Hermione Bellatrix Riddle

Best laid plans

Hermione's pov
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Sure enough, on the second floor, at the beginning of the fiction section, in a forest green book labeled Cooking Treacle and Tarts, was a map and all the blueprints to Malfoy Manor, which I studied for hours on end.
"Planning to escape?"
"AHHHHH!"
"Calm down Riddle, I'm no snitch."
"THEO! What are you doing here?!"
"You wound me, aren't you happy to see me?"
"Well I Uh..."
"Never mind, don't answer that. I heard you talking to Pansy. Point is, I'm now blackmailing you."
"I...wait. What?"
"Yeah, unless you want me to tell everyone your plan, you'll do what I want before you leave."
"Ha, typical slytherin."
"Can't blame me, it's in our nature."
"Theo, why were you sneaking around in the first place?"
"That's for me to know, and you to never know."
"So....are you going to leave me be to plan my escape, or are you going to stay and annoy me?"
"Stay and annoy is my specialty."
"Of course it is." I groaned and went back to drawing out escape plans.
"You know, our relationship could be mutually beneficial...."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning, I know every inch and secret passage in this place, I just need your help with one teensy thing." He said and I closed my book.
"What thing?"
"It's easier if I show you, come on."
"Augh! Do I have to."
"Yes, you're blackmailed." He said and pulled me to an unfamiliar room on the third floor.
"This, is my room."
"Wow. I have one too." I said sarcastically and he rolled his eyes.
"I need your help. I have a secret. A huge secret. Promise not to judge?"
"Okayyy, I promise."
"Well here she is in all her glory."
"Oh my Merlin...is that really a jobberknoll?!"
"Yup."
"I thought they were extinct?!"
"The ministry in America is trying to breed them back into existence to the magical public, but the thing is, because they are so rare, people will do anything to get their hands on their feathers. This includes my parents, and basically everyone here. They got a hold of this little guy, and planned on killing him. I couldn't let them do that so I stole him and kept him here."
"I don't understand, how can I help?"
"I need you to get him to MACUSA somehow."
"You want me to get him to America? First, I can't apparate. Second, the Americans are just as greedy as we are, I can't just give it to anyone. I don't know who or how to get it to someone safe."
"I need you to do this hermione. This is very important to me. He can't just stay here for the rest of his life."
"Okay fine. But how will I get out of here with an owl sized bird?"
"Your bag. Why not just put him in there?"
"I've never put anything live in my bag before, but I suppose I could look for some new charms. any ideas on escape?"
"Well, I have a few, depending on where you want to go." He said slyly at me.
"Oh?" I asked while cocking a brow.
"Yeah, Malfoy manor has a bunch of secret passage ways and tunnels. All sorts of fun things, perfect for hide and seek."
"Just like hogwarts." I mused and Theo turned towards me with a slack jaw.
"Wait. hogwarts has secret passageways?!" He screeched and I smirked back at him.
"Yup, maybe I'll show you when we get back to school."
"Sweet! Anyway, there are 12 total, 5 are common knowledge to the death eaters, and are used for bases. 4 are only known to the Malfoys and close associates, aka me, Blaise, the blacks, and you know who. 1, which supposedly leads to hogwarts, is caved in, and also cursed or something like that, but it's been sealed for hundreds of years, so no one actually knows where it leads."
"Mind telling me where the main 5 are, that could be useful to the order." I asked, musing over the fact that the sealed passage actually led to hogwarts, but Theo looked horrified.
"Of course not!"
"Why?" I asked, what did he have to lose by telling me about them? "Wait. Don't tell me you're still a purist?"
"Of course I am! I'm not siding with those muggle lovers. I just want what's best for my bird."
"Even though your family will kill the jobberknoll the second they find out you have it?"
"..."
"Never mind. Let's get back to the matter at hand,
You mentioned 12, you already explained 10."
"Yes, anyway, 1 leads to the ministry, everyone knows that it's there, and it's constantly watched."
"There's a passage that leads to the ministry?! That's a long way away."
"Nobody said that we walk there."
"Well how do you get there? Broom?"
"Dragon."
"Dragon!? That's barbaric!"
"Now is not the time Riddle." He said while raising his hand to silence me.
"Anyway, the last passage?"
"It leads to Knockturn alley, more specifically, Borgin and Burkes."
"Let me guess, travel by dragon?"
"You guessed right."
"So technically that's our only option, borgin and Burke's? They can easily appease and catch us! We'll never make it! Even if we do, we'll still be in konockturn alley, which is crowded by death eaters!"
"Yes, but if we make it past Knockturn, and get into Diagon, we can find an auror and seek asylum at the ministry."
"But the ministry is infested by spies and deatheaters, hell even the minister is corrupt, we'll be handed over and you'll be killed within the hour!"
"How about the order, we could notify them about where to meet us. Tell them to meet us at the auror office on the 23rd at about 3:00."
"Why then, why so early in the morning, and why not tell them to meet us at borgin?"
"Because everybody would alert your father that the order is in Knockturn. They would be alerted that we were with them, and a fight would ensue, it's safer at the ministry. Also, 23 is my favorite number, and everyone is asleep at 3:00 it'll be safer and people will be too disoriented to think straight if we do happen to get caught. Not to mention the witching hour is at 3:00." He said with a Cheshire like grin. I nodded to him and took out a parchment and quill to write a quick letter to the order.

Stag,
Hera 23, zero three hundred. The place where we will become. Britain. Aphros,
                                                       Fox.

I nodded as I read over the cryptic letter. It was a message that only an order member would be able to figure out considering that the Wizarding world payed no mind to cryptic codes or muggle sayings.
"The heck does this mean?" Theodore asked while looking over the letter.
"Promise not to tell?" I asked and he nodded. "Well the letter is addressed to my good friend Stag, whose real name I shall not disclose (an: I bet you all know it's Harry). Hera, known in Roman mythology as Juno, is the matriarch of the month of June. Zero three hundred is military time for 3:00. The place where we will become refrences Stags future auror status (an: Harry and Ron want to become aurors). Aphros is sort of an sos among the order, and I am Fox." I explained and Theodore just nodded.
"Why are you fox?"
"Seriously? That's your question?" I asked and he nodded. "My animagus is of a fox."
"I didn't know you were an animagus."
"Nobody does. Anyway, take my owl, terror, and tell her to go to Stag." I told him while rolling up the scrap of parchment and handing it to him.
"Aye aye captain." He said while giving me a salute and walking away.
Finally, I would be free.