A/N: Thanks for the reviews, guys. I'm happy to say that everyone seemed to understand where the story is headed and I didn't hear any complaints about it - always a good thing. Now I've had a couple of requests for some action. Be careful what you wish for, yeah? The Christmas holidays will be coming up in the next handful of chapters (yep, there may be a bit of a time skip) and if what I'm planning goes well, it'll be interesting. Enjoy!

Hermione's head hurt. She sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall and bent over her food, wearily lifting one spoonful of mashed potatoes to her mouth after another. The students around her were still buzzing with the news of Harry and Ginny, who were both in the Hospital Wing. It had been a solid two weeks since Hermione had rushed them into Madame Pomfrey's care, and neither of them had woken up since. They'd even missed the Halloween feast, which had taken place the night after she found them. Hermione barely remembered it. Every time she visited her friends and sat beside their silent bodies, she felt torn between feeling worried and frustrated. Part of her was very tempted to shake the both of them until they had no choice but to wake up and feel her wrath for being so completely, utterly stupid.

"Idiots," she whispered to herself, unconsciously tightening her grip on her spoon until her fingers ached. She still hadn't told anyone what Harry and Ginny had been up to. Professor McGonagall had questioned her endlessly, and all Hermione had told her was that she'd come across the two of them already unconscious on the fifth floor, with nothing around their bodies to indicate what might have happened. It had pained her to lie to her favourite professor, particularly because she felt that Professor McGonagall was trustworthy, but it couldn't be helped. Fortunately, the headmaster had not seen fit to ask her himself, as she would have little protection from his Occlumency. Why he hadn't asked her, she didn't dare think about too closely.

The Hogwarts rumour mill was going crazy. Stories ranging from close to the truth (a spell or potion incident gone wrong) to crazy (Harry had succumbed to the dark and, when Ginny refused to join him, attempted to kill her) to downright bizarre (Harry and Ginny were involved in a suicide pact that neither one had been able to go through with) to frightening (Death Eaters had broken into Hogwarts and attacked the Boy-Who-Lived and his lover – that one had several first years in tears). No one had come close to actually figuring it out, which was both a blessing and a curse as far as she was concerned.

Phoenix tears. Just thinking about that one extra ingredient in the potion made Hermione lose her appetite. Her first step towards figuring things out had been learning the spell that Professor Snape sometimes cast when a student had done a potion poorly. It gave a list of everything that had been added to the potion; more difficult and comprehensive versions could list the quantity of ingredients and the order in which they'd been added, or give exact detail about what had happened during the brewing. Hermione hadn't tried to learn the harder versions once she'd found out about the phoenix tears. There was no doubt in her mind that they were the root of everything that had gone wrong.

Potions was an exacting science. The slightest little thing could change a potion completely. Who knew what kind of potion Harry and Ginny had actually ingested? The only thing that had kept her from running to Dumbledore was that the two of them couldn't be poisoned, because phoenix tears would have counteracted any damage being done to their bodies. They were physically fine... they just wouldn't – or couldn't – wake up. Hermione sighed and rubbed her head, wishing that she had someone she trusted to talk this whole disaster through with. She was not prepared for the letter that was dropped on her head right as that thought was going through her mind, and she was so distracted that it took her a moment to register the envelope. By that point, it had sunk into her glass of pumpkin juice, and she had to fish it out and mutter a drying spell.

"Granger," she read silently, her eyes darting over the line. "Astronomy Tower, tonight, at eleven. Be there."

That was it. No signature, no identifying details, no nothing. Hermione flipped the parchment over, but saw nothing that would give her any hint as to who the writer – or writers – could be. What, she was just supposed to go up to the Astronomy Tower by herself? Blindly trusting that whoever was waiting wouldn't kill her? She might have been a Gryffindor, but she wasn't stupid. She probably would have disregarded the parchment entirely were it not for the fact that she glanced up at that moment and found herself staring at the Slytherin table, and in particular, Draco. Draco met her eyes squarely and then deliberately dropped his gaze to the parchment before darting back up to her face. He raised an eyebrow, as though to say 'get it?' and she suddenly felt her interest in the midnight meeting skyrocket. One quick nod later, and both of them turned away like the brief exchange had never happened.

"Hermione, here you are." The clattering of a dish landing beside her made her jump. Ron's arm came around her shoulders as he dropped down into the seat at her side. "Are you alright?"

"What?" she asked in surprise, amazed that he'd approached her. They hadn't really spoken during the past two weeks, and once or twice, she'd seen him sitting awfully close to Lavender Brown in the Common Room. It had hurt, that Ron had apparently moved on (or was close to it, if the way Lavender sometimes eyed him was any indication) but she hadn't confronted him yet.

"You look tired," Ron said, frowning. "Your face is pale, and you haven't been eating properly. Is this about – " his face twisted into a slight grimace – "Harry and Ginny?"

"Partly," Hermione admitted. It was as good an excuse as anything. "I'm really worried about them, Ron. It's been two weeks and no one is any closer to figuring out how to wake them up."

"I'm sure they'll be fine. Potter always come out on his feet, doesn't he?" He turned away slightly and stabbed a roasted potato with his fork. "I heard that you were the one who found them. That must have been upsetting."

The memory was almost enough to make her cry. "Yeah, I was. They were so... so quiet and still."

Ron sighed. "Can I help?"

"You'd want to?" She couldn't help the look of shock that spread across her face. Guilt made her squirm when Ron scowled, offended by her surprise.

"I don't like either of them anymore, but I know they're still important to you, Hermione. If I can help, then I would do it for you," he replied.

His honesty and sweetness touched her, and she felt even worse for having ignored him for so long. "Oh, Ron, you're an angel to ask, but this is something I have to take care of on my own," Hermione replied. She felt horrible for having turned him down when his arm dropped away from her shoulders; she could tell that he felt that she was hiding things from him, and it wasn't as though she could deny it because that was actually true. "Please, don't be angry."

"I'm not angry, Hermione, I'm... frustrated," Ron answered honestly. "I feel like you and I have drifted apart in spite of my best efforts to remain close to you. I still wanted you to be my girlfriend, but... I get the feeling that you don't want me to be your boyfriend."

Hermione licked her lips. Oh Merlin, she was not prepared for this to happen. "Ron, I..."

"Just save it, alright? I guess I always figured that you would choose Harry in the end, but I honestly thought you would have a little more sense than that." The comment wasn't made with any amount of anger, just unhappiness and wistfulness for what could have been.

"I'm not choosing Harry," she said, wishing that there was some way to make him understand. If she could only find an answer for everything that had happened! But she was gradually beginning to realize that, even if there was some way to get rid of the brain's impact on Ron, things would never go back to the way they had been before. Ron and Harry would never be friends, and Ginny would never be a Weasley. She'd always be caught between the two of them. "Ron, please. I know you don't believe me when I say that there's something wrong with you, but the brain from the Department of Mysteries – "

"This again?" His expression switched immediately to annoyance, and he sighed, rising to his feet and attracting the attention of a few other students. "Hermione, please, would you just let it go already? I know it's difficult for you to understand that I don't like Potter anymore. I can see something wrong with him that no one else seems to be able to see. But there is nothing wrong with me. And as far as I'm concerned, as long as you continue to believe that there is, we can't be anything but classmates."

"Ron, wait!" Hermione cried. It hurt more than she'd expected to watch him walk away; Ron had been one of her best friends, and she'd often entertained dreams of the two of them getting married. He didn't stop, though; he continued on down to the other end of the table and sat beside Seamus and Dean, and he didn't look at her again. Unable to hold back the tears any longer, Hermione stood up, grabbed her bag, and left the Great Hall in a hurry. She wanted to believe that someday the two of them would be friends again, but that hope grew more flimsy every day, and she was almost certain that it had just been snapped entirely.

NIR

Chance Astrum sat beside the still body of his godson and looked the boy over with a worried, critical eye. Harry's face was pale, and dark circles lined the flesh beneath his eyes, even though he'd been sleeping for the past two weeks. Occasionally, he was prone to fits of nightmares, and he would thrash about frantically as moans and half-formed names fell from his lips. It hurt him to hear Harry call out his name and know that his godson didn't realize that he was close. He would have gladly given up his magic at that moment to be able to tell Harry the truth, but unfortunately, no amount of spells or potions seemed to be enough to get the boy to come back to consciousness. Madame Pomfrey was at her wits end, and she was seriously considering petitioning the Headmaster to have both Harry and Ginny moved to St. Mungos. The only reason they hadn't been moved there already was the concern that the Ministry might try to interfere with their care once the two teens were outside of Hogwarts,

"C'mon, Harry, you can pull through this. Whoever did this to you, you can beat him," Chance muttered, holding Harry's limp hand against his check. Pomfrey had given him a few strange looks the first few times she'd caught him at Harry's side, but she seemed willing to delay asking questions when she spotted the look of utter torment in his eyes. He left only to teach his classes and attend the defence club meetings, but even those had lost their appeal. The whole point behind them had been spending more time with Ginny so she would find out the truth, and there was no point in hoping Hermione would do it instead, not when Hermione had too much on her shoulders already. Realistically, he knew it was still important to teach the other students, but that was the furthest thing from his mind when his godson was lying unconscious in a hospital bed.

"I'm sure he'll be alright, Padfoot," Remus said quietly, placing a hand on Chance's shoulder. He was staying at the castle now, living with Chance in the professor's rooms he'd been given by Dumbledore. Few of the students even realized that he was there, as he made a conscious effort to avoid being seen. "We should go before someone comes in."

"I can't leave him yet. I keep thinking that there's something I'm missing," he remarked with a sigh, squeezing his godson's hand tightly. He hoped that Harry would squeeze back, but there was no reaction. "I just don't get it, Remus. Harry is an excellent duelist, and so is Ginny. No one should have been able to get the jump on these two. Madame Pomfrey said she detected a foreign potion in both of them, and they're way too smart to ingest just anything. Something about this whole situation doesn't feel right."

Remus sighed, looking equally frustrated. "I don't know. Even intelligent people can be taken in. You and I both know that first hand."

"I guess." Reluctantly, he placed Harry's hand back on the bed and smoothed his godson's hair back. In the other bed just beside Harry, Ginny stirred briefly and released a contented sigh. Chance held his breath, looking at her hopefully, and was crushed when she merely settled back down into a steady sleep. Still, it was something at least, and more of a reaction than any of them had seen since the two teens had been brought into the Hospital Wing.

"Odd," said Remus suddenly.

"What's odd, Rem?" Chance rubbed a hand over his face, feeling totally drained when he thought about his next class, which were the fourth year Slytherins and Gryffindors. Fantastic.

"It's just – did you notice that when you were touching Harry, Ginny was the one who reacted?" Glancing back and forth between the boy and girl, Remus frowned. It was something simple that he normally would have ignored, but that sort of thing had happened more than once during the past couple of days while he'd been around. There had been a niggling suspicion growing in the back of his mind as it got closer to the next full moon; his senses were growing stronger and it allowed him to notice things that he might otherwise miss, like scents that were getting more similar. "Sirius, help me for a moment, would you? I want to put the two of them into the same bed."

Chance arched an eyebrow and gave his mate a strange look. "You want to put them in the same bed? Remmy, are you feeling alright? I know Poppy has a thing for you, but that won't stop her from strangling you with her bare hands."

A flush spread across the bridge of Remus's cheeks. "Cease calling me that immediately," he ordered, glaring at his sniggering partner. "I bloody well hate that name and you know it. And for your information, Poppy does not have a "thing" for me. We were colleagues and she cared for me when I was younger after the full moon. Just because we have a slightly closer relationship that the normal student and Healer does not mean that - "

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Chance said, chuckling softly. "If you promise to protect me if she catches us, I'll help you."

Remus just snorted in reply and stood back as Chance walked over to Ginny. He pushed the covers back, revealing the blue cotton pyjamas that Hermione had brought to the Hospital Wing for her to wear, and slipped his arms underneath her body. It was a lot easier to lift her than it had been during their nightly talks in the summer, when Ginny used to fall asleep at the table and he would carry her to bed afterwards. Remus pulled Harry's covers back and helped Chance to slide the girl in beside his godson. Immediately, Harry's hands reached out unconsciously for Ginny as she curled up against his chest. Chance watched the two of them, feeling breathless with hope. That was the most movement he'd seen from either one.

"What d'you think it means?" he asked quietly, the teasing edge having fallen from his voice. Something was going on, that much was obvious, but he wasn't quite sure where Remus was headed with this.

"If I'm right, it means that your godson has been messing around with dangerous, complex magic," Remus said wryly. "So basically, he's been acting just like his godfather."

"Oi!" A wounded look came over Chance's face. "When did I ever...?"

"I'm sorry, I believed I was talking to the man who became an illegal Animagus at the age of fifteen," he replied, eyes wide with mock surprise. "Have I mistaken you for someone else?"

"Err..."

"That's what I thought." Shaking his head, Remus looked back at the two of them. "I'm going to go talk to Hermione. I think she knows more about what's going on than she's admitted, and she may be more willing to share with someone she trusts. You stay here and guard those two. Try to keep Pomfrey from separating them. The contact seems to have done them good."

"Alright," Chance said, nodding. He sat down in his chair with a determined expression, and, glancing at him, Remus decided that he had better stop by the headmaster's office first to let the man know that someone else would need to the teach the fourth year D.A.D.A. class. From the looks of it, Chance wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, not until Harry and Ginny woke up. Hiding his grin – it felt like, for the first time, Sirius was actually back – he headed out of the room.

Left to entertain himself, Chance leaned forward and looked down at the two students. Harry was his godson and he loved him, but he cared a great deal for Ginny as well. She had been the only one willing to listen to his stories about the Marauders, and even after she had returned to Hogwarts last year, she had responded to his often long, rambling letters with interested missives that posed thoughtful questions. Oddly enough, by allowing him to live in the past, she had grounded him to the present and kept him from going completely stir crazy when Dumbledore had insisted that he remain locked up in Grimmauld Place. He owed her a lot, and he didn't see any way of ever making it up to her.

"Somehow, I will," he promised. "I'll make it up to both of you, I promise." As he spoke, he noticed that Ginny was stirring. Chance leapt to his feet and leaned over her, watching her face intently. Her eyes fluttered open, and she gazed up at him blankly, with no sign of any recognition. "Ginny? Ginny, can you hear me? Do you know who I am?"

"I can hear you," she said slowly, looking like she was having a difficult time stringing words together. "You're..."

"I'm your professor," he told her when she trailed off. "Professor Astrum. Remember?"

Her eyebrows came together, and she squinted up at him. "Professor... No... That's not right."

Chance frowned, worried at her behaviour. Was there something seriously wrong with her? More so than any of them had realized? Cold fear began to creep up on him. "Yes, it is. It's me."

"I know. It's you," she echoed, a tiny smile curving her lips. "Sirius..."

Fear gave way to shock as her eyes fell closed. She was out instantly, giving him no time to question her further, and even when he shook her frantically by the shoulder, she failed to respond. Chance was left standing over the two of them, his heart pounding. Had Ginny really said his name, or had he simply imagined it? If she had, did she know the truth, or had she been half asleep, dreaming, and only thought that she'd seen Sirius Black in place of Chance Astrum? The fact that he didn't know was unbearable, but there was no way for him to find out. All he could do was sit helplessly beside them and wait.

NIR

It was late, nearly eleven, by the time that Hermione Granger managed to extricate herself from the clutches of Lavender and Parvati and sneak out of the Common Room. She wasn't scheduled to patrol the castle that night, so technically, she wasn't supposed to be outside of her dorm, but five years as Harry Potter's best friend had given her new appreciation for the occasional breaking of the rules. As a prefect, she knew the castle almost as well as the twins had. The only thing that really concerned her as she hurried through the halls was the fact that the students who had sent the note - if it really was Malfoy - might have left already. Lavender and Parvati had stayed up for hours talking about Ron, and it was only a sneaky sleeping spell shot from underneath the covers that allowed Hermione to finally leave.

"Please still be there," she whispered to herself, panting a little as she scurried up yet another flight of stairs. She was completely unprepared for the body that she crashed into at the top, and the resulting collision nearly sent her falling backwards. At the last second, hands gripped her shoulders and yanked her to safety. Once she'd regained her balance, Hermione looked up into amber eyes. "Professor Lupin?"

"Hello, Hermione," Remus greeted. He'd been waiting to track her down for some time, ever since he'd gotten detained at the Headmaster's office and tricked into using Polyjuice Potion to teach the classes in place of Chance, but he hadn't wanted to risk going into Gryffindor Tower to find her. "I've been looking for you."

"What are you doing here?" Hermione stepped back until there was a proper distance between them and looked at him curiously.

"Harry didn't you tell you?" He raised an eyebrow at that fact.

Hermione bit her lip, a little put out at the fact that there was even more going on that she hadn't known about than she'd realized. By now, though, she could no longer put all of the blame Harry alone for that fact. She was starting to realize just how wrapped up in her desperate search for a cure for Ron that she had been. "I've been really busy these past few weeks," she offered by way of explanation. "And Harry's been spending a lot of time with Ginny."

Remus nodded. "I know. That's actually what I came to speak with you about. I know they're both in the Hospital Wing."

"Is that why Professor Dumbledore called you?" She sighed and tucked a stray curl behind her ear. "Remus, I'm pretty sure that they'll both be fine. I know it's been two weeks, but they'll wake up soon, hopefully. There was no need for you to come all the way here."

The man hesitated slightly. "I wanted to be here just in case," he said at last, looking her square in the eyes. "Hermione, tell me the truth. Do you know what's going on with them? If you know, please tell me. Harry is like my own cub. I'd do anything to help him." His eyes were filled with pleading.

It was Hermione's turn to hesitate. Remus was different from the other adults in the castle. No matter how angry Harry was with him for ignoring him during the summer, she truly believed that Remus had her friend's best interests at heart, but at the same time, Remus was extremely loyal to Dumbledore for the chances that the Headmaster had granted to him in his youth. Could he be trusted? What choice did she have? She had reached a dead end on her own, and the alternative was seeking help from Dumbledore or Snape.

"Remus, there are things going on that we can't exactly share Professor Dumbledore," she said slowly, casting a quick glance around for any paintings that might have been eavesdropping. Fortunately, Remus had stopped her in a hall where there were none. "If I told you... I mean, I do want your help, but you'd have to promise..."

"To keep him out of it?" he asked. "I can do that."

"You can?" Hermione blinked at him, startled by his easy agreement. "I thought..."

"You thought I was completely loyal to Dumbledore? I thought I was, too." Remus smiled bitterly. Those feelings had pretty much disappeared once he discovered that Sirius had been alive for so long and Dumbledore had forced the man to keep himself under wraps. The wolf could have easily killed Remus if he hadn't held on for so long from sheer determination. Both he and Harry had been suffering needlessly for months because of Dumbledore's manipulations. He no longer believed the headmaster was interested in doing anything except winning the war with Voldemort no matter what it took. Glancing down at Hermione, he nodded firmly. "You can tell me, Hermione. I swear that I won't tell Dumbledore. I'll swear on my magic if you want me to."

"No, that's alright. I trust you." It felt good to say that. There were so few people that she could trust. Hermione stepped closer and reached into her robes, pulling out a vial of a milky-looking liquid. "You know that Ginny disinherited herself from the Weasley family for Harry, right?" At his nod, she continued, "Well, Harry wanted to do something for her in return. He decided to make her a part of his family."

Remus's eyes widened. "He did?"

She nodded. "I believe they were searching for a ritual or spell that was capable of doing so, and they must have found one. I found the two of them in the Room of Requirement, unconscious, with a book open to a very specific ritual. A cauldron was nearby with this potion in it." Hermione held up the vial. "The Room of Requirement gave me the spell necessary to analyze it on a basic level. I know that there were extra ingredients put in that weren't supposed to be there. But I don't know what to do with that information." To her horror, her voice quivered a little as she finished speaking.

"The pressure's probably not helping," he said gently, watching her with sympathetic eyes. "I know the spells you're talking about, Hermione. Why don't you give me the vial and let me help you look into it? I've cast the more in-depth analyzation spells before. They may give us more insight."

Her fingers closed around the vial protectively. "I..." Hermione trailed off. She knew that Remus was just trying to help, but this was her only way of finding out what had happened. If it disappeared, or if Remus couldn't be trusted after all, Harry and Ginny might never wake up. Remus said nothing and waited patiently, his hand extended, allowing her to make up her mind. Finally, Hermione summoned her courage, reached out, and placed it in his hand. "Please be careful."

"I will, I promise. Listen, why don't you come to the Hospital Wing tomorrow morning and we can look at it together?" he suggested. "Bring that book with you. I'll write you an excuse for your classes."

"Alright. I have to go, Remus. I'll see you then." Tucking her wand back into her robes, Hermione walked past him. She had missed more classes in her sixth year than in all of the other years combined, but with everything that had been going on, she was finding it hard to care, and if it meant finding out what was going on with Harry and Ginny, it was worth it.

It didn't take her long to walk the rest of the way to the Astronomy Tower. Draco was sitting on one of the windowsills waiting for her, but she was surprised to see the young girl sitting next to him. Hermione struggled to place her as she pushed the door closed and walked across the room. Only when the girl turned around, revealing deep violet eyes framed by long, dark brown hair, did she recognize her. Astoria Greengrass. She glanced between the two of them curiously, wondering what Astoria was doing with Draco in the middle of the night. Was there something going on between them? The resulting flash of jealously that lit through her at the thought was not appreciated, and she tried hard to ignore it.

"Hullo," she said lamely.

"You're late, Granger," Draco said without glancing back at her.

"I had to curse my dorm mates before I could slip out," Hermione replied, not sorry in the least. "What did you send me that note for, anyway?"

"He didn't. I did," said Astoria, curling one of her legs underneath her. "I didn't think you would meet me unless you knew Draco was coming as well. I was... I wanted... Ginny. Is she... alright?"

Hermione blinked at her, surprised. "What does it matter to you?"

Astoria frowned. No, it was more of a pout. "It doesn't."

Understanding hit Hermione so hard that she rocked backwards on her heels. "You're friends," she breathed. A lot of Ginny's odd behaviour over the past few years made sense. Mysterious letters that she refused to share. The Slytherin students she occasionally spoke to in the hallways. Times when she had gone off to visit people, but avoided mentioning who she was visiting. She watched Astoria's cheeks turn a light pink color and knew that she was correct.

"We're acquaintances. Snape partners us up in Potions class sometimes. It's not like I care or anything," she said quickly. "I was just wondering how she was doing, that's all."

"Ginny will be fine," Hermione told her, warming slightly towards the younger girl at the obvious look of relief on Astoria's face. "She hasn't woken up yet, but Remus and I are going to be working on figuring out what happened."

"So the werewolf is back in the castle, is he?" Draco drawled, finally twisting around.

"Yes, he's back, and Remus is more than just a werewolf," she sighed. "He's a good man, Draco." The sound of his given name still sounded odd on her lips, but the magic invoked by Lucius's disowning would not allow anyone to refer to him by 'Malfoy' any longer. "You'd know that if you stopped being so concerned with your damned pureblood prejudice."

Draco just snorted.

"Was that the only reason you called me up here?" Hermione asked tiredly, her gaze focusing more on Astoria then Draco.

"Yes," said Draco.

"No," Astoria corrected, jabbing him in the side with a well-placed elbow. "Granger, I'm sure you've researching what happened to Ginny and Potter. Research faster. You have to wake them up and soon."

Hermione's eyes narrowed slightly. "Why?"

Astoria looked uncomfortable. "Does it matter?"

Folding her arms, Hermione frowned. "I have a bunch of other things on the go at the same time," she said dismissively. It wasn't exactly a lie if she was only making it sound like something else might be more important, right? "Unless you can give me a good reason, at least I know that Harry and Ginny can't be touched by Dumbledore or Voldemort like this."

Draco looked up at her sharply, but it was Astoria who spoke. "Have you ever heard of partner magic?"

"Partner magic?" The slightly unfamiliar term forced her to stop and think for a few moments. Gradually, she remembered reading a little bit about it in one of her Ancient Runes texts. "Isn't that where two wizards join their magic together? It's illegal."

"It's not illegal. It's just… frowned upon," said Astoria hastily.

The pieces came together, slotting perfectly into place, and Hermione felt like hitting her head against the wall. "You and Ginny?" she guessed wearily.

Slowly, Astoria nodded. "We found out about it in our second year," she said haltingly. "Ginny saw it as a way to guard against another possession attempt. We've been… training our magic together for the past four years. I've always been able to feel her, even when we're not actually connected. I could tell where she was and something of what she was feeling." Her words came in a jumbled rush. "But now I can't. Ever since she and Harry did whatever they did, the place where she used to be is a total blank. And I snuck into the Hospital Wing last night to see her, and my magic didn't recognize hers at all. She's changed. There was no place for me anymore." She stopped abruptly and bit her lip, like she was afraid she had said too much.

The words were slow to process, but once they had, Hermione felt herself pale. Partner magic, once it was built up between two people - particularly for as log as Astoria and Ginny had apparently been at it - was supposed to last forever. Nothing should have been able to destroy that kind of bond… and yet, something had. Her mind whirled, struggling to figure out what could have possibly gone so wrong with the spell that Harry and Ginny had been casting. Bringing Ginny into the Potter/Black family shouldn't have disrupted her ties to Astoria. She'd known that something had gone seriously wrong, but this just brought the matter home.

"I'll find out," she said breathlessly. "I promise you, Astoria. I'll find out."

"Thank you," Astoria mumbled, folding her hands in her lap. "Will you let me know what you find out?"

"I will," Hermione promised. Astoria looked unbearably young at that moment. Both she and Draco did. It hurt to see. She had to look away. "I have Remus to help. Werewolf or not, I know that he can be trusted. Don't worry. Between the two of us, we'll be able to wake Harry and Ginny up. And soon." Her voice rang out with authority, hiding what she was truly feeling. Fear.

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