The Silence of Siberia

Authors note: As I said at the end of my last update, this is a flashback chapter. Pay attention darlings cause the story I'm telling isn't the one you're reading wink wink.

August 22

"We saw her, she was wearing it." Ron took off the invisibility cloak even though Harry was already five feet in front of him only waiting long enough for the door to close to walk from under the offending fabric.

"What?" Hermione asked throwing her book to the side. She'd been reading trying to find incantations the ministry could use against them to thwart their plan. "What do you mean she was wearing it? In plain sight?"

"No," Harry said kicking a chair in front of him. The chair Draco was sitting on.

"Hey, s'not my fault." Draco said huffing and standing behind the couch Hermione had been sitting in.

Harry ignored him. "She disguised it with an add on that when she flips up shows the real locket. She showed one of the women she was walking with when she was asked about it. She must know it's valuable but she doesn't know how dangerous it is or she wouldn't be wearing it."

"Harry," Ron put a hand on Harry's shoulder and Harry turned to face him. But Ron wasn't looking at his friend. He was looking at Draco. Harry followed his line of sight and turned pale probably wondering how much he had let slip.

"Clearly I wasn't supposed to hear that." Draco said smiling slightly. Hermione wanted to punch him. "So this locket we're all risking our lives for. It's Slytherin, it's valuable and dangerous. Got it. Well that makes this easier doesn't it?"

"What are you on about?" Ron said eying the redness around Draco's lip. Perhaps wishing he had punched him harder. Draco had tried to transfigure it to heal invisibly but saw no point to go through all that work. What was another cut? Another bruise. He'd had plenty.

"Well we were struggling with the possibility that the ball would be moved to a separate location from the ministry. We know we have to register our wands at the ministry but what if they took us somewhere else? Now we know that it doesn't matter because wherever Umbridge is, the locket will be with her."

Last day of August

She watched silently as Draco quite literally worked his magic on Ron. Tension in the house had grown exponentially since Ron and Draco's close encounter. The electricity in the room was almost palpable every time both men were in the same room together. And when it was just her and Draco, well that was also interesting.

It hadn't gone unnoticed to her in what way Ron had defended her against the undeniably attractive Malfoy. Sure he was an arse, he could even be cruel, a bully. Her whole life he had taunted her looks but nobody had ever done the same to him. Obviously. He was the Slytherin Prince. A legend among the girls in Hogwarts. It was sickening.

So for Ron to insinuate that Malfoy, Draco, had anything but pure intentions towards her was simply ludicrous. She knew it. Draco certainly knew it. Some part of Ron's logical and rational brain knew it. But he had still said it. He had implied that he was a better choice to touch her than Draco and the implication stayed in the air along with the electricity and coupled with the stress of a war, horcruxes, and the very real possibility that they could get caught or be killed made her feel suffocated.

There was also the small matter of her thinking he was an attractive ferret. She blamed the confinement. Anytime she could escape Grimmauld Place to research the Ministry or the party, she would take it. She wasn't a simple girl infatuated with thoughts of a bad boy. No. But she was tired and scared and Draco was not the same ferret he had been in school.

It was clear to everyone now including Ron that not only was there something remarkably different, it was bigger than they thought. Whatever had happened to Draco Malfoy for him to give up his old life, abandon his security, or false sense of it. It had beget a completely different Draco.

He still argued with them but in the end he would concede. He'd make fun of her frizzy hair or joke about Harry's strong sense of forgiveness even though with that one he walked a thin line. But the fact remained, he was here. He was with them and trying desperately for them to believe he was changed. Sometimes she could wrap her mind around it and then other times she'd bump into him in the kitchen and squint her eyes at him almost to will herself to believe he was actually there.

Ron stood stiffly in front of Draco and Draco moved his wand expertly. The confidence of his movements unsettled her. Between his vow, his quick dismissal of what he wasn't being told, and his willingness to help she was torn about what she should worry about more. She wanted to walk up to him and shake him. Ask him what sick plan he had and if he didn't have one ask him what had happened. Perhaps he'd seen something, maybe he'd been tortured, maybe nothing had happened and he had simply realized he was on the wrong side.

She could see it was bugging Ron too but perhaps it was pride or maybe after years of searching he had finally found some restraint.

"Finished..." Draco said waving his wand horizontally over Ron one last time. "The changes will only last an hour. I'm afraid we would need potions we can't afford to make it last longer. Or incantations that would surely trigger an alarm in the ministry."

"And you're sure the Polyjuice potion won't work?" Hermione asked for the umpteenth time. Even if he had changed his mind between now and the last time she had asked they wouldn't have enough time to make it. "Maybe we can go as low level interns-"

"You should hear the absurdity of that as it's coming out of your mouth-" Ah yes a hint of the old Malfoy.

Ron interrupted Draco with a quick shove at his shoulder. Ron was much less intimidating now that Draco had made him shorter and thinner. It didn't elude her that Draco had suggested Harry and Ron be transfigured into lesser versions of themselves for his amusement and not just for the effectiveness of the plan.

"No he's right. Remembering details and facts about people we don't know would only slow us down. Making them up is better. You look great Ron, I hate to say this Malfoy but good job."

They both looked at her bewildered. She had taken Draco's side and complimented his work. Maybe she was still in awe over the changes he had practiced on her earlier. She tried not to blush remembering the hour of alone time they had spent. Nobody spoke, nobody even looked each other in the eye. One of the nobody's didn't spend the whole hour after with her mouth open in a silent gasp at the incredible talent the other nobody seemed to possess.

She realized that her sudden interest in this Draco wasn't just the surprise of him offering his help but it was the fact that she didn't really even know the old Draco and what little she did know was tainted by years of bullying. Surely he had friends. Hobbies, favorite books, did he like reading? And the only reason she was wondering was because this Draco was brand spanking new.

"I'm going to get started on dinner, Kreacher brought food today. Maybe he'll let me help.."

They continued staring. Draco was the first to break. He nodded in her direction and walked around her towards the door. She was alone with Ron.

"Well I'll go get started," Hermione turned but Ron called her back the moment her hand touched the doorknob.

"Wait Mione," she turned. His once flaming hot red hair was now a dull uninteresting brown. His blue eyes were a green she didn't recognize. Even with his typical safe Ron attributes she didn't see the Ron from before.

"I wanted to say I was sorry," she noted vaguely that whatever he was apologizing for didn't sound at all sincere. "I shouldn't have overreacted to Malfoy-"

"What?" She recoiled. Her hands straightened and to stop them from shaking she made herself cross her arms.

"Mione' I'm sorry about what I said about your parents too, I - ugh..I keep putting my foot in my mouth. I'm sorry." She relaxed and walked towards him. She put her hands on his shoulders and looked at this man she didn't recognize. But inside she knew he wasn't cruel. He wasn't one to throw her sacrifices in her face especially ones that were still fresh in her mind and heart. He loved her. Whatever way he could, he did.

"I knew you were sorry the moment you realized what you said. I know we're not making this whole thing easier by trying to accept Draco but we have to Ron. We can't stop Voldemort and hate Draco too. And we especially can't do it if it's us against you. We all have the same goal. How we got there, it doesn't matter anymore."

He looked down, he couldn't look at her. He took both of her hands in his and held them for a while.

"I understand that. I do I really do but I'm not going to stop hating him over night. I'm always going to keep an eye on him. My first instinct is always going to try and protect you."

"I understand that too Ron…" She met the eyes of a man she did recognize. Behind the green irises played scenes of them growing up. Hugging, laughing, protecting each other.

She took him tightly into her arms and embraced him the way she had always wanted and tried to feel the way she had always fantasized but as she expected she only felt the way she did when she hugged Harry. And she thought she saw it too in his eyes when she let go. But behind his memories and urges there was hope.

"Let's go show Harry how you look," she took him by the hand and led him away before she saw anything else.

1st of September

They all sat in silence around the breakfast table sipping their teas. The table was littered with newspapers from the last month, notes, diagrams, detailed floor plans from two, five, and ten years ago of the Ministry of Magic. All completely different and completely useless now that they might not need them if the ball was moved elsewhere. They still studied them though.

They each had a paper in front of them with a name, a job, and a short biography. A complete life to remember. But at the moment it didn't matter.

Hermione checked her watch, 11:01. "Well, that was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be." She sighed heavily and sipped from her mug.

"In about five minutes you'd be making your rounds and saying something stupid about my glasses-" Harry said looking at Malfoy.

"And my family-" interjected Ron.

"And my blood, hair, and teeth." Finished Hermione.

Draco couldn't help but smirk, "Was I that predictable?"

"Was?" Said Ron picking up his paper and ignoring the glare Draco sent his way.

"Now now boys," Hermione said standing up and starting a new kettle. "We have twenty two days and we still have a lot to do."

They spent the rest of the day trying not to think about the Hogwarts Express, the first year sorting, the wonderful food and Dumbledore's speech because this year it would have all been different anyway.

The train would only be filled by pureblood students, instead of a hall full of students excited to be sorted into a Hogwarts house there would be scared or otherwise angry students waiting for changes they hadn't asked for. Perhaps the food would still be good but she imagined it would taste bitter knowing that Snape would be giving the headmaster speech instead of Dumbledore, the man he had killed.

No they definitely tried not to think about that.

September 10th

"No way."

"Come on Hermione, you'll look radiant." Harry pushed the black sheer dress towards her again and this time she didn't take a step back, she only held her hands up as if to protect herself.

"We're trying to be inconspicuous, this...this thing is like a big shinning neon sign that says, hey look at me we're trying to steal a horcrux!"

Harry sighed and hung the dress on the hook behind the door, when he turned to look at her he had that look on his face. The look he had gotten after he had wanted to run off on his own to find the horcruxes in the wake of Moody's death. Or the look he had gotten when they read her name on the list of muggle borns that needed to register for the Muggleborn Act. Or the look he had right before rage set in and he flung the newspaper into the fire place after reading that Snape would be the new headmaster.

"Ron and I are trying to be inconspicuous. You and Draco have to draw the attention to yourselves so we can imperious Umbridge without any attention being on us. It will be a quick, mind altering spell and grab. This dress will help. What's the problem?"

It was too beautiful. It was sexy. Mostly though, the problem was that he had chosen it.

She sighed, defeated. "Fine, I'll wear it. But when this is all over I'm going back to jeans and a jumper."

Harry smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. He took the dress off the hanger and passed it to her. He left her alone to change and didn't return. She didn't expect him to. Sometimes he would disappear for hours. In the house or to do research in front of the ministry. She tried not to bother him about it but she was losing him. If her wearing a dress that Draco Malfoy had picked out for her made him remotely happy, she would do it.

She turned around and looked at herself from all angles. Another thing that bothered her about this dress was the undeniable fact that Draco Malfoy had good taste.

September 23rd Autumnal Equinox

"It's now or never isn't it?" Draco straightened his bow tie and pocket square. His once rich blonde hair was swept to the side in a handsome way that had made her do a double take back in the hallway of Grimmauld Place.

It was now a slightly darker version of the real blonde she was accustomed to. He was taller too and leaner. Or perhaps he had always been lean but she had never noticed. She had never noticed how gray his eyes were until they weren't gray anymore but dark blue. He had made his jaw straighter, narrow, and had let his facial hair grow out. He looked much older, like a regal lion waiting to pounce on his pray.

The knot in her stomach tightened. "Why are you doing this?" The question she had always wanted to ask but never intended to came out just then. They were in a queue waiting for a chance to stand on the apparation point that would take them to their ultimate destination, the Autumnal Equinox Ball.

Draco looked around them, smiling politely when a couple behind them caught his stare. "We agreed darling, we need to socialize more if we want our company to grow. Especially on foreign soil. Witches and wizards of Europe are not accustomed to our American ways, we must learn theirs."

"Balls and galas, that's the European way?" She asked.

"Women," the man behind them spoke, "you can give them diamonds and boats of jewels and nothing will ever be enough, isn't that right dear?" He spoke to his spouse. Hermione couldn't help notice the titanic size ring on her left hand.

The woman smiled warmly back at them and then at her husband, "If the diamonds aren't rare and the boats aren't sinking with the weight of the jewels then surely there are better diamonds and bigger boats elsewhere."

Hermione smiled and nodded at the woman as the men laughed. Draco pulled her closer to him. He introduced them as Mr. and Mrs. Holden. She appeared to be bored with the conversation that erupted around them about their fake business but inside she was vigilant.

Every few feet there were aurors dressed in evening wear but she could see their hands close to their wands ready for an invitation to use them. The queue was being held in a garden somewhere they did not know. After much research they had found that guests would arrive at the ministry of magic, register their wands and sign their names to a piece of paper that would automatically transfigure into either a stone or sirens would blare and they would be taken away by aurors for investigation.

The stone would transport them to an apparation point where they would gather in groups and all apparate to the party location together. Luckily they had imperioused one of the makers of the guest list weeks before and had gotten the fake Mr. and Mrs. Holden on the had recognized the man at once, a friend of his fathers. It irked her that Draco had been more than useful.

The wands they had bought from one of the vendors who was taking over Olivander's in Diagon Alley. They had gone in with the plan to steal some and pay the old man later but had been quite shock to see his store gone. They didn't fret much. People were leaving, sensing a change they couldn't stop. She didn't blame anyone for covering their own neck.

Their real wands were stashed inside Hermione's bottomless purse which she had enchanted to be double seamed. Anyone who would look inside would see her wallet and fake wand but beyond that was every last thing they owned.

"Aren't these parties always a bore?" The woman who had made the joke about the diamonds said to her. Draco was engaged in a thrilling discussion with her husband about wizardly stocks and even to her it sounded like a dreadful conversation to follow.

"I don't mind them much," Hermione said taking the woman in. She was around her height, a couple years older, perhaps a mother. "I just hate wearing these tight clothes and tall heels. I much rather be home with my children." She decided she wanted to add children to her story. She had baby sat a lot as a teen whenever she wasn't with the Weasley's during the summer. It was easier to tell a lie from a truth.

Draco squeezed her tightly as the woman smiled nervously. He leaned into her ear and said, "Fake it, these people can spot an outsider and they will put you on the spot. We want them to like us, not report us to the aurors." He kissed her cheek and brushed a stray hair away then continued his conversation with the woman's husband.

"You have children?" The woman asked interested all of a sudden in each movement Hermione made. "I'm sorry it's just that you look so young."

"My husband came into money young, he worked hard and never took no for answer. Or money from his parents. We married almost straight out of prep school and I stayed home with our children while he made his fortune. That's why I'm not accustomed to this." She pointed down at herself.

"Oh I know what you mean," the woman seemed to buy it and Hermione only had to engage in a few more lies before a bell rang up ahead of them. A man in a black tuxedo came up to their group and asked them to gather around him. When the group was in place a sort of black vortex formed where the man had once stood and luckily she didn't have to ask what had happened to him because Draco had filled them in on all the past ways they had been taken to the balls in the past. The guests had once taken this route.

Draco took her hand and walked towards the place the man had stood and stepped into place. The moment he did they were pushed into each other but she didn't feel the tightness of apparation. Instead her feet landed on solid marble flooring almost as if she had always stood there.

Draco had not let go of her not even for a second since they had landed in the garden and it didn't seem like he would let go now. Around them more couples appeared and Hermione finally took in the sights around her.

"Wow," she gasped as her head followed strings of light and servers with white gloves holding champagne and musicians with instruments she had never seen. A large buffet table stood to her left and another to her right. People stood around narrow tall tables with drinks and no where in sight was there a chair.

What had made her gasp though was the surprise of being outside and not in a room. She thought balls were held in exuberant and grand halls not on some kind of lit up pier. She could smell the ocean but she didn't see where the ocean and the pier met. It's as if they were floating on the water itself.

"Amazing isn't it?" Draco asked pulling her to the center of the party and placed his hand on her waist and the other held on to her hand tightly.

"Where are we?" She asked following him and slowly dancing to the beat of the music. She felt almost drunk with awe. "I feel like we're moving but at the same time I feel fixed as if on a platform."

"I think it's something in between." That didn't make sense. How can you be moving and be anchored? But she didn't care. She looked around her and found what she was looking for.

Harry was dressed as a server and he was passing around champagne. Ron who was also a server was passing small horderves and she caught him stealing one.

She was glad they made it in. They had left earlier than Hermione and Draco. Draco had worked extra hard to perfect his transfiguration and he had bought them an extra hour. But now that they were all here the clock was ticking. They had to find Umbridge but mostly, they had to find a way to cause a distraction.

"There she is," Draco said spinning Hermione around so she could see Umbridge. She was sipping on a glass of wine and talking to Pius Thicknesse. She was wearing the locket which made a weight on Hermione's chest lift. The locket had the add on Harry had described. There were guards around them, protecting Pius surely. As the new Minister of Magic and Voldemorts puppet, he needed protection.

She felt someone brush against her, Harry. He saw her too and was heading her way.

"Server!" Hermione almost shouted. Harry stopped and turned around slowly. The face of a man she didn't recognize on her friends head. Regardless of the difference physically she could still make out Harry frown.

"Champagne please," Draco ordered. When Harry walked back to them and lowered his hand so they could grab their glasses, he made sure they could see his glare.

"Easy there," Hermione said, "you can't just yank the locket off her neck with all those aurors around her and Pius."

Harry nodded and his glare was replaced with a small frown instead.

"Get into place, wait for our signal." Draco said placing his empty drink on Harry's tray.

Their signal was chaos. The distraction. Which they still didn't have. They had planned a couples argument but that hardly seemed enough to make the guards leave Pius's side.

"Lucius! What a surprise. I see that wrongful imprisonment hasn't changed you." Someone exclaimed to their right. It was such an odd thing to say they almost felt disoriented as they turned towards the sound of gasps. That is until they saw Lucius.

"I think we have our distraction," Hermione said wincing, Draco was holding her so tight it was hard for her to breathe.

People made way for Lucius. He stopped a few feet away from them to speak to the man who had announced his arrival.

"Lawarence, I see that promotion has only enhanced your total lack of social filtration." They shook hands as Draco and Hermione got nearer.

"My old friend, if not for me you would have gotten a much worse introduction." The man named Lawarence said. They watched Lucius for a bit. He didn't seem as lofty and above everyone else as he had always seemed to Hermione. He was leaning on his cane a tad more than normal and his hair was slightly more tussled.

"Dear," Hermione whispered in Draco's direction, "I think we should leave soon."

Something didn't sit right. Draco had told them his father and mother had fled. And if they had fled Lucius wouldn't show up to a party where there were bound to be people who would report back to Voldemort.

"Lucius Malfoy is it?" Draco asked extending his arm towards his father. Hermione's stomach almost fell through to the ground. What was he doing?

Lucius turned and regarded Draco cautiously. When it seemed he wasn't going to return the handshake Draco straightened up and lowered his hand.

"I'm Ethan Holden, this is my wife, Mary. I'm sorry to be so direct but I've heard all about your ventures here. You see we're not from around here."

"Oh is that so?" Lucius asked eying Hermione but mostly keeping an eye on Draco.

"Yes," Draco was on edge. She could hear it in his voice. All she wanted to do was look around and find Harry and Ron, see if they were in place. She felt like chaos was approaching. "My contacts had told me you were away." He cleared his throat as to feign subtlety. "I'm glad to see you're well. Perhaps I could seek some advice from you."

"Advice?" Lucius laughed slightly, nobody was really paying any attention them except for stolen glances at the man who was supposed to be in Azkaban. "What would I be able to do for you?"

"Oh, plenty." Draco smiled taking another step closer to his father and pulling Hermione along with him. "You and I could speak business and our wives could enjoy afternoon tea."

"I only do business in the mornings..." Lucius glanced at Draco warily. Oh boy.

"Still, I'd love to meet your wife," Hermione interjected seeing a vein pulse near Draco's forehead. A vein that normally appeared when he was angry, one she had seen plenty of times growing up. Their time was running out. In a few minutes they would be Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy not Mary Holden and Ethan Holden.

"I'm afraid my wife has taken ill," Lucius said loosening the collar on his shirt.

"Is that so?" Draco grinded his teeth, "what did you do to her?"

"I beg your pardon," Lucius clutched his cane tighter and Hermione pulled her purse closer to herself.

Draco stepped closer to his father this time lowering his voice so only Lucius and Hermione could hear him. "Come on father, don't you know? I better than anyone know best when you're lying."

"Draco?" Lucius gasped and as if on cue the world erupted. Draco and Hermione's features returned to their own and if there's did surely Harry was Harry again and Ron was Ron. And they were out of time.

She reached for her wand and swung it around herself and the two men creating a sort of shield. It pushed people back and some fell over. This was their distraction.

She saw as Draco punched Lucius and as Lucius fell to the ground too stunned to use his wand on his son even to protect himself. On the other side of the pier she heard shouts and saw flashes of red and green. She heard their names being gasped and yelled but she couldn't see Harry or Ron.

And then suddenly they were there and Ron was holding a chain in his right hand and Harry was running behind him throwing curses left and right.

One got past him and it hit the person standing directly being Hermione. It was the woman she had been talking to. She looked stunned not dead which was a relief but she didn't have time to give her aid. They needed to find a way out.

Another flash, this time green, blinded her and someone else fell beside her. Someone she didn't recognize but the look on his face, she'd seen it before right as the life had left Sirius's body and he'd been engulfed in the thin veil.

The aurors were sending killing curses and they didn't care who they hit.

Finally Ron reached her and handed her the locket. She grasped it so tight it dug into her hand and she felt wetness where it cut her.

"Run!" Ron yelled and his voice made her paralyzed feet move. People were shouting and taking cover but she ignored them. She saw Harry collide with Draco and steady himself before throwing a quick and swift kick at Lucius himself.

"Come on!" She shouted and moved them across the crowd, swerving to miss the curses still flying towards them. "How do we get out?!"

"The water!" Draco shouted, "when you hit the water apparate!"

He was helping Harry direct curses at not just the aurors now but at others that were following them. Death Eaters.

They didn't have to go too far anymore. She could see the edge now when before it had seemed impossible to see. There were less people by the edge for which she was glad. The less people were hurt on their account the better but that also meant that less people got in the way of the curses that were still flying and it meant they were more likely to be hit.

Suddenly Ron gasped and clutched his side, his whole weight falling on her. They were so close to the edge, one more step and they could have jumped but it didn't matter. She didn't have to do anything.

Draco turned in time to send a curse, the worst one at someone, she didn't know who and didn't care. All she knew was that Ron didn't seem to be breathing and the only sound she heard was a loud thump where Draco had directed the curse. She heard running coming at them and she saw Harry heave Ron onto her and push them off the edge of the pier. Draco right behind them grabbing on to her arm as she held onto Ron. Harry grabbed onto Draco's leg and that's all she remembered. She didn't feel her body slam into water. She didn't feel wet at all.

She felt the tightness of apparation, heard a few shouts, saw a few lights. But nothing mattered. Nothing mattered when she was losing her best friend.

Authors note: Not even going to lie this was one of the more fun chapters to write because it had so much that I wanted to address and it definitely set the premise for the rest of the story which is that yes it is similar to the books but just because one timeline worked to tell the story doesn't mean the events can't be different so long as the essence is the same. They still got the locket, despite Draco's heavy involvement. Ron still got hurt. They are progressing as a unit and trust won't be built over night especially if now they know Draco can kill. They have a lot of thinking to do and a lot of trust to begin building. They're like my version of the Avengers.