Hermione
Parvati, Padma, and Hannah watched as three owls landed in front of Hermione at breakfast, nearly knocking over her pumpkin juice. The bushy-haired Gryffindor tucked five Knuts into the leather pouch attached to the foot of the Daily Prophet delivery owl before she turned her attention to the other two.
"Is that Hermes?" Ginny asked as she yawned and slid onto the bench next to Hermione. "Why's Percy writing to you?"
Hannah gave a thoroughly conspiratorial grin. "Didn't you know that Hermione and Percy have been writing all year?"
"We're expecting him to declare his intentions any day now," Parvati added. Her Ravenclaw twin giggled and nodded.
Hermione tried to fight the flush rising in her cheeks, but felt her skin burn anyway. "It's not like that. He just needs someone to talk to." She untied the letter from Hermes' leg and moved on to the third owl.
"Does Ron know?" Ginny asked.
A feeling of unease chased away the burning. Hermione shrugged. "It hasn't really come up..."
"Hermione," Ginny admonished. "You and Ron have been dancing around defining your relationship for six months, but it's obvious you want to be together." She gestured to the thick letter on the table. "Unless you don't?"
The other three women watched the conversation with uninhibited fascination. They so rarely had a chance to feel normal, and what was more normal than an impending love triangle? And one involving two brothers, at that.
"What if I just—what if I don't want anyone?" Hermione demanded. "What if I'm not ready for that? I still have school and...other things that I have to deal with before I can even consider a real relationship."
"If that's the case, I'd appreciate you not leading on two of my brothers." Ginny reached for a piece of toast, but her hand stopped halfway across the table. She changed course and picked up the second letter. "Is that George's handwriting?"
Parvati, Padma, and Hannah leaned forward, trying to see the front of the envelope as Ginny ripped it open without Hermione's consent. The redhead scanned the letter quickly and growled. "You know the last time we heard from him was when Charlie told us he showed up in Romania? Of course he'd be writing to you. All you need now is Charlie and Bill, and you'll have all of the Weasley boys wrapped around your finger."
Hermione snatched the letter from Ginny. "I swear this is the first time he's written me." She read through the messy handwriting reminiscent of Ron's scrawl. She scowled at Ginny. "You made me think this was something bad! It's just a thank you note for helping with the Duplication Parchments!" Hermione smacked the younger woman with George's letter.
Ginny smirked. "I know. But your reaction was hilarious."
"You utter—"
"Good morning, ladies," Neville said, seating himself next to Hannah. He glanced at the entertained looks on their faces and quirked an eyebrow. "What did I miss?"
"Hermione's dating three of the Weasley brothers," Padma summed up.
"Though we expect Percy will be the first to propose," Parvati added.
"It's not like that!" Hermione protested again.
Neville examined the heavy envelope from the elder Weasley brother. "Does Percy know that?"
"Seriously, Hermione, one night with Percy and—" Ginny started, riling the other woman up even more.
"One night?" Hannah asked, her eyes glittering with delight at the insinuation of something scandalous.
Hermione snarled, annoyed and distressed by the topic. "What on earth are you talking about?"
"I seem to remember walking in on you and Percy on a bed all snuggled up…." Ginny trailed off as she looked at Hermione's murderous glare.
"Now you're just being cruel. You know what that was about." Hermione snatched the letters from the Weasley men and the Daily Prophet and stuffed them into her book bag. "I need to go to the library. DON'T follow."
Once in the library, Hermione slammed her bag down on a table and winced at how loud the sound was in the silent room. With more self-control, she pulled out her Arithmancy text and a pitifully short roll of parchment.
How dare Ginny make light of what happened with Percy? He had been in pain and she had been able to comfort him. That was all their relationship consisted of—sharing pain and comfort, only via letters now that she had returned to Hogwarts. He'd been instrumental in helping her hunt down the book about Memory Charms, even if he thought she was only interested in them for a school project. And he'd asked her advice on where to go next with his career. He was hesitant to return to the Ministry, but his father needed assistance in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts office.
Sure, their correspondence had grown increasingly lighter over the months. He'd begun joking that she would probably become the second youngest person to ever receive an Order of Merlin (the youngest, of course, would likely be Harry). There was nothing remotely romantic going on between the two, and she didn't appreciate the suggestion that there was.
"Hermione?" a soft voice came from above her.
She snapped her head up, prepared to make a snide comment at Ginny, only to find a pale young woman with brown hair tied back with an emerald green ribbon, wearing a green-and-silver striped tie. "What?" she said. It came out harsher than she meant, but Daphne Greengrass was a Slytherin. She could take it.
"Can I sit here? Everywhere else is..." Daphne flushed, a broken anger flashing in her eyes.
The rest of the tables had been claimed by one or two students from other houses, but the Slytherins were sequestered into crowded corners of their own. The other students still looked at them with suspicion or open hostility. In spite of McGonagall's efforts, inter-house relations among the older students had not improved.
Hermione set her bag on a chair and freed up the other side of the table for the displaced Slytherin. "Sure."
"Thank you." Daphne sat down and pulled out her own books. The women worked in tense silence, both aware of the stares they were getting from the other students.
"I hate this," Daphne mumbled after several minutes.
"Pardon?"
Daphne looked up and furrowed her eyebrows. "I hate this. I didn't do anything wrong. It's not my fault that I was Sorted into a House that everyone hates. My sister's a Ravenclaw, you know. When she's with her friends, she pretends she doesn't know me." She looked down at her hands. "I didn't do anything wrong. The Death Eaters were as bad to us as they were to the other students. They treated us—Tracey and me—like we were blood-traitors because we wouldn't hurt people. And nobody cares."
Hermione felt some small piece of her heart break as she watched Daphne fight to stay composed. "I didn't know."
"That's the point, isn't it? Nobody knows because nobody asks. They just look at us and see blood-purists and people who tortured other people for fun."
"Why tell me? I didn't ask," Hermione said, hoping her voice didn't sound unkind. It wasn't odd for people to come up to her and start confessing their feelings since they'd started doing their 'therapy' meetings, but a Slytherin? That was uncharted waters.
"They look up to you. If you accept that there are some of us who are innocent, they might. And it goes beyond Hogwarts. The Wizarding world doesn't want anything to do with Slytherins. They call all of us Death Eaters." Daphne looked pained and pleading as she met Hermione's eyes again. "But mostly I just want my sister to talk to me again."
"Your sister's Astoria, right?" Hermione asked. Daphne nodded, surprise clear on her face. Hermione made a snap decision. She hoped she wouldn't regret it. "There's a group of us meeting tonight at seven in the old Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. If you're serious about wanting to be accepted, you should come. You and Davis. Just be prepared to bare your soul. You're going to have to trust them before they trust you."
"Who?"
"Just come and you'll see."
Neville put his hands on Hermione's shoulders to stop her from pacing. Most of their expected crowd had arrived, but Daphne and Davis were late. Had she done the right thing? How would everyone react to having Slytherins in their midst? Daphne was right—most students viewed all of them as dangerous, even if proven otherwise.
"What time is it?" she asked.
"Five after. What's going on with you?"
Three shadows appeared in the doorway and the gentle hum of the students' conversations stilled to an eerie silence.
Daphne, Tracey Davis, and Blaise Zabini edged into the room, staying close to the wall. The first looked terrified while the other two looked annoyed at having been brought along. Hermione was secretly relieved that Parkinson hadn't joined them. Even her compassion didn't reach that far.
A blonde Ravenclaw scooted closer to her friends, the look on her face extremely similar to Daphne's. The older sister watched the movement with hurt and confusion. "Astoria?"
The younger girl shook her head. "You shouldn't be here."
Hermione cleared her throat. "I asked her to come."
The assortment of Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs looked at Hermione with obvious disbelief.
"We'd heard you sat with her in the library," Ernie said with clear distaste, "but this is too far. This is supposed to be a safe space. They're traitors."
A small wave of relief washed over Hermione as students shifted uncomfortably. They might all be thinking the same thing, but no one wanted to agree with the likes of Ernie Macmillan.
"They shouldn't be here," Zacharias Smith echoed.
Okay, most people didn't want to agree with the likes of Ernie Macmillan. Hermione envisioned a Stunning Spell striking Zacharias between the eyes and causing him to fall into a vat of bubotuber pus. The image made her smile.
Ginny, never one to keep a biting remark from crossing her lips, jumped to her feet. "You trampled first-years to get out of the Great Hall instead of staying and fighting. You're a disgrace to Dumbledore's Army. If anyone doesn't have a right to be here, it's you."
A tense silence overtook the room as Ginny and Zacharias glared at each other.
"It doesn't change the fact that they're Slytherins," Ernie said, drawing the attention back to himself. "They're the ones who caused all of this."
"We didn't, though!" Daphne burst out. She waved her hands erratically, searching for words. "It wasn't us. We never claimed loyalty to You-Know-Who, and we were punished, same as you!"
"The Carrows never raised a single hand to the Slytherins," Zacharias snarled.
"Not outside of the common room," Davis said quietly, speaking for the first time.
"Prove it." A fifth-year Gryffindor pulled back a sleeve of his robes to reveal a long, dark scar. "We've all got scars. Show us yours."
"The Cruciatus doesn't leave scars," Davis answered.
"Convenient," Ernie said, none too quietly.
"Ernest Oscar Macmillan, if you don't shut your mouth, you'll be scratching some very inconvenient itches from now until Christmas," snapped an extremely put-out Hannah Abbott. Hermione's jaw dropped at the threat from the normally mild-mannered young woman. Neville puffed out his chest and beamed at his girlfriend.
"The Cruciatus might not scar, but the Diverberas does." Daphne pulled down the neck of her shirt and robes. Hermione saw a series of neat scars crossing the young woman's collarbone and continuing down to the top of her breast as if created by a four-pronged fork. "I refused to bring a Muggle-born down to Filch's office for 'detention'. Amycus let Crabbe practise some of the 'less harmful' curses on me. Didn't want to spill too much 'pure-blood', he said."
Astoria looked like she wanted to be sick. A friend held her across the shoulders to keep her steady. "But you were helping them," the sixth-year Ravenclaw said. Her words sounded hollow, as if she no longer believed a well-known truth.
"We weren't. None of us—Daphne, Blaise, and I—we didn't." Davis's eyes were dark as she challenged the students to contradict her.
"You didn't stop it from happening," Zacharias said.
"Actually," Neville cut in, "they did."
Two dozen heads turned to face the tall Gryffindor next to Hermione. "Them?" Ernie asked with disbelief.
Ginny and Hannah raised their wands in tandem. Hermione heard a jumble of words, and watched as Ernie's ears began to grow at an alarming rate. He was distracted from that problem, however, by the previously promised 'inconvenient' itching. Hermione was pleasantly reminded of the animated movie Dumbo and restrained herself from casting a jinx to make Ernie's ears flap like wings.
"Oi!" Zacharias protested as he reached for his wand. A second round of the same spells hit him, with an additional Hair-Lengthening Jinx tossed in by Justin Finch-Fletchley.
Chaos briefly broke out among the students nearest the hexed Hufflepuffs. As a Ravenclaw and Gryffindor helped lead them from the room, Justin stood. The room quieted again as he hobbled his way to the door. The exiting party paused in confusion at the shift in atmosphere. Ernie's ears were nearing the size of dustbin lids; Zacharias's were not far behind, although they were obscured by his shoulder-length hair.
"You ran," Justin said when he reached Zacharias. "When loyalty demanded that you stay and fight, you ran." He turned to face the Slytherins. "My brother and I escaped thanks to you and Nott. After what happened to Colin...I probably owe you my brother's life." He extended his right hand to Daphne.
She shook it, looking bewildered. "I don't understand. How did you—"
"I told him," Neville said. "He asked me who helped. It was pretty obvious that Hannah and I couldn't have gotten all of them out alone." Neville turned back to the students and waved a hand in Daphne's direction. "Daphne Greengrass and Theo Nott are the reason we were able to get the Muggle-borns out of the castle last year. Snape was meeting with the Heads of Houses, so Daph and Theo distracted the Carrows. Ginny and Luna took care of Filch. All of which allowed Hannah and I to get the Muggle-borns up to the Room of Requirement and out to the Hog's Head."
Surprise registered on Zabini's and Davis's faces while Daphne burned red. "It wasn't that big of a—"
"You saved lives," Justin said firmly. "We Hufflepuffs don't forget something like that." He held out an open hand and nodded to the row where he was sitting. "You deserve to be here."
Hermione watched in awe as the students moved to clear three additional seats around Justin's. The Slytherins cautiously followed the limping Hufflepuff into the crowd. The glares of distrust softened to mild apprehension until Astoria stood. She pushed through the chairs and stood in front of her sister. "Can I?" she asked Davis.
Davis nodded and moved to the younger Greengrass's abandoned seat. Astoria sat down next to her sister. Daphne looked overwhelmed as she was flanked by two unexpected allies.
Something like pride rose in Hermione's chest. She shared a secret smile with the brave Slytherin before opening the floor to anyone else who wanted to speak. It would still be a long time before the houses were fully integrated, but this was a hell of a start.