Chapter one: disarray

Hermione stifled a yawn with her hand as she finished off the extra reading for the day's lessons. Closing the musty smelling transfiguration text, she made a mental checklist of the material she had covered. Blinding curses for defense, invisibility serums for potions and marsupial-amphibian transfiguration… the year had barely begun, but sixth year work was looking to be far more complicated and involved than any other year she had gone through yet.

And she loved it.

Blinking her eyes tiredly, she glanced around at the common room, only noticing her fellow peers for the first time. Pavarti Patil was leaning over a very colourful divination text chatting animatedly to Lavendar Brown.

"I just love the way he seems so passionate about planetary movements." Lavendar gushed to Pavarti, "It's almost as though he's completely immersed when he searches for patterns and signs… his focus is almost… almost…-"

Hermione unconsciously tilted her head towards the pair, trying to catch the end of Lavendar's sentence.

"Tangible?" supplied Pavarti after a moment's pause.

Lavendar shook her head slowly, "…no…,".

"Well, what did you mean?" asked Pavarti.

Lavendar's voice was distant and slightly breathless as she said, "It's almost…. Physical..."

Hermione hastily smothered a laugh with her hand.

At that precise moment, Harry and Ron both came bounding down the stairs that led from their dormitories, both looking extremely cheery.

"Hello!" Hermione stood, and greeted them both with a smile, as they skidded to a stop. "What's got you two so happy, tonight?"

One thing that she loved about Harry and Ron was that they were always able to wake her up after a long study session. And as per usual, directly following their appearance, she suddenly felt refreshed and alert as though she had taken a quick nap.

"What's got us happy, you ask?" Ron grinned and leaned in closer, showing her a clear glass vial clutched in his hand.

"We've got everything ready. This thing is absolutely perfect. Should go off without a hitch. And then Malfoy will be sorry he ever messed with me and Harry."

Hermione frowned. She'd been so caught up in her readings she'd completely forgotten about their planned prank.

"It's going to be great, Hermione. You'll love it," said Harry enthusiastically, reaching out and taking the vial from Ron. He handed her the delicate tube.

"What is it?" she asked them, as she peered at the thin white-silver thread interestedly. It looked to her like a unicorn hair, "It isn't--"

"Yes!" said Ron triumphantly, "Malfoy's hair! We finally got a strand."

Hermione's frown deepened. She definitely did not think that whatever the two of them had been planning involved needing Malfoy's hair… It wasn't that they were bad at spell work, or were all that bad at potions; it was just… in their hands, any major potion or spell specifically aligned to a target could be potentially be disastrous… for lack of either control, understanding, or skill. Had they even researched what they were doing properly? What if something went wrong along the way?

Her hand tightened around the glass vial.

Harry saw the slight movement and looked at her searchingly. "What is it Hermione?"

She looked up at Harry's face, her tongue nearly automatically forming her response 'nothing,' but… she felt uneasy. She was a prefect.

Ron was a prefect.

She had responsibilities. If she knew that someone, if she knew that anyone was planning a disruptive prank on a fellow school body member, she had the responsibility to do all she could to put an end to it—and if that did not work, she was supposed to report the incident to her head of house.

But Harry and Ron were her friends. And she was loyal to them…. Wasn't she? If it was a small prank, nothing harmless, just slightly embarrassing, then she could turn a blind eye without feeling too bad… but magic that was specifically attuned to a target—that was a whole new level of trouble.

She knew that if she came across anyone else planning something on this scale she would immediately confiscate the specimen and report the incident to Professor McGonagall. But if she did that to Harry and Ron …

Beneath all of her uncertainty, she felt a small ripple of annoyance for Ron—a fellow prefect. He should've known better.

But… they would never forgive her if she stepped in. And Harry. Harry knew where the boundaries were. He'd never do anything dangerous…. Right?

"Hermione?" Harry's voice cut through her thoughts.

"Um… nothing," her voice wavered slightly, and she pressed the small vial into his hands hastily before she could change her mind, "here. Don't tell me anything about what you've got planned. I think I'd rather not know."

Ron laughed, "you'll love it, Hermione."

Harry beamed at her. "C'mon, let's go down into the great hall. I have a feeling that dinner will be fantastic tonight!"

She managed a small chuckle in return, still feeling uneasy.

.oooo.

Hermione reached for the potato dish.

Smiling slightly to herself, she inhaled deeply, savouring the smell and feel of the great hall at dinner time. She loved it at Hogwarts. It wasn't just the food, she thought to herself. Though she was sure that Ron would think otherwise. It was just atmosphere—it was the people, the students and teachers, and the castle itself—it positively tingled with a raw kind of magic that made her completely content and comfortable.

A sharp elbow caught her ribs.

"Ow!" she exclaimed, glaring at Ron, "what on earth was that for?"

"Get ready for it!" He said, a mischievous glint in his eye. He gestured towards Harry.

Hermione tilted her head to the side as she watched Harry. He'd removed the hair from the small vial and was about to put it into another glass vial, half full with some sort of clear potion.

She hesitated. Was it time to tell him to stop? She could still stop him … but—

He dropped the hair into the potion and it bubbled and frothed lightly as the specimen dissolved.

The clear potion turned a pale shade of gold.

Ron laughed. "His potion turned gold!"

Hermione glared at him, her nerves already set on edge by her nagging conscience.

Ron's grin faded quickly. "Ease off, Hermione. I know you want us to be nicer people." His wide smile returned faster than it had disappeared. "And we both will be… Right after we get back at Malfoy."

Hermione frowned at him and crossed her arms.

"Relax, Hermione. Just watch Harry. We spent ages modifying these spells and potions to get what we wanted." He looked immensely satisfied.

"You… You WHAT!?" They'd modified spells? Modified magic – modified attuned magic? "Do you have any idea how dangerous that is!?!"

She reached over at to grab the vial of potion from Harry's hand, sure now that it would be downright dangerous to let the prank get any further.

But Ron held her back.

"You can't stop him now. He's already started."

Hermione froze, half out of her seat, utterly appalled at what she saw.

"monkaficta... monkaficta... monkaficta... monkaficta... monkaficta..." Harry was chanting the spell over and over, staring intensely at the potion.

She could feel the magical energy building up slowly, as he repeated the spell. The very air around her tingled lightly with the same raw energy she sometimes felt emanating from Hogwart's walls.

"monkaficta.. monkaficta.. monkaficta.. monkaficta.. monkaficta…."

And suddenly, there was a small but very concentrated rush of magic. Harry stopped, and glanced up from the now empty vial at Hermione looking slightly dazed.

Ron, however, was looking straight across the great hall towards the Slytherin table, where students were shouting in surprise and shock.

Hermione glanced over toward the Slytherin sixth years as she heard Pansy's shrill voice.

"Draco's bald!"

Hermione laughed.