She managed to hold it all in for over an hour as they talked, breathing deeply and throwing herself into the conversation more than she usually would. It helped that Snape's potions homework was exceedingly difficult, so multi tasking with that was incredibly consuming. She made her excuses as soon as it was completed, fleeing to the safety of the common room.

Unfortunately, Ron snogging Lavender in the corner didn't make her feel any better and she bolted to the girl's dormitory bathroom.

It was almost like Gellert had been trying to scare her off, sharing every brutal, gory detail. Unless… had he been trying to filter as he usually did and was what he told her only what he considered minor still. She gagged over the sink again, images of what he'd told her becoming more graphic in her imagination.

Someone knocked on the door.

'Hermione? Are you alright?' It was a boy's voice, which gave her enough pause to stifle her queasiness.

'One minute.' She called back, splashing some water on her face.

A moment later she emerged to find Harry leaning awkwardly against the wall, studiously not looking at anything at all. He sheepishly informed her that he'd used a sticking charm on his shoes to climb the staircase but judging by the scarlet blush on his cheeks, the girls would have nothing to fear from him at least.

'What's wrong?' He inquired and she sank into her bedside chair.

'Gellert told me everything.' She admitted, feeling strangely guilty for doing so.

'Everything?' Harry questioned.

'Yes, everything. All the bits they didn't put in the history books.'

'But you knew all of that anyway right? I mean, you read every news article in the newspapers that mentioned him last year.' Her friend said reassuringly.

'Yes, but the papers didn't publish half of it – Voldemort might use darker magic, but Gellert's a worse person.' She half cried, tears starting to prick her eyes again. She took several ragged breaths.

'Of course he's not!' Harry exclaimed, 'he's helping us fight Voldemort, he's saved people's lives.'

'He is now!'she cried hysterically, 'but he was worse than Voldemort then, he tortured people, burned towns, executed people and what he planned to do…'

There was a long pause as Hermione sobbed and Harry looked pensive.

'Dumbledore always says people deserve a second chance. I hope that if Voldemort ever changed to the good side, that it would be strong enough to forgive him.' He finally remarked. 'Besides, he won't do anything bad while you're around, he loves you too much.'

Hermione's head snapped up to stare at him.

'What!'

'Well he loves you doesn't he, it's the only real explanation for why he's doing this. He obviously doesn't care who wins and he's not overly fussed about morals, but he does it because you ask him to. That's real love right? Not like Ron and Lavender or Ginny and Dean, you've got the kind of love that everyone aims for.'

She spluttered and went to deny it, but strangely found herself not minding the statement as much as she expected to. Did she love Gellert? Not in that way, he was a good friend certainly, but perhaps she would some day. It would hardly be a bad thing, he was intelligent, ambitious and often incredibly thoughtful. Not to mention he had the whole dark and mysterious thing down to a tee, Parvati would approve if she ever considered it, perhaps she had.

She hauled her thoughts off that track; Gellert was a teacher and a powerful evil wizard who was also conveniently rather good looking, she did quite like how his hair had those gentle waves when he let it grow out, and the way his magic flowed so naturally...

'How was your holiday, Harry?' She asked brightly, desperate to change her train of thought from Gellert, his crimes and whether or not she liked him.

'Oh yeah, Ron's was weird. Mrs. Weasley is still trying to swap Fleur for Tonks, Lupin is still being all quiet and elusive. Oh, and Scrimgeour came to visit.' Harry must have sensed her reluctance to continue on the Gellert matter.

'The Minister for Magic?' She confirmed suspiciously.

'Yeah. I think he was trying to make me into his figurehead.' Harry laughed slightly, wandering over to her bed and sitting down. 'He seemed pretty desperate.'

'Well, he would be, wouldn't he. I mean, he's got Voldemort with all the pureblood money on one side, Dumbledore with everyone's loyalty on the other and then Gellert as a wildcard that the public are beginning to love. He's not exactly in a great spot.' Reasoned Hermione.

There was silence for the moment as they both considered that.

'So who do you support?' She finally asked.

'Dumbledore I guess, but I've been doing some reading and well... some of what Gellert said, back when he was Grindelwald I mean, was kind of right.' Seeing the expression on Hermione's face he hurried to elaborate. 'Like, he called the wizard inn world stagnant, but back then they were technologically equal to muggles. If they were stagnant then, things are deceased now! Dumbledore's not really made it better has he, if anything it's worse since he defeated Gellert and rose to power... let's not lie, he is in power, even if he just acts like a school teacher most of the time.'

Hermione nodded in agreement, she too had marvelled at just how old fashioned the wizard of world was and now that Harry pointed it out she could see how it coincided with Gellert's defeat. Perhaps in his fight to create progress he had actually frightened people off it?

'Obviously I don't agree with Voldemort and really nobody knows what Gellert's up to. He's clearly aiming for something more than Voldemort's defeat, perhaps a take over of the ministry, but I'm not really sure I want him in power either.' The boy-who-lived pondered and Hermione couldn't help but agree with him.

'So, we need someone who's willing to progress like Gellert, but without his crazy ideas. It wouldn't hurt to have his support though...'

'I know where you're going with this, Harry.' Hermione huffed.

'But you know I'm right though. You're muggleborn, progressive and really smart, you've got Grindelwald and Malfoy backing you...'

'How do you know about Malfoy?' She spluttered, searching for any time she may have let something slip. Harry grinned smugly and pointed to the cloak draped over her trunk.

'I saw Malfoy measuring that up against you in Madam Malkin's last summer. 'Course, I didn't realise he was actually trying it on you until you showed up with it after Christmas.' She just gaped at him as he continued on as if he hadn't just uncovered one of Gellert's secrets from a single action half a year ago.

'Anyway, as I was saying, you've got some powerful backing and you stand up to Gellert and Dumbledore, if you can do that, some politician like Umbridge is nothing. You've already got my support, which must mean something because the ministry was climbing over themselves to get it last year... not to mention you bit Voldemort!' They both laughed a bit at that because she was still referenced for that act in the prophet, even after six months.

'That doesn't matter Harry, I couldn't possibly run a country.' He looked at her beseeching, so she relented a bit. 'Perhaps we can come back to it later?'

'Sure.' He suddenly looked awkward and a little pensive. 'You wouldn't happen to know anything about Horcruxes would you? I've just learned about them with Dumbledore, but I still don't know what they actually are?'

Hermione took a deep breath, centring herself before she delved into the subject that still made her feel slightly sick. She agreed with Gellert that there was little point to Dumbledore's roundabout way of teaching Harry, so she imparted all the knowledge that he had told her after finding the diadem.

'There's one more thing, Harry...' she said nervously, broaching a topic that she had been so far afraid to ask Gellert about. Her friend had so far maintained an impressively stoick facade, heartbreaking,y used to bad news by this point but this was an issue she was certain they needed to face, sooner rather than later. 'I think you might be one of them.'

For ma moment they both sat in ominous silence and she scanned his face for any sign of how he was feeling. Then he sagged in defeat.

'You're right of course, it's the only thing that makes sense.' He admitted. 'The connection, how he possessed me in the ministry...'

'I can see it, in the same way as I saw his horcrux in the diadem. It's like these bands of his magic wrapped around you.' She described, slipping into the arcane plane where she could see the black bands around his golden form.

'So they're not a part of me then?' He sighed in relief and Hermione's eyes snapped open.

'No, you're completely separate from him and don't you dare think otherwise. We will get it off you, and we will defeat him. I've learned enough about prophesies in the past couple of years to know that yours is so vague, it may even mean nothing. You are not in this alone, and so help me I will see this thing off you.' She vowed. Harry managed a weak smile and clasped her fisted hands tightly in his own.