Chapter 17: The Psychic Centaur
"I Put a Spell on You" cover by Marilyn Manson.
"Draco, still no luck finding the Weasleys?" Draco was walking to his room in the hideout when Pettigrew stopped him in the hall.
"Would I be here now if I knew where they were hiding, Wormtail?" Draco spat irritably. Pettigrew smiled mockingly at Draco.
"You don't remember the other name I went by in my animal form, do you?" He asked. Draco glared at him impatiently. "Scabbers?" Pettigrew continued, "In the twelve years I lived with the Weasleys?" Any irritation or disdain in Draco's expression was gone in a flash.
"What are you getting at?" He asked. Pettigrew gestured for Draco to follow him. Draco went along with the game, intrigued. Once the two had reached Pettigrew's bedroom, Pettigrew turned and locked the door behind them.
"Shortly after I staged my own murder to incriminate Sirius Black, I was picked up, in my animal form, by a magic knockoff vendor," Pettigrew explained to Draco. "They ended up selling me to Molly Weasley. She gave me to her son, Percy. In your first year, Percy got an owl and I was given to Ron, and all the Weasleys at Hogwarts became friends with Harry. In your third year, Sirius, Remus, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, worked out the truth and I ran back to what was left of the Dark Lord at the time." Draco rolled his eyes.
"Great story," he said. "Are we getting to the part that will help me find the Weasleys now?"
"Percy Weasley, Draco," Pettigrew said pointedly, "my first owner in my time as a Weasley pet. In your fourth year, he started working as an assistant to the Minister. He started fighting with his family. By your fifth year, he'd completely estranged his family from himself. He has seen his family only once in the past year, and that was only because Scrimgeour brought him along when he was trying to soften up the Weasleys and Harry. He is still part of the family. Have you tried finding Percy Weasley?" Draco's eyes widened.
"Not yet," he said.
Ron was staring across the room at the hand mirror on one of the end tables in the living room, tensely waiting for Hermione's voice to come from it. When Harry walked into the room, the tension in Ron snapped. "Why hasn't she contacted us?!" He said, jumping up and pacing the room restlessly. "It's been almost two whole days! What if Snape and Regulus were lying to her?! What did they do to her at that meeting?!"
"Ron, Hermione's smarter than that," Harry said, though not entirely convincingly. "She wouldn't have gone to that meeting if she had even the slightest feeling that it was a trap. Besides, she told us she was going to use the Protean Charm coins, in case she needed help."
"What if they found those coins on her and thought she was trying to get them all caught?!" Ron said in an unusually high octave, "I just had to have a bloody fight with her that night, and she could be dead!"
"Ron? Is that you?" A voice rose from the two-way mirror. Ron jumped and looked over at the mirror.
"That's not Hermione," he said to Harry, then he ran over to the mirror. Harry was right at his heels. They saw Lily's face in the mirror. "What happened?!" Ron asked, "Where's Hermione?! Is she okay?!"
"Yes, she's okay," Lily said softly. "She's down by the Black Lake with some of the Death Eaters now."
"She's with them again?" Harry asked, "So the meeting went well?"
"A goal was achieved," Lily said grimly. Harry and Ron tensed.
"What happened," Ron asked.
"A hazing ritual, by the sound of it," Lily answered in the same grim tone. "Hermione told me she was hit with an Imperius Curse and a Cruciatus Curse, then immersed in a pool of Boggart Mist that gave her horrible hallucinations." Harry and Ron stared through the mirror at Lily, wide-eyed and speechless. "Regulus practically carried her back up here," Lily continued, "but he told her they accepted her. She spent a lot of the time since then resting and recuperating. One of the Death Eaters slipped her a note this morning, telling her to meet them down at the lake this evening." Harry nodded, but Ron was frowning at the girl in the mirror.
"Why didn't Hermione tell us herself?" He asked. "Before she had to go meet them again, I mean." Lily frowned back at Ron.
"I think she was worried you'd get upset with her again," Lily answered honestly. "Now that she's been taken in by the Death Eaters here, she can't afford to go meet with them already upset from fighting with her friends." Though Lily spoke kindly, Ron looked thoroughly ashamed. "She still really cares for you, Ron," Lily said comfortingly. "That hasn't changed. She's not even very upset with you anymore. She's just under a lot of pressure now. She'll contact you again. Just give her a little more time. James and I fight all the time, but just take a look at the person next to you to see how things worked out for us." Ron and Harry both smiled at that comment, then they heard someone calling Lily. She said goodbye to them and the mirror resumed its natural, inconspicuous state.
When Hermione reached the Black Lake, she was surprised to see only one person waiting for her there: Bellatrix Black. Hermione gripped her wand inside the pocket of her long trench coat.
"Relax, Granger," Bellatrix said. "We're meeting the others in the Dark Forest. One of the centaurs there acts as a recruiter for us, talking with werewolves, vampires, and other centaurs that pass through. Just try to keep up. We wouldn't want you getting lost in there." Bellatrix gave Hermione a wicked smile that said she would love to lose her inside the forest ,then she turned and led Hermione into the trees at a very brisk pace.
Hermione followed Bellatrix closely, smiling inwardly at the thought of how differently Bellatrix would be acting if she knew how many times she, Hermione, had ventured into the Dark Forest before. They went fairly deep into the forest before they came upon a group of nine young wizards speaking with a burly looking centaur with electric blue eyes.
"Ladies, nice of you to join us," Snape drawled from beside the centaur. "Kuja, you'll remember Bellatrix," he said to the centaur, "but you haven't met our new project, Hermione Granger." The centaur, Kuja, moved away from the nine male Death Eaters and trotted over to where the two girls stood. Bellatrix backed away as the centaur circled Hermione as though she were filly for his inspection.
"There's a lot of pain in her," Kuja said in a deep, resonant voice. "She's known more of each joy and sorrow than many of you have. She's clever and strong, but there's a great burden on that bright mind." Kuja stopped in front of Hermione and his piercing eyes locked onto hers before he continued. "Death. She's come close to it several times, and still death follows her closely." Hermione shuddered slightly and a panic rose in her chest at the centaur's insight. His eyes released hers and fell on the bright turquoise otter pin on her jacket. "An otter?" He asked.
"Her Patronus," Macnair answered from among the attentive audience of Death Eaters. Kuja nodded, still looking at Hermione. His thoughtful stare remained on her for another moment before he spoke again.
"Whenever death does finally catch you, Hermione Granger, show it no fear," he said. "As many times as you've evaded it, such an honor is undeserved." The moment Kuja finished speaking to her, he abruptly turned back to the Death Eaters. "The two vampires I was telling you about went chasing after a unicorn just before you arrived here. They will still be wandering the forest somewhere. Keep your eyes open and you will find them." The Death Eaters nodded and Kuja left them, disappearing into the shadows of the forest.
"The way the professors have been enforcing curfew lately, we'll have to hurry and find them if we're going to make this recruit," Rodolphus said, one arm draped around Bellatrix's shoulders.
"We'll split up," Snape said. "Rodolphus, Bellatrix, you two go the way Kuja just went. Nott, Goyle, down the hill to the right. Avery, Crabbe, up the hill to the left. Rabastan, Macnair, down towards the Gray Pond. Regulus, Granger, over by the thestrals' grazing clearing. I'll head in a little deeper along this path. Everyone is responsible for getting themselves back to the castle alive and in one piece. Regulus, be careful with our new girl."
As all the Death Eaters split up into their assigned pairs around her, Hermione made sure her otter pin was secure and checked Garus' watch for the time. Curfew was in three hours. Hermione jumped slightly when Regulus tapped her shoulder.
"Have you ever seen a vampire in person?" He asked her. Hermione nodded. Regulus gestured for Hermione to follow him and he continued speaking to her softly as they walked. "These vampires, Ansil and Stenmun, are infamous for getting overenthusiastic with their attacks. One bite isn't enough for these two. They recently killed a muggle couple. They make themselves too conspicuous, but the Dark Lord hopes they'll act as liaisons." Hermione's stomach turned and she shuddered again. She hadn't heard of these vampires still attacking in her real time. She hoped that was because they no longer existed in her time.
"You looked like you were going to be sick when Kuja was talking about you," Regulus said, looking at Hermione with transparent interest. "He got to you more than any of us did at the Christmas meeting, and that was kind of the point of the meeting."
"Yeah, I figured that much out," Hermione said grimly.
"So, how closely is death following you?" Regulus asked Hermione with an air of compassion that somewhat unbalanced her. She answered him like she might answer a question Harry or Ron asked her, completely at ease.
"Its breath is on the back of my neck," she said. "Back when I was in my first year, it at least walked a few feet behind me, but sometime in the last six years personal space went out the window." Regulus frowned at Hermione.
"I know I'm not going to get much out of you," he said, "but are you up for sharing one encounter?"
"I was attacked by a basilisk once,'" Hermione answered, again with no pretense. "I only ended up petrified."
"A basilisk?" Regulus said incredulously, "You really do have rotten luck. Those things are even rarer than acromantula! Not that I believe encountering a giant spider is much more pleasant than encountering a giant serpent. Hermione?" Hermione had stopped dead in her tracks and looked extremely pale. She had just remembered what lived in the area of the forest Snape had chosen when the Death Eaters split up.
"Regulus, forget the vampires. You have to go get Hagrid, now!" She said, pulling the Marauders' Map out of her jacket pocket without thinking of how Regulus might react. "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good," she said, tapping the parchment with her wand. She and the Death Eaters were off the edge of the map, but she was checking for Hagrid's location. "Hagrid is by the quidditch field! You'll have to hurry!"
"Hermione, why are you using the Marauders' Map?!" Regulus said, startled by her sudden shift in behavior, "And why do we need the half-giant gamekeeper?!"
"There's a whole colony of acromantula in this forest!" Hermione said, "They're out where Snape was headed! He's going to be killed! Hagrid will be his best chance! Trust me! Go and tell him students ran into Aragog!"
"Aragog?" Regulus asked, completely confused.
"JUST GO!" Hermione screamed before she took off through the trees, running deeper into the forest, praying she could reach Snape in time. When she finally saw Snape, two young acromantula were dead at his feet. Hermione rushed down the hill toward him.
"Snape!" She called shrilly, "Snape, we have to get out of here! Those two acromantula aren't the only ones in this part of the forest! A whole colony lives out here!"
"Granger, calm down!" Snape snapped at her, "Two acromantula in this forest is unbelievable. There couldn't be a whole colony here. Where's Regulus?"
"I sent him to get help!" Hermione continued anxiously, "Snape, you don't understand—"
SMACK!
Snape slapped Hermione to stop her hysterics. "Granger, that is enough!"
"Screaming, yes. Tenderizing, no." A raspy voice came from behind a fallen tree a few yards away, making Snape and Hermione jump. Hermione gasped as the particularly enormous spider Harry, Ron, and Hagrid had once described to her crawled up over the brush. Hermione stepped in front of Snape.
"Aragog, stop!" She pleaded, "We're friends of Hagrid's! He's coming to see you tonight! We just came so you could alert the rest of your family!"
"Including the two that are dead by your feet?" The giant spider asked menacingly. "Friends of Hagrid's or not, their two lives for your two lives sounds like a fair trade to me."
"Or the two of us can just take yours!" Snape growled, pushing Hermione aside and raising his wand.
"NO!" Hermione screamed and she deflected Snape's curse. Though Aragog had attempted to kill Harry and Ron too, he was a big part of the reason they'd been able to solve the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets. She had no idea how she'd do it, but she had to keep herself, Snape, and Aragog alive. Her chances of managing that feat shrank exponentially as a veritable army of slightly smaller acromantula surrounded her and Snape.
"Thank you, girl," Aragog said to her. "Perhaps my family can show their gratitude by making sure their first bite kills you quickly, so you don't have to suffer."
"Aragog, please?!" Hermione pleaded shrilly, "Hagrid will be here any minute! He'll bring other food! They don't need to eat us!"
"I believe you, girl," Aragog said, "but my family is starved and humans are our favorite food, by nature. So few of you ever come out here. It's not for me to deny them such a rare delicacy as two young humans when it wanders into their home. I assure you, it will be over quickly."
The mass of giant spiders around Hermione and Snape began to quickly move in on them and Hermione saw only one hope. "Snape, conjure your Patronus!" She shrieked, "Force them away! EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Hermione's Patronus burst out of her wand and the luminous otter rushed at the oncoming acromantula. Hermione could hear Snape trying to conjure his own Patronus, but he was struggling. "Think of how you felt when you caught Remus in the Shrieking Shack!" She shouted to him, keeping an eye on her Patronus. "Think of how you felt after inventing one of your spells! Think of your happiest, most powerful memory, and let it fill you up! You can do this!" When Snape still couldn't produce a corpeal Patronus, Hermione left her otter to run a diversion and turned her wand on him.
"Legilimens!" She screamed, focusing all the energy she could on penetrating Snape's mind. She immediately felt his instinctive resistance, but the first memory she saw was powerful enough: Snape's father was unconscious on the floor and Snape was holding his mother close. She was badly bruised all over her body, but she was smiling at her son, thanking him for protecting her. Hermione released Snape from her spell. "Focus on that!" She shouted.
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Snape bellowed and an enormous bear erupted out of his wand and joined Hermione's otter, charging down the acromantula.
"ARAGOG, LEAVE 'EM BE!" Hagrid's voice roared from behind them. Snape and Hermione turned around and saw Hagrid carrying the dead body of a massive hippogriff on his back. Regulus was standing next to him, staring at the spectacle before him in stunned disbelief. Hagrid tossed the hippogriff body into the mass of acromantula with all his strength. Unfortunately, he couldn't control his aim well. Hermione and Snape had to dive away from each other to avoid being crushed by the falling carcass.
The acromantula surged forward, toward the hippogriff carcass, and Hermione screamed as some of them ran right over her, though none of them bit her. Hermione's stomach turned when she heard what she thought to be the snapping, grinding sound of the huge spiders biting through the hippogriff's bones, but when she looked up, she saw the overenthusiastic monsters had ripped a large tree free from the ground as they'd flooded forward. The tree fell forward and Hermione screamed again as it crashed down on top of Snape and several acromantula, a couple yards away.
Hermione forced herself up off the ground and fought her way through the mass of spiders feeding on the hippogriff carcass. She fell back to her knees beside the unconscious Snape. The tree had landed across his abdomen, pinning him to the ground and knocking him unconscious, but Hermione could feel a pulse when she checked his wrist. She lowered her head to his chest to see if he was still breathing and yelped when she felt a sharp pain rip into the back of her left shoulder. One of the massive acromantula had crawled on top of the fallen tree trunk and bitten into her skin, its fangs piercing her dangerously close to her neck. The thing was certainly trying to obey Aragog, very nearly making a clean kill-strike. She aimed her wand straight up underneath the spider. "Reducto!" The spider shot upward, so its fangs came cleanly out her flesh. She immediately shot an Impediment Curse at the airborne acromantula and knocked it farther away from her and Snape. She jumped when she heard Aragog call the army of arachnids back and she turned to see Hagrid and Regulus standing next to the acromantula leader. Hermione's stomach plummeted sickeningly when the mass of spiders parted and she saw only the hollow skull of the hippogriff carcass remained. She shuddered at the thought of how that had almost been her and Snape. Hagrid and Regulus rushed toward them.
"Hermione, you were bitten!" Regulus said in a hoarse voice. Hermione realized then that he and Hagrid had both been shouting at the acromantula to leave them alone since they had first arrived on the scene. It had also just occurred to Hermione that her upper back felt very wet and that she was bleeding heavily from where she'd been bitten. Regulus touched his wand gently to the bite marks. "Episkey!" He choked out. The spell didn't completely heal the wound. That spell could only heal minor damage. It shrank the bite marks, the blood loss slowed, and the pain decreased.
"Stand back, you two," Hagrid said. Regulus helped Hermione up and they both stepped back from the fallen tree on top of Snape. Hagrid gripped it with both hands and heaved it upward, rolling it away from Snape. He lifted Snape into his arms far more easily. "Can ye walk alrigh', Hermione?" Hagrid asked, giving her a concerned look.
"I think so," Hermione answered hoarsely.
"Regulus, stay close to her an' keep pressure on tha' bite," Hagrid said. "The venom'll sting for a bit, an' it might make her a li'l wobbly on her feet." Regulus nodded and conjured a thick hand towel that he pressed firmly to the wound on the back of Hermione's left shoulder. He quickly put his wand back in his pocket so he could grip Hermione's other shoulder, supporting her as they began walking out of the forest.
"I've heard a lot about ye, Hermione," Hagrid said as they walked, "from students an' professors. I heard ye know lots of things tha' others can't make sense of. How do ye come to know about Aragog, though?" Hermione tensed. She realized Regulus felt it when the hand that gripped her unharmed shoulder increased pressure slightly in an awkward sort of massage. Hermione fought to focus through the dizziness the acromantula venom was causing, and she decided her best bet was to vocalize her hesitation to disclose the truth.
"I really would tell you if I could, Hagrid," she said softly. "All I can say is that I know a lot about you, too. I know what happened with Aragog when you were in school, but I can't talk about it now, especially not in front of others. What happened is your business. Hagrid?" Hagrid stopped walking for a moment to turn and look down at her, still carrying Snape like the Slytherin boy was as light as a feather. "I know you didn't do it," Hermione said, knowing he would understand that she was talking about the opening of the Chamber of Secrets and Moaning Myrtle's murder. "I know you and Aragog are both innocent." A single, large tear rolled from Hagrid's eyes, down into his tangled beard at her words. He nodded.
"Thanks, Hermione," he said, "fer tha' an' fer not hurtin' Aragog, back there. Let's keep movin'. You an' Snape need the Hospi'al Wing, quick."
"What in Merlin's name happened?!" Madam Pomfrey said, looking scandalized when Hagrid, Hermione, Regulus, and the unconscious form of Snape appeared in the doorway of the Hospital Wing.
"We're not entirely sure," Hermione spoke up quickly. "I found Snape unconscious in the Black Lake, with some kind of charm on him that kept him afloat. I jumped in the lake and swam out to get him, but I got attacked by some grindylows. Their claws stabbed my shoulder pretty badly before I got rid of them. I pulled Snape back on land. That's when Regulus showed up. He used a quick Episkey Charm on me, to slow the bleeding from my shoulder. He saw Hagrid nearby and ran to get him. I'd used an Air-Dry Charm on myself and Snape by the time they got back to us. They helped both of us up here."
Hagrid was staring at Hermione, stunned by her perfectly convincing cover story. Regulus elbowed Hagrid hard, to bring him back to his senses. Hagrid blinked and covered his unease by carrying Snape to a bed. Madam Pomfrey, completely convinced by Hermione's story, ushered her over to another bed on the other side of the room.
Madam Pomfrey chose to keep both students overnight. Hagrid left the Hospital Wing quickly, to avoid accidentally blowing the cover story Hermione had come up with. Regulus remained with Hermione and the unconscious Snape for a few minutes before Madam Pomfrey ushered him out too. Lily and James both came into the Hospital Wing during their rounds, later that night.
"Who did you go pissing off now, Hermione?" James groaned at the sight of her and the unconscious form of Snape, across the room.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Hermione said wearily. James gave her a look, as if to say 'you'd be surprised', but he didn't press her. He and Lily stayed with her for a while before Madam Pomfrey asked them to leave, as well. James got up first and proceeded toward the doors. Hermione gave Lily a look as she left behind him, promising an explanation would be given later.
Once they were gone and Madam Pomfrey had returned to her own, neighboring suite, Hermione grabbed her otter pin off her bedside table and transfigured it back into the Pensive Perfume bottle. She squirted the solution on herself, then she transfigured the bottle back into an otter pin and placed it back onto the bedside table, next to Garus' watch. She stared thoughtfully at both objects until her tired eyes started to give way to sleep. Her last thoughts were of what the centaur, Kuja, had said about how persistent death was in trying to catch her.
"Missed me again," she whispered just before she finally fell asleep.