Braving the Past

Chapter 50: The Weasley Girl

Hermione's knees knocked against each other before buckling all together and she fell to the ground with a gasp.

Ginny Weasley rushed forward and pulled Hermione into the tight, desperate hug of two sisters being reunited.

"They told me you were alive, but I couldn't believe it," she whispered into Hermione's hair. "I had to see for myself."

Hermione was openly crying now, sobs tearing through her as tears streamed down her face and dripped onto Ginny's shirt. She clung to her friend as if her life depended on it, as if Ginny were the only thing keeping her together.

"I thought you were dead," Hermione cried. "I thought you had died with everyone else - I can't believe you're really here - I'm so happy you're here!"

An awkward clearing of the throat put a stop to Hermione's babbling. Ginny whipped around to face the two boys that stared at the wall as if it held the solution to all of life's problems.

"Don't you dare ruin this moment by forcing your high testosterone levels into the mix," she snapped. "If you're so uncomfortable you can go out to the hallway and wait until we're finished."

Then she turned back around and yanked Hermine into her arms once again.

"Boys," she muttered under her breath.

Blaise cracked his neck while Malfoy folded his arms. They exchanged a look and stayed silent, but they refused to leave the room. Hermione peeked their way again and found them having a silent discussion, eyes widening and imploring. Malfoy seemed to have won the argument when Blaise's expression looked pained.

"You were almost caught last night, Ginny," Blaise said tightly. "There's no way we're letting the two of you out of our sights until we have to."

Ginny sighed and finally released her tight hold on Hermione, who reluctantly let her arms fall as well.

Hermione stood up and placed her hands on her hips, glaring at Malfoy. "You could have led with that!" she said, gesturing to Ginny.

Malfoy opened his mouth, but could come up with no excuse. He rubbed the back of his neck, his entire face the epitome of uncomfortable.

Good. Let him be uncomfortable. Here she was, thinking this entire time that everyone she knew was long dead. All the while, Malfoy had known Ginny was hiding here and hadn't said a word about it.

"How long have you been here?" she asked Ginny.

Ginny glanced at the two Slytherins before moving her eyes back to Hermione. "Since the battle at Hogwarts. Eight months ago."

Hermione's mouth fell open. "Eight months," she said in awe. "It's been that long?"

"Yes," Malfoy answered, looking at her with questions in his eyes. "Where have you been all this time?"

Hermione bit her lip, unsure of how much she should tell them. How much she could really trust them. Ginny being here helped her quite a lot, but she had no idea how they would take the truck load of information she was about to drop.

"That's not important right now," she decided.

She reached back into her bag and pulled Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem back out to tell them instead about Horcruxes, but Malfoy walked over and snatched it out of her hand.

"Hey!"

"Both sides have been looking for you," he insisted, folding his arms. "Scouring every nook and cranny to find the one last person who knew what Potter was up to. You disappeared from off the face of the planet, yet the Dark Lord never seemed to believe you were dead. Tell me what happened. What did you find?"