Everyone, I am just so tickled by your reviews, I REALLY AM. I am so happy that you guys like my Hermione (she's totally my favorite as well), and how I am working this story. I am elated that other people like something I have written! 3 Much love, yo.
I don't really have anything else important to say...
I don't own Harry Potter!
Hermione was terribly distracted at breakfast. She looked terrible. Her hair looked messier than usual, her clothes weren't in their usual state of perfect, her eyes had dark bags under them and her brown eyes themselves kept darting about the room frantically. She barely drank anything.
Draco put up with this strange behavior long enough for him to realize she wasn't going to say anything about it. "What is going on with you, Granger?" He demanded. She let out a gasp and jumped at his voice and reached for her wand. When she realized what she did, she put her head in her hands on the table.
Corner and Boot exchanged glances at Draco and looked at Hermione. "What's up?" Corner asked. He was sitting next to her, with Boot and Malfoy on the other side of the table, Draco was directly across from her. She turned her head towards him, her hair still hid her face.
"I didn't sleep last night."
"While that is obvious," Draco began, "that doesn't explain why you are acting like that. No come on. We're your friends," he may have been pleading a little. Hermione drew in a sigh deep enough that it pinched her shoulder blades together and she sat up.
"Right in front the portrait to the dormitory last night..." She glanced around, she hadn't seen any of those boys yet, "were those three guys from yesterday's lunch. The ones who called you a traitor. They well...attacked me." She glanced around and looked behind her like they would materialize from being spoken about. Draco's face transformed into the most heinous scowl she had even seen before.
"Hermione!" Draco didn't seem to process what she had said. She reached across the table and put a hand over his tightly clenched fist. He looked at it for a second and looked back up at her. "Wait...if they 'attacked' you...?"
"I didn't let them, of course. I fought them off. With what we learned in dueling club yesterday." Hermione said hotly. Obviously she wasn't hurt.
"Those guys were...like in fifth year, though!" Corner seemed impressed, but also in disbelief, which Hermione was still also.
"They weren't very good, then?" Boot asked with a small laugh. Hermione glared at him for a moment, because he was insinuating the fact that the only reason why Hermione could have fought them off was because they weren't good, but not because Hermione was better than them. She didn't say anything, but he seemed to realize what he said and looked apologetic.
"They weren't wearing their colors, so I don't know what house they are in, but...still. I doubt they will leave it alone." Hermione said glancing around again.
"That's it." Draco declared, "neither of us are going anywhere alone. It's Christmas for Merlin's Sake! We shouldn't be worrying about our own safety like this! I'm bloody sick of it!" Draco exclaimed loudly and beat his fist against the table, hard enough to rattle the plates and goblets. Hermione glanced around to see that some had heard him. When she looked back at Draco, Headmaster Dumbledore was standing behind him. She squeaked in surprise, as did Corner. Boot and Draco turned to look at what they were looking at. Draco actually flushed a little.
"Oh, I agree, Mr. Malfoy. Would you two be so kind as to follow me to my office? Mr. Boot, Mr. Corner." Headmaster Dumbledore nodded to the two boys, who were only glad they didn't have to go as well. Hermione and Draco exchanged a glance and stood to follow him. Professor Dumbledore didn't say much as he led them to his office, he greeted the students and professors that they passed as well.
They stopped in front of a gargoyle statue on the third floor. He smiled a tired smile at the gargoyle, "Chocolate Frogs," he cleared stated. The gargoyle jumped to life sideways and a staircase started to rotate upwards, rising at the same time. Dumbledore stepped onto it, so Draco and Hermione did after they exchanged a glance. The ride was strange, but once the stairs stopped, they were facing two wooden doors. Dumbledore opened them, to reveal his office.
It was a large circular room, Draco first noticed all of the strange devices Dumbledore had to the left and right of the room. Hermione first saw all of his books behind his desk at the other side of the room, and then the portraits of past headmasters and mistresses. He led them across the room and sat behind his desk. Over his head, they spotted the Sorting Hat.
"Headmaster, I am so sorry about fighting in the hallway in front of the Gryffindor common room! I know it was against the rules, but I didn't know who they were, or what they wanted! I am so sorry! Please don't expel me!" Hermione cracked from tension she had been feeling, her feelings of guilt, and paranoia of being in trouble. Headmaster Dumbledore held up a hand for her to be quiet.
"The portraits told me a very interesting story last night, would you like to hear it?" Dumbledore asked. She shifted in her seat and nodded faintly. "It was very interesting, you see, because a very clever Gryffindor lion was minding her own against three mystery assailants. These assailants were older than the lion was, but she did not let that get to her, you see. This particular lion has something that not all lions have; not only does she have a very brave and strong heart, but she also has a quick mind and outsmarted those who thought her a cub. Oh how wrong they were." Dumbledore smiled at her, his eyes twinkled in the firelight. He leaned forward into his chair and folded his hands on the table, "I think the young lion has yearned fifty points for Gryffindor, don't you think?" Hermione was so...touched at his 'story' and relieved for not being in trouble, a few tears trickled out of her eyes. She wiped them on her robes sleeve.
"Thank you, professor," she mumbled. He smiled and then turned his attention to Draco.
"Mr. Malfoy," he began. Draco felt a sense of dread, despite him not having done anything. "I am aware that the students have not been treating you as friendly as they should, but I know you are aware of what fear does to people. If you had been old enough when the First War was going on, you would have seen some of the worst cases. Families turned against each other, marriages..." Draco knew he was talking about his own parents and his head sunk.
"I know I cannot simply force the students to leave you be, but I encourage you to not let the things they say and do effect how you see yourself. You are a bright raven, and it is why you were placed in Ravenclaw and not in Slytherin. The Sorting Hat listens to the student you know, and takes their opinion into the matter. I am sure you are aware of the Black family," Dumbledore asked him. Draco nodded, that was his mother's maiden name.
"And you know who Sirius Black is?" He continued. Draco nodded, though he didn't know where he was going with that. "You are aware that all Blacks were said to go to Slytherin," for Hermione's sake, he said, "they are one of the ancient pureblood families. But Sirius Black was not a Slytherin, he asked to be put anywhere else just like you Mr. Malfoy." Dumbledore smiled and stood slowly. "And the Sorting Hat listened and he was placed into Gryffindor. Sirius' brother, Regulus Black, however was a Slytherin as well."
"Sir, I don't have a brother so I don't..."
"I simply wish to point out that even though they were only a few years apart in age, and were raised in the same house by the same parents, they were in different houses. They were different people. You are not your father, and I don't want you to become confused by people treating you like you are. Fear has a way of changing people, and I do not wish that to happen." Dumbledore moved around the desk and leaned against it, to look between the two of them.
"With Death Eaters free, people are right back where they were eleven years ago, a place that I hope either one of you discover." Dumbledore drew in a breath, and seemed to be deciding to tell something else, and nodded to him self faintly. It caused the bells in his beard to tinkle faintly. "This being said, I have some double-sided news. The escaped Death Eaters have all grouped together at a single place; Malfoy Manor." Draco's mouth dropped.
"Is my mother-"
"She is under the protection of the Order of the Phoenix, and has been hidden safely. I am not her secret keeper, however, and cannot tell you where that is. She is safe." Dumbledore smiled, but only slightly. "She is a very strong woman, gifted in Legilimens and Occlumens, she can certainly protect herself." Dumbledore tried to drive home the point that Draco should not fear for his mother.
"In more pleasant news, I am very proud of you both for the involvement of the Dueling Club. Something tells me it will go very well with the students, after recruiting begins after the break." He nodded to himself and then turned to Mr. Malfoy. "If you, sir, would please wait outside the door, there is something I need to discuss with Miss Granger." Draco nodded faintly and turned to leave, and before he noticed he had even taken one step, the door shut behind him.
He certainly wasn't going to walk anywhere by himself, so he tried to process all that Dumbledore told him. Sirius Black had been in Gryffindor, even though his brother was in Slytherin. Draco had known he was related to the Blacks, by his mother, though she didn't speak to them much. His aunt Bellatrix had been a death eater and had been crazy. Andromeda, his other aunt, had ignored her family after she married a muggle-born named Tonks. They had had a daughter, Nymphadora Tonks, whom Draco had met a few times. Andromeda and his mother were on speaking terms since after the war, because his mother had rebuked the pure-blood supremacy ideology that they had been raised with. Draco's mother had raised him to believe in equality, and that magic was magic. The only thing pure-bloods had going for them were ancient bank accounts, she said.
Draco was relieved, he realized. He wasn't destined to be some sort of...evil Malfoy. He wasn't his father (he had been told that by his mother all the time, but what Dumbledore said, showed him) if he didn't want to be, and he definitely didn't want to be.
Before long, Draco began pacing at the top of the steps as he waited for Hermione. He decided to go over the dueling spells they had looked at previously. As he went over them in his head, he did the wand movements discreetly at his side. He knew something like what happened to Hermione was impending, and he was certainly not going to be the victim. Also; he would not accept that maybe Hermione was more talented than him, even though how quickly she learned things was intimidating, or how fast she mastered a spell...
"Gosh that was the strangest sensation I have ever experienced." Hermione told him, which caused him to jump. He had been going over the Leg Locker Curse and whirled around to face her. She looked slightly apologetic.
"What did he do?" Draco asked her. She looped her arm in his as the two descended the stairs.
"He took my memory out of my mind, from last night, so he could find out who the people were," she explained as they walked. "He put the memory in what is called a Pensieve. It took the both of us into my memory and we watched it, like we were there in the hallway. It was the absolute strangest thing, seeing myself there in front of me. I've got to find a book about the Pensieve in the library." She gushed. Draco laughed faintly.
"Did he know who the students were?" Draco asked, she nodded faintly.
"He didn't tell me who they were, but assured that they would be taken care of. Sirius Black, he was one of the Aurors in the First Wizarding War, right?" She changed gears so fast, Draco almost didn't catch her question.
"I don't think he was actually an auror, but he is bestfriends to James Potter, and Remus Lupin." Hermione started faintly at the mention of James Potter, which Draco noticed, though he didn't say anything.
"Let's go to the library!" Hermione said enthusiastically. Draco realized slowly that she had been leading him there by the arm since they left Dumbledore's office. He cursed himself with being too distracted to realize it. He relented, however, because he wanted to research exactly what Occlumens and Legilimens were. His mother had never told him anything about that, or what it was.
"AAAAH!" Nymphadora regained consciousness screaming. Her stomach was in a terrible sort of pain-not like the monthly pain-something more on fire. She looked down at herself, to see she was in a knit sweater emblazoned with a large letter F. She lifted the hem to inspect her stomach, which was wrapped in gauze. She then looked up and gazed at her surroundings. She would recognized Sirius Black's house from anywhere. She sighed with relief-though it wasn't like a death eater would bother to heal her. She wasn't even an auror yet. She had only been in training for six months. She rolled her lips over her teeth as she put her feet to the floor. Her abdomen area protested, but she didn't want to just lay there.
When she shuffled across the floor and opened the door, she recognized the third floor. She heard very faint voices from the stairwell, and decided to make her way there. She had to keep a hand to the wall the entire time, but eventually she made it to the top of the stairs. With a very pained expression, she made her way down the steps. She somehow managed to make it all the way down before someone saw her. She didn't recognize the small dark haired girl, but smiled at her anyway. "is Sirius around?" She asked. The girl just stared at her with wide eyes. Tonks had to empathize, she was sweating something awful, was bent nearly double with one hand around her middle and the other holding her up by the banister. The girl took two steps backwards before she turned on her heel and ran into the dining room.
Tonks had to switch walls to avoid contact with Crazy Lady on the wall, and when she reached the doorway into the dining room, two males she thought she knew but couldn't be sure helped her into a seat at the table.
"You should not be up!" That was Alice Longbottom. She was one of Tonk's mentors, her other mentor was Alastor Moody; though he had been called away to teach DADA at Hogwarts this year.
"I wasn't tired," Tonks assured her with a smile, though her appearance probably showed anything but. "Can I have some water?" She asked, after she realized she had a terrible thirst.
"What all happened, Mrs. Longbottom?"
"I've told you to call me Alice, Nymphadora," the woman said as she folded her arms across her chest. A red haired plump woman left the room to get her water, she supposed. When she came back, she also had a tray of food along with a glass and a pitcher of water.
Tonks realized when she saw the food that she was hungry as well, "and I have told you to call me Tonks, so there is that." She drank the water in a few deep pulls and set the empty thing down. "But seriously. What happened?" The young woman asked the adults. She glanced between all of them-she was slightly upset to see that Sirius was not there
"One of them sent some fiendfyre your way. Arthur and Frank stopped the fire and protected you until they were driven away. If a healer had been there, they might have saved you from getting scars, but I'm afraid you'll have a very large one." Alice took a seat next to her and put a supportive hand on her shoulder.
"A scar? Cool. I suppose I could hide it if I wanted to." Tonks shrugged her indifference. Alice seemed surprised, and then remembered Tonk's special gift.
"What do you mean you could hide it?" The voice came from a child, a young male one. She swiveled her head around until she spotted the speaker. It was a boy with dark hair and glasses. She recognized the man he was half standing behind as James Potter, so that made him Harry Potter. Only the death eaters and the Order in the first war knew about the prophecy that involved Harry and the Dark Lord. It had all seemed moot since Snape had killed him. Tonks had never been told about it.
"I'm a metamorphagus." She said with a smile, as she smiled, she turned her nose into a small and mousy one, and she altered her eyes so they were abnormally large and neon green. The boy's eyes widened considerably at her change and laughed.
"That's brilliant! Teach me how to do that!"
"Sorry, boy, but it's not a gift I can teach." Tonks didn't like being the barer of bad news, but she also didn't want to lie to the boy. If he was terribly stricken, he hid it well.
"Did we get any of them in the fight?" Tonks returned the conversation to the attack, and Alice nodded.
"Two of them; Rodolphus Lestrange and Thorfinn Rowle. James and Sirius were able to track the other death eaters back to their headquarters; Malfoy Manor. The place has been protected several times over, but we've got the place surrounded. The captured Death Eaters are safely imprisoned inside the ministry, where interrogators will discover how they escaped from Azkaban and afterwards they will be given the Dementor's Kiss," Alice Longbottom definitely was not upset by the idea of those two death eaters getting their souls removed.
"Has anyone told my parents?" Tonks asked with a faint twist of her nose. Her parents both tried to talk her out of being an Auror, but it was all she had ever wanted to be in school. Alice nodded.
"Yes. Ted and Andromeda were worried, but understood the importance of your work. Your aunt Narcissa is safe, if you happened to be wondering," Alice was suddenly joined by a very chubby boy, who hugged her tightly. That was Neville, then. Tonks had been told all about him, she smiled at him. "How long will I be healing for?"
"That is for me to decide," the plump red headed woman informed her. "I'm Molly Weasley." Tonks should have known. She realized she must be wearing Fred's sweater, then. Fred and George were troublesome twins that she had shared many...many detentions with since they had started their schooling. She smiled at the memory. She wondered if they still had that parchment that insulted anyone that tried to read it that she had helped them steal from Filch's office. She made a mental note to ask them later.
"Thank you for your help, Mrs. Weasley," she said with a smile. The motherly woman took her hand and patted it, while her skin looked delicate, she had a determined strength in her hands. "About how long do you think I will be out of commission? Two days, three days?"
"Try weeks, if you take the stairs anymore," Molly tutted as she-without asking-lifted Tonk's shirt to check her gauze. "Ah, you've opened the wound! James! Get her back to bed!" It seemed like Tonks had no say, at all. James looked slightly apologetic, but he lifted her up in his arms anyway. Tonks rebelled in the only way she could, which was by going limp.
"You could help." He told her. She stuck her tongue out at him childishly as he carried her up the steps. Once back in the room she woke up in, James dropped her a few inches onto the bed. "Ahh!" She let out in surprise. He stuck his tongue out at her and then left. Molly looked sternly at Tonks as the girl tried to sit up again.
"I will put you back to sleep. Lie back down this instant." Tonks held the woman's eyes for nearly thirty seconds before the girl relented and laid down. Molly then removed the bandage around her abdomen, which allowed for Tonks to see the ugly pink/red skin of her burned stomach. It smelled bad too. Molly dumped a potion across her stomach that tickled faintly. It stemmed the bleeding and Molly wrapped more gauze around her. "If you would like some books to read, I will fetch you some."
Tonks suppressed a yawn, "thank you, Mrs. Weasley, but I think I'll shut my eyes, for like ten minutes." Molly smiled at the girl and nodded and left. The door had latched into place when Tonks fell deeply asleep. Molly failed to mention that the salve she had spread over the wound had some sleeping drought laced in it. Molly had learned it best to involve sleeping potions in healing medicines from her children.
Sirius Black joined the dinner table of his two cousins, Narcissa and Andromeda. The two women looked wide awake, despite it being nearly three in the morning. A house elf brought in a tray of tea for the three adults. "Thank you Dobby," Narcissa told the elf. He bowed so low his nose touched the floor and backed of the room like that.
"I've been telling him for ten years to stop doing that, but he never listens." Narcissa's tone was clipped, but there was a faint smile. Andromeda was still surprised to hear her sister treating other magical creatures with respect, even after several years of it, Andromeda was still waiting for Narcissa to laugh and go back to being how their parents raised them.
Narcissa glanced over her shoulder and then took a sip of her tea. "Sirius, your letter said you had urgent news?" She asked, her cousin nodded as he passed his cup back and forth.
"Yes. Lucius has taken hold of Malfoy Manor, and the other death eaters have held themselves up there. The Order and the other Aurors are going to meet in the morning to decide the best way to proceed." Narcissa couldn't imagine those evil men and women living in her home. She drew in a breath, her lips pressed into a thin line.
"Yes, it seems like that would be where they would want to be. The protection charms placed on that manor are ancient. When activated, no one could enter except those whose blood was dripped onto the Malfoy Crest above the main fireplace." Narcissa had no qualms about exposing Lucius' secrets, for the sake of her son, Draco. She didn't care about what happened to her, only about Draco. It was why she had cast aside her pure-blood supremacy beliefs, for Draco's sake. She could not have him turn into his father. She still...well faintly believed that pureblooded wizards were at the top of the food chain, but she felt...well she liked being nice to others, if just to prove how much better she was.
"Can people be made unable to enter?" Sirius asked, his eyes sparked with the beginnings of a plan.
"Not unless all of the spells are removed and made again," Narcissa said cooly, eyeing her cousin. She was sure she knew where he was going with this. He only nodded and drank more of his tea.
"Has there been any news on my daughter? I know she was out during that routine search," Andromeda spoke up finally. Sirius reached across the small table and took his cousin's hand for a moment.
"She was hit with fiendfyre, but before it had left the caster's wand, she is at my house and will make a full recovery. Molly Weasley is going to be healing her." Andromeda certainly wasn't happy.
"Are you sure she will recover?" Andromeda asked. Sirius nodded.
"She was still asleep when I left, and I have seen miracles preformed by Molly, if she didn't have so many children to take care of, she would be a top healer at St. Mungo's." Sirius chuckled faintly. Andromeda nodded faintly and then mentioned something Sirius wasn't comfortable to talk about.
"I've noticed Sybil...she's been getting a bit round. Don't you think sister?" Andromeda looked at her sister, who smirked behind her tea cup.
"Oh yes, it seems like there will be a little puppy running around the Noble and most Ancient House of Black." Narcissa was quoting Sirius' mother, but the three laughed faintly.
"I...I don't want to jinx it," Sirius confided into his cousins, "she has had two still-borns." Sybil, his lovely and strong wife, had fought most courageously in the First Wizarding War, but some healers believed she had taken one two many curses. She is still determined to have a child, though. Narcissa and Andromeda each took a hand of Sirius' to console him.
"The time will come, dear cousin," Andromeda assured him with a sad smile.
"Have you heard anything from Hogwarts?" Narcissa asked him. Sirius smiled, as Dumbledore had sent him a particularly interesting correspondence about her son. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the letter, and handed it to her.
She read it quickly, a smile started on her face, but as she read her smile transformed into a scowl, but then back into a faint smile. "A first year?"
"And three fifth years. Yes. Draco is in good company, I think," Sirius had laughed aloud when he had read that, and told James immediately. It turns out that during James' little slip into Hogwarts, that same student had confronted him with her wand in the common room, it caused a good laugh to be shared by the two of them.
"And Snape has them in a dueling club?" Narcissa asked as she folded the letter as she thought about it. " Yes, that is good. Draco will surely need to know how to protect himself. Narcissa handed her sister the letter for her to read on her own. When Andromeda was finished, she smiled faintly.
"That is good news," Andromeda agreed. She liked the idea of her nephew being friends with an obviously talented witch. Dumbledore claimed they were nigh on inseparable in their classes. In class they challenged each other to be the best.
"Sirius." Narcissa seemed to have made a mental decision, because she nodded tersely, "I wish to be at the meeting, tomorrow, so I may say my piece." Sirius smiled, as he had figured she would say that.
"Absolutely." They toasted their tea cups and finished their drink.
Ambrosius Flume was pushed to his knees by a robed Death Eater, as three more crossed the door into his store. His wife was still asleep upstairs. Tears tracked down the aged mans face as he was surrounded by the Death Eaters. "Where is the door?" The one holding him demanded. He didn't say anything as he tried to imagine what he was talking about.
"What door? I don't know!" He stammered out his answer. The man hit him with the Cruciatus Curse, causing the man to scream and writhe on the floor in pain.
"Where is the door?!" The man asked again. Ambrosius cried in a puddle on the floor.
"I don't know what you are talking about?!" The man yelled out. One of the robed men kicked him in the stomach with a steel toed boot, causing him to vomit up what was left of his dinner onto the floor, some of the death eaters thought this funny and kicked him again.
"What door? What door? I don't know! There is that door!" Ambrosius pointed to the front door. The first Death Eater hit him with the Cruciatus Curse again. His screams of agony would surely wake up the entire town.
"The door to Hogwarts! Where is it?!" Another Death Eater demanded, he stepped onto Ambrosius' fingers on his right hand as he asked the question.
"There isn't a door to Hogwarts! Just the gates onto the grounds!"
"We know there is a secret entrance into Hogwarts here, do not try to play dumb! WHERE IS IT?!" Ambrosius lost track of which Death Eater was talking. One kicked him again, and the one standing on his hand started to add more weight. He whimpered.
"There is no door here!" Ambrosius cried. The one standing on his hand started to twist his boot, and Ambrosius felt a few of his fingers breaking, which caused him to scream and howl.
"There is no door! There is no door!" The yells of the man continued loudly and painfully into the night. The front door to the store flew open and red jets of magic shot in through the open door. One death eater was caught with the spell and collapsed, another reflected the spell but the refracted spell struct a third, causing that one to fall. The main torturer crouched down and grabbed onto Ambrosius and Disapparated. The one that remained did not notice of the other's departure as a few Aurors poured in through the doorway. They dueled for a few minutes before the Death Eater finally made a mistake and was knocked unconscious. The Aurors took the captured Death Eaters back to the Ministry, while two other Aurors searched the rest of the establishment.
Mrs. Flume was found killed in her bed, still under the covers, and the only sign of Mr. Flume was vomit on the bottom floor.
The aurors were forced to leave Honeydukes, as there was no trace of any of the other death eaters. What were they looking for in Honeydukes?