Disclaimer: Not mine.

Chapter Two: A Ship In Three Winds

Hermione glanced towards the clock behind her and then over at Madam Pince once more, only forty-five minutes until closing, and some younger Ravenclaws (none of them sixth years) were still playing host towards Madam Pince's observant if excessive eye. It had taken Hermione a bit longer than expected to finish the potions essay, elemental bases were much more complex than one might prematurely assume. And the schoolwork associated with the seventh year curriculum alone, could take up all of your free time.

Hermione couldn't see how with all the extra schoolwork, the search for the horcruxes, and everything else going on with the war, she was ever to find time to sleep. Let alone eat or relax. Perhaps, she should start bringing her books with her to meals again.

And she hadn't been able to give her potions essay as much attention as she should, she had spent some time looking for books that might help them find the horcruxes, but she still hadn't been having much luck so far in that regard. But back to her essay, one cannot give a proper discussion about the proper brewing and use of crystallized bases unless one also at least mentions that a dampening spell must always be used during the final cooling, to allow proper crystallization to occur.

And if that is mentioned, one should also include how the bottom of the cauldron must be scratched just prior to cooling in order to properly encourage the crystals to latch onto the right surface. So once Hermione finally settled down to finish writing the essay, she still had quite a bit to go on about.

Which was very good because given what happened last night, she had even more going on that she'd like nothing more than ignore, because everything had gone from frustrating and bad to much, much worse. Harry hadn't been with Ron as Hermione expected when she came down the stairs. Ron, all alone and looking rather nervous, had asked her if she wanted to go for a quick walk. Hermione nodded, certainly nothing of importance could be said in the commons room.

They didn't go far, just far enough away to assure some privacy. But Ron didn't have anything to say about Horcruxes or anything else of importance. Instead, he rather anxiously, and with a great deal of looking anywhere but actually at her, told her that he imagined that he fancied her, and asked her to go out with him. Then he kissed her.

Hermione would have really liked to say that she liked the kiss. She seemed to be getting a lot of experience with kissing as of late. If asked before her kiss with Luna, she would have thought that a kiss with Ron would have been nice (and much overdue, thank you). After all, out of all the guys, he was one of only two that she was really close to. It made sense.

But she had just stood there kind of shocked, while he was kissing her, and trying to shove his hands into her hair. It hadn't been completely awful. It had even seemed almost pleasant, after the surprise of it wore off. But no matter how she tried, she hadn't managed to get caught in it, and hadn't gotten that fuzzy sort of feeling, where you're warm from your head to your toes, and she certainly hadn't gotten hot.

And to be honest, she'd become rather bored with it long before it finally ended, and caught herself going over what she needed to get done the next day. She had also caught herself thinking about her kiss with Luna, but she needn't think about that now… She had schoolwork to concentrate on. And the new situation with Ron to deal with.

She could tell, when he stopped, that Ron had known something was wrong. After all, even he could notice that she hadn't moved, that she had just stood there passively waiting for the inevitable to end. But when he asked her what was wrong, she couldn't tell him what it was.

She didn't know. He looked at her, for a second, got rather red with what could have been embarrassment, then swore and left. She felt guilty, but she wasn't sure what for, or for whom.

And now she was in the library, which was a good place to avoid at least Ron. Ron hadn't spoken to her in the classes they still shared, so she had focused instead upon taken extra concise and complete notes; without him to explain things to during class, she had the time to do it.

Instead he had partnered with Neville when needed, leaving her to explain why, his two best friends were (yet again) not speaking, to Harry. She hadn't even known where to start, and so Harry and her had moved on quickly to speaking of other matters. Like Horcruxes, and the new transfiguration professor, whom they both quietly thought were a little… dull.

But they both agreed that it was quite good that he was a member of the Order. He might be rather drab and nondescript, but he probably wasn't going to try to kill any of the students. Harry was particularly happy about this development.

In the library, where Hermione was finally back to furiously adding important details to her essay, Madam Pince, it seems, had finally given up watching for negligent book handling from the library's inhabitants. But instead of heading to the front desk, where she had needed to go for the last several minutes as a check out queue was forming, was instantly redirected towards a small group of rowdy First Years.

As she finished the last couple footnotes for her essay and waited for Madam Pince to head back over to the front desk, Hermione reached across the table towards one of her reference books, realizing that she had forgotten to include the citations on long-term storage needs of the potion in her essay.

Really, she needed to get her head together. Schoolwork needed your full attention. It deserved it. And the proper use of a stabilizing buffer was especially important to ensure crystal longevity, and so needed to be properly referenced. She bent back over her essay.

Oh, eight-teen minutes until closing. Really there just isn't enough time after dinner to spend in the library until it closes at eight. And she couldn't have helped noticing that neither Ron nor Luna had been at dinner. She had expected that from Ron, but Luna might miss the other meals of the day, but she usually showed up for at least part of dinner. She hoped the other girl wasn't upset. She grimaced down at her desk where six books, several potion journals, her essay, and all her notes lay.

She would need what time there was before closing to put everything away and check out her books. She didn't have time to worry over what that silly girl was thinking or doing. She shouldn't be thinking about her at all. There were horcruxes still out there, for Merlin's sake.

At least Madam Pince had finally made it over to where the line of students waiting to check out their books was even longer. Perhaps she had enough time to use the Marauder's Map to try to track down Luna before curfew. She shook her head, disturbed with herself. That was a bad idea.

What would she even say to the girl? 'Sorry I kissed you, why didn't you come to dinner?' didn't seem like quite the thing to say. And Hermione didn't even want to see the girl. She really didn't. Well, she shouldn't anyway.

She rubbed her eyes, at least thirty-nine inches wasn't too long for an essay. And if she rewrote it tomorrow morning before breakfast, she might be able to reduce its length by a couple inches or so.

Essay done, Hermione finally shelved most of her references, bringing only a potions book, Uses and Misuses of Elemental Bases, and her more promising find, A Complete Accounting of the Rowena Ravenclaw (which hopefully included a copy of her will), up towards the front desk. It might have nothing unique that the other biographies didn't have, but a more material understanding of what the founder of Ravenclaw valued couldn't hurt.

Soon after, Hermione headed quickly back to the Commons Room.

XxXx

Earlier that evening, Harry glanced up at Hermione as she sat down late for dinner. "Find anything new?" He shifted over on the bench to make room. Causing Neville on his other side to glance up to give Hermione a quick wave hello before going back to his conversation with Seamus Finnigan.

"No, not yet," Hermione settled in and methodically started portioning food onto her plate, "I was thinking of doing some research in the library tonight, but I've also got that potions essay to work on still."

"It's not due for another couple days, Hermione, I'm sure you'll manage." Harry glanced up from his plate, "You think Ron's going to make it down to dinner? That's strange. He's been acting real off all day. You two aren't fighting are you?"

Hermione flicked her eyes away from Harry's. "I'm not sure. You know, I think he's upset with me. But, eh, well… I'll talk to him later. Really, it's not like he doesn't know where the kitchens are." She snorted at that, and went back to eating.

"Besides," she hissed under her breath going back to what still had her more distracted, "I still haven't found any sort of real assorting of Ravenclaw's belongings. Are you sure he would have used something from all the founders?"

"That's want Dumbledore thought." Harry shifted slightly in his seat; it was still somewhat hard to think of Dumbledore in past tense. He had spent all summer, first at the horrible Dursleys', then at Godric's Hollow, then at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, searching furiously for a way to find the horcruxes.

For everything that had changed over the summer, and everything he had learned, he still hadn't found anything on the location or identity of the horcruxes, and so September had found him furious and aggravated, but headed back to Hogwarts all the same due their lack of progress or any other sort of plans.

"Hum. I'll make some time tonight then." Hermione followed his glance to find him fixated upon the much changed high table, and then let her eyes sweep quickly over the Ravenclaw table. Neither of them had anything more to say.

A little while later, found Harry, finishing his meal and getting ready to leave. "Hey, Hermione. Could you think about something for me?" He waited until he had caught her attention, at her nod he continued quietly, "I was thinking about reinstating the DA. Just for the, eh, regulars. You know who."

She nodded, glancing at Neville whose attention was still engaged elsewhere. "Keep everyone in shape, up to par and such, you know? But we need a less risky way to get in touch with everyone. Just think about it okay?"

He would think about it too. He had too. When they finally did get a lead, he wanted to leave at least some students at the castle who would be able to take action should anything happen.

Death Eater activity had only increased over the summer, apparently emboldened by Dumbledore's death and the resulting chaos. And then there were those second-hand letters that McGonagall had insisted upon showing him after both of them had finally viewed Dumbledore's pensive for the last time, but Harry refused to think of any of all that now, least they darken his mood even further.

Dratted McGonagall, couldn't she leave him be? He had the right to his wrath, as stupid, inconvenient, and misplaced as she might find it. He had been there to see everything, so he should know.

"Okay. I'll get to work on something that'll work better than the coins… See you later, I've got to get to the library."

"Of course. I think I'll go see if I can't find Ron. He'll want in on it." They both stood up, added their good-byes to the rest of the table, and left the Great Hall.

XxXx

Hermione settled into a corner chair in the commons room, and closed her eyes; the book borrowed from the library still perched open on her lap. After all the events of last year, you would think that everyone (including herself) would be a little more focused upon what was really important; the brewing war with Voldemort. But she had barely stopped herself from asking to borrow the Map from Harry…

Professor Dumbledore was dead. Professor McGonagall was now interim headmistress, and more importantly was neither teaching transfigurations nor acting as Head of House. Slughorn had stayed on as both the professor of potions and as the Slytherin Head of House. Harry had seemed a bit surprised at that.

Harry as it were, was the only one truly focused upon what was important. He had come back after summer very focused, and though Hermione didn't like to think it, he came back rather desperate too. Because of the horcruxes. He had been happy enough to see Professor Lupin come back, though it was still unclear to everyone whether he would become Head of House. Hermione hoped so; she mainly hoped that just someone would be made Head of House.

Ron was… he was trying. Harry had stopped her for only a second to whisper in her ear, before going up to the Boys' Dormitory with Ron. Ron hadn't even looked at her. He obviously still wasn't speaking to her, but he had sent a couple messages to her through Harry. Harry was less than thrilled about this; nobody here had time for childish behavior.

But he hadn't realized yet that it was Hermione's fault. It had to be, she still felt guilty over that kiss. Ron must not have actually told Harry what was going on. She was glad for that at least. She still wasn't sure why she felt guilty, but obviously it shouldn't have happened. Which was strange, because she had thought all last year, that that was what she wanted to happen. Maybe she was just putting herself under too much stress. Perhaps it would all blow over after a couple of days.

It had to, because there were too many important things going on. Fall term was almost half over, and they had been planning to use Christmas break to look for Horcruxes. Only they still didn't have a clue as to where to look. She frowned down at the open book in her lap.

She had to focus on what was really important. She would apologize to Ron tomorrow, and tell him that she was just all out of sorts with the developing war, and couldn't they just stay friends for now? There were more important things going on. She turned a page, and started to read.

XxXx

Later that night found Luna tinkering away in the alcove, working a bit at this or that, and staring out the window towards the Forbidden Forest, even though she couldn't see it from this side of the castle. She knew it was there.

Maybe tomorrow she could go check on the stones she had discarded beneath the bushes. She scrunched up her nose, how was one to know when they had been there long enough? Maybe she'd give it another couple days. She really didn't want to go thrice into the forest in as many days, if they weren't ready tonight.

The last pebble of the last batch she had fiddled with had finally muted, settling back to its original gray color. And so instead, tonight, Luna was brewing a strong memory potion for the pebbles, with the hopes that perhaps they'd absorb and remember to hold onto their glow better.

Luna peeked over at the tapestry again, she had sealed it carefully before starting the rather smoky potion brewing, but sometimes the tapestry would get unstuck, pulling the window-directed smoke out into the corridor. Someone finding smoke seeping out from behind the tapestry wouldn't be good.

She looked into the cauldron; she had to keep the potion quite hot as it bubbled around the pebbles at the bottom of the cauldron. She was a bit worried that the potion would object to the pebbles, but the pepperup potion had turned out fine, even if it hadn't really helped the pebbles any.

And if the stones didn't like the potion, as they hadn't liked the eclipsor potion she had tried last week, she could always try some Quodpot Solution upon them first. And she could give the rest of the memory potion to Neville Longbottom.

He liked the eclipser readily enough, said that as a finish, it made for rather good glow-in-the-dark notes. And she would to check on the pebbles tomorrow night, wouldn't want them to go too long out there in forest.

Happy with her plans and with the cool night breeze stealing away the fumes from her work, Luna settled back to watch the small cauldron bubble and to let her mind wander away for a bit.

XxXx

Ron stared up towards the top of his curtained bed. This was stupid. Hermione was being stupid. How could a girl spend all year completely put out about him and Lavender (who still wasn't speaking to him, thank you very much), and be all puppy eyes and crying on his shoulder when that bastard murdered Dumbledore, and now not want to be his girlfriend?

It just didn't make any bloody sense. No matter what Ginny said about how he looked while doing it, he was a good kisser! Everyone looked silly. She wasn't being fair. It was just a first kiss. All first kisses were a little awkward, that didn't mean she should just give up! He deserved another shot.

Hermione was the right girl for him. Of course she was. Why wouldn't she? They were perfect. She was pretty, and smart, and really brave too. He was brave, very brave. Didn't Lavender say that all the time? And he was good at quidditch too.

There was no reason Hermione shouldn't like him too. She was just being silly, like Harry. Ron liked Ginny dating Harry way better than he liked watching Dean once again put his hands all over his sister.

Ron wished everyone would just get their acts together. He punched his pillow a bit, rolled over, and yanked his blankets up to his chin. Finding the horcruxes and the war with the Death Eaters would be miserable enough. He didn't want all this stupid girl drama too.

And Hermione just didn't understand. He was totally mature enough to handle a relationship. He was mature enough last year when she accused him of that, and he was loads more mature now. And he was a much better kisser now too. Girls.

At least with the DA and all that, he'd have something to get his mind off of how wrong and off-plan everything else in his life was going. Hermione wasn't talking to him. Harry was so serious and moody this year. And he hadn't even made Head Boy.

Ron squeezed his eyes shut, determined to go to sleep. Life sucked.

XxXx