Anyone But Me

Chapter Fifty-Eight

She sat on her bed the next morning staring down at the locket that was nestled between her breasts. Everything in her screamed out to pick it up and let Draco know the good news. And yet... She could not completely shake the price following through would cost the both of them.

It would become her responsibility to lure Draco over their side. To become exactly what she had been accused of. A treacherous conspirator in an attempt to save him from himself, even after she had agreed to let him figure out. And if she succeeded he would become a turncoat, his use relegated to informant.

Was being together worth losing some of the most integral parts of themselves? And if it was, how could she look him in the eye without telling him the truth when all it would do is push him away? Did she have the strength to lie to the one person she could still be honest with?

Pulling the ornamental case from its resting place, she watched as the tiny diamonds sparkled in the candlelight. Giving off the same impression of innocence that she seemed to, but she knew the truth... She was the same selfish fallen angel from the last four months who did what she wanted regardless of the ramifications. The one who had been willing to lose everything for the boy.

Hermione pressed the small clasp on the side and the top popped open, waiting for her message...

Her hand shook as she pressed the tip of her wand to the silver, imprinting what she wanted it to say.

Sat. at midnight

After a few minutes with no response she got up and finished getting dressed for the day. It wasn't until she was reaching down to grab her bag that metal heated her skin.

What? How?

A smirk lifted her lips as she sent her taunting reply.

Magic...

Choosing to ignore the almost instant and doubtlessly crude answer, she hitched her bag onto her shoulder and started down for breakfast.

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"How can they keep expecting us to act like none of this is happening?" Ginny fumed as she threw the newspaper back at her with a tad too much force.

"They expect us to continue to arm ourselves with knowledge so that we can handle what is happening!" Harry told her, his hand hesitating in the air above her shoulder. Unsure if it was okay to soothe her outburst or not. The girl's responding glare had it quickly disappearing at his side.

Hermione had to fight back the smirk that wanted to make its way across her face as she rolled up the offending source of anguish and tossed it into her bag. Taking one for the team she pulled the anger onto herself. "He is right, you know..."

"No... They keep us cooped up here so we are "safe" but let everyone else fend for themselves. We should be being trained to help!"

It seemed as if every morning they all held their breaths, full of anxiety until they found out who was the latest target and just how deep the wounds would go. And this morning had been particularly rough... A family of five, with a newborn baby, had been added to the list of victims meant to send a message.

"That is not their job, Ginny... I get it. I really do, but sending a bunch of teenagers into battle is only going to add numbers to the dead en masse." Hermione tried rationalizing with her. "Not all of us were able to get tutoring from Harry..."

"Exactly my point! They... We should be concentrating on expanding Dumbledore's Army instead of having us waste a year playing catch up because of Umbridge's ineptitude."