Chapter 9

Hermione rushed up the stairs of the tower, panting slightly, until she finally reached Draco's door. The door was painted a light red, and there were no lights on in the room. She slammed her fist against the door.

"Draco! Draco!" she yelled angrily. "Open the damn door!"

She heard his footsteps in the room, and finally he swung the door open. His hair was tousled and he was in his pajamas, like he had been sleeping. She felt slightly bad, but she shoved the letter into his hands. He skimmed it, his grey eyes getting wider with each sentence.

"Whoa," he said, his voice slurred with sleep. "What's this mean?"

"It means that he's not who he says he is," Hermione snapped. "It means that he's related to you somehow!"

"Not again!" Draco groaned. "You've got to be kidding me! No way… This cannot be happening again."

"It is," Hermione replied dourly, leaning against the doorframe. "No one is more upset about this than me. I'm really getting sick of your family, they follow us everywhere."

"I know, I know," he muttered. "Do you want to come in?"

"Sure," she said, slightly startled by the abrupt change in topic. She entered slowly as he dragged his feet back in. He lit a candle, lighting up the room with its brilliant yellow glow. Dumbledore had decorated the room as if it was a child's playroom, with brightly colored lamps and vivid multi-colored striped rugs. The general color theme was yellow and white, and it reminded Hermione of buttercups.

"Wow," was all she could say.

He grinned, and took a seat in a beanbag. "Yeah, isn't it great? I guess Professor Dumbledore knew that I really wouldn't enjoy sleeping in a room with all Slytherin colors."

"The yellow is definitely an improvement," she said. "That was nice of Dumbledore. I mean, he didn't have to do this for you."

"Yeah, he didn't," Draco relied with a smile.

"Okay, back to the letter," Hermione said after a long pause of uncomfortable silence. "Don't you think we should to a bit more research on your family history, like who Lucius' second cousin is?"

Draco nodded. "That's a good idea. But for now, I want to go to sleep. You head back to your room."

"Good idea," she said with a nod, and then exited, closing the door gently behind her gently

As she walked down the stairs she realized that she and Draco had grown very far apart.


Hermione was walking to the Great Hall the next morning when she recognized the back of a very familiar head.

"Hey Luc!" she called, running to catch up with him. He turned around, and he smiled when he saw her. She felt her heart constrict when she remembered the idyllic summer they had spent in France together. And then she remembered the last summer when he had put them in jail, and her happy feelings faded momentarily.

He waited for her to reach him, and only started walking once she had caught her breath. His grey eyes were light and contented, as if he was very pleased with himself.

"How are you?" he asked as they walked down the long hall side by side.

"Great, and you?"

"Really good," he said with a nod.

Hermione smiled up at him. "I heard you've made some friends."

Luc smiled and nodded, his dark hair bouncing slightly with each nod. "Yeah, I have. I wasn't really expecting to; being placed in Slytherin isn't really the best of all things. I thought that all of them were evil; but they aren't really."

"That's true," Hermione said gently. "It's good that you're making friends. It was hard for me to make friends when I first came here. I was friendless for a good month or so."

Luc rolled his eyes. "Yeah right. Hermione, you're perfect, how could you not have friends?"

Hermione was a little hurt. "I am not perfect, and I'm sorry you think of me that way."

"I'm sorry," he said, his voice full of guilt and something Hermione couldn't quite place. "I didn't mean it like that."

"Whatever," she said dismissively. "Don't worry about it."


When they reached the Great Hall they went their separate ways, Hermione to the Gryffindor table, and Luc to the Slytherins.

She took a seat by Ron, who was examining his bacon closely.

"There is a hole in my bacon," Ron announced loudly. "Do you think Professor Trelawney will think this a valuable foresight on my predictions chart?"
"Oh, that's a good one," Harry said excitedly. "Can't you imagine it? A hole in your bacon means you will be hit by a Bludger and have a great big hole through your stomach!"

"Don't be stupid," Pan giggled. "It means that Ron's going to have eight hundred kids-"

"I don't think that's going to happen," Ron joked.

"Heh," Hermione said with a shrug. "Maybe you'll adopt eight hundred kids, who knows?"
"Good point," Pan said with a grin.

Hermione slipped the letter into Pan's hand. Pan read it quite quickly, and then passed it back, her eyebrows furrowed. Hermione continued to pass it to the others until both Ron and Harry had read it.

"That's bloody confusing," Ron said, passing it back. "So Professor Santisi is not really Professor Santisi, he's a cousin of Draco and Pandora's, and is in hiding from You-Know-Who."

"I don't think that being a teacher is the best way to hide from Voldemort," Pan said lightly. "I mean, isn't it a rather public figure?"

"Yeah," Harry said quietly. "It's almost as if he wants to get caught. Heck, I bet half of the Slytherins know that Voldemort wants him. He's been in hiding for ten years, why would he come out of hiding now?"

"Who knows?" Pan said grimly. "But we should probably find out how he's related to Draco, I mean, that's pretty damn important."

"Definitely," Ron said grumpily. "I mean, we can't leave Draco hanging like this, can we?"

"Of course not," Pan said. "Professor Santisi is my cousin too."

"Good point," Ron replied, suddenly remembering. "Is it just me, or do Malfoys reproduce like bunnies?"


A/N: A very good point Ron... Okay, the urls for the posters did not turn out in my little author's note, so if you want to look at them, the urls are on my bio page. Just copy paste them into your browser, and check them out. Otherwise, if you don't want to do that, just leave a review!