Hermione, Harry, Ron, and Jake all went up to the Owlery after Breakfast Sunday morning to send a letter to Percy, asking as Sirius had suggested, whether he had seen Mister Crouch lately. Jake was regretting making the trek all the way up there, but he grit his teeth and pushed through the pain; he had felt way worse a few days ago anyway. They used Hedwig, because it had been so long since she last had a job to do. When they had watched her fly out of sight through the window in the Owlery, Hermione and Jake returned to the Gryffindor Common Room to work on some homework they still had to finish up.
Harry and Ron said they were going to do the opposite of homework and didn't say anything else. She and Jake sat beside each other and pulled out Arithmancy homework, "You know, I really thought Harry was trying to be better at getting his homework done... that'll teach me to not get hopeful about it again."
"It's not entirely his fault. Ron likes to slack off so much that it just kind of rubs off on Harry," Jake answered without looking up from his paper.
"I guess you're right... but still," she huffed and continued working until they were both finished.
When Hermione finished first, she noticed that Jake was breathing funny, "Before you say it..." he spoke suddenly, inhaling carefully, and exhaling just as carefully, "I'm okay, Hermione," he looked at her on his right and smiled at her.
"I know you say that, Jake, but that doesn't mean I believe it. You've never been badly injured before, and anything at the moment is up to chance," Hermione said, frustrated that he wasn't taking his injuries seriously.
"And that's no reason to be overly worried about it," he said, looking back to his work to finish it.
"You're a right prat sometimes, you know that?" Hermione packed her stuff up and took it up to her room, coming back down with a book a moment later. She sat down in her seat and leaned against the couch arm to read. She couldn't stop herself from glancing over at him every so often, however.
*******
At Breakfast the next morning, Monday, Ron seemed in a particularly bad mood, but he refused to elaborate on why. It was when the Owl Post arrived that things got particularly interesting, and not for the better. Hermione looked up upon hearing the fluttering of Owls, which prompted Ron to speak, "Percy won't've had time to answer yet," he said, "we only sent Hedwig yesterday."
"No, it's not that," Hermione answered him, "I've started my subscription to the Daily Prophet back up. I'm getting sick of finding everything out from the Slytherins."
"Good thinking" Harry said eagerly, also looking up at the owls, "hey, Hermione, I think you're in-"
Before he could finish his sentence, a gray owl had landed in front of her, but, "It hasn't got a newspaper, though," she was disappointed.
Then, to her and Jake's bewilderment, the gray owl was closely followed by four barn owls, a brown owl, and a tawny owl. Jake had a bad feeling about this.
"How many subscriptions did you take out?" Harry asked, seizing Hermione's goblet before it could get knocked over by the growing cluster of owls, all wanting to deliver their letter first.
Hermione took one of the letters and opened it, "Oh really!" She sputtered, going red in the face.
Jake leaned over to read the letter and he all of a sudden wanted to punch someone, hard, "YoU aRe A wIcKeD gIrL. hArRy PoTtEr DeSeRvEs BeTtEr. Go BaCk WhErE yOu CaMe FrOm MuGgLe."
Hermione dropped it and opened another, "They are all like it!" She said desperately, " Harry Potter can do much better than the likes of you... "
"The very fact anyone believes Rita Skeeter at all is mind-blowing," Jake said, trying to remain calm.
" You already look ugly, might as well make it worse- aaagghhh!" Hermione was then hit in the face with a substance, and Jake saw that it was burning through her skin. Hermione writhed in pain, tears flowing from her eyes from both pain and embarrassment, which really only made the pain worse, as she felt someone, assumedly Jake, grab her and lead her out of the Great Hall. He said nothing as he led her to the Hospital Wing, but she could feel the anger practically radiating off of him.
When he walked in with Hermione, Madam Pomfrey wasn't surprised to see him in there, nor was she surprised to see that Hermione was the one needing the treatment, "The bed over there, I'll be back in a moment," Pomfrey had said, pointing to a specific bed.
"You think if we come here enough times we get our own reserved bed?" Jake asked, trying to lighten the mood.
"That's-" Hermione hissed in pain, "not funny," he knew she did find it funny, but given her situation, she wasn't up for laughing.
"Right, sorry, Hermione..."
Madam Pomfrey came back over after a moment with the proper stuff, "Seems you've been hit with the same stuff Kidd was the previous school year. Won't take but a moment to fix, but I will need to keep you here to make sure you're okay, Miss Granger. Kidd, go ahead to your first class, I don't know how long I'm going to have to keep her here for."
"Okay... I'll come back at Lunch Break if I don't see you before then," he said and left the Hospital Wing, going to Herbology.
"Is Hermione going to be okay?" Harry asked as he arrived.
"She'll be fine after a few hours..." Jake said, exhaling, trying to keep calm. If he ever found who sent her that letter, he was going to kill them.
"I warned her!" Ron practically yelled as they walked into Herbology, "I warned her not to annoy Rita Skeeter!"
"Not helpful, Ron," Jake said, hoping Ron got the hint in the tone of his voice.
He wouldn't know if Ron did get the hint or not, as Professor Sprout had started class. Which she did by walking right up to Jake, "Mister Kidd, might I ask where Miss Granger is?"
"She had to go to the Hospital Wing," he informed Professor Sprout. She nodded and said nothing else as she carried on with the lesson.
As the three boys left the Greenhouses for Care of Magical Creatures, they saw Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle descending the stone steps of the Castle. Jake tried to just ignore them, but it was when he heard Pansy's grating voice that he was unable to just ignore them, "Potter, have you split up with your girlfriend? Were you sad to see Kidd take her out of the Great Hall?"
"Leave it, Pansy," he heard Pendragon say from somewhere behind him.
Pansy, however, ignored Logan, "What was she screaming about anyway? She was covering her face from what I could see. Did she realize how ugly she really is?"
"Pansy!" Logan raised his voice, which he very clearly almost never did.
"Oh shove off, Pendragon," Pansy said.
"Say it again," Jake said, his eye closed.
"Wh-What?" Pansy stuttered slightly.
Jake opened his eye and turned so that Pansy could see his face, "Say it again."
He saw the fear in Pansy's eyes as she backed up into her pack of Slytherin Girls, who were all frozen to the spot with fear. That was the thing about most Slytherins, they were all talk. He started walking towards Pansy, who turned to run through her friends, but Jake raised his hand and then thrust it backwards, causing Pansy to fly towards him.
Just as she got close to him, he used both hands and grabbed her roughly by her clothing, and turned her around to stare in her eyes, "Say. It. Again."
Pansy refused. Jake was sick of dealing with the Slytherins for this reason, so to satisfy his rage, he headbutt her, painfully hard. He let go of her as she flung backwards, recoiled from his attack and fell to the floor. "Jake," Logan said, "Why do you always do this? Resort to physical violence?"
"If I have to explain it to you," he turned and looked at Logan, "then open yours eyes, Pendragon."
Logan was probably the only Slytherin not afraid of him. Even under his glare, Logan stood his ground, but he didn't say anything else, and Jake figured he probably thought about what he had just said.
Pansy had been crying and screaming for the past few moments, and a gash had opened on her forehead. She was stood up by her friends who then proceeded to take her to the Hospital Wing.
"What's going to be in the Prophet now do you think?" Harry asked, still shaking off the cold chill that ran down his spine.
"I really don't care," Jake said and made his way to Hagrid's Cabin. Skeeter already had made him out to be a horrible person, and that was only half-true; he was a good guy to people who didn't wrong him or his friends.
Hagrid, who told them last lesson they were done with Unicorns, had been waiting on them near his cabin with a fresh supply of open crates at his feet. He thought for a brief moment that they were Blast-Ended Skrewts, but he saw a hint of black fur, and he instantly recognized them to be Nifflers. They were small and fluffy, and had flat, spade-like hands; they were all blinking up curiously at the class, "These're nifflers," Hagrid said when the class had gathered around, "yeh find 'em down in mines mostly. They like sparkly stuff... There yeh go, look."
One of the Nifflers suddenly leapt up and attempted to bite Parvati's wrist watch off. She shrieked and jumped backwards, fearing for her life, "They're not dangerous," Jake said, bending down and lifting one out of the crate, "unless you're rich," he began to scratch the Niffler behind the ear, "and they are useful for detecting treasure, that's why their hands are shaped how they are."
"Couldn' have explained it better myself," Hagrid said, "Ten Points ter Gryffindor. So, I thought we'd have some fun with 'em today. See over there?" He pointed to a large patch of freshly turned earth, and the look on Harry's face seemed to show realization, "I've buried some gold coins. I've got a prize fer whoever picks the Niffler that digs up the most. Jus' take off all yer valuables, an' choose a niffler, an' get ready ter set 'em loose." The class did just that, and Jake took off his own wrist-watch, setting the niffler on his shoulder, and he could see out of his peripheral that it's head was following his watch the entire time, "Hang on a second..." Hagrid said, looking in the crate, "there're still five in the crate... who's missin'?"
Jake began to count on his fingers, "Hermione... Parkinson... three, four... Five students. Two in the Hospital Wing, and three of them taking Parkinson to the Hospital Wing," he said nonchalantly like it wasn't a big deal, "I'll explain later why Hermione's there, though."
"Alrigh' then. Everyone got a niffler? Set 'em down near the patch of Earth, and let 'em loose!"
It was easily some of the most fun that Jake had so far had in Care of Magical Creatures, and he hated that Hermione had to miss it. The nifflers dived in and out of the patch of earth as though it were water, showing that Jake was right about their hands, they practically swam through the earth, and each scurried back to the student who picked it out with gold coins in their hands and setting them into the lap of each respective student. Ron's was particularly efficient at finding coins; his lap soon had easily the most of anyone.
"Can you buy these as pets, Hagrid?" He had asked excitedly as his niffler dove back into the soil, splattering his robes.
"Yes, but yer mum wouldn' be happy, Ron," Hagrid said, grinning, "they wreck houses, nifflers do. I reckon they've nearly got the lot, now," he added, pacing around the patch of earth while the nifflers continued to dive, "I on'y buried a hundred coins." After a few more minutes, the nifflers stopped going back under the soil, "Well, let's check how yeh've done!" Hagrid's voice boomed, but Jake didn't even bother counting as his niffler got nowhere near the amount Ron's did, "Count yer coins! An' there's no point tryin' ter steal any, Goyle," he added, his beetle-black eyes narrowed, "it's Leprechaun gold. Vanishes after a few hours."
Goyle then emptied his pockets, looking extremely sulky, but Jake smiled deviously. It turned out that Ron's niffler had been the most successful by a large margin, so Hagrid gave him an enormous slab of Honeydukes chocolate for a prize. The bell rang soon across the grounds for lunch; the rest of class set off back up to the castle, but Harry, Ron, and Jake stayed behind to help Hagrid round up the nifflers.
"So, what happened ter Hermione?" Hagrid asked in a concerned voice.
Jake proceeded to explain what happened, about the hate mail she'd received, and a particular one that had some sort of acidic curse that hit her in the face. He added why Pansy was in the Hospital Wing as an off-hand comment, and while Hagrid didn't seem to approve of it, he said nothing about it otherwise.
"My advice... don' let her open any more mail," Hagrid said quietly, "I got some o' those letters an' all, after Rita Skeeter wrote abou' me mum. Yeh're a monster an' yeh should be put down . Yer mother killed innocent people an' if yeh had any decency yeh'd jump in a lake ."
"People can be so cruel off the words of some gussied up broad... Witches and Wizards are so damn stupid if they actually believe even half of what Rita Skeeter writes..." Jake spat hatefully.
"Yeah," Hagrid said, heaving the niffler crates over by his cabin wall, "They're jus' nutters. Don' let her open any more of 'em if yeh can. Chuck 'em straigh' in the fire."
"Oh, believe me, I won't let her open another unmarked letter at all," Jake said. 'Either I'll do it myself, or I'll just torch them.'
"She missed a really good lesson," Harry said as they headed back up to the Castle, "they're good, nifflers, aren't they, Ron?"
Ron, however, was frowning at the chocolate Hagrid had given him. He looked thoroughly miffed about something.
"What's the matter? Wrong flavor?" Harry asked him.
"No," Ron said shortly, "Why didn't you tell me about the gold?"
"What gold?" Harry asked.
"The gold I gave you at the World Cup," Ron said, his face contorted funny, "the leprechaun gold I gave you for my Omnioculars, in the Top Box... why didn't you tell me it disappeared?"
"I tried," Jake said, glancing over at Ron, "but you were being loud and quite pleased about paying Harry back, that you didn't hear me, so I gave up immediately."
They climbed the steps into the Entrance Hall, but Jake stopped, prompting them both to stop as well, but Ron was muttering to himself, "Must be nice..." he said suddenly loud enough for Jake to hear him, "to be able to talk about not caring that the money I gave Harry disappeared after a while."
"It's not my fault you don't pay attention, Ron, don't you fucking dare try to pin the blame on me," Jake said in a calm voice.
"I didn't know it vanished," Ron said, still defiant, "I thought I was paying him back..." he turned to Harry, "You shouldn't have given me that Chudley Cannon hat for Christmas."
"Forget it, all right?" Harry said quickly, wanting to drop the subject.
Ron was sulky as he looked at his feet, "I hate being poor."
"Right, because you have it so fucking bad right now, don't you?" Jake said in a rising voice, "Or have you forgotten that Hermione had an acidic, corrosive substance splashed on her face !?" He yelled the last word, and the Entrance Hall and Great Hall rumbled a bit, causing the white noise from the Great Hall to suddenly go quiet. "You know what? Fuck off, Weasley. I'm going to see Hermione for Lunch Break," he said, but went into the Great Hall to get a small plate of food, just in case she was hungry.
*******
Hate mail for Hermione continued to arrive as the week progressed. Jake, like he said he would, torched every single one of them that arrived. Even the Howler's that she received at breakfast, he contained them in a magical sphere that forced the Howler to explode, without it booming to the Hall whatever insult it would fling at Hermione. He didn't take anything lying down if it involved Hermione. He continued to hold to his promise to her father to keep her safe, even if he wasn't doing that great of a job at it, "At least Madam Pomfrey was able to fix your face up to seem as though it never happened, it looks like it never happened," he said one morning after Breakfast had ended. He didn't realize he was staring at her face, except when she turned red and squirmed a bit under his gaze. He felt a little embarrassed and didn't look at her for a good while after that.
Hermione had hung back in their Defense class that day to talk to Professor Moody after the lesson, which most everyone else was eager to get out of; Moody had given most of them a rigorous test of hex-deflection that many had still been nursing small injuries. Jake, as expected, deflected every hex with almost no effort, even with the most powerful hex Moody threw at him. He noticed that Harry had a bad case of Twitchy Ears, and was holding his hands clamped over them as he walked away from the class.
"Well, Skeeter's definitely not using an Invisibility Cloak," Hermione said to Jake as he had waited for her. They walked at a casual pace towards the Entrance Hall, "Moody says he didn't see her anywhere near the judges table at the Second Task, or anywhere near the lake!"
"Well... I've been giving it quite a lot of thought..." he said, getting her attention.
"Really? What did you figure out?" She asked eagerly.
"Well... what if she's an Animagus?" He looked at her as they got to the top of the Marble Staircase.
Hermione looked as though she had just been slapped, "Of course! Why didn't that ever occur to me!?"
"And my guess is that she's something small, like a bug... all I have to say, though, is that you better hope you find her before I do," he said.
"Jake, you are not going to kill her," Hermione said, knowing immediately what he was thinking of doing.
"Then you'd better find her first, because if I find her first, I'm going to kill her," he said in a voice that ended the debate.
Hermione knew he was serious, so in the days leading up to Easter, she kept an ever watchful look for any bug that could potentially be Skeeter. She would know right away if it was, because Animagi kept some noticeable traits from their Human form. As her luck would have it, though, she had yet to find Skeeter.
Even through the Holidays, the letters didn't stop. It's like they hoped Jake would just not be there around Hermione when the letters and Howlers came.
Hedwig didn't return until the end of Easter Holiday with Percy's reply, which was enclosed in a package of Easter eggs that Molly Weasley had sent. Harry, Ron, and Jake all had large eggs the size of Dragon eggs, but Hermione's was a pitiful egg that could barely be considered the size of a chicken egg.
"Your mum doesn't read Witch Weekly , by any chance, does she, Ron?" She asked quietly.
"Yeah," Ron said blissfully ignorant to Hermione's quiet tone, making sure to not have a full mouth before he responded, "gets it for the recipes."
Hermione looked at her egg sadly.
Jake grabbed her egg and crushed it in his hand, "Jake!" She said, not believing he just did that, despite it happening right in front of her.
"What?" He asked nonchalantly as his eye glowed red, and the toffee that was inside disappeared off his hand, "If Molly is going to be like pretty much every other Witch that reads Witch Weekly , she doesn't get the satisfaction of someone enjoying it." His own egg suddenly exploded, sending toffee everywhere. There were complaints for a moment before the toffee was suddenly magicked away.
Hermione just looked at him, honestly not as surprised as she thought she'd be. She looked at Ron and he looked as though he had just been slapped, "I would've ate that!"
"Nope, no one gets to enjoy it. Sorry, Ron, but I'm not going to allow Hermione to be treated like that by anyone based upon lies told by Skeeter," Jake said.
"Percy says he hasn't seen Crouch himself, but that he can recognize his own superiors' handwriting. And to not bother him about it again with how much he has going on," Harry said, having read the letter without waiting for them.
*******
At the start of the Summer term, Jake was calmly reading in the Common Room on a weekend during breakfast when the Portrait creaked open, and Hermione ran in and past him up to the girls dorm, crying, "Hermione?"
He stood up and followed her to the bottom of the steps and watched her figure disappear up the stairs. He turned to the Portrait angrily, his eye a dull red as he walked out into the Corridor. A few Gryffindor Second-Years who had been about to walk up to the Portrait saw him, and suddenly hurried to the wall on the far side of the Corridor.
He ignored them and walked down the Corridor, at a casual pace; whoever caused Hermione to be brought to tears wouldn't get very far.
He descended a Staircase and came across McGonagall, "Professor, I'm glad I found you."
"Kidd, I'm on my way back to my office," she said, carrying a stack of books. She saw his eye, "Perhaps you should join me?"
"I think I will," he followed McGonagall down the dimly lit Corridor and entered her office behind her when they came up to it. He looked at the room, and it hadn't changed since he arrived back in First Year.
McGonagall set her books down on our end of her desk and looked at him. If she was afraid of what he might do, then she wasn't showing it, "Please, sit down," she motioned to one of the chairs on the other side of her desk as she sat down.
He did as she asked and looked right at her. He didn't say a word, though.
"Might I ask why you are... angry?" She asked him.
"I'm not angry, I'm furious, Professor," he said in a calm voice, "Hermione ran past me in the Common Room, crying, and I don't know who caused it, but they are going to wish they hadn't."
"I can see your... reasoning behind it. Let me talk to Miss Granger first, and see if I can find out what happened," McGonagall proposed.
"Alright," he stood up, "let's go. I'm not allowed to go up the steps to the Girls Dormitory, obviously, otherwise I wouldn't be bothering you right now."
"I understand, let's go to the Common Room, and I'll see if I can either coax Miss Granger downstairs, or at least coax the answer out of her," McGonagall said and they stood up, the screeching of chairs sliding across wood echoing through the room. She led him out and to Gryffindor Tower; anyone they came across stood against the wall of whatever side of the Corridor they were on, afraid of angering him.
Once inside the Common Room, McGonagall asked him to wait downstairs as she ascended them.
Hermione was in her bed, crying her eyes out practically with her beds curtains closed, blocking out the light that was otherwise coming through the windows with drawn curtains.
"Miss Granger?" She heard the voice of Professor McGonagall just as the door latch clicked open.
Hermione didn't say anything, but her sniffling gave away the fact she was there.
"Miss Granger, Kidd - he asked me to come and check on you after explaining to me what had happened," McGonagall had walked up to her bed, but didn't open the curtains out of respect for her privacy.
Hermione sat up on her bed, her hand going up to her face without even having to think about wiping her face off, and she drew back her curtains, seeing her Head of House standing there, looking down at her with a soft expression she had never seen from McGonagall before.
"May I sit down?" She asked Hermione.
"Yes," her voice was hoarse from the crying.
McGonagall sat down and looked at her, "May I ask why you were crying?"
"It's-" She stopped herself involuntarily. She cried a bit more before continuing forth anyway, "m-my parents... th-th-they a-are getting a d-divorce..." she brought her hands up to her face, the base of her palm resting against her closed eyes, tears escaping past her hands and down her arms, wetting her pants as the salty liquid met fabric.
McGonagall didn't quite know what to say, "Well, I may not be able to help you, but I know who can. Kidd's looked like he's wanted to severely harm someone since you ran past him earlier, he said."
"He has? Oh no..." Hermione, in her haste, didn't think about what he would make of her predicament. She stood up from her bed after McGonagall stood up herself and she followed her Head of House down to the Common Room.
Jake was standing as still as when McGonagall walked up a little while ago, and Hermione, even though he wasn't showing it, she could see the anger behind his eye, even if it hadn't been red, "Kidd, I believe Miss Granger wants to explain the situation. I will be back in my office if you need me," McGonagall said and exited Gryffindor Tower.
"C-Can we sit?" Hermione asked him and he said nothing as he turned and walked over to the couch, sitting down only when she did, "So... I-I got a letter... n-not hate mail this time," she clarified quickly before he could get real angry, "m-my parents... th-they... they... oh, Jake, they're getting a divorce!"
In the span of a nanosecond, his anger dissipated into nothing, "What?" His voice barely above a whisper as he asked her.
Hermione flung herself over onto him, her arms going around him as she cried into his shoulder. His arms went around her instinctively, and he gently caressed her back in a soothing manner. He was at a complete loss for words; he was ready to kill someone, but this... it completely blindsided him.
He ended up waiting until she stopped sobbing into his upper clothing, which had soaked through both the button-up short-sleeve shirt, which was unbuttoned, and the long-sleeve shirt he was wearing underneath it, "Hermione... I-I-"
She pulled back from him, her face stained with tears. She used her shirt to clean her face off, which lifted up enough to show some of her belly to him, and he only then realized, despite the situation, she had maintained a healthy weight all year. Of course, she seemed to every year; he never once knew Hermione to be overweight. When her belly was out of his view, he quickly looked up; he was thankful that her eyes were closed, meaning she didn't catch him staring, "It has nothing to do with magic, if that's what you're wondering... they just-" she got choked up, "th-they just... f-fell out of love..."
"Hermione... I'm... I'm so sorry... I wish there was something I could do..." he felt useless.
"Th-There's nothing a-anyone can do..." she said in a shaky, stuttering voice, "wh-why would they d-do this?"
"I don't know... I wish I had the answer... I'm sorry I don't..."
"Y-You have nothing t-to be sorry f-for," she said to him, placing a hand on his knee, 'Even when it's not, he thinks it's his fault he doesn't have the answer, when there is no possible way for him to have it.'
He looked at her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to him. She didn't resist and gladly laid against him on the couch. Hermione felt security whenever she was held by him, like nothing would ever be wrong again and would always be right. She knew that was naive to think like that, but that's how she felt.
It was a couple of hours later when someone entered the Common Room, prompting the both of them to separate quickly. Neither of them wanted to, but they didn't know that. The person that entered was Harry, and he looked like he'd seen his own death happen right in front of him, "You're never going to believe what just happened!"