Chapter 21: Alteration Find

Word spread quickly. Within hours everyone in school knew what Hermione had said and done during Defence Against the Dark Arts on Monday morning. Whispers dogged Snape's slightest move and nearly every student, even first years, stopped Harry and his friends to find out how much of the rumors were true. It took all their power to remove themselves from a demanding group of third year Ravenclaws who had cornered them in the Great Hall, almost making them late for Potions despite leaving the Gryffindor tower with an hour to spare that morning.

Harry skidded to a stop just inside the door.

"What the hell, Potter?" Sirius shoved him forward before stumbling to a stop of his own. "Hermione?"

The girl was sitting at her usual table, flipping idly through the textbook. The other students were giving her plenty of room, despite desperately wanting to know what she had been thinking when she dared talk back to Snape. It was the consensus of the whole school, save the Slytherins, that she ought to be awarded a metal before being shipped off to St. Mungo's.

Harry wasn't sure how she would react, but he poked her warily in the shoulder anyway. She turned, looking mildly amused as she saw his face. The color was back in her cheeks, the heavy circles that had been weighing down her eyes were gone. She looked normal.

She smiled, "Good morning."

"Morning," Harry said cautiously. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," she said brightly. "I actually slept."

He wanted to ask more, but Slughorn came in with a jovial 'hello' and an especially pleasant smile for Hermione. Harry couldn't imagine that the old wizard approved of her behavior, so he assumed it was the professor's way of keeping her from causing such a scene in his classroom, too. Slughorn pushed on, quizzing the students on the value of Polyjuice Potion, which they had started learning the previous week. Hermione seemed her normal self, raising her hand with every question and earning Gryffindor a record number of points in the first fifteen minutes of class.

"Divide into pairs and begin brewing Polyjuice Potion," Slughorn instructed.

Hermione slouched in her seat. "So boring, I've done this already."

"Hermione?" Harry asked, amazed that she didn't want to show how proficient she was. The fact that she had already made the potion in their second year meant that she could prepare it flawlessly and faster than anyone else. It might not have been a challenge, but it would easily win her more points and esteem.

She just shrugged and started chopping the ingredients that Lily had brought from the store cabinet. "Harry, after class can I borrow your potions book?" she asked casually.

His eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Why? Are you going to turn it in?"

"No," she laughed. "I just wanted to see some of those notes in the margins."

His hands stilled and he studied her. She hated the notes in the margins of his book. She had said so repeatedly and that she distrusted of anything the Half-Blood Prince had written and wanted Harry to turn the book over to the first teacher he could find. Why would she want to study the notes? "Fine, but you'll look at it in the common room where I can make sure you won't hurt it," Harry said defensively, like it was his most prized possession, which it was fast becoming.

She sighed at his mistrust and shook her head. "That's fine, Harry. I won't harm your baby." She smiled and turned back to her preparations, instructing Lily how best to pulverize the knotgrass. Harry watched her as well as he could while preparing his own potion. The Half-Blood Prince hadn't left many notes on these pages, so he had to follow the same preparations as everyone else. The results were far from what Slughorn had come to expect from Harry.

"That was awful," Harry moaned as they trudged up the stairs from the dungeons. "Slughorn noticed how miserable I am."

A brief silence followed before Ron glanced over at Hermione and asked, "Uh… Hermione, aren't you going to 'I told you so' him?"

"I hadn't planned on it," she shrugged and went back to flipping through one of her books while she walked, Sirius's arm guiding her through the corridors to keep her from walking into a wall.

"Maybe having a boyfriend mellowed her?" Harry suggested doubtfully. She seemed normal enough, but something just wasn't quite right. He couldn't name it, but he knew she wasn't completely herself. He'd have to talk to Remus again, but worried that Hermione would get angry if he suggested they go visit him and Dumbledore.

As they climbed the last stairs and passed into the entrance hall, he saw Professor McGonagall waiting for them, and Harry sighed his relief that he wouldn't have to ask Hermione to go to see Remus. "Miss Granger, I'm pleased to see you looking so well. The Headmaster would like a word with you about your behavior yesterday."

The girl nodded and followed the stern Transfiguration professor up to the Headmaster's office. Harry and the others tailed them, not wanting to miss out on anything Hermione might reveal. Harry waited for McGonagall to mention how Hermione had changed. However, if the old witch noticed any difference outside her improved health, she didn't see fit to mention it. He was starting to wonder if the alterations to his friend were just in his head, but Ron seemed just as worried.

"You may go up," McGonagall told the others.

Hermione was already in Dumbledore's office when they reached the top of the stairs. "You wished to see me, Professor?"

"Yes, Miss Granger, your behavior toward Professor Snape was unacceptable, as I'm sure you are aware," the old wizard spoke kindly.

"Yes, Professor," she said, not sounding in the least bit sorry.

"You will serve only one detention, however, as you were under considerable strain at the time," Dumbledore informed her.

"Yes, Professor."

"Miss Granger," he said, his voice implying the weight of what he was about to say. "What was it that caused you to lose so much sleep?"

Hermione looked at his eyes, their usual twinkle barely a glimmer in his present state of deep concern. "Nightmares," she said. "There was a figure – probably just a symbol of my fear or of the book – that kept chasing me no matter where I ran. Every time I went to sleep, it was there."

"It frightened you," Dumbledore said, noting that she spoke calmly of it now.

"It was silly of me to be so frightened; I know that now," she replied. "I don't know what I was so afraid of."

"You have slept since?"

She nodded. "Quite well, thank you."

"You will let me know if the figure comes to you again," Dumbledore said.

"It won't," she said confidently. "But should it come again, I'll let you know."

"Thank you, Miss Granger," he smiled. "Mr Lupin, have you any questions for Miss Granger?"

Lupin studied the girl for a moment before speaking. "What happened before the dreams started?"

"I went on a date with Sirius," she waved to the boy who was leaning with casually on the doorframe. He shifted as she said it; she sounded bored and her lazy gesture didn't seem at all like her usual decisive movements.

"That's all?"

She nodded. "Yes, that's all."

"Well, I'll keep at it," Lupin said, looking back to his books. "I'll see what I can find out."

"Okay," she smiled. "May I go?"

Dumbledore nodded and Lupin gave a wave of his hand as he sat down and began reading. Sirius and James knew him better than that. It was the same posture and wave he gave to them when he was in school with them, when he wasn't really reading but wanted them to go away.

"You coming?" Hermione asked the others.

"I have a dead bloke question," James said. "It might affect Harry, but you go on ahead."

"A dead bloke question?" Sirius repeated, sounding perfectly innocent. "Perhaps I ought to stay and hear it. I'll catch up." He smiled at her as she shrugged and turned, Ron and Lily following her out anxious to keep an eye on her.

The dead boys pushed the doors shut and turned. Their voices overlapped as did their concerns:

"What do you know?"
"Something's wrong."

"Moony," Sirius demanded. "You know something."

"Yes," Remus said.

"She's wrong," Harry said. "She's happy and laughs and doesn't take points for no reason, but she's wrong." He couldn't articulate it any better than that, but at least he knew he wasn't the only one to notice it.

"I thought it might be the influence of all the translating," Lupin breathed a humorless laugh.

"What did it say?" James hurried around the desk to read over his shoulder.

"It's a book, Prongs," Sirius snorted. "It can't say anything."

"Now is not the time for being a git," James glared at him. Harry wanted to laugh; they never stopped. But he had to agree that it was not a good time.

"The book reads," Remus said pointedly, looking at a smug Sirius as he said it, "that after the orphan raised his parents, a change affected him. He became detached from the things he loved and turned increasingly toward the Darkness. Now, I'm not saying this is in the least bit accurate to what actually happened, but you need to watch Hermione. Has she shown any loss of interest in her studies?"

Harry didn't know how to answer. "Well, she was just as Hermione as she ever was at the start of class."

"How do you mean?"

Harry imitated her emphatic hand-raising. Remus laughed. He remembered that all too well from his time as her teacher. "That's a good sign, but…?"

"Well… when Slughorn set the assignment, she just didn't seem at all interested," he said. "But, she had brewed that potion once already."

"Even so, that isn't like her," Remus said, frowning.

Sirius, too, frowned. He frowned at Moony knowing his girlfriend better than he did. He frowned that he hadn't noticed Hermione acting strangely in class. He frowned that she hadn't kissed him when he slid his arm around her after they had been dismissed by Slughorn. He frowned again at the indifferent wave she used when she spoke of their date. Their date…

"She cast a spell," he remembered.

"I'm sorry?" Remus asked.

"On our date," he said, trying to remember the exact circumstances. "She cast a spell that she thought would keep me solid so I wouldn't disappear again."

"Do you remember it?"

"Carnem Confer-something," Sirius shrugged. "I was too busy panicking that she had cast a spell on me without asking first."

"That would be 'carnem confirmare'," Remus said. "It solidifies flesh, but I've never heard of it being cast on a living person."

"Are we technically living?" Sirius asked with a sardonic smile.

"Would that have done it?" Harry asked. "You said she was okay. You said she cast the spell from that book for someone else and so she was okay." He realized he sounded like a child, but he was worried and running out of brain cells capable of processing what was happening. Most of them had been used up accepting that his parents were alive and teenagers, the rest went to dealing with Sirius dating his best friend. He had only a few left and he needed those for basic human functions like breathing.

"That should be the case," Remus insisted.

"Harry," Dumbledore spoke again, making the boy jump. He had forgotten the Headmaster was even there, he had been so quiet. "Remus is correct. If the spell Miss Granger read from that book was cast with love for another, it would have no effect on her. However, the magic of the book is still in her. When she cast that spell to return your family to life, the power behind the spells entered her. As with any magic, it could be used for good or bad. You saw this when her anger lashed out at Miss Parkinson."

Harry sunk into the chair opposite the old wizard. So Hermione had been evil when she cast the spell to burn Pansy. "But…"

"This could have been building from the moment she sent that hex at Miss Parkinson," Dumbledore said. "Or it might have been the spell to prevent young Mr Black from vanishing again. We can only wait and observe Miss Granger's behavior. She may be perfectly fine."

"She's not," Harry insisted.

"Keep watch," Remus said. "Cast a locator charm on her, use the Map, follow her as a dog; just keep watch."

Harry didn't like how urgent the instructions sounded. He was used to threats of evil and darkness, but not coming from his own friends. He nodded numbly and made for the door without being properly excused. The two dead boys followed. They were properly terrified, their lives never having been shadowed by such darkness before.

Ron met them down by the gargoyle. "Lily and Hermione went back to the tower. What's up?"

"They think Hermione's evil," Harry said.

"Figured," Ron replied with a sigh. "The one year when all we have to deal with is Malfoy and some other evil pops up. I blame you for this, Harry."

"Git," Harry shoved him.

James stared open mouthed at the display. Sure, he and Sirius acted that way every time they open their mouths, but not in the face of such dark magic. "What the bloody hell is wrong with you?" he shouted. "Your friend is cursed! Evil, darkness, death and all that. Were you listening? Aren't you worried?"

Ron snorted. Harry shrugged, "You get used to it."

James smacked him on the head. "You wait till your mother hears about this."