off down the corridor. Harry turned back and headed off to Defence against the dark arts, wondering what it could be that she would want to show him.
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Hermione entered the library at lunch, feeling exhausted. Defence against the dark arts had been a practical test of all the defence spells that they had learned since 3rd year. Her second class had consisted of Ancient Runes, where she had spent the lesson unsuccessfully trying to decipher a particularly difficult inscription. Now all she wanted to do was rest, but she didn't have the heart to cancel her study session with Megan.
She looked around the tables and saw Megan sitting at the far end of the library poring over a book that was nearly half the size of her. She looked up as Hermione approached and waved her over excitedly. Hermione fought the urge to groan as she set her things down on the table and sat down in the chair, her muscles still aching from the morning's lessons.
"So what did you want help with?" She asked. Megan's eyes lit up and she smiled. Hermione was surprised, as she rarely saw the girl smile.
"I'm researching muggle methods of medicine" she said. "At the moment I'm focusing on the studies muggles have done with respect to the functions of the brain, brain wave patterns, brain damage and its effects on those patterns, things like that"
Hermione blinked. This was definitely not what she had been expecting.
"Why are you researching that?" she asked.
Megan hesitated a moment before answering.
"It's an assignment for muggle studies. We have a major project due in two months and I chose muggle medicine as my topic, but I realised when I started to research it, that it would take too long to do a general project, so I decided to focus on their studies of the brain because it seemed to be the most interesting topic" she said in a rush.
"Alright" Hermione said slowly. "So what do you need my help for?"
"Well" she said, looking down at the book in front of her. "I've done quite a bit of research already, but I don't know muggle methods enough to know exactly where I should be looking for this sort of thing. I've tried looking through the muggle section of the library, but I can't seem to find much here. I was hoping that you could help me look through, or maybe you know someone who might be able to suggest some titles of books and we can order them in" she explained.
"Order them in?" Hermione asked, looking confused.
"Yes," Megan said, sounding a little distracted as she flipped through the book once again. "I have permission to order in any books I need. If you can get the names of any books that would help, just tell Madame Pince and she'll order them in. Just tell her that they are for me"
A look of disbelief crossed Hermione's face, closely followed by suspicion.
"Why would they specially order in books for your project?" She asked.
Megan looked up at this and frowned.
"I spoke to Dumbledore when I couldn't find the information I was looking for" she said, looking irritated. "He fixed everything so all I have to do is tell Madame Pince what I want and she'll order it for me"
Hermione crossed her arms across her chest.
"I don't believe you" she said. "I've talked to Dumbledore about the lack of resources here before and he never did anything about it then. Why would he do that for you?"
Megan's expression turned from irritation to anger.
"I can't believe you! I thought we were friends! Friends are supposed to trust each other!" she said, glaring at Hermione.
"Friends aren't meant to lie to each other either" Hermione said, glaring back.
"I'm not lying!" Megan said, a little too loudly. Out of the corner of their eyes, the two girls saw Madame Pince giving them a dirty look. Megan then took a deep breath and calmed down before speaking again.
"Look, if you don't want to help, then just leave. Otherwise, go and have a look in the muggle section and see if you can find anything relevant"
With that, she bent back over the book and started to make notes. Hermione looked shocked, but quickly recovered and went over to the muggle section of the library.
After searching for about 15 minutes, she was beginning to feel extremely frustrated. It seemed that Megan was right about the lack of information in this section. She couldn't believe that she hadn't realised this before, but then again, when she had needed books for muggle studies, she had written home and her parents had sent whatever books she needed. As she was searching through "Outdated medical techniques of the Muggle world" she heard someone behind her. She spun around and came face to face with Malfoy.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the mudblood" he drawled.
Two muffled 'gaffaw"s announced the presence of his stupid sidekicks.
"What do you want Malfoy" she hissed.
"Nothing at all" he said loftily, looking around the section with distaste. "Tell me, what are you doing in this section Granger? I know that you don't take muggle studies anymore. Have you finally seen that mudbloods aren't welcome among decent wizard folk and decided to return to where you belong?"
Hermione felt anger rise up inside her, but before she had the chance to respond, someone grabbed Malfoy's shoulder, turned him around and punched him squarely in the nose, causing him to fall back into one of the bookshelves. The bookshelf looked as if it were going to fall, but suddenly righted itself again. Hermione guessed that it must have been protected with magic to stop it from falling over. Malfoy groaned as he raised his hand up to his injured nose, which had started sprouting blood over the floor. Hermione wrinkled her nose and stood back from the flow, then looked over to see who had punched Malfoy. She saw Megan standing there looking furious.
"Don't you ever call her that again" Megan said to Malfoy in an icy voice which sent chills down Hermione's spine. Crabbe and Goyle came up behind her and she spun around, wand in hand.
"Oblivate Amentos" she said, pointing her wand at them. They both froze as the spell hit and their eyes glazed over just as Madame Pince came over.
"What happened here?" she demanded, seeing Malfoy bleeding over the floor and groaning.
Hermione was about to answer when Megan stepped forward.
"Draco was about to hex Hermione when she used a deflection charm and the spell backfired on him. It was self defence Madame Pince. Even ask Crabbe and Goyle here" she said.
Madame Pince turned to Crabbe and Goyle and they nodded. She looked back at Megan suspiciously. Malfoy stood up.
"She's lying! She used obliviade on dem" he said.
Madame Pince waved her wand at the two boys, doing a quick scan for recent spells. "I see no evidence of spells here Mr Malfoy" she said, looking irritated. "I want the three of you out of here now. You should go to the hospital wing and get that checked. I will be speaking to your head of house about an appropriate punishment"
Malfoy looked furious, but after glaring at Megan, he left anyway, with his two sidekicks following closely behind, looking a little confused.
"You two go back to your studying. I don't want to hear another peep out of you" Madame Pince warned, after waving her wand to clean the blood from the floor.
"Yes Madame Pince" the two girls chorused, and Madame Pince walked away.
Megan slowly turned around and chanced a glance at Hermione, who was looking a little shocked. Once Hermione recovered, she turned to Megan.
"Where did you learn that spell?" Hermione asked, sounding a little frightened. "I've never heard of it before."
"It's not exactly something that they teach in school" Megan replied softly, rubbing her hand unconsciously. Hermione looked at her curiously. She noticed and held up her hand with a rueful grin.
"I think it hurt me more than it hurt him" she said.
They both laughed, then Hermione took out her wand and pointed it at Megan's hand. She didn't notice when Megan flinched slightly. She muttered a simple numbing charm on the hand, then put her wand back in her pocket. Megan gingerly flexed her fingers, then smiled at Hermione.
"Thanks" she said softly.
They stood for a few moments in silence.
"Are you going to tell? About before I mean" Megan said softly. Hermione thought for a moment, before shaking her head. Megan smiled shyly before picking up a book.
"Have you tried this one yet?" she asked.
The tension between them eased as they went back to work and by the end of lunch, they were both joking and laughing as they packed the books back onto the shelves.
