3.
Hermione stared at Draco incredulously, her cup half raised to her mouth.
"What?" she questioned, sounding as though someone had told her Snape was a notorious cross dresser...of course their was the time with Boggart and Neville third year...
"You heard me Granger. Don't make me question your intelligence by having to repeat myself." Draco said, abruptly sounding more serious, and more like the pompous Draco Malfoy of Slytherin. Hermione actually felt some relief at the fact that she was dealing with a more recognizable version of Malfoy.
"And you know what I meant. Please clarify yourself before I hex you so your tongue shrivels up."
Draco gave her a searching look. "You would do it too, wouldn't you..." he muttered.
"I teach some of the best Medi-Wizards and Healers this ministry has to offer. If I can cure it, I sure as hell know how to inflect it." She snapped back.
"Well, all that aside, this could take some time to explain."
"I'm all ears."she said returning his laconic smirk
"Well, I'm sure you know of the fact that there is a large coterie of former Death Eaters still insisting on wreaking havoc on this fair country."
"Yes, I know, Servants of the Serpent, who doesn't?"
"Granger, you ruin my momentum in speaking when you interrupt." He said in a bored tone. She lifted her cup with a scowl, and took another angry sip.
"Well, they seem to have no real goal without their Dark Lord Voldemort. Their current leader is a two pence former Death Eater who used to have great prestige among his brethren. No one knows exactly who he is of course..." he trailed off, seemingly fascinated at the copy of Munch's Scream hanging on the wall. After a second, he snapped back. "Yes, well without direction, they mostly create senseless acts of violence against Muggles that are never really all that effective. But of course their attacks against their fellow wizards are worse, and with more dire consequences. You of course recall the disastrous rigging of all the Ministry Admission Call Booths last year?"
Hermione nodded her head. Who could forget? Every single booth that ministry officials called in through was rigged as a portkey to some vast unknown desert. She herself had almost reported for work and gotten caught had it not been for Mr. Weasly's cry of warning before she dialed the ministry number. It had taken a good month to find out the portkeys' destination, and by then, for the wizards and witches who had been caught without their wands or those that didn't know how to apparate, it was much too late. They hadn't survived, and the assailants were never caught. The dark mark had been hovering over the ministry building for hours scaring most of the public witless.
"The Servant's work of course...but recently intelligence has arisen that they are planning a much larger scale attack, one that would wipe out most key members of the ministry, as well as those who caused..." here he trailed off and looked guiltily at Hermione.
"What? Malfoy stop it. Tell me."
He seemed to gather his will, and with one gasp of breath said
"All those who caused the fall of Voldemort."
A.N.- thank you all my reviewers....it really did encourage me a little to write more. So tell me if you see any problems (constructive criticism only please...please....) and here comes the next chapter....