A/N again some of these words, okay many of these words come straight from the books and are strictly the work of the great JKR I hold no claim on them whatsoever and would never dare to, though as it fits the story characters have been changed
1/8/2000
Hermione,
My darling, I apologize if this makes you uncomfortable but I must say it at least this once, it is how I think of you and I feel like you should know that. I am sending a couple of vials of memories from fourth year. The first of my memories that you viewed were from the end of fourth year these will be from summer, the World Cup and the middle of the school year at the Yule Ball. Before you view my memories I'd like for you to show Harry your memories from the World Cup as I imagine they will be different. If I had to venture a guess I'd say that in your memories will be either Theo, Vince, or Greg rather than me. Actually I would be surprised if it's Theo as he has appeared in other memories, I think the Unspeakable really tried to keep from having one person taking my place. My theory is they thought that that would make it less likely that you would make the connection. Harry has already drawn out a copy of his memories of the same time for you to watch after you view mine. These are memories that I think might result in yours changing much as the memories from first year did, you'll have to let me know what happens after you make a new copy of your memories in a few days. We're nearing the end or at least past the halfway point of what I have to share. I'm trying to hold out hope that we will still find the magic button that will bring it all back for you; I may need you to help me stay positive. I'll leave you with a wish that all goes well this time.
Always yours,
Draco
Hermione turned to Harry after reading the letter, "I heard the floo earlier. I assume Poppy is waiting somewhere just in case."
Harry nodded, "She's waiting in the kitchen. Kreacher made her some tea. He was thrilled to have someone other than you and me to wait on."
"So I can also assume that at least one of the memories we will see today have more emotion and Draco is afraid they might again overwhelm me."
Again he nodded this time continuing, "After the World Cup game everything that happened there. Go ahead and pull out your memories of that day so we can watch them, if you can keep it to just the match and right after that would probably be best."
She closed her eyes for a several minutes then held her wand to her temple and withdrew a long silvery strand that she sent into the bowl. Harry joined her, chanted over her, and they dove in landing in the top box of the Quidditch World Cup stadium where Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys sat with Fudge, the Bulgarian minister, and Winky the house elf. Edging along the second row to three still-empty seats right behind Mr. Weasley were Vince Goyle with his mother and father.
"Ah Fudge," said Mr Malfoy, holding out his hand as he reached the Minister. "How are you? I don't think you've met my wife, Patricia? Or our son, Gregory?"
"How do you do, how do you do?" said Fudge, smiling and bowing to Mrs. Goyle. "And allow me to introduce you to Mr Oblansk - Obalonsk - Mr. - well, he's the Bulgarian minister of Magic, and he can't understand a word I'm saying anyway, so never mind. And let's see who else - you know Arthur Weasley, I daresay?"
It was a tense moment as Mr. Weasley and Mr. Goyle looked at each other. Mr Goyle's cold eyes swept over Mr. Weasley, and then up and down the row.
"Good lord Arthur," he said softly. "What did you have to sell to get seats in the Top Box? Surely your house wouldn't have fetched this much."
Fudge, who wasn't listening, said, "William has just given a very generous contribution to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, Arthur. He's here as my guest."
"How - how nice," said Mr. Weasley, with a very strained smile.
Mr. Goyle's eyes had returned to young Hermione, who went slightly pink, but stared determinedly back at him. Harry and Hermione both knew what was making Mr. Goyle's lip curl like that. The Goyles prided themselves on being purebloods; in other words the considered anyone of Muggle descent, like Hermione, second-class. However under the gaze of the Minister of Magic, Mr. Goyle didn't dare say anything. He nodded sneeringly to Mr. Weasley and continued down the line to his seats. Greg shot Harry, Ron, and Hermione one contemptuous look, then settled himself between his mother and father.
"Slimy gits," Ron muttered as he, Harry, and Hermione turned to face the field again.
The scene shifted and they were standing in the dark wood. The first sound they heard was Ron yell with pain.
"What happened?" said young Hermione anxiously, stopping so abruptly that Harry walked into her. "Ron where are you? Oh this is stupid - lumos!"
She illuminated her wand and directed its narrow beam across the path. Ron was lying sprawled on the ground.
"Tripped over a tree root," he said angrily, getting to his feet again.
"Well, with feet that size, hard not to," said a drawling voice from behind them.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione turned sharply. Gregory Goyle was standing alone nearby, leaning against a tree, looking utterly relaxed. His arms folded, he seemed to have been watching the scene at the campsite through a gap in the trees.
Ron told Goyle to do something he would never have dared say in front of his mother.
"Language, Weasley," said Goyle, his eyes glittering. "Hadn't you better be hurrying along, now? You wouldn't want her spotted, would you?"
He nodded at Hermione, and at the same moment, a blast like a bomb sounded from the campsite, and a flash of green light momentarily lit the trees around them.
"What's that supposed to mean?" said Hermione defiantly.
"Granger, they're after Muggles," said Goyle. "D'you want to be showing off your knickers in midair? Because if you do, hang around...they're moving this way, and it would give us all a laugh."
"Hermione's a witch," Harry snarled.
"Have it your own way Potter," said Goyle, grinning maliciously. "If you think they can't spot a Mudblood, stay where you are."
"You watch your mouth!" shouted Ron.
"Never mind, Ron," Hermione said quickly, seizing Ron's arm to restrain him as he took a big step toward Goyle.
There came a bang from the other side of the trees that was louder than anything they had heard. Several people nearby screamed. Goyle chuckled softly.
"Scare easily, don't they?" he said lazily. "I suppose your daddy told you all to hide? What's he up to - trying to rescue the Muggles?"
"Where're your parents?" said Harry, his temper rising. "Out there wearing masks are they?"
Goyle turned his face to Harry, still smiling.
"Well… if they were, I wouldn't be likely to tell you, would I, Potter?"
"Oh, come on," said Hermione with a disgusted look at Malfoy, "let's go and find the others."
"Keep that big bushy head down, Granger," sneered Goyle.
"Come on," Hermione repeated, and she pulled Harry and Ron up the path again."
"I'll bet you anything his dad is one of that masked lot!" said Ron hotly.
As young Hermione responded the memory faded and the adults found themselves back in the present.
"That was odd," she said.
"How?" Harry asked.
"Goyle rarely ever spoke and when he did he never sounded that intelligent. If I had come upon that memory on my own for whatever reason I would have been suspicious. Theo or Blaise would have made more sense, but I guess the Unspeakable didn't know that. Actually Theo's father was also a Death Eater so he would have been the best choice. Draco must be right they were trying to keep from making it all about one person that I might have a particularly negative reaction to if I came across them in the course of a normal day. It would have made the most sense to make it Crabbe as he's the one who tried to kill me and as he's dead there's no possibility of my encountering him and saying anything about what he had supposedly done to me," she paced about the room as she spoke.
Harry considered her, "Maybe you should train for a job as an obliviator or unspeakable. You're certainly brighter."
"I'm brighter than over half the staff at the Ministry," she retorted. "That doesn't mean I'd want to do to someone else what has been done to me."
He held up both hands in front of him, "Okay, okay. You're right. So are you ready to try watching Draco's memories and see how they differ?"
"And then yours?" she asked.
"We could, or I could just tell you what I remember differently."
"Let's decide after watching Draco's."
After swapping out the silvery strands they again leapt into the past.
They found themselves again in the top box of the Quidditch World Cup stadium with all of the same people in the box. This time however edging along the second row to three still-empty seats right behind Mr. Weasley were Lucius, Draco, and Narcissa.
"Ah Fudge," said Mr Malfoy, holding out his hand as he reached the Minister. "How are you? I don't think you've met my wife, Narcissa? Or our son, Draco?
The rest of the memory carried on much the same with Draco and his parents in the place of Greg and his. Before long they were back in the darkened woods hearing Ron yell in pain. As they watched, young Hermione lit her wand, Ron got to his feet complaining, and the snide comment this time came from the blond who was rapidly becoming a familiar face.
It was Malfoy was standing alone nearby, leaning against a tree, though not looking quite as relaxed as Goyle had. His arms were folded however and he was watching the scene at the campsite through a gap in the trees.
Ron this time told Malfy to do something he would never have dared say in front of his mother. Malfoy responded by commenting on his language and nodding at Hermione while telling them they should get her out of sight. The scene again carried on in much the same way with the main difference being that Malfoy was nearly emotionless while Goyle had been snide and nasty.
When they were once again standing next to the table she looked at him, "So is that what you remember?"
"That is much closer to what I remember."
"What's different?"
"I think if we watched my memories the way he spoke would be closer to how Goyle talked in your memories but that could be a matter of perspective. One thing I've learned in auror training is you can ask ten different people questions about the same event and get ten slightly if not wildly different versions. The fact that they way he remembers it is just slightly different from how I remember it is really negligible."
"Negligible?" she raised an eyebrow.
"Auror training," he answered her unspoken question.
"Now on to the Yule Ball? Do we need to watch my memories of the night first?"
"Not unless you clearly recall any of the Slytherins being there for anything."
She thought then shook her head, "No, can't say that I do. I'm sure they were there but I don't recall noticing any of them at any point."
"Ok then, let's try this next one."
When they landed in the front hall they saw Harry and Ron with Parvati and Padma, off to the side a group of Slytherins came up the front steps from their dungeon common room. Malfoy was in front; he was wearing dress robes of black velvet with a high collar.
"I still think he looks like a vicar," Harry whispered just barely dodging the elbow that came at his side.
Pansy Parkinson in very frilly robes of pale pink was clutching Malfoy's arm.
"Pansy came with Blaise," Hermione said, "at least that's what I remember."
Crabbe and Goyle were both wearing green and neither of them had a partner.
The oak front doors opened, and everyone turned to look as the Durmstrang students entered with Professor Karkaroff. Krum was at the front of the party, accompanied by a pretty girl in blue robes. Everyone was whispering to one another trying to figure out who the girl in blue was.
"Granger?" Malfoy said his jaw dropping matched by Pansy at his side not a one of them uttered a word as she walked past them with Krum, the other champions and their dates.
"Who knew she had it in her," Pansy said snidely, "Of course it must have taken a right load of Sleekeazy's to get her hair to look like anything other than it's normal explosion of frizz."
Draco just hmmed in response still staring after Hermione and the others.
The scene shifted. Harry and Ron were sitting at their table in the Great Hall, with the Patil twins, well with Padma as Parvati had just gotten up and gone to dance with a boy from Beauxbatons. Hermione came and sat in Parvati's empty chair. She was a bit pink in the face from dancing.
Unseen by the group at the table a certain blond Slytherin sat down at a table behind theirs with his back to them but his head cocked to hear better.
"It's hot, isn't it?" said Hermione, fanning herself with her hand. "Victor's just gone to get some drinks."
Ron gave her a withering look, "Victor?" he said. "Hasn't he asked you to call him Vicky yet?"
Hermione looked at him in surprise, "What's up with you?" she said.
"If you don't know," said Ron scathingly, "I'm not going to tell you."
Hermione stared at him, then at Harry, who shrugged. The blond shook his head.
"Ron, what-?"
"He's from Durmstrang!" spat Ron. "He's competing against Harry! Against Hogwarts! You - you're-" Ron was obviously casting around for words strong enough to describe Hermione's crime, "fraternizing with the enemy, that's what you're doing!"
Draco stifled a laugh.
Hermione's mouth fell open.
"Don't be so stupid!" she said after a moment. "The enemy! Honestly - who was the one who was all excited when they saw him arrive? Who was the one who wanted his autograph? Who's got a model of him up in their dormitory?"
Ron chose to ignore this. "I s'pose he asked you to come with him while you were both in the library?"
"Yes, he did," said Hermione, the pink patches on her cheeks glowing more brightly. "So what?"
"What happened - trying to get him to join spew, were you?"
"Spew?" they heard Draco mutter.
"No, I wasn't! If you really want to know, he - he said he'd been coming up to the library every day to try and talk to me, but he hadn't beeen able to plck up the courage!"
Hermione said this very quickly, and blushed so deeply that she was the same color as Parvati's robes.
"Yeah, well - that's his story," said Ron nastily.
"And what's that supposed to mean?
"Obvious, isn't it? He's Karkaroff's student, isn't he? He knows who you hang around with… He's just trying to get closer to Harry - get inside information on him - or get near enough to jinz him-"
"Idiot," Malfoy breathed.
Hermione looked as though Ron had slapped her. When she spoke her voice quivered.
"For your information, he hasn't asked me one single thing about Harry, not one -"
Ron changed tack at the speed of light.
"Then he's hoping you'll help him find out what his egg means! I supposed you've been putting your heads together during those cozy little library sessions -"
"I"d never help him work out that egg!" said Hermione, looking outraged, "Never. How could you say something like that - I want Harry to win the tournament, Harry knows that, don't you, Harry?"
"You've got a funny way of showing it," sneered Ron.
"This whole tournament's supposed to be about getting to know foreign wizards and making friends with them!" said Hermione hotly.
"No it isnt!" shouted Ron. "It's about winning!"
People were starting to stare at them.
"Ron," said Harry quietly, "I haven't got a problem with Hermione coming with Krum -"
But Ron ignored Harry too.
"Why don't you go and find Vicky, he'll be wondering where you are," said Ron.
"Don't call him Vicky!"
Hermione jumped to her feet and stormed off across the dance floor.
Malfoy stood shaking his head, said "Bloody fool!" and followed her slowly ambling so as not to seem to be following her. The two adults also followed. They watched young Hermione rush into Myrtle's loo and Draco stood leaning against a column hidden from sight watching the door to the loo. Once or twice he took a step out from the pillar and towards the door then shook his head and stepped back. After several minutes he vigorously shook his head, laughed ruefully, stepped out and headed back into the Great Hall. As he passed they heard him talking to himself, "Bloody fool, stupid ginger, stupid me too. What was I thinking? Well I wasn't that's all, just because she looks like that tonight…" he stopped looked back at the door and then shook his head again firmly and kept on walking. With that the memory faded away.
"Was that it?" she asked.
"That's all the memories he sent this time," Harry confirmed, "Guess we didn't really need Poppy for this one, but better safe than sorry. I'll go let her know she can get back to Hogwarts. Do you want to go there?"
She shook her head.
"Are you sure? The Floo is going to be open anyway, we could go through."
"No," she said, "My memories aren't that different, the only change was Blaise instead of Draco with Pansy but I don't remember any of the Slytherins being around when Ron was being a prat so I don't think it would help, besides unless it was decorated or set up the way it was at the Yule Ball it would just be like it was for so many other memories. All in all this set seemed kind of innocuous. Really what was the point?"
"I think he just wanted you to know that he had started to see and think of you differently by that point. I'll send Poppy on her way," he paused at the door, "Do you want to go to the forest from the World Cup?"
Again she shook her head, "No, I can just rewatch those memories if I want, though I don't know that it's necessary. Some things just don't need to be relived."
"Ok then, I'll leave you to...whatever."
She laughed as he left the room and picked up the parchment that had come with the vials to read the letter again. She wondered if he was right and there would be a small change to her own memories this time as with first year but unlike with the first year memories, even though these were smaller and less important she was going to take her time with the viewings. She hated to admit that everyone else was right but it wasn't worth possible permanent damage to her mind to rush through besides if she took more time she could take the time to write down more of what she was seeing and observing it might help. In that vein she picked up a quill and a blank piece of parchment and began to write.
