A/N: 5th Chapter. Still a bit confusing, but stay with me here! It'll get better. Promise.

I was so excited today that I decided to finish off the Fifth Chapter. It's all coming fast, wow.

Sorry there hasn't been very much Dramione lately. Stay with me here, this IS A DRAMIONE STORY. There is a tiny bit of interaction here, but not a lot. Be patient. It'll come. :)

Anyway, read and enjoy! :)

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling, the song "I'm Fine" is by Kimya Dawson. All I own is the (ADDED) plot and the OCs.

I'm Fine

...***...

Chapter 5

"I turned it back and now everything's fine,

Except for the fact that I lost my friend,

But the ends justify the means in the end.

And I am fine,

I'm fine,

I'm fine..."

-I'm Fine, Kimya Dawson

Funny. Who am I talking to again?

Nice try.

Why won't you tell me?

I find not knowing who you're writing to to be rather thrilling.

Hermione groaned once again, in the library with Ron. He looked up at Hermione, slightly pissed.

No, not slightly. Very pissed. Amazingly pissed. The list just goes on and on.

"'Mione, you've done that a hundred times. Is there something about the homework you don't understand?"

Hermione looked at him, incredulously. "Why would there be something on my homework that I don't understand?" she demanded. He raised his hands in a mock surrender. She shook her head and looked back at the parchment. Ron looked at it and snatched it from under her hand. She made a noise in protest, but Ron didn't seem to notice. He looked wide-eyed at it, turning it over once or twice.

"It's a Note-Passer!" He exclaimed. Ron looked quite amazed at her, then back at the parchment, then back at Hermione.

"How do you know what it is?"

"Fred and George were working on it. Showed me it when it wasn't even finished yet. Apparently they asked someone to test it for them." Ron looked at Hermione. "Did they...?"

"No," replied Hermione, immediately. "They never gave me anything. Unless they were the ones who hid it in that book..."

"Maybe. Why don't you ask?" he said, pointing at the Note-Passer that was now sitting on the desk in front of Hermione. She took out her quill and began writing.

Are you Fred or George Weasley?

There was a moment. Hermione and Ron were quite sure...

No. Merlin woman, you're terrible at this.

"So is that why you've seemed so frustrated?" asked Ron. "Because this bloke won't tell you who he or she is?"

"Yes," answered Hermione. "It's like they think it's a game or something."

"Maybe we could ask Fred and George who they got to test it," said Ron. Hermione was about to say something when Harry walked over and sat beside Hermione, across from Ron. Before any of them could talk, however, Harry spoke up.

"Did Professor Morrigan talk to you guys about Patronuses?" They both nodded in response. "He just talked to me. And he showed you...Slytherin..."

"And Vana Vulpslurk?" added Hermione. Harry nodded. "Yes. He said only a few could see it. Then he started talking about Divination, but I hardly believe in that stuff." She shook her head, but continued. "I did find a bit of information on her in a book though."

"Great," answered Harry. "What book?"

"I..." she hesitated. "I don't remember."

Something came up on the Note-Passer:

Wasn't it in some book you were reading the other day? Some history book?

Two things hit her right there. The first, was the fact that she now did remember reading something, but it was only a small sentence. Nevertheless, it was a good idea to go looking for the book and finding the passage.

The second thing that hit her was how much this person sounded like–

Have you been STALKING ME?

She got a reply seconds afterwards.

No. Why would someone stalk YOU? F

Hermione looked at it for a couple seconds. Why was there an unfinished "F" on the side? Was it an initial? She rolled her eyes, folded the parchment and put it in her pocket. She then looked at Harry and Ron, who seemed quite interested in her little "conversation."

"Who's that?"

"I don't know." Before the boys could talk more about something as off-topic as note-passing, she stood up. "I think I remember the book I need."

"Do you need help?" suggested Ron.

"No, I think I'll be fine. You two keep studying." She vaguely heard Ron snort, knowing that he wasn't actually studying. He was simply there because his friends were. Shaking it off, Hermione walked over to the section of the library where she knew the book would be hiding. She began walking through the shelves, running her fingers across the bookshelves when they landed on the book she was looking for – Hogwarts, A History.

She took it down and flipped through the pages up to a section labelled Founders of Hogwarts.

She turned and saw a crumpled up piece of parchment fly just past her head and was caught by none other than Draco Malfoy. The blond crumpled it up even more and, without looking up from his book, threw it at Parkinson and a bunch of her friends.

"Wow," Hermione whispered to herself. "If they were trying to hit me, they missed."

"They weren't trying to hit you," stated Malfoy, still not looking up from his book. Hermione jumped. He continued. "They've been doing that for a while now."

"And why is that?" she asked. Hermione found herself sounding quite demanding.

"Complications." He said it so quietly, Hermione almost had to ask him to repeat it.

"Are..." she couldn't believe she was saying this. "Are you alright?"

"No. Go away," he said quickly, his voice slowly rising, but eyes still glued to the book. Hermione rolled her eyes and brushed past him, not saying a word.

She didn't notice when he'd finally taken his eyes off his book and furrowed his eyebrows, clearly contemplating something.

...***...! #$%^&*()_+...***...

"Here it is! I found it!" said Hermione, excitedly. Finally, after about twenty to thirty minutes of searching, she finally found it. It didn't normally take that long. Especially with this book. She practically memorized this book, so why it took so long was a complete mystery. Hermione had to reread a few times. How...uncharacteristic.

Her sudden outburst was quite unexpected, as it was causing Harry and Ron to jump up from their seats in the library and getting glares from all the other students. Hermione began pointing at a spot on the page. It was a small paragraph, not even a picture. She seemed slightly disappointed, but gave them an idea.

Vana Vulpslurk

Vana Vulpslurk was a muggleborn witch, and a good friend of three of the founders of Hogwarts – Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw. Able to see the future with an unusual clarity, Vana was originally going to be the very first Divination professor at Hogwarts, but was unable to due to an accident possibly involving the founder of Slytherin house, Salazar Slytherin. It is noted that she is usually found in her own little world, and spent much of her time with her fox Patronus. Vana spent so much time with it, that she eventually named it "Cani", in honour of her Muggle sister.

"Is that it?" asked Harry. "There must be more."

"Well, it does explain a bit. Not that any of this was unexpected..." Hermione trailed off. "There's more, look Harry:"

Despite her innocent and quiet demeanour, she was sought out to be rather wily, cunning, and even seductive, being one of the first ever witches in the Wizarding World to create a Horcrux.

"She created a Horcrux?" questioned Harry, a part of him unable to believe it. Reading it a couple times over, he began to have disturbing images of Luna Lovegood committing murder...not like that would ever happen, but he shuddered at the thought of someone like her doing the same thing.

Ron was pointing at something that caught her eye.

"What's that?" he asked. It looked like a cross with a snake wrapped around it. Its tongue kept moving, making the Trio's stomachs churn. "Could it mean she was killed by a snake?"

"It could, I mean, it makes sense really," answered Harry, looking closer. "The cross, the snake...but the moving tongue?"

"Probably still tasting something..."

Hermione looked at it for a second. She swore she'd seen it before. Then it hit her.

She rushed a couple pages back and got to Salazar Slytherin. The same symbol was placed there.

"Slytherin was killed by a snake?" wondered Ron, out loud.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "No, Ronald. Maybe you should look at the symbol more closely." Ron and Harry both bent their heads over the book in an attempt to see something. After about a minute, however, Hermione bet they were still clueless. She rolled her eyes. "Look. The 'cross' might not be a cross at all. It could be a lowercase 'T'..."

"No way..." said Ron, incredulously. When Hermione bet he'd finally figured it out, he looked up at her and said something that smothered that thought completely. "He had a snake's tongue? I mean, I knew his symbol and Patronus was a snake and all, but..."

"Ron!" she said, completely frustrated. "T! Snake! Tongue! She was a Parselmouth!" Ron and Harry gaped down at the book, then back at Hermione.

"Whoa..."

"Well then..." added Harry, scratching the back of his neck.

"Strange too, it said she was a muggleborn," said Hermione, going back to the page. "And I don't remember reading this..."

"You don't remember– What? Hermione, that's a really bad joke."

"I'm not kidding, Ron! I seriously don't remember. It just mentioned her name before–"

"We should get to the Great Hall," interrupted Harry. "I'm getting hungry."

"Me too, now that I think about it," said Ron, immediately jumping off his seat and racing out the door. Harry followed suit. Hermione stared at the book a little while longer before going off to put it back. She looked over and noticed Malfoy hadn't left. He had his head in his arms, down on the table. You would have guessed he was sleeping. She saw a crumpled piece of parchment near where she sat. She picked it up and just as she put the book back, she opened it up. There was writing. As difficult as it seemed to read it, she still managed to understand what it said.

She folded it up and put it in her pocket as she left the library, picking up her bag and everything in the process.

A/N: The next chapter is called "Photograph" (by Nickelback) and the song quote is:

"I miss that town,

I miss their faces,

You can't erase,

You can't replace it.

I miss it now,

I can't believe it,

So hard to say it,

Too hard to leave it.

If I could relive those days,

I know the one thing that I would never change..."