The Dragon
by Jardyn39
Part Three of "The Apprentice Piece"
Chapter 6: A Distant Growl
It was late on Sunday morning before Harry remembered he still hadn't told Hermione about Perenelle's offer to provide additional defence training.
"Why didn't you tell me before?" asked Hermione as they made their way from the library down to the Great Hall for lunch. Harry had insisted that she take a break.
"I'm sorry, but I was distracted last night for some reason," he replied quietly, earning himself a sharp elbow in his ribs.
As they approached the entrance doors to the hall they were greeted by the Headmaster as he exited.
"I wonder if I might trouble for a word before you go into lunch?" he said with a small smile.
They followed him outside into the bright sunlight.
"I wanted to let you know. Minister Fudge has persuaded one of the Death Eaters from yesterday to spy for him and proposes to let him off on a technicality. The other two will go to Azkaban."
"Is that wise," asked Hermione, "to let him go, I mean."
"It's very revealing," said Harry.
They both looked at him.
"Those captured Death Eaters were unmasked and they were seen," said Harry. "If they try to make a reappearance, they won't be much good to Voldemort as spies. Voldemort will know they may have done a deal to stay out of Azkaban. Either he'll just have him killed or Voldemort will have planned this all along. Surely the Ministry can't trust any information that comes from this Death Eater."
"Perhaps Voldemort was trying to set up a line of communication between himself and someone the Ministry," said Hermione.
"Or worse," added Dumbledore darkly, "the other way around."
"So, is it Fudge himself or is someone manipulating him?" asked Harry.
"We do not know," said Dumbledore, "but we are assuming there an as yet unseen hand involved at the Ministry. Fudge is not, in my view, motivated by the Dark Arts, although he may be vulnerable to bribery or blackmail."
*
Harry and Ron found themselves alone in the common room doing homework that they should have finished days ago. Harry rubbed his tired eyes and stretched, noticing the time was gone midnight.
The portrait hole opened and in bounced Hermione, looking cold but excited.
"Hermione, where were you?" asked Harry, "We thought you'd gone to bed."
"No, I've just come back from the Headmaster's office," she said going over to the fireplace and stoking the embers up to warm herself.
"Hagrid thinks there may be some new, dark creatures in the forest. Grawp has heard something but can't explain what they might be. Grawp tried to explain it to me but I didn't understand very well either."
"Grawp was here in the castle?" asked Ron, as an icy chill of realisation hit Harry.
"No, silly."
"So that means you went into the forest, didn't you Hermione?" said Harry. "What if you were attacked?"
"I was with Hagrid and Grawp," she said, not looking up, "and I can look after myself. Besides, nothing happened."
"Why didn't you come back for us?" demanded Harry quietly.
"Well, Hagrid was worried about Grawp. He was in a hurry."
"Hermione," said Ron getting up and gathering his things, "that was a really incredibly stupid thing to do. We know that You-Know-Who has spies in the camp and they are bound to be in the forest now as well."
Hermione turned, red faced but ready to argue with Ron. She appeared to be taken aback as she watched Ron say nothing further but instead just went up to the dormitory. Harry was still sitting at the table, staring blankly at his unfinished essay.
Hermione walked over and sat down in Ron's vacated chair.
"I'm supposed to be the reckless one, Hermione, not you," began Harry, looking at her at last. "We are not going to argue about this. This must never happen again."
He stood and started to roll up his parchment but was interrupted by a loud sniff. Harry dropped the parchment and hurried around to Hermione. He knelt next to her and she hugged him, tears flowing freely.
"Aren't you going to call me stupid as well?" said Hermione in a muffled voice.
"No. You're safe now and I just want you to stay safe."
"It was only when Hagrid and I were on our way back that I realised how vulnerable we were, even with Grawp escorting us most of the way. Grawp was really concerned for us, I think."
"What we need is a way to communicate properly while we are apart," said Harry. "Hermione, what do you know about twinned mirrors?"
"Nothing, why?"
"Well Sirius gave me one last year. I found it after he died. He and my Dad used a pair of twinned mirrors to talk to each other while they were in separate detentions."
Hermione drew away from him, frowning.
"Oh, Harry," she whispered.
"Yes, I know. I didn't even unwrap it until the evening before we left for the summer holidays. We could have talked to Sirius if he had his mirror with him."
"Why didn't you unwrap it?"
"Because Sirius said it was something that would let him know if Snape was giving me a hard time. At the time I just didn't want him to risk getting caught and then I forgot all about it."
Hermione nodded and said gently, "It probably wouldn't have made any difference. I'll look up twin mirrors in the library tomorrow. If you want to shout at me about going into the forest, I think I'm ready now."
"No shouting, Hermione," said Harry smiling at her, "it'll be me that does something stupid next time." His expression grew serious. "We probably won't all survive Voldemort, but we must make sure none of us lost so cheaply."
"And Hermione," he added, "if you're lost to me, there really won't be much point in surviving."
*
Harry woke late into the night. Thinking he heard something from outside, Harry got up, put his glasses on and walked over to the window.
He opened the casement and allowed a cool breeze wash over his face. Then he heard something. It sounded like a distant growl deep from within the forest.
It took some time for Harry to get back off to sleep.