Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own copies of the HP books! JKR owns it all, and then some.
Chapter 3
The next morning found Hermione still tired and still agitated. She raced to the common room to meet Harry and Ron, and pulled them aside as soon as their rumpled figures made their way down the steps.
"Ron! Harry! We have to talk! You'll never believe what happened last night during my detention with Snape!" Hermione's rapid words had Ron wincing, and Harry replying scathingly, "You cut his hair by accident, and now he looks human?"
"No, Harry, I'm serious! We have to go find a quiet place to talk, this is serious!"
"Serious, serious, ok, ok." Ron muttered as he followed along after Hermione. However, when he realized that she was dragging them to the library and NOT to the Great Hall for breakfast, he stopped and pulled at her. "So serious we can't get breakfast, 'Mione? Come on! Can't it wait?"
"No, it can't. You can eat extra at lunch. Ron! When do I ever do this to you?"
"All the time, really. Need a recipe for a potion? Drag Ron to the library. Found a new fact on the history of Hogwarts? Drag Ron to the library." The muttering continued down the hall.
"And Harry! He gets dragged, too!" added Harry, who was in a considerably better mood, being entertained by his two friends in this manner. He wondered if the two of them would ever get together, and when they did, if they would bicker like this until their dying day. Probably, and probably.
When Hermione finally had the two boys settled in a remote part of the library, she gave them a detailed account of what had happened in the Forbidden Forest. It didn't take long for her friends to snap to attention – in fact, they were suspicious from the moment they heard that Snape took Hermione down there. When Bellatrix entered the picture, Harry actually stood up and had to be dragged back down again.
"You can't go running off to Dumbledore yet! Let me tell you the whole story! I know you hate Snape, Harry, and I'm not sure he's innocent in all this, but there's more!" Hermione continued with her account of being immobilized by the dark witch, what the dark witch said to her, and what she did to Snape's memory. She left out the bit about the caresses to ear and cheek, though she wasn't sure why. Surely that would be important information, but she wasn't ready to share that yet.
When she finally finished, the boys were silent for a moment before both firing off heated questions.
"What do you think she wanted from the forest?"
"Why was SHE the one being sent to get it? I thought she had a lot of power with Vold… You-know-who."
"Why didn't Snape do anything to try to save you? Greasy git."
"Why did she knock him out and then obliviate him, but not you?"
"Did she and Snape plan to be there at the same time?"
Hermione let them run on like this for a few minutes before she finally held up a hand and said, "I don't know. That's why I'm telling you all this. What do you think we ought to do?"
Harry and Ron both looked at her in surprise. They were not used to Hermione not having some answers, or at the very least some ideas, and certainly they didn't expect her to come to THEM for a solution. Wasn't there some book she'd want to consult?
"Well, erm…" Apparently the new responsibility slowed them both down, as now neither were suggesting that they rush off anywhere to do anything.
Hermione looked at them with her eyes narrowed. Typical. She had to do everything. And it was time for Charms class. As they hurried to Professor Flitwick's classroom, Hermione suddenly remembered something else.
"Crap! I owe Snape a paper on that stupid fungus. He said I'd owe him two more nights of detention if I didn't get it done by lunchtime today."
"Hermione! That's perfect! You can use that as an opportunity to sneak around his office and see if you can't find something else out! Or try to find out some more information from him! I mean, he can't remember what happened, so he'll just think you are being your usual, have-to-know-it-all self!"
"Thanks, Harry," Hermione replied sarcastically. Though, she had to admit, it wasn't a bad idea. It placed a lot more of the focus on Snape, which Harry ALWAYS wanted to do, but maybe he was right. Maybe she could find out what grew down in the forest that Bellatrix might want, or if Snape went down there regularly, and she might have been hoping to meet him.
By the time Charms class was over, Hermione had a dozen different strategies to try to find out information from Snape, and she was almost excited for her detentions. Ron and Harry also had some ideas for her, and they talked all the way to lunch.
Once inside the Great Hall, Hermione sought out her Potions professor. She approached him with what she hoped was a contrite look, apologized for not having the paper finished, and asked him what time she should be at his office for her detention.
"You don't have your assignment, Ms. Granger? Unheard of. Pigs must be flying somewhere. I will see you in my office at 7 pm. Be sure to have your parchment then, or I shall find some truly odious tasks for you to do."
"I'm sorry, Professor Snape. I will have it for you this evening, I promise." Hermione had to try hard to continue looking apologetic, instead of skipping her way back to her seat in triumph. It wasn't until halfway through her meal that Hermione realized that she might be placing herself in nearer proximity to Bellatrix, by being with Snape a second night in a row. This thought caused a quiver of anxious excitement, but she pretended that she was nervous that something bad might happen again, or that Snape would figure her out.
Detention with Snape didn't go quite as she had hoped. For one thing, he knocked off one of her nights with him when she gave him the parchment on foxfire. (Foxfire was only used in very mundane potions, incidentally, and not at all intriguing from the "What did Bellatrix want?" angle. Not unless she was looking to get rid of some teenage face spots.) So now Hermione had to try to get all of her answers in one night, instead of two.
Secondly, for most of the evening, Hermione was put to work chopping up potions ingredients on her own in the classroom, while Snape worked in his office, alone. Hermione tried going to him to ask petty questions ("how big did you want these pieces, again?") but that was only turning Snape more and more surly towards her. He never could abide incompetence, and he certainly didn't expect it from Hermione. Or so he snapped at her after the third time she had come to his door.
She worked on her own after that, only stopping by his office when her time was up, to let him know that she was going. As she entered, Hermione took a deep breath and decided that it was now or never. Might as well try it, couldn't hurt. Much.
"Sir, I was wondering something."
"Miss Granger, when are you ever NOT wondering something?"
"Umm… well… I was wondering if there are plants that Professor Sprout can't grow, that grow wild. I mean, the kinds used in potions."
Snape looked at her as if she'd grown two heads. "Of course there are. Numerous specimens! Only some types thrive in greenhouses or gardens, and most grow wild, which is how they were first discovered. Miss Granger, I think the nincompoops you call your friends are rubbing off on you, as it is certainly not the other way around."
"I mean, I mean… What plants were we looking for in the Forbidden Forest? Are there some that grow only there?"
"Miss Granger, certainly you cannot expect me to tell you all the secrets of either potion-making or the Forbidden Forest. Despite your love of knowing everything, you have not exactly shown the restraint borne of age and wisdom. I'm certainly not going to be responsible for you traipsing down to the forest to get something there that you shouldn't even be handling. Now run along and try to pick up some common sense before you get back to your dormitory." That last bit might have sounded a bit paternal, had it not been Snape who sneered it at her.
Crap, crap, and double crap.
She wasn't so good at this subterfuge. Maybe she could ask Professor Sprout when she had Herbology class later that week. Ron and Harry were going to be disappointed with her, but what else could she do?
Except that Professor Sprout was also not impressed with Hermione's sudden interest in the Forbidden Forest, and anyway, was too involved with rescuing Padma Patil from some Stinging Moss to answer her questions.
Hermione's patience was growing seriously thin, both with her lack of answers and her male friends' pestering. They really were not very helpful and she was considering letting Neville in on the secret to pick his plant-obsessed brain, when the weekend trip to Hogsmeade arrived. She decided to let her obsession go for a day of fun. She was starting to feel like she might even deserve it.
"Ginny, come ON! I need to go buy some quills, and we've been in here for ages!"
Ginny rolled her eyes at Hermione, as if to say, "how can you be in a candy shop for too long?"
"And," Hermione added, "the boys are going to meet us at the Three Broomsticks in 20 minutes, and you said you wanted to sit with us this time. If we don't hurry, all the seats will be taken!"
"Ok, ok," Ginny grumbled. "But PLEASE tell me you know exactly what you need, and I won't have to wait around forever while you sniff the ink and caress the parchment."
Maybe it was Ginny's use of the word "caress" that did it, but suddenly Hermione couldn't help but remember the very memories she was trying to take a break from. She felt herself blushing as they strode down the lane, and then mercifully her attention was captured by the bookstore down the alley.
"You know, I think I'd rather go to that book store instead. I forgot that there is a book I've been looking for that the library never seems to have."
Ginny stopped. "Oh, no. No way. No bookstores. You will be in there forever, I know it. We'll never meet the boys, and we'll never have butterbeer, and you'll need me to help you carry a zillion books home, because you never can buy just one."
Despite Hermione's protestations, Ginny refused to accompany her and insisted that she would wait for Hermione at the pub. She entered the mostly empty-of-patrons, but full-of-books shop, and started to work her way through the leaning shelves. She had just reached the back of the store and turned towards the front again when she saw an older woman stride through the door. Hermione's breath caught in her throat, and her heart began pounding wildly. Bellatrix! Here?
The young witch edged back towards the shelves and took a closer look. Upon inspection, it was not Bellatrix, but Hermione was not surprised at her mistake. This attractive older witch moved with the same confident sway to her hips, had long black hair (though straight, not curly) and had the odd habit of tilting her head in the same manner as Bellatrix. If Hermione hadn't known what the Death eater's two sisters looked like, she would have sworn that this woman was one of them. But her face was not quite the same as Bellatrix's, and she had a flashy blue streak in her hair, and she wasn't scaring the people around her half to death. So, there it was, proof that this was not the witch that Hermione sought. Erm. That Hermione was trying to avoid. At all costs.
Hermione moved out from her skulking place and continued looking for a book on magical plants. When she had just started to get frustrated with her lack of success, she noticed the older woman watching her. She surreptitiously attempted to be sure, but it was impossible to avoid eye contact. Finally, she mustered up some Gryffindor courage and met the woman's eyes boldly, if politely. She even tried smiling a bit.
The older woman lifted her head in a kind of pompous greeting/acknowledgement, narrowed her eyes slightly at Hermione, and twisted her mouth in a small smirk. At this, Hermione's stomach dropped, but only so far as the place where her other emotions seemed to be pooling.
While half-formed questions and even less formed answers swirled around Hermione's head, her feet seemed to have made a decision, and she found herself walking towards the stranger. It took a moment for her brain to catch up with her body, but when it did, it went into Valiant Effort mode.
"Excuse me, ma'am. I am wondering if you happen to know a good book on magical plants of the forest?" Hermione tried her best not to stutter, but wasn't sure if she succeeded.
The older woman narrowed her eyes even further at Hermione, and then replied in a familiar, scathing voice, "I don't actually work here, as I'm sure you could tell if you tried. However, I do happen to know a good book on the topic, so you are in luck." She held out her hand and small book with a brown binding flew into it. The dark-haired witch opened the cover, moved her wand in a quick, complex pattern over the title page, and then closed it abruptly.
"Here. I hope you find what you need in it." She placed the book in Hermione's hand, trailing her fingertips along the young witch's palm as she did so. The dark witch then turned and strode confidently out of the shop.
Hermione watched her go, unable to believe what her senses were telling her. That couldn't have been Bellatrix! It would be preposterous for her to show up here, in broad daylight, on a Hogwarts' weekend! Though bold. Very bold.
Hermione opened the book cover and stared at the writing inside.
"This book is not awful, though there is no mention of Nox lumineri inside. If you'd like a more useful education, try the classes at the Hog's Head at midnight."
Crap. Crap. And double crap.