Hermione was shielding against the attack even before she'd completely recognized the full Body-Bind, Cutting Curse, Boil Jinx, and Flame Charm. Her attackers apparently knew about the Dark Magic detection wards and had therefore picked light spells that could still cause damage.
She was not anxious for her wandless abilities to become common knowledge which meant that she couldn't retaliate with her shield raised. Given that the spells had come at her simultaneously, she was likely outnumbered four to one, so she wasn't anxious to lower her shield, either.
There was a moment of stillness, presumably as her attackers waiting to see what she would do. When she didn't fire any spells back at them, they made a second—equally unsuccessful—effort. They might not be able to see it, but her shield was fully operational and not in any danger from the quality of spells that they were currently throwing at her.
Since she didn't have any desire to stay in the hallway indefinitely, she began to walk slowly and deliberately on towards her quarters despite the fact that it was also in the direction of her attackers. The shield would deflect bodies, come to that, but she was betting on their not wanting to be identified.
So it proved. By the time she was halfway down the corridor, there were no more spells being cast at her, and by the time she reached the end of the hallway, there were no students in either direction. She turned right and finished the trip to her quarters.
She hadn't been close enough to sense magical cores, so she couldn't recognize her attackers that way. If they cast the same spells in her presence, she thought it likely she would know them, but she imagined she probably wouldn't get that opportunity.
They were in Slytherin territory and Slytherins had more of a reputation for attacking Gryffindors than any of the other houses, but that proved nothing; even her sensitive ears hadn't picked up any sounds that would help identify her attackers. It was a good spot for this sort of ambush, really, as it was a fairly long stretch of corridor with no branches, doors, or areas where she could have taken refuge if she hadn't shielded successfully at the beginning.
Whoever had attacked her had known that she would be on her own once Pansy was back in Slytherin, and Hermione was relieved that the impromptu nature of her retrieval of the woman from her common room made it unlikely that she had been involved.
Hermione figured that if she was lucky, her easy repulsing of her attackers would show them that she wasn't vulnerable to those sorts of attacks and there would be no repeat performances. Harry would no doubt try to insist that she not travel in the dungeons alone, but she had no intention of letting anyone impose such restrictions on her.
Knowing that this resolution would be more easily upheld if Harry never found out about what had just happened, she returned to the common room without a word on the matter. If Harry and Draco had had spectacular make-up sex, they were finished by the time she arrived, for she found them sitting cosily and fully-clothed on the couch reading their Potions text. It must have been Draco's choice.
They smiled in welcome, questioning her briefly and politely about her rounds, and she assured them that she and Pansy hadn't had a single problem. She joined them with her own text a few minutes later, settling into one of the armchairs so that they could have the entire couch to themselves.
The next morning, they had breakfast at the Gryffindor table. Hermione, sitting next to Harry, had wound up with her back to the Slytherin table and couldn't scan the diners to see if any of them seemed to have guilty consciences, but she had thought that a long shot, anyway.
She was somewhat surprised when partway through breakfast Draco, sitting opposite them, looked confused as he gazed past them in the Slytherins' direction and then focussed on Hermione.
"Are you all right?" he asked quietly.
She raised an eyebrow, requiring more information.
"We're hardly at your level," Draco said, indicating her and Harry with a motion of his finger, "but we know how to use body language to ask those sorts of questions."
At least one of her attackers had indeed been a Slytherin, then, and had told tales. Hermione was quite sure that it was Pansy who had alerted Draco, and she couldn't quite decide whether she was impressed or alarmed that they needed to learn to communicate like that at such a young age.
She contemplated prevaricating but knew that she wasn't going to get very far.
"I'm fine, thank you."
And why wouldn't you be fine? Harry asked suspiciously.
The look on Draco's face indicated that he'd guessed that Harry was using MindSpeech. When he spoke aloud, however, all he said was, "I'm glad to hear it."
Perhaps we could discuss this later? Hermione suggested. Say, not at the breakfast table with half of their House in attendance.
His expression grew instantly stern, both mentally and physically. I'll not be put off.
But do you really want to make me tell you while Draco is left sitting here knowing that we are discussing it but unable to participate? she asked reasonably.
The effect of this question was salutary.
Oh. He looked over at Draco guiltily. Of course not.
She was thus given a reprieve until they were all back in her and Harry's quarters. Once she had explained, Harry reacted exactly as she had predicted, wanting her to promise that she wouldn't travel alone anywhere in the dungeons.
"I'm not going to promise anything of the sort," she said with a laugh as that seemed to be the only way to deal with such a request. "If you really wanted to prevent me from being injured by Slytherins, you'd do better to make me promise not to train anymore with Severus and Draco. I didn't so much as break a nail during last night's ambush."
Harry looked ready to protest some more, but Draco interjected.
"I'll speak to Pansy, see if I can find out more details."
She nodded her thanks, mildly amused that he was trying to keep the peace between her and Harry and more than willing to have a list of students to particularly look out for if it was available to her. She knew, however, that Pansy had to be very careful that she wasn't put in an untenable position. Hermione hoped that the Slytherin woman had worked out that Hermione was quite adept at keeping secrets and was therefore perfectly capable of not betraying either the source or subject of any information she received. Since subtlety was hardly a hallmark of the Gryffindors, however, Hermione imagined that Pansy was going to be cautious. Hermione wouldn't hold her breath for more information.
It was several hours after lunch that Draco came storming back to their common room muttering about idiotic, stubborn, pig-headed people as he paced furiously in front of the fire.
Harry had risen to his feet from his position on the couch but was currently just watching the blond, having apparently decided that approaching when he was in that sort of mood would be unwise.
"It's all right, Draco," Hermione hastened to assure him. "I don't mind if Pansy doesn't say anything. I didn't really think she'd have anything she could give us."
Draco was frowning at her. "Pansy? What about Pansy?"
Hermione realized she'd missed something. "Sorry. I thought you were complaining about Pansy and the fight from last night."
The Slytherin waved this aside. "No, no, I'm talking about Severus."
"Severus?" she asked in surprise.
She had seen most of the other students in the other houses get this way about Severus at one point or another but rarely the Slytherins and definitely not Draco Malfoy.
"I merely wanted to bring to his attention the fact that he had apparently lost his bloody mind, and do you know what he said to me? Can you imagine? The prat actually pointed out that it's illegal to cast the Cruciatus Curse on another human being and since he had not, in fact, actually hit anyone with the curse, he had not done anything wrong. The nerve of that man!"
Hermione spun around to look at Harry, still standing in front of the couch, and he held up his hands.
"Hey, I had nothing to do with this."
Draco stopped pacing abruptly. "How would Harry be involved?"
She turned back to him. "I forbade him from talking to Severus about this. I thought that he spoke to you."
It would have been a nice way to get round her restriction, actually, but she had seen from the expression on Harry's face when she rounded on him that he had had nothing to do with it.
Which meant that Draco had gone to chew Severus out of his own volition, and that was ... sort of amazing. He had surely known that she had not expected it of him.
"Thank you, Draco," she said very sincerely.
"You're welcome."
"Hey, how come he gets to go yell at Snape and I don't?" Harry asked indignantly.
"What Draco chooses to say to his godfather is his business," Hermione answered—which was basically to say that she did not have as much control over Draco as she did over Harry. "I'm sure he knows that you would like to continue to spend time with him and that doing so would be difficult if he is put into detention for the rest of his natural life."
Draco sniffed. "Yes, well, I will probably give him a chance to get over his bout of insanity. There's no reasoning with the man when he's in that sort of mood."
"So he's always insane, then?" Harry said sourly.
Hermione thought it better not to respond. The reaction was so typically Severus that there really wasn't anything to be said unless she wanted to incite Harry to head off to curse Severus in truth.
And she still didn't want either of them to wind up in Azkaban.
At half two the next morning, Hermione geared up her courage and gave in to the inevitable. First, she made certain that no one was currently keeping tabs on her; Harry was still being rather protective, and she was even more wary of Severus than usual. Given his current temper, she had the feeling that being caught doing something technically forbidden—of which he particularly disapproved—would result in detentions for the rest of term in earnest. She really didn't want to test this theory.
It had been almost two weeks since she had last seen Castina and the herd. First, she had been busy with the Weresbane and Severus being Summoned—and then the disaster on the fifteenth had rocked her world. Ever since then, much as she had wanted to visit, too much of her had been worried about exactly what would happen when she did.
For the first time since she had encountered Castina and the herd, she was no longer a virgin. She knew better than most all the ways in which unicorns couldn't interact with non-virgins, so where did that leave her?
She couldn't imagine no longer being able to transform, but how could she be a non-virgin and a unicorn? The notion seemed very contradictory, and she had been unable to bring herself even to test it out in the privacy of her room in Hogwarts. She didn't know what she would do if she couldn't transform, and she couldn't imagine transforming into some other animal instead. So she had been making do with a large dose of denial; if she didn't find out either way, then she could almost pretend there was nothing wrong, that she was simply busy.
Only busy or not, the truth was simply that she was scared. She couldn't keep living in denial. She needed an answer one way or the other.
She passed quickly and quietly over the lawn and beneath the eaves of the Forest. Castina appeared almost immediately.
I have been expecting you, Berit. You should have come sooner.
Hermione knew that but didn't think she could admit in actual words what had made her hesitate. She did not want to make the possibility real.
Castina's voice was soft and chiding only in the gentlest of ways. You need never fear, Berit. You will always be welcome amongst us no matter what happens.
Hermione let out a breath she hadn't even realized she had been holding, pulling more air into her lungs and wondering if it was only her imagination that her heart had just started beating again.
She didn't think that if she became a mass-murdering dictator trying to wipe out all the Muggles of the world that she'd still be welcome, but she appreciated the idea of Castina's unwavering support.
I wasn't … entirely certain that was the case, she admitted quietly.
The herd mare's eyes were full of compassion. You are a thousand times welcome, even now. You don't really think Purity is judged so fleetingly, do you?
Hermione frowned. We've actually spent a great deal of time dealing with it in the last few months; is that not exactly how it's defined?
Castina shook her head. That is very human and far too simple. Come. You will feel better if you run with me.
Before Hermione had more time to second-guess herself, she was doing as Castina suggested and running beside her on four hooves instead of two human legs.
If unicorns could cry, Hermione would have been sobbing with relief. As far as she could tell, this transformation had been identical to all her others; Castina had been perfectly right. Hermione was no longer a virgin, but as far as the unicorns were concerned, she was still Pure. Severus had been wrong, and whatever he had changed, taken away, or broken, this was not one of those things. She didn't need flimsy human definitions when she knew that silver blood was currently coursing through her veins as she ran at Castina's side.
Hermione spent hours in the Forest, relieved beyond measure and very happy to recharge out amongst her four-legged companions, drinking in the light that she still seemed to require. Business as usual when she had thought that everything had changed irreparably.
She was still almost stunned when Castina nuzzled her with no indication that there was any discomfort on the herd mare's part. Unicorn or no, it still felt as though a golf ball were lodged in her throat. In unicorn form, at least, she was not anathema to her own kind. She was welcome within her herd, no matter what happened everywhere else.
As I said, Castina said, and Hermione realized that she had not been shielding her thoughts quite as tightly as she ought to have been. But then, perhaps it was all right that Castina understood just how much it meant to Hermione. You will always have a home here, Berit.
Thank you, Hermione said with utmost sincerity. Out of curiosity, how long would you have left me stewing?
Castina laughed softly. I would probably have given you another week or so. It is better if it is your decision.
Hermione would have felt better if she had not felt so cut off from the herd this last week, but perhaps Castina was right. She needed to make her own choices, not be prodded to them.
It is … very confusing in the castle right now, Hermione admitted.
So I have sensed. Come whenever it is too much for you. Or whenever you desire our company.
The temptation to simply remain in the Forest was stronger than it had been, but she knew it wasn't a valid option. She could just imagine how Harry would react if she announced to him that she was just going to stay out here. Severus would no doubt react immoderately because of all those school rules she would be breaking, and it would probably be hard to hide the fact that something a little unusual was going on if she was taking refuge in a forest. She was pretty sure that was the sort of thing that got out no matter how one tried to keep it secret.
Still, just knowing that she had a guaranteed home out here, that her herd wanted her even if she had been thrown out by Severus and that they didn't see that anything had been damaged beyond repair, meant that it was easier to go back to the castle.
It was past six in the morning when Hermione sneaked back inside. She knew she wasn't going to get any human sleep, but she felt so much calmer and more peaceful that she was sure that it was worth it. She mentally chastised herself for not going sooner. It had been stupid not to face her fears; they had only gotten worse as the week progressed.
But she had done it now. The unicorns were firm in their belief that she was Pure and worthy. Unfortunately, Severus seemed to be equally determined that she wasn't worth so much as civility. It still irked her that she hadn't received at least an acknowledgement of the power that he had gained.
On the list of things that she wished him to acknowledge, this wasn't anywhere near the top, but it was still something. If he wasn't interested in having anything to do with her emotionally or even amicably, then that was his business, but persisting in denying that the one night they had had was of no benefit to him was simply insulting. Nothing would induce her to bring the topic up, of course, because he'd only be odious and no doubt misunderstand if she did.
She would have to treat him solely like her professor for the rest of term. And occasionally best him soundly in training sessions. That would surely make her feel at least a little better. There weren't so many months of school left, after all, and she was going to be kept very busy with the Wolfsbane and the Weresbane … and being Head Girl … and revising for N.E.W.T.s…. She wasn't even done with Pure Adults, either, because the rest of the world didn't know that she and Harry weren't virgins anymore.
Really, it was amazing she'd had any time for him previously, and she would no doubt be freed up for many more pleasing enterprises now that she was cutting him from her list of friends.
She sighed. Trying to cut him from the list. For someone who was being a complete arse, he still seemed to feature pretty frequently in her thoughts. With all the training and casting of curses that he was doing, it wasn't actually so easy to ignore him. Combine that with her memories of their night together, and she wasn't doing so well at all.
But now at least she knew that the unicorns continued to accept her, Harry had defended her choice, and even Draco had apologized and gone after Severus. It had only been a week, though, and her life still felt very muddled.
Would it have been better to have maintained her previous status? All the arguments that had led her to Severus's bed still stood. She might wish that it had ended better, but that was a wish for her, a selfish one—if not unreasonable, she would have thought—while being where she was right now meant that Severus was safer and she and Harry could not be used as weapons for the wrong side of the war.
There had always been a chance before, and now that chance was gone. Now, if she were captured, she'd have more power than ever before with which to defend herself, and if the worst happened, she'd die knowing that she wasn't hurting anybody else in the process. Plus she'd make damn sure to throw the fact that she'd been under Voldemort's nose all this time in his face. Multiple times.
She sighed as she realized that she wouldn't even do that if she thought it would put Severus in more danger; he would be the one most likely to have figured out she was one of the Pure Adults, and she hardly wanted her last act on Earth to be assuring that he was killed.
Angry as she was about everything else that had happened, she would remain grateful to him for making her actual experience of sex for the first time a pleasant one. There had been horrendously awkward bits, but she had known a good deal of pleasure, and she had been deliriously happy for those brief moments when she had forgotten why he was doing it and it had just been the two of them together.
She was still finding it difficult to reconcile those moments with the way he had behaved towards her afterwards. What she'd really like to do was sit down and discuss it with him, but unless she put him in a full Body-Bind, dosed him with Veritaserum, and Obliviated him afterwards, she was quite sure it would not work the way she wanted it to.
Not the most practical of plans.
He would need to be unable to punish her before she would be able to say what she now felt she needed to say to him. It wasn't even that she wasn't willing to risk the points and detentions to speak with him; an actual relationship couldn't be based on that sort of power inequality. She didn't think she should have to risk academic punishment when she was raising a topic that was so completely non-academic.
On top of the hurt, it simply made her boiling mad that he had revoked his caveat so quickly. He had promised not to penalize her for issues surrounding Pure Adults, and if what they were dealing with now didn't qualify, she didn't know what possibly could.
She also knew, however, that he wasn't being his most calm and rational on the subject right now—hard to miss, really. There was little she could do except wait for June and N.E.W.T.s, therefore, because it was clear that he wasn't going to try to accord her any equality on her own. Until then, she would have to try to put him out of her mind. Which, she realized with a large eye roll, was what she'd been trying to do when she began to dwell on the topic extensively this morning. Oops.
She resolutely pulled out all her school books and installed herself in front of the fire in her common room. She'd think about something else if it killed her, and she could usually depend on her school work to keep her occupied.
This proved to be a fortunate decision because Harry didn't appear for their morning training as he usually did; he stumbled out of his bedroom looking particularly rumpled—but quite happy—around ten, and Hermione was not at all surprised to see Draco—much more composed—appear behind the Gryffindor.
"Good morning," she said, grinning at the two of them.
"'Morning," Harry said around a yawn.
"Sleep well?" she asked with mock innocence.
Harry made a noise that didn't resemble an actual word but sounded very positive.
"Of course he slept well," Draco said haughtily. "He was with me."
Her grin grew wider. "Of course. There isn't any other reason why he might have agreed to have you in his bed."
Draco's lips twitched as they watched the anticipated blush wash up Harry's cheeks.
The morning continued leisurely. Hermione kept up with her schoolwork, and Harry and Draco half-heartedly joined her. After lunch, Harry proposed a visit to Hagrid.
"But I don't want to visit—" This was perilously close to full-out whiny, a tone that Draco didn't usually take with Harry, at least not that Hermione had seen.
The Gryffindor cut him off before he could come up with any insulting epithets, saying very pointedly, "My first friend?"
Draco's mouth snapped shut, opening a moment later to voice a single word. "What?"
"I've said how the Dursleys treated me." Hermione doubted that he'd given all the details, but the fact that he'd volunteered any of the information so quickly to Draco was a feat nonetheless. "Dudley made sure I didn't have any friends at school, and since I was barely allowed out, it wasn't as though I had any other opportunities. Albus sent Hagrid to make sure my letter reached me, and he brought me my first birthday cake and everything." Harry smiled in fond reminiscence. "He took me to Diagon Alley and introduced me to the wizarding world and bought me my first real present—Hedwig."
Draco's expression was slightly pained but his tone was almost convincing when he said, "Let's go visit Hagrid."
Harry positively beamed, and the blond's expression softened. He might not like Hagrid, but he wasn't being asked to have tea with Voldemort, and his acquiescence had clearly delighted Harry. Unbelievable as it was in some ways, Hermione really was convinced that Draco was now very concerned about Harry's happiness. She wondered if he was still on his best behaviour after the argument they had had or if this level of thoughtful behaviour could be expected at all times.
Fang's stentorian barking greeted their arrival, followed by the door being flung open by the Care of Magical Creatures professor.
"Harry, Hermione!" Hagrid faltered slightly. "Mr Malfoy. This is a surprise." He smiled at the two Gryffindors. "Come in, come in."
Holding Fang back with one large hand, he stepped away from the door so that they could enter. He eyed Draco strangely, and Draco returned the favour, but Harry appeared oblivious to the tension as he immediately set to clearing off one of the chairs that was piled with an unidentifiable, blue-tinged vegetable-like mass. Once it was clear, he ushered Draco into it with a smile, and Draco, clearly swallowing several possible comments, sat.
By this point, Hermione had cleared her own chair, and Hagrid had moved to put the kettle on for tea. Harry had just started on a chair for himself when Hagrid spoke.
"Harry, could you go see Bu—Witherwings? 'E's out back, you see, an' 'e misses you, I think. 'E's been quite moody recently."
Harry looked from Draco to Hagrid to Hermione. He stopped in his effort at chair-clearing.
"Of course," he agreed. "Back in a sec."
Once he was gone, Hagrid put the kettle down on the stove with more force than seemed to be necessary and pinned Draco with a stern stare.
"Yeh tried ter kill Buckbeak an' get me sacked."
Huh. Hermione hadn't forgotten about the events of third year—it was rather hard to, thanks to the Time-Turner—but it had somehow faded from her mind just how involved Draco had been. She supposed that both she and Harry were employing a selective memory about their past in order to interact with Draco now. Since he was doing the same, it worked out all right, but it made it a little disconcerting when they suddenly ran up against someone who wasn't making such allowances.
It meant there was a better reason for Draco to have been leery of coming to visit Hagrid than the obvious lack of respect he felt towards the half-giant, though Hermione hoped that that was his upbringing again and time would show him more than he had ever let himself see before. She wasn't blind to Hagrid's faults, but he was a good man, and she was sure that Draco would learn that if only he made a conscious effort.
Draco had evidently determined that either agreeing or disagreeing with Hagrid would not be helpful. Since he didn't appear to be ready to apologize, either, he remained silent which, all things considered, was probably their best option.
Hagrid continued, "I don' 'ave a lot of use fer yer airs and graces, an' between you an' yer father, I've lost me livelihood an' been locked in ter Azkaban for longer'n any sane person would wan'."
Hermione wondered if it would make things better if she jumped in. She couldn't in good conscience belittle what Hagrid had gone through, and she worried that that was what he would feel she was doing if she argued that the important thing was that Draco was a better person now.
But it turned out that Hagrid hadn't finished. "If Harry an' Hermione can forgive you, I reckon I can do the same." Draco was regarding him with something close to shock. Hagrid continued: "But if you hurt Harry, ye'll 'ave me to answer to, d'ye hear?"
Draco found his voice at last. "It is not my intention to harm Harry in any way."
"Righ', then," Hagrid said, just as though the whole problem had been solved. He turned back to the kettle which had begun to whistle. "Ye'll be stayin' fer tea?"
"Yes," Draco said, sounding surprised by his own answer.
Harry returned a few minutes later, looking relieved when he found that none of them had injured one another in his absence.
"And how is Witherwings?" Hermione asked, feeling a new subject would be beneficial.
Harry spent several minutes explaining the state in which he had found Buckbeak—a story that he did not appear to have got around to sharing with Draco yet. The blond had reacted quite well so far, but she rather doubted he'd be pleased to know that Harry was visiting the Hippogriff which he continued to claim had tried to kill him. But perhaps now he would be willing to admit how much bunk that had been.... She would leave it to them.
They stuck with innocuous topics after this, filling Hagrid in on their academic progress, and he told them how he'd been doing with his classes. Accidents in class were carefully not alluded to in any way, and while Draco had to almost visibly bite his tongue a couple of times, he didn't say anything outrageously rude. By the time they'd left, Hermione conceded that while it would probably be safer for everyone if it wasn't a weekly occurrence, tea with Hagrid had gone quite well.
Harry was still visibly pleased by Draco's effort, and Hermione excused herself to the library so that the blond could be properly rewarded as was so evidently on the agenda.
Perhaps visits with Hagrid would become a regular occurrence after all.
In the evening, after Draco had returned to his own room, Hermione checked with Harry about whether or not he'd tried to turn into a phoenix recently.
"I was practicing with Fawkes … last Wednesday or Thursday, I think. Why?"
"Just checking."
Something she should have checked sooner if she hadn't been scared of what she would learn on her own behalf.
Harry was staring at her with a look that said that had not been her most stellar excuse ever.
She sighed. "I guess it didn't occur to you that you might not be able to turn into a magical creature after you'd slept with Draco?"
Harry's mouth formed an "oh" of surprise, and then he shook his head. "Nope, I assumed there was nothing to worry about. I mean, I know we aren't virgins anymore, but it's not like—"
And then his mouth caught up with his brain and he realized why she had been asking. He was looking at her with alarm.
"But you can't not be a unicorn. It would just be … wrong."
Her lips tipped up at the certainty with which he had spoken.
"Fortunately, you turned out to be right. I went out last night, and it's all just as it was before."
She apparently sounded as relieved as she felt because he flung his arms around her and held her tight.
"I'm so glad."
She returned his embrace. "Me, too, Harry. Me, too."
Monday brought with it the promise of the second Potions class since Severus had thrown her out, but Hermione had no expectation of the day being particularly unusual.
The day began regularly enough. She, Harry, and Draco were some of the first to arrive for breakfast, and they sat down together at the Gryffindor table, watched the Great Hall fill up, and served themselves.
Hermione frowned faintly as she realized that although they had got all their food, there was no sign of their goblets and juice. Hermione would be the first person to argue that house-elves had as much right to get busy and fall behind as any human did, but she couldn't actually think of any occasion where such a thing had happened before.
She was just beginning to wonder if she was paranoid when all the missing goblets appeared. A murmur of appreciation went up from the other students who had apparently also noticed the lack, many of them reaching out immediately for their cups.
Automatically, Hermione scanned the contents of her cup just as she had done for her food before she had started eating it. In all the scans that she had done up to this point, she had never found anything. Today, however, the spell was informing her that her cup had been doctored with both a truth and a compulsion potion.
The compulsion potion was mild, and the truth potion was one of the unregulated versions that was considerably milder than Veritaserum. Even the latter wouldn't have affected her, of course, but it was more that the potion was there at all that was a cause for concern. She looked at it curiously for a moment and then surreptitiously cast her standard monitoring spell over the glasses of her nearby peers.
She considered this for a moment, which was apparently as much time as Harry needed to perform his own check since they were equally paranoid.
No hint of confusion showed on his face, but there was a mental frown as he pointed out to her, Truth potion in our drinks this morning.
I noticed. Compulsion potion as well.
Just us, do you think?
Hermione shook her head mentally. I would guess the entire school; all the glasses arrived late, and you need a pretty serious pay-off to make this worthwhile. The glasses are affected for as much of the Gryffindor table as I can easily scan.
Looking to find out who the Pure Adults are, then? Harry asked.
She shrugged in casual agreement since it was the default plot of the year. It has been a while since Voldemort made his last attempt; we're about due, I suppose. It gets all of us at once.
But what about those of us who might not drink?
Hermione considered this. Did you notice how many people drank out of their glasses right away? Harry nodded, and she cast wandlessly over the cup and its contents again, more in-depth this time. Slight compulsion on the glass, as well, making you want to drink it. Someone's obviously decided to make a bold move, and whoever it is, I wager he or she has a Portkey and is ready to get out of here the moment this is over. A little brassy for a Slytherin, though, since no one knows with any certainty that the Pure Adults are present. More the style of a Gryffindor.
Harry scanned their table carefully. Surely not?
She shrugged. One can hardly say there isn't a precedent for that sort of behaviour.
I don't suppose so, no, Harry said darkly with a sigh, and she knew he was thinking of Peter Pettigrew.
Draco, beside them, had noticed that they were not paying enough attention to the outside world and was scooping more scrambled eggs onto his plate with rather more force than was necessary, the spoon making a rather sharp rap on the plate each time he tried to get the bits of egg off of it.
Hermione was quite sure those sorts of manners would not have been tolerated at Malfoy Manor, but she recognized the wisdom of not mentioning this fact when he was already annoyed.
He picked up his glass only once he'd set the serving spoon aside, and he got it all the way to his lips before he fumbled it and spilled it all over Ginny, who was seated next to him.
Ron, fortunately, was far enough down the table that he hadn't seen, and Draco very carefully apologized to Ginny as he Vanished the juice from her robe.
I take it Draco noticed the potion, too?
It certainly looks that way, she agreed.
He was a Slytherin; she would have been very surprised if he hadn't noticed.
She started filling Fawkes in on what was going on, assuming that the professor's table had to have been unaffected because Severus was up there and drinking out of his glass. While he was as capable as she was of neutralizing or Vanishing the offending liquid, he would take an attempt to drug him very seriously—as would Albus and Minerva and the rest of the staff.
Hermione put a Stasis Charm on her glass and its contents and Banished the whole thing back to her lab even as she conjured a facsimile to her hand. Although she had guessed that whoever had planned this was going to disappear one way or the other at the end of this gambit, she wanted some sort of proof in case steps had been taken to dispose of the evidence.
Since her Banishing spell—like that of any advanced student—did not send an object flying through the air away from her but sent the object from one place to another near instantaneously, she didn't have to worry that anyone was going to wonder why there was a goblet floating through the air.
Albus, through Fawkes, agreed that while drugging the students was not to be tolerated, finding out who was behind it—especially if it was related to the topic of Pure Adults and Voldemort—was to be desired.
This meant they needed to wait for someone to make a move while most of the student body was drugged with a truth potion enhanced with a potion that made them susceptible to suggestion. Just brilliant.
Most people seemed to be drinking from their glasses, and she hoped this was because a number of them were capable of the same slight of hand as she was. Because otherwise, they really weren't taking the admonitions of constant vigilance from Moody and Tonks seriously enough. It wasn't paranoia if one's glass was actually full of potions.
She supposed that constant vigilance in DADA still made most students think that they had to be on the lookout for a flashy attack. Hermione—despite the fact that she had mostly seen Crouch Jr. with his Polyjuice—had never forgotten that Moody had drunk only out of his hip flask. At moments like this one, that seemed particularly well thought out.
According to most of the students surrounding Hermione in this hall, there was evidently nothing to fear from the Hogwarts breakfast. They were drinking heartily, and whoever had planned this had apparently been counting on this fact.
We're just waiting to see who's done it? Harry asked.
We don't have a lot of other choice, not if we want to make sure something like this doesn't happen again.
But it means we have to deal with a whole bunch of children who will want to do what they are told and tell the truth.
There were people who would be able to resist it, but the younger years were kind of doomed.
Yup, she agreed. I think we're going to have to Silence everyone until the potion wears off. I'll see what Albus thinks.
She relayed the suggestion and was once again met with agreement; making the antidote and getting it into the students would cause more questions than any of them wanted to answer. Albus didn't want the children to suffer, but he wanted to remove a threat.
Fawkes, as requested, relayed the plan and the assigned students to Albus and Draco, she to Harry, and Albus to his Heads of House in whatever manner he had. Perhaps he spelled their plates with words; Hermione had not asked, nor did she attempt to ascertain if they thought this request coming from the headmaster a very odd one or not.
Fortunately, they didn't have much longer to wait. Hermione and Harry blinked at one another when Lisa Turpin rose from the Ravenclaw table and tapped her fork on her glass.
"I'd like your attention please," she said clearly.
I rather liked Lisa, Harry said blankly. She always treated me normally.
It had been a good cover, apparently.
I'd never noticed anything amiss about her myself, Hermione admitted. Lisa was in half of Hermione's classes and had always seemed quite sensible. But she was under someone's control, working for Voldemort, or had decided very ruthlessly that she really wanted the power of the Pure Adults for herself.
"I'd like to propose a toast," Lisa said, smiling brightly at everyone.
Unless, of course, she'd just picked a very unfortunate time to have a toast, but Hermione rather doubted that.
That's clever, Harry observed. Make it even more likely that we'll all drink.
They only had their suspicions, though; there was no proof of anything yet.
Lisa toasted them with her own glass. "To Purity."
There was some shifting all round. Whether she was talking about Pure Adults or pure-bloods, it was a topic that could easily become explosive. Unwise didn't mean evil, though, so they still couldn't act.
Lisa drank from her own—presumably undoctored or neutralized—glass and most of the students followed suit. Any who were faking it were doing a good job, but Hermione imagined that all of the older Slytherins were quite capable of emptying or replacing their glasses just as she had done. She, Harry, and Draco clinked glasses and drank.
"Thank you all for joining me in my toast." Lisa spoke again, an edge of triumph in her voice. "I have only a few last remarks to make, and then I will let you get back to your breakfast. In all this time, I don't believe that anyone has actually tried asking politely and publicly, so I thought I would: If you're a Pure Adult, please stand up and admit that you are."
The students were quite still and silent as they'd all been admonished to pay attention to her, not to chatter amongst themselves about her odd requests. The staff at the High Table had gone very tense, and Fawkes relayed back to her that Albus had given the signal to begin Silencing the students.
Hermione focussed intently as she had so recently learnt to do, making sure after she had cast on all her students that none of the others were missing anyone. It took the professors whose magic wasn't as strong as hers and Harry's several more castings to cover everyone. She, Harry, and Draco had all shielded so that they were not hit by anyone else's spells.
No one had made the slightest attempt to identify themselves as per Lisa's request, and her face darkened as she frowned fiercely at the assembly.
"I'm speaking to the two virgins who are seventeen or older," she rephrased. "I'd like to see you both here for a moment."
Everyone was Silenced now, and Lisa's words were good enough for Hermione.
I have a clear shot at Lisa.
Go.
The response was so fast that Hermione was not sure that Fawkes had even asked Albus, but she obeyed, and Lisa fell to the ground, Stunned.
There was uproar—or at least what would have been uproar had anyone been able to speak. Silent chaos, she supposed, until Albus rose to his feet.
"You will all return to your seats and calm down immediately!"
They were still under the effects of the compulsion potion, and he was the headmaster; everyone obeyed.
Hermione was hastily running the Arithmantic calculations through her head and trying to work out just how long the children would have to stay Silenced before the effects of the potions wore off entirely.
"Madam Pomfrey, please take Miss Turpin back to the Infirmary and see to her. Mr Potter, Miss Granger, please assist."
Hermione thought this was a rather transparent attempt to get them out of the room, but she wasn't going to try to argue with the man. They were Head Girl and Head Boy, and she didn't suppose that anyone would be surprised that Albus was trying to get Harry to safety if there looked to be danger of some kind.
Madam Pomfrey met them by the downed Ravenclaw and cast Mobilicorpus on her, and Harry and Hermione accompanied her. If they'd been Muggles, they could at least have helped carry her.
As they left, Hermione heard Albus apologizing to the students for the inconvenience and disruption to their class schedule because they were going to need to stay here and study quietly for a little while.
About an hour and a half according to Hermione's calculations, a fact which she relayed to Fawkes as she and Harry continued to follow Poppy down the corridor with Lisa in tow.
Hermione couldn't help but remember the walk back from the Shrieking Shack in their third year when Sirius had been tugging a similarly incapacitated Severus back to the castle. She didn't fail to notice that Poppy was a little more careful that Lisa didn't bump into the wall, floor, or ceiling.
Hermione supposed the mediwitch would be too professional to do so even if she knew why Lisa was currently incapacitated.
Once they reached the Infirmary, Poppy placed Lisa on the bed, ran a quick diagnostic over the girl, and then turned to the two of them with a sigh.
"I suppose the two of you can explain why Lisa has been Stunned, and that's why you were sent to assist?"
Hermione smiled faintly at the other woman, realizing that there were many of them who were very used to Albus's ways. Poppy clearly had no expectation of their being Silenced like everyone else.
"The Stunner is mine," Hermione agreed. "And you're going to have to leave her unconscious until Albus arrives. There is, naturally, a good reason."
"Naturally," Poppy agreed with a mixture of understanding and exasperation, and they all settled in to wait for the headmaster.
He arrived with Kingsley, Tonks, and Severus. From the expression on the latter's face, Hermione got the impression that he had simply insisted upon coming.
They greeted one another, and then Albus asked for her and Harry to explain what had happened that had led to their making such an extraordinary announcement to him. Severus looked even more annoyed, though Hermione was pretty sure that he had guessed that they were involved.
Harry gestured for her to go ahead, so she explained about the potions that they'd found in their drinks.
Severus stopped her immediately.
"How did you detect it?" he demanded.
"I looked, and it was there," Hermione said coolly.
Severus's lips pursed. "Why would you be looking for a potion?"
Hermione made a face. "I never eat or drink anything without checking that it hasn't been tampered with. Harry and Draco did the same."
Severus dismissed this. "Well, I'm not surprised that Draco had the good sense to check, given where he was seated."
Harry's jaw tightened, but he didn't rise to the bait.
"It may have escaped your notice, sir," she said coldly, "but a little caution was clearly called for with no regard to seating arrangements."
How he could still think either that they were stupid Gryffindors or that they would really try to harm Draco after everything they had gone through this year, Hermione couldn't imagine. But then, he'd made it abundantly plain that he didn't think much of them.
"You found the potions in your glass," Albus prodded mildly, getting them back on track.
Hermione nodded and went on to explain that since there was no way of knowing who had done it initially, she had suggested waiting and Silencing to Albus.
"What proof do we have?" Severus demanded.
Hermione Summoned the glass that she had secreted away, pleased with the control that allowed her to make it appear in the air in front of Severus; there had been a slight tightening around his eyes that suggested he was surprised.
"My glass shows the compulsion upon it as well as the combined potions within. It's in stasis and available for both you and the Ministry to test. I suppose you'll need to take it with you, Kingsley?"
The Head of Magical Law Enforcement nodded. The nice thing about dealing with the Head of the department and someone she trusted was that she didn't have to worry too much about what was going to happen to the glass once she handed it over.
"You're all welcome to use the standard diagnostics now."
They did so, Severus with his wand in his hand before she'd even finished speaking. Her results were repeated: compulsion on the glass followed by compulsion and truth potion in the glass.
"As far as I know, all the glasses in the Great Hall will show the same effect, but I put mine in stasis just in case Lisa was thinking ahead. By my calculations, the potion should wear off in another hour or so; you're welcome to make your own assessment."
Hermione took Severus's silence as agreement with her assessment; he would clearly have delighted in saying that she was completely wrong.
Harry took over, perhaps in an attempt to get Severus's attention off of her. "We assume that Lisa was going to Portkey out of here with the Pure Adults, had she found them."
"Yet you have no proof of this."
Kingsley acted this time, saving Hermione and Harry the trouble. "Accio Portkey."
The object flew out of Lisa's pocket and stopped a few inches from Kingsley's hand; Hermione supposed that Aurors had to search for potentially dangerous objects all the time and knew better than to touch them.
No one bothered to suggest that the Ravenclaw might have a Portkey for any other reason.
Kinsley conjured a container around the Portkey and tucked it away in an inner pocket.
"We will have to question her and determine the depth of her involvement," Kingsley said. "I believe we have sufficient evidence to take her back to the Ministry. May I borrow Tonks, Albus?"
"Of course, of course."
It was an easy way to transmit information back to Albus, certainly.
Kingsley produced his own Portkey that Hermione presumed would take them back to the Auror holding cells, and suddenly the conversation was over, and they were gone.
Harry looked slightly green just from seeing the Portkey in action.
Albus turned back to the two of them and thanked them for their quick work in saving the school. They agreed that officially, the only option was to say that the professors had cast the Silencing spell, but Albus assured them that points would be awarded to them as soon as an adequate interval of time had passed to make the point gain unremarkable. Severus ground his teeth together but did not say anything.
Hermione didn't care about the recognition; she and Harry had inadvertently helped capture one more person who was trying to harm them, and that was all that she needed to know. It was true that Lisa's attempt had been too late even if Harry and Hermione weren't impervious to truth serums and hadn't caught on to what she was doing, but it was still a relief to know that one more effort had been foiled.
Hermione and Harry were sent back to the Great Hall where they shrugged at all the students who looked curiously at them as though they might know crucial information; the others couldn't ask the questions right now, and Hermione and Harry were happy to pretend that they couldn't answer them.
They joined their house-mates at the Gryffindor table and got out their school books for the time that remained until the potion had metabolised. Albus and Severus returned to the Great Hall as well, and they were able to effect the removal of the Silencing charms easily enough.
Albus told the students to head off to their new class—half of a class for the older students—and finding that they could speak again, the students moved to obey, every sentence out of their mouths unanswerable questions. Hermione and Harry admitted that they had had to sit with Poppy until Albus and Kingsley had arrived but that they had been sent back to the Great Hall before they learnt anything of interest.
Severus was in a dreadful mood again, although since class was only half as long as normal, they didn't have to put up with it for the usual length of time. It meant he piled homework on them to make up for the lost time, though, and his glare seemed to be particular potent towards Harry and Hermione—as if it was their fault that Lisa had picked this morning to launch her clever plan.
Hermione could only imagine what a class with Severus would have been like with most of the students dosed with a compulsion and truth potion. They'd do what he said, but they'd probably tell him what they were really thinking, and it would end in detention and point loss. Possibly tears.
It would have driven him insane.
It was a relief to get up to lunch although everyone had noticed the fact that Lisa was still gone; it was a bit of a shame that the students could all speak again, as everyone was wondering why she had fainted—the younger students, generally—or what the plan had been—the older students—and where she was now.
Enough people would probably get close to the truth, but there was nothing definitive that was being circulated; all the proof had gone with Lisa and the glasses that had been at breakfast and were not at lunch. Those who were already paranoid like Hermione and Harry and the Slytherins would continue to be so. There would perhaps be a few more converts now, which she thought was all to the good.
There might be some desperately worried students, too, and there was unfortunately no way that she could safely point out that she and Harry would not have allowed anyone to be poisoned; had there been poison in the nearby glasses, Hermione would have Vanished them all immediately. But she and Harry would keep monitoring whether anyone knew about it or not, and she imagined that Albus was looking into whatever safety procedures he currently had in place.
It took all of a day for Lisa's removal from the school to be confirmed and therefore linked in a sinister way to what had happened at breakfast, but it didn't come as much of a shock to students as it might have in days past. The notion that some of their peers were working for Voldemort or were being used by Voldemort was unfortunately as real as the fact that some of their parents and neighbours and Ministry officials were. Lisa had been whisked away with a minimum of fuss, and rumours were rife but fairly empty.
Hermione and Harry got the rest of the story. Dosed with Veritaserum before she was woken from the Stunner with an Ennervate that was too weak to dispel all of the disorientation felt under such circumstances, Lisa had told Kingsley and Tonks all about her plans to be exalted above all others at Voldemort's side by bringing the Pure Adults to him—which had included some rather nasty spells used on several house-elves.
There was no indication that Imperius or Memory Charms had been used, so this confession earned her a ticket to Azkaban—guarded by humans now that the Dementors had joined Voldemort—which none of them could feel very sorry about. Lisa had made her choice, and now she had to live with the consequences.