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Chapter Four: Finding Flaws
There's things my I hide away from myself
Too much time makes look inwards
Don't stay in my head
Or prey on my mind
Visit my eyes
You're not invited to stay
You're flawed to perfection.
"Granger what is this all about?"
A hassled looking Blaise clambered through the heads portrait hole, brandishing a letter baring Hermione's script.
Hermione looked over her shoulder at the peeved looking boy and rolled her eyes.
"I believe they call it a letter Zabini" she smirked. Draco must be rubbing off on her Blaise thought comically for a minute, before getting back to the issue at hand.
"A letter" he stated.
Hermione nodded, "you know with words and stuff…." She prompted.
Blaise scrunched up the letter, lobbing it at the fireplace and watching as the embers crackled, eating up the paper hungrily.
"Strangely enough I am well aware of what a letter is granger" he sneered.
"However, go with me on this okay? Picture this……. I am relaxing by the lake after a hard day of lessons. Drink in one hand, pretty girl lying next to me and suddenly, out of nowhere……… I am dive-bombed by a ball of feathers!"
It was then that Hermione noticed the feathers sticking up at odd angles from Blaise's unkempt black hair. It was much like Harry's she mused momentarily.
"Erm Zabini…" she ventured, about to point out the additional headwear, but was cut off swiftly.
"No – wait; there's more!" Blaise spluttered, "I then manage to untangle myself from this decidedly feathery tennis ball, to find a letter………. Your letter…….. Demanding my presence instantaneously in the heads common room. Now this is all very well – I assumed it was to do with the project and therefore promptly ignored it…"
He stopped for breath, and then grew angry again.
"However the furry little tennis ball obviously felt its task had not been fulfilled and so it dive-bombed me all the way up the eleven flights of stairs to this bloody common room! Eleven flights of stairs!"
Blaise stopped ranting, flushed and floundering for air, and Hermione just couldn't help herself. She started laughing.
Blaise glowered at her, folding his arms and Hermione howled even louder.
"What!" Blaise growled.
Hermione stopped laughing for a second to point shakily at Blaise's hair.
Bringing a hand sharply to his locks, he pulled out a feather. Then another and another.
Blaise snapped.
"Granger you are the most annoying, troublesome bloody Gryffindor I've ever had the misfortune to clap eyes on!" he cried, furiously, before storming out of the common room.
Hermione stopped laughing and stormed after him.
"Zabini! You can't just decide to leave – we have a project to do!" she yelled after him.
"Do it yourself granger, I'm going back to the lake" Blaise retorted.
"Oh no your not! You will damn well do some work on this project – you can't get out of everything you know….." Hermione snapped, folding her arms and tapping her left foot, in a manner that let Blaise know she could not be more peeved off if she tried.
Blaise stopped walking and turned around, retracing his steps till he was in front of her.
"Granger, I already have enough attitude of my own without needing any of yours" he smirked dangerously, before spinning on his heel and storming off down the corridor, leaving Hermione sputtering in disbelief.
Hermione sat cross legged on the blood red couch in the common room. The seat beside her was piled high with all sorts of potions volumes, one of which lay open in Hermione's lap.
However she was not reading it or even looking down at the page. Her gaze rested on the flickering flames of the fireplace and her mind was wandering freely. This was very unlike Hermione, as she had long ago decided that allowing her thoughts to follow their own path was not wise. Her mind often began to settle on things she really didn't want to think about, such as Harry's impending battle with Voldemort, their lives, what would happen to their world……. Their families; if Harry failed. It was an unsettling thought.
"Granger?"
Hermione yelped abruptly, as she was snapped out of her worries by the sound of her name.
Turning to look who'd frightened her, her eyes widened.
"Zabini what are you doing here?" she asked flatly, running a hand distractedly through her mass of brown curls.
Blaise took a deep breath, thrusting his hands deep into his pockets, giving him a childlike sulkiness that made Hermione smile inwardly.
"I'm here to work on the project……. Our project" he replied slowly, as if every word, especially the penultimate one, was killing him.
Hermione shrugged, capturing her messy curls in a knot on top of her head and tossing him a heavy gold embossed book.
"Ok then, get looking" she commanded.
"Here's something interesting"
Hermione glanced up at the boy opposite her, raising an eyebrow.
"Actually it's very interesting..." he added his eyebrows shooting skywards.
Hermione uncrossed her legs and walked over to her companion.
"Where?" she asked, taking the book from him and scanning the page.
"How to charm wilder beasts to dance!" she read aloud, an incredulous tone seeping into her voice with every word.
Blaise rolled his eyes.
"No…….. This" he corrected her, handing her a slip of parchment, covered in tiny scripture.
"It fell out of the book……….. I think it's a potion of some sort and obviously not a very common one at that" he remarked.
Hermione squinted at the slip of parchment, trying to read the miniscule writing.
"Granger, for someone so clever, you are exceedingly dim sometimes" Blaise frowned at the witch in front of him.
Grabbing the note back from her he balanced it on the arm of the couch and muttered, "Engorge!"
Hermione watched as the paper began to grow in size – the text with it - until it was readable.
Potiono
"Fortes Fortuna adiuvat, ante bellum, Fata viam invenient"
Protecticcion deas magrides
Ddly mst s wh th gnst nd mst n s wh th prtct t rdr n scrfc tr nd lv f mpssbl th wth shld t
Hermione stared at the text in disbelief.
"It's a mix of Spanish, Latin and god knows what that is!" Hermione pointed to the fourth line down which seemed to be complete nonsense. The rest of the text followed a similar pattern realised Hermione in dismay.
"It's defiantly a potion though" she thought out loud.
"It's a protection potion" Blaise informed her.
"What?" Hermione whipped around to look directly at him.
Blaise indicated to the scripture, "A protection spell……look"
He began to trace his finger under each line as he spoke.
"Fortune aids the brave, before the war, the fates will find a way…………… Protection for the magi" he translated with perfect ease.
"You can speak Latin and Spanish……..!" exclaimed Hermione in shock.
Blaise smirked, "along with ancient Greek, hieroglyphics, French, Portuguese, Russian and Chinese" he gloated. "It is not in a Zabini's nature not to understand their enemies" he claimed.
Hermione brushed this comment off, frowning slightly.
"A protection potion ………this could work" she muttered thoughtfully.
Blaise merely nodded in agreement.
"Granger, I'm off to patrol with pansy – so can you owl our notes on the Christmas festivities to Dumbledore?" Hermione's train of thought was broken by Malfoy, heading out for his patrolling session.
Glancing at her watch, Hermione realised that she and Blaise had been searching for five hours!
Wow! And I haven't even had to slap him yet……. She giggled.
"Yeah sure Draco" she replied distractedly.
Malfoy stared at her, "don't ever call me Draco. People may think I'm associated with you" he sneered, then swept out of the common room with a quick greeting to Blaise.
Hermione slumped angrily onto the couch.
"I don't know how you put up with him, I really don't!" she fumed, at Blaise.
Blaise shrugged, "he's my closest friend and the only person I trust" he replied shrewdly.
Hermione glanced up at the boy opposite her in amazement. Had Zabini just shared a personal detail with her?
"But he's so arrogant and snobby and……and downright mean…" she floundered, without success.
Blaise eyed her lazily, "surely potter and Weasley have their flaws?" he commented.
Hermione shrugged, "well of course they do, but I would still do anything for them" she replied, emotion gathering in her brown eyes.
"Well then, my point is made" Blaise finished the conversation, leaving Hermione with a sense that she had forgotten something.
Suddenly it came to her.
"Dammit!" she cried, springing up from the couch. "Harry! Ron, Common room!"
Blaise watched in bemusement as the brown haired girl dashed out of the common room, slamming the portrait hole behind her.
"I'll just finish up here shall I?" he called after her mockingly, ducking as the heavy text Hermione had been carrying was launched at his head through the reopened portrait hole.
"hey guys, sorry I'm late" Hermione swung open the portrait of the fat lady, who had been most annoyed at Hermione's interruption of her and her friend violets conversation, and clambered into the Gryffindor common room.
She had spotted her two best friends quickly and now made her way over to join them on the couch nearest the fireplace, which was flickering joyfully.
Hermione drank in the familiar sights of the room. The whole place just seemed to ooze a feeling of content and happiness; from the squishy red couches, to the dancing flames and the soft red carpet. This was truly home for Hermione and god how she missed it.
She waved enthusiastically at Dean Thomas and seams Finnegan, who were playing a literally explosive game of exploding snap, the other side of the fireplace.
Neville long bottom uttered a hasty greeting on his way to bed and Hermione grinned warmly in response.
She stopped smiling however when she noticed the expression Harry was wearing, and dropped down onto the couch, in between the two boys.
"Ok then Harry, what's this all about?" asked Hermione tenderly.
Harry sighed and ran a hand through his black hair, reminding Hermione of Blaise's previous action earlier that night.
Hermione clutched Rons hand briefly for comfort, and was relieved when he squeezed hers back. She had a feeing that Harry's news was not going to be particularly joyful.
Harry cleared his thought.
"I have been thinking lately" he began quietly.
"That's gotta hurt mate" joked Ron and Harry gave him a weak smile. Ron mouthed an apology, looking some what disconcerted.
"I've been thinking about having to fight Voldemort", Hermione winced ever so slightly, but Harry ignored her.
"There's some things, a few things, that I want, I need to do before the inevitable happens" Harry finished.
Hermione wrinkled her nose puzzled. "Like what Harry?" she prompted softly.
Harry dug a hand into his trouser pocket and produced a slip of parchment.
"I wrote a list of things I feel I would regret not doing if worse come to worst" he shook out the folded paper and began to read, his voice low and toneless.
"I want to visit the order again and….and…" he trailed off miserably, letting the list fall limply into his lap.
Hermione reached across and gently prised the paper out of Harry's fist.
She read it several times and then threw her arms around Harry. Now she knew the reason behind his distress of late.
2. Visit my parent's grave
3. Visit my parent's house
Hermione looked desperately at Ron, now reading the last two bullet points of the list, and he bit his lip completely at a loss of what to do.
"I want you two to come with me" Harry said out of the blue and Hermione stared at him in astonishment.
"Harry, isn't this a private matter?" she remarked softly.
Harry shrugged, "I'm going to visit my family's graves. Don't people usually do that with other members of their family? And you two are my family so……."
Hermione halted him right there. "Shhhh, I wouldn't dream of letting you go alone" she said firmly and Harry smiled faintly.
"You should get some rest mate" Ron chipped in and the boy nodded. He suddenly looked very young, as innocent and naïve as the first time she'd seen him in this sort of turmoil during their first year and it pained her deeply.
Ron stood up and stretched, "I should go find Ginny, I yelled at her because she wanted to know what was up with Harry; I told her it was none of her business" he looked vaguely guilty and Hermione frowned at him.
"I'll go if you want" she offered and Ron sighed gratefully.
"So what do you think about all of this?" Ron whispered softly, nodding at Harry, who was currently climbing the boy's staircase dispiritedly.
Hermione grimaced, "I don't even want to think about that right now" she replied tiredly. Ron bobbed his head in total agreement.
"Stay here tonight mione" Ron glanced up at her imploringly. Hermione smiled back at her friend.
"I wouldn't want to be anywhere else"
"Pansy, get a move on!" Draco tapped his fingers on his crossed arms, in a highly agitated movement.
Pansy had disappeared into the girls bathroom ten minutes previously to fix her makeup and Draco was now distinctly bored.
He found himself wandering back and forth down the corridor which was silent and dimly lit.
"Ahh!" Draco yelped in surprise, as his body abruptly made contact with that of another.
"Lumos" A soft glowing light instantly bathed the corridor, and Draco looked down to the sight of Ginny Weasley, desperately pulling her skirt back down, where it had flown up during the fall.
"For god sake ferret face! Look where you're going!" Ginny snapped angrily, slapping away Draco's assisting hand and clambering inelegantly to her feet.
"Me!" Draco spat, "you're the one who is out of bounds and past curfew" he reminded her pompously, tapping his wand to his watch.
Ginny scowled. "Oh who cares!" she cried, pushing past him, "and I' not out of bounds!"
"I do" Draco retorted, "I'm on patrol and its past curfew" he tapped his watch again.
Ginny glared, "do that again and I'll stuff your overly expensive Rolex watch down your throat. You'll be coughing up diamonds for weeks!" she whispered dangerously, hands on hips.
Draco appeared to think this through for a moment, and then grinned evilly.
He raised his wand in an overly dramatic gesture and made to tap his watch face again, a testing expression on his pale features. Ginny was trying very hard not to take the bait.
"Drakie? I'm done" a sing song voice came to Draco and Ginny's rescue and pansy Parkinson wiggled out of the girls bathroom, fully made up.
"Hey Malfoy, you can extinguish your wand, your girlfriends lipstick is bright enough to blind" Ginny threw one last insult at the couple before storming off the way she'd come.
From her position in the shadows, Hermione was trying very hard not to laugh at pansy's insulted expression. The girl could catch flies at that very minute Hermione was sure.
"Stop gaping pansy, it makes you look like bulstrode" Draco sneered cruelly sand pansy slammed her jaw shut.
Hermione applauded both Ginny and Malfoy for managing to shut pansy up twice within the space of seven minutes, and slinked away, back to the Gryffindor tower.
As there was no longer a fifth bed in the seventh year girl's dormitory, Hermione had fallen asleep on one of the couches in front of the fire in the common room. The once dancing flames had now been reduced to glowing embers and they bathed Hermione's face in a soft golden light.
Ron watched her silently for a minute, and then covered her with the blanket from his own bed, tucking it under her chin to keep her warm when the embers died out completely.
He paused as she stirred slightly then continued to sleep contentedly. Ron pushed a strand on hair behind her ear and bent over to kiss her forehead gently, before darting back up the stairs to his dormitory; safe and satisfied that Hermione was, for one night at least, back where she belonged.
A/N: Awwwwwwww! Didn't that just leave you feeling all warm and squishy inside? Bless the little red head! Lol
This one was longer and took me an age to write so hope you like it! READ AND REVIEW!