Chapter 27 – Plans and Excuses
"So good of you to join us Mr Malfoy" Professor Dumbledore said as Draco finally took his seat at the table. Hermione had saved him a seat and he smiled thanks to her.
"Right lets get this meeting under way" the headmaster said "firstly there can be no going back to Hogwarts no matter what, under any circumstance. There are literally hundreds of death eaters there now"
"What exactly happened?" Mrs Weasley asked
"They broke in through tunnels, the only casualty was professor Flitwick" Snape supplied.
Everybody that was sat around the table grimaced.
"We are going to step up miss grangers training. We are going to have to move everything forward" he told them all
"So I need for those training miss granger to be available at all times"
All those that had been giving Hermione training so far nodded and a few she didn't even recognise.
"Excuse me" Draco said "but what will voldemort do when he finds out that neither myself nor professor Snape are at the school?"
"Ah well I had thought of that then it occurred to me just what we shall do" the old man said and his eyes twinkled
Snape raised an eyebrow. It looked like he hadn't been told yet either.
"What you will have to do is return to Hogwarts and explain that you were sent away in all the commotion and couldn't have argued without giving it away but you came straight back as soon as you could" he told them. Draco didn't like the sound of that at all
"He could see straight through it" Draco said "we could be dead within minutes"
"That is a risk that you must take. We can't afford to do anything else at this juncture" Dumbledore said, Snape sighed and nodded to Draco.
Draco sat back in his seat and glared.
Hermione
reached for his hand, he let her take it.
"when will we go?"
Snape asked
"Now" Dumbledore said "you need to be seen to be going back as soon as possible, here's a port key to Hogsmeade"
They took it and Draco asked "can I just talk to Hermione for a second"
They all agreed, so the two teenagers went into the hall.
"I
wanted to tell you something before I go" he said and hugged her to
him
"what is it?" she asked
"You are right I do love you, painfully so" he said "I just want you to know I am glad you didn't let me fob you off before. I just feel sorry for myself sometimes you know"
Hermione smirked slightly "I know you do, don't worry Draco. I would know if you didn't love me"
"You would?" he asked
"Yeah" she said and smiled up at him "your eyes give you away with everything, like now I know that you are scared, angry, hurt and in love"
"Well at least one of us knows how I feel" he said and smiled "It always takes me such a long time to figure it out"
"Be
careful Draco" she told him
"I will" he said "I don't
know when I am going to see you again"
"I know" she said and the tears started to fall "I don't even know if I am going to live through this and I don't want to die. And I don't want to not see you again before I do"
"You won't die" Draco said kissing a tear from her chin. "You are far too stubborn for that. Old voldie will be shaking in his boots and screaming for his mother after you tell him why your there"
Hermione liked it when he made jokes. "Look after yourself" she told him
"Of course I will, you take care too. I am going to miss you so much"
He pulled her into a passionate kiss and it was still so gentle. Hermione thought in a way half of Draco's mind was saying goodbye like as though he thought they would probably never see each other again. But she had too much hope to believe that. Or at least she liked to think she did
"Draco" Professor Snape called "we have to go"
"Ok" he called up to the teacher
"I love you" Hermione said as he let her go
"And I you" he said "see you soon"
"Yeah" she smiled and waved "bye"
Draco and Snape got to Hogsmeade a moment later and set off towards the castle
"Do you think he will know?" Draco asked the elder death eater
"I don't know. I think not. But he might be slightly suspicious at first" Snape said thoughtfully "but you shouldn't worry so much, I mean you killed your own mother for the man, he will trust you a bit"
"Yeah I suppose so" the young blonde agreed.
Voldemort sat in Dumbledore's chair in the great hall and the death eaters sat on the student's tables
"There are people approaching" he said "but do not worry it is only Snape and Malfoy"
The death eaters visibly relaxed at this. And continued with their eating.
Upon entering the great hall Snape and Draco made their way up to the high table and bowed before voldemort,
"We apologise for our lateness my lord" Snape said "unfortunately Dumbledore forced us to leave with the others and we have only just been able to make our return"
Voldemort
clearly mulled this over somewhat
"yes I thought that might be
the case" he said "fret not you are here for the fun now, please
eat"
Snape and Draco went and sat down and began filling their plates
Hermione felt miserable now that Draco had gone. The order was still going over things and she had no interest in any of it. She just wanted to get trained so she could go and kick that slime balls ass.
"Come along Hermione" Lupin said gently "Looks like we are going to be practicing those unforgivables ahead of time"
"Great" she said sarcastically, but she followed him upstairs anyway.
As the days rolled by and Hermione's training increased she found that her appetite did not. She missed Draco too much and the suspense was slowly killing her or at least that's how it felt. She wished she could write to him but knew that was impossible. She had been working on the unforgivables along with a hundred other things. She had bruises from her physical training but then so did Kingsley. She was beginning to give as good as she got in that area. But the unforgivables evaded her. She just didn't seem to be able to do them. Lupin had gone to Dumbledore and told him that the spiders she had been practicing on hadn't so much as flinched. Even a first year could make a spider flinch. So this had bought everyone round to a new way of thinking. That perhaps "she of light" just didn't have it in her to perform these curses.
"There has got to be a way" Lupin said "everyone must be able to feel some darkness, I don't believe it"
"I don't know" Dumbledore said "its unprecedented ground, it could be possible. It could be impossible, we just need to try and trigger it somehow, but I don't know if we should risk it. She is fragile enough at the moment as it is"
"We need something" Lupin despaired "anything"
"So be it" Dumbledore said "I didn't want to do it, you will just have to tell her Draco is dead"
"He's what?" Lupin shouted
"He isn't, well not as far as we know" The old man said "but it might trigger it if anything will"
Lupin nodded and went off to train with Hermione some more. He didn't want to tell her that. He was debating whether to or not. But knew he would have to. She would hate him for telling her that. And she would no doubt hate him even more when she found out he was lying.
"Hi" she said as he came into what had been dubbed 'training room'
"Hi Hermione, I know we aren't getting very far but I think we should still try and practice" he said taking the spiders out and setting them on the table. They didn't move much because they were partially stunned.
"I just need to tell you something" he said
"What's that?" she asked and stared at him
"Well its, its erm Draco" he told her
"What about him?" she asked quietly
Lupin didn't answer
"WHAT ABOUT HIM?" she screamed at him
"He's dead" the werewolf lied
"No" she screamed "he can't be"
"I am so sorry" he said and hugged her. He saw her eyes they were filled with sadness but there deep beneath there was a fire blazing, it's now or never.
"Hermione the spiders" he said
"AVADA
KEDAVRA" she screamed at the spiders. Were the spell done properly
whichever spider was hit with the killing curse would die. But for
some reason and the strength of Hermione's curse it killed all six
of them in an instant.
"Oh my god" she said "I did it"
"Yes" Lupin laughed "you did" he picked her up and spun her round
Then Hermione burst into tears.
"he's
not dead" he told her quickly
"you what?" she asked and
looked very confused
"He's not dead. They wanted me to tell you that to see if we could get you to be able to do that" he said and backed away slightly
"You what?" she said again "he's not dead?"
"No" Lupin said and looked utterly ashamed of himself
"Thank god for that" she said and sat down "wow, did I really kill all of them?"
"Aren't you mad at me?" he asked her
"No not really" she said "I know you were just doing what you had to do"
"Thank god" he agreed "I thought you were going to hate me"
"It's just a question as to whether I can do it now I know he isn't" she said "are there any more spiders?"
"No you killed them all" he smiled "I'll go get some more, we can carry on after lunch"
Hermione went off to visit Ron. He was in the living room reading a book. They hadn't spoken all that much since they got there. But she felt the old Ron was definitely coming back which was a good thing,
"Hello" she said sitting in the chair next to his
"Hi, how's the training going?" he asked her
"Not bad I just managed an unforgivable" she told him and smiled
"Wow, you must be really strong then" he said and looked genuinely shocked "I didn't think any of us would be able to do that sort of thing really"
"Well Lupin told me Draco was dead and I kind of lost it" she explained
"Malfoy's dead?" Ron asked and all the attention he had been placing on his book was gone.
"no"
Hermione shook her head "or at least not as far as any of us now,
they just told me that to see if they could make me kill the
spiders"
"oh" the redhead said and picked his book back up.
"He's not bad you know" Hermione said and studied him closely.
"I am sorry I can't bring myself to believe that" he told her. He was staring at his book but not reading it.
"I thought for a while at school when Harry was around that he might be ok" he said quietly "but after everything that happened I know if it wasn't for him it wouldn't have, I think I have come to terms with everything Hermione but I can't accept that. I am really sorry and for your sake I would love to, but I just can't. Please don't ask me too" his eyes looked at her imploringly
"I wont ask you to" she said with a resigned sigh "I know how hard it is for you, it's been hard for all of us as well though, and if you cant accept that Draco is a good person well that's fine and I respect that but don't think any less of me because I love him ok"
"I know you do and I won't" he told her "I don't think that would be possible"
Hermione left the room then to see Dumbledore and Ron set his book down on the table. He sometimes found lately that sitting and thinking seemed to help him a lot. After all he had always had the Weasley temper and doing this seemed to help him calm down.
'Draco a good person?' he thought to himself. 'maybe, maybe not, I don't want to waste my time finding out. I just hope he doesn't hurt Hermione'
He had resigned himself to the fact that Hermione would never love him as anything but a brother. And now he was used to this he had a lot less on his mind.
"Hello Miss Granger" Dumbledore said as Hermione entered the room he had turned into a makeshift office of sorts.
"Hello" she said and sat down on a brown armchair.
"Remus
told me about your little session earlier on" he said looking at
her over his glasses.
"yes sir" she said
"I would
firstly like to apologise for such underhanded tactics, and I would
also like to explain to you why we felt them so necessary" he said
"It's alright sir" she said I understand "if it hadn't been for that I might never have been able to do it"
"You are a very sensible girl miss granger, you make me very proud" He said "now why don't you go and fetch some lunch. I think molly has made us a rather nice spread and then you may continue your training afterwards"
"Yes sir" she said and smiled at her headmaster as she left the room.
There was nobody else except for Mrs Weasley in the kitchen when she arrived. Though it was still a little early for lunch really.
"Hello
dear" molly said
"hello Mrs Weasley" Hermione replied
"How many times have I told you" molly scolded "call me Molly"
"Sorry molly" Hermione said and picked up a sandwich
"How's your training coming along?" the red haired woman asked.
"Pretty well I think" the young brunette answered in-between bites.
"Good, good I hate being stuck in here" the older woman complained
"Me too" Hermione said "I just keep wondering how Draco is"
"Yes dear we all are as well, for your sake I hope he is ok"
Lupin came in at that point and also grabbed a sandwich "hey moll, bet you didn't know this young lady avada'd six spiders with one curse" he said
"Remus don't talk with your mouth full" Molly chided him. Lupin laughed but didn't speak again till his mouth was empty.
"Sorry molly" he said
"Did you really?" Mrs Weasley asked Hermione
"Yes" Hermione said, she was feeling quite embarrassed by all this. She never really had liked a fuss being made of her.
"Well that's great news" molly said and hugged her tightly, this upset Hermione a little as it reminded her of when her mum hugged her,
Hermione stepped back a little and must have looked on the verge of tears because Mrs Weasley took her hand and stroked it
"I'm sorry dear, I didn't think" she said
"Its ok" Hermione said and smiled "it just takes some getting used to I suppose"
"Come on then, I got some more spiders" Lupin said and dragged her off to the training room
"Ok" Hermione said sitting at the table "you just want me to try again"
"Yes please" Lupin said, she did as asked and found that all four spiders in the box died.
"Interesting" her teacher said "don't worry I got plenty this time"
"good
job" Hermione said
"although I think you are still upset about
Mrs Weasley a moment ago" he told her. "We need to try doing some
calming techniques"
He showed her how to meditate and told her to meditate for about an hour and then we she had done so she would be trying it again,
Lupin sat quietly reading a book as Hermione meditated she didn't feel very calm at first and thought it was a load of rubbish. But after about ten minutes or so she felt very relaxed. It was enchanting she couldn't remember the last time she had felt so peaceful. She didn't give it to much thought and just let everything wash over her.
An hour later Lupin tapped Hermione gently on the shoulder, she opened her eyes and stood up slowly.
"Ok" he said and handed her, her wand that had been sat on the table
Hermione focused on the spiders and her wand and uttered the killing curse. A sharp blast of green light left the end of the wand and it killed the spider it had been aiming for.
"Just one this time" Lupin said peering into the box. "Good job"
"I can hardly sit there meditating in front of voldemort though can I?" Hermione asked
"no you cant and at that point if you can hit six of them it would be great but I have a feeling you need that strength to come up against him anyway" he told her "it will be ok, I just wanted to make sure that you are capable of doing it to just one, and it seems when you are focused you can do just that. Nobody is going to expect you to be calm and collected when you face voldemort but they are going to hope that you can come through it. It will be alright"
"I hope so" she said "I think I am going to go lie down"
"Ok" he said "see you tomorrow"
Draco was sitting next to Snape, they seemed to find themselves always thrown together, Voldemort had little meetings now and again with select death eaters and they both always seemed to be at the same ones of these also.
" Any word?" he whispered so quietly he barely even spoke
Snape
just shook his head
"this is boring just sitting and waiting
for Dumbledore to compile an army" the blonde continued to say a
little louder, nobody could tell him off for being bored surely.
"It will happen" Snape said
Voldemort had been having another meeting with some death eaters that Draco wasn't familiar with, 'must be some new recruits' he thought to himself.
When
the snakelike man returned he addressed them all
"we have
excellent news" he said and his red eyes shone. Draco felt as
though they were burning into his soul.
"We have found out Dumbledore's plans" he continued "there is a girl, I don't know who she is yet. But she will be coming to fight me." He started laughing at this, although it was really more of a cackle than anything. "I will be defeated by a schoolgirl, oh I think not"
The man was evil through and through, you only had to look at him to sense it. He reeked of darkness. And Draco despised him, he couldn't wait until Hermione showed up and kicked his ass.
