At breakfast, Enola noticed another meeting with Dumbledore had appeared on her timetable. She sighed with frustration. Their last meeting was highly uncomfortable. She didn't feel up to another one this morning. She worriedly shoved the parchment into her robe pocket and started pushing her eggs around her plate.
On the opposite side of the table, Draco also stared into his bowl moodily.
"Hey, Draco. Have you heard Gryffindor are having Weasley on the team?" Pansy sniggered. "They're asking to lose at this point."
Draco looked up at her and shrugged. "Like they stood a chance anyway."
Pansy smiled, pleased with the interaction. "The team's looking good this year."
"Yeah..." Draco said distractedly.
"And I can't wait to see you in your quidditch robes. They're so hot." Pansy gabbled on.
Enola thought the comment was entirely puke-worthy. She glanced up to catch Draco's reaction but instead caught his gaze. The pair looked away quickly. Draco, she thought, seemed distinctively guilty.
"Hello? Did you just hear me?"
"Yeah, sorry. I need to talk to you about something." Draco said to Pansy in a low voice.
Pansy's face lit up. She hoped he might finally be letting her in on the task the Dark Lord had given him. "Of course. What about?"
"In private." Draco muttered.
Pansy nodded importantly, throwing a smug look in Enola's direction. Enola didn't look up to receive it. She was desperately distracting herself from two things. The creeping feeling her friendship with Draco was about to meet its an end and her meeting with Dumbledore. She'd almost stirred her fried eggs to dust.
*
Enola sat across from Dumbledore, nervously awaiting the reason for her beckoning. He'd given her a warm greeting as she entered, but it hadn't done much for her increasing heart rate at the threat of more awkward questions.
"First of all, I think a congratulation is in order. Moving onto your OWLs in the space of 5 weeks is incredibly impressive, Enola." Dumbledore gave her a kind smile.
"Oh." Enola smiled back with relief. "Thank you, but most of it was in my head already."
"Curious." Dumbledore said. "Even so, it is a spectacular achievement. You might ask our sixth years what they remember of first-year lessons. I don't think they would be able to achieve 110% as you have done in each of your exams so far."
"Thank you, Sir." Enola said.
"Which leads me to my other reason for calling upon you." Dumbledore's face became serious. "As you say, the information was already in your head, which would leave one to believe you were highly academic before your memory was taken from you. Do you agree?"
"Yes, I suppose so." Enola said, wondering where he could possibly be going with this one.
"I know of but one other student who could achieve such a result."
"Hermione Granger." Enola answered for him. "I'm sorry, Sir, I still don't have any information for you."
"I like to be as honest as circumstance allows with my students, Enola. I can no longer ignore the possibility that you are, in fact, Hermione Granger." He said simply.
"What?" She asked, in shock and immediate denial. "What makes you think that?"
"As I said at our last meeting, it is wise to question coincidence. Mr Weasley, it seems, shares my suspicions."
"He's wrong. He just misses his friend." Enola said. She was a Serpens, but she couldn't tell him that.
"I think time will tell, as it always does." Dumbledore gave her a sympathetic look.
"That being said, I wouldn't mention this to your Slytherin friends."
"Why shouldn't I tell the Slytherins?" She wasn't going to anyway.
"Hermione Granger was one of the most talented witches this school has seen. She also happened to be Muggleborn which you will find the Slytherins hold strong prejudices against."
That checked out.
"I don't really know what to do with this." She uttered.
"I would simply bear it in mind. Mr Potter and Mr Weasley were good friends of Hermione's. It might be worthwhile to explore that."
Enola nodded, but she had no intention of doing so. The Slytherins would turn on her in an instant, and for what? She wasn't Hermione.
"But we can't know for sure." She said. "I don't have Hermione's face, I assume? Nobody has recognised me."
"I've studied magic intensively, but still, I don't have any theories in that regard." Dumbledore said. "I believe the only person able to solve the mystery of your identity is you."
"Okay, and what if... what if I'm happy being Enola?" She said, trying to put him off the idea.
Dumbledore's face seemed to darken slightly. "Then that'll be a choice you alone have to make. As with the side of the war you choose."
Enola flinched at his words.
"Thank you, Enola. I hope you know that you can trust me as your headmaster. With anything." The light was back in his eyes as though it had never left.
"Thank you, Sir." She stood and tried not to outwardly leave the room as quickly as her feet could take her. She trusted nobody.
YOU ARE READING
The Stranger (Dramione)
Fanfiction"Draco Malfoy meets a stranger in Knockturn Alley. Little does he know, they've already met." A fan-fiction set in sixth year, following the plot of the Half-Blood Prince, with a Dramione twist.
