Born Malfoy, Then Granger and Back

Chapter 4

Guys I'm so sorry for taking so long to update! Life has been crazy. I'll try not to take so long on next chapter.

The children hadn't decided on when to investigate what Cerberus guarded, but they could hardly contain their excitement for days. Seamus exploded three cauldrons in the span of one day, Dean accidentally cursed his pumpkin juice to fly over all the tables and eventually fall over Professor Quirrell, and Hermione gave Harry all her notes without a thought about how immoral it was.

One day, as she helped Harry study in the library, Neville came over. "Hey Harry, hi Hermione. Listen, Susan promised that she'll-"

"Neville!" Hermione interrupted. She frantically shook her head. He frowned.

"I was only going to say, she promised to watch the neighborhood dog so she can come over during the summer." Hermione admired his tact. It was obviously code. "She says she'll just wait and listen through the door until something wants to come out, then she'll go back in," Neville continued.

Harry looked between them with a bewildered expression. "That's not very nice, though. Does she not like dogs?"

Neville evidently hadn't been trained for this, as Hermione suspected he had been for the code. "Oh, no, she hates them," Hermione said.

"Susan just hates dogs," Neville agreed. "She'd hate that one we saw in the corr-"

It was Harry's turn to exclaim, "Neville! You told her?" He meant Hermione. Neville blushed and hung his head.

"Just because I was upset," he justified meekly. "It was scary, wasn't it! I had to tell my friends."

Harry looked angry, but not in a scary or dangerous way. Just upset with Neville. "I told you not to," he said. Neville opened his mouth but decided against anything except a small squeak.

"It isn't his fault," Hermione defended.

"Well, do you know why it's there?" Harry asked with a sigh.

Hermione raised her chin triumphantly. "Yes, in fact, I do. But I shan't tell you until you apologize to Neville." Harry stared at her, but she remained firm.

"I'm sorry, Neville," Harry finally said. "I shouldn't have yelled at you." He looked at Hermione expectantly. "Well? Why is it there?"

Hermione decided that she was satisfied with the apology, so she declared, "It's guarding something. We don't know what, but we do know that whatever it is was in a vault at Gringotts that was robbed the day we were both in Diagon Alley. But the vault was emptied earlier in the day, so whatever it is was brought here to be safer from whoever tried to steal it."

Harry stared at her. "That's very smart," he finally said. "You figured that out on your own?" Hermione blushed at the praise.

"Not entirely. I had a little help from my friends," Hermione conceded.

"What are you going to do about it?" Harry asked. Hermione and Neville glanced at each other.

"Actually, we can't tell you that," Hermione said. "It's classified." She'd observed that whenever Lucius used that word in casual conversation with Narcissa or Hermione herself, the matter was dropped. However, it didn't seem to have the same impact on Harry.

"By whom?" Harry challenged. "Come on, what are you going to do about it?"

Neville stared at Hermione. He wondered if she would reveal the secret they'd been planning for weeks. Hermione in turn stared at Harry with frustration. The silence only led Harry further along.