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Chapter 15
Draco Malfoy wasn't having a good year. It all started when his father saw a young mudblood performing accidental magic at the World Cup and decided to get his old friends together to do something about it, to show the little bit of filth what her place was before she could come to Hogwarts and have Dumbledore and his soft ways give her the delusion that her her life was actually worth anything. But everything had gone wrong. One curse from a random witch or wizard was all it had taken, and his father was dead. His mother suspected that it was a foreign wizard who hadn't learned to fear the Death Eaters in the previous war. It didn't really matter who it was, though, what mattered was that Lucius Malfoy was dead.
Not just dead, dead while publicly dressed as a death eater in the middle of an assault on muggles. The Malfoy name was currently dirt, though the Ministry hadn't levied any fines against the house, though Malfoy was sure that was because his mother had bribed the Minister, saying that it was already on record that his father was susceptible to the Imperius curse and he couldn't defend himself in a trial. The problem was everyone else, every ally that the Malfoy family had were keeping their distance. Malfoy had tried to get meetings with the warlocks of the allied houses, but all he ever received back was a notice that basically said that being seen with the Malfoy at the moment was tantamount to declaring that they were on the side of the Dark Lord, and that Malfoy needed to stay away if he was to have any hope of keeping those friendships in the future.
Without those alliances to help him, Malfoy was on his own with only his mother for backup. His mother wanted them to keep their heads down and slowly rebuild the house's standing. However, Malfoy had ruled the Slytherin dungeon using the influence his father had shared with him, now Malfoy was bloody and the Slytherin common room was more of a shark tank than a snake pit. If he didn't do something soon to remind everyone what his family stood for, then things might get desperate.
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Harry and Hermione were blushing as red as tomatoes as they stood in line waiting to get one of the thestral drawn carriages down to the village of Hogsmeade. While they had each done this dozens of times before, this time it was a date and they were both nervous. Harry's nerves weren't helped by the fact that the only experiences he had with taking someone on a date had all turned out disastrously: taking Padma to the Yule Ball, taking Cho to Hogsmeade, and taking Luna to Slughorn's party. Apart from the one with Luna, which was only ever as friends, they had not had a good ending.
Once they were in the carriage and heading down the road that lead to Hogsmeade, Hermione cuddled into Harry and wrapped her hands inside his cloak to 'steal his body warmth'; it was something she had done plenty of times before, and Harry automatically did what he always did and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her in a little tighter. He couldn't miss, though, that the girl he was on a date with had pressed herself against him. Now that he looked at it from the outside, it was obvious why everyone already considered them to be together. If he saw two people acting like they did, Harry was sure he would jump to the same conclusion.
Once they reached the village, their first stop was Tomes and Scrolls. While not traditionally on the Hogsmeade date checklist, it was bloody cold, and visiting the Shrieking Shack to snog was less appealing when needing to visit Madam Pomfrey to have the frostbite reversed. But far more importantly, Harry's date was the biggest bibliophile that he had ever encountered. He wasn't exactly a fan of searching the bookstore for what Hermione was calling 'treasures' (which as far as Harry could tell meant books she wanted to read that were cheap enough that they were in her budget), but he did like the look on Hermione's face whenever she found a book she wanted. There were a couple that Hermione reluctantly returned to the shelf, and Harry took note of the titles.
They were lucky that the owner of the shop was in, as he offered to send the stack of books up to the school for them, otherwise they would have been stuck carrying the books for the rest of the day (and the big leather-bound tomes that the magical world preferred were not as light and portable as a stack of muggle paperbacks). As they left, Harry handed the man a hastily-scribbled note and a stack of gold coins when Hermione couldn't see. She then wanted to try Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, and Harry, while not really being a fan of the place, agreed that a hot drink would be a good idea. The tea shop was nowhere near as bad as the last time Harry had visited in the future. With it not being Valentine's Day, the gaudy over the top decorations were gone and their atmosphere was a lot more relaxed. They chose an out of the way table for a couple near the back, and when Madam Puddlifoot came to get their orders, both ordered a hot chocolate and Harry got a scone with closed cream and raspberry jam, while Hermione ordered a croissant. The hot chocolates each came with a small bag of marshmallows, and neither teen hesitated before emptying the whole bag into their drinks.
"So… uh… are you enjoying yourself?" Harry asked nervously and awkwardly.
Hermione looked at him over the mug of hot chocolate she had been gently blowing on to cool. "Yes Harry, I'm having a great time. Just relax, I'm not expecting some grand surprise or the ultimate date, what we normally do in Hogsmeade is already pretty date-like. We just get to do things like this now." And at that she leaned over the small table that separated them and pressed her lips against Harry's. Harry, who had grown to love the frequent little kisses that Hermione gave him since Christmas, returned the kiss with equal enthusiasm.
Both teens were a little embarrassed when, after finishing with their kissing, they found a need to apply a couple of heating charms to their once-hot chocolate. Apparently getting caught up in a moment doesn't stop time passing for everything else. They soon finished their drinks and baked goods and returned to the chill of a Scottish winter as they did some window shopping, stopping in Honeydukes so Harry could refresh his supply of sweets. He also got Hermione a box of deluxe sugar quills, a favourite of hers that she would never admit to due to her parents being dentists. He wished that there was somewhere more upscale that he could take Hermione to lunch, but unfortunately the only restaurants he had ever seen in the magical world were pubs that also served food. Harry supposed that there would be one somewhere, he didn't think people like Narsisa Malfoy would consider an evening at the Leaky Cauldron or the Three Broomsticks an acceptable night out, but wherever that was it wasn't in Hogsmeade.
The Three Broomsticks was, as it always was on Hogsmeade weekends, loud and overcrowded with Hogwarts students fighting with the regular crowd to be the next to order a drink or a meal. Harry asked Hermione to find them somewhere to sit while he went to order them something to drink and eat. He waited in a crowd of what felt like half of Hogwarts, but was eventually able to get to the barmaid (who was considered quite the looker by most of the Hogwarts boys) and ordered a couple of butterbeers and two plates of the day's special: honey roast ham with fried eggs and chips. Rosmerta was too busy to talk, so after getting the drinks Harry went over to the table that Hermione had found.
"Harry, I was wondering, once we are finished with school and the war, what do you want to do with your life?" Hermione asked after her first sip of butterbeer. "I know you were originally thinking about joining the Aurors, is that still the case?"
Harry considered the question for a moment. "Honestly, I can't see myself joining the Aurors anymore. Originally it was more about continuing the fight after Hogwarts, joining the Aurors wasn't really an 'after-the-war' thing, it was part of the war. But we're already so much closer to finishing it than we were last time. If we can actually get this done, so he doesn't come back in the future, I don't think I'd like to keep fighting. I don't really need to rush anything, there is enough gold in my vaut that it will last me a good few years. I'm not sure what I want to do, but something where people are regularly trying to kill me…well, I've had enough of that, I could always try playing Quidditch for a few years, if nothing else catches my eye. Whatever happens, I'm looking for something where my family doesn't need to worry about whether I am coming home. What about you?"
Hermione seems to like Harry's answer. "Well, I want to do something to help the house elves. I haven't really focused on S.P.E.W. this time, I wanted to focus on getting rid of Voldemort and the Death Eaters first. I was thinking maybe the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. I think from there I could spearhead an animal welfare law preventing cruelty to any magical creatures that a witch or wizard owns. I was thinking if we have pictures of a few of the cuter animals as a focus, like krups, kneazles, puffs, etc., then I can get a law passed that protects house elves quickly, and then work on getting them reclassified as magical beings instead of creatures, as well as centaurs, merpeople, and a bunch of others. Really, the only other race the Ministry considers beings are goblins, and that's mostly because Gringotts would close the bank and refuse to open if the Ministry ever reclassified them as creatures."
Harry smiled at her. "That plan sounds almost Slytherin."
Hermione shrugged. "Almost everyone has some ambition and cunning, Harry, that's the problem with the Hogwarts House system. Most schools it's just random what House you have, it's just a team for sports days and House cups, but because Hogwarts bases it on personality traits, how many smart people don't end up at the top of their class because they are more loyal than smart and end up in Hufflepuff? By sorting the way we do, Hogwarts discourages developing the traits of the Houses you don't get sorted into. How many times have you heard things like 'We are [blank], we don't charge in like Gryffindors'? We are both the kind to charge in and act, that's what got us into Gryffindor in the first place, but I'm as smart and bookish as any Ravenclaw and you want to win a war before your enemy even realises he is fighting one, so that's pretty Slytherin as well. That's also without pointing out we are both loyal to our friends and don't shy away from hard work, the Hufflepuff traits."
Harry smiled as Hermione went off on one of her impassioned rants. "Well, the hat did consider putting me in Slytherin. But I asked it not to as it was Voldemort's house and I already had a bad impression of Malfoy, so I asked it to put me anywhere else. The hat also said I didn't have a bad mind, so I see what you mean though while something might be a stronger part of someone doesn't mean the other traits shouldn't be nurtured."
Just then, their dinner appeared on the table in front of them and the two were distracted with the delicious food, which quickly disappeared as the two chatted about inconsequential things. Harry was about halfway through his dinner when he remembered his butterbeer and took a drink from the full drink. He returned his drink to the table and was just reaching for his knife when he suddenly couldn't breathe. At first he thought he was just choking on a bit of butterbeer, embarrassing and unpleasant but something that happens to everyone occasionally, but then he couldn't cough it up. In fact, he couldn't cough at all, and then his stomach started to feel like it was on fire.
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Hermione was having a great time with Harry. First, he had taken her to the bookstore where she had managed to find a book on permanently resizing and reshaping minerals, which had been reduced in price to almost nothing because it was an older edition. If she was right, then you could use the information in the book to build your own house, and if that was true then maybe it would be an option for her to build her dream house. Even if it wasn't, it would still be a fascinating read. Then they had tried the tea shop and it was nice, though rather boring until she had gotten distracted by Harry's lips. Now they were in the Three Broomsticks talking about their futures, the daft boy had totally missed the point and assumed she was asking about career options (and gotten her distracted talking about her plans). However, he had said that he wanted a career that fit around having a family, so that was enough for her right now.
Their dinner arrived and Hermione was enjoying her first real date until Harry started to choke on his butterbeer. Hermione sent him a sympathetic look, but ten seconds passed and Harry still hadn't stopped choking. His face was turning red, so Hermione pointed her wand at Harry and hit him with a spell to clear his airway. However, instead of sucking in lungfuls of air as she expected, Harry started to foam at the mouth and his body stiffened and started to have some kind of fit.
Hermione panicked. Harry obviously wasn't just choking on his drink, was he sick? Did he catch something? No, everything was happening too quickly for that, and she had to do something because Harry wasn't breathing. Hermione tried to vanish the foam that was blocking Harry's airway, and she was rewarded by Harry taking a deep and desperate breath. However, her relief was short lived, as only seconds later there was more foam coming from Harry's mouth, once again blocking his air. Hermione did her vanishing spell again and he once more took a desperate breath. This time, she didn't wait and cast the spell again. She could feel that the amount she had to vanish each time increased, like whatever was doing this to Harry was fighting her efforts to keep him alive.
Hermione didn't know how long she was kneeling on the floor, vanishing foam from Harry's lungs as he coughed and sputtered trying to get enough air, while a bunch of people who had been enjoying an afternoon in the pub stood around them watching. What she did know was that she couldn't keep this up forever, casting spell after spell back-to-back like this was burning through her magic, and she was quickly approaching a limit where she wouldn't be able to keep going. Someone put a hand on her shoulder, but she ignored it to focus on Harry and kept casting. She barely noticed another person kneeled on Harry's other side. "It's OK, we got this. Let us do our job now."
Hermione turned and found that the witch who had put her hand on her shoulder was wearing the lime green robes that were the uniform of the healers at St. Mungo's. "I have to keep vanishing the foam or he can't breathe." Hermione insisted weakly.
"My colleague can do that now, you sit down and get your energy back up." The witch said in a tone of authority that Hermione was too tired to fight against. She looked at the colleague the witch had indicated and found a wizard who looked like he was younger than her real age already vanishing the foam from Harry's lungs. Hermione slid out of the way, but stayed close to Harry holding his hand.
The witch started waving her wand over Harry, casting diagnostic spells all over him. "OK, it's not a virus, not a bacteria, I don't detect any curses or hexes that have gone out of control…bloody hell the boy's been poisoned." The healer was muttering to herself, but Hermione was close enough to hear her and her eyes went wide.
The healer put a hand in her bag and pulled out what looked like a stone, which Hermione realised must be a bezoar "OK, I'm going to need you to swallow this for me young man, do you think you can do that?" She held up the stone for Harry to see, but he shook his head no. "OK, I have a charm that can help, just let me pop this in your mouth." Harry didn't object and the healer quickly put the bezoar in his mouth, and with a quick wave of her wand the stone shot down Harry's throat.
"The foaming is slowing. It should stop in a few minutes," The younger healer who had taken over from Hermione told the other.
"It hurts." Harry was able to choke out a few words now that the foam coming from his lungs was slowing and he wasn't having to fight for every breath.
The witch answered him. "The poison didn't just fill your lungs with foam, it was also burning away at your stomach. The bezoar neutralised the poison, but it didn't fix the damage that was already done. You are going to have to come to St. Mungo's for at least the next few days, but you should make a full recovery." Hermione relaxed hearing that, and after a bit of fussing around, Hermione and the witch healer both busied themselves collecting samples of what Harry had been eating; the healer so they could run tests on it and Hermione so she should give samples to the D.M.L.E. Then Hermione and the two healers supporting Harry between them disappeared into the Floo to St. Mungo's Hospital.
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"OK Miss Granger, can you please tell me what happened from your point of view?" Kingsley Shacklebolt asked Hermione. Harry was sleeping next to her, a dreamless sleep potion allowing him to remain unconscious while his digestive system and lungs were still damaged to the point of agony. Hermione had refused point blank to leave his side, which was why the Auror she knew well from the Order of the Phoenix was asking his questions here. It was difficult for Hermione not to react when Kingsley had walked through the door with her mother, who was there because Hermione was a minor (at least legally) and needed an adult to be questioned by the D.M.L.E.; from her perspective the man was an old friend, whereas he had never met her in his life.
Hermione explained how she and Harry had been out in Hogsmeade on a date and how Harry had just started choking in the middle of dinner. Kingsley had written down everything she said and was surprised when Hermione told him that she had also collected samples of what Harry had been eating for them to test. "If you can determine whether it was in what he had at the Three Broomsticks, then it could help work out who poisoned Harry, right?" Hermione asked.
"Normally yes, but in this case we already know who did the poisoning. Madam Rosmerta has already admitted it." That shocked Hermione, Madam Rosmerta had never been against Harry or anyone else for that matter. The woman operated under the rule that as long as you behaved yourself in her pub then you were welcome. "It looks like she was placed under the Imperius Curse and forced to poison Mr. Potter." That made more sense to Hermione, but then she realised this exact thing had happened last time. Malfoy had Imperiused Madam Rosmerta to poison a bottle of mead meant for Dumbledore, which ended up poisoning Ron after he had gotten dosed with a love potion meant for Harry. Hermione hadn't been involved in that incident, she had only been told about it later, so she hadn't connected the two incidents straight away.
Hermione debated internally if she could point the Aurors at Malfoy in a way that was believable. She would need more than just "It was Malfoy, I know he did it." In the end, she decided that she would talk it over with Harry when he woke up. She and Shacklebolt talked for a bit more as he asked questions and Hermione told him everything she could, then the man left Hermione alone in the room with her mother and an unconscious Harry.
"So you and Harry were on a date. When did the two of you finally admit you are dating?" Emma Granger asked with a sad smile on her face.
"Harry asked me to be his girlfriend at Christmas, we are taking things slowly, we don't want to risk our friendship if this doesn't work," Hermione explained as she took Harry's hand and held it.
Her mother shook her head in the way that Hermione knew meant that she thought her daughter was being naive. "Hermione, I don't think you have much to worry about in that regard, though you and I are going to be having a long talk when you get home this summer."
Hermione blushed, she could remember what talk her mother had planned and it had been embarrassing enough the first time. "Mum, Harry and I aren't anywhere near there yet." Hermione wined in the way teens can only do with their parents.
Emma Granger gave her daughter a hard look. "Hermione, you spend nine months of the year in a boarding school. Even if you aren't ready for sex yet, can you honestly say you won't be by next Christmas? Or Valentine's Day? We will talk this summer, or you won't be going back to Hogwarts. I'm sure we can find an all-witches school for you."
"Fine, we can talk, just don't expect me to be enthusiastic about this," Hermione capitulated. "Now can we drop this in front of Harry, please?" She definitely didn't want Harry to hear any of this.
A/N
this chapter wasn't in the original plan, but I couldn't believe that Malfoy would go any longer without doing something. I know you might not like where this chapter ended but before you all start looking for your pitchforks think you will love what happens next chapter.
I love reading your reviews.
