The Price of a World

Chapter Three

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"Remus, any word from Dumbledore?"

"No Alastor, nothing." Lupin, Alastor (Mad-Eye) Moody, Tonks, Sturgis Podmore and Charlie Weasley sat around the large dining table in the kitchen of number 12, Grimmauld Place. Lupin sat with his hands clasped around a mug of coffee. He was looking old and weary; the dark bags under his eyes sagged adding at least five years to his actual age. Moody sat back in his chair drinking from his hip flask full of whisky as usual. Sturgis had fallen asleep in his chair. His head lay heavily on the table; the occasional snore was emitted from his nose and a string of drool slowly dripped out of his mouth to make a small puddle on the table. Tonks and Charlie were engrossed in a card game. Today Tonks' hair at the moment was hot pink but every five minutes it would change to a different colour. The cycle was hot pink, orange, yellow, lime green, blue, purple and back to the hot pink. Charlie was his same old self. He had left his job with dragons in Romania to come back and be with his family. Against his parents wishes he had decided to help fight in the remaining few left in the Order.

"Some times I start to think that keeping the Order together is pointless. Dumbledore obviously thinks it's pointless if he isn't giving us any orders."

"Maybe he thinks we should be thinking for ourselves." Charlie added.

"Tonks, even if Dumbledore thinks it's useless in keeping the Order working we have to try. We may not do much, and when we do it might not take much effect on Voldemort's forces. But in the long run you never know. It may just pay off." Lupin explained.

"Hmm… I guess. HA! I win!" Tonks tossed her cards down onto the table in front of her. Charlie looked bewildered.

"How'd you…. But I…you weren't…" Tonks laughed at Charlie's puzzled face. She lent across the table and patted him on the shoulder.

"You'll need to be a lot better to beat moi, " Charlie laughed, as did Tonks. All four of them jumped when they heard the front door slam and Mrs Black's voice yelling at no one in particular, mainly her usual cursing. Sturgis stayed absorbed in his deep sleep. Remus got to his feet and went into the hallway to put a stop to Mrs Black's offensive statements. When he reappeared back in the kitchen he brought their visitors with him. Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape. Lupin offered them a seat at the table and got them a drink. He placed a plate of cookies and slices of cake on the table.

"No need to go to so much fuss Remus." McGonagall said calmly.

"I wont be gracing you with my presence for too long Lupin." Snape drawled.

"Thank bloody goodness." Moody mumbled whilst he puffed away on his pipe. Tonks muffled a laugh and Charlie coughed to cover his own. Luckily Snape, Lupin and McGonagall had not heard what Moody had said.

"Oh Remus, Dumbledore is starting to doubt our chances." McGonagall said.

"Our chances?"

"Our chances of winning against Voldemort."

"There is no winner or loser. There is defeat or death." Charlie added to the conversation.

"Well defeat and death is basically the same as wining or losing. But yes, one side will win and the other's fate will be death or imprisonment." Moody concluded.

"Still… Remus something needs to be done. Can we pull Harry out of school and train him? Is there something we can do to help him advance that little bit more?" McGonagall was starting to sound anxious. Remus sat back in his chair. He said nothing for quite some time. Everyone sat in silence waiting and watching Lupin. At last he sat forward.

"Minerva. I would've thought that you would be the last person to suggest to take a child away from their studies. But I can see where you're coming from. Harry needs to stay in school though; I think its what gets him through the day. What keeps him sane."

"Yes yes I unde-" Lupin cut her off.

"Just wait, let me have my say." Lupin sat forward on his chair. "The person that meant the most to Harry was lost just a year ago. A normal person would've moved on by now, but as we know Harry isn't normal. Sirius was the world to Harry; he was Harry's father icon. I can see it in him he is still suffering. There is already enough pressure of schoolwork and having the whole world depending on him. We don't want to increase the pressure by training him to be prepared for Voldemort. It would make him think we didn't see him strong enough to face Voldemort, which could be demoralising for him." Lupin took a deep breath and continued. "He has faced Voldemort in the past without training and he has pulled through it. So why should we start doubting him now…" Lupin sat back in his chair, meaning he had finished. Everyone sat in silence. Taking in Lupin's point of view. Most of them in awe of how much thought Lupin had put into the matter.

"But even Dumbledore is doubting Harry's chances!" Minerva declared. Lupin stood so quickly his chair fell over backwards. He slammed his fist on the table and looked right at McGonagall.

"Just because Dumbledore doesn't believe in the boy doesn't mean you all have to stop believing in him. What are you all? SHEEP!?" No one had ever seen Lupin this angry. Infact Lupin was never angry; he was always calm and collected. No one said anything. Quietly McGonagall stood and left with Snape in tow. No one moved or said anything until the click of the front door closing after them was heard. Lupin's face was flushed from embarrassment at his outburst; he picked up his chair, slid it neatly under the table and left the room.

"He's right…" Tonks said breathlessly.

"I've known Lupin for quite some time and he must have felt quite strongly on the subject because he wouldn't react like that to anything." Moody started stare back into space again.

"He has a point. Just because Dumbledore doesn't think Harry can do it doesn't mean we have to follow his judgement." Charlie tried to get everyone talking again.

"Hmm… well I'll back Harry all the way." Tonks said as she got up and went to the sink to 'wash dishes'. She just didn't want to have this conversation. Charlie gave up because everyone was so shocked at Lupin's out rage. They sat in silence for the rest of the evening.

** * **

Hermione sat on her bed looking out the window in thought. When there was a knock at the door Hermione fell off the bed with fright. She got up rubbing her head as she went to answer the door. When she opened the door there was no one there, but a bunch of tulips sitting on the doormat. Hermione picked them up and smelt them. There was a card attached. She opened it, it contained a single word in an immaculate handwriting.

"Sorry."

Hermione knew whom it was from. Well at least she thought she did. It could only be one person, Draco Malfoy. No one else needed to apologise to her, unless they left the flowers on the wrong doorstep. She looked up and down the corridor. But it was empty. She shrugged and went back into her room. She found a vase in one of the cupboards, filled it with water and placed the flowers in the vase. After a few minutes she decided on putting them in the middle of the small table by the window where she ate breakfast of a morning.

At about two in the morning Hermione found herself walking down the corridor leading to the Library oak doors. She couldn't sleep so she decided to go relax with a book in a comfy chair by the warm fire. She paused just outside the library. It was quiet. She pushed the large doors open slowly as not to make much noise. The library was empty and all the lights were off. She headed straight for the reading room. When she was just outside it she stopped. There was someone in there. She could hear their footsteps. They were coming closer. Her instincts made her turn and walk quickly to exit the library. She was halfway across the library when the door to the reading room opened. She stopped in her tracks.

"Granger…" Hermione nearly died. 'Why do I keep running into him?' She thought to herself. She turned on her heel to face Draco.

"Malfoy…" She replied.

"Do you follow me or something?" Draco asked with abit of a rude disgusted tone.

"Why would I follow you? For your information I couldn't sleep so I decided to go read but I heard some one in the reading room."

"So you decided to leave?"

"Yeah well… I didn't want to disturb them…" Draco looked satisfied with her answer. "What were you doing down here at this time anyway?" Draco smirked at her.

"Wouldn't you want to know…" Hermione looked shocked. Draco just laughed. "Naa, I wasn't doing anything naughty. You can go check there isn't anyone in there."  Hermione just smiled meekly.

"So why are you really down here? You investigated me so now im interrogating you."

"I don't sleep much. So I come here at night until I get tired and I go back to bed."

"I see…" Draco and Hermione stood a few feet apart in an awkward silence.

"Uh, I'll let you get back to what you were doing." Hermione turned to leave.

"No, you can go in there and read. I won't mind abit of company, unless you don't want company."

"Oh I don't mind abit of company. But weren't you just leaving?"

"Yeah I was about to go to the shops."

"The shops?" Hermione looked quizzically at him.

"Just down the street is a small shopping centre. Its always open at this time of night."

"Morning," Hermione corrected him.

"Same thing," Draco nodded a good-bye and left. Hermione stayed standing in the middle of the dark library.

"Would you like to come?" Hermione jumped nearly five feet in the air. It was Draco; he had returned and was standing in the doorway.

"Jesus Malfoy…"

"Scared of the dark Granger?"

"No, your voice scared me."

"Oh that's harsh."

"I didn't mean it like that, I didn't expect you to come back. It was just your voice that I wasn't expecting that shocked me. Well not your voice, a noise that I wasn't expecting and it scared me because it was so quiet and…" Hermione was getting herself confused so she decided to stop.

"Right, so instead of trying to avoid the question I asked can you just give me a straight out answer."

"Uh, are you sure you want me tagging along?"

"The way you say that makes it sound like you're a little annoying kid that I have to take with me to my friends place. Let me rephrase the question. Granger would you like a guided tour around Zermatt?" A smile crept across her face.

"No thank you." Draco was shocked that she had turned him down. "I'd like to go for a walk around Zermatt with you." Hermione smiled at him and he gave a half smile back. Well it was more of a smirk but it was an attempt at a smile for a Malfoy. Hermione followed Draco out of the library, down the corridor, through the lobby and out the front door. Outside the Hotel the doorman stopped Draco.

"Master Malfoy, its quite chilly out tonight. Your coat;" He held out Draco's black full length over coat. Draco slid his arms into it and the doorman fixed it up onto his shoulders and brushed any dust or snow off it.

"I have company, I think she will be needing a coat too George."

"Yes, yes of course." He walked back into his little room and returned with an elegant caramel suede coat with fur around the collar, wrists and bottom rim of the coat. It was gorgeous. The doorman held it out whilst Hermione slipped her arms into it. George did the same to Hermione's coat like he had to Draco's. Draco nodded to the doorman and held his arm out to Hermione. She took it and they walked of down the street.

They walked around the streets of Zermatt and across a large park. In the center of the park was a large fountain that no longer flowed with water due to the snow. It was really cold outside and Hermione's nose started to run. Draco handed her his handkerchief.

"Here, use this."

"Thank you." She wiped her nose gracefully and slid the handkerchief into her jeans pocket. Draco took Hermione to a small café. They sat at a small table with two cosy looking single sofas by the window. The view from the window was both beautiful yet frightening. It looked down over the cliff of one of the mountains. But it was gorgeously beautiful covered in the crystal white snow. Draco bought them both a hot chocolate and they sat admiring the view.

"I never would have thought you'd be such a gentleman." Hermione said surprised at how Draco had gotten her a coat, given her his arm as they walked along, taken her to a café and bought her a hot chocolate. Draco looked away from the window and looked at Hermione's face.

"Just because my family have different views as yours, Weasel's or Potty's doesn't mean we throw manners and etiquette out the window."

"My friends do have proper names you know."

"Ok Weasley and Potter. Happy?"

"Well I'm sorry for making an incorrect judgment about your family." Draco fell silent, his eyes looked down into his hot chocolate. Hermione felt as though she might have said the wrong thing. But Draco looked back up at her.

"Well ever since the first year at Hogwarts I was abit of a prick." Hermione raised an eyebrow at him. "Ok so I was a complete ass. I don't know why, I guess family background, being in Slytherin, you being friends with Potter just contributed to it. And I know, you may never forgive me and I don't think I could make it up to you for it. But I wont apologise. As soon as we get back to school it'll go back to being the same." Hermione didn't say anything in reply. She didn't dare open her mouth incase she said something she would regret. Draco saw her distress and began to look out the window again.

"The very few times I have been with you I have enjoyed every second. Until you go and do something or say something like what you said just then and ruin it." Hermione stood and pushed her chair back in against the table. Before she left she placed the amount she owed him for the drink and left the coat hanging over the back of the chair. Before he could say anything she left the café and headed back to the hotel through the freezing cold.

** * **