Tantum

Chapter 3

Hermione slumped in her seat in the depths of the library, she was tired, stressed, annoyed and worried and it was all because of one person. Harry had been missing for two weeks now and she hadn't heard anything from him, not that she had expected it but it was in her nature to worry about her best friend. The school had gone in to a mass panic when it became known that Harry was gone and Hermione scoffed darkly, they wouldn't have cared last year when he was supposedly a lying psycho, but now when he was the nation's hero again they were beside themselves; they were all sheep. She had had a good laugh when she imagined the reactions that would garner if it was known what had actually happened to him instead of the wild rumours that were spreading. It was another one of those times where the real story was more astonishing that the rumours.

At first, Hermione had thought she was going insane, she had noticed that Harry was different when he returned from the holidays, but where nearly everyone else had put it down to Sirius, Hermione had looked a little bit closer and she had known he had snuck out to go and see someone the first time he had done it. Of course, she had wanted to know who it was, and she had immediately ruled out anyone in the school, so then she put her mind to Harry's 'type'. It was a guy by his attitude but other than that Hermione couldn't work out who it could be. So she had watched him for more clues and it was the middle of September that she had worked out that it was someone of dark origins, and someone she knew. That narrowed it down significantly, they would have to be sane and single, so there went Rodolphus, Lucius, Jugson, Mulciber, McNair and the male Carrow. Then she analysed Harry's character and eliminated Nott, Greyback, Dolohov and Rabastan, but then she ran out of names. It wasn't until the final week in September that she realised that she had missed one crucial person from her list, and when it came to her, Hermione couldn't believe she hadn't seen it before.

The Dark Lord.

It was so obvious once she had seen it, and her mind had exploded with questions, the first being; how in Merlin's name did this happen? With their history, Sirius' recent death and the urge to kill each other when in the same vicinity, their affair should have never happened. She, at first, believed that he had been tricked or cursed, but she knew no one could keep Harry under the imperious and she would have noticed if he was dosed. And then she stopped and actually looked at Harry. Hermione found herself stunned. He was happy. Not acting, fine or content, he was actually happy and she marvelled at how his bright green eyes sparkled. Hermione had decided long ago that she was with Harry until the end, and if that meant going to the dark side because that's where Harry was then so be it. Of course, as with everything with Harry, there was a bump in the road and she was again stunned to find out that he was pregnant.

She knew that he would have to run, as soon as anyone found out who the father was the baby was as good as dead and Harry would be locked up faster then he could blink. It was better that he ran, he and the baby would be safe, somewhere at least, and that was what was important. As far as she knew, she was the only one that knew exactly why he was gone, she knew the twins suspected that Harry had gone to the dark and fully supported him and she knew that Remus couldn't care what Harry had done as long as the teen was safe. The werewolf was going out of his mind with worry and she hated that she couldn't tell him why Harry had gone or reassure him that he was ok. She got up, moping around wasn't going to get her anywhere so he headed back to the tower, she didn't speak to anyone and no one spoke to her, since Harry had left Ron had wandered off and Hermione didn't want to stop him. She couldn't be bothered with his immaturity and lazy attitude and his degrading comments about Harry had caused her to hex him a few times, and it had only been 14 days. Hermione walked straight to her dorm and over to her bed, she would have fell on to her bed if it wasn't already occupied by a very familiar snowy owl. She muffled her squeal of relief and held out her arm for the owl to land on as she sat down, Hermione sealed her curtains around her so she wasn't disturbed.