CH-12

I smirk, my eyes still focused on his. "She has a wand while I'm still unarmed. And bound, for that matter. What could I possibly do to her?"

The three Order members get to their feet. As Shacklebolt reaches the door, Lupin waves his wand, and the ropes around me disappear.

"Behave yourself," Professor McGonagall says.

Suddenly I feel like I'm at Hogwarts again. It's a funny feeling, and I almost laugh aloud. Then the chair I'm sitting in morphs into a bench, and a long table appears before me. Interesting.

I hear the door behind me pulled open, followed by footsteps as they exit the room.

"Go ahead, Hermione," I hear Lupin say.

She's here.

Suddenly I'm nervous. What the fuck? I suppose it's because this will be the first time in three years that I'll be able to have a proper look at her.

There's a click behind me as the door shuts.

It's a short while before I finally hear her footsteps, but I force myself not to turn to look at her. She starts moving around to the opposite side of the table, and I lower my eyes to look at the imperfections in the wood. When she sits down, I lift my eyes to look at her.

I instantly feel like I can't breathe.

I didn't get a good look at her that night in the Forbidden Forest—it was too dark, and I'd just wanted to get her out of there alive. Now…

Her face is more beautiful than I'd remembered it. How can dirty blood matter when a Mudblood can look so perfect? There's a tiny cut marring her left cheek, and I have to stop myself from asking how she got it, from reaching out to touch it. Her large, chocolate-brown eyes meet mine, and I find myself wishing that she'll never look away.

Fuck me. I'm beyond hope.

She looks away quickly, and I rein in my emotions. Eventually, her eyes wander back up to meet mine, and she looks a little curious. I continue to watch her, waiting for her to speak first.

I'm lying to myself. I don't speak because I can't speak. Where the fuck did my voice go?

Finally, she begins to speak in a soft voice. "Malfoy… it's been a long time."

I haven't heard her pretty voice in too long.

Fuck. I still can't get a word out. Locking eyes with her, I get my lips to form a small smile. She may have rendered me speechless, but I'll always be capable of looking cocky.

My smile seems to have unsettled her. I see a flicker of fear behind her eyes. Is she afraid of me?

"Say something," she says.

Finally, my voice decides to return.

"Hello, Granger. You look well."

"I wonder what's taking so long," Ron says, pacing back and forth in front of the door.

"Just be patient," Harry replies.

I roll my eyes at the pacing redhead before turning to look around at the others.

Fred, George and Lee are huddled together down the hall by the door, speaking in low voices so that we can't hear them. Katie's leaning against the wall on my left. Ginny's standing on my right and looking up at Harry, daydreaming.

The rest of us are gone. Charlie's staying with Mrs. Weasley and Bill at Shell Cottage, along with some other Hogwarts students in the Order. Neville and Blaise have been gone on separate missions all week. Angelina and Alicia, the last two people staying at Grimmauld Place, just left on a mission to check the information that Malfoy provided about Death Eater patrols at Hogwarts.

We decided not to reconvene this week—meetings are too risky to hold so often. But Lupin and Tonks are both here, along with Shacklebolt and McGonagall. The "adults" usually don't leave us out when they meet anymore, but tonight's different, they said. Deciding whether or not Malfoy is trustworthy is something worth looking into. It's true, but I don't know what they don't want us to see.

In any case, I don't think there's much of a chance that he's being honest. I've seen that people can change for the better—after all, back at Hogwarts, I never would have thought that I'd be friends with Blaise Zabini. But surely, Draco Malfoy is a lost case. He was a Death Eater even back when we were still in school!

I'm surprised that Harry and Ron decided to take him back here at all. But according to Harry, he didn't bring a wand and allowed himself to be Stunned, which is already more than I had expected.

"What do you reckon Lee and the twins are talking about?" Ginny muses aloud.

"Probably some new practical joke," Katie says.

I note that Ron's glowering at Harry. What happened out there?

Then Ron says, "Hermione, there's something that Harry should probably tell you."

"What is it?" I ask.

"Erm…" Harry says uncomfortably. "Ron, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Ron sighs but nods, and they head off for their room upstairs.

"Wonder what Harry was going to tell you," Ginny says.

I shrug. "I'll just ask them later, I guess."

Then the door to the kitchen opens, and Tonks steps out. She closes the door behind her quickly, before any of us can see inside.

"Hermione, can I talk to you upstairs?" she asks.

I nod and follow her up to my room. She locks the door and casts a Muffling charm on it before turning to face me, an apologetic look on her face.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"We're going to accept Malfoy's offer," she says.

"Really?" I say, surprised.

She nods.

"Why do you have to tell me separately from the others?" I ask.

Tonks looks hesitant, but I don't press her.

Finally, she speaks. "We erm, we've decided that it'll be safest if he only has one contact in the Order, and it'd be best if it was an Occlumens, so he can't easily use Legilimency—"

Shit. I can already see where this is going…

"—to steal our information, if he does betray us in the future. And Kingsley thinks it'd be better for him to interact with someone his own age, so—"

"So you've chosen me," I say.

Tonks nods. "I'm sorry. But I do think you're a very good choice—you're brilliant. You might be able to tell from the facts whether or not he's lying."

"I don't understand. Why does it have to be someone his age? Did Shacklebolt explain?"

"No. I'm sorry," Tonks repeats.

"It's… it's all right," I say. "I should probably have a talk with him then, right?"

She nods again.

"Let's go, then."

I walk past her and exit the room.

Why me?

Oh, this is so typical. Me and my bad luck. Of all the people they could have chosen…

It's true that I'm the only one in the younger generation who was successful with Occlumency. I just don't understand why they couldn't choose any of the more experienced members to be his contact.

When I reach the others on the first floor, no one speaks.

What do they think Tonks told me?

Tonks raps on the kitchen door, and it swings open. Shacklebolt exits the kitchen, followed by McGonagall and Lupin.

"Go ahead, Hermione," Lupin says, gesturing toward the entrance.

A sense of foreboding fills me as I step into the kitchen. The door closes behind me, and my eyes fall on the back of Malfoy's head—he's sitting at the long kitchen table with his back to me.

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