Chapter 1
There was a disturbance in the castle. The candle flames flickered, speaking in hushed whispers to the portraits on the walls of the Gryffindor common room. Not enough to alert those huddled around the fireplace playing a game of exploding snap, but enough to signal to the witch and wizard in the corner, stuffed into two large armchairs.
Hermione looked at Ron with panic.
“Harry,” she whispered.
Without another word, Ron moved to the portrait hole. As she made her way behind him, she sneaked a hand into the pocket of her robe, feeling around for a coin. When she finally grasped one, she sent a single glance towards the heavens in hopes it was the right one, and held her thumb and forefinger to the Galleon.
H OK? H
Wand in one hand, Hermione moved behind Ron through the corridors. They made their way to the headmaster’s office, knowing it was where Harry’s lessons were to take place, but when they came to the eagle statue guarding the head of school, an oppressive wave of tension flared throughout the halls.
In her pocket, a coin burned.
“Ron!” He looked back at her. “The coin.”
They bent their heads to see what Harry had written back on their protean charmed Galleon.
HR H AT SOS
Before Hermione could speak, Ron shot down the hall towards the Astronomy Tower.
NO! We need a plan, she thought. Gryffindors were known to rush headfirst into danger, and though she’s had her fair share of minutely planned, unsanctioned missions to save the day, the darkness of the castle after hours mixed with the foreboding threat of war made her pause.
The Order of the Phoenix was small, at least what she saw last year hiding away at Grimmuald Place. If she were to join after graduating, that wouldn’t make much of a difference in their numbers. Unless Dumbledore was hiding the truth of their head count, she knew that a war was not won by a rag tag group of child soldiers.
She and Ron needed to play it safe, there was no telling what happened that caused Harry’s lesson with Dumbledore to bring this heightened sense of danger to the castle. Hogwarts was the safest place to be in these times, unless you fled the country. Perhaps he was over-exaggerating? If only Harry’s problems were because he was simply dramatic.
Having thought it through, Hermione took off in the direction that Ron went. She saw his red hair further than she realized. Had he really not considered her safety when booking it down the hall at the first sign of danger?
They were near the seventh floor, only two more sets of stairs between them and Harry, when she heard it.
Cackling.
The hair on her arms stood, but Ron was still moving, having not heard the sound. She shook her head—it was just the wind of an old castle and her nerves.
“Ron!” She started in a hushed whisper. He turned his head to look at her, pausing his pursuit to let her catch up. “Don’t just leave me like that!”
He nodded, but moved along, expecting her to keep pace.
When they reached the last set of stairs, she heard it again. The cackling. This time she knew Ron had heard it and that it wasn’t her imagination.
Grabbing her coin again, she tried to focus hard enough on making everyone’s D.A. coin burn with a message for help. Hermione kept hers on her at all costs. With Voldemort gaining political favor and his Death Eaters ransacking muggle and wizarding towns alike, she needed communication outside of her Patronus.
She felt a hand tugging her up the flight of stairs and to the left towards the tower’s entrance. Ron looked back, taking her gaze with him to see a stream of red light hit the spot they were just in.
Without thought, they ran. No one threw stunners in the dead of night at Hogwarts; Hermione tried to think of a time when a stunner was thrown in the halls during her six years here.
“Oh look!” A voice, the voice of a woman, howled with laughter. “Students! Out of bed! Someone alert Filch!”
Her feet pounded on the cement of the castle floors, desperately trying to think of a place to hide. They finally reached the door of the Astronomy Tower, and she gestured to Ron to be quiet as they made their way inside.
Hermione moved towards the lower floor when a wand appeared in her face.
“What were you wearing the first time I met you on the Hogwarts Express?” Harry.
She rushed out a sigh of relief. Thank Godric Harry didn’t just trust that it was me right away. “My Hogwarts robes. I changed as soon as I got on the train.”
The wand lowered and suddenly Harry Potter stood with controlled rage. “Dumbledore is unarmed. He told me to wait down here, but I can’t see anything.”
Ron moved to give Harry a hug. “There’s someone in the castle. We just heard a woman’s voice, she sounded mad with laughter.”
As Harry started to fill her and Ron in about what he thought was going on upstairs, Hermione moved to make her way to the main viewing room of the Astronomy Tower. When she came to a place where she was still hidden, but could still see, she hid her gasp and stilled her movements.
Draco Malfoy stood with his wand arm raised at an unarmed Albus Dumbledore.
They were speaking to each other; hushed tones, as though if they raised their voices any higher, the spell of tension would break. She half hoped that Draco would make a move, simply to ease whatever deadly magic was in the air. It was suffocating to be around.
Merlin, Hermione, how could you think that? This is your beloved professor and leader of the light!
She wasn’t sure where Harry and Ron were, but when she looked at the scene before her again, Dumbledore’s twinkling eyes found hers.
“Mister Malfoy, if that is what you wish, I can make it happen,” Dumbledore said, evenly. No hint of fear nor breath of animosity.
It barely occurred to her that she was now privy to the conversation. There must have been a silencing spell on them, but what on earth caused her to have access to this now? Was it Dumbledore’s eye contact that allowed the spell to wash over her, engulfing her in a moment both timeless and hurried, where history could be made?
“She’d never agree to it,” the cruel tone of Malfoy was like a bucket of ice shards through her veins.
Hermione felt someone at her side. When she looked, she found Harry, trying to see if she could hear what was being said. She schooled her features as best she could; she didn’t want him to know she could hear. It would break her concentration as she tried to piece together this mess.
Dumbledore took a step forward, drawing her attention back to the two opposing wizards. “Ah, my dear boy, but have you ever asked?”
Harry was pulling on her sleeve, but she couldn’t look away. She couldn’t hear anything anyone else was saying; all she could focus on was the wand aimed right at the headmaster’s heart.
Malfoy laughed, crisp and wicked, “ask? Have I ever asked? Tell me, professor, what would have happened if I had asked?”
He threw the last word out like a whip. This was not the same boy who walked around the castle the past few months looking ill. This was not the same Draco Malfoy who holed up in the library, frantically looking through spell books while barely holding his hands steady. No, this Draco Malfoy was steady as a board, the picture of a cruel boy wielding his magic like he would wreak havoc on whomever stood in the way of his goal. This Draco Malfoy looked older and more definitive in his skin.
“Would you like to find out?” The headmaster was still aloof. Aloof, with a wand in his direction at the hands of a boy who appeared steadfastly assured in his decisions. “She’s right there, watching.”
Without hesitation, two stunners came in the trio’s direction. Hermione flinched, waiting for the weight of her body to topple over from the sheer magnitude of the spell, but nothing came. When she looked around her, she spotted Harry’s wide eyes and Ron’s furious ones staring up at her from the floor.
He stunned them. Draco Malfoy stunned Harry and Ron and left her standing.
“Come to see the show, Granger?” Hermione looked at Malfoy. The words pawed at their past, when she slapped him in third year, but Hermione didn’t want to think about the past; she just wanted to survive this war and return to her parents in one mental piece.
“Miss Granger,” Dumbledore said, “I trust you can keep a secret?”
She nodded, acutely aware that Harry and Ron were at her feet listening to everything. “Can they hear us?”
“No, the silencing spell was lifted just for you,” the headmaster gave her a slight smile. Just for her? What in Merlin’s name was going on? Before she could open her mouth to question, he continued. “It would seem Mister Malfoy here has a request from Lord Voldemort himself, a punishment for his father’s failures.”
Stoic and cold, Malfoy gave nothing away.
“The request is my life.”
Hermione bristled in annoyance. “No offense, professor, but with a wand to your chest, I worked that out for myself.”
Malfoy’s wand wobbled. When she turned to him, he was back to his cold, empty blankness, but there was a faint lift to his lips. He was amused?
Amused? Amused? This sixteen-year-old boy had one of the most powerful sorcerers in the country unarmed, with a wand to his chest, and he finds me amusing? Hermione’s thoughts were focused on all the wrong things, but this thought was the most prevalent and she could not figure out why she would be amusing someone who was about to become a murderer.
Dumbledore seemingly unaffected by the amusement on the blonde’s face, answered Hermione. “Of course, my dear, you are the brightest witch I’ve meet these many years. But, my life was coming to an end anyways. What Mister Malfoy seems more interested in is you.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you.”
“Why on earth would Draco Malfoy be more concerned with me?” She knew nothing good could come from running towards the Astronomy Tower without a plan, but now she wonders what good a half-baked plan would’ve done with this information.
“Don’t flatter yourself so easily there, Granger,” Malfoy spoke directly to her, his voice was even, controlled. “I’m more interested in what you could give me.”
Hermione paled. Give him?
“Mister Malfoy, we do not have much time. I am aware of a few uninvited guests wandering the halls at the moment,” Dumbledore’s voice slowly made Hermione aware of how much she was being left in the dark. “Please tell me the full prophecy so that she may hear it as well.”
“No.”
“What prophecy?”
Before anyone could answer her, the door to the Astronomy Tower below flew open and the cackling witch could be heard, along with voices shouting spell after spell. Dumbledore gestured to Hermione to get back to the boys and hide them. She didn’t hesitate, throwing a Disillusionment Charm over the three of them.
Feet coming up the stairs and whizzing by the hidden trio carried the mad laughter and stench of rot. “Uninvited guests” was what Dumbledore had said, but without a doubt, Hermione knew these were Death Eaters. She knew that she was wrong about Draco Malfoy and the mission Harry was obsessed with uncovering.
“My darling nephew! Were you saving your final act just for us?” The pouty lilt to the witch’s voice was enough to make Hermione cringe. Bellatrix Lestrange.
From her spot on top of Harry and Ron, Hermione wasn’t able to see what was happening. She could risk it all and try to get the boys out, but with Malfoy’s stunning spell, there was no way she could lift the two teenage boys. Instead, she moved quietly to the spot she had come from when Dumbledore was talking to her.
“Madame Lestrange,” the lack of surprise in Dumbledore’s voice made Hermione stop. “I must say, I did not expect us to meet again.”
He knew. He knew there were Death Eaters in a castle full of innocents and did nothing to stop this? Hermione’s thoughts were racing, but the flash of anger towards the headmaster was blinding. She made a slight adjustment to get access to her wand.
Malfoy stood still with his wand at Dumbledore, but his eyes were scanning the perimeter of the tower, settling on her Disillusioned form with ease. He shook his head slightly at her and frowned.
Could he see her? If she was exposed in this alcove, she needed to move now. After looking at the six Death Eaters in the room, Hermione knew they wouldn’t hesitate to torture her.
Keep that bushy head down, Granger. Don’t draw attention to yourself.
Malfoy’s voice in her head caused a small gasp to escape her. Bellatrix’s head snapped around.
“Is there anyone else here, Draco?”
“Just the old man,” the voice wasn’t in her head this time. He sounded slightly strained.
What part about don’t draw attention to yourself do you not comprehend?
Could she just think a thought and he would be able to hear her?
A crisp Yes was his answer.
She sent him a glare, unsure if he was able to see her or not.
Bellatrix was urging Malfoy to finish the job, to not be like his failure of a father, to bring pride back to the name of Black and Malfoy. But Malfoy seemed to be waiting for something.
Slowly, she moved into the room. Leaving Harry and Ron was not the best option, and they would definitely have somethings to say when they inevitably came back to consciousness.
Malfoy, how long will Harry and Ron be stunned?
Until I will them awake. Get back to the alcove you were just hiding in.
She ignored him, and continued making her way towards her unarmed professor. The door to the Astronomy Tower creaked open again. Bellatrix and the Death Eaters were still urging Malfoy to get on with it. Then someone grabbed her arm.
Not knowing if this was friend or foe, Hermione went with the unknown because she was certain if she made a sound or announced her presence at all, more than one body would be down tonight.
They made their way downstairs and out of the tower. What Hermione saw in the corridor was heartbreaking. Classroom doors split, tables and chairs overturned in the hallway, what looked eerily similar to blood was written on the walls.
Approaching the nearest classroom, Hermione was shoved in, and a quick “finite” was heard by the monotonous voice of Severus Snape.
“Potter and Weasley are under one of these desks,” he said. “Not that I want to do what I’m about to do, but you must keep them here, hidden. Dumbledore will die tonight, but Mister Malfoy have asked me to keep you safe and to fill you in when all is said and done.”
He moved to the door, but paused before exiting. “Look for a doe in the next week. Do not tell your hot-headed children anything other than you were stunned as well.”
Then he was gone.
The silence of the classroom was suffocating. She didn’t know what was happening, why Dumbledore wasn’t more forthcoming with information, and why on earth she could hear Draco bloody Malfoy in her head.
Please, she begged, please release them from your stunning spell. We need to get somewhere that isn’t below Death Eaters.
She kept repeating it, hoping somehow she was able to get through to Malfoy in a different room.
His crisp, aristocratic done caused her to sob quietly. Remembering Snape’s warning to make them think she was also stunned, she felt around for them and laid next to them, waiting for one to start to stir.