Halloween was upon the student body before they realised it, but far from the fun affair that it usually was, a maudlin atmosphere was settling over the castle. Students given detention in the first weeks of term had now received their punishments, some ending up in the hospital wing, and all of them sporting a haunted and hollow look, retreating into themselves as if a group of dementors had taken up residence in the entrance hall.

On top of the gloomy atmosphere and all of her other duties, Ginny was being decidedly cold to her. She was civil enough, responded when spoken to, but gone was the friendly chatter and warmth that came from having lived together all summer. Hermione was still at a loss as to how to motivate the DA and felt that the longer she left it, the harder it would be to get anything going. This was the first time since she had been back that she really missed her best friends. The enchanted slates she had created became the biggest source of comfort to her. She regularly dropped messages on there and would usually hear back from one of the boys during the day. It kept her tethered to them and she was immensely grateful for their silly or heartfelt messages. Finishing a particularly difficult day of classes and coming back up to her room to see Ron's message of a smiley face sticking his tongue out at her drew a giggle from her and picked her spirits up enough to get into her study group in the library.

If nothing else was going well, that was one bright spot in her days. She wasn't there every night but the students had started meeting without her there, taking the pressure off of her somewhat. Hermione walked towards the library to take up residence in their usual study room when she caught sight of Emily, the shy Slytherin with the glasses who had asked to join her motley crew walking hand in hand with Rebecca, a second year Hufflepuff. Hermione smiled at this innocent display of friendship that had blossomed out of sharing a study space.

Or not quite so innocent, Hermione thought as Rebecca pulled Emily towards her by the hand and placed a sweet kiss on her mouth. Hermione averted her eyes and let an indulgent smile slip onto her face at the young romance, happy to see the two students so smitten with each other.

Hermione entered the study room to find a few of the students she usually saw already in there. They were talking about the war and Hermione's ears pricked up as she heard the topic of conversation.

"I dunno guys, I'm really scared about what's been going on with you-know-who, I'm a muggleborn and my parents just have no idea," said the voice of a second year Ravenclaw.

"Yeah, I'm pureblood but my parents are still freaking out. They remember what it was like last time and they want to take me out of Hogwarts, maybe even leave the country or something!," responded a third year from the same house.

"I'm a muggleborn too," added Emily, "my parents have no idea about what's been going on at school, I haven't even been able to send them an owl because they said they won't have them flying into their house"

Hermione looked surprised

"I didn't think there were any muggleborns in Slytherin?" she asked

"Not many, and I promise, we keep it close to the vest if we are. I mentioned it to Tanika over dinner after we got sorted and when we got back to the common room, Draco Malfoy was spouting off about how all muggleborns were scum and shouldn't be at Hogwarts. I just kept it quiet after that and Tanika said she wouldn't tell anyone," Emily filled Hermione in.

"Sounds terrible, I'm glad I'm not in Slytherin," replied one of the Ravenclaws.

The conversation continued about their fears for a few minutes before descending into a talk about houses, a comparison of common rooms, and eventually onto the work they were doing, where the conversation usually sat.

Hermione was desperate to tell them that everything would be alright. She ached to tell them that there were other forces at play, good forces who were working on all sorts of things to fight against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. She longed to gush about the brave witches and wizards in the Order of the Phoenix, the ones who had laid down their lives in the previous war and the ones who were all to ready to throw themselves in front of a curse and do the same for any one of them.

But it wasn't her secret to tell, and it would put everything at risk if she spoke too soon, so she nodded along to their conversations, explained the uses of dandelion roots in restorative draught and felt her mood slide down by just another inch.