Darkness Falls

Nine

1992 - First Year

Hermione woke up to the sound of thudding in her ears. It took her a moment to realize the noise she could hear was the sound of Draco's heart beating against his chest. She had somehow forgotten that she had moved to cuddle up to him in the middle of the night. Gently she moved off of him to stretch her aching body, no matter how comfortable she thought she was on the window seat her body told her differently.

"How're you feeling this morning?" Draco's voice startled her. He pushed himself upright and leaned against the wall of the seat as he rubbed his eyes and woke up properly.

"Much better thank you. Sorry about me leaning on you all night, I had a nightmare and I woke up extremely uncomfortable, so I just did what I thought would comfort me."

"No need to apologize, happy to be a human pillow," he joked. Hermione climbed off the window seat and moved to the table, pouring herself some water she hadn't realized was there.

"Can I ask you something?" Draco asked, breaking the silence once more. She nodded at him to continue.

"What on earth possessed you and those danger dweebs to go into a room that we had been specifically warned about on our very first day here?"

Hermione laughed at the question, it hadn't quite been what she had expected but she knew he would eventually ask about that night.

"It's complicated. Basically, Harry had a feeling that the Philosophers Stone was being kept beneath a trapped door in that room. He thought someone was after it. Turns out he was right, although, not who he had expected."

"The Philosophers Stone? As in, Nicholas Flamel's Stone?" He asked.

Hermione couldn't believe her ears. It had taken months for her and her friends to find information on that stone, to even come across Nicholas's name in reference, and he had been able to provide her with such information just from hearing the name of the Stone.

"If only I had come to you sooner! We had no idea who Nicholas Flamel was for so long!"

"We have several books on him in our library. His works on immortality, in particular, was something father was interested in when the Dark Lord disappeared. Speaking of which, is it true?"

"That Harry came face to face with the Voldemort?" Draco nodded at her.

She didn't fully understand why had happened between him and Quirrell, she still needed to speak to Harry, "As far as I'm aware it is, but he hadn't returned fully. Remember in the Forest when we had detention and we were looking for a unicorn that had been hurt? Hagrid said one had already died previous to that, something was hunting them down to drink their blood. Apparently, if someone drinks the blood of a unicorn it will grant the person a sense of immortality, it will allow someone to live, but it would be at the price of a cursed life. According to Dumbledore, Voldemort was able to return through Professor Quirrell who he demanded drank unicorn blood so that he would remain alive, however, it meant that they would always be joint. Voldemort would never be able to separate himself from Quirrell which is why he wanted to find the stone."

Draco took a moment to process what Hermione had said, as well as how she said it. It didn't go amiss that she had said the Voldemort's name several times without so much as flinching where others would refrain entirely.

"That still doesn't explain why Potter wanted to go and investigate."

"That scar he has, the one that Voldemort gave him, it hurts him sometimes. He said it didn't start happening until this year, occasionally it would start stinging and he would get a bad feeling about something. He always goes with his gut and his gut told him he needed to see what was beneath the trapped door."