"Asking her directly isn't working."
"Tell me about it."
Both girls sighed in defeat before joining their brunette so she can help them practice occlumency and legilimency.
The three were comfortably settled in the room of requirements that was well air conditioned, as the spring weather was beginning to heat up.
So far, both girls were doing well in building their shields, nearly reaching half Hermione's shield power after several weeks of constant practice upon the brunette's urging. Either way, it's not like they had the heart to deny the brunette of much.
Today they were finally going to try and read one of the pieces she had in mind for the quartet to play at their gala concert.
"Are you sure you can do it this time? Today's your turn Daphne. Cho and Harry already found out." Their little friend taunted, sitting cross legged on the couch and eyeing both playfully with gleaming chocolate eyes before winking at the Ravenclaw who giggled.
"Watch me."
And watch she did. The moment their eyes met, Daphne cast a legilimens spell out loud with her wand and found herself sprinting through an elaborately constructed maze of sound waves with different frequencies and looked behind her to see huge black notes hopping towards her with the intent of chasing her out.
"You have got to be kidding me." She panicked and panted vigorously a minute into the run, glaring at the note coated paper white sky in hopes Hermione will feel her anger. She heard a resonating laugh in response.
"Two can play at that game…" She muttered and threw a side glance at the sound waves she was sprinting through before running into one without a second thought. As expected, it stretched, the sound rising in pitch progressively until it rebounded back with a bounce and shot her upwards.
She smirked as soon as she spotted the glowing sheet music several waves away from her, but she didn't expect to see the sharp tip of the notes diving towards her like spears. She shrieked and closed her eyes before doing a tuck and roll on the wooden floor- the same one in their music room- before shakily bolting forward to her prize.
After evading several rolling boulder sized whole notes and cursing Hermione's mind countless times, she finally had the golden sheets within her sights and sprinted without halt, even as she tripped frequently over randomly emerging and disappearing staccato dot bumps scattered all over the place.
With one last push, she leaped and relished the feeling of her fingers grazing the hued notes. As soon as she did, everything turned black, and there was silence.
Seconds later, when she thought she had failed again, bubbles of light appeared floating in front of her, and with it, the gentle plucking of a harp, followed by a violin and viola playing a sweet melancholic note, and setting the melody's tone. The more the melody progressed, the more the instruments increased in number and in varying sounds. It was the piano's that struck a sad chord in Daphne, some of the bubbles turning blue.
A violin that started solo made indigo ones appear before bring accompanied by the maroon depth of the cello that sent tremors down her spine. Once again the piano played its recurring theme with the viola plucking chords and maintaining the morose beat. In the end, all three instruments faded away, all too soon for the lone spectator.
The melody was as short as it was touching. She needed to know its name.
Within the blink of an eye she was outside once more, her bemused forest green eyes staring into fond chocolate eyes that failed to lose their gleam.
"Great Job Daph." She smiled, the act tilting up the Slytherin's lips in turn.
"What…was that melody?" She sounded breathless even to her own ears, still wishing the tune would ring soothingly in her ears.
"It's named the City of Flickering Destruction, composed by Yoko Shimomura. I'm quite fond of her soundtracks she designs for video games like kingdom hearts."
"Have you played this kingdom hearts game?"
"No, but the soundtrack is phenomenal. We should try out a couple after our concert." She stretched and yawned before hopping off her seat and grabbing hold of her satchel.
"Cho, can you take care of Natsu? I need to see Dumbledore."
"What more can you learn from the man!? You practically have him trapped in your insane defenses too!" Daphne exclaimed, incredulously throwing her arms up.
"I'm not seeing him for a lesson."
"Oh…"
"You still want to get involved with Quirell? It's too dangerous Hermione!" Cho objected, frowning and disappointed with the brunette.
"I don't want to sit around and do nothing." She shrugged and smiled halfheartedly at her worried friends before turning her back to them and letting the huge wooden doors shut her out.
The rest of the occupants were silent for several seconds until Daphne sighed.
"She isn't giving this up, is she?"
"Apparently not. Looks like we'll be getting into a right mess soon." Cho smirked while Daphne chuckled.
"Headmaster, you need to hide the stone elsewhere. It's not safe…" The words felt like they were coming out of a broken record player stuck on repeat.
"Miss Granger, I assure you Voldemort will not attempt anything with me in the castle, not in his current state."
"What if you're not here then?" She frowned and stubbornly persisted while the old man sighed, having gone through this conversation more times than he cared to count; it was starting to grate on his nerves.
"Fine, how about a compromise: whenever I leave the castle I'll covertly take the stone with me so it will always remain safe. Will that appease you?"
She nodded reluctantly, still having one concern to address.
"What happens when Quirell goes down to the chamber and doesn't find it?"
"W-well I… erm… Haven't actually thought about that."
'I was planning to kill him when I got the chance… As much as I object to killing, it seems necessary in this case.' His thought was rewarded with Hermione's widening eyes and gaping mouth.
Dumbledore noticed this and cursed inside his head.
"Hermione, what did I tell you about reading other people's minds without their consent?" He sounded like a disappointed father, frowning disapprovingly and hiding his pride with her developing legilimency as best as he could.
"S-sorry…" She looked down ashamed and still reeling from the fact that the school's revered headmaster would take someone's life. Yet, she understood it had to be done- it was more than obvious at this point that there was nothing left of Quirell but Voldemort's soul inhabiting his empty shell.
"Are your worries now put to rest Miss Granger?" He asked, hands linked on the large wooden table, tone as serious as the topic deserves.
"…Yes. Thank you Headmaster." She nodded, her own hands gripping the edge of her fluffy seat.
"Please don't do anything foolish." His aura turned from the dark grey to a murky yellow, amusement laced in his concerns and reprimands.
"You say to a Gryffindor." She smirked wryly.
"I do believe the hat was about to place you in Slytherin, if I wasn't mistaken." He himself smirked and glanced knowingly at the sorting hat.
"…Touche." She sheepishly laughed before thanking the headmaster once more and exiting with a plan budding in her mind.
Several weeks ago, Harry took to practicing alone on the Beriot composition and other melodies that had gathered dust in the confines of his mind.
He was particularly fond of Kreisler's compositions, like 'Liebsfreud' and 'Tambourin Chinoix'; though the piano wasn't very significant in them, it complimented the violin pieces beautifully.
He hoped Hermione would like them when he plays them for her someday.
While his fingers glided across the keys, his mind drifted to the moments he shared with his four dear friends.
The initially distant Hermione was still nicer to him than his aunt's family ever was in his short eleven years. Not only that, she understood him, and he her. It relieved him, exalted him, made him feel accepted- linked to someone on a level he can't fathom at his tender age.
Ron, despite the lack of tact and mule worthy stubbornness, laziness, and bias towards Slytherins- Wow Ron had a lot of faults- he had the heart of gold to make up for them in spades. He's willing to learn too. He liked people that learned things for the better.
Daphne, the infamous ice princess, earned his admiration through her ambition and passion to best everyone with her music and studies, even though she gets a bit out of control sometimes. Treating Hermione as kindly as she does was also big bonus points for him… and she gives warm hugs.
Cho, Harry would describe as the patient and kind mother of the group, despite her occasional bouts of tears, whining and brooding when she couldn't achieve her goal. She never failed to keep them in check, and keep Hermione from getting herself killed, for now. He was surprised she hasn't grown grey hairs yet.
It made his heart warm. Thinking of these people. Even Natsu, whom he liked to spoil and hand treats behind Hermione's back- little did she know most of Gryffindor was smitten with the kitten.
They were a better family than the ones at little Whinging would ever be. They made him feel accepted, and happy, and… and loved.
He didn't realize he'd switched melodies and was playing Schon Rosmarin by Kreisler. The quaint tune, along with his thoughts lifted all the burdens off his shoulder and he smiled while straightening up and swaying with the music, imagining himself playing in a small pub somewhere in Molching, Germany, accompanying an accordion. (Small tribute to 'The Book Thief', God that book ripped my heart to shreds)
Once he was done, he closed the piano case with care and saddled his school bag on one shoulder while humming the tune before throwing one more glance at the snug and comfy basement with windows that let sunlight trickle in– anything is possible with this room, even a basement with windows- and exited, shutting the door silently behind him.
On his way through the terrace, he heard squeaky and rushed words and looked at its source, only to see chipmunks chasing each other at the base of an acorn tree.
'Huh, weird…'
He moved along, greeting a few other students he was friendly with, before chirps he swore sounded like a conversation made him abruptly halt in his steps. He suddenly looked up to see two little robins hopping from one branch to the other before taking flight away from him, the twitters of words fading away with the burgundy creatures.
'I think all the dust in that room is just getting to me.' He hurried along, now worried with what his mind was doing to him.
He almost shut the common door room with such a rush it startled half the common room's occupants.
Finally reaching home base, he sighed relieved until a small black cat made itself know at his feet.
"What's got your knickers in a twist?" A feminine voice deeper than Hermione's had him look down very slowly to the cat opening and closing its mouth with a mildly curious expression adorning her usually bored demeanor.
"Wh-what?"
"Are you deaf now? "
"Oh Merlin, I'm going bonkers…" He muttered to himself, grasping the feathery raven hair of his in one hand.
"Are you okay Harry?" Dean, who was passing by the entrance door, asked with curiosity.
"Uhm…yes, I think? What did you just hear her say?"
"Say? All she did was mewl at you."
"R-right, I thought I heard something, must be a bit tired."
"I'm sure you are; just to warn you, Neville's up there and snoring like a freaking chainsaw, so good luck with getting sleep any time soon." He smirked his usual suave smirk that older girls already found charming. All Harry did was chuckle knowingly.
"No worries, a silencing spell will do the trick. Later mate." He bid his roommate goodbye as the muggleborn joined Ron for the first of many heated discussions revolving around whether Quidditch or football was the better sport.
'Everyone heard it mewl, but I heard it talk…is it the same thing as me talking to snakes?' He wondered after absentmindedly plopping on the couch in beside the fireplace, aware Natsu followed him and hopped onto its lap.
'Similar. Your talking to snakes is the Parselmouth ability. Your talking to me and other animals makes you a freak of nature.'
'Wait, what?'
'Oh I'm just kidding. About the freak of nature thing, not the parselmouth.'
'How do you know that?' He seemed to accept the fact that he communicated with her through his mind pretty easily, already past the panic that came with communicating with an animal.
'I make sure to know everything about other fellow animals.'
'Fair enough… so this must be the room's effect?'
'Most likely.'
'Neat.' So now he can communicate with other animals.
It was a good day for Harry Potter.
On a calm windless afternoon, while the horizon turned from a murky blue to a deeper sea blue painted with rose wisps of clouds at sunset, a girl wearing a Gryffindor shirt with rolled up sleeves panted, wand grasped tightly in one hand while the other wiped sweat off her forehead.
She was glaring at the practice dummies, some shredded and others pulverized, imagining them to be her venomous tormentor.
There was no way he could hurt her again, she was sure of it.
She relaxed her stance and huffed, slightly tired from the exhaustion of her ever growing magical stores, satisfied she lasted nearly an hour blasting spells and evading illusions of attacks.
She might be hungry enough to eat a whole meal, which was a lot, saying for Hermione.
She crouched by her satchel and petted the napping Natsu before snatching the bag exiting the room of requirements for a quick shower and dinner before coming back to practice on her violin, yet not for as long as she would like to; with exams approaching, she ought to dedicate some time for those and make sure she met everyone's expectations.
Daphne and Cho were handling their own workloads of music practice and revision well, and while Harry was more preoccupied with his piano and the odd disappearance or two to who knows where with Natsu- maybe he had a thing for cats- he managed to keep up with the workload. Even Ron with his fearsome procrastination should pass with Cho's tutoring. The latter also improved greatly at chess, much to her own pride and joy.
As for the whole Voldemort immortality thing, Hermione could do nothing but bide her time, much like the evil wizard; as long as the headmaster was in the castle, the situation remained a stalemate.
All in all, current times were laid back for the little witch.
Too bad nothing remained peaceful with her for too long.
While she finished with her shower, she decided to take the shortcut to the great hall and surprise her friends.
The advantage was that few knew of it, so it's rarely crowded if ever. Today, it was nearly empty.
This was also a disadvantage.
While she traveled through the barren hall way, another person decided to make their unwelcome appearance.
Upon his sight Hermione groaned and hid the apprehension that quickened her heart beat; her magical stores hadn't recharged yet.
'This is bad…'
"Look who showed up: the dirty little rat."
"You say I'm Dirty? Have you smelled your clothes lately?" She countered back with the slightest quivering of her voice. She silently summoned the wand into her hand hidden within the folds of her robe.
"You little shit. We'll see how dirty you'll be after I'm done with you." He sneered before taking out his wand.
Instead of frightening her, it relieved her; he was too far from her to physically abuse her, so he had to resort to magical attacks, and that suited her just fine.
She began jumping around, evading his petty spells with ease, much to his frustration.
"Hold still you midget!" He gritted after the tenth spell, beginning to tire.
At the signs of exhaustion, Hermione took out her own wand and cast expelliarmus which he luckily dodged before falling on his butt from locomotor wibbly, the foot locking hex.
With a glare he quickly got back up and began casting more vicious curses like cutting hexes and a rather nasty blinding hex she thankfully dodged, and others she managed to cast mild protegos against.
Unfortunately, the lad's anger fueled his magic and his amplified cutting curses nicked her shoulder and arm.
She let out a pained yelp and resisted the urge to hold her wounded arm, instead looking up at him with a glare. She growled faintly and fired off three successive cutting, petrifying and disarming curses, all three hitting him accurately and effectively ending their little spat.
Panting, she stared at his frozen uptight body topple and fall on his back to the floor with a grunt.
Pain stinging the right half of her body, she gingerly glanced down at her aggressively reddening wounds and soaking shirt before scrunching up her face in discomfort and assessing the damage.
'They sting way too much for shallow wounds… they're quite deep this time.'
"A l-lot of b-blood…" She muttered to herself out loud, scared. She hasn't healed wounds this deep yet. She gulped and fumbled with her satchel, trying the find the healing vials she kept as an emergency. She cursed to herself for using them up.
Great. Now she had to go all the way to the common room to get them.
'To hell with it!' She waved her blood splattered wand at the first gash she could find, the one on her shoulder and watched the blood leaking out of it slowly decrease until the wound knitted back up messily.
'Damn it! My intent is all over the place!' She grit her teeth and struggled to siphon off her starving magical stores, hands trembling after the third wound healed and her limbs turning cold.
'No this is bad, I'm practically out of magic.' She panicked and expressed distress, especially when black dots swam in her vision and vertigo took over forcing her to lean on the wall and slide down to her knees, her hand on her arm to stem the flow of blood.
She glanced at Natsu who darted out of the bag and stared into her eyes intently, worry written in her own intense blue eyes.
With a faint nod from her, she took off like a bullet in search of the one person who could understand her and come to her mistress's aid.
Said person was trying to explain his new ability to Ron, who wore a rare skeptic expression.
"Are you sure about that mate? Maybe you're just imagining things."
"I can prove it!"
"How?"
"Well… erm… I can talk to Natsu! There she is!" He managed to escape his own mumbling at the sight of the frantic cat.
Said Bombay cat immediately skidded to a stop and stared up at it, mewling with fervor from Ron's point of view.
Ron also noticed Harry growing as panicked as the cat, if not worse. In a split second, he grabbed Ron's arm and took off in a crazed sprint following the cat.
"H-harry! Wh-what's wrong!? Slow down!" He hastily dodged a surprised hufflepuff student and briefly looked back to make sure she hadn't tripped.
"Hermione's in trouble!"
"And the cat told you that!?" Ron exclaimed as they turned the corner and took an unfamiliar passage hidden behind a suit of armor.
"Blimey mate, you sure you're not bon…kers…" His speech cut off when both boys slowed to a stop, greeted with the aftermath of a bloody duel. A petrified but struggling Slytherin prefect gave them a pretty good idea what went down, but what terrified them was that all the blood came from their ashen pale friend who was leaning against a wall, deathly still while blood pooled around her and tainted her shirt that uncomfortably stuck to her like second skin.
"H-H-Hermione!?" While Harry barely managed to whisper his friend's name, Ron's voice reached new octaves he didn't know his vocal chords were able to produce.
Without a moment's hesitance, both rushed at the barely conscious girl who groaned faintly and tried to get off the wall before Harry stopped her and gently placed a hand on her uninjured shoulder while Ron slowly and cautiously took her arm around his neck. Both boys then got her to her feet and tried to get her to Madame Pomfrey as fast as possible without jostling or hurting her any further. Natsu trailed behind them, before going off once more to warn the nurse in advance, since she was still high on adrenaline.
The last thing Hermione remembered before her flickering vision went black was Harry's muffled reassuring words.
"It's okay Hermione, you'll be fine soon."
"—Lost a lot of blood—"
"-e okay?-"
"She sh- be o-ay. But she has- o—wounds-badly healed—"
"What!?"
"-Quiet—wake her!"
Snippets of conversations bounced off the bleach white walls of the infirmary and entered Hermione's barely conscious mind, until the sunlight gently trickling through the window above her made her eyes gently flutter open.
The very first colors she took in where white and blue; the white that colored the curtains closed around her and preserved her privacy, and the crisp clear turquoise blue that captured Hermione's attention and made her peacefully stare outside her window for several minutes, tuning all sounds out.
'They remind me of Natsu's eyes.'
But then the curtain opened so Madame Pomfrey could change the girl's bandages and was startled to see the girl's eyes half open and staring at the sky with a small indulgent smile.
The nurse glanced at the brunette once more before making her decision. A small smile slipped while she closed the curtains, shaking her head lightly.
'While students usually wake up in a panic and make a disoriented ruckus, this one stares up at the sky like it's the world's rarest jewel.
'The poor thing looks so happy. I'll let her rest for a while longer.' Was the thought running through the benevolent medic's head while she placated and shooed off Hermione's concerned and, frankly, annoyingly protective friends. Their nagging and insisting questions were getting on her nerves.
After her friend's footsteps faded away and the large oak doors closed shut, Hermione moved around, rustling her blanket and stretching with a loud yawn, finding her the softness of the blankets and her semi-thick pillow immensely pleasing and relaxing.
She glanced around several times, cracking her neck in the process and becoming slightly worried, until her furry black object of interest popped its head up from under the blankets and mewled at her before jumping into her lap and licking the hand that affectionately pet its head and rubbed the back of its ears.
"Here you go, little cub." The curtains were drawn open as Madame Pomfrey deposited a tray filled with chicken soup, whose enticing aroma made her salivate like a starving dog, and a loaf of fresh crispy bread like the ones in the cafeteria.
'Wow the food is too good to be true…' Her eyes sparkled in wonder and anticipation to dig in to the meal, until the nurse brought another small plate. In it was an assortment of pills of different shapes and sizes, obviously meant for her.
'And… there's the catch.' She groaned pitifully and looked up pleadingly at the no nonsense nurse with her puppy dog eyes.
'Work…please…Work!' The lady seemed to waver for a moment before she narrowed her eyes and slapped the upset brunette on the back on her head.
"Darn…" She looked down sullenly at her soup while enduring the exasperated nurse's onslaught.
"You won't be getting out of this one, little missy! I can't believe you've been avoiding the infirmary for months! And don't you tell me that's not true, your wounds proved it, even the ones you healed, as there is something called scarring.
Furthermore young lady, why didn't you visit me after I told you and young Harry to do so? Now that I've gotten a better look at you, I should have confined you to the hospital bed the minute you set foot in this room!"
"I'm sorry…I'm not very good with hospitals…"
"Obviously!" She huffed and rolled her eyes before staring back down at the mass of bushy brown hair.
"Before you dig in, I'd like to know how you got the scars dated before your arrival to Hogwarts." Her voice softened and her tone turned sympathetic- Hermione hoped she won't pity her afterwards, she had enough of it.
"It's…complicated. Mother was strict when it came to my school and musical studies. It's not so bad." She reluctantly supplied the concerned nurse while avoiding the matron's eyes.
"Your mother was far worse than 'strict', Miss Granger. I have half a mind of sending aurors to immediately arrest her and get her as far away as humanely and magically possible from you." He soft tone switched to a livid one barely contained by her professionalism. Still it didn't lessen the protective witch's ire and the increasing desire to tear the woman who called herself a mother apart when she recalled the marks left on the child's malnourished body.
The lava red aura was powerful enough to make Hermione shiver and hold back a whimper before looking up at the nurse that just began to calm down and shakily graced her with a smile.
"It's fine; she's dead now- a disease took her life." She replied simply, staring at madame Pomfrey's now stone blank face instead of grimacing and furious, shrugging after a few moments and digging into her lunch.
"…I'm sorry." The nurse's voice cracked uncertainly and guiltily- how could she sympathize when the woman's death relieved her?
"It was for the best." Her tone resigned, she continued eating with a deceptively calm air.
It unsettled Madame Pomfrey, who left to take care of some matters.
She didn't notice the tears plopping onto the white blankets and onto the bread the brunette held in her small shaking hands.