“Draco…!” Hermione exclaimed, immediately pushing Harry away from herself and turning to face the golden fire ball now glaring at her. She watched as Draco’s thin lips twitched with anger and his cold gray eyes sent sharp knives through her heart. Harry stepped forward and gently brushed Hermione behind him.
“Draco, calm down,” Harry said somewhat soothingly. “This isn’t what it looks like…” No, this is exactly what it looks like! Harry thought to himself. Hermione let me in. That has to mean something.
Draco only tightened his fists so that his knuckles were snow white and his fingernails dug deep into his palms. He ignored Harry and kept his unfriendly gaze on Hermione. Hermione wanted to run to Draco and tell him she didn’t mean to kiss Harry, and that it just happened, but she couldn’t seem to pick up her feet or gather her courage.
“If you have something to settle, settle it with me,” Harry continued after he recognized that Draco wasn’t going to respond to him. At that, Draco turned his head toward Harry and scoffed. Harry thought Draco was going to start yelling at him, but right when he was ready to take on a chain of insults, he saw Draco lunge at him, and in two seconds flat, he was on the ground with a bloody nose.
“DRACO! STOP!” Hermione intervened, catching Draco’s arm in midair before he could punch Harry again. Draco paused momentarily, taking his time to breathe, then he looked at Hermione’s hand on his arm.
“Get. Your. Hands. Off. Of. Me. Mudblood.”
Hermione tightened her grip on his arm and looked him straight in the eyes, even though he was determined to stare forward. Good. He’s calling me Mudblood again. That means he’s just mad…I hope.
“Draco…listen to me,” Hermione tried, and when Draco didn’t object, she continued. “What just happened…it was a mistake.” She stopped there, not knowing how to further explain it to make it seem okay.
“A mistake?” Draco whispered in a hoarse voice. “You want to know what a mistake is?” he asked, now returning her stare.
“It’s me thinking you would ever like me.”
And at that, he forcefully shook off her arm with one swing, stood up, and strode out of the room. Hermione collapsed onto her knees after he left, her whole body and mind was numb now. “It’s me thinking you would ever like me”…But I do Draco. I do…sometimes I think I’m in love with you …Hermione felt tears build up in her eyes and she hid her face in her hands before she let them flow freely.
Harry watched her guiltily from the sideline. He didn’t know what to do. Hermione was crying because of something he did, something he caused. He dropped his head hard onto the ground, only to speed up the blood that was flowing out of his nose. “Impede!” he muttered under his breath, and immediately, his bloody nose went away. He pulled out a handkerchief and wiped off his face before he went to sit next to Hermione. He began to put his arms around her, but decided that that wasn’t appropriate right now, and contented himself with patting her on the back.
“Hermione…”
She sniffed and wiped away her tears before looking up.
“I’m sorry, Hermione,” Harry said, looking down at his feet. “I didn’t mean for Draco to see…I just…I don’t know what’s gotten into me.”
Hermione listened quietly. Inside, she was screaming at Harry for what just happened, but she also acknowledged the fact that she didn’t stop him.
“I’m going back to my room,” Hermione replied emotionlessly.
Harry stood up to walk her back, but she put a hand on his shoulder before he could fully stand.
“Could you let me go first? I want to be alone.”
Harry’s heart sunk, she was mad at him. He sat down and watched her wavy brown hair disappear behind the door. He let out a frustrated cry and beat himself on the head. Now she’ll never be with me…Way to go Harry.
Ginny sat up when she heard the portrait swing open. She was disappointed to see only Hermione come through, but still got out of the sofa to greet her.
“Hey Hermione!” Ginny began, before noticing that Hermione had been crying.
“I’m going to go sleep, I’ll talk to you later Ginny,” Hermione replied, without looking at Ginny, she didn’t want Ginny to ask why she had been crying.
“Wait! Did you see Draco? He went outside to wait for you guys…I thought he’d come back with you, unless if you passed each other unconsciously in the halls…”
Hermione stopped walking and sat on the stairs, resuming her sobs. Ginny was taken by surprise, so she didn’t do anything for a minute or so. After she came back to reality, she climbed up the stairs and gave Hermione a comforting hug.
“What happened?” she asked concernedly.
Hermione was crying so hard she couldn’t respond. Ginny brushed Hermione’s hair out of her eyes and gently wiped away her tears with her thumb.
“Everything’s going to be all right,” she reassured her.
“No, Ginny…things aren’t ever going to be the same again,” Hermione cried softly.
“What happened?” Ginny repeated.
“Draco…he…he saw Harry kiss me and…” Hermione stopped immediately, remembering that Ginny was Harry’s girlfriend. She looked alarmed at Ginny. To her surprise, Ginny wasn’t mad, in fact, she looked like she was expecting something like that.
“It’s okay Hermione. I know Harry has changed his feelings for me, it was pretty obvious after I came back from break.” Hermione sighed and pulled Ginny in for a tight hug.
After they let go of each other, Hermione resumed the path to her room, too tired to discuss the disaster any further.
Draco picked up a lantern that was sitting way too comfortably on the table in the Slytherin common room and chunked it as hard as he could at the wall. The past five minutes that he had spent in the cold dungeon was basically filled with the need to destroy things. He had ruined just about every chair and broken almost every desk he could lay his hands on. When at last there was nothing left for him to smash, he threw himself against the wall and slid down into a sitting position, wrapping his hands behind his head and covering his face with his elbows.
“My, my, my. What have you done, Draco?”
Draco didn’t even bother to look up at the hideous, evil thing that was talking to him.
“I can help you,” Voldemort stated simply. “I can give you a life where your heart won’t be broken by a silly stupid girl.” His lips widened into a smile when Draco lifted his head to look at him.
“I want to make them pay…” Draco said quietly. “For every ounce of pain I feel right now, I want to make them feel double.”
“I can do that,” Voldemort replied. “We can do it together. Join me and be my spy on them. You know how to reach me if you want to take advantage of my generous offer.” And at that, Voldemort disappeared.
I thought we couldn’t disapparate or apparate on Hogwarts grounds… Draco thought to himself, but his thoughts were immediately cut off when the portrait swung open and a girl of medium height with curvy blonde hair and an excellent figure glided in. Draco watched as she surveyed the room and when she caught sight of him, he stood up.
“What happened here?” she asked with a little disgust in her voice.
“Me,” Draco replied, walking towards her. He reached out his arm and introduced himself. “I’m Draco Malfoy, prefect of Slytherin. You new here?”
She took his hand and shook it firmly. “Call me Dee. I moved from my school in Germany. And if you are really the prefect of this house, you are the man I’m looking for.”
Draco gave her a warm smile. “Well you found me. How can I be of service?”
“Your Headmaster said you’d be my guide around the school for the next couple weeks. Term starts tomorrow right?”
Draco nodded. “What classes are you taking?”
Dee fumbled around her robes and pulled out a little piece of parchment. “Transfiguration, Double Potions, History of Magic, Muggle Studies, Herbology, Charms, Arithmancy, and Care of Magical Creatures.”
Draco let out a low whistle. “Quite a schedule isn’t it?”
Dee grinned, “I like being kept busy.”
“Alright then,” Draco replied. “Let’s take a tour around the school shall we?” He held an arm out, gesturing for her to go first.
“So what kind of a name is Draco?” Dee asked him as they headed for the Transfiguration classroom. Draco laughed.
“What kind of a name is Dee?” he replied in a friendly way.
“Well, I just go by Dee. My parents aren’t exactly known for their name giving talents, so mine had to compensate.”
Draco turned his head and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “So what is your name?”
Dee sighed and muttered, “Dike.”
“Dyke?!” Draco repeated, louder than Dee would have liked. He tried hard not to laugh, and Dee was thankful for that.
“It’s spelled D-i-k-e…but still, it sounds like dyke,” she elaborated, looking down so Draco wouldn’t see her blush.
“Well either way, it’s a very interesting name…” Draco commented, nodding his head with a goofy smile.
“Shut up,” Dee said, giving Draco a little punch on the arm.
“Ahhh! The pain,” Draco screamed, pretending to hold his arm in pain.
Dee laughed and they continued to talk about various things as they toured the school.
Harry decided to go for a ride on his broom and clear his mind. The wind was calm and cool. The clear blue sky drew him closer to itself as he flew higher and higher. Then something caught his eye about three miles north of where he was; a big green skull with a snake slithering out of its mouth floated in the air and little puffs of smoke rose from underneath to meet it. Alarmed, Harry flew straight down to the ground and ran all the way back to the Gryffindor Tower. Just five feet away from the portrait, he almost tackled a couple that was walking through the halls. He paused and after actually looking at who he ran into, he felt dread in his stomach and his heartbeat quickened.
“Watch where you’re going Potter,” Draco sneered.
“Sorry,” Harry mumbled, feeling not so great around Draco.
“Potter? As in Harry Potter?” Dee exclaimed excitedly.
Harry turned his head to look at the unfamiliar blonde standing next to Draco.
“And you are?”
“She’s none of your business Potter, move along now,” Draco cut in. Then he said to Dee, “Don’t want to be caught in his web, love, he’s not the greatest guy around; despite what you might think.”
Harry shook his head and left them to themselves.
“What do you have against him?!” Dee asked, curiously and angrily.
“Everything,” Draco muttered in return. “And you’re supposed to be a Slytherin! We hate his kind, act more like what you’re supposed to be!”
Dee huffed and stomped away. Draco opened his mouth to stop her, but nothing came out. When she was almost at the end of the hall, he finally managed to say, “Hey! You don’t know your way around the school yet, I’d come back here if I were you!” And at that, Dee stopped walking, huffed again, and turned around.
My god. Draco thought. She’s like a little kid! He ran to where she was and they continued the tour again.
“So why were you put in Slytherin?” Draco asked. “You seem happy and innocent, everything a Slytherin isn’t supposed to be.”
“I grew up around the Dark Arts,” Dee replied. “I could probably school you in a duel any day.”
Draco laughed. “I doubt that love.”
“Oh yeah?” Dee said in a challenging way. “When we go back to the common room, we’ll see who laughs in the end!”
Draco agreed and then quickly went through the school so they could get back to the common room.
“Alright,” Draco said, stretching his arms and pretending to warm up for a big race. He took off his outer robe and pulled out his wand. “I’m not going to go easy on you just because you’re a girl.”
Dee smiled. “I like it that way.” And she too revealed her wand.
They walked towards each other. “Purge!” Draco commanded, and his afternoon’s work cleared to the side so that there was a clean aisle for them to walk in. When they were less than one foot away from each other, they held their wands up in front of their faces and then swung it back down to their side. Each turned around and took three steps back.
“And now the bow,” Draco said.
“No talking!” Dee scolded. “It ruins my concentration.” Draco laughed silently to himself.
They bowed, and then threw their wands in the air. Dee caught hers first and launched a spell at Draco immediately.
“Engorgio!” And at once, Draco began to expand.
“Whoa! Slow down there!” Draco said to himself as he watched his body double, then triple. He caught his wand during the expansion and pointed to himself saying, “Reducio!” And he shrunk back down to his normal size.
“Lacrime!” Dee shouted.
“Protege!” Draco responded, and Dee instantly started crying hysterically. Draco laughed. “Shouldn’t have used a crying spell! I don’t like fighting girls while they cry.”
Dee laughed in between her forced sobs.
“Finite Incantatem!” Draco demanded, and she stopped crying immediately. “I win!”
“Only because I was going easy on you,” Dee replied with a sneaky smile.
“Oh really?” Draco said incredulously.
“Well, if we were dueling to death or to cause pain, I would have won,” Dee reassured him.
“Yeah, yeah, I believe you on that one. I noticed you were having a hard time thinking of spells.” Draco laughed. “So what kind of spells can you do?”
“A lot. I know all the unforgivable curses,” Dee said, not too proud of herself.
“And you can carry them out with no problem?” Draco questioned.
“Yeah, but I also know others that are just as bad,” Dee replied.
Draco remained silent. Behind the cute look, that girl was very dangerous if you were on her wrong side, he thought.
“So where’d you learn to duel like that?” Draco asked. “No one duels the old fashion style anymore. They usually just walk away from each other, do the salute, and bow, and duel. No throwing of the wands.”
Dee smiled. “My dad was a duel expert.”
“Who’s your dad?” Draco asked.
“Perseus Notis,” Dee replied casually.
“PERSEUS NOTIS?!” Draco exclaimed. “Isn’t he the world champion of dueling?”
“Yes, he was. Until he came down with quassationis.”
Draco bowed his head. “I’m sorry.” Quassationis can be related to Parkinson’s; it caused intense shaking, except all over the body. Most wizards and witches who developed the disease did not live to defeat it, Dee’s father included.
Draco put his arms around Dee and gave her a friendly hug. She returned it, but pulled away so she could stop herself from crying.
“I think I’m gonna go to my room,” she said quietly.
Draco nodded and watched her go. He let out a sigh and sat down on one of the ripped up chairs. He began thinking about his father, and what Voldemort had told him today. Is it worth it? Become a Death Eater? Draco soon fell asleep, tired of making decisions he wasn’t ready for.
Hermione woke with a start. Someone was pounding at her door. She lazily threw off her covers and got out of bed.
“Ginny?” Hermione said with surprise when she answered the knocking.
“Hey, you gotta come fast. Harry says there’s something happening in the Forbidden Forest.”
Hermione instantly grabbed her coat and followed Ginny down the steps into the common room.
“Ron and Harry already left for it. Should we go get Draco?” Ginny asked.
“No, I don’t think so,” Hermione replied. “I don’t think he’ll be in a helping mood today.”
Ginny nodded, and they hurried out of the portrait hole.
“Harry!” Ginny screamed as she saw a boy with messy black hair fly across the air. Five death eaters immediately turned their attention to the red headed girl running towards them.
“Petrificus totalus!” one of them yelled in her direction. Ginny dodged the curse and pulled out her wand. She aimed at the man who attacked her and shot out a hex. The man’s legs instantly went jelly and fell on the floor. It was unwise of him to attack the girl who hit nine out of the ten things she aimed for. Hermione started running to catch up. More death eaters suddenly appeared. Confused, Hermione ran even faster. What happened to the anti-apparation spells on the school, she thought to herself. By the time Ginny reached Harry and Ron, there were enough death eaters there to surround them in a tiny circle.
“Stupid children,” one of them said. “Have no idea what you’ve got yourself into.”
Another laughed. Ginny suddenly shuddered. There was something about that laugh that was eerily familiar. She then spun herself around to look at the man, and her jaw dropped. “No…” she whispered before she launched herself onto the black figure and started pulling at his mask.
“Impedimenta!” shouted another death eater, and Ginny froze, but not quickly enough, for she already pulled half the mask off, and the man behind the mask sent Ron, Harry, and Hermione into a series of unbelieving gasps. Ron stumbled forward to take a closer look.
“D..dad?” he whispered incredulously. “No…this can’t…be…” He reached out his arm, trying to touch the man that looked like his father, but couldn’t possibly be.
“Petrificus totalus!” hollered a death eater, and Ron dropped heavily onto the floor. Harry turned around, and before he could even think about aiming his wand, he was petrified too. Hermione on the other hand, hidden behind a tree, began to throw spells everywhere, not caring where they landed. A death eater then came from behind her and grabbed her by the waist and hit her so she dropped her wand. He carried her into the circle.
“Put her down,” a voice commanded.
The death eater carrying Hermione turned his head to face a teenage boy with platinum blonde hair. “What are you doing here?” he asked rudely.
“You’ll do as I say or face the Dark Lord’s wrath.”
The death eater laughed. “And what makes you think I believe you? Last time I checked, you turned on us and joined these hero wanna-be’s.”
Draco laughed mirthlessly. “Crucio!”
The death eater immediately collapsed onto the floor, squirming with pain.
“I am temporarily borrowing Draco, you fool. Have no mistake that I am the Dark Lord.”
Hermione couldn’t believe her eyes or ears. “Draco…?” she whispered.
Draco turned his head to the girl staring disbelievingly at him. “Silencio!”
The other death eaters, refusing to trust the boy that claimed to be their master, immediately launched all sorts of hexes and curses at him. After the smoke cleared from all the attacks, they were amazed to see the boy still standing there, unharmed, untouched.
“Believe me now?” he said calmly, looking around. A couple of the death eaters gasped.
“Now get out of here.” Immediately, every man that was there disappeared.
Once they were gone, Draco collapsed onto the ground, completely drained of all his energy.
Hermione revived Harry, Ginny, and Ron and told them what Draco had just done. They decided that it would be safest if they tied him up and performed a Carcer curse. The Carcer curse created an impenetrable prison made of light over where Draco lay. It was a good hour before he showed any signs of life, and by then, Ron and Ginny had already returned to their rooms. Draco slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was bright lights.
Am I dead? What just happened…Draco couldn’t move his arms to rub his eyes so he just blinked really hard three or four times. When he could see, he took in his surroundings and concluded that he was in the Forbidden Forest. Oh okay, I’m just caged in like some convict in a place where if I die, no one would notice; so much better. He coughed loudly so the others would notice his conscious state. The first one to look at him was Harry.
“So did you join Voldemort?” Harry asked, wasting no time.
Draco laughed at the question and gave Harry a “do you think I’m an idiot” look.
“Then how did you fend off ten death eaters alone?” Hermione pressed on.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Draco replied angrily, he was still pissed at her.
“You were Voldemort just an hour ago! Don’t pretend you don’t remember!” Hermione continued exasperatedly.
“Well, MAYBE I just don’t remember!” Draco shouted back.
“That was you in there Draco, I know it was you. It couldn’t have been anyone else. So just come forth and admit that you’ve joined Voldemort and we’ll make this quick and painless.”
“Make what quick and painless?” Draco asked with a sneer.
Hermione pulled out a vial of potion and a dagger.
“We gonna act out Romeo and Juliet then?” Draco said sarcastically. “I have to admit, that was the last bloody thing I had in mind.”
Hermione rolled her eyes. “Have you heard of Veritaserum Draco?” she asked.
“Who the hell hasn’t, after Harry’s fiasco?”
“Well, this is the newest version of that, and I can assure you, it’s ten times more painful for the victim of it. I’ll need your blood, and it has to be freshly circulated blood.” She looked at his chest.
“You already stabbed me in the heart, why don’t you just use the leftovers of that?”
Hermione winced. She had been so focused on that fact that Draco was evil that she had temporarily forgotten that they were involved. She remained silent, wondering whether or not to give in to the part of her that loved him. Harry, getting impatient, stepped forward and took the contents out of Hermione’s hands.
“Finite Incantatem!” he ordered, pointing his wand at the cage. After the light vanished, he stepped into the little square with Draco. “Don’t move and I’ll try not to purposely cut you,” he muttered under his breath. Draco looked away as Harry cut open his robes.
“You going to pay for my robes, Harry?” Draco asked, looking down at the mess Harry had made. “These are Caltin Cline!”
Harry ignored Draco and continued sawing until he saw bare skin.
“I feel violated,” Draco continued, in a purposefully whiny voice. “If you’re into guy on guy, Harry, that’s great, but take it somewhere else.”
Draco looked at Harry, only to see a malicious grin on his face. “What are you smiling about?” he asked with a suspicious eye, and tried to pull away in vain.
“I’d hold still if I were you,” Harry warned, then he put the sharp tip of the knife to Draco’s chest and pushed down hard. Draco wanted to scream at the pain, but his pride wouldn’t let him. Instead, he bit hard onto his lip and thought of ways to get revenge on Harry.
“Alright, I think that’s enough,” Hermione commented when she saw Draco about to cry out.
“No, just a little more,” Harry replied, not releasing the knife. Hermione walked over to the boys at once and pulled the dagger off of Draco.
“Harry. That’s not funny,” she said, pocketing the knife and giving Harry a cold glare. She took the potion out of Harry’s hand and was about to pour it on Draco when a girl’s voice came from behind them.
“What are you guys doing?” she asked, dangerously and innocently all at once.
They spun around and saw a blonde girl standing there with her wand out and ready to fight.
“Draco, is that you?” she questioned, noticing who they were crowding around.
“Hi Dee!” Draco responded a bit too cheerfully. “If you don’t mind, please blast the nastiest curse you’ve got on these two!” He grinned, but Dee wasn’t amused.
“Harry Potter, out in the Forbidden Forest, at this time of night, performing an illegal curse on a student?” She walked towards them slowly. “And you are?” she asked, motioning her wand towards Hermione.
“Hermione Granger. Head Girl, house of Gryffindor,” she replied proudly.
“Now’s hardly the time to brag,” Dee replied. “Let Draco go.”
“No.”
“Don’t think I’m shy about using this wand, because believe me, I’ve done things I’d rather you not know with it.”
“I’d have to believe her on that one,” Draco added in. Hermione shot him a deadly look, which he ignored with little difficulty.
“I’m not letting him go until I find out what I need to know,” Hermione finished with finality. She pulled out her wand to face the new Slytherin girl if a duel should occur.
Dee sighed. She didn’t want to start off the year making enemies. She slowly put her wand down. “At least stop the bleeding, he looks bloody terrible over there.”
Hermione, surprised, put down her wand too. She gave Dee one last surveying look and turned her attention to Draco. She knelt down on a knee and pulled out a small piece of cloth from her robes.
“Sorry,” she said quietly to Draco while dabbing his wound. “It wasn’t supposed to bleed this long.”
Draco watched as she gently wiped the blood off his chest. He felt himself tense whenever her hand touched his bare skin. His anger slowly tip toed out of him and he replied equally quietly, “It’s okay.”
Hermione looked up at him and caught his eyes for a second, but then he looked away. She took in a deep breath and stood back up. “Alright,” she began. “We just need to pour the potion on him and ask him the questions now.”
“Go right ahead,” Harry encouraged. Dee nodded, although she had no idea why they would need to put a truth spell on Draco. Hermione carefully pulled out the stopper in the vial and tipped the blue potion onto Draco’s wound.
“OW!” Draco cried. “You never told me that part was supposed to burn!”
Hermione forced down a smile. “Oops.”
“Okay, we need to do this fast or it could have some really bad side effects.”
“Like?” Draco questioned.
“Like death,” Hermione replied quickly in one breath. Draco’s jaw dropped.
“What is the last thing you remember?” Hermione asked.
Instead of getting a verbal reply, she got a visual one. Veritaserum Plus was a spell that would show instead of tell the truth. That way, the one in question wouldn’t be able to bend the truth or tell only half truths.
A small version of Draco appeared in front of them, along with a small version of Dee. The longer the images took part in the spell, the more real they became, and Hermione watched as the little versions of the people right next to her hugged. She felt a stab of jealously, but didn’t do anything because she knew what she had done was way worse. Dee then walked off the memory and Draco was alone, sitting on a couch, and then he fell asleep. The memory ended there, which didn’t give Hermione much to go on.
“That’s it?” Hermione asked, disappointed.
“Obviously,” Draco replied, glad that he really didn’t remember anything.
Hermione pointed her wand at Draco’s heart and ended the spell. She started to turn around when Draco requested, “Uh, can you let me go now?”
“Huh? Oh, right. Finite Incantatem!” Hermione replied, taking the binding spell off of Draco.
“Thanks.”
Hermione nodded. Then Dee skipped in between them and took Draco by the arm.
“Common, Draco, it’s getting late, let’s get back to the common room.”
Draco was dragged away before he could say anything else to Hermione.
Barely out of the forest, Draco shook off Dee’s arm and stopped walking. Dee followed his lead.
“What?!” she asked, annoyed that he was turning back.
“I’m not leaving Hermione with that git in the middle of a forest on a dark and unbelievably perfect night for...for God knows what!”
Dee had to run to catch up with Draco’s speed walk. “Why do you care so much?”
“I don’t!” Draco replied, walking even faster.
“You really don’t like Harry, do you?” Dee asked.
“That’s right. I hate that boy. And that is why I am going to save Hermione from him,” Draco lied. Dee laughed.
“And here I thought it was because you liked her.”
Draco stopped in his tracks. Was it so obvious? “What makes you think that?” he asked, looking at her as innocently as he could.
“You two were in your own little world while she performed that curse. Hell, Harry and I could have started making out right then and there and neither of you would have noticed! Plus, she looked hurt when she saw the memory of us hugging; which could only mean that she was in some way involved with you.”
Draco scoffed. “She had no right to look hurt,” he said.
“And I’m guessing that’s where Harry comes in…you caught them doing something?”
“Do you always have to be right?” Draco asked, annoyed that Dee was reading him perfectly.
“I prefer being right than wrong,” Dee replied casually. “You know, you were hard to read at first, but once I found your weak point, I could probably tell you your whole life story just looking at you.”
Draco laughed. “You’d be the first.” He stopped and looked at where they were.
“Did we take a wrong turn? Where are they?” he added, changing the subject.
Dee looked around too. “I don’t know. Maybe they already headed back.”
“We would have ran into them if they did.”
“Oh okay then, we should just leave then. They’d probably like some privacy,” Dee replied.
Draco, after taking a moment to understand what Dee was implying, turned around and glared at her. She smiled playfully and took his arm again.
“Common, I’m sure they’re fine. Let’s go.”
Draco followed reluctantly. He didn’t want to stop the search, but he didn’t want to get Dee in danger either; he knew what kind of things lived in the forest, and who knew what would come out at night that was scarier than what they saw during the day.
Harry quietly followed Hermione’s footsteps back to the castle. He didn’t feel like talking after his embarrassing moment with her, which to him, was only embarrassing because of Draco. So Hermione was the first to talk.
“What do you think happened back there?” she asked. “If Draco really didn’t remember what had happened, that means Voldemort could take over his body at anytime, anywhere, and make him do things then forget about them.”
Harry thought hard. “Well, it sounds a little like what happened to Ginny doesn’t it? Maybe he’s using some link to get to Draco, like the diary he used to get to Ginny.”
“Maybe…” Hermione began, but then Harry suddenly screamed, “Ahhh!” like he was falling down the stairs, and disappeared.
“Harry?” Hermione said as she turned around to face nothing. “Harry, where are you?!”
“Down here!!” Harry hollered back, though it was barely above a whisper to Hermione. She dropped to the ground and started feeling around, and a couple seconds later, she found what she was looking for. Her hand fell right through what looked like solid ground, and she jumped through the invisible hole she uncovered.
“So this is how Voldemort and his men have been mysteriously disappearing!” Hermione whispered.
“Smart girl,” a voice replied, and the last thing Hermione saw were two red eyes.