Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Never in her life had Hermione been the first choice, or a choice at all really, more of a mostly reluctant job of whomever’s care she resided. Her parents had not wanted children. They had made it through medical school, 7 years of dating, 5 years of marriage, and more scares than they would ever tell Hermione when they had found out they were pregnant with her. After she was born they made sure it would never happen again, Jean had gotten her tubes tied and Richard had gotten a vasectomy. Hermione had known all of this before most children could read. Her parents had clocked her high intellect early on, gifted they called her, so they had treated her as nearly an adult years before most parents would have even considered having half the conversations she was included in on an almost daily basis with Jean and Richard Granger.

School was no respite either. She was ridiculously intelligent, even for the high achieving students at her private primary school in the upscale London suburb she had called home her entire life. Her instructors had advised her parents that keeping her at age level would be best for her socially, but the Grangers would not be swayed. They hadn’t wanted a child in the first place, the faster they could get her “raised” and off to somewhere else to be someone else’s problem the better. This resulted, of course, in a little girl with more hair than anything else who was nearly a high school graduate before she was double digits in age.

Then, of course, their were the “incidents”. Objects floating that shouldn’t, glass shattering when Hermione was in the throws of an extremely rare tantrum brought on by the absence of any of the children that had been invited to her sixth birthday party, biscuits appearing on the dining table when they had never been baked, the Grangers knew their was something wrong with their daughter. They chalked it up to her well above board intellect, surely if she had enough mental stimulation the “incidents” would cease. For a time, they did, or so the Granger parents thought anyway. As long as they kept little Hermione busy beyond all imagining with college courses at age 8 on top of etiquette classes, foreign language instruction, dance classes, and after school sports, then they could know peace. The child was so exhausted that she could barely function enough to keep her feet moving from task to task, she never thought to inform her parents when books would appear next to her without her having to grab them from the shelves and her tutors knew each time they reported something strange happening around their young charge it seemed more tasks would be added to her already full to the brim schedule, so they simply stopped informing her parents of the occurrences to keep the young girl from being punished with more tasks to fill her already so busy days. It wasn’t like the odd biscuit appearing on the child’s desk, or book flying into her hand out of no where was something that couldn’t be accounted for once one knew to look out for it.

One would think, since the Grangers seemed to want so little to do with raising their daughter that the appearance of one Ms. Minerva McGonagall to inform them of their daughter’s status as a witch would be met with joy, or at the very minimum a sense of relief of finally having the odd things in their lives explained. That was, of course, not the case. Jean and Richard Granger were furious that their plans had not worked. That, despite everything they had thrown the girl into to keep herself from being so strange, it seemed she was determined to be as difficult of a child as possible. A witch! What were they to tell their friends when they asked where Hermione had gone? Explaining away boarding school for a child that had been enrolled in college level courses for over 3 years was going to be difficult at best and impossible at worst. How inconvenient this was all proving to be. They said as much to Ms. (Professor they were later informed) McGonagall. She had the nerve to look put out! How dare this woman, in her absolutely obscenely strange clothing, dare to act as if the Grangers were wrong somehow for being annoyed at the continued inconvenience that was their daughter. They had done their best to raise her right and at every turn they had been met with obstacle after obstacle as if the child was trying as hard as she could to make raising her as difficult as possible for her very busy parents.

It was only after much discussion with the, quite judgey, Minerva Mcgonagall that a solution was brought to the ears of Jean and Richard Granger for the first time in almost 12 years that did not require them to do yet more work for the child that had caused them so much grief. “I can take her off your hands, if she is that difficult.”

Richard and Jean were elated, was it truly that simple? They could just get rid of the child, and all the problems that came with her? It turned out that the answer was yes, they could. The process would be simple, Minerva assured them of that. First they would set up a trust to deposit a set pre-agreed upon sum into an account so that Hermione would have money for supplies throughout the year for the next seven years. This was easy, a quick call to their bank (and some help from the McGonagall woman) and they had set up clean monthly withdrawals to be pulled out until June of 1998 when Hermione would graduate from Hogwarts and be on her own. After that, the woman assured, all that was left was to tell Hermione, sign some paper work awarding custody over, and then they would be free of the increasing headache that was their (apparently magical) child.

It had come to no surprise to Hermione that her parents had leapt at the first opportunity to rid themselves of her for good. They had been making it clear for years that she was nothing but a burden and an inconvenience, her only regret was that she would never get to say her goodbyes to the only people who had ever cared about her in her entire life, her tutors. She had already been completely packed and ready to leave by the time her mo-Jean had called for her at the bottom of the stairs. She had informed the gathered adults upon reaching the first floor she simply needed help with moving everything, but that she was ready to leave when Professor McGonagall (as she had been informed to address her) was.

Professor McGonagall followed her up the stairs to her room, mumbling under her breath the entire way about what Hermione wasn’t sure, but she had a deep suspicion it was her. “I promise I won’t be any trouble, if that is what you are worried about” she assured the severe looking woman as she entered her room, devoid of life aside from an assortment of boxes filled with what made up her entire life (mostly books).

The woman looked briefly startled at her words before speaking,”Child, you should never be troubled with thoughts of being a burden. I am deeply sorry that those in whom care you have resided for your short life have made you feel as if that is the case. I seek to remedy this, if you would let me.”

Hermione had been floored at Professor Mcgonagall’s words. So much so that she barely even registered how the witch had shrunk all her boxes down to the size of dice with a swish of her wand, thrusting them into the pocket of her ornate robes before sticking her hand out for Hermione to grasp on to. She felt a tugging in her stomach, near her belly button, as if something was trying to shove her entire person through a space akin to that of a straw tube. Practically as soon as the feeling began it ceased. It took Hermione nearly two whole minutes to realize her surroundings had changed dramatically.

She found herself not, as she had been not but a few moments previously, in her childhood room but in what could only be described as a chamber. The walls were made of a sturdy stone Hermione could not place, as was the floor. Tapestries in brilliant shades of crimson and gold lined the walls, seeping warmth into the space that without them likely would have been absent. Over stuffed sofa’s and oversized chairs in similar crimson shades to the tapestries were scattered around the room underneath which lay various throw rugs that felt plush under Hermione’s feet, adding to the inviting atmosphere of the space.

To be quite frank, in a matter of moments Hermione felt more at home in the strange chamber she found herself in than she ever had in the posh house she had called home until quite recently. She immediately found herself curling up in one of the arm chairs, tucking her feet beneath her after slipping her trainers off before glancing up at the witch who had, presumably, been what had brought her to her new surroundings.

Professor McGonagall, Minerva she insisted Hermione call her, began to explain what would happen in Hermione’s life over the next year as she awaited the first of September when she could join her classmates on the Hogwarts Express. She would reside here in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with Minerva in her personal quarters (in a room that Minerva insisted the school had just added to her quarters of its own accord), during the day she would split her time between Minerva’s company (when she had free periods) and a witch named Poppy that Hermione was introduced to who served as the school matron, so therefore had no students in need of her instruction, while Minerva was busy teaching her Transfiguration students.

Over the next few months Hermione fell into a pattern of sorts. Breakfast with Minerva in the small kitchenette in their shared quarters, then off to Poppy to spend her mornings quietly entertaining herself in the Hospital Wing, lunch was spent with Poppy usually, then she would (using Minerva as her escort) go to the library to grab some new reading material provided she had finished whatever books she had taken out previously. She began spending her afternoons with a variety of Hogwarts staff (the ones Minerva could trust anyway, which was admittedly a rather short list) getting up to speed on the wizarding world (as she was insistent she wanted to be as prepared as possible for her official introduction to her peers in the fall) before eating supper with whatever professor she had been with that afternoon and then being escorted back to her and Minerva’s chambers for some light reading before bed.

It was a chilly afternoon in early November when Hermione first found herself in the dungeons, looking for the Potions classroom. She watched silently from behind one of the complete sets of knight’s armor that littered the halls of Hogwarts as a rather large mass of children who appeared to be a few years older than Hermione came flowing out of a nondescript door in the dungeon corridor she had found herself after wandering away from the Library where Minerva had dropped her off earlier that day since Poppy was busy with several serious injuries caused by the Quidditch match the day before and therefore could not care for Hermione that day. The door closed in near silence a few moments after the last student hurried away from the classroom beyond it, and after a few minutes spent pondering the wiseness of investigating what lay beyond the door, Hermione quietly slipped past the door and into a large chamber with dozens of small two-three person tables with a cauldron or two each resting on them. A mixture of scents, non of which Hermione could identify, hung in the air in thin layers of steam that presumably had risen from whatever the students had been brewing within the cauldrons in the class prior.

In the very back of the class behind a large solid oak table sat a man with shoulder length hair the color of the darkest hours of the night. His hawk like nose was turned down in rapt attention at whatever was on the desk in front of him, and he appeared to not have noticed the audience of one he had in his classroom. Hermione crept on silent feet up the aisles in an effort not to disturb the man while staring around in wonder at the various specimens that were floating in what must have been hundreds of glass jars lining the walls of the Potions classroom.

“If you think you are being sneaky, let me assure you that you are not.” Came a drawling voice.

Hermione stopped mid step-she had not been expecting the man to notice her, “Not sneaky sir, I was simply trying to be as unobtrusive as possible while investigating the fascinating specimens on the wall. I’m sorry for any disturbance I caused, my mother always did say I am too curious for my own good, though Minerva insists my curiosity is one of my best qualities so I suppose there is some discontent on the subject.”

The answering snort accompanied by the gentle swish of robes prompted Hermione to raise her eyes to meet the Professor’s as he made his way over to her. “What is your name child? It may be a large school, but I make it a point to at least recognize all of my Potions students regardless of talent, and you my dear are not one of mine. Which then of course begs the question, what are you doing here?”

Hermione’s face flushed crimson. She knew she was not supposed to wander. Minerva had expressed to her most vehemently that her existence here was extremely confidential as children living at Hogwarts before their first year simply was not done, but she had been so curious about Potions since picking up Magical Drafts and Potions in the library and Hogwarts: A History had said the classroom was in the dungeons and she just wanted a little peak…”My parents did not wish to continue dealing with me since I am difficult, even more so now that it has been revealed I am a witch and therefore my freakish tendencies are unfortunately not something I will grow out of. So Minerva took me away from them and I have been staying in her quarters with her since September. Though that’s a secret, Professor Dumbledore would not approve from what I have overheard Minerva saying to Poppy and Mona.” Hermione paled, “Wait! Are you a “Dumbledore loyalist”? Please, if you are, I’ll be good just don’t tell him I’m here! This is the first time I’ve felt even a little bit wanted in my whole life and I really really don’t want to go back to my parents! Minerva is great and I promise I’ll behave! I’ll never bother you again I swear!”

A hand settled on to her shoulder just as she turned to sprint out the door, “Calm yourself girl, I will not tell anyone you are here. Though truthfully I’m not sure how Minerva could possibly be deluding herself into thinking she can keep you hidden for the next 10 months if you can slip away from your minders this easily.” He sighed, “I have a free period until lunch, I assume you have somewhere to be after that?”

Hermione nodded tentatively. “Yes sir.”

“Alright then. Well, lets spend the next few hours seeing if you are something beyond hopeless in Potions shall we? Also, you may call me Severus, I’m not your professor yet so sir won’t be required. And you have yet to answer my original question, what is your name?”

Hermione flushed again, “It’s Hermione Granger sir-er, Severus.”

What Hermione would come to recognize in time as a rare smile crossed Severus’s features as he spun and began walking to a door at the back of the classroom, shouting over his shoulder that if she wanted to learn something for a change she had better start moving before he changed his mind.

Severus quickly became her favorite professor to be with. While he had been a hard nut to crack at first, she had eventually wormed her way into his good graces as she paid rapt attention to any and all instruction he would impart to her. In this manner she became quite skilled in the preparation of potions ingredients, and if Minerva was ever struggling to locate the bushy haired girl who had found herself in the care of nearly every professor at Hogwarts (it was truly a wonder they had all managed to keep this child at Hogwarts right under the Headmaster’s nose) she knew to check Severus’s rooms first as it was not uncommon to find the two of them huddled together in his private laboratory bent over a potion as he carefully explained everything he did while the little girl neatly copied it down onto one of her ever growing collection of parchments filled with the wise words of the Professors she had come to love as her own family.

The nearly eleven months leading up to September 1 flew by in nearly the blink of an eye, and before Hermione new it she was on her way to Kings Cross to board the Hogwarts Express for the first time (armed with her wand, her magically extended trunk, and a crushing desire to fit in) and finally make some friends that weren’t adults the rest of the student body would only know as Professor. It was with barely contained glee that she boarded the train rapidly filling with other children after a brief wave of goodbye to Minerva.

Her joy, however, was short lived. While she had briefly made a tentative friendship with a nervous boy by the name of Neville on the train, it become apparent early on in her Hogwarts career that friends would be as hard to come by in the magical world as she remembered it being in the muggle one. Her eagerness to fit in seemed to accomplish the exact opposite, with every eagerly raised hand to answer a question in class she became more and more of a pariah. She bemoaned her friendless state to Severus many an evening spent in his private lab helping prep ingredients for the next day’s potions classes. Not that he was much help outside of commiseration, he too had spent the majority of his Hogwarts career as a social pariah with only a single friend, and even that he had lost by fifth year, so he did not really possess any meaningful advice on the making of friends her own age. But at least she was not utterly alone as she could have been. However her days spent with her classmates did not seem to improve no matter what she did. She spent the first two months of her first year completely and utterly alone when amongst the children that were supposed to be her peers and the subject of absolutely vicious ridicule, of which her only respite came in the form of prepping potions ingredients in Severus’s private laboratory which he had given her full access to after witnessing a particularly vicious taunt be thrown at her by her roommate in the Great Hall two weeks into term. It wasn’t until a troll nearly clobbered her and two boys in her year to death on Halloween that she finally made some friends.

But even then, their friendship with her seemed fraught with unspoken rules she was constantly on egg shells attempting to avoid (like how she was apparently supposed to not only allow them to do life threatening things with the added danger of threatening expulsion, but also join them in such endeavors for reasons that escaped her understanding), and most of the time the only way she could successfully get them to talk to her after a row (that she often times was at a complete loss as to how it even started) was to consent to essentially hand holding them through one project or another that they had left to the last minute which often left her feeling used, as if her only worth to them was the brain in her head.

With time things improved (if only marginally). She learned to temper her baser impulses that demanded she answer a question when she knew it, also slowly relaxing her apprehension when it came to Harry and Ron’s penchant for activities that threatened life and limb, and found ways to try and bond with the two boys who had become her best friends in the entire world. She became adept at the skilled acrobatics required to keep Ron and Harry from being cross with her, to the point where they went the entirety of second year without a single friendship-threatening row between them (and she even got to try her hand at a NEWT level potion, the Polyjuice Potion), though she did end up petrified for a good 3 months due to a Basilisk that had been slithering around the corridors at the direction of a Voldemort-possessed Ginny Weasley.

Third year, however, had found Hermione right back in the hot seat with Ron and Harry as she worried for Harry’s safety with the likes of escaped convict Sirius Black on the hunt for him. While she did manage to procure a budding friendship with Ron’s younger sister Ginny and her Ravenclaw friend Luna Lovegood, her friendship with the two boys who were supposed to be her best friends seemed to be on the brink of disaster almost the entire year. She and Ron were in near constant rows it seemed due to the fact that her new cat Crookshanks (an early birthday gift from Minerva over the summer) was behaving….like a cat. He seemed to find it hard to grasp the concept of why rats weren’t on the list of approved familiars at Hogwarts and instead seemed content to blame her for every single time Scabbers went missing for more than two hours (as if Crooks was the only cat in all of Hogwarts).

Near the end of the first half of term she had become a virtual pariah over night when she had informed Minerva of her fears for Harry’s safety after a broom had been delivered to him from a stranger unprompted right before winter hols (not that any of her peers knew how close she was to any of their professors, as far as they new she only knew them as her instructors just as they did) and the professor had consequently sent the broom that had been delivered out of no where to a curse breaker she knew to make sure it hadn’t been laced with anything that could bring harm to her friend. For nearly a month she had been the subject of scorn beyond anything she had experienced, to the point where she spent most evenings once again hiding in the dungeons cutting, slicing, and powdering nearly anything she could get her hands on while Severus let her wallow in her self pity without prying for details she did not want to give like many of her other defacto guardians likely would have. Upon the return of the broom she was accepted back into the fold with open arms and apologies from both boys (and the rest of the Gryffindor quidditch team) but in many ways the damage had already been done. Hermione no longer felt like she was actually wanted by those who claimed to be her friends, only tolerated, and aside from the increasingly calming force that was Ginny Weasley’s stalwart friendship, Hermione had never felt more alone in her life.

Chapter Text

I am going to apologize right here, because I know this story has already received over 150 reads along with dozens of kudos, 7 book marks and 2 (I squealed over these) comments and I know most of you probably came because it was labelled at Sevmione.

While this is likely to still be Sevmione end game (and I don't see that changing) as I have delved deeper into chapters two and three and begun to really flesh out the interpersonal relationships that will be a huge part of this fic from here on out what I am not sure of is what the path that takes us there will look like as there may be several relationships of Hermione's that happen first, and possibly between, he relationship that will develop with Severus.

This is going to be a largely character driven fic that just happens to be driving our girl Hermione down the highway to sexy Snape heaven, but its definitely a marathon not a sprint (as is life) and I want my Hermione to live a little and have some real teenage experiences instead of just being the Golden Trio's token brainiac. Which means we are going let our girl relax, let her hair down, and (hopefully) snog a few cute boys along the way since no one has ever died (as far as I am aware anyway) from snogging a cute boy or two before she meets her husband.

So I have decided instead to keep everything as is except removing relationship tags and will only add them as I become 100% sure they are in the process of happening either actively in what's up on AO3 or what I am writing behind the scenes. 

Thank you all so much for your understanding!

p.s chapter 2 may be up sooner than I thought because I was correct in assuming I do in fact thrive off praise and each kudos, bookmark, and comment notification feeds my writing juices so these chapters are ramping up on the me side!!

Chapter Text

After literal weeks of begging Minerva to allow her to go, Hermione arrived at the Burrow early in the morning a a few weeks before the World Cup was set to occur. She had been feverishly writing back and forth with Ginny and Luna ever since school had let out at the end of June, so Hermione was not surprised at all when the first thing that greeted her upon exiting the floo was a squeal and a rush of red hair before she was enveloped in a Ginny sized bear hug, Luna following closely behind. Already she could hear the two girls that had quickly supplanted Ron and Harry as her best friends chattering on at near light speed about all of the wonderful things they had planned for them to do while Hermione was splitting her time between the Burrow and Luna’s house (which was apparently the next property over). Hermione flushed at the show of affection, it was not something she had really experienced before becoming friends with the two girls the year prior. She knew it was just Ginny’s way of greeting the people she loved (a product of having six older brothers no doubt). Ginny was simply a very physical person. This meant that while she did have the most wicked right hook Hermione had ever had the pleasure of witnessing and a truly inspiring bat bogey hex, it also meant that she showed her affection for her friends by being close to them. Hermione had been forced to take a crash course in receiving regular daily hugs, arm brushes, pokes, curl tugs, etc because often times Ginny did not even notice she had done something until Hermione flinched from the sudden unexpected contact after years of practically no physical affection which ended up leaving Hermione on the business end of a lot of questions she simply had no desire to answer.

She caught sight of Ron standing awkwardly off to the side along with Harry from her vantage point peaking over the heads of the girls that had quickly proven themselves to be her only true friends the year prior. She waved her hand in greeting at the two boys after Ginny and Luna let her go while they continued to lay out in fine detail all of the amazing things they had planned for the three of them to do in the weeks they had before the World Cup. She followed the girls to Ginny’s room where she would be staying with barely a backwards glance in the direction of the boys who had been her first friends, too busy listening to Luna explain the nargle hunt they would be embarking on tomorrow to even notice how the boys’ faces fell when they realized they weren’t her priority anymore.

This had been something she had struggled to communicate to her first friends over the summer in letters. While Harry seemed to at least grasp to a degree the damage their constant back and forth with her had done to their friendship over the last few years, Ron somehow remained entirely oblivious to the fact anything had even changed. Even going so far as to being confused when she had informed him Ginny had already asked her when he invited her to the Burrow the week before, seemingly unaware as to the existence of a friendship between the two girls at all. This had frustrated Hermione immensely, which she had expressed in several letters to Ginny and Luna as well as venting her frustrations to both Minerva and Severus to the point where the surly Potions professor had put an outright ban on mentioning the red headed boy’s name in his presence due to quote “a persistent migraine due to her incessant chatter about an inferior child”.

Severus had made his opinion on the boy wildly clear from the beginning, stating that while Harry might be her friend (he seemed unsure and slightly miffed at the concept) but he was entirely positive that Ronald only kept her around for her intellect, using her at his whim to keep him ahead in classes he never bothered to pay attention to. It was actually Severus’s advice that had prompted Hermione originally into investing time into her friendship with Ginny and Luna last year. He had claimed that from what he had seen of the two girls in class they were better suited for her. Both in personality and in intelligence.

“You deserve friends that aren’t complete dunderheads and despite how the Weasley girl struggles she is clearly quite gifted in Potions provided one is willing to sit there with her, which Lovegood appears to be happy to do.” Severus had mentioned one day in early January after reminding her for it seemed the thousandth time that day that Ron and Harry were not worth her time or tears.

“It is not the first time I have seen a promising young witch be dragged down by a wizard that cannot be bothered to care, I refuse to allow you to end up like that Hermione. You are far too gifted and I care for you far too much to allow you to be wasting your time pining after the affections of the likes of Weasley and Potter. If you insist upon inflicting upon your person a Weasley, which I for one would like to point out is a generally ill advised endeavor, I suggest you look elsewhere within the family. Merlin knows you will have options.”

He had been right of course. Even with the girls being a year behind her in school, they never made her feel like they were counting on her for help with homework, or that it would make up the bedrock of their friendship. Quite to the contrary, it became a habit for them to spend their time studying together in the library to late hours of the evening quite frequently and the girls made it clear that they cared about Hermione’s wellbeing and happiness far more than anything else. It had actually been Luna who had first realized what she had been doing to maintain her insane course load that year, and it had been Ginny who had put her foot down in the end telling Hermione what she was doing wasn’t healthy and was effecting her more than she would admit even to herself.

Hermione fought back a sniffle when reminiscing on the way both girls she was in the company of loved her. Luna, who was currently twirling in circles dreamily (a dance to rid the room of wrack spurts she explained upon their entering it), was incredibly observant which often times resulted in her noticing things before anyone else. She would use this to drop information when she felt it was necessary (like telling Ginny Hermione was using a time turner to do her days two and sometimes three times over to accomplish her course load last year) to ensure the people she loved were safe. Though if she noticed something she thought was best kept as a secret (like Professor Lupin’s lycanthropy) she would never dream of breaking that person’s confidence, even if they didn’t know she had it in the first place. Ginny, on the other hand, showed her love much like she did everything else, loudly and brashly in the open for everyone to see. This resulted in situations where Ginny would bat bogey hex Luna’s house mates when she discovered how badly they were treating her, getting into truly legendary rows with her brother when he inevitably said or did something horrid to Hermione (how he did not know they were friends truly escaped Hermione’s understanding), and sternly lecturing Hermione on the value of sleep and free time when the girl found out what she had been doing to take every single elective course offered (and helping her decide later which two to drop for her continued sanity). The girls always made it a priority to make Hermione feel valued in their lives and Hermione did her level best to do the same.

She had essentially moved Luna into her dorm room in late April of last year, glaring at her insipid roommates the entire time, almost daring one of the irritating girls to try and stop her from protecting her friend. They had an extra bed anyway, she had argued to both Lavender and Parvati when the girls had complained and Luna was being bullied mercilessly by the other Ravenclaws (even Padma, Parvati’s sister) going so far as to call her the awful nickname of Looney Lovegood. Hermione had threatened to go to Mcgonagall with the issue if they didn’t let Luna move in without a fuss, and considering the nickname was the least of a long list of offenses (some of which Hermione was almost positive were expulsion level offenses), they had quickly relented at the fear of Parvati’s sister being expelled and Luna had been moved in quietly by Hermione and Ginny the next day. She also had sat for hours with Ginny, trying to determine why she was struggling so much in classes when she did so well when studying with Hermione and Luna. This of course prompted an emergency meeting with Minerva when Hermione figured out the issue after Ginny starting crying after a particularly awful Charms exam result had come back to her stating the words just wouldn’t do what they were supposed to and got jumbled up on the page which made tests almost impossible for her since she had to sound everything out she almost never finished so even if she got answers right she failed the tests because they only were halfway done, Ginny was dyslexic. Minerva thankfully knew a way to fix this (Hermione loved magic) by teaching Ginny a small number of spells that would assist her brain in processing the words on the page to make comprehending the words easier and she also informed all of the other professors so they could give Ginny extra time on tests and on practical assignments in class (Severus of course had apparently already been doing this as he had noticed early on she was turning in accurate but half done assignments, so he would give her “detentions” and would have her come to them and complete the assignment, no one ever would claim Severus was nice, but at least it worked).

“What are you thinking about so hard?” Ginny broke her out of her revery with a start.

Hermione sent her a small smile, “Just about how lucky I am to have found you and Luna as friends.”

Ginny pulled her into one of her signature Ginny Weasley bear hugs, “Its not just you who are lucky you know, I was a virtual pariah after what happened First Year, and with Luna being…”

“Luna” They both supplied with fond smiles, looking over at the twirling girl.

“She had no chance in Ravenclaw, those kids suck. You drug her out of there as soon as you found out, not many people would do that Hermione.”

The days flew by quickly after that as Hermione found herself enjoying her stay at the Burrow far beyond her expectations (and they had been lofty ones to begin with). The nargle hunt had, as expected by all but Luna, bore no fruits to their labour but tromping through the woods giggling with her two best friends had brought her joy to heights she had not even known were achievable and Hermione found herself secretly wishing the summer would never end. The girls spent their days in the weeks leading up to the World Cup lazing about working on their summer tans, swimming in the small pond outside the Burrow, and helping Mrs. Weasley with chores around the house (Hermione discovered she quite enjoyed learning how to cook with magic) and their nights giggling in Ginny’s room until the early hours of the morning about cute boys, the heroes in the romance novels they nicked from Mrs. Weasley’s stash, and their plans for Hogsmeade trips as Ginny and Luna would get to accompany Hermione to the small village this year since they would be third years.

It was on one such night when Luna brought up how attractive she had found Professor Lupin the year before in Defense class, claiming he was quote “utterly dangerous and dreamy”. This had resulted in an hour long debate about the most attractive professor (as if they had many options to choose from) which inevitably lead to Hermione admitting her long held secret crush on her favorite professor.

Ginny had gasped at Hermione admitting to her crush on the ‘bat of the dungeons’ as so many of their Gryffindor peers referred to Severus, “You can’t possibly be telling me you think Snape is attractive!”

“Professor Snape” Hermione corrected, “And that is exactly what I am telling you! Sev-“ She gasped and turned beat red at her unintentional gaff.

Everything in the room went silent for a moment before Ginny Weasley turned as red as her hair. “Were you just about to refer to Professor Snape by his given name?!” She hissed before quickly stuffing several pillows under her door and turning to Hermione with a searching look as if trying to figure out if she should be worried or not, “Has he- are you- please tell me this is not what my mum warned me about before sending me to Hogwarts first year because I will lose my mind.”

Hermione flushed at the implication of what her friend had just said, weighing her options before looking at the two girls in front of her and making a split second decision. “What I am about to tell you is something not another living soul knows so if this gets out I will know it was one of you two and I will never forgive you. Understood?” The two girls nodded their assent, even Luna having an oddly serious look on her pale face, “My parents never really wanted a child…”

__________________________________

Hermione found herself nearly constantly in the company of at least one of her best friends at all times following her admission of where she spent breaks, and where she had lived the year prior to going to Hogwarts. Despite the tears that had been shed by all three girls the night she had told them about her childhood the girls never made it seem like they pitied her, no it was more as if they had determined it was their responsibility to give her all the love and acceptance she had been missing, and then some. It was mostly small things, Luna making her a dried mushroom and tangerine necklace that was supposed to ward off nargles, Ginny giving her the last biscuit after snatching it from Ron. But it was a few days after the night she had told them everything when the girls did something that truly made Hermione feel as if she had found more than friendship with the girls, more than anything the English language could hope to convey with mere words.

Ginny and Luna had convinced her to sneak out that evening to go swimming under the light of the full moon, saying it would be super fun and since it was a full moon they would be able to see fairly well. Though Hermione was unsure at the concept of sneaking out (breaking rules really did seem to nearly give her hives) she agreed after the girls begged her for hours, Luna even supplying, “It would be a night we’ll never forget Mione, a secret for only us to know” which had been what finally got her to acquiesce to their pleas.

Once they were positive everyone in the house was dead asleep the girls quietly slipped through the back door they had left propped open early in the night to make their escape easier. The moment she stepped outside Hermione felt like her body was alight, as if every single nerve ending in her body was more alive than it had ever been before. Her magic was teaming, closer to the service than she had ever felt it before in her life, almost of if she could reach into her body and shape it to whatever she wanted if all she did was try. It was a heady feeling, and looking at her two best friends she saw the same feeling reflected in their eyes. Somehow magic felt alive tonight, more alive than she had ever experienced it and it was amazing. Once they were far enough away from the house they broke into loud laughs and giggles, their bare feet slapping against the soft grass of the countryside as they all three began to run and skip towards the pond, their emotions on a tightrope high above the quiet fields surrounding the Burrow for miles in nearly every direction. The trek to the pond took ten minutes typically but that night they made it in five in their excitement to begin their midnight swim. When they got there however, Hermione noticed they were missing something.

“Guys” She grabbed the attention of her two best friends, “We forgot bathing suits”

Ginny shrugged, “I don’t mind if you don’t.”

Hermione gaped at her red headed friend, “Are you suggesting we skinny dip Ginny Weasley?!”

“Whats it matter? No one is out here but us. I’m not judging if you don’t!” Ginny let out a giggle as she looked past Hermione, “It seems Luna made our decision for us Mione.”

Hermione flushed crimson when she turned and caught a full frontal of Luna before slamming her hands over her eyes, “Luna!”

“We’re safe here Mione, can you not feel it in the air? The magic here will protect us from any outside force that would wish us harm” Luna said dreamily, “We should feel safe enough with each other to be as we are meant to, just us and our magic.”

Luna’s words forced Hermione to get out of her head and simply be and it was then that she felt what Luna had been referring to. Magic seemed to be pulsing in the air around them, calling to her magic almost as if it was wanting to join with it. “What is happening?” She whispered to her friends, while slowly undressing as Luna had done, transfixed by the feeling within her that felt like nothing she had ever felt before though she could tell her magic liked it, felt at home with it as if the night air was calling to her magic in a way that was far more ancient than Hermione could begin to comprehend.

There was a pause before Ginny somewhat sheepishly responded“…we may have fibbed a bit when we convinced you to come with us.” The girl quickly continued, “we wanted to come out tonight for more than just the fun of a midnight swim beneath the stars and moon.”

Hermione whirled on the girl, “Why are we out here Gin? What did you two do?!”

“We did nothing, not yet anyway” Luna spoke up causing Hermione to turn and face her friend in confusion, “We wanted to do something with, well really for, you. Full moons have significance Mione its why so many magical marriages happen under them”

Hermione looked at Luna in alarm, “We can’t get married we’re teenagers! And there’s three of us!”

Ginny snorted, “I think you will find magical marriages can have as many partners as one damn well pleases, but that’s not what we are doing tonight. I also appreciate how your only argument against marrying Luna and I is our age, remind me to circle back to that in a few years.” Hermione sent a withering glare at the red head, prompting her to continue, “We want to do a different sort of ritual that calls back to the magic, the gods, of old.”

“How old?” Hermione whispered.

“Older than the concept of white and dark magic. From when magic was primal and free and roamed the earth. When we were connected to the earth in ways we can only dream of.”

“And you want to connect that way again?”

“In a way, yes we do.”

Hermione stared at the two girls for a few moments while her magic washed through her in calming waves, seeming to call out to the magic in the air and in the two girls in front of her. “What do you want to do exactly?”

While the three of them slowly walked to the edge of the lake and began to wade in until the water was at the bottom of their ribcage Ginny and Luna alternated explaining what they wanted to do.

“You see Mione, you have no magical family. Even most muggle borns at least have whatever distant relatives they have through the squib ancestor they descend from, but when your parents willingly gave you over to Professor McGonagall and then also willingly had no contact with you for nearly four years they severed any familial bonds that may have existed before.” Ginny began.

“And since Professor McGonagall never officially magically adopted you into her familial bonds since doing so would endanger her job, you did not gain the familial bonds of her family either.” Luna continued, “This is why you have felt so adrift, so unwanted for all of these years. Perhaps if Ron and Harry were not who they were you could have subsisted on that level of magical bond which you get from the informal bond of mutual friendship but that never happened leaving your magic lonely and adrift in a sea of magical signatures that were not it’s to know or bond with.”

Hermione sniffled, all this time she had thought something wrong with her when in reality her magic had been calling out for the same love and acceptance she had been. “Is this why I have always felt this crippling need to prove myself?” She asked.

Luna and Ginny both nodded, “Probably. Your magic was likely hoping that if it proved you worthy you would bond with another’s magic and it wouldn’t so alone. A witch or wizard is never meant to be alone in the world, it is dangerous. It can make you weaker and more susceptible to magical illnesses and exhaustion.”

Luna and Ginny explained how worried they had been when Hermione had explained everything to them. How they had devised a plan to give her magic solid bonds to theirs, adding her to both of their families magic and giving her a home in the wizarding world. After the girls taught Hermione the few words she would need to know they formed a circle in the water and joined hands before chanting quietly, surrounded by the primal wild magic of the full moon. Hermione felt the magic around her swell causing the hair on her arms to stand on end and her bushy curls to grow to nearly 3 times their normal size while lightly moving in a breeze that did not exist. She watched in rapt awe as her skin began to glow a soft gold that Luna quietly noted was her magic coming to the surface. Luna and Ginny also began to glow similarly though Luna was a soft pink and Ginny was a iridescent blue, the color of their magic began to inter mix and mingle where their clasped hands met creating new ever vibrant shades as their magic mixed together in a new dance.

Soon Hermione could feel both Luna’s and Ginny’s magic as surely as her own. She felt the love and protectiveness both girls felt for her and she was sure they did with hers as well. The air around them began to glow a soft silver, as if the stars had been brought down from the sky to join them that night in the water of the pond. Her skin began to tingle as if she was attached to a live wire as all three girls stopped their chanting and looked at each other in awe at what they had just done.

“We are one in magic” Luna spoke softly, barely loud enough to be heard over the euphoric roaring of Hermione’s magic as it made her feel more alive than she ever had before.

Later Hermione would ask what it meant to be one in magic, later she would ask a million questions and her friends- sisters would answer every single one. Not because they had to but because they loved her and wanted her to know. Later they would all curl up on Ginny’s twin size bed, a tangle of limbs and hair and pond damp skin as they slept in a pile like kittens exhausted after a long day of play. But for now magic was alive and Hermione was happier than she had ever felt before and that was enough.

________________________________

It was nearly noon by the time Hermione, Ginny, and Luna awoke the next day to the sound of Mrs. Weasley screaming at Ron about something that none of the girls could muster up the energy to care about. They stared at each other with smiles on their faces as they reminisced in the shared memories of their secret romp to the pond the night before. After the ritual was done and the magic surrounding them had receded to a level that was not so overwhelming as it had been while they had been binding their magics to one another they had spent the better part of the night swimming in the pond, splashing one another and giggling at the glares they sent each others way after a particularly aggressive wave had been sent their way. It was in the grey hours of the morning right before dawn that they had deftly snuck back in to Ginny’s room the way they had snuck out the night before and crashed in a tangle of limbs on Ginny’s bed to sleep the day away.

In the days following Hermione’s reveal and their subsequent midnight swimming adventure Hermione was surprised to find not much changed between the three girls. They were closer for sure, acting more like they had been friends for their entire lives as opposed to the single year it actually had been. They found that they were near inseparable as well, often times it was impossible to find one girl without the others near by. The only change Hermione had noticed oddly enough (resulting in her nearly murdering Ginny before she had been assured the walls in the house were just thin and they had the room directly above Ginny’s) was the behavior of Fred and George. Previously she had never really interacted with the older boys. They had always just been Ron’s slightly irritating prankster brothers who she saw surrounded by laughing friends in the common room most evenings during the school year. Following her admissions to Luna and Ginny however, the boys seemed to have taken it upon themselves to be the big brothers she had never thought she needed (or asked for to be perfectly honest). They became almost as much of a near constant fixture in her days as Ginny and Luna and soon their little group gained two more members and though the girls had not deemed it necessary to tell the two boys of their midnight adventures they still seemed to fit into their group as if they had always been there. The boys usually stuck with each other, preferring the company of each other over anyone else. But in the days and weeks following her unwitting admission to them she became closer to the twins as she found herself spending many a long summer day hanging out with Fred and George helping them with the formulas for their joke products and marveling at the genius of the two boys she got to call friends. It seemed Ron was rapidly losing support in his own house, with his continued juvenile cruelty to her taking on a new light with his three siblings. While Ginny had seemingly decided to act as if her older brother no longer existed, the twins took a more…active approach to punishing him for his perceived crimes though Fred and George were particularly inventive with their non stop torture campaign against their youngest brother. Part of the problem was Ron truthfully, Hermione could admit (if only to herself), every time the twins seemed like they might be getting to a point where they might back off a bit one or both of them would catch Ron bugging Hermione for help on an assignment he hadn’t even bothered with trying to do on his own or rudely scorning her for spending time with Ginny, Luna, and the twins as opposed to him and Harry (seemingly still entirely oblivious to the changes in Hermione’s social circle). He became the unwilling lab rat for all of their experimental prank products and it took Hermione stepping in and putting her foot down after a particularly aggressive spider trick wand had ended up in Ron’s possession to end his status as persona non grata in his own home.

About a week before they left for the World Cup Ginny had convinced her, albeit tentatively, to confide in her mum and dad so that in the event something happened they were not surprised when half of the Hogwarts staff showed up to the Burrow demanding they produce her to provide proof of continued existence. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had taken it surprisingly well, though the news had prompted Mrs. Weasley to tearfully insist she would always be welcome at the Burrow, and for Mr. Weasley to awkwardly offer himself in the event she ever needed “fatherly advice” which she appreciated, even if she could not quite grasp what would happen in her life that would prompt her to need such advice.

Since Luna had also finally convinced her father (after badgering him all summer) to allow her to accompany her two friends to the World Cup, their time began to be spent plotting out their plan of attack for the time they would be spending camping outside of the stadium. Ginny and the twins had excitedly explained to the two girls how exciting the World Cup would be, and the twins had been extremely patient in answering all of Hermione’s questions. She had expressed her detestation of the sport one morning, which had resulted in the twins asking why, as they had truly never met someone who didn’t like quidditch (even their mum was a fan).

“It is barbaric, and terrifying to watch. Every time I am forced to watch it I am terrified one of you is going to get killed!”

Fred got an odd look on his face, “People don’t die from quidditch any more than they die from muggle sports from what I understand.”

Hermione crossed her arms, “How is that even possible?! You all are careening around at Merlin only knows what speed like a hundred feet off the ground with two murder balls literally named bludgers that exist for the sole purpose of trying to bludgeon people to death!”

“Yes but Hermione you are forgetting something extremely important.” George stepped in, deftly ignoring the threatening glare she sent his way, “We have magic.”

“You do seem to forget that quite often dearest Mione” Fred quipped, booping her nose.

George sent her a soft smile. “Which makes sense”

“Yeah, you didn’t grow up with magic being a foregone conclusion.”

“But,” George continued, “magic changes a lot, things that are deadly to Muggles are mere inconveniences to Wizards.”

Her lips pinched, “Like what?”

“Like how we can fix the damage caused by severe concussions.” George began.

“Yeah! And we can not only heal broken bones, but completely regrow them brand new!” Fred continued.

“Quidditch is relatively safe because we keep things like curses, hexes, and charms out of it. So most if not all injuries resulting from quidditch can be fixed relatively easily with magic. Honestly professional dueling is much more dangerous, but I see you talking with Professor Flitwick about that all the time.”

This gave Hermione pause, because he was right. Hermione had truly never thought of it that way. It had always seemed so barbaric and dangerous to Hermione but honestly how was it all that different from the Rugby matches she used to watch with her father (it was one of the few things they enjoyed together)? She had been viewing the sport from a muggle perspective without even realizing it, something she had been struggling with a lot since finding out she was a witch. Ron and Harry had often times made fun of her when she would find herself having to actively remember to think of problems with magical solutions in mind and while their differing perspective from hers had been one of the things she had appreciated most about having Ginny, Luna, and Ron (when he wasn’t being cruel about it) in her life, it often times caused her to get defensive when the boys would immediately act like she was stupid for forgetting sometimes that nearly everything in life had a magical solution that was better and easier than the muggle alternative. But Fred and George surprised her by seeming to acknowledge (without treating her like an idiot) that their being purebloods raised entirely in the magical world by parents who also had been raised entirely in the magical world helped them a lot and while her being muggleborn was helpful for ‘outside of the box’ solutions, a lot of the time what was needed was just the simplest solution (which was something Hermione still struggled with as most of her magical knowledge was entirely academic). They never treated her like this was her fault, or that she should ‘just think like a witch’ as Ron so often said to her. Harry had seemed to take the wizarding world like a duck to water despite his muggle raising, which left Ron with little sympathy for her muggleborn gaffs when they happened. Fred and George (along with Ginny and Luna) had taken a different approach that reminded her of her old French tutor from when she was a child.

Hermione found that her friends’ approach to coaching her on wizarding culture (and her subsequent frustrations when she struggled to understand things that were not able to be learned from books) reminded of her frustration when her French tutor, Madame Delenois, had convinced her parents to allow her to take Hermione on a two week long intensive immersion trip to France when she was 7. She had been taking French for years at that point as her parents had impressed upon Hermione from an extremely young age how important knowing a foreign language was for her future. While she had thought she was fluent before going to France, she quickly grew frustrated when she struggled to understand much of what people were saying because she had not been what Madame Delenois had called a ‘native speaker’; her tutor had explained that while she technically knew everything they were saying, she was still having to translate in her head from French to English in order to comprehend what was being said to her and then do the same in reverse to respond back which took a lot of time and effort. She went on to explain that once Hermione could learn to be thinking in French as opposed to, or more along with, English would be when she would be a truly fluent speaker of French and it wouldn’t be so hard. While the two weeks in France had done wonders for her fluency in the language, nearly 4 years into her complete immersion in the wizarding world had done little to assuage her mind of her muggle upbringing, and this was never more prevalent then when she was attempting to look at magic in anything but an academic light.

When she explained this to the twins, Fred was the one who volunteered to take it upon himself to be her ‘magic translator’ and while his first mission was to get her to understand (and hopefully enjoy) quidditch by the time she went to the World Cup, he vowed if she ever was struggling to grasp something and books weren’t helping she could go to him and he would explain it to the best of his ability (or the best of one of his friends’ ability if he couldn’t explain whatever it was himself). Upon declaring this he swung an arm over Hermione and steered her up the stairs to his and George’s room, depositing her on his bed with a flourish (causing Hermione to flush crimson when it occurred to her she was sitting in the place the Weasley boy slept though couldn’t figure out why this bothered her since she had been on both Harry and Ron’s beds in the past and never cared) before beginning to order his brother, sister, and Luna to help him collect as many of their quidditch books as possible in order to being Hermione’s “extremely important and time sensitive education on the glorious world of quidditch!”. The curly hair teens rolled her eyes before allowing herself to be subjected to the first of what she would be sure was many long winded explanations about how quidditch worked and why it was amazing. Ginny and Luna of course also had to jump in to remind Hermione that quidditch was much more gender equal than any muggle sport since everything was done on brooms. Even citing the existence of the Hollyhead Harpies, and all women’s team that consistently was was of the best teams in the league as proof of this.

This was how Harry and Ron found the group of teens hours later pouring over every quidditch book the twins and Ginny could find scattered around the Burrow explaining in detail everything Hermione needed to know about the wizarding sport and also answering any questions she asked in as simple of terms as possible without making her feel like they were speaking down to her. “What are you lot up to?” Ron asked after sitting down between Ginny and Fred on the carpet in the twins’ room where the group had set up shop.

“Teaching Mione here about quidditch.” George said with a grin while Fred explained the existence of one of the more obscure rules of quidditch that Hermione had balked at when it was mentioned (something about attempted murder from what she had said before he had launched into his lengthy explanation). She had gotten the basics of the game down hours, and had moved on to history and fouling rules which seemed to fascinate her as each foul seemed to have an entertaining story to go along with its invention.

Ron snorted, “Don’t bother she’s hopeless. We’ve been trying for years and all she says is its barbaric.”

Hermione turned away from Fred, an angry response on her tongue when George spoke, “Maybe she just needed an adequate teacher Ronnikins, she hasn’t said it was barbaric in hours. I actually think Freddy over here is slowly converting our delightful Hermione to the cause. Though I wouldn’t hold out on making her a Cannon’s fan. She still has taste.”

Hermione smirked, “I think Gred here is doing a model job at converting me to the cause, he’s very thorough in all his explanations.”

Fred waggled his eyebrows at George from beside Hermione, causing the girl to flush at the implication of her words, with a glare she jabbed the boy in the ribs causing him to gasp out in pain muttering, “brutal woman” under his breathe to the unending amusement of Ginny and Luna who had been being entertained by the antics of Ginny’s two older brothers at Hermione’s expense for hours much to the older girl’s chagrin.

Ginny and Luna giggled at the flush that crept up Ron’s neck. Turning to Hermione he sneered, “Oh so I guess we see what the real problem was, the moment these two get involved you’re all too happy to sit and let them teach you when all you did was bring books to the games when Harry and I tried,”

Hermione paled at Ron’s words. Did he really just imply what Hermione thought he did? The tense scowl on Fred and George’s face and the burning anger reflected in Ginny and Luna’s told Hermione they were all thinking the same thing as she. How dare he twist a joke so completely and then accuse her of only doing this because of some perceived crush he thought she had on Fred or George. Even if she did have a crush (which she most assuredly did not), it did not make her the scarlett woman he was clearly painting her to be with his accusatory tone. Before Hermione could give Ron the tongue lashing he clearly deserved however, Ginny beat her to the punch.

“Thats because all you two did was belittle her!” Ginny chimed in with a scowl, “Maybe if you had actually been nice to the girl that was supposedly you two’s best friend she would have been more inclined to learn about the sport. But no all you two did was make fun of her for her misunderstandings that stem from being raised in an entirely different culture. Even Malfoy wouldn’t be that cruel. You should be ashamed of yourselves!”

Harry looked like he was ready to defend Ron when Ginny turned her fury on him, “And you! How dare you! You were bullied before you came to Hogwarts! Not a single friend, that’s what you’ve told me before. You’ve been so thankful to Ron for his extension of friendship that first day on the train that you have sided with him and abandoned Hermione in the process every single time he’s a complete arse and belittle her as if you two are so much better than her! No wonder she doesn’t want to be friends with you two, you’re awful to her. So wrapped up in yourselves you never stop to think of how your actions affect the people around you.”

Before he could say anything Luna cut him off in a rare moment of viciousness, “Though I suppose we should be grateful to you. Since your complete bungling of your friendship with the most caring and thoughtful person I’ve ever met means we get her as our best friend. So if you want to even be on her radar you better start acting like her friendship is of value to you, because we won’t treat her like you! We actually love Mione for Mione not because she’s smart and can do our homework for us, which incidentally is the only time you two seem to care about her existence at all. We love her because she is amazing and funny, and loves harder than anyone I’ve ever seen. She’s not just our best friend, she is our sister in magic and love, all but blood. Remember that when you are wanting to be cruel to her because while Ginny may have a wicked bat bogey hex I was sorted into Ravenclaw for a reason, and you do not want to find out how inventive I can be when those I love are threatened.”

Silence rang in the room after Luna finished with a “Humph”, laying her head on Hermione’s shoulder. Hermione was speechless at her friends coming to such a quick and vicious defense of her. Ginny she knew was loud and boisterous in both her love and contempt but Luna was a gentle soul typically delivering the most crushing blows in an almost dreamy voice, as if simply commenting on the weather. Clearly the way Ron and Harry had been treating Hermione had bothered the girls far more than they had ever let on and she felt a strong rush of affection for the two girls, immediately overwhelmed with how grateful she was that she got to call them her best friends.

Ron stormed out of the room in a blind rage after realizing no one was coming to his defense, Harry hurriedly following after him after shooting an apologetic look over his shoulder at Hermione that briefly made her wonder if they would ever talk about the ever growing chasm between them before she shook it off in favor of looking back at Fred with a small smile, hoping they could pick up where they left off in their quidditch conversation.

After the door to Ginny’s room slammed closed behind the two boys Fred and George turned to the girls, clearly want to ask more than a few questions about the “sisters in magic” comment Luna had made, but Hermione changed the subject before they could. “So what you are trying to tell me here is that attempted murder is not in fact allowed in quidditch but each time someone invents a new way to try they make a new rule saying exactly why that attempt at murder is not allowed?”

A brief pause was followed by a snort from the four other teenagers in the room.

“Essentially.” They all chorused before erupting into infectious giggles that had them all breaking into small pockets of giggles for several hours by just a simple look at one another and a waggle of eyebrows.

___________________________________

“You like Fred.” Hermione nearly jumped out of her skin at the quiet accusation coming out of no where from behind her where she had been relaxing in the afternoon breeze for the last hour while the Weasley children were off doing various tasks assigned by their mother and Luna was having lunch with her father. She turned to identify her accuser to see the dirty blonde hair and pale face of Luna smiling gently down at her.

“I do not!” Hermione was quick to deny the girl’s claim. Hermione was not some silly chit like her roommates Lavender and Parvati who giggled into the early hours of the morning gossiping about which boys looked cutest in their uniforms or snogged the best. She was far to practical for such wanton displays of frivolity.

She felt the familiar brush of Luna’s dirty blonde hair against her shoulder as the girl gracefully sat down beside her on the hill that overlooked the back two dozen or so acres of the Weasley’s property. The girl placed her head on Hermione’s shoulder, “Its ok to like a boy you know, I don’t think Ginny or I will ever quite understand the hype, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to.”

“Its not that,” Hermione said after a moment, “Liking boys and gossiping with girlfriends is just not something I have the time for.”

“The time for?”

Hermione sent a mirthless smirk the younger girl’s way, “If I want to prove I belong here, prove that just because I am a muggleborn doesn’t mean I can’t make change and help people, then I can’t be frivolously spending my time pining after boys that may or may not like me or spending hours analyzing and overanalyzing every look, touch, and spoken word between me and any boy I am around for more that twenty seconds.”

Luna snorted, “I never said to get a personality transplant Mione, and there is no reason you should be worrying about your career at fourteen. Right now is actually the exact time to allow yourself a little frivolity. The world won’t end if Hermione Granger lets herself have a little fun every once and a while.”

“Maybe so.” Hermione shrugged. “Still doesn’t mean I like Fred.”

Lunas let out a tinkling laugh before standing and offering her arm to Hermione, slipping her arm through Hermione’s before leading them both in the direction of the Burrow, “Whatever helps you sleep at night Hermione Granger. Far be it from me to contradict the great word’s of the brightest witch of our generation.”

Both girls looked at each other for a moment, as if weighing the viability of swaying the other to her side. It was like this, locked in a silent battle, that Fred came across them a few minutes later. “Ladies” He greeted with a smirk. Causing both girls to share a glance with one another before bursting into fits of laughter, leaving a confused Fred in their wake.

George came out moments later to find Fred standing, still a look of confusion on his face, right where the two girls had left them. “What are you up to mate? Why do you look like someone just told you grass isnt green?”

Fred tossed him a pitiful shrug, “Women are weird.”

George heartily agreed as both boys made their way into the Burrow to search out trouble to entertain themselves with for a few hours. Fred still wondering what had been funny enough to cause the reaction out of the two girls and smiling lightly as he remembered how Hermione’s face practically glowed in the late afternoon sun, freckles like tiny constellations in the galaxy ensconced within the confined of her smiling face.

_______________________________________________

Dressed head to toe in green and sporting a large leprechaun’s hat, Hermione was all grins as the mascots for the Irish and Bulgarian teams viciously threw what must have been truly appalling insults back and forth on the field below where the World Cup match was being held (though truth be told Hermione was far too high up in the stands to be able to discern even a word of what was being said). She found herself sandwiched between Fred and George as they boisterously cheered for the Irish chasers as they made what must have been their tenth goal in the past thirty minutes. Hermione had been confused on how this could possibly be an even match up when the Irish chaser were the best in the league. But, as Hermione had soon found out, having good chaser was great but the money player was always the seeker. The Irish may had great chasers, but the Bulgarians had Krum. A good seeker could be enough to make a good team no matter who else was on the field, a point proven by the Bulgarian team’s abysmal performance on the field even though they had made it to the finals.

“Krum is a true savant” explained Ginny the night before, “Like Harry, but even more god like. The Bulgarians are banking on him being enough, and so far it has worked for them.”

“That seems like a poorly made plan, do you think it will work?”

“Probably not.” The twins called out as they entered the living room where the girls were sitting.

George gave a rye smirk, “Wouldn’t surprise me if he caught the snitch though.”

“Why would he catch the snitch unless they are going to win?” Hermione inquired, perplexed at the seemingly erroneous choice.

“To end the game on his own terms, if its going badly enough for them, and there’s no chance of them catching up, it may be better to stop the game while he can instead of allowing it to continue and their loss only be worse.”

The thought process made sense to a degree. Which is why Hermione hadn’t been surprised when the twins had placed a bet that Krum would catch the snitch but Ireland would win. Ron had bemoaned their idiocy all the way up the stands to their seats, stopped only briefly to join in the pissing match Malfoy started on their way up. At the rate the score board was going, they would at the very least be right about who was winning; though whether or not Krum would be victorious in his hunt for the snitch was still anyone’s guess.

Until it wasn’t of course. Hermione had practically screamed herself hoarse while being twirled in the arms of first George, then Fred (which had not caused her to blush at all, no matter what Luna says) as Krum pulled off a near perfect Wronski Faint before catching the snitch. Ending the game on his terms but causing Bulgaria to lose to Ireland 170-160. The twins were thrilled beyond belief once they realized they had just won enough to open up the joke shop they had been dreaming of for years and after Hermione happened to notice that the leprechaun gold galleons Ludo Bagman tried to fraudulently give the twins, the three teens successfully blackmailed the shady man to give them the money owed them in actual galleons and the boys left two thousand galleons richer (minus the fifty galleons they gave a protesting Hermione, sighting they wouldn’t have had any at all if it wasn’t for her).

That night the teens (Harry and Ron had promised to be nice) had gathered outside their tent to hang out around the fire and admire the festivities of the Irish before they had to go to bed. “What do you think Bill meant when he said he had wished he was at Hogwarts this year?” Ginny pondered to the group.

They all shrugged, the eldest Weasley sibling had been incredibly cryptic earlier that day when Mrs. Weasley had mentioned taking the girls to Diagon Alley once they got back from the match to get the extra dress robes that had been present on their school lists that had arrived shortly before they had been leaving for the Cup. “Merlin only knows, I’m sure Dumbledore will say something once we get to school. A week and a half isn’t really that long to wait.” Harry supplied from the other side of the fire.

Things had been tense but…improving with Harry and Ron since Ginny and Luna had let them have it a few days prior. Harry at least seemed to be contemplative, whether Ron was truly weighing his actions towards her in the past or if he was laboring under some sort of gag order via Harry was anyone’s guess, so everyone was (albeit tentatively) trying to reach some form of peace agreement. If only until they could all get back to school and only had to share a common room, not a cramped house.

Harry had approached Hermione the morning after the row in a rare moment where she was not actively with Ginny, Luna, or the twins as Luna had been called home by her father and Mrs. Weasley had the other three up on brooms with Ron attempting to do something with the roof and she had elected to keep her feet firmly planted on the ground (all of the quidditch knowledge in the world would never rid her of her crippling fear of heights). The two friends had sat in silence for several minutes, Hermione refusing to make the first move since she was not in the wrong and was tired of chasing affection from the boy sitting beside her.

“I’m sorry I was horrid.” Harry finally sighed from beside her. “It wasn’t fair to you, Ginny and Luna were right. I side with Ron even when I know he is in the wrong because he was my first friend and I fear losing him if I anger him too much but that’s no excuse for treating you like you don’t matter outside of your brain.”

Hermione sniffed, “You were both utterly horrid. I spent months at a time a virtual pariah and even when were all were speaking I was walking on egg shells, terrified for when the next row would come and I would be all alone again. I never even realized how miserable I was and how toxic our friendship was until I was with Ginny and Luna and didn’t feel that way. Or when Fred and George explained quidditch to me instead of making fun of me for thinking about it like a muggle. You took to magic so easily you and Ron would often forget how hard it is for me, how the reason I fear failing classes and getting in trouble is because without magic I just get shoved back in the muggle world forever a freak with no way out. You of all people should understand that because you were raised but muggles, which makes it hurt even more when you don’t and I feel even more like a failure.”

“I know that now, and I am so sorry we hurt you so badly and so frequently. Is there any way I can fix this?” Harry replied contritely.

“I really don’t know Harry” Hermione stated, “You and Ron made me feel like an inconvenience for just being myself, made me feel worse than even the students at my primary school who called me a freak all the time did. You made the first few years of what was supposed to be my fresh start, the place I belong, really difficult and emotional taxing and thats not something I know if I am in the place to forgive at the moment. You will always be my first friend and I will be forever grateful for the friendship you extended to me in the beginning but for now I need to focus on myself and the people I know I can count on to be there for me. If you want to be counted amongst those people then you will have to work to make me trust you, which is something that I’m not even sure you can do if I am being perfectly honest.”

She never got to hear Harry’s reply as soon after the Weasley children landed and she was pulled away by Ginny and George to go swimming with them, Luna, and Fred in the pond behind the Burrow. Ever since Harry had been quietly watching her whenever they were in the same room, sharing whispered conversations with Ron that Hermione was not privy to but was almost positive were about her. It seemed he was trying to determine what he had missed that had lead to where they all were now with her being practically joined at the hip with Ginny, Luna, and the twins and Ron and him on the outside looking in.

_____________________________________

Hermione awoke to screams and the whispered words of George telling her she had to get up because something was wrong. Upon opening her eyes she saw Fred saying something similar to Ginny and Luna each girl’s shoes held in his hands, hers in George’s. Mr. Weasley had apparently left the two boys in charge of getting the girls along with Harry and Ron to safety while he, Bill, and Charlie all went to investigate what was going on.

Terrifying levels of chaos greeted the teens upon their exiting the tent. Fires glowed sinisterly from nearly every direction and the horrified screams of thousands could be heard coming from all over the camp as wizards and witches were awoken from their slumber to the horrifying display in front of them. Wands in hand the seven of them left the tent in as a group, headed in the direction of the forest across the campsite from them while avoiding the masses of terrified witches ands wizards running to and fro. They dodged streaks of light from different spells being launched from seemingly everywhere causing the group to duck behind whatever shelter they could find until the opportunity to surge forward and continue their journey presented itself. Tears of terror sprung to Hermione’s eyes when she caught of glimpse of the masked and robed men moving in groups through the campsite, cackling as they shot curses and hexes at anyone who made the mistake of crossing their path in their effort to escape the torment the men and their…comrades were inflicting upon the once joyous revelers from the game that day. Hermione let out a terrified gasp upon seeing the terrified muggle family suspended in the air by several laughing people concealed behind silver masks and robes black as the night surrounding them, burrowing herself as close to Ginny and Luna as possible. It was Fred who grabbed her hand and began ushering them all in earnest towards the woods at that point, though they had noticed that in the confusion they had lost both Harry and Ron.

Despite the protests of both Hermione and Ginny the older boys insisted they had to get the girls to safety before they even considered going back to find their little brother and his best friend because quote, “you three are our responsibility and our negligence is not going to be the reason something happens to you.” Fred assured Hermione with a near silent whisper in her ear that the moment they had gotten her,Ginny, and Luna to safety he and George would go hunt down the two boys who had managed to get separated despite the direct orders of Mr. Weasley but that they, “will not risk the safety of you three. To be quite plain your safety matters far more to us and is much more precarious than the safety of a pureblooded boy and the Boy-Who- Lived.” His words weren’t wrong, exactly, but still left Hermione with an uncomfortable feeling in her gut at their implication. She felt herself squeezing Fred’s hand even harder after that as if subconsciously assuring herself she would not be left alone. He seemed to grasp her fear and with a small smile that Hermione was pretty sure he had not intended for anyone to see he interlaced their fingers and gave her hand a small tug, clearly trying to convey the message that he would not allow her to be separated from him at any point before they reached the trees.

It took a small eternity to reach the forest as a straight path through the rows of tents no longer existed. Small blazes were consuming tents practically everywhere, and more than once they had been moving in the direction of the forest only to have to double back and find another way through the field due to reaching a dead end caused by debris and fire blocking their path. They made an odd group for sure, Hermione mused to herself. It had been a fairly balmy summer evening when they had dressed for bed so all three girls were in matching oversized t-shirts they had purchased in Diagon Alley a week prior emblazoned with the words Witches get it Done with a picture of the entire Hollyhead Harpies quidditch team and sleep shorts, their feet clad only in slippers while the twins were in pajama pants and nothing else (having been awoken by a panicked Bill and Charlie and ordered to get everyone to safety resulting in them nearly forgetting their wands let alone t-shirts or shoes). All five teens had their wands out and ready to throw whatever hexes they could think of at a moment’s notice, and more than once a sudden loud noise caused one or multiple of them to let off a string of spells before they noticed it was falling debris making the sound and not the rogue Death Eaters parading about the place like they owned it. When they finally reached the dark densely packed trees of the forest they all let out audible sighs of relief before quickly entering the forest to wait for the all clear from the older Weasleys.

The instant eerie silence that surrounded them once they came within the protective embrace of the thick underbrush made Hermione think they must have crossed the boundary of one of the many wards surrounding the campsite and the World Cup stadium. It was odd being in silence so absolute she could hear the breathing of Fred right behind her while he was absentmindedly rubbing calming circles into her shoulder blades with his thumbs while watching the chaos and terror unfold meer meters in front of her, though it did make it easier to hear if anyone was coming up behind them. Hermione glanced out of the corner of her eye to assure herself that her best friends were ok as well and the reassuring presence of seeing them huddled in front of George while he soothingly shushed the crying girls, gently stroking their hair filled her with relief that they had all made it mostly unscathed save for a few cuts and bruises from running into scattered debris and tripping on roots hidden by the darkness of the late hour. Well almost all, she thought worriedly to herself as her mind drifted to the two boys whom they all seemed to be searching the campsite in front of them for as if they could materialize them by sheer force of will.

The teens had barely been in the forest long enough for them to calm their breathing when they heard someone heading towards them from their left. Five wands were pulled simultaneously when the crunch of the brush behind them alerted them to the fact that they were no longer alone in this part of the forest. It was the sneering face of Draco Malfoy that stepped out of the shadows flanked by two boys Hermione recognized instantly as Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott. The twins closed ranks instantly, shielding the three girls with their bodies and wands, preparing to protect them from the sneering boys in front of them. Hermione peeked over Fred’s shoulder, feeling him shiver slightly when her cold hands were placed on his bare shoulder, seeing if she could get a better vantage point to assess how the three boys had come to be there with them.

“What are you doing here Malfoy?” She asked over Fred’s shoulder.

The boy shrugged. “Same as you I would assume, my father sent us to hide in the safety of the forest while he assisted the other Ministry officials with getting the wankers who decided to turn this in to some kind of mock Death Eater reunion.”

She felt both of the boys in front of her scoff, “As if he isn’t going to go join his Death Eater buddies in terrorizing the innocent muggles and wizarding folk at the campsite.” George retorted.

Blaise stepped in front of Malfoy, “his father was cleared of all charges you wanker, or do you not know what the Imperious curse is?”

It was Ginny who spoke from behind George’s shoulder, “As if anyone aside from the Ministry beliefs that absolute hippogriff dung of a defense. Everyone knows the Malfoy’s are blood purists as the day is long.”

“Whatever Weaslette,” Draco scoffed, “Maybe its you who they should have locked up, seeing as how you were trying to kill all of us a few years ago.”

Ginny lunged at Draco murder in her eyes and a Bat Bogey Hex on her tongue when a small house elf came crashing through in front of them, screaming nonsense and carrying a wizards wands before disappearing back into the darkness of the forest around them. The tension between the two groups seemed to be broken with the disruption and with a few final insults thrown over their shoulders the three boys disappeared the way they had claimed and Hermione and her friends went back to their silent vigil, waiting for the boys they had been separated from to appear within their line of sight as it seemed they had all come to the silent agreement no one was going anywhere (even the twins) since the sons of two Death Eaters had just discovered where they were.

After a time as the adrenaline wore off and their lack of sleep began to rear its ugly head the teens sat in a huddle with the twins using two trees as back rests and the girls using them as pillows after multiple assurances they boys would wake them up if anything happened but that they had a feeling they would be there for awhile. Sleep came surprisingly easy to Hermione considering the madness of the last few hours, though her sleep was fraught with tense dreams and she never truly got into a deep enough sleep to not be awoken by any little sound. The calming presence of both boys and her two best friends helped though, they had hooked their pinkies together in a strange form of daisy chain to feel connect to one another and safe. She felt Fred running his fingers through her curls while he and George whispered back and forth too quietly for Hermione to truly pick up much of what they were saying and though she got little rest it was nice to be surrounded by those she loved in the relative safety of the calm forest floor.

Some time later she was gently shaken awake and informed they were safe to go back to the tent now. The destruction was apparent throughout the campsite as they made the trip back to their tent that had somehow survived the chaotic mess of earlier in the evening. Though the silence that rang through the empty rows felt to Hermione much more like a graveyard than anything else and it was with that thought in her mind that she joined the six others (Mr. Weasley had apparently been the one to find Harry and Ron, surrounded by aurors of all things and being accused of casting the Dark Mark) in making a make shift sleeping mat on the living room floor of the tent and sleeping in a pile as none of them seemed to be content with being alone after the events of the last several hours. With a tired sigh Mr. Weasley left for the room he had been splitting with his two eldest sons, clearly too tired to argue with them at this point since they only had a few hours before their portly was set to take them back to the Burrow anyway.

Chapter Text

Shoving eight teenagers, 2 owls, and a half kneazle into a single compartment was not exactly a simple task (or an advisable one), but if one was determined enough it could be done. Luna, Ginny, and Hermione had claimed one bench while Angelina and Katie had claimed the other. All three boys were seated on the floor leaning against either the girls (Fred and Lee) or the wall (George) playing exploding snap. Crooks was currently curled up sleeping soundly on Angelina’s lap, which the girl didn’t seem to mind at all, while the five girls discussed their summers as well as who their guesses were for the new DADA professor since Lupin obviously wasn’t coming back after the end of last school year had ended with hundreds of parents owling the school and the Board of Governors throwing a hissy fit over the fact that a ‘dangerous beast’ was teaching their children.

The boys had all decided to allow their hair to grow long for some reason which meant that Hermione and Katie were entertaining themselves by putting as many tiny braids into Fred and Lee’s hair as possible before the boys put a stop to their antics. Hermione was in the middle of explaining to the group how she would be joining the twins and Angelina in Potions this year since she had, without her knowledge, taken the OWL exam for Potions during some of their last private lessons of the year and she had passed with an O (making her officially the youngest person to ever get an O on a Potions OWL) when the trolley lady came in asking if they wanted any snacks for the ride.

Once they had all adequately stocked up on sweets for the ride they broke off into smaller conversations to pass the time. Luna and Ginny had moved over to the other bench to cram in next to Angelina and Katie since they were locked in fierce debate about the new recruits on the Hollyhead Harpies, George and Lee had begun discussing an idea Lee had wanted to float for the future Weasley Wizard Wheezes line of joke products actively in development for hopefully mail order production by spring, and Hermione was fielding interrogation questions from Fred regarding her taking the OWL without even knowing.

He seemed to be particularly blown away when she told him she actually had taken the Transfiguration OWL and gotten an ‘O’ as well. “So let me make sure I am understanding you correctly here.” Fred said from across the bench, “You were handed two tests that people typically kill themselves studying over for months and passed them with 100% accuracy on the first try without even knowing you were doing it.”

Hermione shrugged, “They were honestly pretty easy. You have to understand Fred, during the summers and breaks pretty much all I have to occupy my time is Potions and Transfiguration, when you have that much time on task with something its really easy to get ahead.”

Fred fixed her with a withering look, “I have truly never encountered a living soul this unaware of how insanely intelligent they are. It would almost be cute if it wasn’t so bloody irritating.”

“Its not like I try to be!” Hermione griped, “Academics have always come easy to me. I was already graduated from secondary school and partway through uni by the time I got my bloody Hogwarts letter.”

At the mention of this information Fred did a complicated set of wand movements, a series of silencing charms if the muffling effect they had on the rest of the compartment’s occupants was any indication, before turning back to Hermione, “Hermione, how intelligent are you? Don’t you dare lie either because I’m almost positive you just told me you had the equivalent of half a mastery in muggle education by the time you were eleven which is insane.”

“I-“ Hermione sighed, “I was labelled as gifted before most children can even write their own name.” At his confused look she continued, “Essentially if something is written down in a book I can pick it up remarkably fast. The only reason I haven’t taken OWLs or NEWTs in anything else is because Minerva wants me to have as normal of a childhood as possible. I’ve been essentially beyond NEWT level skill in most of my classes since about midway through last year, which is why I didn’t notice I was taking the OWL for Potions or Transfiguration in the spring. I’m mostly going to classes because she claims the ‘social aspect’ is important, even if I seem incapable of being successful in any portion of said socializing no matter what I do.”

“If Professor McGonagall wants you in classes with students your age then why did she have you take the OWL for Potions and Transfiguration?”

“Sev gave me the Potions OWL without Minerva’s knowledge and then threw the results down on her desk in rage from what I understand. He accused her of stifling the potential of the most gifted student he had ever witnessed, including himself. Which is saying something because Sev was the youngest person to receive a mastery in Potions in the last 500 years. After that he told her either to allow me to take the OWL in Transfiguration as well, since he knew I was just as far ahead in her class as I was in his if not farther, or her would do it himself.”

Realization dawned on Fred’s face, “Minerva has been trying to hide how gifted you are, hasn’t she?”

Hermione nodded, “I spent the majority of my childhood being shuttled from private tutor to private tutor, never interacting with anyone less than 30 years my senior. For all my social awkwardness now, I used to be a lot worse. Minerva had to work really hard in the year leading up to my attending Hogwarts officially to get me even somewhat passable at interacting with my social peers. I tend to get along a lot better with people Sev’s age than ours, which is not the best thing if Minerva is to be believed.”

Fred snorted and knocked his leg against hers, “Yeah probably not the best thing. Wait, I have a question.”

“I’m all ears”

“Would you want to help George and I with product development in a more official capacity? Its beyond NEWT level in most areas, and it requires extensive knowledge of Arithmancy and the theory foundation behind most branches of magic since we are essentially inventing all new charms, potions, and transfigurations to combine into joke products.”

“How exactly would this be any different than when Harry or Ron would demand I do their homework for them?” Her eyes narrowed in affront. Of course he would seek to use her to his advantage the moment she confided her intellect to him.

His answering grin confused her, “Well that depends on what George says when I yank him over here and have you tell him what you just told me. If he agrees to it, we give you equal shares with us.”

“So a third each” Hermione grinned, “And if he doesn’t agree?”

“Well it would be a bit less of a cut for you,” Fred leaned back against the window, kicking his legs up and prompting her to do the same so their legs we intertwined on the train bench,”But at that point I would split my take with you a clean 50/50, so you would get 25% and so would I.”

The shock was surely written plain as day on her face, “You would do that for me?”

Fred grinned, “Hey if your genius is going to go into these products you should get compensated for it. And if you’re as smart as you say you are we’re probably still getting the better end of the deal because once we unlock your devious side you are going to blow us out of the water.”

George was quickly yanked away from Lee and the three of them left the compartment after Fred made excuses of top secret discussion about WWW that needed to happen. The three teens searched for a compartment, eventually kicking Ron and Harry out of theirs and sending them to sit in the compartment with the girls and Lee so they could have some privacy. The privacy spells were quickly put back up and then Hermione launched into a shortened version of what she had told Fred, making sure to highlight the gifted portion of the conversation and her beyond NEWT level spell work in every class aside from Divination and Care of Magical Creatures.

The twins both agreed nearly instantly to go into an equal three way partnership with the witch, especially considering how she was such a large portion of the reason why they had the money for start up in the first place. Once she had signed some contracts giving her equal ownership and decision making rights of WWW (she had seen no reason to change the name, hers would be a silent partnership) the three spent the rest of the ride to Hogwarts getting Hermione up to speed on what the twins had been working on thus far with Hermione interjecting occasionally to give a pointer or two on how to improve the product in one way or another.

By the time the train was pulling into Hogsmeade station the three were still locked in an intense conversation about the viability of a rollout of a product they were referring to as Skiving Snackboxes in time for the holiday season since several of Hermione’s ideas had sped up development by a considerable margin. Hermione was worried about the logistics of getting enough of a back catalog done in time, which she stated to the boys. Getting the mail orders out in time would do them no good if they didn’t have enough in stock to get all of the orders out in time for Christmas and a failure this early on could spell long term diaster for the fledgling company. She ended the conversation by assuring the twins she would see if Sev would allow her use of his private labs in exchange for a modest cut, otherwise she was unsure how they would have the space to get the product done in time for a holiday launch.

She smiled as the three teens moved through the train hallway back to their friends to they could disembark together. They found them all waiting in the compartment they had started the ride on, excitedly debating whether or not they would be told what surprise awaited them at Hogwarts this year. Every adult in their life had been strangely tight lipped about the need to stay at school over Yule, or why they would all need dress robes this year. Either way Hermione was almost positive this year way going to be the best one yet, she just had a good feeling about it.

__________________________________

Minerva’s stern face was the first thing that greeted Hermione when she and her friends exited the Express in Hogsmeade that evening. After a quick wave to her friends with the promise of meeting up with them at the feast she slipped into the small private room Minerva had motioned for her to follow her to.

“I missed you this summer Little Dove” the stern face Minerva had donned in front of the students melted off her face and she embraced her adopted daughter with a loving grin.

Hermione relaxed into the loving touch of Minerva, she had missed this, “I missed you too, it was odd being away from you for so long,”

Minerva pulled back to look at her, seeming to be checking her for signs of damage, “I can’t believe how grown you have become my Little Dove, it feels like only yesterday I was bringing you here for the first time, its hard to imagine how four years have passed.”

Fighting a blush, Hermione fell into step next to Minerva as the began the long trek from Hogsmeade to the castle, “It does feel like I’ve done a lot of growing up this summer oddly enough…”

“Oh?”

“Ginny, Luna, and I made ourselves sisters in magic.” Hermione confessed with a grimace, terrified of incurring Minerva’s wrath.

Her adoptive mother surprised her though, “Ahh. I am happy for you Little Dove. I was intending on doing it myself once you had graduated though I am pleased you have found friends who love you so.” Minerva sent a glance her way, “Any other developments I should know about?”

“Well…” How did she always know? “There may be something…but I’m not quite sure yet. You’ll be the first to know when I do, I promise.”

Minerva smiled softly, “A boy is it? Not that Weasley runt you have insisted on running around with in the past I hope? I would support any decision of yours of course, but that one would be…ill advised.”

Hermione giggled, “No Minerva I promise Ronald will never be someone I look at like…that. Honestly at this point I don’t know if we are even friends. He didn’t take my friendships with Ginny, Luna, and the twins very well.”

“I can see that being the case.” Minerva responded as they slipped in to one of the staff passageways of the castle, “He has always been the sort to hoard those he views as his close to the chest.”

Hermione paused at the tapestry that would allow them access to the main castle, therefore halting their conversation, “How was he this summer? I know he wasn’t exactly thrilled that I would be leaving you both for so long.”

Minerva gave her a stern look, “Now Hermione I need you to hear me when I say this, understood?”

The girl nodded.

“Good. Now Severus is a grown adult, his happiness or lack there of is not something you need to bother yourself with. No matter how close you two are you need to find your own way in the world, as he undoubtably did in his time. One day you may be in the place where his happiness can be of your concern. That is not today. You allow me to deal with that cantankerous man and you just stick to being a teenager. Deal?”

“Deal.” She grumbled, giving Minerva another fierce hug before dipping out from behind the tapestry to go join her friends in the Great Hall to await the new First Years and the feast that would follow their sorting.

__________________________________________

“I swear sometimes you are not any better than that infernal Weasley boy, which is especially abhorrent considering I know for a fact you know better.”

Severus glowered at Minerva as he slunk out from the shadowy depths of the corridor, “I never tell her a single thing Minerva, it is not my fault she is more perceptive than even you sometimes. She knows me too well for me to effectively hide much from her.”

Minerva scoffed, “It is truly a miracle she has not figured it out by now.” She turned a stern look his way, “This is the exact reason I did not want you two becoming close, just so you are aware.”

“The moment she found my lab I knew it did not matter.” His face turned contemplative, “Although the more I have thought about it over the years, the less I wonder if we have any control over any of it anyway. Time is a loop, you know that as well as any.”

“Be that as it may, I wish for her to enjoy her childhood as much as possible Severus. Merlin knows you and I got to. There is so much tragedy and heart break awaiting her, must we truly be powerless to alleviate even a bit of it?”

He sighed, “I-I do not know. I do my best when I can. I try to be her safe place to land, the one she can come to with things she does not feel she should come to her mother with.”

“You try to be her friend.” Minerva cut in, “Which ordinarily would be concerning considering what the…situation is but I have allowed it because I trust you.”

Severus sneered, “If you think for one moment I would ever do anything-Merlin she is a child”

Minerva sighed, “I know that Severus, I truly do. It is just…a mother worries.”

“So do I Minerva, so do I”

With that the topic appeared to be closed, at least for the moment anyway. They both had jobs to do, children to teach, so this would have to wait for another day. Not that they had much more time to table this topic truth be told. June was fast approaching, and with it all of the heartbreak they had been trying to insulate Hermione from for so long.

__________________________________

Severus had begrudgingly allowed Hermione and the twins access to a private lab in the dungeons after Hermione had explained in detail the concept of WWW and all three had offered the professor a 6% share of future profits (split 2% from each of them). The professor had agreed with only a small glare and a muttered, “You better be happy I enjoy your presence” in Hermione’s direction. Hermione had grinned at the surly man, she knew he would cave (as he always did with her), but it was nice to able to give the twins a resounding yes.

“How was your summer?” She asked tentatively after she had reveled in her victory for a moment.

He shrugged, eyes never leaving his cauldron, “It was passable. Quiet, no one here pestering me to entertain her.”

She chuckled before poking him in the ribs, “You enjoy my pestering don’t lie, I know you missed me.”

He turned to her with a small smile, “That I did Hermione, that I did.”

“I missed you too Sev.” She said with a crushing hug before making her way out of the classroom. Only pausing to throw a quick, “Thanks Sev!” Over her shoulder before disappearing into the castle to go inform the twins of her success.

With the lab secured they began product testing in earnest with Hermione showing the boys a way to test the product efficacy without having to resort to human trials. They quickly made large leaps in progress as they spent every spare moment not spent doing homework or socializing in the common room in the lab honing products down and getting the snack boxes ready for mass production.

One such evening found Hermione bent over a cauldron attempting in vain to ascertain what could be added to the combination of wakefulness potion and sleeping draught that would allow a person to have a full scale day dream while appearing to be wide awake. The solution had been evading her for days and she was beginning to feel as if she would lose her mind long before the elusive ingredient would present itself to her.

“Should I be worried for that potion’s safety?” An amused Fred Weasley inquired upon entering.

Without looking up from her notes she replied, “That depends on whether or not the infernal thing decides to cooperate or not I suppose. Currently it is being irritatingly mulish in its insistence to continue on its path of uselessness.”

He snorted before slipping beside her, flicking his attention to her somewhat harried notes, “Never fear my dearest Mi, it shall bow to the whims of your genius. All things do sooner or later it seems.”

“Flattery gets you absolutely nowhere Fred Weasley.” She muttered, trying to hide her blush.

“Flattery?” Fred sent her a wry smirk, “Never flattery, I only ever speak the truth when it comes to you witch.”

With a determined huff she turned back to her notes, seeking out the answer to the issue that had been plaguing the potion at the basis of their Daydream Fancies for the last week. Fred silently joined her in the endeavor, sliding parchment over to her when he thought up an idea, or tweaking the formula of the potion mixture itself. If only she had looked up from her parchment she would have caught him several times throwing glances her way, admiring the way her curls fought against the constraints of the messy topknot she had them confined to and the scrunch she made with her nose when she was trying to suss out a solution to a complicated problem.

____________________________________________

Classes had begun in hernest has well. With Hermione in with the 6th years in Potions and Transfiguration (and Charms after Flitwick had hastily had her complete her OWL in the subject the first evening they had free, apparently he had not been aware that was an option) her days were far less boring. She sat with the twins in every class she had with them, and with 3rd and 4th years being combined for Ancient Runes and Arithmancy since the number of students in the elective courses was so small she also had shared classes with Luna and Ginny for the first time ever since both girls had elected to take the courses with her when they had selected their options last spring.

“Ugh why did I agree to this torture?! I could be getting an easy O in Care of Magical Creatures right now!” Ginny groaned one morning in Ancient Runes. The girls had come to the unfortunate realization early on that Ginny’s dyslexia was particularly irksome in the class as the different symbols all jumbled together on the page even for students who’s brains behaved how they were supposed to and the spells Minerva had taught the girl the year before were struggling to help her with the complex translations they were supposed to be learning.

“Ginny you just need to give it time. It will get better I promise!” Hermione assured her friend, “They jumble together for everyone in the beginning but once you get the hang of it you won’t even notice I swear!”

Ginny pouted sullenly, “Easy for you to say miss ‘I learn everything in one read through’. Do try to remember some of us are still mere mortals.”

“Have you tried using the wrack spurts instead of fighting them?” Luna piped up.

“What? Luna please I can’t right now.”

The blonde girl’s eyes narrowed, “I am just trying to help! Do you ever listen to the sound of anything but your own voice Ginny Weasley?!” She huffed. “The answer is right there in front of you if you just think about it for more than a second!”

It only took Hermione and Ginny a few moments to figure out what Luna had meant. Ancient Runes jumbled up for everyone, that’s what made them so hard. But Ginny’s brain already jumbled words all on its own…

“The spells!” They both grinned at each other.

Turns out, the spells were actually the problem in this class instead of the solution. As soon as Ginny cancelled the spells that helped her with reading English faster, all of the runes suddenly began to make a lot more sense, and didn’t get all twisted around on the parchment. Ginny’s brain being different actually helping her in a class for once improved her mood immensely and Ancient Runes quite quickly became Ginny’s favorite subject, and she one of Professor Babbling’s star students.

Spending over half of her days surrounded by her friends in class meant that Hermione was hardly even bothered by the cold shoulder she was receiving from Ron in the rest. Harry seemed to be going out of his way to attempt to mend fences with her as well, even going so far as to choose to partner with Hermione in DADA and Herbology instead of Ron. Hermione soon realized her friend was actually quite proficient in most subjects once he got away from Ron and actually applied himself. She said as much to him one day about a week after her fifteenth birthday as they were leaving the DADA classroom, “You know Harry, when you actually apply yourself in class you do quite well. Why do you choose to goof off with Ron instead?”

Harry shrugged, “I guess school has just never been something I’ve cared about. Its easier in classes like Herbology and DADA where its more practical based, I’m not as bored. But when I’m forced to sit in class for hours on end taking notes my mind starts to wander and then I miss stuff, which is when I usually come to you.”

“I used to have a similar problem.” Hermione admitted. Flushing at the incredulous look Harry gave her, she explained. “No really! Not for the same reason as you I think, but I pick up stuff so easily most of the time that I would get whatever the concept was within the first few minutes and then be bored to tears for the rest of class while everyone else caught up with me. Drove me insane for years.”

Harry nodded, “Yeah exactly! Like after a few minutes I don’t want to be going over the same thing over and over so I get bored and start day dreaming and then miss the next part and am completely lost!”

“Well then just do what I do” She supplied, “Make a game of guessing which way the professor is going to explain the concept next, sort of like how you have to try and figure out where the snitch is going to appear when you are playing quidditch, then while the professor is explaining it try and break down why the professor would explain it that way.”

Harry paused midstep, looking at her in awe, “Hermione Granger, you are a genius”

“Yes” She agreed with a twirl and smirk.

He bumped his elbow with hers, “Modest as always I see.” She grinned.

“Naturally.”

They began walking again in the direction of the common room since both had a free period, “Can I ask you a question?” Harry asked after a few minutes.

“Depends, is it going to be offensive and rude?”

The boy thought for a moment before a rueful smile crossed his features. “Honestly? I don’t know, I struggle to understand what makes girls mad at me half the time so there’s a chance for sure.”

She chuckled, “At least you’re honest. Alright, hit me with it.”

“Have you changed the way you dress?”

A giggle escaped the girl, “Yeah kind of.”

The boy looked relieved she wasn’t angry, “Ok I thought you looked different but was afraid to say anything in fear you didn’t want to talk about it.”

“No, its fine.” She jumped gracefully over a trick stair, “Ginny and Luna have been trying to get me more comfortable with allowing myself to wear my clothes as opposed to hiding in them.”

“What does that mean?” Harry asked, confused.

Hermione pondered the best way to answer his question. She didn’t want to make him feel bad (he had started to win her back over these past few weeks) by admitting a lot of it had to do with Ron’s ridicule and his silent agreement. So she took a different approach, “I spent a lot of my childhood feeling like I needed to apologize for taking up space. While I have worked through a lot of that since coming to Hogwarts, I still subconsciously had been wearing my clothes oversized and baggy to hide my shape in an effort to hide within my clothing. Sort of like armor.” The boy nodded in understanding, a contemplative look on his face, “Ginny and Luna have been trying to get me to feel more comfortable in my own skin and more comfortable with taking up space without apologizing for it. One way I am actively trying to work on this is through allowing myself to care about my appearance and be a bit superficial. Before I wasn’t allowing myself to do that because in my mind it would make a shallow and insipid person, now I am working on changing that internal narrative to allow for intellect and beauty to coexist. If that makes sense.”

The conversation had shifted after that when they ran into the twins and Hermione had launched into discussions with them about a letter they had received from an apothecary regarding a rather large shipment of ingredients they would be needing to begin producing the snack boxes to the level they would need in preparation for their advertised December 1 rollout.

In the weeks that followed her conversation with Harry she noticed a near imperceptible shift in his behavior, one she likely wouldn’t have even noticed had she not been paying attention. He began to seek her out more frequently in the common room, going to far as to actively try and join the group comprised of her, her sisters, the twins, and their 6th year friends that she often spent evenings in the common room basking in front of the fireplace with. He also appeared to be attempting to extend an olive branch of friendship to Ginny and Luna, one the girls were tentatively allowing once they had confirmed with Hermione this wasn’t some twisted attempt on Ron’s part to isolate Hermione like she had been before.

“Explain to me again why I have this green stuff on my face?”

Ginny sighed from her spot on Luna’s bed painting her nails with the same nail potion she had just done Hermione’s with, “Its a face mask Mione, it has charms and potions in it that prevent breakouts and dry skin as well as some general beauty charms that conceal things like dark circles and such for up to a month.”

Having momentarily forgotten that Luna was putting two braids in her hair, Hermione went to nod and was reminded of the other witch’s grip on her hair when a sharp pain reverberated through her scalp, “Ow!”

Luna shook her head, “That is the third time you have done that. Do you have some fascination with being in pain?”

“No” Hermione replied sullenly, “I’m just not used to all of this.”

The girls were spending their Friday night in Hermione and Luna’s dorm having what Ginny had referred to as ‘girl time’. It seemed to mirror their evenings over the summer in Ginny’s room but with extra gunk on her face and something that reminded Hermione an awful lot of nail polish that made her finger and toe nails flash different colors depending on her mood (currently they were orange, for irritation).It wasn’t that Hermione didn’t enjoy spending time with her two best friends (the opposite was true), more that she wasn’t quite sure if she liked all of the pampering and primping it went with.

The feeling of relaxation she felt being able to just exist and hang out with her friends was a welcome respite after a long week of classes and WWW research. Ginny had a radio charmed to be able to pick up muggle stations (Bill’s from back when he and Charlie were still at Hogwarts) that was softly belting out Queen courtesy of a rock station in London and was prepping a copy of Witch Weekly that allegedly had a quiz that would tell them how to ‘snag their wizard’ which had both of her best friends far too intrigued as far as Hermione was concerned. Especially considering the fact that she was almost positive the only witch in the room who would ever need such advice would be her.

It hadn’t taken Luna long to share her thoughts on the ‘Fred Situation’ with their red headed friend and much to Hermione’s horror the girl had latched on to the idea of having Hermione as a potential future sister-in-law. Hermione had been unwillingly subjected to more ‘planning sessions’ than she ever thought would be possible for a relationship she had no intention of pursuing. This was, of course, a detail her friends seemed to find irrelevant.

“I have no desire to ‘snag’ any wizards Gin so you might as well just put that blasted magazine away.” Hermione stated when the girl came to join them on her bed.

Ginny sighed, “You never let me have any fun, just so you know.”

Hermione stuck her tongue out at the girl. “You take that back Ginevra Weasley! I am plenty fun and you know it!”

“I never said you weren’t fun I say said you never allow me to have any fun.”

She nudged the girl with her foot, “Would planning a prank to go torture the boys with count as allowing you to have fun?”

The devilish gleam in Ginny’s eye answered her question, “Depends, what do you have in mind?”

The look of befuddled horror on Fred, George, Lee, and Harry’s (he had apparently decided to hang out with the other three since Ron was in detention and Hermione was otherwise engaged) when the sofas launched them across the room the moment they went to sit on them would forever be etched into Hermione’s memory (it helped that Luna had managed to snap a picture at the exact moment it happened). However the glowers that promised the highest level of retribution that followed their discovery of the girls giggling uncontrollably from the steps to their dorms caused them to high tail it back to the safety the girl’s dormitory provided them, Fred’s shouted, “You can’t hide from us in there forever!” following them as they slammed the door behind them and collapsed in a heap of laughter on Hermione and Luna’s floor.

“Told you I’m fun” Hermione stated later on in the quiet darkness that had fallen to the room, Luna’s soft snores emanating from the neighboring bed. She was propped on her side facing Ginny as she had opted to share her bed with the girl as Luna had done so the last girls night a few weeks ago.

Ginny rolled her eyes, “I am aware you are fun Mione, just because you think rules are important doesn’t mean you are some kill joy” the girl sighed. “I just wish I could understand why you avoid the subject of Fred whenever Luna or I bring it up.”

Silence rang between the two friends for a moment, Hermione trying to collect her thoughts into something logical. The Fred thing was complicated at best and she wasn’t sure if she even understood her feelings enough herself to attempt explaining them to someone else.

“You and Luna like each other, correct?”

Ginny shrugged, “Of course we like each other, we’re friends Mione.”

Hermione shoved Ginny’s shoulder playfully, “That is not what I meant and you know it Gin” she sent the girl a small smile, “I see the way you two look at each other like the world stops and ends with the two of you. For the sake of Merlin I watched you both turn as crimson as your hair the other day when she put her head on your shoulder!”

“We are not that bad!” Ginny hissed, face as red as her hair.

Hermione snorted, “Whatever you need to tell yourself Gin” she paused, “Anyway I digress. Why don’t either of you make a move? Be honest.”

Ginny’s face turned suddenly very serious, “Because what if we ruin everything? I can’t live without her. Its so much better with her in my life, even as just a friend. I can’t risk it” her eyes were shining with emotion so open and raw Hermione almost looked away, feeling as if she were intruding on something not meant for her to see.

“Exactly.” Hermione agreed, “You, Luna, and the twins are the most important people in my life. When I came to the Burrow this summer, I was in shambles. Even though we had been sending letters back and forth all summer it didn’t feel real. I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop all last year, preparing for when you both inevitably abandoned me like everyone else.” She wiped a tear from her face angrily. “But all that changed at the Burrow. Within a few short weeks I had two sisters who I love more than anything and more friends than I knew what to do with who accept me just the way I am. I’ve never been able to be myself around anyone the way I get to be around you guys. I can’t risk a life time of that acceptance and love for a few months of snogging in broom cupboards and holding hands between classes. I would never forgive myself.”

The girls pulled each other into a fierce hug, pouring every ounce of love and longing in their hearts into each other for safe keeping. “Ok Hermione, I get it.” Ginny sniffed, “But just know for the record I think you’re mad, there’s nothing you could do to lose Fred.”

“And there’s nothing you could do to lose Luna. Doesn’t stop the fear though.”

Silence fell over the two girls after that, sleep creeping in on the edges of their consciousness. Hermione was nearly asleep, lulled by the warm presence of the other girl when a thought slammed into Hermione’s mind.

Gryffindors run towards what scares them, not away from it.

________________________________________

Potions class had always been Hermione’s favorite class. There was a level of serenity to be found while within the confines of the dungeon classroom that she had not been able to find reciprocate anywhere else in the castle. The singleminded focus many potions required allowed Hermione to free herself from the confines of her over-active psyche for a few hours, which had become one of her most enjoyed aspects of her days.

This of course was only made more true once she began sharing the class with Fred and George. The two were Potions savants, not that you would know that from how they carried themselves in the class. At some point in their education the two had managed to master the art of simultaneously appearing as if they were not paying even a modicum of attention in the class while also absorbing everything that was said to the point where it was a rarity their classroom assignments were anything less than perfect. It was the first time Hermione had experienced Potions with competent partners and she loved it.

The three of them rarely followed the directions of any potion to the letter, always tweaking ingredient prep or distribution within the potion itself. It wasn’t uncommon for one of the teens to add or subtract an ingredient or step without explaining why outside of noting “it seems like it would be an improvement”, they were nearly always right.

“You should crush those instead of cutting them” Fred remarked one day when they were supposed to be attempting a warding potion that was used mainly on ancestral homes to protect them from unwelcome visitors.

Hermione paused, looking at the instructions to ascertain why Fred was thinking the prep change would help. “You think having the juice more broken down before going in will increase its strength?”

He shook his head, “Its coverage. These determine how large of a property it can cover, if we crush instead of cut it should be able to cover twice the amount of land”

“Seriously? That can’t- Merlin’s tits you are right!” She hissed.

“While the Weasley twins may be adequate Potions partners Miss Granger may I suggest you refrain from coopting their…creative use of the English language?” Hermione heard a bored drawl behind her.

Flushing crimson she turned to meet Severus’s eyes, apology written all over her face, “Sorry Professor! I’ll keep that in mind in the future.”

She saw amusement dancing in his eyes as he fought a smile, “See that you do. Carry on”

“He is so going to give me shit for that later.” She grumbled under her breath while throwing the crushed beans into the bubbling concoction in front of her.

She felt a nudge on her shoulder, turning to Fred with a raised eyebrow she questioned, “Can I helped you Fredrick?”

“One: that’s not my full name and you know it.” He smiled, “Two: can I ask you a question?”

“You just did.” At his dead pan expression she smirked, “You can ask another though, I’m feeling giving today.”

She heard George snort from he resided on the other side of Fred. “You keep your snorts to yourself you old busy body.” She griped before turning her attention back to his twin.

“What is Snape like when the rest of us aren’t around?” He whispered.

“A lot less irritated.” She chuckled before turning off the burner under her cauldron and portioning out her potion into vials, “and more talkative. He was my only friend for awhile. Everything I know about Potions comes from him. He’s also a SWOT like me, only he’s a professor so I don’t suggest ever saying that to his face unless you want to be in detention until you graduate, so its not uncommon to find him with his nose buried in some high level potions or defense tome.” Her voice developed a fond quality towards the end as she thought of the number of times she had been summoned by the man only to arrive to be accosted by a very excited Sev who just wanted to share his excitement about a new discovery in Potions with someone who would care.

“You sound fond of him.” Fred stated, an edge to his tone.

“I am fond of him” she supplied, “but not in the way you think” (admiring crushes aside anyway) “Even though he’s so much older than us for me he’s not really an authority figure outside of the Potions classroom where he has to be. Ever since I stumbled into his classroom a few months after Minerva took me in he’s functioned as much more a surly older brother than anything else.” She winced internally at the idea of being related to Severus, “He’s extremely guarded and hard to get to know but once you get past all his barriers he’s the best and most loyal person to have in your corner. Minerva is very protective of him, she’s viewed him as a son for years which is probably why our dynamic is so odd to be truthful. You have no idea how much goes on around here completely outside the knowledge of most of the students.”

Fred nodded as they both grabbed their bags so they could walk to the Great Hall for lunch. “Is he the reason you seem to act so much older than the rest of us?”

She shook her head. “No, I was like that long before I met Sev. My parents did a real number on me before Minerva took me off their hands. I don’t know how much of what I told you own the train you remember but they had me graduating from the Muggle equivalent of Hogwarts by age 8 and I was a good portion of the way through two different muggle mastery programs by the time I came here. The only people I ever really interacted with before first year was adults, Sev became my friend because I act a lot like an adult not the other way around.”

They were halfway through lunch before Fred spoke again, “I’m sorry your parents did that to you Mi.”

Hermione smiled sadly. “Its ok, well its not ok but I don’t regret it. Do I wish sometimes I could have friends when I was little? Yeah. But I like who I am, I’m not ashamed of who I have become just because the path to get here sucked. Jean and Richard never wanted kids, so they did their level best to make me as much of as an adult as they could as soon as they could. I turned out alright I think. I have you, Luna, Ginny, and George not to mention Angelina, Harry, Lee, and Katie as friends now, I have a fantastic mom in Minerva, and I have a Sev. You don’t have to be sorry Fred, I know I’m not.”

He nodded, “You deserved their love, you deserve all the love in the world Mi. I mean you are so fantastic I sometimes find myself wondering why you even bother with someone like me.”

“Hey! Thats my friend you are talking about sir.” Hermione gave him a stern look, “You are just as worthy of my love as I am of yours Fred Weasley. Don’t you put me on some pedestal I can’t live up to. I won’t kill myself trying to live up to a version of me that never existed.”

Before Fred could respond she stormed out of the Great Hall in a flurry of robes and righteous fury leaving Fred wondering where the conversation had gotten away from him.

“You are a bloody idiot.” Ginny spat at him, grabbing her things and sprinting after Hermione with Luna hot on her heels.

_______________________________________________

That evening found Hermione aggressively crushing lacewing flies for a modified poly juice potion that was in testing for WWW that would be able to allow a person to change one or two characteristics like height, weight, eye color, hair color, etc. Similar to the concept of advanced partial human transfiguration but in a mass produced easy to use potion that would be easy enough for even the youngest Hogwarts student to use safely. She had moved into Sev’s personal lab so Fred couldn’t find her, she was still too angry at him to trust herself not to say something she would regret if she was forced to interact with him one-on-one.

“What, pray tell, did those poor lacewing flies do to you?”

“Go away Sev, I am not in the mood.”

He scoffed and joined her at her work station, “You are in my personal lab remember? I’m the one who can kick you out, not the other way around.”

They worked silently for a moment. He began scanning over her notes on how to go about modifying the potion to account for a lesser level of transformation looking for anything out of sorts, “Do you want to talk about it?” He inquired softly, eyes still trained on the parchment while he wrote small annotations in the margins.

“I-“ she sighed, “I don’t do well with people expecting me to be perfect, you know that.”

He nodded, “That I do, but does the boy know that?”

She paused, “Well how could he not? He knows about my parents, about my childhood, Ginny and Luna understand! They said as much when they caught up with me after I left the Great Hall earlier.”

“Be that as it may” He began, “Teenage wizards are not typically known for their perceptiveness. It may have been a little while since I was one, but I remember that much about the whole experience.”

She chuckled, “Somehow I find it difficult to picture you incurring the wrath of a witch with your less than stellar perception skills. You have always seen far more than most people Sev.”

“You would be surprised.” His mouth ticked up into a small smirk as if laughing at a joke she was not privy to.

“So what do you suggest I do?” She huffed from her seat, still crushing lacewing flies with reckless abandon as if pounding enough of them into fine powder would work out her frustrations, “Just let him off the hook because teenage wizards are stupid?”

With a withering look he said, “That is not what I said and you know it. You have never been difficult for the sake of being so before, don’t pick up the habit now it would be most irksome. I simply think you should talk to him, explain why his actions hurt you. If he still refuses to meet you halfway then you may continue to ignore him for as long as you see fit.”

“Why do you have to always say things that make sense?” She grumbled under her breath.

He shrugged, “Time on task, I suppose.” A sigh escaped his lips, “Look, you don’t have to talk to him now if you don’t want to, just think about it. You won’t be able to hide in here crushing lacewing flies forever.”

She glowered down at the table, “Watch me.”

________________________________________________________

Though it was not in any way related to the complicated dance that was the interpersonal relationships of Gryffindor tower these days, something else shoved itself to the forefront of Hermione’s mind in early October. After nearly a month of watching him both in class and out and about within the corridors of the castle, Hermione was now positive Professor Moody was not in fact…Professor Moody. She had nicked the Map from Harry’s trunk one evening to go ‘Moody’ hunting, and the Map confirmed what she had been suspecting for weeks. While she was staring from behind a tapestry at the man who claimed to be their DADA professor, the Map said she was staring at Bartimus Crouch, “Gotcha” She whispered to herself before throwing a mumbled “mischief managed” at the Map and making her way through the halls on near silent feet to the dungeons as she had a feeling the best person to go to with her discovery was Severus.

She quickly slipped into the empty potions classroom and through the door at the back of the room to his private laboratory. Which, if one had been invited, contained the heavily warded and concealed entrance to Severus’s private quarters at Hogwarts. Hermione, of course, had been granted access to her favorite professor’s apartments before she was even in first year as Minerva had been forced more than once to leave her in the care of the surly professor when she had been called away from the school for one reason or another and could not bring her young charge with her.

Severus jumped from his sofa with a start when she entered his rooms in a flurry of robes, “Just what in the bloody hell do you think you are doing?!” He hissed.

“I know who has been stealing from your private stores, but in order to prove it to you I need you to promise you will trust me.”

Severus gave her an oddly searching look that left Hermione feeling as if he was inspecting her for something and had been left wanting. She shook it off without much thought however as she had noticed him giving her similar looks over the four years she had known the man. She had asked him once early on in her residence at Hogwarts why he looked at her like he was searching for something and had gotten a very cryptic, “Nothing that you should concern yourself with girl.”, after that he had straight up ignored any inquires about it and so she had learned to simply stop asking. He would tell her when he damn well felt like it and not a moment before which left Hermione feeling little motivation to attempt to understand the depth’s of the professor’s mind anymore than she absolutely had to.

She knew her favorite professor had demons, most self inflicted. Hermione had accepted long ago there were things in his past that she would not like, that would scare her. However she chose very early on not to judge him for whatever his past may be and instead on the man he was in the present. This naturally came after he had imparted upon her one of the most important things she had ever learned.

It had been a dreary morning during winter hols her first year when she had first caught a glimpse of the Dark Mark on his arm. While he had hastily rolled down his shirt sleeve upon hearing the horrified gasp leave her mouth, it had been too late. Tears had sprung to her eyes nearly immediately and she had attempted to flee his private lab before a word could leave the potion master’s mouth.

She had whirled on him when he tried to stop her, “Don’t touch me!” she had screamed, “I know exactly what that mark means, how could you? Why let me be around you? Why even bother pretending to be my friend if you think I am a magic stealing abomination?!”

She had noted his flinch with a sense of satisfaction at the time, happy to have inflicted a modicum of pain on the man responsible for her tears. “I made some very bad decisions a long time ago when I was a little older than you. It is not something I am proud of, and I work every day to atone for my sins.” He had beckoned the girl into his office at this point and after both of them had cups of tea he stated, “Sometimes people do bad things for reasons that may not make sense at the time, and often times come at the expense of the people they love. While you can never take back the harm you have caused you can learn from your mistakes and seek to atone for them. Does that make sense?”

Hermione sipped her tea with a sniffle, “I suppose.”

A rare smile had crossed the man’s features, “Though at one point I did believe the horrible things this mark stood for I have since recognized those views for what they are, abhorrent and wrong. I am now and always have been your friend Hermione, I promise, and I will never seek to bring you harm. You will find that quite the opposite is true, I would do just about anything to keep you not only safe but as happy and content as a person can be.”

The young witch had mulled his words over for a moment when she suddenly asked, “What made you leave?”

“Many things and also nothing at all.” He had answered after a pause, “When being a part of something requires believing in its righteousness completely, even the smallest sliver of doubt can cause one’s loyalty to sway completely.”

“What made you believe the path you were on was the correct one?”

A sigh escaped him, “I had a childhood much like yours truth be told, not that I would admit that to most anyone. My father was the worst kind of muggle. A brute and a drunk who ultimately caused the death of my mother by his hands, he did not exactly leave me with the warmest feelings towards muggles.” Hermione felt a pang of sympathy for the man, wise in the ways of parental cruelty in ways far above her years.

“So you joined to spite him?” She enquired.

“Partly,” He ran a hand through his hair, “But also because I was penniless. A follower of his offered to pay for my Potions mastery in exchange for my allegiance to his Lord. I also had a penchant for the dark arts in those days, few places were amenable to my proclivities outside of those circles. It felt like the obvious choice for a penniless halfblood trying to make his way in the world.”

The conversation with Severus had been an enlightening moment for Hermione. The moment when a child discovers the adults she had admired are flawed and human just like herself can often times feel like a betrayal at first, as if they had lied to her in showing her only the best of them. But it also teaches a child something very important: the world isn’t black and white, good v. Evil, while those things do exist within our world most people reside within the ever varying shades of gray that exist between the two extremes. While it had been hard to find out that the man the young Hermione had come to think of as her first real friend was much more flawed than she had believed him to be, she had gained far more than what had been lost.

For one, after that day she felt like she was on more equal footing with the Potions master in a lot of ways. Hermione found herself more confident when she asked him questions and it became much easier for her to contradict his answers when she found issue with them. She also began to view him as more of her equal when they weren’t in the confines of the Potions classroom, and she liked to believe he saw her the same. He began to include her in her experimental potions work, causing her to be included on two patents before she had even taken her OWL in the subject at the tender age of fourteen. It had also, oddly enough, been what had originally sparked what would eventually become the crush she had admitted to last summer before confiding in Luna and Ginny about all of the little injustices that had made up the majority of her childhood.

Hermione was snapped out of her revery by Severus’s bone deep sigh as she ran a hand over his face, “I swear you are going to be the reason I go to an early grave girl.”

Hermione shrugged, unaffected by his theatrics, “I’ll make your death a noble one I promise.”

“Is it joy that you derive from my torture? Or some other emotion I have not heard of?”

She grinned, “More a mixture of satisfaction and accomplishment, but joy works too I suppose.”

Severus was still muttering creative curses under his breath when she smoothed the Marauder’s Map out on the table and stated “I solemnly swear I am up to no good.”

The map sprang to life under her careful hand and soon Hermione and Severus were staring at the near perfect rendition of Hogwarts, courtesy of Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs (she had discovered one room accidentally one summer that was notably absent).

His face darkened upon reading the names of the creators before glancing at her curiously, “What is this thing?”

She shrugged, “Its an interactive map of Hogwarts that shows where every person in Hogwarts is at any given moment complete with legal names and everything.”

“And where, pray tell, did you manage to come across such a sophisticated bit of magic?”

“Honestly, I have no idea. Fred and George nicked it from Filch their first year and then passed it on to Harry last fall so he could sneak into Hogsmeade since his annoying ass muggles refused to sign his permission slip out of spite.” She interrupted his grumbling about dunderheads and marauding juvenile delinquents to pull his attention to the DADA classroom, “Look there. See anything out of the ordinary?”

A confused look crossed the man’s face when he saw what her finger had been pointing to. Though the time of day indicated 7th year students should be in the middle of a class being taught by Alastor Moody at that precise moment, the map indicated the professor in the classroom to be someone else entirely. “Why is Bartimus Crouch in the DADA classroom?”

“That” Hermione said as she closed the map in triumph, “Would be the million galleon question Sev.”

The man rolled his eyes in mock annoyance at the nickname she refused to stop calling him by. She had been calling him by it (mostly out of stubbornness) for years and had told him on multiple occasions no matter how scary he tried to be she knew him too well to ever think of him as anything but a grumpy old softy, so he might as well give up trying. These days he seemed to have resorted to expressing his displeasure in much the same way Crookshanks did when she was too busy with homework to give him a proper sofa cuddle, pouting.

Sev paced his sitting room for a few minutes trying to come up with a plan of attack while Hermione absentmindedly perused his private book collection to see if he had added any since she had last scoured his collection of rare potions and defense tomes. It was ultimately decided the best course of action would be to outright confront the situation head on, as regardless of whom the person parading around the school as Moody truly was, they did not belong teaching students Defensive magic. So with a flourish Sev collected his wand and ushered Hermione out of his apartments and though the school towards the DADA classroom.

An evil glint of satisfaction shone in Hermione’s eye as the two made their way through the castle, collecting Professors Flitwick and McGonagall on their way. Severus had a bad feeling about what would greet them upon entering the DADA classroom as he only knew of two men named Bartimus Crouch. The senior stood little to gain from impersonating a professor at Hogwarts though was far preferable to the junior considering the junior was supposed to have been dead for nearly a decade. Of course Azkaban had been proven in recent years to be less than impossible to escape which was most unfortunate, the last thing Severus wanted to do was to duel one of the Dark Lord’s craziest and most fanatical followers with only two of his colleagues and a (albeit extremely gifted) fifteen year old as backup.

Whatever it was that Hermione had been expecting upon her discovery of the false Moody, an all out duel between a (previously believed to be dead) Death Eater and 3 Hogwarts professors had not been it. Upon entering the DADA classroom Severus, Minerva, and Professor Flitwick quickly walked to the front of the classroom while Hermione hurriedly signaled to all of the students that they needed to vacate the classroom. Once the room was clear, Severus cast a spell he had learned from the Gringott’s goblins oddly enough that returned a Polyjuiced person back to their original state. Moody/Crouch screamed in rage, throwing elaborate and terrifying curses while he did it. Soon the room was in shambles from stray curses and hexes tearing apart the desks as well as everything lining the walls and, in some places, the walls themselves. It was with a final Expulso directed by Minerva that the man fell to the floor and did not move again.

After Crouch Jr. had been subdued, the ministry was called and the hunt was on to track down what exactly had been done with the real Alastor Moody since he had to be close by in order for the poly juice potion to be used. Several hours and one intense search later he was found in an enchanted trunk in the defense professor’s private quarters, somewhat shaken but otherwise unharmed. Severus was set to take over DADA classes temporarily while Moody took a few days to recover and a potions master by the name of Slughorn was brought in on a temporary basis to cover Severus’s classes in the interim. An inquiry had also been called at the Ministry to get to the bottom of Crouch’s escape from Azkaban and false declaration of death as well to how he had kidnapped and impersonated Alastor Moody for over a month without anyone the wiser aside from a single teenage girl, even if said teenage girl was a certified genius.

______________________________________________

“Thank Merlin you figured that out when you did Mi” Fred noted one evening about a week later while they were all relaxing in the common room, using the nickname he had dubbed her with. She had ceased trying to argue with him when he had stated, “I can’t just be calling my witch what all of the other peasants call her, this way you can never forget I’m special”. The sheer absurdity of his logic left her speechless and without argument, and he had been stubbornly calling her it ever since.

Luna nodded her agreement, “Imagine the wrackspurt infestation the school would have been suffering from if that man had been teaching us all year!”

Murmurs of agreement rang out from her friends before the conversation turned away from their temporary tutelage under the careful eye of an insane convicted Death Eater and instead to the upcoming week when the castle would officially be playing host to delegations from two other wizarding schools from the continent, Durmstrang and Beauxbaton’s. Rumors had begun to circulate about what everyone theorized the students would be arriving in. Hermione, of course, knew that they would be arriving in an enchanted ship and carriage respectfully (after she had bullied the answer out of a much-harassed Severus) but had elected to keep such knowledge to herself as she enjoyed the increasingly outlandish guesses of her classmates.

“You cannot seriously think the delegation from Durmstrang would arrive on dragon back. That would be completely absurd!” She argued from her comfortable position on the couch with her feet propped up on Ginny and her head in Fred’s lap.

Lee dug in, claiming he had it on “good authority” that the Durmstrang delegation would do just that, and nothing Hermione said was going to change his mind no matter how smart the witch was. Luna argued they would likely be arriving on binxelmorts, since they were apparently fifteen feet tall and native to Norway, where the Eastern European school was rumored to reside. This of course resulted in the conversation devolving into an intense debate about whether or not the schools would risk using creatures not confirmed to exist (and therefore confirming their existence to the world) for the simple task of transporting students to an inter school competition.

Hermione suppressed a shiver as Fred began running his hands absentmindedly through her curls while fighting to avoid laughing at the spirited debate Lee had gotten himself into with Luna, who was absolutely dug in with her binxelmort theory. He glanced down at her when he thought she wasn’t paying attention, a fond smile on his face when he caught her gaze with his.

She had avoided him for a few days following the Great Hall fiasco, much to pretty much everyone they knew’s annoyance since the two of them were essentially impossible to be around the entire time. Fred had apparently spent every minute he was not forced to be in class or actively working on production for WWW moping around, barely even a person. Not that Hermione had been any better truth be told, she had reverted back to what she knew best, hiding in Sev’s private Potions lab. She had spent three days furiously brewing potions to replenish Poppy’s stores and testing out future WWW products before Sev decided he was done allowing her to avoid her problems.

She let out an undignified shriek upon hearing a throat clearing in a room that was supposed to be deserted. Her shock was impossible to hide once she saw who her company was. “Fred what are you doing here?”

“That would be because of me.” Sev’s voice rang out behind her. She was about to protest when he cut her off with a look, “I allowed you access to this place because you had no safe place in the castle for years when your only friends were two boys who’s affection for you appeared to be as fickle as winter sun in Scotland, not to enable you to hide from your problems when you get into a small spat with a friend who cares about you.”

Her eyes narrowed, “You-you meddling cretin!”

He smirked as he exited back to his office, “Call me whatever you want Hermione, there is nothing you can say that would hurt me and you know it. Go talk to your friend.” He began to leave then turned around with a devious look on his pale face, “Just so you know, I granted him the same access as you, so this will not be your hiding place again.”

“Slytherin menace” She muttered under her breath, turning around the face Fred.

“I’m sorry.” The boy said before she could utter a word. “It wasn’t fair of me to make you feel like you had to be perfect. It was never my intention Hermione.”

She sighed before settling next to the boy, “I’m not perfect Fred, far from it. I’m an unrepentant know-it-all swot who derives great joy from making it abundantly clear I am the smartest person in every room I enter, I can be extremely cruel when I want to be, I’m very judgemental and rude, I am not good at bending eve a little bit once I get dug in on something, and those are only a few of my long list of flaws. My parents always expected me to be perfect, so I was always a disappointment when I proved to be all too human for their liking. I can’t go through that again with someone I care about.”

She leaned against his shoulder and a sigh escaped his lips, “I’m sorry Mi, I know you aren’t perfect, its just that all your flaws do is make me love you even more. Don’t tell George this, but you’re my best friend and it has been killing me the last three days to have you hating me.”

“I never hated you Fred. I don’t think I could ever hate you even if I tried.”

Though she was woe to admit it, as if admitting its existence would shatter whatever fragile grip she still maintained on her emotions, even Hermione could tell there had been a shift in their dynamic since coming back to school. Fred had become a constant fixture in her life since she had spent time at the Burrow this summer, often times going out of his way to save space for her next to him in the Great Hall and the common room when they would hang out with their friends. It was not uncommon for him to insist upon walking with her to her classes even when she wasn’t sharing it with him, causing him to collect even more detentions than usual due to his consist tardiness to various classes. The standing study date that Ginny, Luna, and Hermione had started back up upon returning in September had now grown to include the twins regularly as well as Harry, Angelina, Katie, and Lee on a rolling basis depending on what else was going on that day. Their friend groups had been melding seamlessly into one large one at this point and Hermione was almost positive it was entirely at Fred’s insistence.

It often times felt like they existed in a world on their own. Even when among their friends (like they were right now) it was easy to forget about what was happening around them and just focus on his steady, calming presence. She found herself falling into easy banter with him without even thinking, picking up old conversations right where they had left off and speaking in half sentences much to the amusement of their friends when it became clear neither of them knew their conversations made little sense to anyone but each other.

She could feel him in a room without him uttering a word or being in her line of sight, and when in the same room together they would gravitate towards each other without even realizing they had done it. He was her best friend, the first person she would run to with news whether good or bad. He was the subject of a larger percentage of her waking (and sleeping) thoughts then she would ever admit. But he was also her greatest fear.

This had of course been the subject of many a girls night debate because despite the increasing number of knowing looks Luna and now Ginny would send her way when they were all together, Hermione still was no closer to knowing what she wanted to do with the increasingly obvious possibility that her crush was reciprocated from the red headed prankster than she had been when Luna had first called her out for her feelings over the summer. This had caused more than one debate amongst the three witches because though Hermione had explained to her two best friends countless times why she wasn’t sure what to do with her feelings or the potential consequences of acting on them the two witches seemed committed to rehashing the situation until quote, “a solution that doesn’t involve you pretending the situation does not in fact exist presents itself” which of course they were no closer to finding than they ever had been.

The problem was that the thought of pursuing literally anything with Fred outside of whatever it was they were doing now nearly caused Hermione to descend into a panic each time she allowed herself to think about it for more than a few minutes at a time. Having spent so many years alone, perpetually cursed to remain on the outside looking in, she was incredibly unwilling to do anything to change the dynamic of their friendship and risk losing it all together.

Fred was far too important to her to ever risk losing him for the chance at something as trivial as snogging in a hidden alcove of the castle or a fumbling night of…whatever it was that Lavender and Parvati seemed to giggle about doing with boys when snogging became ‘boring’. What she and Fred shared was something she struggled to even comprehend most of the time. He seemed to just…get her in ways that she even noticed Ginny and Luna struggling with sometimes and those girls were her sisters in magic. How could she justify risking what was already so precious to her for something she had never experienced and therefore could not miss?

But even she could admit the closeness the two friends shared wasn’t entirely platonic. Its not as if Hermione would be caught with her head in Harry or George’s lap while they ran their fingers through her hair (to be quite frank her stomach did an awkward flip at the thought). It wasn’t George she sought out when she struggled with feelings of inadequacy due to her muggle raising, and it wasn’t Ginny or Luna she went to when she just wanted to cry because it all just felt like too much to bear on her own. She had grown dependent on Fred since coming back to school. He had taken his promise to be her sounding board for all things magic to heart, and there was never a time where she sought him out and he didn’t drop everything to be with her for however long she needed.

But that dependance was the very reason she could never do anything to jeopardize their friendship. It would be like pursuing something with Severus (if they were the same age and he wasn’t her professor), suicidally stupid in it’s ability to leave her life in shambles with no hope of recovery if the absolute agony of their three day fight was any indication. No. Things were good now, safe. Hermione could live with pining after Fred Weasley for the next hundred years as long as he was still her best friend. Hermione could handle anything, accept losing him forever.

Chapter Text

With classes ending early in order to allow students to be available for the arrival of the student delegations from both Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, Hermione found herself huddled between Luna and Fred and attempting to brace herself against the harsh chill of October in Scotland. Both schools were set to arrive within the next few minutes and as the clock moved closer to 6 o’clock there was a perceptible shift within the assembled students. Excitement was palpable as last minute bets were placed amongst the crowd for how they thought the two schools would arrive and Hermione rolled her eyes before subtly training her gaze to the sky above them.

After another shiver wracked Hermione’s body she felt Fred let out a sigh before pulling her into him and wrapping his cloak around them both, “You are aggressively ill-equipped for cold weather witch.”

She scoffed, “Its not like I’m not trying! I’ve layered like three warming charms over myself since walking out here, I’m in the thickest wool cloak I own and wool tights, I have on sherpa lined dragon hide gloves, what more do you want from me Fred Weasley?!”

“Have you considered looking into acquiring some better circulation?” He snickered.

“Ha ha you are so funny.” Her eyes widened when she noticed a carriage in the sky off in the distance. Elbowing him in the side and pointing she said, “Look! Something is coming from over there.”

Soon most of the crowd was oohing and ahhing as a stunningly large carriage came hurtling behind a dozen horses that looked to be over 10 feet tall each, “Abraxans” Hermione murmured. Extremely rare even in the wizarding world, Abraxans were mostly native to France, Italy, and Spain though Hermione had heard rumors the Malfoy family had a small herd. Once the carriage landed with a resounding crash a dozen or so meters away from the gathered crowd, Hermione watched a boy in a blue silk uniform jumped out of the carriage, rolled down a set of steps, and then stuck his arm out before a truly massive woman stepped out of the carriage and onto the Hogwarts grounds.

“I had no idea the Headmistress of Beauxbatons was a giantess.” She quietly remarked to Fred.

He nodded, “Neither did I, which was likely the point. Its not like giants are well received here in Britain.”

Before Hermione had much time to ponder Fred’s words a strange bubbling began to happen in the center of the Black Lake. Lee was the first to shout, “Over there! Something is happening in the black lake!”

Sure enough within moments of his words the masts of a gigantic ship began to rise from the depths of the black lake. Hermione turned a confused gaze to Fred, “Is that legal?”

He shrugged, “Unlikely, but honestly who is going to stop them?”

“True” She let out an undignified snort, “What did anyone really expect from a school that is practically infamous for its use of the Dark Arts?”

A door opened in the side of the hull to reveal a tall, slender man with dark hair and a weak chin that peaked out from under his goatee, “This must be Professor Karkaroff.” Luna remarked to the murmured agreement of their friends.

Behind his came a few dozen students dressed head to toe in thick black and red cloaks, hats and gloves including a boy who looking stunningly familiar…”Sweet mother of Merlin is that Krum?” George hissed.

She nodded, “Yeah, I’m almost positive it is. I can’t believe he’s still a student!”

Ginny smirked, “I can’t believe he is so fit”

Ignoring Fred and George’s gagging beside her Hermione smiled, “He does kind of have that tall, dark, and dangerous thing going for him, doesn’t he?”

“His being an internationally renowned quidditch prodigy doesn’t hurt either.” Angelina piped up behind them.

“From your lips to Merlin’s ears.” Ginny announced to the murmured agreement of Hermione, Luna, Katie, and Angelina and the grumbled complaint of the twins and Lee.

Katie snickered, “Don’t be jealous boys, we think your plenty fit as well.”

“Oh gee thanks Katie” Lee griped.

George sent them a withering glare, “Yeah don’t try to spare our feelings or anything, we’re big wizards, we can handle it.”

The answering giggles from the girls did nothing to raise the boys spirits, though Hermione snuggling in closer to Fred’s side seemed to pull a small smile to the boy’s face despite their friendly ribbing at the boys’ expense. After the delegations had both walked past the crowd and into the warmth of the castle they began to make their way back inside with the crowd of students. The Great Hall and a feast awaited them, along with some blessed warmth for Hermione’s poor extremities to finally perhaps get some feeling back in them. Fred had latched onto her shoulder, keeping her side flush against his and sharing his warmth with her until they were back inside and Hermione was no longer in danger of shivering herself to death.

It seemed each school’s students had gravitated to the house table that they identified with the most, which left a small huddle of Beauxbatons students at the far end of the Ravenclaw table and the Durmstrang with the Slytherins. Hermione briefly allowed herself to muse about the implications of the self identification from the guest schools, and how the Hogwarts champion may be able to use it to their advantage. Of course, this led her to wonder if their guests had studied them before their arrival and that perhaps they had sat where they had on purpose for the express purpose of confusing their competition. Fun thought experiment either way she thought bemusedly to herself before turning her attention to the staff table. Once everyone was settled Professor Dumbledore assured them a a series of announcements would follow the feast but for now they were to eat and begin to get to know their guests. 

She sat at the Gryffindor table sandwiched between Ginny and Fred, their friends taking up a sizable section of the table as they all settled in for the feast. The table was piled high with a truly staggering amount of food, the elves in the kitchen had truly outdone themselves, including a variety of dishes that Hermione had never seen before and assumed must be from their guests’ home countries. 

Once dinner and dessert had both cleared from the tables and Hermione was struggling to stay awake with how full she was Professor Dumbledore once again appeared as the focal point of the Great Hall. Beside him sat a large silver goblet on a small square table, “Good evening everyone! Now that we are all fed and watered it is time for the Triwizard Tournament to begin!” A chorus of shouts and applause broke out amongst the students. Dumbledore lifted his hand silently and the applause quickly quieted as they all stared in rapt attention at the headmaster.

Professor Dumbledore began to explain the details surrounding the Triwizard Tournament, including the various reasons it had fallen out of favor (numerous deaths seemed to be the leading factor) before beginning to outline the various changes being enacted by the Ministry to attempt to prevent any unnecessary injury or death. At his mention of the new age restriction angry murmurs broke out including an incredulous, “Thats rubbish!” from the twins. Dumbledore took the complaints in stride, explaining in detail why certain aspects of the competition had been changed before turning to the goblet beside him.

“This is the Goblet of Fire,” He swept his hand over the goblet, resulting in blue flames bursting forth from it, “Those who wish to enter the competition will have 24 hours from this moment to enter their name, via a scrap of parchment, into the Goblet. I must impart caution upon you however, if you are chosen you must compete. There is no turning back once your name has been entered, so do not take this decision lightly. I have myself developed a highly sophisticated age line that will only allow those wizards and witches that are of age to enter their names for consideration. I would be remiss if I did not caution those who may try and befuddle it against such an ill-advised endeavor as I believe you will find the consequences of such foolishness…unpleasant. Good luck!”

Let the Triwizard Tournament begin

_____________________________________________________

“I’m your favorite person in the whole world, right?”

“What do you want?”

“Answer my question Sev!”

“Not until you answer mine, nothing good will come from me answering that with no context.”

She sunk into the sofa beside him, “The twins are being difficult.”

He snorted, “Is this supposed to surprise me? Oh wait, here’s my shocked face.” He gave her a dead pan look.

“Do you find yourself funny Severus Snape?” She griped.

“Unendingly, I am so glad you have noticed.”

“I loathe you”

“Now that is no way to treat the person who you are about to ask a favor from.” He smirked.

She shrugged, “Perhaps not, but it is the way to treat the irritating wizard who is poking at me for his own amusement.”

He waved his hand, signaling she should ask her question. “Ugh fine, you are no fun. Those stupid idiots are intent upon entering the competition.”

The moment Professor Dumbledore had announced the competition would only be open to of age wizards and witches, i.e those age seventeen and older, the twins had begun to hatch a plan to enter the competition despite the fact that they would not be of age until April. Completely immune to all of her objections to the absolute insanity of their plan, they had immediately begun researching and brewing an aging potion that (in theory) would age them to just past their seventeenth birthday.

It was in the pocket of Hermione’s cloak.

Severus raised an eyebrow, “And what exactly do you expect me to do about that? I assure you I would be even less adept at getting them to take my advice as I am at getting you to.”

“Ahh come on Sev, you can be pretty convincing when you want to be-,” her curls shook as she giggled, “but no, that’s not what I am asking of you.” She produced the slim vial from her cloak pocket with a flourish. “I just want you to make doubly sure that this will not work to hoodwink whatever series of enchantments the headmaster has placed around the Cup. I’m nearly positive it won’t, but I figured since I happen to know the world’s best Potions master…”

Severus snatched the vial from her hands, “Don’t try flattery, it is not your style”

“Girl’s gotta try” She shrugged, following him into his private lab.

While Severus was running a series of magical scans on the potion Hermione made her way over to the cauldron bubbling in the corner of the lab. It was an odd color, a light green with a slight iridescent sheen that she did not recognize. The aroma wafting off it befuddled her as well. It seemed to simultaneously smell like everything and nothing at all, completely maddening is what it was.

“What is this Sev?” She inquired while inspecting his notes beside the cauldron.

He turned to meet her gaze, “The next trial, I’m giving freely given unicorn hairs a try this time.”

Her heart began to beat faster in her chest and a brilliant grin came across her face, “Merlin thats genius Sev! Combined with the phoenix tears I assume?” She was nearly jumping for joy when he nodded his ascent, “Sev that is brilliant! With that strong of a combination of pure creatures you might finally be able to do it!”

Severus had been diligently trying to create a potion that would remove the Dark Mark for years. Along the way he had created a myriad of potions that were effective at treating various maladies and afflictions including one of the two she had a co-patent on which provided a cure for a few of the more common blood curses. He had already run every magical scan possible on the blasted thing ten times over to the point where he had the exact runic makeup of the thing memorized up one side and down the other, but the issue was they were all branded into his magical core using a very complex set of Dark and Blood Magic that rendered any removal impossible unless one could negate them. 

This had, naturally, been the bane of Severus’s existence for over a decade. 

As far as she was aware, Hermione was the only person Sev had told about the true origin of most of his creations over the years. Not even Minerva knew what the potions master got up to in his spare time. The situation was too delicate, the potential repercussions of getting it right too severe to risk causing before the solution was even within his grasp. But Hermione had proven time and time again that she could be trusted with Severus Snape’s secrets.

It was the summer before her second year that he had confided in her about Lily, about who she was to Harry and what she had been to Severus. Hermione had been shocked at first to know of his affections for the long dead Lily Potter from back when she had just been the vivacious muggleborn Gryffindor who had been his first friend in the days before he had known a single kindness from anyone except his mother. But the longer he had spoken, the more it all began to make sense. She pictured the two children who had bonded over their shared magic, a boy who would grow to be possessive of his one source of happiness in an otherwise dreary and depressing childhood, and the girl who would try to love the hurt away but ultimately be the one to cause him the most pain when she could no longer justify his increasingly destructive actions to even herself.

“Was she what pushed you down the road to joining the Dark Lord?” She had asked.

Snape had shook his head, “Don’t call him that, Minerva will have my head on a pike” She had flushed before he waved her off and continued, “To answer your question: yes and no I suppose. I believe if you had asked me at the time I would have been able to give you a dozen reasons why before I got to her, if I even would have known it at all, but looking back now I think in a way I was doing it to spite her and her new friends. I was angry that they had ‘taken’ what I perceived to be mine, I was prone to lashing out in those days and I think that is what it was.”

With a level of conviction and surety at the ways of the world that truly can only exist in those who’ve not experienced its cruelty first hand she stated, “Still was stupid of you to do, not to mention wrong, being rejected by a pretty girl is no excuse for joining wizard Hitler.”

He had chuckled in a sort of dark, self deprecating way, “I had figured that out all on my own if you would believe that, thank you for the reminder though. It is always nice to have you humble me, keeps me from getting too big of a head.”

She had grinned and kissed his cheek, “I’m glad to be of service Sev.” She grinned, “Now, for what I originally came for. I would like you to take me to get ice cream, Minerva refused to.”

Hermione smiled at the fond memory. It felt strange thinking back on that memory, even then Sev had already meant so much to her. She even remembered thinking she would marry him someday, he had seemed like a dashing prince to her at the time, maybe his armor was a bit tarnished, but a prince all the same. Now…

“Can I ask you something?” Hermione made her way to the stool next to Severus.

Sev turned to her, “I have never stopped you before.”

She fought a smile, “True. Well its…do you ever regret not telling Lily how you felt? Do you think it would have changed anything?”

“I see where you are going with this, it is not the same.” When she gave him a confused look he continued, “Lily and I, in many ways, were doomed from the start. The moment I became entranced with the Dark Arts, unfortunately we became entrenched deeply into opposing sides of a war that had been building for longer than we had even been alive. You and your Weasley do not have that problem.”

A flush crept its way up her neck at his words, “I asked a question about you! What makes you think it was about-“

“What do you think us Professors have to do all day while you children play out your own mini versions of Shakespearian tragedies in our classroom as if you all are the first to fall victim to teenage flights of fancy? Minerva and I have been wondering when you would mention it for weeks.”

She pouted, “You two have promised you wouldn’t gossip!”

He shrugged, unaffected by her accusations. “We have little else to do with our free time. Plus, its fun” 

“You two suck”

“Maybe so, but we’re what you’ve got so I would be nicer if I were you.” He grinned, “To answer your real question, I think he would make a passable first love. If there were ever to be a breakup…well I believe you are both mature enough to remain in each others lives afterward. He does care for you, even I can see that, and I think avoiding it because you are scared is both very unlike you and also very unGryffindor. Which appears to hold value to you even if it holds none for me.”

She changed the subject at that point back to his Dark Mark research and the twins aging potion and Severus let her, going into great detail explaining his hopes for this addition while continuing to test the vial she had given him to ensure it would have no effect on the age line Dumbledore had drawn around the Goblet of Fire. It was one of the many things she adored about the man, truth be told. He always knew what she needed at any given moment. He would push her when she knew it was what she needed (even if she didn’t want it) and he would leave her alone to ponder when he had said his piece. He didn’t prod for details or demand she make a decision, he gave her his advice and life experience and left her to ponder how and if that would effect her future course. He trusted she was able to make the decision for herself without the handle holding that was typical of Minerva, which too had its place, and she appreciated him all the more for it.

________________________________________________

October 31 dawned bright with the strong ever present chill of the Scottish highlands making itself known even within the confines of the fire warmed dormitories of the castle. Hermione quickly readied herself for the day, flying through the now practiced set of hair charms and beauty spells that made up the majority of Hermione’s morning routine. She had just finished throwing on the wool skirt and jumper she had planned for the day when Ginny came crashing through the door demanding food, her red hair flying around her. Her insistent grumbling signaled to Luna and Hermione that they needed to get moving before their friend became even more crazy than usual for this time of the day so after lacing up her black boots Hermione hurried out the door, Luna jogging behind her while still putting on her own jumper.

Ginny had bemoaned the early hour the entire walk to the Great Hall while Hermione and Luna had been whispering back and forth about who they thought the Hogwarts champion would be. Hermione was pretty sure it would either be Ange or a seventh year Hufflepuff Cedric Diggory from the list of potentials that they were drawing from but Luna seemed to think it might be Roger Davies who was a 6^th year Ravenclaw who’s birthday was in mid-September so like Ange was of age even though he wasn’t a 7^th year. They were still debating whether or not class rank would play a significant role in deciding participants when they entered the Great Hall.

The table was devoid of any of their other friends, not surprising considering the early hour, so the girls were alone at their end of the table when they sat down. Hermione snagged a scone and some clotted cream upon settling in at the table, “Are you two ready to watch the twins make fools of themselves in front of the entirety of Hogwarts plus the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang? I for one can’t wait.”

Ginny’s answering giggle brought a self satisfied smirk to Hermione’s lips, “What I am excited for is the little gift you said Severus left for them after his inspection.” Luna nodded her agreement on the matter with a small smirk. The girls had all agreed the long white beards and wrinkly faces they would be sporting after trying to get one over on the Goblet would be adequate repercussions for their bone headed insistence to attempt enter despite not being of age.

It had taken some time but these days, provided they weren’t in mixed company, Ginny and Luna could talk about Severus without it feeling weird that he was a professor. They had also been accompanying her occasionally to his lab when she had various independent research projects she wanted to work on while still spending time with her friends which had been an eye opening experience for the two from what Hermione understood as her friends had never seen Hermione and Severus together . They had been struck silent the first time they had watched the two interact with one another when outside of their roles as student and professor.

“Hey Sev!” Hermione had greeted the wizard upon entering the private room.

His eyebrow rose when he noticed her companions, “You brought strays.” Clearly a statement, not a question.

Hermione had shook her head with a smirk, “Not strays Sev, friends. You should try getting some for a change of pace.”

The two witches shared a panic glance at her cheekiness, Snape had eviscerated people for less. He surprised them by chuckling, “Maybe so, but then who would you bother with your antics?”

She grinned, “Still you, but maybe you would become the worst fear of less children if you got out more.”

He waved her off, “I get out plenty! Didn’t I take you to Diagon Alley for ice cream recently?”

Hermione’s face was priceless, “Sev, I am being so serious when I tell you that outing happened over two years ago. Please tell me you have left the dungeon at some point since then.”

His answering laugh had been all the answer she needed, he deftly dodged her mock punch, “You are so easy to rile up, now stop antagonizing me before you cause your poor friends to go into cardiac arrest,” Turning to them he stated, “I won’t bite, this is my free time. As far as I’m concerned by nature of crossing the threshold you are outside the confines of my professional setting.”

They turned a confused glance to Hermione, “What Sev is attempting to say, in the most vexing way possible I might add,” ignoring the mock glare from Sev she continued, “Is that while you are here he is not your professor. He is simply Sev.”

“Don’t call me that unless you want to die a most gruesome death.” Hermione stuck out her tongue at Sev, “Severus is acceptable though.”

Both girls had hurriedly sat down, existing in a state of complete silence for the entirety of that first evening and the two that followed it. But with time her friends had become accustomed to seeing Severus outside of his more surly state when in Professor Snape mode, and had even begun coming to him with questions about certain potions principles, which he had begrudgingly explained to them at Hermione’s pleading look each time. She liked that her worlds had begun to meld together, if only a little bit, and Severus had always been powerless to stop himself from bending over backwards to ensure her happiness.

The day passed by at a near snail’s pace as the whole castle bristled with barely-contained excitement in anticipation of that evening when they would finally have their champions and the tournament would officially be underway. Rumors abounded as to who the champions would be and the betting pool was beginning to get ridiculous in Hermione’s opinion (though she had given the twins 3 galleons in favor of Cedric being the Hogwarts champion and another 2 on Krum being Durmstrang’s). 

The one reprieve from the otherwise mind numbing time spent anticipating the festivities to come came in the form of the twins. Entering the Great Hall with the swagger of kings returning from a fiercely won battle, the sidled up beside Hermione with matching self satisfied grins.

“Dearest Mi, I’m glad you have come to witness our triumph over tyranny.” the look of joyous success on Fred’s features almost made Hermione feel bad for what was about to happen.

George’s words assuaged her of that feeling though, “If only you had been anything but exceedingly unhelpful in our plight, we may have shared in our spoils of war with you.”

A devilish grin came across her face and in a voice filled with trilling mockery she stated, “Its not going to work boys, I guarantee it.”

“We’ll see about that!” They responded in unison before stepping down in front of the Goblet.

Ginny looked giddy in her delight, “Here.”

Luna giggled, “We.”

Hermione leaned forward on her elbows in anticipation of the show. “Go!”

The boys jumped over the age line, riotous cheers broke out when they weren’t immediately thrown out as others had been. Ginny gave Hermione a bewildered look, “Wait for it!” Hermione whispered, pointing excitedly towards the twins.

A moment passed immediately following the twins dropping their names into the Goblet of Fire where Hermione felt her confidence in Sev favor for a split second. But then the Goblet flashed an angry shade of red and she watched, giggling hysterically, as the boys were tossed back several feet. Landing in a tangle of limbs as the half burned parchment bearing their names flutter down to them the boys sat up only to be instantly embattled with one another as they came to the startling realization that they had grown long white beards and were covered in sagging, wrinkly skin. Hermione immediately turned to the staff table, searching out a familiar pair of coal black eyes. When she found him she was rewarded with a smirk and a subtle wink from her favorite professor which got her giggling all over again.

“Worth it?” She asked her two best friends.

Both girls answered mid-laughter, “Most definitely!”

Minerva had requested her presence for tea so they could have a ‘family meeting’. She had smiled when Ginny asked her what that meant, “It’s her way of saying she misses me and feels like we haven’t spoken in awhile outside of class. She’s probably just irritated that I’ve been making time for Severus multiple nights a week but she’s only seen me for a handful of weekend lunches and teas.”

“Why is that?” Luna had inquired.

Hermione shrugged, “How often do you go out of your way to spend time with your dad?”

With a nod she had responded, “Touché”

It was with a happy sigh of familiarity that Hermione entered the apartments she had called home for the last 4 years, “I’m home!” She yelled, indicating her arrival to Minerva.

Said witch came bustling out of the kitchenette in her weekend casual well worn jumper and slacks, “There is no need to yell child, I am right here.” She pulled her into a bone crushing hug, “You have been neglecting your mother in favor of that surly bat we both love, you terrible child.”

“I know, I’m sorry Mum, it wasn’t on purpose. Its no excuse though, I should have been making time for you.” She sat at the small table already set for tea. Throwing in a single sugar cube and dash of cream she continued, “He’s allowing me to utilize a spare lab to assist the twins with their WWW startup, which he didn’t have to do, so I’ve been trying to make sure he doesn’t feel used.”

Minerva nodded her understanding. She had always known her daughter held a special place in her heart for the potions professor, and he for her, so she had never allowed their favoritism for each other to bother her. Even if it would be nice if her daughter spared her some attention every now and again that hadn’t been preceded by a summons. 

The two witches chatted for hours over their tea and biscuits, discussing all of the new updates to Hermione’s life that had not been divulged to Minerva in the few times they had spent time together since she had come back from her summer at the Burrow. Minerva avoided the more morose direction her thoughts had taken of late in favor of listening as her daughter regaled her with the tales of her school year thus far. She watched as the girl she had come to think of as her own danced around the topic of the boy she liked, giggled through stories of girls nights with Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood( who was apparently living with her lions in Gryffindor tower), and excitedly explained critical breakthroughs with product research for the project she had taken on with the Weasley twins at near light speed as she had always been prone to doing. As if she had to get the words out as fast as possible lest they disappear from her all together.

At a lull in the conversation Minerva prodded for a bit more information, “Have you moved Miss Lovegood into your dormitory for a reason? Or simply because you and Miss Weasley want her there? I understand you girls wanting to be near each other but Luna does possess a room in Ravenclaw tower dear.”

Hermione gulped, clearly hoping she could sneak that one past the witch, “Umm…well she’s actually been there since last spring.”

Minerva set down her tea, “And why would that be exactly? Something tells me its not because she had a sudden burning desire to be amongst the lions.”

“Well no, not exactly” Hermione worried her lip, “I demanded she be moved out of Ravenclaw”

Now Minerva was beginning to get concerned. “What ever for my dear? You aren’t typically one to do such things on impulse.”

Hermione was silent for a moment, weighing her options before sighing in defeat, “They are awful to her Mum. They call her Looney Lovegood and steal her things just because they can. She had to go without shoes for a whole week last fall because they had scattered them all around the school for her to hunt down in some demented approximation of a scavenger hunt! It was just awful, and its not like Ginny or I really have any authority to stop them, not that I think authority would really help the situation, so we just…removed her. She had no friends in Ravenclaw anyway so I saw no harm in moving her to where she would be safe.”

“I agree that this is likely a problem not to be fixed with a heavy hand but why did you not come to me Little Dove?”

“I figured I could handle it on my own,” She admitted apologetically.

Minerva sighed with bone deep weariness at the precocious irritation that was the teenage insistence on being hyper independent. Even for all of her daughter’s maturity above her peers, even Hermione was not immune to trying her mother’s patience with her incessant need to do everything herself. “Well at this point she is staying where she is, obviously moving her back would be ill advised at best. However I must insist upon telling Filius about this if for nothing else than the safety of Miss Lovegood in the case of an emergency. That way we will know where to look for her to be. As for the rest of it…just come to me next time before you decide to have a student essentially change houses without informing anyone.” 

Hermione had agreed to her mother’s demands, leaving shortly after to get ready for the festivities of the evening. She was greeted by the calming sight of her friends relaxing in what was fast becoming their signature spot in front of the fire in the common room. Everyone appeared to be there aside for Harry who was not with them, not that Hermione was surprised since he and Ron had a standing date with Hagrid the afternoon of Halloween each year. 

She sank on the sofa, gratefully grabbing the offered book out of Ginny’s hand. It was the next in a series of werewolf romances the trio had been devouring for the better part of a month. Hermione quickly lost herself in the mindless enjoyment the series brought her, propping her feet up on Fred’s lap and sinking into the pile of throw pillows the sofa had to offer. The hours preceding the Halloween feast and champion selection that was to follow it drifted by in a contented daze of lazy conversations with her friends and the steamy novel she was quickly burning through.

“How was tea with your mum?” Fred asked her softly on their way to the Great Hall.

She smiled, “It was good, I like when I can have a few hours to just catch up with her.”

They spent the rest of the walk in companionable silence, simply existing with one another while their friends chattered on around them. Occasionally she would feel a shock as his hand brushed hers and secretly she began to wonder if he was doing it on purpose to try and inconspicuously find a way to interwind her fingers with his. In a moment of either extreme bravery or unbelievable stupidity, when his hand next brushed against hers she interwove their fingers.

She snuck a furtive glance to ascertain whether or not she had just made a grave error in judgement with her actions. What greeted her was a look of befuddled joy and light pink blush, both of which indicated that she had been right in assuming his hand brushes had been alluding to his wanting to hold her hand. Their hands remained that way the rest of the walk to the Great Hall, only parting when food had been set in front of them.

After the feast was concluded Professor Dumbledore stepped up behind the podium. Clearing his throat he stated, “The time in which you were given the opportunity to state your intent to enter the Triwizard Tournament has officially come to a close. In a few moments, when the Goblet is ready to make it’s decisions, I will call out the names of the students whom will be representing their schools as champions. I offer only my most sincere hopes that luck be had by all.”

Low murmurs broke out amongst the crowd of assembled students and staff in the moments they were forced to wait as the Goblet made its final decisions. Hermione was speaking in a relaxed tone to Luna, leaning on Fred for support and ignoring her friend’s questioning glances at the arm he had slung over her shoulder, “Yes I’m getting excited as well, we’ve gotten through the most theory based part of the year so we should finally be starting in on practical work, I for one can’t wait to try my hand at some of the explosion runes again.”

“Ahh yes, I am very much looking forward to the more practical side of rune work. I feel like it will allow for more creativity than other disciplines, would you agree?”

Hermione’s answer was cut off by the hush that fell over the crowd as the Goblet of Fire began to shine a brilliant blue. Professor Dumbledore cleared his throat to pull the attention to himself, “It is time. Please pull your attention to the Goblet of Fire as it reveals it’s chosen champion for each school.”

A moment passed before the fire changed to a startling shade of green and threw out a single scrap of parchment with dark charred edges. The headmaster grabbed it from the air, “The champion for Beauxbatons is…Fleur Delacour!”

Polite applause broke out amongst the Hogwarts student body as a lithe blonde girl practically danced up to the front of the Great Hall, “If you would go through that door please” The headmaster instructed, pointing to a small door behind the staff table.

The girl nodded before disappearing behind the door in quiet grace. The fire changed color again, this time to a dark red. “The Durmstrang champion will be…Victor Krum!”

Despite the fact that there were only a few dozen of them present, the roar of approval from the Durmstrang delegation was deafening as Krum ambled up to the headmaster and with a small nod of his head, he too disappeared behind the door as instructed.

The anticipatory edge to the Hogwarts student body had reached its breaking point as it was finally time for the champion for Hogwarts to be announced. Whispers broke out amongst the groups surrounding those who had entered and Hermione could see George rubbing soothing circles into Angelina’s arm as he whispered words of encouragement into her ear across the table. Cho Chang appeared to be doing the same for her boyfriend, Cedric Diggory, over at the Hufflepuff table and Hermione would bet the group of people surround Roger Davis at the Ravenclaw one were doing the same as well.

With a final flash of burning yellow fire the Goblet belched out a scrap of burnt parchment. One could have a heard a pin drop, so all consuming was the silence in the room as the scrap floated gently down into Professor Dumbledore’s outstretched hand. “The Hogwarts champion is…Cedric Diggory!” 

The screams coming from the Hufflepuff table were deafening at the headmaster’s words. Angelina sagged in defeat for only a moment before applauding for the Hogwarts champion, Hermione and their friends following soon after. Hermione felt a pang of sadness for her friend before getting excited for the competition that was before them. Everything had been decided and now they would all rally behind the Hogwarts champion and cheer him on to victory.

_________________________________________________

The three weeks that led up to the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year were some of the strangest in Hermione’s life. It drove her mad that the reason was boys of all the insanely preposterous things to occupy her days. Ginny and Luna seemed to take unending entertainment out of her plight, naturally, and by the second week in November the whole situation had gotten so out of hand she had begun devoting 2 nights a week to hiding in Severus’s apartments just so she could have a moment of peace from the whole debacle.

It had started innocent enough, sure. She was sitting in the library during her free period working on her advanced Charms homework when a stack of books were plopped on the table beside her. She looked up in surprise to find the hulking figure of Viktor Krum, “This seat taken?” He had asked in a thick Bulgarian accent.

She shook her head, “No, I’m by myself.”

He had nodded and sat down beside her, pulling out what must have been his own homework. He had remained her silent companion for the rest of her free period, only stopping briefly to wave when she got up to head to Ancient Runes. She had told her friends of her odd study companion the moment she sat down beside them in class but both girls had responded with only a shrug and comments of seeing where it went.

What developed after that had quickly been identified by Hermione as a pattern. Though he did not seem comfortable with approaching her when she was studying with her friends in the evenings, if she was alone in the library or Great Hall more often than not she would soon find herself in the Durmstrang champion’s company. Most of the time they simply studied together in silence, other times if they both reached a pausing point before they had to go about their days, they would sit and talk about everything and nothing. 

He shared with her snippets of his life back home in Bulgaria and she in turn did the same (with a few modifications anyway). He had two younger brothers (Dimitri who was 14 and Ivan who was 11), both opting to stay at Durmstrang instead of accompanying their older brother to Hogwarts. She had asked him when he knew he wanted to play quidditch, which had prompted him to sigh and softly reply, “I don’t know that it was ever really a choice. I showed such overwhelming promise so young that it was practically decided for me what I would be doing. Every adult around me heavily implied I would be throwing my talent and life away if I did anything else.”

She nodded in understanding, “My parents were the same with academics, it’s exhausting having everyone tell you who you should be all the time.”

She soon found herself bonding with the Bulgarian wizard more and more as their rendezvous to study often times devolved into long conversations about their shared frustrations with the irritations of being prodigies in their respective fields while also laughing at each others laughably dismal performance in the other’s field of expertise. 

Of course soon enough, as things in Hermione’s life were prone to doing, things took an odd turn. Fred had been acting different since the day the champions had been announced. He touched her more; mostly little touches at first, brushing a curl out of her face during Potions class, an arm slung around her at meals, a hand steadfastly holding hers as they walked from class to class, it was hard to notice unless you were paying attention. But Hermione was always paying attention to Fred these days. The crush she had been convinced she could ignore over the summer had turned into a full blown infatuation at this point, one with a fire that seemed to be stoked ever higher with each tentative touch and scorching gaze.

Hermione could have been fine with the changes, of that she was sure. It was not as if she didn’t  want Fred Weasley to hold her hand. What she wasn’t so fond of was the increasingly obvious source of Fred’s new-found affection. The existence of Victor seemed to be a source of unending irritation for her friend. Within a week of her study sessions with Victor becoming semi public knowledge, the mere mention of her Bulgarian friend would cause his mood to immediately darken…and would often times become the cause of an arm being thrown over her shoulder, as if she were a fire hydrant he had to pee on to prevent other dogs from coming too close. 

When she had complained to Luna and Ginny about it during a girls night, they hadn’t really had anything helpful to add, “Have you tried talking to him?” Ginny asked as Hermione brushed a silver/gold polish on her toes.

Luna had given Ginny a strange look, “How do you propose she even does that Gin?”

“Its not as if I can just walkup to your brother and just demand to know why he is touching me more” Hermione had grouched.

Ginny threw down her quidditch magazine in exasperation, “I don’t know why you think either of us can give you any advice Mione. We are dating each other and have never even looked at a boy”

“Besides Harry! His aura is delightful!” Luna giggled from the floor of Ginny’s dorm room.

Ginny flushed crimson, “We promised that was between just us Lu!”

Hermione collapsed in to giggles at Luna’s incredulous face, “No, we agreed I couldn’t tell Harry about his aura. You said nothing about Mione!”

Ginny groaned into her pillow, “Merlin above what am I going to do with you…IT WAS IMPLIED!”

While enlightening and unendingly entertaining, the girls night had not been fruitful when it came to fixing her boy problem. She tried to ignore it as best she could after that, but…it was still grating on her. By the second week in November she was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. Which, naturally, is what ended up happening.

In an admittedly ill-thought out move, she had snapped at Fred one night in the common room after he had gently brushed a curl back behind her ear mid-conversation, “Why do you keep doing that?!” She had hissed.

He had flushed crimson in embarrassment at her admonishing words, “I-umm-well…”his words had trailed off into confusing silence. While she hadn’t pushed after that, she knew when she wasn’t going to be getting anywhere in a conversation, he had quickly made his excuses and wandered up to his dormitory. Things had been…tense ever since.

Hence why Hermione was electing to hide out in the potions master’s apartments as opposed to dealing with her rapidly escalating boy problems. Merlin be good, when had she become the girl who had boy problems?!

Sev sighed in a long suffering way she had never been able to master. “You are hiding again.”

“Well spotted Sev” She responded absentmindedly, eyes not wavering from her novel (yet another of the truly addictive werewolf romances).

“If you are going to use me as a human shield I think I am going to have to insist you tell me why.” He turned to her on the sofa, “I would like to be prepared if I am to be accosted by a desperate teenage wizard again, it was most irritating the first time around.”

Hermione kicked at an imaginary piece of dirt, “I think there may be some things I can’t talk about with you Sev.”

“I very much doubt there is anything you have going on in your life that would be outside of my abilities.” 

“Don’t be so sure.” She grumbled, tossing her book on the side table.

He placed a hand on her arm, “Its a boy.” When she didn’t respond he sighed, “So your new plan is to just refuse to answer?”

“No, you haven’t asked me a question yet.”

“You are-“ His finger pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, “Please try to remember that the person who has flummoxed you so is not in fact me.” His face, if possible, grew paler, “Please tell me it is not me!”

Hermione flushed, “No! For the love of Merlin Sev! Why would you even think that?!”

“If you’ll recall, you at one point were quite intent on marrying me.”

“I was twelve Severus Snape! And you were my only friend”

His hair fell in lank strands around his face, “Forgive me for wanting to make sure. With you, you know, practically living in my drawing room these days I just thought I would cover by bases.”

“You are impossible, just so you are aware.” Looking down at her hands she muttered, “Its Fred.” She got an irritated look on her face, “He is being impossible. I am not a fire hydrant for him to ‘mark his territory’ on”

Severus snorted beside her on the couch, “Something tells me that was not his intent, though I understand how Mr. Weasley’s actions as of late could begin to make you feel that way.” 

“I don’t know what to do Sev, it seems no matter what I do I lose him forever. Why can I not just have him as my friend? Everything was going so well before, but now…it is all just too much.”

Severus looked at her in the way she caught him doing more and more these days, as if when he gazed upon her he was searching for something but was left wanting, “I see.” After a pause he leaned back on the sofa, “May I offer up some advice? You do not have to take it, but I wish to offer it all the same.”

She nodded, relaxing her head onto his shoulder as she had done so many time over the years, “Friendship is a precious thing, it is arguably one of the most important luxuries we are gifted in this world. With that being said, placing its value in perpetuity above matters of the heart can seem the logical choice but is not always so.” 

“But what if I fail?”

A chuckle crept out of his mouth, “My dear girl, when have you ever done anything less than perfectly?”

______________________________________________

“Sickle for your thoughts” Fred greeted Hermione that evening when he found her in the deserted common room gazing into the fire as if she could discover the secrets of the universe if only she stared into the flames long enough.

“Not a knut?”

“I highly doubt any thought in that beautiful brain of yours is worth something as measly as a Knut.”

Hermione snorted, “Flattery gets you no where Fred Weasley.”

“Not flattery, simply the truth.”

They sat there for awhile, side by side on a sofa in the common room with their legs just barely brushing up against each other. The embers of the dying fire reflected in Hermione’s eyes making them reminiscent of a lava flow, and if you asked Fred Weasley whatever lie behind them was equally as treacherous.

The appearance of Victor Krum in her life had thrown him, for sure. He had grown more and more irrationally jealous of the Bulgarian the more time he spent watching her giggle and laugh with him. He had so much more to give her than Fred did, and it was driving Fred mad that there was nothing he could do about it. What had really driven him over the edge had been the day he had come across them in the Great Hall and had overheard them bonding over their mutual isolation from being prodigies from childhood. It became clear quite quickly that Krum understood her in ways Fred never could and it was killing him.

Hermione Granger tended to function as an enigma surrounded by a protuberance that was encompassed by the worlds most infuriating conundrum. As if she existed on a plane outside the rest of them and simply touched down occasionally to check in on the mere mortals the rest of them were. Adoration and awe much like what he imagined one would feel in the presence of a goddess filled him every time she allowed him to bask within her presence, and the most infuriating part of it all was that she did not seem to know how truly amazing she was.

He had figured that last bit out the hard way when he had made the mistake of saying too many of his thoughts on the witch out loud and had been on the receiving end of an anger so intense he never wanted to revisit it. Three days of agony pleading with any god that would listen for Hermione to let him back in to her world was enough to last Fred a life time. It was a truly desperate wizard who went to Severus Snape for help.

“Please professor I am begging you.”

“Mr. Weasley, you seem to have fallen under the mistaken impression I care about your pleas.” The wizard had said in a bored tone while flipping through a stack of papers he was grading.

Fred had sighed, “I know you don’t care about me sir. That not wh-“

“Why are you bothering me boy? Do I need to remove points to gain back what little bit of peace and quiet I possess?”

“I know you care about her, probably more than I do.” It had been a Hail Mary, and one he wasn’t sure was going to pay off.

Snape glared at him with eyes devoid of any emotion but irritation, “You know nothing about me boy, nothing at all.”

“She means the world to me, please I know she will listen to. She thinks you hang the moon sir, she says you were her first friend in the world, that underneath all of this…you, that you have going on that you are a good person. If you won’t do it for me, do it for her, it’s killing me not to be around her.” Fred tried to convey his sincerity, “Sir please”

The next day at breakfast an owl had delivered a note, no signature, only a few words written in elegant calligraphy.

Severus Snape’s personal laboratory can be found 

at the back of the Potions classroom behind the third door on the right.

When he arrived he had been greeted by a slightly less surly than normal Snape who had directed him through a door he had never seen before in the Potions classroom, deposited him at an empty desk, and told him to wait there until he brought Hermione to him. When she arrived Fred had gotten to see first hand the truly baffling dynamic between his best friend and his Potions professor before he had taken the opportunity gifted to him to try his level best to grovel his way back into her good graces. 

While he had managed to do just that, her words had left him with more questions than answers, if he was being perfectly honest. He found that the more he learned about the witch he had been granted the honor of calling his  best friend, the more his mind demanded to know. Always more. More laughs, more private eye rolls, more late night confessions; he was incredibly doubtful there would ever be a universe in which he could have enough of Hermione Granger. Fred Weasley was nearly positive he could, for the rest of his days, be locked in a room simply watching her mind work through a new complex problem and never grow bored. She was his fascination, his muse, but also had the power to impart on him more suffering than he could ever imagine being subjected to. 

Nothing compared to the bone deep agony he had been feeling for the past week however. After she had snapped at him in irritation, demanding to know why he was brushing a curl from her face (she looked so adorably irritated when her hair refused to do as she bid it), and he had fled. He had been so startled, so caught of guard, he almost did the most horrifying thing possible. Having remembered the silence that followed him telling her even a fraction of his feelings he had frozen in horror and then fled before he could have the chance to ruin everything with his stupid mouth. He had been avoiding her every since, and she him as far as he could tell.

Fred constantly feared the day she would realize how much better she could do, the day she discovered that he was just a prankster with a keen eye for mischief and that was it. She would change the world someday, of that he was certain; all he would do, if he was lucky, was open a joke shop with his twin brother and market laughter and joy in the form of the product of their combined genius. 

It was the darkness he sometimes saw in her that worried him most though. Sometimes he would look over at her and it felt like she was a world away despite being right beside him. He would try and get her to to confide in him, and sometimes she did. But other times she would shut down, plastering a smile on her face and pretending everything was fine. For others it might work, he watched it work all the time, but all it did to him was make him feel like he was failing her. He  often left those interactions wondering what he was doing wrong. He had caught himself more than once spiraling, thinking that maybe if he loved her a little harder, he could prove to her that she could confide in him. That she could make him her shelter in whatever storm raged within her mind.

“I swear sometimes you are a world away from me Mi” He found himself murmuring.

Confusion marred her delicate features, “I don’t think I understand what you mean, I’m right here.”

He went to brush a curl out of her face but then remembered her ire from the week before and thought better of it with a wince and an awkward lowering of his arm as heat flooded his face. After a moment though, he whispered, “Sometimes, even when you are right beside me I can tell you are a million miles away. You try and hide it with smiles and witty remarks, and you fool most everyone, but I see you hurting. How can I prove to you that you can trust me?”

“Its not about trusting you Fred, its not about you at all really.”a rueful smile was on her face when her eyes met his for only a moment before turning back to the fire, “There are simply some fears that are only for me to know.”

Taking a chance, he snaked an arm around the witch and pulled her into him, “Fears you can’t even tell me?” He poked her side gently, “How am I supposed to be your sounding board if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”

She laid her head on his shoulder and began to play with his fingers, stalling for time. After a moment she let out a sigh and sat up on the sofa. Turning to him she said, “Even you cannot solve all of my problems Fred Weasley.”

He smirked, “Not with that attitude maybe, but provided you don’t need my help determining the function of a rubber duck, I think I can handle whatever you throw at me Mi.”

Hermione snorted, “ Their purpose is mostly aesthetic to be honest. But no, I don’t think-blast it all- fine if you really want me to…” 

“I do” He supplied.

“Oh fine you absolutely infuriating wizard,” She huffed, “There is this wizard,”

“Uh huh” Fred urged her on.

“He’s honestly ridiculous.”

Fred smirks, “Sounds like my kind of guy.”

She snorted, “You have no idea.” after a small sigh she continued, “Anyway, he drives me insane like eighty percent of the time, he never listens to what I say and seems intent upon doing the exact opposite of what I want him to do almost every time.”

“Well he sounds lovely.” Fred chuckled.

“You have no idea how funny you are to me right now Fred Weasley.” She said through hysterical giggles.

He grinned, “I do try, I really do.”

“ Always good to have a hobby.” Her hair was falling out of its knot, “He really snuck up on me, this one. A bit of a dark horse if you will. A year ago if you had told me I would not only count this wizard amongst my best friends in the whole world but would be crazy in love with him I would have thought you mad.” She chuckled, “But there in lies the problem unfortunately, because how am I to risk the most important person in my life for something as silly as this? How am I to throw away a life time of friendship?” A sigh escaped her, “Not that it matters, he seems to be making it rather clear what he wants…and I’m not sure friendship is a consolation prize he would be willing to accept. Its a complete disaster is what it is, the great Hermione Granger felled by boy problems of all the ridiculous notions.”

Fred Weasley was almost positive he was about to be sick. He had lost her to another wizard, but who could it possibly be? George and Lee knew how he felt about Hermione and there was no way they would ever betray him like that, Ron was simply too..Ron to even be a factor, he briefly considered Snape before throwing him out on account of age and professorness. He grimaced when he came to the conclusion that it seemed Seekers were more her style, Krum had been competition he hadn’t been prepared for or expecting and clearly that was going to be coming back to bite him in the arse.

He forced himself to swallow down his mounting despair. Hermione needed him, he would be her friend in this moment, he would be what she needed even if it killed him to usher her right into the arms of another wizard. “Sounds like a pretty amazing bloke. What I’m not understanding is the problem. Does he not feel the same way about you?”

She worried her hands before responding, “Well if Ginny and Luna are to believed he is absolutely besotted with me, but I don’t know. His actions recently certainly make it seem like he does. But if my brief friendship with Ronald taught me nothing it is that wizards will do the strangest things out of simple possessiveness.” Fred made a mental note to murder his baby sister tomorrow, “And even if he did I could never act on it.”

This gave Fred pause, “If he feels the same way, why would you not go for it?”

She stood up and began pacing, “Because it would ruin everything!” She huffed, “What if it didn’t work out and I lost my best friend forever because I was too greedy to appreciate what I already had?!”

“Thats a sort of fatalistic approach, don’t you think?”

“More realistic” She corrected. “Its not like many people end up with their high school sweet hearts Fred, teenage relationships fail all the time. Why would I risk a life time of friendship for a few months of snogging and…well never mind” She finished with a blush.

Fred snickered, “First of all, I want to point out you are adorable.” She stuck out her tongue at him, “Thank you for proving my point Mi. Second, you’re doing it again.”

She crossed her arms, “What do you mean Fred Weasley”

Ah, this was his time to shine as Hermione Granger’s official Wizard to Muggle translator, he was going to hate himself for this later he was almost certain “Don’t you full name me in that tone Hermione Granger. I am simply pointing out that you are viewing things like a muggle again.”

“How could wizards and muggles possibly differ when it comes to dating?”

“Well for one you seem to be forgetting most people marry right out of Hogwarts.”

Realization dawned across her face, “Oh yeah, you’re right! Why is that any way?”

Fred smiled, “Unlike muggles, after Hogwarts wizards and witches go right into the real world. This is the only time we are all together.”

“Fair enough, but my point still stands. I watch people get together and break up all before Christmas break all the time!”

Fred snorted, “Well yeah if you are Lavender Brown I’m sure that is how your dating goes, but for most people dating is a very serious thing. We are taught from a very young age at you dont get that close with just anyone, magic is a fickle thing and if you allow too many people to have access to it, the consequences could be severe.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” She asked.

“Only that Lavender gets back what she puts in. I’ve never seen that girl care about any wizard she’s attached to for more than his ability to snog her in broom cupboards. Why would a bloke get attached to a girl when she so clearly isn’t attached to him?” He flushed, “As far as the magic part goes…well lets just say that there’s a reason divorce doesn’t exist in the wizarding world.”

“Are you saying that-that doing…those things shares magic?”

Fred smirked, “I can’t believe this is something I know that you don’t, and in books no less!” Her answering glower prompted him to stop his gloating, “Alright fine so basically, and I’m not an expert on this so you will have to either ask your mum or read on it later, when wizards and witches do…that thing…the-er-emotional high causes our magical cores to sort of intermingle with each other. I think it was used in ancient days to test compatibility of magic, since in theory if two people’s magic isn’t compatible…”

Hermione got a nervous smile, “Their bodies wouldn’t be either?”

“Exactly.” He finished, doing his best to avoid making eye contact. This was not how he had wanted this conversation to go. He wondered if he could get George to Obliviate him later for a moment before deciding it was better to remember it in case she had more questions.

He turned his focus back to Hermione when he felt a soft caress on his chest, “So say, for instance, a person felt a physical…shock every time they touched someone.”

“Then that would likely indicate a certain level of compatibility yes.” After a brief pause he added, “Its not a fool proof theory, especially if we are just talking hand brushes and such, but it would be a good sign for sure.”

Hermione seemed pensive, “I suppose you do make a good point.” She shook her head, “But still, how can I risk something so precious?” She sat down next to him on the couch with a sigh, “Would you risk the most important person in the world to you for something like this?”

Fred sighed, “Hermione look at me” He locked eyes with her, “Whoever this guys is, if he would be stupid enough to throw away a life time of friendship with a witch like you just because a relationship doesn’t work out then he isn’t worth your time anyway. As a romantic partner or as a friend. I for one would want you in my life however I could if it was me.” Isn’t that the bloody truth you stupid wanker, such a great friend you’re ushering her right into the arms of another bloke,  he thought bitterly to himself before continuing, “Look if this guy is really as amazing as you think he is and truly feels for you the way you do for him I don’t think you have any worries. Any bloke could count himself lucky Hermione Granger decided to give him the time of day.”

If someone had told Fred Weasley what would happen next, he would have checked them in to St. Mungos. She seemed to be warring with herself for a moment, pondering what he had just said no doubt. He took a brief moment to admire her in the dying light of the common room fire, ‘Merlin she is so beautiful’, he was almost positive he could watch Hermione Granger forever and it wouldn’t be enough. He was still lost in thought when she seemed to make her decision. Surging forward in one fluid motion she closed her eyes and met her lips with his. ‘What the-‘ It only took a moment for his brain to catch up and he was kissing her back.

His brain was on fire, he was kissing Hermione! Her lips were soft and pliant against his, even the tiniest movements sending shock waves through his body like he had never experienced before. His hands moved to tangle in the curls on the back of her head, looking for a lifeline to keep him from ascending to whatever plane of heavenly existence his body was threatening to levitate him to.

But just as soon as it had began it was gone. He felt Hermione pull away from his, looking panicked. Her eyes became glassy as she began making a back away from him towards the stairs that lead to the girl’s dormitory, “I’m sorry I don’t know what I was thinking, I- I have to go.”

Fred’s eyes widened in panic, he had to stop her! “Hermione wait!”

She shook her head as she made it to the top of the stairs and out of his reach, “I’m sorry Fred, I’ve ruined everything…I have to go. I’m just…I’m sorry” 

With a choked sob she disappeared into the darkness of the girl’s dormitory leaving a confused Fred in her wake. The only thing on his mind as he slowly climbed the stairs to his dorm was the growing feeling that everything had just changed…and not for the better. 

Had he just lost his best friend?

Chapter Text

It was with a bone deep sigh that Minerva watched over her daughter and her friends from the staff table in the Great Hall on the Saturday of the first Hogsmeade weekend of the term. There had been a divide, imperceptible unless you knew better (which she of course did) within the group. While they all still sat together conversing as had been the custom since September it was clear that Hermione was keeping her distance from the red headed wizard that was presumably Fred Weasley, though it was impossible to tell from where she sat at the staff table. Minerva wasn’t entirely sure what had happened truth be told, her daughter never spoke to her about these things and Severus too appeared to remain in the dark about whatever had befallen the little pack of lions.

There were suspicions to be had naturally. She had seen her daughter spending increasing amounts of time with the Durmstrang champion Victor Krum and likewise had seen the Weasley boy’s reaction to Hermione procuring a new friend of the opposite sex. Even considering the complication that Mr. Potter’s being entered into the Tirwizard Tournament brought to the equation, knowing her daughter as she did, Minerva could not see a way where that had gone over well and she forced herself to fight her smirk as her brain conjured up increasingly amusing scenarios involving her daughter’s reaction to the Weasley boy attempting to “stake a claim” as it were.

Whatever had occurred had made things frosty amongst the friends. It was obvious that it was Hermione who was instilling the distance, the Weasley boy seemed to be hovering somewhere between the feelings of confusion and heart break most of the time. Minerva had become accustomed in recent weeks to catching the boy staring forlornly at her daughter across the table in the Great Hall when he was sure she wasn’t looking which in equal parts amused and concerned the witch. Just what exactly was occurring between the boy and her daughter?

“If you keep staring at them like that one of them is bound to notice.” Severus drawled from beside her at the staff table, “They are Gryffindors, but contrary to popular belief they are not stupid.”

Minerva sent a harsh glare his way, “Well since you have been supremely unhelpful in figuring out what in Merlin’s name is going on in my daughter’s life I am forced to stoop to the levels of spy craft to deduce what is going on in Gryffindor tower.” 

Severus snorted into his tea, “You are telling me you honestly cannot suss out what has happened amongst your own lions?”

“Do not gloat Severus, it is most unbecoming.” She groused, “And if you are so smart, then please, do enlighten me as to what is going on.”

Severus sighed, “Well…”

“I thought I made it clear you could not hide in here” Severus snarked when greeted with the sight of the frizzy haired girl upon entry into his quarters that evening.

“You said I could not hide in your laboratory.” She smirked, “Nothing was said about your drawing room.”

Grabbing a mug and filling it with tea, he made to sit down on his sofa after lifting her feet out of the way only for her to place them right back where they had been, only now using him as a foot rest as opposed to the sofa. He raised an eyebrow in contempt only to receive a smirk and a shrug of her delicate shoulders in reply, “You are aware I do not like children. Correct?”

She stuck her tongue out at him, “I do not count and you know it. You speak as if I do not know you keep a pint of Fairy Mint Chip ice cream in your cooling cupboard for me.”

“I buy that for myself, you just steal it because you lack basic manners.”

“You hate mint. And chocolate.” She replied with a deadpan expression, knowing she had him there.

They sat in silence for awhile after that, spending time reading in each other’s company while waiting to see who would break first. It had been their way for as long as he had known her. He knew she came to him to talk, but never wanted to start with that. Hermione had always been a little bit too Slytherin for Gryffindor despite what she may have Minerva believing. Much like the others in the snake pit, the young witch had always functioned much like an onion. The only way he had ever found success with getting to the core of her problems was to patiently sift through the layers until the inner walls revealed themselves.

Truth be told the complexities of her personality were typically more help than hindrance for her, of that much he had become certain. It had made her a natural Occlumens for one. When she had first peeked her head into his classroom all those years ago he had panicked at how young she truly was. He had never seen her that young, that vulnerable, and it terrified him. He struggled to find even a trace of the witch he knew she would become, which grew to be helpful truth be told. He and Minerva had spent countless evenings worrying they would not be able to separate Hermione from the girl they had known in the past and he was grateful that all their worrying had been for not, this child was nothing like that terrifyingly beautiful witch that had swept into his life like a one woman hurricane all those years ago.

Only eleven years old, so vulnerable in the eyes of a man who had seen the worst of what the magical world had to offer, especially to the daughter of muggles. Even though he knew she would be able to defend herself long before she ever had to deal with what awaited her in the past, he still worried for the witch who would save him in more ways than he could count. So he had taken it upon himself to train her as much as he could for what he knew was in her future, or was it past? Time magic never ceased to cause him endless confusion and migraines.

Occlumency was a must of course. He had watched her bold faced lie to far too many renowned legimens back when he had first known her in his youth to have her mental barriers be anything less than perfection and second nature. She had taken to the skill like a duck to water (not that he was surprised in the slightest, she had always made the impossible look elementary) and soon she could keep even him out of her inner most thoughts as well as construct elaborate false memories on the spot that were so sophisticated it was practically impossible for even him to notice the falsehood for what it was. Which was particularly impressive considering he 1) knew her so well and 2) was present for many of the memories she was reconstructing.

She seemed to have a particular affinity for memory construction. Quickly picking up on the ease of memory construction from partial truth, she had a way of making a false memory flow so seamlessly that even the most skilled occlumens would be easily fooled by them. No wonder she could lie to the Dark Lord and Dumbledore so easily he mused to himself one evening after she had gone back to her and Minerva’s private apartments, the girl is a natural. 

He had also ensured she knew as much about both potion and spell creation as possible. He took the opportunity to give her an education most only dreamed of enjoying. It certainly helped that she possessed within her mind-boggling levels of intellect and thirst for knowledge. Her near eidetic memory helped of course. After making a potion or completing a spell to perfection only once she could then perform the task to the same level of perfection time and time again with no prompting or recipes to follow and often times would change them on the fly. 

He had caught the young girl more than once changing ingredient prep, wand movement, and potion procedures on the fly in an effort to increase efficacy and it nearly always worked. She also had a knowledge of potion ingredients that rivaled his own and he was confident that she would be able to easily substitute ingredients with one another in a pinch if necessary, which he knew it would end up being in the future. Occasionally he would catch himself musing about the tricky nature of time magic, since he was teaching her many of the potions and spell knowledge that she herself would eventually teach him. A true who came first situation if there ever was one.

As a result, she had flown ahead of her peers in most subjects and the only reason she had not been moved ahead a full two years was because Minerva was insistent that they not isolate her socially in the way her muggle parents had in her youth. Despite Severus’s fears of what she would encounter in the future, or was it past…time was far too complicated for him to grasp, he did agree with Minerva to an extent and tried not to argue too fervently.

Her passing her Potions OWL with an O (and not even realizing she had taken it) had been the last straw for Severus though. He had stormed to Minerva and demanded she move her ahead in a few key subjects lest they be completely failing her in regards to her education. After Hermione had passed her Transfiguration OWL with similar ease she had relented fully with moving her into NEWT level work for the two courses with Filius following shortly after with Charms the moment he found out he could.

Severus had also made it a priority to get her as adept with Defensive magic as he could. She picked up theory remarkably fast, her seemingly endless thirst for knowledge helped on that front, but it was in the practical side of things where he had to use caution. Some spellwork was simply too much for her still unstable magical core to handle, and it was a delicate line he was forced to dance to keep her practical knowledge as close to her theoretical knowledge as possible without risking both her health and Minerva’s wrath. Even so, she could cast most of her grade level spells both wandlessly and wordlessly and had proven time and time again in practice with Severus that she could defend herself even if wandless and silenced.

The only other area Severus had to focus on to prepare her for her time in the past was wizarding culture and etiquette. This was an area even he struggled in as he was a halfblooded wizard raised almost entirely in the muggle world and despite his being sorted into Slytherin upon going to Hogwarts the various intricacies of pureblood society had been an endless source of confusion to him. He tried his best however, even enlisting the help of Narcissa when it was absolutely necessary (though she insisted on being polyjuiced any time she was face to face with the girl to prevent her husband and son from ever finding out) to teach Hermione quirks of pureblood society that were best received from the mouth of a woman.

He did his best, even though he knew it wouldn’t be enough. He was almost positive she had learned more about the inner workings of magical society and pureblood idiosyncrasies through her friendship with the Weasleys and the Lovegood witch than he had ever imparted on her with books and uncomfortable meetings with the Malfoy matriarch.

He struggled to understand how the brash girl that was stubbornly haunting his couch could ever become the shrewd witch who hoodwinked the entirety of Slytherin (including a good number of future Death Eaters, their parents, and the Dark Lord himself) into believing she was a pureblood heiress. It still amazed him to this day that she had managed to procure the protection of the last of the Hagworth-Grangers, even managing to get the wizard to go so far as to publicly pronounce her his Granddaughter in the summer of 1975. 

He was pulled from his musing by a thump that signaled his couch mate setting down the novel she had been silently devouring for the last hour, “I kissed him.”

Severus just barely stopped himself from choking on the sip of tea he had been taking when the girl spoke, “And this has caused you to avoid him? Surely it could not have been that bad.”

She glared at him, “Its not that Sev, its…Merlin you should have seen the way he was looking at me afterward.”

He sat back, confused, “Are you truly telling me he wasn’t pleased?” How stupid have teenage boys become in the two decades since I was one? He thought to himself.

She scoffed, “Oh no, he was plenty pleased.” 

“Then I fear I am failing to see the issue here. Why are you avoiding the boy that likes you? You have been bemoaning how intense your feelings are for this boy for months.”

“I have not!” She grouched, “And anyway it doesn’t matter, he was looking at me like I was some goddess or something. I’ve tried explaining why that is not ok to him, so have our friends, he doesn’t seem to be capable of doing anything but staring at me like rainbows fly out of my arse so I am done entertaining the whole thing.”

“Well I see where that may be a bit annoying however-“

“No.” She stated firmly, “No ‘however’. I’m not dealing with this. If I wanted people who insisted upon my perfection I would simply call up my muggle relations. Plus you and I both know I do not do well with being treated as an object to be possessed and he gets weird when I’m around any wizard who isn’t him or our close friends so instead of risking our friendship on a relationship I am at this point certain would be a quick and fiery bust I am simply ending the whole mess before it is allowed to begin. I am putting up purposeful boundaries and the message will get across at some point.”

He snorted, “Well that is one way to deal with it for sure.” A smirk made its way on to his face, “Do I get to ask about what is going on with the dashing champion from Durmstrang?”

She glared and smacked him with a throw pillow, “Oh do not even start with me Severus Snape!”

“Lets just suffice to say we will not need to be worried about her dating any time soon.” He finally answered Minerva.

Minerva sighed, “I was worried you were going to say that. He is such a nice boy, I wish she would give him a chance.”

Severus frowned, “No one wants to be the subject of adoration Minerva. She wants to be seen as she is, not for what he wants her to be. There is nothing wrong with that.”

Minerva frowned as they both watched the young witch in question rise from the Gryffindor table with a grin as Victor Krum came ambling over from his spot at the Slytherin table with the rest of the students from his school. She quickly waved a goodbye to her friends before looping her arm through the Bulgarian seeker’s presumably so the two could begin the trek to Hogsmeade together. 

Minerva’s eyes followed those of a certain wizard as they miserably gazed at the two for the small window of time they could be seen before they turned a corner, blocking them from view, and he went back to whatever conversation his twin and Lee Jordan were locked in at present, “No there isn’t. I just wish things could be different for her.”

Severus took a sip of his tea before replying, “As do I Minerva, as do I.”

_____________________________________

Though the girls had assured Hermione they would meet up with her later they had possessed absolutely zero desire to accompany her to Tomes and Scrolls in Hogsmeade “We can’t stand there while you agonize over your need for seven new books when you can only carry four ‘Mione, have mercy on our souls!” Ginny had whined at breakfast before Victor had kindly volunteered to go with her to the tiny bookstore in the wizarding village so she would not be forced to make the chilly walk to Hogsmeade on her own. 

It helped that the Bulgarian boy had already been planning on going to the small book shop anyway. He was hoping there would be books he could buy there that would help him with his English since he had begun to tentatively plan to move to the UK after he graduated from Durmstrang. It had been last week that the boy had confided in her as to why.

He had looked around furtively before erecting a privacy bubble around them, “I got an offer for a starting position on the Puddlemere United team and I think I am going to take it.”

Hermione had blanched, “But…why?”

“The Bulgarian National Team managers have been blaming me for the mess in August for months.” He grimaced, “My name has been being smeared in the papers, my parents had to double the strength of our family’s wards from all the protesters. They think they can do that and I will just be there in the summer same as always. Well, I’m done. Puddlemere offered me a salary I couldn’t say no to and it came with the added benefit of a fanbase willing to win and lose as a team.”

“I-that makes sense.” She had replied, “Have you accepted their offer yet?”

Victor shook his head in the negative, “They are sending a representative to speak with me next week when we are all allowed to go to that village nearby.”

“At the Hogsmeade trip?” At his nod she sighed, “Ok good. Before you make your decision you need to know a few things.”

They had spent the better part of an hour in the library while Hermione explained in detail everything that had been happening at Hogwarts during her tenure there. Voldemort’s attempted returns in both ’92 and ’93, the mess that was the Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew situation, and the fact that Hermione was nearly positive Voldemort had been involved in Harry’s being entered into the Triwizard Tournament and was going to make a go of attempting return again this spring. She explained her real worries for the war that seemed to be on the horizon, though no one else believed her. How the days seemed darker and darker in the after math of the Quidditch World Cup and how much she worried for what that meant for her as the very famous muggleborn best friend of Harry Potter.

“Just something to think about before hitching your broom to this mess.” She finished with a sigh.

Victor had been silent for a moment following her explanation before looking at her with an unreadable expression, “You are staying, no?”

Hermione met his eyes in confusion, “What? Yes of course I am staying! This is my home, Harry is my friend, and no one is going to drive me from it. Not even an evil megalomaniac like Voldemort.”

“My grandfather was killed fighting Grindlewald.” Victor admitted quietly.

Hermione gazed at him softly, “I understand, this is why I told you. There is no reason you should be going somewhere so dangerous without knowing. I’m sure the Puddlemere representative will understand.”

“You misunderstand me.” Victor said, determination blazing, “I will take the job, you are my friend Yani. If you can be brave and stay somewhere where you are so unsafe, then I want to make sure you have friends here who can help and protect you and your friend.”

Hermione still struggled to understand how Victor could make such a decision without question. She had no choice, England was her home and she would fight for her right to be here, but Victor could stay in Bulgaria where he knew he would be safe yet was choosing to come to Britain even knowing he would likely be caught in the middle of civil war sooner rather than later. Then again, if the roles were reversed, would she truly not do the same?

Thoughts ran through her mind at a near-constant hum during the long walk to Hogsmeade. Hermione was so distracted within her own mind that the rush of warm air that greeted her upon entering Tomes and Scrolls took her by complete surprise. Victor smirked at the undignified involuntary squeak she let out upon the warm air catching her by surprise, ushering her into the small shop before she could reply with much more than an unimpressed frown.

Hermione immediately raced off into the familiar stacks in search of several tomes she had hoped to get her hands on ever since beginning her more advanced Charms classes. NEWT level Charms was a subject the Hogwarts library was oddly slim in the way of information and she was tired of being forced to raid her mother and Sev’s personal libraries just to get her questions answered to a level that didn’t leave her irritated with its shallowness. Fred often joked she was the only person in the whole school who could ever find the Hogwarts library lacking.

A frown crossed her features as her thoughts turned to the boy she had been avoiding ever since the absolute disaster of an evening in the common room. That night had revealed to her things she was positive she would have been happy never knowing and now she was stuck attempting to figure out how to handle the consequences. Suffice to say it was not going well. Ginny and Luna appeared to be just as confused as everyone else what the problem was and though they had been trying very hard to be supportive she had not felt so alone in Gryffindor tower since before her summer of blissful happiness at the Burrow.

“You are frowning again, I thought we had promised not to focus on upsetting subjects Yani?” Victor’s gruff voice broke her out of her thoughts.

She shrugged, “I think we both knew that was an impossible promise to keep.”

“Maybe so, but I can still call you on it. We are each other’s keepers, correct?”

Hermione stifled the urge to laugh, “Yes. Correct.”

“If you keep scowling at that paper like that your face will get stuck that way.” Hermione quipped, sitting down next to Victor who was doing his level best to burn a hole through Quidditch International when she found him in the library, “What part of ‘avoid the quidditch magazines’ was unclear?”

After his confession to her a few days ago had sparked a conversation about what she could do to help him avoid losing his mind over the Quidditch World Cup when he should be worrying about how to stay alive in the Triwizard Tournament instead. “Not unclear, just something I am choosing to ignore.”

She glared at the older boy before casting a Muffliato like Sev had showed her how to, “Do you like being unhappy? Or are you just looking to be spiteful?”

He sighed, “I just hate knowing they are talking about me without knowing what they are saying.”

“Victor, this only serves to upset you. I fail to see what you are gaining here.”

“Probably the same thing you gain by pining after a boy who sees you as little more than a projection of his wildest fantasies of screwing the Madonna I would guess.”

He yelped at the harsh stinging hex she sent his way, “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that supremely hurtful thing about something I confided to you in secret because I consider you a friend and would hate to have to curse you just because you are feeling petulant and are lashing out.”

“Sorry Yani” His face grew pensive, “I’m just so tired of all of this.”

“I am too, you’re miserable, I’m miserable. Its honestly ridiculous.” Then, her eyes glittered with the tell-tale signs of an idea, “What if we make a promise to each other?”

He eyed her with suspicion, “What kind of promise?”

Unimpressed, she scoffed, “Not like that you git, just a promise to keep eachother accountable. You keep me from thinking about the red-headed git too much and I’ll keep you from obsessing about those quidditch nobs back in Bulgaria.”

Victor smiled, “I like this idea Yani. We shall be keepers for each other then!”

Hermione nodded with a smile, turning back to her bag and beginning to pull out the Transfiguration paper she was supposed to be working on. The two friends sat in companionable silence for awhile after that, simply enjoying the presence of one another and the slight bubble their table seemed to have when both sat together in the library. 

“Why do you call me Yani?” Hermione asked suddenly, “I’m not complaining, just curious.”

He chuckled, “When you told me where your Muggle parents had gotten your name from, I wrote my mum asking for a copy of  The Winters Tale in Bulgarian. I was hoping it might help me learn how to pronounce it.”

“And my name is Yani in Bulgarian?” 

“Sort of.” His cheeks reddened lightly, “Its actually air-moy-yani I’ve just been shortening it.”

Her eyes widened in realization, “This explains your issues with pronouncing it so much!”

“Yes, its pronounced very differently in Bulgarian. Though after looking at the pronunciations side by side…” He grinned before turning to her and saying, “Hermione”

Hermione grinned, a contemplative look on her face. “I think I prefer Yani.”

Victor lightly brushed a single curl out of her face, “Me too.”

Hermione had allowed herself to relax around Victor in the week or so since the Fred Incident (as she had taken to calling it in her head) had occurred. While she wasn’t in any way ready to jump into a relationship after the absolute disaster her first attempt had almost been, she found herself becoming increasingly attached to Victor’s presence in her life. He seemed to understand her in ways she had never known she could be understood while also being different enough that she never felt either of them growing bored. 

“You are supposed to be looking for books to help with your English, not harassing me for my inability to avoid morose lines of thinking, just so you know.”

“Yes well you are supposed to be looking for advanced Charms texts not going down morose trains of thought yet here we are.”

Hermione sighed petulantly, “Fine, I’m going over to the Charms section.” 

She doubt he would admit it if questioned, but Hermione was almost positive she heard him murmur, “Good girl” under his breath before ambling in the general direction of the language tomes. Hermione flushed crimson at the thought, especially when she realized a small thrill of heat had rushed through her at the whispered words.

Before Hermione could allow her thoughts to derail any further she forced herself to focus on her need for several new books on Charms. She quickly located the copies of Charms for the Advanced Caster, Using Charm Work in a Combative Manner, and Intermediate Protective Charmwork and Warding Professor Flitwick had recommended she invest in when she had complained about the lack of advanced Charms texts in the school library. Copies of Advanced Combative Charmwork and Speculative Charms Research of the 19^th and 20^th Centuries joined Hermione’s growing pile soon after that with the addition of Dark Arts: Advanced Defensive Tactics shortly after when she stumbled upon the DADA section on the way to hunting down Victor in the language section of the shop.

“I see that your red headed friend was wrong in her assumptions, that is six tomes not seven.” Victor remarked absently upon her arrival.

Hermione set down her stack of books, “I can’t tell if you are making fun of me or not.”

He smirked, “Not making fun, simply enjoying the manifestation of your genius.”

She stuck out her tongue at him, “Haha. Very funny coming from the boy with no less than eight books of his own in front of him.”

“Mine are for the noble pursuit of knowledge.”

“What would you do if I started launching books at your head?”

“Dodge them.”

“Stupid seeker reflexes.”

“Sorry, allow the tiny girl in front of me to bludgeon me to death with her lethally sized tomes.”

“You’re getting better at this Seeker boy.”

“Happy to be of service Yani.”

They stared at each other for a moment before descending into laughter. Before she knew it Victor had hefted both of their book stacks into his arms and began making his way through the aisles towards the checkout counter. Hermione was still giggling from behind him the whole way, only stopping once she realized he was going to try and pay for her books.

“I can pay for my own!” She huffed.

He waved her off, “I’m an international quidditch star, I can afford our combined book habits just fine thanks.”

Deciding this was not the battle to choose with the boy she let it go, vowing to herself she would simply pick up the tab at the Three Broom Sticks later. Since she was planning on going dress shopping with the girls after lunch it would be the only time she had to make up for his purchase for the rest of the day, the dress shopping was sure to take up the entirety of the afternoon.

Ginny and Luna greeted the couple when they exited the book shop, “Thank Merlin you are done, I was beginning to worry I was going to be forced to remove you bodily from the store.”

Hermione snorted, “What ever for?”

“We want to go to Honeydukes.” Luna stated, “But Ginny has wackspurts whenever Harry is around so she wants you to play interference by throwing Victor at him.”

Ginny turned a similar shade to her hair, “That is not what I said!”

Luna shrugged, skipping towards Honeydukes, “I inferred.”

“Am I to assume wackspurts mean something beyond gibberish?” Victor whispered in her ear.

Hermione shook her head, “To Luna, yes; to the rest of us, no. Also, if you want to flee now go ahead. You didn’t sign up to be used as a human distraction.”

“Do I get to be a distraction with you nearby?”

She blushed, “I’ll be…around”

He squeezed her arm gently, “Then I’m staying. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but I enjoy your company.”

“The constant study companion was a bit of a clue, I won’t lie.”

Hermione noticed his face change, immediately becoming stoic and guarded. She spun around to see what could have caused the shift when her heart sank, guilt gnawing at her insides. “Fred.” 

Chapter Text

Uncomfortable silence permeated the group for several minutes, everyone seemed to be waiting for either Hermione or one of the boys to break. It was Fred who broke the silence in the end. “Can I talk to you?” After a glance in Victor’s direction he amended, “Alone?”

Hermione paused slightly before nodding her head and indicating for Victor to go on ahead with Ginny and Luna, “You go, I’ll catch up.”

Victor looked ready to argue but relented when Luna softly grasped his arm and began leading him in the direction of Honeydukes while whispering words of assurance in his ear but Hermione could tell he wouldn’t give her long. Not that she blamed him, the act of letting Fred even cross her mind for a second ended in her being a melancholic mess for hours most days let alone a full blown conversation with him. One that she was positive would end poorly at best, catastrophic at worst. Her friend was worried for her, the thought would have made her smile usually but right now all she could focus on was how much she was dreading this next conversation.

“Does he know you kissed me?”

Well that is one way to start this conversation I suppose Hermione thought to herself wryly, “Yes. Though I fail to see how that’s relevant.”

Fred glared in the direction of Victor’s retreating form, “Well wizards typically want to know if their witch is snogging other blokes Mi.”

“I’m not ‘his witch’ Fred. We’re friends.”

He scoffed, “Oh sure, like how we’re friends, right Hermione?”

“No, not at all the same.” She scowled at the boy she had thought she knew crossing her arms, “He doesn’t moon after me like I’m the second fucking coming of Merlin. Its refreshing.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Fred looked about ready to murder something, or more likely someone, but Hermione didn’t care. If he wanted to have it out they’d have it out and she was done attempting to spare his feelings. Blunt was her new best friend, delicate had clearly not been working for her.

Hermione threw up a muffliato in an effort to avoid giving people the spectacule this was shaping up to become with a few modified notice me not charms, charmed to allow her three friends to see what was happening so they wouldn’t panic when she and Fred disappeared from sight, thrown in for good measure, “It means I’m not some perfect goddess to be worshipped Fred Weasley! You don’t see me when you look at me, you see what ever fucked up version of me has been created in your head.”

Her eyes grew glassy, “I love you, you are one of my best friends if not my best friend but I can’t have my boyfriend mooning after me like some god damn groupie waiting for rainbows to fly out of my arse.” She sighed, “It is inevitable that I will do something at some point to tarnish that view you have of me because its not real and then this whole thing would come crashing down anyway.”

Fred looked stunned, “That is- why do you talk about yourself like that?”

Hermione threw her hands up in exasperation, “Like what?! Do you have a problem with reality Fred? I am speaking nothing else at the moment.”

“Like you really can’t see how amazing you are!” He was pacing now, “You are so smart and beautiful and just amazing! You try your best to help everyone around you, you’re such a giving and caring person, honestly sometimes I wonder why you even bother with people like me. I have never, and can’t imagine I will ever, come across someone as amazing and perfect as you. Then again, Victor Krum, international quidditch sensation, makes much more sense. Rich, famous, he can give you everything you could possibly dream of wanting.”

Hermione was stunned. Tears were streaming down her face at his words. He really didn’t know her at all. “Fred, I need you to hear me when I say this. Nearly none of that is true.” He went to interrupt her but she held a hand up, “No, let me finish.”

She took a fortifying breath, “Yes, I am smart and from what I have gathered in the last few months once I stopped hiding in my clothing and learned some basic fashion and beauty charms I am decently attractive. But the rest of that only exists in your head. I don’t try to help everyone around me, I try and make the lives of those I care about better for sure but nearly everyone does that. I’m not some super giving and caring person either. Again, I help my friends but I am pretty ruthless with everyone else. I hold those I love to sometimes unfair standards because I see what those are love can accomplish and only want whats best for them, sometimes to their detriment. I have a cruel streak the size of Gringotts if I’m crossed and my retribution is brutal and often cruel in its severity. There is a reason your brother calls me a terrifying know it all bitch. It’s because I am one and I’m fucking proud of it thank you very much. Saying I’m anything else just simply isn’t the truth and minimizes nearly everything about me that I love and enjoy.”

“How is the guy who is telling you that you are amazing some how the bad guy in your story? Have you ever stopped to think about your need to be seen as this awful person? How maybe that is the problem here and not my view of you?”

Hermione stood in shock for a moment as his words washed over her, he thought the real her was an awful person. She-her heart broke at the gravity of his words. How could someone she cared for so much think so little of her they had to fabricate a whole new personality for her to be something they can tolerate? Was she really that awful of a human being that the very concept of her was so revolting it had to be chnaged so completely to be tolerated? What was wrong with her that she was clearly so difficult for people to love? Her muggle parents had loathed her presence to the point of giving her away to the first stranger they had come across, Ron tolerated her presecne only because Ginny and now Harry demanded it, her roomates pretending she did not exist unless absolutely necessary, clearly there was a pattern here and it was her. Unloveable Hermione, always simultaneously too much and not enough.

She glanced over her shoulder and nearly sobbed, Victor was standing outside of Honeydukes waiting for her. He was far enough away to not be interfering but close enough so she wouldn’t be alone. His presence brought her back from her spiral, at least enough to end this catastrophe of a conversation with some scrap of her dignity still in tact. She could finish this, then she would fall apart. He would allow her to fall a part. It was clear he knew she needed him to let her handle this on her own but he also wanted to amke sure she knew he would be there when she didn’t want to be strong any more. The thought brought her a modicum of peace as she turned back to the boy in front of her.

 “I see your boyfriend is waiting for you.” Fred sniped.

Hermione sniffled, wiping the tears away as best she could, “He’s not my boyfriend. But I am beginning to wonder if he is more my friend than you ever were.”

Fred’s face turned incredulous. “How can you say that?! He’s known you for what, a month? I’ve known you since you were eleven!”

She shook her head, letting down the muffliato as she did, “No, Fred, it is obvious you’ve clearly never known me at all.”

____________________________________________

Victor made it to her in just a few strides the moment he saw her begin to fall apart. She barely made it ten feet before she desolved into near hysterical sobs regardless of the audience she surely had since they were in the busiest part of Hogsmeade; the only thought on her mind the dawning knowledge that Fred had never been her friend. Not that she could see anyway. The girl he had been friends with, fallen in love with, was a girl she had never been and could never be. It hurt to hear all of her flaws thrown back in her face but just shined up to make her look perfect enough to stomach. 

Hermione brisquely brushed aside the thought that all of her friends must view her this way since she was obviously unloveable. She had worked hard to love herself for who she was outside of the validation of anyone else and she would not allow anyone, even the first boy she had ever allowed herself to feel romantically for, to take that from her.  She wanted to be loved flaws and all, not in spite of many of the things that made her…her. 

If Fred couldnt do that then she was not going ot to waste any more of her time on him. Maybe in the future, if he truly apologized for his hurtful words and meant it, she would be able to foster a friendship with him again. But she would not allow him any more real estate in her heart then he already possessed, she needed to focus on people who cared for the Hermione that was really here and not one that was created to be their ideal witch. The thought crossed her mind she may have already found someone who could be that for her.

Hermione felt rather than saw Victor wrap himself around her, shielding her from the prying eyes of the other students mulling around the streets of Hogsmeade. She relaxed into his warm embrace and allowed herself to work through all of the intense emotions her conversation with Fred had just brought roiling to the surface. Sobs racked her body, her mind racing as she was forced in an almost cruelly frank manner by her brain to think through every interaction Fred had ever had with her in a new light wondering if he had been thinking this way about her the whole time. 

It seemed for a time to be impossible to think of anything else but how and when tis friendship she had valued had gone so wrong, though by the end of her musing she was nearly certain hearing about her childhood had been what had done it. It is what had sparked a change so large it had been noticable even when she had not known him very well and she suspected he had begun to view her very differently ever since that fateful night at the Burrow when he had overheard her pouring her heart out to Ginny and Luna.

Soon, however, her thoughts shifted to the boy currently consoling her as she sobbed over Fred’s cruel words. It fascinated her how Victor had so quickly wormed his way into her heart and made himself a safe space for her, somewhere to land when it all got to be too much. She mused at the guiet way he continuously showed her he cared for her and not simply some idea he had of her. Always willing to meet her where she was, Victor had truly become one of the safest places for her to be. Holding a close third in her life only to Ginny and Luna in such a short amount of time, it was hard to believe she had not known him before Halloween. 

From determinedly sitting beside her in the library despite the annoying fan girls that refused him even a moment of peace simply to spend time with her to making sure she knew he cared enough about her to watch out for her friends as well by showing her the dragons Victor never failed to prove how valuable her friendship was to him. He reminded her of Sev in that way, always putting her first, though she did not allow herself to ponder the similarities between them for long as that could in no way be a productive line of thought in her opinion.

They sat in silence, her head buried in his chest, for several minutes. He was allowing her to have time to think before trying to make her speak to anyone. Silently she vowed to thank him for this act of kindness when she had given her brain the opportunity to think of something. Finally, when her thoughts would finally form into something coherent, she murmured, “He never knew me at all, did he?”

Victor took a rumbling breath, “I do not know, he is not a person I have spoken with much. I do think he is your friend, I simply believe at some point Hermione his friend and Hermione the girl he likes became two different witches. That is unfortunate but is not your fault, do you understand?”

“Academically yes, feelings no.” She mumbled into his shirt, still unsure if Fred Weasley even liked her enough as a person to really be her friend.

He sighed, “That will have to do for now.” He paused, “Do you still want to go play interference?”

Hermione giggled and pulled herself away from Victor, “Yes, lets go help my friends flirt with my other (very oblivious by the way) friend.”

With a snort Victor began walking them towards Honeydukes, “At some point you are going to have to explain that relationship of theirs to me.”

“The moment I figure it out myself you’ll be the first to know”

Victor’s silent laughter continued as the two made their way into Honeydukes, quickly spotting a terrified looking Ginny Weasley standing beside Luna who was speaking to Harry. Her arms were gesticulating wildly and Hermione couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled up out of her mouth when she heard Luna trying (unsuccessfully) to explain the concept of kifmendates to Harry (apparently something about protecting a person from rabid Thestrals). Gently shoving Victor in the direction of Harry, Hermione grabbed both of her best friends by their arms and steered them through the crowd of students to the section of the shop dedicated to Hermione’s favorite candy, sugar quills. 

Grabbing two deluxe packs she turned to Ginny with a wicked grin, “You looked terrified when I walked in Miss Ginevra Weasley.”

Ginny’s glare was lethal, “I cannot believe you abandoned me to go argue with my idiot brother.”

“I did not abandon you.” Hermione frowned, “I was cornered and am tired of turning tail and running every time he walks up to me. I think two weeks of that was quite enough.”

Luna bumped her shoulder, “You don’t have to feel bad, no one wants to be surrounded by Blibbering Humdingers all the time. Fred is surrounded by them when he’s with you.”

While Hermione was nearly positive Blibbering Humdingers did not in fact exist, the sentiment rang true and she tearfully hugged Luna, thankful for her friend’s understanding.

Ginny cut in, “Yeah I tried talking with him and he just wasn’t understanding the problem. I think you’re better off without starting that whole mess. Are you still going to be able to deal with him for the WWW research?”

Hermione nodded, “I spoke with George about it a few days after the kissing incident, he expressed that as far as he is concerned my knowledge base is more important than any romantic schnanigans going on between Fred and I. Fred agreed apparently though I cannot confirm that as you just witnessed the first conversation we have had in weeks.”

“That really was the first time you’ve spoken?” Ginny asked while grabbing a few of the nearby licorice wands.

On the hunt for the new blackberry Cauldron Cakes she had heard about, Hermione shrugged, “Aside from small stuff in passing when we are all together in the common room yeah. Its just been so awkward and he gives me this look like ive kicked him everytime we make eye contact.”

“So…” Luna smiled wryly as she clearly tried to change the subject, “You and Victor have been looking cozy lately.”

Hermione blushed before stepping in line at the counter, Cauldron Cakes secured, “I’m not ready for anything concrete yet and he seems to understand that. We get along really well though, and we are going to the Yule Ball together so there is a bit of an understanding I suppose.”

The memory of Victor asking her to the Yule Ball a few days ago while the two were studying in the library flooded back into Hermione’s mind while her two best friends began chatting in earnest about their plans to go dress shopping later on after lunch at The Three Broomsticks.

It had been very sweet to be truthful, the way he had asked her. 

She had been knee deep in this essay on the origins of the Lycanthropy curse for nearly an hour and had gotten next to no where since nearly all of the information she found contradicted each other. “I give up!” She huffed in furstration, nearly throwing her quill before stopping herself from the petulant action.

“Have we finally found something the great Hermione Granger cannot read her way to the bottom of? Someone should call the Prophet, history is being made right before our eyes!” Victor chuckled from his spot across the table from her.

Hermione huffed, “Haha very funny. Its these stupid books! They are always contradicting eachother and its infuriating!”

Victor paused in his reading, “Why dont you ask your friend Severus, surely with his penchant for Defense Against the Dark Arts he would know. Evem if he won’t give you the answers himself surely he would be able to point you in the right direction.”

Hermione briefly panicked at his mention of Sev before remembering she had revealed her relationship with both Sev and her mum to him a few days ago in a moment of weakness after she had dragged him to the dungeons in search of Fairy Mint Icecream when the house elves had told her they were out. Much to his confusion and Sev’s chagrin, who had been accosted by a hangry Hermione Merlin bent on icecream with no explanation or prior warning, both teens had entered his sitting room as Hermione made a beeline for the cooling cabinet in hopes of scoring her precious icecream leaving Victor standing stranded and confused in Sev’s sitting room as Sev glowered on in annoyance at his evening being so rudely interuppted , “Yeah that is going to be what I have to do. None of the books I can find in here are giving me the information I need and I’m likely to go insane if I keep reading myself in circles like this.”

“Well if you want we can take a break, get your mind off it for a bit.” Victor offered with a small smile, “I have been wanting to give you a tour of our ship.”

Sighing in defeat Hermione began collecting her things into her bag, “Yeah that sounds like a great idea actually, I’m not going to get anything else done at this point anyway, my brain is fried.”

At Ginny and Luna’s request she had been trying to give herself more breaks from school work this year after the disaster that had been her mental health the year before with classes. She set aside every Thursday evening to just relax in the common room with them and had recently begun spending her free period on Mondays with Victor mostly just talking about everything and nothing at all. 

Hermione hated to admit when the girls were right but about this they had been, she had never felt more relaxed at this time of year. Giving herself a chance to simply exist sometimes without the guilt of wasting time that could be spent studying had been a huge help in keeping her sane this year so she had been trying to admit defeat when it was due and walk away from homework when all she was accomplishing was her own irritation.

“How is prepping for the first task going?” Hermione asked once Victor stood up indicating he was ready to go.

He paused momentarily before saying, “It is hard to prepare for a task you know nothing about.”

Hermione nodded in agreement, “Harry is running into the same issue, we’ve ended up scowering old Triwizard Tournament data to see if anything sticks out. Have you noticed the pattern yet?”

“If you are referring to the Magical Creatures then yes. I took your advice and began looking through the same articles about a week ago.” Victor paused briefly as if considering something before continuing, “At this point I am just brushing up on everything I can think of that will work against live creatures with the least liklihood of killing whatever it is.”

Hermione began to respond when she noticed they were heading away from the Black Lake, “I thought the Durmstrang ship was moured in the lake?”

“It is” He gave her a nervous smile, “We are making a pit stop first.”

“Where to?” What could he be showing her on the Hogwarts grounds she didn’t already know about?

It was then that Victor paused in his steps, bringing her to a halt beside him. “I want to ask you something, but I want you to know I am going to show you what I brought you out here for regardless of  your answer, ok?”

Hermione stepped back slightly, “Victor you’re worrying me, what is it? Is something wrong?”

“No I- I am going about this all wrong.” He ran a hand through his hair nervously, “Will you go to the Yule Ball with me?”

Hermione was shocked. Victor wanted to go to the ball with her? She had noticed he’d been dodging eager girls for weeks, ever since it had occurred to everyone that a dance meant dates, and had assumed he had someone in mind. But not her she figured he had a girlfriend back in Bulgaria he had forgotten to mention or something. “Victor…”

He grabbed her hands, wrapping them gently into his own, “I know. After the situation with your friend you are hesitant. It does not have to mean anything you do not want it to. I would be happy if you just agreed to go as my friend, you are the only one I really have. No one else has bothered to see me and not the youngest professional seeker in the last several centuries.”

Blushing crimson she lifted her eyes to meet his, “I would love to go with you, I just dont want to get your hopes up. I like you, I really do. But…”

“But you still have a lot you have not figured out.”

“Exactly.” She nodded.

He smiled lightly, “Then we shall go as friends. What is the difference really between talking in the courtyard for hours when we have free time and doing the same thing in dress robes in the Great Hall?”

A smile was plastered on her face for the entirety of the rest of their walk into the Forbidden Forest. Even the general fear she had of breaking the rules could not wipe the giddy smile on her face. She had a date. She had a date! 

The smile fell from her face almost instantly when she saw where they were headed. Victor looked at her with trepidation, “Karkaroff brought me out here last night in secret, I thought it was wrong that I had knowledge I was not supposed to have when Harry knows nothing.”

A look of grim determination settled onto Hermione’s face, “Do the other champions know?”

“Fleur does for sure, I saw the half giant professor of yours showing Madame Maxime at the same time Karkaroff was showing me.”

“Hagrid?!” Hermione said in surprise.

He nodded slowly, “I heard him telling her she couldn’t tell anyone, even her champion, but…”

“That sounds like Hagrid.” Hermione rolled her eyes fondly, “It likely has not occurred to him he is being used.”

“I suspected as much from the small interaction I witnessed.” Victor agreed softly.

Hermione turned to him, eyeing him softly. “Thank you.” At his denial she dug in, “No, seriously, this changes the entire strategy our friend group has been developing to get him through this alive. If we had gone into this blind we would have been absolutely screwed. You likely just saved Harry’s life.”

“He is a good kid.” Victor reasoned, “It is unfair that he is being forced to do this all because someone entered him in the competition against his will.”

Hermione looked at him for a moment longer before stating, “So, dragons it is then.”

Victor snorted, “Dragons it is.”

Nothing had changed between them in the days since, not that Hermione had been able to notice anyway. Victor had been keeping true to his word about letting her decide what they were. He hadn’t tried to push them to be something else or begun spouting off rhapsodic nonsense about how beautiful or ethereal she was.

Now that she was thinking about it, maybe her idea of romance had become a bit sardonic and skewed with her recent foray into the whole thing. Some internal reflection on that may be due, though right now definitely wasn’t the time. She had a boy-who-continues-to-land-himself-in-life-threatening-scenarios to keep alive in next week’s dragon task. But afterwards…some reflecting may be in order. She followed the girls out of Honeydukes when Ginny mentioned seeing Harry and Victor ducking out of the increasingly crowded shop. 

It was then that she felt strong arms wrap around her and she felt a head rest on her shoulder, Victor’s voice whispered in her ear, “I believe your oblivious friend has a crush on your two other friends but is unsure how to go about handling it.” 

She chuckled before settling against his chest (he was comfortable and she was tired, nothing more than that she assured the part of her that still felt gun shy at the concept of such displays of intimacy with a boy after the Fred disaster), “I had a feeling that was the case. He gets far too nervous around them for anything but that to be the case.”

“He seems to fluxuate between terror when thinking of the fiery one-“

“Ginny.” She added quietly.

He nodded in understanding, “Ginny. And a general state of flummoxation when speaking to the blonde-“

“Luna”

He huffed, “You interupt a lot.”

Hermione shrugged, unbothered with his assessment, “Only trying to be helpful.”

“You sent me in there to spy for you, didn’t you?” Victor spoke as if finally understanding something that had been bothered him.

She sputtered in mock outrage, “I would never use a friend like that!”

His breath brushing against her ear sent shivers rushing dowen her spine, “Your lies do not fool me Yani, I could see the evil smirk on your face the moment you got Ginny and Luna away from Harry. You were hoping he would tell me things he wouldn’t tell you because I am a wizard and ‘uninvolved’ with the situation.” He squeezed her gently, “Little does he know I was sent in by a conniving witch who wanted information she wasn’t getting on her own merit.”

Hermione was struggling to hide her grin, “If you knew all of this going in, then why did you do it? Why tell me anything at all?”

Victor shrugged, “Your heart was in the right place, plus I saw little harm in doing this one thing that I knew would make you happy.”

“Why is making me happy so important?” 

“Because I-“ she failed to stifle her giggle when he lightly grazed her sides in a mock caress clearly meant to tickle her, “happen to value your opinion and enjoy making you smile.”

Ginny’s groan broke Hermione from the bubble of her conversation with the Bulgarian seeker, “Oh would you two get a room already so the rest of us can enjoy our Hogsmeade trip in peace?”

“They aren’t being nearly as bad as you and Luna are most nights when we’re hanging out in the common room and we all handle that perfectly fine.” Harry scoffed before dodging a well aimed bat bogey hex from Ginny. He whirled on the girl in indignation, “Crazy woman! Why are you so violent?!”

Ginny flipped her curtain of red hair over her shoulder absently, “I did not ask for your input Wonder Boy.”

“I-“ Harry sputtered like a record caught on a scratch in the vinyl, “Violent!”

Luna stopped mid twirl to grin at Ginny with stars practically dancing in her gaze, “Isn’t she amazing?”

“Yes.” Harry blushed when he realized he said it out loud, turning to Hermione and Victor with a beseeching look on his face, “Lunch anyone?”

Hermione shoved the snort that threatened to bubble out of her down with viscious efficiency, “Lunch sounds lovely Harry!” Turning to grasp Victor’s hand in her own she began to drag him towards The Three Broomsticks, “We’ll go grab a table for everyone!”

Victor followed behind her, silent laughter shaking his shoulders while he shook his head at her antics. He was still laughing when they entered the pub and snagged a large booth towards the back for their group to sit at. Once Hermione sat down he offered to go grab butterbeers for everyone over her vehemenant protesting, she still needed to pay him back for the book shop earlier! Her words fell on deaf ears however and soon she was left alone in the booth to ponder how she had managed to allow him to out smart her twice in a single day while he victoriously snagged them some butterbeers.

“Stupid boys.” She muttered to herself petulantly as she began to wonder if she had begun a game she was ill equipped to play, clearly Victor was on an entirely different field than any wizard she had interacted with before. Of course, her previous knowledge of wizards was fairly minimal but still surely she shouldn’t be this outmatched. Though, to her slight horror, while watching Victor deftly procure 5 large mugs of butterbeer Hermione began to realize that she liked it.

_____________________________________________

The pile of discarded dresses in Hermione’s changing room was beginning to get ridiculous if she were being honest with herself. Ginny and Luna had both managed to snag dresses within twenty minutes of entering the shop but they had all been there for nearly three hours and all Hermione had done was send her self esteem to record lows. It wasn’t that the dresses weren’t pretty, because they were, the problem was clearly her.

Her body seemed to be Merlin bent on making this as difficult as possible for her with dresses fitting awkwardly no matter what she and her best friends tried. If it wasnt too short it was too long, or the chest wasn’t fitting right, or it was too ruffly, or it made her look like a cupcake. The whole process was beginning to feel like ritualistic torture and Hermione was about finished with trying. She would just tell Victor sorry and spend the evening drowning her sorrows in one of the Quidditch player romances Ginny had recently got her hooked on after she finished the string of Werewolf ones they had all been burning through for the last month or so.

“Please Hermione just try this last one and then I swear we will just beg your mum to make an exception and sneak you into Diagon Alley or something.” Luna’s voice pleaded with her from the outside her dressing room.

She shook her head before rolling her eyes when she remembered Luna could not see her, “Its pointless Lu, everything else has been a bust lets just give up.”

“Hermione just trust us.” Ginny’s voice was who responded, “This one is going to be different.”

She groaned, “Why is it that I find that extremely unlikely?”

Harry’s voice was what finally broke her resolve, “Hermione Granger if I can convince myself to wear these blasted dress robes for the sake of this event then you can find a bloody dress to wear for an evening. Stop whining and try on the dress!”

“Fine fine whatever!” She grumbled before snatching the dress from Luna’s waiting hand above the door.

“Humor us.” Ginny snarked.

Throwing the dress on over her head, Hermione grumbled harshly, “That’s what I’m doing, Gin!”

She smoothed the dress down one last time before slowly opening the door and stepping out to see what her friends thought. After standing there with her friends gauking at her in silence for several minutes she began to get nervous, “What? Should I just go take it off, is it really that bad? Oh god I’m going to have to cancel on Victor! This is such crap!”

Luna yanked her out of her spiral, “Hermione calm down and look in a mirror!”

Hermione spun around at Luna’s direction and let out a gasp at what she saw, “It’s beautiful.”

The dress was made of a glittering charmed fabric a shade of periwinkle that reminded Hermione of the spun glass snowflakes that her mum placed on the tree in their apartments at Hogwarts every year around Yule time. It was made up of dozens of paper thin layers of fabric that were so light and airy it flowed down her body in sparkling periwinkle cascading waves that left her giving off the appearance of an earth bound goddess who just happened to be gracing them with her presence. The ensemble was completed with a cape that acted as a glittering icey train behind her and Hermione was positive she had never felt more pretty in her life.

“That dress is not simply beautiful, it is stunning.” Ginny corrected from behind her, a look of reverent awe on her face. “I knew it would look amazing on you, Victor isn’t going to know what’s hit him.”

Hermione flushed crimson, quickly ducking back into the dressing room to change back into her street clothes before following her friends around the shop to hunt down the accessories they would all need to complete their looks for the ball. The group then meyandered through the aisles up to the front of the shop to purchase their finds so they could head back towards the castle in time for dinner.

“Hey Harry,” Luna asked dreamily, “How is the hunt for a date going?”

A giggle threatened to escape Hermione at the groan Harry gave in response. This had been an ongoing plight of Harry’s ever since the ball had been announced. By the way he had been behaving one would think the concept of having to ask a witch to be his date was somehow the more terrifying task then fighting a dragon and at this point Hermione could do nothing but laugh at his theatrics. 

“Terrible” He picked at invisble lint on his jumper, “It is going terrible. Everywhere I go, girls I am nearly positive have never even acknowledged my existence before now pop up demanding to know who my date to the ball is.”

“Take Luna.” Ginny offered absently while eyeing one of her nails in mock boredom.

Harry’s eyes widened, “But…aren’t you two dating?”

Luna gave him a patronizing look that reminded him of how Mrs. Weasley looked at her children after they had said something particularly think, “Yeah, but we can’t get into the ball on our own so she is going with Neville, I haven’t been able to snag a date yet.” She shrugged, “Something about me being crazy I guess.”

Harry’s eyes grew indignant, “Who says that?! How dare they?! Tell me who they are, I’ll set them straight!”

Ginny and Hermione shared a look, he had it bad. That was obvious at this point to everyone who wasn’t Harry. “We’ve taken care of it.” The girls replied in unison.

“Ok…well anyway, I would love to take you Luna. Though you will have to go to dance lessons with me since the champions and their dates have to open the ball with a waltz.”

Luna smiled, hooking her arm with Harry’s, “That’s fine, I’ve been taking dance lessons since I was small so I am sure I can keep up.”

Ginny gave Hermione a searching look, “A waltz?”

Hermione nodded, “Vicotr told me about it yesterday, I should be fine, we’ve scheduled times to practice.”

“Oh practice?” Ginny wiggled her eyebrows, “Sounds romantic.”

 Hermione shrugged before placing her purchases on the counter, “That depends on our combined skill level, its likely to be more painful than anything else at first.” Turning her attention to the counter in front of her she went to grab her change purse, “How much for everything?”

The person behind the counter, an elderly witch who appeared to be the owner of the dress shop, got a fond look on her face when she caught sight of the dress, “I was wondering when a young witch would find this dress. It is only fitting it would be you.”

Hermione’s face wrinkled in confusion, “I’m sorry ma’am, do we know each other?”

The witch smiled at her as if she knew something Hermione did not, “Oh I suppose you wouldn’t know me yet deary, you are so close though. If I did not know better I would think I had been sucked right into the past!” She handed her purchases to her wrapped in brown paper and placed in a canvas bag charmed to feel light as a feather, “No charge, they are already yours!”

She was ushered to the side by the witch before she could protest ‘why will no one let me pay for anything today’ she grumbled to herself. Shrugging today off as a loss Hermione waited patiently for her friends to finish their purchases. The remarks from the elderly witch stuck with her however, even being greeted by her favorite food at dinner (slow roasted beef and jacket potatos) could not shake the odd feeling her conversation in the shop had left her with.

With a shake of her head she managed to break off from her friends after dinner and sneak down to the dungeons. Sev would know what to do about the witch in Hogsmeade, she was sure of it. There had never been a time where Hermione did not understand something and Sev could not explain it to her, he had been her sounding board for the quirks of various things in life since she was eleven years old. Yes she thought to herself in relief Sev will know what to do.

________________________________________________

Unbenounced to the many residents of Hogwarts castle, in the back of a shop in the village of Hogsmeade an elderly witch was nearly giddy with joy as she bustled about her small kitchen looking for ink and a quill. Twenty years had passed since the night she had been approached by an old school mate to watch out for the bushy haired girl that had stumbled into her shop today and walked off with the very dress the girl herself had commissioned in that same year.

He had seemed concerned for her, as if he had lost someone close to him. When prompted he had murmured something about a daughter, or was it granddaughter? At this point it mattered little she supposed, the girl being found had been the mission she had been left with and after nearly two decades she was finally able to provide her old friend with good news.

She appeared to be about a year younger than she had been the last time the witch had seen her, which she was positive would only serve to confirm suspicions her friend already possessed. She had always been most confused when she would recieve his frequent letters via owl post inquiring if she had arrived over the years as he had always asked after a girl, a student, not a grown witch. Even more than a decade since she had last laid eyes on the girl when she had been a teenager, surely by now she would be a woman grown.

Now a great deal of things were making much more sense. Though she frowned as she realized each answer she possessed would only beg more answers that she did not. Hopefully her friend would be happy with what she could offer him in this moment, if not…well at least he knew where the girl was which was a great improvement on the last nearly two decades he had been searching in vane.

“Ah ha!” She exclaimed in triumph when she opened a drawer and was greeted with the ink well and quill that had begun her hunt.

Settling down at the scuffed dining table in the corner of her kitchen she dipped the quill in her well of ink and began writing a letter she had been waiting to write for a very long time. A smile graced her face as she pictured her friend’s reaction to her letter, for the first time sporting news he wanted to hear.

“Dearest Lord Dagworth-Granger…”

Chapter Text

It took every ounce of self restraint he possessed to keep Severus Snape from bolting out of his quarters the moment Hermione mentioned the old witch in the dress shop she had come across today. As he swallowed the harsh feeling of lying directly to her face while she begged him to figure out answers he claimed not to have he mentally went over how he was going to break it to Minerva that the past had come to haunt them sooner then they had imagined? How had neither of them considered the possibility that the pesky old man had been searching for her this whole time?

Never one to dwell on the unknown for long, Severus ushered Hermione out of his quarters as quickly as was feasible when trying to not make it seem like he was ushering her out before flooing directly to Minerva.

Clearly he startled her with his unplanned arrival in her sitting room. She rose with a start from her sofa, nearly tipping her tea over in the process, “Severus! My dear what are you doing, calling at this hour?”

“Hector Dagworth Granger” Was all he could muster, his arrival had sucked what little energy the adrenaline from Hermione’s confession had mstered inside of him, “And-“ He yanked up the sleeve of his left arm, “He is getting stronger.”

With this news, Minerva sank to her sofa as the blood drained from her face. “I’m not entirely sure where to start.”

Severus snorted in agreement before joining her on the sofa, “We always had a feeling He would come back to haunt us.”

“That is true” Minerva offered feebily, “But Lord Dagworth Granger…”

“He will be a problem.”

It was Minerva’s turn to snort, “That may be the understatement of the century. We have hidden his blood heir from him for over four years. The Wizengamot will have our heads on pikes.”

“Technically, she will not be his blood heir until she meets him in seven months, her time.” Sevrus offered weakly.

Minerva took a sip of her tea, “Ahh but she became his blood heir in the summer of 1975 which, if you do not recall, is twenty years in the past.”

A bone deep sigh escaped Severus, “I am aware of that Minerva. I am simply stating that if the tests were to be done on her magic, they would fail.”

“But if they were done on his,” Minerva ventured, “They would not.”

Neither of them noticed they had gained the audience of a small canary until that canary turned into a man who to a muggle would have appeared to be in his early fifties, but in reality was closer to eighty, “I have no desire to turn either of you in to the Wizengamot, you both mean a great deal to my grand daughter.” He paused, “Though she is not my grand daughter yet, is she?”

This time, Minerva did tip over her tea as both professors jumped up with a shout of surprise, “Lord Dagworth Granger!”

The older wizard chuckled, clearly amused, “Oh I do think we have passed the point where formalities are required, don’t you think?”

Slowly, the wizard made his way across the cozy sitting room and sat down at one of the plush armchairs that faced the sofa both Minerva and Severus had slowly sank back in to, nervous as to what they would experience during the next several minutes, hours, of their lives. Though he was very clearly attempting to hide his displeasure, it was obvious Hector Dagworth Ganger was more than a little miffed that the two individuals in front of him had known where his darling grand daughter had been nearly this entire time and had never lifted a finger to even inform him, leaving him to find out via an old school friend he had told on a whim nearly two decades prior to look out for the girl coming in to her shop as he remembered her mentioning it that first summer when she had swept into his life like the most wonderful hurricane to ever exist.

To an extent he understood their hesitation. It was obvious when his young grand daughter had sought him out with her two young friends all those years ago they had never met before in her previous time line, she had simply been following a lead on a magical family with a name close to her own. Hector knew how time lines worked, he would have never dreamt of potentially upsetting the delicate webs of time by introducing himself to her too early. 

But he could have kept watch, made sure she was alright. Fifteen years, that is what these two had taken from him. It was only his grand daughter’s endearment to them both that prevented him from strangling them on the spot. “Now.” He leaned back in the chair in mock relaxation, “Here is what we are going to be doing.”

________________________________

The night before the first task Hermione was reduced to begging Poppy for a calming draught in order to sleep, the fear of what the next day would bring was simply too much. Early December sun greeted her when she awoke the morning of the First Task, far too cheery in Hermione opinion, considering the events planned for the day. 

She had planned to go down to breakfast early so she could visit with Victor and wish him good luck before Harry came down and required her full attention. He had required three calming draughts before sleep was even an option the night before and, if Ron was to be believed, had still slept fitfully most of the night. A pang of sympathy went through her when she thought of the plight her friend was dealing with. For the fourth year in a row, Harry would not be allowed to enjoy Hogwarts as he should and would instead be forced to jump through flaming hoops just to remain with the living. 

The welcome sight of Victor’s smiling facing greeted her when she opened the portrait door, “Yani!”

“You didn’t have to walk all the way up here for me, I told you I would meet you in the Great Hall so you wouldn’t strain yourself mere hours before you are set to fight a dragon.” Hermione admonished softly.

Victor was clearly uncowed by her response as he hooked her arm with his, “I wanted to spend as much time with you as possible before I have to go down to the tent where we are all set to wait for the task to start.”

She fell into step beside him, “Are you nervous?”

“Yes and no.” He shrugged, “Naturally, the concept of fighting a dragon is somewhat terrifying. But on the other hand, I feel much more prepared than I would have been had I not been given the information ahead of time, as I was supposed to, so there is a sense of contentment in that knowledge.”

Jumping delicately over the trick step, Hermione nodded in understanding, “Harry is feeling much the same way, I think. I’m not sure we could ever repay you for your help the last few days.”

After speaking with Harry in Hogsmeade Victor had come to the realization that Harry was terrifyingly behind in areas of spellwork that would be imperative for him to stay alive in the tournament, let alone compete as he was meant to. Once he spoke with Hermione, Angelina, and the twins along with their other friends it became clear to him they were all years behind most other wizards and witches their age in most subjects and, after bemoaning the horrendous state of their eductaion in Britain, had offered to help them as much as he could without effecting his own schooling and training. The group had met three times in the week since and the improvement was obvious in all of them, but Harry most of all since Victor had elected to make him the focus of his instruction.

Victor, however, did not see why they were all so thankful, “He is your friend, he is important to you, not mention he is a child in a competetion meant for people several years older than him. I would have felt guilty had I elected not to help and he was harmed as a consequence. It should be criminal, what they are doing to him.”

“I agree, but you have all of our gratitude none the less.” She smirked, “My gratitude especially.”

His face broke into a rogueish smile, “Oh? And how do you plan on showing this gratitude to me, my dearest Yani?”

Hermione blushed and before she could think better of it, she placed a kiss on his cheek, “Like that.”

Victor paused his stride to twirl her in his arms with a grin, “If I had known that is how you show your thanks, I would have been more helpful sooner.”

“You are impossible!” She mock glared, knocking his shoulder with her own. Hermione fought a smile as her thoughts turned to the night of the Hogsmeade trip when she and the girls had indulged in a girls night, kicking Lavender and Parvati out so they could have the dorm to themselves.

After Hermione, Ginny, and Luna got settled on the floor with mugs of butterbeer they had smuggled back with them from Hogsmeade the girls began discussing in earnest everything from their trip into the nearby village that day. Ginny and Luna had both been giddy at their ability to finally go after two years of being left behind while the rest of the school enjoyed the weekends away from the castle.

“That witch at the dress shop was something else.” Hermione mentioned when the conversation turned to their time dress shopping that afternoon.

Luna shrugged, “She was surrounded by fudmuxens the moment she saw you.”

“You’re saying it was something with me specifically that made her all weird and cryptic?” Hermione grumbled.

Even if Hermione had been thinking along the same lines (the witch had been completely normal with everyone else) it irked her to hear it stated so plainly by her friemd. Luna wasn’t cowed by her irritation though, “Not you persay, more like she knows something about you. Your Professors get that way sometimes too.” She leaned back into the mountain of pillows she had behind her, “I think they know something we don’t. Not just the normal adult stuff either. Its something else.”

Ginny murmured her approval but seemed unwilling to allow the three girls to waste their evening trying to parce together whatever madness was going on with the adults in Hermione’s life. She quickly changed the subject to more ‘pleasant’ topics, “My brother sucks.”

Hermione raised a brow, “I am so terribly sorry Ginevra but you are going to have to be a bit more specific with a statement like that.”

Luna swallow a snort when she became the subject of Ginny Weasley’s signature Glare of Death that typically spelled nothing but torment (and a mean bat bogey hex) “If you would let me finish you insufferable woman, my brother sucks but you shouldn’t let that dictate your romantic life.”

“I’m not.” Ginny raised an eyebrow at the lie, “No listen ok? I’m honestly not. I just don’t think right now is the time to get all tangled up with Victor when the whole mess with Fred was like not even a month ago.”

Luna shrugged, “Pretending the kempies are there doesn’t make them go away, it just makes them buzz louder until you give them your attention.”

This is so not the conversation she was wanting to have right now, “Look, just give me some time, ok? We’re going to the ball together, we hang out all the time. Its not like I’m scorning the guy or anything I’m just not jumping at the chance to drag him behind a tapestry for a quick snog just yet. Give me some time to breathe first. Maybe even find a way to get your idiot brother to stop looking at me like I’ve snapped his wand right in front of him every time we make eye contact before I go jumping to my next wizard.”

Ginny giggled, “Behind a tapestry, hmm? How many times has that made an appearance in your day dreams?”

Hermione flung a pillow at her head, “You both are insufferable I swear to Merlin!”

She had been trying to take the girls’ words to heart while also maintaining some space so her last failed attempt at romance did not repeat itself. Clearly jumping into things without a real thought to the consequences had not worked out so well for her last time and Hermione did not possess enough friends to be alienating them willy nilly. If Victor was really someone who was worth her time, he wouldn’t mind waiting to snog her for a few more weeks.

But she was finding it more and more difficult not to snog him as time went on, if she were to be honest with herself. Between his tender care in Hogsmeade and his increasingly stead fast commitment to helping them keep Harry alive…how was she supposed to not snog the absolute day lights out of him?! 

For the sake of Merlin she was a teenage girl not some elderly matron! Victor was positively gorgeous (in her opinion any way), kind, athletic (the irony did not escape her that she liked the look of quidditch players despite not really caring for the game), and smart though no one seemed to notice anything but his talent on a broom. More than once she had, much to the entertainment of her friends, been nearly caught daydreaming in class by professors asking her questions when she had not been paying attention in the slightest. Only her steadfast commitment to staying weeks ahead in her classes had saved her in those instances and that would not be something she could always rely on, especially in her NEWT level courses as she found herself struggling to keep up with her work load for the first time in her life (time turner induced psychosis not withstanding).

Slowly but surely, Victor had been worming through her defenses by proving time and time again that he was there for her and nothing else. He simply enjoyed her company and if she ended up being willing to give him more…well he was a teenage wizard after all. She had noticed a few times where he had been…affected by things she had unwittingly done while spending time with him that had left her blushing in the moment and daydreaming hours later. Not that he had ever said anything, no Victor was a perfect gentleman at all times when he was with her. Hermione found herself unable to hide the smile that thought gave her and soon Victor was sporting one as well.

“Want to let me in on what has you so entertained, Yani?” 

A half laugh answered him, “Not particularly, no.”

His indignant growl only made her laugh more as she fought the turn her thoughts were taking at the sound. Soon they were seated in her usual spot about halfway down at the Gryffindor table, loading up their plates with a variety of savory breakfast fair. The table swere already piled high with mountains of food sitting under stasis charms patiently waiting for students to enter the Great Hall for their pre-task breakfast.

Hermione found her appetite leaving her as the events of today crashed to the forefront of her mind. Victor took notice of her change in mood with a frown, “You should not worry for your friend, he will be alright. The training we have given him is more than sufficient.”

She poked at her eggs in disinterest, “I wasn’t worried about Harry. He’ll do fine I’m sure, that boy has a supernatural ability to stay alive in even the least accomodating situations.”

His brow raised slightly, “Then what has you so upset you can barely eat?”

“I’m worried about you, ok?” Her frustration with the entire situation was showing through and she knew it, though she found it difficult to care. “What if you get hurt? Or killed? I haven’t stopped thinking about it in days!” Tears pricked at her eyes and she wiped at them, irritated at her body’s stupid need to show her frustration physically, “The more I worried about Harry, and researched what he would need to know to survive this bloody thing, the more it occurred to me that you also are going to be in this tournament and-i’ve never felt so freaking useless in my life!”

The look on Victor’s face was hard for Hermione to descern, and she began to worry she had upset him with her outburst when he spoke, “You are worried…for me?”

Hermione sniffed, “Why is that so hard for you to believe? Do you not think you are important to me?”

Victor shrugged, “We are friends. You have many friends, it is not as if you would be hurting for them if I were gone.”

“I could have a million friends I still would worry about them being in danger! And besides,” her cheeks flushed, “you are different.”

A small smile peeked through his features, “You are different for me too.”

Like so many things with Victor, the conversation was that simple. He would not push her to give him more than she could, to coddle his emotions and hold his ego in her hands. No, Victor Krum was perfectly complete without Hermione in his life and while it might not sound like a romantic thought but to Hermione it was. It meant that Victor was choosing to have her in his life simply because she made it better, not because he needed her to survive. 

The simplicity of that made her feel as if she could breathe and be herself in the moments they shared without the weight of expectations she could never meet looming over her like an anvil waiting to crash into her when she least expects it. It was only after the heavy burden of Fred’s idolitry had lifted from her shoulders that she noticed how much it had worn on her, how much it had taken from her to uphold. The farther she got from it, the less weary she became, and the more she longed for the boy who sat beside her now smiling as if he had no where he would rather be but in this simple moment existing with her.

Their breakfast together passed in quiet, companionable silence though if Hermione’s arm brushed against his a few times too many for it to be an accident…well he surely wasn’t calling her on it. Towards the end of their time together when more student sbegan trickling in for food before making the trek to where the first task was set to take place Victor turned to her with a tentative smile.

“The families of the champions are going to be here for the task today.”

Hermione smiled softly, “Yes, Harry has been sulking for days since his parents are obviously not going to be here so he thinks he’s going to be all alone but between you and I, a little birdy has told me the Weasleys are coming to see him compete. He’s going to be so surprised.”

Victor nodded, “Its good that he has people who care about him. Thats not why I was telling you that though.”

Hermione’s brow furrowed, “Oh?”

Victor’s face grew nervous, “Yes well, my parents are going to be coming today and…well I was sort of hoping you would be there with me when they come see me after the task.”

“Victor I don’t know, we haven’t really talked about-“

His hand on her arm stopped her in the middle of her sentence, “This is not me trying to trap you into meeting my parents Yani, I promise. Its just, my brothers aren’t going to be here and-“

“And being the center of their attention is a lot.” She finished for him with a small sigh. “I’ll think about it. I’m not promising anything but…I guess its not any different than when I go over to the Weasley house over breaks.”

A grin spread over Victor’s face before he placed a small kiss on her cheek. She flushed crimson, they had never kissed before the quick peck on his cheek that morning so the sudden sign of affection had thrown her senses into over drive. She was nearly positive she would feel the outline of his lips against her cheek for hours after he had walked away from her. “Thank you Yani, you are amazing.” He spun his head around, “It looks like your friends are walking in, I will see you after the task.” 

To her shock he kissed her again (this time on the forehead), almost absently as if they had been doing this every day of their lives, and then walked across the Great Hall to sit beside the other students from Durmstrang that were all huddled together on one end of the Slytherin table.

Ginny and Luna were sporting identical chesire grins when they sat beside her a few moments later. “Did we just-“

“Shut up!” She hissed before they could voice the business end of their question, “I do not have the answer to your question because I myself am still trying to wrap my head around what just happened!”

Both girls grinned, “Oh you are so lucky the first task is today otherwise we would be dragging your arse right back up to Gryffindor tower.”

Hermione was spared the need to respond by the appearance of a near ghostly pale Harry being led to the table by a very worried looking Ron. She quickly turned her attention to her friend, fussing over him and demanding he get some food in his system before he had to leave to walk down to the first task. All the while pointedly ignoring the knowing glances her two best friends sent her way every chance they could, complete gossips the both of them. 

_____________________________

When Hermione watched Victor walk out into the stadium to face off against the menacing red dragon the announcer informed them was a Chinese Fireball, she thought she might not survive witnessing this task. Harry’s confrontation with the Hungarian Horntail made her nearly certain she would never survive until the end of the Tournament. Her boys were going to be the death of her for sure. This tournament was going to be the death of her.

Storming into the medical tent in search of reassurance both boys still remained in the land of the living, Hermione scarcely noticed the irritating green beetle that had been a thorn in her side all morning. Flicking the buzzing creature away from her person with an annoyed scoff and brushing past the half panicked French of the Beuxbatons champion’s family, she leveled the most threatening glare she could muster at the two boys who huddled at the back of the tent in an effort to avoid the press outside. “YOU!”

Both boys cringed, but it was Victor who spoke first, “Yani! We both survived, and with barely even a scratch!”

A lesser man would have likely struggled to control his bladder when faced with the glare she leveled him with, but he did not seem swayed, “Survived? SURVIVED? Thats all you have to say for me after you nearly died no less than six times right in front of me?!”

“Ahh but you see, it is the nearly that is important slantchitse, the devil is in the details!” His cheeky smirk made her consider if murder was something she could reasonably convince Sev to help her cover up (it was).

“Why you little-“ She huffed, “You cannot just quote Bulgarian terms of endearment to me and expect me to not throttle you!”

Victor’s face spoke of a man who was enjoying this conversation far too much for his own good, “Oh Yani, I assure you there is nothing you could do that I would not enjoy.”

She got a deadly look on her face, “Oh so if I were to shove my foot up your-“

“Why can’t you ever threaten to put things places I want them to be?” Victor grimaced slightly.

“Because it wouldn’t be a punishment if you liked it!”

With a truly lecherous grin Victor poked her lightly in the ribs, “Oh Yani, you are missing out on so much if you don’t know that punishment can be extremely fun.”

Harry, who the both of them had clearly forgot was present, nearly choked at the other boy’s insinuation. “Hi Hermione!”

He quickly regretted turning her attention to him when she spun around to face him (honestly Mrs. Weasley was less terrifying than her sometimes) and began to wonder why he hadn’t just let whatever that had been continue instead of turning the rage that Victor had done nothing to alleviate on himself, “Oh do not even get me started with you Harry Potter! Just what in the bloody hell were you thinking summoning your broom like that?! I remember expressly telling you it was a terrible idea seeing as how brooms are made from wood. Which, in case you weren’t aware, is flammable and you were facing off against a creature that breathes FIRE!”

“But ‘Mione-“

“Oh do not ‘but ‘Mione’ me! You could have died! You could have been roasted alive! You both could hav-“ Her anger promptly fizzled out and was replaced with the sobbing of a girl who had watched as two of her friends nearly died in front of her without her being able to help them.

She sank to the ground in a puddle of tears, the stress of the morning too much for her to deal with all of a sudden. Ginny and Luna had barely been able to keep her in the stands when Victor had narrowly avoided becoming lunch when fighting the Chinese Fireball and the surge of emotions the task had  brought on had brought the startling realization of the depth of her feelings for Victor with it. 

Of course she hadn’t really had the time to work through this realization since as soon as Victor was done being in danger Harry had been up against a Hungarian Horntail and all thoughts of anything accept for HOLY FREAKING MERLIN’S GHOST ON A FLAMING BROOMSTICK HARRY IS GOING TO DIE left her mind completely.

Arms wrapped around her in a protective embrace as every last drop of adrenaline that she had been using to keep moving forward for the last several hours faded from her body leaving her feeling like an empty shell of the witch she usually was. The calming sound of Victor’s voice soothed her tears and she reveled in the comforting words he whispered in her ear, “We are alright Yani, we are safe. I am so sorry we scared you mila, you were so brave. It is over now, we are safe now, you can rest.”

She burrowed into the steady comfort of Victor’s arms, her mind immediately working through the implications of the feelings she was positive she could no longer deny. Day dreaming in class was one thing but the way she felt for Victor…it was only gaining strength within her. Unlike the crush she had developed for Fred before, which had centered around her being overwhelmed at the concept of a boy giving her attention even vaguely romantic in connotation, her feelings for Victor had started small and slowly built. Much like a snowball falling down a slow decline, the feelings had grown steadily with each passing day as they slowly but surely created a foundation of friendship and mutual understanding that had grown into something more.

While she had been able to ignore the growing feelings for awhile and instead focus on the absolute dumpster fire that had been her love life the last few weeks, the argument with Fred in Hogsmeade had created a tentative armistice if not a return to thier previous closeness between the two friends and so she was quickly running out of reasons to avoid the ever deepening friendship she had cultivated with Victor. Her only argument at this point was that she was scared and well, what sort of Gryffindor chooses to hide from her fears instead of facing them?

Hiccups replaced her tears after awhile, her body exhausted of its ability to cry. She had been doing so much of it lately it was truly a wonder she still possessed the ability at all. Her first three years at Hogwarts dealing with the schnanigans of Harry and Ronald had not nearly prepared her for the emotional rollercoaster that her fourth was proving to be. Surely she would run out of tears at some point, a body could only make so much.

At some point Harry had joined them on the ground and it was this makeshift floor huddle that greeted both the Weasley clan and what was presumably the Krum parents upon their entrance into the medical tent. When Hermione did a quick glance around the tent she noted that the other champions families had already left the tent with them, likely during Hermione’s admittedly dramatic scolding of Harry and Victor.

Mrs. Weasley seemed confused and vaguely concerned, Mr. Weasley seemed bemused, and the Krum parents appeared to be hovering somewhere between bemusment and surprise at how they had found their son after watching him fight a dragon. She noted the older Weasley boys behind their parents giving eachother questioning glances trying to do whatever math was required to understand the position the three of them were in without any context.

A crimson flush washed over Hermione’s face when she realized that she had become the unwitting center of the four adults’ attention. She quickly extracted herself from the worried embrace of her friends and, after wiping the tears from her face, turned around to slowly face the assembled adults. “Hi.”

Mrs. Weasley came bustling up to her, wrapping her in a motherly hug while fussing over her as if she had been the one fighting the dragon. “Oh you poor dear! You must have been terrified, Dumbledore is a great man but this tournament is unconscionable. To have children competing this way!”

Whether it had been her intention or not (Hermione was leaning towards the latter since everyone knew Mrs. Weasley was a natural worrier) the words of the older witch soothed something in Hermione’s soul. She felt her magic settling the longer she was locked in the matronly embrace of the Weasley matriarch. After a few moments she pulled away with a sniffle to allow Harry to be fussed over like she knew he needed after what he had just gone through.

She attempted to slowly back away towards the tent entrance in order to allow the boys to visit with their families in private but she had barely made it half way when Victor’s voice pulled her attention to the corner his parents had pulled him to, “Yani, I would like to introduce you to my parents. Manka, bashta, this is my friend Yani.”

I should’ve known he wasn’t going to let me sneak out of here she thought to herself. With a nervous smile she waved slightly to the dark haired man and woman, “Zdraveĭ, chudesno e da se zapoznaem.” (Hello, it is wonderful to meet you)

Victor’s head whipped around in surprise, “Koga nauchi bŭlgarski?” (when did you learn Bulgarian?”

She blushed, “I don’t know all that much…but I’ve been practicing. It turns out it is similar enough to Russian that I have been able to pick it up quicker than I thought I would.”

“You know Russian?” Victor’s father asked in a thick Bulgarian accent.

Victor grinned, throwing an arm around Hermione’s shoulders, “She also knows French, Italian and Mandarin. Yani is very smart. She is two years ahead in many of her classes too.”

Hermione flushed crimson under the now surprised gaze of Victor’s parents, “Victor exaggerates, I am only ahead in Potions, Transfiguration, and Charms. The rest I am with my year group.”

Both adults shared a shocked look, “You are a year ahead in three of your core classes? That is amazing!”

She would kill Victor for this, he was messing with her for the fun of it and she knew it, “No ma’am, I am actually two years ahead. I took my OWLs at the end of last term and am in NEWT level courses for all three subjects.”

Victor had a self satisfied look on his face for the rest of the day every time his parents would pepper Hermione with questions about her schooling instead of demanding information about how he was keeping up with his Quidditch training while in the tournament. She was positive this was his payback for her making him play spy the weekend before in Hogsmeade, though she wasnt sure if she could really muster up any annoyance at his feeding her to the proverbial wolves if it meant he got to have one afternoon with his parents that did not center around his burgeoning quidditch career.

_______________________________________________

It was late in the evening when she said her goodbyes to the Krum family and made her way back to Gryffindor tower. The Headmaster had offered special passes to be out past curfew to those that had been occumpaning the champions and their families that day so she was surprised to find someone in the common room several hours after curfew had passed. Once she saw who it was on her way up to her dorm room thes surprise was quickly replaced with trepidation.

“How were the Krums?”

She cocked her head, not entirely understanding his line of questioning. It occurred to her he could be picking a fight and she almost threw up a muffliato but then he shocked her when he gave her a small smile.

“I saw you with them after the task, his parents seemed like they like you.”

Tentatively allowing the conversation since he seemed to come in peace she sat down beside him on the couch, “They were…interesting. Honestly I spent most of the day playing interference.”

Fred’s brow furrowed in confusion, “Interference? Why were you having to play interference?” 

She played with a loose thread on her jumper, “Its hard for him, they are so obsessed with his quidditch career they barely remember he is a person outside of quidditch. So if I made some well timed comments about how advanced I am in Potions or Charms or whatever whenever I could tell the conversation was turning to quidditch well at least he got a stress free afternoon with his parents for once.”

This bothered him, she could tell, though she wasn’t sure if it bothered him for the same reason it bothered her or if he was simply annoyed she went to the trouble for Victor at all. “Is that how it always is for him?”

So it did bother him for a similar reason it bothered her. A wry smirk settled on her face as she noted that this conversation was beginning to feel like it wasn’t entirely about Victor…though she doubted anything with the two of them had been entirely about Victor. It seemed as if most of their conversations centered aroujd Victor as a scape goat for deeper issues. “It can start to feel like it sometimes. When all anyone asks you about is this one part of you after a while it can feel like that is the only part any one cares about. As if the rest of you just doesn’t exist besides to get the important part from point A to point B.” 

She was so tired of fighting with him. All she wanted was her best friend back. That kiss had clearly been more trouble than it had ever been worth with how it had blown up their lives the last few weeks. “Fred I-“

“I’m sorry.” He interrupted her. His body turned to face hers, “Earlier today I saw you with them and I- I honestly thought about causing a scene like I did in Hogsmeade because I am no better than my idiot little brother apparently. But then I heard you interrupt his dad when he had been about to ask Krum a question and start talking about obscure Potions theory and I saw the look of relief cross Krum’s face and then it hit me, thats what he does for you isn’t it?”

His face grew sad as if he knew the answer even if he hated that it was the truth, “In your world I am the person begging you to show off how perfect that one part of you is and he’s the one stepping in trying to move the spotlight away from you so you can just breathe for a minute.”

Hermione felt the familiar pricking behind her eyes as she fought back another round of tears, she was honestly so tired of crying at this point, “Yeah, he is. I don’t think you mean to make me feel that way any more than Victor’s parents do. They aren’t bad people you know, it’s just he wants their approval so badly but they never see him all they see is the greatest seeker of the last century or so and I can tell it kills him that all they ever ask him about is quidditch but he’ll continue to answer everything because all he wants it their love.” 

Her hands shook in her lap, “And I’m the same way with you, I have spent so long trying to force myself into whatever shape is most easy for people to love that I-. I catch myself all the time trying to convince myself that if I just try a little harder, shove myself down a little farther, than I can be the person you see when you look at me. It physically hurts to stop myself from making myself smaller in order to make you happy. It kills me that I am too much for you…but I am slowly reaching this place where I can tell you if I’m too much then you need to go find less.”

Fred’s hand slowly, tentatively, as if he might spook her if he moved too fast, came to rest atop hers, “You aren’t too much for me, I’m not enough for you.” His eyes rose at the look of irritation that crossed her face, “No no not in the way you’re thinking, I’m not saying you are perfect or any of the other stupid, idiotic, Merlin cursed shit I have been spewing the last month or so. I’m just saying- you need someone who can be the person to pull the spotlight off of you when it gets to be too much. Who can be in your world while also being your shelter from that world  and it is finally dawning on me that I am not the person who can do that.”

She sniffled, “Its not that you can’t do that Fred, I just don’t think you want to. And honestly, thats ok. Its ok to know you are not the person for the job, you aren’t less of a person for knowing when to say you aren’t the wizard for the job.”

“Yeah I know.” His sigh was bone deep and full of a longing she recognized, the longing of someone who knew they couldn’t have what they wanted even if they still wanted it so badly it physically hurt. “But I want to be that guy for you, I want to be your shelter in the storm. It kills me that I can’t be that for you.”

“Maybe not,” she bumped her shoulder against his, “but you can be my best friend, my business partner-“ she snorted, “my Official Wizard to Muggle Translator. No one else can be those things quite like you.”

He was silent for a moment, “…can I threaten his life in the event of his making you cry?”

“Even if I told you no, you would do it anyway so I do not know why you are bothring to ask.”

“Seemed like the nice thing to do.” He smirked.

Silence fell after his comment, not a bad silence just-silence. Hermione found herself contemplating how much her life had changed since she had arrived at the Burrow last summer at Ginny’s request. Her and the girls were closer than ever, she had a solid friendship with Harry, she had gained friends in the form of the twins, Lee, and the older girls in Gryffindor. It was almost perfect, she wondered if it would feel more perfect if she and Fred could have worked as a couple.

“Do you think it would have ever worked with us?” She asked absently.

A shrug was his answer, “Maybe, in a different world where we didn’t have all of this craziness going on around us. But honestly Mi, I think we were just meant to be friends. Best friends for sure, I can’t imagine my life without you in it, but friends none the less.”

“Like platonic soul mates.” She said quietly after a moment.

He grinned, “Yeah I like that, platonic soul mates.”

She leaned into his side, a part of her settling that had been living in a constant state of unrest for weeks. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too,” He turned to look down at her, “Lets never do this again, yeah?”

She smirked, “Well then don’t be an unconscionably irritating arse again.”

He snorted, “I promise nothing.”

“Yeah, yeah, sometime I think ‘inconscionably irritating arse’ is you Weasley boys default state of being.”

“I can see how it could come across that way.”

That sat in comfortable silence after that, simply enjoying the presence of one another and the easy existence of their renewed friendship. Hermione found herself luxurating in the simple pleasure of finally having one of her dearest friends back, and having the mess that had been the Fred Situation finally resolved after weeks of both teens tiptoeing around the castle trying to avoid confrontation with the other. 

He was the one to break their silence, “So…i’m a better kisser than him right?”

She dug an elbow into his soft spot with viscious abandon, “You are impossible Fred Weasley!”

His laughter followed her in her mad dash up the stairs to her dorm room, “Ah come on Mi! A bloke deserves to know if he’s better at snogging than an international quidditch star!”

Chapter Text

Grumbling under his breath to avoid burrating the witch that had run into him, Severus Snape continued on his search for the girl he had misplaced mear moments ago. Minerva had warned him what happened when one allowed her in Florish and Blotts but had he listened? Of course not. He had assured Minerva she was simply being overprotective and that he could quote, “Handle a single child for an afternoon.”

He could not, in fact, handle this child it would appear. The moment they had entered the book shop she had disappeared into seemingly thin air and he had been fruitlessly searching the stacks for her ever since.

Despite his best efforts Severus found that this was how he spent he free time more often than not these days, the child Hermione was no less enthralling that the teenage Nia (though for entirely different reasons), and he struggled to tell her no just as much. He had never had the power to say no to her, especially not when it was about books. Oh how Nia loved books.

In truth for all he blustered and grandstanded when Minerva would bring it up, the thought of being her professor had worried him before she had crept into his room a month ago. Mia had been such a …transformative fixture in his life he worried he would struggle to seperate the child Hermione from the witch he had known. He should never have worried, the moment she had stumbled back into his life he had felt nothing but protective affection for the girl.

Though in so many ways the same she differed much from Nia, there was an innocence to her that Nia had lost before she met him. He had wondered over the years if she had ever possessed it or if she had simply appeared one day fully formed as the spitfire teen ready to raise hell and defend the innocent that he had fallen in love with. Severus found himself enjoying the inquisitive swotty nature of Hermione more than he could have imagined and oftentimes had to stop himself from chuckling when she eagerly supplied an answer to a question before it was even asked.

But he was positive her obsession with this bookshop would be the death of him. “Where the bugger has she gotten off to?” He murmured under his breath as he left the Transfiguration section. By process of elimination she should be in the Charms section provided she hadn’t moved since he had already searched the rest of the shop quite thoroughly. If only he could be so lucky.

The gods must have been smiling on him that day since the next aisle over gifted him the object of his search, curled up in a pile of books devouring a third year Charms tome. She glanced up at the sound of his footfalls, her face growing sheepish when she noticed the irritation on his own. “Sevvy!”

“I thought I told you to stay in the Potions section while I procured ingredients in the Apothecary, girl. Imagine my surprise when I discover you were not there upon my reentering this establishment. If you cannot follow instructions you will not be allowed these trips.”

Tears welled in the girl’s eyes and he immediately felt like a bastard for making her upset. He knew she meant no harm, she was simply curious and had wandered off. But Severus knew what went bump in the night and was terrified of what would happen to the young witch while he was not around.

“I’m sorry Sevvy! I didn’t mean to frighten you, I swear it. Only, as I was reading in the Potions section I noticed this fascinating little paragraph on charmwork in relation to potions and-“

He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose in defeat, “And you simply had to go see what it was about. Hermione, truly I understand your thirst for knowledge. Better than most I would wager. But,” he sat down beside her to bring himself more level with her, “the world is dangerous and you are but a girl, you must be careful.”

Wiping the tears from her cheeks, she sniffled and nodded, “I understand Sevvy, I’ll be careful, promise.”

They picked up the tomes that surrounded her with practised care, making sure to stack them for ease of carrying since he was too tired to even attempt to argue against her ‘need’ do purchase all of them. Once their purchase was complete he silently shrank them down in order to place them in the pocket of his robes, “What do you say we stop by Fortesques before we head back to the castle?”

A grin spread across the girl’s cheeks, “Oh Sevvy could we? Minerva never keeps the Fairy Mint Chip stocked in the cupboard!”

Thats because she knows I’ve been keeping a steady supply of the stuff as long as she’s known me despite hating mint, and chocolate he thought wryly. Her love for the stuff was one of the things she would clearly not outgrow and he had been keeping a pint in his cupboard in stasis for years waiting for the day she would come for it.

That was the rub of it all, Severus had found. It was one of the many things Hermione and Nia had in common. They always left him waiting, searching for a witch that seemed to constantly be just outside his reach.

_____________________________________

“Is sex different for wizards than it is for muggles?”

Severus choked on the tea he had been about to swallow before Hermione had blurted out her question, sending him into an intense coughing fit as he attempted to expel the tea from his lungs. Hermione quickly began apologizing, realizing she may have taken the wrong approach with this question.

After her finally regained his ability to breathe, Severus turned to her, “Is this about the Prophet article?”

Hermione scowled, that stupid Rita Skeeter was officially on her list. The morning after the first task, everyone had been expecting a large spread on the task and its results. What they got instead was a gossip rag about the love lives of the champions, or more specifically about her lovelife with the champions. Harry had seriously considered hiding in his dorm for the next month after the particularly inspired comments regarding his “aching heart” at the “betrayal of his one true love” when Rita had been spinning her tale of woe in relation to the apparent love triangle that was going on between Hermione, Harry, and Victor.

Victor had taken his name being front page news about as well as she figured he would. He had taken all the blame on himself, convinced this was only happening because of the media’s unhealthy obsession with him that had been steadily growing right alongside his quidditch career. It had taken two full days and Fred off all people pulling him aside and telling him to yank his wand out of his arse for him to stop avoiding Hermione in some noble attempt to “shield her” or something.

“No Severus, this is not about that Merlin be damned Prophet article.”

He turned his gaze back to his tea, “Well then go ask your mother.”

Hermione blanched, “I cant-you can’t seriously be telling me to go talk to Minerva Mcgonagall about sex!”

“Better her than me.” He was honestly looking a bit green, “You cannot be asking me about this, I-I cannot be the one to talk to you about this.”

She rolled her eyes, “Oh come on Sev, you can’t be serious! We talk about everything!”

He refused to meet her gaze, “Not about this we don’t. This is something that has got to be firmly in Minerva’s territory.”

At this point she was dug in, how dare he refuse to tell her about this! Severus had never treated her like she was less simply because she was a witch but if he was going to make her pretend that she was some virginal prude just to appease his delicate sensibilities…”I’ll tell Mum you were the reason she had to deal with all of her desks turning into farm animals the summer before my first year!”

He glowered at her, “You and I both know that was caused by your accidental magic!”

She wasn’t backing down, “That may be Sevvy, but Mum doesn’t know that does she?”

He began muttering curses under his breath that she was positive were less than flattering in her regard. But she knew just as well as he did that she had him with this one, Minerva would have him for dinner if Hermione told her he had been the one to turn all of her desks into animals, and there was nothing that he could do to stop it besides telling her what she wanted to know.

“What are you wanting to know?” He ceded after he got through with his grumbling.

Damn, she hadn’t really expect to get this far and now she was nervous. “Fred mentioned that the reason divorce rates are so low in the wizarding world is because having sex with someone mingles your magics together, is that true?”

Severus shook his head, “No. That is a very common misconception.”

“So sex is completely the same as it is with muggles?” She let out a sigh of relief, the idea of only having sex with someone if she was ready to basically be married to them hadn’t sat well with her. No that she was intending on becoming some sort of Jezebel but still.

A look of deep discomfort was on Severus’s face, “Well not exactly.”

Her brow rose, “What do you mean not exactly Severus Snape?”

“Well…” he seemed to decide the best way to survive this conversation was to take the ‘rip off the plaster’ approach, “Magic does factor into it but not in such a strict sense as that. Its more, if you are not compatible with someone your magic will…not allow it to get that far. You can…be with as many people as you want-“ he winced, “but you may find yourself liking someone and then suddenly-“

“Be annoyed at their presence.” Hermione finished in a near whisper.

He nodded gravely, “Precisely. It is one of the crueler aspects of magic truth be told, muggles are offered a fair bit more freedom in their choices.”

But what would be the point? If you were so incompatible your magic was repulsed at the idea of a union…”Is that why muggle relationships fail at a higher rate than magical ones? If they don’t even know who they are compatible with…”

“Perhaps,” he ran hand through his hair, “honestly Hermione, this is not something I have truly thought about all that much. When I told you I was not the person to ask, I was being serious.”

“How is this not something you have-“ The deathly glare he levelled her with did more to quell her curiousity than his earlier words had come close to doing so despite her growing list of questions she let the matter drop, much to Severus’s obvious relief.

It was not a common occurance, even now, that Sev did not have the answers to whatever knowledge she was seeking. He had broad knowledge on a lot of subjects, both magical and muggle, so to have him not know the answers to questions that she felt everyone must ask at one point left her perplexed.

Another question to add to the ever growing list she had been dubbing ‘For Later’ that she had every intention of grilling Sev on once the moment felt right. Like why she sometimes caught him looking at her as if he saw someone in her thar was not there. Or why he and Minerva would suddenly stop speaking when she walked into the room as if they had been speaking about her.

Or why she felt the way she did about him. Why, as she got older, suddenly she found herself comparing all boys to him and finding them lacking. Well, she mused, not Victor. Victor was a conundrum for many reasons, perhaps that one most of all. Why did he measure up in ways no one else could without even trying? Maybe that should be added to her list of questions. Why was Victor Krum the one boy who could make her mind shut up for a change?

Something made her doubt even Sev could answer that question for her. If even she could not understand why her mind worked the way it did, how was anyone else supposed to?

____________________________________

“Whats it like?”

“What is what like?”

The girl kicked her feet absently, still too short to reach on the stool in his laboratory. “Being a grown up, silly!”

The questions this girl could come up with astonished Severus, if only he could figure out how her mind worked he would have it made. “Boring. And annoying.”

She cocked her head to the side in clear confusion, “Why’s that? I feel like it would be amazing!” she spun the stool with a giggle.

“Oh?” He fought a smile, “And why would you think that?”

“Well,” she chewed on her lip, “You get to eat all the Fairy Chip Mint icecream you want which is so cool. Plus there’s no Minerva telling you its bed time so you can stay up super late reading books. Oh! And you get a wand!”

He nodded, mock ceding her point, “Those do sound like good reasons to be a grown up I won’t lie.” She grinned in triumph, “But, I think you are missing some important information.”

Her face screwed up, clearly irritated at the insinuation she could possibly not know something as vital as the benefits of being a grown up, “Oh yeah? Like what?”

His potion lay bubbling under stasis, momentarily forgotten in favor of the conversation he had been pulled into. “Well, why does Minerva tell you when its bedtime and make sure you eat other things besides sweets?”

Hermione paused, clearly intent on putting a great deal of thought into her answer. While she pondered his question he began cleaning up his workstation as best he could to make it easier later on. A few moments passed, Hermione still deep in thought. He had just finished his cleaning when she turned to him, “Minerva does those things because she loves and cares about me and because she wants to make sure I am taken care of.”

“Correct.” He turned to her, “Why do you think grown ups are allowed to do those things regardless of what other people say?”

This seemed to bring her pause for a moment as well though she did recover quicker, “Because they don’t have a Minerva looking out for them?” She asked quietly.

His nod was perfunctory, “Precisely, grown ups are allowed to do things kids aren’t because there is no one there taking care of them.”

“So they are all alone?” She asked.

“Yes, they are all alone” He pulled the stasis off of the cauldron, “Well unless they have children of course”

“Sevvy?” her voice broke him from his concentration, “Are you all alone?”

He sighed, “Child, I have not been allowed to be alone since you came into my life and demanded my undivided attention.”

She grinned, “Good. I don’t want you or Minerva to ever be alone.”

“I have great news for you then, because neither of us get to be alone since we have you to keep alive.”

“So as long as I’m not a grown up you aren’t alone?”

In retrospect, he should have seen where this was going, “Merlin’s sweaty beard child, do either of us look alone to you?!”

She smiled, seeming for all the world as if she had accomplished some great feat, “Then I will never grow up!” She stood up to leave. “You’ll see Sevvy, I’ll never grow up! I swear it!”

Severus sat alone in his sitting room long after Hermione had left for the Great Hall. He had been struggling for months, ever since she had come back from her summer holiday at the Burrow she had been…different. Every day more and more he had to physically stop himself from calling her Nia, she was beginning to act so much like her if it wasn’t for the Gryffindor tie around her neck he would think he had been sucked through time most days.

He felt like a lecher and was beginning to loathe himself if he were being honest. His own mind played tricks on him frequently and more often than not these days his dreams brought him back to his youth. To a girl with wild chestnuts curls and devious smile that spelled nothing but trouble. He awoke from dreams of long summer days lazing half nude by the stream outside her manor to the unforgiving cold of the dungeons and would scream in rage at the unfairness of it all.

How he longed to hold her in his arms, it had been so long since he had been with her. Nia was all he could think about these days, it was truly a wonder he even showed up to teach half the time. The reappearance of Hector was no help either. Seeing him only reminded Severus all the more of the girl he had lost and of the mess she would be coming back to in an increasingly short amount of time. All of the problems they had put off for the future were coming home to roost much sooner than he wanted, even if he could not stop himself from longing for the day she would return to him.

Even then, there would still be secrets. She would not be his, not truly, for years to come. His Nia was still over two years away from him and honestly he wasn’t completely convinced she would not hate him once she was back. The things he had done…no matter what poppy cock Minerva wanted to spew about redemption he knew Nia was not the forgiving type. Regulus Black could surely attest to the validity of that claim.

June grew ever nearer, looming over him with promises of the sweetest pain one could imagine. He hated keeping secrets from Hermione, but at least he could do it. He had never been able to keep anything from Nia, she always saw straight through him and he had never been hiding something as big as what he would have to be hiding when she came back. So much hurt, so much tragedy, awaited them all and despite what he had always told Minerva about the inevitability of time all he had ever wanted was to spare Hermione the pain Nia had been forced to go through time and time again.

“If only you had been able to keep your promise.”

______________________________________

Hermione bit her lip in concentration and let out a colorful string of curses at the infernal potion that simply refused to do as it was told. The idea of modifing a protean charm and combining it with a polyjuice potion had seemed like a good idea when inspiration had struck a few days ago but was in truth turning out to be more of a headache than anything else. A duplication potion would be an amazing base to a plethora of potential joke products but the protean charm waa having a difficult time binding with the base active ingredients in the polyjuice and it was beginning to drive her mad.

It was the lace wing flies, she was nearly positive. The protean charm seemed completely unable to bond with them for a reason that far outreached her Potions knowledge, and she refused to ask Severus. While he might give her the answer he would definitely be an arse about it and she wasn’t in the mood. After her Potions class that day she had about had her fill of his snark and snapping at him would do no good.

Giving up on the duplicating potion for the time being she instead turned her focus to the varitable mountain of homework she had accumlated over the day of classes. Arithmancy was about to make her pull her hair out. They had begun working on the application of arithmancy to curse breaking a few weeks ago and while it wasn’t difficult per say it was time consuming and labor intensive, especially on ones magic. Her current project was to break down the list of (Ministry approved for student use) curses that were layered on the unassuming wooden box she had been given and write a foot each on the proper Arithmancy chart to break down each curse. She had it on good authority the next project was going to involve applying said theories in reality on the box so she was trying to work on that part ahead of time. Needless to say it was not working.

A few hours later Hermione felt much better about the state of her classwork (she was officially back to being two weeks ahead of schedule) and was practically skipping on her way to dinner in the Great Hall. She had allowed the stress of the first task to occupy her time far too much in these past few weeks and it felt good to finally be back on track. If she kept up on her school work from here on out she would be able to actually enjoy her Yule break without any homework to occupy her time (something she was actually looking forward to for once) and she couldn’t wait to spend her days curled up by the fire in Minerva’s sitting room catching up on her leisure reading. She had even procured Minerva’s consent to bring Victor a few times so they could relax away from the prying eyes of her friends.

Harry waved her over enthusiastically when he saw her walk into the Great Hall. Her friends had saved her a seat between Luna and George and she slid in eagarly, not realizing how hungry she had become until the mouth watering scent of the dinner spread filled her nostrils. After piling her plate full of savory evening fare she turned her attention to the conversation happening around her.

“Ronald please tell me you are joking, you haven’t asked anyone yet?” Ginny looked gobsmacked at her brother’s confession.

Ron’s ears flushed, “Just because you’ve had a date for weeks doesn’t mean I’m behind, Gin! Harry doesn’t have a date yet either!”

“Yeah I do.” Harry piped up indignantly, “I’m going with Luna!”

Ron sputtered, “You’re going with-with-with Luna?!”

Before Ginny or Hermione could reply to his obvious insult Harry spun to face his friend, “Yeah, so? What’s it to you mate? Is there something wrong with me taking Luna?”

Seeing that he clearly wasn’t winning that argument he spun to face Hermione, “Well, its one thing for a bloke to go alone but a whole other thing entirely for a girl to. What do you say I save you the embarassment and we go together?”

How dare he! She thought to herself. Outsdie of his obvious inability to see her as a girl aside from when it was convenient, what would put him under the impression she wouldn’t have a date? Blossoming romance with Victor aside, his own brother had been all over her for months. Even now she could see Fred looking at Ron as if he had sprouted a spare head all of a sudden, clearly gobsmacked at the younger boy’s insinuation that Hermione was incapable of finding herself a date.

Proving again that he possessed impeccable timing, Victor slid onto the bench between her and George and planted a small kiss on her cheek, “Evening Yani, why does everyone look as if they have swallowed a lemon?”

Ginny shot a scathing glare in Ron’s direction, “Oh nothing important Victor, Ron’s just gone and stuck his foot in his mouth in his typical blindingly idiotic fashion.”

“I have not!” Ron stood, nearly shouting in his anger, “I was trying to be nice to a friend. Not my fault she isn’t capable of finding herself a date!”

Fred, who had up until this point had kept mostly silent seemingly content to watch the show, chuckled, “She has a date, Ronniekins.”

Ron spun on his brother, “Who? What did you take pity on her or something?”

Well that was stupid. Hermione had been watching this unfold with mounting entertainment as Ron dug a deeper and deeper hole with pretty much everyone he knew. She had been annoyed at first but at this point was simply entertained by his clear lack of brain function. What possessed him to continue to belittle her in front of some of her closest friends was beyond her but it made little difference because- “No Ronald, he is not taking her. Not because he doesn’t want to give her a ‘pity date’ as you so eloquently put it but because Hermione already-“

“Wait, you are all speaking about Hermione?” Victor turned to her, “They are speaking about you?”

She nodded bemusedly, “Ronald appears to be under the impression that since he has been unsuccessful with finding a date that must mean I am struggling as well.”

His face turned sinister, “Little cherven dyavol thinks you are not good enough for a date?”

Did he just- “Victor you cannot simply call every red head that displeases you a red demon!” She scolded half heartedly, knowing from previous discussions of Fred before they had made up that the argument was useless.

Choosing to ignore her, he turned to Ron, “She’s going with me you dunce.”

Hermione nearly choked on the laugh she had to fight down at the absolutely priceless look on Ron’s face, “She’s going with you?” he turned to her with an expression she couldn’t place, “You’re going with him?”

Oh he was really working himself up now, “But-but-but HE’S THE ENEMY!!!”

Hermione glanced at her friends in confusion, “Enemy? Ron what are you talking about?”

“Actually Hermione, I think this one is for me.” Harry piped up with a sigh. “Ron, Victor is like the only reason I even survived the first task. If Hermione wasn’t taking him to the ball I would be volunteering.”

Victor snorted, “No offence Harry, but you aren’t really my type.”

“None taken.” The bespeckled boy grinned, “I prefer ‘em a bit more on the feminine side myseld but for you I’d make an exception.”

He winced at a particularly viscious kick from Ginny, “Woman why are you so violent?!”

The girl shrugged, “What can I say, you bring out the best in me Boy Wonder.”

The tension broke as the group of teens burst into rachous laughter at the stunned look of wonder on Harry’s face that was far too similar to the one Luna had to be anything less than hilarious. Dinner moved on smoothly from there, plans for Yule break being discussed at length since for the first time ever their whole group would be speanding the entire break at the castle. A slumber party in the sixth year boys dorm had been labelled a must and Angelina was still arguing specifics with Fred when Hermione felt a tap on her shoulder.

A tentative smile was what greeted her, “Walk with me?”

Hermione smiled, “Of course, I was hoping I could steal you after dinner.”

Victor stood up from the table and offered his arm so she could do the same. She rolled her eyes at the mix of cat calls and wolf whistles that followed them as they walked away from her friends and towards the doors to the corridor. Her friends were absolutely ridiculous, sometimes she wondered how she possibly ended up saddled with such a group of miscreants. But she always would smile and remember she loved them and her life would be boring without her fellow Gryffindors in it.

“Where to?” She asked Victor once they were away from the Great Hall.

His face broke into a grin, “I found something while wandering earlier today, I’m curious if you have ever seen it.”

She tilted her head, “I mean, I can’t imagine there is something I haven’t discovered in the years I’ve been in this castle, so I probably have. Where is it?”

“The seventh floor, come on I want to show you!”

The seventh floor? She thought in confusion, what in the name of Merlin did he find on the seventh floor?