Tears In May :: Mystery Series, Part I

A/N:  I am SOOOO sorry it’s taken me so long.  This story is NOT DEAD YET!  Lol.  I’m in the middle of the biggest school project of the year right now, but fortunately, it doesn’t require much homework…er, as much homework is more accurate.  Anyway, I’ll be posting more often.

 

:  Yay, thanks!  I just think a story without a plot is just wrong by the laws of the English language…unless it’s a shaglet, then I don’t care, LOL.  (Yeah, Heaven coined that word…don’t ask)

 

Old :  Yes, I know that was very un-Hermione-ish, to say the very least, but when you’re in love, you tend to do some strange things.  Hermione was just sticking up for .  And no, nothing unknown has happened between them…yet ;)  (You’ll see)

 

:  CONFUSED!!!!!!  Too short?  Wait until the later chapters…some of those are gonna be so long you’ll really have to like the story to keep reading, lol.  I have no idea how you managed to review twice, but…oh well!

 

YurimionePotter:  Well, Voldemort doesn’t come in (directly) until a lot later.  Just hold on ;)

 

BabyHalo19, BamaSlamma29, Taself:  Keep on reading!  Thanks for reviewing!

 

And without further ado, here’s chapter 5!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Chapter 5 ~ In the Twilight of My Mind

 

Hermione didn’t sleep well at all that night.  She had a dream that she’d confronted alone in a corridor, and he turned into a giant snake and began making attempts on her life.  She must have been making noises in her sleep, because just when she thought she was going to have her head bitten off, she saw Ginny’s worried face hovering over hers.

“Are you okay, Hermione?” Ginny asked, sincerely worried for Hermione.

“Yeah,” she gasped, trying to calm herself down.  “I’ll be fine.  Thanks, Ginny.”  She threw off the covers for a while; her body was covered in cold sweat from her dream.  Her hands felt cold, and she wished more than anything that she could have had with her then.

Somehow, she managed to fall asleep again.  Hermione didn’t know why she’d had a dream about Malfoy; maybe it was his unusually placid demeanor that evening that unnerved her, but she felt that something definitely was a bit weird.  He didn’t even call her “Mudblood.”

Soon enough, though, the first rays of golden sunlight made their way through the windows of the dormitory, bringing Hermione from her unusually light sleep.  As she dressed, she resolved that she had no reason to tell about the dream.  “No reason to spoil his image of me, right?  Nobody wants a ninny for a girlfriend,” she thought to herself.  She took a bit longer than usual getting ready in order to hide the signs of her restless sleep.

Hermione forced a smile onto her face as she walked down to the common room, but the need to feign happiness faded when she saw waiting for her.  Apparently, all the other boys had gone already.

“You didn’t have to wait,” she said.

“So?” asked, his loving smile seeing straight through to Hermione’s heart.  “Are you hungry?  Everyone else already left.”

“I’m starved.  Even didn’t wait for us?” Hermione asked.

“You know ,” laughed.  “He’s the human vacuum cleaner.  Eating is the only thing that keeps him from going insane.  Well, that, and he didn’t want to be around if we started…you know…”

Hermione rolled her eyes, unable to believe could possible have such a one-track mind.  “If we go now, they won’t start saying things.  We’d better catch up before gossip does.”  grinned and nodded.  He offered his hand, and she took it happily.  They walked quickly to the Great Hall just as the Weasley were; they’d timed it perfectly.

“That was fast,” said when he saw them running over.

“Yeah,” said, “we tried to walk—HEY!” he shouted as he saw the quirky grin on ’s face.  He punched in the arm playfully as they walked through the large, wooden doors.  Hermione politely and discreetly dropped ’s hand, as she still didn’t want to attract attention.

They all sat down to eat.  Platters of food appeared—as usual—and made a hoggish spectacle of himself—also as usual—by gorging himself to a capacity unparalleled by anyone but and .  and Hermione watched him out of the corners of their eyes, taking great amusement in ’s lack of delicacy.  didn’t notice their almost-stifled giggles.

When they all finished and put down their forks, Hermione was eager as ever to get off to their first class that day.

“What do we have now?” asked, still not completely acquainted with their new schedules, even after a whole month.

“Double potions,” Hermione said.

“With the Slytherins,” finished for her.

“Oh, that’s right,” groaned.  Double potions with the Slytherins seemed to be an annual challenge for the Gryffindors, and , , and Hermione weren’t enjoying it any more than they had from the first.  “I think I’m going to ditch this—”

“You are not, ,” Hermione said shortly, pulling by the collar off to the dungeons, not giving him a second glance.  “We are all going to class, whether you like it or not.”

“I’ll take ‘not’,” said.  Hermione pretended to ignore him.  She walked him down to the dungeons, holding his collar the whole way to emphasize her point, much to ’s disapproval.  contented himself by taking Hermione’s other hand, and Hermione lightened up on a bit, feeling more at ease with at her side.

They all made it down to the dungeons a few minutes before Snape walked out of his office.  He always seemed to be able to make his way, completely invisibly, from the Great Hall into his office in a matter of seconds.  Being as Hogwarts was un-Apparatable ground, Hermione told and that she suspected the existence of some hidden passages.

Hidden corridors were, of course, nothing new to them.  In such a concealed room, had come across the Mirror of Erised in his first year.  wondered if he’d still see his parents at his side if he looked into the Mirror of Erised again, now that he and Hermione were lovers.

They took their seats and let their eyes adjust to the usual dim lighting of the dungeon.  Snape took his place by the podium and got them started making a potion that would make ink perfect for anything—it would thicken it if it was too watery, change the color to black for formal essays, or anything else appropriate.  Hermione was smiling almost maniacally just thinking of what she’d be able to do with special ink for her essays, but Harry and Ron were wondering what on Earth a potion for rectifying ink would be used for.

Hermione was paired with from Slytherin, but and were, fortunately, paired together.  They began putting the ingredients carefully into their cauldron.  After over four years of mixing potions in Snape’s class, they’d learned to be meticulous almost to the point of absurdity so as not to take any more points from Gryffindor.  Nonetheless, Snape managed to find some flaw in the Gryffindors for even a perfect potion.

“Powdered root of a mandrake, ten milligrams,” said.  measured it out on his balance and carefully poured it into the bubbling green liquid.  Next came a ground bezoar, infusion of wormwood, and an iris petal.  The potion simmered down to a purple slime, and and decided it was ready to be tested.  Snape eyed their potion warily; and knew that he always looked at their potions like that whether the potions were brewed correctly or not, so they could infer nothing.  Snatching a vial of bright pink ink from his desk, Snape strode over to and ’s cauldron.

“Your potion should be able to turn this ink black.  You are then to write a three-foot parchment on how this potion is so versatile,” he said with a growl.  “Try it.”  pulled the stopper out of the vial and poured a few drops of their potion into the vial.  Immediately, it started fizzing and bubbling.

“I don’t think it’s supposed to do that!” said quickly.  The potion rapidly burned a hole in the bottom of the vial and began eating away at the desk.  tried to move away, but the acidic potion had already found its way into his lap. 

By this time, the whole class had their eyes on .  He let out a small gasp and gritted his teeth as the potion burned a hole into his leg.  Thankfully, Snape pulled an antidote from his robes and halted the progression of the potion any further.

“As I said, this is a very unique and interesting potion,” Snape called out after a pouring a few drops of another ointment onto ’s.  “Look down the ingredients list and the order in which they are put into the cauldron.  Some of my brighter students”—he averted his eyes from and looked at —“should be able to see some very…singular aspects of a mistake in this potion.”

Almost immediately after glancing down, Hermione’s hand shot up, much to Blaise’s chagrin.  Snape rolled his eyes, but after looking around the room, finally called on Hermione.

“It’s easy to see,” she said, trying to keep the slight arrogance out of her voice in Snape’s presence, “that leaving any ingredient out or putting one in out of order can be disastrous.  I can see how from just one false move, you could end up with the Draught of Living Death, the Universal Antidote, or the Serum of Fire, which is what it seems like and created.”  Her voice took on a lightly patronizing tone as she said and ’s names.

Snape helped bandage his wound before scolding him about being more careful.  He took away ten points from Gryffindor for carelessness.  , however, didn’t smile his usual grin of satisfaction, Hermione noticed.  In fact, it looked as if was irked that Snape penalized for burning his leg.

“What’s he up to?” Hermione thought to herself.  “He’s not being the usual pain-in-the—”

“You are dismissed,” Snape shouted.  “Get out before another one of you burns yourself.  You may test your potions next week when we return.”  Everyone hurriedly gathered their books and ran out of the room, the Gryffindors especially happy to be out of Snape’s dungeon.

“Are you alright?” Hermione asked as soon as she was able to get to .

“I’m fine,” said, standing up tenderly.  “Snape’s potion made it fine.”

“Fine, huh?” Hermione asked, an attitude of disbelieving making itself heard in her voice.

“What?” asked.  “You think I’d lie to you?”

“No,” Hermione said.  “Not you, in particular.  I know how guys think—you wouldn’t tell your girlfriend if you fell from the top of Westminster Abbey and broke every bone in your body because you wouldn’t want her to worry.”  rolled his eyes but smiled at Hermione.  “That’s what I thought,” she said triumphantly.  “Let’s get you to the common room before I have to hit Arithmancy.”

“I’m surprised didn’t tease me about this,” said when they were swiftly on their way to the Gryffindor tower.  Hermione looked at him, glad that she wasn’t the only one who noticed.

“He actually looked a bit ruffled at Snape today.  Sheesh, I thought I was seeing things, but apparently not,” Hermione sighed.

“Maybe he’s actually turning human,” said, sounding more like than himself.

“No,” Hermione replied, missing his jest, “I think something’s wrong.  I don’t know.  I still think he’s a heartless son of a—”

“Bitch.”

Hermione spun around to face , who had snuck up silently behind her.

“I don’t remember asking you to follow us,” she said shortly, turning back toward the Gryffindor tower.

“I don’t remember asking you to describe me in such nasty words,” said calmly.  “I came to give you this, Potter.”  He reached into his robes and pulled out a small vial.  took it cautiously with a small “thanks”, but he was hesitant to find out what was inside.

“Just use it, Potter,” sighed impatiently.  “It’s an ointment, but it’s more powerful than that stuff Snape gave you.”

“Why are you giving me this?” asked warily.  He really didn’t trust anything in a vial from .

“Fine,” said, reaching out to take the vial.  Suddenly, though, he was hit by a bolt of lightning and pinned to the wall behind him.  He let out a surprised gasp as he saw Hermione with her wand pointed at him.

“I’m tired of your games, Malfoy,” she sneered.  “You get away from my boyfriend with your stupid antics or I’ll curse you straight back to your first year.”  Having sensed silence and an air of defeat from Malfoy, she continued angrily.  “What are you up to, Malfoy?  What’s your new game?” 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Ahhh, the plot thickens!  I’ll have the next chapter up tomorrow, for those of you who really care to read.  See?  I actually have a plot now!  Not just mindless sex!  (Ah, damn…lol)  Please review!