Chapter Fifty Four
Original Author Notes -
A/N: All right, so here's what happened…
When a lot of reviewers commented on the formatting problem with the
latest chapter of VC that was posted last night (02/28/07), I went there myself to check and saw that it was, indeed, fubar. I assumed that it was a problem with my own story, and therefore immediately took down the latest chapter so it could be corrected. It didn't occur to me that it might be a Portkey-wide problem (as I havehad reviewers note that the same thing happened to some other stories on the site). So you're not all going crazy, there was an alert sent out but I did remove the chapter. I'm going to keep an eye on Portkey and when the problem is fixed Iwill repost the latest chapter. Sorry for the point-gobbling if it puts out a second alert for the same chapter! I was really just trying to make sure you all got a coherent, easily enjoyable story!
The Great Hall was scantly populated with fellow students tucking into breakfast, no more than as many might be found using the Great Hall as a study hall during exams, but it was more people than Hermione and Harry had seen in the castle since their return yesterday evening. It was a bit refreshing to see other people; Hogwarts took on the aura of horribly tomb- like and glum when it was empty. No one was wearing their school robes,
though a few of the pure-blood young wizards and witches wore other fashions of robes, what no doubt constituted regular attire in their homes.
The Gryffindor table was sufficiently bare that Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny were able to find a place well away from anyone else so they might talk. While they filled their plates Hermione was the first to ask their redheaded comrades, "What are you two doing here, anyway? Shouldn't you still be at the Burrow with your family celebrating?"
Ron nodded and spoke around a mouthful of food, "Wu wure." He stopped to forcefully swallow his food and resumed, his eyes shifting to Harry in the process, "When your aunt and uncle's house was attacked some folks at the ministry contacted Dad. Plenty of people he works with at the ministry know you're close to our family so they were good enough to floo us as soon as they knew it was something to do with you."
Harry was eating heartily during the telling but he paused to nod for Ron to continue.
But it was Ginny who spoke next. "Mum was going spare. I don't know why, she knew you weren't at the Dursleys' for Christmas, we'd told her you'd gone off with Hermione, but she sent Dad right off to the ministry to keep his finger on things. Our whole Christmas day was Dad popping in and out giving us the latest reports on what was going on."
Harry frowned at that. Hermione could practically hear him thinking that he'd ruined two family Christmases, even if it was through absolutely no fault of his own. She didn't care for his feeling guilty for something Voldemort did (when Harry could have done nothing to prevent it), but she didn't think a lecture on his tendency to shoulder blame was appropriate at the moment.
Instead, she asked Ginny, "Does the ministry know anything more about the attack? When we were at Privet Drive the Aurors on the scene didn't seem to have any real leads on finding the Death Eaters that did it."
Ron's eyes widened and his fork froze halfway to his mouth. "You two actually went there? You saw the house and everything?"
Harry nodded as he set down his glass of pumpkin juice. "Yeah… it was pretty bad."
Hermione winced. He wasn't merely talking about the state of the house. She touched his arm supportively and did all she could to draw the attention back to her. "Dumbledore showed up at my grandmother's on Christmas morning and told us about the attack. Harry insisted that he go see his aunt
and uncle before coming back to Hogwarts."
Ron grimaced. "Ow. I can't imagine that went well." Harry shook his head. "I've finally been disowned." "Oh… I'm sorry, Harry," Ginny said.
"It's not that big a deal; they've wanted me out of their lives permanently from the day I was left on their doorstep. Ironically, it would have been better for them if they had gotten rid of me. Would have saved them and me loads of grief. And Dudley would still be alive." Harry stared down at his plate.
Ginny narrowed her eyes thoughtfully at Harry. "Did you get that cut on your lip getting disowned?"
Harry touched his fingers to the healing wound (almost completely healed now thanks to Madam Pomfrey's expert tending) at the mention of it, and he made a queer face. He didn't relish discussing how the Dursleys abused him. In fact, he tacitly avoided it. "Yeah," was all he said in answer to Ginny's question. His tone stated clearly that he would not elaborate on the incident.
"Those bastards," Ron growled.
Harry sighed. "You can't really blame them for hurting me this time." "Sure we can," Hermione said sharply.
Harry looked at her wearily."Dudley died, Hermione."
Hermione's jaw set firmly as that protective fire flared within her, then she countered, "You didn't kill him."
"I near as well did; Voldemort's followers went there because of me." When Harry saw Hermione about to protest his reasoning, and quite probably go into a tear, he blocked her by turning to Ron and saying quickly, "But the attack on my aunt and uncle doesn't explain what you two are doing at Hogwarts when it's still Christmas holiday."
Hermione pursed her lips as she regarded Harry closely, fully aware of his blatant diversionary tactics, then she gave in and looked toward the Weasleys.
"Oh, well, Dad found out you'd be coming back to Hogwarts, for safety and all, and me and Ginny asked to come back early and keep you two company. Dad managed to speak with Dumbledore about it so we could use his floo to get here. We got in just this morning."
"Thanks, Ron, Ginny. You didn't have to give up your Christmas because of us."
"Truthfully, we were all too happy to come back. Mum's cousin Wulgrig was spending this year with us. He gets passed around to a different person in our mum's family every year, and this year was ours. Cousin Wulgrig's a nice enough bloke, but too much like Fred and George for his own good.
Twenty years ago he was pulling a prank on a friend and it backfired and he got covered in magicked permanent stink sap. He's smelled bloody awful ever since. He doesn't notice it anymore, but everyone else around him sure does. Fred and George volunteered to come back early, too, to keep you company, but Mum wasn't buying it from them."
Harry smirked crookedly and shoveled a forkful of sausage into his mouth. Hermione had been eating just as steadily while Ron and Ginny talked about their disrupted Christmas day.
Ron paused to watch Harry tucking into his breakfast with gusto to do him proud. "Really have to say it's good to see this whole nasty business with your cousin hasn't killed your appetite."
Harry swallowed and returned with an accompanying vague gesture at Hermione next to him, "Hermione and I haven't eaten since the day before yesterday."
"Oh… well, we'll not tell Mum that part. She really worries over you, you know."
"Yeah, I know, but she needn't… next time you talk to her let her know I'm all right."
Ron nodded and gave a one-shoulder shrug. "I keep telling her that you're just fine, but it does no good. I think it's that she hasn't had the opportunity to fuss over you in quite a long time that she gets bothered with thinking that you're not being properly taken care of."
Harry's expression softened a little. "Miranda more than took that responsibility upon herself, I'd say."
Hermione smiled into her plate without looking up.
"Miranda?" Ginny queried.
Harry ticked his head in Hermione's direction and gave a small, sheepish smile. "Hermione's mum." Harry paused then and his face turned stormy. "That's the worst part of all of this mess."
"What's that?" Ron asked.
"Hermione's parents and her grandmother had to leave everything and go into hiding." Harry scowled at his cup. "I wasn't willing to risk them being harmed, not after what happened to Dudley, so I packed them off to Remus Lupin with a bag of money to see them somewhere safe where I hope Voldemort can't find them."
Hermione looked up then and rejoined the conversation. "They went willingly, Harry, no one forced them to go, and they know you're just concerned for their well-being."
"That doesn't make it any less buggered. Your family and Ron's are the last people I would ever want to see put in danger because of me," Harry groused dourly, then he shook his head.
Ginny tapped the tongs of her fork against her plate as she thought. "They went to Lupin you said, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, then I'm sure they'll end up somewhere safe."
Ron nodded agreement. "She's right there, Harry. Lupin's not about to let you down."
"I hope so," Harry mumbled.
"They will be safe with Lupin, there's no question about it," Ginny insisted, then her expression went from fiery to sad. "We really are sorry about your cousin, Harry."
Ron nodded. "Yeah… real shame, that."
"Yeah…" Harry's face screwed, "it's weird. I don't… I'm sorry that he was killed, but I'm not sad that he's dead. I'm more upset about the Grangers and Gram than about Dudley, or about Vernon and Petunia. Guess that makes me a pretty rotten person."
"Hardly. Of course you'd be more concerned about the people who love you than those mean-spirited relatives of yours. That doesn't make you a bad person." Hermione's tone brooked no argument on the subject.
"Mean-spirited or not, they didn't deserve that."
"No, but you're not happy your cousin was murdered. You're just not crying over the family that made it a point to make you feel unwelcome in their home from day one. If not being torn up about that makes you a bad person, then I'm a bad person, too."
Ron held up a finger. "Here, too." "Same here," Ginny said.
Harry looked at each of them in turn.
Hermione gave a curt nod and turned to Harry."There… so if you're going to say you're a bad person for not shedding a tear over Dudley Dursley then you're also saying we're all bad people."
Harry broke and gave Hermione a very faint, lop-sided smile of deep appreciation. Naturally, he could never think ill of her. He wouldn't categorically deem Ron and Ginny bad people. Hermione knew all of that full well. Therefore, he had to let go the notion he was bad or face Hermione's indignant passion. Harry knew the ferocity of the lioness when it was loosed, and he had no desire to be on the business end of her claws for being a 'thick git'. It managed to work loose a knot of guilt that had lodged in his chest that was not so much for Dudley's death but the fact Harry wasn't more anguished by it. Hermione said it was perfectly normal that Harry wouldn't mourn Dudley's passing… when he knew it was okay that he wasn't sad, he felt a burden lifted from his chest. He had been smothered by the presumed responsibility that he grieve for a person he'd never loved.
For a few seconds there was only the sound of silverware on plates and cups returning to the table as the four friends ate breakfast the morning after Christmas day. It was telling that they had not breathed a word about their gifts in favor of talking about Death Eaters and murdered family members. If there was ever a sign of the times it was for four teens to converse as they did on a day like the day after Christmas.
"Oh!" Ron said suddenly, "almost forgot, we brought Hedwig back from the Burrow with us. Though I think she would have preferred to get back here on her own. Don't think she cared much for the floo."
"Can't say I blame her," Harry said, "she and I would both much rather fly to get somewhere."
"I don't understand how any of you can enjoy—" Hermione began to say, but a matronly voice broke into her statement.
"Miss Granger."
All four teenagers turned their heads to watch Professor McGonagall walking down the Great Hall toward them, a letter in her hand. She stopped before where they sat and smiled kindly at them all, then purposefully at Hermione. "Miss Granger, Headmaster Dumbledore asked me to give you this."
Hermione took the letter."Thank you, Professor." Her expression reflected puzzlement, but then when a student got a letter it was typically delivered by owl, not by the head of one's house. Everyone else at the table noted the oddity in McGonagall playing post.
McGonagall nodded, her smile fell slightly, and she took a step further to rest her hand on Harry's shoulder. "I'm so terribly sorry about your cousin, Mister Potter."
Harry nodded graciously. "Thank you, Professor."
McGonagall gave his shoulder a gentle pat and she left them to their business. Harry turned at once to Hermione."Who's it from?"
Hermione tore open the envelope and pulled out the letter. The second her eyes took in the handwriting her entire energy shifted to razor-sharp acuity. "It's from Mum and Dad."
Harry immediately slid over to sit pressed closely to her side so he could lean in and read the letter over her shoulder. Hermione moved to hold the note farther to her left to make it easier for him to read it along with her.
'Hermione and Harry,
'We can't say anything about where we are, but we wanted to let you both know that the place Mr. Lupin found for us seems to be very secure. We are certain we'll be safe here, and we don't want either of you two to worry about us. Just concentrate on watching out for yourselves. We still have a family holiday to finish.
'We don't know how often we'll be able to communicate with you, but
whenever possible we'll let you know that we're still safe. Please do the same.
'Until next time, all our love,
'Mum, Dad, and Gram'
Harry let out a huge sigh of relief. Hermione looked up at him, their faces so close they could have very easily kissed, and she looked to be just as relieved as he to hear from the Grangers, if not more so. With a beautiful smile gracing her features, she wrapped her arms around Harry's neck and hugged him. Harry returned the embrace with one arm around Hermione's back while another kink in that knot in his chest unraveled. The Grangers and Gram were somewhere safe, at least for now.
"What is it?" Ron asked.
Hermione and Harry broke apart and Hermione, her face relaxed and the lovelier for it after the good news, answered, "It's a note from my parents and grandmother that they've found a safe place to lie low for a while."
"Oh, good. See? Told you Lupin would come through."
Harry gave a nod. "Of course, we won't really know how safe it actually is until this is all over and nothing's happened to them, but… still, it's good to hear that they're settled and hidden." Harry had had more than his fair share of horrible scenarios running rampant in his imagination where the group was attacked en route to their safe house.
Hermione tucked the letter into her pocket, a considerable load off her mind. "What shall we do now that we're here waiting for the term to start again? I suppose we could take back up with the wandless magic."
Ron groaned. "Please, no. The quill is never going to move, Hermione. It's best that we just accept it. Not a one of us is going to learn to do wandless magic. It would have been wicked if we had, but it won't happen."
"You don't know that," Hermione countered.
Ron gave her a patented 'are you completely touched in the head?' look.
"We spent half of last term wasting hours of our free time staring at our quills like a bunch of bloody idiots. Half the school thought we'd lost our collective marbles."
Hermione's lips pursed but just when she looked ready to launch into another
classic Ron/Hermione argument she calmed down and said coolly, "All right then, what do you suggest?"
"It's the holiday. I suggest we don't do anything that might even remotely resemble any kind of work."
Hermione's mouth opened and closed soundlessly a moment as she visibly tried not to get into it with Ron, but compelled by her nature to protest his laziness and the suggestion that she do the same.
Harry reached over and touched her hand. It distracted her from getting into it with Ron. When she wasn't on the cusp of a row anymore, Harry directed his words to Ron placatingly. "You know Hermione can't just do nothing.
She wouldn't be Hermione if she kicked back and lazed away the day without accomplishing something."
"Tell me about it," Ron grunted, "drives me nearly mad. Just proves that she was always better suited for you than me."
Hermione's fight to keep from bickering left her in a rush at Ron's off-hand remark, and she cast Harry a soft, demure smile. Harry smiled back and withdrew his hand.
"Surely we can think of something," Ginny said.
When Hermione didn't offer up another recommendation the four returned to their morning meals, content for the time being to take things one at a time and make up their activities as they went along.
Chapter Fifty Five
Original Author Notes -
A/N: Wow, so much to comment on in this author's note.
First of all, I want to say a heart-felt and sincere thank you to everyone who noticed that my story had been plagiarized on and drawing it to my attention. I had emails, reviews on portkey, I read scathing reviews of the thief's post of MY first chapter on hpff, and at least half a dozen people (that I know of) reporting it as abuse… all within a matter of hours of the stolen chapter being posted. To be honest, I didn't get the chance to be truly incensed or furious about it because I was too busy being touched and amazed by the prompt reaction of my readers to safeguard my work. Thank you all so very, very much. This is what makes the online fanfic community so great.
Secondly… I have a confession to make. Many of you have made the offhand comment that you would be interested in buying any book I might publish.
Well, truth time… I just took it as flattery and a compliment dressed up in a different suit. I am working on an original story, but I didn't have any grand scheme to try and publish it. The fact is, I don't believe I'm good enough to be a published author. But after all your outpouring of support, I'm willing to entertain the crazy notion that maybe someday I could try… So, if you actually want to be informed if (and that's a BIG 'if') I ever publish a book, just provide your email, either in your review or email it to me personally. I'll start keeping a list, because on the slim chance I make it as a published author someday, I never want to forget the first 'fans' I had (meaning
readers of all my fanfiction in all my beloved fandoms). Now, on to the chapter.
After a fair bit of the late morning spent lobbing ideas back and forth on how they were to spend their day at Hogwarts (since anything academically productive was banned from even being discussed), the quartet ended up wandering the castle. It was the only thing they could settle on without someone being excluded.
But as it happened, just meandering through the school ended up being rather informative. They were able to do an improvised roll-call of the teachers and students who were staying over the Christmas holiday at Hogwarts. That was useful information. After everything Harry and Hermione had been through, they began to look at everything for how it could be considered useful information. Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Pomfrey were already confirmed presences within the familiar walls, but after walking around the halls they were able to add Snape, Flitwick, Hagrid, and Sprout to the list of professors spending their holiday at the school.
Naturally, some were more welcome sights than others, but even knowing that Snape was there could end up being useful. Most of the professors they saw were passing figures, more apt to be in their private rooms or socializing with one another if not expected to be teaching, but the four friends did spend a couple of hours at Hagrid's visiting and bringing him to speed on everything that had happened in the past few days. The enormous groundskeeper was almost apoplectic about what had happened to Harry's family and he was downright aggrieved for the Grangers having to leave their homes for their own safety, but beyond that it was nice to sit down and chat with Hagrid.
Of the other students staying the Christmas holiday at Hogwarts, their own house seemed to be scantily represented, though that small number looked to be representative of the trend in each of the houses for each of the years. Whereas last Christmas most everyone had stayed at school because of the tournament, this year's Christmas crowd was dismally small. The corridors were largely empty, but it made keeping track of whom among their same house, same year was spending the holiday at Hogwarts much easier.
Of course, Hermione's roommate Lavender was there, and her decision to stay the Christmas holiday at the school became a lot clearer when it turned out Oliver Wood was at Hogwarts, too. Ginny, who had kept her ear pressed to the rumor mill far more than the trio, did say that the pair seemed to be
getting pretty serious. Serious enough for both to sacrifice Christmas with their families so they could be together. Passing the library they spotted Ravenclaw Anthony Goldstein catching up on some recreational reading, and at lunch they saw Hannah Abbot sitting with some fellow Hufflepuffs, though Hufflepuffs in the year ahead of their own. Kevin Whitly waved at them once in the hallways, possibly on his way to the bath if the bundle under his arm should prove to be a towel and robe. No one was happy to see that Draco Malfoy was also at Hogwarts for the Christmas holiday, but on the upside there was no sign of his mentally challenged henchmen Crabbe and Goyle.
That would have to make the Slytherin snob more bearable.
After lunch, while Ron and Ginny were unpacking their things, Harry and Hermione went up to the owlery to visit Hedwig, who was very happy to see Harry and gave his ear an affectionate nibble. The snowy owl even gave Hermione a little nip on the finger when Hermione reached out to stroke her soft breast feathers.
A stop at Dumbledore's office yielded no further information about the Death Eaters who had attacked the Dursleys and killed Dudley, and in fact the headmaster confessed he was skeptical that anything would be found. From all indications, the Death Eaters who left the Dursley house and family in such ruins had been too mindful of themselves to leave behind anything that might allow the ministry to track them back to their lord. There was still the possibility something would turn up that had escaped notice before, but Dumbledore didn't peg too much hope on that. Needless to say, Dumbledore had not been encouraged by the continued lack of fruitful reports from the Aurors on the site of the attack. It was disheartening, but not wholly unexpected. Voldemort had evaded capture for eleven years before he was bested by a special baby, and it was fair to assume that that incident had taught him a lesson or two on caution. Voldemort wasn't dangerous because he was stupid.
On their way back from Dumbledore's, Harry and Hermione met Ron and Ginny in the corridor just as the Weasleys were off to the owlery to write their mother a letter to assure her that everyone was fine and safe and that she could stop her worrying (for what good it would do). Hermione begged off a second trek to the blustery cold owl tower in favor of the library… Harry opted to go with her rather than with Ron and Ginny. They stopped over at the Gryffindor tower so Hermione could get her things and they spent easily three hours in the library. With the castle so sparsely populated they took the liberty of slightly transfiguring one of the wood-backed chairs into a wide, comfy armchair that they squeezed on to together. With Madam Pince counted among those teachers not staying over the holiday at Hogwarts there wasn't much chance they'd be caught. Hermione ended up partially on
Harry's lap while she thumbed through the big cat book he'd given her for Christmas, and Harry was content to spend the rest of the evening cooped up in the library, so long as Hermione didn't want to change their seating arrangements. He even managed to learn a few things, though he discovered that he tended to remember more about the lions than, say, the tigers or cougars.
The four friends met back up at dinner, Ron and Ginny red-faced and breathless from a quick kip over to the Quidditch pitch for a bit of airborne fun and Harry and Hermione straight from the library. Ron stated in no uncertain terms that Harry was expected and ordered to join him out on the pitch some time soon, the cold be damned. He hardly had to twist Harry's arm to get him to promise to cede to his demands. All in all, things were getting back to a state of normalcy, or as normal as things could get given the circumstances.
After dinner they congregated in the Gryffindor common room. When they first got back to the room they found Oliver and Lavender sitting close together on the couch in front of the fireplace, but once the older couple had company they got up to excuse themselves and made for the portrait hole.
As Lavender was passing by Hermione, Hermione caught her arm to stop her. The older girl looked curiously at Hermione as she leaned in and said softly, "Harry and I transfigured one of the library chairs this afternoon so it's really cozy and fits two nicely."
Lavender beamed. "Thanks, Hermione." Shortly, they had the common room to themselves.
Ron looked after Oliver and Lavender while Ginny disappeared, dashing up the stairs to her dorm room. "Well, why'd they up and leave like that?" Ron asked.
Hermione snorted. "Honestly, Ron, even you can't be that dense. It's obvious they wanted to be alone. And the four of us come barging in… not very romantic."
Ron's face screwed as he thought on that.
Harry led Hermione over to the now vacant couch and pulled Hermione down to sit next to him. Hermione put aside her bag on the cushion space to her right and snuggled into Harry's side, her legs tucked up so her feet were practically under her bum. Their locked hands, fingers entwined, were resting atop Harry's thigh.
Ron eyed them as he came around to the sitting area. "I see the lack of privacy doesn't stop you two."
"Well, we don't know exactly what Oliver and Lavender were about to do when we busted in," Hermione countered. "Might be they had a bit more than just snuggling in mind."
Before Ron could spout a rejoinder to that Ginny came bounding down the stairs to her girls' dorm room with a letter in hand. Ron went over to the armchair beside the couch and dropped down into it. Ginny lay down on the rug on her stomach right in front of the fire and opened her letter.
"What have you got there?" Ron asked with a nod toward the note.
"It's an owl post from Seamus I got right before we came back to Hogwarts; I haven't had a chance to read it yet," Ginny answered easily as she smiled and read the letter, her feet swinging in the air behind her.
"Ugh… Ginny… what do you see in that bloke?" Ron groaned.
Ginny sent her brother a scowl. "Seamus is a really great guy, and a year ago, before I fancied him, you would have agreed with me."
"Sure, he's a good laugh, but he's not nearly good enough to be dating my little sister."
Ginny went from glowering to smiling. "Ron, that was slightly sweet of you to say."
"Well, he's not," Ron grumbled, then he came to greater attention and turned to look toward Harry. "How did we both end up having this conversation?"
Harry chuckled. "I don't know."
Ginny turned a puzzled look to Harry."You talked to someone about Seamus not being good enough for me?" She looked slightly wounded by the thought, as though she'd counted on having Harry and Hermione on her side in this Seamus battle. Hermione was a bit curious herself; she'd never heard Harry say he actually disapproved of Ginny dating Seamus, much less any clue as to with whom he might have been discussing it.
Harry gave a wry half-smile. "No, ah, actually, I kind of told Ron that he wasn't good enough for Hermione."
Hermione fought a smile, because Ron was in the room and his feelings had
to be considered. Still, she'd never heard this story before. "You did?"
Harry glanced at her and barely blushed. "Uh… yeah. Back when we had that big row."
"He screamed it at me, actually, right before he busted out those windows." Ron gave a self-deprecating chortle, ready to have a good laugh about the whole situation when it had not been the least bit amusing at the time. "But then, he fancied himself the only one fit enough for you even then, back when the two of you were being daft about it all."
Ginny grunted agreement.
Hermione almost giggled and traced the fingertips of her free hand up Harry's forearm. He shivered and she grinned at what her merest touch could do to him. "We were daft."
"I didn't fancy myself fit for Hermione," Harry argued to Ron's remark, "I still
don't."
"Honestly?" Hermione asked, slightly taken aback by Harry's words. He'd said as much to her at Christmas, of course, but still an insecure part of her found it hard to believe that Harry would think himself unworthy of her.
When it was the complete opposite if it was anything. She realized, as she looked at him, that she'd truly thought the conversation they'd had at her grandmother's would banish any notion of the sort from his mind. The idea that Harry Potter wasn't good enough for plain Hermione Granger… their one talk should have been plenty enough to set him straight on the matter. After all, it shouldn't take much to make one see something glaringly obvious… if it was the truth.
Harry looked at her, almost stunned that she could think otherwise. "Do you even have to ask? Come on, Hermione, you're, well… you're amazing. I'm not nearly fit for you, you know I believe that, and to be honest I'm a bit worried one day you'll figure that out." The underlying distress in his tone said the rest that he had not vocalized… that he was scared Hermione would 'come to her senses' and leave him.
In that moment, her love for him was all-consuming, even as it burned and compelled her to stop the ache that his fears made them share. Hermione leaned in and kissed Harry on the cheek in an effort to allay his concerns. "One, there's no chance of that happening. And two, if either of us is 'dating above their station' so to say, it's me."
Harry made a sour face.
Hermione just shrugged in a helpless gesture of apology and affection. She saw no reason to pursue the subject further. They'd been over this ground before, Harry knew she saw him as more than she justly deserved by all rights, and it seemed neither would be so easily dissuaded from their convictions by a few words to the contrary. She knew she still held to her prior beliefs, and Harry had just confirmed he did the same.
Ginny sat up and crossed her legs. "Truthfully," she mused aloud, "most of the wizarding world would agree with Hermione on that one. Not me, of course, so don't go taking that the wrong way, Hermione, I mean in the eyes of the rest of the wizarding world…"
Hermione waved it off without offense; she knew what Ginny meant and that she wasn't speaking for herself when she reflected on the public view of Harry. Being the girlfriend of a famous young man, Hermione was pretty well acclimated to disassociating private Harry from public Harry Potter and how she related to each in the mass's eyes.
"But to be fair, Hermione does have an impossible task in that. I'm not sure who the public would see as being a fit match for Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived."
"But that's not me," Harry insisted, rather vehemently to Hermione's slightly startled surprise. "That whole Boy Who Lived stuff is rubbish. All of it. All those things people say about the famous Harry Potter, it's about a person who doesn't exist. If they knew me at all, the real me, they'd never question whether Hermione was good ."
There was a very simple solution to the dilemma, in Hermione's mind. "Let them have the famous Harry Potter," she said gently to calm him, "he makes little difference. I'm in love with the real Harry, and as long as I have him I'm happy," 'and lucky' she thought additionally to herself, "and everyone else in the wizarding world can sod off."
Harry took a measured breath and looked at her, searching her face for the truth of her assertion. Hermione smiled to show him she meant it and tracked her fingers once again up his forearm, ending her traveling hand's journey by curling it around his upper arm and giving him a miniature hug.
The flicker of panic and distress left his eyes and he almost smiled.
"Do I need to remind you two that some of us just ate?" Ron broke into their moment with a whine.
Hermione loosened her hold on Harry's arm and looked toward Ron. Ginny was casting her brother a scathing look for his intrusion on Harry and Hermione's 'moment'. "You have to be about the most intolerable git in the universe. You keep on like that and you're likely to die a lonely old man."
"Hey, I'm sure there are plenty of girls who can appreciate a no-frills straight- talker, someone who's a real 'what you see is what you get' bloke," Ron protested. "That'll be the type of girl for Ronald Weasley. No games or riddles or sap. Surely those kinds of girls exist." Ron's certainty wavered. "Right?"
Ginny took pity on her older brother. "Somewhere, probably. Best of luck with that."
"As I don't have any big brother hang-ups, I imagine it's all right for me to say that I think you and Seamus make a wonderful couple," Hermione said to Ginny.
Ginny smiled brightly. "Thanks, Hermione."
Ron looked at Hermione as though betrayed. He touched his chest with one hand. "That hurt," he said tragically, though there was a faint hint of teasing in his voice. Ron looked next at Harry. "Come on, Harry, back me up here. Tell Ginny what a wanker Seamus is."
Harry looked between Ron, Ginny, and then Hermione, each in turn watching him for his response, and finally Harry said, "I'm going to have to abstain on this one."
Ron narrowed his eyes at Harry, again with that trace of humor in his tone,
"Traitor."
Ginny looked pleased as she turned back to reading her letter. Hermione chuckled, drew her hand out of Harry's, and pulled out the
Everything Fact Book on Big Cats from her bag. She dragged it up into her lap, her bookmark wedged in the chapter about lions. She opened the book to her marked place and idly studied the pictures and their accompanying captions.
"Do not tell me that's a book for class," Ron wailed.
Hermione smiled and looked up. "No, it's a Christmas present from Harry." She picked it up so Ron could see the cover. Ron's expression changed at once. "Ahhhh… good one, Harry."
"Did you two get anything good for Christmas?" Hermione asked as she set the book down in her lap again. Surely Christmas apart from the disruption courtesy of Voldemort (which presents bought well before the incident would have to be) would be a safe, enjoyable topic of conversation for everyone present.
Ginny looked up from her letter and beamed."I did! I got this outfit fashioned after the clothes that the witch dragon-keepers wear when they're not on the job. It's really wicked! Made of dragon leather and snug and very flattering. It's the only gift I got this year, aside the standard sweater Mum made; everyone in the family had to pitch in to buy it for me, but I absolutely love it. I can't wait for Seamus to see it."
"If Seamus sees you in that outfit I really will have to hurt him, Ginny," Ron stated. When Ginny threw him a dark look Ron held up his hands helplessly. "I'm just saying, if he sees you in that he'll pay for it with pain."
"How about you, Ron?" Hermione asked before the siblings could start in on another fight.
"Yeah, I got a new broom from Cousin Wulgrig! The man might stink, but at least he gives good presents. It's just a Cleansweep, nothing new or anything, but it was a better model than my old broom and it has my name engraved on the handle."
"What about you, Harry? What did you get?" Ginny asked.
"Oh, and remind me later Mum made a sweater for you, too," Ron tossed in then gave a wave for Harry to go on with answering Ginny's question.
"Uh… well, I got a football from Jake. And, uh…" Harry started to blush. Hermione, too, started to color when it became obvious of which present Harry was thinking.
"What?" Ginny asked eagerly, catching on to the fact that this was going to be something really interesting from her friends' reactions.
"Do I really have to say?" Harry groaned. "It's horribly embarrassing."
Ron's curiosity was piqued now, too. "Can't be that bad. What did you get?"
Harry slouched where he sat, dejected in defeat."Gram got me a… box of condoms."
Ron and Ginny stared blankly at Harry. "What are condoms?" Ginny eventually asked.
Harry looked imploringly to Hermione, leaving it to her to explain. She blushed a new shade of scarlet and made a face when Ron and Ginny looked at her. "Well… they're… you see, muggles can't cast a contraceptive charm when they have sex, so to prevent unwanted pregnancy muggles use condoms." She stopped to clear her throat. "They're, uh… little rubber bags a bloke puts on his… you know."
It took all of two seconds to click. Then Ron began to laugh raucously. Ginny joined him a second later. Ron hooted and cackled and laughed until he was holding his sides in pain. "Oh! That's… muggles! That's a great laugh. Dad would die laughing if he knew about condoms!" He wiped his eyes and said through his laughter, "Have you got them here, Harry? Let's have a look at them."
Harry paled. "I most certainly will not!"
Ginny, in a fit of giggles, said, "Oh, really, Harry, we don't want to see you model one, but… come on! Little… rubber…" she burst into peals of laughter that robbed her of speech.
"Have to… have to… see this," Ron gasped.
"It's not funny; I opened them right in front of the whole family. Jake and Miranda saw them!"
"Oh," Ginny got control of herself, though she was still smiling broadly despite her best efforts, "were they mad?"
Harry just made a tortured face.
Hermione smirked. "No… they were really good about it. Gave Gram more grief than they did us. It's just like her to do something like that."
"Your grandmum must be a real prankster, Hermione, to give Harry little rubber willy slickers for Christmas," Ron said with an arm around his ribcage.
Harry snorted and began to barely smile, despite himself. "Gram is a character, I'll give you that."
While Ron and Ginny were making fun of the muggles and their primitive way of doing things, Hermione took Harry's hand to get his attention. When he looked at her she meaningfully touched the medallion through her clothes in
question. Harry looked down at her hand framing the shape of the medallion, understanding flared, and he gave a small smile and nodded.
Hermione gave Harry's hand a squeeze and looked toward Ron. "And Harry also gave me this," she said clearly and drew the medallion out of her clothes to hold it up.
Ron's laughing trailed off, he looked, then all laughter stopped instantly and his eyes went wide. He shot out of his chair and strode over to where the couple was sitting. He bent down to look closely at the medallion, even as he took it from Hermione's hand to examine it even closer. Hermione had to lean forward to keep from getting the chain pressed into the back of her neck. Ron gaped at the gold disc. "Wow," he breathed, "that's to Harry's vault?"
Rather than comment on how it would be stupid to think Harry would give her a medallion to someone else's vault, she answered, "Yes."
Ron shook his head in wonder, then he slid a sidelong look at Harry."You know, mate, the goblins at Gringotts will figure her to be your wife with this thing."
"Since she will be my wife, that's not a problem." Ron's jaw dropped open. "Huh…?"
"I asked Hermione to marry me." "You did what?"
"Asked Hermione—"
"I heard what you said. I just can't believe it. What did she say?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "I said I'd think about it and consider the contending offers before I got back to him. What do you think I said, Ron?"
Ron dropped the medallion and stepped back. "Well, I, I just… Merlin's beard! You're going to marry Harry?!"
"You all right, Ron? You look like you're freaking out a fair bit," Hermione said in concern as she absently touched the medallion, once more resting back in its proper place between her breasts.
"I'm not freaking out. Who's freaking out? Not me. No freaking out for Ron
Weasley.
"Aren't you both too young to get married?" "We're not getting married tomorrow."
"Right…" Ron nodded, "course not, that was stupid of me." He raked a hand through his hair, causing it to stand up in places, and with the fire's light dancing through it from behind him his hair seemed to be a real flame itself. He paced to the fireplace and back while Ginny sat on the floor looking up at her brother.
"Ron?" Hermione ventured, not sure how to take his reaction to the news.
"I'm fine. I am… I'm just… it's taking a minute to really sink in." After a few seconds he stopped and turned to consider both of his friends. He pointed to Hermione. "You're going to be Harry's wife." Then he pointed at Harry. "You're going to be Hermione's husband."
"That's usually how it works," Hermione quipped.
"Right. That's… wow. Just… wow." "Good wow or bad wow?" Harry asked.
Ron seemed to consider that a moment. "Good wow. Yeah, definitely good wow. Whoa!, but wow."
"Ah, well, glad that's clear as muddy water," Hermione muttered.
"Processing here," Ron said while pointing at his chest emphatically. He looked truly pained for a moment, then he gave a conclusive nod and looked up as though through with a counsel meeting. "You two should get married. You know? I mean, Harry's the only one that can put up with all of Hermione's Hermioneness, and Hermione will keep Harry from getting a big head from all the fame."
"Well, with that ringing endorsement," Hermione said, but it was with a smile. "We know it's… 'atypical' for people our age to get engaged, but… you're right, in your buggered way of coming at it… Harry and I are best suited for each other."
Ron nodded. "Right. No other way it could have gone, really."
Ginny smiled devilishly and said, "I think that was Ron's way of saying that
the two of you were meant to be together."
Ron rounded on his sister defensively. "There's no reason to get ugly, Ginny. You know I'd never say anything so… mushy. Blugh. And aren't you just a little shocked right now?"
"No… but Hermione told me about Harry proposing earlier this morning. I thought it was great news."
Ron mulled that over as he nodded. "It is. Yeah, it is. Just… surprising, is all." With that, Ron turned back to Harry and Hermione."Good for you two."
"Yeah, congratulations, Harry," Ginny threw in past her brother.
"Thanks," Harry said earnestly, and Hermione threaded her fingers through Harry's while she curled her other hand around the crook of his elbow.
Ron sat back down in the armchair and brushed both hands through his hair, which thoroughly ruffled any hair that may have missed his earlier one- handed swipe. "Blimey. Harry and Hermione getting married.
"So do your parents have any idea about this?" Ron asked with a gesture between Hermione and Harry to define 'this'.
Hermione smiled faintly as she recalled that dreadful yesterday… and the spot of utter happiness in the midst of so much ugliness. She glanced shyly at Harry and then answered, "We didn't outright tell them, not about deciding to get married, but they were across the yard from us when Harry asked me, they were watching us the whole time, and I think it's fair to say they sussed out what was going on."
"And how did they take it?" Ginny asked warily. Happy for her friends or not, she didn't seem to expect Hermione's parents to take kindly to their fifteen- year-old daughter consenting to marriage to a fifteen-year-old boy. Truly, it would be without the expectations of any teenager to hope for a warm reception to such a life-changing decision at such a tender age.
"They didn't say anything against it when we rejoined them. Not that I expected they would. My parents really like Harry."
"They do?" Ginny asked hopefully, sounding much more cheerful to at least know that there hadn't been some ugly family drama precipitated by the marriage proposal.
Hermione nodded. "Mum hugs and kisses him like he was her own, and Dad
even calls Harry 'son' sometimes."
Ron glanced at Harry with a dubious 'is that true' lift to his eyebrows. Harry offered a sheepish shrug and crooked smile for verification. "I really like Hermione's mum and dad; they're really great people. I've grown very… attached to them."
Hermione pressed her lips together as she watched emotions flickering over Harry's features as he spoke of Jake and Miranda. She could read Harry well enough to understand that when he said he was 'attached' to them, it was the closest he'd yet been able to bring himself to admitting that he loved her parents in some measure. Maybe even saw them as a substitute for the parents he'd never known (never a replacement, of course, but a substitute).
"Well, that's a load off not having to worry about the in-laws then, eh?" Ron provided with a smirk.
"Yeah," Harry returned in a distracted voice, from Hermione's guess still thinking about Jake and Miranda and how far he had come with them in the last year.
"Can't imagine my mum would be at all thrilled if I owled her today and told her that I was going to marry some girl, even if it was a girl like Hermione. Just would not go over well at all in our house. Mum would probably assume I'd knocked her up or—" Ron suddenly stopped and shot a look over at Harry, a look that went from shocked to… one of mounting fury.
"Harry… you didn't—" "Huh?"
"Of course he didn't, Ron," Hermione snapped peevishly.
Harry looked slightly baffled but increasingly insulted as he looked between his two friends and caught up to the implied gist conversation. "Didn't what? Get Hermione pregnant?! No!" Harry leveled a sharp glare at Ron for the insinuation.
Ron held up his hands. "Hey, don't get cross, it's a fair question!"
"Fair and incredibly uncouth, but the answer is no," Hermione replied curtly.
"Right… sorry I even brought it up."
Ginny was making a face as she sat in silence thinking through the little spat,
Seamus's letter curled on the floor between her legs. "You know," she intruded on the recent truce, "Ron brings up a point, clumsy and rude as it was in its execution. When this gets out, about you two getting engaged, a lot of people are going to assume that's what did happen." To Harry and Hermione's continued disgruntled looks, the younger Weasley shrugged and said, "Let's face it, there aren't a whole lot of reasons for two people your age to seriously contemplate marriage unless it's because the girl's found herself in a family way."
Harry looked over at Hermione and made his decision quite quickly."Then we won't tell anyone; it'll stay between the four of us and Hermione's family."
"Well, and Dumbledore," Hermione added off-handedly, "but I don't think there's much danger that he's going to be whispering it to people in the loo."
Ron snorted.
Harry nodded in agreement, then he continued, "It's probably safer for Hermione that way, too. If Voldemort was to find out what Hermione meant to me… it can't end well, and I won't risk it." Harry stopped and frowned as he turned the subject over in his head. "Of course, there's the chance that Voldemort or one of his followers could get the truth of the medallion I gave Hermione out of the goblin I bought it from, or any goblin overseeing my account that happens to notice Hermione's been given full access, but there's little we can do about that now. But best we don't let it spread any farther than we possibly can."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"In our favor, Gringotts goblins are notoriously tough nuts to crack when it comes to bank security. They wouldn't even tell their spouses about a client. Their work ethic is nothing if not impeccably observant of regulations controlling banking practices," Hermione noted, "so I wouldn't think the goblins at Gringotts are really much of a risk."
"Good," Harry said plainly. "One less to worry about, then."
"If You Know Who finds out about you and Hermione, it won't be from one of us," Ron said resolutely. Ginny nodded firm agreement.
Without the need for further assurances, Hermione and Harry believed them completely and had full faith that they would keep their word.
With things settled and back to status quo amid the four, they each agreed it was getting late and that they should retire for the night. Harry and
Hermione bid one another farewell and the girls split from the boys to head up to their separate bedrooms. Ginny, being in a different year than Hermione, slept in a different dorm room, and Lavender was still out with Oliver, so Hermione reached her dorm room and its five beds to find herself the only occupant. Harry's Quidditch shirt was still lying on her bed where she'd tossed it that morning. She smiled to herself as she put away her things, changed out of her clothes, and put on the maroon and gold shirt that she'd appropriated as sleep attire. She brought the material to her nose, breathed in deeply, and closed her eyes briefly when she found that it still smelled of Harry.
Hermione crawled contently into bed and lay on her side, trying to fall asleep.
An hour later, she knew it was going to be a long night waiting for sleep to come. Crookshanks had joined her well into her efforts to doze off, and he lay curled at the foot of her bed purring lightly as he cat-napped. Usually, the rhythmic purring helped her fall asleep, Crookshanks was like having her own personal white noise stereo, but not tonight. Her cat purred on but Hermione remained sleepless. His eyes opened every time Hermione changed position in bed to try and get comfortable enough to go to sleep.
She ended up tossing and turning quite a bit. Hermione finally decided it was hopeless when Crookshanks tired of her restlessness and jumped off her bed to find a more accommodating place to snooze.
With a final grunt of frustration, Hermione turned onto her back and stared up in the direction of her bed canopy, lost in the night's shadows.
Then she knew what she had to do if she harbored any hope of a decent night's sleep.
Hermione tossed back the covers and got out of bed. Out of habit, she grabbed her wand from the nightstand next to her bed. Dressed only in Harry's shirt, she left her dorm room, descended the stairs, crossed the empty common room, and went up the stairwell to the boys' dorm room. There she became careful and mindful of being silent. When she reached her destination, she pushed open the familiar wood door and peered inside. She heard Ron snoring before she was able to make out anything with her eyes, but as soon as her eyes were adjusted enough to the darkness of the room she crept inside and made for Harry's bed.
She half expected him to be asleep, but she didn't startle either when an errant sliver of moonlight reflected off Harry's cat-enhanced retinas when she neared his bed. He was watching her approach, and when Hermione reached out to feel her way around his bed she discovered Harry already holding the
covers open for her.
With a grin, she set her wand down on the nightstand next to his and slipped into the warm blankets with him. She immediately shifted closer to him.
Harry dropped the blanket around them and looped his arm around her back to draw her closer.
"Couldn't sleep?" he whispered in a low, absolutely disarming hushed voice. For a moment, it robbed her of rational thought.
Hermione shook her head and brought up her hand between them to trace her fingers over his chest, covered by his shirt's thin layer of cotton. "I like sharing a bed with you," she confessed with a sigh.
Harry's arm around her tightened momentarily. "Me too."
Hermione absently drew patterns over his chest with her fingers, mindless and content. She was already feeling closer to sleep than she had been in the entire hour she was tossing and turning in her own bed. It said so much of the peace that Harry could bring to her just by being with her. Her eyes closed partway as she fingered nameless lullabies on his skin.
Harry's breathing changed and he took his arm away from being draped over her to still her hand with his own. "Better stop that."
"Hmmm?"
"What you're doing with your hand. I… like it too much."
Hermione blushed in the darkness."Oh." She kept her hand from idle wandering, but mentally she was cataloguing. She best remember what things Harry 'liked too much'… one day there would be no reason she couldn't do those things and more to him.
The thought sent a wild thrill through her and she had to restrain herself from sighing expansively. If her mindlessly trekking fingers made him respond, there was little question that a breathy sigh exhaled right into his chest would only make matters worse.
Harry returned his arm to its previous place around her body and Hermione snuggled closer. Harry gave a muffled grunt when she pressed into the evidence of just how bewitched he'd been by her fingers, but Harry tugged her flush against him all the same.
Hermione felt a slight smile fixed at the corners of her mouth. She was the
very definition of comfortable, far more comfortable than she'd been in her dorm room. She looked forward to the day when she and Harry could share a bed without the need to sneak around about it. It would be nice not to have Ron's snoring in the background, either.
"Mione?" Harry barely breathed.
"Mmmm?"
"I'm sorry."
Hermione's smile slipped and her eyebrows drew together. "For what?" Harry was lying very still. "For when I asked you to marry me."
A lance of panic and pure, white-hot ache raced through her chest in a split- second. Confusion warred with devastation as she struggled to wrap her head around this sudden, drastic change. "What?" she asked in a thin voice.
Perhaps hearing the impending anguish in her voice, his hold on her tightened. "Oh, no, I don't mean that. Merlin, I'd never regret asking you. I mean, I'm sorry for when I asked you."
"Oh… I'm afraid I don't follow." "Well, I think I botched it."
Hermione frowned in the darkness, even more confused if it were at all possible.
"Just… we were there at my aunt and uncle's, and someone had just been killed, and your family's Christmas had been ruined, and… I should have found a better time and place to ask you. I'm sorry."
Her relief was palpable. Hermione reached out and curled her arm around Harry's side. "Harry… there would never be a wrong time to ask me to marry you."
"But… it was pretty wretched timing." "I wouldn't change it for anything."
For a moment there was only silence. "Really?" "Really. And you know why?"
"No…" Harry trailed.
"Because I love you. Any place and any time you could have asked, that would have been the same."
Harry had no words in reply to that. He shifted against her, for a moment banishing all thoughts of sleep in Hermione when his body moved against hers, until Harry perched his chin atop her head, in the process drawing her face toward his chest tenderly. Innocent and wonderful and her rightful place.
"I love you, too," Harry said in a barely audible voice; she felt it rumble through his chest more than she could actually hear it.
Hermione smiled into his chest as she began to slip toward the twilight of dreams, Harry's chin resting easily on the top of her head. One day, she'd have to tell Harry just how much she loved it when he did that.
Chapter Fifty Six
Original Author Notes -
A/N: I thought after the fiasco with the screwy formatting knocking the update schedule out of whack for a while, I'd make up for the debacle by posting again a day earlier than the schedule I usually try to keep.
Hermione was in the place that most people would naturally expect her to be, the library. After waking that morning (to Ron's chagrin when he found that Hermione had snuck into their room last night to bunk up with Harry), Ron had cajoled Harry into coming down to the Quidditch pitch after breakfast for a bit of flying. Not that Harry was kicking and screaming the whole way.
Hermione was invited to watch; she was invited to join them, but it was mostly courtesy as Ron and Harry both knew Hermione wasn't about to get on a broom unless it was a matter of necessity, and even then assuming she hadn't thought of a way to circumvent the need. Had Ginny consented to share the stands with her while the boys played, Hermione might have given in. As it was, Ginny planned to spend her morning writing a letter back to Seamus. Rather than sit alone and cold in the pitch stands, Hermione begged off to spend her morning in the library.
She was glad Harry was getting a chance to have some fun. After the Christmas day he'd had, he deserved to blow off some steam and get the cobwebs out of his head. Flying did that nicely for him, and she would not
have dreamed of dissuading Harry from going outside. The winter weather had let up and it was a bright, clear day outside. The kind of day that called to Harry.
It gave Hermione a chance to work ahead in her classes for next term, since Ron would be apt to have an epileptic fit if he saw her working on class material. It was best done out of his sight, and if he was out flying with Harry it gave her a comfortable window of time to do as she pleased, and it pleased her to do homework. She had the library to herself, which was a special treat for someone like Hermione. After a few hours reading ahead in her class textbooks, she got up and wandered the stacks, reading titles and pulling out any books that looked interesting. It seemed Hogwarts had no end of books that Hermione would like to read someday. She decided to take a few back to her room with her.
She confessed to herself that she may have gotten a bit carried away as she looked at the pile of books she ended up with on the table next to her bag that she intended to take back to her dorm room. She regarded the stack critically a moment and briefly considered shrinking them to fit easily in her bag… but Hermione had a strange aversion to tampering with books. She knew, intellectually, that reducing then restoring their size didn't damage the books in any way, but a fixed muggle part of her clung to the heavy, solid mass of a book. Books were a comfort for their heavy store of knowledge, their unyielding form as a source of information. She magicked books when she had to, but given the choice Hermione didn't care for it. Not with books.
She put back a few books she decided she wouldn't have time to get to reading anyway, and the stack that remained she deemed manageable enough for her to carry the old-fashioned muggle way.
With her bag weighted down and her arms full of books, Hermione left the library and started back toward Gryffindor tower. The corridors were even barer of students than yesterday, given the lovely winter weather outside. Hermione would not have been surprised to find out she was the only student still indoors. In any place but Hogwarts, the complete emptiness and sense of solitude in the deserted grand hallways might have been disconcerting, but Hermione didn't think about anything of that nature as she walked at an easy pace back toward her room.
It was hard to imagine a life away from Hogwarts; it had been so fundamental in her world for years that it seemed almost a part of her. She'd become so accustomed to the halls and routines and every corner and custom of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, she could only imagine the mixed exultation and anxiety when it came time to leave the
school behind. She suspected it would be much the same for Harry, though for different reasons. It had been the first place he'd ever felt comfortable calling home in his life. He had really came into his own at Hogwarts; before that he'd only been an unwanted freak tucked away in the cupboard of his aunt and uncle's house.
"Well, what have we here," a scathing voice issued unexpectedly from what Hermione had thought was an empty hallway. She startled from her thoughts and in the process dropped one of her books. It landed with a heavy thud as she spun around and saw Draco Malfoy standing in the shadow of a suit of armor, leering condescendingly at her.
Hermione scowled angrily. "What do you think you're doing, Malfoy?"
"Scaring the little mudblood out of her wits, looks like," he answered haughtily.
Hermione shook her head and turned to retrieve her book. She knelt down and found it took a bit of shuffling of the tomes in her arms before she could reach down for the dropped book.
"Dangerous time for your kind to be out alone, don't you think?" Draco asked as he pushed off from leaning against the wall and walked toward her.
"What are you on about," Hermione groused, doing her best to ignore him as she picked up the book and placed it among the others in her arms. She stood and startled to find Draco right in front of her when she turned. She stepped back and glowered at him.
"Just awfully careless of you. Here in the hall all by yourself with no one to rescue you."
"I don't have anything to fear in Hogwarts, and I can take care of myself." "I know what happened to Potter's cousin."
Hermione's mouth opened in surprise at his statement. "How…" she stammered. Dumbledore would not have told anyone who didn't have good reason to know, it wasn't in the Daily Prophet, only the ministry knew about the attack on the Dursleys. Them, and…
Hermione gasped. "Your father was part of that atrocity, wasn't he?" "Did I say that?" Draco gave a devil-may-care shrug of his shoulders and
crossed his arms impudently. "Let's just say I have my sources. But I would
think that what happened to that fat, simpering muggle would make you just a bit jumpy. After all, from muggle it's a short step to mudblood."
"Are you threatening me?" Hermione growled.
"I don't have to," Draco clipped back. "The Dark Lord's out for blood, and yours and that of your kind will be next. Can't say I'm particularly broken up about it. It's about time the filth was cleansed from the wizarding world."
Hermione tried to push past Draco, but when she moved Draco stepped to the side, blocking her path. Hermione stopped and just barely clutched her books tighter. Were it not for their presence she'd already have her wand in hand, or maybe she'd have simply slugged Malfoy in the nose to remind him just how unafraid she was of all his posturing and bluster. But with her hands full, she wasn't in a convenient position to fight back. Should she imagine an honest need to do so in the fist place, and so far she really didn't see cause for concern. She wouldn't get tied in knots by insults, least of all from the likes of Draco. It came down to the fact that the situation wasn't quite to the point where she believed she should drop everything to go for her wand. After all, it was just Draco being his usual, loathsome self and there was little real danger in that. And Draco's nature aside, this was an encounter in the halls of Hogwarts between two students of rival houses; it didn't seem feasible that anything too dangerous could transpire. Hermione trusted in the safety of Hogwarts too much to believe it. It gave her the freedom and confidence to shrug off the Slytherin's taunts and empty threats as just irritating chatter in her ear.
But trust in the sanctuary provided by Hogwarts's halls though she may, as only a devote student could (given some of the disasters that had befallen in the four and a half years that she herself had attended the school), neither was she about to let herself be fooled by the seemingly untouchable… not after Christmas morning. With the look in Draco's eyes, a newly cautious part of her, tucked in the back of her mind, feared it might come to violence shortly despite Draco's track record of being little more than a big mouth.
That kernel of doubt in her thoughts made her look closer where a week ago she would have brushed past with a closed expression. There were small details that brought her up short. She'd never seen Draco quite so… purposeful. He was often vile and cruel, but he was also a great deal of talk. Draco Malfoy was counted one of the lesser concerns at Hogwarts, in Hermione's estimations, because he'd sooner make a lot of noise than get physical. He thrived on the power of intimidation. But something in the way he was standing before her, his face set and dark… she almost believed he was hoping to go past mouthing off this time.
He was watching her with a superior look of revulsion on his sharp face, as though Hermione were a disfigured house elf. "Not even going to try and punch me this time? I'd love to see you try; I was taken by surprise last time, you know, don't think I couldn't have gotten you first if I'd known you were going to pull something as stupid as laying a hand on a pureblood.
Well, go on, then, try it now." Draco snorted when Hermione didn't move. "Not so mean when you don't have those two drooling sods fawning all over you, are you?" Draco sneered and moved a step closer. On reflex, Hermione took a step back.
"I'm not scared of you, Malfoy," Hermione said lowly.
Draco did not take kindly to that defiance. "You should be scared. You should be pissing yourself to know the Dark Lord and his followers would love nothing more than to bathe the floors in your dirty blood."
"Speaking for yourself there too, are you?" Hermione bit back even as she took another half-step away from Draco. This was about to get out of hand. What was Draco playing at?
"Well now, if I were in league with Voldemort you might think to be very, very careful what you said. Might get back to some very unfriendly ears."
"You're just a cowardly little boy, Malfoy, you'd break down in tears if you had to face Voldemort, even if it was to lick his feet." Then Hermione made a very, very big mistake. Intent on getting out of the hallway and back to Gryffindor tower before the situation escalated, she plowed past Draco.
When she passed him Draco hissed furiously and unexpectedly crowded her… and Hermione gasped and dropped her armload of books with a thunderous, echoing clatter when she felt Draco take her wand from her jeans back pocket.
She turned at once to face Malfoy but it was too late to snatch back her wand. He was standing a pace away with the instrument firmly in hand… and venom in his eyes.
"Foul little mudblood bitch!" Draco spat.
"Stop this right now or I'll tell the headmaster; you'll be lucky not to be expelled," Hermione returned.
Draco barked. "Ha! You think someone like me could get expelled? A word from my father to the right people and I could have your precious Dumbledore out on his arse."
"I highly doubt that," Hermione said with absolute certainty. "You underestimate Dumbledore and think too much of your pathetic father."
Draco stepped closer again and this time Hermione plainly stepped away. She was magically defenseless and Draco had his own wand as well as hers.
"I'll look forward to seeing you get yours, mudblood. The time's come when your kind pays for sullying great wizard family lines with your slutty, dirty blood." Draco then swept a look up and down Hermione's body and it made her stomach knot and her blood go cold. Draco smiled, lascivious and vicious. "Although, almost a shame to waste all that with killing you right off. Maybe the Death Eaters will have a bit of fun with you before they kill you. You're not good enough to whelp some pureblood wizard's half-breed abomination, but spreading your legs so those superior to you can have a good time before dispensing with you…" Draco stepped closer again and Hermione found her back pressed against the wall. She didn't realize she'd been so close to the wall until she bumped into it. It startled her and she clamped her lips closed around a whimper, because she wouldn't give Draco the satisfaction of thinking he'd scared her.
Hermione thought she might have to do something drastic. Draco was moving in closer, and she didn't know what he intended to do, but it wasn't just talk anymore.
Then a loud, guttural snarl tore her focused attention away from Draco's dangerous proximity. Draco's menacing leer flickered when he, too, heard the noise. He turned his head to the left to look.
Hermione glanced in the same direction he did, but the next few seconds seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. Draco went from fierce offender to scared stiff boy in a fraction of a second. He let out a cry of panic, a cry that was echoed by a bestial one of rage, and then black was lunging at Draco.
Draco moved his hand reflexively to aim Hermione's wand, but he was not nearly fast enough and he was taken down with a cry of pain and shock.
Hermione's wand skittered across the floor while Draco was pinned flat on his back.
Hermione stood back against the wall, blinking, when she finally registered what she was seeing. Draco was writhing and crying on the floor while Harry, in his panther animagus form, was standing over the blond Slytherin. Harry had his claws in Draco's upper arms… he was piercing cloth and skin and blood was smearing the floor under Draco's trapped arms.
Draco screamed and struggled. Harry roared; it folded back on them off the
hollow corridors until it seemed a thousand jaguars were screaming in combined rage. His feline muscles were taut and his body rigid with fury while Draco flailed helplessly beneath him. Harry dug his claws in deeper.
Hermione stared, wide-eyed, and truly believed she was about to watch Draco die. Harry was going to kill him, and though she knew she should stop it, she couldn't force her body to move to intervene.
Harry had his sharp teeth bared, canines poised, claws embedded in his prey, and Draco was wailing and crying uncontrollably.
Hermione opened her mouth but no sound came out.
Suddenly, Harry was flung from Draco's prone body, as though a giant had taken him by the scruff of the neck and tossed him aside like one might a misbehaving kitten. Harry screamed and twisted furiously and came down in a ready crouch, tail lashing and claws gouging the tile floor.
Hermione snapped her head to the left to see what had pulled Harry off of Draco. She saw Dumbledore running toward them, his hand lowering after tearing Harry away from Draco. Now freed, Draco was cradling his bleeding arms; once the claws had been removed they were bleeding even more heavily.
Harry screamed angrily and charged. Dumbledore's hand snapped up to stop him.
"No!" Hermione cried, but it didn't stop Harry being caught in a full body bind while in full stride. His legs locked under him and he went down, screeching indignantly but helpless to move to so much as break his fall.
Dumbledore, heedless of the black jaguar locked in a stop-action position in Hogwarts's corridors, dropped down next to Draco. Hermione rushed to Harry and knelt before him. He looked up at her, eyes alive and active even if his body was frozen and immobile. She touched his head then turned to retrieve her wand. Her only thought was to unbind Harry, to free him. He was struggling and she had to help him.
She raced to her wand where Draco had dropped it when he was tackled and closed her fingers around the wood, but no sooner had she done so than Dumbledore whirled on her. "Miss Granger!" he bellowed.
Hermione stopped cold and gaped at the headmaster.
Dumbledore was in no mood for disobedience and it radiated off of him in veritable waves. "Do not unbind Harry until I give you leave." With that unequivocal command, he turned back to tending Draco.
Hermione stood, frozen in place by Dumbledore's order, then she returned to Harry and dropped to the floor beside him. She put her one arm around him and petted his head with the other, banned from doing anything else for him. Harry was breathing rapidly and she could feel his heart racing, but she was relegated to providing him only touch for comfort while she watched Dumbledore.
Draco was curled on the floor crying. He was lying in a fair pool of blood by then. Hermione would not have thought it possible, but Draco looked even more ashen and pale than usual for the blood loss. Dumbledore let his hand hover over Draco's face and at once the boy stopped everything. He stopped writhing, he stopped crying, he stopped cradling his arms. He went supple and limp, as though comatose. He even stared upward with unblinking, vacant eyes.
Dumbledore produced his wand for the first time since coming upon the confrontation in the hallway, levitated Draco's body, and left hurriedly with him, a thin trail of blood droplets marking his exit.
Hermione didn't know what to do then, left alone in the corridor with a bound Harry. She still couldn't release him, Dumbledore had not given her permission to, and he'd been very clear that when she was allowed to do it he'd tell her in no uncertain terms. He'd left nothing open to her interpretation in that respect. Hermione could feel Harry's muscles rigid beneath her hands… he was fighting the bind.
"Don't fight it, Harry, please," she whispered. She dreaded to think of him hurting himself struggling against a hopeless cause. Maybe she would imagine him capable of breaking a body bind cast by someone else, but not Dumbledore. Her words were no use. Harry didn't seem capable of relaxing… strained, incensed sounds continued to emit from his throat and his eyes flicked in agitation, returning again and again to Hermione, while his breathing labored and his heart hammered.
It seemed a matter of seconds and at once an eternity before Dumbledore returned, without Draco. Hermione knew the Slytherin would have been taken to the hospital wing. The shiny pool of ruby blood on the floor was testament enough of that.
When Dumbledore came striding down the hallway toward them again
Hermione rose… and found herself standing between Dumbledore and Harry. Dumbledore eyed her. "Stand aside, Miss Granger."
Hermione wanted to obey, but she couldn't make her feet move. "What are you going to do to him?"
"I'm going to give him something to tear apart before he kills someone," Dumbledore answered evenly, and he beckoned Hermione to come away from Harry and stand beside him. Hermione hesitated but finally stepped over to Dumbledore.
Dumbledore then levitated Harry with a flick of his wand. Harry was an unmoving rigid shape of a cat in mid-stride but the wild sounds of protest straining from his throat were evidence of his continued heightened state of rage. Dumbledore began to walk off with Harry buoyed in the air in front of him. Without being asked to accompany them, Hermione hurried after them.
Dumbledore took his student-turned-panther into an empty classroom and said nothing when Hermione pushed in after them. Dumbledore lowered Harry's body down on his side atop the uncluttered teacher's desk. Hermione moved to go to him but Dumbledore grabbed her shoulder… rather strongly. "Don't go near him," the headmaster said bluntly.
That struck Hermione as all possible degrees of wrong. She tried to shrug Dumbledore's hand off, but the headmaster was not amused. If anything, his hand on her tightened. He literally pulled Hermione away to stand by the back wall with him, and then he gave a last twitch of his wand in Harry's general direction.
Harry sprang up on his feet with a piercing roar. His claws sank into the wood of the desk and he spun around and swiped at the blackboard for the sake of having a target. Wood splinters and chunks of blackboard went flying. Harry whirled. His claws etched deep scratches in the desktop. His claws caught on the edge of the desk and he jerked his front leg viciously. A good portion of the corner of the desk came free and hit the wall. Harry leapt down to the floor and tore at the chair behind the desk, ripping it to pieces before he finally stopped, legs braced apart and chest heaving, his back turned to them. He still looked fit to spit, but at least he wasn't tearing anything apart.
"Harry," Dumbledore ventured.
Harry whipped around and spat/hissed at Dumbledore, teeth bared dangerously and claws unsheathed. The threat was very plain to see, and in
Harry's current state very real.
Hermione broke from Dumbledore quickly, before he could grab at her again. Harry's sharp eyes followed her movement. She approached Harry as he watched her with his intense hunter's gaze.
"Miss Granger," Dumbledore said anxiously, but before he could say more Hermione dropped to her knees before Harry. Harry's curled lips relaxed to cover his teeth and his claws drew back into the pads of his paws. Harry stepped immediately to Hermione and shoved his head against her chest.
Hermione brought her arms up to hold him about the neck and shoulders. She hugged him while Harry breathed in deeply of her scent. Hermione could feel some of the tension in his body melt away as they stayed that way on the floor together.
"Harry…" Dumbledore said again, and, with his head still buried in Hermione's chest, Harry began to rumble a low, threatening growl.
Hermione looked toward Dumbledore, pleading in her eyes, though pleading for what she couldn't rightly say for she did not know. Dumbledore was watching the both of them closely, the expression on his face utterly unreadable. Hermione could not begin to guess what the headmaster was thinking… or what he would do.
Harry finally pulled his head away from Hermione's body and looked toward Dumbledore. Hermione's arms fell away from Harry's neck when Harry took two decidedly unfriendly steps toward the headmaster… then stopped when he was clearly standing between Dumbledore and Hermione.
At that display, Dumbledore tried a different tact. "Ahem… Miss Granger? If you would."
It didn't take the brightest witch to gather Dumbledore's intent. Hermione got up and moved to stand in front of Harry. He looked up at her, studying her while keeping an ear on Dumbledore's every move.
"Harry, please…"
Both of Harry's eyes ticked in Hermione's direction, he seemed to regard her a moment, then his haunch muscles bunched and he rose to his hind legs… only to straighten entirely as Harry Potter, wizard.
Harry's hand went out immediately and touched Hermione's arm, his face full of concern and fierceness. "Did he hurt you?"
Hermione shook her head, already dismissive of Malfoy at this point. She had much greater concerns right now than one particularly distasteful Slytherin. "No, Harry, he didn't, he was just saying horrible things…"
"Harry…" Dumbledore interjected for the third time.
Harry turned angry eyes on the headmaster. "Why did you stop me?"
Dumbledore's eyebrows rose incredulously at the outburst. "Need you honestly ask why I would not permit you to murder another student?"
"He was going to hurt Hermione!" Harry yelled.
"I do not condone Mister Malfoy's behavior, and he should be punished for cornering Miss Granger the way he did, but death is hardly called for."
Harry was still strung tight, Hermione could tell from the line of his shoulders and the set of his jaw. She reached out and put her hand on his arm. "Harry…" she whispered in his ear, lowly enough that Dumbledore wouldn't overhear, "mind your cat thinking."
Harry's eyes broke from Dumbledore to look quickly at her. He looked baffled at first, then understanding flared and his entire demeanor shifted… he gave Hermione an almost imperceptible nod and Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. Harry was at least taking control of his actions.
Dumbledore looked torn between fascinated, displeased, and wearied by the whole matter. When he noted that Harry was no longer on the cusp of a rage, he said, "I think the two of you have some explaining to do. We'll adjorn to my office to discuss this."
Hermione took Harry's hand and squeezed it tightly. It sounded suspiciously like they were in trouble. Big trouble. She didn't want to think what they would face when Dumbledore had them in his office.
The headmaster cast a reparo on the objects in the room that Harry had torn apart and when all was back to the state it was before Harry's tantrum, Dumbledore gestured for Harry and Hermione to precede him out of the classroom. The corridor was still empty, the students enjoying the weather outside ignorant of the mauling that had occurred only moments before within their own school.
Dumbledore sent Harry and Hermione ahead to his office while he stayed behind to clean up the mess in the corridor before anyone else saw it.