Written In The Body

Poetheather

A/N: Well, this is to date the longest chapter yet. Yes… I can hear your tears. Try not to weep too much. :)

Still not JKR. Why are you looking at me like that?

Twenty-seven

The days moved from September into October with no real change except that the school work intensified for the fifth and seventh years by a good measure. What also didn't help matters was that Ginny was busy with classes and Quidditch practices and Hermione's work as Head Girl kept her occupied. Because of how busy they both were and how much they were doing, the two of them pretty much only saw each other in passing, in shared classes and spent what time they could together more often than not studying in the Library with Luna and Simon. All of that difficulty in connecting made Hermione wish desperately that Ginny was sleeping in her room, rather than one floor down with the rest of the girls her year. Sure the fact that they were sleeping together on the weekends was lovely but Hermione just missed the warmth and comfort of holding her girlfriend close to her and being held. Perhaps she should go and talk to Madam Pomfrey about the whole situation, as she had awoken several times after nightmares and could only curl up and shake, crying in the dark, too jangled up to even get out of bed or even cry out to Topsy for help. Having Ginny there would have made everything better as she knew that her girlfriend would have taken care of her.

She was also aware that she wanted this to happen because it was getting closer to the date that Ron had abandoned Harry and her during the Horcrux hunt. It had torn her up so much inside when that had happened and to a degree she was still trying to get over that. Sure she understood what had happened because of that damned Horcrux and Ron's reasoning but emotional reasoning did not respond well to logic. She could tell just by how she was feeling at the moment that she would not sleep well that night and probably have a nightmare and that was bothersome. Then there was the additional fact that both Harry and Neville were both in Auror training. The whole notion was crazy. How could Harry go and do that after all the pain and suffering the war had caused him? How could he go through the combat training and not have flashbacks or episodes? He had actually died for a short while and that alone disturbed her. It was beyond her ability to understand. Why would he willingly do that to himself? And that didn't even get into the question of Neville and why a gentle boy like him would do that?

Ginny poked her in the side, to try and get her attention, distracting her from wherever her thoughts were leading her, "Are you okay Kitten?"

Hermione just shrugged, kind of unsure of how to respond to that. There was a lot going on in her mind that was hard to get a handle on. "I guess I'm just feeling a bit melancholy."

Ginny frowned a little at that. "What's wrong?"

"I just have a lot of stuff on my mind is all, nothing for you to worry about." replied Hermione, trying to brush the topic away. She really did not want to think about any of it and wished she could hide from it to a degree. Since Ginny was not supposed to be staying in her room then it didn't do her any good to point some of these things out.

"Look 'mione, we covered this over the summer, if something is bothering you tell me about it. I know you tend to hold things in and that leads to you eventually breaking down because of the pressure, which I don't approve of." Ginny reached out and ran a hand down Hermione's face, to cup her cheek lovingly, her soft brown eyes locked with Hermione's. "Besides now you have me worried and if I'm worried about you then I can't focus on my game and with the match against Ravenclaw this weekend I wanted to be focused. They actually seem to be pretty good this year."

Hermione rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly, not wanting to dislodge the hand. "I see, so it's all about you then."

"Well, if it makes you smile, even briefly, then yes, yes it is. Fred and George taught me that dwelling on things you can't change only makes you grumpy and can possibly drive you insane or worse, into becoming someone like Percy. They focused on what they could change and on how they could make their lives better. George is still like that or at least he's working on it. So how can I not try to act like them when my Kitten needs cheering up?" said Ginny with a faint smile, rubbing her thumb along Hermione's cheekbone.

Hermione smiled back. That actually made sense and was moving. She knew how Ginny felt about Fred, and so to have mentioned him meant this was important to her. "Thank you."

"Anything for you, Kitten." Ginny smiled at her lovingly.

She hugged the redhead and sighed in relief. Ginny's intervention had helped shift her thoughts from their downward spiral and had made her feel better but it also kind of reinforced the nickname for her that she had been toying with. It made a perfect kind of sense with her personality and looks and it also had a cute diminutive that worked with the short form of her own nickname. While that was a bit more adorable than she usually went for, it was kind of fun in this instance. She could be cute on occasion and this was certainly the time for it. She decided to try the name out and see what Ginny thought, or at the very least what the reaction would be. She nuzzled against Ginny and said, "Mmmmmm… my Vixen."

Ginny started and pulled her face back to look at Hermione a bit confused, "Wait… what?"

At that point Hermione knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was the perfect nickname for Ginny, sitting up with a bit more bounce. She was going to enjoy this and the confusion was certainly banishing the mood she had previously been in. All of this was giving her a warm feeling inside and that made her smile a little, "Vixen. Do you like it? It's the nickname I came up with for you."

Ginny groaned and lowered her face into her hands. "You have got to be kidding me Hermione."

"Nope. I like it. Honestly Gin, the name fits you so very well. Between the color of your hair and your attitude and your quickness how does it not fit you?" challenged Hermione, knowing that there really was nothing that Ginny could say that could challenge her on this point. She had put a lot of thought into this and had gone through a number of things until she had arrived at this one.

"You know… I should know better than to argue with you. It never ends in my favor. Hell, it never ended in Harry or Ron's favor either so why should I expect to do any better. So let me see if I can guess… Kitty and Vixy?"

Hermione's broad grin was the only answer needed for confirmation of that.

"Why me? Why did I have to fall in love with someone with a sense of humor like yours? At least Harry was actually funny every once in a while. It's sad. Maybe what's wrong is that you got your sense of humor from your Dad?" jokingly said Ginny, with a grin, obviously teasing.

With a huff, Hermione lurched forward and began to tickle Ginny, making the girl squeal and squirm in her arms. This continued for a little bit, with Ginny retaliating some, before Hermione stopped that attack and instead kissed Ginny, moving in to make it a deeper kiss. Ginny complied happily, opening her mouth at the first invitation and the two of them leaned against the window sill snogging for a bit. They were lost in the pleasure of each other and the rest of the world fell away from them. "Ahem."

Ginny and Hermione leapt apart and turned, lowering down out of regular line of fire, wands snapping out towards the source of the sound. Professor Cottington just stood there looking at them with some amusement on her face, her eyebrow raised appraisingly. "Miss Weasley, Miss Granger perhaps next time you decide to have such a public display of your affections, you both might want to choose a more secluded spot to engage in such activities."

The two girls blushed at her words, standing up rather abashed, and that got the professor to snicker. "You two… you really should watch that. I really thought you two would be more on guard of your surroundings but your reaction time, movement, and draw abilities are quite impressive. Most Aurors I have known do not have skills like that."

"Yeah, and most Aurors have not been actively hunted by a psychopath." grumbled Hermione a little too loud.

"That is very true Miss Granger. You both had to go through some truly insane events in the last few years if what I have read is only halfway correct. You learned in the worst way possible, life or death, because the learning curve is so steep and the cost of failure so extreme. You do have a very keen grasp of both the theory and practical in Defense, more so than most anyone I've ever met who was not a professional. That kind of knowledge and grasp of the subject only comes from actual combat experience and surviving life or death situations." Professor Cottington said gently.

Ginny snorted in amusement at the assessment. "If you think we're fast or good at this stuff, you should see Harry. He's bloody amazing."

"Harry? Harry Potter?" It was clear that Professor Cottington, for all that she knew about the two of them was still having some issues making those connections. Hermione had to agree, as it was difficult to connect someone standing in front of you with someone who was 'famous'.

Hermione nodded in agreement with Ginny. He really was in his own category. "Let's see, he got double Os for his OWLs and he only got better from there. He even managed a full body Patronus in third year that drove away over one hundred Dementors. It was all the Dementors stationed at the school at the time and I'm not sure how many that was. Killed a basilisk at twelve. I guess you could say he has a few skills in this field."

Professor Cottington raised her eyebrows, obviously impressed just like everyone else was that had heard about that, ignoring Ginny's snort. "That is far outside of the norm of what an adult could do. But then again he did defeat He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named so he had to have had some skill at combat and defense."

"You have no idea." said Hermione quietly, with a shudder.

Ginny sensing her discomfort at this turn in topic moved over and hugged her from behind. She spoke softly into her ear, "It's okay, it's all over."

"I'm sorry if I brought up a sensitive topic Miss Granger." Professor Cottington did seem rather contrite. "It was not my intention to do so."

"Thank you Professor. I still have… some issues with parts of the last year. It was rather hard on me, Harry and Ginny's brother Ron, perhaps harder than it needed to be." admitted Hermione.

Their Professor nodded, a bit distracted herself. "War and conflict can often leave scars that don't show on the outside as well as the obvious ones. I am sorry that those troubles hurt you in that way. You are a good person and did not deserve any of that. I know how hard that can be for you to deal with and get over."

"You mentioned that before." said Hermione, growing curious. "I was wondering about that."

"Yes. I know I didn't mention it in class but I fought in the first War against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. I was a Hit Wizard then, and had been on the force for several years and I knew Potter, Black and the Longbottoms, working with the three of them as needed for support and back up. We fought together several times against Death Eaters as well as followed up on more normal cases. After the war, I needed to get away from here and do something different as I just couldn't deal with being here, especially if I had to see people I had fought several times like Malfoy walking around free because of their money and lies. So I took a reduction in pat and began working at Embassies on protective details in order to keep working and to get away from the country that had let me down. I still had to fight and such, but far less often and I saw far less of man's inhumanity to man on a daily basis. And being the head of the details made sure I didn't have to do the grunt work." Professor Cottington looked off into the distance, despite their being inside, at something only she could see. Hermione had no idea what specifically she was seeing, but she did understand, doing that herself occasionally where she kept having visions of friends now passed, of those painfully calm moments in combat where your fear and the realization of what was actually happening would consume you whole. "That time away helped me heal but I still have occasional problems at times."

"So what you're saying is that eventually I will get better and heal from all of this but there will always be issues?" asked Hermione a touch worried. Would she never be free of this pain? She rubbed the old ache in her left forearm.

"Think of it more along the lines of the fact that there will always be a scar there to remind you of what you went through. You will heal and get past the worst of it but something will remain. And like I said, some scars can be on the inside but that doesn't make them any less valid. Why do you think there are so many potions that deal with this sort of thing? You need to remember that damage is damage, whether it is on the inside or outside." Professor Cottington shared a compassionate look with her that clearly showed that she understood what she was talking about.

Hermione looked thoughtful at her words and Ginny was rubbing her back comfortingly. Realizing that she had something else running around in mind and this was a good chance to bring it up with someone who might have a say in the matter, Hermione met their Head of House's eyes and asked, "Thank you for that Professor. It gives me a lot to think on. No one has quite put any of this to me that way. To change topics, well only a little, but anyway, would it be possible to have Ginny move into the Head Girl suite with me?"

Professor Cottington looked at her for a moment, confusion clear on her face and she blinked at her, then she asked slowly, "Wait… are you saying she hasn't been staying with you?"

"You thought I was staying in there?" asked Ginny quite surprised to hear that her Head of House had simply assumed that she was sleeping in the room with Hermione.

"Well, I know that you were supposed to be helping Miss Granger here with her nightmares and such, so I thought that was where you had been this whole time. I know those are not things that simply go away or follow any sort of time table. They just don't go away because you want them to or think you're better. You mean you have been leaving her alone?" Now Professor Cottington seemed surprised.

"Well, not every night and if things are bad she sends the house elf to come get me and I head on up, but we were under the impression that I couldn't move in to the room without getting the Headmistress's permission?" Ginny seemed a bit abashed and it was also clear she wasn't exactly sure why.

The Professor lowered her head and shook it back and forth slowly; letting out what could only be described as a sigh of long suffering. "Not really. I can also give you permission to move into the room with her and because I know that this is not just a case of you two wanting to shack up and have lots of sex but rather a case of Medical Need that has to be addressed, I give you both permission to do so. Hermione, if she was giving you comfort while you slept, sleeping apart from her too early could actually set your healing back to a degree and make the whole process more difficult than it needed to be. True, you will have to wean yourself off her at some point so you don't create a dependency, but why don't we let your Healer make that call farther down the line when you are not being bothered by nightmares. As someone who knows what you are going through, I would rather you were happy and able to sleep well than anything else. If all it takes is Miss Weasley, all the easier. We wouldn't want your sleep troubles to affect your school work now would we?"

Both young women were rather surprised at this pronouncement and blinked rather dumbly for a moment before they both started thanking her at once. This got Professor Cottington to start laughing, "Its okay girls, really it is, I completely understand. I am just looking out for you. After having part of a building dropped on me and one of my friends killed at the same time, I had to sleep for a year with a stuffed dragon that I had gotten as a little girl. Clutching it was the only way I felt safe enough to really sleep through the night, so I actually do understand."

"Wait… you mean that stuffed Welsh Green in your office?" asked Hermione, remembering the old and clearly well-loved stuffed animal she had seen when she had tea with the Head of House during the first week back at school. She had wanted to ask about it but the natural flow of conversation had never really given her a decent opening.

"Yes, that stuffed Welsh Green. Please don't tell anyone about that. Can you imagine what people would think of me if they knew that, the old Hit Wizard and her stuffed Dragon, though I must admit she has come in handy in dealing with a few frightened or homesick first years so far." The Professor smiled and chuckled to herself at the very notion.

Ginny held her hands up, "No problem. We aren't going to spill that fact to anyone. And thank you again."

"Don't mention it. And if you two need anything at all feel free to ask." She turned and walked off.

The two of them sat there watching her go and then turned to face each other, smiles growing into broad cheek aching grins. Hermione said, "I guess this means…"

"I guess it does." Ginny's sparkled with mischief. She bounced a little in her excitement, barely containing a squeal.

"Topsy!" called out Hermione enthusiastically.

When the house elf arrived, Hermione was still grinning like a maniac, bouncing a little herself. "Yes Miss Grangy?"

"Topsy, Professor Cottington has just given her permission for Ginny here to be able to move into the Head Girl suite with me. If you are not too busy with your other tasks would you be able to gather her things up from her room and move her upstairs?" asked Hermione rather properly.

Topsy smiled at Hermione, obviously pleased for her. "Topsy can do that Miss Grangy. I know where all of your Wheezy's things are."

With that the house elf disappeared to take care of that task. Ginny started snickering, turning her head slowly towards Hermione who was blushing slightly. She raised one eyebrow at the brunette, "Your Wheezy?"

"Apparently Weasley is a tricky name for them to say. I have no idea. It must be a House Elf thing. I do think it's cute though. And it is true, you are mine." stated Hermione, her grin becoming softer and more sensual.

"I am." Ginny grinned, moving closer to her girlfriend. "I am completely yours. And you are mine."

"So what should we do now? I mean, that has certainly changed things up." commented Hermione, still a bit dazed by what Professor Cottington had just approved.

"Well, I guess we can grab Simon and get Luna before heading down to dinner early. We would need to get going anyway soon. Otherwise I can't really think of anything else we can do." stated Ginny.

"That makes sense. Then we can get some studying done afterwards. We have those essays in Transfiguration to get done." said Hermione.

"That's true. And doesn't Simon have that Potions project?" asked Ginny, trying to remember.

"I think so. I brought the appropriate journal with me so he could get a bit of a jump ahead over people thanks to Lupin's assistance." Hermione grinned. She was sure that with the right help, Simon would be able to get Os in almost all of his classes. He really was a clever kid.

Ginny shook her head. "Are you trying to turn him into a little you?"

"What? I'm not doing anything of the sort. He is doing that all on his own. Besides, we are really close. You know I worry about him." said Hermione.

"I know Kitten. You really do a good job looking out for him. He is lucky to have the most dangerous person in the castle looking out for him." Ginny smirked at Hermione.

Hermione rolled her eyes at this. Was she ever going to be able to live that comment down? "Honestly Ginevra."

Ginny smiled at her. "Speaking of Simon, what are you hoping happens?"

"I don't know. Madam Pomfrey and Headmistress McGonnagall said that they would look into the situation some more and take care of things. I haven't heard anything back from them in a bit so I am a bit worried. I am supposed to stay out of the loop from now on and they want me to not tell Simon any of this. It needs to stay some sort of secret. At this point I apparently need to be cut out of the whole process since I am not really staff. It just makes me so frustrated." Hermione frowned as she said this. It was not something she was pleased with but it was something that she had to deal with because she knew neither woman was going to back down. They weren't even remotely known for doing that and while there were a lot of people she could intimidate neither woman was on that list. She just wanted to make sure that Simon was taken care of but this whole thing was out of her control right now and she was not a fan of that.

"I guess you really need to take your mind off the whole situation, which I guess is what you have been doing, or at least trying to do. What can I do to help?" asked Ginny, offering her assistance openly.

"I don't know. I have a meeting with the Headmistress soon as she has something she wants to talk to me about. That might give me some more information on all of this but I have no actual idea." said Hermione, the frustration clear in her voice. "She'll let me know what the topic is when I get there I guess."

"Any clue what it could be?"

"No, she's being really secretive so it could be Simon or it could be something else." Hermione shrugged. "I do kind of wonder. It's not like there really are that many things it could be… right?"

Ginny rested a hand on her arm comfortingly. "Well, I don't think it will be that long until you know. Don't worry about it."

"That reminds me…" Hermione bit her lower lip. She had not really found a good moment to tell Ginny about this and was hoping that she would be good with it, especially since they would be sharing a room from now on. If Ginny was upset with her things could get awkward very fast. "I need to tell you something."

Ginny looked at her a bit concerned, "What is it Kitten? You seem nervous."

"Well… I… did something last time that Simon was talked about and I should probably talk to you about it, seeing as we are in a relationship now." Hermione stammered a little.

"Yes?"

Hermione took a deep breath and said, "I offered to become Simon's Guardian if he has to be taken from his family."

Ginny closed her eyes and sighed. "Of course you did."

"Are you mad?" Hermione asked in a very small voice.

Opening her eyes again and smiling weakly at Hermione, Ginny replied, "Not really. Surprised, unsure what this means, trying to make sense of this all but mad… no I'm not mad."

"I just thought that Simon might want to be watched over by someone who he knows." Hermione rubbed her left arm. She was sure she had done the right thing but since she was in a relationship she had to take Ginny's thoughts into consideration and she hadn't. That was unfair and she would understand if Ginny were upset.

"I get it, I really do, I just need to think about it before I can really say anything else. Let's go get Simon. I'm getting hungry and you know the dangers of denying a Weasley stomach." Ginny gave her a weak smile and extended her hand.

They went and got Simon from where he was studying, hidden behind a stack of books in a manner very similar to Hermione. He still hadn't really connected with some of the others of his year but it was getting better than it had been at the start of the semester. As best as Hermione figured it had to do with the social issues stemming from the abuse and that made her want to find and hurt whoever had done this to him even more. He was actually making more friends with the four girls in his year, since he was able to connect to them better thanks to hanging out with the trio. Apparently they were teaching him something about communicating or helping him to trust women or something. It was kind of cute to see him sitting in the common room surrounded by the girls, all talking away about various things, though he still was a bit shy and quiet on the whole around others. Once they collected him Hermione checked the Map really quickly and found Luna. From what it looked like on the Map, she seemed to be skipping around the third floor and occasionally turning in circles.

A bit confused, the group headed down there and came around a corner to where Luna was skipping. She was humming to herself and listening to something the Grey Lady was telling her. That surprised the group and they froze, but the motion was enough to get the attention of the other two. The daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw caught sight of them and was about to leave before Luna said, "Lady Helena, it's okay. They're my friends."

The Grey Lady stopped and turned to face them, appraising them all. Hermione had to admit that her gaze was rather penetrating if not a little sad. "Very well Luna. It is good to meet you."

Hermione bowed her head, well aware who this was thanks to what Harry and Luna had told her of their adventure looking for the diadem. "The same to you Lady Helena."

Luna smiled at the three of them and asked, "Yes?"

"It's dinner time Luna." said Simon, a bit of a smile on his face, though his eyes never left the Grey Lady. He seemed entranced by her.

"Well, I guess we can talk some more later Lady Helena. We can't keep a young boy's stomach waiting. Who knows what horrors that might breed." said Luna with her perfectly calm, flat voice.

The girls laughed while Simon complained, "Guys… that's not funny."

His stomach growled at that point making everyone laugh. Even the Grey Lady seemed a bit amused. Heading down to the Great Hall, the girls caught up with Simon about what he had been doing lately, as he had been very busy with classwork and getting to know the girls in his year group. He told them about Care of Magical Creatures and the project he had been working on in Astronomy with a few of the girls. For the three young women working towards their NEWTS, hearing about the first year assignments was actually rather calming and quaint. It was very relaxing hearing about these simple things though they did have Simon a bit stressed out.

Dinner went well and soon the three young women said good bye to him, as he was going to go hang out for a while with his friends before he came back to work on his Potions project and they headed up to the Library in order to get some more studying done. He had blushed a little when he said he was going to hang out with the 'girls'. It took a lot of effort but they had not teased him when he said that but wished him a good evening. Once in the Library, they went to their usual study table, Hermione's favorite table since her first year, and laid out their study materials, with Hermione pulling much more out of her book bag than should be possible thanks to applying similar charms to it that she had used on her bag before the Horcrux hunt. Ginny kept looking at the table and the growing pile of books, biting her lip then looking up which made Luna laugh.

Hermione looked up at Luna, noticed that the laughter was directed at Ginny, quirked an eye and asked her girlfriend, "Yes Vixy?

Luna snickered at that and looked over at Ginny and her shocked face, then started outright laughing. Ginny gave Hermione a wounded look as she asked, "Was that really necessary?"

It wasn't really all that dignified but Hermione snorted and replied with, "Oh and like Luna doesn't know my nickname?"

"You mean Kitten?" helpfully supplied Luna with a knowing smirk.

"Luna!" growled out Ginny. "Not helping."

"Exactly. So, Vixy, what exactly were you pondering over there that had you looking so… mmmm… pensive." Hermione drew the pause and the last word out, making it sound somewhat suggestive.

The effect of her words was lovely, as it got Ginny to blush bright red and look down at the table. She asked kind of quietly, "Do I really have to say?"

"You don't want to share?" asked Hermione, as innocent as can be.

"Uhm… ok… fine… well, you see… I was looking at the table and at the placement of this nook, and the bookshelves and was considering just exactly what sort of spells we could use to isolate it from the rest of the room so that we could… you know… maybe snog on the table or something?" The words spilled out of Ginny as the color of her face deepened to the point where it practically glowed.

Hermione got this far away look of her own as she considered the idea that Ginny had put forth, snogging in the library, surrounded by all these books, in one of her favorite places in the whole world. Her eyes moved over the books and then over the rest of the room and what parts of it she could see from the table. She shivered happily at the naughty thoughts that played in her mind, feeling herself begin to grow damp at the notion and smiled at Ginny, her eyes alive and excited. "Well, let me know what you happen to come up with and I'll see if I have any others that we might want to add into the mix."

The astounded look on Ginny's face made Luna bust out laughing again. "Oh Ginny, I do love it when you are shocked. It drives the Wrackspurts clear out of your head. Of course they take your thoughts with them, but you usually think clearly afterwards."

"I couldn't agree more," commented Hermione, with a wink to the blonde.

"Can we get back to studying?" huffed Ginny, clearly a bit flustered by the particular direction the conversation had taken at that point.

"So have you figured out what spells you might needed then?" asked Luna, rather curious from an academic point of view. "I mean, to isolate the corner and such would take a layering approach."

Ginny dropped her head onto her book rather hard and she groaned unhappily.

While the two others giggled in amusement, Luna smiled her usual smile and looked over at Hermione, saying, "I do enjoy this having friends thing. It is quite enjoyable and I really look forward to it continuing."

Before anyone could say another word, a third year Ravenclaw boy ran into the nook, eyes a bit wide and panting, obviously frazzled. "Miss Granger!"

Familiar with the slightly panicked tone that the boy used, Hermione instantly was on alert. "What's wrong?"

"There's a fight in the corridor."

She followed him out at a run, and when she got there, spells were still flying between what looked like some lower year Hufflepuffs and Slytherins but at this point she wasn't sure exactly what years, as they were all younger than her. There were already a few people down on each side from the effects of minor curses and from the looks of things the whole thing seemed to be escalating towards something worse. Drawing her wand and casting a quick but strong Protego, she yelled, "Stop!"

The remaining five combatants were so focused on each other they did not respond to what she had called out. A few of the spells missed their targets and hit her shield harmlessly making her growl in irritation.

She narrowed her eyes in pure annoyance with this whole situation and cast a spell she had read about this summer but had never needed to cast before. She was completely familiar with it though and underpowered it a good bit as she cast it since the effects were sure to be magnified since they were indoors. The clap of thunder that boomed out dropped everyone in the hallway save her to the floor from both the shock and from the pressure wave, several of them even dropping their wands. The noise reverberated through the stone halls, rolling and echoing through the school. All eyes turned to face her, as she was the only one standing, legs shoulder width apart there in her mid-thigh skirt, blouse with sleeves to her elbows, a black vest and heels, looking around at all of them with absolute annoyance in her eyes. "What the hell is going on!"

With a flick of her wand she summoned all the combatants wands to her, since none of them were resisting. She held them together with her magic so she could grab them with a hand. No one spoke, including the bystanders, as some of them were still somewhat deaf from the power of the thunderclap she had unleashed upon. Others were simply dazed by what she had done and how quickly she had ended that conflict. As no one was making any noise yet, still staring at her with some measure of disbelief, she began silently casting countercurses, fixing the various problems that had affected students on both sides quickly. Once that was done and still no one offered up any explanation for their behavior, she turned and caught sight of Luna and Ginny who were looking at her bit funny. She couldn't deal with that now as she had to deal with these bloody prats and the trouble they had caused. And on top of that she could tell by feel that the slight electric discharge from the spell was playing havoc with her hair. Bloody perfect! "Could you two get Professors Slughorn and Sprout? We'll be in that classroom over there when they arrive. You others, leave. Now!"

The hallway cleared of bystanders quickly as the authority and irritation in her voice made it clear that she was not to be messed with. People responded to her as if it had been a snapped order from Snape. "All of you, inside. Now!"

As the students trudged into the classroom she tried to focus quickly to send her Patronus off to Cameron with a message about this, knowing that he would want to be in on this as well. It took her a moment to clear her mind enough to send it out after practically failing the first time. She wanted to make sure that the Slytherins did not think that she was picking them out specifically as the villains and having the Head Boy there to help speak for them would help with that. Hopefully he would get there soon but it wasn't like she could sit on this problem until then. Once that was accomplished she walked into the classroom and slammed the door behind her, her anger lending her more strength than she expected by the sound the door made. "What in the name of Merlin do you all think you were doing? Fighting in the corridors? Are the lot of you looking to be expelled?"

One of the Hufflepuffs looked a bit crestfallen and she turned her way, focusing on the girl, "Oh, did you want to explain why this happened before your Head of House gets here and I tell her what I saw? From what I saw she would certainly be ashamed of her Hufflepuffs as at the end it was three on two."

The girl looked up and then over at her other Puffs and then shook her head. Hermione closed her eyes and groaned, of all the times for Badger loyalty to kick in and muck things up. She didn't need this grief. Her heart was pounding still and she could feel the hairs on the back of her neck raise up, as if someone were behind her. Turning in place, she made sure she was pacing back and forth, her eyes moving from one group to the other, to ensure she was well aware of what they were doing. "Right… if you all don't start talking, I am going to simply recommend to your Heads of House that the lot of you get expelled for this little skirmish. I will even go to the Headmistress to make this happen if I must. Perhaps you missed the several rules about no fighting in the corridors or use of certain spells against each other or maybe even the fact that we are supposed to be working together this year? Well?"

Both groups were looking at each other nervously, as if trying to decide what to do. She could tell that their discomfort with things was growing. That was good. She cocked her head slightly to the side and narrowed her eyes just a touch, something she had done to the boys more than once to drive home the point of how she was feeling. It had worked on them and it should work on them as well. "I do hope that you all know that I'm not bluffing. I really am not known for my bluffing."

The moment hung there tense and then all of them snapped and started talking at once. After a moment, when she couldn't understand anything anyone was saying, she yelled, "Quiet!"

The students cowered back, obviously affected by her earlier display of power and how she was acting right now. She continued pacing, a bit more frenetic, as her nerves felt a bit frayed. Between the noise of their jabbering and everything her head was hurting more. With a quick gesture of her wand, she pointed to the Slytherin student that the others had looked to and then turned to face him. "You. You first."

This clearly surprised the student and he stared at her uncomprehendingly for a moment as she still paced the room like a caged animal. He seemed to be vacillating between fear and confusion. Why was he afraid? That didn't make any sense. Now that she thought of it, a number of them seemed afraid. "Uh… we… uh… there was a misunderstanding Miss Granger and things got out of hand."

She stopped her pacing and turned to face him. Her head was pounding and she was a bit sick to her stomach and she really wanted to lie down but she had to deal with this rubbish right now. These idiots had to start a fight, didn't they? Perhaps some of her discomfort was showing on her face? Could that be why he was so nervous and almost afraid? She locked eyes with him, moving closer, asking, "What's your name?"

He swallowed heavily, his eyes never leaving her and answered, "Roderick Burke, ma'am."

"So tell me Mr. Burke, do you really think that your description will even be remotely valid in this case? Hunh?" She stared him right in the eyes, arms crossed with her wand still held loosely and watched him flinch.

"No ma'am." He was trembling slightly at this point. This was a new sensation for her, someone being afraid of her. Ron and Harry didn't really count as that seemed to be more their survival skills. No this was something else.

"Well…?" She trailed off, hoping he would be bright enough to continue on and fill in the blanks. What was wrong with him? She was only asking questions about their fight. It wasn't like she was interrogating him or something.

"We… we were challenged by the Hufflepuffs. They were saying we were the people who had attacked Burton and that they were going to show us. We denied the charge, words got heated, wands got drawn and there you go. That's it, I swear Miss Granger."

She had watched his eyes, trying to determine if he was telling the truth or not. She wasn't completely sure if he was telling the truth but he certainly seemed too afraid of her at that moment to try anything like lie to her. That was very strange but she would take that right now if it would end this so she could go lie down. And seeing as no one really challenged the statement she had to believe it. Reaching up to rub her temple, she wished that this growing headache would simply vanish. She turned to the Hufflepuffs and the girl that they seemed to acknowledge as their leader in this. "Do you agree with everything Mr. Burke had to say?"

"Yes ma'am. Uh… he… uh… he told the truth, all except for the part where they say that they aren't the ones that attacked Walden." The girl looked very unnerved and really did not want to look her in the eyes, even though there was some pride and defiance in her tone. What was up with these students? Was it a Head Girl thing? This just eluded her. She continued her pacing, hoping that the movement might burn off the nervous energy that was filling her and making her heart race some.

"So let me see if I am following, instead of going to Professor Sprout with your supposed proof, you took it upon yourselves to attack them merely based off the fact that you believe that they are guilty? Do I have that correct?" Hermione wanted to make sure she had gotten the facts straight before she had to explain this incident to the Professors when they got here. From what she could tell no one was really in the right with this whole mess but the Puffs were far more in the wrong than the Slytherins. That was going to be fun to try and explain. Based on the spell work she saw flying about there was no question in her mind that any of these Slytherins were responsible for the attacks that had happened. The other spell work had been stronger and more precise, there had also been different spell choices. The attackers had to be older by at least a year, perhaps more. That pointed more towards fifth year than fourth.

"Yes Miss Granger." replied the Hufflepuff, the last of her insolence fading as if she was really beginning to register the severity of what had occurred. Now she was kind of huddled amongst the other Puffs as if for safety. It was about time she got it through her head.

"Right. You are all to sit against the walls on the floor quietly and wait for the Heads of your Houses. No talking to each other or I will make sure that you cannot talk, are we clear?" she growled out, unaware of the somewhat crazed look in her eyes.

"Yes ma'am." quickly replied the students, unwilling to cross her.

Hermione just wanted to rub her forehead even more and grumble to herself. The fight had made her tense up quite a bit and thankfully the types of spells had not really triggered too much of anything from what she could tell. The fact that Ginny was going to be in bed with her tonight was going to make dealing with all of this nonsense completely worth it. But for right now she had to keep her angry and upset face on and glare at these third years, making sure they were sufficiently cowed until someone came to take charge of them. It seemed to be working a little too well and she wasn't sure why. She really could do with one of her calming draughts right about now.

She would have far preferred to continue flirting over this stupidity.