CHAPTER 9

AS THEY CONCEAL

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Running, if you

must know is

a kind of stillness.

- Anonymous

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Hermione was pretty upset. The reason being that it was time for Harry's first task. She had taught him the Summoning Charm and he had learnt well but now it just depended on his courage levels after seeing the fierce Hungarian Horntail.

Cedric, Fleur and Krum hadn't fared too well. In fact they had all ended up bruised and broken, even though they had battled the less furious dragons. She was nervous for her best friend.

Beside her, Ron (who was still a little sullen and angry at Harry for being selected), Fred and George were watching the tournament with great enthusiasm. Ginny was beside with worry herself. "GO HARRY! GO HARRY!", the entire Gryffindor House, with the exception of Ron, chanted from the stands. Eventually Ron joined in too.

She saw him raise his wand and then he must have done the Summoning Charm because the next thing she saw was his Firebolt racing towards him.

She watched him twist him this way and that, impossibly through the air as he dodged the furious Horntail. She was on the edge when the devious dragon had managed to injure him but in the end he had managed to take the egg and emerge victorious.

She was barely listening to Bagman's commentary when the crowd burst into loud cheers. Harry had performed the best of them all. She was relieved. After the initial moments of relief, she looked around in the mass of black tinged with red, green, blue and yellow, searching for a familiar sneer. But then realisation dawned upon her as she remembered their conversation from two days back. He had gone.

"Take care.",he had said. She still remembered, all very clearly. The roaring cheeriness of the crowd around her faded into faint background voices as she thought about that enigmatic person and felt that strange emptiness inside herself, again. She wondered what he was doing at the moment. A few moments later she would know about that.

She glanced at Ron beside her, who was now cheering a little for Harry and oddly, she felt nothing. Nothing at all. The boy, she thought, she used to like so much now seemed nothing more than a very close best friend. This nothingness had to happen eventually. She knew that. Ron's ignorance had caused her feelings to blossom, then shine and finally be extinguished. The blue of his eyes didn't tempt her any longer. Not anymore.

Instead she realised that she was heading out in a wholly new direction.

She was drawn towards the un-Malfoyish Malfoy. The Malfoy who had kissed her in the dark corridor, the Malfoy who had covered her with his robe when she had been shivering, the Malfoy who taught her ancient magic.

The Malfoy who had said that she was the most beautiful and hardest to get.

Maybe she felt a little spark of attraction towards him? No she didn't, did she? She was confused. Why is everything related to him so bloody confusing?,she thought.

The sky was stormy that day, as if planning an evil scheme, like a heavy thunderstorm. As they got up from the stands, she thought she saw the faint glimmer of a silvery swallow up in the grey sky. But she wasn't sure. Then Ginny spotted it too and pointed it out to her as it neared and finally landed, this time on her head. Not again.SillyMalfoy.Little did she know that in the lower stands, someone's old eyes were twinkling knowingly.

"Who keeps you sending these?"

"I don't know Gin."

"Really Her-"

Ginny was broken off in between as her brothers gaped at the bird on Hermione's head as it vanished.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! What was that?", asked Fred. His loud exclamations had attracted the attention of other students too.

"Trust me, that's what I said after seeing it for the first time.", she replied dryly. Ron was speechless. His blue eyes were searching her brown ones.

"Hey George, do you think this Patronus could be of someone in your year?", asked Ginny.

"Ummmm... No. Most of us can't do it and the ones that can, have land animals, not birds."

Ginny nodded as they walked out. Hermione wondered why did he send it again and again. The phrase 'pure happiness' flashed through her head. Did she really mean that much to him? Was she his pure happiness? Apart from all that what she was really confused about was the fact that he had been called home in the middle of the session.

Everyone knew that Lucius Malfoy was one loyal death eater and he must have wanted Draco to follow into his footsteps. The Quidditch World Cup incident was still fresh in her mind. The Death Eaters were clearly retaliating. Perhaps you-know-who was back. Maybe that's why he had been called home, to be told about his fate? She hoped it was not that.

"Hey 'Mione, what was all that about?" She snapped out of her thoughts and looked to around to see Ron, who in turn was seeing her with a curious gaze. "Ah, nothing. Even I don't know.", she said. She hated lying, especially to her best friends but she had no choice but to conceal the truth. She had no choice but to run away from the fact that her long time archnemesis meant something to her and now she couldn't even deny the fact that there was a sort of mutual attraction between them.

Ron broke her thoughts once again. "I wonder what the ferret would say if he saw Harry's performance. I bet he would whine, 'My father will hear about this!' That's all he knows.", he chuckled. Hermione didn't say anything. She just walked ahead. Oh Ron, if only you knew that the ferret is a swallow.

"Speaking of which", Ginny said as she cut in their conversation, "I have not seen Lord Peroxide around."

"I think his daddy dearest has taken him home. I overhead some Slytherins talking."

"Oh...That's why Luna is so happy these days. Her things kept disappearing whenever he was around. She's going to make a huge list of them I believe."

"Hey, Gin, let's go congratulate Harry, I really don't want to keep talking about Malfoy."

"Oh yes, why not." Ginny blushed slightly. It was evident that she liked Harry very much.

Hermione followed them silently. A part of her mind was screaming to go find Dumbledore and talk about Malfoy. He had too much potential. And if he fell on the wrong side, then there was no denying that the consequences would be hugely disastrous. She walked along with the swarming crowd, her feet with them, her mind faraway.

In a grim Malfoy Manor, a very grim Draco sat in an extremely grim manner. His face was twisted and contorted with hate and sorrow. A few minutes ago, he had sent a patronus to Hermione and experienced a short burst of joy. It was all he could do to keep his sanity. For a few moments, a smile had reigned on his pale face after doing it, but then he had remembered his upcoming meeting with the madman and hence the frown had taken its place. The meeting had been postponed by a day but was still taking place nonetheless.

He had come inside, even the gardens which he once loved, were no longer pleasurable. Nothing seemed good anymore. Not to him. Not any longer. The Malfoy family was in shambles. His mother was upstairs, crying ceaselessly. His father was scolding her and he, unable to do anything except wait for his pre-determined fate to roll out, was sitting grimly in a spare bedroom. Only he knew how much he wished to run away. Why was his father a death eater in the first place? Why couldn't he be a normal wizard, incompetent but happy? Why couldn't his family see the truth?

Why?

The weather outside was cold and morose. It seemed as if nature could predict the ill omen visiting his home. Indeed, it did nothing to lift his spirits.

His filthy father came downstairs after sometime and he had to resist the urge to hex him right there. His father saw him merely as a puppet for gaining more power in the ranks of the death eaters. It was a good thing that his father didn't about his recent experiments with naturae magicae.No, he just saw him as a good wizard, who would be able to tread whatever dark and crooked path the Dark Lord had set for him.

"Draco, could you care to look presentable? Your appearance is unfitting for a meeting with the Dark Lord."

As if I bloody care for a lunatic leading a flock of other lunatics. But he still got up anyway, resisting his hand from doing a swish and flick to levitate his father or better still, draw out his wand and perform a very effective stunning charm.

"Get ready."

A/N:This was a borderline filler-ish chapter, I guess.

I solemnly swear that the next chapter will be much more exciting.

~ Laters, Norma x