Disclaimer: Everything is owned by the wonderful JKR, except for the plot and Kevin Entwhistle's personality (his name's still JKR's).

------------------------

It was so frustrating! Professor Snape had given up his life fighting for Hogwarts, yet she couldn't even grieve properly for him.

If only he had been less a – to quote Ron – "snarky, slimy bastard," then maybe –

She immediately retracted that thought as selfish, ashamed. He had given so much to the Order, died for them!, and here she was, annoyed that he couldn't have been nicer.

Hermione sighed bleakly and turned back to her task, trying to find out what that blue barrier outside Hogwarts was. It was completely impenetrable; Ron, Harry and her had watched the teachers experiment on it. They had used everything possible to try and bypass it but to no avail.

In addition to completely trapping Hogwarts, it had also shut down the Floo connection.

Hermione smiled half-heartedly as she remember their discussion of the ward. She was so proud of Ron, for once he had actually remember it was impossible to Apparate on Hogwarts' ground. A foray down to the kitchens to see the house-elves – the poor, overworked darlings – had proven they couldn't go through the barrier either.

However, despite all her pride with Ron, it didn't change the fact that they were still at Hogwarts – with no foreseeable changes in that – without Dumbledore. She wasn't sure how much worse it could get.

She was sitting here in the first place not only because it was the Trio's unofficial duty to be involved with every happenstance of trouble within Hogwarts, but also because she figured it would help keep her mind off the decimation of the Order and the few casualties they had suffered.

However, researching didn't always occupy her completely. Especially at 11:30 at night when she was frustrated, exhausted, but determined not to sleep.

All she had found out so far was that wards rarely were able to completely block physical attempts to get through, especially from the inside; blue might mean the ward was either a safety ward of a time ward; and wards almost never glowed, and if they did it was for only several seconds.

Basically, she thought, frustrated, as she looked over her notes, I've found every reason why that stupid, bloody ward outside shouldn't work and almost none for why it does.

She groaned. It wasn't fair! She'd been looking for ages through the library's pitifully small section on wards, and all she'd found were reasons why the big, bright blue, glowing shield outside couldn't be there.

Maybe it was something of Dumbledore's, she thought hopefully. Well, it was either that or something from Voldemort, and she quite preferred the former.

Footsteps drawing near caught her attention. Who else would be in the library past eleven?

Figuring a student had forgotten an essay or book, she was surprised to see the ever-organized Padma Patil walking up to her.

"Padma? What're you doing here this late?" she asked, rubbing one hand across her eyes. Maybe she was a little more tired than she thought. She couldn't leave without finding something, though!

She started, surprised from her thoughts, when Padma began talking. "Madam Pomfrey sent me down here to check on you before I left –" That's right, Hermione thought, she's working in the Hospital Wing now to help Madame Pomfrey. Quickly turning her mind away from that unpleasant train of thoughts to catch Padma's next words, "—make sure you're not working too hard."

She grimaced slightly. Couldn't Madam Pomfrey see she needed to do this? But maybe . . . Padma was in Ravenclaw after all, and as much as she hated to admit defeat, Padma could certainly help her.

Deciding it couldn't hurt, she quickly replied, "No, I'm fine. Thanks for the thought, though." She paused, before slyly adding, "You wouldn't happen to know anything about wards, would you? It's just that I can't find anything on this kind . . ." she trailed off before delivering the final blow, "Oh, never mind. You won't get it; it's probably impossible anyway."

Padma fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Ignoring her conscience nagging at her for exhibiting such shameful Slytherin tendencies, she listened intently to Padma.

"Well, I haven't done much research myself about it, but Ellis Forsvare in his book Shields, Wards, and More said– "

Hermione quickly interrupted, "I looked there, but it didn't have any information beyond basics, and nothing about the one I specifically wanted."

"And which one is that?" Padma, Hermione noticed, had unconsciously pulled out the chair opposite and sat down.

"No, don't tell me. You're researching the one outside?" Padma looked faintly suspicious.

Damn! She wasn't supposed to be suspicious, merely helpful. Hermione, thinking quickly, tried to reassure her, "Yeah. Er, I was trying to find out more information about it to, um, help the teachers. They were trying to find out about it yesterday, you know. If you want to see my notes –" she offered Padma the information she had already collected, "I've found quite a lot of material about other types, but nothing on the one outside."

Hoping Padma would take the distraction, she held her breath as the Ravenclaw took the proffered notes and scanned them quickly.

Reassured, Padma asked, "You think it's a ward? The Ravenclaws have a running bet about that. Personally, I think it's a just combination of Protegodiu and Puteulanus."

Hermione, unwilling to be shown up by Padma, thought furiously for several seconds then said, "A Protego sustained for a long time and . . . blue?"

Padma blushed slightly but steadfastly held to her position. "Well, everyone's so sure it's so complicated, but if you put enough power behind a Protegodiu and turned it blue, well, wouldn't that be enough?"

"But that wouldn't stop a physical attempt to get through it!" Hermione protested.

Padma returned saying it could easily be combined with another spell; after all, whomever was casting it was strong enough to combine it with a frivolous enough spell; if they did that, why not go all the way?

This was countered with a disagreement by Hermione, and they continued to argue and trade ideas for the next half an hour. They only stopped when Padma glanced at her watch by chance. "Oh, it's past midnight! We were talking and I didn't even notice –" she stopped abruptly and narrowed her eyes at Hermione.

"You set that up, didn't you? Purposely asked me about your so-called 'impossible' ward. You knew I'd respond, didn't you? Well?"

Hermione smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, I guess. I needed another opinion on this, and when I saw you, I thought that you would have to know something, being one of the smartest witches in Ravenclaw." She smiled winningly at Padma while under the table she crossed her finger hopefully, praying Padma wouldn't be too mad at her for distracting her. After all, Padma was down there to make her leave.

"Flattery will get you everywhere, I guess, Hermione." Padma smiled. "It's a little late now, but I'll help you tomorrow. If you want, I'll see if I can convince Kevin to help – Kevin Entwhistle, you know him, he was in the DA last year – he's naturally good at shields and the like."

Hermione breathed a sight of relief. "Thanks Padma! That would be amazing! It's so stressful with, well, the teachers – " she took a breath to calm herself before continuing, "and Professor Snape, and . . ." she cleared her throat. "Well, any help would be great. You know Harry and Ron, they'll try to help, but they're better at duelling than actually helping with research."

Padma smiled before saying, "Well, if that's settled, I think we should both go back to our dorms. I'll see you tomorrow after breakfast, maybe? Since we don't have classes yet, I think I can convince Kevin to join us."

Hermione nodded, and both girls bade their good-byes as they left the library.

-------------------------------------------

"Hermione! It's good to see you again; we were just about to go searching for you. It's past midnight, after all," Ron called out from the armchair as Hermione entered the room.

"Sorry, I just got involved in trying to find some information. Thanks for waiting up for me." She apologized as she entered the portrait hole.

"No problem, Hermione. Did you find anything?" Harry asked curiously.

"No, but I did get the help of Padma Patil, and she promised to get Kevin Entwhistle to help, too."

"We'd love to help, you know that, right Hermione? But, well, it's not all that interesting, and I doubt we'd help much." Hermione raised her eyebrows, so Harry got to the point. "Well, we'd figure we'd be better at actually doing something, so we were going to go out tomorrow to look at the shield again," Harry finished, with Ron nodding his agreement.

Hermione smiled. "If you want. I'll be in the library, so if you find anything interesting, you can come and tell me. But I'm completely knackered now, and I think I'll go up and try to get some sleep." To a chorus of "Night, Hermione," she mounted the steps up to her room, pausing only to quickly change into her pyjamas and crawl into bed.

Thinking about the process she made with the ward and Padma, she realised she had forgotten completely about Professor Snape. As she fell asleep, she was unable to decide whether that was good or bad.

---------------------------------------

On weekdays and holidays, Kevin Entwhistle loved to sleep in, usually much past breakfast. His roommates despaired of his sleeping habits, but he had formed the habit while attending primary school and had no intention of changing.

He also happen to count any day when Hogwarts cancelled school as a holiday. Therefore, when his covers were rudely stolen from his bed at an absolutely unholy hour of the morning – it couldn't be past eight! – on a day he knew for a fact the teachers had cancelled classes, he was understandably less than pleased.

Turning away from the sudden source of light that must have come from some busybody opening his curtains, he was entirely unprepared for the cheerful voice that commanded him to get up. The feminine voice.

Padma giggled to herself as she watched Kevin first protest waking up and then become very alarmed when his mind slowly realised it was not one of his roommates but a girl.

"Bloody hell, Padma, it's not even eight! G'way! And you're not s'posed to be in here." She smiled at his weak attempts to shoo her off. And since when had her being a girl bothered him? They were such good friends, and she'd been in his dorm before.

"But it's such a nice day! The sun's shining –"

He interrupted her grumpily, "I know."

She continued, ignoring his input, "and I thought you might want to know that you are going to help Hermione Granger in about thirty minutes in the library."

"Yeah, sure, just let me go back to – what?" He woke up rather abruptly once he processed just what he had been roped into doing.

"I said –"

"No, I heard what you said. But when was I going to find out about this?" He glared, but the effect was ruined by his jaw-cracking yawn.

"About five minutes ago. Why? Did you have anything important planned for today?"

"Yes, I was going to sleep 'til noon. Besides that, it's the principle of the thing. And Hermione? She needs help? She's even less likely to ask for help than one of us! Why would she need help?" Kevin pouted at the thought of all those hours of sleep he could have had if Padma hadn't rudely interrupted him.

"Oh, come off it! You were going to wallow around all day moping that Sally didn't go out with you." At this she grimaced slightly, unnoticed by Kevin, before continuing, "It's about the ward outside! I thought since neither of us had classes today, we could help her. She's done quite a lot of research on it, and you are the smartest Ravenclaw when it comes to shields, you know," she finished, batting her eyes hopefully before bursting out laughing at Kevin's hopeless look.

"All right, I'll get up. But you are going down to the common room, and yes, I will actually get out! Now, shoo!" He overrode all her protests and, finally finding his wand, charmed the door open and pointed at her as threateningly as he could while still in bed.

She laughed before heading downstairs merrily.

As disgruntled as he was at being wakened so early, Padma had brought up something interesting. He, like all the other Ravenclaws, was interested in the challenge the ward outside stood for, of course, but he wasn't likely to spend a whole free day researching it. Not even his fellow Ravenclaws spent beautiful fall days inside the library studying something outside class. Until now, apparently. Thanks, Padma, he thought sarcastically as he slowly changed into his robes. And I was really going to convince Sally to go out with me today, too!

But the small voice in the back of his head pointed out the likeliness of asking Sally out failing, while the challenge of solving something even the Gryffindor bookworm couldn't would provide a much needed ego-stroker. He ignored that voice though; if Padma was going to drag him out of bed before nine, then damn him if he wasn't going to be as surly as possible!

--------------------------------

Several hours later, he had completely forgotten his promise and was thoroughly enjoying himself. Not only was Hermione both very intelligent and fun to study with – Hermione wasn't nearly as stuck in the mud as he had feared – but she had actually found some good information, and she wasn't afraid to argue with everything he said. She's a lot like Padma in that respect, he mused to himself.

He started to tune out their conversation, argument, more like, before a book caught his eye on a near by shelf. Advanced Runes Translations. Ah, he remembered fondly struggling to stay awake through some of the stuffier parts of that . . .

Suddenly a memory struck his attention, and he nearly over toppled his chair trying to get out. With an "excuse me for a moment, ladies" to a very confused-looking Padma and Hermione, he manoeuvred his way through the chairs and stacks of books to return to his original table.

"This, ladies, is the proof behind all my, dare I say it, brilliant theories on linking wards and spells." Disappointed by their reactions--Padma rolled her eyes and Hermione only raised an eyebrow--he continued to flip through the book until he found the section he remembered.

"I fail to see how Translating runes is going to help us here, Kevin. We're dealing with spells and wards, not runes," Padma patiently explained, as if to a child.

Kevin merely shushed her. "Be patient, young grasshopper. All shall be revealed in time." He shoved the book towards the girls and pointed out a section. "There it is. The proof!"

Padma read puzzled, "'Certain runes have special healing powers that can be –'"

"No, not that section! Umm, it's the one right under it. Starts with 'A lesser known property of ancient runes.'"

Padma found the section and read, "'A lesser known property of ancient runes is their ability to link spells. Considered useless until the eighteen hundreds when Sir Olivier de Monague found the necessary . . . '" she trailed off, reading quickly to herself before turning to stare at Kevin. "This means that, as long as you get the potion and extra spell right you can combine unlimited amounts of spells? That's amazing! Why is it so unknown if you can use all this power?"

Hermione interrupted Kevin before he had a chance to answer, "You didn't read far enough down. Not only do you need the potion and spell, after you try to combine more than two spells, it requires either immense amounts of power from the caster or a specially planned ritual."

Kevin nodded. "And the potion looks horribly complicated. It requires all sorts of advanced preparations."

"So we've got two possible people who could do this alone, Dumbledore or Voldemort, but neither seems to have a good reason for doing it," Padma concluded.

They thought over that in silence for several minutes before Kevin looked down at his watch and realised just how late it was, and, consequently, that "Hey, it's lunch!"

Padma and Hermione both looked up, startled from their musings before shaking their heads in amusement.

"Just like Ron. Never mind that we're in a possibly life changing situation here, it's lunchtime!" Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Of course, Hermione, anything else is positively blasphemous. How dare you suggest it," Padma reprimanded sarcastically.

"If you ladies are finished complimenting my decision, I say we head over to lunch and continue our terribly important research later. After all, we've been here for hours and a break would be nice." With that said, he stood up, closed his book carefully, and stretched.

"Well, we have been here for a while," Padma admitted. "I guess a break wouldn't hurt."

"Okay, but . . . Oh, I completely forgot! I promised to meet Harry and Ron anyway at lunch." Hermione burst out as the party headed for the library doors.

"I can see where having lunch would be a top priority, but surely you can manage to be apart from those two for over a couple hours?" Kevin questioned mockingly.

Hermione glared at him. "Yes, I think I could. However, I had planned to meet them because they were going to go outside and see if they could find anything unusual around the shield. I thought it would help to see if there was any obvious visual difference."

"Like runes, for example?" Padma suggested, catching on.

"Exactly."

"I was only asking," Kevin defended, slightly teasing.

"Well, next time, I'll leave you alone to wallow in your ignorance alone." She smiled, taking most of the sting out of her response.

With that cleared up, the three continued to make their way down to the Great Hall in comfortable silence, each contemplating their own theory about the mystery outside.

A/N: And thus ends chapter three. Don't forget to leave a review to tell me what you think or to suggest a pairing.

Posted 3.3.07