Sometimes It's Good to be Bad

Chapter 47 Cheesy Devils

When they arrived back at Hogwarts, they hung out in Gryffindor common room until it was time for her to patrol. When she was finished, she went back to her room and pulled out Harry's cloak and the Maurader's Map. Finding Professor Davis to be in his private rooms, she put on the cloak and followed the map until she was there and knocked on the door.

When he called out to ask who was there, she didn't answer as she didn't want to chance that she would be heard, and her voice recognized. He came to the door and opened it. She crept in while he was looking around to see who had knocked. The second he closed it, she pulled off the cloak. "Miss Granger, what are you doing in my private rooms at such a time?"

"Cheese is the devil's plaything." She was looking at his naked torso, a sheen of sweat covering him, causing his washboard abs to glisten. Half the Hogwarts population would kill to get a glimpse of this.

"What?"

She took her eyes of his body to look at his face. "Sorry. There was an Order meeting this evening, and I thought you would like to know what was said. Or, more to the point, I thought that the Dark Lord would like to know what was said."

"So, when did you become an Order member?"

"Today. Harry insisted that we be allowed to go to the meetings and McGonagall caved. Do you want to know or not?"

"Of course. You're crabby today." He moved over to his couch and sat down.

She took a vial out of her robes, put her wand to her temple, and pulled out a silver strand of memory, placing it in the vial. "I'm just tired. Here's my memory. Have fun with it." She handed him the vial and started to turn around to leave.

She was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To bed."

"No you're not. You are going to stay here and walk me through this memory, so I can do the same for the Dark Lord."

She sighed, knowing that he was absolutely right. "Okay." An hour later they were out of the memory.

"This could be interesting. Tomorrow I will bring your memory to be viewed by the Dark Lord so he can decide where to go from here. I expect you to give me an update as soon as you find out their decision."

"No problem. Now can I go to bed?"

"Of course." As she walked away to her bedroom under the cloak with the Maurader's Map still out wondering what would happen to Snape if what he told their master differed from what her penseive showed.

Classes resumed the next morning to all who were staying at the school. For Hermione, the day went as usual. After their final class of the day she and Harry went up to the Headmistress' office to find out what the Order had decided and were told of how they came to a draw and were going to wait a few days to make the final decision.

"Even if you vote no, I'm going to go forward and do it myself," warned Harry.

"Mister Potter, it is my hope that 'no' is not the way the vote will go. And if it is, I will help with whatever plans you need to put into motion. I had a nice talk with Professor Dumbledore's portrait this morning and he was surprised at how quickly you found them all and was impressed that you kept it to yourself, no matter how much it annoyed me."

"Well, thank you," he responded, taken aback. They then left the office and went down to her common room to do their homework.

Not long after Harry left to go back to his room, the pain of being summoned took over her breast for the first time in a while. She ran upstairs, threw on her robes and went to the bathroom to apparate to her master.

After the customary groveling she was addressed. "Mudblood, I have viewed your memory and was wondering if you could tell me what decision the Order (he spat out the last wo words) has come to."

"No, My Lord. They have not come to a decision yet, but Harry has vowed to came after you in the very near future either way." He responded with a hiss, but she could not discern whether it was from pleasure or anger.

"As the situation furthers, be sure to keep Davis well informed. I will need to know when to set a trap for the young Potter."

"Yes, my Lord."

"Now go back to Hogwarts and tell Zabini that I will call him tomorrow for a report on his progress."

"Yes, my Lord." And with that she was back in her bathroom knocking on the door to Zabini's room. When no one answered, she opened it up to find that no one was there. She went down his stairs to see that it was also empty. She ran up her stairs and grabbed the map. Finding his dot not moving in the middle of one of the corridors closest to Ravenclaw with no one around, she grabbed the invisibility cloak and ran out of the Head rooms in search of him.

When she finally found him, he was splayed on his back, bleeding from the head. With her magic she staunched the bleeding and healed up the cut that the blood had been coming from. She hid the cloak and map under her Death Eater robes, which were still under the spell to look like school robes to anyone who didn't know what they were.

With her wand she levitated the Head Boy and brought him to the infirmary. Madame Pomfrey came out to the ward after the third call dressed in her nightrobes. "Miss, Granger, what is this all-" she stopped when she saw Hermione float Zabini onto the nearest cot.

"What happened?" the nurse asked briskly.

"He didn't come back after his patrol rounds and I was worried so I went out looking for him, and I found him on the floor of one of the corridors bleeding from the head. I staunched the blood and closed the wound, but he hasn't woken up yet."

"Alright, Miss Granger. Leave him with me and go on back to bed, you still have class in the morning, but if you wish you may visit him after breakfast."

"Thank you, Madame Pomfrey."

When she was back in her room, she fell aslep wondering who hurt Zabini and why. She couldn't wait until the next morning to find out from him what had happened.

She went to see him before breakfast, so as to not have to deal with Harry. When she sat on the chair that was beside the bed he opened his eyes. "Hello, Granger. Pomfrey told me that you're the one who found me, so thanks."

"It's no problem, Zabini." She then took this opportunity to put a Muffliato charm on the area before continuing. "I was looking for you because I have a message for you from the Dark Lord. He said that he is going to call on you tonight to hear the progress you've made on your task for Him."

"That could be a problem," he answered.

"Why?" she asked, a worried look in her eyes.

"Pomfrey might not let me out today, for one. Apparently I lost a lot of blood and she's been pouring blood replenishing potion down my throat like a madwoman. Also, I approached someone who didn't quite agree the way I thought they might and they did this to me before I got the chance to Obliviate them of the memory of me trying to get them to join the Dark Lord."

"Oh, God, Zabini," she moaned. "Who was it so I can try and fix this."

"Stephen Cornfoot."

Hermione sighed as she stood up. "I hope its not too late to fix this, Zabini. The boy's a prat; I'm sure he's already told somebody in power by now, probably even Flitwick. You better be praying to whatever Gods you believe in that he hasn't because then there may be too many people involved. Though, seeing as you're still here I can only hope that's a good sign." She took off the Muffliato and left the hospital ward.


A/N according to the Lexicon, Stephen Cornfoot is a Ravenclaw pureblood in the same year as the trio who was never mentioned in cannon but was on a list of students Jo had made up. The cheese line in the beginning is accredited to the wonderful Gregory House, M.D.