Fear of a Name

Chapter Fifty-Eight: Telling Hermione

"It's from Hagrid," Harry said, ripping the note open. "Buckbeak's appeal — it's set for the sixth."
"That's the day we finish our exams," Hermione said, still looking everywhere for her Arithmancy book.
"And they're coming up here to do it," Harry said, still reading from the letter. "Someone from the Ministry of Magic, and — and an executioner."

Hermione looked up, startled.
"They're bringing the executioner to the appeal! But that sounds as though they've already decided!"
"Yeah, it does," Harry said slowly.
"They can't!" Ron howled. "I've spent ages reading up stuff for him, they can't just ignore it all!"

But I had a horrible feeling that the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures had had its mind made up for it by Lucius Malfoy. I sighed.
"Come on, let's go down to breakfast and see if we can talk to Hagrid there."

We walked down to the Great Hall, but Hagrid wasn't there.
"Maybe he'll come a bit later," Ron said, sitting down and starting to pile his plate with food.
"Maybe," I agreed, sitting down opposite him but not eating anything.
Hermione and Harry both sat down as well. Hermione started to eat some toast while reading through some Herbology notes, and Harry just pushed some egg around his plate with a fork.

"Come on, you two, you need to eat something," Ron said. "Not eating isn't going to change the situation. And Ivory, you must be starving, I don't think you've eaten anything for almost a week now."
"I'm not—" I started to say, but Ron cut me off.
"Don't tell me you're not hungry; if you don't eat something soon, you're going to starve to death!"

I frowned slightly.
"It's not exactly like there's any point in trying to keep myself alive when I'm just going to—" I stopped suddenly as a couple of people walked past.
"Going to what?" Hermione said anxiously.
"I'll tell you later," I muttered. "Kitchen corridor, remember?"

Hermione nodded and went back to reading her revision notes. Ron sighed.
"Ivory, please don't think like that," he said. "Maybe — maybe he'll change his mind."
"He doesn't go back on his word," I said quietly.

"Just have some toast or something." Ron put a couple of slices of toast on a plate and pushed it towards me. "Please."
I sighed, then took one of the slices and started to nibble on the corner. I still didn't particularly want to eat, I was just doing it to make him happy.

"You too," he said, turning to Harry. "Take a bit of toast, mate, c'mon."
"I'm not hungry."
"You need to eat," Ron said.
"I'm not hungry, Ron," Harry repeated.

While they were distracted, I put the toast back on my plate, left the great hall, and walked down to the corridor that lead to the kitchens. I had no idea how I was going to tell Hermione about what was going to happen to me in the holidays.
I guess I'll just show her the letter... oh, speak of the devil.
Hermione had just come into view at the end of the corridor.

"You wanted to tell me something?" she asked as she reached me.
I nodded, then took the letter out of my pocket and gave it to her.
"Just read that, I really can't bring myself to tell you directly," I said quietly. "Oh, but don't touch the writing," I added. "My psychopath of a mother decided to write it in blood."

Hermione frowned slightly, then unfolded the letter. I saw her eyes go wide as she read it, and when she was done, she looked up at me.
"Oh, Ivory... I'm so sorry," she half whispered, handing the letter back to me.
I sighed quietly as I put it back into my pocket.

"Once you've got your head around that, there's something else I need to tell you."
Hermione looked at me, her face showing her worry.
"It's nothing too bad," I added quickly.
"What is it?" she asked, still looking a little concerned.
I quickly told her everything about the nightmares that I'd told Harry and Ron.

"So what you really need," she said thoughtfully when I'd finished, "is a spell or a potion that'll tell you whether they're real or fake memories."
"That's exactly the conclusion I came to," I said, nodding. "Do you know where I could find one?"
"No idea," she said. "Sorry."
"I guess I'll just have to look through a billion different books then," I said. "That'll be fun."

"I'll help," Hermione immediately offered, but I shook my head.
"I don't want to take any more of your revision time."
Her eyes widened slightly.
"I completely forgot!" she said loudly. "Sorry, but I really should go and revise!" And with that, she ran down the corridor and up the stairs, disappearing out of sight.

"That went better than I'd expected," I muttered to myself as I entered the kitchens.
The usual chorus of questions came from the house elves, but I just smiled and shook my head.
"I don't want anything today, thanks," I said, opening my purse and pacing it in the corner. "But if anyone comes looking for me, I need you to tell them you haven't seen me, please."
They all nodded. I muttered my thanks, then climbed into the purse.

"Right, let's do this," I said as it closed behind me.
I walked over to the library, pulled about twenty different potions books, and stacked them all on one of the tables.
This'll be enough to start off with, I guess.
I took one of the books and opened it. This was going to take a while.

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A/n: I accidentally published this chapter about a week ago when it wasn't finished, and again a few days ago, so sorry about any confusion caused by that. This time I did actually mean to post it 😂

ALSO I've got 8 chapters written and ready to publish (not including this one), so there definitely won't be a gap in updates any time soon! 🙃
~Charlie 🖤