Title: All's Fair in Love and War

Author: Silverhair Theory

Disclaimer: I own nothing. J.K.Rowling owns everything. If you sue me, all you'll get is my sweet stash and my teddy bear, and he bites. I wouldn't advise it.

Chapter 5

Harry sat with his head in his hands, eyes closed, watching the patterns of light on the back of his eyelids as he pressured them with his palms. He knew Hermione was reading a book in the armchair next to him, and Ron was looking at the fire, he could hear him drumming his hands on the arm of the chair.

Ron gave a yawn and Harry heard him stand up. "Well, I'm turning in." He said, tiredly. "See you tomorrow." His footsteps thumped across the floor and Harry heard him enter the stairwell.

He glannced up from behind his hands. Hermione still had the book in front of her, but he noticed her eyes werent moving. She opened her mouth.

"Harry, I need to talk to you." Hermione said. Harry tensed and closed his eyes again. He knew that this wasn't going to be good. He heard her put the book down.

"Harry, I think something is wrong." She sounded troubled. "I cant tell what is wrong, but I want to make it right, okay? Please, Harry, I want you to let me make it right. Will you let me?"

Harry nodded, slightly confused. If she thought something was wrong with her, that wasn't good, obviously, but why did she need his permission to solve the problem?

"Please Harry, tell me what's wrong." What was she doing, Harry wondered. He didn't know what was wrong with her, why was she asking him?

"I don't know what's wrong, Hermione." Harry said, slowly. "Do you know?"

"No, how can I tell what's wrong!" Hermione sounded annoyed. "You're the one that has something wrong with them!"

Me? Harry thought incredulously, and put his hands down, staring at Hermione. "What? There's nothing wrong with me! What are you talking about?"

Hermione looked confused and exasperated. "Harry, its obvious something is wrong! You sit there, with your head in your hands, and tell me nothing is wrong!" Harry noticed her voice was getting slightly high-pitched.

"I don't know what you're talking about! I'm fine!" Harry was getting quite annoyed now. "There must be something wrong with you!"

"Me?" Hermione cried. "What could possibly be worng with me?" She was beginning to look thunderous and it took a lot of courage for Harry to answer back. He sighed.

"Every time you come back from those potion sessions with Malfoy you seem really irritable and snappy." Things that had been nagging him for weeks surfaced in his mind. "How long is this potion going to take? I don't want you at my throat all the time for any longer than necessary, and i'm sure Ron doesn't either!" Harry was shouting now, but this only seemed to make Hermione more irate.

"You don't know what it's like, having to work with him!" Hermione shrieked. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ron standing open mouthed at the entrance to the boys dorms. "He insults me, he insult my hair, my blood, my family, everything!" She had angry tears coming out of the corners of her eyes now. "Then you have the nerve to go and imply its MY fault when I come back in a terrible mood!"

Harry was shocked. He had guessed Hermione wasn't enjoying her potion sessions when she had come back from the first one crying her eyes out. Since that she had been cagey and prone to biting people's heads off if asked the tiniest question about the time spent in the dungeons. He had known she had been stressed but surely Malfoy couldn't have had that much of an effect on her. Something else must be bothering her too...

"Hermione, I understand you are pissed off with Malfoy, he annoys me too. But for Merlin's sake, please don't take your anger out on me!" Harry was seriously annoyed now.

"Why are you being so defensive about it! You are supposed to be my boyfriend, why can't you be more supportive!" Hermione said, crying freely now. Harry felt suddenly extremely uncomfortable and he saw Ron take a step forward into the room.

"Look Hermione, maybe we should give each other some room, some time to get our breath back, from all this stuff with Malfoy, especially now we have to deal with the other Slytherins too." He felt that he was ruining something, but he just couldnt stop."Maybe we should stop being boyfriend and girlfriend, maybe just relax for a few days. We can see how we feel after the trip." He looked at Hermione, who nodded.

"Alright Harry." Hermione sighed, her face still red. "We better sit together on the coach tomorrow though, I don't think it will be good if Malfoy knows something is up."

"Ok then." Harry said, and looked up at her face, which had large bags under the eyes, and was blotchy from crying. "I think you need your beauty sleep." He gently picked her up and carried her in his arms over to the entrance to the girls dorms, where he put her down.

She smiled sleepily and climbed up and out of sight. Then Harry went back over to the boys staircase where Ron was still standing, open mouthed.

"I don't want to talk about it." He said grumpily and pushed past Ron, stomped up the stair and drew the hangings round his bed, falling asleep almost immediately, ignoring the fact that he was still in his clothes.

Harry sighed. Ron looked over with a sympathetic face. "You thinkin' about last night?" He asked.

"Yeah." Harry said. "Ron, what do I do? I thought she was the one for me, but how can she be so...what's the word...I don't know, in-sensitive?"

"I dunno mate." Ron shrugged. "I think you need something to take your mind off it. Maybe you could find a local muggle girl you like?" He pointed out of the only non-cracked window, where a group of girls was walking along, chatting and laughing. "How about one of those?"

"You make them sound like they're products, things to be picked up and used, then dropped when you've had enough." Harry said angrily.

"Hey mate, It was only a suggestion!" Ron said, defensively. Then he slumped. "I'm sorry. I know what you mean. I would hate it if anyone talked about Gab... I mean, anyone who I liked like that." He lay down on the bed, having unpacked all his stuff. "I really like her Harry. I don't know what to do."

"Ask Hermione. She always knows what to do." Harry said. "Just don't tell her I told you to ask her."

SGSGSGS

The village hall struck twelve, and Draco sighed and kicked his drawer shut. He and Blaise met Pansy and Pesria coming down the stairs, Blaise thumped Ranger and Ciel's door to tell them it was time to go. Pansy took Draco's arm and dragged him down the stairs to the hallway, where Potter and Weasley were just emerging from their dorm.

Snape came up the stairs from the basement, looking very strange in his muggle clothes. He took a checklist from his trouser pocket and looked round at them all and then upstairs as Ranger, Ciel and the Gryffindor girls came down the stairs.

"Miss Granger, could you go up and see where Miss Chevin and Miss Delacour are." Snape drawled. "Mr Zabini, please go down and wake up Mr Crabbe and Mr Goyle, I think they may have fallen asleep."

Indeed, Draco could hear loud snores coming from the basement. He tried to hide a grin, and instead turned it into a smile for Pansy, who smiled back and squeezed his hand.

Soon Granger was back with the french girls, and after Snape had gone down to get them, Crabbe and Goyle appeared, looking mutinous.

Snape led them out of the door, and they walked to the local café, a small faded blue and peeling white shop, called the Dusky Elm.

More like the Dusty Elm. Malfoy thought. The chairs were ricketty and the tables were in need of a good clean. Ancient pots of drooping flowers sat on each table, tattered cloths hang off the walls.

Draco saw Pansy brush a finger across one of the tabletops and look disgusted when a thick layer of grey came off in her hand. She brushed it on her blouse, then looked horrified as she realised she had got her expensive top dirty.

Draco suppressed a laugh. Pansy was about his third favorite person in the world, like a little sister in many ways, but Lucius had had plans for her and Draco since they had been born. They would always be attatched somehow.

Snape made them all sit down. The Gryffindors and the french girls, who Draco was coming to think of as honorary Gryffs, all sat at one table and started to exchange opinions about various items on the tacky laminated menus.

The Slytherins all sat down together with Ranger and Ciel, who were almost worthy of the honorary Slytherin title, and glared at the menus. Snape sat on his own.

Draco looked down the menu. It was all pretty dire, things like "Liver and Onion Surprise","Sardine Sandwich","Asparagus Cake" and so on. All of the Slytherins were looking equally disgusted.

Looking over at the Gryffindor table, Draco saw that Granger had produced paper and a ball-point pen from nowhere and was writing down everyone's orders. He turned away.

Snape seemed to have decided what he was having, and obviously thought everyone else must have too. He strode over to the Gryffindor table and was presente with the small square of neat writing which told him everything he wanted to know. He looked sour and came over to the Slytherin table.

The girls chose the "Warm Mackerel Salad", presumably because it had the word "Salad" in it and so, according to female logic must be healthy. What it actually turned out to be was a few limp slices of lettuce, large chunks of lukewarm fish and lots of a strange sauce which Draco suspected was a house recipe, as he had never seen anything so disgusting ever before..

Crabbe and Goyle chose something called the "House Fry-up" which sounded exactly like what it was, enormous, extremely greasy and covered in that same weird sauce.

Draco, Blaise, Ranger and Ciel had all consulted each other and decided on the "Breaded Vegetables" because it sounded at least slightly edible and possibly even healthy. That turned out to be a lot of burnt vegetables, mostly sprouts, covered in moudly breadcrumbs. Calling it foul would have been an understatement.

The Slytherin's only comfort was that the Gryffindors seemed to be having just as much trouble with the food as they were. Snape seemed to have taken the only sensible way out, and ordered a coffee.

After struggling through the food, the group headed back to the flat. Snape seemed to want to say something.

"Now, you have all had a taste of the local neighborhood." He said. "And I must tell you now that I will not be here to babysit you all the time over the next few weeks. I must go back to Hogwarts, and will only be visiting you once every two days.

"I am leaving now, but I will tell you now that a ward has been placed on this whole neighborhood, so that we shall be informed of any magic you do.

"There is actually a barrier on this house to stop magic being performed in any of the rooms. If any of you do do magic, you know of the Decree for Underage Wizardry, and shall be punished as appropriate."

He eyes lingered on Harry, who felt a rush of colour in his cheeks as he realised that Snape, must know about his past charges, indeed, he must have heard about his trial in front of the Wizengamot, if gossip travelled as fast among the teachers at Hogwarts as it did among the students.

"Goodbye, and Good Luck." The last comment seemed to be directed at the Slytherins, but the Gryffindors did not expect anything less. Snape nodded, and apparated.

The second he had disappeared Harry stepped forward. "Look guys." He said. The Slytherins all glowered at him. "I think we can all agree that this house could use some work. I propose we organise a duty list, to at least try and get it fit to live in."

The Gryffindors all mumbled appriciateively, and even the Slytherins muttered in agreement. Pansy spoke up. "Look Potter, it's all very well you saying that, but I dont think people are actually going to volunteer to wash up, do you?" She gave a nasty little laugh.

"Dont be dumb, Pansy." Malfoy said. "We won't have to wash up, the house elf will do that." He frowned at her.

"Uh, hate to burst your bubble, Malfoy, but no magic means no house elves." Ron said, almost gleefully. "I'm afraid that we will indeed have to wash up all by ourselves."

"What?" Malfoy said, stunned. Crabbe, Ciel and Zabini were all looking horrified as well. "You mean we'll have to do manual labour and stuff?"

"Of course." Pansy said with a slight titter. "Didn't you know that?" She shrank away as Malfoy gave her one of his famous stares.

Harry coughed, nervously. "So anyway, I drew up a list while I was supposed to be eating that muck they told us was food..." Harry gave a slight involuntary shudder, mirrored by a couple of other people. "I'll stick it on the fridge, and people can sign up for what they want to do." He turned around and walked into the kitchen.

People, sensing that the conversation was over, started milling away back to theirs dorms. Draco whispered to Pansy as they climbed the stairs.

"Pansy... What's a fridge?"

SGSGSGS

The next morning Harry emerged yawning out of his dorm at around 7:30, leaving Ron to snore. He went to the fridge where he had pinned the sheet of paper and saw that some people had already written their names on it.

So far, it looked like this:

Shopping for food: Hermione Granger ,

Gardening: Ginny Weasley , Brie Chevin

Emptying rubbish bin:

Tidying common areas: Ron Weasley , Gabrielle Delacour

Tidying boys rooms,

Tidying girls rooms: Pansy Parkinson , Persia Renard

Painting front of house: Vincent Crabbe , Gregory Goyle , Blaise Zabini

He grinned at the thought of Ron and Gabrielle working together. Surely Ron would overcome his worries during long cleaning sessions with Gabrielle? Harry decided he would be as encouraging as possible.

He looked at the remaining jobs and with a sigh put himself next to Hermione for shopping. He knew that they were the best to to do it, as they were the only ones who had the faintest idea how to use muggle money and muggle shops.

He wondered who, out of Ciel, Ranger and Malfoy would end up emptying the rubbish. Personally, he hoped it was Malfoy.

A sound from the hallway suddenly distracted him.

He went out to see what it was, and stopped dead in his tracks.

SGSGSGS

Hermione's alarm went off, and she groaned before sitting up and turning it off, and rubbed her eyes.

It took a moment before she realised where she was, and then she remembered. The run down house, the Slytherins, Harry, Malfoy...

She noticed Gabrielle had already got up, an a note had been pinned to the door.

Dear Herm, it said.

Good Morning sleepy head!

I have gone out with Ginny and Brie, we are going to have a proper look round this town.

See you when we get back!

Gabby

Hermione yawned again. She looked at the clock. It was 8:30. She slowly got dressed into a pair of blue jeans and a ruffled white blouse. Then she got out her hair brush and went downstairs, brushing her hair as she went.

She took a quick look into the kitchen and skim read the jobs list. She sighed as she saw Harry had put his name down next to hers. She knew that it would all end in tears. I sound like my mother. Hermione said to herself, and made a mental note to be more positive. Maybe she'd meet a nice muggle boy to take her mind off Harry.

She knocked on Harry and Ron's door, and when she recieved no answer, she peeked in. Ron was lying snoring on his bed in his blue flannel pyjamas, and Harry was nowhere to be seen. Unsure of whether she was happy or sad about this, she closed the door.

Hermione then went into the sitting room where she picked up the TV remote and flicked through the channels. Television was something she missed when she was at Hogwarts, as the high levels of magic caused all electrical appliances to fail. She found a discovery program about some ancient civilisation and curled up in a chair to watch.

SGSGSGS

Draco, as has been stated before, was not a morning person. He had grumpily got out of bed, pulled on some clothes and was now standing in front of the thing Pansy had said was the "fridge" with some uncertainty.

He slowly opened the door, and got a shock when cold air hit him in the face. He quickly closed the door again, but not without noticing that there was no food inside it.

He stomped into the sitting room, where Granger was watching a black box with moving pictures on it. Fascinated, he forgot about his stomach and sat down on a chair next to her.

"What is it?" Draco asked, awed. "I thought we weren't allowed magic on site?" Granger giggled, which he didn't find as annoying as he should have done.

"It's called a television." She said. "You use this..." She picked up a black plastic rectangle with lots of different coloured buttons on. "To change the channel."

She pressed one of the buttons, and to Draco's amazement the picture on the black box changed. It had been a man standing in front of a very old temple. Now it was some people running about on a big green field with white lines on, kicking a ball, while lots of other people sat in seats round the edge of the field and cheered.

"Wow!" Draco said. "Can I have a go?" Granger laughed again and handed him the little square rectangle.

"That's called a remote." She said. Draco looked at the remote. It had ten buttons with 0-9 on it, some coloured ones, some other ones which had strange symbols, which looked a bit like runes, and one big red one which had circle with a line inside it on.

"What do they all do?" He asked.

"Well," Granger said, leaning over, "The numbered ones change the channel. Its on channel four at the moment, but if you change it to channel three..." She pressed the button with the number three on and the picture on the television changed back to the man in front of the temple.

Darco was awestruck. He went through all of the buttons, making the picture change from one "channel" to another. He particularly liked one one which there were a number of cartoon animals who seemed to be going round a large farm, and looking for what appeared to be another cartoon animal, apparently a sheep called Gilbert.

"That's Trencreek Farm." Granger said. "I used to watch that when I was four." She and Draco watched Trencreek farm for a while, and saw the farm animals eventually discover Gilbert the sheep hiding under the farmers bed, beacuse he didn't want to be sheared.

As the credit rolled Draco said "That was amazing. I have never seen anything like that ever before. You say that almost all muggles have one of these?"

"Yes." Hermione said, smiling. "I have one, everyone I know has one. Everyone who is a muggle, that is. I think Harry's Aunt and Uncle have one in almost every room."

Every room. Draco tried to imagione what Malfoy Manor would be like with a television in every room. He couldn't. Father would most certainly not approve. At the thought of what his father would say to Trencreek Farm, Draco winced.

What?" Granger said. She looked surprisingly concerned, considering that she was talking to a Slytherin, and especially to him.

"Nothing." He said, and then remembered what he had come in to ask her in the first place. "Why isn't there any food in the fridge?"

"Because neither Harry nor I have been shopping yet. I was going to go after my program, but I expect it finished while we were watching Trencreek Farm."

She clicked the number three button and the man on the temple had indeed been replaced by a woman talking about dolphins. Oh well." She grinned ruefully. "I think i'll go out now then. See you later."

She smiled at Draco, and Draco felt his heart do a funny flippy thing as she walked out of the room. "Oh and by the way, you still need to sign up on the jobs list." She called from the hallway. He heard the front door slam a few minutes later, and went to sit back down and watch some more of the television.

Hermione was walking home from the corner shop, carrying four large plastic bags full of food. She had got a variety of things, mostly stuff that could be eaten from the packet, and therefore wouldn't produce any washing up.

As she walked past the park, she heard shouting, and looked up the alleyway to the small park and field that the local kids hung around in. There were some boys playing football, and she saw Ginny, Gabrielle and Brie sitting on the fence watching them and talking.

She jogged the last couple of blocks, and rang the door bell of the house. Malfoy opened the door and let her in, looking surprised that she'd bought so much stuff.

"How'd you afford all that?" He asked.

Hermione pointed to an envelope by the door, on a small table. "Every two days, when Snape visits us, he leaves some muggle money for food supplies. I took it out of there." She went into the kitchen and started stacking stuff into the fridge. Malfoy hung back, wary.

"Why is the fridge cold?" He asked. Hermione giggled again.

"Its because it keeps the food fresh. I know in wizarding houses the food can be kept fresh with spells, but for muggles they have to use a fridge." Malfoy looked like he understood because he came forward and started helping her put things on the shelves.

Their hands brushed against each other, and Hermione pulled away. Malfoy's hands were freezing, colder than the inside of the fridge. He looked at her, puzzled. She shook her head and carried on putting stuff in.

When all the food was stowed away she put the plastic bags on the worksurface and turned around. Malfoy was watching her, a strange look in his eyes.

"What?" Hermione asked. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I was just thinking how you..." Malfoy mumbled, in a daze. His eyes suddenly focused and he visibly shook himself. "Nothing." He fixed a scowl on his face and walked out.

Hermione was puzzled, but sighed and put all the non-fridge foods away before going back outside into the late morning sunlight and walking round to the park area where she had seen the other girls earlier.

Ginny, Brie and Gabrielle greeted her. "Hey!" Gabrielle called. "Come join us, we're looking at all the eye candy." She indicated the playing boys, quite a few of whom had their shirts off, and grinned wickedly.

"See any you like the look of, Herm?" Ginny said, giggling. Hermione leant on the fence next to the others, and regarded the footballers with interest. If it takes my mind of Harry... She found herself thinking.

There were, actually, quite a few decent boys on the field, though most of them were too far away to inspect properly, and anyway, they kept moving.

"Do you know any of their names or anything?" She asked.

"Some of them. They shout at each other a lot, we can usually pick up their names from that. We haven't actually spoken to them, if thats what you mean."

"Right. Who's that one? The one in the light blue jeans next to the goalposts?" She pointed and all four of them stared at the boy for a moment.

He was fairly tall, taller than Hermione at any rate, and had well defined legs, especially his calf muscles. He had a light tan, paler than Harry, but darker than Malfoy. He had quite a nice chest and strong arms, but without being too muscly. His hair was a very strange colour, it was very very light blonde, but with a sort of grey shade, like his hair was covered in dust. It was floppy and fell over his eyes and high cheekbones.

"I think his name's Gareth. Yes, Gareth, I'm almost certain. You like him?" Gabrielle turned with a cheeky grin on her face.

Hermione blushed slightly. "Yeah, I suppose." She looked down at the floor and her hair fell around her, obscuring her from the others.

"It's ok Herm, don't feel guilty because you're being unfaithful to Harry or anything like that." Ginny looked sympathetic. "It's just a crush."

Hermione looked up and smiled, but Ginny was almost certain she saw a flash of pain when Harry's name was mentioned. She made a mental note to ask Harry what was going on beetween them.

A shout was heard from the pitch, and Hermione looked up just in time to see Gareth score a spectacular goal. He grinned as his teammates flocked around him and his grin widened when he realised that some of the girls on the sidelines were cheering him.

He pushed back his hair and walked over to them, picking up his shirt and making it clear to his teammates that he was no longer playing. They shrugged and turned back to the game.

He checked out the girls as he walked over. They were all fairly good looking, though red hair wasn't really his taste. The blonde just wasn't his type and the raven haired girl was simply looking at him with nochalance, so she was already down as a lost cause.

The brunette, however, was something else. He pushed to the back of his mind the fact that she had been the only one not clapping and gave her a smile. She smiled slightly in return, but turned her head away.

He reached them. "So, ladies" Always begin with a compliment. He told himself. "You're all looking rather beautiful today." The red head and the blonde giggled, the raven stared impassively but the brunette did not turn her head.

"I haven't seen you around here before. My name is Gareth. What are your names?" He looked round at them all.

"I'm Gabrielle." The blonde said, smiling.

"My name's Ginny." The redhead said, and nudged the raven.

"Eef you must know," The raven said with and unmistakeable french accent. "The name's Brie." She glowered at him, as if daring him to pass a comment. No comments were passed.

They all looked expectantly at the brunette, who sighed. "Hermione." She said, shortly. Gareth tried the name out, experimentally.

"Her-my-er-nee." She glared at him. He tried again. "Herm-eye-nee?" More glaring. "Hermy-own?"

"Oh for goodness sake, its Her-my-oh-nee!" She exploded, stood up and stalked away, muttering. Gareth was slightly taken aback, and looked at the other girls for assistance. They simply shrugged, but the raven girl seemed to be almost enjoying his discomfort. Ignoring her, he pulled on his shirt and, without really knowing why, set off at a jog down the alleyway to find her.

---

Hermione sat down on a bench near the flat and put her head in her hand, forcing back tears. Why she should be crying, she didnt even know,she shouldn't care, he was just a stupid boy.

But she had spoiled everything. He had actually come over, tried to talk to her, even teased her a bit. She could see it had been teasing now, but it annoyed her so much when people mis-pronounced her name.

That wasn't the only thing bothering her though. All of the tension between her and Harry seemed to be pressing against her, she knew that she shouldn't feel guilty about simply thinking about dating someone else, but she did, and it was making her heart ache by resisting.

Perhaps it was because silent tears had begun to flow from her eyes, or because she was shaking slightly, that she didn't realise that he was there until he put his arm around her.

She sat up, shocked. There he was, with his shirt on now, looking concernedly at her through his blue, blue eyes, so unlike Harry's. They stared at each other, his arm raised where she had shrugged him off. Then he spoke.

"Look, I'm sorry about saying your name wrong. I wasn't trying to annoy you, I was trying to tease you. Please accept my apology." He gazed at her sadly.

Through tear edged eyes she looked at him, trying to see whether he was telling the truth or not. She decided to believe that he was.

"I'm sorry too." She said, quietly. "It was very rude of me to run away like that. I'll forgive you for saying my name wrong if you forgive me."

"Agreed." He smiled. "So, where are you from? You're not from around here, I can tell."

Hermione explained to him about the excursion, leaving out any details about magic or muggle studies or anything like that, for obvious reasons. Gareth actually seemed quite interested. She pointed out to him the flat they were staying in.

He was such an easy person to talk to, to tell things to, and she found herself telling him who was sleeping on which floor, who was doing which jobs, how she and Harry had to go shopping for food...

When she mentioned Harry her eyes welled up again and she looked down. She felt a soft finger on her chin, and it brought her up to look into those startlingly blue eyes.

"Who's Harry, and what has he dont that's made you so sad. Because whatever he's done I want to get him for, for making you cry." It was such a sweet thing to say that Hermione leant on his shoulder, and after a surprised jolt he wrapped his arms around her and stroked her hair, saying soothing things to her as she sobbed on his shoulder.

After a while Hermione stopped and felt very embarassed. "Here I am crying on you and I dont even know you! You must think i'm really weird." She looked down so that her hair fell over her face again.

She felt strong but gentle hands pull her up again. Gareth had fixed her again with her piercing blue eyes. She was swimming in his eyes, the colour washing round her...

"Listen, Hermione." Gareth was talking. She snapped out of her daydream and listened. "Why don't you and your girlfriends come dancing with us tomorrow evening? We'll have a great time, I know this really good club, it's not far from here. What do you say? Something to take your mind off this Harry guy?"

She had to admit it sounded tempting. She nodded and gave him a small smile which he grinned at.

"Come on," He said, taking her hand. Hermione felt her fingers tingle where they touched his. "Lets go and ask your friends." And they walked hand in hand back towards the alleyway to the park.

Had they looked behind them, they might have seen a face disappear from one of the ground floor windows. Had Hermione not been focused entirely on the hand she was holding, she might have heard the click as a window closed.

Unfortunately, they didn't, and she was.

---

Author's Note: Ooohhh, cliffhanger. Can you guess whose watching them? Review!