Hermione felt like hugging the gleaming red train as she stepped onto platform nine and three quarters 6 weeks later. The argument with her parents the day she'd returned from the Weasley's had not been the last of the summer, though it was certainly the worst. By the time she'd slammed her bedroom door she'd ended up both wandless and grounded for the entire summer break. She supposed that some of the things she'd called them hadn't helped at all, but she was just so mad when they'd taken her wand off her that the words had escaped before she could stop herself.
Other than an - accompanied - trip to Diagon Alley a few days previous to get her school supplies she'd been almost completely without magic. Almost because fortunately they hadn't taken her books away, so she'd spent as much of the summer as she could learning every last detail of all the spells and potions in her two new books. Her mum hadn't been at all happy to find her in the garden practicing the motions with a pencil standing in for her confiscated wand, but she'd let it go.
She was now ever so happy to make her way along the corridors in search of her friends, as the Hogwarts Express took her away for another year of school.
"This is horrible," Hermione spoke up as she read the copy of The Daily Prophet Ron had given her. "My stupid parents, I can't believe I didn't hear about this!"
"At least you weren't there," Ron offered, "was bloody terrifying."
"Why haven't the Ministry done anything? Didn't they even have security?" She continued passionately. A few quiet moments passed as she finished reading the article, then looked up at Harry and asked "Have you told Sirius yet?"
He scratched his scar for a moment, the shook his head.
"It's hurting again isn't it?"
"I'm fine." He assured her unconvincingly.
"Harry! With your scar flaring up and the dream you can't just forget about it!" She shook the paper at him before continuing, "You know he'd want to hear about this; what you saw at the world cup, and the dream!" She encouraged him, then letting out a frustrated huff at his lack of response she added, "Merlin Harry, you're useless! You don't even think about these things do you?"
"Easy on Hermione," Ron started but was cut off by the frustrated young witch.
"Oh shut it Ron, you're just as bad." She snapped as she stood. "I'm going to go change into my robes, you can do what you want, like always."
Hermione paused just out of sight as she heard Ron whisper "They're scarier when they get older."
Clenching her jaw she stormed off down the corridor.
Hermione sat with her dorm-mates in the Great Hall, not in the mood to deal with the two boys. She watched the sorting and cheered with the rest of the table whenever a new Gryffindor was selected. Then sat up as Professor Dumbledore stood to give his usual start of term speech. There was a flurry of chatter as the TriWizard Cup was announced, followed by screams of outrage at the age limit. Everyone quietened down a few minutes later, with just occasional oohs and ahhs at the flashy entrances of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students.
The excitement cooled a little as the feast began, and the girls continued to talk amongst themselves. The TriWizard Championship, and the entrance of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students were topics at the top of the list of course, but other things passed between them too. Hermione's mood slipped slightly when Lavender asked what she'd been up to over the summer break, but after a quick answer about a trip to Diagon Alley and reading some new books, Hermione turned the question back on Lavender.
As the night grew late the four girls made their way back through the Gryffindor common rooms to their dormitory. Glad to be back, Hermione drifted off to the most peaceful sleep she'd had in months.
When classes started up again Hermione found herself getting lost in her studies as usual, her class load wasn't as full as the previous year so she didn't need a time turner to keep up with them; but she still spent a great deal of time in the library. Her friendship with Ron and Harry was perhaps not as close as it had been in previous years, but with the time they spent together in the Gryffindor common room, and in classes they were at least back on speaking terms.
The third day of classes saw all the fourth years hurrying excitedly towards their Defence Against the Dark Arts class, everyone had heard of Professor Moody by now - including some far fetched sounding rumours started by the Weasley twins - and were eager to see him teach. When the bell rang they all scuttled in, Hermione taking a seat right at the front next to Neville, with Harry and Ron just across the isle from her. The hushed whispers of the class settled into silence as they heard the uneven clunking walk of their new teacher who, upon entering, stood at the front of the room for a moment. He let out a faint grunt at what could either have been his pleasure with the silently waiting class, or an ache in his one good leg - it was difficult to tell - before stepping up to the ratty old desk buried under Merlin only knew what.
"Put your books away, you won't need them," he growled out before picking up a piece of parchment from the desk and checking the roll; as each of them answered to their name his magical eye flickered around the room, even as he continued to read. "Right," he continued gruffly as soon as the last name had been called, "I saw Professor Lupin's class notes from last year and it seems you've all got a fair grasp on dark creatures; werewolves, hinkypinks, red caps. Yes?".
A few general murmurs of agreement came from the class, but he pressed right on.
"But it looks as though you're well behind on your understanding of curses. Now," he continued in a growing voice, "the ministry thinks that all you need to learn is a few countercurses, but I say different! There's no point knowing how to stop something if you don't know what's coming at you. You need to know what's out there, you need to know what you're up against." He turned around and fetched a jar out of drawer as he kept on, "You need to be prepared, and you need to put that away in my class Miss Brown!"
There was a startled sound at the back of the class, and Hermione turned to see Lavender slipping her divination workbook back into her bag.
"So, who can tell me of the most heavily punished curses in the wizarding world?"
Hermione raised her hand, along with a couple of others; she answered simply when he pointed to her. "The three unforgivables."
"And they are so named?" The Professor asked as he turned to scrawl 'unforgivable' on the black board.
"Because they are unforgivable, using one..." she replied and went to continue, but was interrupted by the Professor as he turned back around.
"That's right." He spoke with wide eyes, magical eye flickering about the room. "The use of any one of them against a fellow human being will earn you a one-way ticket to Azkaban!" Picking the jar up off the desk he waited till all of their eyes had settled on it. "So, we have a spider, and three curses... which one shall we say first?" Pausing just a moment, he continued, "Well? Who can give me the name of an unforgivable curse?" A few hands were tentatively raised around the room, but the Professor focused in on Ron.
The Imperious Curse had most of the class laughing as the Professor had the spider performing for them, and tap-dancing on various people's heads, but the mood soon turned more somber as he pointed out the danger of such total control with the spider teetering over a buck of water ready to drown itself.
As the Professor placed the spider back in his hand and asked for another curse, Hermione was suprised to see Neville's hand shakily raising. The Professor clunked his was over and peered at the boy.
"Longbottom is it?" he asked, as he pointed his wand at the spider. "Engorgio!" he muttered and the spider grew till it was barely fitting in his hand. "Speak up then!" he prompted as the spider was placed on the desk between Neville and Hermione.
"There's the uh, the Cruciatis Curse." Neville responded nervously.
"The torture curse." Professor Moody clarified, then pointed his wand at the now large spider, "Crucio!"
The spider's legs curled in under itself and Hermione was sure she could almost hear it screaming as it began to twitch and rock. The class looked on silently as after a little while the spider started to shudder and jerk more wildly. Looking up, Hermione saw Neville looking pale enough to faint. "Professor!" She called out, quietly, but enough to break his concentration and release the spider from the curse.
Professor Moody followed her eyes to Neville, then looked around the room quickly, everyone was silent. "Well Miss Granger," he spoke after a moment, nudging the spider over to her with his wand. "Perhaps, you'd care to tell us the last curse." He locked eye contact with her and she swallowed the lump in her throat.
"Avada Kedavra." She answered quietly, several people looked at her nervously, Ron and Harry among them.
"Yes, the killing curse." He clarified watching her still. "Avada Kedavra!" He roared a moment later, wand again pointing straight at the spider.
A shudder ran up Hermione's back as she felt the rushing power of the curse's bright green light slam into the spider before her. Instantly the spider fell flat to the desk, seemingly unharmed, yet unmistakably dead.
When the class finished Hermione jumped up and moved quickly to the door, her hopes for a quick escape where dashed however when someone stepped into the doorway, blocking her exit.
"What's the matter? Can't the mudblood handle a little real magic?" Malfoy sneered at her, arms crossed over his chest.
Not at all in the mood for him today, Hermione walked up to him with a glare, "mudbloods, muggles... you're obsessed with them Malfoy. I don't think daddy would like to hear that." She taunted. His face turned to a look of anger, but as he reached for his wand she gave him a firm shove into his cronies. "Piss off Malfoy" she muttered as they fell to the floor.
She stormed off to the library before he had a chance to get up, hoping to get some time alone with her thoughts. Finding a dark corner in the back, she flopped into a seat and tried to relax in the familiar surroundings of the books she'd spent so much time reading. The class with Professor Moody had affected her more than she was willing to admit; though it had come out a little when confronted with Draco's usual teasing. Taking a deep calming breath, she shifted her bag off her lap, then sat up and got comfortable before pulling out her Advanced Spellcraft book and once again looked over the four spells she'd most focused on memorising in the summer.
It didn't go unnoticed by her classmates that for the first time ever Hermione Granger skipped class.