Fate of Awakening Love

Fate of Awakening Love

Chapter One - Of Potions and Time-Turners

Moonbeams fell across the stone floor, lighting the corridor just enough for Hermione Granger to find her way down it. Even her thick bathrobe didn't keep out the drafts of cold wind that were drifting through the cracks in the windows, and there was no warmth coming from the braziers along the wall, as they had long died out. As Hermione pushed open the library door, she pulled out her wand and whispered, "Lumos" and started her search along the bookshelves for the large book she was to use for her project in Arithmancy.

"I should've known you would be in here in the middle of the night," drawled a familiar (and unpleasant at that) voice. Hermione whirled around to find Draco Malfoy staring at her with his cold steel-colored eyes.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was looking for something," he replied, rolling his eyes, flicking a lock of his silvery-blonde hair out of his eyes. "But I figured you would've known that, since you do know everything, right?" Ignore him...just find the book and don't mind him, Hermione thought. Yeah, easier thought than done, another annoying voice replied. Oh Great Wizards, now I'm hearing things.

"I know more than you do," she retorted.

"Oh, you do?" he said, stepping close to her, cornering her against a bookshelf. Her heart started racing, her palms growing sweaty. She gripped her wand tighter, forcing herself not to get lost in his eyes, to not notice the way his eyes were running from her hair to the fuzzy, pink slippers covering her feet. Something tugged at her heartstrings, but she tried to turn her mind to other things. I am not falling for Draco Malfoy....

"Look, Draco, I really have to find this book, so I'd appreciate it if you left me alone," she said, once she finally got her voice back.

"I was here first, Mudblood." Hot tears immediately stung at her eyes, and she looked away, determined not to cry in front of him. "Aww, did I make you cry? Too bad Weasley's not here, I'm sure he'd stick up for you, being as he always has to rescue his little Mudblood girlfriend." It took every ounce of Hermione's willpower to not slap him. She pushed past him, and went to the other side of the room, looking among the bookshelves, but as she got to the second one, her vision blurred with tears and she, still determined not to let him see her cry, ran out of the library silently, all the way up to Gryffindor Tower. Just when I thought he was acting civilized...I should've known. What's gotten into me? I should realize that he's never going to change, no matter how much older he gets...he'll turn out to be just like that bastard of a father he's got. All these thoughts were spinning through Hermione's mind as she splashed her face with cold water to get rid of the tearstains on her cheeks.

"Maybe I should tell Harry and Ron," she said to her reflection, then shook her head. "No, that'll only make things worse...Ron'll probably start a fight with Dr - er, Malfoy - and that's all I need." Drying her face with a towel, she shuffled back into the seventh year girls' dorm and climbed into her four-poster, pulling the sheets and comforter up around her. And, after hours of lying awake worrying, she finally drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

***

"HERMIONE! WAKE UP!" Streaks of sunlight poured through the gap in Hermione's curtains, which didn't help her situation any when Ron screamed in her ear.

"Dammit, Ron, I have a headache, do you mind?" she mumbled into her pillow as her head throbbed even more.

"Sorry, but we've been trying to wake you for an hour!"

"It's only been a few minutes!" Harry exclaimed quickly.

"I don't care. You two can go to Hogsmeade without me."

"But it wouldn't be the same!" Ron insisted. "Please, 'Mione, come on, just this once."

"Don't call me that!" She screamed finally, sitting up and throwing her pillow at him. He ducked, and it hit Harry instead, whose glasses fell to the floor along with the pillow. He grinned.

"What did I do?"

"You're waking me up with him!" Hermione shrieked. "Now please let me get back to sleep!" Truth was, she'd been looking forward to the Hogsmeade trip for a while, but she was just too upset from last night to go, since Draco would surely be going. Why am I letting him bother me like this? Usually I just push it aside if he calls me a Mudblood...but something was different about last night....

"Hermione?" Her attention snapped back to the two boys looking at her with confused expressions on their faces. Harry's was a little more concerned. Ron's was a cross between confused and annoyed.

"I just don't feel really good today."

"What's wrong?" Harry instantly said.

"My head hurts, I told you."

"That's it?" Ron said, scoffing. Hermione made a growling-sort of noise and flopped back down, pulling the other pillow over her head.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" She screamed.

"Come on, Ron, I don't think she's going to come," Harry muttered, leading Ron out of the room. Hermione threw the pillow across the room just in one last burst of anger and glared at the closed door.

"About time you realized that." She settled to go to sleep again once she'd retrieved her pillows but try as hard as she might, she couldn't go back to her peaceful slumber. Damn them, she thought irritably, got up and walked immediately to the shower. She let the hot water peel away the layers of sleep and bad memories from last night, dried off and got dressed, but instead of going to Hogsmeade, stayed in the common room reading until she'd finished the book. She decided now would be a good time as any to get lunch in the Great Hall - surely Draco and his friends would still be at Hogsmeade.

When she entered the Hall, she ran straight into Draco, who was rounding the corner of the door to exit. Her face flushed a brilliant red for a reason she didn't know at that moment, and she froze, staring up in his eyes.

"I was just looking for you. Dumbledore says he wants to meet us in his office."

"What for?"

"I don't know," Draco sighed, "just come on." She followed him up to the second floor, and they stood in front of the gargoyle statue.

"Sugar Quills," Draco spoke and the statue jumped aside, letting them onto the moving stairs. In Dumbledore's office they found Professors Snape and McGonagall standing on either side of Dumbledore. Two goblets of steaming potion sat on the desk and two Time-Turners lay in front of the goblets. Not another one of these kinds of assignments...especially not with Draco, I hope.

"Miss Granger, Mr. Malfoy, we have a mission for you." A mission...makes us sound like agents or something.

"Which is?" Draco said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"We have received news of a sacred sword that Voldemort is trying to take a hold of. This sword has the power to kill fifty wizards or witches with one stroke, if held in the hands of a Dark wizard or it will heal fifty witches and wizards with one stroke, if held in the hands of a wizard on the Light side. There is reason to believe that this sword was destroyed after Rowena died, which was after she defeated the Dark wizard of her time. Your jobs are to go back in time one thousand, two hundred years - just after Hogwarts was founded - and get the sword before it is destroyed. You must bring it back, as Voldemort is attempting to go back in time as well to get it." Dumbledore explained. "This potion will allow you to go back that far without having to turn the Time-Turners how many hours there are in a thousand, two hundred years." Hermione bit down on her lower lip, glancing at Draco. He kept staring at the professors.

"You mean...I - we - have to go back in time to get a sword? Why not just make one that has that same power?" He drawled.

"Because you cannot make a sword that has that same power," McGonagall explained. "Rowena had certain powers none of the other Founders had, and one of them was to forge a sword - or any weapon, for that matter - with that sort of power. Another was to put strength into one who was mortally wounded, to heal their wound enough so that they could live."

"Recipero fortitudo," Hermione muttered. All three Professors' eyes turned to her.

"How did you know that?" That's right, we haven't studied anything about that yet...how did I know it?

"I...I don't know," she answered truthfully. "I guess I just read it somewhere...I'm not sure." Draco even looked surprised.

"You two would be excused from all classes for the next week, if it does take you that long to retrieve the sword." Snape said.

"That is, if you two can work together." McGonagall added. "We just felt that you two were the best for the mission since you are Head Boy and Girl - our top students."

"If you won't call me Mudblood," Hermione muttered out of the corner of her mouth, "then I won't have a problem with you."

"Fine," he murmured back.

"Okay." Hermione said. "We'll do it."

FIN (for now at least)

A/N: Okay, so Rowena's sword is based on the Tetsusaiga, from Inuyasha, Inuyasha's sword. Well, the part about it killing fifty witches or wizards with one stroke. The other part is based on Sesshomaru's sword, the Tenseiga, if I'm not mistaken. And yes, the going-back-in-time part is based on my story Time-Turners Gone Wrong...only they don't go wrong. Next chapter: the two actually go back in time and Hermione discovers something about her past life. Plot is loosely woven around the Kagome-Kikyo plotline...Inuyasha fans, you'll be able (hopefully) to kind of recognize a bit of a resemblance.