Dreams

by NeverBeyondRedemption

A lonely girl wished for a friend, a lonely boy wished for a companion. Accidental magic is a powerful thing. Every night Hermione dreams of a boy who thinks he’s a wizard. A strange English girl keeps bypassing the wards and visiting Gellert in his family home. With so much in common, they were bound to become friends.

202. The Second Task

Hermione woke and immediately panicked, kicking out against bony fingers which released her quickly. Her panicked thrashing kept her afloat for a moment more, before she sunk, swallowing a lungful of water and finally recognising that she needed to coordinate her arms and swim.

Her head broke the water a second time and she frantically dragged her heavy, soaked hair away from her mouth and nose, struggling to keep herself afloat in her usually light nightgown, which now tangled between her legs and tried to drag her back under.

Bony hands returned to her a moment later, supporting her in the water with gentleness that assured her whatever was holding her wasn't a threat. Greenish, webbed fingers helped clear the rest of her hair away, and allowed her a clear, unobstructed breath of air. She gasped it in greedily, coughing up water as she did. As her mind cleared, the reason for her predicament dawned - it was the second task, and she'd been put to sleep at some point to be hidden in the lake just as they'd guessed. A part of her was furious that she'd been essentially stolen from her bed, the other was glad that their plan had clearly worked.

Two mer supported her, powerful tails brushing against her legs as they propelled her through the water, towards where Harry stood in the shallows beside Kelpie. The two Mer that carried her were the more savage looking freshwater type, with jagged tail fins, wickedly sharp teeth and greenish-brown skin and scales. The one on her left was clearly female, with sparkling mika-filled rocks braided into her hair which matched the subtle gold edging on each intricate scale of her tail. The other was a powerfully built merman, his skin dark and rich and his tail an equally dark bronze.

Kelpie struck out to meet them, surging powerfully through the water, his mane and tail flowing behind him like a slick of oil on the surface of the water. The two mer helped her into the plan saddle on the beast's back and Hermione couldn't help her gasp of pain as icy February wind sliced through her thin nightdress.

Then, unexpectedly, instead of swimming away, the two Mer accompanied them into shore, right into the shallows were Harry awaited, shivering in the cold. They reared up in the water, powerful tails sending mud swirling up around them, and bowed deeply, pressing something into his hands and gesturing towards Hermione, astride Kelpie, before disappearing with a massive splash. A gentle nudge of her heels had Kelpie wading up out of the water and meeting Harry as he also reached shore.

She almost tumbled from Gellert's beast, her feet already numb with cold.

'I can't believe that all worked.' Harry breathed, catching her before she could do more than stumble upon landing. Kelpie bent his neck around, snuffling hot breath over her. Hermione dug a hand into his mane, the shells and bones in his mane clinking as she sought his warmth and to scratch at the base of his mane as he'd always liked.

She glanced over his shoulder, noticing a crowd of teachers and officials hurrying down from a tall set of wooden towers at the edge of the lake. A large timer glowed against the supporting structure of the tower, like the countdown timer on a bomb. It ticked slowly past fifty and towards forty-nine. On the other side of the towers, she could see the crowd sitting in stands that overlooked a slightly choppy but otherwise boring lake. Several hundred people craned in their seats to see what was going on, leaning over the railings like a baked cake spilling over the top of a tin.

Then the officials reached them in a wave of noise. Karkaroff, the Durmstrang headmaster, was shouting about the unfairness of using the Mer to assist, whilst Sirius Black was arguing back just as loudly that the whole point of the task was that they had time to prepare and use their ingenuity. The rules hadn't said they couldn't ally with the Mer.

Umbridge looked positively livid, storming at the heels of the minister, who didn't seem keen to come close to Kelpie as the beast flashed savage fangs in his direction. Madam Pomfrey was unbothered, bustling in with blankets and a large thermos of hot chocolate and insisting they both drank it. She cast a number of diagnostic spells over Hermione, her brusque manner keeping away all the other adults until she declared the young witch and the champion to have a clean bill of health.

Then the rest of the adults descended on them, talking so fast that Hermione could barely catch a word as they argued over the legitimacy of Harry's blatant win. Fortunately, it seemed that they were far more concerned with each other and Hermione could quietly slip the bridle off the quadruple X creature that it was certainly illegal to possess without training and a licence in Wizarding Britain. Kelpie snuffled her hand one more time, then slipped off into the water.

'Stop it!' Umbridge screeched, evidently having not missed Hermione's actions. The ministry official thrust one pink gloved hand in the direction of the disappearing beast and her loud words finally drew the attention of every other adult. But it was too late for anyone to do anything about it - Kelpie's head disappeared beneath the water with a final burst of bubbles, and then the beast was gone.

Umbridge rounded on Hermione.

'You! Article twenty six of the decree for the regulation of marine creatures forbids the introduction of Kelpies to Mer societies.'

'Pardon?' Hermione blinked, feeling rather unprepared. She had never had to defend herself from a legal challenge whilst in her nightgown after emerging from a freezing lake.

'The introduction of a Kelpie to a Mer village is against the law, as they will interfere with the registration of mer folk and the harvesting of their scales, blood and hair.' Umbridge hissed, 'it has taken the ministry decades to remove the kelpies from the Mer Villages close to civilisation and you have wilfully released one next to a school.'

'Madam Umbridge! This is hardly the time…'

'I'm sorry, but isn't equally against the law to allow an underage student to enter into a magically binding contract without the knowledge or agreement of his magical guardian?' Hermione interrupted Fudge harshly. 'And did you not threaten my ward with my death, should he fail to retrieve me?'

'Threaten?' Fudge blustered, 'no… even if Mr Potter was unsuccessful we wouldn't have allowed anyone to remain at the bottom of the lake!'

'That is not what the egg said.' Hermione shot back icily. It was easy to forget, tied up in the rivalry between herself and Umbridge, that the minister wasn't quite as set against her as his under secretary. He looked started by the venom in her voice and even though he couldn't see or understand the way her magic lashed protectively, he could certainly feel it instinctually as he took a step back.

'Ah, well, we didn't anticipate it being taken quite so literally, but perhaps…' Fudge glanced first at Umbridge, who was seething, her hands clenched into fists at her side, and then at Crouch. The man seemed to have grown even gaunter over Yule, and his eyes had an odd glassiness to them. He did not look recovered.

There was a long moment of silence, and then Crouch belatedly nodded.

'Excellent. We'll let it go this time then, all things considered.' Fudge had whipped off his hat and was kneeding it in the way he usually only did when Hermione's betrothed was concerned. She wondered if he now found her as intimidating? 'But no more illegal creatures or magic; you know now that the ministry has no intention of harming anyone in this event and the ministry wont be lenient a second time.'

Hermione regarded him coldly for a moment, then jerked her head sharply in agreement. Fudge breathed an audible sigh of relief which made his shoulders sag, and then stepped back as Sirius Black, Anneken and Lord Nott crowded in to greet them and check that they were both well.

Hermione was only vaguely aware of the roar of the crowd and disappearance of the arguing teachers and officials, presumably as another competitor surfaced and they moved over to meet them.

Anneken had brought a change of robes for her, and Hermione changed into the fur dress and robes behind a screen conjured by Lord Nott. Beyond it, Sirius was informing her of how the task had progressed, his words interspersed with drying and cleaning charms as he tried to restore Harry's clothes to presentable and rescue his mud soaked shoes. Hermione could have told him it was a lost cause, and she was certain Anneken had something new for him anyway; she'd taken personal offence to the ward of her favourite model wearing hand-me-downs.

Changed, and already much warmer, the whole group began traipsing back to the stands to wait for the other competitors to emerge - it looked like Fleur Delacour had already returned to shore, and she seemed to have also taken the egg's words to heart and was wailing about her sister, struggling to get away from the hold of her towering headmistress and a willowy woman that could only be her mother.

'Could we perhaps have a moment?' Lord Nott muttered quietly in her ear. She glanced up, surprised by his tone and realised that she clearly hadn't observed him closely enough earlier. He looked like he'd aged over the year; dark circles beneath his eyes and a sharpness to his cheeks that hadn't existed earlier. It was for those reasons that she slipped away with him, following him around the lake and into the protection of the fringes of the forest.

'What is it?' She asked, eyes following the older wizard as he erected privacy wards, despite the seclusion and the preoccupation of everyone else with the task.

He remained silent, merely rolling up his sleeve and baring his wrist to her. She'd seen Karkaroff's mark during the Yule ball, but she was startled by how much it had darkened since then. The smudge of grey had sharpened into clear lines, which depicted a snake slithering out of the mouth of a skull, body looped into the symbol of eternity. It was so realistic that she half expected the image to suddenly move.

'It is almost back to it's old strength.' Lord Nott muttered painfully. Hermione allowed her fingers to skate around it, feeling the twisted bond that it anchored into Lord Nott's magic. She could feel the way it fed off him like a parasite, and she wished she could sever it now and then.

'I know that you wish it to remain until the right moment, but when you are ready, I will remove this.' Hermione vowed. Lord Nott wheezed a sigh, dropping to his knees without removing his bared wrist from her hands.

'You are most gracious, my Lady.' He breathed, 'I can barely believe that I am fortunate enough to be a member of your circle.'

Hermione bit her lip awkwardly, uncomfortable with the worship.

'How much longer do you think we have?' She asked.

'The summer, at the latest.'

'And he will be angry with you.' Hermione guessed, 'for not remaining loyal to him.'

Lord Nott jerked his head.

'And you will tell him that you are loyal to the end. You will tell him that you believed he would prefer his followers to remain in the positions of influence he required last war, and that you have even managed to trick me into trusting you. She tilted his hand and tapped the black ring on his finger; one of the ones gifted to her by the goblins, that matched the one she wore on her own fingers. 'And if he remains angry, you will use this port key to return to Avalon where I will remove his mark, and any claim he might have over you.'

Lord Nott glanced at the ring, then heaved a heavy sigh and rose back to his feet, his chin tipping back resolvedly.

'I will do what I must to atone for my sins, my Lady.' And that statement did nothing to reassure Hermione that the elderly Lord would not allow himself to be tortured if he believed it would help them in the long run. She heaved a sigh, asked if there was anything else and then when there wasn't, removed the privacy wards with a wave of her hand and led the way back to the task before they could be missed.

In the time they were away, Victor Krum had returned and managed to transfigure his head back to human. He'd had to pick up one of his classmates; a loose definition of what he'd surely miss indeed, but perhaps the closest the organisers could come when Hermione was already taken. Anneken and the rest of Hermione's group were crowded around him and the officials were still arguing over whether Harry's alliance with the Mer should be allowed. Viktor didn't seem to care either way and was ignoring everything except his and Harry's discussion about broomsticks.

Cedric Diggory emerged only minutes before the expiry of the time limit, Cho Chang coming up beside him and gasping much as Hermione had done. Diggory had apparently used a bubblehead charm and it had clearly failed in the last minutes of the task; he showed obvious signs of magical exhaustion as Chang had to help him out of the water and Madam Pomfrey quickly started dosing him with potions. Hermione was glad they'd found an alternative option.

The scores ended up being scattered - Harry was scored well, with the predictable exception of the ministry and Karkaroff and they only remained for long enough to see that he was now drawn with Diggory with Krum trailing a bare five points behind and Delacour in last place by a reasonable margin, but still one that could be made up if she won the third task.

But Hermione and her friends had another event to attend; the first meeting of their defence against the dark arts group. Neville and Theo had decided to hold it after the second task so that everyone could use the celebrations and chaos as an excuse to be out and about should they have any issues reaching the chamber.

They bid goodbye to the adults and parted; Ginny and Hermione headed down to the bathroom in the dungeons whilst the boys jogged up the staircase; Theo would be trying to drain himself down a sink whilst the two Gryffindor boys would be jumping down the floor drain in the Gryffindor commonroom.

It went surprisingly smoothly, even if Hermione was very glad that she already knew the impervious charm as she climbed into the toilet. The water splashed away from her shoes, deflected by the spell and she took a deep breath, then reached for the handle and pulled it firmly.

The noise was much louder than she had expected - a roar of water, a sound like a hoover. She'd expected a squeezing sensation, but instead she found herself spinning violently and dropping. It lasted several seconds as the water pounded against her impervious charm, then suddenly it all fell silent. The water trickled away through the enlarged tube. Above her was the hole she'd come through, barely large enough to stick a fist through.

Just down the pipe there was another roar of sound, then a spray of water, and suddenly Ginny dropped down from her own hole in the ceiling, landing like a cat in a crouch, and coughing several times. Her impervious charm hadn't held up quite as well as Hermione's.

'Yuck.' Ginny complained, raising her wand to cast a raft of cleaning and drying charms on herself.

'Yuck.' Hermione agreed, glancing around at the dim pipe and wondering where the light was coming from. Realistically, it wasn't quite as bad as she'd anticipated for centuries old plumbing; perhaps magic had something to do with it, because there was no odour beyond a faint dampness and certainly not the splattered excrement that she'd anticipated.

'That way.' Hermione indicated in the direction the water had run, marvelling at the way the pipe seemed to remain walking height as far as she could see. Her fingers ran over the transfigured basilisk scale in her pocket, wondering whether Slytherin had recorded the enchantment anywhere.

The two girls trekked down through the plumbing, quickly arriving at the obvious entrance to the chamber - a massive circular doorway, like one would expect to see in a safe. It grated open as they approached, the eyes of the embossed serpents flashing in the indistinct light.

From there, it was clear that they were no longer in the plumbing. The pipes were massive, bigger even than Apophis. The doorway quickly opened into the massive chamber that Hermione remembered and she paused to marvel at the changes.

It was cleaner. The stone was now a matte grey and the polished gemstones glittered in the serpentine pillars. The old man's head at the end was a pearly white, his mouth still gaping widely. The biggest difference, however, was the torches in the brackets. They'd been green last time, which had created a spooky, cold atmosphere. Someone had replaced them with red fire which burned much brighter and warmer, making everything seem more welcoming.

She jumped down the small step onto the walkway, her footsteps echoing around the empty room. More echoes joined it, then male voices as Theo and the two Gryffindor boys arrived.

'What do you think?' Theo asked, gesturing to the room with a pride that suggested he'd had a significant hand in the changes.

'Brilliant.' Hermione praised, looking around the room again. Now that the room was better lit, she could see that there was another set of walkways running around the very edge, beyond the pools of water which bordered the central walkway. They swept around, only stopping at the large lake that took up the far end. With less going on, and fully rested unlike her last visit, Hermione could see a set of stepping stones submerged just beneath the water which allowed her to walk out to the open mouth of the statue without wetting even the hem of her robes.

The mouth seemed to be the entrance to another chamber, smaller and more intimate than the one she'd just left. It was about half the size of the Slytherin common room and had probably once been furnished as well. Stone shelves still remained, along with a cold stone hearth and fittings on the walls suggested there had once been a number of tapestries, along with torches. It would have been warm and well lit; a place where Salazar Slytherin could relax and study in the company of his pet serpent.

She headed back out when unfamiliar voices echoed through from the chamber, primarily expressions of awe. The Ravenclaw from Ginny's year had arrived at the same time as Montague and Vaisey from her own house. The two Slytherins were clean but damp, suggesting they'd gone for the sink or floor drain option whilst Luna Lovegood looked supremely unconcerned by the toilet paper in her hair as Ginny helped her cast cleaning charms on her shoes.

A hoard of Gryffindors arrived shortly afterwards, loud and boisterous Weasleys with their bouncy-haired friend. They seemed delighted by the fact they'd flushed themselves down the toilet to arrive and one of the twins ended up pushing the other into the water either side of the walkway within minutes. Hermione barely managed to restrain her exhausted sigh at their antics.

Before long, the room was beginning to fill up. It was easily big enough for the large group to split themselves into house factions; Slytherins by the large statue, Gryffindors over where the Weasley twin had fallen into the water and Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs flanking the entrance. Hermione was gratified to see the older students helping the younger students clean and dry up, even if their own casting wasn't exactly perfect. As the boys had said, that would be their first lesson.

Theo pulled out the list, checking off names as people arrived and making sure there had been no problems, then when he had everyone present, he signalled to her. She strode up to the head of the room, climbing up so that she was stood on the statue's nose.

Hermione called the room to attention with a loud bang from the end of her wand and everyone shuffled in around the shore of the lake, looking up at her.

'Welcome, everyone, to the Chamber of Secrets. Heir Nott says that nobody encountered any problems in finding it.' There was a general murmur of assent. 'Does anyone have any questions before we begin?'

In the general silence, a single hand rose. Hermione cocked her head expectantly in the direction of the hand. It was Luna Lovegood.

'Do we have a name? Guardians of Gorlois, perhaps?' Luna asked.

'The Defence Association.' Some else called from the group of Gryffindors.

'Or the Anti-Umbridge League?' Came another suggestion, this one met by a wave of appreciative laughs.

'Make it something innocuous, so we can talk about it without getting in trouble!' A Ravenclaw boy added.

'Or don't give it a name at all.' Another Ravenclaw suggested. 'Then Umbridge'll really struggle to pin us down, because we'll call it something different every time.'

'Oooh! I like that idea.' A Gryffindor cooed excitedly. Hermione looked around the room to see a number of heads nodding agreement.

'Okay. Let's put it to a vote; everyone close your eyes. Put your hand in the air and stick up your thumb if you want to leave the group without a name. Stick up your finger if you want to name the group. Leave your hand closed if you don't mind.'

Hands shot into the air and Hermione quickly counted the number of thumbs and fingers.

'Okay. Open your eyes. We've got a clear majority in favour of not naming the group.' There were a couple of pleased mutterings and Hermione allowed them before she cleared her throat again for silence.

'So, considering how we need to get here, we're going to start by making sure everyone is up to scratch with their cleaning, drying and impervious charms. It's not defence, but they're all very useful skills and you never know when you'll get caught out in bad conditions. We'll start with drying, as it's the easiest. Everyone pull out your wands.'

There were several cheers as wands were drawn, Hermione couldn't help the smile that tugged at her lips as she demonstrated the wand movements for the charm to the eager group. Once she was satisfied that everyone had the wand movement and incantation, she had Harry and Theo split them into groups.

Her students separated, peeling off their robes and dunking them into the lakes before practicing their charms. Hermione walked between them, correcting postures and pronunciation, familiarising herself with each of their magic and how it effected their casting. For those who found the task too easy, she set them to doing it wordlessly. When Vaisey complained that he hadn't come to the group for charms, Theo offered to dry our his eyeballs to see if he still thought it was useless afterwards.

'Dry out his eyeballs?' One of the Gryffindors squeaked, eyeing her own wand with renewed respect.

'Yes.' Neville stepped up at Theo's shoulder, backing him up. It was odd; Hermione had never imagined him as a particularly dangerous person. It was easy to forget that he too was an heir to a house with all that entailed, that his traditional Grandmother had probably trained him as well as Hermione or Theo had been trained by their respective patriarchs and matriarchs to defend their houses and that his parents had been some of the Auror corps' best. He lacked confidence in his own magic and power; his house reduced to an elderly Lady and her child son, his magic slow to move and difficult to manipulate, but he was a powerful wizard and he looked like one as he faced down Vaisey and Montague, wand dangling idly for his fingers. 'Any charm can be used in a duel, and some of the most common ones can be really nasty.'

'And they're the easiest to cast.' Ginny added, coming up beside them. They'd drawn the attention of most of the room at that point.

'Sure.' Vaisey glanced around and Hermione saw the moment his Slytherin pride realised that he'd challenged the Nott heir, and one of Hermione's lieutenants, in front of an entire audience of his peers. He backtracked quickly. 'Of course, we know that Lady Gorlois is more than capable, but perhaps you might give us a demonstration of your own prowess, Heir Nott, Heir Longbottom.'

'A duel?' Neville squeaked, all confidence evaporating. Hermione hid her sigh; trained as an heir he might be, but it was clear that his house was not a political one.

'Of course.' Theo glared at Neville out of the corner of his eye, his lip curling into the perfect sneer. He turned to Hermione in a single smooth movement and bowed deeply, sweeping over his own arm faultlessly. 'Lady Gorlois, would you do us the honour of being our opponent?'

'Of course.' Hermione acquiesced easily. It was a risky move because if Hermione defeated the boys too quickly, they wouldn't have a chance to prove themselves but if she had to fight too hard it would risk her own position. But, played right, the duel could only strengthen their position and Hermione had the utmost confidence that her two friends could provide enough of a fight for it to work in their favour.

'Does that satisfy?' Theo asked archly, turning back to Vaisey.

'It does.' Vaisey, along with the other Slytherins and a number of Ravenclaws were clearly also aware of the risk Theo had taken, but some were obviously sceptical - they were not as confident as Hermione.

'We will duel to incapacitated.' Hermione announced, pulling out her wand. The rest of the group hastily moved back to allow a long, narrow space for Hermione and the two boys. The Gryffindors, always ready for action, crowded to the front and offered semi-reassuring advice to Neville as he made his way down the newly formed aisle.

She focused on casting duelling wards between them and the audience as the two boys conferred and then waited at the other end, bouncing on her toes and doing a couple of quick stretches with her magic. It was almost recovered from Scamander's apparition, but occasionally she'd find some errant fragment that wisped out of control and wreaked havoc on her wandless magic.

'Ready!' Neville finally announced, drawing away from Theo. He looked very pale, but there was a decisive set to his jaw that she found reassuring.

Interestingly, her own strategy would depend on theirs. At first glance, the duel appeared one-sided. Two against one was always difficult, no matter the skill of the one, but in such a narrow space, Hermione had the advantage of freedom of movement whilst the two boys were severely restricted in their ability to dodge. They would have to take most of her spells on a shield, so wardbreakers could be used to devastating effect.

'Cast on one.' Harry instructed, taking over the role of adjudicator. 'Three.'

The two boys didn't move. Hermione scowled and did the same, unable to know how to respond until they gave away their game.

'Two.' Harry glanced between them. Neither boy took up a stance, although Neville's hand twitched. Hermione narrowed her eyes and slipped into a defensive stance just as Harry spoke the last number.

She'd been right, but both boys had also known that she would know that they couldn't afford defence. Both opened with powerful wardbreakers, one to each side. Hermione was forced to drop beneath them or risk losing her off hand in the opening move. She managed to cast her own charm - a zing of nasty looking purple sparks that had no real effect and took no concentration or power… but the boys didn't know that. It forced them onto the defensive.

Neville, prepared for the spell, whipped up both hands. A shield shot into the air, intercepting the sparks with a sizzle that betrayed their ineffectuality. Hermione used her own shield to deflect a red light from Theo, then sprung back to her feet and launched an overhand wardbreaker at Neville.

Neville dropped his shield and pressed up close to Theo to avoid the buzz of white light.

Theo's next spell was thrown off balance and Hermione was able to cast two quick hexes.

She dodged something orange, perhaps a pumpkin head, and retaliated with an overpowered shoelace tying charm - best case, it would leave them hobbled, worst case, it disguised the wardbreaker flying in behind it.

Then suddenly the stones beneath her were spongy and she couldn't dodge as quickly. She was forced to take two heavy jinxes on her shield and the thundering crash of magic against magic was only matched by the excited oohs of the students.

Her offhand sketched a kite shield, her wand flicked through the complex counter charm to the jinx on the floor. She deflected one, then two more spells from Theo and then gave up with subtlety and conjured a flock of flaming birds which dove on the two boys with unearthly screeches.

The brief respite let her fix the floor, then almost immediately she had to conjure more birds; metallic, this time, to force a change of strategy, as reinforcements for the first.

Neville dealt with the birds and Theo stood behind him, hurling multicoloured lights down the hallway. Hermione deflected each with her kite, sent several back, twisted beneath a yellow one that looked suspiciously bright for anything other than a ward breaker, jinxed Neville's fingernails when he was distracted by a flaming bird that had slipped past his guard and threatened Theo's robes.

Neville's wand was easy pickings as his nails sprouted into talons, curling over and around, spiralling towards the floor. Hermione chucked it towards Harry in lieu of snapping it.

Theo took advantage of her distraction. Her ward took a heavy pounding from his wardbreaker and Hermione cried out as her wand gave her a warning zap.

She spun her fingers, invisible magic tugging at Theo's robes. He snarled, his own hand slashing down. Like cords of rope, slippery twists of Theo's magic twined around her, tugging at her arms and legs, weighing them down like stones. It manifested physically; emerald ropes that anchored to the stones.

Hermione fought back with her own magic, fire running over her skin and searing the binds away as quickly as they could grow back.

Neville - wandless but with his fingernails under control, cast an impressive wandless but not quite wordless sticking charm. Hermione managed to deflect it with her wand. One of the Weasleys cheered him on.

Her fire won out over Theo's magic, more practiced, better adapted to wandless magic. She send it racing back along the cords like they were fuses. It was Theo's turn to fight off fire with his slippery magic. Wandless, Neville lasted one strong wardbreaker, then tapped out when she sent a splash of distinctive green that signified a killing curse.

Theo threw off Hermione's magic when she was distracted with Neville. He conjured a giant black panther which pounced. Hermione conjured a giant wolf and sent it into battle against the great cat, then conjured another and sent it at Theo. He tried to banish it, she met that with her own counter charm, he tried again, conjured a large smoky crow. She banished that, just in time to watch Theo's conjured panther dissolve as her second wolf swiped away gouts of flame from his wand. Faced by two sets of massive, slavering jaws, Theo surrendered his wand.

The defence group burst into applause.

The trio stood, breathing heavily as Harry tossed back their wands and Hermione's sect dismantled the ward. Several Gryffindors flooded around Neville immediately, clapping him on the back and informing him in loud, rowdy voices that they'd never doubt him again, demanding to know where he'd been hiding "it all". Neville looked embarrassed but slightly pleased by the attention.

The two Slytherins turned to Vaisey who nodded approvingly, first to her and then to Theo. He didn't look surprised though; in fact, he then looked straight past Hermione at a Slytherin girl on the other side of the corridor where they'd just been duelling. His expression was unmistakably smug. She got the impression that perhaps the wizard had just given them all a chance to prove themselves to some silent dissenter and resolved to thank him somehow.

'I take it back. It would be an honour to learn from you.' He finally said, eyes flicking to the same girl, confirming Hermione's suspicion when the witch nodded begrudgingly.

With the excitement over, the class moved on to cleaning, and by the end of the two hour meeting; well past curfew, they'd even covered the basics of impervious charms. Her students were pleased but weary and she couldn't help but note a certain camaraderie between them all when they started filing towards the door.

'The Hufflepuffs were smart enough to mark the route back to their common room.' Theo observed as they too filed out of the chamber and stared for a moment at the first fork in the pipes. One had a distinct marking of yellow chalk above it.

'I imagine that's the dungeons?' Hermione suggested dubiously. The other tunnel certainly sounded louder; a sure tell that Gryffindors were in it. They all shrugged at one another, then split up; Theo and Hermione following the Hufflepuffs whilst the Gryffindors headed up the other tunnel.

They did eventually make their way out of the tunnels… shooting up through the sink in one of the potions classrooms. Close, but not quite where they'd been aiming for. Fortunately, it was one of the ones reasonably close to their dormitory so they could slip in without even needing disillusionment charms.