The next day, Hermione found herself watching Neville and Luna teaching first years Quidditch. Some of them weren't all that bad. Perhaps a few would actually make it onto the Gryffindor team next year. The rest, on the other hand, sucked at Quidditch more than she did. Whew… that's bad.
"Good, good. Now, do a few laps 'round the Quidditch field, again!" Neville called.
Hermione was still trying to remember the students' names. There was Betty (or Betsy?), Torrey and Terry (twins, right?), Allison (Alley, Alice?), Linda (Lana?), Joe (who told her that he preferred the name 'Super Dude'), and Gurdy. Yes, she was positive about that last one.
"Isn't he the best, Hermione?" Luna asked, staring at Neville.
"Uh..." Hermione began. "Well, he sure is something, alright." Hermione did not think that Neville was the best, nor would she ever.
"He's a great kisser, too," Luna said in her naturally dreamy voice.
"Um, yeah," Hermione said, turning away.
"But," Luna said in this mischievous, little voice, "that's not all he's good at. I mean, yee-
hah!"
Hermione, whose face was officially Weasley-clan-red by then, really didn't want the picture of Neville getting lucky in her head.
I mean, really. Would you? Too late.
At dinner, Hermione purposely sat far away from Luna Lovegood and Neville, not that
they noticed. At the same time, she sat even further away from Ron, Harry, and Ginny,
the latter of which kept flipping her off.
Hermione looked up and saw Professor Gravis. The beautiful teacher had a sad, far off look about her that night. More so than her usual sad/far off look. Hermione wondered what she was thinking about. A few times, Hermione would hear Gravis muttering to herself things like, "Only three months along," and, "If only I hadn't..." But, they were usually followed by Gravis going on one of her psycho-maniac-scary rants and giving some first year four years worth of detentions.
An owl fluttered into the room and landed directly above Hermione's head, which she
was shielding with her arms. The owl dropped a letter into her lap and then flew away.
Hermione opened the letter, which read:
Thank you for your help. The Ministry was prepared and stopped the attack. That idiot,
Weasley, did a good job, after all. I suppose he told you what he is, didn't he? Well,
tonight you and Weasley get to find out who I am. Who we are. Tonight, after everyone
is in bed, sneak out of Hogwarts. The address you need to go to is written on the back
of this page. We have a plan. A plan that will stop You-Know-Who. Please come alone,
but be armed with your wand and anything else you have. All I ask is that you let us
explain ourselves before you blast us into smithereens.
P.S.: Weasley will probably be there, too. Yuck.
Hermione tucked the letter away in her pocket, already thinking about that night.
Sneaking out wasn't too hard. All Hermione had to do was steal Harry's Invisibility Cloak, bust into the broom closet and steal some broom that nobody in their right mind would willingly ride unless they had to, and fly over the Forbidden Forest, which was very, very Dark. Yup, that's all she had to do.
Once she was over the forest, Hermione Apparated to what appeared to be another forest, on its own. There were so many trees and even a stream. It was almost impossible to spot the little, grey house that she had to go to. The house was small and dirty, and didn't look like anyone had lived there for a long time. Hermione took off the Invisibility Cloak and knocked on the door, wand at the ready. It had occurred to her that it might be a trap, but she was willing to take that chance.
But she wasn't so sure once the door opened and she saw the unmistakable face of Severus Snape.
Hermione tried to let out a scream, but she was pulled into the house too quickly, her wand falling to the floor.
Hermione looked up, not wanting to know who else might be there. Peter Pettigrew,
Draco Malfoy, and Percy Weasley were all in the living room.
"What's going on here?" Hermione asked, trying to keep herself from shaking.
"It's alright, Hermione," Percy said. "We're here to help."
"Help? Help get me killed!" Hermione yelled.
Malfoy rolled his eyes. "Honestly now, Granger. Why would we kill you?"
Hermione sputtered out, "What do you mean, 'Why would we kill you'? Gee, I don't know, maybe because you've killed everyone else by now!"
Malfoy rolled his eyes again. "Well, you should've thought about the fact that we might be killers when you read my letters and decided to come here."
"Your letters?" Hermione asked.
"Yup," Malfoy said. "Actually, I'm surprised you didn't guess it was me."
Hermione turned to Percy. "Alright, what do you have to say for yourself?"
Percy shrugged. "I just got here. I don't really know what's going on. They say they have a plan, so I'm guessing that they have a plan."
"Oh, of course," Hermione said. "You're safe no matter what, you Death Eater!"
"Miss Granger, would you kindly save your rampaging for after we tell you our plan"
Snape asked.
Hermione shuddered. Not so much because of the situation she was in, but because Snape had referred to her as "rampaging," a word she had often used to describe what Harry did. Crazy Harry.
"Alright, what?" Hermione asked, crossing her arms.
"Tell me, why are you so angry right now?" Snape asked, casually.
"What? What do you mean? You of all people should know why I'm angry!" Hermione yelled. "Let's see, maybe it's because I'm stuck in the room with four Death Eaters, most of which are killers!"
"Actually, Granger," Malfoy began, "Pettigrew's the only killer here, and that's because of those twelve Muggles he blew up."
"It was an accident," Pettigrew said in a sulky voice, looking down.
"What an idiot," Hermione muttered, though no one was quite sure who she was talking about.
"Okay," Hermione began, "Tell me then. How are the rest of you not murderers? Let's see, Percy isn't because he hasn't had the chance yet. Malfoy isn't because he's a spineless wimp. And Snape... oh, wait, he is!"
"Tell me, whom did I murder?" Snape asked.
Hermione thought her brain was going to explode. "Gee, I don't know. Dumbledore,
maybe!"
Snape smirked. "What if I told you that Dumbledore isn't dead?"
Hermione looked at Snape and shook her head in disbelief. "We buried him! There was a funeral! Trust me, he's dead."
"Have you seen his body lately?" Snape asked.
"What? Do you mean digging up his grave and poking his corpse with a stick"
Hermione asked, sarcastically.
"Actually," Malfoy started, "If you dug up his grave, you wouldn't find anything. We stole him and his coffin last week!"
Hermione opened and closed her mouth. "You people are sick!"
"Listen, Granger," Malfoy began, "He's not dead! You can look at the body yourself!
He's not breathing, his heart's not beating, and he can't talk, but he's sure not dead!"
"Then what is he?" Hermione asked.
"Sleeping," Malfoy said, as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.
"Sleeping?" Hermione asked.
"The sleeping-death, actually," Snape said. "It's a death like hibernation caused by the spell Avada Kedavra."
"So, what're you saying?" Hermione asked. "That everyone that's ever died from it is just sleeping? That you can shake Cedric Diggory, Sirius Black, and the Potters awake and say, 'Good morning! Who wants eggs and bacon?'"
"Well, sort of," Malfoy said. "It depends on if they like eggs and bacon or not."
Snape shot Malfoy a look and rolled his eyes. "What he means is, waking them up is a much harder task than that."
"Which is why we need you," Malfoy said.
"You need one person to say the series of spells, two to under go it, and at least two to witness it, in case anything goes wrong," Snape added.
"And we need you to undergo the spells," Malfoy said.
"What spells?" Hermione asked.
"The spells that will make you scream loud enough to wake the dead," Malfoy said,
smirking.
"Which is exactly what we have to do!" Percy added, catching on.
Hermione, who was not catching on, shook her head. "Let me get this straight: you're going to raise the dead?"
"Well, they're not really dead," Malfoy said. "Just sleeping. Sort of."
Hermione smiled. "Great. Just great. I'm stuck here with a bunch of wanna-be Death Eaters that are going to raise the dead and they want me to help. Just great."
"Well, we can't do it tonight," Malfoy said. "We still have to dig up a few more bodies."
Hermione shuddered. "Ya'll are sick."
"Probably," Malfoy said, "but sometimes sick people accomplish a lot."
"We'll need you to come back here every night," Snape said to Hermione. "We have much planning to sort out."
"And what if I tell all of Hogwarts about this?" Hermione asked.
"You won't," Snape said.
"How do you know?" Hermione asked.
"Because you want to see if we can bring back the dead," Snape said. "In the end, your curiosity will get the best of you."
"Humph!" Hermione said.
Percy escorted Hermione outside.
"Do you honestly believe them, Percy?" Hermione asked.
Percy shrugged. "Why not"
Hermione scowled. "Maybe because they're a bunch of psychotic lunatics?"
Percy shrugged, again. "Sometimes psychotic lunatics have the best ideas."
Hermione shook her head. "You're a strange person, Percy."
Percy just shrugged... again.