"How did your inspection go," Ron asked Hermione the next evening as she came through the door to the common room long after dinner had passed.  "Not that I really need to ask," he added.

            "Terrible," she answered truthfully, sighing and sitting down on the spot he had cleared next to him on the couch.

            "Oh," he said.  Clearly, that hadn't been the answer he was looking for.

            "I got into trouble with McGonagall," she explained, sighing.  "She says I've been doing an awful lot of prying this year, and says that I need to stop using my privileges for ill if I want to keep them."

            "She didn't say any of that to me."

            "I know."  Hermione didn't finish her thought.  Everyone expected better of her was all.  "I passed though," she brightened.  "I knew all of the rules and procedures, so that part was okay."

            "That's good," Ron said.

            "Yeah.  She just said that I needed to get my priorities straight if I still wanted to be the top candidate for Head Girl next year."  Hermione smiled wryly, and said no more.  She wasn't sure what to think.  There was nothing she wanted more than to be the Head Girl next year.  She had aspired to that position since that day she had first set foot in the castle.  Still, she just couldn't seem to tear herself away from the prospect of finding Arial.  It had become a consuming task, to say the least.

            "What are you going to do," Ron asked, leaning closer to her.  She could tell he desperately wanted to put his arm around her but was too inhibited to do so.  She didn't push the issue. 

            "I don't know.  I guess I should let the whole thing go, but I feel like we've come so far."  She let her voice trail off into a lengthy sigh.  In truth, she was completely torn, trapped by her own character.  She wanted to call it quits, to say McGonagall and Snape and all of the other members of the Order were right and what her and her friends were doing amounted to little more than interfering where they were most certainly not welcome.  At the same time, she felt that they had come so far now that it would do more harm to turn back and not finish what they had started. 

            Ron scooted even closer to her so that now there was hardly any room left between them.  "Ginny got the list of addresses from Fred and George today," he said quietly.

            "Speaking of Ginny, where is she?"

            Ron waved his hand dismissively, "Practice went really late, then she and Harry stayed in the Great Hall with the rest of the team after dinner.  I told them I needed to leave to do homework."

            "You don't look like you're doing homework."

            Ron blushed as he looked at the copy of Flying with the Cannons that he had borrowed from Harry that was now laying open in his lap, but ignored her.  "There were quite a few people on that list.  I didn't know their business was doing so well.  I still wonder who their financial backer could have been."

            "I don't know," said Hermione impatiently.  She didn't really care about that right now.  "Did you start narrowing things down?"

            Ron shrugged.  "Actually, we didn't have to.  I know that Fred and George never put too much effort into studying for their OWLs, but I guess they can really get it together when it comes to something they want to do, like Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes or getting into Snape's business."  He pulled the list out from within the pages of Harry's book.  "They highlighted anyone who they haven't seen lately and anyone that they didn't know for sure."

            Hermione snatched the list from him and looked it over imperiously.  "Well, that certainly narrows it down."  She couldn't help but being impressed.  If only the twins had put such thought and effort into their schoolwork; they had narrowed the list down to six possible choices.

            She pulled a piece of parchment out of her bag and began writing on it.  "What are you doing?" Ron asked.

            "I'm writing all of these names down so that I can look them up in the genealogy book.  I can see if any of these show up in there, and if they do, I can eliminate them."

            "Oh," said Ron. 

            She sighed after finishing and leaned back into the soft comfort of the cushions, closing her eyes and letting herself relax for a moment.  There was a commotion near the doorway and she looked up sharply.

            " 'lo Hermione, Ron," Harry said pulling his broom through the doorway, Ginny following right on his heels.  The rest of the Gryffindor team piled through the portrait hole, waving their goodnights and heading ff to their respective dormitories.

            "Did you have a good practice?"  Hermione asked.  Ron looked slightly annoyed that she hadn't bothered to inquiry him on the status of their team, but she ignored him.

            "Yeah," Harry said, sitting heavily on the other side of Ron.

            "That's good."

            "Did Ron give you the list from Fred and George?" Ginny asked, plopping down next to Harry and looking completely exhausted.

            "Yeah.  I wrote all of the names down so that I can look them up in the genealogy book the next time I go to the library."

            "Before breakfast tomorrow then," Harry teased.  Hermione gave him a scathing look, but had to admit that he had a point.

            "Do you think that Arial could really be on that list?"  Ron asked leaning over Hermione's shoulder and looking only at the parchment upon which she had listed the six possible candidates.

            "Well we won't know unless we look, will we Ron?" Ginny asked a note of reproval in her voice.

            "I suppose not." Ron blushed and leaned back again, staring down at the book in his lap.  Harry followed his gaze and smiled.

            "Thought you had to study, Ron."

            "I finished."

            "Uh huh.  You had to study something"

            "What's that supposed to mean?

            Harry smiled slyly and pointed at Hermione, who had her head buried in paperwork and was looking over the list of names yet again.  Ron punched him on the arm.  "Shut up, Harry," he glowered.

            Harry shrugged, still grinning.  "Well, I'm off to bed then."

            Ginny stood up as well, "me too."

            "Goodnight," Hermione waved distractedly, still staring at the list before her.

            " 'Mione, aren't you going to go to bed?"  Ron looked concerned.  "You aren't having trouble sleeping again, are you?"

            "No," she smiled.  "Well, just a little, but not like I was at the beginning of the year.  I just wanted to see if there was any sort of connection that I could find between these names and addresses and the story that the Tree told me."

            "Oh.  Do you ever think that maybe you try to hard?"

            She waved the question off like she did every time Ron asked it.  "I'll go upstairs in a minute."

            Ron said nothing, he just continued sitting by her, string off into space.  A few minutes later she repacked her bag, stowing the parchment in a front compartment where she could get to it easily.  She buckled the clasp and smiled at Ron, "there, all finished."

            "About time," Ron grumbled.  He turned towards her and smiled.  "Well, goodnight them."  He looked as though he wanted to say more, but no words came from his mouth.  There was an embarrassed blush over his cheeks. 

            Hermione leaned forward, putting her arms around him and pressing her lips against his and kissing him softly.  He returned her embrace, and kissed her back.  "Goodnight," Hermione said softly, kissing him on the cheek as she rose to gather her bag and climb up the stairs to her room.

            Ron sat on the couch long after she had gone, still staring blankly into the book he held in his lap.

*           *           *

            Hermione hurried to the library early the next morning, skidding to a halt in front of the double doors just as Madame Pince unbolted the lock.  Despite the fact that Hermione frequented the room, the librarian was no friendlier to her than she was to any of the other students.  She seemed to think the only purpose of children was to cause trouble.  She pursed her lips and looked at the bushy haired girl reprovingly before swishing off to sit behind her desk.

            Hermione headed for the bookcase where she knew the book resided and pulled it from the shelves, running her fingers over the embossed title on the front cover.  Quickly, she headed for a table in the back corner of the room and pulled the little slip of parchment from the front of he bag.  She had alphabetized the names as she had written them down the night before.  She wanted to make her search as proficient as possible. 

            Pulling out a blank sheet and a quill, she opened to the first name on the list: Briana Aberforth.  Her profile made her a possibility.  She marked that name with a checkmark and wrote down the last known address for the witch.  Next, she turned to Gertrude Aiken.  She skimmed the column, finding that the witch pictured here was about ten years older than she presumed Arial to be and, at the time, was happily married with two young sons in Berkshire.  She crossed that name off, and hurried to the next.

            Abigail Gershwin, sister of ministry member Avery showed no promise, nor did Mackenzie Ludwig.  With two left, she skipped several pages and headed to the back of the book.  Lara Paddington was added to Briana Aberforth on her short list, while Eloise Smith was a definite no.

            Hurriedly, she stowed her things away, placed the book back on the reshelving cart and headed down to join her friends at breakfast.   "What are you doing out here, Granger," she heard a drawling voice from behind her just as she left the library corridor.

            "I could ask the same of you, Malfoy," she said, eyes narrowing.

            "Breakfast wasn't to my liking," he said drolly.  "I though I could better spend my time scaring little first years who were trying to get to the library and finish today's assignments.  Is that what you were doing, Granger?"

            "No.  I was returning a book."

            "This early?"

            "I have a lot to do today," she continued as calmly as possible.  "I wanted to get a head start."

            Malfoy nodded and grinned at her in a sinister way that told her he didn't believe a thing she was saying.  Hermione rolled her eyes and turned on her heel, anxious to reach the Great Hall and tell the others what she had found before breakfast was over.  She could talk to Ron and Harry anyway, but it would be much later that night before she had a chance to see Ginny again.

            She made it a few steps before Malfoy called out to her again.  "I'm watching you, Granger," he said.  "This time, I was too slow, but I'll catch you one day."

            "Catch me doing what?" she said, hands on her hips, eyes diamond hard.

            "You know what," he smirked.  "Very ambitious of you to be doing all of that extra research."  He raised his eyebrows as he said the last word and then turned around, heading the opposite way.

            Hermione let out a long breath that rattled deep in her chest.  So, Snape was still worried about her finding out more about Arial, and he had Malfoy spying for him, though she was certain Malfoy did not know exactly what he was looking for.

            She sighed again.  She was going to have to be more careful.

*           *           *

            "What did you find?" Ron asked her excitedly as she slipped into the seat next to him for a last minute breakfast.

            "Shh," she whispered.  "Malfoy's after me.  Snape must have told him to tell on me if he saw me doing research.  He was heading for the library just as I left, so he didn't actually see me.  I told him I was returning a book."

            Ron and Harry both looked angry, but Hermione insisted that they ignore it.  Ginny agreed saying, "If we make a big deal out of it, Snape will know that he's right and that Hermione has something to hide.  If we just act like we don't know what Malfoy's on about then he might not think so much of it."

            Ron snorted.  Obviously he thought the prospect of Snape giving up his vengeance against Hermione was the least likely thing he had ever heard.

            "Two."  Hermione said simply, and then started eating her breakfast.

            Ginny and Harry nodded.  The latter whispered an explanation to Ron who was so busy being angry with Malfoy that he couldn't figure out Hermione's cryptic words, 

            As they left the hall, Hermione handed Ginny an envelope in which she had put the two possible candidates along with the addresses Fred and George had sent her and the old locations she had written down from the book.  She smiled brightly.  "I've got an order for Fred and George," she said.  "Would you send it for me, Ginny?  I know that get lots of business and if you use Pig they might look at mine ahead of some of the others.  I have to get something for Ron, and I need it ASAP."

            Ginny smiled slyly back, and Hermione knew that the younger girl understood that the envelope contained the names of the two possible candidates and a pleading request for farter help from the twins as the rules o the castle were somewhat confining.  "No problem, Hermione," the red head said, stowing the envelope in her book bag.  "I'll get this sent off just before lunch."

            Hermione turned the other way and headed for Charms with Ron and Harry in tow.  She wished that today were any day but Thursday so that she would have a free period before classes started to talk to her two friends.  She was careful to field their questions in a manner that wouldn't arise suspicion in the class, though the precaution was somewhat moot.  Charms was almost always a frenzy of activity, and today was no exception.  As usual, it was a great time to talk.

            "I sent the names of the two people that wanted orders to Fred and George," she told Ron and Harry as she practiced changing the color of her hair.  "I told them that they might want to make a home delivery."

            Ron nodded and promptly lit his hair on fire.  Hermione hurriedly sent water jetting from the end of her wand and put it out.  "Stupid wand," he muttered.

            "If you would be more careful with it, it wouldn't have gotten broken." Hermione said primly. 

            Ron glowered at her.  "Well, the first time wasn't my fault.  You don't think I could have politely asked the whomping willow not to destroy it and everything would have been okay, do you?

            "You shouldn't have been flying that car to school in the first place," she said with an air of reproval.  Ron scowled.

            "That was Dobby's fault."

            "You should have contacted the Ministry."

            Harry gave Ron a look that said to let it go, and the tall boy wisely moved on.  "What about this summer, eh?  You think that I could have kept my wand from being broken then do you?"

            "You shouldn't have been using it to swordfight Fred," she said primly, changing her hair color from violet to lime green to magenta.  "That weakened it so that when you fell on it it broke."

            "I fell down the bloody stairs!"  He roared.  "Don't you think that it might have broken all on its own?"

            Hermione struggled not to laugh.  "Then you shouldn't have been so clumsy, come on Ron, just drop it.  People are staring."

            Ron turned bright red.  "I would be sympathetic if you broke your wand."

            Hermione rolled her eyes.  "Oh Ron, I was only kidding.  I know you never broke your wand on purpose.  I jus said that you should have been more careful with it was all."  Her hair was bright red with gold streaks through it now.  Harry had only managed to change the tips of his, and Ron's was still smoking every time he pointed his wand at it, the ends looking strangely singed.  All around the class, there were various shades of color, most done haphazardly.  Neville was bald and Parvati was screaming because a glob of worms had replaced her shiny mahogany hair.  Only Lavender and Hermione had managed to properly perform the spell.

            "I see we'll be working on this again tomorrow afternoon," Professor Flitwick squeaked, his own long beard and hair the Ravenclaw shade of blue.  He assigned everyone except lavender and Hermione extra homework. 

            Ron groaned as soon as they got outside.  "Why would I need to know this bloody spell anyway?  This spell is for girls.  I'm not going to change my hair color."

            "Even when it's gray?" asked Harry. 

            "No.  I'd rather have gray hair than light my head on fire again," Ron said firmly.

            Harry had a malicious grin on his face.  "You better see what Hermione thinks about that first, mate.  She may not like men with gray hair you know.  Wouldn't want your marriage to end over a tiff about hair color."

            Ron's eyes got as big as saucers, and he ran screaming after Harry who had taken off down the hallway.  Hermione stood back and laughed, glad to have her friends back to normal again.

            Suddenly, a voice cut through her thoughts.  "Going to reprimand them, for that, Granger?"

            "What are you, stalking me," Hermione asked turning on Malfoy with narrowed eyes.

            "No, I was just checking up on you.  I see that you aren't doing your job.  People are running in the hallways and disturbing classes while you're standing around watching."

            "It's passing time," she said flippantly, waving him off.

            Draco raised his eyebrows.  "So, is what Potter said true?  Weasel King asked you to join his pig sty?"

            "No, Malfoy," Hermione said, feeling her cheeks starting to burn an angrily willing them not to.  "It was called a joke."

            "I see," he said, stroking his chin with his index finger.  "And I thought we would be prematurely rid of both of you.  Too bad."

            "Leave me alone, Malfoy," she said stalking off down the hall with long strides.  "Go find someone else to pick on."
            Malfoy looked as though he wanted to say more, but then Professor Flitwick popped his little head through the doorway.  "Mr. Malfoy, come in her and sit down at once.  You and your friends are blocking up the entire doorway.  No one can get inside."  Malfoy sneered at Hermione one last time, then motioned fro Crabbe and Goyle to follow him inside.  He wasn't stupid enough to continue what he had started in front of a teacher.

            Hermione caught up with Ron and Harry later that day in Potions.  They had headed for Divination after Charms while she had gone to Arithmancy.  She told them in a whisper about what had transpired between her and Malfoy just after the two boys had taken off down the hall following Charms class.

            Ron looked really angry, but Hermione told him to let it go.  "You know you can't fight Malfoy in here Ron," she hissed.  "Think of where we are," she said gesturing to the dungeon around her.  "You don't think you'd get much sympathy from this crowd, do you?"

            Ron looked as though he wanted to protest, but agreed to sit silently through the lesson. 

            Hermione finished her potion, a relatively easy stain removing draught, and sat back to wait for Ron and Harry to put the stoppers in their respective vials.  Suddenly, she felt something running down the back of her robes.  Quickly, she stood u[p, trying to get it off of her.  The liquid was burning her skin.  She could hear Snape sounding furious at the front of the room.  "Miss Granger, please save us that ridiculous interpretive dance and sit down in your seat.  Your antics are becoming more and more distracting as the year goes on."

            "Please Professor," she said, trying not to cry out in pain.  "Something has spilled down the back of my robes.  It burns.."  she spun around again, trying to keep the sodden robe from clinging to her.  Ron reached up and undid the clasp on it, pulling it away from her skin and leaving her standing in the muggle skirt, oxford shirt, tie, knee socks and mary janes that she wore underneath

            "Mr. Weasley, now is really not the time," Snape said evenly.  "Fifty points from Gryffindor."

            Ron looked as though he were going to leap to the front of the room and strangle Snape, but Hermione's suffering held him in check.  "Can't you do something," he growled to Snape, who was now looking over a stack of ungraded essays.

            "Please, Sir," Draco Malfoy interrupted.  "Granger tripped me with her book bag and I spilled my potion.  Can I make a new one?"

            "Yes, Draco," Snape said distractedly.  "SIT DOWN Miss Granger.  I will not ask you again."           

            Hermione whimpered and hurriedly picked up her bag and the sodden robe heading for the exit with Ron in tow.

            "I told you to sit, Miss Granger," said Snape.  "I did not tell you to leave.  Mr. Weasley, where do you think you're going?"

            "Shut up you great bat," Ron said, ushering Hermione out the door and into the hallway.

            "Ron," said Hermione, suddenly feeling sick to her stomach, "you should NOT have said that."

            On cue, the door to the classroom slammed open.  "One hundred points from Gryffindor and a month of detention for you Weasley.  If it's up to me, you won't be a prefect anymore either when I'm done with you.  You and Potter, as I have tried to inform those who have the power to do something about it many times, have been crossing lines ever since you came to school and I have had enough.  The line will be drawn here!  No further!  If I were your head of house, you would be expelled from this school.  I will not stand to be humiliated in front of my students!  DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?"

            Ron turned away and stomped off, gingerly helping Hermione down the hall.  "Are you all right?" he asked, a look of pure concern on his face.

            "No," she said truthfully.  "That really burns.  I need to go to the hospital wing."

            "I can't believe he did that." Ron continued.  "That was really low."

            "Forget it," Hermione said, her skin in too much burning agony to care. 

            "How can I forget that?" Ron said angrily.  "That's the most horrible thing he's ever done, Hermione.  I'm going to go tell Dumbledore straight away."  They reached the door to the infirmary and he led her inside.  He told Madame Pompfery what had happened to Hermione and then started pacing the room as the nurse set to work patching her up.

            Harry burst into the room a few seconds later.  "How's Hermione," he said.  Ron pointed to her, and Harry narrowed his eyes and started talking to Ron in a hushed voice.  Ron looked even angrier and then stormed from the room.

            A few minutes later, Hermione came over to greet Harry.  "How does it feel?" Harry asked worriedly.

            "It's fine," she waved him away.  "What was that all about?"

            "Nothing," he stammered nervously as they headed for dinner.

            "Yeah right.  Tell me now, Harry."

            Harry sighed.  "Snape was really mad.  That was the angriest I've ever seen him.  He sat back down and started snapping at everyone, and the whole class got really quiet.  The only person he wasn't yelling at was Malfoy.  He was right behind us, you know, and I could hear him talking to Goyle and Crabbe."

            Hermione waited a moment, then prompted, "And…"

            Harry blushed slightly.  "Well, Malfoy told them that he spilled the potion on purpose.  He said that he didn't trip over you bag, he just made that up.  He said it was fitting."

            "What was fitting?" Hermione asked.

            "Uh," at this Harry's face turned as red as Ron's hair.  "To spill a cleaning potion on a mudblood.  I'm really sorry, Hermione," he added rapidly.

            "You didn't day it , Harry," she said quietly.  "Did Snape hear him?"

            "I think so," said Harry, "but he didn't say anything."  He looked really angry.  "Ron was right about Snape, though I think I would have used something nastier to describe him."

            "Good thing you didn't," Hermione said sharply.  "We would have lost even more points if you had."

            "I know.  I'm glad Ron said something, though.  No one in potions with us cared that he lost us all of those points.  We could hear Snape yelling at you through the door, and everyone got really mad.  Except the Slytherins, of course.  They were all laughing.  Bunch of bloody idiots."

            Hermione sat down in her usual seat.  Throughout the whole meal, she yielded questions of concern from her fellow Gryffindors.  Harry was right.  The news of Ron's indiscretion against Snape had spread through the house like wildfire, and no one seemed at all miffed at Ron for having lost them all of those points.  Instead, everyone seemed to want revenge on Snape for his display of inhumanity.

            At last, Ron entered the hall to a raucous cheer from the Gryffindor table and several pats on the back as he made his way to the open seat Hermione had saved next to her and across from Harry.

            "Did you do it?" Harry asked mysteriously.

            "Yeah.  Angry, he was.  Said he was going to talk with him about it right away.  Said that never should have happened."

            "What are you talking about," asked Ginny.  "Ron, is it true that you called Snape a great bat to his face?"

            "Yes.  I went and talked to Dumbledore about what Snape and Malfoy did in potions today.  He was really mad.  He said he would be heading for the dungeons straight away.  He wants you to stop by and see McGonagall after dinner, Hermione."

            "I wish you wouldn't have done that, Ron," Hermione said quietly.

            Ron looked hurt.  "Why not?  I can't have him treating you like that Hermione.  I'm supposed to look out for you.  I couldn't let him be that way and getaway with it.  Not to my girlfriend."  He blushed furiously after he said the last, and looked as though he would have rather phrased it any other way.

            Hermione decided the best thing to do would be to move on in haste.  "I know you're angry Ron," she said, "and I really appreciate you standing up to him.  It's just that now he's going o be even more unbearable than ever."

            Ron looked ashamed.  "Sorry," he said.

            Hermione felt badly.  "Don't be," she smiled, patting him on the arm.  "I know you were just trying to help."  She kissed him softly on the cheek as she rose from the table.  "I had better go and see McGonagall."

            Ron nodded and turned back to his dinner.  Ginny got up and walked with Hermione, leaving the two boys behind.  "Did he really say that, Hermione," she asked at last once they were out of earshot from the Great Hall.

            "Yeah.  I was mortified.  I thought Snape would kill him."

            Ginny shook her head.  "He must really care about you to have done that.  You know McGonagall will have to tell mum, and he'll be getting a howler.  He also can't stand losing house points.  He says it makes him feel like a failure."

            Hermione smiled.  "I know he cares about me.  You should have seen his face.  It was even worse than if Snape had said it to him."  She blushed slightly.  "don't tell him I said this, because it will embarrass him, but he was wonderful."

            Ginny smiled and nodded.  "I mailed the letter today," she said.

            "Good," Hermione acknowledged her.  She stopped outside the door to McGonagall's office.  The deputy headmistress opened it and came swooping down upon her and Ginny before Hermione had even had a chance to knock.

            "Are you quite al right, Miss Granger?'

            "I'm fine, Professor," she smiled weakly.  "Nothing Madame Pompfery couldn't fix."

            "Well, I assure you, Miss Granger that both professor Snape and Mr. Malfoy will be dealt with.  Firmly.  Tell Mr. Weasley I have awarded him twenty-five points for assisting you in your time of need, and that he will be able to remain a prefect."

            "Thank you," Hermione said for Ron.

            McGonagall continued in a serious tone, "please inform Mr. Weasley that our Potions Master is not, nor has he ever been, a 'great bat'".  Hermione could have sworn the coroners of the woman's mouth were twitching as she said the last.

            "I will.  Goodnight Professor."

            "Goodnight, Miss Granger, Miss Weasley."

            The two girls hurried off to Gryffindor tower, giggling excitedly over the prospect of telling Ron that Snape was not, in fact, a great bat.

            In Hermione's opinion, he was a whole lot worse.