Procyon Mask - Chapter 3
I'm happy everyone is enjoying the fic so far!
The green flames quickly die down around her and Hermione steps from the fireplace into a small, relatively empty room. For a moment she couldn't believe it worked. Barty had made the suggestion of flooing to the Room of Requirement so as not to have anyone notice that she had been absent from the school in the first place, but… She had half expected to be spit out somewhere random within the halls of Hogwarts.
But it seemed the Room of Requirement had answered her call even without her being in the school. It was… amazing and a bit scary at the same time. It meant the Room of Requirement was a possible hole in Hogwarts' defenses. She should let someone know before Barty forbids her from telling them.
She shouldn't be seeing him again until the weekend, though. She has some time.
Okay. First thing she needed to do was go back to the library and look at any books with this binding ritual in it. There had to be a way for her to cut the connection between her and Barty so he couldn't tell her what to do. Or what not to do for that matter.
Hermione takes in a breath before walking out of the Room of Requirement, making her way back to the library.
As soon as she steps in she notices Ginny disappearing behind a shelf. It was near perfect timing on Barty's part; this is why he hadn't wanted to keep her for very long. He must have realized her friends would come and find her soon after she received her letter. It also gave her very little time to find any books with that spell in it, though. If her friends saw her with a weird tome they might ask her about it and depending on the question she wouldn't be able to answer.
Damn it.
As much as she hated it she would need to get the books later. She needed to deal with her friends first.
Hermione walks quickly to the right side of the library, following the wall back to the little side table she had been using. She drops her letter on the table just in time to hear a shout, "Hermione! There you are!"
She glances over to see Harry and the others walking towards her.
"We were looking for you. I didn't realize you were using this desk otherwise we would've waited for you." Harry is the first one to reach her, looking a bit nervous. She already knows why. She just wished she had waited to open that letter now. There was no way Barty knew she would be alone at the time she got the letter. That no one would be around to mention her disappearance.
If she had just waited for them it was possible she could have avoided all of this. The marriage, her being bound to Barty… He couldn't have possibly planned for when she would open the letter, could he?
No. That would be crazy. Everything had been going normally before that moment. Which meant Barty had simply gambled with the possibility of her being alone when she opened the letter. Which was insane. If anyone had seen her… it would have all been for naught. All his planning and that sham of a wedding ceremony.
Her hands curl into fists at her sides. This had all been possible from pure dumb luck! Apparently the universe despised her.
She resists the temptation to shake her head, meeting Harry's increasingly worried gaze at her silence.
"Sorry, I was putting some books away."
Harry relaxes somewhat, giving her a small smile. "Did you read through another thousand page book in one sitting?"
"Even I can't read that fast, Harry."
"So, have you opened it yet? Who did you get?" Ron speaks up as he reaches them.
"Don't rush her," Ginny snaps at Ron, though her gaze drops to the letter on the table, the envelope clearly torn for all of them to see.
"You want to know who she got just as much as the rest of us, Ginny!"
Hermione takes in a breath through her teeth. This was all horrible timing. She hasn't actually looked at the letter since Barty enchanted it and he didn't tell her what he switched the name to. Or maybe he had. There was a small gap in her memory between when she handed him the letter and when he handed it back to her. He had obviously obliviated her so that she wouldn't know the spells he used right away or how to effectively undo it. He had said she couldn't tell anyone his true name, not that they couldn't find out for themselves.
It would take a lot of trial and error to undo his enchantments, though. Not to mention the ones present on the letter to change her true match to him in the first place. He was covering his tracks so neither she or anybody else would be able to get the truth from the letter.
She wants to curse his name, but instead turns to grab the letter from the table. "I actually haven't looked yet. I wanted to get my studying done before the letter distracted me."
Harry nods understandingly. "Of course. Did you want to open it somewhere… more private, then? In case it's a bad match?" Hermione's heart tightened in her chest. Harry was trying to make this easier for her, except… she was a married woman now. To the man that had delivered Harry to Voldemort back in fourth year.
She was already betraying Harry's trust in her and she hadn't even overheard anything about the Order yet.
"No. Here's fine." Hermione sighs softly, as if mentally preparing herself for the 'unknown' match and opens the letter, quickly kipping over the first few paragraphs before her eyes land on the name. "It's… Radovan Krevmaj."
"Who?" The fact that Ron was immediately asking just proved that it wasn't the name of a local pure-blood family.
Where had Barty said his mother was from? Oh right, he hadn't.
"I don't recognize it either." Ginny says, stepping over to Hermione and glancing over her shoulder. For a second her heartbeat quickened and then she remembered the note from before was gone as well. There was nothing left to indicate that her letter had been tampered with. The medallion rested heavily in her breast pocket.
"Is that… a good thing?" Harry questions, glancing at Hermione's face.
She realizes her lips are in a tight line, but there's nothing she can do about Harry seeing her expression now. Or Ron for that matter. "I don't know. I don't know anything about them other than the name." The same as the rest of you. She wills her facial muscles into one of perplexity.
"Maybe the letter tells you more? I was kind of expecting it to be someone in the school." Ginny frowns, staring down at the paper.
"Maybe?" Hermione hadn't actually flipped the page the last time she looked at the letter. She does so now, eyes skimming over the words.
It was just suggesting potential fertility potions and spells. A topic she didn't want to think about. It just made her remember that she would be getting raped by Barty at the end of next month. Possibly? Probably. There was no way in hell she was touching him of her own volition.
Good thing we're not in hell. The words echo through her ears, causing the tips to burn. He was fucking psychotic if he thought the month would end in anything else. She needed to find a way out of this binding or this marriage, pronto. If only she could tell the others the truth and get some help...
"I don't see anything." Hermione closes the letter and shoves it into her pocket. She ignores the worried look in Harry's eyes. "I'm sure they got the letter too and will contact me. We need to spend time together because of the law. I probably won't be here this weekend."
"I thought you could only be matched with other wizards in Britain?" Ron scratches at his cheek, wondering out loud.
"It's probably dependent on if they live here or not. Though, I'm guessing Hermione's match wasn't born here. They definitely don't go to school here… Oh! Does the letter mention how long you need to be with them for the week?"
"Forty eight hours."
She was dreading the weekend already. What's worse is it was only a few days away. How was she supposed to get rid of the binding with such little time? What if… what if Barty realized what her plan was and forbid her from trying to break it? Fuck. He must have overlooked that order when he let her go. She didn't have time to waste entertaining her friends and 'guessing' what her match was like!
"Well, let's go see who Fred and George got." Ginny finally left her shoulder, starting to walk back to the front of the library.
"You guys go without me. I still need to look for some books."
"What? You're going to live in the library by the end of the year, Hermione." At this rate she was hoping for that outcome. Maybe then she couldn't be used against her friends, but right now she really needed them to leave.
"Just go, Ron. You too, Harry."
"You're dismissing us, now?"
"Yes," she snapped, maybe a bit too harshly.
Ron snorts, rolling his eyes and following after Ginny. "Come on, Harry. Hermione is having a girl moment."
Hermione's mouth nearly dropped open. What did he just say? Or rather insinuate. "Get out of my sight, Ronald!"
He had the courtesy to jump a bit at her command, looking back like he hadn't just meant to piss her off on purpose. She understood why, she just didn't see why he had to be such a git about her getting a marriage letter and his name not being the one in it! Maybe it had originally been before Barty tampered with it. Who knew? But she didn't care to deal with this right now.
"Hermione-"
"I'll see you all tonight, Harry. I just need some time to myself."
For a moment Harry didn't say anything and she wondered if she needed to play the role of a git as well, but then Harry nodded. "I understand. Don't let Ron get you worked up. I'm sure the match will be fine. Hopefully the Ministry will rescind the law." Harry turned and left with the others, leaving Hermione by herself.
She sighs. This was already a mess. Maybe if she just pushed her friends away Barty would lose interest in her? But that would definitely make them suspicious. What was she supposed to do? What if… Barty ordered her to get information from them and the Order?
No, no. She needed to stop thinking of what if situations and focus on the objective at hand: acquiring books on old pure-blood marriages and hoping it would lead her to the binding ritual Barty had used. She would start with the books she had access to. If she didn't find anything there… She would have to 'borrow' Harry's cloak and look around in the restricted section tonight.
Hermione picks up her bag that had been left on the chair when she was apparated earlier and makes her way into the stack of books, hoping to find an answer to her problems without any more interruptions.