A noticeable progress

A week later Hermione had just begun to get used to how things were going on, when came a disturbing issue of Daily Prophet. An anonymous report had been sent to Ministry informing them that Sirius was hiding in London, and there was another article as the icing on the cake; Sturgis Podmore was arrested, sentenced to Azkaban for six month. What was his crime? Going through the wrong door.

Unlike Harry she wasn't surprised at all. What was he doing there in the middle of night?

"This is not good for Fudge." said Neville, "My Grandma says he has suspended the Head of the Department of Mysteries, because he wasn't going to fire anyone who was on Dumbledore's side."

"Is he a Dumbledore supporter?" asked Harry hopefully.

"Not quite. The only department that never listens to Dumbledore is his department. Fudge wanted him out, because they are too independent." clarified Ron, "At least that's what Dad says."

Hermione was concerned by this fact. The Ministry seemed to be even more jeopardised than she had initially thought.

The day became even worse when she unintentionally insulted Ron's Quidditch skills. Hermione had asked Harry if had been lousy. It was quite unexpected from a tactful girl like her.

"No." said Harry, but she wasn't buying it.

"Well, he could have done better, yes!" He admitted Then he suddenly cringed a bit as he looked at her. "I just had a déjà vu. Please don't. Don't raise your eyebrow. You look just like Malfoy with all that blonde hair."

That was it. "That's just great, isn't it, Harry? Did you know that I can't dye my hair? It wears off every time I wash it. That's with the help of stabilising potion. Fair hair doesn't suit me at all." Hermione ranted.

"Merlin! Hermione, calm down. I think this hair color looks well on you. You should cut the orange part of course." Harry said apologetically.

"Oh Merlin this is the worst day possible. I wonder what Trelawney would say?" Hermione said desperately.

"You shall drawn in the lake by evening." Harry mimicked her voice to perfection, That made Hermione laugh her guts out.

"How's your potion going on, Harry?" she asked.

"It should be purple, and it is. I've actually asked Fred to ward it." he said.

Hermione was surprised to hear that. "Fred? Really? I didn't know he was that good."

"Oh he's good. We tried it on a book first." Harry responded.

"That's heresy!" Hermione exclaimed.

Harry laughed lightly. "Yes, I knew you'd say that."

Suddenly they heard Ron cry, "Can you believe this?!"

Harry and Hermione looked to his direction. Ron was was clutching a letter really hard.

"What's that?" asked Harry.

"Well, why don't you read it Harry?" Ron gave it to him unceremoniously and landed himself on a sofa, pouting.

Harry removed his glasses and read the letter calmly. When he finished, he raised his head to look at Ron's furious face. "Well, if you want to er-" He looked at the letter again, " severe ties with me, I swear I won't get violent."

Hermine smiled at that. Ron stood up and took the letter tore it into pieces declaring that his brother was the world's biggest git.

A few days after receiving that disheartening letter, Snape asked Harry and Ron to stay after class, so he could assign them detention. Ron was surprised when Snape asked them to go into his private quarters.

"Professor, you do know that murd is illegal, right?" he asked nervously.

"In, Weasley." said Snape. If looks could kill, Ron would've been dead now.

Inside Harry saw the familiar seats in the same order he had seen before.

"Ron, don't get too surprised when you sit on the stool." Harry warned him.

"Will it hurt?" Ron squeaked.

"A bit." Harry couldn't stop himself. He didn't see Snape's amused smirk.

"Sit at once." Harry instructed him.

Ronald Weasley sat cautiously.

"What? Dad?"

Harry sat too and greeted the men who appeared in front of him, "Hello Mr. Weasley, Sirius."

Both men greeted him warmly and asked how he was.

"How?" Ron looked to Harry in amazement. Snape brought an extra chair and sat next to Arthur.

"I'll explain later."

"Harry is everything OK?" asked Sirius.

"As OK as it can be. Umbridge is driving us mad. I think she's a Death Eater."

"I assure you, that's not the case." said Arthur.

"She's the type." Ron argued passionately.

"Son, the world is not divided into good people and Death Eaters." said Arthur Wesley.

"She's nasty" said Harry immediately.

Sirius smiled uncomfortably.

"That she is, I've already told Hermione about that. By the way, why don't you use your mirror, Harry?"

"What? You mean the one that you gave me this Summer?" asked Harry in confusion.

"Yes, Hermione has been using hers to talk to me regularly."

He mockingly put his hand on his heart. "You've broken your godfather's heart, Harry Potter."

"May I go back to my business if my present is unnecessary here?" Snape said as he was obviously annoyed.

"Don't let us keep you from your brewing, Snape." Siruis said.

"At least I'm doing something, Black." He stood and left so he didn't see Sirius grind his teeth.

"Don't listen to him, Sirius. You're actually busy here." Mr. Weasley said gently.

"I'd go mad if I wasn't."

He winked at their confused faces, "Can't talk much about it."

Suddenly Ron asked a question that had bothered Harry and his friends lately.

"Sirius, where's Hagrid?" asked Ron. Harry felt ashamed that it hadn't occurred to him to ask Sirius about Hagrid.

"On a mission. Dumbledore didn't want any attention so don't draw any by asking around." said Sirius, "Although I agree that he's a bit late in his return, I doubt anything could hurt that big guy."

"Malfoy said he's dealing with creatures too big for himself to handle." Harry commented.

Sirius and Mr glanced at each other worriedly.

"Oh, that's not good. We have to tell Dumbledore. They might know what the mission is about." said Mr. Weasley. "I wish we had a way to contact him."

"Don't worry Madam Maxim is with him, he has help." Sirius reassured him. "Don't investigate this, OK?" Sirius looked into their eyes. Suddenly, he looked up listening to someone they couldn't see or hear.

"Let me try that." He took something from an invisible hand that materialised into a little glass cup with a yellowish viscous liquid inside. Sirius drank it at once and shut his eyes.

"Yes that's the thing. The consistency is wrong though." He said. "Guys, I have to go. Duty calls." He disappeared.

"Who was that?" asked Harry.

"Oh, that was Lucinda, our new recruit. You'll see her soon." said Mr Weasley evasively.

"Percy sent a letter," said Ron carefully.

He wasn't sure how his father would react to the news.

"Oh, tell me all about it." said Mr. Weasley.

In their talk with Mr Weasley hinted that Umbridge was not going to remain just an ordinary teacher, and she would indeed move to undermine Dumbledore's authority, which she did soon enough. Umbridge made her next move to consolidate her power by taking the role of High Inquisitor.

Hermione called it outrageous. Harry said that he loved to see Snape inspected, though. He immediately regretted having thought so. While Snape had never been kind, this year he was in the new habit of explaining why he was so harsh. Harry had actually made some progress in Potions. Snape still hated him, but it was much more controlled now.

In Potions, Snape handed out their corrected essays. Harry had gotten an A which made him surprised and happy. He later found out that he had merely received an Acceptable which that was lower than Exceeds Expectations and Outstanding. Fortunately, Snape hadn't been so cruel to give him D or P. He had given Ron P.

After the session was over Fred and George explained the O.W.L grading system and Harry was just glad that he hadn't received a T.

Hermione, on the other hand, was disappointed that she hadn't got an O. She had worked hard but Snape had given her an A. When she found out that Harry had received A as well, she decided to compare their essays and once she did, she couldn't believe her eyes.

"This actually a very good essay, Harry. You've pointed out a few things I didn't know, myself." she admitted.

"Actually, I just compared moonstone to some other applicable ingredients, suggesting a few other options if it isn't available. Is it really that good?" Harry asked doubtfully. It was the first time he had tried to research thoroughly before writing his essay.

"Yeah it is. It's analytic and comparative. Mine is just a bunch of facts." Hermione marveled over the essay. How couldn't Snape give this an O.

"I guess I'll have to write something even better to get an O." he said hopefully.

Severus Snape had grudgingly given Harry an A. He was amazed how much the boy had progressed this year. Maybe he had inherited a shred of Lily's brain after all. That thought shook him a bit. Suddenly, the white orb on his desk turned blue. He went to a chair next to the chimney. He sat and saw someone he had not expected to see.

For Umbridge things were going smoothly. Umbridge kept inspecting teachers, and Dumbledore was apparently okay with her reign.

What didn't make Hermione happy was the fact that Umbridge was happy enough with Grubbly-Plank, but made her distaste for Hagrid known, even though she had never met the man.

Hermione came to hate her even more when she had found out about the nature of her detentions. Those quills must have been for signing documents, so using them was not illegal per se, but it would be frowned upon if it got out, or if she did it to students with more prominent backgrounds.

Although, Umbridge was a big issues, Hermione had her own problems to worry about. Her physical pain had increased, therefore she had finally decided to visit Madam Pomfrey. Her visit had been illuminating.

"Well, Miss Granger, you're right to be in pain. Your bones are growing really fast. I can see that you're much taller than when I saw you at the beginning of the year. Does your face hurt?" she asked.

"Yes, actually, that's why I came. I keep frowning because of the pain." she said with concern.

"There are a lot of abnormal activities in your skull and facial muscles. I think you should stay here tonight, or even better this week if possible." She had suggested and Hermione had refused to adhere to her advice.

She returned to her dorm, a mistake which she regretted, because the next day her condition worsened even more drastically. All her muscles were in pain now. She fainted in front of professor McGonagall.

They put her in the infirmary and resulted to warding her bed, so her constant cries of pain couldn't be heard. Fortunately, it all had been blamed on her over studying nature. Professor Snape had brought her loads of muscle relaxant. It barely helped, but it was better than nothing. Her pain of muscles started to fade but came a horrible stomach ache and diarrhea. On the seventh day everything came back to normal.

"Why was it so painful, professor?" She asked Snape.

"Muscles react differently to transfiguration. While their development is gradual their transfiguration must be done instantly. That is if you don't want to explain horrible pain as you did."

"I hate this stupid change." she huffed angrily.

"It could have been much words. Your magic is strong, it accelerated the process because you were in pain. This should have taken two months." Snape smirked at her horrified expression.

"So what does that mean?" Hermione asked fearfully.

"We were wrong about how much time we had. Students now will notice the change more. Your bone structure hasn't changed completely so this isn't your final face." He handed her a mirror.

She looked at her face. It was beautiful and it did have a similarity with her old face. Her jaw and cheekbones hadn't changed but her face was different.

"For now we have blamed it on a transfiguration spell gone wrong. Your face has features similar to Blacks so Lupin might be right about your biological parents." He said. "Mr. Malfoy has been asking around about you. It would be wise to avoid him as much as you can."

Hermione nodded as she looked at the mirror once more.

What she could see was not certainly not her face. It felt alien and she hated it.

The girl was beautiful without a doubt. Some girls would kill to have her looks.

It wasn't the beauty that had her gut twisting and turning, not at all, the problem was the natural coldness of it.

When Hermione wanted to smile it would Smirk. When she wanted to pose seriousness and show dedication, it would portray a horribly proudful and pompous girl.

Once Snape was out, Hermione began working on her smile. After half an hour of intense practice she managed to get the face smile.

She was, of course, very unsatisfied with it. Even though it looked like a smile, it made her face scream, "proud pureblood".

"Will people really buy the 'transfiguration-mishap' excuse?" she whispered to herself as she finally put the mirror away.