A Mark of Betrayal

Green with Envy

"Bloody hell: Harry!"

"Don't look Ron! She's our friend, you know."

"What are you looking at then?"

Hermione sat up, pulling her bed sheets up around her neck. "Harry! Ron! How did you get up here?"

"Well for the last 15 minutes, we've been trying to run up that damn slide. There's nothing like a good old mission impossible in the morning," Harry joked as he sat down on her bed.

Hermione, however, didn't hear him; she was still trying to remember her dream. It'd had been a good one. Harry had asked her out to the Halloween Ball. She looked at him now, as Ron sat down on the other side of her bed, he was looking at her in concern.

"Hermione are you all right? You seem to be taking this very well considering we spat out pumpkin juice."

"What's happened Harry?"

Harry groaned, "Snape got the job as Defence against the Dark Arts professor at last and I am sooo doomed."

"And if that isn't enough it's double trouble, we've still got him for potions."

Hermione frowned, "It's not that bad, he's a good teacher, we just don't get on that's all."

It only took long enough for Harry to remember the way Snape treated him before he answered. "Yeah that and he's got it in for me."

Ron tapped Harry on the back, "Harry we should be going, we've only five minutes to finish breakfast, time flies when you're trying to run up a long slide, and I want to eat."

Harry smiled, putting his worries out of his mind for the moment, as he and Ron stood up. "Yeah, Hermione we'll see you down there."

With a dreamy sigh, Hermione watched them leave, wishing they had stayed longer.

She was quick to dress, pulling on her socks and shoes in a disorganized fashion. She fed her bandy-legged cat, Crookshanks, tapping her foot with impatience as she waited for Crookshanks to finish eating.

"Come on, Crookshanks! I want my breakfast too you know, hurry up!" Crookshanks looked up and Hermione waved her wand over the bowl and muttered, "Scourgify," before sweeping out of the dorm.

~*~

Ron and Harry collapsed down on either side of the house table in front of their golden plates and goblets.

Ron frowned. "Hmm. New breakfast. I'd only just perfected my ultimate eggs, bacon and sausage sandwich when we had to dash off, and now it's gone..."

Harry rolled his eyes, "You just love your food don't you!? Well there's no time now. There's only a few minutes of breakfast left. Eat up, or you'll have to go hungry."

Ron grumbled and spread jam on his toast. "What you up to today Harry?"

There was a pause as Harry rubbed his eyes and considered the question; "I've arranged to go and study in the library with Cho and then maybe I'll go and see Hagrid to help him out organising the Wedding, it depends."

"When is it, again?"

Harry speared his bacon on his fork. "Twelfth, December, it's supposed to be a lucky day."

"Yeah, I suppose when Hagrid and Maxime get married luck is the first thing they will need. I mean it's not a normal wedding to be exact, is it?" Ron thought aloud.

Harry snorted. "Hardly; it's amazing how they just hit it off isn't it, it's the last thing we expected,"

"Do you have any idea who'll be the best man?"

Swallowing his pumpkin juice, he wiped his mouth before he answered. "Most probably it will be Dumbledore."

"I suppose Cho is going to be your partner?"

"Bingo! What about you?"

"Dunno, you know don't you, we'll be expected to dance at the party afterwards." Ron pointed his sausage-laden fork at him.

"Uh huh, but it's not much of a surprise that the thought doesn't really cheer me up."

~*~

"Hi," panted a breathless voice and Harry spun round to see Hermione, red in the face from her haste.

"Hermione, at last, hurry up and sit down we've only got a minute left." He patted the empty space on the bench next to him. She sat down at once, turning to them both.

"Sorry, I woke up late, my alarm clock broke, and then Lavender didn't wake me."

"It's all right, It took us ages to get up that slide to get to your dormitory, otherwise we'd have had had our dinner by now. Stupid idea really; girls can get into our dormitory, but if a boy tries to get up to the girls dormitory the stairs turns into a slide! You hear about that fifth year girl who had two boyfriends? And they say girls are more trustworthy!" he snorted. Hermione looked offended, but Ron didn't seem to notice; stabbing his sausage with a fork, he looked up at her.

"Anyway how come Lavender didn't wake you up?" Ron asked her with a puckered brow.

She sipped her pumpkin juice. "We had a row last night, I'm surprised you didn't hear; we were shouting that loud; I heard her talking about Hagrid saying that his wedding was going to be a joke, and so I told her what I thought of her. Anyway, I was laying into her when McGonagall came up to tell us to calm down, can you believe it? She took away 20 house points just for that!"

"Whoa!" Harry exclaimed, shocked as Ron snorted with amazement. He had never imagined Hermione laying into someone; it just wasn't her. He looked up from his plate to see Hermione looking at him with a dreamy expression, but she was quick to look away.

Hermione took a deep breath; Harry had just seen her looking at him. She hoped it hadn't looked suspicious. As long as Harry was dating Cho she had to keep her feelings secret, even from Victor. But even he had mentioned that she seemed different; he'd mentioned it during the summer holidays when they met up.

"What time's Quidditch practise?" asked Ron. Harry was however preoccupied; post had arrived and he'd received a note from someone.

Hermione started "He said- "

"Blimey, I forgot you were on the team. All that blocking to help me practise really paid off eh? It made you a pro. I still remember when Harry was first made captain and we were working out positions that needed filling." He chuckled, a reminiscent look on his face. "You as good as jumped off your chair and Harry and I thought you needed to go to the library, but you were just eager to be a keeper. God, you wiped the floor with the others at tryouts"

"Yeah, I suppose so. Anyway, Harry said everyone has to be down at the pitch at six pm, so..." she thought for a moment, "we'll walk down at ten to."

"Ha!" she smiled in triumph chewing her last mouthful as the breakfast disappeared.

With a doleful stare down at his plate where his bacon had been a second before, Ron grimaced. "Just my luck," he muttered.

Harry tore his note open, and read it out:

To Harry,

Would it be possible for the three of you come over this afternoon? I'm up to my eyeballs with ideas I have for the wedding and could do with your help to fine-tune them, I know you're good at this kind of stuff.

Waiting for a reply,

Hagrid

With a yawn, he handed them the note. "I was planning to go anyway after I'd met up with Cho, I'll meet you two in the common room, then we'll go." Ron and Hermione acknowledged this with a nod.

"Hey," someone chimed in. Twisting around they saw Dean and Seamus standing straight backed, looking like mirror images of Ron's brother, Percy.

"Hi," they said back, overlooking this somewhat disturbing detail.

"You are looking at the bouncers for Hagrid's wedding." They puffed out their chests and looked at them with an air of superiority.

Ron laughed. "No, I'm looking at the Percy fan club. You really look like him you know, sticking out your chests and looking down on us like we're ants. I feel like I've known you all my life..."

Hermione frowned, "You can't be serious. I mean Hagrid's wedding doesn't need bouncers..."

"Trust me Hermione we are being serious, Dumbledore's given us the job of making sure there's no trouble." They stood up and shuffled towards the door.

"But, who are you expecting trouble from?"

"Well, let's just say the ministry and company aren't over the moon about this wedding," Dean's voice was almost inaudible.

"They wouldn't!" Harry, Ron and Hermione all yelped at the same time.

"They would," Dean and Seamus replied in unison. "We have to drop by Hagrid's to sort out things."

Hermione heard a whisper. "Hermione, behind you..." She twisted her head and scanned the corridor, spotting Crabbe and Goyle motioning to her and failing to be discrete about it. She spun round to face Harry, Ron, Seamus, and Dean, who were about to leave.

"Got to nip to the loo, see you later!"

"Bye," they called, but she was already half way down the corridor.

"Do you know she's just been telling us how she was laying into Lavender when McGonagall walked in," Harry said to them all. "To be honest, I don't know what's gotten into her the past few weeks, she's been acting very odd."

"I've noticed that as well, she seems..." He cast around to find a word to explain Hermione's behaviour "preoccupied," Ron confessed.

"Maybe she broke up with Victor," Seamus suggested with a slight snigger.

"No, it's something else," Harry said frowning. What had got into Hermione? She didn't have her usual bickering rows with Ron anymore like she used to. She let things go and didn't hold a grudge. Hermione had changed a lot over the last few weeks, ever since they had returned to Hogwarts.

~*~

"Sorry, I was in a hurry," Hermione apologised, helping a girl pick up her scattered books.

Hermione approached Crabbe and Goyle. "Hello, did you do what I told you?" she blurted out.

"Yeah, but now he says if we do there will be trouble," Crabbe confessed sitting down next to her.

"It's better than having to be used and abused."

"Hmm, we will tell him we don't mind the trouble," Goyle said, slowly cottoning on.

"Think about it, you've fought all of Draco's battles for him for the past four years which just shows he can't fight for himself," she commented.

Goyle tightened his fist. "You're right."

"Thanks, Hermione, you're a star," he said in his deep, gruff voice.

Hermione's tone was urgent. "Just don't make it too obvious that we're meeting up like this." Crabbe and Goyle nodded in unison and waddled, penguin- like to the door. Hermione made her way to the Gryffindor Common Room; Ron would be there.

~*~

At last Cho had turned up... late. Harry must have been sitting there fifteen minutes when she stumbled in. Kissing him on the lips, she dissolved away his annoyance into nothingness. Cho was the best thing that ever happened to him. These days he kept thinking he was lucky to have plucked up the courage to ask her for another chance. They'd got back together at breakfast on the first day back and the funny thing was that she never mentioned Cedric anymore and that was fine with him. Harry remembered the last time they had met; it'd been up in the air, like Harry's feelings during his last Quidditch match. It'd been Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw and it was during a rowdy parade to the Gryffindor tower that they'd arranged to meet up today, Harry shouting to make himself heard before he was lifted up into the air.

It had been a good match he thought smiling. Gryffindor had won with 200 points in the lead; all thanks to a great save by Hermione.

~*~

It was his class schedule that Harry had nightmares about this year as he surveyed the crinkled piece of paper that he loathed so much.

Monday

9am; Double Potions

10.30 am; Care of Magical Creatures

1pm;Transfiguration

2.30pm; Double Defence Against the Dark Arts

It hadn't been so bad for the first few weeks as Defence Against The Dark Arts were free lessons due to a lack of a teacher being found to teach it. That was all to change, as of this morning, Mondays would be absolute hell; Snape was bad news, he never resisted taking points off Gryffindor. Four lessons with Snape on a Monday was not what Harry had bargained for in his sixth year at Hogwarts, it was bound to be detrimental to Gryffindor's chance of winning the House Cup.

With Draco scheming to ruin every lesson for Hagrid, Care of Magical Creatures lessons had taken a turn for the worse; Hagrid seemed to have lost his former confidence at teaching.

Cho came over to him at breakfast and Harry's mood was lifted as they cuddled, unaware of the jealous eyes watching them.

"Eat something Hermione," he wheedled after Cho had left "You're going to make yourself ill." She didn't seem to have noticed him, she just sat and stared at the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall, she hadn't eaten a thing.

"You know what? Whatever! I don't need this right now!" someone shouted. Turning around, Harry saw a crowd at the Slytherin table. Ron sniggered beside him.

"Crabbe and Goyle, they refused to sit next to Malfoy!" he told Harry. They grinned as they watched a rejected Malfoy eat his breakfast, an unhappy look on his face, and with only Pansy Parkinson at his side. Hermione hadn't noticed...

~*~

Ron was feeling worthless; Percy had just been promoted to the position of assistant to the Minister of Magic and he had the sinking feeling he'd have to live up to Percy's standards. He was always being told that he should set a better example for his sister, Ginny. But even Ginny didn't seem to want to follow in Ron's footsteps; it looked as if she was going to turn out like her other twin brothers, Fred and George. Those two had taken an outright pride in being renowned class clowns at Hogwarts. Harry was one of Ron's best friends, but sometimes he found himself comparing himself to Harry. It was so hard being friends with a boy who was famous worldwide. He was always being shunted to one side and he felt useless! It was hard enough having to be shunted to the side before Harry started dating Cho, the girl he'd dated in secret, in the last year of Primary School. Harry had everything Ron wanted.

Snape slammed down a textbook on his table and Ron jolted to his senses.

"Weasley, are you even listening to me?"

He looked up at Snape, perplexed, "Huh?"

Snape looked dangerous. "I said are you even listening to me?"

Ron gathered himself together. "Yeah, sure I am." It was half way through Potions and Snape had been giving them a lecture. Thinking of other things, Ron hadn't realised that Snape had asked him a question.

"Could you be so kind to repeat what I just said then, Weasley?"

Hermione was mouthing out something "You were just ... erm ... saying that ... erm" he gave up.

Snape smirked, "Detention for an hour. See me after class to make arrangements."

Harry looked over to Ron to see how he reacted to this and was astonished to see him shrug his shoulders; he didn't really look bothered. Normally Ron would grumble, this dismissive response was new. The sight of Malfoy sitting next to Ron distracted Harry. Malfoy looked terrible, his robes were creased, there were bags under his eyes, and he looked very pale, as if he was about to vomit. He looked downright miserable and defeated. Harry felt a sudden strange feeling grow in his chest; it was a few minutes till he realised, to his disgust, that he felt a tad bit sorry for Malfoy .All of a sudden it struck him that Malfoy hadn't been himself lately, in fact Harry was certain that teasing anyone didn't bring the pleasure it used to. It was like he only bullied people for the mere sake of it. Malfoy's words from that morning echoed in his mind I don't need this right now!

Maybe it was just him but this year everyone seemed a bit strange, something weird was going on... Harry could feel it...

~*~

Ron was annoyed, it was weeks into term and he still hadn't managed to tell Harry, it just wasn't the kind of thing you could bring up in a normal conversation, the time had to be just right...yet again the time had to come soon...very soon...

~*~

"So, Captain," Hermione looked at him. "What have you got in store for us today?"

"I think we'll practise diversionary tactics, dives, and things like that, but I doubt in this weather we'll be able to see anything. We'll get some practise though as it won't be long till we're trying to dodge each other because we can't see a bloody thing," he said, running his hands through his sopping wet black hair.

Hermione chuckled as he looked at her.

"I haven't heard you laugh in a long time, what's the problem?"

She looked away from him. "Really, it's n-no-nothing...I-it's all right,"

He felt himself growing angry and wanting to shout at her, but managed to lower his voice. "Come on, you can tell me, I know something's wrong."

"Now is not the right time, maybe some other time Harry," she told him, switching her brand new Nimbus 2003 to her other hand.

"In your own time, it's just that I'm worried about you that's all," explained Harry, running his hand through his hair once more.

Harry hissed at the rain. "When will it stop raining? It has been raining all week! It's just my luck that our match is going to be in played in stormy conditions! Just our luck that Ron's detention with Snape was scheduled for when we have Quidditch practise as well, eh? Stupid git!"

Hermione smiled at him, "We need to practise though, I'm almost glad the weather's like this, it'll prepare us for the weather during the match. It's likely to be raining..."

~*~

Ron made his way to Snape's office with a furrowed brow and a buzzing mind. He was wondering where he was now? How far away was he? What was he planning? Did he have inside help? This all seemed a bit scary for him, I mean You-know-who planning something bad to happen at Hogwarts and Harry not knowing...if only his dad hadn't been called away to that emergency at the Ministry of Magic, then he wouldn't have the huge responsibility on his shoulders to tell Harry...this was bad...real bad...

~*~

Draco sat on his bed twiddling his thumbs, he was alone, and he had no one, no one at all to tell. No one he could turn to and say, "I know something bad is going to happen, but if I tell you my father will kill me, and I'm scared...really scared..." There had to be someone... a friend?... got none... family... no one who wouldn't kill him for doubting them... a teacher... maybe, but which one?... Dumbledore?... out of the question... McGonagall?... hell no... Snape?...yes!...

~*~

The atmosphere up in the air was thick with demoralised thoughts and Harry called it a day after only twenty minutes of 'practise'. Having gained nothing from the evening's experience, the Gryffindor Quidditch team had retired to the changing rooms exchanging depressing comments.

"Well, lets be honest, practise was pointless. We couldn't see where we were going let alone muster up the energy to go there" Harry addressed the mud-splattered team. "Don't let it get you down. Gryffindor's had matches like this before, and won. We've got a good team, with a lot of talent. Just stay focused."

A shadow passed over his face as he heard sniggers from Neville and Ginny who were sitting in the corner. "You two, you need to stop mucking around. Making shadow masks on my face won't help you in the match. This is serious." He turned to the rest of the team, "Get some rest, and we'll have another practise soon. I'll let you know when. Meanwhile keep the team spirit up!"

~*~

A faraway expression passed over Hermione's face as she gazed at Harry from across the Gryffindor Common Room. She was remembering the time when she'd seen him first after school ended. Having been collected from the Dursleys only a week into the summer holidays, He'd walked through the door of Grimmauld place and greeted her with a hug and a smile, but she knew Grimmauld place held memories of Sirius and she was right. She watched his sombre face as he daydreamed through dinner that evening. She wondered how he felt about it all; about having inherited all of Sirius's money and belongings, including Grimmauld Place, but she never asked. She knew the topic was not open for discussion. It was around this time she knew her infatuation with Harry began, at first she would keep an eye on him, worried for her friend, but later it became much, much more; she'd stare at him for minutes on end as she missed whole conversations, at night she'd dream of him and in the day time she fantasise about him. She couldn't help but think of Harry- she was besotted.

She snapped out of her thoughts and frowned at the raven-haired boy her eyes were fixed on. Talking Cho through, what seemed like, a funny story, he kept smiling at her, and Hermione couldn't help feeling green with envy. She tore her eyes away from the heart aching scene, scowling; she couldn't bear the thought of being jealous of Cho. She turned her head around toward the rest of the common room, where her eyes met another disturbing scene; everywhere she looked people were having fun. Ginny and Dean were laughing at a joke he'd just told her. Ginny kissed him on the cheek out of gratitude, to which Dean stopped laughing to actually snog her with almost wild eagerness. Colin and Dennis had set off some Dr. Filibuster's Wet Start Fireworks, some first years were playing exploding snap, and Ron and Seamus were playing Wizards Chess. She wondered whether Ron knew that Dean and Ginny were an item.

Hermione watched as the deck of cards the first years were playing with exploded with a huge BOOM that shook the room. The girl, who had leant forward to put her card down at the time, got her face covered with soot... there was a moments pause as they all realised what had happened, then a tidal wave of laughter broke out, the sooty faced girl included. She stopped laughing only long enough to clean herself with magic. Hermione heaved a heavy sigh. What she wouldn't give to be one of those people, she would love to not have a care in the world, no best friend who kept popping up in their mind making it difficult to concentrate on anything but them... She couldn't stand it any longer, she had to tell him, but the problem was, when? How?

Harry stared into Cho's eyes almost losing himself in their depth... but she was waiting for an answer.

Coming out of reverie, he replied; "Yeah, of course I'll help,"

Taking his hand, she muttered a "Thanks Harry," and Harry glowed. "I really haven't had time to write it up myself, I've had a lot to think about at the moment..." she trailed off.

"About what?" he questioned.

She gave him a playful shove and giggled, "Never you mind."

"Come on you can tell me," Harry wheedled "I mean we are going out!" he shouted, all of a sudden flaring up.

Her expression hardened "I said no, Harry."

"WHY NOT?" he exploded, jumping from his seat.

"YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW HARRY?" screamed Cho who was on her feet too now.

"YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW? " she yelled poking Harry hard with her forefinger several times.

"ALLRIGHT, I'LL TELL YOU!"

"It's okay Cho, calm down. I'm really sorry," he told, his voice quiet, his anger having dissolved as quickly as he'd felt it.

"MY COUSIN'S DEAD HARRY! GOT RUN OVER BY A MUGGLE CAR," she cried.

"I'm so sorry Cho I didn't mean to..."

Her face was red and tearful as she roared, "DIDN'T MEAN TO WHAT? HARASS ME? UPSET ME? WELL I HOPE YOUR HAPPY HARRY, NOW YOU'VE BEEN 'UPDATED'!" He looked on as she chucked all her things into her bag with fierceness, swung it over her shoulder, and dashed out of the common room, leaving Harry to feel overwhelmed with extreme guilt. Why had he harassed her like that? He thought through his feelings as he had 'attacked' Cho. His thoughts were vague, but he remembered that he'd felt angry like he hadn't been in a long time, and then... he understood. In the past few weeks, he had the feeling that people were keeping things from him and he wasn't going to let Cho sit there and lie through her teeth. I mean he was friends with all the people who hid things from him, so why did they lie to him? He snapped out of his thoughts to see curious faces looking at him. The whole common room was silent. Even Colin and Dennis had frozen the fireworks in mid air to watch the argument and Dean and Ginny had stopped snogging to watch with attentiveness.

"What are you all looking at?" he spat. Why did people feel the need to butt in when it was none of their business, he raged, only too well knowing that was what he had done to Cho... it really had been none of his business... He gathered his things, shoved them in his bag, picked it up, and hurried out of the common room towards the library amid many suspicious looks. Out of the blue Harry remembered about meeting Hagrid, and so stopped in his tracks and dashed in the opposite direction towards the school grounds instead, he'd have to forget meeting with Ron and Hermione. He took the time to reach Hagrid's hut to think. What had come over him? He was curious, yes, but he wasn't nosy, he wasn't like that... it just... wasn't him. Something funny was going on. He reached Hagrid's Hut and knocked on the door...