Hermione turned slowly and consciously to face the owner of the voice.
The Potions Master was sitting in his seat, arms folded neatly on his chest, looking at her and at the faces of the boys who stood amongst her, gaping mouths and all. Severus was, in fact, amused by the entire situation. Disappointed that Hermione had obviously not learned to control her temper, but amused none-the-less. Truth be told, if Draco had not high-tailed out of the classroom, he might have been guaranteed a massive head injury this evening.
Severus, still with arms crossed, continued to scan the sight before him. Sending Draco away was not a mistake. Not one bit.
In fact, it was quite a purposeful dismissal.
Severus' note to Hermione stated that there was much to discuss. And Severus strongly believed that this information could not wait.
He knew that there was a good chance that they would not take the 'news' lightly. Since Potter and the girl were already present, Severus had thought it best to tell them now, tonight. Though the pair would more than likely divulge the new information to their best friend, the Potions Master had thought it best to let those directly involved hear the information for themselves. How he was going to get Weasley to leave the room was unknown at the present time, but Severus was clever – he was certain a way would present itself.
'Lost your temper again, Granger? How…disappointing…' he said to the girl that stood before him.
Hermione swallowed.
'Yes, Sir but...but it was better...I mean it could have been a lot worse,' said Hermione softly, shuffling her feet a bit.
Severus made his way to stand, gathering up bits of parchment here and there.
He paused to look up at her.
'You still need work,' he said quietly to her, as he made his way with an armful of papers, beginning to set them on the table behind his desk. He carefully placed the papers in a neat, well-organized pile.
'By the way, Mister Weasley,' he said quietly, turning around and looking at Ron. 'It would do you best not to believe everything you hear…making assumptions in times such as these is…rather futile…' obviously making reference to what Ron may have overheard earlier that morning.
Ron coughed, placed his hands behind his back and nodded, all the while keeping his eyes on the ground.
Harry looked up at the Potions Master and began to speak hurriedly.
'Sir, you...you're…you're just going to let Malfoy get away with this? I mean, if you saw what he did-' but Harry did not get a chance to finish his statement.
'I will deal with Draco on my own time, Potter. That should be the least of your worries,' Snape added, as he stood behind his desk.
Just then, Hermione began to sway. Ever so slightly. She placed a hand on the desk in back of her for support, closed her eyes, and put her head down a bit.
Harry, who had placed the sandwich and fruit down on a desk in back of himself moments before, stepped quickly towards her and put a hand on her arm.
'Mione? You alright?' he asked quietly, concern written on his face.
Hermione picked her head up and opened her eyes. She smiled a small smile and looked up into Harry's piercing green eyes.
'Fine…fine. A quick bout of dizziness, that's all,' said Hermione.
'Well Mione,' Ron interjected, '-we did bring you some food. Well, actually Harry brought you something to eat. You must be starved – have you even eaten anything all day? Blimey, the baby is going to be as skinny as a twig if you don't eat something!' Ron said to Hermione, eyebrows slightly raised and a look of mild concern on his face.
Severus was about to send Ron up to the hospital wing to retrieve a potion from Madame Pomfrey for Hermione's dizziness, however, one mention about her child led Severus to focus his eyes on Hermione's slightly protruding stomach. He scowled.
'Miss Granger - since when did you stop the concealment charm?' he asked with an annoyed tone, looking at her abdomen.
'What?' she asked.
Hermione looked down towards her stomach. Sure enough, there was a tiny baby bump protruding from her abdomen. The white sweatshirt did not help; rather, it only brought attention to it more. She wondered if they had passed anyone in the hall that evening - who might have seen her. She also wondered what had happened to the charm, why it wore off.
'Oh balls,' she muttered, not paying any attention to the words coming out of her mouth. She began to reach around to her back pocket for her wand, when suddenly she felt her right pants pocket grow warm.
She jerked her head up, forgetting all about the concealment charm, and dug into her jeans pocket.
She withdrew a gold coin. A coin that was in fact growing warmer by the second. She glanced at the coin, and squinted to read the writing in the dim light.
It read, 'Now.'
All of a sudden, each boy on either side also felt a growing warmth from the pieces of metal each was carrying, and reached into their pockets to retrieve their coins.
Hermione looked down at the shabby looking coin, remembering for only just a moment how they used them when they formed the D.A. After realizing that Hermione had used coins to communicate to other members of Dumbledore's Army, the Headmistress thought the idea worked quite well, and every Order of the Phoenix member carried their coin with them. Should a meeting date change or something important arise, they would be notified. Immediately. And surely, they were being alerted this very evening.
Hermione looked up at the Potions Master.
'There was a meeting tonight?' she asked softly, her head cocked slightly to the side as if confused by the sudden notification.
All of a sudden, Harry bent his head forward and rubbed his scar.
It was burning.
He inhaled sharply, and felt a massive prickling feeling in the middle of his forehead.
Severus opened his mouth to speak, but was stopped. He too felt intense pain, however, the location of his was much different. It was intense, yet familiar pain. He raised the left hand sleeve of his robe, and sure enough, the dark mark was moving, ever so slowly, the snake writhing on his forearm.
He was being summoned.
Harry whose eyes were squinting in pain, had picked his head up, but was still continuing to rub his scar.
Severus looked at the boy.
'Floo from the fireplace. 'Go!' he commanded, nodding to his private chambers.
Hermione took hold of Harry's arm and began to lead him straight to the door to Severus' private chambers, located in the front of the room. Hermione began walking a few feet towards the door, when she noticed Ron was not with them. She turned around sharply.
'Come on, Ron!' she shouted.
But Ronald Weasley was presently consumed with the gold coin in his hand. He was staring at the object, a look of confusion on his face.
'Can't floo tonight, mates,' he said quietly, a frown on his face as he continued to regard the coin.
Harry, turned around to face the red-headed boy. 'Why the bloody hell not?!' he yelled at his best friend.
With one arm snaked around Harry's, Hermione used the other arm to withdraw the coin from her pocket. She saw the word, 'Now' glowing, and flipped the coin over.
One word, one word printed on the opposite side of the coin made her stomach flip, made her nauseous instantly. Besides dealing with the abominable wrath of Draco Malfoy, there was another thing in life that she absolutely loathed, absolutely could not tolerate:
Hermione hated flying.
For you see, when the young Gryffindor flipped the coin to the other side, the only word she saw in print was the word, 'Thestrals.'
They were to ride on Thestrals tonight.