Chapter 11: Attentions

"This is War" by 30 Seconds to Mars.

"The diary was destroyed five years ago," Voldemort said as he paced the room in front of his gathered Death Eaters. "The ring is gone. The goblet and glove are gone. The locket is gone. Nagini is all that's left, but she didn't die from a fatal wound. What are we missing?"

"The glove is the only thing that Potter, Weasley, and Granger might have use for," Lucius Malfoy offered. "Perhaps they kept the glove, my Lord?"

"If Dumbledore coached them, they'll know better than to not destroy a Horcrux," Voldemort said dismissively.

"There have been no substantial traces of them since they fled Knockturn Alley," Macnair commented.

"Maybe the Order knows where they are?" Bellatrix offered, "The three of them ran away from the Order, but there was a care package of food in their room in Knockturn. Who would've sent the package but Order members? They must be maintaining some contact."

"Probably anonymous contact, Aunt Bellatrix," Draco said tentatively. "Potter, Granger, and Weasley probably choose new owls every time they contact the Order. The recipients would just send the same owl back to the same location, without ever actually knowing the location."

"You've thought a lot about his, Draco," Snape commented.

"Everyone here already knows the ideas I used to enable the Hogwarts break-in weren't actually my own," Draco said. "They were things Granger came up with that I found out about. It's nothing I'm proud to admit, but Granger is the best in or year at school. Potter and Weasley are more likely to slip up. They're all impulse and action, but Granger's more steady. Trust me, even if Potter and Weasley didn't think of it themselves, Granger will have known better than to set up any kind of traceable contact between the three of them and the Order."

"Very good, Draco," Voldemort drawled, staring at his youngest Death Eater with amusement. "Any contact they've made with the Order will have been discreet. When we have no other leads to follow, however... anything that can help us find and kill Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and Harry Potter is of value to us."

"Ron," Harry said, coming out of the kitchen to meet Ron in the Grangers' living room, "Dumbledore sent a letter. Snape told him Voldemort's getting desperate for us to throw him a bone. They're talking about going after the Order. We have to run a distraction."

"If any of them see us without Hermione, they'll get suspicious," Ron said.

"Of what?" Harry argued, "They know she'd not dead. They're not going to think of anything close to the truth. It'll just confuse them more. That's a good thing, Ron."

"What do we do, then?" Ron conceded.

"Fake another attempt to kill Nagini or something," Harry said. "Make them think we've got no clue about the Horcrux slip-up either. Keep them away from the Order. Make them think they're getting to us. We've got to keep them from looking any deeper into what happened with the locket."

Hermione's first days of classes were relatively uneventful. She was racking up a lot of house points for Gryffindor. Defense Against the Dark Arts went particularly well. The professor was introducing the class to how to cast Patronuses. When the professor asked the class if anyone had attempted the charm before, Hermione answered by sending her otter Patronus frolicking around the classroom. She won Gryffindor fifty house points in that class. Only Snape, Lily, and James came close to casting a corpeal Patronus during the class period, but they still came up short.

"You only got an E on your O.W.L.s for that subject?!" Sirius vented after they'd left that class. "Did your practical performance judge have a bad encounter with a Memory Modification Charm before he issued scores?"

"I ran out of time before I could do a Patronus demonstration," Hermione said. "I and a couple friends of mine could all cast them in fifth year, but only one of my friends could squeeze it into their exam. They got an O."

"Bloody Hell, you were robbed!" Sirius laughed. Hermione laughed too. She'd come to find, in her first couple days, that she could get away with telling about eighty percent of the truth when asked about her past. As long as she didn't get too particular, or by contrast, disclose so little as to increase curiosity, she wasn't questioned about any minute details that would expose her.

Hermione hadn't really engaged any Slytherins yet, and was glad for it. She had been able to get her bearings by speaking regularly with her Gryffindor friends. She knew being comfortable with her position and knowing what the Pensive Perfume would and wouldn't accommodate for was essential to her success. She took advantage of the warm-up rounds. The real games began that night, when she was walking through an unusually empty library, enjoying looking through some books that were no longer in stock in her time.

"Do you really have to be in here, Granger?" A voice that sounded almost exactly like Draco Malfoy drawled. When Hermione turned around, she saw his father, looking much like his son even though he wore his hair longer. Crabbe and Goyle's fathers were also with him. Hermione bit back a laugh at the dark, surreal humor in her position.

"And why wouldn't I be in here, Malfoy?" She said, "You do realize that studying is a large part of getting good marks in class?"

"Oh, she does know who we are," Goyle laughed.

"Who we are, but not who we can be," Malfoy added threateningly. "Otherwise, she wouldn't be acting so tough."

"Who's acting?" Hermione countered coolly, "Remember, you don't know who I can be either." Hermione glared at each of the boys in front of her before she continued on, even more boldly. "As for who you can be," she spoke harshly, "the Dark Marks on your arms are no threat in and of themselves. They say nothing of skill or power." Malfoy, Goyle, and Crabbe all had their wands drawn in an instant. Hermione had hers out only a fraction of a second behind them. No one attacked.

"How many of us do you know about, you filthy half-blood?" Malfoy growled after a moment. Hermione blinked when he didn't call her Mudblood. Remembering her cover, she glared back.

"All of you," she said coolly. "I'm no fool, Malfoy. I know a dark wizard when I see one. I've dated a Durmstrang. I've met several others."

"A Durmstrang?" Crabbe prodded, more calmly, "Who?"

"Right," Hermione laughed harshly, "switch from threatening me to making small talk, and just expect me to play along?"

"If you've been so close to other dark wizards, why are you threatening us?" Malfoy countered with equal verve.

"They didn't underestimate me," Hermione responded, moving a little closer. "I don't take such an insult lightly. As for your challenge to my blood purity, by the way, you do know that your master is half-blood, don't you?" Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were positively fuming, but Hermione had a gut feeling to press on. "And Snape? Snape is a muggle family. Severus Snape is half-blood too, but he's one of your own, and he receives no venom from you. How am I different?"

"You're friends with Potter, Evans, Sirius Black, and their other friends," Malfoy hissed.

"Among them, that traitor, Peter Pettigrew?" Hermione countered, and she knew she'd delivered the winning blow.

"How do you know about him?" Malfoy hissed, "He's not even marked yet. He's only recently been talking with us about it."

"Like I said," Hermione replied evenly, "I can tell." There was a long, tense silence, with the three Slytherins exchanging deathly glares with the Gryffindor. Goyle's glare broke first.

"Was it Karkaroff?" He asked, "The Durmstrang you were with?" Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, but she felt a surge of satisfaction at her clear triumph. His attempt to pry into such a small detail of her argument against them was a sign of desperation to top her.

"No," she said icily. "He graduated six years ago, genius! I was too young!" And Karkaroff wouldn't remember who any of the first year Beauxbatons were during his seventh year, so he couldn't discredit her argument if they asked him about her. With those last words to the Slytherins, Hermione pocketed her wand, knowing they weren't going to attack her, and glared daggers at them once more before storming out of the library. She smiled broadly once she'd put plenty of distance between herself and the Death Eaters. 'That battle was well chosen, and well fought,' she thought to herself, 'and perfectly won.'

Hermione had her first double Potions class the day after her encounter with Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. Some of her Gryffindor friends, true to their word, huddled close to her when Slughorn announced he would be choosing partners who would work together on different potions he needed to restock his stores. Hermione's friends were vying to be paired with her, but Slughorn had other plans.

"I'll need four particularly skilled pairs to brew more difficult potions that I need," he told the class as he assigned partners. "Lupin and Sirius Black, Bellatrix Black and Regulus Black, Evans and Potter, Snape and Granger." Hermione looked at Slughorn, startled. This was her first class with him and he chose her? And to work with Snape? Slughorn was expecting her surprise.

"Castle gossip reaches staff as much as students, Ms. Granger," he said, his eyes twinkling. "Your other professors are singing your praises, and students seem to know of stunning O.W.L. scores, including an O in Potions! I'd be a fool to not take advantage of such talents! You and Mr. Snape can work at the cauldron closest to my desk, go on." As Hermione walked towards the front cauldron and Snape, every other Gryffindor in the room looked ready to throw something at Slughorn. They had quickly become very protective of Hermione, and they watched her as they would watch at a lamb walking toward a wolf.

Snape and Hermione said nothing to each other, even after Slughorn assigned them a very complex potion used for regrowing body parts lost in particularly horrific Splinching accidents. For the most part, they just looked at what the other was doing to know what to do next. They remained that way until Snape pulled out his potions book for a reference. When he opened the book, Hermione recognized the familiar script inside the cover, claiming the book as the property of the Half-Blood Prince. Snape noted her recognition but interpreted it differently.

"Malfoy told me you know about my father," Snape said softly, so only she could hear him. "I assume you know about my mother then?"

"Eileen Prince," Hermione admitted, matching his low volume. "The name in your book says you favor her. Because she's pureblood?"

"That's one reason," Snape also admitted. When he turned to a different part of the book where Hermione recognized the note about the Levicorpus Jinx, she decided to attempt engaging him further. She laughed softly.

"I was wondering who started 'Levicorpus'," she said. "I never saw it at Beauxbatons, and no Durmstrangs I met knew it, but when I came here I started seeing it used everywhere. You invented it?" Snape's mouth curled into the faintest smile at the hint of approval in her voice.

"Levicorpus, and several others," he whispered proudly. He turned to a different page in the book, very deliberately, and Hermione saw the note about the Sectumsempra Curse.

"Sectumsempra," she quietly read aloud. "Sectum? A cutting curse?" Snape nodded.

"Several," he said darkly. "Deep ones, mainly on the torso." Snape watched Hermione carefully as he spoke, watching for her reaction to such a dark revelation. Hermione kept her face smooth.

"That explains why you noted it as being for enemies," she said calmly. "Have you ever really used it, yet?"

"Only once," Snape answered. "No one around here. During a school term, but outside of the grounds." Hermione nodded, struggling to appear unmoved, and she returned to the potion. Snape did the same, not pressing her further. By the end of class, Snape and Hermione turned in a flawless potion to a beaming Slughorn.

Hermione was barely out of the classroom door when James' hand latched onto her arm and dragged her away from the Slytherins waiting outside the door for Snape. Sirius, Remus, Lily, Peter, and Molly all clustered tightly around them as they headed out of the dungeons, forming a wall of flesh between Hermione and the Slytherins.

"We heard Regulus and Bellatrix talking! You didn't tell us you knew they were Death Eaters!" James finally spoke once the group had broken away from the stream of students going into the Great Hall for dinner and stepped outside onto the snow-covered grounds.

"I wasn't sure you all knew," Hermione lied. "I didn't want to worry you unnecessarily."

"Hermione, we're all joining a group that Dumbledore's forming just for fighting the Death Eaters and Voldemort," Lily said. "He's calling it the Order of the Phoenix."

"We heard Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle almost attacked you in the library," Sirius prodded.

"Almost," Hermione repeated. "I was able to handle it. I'm not as new to fighting dark wizards as you may think." The four Marauders, Lily, and Molly frowned at Hermione for a long pause, looking a little anxious.

"We saw you and Snape talking," Remus said after a moment. "What was he saying to you? Was he threatening you, too?"

"No," Hermione answered. "We were just arguing about part of the potion."

"You're lying to us, now," James said, making Hermione tense slightly, "but we won't push you. Just promise if Snape really tries anything, you will tell us?"

"I promise," Hermione answered.

"Up here," Ron whispered over his shoulder to Harry. "This looks like the place Snape described in the letter. Doesn't look like it could be their main hideout, though. It's too small."

"Finding their main hideout so easily would cause too much suspicion," Harry whispered as he came up beside Ron and looked down at the small, weathered log cabin in front of them. "Finding this place in the middle of this huge forest is a feat in itself. If we found their main base so easily, right after their decision to track down the Order, they'd smell a rat. They might uncover Snape. We don't have to actually do significant damage to make them think we tried. We're just trying to shake them, not provoking them." Ron nodded his understanding. He looked from Harry to the wooden cabin and back again.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" He asked Harry.

"They have to know it was us," Harry said. "That has to be clear."

"WHAT HAPPENED HERE?!" Voldemort shouted over the noise made by Death Eaters blasting through the mass of rubble that used to be one of their hideouts, looking for anything they could salvage. Voldemort had just arrived on the scene and was livid at the sight.

"A controlled fire, my Lord," Macnair called from amongst the rubble. "Lots of fire damage, but it stops less than a foot beyond the original perimeter. Not even one tree singed."

"My Lord!" Bellatrix called out suddenly, "You won't believe this!" Voldemort hurried down to where most of the Death Eaters were gathered around a large area of land they'd cleared of rubble. The ground was still black with ashes, but a strip of lush green grass rose from it, unharmed by the flames. Only when Voldemort reached the cleared area did he see the shape the unharmed grass formed: A lightning bolt.

"They were here," Voldemort seethed. "SEARCH EVERY PIECE OF DEBRIS FOR ANY OTHER TRACE OF THEM!" The Death Eaters sprang apart as though the boom in Voldemort's voice had been an actual explosion and they began their search.

"Could they be looking for Nagini again, my Lord?" Bellatrix asked Voldemort cautiously, "Maybe they found the Horcrux they missed? Maybe—"

"Footprints!"

A few Death Eaters were standing farther up in the trees, on a steep hill. They were squatted down low, examining the ground. "Only two sets," one of them called. "Larger, male prints with a lot of weight on the heel, not made by Granger. Potter and Weasley did this alone!"

"Maybe Granger died destroying the missed Horcrux?" Bellatrix finished her train of thought.

"Granger's not dead," Voldemort said without hesitation. "She's doing something else." Voldemort turned and faced Bellatrix for the first time before he continued. "Gather a team and find out what."