The Pawns, the Rooks, the Knights, and the Queen and King
Summary: "We are all but pieces in his game; no one knows their true role. But whether I'm a pawn, a rook, a knight, or even a queen, I will always be sacrificed for the King. Now tell me why I should return to a game in which I will have to sacrifice myself for another, with no gain of my own?" "Simple." He smirked. "Just because he set up the game, doesn't mean the players always follow."
Chapter Two: The Start of the Plan
"Surprise!" two voices yelled, "Wait, who the hell are you?" the two yelled finally seeing Leila. Hermione felt the hands on her mouth and waist disappears. Unfortunately for the two, she didn't exactly felt the same sentiments, and elbowed one of her attackers hard in the stomach. Leila then punched the other, and Hermione could hear two loud thuds as the bodies hit the floor groaning.
Turning around, she raised an eyebrow, surprised to see none other than the two red-headed twins, Fred and George Weasley. The two were groaning and looking back up to her, shocked.
"Interesting," a cold voice said from behind her. "So Granger knows how to fight." He sneered.
"Of course," Hermione smiled innocently, as she turned around. "Don't you remember Malfoy, the slap I gave you in third year? Perhaps I should remind you by giving you another one." She sneered. She noticed that he was still good-looking after all these years, better even. His silver-blonde hair had grown a bit, and he is taller and toner then when she last saw him as well.
Draco watched how her eyes trailed his body, and smirked, "I see you're not looking too bad either Granger." Although he said it mockingly, he had to admit that it was the truth. She was still shorter than him, but her body has developed well, and he allowed himself to take in her body and her somewhat large bust. Sure, much was left to the imagination from her bathrobe, but it was more than enough to show her figure.
"Sorry to break up the reunion and all," Leila cut in, "but where the hell are we?"
It was then that Draco noticed the unknown girl. Shit, he thought, those Weasley twins screwed up and brought a Muggle here?! He quickly drew his wand, but then felt something cold against his forehead and stopped.
Hermione was holding a silver gun to his forehead, and was more than ready to pull the trigger. "Stop Malfoy," she whispered deadly. "This is a gun, and if you move another inch I will pull this trigger. A bullet will then come out of my gun and straight into your forehead, through your skull, and out of the back of your head. Is that clear?"
"Are you mad?" Draco yelled at her. He may not know much of Muggles, but he's seen a gun at work before. "There's a muggle here!"
"And you kidnapped me!" Hermione said calmly, "now, if you will just quietly move out of the way and point me in the right direction out of here, I promise I won't hurt you."
"And if I don't?" he said cockily. "You mean to shoot me Granger?"
"You have no idea don't you?" she whispered into his ear. "You think I won't shoot you?"
"I know you won't shoot me," he smirked.
"I suppose another life on my hands won't really matter would it?" She smiled at him, as she slowly made her finger curl to pull the trigger. She smirked inwardly as she watched Malfoy pale.
"Miss Granger," a too familiar voice called from behind Malfoy. "If you will please, remove the gun from Mr. Malfoy's head."
"Of course," she smiled sweetly, "I'll just point the gun at you." Hermione moved back and aimed towards Dumbledore standing behind Malfoy. Malfoy however, refused to move and got within her aim, but Dumbledore patted his shoulder and nodded, pushing him aside.
"Miss Granger," Dumbledore started. "I apologize, again for the past, and for the situation in which we have to see each other again."
"Cut the crap Dumbledore," Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Now isn't the best time to talk of this old man," Draco cut in, and nodded towards Leila. "A muggle is here."
"Move Dumbledore," Hermione commanded, "and my friend and I will just leave."
"I don't think that's an option Miss Granger," Dumbledore shook his head, as he looked at Leila to Hermione. The girl looks oddly familiar, he thought silently to himself, as he shook himself of the unwanted image.
Before Hermione could reply, Malfoy immediately called out, "Expelliarmas." Hermione's gun immediately flew away from her, and Dumbledore raised his wand as well.
"Petrificus totalus," he said, pointing at Hermione, and "stupefy," at Leila. Hermione dodged the spell easily, but was unable to warn or save Leila from the spell.
"Impedimenta!" Leila yelled, as a wand suddenly appeared in her hand, surprising everyone in the room. The spell hit Dumbledore square in the chest, causing him to fall backwards. Hermione stared at her friend, and was for the first time scared of her. In all the years she had known Leila, she had never seen such anger and hatred in her eyes. Hermione didn't know what to do. It looked as if Leila wanted to kill him!
"Stupefy!" Draco yelled, as he aimed the wand at her. He was the first to recover, and Hermione was snapped out of her daze.
Hermione watched as she easily dodged, and sent a stunning spell of her own at Malfoy who was forced to dodge. "Leila! What are you doing?"
"What does it look like?!" she yelled, as she continued to approach the fallen old man. "I'm getting us out of here!"
"Stop!" another voice yelled out through the doorway. "Stupefy!" this spell took Leila on by surprise and was thrown to the wall near Hermione with the force of it. Hermione immediately rushed to her, and saw that she was knocked unconscious from her head hitting the wall.
"Hermione, get away from that Death Eater!" the voice said.
Hermione turned around to see none other than Harry cradling the old man in his arms. She glared at him, and screamed, "She's no Death Eater!"
"Could have fooled me," Draco remarked, as he came over to her. "She probably fooled you too Granger. You didn't know she was a witch did you?"
"No," she admitted, "but she isn't! Leila wouldn't do such a stupid thing. Her parents are Muggles! I swear it!"
"Why don't we find out," Dumbledore said wearily, as he stood up with the help of Harry and Draco. "I may not be as strong as I used to be, but I can tell the girl is no Death Eater. She didn't try to send the killing curse at me, and any Death Eater would have sent that curse at me first." He muttered the spell to awaken the girl, as Harry and Draco both pointed their wands at the girl, ready.
When Leila awakened, she smiled at Hermione, but when she saw Dumbledore again, her eyes immediately hardened.
"What's going on?" she muttered as she tried to get up. "Gosh, my head hurts," she said, as she put a hand to the back of her head and found moisture there. "Blood?!"
"Oh gosh," Hermione whispered, "We have to get her to a hospital. Her head is going to need stitches!"
"Stitches?" Malfoy sneered, "Did you forget that you're a witch?"
"Shut it Malfoy!" Hermione screamed, as she looked worriedly at her friend.
"I have a port key to Hogwarts Miss Granger," Dumbledore said, taking out a key from his robe. "We can talk there as well."
Still holding their wands out at Hermione and Leila, Draco and Harry moved closer to the two, and Dumbledore followed. The five touched the port key, and before they knew it were transported to Hogwarts Hospital Wing.
"Madam Promfrey?" Hermione rushed towards the nurse nearby, shocked at the five unexpected guests. "Please! My friend got hurt!"
"Of course," the old nurse nodded, and rushed towards the bleeding girl. "Come, we must get you to a bed so that I may look at it. Nasty cut you got yourself, whoever did this should be ashamed of themselves." She muttered, as the two walked away.
Harry looked abashed, however, stood firm, "I'll stay here, in case she really is a death eater."
"We need to talk Miss Granger," Dumbledore started.
"No, we don't," Hermione said coldly, "haven't I made myself clear ten years ago?"
"I apologize for that Miss Granger, but we need to talk now," he said firmly.
"What makes you think I'll talk to you?"
"What makes you think he'll stop bothering you if you don't?" Malfoy retorted.
Knowing that he was right, after a few moments, she nodded and followed him to his office while Malfoy and Harry stayed to watch Leila.
The walk to his office was a silent one, and as they made their way there, she saw the surprised looks of past teachers. Some even attempted at greeting her for they knew the truth, but she ignored them, and continued her way. She saw some of the students there whispering as they past. Some even pointed at her in recognition and glared at her.
"Traitor!" some called out to her, only to be silenced by the stern look by Dumbledore.
When they finally reached his office and Hermione sat down in a chair Fawkes flew to her and nudged his head to her neck. She ignored it however, and refused to pet the beautiful bird.
"What now Dumbledore?" she said bluntly, "need me to take blame for the release of Voldemort again?" she sneered.
"I know that it was unfair to have the wizarding world blame you for that," Dumbledore sighed. "I apologize for that. However, you and I both know that Harry back then could not have taken blame. Had he, everyone would –"
"Shun him as they did me?" she said coldly. "Whisper taunts and blame as I walk past? Throw curses in anger as they did me?"
"Yes," he nodded, "you and me know that if we were to defeat Voldemort, Harry needs the public on his side, and no one but Harry can defeat him."
"He could have defeated him ten years ago!" she yelled, "had he the guts to do it, it would all have been over! But no, even when handed to him on a platter as no one could even touch the bastard, he couldn't do it! Why? All because of a few words of plea for pity and forgiveness! Pathetic!"
"He was young then."
"I know that! I'm merely stating what happened! What I can't stand was you!" she said harshly. "You used everyone! Harry, everyone around him, every resource you have to manipulate to fight for you!"
"Against Voldemort!"
"It's all but a game to you though isn't it? A game between the student you disliked in school back when you were a teacher! Tell me if I'm wrong!"
"…"
"No? Than I'll continue!" Hermione said harshly. "What you're doing may be a good cause for society, but as soon as you use the people around you, you discard them like nothing. Just like me." She paused then, as Dumbledore merely looked down. "You used me to help Harry through school, to make sure he goes through school learning. Then you used me to lure Voldemort here, not caring for my life or any students that could have and did die in the process. You handed Voldemort over to Harry, smiling as you saw how weak and pathetic he was thinking that he can't even handle a mere boy less than half his age. When Harry failed to kill him because he naively believed him, you tried to kill him yourself in anger." Again, silence at her words. "However, your curse didn't kill him because only Harry may harm him. Instead the spell made him strong and he used what little magic he had left, and got away by apparating out of Hogwarts. He broke the seal on Hogwarts, and managed to apparate out because of your magic, when we all know from Hogwarts: A History, that you can't apparate in or out of Hogwarts! He escaped because of you!"
"Yes," Dumbledore nodded, as he sat down further into his chair tiredly. "He did. I learned my mistake now however. Very clever though Hermione," he smiled sincerely towards her. "No one understood what truly took place. The people in the order were only told that Harry allowed him to go because he thought he sensed change in Voldemort. Even Draco believed that even when he was watching the battle. He thought that my Avada Kedevra couldn't kill him, and he only took that chance to apparate. He didn't know that it was because of my power that he escaped."
"I understood what would happen should the truth be known," Hermione sighed, "had the wizarding world thought you or Harry had freed him, they would have distrusted you immediately. They wouldn't have trusted you two, and there would always be doubt. So you used me and I agreed, on the condition that you leave me out of this."
"Yes, and I agreed to it," Dumbledore sighed. "However, we need you now Hermione."
"Too bad," Hermione replied. "You know the only reason why I helped was to protect my family. Voldemort had attempted to kill them several times, and had not for your protection they would have died earlier. However, you failed protecting them in the end, and now, I really can careless about the wizarding world."
"Hermione," he tried.
"It's Granger."
"Miss Granger," he tried again, "all I'm asking you to do, is but take a teaching position here at Hogwarts."
"What?" she raised an eyebrow. "Me, the traitorous witch? A teacher?"
"Your name will be cleared, and we need you as a teacher here."
"A teacher? Now why would I want to be a teacher? Don't you have others?"
"They are far too busy working for the order. Hogwarts has now become a stronghold for the good, and we need powerful witches and wizards teaching, younger, witches and wizards. Who better, than the top graduating student?"
"No," she said flatly.
"We want you here for we expect Voldemort to come after you in the Muggle World Miss Granger." Receiving no response, he added, "I want to protect you. We want to protect you. You can't fight him on your own, and you can't go into hiding. Not with your company on the rise."
"I can figure a way out myself thank you," she said stiffly. "If you don't mind, if that is all you will be asking, I want to get back to Leila now."
"Miss Granger, think about it," Dumbledore said, standing up as he she moved to the door. "You're a business woman, correct?" this statement stopped her in her tracks, and she looked back at him. "Should you stay and teach; you can expand your company's products to new consumers. Wizards to be exact."
"Wizards?"
"Yes, imagine the untapped revenue source." Dumbledore smiled. "We will help you of course, and these technologies will help the wizarding world accept muggle-borns more as well."
"…I will think on it," she sighed, "however, I refuse to go back to being your pawn. If I do accept, I will only be a teacher, correct?"
"Yes," he nodded.
"I will give you a reply before I leave," she said, as she walked out the door.
"However," Dumbledore said to no one as the door closed. "As a teacher, you will have more than your share of responsibilities. Including protecting students and fighting when need be, especially now when Hogwarts will be the next battleground considering that we're losing our footing to Voldemort."
a/n ….sooo….i typed it in a rush, so I hope that you guys understood. If not, just say so in the review, but I'll be explaining it in further detail next chapter. i know, wizards and tech, but hey, I have an explanation for that too ;) so please read and review, and thank you for the reviews!! I'm so happy tear however threatening they may be, I accept all reviews! And I really appreciate it, so thank you again! ;)