A/N – Hi all, sorry this has been too long. Thanks for sticking with it, there is more explanation in the A/N at the end. Hopefully I've made up for the delay by making it nice and long!

Disclaimer – This all belongs to JK Rowling, except my OCs.

Curses

Ron was still sulking when Monday morning rolled around. Hermione and Harry had let him be for most of Sunday, both content to focus on working through their ever higher pile of work. Ron had snapped at them when they offered to keep him company, so they had just found a small table tucked away in the library and started without him. He hadn't turned up all day, evidently annoyed with them for not sticking up for him more against Malfoy, and had stubbornly sat with Neville at dinner as well. Hermione was used to Ron's moods, after all they had been best friends for many years not to mention the few months they'd been dating, and just brushed it off, knowing that he would eventually come around.

On Monday morning though, when Ron again stomped straight past them in the Gryffindor common room and charged down to breakfast without them, she decided enough was enough. Ignoring his glare she plonked herself down opposite him at the table, Harry sliding in next to him earning another glare. The trio started eating in silence, Harry catching Hermione's eye and shrugging slightly as though to suggest that he didn't know what to do. Ron was eating even more hurriedly than usual, and stood to leave very early. However, Harry and Hermione were ready for him and to Ron's annoyance managed to accompany him into the entrance hall where Harry grabbed his arm and Hermione swung in front of him.

"Ron, what's going on? Why are you avoiding us?"

Ron stared at the ground, his ears going red. "You're my girlfriend, Hermione. You should be standing up for me in front of the ferret and instead, you defend him!"

"Okay," Hermione said slowly, thinking about what he said. "Leaving aside how completely ridiculous that statement sounds, why are you avoiding Harry?"

Ron's glance sidled sideways this time, before he shrugged again and mumbled something incoherent.

"What?" Hermione asked, bemused.

"He should have been fighting Malfoy with me, not holding me back!" Ron was shouting now, and Harry ushered all three into a deserted classroom in order to avoid a scene. Ron stood facing the two of them, glaring. "Murderers like Malfoy should not be here, they should be locked up in Azkaban! And I thought you wanted to stand up for what was right, Harry. Instead, you try to stop me!"

"You can't go around beating up people Ron," Harry cried, exasperated. "Even if he is a git, he isn't a murderer."

"How can you say that!"

"I say that because I saw him Ron, I saw him on the astronomy tower that night. He is no murderer."

"I know you're hurting, Ron," Hermione started timidly. "I – I know it isn't fair, but keeping on like this will just prolong the war. V-Voldemort is gone, and now we all need to try to recover."

"We? I didn't see you lose a brother, Hermione. You don't know what it's like. But if there's something I hate even more than seeing evil gits like Malfoy walking around free, it's when someone who hasn't been through anything judging me. She wasn't even here for the war, and yet she allows me to be treated the same as Malfoy afterwards? I'm a bloody war hero - that should stand for something. Except she probably spent the last few years hiding away from it all, not wanting to risk her own neck while we were risking our lives every fucking day."

This was a new rant, but there was no doubt who Ron was talking about now. Hermione tried to intervene again.

"That's not fair, she gave Malfoy detention and she couldn't just contradict Professor Snape."

"Well of course you'd stand up for her 'Mione, she waves one small bit of new knowledge under your nose and you follow her around like her new favourite pet. Well I won't, and I'm not fooled by her, waltzing in with her new powers. Where were these powers when it came to stopping You-Know-Who? Where were they when it came to saving Fred? Nowhere. There is more to our new professor than she is telling us, and I'm going to find out what it is."

With that Ron stormed away, brushing straight past Harry and out of the open door. Hermione and Harry stood in amazement for a moment, before Harry suddenly gasped "Transfiguration!" and they hurried to their class. They reached the door in record time, diving in at the last moment before it slammed shut, indicating that the class was beginning.

Hermione struggled to focus through the long lesson, and as they were attempting to transfigure their faces to resemble one of their classmates her lack of concentration really wasn't a good thing. As she had found out, self-transfiguration took a remarkable amount of concentration at the best of times, but without it she wasn't getting anywhere. Her eyes kept sliding to where Ron was sat fuming in the corner of the classroom, his face dark and a scowl furrowing his brow. Occasionally he sent hate-filled glances around the room – at Malfoy, at Dante, and once to her surprise and sadness at her. Although she kept reminding herself it was just Ron's temper and that he would get over it soon, it still saddened her.

The rest of Monday continued as it had begun, with Ron obviously not recovering anytime soon and sulking through every class they shared. Luckily Ron wasn't in all of her classes, so for arithmancy she could just focus on her work without the distraction of a brooding boy in the corner.

At dinner Hermione was disappointed to realise that Ron had arrived before her as he had a free period and deliberately sat next to Parvati, who looked entirely uncomfortable with the situation. As Hermione approached he glared at her so fiercely that even Parvati's beseeching gaze failed to entice her to sit with them. Instead with a sigh she sat further down the table by herself, something that was unnoticed at the Slytherin table. However, she didn't have to wait long before Neville plonked down next to her, and Ginny opposite.

"My brother is an idiot," the redhead said matter of factly, causing Neville to choke on his mashed potato and Hermione to stifle a small smile. "Everyone else here is trying to move on and put the war behind them, to not allow his or anyone else's death to be in vain. To carry on like Ron has is stupid." Harry, who had slipped in the seat next to his girlfriend, gently squeezed her hand as she mentioned Fred. Ginny smiled up at him before continuing. "And it's stupid to say that if you didn't take part in the war you are a coward – I know if I had a choice I would have run for miles. I can't blame anyone who did. I like Professor Dante and if she managed to stay out of the war, then good for her."

Hermione sneaked a glance at the top table where their Professor at, engaging in conversation with Flitwick. As she watched Flitwick threw his head back and laughed and Snape, to Dante's other side, scowled even more fiercely at his plate. Hermione stifled a grin at the scene. Ginny is right. Just because someone managed to avoid the war doesn't mean we should think less of them. She is here to help us now, and that is what matters.

Dinner passed pleasantly. Over on the Slytherin table Malfoy had noticed that the Weasel seemed to be upset with Granger – not much of a surprise since he'd been like it all day. Draco may have decided to keep his head down, but a part of him couldn't help but triumph in the knowledge that the golden trio were showing cracks. He managed to make upbeat conversation for once, an inexplicable good mood surrounding him.

Hermione had a great time chatting to Neville, she gathered that he was getting on well and had started an apprenticeship in herbology, much like her healing tutorials. She was very pleased for him, herbology suited Neville and she could see him taking over the reins when Professor Sprout decided to call it a day. It was good to sit and talk to him, it was not something she had had much opportunity for since she came back and she realised over the course of the meal that she had missed his company.

As dinner was almost over, Professor McGonagall stood and cleared her throat, causing every head in the hall to turn to her. She had always commanded respect, but as headmistress that had been amplified. The students sat in silence, waiting in anticipation for her to begin. With a small smile, she obliged them. "Could every eighth year please remain in the hall after you have finished, I have an announcement to make that concerns you." With that the headmistress sat back down, but not before the whole hall had erupted into excited whispers, many people across all years wondering what the announcement would be.

The eighth years didn't have long to wait. Once the prefects had shepherded the lingering younger years out of the hall (many, including Ginny, loitering to find out what the announcement was) the headmistress stood again. She cleared her throat and beckoned the small remaining group of students nearer to the head table. The eighth years stood in a cluster, and for the first time Hermione realised how few of them there really were. Less than half their year had returned, and Hermione found herself wondering vaguely what had happened to the rest.

Professor McGonagall tapped her goblet to get her students' attention again. "I have been consulting with the NEWT exam board regarding you, as you are in an unprecedented position regarding your studies. While I am aware that not everyone here managed to attend for their full seventh year," her eyes slid over to Harry, Hermione and Ron as she said this, "many of you at least spent part of the year in education, and some others probably gained knowledge in more… vocational ways. It would seem pointless for all of you to retake all of your subjects, and so I have made an arrangement for NEWTs to be taken at the end of November for anyone who feels ready in a particular subject."

The hall erupted into noise again, this time more subdued as some of the students began muttering to each other. Hermione stared at the headmistress in panic – the end of November was only six weeks away! How could anyone be ready by then! She caught Malfoy smirking at her horrified expression and glared at him in return, but at least she had been distracted from her panic. McGonagall cleared her throat again to silence the whispers echoing around the room. "Of course we don't expect you to make this decision alone, your teacher in each subject will approach you if they believe you are ready to take the exams. It is hoped that by taking one or two of your NEWTs early, each of you will have more time to dedicate to whichever extra studying you have decided to pursue."

More time for healing… now Hermione was thinking more seriously about the proposition. Although she still felt inadequately prepared for her exams, she couldn't deny that the idea of being able to dedicate more time to healing was incredibly appealing. I'll just have to wait and see which teachers think I'm ready. She didn't try to insult her intelligence by continuing to insist she wasn't ready for anything – she knew she was top in nearly every subject and that some teachers were bound to come up to her. She was busy trying to calculate who when she realised that McGonagall had dismissed them all and she hurried to the dungeons for her Monday healing tutorial with Snape. Talking to Harry and Ginny about taking exams early would have to wait until afterwards.

-x-x-

Modifying the Wolfsbane potion was incredibly difficult, there was very little information in books regarding the potion as it was invented so recently and after several hours pouring through volumes and tentatively adding ingredients to a smoking goblet her Snape informed her their session was finished for the day. Hermione stood up, stiff from sitting for so long in one position and very tired after a long day. She put her books away in silence, tiredly wiping a dusty hand across her face as she loaded them back onto the shelves. When she finished she looked up to see Snape standing, holding the door open for her as he waited for her to finish.

Surprised at his gestured, she stammered a thank you as she slipped out, to which he responded with a nod and a rare smile before falling into step with her as they moved up through the castle.

"Do not be too disheartened by a lack of progress, it was unlikely that we would find anything in the books anyway." Hermione looked up at her professor but he did not turn his head to look at her, just continued to walk as he was. "Professor Dante is of the opinion that what you are learning in her sessions will be of far more use in determining what additional ingredients may be needed."

"And what is your opinion, sir?"

A smirk began to play at the corner of his mouth. "Much as it pains me to admit it, it is possible she may have a point."

Hermione nodded, thinking back over everything she had learnt over the past few weeks. Being able to feel the effect the potion was having should enable her to feel what could be added to reduce some of the properties.

"Of course, if you spent more time studying healing and less on other subjects you would get there sooner." Snape stopped and turned to her now, they had reached the point where they needed to separate to go their separate ways. "There is very little more I can teach you in Defence Against the Dark Arts. I recommend that you take the NEWT as soon as possible, so you can stop wasting your time when you could be doing something productive. I'm sure that will be the case in other subjects too, but I do not believe you are ready yet to take potions, regardless of what Professor Slughorn may or may not tell you."

"T-thank you, sir."

Snape merely raised his eyebrows and started walking down the corridor away from her. Her head reeling, Hermione climbed the stairway that would take her to the seventh floor and her dormitory.

-x-x-

Hermione was gratified and secretly very pleased over the next few days as more Professors added to Snape's recommendation that she take her NEWTs early in their classes. Professor Flitwick had soon added his voice, insisting that she knew everything he could teach in charms. Slughorn tried to persuade her to take his exam early too, but she heeded Snape's advice and declined. She was also secretly relieved when Dante told the entire class that although they may know enough to take the NEWT, they did not know enough to excel. This earned many grumbles, particularly from Ron's direction Hermione thought, but these were silenced when their professor pointed out that come the New Year they would be looking at animagi. The possibility of being taught how to become an animagus was enough to keep the students happy and silence the dissenters.

Having decided to keep going with potions and transfiguration, Hermione also decided that she still had a lot to learn in herbology. For a start, learning how to look after the plants that provided key potion ingredients was an important part of potions. Or at least, that was how she justified her choice to Professor Dante during their session on Wednesday. She had also decided to keep going with arithmancy, as it was an area she loved and gave her a break from the healing. However, she would take ancient runes in November with DADA and charms.

Dante smiled and agreed, assuring Hermione that her choices made sense as well as freeing up sufficient extra time for healing sessions. The younger girl left their tutorial feeling much happier than she had all week, practically skipping back to the Gryffindor common room. To top it all off, when she arrived Ron was standing waiting to apologise for his actions. She forgave him – of course she did, he had been an arse but that came with the package. He was Ron after all, and she had no illusions that he was perfect. After a long chat that included many apologies, followed by a noisy game of exploding snap where the pair of them trounced Harry and Ginny, she retired to her dormitory tired but very happy thinking about how well the week was turning out to be.

-x-x-

Draco was apprehensive. Not an unusual feeling recently, but now he felt even more so than usual as he made his was to his detention. Surprisingly he had very rarely been given detention before – partly due to Snape's leniency and mainly due to being very good at not getting caught. The detentions he had served, except for that awful one in first year when he went into the forest, had in general been very mundane and usually consisted of cleaning something without magic (menial elf work) or writing lines (completely pointless). However, he had the nasty suspicion that Dante with her characteristic unpredictability would not be giving him anything as simple as cleaning desks.

So it was with some trepidation that he knocked on the door to the Transfiguartion classroom, trying to decide whether he was more nervous of its current occupant or its former one. When a voice called for him to enter, his eyes were drawn immediately to a small table in the middle of the room, with two chairs positioned either side of it, facing each other.

"Good evening Mr. Malfoy. Please take a seat," Draco's attention snapped from the table to his professor, realising she was gesturing to the chair nearest him. He hesitated briefly, causing Dante to chuckle.

"It's not going to bite you. Sit down, Draco."

It may have been the use of her conversational tone, the horribly disarming chuckle, or the informal use of his first name, but Draco found himself sinking into the chair without protest. Dante leaned casually against her desk, watching her student with a calculating gaze that Malfoy didn't like. Maybe one part of the conversation that he had unwittingly heard (and really not been able to avoid) between the golden trio in the entrance hall was correct. Much as he hated agreeing with the Weasel, he had a very strong gut feeling that there was more to this professor than she let on.

His thoughts were interrupted by the door opening suddenly. Spinning around, Draco was surprised to see his godfather striding in, in his usual overly dramatic manner. Snape took one look at the blond boy sat at the small table and stopped mid sweep.

"Draco, what are you doing here?"

"Detention," Draco replied sulkily.

Snape seemed put out, and Draco saw him look from Dante back to himself before eventually speaking again. "Professor Dante, a word please?"

The redhead smiled. "Of course, Professor. My office is this way. I'll be back in a moment, Mr Malfoy."

Snape swept after her, leaving Malfoy sat by himself in the classroom feeling very bemused.

-x-x-

As soon as the door swung shut behind them Snape rounded on Malfoy. "What is he doing here? You cannot expect him to take part today?"

"I don't see why not, it is my detention after all."

Snape just glared at her. "Reschedule his detention. It cannot be necessary to use him as a dummy." He turned to go, but stopped when he felt a gentle hand on his arm, and his name called softly.

"Severus…

Turning back around, he saw blue eyes fixed on him with compassion and understanding. "I promise the boy will come to no harm, and it is no accident that I chose him to be here. Who better to help out in a healing class than someone who is in such dire need of healing?

Snape was rendered speechless as he watched his colleague smile and walk softly past him into the main classroom. He turned to follow, muttering to himself. "There are some things that no amount of healing will manage to heal."

He hadn't realised he had been heard until words floated back to him. "But how will you know if you don't try?" For a concerning moment, Snape thought that she might not even be talking about Malfoy. He brushed the thought away as he re-entered the transfiguration classroom.

While the teachers had been talking, Malfoy had just sat in his seat waiting for something to do. Again he was distracted by the door banging open, but this time it wasn't a professor that entered but a harassed looking Granger.

"Sorry I'm late professor, I…..Malfoy! What are you doing here?!"

"Detention Granger, what does it look like?"

Draco smirked to himself as she gaped at him, rather resembling a fish. Her attention moved from him as Professor Dante walked back into the room.

"Hello Hermione, can you please sit down in your usual seat and we'll begin."

Draco's smirk slipped immediately as Hermione sat in the seat opposite him and looked nervously at him. It felt as though she was waiting for him to do something. Snape, who had followed their transfiguration teacher back into the room, leaned against the wall at the back, his face impassive.

"Now Draco, if you could please place an arm on the table in front of you, palm up." Draco complied, shooting another glance at his head of house who was still watching with a neutral expression. "Excellent. Right Hermione, you know what to do."

Draco watched as Hermione apprehensively reached over and placed her hand on top of his. He stiffened but didn't pull away, and she let out a small sigh of relief. Draco was definitely not comfortable with this, he was not used to physical contact and had probably only ever touched Hermione before when she had hit him. But what happened next was worse – suddenly his arm started to warm up, spreading from the point where he gently held Hermione's hand.

"What the fuck!" He shouted, jumping to his feet and staring wildly at Hermione, who was staring at him wide-eyed.

"Language Draco," Professor Dante called in a melodious voice as she moved closer to Hermione. "Well?" Her question was directed at the younger girl, still sat at the table with her eyes wide. At the question, Hermione's attention snapped back to jer professor.

"Um….water, I think Professor. But I didn't really have long enough."

"Really?" Dante's blue eyes now fixed their gaze on Draco, twinkling knowingly. "How interesting."

"What the f-"

"Draco!"

"Sorry," The blond muttered, looking apologetically at his godfather who had been the latest to chastise him over his language. "What in Merlin did Granger just do to me, Professor?"

"She used magic to find out your elemental affinity." Dante proclaimed with a happy smile. "Water is fairly rare Mr. Malfoy, so if Hermione's correct you should feel privileged."

Draco stood staring at her, his mind trying to process what he was being told. Eventually he managed to stammer "…Elemental magic?"

The responding nod from a still worried Granger gave confirmation to his fears. He jumped back, away from the small table and just stared at his transfiguration teacher. "What are you doing? That's illegal! Don't you know what you could have done?!"

Hermione's eyes widened even more, and Snape's expression grew dark, but Draco was unaware of both these things. He saw his professor's eyebrows rise, and she asked "Certainly it's not illegal, and I'm interested to know why you think it's immoral."

"You can overwrite someone's mind, make them fall in love, bewitch them! She's trying to seduce me!"

"I see," Dante sighed and rubbed her forehead with one hand, as though relieving a headache building up.

"I-Is that true?" Hermione asked timidly, also turning to her teacher.

"Not entirely," came the reply, which did not seem to soothe anyone in the room. Noticing this, Dante sighed and hopped up onto her desk. "I don't mean to say that elemental magic can make someone be in love – that's nonsense, and I'm sure you're aware nothing can make someone truly in love. However, as I have explained before it is incredibly linked to your emotions. If you had an attraction, or love for someone that you were unaware of or unwilling to accept, then the power of the magic can override your normal inhibitions and bring that emotion out.

"Think of what would happen if, say, a pureblood wizard who had long held feelings that they deemed completely inappropriate towards a muggleborn, and elemental magic caused them to act on their emotions. Wouldn't they be likely to blame the emotion on the magic as well?" Dante's question was mainly aimed at Draco, and he pursed his lips as he thought about it. When she put it like that, it seemed exactly the sort of thing a pureblood wizard would do. The teacher continued. "There are many reasons why elemental magic is disapproved of by the wizarding elite, and most of them are complete rubbish. Some have basis in fact, but to overlook an entire branch of magic because of them is not rational.

"I have never asked you to do anything that would put you in harm Hermione, and I always ensure that you are fully in control of your emotions before we begin. As we deal with more advanced situations, I will suggest occlumency lessons to increase your control."

Hermione nodded slightly, her fears seemingly assuaged. Dante gave her an approving smile, before turning back to Draco. "So Draco, unless the rather unlikely scenario of you harbouring some form of romantic attachment to Miss Granger is indeed before us, I think you're perfectly immune to any seduction and we can continue your detention and Miss Granger's tutorial."

Draco glared at her and didn't reply, but did sulkily slouch into the seat opposite Hermione again and thump his arm down on the table between them. Taking that as a cue to resume, Hermione placed her hand rather hesitantly back in his and again Draco felt a warmth spreading from his palm up through his arm. This time he didn't tear his arm away, though he did flinch at the strange sensation.

When the feeling had travelled to his elbow he felt it stop, and all the warmth left suddenly causing him to feel cold. Looking up, he realised Hermione had let go of his hand.

"It, um, he is definitely water." Her eyes flicked from Draco's to Dante's and back again. Draco groaned inwardly, this was awkward enough without Granger constantly worrying about his reaction. Sure, he'd reacted a bit badly but for him that was nothing.

"Wonderful. Now Draco, switch arms."

Draco complied and his left arm was on the desk before he realised what she was asking. Desperately, he tried to catch his godfather's eye. Draco could have sworn for a moment surprise and alarm flickered over the pale face, but then it was once again inscrutable and Granger's hand was back in his own. Without any time to let the panic set in, the warmth was creeping up his arm again.

But then it stopped. In the middle of his forearm. Right where… oh bugger.

"There's something here. Something….dark is entangled with his magic." Draco again caught Snape's eye, but now the alarm the older wizard felt was clear to see.

"See if you can try to unpick it, Hermione." The casualness in Dante's voice made Draco want to scream at her. Instead, he contented himself with careful scrutiny of his classmate, watching her concentrate with closed eyes and a small frown as she was doing…something to his arm. Her teeth came out and hooked in front of her bottom lip, a sure sign that what she was doing was difficult. She doesn't realise…

Suddenly the warmth vanished, and Hermione slumped into her chair clearly exhausted. "I tried, but it was so difficult…I got rid of some of it I think…some just flew right back after I detached it. What was that?"

Dante smiled enigmatically. "Mr. Malfoy, please roll up your sleeve."

Draco, feeling sick and faint, didn't have the will to argue any more and slowly complied. This detention is definitely the worst one I have ever done.

Once he had unbuttoned the bottom of the shirt sleeve, he grasped the cuff and pulled it sharply upwards, as though doing it quickly would somehow make it more bearable. When his forearm was revealed he gasped audibly, and he wasn't the only one.

Hermione was openly staring at his Dark Mark with a mixture of revulsion and sudden realisation. But Draco had seen something she didn't. The mark was still there, still red and sore. Mostly. But where the snake protruded out of the hideous skull, something had happened. The body of the snake still slithered and moved slightly, but where there was once a malicious head with staring eyes and flickering tongue, there now was nothing.

For a moment he couldn't stop staring. When he finally looked up from his arm, he saw Snape gazing at it with the same level of shock. Looking past his godfather Draco locked eyes with blue eyes that almost seemed to see right through him. Dante had the indecency to still be sitting on her desk, swinging her legs and looking almost unbearably smug, almost as though she planned it.

A/N: I know I've got a few people who read this regularly, which is great, but I'm at a bit of a crossroads. I'm enjoying writing this story but I'm feeling a bit lost about where it's going, and that's one of the causes of the long delays. So I have two options – either continue with it, or take it down, work on it slowly whilst concentrating on other works and then repost some time in the future. I don't normally like begging for replies, but if you'd like me to keep going now please let me know and I'll keep working on it. Otherwise I'll probably take it down soon and try to polish what I've done so far whilst working out what is going to happen (I do have some ideas but no really firm direction yet… not entirely sure about making a SS/Dante pairing or how the story will end for them, how things will work out with Ron etc).

So, I've wandered a bit off my point here – let me know if you want me to keep it going! (Please feel free to pm me if you'd rather not review). Also, if anyone wants to beta it and help me out that way, also get in touch.