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“Bloody hell she wouldn’t have done anything to harm Hermione,” Ron spoke folding his arms.
Harry looked at Neville who was trying to keep his composure. They were outside the Herbology greenhouse. “Are you serious? Every time you get close to Hermione, Lavender runs to you about some damn thing saying she needs you. She is so jealous of Hermione.”
“I don’t know why she would be jealous of Hermione who decided to run off and get knocked up.” Ron mocked. “It’s a witch hunt I say with Hermione claiming Lavender poisoned her.”
“They found her with the list of ingredients Ron.” Harry finally spoke up. “How can you keep defending her? She has some spell on you.”
“I know Lavender and she would never do a thing like this; Malfoy was probably behind this.” Ron was holding his ground on the issue.
“Obviously you don’t,” Neville shook his head in disbelief. “Hermione almost died, and you have yet to ask if she is doing any better.”
“Well obviously she’s fine or you wouldn’t be here accusing Lavender of this.” Ron turned and waved his hand dismissing the two.
Neville went after Ron quickly with Harry following behind. Neville was seeing red. “You are a selfish git Ron.”
Ron turned back pulling his wand out on Neville. “You really want to fight?” Ron spoke warning Neville who stopped short.
“Ron, why are you so defensive when we are both telling you what happened,” Harry spoke.
Before Ron could say another word, he took a step back. Neville took his wand out ready to defend himself. He tilted his head confused when Ron appeared to start gagging. “What cat got your tongue?” Neville couldn’t help, but shake his head.
Ron glared at the two before he started to cough a slug came from his lips falling to the ground. Neville and Harry both watched a bit confused at what was happening. Ron went to lift his wand, but coughed again another slug fell to the ground and slithered away. Ron turned and quickly ran off into the courtyard towards the castle. “That was bloody brilliant Neville,” Harry spoke.
“What do you mean I thought it was you,” Neville spoke confused.
“It was funnier when that oaf did that to himself.” Draco walked over to the two. From behind a large tree near the Herbology Classroom. He took a bite out of a green apple in his left hand. His right hand playing a bit with his wand.
Harry was a bit surprised to find that Draco was actually the one to cast the spell. “You did this? Really?”
“He was being annoying per usual.” Draco merely shrugged sliding his wand back into his pocket. Draco looked around a bit to make sure no one else was within earshot of the group. He didn’t want to draw attention. “I see her out and about.”
“Yeah, she’s been going to classes again, but she’s been trying to stay low,” Neville spoke and turned a bit so he wasn’t directly facing Draco.
“Tell her, if she wants to change things we need to get this going. We all can’t be caught talking openly like this and if she wants me assistants she better ensure she knows what she’s doing.” Draco spoke before he walked away.
Harry looked over at Neville. “Are we really going to do this?”
“Hermione’s already gone through this, she knows if we stay on the path that we are on, we won’t make it. She is going to be the reason we win this war and people survive who wouldn’t have.” Neville was trying to make sure he was firm. “If Hermione trusts Malfoy then so do I.”
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“You bitch you did this to me!” Lavender was screaming in the Gryffindor common room.
Hermione didn’t even look up from the quietly reading book while sitting against Neville. “What are you talking about now? Where’s your boyfriend? Shouldn’t you be crying to him?”
“You know what you did, in the middle of potions today you hexed me!” She was getting agitated.
“Oh, you mean with the boogie bats that flew out of your nose?” She chuckled.
“You admit that you did it!” Everyone that was sitting in the common room was watching Lavender freak out. “How dare you do that to me, in front of everyone it was embarrassing.”
Hermione wouldn’t look up from her book. “I didn’t admit anything, but I think you going off about the bats in the cave in the common room is going to add to your embarrassment.”
Lavender’s face turned bright red. “Really, this coming from a pregnant whore.”
Neville stood careful of Hermione. “You really want to go down that road?” Neville stood in front of Lavender. The common room fell silent. There were very few that had ever seen Neville stand up to anyone and with how off the rails Lavender was he was not going to tolerate it any further. He was warning her. “She’s not the only one who isn’t fond of you. I suggest looking at those you’ve wronged and crossed Lavender before you go pointing fingers.”
“I’ve done nothing wrong, you might have forgotten as usual, but you aren’t in any position to be calling me out.” She folded her arms.
“And what position am I in?” Neville questioned.
“You knocked up Hermione and you are both acting like it’s normal.” She huffed. “You are both in your 6th year and you plan to do what come back with a baby for your 7th year. You both have ruined your future.”
Hermione looked up finally from her book. “I don’t have any regrets, but I will tell you one thing. We don’t plan on being here for our 7th year so you can have your time with Won-Won.” Hermione mocked.
“You’ve both lost your damn minds. I know you hexed me, I know you have an underlying reason for doing what you did to hurt me.” Lavender was freaking out more as she felt all eyes were on her.
Neville was calm and collected. “And someone almost killed Hermione and my unborn child. You were found with the list of ingredients on you. Should we discuss that while you are going on your tirade, I’m sure everyone here is curious about how Hermione was poisoned.”
“List of ingredients? I had several lists of ingredients any student here would. We take potions for Merlin’s sake.” Lavender waved her hand as she huffed.
“Just like anyone else could have hexed you without knowing who,” Hermione spoke coldly. “Don’t worry Lavender, you have nothing to worry about, there are bigger issues at hand than a girl fighting for a boy who moves on to anyone who will show him attention.”
“You ju-“ Lavender went to speak.
“I think you just like to argue even when you are in the wrong. You want everyone to feel sorry for you.” Seamus spoke out finally from the desk he was sharing with a few first years he was helping with charms studies.
“Oh go blow something up!” Lavender screamed out before taking off to the dorms.
“Watch out I think another bat is trying to fly out of the cave!” The first years looked to Seamus a bit confused. He let out a nervous chuckle. “So I make things go a little boom.” He lifted his wand. A young raven-haired girl with bright green eyes looked at him before she slid away towards another student a bit on the cautious side.
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Harry paced nervously, the three had entered the Room of Requirement close to dusk. They were risking a lot waiting. “Hermione he isn’t coming,” Harry spoke up.
Hermione glanced over where she sat on a crate that had been boxed up. The room was like a storage unit compared to a year ago when they used it as a training room. The room changed to fit their needs, but for some reason, the room was a storage unit, much like it had been the last couple of times. A creak came from the wooden door behind the wall of stored items. Heavy footsteps echoed. Draco stepped out from behind a covered mirror. “I heard what you did to Lavender.”
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Hermione smirked.
Harry looked at Hermione. “You can be a bit scary at times with that mind of yours.”
“I’m not that bad.” She rolled her eyes.
“You literally trapped Rita Skeeter in a jar in our fourth year.”
“I gave her air holes.” She shrugged.
“Excuse me what?” Neville spoke looking at Hermione a bit confused.
“It wasn’t anything major, it just turns out she is an unregistered Animagus.” she looked at Neville and Draco who were a bit speechless. Hermione was calm and didn’t seem bothered at all by what she had done. “That’s in the past, we need to talk about our next moves.”
“Our next move. You mean finding the Horcruxes?” Harry asked.
Hermione nodded, “Did you talk to Professor Dumbledore about his hand, the ring?”
Draco looked over at Hermione. “Horcruxes?”
“There is a reason why Voldemort has returned. The one you call the Dark Lord.”
“What are Horcruxes Hermione you never did explain that to me and Professor Dumbledore just shooed me off when I tried to ask him about his hand. He has me trying to ask Professor Slughorn about Voldemort’s time here at Hogwarts. He feels like Professor Slughorn knows something.” Harry was trying to make sense of everything.
“Horcruxes are sort of like anchors. They are created using dark magic. It’s a way to be immortal.”
“Immortal? There is no way to become immortal.” Neville spoke. “The Philosopher stone was destroyed.”
“You can with this type of magic. Even when your body is destroyed, as long as your soul has something to attach to you can’t be destroyed, but if you destroy the item, you sever the tie the soul has to stay connected. The Horcruxes are made from killing people. Tom Riddle’s diary was one and Harry destroyed it with the Basilisk fang. The diary was created from killing Myrtle.”
“If I destroyed it then why isn’t he gone.” Harry shook his head.
“He created seven Horcruxes.” She took a deep breath. “I don’t know all of them though, only six of them. We never did figure out the last one.”
“You want me to tag along and help you and you don’t have everything?” Draco shook his head.
“We don’t have everything together because we didn’t have each other. I didn’t have Harry. Ron and Harry in the future I was in went out on their own and I left with Neville. We were divided by Ron’s jealousy, but as Harry can see Ron is out of his ever-loving mind because of Lavender.” Hermione glanced over to Harry in a told you so way. “But we also didn’t have you in the mix either Malfoy.”
“You twisted my arm on this. I’m only willing to do this to ensure my Mum’s safety. I’m no Order member.” Draco was straight when it came to the true reason he was here.
“I think we can all agree that what we are creating isn’t anything to do with the Order. We are on our own. We are acting rogue neither side will know we are working together. If we are on the run and we are hunting, then we can do this.”
“You expect to be on the run while pregnant though? How do you think you can manage fighting Voldemort and taking care of an infant?” Harry asked concerned.
“If she doesn’t fight the infant will die,” Draco spoke shaking his head.
“She knows what she’s doing Harry we need to trust her.” Neville placed a hand on Hermione’s shoulder giving a light squeeze.
“She told me that Professor Dumbledore has to die,” Harry spoke with concern.
Draco looked at Hermione a bit shocked at what Harry had said. “You told him about what I have to do?”
Harry looked at Draco narrowing his eyes. “I knew it, you were up to something.”
“Stop, I will not have you both at each other's throats.” Hermione stood. “Professor Snape kills Dumbledore because you couldn’t follow through with killing Professor Dumbledore. You chose to not lay a hand on him.” Her attention turned from Draco to Harry. “Professor Dumbledore is dying because of the contact he had with one of the Horcruxes. If we strike him now and take off, we will have a solid head start.”
Neville let go of Hermione’s shoulder, he was even caught off guard. “Why don’t we just let him die on his own, do we really need to do this?”
“If Professor Dumbledore doesn’t die, Malfoy and Professor Snape will die. Professor Dumbledore can’t be saved, but others can, and we just need to find a way to do this and get out of the castle without being noticed. There are also items we need to take that are important, I still don’t know how they will help us, but these were given to us after Professor Dumbledore was killed,” Hermione’s voice was shaking this was starting to get to her a bit. She felt like she was losing all three of them to what had to be done.
“I have a way out of the castle without us being noticed, but it’s fifty-fifty when it comes to who is on the other side,” Draco spoke up finally after the long silence.