Disclaimer:
I do not own the characters or the settings featured in this Harry Potter fanfiction, nor do I have permission to use them. That is owned and at times trademarked by JK Rowling and the many licensors of her work. The plot of this story is mine though. I do not make money out of this particular piece of writing.
.:/*\:.
Hermione slowly walked toward the Hogwarts Gates. She was both dreading and looking forward to this trip. She hadn't been to the Burrow in nearly a year. The last time she was there, it was for Bill and Fleur's wedding and that visit hadn't ended particularly well since Death Eaters had crashed the party. Now she needed to go there, both as a friend of the family and as the executor of Fred's will. After her visit to Diagon Alley a few days ago, George had told his parents of the arrangements the twins had put in place. According to him, the news had sent his mother into another fit of tears and she had crushed George in one of her bear hugs. Arthur Weasley's reaction had been more subdued but Hermione had received a heartfelt letter of thanks from him just yesterday, asking her to drop by whenever she felt comfortable.
Today was Saturday and Minerva had told everyone to take the day off the reconstruction. Hermione wasn't entirely happy about this. She had so much to do with the Wards. But it was also the perfect opportunity to visit the Burrow. As the gates came into view, Hermione felt the magic of Hogwarts shift around her for a moment. She stopped and stood still as the Wards flowed over and around her. It wasn't exactly a new feeling, since it had happened yesterday repeatedly after that first time near the foundations of Gryffindor Tower. She still wasn't entirely sure what it meant, but she was reasonably certain that Hogwarts liked her. As far as a building could like anyone anyway. As the sensation faded, Hermione breathed in slowly and finished her walk to the gates. Stepping off the Hogwarts grounds, she took a moment to center herself and fix the correct destination in her mind before she turned on the spot.
The young witch Apparated right outside the limits of the Burrow. Hermione took a few steps forward and was literally bowled over by George. They fell in the grass in tangle of limbs, and Hermione huffed a laugh even as the lonely twin grabbed her shoulders.
"Run. Run for your life and your sanity while you still can."
George's half-smile prevented Hermione from taking him too seriously and she simply pushed him off her and stood, brushing grass and dirt from her clothes. She then crossed her arms over her chest and watched her honorary brother as he continued his theatrics.
"Mother has somehow found out you were on your way. She has piles of food prepared to fatten you up. I tell you, someone has Transfigured her into an octopus or something. She's cleaning, and cooking, and hugging, and knitting… All at the same time!"
"Your mother was always one for multi-tasking. She'd have to with the lot of you always keeping her on her toes."
"Don't you get it, Granger? You're in grave danger here. She'll capture you and sit you in a seemingly comfortable chair then she'll stuff you with pancakes and chocolate and before long, you'll be a Molly-in-waiting!"
Hermione smiled and patted George on the arm. "It'll be fine, you'll see."
"Just don't say I haven't warned you."
The two of them walked to the house and George let Hermione in first. The witch was pretty certain it was not out of gallantry but rather a bid to escape his mother's attentions for a little while. It worked.
"Hermione, dear. I'm so glad you came. Just a few days back, I was telling Arthur that we should really get to Hogwarts to visit you."
As George had predicted, Molly Weasley hugged Hermione within an inch of her life before setting her down on a chair and in front of a plate. Said plate was very soon filled with pancakes dripping with syrup.
"Here, we need to put a bit of meat on your bones. All this time you've spent out running this year has been horrible. And all this fighting when you all should have been safely studying in Hogwarts."
"Thank you, Mrs Weasley."
Hermione caught George's eye as he sneaked past and he pointed his finger at her in an 'I told you so' gesture. She scoffed but diligently started on the pancakes.
"George, why don't you make yourself useful and go and wake the others."
"Yes, mother."
George fairly ran away, crossing his father on the way out.
"Ah! Hello, Hermione. I'm glad you made it."
"Good morning, Mr Weasley."
"Please, call me Arthur. After all, you are an adult now."
"Very well, Arthur. How are you?"
The loud and sudden clinking noise told Hermione that even these simple, polite inquiries would have to be voiced away from Mrs Weasley. Arthur looked toward the back of the kitchen, obviously ready to get up to see to a teary wife, but Mrs Weasley seemed to overcome her feelings for now and she carried on readying breakfast for her brood. And so Arthur Weasley relaxed. Hermione's apologetic look was dismissed by the wizard with a small smile and a wave of his hand.
"We're as good as can be expected. I'll need to speak with you about a few things, your position at the Ministry most of all."
"Let's wait until the children have finished eating before you start talking work, Arthur."
Molly's words brooked no discussion and Arthur wisely let the subject drop for now. It wasn't long before the sounds of many feet stomping down the stairs were heard. The first to make it down was Ginny, who fairly launched herself at her girlfriend.
"I'm so happy to see you!"
Hermione returned the hug as well she could while sitting down. The process was then repeated with Harry and Ron, and even Charlie and Percy, who had apparently stopped by. George siddled to sit by her side while Ginny claimed the spot on her other side leaving a somewhat disgruntled Ron to sit on the other side of the table between his other two siblings. Everyone settled down and started to eat.
Hermione chatted with Ginny as they ate, but anything that could remind them of the war they had just been through was avoided at all costs. As breakfast went on, Hermione started to feel distinctly uneasy by the forced cheeriness of it all. Being with George was different. He was a naturally upbeat person who had just lost the closest person in his life. He was fighting off depression as best he could, but at least he wasn't just ignoring his problem hoping it would get better on its own. As everyone finished eating, Arthur Weasley stood and gestured for Hermione to follow him. Molly made to stop them but her husband ignored her aborted words and led the younger witch away. They made their way outside and to the shed in which Arthur kept his Muggle toys, as he called them.
"Molly insists that everything is fine. She wants all her children, including the adopted ones, to stay around her and pretend with her that everything is fine. Only I'm pretty sure none of you want to do that… I wanted to thank you though, for stepping in for George."
Hermione sighed as she took a seat. "I'm just happy to help."
"How is George?"
"Apart from the fact Molly is driving him crazy, he's doing as well as could be expected. He hasn't said anything, but I think he's simply trying to get through it at the moment."
"He still jokes around. It's just that it falls flat every now and then."
"Of course, he does. He's the man who made a joke of being holy after losing an ear in battle."
Hermione shook her head as she looked at the older wizard in front of her.
"I think that George and I are similar in this. We want to move on after the war. But we don't want to pretend it never happened either. We have sacrificed too much to the cause to just forget about it."
Arthur nodded slowly as he toyed with what appeared to be an old tape.
"I really need to thank you for taking care of Fred's funeral and will."
Hermione looked down at her hands as she twisted her fingers around.
"George said that, had something happened to both of them, they had put things in place for me to handle all their affairs. I'm not sure how I would have done it. But George has helped as much as he could. And I want to make Fred proud."
"I'm sure he would be."
Hermione closed her eyes against the tears building there. A knock stopped their conversation before it could continue.
"Mum wants to know how long you're going to keep Hermione here. She apparently wants to know about Hermione's plans since she's not going to join the Ministry."
George opened the door only enough to peak his head through.
"You do remember what we talked about, 'Mione? Don't let her do that to you!"
"George, has the thought ever crossed your mind that maybe I would want to marry your younger brother?"
"Well, yeah. But not right away. We both know you want to finish your studies. And you want to make something of your life beyond playing housewife to my brother. And I know there's nothing wrong with being a housewife, Dad. It's just that Hermione can and should do so much better!"
"George!"
Arthur Weasley seemed to look between his son and the witch he already thought of as his daughter with amusement.
"All right, children. Let's rejoin the others before they come looking for us."
Hermione couldn't help but giggle as George literally dragged her away from the shed, walking all around the house to get back in through the front door and then dashing up the stairs to what used to be his room.
"Spill, what did Dad say?"
"That he's grateful and your mother is still having troubles but chooses to ignore them for now."
George sighed and nodded.
"She would. And on a side note, you do realize I'm entirely serious about my brother not being right for you. You need brains, not brawn."
Hermione rolled her eyes and George put his hands up. "Just saying, sister mine. On a completely different subject, I received a notification from the Ministry of Magic just this morning. It seems you've managed to arrange Fred's funeral and will reading to their liking."
"Fred had done all the work for me," Hermione shrugged. "I just hope I'll do him proud next Sunday."
"Don't worry about it. Now I suppose I'd best bring you back down before my little brother starts thinking I'm putting the moves on his girl."
Hermione smiled and punched George on the arm. Hard. The young man yelped theatrically as she walked off and down the stairs. The rest of the morning was spent catching up with those Weasleys she did not see often. Bill and Fleur also visited, and Hermione was glad to see they were okay. Although Mrs Weasley tried to convince her to stay for lunch, Hermione decided to make her way back to Hogwarts. She didn't think she could handle the forced merriment for much longer and she didn't feel in the least guilty for using her work with the Wards as an excuse to escape.
.:/*\:.
Hermione sat once more at Madam Pince's desk while the older witch sat on the floor as she repaired books. The two of them had already worked out a routine of sorts, although they had only been working together for a week or so. Madam Pince would always arrive first, preferring to have a quiet breakfast in her quarters rather than brave the Great Hall that early in the morning. She'd prepare some tea and would it leave under a Warming Charm, before she started to sort out the books she would work on that day. Hermione would arrive a little while later, after she had finished her own breakfast and waved her friends off to whatever reconstruction job they were doing that day. The two witches would exchange soft greetings and settle down to work in silence for the next few hours. Hermione would refresh their cups of tea after an hour or so, and would keep an eye on the time so they wouldn't miss lunch. The routine would repeat itself during the afternoon, until early evening came and they went their separate ways to prepare for dinner.
This morning had been different, with her visit to the Weasley's. But just like Hermione, Madam Pince had taken the morning off to visit family but had chosen to come back to work on her precious books during the afternoon. And so, the two witches had greeted each other as they did each afternoon as they met after lunch, and settled to their work in silence while sipping tea. Until the quiet was disturbed by the creak of the doors just an hour after Hermione had settled down. The young witch looked up from her work to see Filius Flitwick walk in.
"Ah, Miss Granger. I was wondering if we could borrow you for a little while."
"Happy to help if I can, Professor."
"We are working on the Gryffindor Tower. Given that you were a Prefect for your House, we were hoping you remembered the exact layout. It also appears that we have a problem with the Foundation Wards but I am unable to pinpoint what it might be. I'm afraid that warding is not one of my specialties."
"Let's see what I can do for you, Professor," Hermione said as she shuffled a few parchments around. With a smile, she brought out the Wards Map. "This little beauty does a lot more than showing you a map of the wards."
The Charms Professor magicked a stool out of thin air and hopped onto it to watch as Hermione spread the map in front of them. With a few flicks of her wrist, her quebracho wand came to her hand and the section depicting Gryffindor Tower was magnified for them and the layers representing the protecting wards disappeared to leave only the Foundation Wards and the actual physical features. With another flick of Quebracho, she copied the physical layout of Gryffindor Tower, from the Common Room to the year dorms, to the Head Boy and Girl rooms, and from the rooms reserved to married students to the family and guest rooms.
"I'm afraid the Wards Map won't let me copy anything that is wards-related for you. How badly were they damaged?"
"Oh Gods, I hope it's not too bad. None of us has the power or the patience to deal with that right now! We haven't yet uncovered the Foundation Stones."
Hermione hummed slowly before tapping the map once more with her wand so that the map shifted to show the Foundation Wards.
"Hmmm… What just happened to your map, Miss Granger?"
The witch looked up from the Wards Map. "What do you mean, Professor?"
"It just went blank," Professor Flitwick said as if pointing out the obvious.
Hermione looked from the shimmering arrays on her parchment to the half-Goblin teacher sitting beside her. And Hermione wondered what exactly the Wards Map was. She had noted before that she couldn't copy anything that had to do with the Wards from it. And now, it shielded the arrays from the sight of a Professor… With a shrug and a mental note to try and find out more, Hermione redirected the conversation.
"I've seen the damage that my House Tower took, Professor. I'd be surprised if the Foundation Stones didn't take a few hits. The best thing to do would be to dig them out and when you have, send me a Patronus. I'll study this section in particular for a little while and come and help out if it's necessary."
Professor Flitwick nodded, seemingly happy to let the matter of the invisible map drop for the moment.
"That's probably a very good idea, Miss Granger. Let us hope that the damage is not as bad as you seem to expect."
Hermione nodded in turn, and watched as the small wizard hurried away. She couldn't help but be a bit worried herself. She had only been studying the School Wards for a week. She was good at learning new skills, but not that good. There was little chance she would be able to sort out something as essential as the Foundation Stones for Gryffindor Tower.
The young witch let herself fall back into her seat and gathered the wards map to her, asking it to zoom in on the Foundation Stones and the corresponding wards for Gryffindor Tower, as they would have stood before the Final Battle. She then started to make notes on the wards that were tying back to the Stones, seeing which arrays were essential and which ones could be layered on at later dates, what kind of hooks had to be put in place now to make sure the wards didn't fall apart…
She now wished she'd had the time to speak with George a bit more. She had meant to ask about the Weasley wards, but Fred's will had been the proverbial spanner in the works. The few short conversations she had had with him in between now and then had centered on the preparations for the funerals.
"You seem preoccupied, Miss Granger."
Hermione looked up to see Madam Pince looking at her over the top of her glasses. The younger witch very nearly smacked herself.
"I'd like to ask you a question, but I don't want to offend and you don't have to answer."
Madam Pince carefully marked her place in the book she was working on and closed it.
"Go on."
"How bad manners is it to ask someone about their Familial Wards?"
Madam Pince pursed her lips. "I'm not sure, to be honest. This is far from the type of question one would expect to hear from anyone who isn't a direct relative, to be sure. Would it be considered rude? I guess some might. Why would you ask the question?"
"You see, it says in Basic Wards for Beginners that most wizarding families have Familial Wards, defenses that are taught to young adults by their elders. Given that I am Muggleborn, I don't have this luxury. I've been wondering if I could approach anyone, such as maybe the Weasleys, and ask about their Familial Wards. The way I'm thinking, the more wards I learn between now and the recasting, the better off we will be."
"This is where the wizarding world fails Muggleborns. Very few realize that you have so much more to learn than what is taught at Hogwarts. Yes, I do suppose it makes sense. And I doubt the Weasleys would mind you asking, given you have all but been adopted by the family. But since you have no access to a Weasley at this moment, allow me to show you a couple of the Pince Wards."
Hermione spent the next hour learning and taking apart the two wards Madam Pince had shared with her. Using her skills in arithmancy, she tried to reduce each wards to their composing arrays and then to their individual layers of encryptions, spells and hooks. She studied how the original spells had been modified to work better within their respective arrays. She noted that the encryption layers were easy enough to decode, but the sheer numbers of them would make it hard for anyone who did not have a good handle on all the runic alphabets. What made it truly amazing to her was that the wards were not constructed in a linear manner. The wards she had created for protection while on the run appeared more and more like anyone could have spliced them apart with a single flick of their wand.
The Pince Wards followed a far more convoluted path. One layer would take you five deep before the next ejected you to the outer fringe of the array. Whereas Hermione's early warding efforts were nothing more than several spells layered on top of one another, the Pince Wards were tightly anchored together with different kinds of hook arrays. She even noticed traps woven into the many layers, designed to catch the enemy unaware and do some serious damage in some cases.
"About ten or twelve generations back, the Pince line arranged a marriage for their son, Wards Master Arcturus Pince, to a daughter of the Fenwick line. Aurora Fenwick happened to be an up-and-coming Arithmancer. Although the alliance was a political one and had been arranged at Aurora's birth, the two came to fall in love. They also formed one of the most successful warding teams of their times. Most of the Pince Wards were created or improved on by them. It makes them more complicated, and probably more effective, than many wards you will find out there."
Hermione nodded as she continued to study the arrays in front of her, trying to capture their essence on paper through her arithmantic calculations. As she worked, Hermione was very glad that she always read well ahead of her year's curriculum. Although it would not be impossible for a Seventh Year studying Arithmancy to come up with the equations she was writing down, Hermione was pretty sure it would take them much longer than it did for her.
Having worked her way through the Pince Wards, Hermione shifted her focus back onto the School Wards. She called on the Wards Map to once more show her the Foundation Wards as they should be and put her arithmantic skills to the test, repeating the process she had just gone through with the Pince Wards onto the far more complex School Wards.
The Gryffindor witch was amazed to see the Wards Map shift on its own accord, dissecting the arrays she was working through as she needed, and thus making her life much simpler. Hermione managed to get through most of the three arrays when an owl Patronus came to rest before her.
"We have uncovered the Foundation Stones for the Gryffindor Tower. I'm afraid you may have been right, Miss Granger."
Hermione sighed and gathered the Wards Map and several of her notes before stuffing them in her beaded bag. Quickly checking that she had both of her wands, the young witch turned to Madam Pince.
"If I have to work the Wards, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to come back. Is it okay to leave a mess?"
"Not to worry, Miss Granger. I'll make sure everything stays just as you are leaving it so you can resume your work tomorrow."
The younger witch nodded and swiftly left the Library. She wasn't really surprised to see several people making their way to Gryffindor Tower. When she got there, Professor Flitwick gestured for her to follow, and Hermione did just that. The diminutive Charms Master led her to the side of the group that was gathering by the main stairs leading to the tower.
"It looks like your worries were well-founded. One of the Foundation Stones appears to have been damaged. Although I am far from being an expert, it appears to me like its power level is not as great as the others anymore and it causes a further weakening in the magi-physical structure. Although the walls are standing, the incantations we are using do not hold well. So there is little chance we would be able to restore the Gryffindor Common Room and Dormitories to their former glory."
"I'm sure it wouldn't matter too much if the castle did not look exactly the same come next school year," Hermione said.
"Very true," Flitwick answered, "but both Minerva and Severus agreed that it might comfort the students returning to find things mostly as they were. The only two places that will really change are the Defense and Muggle Studies classrooms."
Hermione nodded slightly. She could well understand the logic behind those changes and the desire for everything else to remain as it always had been. Professor Flitwick led her through several passages that Hermione hadn't known about, taking her deep in the bowels of the castle. It didn't take long for her to start feeling the pulsating magic that must be the Foundation Stones.
"We have uncovered all four Foundation Stones, just in case. I am pretty certain that only the West Stone is damaged. The feel I get from it is just too different from what I receive from the other three."
Hermione nodded slightly as she extracted the Wards Map from her bag. Unrolling the parchment in front of her eyes, she quickly zoomed onto the Gryffindor Foundation Stones as they should be. According to the map, all four were indeed supposed to look and feel alike. She focused her attention on the physical realm and summoned her quebracho wand. She tried to sense the difference Professor Flitwick talked about and she pinpointed the feeling easily enough: a fracture in the mesh of magic that was supposed to be part of the Foundation Wards; something that although benign enough right now, could eventually unravel even the strong arrays that made up the Foundation Wards.
As she studied the wards, she very soon found that attempting to reduce them to arithmantical equations on the fly was well beyond her current skills. The arrays flowed together seamlessly and Hermione had little to no idea where one layer started and another took over. She would have to go back to her notebook. But when she reached out with her magic, intent only in assessing the damage, she felt a spike of magic and Professor Flitwick suddenly pulled her away from the Foundation Stones, both physically and magically.
"Are you all right, Miss Granger?"
"Yes," Hermione answered, looking a bit surprised at her Professor. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"I felt the Wards shift, and given I have no idea what kind of defenses have been set up I felt it best to break the connection for now."
Hermione frowned but finally nodded slightly.
"I can confirm that the West Stone is damaged. Not badly so, luckily enough, but I don't know yet how to fix it. And it will need fixing or the arrays will eventually come apart. I would recommend leaving the Gryffindor Tower for now. It is safe to live in, but starting construction works might accelerate the degradation process and we wouldn't want the Tower to collapse on top of the workers' heads."
Professor Flitwick nodded and started on the way back to the main corridors of Hogwarts. For a moment, Hermione looked back and wondered at what she had felt.
"Come now, Miss Granger. I'm sure the Headmistress will want to hear your explanations about this."
The younger witch nodded absently as she turned to follow the small wizard. Flitwick lost no time shooing everyone away when they got back to the entrance of Gryffindor Tower. Everyone slowly made their way to the Great Hall for dinner.
"Hey 'Mione, do you think you'll be able to fix it?"
Hermione turned to Neville, who started to walk alongside her.
"I don't know to be honest. At the moment, definitely not. But I suppose I'll just start studying the Wards a bit harder."
"That's our girl!"
Hermione couldn't help and scoff at Neville, and the sweet boy she had known could still be seen in the eyes of the man standing in front of her.
"Where are Harry and Ron?"
"They left for the Burrow. I think Mr Weasley asked them to pop by."
Hermione nodded slowly.
"I saw George yesterday."
"How is he taking it?"
"Better than expected, actually. But I think his mum is slowly driving him mad. He would know better than anyone how Fred wanted to be remembered. And the crying and weeping just isn't it…"
"I suppose not," Neville said with a slight nod to himself.
"Which reminds me, what are you doing Sunday next?"
"I don't know, why?"
"I'm reading Fred's will," Hermione said after swallowing the lump in her throat. "He left you something, and so you'd need to be there."
"He left me something?"
Hermione just smiled and nodded. "He left a great many people something. As well as clear instructions for me to follow. Trust me, you won't want to miss it."
"I wouldn't miss it for the world anyway," Neville answered. His smile was a bit wistful and sad, but it was present and Hermione thought this was exactly what Fred would have liked.
The two finally made it to the Great Hall. With the number of people currently helping with the reparations, the large room was anything but quiet during meal times. Hermione privately thought that adults were even worse than students when it came to eating quietly.
Hermione quickly made her excuses and went back to her quarters. As she entered the blue rooms, she couldn't help but think back to the Foundation Stones. Now that she had a moment to think about it, she thought Professor Flitwick may have been wrong. The Wards were not going to attack, they'd been answering her unformulated query. Although she wasn't entirely sure where this sudden conviction was coming from, she believed that the Wards were simply about to try and communicate the extent of the damage wrought on them.
Just like the Wards Map was bespelled to appear sentient, responding to the demands of its user, the Wards themselves could do similar. Or at least, so she thought. So much magic was running here, and so deep, that it allowed the Castle to react and even anticipate the needs of its inhabitants when given the right set of circumstances or the right command.
"If only I could get the Wards themselves to help us out on this one. There's got to be a failsafe, a command that would allow the Wards to help out even if I don't quite know what I'm doing."
Hermione sighed and looked at her research so far. With a sigh, she grabbed Basic Wards for Beginners and opened the book at the first page, determined to master the basics soon so she could move on. But before she could start, the door opened to let the acting Headmistress in.
"I thought I'd be able to find you here."
"Can I help you, Professor McGonagall?"
"I daresay you're already helping a lot, Miss Granger. But I needed to talk to you, yes. Filius mentioned you had a look at the Foundation Stones in Gryffindor Tower and that one of them is damaged."
Hermione nodded slowly.
"I'm not advanced enough in my research to be able to tell you what's wrong, but I can show you." And Hermione pulled the Wards Map to her and pointed her quebracho wand at it. "Show us the Foundation Stones of Gryffindor Tower as they should be, and superimpose what they actually look like right now."
The Wards Map shimmered slightly as it followed Hermione's directions. Soon enough, a detailed diagram showed the physical foundations in lines of black, the current wards in green and what the broken sections should look like in red.
"As you can see, the damage doesn't go too far down. Although my knowledge of warding is still very basic, I think that…"
Hermione trailed off as she glanced up to see a confused look on the acting Headmistress's face.
"Professor?"
"What does the Wards Map look like to you, Miss Granger?"
Hermione looked from her mentor to the map, and back again.
"I don't get this," Hermione finally sighed. "Professor Flitwick couldn't see the map either when I tried to show him the wards."
"So he mentioned. All I can see is a map of where to find the physical Foundation Stones."
The two witches looked pensively at the parchment, both seeing very different things. Ultimately, Professor McGonagall shook her head.
"I'll try to find out about this later. For now, tell me what you think, Miss Granger."
"Well," Hermione said, "I think that the only things that got blasted are some of the hook wards, and the offensive and defensive wards protecting them. The first arrays still in working order are encryption layers.
"The real problem is that hook wards are extremely important. They're what keep wards from collapsing. I am reasonably certain that, with time, I could study the other Foundation Stones and duplicate the hook wards even if I might not understand them more than that. The main problem with this being that I have no experience creating spells whatsoever."
"That's all right, Miss Granger. Between Filius, Severus and myself, we have the experience. You will just have to be our eyes in this matter, since you're the only one who can look at the Wards Map."
"But you all have other things to do right now. Plus, you will need to be called on to supply the raw power for the re-casting when the time comes."
"We're all very sure you'll do everything possible to make our jobs easier."
Hermione sighed and sat back in her seat, looking at the map in front of her.
"I just wish we could get Bill here."
"I'm sure it would make thing easier. But I think you are over-estimating how useful Bill Weasley would be to Hogwarts right now. While it is true he has more experience with wards than you do, he is a curse breaker. He may have learned some of the basics during his apprenticeship, but his area of expertise is breaking wards not building them."
Hermione shrugged once more. "I still would feel more comfortable."
Minerva McGonagall chuckled and shook her head.
"And I still remember the little girl who would be jumping up and down, talking a mile a minute about this latest project, and so eager to rush into it that she would never consider how hard it would be until she started to be snowed under many books and parchments."
Hermione smiled, knowing her mentor was perfectly right.
"Well, I will make sure to ask Severus to come by to speak with you tomorrow. Since he's still too poorly to be out of the Castle for too long and he still refuses to take his job back as Headmaster, I'm sure I can convince him to help you out for a little while."
"If it's all right with you, Professor, I won't say any of that to him."
The two women share a laugh before the acting Headmistress left Hermione to her studies.
.:/*\:.
Author's Note: And here you are. Another chapter for you guys to hopefully enjoy. It's a bit longer than usual, but don't get used to it either. And it will probably have to last you for a couple of weeks because it's the school holidays next week.
Reviews, follows, favorites all welcome, of course. Flames will be printed out and used to insulate my house :)