Born From Madness (Harry Potter Fanfic)

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Hermione could sense Harry's dread the next day, especially with Potions lesson where Snape was extra unpleasant as ever. It didn't help much when the members of D.A. were continually approaching him and asking if there was another meeting that night. 

"I'll let you know when the next one is, but I can't do it tonight," Harry told them, "I've got to go to-- er-- Remedial Potions.." 

"You take Remedial Potions?" Zacharias Smith asked, "Good Lord you must be terrible, Snape doesn't usually give extra lessons, does he?" 

"So could you Zacharias." Hermione shot at him. Zacharias opened his mouth to say something but decided against it before turning on his heels and storming away. Ron proceeded to threatening of putting a jinx on Zacharias when Cho showed up and asked for Harry. Hermione took hold of Ron's hand and nudge him towards the library, understanding Cho probably would want to be alone with Harry. 

Hermione and Ron walked down the corridor as quickly as possibly. She found herself chuckling. 

"What's so funny?" Ron asked. 

"I think Cho might ask him out on a date." Hermione said, "Hopefully he can see that. I don't mean to say Harry is stupid or anything, it's just... he sometimes misreads people's intentions." 

"You think Cho is even a good match for him?" Ron asked while they turned the corner. 

"Well-- I'm not entirely sure. I want to believe Cho might have some feelings, but there is a chance she is just going out with Harry for--" Hermione started when she felt something grabbing the back of her robes and pulling her and Ron into a small crevices. Just as she grabbed for her wand, she sighed in relief when she saw it was Scabior. Ron, on the other hand, had a look of anger on his face. 

"Hello you two, I was looking for you lot." He said with a smile like he was the cat that caught a rat. 

"What are you doing here? If Dolores sees you--" Hermione started when Scabior chuckled. 

"She's not going to find me, I have my own cloak of invisibility on hand to hide me from old Toad Face." Scabior said. 

"So why are you here?" Ron repeated Hermione's question with a slight bit of attitude. 

"I came because of your question Hermione about that locket You-Know-Who had supposed had. I've been asking around Knockturn Ally about it. Now I didn't quite get any information about what it was--" 

"I figure out. It was Slytherin's locket he had." Hermione told him. 

"Clever girl. But as I was saying, it turns out, You-Know-Who did in fact have that locket, but he had been rumored to hide it away in a cave somewhere so no one could find it and cursed it so no one would live to get it." Scabior said. Hermione narrowed her eyes. 

"So he never asked Regulus to hide it for him. Regulus must have taken the locket from its hideaway and told Kreacher to destroy. Regulus secretly was working against You-Know-Who all along." Hermione said, "But why would You-Know-Who hide a locket?" 

"That I could not tell you. No one had that information." Scabior admitted. 

"Maybe you didn't get it out of them." Ron grumbled, smuggly. 

"Oh no, I used good methods to get the information out of them... not Dumbledore-approved methods, but methods nonetheless." Scabior stated to him. Ron rolled his eyes. 

"Whatever, I'm going to go do some homework." Ron mumbled before scurrying from their hideaway. 

"I am sorry about that, Scabior. I don't know what's gotten into him lately." Hermione admitted.

"I do. It's a spot of jealousy, that's what it is. He doesn't like it that I'm helping you and he can't at this moment of time." Scabior said to him. Hermione's eyes widened. 

"What?  That's silly." Hermione said. 

"Is it? Is it really?" Scabior asked, "He's a young boy in the presence of a beautiful girl and I'm outdoing him by being able to go out and search for answers while he doesn't know the first place to go." 

"But-- Ron knows we're not-- you know?" Hermione said. Scabior chuckles. 

"Jealousy make everyone loose their heads, love. And makes it hard for them to see straight." Scabior reminded her, "Now I think you better get going or else someone will be noticing you're gone." 

Hermione nodded as she quickly scurried out of the hold with Scabior's words in mind. 

Harry knew that his lessons with Snape were gong to be awful, but he didn't think they would be worst than what he had thought they would be. He had began to relive the worst memories had had ever had and Snape refused to explain what he was even supposed to do against him and only kept ordering him to control his mind. However, he did noticed that in one of the memories, he recognized the door Mr. Weasley had been guarding on the night he was attack. It had been the same one he had past when he took Hermione and him down to the courtrooms. When he asked Snape about it, Snape refused to even talk about it and then told him to empty his mind every night until Wednesday where they would meet again. 

He hurried out of the classroom and into the library where he found Hermione sitting alone with her nose in her book while Ron was sitting a few seats over. Don't tell me they're fighting again, Harry thought while he hurried over to them. Hermione shot her head up as she leaned over the table (Ron moved down to sit beside Harry). 

"How did it go?" Hermione whispered, "Are you all right, Harry?" 

"Yeah... fine..." He mumbled before going into what he found out about the memory. 

"So you're saying the weapon-- the thing You-Know-Who's after-- is in the Ministry of Magic?" Ron asked. 

"In the Department of Mysteries, it's got to be, I saw the door when your dad took me and Hermione down to the courtrooms for my hearing and her interview and it's definitely the same one he was guarding when the snake bit him." Harry stated to them, "So do you know what's in the Department of Mysteries? Has your dad ever mentioned anything about it?" 

"Well-- I know they call the people who work in there 'Unspeakables' because no one really seems to know what they do in there... weird place to have a weapon..." 

"It's not weird at all, it actually makes perfect sense." Hermione spoke up, "It will be something top secret that the Ministry has been developing, I expect. Harry are you sure you're all right?" 

"Yeah... I just feel a bit... I don't like Occlumency much." Harry told her. 

"I expect anyone would feel shaky if they'd had their mind attacked over and over again." Hermione admitted, "How about we get out of here and go to the common room." 

Of course, when they got there, Fred and George were showing off their latest product. Harry didn't seemed too thrilled as he mentioned he wanted to go to bed early. Hermione felt bad for him as she stood in the middle of the common room and watched him tumble up the stairs. 

"Are you okay, 'Mione?" She turned to find Fred standing beside her, holding onto one of the hats, which made your head vanished. 

"I'm fine. It's just Harry. I'm a bit worried about him." Hermione admitted to Fred. 

"Yeah-- I noticed he hasn't been his cheery self lately." Fred said. 

"It's all this war stuff and You-Know-Who and now with Snape trying to teach him about Occlumency, it's enough to drive anyone insane." Hermione told him, "I just wish there was something for us to do to make his life a bit easier. That's all." 

"You and me both, 'Mione." he said while he wrapped his arm around her shoulder, "Now let me show you our newest product. I think you'll love it." 

Hermione followed behind him, but took another quick glance behind her shoulder, wondering if Harry would be alright.