Of course, Gryffindors were wide awake and waiting eagerly for her. Thankfully the crowd dissolved soon after she had assured them, as agreed upon, that Dean was all right now and would recover completely. Since it was way past nine until she found time to address her friends, they had to stay in the common room, where floor still sparkled from frippery.
"Veritaserum?", Ron repeated in disbelief, conscious enough to keep his voice down. "Snape's sure of that?"
"He gave a convincing explanation", Hermione defended him. "Have any of you ever been put under the influence of it?"
"No", they replied in unison.
"He threatened to slip something into my cup, in fourth year, sometime before the third task", Harry added, "But I haven't had some, as far as I'm aware of."
"I did not know you could overdose on it", Ron voiced, "And Umbridge gave it to him? Do you think she gave him too much inadvertently, or …"
"She probably just didn't care", Harry spoke what Hermione was thinking, "Or it might have had its desired effect, and he kept talking, taking one cup of another of that disgusting tea of hers..."
"How's Ginny?", Hermione asked, having noticed her absence just yet.
"She met with Luna, soon after you left with Dean and McGonagall", Harry informed her, "Luna must have seen you, though, 'cause she was looking rather scared."
They remained silent for a while. The fire had ceased. Some left over soap bubbles burst with an unnatural crispy sound.
"Why Dean?", Harry asked just as she was about to leave, "If it had been me again -"
"Can't be always you who gets spanked", Ron threw in.
"- if it had been me again, I'd guessed why, but since when are people at risk who -"
"Share their dormitory with you?", Hermione finished his sentence, "Might watch your every move, from dusk til dawn? Who has been friendly with you and a DA member from the start? I can see why she hoped to gather information from him."
"He won't talk to me, either", Harry concluded dimly, "Just like the Hufflepuffs."
"Not necessarily." She did not want to start a fight, feeling more lonely than justified still was a sensitive topic with him, but she would not let that prevent her from speaking her mind.
They were best friends, after all. "But we all suffer from Umbridge's treatment, some more than others, and Dean very well knows who put him in that bed in the infirmary tonight."
Ron must have agreed to call it a night. "As do we all", he assured Harry, and reluctantly, they went to bed.
"We should learn to deal with this kind of intoxication", Hermione stated when they left for Charms class next morning, "In case we run into any hooded Death Eaters as Aurors."
"Don't you think we've got enough on our plate already?", Ron moaned. "Poppy and Snape cured him, isn't that enough?"
"I agree", Harry supported her, "But sorry, Hermione, I really can't take on anything else right now. Besides, Potions never was my strongest subject."
"You could do better, if you -"
"Snape's so fond of you, why don't you simply ask him next week? I mean, he won't dare to finish you off in a duel for the audacity, not with the entire fifth year waiting in the corridor", Harry suggested, in a tone so ambiguous she was still brooding over his sincerity when Flitwick provided them with new challenging tasks for rehearsals.
"After all, your O.W.L.'s are only seven weeks ahead!", he reminded them, much to the entire class' dismay. In the back of her mind, another realization forced its way into Hermiones conscience. Perhaps Snape had asked her to come before class, because the entire fifth year would be waiting in the corridor.
"I might as well ask McGonagall", she shot back. Where did that anger suddenly come from?"I was going to talk to her about Umbridge's theses anyway."
"You do that", Harry quickly dodged the danger, surprised by her intense reaction. "It's Tuesday, I'll save you some apple pie."
"Thanks!", she hissed back.
Whereas Charms passed by in a subtly cherish mood - Flitwick had prepared small models of wooden chess figures, whom they were supposed to carve to distinct players and have them fight each other in a short match of Wizard's chess (Ron cornered Hermione after twelve moves, an abysmal failure, if one asked her), Transfigurations felt like McGonagall made them dance on that very chess field, with heavy, defensive and angry figures around them.
"Focus", she pointed out, saving Parvati from getting hit by a giant flail, thrown at her by the Death Eater model Hermione had last seen at practice with the DA, "Is essential to Transforming a solid, yet moving object. You'll struggle with much less palpable opponents if you don't pull yourself together. So concentrate."
Tension was relieved forty minutes into intense revision, when the door opened and Dean plucked his head through. "Sorry I'm late, professor."
"You're excused", McGonagall replied, "Take your seat and have Mr Finnigan hand you a chess figure from Mr Flitwick. You'll bewitch them to sing 'Happy birthday' to me, and join in on the routine next week."
"Yes, Professor."
"Then sit down, please."
Dealing with an especially nasty Skinning Curse by the model, Hermione's attention lay elsewhere, but she was pretty sure McGonagall blinked away wet eyes when she thought no one was watching.
The model kept her busy until the bell rang for lunch.
"Professor, can I have a word, please?"
"I am afraid I'll have to check on Mr Thomas' process first", the Head of House declined her politely, "But I'll save you ten minutes at dinnertime."
"Thank you, professor."
Ginny joined them for lunch, looking rather tense.
"Don't – ask", she mumbled, rolling her eyes, "Yes, we were done. No, I have no intention of resuming my relationship. And no, I don't plan to go visit him in the infirmary, even if that drama was addressed to me", she commented on their deliberately blank faces.
"He's out, anyway", Harry greeted her by shoving a large portion of her favorite lasagna on her plate, "So no worries."
"Thanks", Ginny said, "You can't imagine how often I've been telling the same story today... how did you make it through last year...", but decided to waste no more time and plunged into the meal. She did not participate in their conversation on how to counter a Skinning jinx until halfway through desert. "What happened to him? Rotten Love potion?"
"No", Hermione turned away from her apple pie, lowering her voice, "Overdose of Veritaserum."
"I wasn't aware that he...", Ginny left the sentence unfinished, and her desert as well. "Luna got one, too", she told them.
"When?", Hermione inquired.
"Yesterday, after lunch. She's not taking Divination, and gave up on Ancient Runes last term, because her father told her it was rubbish."
"Listen to this", Ron earned himself an evil glance from his sister.
"Someone of the Squad – I don't know, who – caught up on her on her way to the library and told her she had to show up in Umbridge's office", Ginny went on as if nothing happened, "They had a sweet cup of tea together, but she felt heavily nauseous before our Transfigurations lesson, so she went straight to Madam Pomfrey."
"If she really drank up that mixture Umbridge calls tea, she'd feel rightfully so", Harry commented dryly.
"Luna probably has had so much contact to – delicate – substances", Ron mused carefully, keeping a close look on Ginny, "Her body must have learned to simply refuse absorbing what isn't water, pumpkin juice or butterbeer. So how come she thought it was Veritaserum? From just being nauseous?"
"'Cause she told Madam Pomfrey she's always aspired to become a healer after Hogwarts, so she never has to witness anyone from her family die of improperly applied magic", Ginny whispered, ruining what was left of their appetite, "She never talks about her mum's death to strangers."
"So – Care of Magical Creatures next for you guys?", she made a feeble attempt to stir their conversation from its depths.
"Yeah", Ron confirmed, "At least Hagrid always comes around with something funny."
Even Hermione felt too depressed to correct him, despite Hagrid, among all teachers, held on to the most controversial interpretation of 'funny'.