Declaration of War

"I think you should go back to your dorm." Pomfrey said gently.

Hermione looked up from the chair she was dozing in. She rubbed her eyes and looked about blearily. 'What time is it?' She asked.

"Almost eight in the evening."

Hermione glanced toward the office that Harry was in. He'd been in there since he awoke this afternoon.

Pomfrey watched her gaze. "They're doing the best they can. If there's anyone who can figure this out, it's Dumbledore and Flitwick." She said.

"Who could do such a thing?" Hermione muttered, shaking her head.

Pomfrey sighed, sitting upon the chair beside Hermione. "It would have been an easy thing to repair, if they'd done it right. Whoever it was. I'm afraid to say that it might have been a student that attacked Harry; the memory charm they used upon him was done very badly. It's not only blocked his memory of what happened it also may have caused some damage. We just don't know as of yet."

Hermione nodded silently, trying to hold back the tears. It was horrible, what kind of monster could do this to another person? She shook her head and rose to her feet, feeling weary and faint.

"Go back to your dorm, sleep and if anything changes I'll tell you." Pomfrey said gently and Hermione nodded, heading toward the stairs and a long and tiring climb back to the Gryffindor Tower.

XXX

"It was that bastard Malfoy I tell you!" Someone was yelling as Hermione entered the common room of the Gryffindor Tower. "You heard how Harry kicked his ass. This was his revenge. That bastard attacked Harry unarmed and probably with help from his idiot friends."

Hermione entered the common room and saw a lot of the students gathered and Ron standing upon a wooden desk. All were listening intently to what he was shouting and many were nodding in agreement.

"They can't get away with this. They can't just attack one of our friends!"

"What's going on here?" Hermione demanded.

Ron stopped his shouting and looked at her. Hermione felt the eyes of the scores of students suddenly lock upon her. She felt a wave of nervousness and fear, but she pushed it down.

"How is he?" Ron asked, concern etched upon his face.

"He's physically fine." Hermione said. She could feel the tension of the room, all were waiting for her to continue. "Dumbledore's checking him out. Someone's used a bad memory charm on him. It may have caused some damage, they're not sure." She said, regretting the words once they came out of her mouth.

There was a collective gasp of horror and then murmuring. Ron stared at her in shock, his mouth hanging open and hands clenched into fists. Hermione could understand the shock, no one was supposed to be taught memory charms. It was a talent learned outside of Hogwarts, at the various other training schools for certain professions.

"A Memory Charm!" Ron suddenly shouted, his face flushed with anger. "See what a monster that little prat is? He's trying to cover up his crime!" There were several shouts of agreement. Hermione glanced around and saw the faces of many students harden in anger and outrage. She could sense the atmosphere of the room changing to one lusting revenge.

Hermione quickly jumped onto a chair. "Listen!" She shouted, over the growling of the gathered students and Ron's words. 'Listen!" Their heads turned her way and Ron quieted. "The professors and Dumbledore are on this. They're looking into the matter. They'll find out who did it and they'll give a punishment that fits the crime!"

"We already know who did it!" Neville shouted from the crowd. Hermione was taken aback by the anger in his voice. She scanned the faces of the students and saw the same anger and outraged upon them all. "It was Malfoy!"

"We don't know anything!" Hermione snapped. "We can't jump to conclusions. We have to wait for what Dumbledore and the others find out. They're here to deal with this, we can't just arbitrarily decide who's guilty and who's not."

"What's wrong with you!" Ginny suddenly yelled. "Harry's you're best friend! How can you defend the person who attacked him?"

Hermione glared at her. "I'm not defending anyone!" She snarled. "Its just that we can't go about blaming someone without any evidence."

"He's a Malfoy! That's more than enough reason!" Snarled Ron. "Everyone knows he did it and he's now probably gloating with his friends about getting away with nearly killing Harry!"

Hermione shook her head. "Look, if you won't listen to me. Then trust in Dumbledore. He's never lead us wrong and we all know he'll do all that he can to find out who did this. Trust in him that he'll find out who attacked Harry." Several students nodded at her words, their earlier anger and rage replaced with trust in their headmaster.

Ron seemed to ignore her words. "There's only one person who hates Harry enough to hurt him. How many times now has he tried to ambush Harry, how many times has he tried attacking him? We're all Gryffindors and we look out for one another. Harry's one of our own and he's been attacked. Are we just going to sit here and hope that the professors will slap the wrists of whoever did this?" There was a cry of NO! to his question.

Hermione just stared at him. What had gotten into him? Why was he doing this? This was crazy.

Ron looked at her, his face hard. "This was Malfoy's doing and he'll pay for what he's done. Those of you that want to see justice done come with me." He jumped off the desk and headed for the portrait hole. Hermione felt depressed as she watched many of the students follow him out, Ginny gave her a cold stare as she walked past and Neville didn't even look in her direction.

The remaining students milled about for a moment, a couple going after the others and the rest looking at Hermione expectantly. Hermione sat down in the chair she had been standing on and dropped her head into her hands.

She took a deep breath. It felt like things were slipping out of control. It felt as if things were crashing down around her. She sat there and clenched her eyes shut, keeping the tears of frustration at bay.