A/N: One hundred percent AU. Harry and Ron left Hermione behind to look for Horcruxes and then Hermione's mandatory presence at Hogwart's is requested.
Pairing is Hermione/Draco, rated M for themes of profanity, perhaps smut, torture, and death.
Let me know what you think :)? X
MEMOIRS OF AN UNTOLD STORY
CHAPTER SEVEN:
PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS?
oOo
"Did you get them?" Hermione asked breathlessly as she got to the Gryffindor table for breakfast. Ginny and Neville were in the middle of toast and juice when Hermione came out of nowhere and startled their conversation. Ginny nodded with a knowing smile and Hermione sighed with relief, and finally sat down across from them. "Was it hard?" she asked, frowning.
She hoped they didn't ask her how her night went… It would go something like 'Yeah it was great, almost stabbed myself in the stomach to prove a point, then got sucked into Snape's memories where I came face to face with the Dark Lord himself and then Malfoy had to hold me like a baby'. Hermione shuddered. She knew she'd have to think of anything but Malfoy when she mastered the spell.
"Nope, quick as anything. In and out" Neville replied, "They're taped under Ginny's bed" he whispered the last part. He visibly tensed when Alecto passed them, glaring at each of them with plain disgust. "I hate that bitch" Neville added, shaking his head in anger.
"So what did Snape want?" Ginny asked suddenly and Hermione felt her heart sink.
"He wanted us to clean his office because Malfoy's been sneaking Pansy into his room" Hermione shrugged, trying to forget last night, "It was painfully boring!".
"Glad it wasn't anything serious" Neville sighed with relief, "Oh, have you had anymore progress with the spell?".
"Actually think I might have found something, but it's the Dark Arts" Hermione grimaced, "Don't really know if that's a road I wanna go down".
"Then maybe good magic was never meant to master it" Ginny spoke up, "Hermione, I've been thinking… What if… what if I think of something I don't want you all to know? How do I get rid of it?".
Hermione shrugged, "I was worrying about that too…".
"It was your idea" Neville shrugged back but after a look from Hermione he straightened up and said, "And what a very good idea it was!".
"Actually, I'm beginning to think it was a very bad idea" Hermione bit her lip, "But it's the only way we'd have of communicating with each other privately".
"Desperate times call for desperate measures" Ginny nodded woefully.
"So how exactly would it work again?" Neville leaned in, trying not to be heard.
"The spell enchants the crystals" Hermione explained for the 50th time though she knew the idea was so daunting in itself it maybe did need explained a lot "Whoever wears the crystals can hear each other wearer's thoughts. It's quite simple really".
"It really is quite genius, Hermione" Ginny smiled tensely, "It's just… I have secrets".
"Don't we all?" Hermione smiled back, "Look, it's either that or we fail and we can't do that, okay? So whenever you feel like you're gonna say something embarrassing just think of pink teddies and candy floss. But really I hope we're all thinking about how to weaken the Dark Lord".
"'The Dark Lord'"? Neville frowned, "Since when have you called him that?".
Hermione's cheeks flushed at the thought of last night and being pressed up against Draco and shivered unexpectedly. "Since now" she replied, with a little more force than needed.
"So, how are things?" Ginny suddenly asked, "Living the Malfoy and everything?".
Hermione nearly choked on her juice and wiped her mouth with a secret smile, "It's fine" she thought about telling them he knew she snuck out when she went to meet Blaise and how he didn't say anything to Snape but she really couldn't be bothered with a lecture about carelessness. She knew Draco wouldn't say anything, but, she didn't know why. He was quite a mystery.
Hermione looked across the hall, expecting to see his familiar flash of blonde hair but she didn't and instead caught Luna's wandering eye. Hermione flashed her a successful smile and then a mere one to Cho, who was almost glaring at Hermione.
"Remember to fill Luna in when you can" Hermione suddenly said to Ginny and Neville, "It'd be so much easier if she could sit next to us".
"No it wouldn't" Neville spluttered, going pink in his cheeks.
Hermione smiled slightly and gave Ginny a look, which she returned. "Ginny, let's go to your Dorm so we can get the crystals then I can check out the library again and see if I can work anything out".
They said goodbye to Neville and began walking out the main hall and towards the Gryffindor Dorm. Hermione missed it sometimes, especially in these dark times and couldn't wait to remember all the times the gang had shared together by the couches and fire. Just as Ginny was in the middle of a tongue-tying sentence, about Theodore Nott 'accidentally' bumping into her on the way out of class and knocking her books everywhere when they turned another corner and Hermione's eyes widened as she saw Draco. And Pansy. Together.
Their lips were entangled and their hands going everywhere and for a split second, Hermione felt time slow down and everything go past her in slow motion. Her stomach plummeted and then she met his clear blue eyes and for a second it seemed like he froze too. Then she felt Ginny grab her wrist and pull her away. Hermione let herself be carried away and when they turned the second corner, Ginny practically flung Hermione against the wall.
"What the fuck was that?" Ginny demanded.
"What was what?" Hermione snapped back to reality.
"You!" Ginny screamed, "You were… gaping at Malfoy and Parkinson… like you were hurt" her eyes widened and suddenly realisation dawned over her face "Hermione, how could you?".
"How could I what?" Hermione pushed herself off the wall and paced a little.
"You know what" Ginny gritted her teeth. She leaned and whispered, "You have feelings for Malfoy!".
"No I don't!" Hermione cried back, "I was just shocked… Did I tell you Pansy and I almost got into a fight the other day?".
"No you didn't" Ginny put her hands on her hips "You really don't tell me much of anything anymore Hermione".
"That's not true" Hermione defended weakly, crossing her arms, secretly knowing that inside it was.
"Promise me there is nothing going on with Malfoy?" Ginny sighed heavily.
"There is nothing!" Hermione cried, "Can we just let this go?".
"Fine" Ginny began walking again and Hermione followed after her, all the while Hermione's heart beat was doing a dance of her own. She had to admit… She was crushed when she saw him with her… What was going on? Hermione shook her head of these thoughts and tried to focus on what was ahead of her.
oOo
As Hermione walked to the library with the secure packaged crystals in her bag across her body, she hoped that the library would be empty; that's when she liked it best and after that morning, she needed a quiet space away from prying eyes. As Hermione walked into the library she saw it was practically empty, apart from one student sitting up the back… Which happened to be Blaise. Hermione looked around as she walked up to him with a subtle smile on her face.
"Mr Zabini" Hermione began, putting her bag on the table next to his, "What are you doing here?".
"Waiting for you, Miss Granger" Blaise returned the smile and watched her walk into the restricted section, quickly checking to see if any Professors were there.
"Did you find the package?" Blaise asked casually as he came up behind her.
"Yes, thank you" Hermione gave him another smile, "I couldn't find spells like this in the other books so…".
"You think dark magic will work?" Blaise raised his eyebrow, "Is that clever?".
"I don't want to do it" Hermione confessed, "It may be the only way to get the crystals working".
"Maybe we could come up with another plan?" Blaise frowned, fingering a book next to Hermione idly, almost as if he was bored.
"And have you got one, genius?" Hermione asked playfully, looking away from her current interest in a book to look at him.
"Nope" Blaise laughed lightly.
"Then we're going with my…" Hermione trailed off, picking up a book from the top shelf and walking back to the table. "I have never seen this book before!".
"So?" Blaise asked, amused.
"I've read every book in this library, at least twice" Hermione gave him a look, "I've never missed a book either! This one must be new…" she opened it and her eyes lit up.
"Does it have a section on enchanting?" Blaise looked over her shoulder, still cautious in case anyone were to walk in and see them mingling.
"Yes!" Hermione grinned, flipping to the middle of the book. She stayed silent for a few minutes and Blaise watched her, a little impressed. She really was the smartest girl in their year.
"It says for shared objects that need enchanted we're gonna need a hell of a lot of power" Hermione sighed, looking worried. She flipped over to another page and her eyes widened. "To enchant these crystals to read our minds we're gonna need good and dark magic".
"How are we gonna get that?" Blaise sighed, rubbing his neck.
"We channel it" Hermione looked up to him, "All magic is born neutral, in everyone, it's up to the wizard or witch who uses the magic if it's going to be used for evil or good".
"Let me guess, I have to channel the dark magic?" Blaise raised his eyebrow, "What if it doesn't work?".
"You're the closest one it would channel into" Hermione shrugged, "You hang around with Death Eaters, that's pretty dark".
"And because you hang around with Potter, you're good?" Blaise sighed, "How would we do it anyway?".
"We'd need a circle of 16 candles, 8 black and 8 white" Hermione read off the book, "And objects to represent good and evil magic. The crystals would be placed in a gold bowl. We place a piece of paper inside the gold bowl with the crystals, telling the spell what we want to happen; in this case, we want the crystals to communicate thoughts to the wearers. The objects that represent good and evil magic would be directed to the crystals, while we both say an incantation".
"Side effects?" Blaise asked, after his nodding.
Hermione bit her lip and turned back to the book, "The spell casters will feel exhausted and tired for at least a day and probably won't be able to practice any magic for 24 hours".
"That doesn't seem too bad" Blaise shrugged. "Let's do it. Tonight".
"Are you sure?" Hermione felt nerves in her stomach.
"It's as good a time as any" Blaise mused, "It would need to be the Head's Dorm though… We can't do it anywhere else… If I were caught with you, we'd both be dead".
"What about Draco?" Hermione swallowed his name as she put the book away in her bag. And what about Snape? Hermione thought grimly, He did say there'd be hell to pay if he caught anyone sneaking in and out again… Then again, Pansy's not clever enough to pull something like that off.
"Can't we do it in your room?" Blaise asked. "I can enchant a blanket as an invisibility cloak and sneak over at 7. You make up some excuse and open the Head's door long enough for me to get inside. Then go straight for your bedroom door and leave it open. I'll sneak in and then you tell Draco you want to go to bed early or something and soundproof your room".
"That's a brilliant plan" Hermione grinned, "I'll find things to represent good and evil, could you bring some candles and a gold bowl with you? I don't have any and I figured…".
"The Slytherin Dorm would be crawling with 16 black and white candles and a bowls of gold?" Blaise finished for her, "Don't worry, we totally are" they both laughed and Hermione put her bag over her body and turned around.
"See you at 7" she nodded, "You might wanna wait like 2 minutes before you leave" Hermione walked towards the library door, gave Blaise another slight smile and stepped outside. Not wanting to be stopped and searched, Hermione hurried her pace along the corridor as she reached the Head's Dorm. She muttered the password and stepped inside. She figured she had 20 minutes before she had to go to her afternoon classes.
Draco was nowhere to be seen, as usual. Hermione walked into her room and shoved the book and the packaged crystals into her black box of weapons, hiding it in her cupboard as usual. She straightened up and took a deep breath, smoothing down her skirt.
Time for afternoon classes. And Alecto. Great.
oOo
As Hermione walked into the Great hall for dinner, all she could think about was doing the spell with Blaise that night. It scared her just as it did excite her. If anyone ever found out, she was pretty sure they'd be killed so fast they wouldn't even be aware it were happening. She walked up to Neville and Ginny at the Gryffindor table and gave Luna a polite smile from where she was sitting at her Ravenclaw table. "I can't stay guys" Hermione sat down across from them, "Blaise and I are going to do the spell tonight" she whispered.
"Really?" Ginny's eyes widened, "Do you definitely know it will work?".
"I'm pretty sure" Hermione nodded, "It only needs two people and I need a representation of evil and Blaise is the only slightly evil associated guy I know that would do it".
"Do you need us to do anything?" Neville asked, tucking into the dinner that kept reappearing on his plate.
"No, I got it all under control" Hermione smiled "But if my dorm happens to blow up, will you run through the corridor absolutely naked to distract people?" she smirked.
"Absolutely-" Neville grinned.
"Not!" Ginny grinned back, "But, good luck".
"Thank you, I'll update you guys tomorrow morning and hopefully we can start wearing them" Hermione got up, gave them one last look and walked out, seeing it was just hitting 6pm on the big clock. She could have stayed for dinner but she needed to know where Draco was, since he wasn't in the Great hall for the second time that day.
Hermione reached the portrait door for the Head's Dorm and muttered the password, walking inside. She stopped short a little when she saw Draco sitting on the chair, reading one of his textbooks. She closed the portrait door behind her and took a deep breath, wondering if she should say something. Instead, her legs automatically walked into the kitchen and she poured herself some juice. She could tell he was watching her back, even though she wasn't sure how she knew.
Before Hermione even knew what she was doing, she put down her cup of juice and stormed into the living room. "If you tell anyone about last night, I'll drain your pure-blood myself" she didn't know why she sounded so vicious but she did and she was even more annoyed when he didn't even react. He just raised his eyebrows in arrogance.
"And what exactly happened last night?" Draco smirked nastily.
"You know what happened last night" Hermione gritted out, "If anyone were to know what we saw, or did…".
"You mean like my whore?" Draco asked boredly.
Hermione rolled her eyes, "If Pansy were to find out she'd somehow have it be all my fault, even though you're the one that pushed me into the Pensieve".
"Don't worry, Granger" Draco mocked her, "I won't be telling her anything that she doesn't like to hear".
Hermione made a gagging sound and rolled her eyes, "And I hope 'your whore' isn't planning on coming over tonight because I will personally throw her out".
"I'm staying at Pansy's tonight" Draco stood up from the couch and closed his textbook.
"Really?" Hermione's eyes lit up like a light bulb. This was perfect! With Draco gone, there wouldn't need to be that much sneaking around… The risks were minimal! But wait… He was staying at Pansy's? Over night? Together? Hermione turned back into the kitchen, trying to repress the sudden feeling of nausea. Why did that bother her so much?
Hermione turned back into the common room to find that Draco hadn't moved and was watching her with a suspicious look on his face. "Anyway, have a good night" Hermione drawled sarcastically, rolling her eyes. She walked into her bedroom and closed the door behind her. Despite the unease she felt at Draco and Pansy being together she pushed it aside and tried to think about the spell she was casting tonight. Not only would it be amazing if her idea actually worked out, mastering this spell would be a personal achievement and definitely something to rub in Draco's nose when he was in Azkaban. That thought also made her uneasy and she was sick of feeling uneasy, especially before a big spell… It made her nerves flare up.
Hermione took a deep breath and rubbed her neck, trying to loosen up. To take her mind off Draco and Pansy and nakedness, she began to clean up mindlessly. Suddenly she stood to a standstill when she heard the portrait door being knocked on. Hermione raced into the common room, happy to see that Draco was already gone and ran to open the portrait door. There was nothing there but Hermione smiled secretly and moved aside. She heard a shuffling of the sort and finally closed the door back over.
"Draco is gone. Coast is clear" Hermione spoke aloud and Blaise took off the invisible blanket covering him. He put it on the chair and followed Hermione into her bedroom. "Did you get the things we needed?" she asked as she shut her door behind them.
"Yes" Blaise took his school bag off his shoulders and began placing the 8 black and 8 white candles in a circle. He placed a gold chalice in the middle of it and looked to Hermione. "Nervous?".
"Yes" Hermione let out a deep sigh, "I got this from the Potion's classroom today" she held out a black plastic skull to Blaise.
"For darkness, so cliché" Blaise laughed, "What about for good magic?".
"I was thinking…" Hermione picked up a picture of Professor Dumbledore, "Good magic was who he was, not just what".
"It's a perfect idea" Blaise smiled. He watched Hermione unwrap the brown package that contained the crystals, and smiled even further when she pulled out five blue stone crystals, each on a piece of string. Hermione went to sit inside the circle of candles and Blaise took a seat opposite her.
"These are amazing" Hermione whispered, lowering them down into the gold chalice. She grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled; 'Our wish is to enchant these crystals to hear only the thoughts of the other crystal wearers. We wish for them to be inter-connected' she folded it up and put it in the chalice with the crystals. Hermione opened the book she got from the library and picked up the picture of Dumbledore as Blaise held the black skull.
"Don't we light the candles now?" Blaise asked Hermione, frowning.
"Nope" Hermione smiled knowingly but said nothing. "We say the English incantation once, and then the Latin one for as long as the spell takes to work" she read the words from the book.
"How do we know it worked?" Blaise asked again.
"It just says we'll know" Hermione frowned back. She took a deep breath and looked up to Blaise "You ready?".
Blaise nodded and also took a deep breath. He looked to the book in front of him and Hermione. At the same time Blaise said: "Take my power, take my soul, channel the darkness so it shall grow, mix the power into every core, take my wish and let it soar"
Hermione spoke: "Take my power, take my soul, channel the goodness so it shall grow, mix the power into every core, take my wish and let it soar".
Long flames suddenly burst from the candles and all around them in the circle, the flames flickered with dark intent. The atmosphere suddenly got colder and Hermione shivered when she felt a prickle go down her spine.
"Very cool" Blaise grinned.
"Keep going" Hermione held out the picture of Dumbledore to the chalice and Blaise did the same with his skull. They both looked back to the book and began to chant.
Hermione, for her good version chanted: "Take meus vox take meus animus channel goodness sic is vadum grow, confundo vox in sulum core take meus votum quod permissum is altivolus!".
While Blaise chanted his dark one; "Take meus vox take meus animus channel obscurum sic is vadum grow, confundo vox in sulum core take meus votum quod permissum is altivolus!".
Both incantations sounded the same apart from one or two words changed but as they kept repeating it, they both noticed that the objects in their hands began to glow. Hermione's Dumbledore's picture glowed a soft silvery yellow gold colour and Blaise's black skull glowed with black and grey. A wind had suddenly picked up around them and no matter how hard it battered, the flames of the candles were unmoved. Hermione found she had to shout it now, the noise of the wind and Blaise, drowning her out. While Hermione choked for air on some of the words from her incantation, Blaise felt like a hand was pressing against his chest but he still carried on.
The glowing magic from their objects slowly moved from them to the chalice and the light glowing and dark glowing seemed to slither up towards each other, wrapping itself around each other like a tight embrace. Hermione and Blaise were still shouting the incantations while the light and dark glowing magic in the chalice slid through single crystal necklace, letting it's presence be known. The folded up piece of paper in the chalice dissolved into ash and flew away in the wind.
The wind had still not died down and Hermione was afraid she was about to be lifted from her position on the ground. The two different shades of glow mingled together and it raised the crystal necklaces up from the chalice to each turn once and then back down again. Like a Banshee scream, the wind suddenly flew outwards, creating a circular mingled glow in the air around the candles. At the same time, Hermione was flung from her position on the floor onto the wall behind her. She came crashing down to the floor as Blaise was sent the other way and hit Hermione's bedroom door with a thud. The circular glow in mid air and the howling wind dissolved and everything went very quiet.
Hermione groaned, rubbed her head and sat up, looking over to Blaise. He was rubbing his shoulder as he stumbled to stand up. Hermione looked down to herself again, making sure she hadn't broke anything. There was definitely something weird about her… The book was right, she felt absolutely exhausted, and every part of her body ached, like a constant pain. She looked at Blaise's face and realised he was probably feeling the same.
"They didn't mention anything about the stupid wind or mini explosion" Hermione grumbled, standing up and nearly falling but was caught and steadied by Blaise. She looked around her room and saw that everything was either broke or on the floor. She stepped on a fallen candle and made an annoyed noise as she finally glanced down to the floor and ironically, the golden chalice and the crystals were the only things still intact.
"Do you think it worked?" Blaise moved his knee, wincing in pain.
"Let's hope so" Hermione grimaced in pain as she bent down and picked up the chalice. They pulled two crystals out of it and put the chalice on her bed. She put one of the crystals around her neck and gave the other one to Blaise. He fumbled about with it but eventually got it on. When they were both on at the same time, they noticed the crystals both glowed momentarily then the light faded. Hermione raised her head and waited. And waited… And wait-
'Can you hear me?' Blaise thought loudly.
Hermione slowly grinned and thought, 'Yes I can! Can you hear me?'.
'Loud and clear!' Blaise thought with a devilish smile, 'I can't believe it actually worked!'.
'Me neither actually' Hermione thought back, rubbing her sore elbow, 'We'll only all wear these when we absolutely have to, for conversations about how to sabotage Snape'.
'She always likes to be in control' Blaise thought it before he could stop himself.
'Hey!' Hermione screamed her thought.
'Sorry, I couldn't help it!' Blaise thought loudly but looked sheepish, 'You should really keep a look out, seeing as your living next door to a Death Eater'.
Hermione's heart beat began to rise and suddenly, all she wanted to do was stop all thought-or-mouth conversations about Draco.
'Why is your heart racing?' Blaise thought, frowning.
"Wait, you can hear that as well?" Hermione spoke, bringing noise to her silent room.
"No, I heard you think it" Blaise smiled.
"It's safe to say they work" Hermione pulled her crystal off her neck quickly and went to put it in her drawer.
"Still" Blaise took off his crystal aswell and put it into his pocket, "Draco is a Death Eater but God knows who's side he's actually on. Before we came back to Hogwarts, he was having second thoughts and freaking out and its like, since he's came back here, he's completely changed, he won't talk to me anymore, in fact, I think he avoids me, he'll only really speak to Theodore Nott, when he's not up Snape's ass or making out with Pansy Parkinson".
When he said that, murderous thoughts swarmed into Hermione's head and she was so happy she wasn't wearing the crystal anymore. "I'll keep a look out" she added quietly, looking back to the state of her room. "I'm in so much pain, who knows when I'll be able to clean this?".
"Let me" Blaise took out his wand from his pocket, pointed it in the air and said "Purgo" and suddenly a soft glow of yellow swarmed the room and right before her very eyes, everything was put back together, like it had never been broken.
"Thank you" Hermione looked surprised "Where did you learn that?".
"My mother taught me it" Blaise smiled sheepishly, "She hates cleaning, and so do I".
"Thank you for doing the spell with me" Hermione added, taking the other 3 crystals out of the chalice and hiding them in her last drawer. "I'll give these to the guys tomorrow".
Blaise nodded and put the chalice and the 16 candles into his bag, zipping it up. Hermione shoved the magical book under her bed and looked around. It was as good as new. It still smelled a little like the Potion's lab but if Draco wasn't going to be back until after classes tomorrow, that'd be plenty of time for it to disappear.
"I'll let you get some sleep" Blaise suddenly yawned himself and Hermione walked him out to the common room to get his invisible enchanted blanket.
"We'll speak tomorrow" Hermione smiled tiredly as she opened the portrait door for him. A couple students walked by the open door but Blaise covered himself with the invisible cloak just in time and he was gone from sight.
"Bye" Blaise muttered and Hermione heard him shuffling out of the door. She finally closed it behind her and dragged her feet into the common room, groaning. Why did she feel so much like hell? Even Blaise didn't look that bad… Wait, what was that? What was… Hermione felt her nose and lip and realised that she had a nose bleed. Hermione stared at the blood on her fingers and suddenly felt unstable.
What was going on? Before anything else could happen next, Hermione felt her eyes roll into the back of her head and her body hit the floor.
That was not good. At all.