alt_hermione | Order Only: Hydra and Auror Lestrange

Hydra just came and asked me to follow her wearing Harry's cloak. She said Elise Urquhart came into the common room just now and told her that her mother's here to speak to her and she needed to come with her, and Hydra said she asked if she could put her books in her dormitory and Elsie said yes but to be quick about it, but instead she came and found me and asked me to go get Harry's cloak right away and to catch up as quickly as ever I could.

So that's what I'm doing. I'm sure it's to do with what happened on the 1^st, with Justin and all.

I'll keep everyone posted.

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From:

alt_sirius

Wait, what? What do you mean, what happened on the 1^st?

What happened on the 1^st?

From:

alt_draco

Alfred Montague alerted Professor Slughorn so that he'd catch Justin sneaking back to Hufflepuff after his rendezvous with Hydra. They have a secret place they go to, an un-used stairwell in the dungeons. Justin got detention, as Montague intended, but Slughorn must have contacted Hydra's parents, as well.

From:

alt_justin

Sirius,

I received a detention on my way back from the Slytherin dungeons.

I'm rather surprised it's Auror Lestrange. I was expecting Hydra's father might want a curse or three.

Hermione, please look out for her. If you need help, for any reason, let us know. I'll be on hand, what.

-Justin

From:

alt_sirius

ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?

You knew this might happen and you didn't tell us?

Merlin. If you survive this, Alice is going to hex you into next month.

From:

alt_sirius

And if she doesn't, I will.

From:

alt_sally_anne

Don't you think you ought to go somewhere like Professor Sprout's office or the infirmary in case you need to get away in a hurry?

From:

alt_draco

Hermione, you should come back. I'll take the cloak. Why does someone need to be there with the cloak, anyway? Hydra doesn't think her mother's going to kill her, surely, right here in the castle?

She should have found me or Harry instead. Bellatrix is a legilimens, she needn't see you to figure out that you're there.

From:

alt_justin

Draco,

Auror Lestrange might wish to speak to you, or Harry. Or me.

We'd best stand by in case we're summoned.

Dash it.

-Justin

From:

alt_draco

"Dash it?"

You know, after this all blows over - and I sincerely hope that it does, with minimal damage - you ought to start investigating the source of your obvious death wish.

From:

alt_sally_anne

NO KIDDING. I think the Hat put him in the wrong House.

From:

alt_draco

This is massively frustrating. Hydra grew up with an extremely strong sense of self-preservation because she had to, and he's compromised that, again and again. I realise she's responsible for her own choices, but he hasn't exactly been a good influence, either.

And now she's gone and dragged Hermione into it, for reasons I can't quite fathom.

Why do you reckon it's taking so long? Doesn't it seem like they've been gone for ages?

From:

alt_sally_anne

They haven't. If you take into account the time it takes for someone to walk across the castle it's been barely any time at all, it just seems like it's been ages.

From:

alt_draco

Yeah, it does.

From:

alt_sally_anne

The thing about Hydra and Justin -- yes, she takes more risks. A lot more risks.

But would you turn her back into the girl who thought one of Hermione's parents must have been a pig?

When someone changes the way Hydra did, and Pansy, and you -- everything gets more risky. There's just no way around it. (Though, that doesn't mean you're required to sneak out every night to snog in your specially-equipped secret stairwell when you know someone's father is itching to cast AK on anyone who despoils his innocent little girl. That's just stupidity. On both their parts.)

From:

alt_sally_anne

I mean on one hand I like Hydra and Justin quite a bit and on the other I would quite like to hex both of them for being so stupid. It's not like they did something worthwhile and noble and risky and got caught. They weren't rescuing babies or passing out banned books or freeing muggleborns. THEY WERE SNOGGING.

Ron and I sneak out sometimes. But not much lately, because Ron can't do it safely. And if we got caught and Slughorn wrote to our parents, I'd probably get a Howler from Mrs Stretton to amuse everyone at breakfast and Ron would get a letter from Mrs Weasley scolding him and telling him to be more careful and we'd both serve a detention and that would be the end of it. It's a very different sort of risk.

From:

alt_draco

Let's be honest, they were doing more than snogging. They were neck-deep in a fantasy about getting married and having babies. Hydra's been wearing an engagement ring. And that's what was most risky of all, indulging in some sort of escapist dream of having a normal, happy life instead of accepting the devastating reality that he's a secret mudblood, and she's the daughter of Voldemort's right-hand woman.

From:

alt_sally_anne

If they'd stuck with the terms Hydra's father dictated, or at least done a better job pretending, he was going to back the idea of them getting married. I don't think it was THAT crazy. The thing about being a secret muggleborn is that people don't know, right?

Bellatrix is hung up on Hydra marrying Harry but it's never been clear to me how she thinks she's going to get Harry to go along with that. He treats her like a little sister. Well, he's a little nicer to her than Ron is to Ginny but other than that, they really do act like siblings.

Anyway. You're right that a normal life is a fantasy. For any of us. Look at the Order adults, and how things are working out for them. The ones in the most danger are the ones trying to maintain the facade of a normal life, I'd say.

From:

alt_draco

Mm, yes, but Hydra's father also gave her an impossible task - convincing Bellatrix that marrying Justin was a good idea. I can't imagine any circumstances where she would have agreed to that. I'm sure in her mind, Hydra will either marry Harry or no one at all.

I wonder if Hydra knew, deep down, that there was no way she could ever convince her mother to approve the pairing. Even suggesting Justin as a partner would have put him at risk. Bellatrix would have probed further, and might've even discovered that his blood-line had been fabricated. That would explain why Hydra took such risks - because she knows, at least on an unconscious level, that she can never really have what she wants. None of us will. Not until he's gone. Better to accept that now than cosying up to soothing delusions.

From:

alt_sally_anne

Hydra's got years left of school. Maybe she was hoping that in the meantime, her mother would drop dead from a sudden attack of annoying Voldemort at the wrong moment. (Unlikely, but it's a not-uncommon cause of death for Councilwizards.)

But. Yes.

You could have had a normal life with Pansy, or as close to it as anyone gets in the Order. You could have a normal life with Daphne -- we'd have to tell her, but you know we could (I know, I know, you don't feel that way about each other or you'd be snogging each other by now.)

Do you want a normal life? ~~I mean --~~

From:

alt_draco

We snog sometimes. I mean, not usually on a whim ~~except~~. But Daphs understands roles and acting, and she knows that there's a role I've got to play - it's the role of who I would have been, had I grown up to be the Draco Malfoy my parents planned on. That Draco Malfoy would be dating someone like Daphne Greengrass. He could date Pansy if she grew up to be the Pansy she was meant to be, before Regulus messed her up, but Pansy's too different now, and she's not a very good actress, most of the time.

The real Draco Malfoy - the one that you know (but who has to pretend not to exist too much, lest it threaten the masquerade of the other Draco Malfoy) - he.. I mean I, I can't ever have the 'normal life' I really want... can't now, anyway. Maybe not ever. So why even dream about it? It will just muck things up.

I wouldn't tell Daphne about all of this - the Order, the full extent my plans, and so forth - unless I did for some reason decide I wanted a life with her someday.

But I don't see that happening.

From:

alt_sally_anne

Do you think you could have the normal life you wanted if things changed? If they changed a lot, if we -- I mean, if the Order and their baby army managed to take down Voldemort and change everything.

I mean, it could happen. Sometimes when I can't sleep I tell myself I believe it's going to happen, that it'll happen when we're still young enough that we'll really get to live in that other society, and I imagine my life in it. Do you not do that? I don't know if Pansy does, or not.

You're right that she's not a very good actress.

From:

alt_draco

A normal life? I don't know.

The Protectorate changed our way of life very quickly, so logically speaking, it isn't impossible to think that it could change back quickly, too. The paradigm shift hasn't really happened yet - not while so many are still living who remember the way things were before. So yes, sometime I think about that, especially when things seem very hopeless.

I try not to imagine my life, specifically, in that context, because it would distract me.

From:

alt_sally_anne

I suppose it is distracting.

But, it makes me feel hopeful, too. It's not just my own life, I imagine Justin and Hydra being married. Mrs Longbottom in charge of MLE instead of Bellatrix. Hermione teaching at Hogwarts. Things like that.

I mean it's a little silly, I don't know if Hermione would be any good at teaching. Or if she wants to be a teacher. Anything like that.

From:

alt_draco

She'd be a good teacher, but I think she'd be doing even more than that.

I see that you don't quite know how to imagine me in your Utopian future. Don't worry, though - neither do I.

From:

alt_sally_anne

No, I do imagine you, it's just that ~~I was afraid you'd make fun~~ it seemed a little, I don't know.

I imagine you being, I don't quite know what to call it, the person who shows the other purebloods that it's going to be better for them, too. Someone in the middle, who was supposed to be at the top of the old regime so people will believe you when you say, 'this will be worth it.' When I imagine us all years in the future sometimes I imagine you as Minister -- only, you know, one who's actually running things and isn't just Voldemort's scapegoat when things go wrong.

I tried picturing Hermione as Minister just now but honestly she's SUCH A GRYFFINDOR. Politics are one thing I'm not sure she'll ever be all that good at. She'd be a brilliant Headmistress at Hogwarts, though.

From:

alt_draco

I can't say that particular scenario ever occurred to me, but I suppose it might work. Convincing other purebloods, I mean - I'm not sure about being Minister. Someone more likeable should be Minister, and I'll just feed him or her all the best ideas.

Too right she's a gryffindor. She just now rubbished me for being worried about her - as if it's completely ordinary to go sneak around Bellatrix under an invisibility cloak. If she'd been caught, she'd not just have been in trouble for spying, but also for stealing her Master's property. Which meant she would have been sent back to the camps, at best, or just killed right on the spot by Bellatrix.

From:

alt_sally_anne

Probably killed on the spot, unless the Headmistress -- well. Nothing good would have come of it.

Who would you have sent instead? Really, anyone caught spying on Bellatrix would have been in deep trouble. I'd have gone too, though, if Hydra had asked me. Not because I'm a Gryffindor, just because I wouldn't have thought about how dangerous it was until it was too late to back out.

From:

alt_draco

I would have sent myself, I suppose. Or Harry. He can't occlude very well but Bellatrix would probably think he has the right to spy on whomever he pleases.

From:

alt_sally_anne

Ugh, I wish sending Harry would have made things better but... who even knows.

What would she have done to you if she'd caught you? ~~Speaking of Slytherins acting like Gryffindors.~~

From:

alt_sally_anne

Ron acts just like this, you know, when there's something he wants to protect me

wait

~~you're~~

you have feelings for Hermione, don't you. ~~No wonder~~ ~~So that's why~~

Does she know?

From:

alt_draco

Well, that's the first time anyone's ever compared me to Weasley, I'm sure.

I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to Hermione. None of us would, would we?

But that doesn't mean I have feelings for her. I don't have them for anyone. There's nothing for her to know.

From:

alt_sally_anne

Of course no one wants anything bad to happen to Hermione. But

well, I'm not going to try to talk you into telling her, I mean even if she liked you back I'd say this week proved conclusively that secret relationships that happen anywhere within the walls of Hogwarts are maybe not the best idea ever.

From:

alt_draco

There's nothing to tell.

From:

alt_draco

I told Hydra that if she wasn't careful, love would make her weak. But she just kept going on about how sorry she was that I other people don't have a bloody great tragic love story to cling to.

Hermione, where are you? Just sneak out and bring me the cloak. I'll spy on Bellatrix - it will be good practice, even. And if she does catch me, I can wriggle out of it because I'm her nephew. There's no way you can wriggle out of anything with her.

From:

alt_lupin

Am I understanding this correctly? It appears that ALL of the juniors were well aware that Justin and Hydra had been compromised. Were ANY of the adults aware? Did Pomona or Poppy tell you, at least?

From:

alt_alice

Pomona came by late last night to let me know what happened, and that Bellatrix would be arriving today to talk to Hydra. That was the first I'd heard of all of this.

Needless to say, she was in quite a state about the whole thing.

She and I ultimately decided against pulling both of them out of school immediately, and that she'd keep me informed if there were any developments.

From:

alt_lupin

Well, I am relieved to hear that some of the adults knew and yet dismayed to note that you were informed by Pomona and not because ANY of the juniors saw fit to mention it to you.

From:

alt_alice

Yes.

It's a difficult position to be in. I am deeply disappointed. But if their trust is so tenuous, then railing and raging is more likely to hurt than help.

From:

alt_lupin

Well, fortunately, all the bits of furniture Sirius smashed this afternoon are in the cellar at 12GP. We can have it properly broken into kindling before any guests arrive for Easter Hols (did we ever work out where we were meeting?) and no one will feel raged-at.

I don't think this was a lack of trust. I think this was embarrassment, on the part of Justin and Hydra, and misplaced solidarity on the part of the rest of them. It wasn't actually ORDER BUSINESS and therefore no one felt that it was required.

Mortal danger to an Order member is always Order business. Even if they're not in trouble because of Order activities.

From:

alt_sirius

It was needing to be done. At least when I rampage, it's targetted at something useful.

I can't believe those two. No, what I can't believe is how they've been able to absolutely charm everyone so far into helping them cover up for their affair.

Merlin, why couldn't they have just waited for two years?

From:

alt_alice

Perhaps they didn't think they had two years to wait.

From:

alt_alice

That doesn't mean I'm not still furious, mind. Or making excuses. It was ridiculously stupid of them.

From:

alt_alice

I'll have that final two sentences done up in needlepoint on my wall.

It's a good way of thinking about things. When we've all had time to lick our respective wounds, I'll say as much, and hope the message sinks in.

These young people are under such incredible pressure, and have significant (and adult) responsibilities and burdens. They expect our respect and trust, and rightfully so. We also hold them to an extraordinarily high standard. I suppose this took me by surprise because it demonstrates such immaturity and a shocking lack of judgement, but it's just part of the package, isn't it? They haven't had the benefit of decades of life experience.

But these are dangerous times, and there are certain mistakes we simply cannot afford to repeat.

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alt_hermione

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