Chapter 2

Should someone else be nosy enough to notice the small crosses fitted into the tiny squares of her mini calendar, she'll kindly tell them that it's to do with her exams.

Should that someone else insist to press her about the subject, mentioning that the exams are ages away, the following school year, "actually", then she'll not-so-kindly tell them to leave her alone. After she's made it quite clear that she takes her education very seriously–unlike some people, of course.

Should that same someone else make a crass comment about "her and books", rolling their eyes at that, she won't hesitate to hex them, because she's had it up to here already.

Ronald got away untouched only because he has Quidditch try-outs after breakfast, but the next person to peek over her shoulder, lean down too close to her and then question her about her own calendar, will not be spared.

What's it to that person what she does with her own calendar? That she just finished making the twelfth cross on yesterday's date, should be of no concern to anyone; it's irritating enough that she has to continue making crosses, she doesn't want to be asked about it as well.

Also, how she chooses to spend her morning this close to breakfast, even if it heavily has to with Professor Snape, should interest no one else. Being the perfect example to follow, Professor Snape himself is unconcerned and – if he's unconcerned with her, then everyone else has no excuse to be.

26Chapters

McLaggen is entirely to blame for her entering Slughorn's office this way. She escaped as far as she could from the pitch, only looking to avoid him and the constant looks her way and now, unplanned, she's stepping further and deeper into the warm, slightly stuffy office of the Potions teacher. Whatever made her think that it was a good idea to rush down to the dungeons, must be named stupidity.

Or inattention to her own steps.

Or subconscious yearning for a word from Professor Snape.

There's that McLaggen wouldn't dare to look for her down here, but when she specifically walked all the way from out there to down here, it's suspicious even to her. She could have gone into any other empty room in the castle, and he wouldn't have bothered further than their common room or the hall. However, now that she's here, there's no point to beating herself up for her stupid decisions. She's made stupider decisions in the past. But this one, she'll turn around to her advantage; she wants to.

'Good day, Professor,' she greets as she reaches his table.

Slughorn, although looks up from his newspaper, does not properly look at her in the way that she had hoped that he would. As far as her presence is concerned, it's apparently only enough that her form is visible to him, not her identity.

'I'm Hermione Granger,' she supplies, hoping at least that he'll be decent enough to look at her face.

If she wanted to be talking to be Professor Snape, she thinks with a small frown, she would have fled to his office, not come here. This treatment from Slughorn is a little too reminding of Professor Snape, and she'd much rather that Slughorn didn't have mannerisms that reminded her of Professor Snape.

'I know, my girl,' he replies with a small nod, but still doesn't look at her face. 'What can I do for you?'

She wonders what could have given her identity away if up to now, he hasn't had a proper look at her yet. And considering how much attention and praise he gives Harry, she wouldn't have believed it too far-fetched for him to have forgotten her name by now. In any case, if he remembers her from class, then good.

'Well, Professor, I was wondering if I could start brewing potions outside of class.'

To her surprise, all of a sudden interested enough to look at her, Slughorn's face spreads into a wide grin.

'Ah! Miss Granger, yes,' he cheerily lets out. 'Professor Snape said that you would be coming. I have been expecting you for quite some days.'

Taken aback, properly at that, she lets out a rushed, 'I'm sorry?'

If she sounded out of breath, like she, for a moment, struggled to keep her breath caught in place, then all right.

'What I said, my girl,' he tells her. 'You are great friends with Harry Potter, are you not?'

Apparently, this man finds it inconsequential what he just revealed. In truth, it irks her slightly that he'd be so careless to dismiss one important revelation for a useless piece of information, but she does her best not to react to his attitude.

'Yes, I am, but sir,' she begins to dismiss him as he did with what he just revealed, 'what did Professor Snape say about me?'

And when did he say it? That's more important for her to know, not her "great" friendship with Harry.

'That you would be coming to brew potions,' Slughorn recalls, his eyes directed upwards. 'He gave me his recommendation. Odd that, now that I think about it.'

Odd or not, she remains absolutely still, lest she does something to distract him from his recall. Her eyes watch him intently, not daring to lose even the slight trace of sight of him. Following a moment of quiet, he then returns to looking at her, much like he's looking for something in particular.

'You must really be as bright as they say you are,' he comments at last, sounding very impressed about it.

Never mind that, she'd only like to hear more about Professor Snape.

'Professor, did you say that Professor Snape gave you his recommendation for me to brew?' she asks him for a change in subject. 'When was this?'

It matters. That piece of information matters to her very much, and her racing heart can attest to that.

'It was on the very first day of term.'

And he says it so casually like that, with a budding smile, even?

She has half a mind to snap at him for not treating this as seriously as it is, except, the more scholarly portion of her mind reminds her that Slughorn isn't to blame for Professor Snape's mistakes. Ready though she may be to snap with each new piece of information, Slughorn shouldn't be the one to receive brunt of it. Yes, Professor Snape gave his recommendation that long ago, and yes, coming to terms with having wasted her time waiting, is doing more than irritatingly poking her the same way that Ron's intrusion did this morning, but she will not, for the sake of her own reputation, make a performance in front of a teacher she hardly knows. That will have to wait for a more appropriate audience; Professor Snape, for example.

'So then, my girl?' he jovially asks, fortunately pulling her from her mind.

'Could I brew potions, then, sir?' she wants to know. 'It was an extra-curricular activity that I did during the periods that I was free.'

'Professor Snape allowed you to brew without supervision?'

There's a wary look about him now, nearly as though he already distrusts whatever is to come from her mouth.

'No, sir,' she shakes her head. 'It had to be around a time that he was free as well. Mostly, it was four times a week.'

'And the potions?' he questions, the wariness persistent on his face.

'He assigned me which to brew, sir. I only had to brew them.'

For a still moment, Slughorn appears to be thinking, probably deliberating on the path to take, and soon after asks, 'Did you keep the brews?

'No, Professor.'

If he wouldn't even allow her to mention what she brewed to anyone outside of brewing, why would he have allowed her to keep them? She always assumed that he kept them locked away in an unused cabinet in his office, because she never did ask what he did with her potions.

'All right, my girl,' he decides. 'Leave me a copy of your timetable and I will communicate to you in time.'

Having come here straight from the pitch, she has nothing but her wand, which is why she asks him for some parchment and a quill. The way he partially smirks at her as he grants her request, she expects him to make a comment about knowing her timetable off by heart, only, he doesn't. For that, she's grateful, because without the worry of being irritated while she's writing up her classes from memory, she's able to do it faster.

As soon as she finishes with the timetable, she hands him everything belonging to him and with two words of gratitude and then one of goodbye to him, she makes her way out of his office; perfectly composed. Stepping out through the door, however, upon accepting that she's really down in the dungeons and could, if she wanted to, head down to see Professor Snape, breaks the civility that she'd forced upon herself in Slughorn's presence. Out here in the corridors of the dungeons, so very close to him, she's vexed.

26Chapters

'Hermione?'

While looking up to meet Ginny's face, she chastises herself for not finding an empty classroom instead of the common room floor. Interruptions like this one, she could have easily avoided had she looked for an empty classroom. Really, the brilliant decisions that she is making today.

'What?'

To her own ears, her response sounds rude and maybe she should feel bad about it, but she isn't really pressed to care about it. Not even when a frown crosses Ginny's face.

'What's wrong with you?' Ginny wants to know, inviting herself to sit on the floor beside her.

Harry and Ron, silent so far, take the lead from her and make place beside each other. Among the four of them, they've now created a circle shape with her books in the middle of it.

'Why do you think something is wrong with me?' she asks.

'Your books are closed,' Ginny inclines her head to the closed books in the middle of their circle.

'I'm just not in the mood to study,' she lies.

'Tch!' the other girl dismisses. 'Like I'd believe that. You're not stressed out about school and being a prefect, are you?'

Hearing that, she immediately shoots Ron a look. Taking into account what happened this morning and his tendency to say things out of turn, he might have influenced his sister to this extent.

'What are you looking at me for?' he asks, sounding offended.

'I can't look at you?' she retorts.

Why does he seem jumpy despite sounding offended? Could he maybe feel guilty about something? Something to do with mentioning her marked calendar to the others?

'Well, yeah, you can,' he replies, 'but you've got that look on your face. Doesn't she, Harry?' he looks at Harry for support, who refuses to be part of it by shrugging lightly.

'Is something wrong, Hermione?' Harry asks instead. 'You left after try-outs and you even didn't come to lunch either.'

Harry, maybe because she really does like him most of the time, is always the one who can make her break. He has a way of being sympathetic and understanding when he doesn't allow himself to get too carried away with foolish behaviour in the same way that Ron does.

'It's Professor Snape,' she finds herself saying.

'Snape?' Harry cries, clearly not having expected that to be it.

'It's always Snape,' Ron comments, irritated, she supposes. 'That used to be Harry's complaint. Now his is Malfoy and you're always talking about Snape.'

'Mention the last time that I talked about him!' she quickly demands from him.

More than the mocking face made by Ron, she hates being accused of something that's not true. Ronald has no idea how much she's been pushing through these days, not doing anything to confront Professor Snape. Or how much she had to fight with herself from Slughorn's, so as not to barge into his office and demand satisfactory answers from him. He has no idea how well she's managed to tame herself even from herself and therefore has no right to speak on that.

'Why would you mention him now that you see him all you want at school?' Ron fires back.

That's not true, she wants to scream at him. Defence is the only time that she sees him now.

'Just tell us what he did,' Harry gently urges.

They might not understand. Even if she explained it all to them, it would seem silly, she believes.

'Did he give you a bad mark on your homework?' Harry asks again.

'He did nothing,' she answers.

'Are you sure?' it's Ginny. 'You can tell us, you know.'

No, she can't. They wouldn't understand it with the depth that it carries. She appreciates that they are willing to listen to her, though, which is why at least the reason that started everything, she decides to tell them.

'He really did nothing. Not really,' she answers. 'If you must know, I told him that I would be brewing potions with Slughorn from now on, and he said nothing. He only looked at me, but then he went and spoke to Slughorn about me brewing.'

'That's a good thing, isn't it?' Harry asks. 'Brewing for Slughorn is much better than brewing for Snape. And anyway, why are you still brewing? Don't you have enough going on already with your prefect duties?'

'I had a lot going on last year too,' she waves that away, 'and the year before that, so that's nothing.'

Scoffing in disbelief at her dismissal, Ron wonders, 'But it's something that Snape didn't insult you for dropping him?'

Ronald Weasley is the last straw.

No more, she tells herself as her eyes close and she pulls in a breath. After that, she gets herself up from the floor, leaving them all to stare up at her once she draws her books to into her arms with her wand.

'He doesn't insult me,' she makes that clear by directly looking at Ron. 'And anyway, I'm going to bed. Goodnight, you all.'

'But, Hermione,' Harry carefully says, 'it's only four o'clock.'

Oh. She didn't realise that.

It doesn't matter in any case, she thinks as she glares at Harry for providing that useless piece of information. He seems amused by her reaction, probably in the mind to make another joke, but she takes the chance away from him when she crosses over their incomplete circle and storms off towards her dorm.

26Chapters

To the best of her practiced ability, she makes sure to keep her emotions in place as she enters the Defence class on Monday morning. What was revealed in the weekend is past and that is that; she must believe that, otherwise she will not get through this class without giving the professor dirty looks all lesson.

Frustrated, though she is with him, she will not let him see her be anything that isn't uncaring. If he can wait for them to settle down without giving her any attention at all, then she can keep her anger for him in place. She's practiced it enough times over the days.

To the expense of her lungs now lacking air, once everyone has settled into their places, he comes to stand directly in front of her. There's no mistaking that he's coming only for her, when his eyes are concentrated on her. She will not look away and she will "discipline" her reaction as he once told her to do.

'Miss Granger, tell me,' he evenly begins, 'what is the counter potion to the torture curse?'

Potion? She doesn't remember reading about it, but desperately, more intimidated by his scrutiny than anything else, she tries to remember if she read that when she skimmed through the entire textbook. Three times she went through the book, but she can't recall that being mentioned.

'It's not covered in the textbook, Professor,' she answers to save herself.

Mocking in a sense, he challenges her with an expression to ask, 'You don't know?'

In the instant following his question, she recognises what he's doing. His faint frown is enough for her to conclude that he's singling her out. He didn't begin the class in this way as a form of teaching, no, he's being his usual predictable self – the same one from fifth year. Realising this, she keeps quiet, promising herself that she won't give him the pleasure of doing the same as he did then.

'Tell me, is it perhaps in the Potions textbook?' he asks her again.

He found out that she went to Slughorn, and this is how he chooses to address it? In front a class that has nothing to do with it? She told him when it was just the two of them, just as he spoke to Slughorn when it was just the two of them, at the very least he should maintain that pattern. Like this, he's being unreasonable, and she won't allow him the satisfaction of her silence.

'Not as far as I know, Professor,' she answers despite wanting to keep herself composed.

'As expected,' he scoffs as though unimpressed to the highest degree. 'Clearly, Potions is not everything.'

This hypocrite of a man. Not very long ago, he used to brag about potions being everything crucial in the world, but now that he's no longer the teacher for that subject, he has a reason to speak against it? When it suits him, everything is passable?

'Potions are important, Professor,' she bites back.

'Are they?' he questions. 'Were you taught about the Undesirable Enchantments in Potions, tell me?'

Breathe properly, Hermione.

Keep looking him in the eyes and disrupt the silence quickly filling the room.

'No, Professor.'

'Hm,' he mockingly sounds. 'And what would happen were you to find yourself numb under the placement of a binding curse?'

'I will find out, Professor,' she promises, only, the words leave a bitter taste in her mouth.

'Oh, yes,' he shows her a deep scowl. 'You'll find out from Professor Slughorn, will you?'

With that one question, leaving aside his determined stare and the accompanying expression, she can tell that she's gotten him quite upset with her. As she's caught in her own state of fury, she doesn't care about him being that way with her. He has no right to feel that way, in fact. What does it have to do with her, if he asked questions whose answers made him upset? What did he think would happen?

How vile of him!

On the tip of her tongue is the one word that will tip him over. Yes, just that one word. She could say it and then watch him explode in front of her eyes. She's so very tempted to do it, but she's kept herself together for so long. She can't fail at being composed now, not when she's done it for fourteen das. As difficult as it is to maintain herself at the moment, she'll do it; after all, she didn't endure all these days only to crumble at a measly moment of his frivolity.

What she will do, is respond to him without saying a single word. He should be familiar with the form of communication, having done it to her a number of times in the past. For all those times that he communicated his response to her with resistant silence, she's at last repaying the favour. He too, should feel what it's like to itch for an answer, only to be left to deduce it from the lack of response following the query. He should feel the prick of unwanted silence.

He does, she notes, and it infuriates him; his face does very well to communicate that. But then suddenly, he's looking to her right with narrowing eyes.

'Ten points from Hufflepuff, Mr. Darian,' he shouts, nearly making her jump with the sudden change in tone.

'I didn't do anything,' the boy cries in response, making her turn in his direction.

'You dropped your quill when you sat down.'

Unwilling to believe her ears, she looks at him, wanting to see if he really is saying what she heard him say. Seeing him concentrated in that direction, she's forced to accept that her ears were right.

'It was an accident,' comes the response from her right.

Except to sharply turn his back on the class, leaving them completely shocked into silence, he walks over to his table, sitting down at it and reaching for a book.

'Read,' he angrily instructs without looking at them.

In a rush, the whole class gets their book out and the sound of flipping pages fill the room. She does the same, going over the last text that she read in the book and then decides to go through the index again, to see if any of what he asked her is mentioned. Time has passed with only the occasional page turn, when someone lets out a small cough.

'Ten points from Slytherin, Mr. Crabbe,' he suddenly announces. 'I do not tolerate coughing in my class.'

If no one was interested in a small cough, if they didn't even hear it before, they know about it now. Newly, there's a chilling silence in the room and she wonders if people are as stunned as she is. She dares to lift her head and look around the class to see what the others are making of this. It's nearly unheard of for Professor Snape to deduct points from Slytherin.

One by one, she watches as the class starts coming to life and they all fix their eyes on their teacher. She too looks at him, but just as does, the sound of parchment tearing fills the class, causing him to look up at the class, his scowl remaining in place.

'You tore your parchment, Mr. Boot,' he announces again. 'Ten points from Ravenclaw.'

Incomprehensible! This is what it is. She doesn't understand the logic behind that, so she fixes him a deliberate stare, letting out an indignant sound as she does.

He meets her stare, nearly as though he knew that she would react, to ask, 'Is something the matter, Miss Granger?'

'That's totally unfair, Professor,' she fires at him, just about ready to get on to her feet. 'None of those things are against the school rules.'

As though he didn't hear her, he perfectly diverts his eyes from her to her left.

'Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr. Weasely. I don't recall giving you permission to look at Potter.'

For that, he's taking off points?

Even at the risk of losing House points, she turns to look at her friends beside her, because this is just ridiculous now. He's taken points away for trivial things before, although not in this childish way. Her friends, however, maybe out of fear, look away from her and simply get back to their books. Even Harry who's usually challenging when it has to do with Professor Snape, strangely keeps his head down.

No one else cares how unfair he's being?

The rest of the class is silent and her friends are acting like they suddenly have a deep appreciation for books. She's unfortunately left with no other choice but to return to her own reading, as outraged as she is. Class goes by with near absolute silence, and once the class ends, everyone rushes out of the door. The three of them are the last to leave, finding Pansy and some other House students gathered a little way from the door.

'What the bloody hell did you do to Snape, Granger?' Pansy demands.

They were waiting for her, apparently. And no, she will not entertain this. She'll honestly hex someone, if they are not careful. Now is not the time.

'I did nothing to him,' she coldly says, trying to walk past the group.

Not letting her pass, they hedge her in a half circle, and she, feeling up to her head in fury, quickly draws out her wand, pointing it to the closest person. She'll say nothing to warn them, they should all know. And when she chooses to hex them, it'll be a silent spell, and no one will be able to make her say what sort of spell she used.

'Calm down, Granger,' Pansy warns, but there's fear in her voice as she eyes the drawn out wand. 'We just want to know why we all lost points because of you.'

'It wasn't because of me,' she shoots back, redirecting her wand to Pansy. 'Snape takes points for whatever reason he feels like. You all know that. Whenever is he not in a bad mood?'

Pansy makes a face, maybe unable to think of a reply and then she turns her back, beginning to leave. Her group follows her, trotting behind her as though they have no minds of their own. Not longer than a breath later, Professor Snape whooshes past them in strides.

'You have to admit, Hermione, you pissed him off!' Harry says as they watch him walking away. 'I didn't think that he'd ever hate you not knowing the answer to something.'

'It wasn't because of that,' she says without thinking.

She regrets it as soon as it leaves her mouth, but other than biting the inside of her mouth, there's nothing that she can do to take it back. Although she should be wiser to keep from exposing the real reason.

'Then what did you do to him?' Harry wonders.

'When would I have found time to do something to him?' she hotly fires. 'I was indoors all day yesterday, if you remember.'

'Yeah, but you were miffed with him for something to do with Slughorn on Saturday,' Harry explains. 'Hey, come to think of it, he kept mentioning Potions, didn't he, Ron?'

To answer, Ron only shakes his head, keeping himself out of it. It's a wonder that he hasn't said anything yet. He usually has more comments than Harry.

'Maybe he's angry that you'll be brewing for Slughorn now and he's lost your free potions. I get it,' Harry claims. 'He's angry with you for dumping him, but he doesn't want to punish you, because he still needs you to come back, so he's punishing the rest of us for it, knowing that you'll hate it. Everyone knows that you hate unfair treatment. Remember spew?'

'Will you stop it!' she cries, beginning to move her feet. 'You're being ridiculous. What you're saying is something that only happens in Muggle films. And the day that he ever needs me for anything, especially potions, I'll kiss a frog and then turn into a princess. You're speaking rubbish, Harry Potter.'

'But Hermione,' Harry refuses to let it go, 'Snape is clearly miffed about something that you did to him, and instead of making you pay for it, he's taking out his anger on us. We all heard it. How come he didn't take points off because of you, then?'

Though partly true what he's saying, she will not satisfy him by confirming his correct deductions.

'That's a typical villain plot in the Muggle films, Harry,' she chooses to discount his assessment. 'He was hurt by one person, so he's destroying the entire world as revenge.'

'Well, Snape is a villain, isn't he?' Harry replies with a snicker.

She hears Ron snicker along with Harry, and though she says nothing to encourage him, in her mind, she silently agrees that he's certainly acting like one.

26Chapters

Today was worse than the weekend. She only wants to cry. Lately, all she wants to do is cry.

She hates that simply can't go up to him and demand for him to explain himself. She also hates how she keeps telling herself to smile and move on each day and the days only keep racking up. She's well aware that one day her lid will tip off, if she doesn't sit herself down and resolve her feelings, the Burrow and dream feelings included, but she doesn't want to. Why should she do something, if he isn't doing anything?

26Chapters

'Is there something going on?' she asks the boys.

Maybe, just maybe -unlikely, really- they know something that she doesn't.

'What do you mean?' Ron asks from her right.

'This whole week, no matter where I went, people stopped talking. It's like there's something going on, but I don't know what it is.'

It didn't escape her notice that during week, wherever she went, just about all talk died down just like that. In the beginning, it didn't bother her much, thinking that it only had to do with her being a prefect, but after just a few moments ago when she collected her cake from the kitchen, she's not sure anymore.

'And when I got my cake from the kitchen,' she continues to explain, 'I found a group of third year girls along the way. Do you know, they ran away from me? I think that they were afraid of me.'

To confirm that she's not losing her mind and imagining things, she looks from one side to the other, hoping that either one of them will assure her that by some unholy miracle, the students have all banded together to surprise her for her seventeenth birthday today. They tell her nothing of the like, however.

'What?' she presses, taking their silence for information. 'Tell me.'

'Well, it's not exactly a secret that Snape's being mean to everyone this week,' Harry tells her after exchanging a short look with Ron.

All right, that's news to her, but it doesn't explain why she's being treated with silence by everyone.

'Mean how?' she wonders, frowning. 'And when is he being mean? I haven't seen him be mean to anyone.'

Apart from those House points that he took in the first Defence class of the week, he hasn't gone back to taking points. Not that she knows of.

'He's not being a git to you, so you wouldn't notice,' Ron tells her.

'I've had prefect duties all week and I saw nothing,' she maintains, hating how it sounds like she's defending him.

'We told you, Hermione, he's not being evil to you, but to the rest of us, he is,' it's Harry this time. 'Most people have taken to not lurking around in the corridors anymore. It's worse when he finds you alone. He's a nightmare.'

Where has she been this week that she didn't see this? There's still tomorrow left to the school week, but still, where has she been?

'I'd usually be happy that someone pissed him off,' Ron chimes in, 'but the Slytherins are going around saying that you did something to him and he's pissed off with you.'

'For the last time, I didn't do anything to him.'

It's offending that people are still going with that. It's even worse that she's only finding out about this on her own birthday.

'Everyone believes the Slytherins,' Harry shrugs.

And so do the two of them, she observes. One of them would at least have mentioned it to her if they didn't believe any part of what the Slytherins are spreading.

'So what, they're just going to keep quiet wherever I go? That's just ridiculous!'

'Well, nobody wants to piss you off, so you can piss off Snape some more, do they?' Ron says. 'Plus, everyone's terrified that they'll end up like Marietta if they piss you off! It's like you and Snape are the scariest people in the castle now.'

Meaning what, that she's an enemy to everyone? Even to people who know her? Are they all looking at her as they did to Umbridge? Stunned, overwhelmed, actually, she stops moving altogether as her eyes stare out straight ahead of her.

'Are you saying that everyone hates me?' she softly asks, dreading to hear the answer.

Please, no. They should tell her no, please. She's a prefect now. There's no way that she'll be allowed to avoid any student. And when she tries to exercise her prefect authority, any obedience that she receives will only be from cowardice and fear. No one will respect her in spite of her position and title. All the houses in sixth and seventh year also tend to have one or two classes together, to make up for the students who weren't accepted or chose to drop those subjects, meaning that for the rest of year, she'll be dealing with all the houses. And if they all hate her...

'They're afraid of you,' Harry sounds consoling.

That difference's not better than them hating her. It really isn't. Because of him, she's now a monster. She can't believe this; he's making everyone hate her.

'Hermione,' Ron lightly shakes her shoulder, 'are you all right?'

What did she do to him that he's making everyone hate her? Simply because she wants to brew with the appropriate teacher, he's turning the whole school against her? What must the teachers think of her now? Has the rumour reached them? When she enters their classes, do they see her and think that she's become a bad student who angers teachers?

'Hermione?' Ron tries for her attention again.

Does he know that she shielded herself from herself all of this time? She, who's always ready to go over things, analysing with careful scrutiny until she understands it to the last detail, commanded herself to steer away from anything to do with him for as long as he didn't approach her. She repressed own emotions, pushing them down at the very point where she so badly wanted to feel them in depth. Does he know how many times she's bit back tears, only for this to be the ending of her hard work?

'Are you okay, Hermione?' Harry asks, her vision catching sight of his hand waving in front of her face.

'I'm fine,' she quietly says after a while.

She's not responding to either of them, she's not assuring them and she's not confirming her current state. She's fine only because she's made up her mind now. For as long as she attends Hogwarts, she wants nothing, absolutely nothing to do with Professor Severus Snape ever again.

From the very core of her being, a chilling cold suddenly erupts, instantly shooting all over her. To bear its effect on her body, she has to clench her teeth quite hard together and close her eyes as she ignores the shivers dancing all over her skin. Icy pricks stab her from within and though uncomfortable to withstand, it passes quickly. In its place, fluidly carrying on where the chill ends, a forceful wave of magic flares off her body in a blaze.

This second account of magic is quite short, behaving as though it was heat flung off her with no aftereffect. It strangely feels like the result of the first effect, really, but what would she know? She may be exceptional at magic, but she didn't grow up around magic and there's still so much that she's to learn. Maybe this is something typical when one comes of age in the wizarding world.

'I'm fine,' she repeats, this time feeling self-collected enough to open her eyes.

'Are you sure?' Harry asks.

'Let's go,' is all she says and then takes off towards Hagrid's hut.

26Chapters

She hadn't planned on it, except, after yesterday's revelation, she sees no way around it.

She'll write to Lupin. She'll write to Moody. She'll write to Kingsley. And then she'll write to Viktor. She'll send one letter to Flourish and Bolts asking for texts on Dark Arts, and then she'll send a copy of that to Borgin and Burkes. And just to spite him, she'll ask Slughorn for help; she'll be sure to charm his citations to remain permanently highlighted for when he reads it.

See how he will like that.