Hermione sank onto a chair feeling as though a vacuum had been left in the wake of the angrily exiting Ron. Well. He had needed to learn the truth, and now he knew. He seemed to be angry with her, not Harry, and that had been her purpose. Her threat of dire harm would hopefully prevent him from saying anything stupid to Severus; at any rate, the Head of Slytherin was out of the way for most of the day, so there was little chance that they'd have to interact when Ron was freshly angry and hadn't had time to cool down—although that was often a slow process when it came to the redhead.
The only places she wanted to go now were either to the Forest or to Severus's quarters, but she made herself go back to her common room since the former wasn't wise at this time of day and the latter didn't seem to be wise ever. Harry and Draco were there, and Harry frowned as soon as he saw her.
"You don't look as though you've just had some nice alone time."
"I'll try to do better now," she said, not feeling up to answering any questions that would result in somebody storming after Ron. "I have to work on the Weresbane."
"Hermione," Harry protested as she made her way to her bedroom door.
"I'll see you at … dinner," she said as she made a split-second decision, turning back to face them and giving an approximation of a smile. "You can hold down the fort for that long, can't you?"
Harry stared at her intently.
You all right?
I'll be better by dinner. It's all right. She infused her mental tone with as much certainty as she could scrounge up.
"I'm sure we can manage," he said aloud, and she nodded her thanks and disappeared into her room.
The Weresbane couldn't actually be started until three in the afternoon, so she worked on more potions to restock the hospital wing in the meantime; the more trouble there was in her personal life, the better stocked the Infirmary seemed to get. At least someone was benefitting.
In the moments when the potions were simmering or otherwise didn't need her attention, she revised her course texts, forcing her mind to review each and every spell, charm, and potion in detail because that way, she wasn't thinking about anything else.
She reappeared in time for dinner, mildly amused by how relieved Harry looked to see her again; she supposed that she wasn't quite as good at hiding how she was feeling as she wanted to be, and she had indeed been upset.
They went up to dinner with her having no idea what to expect. They sat at their usual place at the Gryffindor table, Harry and Hermione opposite one another at the end and Draco next to Harry, and served themselves. Severus hadn't instantly hunted her down when he woke in the afternoon which left her with three options which she thought were most likely. He could be pretending it hadn't happened, didn't know it was she who had helped him, or was biding his time until he could pounce and cause the most damage.
She cast a fleeting glance at the High Table and saw that he was sitting there looking about as grim as usual, attention not focussed on the Gryffindor table, so she had no clue as to what was going through his head. Asking seemed unwise, so she supposed that she would just have to wait and see.
Ron arrived a few minutes later and sat down next to Draco rather than next to her. He didn't greet her, but he also didn't publicly denounce her, which was a big plus as far as she was concerned.
It didn't seem to surprise anyone that he wasn't being a big conversationalist since food was always his first priority at a meal, but it was clear that both Draco and Harry were puzzled about why Ron had chosen to sit next to the Slytherin. They were going to want reasons for this behaviour; once she found out if Ron was going to give them his version, she would decide how much to tell the other two about what she'd done this morning.
Since Ron was sitting next to Draco, he ended up speaking more to the blond than he had at any of the other meals they'd eaten together, and despite how confused Harry was on the one hand, the cordiality clearly pleased him.
It didn't surprise her, although it wasn't best-timed from her point of view, when Harry invited Ron back to their common room. Ron acquiesced, and Hermione wondered if she should beat a hasty retreat or tag along to ensure that Harry wasn't about to be ambushed with a confrontation that he had no reason to expect.
"Hermione and I can show you some of the training we've been doing," Harry offered hopefully.
"That's fine," Ron said, not looking at her.
Right, then. No ducking out for her, and she'd just have to play referee as necessary. They all headed downstairs, Draco shooting her curious glances as he seemed to be picking up on her uncertainty.
They reached their quarters without, thankfully, running into Severus or any of the Slytherins. Hermione imagined that Ron must have been at least peripherally aware that many of the seventh-year Slytherins had overtly changed allegiances and were now studying defence with their peers, but she wasn't entirely certain that now would be a good time to test out Ron's feelings towards them or their feelings towards him.
The rest of them were quite full from dinner, so they didn't have tea straightaway, although Ron, as he settled into one of the armchairs by the fire, observed that he was looking forward to seeing if Winky still made creampuffs as good as those which he remembered from his visits at the beginning of the school year.
Harry shook his head in bemusement, and some good-natured ribbing about the bottomless pit that was Ron's stomach ensued.
Harry and Draco had taken the couch again, although seemingly in deference to Ron's sensibilities, they weren't sitting nearly as close as they normally would; since this was sometimes in one another's laps, she was sure that Ron would thank them for their consideration if he knew of it. She had taken the other armchair, although she was perched on the edge of it, unable to bring herself to just relax in case the situation were to go suddenly pear-shaped. She wanted to be ready to leap into the fray and break up any fights.
They made it through the obligatory Quidditch remarks that seemed to fuel so many Hogwarts students' discussions, and then Ron looked at her directly.
"Stop it," he admonished. "I'm not going come out with wands blazing. You can relax, Hermione."
She smiled sheepishly at him and tried to settle back into her chair. "Sorry."
Ron sighed. "You probably have good reason, but I'm on my best behaviour, I promise."
She nodded at him, wondering where this sudden restraint had come from.
"What's going on?" Harry asked.
She looked at Ron, offering him the first chance to explain the situation.
"Hermione told me the truth this morning."
Harry looked at Ron blankly for a moment, and then his head swung around so that he was facing her.
"You did what?"
She nodded, corroborating Ron's story.
"What were you thinking, doing that on your own?" he demanded.
Ron answered before she could do so. "She was trying to make sure that I was mad at her and not you. Blamed herself for the whole situation."
Harry snorted. "Idiot."
"It was me," she protested. "It was my idea."
"That I chose to go along with," Harry argued straight back. "It's not like you forced me. It made the most sense, and I agreed to it."
Ron frowned. "I'm not happy with the fact that the plan that made the most sense involved not telling your best friend the truth about you. But given how I've been acting these past months, I can't really blame you for being worried."
"But you seem to be taking it really well," Harry said, sounding unflatteringly surprised.
Ron, fortunately, only laughed a bit.
"'Mione knew what she was doing. Dragged me off somewhere private, gave me a target for my anger, made sure I couldn't fly off half-kilter and do myself more harm than good. Kept out of my way long enough for me to get my head on straight again."
He focussed directly on her again and said, "You didn't have to tell me now. It's true that it might come out to everyone, but by then, it wouldn't matter if I made a big fuss about it. You knew that there was a good chance I'd go completely mental on you again, but you told me anyway."
"We're friends," she said with a somewhat wan smile. "I don't mean to do poorly by you."
He nodded. "And that's where I'm at. You all know what a prat I've been. This morning, I was angry when I left you." He rolled his eyes, and added a little sheepishly, "Obviously, I'm sure you got that. I thought about yelling at the both of you or not speaking to you again, but I realized there're only a few months of school left. You gave me a second chance, and this is it. I don't want not to see you any more."
"We don't want that either," Harry agreed.
Draco was at least being very quiet, and there hadn't been much more than the slightest grimace at this declaration on Harry's part for his need of a Weasley.
Ron looked at her again.
"You were right," he admitted, looking highly uncomfortable. "I would have tried."
She was hugely impressed that he had not only admitted this to himself but had the decency to admit it to her.
"Thank you," she said very seriously.
"Tried what?" Harry asked in confusion.
It was possible that he'd work it out on his own in the context of what they were talking about, but there was no way they needed to have that discussion right now. In fact, the two of them ought never to have that conversation. Visions of the horrid disaster that was most of the Yule Ball reminded her that the less the three of them were involved in any discussion of Ron and her love life, the happier they would all be. She cast about for a way to change the subject.
She cleared her throat loudly. "So, what's going on with those Canons?"
Harry looked at her incredulously for an instant, exchanged glances with an equally stunned Ron, and then the two of them dissolved into laughter. It did a great deal to dispel the last of the tension in the room, and it warmed her heart to see the two of them giggling like much younger school boys. Even Draco was smiling.
They passed the rest of the evening quite enjoyably. Hermione and Harry showed Ron a number of the moves that they'd been practicing in training including some of what they could do with shields that wasn't exactly normal. Draco was very circumspect, not pushing forward his knowledge or trying to make it clear to Ron that the Slytherin had been present for all of the training while the redhead had been having his fit of distemper and ignoring them.
For his part, Ron seemed to mostly ignore Draco but not in a horribly obvious way. The fact that Draco had taken Harry's virginity wasn't being alluded to in the slightest way, and that meant that Ron was being hugely mature about the issue, which was a nice surprise. If he really had decided that this put the two of them in different categories—best friend versus lover—then that might be safest for everyone.
Ron had always had jealousy issues, but if he was being even the littlest bit sensible, then he didn't want to compete with his best friend's gay lover; that wasn't a position to which he was aspiring. When it had come to her and Harry, the girlfriend/best friend mix had been the problem. It had left him feeling that she was more important, and especially since Ron had been working out whether or not he had any feelings for her, he must have been left imagining that she had picked Harry over Ron as well as Harry picking her over Ron.
When it came to Harry and Draco, Ron knew this was a new development, and he still retained his status as first friend and best friend. The matter of the power transfer remained, but either Ron had decided to be mature about every aspect of Draco and Harry's relationship or he was still living in as much denial as he could manage.
She had no idea what Ron now thought about her and Severus. She suspected that no matter how calm he seemed to be about Draco and Harry, he was not so sanguine about her choice. If it made the normally even-tempered Remus—who was no longer a werewolf—want to rend the man limb from limb, she didn't think it boded well for Ron's reaction.
There was still their nebulous past, too, where Ron had fancied her—or thought that he fancied her. If he had been upset when he thought she had chosen Harry over him, he might well feel worse that he had lost out to his least favourite professor who was almost two decades Ron's senior and an ex-Death Eater. It was all nonsense as far as she was concerned, of course, since she was quite sure that nothing would have induced her to get involved with Ron, but she could see why he was unlikely to see it that way.
But there was no way that she was going to sit down and discuss it with him, so he was going to have to work it out on his own.
Since Potions was, unfortunately, in the morning, she didn't let Ron or Draco stay too late despite the fact that as eleven drew near, they showed no signs of wanting to leave. Draco continued his circumspection and rose to leave with Ron without indicating that this was often not how his nights with Harry typically came to an end.
Draco gave Harry the lightest of busses on the cheek—and she couldn't blame him for wanting to assert at least a small measure of their relationship—and then he followed Ron out the door. The gargoyle re-formed, and Hermione flopped back onto the couch.
"Remind me never, ever to do that again."
"What were you thinking, silly girl?" Harry asked as he sat down next to her. "That's why you needed all that private time today, wasn't it? To confront him and then hope that he cooled off?"
She nodded. "I know I should have talked to you first, but you would just have wanted to come, and I didn't want him to get angry with you or feel that we were ganging up on him. I saw how happy you were when he came and apologized." In that weird boy speak of theirs. "Until he knew the truth, that was just borrowed time. I can still count on my fingers how many people are aware of what we are, and I think he appreciates being near the top of that list."
Harry shook his head. "It was still insane. You take on a great deal that isn't yours to suffer."
She shrugged. "He's always been your best friend."
Harry opened his mouth but closed it again without trying to rehash that old argument. Although they had all become friends in first year, Harry and Ron had been best mates for months before she came into the picture by way of a troll. Given how little she had in common with Ron, this had never really bothered her, but she had seen what a toll not having Ron around at all took on Harry. He needed someone to chat about Quidditch with and do all those boy things with and just have fun with sometimes. That person wasn't her—although she had actually performed some truly bizarre and rule-breaking actions over the years.
Harry's bedroom door opened and Draco appeared. Harry sat up, and Hermione was confronted with one of those dubiously rule-abiding moments.
"The strangest thing just happened," Draco announced. "I was in my bedroom trying not to feel cheated out of a real goodnight kiss with Harry when I realized there was another door in the room, a door that had never been there before. After performing all the proper scans because it's not every day a door just appears out of nowhere with no notice, I went through. And where did I find myself? In Harry's bedroom. What are the chances of that happening accidentally?"
Since Hermione was listening to Draco, she was unprepared when Harry tackled her, expelling the air from her lungs as she had an unexpectedly full-body encounter with the couch. Harry was giving her a big, awkward hug, she realized after a moment, and she struggled back into a sitting position once he'd lessened his grip a little.
"You're the best." He was beaming at her.
"You're welcome."
Draco sauntered fully into the room. "You convinced the castle to connect my bedroom with Harry's?"
Smiling, she nodded. "The castle's a great big romantic, really."
"S'a good thing the rest of the students don't know that," Harry observed. "Or don't know how to communicate with the castle, I guess."
She momentarily contemplated the grief that would cause.
"Can we invite the headmaster down to see our architectural changes at the end of the year?" Draco asked hopefully.
He sounded as childishly excited as Harry would if that had been his suggestion; perhaps they were rubbing off on one another. She thought both of them needed happier and more normal childhoods, and she didn't mind if they got some moments of fun now. Not that she wouldn't be cursing their boyishness at other moments, of course, when it seemed inappropriate to her….
She really was a bossy know-it-all, she realized.
"If that is your wish," she answered agreeably.
Once the year was over, there was nothing the headmaster could do about it, and if her plan succeeded, he would probably have a good understanding of what sort of a relationship she had with the castle by then.
There wouldn't be any cause for concern unless she used her powers for evil, rather than good, and that wasn't currently on her agenda. Although it was quite amusing to momentarily contemplate removing the door from Severus's quarters. Just as a thought.
She wondered how long it would take him to blast his way out—and if she'd be the first person he thought of to blame for the occurrence. Probably.
Harry and Draco bid her good night and disappeared back into Harry's bedroom. She doubted her connecting door was going to get any more use until the morning; it looked like Draco was going to be getting a lot more than a goodnight kiss. If they wound up sleep-deprived over the long-term, she supposed that was their business. At least she'd know they were having fun.
Retiring to her own room, she slept until almost four. Having decided that there was no time like the present to discover if her warding plan could actually be successful, she quickly performed her morning ablutions, dressed in jeans and a jumper, checked the Map for likely obstacles to her goal—but Severus was in bed—and headed out to find the precise centre of the castle.
The magical centre of Hogwarts was by no means the only location from which someone with adequate knowledge and power could view the wards, but Solace had written that it would be the easiest and least disorienting way for Hermione to do it the first time, and she intended to follow the woman's advice.
The stone initially felt cold beneath her bare feet, but she also felt more connected to the castle, just as Solace had indicated she would. Somehow, it was now easy to let her feet direct her to the focal point that she was searching for.
It turned out to be at the base of the stairs that led up to the headmaster's office, which answered for her the question of why the entrance was on the second floor with the large stairway up to the useable area at the top of the tower. Wanting to have direct access to the magical centre of the castle and to be able to protect it behind the griffin that protected the office made perfect sense to her. It was actually quite reassuring to know that when Umbridge had been barred from the headmaster's office for her short-lived tenure as headmistress, she had also been barred from the focal point of the castle's magic.
It didn't seem to be altogether under the headmaster's jurisdiction, though. Between Hermione's magic and the castle's anticipation, there was no nonsense about guessing sweet names; the griffin simply moved out of her way without activating the stairwell or, she trusted, alerting the headmaster to her presence.
The stone returned to its original position quietly behind her, protecting her from sight and surprise attack while she attempted to access the school's wards. Closing her eyes, she slipped into a light meditation, letting all her worries slip away along with her normal awareness of the world. She completely unMasked her core—another good reason to be hidden behind stone—and reached out with her magic and her mind with the intent to join with the castle and feel its magic and its protections.
Breath left her in a rush. Not only could she sense the magic all around her, she could feel it, almost as though it were her magic. Her awareness stretched higher and lower and wider and further than she had ever felt before.
She opened her eyes.
It was like what she'd seen before had only been shadows and afterimages and it was only now that the real magic was displayed before her. Despite the fact that she was simply one little person enclosed in a stone tower on the second floor, she could see and feel the wards around the entire castle. Walls or no walls, she knew exactly how the entire castle was protected, knew the intricacies of all the entrances to Hogwarts, every window and door, including the dungeon passages, every secret passage that the Map displayed and several more that it didn't. She was aware of the approach that could be made by water, the cliffs that had to be scaled, the exact line through the entire Forest where the grounds ended, and the height that would have to be reached above the Quidditch pitch to go beyond the wards.
She was standing here in the middle of the castle, but she was everywhere else, too, spread out across the area that comprised Hogwarts and its grounds.
Sinking to the floor, the castle cradling her, she examined what was laid out before her in detail. She knew where everyone was, could sense concentrations of magic, could feel the strengths and weaknesses of all the wards that were in place, could see where there were areas of wear and damage.
If Hermione had been able to do this in second year, they could have avoided a great deal of grief because she could have told everyone straightaway where the Chamber of Secrets was. Parseltongue had not been one of the talents that Solace had inherited from her father, but that didn't mean she hadn't known of the area that he had created. She had woven what protections she was willing to around the area, but she had left it accessible to his Parseltongue-speaking heirs as he had designed it.
Once Hermione was certain that she had all the information she needed concerning the state of the wards, she moved on to the next step, the slightly insane part that would actually tell her if the plan had any chance of success. Since it was also the part that could probably seriously injure her if she did it wrong, she had decided to give herself some time to get used to the castle and the wards before she attempted it.
She needed to find out if she could support the wards by herself as Solace had been able to do once upon a time. For all the description Solace had tried to give her in the journals, Hermione knew that she wasn't prepared for what this was going to feel like, so she'd determined to try it only for a short period. She thought a minute or two would give her a good idea of what it felt like and whether she would be capable of sustaining it with practice.
She drew a deep breath and followed Solace's instruction, performing this odd combination of pulling the magic to her and pushing herself out into the wards. It should have been completely contradictory but it felt right, somehow, as she was doing it.
Afterwards, as she lay slumped against the stone wall and tried to catch her breath, she was aware of several facts. This plan could work. She needed some backup if she didn't want to kill herself when she did this for real later. And her actions just now had woken Albus, Minerva, Filius, Severus, Draco, and Harry.
She supposed it was good news that there were that many people in the castle who were aware of a magical disturbance of the magnitude of the one which she had just caused.
Fawkes, she said, clearing her throat mentally and starting over. Tell Albus not to worry. That was me, and I'll be happy to explain myself this evening if he's free.
There was a moment of silence as Fawkes no doubt relayed her message, and then he said, Understood. I think it will need to be a good explanation, Girlicorne.
It is, she said simply.
Eight o'clock? he suggested.
She nodded mentally. We'll need Severus, Harry, Draco, Ron, Remus, Tonks, and Kingsley for this meeting, I think. The parts of Harry's group whom she trusted and who knew the truth about her and Harry. People whose input she valued, and maybe a bit of an attempt to tell enough people that there was less chance that Albus would try to dismiss her out of hand. Once plans are finalized, we'll need all the Heads of House.
You're not going to tell Albus what you're planning before you tell everyone else, are you?
She smiled slightly and offered him a mental headshake with the consolation, But I'm not going to tell Harry, either. This story is best told only once, I assure you. Hopefully you'll be amused.
Whatever you say, Berit, he agreed, apparently already amused by her intention to run this meeting as she saw fit.
She made it to her feet after several attempts, feeling rather as though she'd been doing hours of hard labour or a couple days of strong magic instead of her couple of minutes' effort.
As she made her best attempt to walk entirely steadily back to her common room, she also realized that she had completely lost track of the time. For all she had been able to tell, she'd spent a few minutes examining the wards and getting used to the feel of accessing them. According to the Tempus spell, which she had never known to be wrong, it was just before half six. The activity in the hallways seemed to confirm it because she passed three students. That wasn't likely to be the case at half four in the morning, but at half six, it wasn't unreasonable to see two Ravenclaws heading to the library and a Gryffindor attempting to sneak back to his dormitory.
Since there wasn't precisely a morning curfew, she pretended not to see any of the other students. She couldn't blame the Ravenclaws for wanting to work in the library when it was particularly quiet, and she was sure that the Gryffindor would have had some sort of ready excuse. She wasn't in the mood for arguments.
Her time gap made her wonder, however, if she'd really spent only a few minutes handling the wards. At this precise moment, it seemed uncommonly difficult to summon her mental recollection of the time and carefully assess it, but perhaps she'd be able to do so later.
Back in the common room, she found that Harry and Draco had gathered and were looking expectant when she stepped through the doorway.
"You didn't answer your door," Harry accused.
"I wasn't behind it," she answered.
Draco snorted, and Harry shot him a nasty glance.
"I'd gathered, actually, thank you," he said with a slight edge in his voice for both of them. "Where were you?"
"Causing a disturbance strong enough to wake the both of you and several others," she answered evenly.
Harry blinked at her. "Right, then. What did you do?"
"I'm not at liberty to say at the moment," she answered. "We're meeting with Albus tonight at eight."
Harry and Draco exchanged glances.
"Okay," Harry said, sounding bemused. "I admit this conversation didn't go quite as I envisioned it would."
Hermione smiled. "Better not to have such expectations when you speak with me."
"I'll keep that in mind," he said with pretty good humour, although he rolled his eyes. Then he frowned faintly. "You all right?"
"I'll be fine," she said, wondering what she'd done to give herself away. "I'm just going to change and maybe do a little reading before breakfast."
His gaze narrowed. He couldn't possibly have missed the fact that she was getting herself out of the possibility of training, and the fact that she was coming in at half six to change the clothing she hadn't been wearing the night before sort of gave her words away as the excuse that they were.
But Harry wasn't her keeper, and she'd already promised him an explanation, so he let her pass with nothing more than a rather suspicious glance. Since there was no way he could look at her and divine what was going on, this didn't much bother her.
Once she'd made it to her room and shed her sweaty clothing, she decided that she needed to get properly clean. She was trembling a bit, as though her muscles had been overexerted, so she headed into the bathroom and filled the tub with very hot water and sank gratefully into it.
As the heat of the water soaked through her, she felt tension leaching away. He muscles relaxed and she went pleasantly limp. Steam curled up around her and she was able to forget, for a little while, all the worries that were waiting for her beyond the bathroom door. Right now, she could just rest and be calm.
It turned out to be fortunate that the bath was charmed; she awoke to the sound of the alarm spell as she was slipping beneath the water and came up spluttering. Right. This was going to be an interesting day.
She climbed out of the bathtub and got herself ready for the day for the second time that morning. The lassitude that she had felt in the bathtub seemed to be staying with her. Realizing that attempting to read in this condition was probably not the wisest course of action if she didn't want to wake up around dinner time, she checked on her Weresbane instead. The next step in the brewing process didn't need to begin until the evening but ensuring that it was still the appropriate colour and consistency took an adequate amount of thought without her actually having to do too much.
She joined Harry and Draco a few minutes before eight, and they headed up to breakfast together. Having to concentrate in order to put food on her plate, successfully use utensils to get the food to her mouth, and then chew the food adequately before swallowing it served to keep her awake, functional, and not likely to garner too many questions.
Potions class was the nearest she'd been to a conscious Severus since she'd nearly injured him on Friday. The unconscious healing lay between them as well, and she kept thinking that she should carefully examine him for signs of distress or particular anger towards her. Unfortunately, her concentration was entirely shot. It was all she could do to process the words he was speaking during his lecture, let alone observe any minute indications of discomfort on his part, and there seemed to be no way for her get her quill to move….
Hermione!
She started awake, and it took her a moment to realize what had happened; she had just fallen asleep in class. In Potions class. And Severus was now coming to stand in front of her, and it was clear that he not only knew what had happened, he fully intended to embarrass her completely as a result of it.
May I do something rather rude? she asked hurriedly.
Go for it, Harry said cheerfully.
She wasn't entirely certain that he'd grasped that she meant to him rather than to Severus, but she didn't have time to be more explicit. As Severus stared down at her impatiently, she reached into Harry's mind and pulled to the forefront the minutes that she had missed. She scanned them at record speed, offered Severus what was probably a rather manic smile, and answered the question he had asked, even managing to make an explicit connection to the part of the lecture that she had also missed.
Since Severus was standing right in front of her and everyone else was further away, it was clear that no one could have given her a verbal hint. Severus could suspect that she and Harry had communicated mentally, but he couldn't openly accuse them of doing so in a public setting. While her hesitation may have been a little longer than usual, it wasn't outrageously so.
Severus appeared to reach the same conclusions, snarling, "Ten points from Gryffindor for your … lapse in attention, Miss Granger, and you will see me after class."
"Yes, sir," she murmured.
It was less than she deserved, really, and she hoped that she wasn't about to get a whole bunch of detentions once they were alone. That wasn't usually his modus operandi since he liked to make a student suffer the humiliation of the full punishment being assigned in front of all his or her peers but that didn't mean he wasn't about to make an exception in her case.
Her embarrassment and the knowledge that certain death awaited her were she to fall asleep for a second time kept Hermione awake through the rest of the lecture, and by dint of absolute concentration and frequent mental nudges from Harry, she managed to make her potion.
It helped that she'd made the Draught of Living Death before and also that she'd done all her assigned reading weeks ago with a refresher on the weekend. She didn't think she would have been up for anything unexpected, but she was still capable of following directions and achieving an anticipated outcome.
It would have been highly embarrassing to fail at the potion after almost failing to answer a question in class. Severus had definitely seen her sleeping, she realized, because it was rather atypical for him to have sought a response from her at all.
She had a little bit of trouble with her coordination bottling the potion and getting it to the front of the classroom to submit it, but she managed it through sheer force of will. It felt as though she'd been dosed with her own potion and was desperately trying to fight it. Given her experience with sleeping draughts in general, it suggested this was a losing battle, but despite the fact that her limbs felt leaden, her eyelids had ten-pound weights tied to them, and her brain felt as though it was stuffed with cotton, she was determined not to make this situation with Severus worse, and that meant forcing herself to function correctly.
Once the class was over, the rest of the students filed out, although Harry, Ron, and Draco left with serious looks of misgiving. She remembered a day when just this occurrence would have made Draco positively gleeful; they'd come a long way since then.
She looked up at Severus with his arms crossed and eyes narrowed as he positively glared at her impatiently from the front of the classroom. Well, some of them had come a long way.
Are you sure you're going to be all right? Harry asked at the door.
I'll be fine, she lied as positively as she could. Really, Harry, if you refuse to leave, you'll just earn yourself a detention, and he'd dismiss you anyway.
Harry offered a mental shrug. I'd do it anyway.
Thank you, love, but it's for me to fight this battle.
With a last reluctant look, Harry was out the door, and Severus made sure it slammed shut on his heels. She propped herself up against her desk and waited for the lecture to start.
"Your personal business is none of my concern, Miss Granger," Severus began in a scathing tone.
If she were more awake, she was certain she'd have a smart comeback for that. As it was, she simply nodded.
His gaze narrowed in a manner remarkably similar to how Harry's had this morning. Severus stepped closer to her.
"As such," he hissed, "I expect your personal life not to come into my classroom, and that means curtailing whatever activities are preventing you from sleeping at the appropriate time. Do you understand me?"
There was an insult in there, she was sure of it, but it seemed rather out of her reach.
"Yes, sir," she answered.
"You could at least have taken a Pepper-Up," he ground out.
Huh. Some fuzzy part of her brain told her that might not help in the particular condition she was in, but it hadn't so much as occurred to her until he suggested it.
"Hadn't thought of that," she answered honestly.
It was apparently an unwise confession to make because it resulted in Severus's glare growing even more ferocious.
"The possibility of rendering yourself functional for my class slipped your mind, did it?" he demanded silkily.
Even in the state she was currently in, she recognized that answering that question in the affirmative would be unwise. With an effort, she pulled herself together enough to get a relatively long sentence out.
"I hadn't realized the extent before I got here."
Although, really, falling asleep in the bath should probably have been an indication. If she hadn't been so bloody tired, maybe she would have been in a fit state to notice that she was in no fit state to go to class.
"You don't really think I can let your falling asleep go unpunished, do you, Miss Granger?" he demanded.
Did she have to think about it? And, she frowned, he had punished her. He'd taken away points, and that was a punishment last time she had checked.
Blinking up at him, she found that he was staring at her expectantly, and she realized that he had asked her a question.
"I answered you," she said slowly as she managed to cobble the words together. "I made the potion. I was correct."
"You answered the question," he said angrily, "because Mr Potter told you what to say."
He'd told her what Severus had asked, not what to say. But surely the man knew that even in the state she was currently in, Harry wouldn't be telling her Potions answers. So really, that was just semantics, and she didn't have the energy to argue semantics right now.
Severus was doing that looming thing. And that glaring thing, the one that turned people to stone. If only she wasn't about to nod off, it might have had some sort of effect on her.
"You fell asleep in my class, Miss Granger," he pronounced fatefully. "No one has ever had the temerity to do so before."
Oh, for heaven's sake. It hadn't been temerity. It had been mental and magical exhaustion, but just the thought of explaining that to him was exhausting, so she remained silent and tried to look politely curious.
His expression informed her that she hadn't succeeded. His face twisted into a smirk.
"You are entirely correct, of course, in that you did answer my question and brew your potion correctly."
She blinked. Even her desperately sleep-yearning brain knew this couldn't be as good as it sounded.
He continued: "So I'll leave it up to you once more as to whether or not you are further punished for your infraction."
Um, her vote was not.
He explained the catch. "Without falling asleep, you must sit quietly at your desk without aid of any kind until the end of the lunch hour."
She wanted to cry. The only chance she had had to be functional in Charms this afternoon was to crash at lunch. There was no possible way that she was going to be able to stay awake doing nothing but sitting at her desk. She was pretty sure Severus was well aware of that fact, so there was no reason to waste energy pointing it out to him.
"Very well, sir," she managed as she sort of slid into her desk.
Asking what would happen to her when she failed didn't seem that worthwhile, either; it wouldn't change anything, and it would take unnecessary mouth movements.
Severus, still smirking, sat down at his desk and set about grading. She wished she were grading. The job she did of it would probably not be very satisfactory, but forcing herself to attempt it might keep her from collapsing.
Harry, she said, even the minor mental exertion making her feel more lethargic, I'm going to be in the Potions classroom until Charms.
What's he done? Harry demanded, sounding instantly aggrieved.
I just have to sit here, that's all, she said as soothingly as she could manage.
You don't sound so good, he said worriedly.
I'm fine, she reassured him, infusing every bit of energy she had into her tone. I'll see you in Charms.
If you're sure…. he said with clear reluctance.
A mental nod, and then he was gone. She reached out again.
Fawkes, Castina, I have an impossible task for you. I need to spend the next sixty minutes awake.
She felt the mental connection with Castina form.
Berit, what did you do to yourself?
Overextended a little, she admitted.
Yes, if by little, she means she disturbed the magic of the entire castle, Fawkes put in.
That was you? Castina let out a huff of laughter. I see. And why is it you cannot sleep now?
Hermione hesitated for a moment, and Fawkes beat her to an explanation.
Bat-man has imposed this punishment.
There was something funny about that, but the thought trickled away before she could fully grasp it.
I will come and explain matters to him!
Hermione was momentarily frozen by the image of her herd mare galloping into the castle and down to the dungeons in order to do this.
If there's anyone who's going to put him in his place, it will be me, Fawkes declared. I'm already in the castle, and I can be there momentarily.
No! Hermione exclaimed when she'd recovered from her shock. No unicorns in the castle, and no flying down here, Fawkes. That's the last thing I need because he'll—
Severus spoke very sharply. "Granger, you will tell Potter to mind his own business if he does not wish to find himself in detention with me."
She thought it was a bit much to be telling her what she could do with her own mind.
"Not Harry," she corrected looking over at Severus with an effort. "Fawkes 'n Castina."
"You've got a phoenix and a unicorn helping you stay awake?" he asked, sounding nonplussed.
Hermione nodded, speaking with difficulty. "'Stina wanted to come tell you to let me sleep, but I told her no unicorns in the castle."
Severus frowned. "Miss Granger, what has brought you to this state?"
Hermione shook her very muzzy head. "Can't say."
"Can't you?"
Oh, dear. That was the arctic tone of voice. She shook her head again. "Meeting with Albus. Tell you then."
This was apparently interesting enough to get Severus out of his seat. He was suddenly right in front of her, and her head flopped back on her neck as she tried to look up at him.
"Hermione, did you cause the magical disturbance that woke me this morning?"
Her head wobbled a little in her attempt at a nod.
"You've not gotten any rest since then?"
It seemed to her as though her attempt to shake her head produced about the same movement as her attempt to nod had done, but Severus seemed to understand her.
"Up you get."
He wanted her to stand up? At this precise moment, that task seemed beyond monumental, but she did her best. Which amounted, she found, to a movement of all of about an inch in the upward direction before it became too much for her.
Suddenly, hands were on her arms, pulling her to her feet, and when she stumbled, the world wobbled completely and then she was no longer standing on the ground.
"What you doing?" she asked, finding it even more difficult to keep her eyes open now that she was horizontal.
"You need to sleep." His voice was low.
Yes, she did. How nice of him to point this out. And here was something solid and black that she could set her head against. She allowed her eyes to fall closed, relieved beyond measure that she was no longer being told she couldn't give in to unconsciousness, and it rushed up immediately to meet her.
Hermione opened her eyes, fully awake in an instant but with, momentarily, absolutely no idea where she was. It was dark, but all her senses kicked in at once, informing her that she was in Severus's office. Looking down, she found that she was on a transfigured couch, and a Tempus confirmed what her internal clock was already telling her: she'd slept the afternoon away. It was now almost a quarter to five in the evening, and she'd missed Charms and dinner.
On the plus side, she was feeling brilliant from a magical and mental perspective. The world felt sharp and in focus again, and it only took her all of ten seconds of contemplation to realize that she'd supported the wards for almost thirty minutes in the morning. It had been self-preservation rather than intention which had caused her to release them, and it was the awkwardness of that release which had resulted in the disturbance which had woken those attuned enough to notice.
Sitting up, she found that the blanket which had been covering her slid down to her lap. She stared down at the black fabric, letting out a soft huff of laughter as she realized that Severus conjured black blankets. A little harder to mentally wrap her brain around was the fact that Severus had conjured a blanket for her at all, let alone carried her into his office and let her sleep there for hours. "lone, to all appearances. Of course, given that she had fallen asleep in his arms after becoming incapable of articulating grammatically correct sentences, perhaps he had good reason not to be too worried that she was going to run amok in here.
She rose and nudged the blanket with her magic, letting it unravel back into nothing since it was conjured rather than transfigured. Examining the couch she had been lying on, it didn't take her long to transfigure it back into the straight-backed chair that it had once been and return it to its position in front of Severus's desk.
Masking herself, she slipped out of the door and into the deserted hallway. She wanted to go straight to Filius and apologize for her truancy, but since she didn't know what, if anything, had been said to him on her behalf, she knew it would be wiser to wait. Since Severus had surprised her by letting her sleep, it seemed equally possible at this point that he had made excuses for her.
She therefore went back to her quarters and found that Harry and Draco had returned from dinner. As the gargoyle re-formed, she unMasked herself, and Harry grinned at her immediately as he rose to his feet and came to greet her.
"'Mione, you're all right, I'm so glad."
He pulled her into a hug, and over his shoulder, she saw Draco rolling his eyes.
"I told you Severus didn't kill her and hide the body," the blond Slytherin said haughtily. "It's not his style."
Her lip curled up into a smile of her own as Harry finally released her.
"It's hard to tell with that man. I'm sure he could have used the body parts for potion ingredients, and I'm pretty sure that's the only excuse he needs."
Neither she nor Draco tried to argue this point.
"He said you were fine when I demanded to know what he'd done with you," Harry continued, "but he wasn't exactly forthcoming on the details."
She eyed him with wry amusement. "If that's the attitude you used when you confronted him, I can see why."
He looked ever-so-slightly sheepish but mostly defiant. "You do seem better, though. He said we might not see you until the meeting tonight. What happened?"
Unless she made up a really outrageous lie—and it would be impossible for her and Severus to have had wild and crazy sex while he was teaching in the afternoon—Harry wasn't going to let this go, so she gave in to the inevitable.
"Nothing very extraordinary. He let me sleep."
Harry waited a beat, blinked. "What?"
She nodded, smiling slightly. "Told you. I was very run down, and what I desperately needed, as you might have gathered by what happened in Potions class, was to sleep. Severus allowed it."
"But." Harry was spluttering. "He kept you after class to let you sleep?"
Her smile deepened. "Essentially, yes. And now, if you don't mind, I need to continue with the Weresbane."
They let her go, Draco's rising to tug Harry back to the couch probably what prevented the dark-haired boy from coming after her.
She wondered what the chances were that she had woken in the perfect time to get back to her quarters and work on the next stage of the crucial potion. But if it was her subconscious which had woken her, perhaps it had all those details worked out.
At least she had had the forethought to test her plan out before she presented it to anyone or before, Heaven forbid, she actually needed it. She could just imagine how disastrous it would have been had she fallen asleep in the middle of what she fully intended to be the Final Battle.
She was hungrier than normal, too, and she realized she was going to have to spend the night out with her herd once this was all over. Her magic levels had been improved a great deal from earlier in the day, but just as her stomach was informing her that there was a big hole in it that required food, she was also getting that itchy feeling that told her that it had been too long since she had last been outside as a unicorn. She needed to stock up on all her usual forms of nourishment.
She finished with the potion just after seven and rejoined Harry and Draco in the common room. She asked the house-elves for a meal, and the boys had tea so that she wouldn't be eating all on her own. Plus, as Harry pointed out, if they were going to a meeting with the headmaster where there was going to be a big revelation, they all needed to fortify themselves. Given the group of people who were going to be together in one room and the news she was going to relay, she couldn't disagree.
They headed up to Albus's office once Kingsley's arrival was announced on their bracelets. Hermione refused to be the last person to arrive but also didn't want to be sitting and chatting unnecessarily with Albus since she knew he'd try to get answers out of her before the others arrived so that he could maintain his appearance of omniscience. She thought he'd do fine with his usual method of nodding, twinkling, and making wise-sounding remarks.
Harry and Draco looked at her funny when she paused for a moment at the bottom of the stairs, caught fleetingly unawares by the hum of magic there. She didn't understand how she couldn't have been aware of it before this morning. Taking the revolving staircase up, they found that Kingsley was not the only one with the headmaster; Minerva was there as well.
The look in Albus's eyes said he was prepared to do battle on this issue.
"She is my deputy," he said solemnly.
Right now, the Gryffindor Head of House would be the only person in the room who wasn't aware of her and Harry's status. Given what she had to talk about, that would be a serious handicap.
"You're not trying to force my hand again, are you Albus?" she asked with deceptive mildness.
Harry had shifted slightly away from Draco and closer to Hermione so that they presented a united front.
Albus's eyes were rather twinkle-free, and Minerva, Draco, and Kingsley appeared to have decided to stay well out of it.
"I think you would do well to take her into your confidence," Albus said gravely.
"We might not disagree with you," Harry answered, "but the choice is ours to make."
"Is there a better time?" he inquired mildly.
Hermione crossed the room, Harry at her side, until there was only the width of Albus's large wooden desk separating them.
You are very old and very wise, she said in his head, using a combination of Legilimency and MindSpeech that allowed both her and Harry to communicate with the headmaster. But you must not cross us in this.
She and Harry conferred hastily, and Harry announced their agreement: We will not insult Minerva now by excluding her, but that is for her and not for you.
She finished with what amounted, she knew, to a threat. Do not force us to make a different decision next time; we don't want to fight you on this issue, but that does not mean we will not.
He tried to pull his mind away from theirs, but she did not allow it until he gave a reluctant mental nod of concession.
Out loud, she admitted, "Now does seem to have worked out to an appropriate time."
Hermione smiled at Minerva and gestured towards a small couch that the headmaster had evidently conjured for this meeting, as there would be a fair number of people in attendance. It was placed at an angle in front of the fireplace and looking towards Albus's desk.
"Have a seat," she offered.
The older woman sat, and the two of them joined her as Hermione threw up protections so that the rest of the room could not hear or see them. Everyone else might basically know what they were going to say, but Minerva deserved to hear the information as cleanly as possible given that the timing had been taken out of their hands.
Hermione was momentarily distracted by the fact that Draco had sat down next to Kingsley and struck up a conversation about, improbably as it seemed, Malfoy Dark artefacts. She had to give him points for his nonchalance. Resolutely, she turned away from the rest of the room to face her Head of House.
"Sorry about that," Hermione said. "I thought we could do with a little privacy."
"Albus has gone and done that thing," Harry contributed, "where he puts people on the spot to find out really important information. It's better this way."
And then she and Harry explained.
The Scottish woman took the news stoically, not batting an eyelash over Draco or Severus, certainly behaving better than Remus and Ron, and not reacting with the glee that Albus had displayed, either.
Minerva considered the matter for a long moment and then pronounced, "I see why you chose to keep the matter private. You've done an exemplary job of protecting yourselves. I take it you wish the secret to be contained as long as possible?"
She and Harry nodded. "We wouldn't have kept it from you forever, but we prefer to disseminate the information at a time of our choosing."
Harry grinned. "And right before this meeting was kind of ... dodgy timing."
Minerva's lips quirked. "Albus has always liked to make his point ... dramatically."
Harry frowned faintly. "And we will match him as necessary."
Minerva eyed them shrewdly, and then gave a sharp nod.
"Severus doesn't appear to be here yet."
They looked up and found that that was indeed the case. Tonks and Remus had arrived, though, and Tonks had taken up the seat next to Kingsley which Draco had vacated presumably because he wished to sit next to Harry or perhaps because this allowed Tonks to sit next to Remus. Draco had moved to the small couch on the other side of the room from the one that Harry and Hermione were currently on.
"Are you anxious for the meeting to start?" Harry asked.
Minerva's tone was quite close to gleeful for the normally stern woman. "I think Severus really needs to be here when I give you fifty points apiece for protecting yourselves and your fellow students."
Hermione knew that this was Severus's New Year's attack on her and Harry coming back to bite the man. Minerva looked positively devilish, and Hermione was reminded that crossing her Head of House could be almost as bad as crossing the Slytherin one. When it came down to it, they were both very opinionated and fierce, and it amused her how much they liked to enact their die-hard rivalry.
"You could do it now and see how long it takes him to notice," Harry suggested with a sly smile.
Hermione laughed softly. "We all know he'll notice the moment he passes the hourglasses when he heads back down to the dungeons."
Harry adopted an innocent expression. "We could time him and see how long it takes him to get back up here and fly off the handle."
Minerva's lips twitched, and Hermione shook her head in amusement at his disingenuousness.
"Behave," Hermione admonished. "We're all going to be stuck in this meeting together, and it will go better if we're all on our best behaviour."
"I feel properly chastised now."
Hermione blushed faintly, for she had not intended the comment in question to be directed at her Head of House, though she realized now that it could be taken to apply to either of them.
She cleared her throat, and said as breezily as she could manage, "Then my work here is done."
She released her spells and saw that while she had not been paying attention, Ron had arrived, and he and Draco were awkwardly sitting on either end of the couch, leaving a clearly defined space for Harry. Exchanging an amused glance with her, Harry sat down in the vacant area.
There doesn't seem to be room for you. Unless you'd like to sit on my lap?
Tempting, she said wryly, but I think I'll be spending this meeting on my feet.
The only person missing now was Severus, and as the clock on the wall began to chime the hour, he swept in.
As he passed Remus, Hermione distinctly heard a low growl. Looking at Remus in astonishment, she saw from the glare he was sending Severus's way that there was every chance it had indeed been he who had made the noise.
Without thought, she smacked him up the side of the head magically. His head had almost rebounded to its original position when Tonks smacked him again, winking at Hermione as her hair went green.
Hermione hid a smile as Severus continued without any indication that he'd noticed anything amiss. Seeing the seats that were vacant, he ended up joining Minerva on her couch, although he looked entirely disdainful of the pink floral pattern it was composed of. Hermione made a mental note to arrive early enough in the future to do the furniture conjuring.
She took up a position to the left of Albus's desk, far enough back that she could see him as well as the rest of the room. She wasn't about to ask him to vacate his seat, but she wanted to be in a good position to share the necessary information with everyone.
He went through the obligatory offer of tea and lemon drops followed by the usual small talk as Albus ensured that those Order members who didn't live in the castle were still in good health. Then he checked in with the castle members just in case something had gone awry when he hadn't noticed, Hermione supposed, and they suddenly wanted to share this information with him before this very important meeting.
Hermione took the opportunity to cast extra wards around his office, knowing that he was likely noticing but hardly going to interrupt his own speeches to call her on it.
It was twenty-two minutes after Albus had officially begun the meeting that he finally turned to her with a smile.
"Now, I believe Hermione wanted to speak to all of you."
It was hard to miss how he'd distanced himself from those others who were in the office, as though he knew what she was going to say while the rest of them remained in ignorance. She nevertheless smiled at him in thanks before looking to the rest of the people facing her.
She spoke very seriously. "A number of factors have conspired to bring us to this point, and most of what I have to say is so wrapped up in itself that there is no clear beginning. I'll start, I suppose, with how I mean for us to end. The wards surrounding Hogwarts are the original ones that were cast a thousand years ago. They have suffered centuries of damage, and the last several decades have been particularly difficult. Their current status is unacceptable. The wards must be re-cast."