The gargoyle announced Viktor.
"That would be for you," Harry said with something that was remarkably close to a Malfoy smirk.
She waved the gargoyle open and made a face at Harry—mentally, since she was rising to greet Viktor with a smile.
He smiled back at her. "I thought you might like some more company in your lab vhile you vork on your potion."
"You have excellent timing, Viktor. I need to head into the lab in a few minutes, and you're welcome to join me."
Leaving Harry and Draco to their own devices, she led Viktor to her workspace and soon had him installed in another comfortable chair. While she worked, he asked after her classes and commented on how busy she had been recently, which she told him was entirely typical of her years at Hogwarts.
"But we're not going to spend the whole night talking about me," she said, cutting that possibility off while the night was young. "Tell me about the most ridiculous thing your fangirls and fanboys have done recently."
Viktor didn't like talking about his fame, but he appreciated that she thought all the attention he got was as ridiculous as he felt it was, and he was happy to share absurd anecdotes with her while she chopped, measured, mixed, and stirred. This process was put momentarily on hold several times as she was giggling too hard to properly brew.
It was shortly after nine when the potion was simmering merrily again and needed no more work. In four hours and twenty-six minutes she would bank the heat and allow the potion to sit undisturbed for twenty-one hours.
Viktor rose as she was cleaning up and offered to help, but she told him it would be easier if she did it herself, as she knew exactly how she liked the cleaning and storage to be accomplished.
Alone back in the common room because Harry and Draco had made themselves scarce, she offered Viktor tea, which he accepted, and they settled onto the couch together.
"Thank you for letting me sit vith you, mila moya."
"I'm happy to have you," she answered. "I can't think it's especially interesting for you, but you make a very amusing lab partner."
"I am pleased I can keep you entertained," he answered honestly. "That is reason enough for me to be here."
Pansy arrived shortly thereafter for the evening rounds, and since Harry and Draco had apparently lost track of the time, she offered to go with the Slytherin girl.
Viktor obediently rose and escorted the two of them out, ensured that they were happy walking on their own, kissed Pansy's hand and not Hermione's—showing that he had plenty of pure-blood breeding and knew when to use and when not to—and then headed back to his own quarters after securing permission to spend the evening with her in the lab the next day. She'd warned him that she didn't start working on the potion until half ten, but he'd persisted in his desire to keep her company.
Pansy stared after Viktor for a moment before transferring her gaze to Hermione. "You realize Draco is perfectly aware of the time?"
"He's shamelessly exploiting my thoughtful nature," Hermione said with a smile. "But somebody should be having lots of happy sex, and since it's not me, I don't mind patrolling."
Pansy laughed softly. "You're a little hard on my self-esteem."
Hermione shook her head. "You could be having plenty of happy sex, but I trust that you understand how to employ time management skills."
The Slytherin girl snorted.
Companionably, they made it through two floors and fifteen points before Pansy spoke again.
"Mr Krum seems very nice."
Hermione offered a genuine smile. "He is. He puts up with me even though I know nothing about Quidditch or flying."
"Which is rather shocking given your two best friends. And Draco. And Gryffindor House."
"I tune them all out as soon as they start," Hermione admitted with a laugh.
"This probably explains why you're top of the year."
"Shall I lobby to stop Quidditch for the sake of the students' academic achievement?"
Pansy managed a very serious expression. "Oh, absolutely." She leaned closer. "I'll take over as Head Girl once you're run out of the school."
Hermione's lips tipped up. "Very thoughtful of you."
After Transfiguration on Wednesday, Hermione skipped lunch in order to get a head start on research for the essay they'd just been assigned on defensive conjuring. Draco might have been willing to join her, but it was clear that it was not Harry's preference, so it hadn't taken much effort for Hermione to convince the two of them to go on to lunch without her.
She'd been in the library for less than ten minutes, however, when the stench of Dungbombs greeted her nose, and there was a sudden mass exodus. Irma emerged shortly after the students, closing and sealing the doors behind her and then announcing that it would be a quarter of an hour before her spells had finished their work.
She followed this up with the equivalent of a death threat to whoever had set off the bombs. When she saw that Hermione was there, the older woman confirmed that the Gryffindor would be willing to let the students back in once the charm had done its work. This allowed the librarian to go inform the headmaster of the crime, lips pinched into an even thinner line than normal.
Several of the students had left, but since it was mostly Ravenclaws who were in the library on a lunch break anyway, the majority hunkered down to wait. Hermione contemplated speeding up the odour-removing spell, but Irma had already announced the time it would take, so she resisted. Being with a group of Ravenclaws ensured that they settled down with books, anyway, so it wasn't a hardship for her to keep an eye on them while she was waiting.
They'd been there for about ten minutes when the arrival of Viktor pulled her out of her book.
"Mila moya, may I speak with you?"
She explained about the Dungbombs, matching his smile with one of her own. "We're allowed to go back in a few minutes; until then, my time is yours."
They moved a little further down the hall since she knew how annoying it could be to have two people chatting while others were trying to read.
"I have had a thought."
"News so exciting you thought you'd have to announce it to me straightaway?" she teased.
He offered her a theatrical frown. "Do not be a pest, mila moya, or I vill not be able to speak vith you any longer."
She grinned at him, assuming a poise of perfect attentiveness. "So sorry. I'm listening very carefully for your brilliant thought."
He was looking very happy as he said, "I vould like to teach you to fly."
Hermione didn't like where this seemed to be heading. "I know how, thank you."
He stepped closer. "But you do not enjoy it."
"Not so much, no," she admitted.
"Then you do not really know how it is done," he answered simply. "If you do it vith me, you vill enjoy it."
"I appreciate the offer," she said, shaking her head, "but no."
"You say this because you do not know how to do it properly."
"No," she corrected. "I can do it, I just don't like to."
"Vell, then, come vith me. Just the two of us. I can show you how it is meant to be done if you really don't vant to do it on your own."
She shook her head again. "I did that with Harry, thank you, and that was more than enough."
"I vould really like to," he said earnestly.
Looking into his very serious face, she knew that he really wanted to do this.
He scanned her face carefully and apparently saw just how equally she didn't want to do it. "I vill not force you."
She reached out to touch his arm. "I really appreciate the offer, but I know what I should and shouldn't be doing."
He captured the hand on his arm with his own hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.
"Of course you do, mila moya. It vas only a thought."
"A very generous thought. But I'd think it would be the last thing you want to do in your spare time."
He shook his head, saying very seriously, "For you, I always have time, Hermione."
"I appreciate your saying so." She saw that the waiting students had risen and realized that the quarter hour was up. "I've got to go, but I'll see you later tonight, all right?"
"I vill be there," he agreed.
She spent an uneventful half hour in the library, and Irma arrived as lunch ended so Hermione had no concerns about heading off to class knowing that the library was in safe hands.
After Arithmancy, she and Draco headed down to dinner together where they met up with Harry. It didn't take her more than a few minutes in the Great Hall to realize that there seemed to be a larger than normal amount of whispering going on. Since periodic bouts of this were not unusual, she began to eat dinner without inquiring into the nature of the noise.
Harry cleared his throat very loudly and very falsely. Twice.
"What?" she asked.
"I heard the most interesting rumour this afternoon while you were in class."
"O-kay," she said, not particularly in the mood to hear more rumours.
Given the luck they'd been having with rumours this year, she wondered what sort could put Harry in such a good mood.
Harry's lips twitched. "I have it on good authority that you and Viktor were arranging your sex life right in the middle of the corridor for anyone to hear."
She rolled her eyes as she said sarcastically, "Of course we were. We do it regularly. How can you be so behind on the news, Harry?"
"So you didn't see Viktor today?" Harry asked pointedly.
"No, I did. But we didn't talk about sex, we were—" She cut off as she realized exactly what they had been talking about and how it could have been taken.
She burst into laughter and couldn't answer any of the questions that Draco and Harry were now tossing at her in rapid succession, waving them all away until she'd got herself under better control. She'd garnered a fair bit of attention at this point, but she paid all the gawkers no mind.
"He's the flying instructor," she said when she thought she wasn't simply going to lose control again. "He was offering to give me lessons or to take me up himself. In retrospect, I can see how some of that might have been misconstrued."
They were both looking at her.
"You had a protracted discussion about his flying you on his broomstick and you're surprised that was misconstrued?" Draco asked.
She rolled her eyes again. "It would be completely illogical for him to be forced to use other words than the proper ones because they can also be taken sexually by immature prats. Did any of your gossipmongers think to mention the fact that I turned him down?"
Harry shook his head. "I think it made a better story when you were making successful assignations right in front of everyone."
"You'd think the grapevine could be a little more accurate. Given that we weren't shielding our conversation, someone should have been able to pick up the entire conversation and get the details right."
Honestly, those Ravenclaws should have been either paying more attention to their books or listening carefully to her and Viktor.
"But then it wouldn't be gossip," Harry countered. "It would be an accurate transmission of the details of someone's life, and the gossipers of the world don't like that notion."
Hermione sighed and went back to her meal.
After dinner, she returned to the library. She wanted to get in more research time, especially given how interrupted her lunch break had been. The information she needed was in one of the reserved books that couldn't be removed from the library, so she wanted to get the paper work out of the way before all the seventh-year Transfiguration students were trying to access it.
Of course, had she wished, she could have gotten around both the spell that prevented the book from being removed from the library and the one that prevented its pages from being copied directly, but she had restrained herself. She didn't want to invite trouble.
It was almost ten before she was recalled to the time and realized she needed to get down to the dungeons; she'd agreed to meet Viktor on the hour so that they could have tea with Harry and Draco before she had to work on the Weresbane again. Quickly returning Conjuring Defence or Destruction to the reference shelf, she hurried down to the dungeons.
She was within a corridor of her quarters when she was interrupted.
"Keep your personal life to yourself."
She turned to face Severus, throwing up privacy charms without a second thought since his words had practically been spat in her face.
He continued darkly, "How does it look when the Head Girl is making assignations with a professor in the corridor?"
"According to at least half the school, it makes me damn lucky," she snarled back, fed up with his attitude. "You know there's no prohibition against students who are of age having relationships with professors."
"There is such a thing as basic decency—which one would hope you would employ and thereby not flaunt your relationship with that jumped-up broomstick rider."
Hermione stiffened, drawing herself up to her full height as she glared at Severus. "Viktor may not be the most brilliant man in the world, but at least he's a decent human being. I'm not ashamed of the relationship I have with him!"
Severus's eyes narrowed. "There are a great many students in this school, Miss Granger, and the majority of them are under the age of consent. You will therefore do well to modify your behaviour before I have to take this matter to the headmaster."
If she had been capable of growing any stiffer, she would have done. For an "offence" as trivial as this, based on hearsay especially, going to the headmaster was highly insulting.
"If that is what you feel you must do, sir, then I can hardly stop you," she answered coldly. "I make no apologies for my behaviour."
She didn't care if Severus dragged her to Albus; there was no way she was going to tell him what had actually happened when he was behaving in this manner. She hadn't done anything wrong, and she was pissed off enough that she wasn't afraid to say so.
Severus's lips had pressed into a thin white line, and she knew that he was not impressed with her militant stance. Truthfully, it was more like what Harry would have done under these circumstances; normally, she would have been conciliatory. Apologetic was the last thing she was feeling, though, especially now that he had insulted Viktor.
"The headmaster's office. Now." His voice was arctic.
It was perhaps possible that she could squeeze this meeting in before she had to start the Weresbane, but she wasn't going to take that chance.
"Even if you're under orders again to ruin my brewing, it won't work. I'm not finished until midnight."
His nostrils flared, and it looked as though he was actually going to lose his temper with her. At the last moment, however, he reined his temper in and growled, "Seven o'clock tomorrow morning, Miss Granger. Do not be late."
He stalked off in an angry swirl of robes.
Hermione drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. Severus would no doubt take out his anger on the next students he came across, and at this precise moment, she was rather regretting that that option was not available to her as well.
Continuing her deep breathing, she made her way back to the common room where she found that Viktor was already there with Harry and Draco; her run-in with Severus had made her late. She squelched more anger. She hated being late.
They'd been talking when she arrived, but the flow of chatter died off and Harry's eyebrows rose as soon as he saw her. He jumped to his feet.
"What on Earth happened to you?"
Viktor had risen as well, and an amused-looking Draco followed suit. She immediately waved them back down, but Draco, looking even more amused now, was the only one to go.
"Nothing that ten minutes in this room won't cure," she snapped, her attempt at an even tone not materializing. She was pretty sure her attempt at a smile had come out looking like she was grimacing, too.
"What's Snape done now?" Harry asked, coming to her side to usher her into a seat.
It was rather sad that not only did Harry immediately assume that it was an encounter with Severus that had upset her, he was right. She also had to wonder how she looked that he had decided he needed to be so solicitous given that this was her common room, too, and she knew perfectly well where all the chairs were. Only once she was settled did Harry and Viktor sit back down.
"He heard the rumour about me and Viktor, too, and had some choice comments to make about the inappropriateness of my behaviour."
Viktor was out of his seat so quickly, it looked as though he'd been ejected. She jumped up as well, hurrying to his side to lay her hand on his arm and restrain him.
"Don't worry about it, Viktor. We're going to see Albus first thing in the morning, and I'll get everything straightened out."
"I cannot believe that … man vould try to insult you in such a manner!" Viktor sounded truly incensed. "It is not to be accepted."
"We're not accepting it," she answered soothingly, amazed at how much better she felt now that someone else was supporting her. "I'll explain everything to Albus."
"It is a bit much, though," Draco interjected, "taking you to the headmaster over a misunderstood conversation in the corridor."
Hermione made a face. "I don't think Severus has quite grasped that the conversation was misunderstood."
"You didn't tell him?" Harry questioned, sounding puzzled.
She shrugged. "He didn't ask me what had happened, so I didn't feel any compunction to clarify."
Draco was staring at her with renewed respect. "But you're going to announce what really occurred in the headmaster's office in the morning."
She smiled a fierce smile. "When Albus asks me to explain, I'll be only too happy to do so."
Draco smiled back. "Remind me not to make you angry."
"I thought you'd learnt that lesson already," she said with a softer voice and more teasing smile.
"Hmm.... I guess I really should have been the one to warn Severus, eh?"
"Too late now," Harry said gleefully, giving Draco a warning look.
"Oh, don't worry," the Slytherin said easily. "I'm not about to get in Hermione's way at this point. You're working on the potion again?"
She nodded. "But I think we have time for a quick cuppa before I have to get started. Viktor?"
He allowed himself to be coaxed into tea rather than going after Severus, which it still looked as though he were considering, no matter what she said.
Draco and Harry kindly kept up an innocuous flow of conversation, and she happily drank the very hot liquid and tried not to think about a very cold man. It looked as though Viktor was doing much the same, though she doubted his thought processes were identical.
Then it was time to get to work, and she and Viktor bid farewell to the boys and passed through the bedroom into the lab. She was soothed almost instantly by the familiar routine of this room and what she did in it.
Viktor let her work in silence for several minutes.
"I do not understand vhy you put up vith that man."
On days like this, she didn't altogether understand it either, and there was so much more to the situation than Viktor was aware of.
"He's a Hogwarts professor, Viktor. Even if I decided not to put up with him, there wouldn't be a lot I could do to avoid him completely. I … might not always be happy with exactly what has occurred, but I generally know what to expect from him and how to deal with it."
She certainly had preferences as to what would occur, but she had learnt to live with disappointment by this point.
"You are a very understanding person, mila moya. I believe I vould have cursed him by now."
"I have no doubt you would have tried." She'd seen him quite ready to try. "But it's better to let these sorts of occurrences sort themselves out. Severus doesn't take kindly to people attacking him."
"And you are concerned about how he feels?" Viktor asked with a frown of confusion.
Better not to go there at all, really.
"I know the likely outcome if you were to go after him in that sort of temper," she corrected. "I don't much fancy having to try to put you together again once the cursing stopped."
He was still frowning at her. "You think so little of my skills?"
Oops. She was currently immersing the roots of the Weresbane in a silver cauldron, charm-cleansed arms covered in water to the elbows, so she could hardly put a hand on his as she would have done otherwise.
She made a bit of a face as she said in a conciliatory tone, "I've seen him duel more than once, Viktor, and I know his temper. He would give Filius and Albus a run for their money, and you know that's saying a great deal."
Viktor seemed to settle at this mention of Severus's prowess being equal to Albus's; the headmaster was known to be a more-than-proficient dueller, and thanks to Viktor's correspondence with her, as well as the Prophet articles, he knew that Albus had duelled Voldemort and won. Being wary of anyone with those skills was wise, and now the Bulgarian seemed to accept that Severus fit in that category.
"I would still have done it."
She was fairly certain there was a "for you" lingering, unspoken, after those words.
"I'm sure you would have," she agreed, knowing it had come down to a defence of her honour in his mind. Harry would have done the same. "But I'm capable of defending myself, you know."
Finally, he seemed to relax fully, a smile tipping up the corners of his lips. "I'm entirely certain that is the case, mila moya."
Fortunately, that seemed to be the end of that part of the discussion. "musingly, he did seem to find it necessary to apologize for the discussion in the hallway that had led to this problem, and she reassured him that she didn't object to anything that he'd said. They knew their discussion had been entirely innocent, and she refused to be limited in what she could say in the corridors because idiotic gossips might misunderstand and spread wild rumours.
This seemed to reassure him that she really didn't feel any lingering resentment towards him for the incident, and he was even good enough not to make any additional attempts to pressure her into flying with him now that the topic had been raised once more.
By the time the Weresbane roots had been soaked for thirty minutes in the still water which had been exposed to the light of the previous full moon, her fingers had turned into little prunes. Unfortunately, no wrinkle-preventing spells could be used on her skin as they would interfere with the finished potion. Her potion had turned out to be rather finicky, and it was necessary that the roots be immersed in the water by the potion-maker, not by any implement. The water was chilly, too, so she was more than glad to be able to pull her arms out.
She drained the roots using a silver colander, grateful anew that her needs for the potion were being underwritten by Harry and Draco. She used a silver cutting board and silver knife to dice the Weresbane into fine, evenly cut pieces and added them to the potion. She stirred briskly for five and three quarter minutes clockwise and then five and three quarter minutes anticlockwise before she put out the flame under the cauldron and covered the cauldron with its matching silver lid, sealing it with a wordless charm.
The Weresbane roots had to mix with the rest of the potion for twenty-four hours without being disturbed. At the end of that period, she'd be able to add the final ingredient, the Weresbane leaves, which needed to be fresh but ground up with a small quantity of birch sap into a paste and partially dried the day before it was added; she began that process now as she and Viktor continued to chat.
They spoke of problems he'd been having with discipline in some of his classes since the students often wanted to gawk at him more than they wanted to actually listen to him. She suggested that he could start glaring, stalking, and taking points for the smallest infraction, and he made a face at her, knowing exactly whose behaviour she was suggesting he imitate.
By the time she was finished spreading the paste in a thin layer on a roll of cotton spread across the steel table, it was nearing half twelve. She cleaned up and escorted Viktor to the door. It was a little late to be offering him tea again, although Harry and Draco were both sitting on the couch, having returned from their rounds.
"Vould you like me to accompany you in the morning?" Viktor asked.
She thought Severus deserved to squirm a little for his assumptions, but she knew he'd only take it out on Viktor if the Bulgarian were there to witness it, and she wasn't going to put him through that.
"Thank you, Viktor, but I can handle this one on my own."
He looked as though he wanted to protest further, but given her phrasing, he couldn't do so without impugning her ability to take care of the matter, and she'd known he wouldn't do that.
"I'm to bed," she announced once Viktor had left.
"Bed, bed?" Harry asked.
She smiled. "I'm going to sleep now, yes."
Harry snorted, knowing exactly what she wasn't saying.
"Very well, then. I'll see you in the morning?"
"I'm always up in the morning," she answered with a laugh. "You're certain you don't intend a lie-in because you don't have History of Magic in the morning?"
"But Draco does," Harry answered. "I'll be up."
She suspected Draco's bedroom could be turned into a lab even less inconveniently than hers could.
"In which case, I'll see you then. Sleep well."
By four, she was awake again, slightly antsy, and knew that she wasn't going to be able to sleep any longer; there was the Weresbane and the meeting with Albus and Severus, and her head was abuzz with thoughts.
Once she was clean and dressed, she checked the Map to make sure that Severus wasn't also awake and lurking.
Since no irate Head of Slytherin was in sight, she went to check on all the plants she was growing in the hidden conservatory. Even though this batch of Weresbane appeared to be going perfectly, she would have many more batches to produce, as well as more Wolfsbane. It seemed that all she was doing was brewing, recently; it was a good thing that she enjoyed it so much. The more she brewed the Weresbane, at any rate, the more comfortable she was becoming with it, and she now felt as though she could brew the Wolfsbane in her sleep.
It made her think about what Draco had said about an apprenticeship. She had considered it—as she had considered many possible jobs—but she always wondered that Severus had never once mentioned the idea. She knew that he didn't give compliments freely, especially to Gryffindors, but they worked privately—or at least they had done—with relative frequency, and if he saw that merit in her, mightn't he have mentioned it at least once? She sighed. Here she was trying to avoid Severus and thoughts of him followed her wherever she went.
Assured that everything green was in perfect health and didn't appear to have nearly as many worries as she had, she gave the corridors a quick patrol, since it was always possible that someone would be up to mischief of some sort at five in the morning, and then made her way back to her common room.
Harry was true to his word and was up at six so that they could train before her meeting. They managed to knock each other unconscious several times, which helped her equilibrium, before she ventured up to the headmaster's office.
The griffin still opened without requiring her to name any sweets, but the headmaster bidding her enter as she arrived at the door informed her that her presence had been announced. She discovered that Severus wasn't there yet, and she guessed that he once again intended to storm in on the hour. At least he couldn't accuse her of being late, although she'd no doubt get yelled at for insisting that the meeting be postponed. The headmaster offered her tea, which she declined, and he actually went so far as to confirm that she didn't want any.
"Severus seemed quite … perturbed when he informed me of this meeting yesterday evening."
"Severus no doubt is quite perturbed," she responded evenly, "but that doesn't mean I have any intention of taking a Calming Draught. I'm entirely in possession of my emotions, I assure you."
Albus waved the teapot back to its spot on the tea service.
"How long have you known?" he asked mildly.
"When's the last time I had any of your tea?"
He smiled slightly. "I wish only to ensure that meetings go as smoothly as possible. The topics being discussed are often very contentious."
She nodded her head in acceptance of this explanation—such as it was. "As long as you don't force it upon those who refuse, what you do is your business."
"Harry knows too, I suppose?"
"Of course."
Albus nodded, seemingly to himself. "I thought Severus was the only one who knew."
"You've grown yourself a whole new generation of paranoid Order members."
Albus smiled. "Splendid."
She would never understand the man, that was for certain.
Severus came in, the door coming perilously close to slamming behind him. He was usually a little more circumspect in the headmaster's presence. Albus blandly offered him tea, and Hermione had to hide a smile.
"I don't have time for such frivolities," Severus said curtly.
Tea was a British staple taken seriously by a great many people, but she bit her tongue and refrained from saying so. Someone had to be mature in this conversation, and it looked as though it wasn't going to be Severus.
Albus opened his mouth, but he was not given the opportunity to speak because Severus immediately launched into a long-winded and comprehensive harangue upon all the indecencies of her recent behaviour.
Albus had as good a measure of Severus's current mood as she did, and he simply let his Potions master go on until he ran out of steam. Then he turned to her.
"Hermione?"
Succinctly, Hermione explained the conversation that had actually occurred in the corridor.
Severus was staring at her incredulously.
"You can't seriously expect me to believe that's what the two of you were discussing."
"He's the Quidditch coach," she said acidly. "I'm sure I don't need to tell you that flying is not my favourite activity in the world." She didn't like admitting this, especially to him, but the rational part of her knew it was a relatively well-known fact. "Viktor was hoping he could change my mind."
"But—" Severus began to protest.
She faced him seriously. "Consider carefully before you accuse me of lying, Professor."
His eyes narrowed as he regarded her. "You consented to come this morning knowing your conversation was only about flying."
"You ordered me here," she corrected sharply, "and as soon as Albus asked, I told him what happened."
Severus opened his mouth, but Albus intervened.
"I'm so pleased we got that straightened out. Was there anything else you needed to discuss, Severus?"
In Hermione's imagination, steam was pouring out of Severus's ears; he looked that irritated with the two of them. He actually rose and left in a huff without speaking another word.
She and Albus exchanged glances.
"You do realize—" the headmaster began.
"That discussing sexual relations in front of a corridor full of students would not be the wisest course of action?" She made a face at him. "I'm not an idiot, Albus."
There was an even more pronounced twinkle in his eyes than usual. "Of course not, Hermione, of course not."
She rose. "If that's everything—?"
"There was one other thing."
She sat back down once more. In her experience, "one other thing" tended to be substantial.
"You have not been very forthcoming when it comes to the spell you and Harry intend to use against Voldemort."
Deciding a "See how you like it" on behalf of Harry would not be very mature, she said instead, "I believe I made clear already that it is information I do not intend to disseminate."
"And do you truly believe that the information would be in danger were it revealed to me?"
"Not as such," she admitted. "I trust you, Albus, but I think you understand better than most people do about keeping very important information very close to your chest."
"It makes it difficult to make an informed decision."
It contributed to winding up in the Department of Mysteries looking for a "weapon" that Voldemort wanted. Hermione sighed.
"It would be breaking a confidence to tell you everything; the ability to perform the spell will die with me. But I can give you a few more details, if you wish."
They were details that she was going to give Harry and Draco, and Albus was in charge of the Order.
"I do."
She met his eyes and offered him as much information as she hoped would convince him of the feasibility of the plan without revealing too much. She didn't think that he was suddenly going to start handing out instruction manuals, but the only way she could be absolutely certain that she was living up to the trust Solace had placed in her was to be the only one who knew how to work the spell.
Albus was polite enough—or wise enough—not to hunt for more, and when they were both Occluding fully once more back in their own heads, she spoke aloud.
"I trust I do not need to tell you that this information is not to be shared?"
"I trust that your ability to ward my door remains uninhibited?"
She smiled faintly, deciding that it was probably a good thing that the headmaster was so aware.
"Thank you, Hermione. Enjoy your classes."
Unsure whether this was supposed to be a reminder that she was only a student or if she was reading too much into a rather standard statement, Hermione bid the headmaster farewell.
She headed back to the common room to reassure Draco and Harry that she had survived the encounter unscathed, and she gave them the short version of what had occurred, omitting everything that had occurred after Severus had left.
Draco shook his head, informing her that she was either brave or stupid for grappling with Severus in that manner—but she had style. Harry, unsurprisingly, wholeheartedly approved of anything she did to irk the man who he didn't think was treating her particularly well at the moment.
They all resolved to do their best to stay out of Severus's way today, and they went up to breakfast together. It was after the meal and before History of Magic that Hermione pulled Ron aside and give him a quick explanation about how her cure worked; he hadn't understood why the three of them were so worked up, and even her short explanation of it having to do with her cure hadn't worked on him because even the redhead knew that it wasn't anywhere near the full moon.
Now he had a slightly better understanding of what they were doing, and she had practically seen him resolve not to bother her for the next couple of days; he knew what she was like as she approached a deadline.
Despite the relatively exciting morning, the rest of Thursday passed with annoying slowness. Tomorrow would be the day that Hermione found out if her Weresbane had a chance of curing ten strangers of lycanthropy. She'd find out if a random sampling of the wizarding world was capable of turning into Animagi under strange circumstances. She'd get more proof that she was capable of brewing her potion, that this was all worthwhile, that there was yet one more way that they were winning the war and Voldemort was losing it…. Friday had a lot to live up to, and that seemed to leave Thursday in a particularly awkward position.
Hermione still had to finish the Weresbane. Draco was getting nervous about the coaching that he was going to be doing the next day. Remus wasn't even in the castle, and she could swear that she was getting vibes of anxiety from him … or maybe that was the fact that Tonks was in the castle, and the Auror knew how important the next day was for all of them.
Hermione had Herbology in the afternoon, and Pomona had offered to let her and Draco off, but since that would result in the two of them sitting anxiously in their common room, they'd elected to stay. Ron thought they were daft, but Harry didn't even try to argue.
After dinner, Viktor did his best to distract them all. Thursday evenings were still scheduled as the particular time to have tea with him and discuss his classes, and he arrived with both Ron and Ginny, having evidently decided that they would be a better distraction in force. Together with Harry and Draco, they proceeded to have one big friendly argument about she wasn't sure quite which Quidditch match.
Hermione pasted on a "You all know I'm not interested, but I'm politely paying attention" expression and proceeded to mentally dissect the potion that she would be working on again shortly after half eleven that night. There was always a chance that she would catch some sort of problem in one of her revisions. There was a lot of pressure on her right now, and she got through life ensuring that she had checked and double-checked facts, figures, and theories.
Periodically, Ginny, sitting next to Hermione, would nudge her when she got completely lost in introspection, and she'd smile reassuringly at the girl before lapsing back into her contemplation. She ran through the plan for the next day, including the contingencies she'd set up should any of the werewolves fail to make the transformation into Animagi.
It was hardly the end of the world if this occurred, as she intended to have them take the Wolfsbane on the intervening full and then simply try again, but she suspected that, psychologically, it would be a blow. She'd been thinking about what Fawkes had done to assist Draco during his new moon, and she was relieved that he had agreed to offer his services again should they be needed.
Viktor, Ginny, and Ron finally left at ten, and she roused herself enough to politely see them off. She had an hour and a half left before she could work on her Weresbane, and she couldn't seem to concentrate well enough to revise or do anything useful, so Harry finally sent her out to the Forest to recharge with her herd.
An hour later, she slipped back into the castle. She greeted Harry and Draco in the common room so that they would know she was alive and well and then told them that she would see them in the morning. They bid her goodnight, and she continued on into her lab.
She gathered up the dried Weresbane leaves, brushing the substance off the cotton into a golden bowl. A moment's thought set a hot fire underneath the cauldron, and she removed the lid and set it aside before sprinkling the contents of the bowl into the potion in an anticlockwise spiral.
As the last of the leaves hit the surface of the potion, it went completely still before it began to boil furiously. She let it boil for six and a half minutes, stirred clockwise for thirty seconds and then let it boil again, repeating this pattern until twenty-eight minutes had passed. As she removed the silver stirring rod after the last stir, she lowered the flame.
The leaves were the last ingredient before the one that she had designated the Avery last" in her head, the one which, for safety, wasn't recorded anywhere. In five hours and twenty minutes, she would add the very last ingredient, and the potion would be complete and drinkable. It would be finished at a quarter to six, although the werewolves wouldn't be drinking the potion until she arrived at noon after DADA. That was nearly five hours before the end of their drink window, so they would be good and ready when the time came.
After she had tidied up, she spent the next five-odd hours ensuring that the temperature and consistency of the potion remained stable as it reacted with the open air. She tweaked as necessary, adding minute portions of Weresbane or sap to maintain the proper consistency until the brewing time elapsed. Precisely as the last second ticked away on her timer, she allowed the very last ingredient—one of the brewer's tears—to fall into the potion, which turned instantly blue.
Grinning, she acknowledged exultantly that she had a viable batch of Weresbane in front of her. There had been a small part of her, the part that would always worry that she was going to suddenly fail her exams, that had been concerned that this version wouldn't succeed; apologizing profusely had really been her only back-up plan, so it was a great relief that nothing had gone pear-shaped so far.
She decanted the potion into twenty single-dose, spell-proof vials before moving to clean up her cauldron and all her equipment. The ten extra doses were back-ups which would stay here at Hogwarts; if the first set was somehow compromised, she'd have more to use.
She didn't feel she was being overly paranoid because when she had tested the ingredients that were in the common greenhouse before she started making her potion this time around, she had found that the Wolfsbane and the ginger already showed signs of being poisoned again. Whoever was trying to thwart her was nothing if not persistent, and she was just glad that she had other sources. She kept Pomona apprised—which resulted in the Head of Hufflepuff muttering darkly about lack of integrity and the fact that they had never had a problem like this before—since some of those ingredients could easily be used by other students to deleterious effect.
When it came to the Weresbane, it actually had few ingredients in common with the Wolfsbane, and whoever was doing the poisoning didn't seem to be aware yet that she needed to work on the new moon as well as the full; the poisoning would only botch the potion right now, but it would be deadly in another two weeks. Sometimes, it amazed her that they functioned as a school at all, and she hoped that a lot of the sabotage and ill-will could be laid at Voldemort's door, not simply on the nature of children and the House system. She'd be happy when she didn't have to deal with it anymore, and she really hoped that the destruction of Voldemort would help restore a general tolerance, though that was perhaps too much to wish for.
She placed the back-up doses into one of the cupboards and warded it so that only she, Harry, Draco, or Severus could get into it, and then she Masked herself and hurriedly sneaked off the grounds and to the safe house so that she could tuck the Weresbane in the dungeon cupboard before anyone was the wiser.
She was back at the castle in time to emerge from her room as though no extracurricular trips had occurred, warm up with Harry and Draco (they were all in top form and shielding well enough not to let anything through on all sides), and make it to DADA feeling certain that she should have talked to Tonks and skived off class. She felt as though she could bounce right through the walls.
Tonks, fortunately, was seeing Remus, and if there was anyone nearly as anxious as Hermione was about the rest of the day, it was him. As a result, the Auror had a pretty good idea of how Hermione—and to a lesser extent, Harry, Draco, and even Ron—was feeling right now, and the Auror didn't bother with a lecture of more than a quarter of an hour before she got them fighting with one another.
It somehow ended up that she, Ron, Harry, Draco, and Daphne became one big group, and despite Tonks instructing them to be sure that they shifted the teams around so that it was fair, Harry and Draco simply made her and Ron a team and then tried, with Daphne's assistance, to beat them. Ensuring that they weren't able to do this, even with their advantage of numbers and with the added handicap of not being able to reveal too much power in front of everyone, kept her well enough occupied until the end of class was finally signalled.
She was the first out the door, and Harry, Draco, and Ron were close on her heels. Harry had won the argument against Albus and would be accompanying them today; when he had asked to come along, she had told him that he needed to clear it with the headmaster. Since it wasn't the full moon, he wasn't in particular danger from the werewolves, and since few people knew that the potion needed to be administered on the new moon, there was no reason for anyone to suspect he'd be off the grounds.
And even if Voldemort or his followers had been alerted to the fact that Harry wouldn't be protected by the Hogwarts wards today, he was going to a location for which she was the Secret Keeper. Not only would she be there to defend him should events go pear-shaped, half the Order was there as well. How could he be safer?
Albus had used the permission for this visit to bargain for Harry's exclusion from the next one, and since they had all known that it would be over Albus's dead body that he would be letting Harry spend an evening with nearly four dozen werewolves on the full moon, this had seemed a strategic concession on Harry's part.
Tonks would once again be joining them as soon as her classes were over for the day, and Albus had agreed on the loan of not only Bill but also Minerva; she had expressed an interest in witnessing the transformations, and Hermione had consented.
Not wanting Ron to feel left out now that they were finally getting on again, she'd invited him to join them. Since his mother was at the safe house, Albus had stayed out of the argument entirely. Hermione had decided not to ask what rearrangement of all things Quidditch had needed to occur to make this evening spent with them possible. Given her current temper, any such comment was likely to come out even more snidely than she meant it, and now was not the time to alienate Ron. He'd seemed happy to take part in this with them, and that was what mattered.
She Masked him while Harry took care of Draco, and as per the arrangements they had made, Albus decided to visit Hagrid just as they needed to get out the main door; while Albus would certainly make their excuses if it became necessary, it caused far less problems if no one officially knew they were gone.
Since neither Harry nor Ron had been to the safe house before, she and Draco needed to get them there, and there had been no contest about which pairings would be Apparating. Hermione imagined it was just as well that Ron couldn't see the two boys' Apparition because she knew full well that they were hugging and might well have been getting in a snog or two.
The redhead wrapped his arms around her and she wondered how long it had been since he had last done that—given her an actual hug. Living with Harry had been good for that, at least. The newly more tactile boy had been happy to give her a hug or three, and they spent half their mornings sparring and touching. Ever since Draco had come into the picture, though, she been more on her own, and that was just another adjustment she had to make. Nothing to be done about it, really, because it remained quite clear that Severus wouldn't touch her with a ten-foot pole. She let out a soft sigh and Apparated.
They reappeared in the lobby of the safe house, Hermione unMasking Ron and herself as she saw that Harry and Draco were visible. She moved to step away from Ron, but he hadn't let go. She looked up at him.
His face looked unusually troubled. "I'm sorry. I never meant it to be so bad. I care about you, 'Mione, and I really don't want to lose you as a friend."
He tightened his grip on her, turning their pseudo-hug into a real one, and she hugged him back fiercely, blinking away tears. Every once in a while, Ron was very right.
She stepped back again, and this time he let her go. She smiled up at him, nodding, and his face softened. Eventually, they might be able to let the stupidity of this entire year go.
Remus, Bill, and Molly appeared to greet the newcomers, the latter in an apron and looking happier than Hermione had seen her in some time. She now had a whole houseful of "children" to care for, and she seemed to be thriving. Hermione supposed that the woman was still suffering from the "empty nest" syndrome given that Ginny was the last of seven. Hermione couldn't personally fathom raising that many children, but she could understand how the absence would likely be draining to someone who clearly enjoyed it so much.
Agreeing to come here, though, was another reminder of how big Molly's heart was. She'd taken to all of the werewolves as though they were a big extended family despite the fact that this was one of the largest gatherings of social pariahs outside of the Death Eaters. Oh, Hermione knew that Molly had known Remus for years and had always treated him better than most people did, but knowing and liking one werewolf wasn't quite the same as accepting all of them.
Molly and Arthur were very forward-thinking and liberal for a pure-blood family, but it was nice to see that this open-mindedness extended as far as it did. Wonderful as Molly was, she was also extremely stubborn, and every once in a while, Hermione ran up against very firm opinions that had been formed in Molly's youth which nothing had shaken. Yet here the woman was, spending all her time with almost fifty werewolves so that they were safe and cared for until Hermione could cure them—while the Ministry stood carefully back and waited to see what happened.
This largesse on Molly's part also appeared to include accepting the son of her family's biggest rival, too, because Molly gave them all hugs, including, to his evident surprise, Draco. Of course, Hermione had already seen plenty of examples of how much Molly cared for Harry—both the good and the less fortunate for Hermione personally. But given that Hermione suspected the woman had been hoping that Ginny's childhood crush on Harry would grow into something more permanent for both of them, accepting Draco was a mark of how much she cared for Harry himself.
One look at Harry told her how much it meant to him, and she knew that no matter what Draco felt about the Weasleys, he wouldn't be doing anything to jeopardize Harry's happiness.
Molly gave Ron a larger hug than normal, too, clearly pleased that he had finally made peace with his two best friends. If the woman found it strange that Hermione and Harry seemed to be getting along fine after their apparent break-up, especially with Draco tagging along, she didn't make mention of it, for which Hermione was grateful. The fewer people she had to lie to, the happier she would be.
All the werewolves who wouldn't be taking part in tonight's trial were on the ground floor or above, while the chosen ten were down in the dungeon waiting for their arrival. Once the reunion was over, Hermione, Harry, Draco, Ron, Remus, and Bill headed downstairs to greet the anxious group.
Although they had books and several had been making an attempt at a game of wizarding chess or cards, it was clear that they were as nervous as she was and wanted to get this day over with. A couple others, she saw, were reviewing notes or books on Animagi; it seemed that they were all being as careful as they could be.
Going to retrieve the potions, she found that the group of people she'd come downstairs with were looking at her strangely.
"What?" she asked as she began to un-ward.
"I thought you were bringing the potion now," Harry said. "Isn't that why we came so early?"
"We're administering the potion now," she answered as the wards fell and she removed the vials.
"But this is the potion that you were working on until last night?" Harry clarified.
"Which I finished just before six this morning. That would be the one," she answered with amusement.
"So what's it doing here?" Harry demanded.
She laughed outright. "It didn't walk on its own two legs, if that's where you're going with this, Harry. I brought it, of course."
"When?" he demanded.
"This morning."
Remus looked surprised. "I didn't know you'd been."
"Of course not," she answered, a smile playing at the corner of her lips. "This might be Draco's house, but it's my safe house. You know I did the warding. How can you be surprised that I may come and go as I please?"
They clearly hadn't considered it quite like that.
"But you did imply, at least, that the potion was coming with you this afternoon?" Harry pursued the original topic.
She nodded. "On the off chance that anyone worked that out, the potion wouldn't be in any danger."
"What about the danger it was in when you brought it here all by yourself?" he demanded.
"I'd challenge you to have found me and stopped me," she said lightly, "but I'd worry you'd put yourself in danger next time trying to do exactly that. I know how to keep myself and the potion safe, thank you, and I don't think you are in a position to lecture."
Harry looked as though he wanted to argue but was suddenly finding it difficult given the number of "unsafe" activities in which he had engaged over the years. Given that she had been Masked and Apparating straight from Hogwarts to a location for which she was Secret Keeper, there wasn't an extraordinary amount of danger involved. She probably had a better chance of getting hurt while on a Hogsmeade weekend. Or walking through the corridors at Hogwarts.
Remus was staring around their gathering and appeared to have noticed that he was the eldest and should perhaps remonstrate on principle—only he couldn't cast stones given what he had got up to during his school career; her well-reasoned, brief excursion didn't really compare.
She saw the moment he conceded defeat and grinned at him, and he gave her a rueful smile in return. Bill didn't look as though he were going to be taking on the mantle of responsible adult, so Hermione figured she was safe.
They distributed the potion, ensuring that each of the ten werewolves drank it. This was it. The moon set at five fifty-three this evening; the trial was about to begin in earnest.