In Perpetuum

Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Causa Concilium

“Hermione?”

“Hmmm?”

“Can you hold onto this for a second? I just have to run over and ask Denison Frisby some stuff about Quidditch practise”

James thrust the yellowed parchment across to Hermione before he shot off towards the other end of the Common Room.

For the sake of curiosity, Hermione opened up the parchment.

“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”

Hermione sat at the spindly-legged table that she was doing her homework on, occasionally making notes on her moon chart for Astronomy, but mostly staring aimlessly at the map in front of her.

She notices Dumbledore’s dot moving backwards and forwards over the confines of his Study. He was pacing again.

She spied a group of third-year Slytherin’s trying to sneak into the kitchens. She sniggered as she saw that the Head Girl, a no-nonsense kind of Ravenclaw girl, was walking towards them, apparently doing her rounds.

Out of the corner of her eye, Hermione saw something unusual. It was ‘P.Pettigrew’, and he was on the seventh floor of the castle.

His dot suddenly vanished. Hermione’s eyes bulged out of her head in shock.

He couldn’t have...

“I’m back; I can have the Map back now.”

Hermione was startled out of her reverie. James had begun to pull the parchment from Hermione’s hands when she clamped her own hands down on it.

“Err...actually James, could I keep it for a bit? I think I might need your special cloak as well. I have just remembered something that I need to do.”

“Ummm...Hermione, are you feeling alright? You’ve gone really pale.”

James took in Hermione’s wide eyes and clenched jaw.

“Perfectly fine, now, can I have the cloak or not?”

“Sure,” said James hesitantly, wondering if he really should comply to her request, “I’ll go grab it.”

James jogged up the stairs to his dorm and returned several minutes later with his carefully folded cloak of invisibility. Hermione had just finished packing up her books and other belongings. She was waiting patiently by the portrait hole.

“Thanks,” she said rather hurriedly, punctuating her gratitude with a kiss on his cheek, “you’re the best brother.”

James would usually have paid more attention to the fact that someone has given him a compliment, but he was genuinely worried about his sister’s vagueness.  

HPHPHPHPHP

As soon as Hermione exited the Gryffindor common room she checked the hallways to make sure that no one was about.

She slipped the cloak over herself and lit her wand. There was some light in the hallways, but she did not want to risk tripping on anything, and give herself away.

She did not need the map to find her way to where Peter was. She knew her way up there very well. However, she would occasionally check it to see whether Peter had decided to re-appear on the map.

Just across from the room of requirement, she noticed two names that she recognised: Avery and Goyle. Both Avery and Goyle had tendencies towards the idealism of the Death Eaters. In fact, if they knew that Hermione was indeed a muggleborn, she would have been viciously bullied. Sally Meadowes, a girl who had been in their year had already been admitted to St. Mungo’s on more than one occasion.