Love and Hate: A Dramione

Chapter 15

Your mission should you choose to accept it...

Hermione could hear the theme song to Mission Impossible in her head as she crept down the hallway of Malfoy Manor. Dressed in an elegant royal blue gown with Polyjuice giving her bright blue eyes and straight blonde hair, she felt more like a Barbie doll than a Bond girl.

Focus, Hermione!

The Malfoys were throwing an elaborate ball to celebrate the completion of the new wing of the Ministry of Magic they had helped fund. Voldemort was, of course, not in the manor that night as the most important ministry officials, the Minister of Magic, included, were invited to attend. Dumbledore saw it as the perfect opportunity for the Order to try to acquire Slytherin's locket since, as was mentioned, Voldemort wasn't present and neither were the more questionable (and often more violent) Deatheaters. After all, the Malfoys had to keep up appearances if Lucius was to keep his influence.

The plan was simple: As part of the Ministry, Kingsley Shacklebolt was invited to the ball and he would bring Hermione (disguised as someone else, of course) as his date to let her gain entrance. As the party went on, she would slip away unnoticed to go look for the locket. A source had told them that the locket was kept in a secret compartment in the fireplace of a guest bedroom in the East Wing of the Manor. Once found, she was supposed to retrieve it, go back to the party and exit through the one-way floo the Malfoys had activated in the front room to allow guests to leave. To leave no tracks, she was to floo to the Leaky Cauldron where Tonks would be waiting for her to escort her back to Grimmauld Place.

At first, Hermione was reluctant to accept. Surely there were more skilled Order members than she. When Dumbledore explained the situation, she realized that she was the only one for the job. To minimize the risk of the information being leaked, only certain Order members knew about the Horcruxes – Dumbledore, Lupin, Mr. Weasley, Kingsley, Tonks and of course, the trio (and Genevieve). For obvious reasons Dumbledore couldn't go, Lupin was out of commission because of the full moon, and as a relative, Tonks couldn't go because the Manor would know her magical signature and detect her presence right away. Mr. Weasley and Kingsley were invited but because people knew them and knew they were there so they couldn't simply slip away unnoticed. Harry was too important to go and risk capture. And Ron...well, it takes 10 Rons to screw in a lightbulb. As for Genevieve, brilliant student that she is, she was yet untested in these situations. Besides, she merely knew about the Horcruxes because she happened to be in the right place at the right time. That left Hermione to the task and she had never said no to Dumbledore yet.

So they planned every detail, Hermione memorized the Manor's layout, and made contingency plans. Should anything go wrong, Mr. Weasley and Kingsley were there as her back-up. If for some reason the floo was unavailable, Hermione would return to Kingsley who would then excuse himself and both would leave the party. For added security, the coins Hermione developed for the DA were now used by the Order and Hermione would wear one that night to send a distress signal if needed. Everything was set up and planned down to the tiniest detail. Or so they thought...

Hermione quietly but quickly walked down the hallway following the map in her head. She finally saw the door of the guest bedroom she wanted at the end of the hall when a house elf rounded the corner and approached her.

"Miss looks lost," the house elf said in a mocking tone, reminding Hermione of Kreacher. "Can I help Miss look for something? Master would not appreciate having a Mudblood wander the halls of the Manor. No indeed."

Unfortunately, a portrait nearby overheard the house elf before Hermione had a chance to stun the creature.

"A Mudblood in Malfoy Manor?!" The portrait screeched. "This is abominable, a disgrace –" Hermione silenced the portrait with a spell.