They had summoned a room much like a military base. The Room of Requirement now contained a large, wooden, round table with a holographic map of Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, and all of Great Britain floating 6 inches above the centre of it. There were five seats placed evenly around the table, and each seat was occupied by one member of The Sacrificia Liberales. In the head seat sat a boy with messy black hair and round glasses. His expression was etched with determination, and his bold posture showed everyone there that he was the leader. On his right sat a red headed boy who didn’t seem to know all too well what exactly he was doing there, and next to him was a red headed girl who looked ready for the bloodiest battle on Earth. On his left sat another girl, but she had light brown hair and beautiful cinnamon eyes. Her expression flaunted years of knowledge and courage. She seemed to be the co-leader of the group. And finally, the fifth member of the Sacrificia Liberales sat across from the president, looking him straight in the eyes, with no particular feeling. Even so, the black haired boy felt the look that the blonde was giving him, sitting across the table, was one of contempt.
Other than the table, there were bookshelves lining the wall of the room. Maps, paper, quills, and books scattered themselves on the shelves. There was barely any light, being that the only source of it was the map glowing at the center of the room. It was just enough for the members to see each other, and there really was not any need for more. The head boy stood up in his seat and drew out his wand. He pointed at a section on the map labeled “Hogwarts Grounds” and immediately the diagram isolated and enlarged the map of Hogwarts.
Someone cleared his throat and began, “Umm, Harry? Not to interrupt your ritual or what-not, but why is it so dark in here? I feel something crawling up my leg. My God, what if it’s a spider?”
The blonde haired boy with cool gray eyes laughed relentlessly until the brown headed girl shot him a cold glare. The boy shrugged and grinned at her, only to be returned with a disgusted look.
The boy with black hair sighed before he replied, “Ron, if there’s something crawling up your leg, just swat it! We have bigger things to worry about than a spider up your pants.”
“But I still don’t see why you had to make the room so dark and spooky!”
“Hey Weasel, you afraid of the dark?” Malfoy laughed.
“Shut up Malfoy, I didn’t ask your opinion.”
Cutting off the insults, the leader explained, “It’s dark because that’s the only way we can see these maps, Ron. These are light maps, if it touches any human created light, it’ll immediately disappear. It already took Hermione long enough to finally get them conjured.” The brown headed girl nodded, agreeing with what Harry had said.
“These are the rarest maps on Earth,” she added. “They show us everything we need to know. It’s sort of like the Marauders Map, but better. With this, we can pinpoint anyone or anything in the school, and it shows every single hidden passageway and every password for every door.”
The red headed boy listened with wide eyes and amazement. “So are you saying that if we call forth Gringotts Bank, we can get every single password to every vault?!”
The red headed girl shook her head, embarrassed of her brother. “Ron, is that all you can think about? Even if you knew every password, you’d never get away with robbing the money.”
“She’s right you know,” added Draco. “Someone tried to rob my family’s account once, being that it was one of the richest accounts Gringotts ever held in history, and the rascal mysteriously disappeared three days after…” He let out a faked sympathetic sigh.
“Ginny, can you kick him for me?” Ron asked his sister, with the most innocent face he could conjure while trying to locate what was on him. Ginny shook her head as if to tell her brother to grow up, and looked back at Harry, who was still playing around with the map.
“What are you doing?” she asked Harry.
“I’m plotting areas where Voldemort could easily attack.”
“What a bunch of bull, he could attack anywhere, anytime if he wanted to,” Draco drawled.
“Well, if you’re such a genius, why don’t you come up with a plan?” Harry challenged.
Draco grinned then sighed. “That’s what you Gryffindors don’t get; you always have to be prepared for battle even when you’re not in it. You always have to have a plan to defend yourself.”
“Cut the crap and get to the point Malfoy,” Harry said impatiently.
“Voldemort expects us to wait for him to attack. But he also leaves an extra plan in case if we attack him. So we don’t attack him, but we don’t wait for him to attack us either.”
Harry just raised an eyebrow and looked at Hermione, asking her silently if she had any clue what the physco platinum blonde was talking about. Hermione returned his look, both of them disappointed.
“Care to elaborate Draco?” Hermione asked the boy.
Draco stood up from his seat and walked around the table so he was shoulder to shoulder with Harry. “Give me your wand,” he demanded in a friendly way. Harry, hesitantly, handed his wand over to Draco.
“Now, it’s obvious we can’t call forth where the Dark Lord is because he probably has every known protection spell around his lair, but watch.” Draco closed the Hogwarts map and opened the map of Great Britain. He then shut his eyes and started chanting a spell, pointing Harry’s wand at his chest with his right hand and his left hand reaching out, as if trying to grab the map. Hermione watched the boy with concern, she could tell he was using a lot of energy because he had already started shaking and losing balance less than one minute into the spell; no one else had seemed to notice though. When at last Draco cried out in exhaustion and fell to the ground, the map went black in all areas except one. The only area left glowing was in the shape of a man, moving around in the dark abyss. Hermione instantly dropped onto the floor to make sure no damage was done. Draco was panting hard, completely out of breath.
“What did you do?” Harry asked, confused.
“I” Draco began, but was cut off by lack of oxygen. He took a deep breath in and let it out to slow his breathing. “I made a connection with my father. The map shows me where he is on the Earth, that’s one of the specialties of a light map…you can find anyone close to you. But also, now I can see within myself what he sees. I can’t keep this connection for long though; I’m not strong enough to hold it out for long periods yet, and he’ll detect me in his mind soon.”
“And how does this help us?” Ron questioned.
“He’s one of the Dark Lord’s most trusted men. He’ll lead us right to him. This way, I can keep tabs on him, and if they do plan to attack us soon, we’ll meet them halfway.” He paused. “At least we keep the school safe, right?”
Hermione drew Draco’s head onto her lap and motioned for him to lie down properly on his back. Harry watched Draco with something that combined envy and hate, but at the same time, he didn’t actually hate him. Breaking the gaze between Hermione and Draco, Harry cleared his throat. “You can’t possibly do this everyday, Draco. Look at your state of well being right now! You’d be useless to us in battle if you’re so worn out by locating your father.”
“Don’t worry about it, Harry. This is a one time thing. My body adjusts quickly, the next time I do it, it’ll be like taking candy from a baby.” Draco grinned.
“Probably something you did everyday,” Ron muttered under his breath. Ginny giggled, being the only one who heard him.
“Okay then. From now on, at least once every day, Draco will check on his father. Until there is any urgent threat, we’ll just gather as much information and as many students as we can. DA meetings will resume immediately.” When Harry finished talking, the meeting was adjourned. Ginny instantly hopped to her feet and took Harry by the arms and dragged him out of the room; she had been waiting all break to come back and snog him silly. Ron, feeling uncomfortable in the dark with Draco and Hermione, followed shortly after.
“Hmmm. You remember the first time we were in here alone?” Draco asked, smiling devilishly. Hermione ran her hand through his incredibly soft hair and rested it on his left cheek . She smiled and looked into his eyes, which in the dark seemed to be like bright lights. They were blue now, with a shiny gray outline, as if calling out to her; Hermione felt the need to kiss him right then and there, but he was still a little out of breath. Draco closed his eyes and concentrated on something that was unknown to Hermione until little candles popped up everywhere and a soft cushion rose out of the floor beneath where they were sitting. He smiled toothily at her. His teeth were very white and well taken care of, not one was out of line. She bent down and kissed him gently on the lips, even though it was an awkward position. Draco moved his head off her lap and put his hands around her slim waist, pulling her down towards him, and then bringing her mouth to his, he kissed her like never before. He wanted her so much, and the only way he could seem to make her fathom how much he needed her was through his kisses. Hermione definitely got the message. She felt Draco pouring himself into her; his soul, which seemed to be so pure. She grabbed at his robes, trying to release some of the feelings that have been bottled up in her lately, and when they finally came apart, Hermione fell onto the cushion right next to Draco. After he caught his breath, Draco turned on his side to face Hermione, resting his head on his left hand and caressing her face with his other.
“Hermione,” he began. Hermione turned her head a little and placed a kiss on the palm of his hand, telling him “yes?”. “Why do you want to be with me?”
Hermione, unprepared to answer that question just yet, let out an involuntary “Uh..”.
Draco chuckled lightly. “Do you even like me?”
Something tensed in Hermione’s stomach. She cleared her thoughts, and tried to answer as honestly as she could, “Yes. Sometimes.”
“And when you don’t like me, why do you choose to be with me?”
“I don’t know. I guess it’s kind of like an escape. I’ve never felt anything like this before.”
“Hermione. I love you.” Draco said with finality, and kissing her on her forehead. “Don’t ever leave me. Please.”
Hermione was speechless. No man had ever said those words to her, no man had ever made her feel so needed. She let Draco pull her into a long snuggling hug, and they fell asleep.
“Harry, relax!” Ginny laughed. “No one’s going to find us in here!” She pulled him in for another kiss. Little did she know that Harry was only finding an excuse to stop making out with her. Every time he kissed Ginny, his guilt tripled; he liked Hermione, but didn’t know how to break it to her. Ginny sensed Harry pull away, and let him.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, not in an unfriendly way.
Harry ran a hand through his hair. “Nothing.”
Ginny laughed and pushed him playfully. “Common, tell me!”
“It’s nothing, Ginny. Really. I’m fine. I’m just tired.” He rubbed his eyes with his left hand. “And worried. And angry, and just everything!!” he finally released.
“Worried? About what?”
“Hermione! She’s going out with Malfoy for heaven’s sake!” he almost screamed.
“I thought you said that he was a good guy now. You seem to be really good with him…”
“That’s only for Hermione. Inside…I want to tear him into little pieces and set him on fire! I don’t trust him. I don’t trust him with the war that is coming up, and I don’t trust him with Hermione.”
Ginny put both her hands on his face and turned him so that they were eye to eye. “Hermione is a smart and matured girl, Harry. She can take care of herself. You don’t need to worry about her.”
“So are you saying you have no problem with her being with Malfoy?” Harry asked incredulously.
“Well, of course I don’t trust Malfoy either, and I definitely don’t like him; I don’t think anyone but Hermione does, but if Hermione wants to be with him, then there’s nothing we can do. Sometimes a girl just needs a guy to let go on.”
Harry took in what Ginny had just said. It gave him a little hope. “So are you saying that she might only be using him to release some stress or whatever?”
Ginny nodded. “I honestly can’t see another reason…I mean, she definitely doesn’t like him, you know, like in the “I love you” sort of way. She just can’t. I can’t see her like that with him. It’s too wrong. So she’s probably just been going through some stuff lately, and he happened to be there to help her relax.”
“You girls are so complicated, you know that?” Harry said playfully.
Ginny smiled. “And you boys are so simple.” Then she pulled him into a long kiss, which he submitted to.
“What do you want?”
Lucius involuntarily shivered at the sound of the Dark Lord’s voice.
“Sir, I just wanted to inform you that I felt my son try to contact me today.”
Voldemort turned to face Lucius. “What do you mean you felt your son?”
“I think he’s been trying to make a link with me. I don’t know why.”
An evil grin slithered onto Voldemort’s face. He pointed his pale hand at Lucius Malfoy and said unhesitatingly, “Imperio.”
Hermione woke up alone. She looked around, but Draco was no where to be seen. She felt disappointed. Where’d he go? Why didn’t he wake me up? She sat up and straightened her hair before she walked out of the room. Then she saw him, sitting alone in a corner with his head buried in his hands.
“Draco?” she asked gently.
He looked up, Hermione could tell he had been crying. She walked over to him and put a hand on his back. “What’s wrong?”
Draco looked away; he had never let his guard down in front of anyone but his mother before. He discreetly wiped his eyes and looked down at his polished leather shoes. Hermione was still waiting for his answer. He sniffed and decided to keep his problems to himself. “It’s nothing.” He looked at her again and smiled as best as he could. She knew something was bothering him, but also that he didn’t want to talk about it, so she dropped the subject.
“We should go find Harry and company, see what we’re going to do today,” Hermione tried.
Draco nodded and got up, then they headed for Gryffindor Tower together.
Amazingly, everyone subconsciously knew to meet in the Gryffindor common room; though Ron was disturbed by the fact that Hermione told Draco the password. She shrugged, and Draco offered to tell them the Slytherin password if it’d ease their mind. (Which Ron later pulled him aside for.) Harry looks a lot better today, thought Hermione. He seems happier and calmer almost. Everyone sat down on their usual couches, well, everyone but Draco because he didn’t have a chair in the Gryffindor common room. Hermione sat to one side of her comfy chair and offered Draco the other half, but Harry, alarmed by this, instantly pulled up another chair for him. Draco took Harry’s chair, but moved it so it was next to Hermione. Well, at least she won’t be sitting on him, Harry thought to himself.
“Okay. We settled?” Everyone nodded. “Good. Today, Hermione and I will be going to recruit outside members and warn everyone who needs to be warned. Ron, you’re head boy, I need you to inform everyone of the DA revival immediately. Then, set a schedule for all our meetings, please. Draco, I want you to try and get in contact with your father again, see where here is and what he’s doing. Ginny, you go with Draco in case anything goes wrong.”
“What do you mean by ‘anything goes wrong’?” Draco asked suspiciously.
“I mean what I mean,” Harry replied with finality.
Everyone got out of their seats and headed for the portrait hole, then went their separate ways.
“I can’t believe he still doesn’t trust me,” Draco complained to Ginny halfway down the hall. Ginny, uncomfortable with the fact that Harry would make her spend a whole day with her worst enemy, opted not to say anything to console Draco. “What’s worse, he sent a little tag along!”
“EXCUSE ME?” Ginny roared. “Who are you calling ‘a little tag along’?!”
Draco gave her a scornful look. “I know why he sent you with me Weasley. You’re supposed to make sure I don’t turn evil, or do something evil, or blah blah blah. Admit it.”
Ginny went slightly pink. She didn’t expect Draco to realize that so soon, and she definitely didn’t expect him to come right out and accuse her of it. I guess he’s a guy who doesn’t keep anything to himself, she thought. The rest of their trip to the Room of Requirement was filled with silence.
Draco opened the door, and to Ginny’s surprise, he held it open for her. She took his offer and went in before him. Hermione had left an extremely detailed explanation of how to conjure the maps, and she added that it was probably better if Draco did it because he was more experienced with magic. Ginny agreed happily. Draco smiled at her goofiness and pocketed Hermione’s letter, having already memorized it.
“Ahem. You ready?” Draco asked, rolling up his sleeves as if he was about to do brain surgery. Ginny actually laughed, and scolded herself for letting him get to her.
“Nox!” Draco commanded, and all the light that was in the room was immediately sucked out. The only way Ginny knew that Draco was still there was his steady breaths, in and out. She heard Draco begin the spell and stood around, seeing nothing, waiting for the maps to appear. After 3 minutes, still nothing had happened.
“That’s weird. That should have worked,” Draco contemplated aloud.
“Maybe you did a part wrong. Retry it.”
“I did not do a part wrong Weasley, I don’t mess up things like this. Hermione must have forgotten something in her instructions.”
“Just retry it, Malfoy.”
Draco sighed and gave in. He started the spell again. A little after he finished, a bright light filled the room as the map appeared at the center of the table.
“Told ya!” Ginny said gleefully. Draco mumbled something, but Ginny didn’t catch it.
“Okay, here I go.” Draco took in a deep breath and repeated what he did yesterday. Ginny
watched on, not knowing what to expect, when suddenly, Draco dropped his wand and fell to the floor, clutching his head in pain with both hands.
“AGHHHH! GINNY! HELP!” Draco cried.
Ginny, completely flabbergasted at what was happening, reached for her wand and shouted, “Finite Incantatem!” But nothing happened to help Draco.
“Oh no…Ginny, get out of here! NOW! OUT!”
“WHAT? Don’t be stupid! If I leave you here, you’ll die!” Ginny shouted back.
“If you stay here, I might kill you!!” Draco replied in between his screams of pain.
Despite what Draco said, Ginny was determined to fix this problem. Okay, this all started when he tried to link himself to his father, if I get rid of the map, it’ll get rid of the link. And at that, she pointed to the map and cried, “ E CONSPECTU!”
The map disappeared instantly, along with Draco’s screams. The room was now completely black, nothing could be seen. Ginny heard Draco moan softly in pain. “Lumos!” Ginny commanded with her wand. Then she thought of light, and there it was. She bent down and felt Draco’s back; it was completely soaked with sweat.
“Draco, are you okay?” Ginny asked, turning him around. His whole face was flushed and his eyes were shut tight. His breathing was unsteady now and very fast paced.
“I’m fine,” he managed to choke out. “Did…Did I do anything to you?”
“No…,” Ginny replied, unsure of what he meant.
“Good. Hermione would kill me if anything happened to you.” Ginny smiled, she thought it was sweet how Draco could think of Hermione at a time like this. Draco muttered a spell to dry off his clothes and then sat up. “Sorry about that,” he began, looking for the first time into Ginny’s eyes. Ginny immediately looked away. For some reason, she felt her body temperature rise.
“What happened?” she asked, still not looking at him.
“I don’t know,” Draco responded truthfully. “But something went very wrong. I think my father detected me last time…and now Voldemort did something to keep me out. All those memories…those images…that voice…”
Ginny looked at Draco and was startled to see him on the verge of tears. She reached out her hand and patted him gently on the back, not knowing if that’s what he needed or wanted. But as fast as his breakdown came, it went. He looked up at her and gave her a small smile.
“Common, let’s go.” Ginny offered her hand to Draco, and he took it. They walked out of the room and back to Gryffindor Tower.
“So where exactly are we going?” Hermione asked Harry curiously.
“Grimauld Place,” Harry replied, with no particular emotion in his voice. “Hermione…can you answer a question for me?”
Not liking where this conversation was going, Hermione said, “Depends on what it’s about.”
“Draco.”
“No.”
“Why?” Harry complained in a whiny voice.
“Because that’s really none of your business, Harry!”
“I just want to know whether you really like him, or if you’re just using him,” he elaborated.
“What do you mean ‘using him’?!”
“Well, Ginny said that sometimes you girls need a guy to just let go on. And, I think, that’s what you’re using Draco for, but you think you like him when you don’t. I mean, can you look me in the eye and tell me that you love Draco Malfoy? That sneer, his constant sarcasm, just him!”
Hermione paused in her tracks. Am I using Draco? It’s true, most of the time I can’t stand him, but when we’re alone...She shook her head. “I don’t know, Harry. Time will tell.” And she continued to walk.
“But what about me?!” Harry asked, a little too desperately. “What about my feelings for you? I’ve been keeping them bottled up for so long…I can’t take this anymore Hermione!”
“Harry, you’re being paranoid. You don’t like me!!! And that’s final. How many times do I have to tell you? How many times do we have to go through this? I love you, yes, but as a friend. You are my best friend Harry, and I don’t ever want to lose that.”
Harry sighed. He couldn’t see how Hermione could possibly know what he feels when she keeps refusing to listen to him, but he didn’t want to fight with her either. When they reached Grimauld Place, they met up with Tonks, Moody, and Shacklebolt. They talked briefly and agreed that if anything should happen, they’d Floo each other right away. At least now they knew the Order was back together; Harry actually knew all along, he just wanted an excuse to pull Hermione and Draco apart for a day.
Harry was quiet the whole way back, and although it was an uncomfortable silence, Hermione preferred it over talking about Draco.
I have to make her see, make her feel what I feel, Harry thought to himself. She has to realize that Draco isn’t the one for her… Before he knew it, they were on the Hogwarts front steps; if Harry didn’t do something now, there would never be another chance. Heading back towards the Gryffindor Tower, Harry grabbed Hermione by the wrist and dragged her into an empty classroom. Taken by surprise, Hermione didn’t have time to react until she was already in the room.
“Hey, Ginny,” Draco called from the portrait hole. “I’m gonna go wait for Harry and Hermione outside okay?”
“Okay!” Ginny shouted back. “I think I’m gonna stay here, my head hurts.” But the truth was, she didn’t want to spend any more time with Draco; she was afraid that she might start accepting him; which is crazy because his family is everything her family hates! A part of her now understood why Hermione wanted to be with him, though. To her surprise, Draco showed up next to the couch she was lying on.
“You want me to stay here ‘til you feel better?” he offered sympathetically.
“No, it’s okay. You go ahead. They should be heading back anytime now anyway.”
Draco nodded, then waved goodbye. Ginny sighed after she heard him leave through the portrait hole. He isn’t so bad once you get to know him, but that’s exactly why I shouldn’t get to know him.
Draco almost jumped down the steps in excitement. It’s been way too long since he last saw Hermione. He slowed his run to a jog as he neared the ground floor. Passing one of the supposedly deserted classrooms, he heard a girl’s voice. He slowed down and backed up to see what was going on. Then he heard everything perfectly.
“Harry…” the girl said softly.
“Shhh…” came another voice. Then silence; the unbearable kind of silence for someone who couldn’t see what was going on.
Not wasting a second, Draco strode to the door and flung it open…
“Listen, Hermione,” Harry began, letting go of her wrists. “I promise you, if you just give me ten minutes of your time today, I won’t bother you about this any more in the future.”
Hermione sighed. I might as well. This is Harry after all. He’s my best friend, I don’t want to lose him… “Okay, ten minutes.”
“You’ve always been there for me Hermione. You are my best friend. You’ve willingly sacrificed yourself for me before, and I you. I like you, no, I love you. I love you as more than a friend, and I need you. Without you, I am like ice without water, day without night…I am nothing. If you be with me, I promise you I’ll protect you with my life, I’ll do anything and everything, as long as if it brings you happiness, I’ll devote myself to you, heart, body, and soul. Just please, give me a chance…”
Harry felt himself start to cry and he put both his hands on Hermione’s delicate face. “Just…one…chance…” He brought her head closer to his, and began to close his eyes.
“Harry…” she whispered, trying to stop him, but after everything he had just told her, she didn’t have the heart to.
“Shhh…” And he forced his lips on hers and trapped them in a passionate kiss. Harry’s hands slipped down to Hermione’s waist and pulled her into him as she unconsciously wrapped her arms around his neck. They were still kissing when suddenly an angry voice came from behind them, making the both of them jump apart.
“What…the…hell…do…you...think…” Draco began, but his rage was so out of control he couldn’t finish the rest of his sentence comprehensibly…