DEVOTED | dramione ✓

| Fifteen

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15

L A I R

O F  T H E

B E A S T

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HANDSOME AS HE IS, he is no Draco Malfoy, and Hermione is pleased as pickles when he finally pulls away from their embrace to continue their conversation without more.

"All right, all right. I believe I've got a solution. Follow me."

The room he takes her to has floor-to-ceiling bookcases, crammed with tomes and booklets of every variance.

He's surprisingly well-read -

But the fact that this appears to be a more top secret room, makes her uneasy. You don't see a room like this unless you're not leaving.

"So, why have you brought me here?" She chases after him as he continues walking towards the other end of the room.

He opens the door, and they enter another study, this one is much smaller. At the desk sits a dark skinned woman, and when she turns to them, Hermione recognizes her as Padma or Pavarti Patil, she can't decipher which. However, she does know that both are skilled Legilimency users.

Voldemort often pushed Hermione with jabs during training, telling her the lowly Patil twins were better than she was.

Yet, here they are, and she hasn't felt the woman attempt to probe her mind once.

Fair enough -

And she watches as Seamus needlessly introduces them to each other.

"Nice to finally meet you, Miss Granger," Padma says, standing from her chair. "Sorry about the circumstances, of course."

Hermione glares at Seamus.

"She's my second in command. Next to Dean, of course," he says. "She needs to know everything I know. Besides, she's gonna be takin' ya to the twins. Er, the other twins. Pavarti is out on business."

"Why am I only now hearing about this? I thought little Miss Murder was staying with us," Dean argues, entering the room then. "She's a liability, otherwise."

"She's paying," Seamus offers.

Dean stifles his laughter.

"Is that right, mate? 'Cause I know an even higher bidder, and their last name is Weasley. They're going to kill her themselves. Not even bothering with the others. Apparently, they knew Harry Potter."

He adds the last bit in a much lower tone. Apparently this is supposed to be quiet enough for Hermione not to hear, but she thinks on his statement, because something bothers her about that sentence.

The Weasley's knew Harry Potter -

And I killed Harry -

Was there a Weasley there -

Since Voldemort wiped her memory, all she knows is what Draco told her, and what she's picked up over the years from Peter and others.

But no one mentioned a Weasley -

So why do I have a feeling that he was -

She's known of the Weasley's her entire life, yet up until now, she's never been overwhelmed by the intense pressure that's building in her mind when she thinks back to the morning she killed Harry.

Seamus and Dean are still arguing, but Hermione can hardly hear them.

"Is. . . Is there a. . . A son named. . . Ron We. . . Weasley?" And she can't handle the pain of remembering anymore. She collapses on the ground, pressing her palms to her temples.

"It's the Obliviate trying to combat with your heightened Legilimency skill," someone says.

Hermione looks up and meets Dean's dark eyes. He then looks to Seamus.

"I'll escort her there myself," he says.

They allow her to spend the night in the rooms above the pub, and after a night's restless sleep, her and Dean DisApparate to the Weasley twins.

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