Ron had fallen asleep beside Harry's bed in the hospital wing the previous night. The castle was abuzz. Hermione had gone missing and if she wasn't found within the next day or so Umbridge would be shipped off to Azkaban for murder, Snape was nowhere to be found, and Dumbledore had apparently been put in restraints and was being dragged away by a group of twelve aurors who were taking him to the ministry for interrogation when he went up in flames and disappeared as he muttered something to the degree of "Merlin's Balls I'm going quietly with you fools!". At least, that was how rumor had it.
Not to mention that the boy who lived was apparently engaged…to another man! Gossips had free range and every wizard paper was filled with theories on who his mate was. Everything from vampires to Ron Weasley to Voldemort filled countless pages in pointless papers and magazines.
It was nearly one in the morning on the Monday following the incident when he was suddenly awakened by an almost inhuman shriek from Harry. Ron looked up to see his gaunt friend sitting upright stiffly in his bed, holding his head and shaking. He watched warily, uncertain as to whether his friend was awake or suffering another night terror. It soon became abundantly clear that he was sleeping as he again muttered something about "them being here" and indicating wildly into the dark with a trembling finger. Ron almost fainted upon seeing a silhouette approaching from the shadows.
"Show yourself!" He called in a voice that he had meant to sound menacing but sounded more as if he were about to wet himself as his shakily brandished his wand.
A faint Lumos was heard from the dark and suddenly the face of Hermione Granger appeared above a tenuous glow in the dim.
"Mione!" Ron nearly squealed from the dark as she approached. Thankfully he failed to notice that she brandished no wand and it was merely her hands that were glowing so eerily. Were he a little bit more perceptive it would certainly have raised a few questions. Were he anyone else he also might have noticed that her entire air had changed. There was something almost sinister about her as she stalked forward and bent over the sleeping Harry.
"He owes me an apology." She muttered dryly in a very nonchalant Snape-like fashion. Ron was still oblivious.
"Mione! You're a ghost!" He exclaimed quietly. His eyes wide.
"There are worse things one could be." She said and Ron reached out and grabbed her wrist to find her quite solid. An extraordinarily undignified squeal escaped him.
"But…but how?" He stammered and Hermione sighed.
"I stole several potions from Snape's stores to fix myself up. Unfortunately some were…less than legal and worked rather obviously so I had to hide in the dungeons while they worked." The lies just rolled off of her tongue as if by instinct. Snape had told her that the part of himself she had been given would start to blend more naturally with her own personality in time, however at the moment it not only gave her wandless and wordless magic abilities, access to almost all of his thoughts, and seemed to intensify every trait the young witch possessed that seemed more Slytherin than Gryffindor (cunning and subtlety) tenfold. However there were several rather cataclysmic cons.
"Woah." Ron replied. "How did you even get in? I heard he has them password guarded."
"He does." Hermione said, honestly having no idea but assuming that he would have something far cleverer guarding it, such as a nasty ward or four after the last time they managed to steal from him. She smirked at the thought. "The password is Lilly." She said and Ron only looked at her blankly.
"But, wasn't that Harry's mum's name?"
"Yes." Hermione replied coolly and Ron gasped.
"Honestly, why else do you think Snape would hate both Harry's father and Harry so much?" Truthfully Remus had told her the entire story over the summer, but it didn't seem salient that Ron should know that.
Ron gasped and Hermione rolled her eyes. She took a seat in a chair she conjured beside Harry's bed. Ron watched as she propped her feet up on the side rail of the hospital bed and cast a barely visible wordless and wandless lumos. She seemed to play with it between her fingertips, observing it with delight as it gained strength. The scene made Ron incredibly uneasy. He nearly screamed when the faint swirling ball of light took on ominous green phosphorescence.
"Umm Mione…" Ron muttered apprehensively. "What are you doing?"
"I cast a lumos." She said shortly as she seemed to toss it several feet up into the air and let it fall back to her fingertips.
"I didn't hear you say anything." Ron said and Hermione sighed impatiently.
"Courtesy of a certain potion I can now do wordless magic."
"Then where is your wand?"
"It is called wandless magic, Ron."
"So, you are doing wandless wordless magic, then?" Ron asked suspiciously and Hermione nodded in acquiescence. "I don't think even Dumbledore could do that."
"Dumbledore could materialize a flock of agitated violently yellow flamingos both wordlessly and wandlessly with his dying breath to communicate the secret of life in an Old Flemish folk tune if he chose to do so." Hermione replied flatly.
"Yeah, but why on earth would he do that?"
"Who knows, all though I cannot say that it would surprise me if he were to do something so utterly ridiculous." She said and Ron only stared at her, finally noticing that something was off.
"Hermione, are you feeling okay?"
"Well enough." She replied, attempting to sound less smug and caustic but failing miserably. "Sorry, it is just that the potions have caused some bizarre reaction and I am very…on edge."
Ron seemed to accept this and turned back to watching Harry. Within minutes he had fallen asleep again and started to snore. Hermione cast a quick memory charm on him and sat back in the chair she had conjured before turning to watch Harry sleep. While the part of her that was organically Hermione looked at him with the fondness a mother would and wanted to know every detail of how Sirius had proposed the part of her that was Snape could not decide whether it loathed the brat or the mutt more.
"This cannot be good." Hermione whispered aloud and the inner voice reminiscent of Snape chuckled humorlessly.
It was approximately 2:15 am when she suddenly felt a dull ache in her forearm. As Harry sat up screaming and clutching his forehead hard enough to draw blood the dull ache became almost unbearable agony. She put a silencing charm around herself as she held the arm and continued to writhe miserably in the throes of affliction. The snake moved and hissed menacingly beneath her skin.
It was worse than she had anticipated.
animesnape21: Not for a while, but it will happen. And it will be HOT!
KatAndMonkey: Well, that's kind of how I work. Sorry to say things don't get much better for dear Hermy.
AN: House and Fringe are not on tonight and that makes me depressed. It's not a tuesday without my Hugh Laurie fix...sigh...