Hello everyone! I just discovered on my smartphone that I can listen to my favourite fanfiction if I wanted to. Sure, the robot voice is really bad but since I won't ever have... let's say Broomstick Flyer on audio book, so it's really revolutionary to me.

I found it out while 'searching inspiration' with the (one-shot) 'Professor Trelawney was right?' The idea is good and the quality of English is what I would like to achieve. I still have much to work on to be on par with a native speaker ~ the fluidity and the level of details are really something I'm missing.

I also noted that some readers are skipping chapters entirely (and went from 8 to 10 without reading chapter 9, for the more pro-eminent example). I don't get it, please someone explains this to me. Does my [Harry-Hermione] relationship so bad that people are boycotting? (I'm joking but still).

Chapter 12

Hermione plan had one big flaw, which she couldn't fix. She had to wait for Harry to get the job done while she was agonising at the mere idea of what that awful woman might be doing to him. Even back in first year, this was the kind of moments she was fearing the most. Being worried for Harry while he was facing Voldemort. Arguably, they were thinking it was professor Snape at the time but he was frightening enough for the impressionable first years they were at the time. It was the same feeling but only ten times worse.

"You need to trust your teammates on this. You need to trust Harry on this." She lectured herself.

She could pictured Ron mocking her with his traditional "That's it, Hermione went mental." but both Ron and Neville were on field trip to the Forbidden Forrest to ensure they would be able to lure an Acromantula back to the Castle when the time would be right. As there was no better way to make sure of it that make it a try and see how it goes, they were gone with the firm attention to capture one. If they successed, probably not on their first try, it would be then a matter to feed it daily until they would be ready to make their move.

In the meanwhile, she was trying to pre-enchanting some papers for the elves so they could get a carbon copy of any interesting documents Dobby and Winky would found. It was rather tricky as at was an entire different process than the doubling charm. It was on of the few spells that the elves weren't capable of reproducing and she couldn't take the risk to lend them wands and teach them. So she had to do the extra work to cover for that weakness.

She had set her mind on making a hundred piece of it in advance, just in case they would get a lead from Umbridge's office and had to break in someone else place, repeating the process over and over again. Better be safe than sorry. Beside, it wouldn't do any wrong to be over-prepared.

"I'm back." Harry greeted her, white as a sheet

"Oh my god! What as she done to you?" Hermione screamed, rushing for him.

"Look like she didn't like being exposed for elvish cruelty." Harry said, trying to joke.

That what they had come up with. Since the beginning of the Tournament, they had given up temporarily on the campaign and of course, now of all time was the worst possible timing to restart it. But Harry said it would be hitting two birds with one stone and indeed... the campaign never had been so popular... the professors had no choice but to call for the Head of Security as per the school rules, Harry had done nothing wrong. And once Dolores Umbridge arrived, the school was quite literally showered with the proofs of what she had done to the elves since she was appointed.

As a result, he got the detention they were hoping for. And a peculiar wound on the back of his hand, the words 'I must not tell lies' carved in his flesh.

"I so fucking want to kill her for what she'd done to you." Hermione said, gritting her teeth. "Dobby!"

"Hermione?" Dobby asked, straight after appearing.

"I need dittany essence, immediately."

It wasn't time for politeness but she bite her tongue as how she talked to him.

"I'm on it." The little elf said.

Only five seconds later, he was back with the precious bottle, and Hermione used half of the bottle straight to the inflated and burning wound.

"Do you think it's a little too much?" Harry asked, knowing perfectly that a few drop would have suffice.

"When used immediately, it can prevent any lasting scaring. However in your case, that might not be enough. How many times did she made you do this?"

"'As long as it takes for the message to sink in', that was she said." Harry replied.

"I don't feel like that half bottle was wasted then. Dobby, I would also need the wormwood cream we made."

And Dobby popped out once again.

"Did you even managed to do your part while enduring this?" Hermione asked desperately.

"You should trust me more." Harry said with a smile, a real smile. "I saw right through her security, as you predict. You did an insanely good job."

Dobby came back with the cream and Hermione repeat her action, putting much more of the cream that what was actually needed.

"Right." Hermione finally said, satisfied with her work on Harry's hand. "You will also take a healing potion each night before going to sleep, for the reminder of the week."

"I think you might be a little excessive." Harry stated diplomatically.

"I don't want that woman to mark you like this. I won't allow her the satisfaction of looking at your hand to admire what she had done to you."

"I think you might be a little possessive too." Harry said, before biting his tongue.

"You are right. I'm a damn hypocrite." She admitted but before Harry could respond to this Hermione cut him out. "No. Don't dare say anything more about it. I plead guilty but I'm not ready to discuss this."

Harry was extremely pleased with himself at hearing this.

"And stop smiling like a fool." She barked him.

"I can't help it." Harry replied, smiling even more.

"You are really such a prat." Hermione tried to beat his smile off.

"I love you." Harry said, determined.

"Please stop." Hermione asked more nicely.

"I must not tell lies." He said, looking as the fainted scar on the back of his hand, before saying once more: "I love you."

"I beg you." Hermione repeated over and over again.

"That's the only think that kept me thinking straight and going with the plan. I kept repeating that same truth over and over in my head." He explained his sudden determination "I love you."

"You are not thinking straight!" Hermione argued. "I'm flatter that I was your lifeline for sanity but..."

"But what?" Harry cut her out.

"I love you from the bottom of my heart. And I know you love me back. But this is not the same kind of love. I'm not comfortable with my own body. My mind is a bloody war zone. I'm constantly worrying about what might happen, especially to you. I already can't explain how I can still be that much emotionally available to you, all the time. I don't think I can handle any more of it so please, don't ask for more."

That was as much of a confession she was capable to admit at the time.

"When I heard about that Troll, I was totally panicked, not for my safety, but yours. At the time, I was confused, overwhelmed with guilt but it was already there. When you got petrified, I just wanted to kill that thing. I thought of you as a sister and I was so mad for how close I was to lost you. I went down the chamber to save Ginny. But the Basilisk? I killed it thinking of you. I thought that Ginny and I were already dead. But I couldn't let that thing live after what she had done to you. I couldn't let it get back to you. When you had that seizure last year... I promise myself that I won't ever let you push yourself like this for my sake. I used to feel like you. But you have done so much for me. You freed me from all this. You gave me more than I could ever hope for. You gave me hope, real hope. So if you say, don't ask for more, then, I would do just that. But I love you anyway."

Hermione couldn't help but give him a heartfelt hug, filled with all the love, the distress, the insecurities, the fear, the hope she had in her. But couldn't bring herself to give any more than that. While she had absolutely no willingness to broke that hug. But it seemed to do as much good to Harry as it did for her.

"I love you" He repeated on more time.

"Please shall up already."

"I have it on my skin. When you read "I must not tell lies" I read "I love you Hermione". Same number of letters painstakingly inscribed into my skin."

"So you repeat it in your head for each single time you had to write it?" Hermione asked rhetorically, distancing herself for a moment, feeling ashamed at herself, because she was responsible for this and because she was too weak... and such a coward.

"Told you you were my reason to keep going." He tried to say lightly but failed.

She took her back into the hug. Firmly determined to never let go of him. Ever.

§§§

From that point onwards, Harry without Hermione or the other way around became an even rarer sight than ever before. They were often seen holding hands, having casual hugs, reading back to back or sitting really close to each other. If one were to ask them, they were still on a 'just friends' relationship. But they were very much honest, and obvious, about their mutual attraction, to everyone bafflement.

Everyone would have expected the all-so-serious, stuck-up, goody-goody Hermione Granger not to be okay with that kind of relationship and were even more astonished to find out that it was Harry who was ready for a deeper level of commitment while it was Hermione who had reservation about it. But Hermione was feeling like she had to be honest with her feeling while not playing with Harry's, so they agreed to meet midway with that really odd platonic yet exclusive relationship.

In the meanwhile, Ron and Neville were still trying to capture an acromantula every spare time they got. Surprisingly, Ron was the most motivated by this high risk high reward plan as he wanted to avoid a detention with Dolores Umbridge at all cost. Harry was still recovering from that wicked witch mutilation and going with the charade that his scar was actually saying 'I love you Hermione'. He repeated it to about half of Gryffindor to the point some people thought that he did lost his mind to the head of security's torture.

But that day, Ron and Neville rushed to the common room out of breath and Neville gave them a big thump up. After countless time, they finally did it! Hermione was so happy for them that it end up a group hug, again, to everyone else bafflement. They never discussed the plan afterward. When it was Harry's part, he simply showed his new scar while Hermione nodded while each and every night, Ron and Neville would simply come back to the common room dispirited, Neville simply shaking his head to signified that they failed again to uphold their part of the plan.

They were finally ready and coincidentally enough, Hermione had also finished her parts by coaching the elves and give them the enchanted paper they would need to do their part. So, they could started it all on a moment notice. If Hermione had said it, Ron and Neville would have been ready to go back and set the Acromantula free in the castle, before running and screaming to warn everyone about the breach of security.

Ron's arachnophobia and Neville's issues were reasons enough not to suspect them for what they did, which was actually the main reason Harry suggested it. Even Fred and George wouldn't believe that Ron would — even reluctantly — agreed to capture and let loose of an Acromantula in the Castle. But no one would have thought that Ron was even more terrified of corporal punishment that he was from the spider. He was firmly determined to be a role model student and not get a single detention for how long the Umbitch would stay in the Castle.

Harry made it a running gag to tease Ron about what his boggart would be now and that he was truly curious of what he would possibly read on the back of Ron's hand, if his boggart was himself with a scar like Harry's. Ron would turned purple each time and that was exactly the reason Harry kept mercilessly teasing him. That, and maybe because it was a relief from his own traumatic experience. Somewhat Hermione thought that Sirius way of coping had rub off a little bit too much, as of recently.

But they finally decided that waiting for dinner the next day, as a perfect reproduction of the Troll incident, was the best course of action. Dolores Umbridge would already be down for dinner and the acromantula would kept her occupied for long enough so Dobby and Winky could search the room top to bottom and clean her office back to its former state without anyone noticing.

From the start, no one would even dream off a couple of elves participating in such a plan. So they were pretty confident about their plan, not to the point of growing imprudent but still. They took their time to painstakingly execute the plan, they had left nothing to luck. If they failed, they were certain that would be because there was nothing to be found rather than because the whole plan went south.

So they all went to sleep with the same determination and the same expectancy for what would unfold tomorrow evening.

§§§

In the Great Hall the next day, everyone was startled by the best high-pitched girly screamed that resounded through the castle and turn out to be none other than Ron Weasley whose complexion was blue of terror and kept shouting a single word of warning.

"Spider!"

Of course, everyone laughed at first but as Ron went straight to Hermione for comfort as a crying baby - He would definitely deserve an award for that performance - and Neville entered the Great Hall in the same panicked state, tripping over the perfectly smooth floor and kept crawling for safety, everyone change their mind almost instantly.

It was the panic as the obvious conclusion appeared to everyone. It wasn't a little harmless spider that Ron had spot and since all his yearmates knew about his boggart, they had no doubt what to expect. As Dumbledore was still confined in his office and the Professor McGonagall or the Head of Security Umbridge didn't had the charisma of the old man, they had a whole lot trouble calming everyone down and decide a course of action.

With much difficulty, they convinced everyone that they were safe here and with much difficulty, squeezed the truth out of the two scared shitless boys. They only saw one spider, roaming the second floor in the east tower direction and runned for their lives as fast as they could. That Ron admitted that he left Neville behind and just assumed he got eaten just added an extra layer of sincerity to his testimony. Everyone know that in Ron books, so long spiders were involved, it would be each one their own, as he obviously just did.

With that much information, half of the staff and the Head of Security went after the said monster, leaving the students under the care of the remaining half. They all stayed behind close door, waiting for the end of the incident. Some were curious and were willing to see the dead corpse of the Acromantula with their own eyes afterward. Some were arguing about what they would have done if it were them, spotting it. While the others were reassuring themselves that eight grown adults were right enough to deal with one giant spider.

To Harry and Hermione astonishment, it took an hour and a half for the professors to dispose of the poor creature. It turn out that she was running pretty fast and that Ron and Neville did lied just a little about her former location. She was actually toward the north tower at the time and apparently, took the staircase to the third floor on her own accord before she was ambushed and cornered by the professors at the angle of professor Burbage's classroom.

They couldn't wait to know how Dobby and Winky fared with their part of the plan!

§§§

From everything they were searching for, the only thing that Dobby and Winky found out in the perfectly neat office of Dolores Umbridge was a to-do list which in itself was giving them more than they expected:

"-Get Dumbledore fired and take the job.

-Get the Boarding of Governors dismissed and replace them.

-Replace the incompetent staff.

-Putting an end to 'Muggle Studies' and replace it a 'Laws and Hierarchy of the Ministry' class.

-Open a new class for 'Pureblood etiquette and traditions'

-Reformed and upgrade 'Defense Against the Dark Arts'.

-Reformed and upgrade 'History of Magic'

-Change the Hogwarts Acceptance policy.

-Be next in line for Minister of Magic. (heartshape)"

After reading it, Harry and Hermione exchanged a knowing look while Ron was taking his time, reading it.

"Do you reckon she want to make Hogwarts a Deatheaters paradise?" Ron summed it up.

While the three goals on the top of the list were things they already figured out for the ministry to take over, the fourth goal rang a bell and the fifth and eighth goals confirmed their doubt. While the 'reformed and upgrade' were vague enough, there was no doubt on any others points of the list.

"Do you think she made that list on her own accord?" Harry asked.

"I don't think so." Hermione replied, pointing out to the last point of the list. "If she really think she can get Cornelius Fudge job, she must have some big supports. Probably influential pro-deatheater pureblood families."

"I bet Lucius Malfoy is one of them." Ron stated the obvious.

"He already tried to get Dumbledore sacked so I'm sure he is at least one of the brains behind it." Harry pointed out.

"And Draco Malfoy bragged about his father connection on the very first day of school." Ron put on of the piece of the puzzle in place.

"So... Lucius Malfoy is our best lead." Hermione stated, unsatisfied.

"I understand your feeling. It would be dangerous to mess with that man." Harry said, steeling himself for what was to come.

"At least, Dobby already know the place." Hermione shrugged. "They must have a new elf and security in place though."

"And we can't ask him to take that risk this time." Harry admitted.

"One Ear will do it!" Winky proposed. "He already know the place. Saved that poor elf twice already."

Of course Winky would know best about it...

"We won't be able to prepare a plan beforehand this time. He would go alone and we would be completely in the blind." Hermione shook her head dissatisfied.

They were too much risk and Lucius wasn't the kind to leave a to-do list of his master plan for them to find. He was too secretive and already had enough criminal experience not to do something that stupid.

"No. This won't due" She decided. "We need to level up our game."

"What are you thinking of?" Harry asked.

"If they are intercepting our mail, we are going to spy back on them." Hermione stated firmly.

"How do you plan to do that?" Ron asked.

"With a whole lot of paper" Hermione decided. "We will need a new enchantment and several thousand sheets. But when are going to spy on the Malfoys, their entire network and if needed be, the entire ministry."

"Don't you think it's a little bit too ambitious?" Neville retorted, sceptical.

"We won't be able to do it alone." Hermione reckoned. "We will need skills, a workforce and a ton of money."

"So, it's on Sirius and I" Harry concluded.

"We won't be able to do anything grand before Christmas." Hermione admitted. "We will use that time to spy exclusively on the Malfoys first. We aren't searching for proof of their involvement. Only who they are writing to and whom are supporting them back."

"I will take care of Draco." Ron self-appointed for the job.

"We will have to trust One Ear for Malfoy Sr" Hermione said.

"So I suppose we are all going to enchant a whole lot of paper?" Harry asked.

"We are going to steal it, enchant it and put it back where it belong." Hermione corrected. "While keeping an enchanted copy. If the Malfoys are writing something, I want to know every single letter of it. I will even take Draco assignment. Everything to get intel on them before we got to the real thing."

"We will need to make the charms undetectable." Harry sighed, already tired by only thinking of the task they were about to commit to.

"It's only for a few weeks." Hermione tried to comfort him.

"This is madness." Neville shook his head.

"I have just the right job for you." Hermione said to Neville with a new sparkle in the eyes. "The reading and background check will be on you."

"Please don't" Neville begged. "I'm not good under pressure."

"This is your time to shine, don't blow it" Harry said, putting a hand on Neville's shoulder.

"Did anyone even listened to me?" Neville complained.

And then, they kept brainstorming about the logistic of their new project.

Even for me, I made the plot a little too ambitious. But in the name of suspension of disbelief, I would ask you to swallow it. Really, that a team of teenager uncover an adult scheme and decide to expose it is totally crazy. But so is facing a Dragon, a Basilisk or trying to prevent professor Snape -they got it wrong but still - to steal the stone.

Also, they never found out anything about the Malfoys and just assumed as they assumed Draco was the heir in second year. They are just an easy target when there is a need to find a villain.

As for Harry ad Hermione relationship evolving, I would keep it slow but steady.