Hermione stared in the mirror and pondered how remarkably normal everything seemed that morning…the morning after. Her roommates were all peacefully sleeping as she prepared for her daily pre dawn vigil…Voldemort was still out there lurking…and she was still terrified for Harry's safety. Everything was sadly and distressingly normal.

She'd expected to feel fundamentally different but had been wrong on that count as well. She was still Hermione and he was still Harry…they'd been through so much together that nothing could throw them off their moors at this point. Last night had merely made them fuller…more complete. And she couldn't wait to feel complete again. Last night had given her yet another glimpse into what normalcy could and should be.

Like many things involving Harry she had been utterly terrified at the beginning…and as usual all her careful planning and study seemed to go out the window immediately when Harry started improvising. This indelible relationship dynamic had been established long ago…she was very good at planning and Harry was very good at improvising. That dynamic had served them well last night…most especially the second time. She felt a profound sense of exhilaration as she mused on what round three would entail.

"Everything all right, dear?" her mirror chimed in. Apparently seeing Hermione off her typical efficient and structured morning routine had thrown her enchanted companion a bit.

"Fine, fine…just had a bit of a late night," she replied pleasantly.

"Looks like it was a good one," her mirror replied knowingly.

Hermione idly realized she'd been smiling as she mused on her 'late night.'

"It really was," she answered as she pulled her hair into a ponytail, ignoring the mirror's mild 'tsk' of disapproval. She'd wasted too much time daydreaming about the prior evening and wanted to see Harry again. Besides, she liked it and Harry liked it. That was all that mattered.

To her surprise Harry wasn't alone in the common room when she arrived. Neville and Ginny were there as well.

"We realized you two have a predictable routine like Crabbe and Goyle," Neville supplied before she could ask. "It's not safe for you two to go to the Room by yourselves every morning. We wanted to talk to you about it last night but you disappeared on us."

"I told them we have the map-"

"And we told you," Ginny interrupted as she glared at Harry, "that it's still safer if there are five of us rather than two."

"Five?"

"We're fetching Luna along the way," Neville informed happily. "She insisted. Quite excited about it actually."

"While you're at it why don't you grab Ron and Lavender as well? Round up the whole gang," Harry muttered in annoyance.

"They'll be taking our place tomorrow," Ginny informed with a smirk. "You didn't think that Neville and I were going to get up this early every day did you?"

Neville laughed. Harry scowled.

"They're right," Hermione agreed sadly. Her quiet mornings alone with Harry had quickly become her favorite part of the day, but the peace within Hogwarts' walls had come to an end and allowances needed to be made regardless of how annoying and intrusive they were. Based on how defeated Harry looked it was clear that he felt the same.

"Fine," Harry mumbled as he scanned the map and reached for her hand, "everything looks clear. Let's go…and thanks."

The good news was that today was a Friday. The bad news was their last class of the day was Defence. She'd already been dreading this class since Malfoy had fled the castle and she knew that yesterday's retaliation against Crabbe and Goyle was only going to make things worse.

The various sixth year students from all four houses seemed to be marching en masse from the Great Hall to the Defence classroom, most wearing full on scowls with their eyes firmly affixed to the counterparts that they viewed as the enemy. Thankfully the staff had anticipated that there could be problems and several chose to trail along to monitor the situation. It was the first time Hermione could recall the staff publicly making an effort to squelch the political tensions in Hogwarts. Too little, too late, she mused.

"Stow your wands," Snape instructed brusquely as he walked to the front of the room. He leveled Harry with his best stare before continuing.

"Due to recent events some of you can't be trusted to act responsibly and respectfully towards your fellow classmates. Anyone casting so much as Lumos during this lesson risks immediate expulsion. Have I made myself clear?"

After receiving mumbled agreement from the class he flourished his wand at the board and words appeared.

Chapter 25: Magical Concealment

"We will be reviewing the means and methods to detect disillusionment charms and the various magical objects used to conceal oneself such as invisibility cloaks," he droned, emphasizing the last two words for effect.

Her blood boiled as she realized he had skipped chapters ahead in the curriculum in order to cover this specific topic on this specific day. She was reminded of his purposeful wedging in of the Defence lesson on Werewolves in third year. The man's pettiness was relentless and seemingly without end.

Hermione instinctively reached for Harry's hand under the desk to make sure he held his tongue. She realized that while the headmaster's repeated insistence that Professor Snape opposed Voldemort might be true he'd never been on Harry's side. Never.

In truth it was taking all of her willpower to restrain herself as Snape gave a point by point dissertation on how to detect and combat one of Harry's greatest advantages. She glanced at Daphne Greengrass and noticed the girl was looking at her in consideration. Daphne gave her a subtle nod before turning her gaze back toward their professor. It was clear that Daphne had deduced why the topic was being covered and how Ron and Lavender had been present during their initial meeting. If Daphne was able to suss out Snape's motivations who else would realize what their professor was doing? Her blood boiled.

"Do you have an issue with my instruction, Miss Granger?" Professor Snape asked. Apparently she had been wearing her emotions on her sleeve and he couldn't wait to poke the bear just a bit.

She remained steadfastly quiet.

"Truly remarkable," Snape continued on, "for the first time since you began attending my class you aren't jumping at the opportunity to show off. I wonder...has dating Potter made you dumber or lazier? Perhaps both?

Please answer the question Miss Granger," Snape prodded once again. "Is there any particular reason you have an issue with today's instruction?"

She heard the tittering laughter amongst some of her fellow students and was reminded of Snape's sneering insult of her teeth in fourth year. She couldn't hold her tongue any longer.

"Nothing beyond the issues I've had with your instruction for the last six years, sir," she replied unthinkingly. She heard Lavender's gasp of surprise in her periphery and cursed her impulsiveness. It had felt good though.

She purposely cast her eyes downward and pretended to consider her book. Regardless of how much she wanted to glare at him she knew her refusal to meet his gaze was the most prudent action and would more than likely infuriate him more than any comeback could manage.

"Apparently some of Potter's arrogance has rubbed off on you as well. Twenty points from Gryffindor and detention with me tomorrow night for your cheek," he declared.

I see no difference echoed in her brain once again.

"No," she replied before she lost her nerve.

"Excuse me?" he asked.

"No, sir," she repeated as calmly as she could manage. Harry and Ron would never let her live it down if she started yelling at a teacher. Besides, that would be letting him win. As frustrated as she was for letting their confrontation get to this point she refused to let him win.

"I'll sit for my detention with any member of the staff but you," she continued. She could hear the excited murmurings around her but kept her head down.

"Unfortunately for you that is not an option…and that will now be a week's worth of detentions, starting tonight."

She knew Harry was going to speak in her defense at any moment and forcefully squeezed his hand for him to prevent it from happening. That was exactly what Snape wanted.

"No," she repeated.

"You realize that this defiance is more than enough to see you expelled?" he asked. She knew it wasn't an idle threat. He was vindictive enough to try and do it regardless of where his loyalties truly lied. She was saved from responding from a most unexpected source.

"Lumos," she heard the voice of Susan Bones intone from the back of the room, her normal pleasantness entirely absent. If her apparent anger was an indicator of the strength of the spell than the light she'd created could rival the sun.

"Two weeks detention for you as well Miss-"

"Lumos," rang out once more. It sounded like it had been Sue's best friend Hannah Abbot this time.

Snape began to speak once again but was interrupted and drowned out by the sudden chorus of "Lumos" that began surging throughout the room. Hermione looked behind her and realized that almost half of her classmates were now holding their illuminated wands in the air, daring to be punished for their act of solidarity.

The remaining students' reactions to the communal act of defiance were a mixture of anger, confusion and amusement. She felt Harry release her hand before he cast Lumos as well.

"Everyone out!" Snape bellowed.

"Except for you two," he amended angrily, pointing at her and Harry. While most of the class quickly filed out, Neville, Lavender and Ron moved to stand behind them.

"I said to get out!" Snape ordered once again.

"They don't want to leave us alone with you," Harry informed. "It's the same reason Hermione won't sit for detention with you. None of us trust you."

"I am going into the other room to summon the headmaster and your head of house. Do not move," he ordered angrily before stalking into an adjoining room and slamming the door behind him.

The group sat quietly for several moments, stunned to silence by how quickly everything had escalated. Ron was the first to speak.

"Nothing beyond the issues I've had with your instruction for the last six years, sir," he said in a high pitched voice meant to mimic her own. "Merlin, Hermione, you're even better at insulting Snape than me."

"He made me angry," she muttered grumpily as she tried not to think about the prospect of being expelled. Again.

"That we sorted out," Neville replied in amusement. "What do you reckon is going to happen now?" he asked, instantly sobering.

No-one had a chance to answer as Snape stormed back into the room, trailed by Dumbledore and McGonagall. Apparently he had summoned them via the floo. McGonagall's look of fury nearly matched Snape while Dumbledore looked pensive.

"Let me do the talking," Harry informed quietly as the trio approached.

"We need to speak to Mister Potter and Miss Granger alone," Dumbledore informed calmly.

"We'd like them to stay so we can walk back to Gryffindor as a group," Harry replied, doing his best to match Dumbledore's calm tone. "None of us trust the staff to protect us from other students so we've had to do it ourselves."

"This is completely ridiculous," Professor McGonagall replied. "What did I tell you two?" she pleaded angrily.

Hermione wanted to argue back but she remembered Harry's request and he clearly had something to say.

"You told us about ripple effects," Harry seethed. "We've had a professor that has insulted and tried to intimidate us since we were first years so now we don't trust him. You allow a student to almost kill two other students so we don't trust the staff. When we stopped him you ordered us to sort it out ourselves. That's what we are trying to do."

"You, arrogant-"

"Ask Professor Snape what today's lesson was about," Harry interrupted. Snape fell silent, choosing instead to level Harry with his best sneer. Unfortunately his spectacular effort was wasted on Harry as he refused to look the man in the eyes.

"He decided to skip ahead several chapters to teach us, in detail, about detecting invisibility cloaks."

Dumbledore looked furious. Snape, however, seemed unrepentant.

"What was it you said to us Professor?" he asked, his gaze turning toward McGonagall. "Actions have consequences and we have to be willing to deal with them. That applies to you lot as well," Harry concluded.

As the seconds ticked by the uncomfortable silence loomed over the room. Life within the castle seemed to be changing by the minute and everyone was struggling to keep up. Unfortunately none of them seemed to know how to proceed and based on his expression the headmaster appeared to be just as unsure of what to say or do.

"There will be no punishments or point deductions at this time," Dumbledore eventually intoned. "I beg you to continue to exercise caution and do your best to not aggravate the situation. It is clear that the staff needs to be reminded of this as well."

"Headmaster-"

"Dinner will be starting soon," Dumbledore interrupted forcefully before Professor Snape could finish his sentence, "you best be off."

"I will escort you," Professor McGonagall informed tiredly as she followed them out the door.

Not only had McGonagall escorted them to the Great Hall for supper that evening she'd led the whole of Gryffindor back to the common room afterward for good measure. The speech she'd given before departing for the evening was concise and clear:

Protect yourself. Protect your fellow classmates. Do not be the aggressor.

Gryffindor had been buzzing over supper as news of that day's eventful Defence lesson had begun to spread and once McGonagall finally exited for the evening it seemed that all of Gryffindor pounced, wanting a detailed blow by blow of what had immediately been dubbed the Lumos Lesson.

And as good as it felt to see her fellow Gryffindors so engaged and unified, she couldn't shake the feeling that she'd be much more content sneaking off with Harry. They were sitting in their couch but it wasn't the same because they were surrounded by other students chattering away. It was such an odd dichotomy. As the school had rallied together the past few months she found herself desperately wanting to be alone with Harry more and more. Only Harry.

As she listened to Ron regaling a pack of first years about her spirited response to their Defence instructor Harry pulled her out of the scrum.

"We can't sneak out, Harry," she said reluctantly, "it's not safe."

"I know," he replied as he led her to an empty loveseat that had been shoved into a remote corner of the common room.

There was a reason this chair had been banished to the darkest, dingiest, most depressing part of Gryffindor house. The upholstery was faded and threadbare but that wasn't the real problem. It was thoroughly uncomfortable. She wasn't sure why or how but the thing seemed to actively repel cushioning charms…as if sitting in it was destined to be such a miserable experience that even magic couldn't interfere.

But despite these seemingly overwhelming odds Harry was unfazed at the task before him. He quickly pulled out his wand and levitated the love seat, turning it around so it faced the window.

"This chair is awful," she mumbled as he pulled her down next to him.

"I know," he stated simply as he draped an arm over her shoulder and stared at the nighttime sky.

As she nestled into his side she could practically feel the splinters beginning to set up residence in her back. Quickly she theorized that if she leaned just a bit further into Harry she could hopefully avoid touching the abomination in any meaningful way. She felt Harry's arm slide down from her shoulders and wrap her waist in a protective hug, effectively providing a barrier from her nemesis. Within seconds his hand began calmly venturing to places just barely appropriate for their current location.

The voices behind her seemed to fade away as she curled her hand around Harry's thigh. Perhaps this chair wasn't so bad. She gazed out the window…it was a beautiful night.

As promised Ron and Lavender had replaced Neville and Ginny for Saturday morning's excursion to the Room of Requirement with Luna happily joining as well.

"I can't believe I agreed to get up this early to protect you lot and now I'm going to be late for breakfast," Ron mumbled good naturedly as they made the trek to Slughorn's office two hours later. Neville and Ginny had joined them as well, strengthening their numbers even further.

"You already had breakfast…in fact you had it earlier than normal thanks to Dobby," Lavender informed.

"That was almost two hours ago," he scoffed.

"So does that mean you won't be joining us to help Slughorn? That leech juice isn't going to extract itself you know," Harry replied.

"I would join you but I think Hermione wants to spend time alone with you Harry," Luna observed casually, drawing a chuckle from the group.

"You're more than welcome to join us, Luna," she quickly replied, pretending to ignore how on the mark the girl had been.

"Oh, I know that," Luna continued, "but I imagine it's difficult having everyone around you all the time now."

"It's not too bad," Harry replied as Slughorn's classroom came into sight. "Except for Ron. Bloody annoying he is."

"You have no idea," Lavender and Ginny replied in unison, drawing a cry of protest from the redhead.

"We'll see you in two hours," Neville said with a happy wave as the group departed for the Great Hall.

It was clear that Dumbledore had spoken to the staff as Professor Slughorn seemed much more reserved than normal. He even went so far as to cast several enchantments on the door, presumably meant to prevent any surprise visitors from joining them.

Slughorn quickly set them to work, ironically enough, extracting juice from a rather rambunctious bunch of leeches, before returning to his office to finish up some grading.

"This is torture," Harry grumbled several minutes later. "I finally have a chance to be properly alone with you and I'm stuck doing this," he lamented, gesturing to the gelatinous goo dripping off of his hands.

She snorted her agreement. "I don't think we'll have a chance to be properly alone again for a long time."

"It was okay, wasn't it?" Harry asked hesitantly. "We haven't really talked about it but…you don't regret it do you?"

She stopped what she was doing and looked at him. "Are you really worried about that?"

He was nervous but unafraid. "I thought it was amazing and I thought you did as well…but yeah…a bit."

She took off her gloves and cradled his face. "If I have any say about it we are going to be doing that again as soon as we can manage it. It's you and me now, Harry. Never doubt that."

The tender moment was broken spectacularly as Harry's leech let out an undignified squelch of protest. According to the reading she'd done leeches quite enjoyed the 'juicing' process and apparently this one was annoyed at the temporary stoppage.

"Thanks for ruining the mood," Harry muttered to the leech as he resumed his task, drawing what amounted to a contented sigh from the subject.

Hermione's amusement at the scene was broken as she felt her HDF coin warm. It was a message from Astoria.

Something is going on. Daphne says a large group of JDE's just left Slytherin together and they looked excited.

"We should go," Harry informed over her shoulder. "You tell Slughorn what's going on and I'll check the map."

Hermione quickly knocked on the office door and opened it without waiting for a response.

"Professor, Harry and I-"

Her voice caught in her throat as she spotted Professor Slughorn sitting at his desk, staring straight ahead. He was flanked by a very familiar, very worried face.

"What's going on, Mr. Dagworth?" she asked.

"They've threatened my family..."

"What have you done?" she asked.

"I'm sorry Miss Granger but I can't let you leave," he informed.

"What have you done?" she repeated as she drew her wand.

"The door won't open!" she heard Harry call from the other room.

"He won't be able to open it. I had Sluggy place several enchantments on the door," Dagworth supplied.

"He's Imperiused?" she surmised.

He nodded as he slowly and purposefully placed his wand on the desk. "I'm just trying to protect my family," he mumbled, "I told you I was a coward. I'm sorry."

"What are they doing?" she asked.

"I don't know…all I had to do was make sure you two were locked in this room," he answered.

Blaise's prior warning echoed in her brain. She and Harry were the targets.

"Stupefy!" Harry shouted from behind her and Dagworth crashed backwards, slumping to the floor.

"This doesn't look good," he muttered, handing her the Marauders Map.

It was a river of red names and they were all headed their way.

A/N: I have two things unrelated to this story I'd like let you know about.

1. I'm sure a lot of you are fans of Grow Young with Me by Taliesin19 and/or Harry Potter and the Triwizard Tournament by Salient Causality. These two amazing authors recently wrote and published a one-shot story entitled Harry & Gabby – A Fanfic. As you can probably surmise from the title it is somewhat ridiculous, quite absurd and thoroughly enjoyable. If you have read either of their primary stories you already know that the writing is top-notch but if you're still not convinced to give it a try I can emphatically state that it is the most impeccably betaed story in the history of betaing (Full disclosure: I was the beta). I've added their Pen Name (SalTalStudios) to the Favorite Authors section in my profile if you'd like a convenient link.

2. I am pleased to inform everyone that I will be publishing the first chapter of my new story Sliding Doors tomorrow (Sep 1) as part of the Jily Meets Harmony Challenge taking place on the Harmony Discord. All the details about the challenge are listed on my Authors Profile page if you are interested in learning more or (hopefully) participating. And if you are a fan of Harmony I highly encourage you to check out the Discord at discord dot gg/2GcXw8R