A/N Thank you to all of the readers, favouriters and reviewers of this cavalcade of fluff. A glorious 39 of you are now following. I hope you enjoy this next section, this is the only Chapter I have planned for year two.

Year Two Chapter One

The blood soaked walls declaring the Chamber of Secrets was open created a sense of panic throughout the castle. The news that 'enemies of the heir' were in danger spread and distorted like all rumours through schools. The Professors had to fight against increasingly disrupted lessons as the students had endless questions especially those in the lower years like Neville and his friends. The Chamber opening also had the somewhat surprising effect of creating a black market for talismans and other protections from the creature in the layer. It reminded him of something his Uncle Algie had once said 'where there is fear there is profit'.

Neville purchased a pointed purple crystal that hung from a gold pendant chain which was supposed to protect against 'dark creatures'. Neville knew that was a bit vague and if he had been forced to defend the purchase he knew he would have little to offer but he was genuinely afraid, since the first attack he hadn't been sleeping well.

After the second attack, on Colin Creevey Neville fears that he would be attacked escalated. He was prevented from purchasing a rotting newt tail by Ron and Harry who then dragged him back to the common room, once in the relative safety of Gryffindor Tower Harry forcefully but kindly reminded Neville that as he was a pureblood he wouldn't be at risk.

This did not sway Neville, years of being made to feel inferior by his relations exacerbated by terms of consistent bullying had resulted in him having very little faith in his magical abilities.

"They went for Filch first. And everyone knows I'm almost a Squib"

Harry sighed exasperatedly, Hermione poked her head up from the comfy chair she was sitting in, only her ridiculous hair and eyes visible. Neville often thought she was like a cat, she always seemed to be located in the warmest spot of the room. Even with a limited amount of her face showing he could see her expression looked pained.

"Please don't say that Neville" she said pleadingly.

"Why? You know it's true" he didn't mean to take his stress out on her, he was feeling incredibly vulnerable, he had wanted to make a strong argument to justify his actions to his friend but his words sounded petulant even to him.

"Neville" she said softly, his shoulders sagged as he raised his eyes to face her "how do you feel when you hear people call me mudblood?"

Harry and Ron had stiffened he loathed Malfoy for calling her that so persistently, it caused Hermione, who was never one to show her distress to use it often herself to act like she didn't care even though the hurt in her expression was clear. He tried to formulate words over the competing rage and hurt he was feeling.

"I...I hate it" he got out finally, not able to meet her eyes

"Well, that's how I feel when you talk like that about yourself"

Neville let the words sink in he wasn't sure anyone had ever defended him like Hermione did, regularly. She defended Ron and Harry too but she also hit them over the back of the head a lot though in fairness they did mostly deserve it. She was always more patient with him. He wondered if it was because she pitied him though she wasn't really the pitying kind.

"Ok" he said finally.

"Good now can we go back to having a peaceful afternoon I've got my parchment on Defense to finish"

All of the boys groaned.

"You may moan but Professor Lockhart is a very respected member of his field. Can you imagine having that many books published" her eyes had taken on a dreamlike quality he had become quite familiar with this year.

He ignored Ron's shouts of protest, he agreed with him but he had no desire to argue with her on this. She didn't realise she was being obvious, it was clear she had a bit of crush on the purple robed fraud he couldn't understand what she saw in him, Lockhart was an idiot. It was just so unlike Hermione not to make an accurate assessment of a person's intelligence. He had noticed her copy of Wanderings with Werewolves had acquired its own protective casing since he had caught her asking for Professor Lockhart to sign it. He had been waiting for her outside after the end of class and had overheard her approach him, when she had exited the classroom she was distinctly flustered and he had to try very hard to not laugh at her.

Oh well, she would learn soon enough it could have been worse he consoled himself, it could have been Snape.

Then the whole world shifted, talismans and protective objects seemed ridiculous and almost offensive to those truly at risk as he stood in the ward.

Professor McGonagall had come to fetch Harry Ron and himself from History of Magic, she didn't say anything just asked them to follow and they did so, silently. He had known something was wrong when Hermione wasn't in class, she never missed a lesson and even in History of Magic, where everyone else would be on the verge of falling asleep she would be sat up ramrod straight in her seat diligently taking notes pausing only to shake Ron when he would inevitably begin snoring.

He realised that they were walking towards The Hospital Wing and he felt dread pool in his stomach. When they approached the large doors their Head of House swung round for a second and eyed them opening her mouth to say something before shaking her head, stepping forward to usher them in.

There was screening shielding the left side of the ward, it had been put in place following the first attack to prevent students that came in for day to day scrapes from gawking at the petrified students. Madam Pomfrey came out of her office and directed them over to a break in the white screens, there in the bed directly opposite was Hermione, unruly curls splayed over the pillows, arms over the pulled up cover, her face looking unnaturally white miles away from her usual faintly tanned skin.

Her features were etched with a look of surprise like all of the other students in the row it looked unsettling on the others but on Hermione he hated the expression, seeing her face rigid made him long to see her other emotions. She had such an expressive face.

Harry and Ron stood fixed at the end of the bed but Neville moved forward without thinking to look at her closer, her right hand was holding a mirror his face scrunched with confusion momentarily before as gently as he could he wrenched it from her frozen grip.

He placed the mirror on the bed and clutched her now empty hand between his two larger ones. Her delicate hands were so cold, too cold. He unconsciously began rubbing his hand rhythmically over her's in an attempt to warm her icy fingers. He registered somewhere in the back of his mind that this was the first time he had reached for her instead of the other way round. He wondered if she was aware of her surroundings, he hoped if she was that she would derive comfort from his warmth, knowing he was there.

Suddenly the stillness of her form came to his attention, there was no rise and fall to her chest. He looked up at Madam Pomfrey in horror.

"She's ok Mr Longbottom" she said reassuringly "She is breathing the nature of this curse means that the whole body remains unmoving"

Uncaring for those around him Neville stood and draped himself over her so he could lay his ear to her mouth. He could just make out the faint sound of her raspy breaths, he shifted and he could detect a glimmer of air against his cheek. The vice like fist around his heart losten marginally.

"Her parents?" He asked, though he already knew the answer.

Madam Pomfrey sighed "They can't come here, muggles cannot come to the castle and there is the… well the Headmaster is reluctant to inform them… I think he is worried they might pull the children out of the school"

Neville nodded he understood, it wasn't fair in many respects but he didn't want Hermione to leave school. It would be a difficult situation to explain to a magical parent let alone a non-magical one but to tell no one, for all of these students to by lying here unrepresented was wrong. He had listened to enough of Hermione's rants to know this was something she would object to.

He stood back from Hermione and squeezed her hand gently, he turned to face Ron and Harry, they still hadn't moved. Harry's eyes looked glassy and Ron looked like he couldn't decide if he wanted to boil over with rage or scream with terror. He walked towards them and put his hand on Harry's shoulder.

"I'll be back in a little bit… I need to go write a letter".

The next day Neville was sat in a small chair next to Hermione's bed, he hadn't bothered to go to lessons that day and Madam Pomfrey had not been that stern in trying to get him to leave. It wasn't like Hermione would know he was with her but that wasn't the whole point, he would have known that she was in the ward and he would not have been able to concentrate if he tried. Being close to her stopped his worrying a little, enough for him to be able to focus in any case.

He grabbed Hermione's hand and settled opening up his Herbology textbook to begin reading aloud from the chapter on tropical plants. Hermione like those ones the best she was a bit of a Summer baby and during the cold winters in Scotland she would often ask him to tell her about the exotic plants he knew of and the sunny climes they hailed from.

That was how Augusta Longbottom found them. Neville had dashed off yesterday and gone straight to the owlery, Hermione might not have parents in the magical world but that didn't mean she was without people that cared about her, he wanted to make sure she was being watched over. He knew his Gran, he wasn't the only one that was afraid of her. As much as her appearing at Hogwarts was a recurring theme in some of his worst nightmares this was necessary.

He had told his Gran about Hermione, his first friend, in letters during the first year and over the Summer holidays. She had been impressed that the girl had the highest marks in her year and seemed interested when one of their many exchanged letters over the Summer had requested his recommendations for some further Herbology reading. His Gran had encouraged Neville's friendship with her.

"This is her then?" Neville started as the voice broke through his little bubble, he completely missed the slight inflection in his Gran's tone.

"Yes, this is Hermione"

"Well" she laid a hand on Neville's shoulder "from everything you have said this one is made of stern stuff"

Neville nodded solemnly "I hope so Gran"

"Well, sitting here all day isn't going to help" She glanced down at Neville's book and sighed "Neville, being adequate with plants is one thing but to have any chance of a semi-successful career you will need to make vast improvements in your other subjects. I expect you to be in your afternoon classes"

Neville felt protest build in his mind but one look at his Gran's countenance told him that this was not up for discussion.

"I understand" he said resigned to following her wishes even as he was pondering how he would be even more useless than normal.

"Good now I must go find Dumbledore, all these students mounting up and not a thing said to their parents not on my bloody watch"

And with that she marched out of The Hospital Wing.