Ch 5

Hermione heard a clicking sound above her. 'Is that a bird?' She thought vaugely. It stirred in her conciousness, pulling her from sleep. The white morning sun shone through her eyelids and made her eyes itch. She turned her face into the pillow but still couldn't get back to sleep. She turned over and slowly let her eyes adjust to the bright light shining through the gauzy curtains onto the soft yellow walls of her room.

The clicking at the window started again. 'Oh. The fucked bird again. Won't it just get a life and sleep!' She thought incoherently, in her normal morning fashion. She pulled her leaden legs out of bed and walked over to the window. The bird had a cylindrical package in it's talons. 'Oh the newspaper! Of course.' She thought. She turned the latch and the window swung open. She took the newspaper from the hysterical owl and reached towards her dresser to find two knuts and drop them into the bird's leather pouch. As the owl flew off into the white sky she opened the paper automatically. The headline jumped predatorily out at her, tearing at her barely conscious mind.

'Death Eater Sentenced to Banishment'

The bold letters across the top of the page glared accusingly at her. Then all of yesterday came back to her. The nervousness, the self-righteous, sense of justice, then the regret and helplessness. She had to do something. But what could she do? Everyone would just assume she was under the Imperious curse or out of her mind due to the kidnapping incident if she proclaimed Malfoy innocent. She could do nothing to reverse the verdict. She was only a teenage muggle-born.

She decided to forget about it. 'He was somewhat in the wrong anyway. He was a Death Eater after all. Maybe he deserves it…' She tried to persuade herself. She comforted herself with this thought as the walked downstairs to the Weasley's kitchen.

Even the smell of baking blueberry muffins coming from downstairs couldn't brighten her mood. All she could think of was that look of pleading and sorrow that she had seen during the trial. Or had she imagined it? It had been so fleeting, like lightning across a night sky, revealing a colorful sky. Then darkness again, a mask covering his emotions. 'Maybe I imagined it' She tried to persuade herself.

Draco Malfoy lay in a cold dungeon of the Ministry. This was certainly a downgrade from the master suites he had stayed in the last time he had visited the Ministry. He pulled his course thin blanket around him, his back against the hard cold wall. He didn't know whether it was night or day outside, sunny or cloudy. It seemed like weeks since he had seen the sun, even though he guessed it had only been a few days. He closed his eyes, hoping for some sleep to take him away from thoughts of Granger's face. She had looked at him with such… hatred. If only she knew the truth. How could she have done this to him? 'Because she is a mudblood bitch, that's why.' He told himself, not really beleiving it. With this he drifted off to troubled dreams.