Treacherous | Hermione Granger Book II

|20| Chapter Twenty

T W E N T Y

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Saffron hated that she was right.  She hated that she was right about the rest of the year following in the footsteps of last year. She tried to tell her self that she was being overly dramatic. But when Harry asked to have a word with her on Sunday morning, interrupting her hair session with Lavender, she knew something had to have gone terribly wrong the night before at his detention with Professor Lockhart.

He interrupted something Lavender was doing, which just highlighted the sincerity of what Saffron felt like she was about to hear. 

"Can't it wait?" Lavender looked up from the plaits she had made out of Saffron's hair and offered Harry a scathing expression.  "We're in the middle of something,"

"Um," Harry gave Saffron a look that suggested that he needed her to bail him out of giving an excuse. 

With a small sigh, Saffron turned to Lavender and said: "I promised I'd talk to Harry about his detention with Professor Lockhart last night," Saffron looked up at Harry who had thrown a glare in her direction. She bit her lip, as he was right, that was a terrible excuse. "I mean he promised me he'd talk to me about it," 

Amending her excuse actually seemed to work, as Lavender obliged by letting Saffron's hair roam free of what contained it. On the condition, though, that Saffron tell her everything later on that night. Saffron let out a small laugh when Lavender whispered that into her ear and thanked her appreciatively before leaving with Harry.

"Did he say something to you?" Saffron asked Harry, as the pair wandered around the corridors of Hogwarts aimlessly. Well, the walk was aimless, but the conversation was bound to have a very clearly defined point, which Harry would unveil to her eventually. When Harry didn't say anything at first, she persisted. "Did he make you do something you didn't feel good about doing?"

"Yes, the whole thing was awful," said Harry, with a tentative but noticeably forced grin. "I . . .well, I don't think it's anything major,"

"Then it must be something major," Saffron joked with him. "Anything with you seems to be major,"

Harry shook his head bracingly. "I don't know, but I just wanted to get your take on it. Well, when I was in that detention with Lockhart, I heard . . . I heard a voice,"

"A voice?" repeated Saffron blankly. Harry couldn't be much vaguer. "Couldn't it just have been Lockhart?"

"No," Harry shook his head profusely this time. He sounded confident in his answer. "No, and it wasn't mine either. It was saying the most awful things, about killing and hurting," At that Saffron's eyes all but bulged out of her sockets,  but she tried to remain calm and to hear Harry out. "I can't remember what else it said, but anyway, I asked Lockhart if he heard it, and he said he didn't,"

"Maybe he was lying," suggested Saffron, her heart rate increased as she digested the information. It was true, everything with Harry seemed to be major, majorly dangerous and of course, after last year, that tradition had to continue. 

"That's what Ron said, but . . . but I don't think so, I think it was only me,"

"And that was the only time you heard the voice?" Saffron asked him.

"Yes," Harry nodded. "Just that one time,"

"Then . . ." Saffron spoke slowly, treading carefully around the subject, as she knew Harry could often be sensitive when it came to what may or may not have been true about him. "Do you think that maybe the voice was just something you made up?"