Chapter 10: One For the Scrapbooks

Tuesday, September 30, 1944

8:11 P.M.

"You said what?" Draco demanded, cupping a hand around his right ear and, from his position beside Hermione on an ornately adorned bronze and royal blue couch, leaned in toward the direction of Hermione.

"You heard me!" She laughed and pushed him away, lounging back on the Ravenclaw sofa in the Room of Requirement. It had redecorated itself as the ultimate Hogwarts common room, and three couches, each representing a different house or houses, created a semi-perimeter around the crackling fireplace. "Now he thinks I'm a Seer or something of the sort. Ooo, did that shake him up, let me tell you."

"Good Merlin, Hermione, you kill me," Lavender exclaimed, bouncing from her seat curled up alongside Ron on the half red and gold Gryffindor and half yellow and black Hufflepuff sofa. She plopped down dangerously close to the fireplace, whipped out a marshmallow from her fuchsia book bag, and jammed it on the tip of her wand, sticking the marshmallow into the dancing flames without an ounce of hesitation. "Rock on, lassie!"

"He really fell for it?" Harry asked. At her tale, his face had lit up like a Christmas tree in spite of himself, his arm resting across Ginny's stomach as she lay, fully stretched out, along the silver and forest green Slytherin sofa. The back of Ginny's head rested in Harry's lap, her deep auburn hair contrasting sharply with the black of his uniform robes.

Hermione absently nodded at her best friend, but her real focus was on Lavender as she leaned closer to the hearth, examining her browning marshmallow. Hermione watched in a kind of horrified fascination as Lavender's mane of sleek blond-streaked hair drifted closer and closer to the red-hot flames...

Hastily, she muttered a silent fire-dousing charm under her breath, but—just in time, it seemed— Lavender pulled back, delicately blowing on the marshmallow. "Lav", Hermione began slowly, releasing a breath of absolute relief, "Please never try to roast a marshmallow on your wand or use an American and Scottish accent in the same sentence. Ever again". Lavender simply grinned in reply, apparently not realising or caring how close she had been to becoming toasted herself, and gave Hermione a thumbs-up sign, simultaneously taking a big bite into the gooey white fluff.

Hermione sighed in exasperation, wondering why she even tried, and turned her attention back to Harry. "Sorry, Harry; yes, he fell for it, hook, line, and sinker". She smiled to herself, momentarily reliving the magnificence of the night before. "You should have seen his face when I asked him what a Voldemort was. I swear I needed a camera."

"What a Voldemort was, that is going in the scrapbook!" Ron exclaimed, digging a red coloured toffee out of his pocket and popping it into his mouth. He chortled to himself and shook his head, muttering, "What a Voldemort was; honestly, that girl's brilliant, she is..."

"So, come on". Ginny splayed her hands out above her head. "Don't leave us in suspense! What'd he say?"

Hermione hid a smile as Riddle's completely expressionless face popped into her mind, picturing him as he'd been when he given her his comeback. "He said it was the name of his pet snake that died this summer... and with whom he was extremely attached."

Pppst! As soon as the words left her mouth, Ron spit the toffee clear across the void between the House sofas, where it landed cleanly in the middle of the fireplace. Lavender cackled, Ginny held back a laugh, and Hermione's eyebrows flew up in surprised amusement as she watched it rapidly melt and disappear.

Ron glared at all three girls and started to cough loudly. At this, Hermione actually prolonged her smirk, feeling like she had somehow turned into Draco. "Yeah, Ron, I almost lost it right in front of him exactly like that, exactly... minus the toffee, of course," she added with a laugh. She frowned. "Actually, I was rather terrified that I was going to burst out laughing right in his face."

"What'd you say, what'd you say?" Lavender chanted, finishing her marshmallow and licking her fingers clean in the most ladylike manner Hermione had ever seen... given the fact that Lavender had just roasted a marshmallow on the end of her wand in the Room of Requirement and had then proceeded to eat the sticky mess.

Hermione smiled slightly. "I said, 'Oh, that's terrible! I'm so sorry for your loss!' " Ron actually cracked up, Harry smiled in that serious yet teasing way of his, Draco smirked, and Lavender again gave an evil laugh. Hermione jabbed an accusing but good-natured finger at the mischievous Hufflepuff. "Lav, how did you not end up in Slytherin?" Lavender sobered up instantly and tapped her skull with complete seriousness. "It's all up here, Hermione. The goodies".

"Oh, Hermione!" Ginny exclaimed suddenly, leaving Ron to snort and cover his mouth at Lavender's previous response. She snapped her fingers in recollection. "I meant to tell you sooner: I got asked where we come from and why we transferred here about twenty times in the course of, what has it been, twenty-five hours? My most popular response was: We got expelled from the Academy of the Sun for practicing excessive Dark Magic. The little snakes loved that one."

"Oh, I said that we had been instrumental in destroying Grindewald's Egyptian forces, and now we had come over here to finish the job", Harry said. He frowned thoughtfully, glanced down at his girlfriend, and gently poked the tip of her pixie nose in mock annoyance. "Gin, those two might clash."

"Yes, the Slytherins did seem a bit confused at the breakfast table this morning", Draco mused sardonically. He glanced sidelong at Hermione, smiled temptingly, and invitingly held out his arm nearest her.

Hermione rolled her eyes but scooted across the five or so inches between them nonetheless. She snuggled into his side and closed her eyes as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and absently began to drum his fingers on her side. At least, she thought, at least they had managed to survive their first day of class with a minimal number of abnormal occurrences. Minimal. "And remember, everyone, the more outrageous, the better," she mumbled sleepily.

"You want an example of outrageous?" Ron asked, smiling smugly. "Here's one: I said that we had been privately tutored on a tropical island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean our entire lives and have just been exposed to civilisation as the world knows it." Ginny rolled her eyes at her brother. "Oh, that one was creative, Ron. Now they're going to think we're all jungle freaks." Ron wrinkled up his nose and shot Ginny a dirty look.

Not to be outdone by her on-again/off-again love, Lavender said imperiously, "Well, I said that Draco is descended from French magical royalty of the same name, Ron can turn his hair green and make his ears pointed on command, Harry and Ginny are members of an ancient and mysterious Old Magick cult that holds a rendezvous inside the Great Pyramid under the light of every full moon, and Hermione, beside her uncannily Seer-ish abilities, comes from the most powerful wizarding family in the history of magic."

Leave it to Lav. It sounded like a sitcom. Draco tilted his head down, found Hermione's amused gaze, and winked. "I kind of like that one, Nef, don't you?"

The light atmosphere in the Room of Requirement was exactly what Hermione needed after the always stressful first day of classes, not to mention first day of classes in a different time period. In any case, she was relieved she had survived last night's first encounter and one of her two subsequent classes (ironically, Defence Against the Dark Arts) with the young Lord Voldemort.

Her happiness was short lived when she remembered where she would eventually end up that night - sharing a common room with him, among other things - but she smiled mischievously. "Yeah, it does sound like something I could get used to." She stretched her leg out away from the sofa, the tip of her shoe managing to nudge Ron's knee. "How about it, Ronald, going to go all green and pointy on us?"

Ron repeated the face he had just made at his sister, his expression so sour that Hermione started to laugh again... but her amusement faded when Harry suddenly said, "Speaking of Slytherins and breakfast tables this morning; that reminds me". His piercing green gaze swept across the void between sofas to catch Draco's eyes. "Did you see Tom Riddle anywhere since the Welcome Feast last night and Defence Against the Dark Arts?"

"Never came in the Slytherin common", Draco said slowly, thinking back and shaking his head. "Nope, wasn't at breakfast, either. Or, at least, I didn't see him there. West-lette, any input?"

Ginny shook her head. Heaving a huge yawn, she burrowed further into Harry's lap, murmuring sleepily, "If the high and mighty Draco du Lac didn't even manage to catch of tiny glimpse of the most recognisable person in this time period beside Uncle Al, what makes him think that the lowly Ginevra West did any better?"

Hermione felt rather than saw Harry's gaze land on her. "Hermione, you haven't seen him, have you?" Going over the past day's events, she realised that Harry was eerily correct. "No, not even this morning. You know how early I get up, and I hung around the common room for a bit reading Hogwarts, A His-" Quickly, she stopped herself before Ron's probable groan could arrive. "Well, I was reading, and I didn't see him come down."

Harry tilted his head backward, studying the muted grey Room of Requirement ceiling. She noticed that he had begun to massage Ginny's arm the way he always did when he was feeling uncomfortable and needed to be reminded that someone else was there. "I don't like this", he finally muttered. "We have to at least keep better tabs on him than this."

"But we can't come off like we're following him. He would realise something was up", Hermione argued, and Harry's head silently levelled off so he could see her more clearly. After a moment, she added reluctantly, "I'll do it."

She felt sick as the cold, hard awareness of what she, and no one else, would have to do heavily sunk in. "My going and looking for him, keeping tabs on him if I have to", she explained as Harry's eyes narrowed in question. "It would never be suspicious, since we're the two Heads, and I can always make up some reason why I need hi — Sweet Merlin!" she gasped.

For a split second, Harry looked afraid that the Dark Lord had actually shown up, but he relaxed again when Hermione jolted forward and glanced at the hands of the clock on the wall behind Ron. "I have to run; I've got a Head meeting with Dippet in less than seven minutes!" she yelped in dismay. Which really, really doesn't give me much time...

"Dippet, mah man!" Ron hooted as she uncurled herself from Draco, leapt to her feet, and briskly smoothed down her uniform. "Hermione, try to avoid screeching like you've just discovered that Voldemort himself was hiding in here", Ron scolded. He paused, and the next time he spoke, his voice emerged in a much darker growl. "Save that in case it really does happen".

"Will he be there?" Ginny piped in, a flint-edged, telltale tone slipping dangerously into her voice. Hermione felt chills sweep down her spine at the idea of Ron's last comment, and she bent down, reaching over Draco's lazily sprawled leg and snatching up her dusty rose book bag. She had no doubt who 'he' was, but she replied innocently, "Ginny, I don't have the slightest idea of who you mean—"

"Whoa, whoa, Nef!" Draco interrupted loudly. He caught her arm before she could straighten back up and yanked her back down to his level, his sky blue eyes as round as saucers. Baffled, Hermione stared at him as if he had suddenly sprouted wings and a tail. Still, she followed his gaze, her eyes landing on...

Oh, right. In the craziness of the day, she had almost forgotten it. Yes, that would most definitely be enough to stop Draco du Lac in his tracks. As Hermione had moved to pick up her bag, a bulky amulet had fallen out from under her shirt, and now it was currently dangling for all to see from a wide, bejewelled gold chain clasped around her neck. It was inset with a stone whose size was a good inch greater in circumference than that of a snitch. The exquisite piece seemed almost gaudy and out of place against Hermione's ordinary school uniform.

"Nefertari, I have seen my share of jewellery, and then I have seen jewellery". Draco gaped at the smooth, perfectly tear-drop shaped, vivid purplish-red tinged crimson ruby, even he unable to keep the awe from his voice. "That is massive, Nef, massive. Do you know how expensive something that size is? Where did you get that?"

"Thank you, Jeweller du Lac", Hermione said rolling her eyes. She pulled her arm from Draco's now-limp grasp and stood up. Turning to face the expectant, waiting eyes of the remainder of the audience, she carefully held up the glittering, multifaceted jewel by its equally impressive necklace like she was a showgirl presenting a product at a sale before auctioning it off.

Although the room was brightly lit, the ruby seemed to not reflect the light, but emit rays of its own with some sort of internal brilliance, and she stared at it with a fascination of her own for a moment, still getting used to it, before she explained, "This is the 'proof of my new bloodline' that Dumbledore was talking about right before he sent us back. It's called the Amulet of Eras."

Ron whistled, impressed. "Give me one of those for a day, and even I'll pretend to be Egyptian."

Hermione held back a grin, but she quickly tucked the cold gem back under her shirt - for some reason she couldn't yet fathom, she was uncomfortable with idea of the priceless necklace being out in the open like it would have been had she not done so.

"He left a note as well," she added thoughtfully, peering down at her Oxford blouse. For the ruby's enormous size, it only bulged slightly underneath. "Said as soon as I put it on, it'd never come off until I died, or something cheery like that. I'm not an expert on gemstone mythology, so I really only know the basics of the significance of this."

At Ginny's frown and inquisitive expression, Hermione subconsciously felt herself going into what Ron liked to call 'the professor mode.' "According to traditional mythology, the Sun transmits red. Therefore, rubies are 'ruled' by the Sun. If the Sun is the lord of a favourable house in the birth chart, like the house of the Egyptian Pharaoh — once believed to be the living Sun god — a ruby will augment the wearer's supremacy. "

Unconsciously, she reached a hand to her neckline and began to tap the knot that was the jewel. "Legend has it that within this ruby lies the vast power of the Nefertari line. All if it. It's like a... like a tiny storeroom, and you just have to figure out how to tap into it. It's thousands of years old, but it was lost near the beginning of the sixteenth century. I don't even want to know how Dumbledore managed to get his hands on it, and D, my face is up here, thank you—"

DONG... DONG... As the clock rudely struck the half hour, Hermione let out another yelp of alarm. "Merlin, I have to run!" "Flying might be the only way to save you now, actually", Ron noted discouragingly, twisting around in his seat to glance at the clock again, while Lavender shook her head at Hermione as if she was supremely disappointed with the Head Girl's lack of professionalism.

Hermione ignored them both and scooped up her bag, pausing momentarily before the portrait of the four Hogwarts founders hanging over the fireplace and quickly scanning her reflection in the polished gold frame. Deciding that she looked relatively presentable, she expertly fluffed her shiny dark chocolate hair over her shoulders, mumbling to herself, "The first Head meeting... Oh, not a good way to make a first impression, not a good way at all..."

"Maybe you should, you know, give Riddle a sympathy card for his snake", Harry mused, returning to the initial subject of the night, his amused green eyes following Hermione's rush out of the Room of Requirement. "I mean, seeing as he was so attached to it, and you were so sorry for his loss..." Irritated, Hermione froze halfway to the portrait hole. How... How dare Harry make light of this situation! She didn't see him sharing a common room with the younger version of Lord Voldemort! Spinning around, she jabbed her wand at Harry mock-threateningly. "You... you drop dead!"

Harry's eyes lit up in amusement. "Yeah, while you're gone, I just might do that". Both he and Ginny began to chuckle, causing a rush of energy to shoot through Hermione. Ignoring her mental clock ticking down the passing minutes, she raced back to the Ravenclaw couch, snatched up a blue and bronze striped pillow, and vehemently chucked it in the couple's general direction.

Ginny ducked, but she wasn't fast enough. "Ow, Hermione!" she yelped, the pillow bouncing off her head to the carpeted floor.

Harry, however, grinned impishly and pulled out his wand. "Wingardium Leviosa", he muttered, expertly flicking his wrist. The blue and white pillow rose menacingly into the air, and he glanced pointedly between the pillow and where Hermione stood, exposed, in the middle of the wooden floor between the sofas and the exit as if he was thinking, Should I or shouldn't I?

Hermione hadn't been best friends with Harry James Potter Evans for seven lengthy years for nothing. Instantly, she practically read his mind, and she disappointedly shook her head at him as a professor would a naughty child, taking a few uncertain, nervous steps backward. Only yesterday had Dumbledore's wand threatened her in the same way that she was certain Harry's was about to, and she didn't especially relish being caught at the pointed end of the wand again. "Come on, Harry, you know you deserved that!"

Apparently, Harry didn't seem to think so, and he aimed his wand directly at Hermione. "Volo". The pillow quivered momentarily, then shot toward Hermione like a speeding bullet.

"Harry!" Hermione shrieked and dove for cover behind the Ravenclaw couch, knowing that Armando Dippet, Tom Riddle, or both were going to be very disappointed with her when she rolled into the Headmaster's office fifteen minutes late.