Hermione's Suicide

"Harry, can I talk to you?" Hermione asked, sitting across from Harry at the table he was using to complete his homework on.

"Sure," Harry muttered, finishing a sentence before looking up at his best friend.

"Harry, there's something I need to tell you," Hermione began. She tried to get it out--she just had to tell him about everything she knew about Abram and Dumbledore, but suddenly the words wouldn't come.

"Hermione, is everything alright?" Harry asked.

"It's fine," Hermione lied. "Nevermind, forget I said anything."

Harry shrugged and went back to his homework. Hermione nearly cried with the realization that no matter what, she would not be able to tell Harry what he needed to know. There had to be something she could do to tell him.... They couldn't control everything she did, could they?

Both Harry and Draco skipped their classes that day as well. Draco packed up his few belongings and hid with Harry under the invisibility cloak to get to the Gryffindor tower to do the same with Harry's things.

Harry quickly shoved what he owned into his trunk and cast a weightless charm on it before he shrunk it so he could carry it in his pocket. Together, they left the school behind. Harry looked longingly back on the castle once as they walked through the gate and took off the cloak before turning away from it forever.

Hermione had said not to trust anyone. Harry knew she was right.

"Where will we go?" Harry asked.

"The Three Broomsticks I guess," Draco said as they began the trek to Hogsmeade. "Do we have enough to rent a room for a while?"

Harry nearly laughed but stopped himself from doing so. "Yes," he said instead. "We have enough."

"You're dropping out?" Madam Rosmerta asked after Harry and Draco told her their reasons for wanting a room.

"It's not exactly by choice," Harry muttered. "Rather a lack of options."

Madam Rosmerta eyed the two suspiciously. "One bed or two?" she asked, accepting them into her inn.

"One," Draco answered. Madam Rosmerta's eyebrows rose in slight surprise.

"You're not like your fathers with that one," she muttered pulling out a ledger. "Let's see," she said thoughtfully as she looked through the pages. "Ahh, yes," she said, putting her finger down. She reached under the counter and pulled up a key. "Room 29," she said. "It's third floor, all the way to the back. Last on the left."

"Thank you," Harry said, taking the key and handing over the gold needed for the room for a week.

The two traveled to the top floor of the building and walked to the end of the hall.

"Thirty rooms, huh?" Draco asked as Harry unlocked theirs.

"Guess so," Harry said, pushing open the door.

"The manor has fifty," Draco said closing the door.

"Sorry we can't go to the manor," Harry said slightly angry.

"Sorry," Draco said quickly. "I didn't mean to sound...."

Harry shook his head. "Forget about it," he ordered. "It's better than what I had at the Dursleys at any rate."

"What did you have there?"

"A cupboard under the stairs until I turned eleven. Then I got my cousin's second bedroom. Not much bigger than the closet, and a lot more cluttered."

"You slept under the stairs?" Draco asked in shock.

Harry nodded. "You weren't the only one who was abused, Draco," Harry said softly, pulling his luggage from his pocket. He reversed the magic on it and proceeded to pull his clothes from the trunk.

"What are you doing?" Draco asked.

"Well, it looks like we'll be here for a while, so I'm putting my clothes in the drawers."

"Oh. Right."

"Not everything is done by servants, Draco," Harry said softly. "Especially here. This isn't the Manor, as you said earlier. And I really don't know why you're suddenly comparing everything to it."

Draco shook his head. "Neither do I," he confessed.

No one seemed to notice that Harry and Draco had suddenly disappeared. In fact, the only sign that anyone knew they were gone came a week later when an owl arrived telling them that if they were leaving the school, they would need to send an owl stating as such and that they would be given a certificate that said that they had completed their magical training, but had not taken the N.E.W.T.s. It was signed Donna Abram.

"They know we're gone," Draco said softly.

"Of course," said a voice from the doorway.

Harry and Draco turned to see Albus Dumbledore standing just outside the room.

"What are you doing here?" Harry demanded angrily, the need to attack Dumbledore nearly overpowering.

"Harry, I want you to promise me that you will not act rashly."

"What are you talking about?" Harry demanded.

"You're under arrest, Harry," Dumbledore said quietly. "For the murder of Donna Abram, destruction of school property, and assault on another student."

Harry's mouth dropped. "They attacked me!" he yelled.

"Your trial is in three weeks," he said almost mechanically. "You will spend that time in Azkaban Prison."

"What?" Draco demanded.

"Draco, no," Harry said quickly. He handed his lover his wand. "I'll go quietly," Harry said as Aurors walked into the room.

"Harry, no! You didn't do anything!" Draco yelled.

The Aurors walked up to Harry and turned him around. They pulled his arms behind his back and Harry saw Draco had tears in his eyes.

"I love you," Harry said softly.

Draco walked up to him and they kissed one last time before the Aurors drug Harry from the room.

Draco ran out of the room in time to see them reach the stairs. "Harry I love you!" he yelled down the hall before feeling a sob rise in his throat.

If the wizarding world had a hell, Azkaban was it. With Dementors patrolling the halls at regular intervals forcing Harry to remember everything that had ever happened in his life, he knew that there was no need for a devil. He understood completely how Azkaban could be so trusted and was so secure. With being forced to visit the graveyard and see his parents die, he could do little more than whimper in a corner most of the time. He wished he were an Animagus so he could escape the horrors as Sirius had in his twelve years in the snowy white prison.

It was three weeks of teetering on the brink of insanity, three weeks of living in hell, three weeks of knowing he was being wrongly accused.

How the hell did Sirius do it for twelve years?

Finally the trial arrived. For Harry and Draco, the day couldn't have come soon enough.

"Mr. Potter, tell us, in your own words, what happened the day in question."

Harry's heart raced and he swallowed the lump in his throat before he told the entire Wizengamot the story of what had happened the day Abram was supposedly killed.

"Let me get this straight," the prosecutor said, walking back and forth in front of Harry. "Donna Abram hit you in the head with a rock while pretending to be your lover, Draco Malfoy?"

The Wizengamot chuckled.

"Yes," Harry said with a nod.

"And when you woke up, you were tied to a wall?"

"Yes," Harry said calmly.

The prosecutor began to laugh. Harry forced himself to remain calm.

"Honorable Wizengamot, Minister, I beg you to put this madman in the care of the Dementors. Clearly he is not well. He is a threat. He killed one of his professors and he gives us this story! Put aside what he is, who he is, and you've still got--"

"She was alive when we left!" Harry said loudly.

"She was dead when Headmaster Dumbledore found her!" the prosecutor shouted, his face only inches away from Harry's.

"I DIDN'T KILL HER!" Harry bellowed, his face turning read from the anger of being wrongly accused and insulted.

"Then how did she die?" he asked softly.

"I don't believe she did," Harry said flatly.

"And why is that?"

"Because I received a letter from the school a week later that was signed by her," Harry answered. "And that this was the second attempt on my life within three days."

The prosecutor's eyebrows rose to his hairline. "The second?" he asked.

Harry nodded.

"Indulge us," the prosecutor said with a smirk on his face.

"Two days earlier, I was lured to the top of the Astronomy Tower. Up there, I was pushed over the edge. I managed to grab the ledge just before I fell."

"You were pushed?"

"Yes."

"And you fell?"

"I told you I grabbed the ledge just in time," Harry said, feeling the fury rise in him again.

The prosecutor laughed again. "What a story," he said. "Tell me, is that how you got your first girlfriend?" he asked. "With your adventurous tales that leave you in danger but you somehow make it out?"

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked.

"Did you know Cho Chang was dead?" the prosecutor asked.

The shock hit Harry like a tidal wave. "What?" he breathed.

"So you didn't know?" the prosecutor asked.

"No," Harry said softly.

"Did you know you were the last person to see her alive?"

The next day Draco took the stand.

"Please state your name for the record," the prosecutor said.

"Draco Xavier Malfoy," Draco answered.

"Were you in any way involved in the events leading up to Donna Abram's death?" the prosecutor asked.

"No," Draco said calmly, "I was unconscious."

"So you have no idea if Harry killed the professor or not?"

"She was alive when Harry woke me up."

"What are you saying?"

"Harry didn't kill her," Draco said flatly. "She was under the Body Bind when Harry woke me up, and to make sure she didn't come after us right away, Harry used the stunning spell on her. He missed the first time he cast it, and a table broke, spilling the contents of a cauldron on her. We left then."

"So you didn't even stop to check to see if she was alright?"

"There was no time," Draco said. "I heard footsteps coming down the hall so we ran."

The testimony was lost to Harry as his eyes fell on Dumbledore.

The headmaster had a slightly confused look on his face, as though he didn't understand what was going on. His eyes were in and out of focus, as though he were fighting the effects of something.

"Did Harry Potter kill Donna Abram?" the prosecutor nearly yelled.

"He didn't kill her," Draco said.

"Did you?"

"No."

"Then how did she die?"

"Why don't you tell me?" Draco asked.

"ANSWER THE QUESTION!"

"Look," Draco said shortly. "All I know is that the table broke and the cauldron spilled on the bitch. She was fine when we left!"

The prosecutor sighed. "Fine," he said. "We're through here. I call Albus Dumbledore to the stand."

Dear Diary, 5.2.97

You'll never guess who joined the DA today. Draco Malfoy, no surprise, he's been around Harry enough lately; Blaise Zabini, he's Draco's friend so I'm not surprised there either; and Pansy Parkinson. Now that I'm surprised about. I didn't see Pansy as being the type of Slytherin who would have a good side, especially not after seeing her as the most enthusiastic of the Inquisitorial Squad last year.

Knowing that she was a part of the squad, and what Umbridge turned out to be, I wonder if any of the three newest know of the plan Dumbledore and Abram have devised. After all, it wouldn't surprise me. Not when Abram seems to have as much power as Umbridge had last year, and all of Abram's power seems to come from Dumbledore himself. I would say that it's because of the fact that she's an Order of the Phoenix member, but Snape, McGonagall, and who knows how many other teachers are also a part of it, so I know it's not that. Maybe it's because she's an Auror, but Umbridge was Senior Undersecretary to Fudge when he was Minister, so I don't see why she would have more power that way.

So I guess it's because she is a part of this plot to kill Harry. After all, she has to be the only one. If she weren't I think I would have heard either about them in the conversations I have overheard, or I would have heard them involved in the conversations I've heard.

I know it's going to take something drastic to bring up Harry's defense. He can NOT trust Dumbledore, he just can't. In fact, if I thought it would do any good, I'd tell him not to go to school next year, but coming from me, he'd think I was a Death Eater in disguise or something. And I know I can't get anyone else to do it either, they'll ask too many questions and I can't risk getting anyone else involved. It's just too dangerous.

I hope I can find a way to alert Harry soon, before it's too late. Merlin, give me the strength to do what I must....

Hermione