- Rating:
- R
- House:
- Schnoogle
- Characters:
- Draco Malfoy Hermione Granger Ron Weasley
- Genres:
- Romance Drama
- Era:
- Multiple Eras
- Spoilers:
- Philosopher's Stone Chamber of Secrets Prizoner of Azkaban Goblet of Fire Order of the Phoenix
- Stats:
-
Published: 05/07/2004Updated: 09/27/2004Words: 12,464Chapters: 4Hits: 2,283
The Hidden Lake
Tbaby
- Story Summary:
- After finding a hidden lake, Hermione is driven into the hands of her true love. Many ships, heartbreak, romance, and betrayal.
Chapter 05
- Chapter Summary:
- Hermione goes in search of Draco, and learns a secret. Harry eavesdrops, and Blaise is hiding something. Hermione cries, Lavender plots revenge, and Ron is oblivious. Loads of drama yet to come.
- Posted:
- 09/27/2004
- Hits:
- 428
- Author's Note:
- Thanks much to Abby and Erica for helping me, and them and Shelby for pestering me to update. I found my other chapters, so it shouldn't take to long this next time.
The Hidden Lake
Chapter 5: Revelations and revenge
Hermione was exhausted. She had spent a good twenty minutes speed walking in the direction Malfoy took off in, but he was nowhere to be found. Finally she had given up, and headed towards the library.
"Hey Hermione; where's Draco?" As Blaise crept up behind her, Hermione screamed and accidentally scattered her books in the hall.
"Jeez, Blaise, you scared me. Could you please help?" He bent down to help retrieve her things.
"So where is he?"
She looked up. "I don't know, he got all weird after Vector partnered us together and when I went after him so we could work in here, he disappeared. That's expected though."
"What's that supposed to mean."
Hermione sighed as she walked into the library, deposited her bag on her favorite table in the back, and took a sit. "Its Draco we are talking about here. He hates me. Apart from that little escapade last night and our weird conversation this morning, he has been nothing but an arrogant bastard to me. And now he wants me to think he has changed for the better. Humph." Hermione had lowered her voice at the last part, but Blaise had heard her anyways.
Blaise pulled up a chair next to her. "What change was Draco talking about exactly; oh no wait he didn't tell you? Did he?" He cocked his head to the side in amusement.
"Tell me what?" Hermione crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair.
"It doesn't matter you wouldn't believe me anyways." He got up to leave.
"Blaise wait," he smirked at the urgency in her voice, girls are so easy. "Please tell me. It would help me to figure some things out."
He sighed and turned around. "Alright, but what I say here stays between us; okay," she nodded her head. "Not a lot of people know this, but before Draco's father was sent to Azkaban, he kept Draco under the Imperius curse," Hermione gasped. "Now I'm sure you know all about it and how hard it is to fight; well Draco first got it when he was eleven. A couple months before he came to Hogwarts, Lucius caught him with some muggleborns at Diagon Alley and he freaked. Draco said he didn't believe they were any different then us. So Lucius put him under the curse right then and there."
Her hands were clamped over her mouth and her eyes were wide, "My God and no one ever knew?"
"Well, I had my suspicions after Moody's class, because of everything he said about...." Blaise shut his mouth after realizing what he was about to say.
"Said about what, Blaise?" Hermione looked both anxious and concerned.
"Just things," he looked at his watch in panic, "well I have to be leaving now. See you around. Oh; don't tell Draco I told you. He'd kill me."
She nodded her head and Blaise turned and left the library. Once outside, he leaned up against the cool wall and grabs a chunk of his hair. "Why does everything have to be so complicated?"
He started to head towards the kitchens when he heard someone following him. He quickly hid behind a suit of armor, and when the offending boy walked by, he charged at him, threw him up against the wall, and pointed his wand at the boy's chest.
It was Harry.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Blaise ran a hand through his hair. "You heard; everything?" Harry nodded. "Fuck, Draco is going to slaughter me."
"Relax. If it is so important I won't say anything. It is true then."
"Every word; do you believe me?"
"I do, but I don't understand."
"I don't understand most of it either. But if you look at him you can see it. He's different."
"Malfoy, different?" Harry scoffed. "I find that hard to believe."
"Look Harry I can't convince you otherwise, but he is. I don't know if anything is going to be different between the two of you, but to other people you'll be able to see it."
"Why Hermione?"
Blaise opened his mouth ready to make something up, but Harry understood. He could always read Blaise no matter how hard he tried to fool him.
Harry looked disgusted. "Oh my God he likes her."
"Well uh..."
"How long have you known?" Blaise hesitated and Harry rolled his eyes. "Come on Blaise; after everything you told me over the summer you can't tell me this." Harry raised an eyebrow at the boy.
"Well, now it's kind of hard to explain."
"Try me." He said starting to sound irritated.
Knowing Harry, he would pester him until he caved; "Five years"
Harry was dumbfounded. "Five... Five years? But that's..."
"Since we first came here. I know. Do you remember, on the train over here on our first year?" Harry shook his head. "She came into our compartment asking about a toad. Draco almost fell out of his chair. Love at first sight if you ask me. But because of the curse...."
Harry finished, "He was torn. He wanted her but had to push her away at the same time."
"Exactly," Blaise smiled.
"It makes so much sense now. He would always pick on her, point out her faults more than anyone else. It's like the obnoxious kindergartner who pulls on your hair."
"Yeah, and I always thought he was playing hard to get."
Harry laughed. "So when did you find out?"
"Actually I knew the whole time. He would always be a jerk, but I knew he liked her. He would go on and on about how he hated her but that every time they would fight he said it felt wrong."
"So why hasn't Draco said anything;" Blaise gave him a knowing look, "oh...... Ron"
"Yep. Draco was going to go and ask to talk to her on the train but heard Ron say they were together. Draco's been messed up about it ever since. Harry, please don't say anything."
"You know I won't. But I don't understand; I thought..."
Blaise cut him off and shot him a glare twice as deadly as Voldemort. "You said you'd shut up about that Harry."
"But, Blaise..."
"You know Harry of all the people to figure out how to read me. I helped you out, and you had to go and figure me out. Just drop it okay. We had a deal, and you need to keep your end. Got it?"
"Blaise just..." Blaise kept glaring. "Just be careful."
He sighed, "I know. Well I better go Harry. See you around."
"Wait; does Draco know you've been telling the Order about his family?"
Blaise smiled. "Actually, it was his idea. See you around Harry."
Harry gaped as he watched Blaise round the corner.
"Bloody hell."
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Harry was walking towards the library to meet Hermione and Ron for dinner. When he got there, she was sitting at the same table he saw her at with Blaise, but she didn't appear to be reading. She held her book to her face, but her eyes were not scanning the page.
"What's up 'Mione?"
"Have you seen Ron?" She bit her lip.
"Not since class got out. Hagrid let us go early and Ron wanted to run up to the common room really fast. Why, was he supposed to meet you?"
"Yeah, he was going to come right after class."
"He should be here soon; he probably just went to put his bag away."
"I know, but I can't help but worry about you two."
"Me?" Harry chuckled. "Why would you be worried about me?"
Hermione started to twirl her Quill between her fingers, "well, to tell the truth, over the summer, I kept having these dreams about you two."
She paused at the strained look on Harry's face. "Oh, I'm sorry Harry; I didn't want to bring it up..."
He sighed, "No, go on. I know I was a prick last year after Sirius died, but honestly Mione, I'm fine now. Sirius is dead. I accept that; I don't like it, but I accept that. Now tell me what's wrong. What did you dream about?"
Hermione took a deep breath and began. "Well, when we all got back to Hogwarts, and Pomfrey had finally left us to sleep, I snuck out of bed to go see you and Ron. Ron looked horrible, covered in all those scars mumbling and gazing off like Luna. And then I went to go find you, and you weren't there.
"I didn't know what happened to you after I passed out, and I kept thinking that you were dead and Ron had lost his mind. I thought I had lost both of you that night. And all summer, I would dream that you two had left me." By now she was crying. "Do you know how horrible it was, thinking I wouldn't ever see you two again?"
Harry wrapped his arms around her and let her cry for a while.
Once she was calm enough, she wiped her eyes and looked at him. "I'm sorry Harry, but every time one of you goes off, I can't help but think..."
He cut her off at the threat of oncoming tears. "Don't worry; I'm sure he will be fine."
Just then Ron came bursting through the doors earning him a threatening glance from Madame Pince.
"Sorry I'm late 'Mione; hope you weren't waiting long." He kissed her check and gave her a sympathetic smile.
"Kind of. It's almost dinner time; I think its time to eat. What do you say?"
"Excellent I'm starving."
The three friends left the library and headed to the Great Hall talking about their first day of classes.
"So Mione; how was Arithmancy?"
As Hermione sat down, she looked to see if Draco was with Blaise, but he was nowhere to be found. "It was alright."
She turned to Ron, but found he had already dug into the potatoes and laughed as she started to fill her own plate.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hermione had almost finished eating when Lavender came and sat next to her looking very excited. "Hermione," she started in a low voice. "Can you meet me and Ginny in the Room of Requirement in about fifteen minutes?"
"Okay, why..."
"Not now, I'll see you later." She jumped out of her seat and hurried out the Hall joined by an equally delighted Ginny.
"What was that all about 'Mione?" Ron asked.
"Girls night. Lavender just wanted to fill me in." Ron and Harry looked at her strangely. "Don't you ever have boy nights?"
"What is it, what do you do?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Talk about girls, gossip, come up with plans to bring Malfoy down? You know talk about stuff you don't want girls to hear." They just kept looking at Hermione like she was speaking a different language. "I'm sure you two talk to each other about stuff you wouldn't want me to know about right?"
"Oh I get it. Yeah, I guess, but we don't really do it as a group."
Hermione rolled her eyes again. "Well I better get going. See you later."
A few minutes later, Hermione had joined up with Ginny and Lavender. "Hey guys what's up?"
They both looked terribly excited.
"I found a way to get back at Parvarti." Lavender said bobbing on the tips of her toes.
"Dean gave us the idea. One of his sisters goes to a Muggle high school, and told him about it."
"About what?" Hermione wasn't following.
"Slam books."
"What?"
"Slam books." Lavender continued. "What you do is you get a notebook, write people's names at the top of each page, and then you pass it around."
Ginny picked up. "When you get it, you right down whatever you think about that person. Everyone has there own page. And everyone who is in the book gets a chance to bash everyone else."
Hermione looked skeptical. "I don't know you guys; I wouldn't want everyone to know what I think of them. It wouldn't be very nice."
"That's why being a wizard helps. If you don't want people to know it was you who wrote something, you can use magic to disguise your handwriting."
"Come on Hermione; don't you ever wonder what people really say about you? Don't you think that sometimes people need to be knocked off their high horse?" Both the girls were shooting her puppy-dog faces.
She sighed. "Alright, but if something terrible happens, I wont be held responsible got it."
"Okay, okay. Do you want to go first?" Lavender asked innocently. Holding the book out to Hermione.
"No, I need some time to think about it."
"Okay, well Ginny and I will get started, and then we can give it to you later and have Harry and Ron fill it out as well."
"Alright, I'll see you later then. Bye." Hermione went to the common room where she found Ron, Harry, Dean, and Neville sitting in the corner talking.
"Hey guys. Boys night?" She added sarcastically.
"No but it's a good idea though," said Dean.
"Right back at you." Hermione smiled.
"So they got you in on it too eh?"
She laughed. "Yeah, once Ginny and Lavender are done with it, they're bringing it up for you guys to fill it out."
"What are you talking about?" Harry asked.
"Lavender is starting a slam book."
"What's a slam book?" Harry, Ron and Neville chorused.
Dean turned to the others. "It's a book where you write down what you really think of your friends. Like me for example would say that Seamus is an egotistical, self-righteous bastard who tries to make up for his stupidity with his supposed good looks."
"That's Seamus alright." Lavender smiled as she walked towards the group. "Hey guys you in?"
There was a general consensus of nodded heads.
"Great. So I'll leave this with you, and Ron and Harry can give it to Hermione in the morning." She handed Harry the green notebook.
"Okay," Harry extended a shaking hand looking like he was in pure bliss. "That would be wonderful."
Lavender and Harry we staring into each others eyes both holding onto the book. Neither of them seemed to notice the sniggers around them until Ron let out a loud snort.
Lavender looked around blushing and then ran upstairs to her room. Harry's eyes filled with sadness as he watched her retreating back.
"Hey," Neville spoke up, trying to snap Harry back to reality; "let's go do it now."
All the boys ran upstairs with Ginny saying; "Gee, I didn't think they would be that excited about it."
When the boys reached their dorms they opened the book. All at once four pairs of hands reached for the page.
"Alright, alright," said Dean. "Someone should read it so we don't tear it apart. How 'bout you Ron?"
"Okay, here goes." He cleared his throat. "The Hogwarts Slam book. Made so you can tell what you really think yaddy yaddy ya. If you don't want to be recognized, you can disguise your writing using a disguise charm. Made for current sixth years, but should you wish to add others or if you have been forgotten, add the name to a blank page, blah, blah, blah."
"Here Dean you take over." Ron passed the book to Dean.
He flipped the page "Do you want me to read everyone's or just ours?"
"Just ours." Everyone replied.
"Okay, let's see. Ron; stud and then I think Ginny wrote RIP Trooble. What the bloody hell does that mean?" Dean looked like he didn't know whether to be amused or disgusted.
"Don't ask." Ron shivered.
"Alright; Neville; cutie with a heart of gold, and has been so worried about school that he hasn't realized he turned into the hottest wizard alive. Wow mate, someone wants you."
Neville turned purple so fast; Harry had feared he stopped breathing.
"Relax mate, I told you Ginny liked you." Harry said but it didn't do any good.
"She said, she..."
"Yes Neville we all heard. Breathe." Dean commanded. "Anyways, they didn't say anything about me. So Harry; people see him as the Boy who Lived, but don't give him a chance to see that he's so much more. Wait Lavender didn't say anything."
Harry looked crushed.
"Don't worry," Ron said, "maybe she's too embarrassed to say what's really on her mind. I can't wait to see what everyone says about Malfoy." He added with a malicious grin.
While Ron may have been oblivious to Harry's mood, Dean wasn't. "Hey at least none of us got slammed." Harry nodded still looking a bit upset. "Let's go then."
Dean looked about excited as Lavender. "Alright to make this fair, we will all write down our slams on separate sheets of paper, and then we'll switch them into the book all at once so no one will know who wrote what. Then we will go give it to Hermione if she is still down stairs."
They all agreed. After they had finished and all their writing was disguised, Harry and Ron went down to the common room. Hermione was talking to Ginny and Lavender, who had returned downstairs, by the fire. As they approached, Lavender looked over at them she got up from the couch and ran up to her room again.
Harry looked upset; "what was that all about?"
Hermione and Ginny looked equally confused. "I don't know."
Ron sat next to Hermione and put an arm around her shoulders. "Here 'Mione; we are all done with it."
"Thanks Ron. Harry, don't look so upset."
"She hates me." Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Anyone up for a game of exploding snap?" Ron asked.
Harry and Ron played while Hermione helped Ginny with her charms homework. At a quarter to eleven, Hermione became concerned with Lavender and her quick disappearance.
"Well boys I think I'm going to go to bed." She said with a yawn.
Ron got up scooped Hermione into a tight hug and kissed her forehead. "Night 'Mione."
"Night Ron." As Hermione entered her room she found Lavender hugging her pillow while staring off to space. "What's up?"
"Nothing." She said while a heavy breath.
Hermione crossed her arms in what was an attempt at looking intimidating. "You know Lavender, I may not be the best at picking up people's feelings, but when you storm out of a room and then look like your about to cry, I know something's up."
"Can you keep a secret?"
"Of course."
"I think I'm in love."
"With Harry," she said with a smile.
"You know Hermione;" she tossed the pillow at her; "sometimes you're too smart for your own good."
Hermione shrugged. "I try. So tell me. Why do you act so weird around him?"
"It's because of Seamus. I don't want anyone to think I'm using Harry as a rebound guy."
"Oh."
"But every time I see him, I just, how should I put this.....I want to attack him. You know, run over and tackle him...." She got a dreamy look in her eyes and her arms were reaching out ahead of her.
Hermione laughed. "I actually think he might enjoy that."
"Really?" Lavender looked a thousand times happier. "Well once this whole Seamus thing winds down, I think I might."
"Well before you do, as one of Harry's best friends, I have to warn you that if you hurt him in any way, I will hex you so bad you won't be able to walk straight. EVER. You understand."
Lavender chuckled. "Deal."
Author notes: Review, I would really like to know what all of you guys think.
Next time...Hermione's birthday. A secret admirer note/gift, Draco and Herm have a moment, and what's up with Blaise's all knowingness?