Cold (Hermoine X Draco)

Chapter Four

Hermione POV

I finish all of my homework as quickly as I can while still confident that it was done well. By this time, even though I had worked quickly, it's dark and empty in the common room, lit only by the fire in the hearth.

That's good. I want to be alone for this.

Bellatrix Lestrange. Psycho woman. The insane Death Eater who had tortured me in Malfoy Manor. And she was also... 'Aunt Bella'? The image didn't match. My Auntie, a Muggle of course, was a lot like Molly Weasley, until she had died, motherly and perpetually baking something. Bellatrix wasn't anything like that. I look down to the scar on my arm. Mudblood. It had hurt and bled and I had screamed myself hoarse and she had put it there. It was something I could never forget.

I vaguely know of her sister Andromeda, Tonks' mother, though my knowledge is limited to stories as I have never actually met the woman. Narcissa had saved Harry's life despite her cold, Malfoy exterior. But Bellatrix isn't like her sisters. Nothing like them at all.

I don't know why. I'm supposed to be rational and rule following. Yet some instinct somewhere is telling me to go back. To see Bellatrix again. To give her ghost another chance.

It's past midnight now, so I'll be breaking rules as well as being generally risky. Of course, if I wanted to think about risky, I'd need look no further than the events of last year. This was absolutely nothing compared to what had gone down...

"Well, Harry's head boy, not me." I say aloud.

Yes, that's a great excuse, Hermione, I think.

I go anyway.

Slipper-clad in a pyjama top and sweats, I slip out of the portrait hole, careful not to disturb the snoring Fat Lady. That's when I realize my problem. I had been fleeing blindly this afternoon in both directions. I have no idea where the secluded corridor haunted by the dead witch actually is.

I begin to slowly make my way through the darkened castle, vainly trying to retrace my steps.

A slight meow alerts me to Mrs. Norris, and I press myself behind a pillar, heart racing, as the cat runs by with Filch in tow. She doesn't see me, thankfully. For someone who was supposed to keep an eye on things, she wasn't exactly the best for the job.

Then, I creep back out slowly, careful incase the cat still lurked somewhere beyonds the shadows.

You're crazy, I think. Completely batty. You don't do this, remember?

I keep walking anyway, wand out for a bit of light once I'm sure Mrs. Norris was nowhere near me.

No matter how many times I try to fool myself, I finally have to admit that I have absolutely no idea where Bellatrix is. Sighing, I turn in defeat back towards Gryffindor tower, when I hear footsteps. Light. Another student's.

Who would be out so late at night? I turn again, beginning to feel a bit like a spinning top, and dim my wand just in time. Draco Malfoy slips past, oblivious to my presence.

What is he doing? Going to see 'Aunt Bella'?Without pausing to consider my actions, or the consequences, I follow him.

Moving staircases and dusty hallways and several almost-falls. He knows his way around, I don't have the faintest idea of where we're going.

"Aunt Bella?" He whispers.

So we had the same idea.

The familiar ghostly figure moves out from the shadows, illuminated by both the moon and from within somehow.