Chapter 16

(A/N: The 'bad parts' part continues! Please forgive me and just bear with me for 1 more chapter)

As I walked to my (un)certain death, I pondered on how to best handle this situation. In the end I decided for honesty. I wouldn't tell her the whole truth, but I will tell her enough for her to trust me.

"Umm.. Hermione?" I tentatively whispered.

She suddenly stopped her antics and slowly, turned her head towards me. If looks could kill, her glare would be enough to kill me a thousand times over. "What..do..you..want?" She spitted out through gritted teeth.

"I just want to talk, and for you to listen. If after my explanation, you still want to hit me, I'll gladly offer you my body...wait, that sounded wrong...anyways, you get the gist. So what do you say?" I talked to her with a pleading tone in my voice. Even though I still prioritised task no.5 over 6, I didn't want to lose her companionship. And step one would be to refrain from telling her I could use occlumency to fake my emotions.

She scrutinised me for a while, and perhaps she saw some amount of sincerity or something in me, because after a while she nodded. Her glare was still enough to burn a hole through my skull but at least it's intensity had gone down a few notches.

Internally sighing in relief, I conjured up a barrier over us, which caused her to raise one of her eyebrows a little. I didn't comment on it and instead cleared my throat and decided on the words I was going to use.

"Miss Granger, the only reason I am telling you this is because I trust you and don't want to lose your pleasant company. But you have to promise me you will never tell a single soul about what I am going to tell you and until you learn a bit of occlumency, I can only tell you the bare basics. Ok?"

She nodded, and even though she tried to hide it, I could see, I had her interest and she felt a bit happy about my first statement. I was sure she knew what occlumency was so I didn't bother to elaborate on it.

"There is no easy way to say this... The Dark Lord isn't dead and he'll be back."

At my statement filled with confidence, Hermione's eyes bulged out with shock and her mouth opened wide with astonishment. After a few moments, she calmed down and then spoke out incredulously, "Are you serious? I can't believe I actually thought you were going to be serious for a second there. How foolish of me..."

"Hermione, I understand that you don't believe me. I wouldn't either if someone told me that. You have every right to treat it as some garbage I am trying to feed you to reconcile our friendship but I am telling you the truth." I stated with every ounce of honest sincerity I possessed, which wasn't much, but it wasn't faked so I suppose it counted for something.

"Well, ok, let's say I believe you. But what does The Dark Lord coming back has to do with you acting like you did something miraculous? Huh? What gave you the right to brag like that? If this is how you act after just a simple act of friendship, then I dread the behaviour you're going to exhibit when you actually get a girlfriend...I pity that girl."

"Ok, first of all, I am not looking for a girlfriend nor will I ever find one. Second, I never mentioned your name nor am I planning to do something like that. Third, there was a reason I did that. I cannot tell you what it is until you become proficient in occlumency...and also until I start trusting you more. But know this, I will never do anything to harm you or anyone else close to me and I'll try to protect you and them if such a need arises. Ok?"

She opened and closed her mouth a few times, digesting what I said.

"Alright, I get that. But all that is only applicable if Vold-The Dark Lord is actually coming back."

"Hermione, he IS coming back. How about this? I'll tell you a few events that should occur soon and if I am right, you'll believe my claims. Ok?"

She nodded and so I proceeded to tell her about the troll and the attempt on Harry's life during his first Quidditch match. I didn't tell her about Quirell...yet. She told me that if what I was saying was true, she would gladly assist me. She also wanted me to tell her how I knew all this if that were the case. The things I would have to do if I was wrong almost made me hesitate to agree with her but in the end with gritted teeth I shook hands, silently praying to the canonical events to not change.

We decided to meet only after Halloween, the day of the troll's appearance, and I was..fine with that arrangement. I was looking forward to the day we would be able to communicate normally in and out the school. We should probably exchange numbers so that we could talk over the holidays or send letters through...owls..

My daydreaming came to an abrupt stop when I remembered about owls. Volken!

I rushed, madly, to my dorm, paying no heed to anyone. My owl would probably be suffocating in that trunk of mine.

My GPS spell was working overtime as was my mana channeling as I speeded through the stairs, hallways and corridors to the Gryffindor Common Room at speeds impossible for a normal human to attain, even beyond the best Olympic athletes. My detection radar and increased perception and reflexes helped me travel at speeds like this relatively comfortably.

However, I had no time to marvel at this feeling of traveling at such high speeds and all my thoughts were focused on the well being of my owl, Volken.

When I finally reached the tapestry of the Fat Lady, I shouted, "Either open or brace yourself!" In her confusion, she didn't do either and as a result when I punched through the door shoulder first while channeling mana beyond my limits through sheer willpower, she screamed like a woman murdered, which probably might be true.

I didn't have time to ponder on whether I had potentially killed a painting as I bounded up the stairs to the dormitories three, four steps a time. I finally made it to my room and almost broke my trunk when I opened it with such force it was a miracle the lid hadn't flown off already.

I ran down the stairs down my trunk-apartment and finally made it to the cage where a white owl with black stripes on it's head was... scowling at me? I didn't know my owl was so...unique, capable of making human faces.

When I opened the cage, it gave an indignant shriek, pecked at me a few times and then flew away in a huff. After the shock weared off, all the tension left my body as I heaved a relieved sigh. Channeling mana beyond my limits didn't affect me as much as I thought it would, or perhaps my limits were higher than I thought? I didn't ponder on these thoughts as I made my way up the stairs back to the dorm.

While climbing up the stairs, I shook my head at the antics of my owl, giving a wry smile while thinking of what it must have felt. My thoughts turned to what I would have done had I been in his situation which made me laugh, a laugh which died down when I saw a few angry looking students, Professors and a small portrait of a very angry man held in the arms of one of the students, standing near my trunk.

What had I gotten myself into this time?