Ours to Catch Chapter 5

The second Hermione’s feet hit the ground, before she could even attempt to regain her equilibrium from the sudden apparition, Tonks pushed her to the ground towards where her friends were sitting huddled behind a giant boulder looking rock that Hermione was sure shouldn’t be in the room. She fell into place, doing her best to keep her stomach down and not make a fool of herself in front of her friends, Ginny and Luna pulling her further behind cover as more spells flew overhead.

“Do you think this will last much longer?” Luna asked, her normal airy tone seemingly lost in with the spells being flung around.

“I hope not.” Neville said from his spot practically flushed against the rock. “That mad woman hasn’t shown up since we ran from the Hall of Prophecies, even though I hate her, I can admit she’s a really good duelist.” He seemed to regret saying the words, but everyone knew he was telling the truth.

“At least the Order is here now.” Hermione said with a pale face, joining the conversation and wondering why no one had said anything about her missing for the last ten or so minutes.

“Tonks was the last one to show.” Luna said, her airy voice back in place, turning to face Hermione, “I wonder where she was since she didn’t arrive with the others?” She asked, Hermione seeing a hint of ‘knowing’ in the blondes eyes.

Hermione kept eye contact with her friend, but didn’t say anything. While Hermione often got frustrated with how Luna talked and what she said, she could never say that Luna didn’t know what she was talking about… even if no one else did. Hermione was sure, even if it wasn’t specifically said, Luna knew she was missing and if Luna knew, she was sure Ginny did as well. What Hermione didn’t understand, was why they weren’t mentioning her absence to the boys. The boys seemed all to unaware that she had been missing. Neville, she understood since she hadn’t been with him and he could easily explain the clashing between them and the Death Eaters to missing her presence since he was likely looking for Bellatrix… who happened to be with her the entire time.

Ron and Harry though, weren’t they meant to be her best friends? Shouldn’t her not being there be something they realized relatively quickly since they were in danger and she could have been hurt? In fact, she was quite literally in the Devil’s playground, she was with Narcissa and Bellatrix who could have easily killed her instead of confusing her. She would, in fact she had noticed when one of her boys was missing or weren’t where they were supposed to be; that was usually what helped keep them all safe was her keeping tabs on her friends. Didn’t they do the same as well?

Hermione didn’t respond, there was nothing for her to say. Instead, she turned her attention back to Harry who was standing with Sirius and parring off against Lucius. As they fought, the other Order members started pairing off against the Death Eaters, the difference though was that while the Death Eaters had originally had more than enough numbers against the kids and then the few Order members that first showed up, but what the Death Eaters didn’t do, the Order did: they kept coming.

Soon, there were so many Order members there, Hermione was sure everyone had shown up to get them from the Ministry. She briefly wondered why it was they were able to find then and not any sooner, like when they had tried contacting anyone they could reach out to before leaving Hogwarts. She found it odd that everyone was literally available when it seemed they were all about to be hurt; well, everyone but Hermione because she still wasn’t sure if Tonks had saved her or just happened upon her and took her with her since they both needed to be at the same place.

The Death Eaters quickly realized they were outnumbered and left, the Order unable to keep any one of them to have them arrested or even questioned like Hermione thought they should have done. Once it was just the Order members and the students, everything moved very quickly to get the kids back to school. No one talked about how they knew the students needed help and no matter how many times Hermione asked, they wouldn’t explain anything about what the Death Eaters needed Harry’s prophecy for or anything else she could thing to ask about that night.

Instead of answering questions, they rushed all the kids back to their dorms and as far as Hermione was concerned, they were going to act like nothing happened. From the look in Harry and Ron’s eyes, she knew her boys weren’t going to let things go either. Since they would be leaving Hogwarts in a few days, Hermione was sure Harry would fight to get to be with Sirius for as much of the summer as he could. Hermione had already made tentative plans to go stay with Sirius and the Order for the last month of her summer but after what happened at the Ministry, Hermione wasn’t sure that was where she should be. She would have better luck doing her research about the Black family if she wasn’t surrounded by the Order as they would assume she was up to something no good.

Then again, going to that house where there were supposedly long forgotten Black family books and relics would probably be the best place to go to; likely even better than the library that would only hold public information that she likely had already read before. Hermione was sure if she went to stay with Sirius though, all of the Order members would steer her away from researching what she wanted to and would likely do what Mrs. Weasley does and just put her to work cleaning up the place by hand instead of using their wands to clean it so much faster. But if she could avoid the adults or somehow disguise the book she was really reading with a school book, they would leave her to her studies.

Once they were back at school, she had tried to get Harry and Ron alone so they could all talk more in depth about what happened since it was something they all wanted to do. But every time Hermione had time away from her studies or duties, Harry was taken aside by Dumbledore and from Harry was saying, he was being taken aside for no particular reason. That meant that Dumbledore was purposefully keeping away from her. She could have easily just talked to Ron, but truth be told he wouldn’t be able to add much more than ‘we should have just attacked the Death Eaters instead of running away, I’m sure we could have taken them,’ or something equally as stupid. She was sure if she were to try and have any sort of real conversation with just Ronald, it wouldn’t go well. At least if Harry was there, he could act as some sort of buffer between her and Ron.

It wasn’t until the train home did she finally have the boys alone; well, without any adults present to try and curtail their conversations. The rest of the group that had been with them at the Ministry were there and while Hermione had hoped to have some time with just the three of them, at least they were better than being stuck with prefects or adults that halt even the start of the conversation. But it was better than she had been able to get at school.

“It’s nice not to have worry about any tests or homework for a while.” Ron said as he relaxed further into his seat.

“You still have to study for the next term Ronald.” Hermione corrected with a stern voice, perhaps if he at least attempted to read something for school during the summer he wouldn’t struggle so much during the term.

“Come on ‘Mione, you can’t really expect people to do school stuff on break, can you?” He asked with a slight whine to his tone that instantly got on Hermione’s nerves. Before she could tell Ron exactly what she thought about people doing or not doing work during break, someone beat her to it.

“Stuff it Ron, everyone that has decent grades does at least a little work during break.” Ginny said from her spot in the middle of the seat between Luna and Hermione, “The reason you barely pass every year is because you don’t do any of work.” She added with a roll of her eyes.

Ron’s face went red in anger about being called out, especially by his younger sister but thankfully Harry interrupted their little spat before it could actually turn into a full blown Weasley argument.

“We have plenty of time to talk about doing work, what I want to talk about now before we separate is what happened at the Ministry.” Harry said, earning everyone’s attention. Hermione laser focused onto her best friend to see if he would bring up her absence that no one seemed to recall happening. “There was something Mr. Malfoy said when me and Sirius were fighting him that didn’t make sense.” Harry started and Hermione just barely stopped from rolling her eyes. Perhaps whatever it was he said truly was more important that her disappearance and obvious kidnapping. “It sounded like he was getting Malfoy ready to join the Death Eater ranks. That means that Malfoy has a lot more knowledge about what Voldemort is doing, or going to do, and I think we should keep a better eye on him next year.”

Hermione couldn’t stop the huff of annoyance slip from her mouth, thankfully Neville speaking up covered it though. Didn’t they already know that the sniveling blonde was working with his father, who was a known Death Eater to everyone but the aurors? Why would they want to talk about something that should be common knowledge amongst their group?

“What did the prophecy say Harry?” Ron asked and actually provided new information to Hermione and changed the subject at the same time. Harry had a habit of focusing on Malfoy whenever the blonde teenager was brought up and forgot about everything else. Harry would get frustrated and upset when Hermione changed the subject, or tried to, but with Ron doing it, Harry was more likely to just let it go.

“I’m not really sure, it didn’t make sense to me.” Harry said with a scrunched face as he tried to remember exactly what it said.

“Do you remember any part of it?” Hermione asked, hoping for some sort of hint about what it was about.

“Something about the other lives, or can’t live with the other.” Harry said, trying to focus on the memory but he had been so focused on what Lucius was doing, that he wasn’t paying as close attention to it as he probably should have. “I’m not really sure, I only heard it twice before it broke.” He finally said as he scratched the back of his head and gave an apologetic smile. Hermione felt her anger boil inside, she hadn’t seen that happen. It must have broken before she got back. But for Harry to have let it get broken and then to not remember what it said was really bad and would only make things harder for them in the long run.

“That’s okay mate.” Ron said, as if he hadn’t actually expected him to remember.

“There was a lot going on, especially with all the Death Eaters there before the Order saved us.” Neville chimed in to cheer up his friend.

“It’s too bad, I’m sure it would have helped a great deal.” Luna added, and for just a second, Hermione thought the blonde didn’t actually mean what she was saying. The Ravenclaw wasn’t even looking towards Harry, like everyone else, she was looking out the window and seemingly not really paying attention to the conversation. It made Hermione think that Luna only said something so everyone would think she was paying attention and attempting to console her friend in some way.

“You should have been paying more attention Harry.” Hermione scolded; that was a really important piece of information that the Dark Lord wanted, therefore it was important to them and since clearly whatever he wanted was something they needed to keep from him. That prophecy, Harry’s prophecy, could have had very important information for them that could have made all their struggles so much easier. But now they would never know. “We needed to know what it said, that was the whole reason the Death Eaters were there, I’m sure of it.” Hermione said. There was no other reason for so many Death Eaters to go to the Hall of Prophecies if not to look for a specific one. And since only the people in the prophecy could find and hear the prophecy, they needed Harry to get there and so Voldemort had used his mental connection with Harry to lure him there. It made so much more sense now that she thought about it. Before she could let her friends know about it though, she was immediately reprimanded.

“You were there Hermione,” Ron angrily defended his friend, “What did you want him to do, stand and listen to the ball or get attacked by a Death Eater?” He asked, his face getting red in anger.

“Ever hear of multi-tasking Ronald?” Hermione asked, her anger showing through in her tone as well. “It’s kind of an important thing to do when you’re in the middle of a battle.” That’s what everyone does during a battle, it’s a task of multi-tasking between offensive and defensive spells being used between both parties and what other spectators were doing. Were they not paying attention to anything else at all? Perhaps that was why no one was mentioning her absence; she had truly gone unnoticed.

“Sorry for focusing on the want pointed at me Hermione,” Harry said as he stood up, unsure if he was upset about what his supposed best friend was saying or sad that she didn’t seem to care that he could have been seriously hurt that night, “I’ll make sure to focus on everything else next time.” He said before storming out of the cart before he said something he couldn’t take back or he heard something that could end one of his few friendships.

“See what you did ‘Mione? Way to be a prat.” Ron said before storming out of the cart to follow his friend.

“Ron!” Ginny yelled, not happy about the insult since technically, Hermione was right. It would have helped them a lot if he had only listened while watching Lucius’s wand. They had to do the same thing in quidditch games, why was an even more serious situation any different?

“That was kind of harsh Hermione.” Neville said and after a brief moment of hesitation, followed the other two boys out of the cart.

“Well, he should have.” Hermione huffed, completely unapologetic about what she had said.

“I wonder though,” Luna said as she moved to sit across from Ginny and Hermione to face them better for the talk she planned to have with them, “How didn’t the notice that Bellatrix Lestrange and Hermione disappeared at the same time, but only Hermione came back? Shouldn’t have Bellatrix also have come back if she was on some mission for her Lord to get the prophecy like Mr. Malfoy was?”

Both Ginny and Hermione sat with the mouth slightly agape as that was the longest they had ever heard Luna talk without her airy voice spouting things about creatures they knew nothing about and actually making complete and total sense. Hermione’s mind was reeling, completely and uncommonly actually quiet for once because Luna’s question threw her for such a loop.

Apparently Hermione was a lot more in the dark than she originally thought with just not knowing about the destroyed prophecy.