Hermione slowly made her way from Dumbledore’s office, back to the Gryffindor common room.
‘I can’t believe I trusted him. Ron was right all along.’
When she walked through the portrait hole, she saw Harry and Ron sitting by the fire waiting for her. They looked up at her as she entered, but said nothing. She just sat down in an armchair next to Ron, and stared into the fire.
“Umm, Hermione?” Harry spoke uncertainly.
Hermione looked up from the fire, and into Harry’s eyes. She saw the concern that he felt for her.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Sorry for what? You didn’t do anything, Harry.”
“I know, but-”
“We know how much you care about Draco, so we’re sorry that you are hurt,” Ron finished for him.
Hermione looked at him with tears in her eyes.
‘Ron’s always there for me.’
“I am just tired of things going so wrong,” she said, a few tears falling down her face. She looked into the fire for a few minutes, then sighed, “So, what’s the plan that you all came up with? All Dumbledore told me was, that I would help, but not in the way I think. So, I am completely confused.”
Harry glanced at Ron before speaking. “Well,” he said. “You aren’t going to like it very much.”
“Yeah, I assumed I wouldn’t like it, once I was informed that I wouldn’t be involved. So, what is it?”
“Well,” Harry continued. “Draco is going spy on Voldemort’s movements, but,” he hesitated.
“What?” she looked from Harry to Ron, both of whom seemed reluctant to finish the explanation. “What are you all going to do?” she asked again.
“Dumbledore wants-”
“No, Ron,” Harry cut him off. “Hermione, we aren’t going to tell you what Dumbledore has planned for us to do.”
“What!?” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “But, Dumbledore told you to tell me. I was there when he told you! Why won’t you tell me?” Tears were starting to form all over again in her eyes.
‘This night just keeps getting worse by the minute,’ she thought sarcastically.
“She’s right mate,” Ron interjected. “Dumbledore did tell us to tell her the plan once she got back.”
Harry shook his head. “Yeah, but don’t you see? If we tell her the plan, it will involve what she needs to do to help us succeed. If we tell her, she might not act in the same way.”
Ron thought for a second, “Yeah, you’re right.”
Hermione was becoming slightly irritated with the pair of them. She crossed her arms over her chest. “So, how the hell am I supposed to help if A, I don’t know the plan, and B, I don’t know in what manner I am supposed to help?”
“Don’t get angry Hermione,” Harry said. “Dumbledore explained it to us, and it’s a bit odd, you know how Dumbledore is, but he said that you would know how to help when the moment arrived. So you see, if we tell you the plan you might not act when you need to, because you’ll be expecting the event.”
Hermione threw up her arms, and rolled her eyes. “More secrets! First Draco, now you two! I can’t do this anymore.” She walked away from them towards the portrait hole.
“Oy! Where are you going?” Ron asked.
“I’m leaving the common room, obviously.”
“Yeah, but Dumbledore reckons that you need to get some rest tonight. He told me and Harry, before you got to his office, not to let you leave after you came back.”
This only served to further anger Hermione. “Well, that’s lovely. Then I guess I’ll be off to bed, since I am being placed in confinement,” she said, and stormed up the stairs.
Harry and Ron sat there in the silence for a few seconds, when Ron spoke, “You think she’ll be alright?” he asked.
“I hope so,” Harry answered, looking at the stairs Hermione had just ascended. “Because, if she doesn’t do what Dumbledore said she has to, a lot of people are going to die.”
Ron grimaced.
After a few moments of silence, they both got up and headed to the boys dormitory, each silently hoping that Hermione would do what was needed.
*~*~*~*~
Hermione woke up the next morning with swollen, puffy eyes from all the crying she had done the previous night. She got out of bed, washed her face, and headed down to the Gryffindor common room. Harry and Ron, as always, were there waiting for her to join them.
“‘Morning,” Harry said tentatively.
Hermione forced herself to give him a weak smile. “Good morning, Harry.”
“Should we go down to breakfast then?” Ron asked.
Hermione only nodded in response, and the three of them left the common room, and headed down to the Great Hall.
When they arrived, Hermione kept her gaze on the floor, refusing to look in the direction of the Slytherin table. She didn’t want to have to look at Draco if she could help it.
After breakfast, they all got up to head to their first class, which unfortunately was Potions. Hermione was not thrilled by the prospect of Potions class; it was easy to avoid Draco in the Great Hall, or the castle in general, but it was going to be hard in Potions when Draco sat directly in her line of sight.
“Guys, what if I don’t go to Potions today? Will you cover for me?”
“What!?” Harry and Ron both exclaimed at the same time. Neither could believe the words had come from Hermione.
“Hermione,” Harry said. “You’re not going to skip Potions, just because of what’s happened. You’d be angry with yourself if we let you.”
“Yeah,” agreed Ron. “Plus, if you start skipping, it will be a signal to everyone else that its time to quit this school rubbish if the know-it-all Hermione Granger isn’t even going to class anymore.”
Hermione smiled in spite of herself. Ron always had a way of making her feel better, even when she thought it wasn’t possible.
“Yeah, that’s true,” she responded. “You two would be lost without me anyway.”
“There’s the Hermione we know,” Harry said with a bit of a smile. “Everything will be fine. We’ll be there to get you through it.”
She smiled at them, a smile that quickly disappeared when they entered the Potions classroom. The first person she made eye contact with was, Draco. His gaze made her pause for the briefest of seconds, before she sat down waiting for the instructions from Slughorn for today’s potion.
*~*~*~*~
His breath had caught in his chest when she made eye contact with him. There was something about those eyes. She hadn’t looked over at him once during breakfast, and as horrible as it was, he was glad that Potions would at least force her to have to look at him.
Draco turned around to listen to the instructions from Slughorn. They were all to pick a potion to brew as a gift for someone, and they would have 3 class periods to complete it, and could come in on appointment to work on it if it took more time; Slughorn’s idea of a nice little project.
Once they all were working on the day’s task, he turned again to look at Hermione. She was hard at work trying to complete the assignment.
‘I’m a prat,’ Draco thought.
He turned to his copy of Advanced Potion Making, and leafed though the pages. Page 277 caught his eye. He read what the potions effects were and looked back at Hermione.
‘Maybe this will show her, better than I can tell her.’
Wondering vaguely what potion she was making, and for whom she was making it, he took out his ingredients, and began making his gift for Hermione.