The next day started with a bang, which, at Hogwarts, is very normal. No one seemed to notice Hermione at first, and she was very subdued in the morning classes. By lunch, however, the word had spread, along with many obscure rumours. Many were about Hermione having a baby, which caused more than a few people to eye her, sneers on their faces.
"She's a disgrace to all of us," they heard a first year Gryffindor say to her friend.
"I know," her friend agreed, "she's such a –"
"Excuse me?" Harry asked as the four friends stopped behind the girls.
"Oh," the one girl whispered, blushing.
"Hermione did not have a baby," Ron said, his ears turning as red as his hair.
"And I'm a prefect," Hermione said, back to some of her old ways already. "Five points from Gryffindor."
"Your own house?" the other girl asked indignantly.
"And if you put a stop to the rumours, we'll get the points back."
The two girls beamed at Hermione as the sixth years sat down farther down the table.
The afternoon was a double potions lesson. Expecting a moody Snape, the Gryffindors prepared for the worst as the made their way down to the dungeons. However, a pleasant surprise as Ron pushed open the door a pleasant surprise greeted them.
"Tony!"
Tony smiled, leaning against the front of the desk, astounding every girl in the dungeon. His long brown hair fell into his blue eyes, and as he casually swept it away, more than a few girls sighed.
"Hi, Harry," he said cheerfully, picking up the attendance as the Gryffindors took their seats.
Once the second bell rang, he proceeded without further ado.
"Alright," he said, looking around at them all. "I'm Professor Grass, and I'll be guiding you through the analysis of your most recent essays." He waved a stack of parchment before them. "But first, roll call. Draco Malfoy?"
"Right here," Draco answered, smug as ever.
"Of course. Parvati Patil?"
"Here."
"Gregory Goyle?"
A grunt emitted from the Slytherin side of the dungeon.
"Okay. Neville Longbottom?"
"Here."
"Hermione Granger?"
"Here."
"So it's true?"
"Shut up, Malfoy," Harry retorted.
"Glad to know Harry's here," Tony interrupted, ticking the name off on his paper.
The roll call went on, the girls answering breathlessly, while the boys did not do much more than grunt. Tony handed out the essays, and although he tried his best to keep the attention at the front of the class, reviewing them on fenny snake and owlet's wing properties, glances still made it to the back of the room where Hermione sat between Harry and Ron.
As the bell rang to dismiss them at the end of the torturously long double period, Tony called over the crowd.
"Harry, Ron, and you guys, stay for a minute."
The four of them proceeded to the front of the room, where Tony was pulling out a sealed letter from his robes.
"What's that?" Ron asked, immediately after seeing the names on the front.
"The reason why I'm here," Tony replied, his usual happy-go-lucky smile sliding off his face. He handed the letter to Harry, who ripped it open almost immediately.
"Hermione and Co.," he read aloud. "It is our most unpleasant fortune to inform you that tomorrow, during History of Magic –"
"Keep going," Tony said mournfully. "It's dreadfully sad."
Harry sighed heavily. "During History of Magic you will have a pop quiz, which will determine your capability of being a student here at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please note that failure to fail this quiz will result in ridicule from all the school."
"You've got to be –" Ron began.
"Finish it," Tony ordered.
"Yours in fellowship, Misters Fred and George Weasley, Oliver Wood, and Anthony Grass," Harry finished.
Kit, Hermione, Ron, and Harry stood there for a few seconds in shocked silence before the door to the dungeon burst open.
"They bought it!"
Fred, George, and Oliver entered the room, positively howling with amusement. Tony joined in as Harry and Hermione shot him a withering look.
"You should all be shot," Kit said, trying her hardest not to smile.
"Do any of you have a gun?" Ron asked, barely containing his snickers.
Within seconds however, all of them lost it, and it was well past eight in the evening before the Gryffindors made it back to the common room, still joking and carrying on.
The laughter died quickly, however, when they pulled out all the Transfiguration, Potions, and Charms books. With their quills loaded with ink, silence fell between them all as they did their homework.
It was midnight before the common room finally emptied. Hermione looked up from the end of her Arithmancy paper to find the three of them looking at her.
"It was the Cruciatus curse," she whispered finally. She kept her eyes down, unable to look up at her two, and now three, best friends. "They used it over and over. Usually just for fun, but it started when I refused to tell them where Harry was."
"What did Malfoy have to do with it?" Harry asked, as delicately as he could. Hermione took a deep breath.
"Well, as I told you in the summer, he had sent me a letter telling me all of those … things … and then when I called you his dad had found out about it. That was the day that they attacked." Tears began to form in her eyes, as well as Kit's, as she told the rest of the story. "Mum and dad had gone to work, and then I heard them apparate into the living room. I told Jonathon to go and hide upstairs, and I went out to them." Tears began falling freely down her cheeks as she continued. "I tried to stun them, but they disarmed me before I could do anything. Then they – they – tied me up and took me to the Malfoy manor. As soon as we got there, they stunned me, and locked me up in a dungeon-like room. Every day – every single day I was there, someone would come into the room and interrogate me. And, of course, use the – you know – curse on me. Of course, they wouldn't put me under it for very long." Her voice became disgusted as she went on. "Tastes, they called it.
"Voldemort himself paid me a visit on Christmas, to rub it in, and tell me that he – he – killed my – my parents."
"Oh, Hermione," Ron whispered, getting up and wrapping her in a hug.
"He took away every right I had as a human being. I had no freedom, and I wished so many times that I was dead," she moaned, sobbing into Ron's shoulder, wrapping her own arms around him. "I was so – so – worried that they would try to hurt you. I wanted to get out, and I tried – I TRIED SO HARD! But I couldn't, and that was worse than anything. I hated being at their mercy. I'm so tired of being a prisoner."
As she finished, it was all Ron could do to keep her upright. Tears were silently streaming down his freckled face, and Kit was silently sobbing beside him. Harry automatically reached up to wipe away some of his own tears.
The four of them reached a silent understanding, and they went up their own staircases to bed. Or rather, Kit and Harry did. Hermione was incapable of going any distance, and so Ron led her over to the couch and sat with her all night.