Chasing a Dream

Chapter 19

Revealed Identity

Harry walked silently through the halls. The conversation he'd overheard disturbed him. He kept turning their words over and over in his mind. None of it made sense.

Hermione. What did it mean? She's not telling me something. Something to do with Malfoy. She called him 'Draco'. How could she?

The more Harry thought about it, the more confused he became. But, then, Harry thought of something. The only thing that made any sense at all. He stopped in his tracks.

She's a Death Eater.

The thought popped up into his mind. Harry shook his head violently, trying to shake it away, but it wouldn't go away.

The thing that attacked her in the woods that night. Maybe Andy's spell hadn't worked and she was taken to The Institution! She could just have lied about the rest. She could be getting close enough to me to find a way to get me to Voldermort. No, no, no, no!!!!!

Harry beat his fists against his head, trying to make the horrible thoughts go away, but they stuck fast.

Voldermort might have given her some extra powers. The glowing eyes. The telekinesis, moving things with her mind. The bump to her head could have made her return to her true self. Like when she attacked me with the books. Her anger that night was frightening. And the mirror. It was just like the diary in 2nd year. Tom Riddle's diary. Voldermort's diary.

Harry was running now, though where too, he had no idea. Harry suddenly remembered the time he'd caught Hermione off guard in her dormitory.

Her head was leaning against the glass of the window and her eyes were darting around as if looking for something outside. Harry notices her wand in her hand as she moved into a kneeling position so she could see through the window better. The hand grasping her wand clenched tighter.

"Where'd he go? Where's Harry!?"

Afterward, she spoke of how he always managed to have accidents on his broom. That would be the perfect way to kill him. Make it look like a flying accident. Was that what she was really doing with her wand that afternoon? Searching for the perfect opportunity to kill him?

Her relationship with Malfoy. Calling him 'Draco', like they were friends. Malfoy told her not to call him that in public. It would give her away.

Harry burst through the doors and darted across the grounds. Harry tried to convince himself that all the things he was thinking were wrong. It wasn't working. Never had Harry had this sense of desperate denial.

If getting close to Harry, becoming his friend, was her goal, then she'd reached it. Not only that, she'd made him fall in love with her. Harry came to a stop, breathing hard.

He was at the tree. The tree by the lake that he and Hermione had talked under all those many times. Harry reached out and brushed the bark with a shaky hand.

He sank to his knees and leaned against the tree, looking out against the lake. How could it be? It didn't make any sense, but then it did. Harry couldn't believe it, or didn't want to. A Death Eater? Hermione? Then a thought popped in his head that gave Harry a spark of hope.

Voldermort had never mentioned Hermione last year. If Hermione was indeed in his service, and Voldermort had honestly thought it was to be the night of Harry's demise, Voldermort would certainly have flaunted the fact that one of his followers had weaseled their way into his inner circle. He would have relished the look on Harry's face as he told them that Hermione, one of the people he trusted most, was really a Death Eater, and plotting how to kill him. And as for the mirror, Dumbledore had a Pensive that did almost the exact same thing. Maybe Hermione simply knew Malfoy before they went to Hogwarts.

There were dozens of possibilities.

They could have an arranged marriage or something and don't want anyone to know about it...

Harry hated the idea but was too desperate to believe anything besides the fact Hermione could be a Death Eater.

They could have been friends as children. Or they could be related. Anything!

Harry sat there and thought of all the ways Hermione could have known Malfoy before.

"Harry?"

Harry jumped out of his skin. And there, smiling down at him, was the person in question. Hermione.

"What are you doing out here, all alone?"

Harry's mind was racing. What should he do? Should he confront her? No, if she weren´t then she would be thoroughly offended that he'd eavesdropped and doubted her. If she were, she'd simply lie and decide a sooner plan of action. Harry decided to play dumb. He cleared his throat.

"Um, I've got a date with Parvati tonight and I'm trying to think of how to get out of it."

Hermione donned an indistinguishable face and looked out at the lake. Hermione flopped down on the grass on the other side of the tree.

"Oh?"

"Yeah."

"How?"

"Tricked."

Unease built between the two of them. The two of them sat in silence, watching the lake.

"What's wrong, Harry? Really."

"N-nothing. Why?"

Hermione made a strangled coughing noise.

"All right, Harry. I'll see you at dinner."

Harry heard her get to her feet. She brushed off her skirt and turned on her heel. He watched longingly as she walked back to the castle. Her long hair swished with every stride.

Harry wanted to believe she wasn't what he thought she was, but how would he ever find out? How could he ask her without hurting her feelings if she was indeed innocent? How could he find out otherwise? Never again would he go to Parvati for help in such matters. Who knows what she planned for him.

Harry fought the urge to remain there in that spot by the lake and just forget about anything, but he struggled to his feet. It was time to pay a visit to the Library.

_-_-_-_-_

Harry opened to library door cautiously. The invisibility cloak weighed down heavily on his shoulders. Why was Harry wearing the invisibility cloak, you ask? Well, he was planning on finding out all he could about the Institution. And the most likely place to find that would be in the restricted section. And the only way to get into the Restriction section was with the invisibility cloak.

Silently, he crept toward the Restricted section, the lamp growing heavier and heavier. Stumbling slightly, Harry climbed over the ropes separating the section of the library devoted to dealings with the Dark Arts from the rest of the library.

Lifting his lamp high, he searched through the multitudes of volumes packed into the shelves for anything that might have information on the Institution.

Harry was about to give up after looking through Evil Locations in Europe, Secret Societies, Corruption, and much more without finding anything. Harry was beginning to think she'd made it up when a certain book caught his eye. Dealings With the Dark Lord.

Harry riffled through the pages until he came to a stop on a black and white picture of a castle. The castle was very unlike Hogwarts. It was old, battered and guarded by statues of menacing looking gargoyles and dragons. Harry read the paragraph below. It read as follows:

One of the most horrible prisons since Hitler's concentration camps is the Institution, founded by the Dark Lord himself, Lord Voldermort. Creatures called the Hessonite, loyal supporters of You-Know-Who, who would steal corruptible children from their homes and take them to the `camp´ that they ran.

Once at the camp, the children were first brainwashed, trained in the Dark Arts, and tortured periodically. If a "student" survived their training, before they were sent out to do the Dark Lord's bidding, they were branded with the Dark Mark on their left shoulder and deemed a Soldier of Death. This mark cannot be removed or disguised by magic or any other form. This and the position of the mark is how you distinguish a Soldier of Death from a Death Eater.

Even after the fall of the Dark Lord, the Hessonite continued to kidnap children and take them to the Institution in preparation for when, as the Hessonite believed, the Dark Lord would rise again.

The book continued to go on but Harry had all the information he needed. All he needed to do was see if she had the hateful blemish on her shoulder. But how on Earth would he ever manage that?

It was almost midnight and time to meet Parvati. Harry groaned. He didn't feel like doing whatever she had planned. Whatever she had planned was sure to be horrible, like all of her plans.

_-_-_-_-_

Where is she!? Harry glanced down at his watch. It was twelve past midnight and still no Parvati. Harry glanced nervously around the Astronomy Tower.

Harry knew what normally went on in here. He had no intention at all to participate in similar "activities" with Parvati. Plus, if a teacher caught him here, he was in big trouble.

A noise from behind him made him yank the Invisibility Cloak over his head. As Harry watched, a dark form emerged from below. It's about time she got here! Harry thought angrily as he slipped off the cloak.

The figure in darkness stepped into the moonlight and Harry fell backwards in surprise. It wasn't Parvati, it was Hermione! She was standing there in her nightdress, looking around.

"Hermione?!"

Hermione looked around in frantic surprise.

"W-who's there!? H-Harry?"

Hermione walked blindly toward his voice in the shadows.

"Ow!"

"Sorry!"

Hermione apologized as she knelt down next to where he was sitting.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm waiting for Parvati, remember that date I told you about?"

"But Parvati's the one who told me to go up here!"

"Wh-"

Harry was cut off by yet another set of footprints. Harry hastily threw the Invisibility Cloak over the two of them and pulled her down to the ground with him, a hand over her mouth to silence her.

The two of them lay there, dangerously close, watching as a third figure emerged. This one was much too tall and slender to be a student.

Harry was very close to Hermione, and her shoulder. Harry could easily make it seem like an accident and see her shoulder. While Hermione was busy looking at the intruder, Harry gently slipped her, thank God, loose sleeve off her left shoulder, revealing, bless the Lord, gloriously unblemished skin.

The Halleluiah Chorus blared in his head. Harry looked at her face and wondered how he could ever have thought such a thing. She turned her head to face him, her eyes wide with shock. Still silent, she lifted her hand and pointed at the person now illuminated in moonlight.

Harry turned to see the second person to nearly make him fall over in shock. It was Professor Lawrence. Her hair was down from its usual bun. Her long black hair cascaded down her back and made her look even younger than usual. There was something familiar about her Harry just couldn't put his finger on.

She was standing in the moonlight, her face lifted heavenward. Harry noticed something that startled him. Gleaming in the moonlight, were the trails of tears down her cheek.

For a long while, Professor Lawrence stood there for so long that Harry's leg began to fall asleep. Hermione had drifted off and was leaning heavily on his arm, and Harry was starting to drift off himself, but then a soft voice woke him up. It took him a minute to realize that it was coming from Professor Lawrence. Harry shook Hermione awake. Professor Lawrence wasn't just talking, she was singing!

"Wherever you go, whatever you do, I will be right here waiting for you. Whatever it takes or how my heart breaks, I will be right here waiting for you..." (Right Here Waiting, Richard Marx)

The two of them sat there, Hermione still a bit drowsy, watching and listening. She didn't have a bad voice, but it was very depressing. She was getting to the end of the song when Hermione's eyes suddenly popped. She made a gasping noise and Harry had to clasp his hand over her mouth again. Hermione pressed her own hand over his.

In a few minutes, Professor Lawrence had disappeared through the entrance to the Astronomy Tower.

Harry removed his hand from Hermione's mouth, which was still open in shock. Immediately, she began to babble.

"She-she-she-she..."

"Tell me in the Common Room, Hermione."

Harry helped her to her feet and led her through the entrance and down the staircase. It was a while until they reached the Gryffindor Common room and Hermione was surprisingly quiet. That is, until they got safely past the Fat Lady.

"I can't believe it's her! I mean her!!! Does know? She must! Oh, my God, I can't believe it's her!!!"

"Hermione, who is 'her'?"

Hermione turned to Harry as if noticing him for the first time.

"Harry, do you find Professor Lawrence oddly familiar?"

"Yes, how'd you know?"

"I thought so too, the first time we met her. And now I know."

Hermione began pacing, twirling her wand in her hands.

"Where do we know her from?"

"You've never met her before."

"What? Then why's she familiar."

"You've only seen her image."

"Huh?"

Hermione stopped pacing and lifted her wand in the air. She muttered something and a picture shot into the air. It was a young girl about their age, with long, black hair.

"Do you recognize her?"

Harry nodded.

"Yes, it's your brother's old girlfriend, Angie."

Hermione swished her wand once, and the features of her face began to change. Her face elongated slightly and some of the baby fat vanished. As Harry watched, Angie face matured at an alarming rate. When it stopped... Harry gasped. It couldn't be!

It was Professor Lawrence.