A/N: I feel like Mellie might be working, so ... when you see this Mellie, I hope all this medical mumbo-jumbo is right :P Take care.

And take care everyone else who works in the health industry too (and in essential services). I know countries are... debating about whether to release the hoards. I think, should that happen, this might get much worse before it gets anywhere near better, but what do I know?! I'm a writer - I have manuscripts where it was Monday and Thursday in the same 24 hours and my characters often lay down and sit up no less than five times during a conversation. Just... Please be careful everyone.

Also, another prayer to Spin - who is truly tireless when trying to get my stuff in some sort of order. Love you :)

For disclaimer, please see Ch2.

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"Hey," Harry whispered when they were finally ensconced together at the back of Herbology. "I know she wasn't supposed to but Ginny kinda told me what happened. Are you alright?"

"She did what?" Hermione said, her eyes widening.

"She didn't mean to," Harry whispered, behind his glove. "And I don't actually know what you did, only that you did something to Lavender, but," he glanced over at the girl. "She looks fine."

"I'll explain a bit better once we can talk without having to be in class to do it," Hermione said. "I've had an idea about You Know Who and you-know-whats."

"Me too," Harry muttered. "It occurred to me when I was looking through my trunk trying to find my jumper." Hermione beamed at him. "I found the pieces of my Nimbus."

"He wouldn't use just anything," she muttered.

"Exactly," Harry muttered, glancing around them. "He'd use things that were special to him, even if they looked like nothing. I just don't know what."

"I told Dumbledore that, but he wouldn't listen. We kinda fought about it."

"Holy -" he stared at her. "Really?"

She nodded, worrying her lip.

"I," she sighed. "I'm going to tell you, because you need to know, but you absolutely cannot tell. Not even Ron and Ginny," she looked at him. "Well, the bits Ginny doesn't know. Swear it?"

He grinned, holding up his pinky.

"I swear."

She smiled, shaking his hand with her own pinky before glancing around again.

"I'm on indefinite suspension. I cursed Lavender with a spell from that book I got from Min-" she paused. "McGonagall. It was awful. That she's up and moving around today is pretty amazing, to be honest. We've both been told we're not to speak to each other again. I think they're pretending that I told on her, to be honest. I don't really know," she considered. "Or care. But," she glanced around and dropped her voice lower. "I had to let Dumbledore use Legilimency on me," she said, holding up her hand as Harry's eyes got very big. "Except for some reason, I could see bits of his memories too. I don't think he realised I could and I still haven't figured out why, but his hand - I know why it looks like it does." She got lower behind the Snargaluff branches they were supposed to be pruning. "He put on this ring, before the start of the year. The ring."

"The," he winced at himself. "The thing?"

"Yeah. I am shocked he was so stupid. I mean, he's -" She swallowed and remembered where they were. "Who he is. Why would he be so dense?"

"You told him what you saw?"

"No," she whispered, glaring at a Hufflepuff who was watching them talk with a disapproving look on his face. "I just told him what I had already said, that Tom wouldn't use family heirlooms," she considered. "Or wouldn't only use those things, 'cos we know he already has. But the majority would be things that mean something to him personally. He thinks it's more complicated than that. But Tom is so far up himself, he can't help it," Hermione explained. He wants to be the best. He wants to be in total control and he wants to make sure that in a thousand years, everyone will know how clever he is, but," she paused. "I'm not sure any of us really understand him enough to know what those things that he chooses to represent himself might be. How do any of us, Dumbledore included, know him deeply enough to know what was important to him? Your Nimbus was important to you because it was the first broom you got." Harry glanced at her. "And one of the first gifts. Not everyone would know that. Only those closest to you do except, who does Tom have close? Snape? Bellatrix? Malfoy's Dad? I just," she sighed. "It's not going to be as easy as all that. I tried to tell Dumbledore that, but," she shrugged. "He's not going to listen to me."

"Why?" he asked, glancing up and checking the clock.

She realised they were running out of time.

"I may have called him an arsehole," she winced as he gaped. "To his face."

"HERMIONE!" he hissed.

"Well yeah, he wouldn't listen, and then he took my Prefect's badge."

"I know," he winced. "McG gave it to Pavarti."

Hermione thought about it for a while and decided that it wasn't so bad, even if it was personally galling.

"She thinks he's protecting me," she scoffed. "But I'm not sure that's it. He doesn't seem to like me at all."

"Alright," Professor Sprout announced as the bell tolled. "A foot on the properties of Snargaluff pods in potion making, ready for our next lesson please. You may go, when your tools have been put back in their correct places"

"That wasn't enough time," Harry said, looking hopeless as the students around them began packing up.

"I know, I'm going to try and come up with something," she muttered, writing down their homework on a bit of parchment. They put their pruning shears back and nodded to Professor Sprout as they were leaving. "Hey," she said, grabbing his arm before he took a step out of the door. "Will you and Ginny keep doing the classes? It really was helping Minerva. She needs it. And tell Flitwick, he'll talk to you. I'm not sure how much they know about," she grimaced, pointing at herself. "Everything."

"Yeah," he grinned, waiting for a few stragglers to leave. "We've already got one organised for later. I'll tell him."

"What if we use Dobby?" Hermione whispered as they stood in the greenhouse doorway. "Just in the beginning. For urgent things."

Harry looked up to find Professor McGonagall watching them with an amused look on her face. He nodded respectfully and glanced at Hermione.

"I'll sort it," he assured her, turning to go in the opposite direction across the grounds before running off, leaving her staring at her keeper.

"You don't trust me," Hermione said, a little hurt at the implication of Minerva appearing at the end of her final class for the day.

"That isn't true," Minerva said gently but firmly as they walked back through the castle. "Mostly. However, I realised that the singular lesson of Herbology today would not be enough for you and Mr Potter to talk, so I thought I would remove the temptation of staying inside the classroom and circumnavigating the rules." Hermione blushed, having been caught doing just that, and Minerva chuckled. "Oh, to be young again," she muttered, waving to Godric and leading Hermione up the stairs.

"I'm not in love with him or anything!" Hermione said, looking disgusted. "He's like my brother. We just have things we have to do. Well, he does now, not me."

"Well," Minerva said with a shrug. "Either way, I know you, and I know him. I'm glad I came to get you."

"Yeah," Hermione sighed, falling onto the sofa. "I s'pose so. I don't need Professor Dumbledore hating me for something else."

"Ah, ah, ah," Minerva said, pulling her up again, wincing as she did. "Don't fret, I'm fine, and none of that," she said to Hermione who stepped forward to help. "Go and change out of your school clothes and get your homework out. Albus is busy and I am fine." Hermione stared at her, making her laugh. "I actually am feeling quite well today, if you must know."

Hermione huffed and turned around dramatically to do as she was told, Minerva's laugh following her into her room. She went about changing quickly, grabbing her book bag and lugging it back out to the table.

"Can I do it here?"

"I shall be at my desk -"

"That's kinda why I want to do it here," Hermione said awkwardly.

"Then of course you can," Minerva smiled, winking as she took off her hat and disappeared down the corridor. Hermione ran to the bookshelves and looked for the title she'd seen the previous week, grabbing it and running back to the table before Minerva came back. She was wearing much less formal robes and her hair fell in gentle waves down her back.

"Oh," she sighed, smiling at Minerva. "I like it like that," Hermione mused. "It's really pretty."

"Thank you," Minerva smiled indulgently, nodding to the rolls of parchment in front of her. "Off you go then."

Hermione sat and let herself be immersed in the work. All she could hear was the scratching of quill across parchment and it was heaven. She concentrated so much better in the quiet and could practically feel the contentment coming from Minerva. She had two pieces of parchment on the go; one, her homework from Herbology, and the other was notes from the book she had borrowed 'Communicating with Cauldrons'. It was mostly unsuited to what she needed, she realised as she read it, but some parts gave her an idea. She sat back, pondering a thought, lost in her own world until Minerva cleared her throat, bringing her back to the present. She grinned shyly and bent back over her work, making note after note until she'd finished both her essay and her secret project.

"I thought we were going to have to get more parchment," Minerva quipped as Hermione rubbed her eyes with a sigh.

"It's interesting, I didn't know some of that stuff about the Snargaluff pods."

"Fascinating," Minerva quipped, her eyebrow indicating she found it anything but. Hermione grinned. "You look tired."

"Not really," Hermione smiled. "I always feel a bit exhausted after finishing an essay."

"I know that feeling very well," Minerva chuckled, rolling her shoulder a little as she signed the last letter in front of her.

"Can I," Hermione got up and went around the desk to Minerva's side. "Can I do something?"

"That word encompasses an infinitesimal definition, Hermione," Minerva said, looking at her carefully.

"I won't hurt you," Hermione said gently, stepping around her and putting her hands on her shoulders, gathering up the oceans of hair and gently moving it out of the way. "Your hair is beautiful," Hermione smiled. "But, you said you were feeling better, right?"

"I am feeling as well as to be expected," Minerva clarified.

"Right," Hermione nodded. "So this will help."

She dug her thumbs in gently and bit back a giggle as Minerva groaned, letting her head drop forward dramatically. Hermione spent a few minutes massaging that spot before moving further down her back. She felt Minerva tense when she realised she'd reached the part where the scars on her back would be.

"Don't panic," Hermione said. "If it hurts, tell me and we'll stop. But scar tissue, it clings to itself you see, which explains why it looks like it pulls sometimes."

"Hermione," Minerva said quietly, her cheeks red.

"It's okay. Mum broke her collarbone once. They had to pin it; it was awful. She was in a sling for ages."

"I don't know what any of that means," Minerva muttered, holding her breath when Hermione moved. "That hurts."

"It will," she acknowledged but altered the strength of her hands. "If you can take it, it would be better for me to massage it?"

"Fine," Minerva hissed.

"Try to relax as much as you can. If you really can't take it, tell me. Keep breathing, slow and steady."

Minerva nodded and Hermione made short work of a quick massage to the muscles that were slowly coming back to life. She let go, pressed a kiss to Minerva's head without thinking and stepped back, watching as Minerva rolled her neck and then her shoulders.

"Better?" Hermione asked, with a knowing grin.

Minerva rolled her shoulders once more and smiled, breaking out into laughter as she looked at Hermione.

"How, I mean," she shook her head. "How did you know to do that?"

"Like I said, Mum broke her collarbone once," Hermione shrugged, touching the corresponding bone. "They gave her therapeutic massage after it had healed to help get the muscles in her arm working again. That's where the stress balls come from. Admittedly hers had only atrophied rather than being damaged outright, but," Hermione trailed off. "I figured it was worth a go."

"Well, I still barely understand a word of that, however," Minerva said carefully. "If you wanted to get me a list of exercises to look at, I would perhaps consider it."

Hermione rushed forward and planted a big kiss on Minerva's cheek.

"I won't let you down, I promise. And we should do that more often. It'll help," she grinned, running into her room and making a list of books for Harry to get from the library tomorrow and scribbling a letter that he'd have to send for her too.

Beyond wanting to make sure Minerva felt better, she could feel the war coming closer. She'd be patient, for now, but it did not mean she couldn't be prepared. She'd lost one set of parents. She wasn't going to lose another.