CHAPTER NINETEEN A LITTLE FRIENDLY INTERVENTION

"There's no signature. Why is this the answer to my prayers?" Hermione asked as she handed the letter back to Draco's outstretched palm. Her fingers brushed slightly across the soft skin of his overturned hand and she was sure that she blushed.

"One, because it's the way into Harry's head, and two, because it means we won't have to exert any more effort. It's from Snape."

"Professor Snape?"

"Do you know any others? Yeah, Professor Snape. We've stayed in touch seeing as how he is my godfather and really the only family I have left. I told him about Potter's situation and he said...well, you read the letter."

"Why is he willing to help Harry?"

"He's not. Trust me when I say it took quite a bit more than just one letter to get him to send those four sentences. He tried a few other things and when they failed, I brought up using Legilimency to try to find the memory stored in one of their subconsciousness. He told me that Ginny wasn't an option as most memory charms completely erase the event, especially when done by an amature..." he looked at Hermione accusingly, " but obviously he doesn't think that I'd be capable of finding it myself. He's probably right. I do not want to delve into Harry's sick and twisted mind anyway, but now comes the last problem we have to personally solve. How do we get Harry to go to Snape?"

This time it was Hermione's turn to grin. "Now I have the answer to your prayers." She sayed playfully.

"You are the answer to my prayers." Draco said quietly, and only slightly, playfully.

"The day that I arrived Harry told me that he had been having dreams, nightmares, about Ginny that he thought could possibly be prophecy. He was terrified that they would come true. All we have to do is tell him to go to Snape so that he can teach him how to tell the difference between dreams and prophecy or something like that and he'll go willingly to make sure that he's not seeing the future."

"You think it will be that easy?"

"You didn't see his face. He's terrified. I think it will be the easiest thing I've done all day." A smile had spread from one ear to the other and her eyes were practically dancing in their sockets. Draco noticed how much more beautiful she was when she was smiling and felt his heart begin to race at her goddess-like beauty. She stood to leave the room and Draco ached at the thought of losing his moment with her.

"Where are you going?" He asked, hoping he didn't sound too desperate.

"To talk to Harry. Don't you think it's best to do it now? I mean, what better way to make Ginny happy then to bring her Harry back."

"It's not like it's a magical cure, 'Mione." They both exchanged shocked expressions at his use of her nickname. "I mean, it's going to take some time. If you want to fix things with Ginny, I think that's gonna have to be my department. I'm the reason you're in that mess, I'll do what it takes to get you out of it. I'll go talk to Ginny, you go talk to Harry, and we'll meet in the middle for some lunch. Break."

Hermione sat for a second staring confused at him.

"It was a Quidditch joke. Never mind. Let's just go talk to them."

Hermione chuckled slightly at this new boy sitting in front of her. "I think I really misjudged you, Malfoy. I've missed this boy."

As she left him sitting in the room, he felt his heart lift. She had missed him.

As Hermione rounded the steps to the entrance hall to climb the steps to Harry's room, she was met by a very befuddled Ron who nearly knocked her off her feet as he pulled her roughly into the alcove off the hall.

"What are you doing telling Malfoy that I'm gay?!" He screamed through his whispered voice. His eyes were shifty as if waiting for an attack from someone.

"What are you on?' is the better question, Ron."

"He came onto me....in the bedroom. Said that you told him I was interested in 'experimenting'. He told me that you and Ginny were trying it out too in the kitchen."

Hermione stared wide eyed at her husband for several moments before trying to slide slowly out of the alcove and away from his insane ranting. "I can't believe you'd stoop so low, Ronald. You're actually trying to convince me that womanizer Malfoy was coming on to you? I know you're jealous that we used to date but it's not going to make me jealous thinking of you two getting intimate."

"No, Hermione. I'm serious." He tried to follow her as she walked briskly up the stairs. "He came in and was making all these remarks about how he loved me since first year and was so thankful we were finally alone."

"If you say so, Ron." Hermione waved a hand above her shoulder.

Just then Ron felt a pair of eyes burning into his back and turned nervously around to see Draco standing in the doorway to the kitchen, very obviously examining Ron's ass as he walked up the stairs. He raised an eyebrow before giving an approving nod as Ron's eyes nearly bulged out of his head.

"Hermione! He's doing it right now! Look. I told you." Hermione was at the top of the stairs and wouldn't even justify Ron's cries for help with a look.

"This is pathetic Ron. Really, I didn't think that you could sink any lower." She stopped in front of the door to Harry's room and knocked before entering without so much as a look behind her to Ron who was now nearly panicking on the stairs.

"What are you playing at, Malfoy? " Ron said as he turned to block his ass from the continued stares.

"Wouldn't you like to know, kitten." Draco stated before kissing at the air and turning to walk out the front door after Ginny's trail.

As he stepped out onto the porch, his search ended quiet abruptly as Ginny was still sitting on the bottom step.

"Oh sorry," he feigned surprise, "I didn't know any one was out here." He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his back pocket and held them up so she could see his motives. "Hermione would shit if she saw me smoking in the house." He pulled the last one out and crushed the pack firmly between his palm before pulling a lighter from his front pocket.

"It's my house, Draco."

"Oh, well then, I'll just leave you to your sitting." He turned to leave, the smoke billowing as he lit the end.

"I won't even let Ron smoke in my house. Put that thing out before you go in there." Ginny flung around as if outraged that he assumed she wouldn't mind.

"Well, if you don't mind company for a minute then." He took a long drag and closed his eyes as if the smoke now swirling around in his lungs was suducing him. He held it for several moments before finally letting his addiction escape, but only momentarily as he was soon inhaling another hit of seduction.

"That's gonna kill you, you know." Ginny said as if it was news that cigerettes were bad. "Life's too short as it is to...."

"Miss out on the simple pleasures." He said as he held up the smoldering hand held flame. "Now, I know that you wouldn't be wasting this kind of irritation on little old me, so who's got your panties in a twist, Weasley." The only reply he received was a glare of annoyance. "Is it this whole 'Hermione/Harry' thing? Come on now, you can't be still upset over that? You beat her up, you turned Harry into a woman, what else could make you feel any better? You know you've been waiting a long time to play kick-ball with Potter.

"If you don't leave me the fuck alone the game's gonna turn into a double-header." She stood as if to try to threaten Draco but he just took another hit off his cigarette.

"No need for violence." He took another drag before staring straight into her eyes. "This is me, Ginny. What's wrong?" She stared defiantly back at him, willing him to not see her pain, but knew that the only person to know her better than Draco was Harry.

"I always knew that Harry had had another woman in his life, but I thought it was Cho Chang. I mean, it's not exactly a secret that she was easy, even the girls knew they could hit that, so I didn't have to feel inferior. But knowing it was Hermione....you know how I felt at school, how jealous I was of her for being so close to Harry. Now every time he kisses me, he's gonna be thinking of her. She was his first. He's been comparing me to her every time we kiss and I can't help but think that if it was her that he was with, he wouldn't be so hollow. Maybe I should just let him have her." She was startled at the look he was giving her. It looked as if he had dragon dung under his nose. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I really thought that a graduate of Hogwarts had to be smarter than that. I think you should probably sue them for being able to think something that stupid."

"If you're just gonna make fun..." Ginny got up to go inside but Draco put out his hand to stop her. He took one final drag on his cigarette before putting it out on the cement of the steps.

"OK, I'm sorry, Gin. What makes you think that he's gonna be thinking about Hermione?"

"Because...wait did you just call her 'Hermione'?"

"Carrying on..." He said as he waved a hand impatiently, trying to obviously keep the attention off himself.

"What if he misses the way she does things? What if she was better? What if...?"

"What if, what if, what if'...did you ever think that maybe there was nothing to worry about? Why do you think that she could give him something that you can't? I can't believe that I'm gonna say this...especially since I just finished off my last cigarette and I'm gonna need one...but Harry loves you. He's going to marry you. He doesn't care that she was the first. Your going to be his last 'first'. That's the most amazing thing that he can imagine. That is, if he doesn't cheat on you." Ginny's eyes, which had been starting to tear over, snapped open and her eyebrows leapt to the top of her forehead. "Harry's not the type to cheat . He doesn't have it in him. I'm sorry. I just couldn't keep going on like that." He shook as if he had just tasted some really bitter medicine. "I'm gonna go scrape the filth off my tongue for talking good about Potter. If you'll excuse me, I need to induce vomiting."

"Draco. Umm...oh, never mind."

"No, what?"

"Well, it's just, you know."

"I know...what exactly?" He asked, a knowing smirk worthy of Salazar himself growing on his face.

"You know what both of us are like. Hermione and me. Is she....Merlin, this is embarrassing...better than me?"

His smirk melted into a reassuing smile. "I can't tell you that, Gin. Every person is different. Hermione and Harry had gotten together as friends to get the awkward one out of the way. They had done each other a favor that meant that when they found the ones they loved, they could have confidence and not be worried about the sex, but concentrate on the feelings." Draco took notice as Ginny looked down to the floor. "Hermione was prepared for how it would feel, what she should do, that sort of thing. While you on the other hand, had never been in that situation. Do you remember the first time we got together?"

"I was scared."

"I know. It was obvious. We went into the room of requirement, layed on the floor and then what?" He asked, prodding her to remember.

"Umm...I think we talked for awhile. Started to kiss. Then...did you start or did I?"

"You can't even remember our first time!?" Draco shouted incredulously in a falsetto tone. "How dare you use me like that. I feel so dirty." He pulled his shirt tight around his chest as if he had just been disrobed and gave another typical Malfoy smirk. "See what I mean? You can't remember all the details because they're not important to you anymore. It was a moment that happened in the past, you can't change it, and really why would you want to, but I bet you can detail out the first time that you and Harry made love." He rose his eyebrows in a knowing manner.

Ginny smiled as the memory washed over her, warming her to the very core of her soul. "It was right after we had moved in together..."

"Eww..no no no no NO!" Draco had closed his eyes and was shaking his head violently back and forth. "Keep it to yourself. But my point has been made. If you're worried that he compares you to Hermione still, you need to just prove to him that you're the best he'll ever have. Any thoughts to her will be purely in the negative if you knock his socks off."

" Oh, and how, prithee, am I supposed to do that?" Ginny wished she had a pen and paper as she was sure to receive some valuable information in the next few minutes.

^____^

"Hermione? What do you want?" Harry sat up on the bed shocked as he had expected Ginny to enter the bedroom. He reached for his glasses on the side table and slid them slowly onto his head, as he had been lying on the bed trying to figure out a way to apologize but only finding a migraine.

"We need to talk, if you have a second." she blushed as she realized, seconds before he did, that he didn't have his shirt on. She looked away as he realized her embarrassment and reached for his shirt, pulling it on quickly without realizing it was inside out until it was on.

"You look good. I mean, you look better than you did yesterday...how's your head?" She looked behind her at the half open door and hoped that Ginny would remain wherever she was ranting and not get the wrong idea. She pushed the door completely open just in case she did come in early.

"Pounding. Why does everyone keep talking about yesterday? It wasn't that big a deal."

"Do you remember yesterday, Harry? Ron beat you pretty bad and it was hours before we knew if you would bleed to death or not. You don't remember?" She didn't even wait for an answer. "Well of course you wouldn't, I mean you didn't even know where you were or what year it was." Harry just stared at Hermione like she was the one that was off her rocker. "Anyway, I'm not here to talk about yesterday, I wanted to talk about today. Ginny's upset."

Harry winced slightly as he stood at the side of the bed. "I think I caught that."

Hermione sat for several moments chewing on the end of her hair trying to avoid Harry's stare. "You don't think...what we did was...wrong, do you?" She finally got the courage to ask.

It took Harry nearly a minute to answer. "No. I don't think it was wrong. Perhaps I should have told her, but I just didn't think it was important."

"Neither did I," Hermione replied. "It's got her pretty upset though, so I guess I was wrong. What are we gonna do Harry? I think it's pretty serious."

Harry's eyes sparked as he looked at his friend. "Serious? You don't think she'd hurt herself over this do you?"

Hermione inwardly smiled as she knew her plan was coming into fruition. "I don't know, but she did leave the house a minute ago looking very hurt. Who knows what she might be doing. Harry, I'm scared. What if this is what sets her off? What if your dream really was prophecy?" Hermione hit the exact nerve she was digging for as Harry's face began to definitely distort into a look of morbid fear.

"What should we do, Hermione? I have to go find her."

"I've sent Draco to go look for her so I'm sure it won't be long until he does. What we need to do is find out how serious of a threat this really is. Has Ginny ever shown any signs of wanting to cut or tried to cut before?" Each time she came to the word 'cut', she made sure to emphasise to watch the little twitch that it caused Harry to give.

"No. Not that I've noticed, anyway. What are we gonna do Hermione? I can't lose her."

Hermione sat for a minute as if frozen by the words. He really did love her, didn't he? Why the hell couldn't he show her then? Hermione felt a twinge of guilt as she realized the next words she uttered would lead to her guilt being revealed. Whatever it takes to make Harry whole again, she thought. "Harry, do you remember in fifth year when you had those nightmares about the Ministry?" Hermione noticed that once those words would bring a pang of guilt and sadness to Harry's jade eyes, but now there was not even a change. The intensity of the situation hit her at the emptiness in his eyes and she threw herself at the mercy of the court and plunged forward.

"You remember what Dumbledore had you do to block it out? Well what if there was a way to see if it was really prophecy, kinda like last time, or find out if it was only a dream? Would you be willing to find out?"

"I just want to know that Ginny's safe. Whatever it takes."

"Well, Harry, Draco says that he's talked to Professor Snape and he'd be willing to..."

"Snape? No Hermione, new plan." Harry turned to go back to the bed where he sat down and stared at Hermione waiting for her characteristic idea to reveal itself. Hermione crossed and sat down on the edge of the bed, as far from Harry as she could get, and sighed. This wasn't going to be as easy as she thought. Or was it?

"Harry, Professor Snape has changed. You know it. He did so much for us near the final battle and you know he was just following orders from Dumbledore when he...did what he had to do. People have changed a lot now that Voldemort is gone Harry. You're living proof of that." She almost chocked on her tongue as she remembered the gravity of what she just said. She tried to change the focus. "Look at Draco. He was a mortal enemy from the day you two met and look how he's...well, he's here isn't he?"

"That's not very convincing, 'Mione. You know that Snape still hates me. Draco still does. Wars don't make people just suddenly get along."

"Harry, I'm not going to beat around the bush on this one anymore. You can be mad at me for this when you get back from Professor Snape's. You're going, whether you want to or not. You can't be hurt by anything that he has to say to you. You can't feel hurt, you can't feel irritated, but Ginny can. You're killing her Harry and if you want to return to her, you'll make sure that she's going to be here when you come home. I know that there's a way to fix this Harry, and I really believe that Snape is the key to this mystery. Maybe he'll even be able to help you. You never know. But you're never going to get over this if you don't face your fears, Harry. There's still a reason that you can feel that fear which makes me think it's gotta be the strongest kind of fear because you're feeling it over your love for Ginny. Fear can consume you Harry, and I'm afraid that if you're feeling Ginny's fear as well that it might be serious. I'll get you a pad and quill and then you're going to write a letter telling Snape that you will be to his house after work tomorrow." She stood and crossed to the desk and began to search for a quill. When she found a parchment big enough to satisfy her, she brought it all back over to Harry and set it roughly in his lap. "Do you need me to write it for you?" Harry looked up with a look of submission and picked up the quill between his thumb and first finger, softly pulling the other hand through the feather pulling it all to a point. Hermione stood and began to walk out of the room.

"Hermione." She turned to look at Harry. "Thanks...for everything. You really are a true friend."

"Sure thing, Harry. Just don't mess this up. Ginny's a once in a lifetime catch, don't let her get away."

She left the room as Harry pressed his quill to the parchment. It took nearly four hours for him to write it down but finally Harry lay down the quill, completly ruffled and the feather nearly stripped off, next to his finished letter.

Professor Snape,

I heard that you had offered to help me with my problem. I appreciate your offer and would like to take you up on it. I am available tomorrow evening after I get off work. If this will work, please send a post before tomorrow morning with instructions on where and when to meet.

Hopefully we can lay down the gauntlet for an evening in the efforts of saving a wonderful woman.

I will be awaiting your reply,

Harry J. Potter

He took the letter to Hedwig who gave him a hoot and a nip on the finger when he told her the recipient but took the letter calmly onto her leg and flew quickly out the window towards Spinner's End and hopefully Harry's redemption. Hermione watched the snow white owl that carried her and Draco's certificate of guilt and shuddered at the images that Harry would soon be forced to witness.

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Chapter 20 Teaser

"Harry, I've done a lot of thinking these last few days. I miss you, the real you, and I just don't know that I can do this anymore."

"Ginny please," Harry's interrupting cry was nearly strangled by his swelling throat. "Don't do this."