CHAPTER 24: EVERYONE DECIDES TO GO TO HOGWARTS

"Why are you trying to make us accepted, Granger? Why are you trying to make us out to be the good guys?"

"Because none of you are evil. You're all my classmates and there is no way that I could stand by and do nothing when the wrong people are blamed for something terrible. It's not fair."

Blaise Zabini made a face at the newspaper, trying not to get irritated by the blasphemous words of Rita Skeeter and her stupidity.

Why was is that people always believed the most ludicrous things first, before they even had all the facts? Hermione Granger being a murderer was ridiculous to say the least, if anyone knew that, it would be the Slytherin house.

Blaise could still remember his last year at Hogwarts as clear as light, it had been the greatest after all, the only year where he'd felt like he'd learned anything worthwhile, and it had all been thanks to Hermione. After the war, things had gotten harder for everyone who'd lost people precious to them, there'd been a lot of people who'd wanted nothing to do with the Slytherin house anymore.

There'd been hundreds of petitions to even cast the children of Death Eaters into Azkaban for their involvement or the involvement of their parents, or to strip of their magic and make them live like squibs or muggles for the rest of their lives, and things had never looked so bleak for his house before.

In fact, if he could recall correctly, they'd even been discussions of removing Slytherin as a house from then forth, everyone presuming that anyone and everyone in the house of the snake was evil and corrupt. And just when the house of Slytherin thought that their lives were over, that they were fated to live out the rest of their lives in a prison, Hermione Granger had appeared.

Second week in of the school year, she'd sat beside him and Draco at dinner, like it was no big deal, making small talk about the weather and the homework that was piling on, eating by their side like it was something she did every day. The hall had been silent that night, everyone on edge, watching her eat with them, like they expected her to drop dead at any moment. Like just by being near them, she would die too.

At the end of the meal, she'd smiled at all of them, wished them pleasant dreams, reminded Draco and Pansy and him of the Charms essay due tomorrow and headed off to bed, ignoring the looks and whispers following her out.

That night, the Slytherin house had been silent. The kind of silence that meant everyone was confused and thinking about what the resident good girl of Gryffindor was planning by doing something so brash like that.

That had just been the beginning though. She'd begun to eat at least one meal with them on a daily basis, their talks and conversations getting more and more interesting as the repeating seventh year students began to talk back to her easier. It was easily to trust her when she was so open about herself.

It had taken a few months, but she'd managed to befriend him pretty easily, and their talks had always been fun. She was honest and innocent and as widely amusing as anyone could be.

She'd asked for nothing in return for the fact that she was slowly making people look at Slytherin differently again. The fact that she was hanging out with them, eating and studying and going to Hogsmede with them, and the fact that she even managed to convince her friends along too, had made the wizarding wold hesitate to decree all of them as evil.

The very fact that she thought it wasn't fair to blame them for the mess that had occurred had made the world change its mind. That's the kind of person she was. She'd made them all realise what it was like to be young and free from the troubles that they'd faced before.

And yet, the moment someone like that was thought of as a bad person, the world chose to believe that too. Stupid wasn't even strong enough of a word to describe them. Anyone who could make the cold prince of Slytherin, Draco Malfoy, smile and laugh as he had during that year, anyone who could make that sceptical, harsh boy fall in love, could not be evil.

The only reason all of the Pure-blooded families of Slytherin still were alive and had magic was thanks to Hermione Granger.

"Blaise?" Astoria's voice broke him out of his thoughts and Blaise glanced up from the newspaper article about Draco and Hermione's recent escape, at his wife. She was holding a piece of folded parchment in her fingers and she handed it to him indifferently. "This came for you, doesn't have a return owl either. I guess you have to go." She stated.

She glanced at the article he'd been reading and sighed. It wasn't like Hermione and she'd been particularly close or anything, but she had been the reason why Blaise and she'd gotten together in the first place, and though the relationship was failing, she'd been happy with her husband for the first few years and that was thanks to that witch.

It was kind of ridiculous that people really thought that Hermione could be a killer though.

Blaise frowned at the parchment, it only had a single word written on it, and indeed no return owl or name was present either. "Hogwarts? Am I supposed to go there?" he asked aloud, turning the parchment over, there was nothing on the other side either.

Astoria sighed, "I don't know. I didn't write it!" she muttered before walking away.

Blaise made a face at her retreating back and glanced at the note again. He'd been kind of offended that he hadn't been invited along with Hermione and Draco when they'd escaped Malfoy manor, and had been kind of bitter about it for a while now.

Of course, he was aware that they hadn't known that he knew that Daniella was actually Hermione in disguise or whatever, but that hadn't stopped him from using twenty thousand of the recently earned money from Draco's account to buy himself new Italian hand sewn designer robes as revenge. It was the kind that Draco bought too, the blame would be on him anyway.

But perhaps the note was from them then? Had they finally ran into a problem that required his help? It would certainly make sense if the note was from either Draco or Hermione, since signing the note would have been stupid, and a return owl would have allowed an easy trace, but why Hogwarts to meet up?

Sure, no one would think of going there to find a suspected murderer and her runaway partner, but it was weird nevertheless, right? Should he really go then? But what if it was them, and they really did need his super smartness and cleverness?

"Are you going to go then? It's from Hermione and Draco, right?" Astoria suddenly appeared behind his shoulder and grabbed the note off of him. At his surprised face, she rolled her eyes, "oh please, I'm not stupid! I always figure out your theories, you know that! Go on then, go off and help them!" she muttered, nodding towards the fireplace.

Blaise grinned at his wife, dropped a kiss on her lips and rushed into the fireplace, yelling "HOGWARTS" as he went.

Astoria sighed heavily and traced the warm feeling that ran across her lips.

Stupid Blaise.

.*.

Harry glanced around the room, looking anywhere but at the body. He had years of training under his belt and enough experience for a lifetime, but he still couldn't stand looking at a dead body without flinching. But he thought that was a good thing. It was when someone could look at the body of a murdered victim and not feel anything, that things started to go wrong.

This one was particularly gruesome though, and he found himself horrified that anyone could bring themselves to do this to someone else. To decapitate someone, even if it had been with a spell, required a lot of mental strength and capacity; saying the words and waving the wand was easy enough, but no spell could be executed without the will behind it.

How could someone want to do this to another being, especially a muggle?

He let out a sigh and watched his fellow Aurors rummage around the space, obviously avoiding the body and the head at the doorway to the spare bedroom. He'd seen it immediately, the message left behind on the victim's forehead like some kind of a sick joke, and it did nothing to help the unsettled feelings of doubt in his mind.

Was Ginny...?

Harry observed the room carefully, looking at the way he blood was splattered across the room dramatically, like it was intended to be so obvious that someone had died here. "Potter, over here." Buckley called, waving him over to the head at the doorway, his face grim.

Harry hesitated for only a moment before walking over and crouching down to stare at whatever it was that had the other man's attention. "I didn't see it at first, but look at the blood around his head," Buckley said, pointing.

The little dust like rainbow particles were obvious now that he was staring right at them, and Harry chastised himself for not noticing it before. "Traze Glaze? So someone was here before us."

Buckley nodded and opened his mouth to contribute to the theory, but Harry held up his hand to quiet him down, looking closer at the rainbow dust, "there something else here too. The black dust...that's onyx! Hermione was here."

"Obviously she was here! Who else would've done this?" Buckley muttered, walking off to get someone to figure out what the onyx stuff Harry was talking about, but the saviour of the world was too caught up in his thoughts to notice the odd looks being send his way.

The message on the head said "Hello Granger," and the fact that there were traces of Traze Glaze meant that someone had been trying to track something down before. But, the fact that the onyx dust that Hermione had been experimenting with to find clearer results for the tracking of criminals was at the crime scene meant that she'd been the one to use it, to track someone down herself.

Who was she trying to find after killing off this muggle? Another victim? Or had someone else killed this man and she'd been trying to find that person instead? In that case...

He rubbed his forehead and growled at himself. The only thing all this thinking was doing was giving him a headache and that wasn't going to help solve anything. Sighing once more, he grabbed a small pouch from inside his cloak, and muttered a charm into it, watching the glitter like rainbow dust inside change to black.

If Hermione was surely something, it was smart, and if she'd used onyx powder, then he had to as well. Trace Glaze obviously hadn't worked. Everyone in the room froze as he took a pinch of the stuff and threw it into the air.

The dust shimmered in the air, floating around the head of the victim, suspended in time almost as it stayed still for a few moments. And then, then it flittered around and began to form a picture.

It didn't take Harry long to figure out what was being formed and his confusion grew tenfold. "Is that...Hogwarts?" someone asked in awe as the dust completed it picture and the towers of the Astronomy tower presented itself to the room.

Hogwarts.

Why was Hermione at Hogwarts? What was she doing there of all places?

But there was no point in asking questions to himself. The only way to get any answers was to ask her himself, and to do that...

Harry Potter straightened his shoulders and took charge. "Buckley, alert Neville on the situation immediately. Bartholomew, get together the best Aurors in London and Yasefred, contact Headmistress McGonagall about out arrival and the possibility of oncoming conflict. Everyone else, we're going to Hogwarts."

Ten fully trained Aurors, apparated away to do their job, Harry leaving last, pausing to stare at the unfortunate dead man. Since he was a muggle, they didn't have jurisdiction, and since the murderer was a mage, his death would most likely be called a robbery or something.

The moment all of them left the premises, Crystallex Valarie stepped out from the shadows and glared at the black dust that was left behind. Only Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy were supposed to follow that clue to Hogwarts, that's what was in the plan, but that blasted witch Granger had left the clues behind on purpose to lead the Aurors there too!

Gritting her teeth in irritation, she kicked the dead muggle's head away and sighed. She was not going to enjoy telling him this hindrance to his plan.

Stupid Hermione.

.*.

Blaise walked down the corridor of his old school, smiling at the memories each and every hallway brought. Though six years of it had been mediocre and terrible at best, their last year, thanks to Hermione, had been worth it all.

The flowerpot of weeds near the potions classroom that Hermione had tripped over and scraped her knee, and Draco had rushed to her aid, freaking out over the blood she was losing and forming a barricade all the way to the infirmary so that she could get treated quickly.

The corner near the charms classroom, that had been where Blaise had stuck Draco and Hermione in a closet for an hour during the Christmas Ball to see what would happen and ended up with a broken wrist and several detentions the day after.

That bench near the Great Hall where he'd gotten Astoria to kiss him for the first time, Draco and Hermione had covered them in water balloons to celebrate.

Blaise sighed. Everywhere he turned, he had memories of a great year being just a student and nothing else. All the trouble he'd gotten in trying to get the two of them together, and the trouble they got in, trying to get him and Astoria together...all those memories...all that laughter...

But seriously though, where was he supposed to go now? The note had only said Hogwarts; where were Hermione and Draco?

Turning a corner, Blaise yelped as he bumped into someone and scuttled back in surprise, only to sigh in relief when he saw it was just Professor Slughorn. "Woah heart attack moment! Sorry about that, Professor!" He brushed the fear off and smiled at his old potions teacher, "how are you? Everything alright here then?"

Slughorn, who'd developed a soft spot for all his Slytherin students, didn't answer, nor did he smile back. Blaise's head sounded the alarm through his body, telling him that this was wrong.

He took a step back slowly, aware that something was not right. "Professor?"

The old man moved so fast, Blaise barely saw anything before Slughorn's hands were around his throat, gripping tightly. What was with that movement, this strength? It was almost like Slughorn was under...

Blaise reached for his wand, only to find himself being disarmed from behind by someone else. What the hell was going on? Where was Hermione and Draco?

He felt his hands being roped tightly together, and a silencing charm was cast on him, rendering him mute. Immobile and mute, Slughorn let him go, and Blaise took that opportunity to scan his old teacher, and it took him only a second to realise that he was right, Slughorn was under the Imperio.

This was bad. Really bad. Not only was the school empty, since it was the Christmas holidays, none of the teachers were present ether. The only person that Blaise knew was still in the castle was Filch and he stayed in his room with Mrs Norris, the entire two months.

Plus, the caretaker was a Squib, he wouldn't have been able to help anyway.

He felt himself be blindfolded and lead roughly down some stairs, heading deeper into the castle than he knew there existed, and upon arrival to wherever he was taken, he was pushed to the floor, the blindfold taken off roughly.

"Zabini, you will excuse the rude treatment of course, I'll take away the silencio after I knock you out." Blaise struggled to sit up and glared at the man in front of him. His face was covered with a mask and that dark room did nothing to help identify him either.

This was definitely not Hermione or Draco, neither of them would ever do this to anyone, even as a joke. No. This was a sociopath with mental illnesses and in need of good dose of Azkaban, and of all the things to happen, he'd gotten himself caught.

If Astoria found out, she was going to kill him.

"I'm afraid you won't come into much use to me anymore, Blaise, Hermione Granger has already figured out where I am. You were just a backup plan in case she didn't figure it out, but I guess I underestimated her brain and overestimated your worth. I suppose I can kill you off afterwards for fun!"

Blaise tried to open him mouth, but no sound came out. He was still under the silence spell. Damn it!

"I must say, Blaise, you haven't changed a bit! Still the stupid romantic fool, chasing after women and ever in the shadow of Draco, aren't you?" the man stepped into what little light the small lantern on the wall cast, and Blaise scowled at him.

"What do you say, Zabini? Want to help me take down Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger in one fell swoop?"

This man was mad. What was the point of this?

"Ah, right the spell, let me remove that for you." The man waved his wand and Blaise felt his mouth unwind so that he could speak.

"What the hell do you want, you freak?" he yelled, struggling against the ropes hat held his arms behind his back.

The man laughed, and Blaise flinched, aware that he was familiar with the sound. He knew this guy then, but from where? "Who are you? How do you know who I am? What are you doing?"

"Ah! So many questions, Blaisey! As for who I am, why I thought you would know by now! We were such good friends back in school!" in one swift moment, the man took off his mask and smiled down at the horrified Italian boy on the ground.

"...What the hell? You're...you're..."

"Blaise, the world is going to be a wonderful place once I get rid of anyone who stands in my way! Mudbloods and Purebloods and Halfbloods! Once I reign supreme, there will be nothing in our way! How wonderful the world will be then!"

Blaise's heart hammered in his chest, his mind whirling with the words being sent his way. This was wrong, there was more to this than what he was seeing right now. The man in front of him was supposed to be dead, yet here he was!

What was going on?

.*.

Ginny Potter smiled at her baby and tucked a strand of her bright red hair behind her ear. With Luna under constant watch by order of Neville, Ginny hadn't seen her in ages, and all the other girls were being guarded too...from Hermione.

She sighed again and put James in his cot and made her way to the kitchen to stare out at the back garden. If only Hermione was here, if only all that crap hadn't happened, they'd all be living together like a family by now, regardless of the fact that Hermione and Ron had broken up years ago.

She missed the old gang. Ginny ran a hand through her hair and hugged herself gently. Their house seemed so empty nowadays; with Harry always away and Ron...she looked away, not letting the tears come. Hermione hadn't killed Ron; she knew that in her heart, but finding Ron's body had almost torn her family apart.

And now, Harry had just used the floo system to tell her that he was off to Hogwarts to catch Hermione and that it was almost all over. Ginny didn't know how to feel about that at all. Why would Hermione and Malfoy be at Hogwarts of all places, but her husband had gone before she could ask.

She cast a spell on the dishes and as they began to wash themselves, and she sighed once more. The silence of the house was only broken by the sound of plates and cutlery being washed, but Ginny glanced up in surprise as an owl came flying in through the open window and landed majestically on the kitchen table and stuck out its leg.

Raising an eyebrow at its posh attitude, Ginny untied the note attached to its leg and glanced at it, wondering who it belonged to, but before she could say or do anything, the bird burst into flames and disappeared.

Ginny gulped, and licked her lips, not liking that omen. Who would send her a letter via a spell like that...her eyes widened and Ginny ripped through the envelop to scan the letter hurriedly, her eyes filling with tears as she recognised the handwriting.

She sat down heavily on a kitchen chair and re-read the note, to confirm that her imagination hadn't run wild and caused her to think the whole thing up.

Ginny,

It's Hermione, please don't throw this away, and give me a chance to explain myself.

I'm not going to say anything brash that will make it hard to believe me, like that I didn't kill anyone, because that's not what's important right now. As much as it hurts to think that any of you would presume I was guilty, I cannot let myself get distracted by explaining everything now.

I need you to make sure that your house is secure and safe. I have a bad feeling about what's going on, and it has to do with Harry, so please, don't leave the house, especially with James. Secure your wards and stay at home. Please.

I've lost enough, and I can't add you to the list of people who've died because of me. If all goes well, we may be able to talk face to face soon. I wish you all the best, Ginny.

Love Hermione

Ginny felt tears prickle her eyes and breathed in deeply, trying to control her emotions. It was so like Hermione to finish off her letter with love. She always did it, even when it was an angry note or a howler; 'Love Hermione'.

She wiped away her tears and rubbed her forehead. Why were things always so complicated with their lives? And why were both Harry and Hermione telling her to stay away?

Hermione hadn't mentioned it, but Harry had. They were all going to be at Hogwarts. Well then, it was time that she visited her school and forced some common sense into some people.

James in the other room, began to cry.