The letter

It was silent, I could hear the echo of my own footsteps on the cold tiles. Turning to the right I saw the door to the great hall. Once I had been so happy in this castle, in that room..Once..

It had been a month since the attack. Snape was now leading Hogwarts and Deatheaters were teaching next to McGonagall and Slughorn. Snape had told me about what happened the night of the attack. Dumbledore had ordered Snape to kill him. Dumbledore was weakened by a cursed ring which once belonged to Voldemorts grandfather. I was mad at Snape for killing Dumbledore but he explained it to me and showed me memories. Snape explained to me how Draco Malfoy had the order to kill Dumbledore. He couldn't do it… Snape than shocked me by telling that Malfoy is on the good side. I couldn't believe and didn't trust it either.

Right now it was summer break tomorrow everyone was returning to school. I hated that fact I was afraid. The whole summer I had stayed at Hogwarts visiting Dumbledore's grave everyday than walking around the lake and sitting down there.. Malfoy joined me a few times. The first time he did that he apologized for being such a jerk to me. He said he didn't mean it. I didn't trust him. But the next time he sat beside me we talked further. Now at the end of the summer break we were closer. We were two teenagers trapped in a dark plot which we didn't even want to be a part of. We never willingly wanted to be a part of the inner circle of the Dark Lord.

Voldemort had called us for a few meetings through the summer. Every meeting he would repeat how great the loses where for the other side. How much it is killing Harry about the amount of people who died and especially his good friend Dumbledore. Every time he mentioned Dumbledore's name I got angry, I wanted to shout at him, curse him and cry. He didn't had the right to even name Dumbledore or Harry. Everytime Malfoy would look at me.. warning me.

I walked past the lake when I heard someone shout my name.

' Granger!,' I turned around and saw Malfoy coming my way. I waited till he reached me.

We didn't say anything while we walked around the lake. I noticed Malfoy was watching me, he observed me.

I thought about Harry, Ron, Ginny and Neville. Tomorrow they would come back and no one would want to speak to me or even look at me. No one would pay attention to me ask me how my summer was and how I'm doing. No one would care about me…

My eyes filled with tears. I felt a hand touch mine, I looked sideways to Malfoy. I felt my mouth drop, he looked at me with pity.

' They won't care, Malfoy.'

' It's Draco, and I know,' he put an arm around my shoulders. ' I know.'

I cried into his shoulder, images of Harry and Ron flashing before my eyes.

' I hate this,' I mumbled.

' Me too,' Draco put both of his hands on my shoulders, making me look at him. ' But keep in mind why you are doing this.'

I looked into his big grey eyes, they showed me that I could trust him.

' You need to remember that you are doing this for Potter, and maybe he doesn't know it right now but he will when time's right.'

I nodded, Draco was right.

He pulled me in a hug. It turned out he was so much different.. He was actually being nice to me.

The next morning came to quickly as it normally does when you don't want something to come. Snape asked me at breakfast if I could come to his office later on. I was curious why would he want to talk to me? I ate quickly telling Draco that Snape wanted to see me. I walked to his office in the dungeons. Snape could have moved to Dumbledore's office but he didn't want that. It wasn't his office is what he tells me when I ask him about it. I knocked on the door, Snape opened it himself.

In his office was a small man seated in one of the chairs. Apparently they had been waiting for me.

The man stood up, holding out a hand to introduce himself. I took his cold hand.

' The name is Eric Conrad,' the man said.

' Hermione Granger,' I said in return.

' I know,' he nodded. I choose to ignore that.

' I work for the ministry of magic, and I have something that might be interesting for you.' He continued

' What is it?' I asked him curiously.

He pulled out a white envelope.

' A letter from Dumbledore,' he said with a sly smile.

I frowned, a letter from Dumbledore. Then something occurred to me.

' Why didn't I get this letter earlier?'

' Because we wanted to know what was in it,' he wasn't even trying to hide it. I could have guessed it.

I held out my hand. He gave me the letter without hesitation.

' Here, but I don't think it will be very interesting though.'

Why not?' I asked as I observed the seal on the envelope. It was a Fawks, the bird Dumbledore took care of. The last time I saw the beautiful bird was at Dumbledore's funeral.

'There isn't anything in it.'

'What?' I heard Snape asked he stood behind his desk.

'Yeah, that's what we thought,' Conrad said 'We had to make sure there were no curses upon the letter so we used a spell. The envelope or letter inside weren't cursed but the spell showed us that the paper inside was empty.'

I wasn't paying attention. I knew that there where letters on the paper. Why would Dumbledore send me a letter if it has no use. I broke the seal and I smelled a familiar scent.

Dumbledore had once asked me if I wanted a lemon drop. I inhaled the scent. Remembering the old man who once offered me the candy.

I heard Snape en Conrad still talking about the empty letter but I ignored them. Opening the envelope I saw that there were actually letters on the parchment.

It was written in green ink.

'See, no letter on it.' Conrad said while he looked at the letter in my hands. Snape nodded. But I was confused there were letters on it. Conrad went back to Snape he gave him some updates about the ministry and then quickly left.

'The letter isn't empty is it?' Snape asked me as soon Conrad closed the door behind him.

'No,' I said quietly. 'no it isn't empty. As I began reading the letter for the second time.

Dear miss Granger,

When you read this letter I know that by now a lot of things have happened. You, miss granger, already know about your mission. Also I am already dead for a few months and Voldemort is already planning the big battle, Snape is now the headmaster of Hogwarts. Deatheaters have taken over the ministry of magic en Harry knows you are on the "bad" side. This must be such a hard time for you miss Granger. I need to ask you to be stronger for a little while. Lord Voldemort will set up a mission attacking Hogwarts. You will take part in this mission. It will be thought but I know you will succeed you can help Harry you know how, we've already discussed that.

Miss Granger, I know you will do your best and I wish you the best of luck. Never tell anyone about this letter until after the last battle.

Good luck miss Granger and be strong,

Yours faithfully,

Albus Dumbledore.

I read the letter for the third time, I just didn't believe that he didn't have any more information than a support letter. When I was about to read the letter for the fourth time Snape jerked the letter out of my hand.

'You've read it enough now.'

'But..' I started.

'No,' Snape said. 'You read it three times, you know message in it, and besides that you're wasting my time.' He put the letter in the drawer besides his desk and turned back to me.

'Anything else, miss Granger?'

I raised an eyebrow in anger but then thought the better of it. I turned to the door and slammed the door shut behind me. When I walked up the stairs thoughts where running through my head.

Why did he send me that stupid letter without even giving me the slightest hint. He knew that I would be alone at this point so why did the old man didn't give me more details.

I was almost on top of the stairs when I heard voices. Happy chattering. Laughing people.

Damn, the other students were back.

As soon as I was in the hall and people noticed me the whispering started. People looked at me when I walked by ignoring all their stares. All the stares were angry ones. Every stare hurt me. Like a knife was thrown into my body every time they looked at me. I walked past a group of boys. They whispered words like:

'Betrayer… Murderer… They should have.."

I quickened my pace. Not wanting to hear them. As fast as I could I reached the Griffindor Table and sat down next to a sixth year girl. She stood up quickly as she noticed who sat down her. She sat down again almost ten places from me. No one came to sit next to me. I felt the stares from the others but I held my head down. As soon as Snape was finished with his speech I was the first one to leave the room.