DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter, nor am I affiliated in any way with J.K. Rowling.
It wasn't until three hours later at lunch that Hermione regretted asking Malfoy for his help. True, it had been another sleepless night after the most disturbing dream yet, but had it really been worth sacrificing her dignity for?
She pushed food around her plate, elbow on the table, resting her chin on her outstretched hand. Students chatted around her, their voices nothing more than a distant hum compared to the shriek of Hermione's doubts. Her eyes always on the plate before her, she wondered where Harry and Ron were. Perhaps there had been some last minute Quidditch practice for Harry and Ron had tagged along?
And they didn't tell me, she sighed, before shaking her head vigorously. Let's not slip down the self-pity route, shall we?
Aware of how odd she looked shaking her head at her food, Hermione coughed slightly and straightened up.
"Hello Hermione," came a glum voice to the side of her.
Hermione jumped and snapped her eyes on the boy sitting beside her. Neville Longbottom had taken a seat on the bench next to her and was chewing on a carrot stick with alarmingly oversized front teeth. Hermione's eyes widened as she spotted two huge, long ears stuck down to the back of Neville's head.
"Neville," she began cautiously. "What…"
"Transfiguration spell went wrong," Neville sighed. "I was practicing turning a mirror into a rabbit but the spell literally backfired and, well…" he trailed off with a self-conscious tug at his new ears, trying to flatten them down further.
"At least you're not a complete rabbit," Hermione said, trying to sound cheerful.
"But that was the aim of the spell!" Neville moaned. "At least if I were a full rabbit then I'd know I'd gotten the spell right!"
"You'll get it soon enough," Hermione encouraged. "Do you want me to find out how to change you back?"
"Yes, please," Neville sighed.
Hermione reached down to her bag and tried to conceal a smile as she spotted Neville's feet shrouded in thick white fur. When she had sat up straight, Harry and Ron were taking their places at the table. Both were watching Neville curiously.
"I don't know how to say this," Ron started slowly. "But…well, you look like a rabbit, mate."
"I know," Neville answered. "Spell rebounded from a mirror."
"And here I thought that only happened on TV shows," Harry commented lightly, grabbing an apple from the plate in front of him.
"On what?" Ron and Neville chorused.
Harry and Hermione exchanged a smile.
"It doesn't matter," Harry said, biting into the apple. "You had any luck figuring out how to change back?"
"Nope," Neville answered, nibbling his carrot. "It's weird, I've never noticed how good these things are before."
"It's probably got something to do with the fact that you're a rabbit-man," Hermione told him absently, stifling a yawn that Harry and Ron caught instantly.
"Have you not been sleeping again?" Ron demanded, so incensed that he put down the bread roll he had been about to devour.
"Why are you so mad?" Hermione asked, affronted. "I'm the one…" with a glance at Neville, she stopped herself. "Neville, I think I see McGonagall over there, why don't you ask her to help change you back?"
"Won't she be angry that I got like this in the first place?" Neville asked anxiously, chewing on his lip instead of the carrot.
This looked so comical with his new rabbit teeth that Hermione tried not to smile.
"No," she lied. "I'm sure she'll gladly change you back."
His hope renewed, Neville ambled off, attracting the giggles and stares of some of the younger students who weren't quite used to the infamous Neville Longbottom yet.
"That was a bit harsh, you know McGonagall's going to be furious at him," Harry commented with a slight frown.
"I didn't want Neville hearing what I'm about to say," Hermione answered quietly. "I had my worst dream yet last night. Calling it a nightmare would be putting it lightly."
Their attention immediately caught, Ron and Harry leant in closer.
"I know that Zella is trying to show me something," she murmured. "In all the dreams before, I've woken up when she touched my face but this time the dream continued. I was awake and she led me through Hogwarts at night. I saw all the usual things: her body, the knife, her necklace." For a moment, Hermione was disturbed about how detached she was from the murder. "I expected her to stop but she kept going. She didn't stop until we reached the records room. The Head Boy and Head Girl's portraits were still up on the wall and she silently pointed to the names beneath the paintings. Of course, I already knew her name so just I smiled and nodded. For the first time, I swear that a flicker of a smile came onto her face. Made her seem less scary, which was definitely a good thing."
"You just know that ghosts are losing their edge when the fear factor goes," Ron sighed, shaking his head.
"Carry on Hermione," Harry said, nudging Ron in the ribs to shut him up.
"So then Zella pointed to the portrait of the Head Boy and I finally got a look at his name." She paused, uncertain if she should really tell her friends what she knew. "It was Trayton. Trayton Malfoy."
A small part of her had hoped - against all logic - that neither boy would make the connection. She was disappointed, therefore, when their faces clouded over darkly.
"Well that's it then!" Ron snapped, banging his fist down onto the table. "He must have had something to do with it!"
"Ron, come on," Hermione frowned. "Just because present-day Malfoy is a prick doesn't mean that all his ancestors were as well."
"That's my conclusion and I'm sticking to it," Ron answered stubbornly.
"The thing is, I'm not the only one being bothered by a ghost," Hermione began, the voice in her head warning her not to go through with this. "It turns out that Trayton isn't as over Zella's death as we would've thought and he needs help from someone…familiar."
"Please tell me this isn't going where I think it's going," Harry growled.
"Where's it going?" Ron asked, oblivious.
As Hermione sighed, Harry shot a dirty look over at the Slytherin table to where a certain platinum haired young man sat.
"No!" Ron exploded. Several people turned to look at him in alarm but he ignored them. "Hermione, you can't!"
"I have to," Hermione said with another sigh. "Otherwise I'll collapse out of sheer exhaustion and then it'll be my ghost you'll have to deal with."
"You can't seriously think you can trust him?" Harry asked, tearing his eyes from the Slytherins.
"Of course I don't," Hermione scoffed. "For all I know this could just be a wind up based on a gargantuan coincidence. But - as much as I hate to say it - he's the only hope I've got. He knows about Zella and might know how to get her to stop haunting me."
"Can't you just…I don't know, ask her nicely or something?" Ron asked.
"Probably not," Hermione answered. "Besides, I want to help her." She stared imploringly at her friends. "Can you accept this?"
Harry nodded reluctantly. "As soon as this goes pear-shaped, let us know and we'll hex Malfoy into oblivion."
"You promise?" Hermione asked with a small smile.
"We don't even have to wait until it goes pear-shaped," Ron mused. "We can do it now."
"But you won't," Hermione told him sternly. "I at least need to know what Malfoy knows before you go around putting curses on him." She pushed her barely touched plate away from her and picked up her bag from the floor. "I'm going to the library for a bit."
"Not to sound like your mum but you're not eating enough," Harry pointed out worriedly. "If you're not sleeping and not eating then you're just going to burn out. I mean, what are you running on?"
"Brainpower?" Ron suggested with a chuckle.
"Exactly," Hermione smiled. "I'm feeding my brain and that's enough. I suppose my sleeping pattern, or lack thereof, threw off everything else."
"Yeah, well you'll eat tonight even if I have to watch over you myself," Harry warned good naturedly.
"Yes, Sir," Hermione murmured with a smile. "I'll see you later."
She left, certain that the moment she was of earshot the boys would swap their disapproving words. She had to say she wasn't too thrilled with herself either but it seemed like teaming up with Malfoy really was the only way.
"Granger!"
Speaking of…Hermione thought with a sigh. She was barely out of the Great Hall and was already being hounded.
"Yes, Malfoy?" she asked wearily, turning around. "What is it?"
"Come to the library, I want to do some research," he informed her.
He started off towards the staircase before realizing that Hermione wasn't following him. He stopped, a scowl on his face.
"What, are you waiting for permission?" he asked scathingly.
Hermione just stood there, rather stunned.
"I'm not going anywhere with you," she managed after a moment.
Malfoy rolled his eyes dramatically. "Granger, it's a library, not a den of sin."
"When you put it like that…no."
The fact that she had actually wanted to go to the library in the first place didn't matter now. If she went, it would look like she was only doing it because Malfoy told her to.
Annoyed, Malfoy stalked back down to the steps and stopped before her.
"I recall you begging for my help," he told her darkly. "If you don't want to co-operate when I'm doing important research, then fine. I hope Zella drives you to insanity."
You're driving me to bleeding insanity, Hermione thought viciously as Malfoy walked slowly back up the steps.
What could she do but go after him? She needed his help.
She didn't comment on his smirk as she fell into step beside him. He didn't comment on her following him. He didn't have to; it was written all over his face.
In fact, neither of them commented on anything until they reached the library.
"I'm assuming you know all the good tables in here, Granger?" Malfoy asked slyly.
"I know the tables where Madam Pince can't see what we're doing," Hermione replied evenly, walking to such a table and carefully placing her bag down. Malfoy, on the other hand, threw his down carelessly and took a seat.
"First, I need to know how much you know about Zella," he told Hermione.
"Something to hide?" Hermione asked lightly, although it was a thought that had been troubling her a lot recently.
"You'll never know," Malfoy replied with an infuriating smile. "Now tell me."
Hermione reached into the bag and withdrew the letter that had come with her necklace. After a slight hesitation, she passed it across the table.
Malfoy skimmed it, his lip curling up about halfway through. Hermione felt her blood boil.
"What?" she demanded.
"Peppy?" Malfoy asked, his pale eyebrows rising as he referenced Hermione's parents' pet bird who, according to the letter, was doing well.
"I didn't name him," Hermione answered defensively.
"Peppy's a he?" Malfoy laughed in disbelief. "I knew Muggles were strange but this…?"
"Shut up and read," Hermione told him as her cheeks coloured.
For once, Malfoy did as requested, although Hermione caught him mouthing 'Peppy' in amusement a few times.
"So you know you're related to Zella," he summarised a minute later. "You know the necklace was a family heirloom. You know that Zella was murdered."
"That wasn't in the letter," Hermione frowned.
"No, that was an educated guess," Malfoy replied with contempt. "You wouldn't have begged for my help if you didn't know that."
Hermione felt her fists clenching under the table and found herself hissing:
"First of all, I didn't beg you, so you can drop that notion straight away. Secondly, I don't owe you anything. If you thought you could handle this yourself, you wouldn't have asked - or should I say 'begged' ? - for my necklace. We're stuck with each other. Deal with it."
"Stop with the sweet talk, Granger, you'll make me blush," Malfoy drawled.
"Forget it," Hermione snapped, snatching the letter from Malfoy and stuffing it into her bag. "Just forget it. I haven't had a proper night's sleep in over a week, I'm not eating properly, I have the patron saint of tragic love stalking me in my dreams and you're just sitting here making stupid comments about sweet talk and Peppy the bloody bird!"
Malfoy reclined in the chair, raising his eyebrows again.
"Are you done?" he asked after a moment.
"Yes," Hermione answered, still breathing heavily and feeling slightly foolish.
"Good," Malfoy answered. "Sit down and stop making an idiot of yourself. We have work to do."
A/N:
Hello, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I had to alternate between this and my psychology essays tonight so if any Freud slips in there, just ignore it, lol.
So this was somewhat of a filler chapter really. More reactions from Harry and Ron will come next chapter, as well as more D/Hr interaction.
Thanks for your reviews, I'm really happy that you all seem to be enjoying (:
Have a great week!
- Momo
p.s - for those of you who were concerned, Neville managed to get changed back into his original self, although it cost him a night of detention for being so idiotic in the first place.