DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything here, that right belongs to the fabulous J.K. Rowling.
A/N: Sorry I didn't get this posted yesterday! I had a crazy busy day and havent been writing these chapters in advance so I only started writing this at 4:30PM yesterday. Once again I'm super sorry and this week I will try and be better about writing ahead of time. I hope you guys enjoy, please review if you want to because I'd love to hear everyone's opinions! (My usual thank you's will be at the end of this chapter, but that doesn't mean I don't still truly appreciate all of you guys!)
Chapter 4:
Hermione stared at the empty seat next to Neville for a moment longer as she muttered to herself, "You're at Hogwarts, not the Manor. It's safe." She took a deep breath and quietly slid in next to him on the bench. He smiled over at her, it was warm and proud and she thought for a moment he truly understood what it was taking her to sit there. After a second she realized she had only stared back at him; she quickly returned the smile and began to fill the plate in front of her as everyone else was. The variety of foods before her was surprising; she had assumed that since the table was much smaller so too would be the food choice. This was not the case as the delectable smell of pork roast, beef stew, mashed potatoes, loose sweet corn, warm fresh bread, and mixed vegetables wafted over her.
Hermione took a scoop of mixed vegetables, a scoop of corn, a slice of the roast and one of the steaming rolls. She smiled at the yeasty smell pouring from the bread, then she looked up and glanced around the table. They were seated three on each side. The side opposite of Hermione held Susan, Padma, and Malfoy with Susan directly across from the young witch, Padma to her left, and Malfoy to Padma's left. To Hermione's left sat Neville and to his left was Blaise, directly across from Malfoy. She took a bite of the mixed vegetables before asking, "Okay so what have you all been up to here? What does McGonagall have you all doing?"
Susan smiled and answered first as she was one of the few not in the middle of chewing, "Well, I've been working to rebuild a lot of the walls and clear away rubble. I'm sure you'd find the new spells I'm learning, absolutely fascinating." She plopped a bit of roast in her mouth and continued around the food, "First McGonagall taught me how to transfigure dirt, rock dust, and gravel into mortar powder," she swallowed, "then I used Aguamenti to make the actual mortar. Professor Flitwick taught me a stirring spell, I'm sure that will come in handy when cooking!" She beamed and Hermione remembered why she had always gotten on well with the ginger witch; they shared a love of learning. Susan continued while buttering her roll, "Then of course I learned how to charm the mortar and the stones to build the wall themselves. It's been really fun… It gets kind of monotonous though."
Hermione's attention shifted as Padma interrupted, "Oh you think your job has been monotonous?" Susan rolled her eyes as she dug in to the warm bread. Hermione furrowed her brow at the Ravenclaw. She sighed and explained, while cutting up her slices of roast, "See the building charm Bones is using is, as we discovered, most often used for brick and mortar. Not oddly shaped stones." She took a bite of the roast and sat in silence, chewing, while Hermione stared at her waiting for the rest of the story. Once she swallowed she smiled, "Sorry, I have more manners than to speak with my mouth full," she glanced over at Susan who began aggressively chewing with her mouth open. She elicited the response, "Oh gross!" The display had the entire table laughing.
Finally, Padma caught her breath and shook her head, "Anyway, the charm she is using is leaving all kinds of gaps. So, I go in after her with smaller stones and more mortar and fill in the holes. However, the spells I'm using are rudimentary and highly inefficient. Essentially I'm using Leviosa and guiding the stones and the mortar by hand, it's dreadful." Her posture changed from tired, bored, and uninterested to proud and wise, "So I've been working with Professor Flitwick, whenever he isn't busy, to create a charm that will allow the mortar and stones find the holes, determine the correct stone for the size, and fix it all by itself." Now she looked down shyly, "It's been a slow process though, with some… difficulties."
Now Susan laughed and interrupted, "Difficulties. That's an understatement," she looked to Hermione and elaborated, "She's talking about the first time they tried the charm, it didn't just find the holes and fill them. It thought that the hallway was a hole and started building from the wall out, growing massively and uncontrollably. It took a whole day to tear down 'cause it kept trying to rebuild itself!" Blaise, Susan, and Neville were laughing which earned the boys a glare. They coughed and tried to look serious.
Padma was fuming slightly as she interjected, "I just thought I could make the charm work… without Flitwick. Now that he's helping it should go much better." She made a humph noise and focused on her food.
Malfoy rolled his eyes, though Hermione failed to see it as she was making it a point to not look at him. He began to talk, "While they've been goofing off," he sent a smile to Padma who only glared in return, "I've been taking inventory of the potions supplies and brewing potions to restock the medical wing." He paused and pushed his food around his plate as he informed them, "Though I can't seem to brew enough draught of peace to keep up with the demand." Everyone fell silent for a moment and looked down at their plates. Hermione studied her own plate as she imagined students trapped in their own mind like her.
Blaise shook himself out of it first and shattered the heavy silence, "Yeah, yeah, you're so important with your lists and your potions. I'm doing the cool stuff!" Hermione shook her head to break her thoughts before she leaned over the table to peer around at Blaise. Malfoy took note of her effort to look at him and grew more frustrated. He recognized that she was trying not to look at him, but why? He wondered, 'everyone at this table has changed. I've changed. They've all started to accept me. What's her problem!? She's even trying to look at Zambini. He's a Slytherin too!' His thoughts were interrupted as Blaise continued his boastful speech, "See, while Padma and Susan are rebuilding the walls I'm fortifying them." His chest was puffed as he smiled, "Flitwick taught me several charms to cast on the walls."
Now Susan butted in, "He did, and sometimes they're hard to remember. Aren't they." She gave Blaise an innocent but pitying smile, he glared in return.
Hermione chimed in for the first time, "I take it something went wrong with his charms too?" The Slytherin grew defensive.
He quickly explained to the Gryffindor, "No. The spell when perfectly right… It was just the wrong spell." Malfoy laughed.
The silver haired wizard elaborated for his prideful friend, "What he means is, he forgot one of the charms so he looked it up. Except, Zambini here is not a patient man so when he found a spell that sounded similar to what he thought he remembered and looked like it did the same thing, he used it without further reading up on it." He smiled at his friend, who was still holding Hermione's focus. She hadn't looked at him the entire time he spoke. He sighed and continued, "Apparently walking into invisible fortifications can not only knock you out but give you one hell of a head ache."
Hermione laughed and had to ask, "What? What were the charms you mixed up?" She was smiling wide as Blaise rolled his eyes.
He huffed and responded gruffly, "Well apparently indeconforta makes invisible fortifications while integumentum just makes the wall stronger…"
Hermione breathed out and, exasperated, asked, "Those two? You thought those two sounded the same? Man, I knew Slytherins were thick but this takes the cake." She laughed as he began to angrily chew a chunk of beef from his stew.
Padma smiled, "Yeah that was entertaining, but what's more fun? Testing the walls." Hermione's head swiveled from the Slytherin to the Ravenclaw as she continued, "See the teachers are trying to get us to make the walls even stronger than before so he's not just charming the new sections but all of them. At the end of the day everyone is assigned a section to attack so we can see how well they're holding up." She glared at him, "One day he added an extra charm to the section I happened to be assigned to."
Both of his hands shot up, "Okay I didn't know who was going to get it!"
Her eyes rolled before she looked back to the Gryffindor Princess, "Whatever, it was an … offensive defensive spell. I guess. Whatever it was, when I fired at the wall I got blown into the one behind me." Hermione's eyebrows raised in surprise as she looked back to the smug wizard.
She smiled and commented, "Impressive, what did you use?" Her curiosity was peaked and she paid no mind to the brooding boy who was constantly infuriated and confused by her efforts to never make eye contact with him or acknowledge him.
Blaise's chest had once again swelled as he answered, "I just melded stupefy into one of my fortification charms," He scratched the side of his head as he admitted, "Haven't exactly been able to replicate it since then but McGonagall is pushing me to try."
Hermione nodded and looked to Neville, "And you've been working with Professor sprout to restore the magical plant life to the grounds." She glanced around the table, pointedly skipping over Malfoy, before asking, "Anything else you guys are doing?" She was trying to find out about the patrols and the other students, "What are the professors doing while you guys rebuild the castle?"
Susan was once again the one to answer her, "Well, Professor Flitwick has been coaxing Hogwarts's magic into the new walls and out of hiding. McGonagall is doing a bunch of head hunting for a potions teacher and a defense teacher. Most of the others are cleaning up their classrooms and preparing for next year." She sighed and looked to the table to explain the rest.
Malfoy took this opportunity, hoping to catch Granger's eye this time. He told her, "When we aren't working on the tasks described, we're on patrol." Hermione's eyes flitted between all of the students at the table, save the speaker. He pressed on, irritated, "There are loads of kids who didn't want to go home, but it's hard for them to be here." He took a deep breath, "We walk around the towers making sure no one thinks they don't want to attend school next term. We patrol the halls making certain none of the students are lost in horrible memories. We walk the grounds to check that no one is lost in thought and wandering off to the forbidden forest. And, while Hogwarts is weak, we make sure there are no signs of malicious activity."
When he finished talking Hermione was looking at Susan, "That's awful." She shrugged and looked as though she was about to say something when Malfoy's fists slammed into the table.
The enraged boy glowered at the brunet witch, "Why won't you look at me!? You can't just pretend I'm not here, because I am so you're stuck with me! If you would give me the time of day, look me in the eye, and let me explain; maybe then you could forgive me and move on!"
Hermione recoiled at first and then grew furious as he explained his thoughts. He thought she was avoiding him. She lashed back, "I'm not pretending you're not here. I know you are. I'm trying my hardest to remember that I'm not there!" With that she stood and strode from the room. She shoved the portal open and left the five eighth year students utterly dumbfounded.
A/N: Alrighty, thank you so much for reading. I hope you all enjoyed it. If you want to, please review as I'd love to hear your critics and opinions. Thank you to BrookeZephyrFennex, Lokiwinchester525, LumosBirdie, MrsCatalyn, cammiemorris7, cestlavie21, dancerengland, el . ollie, geowynpnn, mkerr94, pianoplayer23, ravenb, and thenott for following this story! Thank you to LumosBirdie, MrsCatalyn, el . ollie, and maridell1111 for favoriting this story! You guys are all amazing! (Even if you didn't favorite or follow, you are still awesome for reading it) Much thanks and appreciation. Until next time!