Ron, Harry and Ginny were all sitting on comfortable looking chairs, placed in a circle around Dumbledores desk. They were all drinking mugs of hot chocolate and looked tired as if they were struggling to stay awake and merely smiled at Hermione in greeting.
"Ahh! Hermione, nice of you to join us at last! Please sit down," Dumbledore conjured up another chair and Hermione sat down gratefully, wincing a little, as her lower back was feeling sore. He then produced another mug of hot chocolate and passed it over to her.
"Now, as I've been telling the others, what you tried to do tonight, was foolish and dangerous in the extreme. However, I do understand Harry's reasons for wanting to try it and because of this I will show leniency. We shall say no more of this, but I shall be keeping an extra eye out on you from now on and I don't want any more of these 'experiments' in resurrections, is that clear?" Everyone nodded in agreement, "even though your attempt failed, the reason for which I know Severus has already informed you, that doesn't excuse you completely," Dumbledore said looking around at the attentive but dispirited faces, apart from Hermione's, because she was looking down into her mug.
"Well, I think you had all better get back to your dorms and get some sleep, it is now 2 o'clock in the morning!" Dumbledore added, raising his eyebrows
They all grunted or sighed in agreement and began to get up. Hermione joined them still looking down, she worried that if she caught Ron's eyes, she would start to cry. So, feeling almost numb now after being full of nerves for so long, she joined them and they all trooped glumly towards the door. Snape, went to follow them
"I will escort them Dumbledore, just to make sure they all get there safely" He said stiffly, emphasising the last word sarcasically, glaring at the foursome, especially Harry
"Yes, if you wish, but can I have a private word first Severus?" Dumbledore asked, holding out his arm to him as a signal for him to stop.
"Wait here!" Snape said sharply, shutting the door to Dumbledores office in their faces, once they were outside.
They all sat down to wait in the small chair lined, ante-chamber. Harry next to Ginny and Ron next to Hermione
"So!" Ron said at last "Where did you get to then Hermione? You were absolutely ages! We were getting worried. Especially as we knew Snape had gone to look for you! What did he do? He wasn't too mean to you was he?" Ron asked, slipping his hand over hers comfortingly
Hermione found it hard, but eventually did look at him properly, meeting his gaze. As she looked into his hazel eyes, the guilty feelings overcame her and the inevitable happened – she burst into tears, but managed to speak
"No, he wasn't too mean to me, he just told me off that's all. I'm really sorry about all this, I didn't know what..." but then she stopped herself, shaking her head confusedly and just carried on sobbing.
"Hey, it's okay Hermy babe, don't worry about it. It wasn't your fault that Snape found us! We were just unlucky that's all! The way he was laughing at us though, I wanted to zap that smile right off his ugly face! What I would like to know is how he found out in the first place, I mean we were so careful, no-one outside of us four knew about the plan!" He finished, creasing his brow in concentration and looking away for a while thinking.
Hermione could hardly bare it. She couldn't believe she had betrayed him like this. There he was sitting there, looking at her lovingly, innocently thinking that she was just upset because the plan hadn't worked! Excusing her from guilt, when all the time she knew that it was her fault that they had been found out! She felt terrible, but knew that this was not the time to talk about their relationship, that could wait until tomorrow, when she had had a nights sleep and time to think of what she was going to say.
Snape came sweeping out of Dumbledores office then, his facial expression stern and his bad mood obvious.
"Come on!" he snapped, indicating that they should follow him, "Dumbledore can be an indulgent old fool at times with the students, especially when it comes to you Potter! You would not of got off so easily if it had been up to me!" He continued, almost seeming to glide down the stairs as his cloak flowed out behind him.
"Yeah! You'd have probably had us strung up by our thumbs or something!" Ron muttered under his breath as they followed on after him
Once they got back to their Dorm, Snape silently waited as they all made their way through the portrait hole. As much as she had tried to avoid it, Hermione had been last to climb through, worrying that the professor would hold her back or something. He didn't, but as she climbed through, she felt his hand briefly touch her bottom, making her jump visibly.
"What's the matter babe?" Ron asked curiously, seeing her reaction
"Oh nothing, I just caught my leg on the hole that was all!"
He seemed satisfied with this and merely nodded
They all went to bed, and Ginny fell asleep immediately, much to Hermione's relief, as she then didn't have to face her questions. She was still feeling very troubled, but at the same time, couldn't deny how she felt. She was very attracted to the dark Potions master, his look, his intelligence, his seeming aloofness, the way he strode arrogantly about; just about everything! She found it so unbelievable that he wanted her out of all the girls in the school, she just couldn't help it, she was really flattered. Her belly fluttered with excitement at the memory of what they had just done, but she also knew was that she still loved Ron, maybe not in the same way as before, but she had never set out to hurt him and it killed her that she had betrayed him in this way. She went to sleep wondering what tomorrow would bring and for the first time in all her time at Hogwarts she had no idea what to do next. She was pretty sure there wasn't a book on this in the library - suddenly not the safe , studious and rather staid place that it used to be!