A/N: monnbeam Rags and Hermione will be getting together shortly, prob in the chapter after this one, as for Ron getting a beat down, he will get one, you can rest assured in that, but it might not be for a few chapters.
"I'm wonder when this thing is going to hatch?" Rags asked the others as he lay back on the sofa in the Gryffindor common room, it had been just over a week since they had visited Hagrid and the visit was one of the most enjoyable in all their time at Hogwarts, at least for Ginny, Hermione and Harry, and it was a good time to introduce Rags to Hagrid's version of cooking and baking.
Flashback:
"Hello you lot" said a cheery Hagrid as the foursome arrived at his front door, "Come on in, tea anyone" he got four yeses to tea, and one yes from Rags to try one of his special rock cakes, this had the other's snickering behind their hands.
Once they were all settled and had rather large mugs of tea in their hands Hagrid passed round a plate of rock cakes, no one took any except Rags. "So you all must be wondering why I asked you down here, oh here let me take your cloaks, fire's warmed the house up nicely." He went round a took everyone's cloak from them, and was fortunately hanging them on hooks in the back of his hut when Rags decided to take a bite out if his cake, it was also fortunate he didn't hear the sniggers that three of the students were making, and the death glares that the fourth was returning to them.
"How's the cake Rags?" Harry asked innocently as Hagrid returned, Rags made a show of chewing and enjoying the bite of the cake, that he was sure chipped three of his teeth. "Oh it's a treat Harry, you should really try one, go on Professor Hagrid see what Harry thinks of your cakes." Hagrid beamed, and told Rags to call him Hagrid, calling him Professor made him look round for who they were addressing, he so enjoyed it when people liked his home cooking, he expectantly passed the tray of cakes around to Harry, who shot his own glare at Rags whom just smiled innocently back.
After the cakes had been put away, or eaten in Rags' case, he found after soaking them in his tea for a few minutes, approximately ten, they weren't that bad, or maybe he ahd an Iron stomach, the others were not too sure, Hagrid got down to business. "Ok what I got you here for is I have something for you, it's to do with the class that I'm taking to N.E.W.T. level" at this Rags perked up and stopped rubbing his jaw "yes Rags yours is here too" Hagrid them moved to the back of the hut and came out with four bundles, the group unwrapped them, they had their names on them so that they knew whose was whose, they were eggs, Blahdress Eggs.
Rags wore a huge grin on his face, not one of his small, now almost trademark, smiles but a full blown really happy grin. "Wow Hagrid how did you get these? I didn't even think that there were any of these outside of the Department for the Control of Potentially Dangerous Magical Creatures." The others just looked amazed at the large eggs on the kitchen table, there four of them, one green, one red, one honey coloured and one black.
Ginny looked at the eggs, sure they looked pretty cool, "Um Hagrid what are these things?" she and Harry both turned to Hermione, who shrugged and said "What I don't know" Harry gasped "Say it isn't so" Hermione and Ginny just smacked him on the head.
Surprisingly, or not, it was Rags who answered the question, after an affirmative nod from Hagrid, "They are called Blahdress Eggs, they are exceptionally rare, they are also one of the few true mysteries of magic that no one can come up with a theory for, or at least no theory that is plausible." He looked to Hagrid who nodded his head to continue "If you were to break open the Eggs now what would you find, a creature? Yolk? You would find something that Wizarding scientists can only describe as a form of magical essence, something that is not living or dead, but once the egg comes into the hand of the person that it wants to bond with then the magical essence within the egg begins to change. It assumed qualities that are related to the person that it has bonded to, but it also depends on the kind of creature that your own magic believes will be an appropriate bond companion for you." Rags looked a little embarrassed after his long speech, but Hagrid beamed and said "That will be twenty points to Gryffindor, well done Rags, how on Earth did you remember all of that?"
Rags grinned sheepishly, "I read the book that you loaned me on the subject about three times and managed to commit a lot of what was said to memory, it was just so interesting and provided so many different kinds of theories analysis and research results into magical creatures I couldn't put it down." Hagrid laughed at that and said to the group "Looks like we have found the male Hermione in Rags", this statement caused several reactions in the cabin, Harry and Ginny laughed, Hagrid smiled his trademark large smile, Hermione glared at the half-giant, and Rags surprisingly blushed slightly.
"Well now, I suppose I can't take up much more of your time, so here is the deal. You each get an egg, you have to hold it for at least an hour every day, or you can sleep with it in your bed at night, they both work. But you have to understand, when they hatch, the animals are bonded to you, they will be able to communicate with you, and can't be handed off to someone else, agree to this or you don't get an egg." Hagrid told the four of them seriously, Rags and Harry agreed straight away followed closely by Ginny and Hermione. "Alright then, Rags yours is this one, the black egg, Hermione yours is the blue one, Ginny you have the red egg and Harry yours is the green egg ."
As they picked up their eggs, they seemed to grow warm and glowed softly for a few seconds. Rags spoke up "It feels like, like I am now somehow connected to the egg its amazing" the others nodded in agreement, their eggs seemed to be warm to the touch and when they put their ears to the surface they seemed to hum as well. Bidding a fond farewell to Hagrid the foursome left the cabin.
"Thank you for not telling Hagrid about my arm, I don't know what he would have done to Ron had he found out" said Hermione as they made their way up to the castle, each clutching their eggs in their wrapped cloaks, they had agreed with Hagrid, that even though he had gotten permission from Dumbledore to give them the eggs they should still keep them a secret from a majority of the student population.
Rags' look darkened and he said "Well then maybe we should tell him and sit back and watch the show?" the others glanced at him warily until he could contain his laughter no longer, soon the other three were joining in and their laughter echoed across the slightly chilled grounds of Hogwarts.
End Flashback:
It was late in the evening and all the other Gryffindor's were up in their dorms, so the four of them had the common room completely to themselves. Rags, was balancing his black egg on his chest as he glanced at the others. Ginny was sitting in Harry's lap holding her own red egg close to her chest, Harry had his green egg in the crook of one arm while his other was wrapped around Ginny's waist. Hermione was the odd one out, she was trying to do homework, and strangely enough it was homework that she hadn't finished, and that the others had a few hours ago. This in itself was strange as Hermione was the one who chivvied everyone else to get their work done, she was never the one to have to rush things through at anything other than her own speed, but this time was different, she was having trouble concentrating.
She had this problem for two reasons, one was that she was continually thinking about a certain blonde haired, heavily muscled, stormy eyed hunk, the second was much more normal in Hermione's opinion, she was dead tired, she had been training with Rags three times a week, to say that they were tiring, was to say that Albus Dumbledore's beard was a little long. She found herself thinking back to the first Saturday of training, the same Saturday that Hagrid have given the eggs.
Flashback:
Hermione had snuck out of the Gryffindor dorm rooms enough time to know what she was doing, she had taken Harry's cloak and map as the note had suggested, she had told him about taking it and the cloak the first time and asked his permission, and he had told her that he didn't mind, if she needed it then she could use it. Hermione had told Harry and Ginny that she was using the cloak to go to the library with Rags, at night so there would be no one there, to research some of the curses and hexes that Rags knew, that were not being taught at Hogwarts, they had smirked at her explanation but had accepted it and let it go.
So at eight twenty five in the evening she approached the Room of Requirement, what seemed such a good idea that morning when she had gone over it in her head after getting the note, now seemed a very bad idea. At muggle school she ahd never been any good a sports, and not overly athletic, the only real sport that she had done was ballet when she was a little girl. Taking a deep breath she removed the invisibility cloak and opened the door, and was a little shocked at what she saw.
Gone was the dimly lit room that she had seen Rags training in before, now there was a brightly lit room, with pale walls, timber floors and a small section in the centre covered with about two inch thick blue padding, all in all the room looked a lot like the room she had seen her father practice Kendo in for all those years when she was younger. "Evening Hermione" said a deep voice from somewhere to her left, which caused Hermione to jump in fright, something she would later deny with great fervour.
"RAGS" she shrieked "What the hell are you doing back there" he just smirked and glanced around the room, Hermione was not impressed, first he had scared…shocked her and now he wasn't talking to her. "Honestly why did you do that?" he just smirked and replied by saying "Just testing your awareness of your surroundings , you weren't bad" she smiled at his compliment, only to be shut down when he continued "but you need improvement."
Hermione was now rather pissed off with Rags, she had been trained in the DA, admittedly it was a student organisation, but it was still the best Defence training that she had received in her years at Hogwarts, and here he was saying that she could be better, well she would just have to show him. "Shouldn't you test me before you make an assumption about my skills?" she asked in a voice that was a little harsher than she intended.
She saw Rags' expression change, going from his friendly expression to something colder, something that made her a little anxious. "Ok, your at school, you think you are in a safe place, you entered a room where you knew I would be. You felt as though you were going into a secure environment correct?" Hermione nodded her head wondering where he was going with all this, "What if I was someone under the influence of the polyjuice potion?" Hermione had no answer to this, her mouth worked silently but Rags beat her to speaking again "As for Hogwarts being a safe place, you remember what happened to Moaning Myrtle? Yourself and the other students who were petrified, were you safe here? Finally remember what happened to the Diggory boy? All the crap that you and Harry and all the others have been through in the last five years I would think it would have made you a little more cautious."
Hermione felt ashamed, she had asked Rags to teach her how to defend herself and the first bit of criticism that she had received she had thrown back in his face, "I'm sorry" she whispered "I didn't mean for it to come out like that, it just seemed like you were making assumptions about me without all the information."
Rags' expression softened "Hermione when I agreed to teach you to defend yourself I meant that I would do just that, and that I would not agree to do it just that I would have the chance to tear you down while we are here." He grinned a little sheepishly "Look I have seen your spell casting it is phenomenal" Hermione couldn't help the little blush or surge of pride she felt when he said that, but her attention snapped back when he went on "there is nothing that I can teach you in that department except some more combat orientated spells, I am merely saying that, yes you are a great witch, and you have incredible intelligence, but you are not very aware of what is around you all the time."
Hermione looked a little confused at this so he elaborated "Two good people to watch to get to know what being aware is all about is me" she smiled to herself, no guess there, "and Harry" Hermione looked confused "Why Harry, you I can understand, but I don't understand, this may be a stupid question but can you explain it more?"
Rags nodded his head "Hermione you of all people should know you don't learn much unless you ask questions, so no, it is not a stupid question. Well, watch Harry and I when we enter a room, I learned this the hard way, and I think that Harry is starting to get the idea as well, when we enter a room, always check it out, look in the corners, look for weird people, and most importantly know where all the exits are."
Hermione smiled and sighed "There is a lot to learn isn't there?" Rags just smiled and said "Don't worry I'll talk you through everything, but we don't need to look at the awareness part too much until you guys start up the DA again", this was something that had been discussed on many an evening beside the common room fire. "What we are going to work on tonite and probably for the conceivable future, will be a mix of, meditation until you can reach what is called the Void, curses and hexes, and combat with a sword" at her surprised look he grinned "don't be scared you wont be using anything like Matsuro for a while yet" she mock glared at him and he just laughed "ok lets get started sit on that mat over there and do exactly like I do."
End Flashback:
Hermione remembered the movements 'No their called Katas' Rags' voice echoed in her head, the katas that he had gotten her to go through with the wooden bokken, a wooden practice katana, which he had proudly given to her to keep after her first training session, it was these sessions that were causing he tiredness, it wasn't the amount of time that they went on for but rather how strenuous the activity really was, meditation was actually very difficult and left you feeling tired, not refreshed, if you didn't do it properly.
She really enjoyed the sessions and she had even achieved what he had called the 'void' once or twice during practice, the void was something that she couldn't really explain, it was where your conscious thought seemed to leave your mind and your instincts, reactions and muscle awareness seemed to take over, and it required almost no thought to use, once you knew what you were doing, or to remove yourself from it, it was incredible and frightening at the same time. But she immediately set herself to mastering this skill, as Rags had told her that once she had mastered the void, she would be able to some of the things that she had seen him do when she had stumbled upon his training session in the Room of Requirement. On an entertaining side note, she had told the girls in her dorm how she had gotten her bruised arm, an how the bruising now was much better, and as a result Rags' public opinion among the Gryffindor girls ahd sky rocketed and Ron's had dropped lower than a Slytherin Quidditch player.
Glancing up to where Rags was lounging on the couch she couldn't resist saying "I don't know when It will hatch, maybe you should ask it?" Rags glance at her, and seeing that she was teasing him he stuck his tongue out at her, a gesture he had picked up very quickly from Harry and Ginny, and knew would send Hermione into a fit of giggles.
--
'The trio' as they were now unofficially called by the members of the Gryffindor house, i.e. Rags, Hermione and Harry, Ginny wasn't included as she was in another year and was unable to take classes with the others, were sitting in potions listening to Professor Slughorn outline the potion that they were going to be studying for that day, the Drought of Living Death, and whomever brewed the potion the best, got "As a treat" as the professor put it, a small vial of the Felix Felicis potion, or a very powerful luck potion. Harry was at the same work station as Rags, Hermione, still annoyed at the potion book, was working with Neville, Rags had decided to avoid the wrath of Hermione, even though it was now down to a mild annoyance where the potion book was concerned, and was working out of his own potion book. He just happened to look at Harry's book, it wasn't cheating they were friends, and he had brewed this potion before, a long time ago while he was undergoing training with his former master by using the time turner. What he saw in Harry's book shocked him, yes the method shocked him, but that was not something that he was unfamiliar with, he already knew that on most potions mentioned in the book, the previous owner had given alternative suggestions. But this was different, there in the margin alongside the Drought of Living Death ingredients and methodology, there was a spell written in the previous author's handwriting, a spell that sent his mind into instant awareness, the spell was Secumsempra, a spell that he was familiar with, a Dark spell, he resolved to speak to Harry during the lunch break.
Harry won the bottle of Felix Felicis, which did not surprise Rags that much, he just found it funny to watch Hermione get irritated over it, not 'Hopping Steaming Hermione Mad' as Ginny so eloquently put it on several occasions in the common room, but irritated enough to half mock half real glare at Harry after potions.
--
Harry was shocked, Rags had grabbed himself, Hermione and Ginny, whom they had bumped into on their way to the Great Hall, and had dragged them to the nearest empty classroom to have a talk, and what a talk. Rags had told the group that he had recognised one of the spells in Harry's potions book as being a Dark spell. "The spell is called Secumsempra, it is not an overly powerful Dark spell but when used correctly it is very dangerous, the victim is slashed by an invisible source that leaves wounds that look to have come from a heavy sword. It is a spell that most victims die from if they don't receive immediate medical attention."
Hermione turned to Harry with a smug look on her face, fully intending to tell him that she was right and that he was wrong, and that the spell book was bad, which disappeared at the look on Rags' face, concerned she said "What is it Rags?" Hermione had asked him.
Rags sighed and replied "After the initial incident with the potions book I did a little digging, I had an idea about why Hermione acted the way that she did when Harry first got his potions book" he glanced around at his friends and continued "it took me a while but I talked to some of the guys", by the guys he meant Seamus, Dean and Neville, the other Gryffindor boys that Rags was friendly with. "I learned that Hermione was the one to stick by Harry no matter what, hell she even helped him start the DA last year even though it could get them expelled or even investigated by the Minister of Magic." The group all nodded and looked at Hermione, who true to her nature was deep in thought about what she had just heard.
"Well it got me thinking, there is a spell, it's a very old spell, but most of the pureblood families know it or at least know of its existence. It was banned by the International Conglomeration of Sorcery and Witchcraft in 1723, it is commonly known as the Agrvias incantation. It is a strange spell it all depends on the will of the caster, but what it is used for is turning people against the ones that they hold dear." Realization dawned on the others faces, it was uncannily like what had happened to Hermione, and then Rags continued "I don't know why it would have been used on Hermione but looking at Ronald and how he has been acting, it's just a suspicion, but I think that he would be a candidate for using it." The others didn't say anything immediately, what Rags was saying sounded true
Harry jumped in "What makes you think that Ron would have been the one to cast the spell? I hate to say it but our little group is not exactly made up of the most popular people at Hogwarts, for example most of the Slytherin's hate us, i.e. Draco Malfoy, could he have cast the spell?" Harry had broken off most of his former contact with Ron, but still he didn't like the idea that someone was suggesting that the person who had been his unofficial brother for the past five years was doing something this bad.
Rags appeared to have an answer to this too as he continued straight away "Yes I have looked at the possibility that it was Malfoy but he hates you Harry, yes he doesn't get along with Hermione and Ginny, but if he cast the spell on you it would do the most damage, the only one who has anything to gain by casting the spell on Hermione, is Ron, I'm sorry." First Hermione, then Harry and eventually Ginny nodded their heads, each not wanting to think that someone who had been so close to them for so many years would try to break up their friendship like this.
Hermione had to ask the inevitable question "Why? Why would he do something like this? We were such good friends, and he threw all that away even before he cast that spell, if he did" even in her emotional state she knew that Rags had no proof, just conjecture and speculation, conjecture and speculation that fit Ron's behaviour for the last few weeks. "I think he wanted you away from your friends, so that he would be the only one that you could turn to, but I think that he cast the spell wrong, as you were very vague in your treatment of your friends, only getting annoyed at things that annoy you normally but at a more aggravated level. Also the caster forgot a major flaw of this spell, once everything that the victim has done is pointed out to him or her then the spell looses its effect very quickly."
Hermione went over to Harry and hugged him and said "I'm sorry for the way I acted, I know I wasn't myself but I still blame myself" Harry hugged her back and whispered in her ear "Its ok Hermione, I don't blame you, I hope it isn't Ron, but who ever did this to you will have me to deal with." Rags and Ginny nodded their heads in agreement; whoever did this to Hermione was in for a world of hurt.
--
September soon ended at the first week of October rolled round, classes continued as normal, with Hermione and Harry glaring at Ron at every opportunity, Ron and Harry had a spectacular falling out in the Gryffindor common room, a falling out that caused a few grins to appear on their housemates faces, people tended to like Rags more, he wasn't and idiot who whined if he didn't get his own way.
It was Saturday the 7th of October, and Hermione's alarm clock was blaring in her ear 'Why do I forget to turn the damn thing off' she silently yelled into her pillow, she quickly turned it off so as not to disturb her dorm mates and quickly got dressed. She quickly admired herself in the mirror; her training sessions with Rags had toned her up quite a bit. Not that she was ever porky or anything like that, but now her exercising had left her figure slim, but still curvy in all the right places, and tightened her derrière as she like to think of it, much to her own pleasure, she had also noticed that with her increased upper body strength she had also grown in cup size as well, in her opinion she looked good, in almost everyone else's opinion she was hot.
She made her way down stairs and was surprised to see that Rags was not in his usual position on the couch, smiling thinking that she had beaten him at last, but then she heard his voice coming from a corner of the common room. Peaking over she saw him talking with a house elf, not recognising the elf as either Dobby or another school elf she deduced that this must be Dizzy, the only friend Rags had while growing up.
She was about to go over to them when the elf gave Rags a small brightly wrapped packet and a quick hug round the legs, then disappeared with a small crack. Rags grinned at the space where the elf had been moments before and un-wrapped the parcel that he had just been given. Hermione just watched as he pulled out what appeared to be something that looked like a leather wallet, he flipped it open and his whole demeanour changed. He gripped the back of the wooden chair that he was standing near and gave a gasp that sounded like he was in agony, Hermione noticed with shock that their were tears in his eyes, she quickly moved to go over to him but without even looking her direction he dashed through the portrait hole, his gift still in his hand. Hermione followed as fast as she could but when she got out onto the landing Rags was gone, she looked up and down the spiral staircase, but it was as though he had vanished into thin air.
A/N CLIFFIE YAY :-) Thanks to all those who have read the story up to this point, sorry it's a long one again, same excuse as last time I really got into it lol. Hope you all like this new update and continue to read and review the story. Thanks again TBK