Chapter 110: Blood Killer Part 4
"I don't know Ginny, this is kind of ridiculous," Hermione grumbled, spinning around.
"You're right." Ginny picked up a thin piece of white fabric and tossed it at Hermione. It hit her straight in the face, but Ginny paid no attention. "Put the veil on."
"No, that's not what I meant," Hermione said, pulling the veil off if her face with a huff, "i mean the trying on dresses. Can't I wear that one you bought me last month?"
Ginny looked appalled.
"Hermione, you are getting married. I may not understand why you are six months out of your first marriage and why it's Malfoy, but still. You're getting married. That's exciting. And call me my mum, but you are not getting married in a white t-shirt dress. And, look, that dress is pretty," Ginny explained. She sighed before continuing, "But you don't like it, do you?"
"It's strapless, tight, and I feel like a slutty princess," Hermione groaned.
Ginny laughed and pulled a new dress of the rack. She handed it to Hermione and ushered the older girl into the dressing room. Hermione sighed, trying to remember how she even told Ginny. It was a smart decision since she and Draco needed the wedding to happen right away for their plan to work, but Ginny was getting over bearing. So far, Hermione had tried on hundred of wedding dresses and none was to her liking. She wasn't trying to be picky, any would do, but all of the social media in the wizarding world would be there and Hermione didn't want to look anything but beautiful.
Hermione would fully admit that Draco's plan was brilliant. The blood killers were obviously after all muggleborns, not just her. But there had been so many deaths already, over a hundred, maybe two over two hundred, and there couldn't be anymore. So they needed to lure the blood killers out.Draco thought that if someone with such a high status as him, a Malfoy, married a muggleborn, and a well known one at that, it would catch the blood killers by surprise and force them to attack out of anger.
Hermione pushed the thoughts aside. She needed to worry about keeping the facade up with Ginny. She and Draco had agreed to tell no one - not even their closest friends. It would ruin things if the secret got out.
Hermione slipped the dress on. It was different, much different from the others. It wasn't a long, poofy dress or a skin tight to her ankles one. This dress ended at her knees. It was a simple white dress covered in a layer of lace. The skirt puffed out, but not too much that it made Hermione feel like she was a puffer fish. The dress was sleeveless and the neck came just above her collarbone. It came with a small veil, a white fishnet like material connected to a small flower pin. Hermione put it on and stared at herself in the mirror, confused. She thought she looked gorgeous. The dress she'd worn for her and Ron's wedding couldn't compare. That one had been a long mermaid dress with gold beading.
"You okay in there?" Ginny called.
"Yeah," Hermione breathed, grinning. She stepped out and Ginny grinned at her appearance.
Hermione watched her friend's eyes light up as the smile took over her whole face. She couldn't stop her grin from growing larger. Something about the dress felt so much like Hermione. It made her feel powerful and confident; like she was in complete control of her life. Hermione chuckled at that. This was a fake wedding, yet she had found the dress of her dreams.
"I think that's the one," Ginny whispered.
Hermione could only nod in agreement while she turned back to see herself again.
Hermione was staring over copies of victim's. She and Draco had to fill out the same information about every Hogwarts student who had died. The job was as much paperwork as it was action. Hermione scratched out her notes, messing up again, her hand shaking. She wanted to vomit. Some of the kids who had died were as young as eleven. They had barely been at Hogwarts a year, not even six months, and they died. Hermione set her quill down and closed her eyes, releasing a shaky breath.
"Are you okay?"
Hermione jumped. She had thought she was alone. She looked around and saw Lisa standing in the hallway, her hair sitting in a rat's nest on her head. She had dark circles beneath her eyes.
"Yeah, I'm okay. How are you?" Lisa asked, trudging over with heavy feet and sitting down next to Hermione.
Lisa just let out a long sigh.
"You know I was supposed to be in my third year? I didn't believe it when they told me I was a witch. I refused to believe it and then they offered it to me one last time a year later. And I thought why not? Maybe I was crazy or hallucinating or something. But then it was all real, all of it. And I met Ella on the train and my life fell into place. It was all out of whack for the longest time, and Ella was the first normal thing in it," Lisa said, her eyes far off, reliving memories in another world.
"That must be nice, having someone who's as good of a friend as that," Hermione smiled.
Lisa looked down at a file with Ella's name on the tab. Her face filled with sorrow and the bags under her eyes seemed to grow by just looking at the name.
"Yeah," she said, "We were the closest pair of friends anyone could imagine." Lisa sighed stood up, "I'm going to go and - "
A loud thud from above cut her off. Multiple crashes were heard from above. Draco came running out of his room, a bag in hand.
"What's in that?" Lisa asked.
"All the files from the case. You have your wand on you" Draco asked.
"Uh yeah, why? I can't use it," Lisa said, pulling her wand from her pocket.
"I give you special permission," Draco muttered, summoning everything Hermione was working on into the into the bag.
"Malfoy, what's going on?" Hermione demanded, her hand unconsciously moving towards her wand.
Draco swallowed harshly and said, "The roof is above us. And the apparition charms were turned off by somebody, and it wasn't me."
Hey y'all! Sorry this up so late and sorry it's short. I'm having a bit of writer's block. But according to my planner another part will be up Friday. I'll try to post it before 8:00pm PST and it will be much longer.
Also, I'm heavily considering turning these into a book all about Hermione and Draco, the crime fighting team. Who would want them? It would start when they first became partners and go through after this blood killer situation, which would be in the book but with revisions.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone