Chapter 50

December 1996

There was a layer of snow when they looked outside the window and the halls of the castle smelled of pine and cinnamon. It felt like Christmas despite the horror of the war that was bearing down on all of them.

The best thing about staying at Hogwarts over the winter break was that almost no one was there. The castle was quiet in the absence of the majority of the students and staff. The Headmaster was largely absent, Hermione overheard Snape telling McGonagall that Dumbledore was ill on the first day of peace and quiet.

Hermione was the only Gryffindor girl who had stayed at the school, the dorms were unnaturally silent as she gathered the things that she was going to take with her to the Room of Requirement. Ron and Harry had begged her to come to the Burrow, but she'd declined. Spending weeks trying not to get potioned into compliance by Molly sounded like the last thing that she wanted to do. She wouldn't have minded holing up in her room at Grimmauld Place and reading for a week, but when she found out that Draco and Theo would be staying in Hogwarts for the break, she could hardly pass up the opportunity for more time with her soulmates.

Besides, she knew Grimmauld Place wouldn't be the same without Remus, and she hadn't heard from Remus in weeks, nor from her parents. She'd sent her parents a few letters and one to Remus, where she hadn't gotten into all of her concerns, but merely asked about how he was doing.

Hermione missed him and Sirius so much. Holidays that she'd spent in her bedroom at Grimmauld Place floated through her mind as she laid with Theo and Draco. If she cried on and off, her wizards didn't ask why. There were so many things to cry about after all, and they seemed to understand, perhaps her grief and loss were loud and clear as they flickered along the bond, so much stronger now that they had consummated it.

Tonks had agreed to meet up in Hogsmeade after New Year's Day and Hermione was looking forward to that. Harry and Ron had assumed that she was going to be going home to her parents when she declined going to the Burrow; they'd realise their error when they didn't find her on the Hogwarts Express. Or maybe they wouldn't even notice she was missing. She wondered why that didn't hurt the way it used because her wizards had such a low opinion of Harry and Ron that it was hard not to see their perspective.

Ron's following her around had been possessive and a bit creepy, but Lavender seemed to have put an end to that. Hermione shuddered. He can't have expected her to act like Lavender and fawn all over him? There was nothing about Ron that she'd ever found attractive, he simply couldn't compare with what she had. Even with whatever weird thoughts he was having about her, Ron still was only nice to her when he wanted her to do his homework for him.

Hermione's feelings about Harry were much more complicated. He was just so frustratingly naive and easily manipulated by all the adults around him. He never thought critically about anything. He was perfectly willing to be their Chosen One, their puppet, but he was never willing to put any effort into it. Dumbledore's Army had been an aberration. Harry expected fate to roll out the red carpet and he would defeat Voldemort because that's what was meant to be.

What hippogriff shit.

She couldn't help that she still blamed him for Sirius' death. When she allowed herself to think about it, in her most secret corners of her heart, Hermione was so angry with Harry and his recklessness for destroying the tiny family that she'd found with Sirius and Remus in the dark grey halls of Grimmauld Place.

If she let herself be honest, Hermione felt her feelings towards Harry sliding inevitably toward hatred. Somehow, that felt terribly wrong and she tried to ignore the darkness that she could feel gathering around her heart. She'd never really hurt Harry, would she?

There was no one to report to her Head of House that she wasn't sleeping in her bed at night, so Hermione basked in the freedom of sleeping in the same bed with her soulmates. No lies about falling asleep in the library were needed. As long as they showed up to breakfast no one was concerned about what they were up to. The castle at Christmas was like an oasis, a sanctuary, even if the majority of her days and nights were spent in the strange world of the Room. They'd made a makeshift bedroom out of odds and ends that was tucked away from the front of the Room in case anyone else managed to get inside.

It couldn't possibly last, but Hermione pushed that thought to the side as she woke up on Christmas morning to Theo's kisses on her throat, while Draco kissed his way up her leg tilting her ankle to the side to give him access to her core, already aching for him. Had they been teasing her in her sleep?

Her moans floated up into the wildness of the Room of Hidden Things, stirring the darkness that hung in the air there lately amongst all the chaos and forgotten detritus. Like an animal hiding in the darkness and chaos, the strange dark magic licked over Hermione's skin as her soulmates brought her to orgasm with their mouths and hands, seeking nothing for themselves. Hermione arched off the bed as the final touch shattered her consciousness into pieces.

Later that morning, she'd try to find the source of that dark magic, but the labyrinthine room seemed to thwart her. Its originating point was constantly out of reach.

They began the morning lazily, with the three of them waking up with kisses and soft touches. Hermione wasn't sure that her body could take this much pleasure. The little tree that they'd found in the room sparkled with charmed lights that Theo had set up. Hermione watched the coloured lights flicker over Draco and Theo's skin and she tried to just live in this perfect moment.

She'd brought their gifts with her to the room, but left her gifts from others up on her dorm bed. She wasn't particularly looking forward to whatever Molly had knitted her and whatever book her parents had sent.

"Hermione, love," Theo murmured. "You are thinking too loud."

"Theo, love," she responded with a kiss, "It's Christmas Day."

Draco yawned and rolled over rubbing his hard cock against her body. "I have a present for you that you don't need to unwrap."

Hermione giggled so hard that she snorted.

"Don't leave me out," Theo pleaded, the smile on his face mischievous.

"Never, Theodore," Hermione pulled him to her for a deep kiss as Draco tilted her hips to give him access, her body aligned to take him. Hermione was sore, but Theo had found a couple of charms to soothe her from the books he'd been sorting through in the room. She hummed as Draco found the place inside her that made her thighs quiver. Theo's fingers teased her nipples as he nipped at her throat. Hermione wondered if someone could die from pleasure; it would certainly be better than dying from pain.

Hermione was happy she'd managed to squirrel away a few things from her vaults at Gringotts that the boys would like for Christmas.

At least one Dagworth-Granger had been a Slytherin and Hermione had been pleased to find a tie pin for each of them. They were both snakes set with sapphires and emeralds. She knew they were painfully expensive if not priceless, just the sort of thing that the boys could wear and people would envy, but not enquire too deeply into. Like the cufflinks that she'd given them before, she enjoyed the idea that they could keep these gifts with them all the time.

The Pureblood connotations that came along with such an ostentatious jewelled gift also put a grin on both the boys' faces. She felt proud of herself. It wasn't easy to shop for boyfriends who were the equivalent of Muggle millionaires.

Theo tore into his gift from Draco and found a three volume set of spells on language learning and translation spells and charms. Theo instantly started skimming the books and making excited noises about the different entries.

"Swot," Draco murmured under his breath, accepting a kiss on the cheek from Theo as the other wizard continued flipping through his new volumes.

Draco gave her a book of French love poems that he had charmed to read aloud in his voice if she opened it when she was alone.

"For the nights when we can't be together, mon tresor," he whispered, kissing her softly. "I never want you to miss me too much."

Hermione blushed as she looked at the poems and realised that some of them were positively filthy, she'd have to keep this under lock and ward. Lavender would never let her live down such a dirty collection of poetry if she discovered them lying about the dorm. Hermione could just imagine her roommate standing on her bed and reading it at the top of her lungs.

Theo handed her a small carved wooden box that she opened to reveal a set of elegant hair combs set with a variety of stones. "These were my mother's." Hermione's eyes watered thinking how special this gift was. Theo had so few things that were his mother's. "I only remember her wearing the pearl one though." He ran a finger over the pearls with a wistful expression on his face.

Hermione pulled the pearl comb out of its place and slid it into her messy bun. The charms on the comb caused the bun to transform into a perfect updo. "Well that's certainly handy," Hermione exclaimed, wondering if there was a mirror nearby.

"And last but definitely not least," Theo smiled, pulling out a round leather roll and handing it over to Draco.

Draco looked at it thoughtfully and untied it. Beautiful silver and copper tools sat inside leather sleeves, a dozen of them. He looked at Theo in confusion.

"It's a set of charmed repair tools, I thought that they might be helpful, you know, with your mission." The ghost of unhappiness flickered across Draco's face, but he brushed it aside.

"You are so thoughtful, Theo." Draco leaned forward and captured his lips with a kiss. "I love you so much."

They sat together on the floor with their gifts next to them and simply ended up holding one another. Because after all was said and done, the best gift was that they were here together and safe. It was something that seemed more and more precious as the days went on.

New Year's 1997

The feast for New Year's Eve had been small as several of the professors had gone into Edinburgh for the Hogmanay celebrations. The handful of Hufflepuffs who'd stayed behind clearly had a party planned if their furtive whispers were anything to go by.

Hermione and Draco went to their rooms briefly to deal with the gifts that they had received from others and then each was going to head to the owlery to send some thank you notes. They should have done it days ago, but they had been too busy being debauched and only emerging from the room for meals where they pretended not to be thoroughly shagged.

Theo wondered how well they had actually done at that, but no one had said anything to them so that was all that mattered he supposed that was all that mattered.

Exploring the Room, Theo discovered a magnum bottle of Champagne, coated in a thick layer of dust, in a wine rack under a magical portrait that had apparently failed to awaken. He found a silver basin that he thought might be a broken Pensieve and conjured ice for it, setting it aside. He could have chilled the wine with a simple charm, but he thought this was a bit more romantic. He considered going down to the greenhouses and getting a bouquet of real roses and scattering the rose petals around where they had been sleeping, but he didn't know how much longer his soulmates would be gone.

Theo hadn't received any gifts from anyone else, other than a box of biscuits and sweets that Narcissa had sent. His father never bothered with Christmas gifts. And thank Salazar for that, because his father's idea of a gift would probably be a muggle killing dark artefact or a marriage contract to some other Death Eater's daughter. Theo shuddered to think of what that man would consider a present, certainly nothing Theo wanted to receive..

Hermione's soft footsteps padded toward him and Theo smiled, grateful to be spending the turning of the year with the two other pieces of his soul.

She jumped into his arms as soon as she saw him, her legs wrapping around his hips. His hands travelled down and squeezed her arse drawing a moan from her perfect little lips.

"Have I ever told you the Muggle tradition of kissing those you love at the stroke of midnight?" she asked.

"No," Theo admitted, shaking his head. He nipped at her lower lip. "Care to tell me all about it now?"

January 3, 1997

Hermione met Tonks at the Three Broomsticks as she'd promised. Theo and Draco were hard at work on the Vanishing Cabinet trying to make up for the fact that they'd spent days shagging and messing around instead of focusing on Draco's mission for the Dark Lord. They sat together for a bit in quiet companionship, sipping their drinks and munching on the chips that Tonks had ordered.

"So, did I tell you that Remus warned me to stay away from the Burrow?" Tonks asked out of the blue after they had chatted about school and the misogynists Tonks had to deal with at work in the Auror office.

Hermione shook her head. "Did he say why?"

Tonk shook her head in response, taking a deep drink of her fire whiskey.

"No, but he did say that if I wanted to know why, to ask you and it was up to you if you wanted to trust me." Tonks gave Hermione a questioning look.

Hermione felt the weight of the vows of secrecy that she had sworn Remus and Sirius to then. It had never occurred to her that Remus would not have been able to warn Tonks about Molly's nefariousness.

Instead of answering directly, Hermione tilted her head and stared at Tonks. "Did your mother take any magical jewellery when she left home?"

"Magical jewellery?" Tonks asked in clear confusion, not following where Hermione was going with this.

"You know, like the kind that can detect compulsion potions, loyalty potions, things like that?"

"Oh for fuck's sake," Tonks hissed, her hair shifting from pink to red to black then back to pink again. "That's why?" She didn't even wait for Hermione to respond before she gulped down her drink and signalled for another. "Well, isn't that a damn good reason to call that a miss. It's right scary actually, the Order is supposed to be united and yet we're slowly dividing ourselves. Not sure how we're supposed to win the war that way," she shuddered and then continued, "Good thing I listened to Remus then, and it's not like the person I wanted to spend time with would be there anyways and the people who will be there, well I see them on the regular don't I?"

Now it was Hermione's turn to be confused by what Tonks was saying. Rosmerta sat the new firewhiskey in front of Tonks and scurried off to deal with a bunch of men in the corner calling her name. The pub was doing brisk business today despite all the students being gone on holiday.

Tonks blushed lightly. "I'm dating a married couple right now, can't say enough good things about that. I get quite pampered when it comes to it. And another bloke. He's great, but not big on commitment and not great on coming back to England. I have to make a hundred percent of the effort and while he's a great roll in the hay, sometimes a girl just wants to cum without having to travel for nearly a day there and back again."

Hermione nodded like she understood any of that, but she had two boyfriends so she could hardly be judgemental of Tonks dating a married couple.

"Have I gone and offended you now? Me and my wild ways." Tonks tossed her hair and took a deep drink, looking a bit embarrassed.

"I have two boyfriends," Hermione blurted out, trying to make the other witch feel less awkward. "And they're dating each other too. We shagged for the first time over this holiday break."

"Well good on you, Hermione!" Tonks smiled, suddenly perfectly at ease. "I hope you are being careful."

Hermione flushed. "Most of the time we are great about casting a contraceptive charm. And we were all of each other's firsts so no worries about other things."

"Most of the time she says," Tonks pinched the bridge of her nose and then pulled up her purse and rattled around in it until she pulled out a few bottles. One was black and the other two were a pale blue that sparkled and swirled about. "Take the black one now. It's an 'after the act' emergency potion. Come on now, quick as can be."

Hermione drank it down quickly not wanting to catch anyone's attention.

"Now the green one," Tonks directed. "That's good for a month. And you'll need to take the second vial on the same day next month. I'll get over here and bring you a few more vials before you need them. The last thing you need is to get pregnant your sixth year in the middle of a war, Hermione."

Firmly in agreement with that assertion, Hermione drank the green vial down and was pleased to discover it tasted like mint. She handed the empty vials back to Tonks who stuck them back in her purse.

"Now, nothing is one hundred percent, so please by Helga's ruffled knickers try to remember the contraception charm, too." Tonks' hair flickered blue for a second, and the playful witch looked very solemn for a minute. "You haven't told me who your lads are, so that must mean their families are on the other side of all this shite. So you need to do everything in your power not to bring a baby in the middle of all that."

Hermione agreed, wholeheartedly and said so. "I definitely don't want to have a baby anytime in the near future. Someday, but like a very far far away someday."

"Same for me," Tonks laughed. "I'd like a baby at some point, not anytime soon though. Definitely not in the middle of a bloody war. And after all's said and done, I expect to meet these two blokes of yours." Tonks tried to put on a serious face, but dissolved into laughter again.

Hermione laughed imagining introducing Draco to his outspoken metamorphmagus cousin for the first time, she'd shock him speechless, not a terrible state for the Malfoy heir to be in, though. Draco was pretty cute when he was a little out of sorts.

"Now, two blokes at once is something I haven't tried," Tonks whispered. "How's that working?"

"Are you wanting tips?" Hermione giggled, trying to imagine the older witch having less experience than her at something sexual in nature.

"No, I'm just trying to see if I should convince one of my wizards to bring a mate."

The witches dissolved into giggles. It was one of the best days that Hermione could remember when she would think back later, an oasis of joy in the midst of the suffering that seemed to be looming over them all.

March, 1997

Draco carefully opened the door to the Room of Hidden Things, feeling as though someone was watching him. He looked left and right, but no one was there. He knew it wasn't Potter, the fool couldn't cast a muffliato to save his life and Draco could always hear him breathing under that thrice damned invisibility cloak.

Draco thought he heard a house elf muttering as he pulled the door closed behind him, which was strange because the Hogwarts elves hardly ever made any noise at all.

He tried not to worry about it, because what harm could a house elf have to do after all, Draco thought. Theo and Hermione were in the Room waiting for him already and while he hated his mission deeply he was grateful that the two of them loved him enough not to let him go through this alone.

Hermione was laying on her back looking up inside the cabinet, her knees bent and giving Draco a clear view of her white innocent little knickers.

"Achilles Armworth believed that one could link two objects using the liminal space that wizards occupy when using disapparition," Hermione read, her voice echoing from inside the cabinet. "Way to completely ignore witches."

"What year was it written, love?" Theo asked flipping through his own book for some useful tidbit.

"Seventeen ninety," Hermione answered.

"Witches weren't granted licences to disapparate for another sixty something years," Theo responded, scanning the index of another book on magical repair. "That's why he only said wizards."

Hermione sat up in annoyance, "Oh, good to know it was systemic sexism as opposed to this one theoretical Charms Master being a prick. Oh hello, Draco," she smiled as she saw him there watching them.

"This Vanishing Cabinet is a complete and utter fuckery, Draco," Theo commented. "I'm not exactly sure how it worked in the first place let alone how exactly it is that we are supposed to fix it."

"Maybe I'm not intended to fix it, maybe I'm intended to fail so utterly that the Dark Lord can end my line." Draco rubbed at his face feeling the despair starting to settle in.

"Don't say that," Hermione hissed, jumping up in order to punch him hard in the shoulder. "Don't you ever say that again, we are gonna figure this stupid thing out!"

"We simply refuse to let anything happen to you, Dragon," Theo proclaimed, snapping his book shut and standing up to approach the blond. Theo's hand went to the back of Draco's neck, warm fingers running through the soft white hair there. Draco made an involuntary moan at the caress. "How about we take your mind off this mess for a little bit?"

"Theo, I have to work on the cabinet. He's expecting an update," Draco moaned as Theo's lips found his throat, and Theo's fingers strayed beneath Draco's shirt.

"I've got a couple ideas to try, but I need to ponder them a bit longer. Help me think, my love," Theo murmured, his mouth on Draco's earlobe. Draco shivered. He looked up to see Hermione's wide grin watching them from a few feet away. "Come on Draco," Theo purred. "You know I get my best ideas after a good shag."

And Draco couldn't deny him, even if it felt like his death was stalking them. Perhaps that's why he wanted to never deny Theo at all, someday soon Theo and Hermione would have to learn to live without him.

There was no way he'd survive this mission.

Every breath he took was another breath closer to death.

Hermione had taken the galleons that she had charmed for Dumbledore's Army and made necklaces for the three of them so that they could pass short messages to each other as a Valentine's gift, but they wanted to make something rather stronger so that they could find each other. The fact that the war was looming and they might need these to stay alive was left unstated even though it was in the forefront of all their thoughts. There were only a few months left for Draco's mission and that would be the true beginning of the war, no more skirmishes. The battles would begin.

The galleons were useful, but there was a limit to their use. They needed to make something better for their purposes.

When Theo and she were paired together in charms for their term project, they surprised Flitwick by asking if Draco could work with them as well. The Charms professor looked confused, but simply said, "If Miss Granger has no objections then I can't see why I would."

Mumbling about them at least being evenly matched for a change, Flitwick wandered over to speak with the other groups. Hermione tried to ignore the way that Harry and Ron were staring at her. Lavender wandered over to Ron and whispered something in his ear that had him turning bright red and ignoring Hermione and her partners, but Harry's glare never wavered.

Hermione realised that her hands were shaking as she worked on the sketches with Theo of the ring design, and Draco made a list of possible books from the bibliography in their textbook that might be helpful. He got up and showed the list to their professor to see if he felt it was thorough and got two additional titles to add to the list. Hermione caught Flitwick's curious gaze on them more than once.

After class, Harry and Ron escorted her out of the room and she went with them because there was nothing else that she could do.

"Merlin, 'Mione being stuck with those two for the rest of the term for this project must be awful," Ron conceded on her behalf, until Lavender came and drew him away from her and Harry, probably to go snog in a broom closet, Hermione thought.

"Somethings up with Malfoy," Harry began.

"He looks different don't you think," Hermione interrupted. "Almost ill."

Harry shrugged indifferently. "Probably the guilt of being a Death Eater."

Hermione wanted to scream. It was so easy for him to sit in judgement of Draco, so easy to condemn him when he had no idea what it was like, what having to have Voldemort in his house was like. Harry's mother was dead, what would he do now to keep her alive if she wasn't? He could never understand the position Draco was in.

Never.

Hermione refrained from arguing with Harry about Draco being a Death Eater.

It didn't matter what she said. Harry's mind was made up.

The group project went along swimmingly. They were able to spend long hours together in the library without anyone batting an eye, but more than once Theo and Draco's galleons burned against their chest with the message: Harry's following me under invisibility cloak.

They kept their conversations formal and all business when that happened.

When they could, there was an undertone of flirtation to all their comments. The three of them fed off the other's cleverness. Where they were constantly frustrated by their progress with the Vanishing Cabinet, the rings worked on each trial. Each layer of spellwork bled seamlessly into the previous. Hermione and the boys tested them in the Forbidden Forest one afternoon and were pleased to see that they would be able to easily apparate to one another as long as they were wearing the rings.

Hermione could summon them, the rings tingling and buzzing against their skin until they appeared in front of her. She kissed her wizards as a reward each time they were successful in finding her. By the time they prepared their final scrolls for Professor Flitwick, the three of them were confident both that the rings would work under the pressure of combat as well as that they were about to get an outstanding grade in Charms.

April 1997

Late night Prefect rounds were always a bit nerve-wracking in Hermione's opinion. She'd been at Hogwarts long enough to know that the most dangerous thing around was not a couple snogging seventh years. Between three-headed dogs, basilisks and the inevitable Death Eater professor, Hermione was well aware that the place was a death trap at the best of times.

So when Ron failed to show up, Hermione waited a long time before she started patrolling alone. But as the time continued to get later Hermione decided that she didn't want to be up half the night and started out, but first she activated the charm in her ring that allowed Theo and Draco to know her location. She was supposed to meet them at the Room after this and she didn't want them to worry about her being late.

The corridors were eerie as she walked alone, her footsteps echoed as she went. Even the magical portraits were asleep, it had gotten so late.

When the hand pressed over her mouth, Hermione froze for a critical moment that she should have been fighting back. Her wand was plucked from her fingers and she screamed against the palm that had her silenced.

"Shut up Granger," a voice she knew hissed into her ear.

Cormac. Oh fucking hell, he was hard against her arse. There was no illusion what he meant to do to her.

Oh my God. She shuddered and tried to pry out of his grasp.

She wordlessly made the incantation to let Theo and Draco know that she was in danger. Was her ring getting warm or was it just her imagination? Please Morgana let the charms that they'd laid work under pressure.

Hermione kept screaming against his hand.

"Shut up you bloody tease. You know that you want it, flaunting yourself like a little strumpet."

Hermione shook her head desperately. She hadn't been doing anything to him, flaunting anything.

"I'll show you," Cormac hissed, starting to drag Hermione toward one of the abandoned classrooms nearby. She kicked backwards and tried futilely to get out of his grip. She had to get away from him.

He kicked the door open behind him and pulled her into the room, throwing her down roughly onto the floor. Hermione hit her head on the floor as she fell and everything went blurry for a moment and she felt sick.

This couldn't be happening.

She mumbled the charm that activated the ring again, desperation pushing power into the spell. She needed her wizards, she hoped that they could sense that through the bond. She was four levels away from where they ought to be on the seventh floor. How long would it take them to get here if the charm worked?

Cormac was saying something else to her, but she couldn't hear it through the ringing of her ears.

She glared up at him, wishing that she knew how to gouge out his eyeballs wandlessly.

His leer was enough to make her blood boil and he reached down to grab her, she shoved herself backwards trying to escape his reaching hands.

The door slammed open and her wizards were there crowding into the room. Theo's face threatened murder and Draco's wand was drawn. Cormac flew across the room, smashing into the stone wall; his and Hermione's wands flying from his hand.

Theo summoned them immediately and bent to tend to Hermione whose ears were still ringing. She could only shake her head when Theo tried to speak to her, still unable to make out what he was saying.

She turned her head to see that Draco was menacing Cormac against the wall and Cormac's face was eerily blank. Her brain was so fuzzy that she couldn't seem to make sense of what was happening.

Theo lifted Hermione from under her arms and helped her to the door. His voice was low in her ear and she could barely make it out as he led her out of the room. "Let's hope my disillusionment charm is good enough to get us to the room."

Hermione tried to look back to see what Draco was doing to Cormac, but Theo shook his head and continued leading her out. "No, no princess, Draco has this handled. Let's get you to safety so I can check you out."

Hermione could only nod. She felt rather like she was about to be sick and she was just so grateful that they had come when they did.

Hermione woke up in the morning still feeling a little sore, and pried herself out of bed. Theo and Draco had managed to do wonders for her headache and obvious concussion, but they had run out of bruise paste while working through her injuries. Theo was going to start brewing some in his spare time in order to make sure that they had more on hand.

By the time she had moved her stiff body enough to get out of bed, Ron and Harry had already gone down to breakfast.

She restrained herself from asking someone to help her down the stairs, because she was worried that it would attract too much attention. So she worked carefully down the steps, trying not to wince as she did so. Her hip was still so sore from hitting the floor the night before. She might have to just go to the hospital wing later and say that she tripped and fell. She wasn't sure how she was supposed to make it through the whole day without more pain potions and charms. All she truly wanted to do was go back to the Room to let Theo fawn over her while Draco worked on the cabinet.

When she made it to the Great Hall, there was no sign of Draco and Theo at the Slytherin table nor was Cormac anywhere to be seen. She hoped Draco hadn't killed him, not because she didn't want Cormac dead, but because she didn't want Draco getting into trouble. She wasn't sure what that said about her.

As she sat at the Gryffindor table, Ron and Harry were already eating and her annoyance at being left behind grew again. "Ron, where were you last night?" Hermione asked, neutrally as she sat down on the other side of Harry.

"I uh fell asleep," he grunted, not bothering to stop putting food on his plate nor look up at her.

"Fell asleep?" Hermione felt her voice rising in annoyance.

"Yeah," Ron muttered, as he shovelled his face full of food. He didn't even apologise for failing to show up for their prefect patrol.

Hermione felt herself wanting to hyperventilate, to scream and yell at him, but Ron was oblivious. He had no idea what had almost happened to her. Hermione narrowed his eyes at him, he probably could not even perceive the possibility of what had happened to her.

It must be nice to be a wizard.

Hermione didn't think that she could stomach breakfast now. Ron's loud chomping of food made her nauseous. And Harry was scowling at the Slytherin table, clearly more concerned with the fact that Draco was missing from breakfast than anything Hermione had to say.

She fought back the urge to sneer at them both. They were supposed to be her best friends, but she wasn't feeling very friendly towards either of them.