A Girl Named Hermione Granger: Year Four
Chapter Thirteen: Draco and Dragons and Dangers, oh my!
Disclaimer: not mine.
Harry stumbled into the library at quarter past eleven, shaking like a leaf. He hadn't wanted to go back to the dormitories after his walk with Hagrid through the dark forest – he knew Hermione would be in here, and she was one the few people in Gryffindor still speaking to him. He still had his invisibility cloak wrapped tightly around himself, not wanting anyone in the castle to see him so shaken up. As if they needed the ammunition against him.
He wandered through the stacks until he found his friend, hunched over a hidden away table, four essays spread out in front of her, and a mountain of books piled high. With what little strength he could muster, Harry pulled out the chair beside her and fell into it. "I'm dead," he croaked as she looked up, pausing in her work. She had grown used to holding conversations with him under his cloak, and it no longer startled her quite as bad when chairs near her moved and began speaking; of course the first time he had snuck up on her like that, she had hexed him on pure reflex.
Hermione sighed at the words and laid down her quill; she could tell this was probably going to require her full attention. "I seriously doubt that, Harry, you look quite alive to me, aside from being invisible." A tiny, grim smile tugged at her lips as she chuckled, "So what was it Hagrid wanted to show you? Was it something to do with the first task?"
It had been nearly a month since Halloween, when the Goblet of Fire had spit out Harry's name, and he had still heard nothing about what the first task might be, or when.
"Yeah, it did." Harry shuddered under his cloak, and folded his arms around his chest, "The first task is Dragons." He could still see the Hungarian Horntail in his mind, spouting flames and growling viciously at her handlers. He could only pray that he wouldn't have to face her, he would take any other breed of dragon, but the Horntail was a nasty beast.
Hermione felt her jaw drop and she gaped at the empty chair. "Dragons? Are you serious? Dragons!" She shot out of her chair and began pacing in the small area, "What exactly do you have to do? Do you know?"
Harry groaned and tugged the cloak away from his face just enough to catch her eye, "I have to get past it. I sincerely doubt Dumbledore would allow us to try and slay a dragon for sport." Hermione rolled her eyes and tried to kick him in the shin, though she missed as she couldn't see it, "This is not Dumbledore's contest, Harry. The ministry cares very little for magical creatures. But at least this will be much easier. You'd best head back to the common room now though; you'll be late for Sirius."
A clock near the front of the library chimed twelve midnight, and Harry stood reluctantly, "I suppose you're right. Are you coming back now?" She gestured toward her stack of homework, "I've still got lots to do, Harry. I'll see you in the morning."
Harry pulled the cloak back over his face and sighed, "Hopefully the common room is empty," whatever else Harry had been about to say died on his lips as Draco Malfoy darted into their isle, looking a little flushed.
"Hermione!" Draco drew himself up to his full height and tried to appear far more collected than he actually was. "We need to talk-" Hermione gaped, Draco hadn't spoken to her in two months. And of all times, he needed to talk now when Harry was less than a foot away under his cloak. Perfect.
"I – this isn't the best time, Draco, I have a lot of work to do." She really didn't want to do this in front of Harry.
"For Merlin's sake, 'mione, would you stop walking away from me!" Hermione growled as Draco slammed his palms against the two bookshelves, blocking the only exit. They hadn't spoken a word to each other in two months, ever since the incident in the courtyard, although it wasn't for a lack of trying on his part – she had carefully avoided him, and the fight she was sure was coming.
Slate grey eyes narrowed in mild annoyance, as Hermione crossed her arms firmly over her chest, a scowl set in place on her lips. "We all know you'd rather be spending all your time with Potty and Weasel, not me, however we need to talk." His voice oozed with latent bitterness.
Hermione's dark eyes rolled up as she bit back on the urge to shout at the blonde boy before her. "As a matter of fact, I would not prefer to be spending all my time with Harry and Ron." She had known that Draco would take exception to the fact that she had yet to inform the boys that they were together – well, sort of, seeing as they had yet to actually label it out loud with one another – but she had hoped that he might at least give her a chance to explain why she had not yet mentioned anything. Evidently, that hope was misplaced.
"I'm not letting you leave until we talk, 'mione, and if you try to get past me, I'll hex you." For emphasis, he lowered his left arm and pulled his wand out of his pocket. Reluctantly, the irritated girl dropped to the floor and sat with her legs splayed, before motioning for Draco to do the same.
Once they had settled relatively comfortably on the floor, Hermione found herself wondering where to begin. "Why haven't you told them? I know they don't particularly like me, but I thought we had an understanding…" Draco muttered, glaring at the floor as he rested his hands on his knees.
"I –" Hermione paused and let out a soft sigh, "- I haven't told them, because they're still growling about my father, and I'd like to have something nice that they can't rag on me for." She cursed herself for being unable to put it in an elegant and thought-out manner, as she had come to expect of herself over the years, but there was simply no other way to say it. She wanted to actually enjoy whatever it was that was going on between her and Draco, without Harry and Ron being on her case about the matter. And they undoubtedly would torment her over it. Although it might be enough to make Ron forget being angry with Harry over the tournament.
Draco, feeling rather rebuffed now, winced and brought his eyes up to catch her frustrated gaze. "I see." He mumbled, shifting slightly, as though debating with himself, before he shuffled over and settled right beside her, his left hand now laying so close to her right hand that their knuckles brushed. "In that case, I think you were right." He afforded her a small grin, which was returned tentatively as his hand slid over hers, and their fingers intertwined. "It's much more exciting to have a secret girlfriend, anyway."
Harry stumbled back into the common room in a daze; Hermione had been dating Draco Malfoy, for a while apparently. As he dropped into the plush chair in front of the fireplace he realized he and Ron had drifted quite far from their female friend since finding out about her father last year, and he felt a sharp stab of guilt in his gut. While he really disliked, Malfoy, the Slytherin boy was obviously important to one of his best friends, and he had probably been causing her a fair bit of grief without even realizing it.
He was withdrawn from his guilt as the clock struck one am, and the fire place sputtered, signalling the arrival of his godfather.
"Harry?" Quickly pulling off his cloak, the bespectacled boy slid to his knees in front of the grate, "I'm here, Sirius." He had been waiting eagerly for this meeting, more so he could know Sirius was actually ok, than for the advice he was hoping to get.
"Excellent, I haven't got much time, how are you, Harry?" Sirius's face was taught with tension, though he looked significantly better than Harry remembered. His question, however, brought the stress of the last month rushing back full force. Losing so many friends, the awful article Rita Skeeter had published about him, how he chose to wear his cloak when he had to be out and about outside of classes, about the dragons. He didn't realize that he had voiced his thoughts until Sirius spoke next.
"The dragon will be easy Harry, we can deal with it later. I wanted to warn you about Karkaroff." The look on his face was quite grim as he continued, "He is a death eater, and not the only one at Hogwarts, either."
Harry nodded hesitantly; he had a decent idea who else Sirius was talking about as it was pretty obvious, after all.
"Karkaroff was in Azkaban when I was, though the Ministry let him out for naming a good number of other witches and wizards. I recommend using caution when dealing with him or his students – he's been known to teach the dark arts."
"You don't think he had something to do with my name being put into the Goblet of Fire, do you?" Harry's memory of the night had him fairly convinced that even though Karkaroff might be a death eater, he wasn't involved. He'd been furious and called Crouch and Bagman every name in the wizarding book when they had said it was impossible for him to withdraw.
"I couldn't say for sure, Harry, but I do know that this is why Dumbledore wanted Moody at Hogwarts – Moody was the one to capture and lock up Karkaroff. As long as Moody is around, you should be alright; dark wizards are afraid of him, so afraid in fact, that I believe one tried to stop him coming to Hogwarts this year."
"Hermione doesn't quite have the same high opinion of him that you do. She's warned me not to let him get too close," Harry muttered, folding his arms over his chest as he stare into the fiery face of his godfather. He was at odds on the whole thing; everyone except Hermione seemed to believe Moody was the strongest ally he could have. He wanted to listen to the 'popular' vote, but Hermione had never been wrong before, either. She had known in their first year that it was Quirrell trying to steal the stone, that it was a Basilisk in the second year, and had encouraged him to hear out Sirius and Lupin last summer.
"Yes, well, I imagine that has something to do with the history between Moody and her father." The elder wizard couldn't help but grimace as he spoke – he would likely never get used to the fact that his arch nemesis actually had a child, and a brilliant Gryffindor one at that. "I'm not sure you have the luxury of being hesitant Harry, it is likely that Voldemort knows about the tournament and has death eaters working on his behalf. The ministry witch who vanished in Albania, did you hear about her?"
Harry nodded, he had read about her in daily prophet when school had started. "Bertha Jorkins?" "Yes, her. I knew her in school – she was an idiot and a busy body. I'll bet you all the galleons in Gringotts that she knew about the tournament before she disappeared, and Albania is where Voldemort was spotted last."
"This tournament is the perfect cover for an attack, so I want you to promise you'll study up on every defensive spell there is." Harry could feel the colour draining from his face at the thought, "It does seem like the perfect plan from where I'm sitting. All they have to do is sit back and let the dragons do all the work."
"Ah yes, the dragons," Sirius seemed to lean in a little closer through the fire, "Don't be tempted to try a stunning spell, dragons are far too powerful to be taken down by a single wizard, but there is a fairly simple spell that should –" a shuffling sound from the staircase behind Harry cut the conversation short as he urged his godfather to go. He would rather face the dragon unprepared then allow Sirius to be spotted and possibly captured.
Hermione paused at the edge of the great lake, a flat stone grasped between her fingers, "Sirius really has a point, about Voldemort." She said quietly, casting a glance at her distracted friend. "Yeah, I reckon you're right about that," Harry grumbled, tossing a pebble into the almost black water. "Anything dangerous for me has usually got his touch on it."
They passed a moment of silence, before Hermione dropped her flat stone and turned to look Harry dead in the eye, "Look, Harry, about the library last night, how much did you hear?" It was killing her to know if Harry had followed his usual bad habit of eavesdropping, or if he had high tailed it out of there the moment the path was unblocked like he ought to have.
Harry hesitated before answering, not sure if he wanted to admit to eavesdropping on a friend, though his hesitation told her everything she needed to know. "I left as you were cozying up to my nemesis." He tried to say it as light-hearted as he could, though he could tell he sounded slightly bitter from the look on her face.
"Harry –" She paused, unsure of how to address the issue with the proper delicacy, "I just, that is, oh bollocks. I'm sort of secretly dating Draco, and I won't take any guff for it. I knew him before I knew you and Ron, and he's not near as bad as you both seem to think." She let out a huff of breath as she finished her little explosion, and felt her face colour with embarrassment – so much for delicacy.
Harry chuckled softly and gave her a weak smile, "It's okay, Hermione, I think I understand. It doesn't mean I like him though, he's still a slimy git. But I think maybe you shouldn't tell Ron. He'd be furious." And he really did understand; although he didn't know a lot about the dynamics of the friendship between Hermione and Malfoy, he could remember the end of last year, when the blonde Slytherin boy had tried so hard to get Hermione to speak to him. He had thought even back then that there might be something bigger going on.
"Thanks Harry," she felt like a great weight had lifted from her shoulders as she turned back to the lake. "I think I may have an idea about your dragon problem. I was up most of the night thinking about it, and though my first few ideas are a bit out of your league, I only know about them because –" "Because you've always got your nose in a book," Harry chimed in, "I've been doing OWL practice papers and I have some more complicated spell books for practice, but I did find a simple one that should be just fine." She gave Harry a playful glare for cutting her off part way through, and grabbed his wrist, "I'll show you, we need to go to the library."
When they made it into the library, they found it surprisingly crowded. "Oh, he's here again." Hermione muttered, tugging Harry though the stacks until they were far enough away from the gathering of Krum's fan girls to not be overheard. "Honestly, this is a library, must they be so loud?" She hated how loud they were when they followed their idol into her sanctuary.
Calming herself down slightly she emptied her bag onto an empty study table. Her charms, 101 defenses, and mother's journal slid across the polished surface, along with a quill and ink pot. "I was reading ahead in our Charms book, and the idea just sort of came to me."
Harry's gaze was caught on the large leather bound journal however. "What's this book?" He reached out to touch it, and Hermione reached out in a panic, trying to grab his wrist, only to miss and watch as Harry withdrew his hand after receiving a painful shock. "Sorry, Harry, I tried to stop you. That's a book I got out of Gringotts over summer. Katherine has it cursed so only I can pick it up." She carefully scooped the book back into her bag and opened the charms book instead.
Harry shook his hand, trying to get rid of the stinging pain in his fingers as he leaned over the table to get a look at the charms book. "It's ok, I should know better than to touch random journals." They shared a short chuckle before Hermione pulled out her wand and pointed to the third spell from the bottom of the left page. "Accio, the summoning spell." Harry read aloud, slightly confused, "What would I summon?"
"Your Firebolt. If the goal is to get past the dragon, and the contest is to show your strengths, then this should be a perfectly acceptable course of action." This was why she had been up all night – debating if this idea would even be possible. She knew, from reading, that the tri-wizard tournament was about using each wizard's strengths to complete the challenges, and showing their adaptability to dangerous situations, so she assumed that flying was fair play. Good flying took extraordinary magical skill and bravery – exactly what the tasks were meant to prove.
"You want me to out fly a dragon?" Harry had no clue how fast a dragon could fly, but he was pretty certain that even his Firebolt was no match. "Well have you got any other clever ideas Harry?" "No, but –" Hermione picked up her charms and defenses books and made her way out of the aisle, "If you do want my help, I was planning to find an empty class in which to study and practice."
She had almost made it out of the library when she bumped into Lavender, and her books went flying. Harry was by her side in a matter of moments, helping her back to her feet as Lavender, and the rest of the fan club snickered. "You okay 'mione?" Harry asked, bending down to scoop up her bag, noticing that it felt far too light. "Uh oh, Hermione your bag is –"
"Excuse me, is this your book?" The heavy drawling accent behind them had both Gryffindor's spinning around to see Viktor Krum, holding the leather bound journal out to Hermione.
Her eyes dropped to the book before shooting back up to the brooding face of the Bulgarian seeker, he was holding her mother's journal without being shocked, and that could only mean one thing. "You – you – my book, I – thank you." She stuttered, reaching out and taking the book, instantly clutching it close to her chest, as Harry quickly retrieved her other two books from the floor.
She rushed out of the library and skidded into an empty classroom, with Harry hot on her heels. "Hermione, what –" He hesitated to ask her what had just happened, as he saw her pacing the room, with the journal opened to the first page.
"Child, I have written this book just for the eyes of my progeny. Any other who try to read it, shall find a lovely little hex inside the pages." She read the first sentence aloud, shaking her head softly. There was no way. She could not have a brother. Her father would have said something, surely? Then again, maybe he didn't even know?
She turned to face Harry with a wounded look in her dark eyes, "Harry, I think I have a brother."
End chapter!
I had wanted to cover more in this chapter, but I also wanted to make sure I posted it today because I'm going to be away from my computer for the long weekend. And I made Hermione and Draco make up, which wasn't going to happen in this chapter originally.
I thought that this would be the best way to out Krum as her brother; show that he can hold the book meant only for the progeny of Katherine. For the record, I haven't yet decided if Severus knows about Krum, or if Krum is his son too. Although the journal will make far more sense if he is - I'll have to write up two versions, and see which sounds better.
Anyway, toodles for now - I have lots to do today.