It was all too easy for Hermione to keep track of Hagrid. Taller than most other students, even those in their seventh year, and twice as wide, he had a tendency of standing out wherever he went, not to mention the fact that you could practically hear his footsteps a mile away. Ducking into nooks and behind statues whenever he glanced behind him, Hermione followed him as he made his way from the Great Hall down to the Dungeons, his hands full of leftovers from supper.

She had a hunch as to why he was being so secretive, though she didn't know for sure. That was why she was currently following him. After the scare with Tom's Diary and the formation of the Knights of Walpurgis, Hermione wasn't willing to take any chances and made it her goal this year to ensure that three things did or didn't happen. The first was to make sure that the Chamber of Secrets remained unopened. The second was that Myrtle Warren stayed alive. And the last was that Hagrid wasn't expelled.

After a while, he finally came to a stop in front of a cupboard door. Hermione quickly ducked back around the corner as Hagrid looked this way and that before opening the door and shuffling inside, shoving the door shut with his huge foot.

Hermione waited a few minutes to wait and see if he would come right back out again. When he failed to do so, Hermione slipped out from behind the corner and quietly crept over to the door. From through the door, she could hear Hagrid talking to someone, or rather something.

"I'm sorry it ain' to yer tastes, but 's all I could get yeh," Hagrid said.

"It's fine, Hagrid. I will eat whatever you bring me," said a second voice, much quieter and raspier.

Taking a deep breath, she pulled the door open and found that her hunch was in fact correct. Hagrid jumped up from his crouched position in front of one of the crates in surprise, revealing an Acromantula, though still bigger than the average household spider, was actually quite small in comparison to full size. Hermione could only assume that he wasn't terribly old yet.

"Hermione? What are yeh doing down here?" Hagrid asked.

She raised a brow at him. "Well, aside from the fact that I live in the dungeons, I was following you to see where you're always sneaking off to," she explained. "I knew something was up, seeing as you seemed to be avoiding me."

Hagrid may look big and intimidating at times, but underneath it all he was nothing more an oversized teddy bear with a heart of pure gold. He must have felt more guilty about it than she thought, as he broke down sobbing and proceeded to throw himself at her, engulfing her in a big squishy hug.

"I'm sorry! I didn' mean to avoid yeh… yeh being one of my only real human friends an' all," he sobbed. "I didn' want anyone ter find out an' tell ter Headmaster."

Reaching her arm out as far as she could, she tried to pat him on the back. "It's okay, Hagrid. I forgive you, but you should have just told me. You know you can tell me anything."

After a while, Hagrid freed her from his arms, grabbing a large handkerchief from his pocket and blowing his nose. Pulling off her robe, which was now drenched in Hagrid's tears, she cast a hot-air charm on it to dry it off before replacing it.

"Yeh're not gonna tell on me, are yeh?"

She shook her head. "Of course not."

Stepping around him to get a closer look at the Acromantula, which began clicking its legs together angrily. It started to advance towards her, but stopped and backed away when Hagrid crouched down beside her.

"Don' yeh dare try an' bite her, Aragog," Hagrid warned. "Hermione's a friend."

"Forgive me," Aragog bowed his hairy body in submission. "Any friend of Hagrid's is a friend of mine."

Now that she was certain that Aragog wasn't going to try to eat her flesh, she could relax a bit better as she took in every inch of his being. She had to admit that she had never actually met an Acromantula before. The Hagrid in her original time had invited her to his funeral, but she had declined, not wanting to get in trouble.

"It's incredible how well he speaks English," she remarked. "Where did you get him?"

Hagrid smiled proudly. "Well, I was talkin' to Newt Scamander I was, tellin 'im how much I love magical creatures an' he handed me this baby Acromantula he found. Asked me ter take care of 'im."

Newt Scamander had given Aragog to Hagrid? That was news to her. Though, she supposed that it made sense, seeing as Mr. Scamander was a Magizoologist. She had heard that he too had been well known for keeping magical creatures in the school. In fact, it was because of a magical creature that Newt was expelled in the first place, even if he was just covering for a friend. It reminded her of the very real possibility that the same sort of thing could happen to Hagrid if they weren't careful.

"That's very nice, Hagrid, but you can't possibly keep him here. He may be fairly small now but he's going to outgrow this cupboard soon enough," she warned him. "And even if you were to find a way to keep him inside the castle, you could get caught. I don't want you to be expelled."

He nodded his head in understanding. "I know, but I can' just abandon him out into ter world on his own."

Hermione thought for a moment, considering all the options.

"What if we were to take him out into the forest? He could make a home for himself there and he'd be able to find better food. And I've heard that there are lots of other creatures out there. Perhaps even more of his own kind."

Hagrid glanced over at Aragog sadly, his lower lip quivering as if he was about to break down crying again. He looked as though he wanted to protest, to keep his hairy friend locked in this cupboard forever, but ultimately he relented.

"If Aragog wants to, o' course."

Aragog nodded his head, or at least Hermione thought he did. It was kind of hard to tell with a giant spider..

"The girl is right, Hagrid. It is for the best that I leave this castle. I wouldn't want for you to get in trouble because of me."

And so, a plan was hatched. They loaded Aragog into the crate he had been sleeping in, which incidentally was full of spider webs, and levitated the crate through the door and up out of the dungeons. Hagrid watched carefully from behind to make sure the crate didn't get jostled too much, ever concerned for his beloved pet.

Though they passed many Slytherins in the corridor, on their way back to their common room, Hermione was prepared for their curiosity and gave them the excuse that she was helping Hagrid move something out of storage for Professor Slughorn. They all seemed to buy that, no questions asked, as they went on their way.

They managed to slip out of the castle and across the grounds into the forest. Oddly enough, she hadn't heard anyone refer to it as the 'forbidden forest' yet. Did something happen between now and her own time to make it so? She supposed that she would find out in time.

Not wanting to delve too deep into the forest, unsure of what exactly was all in there, she set the crate down and pulled back the lid. Aragog was still there, hanging from his spider webs, none the worse for damage.

Slowly Aragog crawled out and looked around for a while before turning back to face them. "I am most grateful to you both, particularly you, Hagrid," he rasped. "I shall not forget all that you've done for me."

And with that, Aragog crawled off deeper into the woods, whether to find proper food or to find others of his kind, that they didn't know. He was soon gone from sight.

Hagrid gave a great big sniffle, wiping the tears that had started to form on the sleeve of his Gryffindor jumper, which only barely fit him.

"It's okay, Hagrid. You did all that you could to take care of him, and I'm sure you can still come out here and visit him from time to time," she patted his arm reassuringly.

Hagrid nodded. "I think I'll do tha'."

"Now, come on. We should get back to the castle. Curfew starts soon and it's my turn to patrol tonight."


Content with the fact that Hagrid was safe for the time being, Hermione shifted her focus onto that of Myrtle Warren. Not much had changed in the last three years since Myrtle had arrived at Hogwarts. The girl had very few friends, almost always sat by herself wherever she was, and never spoke much. She had remained on good terms with Myrtle, often engaging her in conversation about books when they both happened to be in the library at the same time.

Hermione had asked on more than one occasion whether she was still being bullied, but Myrtle always insisted that she wasn't, though she was never awfully convincing. As much as she wanted to help her, she couldn't really do much until she decided to come to her and admit that she was still having problems.

Until then, she had other issues to deal with as well.

Tom was having everyone train almost every day in the Room of Requirement. So far they had learned various advanced spells pertaining to elemental magic from Evan and Raphael, which was a specialty at Beauxbatons, as well as wandless magic, whereas Dolohov had taught them more curses and hexes.

Hermione enjoyed the elemental magic most, as it allowed her to experiment and incorporate her bluebell flames into different spells.

Tom, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy Dolohov's curses and hexes more, which worried her greatly. And to make matters worse, they had just started learning about the Unforgivable Curses. Dolohov was eager for them all to start practicing them as soon as they could.

Hermione had come to like Dolohov less and less the more she got to know him. Not only had he gotten into numerous fights since arriving, but she had also caught him numerous times while out on patrol, tucked away in various broom cupboards with different girls in very compromising positions. More than once she had felt like bleaching her eyes.

She had tried to convince Tom that they should let him go, but he insisted that they needed him, or rather his knowledge of the Dark Arts.

Needless to say, Hermione wasn't looking forward to being taught the Unforgivable Curses by him, and neither was Druella for that matter.

Druella, now over three months along in her pregnancy, was finding it increasingly difficult to hide her belly, which had become more prominent in recent weeks. From the front, you couldn't notice much, but if you saw it from a side profile, it was quite clear to see. Unfortunately, the girls uniform did very little to help matters, as it was designed to be form fitting. She had to either wear her robe completely closed or hold something in front of her belly in order to keep hiding it.

Wanting to get out of the crowded corridors, Hermione and Druella peaked their heads through the door to the girls bathroom to see if anyone was inside. When they saw no one, they stepped inside. Once inside, Druella finally let her robe fall back, bringing her hands up to hug her rounded belly.

"I think I'm going to tell the Headmaster tomorrow morning," Druella said. "Antonin wants to start practicing the Imperius Curse tomorrow and I don't think I could come up with an excuse to get me out of it. Besides, It could hurt the baby."

"Where will you go? Who will look after you?" Hermione asked.

"Sadly I have no choice but to go back to Black Manor. I'm sure Irma will be thrilled to find out that her plan worked. Maybe she'll even start treating me like a proper human being."

Both girls scoffed at that idea. Somehow neither of them could imagine Irma treating anyone with respect, even if said person was carrying her grandchild.

"Whatever you do, don't let Irma get her claws on your baby once it's born," Hermione warned. "I fear something bad might happen if she does."

Hermione had been thinking long and hard on the future as she knew it and how Bellatrix could have ended up the way she did. If Irma had gone to such drastic measures to ensure that the Black Family Bloodline continued, who was to say that she didn't do something to poison her young granddaughter, forcing her own influence on her?

Druella nodded her head. "I'll try, but It'll be difficult as there will be very few other people to help me. The only other girl in the house, aside from Cygnus' mother, is Great-Aunt Belvina, and that woman hardly has enough brain cells left in her to function as it is."

Moving on with their discussion, the topic shifted to that of Cygnus' siblings. Apparently the problem with Walburga wasn't that she was incapable of falling pregnant, but rather that she kept losing them. Apparently she had already miscarried four times since her marriage. They were both highly frustrated, and Druella even claimed that Orion had taken a mistress.

"What about Alphard?" Hermione asked. "I haven't seen or heard from him since the wedding."

Druella didn't reply at first, and Hermione immediately knew that something was wrong.

"I take it you didn't hear, but Alphard has been disowned by the family. There was a big argument over the summer. Alphard announced that he had started dating a French muggle-born witch. Irma was so furious that she used the Cruciatus Curse on him… That's partially why she was so insistent that Cygnus and I produce an heir."

Hermione clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle her gasp. She had no idea that any of that had happened. It wasn't so much the fact that he had been disowned that surprised her, as she suspected that might happen, but the fact that his own mother had used the Cruciatus on him. A part of her couldn't help but feel guilty, as if it was her fault, even though she knew it wasn't really. In the end, it was his decision.

She knew from the Black Family Tree back in her original time that Alphard had been disowned, but Sirius had made it sound like he had been disowned because of him. Could this be another change to the timeline?

"Is he okay?"

Druella shrugged. "I think so. He managed to stumble into the fireplace and floo out in one piece. Either way, he hasn't tried to come back since."

She forced herself to think positively. If he had managed to floo out of there, then there was a good chance he had gotten himself taken care of. Despite feeling horrible about him being Crucio'd, she was secretly proud of him for standing up for what he believed. She made a mental note to write a letter to him, just to make sure he was alright.

Just then, she heard something coming from the far corner of the bathroom. Druella immediately pulled her robe closed as they listened closely. It sounded like stifled sobs. Not just any sobs though… Hermione recognized this sound, having heard it many times before.

Marching over to the farthest stall, she quickly checked and found a pair of feet underneath the door.

"Myrtle, is that you?" she asked.

The only reply that came was the sound of shuffling, followed by the clink of the door unlocking. A moment later, when the door was pulled open, she found none other than Myrtle Warren standing there, her eyes bloodshot and flooded with tears beneath her glasses.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you and your friend," she sniffled.

"Never mind that," Hermione waved it off. "What's wrong? Why are you in here crying? Is Olive Hornby being mean to you again?"

Unable to speak, as she broke down crying once more, Myrtle merely nodded her head. Taking pity on the girl Druella conjured up a silk handkerchief and handed it to her for her to dry her eyes with. They didn't press her for further explanation, letting her calm down and finish crying first.

"What did she do this time?"

"Well… There's this boy in Hufflepuff that I like. Olive found out somehow and started teasing me about it, telling me that he'd never feel the same way about an ugly girl like me," Myrtle explained. "I tried to just ignore her like you told me too, but then she said that she said she was going to tell him and I started to panic!"

She had never personally met this Olive Hornby, but she sounded kind of like Pansy Parkinson. To tease a girl who was already seriously lacking in self confidence about her crush… that was just downright cruel.

"She's probably just jealous," Druella suggested. "Who knows. Maybe she has a crush on the same boy as you? You shouldn't worry so much about her telling him. You might find that he likes you too. And if he doesn't, then that is his loss."

Hermione was taken back by Druella's response. You would think that someone like Druella would be like the average snooty pureblood girls, but she wasn't. Underneath her elegant exterior, Druella really was a good person, who cared about others.

Myrtle too seemed to be surprised by this, but she managed to smile regardless.


The next day, Druella and Cygnus went up to speak with Headmaster Dippet to inform him of Druella's pregnancy. Dippet was less than pleased by the fact they had kept it secret from him for so long, and proceeded to lecture them for it. In the end, there was no changing his mind. He agreed not to expel her, for fear that the reasoning behind it would get out, but she still had to go.

However, Cygnus was granted permission to go home on weekends to see her if he wished. Hermione intended to tag along on more than one occasion. Druella was going to need all the support she could if she wanted to stand a chance against her horrible mother-in-law and the rest of the remaining crazy Black's.

Somehow Hogwarts felt a bit empty to Hermione after she left. Sure she still had Rosaline, but it just wasn't the same. She didn't connect with Rosaline like she had with Druella. Besides, even if she wanted to spend time with Rosaline, she was much too busy with her boyfriend.

That was okay, seeing as she too had a boyfriend.

Sensing that she was feeling rather down about her friend's departure, Tom had gone out of his way to try and make her feel better. He sat next to her in every class, sending sweet notes to her on their charmed parchment, and even paid particular attention to her during meals, going so far as to ignore Dolohov when he directly asked him a question.

They were just leaving their last class of the day when Tom reached out and took hold of her hand, bringing her to a halt.

"I have a surprise for you," he told her, giving her one of his award-winning smiles.

"A surprise? What sort of surprise?" She turned to look at him. "What about today's training session? I thought you were so eager to perfect the Imperius Curse."

"I've already cancelled today's training. In fact, I've cleared up my schedule for the entire weekend. From now until Monday morning, you have me all to yourself."

Hermione felt her heart melt. He had willingly cancelled training with the knights, even though he enjoyed it thoroughly, just to spend some quality time with her. There may be times when she became frustrated with his behavior, scared that he might be starting to fall into darkness, but then he did things like this, proving her wrong.

"Well then, what do you have in store for me?"

"Follow me and you'll find out."

He led her down the corridor and up several staircases to the seventh floor. Much to her surprise, he had brought her to the Room of Requirement. This puzzled her. Why would he take her there? Was this surprise he had for her waiting inside. She reminded herself that the Room of Requirement wasn't just a room used for teaching magic behind the professors backs. It could transform into virtually anything, according to a person's requirement.

Tom began to pace determinedly back and forth in front of it three times, before stopping to face the blank wall. Before their eyes, a large wooden door appeared. However, rather than reach out to open it, he reached out to take her hand once more in hers.

"Close your eyes."

She had absolutely no idea what was waiting inside, nor did she know why she had to close her eyes, though she imagined it was just to add to the surprise, but she obliged nonetheless and shut her eyes.

A few moments later, she heard the door open, and Tom pulled her inside. The air felt warmer all of a sudden and the ground beneath her feet felt different, softer even. Was she outside? She swore she heard a bird chirping just then.

He led her further in, guiding her steps so that she wouldn't trip or fall along the way. She wasn't quite sure, but it seemed as though he was leading her down some sort of slope.

Finally, they came to a halt, and Tom, letting go of her hand, moved to stand behind her, his hands running up and down her arms as he leaned over to whisper in her ear.

"Open your eyes."

What she saw when she did so took her breath away. They were indeed outside, standing on the edge of the bank overlooking the Black Lake, it's waters glistening in the sunlight. And laid out on the ground in front of their feet was a blanket with pillows to lounge on and an array of all her favorite foods as well as drinks, including both pumpkin juice and butterbeer!

"When did you-"

"I snuck back here while you were in Alchemy to make the preparations."

She honestly didn't know what to say. It was just so incredibly sweet and thoughtful of Tom to arrange this for them. Not knowing how else to express her gratitude, she reached up, and grabbing him by the collar, pulled his lips down to meet hers in a brief yet tender kiss.

"Thank you for this, Tom," she smiled. "You may be a bit of a menace at times, but you can be really sweet too when you want to be."

"Of course. You know I'd do anything for you, Hermione."

Settling themselves down amongst the blanket and pillows, they laid there for hours, talking and laughing as they ate, occasionally throwing a piece of food to the giant squid, who waved back a tentacle appreciatively.

Before they knew it, the sky had turned dark on them, and though night fell around them, the air never grew cold. They knew that they ought to return to their dorms, but neither of them seemed inclined to leave as they stared up at the stars, making it a bit of competition to see who could locate and properly name the most constellations.

Hermione won in the end, but Tom didn't seem too upset about the fact. Although, she had a hunch that he had let her win, as she was pretty sure they would have tied otherwise. After all, they both had similar grades in Astronomy.

Eventually, they decided to just stay there for the rest of the night. Laying her head down on Tom's chest, she cuddled into his side as he pulled the blanket around them.

"We haven't done this since we were kids," Hermione lamented.

"I remember," Tom chuckled. "One of the only good memories I have of the orphanage. That and meeting you."

There were a few times back at the orphanage when she would sneak out of her room at night and over to his, plagued by nightmares. He never asked her what they were about, but instead just moved over in his already tiny bed and let her sleep beside him. As odd as it seemed, his presence alone seemed to calm her down and drive the nightmares away.

"I remember feeling all alone in the world, so desperate to make a friend that I went and knocked on the door next to mine, even though Mrs. Cole warned me to stay away."

She felt Tom run a hand through her hair, his fingers toying with her curls. "I'm glad you did," he admitted. "I feel like my life would have been quite empty without you."

"Yes, I think mine would have been quite empty as well."