The Divided Dragon - A Dramione Fanfic

Gainful Employment

Hermione pointedly ignored the two pairs of eyes boring into the back of her head as she tried to do her homework in the library. She was angry and she was not going to let Harry and Tracey forget that anytime soon. Not after they had been so unapologetic about nearly getting the three of them killed.

All because they thought they'd found a crime in the making.

She sniffed and flipped open the book in front of her, going to the chapter on hovering charms so she could write her essay. It was outrageous how the two of them had acted after she woke up in the hospital wing. She just didn't know how to respond to them.

"Harry! Hermione is awake!"

Tracey's words weren't loud, but they made Hermione's head pound. She didn't remember the troll clobbering her on the head, but it sure felt like it had happened.

"How do you feel?" Harry asked as his face appeared in her field of view.

She gasped in pain and reached up to cover her ears. "Not so loud."

"I'll get Madam Pomfrey," Tracey said before hurrying away.

Hermione didn't know how long it took for the mediwitch to arrive, but she was grateful that Harry said nothing while they waited.

"Headache?" Madam Pomfrey said quietly when she appeared.

Hermione started to nod, but stopped when a wave of nausea ran through her. She grimaced.

"Drink this, then close your eyes and rest for about five minutes. If the pain doesn't leave let me know. Stress headache exasperated by that bump on your head."

The words were hard for Hermione to follow, but she managed to understand enough that she happily drank down the oily potion held to her lips.

The mediwitch bustled away as Hermione closed her eyes. She floated for a few minutes in a sea of pain-filled darkness. And then, as if a switch had been flipped, the pain was gone. She opened her eyes and sat up, her friends instantly reappearing at her side.

The pain had been so bad before she hadn't even realized they had left.

"Feel better?" Harry asked.

"Yes, what happened?"

"You fainted, after the troll. Then the teachers showed up. Harry and I lied a bit, so we're not in trouble. AND we got thirty points each for Slytherin!" Tracey said in a rush, after looking around to make sure no one else was nearby.

There was a privacy screen around Hermione's bed. Through it she could see shadows, so it was likely the rest of Slytherin House was in the Infirmary. The lack of sound, though, indicated some sort of silencing spell.

She wondered if she could find and learn it for her dorm.

That thought went as quickly as it came. Her brain had latched onto one of the words Tracey had said.

"You lied? To a teacher?!?" She gasped.

"Of course," Tracey said.

"Sometimes you have to lie," Harry said. "But there's more that's even more important."

That worried her. What was worse than lying to teachers about a troll attack? What was more important than the fact they had just survived said troll attack?

"More?"

"Snape came down that staircase, the one Quirrell went up. I got to thinking, and Tracey agrees, that one or both of them is after whatever Dumbledore has hiding in the third floor corridor. You know, that thing we read about in the newspaper at Hagrid's."