Despite evidence to the contrary, I'm actually still alive and writing. This story is definitely veering into cerebus syndrome territory, but hopefully I'll manage to get it back into comedy in the next few chapters. I hope you enjoy it.


Fjeijei stood over the fallen girl. She was panting, and her hands had taken on a blue sheen, though that quickly faded. She dropped to her knees, and sat, breathing heavily for several minutes.

After composing herself, she reached out, and yanked out a handful of hair. The redhead gave no visible sign of protest, or, in fact, of anything. She simply lay there, corpselike. The only indication of life was her swift, shallow breathing.

Fjeijei put the hair in her pocket, then grabbed the girl's book satchel. She unwound the scarf from around Ginny's neck and tied it around her hands and feet. She wouldn't wake up, but if she did she wouldn't go anywhere.

Fjeijei stood, and tried to drag the body to a place where no-one would stumble over it. It was slow going because she spent half of her time trying to move as quietly as possible, and the other half listening to see if anyone had heard her. She ended up stuffing Ginny under a table, in a dusty corner that she hoped no-one frequented.

When she returned to Hermione's studying area, she discovered the girl packing up her books and notes, preparing to leave. Fjeijei followed her at a distance. She was exhausted, and didn't want to deal with anyone other than her prey. Luckily for her, Hermione was the last out of the library, and neither Hermione nor her doppelganger had to face any social encounters until they reached a large painting depicting a very rotund woman.

Hermione whispered to the portrait, and it swung forward to reveal a large room, decorated in red and gold, and filled with students.

Fjeijei hung back as Hermione entered. There were too many people there, and she was too worn out to keep them from noticing two Hermiones. She watched the portrait swing shut after her quarry, and decided to wait for someone she could trick into letting her in.

--xx0oo0lOvOl0oo0xx--

Neville was alone. Though he tried to be quiet, his footsteps echoed down the corridor. To the best of his knowledge, everyone who hadn't put their head down for a little rest after finishing up the potting in Greenhouse 3 was sound asleep in their dormitories.

He was nervous. It wasn't that he'd never been out after curfew, he had, and it wasn't that he was terrified of getting caught, though he knew it wouldn't be pleasant if he were. It just seemed that something wasn't right. The castle seemed darker, emptier than usual.

He laughed to himself, of course it did, it was nighttime and the students were asleep. It was silly to feel like that. What was the worst that could happen, he'd meet a ghost? All any ghost could do is startle him, or call for Filch at the worst. Still, Neville felt the need to speed up his pace. As he turned a corner and trotted toward the fat lady's portrait his sense of unease quadrupled. He really, really wanted company.

That was why, after an initial second of shock, he found the sight of Hermione Granger jumping out in from of him to be very calming.

"Hey!" she said, "Can you get us in? I've forgotten the password."

A look of confusion flitted across Neville's face, "Really? Are you feeling all right?"

For a fraction of a second, Hermione gave him a look which he thought seemed disgusted.

She sighed and shook her head, leaning her back against the wall.

"I don't know. Everything's happening to me these days. It's all so hectic; I just can't think properly."

Neville patted her shoulder, "That Marietta girl, who said she was your cousin? It makes sense that you're still worried about her. She was really strange; I don't know why she was after you," he paused, giving her an opportunity to speak if she had anything to add. At her silence he continued, "You don't think she could have been one of his people? She seemed really interested in Harry."

Hermione gave a short bark of laughter, "That sounds about right."

She straightened up, "In any case, we'd better go in. I'm getting tired, and it's almost tomorrow."

"oh, yeah, the password's... umm, contrafactionis"

The portrait creaked open, and they entered the empty common room.

"Your face looks better," he said, as they crossed to the staircases.

She looked at him sharply.

"I mean, the scratch has faded. You can barely see it."

"I heal quickly."

"That must be useful," he smiled at her, "goodnight," and began to climb the stairs to the dormitories.

"You too," she said, following him up.

He stopped and turned to face her, "Err, you're following me to the boys' dorms; I think you want the girls'."

She looked dazed, then shook her head, "Thanks. I'm really out of it."

She went back down the stairs, and tried climbing to the girls' dormitories instead.

"I hope you feel better in the morning," Neville said softly as he watched her go.

--xx0oo0lOvOl0oo0xx--

Hermione couldn't sleep. She'd lain in bed and stared at the canopy overhead. She kept replaying her experiences with Marietta over and over again in her head. She couldn't figure out what had happened. It was a problem she couldn't solve, and that really bothered her.

There'd been a moment in the carriage, when everything had seemed clear. Then it had been gone again, fogged up as though someone had poured water on rocks in a sauna. Why had everything been clear, and, more importantly, why had everything then become so obscure. Why had she not been able to figure out that Marietta wasn't her cousin? How could everything have seemed so right?

Hermione, because she was Hermione, had dealt with the stress her uncertainty caused, by reading a textbook. A very advanced guide to Arithmancy lay open in her lap. She'd cast a charm so that the light she was reading by couldn't leak out and wake her roommates, and another so that the assorted sleeping sounds of her roommates couldn't leak in and distract her. She'd made the area around her bed into what seemed like her own private universe, and she'd only thought of how that could work to her benefit.