Chapter 44

September 1, 1996

The one thing that could be said for Hogwarts Welcome Back Feasts was that they were never boring. Something surprising always happened. This time it was that Harry was late, and if the cocky little smirk that Draco was wearing was any indication, then he definitely had something to do with it. Hermione barely restrained herself from rolling her eyes at her Slytherin Prince.

Ron kept trying to sit too close to Hermione and that was bothering her enough as it was.

She'd slid down the bench so much she was almost touching Neville. Neville gave her a reassuring smile clearly aware of what was going on without being told.

When Harry finally walked into the Great Hall with a bloody nose that had absolutely ruined his shirt, and this time Hermione did roll her eyes in the direction of the Slytherin table, well aware that something had to have happened between the boys when she wasn't supervising.

Hermione found that she didn't feel particularly concerned about Harry's wellbeing and her concerned comments were more of a performance than anything else. She wanted to punch him herself for being so gullible and stupid. Frankly she was so happy to see her boys again all safe and sound that they could do just about anything and not face her wrath.

Slughorn was announced as the new Potions professor and Harry was mumbling something to Ron about visiting him with Dumbledore before the start of school. Hermione narrowed her eyes as the suspicion that something wasn't quite right ran through her. What was Dumbledore up to and why was Harry confiding in Ron and not her?

Then it was announced that Snape would be taking over as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Hermione wondered if he was happy at the change, although it was difficult to imagine Severus Snape happy about anything. He stood briefly and bowed with the same sour expression that he always had.

She looked over at the Slytherin table and noted the surprise running through them as well. It looked as though the staffing change was a surprise all around.

How her friends actually believed that she missed the library so badly that she needed to run by there before curfew, she would never understand. They had no idea what she was up to, she doubted that they'd even believe it if they saw her kissing Draco and Theo with their own eyes.

She opened the door to the Room and saw Draco and Theo sitting there on a deep green couch before a fire their arms around one another.

"What's happened?" Hermione asked without preamble.

"Draco's been given a suicide mission," Theo responded as he continued to rub Draco's back, attempting to reassure him with his touch. Hermione could feel their bond buzzing with devotion and love.

Hermione sank to her knees before them and choked out the word, "What?"

"The Dark Lord has ordered me to kill Dumbledore," Draco stated, reaching out to her. She took his hand and let him draw her up onto the couch. "If I fail he'll kill my mother and myself." Hermione's intake of breath was sharp and she could feel the pain and desperation through their bond.

They couldn't let Draco work on this mission alone. She and Theo wouldn't survive if they lost him, she knew that was true.

"I'll help you," she whispered into his neck. "You won't do this alone."

"Hermione, I can't ask you to…" he trailed off. "These are things at the Dark Lord's orders. I don't want you serving him, mon coeur."

"You aren't asking me to do anything, I'm offering." Hermione pulled a scrunchie out of her pocket and pulled her hair up and out of her face, cluing these boys into how serious she was. "This isn't for the Dark Lord. This is for you and your mum. If your father wasn't actively trying to kill us at the Ministry I would feel sorry that I was part of him getting sent to Azkaban. I would never have willingly left you to the tender mercies of this monster." She gripped his thigh and forced him to look at her, to see that she meant it.

"Fais comme tu veux," he stroked her cheek, "I should know better than to try to stop you from doing what you want."

"You should." Hermione kissed him lightly, squeezing Theo's fingers where they rested on Draco's shoulder.

She was strangely unbothered by the necessity of killing Albus Dumbledore, the man had nearly gotten them all killed too many times already. And Hermione blamed him for Sirius' death. Remus' words had settled into her soul.

I wonder if Dumbledore intended it to fail.

This seems like the kind of manipulation that he specialises in.

'It's for the Greater Good Remus, it's necessary.'

That man had been manipulating all of them and he didn't care if people like Cedric and Sirius died. She hadn't noticed the man being the least bit sorry for the losses of either of them. He just carried on as if the only one who mattered was Harry, while still leaving Harry with the awful Dursleys.

Maybe that was all part of Dumbledore's manipulations as well, to put Harry in a miserable, uncaring environment and gain Harry's trust by pulling him out of it.

She leaned her forehead against Draco's trying to pass some of her Gryffindor bravery to him. The three of them would get through this, they had to.

"I have some things that I learned while convalescing," Hermione whispered. "I need to tell you."

"Oh," Theo's grin could be heard in his voice. "Story time."

"Theo, you are ridiculous," Draco shook his head.

"And you love me for it."

Hermione was surprised to find Lavender sitting on the stairs leading up to the Gryffindor dormitory.

"There you are, thank Morgana," Lavender sighed, closing up her Witch Weekly. "I won't ask where you have been, but I don't think you got that love bite behind your ear in the library."

"What?" Hermione whisper-shrieked.

Lavender shook her head, "I've been dying to get you alone so I went to the library and you weren't there, I should have known Harry and Ron didn't really know what you were up to." She stood and laced her elbow through Hermione's. "You and your snakes need to be much more careful. I overheard you in the hospital wing last year."

Hermione felt her heart stop in her chest.

"Hey," Lavender shook her slightly trying to reassure her. "Don't worry. I haven't told anyone and I won't. I know what's at stake. You can trust me with this."

Fuck Lavender you have no idea.

Lavender told the Fat Lady the password, who's portrait swung open and the loud clamour of the crowded common room emitted through the hole, and whispered to Hermione, "Now smile and laugh as though I have been telling you the funniest story while we were going to go to the dorm. We'll talk more about this later."

September 15

Hermione took to sleeping in the room of hidden things a couple of nights a week in order to help Draco. Though there were hundreds of ancient things and the place smelled like her grandmother's attic so she and Theo would cast a modified bubble-head charm to refresh the air in the area they worked and slept in.

Hermione's friends were so dumb that no one noticed. She'd thought that her wizards exaggerated how stupid the people she surrounded herself with were, but it turned out that they were right. Maybe not stupid, maybe just gullible, but Good Godric this was a bit ridiculous.

"I fell asleep in the library," seemed to be believed by everyone, everyone except Lavender of course, who rolled her eyes in disbelief that Hermione was able to get away with such ridiculous lies.

Draco's mission was more complicated than just assassinating one of the most powerful wizards of the age, he also had to get the Death Eaters past the wards. That part of the plan caused Hermione significantly more anxiety than ending their Headmaster. They'd be reigning chaos on a school filled with small children. It was a disaster waiting to happen.

Worse was that Crabbe and Goyle had been asked by their fathers to assist Draco, so she and Theo were helping him to brew polyjuice so that the two Slytherins could be polyjuiced into lookouts that wouldn't be quite as recognizable. They were an additional complication though, or she was in any regard. Theo was easy to explain as he too bore the Dark Mark, but explaining away the presence of Hermione Granger was much more difficult.

She and Theo began obsessively studying different types of disillusionment spells and charms.

Draco called them "swots" with love shining in his eyes.

September 16, 1996

Theo kissed her hard as she rode his thigh, he was burning up. She felt so good against his body. Draco kissed his neck, nipping where the marks would be hidden by his robes, and Theo felt so good that he thought that he might die. His heart was clearly about to beat right out of his chest. The doubled pleasure that he could feel through the bond was another factor rapidly pushing him towards the edge.

His cock almost hurt. It was so hard, and then Hermione's back arched and her toes curled into the cushions of the settee and the moan that she made sent him flying over the edge.

He flushed in embarrassment, and wandlessly cast a Scourgify himself before either of them noticed. He didn't recognize that only a third of what had coursed through his body was from himself.

Sneaking into the greenhouse to harvest some herbs that they needed for one of the herbal purifications that he wanted to try on the vanishing cabinet, Theo was careful as he entered the building. He cast silencing charms on his shoes and the door.

He did not expect the vision that he received as he closed the door behind him.

Pansy's skirt was hiked up and Neville bloody Longbottom's hand was in her knickers as they kissed deeply when Theo walked in on them. He froze at the sight in front of him. He couldn't believe that Pansy had kept such a thing a secret from him.

She moaned Longbottom's name and he pulled her closer to him, their kisses deepening. Theo backed out of the greenhouse without what he had come for.

He needed to find Draco and Hermione.

They weren't going to believe this.

"Hey Hermione," Luna greeted her as she sat in the courtyard reading the book on runic jewellery and summoning spells. "You are so busy lately, you hardly have time for anyone anymore, well except for those that you do have time for."

Hermione looked at Luna in surprise. "What are you talking about, Luna?"

"Well, when I say that I'm in the library late at night, Harry says you and Hermione both." Luna raised her eyebrow at Hermione in a way that reminded her uncannily of Draco. "But Hermione, you are not there late at night."

"I've got some alcoves that I like to study in," Hermione began.

Luna shook her head. "You don't need to lie to me, but you need to be careful. Harry and Ron are clueless mostly, but Ron is starting to watch you more. He can be funny, but he's also quite mean. He won't be kind if he finds out you've been lying."

"He isn't," Hermione started, but Luna cut her off again.

"He is. He is and he's spiteful. You know that better than anyone. You need to be careful." The blonde stood and walked away after that, leaving Hermione feeling at a loss of what to do.

Four people knew their secret now and secrets too many people knew were rarely secret for long.

She felt the fear and tried to squash it down lest it go through the bond and cause Theo and Draco to worry.

"My family is staying neutral," Daphne sighed with her hands on her hips, frowning at Greg. "Why couldn't you?"

"Well not all of us have that luxury," Greg sighed, frustrated that she couldn't understand his predicament. Gerold Greengrass wasn't a Death Eater. Gregory Goyle Sr was. "Daphne, I don't want to fight, but if you can't accept that I have to do this maybe we need to break up."

"How can we break up Greg, when I'm your dirty little secret," she snarled before she walked away leaving him standing alone in the empty classroom.

"Lavender, is that a hickey on your neck?" Hermione looked at her roommate in consternation as they sat on their beds while Parvati was in the shower.

Lavender ran her hand over herself and grinned. "Oh probably, yes."

"I didn't know you were seeing anyone..." Hermione trailed off.

"I don't know what I can call seeing someone, but these love bites are definitely not that. It was pretty dark in the broom closet if I'm being honest." She smirked, pulling her wavy blonde hair up into a bun for sleep.

"Lavender!" Hermione hissed.

"Hermione!" Lavender responded in the same tone, but laughed. "Not all of us are lucky enough to find our soulmate at fifteen. I lost my virginity over the summer to one of the neighbours. He's a squib so he doesn't come to Hogwarts, but he still lives at home and he is fit! If he was a wizard, he'd be the prettiest boy in school."

Hermione disagreed in her head thinking of her soulmates. There was no way that he could be prettier than Theo or more handsome than Draco, but she let Lavender continue without her disagreement.

"So since we've been back I've been trying out different things. Zabini for example."

Hermione's eyes widened at the mention of the boys' best mate. "Zabini? From Slytherin?" she choked out.

"As though you have something against snakes." Lavender rolled her eyes. "Yes, Zabini. His body is like he's been carved out of ebony and he's well endowed and he knows how to use it," Lavender admitted.

Hermione couldn't help the blush that overran her face at that. She still hadn't slept with her partners. She was still feeling so nervous about taking their relationship to that next level. What if she disappointed them?

"We aren't exclusive or anything. I know that he's got a girl in Slytherin and another one in Ravenclaw, but he really makes me feel good, you know."

"No, I don't," Hermione squeaked out her face turning even brighter red, but Lavender continued her chattering.

"And then Pavarti and I…after everyone went to sleep," Lavender whispered, excitement writ on her face as she bit her lip and clearly was listening for the shower so that Pavarti wouldn't overhear them gossiping about herr. "I think I like men and women. You don't judge me for that, do you?"

Hermione shook her head. How could she when she was in a relationship with two wizards? What kind of hypocrite would that make her?