Dolor Draconum

Chapter the Twenty-Fifth

When school began again, it was a relief. For a start, Cho and Draco, as well as the others, were finally out of the Gryffindor common room, which eased the tension immeasurably. Harry wasn't talking to Cho, or many other people.

Hermione and Ron had listened to his side of the story the day before term began; now that he was 'finally ready to talk about it'. Hermione had nodded sympathetically at the right points and made a few 'hints' that perhaps Harry's side wasn't all there was to it, and been chased out of the dormitory for her troubles. Ron had taken Harry's side, but in a rather lacklustre fashion. For over a year now they'd both been learning to be a little less blunt with him, but sometimes Hermione wondered if perhaps that was the wrong course of action.

Of course, rumours still persisted about Hermione and Draco. Hermione had decided that most of the school were prejudiced bigots, and made a point of being obviously nice to Draco, who seemed a bit surprised by the vehemence of her kindness, though not unappreciative. Their 'relationship' was beginning to get on Hermione's nerves. They kissed, they didn't speak, then kissed for rather longer, then managed to spend a fortnight in daily contact without mentioning it, then... Then she had started missing him when he wasn't around. She wanted to kiss him again. For some reason she was having trouble getting this across to Draco without alerting the entire school to her crush, which she was still adamant was all it was, so she chose to sit tight and wait for him to kiss her again, which he was sure to do at some point. Right?

One morning, towards the end of January, Harry received a letter via a rather battered eagle, which caused something of a stir. One glance at the envelope sent Harry, Ron and Hermione scurrying back to their common room, only causing more interest in the unusual letter. Harry had frowned at both of them, but neither Hermione nor Ron had any intention of missing the contents of the letter.

"It's from Professor Lupin," Harry announced. "He's in America."

"That would explain the eagle," Ron nodded. "They like things like that over there."

"Of course they do, it's their national bird," Hermione scolded. "So, what's it say?"

"That Voldemort's gone into hiding," Harry said, voice oddly blank, and oddly reminiscent of Draco's voice when he was hiding his emotions. Hermione frowned at Harry in concern. "In America, they think. Lupin says something about it making sense, which I don't get."

"Not many wizards in America," Ron explained. "No schools or anything either. Professor McGonagall said, remember, back before Christmas? None of the wizarding families felt like going with the Muggle population, since we'd discovered and explored it centuries before. Not a lot of magical stuff there, not like here. Or Africa, Africa's got loads of wizarding families. Anyway, America's like, the place for the 'neuveau riche', right? Not the established wizarding families, so most wizards wouldn't be seen dead there. 'Course, the natives, they've got their own magic, but it's not the sort you can teach."

"Get to the point, Ron," Harry rolled his eyes.

"Well, it makes sense, doesn't it?" Ron said, a bit miffed. "No one's going to know who he is. You don't even get many Muggleborns there, since to have a magic gene you've got to have had a wizard somewhere in your family, even if it's waaaay back. So they don't even have a ministry to contact."

"Oh." Harry looked impressed. "Anyway, Lupin's gone to see if he can help find him, since he knew Peter and, well, the impression I get is that he's gong to try and track them by scent, but he's kinda skirting the topic a bit. I guess he doesn't want to out-and-out write that he's a werewolf. I suppose that's why Mafloy's mother could move straight into the Black house, since there's no one living there."

Hermione stared at him. "How do you know that?" she asked slowly.

There was a pause.

"Heard it from a prefect?" Harry suggested.

"Or from a house elf?" Hermione asked softly.

Ron looked from one friend to the other. "Okay, Hermione, we admit it," he said hurriedly, before Harry could start getting defensive. Again. "When Dobby took you to speak to Mitty, we followed under the invisibility cloak. We just wanted to see what was up, and since you weren't speaking to us-"

"You weren't speaking to me!" Hermione objected loudly.

"She has a point," Harry grinned. Ron breathed a silent sigh of relief. Of course Harry was touchy these days, and the fight with Cho hadn't helped the situation, and naturally he had a lot on his mind, but. It wasn't even a 'but' anything, just a vague 'but' that implied that no matter how much Harry's friends tried to justify his mood swings and newfound temper, they couldn't quite.

"You weren't speaking to me either," Hermione was pointing out as Ron wrenched his mind back to the conversation at hand.

"Look, it was a good thing, okay? We were worried... okay, we weren't worried, per se, but we were curious and concerned. And we found out a bit about Malfoy's summer, and we were nicer to you and him. So it worked out, right?" Harry pleaded.

"Yeah," Ron added, thinking about the various other things he had 'found out' since then about Malfoy. He couldn't stand the guy, personality-wise, but he didn't hate him any more. Well, only in a general 'Weasleys versus Malfoys' sense, and in a jealous way over Hermione, and on a personal level because of years of fighting. So maybe he did hate him, quite a bit, but he could tolerate the guy's presence now. It really was an achievement.

Hermione sighed. "I suppose so. Honestly though, why didn't you tell me afterwards?"

"Because we thought you'd be angry?" Ron said pointedly.

Hermione had the grace to look embarrassed. "So, um, does it say anything else in the letter?" she asked timidly.

"Apparently Tonks went with him," Harry shrugged.

"Do you think they... do you think there's anything between them?" Hermione asked, a pleased flush indicating that she certainly did.

Ron frowned. "Oh get off it," he scoffed. "Lupin?"

"Why not?" Hermione asked. "He's far from unattractive, and Tonks is a very nice girl too."

"Yeah but... he's old," Ron said.

"He's about thirty," Hermione pointed out. "That's not old. Especially not for a wizard."

"True," Harry nodded. "Guess we'll find out by the time they get back."

They were avoiding the topic of why Lupin and Tonks were in America. None of them wanted the couple to find Voldemort, though none would say it aloud. For Harry, his disappearance meant putting off his own destiny for a while. Hermione was worried that they'd bite off more than they could chew, especially if Lupin was still grieving his friend. Ron was more than slightly concerned about Lupin's status as one of the 'dark' creatures, and whether sending a metamorphagus and a werewolf to find him wasn't just another way of handing you-know-who weapons on a plate.

"So, class," Ron said awkwardly.

"Yeah," Harry nodded. "You've got astronomy, right?"

"And you've got Herbology," Ron grimaced. "I miss sharing classes."

"It's this whole mixing us up thing," Harry shrugged. "I suppose we're both lucky we haven't been mixed with Slytherin." Both boys shot Hermione a pitying look as they climbed through the portrait hole.

"Oh get off it," she laughed. "I can hold my own."

Ron grinned and patted her on the back. "Good girl," he said vaguely. "See you!" And he set off in the opposite direction down the corridor.

"You can hold Draco's too, by the sound of it," Harry said as he and Hermione made their way to their separate classes, both heading in the same direction for now.

Hermione shot him a Look. "Don't you start," she warned.

"We're all kinda fuzzy on the details," Harry pointed out. "No one knows what's going on between you two."

"Yeah," Hermione sighed. "Neither do I."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, sympathetic frown creasing his forehead.

"Just when I think I understand Draco, he throws me for a loop. Some times he's a complete bastard, worse than he's been before. He can do that, because now he knows me better he's got more to throw at me and he knows how much some of it will hurt. On the other hands, sometimes he's sweeter than I've ever seen him." Hermione was so glad to finally get it off her chest. In retrospect, perhaps Ginny would have been the person to angst to, rather than Draco's own nemesis, Harry Potter.

"I don't trust him," Harry said bluntly. "I don't think you should either."

Hermione clenched her teeth. "I know," she said slowly and precisely. "I know what you think, and what Ron thinks, and what most of the school seems to think. I am not head over heels in love with him. Yes, I find him attractive. Yes, I'm spending a lot of time with him. Yes, I worry about him a lot."

"So yes, you are falling for him," Harry said coldly, thinking of his best friend's unrequited love.

"No," Hermione snapped. "No, you don't get to do this. You don't get to make me feel bad for being me. Right now, with the way you've been acting, quite frankly I think he's more predictable and a hell of a lot nicer than you are."

"What?" Harry was stunned. "What have I done?"

"You keep snapping at Ron and me for the slightest thing. Look, I know you've had a hard time. I miss Sirius too. But recently things haven't been easy for anyone. There's a lot of stress." Hermione shook her head. "You forget that other people are under as much stress as you."

"No, I don't," Harry told her. "Because they aren't. Dumbledore told me something last term, and you couldn't conceive of what it's been like for me since then."

"You haven't mentioned this," Hermione said crossly. "You can't accuse me of not understanding if you won't explain."

"I can't tell you! You'd hate me!" Harry complained.

"Leave that to me to decide!" Hermione responded in like.

"Why is everyone against me? Cho had a real go at me the other day, and when I tried to tell you about it so did you! It's not fair!"

Hermione stared at him. "You haven't heard a word I've said, Harry. And you certainly didn't hear a thing Cho said. Harry, I'm standing up to you now, like I used to. Remember how I used to? Like the time when I took the broom Sirius sent you to McGonagall, because I was worried that it might be hexed. Was worried for you. Recently Ron and I have put up with a lot for you, things we wouldn't have before, because we know you're under a lot of stress. We can tell there's a lot you're not telling us; we're your friends. But I think perhaps we've been doing the wrong thing. We're letting you stay in this self-pitying rut, when really, you just need to get over yourself."

"You've hardly been sympathetic!" Harry objected.

"No, Harry, you've hardly been listening," Hermione said simply. "You're taking us for granted and ignoring what we do for you. So I'm going to stop doing it."

And she walked away down the corridor, leaving Harry wondering how expressing his concern for her had escalated into this.