Sometimes It's Good to be Bad

Chapter 42 Attack!

The next evening everyone was at the Halloween banquet having a fun time. Halfway through the meal, a silvery patronus in the form of a werewolf came through a window, disappearing in front of the Headmistress. McGonagall turned and nodded her head to Professor Snape, who then got up and left the room.

Twenty minutes later, he reappeared, his face stricken. He quickly walked over to the Headmistress. When he was done speaking, she nodded her head and stood up. "Attention students! Will all students follow your prefects to your house common rooms. No student is to leave their house dormitories. Mister Zabini and Miss Granger, please come up to the staff table immediately."

Harry gave Hermione a quick kiss before she went to join Zabini in front of Headmistress McGonagall. Once the room had cleared, Tonks, Lupin, and a couple other members of the Order entered and came to the table. Lupin in particular was eying Zabini with distrust, but he couldn't say anything against his presence, since he was Head Boy. Once everyone was arranged, the teachers circling the small group, Headmistress McGonagall spoke in a weary voice. "Remus, please tell us what has brought you here."

"Voldemort has struck against Britain in one swoop. He has more Death Eaters than we had even envisioned. They have attacked and burnt the homes of every Order member they knew of; we're still looking into the death toll. Hogsmeade Station is gone, and many homes that contained muggleborns were destroyed throughout England and Scotland. They also attacked muggle places... Tower Bridge has been brought to rubble, New Scotland Yard has been decimated. All maximum security prisons, including Azkaban, have been emptied, their captors now free to roam the streets. We have no idea how yet, but they've knocked down Stonehenge. There's more reports of damage coming in practically by the minute. I'm not exactly sure that we can stop them from coming and taking Hogwarts if they wanted to."

Most of the female staff were now crying, as were some of the men. They had never expected such a huge strike. Even Snape taken aback. Davis' face was full of concern for the situation. Snape was the only professor who knew what he was, and he was cursed to not be able to tell. Hermione was trembling. Zabini's face was completely blank. Even though no one had forced him to show his Mark, they were all pretty sure he was a Death Eater.

After taking a couple minutes to let the news sink in, the Headmistress looked to her Head Girl and Boy. "Miss Granger, Mister Zabini, you two are to go to each house - together, do not leave each other's sight and I do not want to hear any complaining - tell the prefects what has happened and then announce to each house that there has been a Death Eater attack, but we do not have most of the details, and we do not know anything of anyone's family. After you visit the four houses, go back to your rooms and stay there. Miss Granger, do not let Mister Potter leave his common room. I or Deputy Headmaster Flitwick will come to see you by the end of the night with more information."

The two Heads left the Great Hall in silence. Once they were in the hallway they looked at each other. "Which house first?" asked Hermione.

"I don't know. How about Hufflepuff?"

She nodded her head and they started in the direction. Soon enough they had visited both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw and were on their way to Gryffindor. When they got to the portrait of the Fat Lady, Hermione said the password (travertine) and the two walked into the common room. They were immediately barraged with questions such as "what happened?" or "Can't we at least get desert?" as well as those like "what the hell is that Slytherin doing in our common room?"

They pulled the prefects into the hallway as they had at the other houses to tell them the situation without eavesdroppers (making sure to put an Imperturbable Charm on the door) before going in to tell everyone else the watered down version, knowing that as soon as they left the prefects would tell them anyway.

When they were done with the telling, though, Hermione whispered something to Zabini, who nodded and looked slightly uncomfortable. "I'm going to go talk to Harry in private," Hermione told the group. "While I'm gone, if any of you try to hex Zabini here, I'll be taking a hundred and fifty points from Gryffindor. There's too much to deal with right now to add that in." The hopeful glimmer that had appeared in some eyes was now gone as Hermione led Harry up to his dormitory.

When they were safely in the room she kissed him. Pulling away she looked him in the eyes. "Harry, I need your invisibility cloak, and the map."

"What?" he asked, taken aback by the request.

"McGonagall said you're not to leave the dorm, and quite frankly I agree with her. As soon as Zabini and I are gone, I'm sure the prefects will tell everyone all the details of what happened, and you will want to go do something about it, and, well, there's nothing you can do. So I need your cloak and map to help me feel better that you are safe and sound here in Gryffindor Tower."

"Hermione, I'm not two." he huffed, turning around. She moved until she was facing him again, taking his arms in her hands.

"No, but you're impetuous and you don't always think things through before you go ahead full tilt. I....I love you Harry, and I wouldn't want to see you get hurt because of something you can't fix." He was now staring at her, transfixed.

"You love me?"

"Yes," she blushed. He pulled her into a kiss before he got the cloak and map out of a secret compartment in his trunk. He put the items into a backpack and handed them over. "Thank you," she whispered in his ear.

A few minutes later the two came back down the stairs, their clothes slightly askew, her with the backpack slung over a shoulder. They hugged, and she went over to rescue Zabini and leave.

On their walk to the dungeons Zabini asked about the bag, only to get a response of "wouldn't you like to know?"

Their arrival in the Slytherin common room went much the same as in the Gryffindor one, except people were wondering what the hell the mudblood was doing there, besmirching their common room. The talk in this house went a bit differently as they told the entire room everything that they knew. It was obvious that most of the Slytherins didn't know how to react with the Gryffindor in their midst. Some were obviously elated, others wary, but most were unreadable. Must be a Slytherin thing, she thought.

When they were finally back on their way to their room, Hermione was getting tired from walking all throughout the castle; it had taken a full hour and a half to visit the four houses. She just wanted to go and plop onto the loveseat and sit back for a bit. Arriving at the common room, she changed her mind and made a beeline for her room, telling Zabini to come and get her when whomever came to talk to them.

Walking into her room she saw right away a figure on her bed, passed out. Moving closer, she saw that it was a bruised, cut, bleeding but still breathing Malfoy.