Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling makes people like the idea of Ron and Hermione being together. I on the other hand seem to make people hate that idea in favor of a Draco and Hermione pairing. Therefore I am obviously not J.K. Rowling.
A/N: I would like to thank everyone for sticking with this fic even though I know many of you were not happy with what happened last chapter. I hope you all like this chapter better. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, you guys are the greatest!
tr, unkown, Buck-A-Beak, jesska-14, zuvalupa, anIme-prYncess, I wish your heart was mine – I'm glad you all like the story, even though you didn't like the RW/HG part. Trust me it was probably just as hard for me to write as it was for you to read, but for the purposes of this fic, I felt it necessary. Don't worry there's not much more I promise.
CB – you're welcome. And I am dying to answer your questions, but at the same time I would never want to spoil the excitement. So I will leave it at that. Thanks for the review!
Ginny-W13 – I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make anyone hate R/Hr. I really didn't because in the real books I fully support it, but in fan fics . . . . . .no. I'm glad that you got over it so quickly though, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Chantal J – thanks for the review, I hope you like this chapter!
elektra30 – yeah it is weird how we perceive things in the books so differently than in fan fics. . . . interesting. Anyway yes, the tension/excitement/whatever you want to call it is coming up shortly. ;o)
cardmajic – me an my stupid typos. Oh well, hopefully this chapter will be typo free (although I'm not promising anything ;o) ) Anyway, thank you for the review, and I hope you like this chapter!
Fire Angel – I'm glad you like the Latin passwords, I wanted them to have some meaning to the story without it being glaringly obvious, so I thought that was a good way to do it. I hope the stuff coming up is good, cause I have been looking forward to posting it for quite some time. It begins at the end of this chapter, and then will continue to the next couple chapters, so I hope you like it. And I admit I think it's fun to scare my readers with the chapter titles, but trust me, you'll know when it's the end (cause I'll tell you lol) :o) That being said, I hope you like this chapter, and thanks for the review!
Sayaku-chan – yes it was hard to write the RW/HG parts because I'm not a fan of writing them. However for this fic it was necessary to have a bit of it. I hope you like the stuff that's coming up, and thanks for the review!
I present to you Chapter 20!
Chapter 20: The Truth
The trio was now seated around a table in the Gryffindor common room. Books and stacks of parchment were scattered around everywhere. Hermione had spent the rest of the previous night perfecting the spread of the final quidditch match for the yearbook. So when she woke up before everyone else, we went to find Colin Creevey to get the photos from the final match. She quickly pasted them in their appropriate places, and then she delivered the finished product to Dumbledore. "Excellent Miss Granger," the rest of the book should be just about done, so the finished product should be delivered relatively shortly."
"That's great professor!" Hermione was anxious and excited to see how it turned out. She really hoped everyone liked it and that they appreciated all the hard work she and the prefects put into it.
Once she returned to the common room, Harry had finally awoken and he convinced her to study with him and Ron in the Gryffindor common room. Hermione was very reluctant to agree because she found it very difficult to concentrate in there with all the other students making so much noise. Yet Harry had insisted, and in the end she gave in.
Now however, she was regretting her decision. She was hardly making any progress on the potions essay Snape had assigned, and the group of third years who were playing exploding snap in the corner were getting on her last nerve. She kept throwing them angry glares, but they remained blissfully unaware.
Finally, after the pack of cards exploded for the fifth time, she tossed her quill down and threw her potions book closed. "That's it! I can't take it. How can you two concentrate with all that racket going on over there?"
The boys stopped, "I don't know. I just don't pay much attention to them I guess," shrugged Harry.
"Yeah, and we don't focus on our work as much as you do," added Ron.
"Hermione huffed and crossed her arms, "Well I'm never going to get this essay done with all the noise they're making."
"Ron put his hand on her shoulder, "Snape's essay isn't due for another week, I'm sure you'll finish it just fine."
Hermione risked a glance at his puppy dog face and gave him a playful push, "yes I would finish it, but I wouldn't be me if I waited until the last minute."
Ron kissed her head, "and that's why we love you 'mione."
"A sudden haunted look overtook Hermione's face. Not even Ron's wide toothy smile could ease the pain from her eyes. While Ron was apparently proud of the nickname he had come up with, all Hermione could do was sadly remember the time when Draco had called her that very same thing. It brought to her mind bittersweet memories of the flirtatious banter they had shared together. They were memories that she was now forcing herself to erase from her mind while at the same time longing to hold onto them forever. "Please Ron," she pleaded, "don't call me that."
Ron's smile vanished and was replaced with concern, "but why? What's wrong?"
"Just . . . don't call me that," she repeated sternly as she threw her things into her bag. She refused to look at either of the boys, but that didn't prevent them from noticing her pursed lips and sudden guarded air. Both boys knew that only one person could bring about such a sudden change in Hermione's mood. But while Ron was jealous, Harry was curious. Hermione had seemed to be taking everything well, too well perhaps. Ron had eagerly told Harry about kissing her and Harry had been happy for them. But between Hermione's behavior now and the way she had acted after testifying at Malfoy's trial, Harry couldn't help but wonder if she had been as excited about kissing Ron as he had been about kissing her. As much as Harry wanted Ron to be happy, he couldn't help but think that he had become a sort of rebound relationship for Hermione. Not that Harry thought she would do that sort of thing on purpose, but that didn't mean that her heart was truly in it either.
- - - - - - - -
Whether she was just dating Ron because she knew he liked her, or if she really had started to care for him the way he cared for her, the pair continued dating through April. As time passed, Hermione actually managed to convince herself that she loved Ron. She forced back the memories of Draco so hard that eventually, she stopped consciously thinking about him . . . until the yearbooks arrived that is.
It was the second to last Friday of April when Dumbledore asked Hermione and Harry to meet him in his office to see the completed yearbooks. Hermione couldn't contain her excitement as she and Harry rode up the spiral staircase to Dumbledore's office. Harry, who had not been Head Boy early enough to work on the yearbook, found Hermione's giddy behavior quite amusing.
Dumbledore's majestic circular office had several boxes piled on the floor and Dumbledore smiled as the two entered, "Ah, good evening to you both. We will be announcing the date of the yearbook ceremony tomorrow; however I wanted you two to be the first to see them." Dumbledore opened the nearest box and removed two thick black books. Engraved on the cover was the Hogwarts crest, and below that the year. "I must complement you on all your hard work Miss Granger, it looks stunning."
Hermione beamed and blushed as Dumbledore handed her one of the books. Carefully, she eased the cover open, and she turned each page gingerly, as if she were touching a precious treasure. If possible, her smile widened with each turn of a page. She did not examine it as thoroughly as she would have liked, but it was such a large book that to go through everything in depth would have taken hours.
"Wicked!" Harry exclaimed as he watched images of a set of quidditch balls and a broomstick fly around his head.
Hermione laughed, she had had a feeling that the quidditch section was going to be Harry's favorite part. Harry closed his copy, and then opened it to the same page in order to see the quidditch supplies fly around again. Hermione turned the page in her own book as she watched the image of the snitch zoom back to it's place on the page. When her attention turned back to her book she felt her throat constrict instantly. She had reached the Head Boy and Girl pages, and right in front of her were three pictures. One of her, one of Draco, and worst of all, one of the two of them together, both smiling and looking happy.
Harry looked up expecting to see Hermione's shining smile, but instead of happiness, he saw a frown on her lips and that haunted look in her eyes again. It was a look he hadn't seen in quite a few weeks, but he had no doubt who had caused it. He glanced at Hermione's book and sure enough saw a photo of Malfoy, along with a brief bio of him. Yet it seemed that what was actually bothering Hermione was a photo of the two of them on her side of the spread. 'Oh Hermione,' he sighed to himself dispiritedly.
After a moment, Hermione seemed to come to her senses and resumed glancing through the yearbook. But the excitement never fully returned to her eyes no matter how much she pretended to smile.
Once they were finished browsing, Dumbledore offered to allow them to take their copies early. But Hermione practically threw her copy back into the box as she shook her head and politely refused. She muttered something about not wanting to be unfair to the rest of the seventh years by getting their copies ahead of everyone else.
Dumbledore nodded with a gentle smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye, "Very well, in that case you may go. Again, excellent work Miss Granger."
Hermione smiled slightly "Thank you professor," and then the two Gryffindors turned to leave.
That night, Hermione and Harry joined Ron and Ginny in the Gryffindor common room to hang out. Ron and Hermione were seated on the couch, Ron's arm draped around Hermione's shoulders. Harry and Ginny were each seated on a squashy armchair.
"So?" began Ginny "how did the yearbook turn out? I can't wait to see it! I only wish that I was getting a copy too!"
Hermione smiled "You'll get one next year Ginny, and it turned out great, I'm very happy with it."
Behind the smile and assurance that she was proud of it, Harry saw a hint of the sadness he had seen earlier, but he chose not to bring it up. "Yeah, it looks awesome, and Ron, wait til you see the quidditch section, it's wicked!"
"I can't wait," Ron answered hugging Hermione closer to him.
Hermione smiled and shifted closer to Ron while at the same time trying to ignore the peculiar look Harry was sending her. He was looking at her in a manner similar to the way Dumbledore sometimes looked, as if he was trying to see into her mind. She wished he wouldn't, she didn't want anyone to see her vulnerable thoughts which were once again lingering on Draco.
- - - - - - - -
Over the next week, Hermione once again had to focus on forgetting about Draco, but it was a difficult struggle, and she was gradually loosing the energy and the will to fight. Going out with Ron wasn't proving to be as effective of a distraction as she thought it would be. And it seemed that the more time passed, the harder it was to stop thinking about Draco. With Ron, things had quickly become boring and routine, with Draco there had never been a dull moment, and she missed that excitement.
She had on more than one occasion considered breaking things off with Ron, but each time she was about to do it, she stopped herself. What would be the point? It would only serve to anger and upset Ron, and then they would both be completely miserable. Plus it wasn't like she had any other options; the man her stubborn heart still wanted was rotting away in Azkaban.
To occupy herself, and as an excuse not to spend so much time with Ron, she buried herself in her books, and was quite confident that she would receive call outstandings on her N.E.W.T.s even though they were still a month away. That was what she was doing right now, focusing entirely on her studies. She was sitting in potions, next to her partner Millicent Bulstrode. Hermione was still a bit wary of Millicent after the dueling club incident second year where the two girls had resorted to muggle fighting instead of wizard's dueling. Plus, the memory of how Hermione had transfigured herself into Millicent's cat with the polyjuice potion was still all too clear in her mind. And even though Millicent had now knowledge of that particular incident, it still did not rest easily with Hermione.
As a result, Hermione offered to concoct the potion by herself if Millicent would just not say or do anything. Millicent, never being one for potions herself, happily agreed and was expertly holding up her end of the bargain. Albeit all she had to do was nothing. Since Hermione was left to her own devices, the potion was coming along perfectly. The mixture was the perfect color purple, and just the right consistency. Hermione carefully added the final ingredient and watched the potion simmer with a look of satisfaction on her face.
She was watching the potion cool when across the room and a few rows behind her came a loud BANG! Gooey purple potion spewed everywhere hitting quite a few people within range of the small explosion.
"WEASLEY!" Snape was covered in the thick purple liquid that a second ago had been Ron's and Blaise's mood altering potion. Apparently their potion had failed because it was supposed to make the drinker cheerful, and at the moment Snape was anything but. On the contrary, he was fuming; his eyes were flashing and nearly bulging out of their sockets. Ron had been trying to gradually increase the temperature of the flames when his partner, Zabini had purposely knocked his arm so that the wand tip touched the base of the flames. The result was instantaneous, the potion exploded and unfortunately landed on Snape, who was passing by at the time.
Snape magically cleaned the potion off his face, and glared at the entire class as if daring them to make a noise. Ron's ears were steadily reddening; he glared at Blaise, who was smirking smugly. "Detention Weasley, for your incompetence, and thirty points from Gryffindor for failure to follow simple instructions." Snape turned to stalk away.
Ron gaped with indignation at Snape, "but professor, it was Zabini's fault!"
"Make that fifty points! Now keep talking Weasley and I'll make it a week's detention!" Snape spat, stressing each word furiously.
Ron forced himself to close his mouth. He looked to both Harry and Hermione, but all they could do was give him supportive looks of pity in return.
"That stupid, evil, slimy, insufferable, idiotic . . ."
Harry and Hermione could only walk along and listen as Ron continued coming up with increasingly vile names to call Snape. After a while they got so bad that Hermione slapped his arm to get him to stop. He did stop saying them out loud, but he continued muttering obscenities under his breath.
"Come on Ron, think about something else, you'll have all night to come up with foul names for Snape," reminded Hermione.
"hmph."
"She's right mate, think about something else."
Ron didn't respond, but he did stop muttering.
- - - - - - - -
That night Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny were all hanging out in the Great Hall after dinner; they were keeping Ron company until it was time for his detention with Snape. The Potions Master was making Ron clean the entire potions classroom the muggle way and Ron was not looking forward to it.
"Hermione you're coming back to the common room with me right?" asked Ginny.
"Yeah sure" Hermione smiled and glanced at her watch, "Ron, don't you think you should get going? I'd hate to think of what Snape would do to you if you were late for detention.
"Yeah yeah, I know, I'll see you all later."
The remaining three Gryffindors watched as Ron slumped away. "Well, we're going to the common room, so we'll see you later Harry!" said Ginny, quickly getting over her pity for her brother.
"Later," called Harry as the two girls dashed away. He meanwhile meandered through the halls, deciding that he would go take a really long shower since he had nothing better to do, and he didn't feel like studying again.
- - - - - - - -
It took Ron over three hours to finish cleaning the classroom to Snape's satisfaction. The slimy git had forced Ron to continuously scrub areas that Ron was positive would never get clean even if they were treated with the most powerful spells known to wizarding kind.
Ron could not have gotten out of that potions classroom quick enough. His fingers and arms ached, his back was sore from leaning down for so long, and he was just generally in a bad mood. He had just about reached the end of the dungeons when he heard something that chased all thoughts of Snape from his mind.
"But this wasn't the way it was supposed to happen!"
Ron paused upon hearing the desperate shouting, the voice sounded familiar, and whoever it was sounded really upset. With his Gryffindor instincts kicking in, he turned back into the dungeons and headed towards the voice, wondering who it was and what she was talking about.
"It's too late now Pansy! Besides the pathetic traitor had it coming to him!"
Ron's eyes widened in surprise when he heard the voice of Blaise Zabini, obviously he and Pansy were arguing about someone, and Ron was almost positive he knew who they were arguing about. He just didn't know why. Ron's curiosity got the better of him and decided to continue listening, he hid in the shadows of a serpent statue close enough to the room in which the two Slytherins were so he could hear them, but hidden enough so that if they decided to leave the room, he would not be seen..
"I know! But even with how he betrayed us all he doesn't deserve that!" Pansy's harsh whisper was followed by a desperate sob.
"He betrayed us Pansy, he turned his back on our Master, and the idiot fell in love with a mudblood for God's sake!" retorted Blaise. "We did everything we could to get him to see where he belonged, but the arrogant jerk was too stubborn to listen to reason!"
Pansy continued sobbing loudly. After a particularly loud sob she paused in silence. "I wish I never agreed to the stupid plan" she stated defiantly.
"Shut up Pansy, you know you never would have opposed the Dark Lord's orders," spat Blaise. "Besides, you can't be serious, wasn't it much better to have him in the inner circle, even if he was under imperius than it would have been to have left him alone with his mudblood girlfriend here?"
Pansy breathed in quickly, trying to prevent herself from crying, Ron could hear her breathing growing stronger and angrier, and his ears were pricked, ready to hear what she had to say.
"He never got to the inner circle Blaise! Besides, having him here, even it was with that filthy mudblood would have been better than having him end up in Azkaban with those foul dementors! You all promised me that if we put the curse on him he would see that he had been wrong, and once he was no longer under the curse he would see that I was the right girl for him. But no! He never saw the error in his choice, and now he's in Azkaban! He was never supposed to get caught!" Once Pansy was finished with her rant she finally lost control and broke down crying.
"Get over it Parkinson! The traitor got what he deserved! And even if he had come to listen to reason, he wouldn't have liked you." There was a small pause before Blaise spoke again, "But maybe now that he has time to sit and think about it with all those dementors he'll see that it was a mistake to resist the Dark Lord. Not that that will help him now, he's never getting out of there," Blaise spoke with a cruel happiness. His tone clearly disgusted Pansy because suddenly she was racing towards the Slytherin common room. Almost immediately, Blaise followed her sauntering passed Ron's hiding place, oblivious to his presence.
Once Ron was sure the hallway was once again empty, he tore through the school all the way up to the portrait of the Hogwarts Founders. There was only one founder in the portrait and it happened to be Salazar. "What do you want?" he snarled at Ron.
"Please let me in! This is important!" begged Ron.
But Salazar was not moving, "No password, no entrance," he spat malevolently.
"Can you go get Harry then, so he can let me in?" asked Ron attempting not to sound annoyed, though it was a struggle.
"I do not appreciate being spoken to in that tone! You need to learn to respect your superiors," retorted Salazar arrogantly.
Ron could not believe he was being instructed on manners by a portrait, and a completely disagreeable one at that. "UGH!" shouted Ron, "Harry! Harry! Let me in! Ha . . ."
The portrait door opened in the middle of one of Ron's shouts, revealing a very confused Harry, "What is it?" he asked as he led Ron inside, both boys chose to ignore Salazar's enraged protests.
Ron sat down on the couch in front of the fire, finally taking a moment to catch his breath. "Detention that bad?" Harry asked as he clapped Ron on the back.
Ron who was still trying to catch his breath shook his head fast. "I have to tell you something," he whispered urgently.
Harry frowned as he sat next to Ron on the couch. "Hermione's not here right?" asked Ron, quickly glancing around.
"No, she's still with Ginny in the Gryffindor common room, "Why what's up?" Harry asked, figuring that Snape must have done or said something pretty horrible to cause Ron to run all the way from the dungeons to the common room.
However, now that he had had an opportunity to calm down a bit, Ron was questioning whether or not he should tell Harry anything. If what he had heard was true, then Malfoy really was innocent. But if Hermione knew that, then she would want to clear his name, and she would feel guilty for testifying against him. And if Malfoy was freed, she'd probably end up running back to him just like she ran back to him at the Leaving Ball last year. Ron looked at Harry, thinking about making up some stupid story about detention with Snape. But deep down he knew that if he didn't tell someone about what he heard, the guilt would kill him. Even if it was just because of Malfoy.
"Alright," began Ron, "after my detention I was walking back to the common room when I heard some voices . . . "Ron told Harry the entire story. He repeated what Pansy and Blaise had said as best as he could remember.
Harry stared at Ron in shock when he finished the story, "but, that means . . ."
"Malfoy was telling the truth, he really was under the imperius curse the whole time."
"We have to tell someone!" cried Harry. "Even an arse like Malfoy doesn't deserve Azkaban if he's innocent." Harry stopped to think for a moment. He could not believe that he was now defending Draco Malfoy, the one student who had continuously tried to make his life a living hell at Hogwarts. But then he thought of Sirius, and how he had suffered in Azkaban for 12 years when he had been innocent the entire time. And no matter how much Harry hated Malfoy he could not wish a fate like that on anyone who was innocent. Harry paused, and glanced at Ron, "are you planning on telling Hermione?"
"I don't know I just need a couple days to think," answered Ron.
"Well what are you going to do? You can't just ignore it and leave him there!"
"I know, I just, what if they let him out, and he comes back, and then she goes back to him again?"
"I don't know mate," shrugged Harry, while at the same time thinking it was a very real concern and a likely possibility.
"Let's sleep on it, maybe it will help. But I'll definitely tell Dumbledore by the end of the week," suggested Ron.
"By the end of the week! Ron he's in there now, do you have any idea what being around that many dementors feels like!" Harry could not believe that Ron was going to wait to tell anyone. Harry remembered back in his third year when he was surrounded by 100 dementors by the lake when he was trying to save Sirius, it was the worst feeling ever. "At least tell Dumbledore tomorrow, even if you don't tell Hermione, tell Dumbledore."
"Alright fine," agreed Ron grudgingly, "I'll tell Dumbledore at breakfast."
- - - - - - - -
Draco was sitting on the ground in a corner of his cell with his eyes closed. He was dangerously thin; his robes were hanging loosely over his skeletal frame, and his breath was labored. A plate of half eaten scraps sat forgotten next to the cell door. Draco heard the sounds outside his cell, though they sounded miles away. He heard something stop by his door; the noise was followed by a click and a brief flash of light. The light killed Draco's eyes even through his closed eyelids. The prison was always so dark that even the faintest bit of light had become painful to him.
The figure who had snapped the picture then opened Draco's door, and pulled him up to a standing position. Draco obliged, and with immense difficulty shuffled his way out of the cell, his sore joints howled in pain each step of the way from lack of use. His eyes were opened slightly, just enough so that he could see his feet shuffling beneath him. The man who was supporting him led him to a room outside the chamber of cells, and pushed him into a chair. Draco scrunched up his eyes as he felt a headache coming on due to the increased light and warmth within the room. With great difficulty, he opened his eyes and saw the Head of the Committee of Magical Law Enforcement standing in front of him.
"Draco Malfoy, I am here to announce that the Committee of Magical Law Enforcement has reviewed your case and has made its final decision regarding your sentencing."
The man paused long enough for Draco to look up directly into his eyes. Draco didn't look afraid, just resigned to whatever fate he was about to be given. He closed his eyes as the wizard delivering his sentence opened his mouth, and when the wizard finally spoke, Draco's heart nearly stopped.
Well I hope everyone liked this chapter. I'm hoping to get the next one up really quickly, so I'll do my best. In the meantime, please review and let me know what you think of this latest chapter! Thanks :o)