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Chapter Five

The Book

Pansy dropped Hermione out of shock. Luckily, because of her newfound cat agility, she flipped and landed on her feet. Thanks for squeezing the hell out of me and then dropping me, you bloody cow, Hermione thought, growling again.

But if she was ticked then… well, she was about to burst when she saw who had come for Malfoy.

A shabby-looking man was walking down the hall toward them looking as if he did this every day. His ragged black robes were dusty at the hem and his greasy black hair was disheveled and messy. But however much he had changed, it was most certainly Severus Snape. Just the sight of him, the man who'd ridiculed Harry, Ron, and her, and who had killed Dumbledore, made her hot with rage. She hissed at him. He shot her a deathly glare.

"P – Professor Snape?" Pansy stuttered. "I thought – "

"Pansy, go downstairs," Malfoy cut in quickly. He was very ashen faced now.

She looked at him, shocked. "What's going on? Have you known, Draco?"

"I said to go downstairs," Malfoy said again. "Erkki, make sure Pansy gets downstairs."

"Draco!" she cried, but Erkki quickly ran over, trembling all over and muttering under his breath. The house elf ushered her over to the staircase, leaving Malfoy, Snape and Hermione alone together.

"What about the cat?" Snape muttered, sneering at Hermione. The cat hissed venomously.

"It's just a cat," Malfoy said. "I know – "

"Wait a minute," Snape interrupted. "I think we should move to another room before we continue this conversation. After all, this is a private conversation." He scrutinized Hermione for a moment. She hissed and growled at him in return.

Snape grabbed a confused-looking Malfoy by the back of his shirt collar and dragged him into the nearest room, where he had been with Pansy just minutes before.

As the door shut behind them, Hermione thought for a minute. After Snape had killed Dumbledore in her sixth year, the Ministry had gone searching for him first. Malfoy had almost been arrested himself, but was passed as just being a witness. Snape never was caught and put in Azkaban. Of course everyone in the Order knew he had gone into hiding and was still helping Voldemort undercover, but there wasn't much they could do about it if they didn't know where he was.

She never would have guessed, though, that Snape still watched everything Malfoy did. And why did Snape suspect her? How could he know she was really Hermione Granger? Well, he might know she was really a human, but he probably didn't know she was Hermione if he had scolded Malfoy for murdering her.

She moved over to the door, trying to hear some of what they were saying. All she managed to get was Snape saying, " – killed…. wrong person… Weasley…"

Hermione thought again. So Malfoy's assignment had been to kill Ron. But why him? It could have just as easily been anybody else in the Order, Tonks or Lupin… Why was Snape scolding him for killing the wrong person? Nobody had died at the Weasley house that night.

A sudden crash from within the room made Hermione flinch. "You don't just go killing Mudbloods left and right!" she heard Snape shout.

So that was what he was getting at. He thought Malfoy had killed Hermione, and that's why she was missing. But if I had really been killed, then they would have found my body, Hermione thought matter-of-factly. Honestly…

She leaned against the door once again, trying to pick up more of the conversation, but they were talking in even lower voices now.

Disappointed, she began to walk away. She had gotten midway down the hall when an earsplitting scream scared Hermione so badly she jumped a foot into the air and the fur on her back stood on end.

"Good lord, what the bloody hell was that?!" she exclaimed.

"What's going on up there?" she heard Pansy cry downstairs.

"Nothing, nothing, Erkki knows nothing…" the house elf whined, sounding all too fake.

Hermione heard loud footsteps, then the door opened with such force it slammed into the wall and swung back. Snape stepped out and shut it behind him with as much noise. He went down the hall acting completely normal, then came to a halt when he saw Hermione.

"There's something I don't like about you," he said to her. Hermione growled. Snape marched off again, down the staircase and out of sight.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Hermione went down into the living room and hid behind the couch again. Pansy and Erkki had disappeared, and she had not seen Malfoy. The sun had completely set now. Erkki must have been preoccupied, because he'd left the curtains open so that she could clearly see the night sky, a huge risk to take these days.

Eventually, there came a knock on the door. Hermione looked up at the clock; it was around eight o'clock. Someone came running down the stairs, and she saw through the living room door Erkki approaching the front door. He opened it, and she could see about six witches and wizards all in dress robes.

"'Ello, wasn't Draco 'avin' a party tonight?" the one at the front said.

Erkki shook his head. "The party has been cancelled, Master is ill. Mr. Malfoy apologizes."

The group groaned and turned. Just before Erkki closed the door, Hermione heard one say, "I've been looking forward to this all week. Why is he always sick?"

So he's like this all the time, then? Hermione thought. He must be out doing tasks Voldemort set him… Snape must have told him about a "job"…

She raised herself from the floor, which she was becoming very accustomed to now. She slinked out of the living room and ascended the stairs, wondering if maybe she'd find her answer there.

It had felt very quiet and empty in the living room before, but it felt terribly silent in the long hallway. She strained to hear something as she walked down the corridor, just because the eerie feeling here disturbed her.

She passed door after door until finally she saw one out of the corner of her eye which was open a crack. It could not have been Malfoy's bedroom; she had found this room too soon, and it was on the opposite side of the hall. She prodded it with a paw and it opened enough that she could squeeze herself inside.

It was an office, with a writing desk and filing cabinet on one side and a few bookshelves on the other. It seemed very empty; there were no pictures on the walls or anything other than what was needed in an office. Even most of the shelves were empty save for a few books. It also looked as if it hadn't been dusted or anything in here for a long time.

There must be something in here that Malfoy wants no one to see, not even his house elves, she said, noting a particularly thick layer of dust on the handle of a drawer in the filing cabinet. So then why is the door open?

Then she saw a book lying up on the desk. It was the only thing even slightly out of order in this room. Its cover was green leather, and she could tell just looking from where she was how fragile and old the pages must be; they were seriously discolored.

Hermione hopped up onto the chair and then onto the desk right beside the book. On the cover, two capital letters had been scribbled in ink:

"X.M."

Aha! Hermione thought. It's code for his Death Eater assignments! I knew it!

She fumbled with the cover, trying to lift it up so she could see what he could have put in this book that was so secret.

"Moggy, what are you doing in here?"

Hermione almost had a heart attack. She looked up quickly and saw Pansy in the doorway. Her hair was lopsided and her face looked a bit blotchy, like she'd been crying. She didn't say another word, but stepped forward, grabbed Hermione, and hugged her to her chest. The cat growled in vain.

"Oh, Moggy, I wish I knew what exactly was going on," she said.

I wish I knew what was in that book, Hermione thought as Pansy walked out of the office with her and shut the door tightly. I wish I knew how to get to the Burrow and how to make people realize I'm not their bloody pet…