I don't own HP. Wish I did, but I don't.
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Hermione didn't see Malfoy at all the next day until she and Neville met up with him in the Entrance Hall that evening; where Snape was waiting to escort them to the Ministry.
A friendly auror, Frella Muntra, collected their memories for the records and then went through the memories with them, letting them explain their thought process at pivotal moments.
The three of them were finished and safely back at Hogwarts before curfew and Malfoy hadn't spoken a word to either of them the entire trip. He had asked Snape when Parkinson would be back, but that had yielded no true answer. Apparently she would be back when she was back.
The week passed as most weeks do, and Hermione had a pleasant walk around the lake with Viktor on Saturday. And if her lips were a little swollen that evening, her friends were nice enough to not say anything, though Ron and Ginny sent her knowing smirks. She made sure to remember to return the favor later.
It was partway through the next week that Parkinson returned. And that evening she followed Neville into the empty classroom, sitting beside him to work on an essay. No one said anything about it, and she didn't speak to anyone. Just quietly did her work and left when Neville did. This became a rather normal thing, which puzzled most people to no end. At first Hermione thought it was odd, since it had been Malfoy that had caught Skeeter, but then she remembered that Malfoy had only been there because Parkinson had betrayed him.
She likely wasn't feeling very comfortable or safe around him, and from what Hermione had read about regaining obliviated memories, feeling safe and comfortable was paramount. There was only so much magic could do with the mind.
The weeks passed and Parkinson continued to join them whenever Neville was there. Malfoy even tagged along once, but left in a huff after some ridiculous argument he got into with Ron. She hadn't bothered paying attention to it since no wands were drawn.
By the time the second task occurred Hermione no longer found it odd to see Parkinson sitting next to Neville, studying but not speaking a word to anyone if she possibly could.
Hermione didn't really enjoy being stuck asleep under an icy lake for over an hour, but she quite enjoyed being what Viktor would miss most. She rarely saw him during the school week, but quite enjoyed spending part of the weekend with him.
Even if it did cut into study time.
Another thing that cut into study time was the twins demanding her assistance during the Easter holiday. It took four days to help them fix the snags in a potion they'd come up with. She still couldn't believe they'd thought powdered doxie wings were the right ingredient.
It was around this time that the results of Skeeter's trial were shared. That nasty woman got five years in Azkaban and then another five years of probations afterwards. There was also mention made of an unbreakable bracelet that prevented her from changing into her animagus form.
Hermione wasn't quite sure if being locked up for five years was proper punishment for erasing part of someone's mind. But she was fairly certain that Skeeter would never be taken seriously again. So the chances of someone trying to force Hermione to lock her magic were practically nonexistent.
Potions classes also changed after "The Great Bug Catch" as Luna dubbed it. Snape would still sneer at Harry and her, but rarely said anything to them. She thought it might be because she had helped Parkinson and Malfoy, but she was rapidly deciding there was a lot more to Snape than met the eye. So it could be something she didn't have enough information to even consider. Neville now sat with Parkinson, leaving Greengrass to partner with Hermione as Neville had always been her partner.
Greengrass wasn't exactly the friendliest person, but she held up her end and the two of them always turned in potions that earned high marks.
Time moved onwards and before she realized it the year was almost over and the third task was upon them. She gave Viktor quite a few good luck kisses, but fully supported Cedric Diggory during the task.
That night the entire castle was lit up like a Christmas tree and no house elf got any real work done.
Exams were done and Hogwarts had won the Triwazard Tournament.
The Hufflepuffs threw a party that was so loud and exciting that it drew all of the other houses down into the cellar. When curfew arrived the teachers half-heartedly tried to send everyone to bed, but gave up after the twins got Hermione to help them make everyone's hair glow a nice Hufflepuff yellow.
No one was sleeping when their head looked like a miniature sun.
Hermione had started the evening with Harry and Ginny, but the two of them had slipped off at one point, their hands intertwined. Considering the fact that Ron and Luna were busy doing some rather outrageously ridiculous dances with a large group of celebrants she could just imagine that she'd have lots of alone time to read this summer.
She wandered through the crowded Hogwarts halls. Teachers were wandering about, keeping an eye on things. Even the ghosts were helping out, all of them terribly glad that their place of haunting had won the tournament.
Every once in a while as she wandered she could hear a distant explosion, causing a ghost to come racing by in search of a teacher. She could only assume that the twins were to blame.
It was just after a particularly loud double explosion that Nearly-Headless Nick sped past, carefully holding his head, with Professor Sprout on his heels when she found Parkinson and Neville.
The two of them were holding bottles of butterbeer and standing off to the side of the Hufflepuff common room.
"I don't think there will be anything quite like this at Hogwarts ever again," Neville commented to her when she approached them.
"Not until the next time Hogwarts wins the Triwizard Tournament at least," Hermione answered.
Neville shook his head and gestured at the mini-sun it had become, "No, they won't have the Weasely Twins. It just won't be the same."
Hermione grinned, "But maybe the twins will be parents, and their children will be here."
Parkinson visibly shuddered at that and Neville grimaced, "Don't you dare say those two will have children. The world's already in enough danger as it is."
She giggled. She honestly could not imagine either of the twins settling down to become parents.
They lapsed into silence for a moment, their eyes drifting over the mass of excited, celebratory students. Hermione watched a pair of boys fall backwards as their cards exploded; making the girls they were playing with giggle madly.
She smiled at that, she didn't really care for games, but she enjoyed watching others play them sometimes.
Parkinson suddenly straightened up sharply, drawing Hermione's attention. The Slytherin girl's eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared.
Before Neville or Hermione could say a word she stormed off, over to a Hufflepuff girl that looked to be about their age, though Hermione didn't recognize her.
"Don't eat that!" Parkinson snapped.
The girl jumped, dropping the candied apple she'd been about to take a bite of. Neville frowned and walked over to pick it up.
"Hey, this is-"
Parkinson ignored him, all of her attention on the now trembling girl.
"You idiot! Didn't your mother teach you not to eat any apple you can't see the color of? And you're not a first year! You should know the house elves only make candied apples at Halloween!"
The girl's lips trembled, "What-what's wrong with apples?"
Hermione suddenly realized what was wrong.
"What!? What's wrong with apples?! Are you a mud-". Pansy stopped and took a deep breath. Visibly getting control of herself. "You're muggleborn, aren't you? Did your prefects never warn you?"
"W-w-warn me? About apples?"
"Yes."
The girl shook her head and a small crowd was beginning to appear. Including a couple of horrified Hufflepuff prefects.
"This isn't really an apple," Neville said. He pulled out a small gardening knife and cut into the apple. Then he pulled back part of the red candy. The revealed fruit was not red, green, yellow, or any normal apple color. Rather, it was an unnatural golden color. If Neville hadn't easily cut into it she would've thought it was made of metal.
There were quite a few gasps from the onlookers, but a number of them merely looked confused.
"Who gave this to you?" Parkinson asked.
Tears were now falling down the girl's face. "I-I don't remember his name. He-he's a Gryffindor," she sniffed and wiped the tears off her face, "in my year."
Something drew Hermione's eye and she saw a handsome boy in Gryffindor colors start to hurry out of the Hufflepuff common room.
He was holding a metal tray spotted with bits of red candy.
She knew his name. She knew every Gryffindors' name.
"Mclaggen!"
He gave her a panicked look over his shoulder and broke into a run, shoving people out of the way.
She didn't even think. Her wand was in her hand and a spell was crossing her lips before he had taken more than two steps.
He fell to the floor, the tray making a terrible clang that echoed through the now silent common room. His legs were locked together and his face was a mix of shock and disbelief.
She'd never dealt with him, but she knew he was terribly arrogant. Likely he'd never even thought it was possible that he'd be caught.
"I didn't know! A couple Slytherins threatened me! They made me pass them out!" He claimed as Parkinson advanced on him.
"Oh, and who were these Slytherins?" Parkinson's voice had dropped to a quiet, deadly tone. Her face was more animated than Hermione had seen it in months.
Since the Yule Ball.
This was the Pansy Parkinson she had known for four years. Except this time her nastiness was not targeted at an innocent.
"Did he hand out more?" A seventh-year Ravenclaw girl gasped. Hermione realized it was the Head Girl, Selena Carlson.
"Hey! Stephanie! What's wrong with you?" Hermione saw a blonde girl with a dopey expression on her face swaying in the crowd, a stick with an apple core on it lay at her feet. Her brunette friend was looking at her with worry, a half-eaten candy apple in her hand.
This got the Head Girl moving.
"Who ate a candied apple?" she called out. "We need to get them to the hospital wing." When no one moved she raised two fingers to her mouth and let out a sharp whistle. Making everyone jump and look at her. Except for Parkinson, who kept her eyes and wand focused on Mclaggen. "NOW! Anyone with a candy apple! Get them to Madam Pomfrey! Jacobs!" She pointed at a curly haired Hufflepuff prefect, "Go find a professor, now!"
Jacobs took off running, his curls flopping on his head.
Seven more girls were found with candy apples. Carlson got another couple of prefects to escort them to Madam Pomfrey, they were all in various stages of overdose. One girl was so pliant she couldn't even stand.
Hermione was utterly disgusted.
She went to go stand next to Parkinson, who now had planted one of her feet on his chest to keep him from getting any ideas.
Hermione took some pleasure in noting that Parkinson was wearing some sort of ankle boot with a very narrow, painful looking heel.
Mclaggen shifted and then winced as Parkinson's boot dug more deeply into his chest.
Hermione still held her wand, and she kept her wrist relaxed, ready to aim it at anyone if they got any ideas. She hadn't heard if Mclaggen had named any Slytherins, but if he had and it was true, she didn't want any of them to interfere.
Just then Professor Sprout came bustling in, her face red from running and she was covered in some sort of purple powder that looked a bit like soot. Hermione began to wonder if it had really been the twins that set off the latest explosion. It had done a wonderful job of drawing the attention of all the teachers and ghosts.
It only took a moment for Professor Sprout to take in the boy pinned to the floor by Pansy and the shining gold apple in Neville's hand.
Her face grew thunderous. Their normally jovial professor was almost unrecognizable.
"Cormac Mclaggen, just WHERE did you get vetitus? And WHAT were you planning?!"
Parkinson hurriedly jumped back as Professor Sprout reached down and grabbed Mclaggen's ear and yanked him to his feet.
"They gave it to me!"
"They?"
"B-B-Barrow and Montague!" he yelped, trying to look at the floor.
"Really." A cold voice said from behind Professor Sprout. Snape had arrived with McGonagall and Dumbledore.
"Y-yes, sir! I just had to hand them out!"
Snape opened his mouth to say something, but the Headmaster spoke first.
"I do believe we should take this somewhere else. Prefects, please see that everyone gets to bed. Miss Carlson, please find Mr. Roberts and the two of you can oversee the prefects." He looked over at Hermione, "Miss Black, if you could please stop the glowing. The celebration is now over."
She nodded and pulled out a small bottle of potion. She uncorked it and poured the antidote for the glowing into it. Instantly everyone's hair returned to normal. Snape was eyeing the potion curiously as she carefully slipped it back into her robes. She didn't want him taking it to sample. The twins would kill her if someone else got their hands on the protean potion they developed with her. Especially since they went to such trouble to get it into the school's shampoo supply.
The Hufflepuff common room quickly emptied as prefects got people moving, but Hermione wasn't part of that. Once again she was led to a professor's office with Neville and Parkinson. But this time they found themselves sitting at a table with a sullen Mclaggen as they waited on the aurors to arrive. Professors Sprout and Snape had had a very insistent whispered conversation with Dumbledore, but at the end of it he agreed to summon them. And then only Professor Dumbledore was left in the office as the others went to help the other heads of houses track down the Slytherins accused of involvement.
While they waited, Professor Dumbledore approached them. He had his hands folded and resting under his beard as he approached their table. He completely ignored the plae-faced and sulking form of Mclaggen. He also spared Parkinson only a glance.
"Miss Black, Mr. Longbottom, I see you two are taking after your parents these days. Righting wrongs and capturing wrongdoers."
Hermione almost replied, but Neville beat her to it.
"Oh, no, Professor. It wasn't all us. It was Pansy that noticed the oddity of the candied apple. I merely cut it open, proving that she was true. Then Hermione noticed Mclaggen with the empty tray covered with candy bits. Then Pansy kept an eye on him while our Head Girl took over."
The Headmaster's lips quirked up at the edges and a twinkle appeared in his eyes as he turned to focus them on Parkinson.
"Ah, so it is Miss Parkinson we truly have to thank for this?"
Hermione nodded, "Yes, sir. No one else in the entire room thought the candy apples were odd."
"Indeed."
Parkinson suddenly sat up in her chair, making Mclaggen shoot her a terrified glance and clutch his chest, where her heel had pressed earlier.
"Sir, why didn't the mud- muggleborns know about the Forbidden Fruit? My mother taught me before I ever left the house to visit a friend." There was a very intense look in Parkinson's eyes and Hermione could tell that she was planning something.
"Yes, Headmaster, even us boys learn about vetitus before we leave the home. My mother also gave me a long list of dangerous things," Neville said.
Hermione found it amusing that Neville used the proper name for the fruit, while Parkinson used the common one. Even she would never call it vetitus outside of potions or herbology. Just the words forbidden fruit and all the dangers it implied were too ingrained in her. Uncle Remus had taught all of them about it when they were children. It was terribly unfair to muggleborns if they didn't know things like this.
"I'm afraid many things get overlooked when we bring muggleborns into our world. Vetitus is such a dangerous plant, especially with the scent the blossoms put out that it's only taught in NEWTs level Herbology. And essence of Vetitus is only used in potions taught in NEWTs level Potions; such as Veritaserum and Amortentia. There is just so much to teach, we hope they learn things from their friends and prefects," Dumbledore looked a bit sad at this.
Parkinson suddenly stood up, "Well, sir, I think it's wrong. Part of why muggleborns are disliked by many is because they seem ignorant of our customs here in the magical world. Like Skeeter, she had no idea what her words could accomplish. Or those girls tonight. None of them were NEWT level students. They were vulnerable," Pain flashed across Pansy's eyes at this moment and Hermione instantly knew why the girl was taking up the cause of a group she'd scorned for so long. "And, sir, they're only vulnerable because you let them be so. You bring them into our world and then just drop them. You let them sink or swim, never realizing the danger this brings to all of us. Something has to be done. And if you won't do it, sir. Then I'll speak to my father and we will."
Hermione was impressed. Even Mclaggen had stopped feeling sorry for himself enough to look at Pansy with a bit of awe in his expression.
"And how do you plan to do that Miss Parkinson? We're forbidden from introducing muggleborns to our world before the summer of their eleventh year. Outside of unusual circumstances of course," he gestured at Hermione.
Pansy's eyes narrowed, "Forbidden?"
"Yes, there's an old piece of legislation from when the Statute was created. It was to prevent a young muggleborn from unthinkingly telling all their friends about our world. I've tried to have it revoked, but there is some rather heavy opposition to it."
Pansy's eyes narrowed and she was thinking. Hermione was also doing some thinking of her own. She had an idea who would like to keep muggleborns ignorant. It made them easier to hate. And easier to defeat.
But that didn't mean there weren't other options.
"Professor Dumbledore, what about a pamphlet with some basic rules and knowledge? It could go out with the letters? Then a short seminar the first weekend after school starts. Make it mandatory for everyone, and go over safety issues, such as the Forbidden Fruit, in great detail. Offer a few more seminars on cultural things, but don't make them required. And don't state it's just for muggleborns, some half-bloods and purebloods don't learn everything at home," Hermione suggested.
Dumbledore thought about this for a moment. "And who would teach these seminars? All of our professors could easily handle the safety issues. But the cultural customs are a bit more complex. I'm afraid none of our professors are experts."
Neville shrugged, "Then bring in an expert. Like my grandmother."
"Neville, we don't want to scare them. Your grandmother is terrifying," Hermione stated. "My Aunt Andy, Andromeda Black, would be a good choice. Or Narcissa Malfoy. They could even do it together. Both of them grew up with the culture and both are aware of what's truly important in it. And Aunt Andy married a muggleborn, so she has a good idea of what needs to be taught."
"I do believe you three have the right idea. I will think on it and find a suitable person to create a pamphlet and conduct the seminar. Now, I do believe I hear the aurors."
Hermione wondered if Dumbledore had some secret connection to the castle because she didn't hear a thing, and yet the aurors appeared in the doorway a moment later. There was a much larger group this time. There were six aurors, including Padfoot, Dora, and Mrs. Longbottom.
Padfoot took in the group at the table and then looked over at Dora and Mrs. Longbottom.
"See, I told you."
Dora rolled her eyes, "Point."
And, despite the seriousness of what had occurred that night and the sullen faced Mclaggen sitting next to her, Hermione couldn't help but smile. Her dad was never going to grow up.
Author's Note: Doing time jumps are rather tricky, especially when quite a bit occurs in that time, but it's not important enough to be shown. And, much as I would love to show every tiny thing that occurs - like Hermione working with the twins, it's not necessary story wise. Plus I have no interest in writing a story so long and needlessly detailed that it bogs down in the middle. The next couple of chapters will be like this one as our characters get a bit older and relationships shift.
Also, a huge thank you to everyone that's been reviewing. I love reading what you think and I always respond.
Enjoy!