Disclaimer: Neither the world or the characters are mine, I merely borrowed the to have a bit of fun. When I am finished, I will return them slightly used.
Professor McGonagall was surveying the room that once was the saloon of the Black family critically. All the furniture had been pulverised, and sadly, some fist sized pieces were missing from the walls here and there where the Ginny's ball busting spells went awry. The debris had been removed, and the wooden floor had been cleaned and shined. Hermione has applied the series of spells Professor Snape provided her with.
"May I see the book you have been using as reference, Miss Granger?" she asked. Hermione motioned her wand to the spot next to the door where she had put it down, and it came sailing across the room to them. She handed the book over to her head of house open at the page the potions master had referred her to.
"Well, there are some better spells than these, but I guess it would make do" professor McGonagall hummed, checking the publication date of the book. "But if you have a serious interest in artificer work, I can lend you some better reading material." Well, professor Snape could not be an expert on everything, after all.
"Professor, can we remove and redo the spells?" she asked. "This is a rather important project, I want to give it the best chance I can."
"Certainly" she smiled at her indulgently and pointed her wand at the floor. "Finite incantatem. Now, when we are trying to treat a large area like this with a spell, it is good practice to set up a leading spell-line. This is a guide for the magic to flow evenly and fill out the spaces between. In artificer work it is customary to set up a grid of light a few inches over the floor to facilitate drawing. Lineae" she flicked her wand and a soft purple grid of light appeared. "Now, the magic guide. She tapped her wand to the wall, and walked to the corner, tapping it again. Between the two point a fine silver line snapped into existence. She walked around the whole room, circling the wall, back to the starting point and closed the circle.
"If you want the spell to follow the guide, you need to touch your wand to the silver guide before casting" she explained. "Instead of the first spell on the list you should use Impervious, it helps to isolate the magic from everything else. Dust, splinters, water. I will show you the first spell, and you can do the rest." She tapped her wand to the guide, and called out the incantation. After finishing the wand-movement associated with the spell, she added a board, sweeping movement, as if following the line on the wall with her arm, turning around on the spot. "Your turn, Miss Granger" she nodded at her encouragingly.
Hermione followed her suit, and cast the second spell, which was supposed to create a layer of pure, invisible magic to serve as the base of the ward. When she finished the usual wand movement, the spell did not immediately pop into existence, it felt like a tension cord between her wand and the wall. When she moved her arm across the horizon she had the strange feeling of pulling a layer of soap bubble around, dragging the spell across the room and the floor. When she arrived back to the starting position, the enchantment snapped in to place.
It took the two of them a good half an hour to recast all the spells. While her head of house was working, she took the time to take notes on her suggestions and alternations, so she could repeat the process alone if necessary.
"That is much better" professor McGonagall adjusted her glasses, looking around the room with a satisfied smile. Hermione could feel that the quality of magic changed, it was buzzing nearly on her skin.
"Thank you professor. So… How do I start drawing?" she asked, holding up a jar of artificer drawing paste.
"Well, you could just walk in and start, and that would work, but there are better ways. First, we are going to cast another spell to aid us. This will create an invisible floor, so we can walk over the drawing without actually stepping onto the paste. Then we will cast the same light grid over the drawing so you can copy the design from grid cell to cell. And last but not least, you can use an enchanted brush to follow your instructions so that you do not need to crouch on the floor drawing."
Hermione took notes on the necessary spells and tapped the book with the Hecate crystal-growing maze to open the full page of the design. It unfolded obediently, and after a simple little spell it kept hovering at their side. Her head of house lent her an artificer brush. She made a mental note to buy her own later, this was useful knowledge that could come handy.
"When you are drawing a design, it is best to first centre the pattern in the room, and make sure you have enough space. It has been a while since I have done this, but in my experience it is easiest to start in the middle and spiral outwards. Now, this is how you activate the brush" she pulled off something like a cap from the end of it. It looked thin and slightly rubbery. "You can place the cap on your finger, and while it is in contact with it, the brush will draw everything as you move your finger. You must be very careful not to forget this and start walking across the room still wearing it, or it will destroy the design you already created, drawing lines wherever you walk. Standing right over the grid cell you are working on look down and… draw the design with your finger in the air while the brush copies your movement on the floor, take the cap off… walk to the next part… and draw." She kept moving, demonstrating the process. "Of course if you have a steady hand, you can paint bigger pieces in one go, even over several cells. I have never been that good in drawing though. If you made a mistake or the line is not as neat as it should be, you can use your wand to clear it with Evanesco cellula!" she demonstrated it. "Make sure not to forget to add cellula, or you will erase the whole design." She handed the her the brush and the cap.
It took her a few tries to get the hand of drawing at the right scale, she hoped there would be enough paste in the jar professor Snape left for her. "Thank you, professor McGonagall. This was incredibly helpful" she said with earnest excitement.
"You are most welcome, Miss Granger" she smiled at her proudly. "It is always a pleasure to help sharpen an incredible mind like yours" Hermione felt her cheeks turning pink from her praise. "When you are done with the design, please do not try to activate it alone" she warned her. "That is the most advanced part of an artifact creation and should not be attempted without proper studying. I will be more than happy to lend you a wand and do it."
"Yes, professor, and thank you."
"I trust you will be able to finish the drawing without further assistance?"
"Yes, of course. Thank you for your help. Would you like to have some tea of coffee? I still have a small secret stash of shortbreads, though I am afraid the others found the rest of the cookies."
"Thank you, my dear, tea would be appreciated. Without whiskey this time, I am afraid" she added with a deep sigh. "I still need to file paperwork with the Ministry, and god only knows, it would make it easier to put up with some of these imbeciles, but I need to refrain from hexing them." Hermione chuckled, and the older witch smiled at her, patting her shoulder before exiting the room. "I will be in the living room, my dear."
Hermione headed to the kitchen, and set to making coffee. While she wated on the old machine to start dripping the heavenly brew, she got tea out of the cupboard, retrieved her last of the secret cookie stash, and prepared two trays. She placed two cups on one, and one on the other. She filled the cup of Professor McGonagall with hot water, and added some tea leaves, remembering her divination classes. With a grin, she wished professor McGonagall had been there, it would have made the ordeal so much more entertaining. When the coffee was ready, she prepared a cup for the potions master, added a shortbread to his tray, and quickly descended the stairs to the lab.
The wards were down. She knocked, to make sure not to startle him while he was brewing, and opened the door only after she heard his grumbled 'enter'.
"Good morning, sir" she said cheerfully. "How are you doing? I brought you some coffee." She placed the tray on one of the empty benches. He stepped away from a pair of cauldrons that were both emitting a thick, heavy purple smoke.
"Ah, Miss Granger. Thank you" he walked to her and picked up his cup. She would have sworn a smile ghosted over his face when he took a sip. "I thought you were busy drawing the wards?"
"We are taking a break with professor McGonagall" she explained. "I remembered you mentioning you could not leave the Hecate potions without supervision at this stage, but I thought you might like something to drink."
"Indeed" he said taking another sip from the sweet brew. A strange, uncomfortable silence settled between them and Hermione was uncertain what else to say. She would have loved to invite him to join them, but he could not leave, and others should not come to the lab. It was not safe for brewing, and the less they knew the better it was for everyone. They kept looking at each other, until she broke the silence.
"I should be getting back" she said wringing her hands. "Professor McGonagall is waiting for me. But I can come back later, if you would like some company?" She did not like how hopeful she sounded. One corner of his lips quirked up.
"That would be acceptable. Thank you for the coffee." He turned back towards his work, and Hermione fled up the stairs, both nervous, relived and confused.
She finished preparing the second tray by pouring herself a cup of good black coffee, and went to join her head of house in the living room.
After their break, professor McGonagall left, but promised her to look over her ward when she was ready with it. When Hermione returned to the kitchen, Ron was sitting rummaging through the cupboard, looking for a snack.
"Hey, 'Mione" he smiled at her. "You do not happen to have any more secret cookies, do you?" he asked hopefully.
"Sorry, Ron, we just finished the last of the shortbread with professor McGonagall. But if you are hungry maybe I could fry you an egg?" she offered.
"You are the best" he grinned, plopping down at the table. Hermione pointed her wand at the fridge, and a few eggs, a piece of bacon and butter came sailing out.
"So, how comes you are not going through the Malfoy library?" she asked.
"Well, Remus had other stuff to do, and the wards have never been keyed to me, so I cannot go in alone. To be honest it is kind of insulting that they do not trust me to do the work alone, but I am not going to complain. I think I saw enough books to last a lifetime." Seeing the expression on Hermione's face, he quickly added "well, unreadable books that is. Schoolbooks are fun." She snorted and lit the fire under the pan with a poke of her wand.
"Sure, and I'm leprechaun, I know how much you enjoy studying. Is Harry out with the headmaster?"
"Yeah, they finally located the missing pages, they went to retrieve them. They will take several pre-timed portkeys, they won't be back for a while" he sounded gloomy about being excluded.
"Well, that is fortunate" she said placing the bacon strips into the pan. "I wanted to talk to you and maybe Ginny without Harry around about something important. Could you please ask her to join us?"
"If you can mix a bit of cheese in that omelette for me, I can do anything you want" he grinned, and went to look for her sister.
Hermione was about to pile the ready-made eggs onto a plate when Ron returned with Ginny, the latter one looking suspicious and slightly worried. She placed the food in front of Ron, and poked her wand at the dirty dishes that started washing themselves.
"You are the best" Ron grinned, and started to eat.
Ginny sat across from her brother. "So, what did you want to talk about? It sounded serious."
"It is" she quickly looked around and cast a Muffliato to make sure no one would be listening in. She took a deep breath, and decided to just say what concerned her. "I think professor Dumbledore is keeping a secret from Harry, possibly more than one. I also think this is something really big, and I am concerned for him." She expected her friends to defend the headmaster, but to her surprise, Ron agreed with her.
"I noticed it too" he said, laying down his utensils. "I thought I was the only one. I thought I might be overthinking this. But I agree. And ever since last year, when he took him to get that fake horcrux from the cave, Harry has been trusting professor Dumbledore so blindly. I mean, he always did look up to him, but since then it is… unquestioning, blind following. And sometimes I feel that the headmaster is playing on that."
Ginny frowned. "But I can't imagine he would want to hurt him" she said.
"Probably not on purpose, not if he can avoid it" Hermione agreed. "But I think the topmost priority of the headmaster is winning the war, whatever the cost. I would like to think he would do his best to reduce that cost, but…"
"Yeah" Ron interrupted. "To me, this feels more like a chess game between You-know-who and professor Dumbledore. He has a plan, he wants us to react and act in a certain way, and if he thought the information he has would change the way we acted he would keep it from us. But we are people, not machines. Sometimes we do stuff differently than what he predicted. Just look at that fiasco in the Ministry of Magic" he shook his head.
"That was my conclusion too" Hermione agreed. "While I do want us to win the war, if this information would make Harry make different decisions, I also feel he has the right to know."
"To be honest, we did not talk much about his mission" Ginny said. "Actually, we do very little talking." Hermione was impressed that her friend could say that without blushing furiously. "So I did not notice anything suspicious. But basically, you two are telling me to watch out for anything concerning the headmaster, and not to trust him?"
"I know it does sound terrible if you put it that way" Hermione said fiddling with her wand.
"No, it actually sounds like a concerned friend, who is looking out for what is best for Harry, instead of how to get the most out of him" she said stealing a piece of bacon from Ron's plate.
"Hey!" he pulled his food further away from his sister.
"Do you guys already have a plan?" she asked munching on the bacon.
"Not really. I just wanted to ask you two to keep an eye on things, question what Harry tells about the headmaster's plans and try to, I do not know, make Harry think for himself instead of just blindly following instructions. And if you think something is suspicious, let the others know without alerting Harry."
"Sounds like a plan to me" Ron said, taking a bite of his omelette. "I did find it terribly suspicious that he did not wish Harry to remember the night his parents were murdered" he added darkly. At Ginny's questioning gaze Ron shortly explained about the idea of the re-live potion. "I mean, sure, the memory could be useless, but how would he know that? Unless, of course, he had already seen that memory. He is a world class legilimens, and Harry is crap at occluding."
"He could have red his mind on the night it happened" Hermione interjected. "Hagrid told us he and the headmaster were both there when they left baby Harry for the Dursleys."
"Still, even if it is a useless memory, why would he stop Harry from re-visiting it? It is his right to know" Ginny wondered. "Unless…"
"Yeah. Unless he is trying to hide something." Ron agreed.
"I am still going to prepare the potion for him" Hermione told them. "Harry does not know, nor does the headmaster, and for now, let us keep it that way. But this is a complex brew, it takes months of work before it is ready. I will be lucky if it is done by Christmas."
"We will just have to wait and see" Ron nodded, stuffing more omelette in his mouth.
Hermione cancelled the Muffliato spell.
"Now, I have some wards to make" she announced. "Ron, be a lamb, and clean up the kitchen after you finished eating, will you?" she tucked her wand into her sleeve and headed back to what used to be the saloon. There was work to be done.
Before Hermione knew the last week of the summer vacation came to an end. She had managed to finish drawing the ward for growing the Hecate crystals, but the potion was still far from ready. To her dismay, she would not be able to witness the activation of the ward, but professor McGonagall did offer to tutor her. Maybe if she had the energy she would take her up on her offer.
She also did not get another chance to talk to professor Snape. She would probably miss him – sitting through his usual class was going to be very different than the work they did in Grimmauld place, and even with her upcoming detention time it will be a fraction of the time that they used to spend together. She had to supress a grin at the idea of what Harry and Ron would think if they knew.
She had mixed feelings about returning to the castle. Hogwarts had been her home for years, but this last occasion felt bittersweet. She would never be returning again after this year, even if she survived the ongoing war. She would miss the old corridors, the endless library, the familiarity of the common room, the enchanted ceiling, the scent of books, her classes. This year all of that would come to an end. When she stepped off the Hogwarts express for the last time, she was in no hurry to get one of the carriages to the castle. She kept gazing fondly at the building, with her two best friends at her side, when a muffled conversation got her attention.
"Don't be like that" a male voice said somewhere nearby. "It is not like we have not done even more before."
"Yes, but… there are people around, it really makes me uncomfortable. Please. They could see us, what will they think of me?" a female voice replied.
"Oh, come on, just a quick little feel…" Hermione frowned, and started to walk towards the source of the noise, momentarily ignoring Ron's questions about where she was heading. She rounded the corner of the train station building, and sure enough, there were two students standing in the shadow of the building, nearly completely hidden by the darkness.
"I am sorry, I am just so embarrassed, anyone could walk by…" came the reply. She recognised one of the two, it was Logan Davis, a sixth year Gryffindor boy. The other shape belonged to a Hufflepuff girl she did not know. Her back was against the wall of the building, and he was towering over her, his arms on the two sides of her shoulders, touching the wall. He her had trapped between his arms.
"It is dark, no one will see us" he continued, leaning in closer. "And you are so amazing." Suddenly Hermione was very angry.
"What are you doing here?" she rounded on the boy. "Step away from the wall this instant" she commanded, drawing her wand. The two students looked at her startled, but Davis stepped away from the girl to take a better look at who found them. He was nearly a head taller than Hermione and looked her up and down lazily before responding.
"It is none of your business" he said off-handily. She heard footsteps behind her, and thought that Harry and Ron must have arrived too, but she did not turn around and take her eyes off Davis.
"Being the head girl makes this very much my business" she levelled her wand at him. "Step away from her."
"What are you going to do, take away house points? The year has not even started yet" he chuckled, folding his arms over his chest. He stepped into Hermione's personal space, trying to intimidate her. She ignored the urge step back, and was about to curse him with something nasty, when a clear, cold voice interrupted them.
"May I ask what is going on here?" she glanced in the direction of the sound. There was a witch standing a few steps from them. She was slightly shorter than Hermione, and if she wanted to describe her 'petite' was the first word that came to her mind. She reminded her of a china doll, with an ageless perfection to her features. If she had decided to plate her black hair on the two sides of her face, Hermione would have believed she was a fourth year student. Had she worn a bit of makeup, she would have guessed her to be mid-twenties. If the witch had chosen robes like professor McGonagall favoured, she would have believed her to be closer to her late forties.
"We were just doing some kissing when we were rudely interrupted" Davis provided with a smirk. "We weren't doing anything wrong."
"That is not…" Hermione started saying, but the witch silenced her with a raised hand, her full attention on Davis.
"Tsk" she said with a twitch on her face. "You may not know me yet, but when you are talking to me, you will address me as professor Zhuang. And, for the record, I really do not like being lied to. So, let us try this again. What is going on here?" Something about the new professor made Hermione very uneasy, she felt goosebumps erupting along her arm. The professor looked like the calm before the storm, and Davis did not seem to feel the danger practically radiating from her.
"We were just having fun, professor Zhuang" Davis started to explain. The new teacher did not draw her wand, did not use an incantation, did not even move, but there was suddenly a powerful blast of raw magic coming from her. It hit Davis right in his groin leaving a burned-hair smell in the air. Hermione stood a few steps away and she felt the backlash brush against her like an army of angry bees, and took a step back before she could stop herself. Davis fall to his knees with a high-pitched squeal, his eyes filling with tears. Professor Zhuang stepped up to him, looking utterly emotionless. She cupped his chin in her hand and tipped his head back, forcing him to look up at her.
"As I said, I do not like being lied to" she said calmly, her fingers digging into his skin. He was trying to keep a whimper from escaping his lips. The Hufflepuff girl stood rooted to her spot, trembling with fear, her hands clapped to her mouth. "What is your name, and which house do you belong to?" the professor demanded.
"Logan Davis" he squealed, forming complete sentences apparently beyond his current state. "Gryffindor, professor Zhuang."
"As you have pointed it out, the school year has not started yet, so there would not be a point in docking every single point from your house. However, it seems to me, that you are in very dire need of learning what consent and 'no' mean, before someone would take it in their own hands to teach you in a more… permanent way" she said, forcing him to tilt his head to the right and then the left, examining him, considering. "You will let every single male from Gryffindor know, from fifth year and above, that they are to attend a few extracurricular classes on the topic with me. Next Saturday, the defence against the dark arts classroom, eight o'clock in the morning. You will let them know this is your doing. And Mr Davis" her voice became a soft whisper, cold like fresh snow a winter night. "there will be a quiz after the lessons, and it would be very unhealthy to fail. I hope you understand?" she patted his cheeks with a somewhat harsh double slap, and let him go. Davis curled up on himself, letting a half-sob escape. Professor Zhuang turned and walked away with dainty little steps, taking the buzzing aura of electricity with her.
"That was absolutely terrifying" Harry whispered when the professor was out of earshot.
"Channelling that much raw magic was one of the scariest things I have seen" Hermione admitted.
"Was I the only one who thought she was hot?" Ron piqued up.
"You are my friend, Ron, but you are mental" Harry voiced Hermione's opinion. Ignoring the boy on the ground still trying to regain his composure, she walked to the girl.
"Hey" she said gently. "It will be ok. You aren't in trouble. What is your name?"
"Vicky. I… am Victoria" she stammered.
"Come, Vicky. Let us take one of the carriages back to the castle, before they are all gone" she placed a hand on her shoulder. "Harry and Ron are also from Gryffindor, they will take care of Logan" she added trying to sooth her. She led her gently away, hoping her friends would make sure the idiot on the ground would make it back to the castle in one piece too. As they walked to the carriages, she kept talking to Vicky, as if she expected her to bolt any second. She did her best to try to calm her, but also explain why, unlike her, Logan was in trouble. She knew she could not make decisions for the other girl, but hoped she would dump his manipulative, aggressive, selfish, demanding ass. No one deserved to be treated the way he was trying to treat her. From the distance she could hear Ron whining about having waste his weekend on a lesson on consent.