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Chapter 14: A Close Encounter, a Connection, and a Plan
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Draco Malfoy looked at the road ahead of him. It was clear... for now. He saw Potter and company enter the cheap joke shop, which meant they would soon come out, and obviously, how could Draco let them leave without saying hello? It would be rude to just ignore them...
Right on cue, Harry and friends left the joke shop. He was with the Weasley blood-traitors and that Mudblood. Perfect.
"Why, Granger, is that you, or is that dead cat on your face?" Strangely, Hermione did not react angrily, but rather, she seemed not to be paying attention. Luckily, someone else had.
"Your mom, Malfoy," said Harry.
"What about my mom, Potter?"
"Oh, never mind, Malfoy..."
"You know, Malfoy, it takes a dead cat to know one," Ron said lamely.
"Aw, Ronnie, sticking up for your Mudblood girlfriend? You're not doing too good a job because that comeback stunk. Hey, Mudblood- care to comment?" Again, Hermione showed no reaction, but seemed rather to be in deep thought... about him? She was staring at him, but not directly... was she even blushing? She looked kind of pretty, with her hair blowing in the breeze and her cheeks blushing in a most becoming way...
As Malfoy noticed this, Fred, George, Ron, and Harry all attacked Malfoy with a different hex. Draco didn't know what the heck happened to him, he only noticed Hermione's beauty.
Wait... Hermione? The Mudblood? Malfoy shuddered, and suddenly realized that he was a gelatinous blob of flesh and tentacles.
"We don't have time for this, Malfoy, I hope you understand," said Harry coolly. "We're going to go see your daddy's boss, VOLDEMORT. Maybe you know him as Voldy, you're so close?"
Malfoy didn't answer, but not because he was incapable (which he was not, since his mouth was a puddle of goo); he was still trying to shake off the fact that he disgusting thought Hermione had looked pretty. What would his friends think of this? Malfoy shook it off and realized that Hermione was gone, along with Potter and the rest of them.
Malfoy thought to himself, Who am I kidding, I hate all of them, especially that Mudblood... or do I?
Leaving Malfoy, we follow our heroes...
"Hermione! Didn't you even care that we all jumped Malfoy for you?"
They were all searching for a dark, deserted alley as nonchalantly as they could. They needed a secretive place to formulate a rescue plan for Ginny, where they would not be overheard or disturbed.
"What?" said Hermione, snapping out of a daze.
"We jumped Malfoy for you, and all you do is stand there! You didn't even care when he called you a Mudblood!"
"Ron, just because I was standing there doesn't mean I didn't care. I thank you for endangering the welfare of Malfoy for my sake, but Ron, there's no need to get crazy over it! Ever since you said you thought I was in love with Malfoy, you've been seriously weird to me!"
Everyone was used to their bickering, but upon hearing "in love with Malfoy" they all stopped dead in their tracks.
"W-what?" said Fred. "Hermione in love with Malfoy!" The thought was so incredible, so strange, so unlikely, that the thought of it being true was enough to stop the world from spinning, if it was possible.
"No, Fred, Ron had a stupid dream-"
"Yeah, but you said that you wanted him-"
"That was a stupid lie, Ron! Let it go! Let it die! I swear, if there is one thing I never do again, it'll be to lie in your presence, Ron-"
"Well, good, then maybe your true feelings for idiots won't come blubbering out-"
"Oh, Ron, you're- you're- impossible!"
"No, maybe you are. Getting desperate? Miss dear old Vicky so much that you'll settle for anybody now?"
"Ron!"
"Well?"
Hermione ran ahead of them. She seemed to be crying.
"Ron," said Harry, who was now trying to catch up with Hermione, "we don't have time for you to argue with Hermione right now, we have to save Ginny!" Harry's heart flipped a little at the thought of her.
They all caught up with Hermione, who obviously was trying to forget her argument with Ron but was failing.
"Here's a place, Harry," said Hermione, not looking into anyone's eyes.
"Ok, excellent, Hermione," said Harry gently. Hermione looked rather fragile.
They all piled into the found alley, with Harry in the lead. Hermione went in second to avoid Ron, Fred and George awkwardly came next, and Ron last. Ron was either grumpy or guilty over his argument with Hermione.
"Alright, now, I need you two to be able to work together, so make up, now," Harry ordered solemnly.
Ron had a hard time saying that he was sorry as much as Hermione had forgiving him.
"Ok, now that that is dealt with for now. Does anybody know how we're going to get to a deserted house in Britain with Voldemort and a bunch of Death Eaters lounging around?"
Silence ensued, but everyone cringed at Voldemort's name being mentioned so nonchalantly.
"I'll take that as a no," said Harry after a few silent seconds. "Ok, does anybody know where we could get directions?"
"Well," said George, "there's a Squib who sometimes comes down to Diagon Alley who knows his way around Britain... he was a tack- a tacks - a something driver for the Muggles, but he's retired now. He is almost always at the Leaky Cauldron. Perhaps we can talk to him?"
"Excellent. We're looking for a run-down house by a river... I think it's near London somewhere, because it seems somewhat familiar to me personally from when we went to London on holiday... well, the Dursleys went, I stayed in the car for a week... George, you and Ron go find the Squib and ask him for directions. Ron, relay the location of the house from my dream to the Squib. Hermione, Fred and I will work something out and fill you two in when you get back." George immediately took Ron's hand and Apparated. Ron had a look of pure terror on his face when he realized what George was doing. When they were gone, Harry thought he saw a smirk on Hermione's face.
"Well, ok, so, what's the plan?"