Loitering in the Slytherin Common Room was productive, Hermione had to admit. The atmosphere was quiet almost solemn and there were no pranks, snogging couples or exuberant games. The younger students made themselves scarce and the older students largely kept themselves to themselves.
The girls from her dorm caused the only crease in the smoothness of her Saturday. Just before lunch, Yaxley, Travers and Kneen walked into the Common Room, saw her and immediately had a three-way mute conversation of looks and nods. Theo noticed too and looked inquiringly at her. Hermione shrugged. Her Gryffindor dorm-mates had often done the same thing. It usually ended in giggles.
Berengaria Yaxley tossed her hair and headed towards the twins. It was lovely hair with just the right amount of wave, Hermione thought enviously. Yaxley's hair probably didn't assassinate incautious combs like hers did.
"Orpheus, Ophelia." The Sixth Year girl addressed them by name, which caused Theo to raise an eyebrow. He had learned from Professor Snape and was pleased by the effect. "Very well, Varinen then, if you want to be a stickler."
"Miss Yaxley." Theo greeted her. Hermione echoed him, sensing this was going to be a Slytherin conversation. Their formality prompted Berengaria to raise her chin. She was evidently not doing this for her own entertainment.
"My mother has given me permission to invite some of my peers to our family's Samhain ball. Would you and your sister be inclined to attend?" She asked conventionally, her mulish pout reminded Hermione strongly of Lavender Brown.
"You and your mother are very kind, but Ophelia and I must sadly decline." He gave the form reply, offering no excuses. Yaxley made an attempt at looking disappointed then quickly rejoined Kneen and Travers. The girls departed to their dorm, leaving both Varinens frowning.
"Let's go to lunch." Hermione suggested. They collected their books and sauntered out of the Common Room, diverting to a classroom as was their usual habit. Two Muffliato Charms and a shared grimace.
"New standing policy, refuse all invitations." Theo stated, wishing he could believe Yaxley had suddenly taken a liking to them and wanted their company as friends. "We make no social engagements, not even amiable strolls around the grounds."
"What about in-house events? Students do pair off for the Feasts." She had never except for the Triwizard social events as she'd always gone with Ron and Harry. Except when Won-Won had gone with Lav-Lav. "How much of a hermit do we need to be to avoid Death Eater soirees?"
"I had expected this to be easier. Ravenclaws have a reputation for being reclusive." He rued their Sorting into his old House. "We stick together. No mysterious notes or messages purportedly from one of us but delivered by someone else."
"We'll use Patronus communication if we're separated." Hermione agreed, defaulting to the Order of the Phoenix strategy.
"I can't cast a Patronus. No Death Eater can." Theo reminded her.
"Snape could. His was the same as Lily Evans's." She eyed him. No Patronus was a problem. No other communication method was as secure. "Is it a lack of a strong, positive memory or some innate corruption? Have you used much Dark Magic?"
"I expect the latter. I had trouble maintaining the Vulnera Sanentur casting." He didn't like admitting incompetence but he'd had to struggle to keep the spell from fizzling.
"Did you enjoy it?" Hermione asked.
"Really, Ophelia, now? You're preaching now?" Theo meant to call her by her surname but the recollection charm thwarted his intention to put distance between them.
"I'm not preaching. I'm being practical. I've used Dark Magic. Most of the Order have. There are a lot of grey areas and quite often the designation is purely bureaucratic." Her tone was crisp, pedagogical. Not huffy at all. "The difference as far as I can tell is the enthusiasm with which the negative spells are used."
"You really can't help yourself." He fought to hide a smile, astounded that Potter or Weasley hadn't claimed her solely so they could listen to her talk. Either idiot Gryffindor could ride to a Mastership with Hermione as a study aide.
"No, I can't. I love magic. I want to know everything about it. Including the assumptions and the bad habits." Hermione replied, surprised she wasn't defensive. The usual eye-rolling at her scholarly enthusiasm hadn't happened. At her explanation, Theo had retreated from his frustration immediately.
"I used Snape's spells. He mentored the younger recruits, the moderate ones, when he could." Surreptitiously keeping them away from the fanatics. "I used the Cruciatus. Frequently. I can't say I enjoyed it."
"There will be some residual contamination. The Unforgivables taint both victim and user." She was reassured she could discuss this in a clinical manner. "Have you done any purification rituals?"
"I shut myself away at Nott Manor and tried to clean up the mess." Theo recognised that was not the most therapeutic thing he could have done. "I was hoping returning to Hogwarts would give me some purgation."
"Well, then we can do that." Hermione was good at tackling problems. It was the standing around waiting that clawed at her. "Sensible to do so before beginning Animagus meditation. I was going to suggest a cleansing rite anyway."
"The Alchemy laboratory should be available today. We can make a simple sandalwood incense and use the Room of Requirement." He suggested then paused. Hermione's gaze found his and they stared at each other.
"Could it be that easy?" She asked rhetorically, telling herself not to be too urgent, not to hope too much.
The 'twins' climbed to the seventh floor at a painfully casual mosey. The tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy's ballet lesson was there with a blank wall opposite. Hermione took a deep breath.
"We need a room to be a conduit between past and future, our future. Let no one but us enter. We want to go home." She spoke to the wall.
A door appeared. With her wand, Hermione drew a rune on the floor. It wouldn't last long even if it wasn't scuffed by someone walking past, but it would give them an indication of any time passed.
Theo held the door open for her then followed her hurriedly inside, shutting the portal firmly. The Room of Requirement had made itself into a time capsule. A gramophone stood atop a plastic folding table. Posters of brightly coloured advertisements covered the walls in between portraits of wizarding folk in antiquated garb.
"A space hopper?" Hermione nudged a large orange ball out of the way to survey the collection of Interior Design Mistakes Through the Ages. "Did it pull this stuff from the Room of Hidden Things?"
"I can confidently say no wizard ever owned that." Theo indicated a lime green inflatable couch. "How long do we need to wait?" He eyed a wall of shiny, blank mirrors he suspected were Muggle gadgets of some sort. "I do not like it in here."
"Not long, and neither do I. There's something off." Hermione wondered if she needed to phrase her request more precisely. Perhaps a simple 'return us to 1998' would be adequate. She would specify September as stepping out of the Room in the middle of May and the Battle of Hogwarts would not be an improvement.
"Draco had a poor opinion of this room and the Room of Hidden Things. Too much old magic." He reached out for her and they held hands, waiting tensely for another minute for the magic of the room to stabilise before exiting.
Her rune was still there, pale and undisturbed. Hermione dispelled it with a muttered curse. They went to lunch to check they were still where they had been before entering the room. Being a uniform optional day, the clothing choices of their peers confirmed it.
"Bugger." The Muggle-born witch paused in the doorway of the Great Hall. Theo had let go of her hand sometime during their walk. She found she missed the reassuring contact.
"Quite. Let's lunch then go to the Alchemy laboratory. We can try the Room again after some research." By the time they got back, they would be experts on temporal theory or at least all the different ways time magic did not work.
As they walked to the Slytherin table, the 'twins' became aware of the attention they were drawing. The Daily Prophet had gone to the presses before full reports of the attack on Hogsmeade so their reporting had been brief. Witch Weekly had plenty of time to purple their prose.
Rosier handed Theo the paper after the Varinens took their seats. Hogsmeade was on the front page. Someone had taken photographs of the aftermath of the village. It looked worse in monochrome. And a reporter had bamboozled their way into St Mungo's.
"Valiant Varinens." Rosier quoted from the florid article on the survivors. He raised his glass of pumpkin juice. "All I got was 'commendable'. Snape was 'stalwart'. The author must not have found a suitable alliteration for my surname."
"Quelle surprise." Theo showed Rita Skeeter's name on the byline to Hermione, who rolled her eyes and cut her roast beef into tiny pieces. "I must say I enjoy the prose of the British press. So vibrant."
"That rag's pure drivel." Clotilde Travers opined from further up the table. "Good enough for half-bloods trying to ape their betters."
Severus Snape lowered the book he was reading to give both the Witch Weekly and the witch derided it a contemptuous look. He didn't turn his gaze to the Varinens. When he spoke, it seemed to be to the table at large.
"Panem et circenses." Or he could be referring to the two Gryffindors who had just entered the Great Hall. Lily Evans stormed ahead of James Potter, who was persisting in his attempts to court her.
"Continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat." Partly to get some use out of her compulsory Latin, partly because she loved his Satires, Hermione's mother had read Juvenal to her daughter as a child. She knew the reference Snape had cited and gave the context; 'everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things'.
Theo's Latin was passable, more than sufficient for spell-casting. He followed what Hermione and Snape were saying though not the meaning behind it. Until he saw the well-concealed but raw longing in the eventual Potion Professor's eyes when he looked at Evans.
"Der wahre Mensch will zwei Dinge: Gefahr und Spiel. Aus diesem Grund will er eine Frau, als das gefährlichste Spielzeug." Theo had a weakness for Nietzsche, whom he strongly suspected to be a Squib. "The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything."
"She is not a toy." Snape almost snarled, snapping his book shut.
"Not ours, certainly." Hermione agreed, watching with disfavour as James Potter refused to take 'bugger off' for an answer. She knew he improved with age, that most of his obnoxious qualities were because he'd been spoiled as a child. But seeing his harassment now riled her.
"Ravenclaw table is over there." Avery sniped, jerking his head towards the blue and bronze. "If you want to spout gibberish, you know where to go."
"Mulciber is still in the hospital wing." Theo remarked pleasantly. "And my sister has already chastised you on your manners."
"He did that to himself." Roderick Avery was aware of his ally's fall from grace and was determined to re-establish his position in their House. Snape and Rosier's apparently chumminess with the blow-ins further isolated him.
"Yes, he did. So careless." Hermione observed lightly, attempting to suggest they had been somehow responsible for Mulciber's overdose. It was a whim but she hoped the unspoken threat would prompt Avery to keep his distance.
The conversation withered around them as their fellow Slytherins found either their food or their books suddenly fascinating. Urquart, whose aptitude for avoiding trouble was well-honed, stuffed the last of his mashed potatoes into his mouth and left the table. His going started an exodus, leaving only Regulus Black, Avery, Rosier, Snape, and the Varinens of the Fifth and Sixth years, with the empty places glaringly book-ended by the Fourth and Seventh Years.
The other Houses noticed the sudden thinning of the ranks at the green table. The Ravenclaws noted it and spoke quietly amongst themselves. The Hufflepuffs goggled a bit then returned to their lunch. But the Gryffindors had to comment.
"Someone call a Junior Death Eater meeting?" One wag from the red table yelled, to general laughter.
"Your Idiot Convention seems well attended." Someone from the Hufflepuff table shouted back. He stood and marched over to the Slytherins, sitting down before his nerve failed him. "Pye." He introduced himself. "Please don't laugh. I've heard all the jokes."
"You're in our Muggle Studies class." Theo recalled the stocky boy as one of the few actually taking notes. Pye nodded as the Gryffindors continued to laugh amongst themselves. The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs didn't join in however.
"Madam Scrivenshaft is my auntie. I saw her in hospital." He explained, shoulders squared. Pye was clearly not comfortable at their table but he stuck to his principles. "I wanted to thank you for saving her."
A memory clicked into place for Hermione. She'd met Healer Pye, and Healer Smethwyck, in St Mungo's after Arthur Weasley had been bitten by Nagini.
"It was the Healers who saved her." Hermione felt she had to nudge him towards a medical profession. She had no idea if he was that way inclined already but it was important he be there for Arthur. "We are relieved she is well."
"She said you wouldn't leave her." Pye had been impressed by that. He didn't know himself if he would've run. He wanted to think that he wouldn't. He wanted to help. "So no one has any right to call you that name." He didn't offer his hand as he didn't want to put Varinen on the spot or have him refuse it. "I just wanted to show that, I guess."
Pye went back to the Hufflepuff table with the air of having done his duty. Hermione smiled, shifting on the bench so she could look past Avery to the Gryffindor table. They were still talking but no one was paying attention to them. Ostentatiously so.
"Did you choose the merchant because she has a large family?" Snape inquired, his tone so similar to his teaching voice that Hermione expected him to end with 'Mister Potter'.
"Happy coincidence." Theo said airily as he had no idea what the other boy meant. Evidently he suspected them of orchestrating the attack, which was odd given he was almost certainly already in contact with the Death Eaters. Or did he think the village excursion had been set up to make them look good?
"We have work to do." Hermione told her 'brother', shouldering her book bag. Whatever Snape was suggesting, she didn't like it and didn't want to give him a chance to discuss it with them. "If you will excuse us, gentlemen."
The Varinens left at a sedate pace and by mutual agreement headed up to the Alchemy laboratory. The door wasn't locked but the room was empty. Argo Pyrites had left a stack of worksheets for the class to do at their leisure. The familiar Muffliato duo let them relax a little.
"Snape's made up his mind about something." Theo spoke urgently, the walk having given him time to stew about their luncheon conversation.
"I noticed that too. Do you think he knows what we are?" How he could have figured that out, Hermione had no clue. They'd been so careful. "He didn't like your German quote. Overtones of Nietzschean superman, don't you think?"
"It was Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche." He was pleased she recognised the author, though her expression suggested she didn't find his work intriguing. "I doubt Snape was upset about my choice of philosophers. I think he thinks we're spies."
"He agrees with Mulciber?" She didn't consider that likely. Whatever else he was, Snape was fastidious. Jumping to the conclusion they were informants seemed sloppy thinking to her.
"Not Dumbledore." Theo wasn't sure himself. "Not Tom. Someone else. I don't know much about European politics of this era. There's the remnants of Grindelwald's movement and old pure-blood factions but I'm not sure."
"Grindelwald?" For no sensible reason, Hermione started to laugh uproariously.