Completely unrelated, but the part of the books that this chapter focuses on has one of my favourite jokes in the series: Fred says "fairly" that Wood might have assassinated the Slytherin Quidditch team if he could have gotten away with it. Bless that boy's single-minded determination about quidditch and Fred and George's ruthless sense of humour haha.
Several days of heady happiness and messing about in a variety of locations around the castle followed. Every evening was spent leaving the Room of Requirement behind and exploring the castle, giggling like school children as they avoided security patrols. Angry fighting and curses were completely replaced with sweet kisses and a constant stream of compliments in Hermione's ear, telling her she was beautiful, she was a better witch than twenty death eaters put together.
The war used to be a frequent and foreboding topic. Now when it (rarely) came up, Hermione would confidently state they were definitely going to get out alive, and Draco would convince them both that Voldemort was so much weaker than last time, and the whole campaign would fold without either of them having to fight.
Ginny teased Hermione about how happy she looked, and when Hermione looked in the mirror there was a brightness that had returned to her skin and face. The sadness about Ron and worries about death eaters had all been washed away by waves of sex, groupthink, and childish rule-breaking without consequence.
It was a stolen happiness, and it had to be paid for. It was all shattered when Ginny ran into the library looking for her, crying and distraught with news of Hermione's payment for ignoring the real world.
Hermione felt very far away from reality as she looked down at Ron's pale, unconscious face and heard Harry explaining for what seemed like the thousandth time how he had saved Ron's life. Fred and George and Ginny and Harry all debated who the poisoner could have been, and Hermione remembered every stolen kiss and joke and hex and charm she had exchanged with Draco to forget her emotions and problems.
You have to hold all this anger and guilt now, she thought as the others discussed Slughorn's possible motive for killing Ron. You made a Vow. You have to protect an attempted murderer before you protect Ron's life.
"…the poisoner could just as easily have been after Dumbledore," Ginny said.
"Then the poisoner didn't know Slughorn very well," Hermione croaked, her throat uncooperative as she forced herself to redirect her friends from the truth. "Anyone who knew Slughorn would have known there was a good chance he'd keep something that tasty for himself."
Ron stirred and tried to say her name, and Hermione felt her conscience break again and again under all the guilt.
Hagrid suddenly entered the hospital wing, wonderfully setting the discussion back while everyone caught him up with their previous thinking and suggesting the whole series of events was about quidditch. Hermione took the chance to restate the obvious: the culprit was stupid, reckless, and didn't care who he took out on his path to his intended victim.
Ron's parents then arrived, and Hermione left with Hagrid and Harry to give the Weasleys space.
"It's terrible," Hagrid said angrily as they headed towards the castle's main entrance. "All this new security, an' kids are still getting' hurt. Dumbledore's worried sick."
"Hasn't he got any ideas, Hagrid?" Hermione asked, partly for Draco and the Vow, and partly because she hoped Dumbledore might end her stupid promise and suffering for her.
"I 'spect he's got hundreds of ideas," Hagrid replied, "brain like his. But he doesn' know who sent that necklace nor put poison in that wine, or they'd've bin caught, wouldn' they?" He continued talking to his worries about the dangerousness causing Hogwarts to be closed while Hermione thought on what Hagrid said.
She had been under the assumption that Dumbledore didn't know it was Draco until now – not that Dumbledore wasn't a genius, but before now there hadn't been multiple attacks to analyse. The attempt that Ron got in the way of had made it obvious the attacker was not just an opportunist who Imperiused an unsuspecting student in public, but a dedicated, reckless and incompetent assassin who had links to Hogwarts. Draco would surely now be on the shortlist of suspects. Fucking dumbass, Hermione thought. It wasn't like Draco was an unskilled wizard, so he obviously just didn't have the nerve or brains for this sort of thing.
Hagrid brought her back to earth with his typical loose lips – the 'sn' consonant passed his lips and Harry leapt on it.
"What?" said Harry quickly." "Dumbledore's angry with Snape?"
"I never said tha'," Hagrid said, panic written all over his face. "Look at the time-"
"Hagrid, why is Dumbledore angry with Snape?" Harry practically yelled and Hermione was thankful again she had not included Harry in her secretive plans to coerce Draco. Hagrid desperately tried, and failed, to stop Harry's loud questions, but eventually relented and Hermione and Harry listened carefully.
"I - well, I was comin' outta the forest the other evenin' an' I overheard 'em talking – well, arguin'," Hagrid said. "Didn't like ter draw attention to meself, so I sorta skulked an' tried not ter listen, but it was a – well, a heated discussion."
This surprised Hermione – she was sure Dumbledore could get very angry, but having an old fashioned argument complete with shouting seemed out of character.
"Well?" Harry pushed.
"Well – I jus' heard Snape sayin' Dumbledore took too much fer granted an' maybe he – Snape – didn' wan' ter do it anymore," Hagrid said.
"Do what?" Harry asked, and Hagrid said something about workload priorities, before revealing the critical detail: Dumbledore had asked Snape to investigate Slytherins about the failed assassination attempt through Katie.
Hermione looked at Harry and they instantly both knew – and so did Dumbledore apparently, or at least he had significant suspicions, ever since Draco's first slipshod murder attempt. Dumbledore suspected or knew Draco was behind the attacks.
So why is he still at Hogwarts? Hermione thought, mind racing. Maybe a lack of evidence? But then why wouldn't Dumbledore have Draco followed if he suspected him, and knew he was dangerous and likely to harm others?
Oh. The answer arrived suddenly, and Hermione could feel the shock involuntarily hit her body language, eyes widening and mouth gone slack. That's what Dumbledore and Snape were arguing about. Dumbledore had ordered Snape to spy on Draco, and Snape was apparently sick of it. That was why the work argument segued into investigating Slytherins in general.
Filch showed up at that point and Hermione left with Harry, headed up to the Gryffindor girls dorm, and stood in the dark corridor before the dorm entrance, mind still whirring. Hagrid's information was so valuable, but there was still a piece missing – a piece that the person on the other end of the Vow would have to give or risk breaking it.
Steeling herself with arguments on how he had to tell her whose side Snape was really on so she could protect herself, Hermione cast an Invisibility Charm and headed back out, anger and adrenaline pulsing through her veins. Ron had paid a terrible price for this information and Hermione was going to make sure it wasn't for nothing. It was time to start cashing in her part of the Vow and find out from the inner circle what Snape's role was in Draco's poorly executed mission.
Draco was waiting in the hallway, looking sick with nerves – he had obviously heard what had happened. Hermione walked past him into the Room without saying anything, and he followed behind. She looked past him to watch the entrance, trying to keep her anger in check and focus on the task at hand.
"Dumbledore suspects you, and he's angry with Snape. Do you know anything about that?" Hermione said quietly after the door shut and sealed behind him. Draco looked at her like she was mad.
"What? I-is he going to make it or not?" he hissed.
"What do you care," Hermione said, her voice shaking but gaze kept firmly past Draco. "I asked you about Snape."
A silence followed, and Hermione finally shifted her gaze to him, pulling out her wand. "Don't make me ask-"
"Snape…might be giving Dumbledore false targets," Draco finally said tersely, and Hermione swore under her breath, looking away. This was crucial information and she needed to have pushed for it sooner, needed to believe in Harry more because he had been right about this and she had been wrong to trust their teacher.
"Is Snape helping you," Hermione said, though after his admission it wasn't much of a question.
"He wants to," Draco whispered.
"Maybe you should let him?" Hermione suggested, looking back at him, words filled with venom. "You appear to be really fucking shit at this. How many people have to die for your incompetence?" She walked past him and left, hating that the Vow made her shoot a Calming Spell at his back while she walked out, angry that she spent the night lying awake, thinking of how many of her friends would be hurt while Draco fumbled his way through an assassination no wizard could manage.