A Rush

When the door to the Headmaster's office opened, Harry, Ron, and Ginny entered to see Dumbledore bent over a parchment he held in his hand. He looked up and motioned for them to sit in the three chairs that appeared in front of his desk.

"Good evening," he said, placing the scroll on his desk. "Is there something I can do for you three?"

Ginny was the first to speak. "I found this letter in the Owlery, professor," she said and pulled the paper out of her robes. She handed it to the Headmaster, who quickly read it and then looked up at the trio.

Dumbledore leaned back in his chair. "And so what do you think, Miss Weasley?"

"Well, we think that the letter is from Malfoy's father, of course, and that this probably means that he's going to become a Death Eater any time now…"

"It would seem like that is the case, wouldn't you agree?" Dumbledore reread the letter and put it on his desk. "Thank you for this information. Now, I think it's getting close to lights out…"

"But professor, aren't you worried?" Ron asked. "Don't you think that maybe there's some new plot from You-Know-Who involving all the Death Eaters?"

Dumbledore fixed his gaze on Ron. "Mister Weasley, this is not something for you to worry about right now. But yes, it's completely possible, and highly probable."

"So then what are you going to do? Shouldn't you be preparing for an attack, or something!" Harry asked.

"Yes…yes." Dumbledore sighed, and looked at all three of the Gryffindors in front of him. "I don't want you three getting involved. This letter is only a small clue as to what Voldemort is planning. Besides this we know nothing else, and to do anything before we know more could be dangerous. I suggest a good night of rest to all of you." Harry frowned but stood and the others followed suit. "And please, do leave Mister Malfoy alone."

"What about the letter, professor?" Ginny asked.

"The letter, yes…I will make sure that it reaches Mister Malfoy. Good night."

They nodded at the Headmaster, said their goodbyes, and left. As soon as they were back in the hallway, Ron spoke.

"I can't believe Dumbledore wasn't more worried about this! And he wouldn't even tell us anything!"

"You know Dumbledore wasn't going to give any information away," Ginny said. "He's right—we shouldn't get involved when we probably know even less than he does."

"Leave 'Mister Malfoy' alone, he says. Sure." Harry glared at the floor as they walked back to their dorm. "Malfoy probably knew about this all along. And to think Hermione is that close to him…she's probably in danger as we speak."

"Try telling her that," Ginny said. "She'll probably hex you before she leaves him."

"I don't care," Harry said. "I don't want her near him anymore. We can't let him hurt her, and it's inevitable if they spend any more time together."

They stopped in front of the Fat Lady and said the password to their dorm. There were still a few Gryffindors lazing around in the common room, but most had already headed off to bed. Ginny walked over to her own staircase and began to walk up the stairs.

"Wait Ginny," Harry said and she turned around. "We'll discuss this later, ok?"

"Yeah. You guys are going to sleep now, right?"

"Of course."

"Sure," Ginny said, and walked up the stairs. "Good night…"

Draco was only slightly agitated when an owl he knew to be his father's flew in and dropped a note besides his plate at breakfast. He opened the letter, read it and frowned, then quickly put it away.

At the Gryffindor table, Hermione took notice of every action Draco made as he read the letter. The worry she'd felt the night before came back in a rush as she watched him fold the note and place it in his pocket. He looked as if he had been expecting it; there was no worry, no change of expression on his face as he resumed eating. Maybe Ginny had been right when she'd guessed the meaning of the letter.

Well, of course she was right—there was no way around it. Hermione was just having trouble processing the idea. But Draco had promised that it wasn't going to happen, and Hermione had put all her faith in this resolution.

Draco ate the rest of his breakfast in silence, just barely processing the Slytherins around him and their attempts to win his attention. He instead focused on trying to rid himself of the intense despair that was suddenly clouding his mind. So his father had moved the date up, had he? And it was already the first of December. Now there was nothing he could do to slow the time. The truth was Draco had no plan, and absolutely no idea what he would do. He'd hoped that by the end of the year, some idea would have come to mind to escape what his father had planned for him. But it was almost inevitable now that his father would have his way.

And then there was Hermione. Hermione. There was so much confusion tied up with that one name. He looked over to her table where she sat looking pretty miserable herself. On her face was an expression similar to the one from yesterday, when she'd told him about her worries of him becoming a Death Eater. It was almost like she'd predicted the arrival of the letter that was now in his pocket. He wondered if it was mere coincidence that she'd brought up this subject right before he received this news. He glanced at the people surrounding her, who seemed to be all giving him particularly hateful glares.

It was too much of a coincidence to Draco. Well, he was just going to have to ask Hermione what she knew about this situation. Chances were she'd passed on that information to her three closest friends, and now they were all intent on hating him, once again.

At that moment, Hermione looked up and caught his gaze. She attempted a weak smile in Draco's direction, which he returned. Then he returned to eating his breakfast as Hermione returned to her own thoughts.

"So, what exactly are we discussing here?" Ginny surveyed the two boys sitting at her feet on the common room floor. Ron and Harry looked at each other, then looked around the room to make sure that no one was paying any particular attention to their conversation.

"I think maybe we should take this conversation to the library," Harry said.

Ron agreed, and Ginny rolled her eyes, but assented. The trio quickly left the common room for the library. They settled into a corner hidden from the view of the entrance, and Ginny repeated her question.

"We're here because we need to act quickly and efficiently. Vacation is coming up soon, and after that we probably won't be able to get anything out of Malfoy if we need to," Harry said.

"Not to mention," Ron added, "that there'll probably be an attack right after the initiation, which will probably be sometime during the holiday."

"Right. Most likely, Voldemort is initiating an entire set of new Death Eaters, including Malfoy. He's building up his forces to attack, but we don't know where or exactly when."

"We've also got to get Hermione away from Malfoy," Ginny reminded them.

"We'll do that. Hermione's got to listen to reason. Hopefully she hasn't been too influenced by him to not realize what's going on here."

"Hermione is still a sensible person," Ron said. "At least, I hope she is…"

"And how exactly are we going to persuade her to listen to us and give up her boyfriend?" Ginny rolled her eyes in exasperation. "You two don't understand. He means a lot to her now."

"Ok. You're right." Harry closed his eyes and thought for a minute. "We'll leave that up to you, then, since you understand more than we do, right?"

"Don't be sarcastic, Harry."

"I'm not. You're going to do it."

Ginny pondered the idea for a second. "I think it would mean more if she heard this from all of us."

"Ok, great, we'll do that," Ron cut in. "So what are we going to do about Malfoy? And all the rest of the Death Eaters?"

"Well, it's a good thing that we've been keeping the D.A. meetings going," Harry said. "We should probably introduce some new defense spells there. Besides that, I don't know what else we can really do, besides somehow persuade Dumbledore to give us a bit more information."

"And we can't let Malfoy or any of the other Slytherins know that we know anything," Ginny said.

"Of course, Ginny," Ron said. Ginny waited for Harry to agree.

"Well, then," she said after he nodded, "let's go find Hermione."