Rescue Love, Part 2: Mystery Man

“Ow,” Hermione hissed as she woke up. Her head felt like it had been smacked into a brick wall. The sound of a crackling fire greeted her, and she first thought she had fallen asleep in the Gryffindor common room, and that the headache was merely another all-night-studying-hangover. Then she remembered.1

“My wand!” she cried, sitting up, her eyes flying open. Immediately she felt lightheaded, and the world was so blurry she had to close her eyes. A familiar voice greeted her, although she wasn’t sure who it belonged to.2

“Are you alright? I’m sorry, well I was running away with you I crashed into a wall when I checked to see how close they were behind.”3

“Where’s Ginny?” she asked. “Who are you?”4

“Ginny’s fine, Hagrid came out and found her. And who I am is not important. Now answer the question-are you alright?”5

“I’m a little lightheaded, and my head hurts,” she said. “Where’s my wand?”6

“On the nightstand next to you.”7

“Who are you?”8

He (he certainly sounded like a he) sighed. “I wish you wouldn’t ask that. All you need to know is that I saved you.”9

“Ron? I’m not mad anymore,” she said, even though he didn’t sound like Ron.10

There was a scrape of a bench being moved. “I’m not Ron- your precious boyfriend wasn’t there to save you. Why do you like Weasley so much anyway?” he sounded angry now. “All he does is go around goggling at girls like an idiot and pissing off people like me.”11

“I know you,” Hermione said, putting her hand on her face to make sure her eyes weren’t bandaged. “But… I don’t know who you are.”12

“Good,” he said. “If you did, you’d grab your wand and blast the crap out of me.”13

“…Now I really want to know,” Hermione chuckled. “But if that’s how I’d react, then why would you be the type of person to save me?”14

“Because you don’t know me that well,” he said. “I have to act a certain way, to protect myself. And I’ve hurt you in the past. I’m sorry for that. I only recently discovered what I was doing was wrong.”15

“What were you doing?” Hermione asked. She coughed loudly and tried to clear her dry throat.16

“Wrong stuff- I can’t really tell you,” he laughed. “There’s pumpkin juice for you on the nightstand.”17

“Well, that’s considerate, but I can’t see,” Hermione laughed. She rolled over, feeling soft sheets wrapped around her.18

“Oh, sorry about that.” Hermione heard the clink of ice cubes against glass. “Here, open your mouth.” Hermione did as she was told and pumpkin juice flooded into her mouth, quenching her thirst.19

“I can get the house elves to bring toast or muffins, or cereal or bacon,” he said. “If you’re hungry, that is.”20

“No, I need to be getting back to my friends,” Hermione said, trying to sit up. Cold hands helped her back down as she felt light headed again. “What happened?”21

“I had expected that you would be attacked, so I hid to save you if they did,” he said. “Sure enough, they did their little trick to confuse you, then snatched you up. I waited until they thought they had won, then cursed them. My aim was a little off, so you got hit with some of the spell yourself.”22

“Who were they?” Hermione asked, feeling to make sure all her body parts were still there. “Slytherins?”23

“Children of Death Eaters, specifically,” he said. She heard the bench move again, and a light thump as he sat down. “Trying to get some respect by taking out some of Potter’s best friends. I was a little disappointed actually- I thought you were a better fighter.”24

“I would have beat them all in a fair fight,” she said indignantly. She remembered Malfoy’s smirking face. “Draco Malfoy was leading them, wasn’t he?” she spat.25

There was a pause. “No, Draco wasn’t with them.”26

“Weird,” Hermione said. “I’d expect him to be the one who came up with the idea.”27

“He was, actually, but he also told his followers that the plan wouldn’t work, then proceeded inside.”28

“Well, he was wrong,” Hermione chuckled. “How long until the affects of the spell wears off and I can see again?”29

“Any moment now really,” he said. Hermione sat up, feeling better. There was a bang as the bench fell over and a quick shuffle around the room.30

“Are you alright?” Hermione asked, her eyes still closed.31

“Yes, I’d just rather you didn’t see me,” he said, his voice a little higher. Hermione waited for a few moments. “Alright, you can open your eyes now.”32

Hermione opened her eyes, eager to see her rescuer. A tall figure with pale hands stood before her, but he had a grey ski mask covering the upper half of his face, and the hood of his robe up. He smiled, pulling the muscles of his pale face up.33

“Thank you for rescuing me,” Hermione said, getting out of the bed and looking around and saw that they were in a cozy, cheery looking room that was reminiscent of a cute cottage. She saw a window and looked out, seeing a field filled with sunflowers and sparkling sunshine.34

“What is this place?” she asked.35

“Don’t mind the ‘outside’,” he said, handing her a black robe. “This is the room of requirement.”36

“Oh, that makes sense,” Hermione nodded, pulling on the robe over her sweater and jeans. She looked around and saw that there were books on the wall. She looked at him. “What did you ask the room for?”37

“A place where you could rest as long as you needed,” he said. Hermione chuckled and his green eyes looked concerned. “Are you sure you’re alright?”38

“Yes, I’m fine,” she laughed. “I wish there was some way I could repay you.”39

He looked into her eyes, his smile fading slightly. Then his smile perked back up. “There’s a trip to Hogsmeade coming up next weekend- will you meet me at the Three Broomsticks?”40

“Yes,” Hermione said, feeling slightly surprised, both at the request and her answer. “Yes, I will.”41

“Thank you, then, Hermione Granger,” he smiled and gave her a little push out the door. She turned back to get one last look at him. “I’m sure we’ll see each other soon.” He closed the door, and Hermione felt the same smile she smiled after her first date with Ron spread over her face.42

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~43

“So you don’t know it was?” Ron asked, sliding down in the armchair.44

“For the last time, no!” Hermione said, then more quietly. “I never saw his face.” She had left out quite a few of the details of the story out to the boys, sure that they wouldn’t approve of her meeting him again.45

“This is dangerous, if you don’t know who it is, Hermione,” Harry said, as she had expected. “He could be trying to get close to you to get some information or something. You have to be very careful.”46

“He helped me and sent me on my way, I think he forgot to get that information if that’s what he wanted,” Hermione said. “Is it really so hard to believe that there are good people out there who just do that sort of thing?”47

“No, but we can’t take our chances,” Harry said. He paused and looked at Hermione carefully. “Did you say you were going to see him again?”48

“No,” she said hurriedly, smoothing out her robe. “Well, he said something about seeing each other soon or something like that, but we didn’t make any plans.”49

“Hmm,” Harry said.50

“Look, I’m really tired from all this, could I just go to bed?” Hermione asked. Then she stopped. “Wait, where’s Ginny?”51

“Hagrid brought her back,” Ron said. “He said he thought you had come back for help, but when we figured out that you hadn’t we kind of panicked.”52

“Ron panicked,” Harry coughed. “Not me.”53

Hermione smiled at Ron and put her hand on his shoulder, kissing his forehead. “Thank you, Ron, but I’m off to bed now.”54

“But it’s nearly noon,” Ron said, feeling his forehead. “Don’t you want lunch?”55

“Not hungry!” she called back to them as she went up the stairs.56

Ron looked at Harry. “Do you think I’m forgiven?” he asked.57

“I’d say so,” Harry nodded.58

“Well then, I’m off to lunch,” Ron said, getting up. “You coming with?”59

“No, I think I’ll stay here,” Harry said, staring at where Hermione had been sitting.60

“Suit yourself,” Ron shrugged. Harry sat in the chair, knowing it was only a matter of time until he would get what he needed.61

Sure enough, he spotted a group of girls giggling and watching him. He put on his most friendly expression and walked over to them. Their expressions flashed around between overjoyed, shocked, giddy and embarrassed.62

“Hey, could any of you do a favor for me?” he asked.63

“I will,” one girl volunteered, after much giggling.64

“Alright, thank you, could you-” Harry started, but the girl interrupted him.65

“If you kiss me,” she said.66

“I’ve got a girlfriend,” Harry sighed, wishing that she had asked for something simpler. “But I can hug you, or give you an autograph or something.”67

“An autograph with a heart around it?” she asked.68

“Yeah, sure,” Harry said, taking a piece of parchment from his pocket. He looked around. “Any of you have ink with you?” He took a quill out of his pocket and signed his name in pink ink, than reluctantly drew a heart around it.69

The girl checked it, then smiled at him warmly. “What do you need, Harry?”70

“I need you to go up and get Hermione Granger,” Harry said.71

“What for?” the girl asked suspiciously.72

“I need to talk to her about something important, so could you please hurry,” Harry said, growing tired of the giggling girls. The girl nodded and went up the stairs. The others stared at him expectantly.73

“What?” Harry asked.74

“Is it true that you’ve got a tattoo of a Hippogriff on your chest?” one of them asked. Harry always answered this question with the same lie, just to see how people would react.75

“It’s actually a dragon- Hungarion Horntail,” Harry told them with as straight a face as he could muster.76

“Harry?”77

Harry turned, thankful to see Hermione coming down the stairs with the girl in tow. He came to the bottom of the stairs at the same time as they did. “Thank you,” he told the girl, as a sign for her to leave.78

She smiled devilishly. “No, thank you.”79

Harry shook his head as the girl left. “What was that…?” Hermione asked.80

“Don’t even ask,” Harry shook his head, going to the armchairs. Hermione followed him and they sat down.81

“So, what is it now?” she asked, sitting back in her chair.82

“You said you’d meet him again, didn’t you?” Harry said.83

“Harry, he was so kind,” Hermione said, as Harry looked exasperated. “And I really do owe him. He sounded like a student, it’s not like he can rape me or something.”84

“Hermione, how can you think like that?” Harry said, running his hand through his messy black hair in frustration. “Think of what is going on outside these walls- within them too. He very possibly could do that! But… that’s not what I’m worried about.” He sighed. “You didn’t see his face. He could be any student. Or a young teacher. What if he kidnaps you and tortures you to get information? What if he's working for Voldemort?”85

“Harry, I’m sorry you feel this way, but I don’t need your okay on everything I do,” Hermione said angrily. “I can do things for myself, I’m not some helpless damsel in distress! And I’m not Ginny either, so don’t treat me like I am!” She stood up and stomped away, not caring to look back.86