Willing change: revised edition

3

Hogwarts

A few weeks went by and classes went on as normal all but DADA. Umbridge had taken her odd authority complex too far.

Harry walked into the common room rubbing his hand and cursing under his breath. He threw his books on the side table and plopped down onto the sofa between Hermione and Ron. Hermione looked down at his hand and back up to his eyes.

"What did she do harry?"

Harry uncovered his hand so they could see. His hand read in a nice clean cut 'I shall not tell lies". Hermione gasped in shock.

"She can't do this. You need to go to Dumbledore, or professor McGonagall at least."

Harry shook his head before getting up to go the the boy's dormitories, leaving Hermione and Ron alone. Ron looked at Hermione before getting up to follow, talking over his shoulder.

"Let me see if I can talk to him, mione."

With that Hermione was alone. She huffed pulling the yearbook out of her bag. More gryffindors walked in so she took the chance to get some fresh air.

She walked out into the corridor and made her way out of the castle. She spotted a nice spot under a tree to sit and look at the book. She sat down and opened it, flipping past the pages she had bookmarked for Harry, which consisted of photos of his parents,Remus, and sirius. Finally she found where she left off and turned the page.

She found herself letting out a short snort of laughter as she landed on a photo of Bellatrix in potions class. It looked as if something had gone horribly wrong. The woman was leaning over the cauldron coughing with soot all over her face and her black curls all over the place.

As Hermione laughed her head went cloudy and a dull pain replaced the humor. She touched the side of her head, wondering to herself what was happening. She closed her eyes as the pain got worse but was snapped back into reality by a familiar voice.

"I need to speak with you Granger."

Hermione looked up, the pain seemed to stop as soon as she saw Draco. She tilted her head slightly  and gave him a suspicious look.

"Should I look to be insulted, Draco."

"No, Granger. I need to speak with you about something I overheard the day before we came back to school."

Hermione saw the worry on his face and slid over so he would have a place to sit and gestured for him to sit. Draco sat next to her and looked at the book and smiled lightly.

"I never thought of aunt Bella as a clutz…"

Hermione laughed a bit and looked at the book while she spoke to the slytherin.

"Its a bit funny, isn't it?"

"She's actually who I needed to talk to you about. I overheard something that I believe concerns you. Her and my mother were going on about it the night before the term started."

Hermione looked up at Draco with a look of concern as he readied himself to tell her.

Malfoy manor

Bellatrix sat at the large table with the other deatheaters. She could barely hear any of them. Her head began pounding, the pain made her eyes feel as if they were burning.

Narcissa gently placed her hand on Bella's leg to comfort her sister. Bella gripped the hand hard enough that Narcissa feared she would break it. The two of them sat trying to act like nothing was wrong.

Bellatrix's jaw tightened as the pain grew. She could faintly hear her name being called. She looked toward the Dark Lord, she could see him and tell he was talking to her but her vision was blurry and her hearing had completely failed her.

"Bella...Bellatrix?"

The Dark lord watched as Bellatrix passed out, her head hitting the table hard. He looked at Narcissa with a questioning expression.

"My lord, forgive me. My sister has been ill for quite some time. Sometimes it's manageable. This is the first time this has happened." 

He raised his hand gently to stop her.

"That is quite fine my dear, please take her home, we are done here."

Hogwarts 

Draco shifted Hermione's unconscious body in his arms as he rushed to follow Professor McGonagall to the hospital wing. McGonagall spoke shortly as they rushed down the corridor. 

"Thank you for coming to me Draco. Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley will meet us there. What happened before she fell unconscious?"

"I don't know, professor. We were talking and she was asking about my family then she started to look as if she was having a migraine. She started holding the side of her head then just passed out."

When they got to the hospital wing they rushed past Harry and Ron. Draco layer her on the bed and stepped back a bit before Harry grabbed his arm.

"What did you do Draco?"

"Nothing I swear, we were just talking."

"You expect me to believe that!?"

The two boys were separated by professor McGonagall. 

"Thats quite enough Mr. Potter! Draco was the one who came to me. He has done nothing to Ms. Granger."

Harry looked at the professor, then to Hermione. Behind him Ron threw his hands up and groaned.

"Bloody hell! Then what did happen?"