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Atonement	By : absumoaevum Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 13720 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 5
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor to I make any money from this story. These characters are JKR's, I just play with them.

Chapter List
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Chapter 2

Us Ones In Between

Hermione rode with Ginny and her friends in the thestral-driven carriage up to Hogwarts. She’d only ever seen drawings of thestrals in books before, and now could finally, albeit bittersweetly, appreciate everything that Harry, Luna, and Neville had said about them. Hermione wondered where Luna had gotten to as Vicky Frobisher, a Gryffindor girl in Ginny’s year, talked about the rumored changes to the Hogwarts castle.

“My mum told me they’ve added a indoor swimming pool!” Vicky said, “And they’ve done away with the dungeons completely.”

“You’re mum’s mental, Vicky,” said Ritchie Coote, who she recognized as one of the Gryffindor quidditch players. He swung his arm around Vicky’s shoulder and added, “You’re lucky she hasn’t run me off yet.” The group laughed, but Hermione didn’t quite get the joke.

Ginny said, “We’ll know soon enough. I just hope they haven’t torn down the quidditch pitch!” Everyone groaned in agreement except Hermione. She wasn’t nearly as passionate about quidditch as Ginny or Ritchie, who were on the Gryffindor team, though she was sure that the quidditch pitch would be just fine.

Hermione waited for Hogwarts to come into view, and as they passed through the front gates, the castle loomed over them, as majestic as ever. She leaned out of the window, searching for differences from the castle she remembered, but she couldn’t even tell where they had made repairs and which part of the castle was original. The major addition was a large statue of two men dueling in front of the Astronomy Tower. One of the men was cloaked and hooded, the other wore muggle clothing, and both had their wands pointing directly at the other. Hermione guessed this was the statue that Harry had been complaining about during her last visit to the Burrow. “They will insist on having me and Riddle on the memorial,” he had said. She could see why he didn’t like it.

She wasn’t exactly sure why, but Hermione was starting to get really worried about Luna as she stepped out of the carriage near the restored oak doors of the castle. She ran up the smooth stone steps and turned to look out over the growing crowd of students. Spotting Luna almost at once, Hermione breathed a sigh of relief and returned her wave before pivoting on her heels to join Ginny and her friends as they were walking past her into the entrance hall.

+++

Draco lagged behind the current of students rushing into the entrance hall, their footsteps stampeding around in great booming echoes from the high ceilings and their chattering voices ricocheting off the massive stone walls. He entered the great hall after some giggling second year Ravenclaws and slipped onto a bench at the Slytherin table. Students around him shuffled down the table to avoid sitting next to him and turned their heads to laugh or whisper with their friends, not bothering to mask their disdain. Draco thought miserably that last year he would have been among those scoffing and sneering. He remembered holding court at this table, remembered being the center of attention.

As he gazed across the House tables, he noticed the Lovegood girl surrounded by admirers at the Ravenclaw table. The celebrity status endowed on all of Potter’s pals was as formidable in the press as it was in the gossip that ebbed and flowed through Hogwarts like flood tides. Of course he had heard of the famous Luna Lovegood. Hadn’t he brought her and Ollivander their meals during their time as hostages to his Death Eater family? Hadn’t he called her Loony Lovegood ever since her first year at Hogwarts? And yet, he’d never even known her proper first name. Draco felt the shame of it burning his cheeks, and he wondered for the hundredth time if he’d made a mistake in coming back to Hogwarts this year.

Looking for a distraction, his eyes wandered up to the high table, where four new faces caught his attention. Two he didn’t recognize, one was definitely a Weasley, and one looked like the old barman of the Hog’s Head who had turned out to be Dumbledore’s brother. Just when he was wondering what subject an old weirdo like that would teach, the newly-appointed Deputy Headmaster Flitwick, head of Ravenclaw House as well as the Charms professor, appeared with the nervous-looking first-years. He walked them down the center aisle, shorter himself than most of the seated students, and came to a stop in front of a little three-footed stool, which seemed naked without the sorting hat perched on top of it.

Headmistress McGonagall got to her feet and cleared her throat. The boiling of noise in the great hall died down, though there remained a low hiss of whispering. “Ahem. As you may know, our beloved sorting hat suffered serious injury during the Battle of Hogwarts. It is now taking a well-deserved sabbatical under the care of Madame Pomfrey and will be unable to sort this year’s students.” The murmuring intensified and McGonagall raised her hands for quiet. “However, the staff and I have created what we hope is a suitable substitute for this year. Aberforth, if you would.” She gestured to the barman, who stood up and made his way down to Flitwick. “Mr. Dumbledore has agreed to allow us the use of his brother’s splendid wizard’s hat. Thank you!” She clapped, and everyone followed her lead, with some students standing in ovation as the curmudgeonly old codger handed off the sky blue, spangled hat to Flitwick, smiled awkwardly at the applauding crowd, and returned to his seat. Flitwick set the slightly rumpled hat onto the stool and took a few steps back. Everyone waited.

Then, with Albus Dumbledore’s voice, a voice that struck Draco like a knife through his memory, the hat began to sing:

In keeping with tradition,

As was in days before,

A hat which sorts the students

Will settle still the score.

While maybe less bedraggled

By age and length of time,

I’m just as suitable, you’ll see,

To sort you and to rhyme.

However sorrows weigh you

In the aftermath of strife,

Remember what was given

So that you may have this life.

And do not mourn the passing

Of those we cannot hold

But keep your neighbors closer

In these Houses forged of old:

If brave of deed, then Gryffindor

where boldness is the quest,

or to Ravenclaw, where cleverness

is prized above the rest;

To Hufflepuff, if kindness

And hard work’s where you are strongest,

or then Slytherin, whose class

and style have aided them the longest.

Gallant Lion, subtle Snake,

It’s time to make amends.

Wise Raven and good Badger,

Recall we all are friends.

Above all, do not forget the past

Which once rent friends apart

Use your brains and, above all else,

Find love in all your hearts.

The great hall erupted into wild applause again. Draco saw the Weasley girl, Ginny, standing on her seat as the whole Gryffindor table whopped and cheered louder than any other House. Dumbledore’s hat bowed its peak to each House table in turn, and then went still. Flitwick stepped forward again and withdrew from his robes the list of names to be sorted. He waited for most of the clapping to abate before adjusting his glasses a little farther down his nose and calling, “Adderbose, Letholdus!”

A grinning, sturdy-looking boy strutted up to the stool and sat down. Flitwick reached to place the hat on his head, though it he had barely managed to perch it there before the hat shouted “Gryffindor!” and Letholdus strode proudly off to join his cheering House table.

Draco watched as “Ambrose, Ellyn” and “Bach, Linus” were both sorted into Hufflepuff, and he chuckled to himself and thanked his lucky stars that at least he wasn’t in Hufflepuff.

Suddenly, he felt a searing pain on his neck and smacked his hand to it as if it were a bee. He saw flecks of blood and ash flesh on his palm and whirled around in his seat to see two Slytherin quidditch players, Harper and Vaisey, cackling viciously. He searched for a reflective surface and grabbed his polished silver plate. Angling it so he could see his neck, it took him a moment to decipher the backwards letters scorched there. They spelled “FINK”. Harper was visibly struggling for breath through his guffawing, and Vaisey was leaning on Harper for support, dabbing at the corners of his eyes with the sleeve of his robes. Other Slytherins were glaring over their shoulders at the two boys still trying to stifle their sniggering as the rest of the table clapped for “Greene, Christopher”, who had just become a Slytherin. Feeling even worse than before, Draco bunched his robes up around his neck and tried to pay attention to the sorting.

+++

Hermione yanked Ginny back down as she tried to climb up onto her seat again as “Ops, Larunda” positively skipped over to the Gryffindor table. She gazed up at the newly restored ceiling as it reflected the velvety black sky studded with stars and thought of all the duels fought in the hall the less than six months ago. Not a single trace of rubble remained, and yet Hermione felt as if she were sitting in a ruin. She supposed that the nagging feeling that she didn’t belong would fade once classes began.

“Hermione,” said Ginny, poking her in the ribs, “clap!” A tall, lanky boy was making his way over to the Gryffindor table to sit beside Letholdus Adderbose. Finally, “Yulvik, Otto” became a Ravenclaw, and Flitwick took the hat from him as the great hall stormed with applause. The tiny professor charmed the stool to float before him as he made his way back up to the high table and McGonagall stood once again, her severe gaze demanding respect.

“In the words of Albus Dumbledore, ‘tuck in’!” She smiled and sat down as food appeared in the dishes in front of Hermione, and she suddenly realized just how hungry she was. She piled mashed potatoes and beef casserole onto her plate and dug in, listening in to Ginny’s conversation with Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, about the castle’s renovations.

“Well, they’ve done a good deal to the place, you know,” Nick was saying, “I myself oversaw the re-stitching of the tapestries in Gryffindor tower.”

Ginny swallowed a mouthful of steak and kidney pie and asked, “Did they manage to fix that vanishing step on the staircase to-”

Nick interjected, “I’d rather not talk about it. Nasty incident with Peeves, I’m afraid.”

Hermione lost the thread of the conversation when Andrew Kirke asked her to pass the pork chops, and she began to wonder why Percy Weasley and Hestia Jones were sitting at the high table. There was another witch sitting stiffly to the left of professor Slughorn, the Potions master, who she had never seen before. Hermione noticed Hagrid trying to catch her eye and returned his wave with a cheerfulness she didn’t entirely feel. She decided that tomorrow after school she would go down to visit him and catch up. She hadn’t seen him since Remus’ and Tonks’ funeral. Hermione forced herself to think about something else.

Nearly Headless Nick was assuring Ginny’s friend Vicky that the dungeons were perfectly intact and that there was definitely no indoor swimming pool. “The Bloody Baron was very particular about the dungeons, as a matter of fact. And then the Grey Lady wanted just as many changes to Ravenclaw Tower. The pair of them drove the staff to within an inch of reason” Nick adjusted his ruff thoughtfully. “I’ve never seen either of them so happy.”

Very soon the puddings where served and just when everyone was beginning to feel sleepy, McGonagall rose a third time and motioned for silence. “If I could please have your attention for just a few start-of-term announcements,” she said, her voice seeming to hitch a little as she spoke. “First years, be advised that the forest in the grounds is out of bounds. Also, Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to remind you that no magic of any sort is permitted in the corridors between classes and that there is a blanket ban on all Weasley Wizard Wheezes products.” (Ginny giggled.) “Any prohibited items found will be confiscated.

“We have three changes of staff this year. We are delighted to welcome Professor Wealsey, who will be taking over my old post as Transfiguration teacher, Professor Hitchens, who will be assuming the Muggle Studies post, and Professor Jones, who has kindly consented to lend her considerable talents to our Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons.

“And finally, students, I would like to take this time to thank the staff for all of their hard work to make Hogwarts fit for educating again and to ask you all to join me in a moment of silence to remember those who were lost during the battle which took place right here on Hogwarts grounds.” For a full two minutes, the great hall held its breath. Not clang of fork on plate, nor a scuffle of feet on the stone floor, nor a single whisper broke the absolute stillness. Images of Fred Weasley and Colin Creevey flashed through Hermione’s mind, only to be interrupted by McGonagall’s terse “Thank you. To bed now, all of you!” There was a sudden din of scrapping and banging as the school rose to its feet as one and began tussling towards the exit.

Hermione walked with Ginny, leading the Gryffindors into the entrance hall where Ginny located Violet, the Fat Lady’s gossiping old friend, in the midst of a pastoral landscape near the staircase.

“I’m to show you up to Gryffindor tower, then,” said Violet. Ginny nodded, and Violet led them up the stairs towards their new home.
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Atonement