To the dear troll who can't seem to stay away from the story and still finds every reason to critique my choice of pairing:
You poor thing! It's okay, you can displace on me, I can take it :)
To all the readers who are with me on this journey:
Here's the Bonus Chapter as promised!Enjoy!
The DA was discovered, Draco had to warn Hermione so he did the only thing he could. He went into the loo and whispered
"Dobby! Dobby, if you are in the castle please come here! this is to help Harry Potter…"
There was crack and Dobby appeared in the cubicle
"Old Master Draco is saying Harry Potter is in trouble?"
"Big trouble, go to him and tell him that Umbridge knows about the DA…"
Dobby stood there looking at him blankly…
"Dobby, i know I can't order you anymore, but please… please just go give potter this message please!"
He disappeared with a pop.
As soon as Dobby had delivered his message, it was chaos, they were all running helter-skelter. Draco was ahead of everyone, he knew exactly where they met and was trying to take the longest route there. Luckily many of them had managed to run. He saw Hermione and Harry turn a corner. He disillusioned her and tripped Harry so he could disillusion him too, secrets be damned but Umbrige was right behind him. She grabbed Harry just as Draco pushed Hermione into the nearest alcove. Umbridge and the rest of the squad took the people they had caught to Dumbledore's office.
Draco stayed back to check on Hermione. Once everyone was gone he got her out and lifted the spell.
"Are you okay…" He asked
"Were you trying to get Harry caught?!" She snapped
"No! I was trying to disillusion him too! But the toad got to him first!" He explained "Are you hurt… " He said checking her
"I'm fine…" She huffed… She was mad, not at him just mad and pacing trying to figure what to do next…
"I'm glad… I wasn't sure Dobby would get to you all in time "
Hermione spun to look at him…
"You sent Dobby?" She asked shocked
"I didn't know what else to do, you told me he was in the castle and I just figured that was the fastest way, you might not look at your diary if you were at the meeting so…" Draco's rambling was cut off my a kiss
"You're brilliant!" Hermione said breathlessly
"Thank you…" Draco said smiling and then added "Please don't get expelled…"
"Oh god… oh god…. you think she'll expel us! I can't get expelled!" Hermione said crumpling in panic attack. Draco sat down next to her… "no.. nooooo… she won't" He reassured "Dumbledore will do something or McGonagall… " he said rubbing her back as she hyperventilated… he hoped with every fibre of magic he had that he was right.
—
Dumbledore had taken the fall for them and disappeared. Harry was in a worse mood than ever before. The OWLs were on their heads. Hermione felt like she hadn't been there for Harry & Ron as much this year. She knew they loved her but she also felt a little left out. She could never seem to have the kind of understanding they had. She knew she was the 'brains' of the group, the boys came to her for help and advice all the time. But when it came to emotional support, (she had recently discovered with Draco that boys have feelings too) she never felt like she was able to help. The understanding and brotherhood that they shared, she always felt a little like an outsider.
She had a free period, the boys were in Divination. Draco had been summoned by Umbridge, so she went back to the common room, duplicated her notes and figured she'd leave them by their beds. When she got up there, the room was a mess. Their trunks were half in and half out. She decided to ignore it but then she saw that Harry's trainers were mixed with the clothes - now that! That was unacceptable!
She reached down to pick them up and put them under his bed. She saw a badly wrapped gift under them. She sighed "boys…" She kept the gift on his bed and pressed her notes under it and left the room.
—
Harry was still in a stormy mood and poking at his food. Ron was going on about how Voldemort could get Harry now that Dumbledore was gone. Hermione was getting more irritated by the minute…
"Enough…" Hermione said
Harry looked up and Ron looked at her curiously
"I get that everything has gone to hell, but believe it or not we're still in school… We nearly got expelled and frankly I don't know what's going to happen but I'm really glad we didn't… Also Hogwarts has like a zillion wards and some of the best teachers most of whom are members of the order and we still have whatever the weapon is and I'm sure things are under control otherwise you would have heard from snuffles by now!" She took a deep breath and continued far more calmly "Harry you need to eat, if he's truly coming then you'll need your strength and Ron if you really have to be worried, why don't you worry about the OWLs… I have left revision notes on your beds and my History of Magic essay…"
"Aww mione, you shouldn't have…." Ron said, even Harry gave a wan smile
"Oh please… and Harry, I think you missed one of you Christmas gifts, I found it under your trainers so I've put it on your bed…"She said
"Gift? What gift?" Harry asked
Hermione shrugged
"Let's go open it after dinner " Ron said
Draco was watching from the Slytherin table. Blaise leaned in and whispered "You're gonna have to get used to them mate…"
Drago groaned and scowled "I know…"
—
After dinner Harry lined Ron and Hermione in the common room with her notes and the package. Out fell a small, square mirror. It looked old; it was certainly dirty. Harry held it up to his face and saw his own reflection looking back at him. He turned the mirror over. There on the reverse side was a scribbled note from Sirius.
This is a two-way mirror, I've got the other one of the pair. If you need to speak to me, just say my name into it; you'll appear in my mirror and I'll be able to talk in yours. James and I used to use them when we were in separate detentions.
Harry sucked in a breath as Hermione and Ron peered over his shoulder to look.
"This is brilliant, why didn't we use it the first time" Ron said
Hermione bit back a remark about boys and unpacking and untidiness and just pursed her lips.
"Should we try it?" Harry said excited
"Not here…" Hermione warned
So the three of them went up to the boys dormitory that was still empty and locked the door.
"Sirius…" Harry said tentatively
The mirror shook like water for a minute and then Sirius's face appeared.
"Harry! I was worried you'd broken it when you tried to reach reach lupin and me the first time with the floo…" Sirius face said
"This IS bloody brilliant!" Ron said peering over Harry's shoulder Hermione was standing next to him looking at it
"Ron! Hermione… nice to see you both… So what's been happening at Hogwarts?" Sirius asked
"Where is Dumbledore? Is he at Grimmauld place? Did you get the weapon? What is the order doing?" Harry rushed through his questions…
"Dumbledore is not here… he's on his own mission… I'm not sure what, he doesn't discuss details… We're all taking turns to stand guard at the weapon…. Well the others are, I'm just stuck at home all the time, especially since the breakout… How are your Occulmency lessons going?" Sirius asked
Ron snickered, Harry groaned… "I know why I have to do them but Snape makes it so hard!"
"That's because you're not practicing with me…" Hermione said
"Wait 'mione? You're taking the lessons to?" Sirius asked
"It's not a big deal, it's so that Harry has someone to help him with homework…" She said trying to steer the conversation away
"Snape didn't mention anything in the last meeting… Don't worry we have another meeting this week, I'll give him hell for you" Sirius said indulgently
"Yeah…" Harry said smiling after what seemed like ages…
"Of course! How dare he torture my godson…" Sirius said "but if 'mione is with you, you should practice… it is important…"
"Yeah.. I will.." Harry said smiling
Just then there was a band on the door "oy! These aren't private dorms you know!" Seamus was banging at the door…
"Gotta go" Harry said hurriedly
"You know where to find me…" Sirius said disappearing
Ron opened the door as Hermione put an unbreakable charm on the mirror before harry snuck it into a pocket
Seamus pushed past Ron "Find another dorm if you want to have a fucking threeway…"
Ron lunged at him just as Harry grabbed his waist holding him back "Not worth it…"
Hermione just walked away muttering something about boys and idiots
—
That night Harry woke up sweating and screaming. He told Ron about how Voldemort was angry but Rookwood would fix everything for him.
The next morning when they told Hermione at breakfast,
"Rookwood... I know this name..." Hermione mumbled
"How? were you reading up on on old Death Eater trails for fun?" Ron asked
"no... Rookwood... of course! Rookwood! Augustus Rookwood was an Unspeakable!" Hermione said
"A what?" Harry said confused "No way!" Ron exclaimed
"What's an unspeakable?" Harry asked confused
"They are like researchers, they work in the department of mysteries..." Hermione explained
"Oh.. what's the department look like?" Harry asked
"No one knows...There are several rooms and you'd have to barmy to go in there by yourself... you could get lost, or dead or diseased..." Ron said conversationally as Hermione and Harry looked on horrified "What? Dad told me... he said never to wander below the levels of the atrium, its supposed to be underground, super secret and such..."
Hermione however had read about them and found them to be fascinating, but, she realised that Mr. Weasley's warnings were probably more for Fred and geroge than Ron. She just decided to ignore that for the moment and wondered if she could ask Draco about Rookwood...
—
before Hermione could talk to him however a couple of nights later, Draco had a dream. He was home, walking through the corridor that led to the west wing. He walked into Voldemort's room.
"Welcome Draco…" Voldemort said
"My lord" He bowed
"Time has come, for you to show me if you're worth of earning the mark…" Voldemort said in almost a whisper
Draco gave a stiff nod "What must I do my lord…"
"Potter is the key… I need him… I need to kill him… Find a way to bring him to me…"
Draco woke up in cold sweat…. That had been too real to just be a dream… He pulled his diary out of the bag and wrote to Hermione…
The snake is planning to make a move, we need to meet…
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The next update comes next weekend!