Sweet Deception

CHAPTER FIVE: Potions and Aftereffects

Harry gaped at her.

"What?" He felt a rising sense of guilt as he looked into her sad eyes.

Hermione looked down, embarrassed. "I -- I'm pregnant, Harry."

"How?" His mind raced. He had many questions, he just couldn't word them.

"Er, Harry, let's think back a couple of days -- perhaps I should jog your memory..."

"No, not how did you get pregnant! How do you know that you are pregnant?"

"Ever heard of a pregnancy test?"

"Hermione, this isn't logical." Harry's head spun. How could this be happening? She couldn't be pregnant! It just wasn't right!

"Of course it's logical, Harry. We didn't use protection, and we did it more than once, and quite a lot both times if I may add...it all makes sense, Harry."

"Well, what are you going to do?"

"Keep it, of course."

"WHAT?" Harry's mind spun around. How could Hermione be pregnant? How could he be a father? He looked into the future and saw himself getting married before he had kids. "Hermione, you seem a little -- erm -- not so angry about this."

"I'm excited! Harry, I'm going to have a baby!"

"But, Hermione, we're teenagers. Your parents are going to be absolutely furious!"

"I know. I figure I'll have the baby over summer vacation...I won't go home for Christmas...they'll probably never let me come back to this school."

"Unless you tell them about the bean."

"Unless I tell them about the bean!" said Hermione as if that were the only logical answer. "Harry, you're a genius!"

"I have my moments."

"Whatever. OK. Slytherin. What are we going to do about him?"

"What about the potions?"

"I know that much; what are we going to do after we find out if he's behind all of this? We need to have something planned out, or we might be in some pretty big trouble."

"I still don't know how this has anything to do with him. He died a thousand years ago."

"Think back to second year, Harry. Voldemort. He's bound to be here. He's re-risen, and I guess he's too stupid to remember that we know he's the heir, so we know he's behind all of this."

"Hermione, don't say anything about Voldemort that's bad. Say good things." He thought back to the letters he'd received from Voldemort; he knew everything.

Hermione looked at him as if he had just kissed Snape. "What? Why?"

Harry thought of Voldemort's past letters again, thinking of how he was going to word it without giving Voldemort away. "Just, don't. Right now, let's worry about the potions, then talk to someone about your pregnancy."

***

Later that evening, another owl came to the common room, and Harry opened up Voldemort's new letter. Surprisingly, he had just told Harry what Hermione had told him; that he was Salazar Slytherin resurrected. How could Hermione know what Voldemort was going to do? Did Voldemort already have some sort of connection with her? That couldn't be it; she wouldn't say bad things about him if he were controlling her. Unless...

No, thought Harry, stop thinking that! There's no possible way that Hermione is possessed by Voldemort! It's just not possible!

Harry pulled out a quill and some paper and wrote back to Voldemort.

Dear Voldemort,

I can't believe that I just properly addressed your letter. I think that you should now feel very proud about yourself.

I'm guessing that the "pity" part of Hermione was that she was pregnant, right? Well, that's out in the open now. I already know that she's pregnant. Scary, isn't it? Whoa. I'm getting the chills, writing to you as if you were some sort of friend or something. Oh well. You have information, and I want it.

You know, Voldy, we could start such a beautiful relationship if you stop trying to kill everybody and give me all the information I need.

Listen, we should talk about some things, Voldemort. For instance, how do you know everything that's going on? It's just not right, you know. And secondly, how did Hermione know what you were going to say before I knew what you were going to say? You know how not right that is? It just... isn't. Anyway, this is it for my latest letter.

Not that I care or anything, but reply soon. Like I said, if you would just cooperate, this could be the beginning of a nice relationship.

Harry.

Harry looked over the letter. Hmm... he thought. Not bad. I can't believe I offered to be his friend or anything, but it's still good.

He folded up the letter and gave it to the owl.

He didn't see the pair of eyes watching his every move from the doorway.

***

The next day at breakfast, Ron seemed particularly upset with him. Actually, he was upset with everyone but Parvati. Harry looked around. Everyone was mad at everyone else except the first person they looked at; their partner for the snogging contest.

"Harry," said Hermione. "This must be a side-effect or something, because look how angry everyone is! I --" She stopped short as a finger tried to wiggle its way up her butt. She turned and saw Malfoy, smiling.

"Hey there, sexy mama!" he said.

"Draco, what are you doing?" she asked.

"I heard about you and Harry. How come I can't stick my penis up your --"

"Draco, stop right there, you're done. You should still be a virgin, you loser! You can't just have random sex! You're in love with Crabbe!"

"You should be a virgin as well. Well, I'm not, neither are you, we're both experienced, how 'bout we do it right on the table."

"OK, Draco, you're officially pissing me off," said Harry. "Hermione's body parts are left strictly for me!"

Hermione froze. "Wait, Harry...you didn't take a bean, did you?"

"I learned to control the feelings, and --"

Hermione grabbed him and randomly started kissing him. "I took one, too," she said. "I still liked the sex, though."

Draco coughed. "What about me?"

"What about you, you stuck-up, stuff-your-cock, I-wanna-get-into-everybody's-pants-but-I'm-too-ugly-to-get-anyone?"

"Hey!" He leaned in. "I don't stuff."

"Well, then you must've put a spell on."

"OK, I couldn't even reach the toilet! It wasn't supposed to get that big!" He looked shockingly embarrassed.

"So, did you lose your virginity when you couldn't even pee over the toilet?" Harry smiled.

"No. I couldn't even get an erection. I suffered from impotence."

"Draco, that's disgusting," said Hermione. "I seriously don't want to have to deal with all of your little body parts."

"It's a turn-on if you ask me," said Harry. He laughed out loud, thinking of Draco actually suffering from something other than stupidity. "How come you don't have a particular love interest?"

"Because, I naturally like everyone, so the bean didn't have that 'one person' effect."

"What? I don't get it."

"I'm guessing that the bean also kind of goes with inner feelings, and since I'm naturally horny, I guess it doesn't make me just attracted to one person."

"I thought that you hated everyone?"

"That's just my image; I like more people then you think." Draco started rubbing Harry's arm.

"All right, this should be ending right about now," said Hermione.

"Harry," said Draco, continuing to rub him. "No after-effects?"

"Draco, it was sarcasm. My penis is for Hermione."

"OK!" shouted Hermione. "Can everyone stop talking about everyone else's penis?"

She left the Great Hall.

"Good job, sexy man," said Draco.

Harry punched him in the face and left.

***

Hermione entered the off-limits girls' bathroom that they used in second year. She was happy to see that Myrtle wasn't there, and she removed her clothing. She sat in front of the mirror and looked at her potion. Her voice turned deep.

"I am here, Lord," she said. The reflection of Voldemort looked back at her.

"Kill him," said Voldemort. "He's catching on. I just received a letter from him."

"I can't! People would get suspicious! And besides, he should learn all he can before we move into a plan of action! What about the baby?"

"The plan is going as -- well -- planned. The potion you used on yourself as well as him was extremely intelligent!"

Hermione smiled. "The witch inside me has very intellectual abilities. I can hear her screaming though; she's upset with the decision."

"It wasn't hers to make!"

"You know, Salazar Slytherin must've had some major issues, because I don't know if you've noticed, but look around! Three-fourths of the relationships are guys and guys or girls and girls! Look, I had sex with a guy! Harry Potter, no less!"

"Well, you're in a girl's body. Well, anyway, we all know Slytherin was gay. Well, look at all the pansy's that are in there."

"You were in there."

"I didn't say everyone was a pansy! Shut up!"

Hermione strained her ears as she heard footsteps. "I must go."

She pulled her robes back on and hurriedly left the room.

***

When Harry ran into Hermione later that evening, he was full of more questions.

"Where have you been? Why did you leave? Are you mad at me? Did I do something? What?"

"Harry," said Hermione, putting a finger on his lips to hush him. She whispered in an extremely soft voice, "It's all right. You don't need to worry about me. Just because I'm carrying our son doesn't mean that --"

"Wait," said Harry before she could continue. "Our son? How do you know that it's a boy?"

Hermione smiled. "You'll find out one day. Until that day, don't worry about it. OK?"

He smiled, then lightly kissed her. "OK. Do you want to go back to the common room?"

"No, I'm actually going to head over to the library to look up time-traveling potions. Care to join me?" As she said "library", she began walking in that particular direction.

"Yeah," said Harry, grabbing her hand. "I think it would be better if you and I looked up stuff together. You know; spent more time together. After all, we are going to be parents."

As they entered the library, Hermione seemed to know exactly where to go; the Restricted Section. However, this time they didn't have a Gilderoy Lockhart who would sign a note saying they could go into the section. However, Hermione seemed to know exactly what to say to Madame Pince; she seemed to have a very strange -- power -- around her.

As Hermione grabbed the book -- Most Potente Potions -- she took Harry to a table in the back of the room.

"OK," she said, "this potion is going to be extremely difficult. We're going to have to break a whole bunch of school rules in order to do this. Are you OK with that?"

"Hermione, how many rules have we broken in our six years of schooling here?"

Hermione smiled and looked at him with passion. "You're right." She sarcastically smacked herself in the face. "I guess this'll be easier than I thought."

Harry smiled back. "OK. So how exactly do we do this?"

Hermione handed him the book and pointed to the ingredients. "OK, so basically we need to steal every herb from Snape we can find, plus some from Madame Sprout in the Herbology rooms. Snape's is going to be the most difficult, seeing as how we're going to take all but two items from him, but Herbology will be good. Since I'm more sneaky than you -- no offense -- I'll take over Snape's office. OK?"

Harry smiled again. "OK. I think with all the snogging going around, it should be easy to get into everything."

She smiled back. "Well, let's start while we're lucky. Remember the after-effects. All right. So are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

***

After they got all the ingredients, Hermione had instructed Harry to come back to the out-of-order girls' bathroom.

"OK," she said. "I need for you to understand that the whole time we're in the life of Salazar, we won't be able to be seen."

"I can deal with that," said Harry, thinking back to second year when he went into Voldemort's memory and no on could see him. "Will we still be able to communicate to each other?"

"I don't know. That's a question that we're going to need to really think about as we go back." Hermione looked somewhat nervous, and Harry saw that there was vacantness behind her eyes, like she wasn't really Hermione.

"Hermione, are you OK?" he asked.

"I'm fine!" she snapped. Don't blow your cover! she instantly thought. "I'm just -- nervous, that's all. OK. This potion is going to take quite a while to make. About a week. Do you think that you can wait that long?"

"Hermione, you're in on this, too."

Hermione cringed. "I know. Just -- I'm not having a good day, OK? I found out that I got an A on my Transfiguration test. I always get O's. You know how picky I am about my grades."

"Yeah," said Harry. He knew she was lying to him, but he didn't want to pressure her into telling him anything that she wanted to keep to herself.

"All right. Go make sure no one's killing themselves, and I'll keep working on this. In a week, we'll know how Salazar really worked."

***

Harry, Harry, Harry!

You foolish little boy! Do you honestly think that I, Lord Voldemort, am going to cooperate with you? If you can't remember, you're the reason that I lost a lot of my power. My main goal in life now is to kill you.

Yes, it's true, I've been very sneaky about my means of finding out information. Oh well. In time, my boy, you will understand how I do it. In time, I may even be able to get you on my side. I know, you refuse now, but later on, when your life depends on it, you will be running to me and begging me to let you stay with me. I've seen it before.

I actually am starting to feel sort of bad that you have to go through all of this, you know. It's so hard know that all of the answers to all of your questions are right under your nose, but you don't even care to see them.

I know everything, Harry. I know every detail of the baby inside of Hermione; the gender, the name, how great it's going to become.

I'm closer to you than you think, Harry. I've found a way to get inside your school, and now I will never, ever leave.

TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE

I AM LORD VOLDEMORT

***

As Harry returned to the common room, he found that it was completely empty except for Ron, who was sitting on a soft chair, gazing blankly into the fire.

"Ron?" he asked slowly, afraid Ron was going to start snapping at him.

Ron looked up. "Hiya Harry." He sounded glum, so Harry went over and sat down next to him.

"What's wrong, mate?"

"It's Parvati; she's gone mad. Everyone has. The bean seems to be affected everyone in more ways than we thought it was going to. It's scary, really. I don't know what to do."

"What do you mean?"

"You should see them, Harry. They're all going mad. All the purebloods are running around trying to find the Muggle-borns. It's terrible, Harry. It's just like in second year. I pushed passed my feelings and I came back here. You should see their eyes, Harry. They're glazed over, full of anger. I'm scared, Harry. I don't know what to do."

"Ron, why do you keep saying my name like that?"

"Because, Harry. Don't you see it? It's happening."

"What's happening?"

"We're all going to die, Harry!" Ron's voice turned into a yell. "I can't believe you don't see it! It's the end, Harry! We won't make it much longer!"

"Ron, you're really starting to scare me," said Harry, standing up from the chair and backing up.

Ron wasn't going to let him get away that easily. "I'm not done, Harry. Let me finish, Harry. You don't understand how much danger we're in! We need to find the counter-effect to the bean, Harry."

Harry raced for the door.

"You aren't leaving that fast, Harry." Ron picked up his wand and started chasing after Harry.

Harry pushed open the common room door and ran down the hall. He could hear Ron closely behind him, talking to him in a demonic voice so low Harry couldn't understand what he was saying. He turned left, he turned right, he sped up, he tried to get rid of Ron, but Ron seemed to have some sort of superhuman strength. Harry started getting tired, but he knew Ron wasn't going to give up that easily.

"Avada Kadavra!" shouted Ron.

Harry ducked and saw a stream of green light fly about half an inch above his head.

"Ron!" he shouted. "You're going mad!"

"You know that you're half a Muggle, don't you, Harry?" asked Ron, tilting his head eerily to the side. "You know what purebloods have to do with Muggles, don't you?"

Harry found some inner strength and started sprinting down the hall.

"I'll find you, Harry!" he could hear Ron shout from behind him. "You can't escape! I'm watching you!"

Harry stopped dead in his tracks, hiding in the shadows.

I'm watching you.

The words echoed around his head.

Voldemort.

Ron.

Hermione.

Fred.

George.

They were all acting demonic. Everything was going weird.

Demonic.

Harry thought about the word for a couple of seconds.

Who's the most demonic person I've ever heard of? he thought to himself.

The answer to the question came just after he thought of it:

Salazar Slytherin.

***

Hermione continued to brew the potion. Part of her, the real part of her, kept screaming inside, ordering Voldemort to get out of her.

You're going to be in so much pain when you get out of me! the real part of her thought.

On the contraire, thought Voldemort back, I will never get out of you, and you will never bring me pain.

The body of Hermione smiled.

The door burst open and Harry came sprinting in the bathroom.

"I've figured it out," he said. "I've figured out how everything's working. I - I know! Hermione, Voldemort's here, in school, and - and he's found a way to resurrect Slytherin or - or something."

Hermione looked at him, shocked.

Ha! thought the real Hermione.

"What are you talking about?" said the body of Hermione. "Harry, that doesn't make any sense." The body of Hermione felt a cold sense of dread swelling up in her every pore.

"Sure it does. It's hard to explain right now, I know, but trust me on this one, Hermione. You have to understand that I know I'm right."

"How?"

"What?" Harry looked at her as if she were a monkey who had just spoken.

"How do you know you're right, Harry?"

"Hermione -- how can you say that?"

"Harry, come on! Use that brain of yours! There's no possible way that Salazar Slytherin can be resurrected. It's just impossible!"

"But--"

"No buts!"

"Yes buts!"

"No!"

"Hermione, listen. We have to find a way to brew the potion faster. Just, do it, OK?"

Hermione looked at him with daggers. "I can't just make it go faster. It isn't like poof 'OK, the potion's done.' These things take time, Harry."

"We don't have time, Hermione!" shouted Harry.

"Don't get that tone of voice with me," she said. She turned back down to the cauldron and pretended as if nothing had just happened.

"Me don't get that tone with you? What about you, Hermione? You've been hot and cold ever since you told me you were pregnant! You were happy, then you were angry, then two seconds after you were angry you were happy again, then you got mad three seconds after that! Then you go off and tell me to make sure every one else is happy and then I come back and I think I figured out how to put an end to all this madness and you get mad at me! Something's going on, Hermione. You know it, I know it. You have more than just the effects of the bean inside of you, Hermione, and you haven't been pregnant long enough to get the mood swings. So please, enlighten me. What is wrong? I want to help you, Hermione. I want to get through this, but I need your help. I can't fight this alone."

Hermione looked as if she's been slapped by Hagrid. "I - I had no idea that you felt that way, Harry."

"Well, maybe if you would stop yelling at me long enough to talk to me, you would, now wouldn't you?"

"Harry, come on, stop it."

"Stop what?"

"You keep pointing the finger at me! It's always got to be my fault. You have a role in this too, Harry. I can't take responsibility for everything. You know that."

"Yes, I do. And I understand how you can be mad, but what about me? I'm not trying to point the finger at you, I'm just merely stating that this is getting out of control. Everywhere."

"I know. I'm scared, too." She started crying. "I just don't know what to do."

Harry walked over to her, sat by her, and put his arm around her. "It's going to be OK, Hermione. In a week, we'll know everything that Salazar Slytherin had -- or has -- up his sleeve. OK?"

"OK."

"Geez," said a voice from the door. Harry looked up and saw Draco standing in the doorway. "You two are just like a married couple, I swear. You fight one minute, then two minutes later it's over." He sighed. "And here I was, thinking that you two were going to get physical with it. In more ways than one, if you know what I mean."

"Get away Malfoy, you git!" shouted Harry. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough. So. Hermione's pregnant. Miss 'I-must-be-proper-at-all-times' went and got laid from you."

Harry's fists clenched together. "I'm warning you, Malfoy."

"What are you going to do about it?" he asked teasingly. "You won't ever do anything about it; if you were, you would've done it in the past five years we were here."

"Malfoy, please--" started Hermione, looking scared.

"Ah, so Granger does still have some manners in there, eh?"

"Shut up!" said Harry. "Malfoy, can't you just go away?"

"Apparently you haven't heard."

"Heard what?"

Malfoy took out his wand and pointed it at Harry.

"Heard that any pureblood is killing any mudblood or halfblood they meet." He lifted up his wand. "Avada Kad--"

"Rictusempra!" shouted Harry, pulling out his wand and cutting Draco off. Draco flew backwards and shot through the door. Harry put his wand away, but Draco wasn't finished. He pointed it back at Harry.

"Ustes!" he shouted. Harry stood stunned for a moment, not ever hearing the spell before. Draco stared back, smiling. Nothing happened for about two seconds, but then Harry started vibrating. He felt as if he'd stuck his finger in a light socket, and thought that he wouldn't be able to stand the pain.

"Like that one, Potter? Came up with it myself."

The pain became like a massage from the inside pushing against the skin, and Harry thought he was about to burst. Then, randomly, it stopped.

"Care to fight more?" asked Draco.

"You started it," retorted Harry coolly.

"Both of you, stop!" shouted Hermione. She looked at Draco as if she were about to kill him. "Draco, do you mind explaining yourself?"

"Everyone's doing it; kill the mudbloods and halfbloods. You're next, Granger."

"I will not be condemned to your stupidity."

Draco sneered. "Watch what you say, Granger."

He turned on his heel and walked out of the bathroom, muttering something about sweet revenge. Hermione went over to Harry to make sure he was all right.

"I'm fine," said Harry. "Why did he go after me first?"

"I don't know." Hermione really did know, or at least the Voldemort part of her did, but of course she kept her mouth shut.

***

When Harry returned to the common room, he found the all-too-familiar owl beating on the window with Voldemort's latest letter in its beak. Harry read it and gave an angry reply.

You don't know the first thing about me! I don't care if you're watching me! Kill me now! I'm tired of you pretending.

That was going to get him into trouble, and he knew it, but he didn't care.

Ron stepped through the portrait hole, but Harry didn't notice. He pulled out a dagger and slowly sneaked up on Harry. Harry gazed into the fire, fuming that Voldemort was being so stubborn. He tied his letter back to the owl and it flew off into the night.

Harry closed his eyes and lay his head on the chair, wanting to fall asleep right there.

Ron continued to edge closer, happy that his inner demon would be happy at him for killing a halfblood.

Harry continued to think about Voldemort and the situation, but he couldn't come to a conclusion of how it all played out, and especially how Hermione wouldn't believe him. Something had to be wrong...

Ron stood about two feet from Harry, holding the knife up. He was about to attack.

Harry thought about how Hermione had always agreed with him, how she always backed him up unless she knew, unless she was three thousand percent positive that he was wrong. He knew something was wrong with her, and he was determined to find out.

Ron continued to walk, slower now, to Harry. He could feel the excitement of his first kill oozing up into every pore of his body.

Harry thought about how he was going to deal with Hermione. There had to be some way.

Ron edged closer. Almost there....

Harry couldn't let her not agree with him like that...something was wrong...

Almost there....

Harry shifted his weight on the chair.

Almost there...

Harry snapped his eyes open, sure that he was going to sort this out with Hermione.

Ron froze.

Harry stood up and turned, only to face the cold blade of the knife going through his stomach.