Bound

Chapter 22

"And you kept all of this information to yourself?"

"How did you even know about all of this?"

Question after question flew out from their mouths. Hermione and Draco were both confused and shocked to hear what Justin had explained.

"I already told you. He tells these stories to encourage the other Hufflepuffs to help him," Justin rolled his eyes at his own sentence, feeling disgusted and ashamed that his friends would follow the professor's orders as if they have no other choice when in fact, they could have easily reported him to the headmistress.

Though, he couldn't help but blame himself as well. A lot of problems could have been avoided if he had told everyone earlier.

Hermione inhaled a deep breath before exhaling it slowly and leaning back against the couch, she brought her hands to her eyes and tried to rub the sleepiness out of her eyes. It was after curfew and Hermione was not able to keep her eyes opened. Each time she closed her eyes for a long time, Draco reached and squeezed her hand, Hermione squeezed his hand in return, giving him a smile as she did so.

Justin had told them information that Harry himself was not able to figure out. Information that came out from the professor's mouth.

Professor Alvaro came from a very rich pureblood family. His parents were blood supremacists and were not shy in showing it. But when they were given the chance to join Voldemort, they refused, in fear for their life. Voldemort being his pathetic, vile self, didn't let this go. Instead, he sent death eaters who killed almost every single person of Alvaro's family.

Kieran Alvaro —their professor— was the only one able to escape.

Justin told them how professor Alvaro searched for his disowned brother, Pierre Alvaro. The professor told the Hufflepuffs how he had found his brother dead, with blood pooling out from everywhere, they didn't kill him with the Killing Curse, and professor Alvaro had to watch his brother who he had not seen for more than a decade and a half suffer from the effects of the Cruciatus Curse and die a slow, painful death.

Professor Alvaro's brother was a death eater, and that was why Kieran went after Pierre. He wanted to get revenge, claiming that his brother was one of the death eaters who attacked his family.

Hermione sighed deeply before saying. "Do you still want to help?"

Justin nodded without any hesitation and said. "I am tired of the Hufflepuffs' attitude. We value justice, patience and loyalty. Justice can't be earned with lies built over lies. And anyhow, professor Alvaro is abusing his power as an educational figure. He is encouraging students to harm other students, which is completely unacceptable."

Draco snorted. "You weren't lying when you said you value justice."

Hermione glared at Draco as a way of saying "Not the right time" before turning back to Justin.

"How are you going to help?"

"I am going to talk with professor McGonagall. If she doesn't believe me, then I will show her my memories. I will do anything to convince her of the truth." Justin said.

Hermione nodded.

"What are you going to do?" Justin asked.

Hermione took a deep breath and released it before saying. "I am going to confront professor Alvaro."

Draco furrowed his eyebrows before rolling his eyes and saying. "We are going to confront that git."

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him but Draco simply raised his eyebrows in a challenging way. Hermione glared at him before huffing and crossing her arms, giving him the slightest of nods as she did so.