Chapter 8 – Appearing and Disappearing
No, everything is not fine today. I still feel the pain, I felt last night. I'm still angry. I still want to punch the wall. I can't shake that small voice in my head that says, 'I should have told him, I'm not comfortable with him being friendly with Cho.' I would have come across as an insecure girlfriend, but at least I still would be his girlfriend. Like Hermione said did I really appear nonchalant?
Hermione and I were having breakfast silently. She was waiting for me to say something, anything.
"How are you feeling today?"
I thought about the question, "I really have no idea."
"Do you think you'll be fine if you see him?"
"If I leave the room he is in then I'm not okay but if I don't pull any such stunts then it means I'm partially okay with being around him."
"Partially okay?"
"It means I'm still deciding if I can be around him."
After breakfast, Hermione and I spend some quality girl-time doing homework in the library. There were just a few more days left before the holidays began and I want to finish as much homework as I can before they began. Draco was at another table doing homework. He kept giving me strange looks. He signaled that he wanted to talk now. I told Hermione, I would be back in a few minutes. Draco pulled me behind some armours.
"What's going on? You seem a bit off." He declared. It always amazes me how easily he can read me.
"I saw Harry kiss Cho." I said in a small voice.
I could see the anger written all over Draco's face, "How dare he hurt you!" He hissed. "I'm going to hex him."
I pulled him back, "No, please don't. Let me handle this on my own. I don't want you to get yourself into this. Please, Draco."
"Fine." I could clearly hear the frustration in his voice. He hugged me, "You know, I'm here if you want to talk."
"I feel like part of it my fault. If I had told him how I felt about Cho, this wouldn't have happened."
He held me at arms length and said, "First of all, this is not your fault. Second of all, he knows who not to plant his lips with. I can't believe I just said that."
It was the first time I smiled since I saw them together. "But Draco, when a relationship fails, it is both the partners' faults expect in exceptional cases. Something in our relationship was not strong enough. It has to be both our faults."
His jaw was set firmly, "This is not your fault. Don't repeat the speech." He hugged me. After a few minutes he asked me, "Do you want to go back now?"
"Lets stay for a few more minutes." He smiled and hugged me again.
Hermione and I went back to the common room in the evening. Harry and Ron were busy playing chess. When Harry saw me, the atmosphere suddenly tensed up. 'Suck it up, Nat!' I told myself. I gave Harry an unsure smile. He returned mine with a small one of his own. Ron tried to change the tense atmosphere with a lame joke.
"Hey look!" Hermione suddenly exclaimed. "Hagrid's back."
We all got to our feet, Harry got the invisibility cloak and the map from his room and then we left the common room. Being so close to Harry again was weird but there was no other option. Harry knocked the door. Fang barked and Hagrid opened the door and for a moment, I was startled. What the hell happened? He is injured. He is has a lot of bruises on his face. He seemed to be limping a little.
"I shoulda known, it woulda been the four of you." Hagrid said though we were under the cloak. He let us in.
"What happened to you?" I asked.
"Nothin'."
"Hagrid, tell us, please." Hermione said calmly.
"You should go to Madam Pomfrey." Ron suggested.
"I'm dealin' wid it." Hagrid said.
"Were you with the giants?" Harry got straight to the point.
He looked shocked, "How'd ya know? Who told ya?"
"We sort of guessed it." Hermione said sheepishly.
"You kids know more than you shoulda know. You a nosy lot." Hagrid told us. After much coaxing Hagrid decided to tell us what he and Madam Maxime have been doing for the order. He told us about the giants and where they found them. He told us about the adventures…or rather misadventures they had there. Apparently, getting the giants' support was not only on Dumbledore's agenda, it's something that Voldemort was seeking out as well. Voldemort had sent Macnair and another death eater, Hagrid didn't recognise. He told us what he found out about his mother.
When he was done telling us his tale, we told about Harry being attacked by the dementors. Hagrid was outraged when he heard it. Harry explained in detail about the trial. We also told him about people mysteriously disappearing, discreet attacks on muggles. Hagrid mentioned that same things had happened during the first war as well. We were just getting to talk about the toad when there was a knock on the door.
We quickly got under the invisibility cloak. He could feel Harry's eyes on me but I refused to look at him. Hagrid opened the door and I thought, 'think of the devil and the devil appears.'
I could tell by the way she was looking at him that she already thought he was beneath her. She introduced herself and Hagrid introduced himself. She started questioning him like this was a courtroom. Hagrid's lies were so bad that even Fang could say Hagrid was lying. I was tempted to hex her but Hagrid would get into trouble then. She even mentioned the four pairs of footprints in the snow. We exchanged looks and mentally slapped ourselves. Hagrid gave a lame answer. She mentioned that she would be attending one of his classes to assess his teaching methods. We exchanged looks again. How will we ever keep Hagrid from getting fired if Umbridge looks like she's hell-bent to firing him?
Once she was gone, we quickly explained to Hagrid her tyranny in school. We told him that she has been assessing the other professors for a few weeks now. She is going to remove the professors who are not worthy as per her standards. Hermione told him that she would help him plan his lessons so she could find not faults with him. We went back to the tower. We directly went to bed. This is the first time, it hit me in full force that even Voldemort is looking to gather support. Why didn't that come to my mind before? That could be one of the reasons for laying low.
"Hey have seen Harry and Ron today?" Hermione asked me a few days after Hagrid came back.
I shrugged and continued eating the porridge. "Why?"
"I've not seen them anywhere. Neville said that Harry had some dream or something and they had to call McGonagall for help. She took them to Dumbledore. He didn't see them in the morning."
"That is strange. We'll look for them after we finish breakfast."
She started eating an omelette, "Ya."
Prof. McGonagall cam to us and said, "Good Morning, Ms. Granger, Ms. Shepherd. The headmaster would like to speak with you both after you both are done with breakfast."
"Thank you, professor. We'll go see him." Hermione told her.
"Uhh…professor? The password?" I asked her.
"Right. It's 'Kisses'." She blushed a little.
"You mean as in the Hershey's chocolate? I love them." I said before I could stop myself. I heard a rumour that Dumbledore's passwords are normally candies and chocolates.
"I was not aware it was a muggle chocolate. That explains the password." She gave us a nod and left us.
I started laughing. Hermione looked at me with her eyebrows raised. "Care to explain what's so funny?"
"Imagine the toad saying the password with hatred and contempt."
A moment later she was laughing too.
A few minutes later, we were on our way to the Headmaster's office. We said the password and the gargoyle opened the moving staircase for us. When we got near the door, we could a voice saying, "But Albus why was I not informed about this?"
"It was an emergency. And the last time I checked, I still had the power to grant leave in extreme cases, Dolores." Dumbledore said.
Hermione knocked the door before we could hear more. The headmaster gave us permission to come in. "Ms. Granger, Ms. Shepherd, thank you for coming." He turned towards the toad, "We are done here, Dolores."
She looked shocked at being dismissed so unceremoniously but she left the office nonetheless.
"What's going on, Sir?" I asked quickly.
"There was an attack last night on Mr. Weasley so, I've sent all the Weasley children and Mr. Potter on leave a few days earlier."
"Attack on Mr. Weasley? What happened? Is he all right? Was it the death eaters?" I asked nervously.
"Arthur is in recovery but things do not look too good at this moment. The family is with him." Dumbledore cast a silencing spell on the door and then told us everything in detail. Harry saw Mr. Weasley get attacked in his dream. I was shocked. Hermione went pale.
"When can we leave sir?" Hermione asked.
"Ms. Granger, I can't allow you both to leave now. You will leave with the rest of the school when they leave for the Christmas Break."
"But sir…"
"No, Ms. Shepherd, it'll be suspicious if you both leave now. Be patient. It's only a few days more."
Both of us looked sad.
Dumbledore continued, "Don't tell this to anyone, you can't trust. It'll come out in the papers in a few days. We are trying to keep it under wraps until Arthur is a little better."
"Okay, Sir." Hermione said.
"Now, get back to classes, you two." Dumbledore said serenely.
We left the office. It is a lot to process. I sat down on one of the benches on the corridor. Few minutes later, even Hermione sat down.
"I'm going to tell my parents that I will not be coming home this Christmas. Harry needs us. Ron needs us." Suddenly Hermione tells me.
I look at her incredulously, "You don't have to do this."
"I have to. These are difficult times. We have to make some difficult choices."
"H, forgive me for saying this but I think, you ignore your parents a lot. Don't you think you've hardly been spending less time with your family? Most of your holidays you spend them with us. You don't even spend half your summer vacation at home. Didn't you tell me earlier that your parents have been looking forward to this ski trip for a long time? H, after school anyways you'll move out of your home, but at least until then spend some time with them, before you grow up. You'll regret not spending enough time with them later on."
"My parents will understand that this is important for me. Harry and Ron need us right now. If you can't be around Harry, I understand, but I need to do this for him and Ron."
"I never said I couldn't be around Harry. Didn't I behave when we all were together? And this is not about Harry and I. You want to spend more time with Ron, so, he'll finally see you and ask you out. Do you really want to do that at the expense of not being with your parents? You don't see how much your parents miss you, do you? This is about you and your parents."
"Like I said, my parents understand. They will understand this is important than some stupid ski trip. We need to help Harry, first. My parents are always going to be there. Right now, Ron needs us. He must be so shaken up. He must be so sad."
"Fine, do what you want to. I told you this only because you're my best friend. And I care for you."
We stared at each other. She walked away from me after a few minutes. This is didn't turn out to be so good. I've wanted to tell her all this for so long. It felt good to get this off my chest. But I wish, I had discussed this with her at a better time. I met her parents a couple of times. They miss Hermione a lot. I can tell by how they look at Hermione when she gets on the train to Hogwarts.
Hermione is keeping her distance from me. I want to talk it out with her but she keeps blocking me out. I don't know what to do. How do I end this problem with her? She won't even talk to me.
Maybe I can solve this issue during the break. No one can stay mad on Christmas. The other thing really bothering me is Mr. Weasley's attack. My parents wanted Andy and I to come home first, so, no one gets suspicious. I'm afraid that it'll be someone from my family next. I don't want anybody to get attacked. I don't want anything to happen to my family. I'll be devastated if anything happened to any of them.
I saw Draco in the corridor. I started walking towards him. While passing him, I whispered, "I need to talk to you." I walked away quickly. I knew Draco would follow me. I went into an unused classroom. He closed the door.
"What happened?" He asked me with concern.
"Mr. Weasley got attacked. I'm worried, Draco. This is really happening. Next someone from my family could get attacked."
"Hey, calm down. From what I know, he plans on laying low for a while."
"He has already started kidnapping people. Muggles are being attacked. Draco, it has already started. He maybe laying low but his work still getting done." I started crying.
He hugged me, "Hey…shh…shh…don't worry. Don't cry, Nat. I hate to say this but I'm sure Potter will find a way to end this. He's got the three of you as well, I'm sure you all will find a way to end this." I felt him go rigid. "Hmmm…you might want to see this."
I turned around and found Hermione fuming at us. How will I explain this?
"I can explain this." Why did I say this?
"The past few days, I've been mad at Harry because he kissed Cho and hurt you. But it looks like you have been cheating on him this whole time. And that too with this foul git."
"Hermione, listen to me." I tried again.
"I'm going to tell Harry this and tell him not to beat himself up over you. You don't deserve to be with him, Nat." She looked at me with venom filled eyes. She began moving towards the door.
I have to stop her. I pulled out my wand and shouted, "Expelliarmus!"
"Give me my wand back." She said angrily.
"Petrificus Totalus." I used the spell on her. Before she hit the ground, I waved my wand again to keep her from falling.
Draco's jaw dropped. "Sometimes you are too unpredictable that makes you really scary." He gulped.
I shrugged and turned to Hermione.
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