A/N: As I said, second chapter for today! Thank you to Spin for all her hard word, all the time! And thank you to all of you for being so lovely and leaving me/us the most wonderful reviews. I cherish every one of them!

For disclaimer, please see Ch2.

Title Translation: Clandestine Conversations

-0-

The joke she told had the required response and Hermione went to her room as ordered. Closing the door behind her, she glanced around the space and waved her hand experimentally. She was glad to see two of her hiding spots revealed, though the third was not. She knew she would have to work on that as she went, but she was pleased that her wandless magic was getting better. She took a deep breath, and though she felt bad for going behind Minerva's back, she knew she'd be busy doing her exercises for at least forty five minutes. It was something she admired most about the woman; she was thorough and you could set a clock by her.

"Dobby?"

"Mistress Hermione!"

"Hello, I'm glad you're back. I wondered if you'd managed to get those things I asked you for?"

"I has Mistress, one moment."

He popped out of view and back again a second later, holding out the two items with a happy smile.

"Perfect," she grinned. "Thank you."

"Mistress?"

"Yeah?" she asked. Dobby had become slightly less eccentric in his time in the Hogwarts kitchens. He'd also taken somewhat of an interest in keeping Hermione happy, though she wasn't sure why. Maybe Harry had said something.

"What are they, Mistress?"

"If I tell you and then Dumbledore asks you, will you have to tell him?"

"Dobby doesn't think so," his ears wiggled. "But," he looked worried. "Are you's going against the Great Albus Dumbleydore?"

"Not really," she smiled. "It's okay. It's for a good reason."

"Mistress -"

"I promise it's okay. I won't tell how I got these, even if he asks me. I promise, Dobby." Dobby's eyes filled with tears and she chuckled, wiping them away and pressing a kiss to his head. "Thanks for helping me though."

"Little Mistress is the greatest witch ever."

"Thanks, Dobby," Hermione grinned, waiting as he popped away.

She sat cross-legged on the floor in front of her trunk and fiddled with the gifts he'd given her. She and Harry had organised Dobby the previous day and Dobby had been gone since then. They'd sent him to The Dursleys, or rather Dudley's room, with Harry knowing that these, of all Dudley's things, would still be in working order. She fiddled with the switch and was shocked to find the light come on and static humming in her ears. Although she had hoped her idea might work, it confused her no end as she dug in her trunk for her copy of Hogwarts: A History and flipped to the page about Muggle artefacts. It said there, as plain as the nose on her face, that Muggle artefacts would not work within Hogwarts walls. It was both exhilarating and worrying that these walkie-talkies in her hands were most definitely working.

She thought back to the look Dumbledore had given her at the beginning of her suspension, when she'd revealed she was able to go beyond the wards and into the wall. She recognised now, after studying in Minerva's library for three weeks, that it was a massive deal that she had done so. She wasn't sure how the wards worked exactly, but she had gleaned enough between her studies and the way they felt to realise that they were somewhat sentient. She probably should have recognised that sooner. She placed a hand on the stones, smiling as the magic seemed to curl around her like a cat. She was pretty sure that wasn't supposed to happen either, but she was happy it did. It allowed her to do a few things that maybe she couldn't otherwise.

She glanced down at the machines in her hand.

Like this.

She kept one and dropped the other in her trunk and walked away, frowning as she watched the light go off, leaving it dead in her hands. Frustrated, she walked back to the trunk, her eyes going wide as it crackled back to life. She glanced in her trunk and discounted it immediately. A trunk was a trunk; there was nothing special about it. Looking around at where she was, she searched her mind for a layout of the castle. Perhaps there was some sort of spell on the Muggle Studies classroom, which was possibly near her room?

No, that was stupid and she rolled her eyes at herself.

She stared at the wall, her brain working a-mile-a-minute until the answer practically hit her in the face. She carefully left one of the walkie-talkies on the window sill, walking away and watching the light die while she stood in the middle of the room, then blink back on as she reached the wall opposite. The wards were allowing her to do this. She shivered.

The castle was working with her.

"Dobby!"

"Little Mistress!" he squeaked and she forced herself into taking two deep breaths in order not to frighten him. "Take this to Harry, tell him he has to be near the walls for it to work. Can you do that? Only when he's alone."

"Dobby will see it done."

He popped out of the room and Hermione waited with bated breath, sitting on the ground, leaning against the bricks, a small smile on her face as she waited.

Crrsshhhs.

"Hermione?"

"Thank God, Harry?"

"You're bloody brilliant, you know that don't you?"

"I have heard that before," she grinned, happy to hear his disembodied voice. "But I'll tell you more about it tomorrow. What's going on over there?"

"Nothing. Sam Foster has detention with Snape. I took him down. Would you believe it Snape wasn't a total arse about it."

"Good. Remember to remind Annabel Martin to take her inhaler."

"I will," his voice came through, and she could hear him smiling.

"This is awesome."

"I'm tempted to tell Ginny."

"Let's have a rule," Hermione said carefully. "All other contacts need to be agreed on. I," she frowned, looking at the walkie-talkie. "I don't think we tell Ron. I know that seems wrong, but -"

"I agree," he said quietly. "He's got different priorities right now."

"Yeah," she concurred, exhaling forcefully. "Ginny I agree with of course, so yeah. And, just so you know, Minerva and Dumbledore should be having dinner together tonight. Keep them all quiet, will you?"

"Of course," Harry muttered. "Is," he paused. "Is he really going to die?" She'd revealed it to him that day during Herbology. Not the greatest setting, they'd been told off by Professor Sprout when he'd dropped the bowl he was supposed to be moving the Snargaluff pods into.

"Yeah," Hermione whispered.

They sat in silence for a while before Hermione smiled, listening to Minerva singing in the room next door. She made a mental note to cast as much of a silencing spell later on as she could. Or perhaps have Dobby bring her some earplugs just in case.

"You there?"

"Yeah," she sighed, smiling. "Minerva's singing."

"I feel like -" he trailed off. "It's not fair."

"I know," she whispered. "But I," she wasn't sure whether she wanted to tell Harry everything she was working on, but she realised she'd need help when Minerva's library ran out of usefulness. If that was possible.

"You what?"

"I think I need to make a plan. I think he can be saved, but he," she shook her head. "There's something planned. Snape knows about his hand, and what he did for it to get that way. Not even Minerva knows that. And we know Dumbledore's always got a plan for every situation."

"Snape?"

"Yeah," she mused. "One of those memories I wasn't supposed to see, he was making Snape promise him something, though I don't know what."

"Weird. Why would you make Snape promise you anything?" he snorted indelicately. "Except to leave you alone."

"I dunno," she whispered. "But how could he know he has 'a year' left to live?"

She let that hang. It had bothered her since he'd told her about it. No curse that she knew of ran its course over the length of a year. A curse was exactly that and nothing she could find made your body dissolve like it had his arm.

"But then, what is killing him?"

"Not the Horcrux," she mused. "Convenient though that is. I'm pretty sure that should have killed him immediately. I've got a list of other things it could be, but they're all as lethal as the last. I'm still looking though. Minerva's library is," she laughed. "It's like heaven."

"Hermione?" he said clearly. "I'm really glad you're there with her."

"Me too," she smiled.

"I didn't tell you, she took fifty points off me for sending Hedwig with that letter," he muttered. "Then awarded me sixty last week 'for existing' I think she said."

"Yeah, the exercises really are helping. And she knows you're still doing the classes, she loves you," Hermione giggled. "Did you get anything from that other one?"

"Not yet. I'll let you know."

She knew he'd gloss over that revelation of love.

"She'll like that one. Probably won't hear anything until the summer though, but I just wondered if they'd got back to you. And if she ends up taking more points, Flitwick will give them back."

"What am I expecting?"

"I sent off for the notes from a Transfiguration conference she can't go to later in the year. And I asked them if they could send me some information on the transfiguration of matter."

"Isn't that what Transfiguration is?" he asked.

She sighed and let her head drop back against the stones.

"Yeah, but I mean at the atomic level. Did you ever do Muggle science?"

"Only until I got here," he said and she imagined him shrugging.

"In theory, and throwing out Gamp's laws, you could potentially make anything. From the very atoms around us, I mean. Gold, hydrogen, I dunno, salt," she explained. "If I had a wand, I think I could transfigure molecules together. I think the reason most people - Gamp especially - thought it was impossible is because back when he wrote the laws, it was. They'd only scratched the surface of atoms and molecules and particles and such. So of course, he would think it was impossible. But also, because I think it would take super precise wandwork and," she sighed. "Not everyone could do that."

"I trust you to explain it to me better later," he chuckled. "How's your wandless stuff going?" Harry muttered and Hermione didn't answer, watching the light for the other walkie-talkie turn off. It was clear he'd been interrupted. She turned off the device and slid it under her clothes in the trunk. It wasn't a great place but she figured that the rest of the things she'd magically hidden could be revealed with a single flick of Minerva's wand. She wasn't hiding this per se, so it wouldn't appear. Magic - especially wandless - she was learning, seemed to be mostly about intention.

She sat against the stone wall for a while longer, feeling the hum of the energy within it.

"Thanks," she said, patting the stonework. She felt a bit silly, but if it really was sentient, then she was sure it would understand her.

Realising that she'd be here until the morning if she didn't move, she got up, going for a shower. It felt good to stay under the water for as long as possible and try to calm all the swirling thoughts in her brain.