Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. (duh! Who didn't see that coming?)
My only note is REVIEW!
Chapter 10 - Many Meetings
September passed by without a hitch, and Hermione was getting back into the swing of things with school. Hermione and Ron were still together which, frankly, had surprised Hermione. She could tell that Ron thought more of her as a best friend with benefits, but she was fine with that. In fact, that worked out better than she could imagine. She was on top of all of her classes and very far ahead with her work. All ofher extra time was spent practicing flying and she was improving greatly. Quidditch tryouts were the very next morning (October 1) and Hermione was very excited, but she could not sleep.
Despite everything going as well as it was, there was still something that was constantly plaguing her thoughts about her life. It was the single thing that made absolutely no sense to her no matter how much she contemplated it. It bugged her to no end that she couldn't figure it out. This is why we find that Hermione was not in her room that night, but wandering aimlessly in the halls of Hogwarts thinking about this one thing.
She needed answers and she wanted them now, she saw that opportunity as soon as she realized which hall she was in and made her way to the one place she knew she could, and hopefully would, find her answers.
"Excuse me, but um, Professor?" asked Hermione as she peeked into theroom from the open door.
"Yes, what is it?" asked Severus Snape looking distractedly through some papers. (Bet you guys weren't exactly expecting that now were you!)
"I'm really sorry to bother you, but I had a question that I wanted to ask you," said Hermione taking a step inside of the Potions classroom.
"Very well, have a seat, I'll be with you in a moment," he said indicating the seat in front of his desk while still looking through the papers on his desk. He sighed running a hand through his hair and pushed the papers aside then looked up at Hermione. "What is your question Miss Turoe?"
"Oh, I was just wondering if you could explain why I had to have my name and appearance changed if I was just going to be staying in the wizarding world and not the muggle world. The more I've been thinking about it, the more strange it seems to me," Hermione stated.
"I had a feeling you would wonder about that eventually. There are two relatively simple explanations to having your name and appearance changed. The first was that your parent's wills stated that if either of them were to be killed, the remainder of the family, you in this case, would come to me under a new identity for your safety. But what would happen if you were discovered to be my niece? You and I would be in extreme danger from both the Black Widows and the Death Eaters, which is why the name change was necessary in this case. The other reason is that despite their appearances, many of the Black Widows , including the boss, are dark wizards who have all decided to live their lives as muggles to avoid confrontation of power with the Death Eaters and they all know that you attended Hogwarts, so if they heard you were dead, then they would leave Hogwarts alone and you would stay safe. But that simply would not do because you were bound to be discovered unless your name and appearance were changed so that suspicion would be able to die down much faster. And if any of the people here knew who you were, your safety would be in jeopardy because you never know who you can trust. Now might I ask why you are out so late?" he finished having just finally realized that she was out of bed after hours talking to him. He had completely forgotten about the hour.
Hermione looked at him sheepishly, "I'm really sorry, I know I'm not supposed to be out after hours, but I couldn't sleep at all. I'm really nervous about the quidditch tryouts tomorrow, and that question was bugging me a lot."
"I see. Well, off to bed now," he said standing and brushing her out the door.
Hermione stared at him, mouth agape, "You mean, you're not going to take off points for me being out late?"
He smirked slightly, "Not this time, but the next time you can guarantee I might not be so generous as I am being right now. Just make sure that you don't get caught when you go back to your room, I know that other people would be more than happy to take away points from your house."
Hermione hurried off back to Ravenclaw tower without a mishap. "Wisdom." Hermione stepped into the Common Room to be greeted by Padma Patil sitting on the couch looking into the fire.
"Um . . . hi . . . what are you doing up Padma?" asked Hermione cautiously.
"Oh, hi Dallas. Where have you been?" asked Padma nicely.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't sleep, so I was walking around, then I went to talk to Professor Snape about an assignment," said Hermione quickly.
"Okay. Hey take a seat," she said.
'What's this all about? I thought Padma disliked me ever since she found out that I was going out with Ron,' thought Hermione as she took a seat. "What's up?"
"Oh, well. I know it's not really important or anything, but I just wanted to talk to you."
"About what?" Hermione was wondering where this would be going.
"Did you know that Potter broke up with my sister last week?" asked Padma conversationally.
'I don't need this kind of mindless chatter!' Hermione replied coolly, "I was not aware of that, no."
"She was really distraught about it you know, but she told me he did it because ever since his loss of Hermione, he couldn't keep a steady girlfriend very well, usually a week or less, because he was really upset about it. He didn't love her romantically, but he loved her even so, like a sister. That was why he disliked you so much . . . because you remind him so much of her and you were there to see her when she died."
"I never knew that," said Hermione to herself.
"Parvati told me that today, then I realized something after a lot of thinking. I was disliking you for the exact same reason, because you remind me so much of her too. The reason I disliked you wasn't because you were with Ron as a girlfriend, but because I was always so jealous of her and what she had. Two best friends who would do anything for her, the top grades of the school. She was considered the smartest witch since Rowena Ravenclaw herself, maybe even better. She was perfect, and to top it off, she had a perfect boyfriend."
"How come she never knew about this?"
"No one wanted to tell her because we were afraid of how she would react and if she would change. We knew she wouldn't get bigheaded about it, but we were still afraid that she might feel that way."
"Really . . . I would never have thought that . . ."
"And then you came and you have four best friends who would do anything for you, and the best grades in all of the hardest classes, and you just as smart as she was, maybe even more so. Don't get me wrong, I liked Hermione, I really did. But I was always the second best to her and when she was gone, I felt I really had a chance to shine and to prove myself. And then you came and I felt as though that chance was instantly taken away. And then, you're even more perfect than she was and you have an even more perfect boyfriend than Harry Potter. I've been insanely jealous of you this whole time. I'm really sorry about that. I was wrong to hold a grudge for something you had no control over."
"Padma, it's fine. Besides, I knew you cared for Ron, true it was after he asked me to be his girlfriend, but still, I could have said no you know?"
"Well, it's not your fault that he asked you and it's not your fault that he likes you and not me. I'm perfectly fine with that now. If you guys ever break up though, you wouldn't mind if I snagged him would you?" she said hopefully.
"No, of course I wouldn't mind. If we break up, he's not still my boyfriend, and he's free of me and can be with whoever he wants. Same with you."
"Okay, thanks. Oh, Dallas, there was something else I wanted to talk to you about."
"What is it?" asked Hermione becoming tired of all of this talking.
"Well, it's about Draco . . ." Hermione looked up instantly, "I know you guys are best friends and I was thinking you might be able to do something about this. True he and I aren't very good friends, but I'm really worried about him lately. He's been acting really strange. He locks himself up in his room every couple days and throws stuff around looking for something. He's always yelling things like "Where did I put it," and stuff like that. When I go up to check on him, he always looks like he's been caught doing something. It's really weird and he won't talk to me about it. So I was hoping you'd talk to him. You don't have to tell me anything if you find something out, but I don't want him to get in trouble, and you can help him if there's something wrong."
"Thanks, I'll check about that, but I'm really tired so I'm going to head up to bed now, I'll see you in the morning," said Hermione yawning and noticing that her accent was starting to fade slightly.
Hermione walked to the girls' dorm and slept restlessly the remainder of the night.
She got up at six to get ready to go eat breakfast, which she didn't feel she could stomach, but knew she needed.
She walked into the bathroom and did the normal morning routine of showering, brushing her teeth and hair, muttering an accent charm which would last for a month at a time, and then applying some make-up. She walked over to her dresser and picked out some hip hugger jeans and a white turtleneck, then adorned her Ravenclaw scarf and headed down to the Great Hall to be greeted by Ron who put his arm possessively around her waist and walked her to her table, then sat next to her.
"So, quidditch try-outs are today. You planning on going?" asked Ron with no clue that she had secretly been training with Draco at night to become a seeker.
"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be going when I'm supposed to be there," said Hermione having forgotten that no one but the Ravenclaw and Slytherin house had any inkling that she would be trying out for quidditch.
Ron looked at her with a weird expression, "Why would you have to be there?"
"Because I'm trying out silly!" said Hermione like it was obvious.
"What? Why didn't I know? I thought you hated quidditch!" said Ron in shock.
"Ron, remember what I said about assuming things about me? You never asked me if I liked quidditch, but I've been training every night just the same," said Hermione defensively.
"Whoa! I was just talking to you about quidditch only two weeks ago and you didn't even seem to care though, in fact you brushed me off to go to the library," he said having remembered that particular conversation.
"Well, I had an assignment for Ancient Runes that I was highly worried about. You remember that book? It's not that easy to translate and Professor Rubar had just assigned two more chapters to translate by the end of the week, so I was trying to recall some of the runes that I had learned back in my fourth year. I'm sorry I brushed you off then, but it was really important and I needed to look up those runes," said Hermione.
"Oh, that's what you were doing, sorry. I didn't know. But even so, that's great that you're trying out for quidditch. What position?" said Ron taking a keen interest in his girlfriend's newly discovered hobby.
"Well, I wanted to try out for seeker."
"Cool, you'd make a great seeker, yeah, I'm the keeper for Gryffindor if you didn't already know that."
"I remember," said Hermione just as Draco walked in and walked towards her and Ron.
"Weasley," he said with a nod.
Hermione had finally convinced them to at least act civilly to each other in front of her, the could do whatever they wanted away from her though.
"Malfoy," said Ron standing, "I have to go to the Gryffindor try-outs now, or I'm going to be late so I guess I'll see you later Phoenix."
Draco took a seat across from Hermione and said, "I'll let you borrow my broom today because the school brooms still suck, and I will do everything in my power to see to it that you make it onto the team."
"Thanks, you're too kind."
Hermione still remembered the conversation that she had had with Padma the previous night and was trying to plan out her moves so she could find out what was going on. "Hey Draco, are you doing okay lately?"
Draco smiled, "Yeah, never better. Why do you ask?"
"Well, Padma says that you've been a bit . . . off lately."
"Oh, yeah, she's been telling me I've been acting really strange. I don't know what she's talking about me being off, I'm fine."
"Are you sure? She says you seem like you've been hiding something," said Hermione taking a careful look into his eyes to see if she could uncover anything.
"Padma just worries too much, and she makes something out of nothing way too easily. Believe me, I'm fine, I would tell you if there was something wrong."
His eyes were masked over, Hermione could tell he was hiding something whether he'd admit it or not. "Sorry, I just had to make sure," she said letting it go for now.
"Thank you for your concern, well . . . good luck today, come and get my broom before the try-outs, I'll be at the pitch watching the Slytherin try- outs, see you later Phoenix," said Draco getting up and quickly leaving before Hermione could say anything back.
Hermione was somewhat confused by this display of abnormal behaviour. There was definitely something going on and Hermione was determined to figure it out. She looked down at her watch and saw she had about half an hour to eat and go to the pitch, and so she put some eggs and toast on her plate and poured some grapefruit juice in her goblet.
She really didn't want to eat, but she knew she had to if she wanted to be in prime condition for quidditch. She ate quickly and made her way for the quidditch pitch. She jumped as someone snuck up behind her and covered her eyes and said "Guess who?"
Hermione stopped, removed the hands over her eyes, and said good-naturedly, "Ron, don't do that! You scared the hell out of me!"
"Oh, you're no fun!" he fake whined.
"Exactly. Now I have to get to the pitch and talk to Draco really quick," said Hermione moving forward towards the field.
"Oh, but why would you want to do that?" said Ron like the thought in and of itself was repulsive.
"Because he's my friend and I need to get the broom he's holding for me," said Hermione as though explaining to a small child.
"All right!" he said sighing sarcastically. "If you really feel that way, I won't stop you, I only want you to be happy," he added in a fake brotherly way.
"You are impossible Ronald Weasley!" said Hermione in mock exasperation.
"I know, that's why you like me," he said fondly.
Hermione just shook her head and continued on her trek towards Draco.
"Oi Phoenix! Good luck out there, you'll be great!" yelled Ron heading towards the rest of the Gryffindors.
"Bye Ron!" she yelled and ran up the steps to meet Draco who was watching the Hufflepuff try-out for the keeper position as they finished up. "Hey Draco."
"Oh, hey Phoenix," said Draco lowering his eyes to meet hers. "You ready for this? Seeker try-outs for Ravenclaw are next."
"Ready as I'll ever be. I hope I do okay," said Hermione beginning to doubt her abilities.
"You'll be fine. Here's my broom, it's your team's turn now. I'm not going to need to wish you luck because you'll get the spot I'm sure of it," said Draco passing his broom on to her.
Hermione smiled gratefully and made her way down to the team, who were all heading down to the field.
As they stepped onto the field, Hermione saw all of the people eager to try out for the team, she didn't have time to see who was who because the captain, Su Li, was beginning to talk.
"All right everyone, I'm Su and I'll be your captain this year. I am the team's keeper, Padma and Luna here are chasers, and Terry Boot is one of our beaters. We will be testing which of you we think are good enough to be on our team, and I'm warning you now it will be tough and only three of you will make it. We aren't going to show mercy because when you're up there on game days, the other teams will show no mercy either. If you aren't willing to give everything you have to this and be a tough competitor, then I suggest you leave now."
When no one made a move to leave he continued, "All right, good, you all have some back bone. Now all we have to do is find out if you have enough back bone for quidditch. We will be trying the seeker position first, so those of you who want to try out for seeker, please step forward now."
Hermione along with three others stepped forward, all of them were younger than her by a year or two, but she wouldn't let that break her determination.
"Great, now your challenge will be to catch the snitch. The catch is, you will all be going against each other to get you used to the competition, and you only have twenty minutes. Now, all of you mount your brooms. The first to catch the snitch, or the closest one to catching it in twenty minutes will be the new Ravenclaw seeker. All of you close your eyes now, I'll let you know when to open them."
All of them complied and each heard something being let out and zooming away. "Okay, ladies and gentleman, good luck!" said Su as each of the four flew high and began to observe the field for the golden flash.
Hermione's heart was pounding from the adrenaline rush and chanced a look in the stands to see Draco, Ron, Ginny, and Lavender cheering for her. Five minutes passed without a sign of the snitch and she was beginning to get very anxious. She looked at all the others and saw them flying around, faces contorted in concentration. Hermione was feeling very bored by now and then she felt something flutter by her ear and reached out to grab the offending object only to realize that it was the snitch, which flew out of arm's reach as her fingers grazed the golden ball. She quickly sprung into action and flew after the snitch hoping that no one else had noticed. She heard as someone yelled "Bugger!" and began to fly towards her. Hermione could sense the person tailing her closely and urged her broom to go faster.
Hermione saw that the snitch had found it's way behind Potter in the stands. She would have to be careful not to hit anyone or crash. With a boost in her courage, Hermione skimmed behind Potter and clasped the snitch in her hand in victory and quickly flew higher and then back to the cheering people gathered on the field.
"Wow, ten and a half minutes Dallas, that was brilliant!" exclaimed Padma.
"That was great Dallas!" said Terry excitedly.
Hermione dismounted and faced Su (who held out his hand) and shook his proffered hand as he said, "Welcome to the team."
The other three landed and came up to Hermione and each shook her hand and said something along the lines of 'Congratulations.'
Hermione watched as her four best friends: Draco, Ginny, Lavender, and Ron, ran out onto the field (in that order) to congratulate her on her achievements. Draco reached her, pulled her into a big bear hug, spun her around, and set her down. "That was amazing Phoenix! That training really paid off for you. You did even better than I remembered you could!"
Then Ginny and Lavender arrived and both pulled her into a group hug and squealed in excitement.
"Oh Phoenix, you were wonderful!" they both said together.
Ron came up and put his arm around her waist once the two girls let go of her. "I knew you could do it! Hey how about we all go visit Hagrid? We haven't actually visited him in forever, and I'm sure he'd be glad to hear about you getting on the team," he said as he began walking her towards the half-giant's hut.
Hermione looked back at Draco who was looking at her and she called, "Bye Draco! I . . . I guess I'll see you later on then!"
Draco nodded his head and walked back to the castle as she turned back around. He had a couple assignments to catch up on, and some other more pressing matters to attend to anyways . . .
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