Hermione's notes: Pandora's box promises so much, but it also takes as much as it gives. I lied to you Ron, and to Harry. Neither of you know the full extent of the toll the treasure Neville found will take when it's cast.
Chapter 10.
A Visit, and a threat
.
.
.
It isn't painful in the way it had been with Malfoy. With Malfoy it felt like a sledgehammer had been hacking away at her skull. When Ron pushes into her head there is little resistance, like her head opened to him willingly. It is painful but in an annoying sort of way. Like a single papercut between the web of a finger, or an ingrown toenail.
Then suddenly the pain grows more pronounced as the memories multiply. She feels a sound build up in her throat at some point while the flood of memories assaults her. Ron's hand is over her mouth before her shriek can be born. Then she goes limp, and is lost to time for awhile.
...
September 1997
It is September. Both she and Astoria had become Anamagi under the Professor's tutelage. The students are already back for the new school term, and Hermione and Astoria take polyjuice to remain unseen among them. The Order spread a rumor that Hermione was abroad in hiding, and that's where most of the wizarding world thought she was. Astoria's mother and father are under the impression she and Daphne are still in France visiting friends.
Hermione is glad her parents aren't wizards. They can't be dragged into this mess, they are safe back home. Together. She writes them, she never tells them the whole truth of the dangers in the world. There are very few people who actually knew where Hermione and Astoria are, and what they are doing. Hermione's parents are not among those few.
Hermione had still managed to refrain from contacting both Ron, and Harry. -and they hadn't contacted her either. Busy. They were all extremely busy.
She hadn't heard a thing about Neville since he left. She hopes he's okay.
Ginny though had contacted her with the ring twice so far while she's been working with the Professor, at Hogwarts. The silver band on her hand glowed each time Ginny reached out. Being in Ginny's head was like walking through clouds. It was open, and light streamed in from all angles. There was a childlike quality to it that Hermione would come to envy much later in her life. They chatted mostly and Ginny promised to show Hermione some of the spells she had learned and Hermione looked forward to that. Their meet ups always ended far to soon. It was almost a tease to see Ginny in her head, and speak to her, but to also know Ginny was thousands of miles away.
Hermione expects reaching out to the boys would feel the same so when the need arose she kept squashing it down. Her fingers smooth over the ring when she thinks of them, and her cuticles have been neat and healed for weeks. Ever since she started smoking. Astoria had been right she needed a vice.
Mcgongall is still assigning spell work, and she and Astoria are kept busy.
There are books Mcgonagall has them read. Practical magic. How to keep a fire going. How to breathe underwater. Mcgonagall has gone through about every scenario she thinks they might come up against in the future. There are also selections from varying cultures depicting their beliefs on souls. What they think souls are, and the purpose for them.
There's a Chinese myth Hermione enjoys. For only one reason. It reassures her. It reminds her that her purpose- the purpose of her soul is what she's already got going at hand. The myth says everyone is in some way tied to others in the world by an invisible string. This string is what keeps them together, what stops them from ever diverging from one another. The invisible string is fate, and destiny combined. Hermione feels it. The strings from her to Harry, and Ron. Their fates are intertwined with hers. She felt it when she first met them, but she had no name to call it then. It's a niggling feeling at the back of her head that whispers 'yes. Here. Right here. This is home.' whenever she's with them.
She spends most of her time together with Astoria. Though when night comes it is often Hermione turns in her bed to find that Astoria is gone. She doesn't know where she goes, but she doesn't ask. It doesn't feel like her place to ask yet. She constantly feels there's something Astoria always wants to say, but she never does. They work together, live together, and yet there are still many things that go unsaid between them.
"Shh!" Astoria hushes her on a particularly bright morning.
"Where are we exactly?" Hermione whispers back. It is an earlier start than most days, and she is still rubbing sleep out of her eyes. Astoria woke her up and Hermione had tumbled out of bed after her, barely awake and still in her pajamas. They're in the woods walking a path only visible to Astoria.
"I stumbled across this place weeks ago, and just wait until you-"
A great cacophony of noise deafens the sound of her voice. It's like a bark or a call. An animal certainly somewhere in the distance.
Hermione's feet freeze up, and Astoria only giggles.
"Not scared are you Kitty?"
"It's not nearly as endearing when you call me that."
"Draco can call you kitty but I can't?" She scoffs waving Hermione forward through bramble, and jagged rocks.
"When Draco says it, it's an improvement. He used to call me- well you know. Kitty is an improvement, but he still means it as an insult."
Astoria giggles again as she spells a branch down and out of their way. "I know."
"He told you?" Hermione fumes briefly. "Did he tell everyone about my bungled poly juice?"
"Fraid so."
A snake slithers out around between them, and Hermione shrieks jumping backwards. Her wand was thoughtlessly left behind on her desk when Astoria woke her, and now she feels vulnerable.
"That's it. I'm going back to the castle."
"Hermione it's just a snake."
"You know." Hermione begins. "We've known each other for years, but we haven't really. In reality you never so much as glanced in my direction before the summer. Why are you trying so much harder now?"
Over the summer they had been on friendly terms. Hermione considers Astoria her friend now, but she can tell since they had been with Mcgonagall it's somehow different. It isn't just borrowing a spare quill, or beauty advice. It's like Astoria is inviting her in, the way Hermione herself had only ever done with Ron and Harry. Astoria seems to be taking a large interest in Hermione's progress, even going so far as to help her with spell mastery when she could be working on her own. Now Astoria's taking her along for walks in the woods. She just doesn't understand why Astoria is bothering.
"I want to be your friend." Is the answer she gets.
"You are my friend."
"No. If i was your friend you'd be trying to stop me from completing my mission. I'm your acquaintance you happen to be friendly with-" Astoria counters kicking rocks at her feet all astray. "but i want to be your friend."
Hermione concentrates on a point near Astoria's face as shame and realization mollify her. Then she watches as Astoria pulls out a cigarette and lights it up. She holds it out to Hermione in offering. Hermione doesn't take it.
"Do you think it's possible?" Astoria questions after taking a slow drag. "To be my friend? -and not just in that surface way you are with Draco. I mean my real friend. Could i be like Potter, or Weasley to you?" She rose a brow. "Could you trust me implicitly with your life?"
Hermione practically looks at her like a second head had sprung from the side her neck.
Astoria laughs in a self deprecating sort of way.
"Why would you want that?"
"I'v seen the way you 3 are together. Valiant, smart, loyal the golden trio is a team. I was close with Daph like that until that blonde haired git turned up. I think what i mean to say is envy you, your friends. You'll be the last friend i ever make i think Hermione. The truth is i need someone. Someone i can trust implicitly with my life. Someone who will still care when I don't have a soul any longer. I'll be empty, I won't care about what happens to anyone, no one will want to be near me. Not my sister or- I imagine I'll forget even the sunshine when it's gone."
The last sentence twists around Hermione's heart like a vice. Tugging. Swelling. Choking her with it's pressure.
"Daphne will care what happens to you."
"Until she sires Malfoy an heir. Then i won't matter anymore than an old sock."
"I don't believe that."
Astoria shrugs.
"I think that the person i need is you."
"Why me?"
Hermione never intended to have the relationship she did with Ron or Harry. When she came to Hogwarts as an 11 year old she never expected to make any friends. Then she felt that tug towards Ron and Harry, that invisible string. It had all happened organically before Hermione ever understood what being Harry Potter's close friend would do to her own life. Meeting Harry and Ron had been like listening to a song for the first time, and how you immediately knew it was going to be your absolute favorite.
Astoria Greengrass had never ran with her through the halls at school. Or fought a mountain troll with her. She had never shared snacks by the black lake with her. Astoria had never written to her over summer holidays. No one could ever hold a candle to what she had been through with Ron and Harry, Hermione felt quite sure of that. Childhood adventures weren't something you could ever have again once they were done.
Astoria had accepted a dangerous mission. She probably wouldn't be around in a couple years. What good would come from Hermione getting any closer to her?
"You're Hermione Granger. You represent all that is good in the world, and you always will."
Hermione stares.
"Can't we at least try?" Astoria's pretty face is marred with a sadness Hermione could never have guessed stayed there quite often. "I've been helping you, and we're always together. We've gotten to know each other fairly well the last few week's don't you think?"
"Where would we even start?"
It was Astoria's turn to answer. "I don't know."
Hermione thought for a moment.
Hermione crosses her arms. "Where do you go at night?"
"Someone comes to visit me." It is vague enough for Hermione to make up her mind about the relationship she wanted with Astoria. Hermione could tell there was still something probably several somethings Astoria wasn't saying. Friends? Harry and Ron would never with hold information when asked. Astoria might be asking Hermione to trust her implicitly, but she didn't trust Hermione implicitly either.
Hermione plucks the cigarette from Astoria's hand, and without another word she led them forward through a clearing.
They came to a great precipice of sand, and beyond it a pond.
"It's like the beach." Hermione remarks. "We're still near the castle?"
"Closer to Hogsmeade."
The clouds in the sky are whizzing past over head as a gentle breeze flutters around them. It'll be colder soon. Scarf weather Ron always calls it.
"I think friendly acquaintances is working for us. Why fix it? If it isn't broken?"
Hermione doesn't owe Astoria. Hermione has already vowed to follow one friend come hell or high water. There isn't room for Astoria Greengrass in her life, not when Astoria has as good as forfeited it. If Hermione did let her in the way Astoria was asking, what would that be like for Hermione? To come to know a friend so dearly only to have to say goodbye if her mission failed- or if it succeeded. It's self preservation that has Hermione Granger acting like the opposite of a Gryffindor.
Astoria clicks her tongue, but ultimately says nothing. She wades into the shallow end of the pond.
Then that noise Hermione heard earlier came again, and the water rippled out with splashes.
"Swans?" Hermione asks still smoking.
"You'll find no creatures more loyal in the entire world." Astoria's eyes are wide, and dreamy she doesn't seem to dwell on Hermione's snub at all which Hermione is glad for.
"How so?"
There are 2 sleek swans, circling each other on the top of the pond. One is white, and pure as snow. The other jet black, it's wings look like ink fresh from a quill bottle. Their movements are hypnotic like some kind of dance.
"Swans mate for life. When one of them dies, the other will wander alone the rest of it's time always searching always wanting for that one they lost. They will never accept another for this reason."
"Romantic, and tragic somehow."
"Simper fidelis."
"Always loyal?" She asks.
"Find your swan Hermione. It's the only thing that makes this life worth living before we're commanded to die." There's a gentle whisper of malice in her voice Hermione thinks.
Hermione drops the charred ends of the cigarette into the water, she watches as it extinguishes itself. She doesn't tell Astoria that she already has found her swan because for 1 that's what a friend would do and for 2 Hermione starts to replay the words 'implicitly trust.' In her head. Again and again.
"There's something you aren't saying." Hermione tells her.
"There are things i'd share with a friend, but we've established we aren't that."
Fair enough.
Hermione frowns.
"What are you fretting about? Ugh. Draco's right about you Gryffindors, the lot of you think the world revolves around you." Astoria says it with an air of fake nastiness that Hermione sees right through.
"Do you trust the Order?"
That's what Malfoy had told her to do in his letter. If he trusted the Order, wouldn't Astoria as well?
"I do." Astoria answered.
"The way you talk sometimes- it makes me think you don't actually. Not to mention i think you have an ulterior motive in wanting to be my friend."
"What's my ulterior motive?"
"Maybe you do envy me for my friends, but i also think you're looking for some kind of reassurance or maybe protection, i just don't know why it's me you want it from. You're leagues above me in dueling, i have nothing to offer you. The commander's already ensuring-"
Astoria barks out a laugh. "I trust the Order Hermione. Believe me i do, or I wouldn't have accepted my mission." She sighs staring out over the water. "I do wonder about Mad eye sometimes."
Moody wasn't exactly kind to the Slytherins from what she witnessed. Hermione knew that didn't mean he wouldn't give the same hospitality to anyone else if he decided to. Moody didn't exactly like Hermione did he? Her inclusion in Astoria's training had been the result of having pleased him with the discovery of Pandora's box...
"Astoria." Hermione warns because it was one thing to talk about wonderings of trusting Moody, but it was a whole other to accuse him of having already planned to betray her.
Astoria just sits there looking out over the pond her face expressionless. Her head tilts back, and her neck exposes itself to the light. The sun's warming her skin. She's soaking it all in while she can Hermione expects. Then she lays back into the water with her hands tucked behind her head. She is 17 young, and- not free. Astoria is 17 young, and trapped. Anyone with half a brain can see it.
The members of the Order had been vetted throughly. Albus Dumbledore himself had put Mad eye in the position of commander. There was no doubt in Hermione's mind the Order was good, all of it's members trustworthy.
"You should go. Before we encroach to far into 'friend territory' with this little chat."
Hermione left the pond, and Astoria. She doesn't know what to do with their conversation. She wishes she didn't have it. All it led to was a jumble of questions Hermione didn't have answers for.
Hermione pushes down the pity and all of the other conflicting traitorous and righteous feelings bubbling up to the surface. She doesn't want to imagine Astoria a year or 2 from now cold, and soulless. She doesn't want to think of a version of her that forgot the sunshine. It's to sad.
Expectations were coming from everyone. Mcgonagall expected her to be the perfect student. Astoria her righteous friend. How many expectations was it possible to actually meet?
Hermione began to avoid Astoria. Ducking into their room when Astoria wasn't around became common practice for an entire week at least. She still didn't know if Astoria could be implicitly trusted.
...
Kitty,
Heard anything from scarhead? Or LB? News on the box would be greatly appreciated.
-Ferret
Hermione sets the note Draco's owl has just brought her aside. She pulls a quill, and ink from her desk to write him back.
Ferret,
No. Sorry. Nothing yet. How are you?
-Kitty
She sends the owl off, and looks down at her hands since she's been smoking her cuticles really have healed nicely. She should thank Astoria for that that. If she weren't avoiding her like the plague. The owl comes back a handful of hours later.
Kitty,
Alive.
-Ferret
Hermione doesn't ask more. Malfoy, she knows is in a precarious position. Lucius has been pulling Draco deeper, and deeper into the death eater fold. Draco has seen Voldemort twice since Neville left to search for Pandora's box. Draco shared with her what Voldemort shared with him. The Malfoy's will be his poster family, the perfection all of his followers will be told to aspire to. Pureblood perfection. Draco will marry Daphne, and it will be their duty to procreate immediately. Their child will be among the first in the repopulation effort he has planned. Hermione is terrified for him. Some days she still feels like a kid, she can't imagine what it would be like to fight in this war while having a child to protect. That will be Draco's reality very soon however, and there isn't anything anyone can do about it.
Hermione pulls out one of the cigarettes Astoria gave her. It's her last one. She grabs a cloak, and heads for the one eyed witch passage to get to Hogsmeade. She needs to buy herself a pack of cigs. Avoiding Astoria also means she can't bum off of her for cigarettes.
Hermione has been taking different passages out of Hogwarts, she didn't know why but she felt it was essential that the passages out of Hogwarts remain accessible.
The castle is less quiet now that term has started up again. Children run through the alcoves, and hallways at all hours of the day. It makes her feel lonely watching them, she isn't used to walking the grounds of Hogwarts alone. She tugs the cloak around herself a little tighter. Mcgongall's hat is on her head. She doesn't go much of anywhere without it, or Molly's frock. Even when she's in disguise with polyjuice as she is now. Hermione didn't put much into superstition but these 2 comforts or tokens are familiar and comforting.
Hermione has already been throughly warned about being seen in public outside of the protection of Hogwarts. Harry Potter's best friend would be a fine prize to any wandering Death Eater's she may come across. Mcgonagall said so herself it was getting harder to distinguish the right sort from the bad these days. It was imperative she remain hidden.
Hermione goes to a shop and purchases her first official pack of cigarettes. She tries to silence the nagging in her head that tells her Ron would not like her smoking. She promises herself she won't make it a habit, not like it is for Astoria. She just needs them for a little while, probably she will just smoke this pack and be done with the ordeal alltogether. She pulls the hat off her head briefly to store the cigarettes. Astoria had suggested an extension charm might be helpful when her shoulder bag had snapped weeks back. Now the hat is home to piles of books, loose papers, clothes, and now a single carton of cigarettes.
On her way back to the castle she pulls off the course of her walk. A slight detour. She meanders through the woods until she finds the pond Astoria had showed her. She watches the swans who seem to have remained exactly as they had been before. Like no time had passed since she saw them before. Hermione likes it. The water. The smell of the woods. It's nice. The perfect 'thinking spot' for someone like her.
She stays for a bit. Letting her mind wander over things that Astoria had said when they spoke here before.
Trust. Was a funny word. It was incredibly hard to earn, but dreadfully easy to lose. How did one know the trustworthy from the rest? Ethically perhaps people with the best intentions could be trusted. Was trust something to be seen as an ethical choice however? Everyone had their own desires, their own hopes this made their intentions biased. Her trust in Harry had never been ethical she decides. It had been a feeling she just knew he could be trusted- because well he was Harry. A gut feeling. But then how could you know your own gut could be trusted...
"Damn it all to hell!" Hermione yells out.
She starts pacing around the pond frustrated, the sand squishing around her shoes.
Then something catches her eye, and she settles again. There's a culvert hidden at the edge of the pond behind a large tree brach that had fallen. She ponders on the likely hood of the pond being attached somehow to the black lake. If the pond is attached to the black lake there might be another passage that allowed entrance to Hogwarts. Hermione starts to move the branch, but then shakes her head.
What is she even doing?
Wasting her time. There are enough passages.
Astoria had her doubting to much. Her mind was all over the place, in a million directions all at once.
The Order wasn't something to be questioned. They were just good their cause was just, and righteous. Hermione knew that. Astoria just didn't understand that because of how she grew up.
She stays for a bit longer watching the swans glide across the surface of water, then she heads back for the castle before dark.
It's to Hermione's surprise to find Draco Malfoy lounging about on her bed.
"Sorry. Did you owl again or- i've been out." She's very used to his presence by now, but it's the way he holds himself that off puts her. His wearing a long dark cloak, a silver snitch clasping it together at his collar, and his hands are gloved. She hangs by the door not going completely into the room.
"Not here for you, Kitty." He's rolling one of the little silver thimbles from Mcgonagall around in his hand. "Waiting for Astoria."
"Oh." Hermione pulls up short. "You know those portkeys are only for emergency, Mcgonagall won't like you wasting one on a social call."
"Mmhmm." He crosses his ankle in a posh manner, and she sees her bed is no longer made.
"How long exactly have you been waiting here?" She raises one brow at him, and refrains from unpacking her purchase in front of him.
"Long enough." He grunts out.
"Is something wrong?"
"No."
"Then why are you here?" Hermione perches against the desk facing him.
He purses his lips briefly in annoyance.
"I saw Theo earlier."
"Okay?"
"Astoria shares this room with you doesn't she?"
"Yes." Then Hermione glances at Astoria's side of the room. Her lipstick tube is on the floor, papers and books haphazardly thrown about. Astoria is as organized as Hermione. "Did you go through her stuff?" Hermione is suddenly upset on Astoria's behalf. She looks at her own desk, and quills are certainly out of place. "Did you go through my stuff?" Then she's upset on her own behalf.
Malfoy smirks, so Hermione hurls the nearest thing she can find. The pen holder shatters, and it's contents fly out around them. He ducks off the bed, and nothing hit him to her disappointment.
"Stay out of my things." She threatens. "You've no right!"
"Oh settle down, would you?" He straightens the fine black cloak around his shoulders. "I just needed to see what else Story might be hiding. Your stuff was here to, and I couldn't help myself. You like stars an awful lot don't you? Every other book of yours is of constellations." He rolls his shoulders. "Which constellations your favorite by the way?"
"Cassiopeia. What do you mean- what else she's hiding? She isn't hiding anything." She narrows her eyes at him. Stupid of her to forget what a snake he can be. Hermione casts some spells to clean the mess, and to mend the broken pen holder.
"Cassiopeia?" He avoids her question. "You like that one especially? Why what's special about it?"
She humors him even though she would rather discuss Astoria, and the upheaval of their room.
"According to myth Cassiopeia believed in something so fiercely she went against the Gods for it. So they punished her by chaining her to the stars, and yet she still never broke. She kept faith in her belief through all of the pain, and the torture." A proper martyr. That was the first time Hermione ever heard that word, when it was used by her mother to describe Cassiopeia and her constellation.
"Sad."
"I think it's more ironic than sad actually, when they put her up there tethered by the heavens it only made her look like she's up on a throne. The Gods made a woman who defied them queen of the stars."
Malfoy nods mulling over what he will say next now that she's satisfied his curiosity and distraction. He's almost as bad as Ron when it comes to communicating.
"She's been seeing Theo at night."
Hermione blinks. So that's where she goes.
"Good for her."
Malfoy sneers at her. "It's not good for Theo."
"Who cares if she's seeing Theo?"
"I care Granger." He glares at her. "Taking up with Astoria is a dead end, and you know it."
Draco was trying to protect Theo in some manner she gathers.
"Astoria deserves some happiness. You know what she's giving up Draco."
"Astoria's made her decision, she told the Order she would give her soul for the cause, but Theo shouldn't be forfeit in the deal to."
Hermione pitied Malfoy in that moment. Theodore Nott falling for Astoria would only end in one way, with Theo destroyed in the end. Once the 4th was cast she would never be the same.
"I don't know what to say."
"Don't say anything. Just keep breathing and i'm sure it'll all turn out aces for you." He gave a disparaging smile with his nose pointed up in the air.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You stand here acting like the injustice of the Order bothers you, but you were perfectly happy to let Moody pat you on the head for work that wasn't even yours."
"Excuse me?" She grits out, all pity for him gone up in flames. "The Order isn't unjust." She sputters. "What do you mean work that wasn't mine?"
"How did it feel taking all the credit for the discovery of the 4th unforgivable? -and finding it's exact location. From where i was standing it looked like a blast."
She's absolutely furious with Malfoy to accuse her of-
but then Hermione starts to recall Draco staring out the window of Moody's office while everyone in the room commended her on a job well done. Then she recalls the library. It was truly Draco who found the spell in the book. Then it was later Draco who found the book in his family's own library that gave Neville a location to search.
"Oh merlin, Draco I didn't mean to-"
"Slytherins be damned right? You're just like Moody and it's worse because you don't even see it. Just use us and throw us away right?"
What.
"You told me to trust the Order." She accuses. "You led me to believe you trust the Order."
"Ever heard of a white lie Granger? You are more than welcome to believe what ever you'd like in that fantasy world of yours, but i live here in the real world where 17 year old girls get their souls sold off by the 'good' guys. I don't have the luxury of trusting the Order like you do."
She can't respond.
Astoria is in the door way hesitantly stepping in. It isn't clear how much of their conversation she heard.
"Draco." She greets her soon to be brother in law cordially. Her bag is slung over her shoulder, with a heavy haul of books weighing it down. "I didn't realize you were coming for a visit." She's speaking rather normally but her body is tense like a spring about to be sprung.
"You and i need to talk." Draco crosses his arms, and it reminds Hermione of Professor Snape in the moment right before he scolds a student. "Leave us, will you Granger?"
Hermione only overhears the first part of their confrontation. Angry insults spew back and fourth, and more than once Draco accuses her of leading Theo on. He tells her how foolish she is. Astoria tells him there's nothing to worry about that she isn't in love with Theo, and even Hermione doesn't believe her. Astoria is at least partly in love with Theo, because not once did she offer to end things.
Hermione doesn't stay to listen the rest. Her mind is in overdrive. She should have done something about this already. 'Trust the Order.' Draco had said and so she let the issue lie, but he had lied. He didn't trust the Order, but it isn't that Hermione doesn't trust the Order. They've simply made a mistake. It's a simple error, even wands can make mistakes. The Order is still good, and just they just need someone to point out the error.
Astoria can't be a lamb. A sacrifice. Hermione can't stand the thought of Astoria being served up to Voldemort on a silver platter. She can't stand for it. She realizes it can't be Astoria that loses her soul, because she is her friend. This is what friends do they save each other. When she told Astoria she wanted to remain friendly acquaintances she hadn't realized she was telling a white lie of her own. She was invested in Astoria's life now.
She uses the floo in the headmasters office to get to the burrow. Molly is warm, and receptive as always but she isn't there for pleasantries. Hermione finds Fleur by the garden with her feet propped up, and her stomach is more swollen than last she saw her. Her hair is silky, and her teeth gleam in the sun when she smiles at the sight of Hermione there with her. She offers Hermione a glass of lemonade, and pets at her hand.
" 'ave you eard from 'arry or Ron?" She asks with a smile when she says the name of her husbands brother. "I 'm sure you 're missing zem. If you 'ave come 'ere for some romance advice-"
"No. I haven't." Hermione set her glass of untouched lemonade back down. " I need to speak to Bill actually, and it's incredibly important. I need to see him now if it's possible."
Fleur blinks at her through thick lashes. "Bill iz very busy zese days 'ermione I don't teenk-"
"Fleur. Please. Please. It has to be now. This is not something that can wait." For all Hermione knew Neville could be halfway back from Cairo with Pandora's box in tow.
"If you weesh i can summon 'im." She seems worried, and Hermione doesn't like being at fault for stressing out a pregnant woman but there is another life on the line, and Hermione doesn't like the thought of Astoria's blood on her hands either.
Hermione nods. Several minutes later Molly, and Fleur have Hermione settled on the couch waiting for Bill to come through the floo.
"Fleur!" Bill rasps when he comes through. "Fleur are you allright?" he calls into the house as he dusts off his coat. He doesn't immediately see Hermione until she speaks.
"Fleur's fine i asked her to call for you, Bill. I need to talk to you."
"What? I thought she was in labor- i don't- Hermione. What the hell?" He has his hands loosening the tight knot of red hair on his head. Bill is arguably the most handsome of the Weasley men. Of course he is the one Fleur would want. Pretty Bill, and his tight fitting cloak. Good. A jealous part of Hermione thinks, she'd never compete with Fleur if it was another Weasley brother she had wanted.
"I'm sorry i knew you wouldn't come if you didn't think it was serious, and it is Bill."
"Hermione I don't have time for this. Shouldn't you be at your post? Does Mcgonagll even know you've left the castle?" He is suddenly in the mindset befitting the Order's leader, Ron's fun older brother is no where to be seen.
Hermione rose up from the couch, wondering if she'd be able to stop him if he made a go for the floo. Just to be safe she stands in front of it, and takes the bag of floo powder in her palm to hold it hostage.
"Astoria Greengrass." She blurts out. "It's wrong."
"She's consented Hermione. On more than one occasion. No one's forcing her." Bill pats his pockets, and she knows he's looking for his wand. When he shrugs she knows he's left it behind wherever he was minutes before. "Everything is already in motion. Voldemort will take the bait, and merlin willing the war will be over before my baby takes it's first step."
He puts his hand out for the floo powder.
"Bill she's just a kid. Astoria's my age-" Hermione pleads much the same way she does when she wants something from Ron. Thoughtfully, and forcefully. "Would you watch me march off to my ruin?"
Bill goes very still. "You aren't Astoria Greengrass." He counters. "Astoria is not the best friend of my little brother, she doesn't mean to me what you do in this family."
Hermione wants to hit something because how can he not see how wrong that is.
"So you think it's fair Astoria gets pigeonholed to losing her soul because she hasn't had the chance to cosy up to your family for 6 years?" Hermione rolls on. "If we allow this to happen to Astoria, we won't be any better than Voldemort. The Order will be every bit as monstrous as him. She's a kid, she's only 17. The only wrong thing she's ever done was being put in Slytherin house as a child."
"This isn't my call Hermione. It's out of my hands!" He snaps exasperated by her insistence.
"This is a mistake. You're about to be a father Bill. Imagine how you would feel, if someone decided something like this for your child just because you weren't around to protect them."
Bill's perfect looks sag with a profound sadness.
"Don't let this happen. I'm begging you. There has to be someone else. Anyone else. Someone older maybe?" The last part though she thought selfishly, maybe someone who wasn't her friend. In a way she was doing exactly what Bill was. Bill wouldn't want Hermione to cast the 4th because he knew her. Now Hermione didn't want that for Astoria because she became her friend. If some unknown Slytherin of the same age had been tasked with this, would Hermione have really cared?
Yes. She forces herself to believe. Of course. She would have stood up for another person even if she didn't know them.
"I'll see what i can do." Bill promises in a solemn voice.
This entire war when it came was going to be about justice, and the right thing to do. Now that she thought about it, now that she had made Bill see reason there was no way it would continue. Bill would make Moody see, that this plan was wrong. The Order stood for everything good in the world, it wouldn't actually sacrifice a 17 year old girl. It had been some kind of oversight or error, no one would have actually expected Astoria to go through with it. Hermione laments on these thoughts as she makes way back to Hogwarts.
Bill would set everything straight.
...
Hermione spends her evening by the pond. She doesn't want to see Astoria again until things are set right. She just needs to avoid her awhile longer. This is how Hermione discovers there are indeed 8 passageways into Hogwarts. The pond and the black lake do connect. It probably isn't important, but still Hermione is glad she knows.
...
2 days later Hermione is busy researching ancient Egyptian tomes when Commander Moody walks into her room.
Hermione sits up on her cot instantly, lying her book on her bedside table. It was entirely unusual for him to be there. She's only in her pajamas, and Astoria is out presumably with Theo.
It gives her the creeps to see him there glancing around at her belongings with his magical eye bouncing all around his head.
"At ease, Granger. I'll keep this brief."
Hermione watches him flip through some of the papers on her desk, her heartbeat is rapidly picking up. He takes a swig of something from a hip flask, and the look on his face is deceptively calm.
"Minerva tells me you girls have both become animagus." He turns to face her. "Wasn't sure you'd manage. Thought to myself more than once you'd be wasting Minerva's time. It didn't bother you, that becoming an animagus in this way was illegal?"
He isn't looking for an answer so she doesn't give one.
"Thought for sure your morals wouldn't allow you to continue the training." He mumbles mostly to himself, there's a hint of disappointment in his voice.
"Were you testing me?" She asks incredulously. He scoffs.
Of course it was a test. Moody wanted to see what she'd do when given the choice between something illegal, but worthwhile.
"You surprised me, truly. Not many people do girl." It's in no way a commendation. He was expecting her to baulk, and not complete the training.
"Have i done something to offend you or..."
Hermione searches her past interactions with him and there's nothing she can find that would explain his utter dislike of her.
"No. You're always perfectly polite, very well mannered even."
"Then I don't understand what i've done to deserve your ire." She admits.
"There isn't room in a war for perfectly polite little girls. Girls like you end up canon fodder, and you bring the people around down with you. I had hoped you might come here, fail, and then no one could say a thing when i pulled you from Potter's mission."
"But sir-"
"DID I SAY YOU COULD SPEAK?!" He thunders at her and Hermione shudders backwards until her back is against the bedpost.
'I trust the Order Hermione. I do wonder about Mad eye sometimes.' Comes Astoria's voice in her head.
"I don't fancy you on Potter's mission, but the brat won't stop insisting, and so i've had Sirius and Remus breathing down my neck for weeks. If it were up to me i'd send you packing back home to your mum and dad. If you would have just given up when you were supposed i could have shown them all you weren't cut out for this. Here we are though. You're a thorn in my paw, and that should make you very nervous, Granger. Now all of that aside Billius spoke to me recently. I'm sure you have an idea of what was said during that conversation, but i'll tell you anyway. It seems under some misguided urging he's having second thoughts on the mission the Greengrass girl has been given."
Moody's voice is cold, and it speaks volumes that he manages to keep his face neutral. She's spent years at the receiving end of Snape and somehow he never managed to unsettle her in the same manner Moody was managing.
"I want to make it crystal clear with you Granger. You will keep your mouth shut. I know you fancy yourself more clever than anyone else but you aren't half as clever as you think. If i catch wind of another utterance of doubt in the commands and missions i give as Commander of the Order, you'll find yourself so far away from Potter, and Weasley you may as well be on the moon- regardless of what anyone else has to say on the matter."
"Sir i don't think-"
Moody slams his fist onto her desk with such force it cracks. He's across the room, and in her face so close the spittle from his mouth hits her cheek. His words are acid. "You seem to be under some delusion that i care what silly little school girls think? You've only had as much involvement this far by token of the wizards you've surrounded yourself with. Without Potter, or the Weasley's to hide yourself behind, you would have nothing. No say, no voice."
The stench of his hot breath still in her face makes her want to retch. Then he straightens himself, and smooths the front of his shirt.
"Now i'm not entirely unreasonable I won't mind the occasional noise coming out of your mouth, so long as it's in a positive light of myself and the Order. Now is not the time to have doubts. Doubts sew chaos. The next time i hear you're doubting orders i have given so help me girl-" He shook his head.
"Just to review you will Leave the issue of Astoria Greengrass alone. No more of your 'The Order is as bad as Voldemort for this' talk. -and if i hear another mark against you then Potter and Weasley will find themselves quite alone in the coming months. You won't see them until the war is over. They'll hunt horcruxes without you." He threatens, and every bone in Hermione's body feels a hot rage boiling deep within her. "The truth is we are fortunate to have one of the snakes on our side that's willing to do the spell. Better one of theirs than one of ours. Eh?"
She stares in petrified shock.
"Are we clear on the truth of things?" He barks at her.
"Crystal." She tells him still in shock.
What was the Order thinking, putting a man like Moody in charge? What was Dumbledore thinking?
"Keep your head down, and on your own tasks. You did well in bringing the information about the box to light, and in return i have rewarded you with the ability to defend yourself properly. Don't forget that. If you don't end up in a pile of dead bodies during the war you'll have me to thank. You may show your gratitude by keeping this conversation between the 2 of us."
Hermione didn't realize she had been trembling.
"One more thing. What are your forms?"
"I, my wh-" her voice shakes.
"Your animagus." He grumbles.
"I'm a lion. Astoria a swan." Her voice is small, and meek.
The commander. He's their leader, he's supposed to be good. Isn't he?
Moody nods but doesn't seem to really care.
Then he's heading out the door.
The part of her that bled Gryffindor mutters under her breath. "Veritas numquam perit."
"You say something else girl?" The commander grunts briefly turning his head back to glare at her.
"No sir."
He must not believe her because he flicks his wand, and her book on the bedside catches on fire. She's swatting the flames, and thankfully she remembers her wand. She extinguishes it, and even after she uses spells on it the book is still ruined. The room smells of smoke and her pajamas are dirty and ashen.
Veritas numquam perit is latin for 'The truth never dies.' The commander is wrong to disregard her cleverness, Hermione is nothing if not clever. A dog with a bone was a phrase she had heard more than once to describe her when she put her head to something. The commander had just slathered steak sauce all over a juicy rib eye, and threw it down like some gauntlet. There's no possible way she could let go of the issue at hand now.
She can't help but continue to think. If the Order would sacrifice a 17 year old girl, than what are the limits? What line is the Order not willing to cross? Are they even good? Is this what Dumbledore died for? So Moody could order 17 year olds to bed the world's darkest wizard, and become a murderer in the process?
The Order of the phoenix Hermione realizes might not be as Golden as she had thought.
Hermione felt quite like she perhaps owed Draco and Astoria very big apologies.
...
Still shaken she goes to the only place she can think. To professor Mcgonagall. She tells her she had a nightmare.
Hermione closes her eyes tight, as Mcgonagall drapes a blanket over her.
"Hush child." She pats at Hermione's hair while she sets a dish and a cup in front of her. "There. There."
Hermione can't shake the cold deranged look in Mad Eye's eye. It feels like it's still on her somehow.
"Professor?"
"Yes dear?" She's sitting next to Hermione on a setee.
"The commander. Sometimes when he talks about Draco, and Astoria it's like they don't matter like he doesn't care what happens to them. Professor how can he lead the Order? His intentions are nefarious and questionable at best."
"Intentions?" Minerva settles with a cup of her own. "The Commanders intentions are to see our side through the war, for the Order to prevail."
"I don't- we're supposed to be good. The Order i thought we were good."
"Bite your tongue Miss. Granger." Hermione bows her head in contrition because it's Mcgonagall. Her mentor. Her teacher. The woman she had aspired to be since girlhood. "I'll not have you besmirching the work Moody is doing."
Hermione opens her eyes so the Professor can see her bewilderment.
"I will however tell you a little story. It's about the lion, and the snake. Once there was a great river, impossible for the snake to get across on it's own and so it asked a brave lion for help. The lion was young, and good at heart so it accepted the request. Before they even got halfway across, however the serpent bit the lion even though it would mean the snake would die with it. Why is that you think? Why would the snake kill the lion just to spite itself?"
"The snake couldn't overcome the distrust it had for the lion." Hermione quickly gathers.
"Sometimes even when your very best intentions are to help someone. It won't matter in the end." The Professor says, and snaps a cookie in half.
Mcgongall sighs. "Is the analogy lost on you?"
"You're saying the Slytherins are the snake in this story? You're implying that it's only a matter of time before they turn on us? Professor i- i thought you liked Astoria, you're teaching her and-"
"It's my job to educate. It's not my job to make the decisions the Commander makes. What he's decided for the Slytherin house students is not for me to speak on. Nor is it for you. In all my years as your professor have i ever allowed you to besmirch the house of Godric Gryffindor?"
Hermione is quiet and contemplative.
"Then don't dare try to start now. Keep your eyes on them. Astoria. Draco. Don't let yourself be fooled into believing they wouldn't kill you on their way down. You're to smart for that. It's a sad truth but sometimes the best thing a snake can do for the lions is die."
...
Hermione approaches Astoria in the following hours after Moody's visit.
"Simper fidelis." She held out her hand.
Always loyal.
Hermione was slow to learn the game, but she knows what kind of person she is. She isn't going to look the other way.
Even Minerva Mcgongall can be wrong. That's the sad truth.
Astoria smiles at her, and then they shook.
Hermione grins, because it is the true beginning of their friendship.
"You can't trust the commander." Astoria breathes out. "I've wanted to say that to you since we started working under Mcgonagall."
Hermione nods.
"If Moody-" Astoria lights up a cigarette. "double crosses me or hurts Daphne i know- i trust you Hermione. To right it. Whether you like it or not you have my implicit trust. I'm putting my faith in you."
"Anything else?"
"I'm in love with Theodore Nott."
Hermione giggles.
"You're turn to spill."
They pass the cigarette between them.
"I thought I couldn't trust you at first because you weren't forthcoming- then i realized I haven't entirely been honest with Ron and Harry myself. I didn't tell them everything that had to be sacrificed for the box to be used. I was afraid of their reactions- that they might stir up trouble or merlin forbid that one of them might think to volunteer to spare someone else."
They exchange many more secrets in their time together, and it's how they both come to implicitly trust one another.
...
When Hermione comes out of the memories it's to Ron tugging a cloak around her. It's heavy black material she can't make heads or tails of, and it smells like him. The smell chokes her, and she swats his hands away.
"What are you doing?" She hisses as she reacclimatizes herself to the current time. "Don't touch me."
"We're going for a little trip."
"Outside the enchantments?" The tent- she could leave the tent? She's already lost the ability to recall how long she had been the prisoner of the Red Baron, nor could she say how long it had been since Harry was murdered by him. Stepping back and fourth in time it seems made it extremely difficult to differentiate between days. None the less the thought of stepping out of this area is a good one. The tent, her cot, the stupid little encampment Ron had arranged to keep her in- she was sick of looking at it all. It reminded her what a fool she was. "You're taking me out of the tent?"
He pulls her to standing, and he dusts off the cloak he's wearing.
"Just for a bit."
At her excitement he only gives her a hard look.
"This isn't leisurely."
"Of course it isn't."
She deflates a bit. That was a part of this process of regaining memories she despised. When she came out of the past it was hard to remind herself that the Ron before her wasn't hers. He was the Red Baron and he wasn't her friend.
When they exit the tent Ron runs his wand around her, and she feels something loosen inside her. Whatever he does it allows them to walk through the enchantments with ease. She doesn't see Fleur or Draco at the encampment as they leave and she assumes he sent them away. This fact makes her nervous and her palms start to sweat. Being alone with him- it's not a good idea. Inner Hermione laughs mockingly in her head at that thought.
'Being alone with him never bothered you before.' She sneers nastily.
Ron stops abruptly and she almost runs into his back.
"Take my arm ". He says as she looks around the expanse of trees. He means to apparate them. She takes his arm, and she feels the familiar sensation of her navel being grabbed.
Then moments later they are in a new setting, which Hermione is disappointed to find so similar to before. He's taken them to more woods. Trees, and dirt for miles.
He tugs her forward "It's this way."
They walk for a few minutes and Hermione spies a small gathering of fishing poles that have been discarded. Then she sees the pond. There is sand around the waters edge, and there's Malfoy standing by the water, thank goodness she thinks.
Then Inner Hermione falls into a fit of laughter. 'You must be dumber than i thought before, you're relieved by the blonde one being here?!'
Hermione tugs out of Ron's hold. There's movement across the water, and 2 creatures circle one another.
She stops at the water's edge next to Malfoy. No pleasantries are exchanged.
"You see them out there?" Hermione asks with a finger pointed out over the pond.
The moon is only cresting, but the light from it illuminates the water enough to make out 2 the figures floating along the top of the water.
The swans. The pond. It was the same place she sat with Astoria Greengrass all those years ago. Hogwarts is nearby. She inhales greedily, and lets the air fill her lungs up.
She feels rocks that have gotten into the bottom of her shoes, her feet are aching, and her brow has a thin layer of perspiration over it. She is a prisoner. She will probably be dead soon. She doesn't have a reason to, but she smiles.
"Those great ugly birds?" Malfoy's sneer lands on the same spot Hermione's eyes are trained on. "Hard to miss."
"Those birds are swans." Hermione steps closer until her feet dip into the icy water. She sucks in a breath, and after a beat she doesn't even feel it. "Aren't they beautiful?"
Ron looks up. He's staring at her, like he's waiting.
Hermione gets closer to the swans, she drifts further into the water before Malfoy finally stops her.
"Granger don't get to much closer, those things are probably riddled with disease. It's one thing to die by curse- or burned by a potion acid- it's entirely another to die by bird. Could you imagine? Rita Skeeter would love that wouldn't she? 'The Golden girl has died- then some clever snippet about Swan's and lakes.' She'd have a field day." Malfoy chuckles then tosses a rock out towards them. Neither swan reacts.
Hermione ignores him to. "Swans mate for life, you know." Hermione says with stars in her eyes as she recounts what her friend confided to her once.
The sight of the 2 love birds together in the middle of the pond, in the middle of the war, it is entirely overwhelming. Death, and war is constantly all around her, it's crushing and harsh, and yet here to is something so pure, so magnificent, so magical.
There is a sensation deep in Hermione's stomach, it starts slow, and then quickens when Ron catches her eye. Fluttering- it felt like fluttering inside her. Like 1000 butterfly wings had taken flight inside of her.
Ron looks thoughtful when he joins her in the water. He lights up a cigarette, and holds it out to her. She takes a hit and hands it back. He is so close she can smell him, she can touch him, she can run her tongue across-
"I knew that." He admits, and a shiver runs down Hermione's back when he brings the cigarette to his lips. "You told me that, once." He whistles, and the larger of the swans bristles a bit. "A long time ago."
He grins while the memory he spoke of plays in his head. There must be a private joke somewhere in there Hermione is sure.
She missed this. Hermione missed this so badly it hurts. The Golden trio fell apart long before she ever actually appreciated it. She wanted to wake up tomorrow in Gryffindor tower. She wanted to walk down to the great hall and have breakfast with Ron and Harry. She wanted the life that she lost returned to her, but life as she knew it was gone and it was impossible to get back.
Hermione hadn't seen the friends she swore to love forever, in forever. Their faces were the same, but the people she knew were all gone. The war changed them all.
"Do you think he's at peace?" Hermione asks hoping Ron might answer, and hoping he wouldn't. "He always talked about dying, for as long as i can remember knowing him. Then after Ginny- he talked about it alot more."
There's a long pause and she thinks he's decided to ignore her, but then quicker than she can acknowledge his fingertips brush against hers.
"I don't know if he found peace, but i hope he did. Merlin i hope he did. I hope he found Ginny."
She brushes her fingertips back up against his.
"What do you think it's like? After?" She asks.
"There's no more yesterdays or tomorrows, it's a stilling of time. I hope. that's what i want."
Hermione nods. She gets it. "The worst part of being alive is finding all these people you swear you can't live without..then life happens and suddenly you have to go on without them."
Hermione expects she never would see them again. Her loved ones.
Harry is dead and-
now all she has is a half Ron, and a Draco Malfoy as incapable of friendship as ever before.
Her smile fades out like the dimming of the sun when it sets. Slowly but surely.
"Why are we out here, Ron?" Her voice is exhausted, and flat. Sometimes even the promise of regaining her lost memories isn't enough to keep her wanting to put 1 foot in front of another. Sometimes she still wishes Malfoy had killed her on the stairs at base camp, instead of reuniting her with the Red Baron.
At least if she were dead her soul would be with everyone else, wherever they went when death took them. Wherever Harry, and Ginny, and her parents and Neville- wherever they were it had to be better than here.
"Are you looking for something?"
Ron lets the cigarette drop into the icy water, and the flame inside it extinguishes. The water makes lapping noises against the shore. Malfoy is quiet as he watches them both, but she can tell he is listening attentively all of a sudden.
"I am." He admits against what she expects was his better judgment. "The voice, it's kept a memory from you, and i both."
Hermione arches her brow, and internally glares at the person disguised as herself that is currently occupying her psyche.
"Of course she has." Whatever, whoever the voice really is Hermione knew one thing about them that is absolute. Inner Hermione is a real pain in her ass. "It's just one memory though." Hermione shrugs at him.
"This memory. It's important. I've tried several times to recover it, while you've slept." Hermione pulls her cloak just a bit tighter at the cavalier admittance of his lack of regard for her own privacy. "The only thing i managed to get was the location you were in when the memory happened."
"Here?" Hermione looks around. "I came with Astoria before, she showed me the place."
"Do you remember coming here alone?"
"Yes. Once i came alone to think, and another time I discovered the pond was connected to the black lake-"
"No, you would have been upset, frantic. You'd be covered in blood."
Hermione searches herself. She doesn't have a memory like that of the pond.
"I hoped bringing you here might jog something, might remind you of what happened here." He peers at her expectantly. "Nothing?"
"Sorry no." Hermione still feels there is more to it than the recovery of a single memory. "What happened in this memory? Why does it matter?"
"You hid something."
"Oh?" She decides on a wild guess. "Voldemort made another horcrux?"
"I wish." Ron laughs and so does Malfoy. "The thing you hid- well we need it very badly Hermione. If it were to fall into the wrong hands-"
"Are my hands the wrong hands?"
"The voice hears everything we say, even now i expect she's putting more safe guards or spells around that memory to keep me away from it." Hermione didn't want to admit he was right but she felt some sort of twinge in her head, like a muscle was being pulled taut. "Her hands are the ones that are wrong. Not yours."
The memory. 'I have use of you for now.' This memory is probably the reason Ron had allowed her to live. He needs her. She has leverage of some kind, she just isn't sure what it could get her exactly.
Hermione stares at him, and then she gives him the truth. There is the question again she has asked herself already and come up with no answer for.
"I don't know who i trust less. You, or the voice. Whatever i hid, clearly if i'd wanted you to know i'd have told you right? When my memories were still in tact i could have told you. But I didn't Ron..."
There's sloshing sounds in the water as Malfoy slips through it, towards the swans. They were necking at each other, and they didn't pay him attention until it was to late.
Malfoy has the female by her neck, holding her above the water out of the males reach. Her body twists in protest. The male squawks at Malfoy in distress.
"Stop it, Malfoy!" Hermione cries out at him. Ron holds her back.
"My father used to have this saying. I told him in 6th year i wasn't sure if i was more afraid of Dumbledore or Voldemort. You know what dear old daddy told me?" The swans are both still writhing in panic, the water around Malfoy is splashing.
Malfoy has a gleeful smile as he holds the swan hostage from it's mate. It reminds Hermione of the times she has seen Malfoy on the battlefield. Of how he plays with his opponents, before finishing them mercilessly.
"Father said when deciding who one feared the most you had to ask yourself a simple question. Which one of these blokes is less likely to knife me in the back?" Malfoy drew his wand out, and pointed it at the male swan as it was still attempting to ram itself into Malfoy. "When you know which one is less likely to betray you, well then that's the one you kill." Malfoy swivels his wand onto the female, and sends an avada into her. She goes still, and Hermione bit into her cheek. She isn't allowed to cry.
"Foul loathsome evil little cockroach."
Malfoy raises his brow at her as if to say, 'yeah heard it before.' He tosses the dead swan away like rubbish, and the male floats off quickly after it.
"Why would you kill the one that wouldn't betray you? That's asinine."
"Because," Ron answers for him, "the one that won't betray you is the weaker one. There's nothing to gain from a weak bird."
Hermione pulls out of Ron's grip nastily.
"What are you trying to tell me, what are you saying?"
"I'll betray you in a heartbeat Hermione to get what i want in the end. Hell i already have betrayed you more times than i can count-" Ron-glowers at her. "Draco's subtlety is lacking, however he's trying to remind you of that fact. It's not with Ron Weasley you've found yourself in the company of recently. Never forget it's the Red Baron you are with."
"By logic of Lucius Malfoy i'm supposed to choose to trust you over the voice?"
Hermione steps out of the water, and turns her back to both of the men.
"I hate you Ron. I really do."
"You keep saying that, must be true." He nods in a way she took to mean he really doesn't care.
"If i remember- if i get the memory back you're looking for- the last person i'd ever tell would be you." She swore on every last damn star, sparkling in the sky.
"Hmmm." Malfoy hums "She needs to remember more. She still called herself an Order member, last i asked." Malfoy tells Ron. "She'll be more agreeable if you show her-"
"Shut up." Ron's deep voice calls at Malfoy threateningly. "I know. She'll get there. It's a delicate process."
"Why wouldn't i call myself an Order member? It's the most important thing i've ever been part of."
Hermione sits on the sand and feels the granules slip between her fingers. She'd rather be crucio'd a hundred times, rather than listen to Draco Malfoy try to convince her of his trustworthiness.
No one answers her question, instead Ron joins her in the sand and levels the tip of his wand to her temple.
"May, i?"
"Go on, then."
Author's note: Sorry for the delay, working on other projects at the same time as this, while also completing my bachelor's. Lol life gets in the way. Also i went to the All american rejects concert recently. This chapter was inspired by their song Sunshine ( go back to the scene with the swans ) Let's talk about the swans. If you read chapter 2 you'll know i took inspiration from Avatar the last airbender for it. The swans in this story were inspired by the koi fish in Avatar. I adore paying homage to other fandoms, and frequently try to work it into my projects. I really like the contrast between dark and light, good and evil. My swans do not have a big elaborate back story like in Avatar nor are they spirits. My swans are rather a tool for foreshadowing. (When we get there in a few chapters... you'll know.) Have i turned your previous perceptions of characters completely around? Tell me in the comments. For anyone wondering this work will have around 30 chapters so we are still barely scratching the surface of what this story has in store. Hopefully some day i can consistently post for you. Additionally sorry these chapters are so massive lol. Hope you enjoyed lovelies!