"You didn't rush into some Squad members, did you?", Ron commented her late appearance in the common room with distinct concern.
"Er – no."
"Good", he sighed, "Not that we'd been worrying too much", he shot a look at Harry, who let him down with raised eyebrows and a telling smile, "But you can't be too careful with the bunch of them on the loose..."
They had taken a small table, loaded it with notes to rehearse and exerted some dedication until now, as far as she could tell.
"Heard anything where they've been during Defense?", she maintained their distraction, summoning an arm less chair for herself.
"No", Harry threw in. "But if they again beat up second years, I'll call for the DA to re-form and teach them a lesson."
"I've asked them to get rid of the coins we used", Hermione replied, careful not to enrage him in his righteousness, "So we would probably end up with a handful of members, and not all of them a match to Umbridge's blokes."
"D'you think they still are hers?"
Dean had stepped down the stairs of the boy's dormitory, almost rushing straight into their piled up parchments.
"What's that supposed to mean?", Ron inquired.
"Well, Neville's up there", Dean waved loosely toward the stairs behind him, "Scribbling an urgent answer to his grandmom. Apparently she's quizzed him on Umbridge and how she runs the school", four synchronous eye-rollings, "A Professor Marchbanks payed her a visit after conferring with our dear headmistress in London."
"No doubt she's sucking up to avoid a bad impression", Harry said, "Serves her right, if half of us fail their practical exams for she wouldn't allow us so much as look at our wands in class."
"I thought she might have been training with them, so that at least none of her precious Squad members fails", Ron added, "But if Umbridge has been in London and none of them sat through detention with Snape, what d'you reckon they've been doing all morning?"
"Somehow, I doubt they made themselves hair decoration from daisies and danced the rite of Squid around the lake." Ginny had been watching their exchange and decided to join them. "Are you four planning on going to lunch or have you reached the state in which you feed on parchment?"
"That's coming?", Harry asked, stuffing back his notes in his back already.
"According to Fred and George, yes", she replied dryly, "They said when you've started skipping meals, you're beyond help. Then the wish to live up to other's expectations has finally kicked in."
Hermione delved into their laughter, with even Dean casting a shy grin at Ginny.
"Well, I'm hungry", Ron raised his voice first. "And since we've made it through yet another week", he probably spoke much to Harrys mood, "We may allow ourselves a decent meal, shouldn't we?"
"Yeah, let's go", Harry rose from his seat. Ron and Dean to his sides, they were quickly engaged in light-heated bashing of Umbridge on their way to the Fat Lady. Hermione, who had not unpacked, decided to stay with Ginny, who waited for a certain distance to built up between them. Emotions might still be running high between her and Dean, after all, Hermione misread her intentions.
"So I've heard you've been through your first time", Ginny said, looking at the back of the portrait, quiet enough for only Hermione to hear.
"My -"
"Your first time being unable to answer a question in class."
"Er – yes."
"With Snape, of all teachers."
"Hmhm."
"Didn't hurt too bad, I hope."
"Not at all", Hermione lied, hoping for the make-up charm to still apply.
"Ron told me", Ginny obviously got to her point, "You've been spending a lot of time in the dungeons lately."
"I have."
"And there's certain rumors to you and Snape forming a – special – kind of relationship."
"Aha", Hermione replied non-committingly. Climbing through the portrait hole provided her with some time to dwell on how much she wished to reveal, but when they were walking next to each other again, she had not reached a decision yet.
"At first, I was wandering whether you were trying to secretly support the Order's cause, perhaps without their knowledge", Ginny went on. "But then, Mum would have gotten wind of it by now, and she's never allow to to participate anyone under age in the Order's business. She's still lobbying for Fred and George to stay excluded for not finishing their education, see?"
"Hm."
"So you must have been acting on your own account", she concluded correctly. "Without Dumbledore watching over how Snape – deals with you. Or anyone else."
"Hmhm."
"So when I heard that Snape had called on you to address most private issues in class -"
"Say it, Ginny, we're not that innocent", Hermione cut across her, harsher than she had meant to, "Snape wished me to speak up on the fact of people fucking each other, with or without vows taken before."
"So when I heard that -", the younger Gryffindor continued her inquiry, "A strange idea of the nature of your relationship crossed my mind."
Apparently, Ginny had decided to stay with indistinct descriptions and hints, but Hermione felt no need to confront her again with improper details. "Snape addressed me during a lesson, and I failed to answer his question, there's really nothing more to it. But if I've gotten your point, you're concerned with 'the nature of our relationship'?"
"No", Ginny disagreed, "I am concerned whether in those hours alone with Snape, he might have hurt you in any way."
"Hurt me -?"
"Yeah, like make you do things you did not want, blackmail you into it, drug you, seduce you to a point where you felt you were trapped, and had no choice but to engage in -"
"He has been using my brains", Hermione admitted, "But he has not used me."
They had almost lost track of Harry, Dean and Ron, and hurried to catch up until walking a few meters behind them again. Soon they would leave the castle's wing with Gryffindor tower in it, and rush into other students, a setting much less fit to elaborate on such private matters. A thick summer breeze, hot and heavy with impending summer day's heavy thunderstorm, greeted them in the more populated parts of Hogwarts.
Ginny's tone had lost a subtle urgency along the way. "So what, if you'd like to tell me-", she asked, "Is the nature of your relationship? What have you been doing in the dungeons?"
Through a narrow, high arch of stone, and heat got them its claw completely. The thick air felt crispy and raw in their throats.
"Ginny, honestly, I don't know what I'm doing", Hermione heard herself say. Yet she knew it to be true: She was not able to tell who was playing whom any longer. "I've had such a bad and superficial opinion of Snape, and ever since -"
She had not been watching her steps: A soft huumph accompanied her rushing into Ron, staring out of the window. All of them had turned to the grounds, looking aghast.
"Guess we've found out what the Squad's been doing all morning", Dean commented in a low voice, breathing deliberately slowly.
Following their gazes, Hermione let her own sweep over the grounds. Greenhouses, blazing sharp beneath the sun, dry grass aching for rain, the wild branch of the Forbidden Forest in contrast to the neatly kept, colorful towers around the quidditch pitch -
Only there were no distinct shapes of those towers any more. Or any shape distinguishable at all.
What had been the pitch, lay faded and grey to black in the midst of an unleashed fire, enclosing the oval seamlessly in a huge, uneven, insurmountable wall.
"Someone's bad at loosing", Ron mumbled.
Harry managed to grin feebly. "D'you think the teachers -"
"Yeah, look, that's Flitwick", Dean pointed at a figure flying toward the pitch, hardly higher than the broom beneath him was long.
"And here comes Sinistra", Ron added, recognizing their attractive Astronomy teacher flying in, "Hagrid's supporting, too." Their gamekeeper had managed to pull a wagon loaded with brass tubs the size of bathtubs from nowhere, and tugged it toward the lake while they were watching.
"Teaming up with McGonagall", commented Ginny, half anxious and half mesmerized, as their head of house ran across the grounds, wand waving vigorously, casing the bathtubs to fill pull through the lake on their own, filling with much more water than their appearance justified.
"This fire's way too hot for simple water", Dean stated, but the events on the former pitch proved him wrong: As the now, too, flying kettles emptied themselves toward the hot and steaming wall, the fire shrank visibly under the water of the lake.
"Why wouldn't they use Aguamenti, on a larger scale, of course?", Ron asked.
"Because the water's carrying special properties concerning fire in the school and on the grounds", Hermione replied, "It's magically equipped to extinguish even Fiendfyre. It says so in -"
"Hogwarts: A History", Harry finished her sentence, smiling warmly. "Hermione, even if you had ten teachers calling you naive in a week, I'd rather have Snape lecture me on different positions than missing you reading books nobody else cares to look into."
By the time the teachers had managed to get the fire under control, lunch was over, but none of them were hungry: Ron, Harry and Ginny feverishly discussed whether the pitch might host the tournament again next year, whereas Dean had apparently exhausted his ability to be with Ginny in the same room. Hermione, on the other hand, felt elated and more able to focus on her exam preparations than the entire week, sure that, one day, Harry's comment on her 'naivety' might make a great patronus.