Disclaimer: Not mine, I don't own Harry Potter, I do however own a CAR…hehehe ; )
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Chapter 44: Some day I'll be Saturday Night
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Hermione opened the door to her and Sirius' chambers and left it open for the blonde Slytherin to follow. He entered slowly, cautiously looking around for something before closing the door behind him.
"Professor Black isn't here," Hermione commented with a smirk as she wandered into the bathroom for the soothing balm.
Malfoy visibly relaxed and stood in the centre of the room, his gaze falling on the framed picture of Hermione, Harry and Ron which had pride and place on her bedside table. He wandered over to it and gazed at the smiling faces of the first year trio waving happily at him, his face unreadable.
Hermione reentered the room with a small tube in her hands, she focused her sight on Malfoy and the picture and smiled wistfully as she moved next to him and handed him the soothing balm for his cut lip.
"Those were easier times," she said, not taking her eyes off her friends in the photo.
Malfoy blinked. "For some."
Hermione glanced curiously at the Slytherin next to her but he didn't expand further.
At seventeen he was already a good two inches taller than her and was clearly taking after both parents in the looks department. His hair was shoulder length and was presently tied at the nape of his neck, not the long tresses his father loved but still long, Hermione referred to it as 'Sirius' length.
As Hermione studied Malfoy his gaze switched to her other frame, this one with the Marauders and Lily.
"You looked happy there," he said analyzing the photo.
"I was," Hermione answered, she could go into more detail but short concise, civilized sentences with Malfoy was enough progress for the time being.
She stepped away from him and wandered over to pick up a book that had fallen to the floor next to the bed, either that or it was merely discarded there by a certain Animagus who shall remain nameless.
Malfoy glanced at the book as he dabbed some of the balm on his cut lip. "You know its kind of ironic that the first time I ever saw you you threw a book at me," he commented, trademark smirk in place.
"I was in shock," Hermione defended herself putting the book on the table.
"So was I, it's not everyday you find a witch in your house you've never met before who knows your namem" he replied as he handed her back the balm. "Thanks."
"You're welcome," She said, taking the balm back to the bathroom. "Have you had any other problems like this before?" she asked returning to the room and heading for the large bookshelf which covered a good percentage of one of the walls.
Malfoy scoffed, trademark smirk in place. "Not here, people tended to respect the ground I walked on."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Why now then? Was it because of what happened at dinner?"
Malfoy nodded. "They're not stupid, they put two and two together when Potter thanked me that I had something to do with your return, no Slytherin should help a muggleborn."
"Sorry," Hermione apologized, taking note of the fact that he'd called her a muggleborn as apposed to the usual Mudblood.
"Don't be, I don't regret what I did, not sure why I did it, one day it might come to me."
The corners of his mouth twitched slightly in what could have been a smile but Hermione could nonetheless pick up the amusement in his voice. She smiled to herself and wandered over to the large desk in the corner that both her and Sirius now shared and placed down the books she had grabbed.
Malfoy wandered over and read the titles out loud. "'NEWTs Potions', 'The who, what, when, where and how of teaching Potions', 'Advanced Potions', please don't tell me Granger, that you're teaching Potions."
"I'm filling in for Professor Snape for a while," she replied, searching for some parchment and a spare quill, she would have to have a word with Sirius who seemed to be completely unorganized.
"Why?" The Slytherin asked, an elegant eyebrow raised slightly.
"Dumbledore will tell you tonight," she answered vaguely, not really sure on what the headmaster was going to tell the students.
"Is this one of your 'adults can know but students can't' things?" He asked, smirk back in place.
"Yes."
Malfoy rolled his eyes. "You really aren't going to tell me are you?" he said heading for the door, aware that Hermione clearly had stuff she wanted to do.
Hermione noting his departure, followed him to the door, he turned around in the corridor as she reached the door to pull it close, waiting for her answer.
"For something like that Malfoy, I'll need more trust."
The Slytherin nodded in acknowledgement and walked away down the hall leaving Hermione pondering on her odd morning.
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Later that afternoon, happy with her plans for classes up until Wednesday at least, Hermione left the chambers and headed towards her original destination of the morning before her encounter with Malfoy.
As she entered the hospital wing Madame Pomfrey was nowhere in sight so Hermione headed for the section petitioned off by the long pale curtains. She poked her head around the corner and saw Sirius seated at the end of the bed, his gaze focused on nothing in particular as he sat lost in thought. She tiptoed into the room, not wanting to disturb the peaceful silence, and covered her shocked gasp at the witch in the bed as she knelt down next to Sirius, placing a hand over his that rested on the arm of the chair.
Sirius focused his gaze on Hermione and sent her a smile 'hey' he mouthed.
'Hey,' she mouthed back, looking at the exit indicating they should leave for a while.
Sirius nodded, stood and approached Andromeda bending down to whisper something in her ear; the black haired witch looked up and noticed Hermione before nodding and sending Sirius a smile. He then repeated the same thing with Remus, who presently was in a similar position to Sirius when Hermione had entered, his gaze unfocused as he sat lost in his thoughts. Hermione sent him a small smile to which he returned before his eyes unfocused again. Sirius sighed, his gaze resting on Tonks before he followed Hermione out of the room.
"How is she?" Hermione asked as they left the hospital wing and stood just outside.
"She's pretty beaten up but Madame Pomfrey thinks she'll be fine in the long term," he answered running his hands through his silky tresses, Hermione noted that he seemed to do this a lot when agitated.
"Has she woken yet?" Hermione asked, stepping towards Sirius who immediately wrapped his arms around her.
"Not yet, Andromeda's going to stay with her until she does."
"What about Remus?"
Sirius sighed, thinking about his friend back in the hospital wing. "I honestly don't know, he's worried, yes, but he has classes to teach on Monday so I'm not sure what he's going to do."
Hermione smiled to herself, growing slightly more confident about their bet. "Dumbledore will talk to him," she guessed as they started walking down the halls, no obvious destination in mind.
"Hmm," Sirius answered his mind wandering again as they walked in silence through the corridors.
About ten minutes of walking they turned and grinned at each other when they unintentionally found themselves standing outside the Fat Lady who was regarding the pair curiously.
"Err Password?" she asked.
Hermione turned to Sirius. "What are you looking at me for?" he asked an eyebrow raised.
Hermione raised her own. "You're the head of Gryffindor House, you should know it, we just spent Christmas in there remember, or did you forget that too?"
"Yeah, well, they like to change these things," he grumbled "illuminatus" he said to the Fat Lady, repeating the Christmas password.
"Sorry, that's not the password."
"WHAT! I'm the head of Gryffindor, why am I not told these things?" he asked wide eyed in disbelief, Hermione next to him tried to muffle her laughter. "On that note," the Animagus continued. "I'm the head of the house, you should just let me in!"
"Sorry, no password, no entry."
"I can't believe this," Sirius mumbled turning to Hermione. "It's not funny," he said, sending her a glare, noting the laughter in her eyes.
"What's not funny?"
Hermione and Sirius turned to see Harry and Ginny, hand in hand, walking towards them.
"Sirius here can't remember the password," Hermione supplied.
"That's a sign of old age you know that," teased Ginny.
Hermione couldn't contain herself anymore and burst out into laughter as Sirius stared wide eyed in shock at what the youngest Weasley had just said.
"Tantragella," Harry supplied to the Fat Lady, who swung open to let the group in
"I'm not old," Sirius mumbled as they wandered into the common room and headed for their old spot in front of the fire.
"Of course not," Hermione replied, patting him reassuringly on the arm as they sat down.
"And, why am I not told these things?" the black haired wizard continued to complain.
"Did you not get the list of changes?" Ginny asked.
"No."
Hermione smirked "Knowing the mess I just discovered on your desk you probably did."
Sirius sent Hermione an indigent look. "It's not messy, I know where everything is."
"Then you should know where the note is," Hermione pointed out.
Harry and Ginny tried to hide their grins at the couple and continued to watch in amusement
"That's if I got one."
"Which you probably did."
"You don't know that."
"Neither do you apparently."
"Are you implying something?"
Hermione smiled sweetly. "No dear, I believe that was Ginny."
"Are you calling me old?"
"No."
"Oh, well good then."
"Are you two quite finished?" Harry asked, trying to suppress his grin.
Sirius sent Harry a mock glare. "You think that was bad, your parents used to go on for hours."
Harry looked questioningly at Hermione who nodded in confirmation. "They were only funny teasing spars but if there had been competitions Lily and James would have won hands down, they knew each other inside out to know their strengths and weaknesses in arguments."
Sirius grinned then looked around to see who else was in the room, noticing only a scattering of students out of ear shot he turned back to the teenagers in front of him.
"We had an Order Meeting today," he told them, changing the subject and keeping his promise to his Godson that he wouldn't be left in the dark. "Snape's gone missing," he said simply, jumping to the point
Harry and Ginny stared at the pair, eyes wide, and jaws slack as they processed this information, the humor of a few moments ago vanishing completely.
"That's not all," Hermione added. "Tonks is unconscious in the hospital wing."
Ginny gasped and Harry met Hermione's eyes, his own green pair growing hard. "Is she ok?" he asked quietly.
"They only left her alive so we'd know they have Snape," Sirius said quietly, trying to keep the picture of his frail cousin out of his mind.
Harry stood suddenly and stalked out of the room, heading for the boys dormitory. Sirius stood to follow but Hermione stopped him.
"I'll go," she said quietly, slipping past the Animagus and up the stairs leaving Sirius to sit back down with Ginny.
"Will Tonks be ok?" the redhead asked.
"Yeah, in time, she's not awake yet," Sirius explained.
Ginny nodded, taking in the information her mother desperately didn't want her young daughter to know. "And Potions?"
"What about Potions?"
Ginny rolled her eyes at her Professor. "Who's going to teach it?"
Sirius opened his mouth to answer before closing it again, a frown line appearing between his eyes, unsure of the answer himself
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"Harry?" Hermione asked cautiously as she entered the room, Seamus and Neville weren't around and she noticed Harry sitting on the window seat looking down at the lake, one leg draped over the side the other bent against his chest as he rested his arm on it. She slowly entered the room, picking a trail through the mess that was three teenage boys as she made her way to her friend and sat opposite him on the window seat.
"I just want it to all end," he said softly not looking up at Hermione as she sat down letting him talk. "It's not fair, I didn't ask for this, for my friends to be hurt, to, to be killed, just because of some stupid prophecy," he looked up now and Hermione found herself staring into a familiar pair of green eyes. "How can I do this Hermione? The fate of the wizarding world rests on my shoulders yet I couldn't even save my best friend, the most important person in the world to me and I couldn't save him, how am I supposed to save people that I don't know?" his voice cracked as tears pooled in his emerald eyes.
Hermione moved closer and wrapped her arms around her friend as he buried his head in her shoulder, sighed and closed his eyes. Hermione expected the tears to come but they didn't fall.
"I don't know how you're going to do it, what I do know is that its not your fault that your friends get hurt, its not your fault that Ron jumped in front of Ginny to save her, its not your fault that there is a small percentage of the wizarding world who believes that blood resides above everything else, its not your fault Harry. You don't control the actions of others, Professor McGonagall, Ron, Dean, Snape, Tonks, they all chose to side with the light they knew what consequences it would hold."
"But they do this because of me," Harry murmured from her shoulder.
"They do this because of Voldemort, they do this because it's right. Yes they do it to help you, but they would do it if there was no prophecy, if there was no boy-who-lived. You can't control what happens, just like you can't control how bright the stars shine. We're beside you Harry, every step of the way, you know that right?"
"I know, I just don't want people risking their lives for me."
"You can't control people's choices in life Harry," Hermione repeated, shifting so that he had to look at her in the eye. "I'd die for you and there's nothing that you can do to change that." Harry opened his mouth to protest but Hermione continued. "I'd die not because the fate of the wizarding world lies on your shoulders, I'd die because you're my best friend and I love you, and so do many others, that's what we have that Voldemort and the Death Eaters don't."
Harry studied Hermione for a moment, the gravity of all she had just told him sinking in, he was beginning to understand now, to see it from a different viewpoint other than as 'the-boy-who-lived'.
"I'd like to go and see Tonks," he stated quietly.
"Ok," Hermione said softly. "Let's go," reaching over to give him another hug before standing and offering a hand to help Harry to his feet.
The pair headed down the stairs to see Sirius and Ginny pondering on who would cover potions.
"Snape and I normally cover Remus so I'm sure we could work together to cover for His Royal Greasyness."
"Maybe Dumbledore will get another Centaur or something, like when Firenze replaced Trelawney," Ginny pondered.
"Maybe he'll ask Hermione," Harry guessed walking up to the two seated on the couch.
Sirius looked up at Hermione and raised an eyebrow. "Well, for some reason that never popped into my head."
Hermione stifled her laughter when Ginny mouthed 'old age' at her behind Sirius' back. "He already asked, I'm covering from Monday."
The others just stared at her. "I was only joking," Harry admitted.
"I'm not."
Ginny grinned. "Somehow I think Potions will be tolerable from now on, or at least until Snape comes back."
Hermione turned to Sirius and grinned at his shocked expression. "Don't look so shocked, I do know my Potions," Sirius closed his mouth and grinned back.
"Maybe you can teach permanently," Sirius said, hope flickering in his eyes at not having to endure Snape everyday.
Ginny hit the Animagus upside the back of the head.
"What?" Sirius complained, rubbing the spot she'd hit.
"That wasn't very nice, as much as I'd love never to see Snape in Potions again we do want him back."
"We do?" Harry asked.
Ginny and Hermione rolled their eyes at the level of sensitivity, or lack there of, the two wizards were emitting for the Potions Master, Hermione knew deep down both worried about the other wizard but would never in a million years actually admit that fact to anyone.
"Come on, we're going to see Tonks," Hermione said, leading the way out of the room with Ginny.
Sirius walked along beside his Godson and rested a hand on his shoulder.
"Everything ok mate?" he asked quietly.
"Yeah, some of this is just getting a little too much," the messy haired boy answered.
"You know you can always come to see any of us, Hermione, Remus and I."
"I know," Harry replied quietly. "Thank you."
