"But professor…"
"Absolutely not. Miss Granger while I usually praise students for doing their research in the widest of fields, I can't permit you to do it on a subject so dark, so depraved." McGonagle told her Bluntly. She had sat back in her chair over the time that Hermione tried to explain what she would like to do her research project.
This had not been unexpected to the young witch, she had already predicted that there would have been a good chance that she would be told no.
What had surprised her was the hard-line position that she had taken on the subject. While it was true that the magic, she wanted to research was deeply dark and, in more ways, than one depraved. It was still just that, magic.
"Professor would you at least consider it?" she asked as her last try, she had really wanted to get her as her supervisor. In her eyes, McGonagle was by far the smartest witch that roamed these walls. In the seven years that she had spent here at Hogwarts, the number of times that she had needed to defer to somebody else for an answer to a question was still countable on her fingers.
"Hermione," Both of them looked up at the use of her first name, "I would strongly advise you to just drop the subject and chose anything else." It was a request, but the power of her words was not yet at the headmaster's level. So that was all it would stay at, a request.
Hermione picked up her books and excused her out of the classroom. Not wanting to create more conflict between her and her favourite teacher. She closed the door silently but quickly. Maybe even too quick as she didn't catch the final words her professor said.
"I hope that she knows what she is doing." Was uttered to an empty classroom, over the stack of papers she had been grading.
"Hey Ginny," Harry greeted his girlfriend as she approached the few places at the table in the great hall that they were occupying.
Ron had rushed from the final class He had with Harry and Hermione to grab a few seats together. It was not unheard of the first years to spread out so that no one really could sit together in a group. And as Hermione had pointed out using your prefect badge to make them move was a bit tyrannical.
So now, Ron rushed out of the classroom to try and grab about eight seats so everyone that wanted to sit with them could. Most of the time it was just Her, Ron, Harry, Neville and Ginny. Occasionally Dean and Thomas would join as well, Luna had been known to pop up as well, seemingly lost from her own table but perfectly content to join them along the way.
This time though Ron had been able to take the head of the table and had held space for most of the seventh year of Gryffindor. Harry had held onto space for Ginny, where she slipped in as soon as she got to space.
"How are you doing?" Harry asked the normally so talkative girl. Ginny was uncharacteristically quiet, normally she would have so much to say to everyone and everything. Now though she was looking down at the food and was kinda staring out in front of her.
"Ginny everything alright?" Hermione asked the girl, curious about the state she was now in. she leaned over and took one of her hands in her own. This seemed to pull her back to reality.
Ginny's eyes flicked up and for a moment there was a moment of clarity in her eyes before they went trouble again.
"That's curious," she muttered as she pulled her wand up and quickly scanned Ginny. When her detection spell was reflected, she got even more intrigued.
"Ginny," she asked putting her wand away, "what happened the last lesson period?"
Ginny looked up again and opened her mouth, before reconsidering it. And looking down ones more.
"Bloody hell what's going on?" Ron asked when he finally noticed his sister acting all strange like.
"Ron not now, I'm trying to figure that out." She said shushing her friend. She was now thinking, making a list of spells that might have been cast on her friend. There was a somewhat long list of spells to choose from, so going after each of them one by one would be inefficient.
She pulled out a piece of parchment and started writing the spells down. When she had noted them all down, she wrote the length of the duration it would last. After a bit, she had a list of spells and incantations that were ordered by the length of their duration. Looking over them from short to long, she immediately scrapped the first few that should have passed during the time they had been sitting there.
During all of this Ginny had done little more than put a piece of toast and was now munching on it. While she might not be communicating it was reassuring that she was taking care of basic needs like eating and drinking. This most likely pointed out that this spell was not done with malcontent in mind.
"Ginny, I'm gonna be casting some spells on you to try and remove the spell." She waited for a second to see if Ginny would give any indication about understanding what was being said. When she didn't say anything back to her, Hermione proceeded to try and dispel a number of the longer lasting incantations.
This did nothing, but it made the list considerably shorter. Now there were only about three more spells left. One of them was considerably more difficult than the others. 'let's keep that one for last,' she thought, 'even though I assume that that will be the one.'
After about ten or so minutes she had correctly gotten the spell that had been cast on Ginny Weasley. Even though she had kind of brute forced it out of the incantation. Mumbling the counter incantation, Hermione successfully dispelled it and she saw Ginny's eyes clear up.
"Where am I?" Ginny asked when she came too again.
"You're in the great hall, eating your dinner," Harry told her, wrapping an arm around her. Ginny leaned into it and looked around herself.
"How did I get here?" she asked looking at the entrance, "I was just sitting in the Defence against the Dark arts classroom and I remember, I at least think I remember Professor Black enter the room." She told the table.
"That sounds like someone hit you with an obliviate spell Ginny," Nevil said. Looking over to the teacher's table they all could see her sitting there. Again, not eating much more than the fruit that was put out as a healthy dessert and a goblet that held wine she knew from experience.
Not that Professor Black noticed any of the students that were currently looking at her. She was just quietly eating an apple and sipping from her goblet from time to time.
"Hermione you can't just try to learn all of this year's Defence against the dark arts lessons in one evening," she heard Harry say when he came down the stairway for the second time that evening. He'd been there when twelve had rolled around to give her a heads-up. It wouldn't have been the first time that she'd pull an all-nighter.
This was, however, the second time that he'd had to come down, which mend that he had already slept for a bit and was now coming down to check no one was still down here. He wasn't all that surprised seeing her there, as was she not surprised to get found there. It was truly the witching hour.
"I know Harry, but I want to be prepared. You saw what happened to Ginny earlier. We can't be prepared enough." She said flipping through her notes and a big old book that was propped open before the fire that had simmered down a bit. At the beginning of the night, it had been roaring like a fierce lion, but now it was just kinda purring like a small kitten.
"Hermione I must tell you, for your own best will that you should go to sleep. You will be less prepared to face that class if you don't." He said making a valiant effort to start clearing her space and pulling her up to her bedroom.
Hermione protested only in words and with some magic, she cleared her space and magically shrunk them till they fit in a small satchel that was attached to her side. She might not have wanted to go to sleep but it was becoming clear each step that was taken toward her bed that she was tired beyond belief.
Hearing Harry close the door closed again she let herself fall back onto the soft mattress and looked up. She had fixed the charm and now she had a clear view of the sky above. There was a falling star passing by, so she made a wish upon the stars. One that would make no difference as she knew that a piece of rock had little influence over the way things happen on earth.
But she did it because at this point everything could help. She might be the brightest witch of her age, that didn't mean that there weren't things that scared her. The unknown was one of the irrational fears she had and not knowing what to expect tomorrow morning wasn't helping much.
Turning on her side she slowly let sleep get to her. "I just hope she's nice." She whispered out before falling into the deep void of sleep.
That night she would sleep well, not a second of her dream was remembered. It belonged to the void as much as it did to her. only one detail would stand out tomorrow. As she would wake up Hermione would have the strangest craving for some apples.
"Miss Granger!" a loud voice called out to her.
Hermione jumped in her chair and made a scan for her surroundings. The great hall, breakfast. That was good, she hadn't missed any lessons yet. Looking back over to the source of the voice she saw Mcgonnagle standing there. her black teacher's robe already adorned.
"Miss Granger, could you please focus." It sounded like she had been calling her name for a while now, Harry had been right saying that she should have gone to sleep a couple of hours before.
"Uhm, what?" she asked. Not having caught what was being asked of her.
"Miss Granger I was here to tell you that I considered the offer, but I have to refuse. I don't want myself associated whit that kind of magic. I'm sure that you will understand me there" she said in a cryptic way to not allude to whatever she had chosen as her research subject to the rest of the table.
"That's alright professor," she answered, taking a cup of coffee that had been sitting out there for her. "I'll just have to find someone else to supervise me then."
"I wish you the best of luck with that miss Granger." She looked at the table over, all of whom were staring at the both of them. They had been listening to the entire conversation but had not grasped what they were talking about.
"Aren't all of you supposed to be going to your classes right now?" Mcgonnagle asked the table before making her way out of the hall to her own classroom
The hallway before the Defence against the dark arts classroom was filled to the brim. Unlike past years where the teachers had left it open, so they could get themselves ready and settled before the lesson happened.
As they approached Hermione saw that Cedrick Diggory was trying to charm the door open. Just when he cast the Alohomora spell there was a bright flash that jumped form the door, striking him square in the chest.
"Blimey!" She heard Ron exclaim as it happened, his reaction was not unproportional to what was happening. Cedrick was slowly losing colour and slowing down. Everyone was standing still in shock, watching him slowly stiffen.
The door slammed open and a yellow flash came hurtling out of it.
"Who, in Merlin's NAME IS TRYING TO BREAK INTO MY CLASSROOM."