Blitz

Chapter 9

A/N: All of the thanks in the world to infallible angel and her excellent alpha/beta skills.

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blitzkrieg - an intense military campaign intended to bring about a swift victory

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September 1943

Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry

Hogsmeade, Scotland

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Hermione didn't like to admit that her time spent with Grindelwald still gave her nightmares. She had a feeling Tom knew, but since he didn't say anything about it, she didn't as well. The dark especially was hard for her, so she and Tom had slept with the light on most of the summer. Now that they were back at school, Hermione lit a blue-bell flame in a jar every night before bed. It helped a little.

Almost a month into the school year and she and Tom were practically joined at the hip. It was almost like they were back as firsties and Hermione was enjoying it immensely. Tom was completely attentive to her. Hermione was lapping up the attention and it was slowly starting to make her feel better about her ordeal in the spring. The Slytherins still made her jumpy, although Tom acted as if they weren't there. Hermione wasn't sure which action was better. Ignoring them seemed dangerous, but she knew that fearing them was equally dangerous.

She at least had a few things outside of her schoolwork to keep her mind off of her fear: she was brewing again and had let Tom in on the secret of her brew-room. Now three years into the project, she had quite the little lab setup. Slughorn was as careless with potions equipment as he was with ingredients and slowly Hermione had accumulated almost everything she needed to brew any potion she wanted.

Tom had also taken her into his confidence about his family. He seemed reluctant to tell her, which Hermione could understand, she'd kept her potions brewing from him after all, but it also felt like an olive branch and Hermione was quite sick of always fighting with Tom. Despite Marjory and the rest of the girls in her dorm being marginally kinder last year and this year, Tom still felt like her only friend.

Although, there wasn't much of an update for Tom and his family. He'd looked in every newspaper, every genealogy book and not a single mention of the name Marvolo or Merope was found.

"You could just be a Muggleborn," Hermione suggested delicately one day halfway through September.

Tom blew out a heavy breath through his nose. "I know," he snapped. "But something tells me I'm not."

"There's nothing wrong with it, you know," Hermione replied, narrowing her eyes at him. Her chest felt tight as an argument loomed on the horizon.

"I'm aware," Tom's voice was still tight, still held a promise of a fight in it. Hermione sighed and said nothing else. He was clearly not in the mood to discuss this, so she left him at their table in the library and went back into the Restricted Section looking for a potions book she hadn't yet read. They were becoming harder and harder to find and she decided that she wanted to find some poisons. Perhaps she could fashion something like a bomb for combat. Storage would be difficult, but if she found a few contact poisons, then maybe she could work on creating some sort of housing for them.

Hermione was still searching the Restricted Section when she felt a presence behind her. She stiffened and turned to find Malfoy glaring at her.

"You got away once, Mudblood. It won't happen again."