"I know it is you, behind that mask..."

I knew it...

,,So you have a secret admirer?" Ginny asked after Hermione finally had told her about the notes. She didn't told her what exactly was the content in the notes was, but she told her that she was receiving some.

,,I guess, but I can't figure out who it is..." Hermione said, while they were sitting in a small café... Ginny nodded, and said: ,,Alright. Let's get through possible men. Or women...?" Ginny looked in question at Hermione, who nodded slightly, before she asked: ,,Hang on, you're not mad, because I hope it isn't your brother?"

,,Definitely not. I think it is somehow like me and Harry. We also broke up a few months after the war, and I think it wasn't really meant to held long."

Hermione nodded, sipped from her coffee, and Ginny said: ,,Alright, back to topic. Who could it be?"

Hermione thought about it, and shook her head.

,,What about Jonas McLory?" Ginny asked, and Hermione's eyes widened: ,,Are you kidding me?! That guy stinks like... well, I don't know exactly what it is, but he stinks."

Ginny laughed: ,,Alright, alright. Erm... David from the Department of Mysteries?"

,,No."

,,Nick Griffin?"

,,No."

,,Alright, are you saying No to every guy, I'm suggesting?"

,,Probably, because... I don't know, but I think it is a woman." Hermione said, and after Ginny's question: ,,Why?" She said, that she couldn't imagine that a man could have such a handwriting.

,,No seriously. That handwriting looks like, the person would have spent hours for every single letter." Hermione said, and Ginny nodded: ,,Alright... then let's check out the women... erm... what about Emily?"

,,From the Department of Magical Creatures?!"

,,Yes."

,,No... she's cute, that's true, but not quite my type..." Hermione explained, and Ginny nodded: ,,Victoria?"

,,Oh Merlin, no... not that Bitch. Do you know, that she is literally fucking everyone who's willing enough to fuck her?!"

,,Not until now, but thanks for the nightmares..." Ginny muttered, and they kept thinking.

,,Jenny?"

,,Married..."

,,Really?! To what, a rabbit?!"

,,Oi, you suggested her to me only seconds ago."

,,I know, and I'm really glad, that you're not into her." Ginny said, and earned Hermione's middle finger...

Narcissa was also sitting in that café, and listened in Amusement to their conversation. She wasn't intended to eavesdrop them, but when Hermione had started to talk about, that she too, had an admirer, she couldn't help herself.

Although she had to know if Hermione knew it, and she was so damn glad, that Hermione had absolutely no idea. She smirked into her cup of tea, at Hermione's mention of Victoria. Narcissa couldn't stand that woman either...

,,What about the Halloween party? Are you coming?" Ginny finally asked, and Narcissa was ripped out of her thoughts.

,,I kind of have to..." she heard Hermione confessing, and Ginny asked why, and she heard Hermione saying: ,,It sounds perhaps a bit stupid, but there was a woman last year with a beautiful mask... and I danced with her, and..."

She smirked, when Ginny laughed.

,,Alright, alright, you are hoping to see that mystery woman again?"

,,I told you it sounds stupid." Hermione said, and Narcissa smirked in her cup of tea.

"Knew it..." she thought to herself, and waited until a waiter went to the table, where Hermione and Ginny were sitting, before she stood up, and while she passed them, she smirked even wider when she heard Hermione asking: ,,Who had paid our coffees?" But she didn't heard the answer, and she didn't wait for it either...

But she also thought always back to that moment from last year. She remembered how she didn't really wanted to go to the halloween party from the Ministry, but something deep inside of her made her pick that dress, and that mask...

"Piano mask..." she thought and smirked when she thought back at that white mask with notes and those piano keys. And she knew exactly which mask she would be wearing this year...

,,Ginny, can I tell you something I only told Ron?" Hermione asked a bit later, while they were walking through the streets of London, and after a short nod from her best friend, she sat down on the stairs in front of the town hall, on the Queen's walk, and sighed: ,,Narcissa Malfoy had helped me while Bellatrix had tortured me."

,,What?!" Ginny sat down next to her, and Hermione nodded: ,,Yes... it was strange, you know... I was lying there, and Bellatrix had straddled me... I couldn't move, and I couldn't do anything. It hurts so much, but then..." she paused for a moment: ,,It was like my eyes were forced to look at something, and I met her eyes. She stared at me, and in the first moment, I asked myself, why she didn't wanted to help me. Sure she was the wife of a death eater, and her sister was sitting on someone her son's age."

,,You tried to seek the good person in her..." Ginny whispered, and Hermione nodded: ,,I guess. But then something happened... it was like hot water was running through my veins. That kind of hot water you would filling in a tub, in a cold winters night."

,,Wow... I know what you mean, and that's a good feeling."

Hermione nodded: ,,I felt somehow safe in that moment, and it also was like I was on the edge of falling asleep..."

,,Did Bellatrix noticed?" Ginny asked, and Hermione said: ,,Yes... it was on the battle field, when she stood in front of me. She said, she would enjoy it to kill me, and that her sister wasn't there this time for helping me, but then she was there. And that was also the moment when I knew it for sure, that Narcissa had helped me. She stood next to me, and pointed her wand at her own sister, and said, that she would do it again, without any hesitation, and then we fought together... when I told Ron about that, he almost bursted out."

Ginny wrapped her arm around Hermione and hugged her tight, before she said: ,,I'm so glad she had helped you... really. But I saw her leaving with her son, wasn't Lucius running behind them?"

,,Yes... I don't know either why she came back. And... I mean it is obvious that she came back."

,,Did you two ever talk about that?"

,,No... I just remember that I fell unconsciousness after the fight because there was a second death eater who wanted attack Narcissa. And he was the main reason, why we fought together, because I think she could've handled her sister by herself."

Ginny nodded at that, and asked, why they never talked about that.

,,I really don't know." Hermione said. ,,We saw each other at the ministry for the first time after the battle, but we didn't spoke."

,,Never?!" Ginny asked, and Hermione shook her head, and said: ,,When I saw her the very first time on my way to my office, I stood in the elevator, and when the door opened, she stood there, and our eyes met. And in that moment... I don't know, but it felt, like everything was spoken... and too less at the same time... I really don't know, but I only stepped aside, she nodded, and entered the elevator..."

,,I think you definitely should talk to her..." Ginny said, and Hermione knew that she was right, but how should she do that...?

"If I would write her a letter, she would know, that I'm writing her those notes..." she thought...

tbc...