~A/N> I know this chapter is a lot shorter than all of my others, but this is what I have done right now and I
figured I could post it and give y'all something to read since I haven't updated this story in a week. I had to
work today and again tomorrow (my old boss asked me to help her out for a couple of days) but I will be working on the
second part of this chapter tomorrow when I get home from work. Hopefully it'll go well and I can post again
tomorrow night, if not, I have all day Friday to work on it. Please don't be angry that I left it with a cliffie,
I'm hoping it'll get you to come back and read the next chapter. Thanks for all of the great reviews!!!!!
:)
I walked out into the hall with Harry once his trial was over; he had been cleared of all charges. It had been rough on me though, all of the judges had wanted me to tell them every little detail about what had happened the day my Dad was killed. It was hell reliving that day, but thankfully Harry had sat next to me the entire time, holding my hand. I looked over towards Harry and saw that he had a troubled expression on his face.
"What's wrong Harry?" I asked.
"I...It's just...Did you notice that Dumbledore wouldn't look at me?" he asked, seemingly confused.
"No, I didn't notice. Why does that bother you so much?" I asked.
"I don't know" he answered. "I'm sure it's nothing" he said, sounding like he was trying to convince me as well as himself.
Mr. Weasley walked up to us and said that we should go with him. We followed him out of the Ministry, assuming that we'd be going back to the Burrow, but the plans had been changed. We were told that we were going to be staying somewhere else, along with the Weasley's. When Harry had asked where, Mr. Weasley had whispered "you'll see."
We had to take the Underground train to wherever it was we were going, and finally we stood in front of a vacant lot with two houses next to it. Mr. Weasley handed us a piece of paper that had "Order of the Phoenix Headquarters, 12 Grimmauld Place" on it and told us to memorize what we read. Once we assured him we had read it, he lit the paper on fire and said "now think about what you just read."
I watched as Harry closed his eyes and I did the same, and when I opened them, there stood a dilapidated old house where there was once an empty lot. Mr. Weasley led the way up to the door and tapped on it with his wand a certain number of times, and it opened up into an empty run-down foyer. I followed him and Harry into the house and looked around; it looked so dark and dreary inside that I wondered who would be able to stand living in this house.
Mrs. Weasley came out from the kitchen and gave Harry and I a big hug, congratulating us on the outcome of the trial.
"Um, not to be rude, but why are we here?" Harry asked, looking around the sitting room hesitantly.
"Because of some of the Death Eaters movements; Dumbledore felt you would be safer if we all came to stay here" explained Mr. Weasley.
"I miss the Burrow already" I said, noticing a row of house elf heads that were mounted on one of the walls. "Ugh, that's horrible!"
Harry followed my gaze and saw them too. "What...Why are those up there?" he asked.
"Long story" said Mr. Weasley, motioning us towards the stairs. "Why don't you go on upstairs and find your rooms? Ron and Ginny are already up there along with all of your things."
We both nodded at him and made our way up to the second floor, listening to see if we could hear any noises that would indicate where Ron and Ginny were. We heard Ron and Harry said "I'll see you in a little bit" and went into the room. I continued down the hall and called out "Ginny?"
"In here" she called, and I went to the door and walked in. I had been hoping the rooms would be a little better than downstairs, but these were just as depressing, if not more. Shrugging it off, I went in and laid down for a little while, feeling very tired all of a sudden.
~*~
When Mrs. Weasley called us down to dinner that night, I was shocked to walk into the kitchen and see Sirius sitting at the table. After our hello's and pats on the back, we sat down and ate a meal together for the first time. I was happy to see him again; he was my Godfather and I had never really gotten the chance to get to know him better.
We had started to discuss the Order of the Phoenix, Death Eaters and what Voldemort could be planning to do next, when suddenly Mrs. Weasley started yelling at Sirius for talking to me about it. She was talking about me like I wasn't even there, and then she made it sound as if I was not mature enough to have "that sort of discussion". After about fifteen minutes of their bickering, I lost my temper.
"You know, I am in the room, and I can speak for myself" I yelled, causing the two of them, along with everyone else at the table, to stop what they had been doing. "First Dumbledore won't look at me at all today, and now you two are arguing about something that is entirely MY decision."
"I don't think so Dear" said Mrs. Weasley "Sirius should not be telling you these things; it's none of your concern."
"Oh, I see. So, I'm the one Voldemort is out to kill, but it's none of my concern?" I knew I was being disrespectful, but at that moment, I really didn't care. "It seems to me that I have every right to know everything he and his Death Eaters do, because it does concern me. Stop treating me like a child!"
Mrs. Weasley stared at me with a very angry look on her face and said "then stop acting like one!"
I snapped; I stood up from my chair so fast that I knocked it over and stormed out of the kitchen before I said something I would regret. I made my way up to my room and before I could slam the door, Ron was there, literally in my face.
"Who do you think you are, yelling at my Mum like that?" he asked, his face red with anger. "All she's ever done is help you and you treat her like that?"
"Bugger off Ron" I snarled, stepping up to him. "She's not my Mum and she has no right deciding what I can and can not know. Sirius is my Godfather, so he should be the one doing that, not her."
"You really are full of yourself, you know that?" Ron yelled, spitting in my face as he talked. I shoved him away from me, and just as he started to advance on me, Hermione burst into the room. She ran between us to stop us from fighting, and when she saw Ron with his fist drawn back to punch me, she froze. What happened next happened in a blur.
Ron's fist had already been coming at me, and as Hermione stood in front of me, she shielded her head with her arms and screamed "please don't hurt me!"
Ron and I froze where we were as we watched Hermione's body crumple onto the floor, her arms still protectively over her head, and heard her sobbing. Her whole body was shaking as she cried and Ron whispered "what have I done?"
I hurriedly crouched down next to her and put my arms around her, but she screamed and pushed me away. I looked at Ron, scared by her reaction, and said "Hermione, you're ok. It's just Ron and me."
She lay huddled there for a few more minutes until her sobbing quieted down and then she slowly lifted her head. She looked at me first and then Ron; her eyes still held a look of fear that made me worry about her. She got up from the floor and started to back away from us towards the door, watching us wearily. When she opened the door, I took a step towards her and said "Hermione..."
She just shook her head and walked out the door, quietly closing it behind her. Ron looked at me and I looked at him; I knew he felt just as bad about what had happened as I did. "I'm sorry mate" he said.
"Me too" I said "but I don't think that will help Hermione any."
There were only four days left until we were to return to Hogwarts, and the atmosphere in the house was glum. I kept
having nightmares about Voldemort, and most of them involved him killing Hermione; I would wake up drenched in sweat
and unable to go back to sleep. Three of those nights I woke up from the nightmares to hear Hermione yelling or crying
out, and when I went to check on her, she wouldn't let Ginny open the door. The morning we were to board the
Hogwarts Express, Hermione and I both had black circles under our eyes. She still wasn't talking to me very much,
just reading as much as she could and keeping to herself. Ron apologized to her every chance he got, but she would just
say that is was no big deal and shrug it off.
Mrs. Weasley said that we would be walking to the station and that we needed to hurry up or we would be late. Mad-Eye Moody was going to bring our trunks so that we didn't have to drag them the entire way, and when we got downstairs, Sirius was in a heated discussion with Mrs. Weasley. He wanted to walk with me to the station, but Mrs. Weasley was fighting him on it. Finally, he changed into his animagus form, a big, shaggy, black dog, and bounded out the door after Ron. Mrs. Weasley, who was fuming, hustled everyone else out the door and we started our trek to the station.
~*~
I walked along with everyone else as we made our way to the station, and I made sure I kept to myself. I was still embarrassed about the way I reacted in the boy's room that day, and I was having the most horrific nightmares that I couldn't sleep more than four hours a night. I kept reliving the day my Dad attacked Mum and I, and I was afraid to close my eyes anymore. I was exhausted, and I felt really alone.
We made it to the station and made our way onto Platform 9 3/4; shortly after, Mad-Eye brought our luggage to us piled on a trolley. I went to get on the train and froze when I saw Malfoy; he looked back at me and winked, making me feel sick to my stomach. I jumped as I felt someone's hand on my back, but then I heard Harry whisper in my ear "he won't ever hurt you again, I promise."
I nodded my head, his promise somehow reassuring, and made my way onto the train. I looked at Ron and said "let's go". He nodded his head and I saw the confused look on Harry's face, and then I watched as he remembered that Ron and I were Prefects, and a strange look replaced the confused one.
"We'll try to join you in the compartment soon" said Ron, sensing Harry's unease "hopefully they won't make us stay with all of the other Prefect's the entire way."
We made our way to the compartment and were waiting for the Head Boy and Girl to come in when I heard a voice directly behind me say "are you following me Granger?"
My whole body was screaming for me to run, but I was frozen. I looked to where Ron was standing, but he was talking to one of the Prefects from Ravenclaw. Malfoy ran his finger down my arm and said "you and I should 'play' together more often, don't you agree? I know I enjoyed myself last time."
My whole body started trembling, and I closed my eyes so that I didn't have to look at him; I hated myself at that moment for being so weak.
"What the hell do you think you're doing Malfoy?" came Ron's angry voice, and I felt relief rush through my body instantly. I opened my eyes as Ron walked up to me and asked "are you ok?"
"I-I'm fine" I said, barely getting the words out.
"Go away Malfoy before I knock the shit out of you" he growled, getting in Malfoy's face. Malfoy just laughed and walked away, joining Pansy Parkinson across the compartment.
"How did he become a Prefect?" asked Ron in utter disbelief. "What was Dumbledore thinking?"
"I don't know Ron" I whispered, trying to pull myself together. I had a feeling this was going to be a long train ride.
~*~
After sitting with Neville, Ginny and Luna Lovegood the entire way to Hogwarts, I came to the conclusion that it had been the longest train ride yet. Ron and Hermione had popped in a few times, but they had to patrol most of the time. Ron had told me what Malfoy had done in the Prefect's compartment, and I wanted to hurt him, really badly. What was Dumbledore thinking, making him a Prefect?
We pulled into the station and disembarked, making our way to the carriages. I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw what was pulling the carriages; I used to think there was a spell on them that made them take us to the castle. But now, I saw that there were these...creatures that pulled them.
The Welcoming Feast was the beginning of the most horrible school term yet. We were introduced to Dolores Umbridge, a woman that had been sent by the Ministry to watch over all of the classes taught at Hogwarts, and to gauge whether Dumbledore was a fit Headmaster or not. She sat in on a different class every day, causing the teacher's to almost have panic attacks, and she always seemed to disagree with some part of their teaching technique. She had taken over Defense Against the Dark Arts, and wasn't teaching us how to defend ourselves physically; she had us reading from a book; a book that had been approved by the Ministry. She said that we didn't need to know how to defend ourselves because Dumbledore and I were lying when we said that Voldemort was back.
When I spoke up against her one day, she gave me detention, and I went thinking it was no big deal. I soon learned how wrong I was when she gave me a quill and told me to start writing 'I must not tell lies' over and over again. The quill used my own blood instead of ink, and every word I wrote was cut into the back of my hand. By the time my detention was over, my hand was killing me.
A few days later, I was surprised when Cho Chang came up and started talking to me; it was really awkward, but I didn't care at the time. I couldn't believe she was actually talking to me; it was a little uncomfortable because she kept mentioning Cedric, but it was a reason to spend time with her.
About the same time, Hermione finally seemed to be acting more like her old self, even though I could tell she still wasn't sleeping. I went down to the common room one night after a particularly nasty dream and found her sitting on the couch in front of the fire, wrapped in a blanket and staring into the flames. I walked over to the couch and sat down next to her and watched as she turned to look at me. Her eyes held such a haunted, vacant expression in them that they didn't seem to belong to a living human being.
"Are you ok?" I asked her, becoming more worried about her.
"Yeah" she whispered. "How come you're up so late?"
"I, um, couldn't go back to sleep" I explained, telling only half of the truth. "How about you?"
"I couldn't sleep either" she said. She went back to staring into the flames and I tried to get her to tell me what was going on.
"How come you can't sleep?" I asked, hoping I wouldn't make her mad.
"I..." I watched her face and she looked like it was a struggle for her to speak. I could see that her eyes were watery, and she seemed to be at war with herself. "Never mind" she said finally, as a tear escaped her eye.
"You can tell me Hermione" I said, wishing she would just say what was wrong.
"Right, I can tell you" she said, and I could hear the resentment in her voice. "That way you can say a few nice words, tell me what you think I should do, and then go on like nothing ever happened."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, a little louder than I should have.
She sat looking at me for a little while before she said anything. "Never mind Harry, you don't need to worry about me, I can take care of myself. I don't want to take up what little free time you have."
I was completely lost now. Had I done something to make her angry with me? I sat thinking over what it could possibly be, but I couldn't think of anything. "Hermione..."
I watched as she got up off of the couch and started to make her way to the stairs. I quickly jumped up and made my way over to her, feeling like I would lose her if I didn't stop her. I grabbed her arm as she was just about to go up the first step and she turned to me, fire now flashing in her eyes as she said "don't touch me."
I immediately let go and took a step back from her, completely confused and hurt by her behavior. She turned back towards the stairs and went back up to her room while I stood there feeling as if I had just lost the most important thing in my life.