The first day back at Hogwarts is rather hectic. Everybody is still talking about Harry and Ron's entrance until a red envelope lands in front of Ron. The whole of Gryffindor table goes silent. She has no idea what it is. She glances at Harry and Dean, but they look just as confused as her.
"A Howler. I wouldn't want to be on the opposite end of one of them." She hears Seamus whisper.
"You better open it, Ron. It'll be worse if you don't." Neville urges him on.
She doesn't know how it could get worse. The screaming voice of Mrs Weasley drowns out the rest of the noise in the Great Hall. Her hands fly to her ears, and she sees several other students do the same. When it finally ends, Ron's face is bright red and most of the hall has returned to normal, except for a few students who keep peeking their way.
She's still looking at the remnants of the screeching letter when Ron glares in her direction.
"Go on, say I told you so." He grumbles at her. But Hermione just shrugs her shoulders before returning to her breakfast. It seems he already knows how badly they messed up; she has no desire to reinforce the sentiment.
Okay maybe she does, but she keeps it in. Hopefully, Ron doesn't notice her smirk.
o-o-o-o-o
"Now do you believe me?" He has been telling Hermione for ages that Lockhart's books were just fiction, that there's no way he's done even half the things he's said he has. Half of everything in his books is just nonsense anyway. She had still been mooning over him even after he had pointed out all of the inconsistencies. But she has to see it now, right?
Not only did he fail to teach them anything, theory or practical, but he also left them to clean up his mess. It's lucky Hermione is quick with her wand or all of them could have been hanging from the ceiling like Neville.
"It was his first lesson. I'm sure he was just nervous." He makes a sound of disbelief. They carry on for some time in silence before Hermione mutters, "But we could always study some sources beyond Professor Lockhart."
She doesn't look at him as she says it, and he tries very hard not to snicker. Tries being the keyword.
o-o-o-o-o
"Where's Dean?" Hermione asks. While he didn't have the same enthusiasm as Ron and Seamus when it came to a meal, she has never seen him miss dinner. She sees Neville and Seamus share a look.
"He wasn't feeling well," Seamus answers before tucking back into his food. But Neville doesn't. He looks nervously between the two of them. They're lying to her.
"Neville." She stares him down. He starts to squirm in his seat, but he stays silent. Her brows pull down. She leans forward resting her forearms on the table with clasped hands.
"He's in detention." He finally breaks. He sighs as he relaxes back into his seat.
"Neville!" Seamus cries in exasperation, but the other boy just shrugs his shoulders before returning to his meal. He turns to glare at Hermione, and she meets him with a similar look. It lasts for a minute, neither of them budging. Until he tilts his head back and lets out a sigh.
"Fine. He didn't want you to know, just so you know." He tilts his head to the side and raises his brows. "You're going against his wishes and making me, too." She rolls her eyes and makes a hurry-up motion. "He heard about what happened with Malfoy."
She felt her throat grow tight all of a sudden. The word had been hissed at her more than once last year, so of course, she researched it. Mudblood. The 'reasoning' behind it was baseless and inane, but it had disgusted her all the same. She had decided then and there that she wouldn't let it affect her. It was just a word. And it hasn't. Until today.
Unlike Harry and Ron, she has never had a confrontation with Draco Malfoy before. Anytime he's having a go at the boys, she is mostly ignored. She isn't sure why she engaged with him, to begin with. He had been bragging about the brooms his father had bought for the Slytherin team, and the words had just popped out. A look of shock had appeared on his face before a look of pure loathing took over. He had spewed that venom at her, and it hurt more than it should have, more than it ever had before. She's not sure why either.
"And he may have thrown a few jinxes and hexes his way. And of course, Malfoy ratted him out the first chance he got, even though he deserved it." She immediately feels worse than she already did today. Not only did Dean get into trouble for defending her, but she also failed to realize that word could be used against him.
o-o-o-o-o
"I know it's him," Harry mutters for what seems to be the hundredth time. Since Mrs Norris was petrified, all anyone can talk about is the Heir of Slytherin. And Harry believes that to be Draco Malfoy. Not that Hermione disagrees.
"We just need to find the proof." Ron voices her thoughts. No one would believe them if they just flat-out accused him, especially considering all of their history with him.
"Well, there is a way." Harry and Ron look up in confusion. "Honestly do neither of you read?" She huffs as she pulls a tome out of her bag. It lands on the table with a thud. She quickly flips through the pages, knowing exactly where the potion they need is located. "Polyjuice Potion. It enables the consumer to assume the physical appearance as long as they have first procured a part of that individual's body to add to the brew." Hermione recites from the book. Both boys crowd her, looking over her shoulders at the text.
"It also says to leave it to highly skilled witches and wizards." Harry points out as he sits back down. He lifts a brow that Hermione ignores.
"A part of the individual's body? How are we supposed to get that?" Ron asks, still leaning over her.
"Yes, it will be quite difficult, but I've looked over the recipe and I'm sure I can manage it." She looks around the common room before pulling a slightly smaller book titled Moste Potente Potions. "As for a body part, a strand of hair should do just fine. You two can handle that, right?"
o-o-o-o-o
Turns out she is the one who could not, in fact, handle that. After brewing a near-perfect potion, if she did say so herself, she had stupidly picked the wrong hair to place in hers. Which has landed her in the hospital wing.
And after a whole week of Dean pestering the boys, Professor McGonagall, and Madam Pomfrey, she decided to do everyone a favour and allow him in. All the good it did her. While Harry and Ron had laughed at first, they quickly turned sympathetic. Dean is not. He teases her constantly, but he still brings her their classwork and duplicates his notes for her, which are much more detailed and legible than Harry and Ron's. So, she gives him a pass.
After two weeks she still hasn't gotten the whole story about what happened in the Slytherin common room out of them. All they will tell her is that they know for sure the Heir of Slytherin is not Draco Malfoy. But that leaves them with no suspects at all.
o-o-o-o-o
Dean once again finds himself pacing the Gryffindor common room worrying about Hermione Granger. While he had teased her for turning herself into a cat after a month in the infirmary, he had missed her. Now barely a month later, she's back in the infirmary. Petrified by who knows what.
And Dumbledore told him they can't tell her parents. That feels wrong to Dean. Her parents don't even know their daughter is basically in a coma. Could have died. That thought alone causes a shiver to take over his body. The school should have been closed after the first student was petrified, at least until they found who or what was doing all this.
He doesn't let himself stop worrying until Hermione has been administered the antidote. When her hand begins to loosen within his, he finally feels the tension leave him. After much apologising on her part for ending up in the infirmary again -which he brushes off considering she wasn't looking for the monster this time- they head to the end-of-year feast.
The walk is mostly silent, and Dean keeps Hermione's hand in his the whole way there. He tries not to feel resentful as he sees her running toward Harry and Ron.