Everything Changes (A Dramione fanfic)

Chapter Eight

Hermione woke the next morning to the sound of pounding at her door. "HERMIONE WAKE UP ALREADY!" Hermione sat straight up in her bed, looking around. She was the only one still asleep and in the girls dormitories. She rushed over to the door and opened it to find Harry and Ron, all dressed up in winter clothing. "Why are you pounding at my door?!" Hermione snapped. "Blimey, Hermione you can't honestly be tired. How long can you sleep?" exclaimed Ron. "Well it's not like you two are early birds yourself, I'm always up earlier than you!" she exclaimed. "Yeah we sleep in, but we never wake up this late in the day!" Harry argued. "Well...what time is it?" she asked. "It's past noon! They've already served lunch." he replied. "We are going to Hogsmede, and we aren't going to go by ourselves and leave you here to sleep all day." said Harry. "Yeah so hurry up and get dressed...and bloody hell look at her hair." Ron added. Hermione huffed and reached up in attempt to flatten her hair. Now that she thought about it, her hair probably looked like a hippogriff's nest. "Fine. I'll be down in a bit." she grumbled, closing the door on both of them. Hermione rushed over to her drawers to gather some warm clothes, she quickly washed up and got dressed. She brushed her hair quickly, then grabbed her Gryffindor scarf on the way out. "Well it's about time," said Ron.

"Care to explain why you disappeared from Quidditch tryouts?" asked Harry upon arriving at the Three Broomsticks. "Three butterbeers," he added when a waitress came to their table. "I do believe a congratulations is in order." Harry said nodding his head towards Ron. "Congratulations?" Hermione turned to Ron, who had a small smile on his face. "You made it? Congratulations Ron!" Hermione exclaimed. "The question is: why weren't you there to see it for yourself. You disappeared during tryouts." Harry said, arching an eyebrow. "I was-" Hermione began, there was no point in lying really, she hadn't been doing anything wrong. "At the library."  she said finally. There was no reason for them to question it, she was always at the library. "What were you doing?" asked Harry. It was sounding more and more like an interrogation, or maybe it was all in her head. "Reading." she replied. "With who?" asked Harry. "Blimey Harry! You are being ridiculous, I can read you know, I don't need anyone there with me!" she said. "Then why were you there with Malfoy?!" he demanded. "I wasn't- I mean it's not-" she stammered. Why was she having trouble explaining herself? "I saw you there, Hermione, on the map. You two were only a few feet from each other the whole time! What are you keeping from us?" Harry snapped. "Nothing! I'm not keeping anything from you. Look, I went to the library to...search for information on the Half Blood Prince, and also...to follow Malfoy." Hermione began. Harry shook his head. "I wanted to follow him so that I could prove to you he wasn't doing anything wrong when he was disappearing, so that you could stop worrying about him being a Death Eater." she said, lowering her voice. "Okay, so then what? You saw he was heading to the library and decided you'd just go hang out there with him? Did you have fun looking for books with the enemy?" asked Harry. "No! Mcgonagall heard us arguing, because you know how he is. He needed to find a book. Mcgonnagall made me go with him to the library and find whatever book he needed. She said it wouldn't take me long." Hermione explained. "Okay, but that doesn't explain why you were there with him so late." Harry said. "Harry oh my goodness...I helped him find the book, the information he needed wasn't in the book I gave him." she said. "So what?! That's his problem, Hermione." he argued. "I know but he said it was important-"  "His problem" sang Ron. "-and he wasn't being the git we know him to be...he was being polite. So I just helped him find a few more books...what's so wrong about that?" she asked, finally meeting Harry's eyes. "Nothing would be wrong with that if it was anyone else, but this is Malfoy." Harry said. "Ah! Hello Mr. Potter!" came a voice from behind, interrupting their argument. The trio turned to see Professor Slughorn walking to their table. Harry turned back to Hermione. "We'll talk about this later." he whispered. Hermione slumped, and distracted herself with the untouched butterbeers that had arrived at their table, while Harry and Slughorn began a conversation. 

...

 It was one of those days where Draco hated his life. His palms were sweaty, there was a lump in his throat, and his stomach was in a knot. He couldn't go through with it, he couldn't kill a man, but he had to. Draco argued with himself all the way into the Three Broomsticks.

When it was done, when he knew his plan was in action, Draco decided to go find the group of Slytherins he normally hung out with. He couldn't go to Hogwarts to see if his plan worked, it would look suspicious. Snow crunched underneath his feet as he made his way down Hogsmede. He spotted Hermione, followed by Harry and Ron. Maybe it isn't to late...maybe the trio could save a life once again, save Hogwarts. Draco could only hope.

Hello! Thanks for Reading, hope you enjoyed it. I'm sorry, it's been a few days since my last update. This was a short chapter but I'm hoping to make chapter nine longer. Please leave a comment, I'd really love to see what all of you think of the story so far. Thanks! -jazzyjstar