Out of Time

Chapter 14

Hermione knows it isn't enough. But could it ever be? Her mind can't help drawing the parallel between Draco and Harry - not that either of them would appreciate the comparison.

But isn't it the same kind of thing? Dumbledore getting an underage wizard increasingly involved in opposing the worst dark wizard of the age? And said dark wizard using another underage wizard as a brutal tool to keep his family in line?

Draco couldn't help the family he was born into any more than Harry could. No more than Hermione could help having been born with magic, in a class of society that's looked down upon by far more members than will openly admit it.

They're all just playing at war, teenagers with far too much at stake. Students being moved around like pawns on a chessboard.

What wouldn't Hermione do to save her parents, if they were threatened like Draco's father and mother are - albeit in different ways? If anything, the creativity employed to threaten them is that much more unnerving. And what wouldn't Harry do to have his back?

She doesn't think any of them have a high horse to ride, when it comes to protecting the ones they love.

Actions speak louder than words. And while Draco couldn't resist the command to get the mark, his actions since then have spoken quite loud indeed. There have been no slurs from him, no bullying. It had stopped long before she propositioned him, too, so it isn't just that he gets to shag her.

She doesn't want to think about what happens when he's back at home, though - or even at Snape's. He only has to get through two months of summer holidays before he'll be back here. Hopefully they both will be, and Hermione will have their whole seventh year to think of what should come after school.

Will the war wait that long? She just doesn't know. But she knows she has to find a way to keep them from standing on opposite sides of it when it does.

('I've done a lot of things for my father, things I regret doing. It's been happening for years. But only recently have I really seen how badly he's led me. How wrong he's led our whole family.')

Snape thinks her influence could keep Draco away from Voldemort. She thinks he's right in the most basic sense, but keeping him physically away will be another matter.

And she doesn't even want to consider what Pansy had suggested could lay in store: that if she were captured, Voldemort would have her tortured in front of Draco, or even have Draco do it. That possibility is too horrible to contemplate.

* * *

Everyone seems relieved in Charms. Draco's sitting back with the usual Slytherins, Blaise and Theo much more at ease. Today isn't a practical lesson but Hermione wishes it was. From her spot two rows behind them, she thinks Pansy seems a little giggly. In hindsight, she could have asked for the cloak back here but she hadn't thought of it. Oh well; let Pansy have fun with it today.

But what Draco had said about possible misuses of the cloak in shagging terms did pique her imagination.

In one way, the lesson being theoretical gives Hermione a chance to further sort out everything she learned today. They're all such a muddle of motivations, each person having their own reasons for everything.

Her quill taps absently on the table and she misses Ron's irritated glances. What was it Sirius said to Harry last year? "The world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters." Everyone has shades of grey to them. The older they all get, the clearer it becomes how situations and nuances shade that grey - creating shadows here and highlights there.

Two people she doesn't think are ready to hear that argument are Harry and Ron. It's not just her reluctance to admit that Harry had been right about Draco having a Dark Mark. But what good could it possibly do to tell them about it? It would only reignite their fixation all over again. Hermione can argue that he's not like the others until she's blue in the face, but whether Harry agrees or disagrees with her wouldn't change anything. Telling them won't help Harry and Dumbledore research Horcruxes. If anything, it would pose a fresh distraction that Harry doesn't need.