Planning and Waiting
Neville smiles at me back and laughs a little at my joke.
‘Well, Mr. Longbottom, I need your assistance with a problem that I have just acquired’
He gives me a puzzled look, ‘Headmistress, I thought we were going to meet today to talk about the greenhouses and the land around Hogwarts. What seems to be the problem?’
‘Everything, Neville. I have found that everything I knew, has been turned around. I’m not even sure where to start to untangle this mess.’ Shaking my head with my hand covering my eyes.
Concerned he says, ‘Whatever it is headmistress, I hope I can help you with it.’
‘Good, because of the information that I have gathered, I will need not only your help but a few others as well.’ She picks up the first letter on her desk hands it over to Neville, and nods at him to go ahead and read it.
While Neville read the letter, I could see his eyebrows raise throughout the letter until he finished it, set it back on the desk, and leaned back in his chair. ‘Wow, I didn’t expect this. Are you sure this is real? How did you get this letter? Where did you get this letter?’
‘Well, Yes, it is real. I acquired it from, believe it or not, a future Hermione and Draco. They arrived here wearing a time-turner and handed me the letter, this journal. After the future Hermione set down the time turner, they disappeared. It was quite sad watching them disappear like that. But I am curious, did you know about Draco and Hermione?’
Neville leans back in his chair, smirks, and sighs, ‘Yes, I knew. I have known since Hermione would sneak out of the common room almost every night from the 5th year to the end of the 6th year. I followed her one night and found her with Draco. They both looked so happy, that I didn’t want to intervene. Then with Draco this past year, he helped save some students from being punished too harshly. I knew that he had to have changed even though I can’t say that I like the guy, but I respect him.’
Sighing, ‘I didn’t know that he did that. But that information, it could help us in trying to free him from serving time in Azkaban. We must get Hermione involved as well because of their history. It might take a miracle to get him released from charges that have been brought against him. But if I know Miss Granger, she is already working on a plan to get him released.’
Neville turned towards me, ‘If what you say is true, then we should Floo call her now. She is living in Grimmauld Place with Harry until the press latches onto a different story. I was over there last night.’
Smiling, Minerva looks at Neville. ‘Perfect. How about you call and tell Hermione, Harry, and Ron to get here soon because it is urgent.’
Wincing Neville responds, ‘About that, Ron is not speaking with them at the moment. That’s why I was over at their place last night. Hermione and Ron got into a screaming match because of the Malfoys. So, I don’t see him helping anytime soon.’
Sighing she replies, ‘Fine, at least get Harry and Hermione here.’
‘I can do that.’ Neville turns towards the fireplace to floo call to Grimmauld place.
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Earlier that day at Grimmauld Place
Hermione is lying in her bed staring at the ceiling hoping it would just fall on her. I mean the love of her life might go to Azkaban and her best friend is refusing to help her. Why can’t he just grow up and stop running away when things get tough? But Ron did always try to escape when things got tough.
I turn my head to the door because I smell breakfast being made. If there was a good thing about living here, it was because Harry was a great cook. Especially with breakfast foods. When we were on the run, we would rotate who would do the cooking based on the food/ingredients we had on hand. Sighing, I get up from the bed to get dressed and eat a wonderful breakfast.
I leave the bedroom while still braiding my hair. I walk down the staircase and enter the hallway that leads to the Kitchen. When I pass the place where Mrs. Black is, I notice that she is not screaming this morning. I look at the spot and see her painting is gone. I wonder when that happened. Last night after my fight with Ron, she started screaming at me, so I threw a silencing spell back at her but now she is gone. Strange.
I walk into the kitchen to see Harry cooking away and setting the table for breakfast. He turns towards me and says with a smile, ‘I can’t believe it, Mione! I woke up and saw that the witch’s painting was gone. How did you do it?’
Confused, I walk over to Harry and say, ‘What? I didn’t do anything. I just silenced her. I thought you were the one who got her off the wall.’
Shocked, Harry says, ‘Nope. Not me but I’m not complaining. Whatever you did, worked and we don’t have to hear that banshee anymore.’ We both start laughing and continue to set up the table. We eat in silence, and I clean up the table. I stop when I hear Harry, ‘Mione? We must talk about it.’
Sighing, I stop doing the dishes, turning toward Harry I can see this sincere and apologetic smile on his face, and I know that he is right. ‘I just…. I need him back. He shouldn’t be in there any more than I should. Why won’t Kingsley let him go? He knows that Draco was a spy for the light for goodness’s sake. It’s just…. infuriating.’ I sit down at the table and Harry grabs my hand.
‘You know that Kingsley is doing everything in his power to release Draco and Narcissa, but it needs more time. We have to be patient and wait for his trial.’ I rip my hand from Harry and stand up pacing.
‘Yeah, what trial. They have pushed back their trial four times now. I know that war was two weeks ago but still, they don’t deserve this, especially Draco.’ Sighing and shaking my head trying not to cry, ‘Harry, I can’t do this anymore. I can’t just sit back and do nothing.’ With tears in my eyes, I turn away from him and start to walk away when I feel a hand on my arm and Harry grabs me and pulls me into a hug.
‘I know this is hard on you, but you have to be strong, not just for you but for him. You are not doing nothing by staying here, you are helping him by letting Kingsley handle this. We have to play this by the book, Mione. If we go rogue and demand justice, then what happens to them? We know that the Ministry is corrupt, and Kingsley is fixing that as we speak, and until he does, then they will be on trial. Right now, they are in the manor, which is a good thing.’
‘But….’
Harry pulls me back a little, ‘I know it is not ideal and we can’t see or talk to them but they both know that we or you are trying our best to get them out of there and to be free. Once they have their trial, a fair trial at that, then you and Draco can live happily ever after. But first I get to punch him.’
Smiling, and punching him in the shoulder, ‘Hey!’
Smiling Harry says, ‘There she is, Now Mione’s back. Let’s head into the Black library, maybe there is something that can help speed this along.’
‘I guess.’ Grabbing onto Harry’s arm, we walk to the library. I have spent many days here researching this and that, hopefully, it will have something that can help us. Between the funerals, avoiding the press, and waking up from nightmares, one has a lot of time on their hands. We walk into the library grab whatever book we can find and bring it to the two chairs that are by the fireplace. I grab a book about ‘Wizarding Laws 1920-1945.’ I sit down and notice Harry already has a book.
‘What book did you grab?’ I see Harry smirk and show me the front of the book and I start groaning when I read the title, ‘Quidditch Flying Tips, How to Fly like a Pro’. ‘And how is that going to help Draco?
Harry turns and opens the book and smiles, ‘Well if we need an escape plan, I need to brush up on my flying skills.’ He turns the pages and starts reading.
I roll my eyes and start reading my book. A few hours go by, and I hear my name, ‘Mione?’
I look up at Harry and see the worried expression on his face. ‘What is it, Harry? Did something happen?’
‘No, I just heard the Floo sound off and you were stuck in your book you didn’t hear me. Neville just called and needs us at the school right away.’
Confused, I stood up and followed Harry to the fireplace. ‘Did he say why?’
‘No, but I can only imagine it is not good.’
We both grab some Floo powder and shout out the Headmistress's office because that is where Neville told us to go. Hopefully, everything is okay.