This is my confession time: I wrote this chapter for another story, yet decided to put it in this one.
Lots of OCs here! New happy people!
Ok, and what the barking hell! What is this new crappy thing that an author cannot thank their reviewers as before, in a chapter's begin or end? It's evil! See if I care, I'll thank those who deserve to be thanked ( that is, in fact, everyone).
So, Thank you Nomes for being so nice and make me feel so special because of what I write. I have the impression of becoming myself a bit loony, but I guess its just good.
Hehe, if you think Erin that I'll leave this here, you're wrong. Next chapter will make you wither in the agony of one hell of a painful cliffie. (hehhe)
Thank you, Enchatned Light.
Of crows and Horsies: I love my hair! It's turquoise and pretty. I know that was random, but you should be a pit poked for believing I'd leave the story here.
Supafly09 and Mrs Skywalker, I'll explain it shortly You might not be the only one lost. Ok, Hermione has murdered a boy called Max when she was a kid, Lucius found out, got scared and drugged Hermione because he thought she might kill him. If you need more info, just ask again.
WhoGirl: Oh, trust me, the real ending will be freaky, but very good.
HermioneGranger91: Ok, I will not end it yet.
Ok, everyone, confusing chapter.
My Dirty Little Secret.
A thing of beauty is a joy forever. Beauty had many forms. For Hermione, beauty was chocolate. Not your average chocolate, no, Hermione's idea of perfection was a very particular kind of green white chocolate. This green white chocolate was a specialty of the town Hokkaido in Japan. It was melon flavoured white chocolate.
The question this was to form was simple of course: why was perfection a piece of melon chocolate to Hermione?
The answer was simple: Hermione Jane Granger had always, always, ALWAYS during her whole entire life starved. She had been hungry ever since she could remember.
She hadn't been starving in the 'food way'. She had eaten plenty, even a bit too much, being lovely pudgy her whole childhood. She loved anything sweet beyond living. Since anything sweet and sugary was prohibited by her parents, Hermione snatched her candy from the places her parents hid the goodies. Therefore when Hermione ate her sweets, she felt a thrill to rival an orgasm; for her, good chocolate melting in her mouth was like eating sunlight.
Her favourite movie, by far, had always, always been Charlie and the chocolate factory. Her first love had been Willy Wonka. Never mind the fact that he was a fictional character and thrice her age, it didn't budge her love for him. She saw Severus Snape the first time, she thought she had met the one her parents called the Candyman.
Hermione's parents are dentists. For them, every thing that had a grain of sugar is poison. Sugar is evil little germs they used to tell their daughter. Candies weren't good or healthy, they just gave that impression. Candy wasn't good, it was evil; candy was the drugs for kids.
Also the Candyman was that man your parents warned you about. We all know the warning parents give their young children: "Never Accept Candy From A Stranger". It's the Eleventh command on God's Top-Ten What-To-Do-To-Be-A-Good-Person-List (Moses was a bit tired she presume so he forgot to put that between 'Thou shall Not kill' and 'Thou shall respect you Mother and Father').
For a very long time, Willy Wonka was Hermione's idea of God: some one who created delicious things and punished those who merited it. Her personal goal in life when Hermione was six was to marry Willy Wonka and rule over all the candies. Hypnotise people with chocolate to so they would obey her, and only her.
This was why Hermione Granger was a faithful fan of Severus Snape. He was her kind of own Willy Wonka. He created potions and pills and powders under his hands to make the world a better place.
A main reason why Hermione hated divination: How are you supposed to see the future if you don't understand the past?
The only predictions you can make is about yourself, and only with the condition you know who exactly you are. Hermione didn't pretend she knew herself completely, but she could trust herself. Very few people count on themselves. They pretend they do, but really, they don't.
Now, Hermione couldn't count on herself. Her body wasn't able to help her and her mind was being poisoned. Now, she had to start hoping again. Now, she had to have faith in Harry and Ron.
Deep, deep inside her, she started to beat. Her heart started to beat like the wings of a bird that wanted to fly away from the cage it was in. Now, for good, Hermione started to cry for help in her heart. There was no time to be proud anymore.
She needed faith of those who had used to know her so she couldn't be herself anymore.
Draco Malfoy walked. Or, better said, limped. Or to be even more accurate, was dragged (by the hair) towards the Shrieking Sack. It didn't hurt. Not really. Draco actually was expecting all this.
Ever since autumn, since the kidnapping of Hermione Granger, the school had been in turmoil. There had been an odd movement starting all over school. All the girls walked together tightly, holding hands, house members all mixed. First all the Gryffindors had been together; then some Raverclaws had joined along with half of Hufflepuff. And now, Slytherins were very often spotted in the cloud of people. The group walked together, in a certain order; the Seventh years with the first years, the Fifth with the Second, the Thirds with the Sixth and the Fourth years were trailing behind, holding hands with someone of another house.
The boys lead by Harry Potter and Ron Weasly, walked in front and behind them, protecting frames. The boys never talked to the girls; it's not that they didn't want to; they just weren't allowed. The girls had to talk to the boys, who did whatever they asked. It was very solemn to watch.
Just a handful of people hadn't joined this group. Not that it was easy. Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil, Ellektra Elshaw and Rosa Blubaum were of course accepted straight away; they actually started it all. Ginny Weasly, Luna Lovegood, and oddly enough, Maritta Edgecombe were the next ones to join. It became bigger and bigger; Daphne Greengrass joined them publicly. The founders had watched her critically and without a word, she has cut her very long hair short. With a knife that bore Hermione's name.
It had been theirs to share during a Potion's project. Everyone had been surprised and shocked and screamed in horror, expect for the founders of the group. They had nodded appreciably and Daphne had sat down between Ellektra and Luna, owning claps on her back and immediate breakfast in front of her.
It was obvious to see those who were rejected from the group. They were sitting at the Slytherin table whilst the group of girls occupied the Gryffindor table. The boys had the Hufflepuff table as theirs and those who were friends with the group members had the Raverclaw table.
Of course, this group was odd and would have quite surely formed also without Hermione. It was a group that seeked for security in these dark times. People came together, huddled close, as if they could transmit their power to each other.
It was obvious the group was idolizing Hermione though. They all wore small trinkets around their necks, legs or arms. It often held a muggle picture of Hermione who had been arranged to look wise and martyrised. The picture was framed with strassstones and ribbons, shiny metal scraps was keeping the whole thing together and gleaming stickers and parchment scraps with Athermancy or SPEW propaganda was also next to the picture, tightly rolled in a scroll. This whole trinket was attached with chains or ribbons, even with Hermione's hair.
Hermione was canonized and her followers were called the Hermioneists. Their actions were almost holy and each week, the article about Hermione was written by a different person and re-read until finally accepted and sent with Hedwig to Luna's father.
This whole business seemed very scary and almost perverted to the others. But the actual members were all sane and sound in their minds.
The Hermioneists were the new Dumbledore's Army. It was a defence group, who learned tenuously how to protect themselves and those they loved through intense studying and magic. Harry and Ron had insisted upon the name and the Hermione-fanatism so at least Hermione will be there in spirit.
The tacky trinkets were good lucks charms, but also the equivalent of Hermione's Galleons: a secure way how to contact each other. The herd system made it sure they had no traitors among them. A great bonus was that they were left alone and that the group worked as one person.
Harry and Ron had simply refused to let Hermione disappearance to disappear. It was their proud to keep on writing about her. They had made up plans no one wanted to follow (these plans most of the time involved a very dead Malfoy Jr. or at least a severely injured and/or maimed one).
In the end, the Hermioneists had agreed upon questioning Draco Malfoy. Which explained why he was dragged by two girls by his hair to the Shrieking Sack. The girls in question were Millicent Bulstrode and Rose Zweller; they had joined the group because of their friends. They didn't like nor dislike Hermione. But one thing they didn't like was Draco Malfoy.
Since the beginning of the school year, there had been something rotten about him. He had been deserted by his friends. Actually, he had deserted them; Pansy Parkinson, his best friend, had been so badly humiliated publicly she didn't have to do anything to get accepted in the Hermioneists.
Pansy had oddly well fitted into the group. The Hermionists weren't doing things that she fully understood, but being with Draco had trained her to ignore those thoughts and queasy feelings in the pit of her stomach.
She had been essential for the plan of questioning Draco. She had been the one to lurk him to the spot where other Hermioneists were waiting. Pansy had hated the idea of Draco being hurt and mistreated, but she needed the comfort the group provided for her. She knew better than no one else that where the individual was weak, the group was strong.
Draco was dragged and thrown in violently into the Shrieking Sack, where the Hermioneists had prepared a court room, where Harry and Ron were the judges; the Gryffindors were the witnesses, the Hufflepuffs the secretaries, the Rawenclaws Hermione's lawyers and the Slytherins… the Slytherins all pointed their wands at Draco.
Draco didn't move, but slowly lifted his head and met the eyes of Harry and Ron and bowed, knowing that from this day forward on, nothing will ever be the same in his life. Everything he had been taught, everything he had ever believed in, everything will be destroyed. He will be marked, animals and children will smell it on him.
"- I don't know where she is, but I will bring you to the Manor."
Harry and Ron nodded. That moment, they felt blood, odd blood, rush up to their hearts and heads. They watched down and brought their hands to their mouth exactly at the same moment, of that movement smokers do when they think. An odd smell came to their nose, the one of magnolias, ink, grapefruit and sweet fabrics. Something rotting as well, something dark, a smell of dread for those who weren't them.
Harry and Ron smiled to each other and everyone knew that from that point forward on, Draco could never be left alone and he will be stampled as Harry's and Ron's propriety.
They all knew that Hermione was present that moment and they also felt that she will be with them again soon.
Luna clapped twice in her hands and candles lit around a picture of Hermione and Pansy turned to watch the picture. Slowly her words echoes in the room, warm, sweet, deep words, like the perfume of a flower in a night, a flower you can smell but cannot see. They were the last words before the chaotic times ahead, words that maybe were the ringling smoke of the flame of love.
" - Clearly there was something from the past, spooking and speaking me back; and suddenly I realized, it was you"