Sixth Year, Part 2, 1996
For Hermione, her upcoming birthday and the possible consummation of her illicit relationship with Lucius Malfoy looked as if they would be the most important and momentous parts of her upcoming 6th year at Hogwarts. For Harry though it was a heated and ongoing argument between Sirius and Dumbledore that would define his 6th year. While Hermione spent her summer mostly in the muggle world, Harry had moved into Grimmauld Place with Sirius, flat out refusing to go back to the Dursley's.
According to Harry, Dumbledore had attempted to escort Harry back to his aunt and uncle, only to be thrown out of Grimmauld Place. Hermione hadn't been aware that Dumbledore, as secret keeper, could be so unceremoniously tossed out, but she didn't exactly feel sorry for him.
Sirius had blown up at the older wizard when Dumbledore had revealed that he knew the prophecy all along, knew about it and had not disclosed the full contents to James and Lily, to Harry, or to anyone else. Harry filled her in on the shouting matches Sirius and Dumbledore had over floo call, the vituperative letters owled back and forth, and the argument that took place right outside Grimmauld Place with Sirius yelling at Dumbledore through the front door. Upon hearing about her best friend's drama-filled summer, Hermione was torn between feelings of shock and awe. Sirius's willingness to stand up for his godson had certainly earned him her respect.
She had not realised until they boarded the Hogwarts Express just how dire the situation had become until Harry confessed to her, Ron, Ginny, Luna, and Neville that Sirius had threatened to pull Harry from Hogwarts and leave Britain altogether.
Hermione suspected that deep down, Harry had enough of a martyr complex that he would not turn his back on what he perceived to be his destiny. If the fate of the wizarding world rested on his shoulders, then Harry would do his duty, no matter how horrible it was. Lucius would have called it the epitome of Gryffindor behavior, she was sure. How the Sorting Hat ever considered Slytherin for him was simple beyond Hermione's comprehension.
She also knew though as she watched her dear friend explain to them all how Sirius was prepared to flee the country with him and all of the remaining Black family assets, that Harry was deeply moved by the idea that someone cared enough about him to take such drastic action. She cared for Harry enough to risk her life - repeatedly - to help him, but she knew it wasn't the same thing. She did not have the power or the influence or the funds to save her friend. Since his parents' death, the only adult willing to stand up for him was Sirius Black, wizard the world believed was a wanted criminal and escaped convict.
Still, she sat with rapt attention and listened as Harry described the argument he'd had with Sirius over whether or not to return to Hogwarts, rolling her eyes as Ron exclaimed, "But if you didn't come back, how would we have any hope of winning the Quidditch Cup this year?!"
She couldn't blame Sirius for not trusting Dumbledore, especially now that she knew - thanks to Lucius - that their headmaster was a legilimens of great skill and had peeked into her mind without her consent. Dumbledore had deliberately withheld information from them, but most of all from Harry.
"I told Sirius I wasn't about to just skip town. If I'm meant to defeat Voldemort, if that's the point of the prophecy, then I need to be at Hogwarts where I can learn how to do that," he explained. "Still though, Sirius used the threat that we'd leave to negotiate better terms - Dumbledore is talking to the Ministry, trying to get Sirius pardoned for what Pettigrew did. I don't exactly trust the Wizengamot, but they do listen to Dumbledore."
"Do you trust Dumbledore though?" Hermione pressed.
"Why wouldn't he? I mean - it's Dumbledore!" Ron gaped.
"Were you not listening?" Ginny asked, whacking her brother. "Dumbledore tried to force Harry to go back to his awful Aunt and Uncle!"
"Honestly? The person I DON'T trust is Snape, and I had that argument with Remus and Sirius both," Harry admitted. "Sirius agrees with me, but Remus is adamant that Dumbledore trusts him, and therefore we should as well. I'd say I trust Dumbledore a lot more than I trust Snape."
"Professor Snape does seem to have a serious wrackspurt infestation," Luna said in a dreamy voice, looking up from her issue of The Quibbler at everyone. "But I suppose I would trust him before I would any of the Death Eaters who escaped the Ministry last spring."
"I still can't believe the Aurors haven't been able to arrest a single person from that night!" Harry said angrily, switching gears to one of his preferred rants. "Malfoy was THERE. We all saw him, without his mask!"
"Bellatrix Lestrange too," Neville said with a shudder.
"And Hermione and I heard them say Dolohov and Nott!" Harry continued.
Hermione bit her bottom lip to avoid saying anything. She'd spent a little bit of time at the Burrow and Grimmauld Place before returning to school, and she'd listened for days to Harry, Ron, and Ginny rant about the unfairness of the entire situation, that the Death Eaters got away with the entire attack. Hermione was honestly still surprised that she, Harry, and the others had not gotten in trouble for breaking into the Department of Mysteries or destroying all those prophecies, but she suspected that Lucius might have had a hand in that. She knew he had the Minister of Magic in his pocket.
Even though the Death Eaters had avoided arrest, rumours still swirled in both the press and in public about the involvement of the Malfoys, Lestranges, and Notts in the break in. Lucius and Nott Sr. had both provided alibis for their whereabouts that night, according to the Daily Prophet, and while it was widely acknowledged that the Lestranges had indeed escaped Azkaban, no one could find them to arrest them. As such, the bulk of the blame for the break in had been laid at the feet of Rodolphus, Rabastan, and Bellatrix Lestrange. This was perfectly fine with Hermione, as she had no loyalty to Lucius's twisted sister-in-law.
"Malfoy probably has them in hiding. Wouldn't be surprised if they're staying with him," Harry said bitterly. "Sirius says Bellatrix is Narcissa Malfoy's sister."
Ron snorted. "Doesn't really surprise anyone does it, that the ferret is related to that crazy bint?"
Hermione had no interest in defending Lucius's wife, but she felt compelled to argue against the idea that Lucius might be hiding his sister-in-law.
"Sirius has also said that Bellatrix was insane even before the first war, and that Narcissa and Andromeda were not. It doesn't sound like she'd have a compelling reason to take them in. Besides, even though we all saw Mr. Malfoy there in the Ministry that night, not a lot of people believe us. He's all about his public image, so why would he risk that to take in the lot of them?"
"Why are you defending them?" Harry asked in irritation.
"I'm not. I'm just pointing out that they don't seem to have a reason to take in escaped convicts, particularly when the press and the Ministry seems to be blaming the Lestranges for everything that happened. It's probably in the Malfoys' best interest to have nothing to do with them, related or not," she explained with a shrug.
Before Harry could response, the door to their carriage slid open then revealing Malfoy - Draco that is - along with a slender boy with dark hair and glasses Hermione recognised as Theodore Nott, and a tall, handsome dark-skinned boy she knew was named Blaise Zabini.
Malfoy looked them over with a sneer. "Pansy's not here. Wrong cabin again Zabini," he tossed over his shoulder. "This one's tainted with mudblood."
Hermione rolled her eyes at the predictable insult, although she couldn't help but imagine throwing it in his face that this 'mudblood' had snogged his precious pureblood father. She could picture his eyes widening in shock and horror, his mouth falling open, speechless for once. Oh it would be beautiful to stun him like that. What a pity she couldn't say anything.
She didn't realise she had a hint of a smile on her face until Malfoy gave a most undignified snort. "You think that's funny, mudblood? You won't be smiling with the Dark Lord wipes away filth like you," he spit.
Before Hermione - or Harry - could respond, Ginny had her wand out and cast a quick bat bogey hex at the blond wizard. The trio of Slytherins fled quickly after that, with Malfoy making the most undignified noises as bats spewed from his nose.
The other occupants of the train car all turned to look at Ginny.
"What?" she asked with a shrug. "I figured I'd save everyone the trouble of arguing with him and threatening him and just skip straight to the hexing."
~oOo~
The start of their sixth year of Hogwarts was remarkable in its normalcy. Harry, Ron, and Ginny obsessed over Quidditch. Professor Snape induced just as much misery teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts as he had with potions. Their new potions professor, Horace Slughorn, was obnoxious in his adoration of Harry, unaware that Harry's remarkable prowess in potions was attributed solely to the mysterious and potentially dangerous scribblings in an old advanced potions textbook.
Before she knew it, it was her 17th birthday.
Hermione supposed she should have felt magically 'adult-like' in some way, but she really did not. She celebrated that day with her friends, who treated her to a surprise party in the Room of Requirement, aided by Dobby, who'd helped them slip cakes and pumpkin juice out of the kitchen. The most exciting part of the day came that morning at breakfast, when an unfamiliar owl swooped in and deposited a sealed envelope to her. She brushed it off as probably a birthday letter from Viktor Krum and waited until she had privacy to read it.
The letter was unsigned, but obviously from Lucius, as he'd addressed it to "My pet." The letter was a portkey she could activate on Saturday once outside the school's wards. She could not stop the enormous smile that spread across her face as she read his wish for a happy birthday, and his desire to see her very soon. She'd had weeks to come to grips with the knowledge that she would involve herself far more intimately with Lucius once she turned seventeen, and to her surprise, she was not yet nervous about seeing him. She just needed to figure out how to slip away from her friends.
In the end, she knew they would not accept her going alone to Hogsmeade. The meager amount of time she would be able to get away from her friends in the tiny wizarding town by claiming to be in the bookstore was not nearly enough to spend with Lucius. So it was that on Saturday, she managed to get away from Harry and Ron by feigning illness. As soon as they left for the village, she threw back the covers of her bed and dressed quickly in black lingerie she'd purchased specially for this occasion, as well as a set of elegantly tailored grey robes she'd splurged on at Twilfit & Tattings before she returned to Scotland.
Once past the school gates, she withdrew her wand and activated the portkey.
~oOo~
I know you're all anxious to get to the smut, and I PROMISE it's coming. Really. Next chapter. There will be graphic sex this coming weekend. Pinky promise. In the meantime, if you love the Malfoys and want more smut, check out "Scenes from a Seduction," my WIP Draco/Hermione/Astoria smut-fest that won for best erotic story in the Behind the Book Fanfiction Nook's Forbidden Fruit contest: s/12888061/1/Scenes-from-a-Seduction. Yeah, yeah, I know. It's not finished either, but I wrote what's there in just four days, and I'm working to get the rest of it written in between writing chapters of this story.
Love to you all,
Elle