A/N: Hey! This story has been fun to write, but I'm sorry to say that it will be coming to an end quite shorter than I anticipated. I thought about going on a hiatus for awhile, but I know that I'd likely end up deleting it eventually instead of finishing it. That being said, since I am going to kind of rush the ending, if it turns out I've left any plot holes or unanswered question, please lmk! I really enjoyed writing this while I was, but now I've lost a lot of motivation for it (sub-par excuse ik ;-;) There'll probably be another 5 chapters or less after this that will tie the story together. Thanks for all the kind words and support so far! And I hope you enjoy this chapter 333
"Hi, Hermione," a familiar voice spoke. The young witch was currently reading a book in her secret nook in the library- a place only few knew of. The girl looked ahead from the place she sat and faced Viktor- he looked sullen and guilty, a look he often had since he discovered Ron in the forrest.
Since that incident, Ron was having a good recovery. He was still bound to the hospital bed and couldn't remember the attack, but he was awake and was frequented by people as often as possible. He enjoyed the attention, and so Hermione didn't worry about him the same she would Harry when he'd end up in the hospital. She visited him whenever she could, but knew that even when he was alone, Ron would be just fine.
Viktor visited Ron too, sometimes in private and sometimes in a group. He even went to the effort of getting Ron a Bulgarian quidditch team jersey signed by all the members. Ron loved the gift a lot, and Viktor was happy that he could cheer the boy up, but regardless Hermione could tell in his eyes that he was keeping something to himself and it was eating him up inside.
"Hey Viktor," Hermione replied to him. He took a seat across from her on the window ledge, looking out the window and then back to her.
"I need to tell you the full story… about Ronald," he started. Hermione put her book down to listen. "That day I was supposed to train where I found Fred. Headmaster Karkaroff gave me strict instructions and directions, but I disobeyed. I was angry at the man for all his lies and manipulations, I didn't consider the directions for a reason. And even when I trained, I could hear someone scream in pain."
Hermione stared at him, his face was stone cold but his eyes were watery. "The forrest makes noises- bad ones to scare people off- so I ignored it. I didn't think that it was real, that as I train I was listening to Ronald get hurt. I'm so very sorry, Hermione."
Viktor looked up expecting Hermione to be angry, but was surprised to see that she smiled at him softly, tapping her fingers on the face of her book.
"You shouldn't feel so guilty Viktor. If Karkaroff knew Ron was going to be there, then it's his own fault for not going to protect a student- or literally telling anyone else. And same goes, those forests are dangerous in the first place. It's bad enough that you had to train there, ignoring those sounds are what you're supposed to do when you're there. You did everything right, so don't beat yourself up,"
Viktor smiled genuinely at this, and hopped back down so he could leave. The two shared a few more words of reassurance, and Hermione was glad to know the full truth. She didn't mention it, but she was considerably angry at Karkaroff. It was bad enough the man was controlling Fred, but he was also a guide in Ron's assault. It was frustrating, and Hermione didn't care for the fact that she didn't know his intentions. Before Viktor could leave, she stopped him once more.
"Why would Karkaroff know Ron was going to be attacked? Or try and prevent it?"
"I don't know. I could imagine Ronald knew something nobody else did, but…"
"They would have killed him if it was as serious as it seems," Hermione answered for him. She felt sick to her stomach at the thought, but forced the feeling down. The worst of it all seemed to be the fact that Rons attack didn't feel like the climax. Viktor left soon after this discussion and Hermione tried and failed to get back to her reading. Something was going on here that didn't make any sense at all, and as guilty as she knew Karkaroff was, she felt in her gut that this mystery man had played an even bigger part in Rons attack.
With this at the front of her mind, Hermione got up from her seat and made her way to the last place she wanted to be- Snapes office. She only had a few minutes before her free period was up and she'd have to make her way to potions, and hoped that he was there for her to talk to. When Hermione finally did reach the door, the vicinity of the castle was completely empty, and Snapes door was closed. Behind said door, the girl could hear rumbling around. Hermione wasn't afraid, the word for her feeling would have been intimidated. But true to her spirit, she knocked loudly on the door and waited for a response. Nobody responded to this, and Hermione waited a tad longer before knocking once more. The rummaging inside continued on despite her attempt at getting attention and after a failed third attempt, the girl opened the door a creak to see the professor inside.
"Professor Snape? I need to talk to you urgently," she began. The room inside went quiet and a sickly feeling ran through her body. Instead of going forward, Hermione closed the door behind her and walked away quickly. Something inside of her knew that whoever was in that office wasn't Snape, and she would now prove it. The girl walked as fast as she could- practically running- away from the office. She was too afraid to look back, and was soon relieved when she turned a corner and found a group of Hufflepuff students walking in her direction. With the reassurance of others, Hermione finally turned her head and, as expected nobody was behind her. The girl exhaled in relief and went on her way looking for Snape. She had his class soon enough and would see him there, but wanted to talk to him in private.
When she finally reached the classroom, he was at the end of a class. Hermione could see Angelina and George sitting at the front- no Fred in sight though. Even more relieved by this, Hermione stood outside the classroom patiently until everyone began to shuffle out.
"You're awfully early to class," Angelina remarked once she and her boyfriend exited.
"Need to talk to Snape," she replied. Hermione didn't look at George. He reminded her too much of Fred, and he hadn't shown any particular niceness to her since she and the other twin split up. She missed George from time to time- the cheeky comments and practical jokes, but Hermione knew things would go back to normal once Fred was dealt with. As the class exited, Hermione soon found that he hadn't been present in the first place and kept that fact to herself for later reference. Once cleared, the witch walked in and straight to Snapes office.
"Yes, Miss Granger?" he asked impatiently. Hermione wanted to be smug, but now wasn't the time to reciprocate the teachers attitude.
"I went to your office to find you but it seemed somebody was in there rummaging through your things," Hermione replied. Snape's typical hostility instantly dropped and was replaced by alertness and concern as he rose to his feet and started for the door. "There's something else, professor."
"What is it?" he asked quickly, wanting to hurry to his office.
"On different occasions I've overheard a man nearby your office reciting ingredients… for polyjuice potion. I thought you may want to know."
"And you didn't tell me earlier because?"
"Because I thought you'd take insult and deduct points from my house," Hermione sneered. She didn't want to show attitude, but couldn't help it seeing his. Snape ignored this completely and went on, Hermione followed but he was already ahead.
With his head facing forward, Snape spoke quickly. "Make yourself useful and write on the board that class is allocated to study. Pages 514 to 520, as well as page 695. If you're as clever as you act, you'll be able to come up with a suitable activity- nothing dangerous, Granger. Take full authority or your house will suffer the consequences. That is all." and with that, the teacher was gone. Hermione re-entered the classroom completely distracted by the teachers instructions and quickly went to work trying to come up with a suitable activity. The topic the pages covered related to their previously discussed topics, so it was simple enough for Hermione to understand the area the class was studying.
By the time the any other student entered, Hermione had masterfully charmed the chalk stick to begin writing the instructions from Snape as well as the activity she had come up with- find out what potions could me made using the same ingredients for the memory potion they were currently learning about, heavily based on her own recent endeavours. Nobody knew where Snape was, but Hermione quickly explained that he was busy and left a 'watch ball' in charge of the class. She simply lied in telling that he could see them all and would be deducting points for misbehaviour. It worked. After some snide comments from some of the Slytherin students, the classroom finally settled and everyone went about their studies.
It was towards the end of the class that Snape entered, angry and frustration. He scolded at Hermione as he entered, which left a chill down her spine, but let the class continue on. "I see Miss Granger has done a fair job at keeping you all under control. Needless to say, I was expecting total chaos. Regardless, the activity you have planned is arbitrary and fairly useless. If any of you have started on this meaningless task, dispose of it immediately and follow my notes on what will be the homework."
Hermione scoffed at the teachers comment, but let it go. She had far greater worries than what Snape thought about her, and she knew that if Draco had come up with it his opinion would have swayed greatly. Regardless of her offence, Hermione waited behind after the class to speak with Snape about his findings. Harry was waiting for her outside as the teacher went about reading from parchments, seeming to ignore her existence totally.
"Did you end up finding the man in your office, professor?" she asked as nicely as she could.
"What business is it to you, Granger?"
"I'd rather not get into that. But this man may be a person of interest for other incidents concerning myself." she replied, once again forcing an unnatural niceness.
"The man was not there, but things were missing. I'd thank you for your help if it had done any good, but I've known somebody has been stealing from me for some time now."
The conversation, like most with Snape, was useless and left Hermione with a bad taste in her mouth. Finally, Hermione huffed and walked out of the classroom unsatisfied.
Harry was quick to her side as they made their way to their next class. Hermione finally told him about Viktors words and how she finally came clean to Snape, which was as useless as anything else. Hermione was, like her friends, sick of the strange mystery. Fred was being controlled and Ron was in hospital, yet Dumbledore was acting calm about it all. He saw what Viktor did, which included Karkaroffs insinuation about the forrest, so why was nobody investigating further? Was the tournament really that important? After all one of the contestants was a likely threat to others.
The day came and went, as did the silent dinner. With Ron in hospital and Fred being a cause for concern, there was no real enthusiasm at the table, Ginny leaving early to go to the dorms while Harry and Hermione decided to go visit their friend. When they made it up to the hospital wing, Luna was sitting at the end of Rons bed eating her dinner. Hermione supposed it was due to her good relationship with about every living thing in Hogwarts that she had the privilege of eating her meals outside of the hall. As Harry and Hermione approached, the pair looked over with deeply worried faces. Hermione and Harry stood either side of him.
"Whats wrong?" Harry asked.
"Just woke up a bit ago, really. Madame Pomphrey gave me a drink to help remember what had happened and…"
"You know what happened?" Hermione piped.
"Yeah… About that…" he trailed. He looked uncomfortable and sad- painfully sad. "You know when Luna said she saw Fred and Karkaroff in the room of requirements? That was a lie. I wanted to go back to pick up a sweater I left in there and found them, and Fred saw me. I ran off but I didn't want to say anything because I was so afraid. He looked so angry."
Hermione felt like she knew what was coming next, but didn't want to believe it.
"The day I got called into Moody's office, he kind of yelled at me… It was weird, and then I left and Fred was outside-"
Before he could continue, Luna cut in. "What did Moody say?" she already knew, but she wanted the others to hear.
"He said we were treading a thin line, and something about a prophecy we couldn't help. It was uncomfortable, and he seemed angry too. And so I left, and Fred was there saying he needed help with something. I haven't spoken to Fred in months, so I was happy- you know? And we went into the forbidden forrest…"
Both Harry and Hermione's guts wrenched as their friend physically cringed at the memory. Luna continued for him, holding Rons hands tightly.
"Fred used crucio on Ron. Dumbledores already heard the news, but nobody can find Fred anywhere. They're going to expel him and take him to St. Mungo's once they do."
Hermione felt light headed and ill, Harry quite similar. Fred had already fallen out of their reach of saving and Hermione felt terribly guilty for it. If only she'd tried to keep him around and help him instead of pushing him away at the first sign of trouble. It was a lot to take in, even more so when they considered Ron. Ron who looked up to Fred and followed him blindly to the forrest. And why did Karkaroff want Viktor to be there, too? To catch Fred? Or maybe even to help him? Or was it to get Viktor hurt too? It was an awful lot to think about, but for the meantime they sat by Ron's side and held him close, trying to console his hurt and loss of a brother. It wasn't long after they were hugging that Dumbledore, followed by Ginny and George, entered the hospital wing. Dumbledore kindly asked the other three to leave so the family could discuss the current situation.
Hermione couldn't help but feel for Molly and Arthur. They were going to find out that their son was a victim of possession, and that he had tried to torture- maybe even kill- their other son. And that he was missing. Hermione and Harry walked Luna to her common room in silence and then back to their own- each going to bed quite early that night as they thought about the fate of the Weasely family.