A/N: Surprise! You were all so patient so here is another update! Enjoy x

Chapter 14 — To Call on Her

Hermione was dreading classes the next day, which was unusual. But it all had to do with their Defense Against the Dark Arts professor — Dolores Umbridge. An employee of the Ministry, she knew this year was going to be just as difficult as she had predicted.

"Harry," Hermione said as they walked to class.

"Yeah?" He looked at her, his eyebrow raised questioningly.

"Can you try to keep your temper in check today? Please?" she begged. "We don't need a repeat with Seamus last night, especially with a professor that can do more damage."

Harry let out a puff of air. "Hermione, you know I can't stand being called a liar. I watched Cedric die and watched Voldemort—" A couple people walking by, jumped at the use of the name and scurried further away from them. "—come back to life."

"Harry," Hermione repeated, laying a hand on his arm. They stopped in the middle of the second-floor corridor. "I believe you, I do."

"I know you do, but—"

"—No buts. I know it's difficult and even more so when you are continuously called a liar by people you once trusted and even called friends. But remember, she's nothing. She is only temporary. Let's just get through this year… Merlin, let's just get through today and take it one day at a time."

Harry nodded. "Okay, I will promise one thing. I will try to keep my temper in check. But I make no promises, especially if the subject of Voldemort returning or Cedric comes up."

"Thank you," Hermione said, and at that, they resumed their walk to the dreaded class. Walking in, they knew it would be worse, but seeing the Slytherins in the seats on the other side of the class put everything into perspective.

"Hey! Hey Granger!" Malfoy shouted from across the room. "How did you rope Potter into dating you?"

"The mudblood is capable enough to brew a love potion, I'm not surprised," Pansy sneered, very obviously running her eyes over Harry.

Harry opened his mouth to retort, and Hermione squeezed his arm, tight, to keep his mouth shut. Hermione just gave them her best sneer and retreated with her fingers still digging into his arm.

She pushed him into the seat as far away from Malfoy and his cronies as possible, taking a seat next to him. Placing her elbow on the desk, she turned toward him, ignoring the Slytherins behind her.

"Keep it together," Hermione said, through gritted teeth. "Fighting with them is exactly what is going to get you into trouble. I don't think—"

The jeering of the Slytherins began again, and Hermione looked back to see a red-faced Ron walking toward them. He sat at the desks in front of them, next to Neville, who was looking just as uncomfortable as they felt.

"What did they say?" Hermione asked, both Neville and Ron turning toward Harry and Hermione.

"Just shite about my family," Ron muttered.

"Same," Neville said, pulling at his tie around his neck. "They seem to be worse than normal...if that is even possible."

Hermione nodded as Harry squeezed his knuckles so tight that they were turning white. "Harry, calm down," she said in a hurried whisper. "Don't let them get to you!"

"Hermione...what they said to you and to Neville and to Ron—"

"I know you want to defend everyone, but you already know the Ministry has it out for you, and with Umbridge teaching this class, the Slytherins are all high and mighty, knowing they can't get away with anything."

Neville and Ron nodded, agreeing with her.

Harry went to open his mouth when the classroom door opened and the same pink toad from the night before opened, and Hermione grabbed his hand in support underneath the table. The entire class went silent as her head turned and looked at him, her gaze landing on her and then, Harry. She stayed there for several moments before she moved and her little heels clicked across the hard-tiled floor.

"Welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts," she said. "It has come to my attention that you have had subpar professors in this class before, and I am here this year to remedy that."

Hermione heard Harry make a noise in the back of his throat that sounded like a growl. She gripped his hand harder, and he looked at her and mouthed, "Ow!" Hermione just shrugged and put her index finger up to her lips in an attempt to remind him to keep quiet.

"These textbooks," the pink toad said, waving her arm making the textbooks distribute themselves on the desks. "Should bring us back to the basics, just what is needed."

Hermione grimaced. She had read this textbook within hours when she saw it assigned on her Hogwarts letter. It was for children learning Defense, all theory and no practice.

"Please read chapter one, and take notes. There will be a quiz next class."

Hermione took a deep breath and opened up the book, Harry doing the same next to her. After sitting there for a few minutes, pretending to read, Hermione set the book down and raised her hand.

"Yes, Miss—?"

"Granger, professor."

The toad gave her a sickeningly, sweet smile. "Yes, Miss Granger?"

"I have already read chapter one. In fact, I have already read the entire book."

If the professor looked surprised, she didn't show it. She kept the sickening sweet smile plastered against her face.

"And?"

Hermione kept herself from huffing, especially after she told Harry to keep his temper in check. It wouldn't do for her to get into trouble either.

"And," Hermione said, emphasizing the word. "I don't see anything in there about learning defensive spells. It is a lot of theory, but theory doesn't help us unless we are able to practice it. Especially with our O. coming up."

"Why would you need to practice the theory? As long as you have studied the theory, it should be enough to perform the spell in front of the examiners."

Hermione just nodded, unwilling to continue arguing with someone who was never going to see that they were wrong.

"Thank you, professor," Hermione said, turning back to the book.

"And how is just learning the theory of the spell going to help us for what's out there?" Harry shouted. Hermione closed her eyes before turning to Harry. He was fuming, his knuckles once again clenched to the point he was going to lose circulation if he didn't stop. She could tell how much being back at Hogwarts had changed him — he was quick to anger, constantly on edge, and ready to explode at any moment. At least in Greece, they could forget about everything for a little while.

"Harry," Hermione whispered. "No!" She attempted to grab his arm to calm him down, but he moved it out of her grasp. She huffed and leaned back in her chair, really wanting to beat her head on the desk over his lack of control.

Umbridge still had the smile on her face, though her eyes were raging in anger. From the corner of her eyes, Hermione could see the Slytherins grinning and laughing. In front of her, Neville looked like he might collapse right then and there from fear.

"And just what exactly is out there, Mister Potter?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe Lord Voldemort," Harry said, sarcasm dripping from his tongue. Half the class gasped in shock, Hermione pursed her lips, and finally, the disgusting smile was wiped off Umbridge's face.

"That is a lie," she said hoarsely, walking toward their table. She stopped before she got there and looked around at the rest of the class. "What have you been told is a lie. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has not returned. The Ministry—"

"—is lying!" Harry yelled at her. "He's back. I watched him come back, and I watched him kill Cedric. HE'S BACK!"

"Detention, Mister Potter," Umbridge spat. She turned back to walk toward her desk. "Continue reading!"

The class scurried to get back to the task at hand and not a sound could be heard. "Oh, and Mister Potter?" Hermione looked up as well. "See me after class to make arrangements."

Harry was breathing hard, but he did not push her away this time when she reached for his hand under the desk. Under the guise that he was looking at his book, he moved his eyes toward her.

"I couldn't just let her," he whispered, shaking his head. Hermione looked toward the front of the classroom where she saw Umbridge engrossed in another task. Only then, did she feel it was safe to respond.

"We can talk later, just keep your cool when you meet with her after class to discuss the logistics of your detention."

Harry nodded in response and squeezed her hand. Turning back to her book, she pretended to read the material and instead, her mind wandered to what they could do combat the issue at hand. They needed to learn Defense and not from a Ministry toad.

When Harry walked into the common room after classes that day, Hermione was already waiting for him by the fireplace, her homework spread out before her.

"Harry!" she said, smiling at him, setting her quill down. "How were the rest of your classes?"

"Fine." He shrugged, taking a seat across from her. "Would have been better if we had more than one class together today."

"Should have dropped Divination like I did," Hermione said, knowingly, giving him a look.

He put his hands up and smiled. "At least after this year, I can drop it. And after that, I never want to see a crystal ball again."

The portrait opened again, and Ron walked in. He walked over to them, throwing his bag down on the ground. He had a goofy smile on his face as he threw himself down into a chair.

"Just took Padma back to Ravenclaw tower," he admitted, shrugging his shoulders. "She's great."

Harry and Hermione both grinned and shared a look. They were happy for their friend.

"Now that you're here Ron, I'll tell you both what happened with Umbridge after class."

"Oi! What a bitch," Ron said. "She was just at dinner and glared at the dinner table like it did something to her. Maybe she was glaring at the fork because it made her fat."

The trio stared at each other in shock before bursting into laughter. "Oh gosh," Hermione said, catching her breath. "That was a good one, Ron!" Ron's ears tinged red at the compliment before shrugging.

Hermione then turned to Harry, smiled still etched on their faces. "What did Umbridge say?"

"She just talked about how she thought I was troubled and didn't really see what I thought I did...that I imagined what happened in the graveyard. She again reiterated that Voldemort has not returned and told me to my face that both Dumbledore and I are lying."

Hermione's mouth dropped open. "I cannot believe the nerve of that woman! How she even got into the school is beyond me...even for Fudge, that's low!"

Harry rubbed the back of his head and let out a large sigh. "And it gets worse."

"Worse? How could it get worse?" Ron chimed in, absentmindedly rubbing his belly. No doubt he had overstuffed himself at dinner and was quite possibly now regretting it.

"I have detention with her — tonight and every night this week."

Hermione gasped. "Every night?"

Harry nodded solemnly. "Apparently, she gets right down to business."

"I guess so," Hermione said. "What time does she expect you in her office?"

Harry looked down at the watch on his left wrist. "In about 15 minutes. I better get going. Merlin knows it would only hurt me to be late. She'd probably assign me detention for a month."

Hours later, close to midnight, Hermione awoke when the common room portrait opened. The fire had almost died out, embers continuing to glow in the dark of night.

"Harry?" she asked sleepily.

"It's me." He slid onto the sofa next to her, pulling her into his arms. She leaned back against his arm, and he hissed in pain.

"Harry?" she asked again, now wide awake. She stood from the sofa and turned to look at him. Pain was etched upon his face, but he hid it well...from others at least. She saw right through him.

"What's wrong?" she said, holding out her hand.

Not looking her in the eyes, he brought up his right hand where she grabbed it gently by his fingers. Unable to see clearly, she grabbed her wand from the nightstand and pointed it at the dying fireplace, bringing it back to life.

Setting her wand down and turning back to Harry's hand, she gasped, her free hand flying to her mouth.

"What did she do to you?" Hermione asked, bringing her hand down and squinting in the light, moving her face closer to his hand.

Harry cleared his throat. "She made me write lines that said 'I must not tell lies'. But not just with an ordinary quill, it was a quill that dug into my own skin and made me write with my own blood."

Hermione looked at him in the eyes. "That's dark magic though. What is a Ministry employee doing with an object like that?"

Harry shrugged. "She doesn't seem like the person who cares if it's dark magic."

"We should go to Dumbledore."

Harry shook his head vehemently and pulled his hand back, cradling it with his other. "No. That will just cause more problems."

"Fine," Hermione whispered, unwilling to argue with him on this point. "At least let me help you."

She looked around. "Is there a glass of water around here?"

Not seeing one, Hermione rushed up to the girls' dormitory. She grabbed a cup out of the lavatory that was usually used for rinsing her mouth and filled it with water. Running back down to Harry, she set the water next to her wand and sat on the floor on her knees in front of him.

"Let me see your hand."

Harry held out his hand again and watched her closely, his green eyes shining in the firelight. Gingerly, she touched the abused skin. It was already starting to scab over, the words the quill had ingrained into his hand raised above the skin.

"Oh, Harry," she whispered, a few tears falling down her face as she tended to him. "I am so sorry."

He sent a closed mouth smile her way.

"Nothing to be sorry for, Hermione. This isn't your fault."

Hermione nodded and regained her composure.

"I am not sure if this will work Harry, and if not, I have another idea. But I am going to try to draw on my mermaid-ness and see if I can heal you with water." She gestured to the water she had brought down from the dorms.

"Okay," he rasped out. "Can't hurt more than it already does."

"I'll have to put my hand on it. I'm sorry if it hurts you."

"Just do it."

Hermione closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She placed one hand on the beads that she usually hid underneath her clothing and the other on Harry's hand.

"Atargatis, Atargatis," Hermione whispered, quietly enough that Harry couldn't hear her words. She thought long and hard specifically about Harry's wound and the healing powers of water, continuously calling on Atargatis.

"Uh, Hermione?" Harry asked.

Hermione opened her eyes.

"I think it might have worked." She moved her hand away from is and looked up to his face, her smile big.

"It did work!"

Harry grinned back, bringing his hand up to see it better in the light. "You're right. It's there, but it has faded. And the pain isn't as severe." He paused and dropped his hand. "Do you think that your other idea would get rid of it completely."

Hermione bit her lip in thought as she moved from her knees onto the sofa next to Harry. "Possibly. Though it seems like a scar from a dark object, it's possible that it won't ever go away."

"I want to try it."

"It's Murtlap Essence. I'll have to go to the students' potion's cupboard tomorrow to see if they have any."

"And if there isn't any there?"

"I'll get it elsewhere with the help of your invisibility cloak — the hospital wing, Snape's private stores."

Harry's eyes went wide with shock. "Hermione Granger, breaking the rules?" he said in a mock tone.

"Shut it you. It's your fault...you're a bad influence."

"Come on, let's get you to bed. A good night's sleep will help with the healing." Hermione held out her hand.

Harry let his head lull back on the sofa. "Can't we just sleep here?"

"Fine," Hermione said, curling her feet underneath her and leaning onto him, his arm going behind her back. "But we risk someone finding us."

He shrugged. "I don't care. They already know we're together. Word has spread by now." Harry laid down on the couch and brought Hermione with him, half draped on him.

Hermione transfigured a nearby pillow into a blanket and threw it over the both of them. She closed her eyes and listening to Harry's even breathing, drifted off to sleep.