"Professor? You wanted to see me?"

"Ah. Yes. Do take a seat, Miss Granger."

I sat down carefully on a plush armchair opposite Dumbledore. He smiled at me.

"I trust you have visited Mr Malfoy in the hospital wing? I hear he is doing well."

"Yes. Except that ..." I paused. How was I going to put this? "He seems kind of ... well, paranoid. I mean, he has every right to be but-"

"Paranoid? How so?"

I swallowed.

"Well ... he was pretty much convinced that I was Pettigrew until I could prove that I wasn't."

Dumbledore did a very strange thing, then. He reached under his desk and retrieved what appeared to be a shoe box.

He placed the box on the desk between us, and I began to hear frantic scratching noises coming from within.

"Do you know what is in this box, Miss Granger?"

I shook my head, slowly, even though I already had a vague idea.

Dumbledore carefully lifted the lid of the box, and pointed his wand directly at the creature inside.

"PetrificusTotalus" he said, quietly, and the scratching stopped. He motioned for me to look in the box.

I peered carefully over the edge, and let out a gasp.

"Scabbers" I breathed. I looked back up and Dumbledore, my eyes wide. "How did you catch him?"

"We didn't. Thinking that he wouldn't be recognized, he attempted to enter Hogwarts via Draco Malfoy's robe pocket. He was found by Madame Pomfrey late yesterday evening, and brought straight to me" he gave a half shrug.

I stared, transfixed, at the petrified rat in the shoe box before me.

"Does Harry know?" I asked, my voice sounding hoarse.

"He will know, soon enough. I shall send for him as soon as he has finished with his afternoon classes. Seeings how you weren't in classes anyway, I thought you might want to know now."

I nodded, slowly.

"Do the ... the other death eaters know that he's here?"

"We don't know. We can only hope that they don't realise until he is safely locked away."

I nodded again, and made to stand up. Being in the same room with Pettigrew was making me feel increasingly uncomfortable.

"I think I had better go ..."

"Very well. But, Miss Granger? Please don't spread this information around. I would like it to be kept at least partially confidential."

I opened my mouth, but he interrupted me.

"Mr Potter and Mr Weasley will be told by me after their classes today, and I am going to speak to Mr Malfoy now. Nobody else needs to know. It is very important that you realise this."

"Okay. What about the rest of the-"

"Anybody that needs to know will be informed by me, or another member of staff."

"Okay."

With that, I took one last look at the motionless rat in the box, and left.

---

I didn't feel like facing the rest of the school that evening, so I didn't go to dinner. I instead stayed in the common room and read, to make up for the class time I had missed.

"Hermione?"

I looked up, to see Lavender Brown just about to sit across from me. I hadn't forgotten the evil look she had given me at lunch, but pretended as though I had.

"Hey, Lavender."

"I guess you've heard about me and Ron" she said, avoiding my eye and instead examining her nails.

"Yep. Congratulations." I looked back down at my book, mentally willing her to go away.

"I hope you didn't ... you know. Like him or anything."

My head snapped up.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing" Lavender said, too quickly. "I just heard from somewhere that you kind of liked him."

"Oh. Well, no. It's okay."

"Good" she said, and smiled at me. "You know what? I've been hearing a lot of interesting things about you lately, Hermione Granger."

I winced, and looked back down at my book to hide my reddening cheeks. I knew that Lavender was one of the most gossipy girls in Gryffindor, and I didn't want her to find out anything I didn't want getting spread around.

"Come on. Stop hiding behind that book. I've heard some things that can't POSSIBLY be true ..."

She tapered off, obviously hoping that I would ask her exactly what it was she had heard.

"Well, you never know" I said, flatly, hoping she would get the hint and leave me alone.

I was rescued, however, when Ron came in.

"Hey, girls" he said, and came over to our table.

Lavender went an amusing shade of pink, and stood up.

"Want to go and study somewhere, Ron?"

Ron just blinked at her, but then gave me an apologetic look and stood up too.

"Sure. I'll catch you later, Hermione."

I nodded, and watched the pair walk away.

I had just gotten back into my book, when there was a tapping on the window next to my head. I looked up, and saw an owl trying to get in.

The tapping had caused quite a few people to look my way, but I tried to ignore them as I carefully opened the window and let the owl in.

It perched on top of the desk I was working at, and offered its note to me. As soon as I took it off, it flew back out the window and into the night.

Granger,
I've only just got bloody Pomfrey to let me send an owl.
Stupid woman.
Dumbledore came to see me, he said he'd already spoken to you I think I might be safe for the moment But bloody stupid bloody Pomfrey won't let me out of here for another week Come and visit once in a while - DM

I stared at the letter for a moment. I hoped he wasn't giving Madame Pomfrey too hard of a time ... until I remembered her shoving me out of the room last time I had tried to visit. My sympathy vanished. If he wanted to give her a hard time, he could be my guest.

Then, maybe, she'd allow him visitors to shut him up.

Even as the thoughts formed, I knew I was being unfair. Maybe Madame Pomfrey had just been having a bad day? Maybe my throwing myself at Malfoy was a little over the top?

Or ... maybe I was just picking up an attitude from hanging around a Malfoy too long.

For some reason, this made me smile.