Because We Are Snakes

Because We Are Snakes – The Spy


Harry ended up sleeping through all of Saturday. No one knew why and Pomfrey was very disturbed by being unable to find a likely cause. For the entire day not even her strongest Enervate could wake him up and the boy looked dead to the world, it was a frightening sight. He woke up two hours before breakfast on the Sunday the Hogwarts students were to board the train and head home for the summer holidays.


Hermione and Ron had come over to check on him, he was sitting still sitting on his bed. The bushy haired girl figured he was waiting for Madame Pomfrey to come give him the last once over before allowing him to go eat and pack his belongings.


As they walked in, Harry lifted his eyes from his lap where he had been looking at his hands folded on each other with a very pensive expression. She wondered what he was thinking about.


Harry looked at them and smiled, unlike Ron, she could see it didn’t reach his eyes and was somewhat strained. She wished he did not have to pretend anymore, but Ron was here, so she knew Harry had to. They didn’t trust Ron because they were still not sure where he stood on things but mainly because Ron tended to have a big mouth as well as being unable to set his jealousy and inferiority complex and stick by someone like a friend should. Second year as well as this one had proven that Ron was not reliable. Plus Harry did not like that he was using giving people Harry’s autograph as a way to gain favors from others since they ‘made up’ after the first task. Ron liked too much bask in Harry’s spotlight but was quick to turn his back on Harry as soon as his reputation got questioned and his standing lowered. And she wasn’t even going to mention that he did not want to believe neither Harry nor her about that stupid rat on third year.


They talked, Ron asking very invasive questions and Harry dodging them expertly, all the while Hermione waited patiently with her head behind a book as she sat next to the bed.


“Let’s go to the Great Hall.” He had said when he realized they only had twenty minutes to the beginning of breakfast.


“I can’t mate; I still have to wait for Pomfrey.” Harry answered and Hermione kept her quiet behind her book.


Ron asked her to accompany him but she told him to go ahead, she would just use the time waiting for Harry to finish the chapter she was on and then both would catch up to him. Blessedly, Ron left without much convincing needed.


“One doesn’t necessarily need to break Ron’s arm to get him to go somewhere when there is food involved” She commented to Harry’s raised eyebrow.


Apparently he found that statement to be funny, she didn’t see how, but his slightly unnerving and quiet cackle was clear in its amusement.


They waited quietly for Pomfrey and after she declared Harry free to go they walked in silence down the hallways, because you never really know who is listening to your conversations and at Hogwarts the walls have literal ears.


While they walked she thought about how she had gotten to be in Harry’s very exclusive inner circle, the people who actually knew the real Harry –as much as anyone can really know Harry that is since he does not quite really let you in.


She thought about Harry, it was almost a pastime of hers these days.
She liked to think Harry was not as unhinged as she suspected he was. After all, he hid it quite well, and had she not had several lengthy phone conversations with him the summer after second year she would have likely remained ignorant of the inner workings of Harry Potter. Sometimes it was unnerving how uninformed the people in the Wizarding world could be, it was useful their ignorance of all things muggle, but annoying none the less.


The last day at school during the second year, Hermione had seen Harry trying to hide the state of depression he was really in. But she knew the lost look in his eyes that spoke of tremendous loneliness. For once in her life she set aside her bossy ways and instead of trying to pry the information out of him, just gave him her home’s phone number and instructions to call if he needed to talk to someone and found letters to not be enough to express himself.


Harry had warily taken the small piece of paper she had handed him while Ron was away in the bathroom and in a piece of paper of his own gave her the Dursley’s phone number with explicit instructions to only ever call for something truly important and only on Saturdays afternoon between five thirty and nine, when the Dursleys went on their weekly family outing of dinner and entertainment.


He stressed she should never call any time other than that specific timeframe. The Dursleys were like clockwork apparently and this timeframe never changed. Hermione decided to not point out that she had just then figured out that their exclusion of Harry during their family outing confirmed her suspicions that they cared not one bit for her friend and went out of their way to let him know about it. She knew Harry would not appreciate her speaking out loud what she had already been putting together in her mind since they first became friends.


That summer, Hermione had become bothered by a curious thought while polishing off her knowledge of Hogwarts A History. If the Headmaster of Hogwarts was connected to the wards and these informed him when visitors came and breaches on security occurred. How was it that he did not realize Voldemort was high jacking Professor Quirel? For that matter, how was it that Ginny entered the school with an extremely Dark object and the Headmaster didn’t notice when the wards to prevent the use of Dark Magic and artifacts he himself added to the wards upon his election as headmaster should have been triggered?
All this was very curious indeed.


All too trusting still, Hermione had sent Harry a letter that week asking if he thought that maybe someone knew about both Quirel and the diary –she didn’t outright say who but placed it as speculation- and that someone actually wanted Harry to get involved in the situations resulting.


She never got an answer from Harry. After a week and a half of waiting for an owl from Harry she just decided to call him on Saturday at seven o’clock just to be safe. She was confused at first when he said he never got her letter. So she sent him two more, one about the general wards and the other about the wards added by the last four headmasters, Dumbledore included.


None of them were answered and her theory was proven right when upon calling Harry the following Saturday he informed her he never got her letters.


“Someone is screening your mail Harry; I think they have since the very beginning.”


“I know.” He had said and she realized right there that Harry had lost all his naiveté the previous year and was now more aware of what went on around him. She felt her first friend was changing somehow and for the first time felt the fear of realizing she didn’t want to be left behind.


They had continued to speak on the phone that summer, not trusting the owls not to be intercepted and not telling anyone about it either but sending each other the occasional ‘catch up’ owl to keep up appearances.


Several times Hermione had taken the underground and met Harry at the park near his relative’s home and hidden behind bushes they had opened up to each other and gotten closer, still she always felt like there was much Harry was holding back, and he never did tell her why he was so sad and guilty looking behind his calm green eyes.


Harry Potter was full of secrets, she knew, and all she could do was wait for him to tell her.


Her musings on the past were interrupted when Harry pulled her into one of the hidden alcoves on the path to the Great Hall. This was where they usually conducted their most important conversations while at school.


“What did I miss?” He asked.


“Dumbledore thinks you are hiding something about what happened at the graveyard.”


“Of course he does.”


“He asked Ron and me to keep an eye on you and to inform him if something seemed off.”


“I figured he would.”


She knew he was hiding something and really was itching to ask, he knew it too, the mischievous and amused gleam in his eyes betrayed him. But she still wasn’t completely sure that if she asked or pushed too much he would not drop her faster than a bad habit, to maintain his trust she had to wait to get answers when he was ready to give them.


It irked her, it honestly offended her need to know and he knew it. The bastard was softly chuckling at her predicament. Harry really found her need for answers and inability to get them amusing.


“He wants to isolate you this summer, said it’s for your own good. To let you mourn Cedric’s loss in peace and keep you from being bothered by the speculations of the media.”


He didn’t answer, instead his eyes traveled from one side to the other as if he was paging really fast through information only he could see.


“What do you want me to do?” Hermione asked, she already knew what he would want but waned to show she was willing to keep helping him.


“Keep playing your part and let me know anything you find out from Ron and any other ‘favors’ Dumbledore asks you.”


She nodded, there wasn’t much more to say really and she was going to inform him of anything going on anyway. She would just call Harry every Saturday like she has been doing for years and let him know what the papers said and any other important information she came across.


Wizards really lacked common sense, she found, and the fact that Dumbledore thought that just because Harry could not receive owls he was cut off from all sources of information was just stupid to say the least. It’s like even someone as prominent a figure in the Wizarding World as the Headmaster doesn’t even take into account that muggles have technology such as phones which they can communicate with.


Even the most forward thinking wizards could be so ignorant and backwards, sometimes it sickened her.


They left the alcove and walked into the Hall were they ate and talked just like always.


Breakfast passed and Hermione found herself helping Harry pack, she could see he was still tired and wanted him to have time to take a nap before lunch as they would ride the carriages to the train soon after and neither in the carriage nor the train would Harry be able to get some rest.


---BWAS---


Thank you for those who took the time to review! Your input is much appreciated.


Linaceae: Wow thanks for the lengthy review! Honestly, I loved it. I too find this more simple style of writing more precise and effective, I’ve read fics that I have eventually quit reading after a while because the authors try to be so flowery and longwinded that by the end of the paragraph you have no idea what actually happened and you get lost in the narrative feeling like you read a lot but ultimately read nothing of importance. I’m happy you are hooked with the story so far and hope to keep you on the boat. I too feel like the whole the Dark Lord was gorgeous from the get got and the Tom was so hot I couldn’t resist thing is not much to my liking. I will tell you, Harry did not like Tom in such a way when they first began interacting and that came much later because of various things I will not reveal now. I think I understand what you mean with the two versions of Voldemort, I always think of him as someone who in his youth would have explored the feelings of sex like any other hormonal teenage boy but would have used it as a learning experience instead of just some mindless guy driven by such hormones. Eventually he would have trained himself to overcome his urges (after experimenting to his heart’s content of course) because living for 7 years with Slytherins and most importantly purebloods, he would have realized that to people in that society (much like in historical high societies really) sex is a weapon and a chain when used correctly. He would have seen how some of the lesser pureblood families (and even some of the higher pureblood families) trained their daughters to rope in a higher pureblood heir to elevate their status and thus learned that most likely those who seek to be with him physically had probably ulterior motives and learned to be weary of this and eventually not engage in such political games altogether. He would have seen his urges as a weakness, a way for others to try and gain his favor or bask in the light of his status and maybe power. Lord Voldemort would not share his power or spotlight with anyone so he would not let anyone get that close to him.