Disclaimer: The atomic number of Harry Potter is JK Rowling.

A/N: No, this will still not be a Harry/Hermione story. I like that pairing as much as the next fan, but it's not my OTP. (And it won't be Ron/Hermione either, so don't worry.) I'm trying to show a close friendship between Harry and Hermione in a way that I think the books should have done, without it being a romantic relationship.

Chapter 70

"Septima, suppose that, hypothetically, someone had two days to figure out a way for a fourteen-year-old to fight a dragon," Hermione asked her old teacher.

Septima Vector froze with worry. Dragons? What were they thinking? "Hermione, is this about the Tournament?" she asked.

"Since teachers are not allow to help the Champions, I can neither confirm nor deny."

"Well, then…hypothetically, I think that person would need to find a way to incapacitate a dragon quickly and especially efficiently. It takes a lot of power to bring down a dragon, and a fourteen-year-old is going to be limited in that department."

"I know. It should be better to attack the weak points, but then, it's a matter of aiming."

"Yes, that's true."

"I was thinking if there was a way to spread out the attack, it would help, but then it would need more power again to be sure it would work."

"Hmm…it's a challenge…Well, it's a simple equation, isn't it, Hermione? Energy required times the area of the spell divided by the area of the target gives a fundamental minimum of power requirements, multiplied by the number of times our hypothetical caster has to use it given his aim. Then, you just need to optimise it—unless this hypothetical fourteen-year-old knows how to harness external energy sources like tapping the ley lines?"

"No, even I don't know how to do that," Hermione said. "At least not on the fly. Thank you anyway, Septima. I'll just have to find some way to optimise it. I don't think there's anything else I can do." She sighed. "Why does this keep happening?"

"If we knew that, I think Harry wouldn't be in this situation in the first place."

"Ugh, and that Rita Skeeter woman—do you think she'll be here again for the task?"

"I'm sure she will," Septima said. "A most unpleasant woman."

"I know. I'd like to give her a piece of my mind for that article she ran on Harry."

"One thing at a time, now, Hermione," she warned. "And be careful. You don't want Rita Skeeter turning her quill on you more than she has. She is one of the shrewdest people I know. She had to be to survive rooming with Bellatrix Black for seven years." She paused and shuddered. "Sorry, I was just remembering an eleven-year-old Bellatrix Black coming into the school when I was a sixth-year. Scariest eleven-year-old I've ever met, but somehow Rita kept her cool around her."

Hermione shivered, too. From what Harry had mentioned about Neville's parents, she could imagine how scary that woman was.

Hermione had spent several hours in the library that morning trying to find out any more information about dragons that could be of use, but she didn't turn up anything. The weaknesses of dragons were well-documented, eyes being the most important one, so there was nothing to be learnt there. With Septima's advice, she spent several more hours trying to think of a better way to blind a dragon. Unfortunately, the Conjunctivitis Curse had already been very well arithmantically optimised a hundred years ago. Everything she thought of either quickly proved to be less efficient or was so complicated that she didn't think she could work it out in time for the Task.

Come on, come on, come on, she thought. She found herself pacing the corridors towards supper time, hoping and praying for a useful idea to come to her. How do you blind a dragon? How would a muggle do it? Shoot its eyes out? No, that's the aiming problem again. Expose it to chemicals? No—difficult without potions, and dangerous in a confined space. Find a way to cloud the eyes somehow…? Uh-uh, too complicated.

What if I increased the power of my Laser Pointer Charm? She thought. That could be an idea. Industrial lasers were used to burn, cut, and engrave things all the time. And a laser was a continuous beam. It could be aimed on the fly. But no, she thought, the aiming would have to be even more precise than with a typical curse, and if Harry swept the beam across the stands, he could hurt the spectators. She wasn't ready to go that far. Yet.

What other ways were there to blind something, especially temporarily? A camera flash? Hmm…that could work if she invented an equivalent spell—except it would need a lot of power. Maybe a searchlight charm? But that would require Lumos to be so overpowered that Harry almost certainly couldn't cast it. How else could she produce a bright light? Burning something, maybe? No, nothing burned that bright except…Magnesium! Of course! A magnesium flare. Or better yet, a stun grenade. If she could make one of those, it would work beautifully.

Except could Harry successfully transfigure one? She doubted it. She doubted even she knew enough about them to create one successfully. Transfiguration creates a magical construct based solely upon your knowledge of the target, Professor McGonagall had always drilled into them. One mistake in the design could turn a stun grenade into a deadly bomb—or a fizzle. What about bare magnesium, then? Maybe, but that was almost the same problem. Transfiguration was a magic of the familiar—beetles into buttons, teapots into tortoises, and so forth. You could change the substance some—like you could turn stone into wood—but pure substances like magnesium that you couldn't easily tell apart by eye were the domain of alchemy—N.E.W.T.-level spells.

It seemed like an impossible conundrum. Burning magnesium was the best idea she could come up with—fighting fire with fire, appropriately enough—but where to get it? Harry didn't have any on hand, and he couldn't bring it in, anyway. He was only allowed a wand. And he couldn't make it. What could he do? She stamped her foot on the stone floor in frustration.

Wait a minute…the stone floor.

Of course! There was loads of magnesium in stone. Harness outside energy sources, Septima had said. Sure, it was already in an oxidised state, but magic laughed in the face of chemistry and played fast and loose with conservation of energy. She knew there were spells that could separate out different substances. She probably just needed to find one and rebuild a few terms.

She had it. She ran to the Great Hall as supper was starting and said, "George! Fred! That Water-Purifying Charm you showed me last year. I need to know more about it."

Both twins were at her sides in seconds.

"You got an idea?" George said.

"I think so, but I don't have much time. I need a purification charm that I can take apart and rebuild to work on a different substance."

"That's our girl. Knew we could count on you," Fred said.

"We don't know much about the Water-Purifying Charm, but I think we can help you look it up," George added.

"C'mon, I can't believe I'm saying this, but let's eat quick and head for the library," Fred agreed.

The Water-Purifying Charm, Katharizi, wasn't commonly used. For most qualified wizards, why purify water when you could just use Aguamenti? But Fred and George said it was simpler than Aguamenti, and to her delight, they taught her how to cast it easily. That gave her hope for Harry to pull it off if she could finish her part of it.

"Brilliant. Now, I need an arithmantic breakdown for it," she said.

"Can't you work that out yourself?" asked Fred.

"Probably, but it'll go faster if we can find it written out around here before curfew."

"Ah. Well, better start looking, then."

They did, scouring the Arithmancy and Charms sections of the library. The bad thing about it being an obscure charm was that it wasn't in the standard tables. It meant going through quite a few books, but they finally found it.

"Hey, look at this," Fred said as loudly as he dared in the library.

"Huh? You found something?" George asked.

"Here, check it out."

George rushed over and took a look at the book. "Well, that looks like it could be it," he said. "Damn, I wish I'd taken Arithmancy."

"You do surprisingly well without it, though," Hermione said as she joined them. She only needed a few seconds of assessment before she said, "Yes, this is it. Thanks, boys." She hugged each of them in turn, and George checked the book out for her so she could take it with her.

"So you think it'll work?" he asked.

She sighed and slumped wearily: "Nothing guaranteed, still, but with this…I think so."

"Sure it'll work," Fred said. "If anyone can work it out, you can."

"Oh, God," she murmured.

"Hey, you okay?" said George. "You look tired."

"I didn't sleep well last night. And I'll be up all night working out this spell. You know, just once, I'd like not to be Harry's last hope."

"Yeah, we can see how that'd be tiring," Fred sympathised. "Come on, we'll walk you out to the carriage."

"Er, okay." She smiled. They each took one of her arms, and they walked together to the Beauxbatons carriage just before curfew.

"Thanks again," Hermione said outside the door. She hugged them both again, lingering wearily on George for a moment. But this was no time to stop and relax. "You've really helped," she added.

"Always happy to," Fred told her.

"We've always appreciated your unique skills," George added.

"Helped us out a few times."

"Just wish we had more time to work together this year."

"Yeah, me too," she said. "But I've got work to do. Good night."

"G'night, Hermione," the Twins said in unison.

There were a lot of questions from Fleur and the others about what she was doing, but she (rudely, she was sorry to admit) brushed them away. She was far too busy working on her spell. She annoyed them throughly as she kept pacing and scribbling down arithmantic equations late into the night.

She barely noticed the passing of the hours, she was so engrossed in her work. That was her blessing and her curse all in one and had been since first year—how she could work around the clock and not know it. Around one o'clock, she did start to feel sleepy, even standing up. She went into the bathroom several times to splash some cold water on her face, and she considered stepping into the shower and turning it to cold, but after a little while, she started to feel more awake again as her body grudgingly accommodated her. But she still didn't dare sit down, because if she did, she was afraid she'd fall asleep before she stood up again.

At around four o'clock, her mind started to feel very fuzzy. She had to double- and triple-check her work to make sure she got it right. It was only when the sky began to lighten in the windows that her circadian rhythm began to reassert itself. By morning, she whittled the purification spell down to its base elements and built it up again into a framework that she was pretty sure she could fill in with details to do what she needed it to. After that would be testing, and then, if all went well, teaching it to Harry. However, there were only about thirty hours before the First Task. She would need all of them, and she wouldn't be able to get through them under her own power. So she bit the bullet and went to the Hogwarts Infirmary.

"Hello, Madam Pomfrey?"

"Yes? Miss Granger? Goodness, have you slept?" the Matron said when she saw her.

"No, ma'am, I was up all night working. That's why I'm here."

"Oh?" the matron turned stern. "And what do you think I can help you with?"

"Well, ma'am, I think I'm going to need some Pepperup Potion—probably three doses."

"Three!" she squawked. "You can't possibly—Don't you know how Pepperup works?"

"I didn't mean all at once!" Hermione protested. "I need to have this project done by the First Task. I just need one dose to get me through the day, one to get me through the night, and one to make sure I don't fall asleep during the Task tomorrow, and—and if I come in here and ask for more after that, you have my consent to tie me to bed and force-feed me a Sleeping Dra—Oh God, that came out wrong."

Madam Pomfrey looked slightly dazed. She shook her head and snapped out of it: "Miss Granger, even with those assurances, staying awake that long can be very harmful. I can't imagine what you think is so important that—"

"Do you know what the First Task is?" Hermione cut in.

It was plain that she did, for the Hogwarts Matron, who was used to every magical injury and illness under the sun, started to turn green.

"I have an idea for how to keep Harry alive tomorrow," she continued. "I've been in contact with Professor Lupin, and we agree it's better than the best thing he could come up with." That was true. Harry had lent her his mirror. "But it's not done yet. I need all the time I can get to finish it, and I need to be at peak performance to make sure Harry's ready."

Madam Pomfrey stared at Hermione for a minute, as if sizing her up, and then nodded and went into her office, from which she returned with two potions of conspicuously different colours. "Don't tell anyone I did this, Miss Granger, but if you're as good as Professor Vector says, I think it's worth the risk. Pepperup Potion." She handed her the first phial. "I'm only giving you one at a time, mind you. You'll have to come back here for the others. The second one, use it wisely because you're only getting one of them. This is Wit-Sharpening Potion." Hermione's eyes widened. "Pepperup won't clear your head so much as it'll just wake you up, so you may need it. Wit-Sharpening Potion won't make you cleverer than you normally are, but it will bring you back to your peak performance for about twelve hours."

"I understand," Hermione said. "Thank you, ma'am." Hermione drank the Pepperup Potion, and she immediately felt jolted wide awake, like she'd been dunked in ice-water, and yet very warm at the same time with steam coming from her ears. She knew she'd need her wits most to finish designing her spell, so she drank the Wit-Sharpening Potion right away. At once, the lingering fuzziness vanished from her mind, and she felt a perfect clarity that she only felt on her best and most-satisfying days of spellcrafting. She could do this.

"Say, Potter, you've got a strategy for the Task tomorrow, don't you?" Professor Moody said.

"Erm, sort of. I talked to Professor Lupin, and he said to use the Conjunctivitis Curse. Hermione's trying to come up with something better, though."

Moody raised an eyebrow. "And you'd trust an untested spell in a fight like that?" he said.

"If Hermione invented it, I would," Harry said confidently.

"I'd be careful with any untested spell if I were you, Potter, no matter who invented it. Lots of things that can go wrong. Just something to think about."

"Well, um, thanks for the advice, Professor." Harry walked away and promptly discarded that advice. Moody was just being paranoid. He already trusted Hermione with his life, and if she said a spell would work, he would believe her.

Moody scowled. If Potter died out there because he took the advice of a fifteen-year-old mudblood over an expert in combat magic, there would be hell to pay.

It took hours. She was worried she might not have time to actually test the spell and teach it to Harry. But in the early afternoon, Hermione managed to write out a complete spell that looked correct on paper. It was time to test it. No Room of Requirement this time. She needed to do this outside. She walked to an obscure corner of the grounds and waved her wand at the ground.

Nothing happened.

She cast her spell again, more carefully. She could feel the magic, and she cast a few diagnostic charms to see what had happened. That gave her enough clues to figure out what she had done wrong and revise her spell. The new spell still didn't work, but it was a little closer. Two hours of this later, she had a spell that seemed to work.

Now, it was time for the real test. She transfigured a pair of earplugs and a pair of sunglasses, which she charmed deep blue with the same spell she had used to defend against the basilisk. Now, she cast the spell again—on a reduced scale, took a step back, and followed it up with, "Incendio."

There was a loud crack in the air followed by an even louder shriek of "YES!"

She redid the small-scale test two more times to try it with green and red sunglasses, but she found that blue worked the best. "Time to go full-scale," she said with glee. This time, she put the whole package together. She set up a torch at a safe distance, cast the spell one more time, and followed it up with "Depulso!"

BOOM!

"YES! YES! YES! Twenty-four hours! Ha!" Hermione was so excited that she ran all the way back to the castle and didn't stop until she practically bowled Harry over. "Harry! Harry! I did it!" she said. He and Ginny grabbed her to calm her down.

"Did what, Granger?" an annoyed-sound drawl asked. "Snogged Vector? I don't know what else would get you that excited."

Hermione gasped, and Harry whirled around to face the intrusion. "Buzz off, Malfoy," he said. "This isn't your business."

"Oh, but she's so entertaining, Potter," Draco Malfoy shot back.

"Stunningly pretty—ha!" Pansy Parkinson said from Malfoy's arm. "I think Skeeter was Confunded when she wrote that one."

"And you, Parkinson!" Harry snapped.

Malfoy ignored his warning: "Say, how does it feel, Potter, knowing your girlfriend is two-timing you with a female teacher? I thought even you could do better than that."

"I'm not his girlfriend," Hermione said at the same time.

"She's not his girlfriend," Ginny added, to some funny looks.

Harry went a step further and drew his wand. Malfoy reflexively drew his. "She's not my girlfriend. And she's not with Professor Vector, not that it's any of your business," he said. "And if you spout off again about her like that again…I'll use the spells she's taught me on you."

"Oh, she's taught you spells, now? And she didn't tell you you were completely hopeless? Or did she lie so you wouldn't walk out on her like the Weasel did?"

Ginny whipped out her wand, now, as did Hermione and then Parkinson. That one really hurt.

"Just walk away now, Malfoy, if you know what's good for you," Harry ground out.

"Hmm…no, I don't think I will." There was a brief pause, and it suddenly seemed as if everyone realised what would happen next. Then, motion.

"Furnunculus!"

"Densaugeo!"

BANG!

Harry and Malfoy had both fired at the same time, but Malfoy hadn't been aiming at Harry. He had twitched his wand to the side and fired at Hermione. And yet, somehow, Harry had anticipated this and jumped in front of Hermione as he cast his own hex. The spells collided in midair, and both went wide, colliding with the walls.

Malfoy stood there, shocked that Harry had anticipated his move.

"Wanna try that again?" Harry said. "Back off of my friends."

Malfoy stared and seemed to weigh his options before he turned and said to Parkinson, "Come on, Pansy, let's ditch these losers."

"Thank you, Harry," Hermione breathed a sigh of relief when they were gone. "I can't believe you jumped in front of me like that."

"Hey, what are friends for?" he said. "I couldn't let him hurt you like that. What spell was that, anyway?"

Hermione blushed: "It was a Tooth-Growing Hex. I saw it when I was looking up dental magic last year."

"Wow, that's mean even for him."

"I know. Plus," she said primly, "I'm the one who ought to be using that spell." Hmm…not a bad idea, she thought. Maybe she would invent some teeth-related hexes if she ever had the time.

Harry just laughed.

They went to dinner, and Hermione explained to Harry that she had invented a spell for him to use in the Tournament and that she just needed to teach it to him. They both ate quickly so that they could get to it as soon as possible. Ginny and the Twins were interested in seeing it, but Hermione pointed out that they would probably need to be out well past curfew, and it would be a lot easier for just two of them to sneak around with Harry's invisibility cloak. She did, however, make one exception, which led her to the Hufflepuff Table.

"Excuse me, Cedric?"

"What do you want, Granger," one of the boys around Cedric said. Several of the Hufflepuffs glared at her, presumably for her support of Harry.

Cedric held up his hand to quiet him: "Yes, Hermione?"

"I invented a spell to help Harry in the First Task. I wanted to let you know. I'll teach it to you, too, if you want."

Cedric's eyebrows rose a fraction. She had already offered to help both him and Fleur, but not with a concrete spell to teach him. "That's very generous of you, Hermione, but I think my plan will work pretty well."

"Oh. Okay, then," she said, disappointed. "I just wanted to check. I mean, if it's simple enough for Harry, I thought it might really be able to help you."

The glares from the other Hufflepuffs intensified. They probably didn't appreciate her butting in. Cedric's voice remained kind, but he still said, "I appreciate your concern, Hermione, but I'm going to get through it on my own."

She wanted to tell him how she really felt—how much she liked him—yes, she could admit it to herself—and how she was so worried that something would happen to him, and even if her spell was useless, she'd feel a lot better if he would just come out and see it for himself. But she didn't feel like she could under the glares of his house mates. So she just muttered, "Alright. Good luck," and told Harry to go get his invisibility cloak.

"You certainly are breaking a lot of rules lately, aren't you, Hermione," Harry teased, trying to cheer her up.

"They did first by forcing you into this thing," she said. "I'm just trying to even the score." She went to Madam Pomfrey for another Pepperup and met up with Harry again to lead him out to that same spot on the grounds, far from the castle and near the edge of the Forbidden Forest, where she re-lit her torch. They could hear the roars of the dragons in the distance.

"Okay, Hermione, so how am I supposed to fight a dragon?" Harry asked.

"Remus's idea is a good one," she said. "Go for the eyes. Those are the weakest spot. The trouble is power and aiming. I realised that what you need is a way to blind it without having to aim that well. Have you heard of a stun grenade? Or you might have heard it called a flash-bang grenade?"

Harry looked confused: "You mean those things the muggle army uses to knock out everybody in a room?"

"Not exactly. A stun grenade produces a bright flash and a loud bang. The flash causes temporary blindness. It's so bright that it completely saturates the retina. It becomes physically impossible to see for a few seconds. The bang is so loud that it not only causes temporary deafness, but it also disrupts the inner ear so that you lose your sense of balance."

"How do you know all this, Hermione?" Harry said nervously.

"We get quite a few soldiers and bobbies in Mum and Dad's practice. Plus what they learnt in dental school."

"Right…So you want me to do that to a dragon? How do I do that?"

"I've already tested the technique. I just need to teach you two spells. Have you learnt the Banishing Charm yet?"

"No, I can't even get summoning down."

"Well, hopefully banishing will be easier. The other spell is one I just invented today. You're going to use the ground in the arena."

"I am?"

"Yes. You see, stun grenades usually contain magnesium, and there's loads of magnesium in soil. I invented a spell to sift the magnesium ions out of the soil and turn them back into the pure metal, and I think you'll be able to learn it. You'll rely on the dragon to light it. Now look, that torch represents the dragon." She pointed to the dancing flame. "You'll need ear and eye protection for this." She transfigured two pairs of earplugs and two pairs of blue glasses. "Use the blue Colour-Change Charm I came up with in second year," she called loud enough for him to hear through the earplugs. "Now, I'll cast my spell at the ground in front of me. Be careful not to get any powder on you." She waved her wand in a wide circle over the ground and chanted, "Dialego Kathar Magnesia." Slowly, what looked like a dense, silvery cloud rose up from the soil and hung in the air. It was about eighteen inches wide and opaque, like thick smoke.

"Now, banish the cloud at the dragon's head. You don't have to hit the eyes, just close enough that it takes it as a threat and spits fire at it. And make sure you're not too close." She jabbed her wand and shouted, "Depulso!" The cloud of magnesium powder raced away from her as if blown by a fan. The instant it touched the flame…

BOOM!

The sound shook the trees. Harry's hands flew to his ears despite the earplugs, and it was so bright that his eyes snapped shut despite the blue glasses. But if Hermione was to be believed, the dragon would be far worse off. He looked at her in awe and a little fear and wondered if she had really been holding back all this time. "Hermione," he said, "remind me never to make you mad at me."

Unfortunately, Harry was soon to find out just how scary Hermione could be when she was on a mission, and her mission tonight was to teach Harry how to fight a dragon in less than eighteen hours. She set up several more torches at a safe distance and began teaching him her Stun Grenade Spell. It was more intense than anything he had done in Professor Flitwick's classes. Hermione drilled him for hours on the wand movements he needed to make, the pronunciation of the words, and the rhythm and timing to put it all together. She made him practice them over and over. She drew pictures in the dirt to show him exactly what the spell was doing at the molecular level so that he could hold the intent firmly in mind. At times, she reminded him eerily of a drill sergeant, although that might have been from desperation and lack of sleep on her part.

But his work paid off. Gradually, he advanced from getting no response at all to the spell to producing a few wisps of dust, and finally, around midnight, producing a full, dense cloud of magnesium powder, like Hermione had. Then, she made him do it again, and when he could pull it off flawlessly three times in a row, she tested it by banishing the cloud into one of the torches.

BOOM!

"That's great! You've got it, Harry!" Hermione said with a manic grin. Now, he was certain that the lack of sleep was starting to make her loopy. "And now, the Banishing Charm."

Harry groaned at the prospect of having to learn another spell, but he was interrupted by a loud voice booming over the grounds: "Oi! Harry? Hermione? What're yeh two doin' here? Yer scarin' the animals." They turned around to see Hagrid carrying a lantern towards them.

"Hello, Hagrid," Hermione said. "I was helping Harry train for the Tournament."

Hagrid's cross look turned to one of concern, and he lowered his voice a little. "Well, yeh can't do it out here," he said. "I can't cover fer yeh if yeh keep makin' bangs like that."

"It's okay Hagrid, we can go back now," Hermione assured him. "We can do the other part of it inside."

"Well, that's alright, then, I guess. Just don't get caught. Oh, and good luck tomorrow, Harry…and try not to hurt the you-know-what too much."

"Um…thanks, Hagrid. I'll try."

"Good night Hagrid," Hermione said. "Get your cloak, Harry. We'll go to the Room of Requirement."

The two teens walked back the castle under the invisibility cloak. Hermione still seemed wide awake, but she had a dazed look in her eyes, and Harry was starting to worry about her. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked.

"At this point, that depends what you mean by okay, but I'm getting by."

"You didn't need to stay up two nights for me," he insisted.

"I was my choice Harry. I wanted to help you."

"Well, I am glad you did. I'm just still not really used to people going to so much trouble for me."

"Hmm, I suppose I do have a stubborn streak," she conceded. "Everyone conspires against us, and I dig in my heels more." Harry chuckled. "Thanks again for protecting me from Malfoy earlier," she added. "I know you'll probably say it was nothing, but it means a lot to me. I guess I'm still not used to having people defend me. Not like that with schoolyard bullies instead of dark wizards trying to kill us."

Harry was silent for a little bit, and then he said, "I don't like bullies, Hermione. My relatives are bullies. All of them, and I can't stand them."

"That bad, huh?"

He didn't answer. They had reached the Room of Requirement. Harry stood back while Hermione opened the door. She told the Room to produce a large number of pillows for them to practice the Banishing Charm. However, once they were inside, Harry stood still, seemingly lost in thought.

"Harry?"

"You know, I've never told anyone how horrid my relatives really are," he said. "Not even Sirius."

"Harry, I didn't mean—You don't have to talk about it."

"I…I think I want to. I think after everything we've been through, you deserve to know more about me."

Hermione sat down on a stool that the Room provided—not an armchair. She didn't want to risk that, even with the Pepperup. "Okay, then," she said, subdued. "What did they do?"

Harry also sat on a stool and began his story: "When Dumbledore took me to the Dursleys, he left me on the doorstep, wrapped in a blanket with a letter to my aunt, telling her what had happened."

"He left you on the doorstep? He didn't even knock?"

"No, but I don't really care about that. The Dursleys were way worse. The next morning, when they found me there, they…put that blanket on a mat in the cupboard under the stairs and used that for my bed."

"They didn't!" But she could see he was completely serious. "For how long?"

Harry gave her a sort of twisted smile: "My first Hogwarts letter was addressed to the cupboard under the stairs."

"Oh my God!" Unable to contain herself, she stood up again and hugged him. "How could they do that to you?"

"I think I told you how much Aunt Petunia hated my mum. She said she was a freak, and so was I. Anyway, that's when they finally moved me out of there."

"What happened?" Hermione said, letting him go again. "Why did they let you out?"

"They saw the letter and got scared someone was watching the house, so they gave me Dudley's second bedroom."

"He had a second bedroom?"

"Yeah. They spoilt him rotten just to rub it in my face how much better he was than me."

"That's just awful." Hermione was near tears by now: "I can't believe they were that cruel. Was there more? Did they hit you, too?"

"No, that was Dudley. They let him beat me up when he could catch me, but I was always faster than him. Of course, he still scared away everyone who tried to be my friend. I didn't have any friends until I came here. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia smacked me around once in a while, but they never used a belt or anything. They're dumb, but they're not that dumb. They just made me do all the chores and locked me in my cupboard when I did something wrong."

"Good Lord, it's a miracle you've turned out this well. That's still severe emotional abuse and neglect, you know. You really shouldn't have to go back there anymore."

"Yeah, but it's only two weeks a year, and it keeps me safe from Voldemort. I can handle them, now."

"I guess," Hermione said in a voice that made it clear she still didn't approve. "Is that all? They did feed you, didn't they?"

"Most of the time. Although that time right after Dobby showed up, I started to get worried—"

To Harry's bewilderment, at the mention of Dobby, Hermione started laughing and crying uncontrollably at the same time. "Um, Hermione, are you okay?" he said.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Harry," she said, choking through her laughter. "It's really not funny. It's just—Dobby—When we're at home, he sleeps in the cupboard under the stairs—by choice! It's cleaned and furnished and stuff, and apparently that's normal for elves, but still—"

Harry pictured the sight and started laughing hysterically himself. Soon, they both tumbled to the floor, still laughing.

Hermione couldn't believe he trusted her enough to confide all this to her. She didn't have anything near this awful in her own life, which she was very grateful for, though in her mind, that made it hard to properly show her gratitude for that kind of trust. "Well, I'm glad you finally got out of there, at least mostly," she said once she collected herself. "But we really do need to get back to work. Oh, um, there was one other thing…You don't have to answer, though."

"Yes?"

"Do you really still cry about your parents? I won't think less of you if you do. It's just that it didn't really sound like you."

"No." He shook his head. "Rita Skeeter made that up. I…I still feel sad about it sometimes, but I didn't really know them. It's just something I grew up with."

"I understand, Harry."

Learning the Banishing Charm was not as difficult as Hermione's spell, but it was still a challenge, and Harry was getting very tired, not having had any Pepperup himself. Still, Hermione drilled him, emphasising the need to push the pillows away. It had to be cast with a forceful intent, maybe even a little bit of anger. Harry worked and worked at it and put everything he could into it. Hermione was still feeling stressed and was starting to get a twitch in her eye by the end of the night. For a while, it seemed like he had a mental block on it, but finally, it came to him. It was nearly six o'clock by the time they were done, but he managed to cast it three times in a row, and Hermione finished off with a banishment-fuelled pillow fight, which she won, but he still held his own.

"Okay, Harry, I think you're ready," she said. "As ready as you're going to be, anyway. Come on, you look tired. You should get some sleep before the Task."

"Everyone else's gonna be up in a couple hours, though," he groaned.

"Hmm…come on. I have an idea." She led him out the door and then began pacing back and forth in the hallway again. After three passes, a slightly different door appeared. Inside, there was a small room done in the style of the Gryffindor Common Room with another door leading off of it. Hermione open this door and revealed a bedroom with one bed of the same type as in the Gryffindor bedrooms. "Here. Now, no one will disturb you."

"Wow, great…but what about you?"

"Harry, I've spent the last forty-eight hours doing nothing but work on these spells. I'm way behind on my homework."

"Your homework? But couldn't you—"

"No, don't worry about me. You need to sleep. I'm not the one who has to fight a dragon this afternoon. Dobby?"

Pop!

"Is Miss Hermione still awake?" Dobby said. "You shoulds be sleeping."

"I'll sleep tonight, Dobby. Get it all out of the way at once. If I try to split it up, I probably won't get my work done at all at this point. Okay?"

"Yes, miss," he said reluctantly.

"Good. Please bring Harry a set of pyjamas from his room, and bring me my school books from the carriage. And I'd like you to wake Harry at a quarter to noon for lunch."

"I understands, miss." He popped away.

"He'll probably be a couple of minutes," Hermione said. She thought for a moment and added, "I don't think I have any stories about growing up that are as dramatic as yours, Harry."

"That's definitely a good thing," he said.

"True, but there is one I wanted to tell you." He looked surprised but he nodded. "I'm sure you know how, in muggle schools, it can be 'uncool' to be the smart kid." He nodded again. "Well when I was in Year 3, the other kids started to notice how different I was. That was when I started getting private tutoring in maths because I was so far ahead of them. And I could already do thinks like multiplying large numbers in my head. A lot of the other kids were impressed, but some of them made fun of me about it. They…they called me a "freak". They scared away all of my friends. Some of the other girls would smack me around a little. It got worse and worse as the year went on. I don't know what I would have done if Mum and Dad hadn't been there for me. They actually considered having me switch schools."

"But they didn't?" Harry asked.

"No. My teacher saw what was happening and saw my marks and said I might be better off trying to skip a year, so I did that instead. I went straight into Year 5 the next year. Then, I was younger than the rest of the class, and I guess they felt more protective of me or something because I didn't have much trouble after that. Anyway, I know it's not nearly as bad as what you went through, but I do know what it's like to be persecuted and friendless. That's why I try so hard to help my friends. I know how much they're worth."

Harry gave her a soft smile, stepped towards her, and hugged her. He didn't have problems being hugged, but she couldn't remember if he had ever initiated a hug before. "Me too," he whispered. They stood there, two kindred spirits, until Dobby returned with their things. (In fact, the elf gave them a couple of extra minutes.) And for just a little while, Hermione was able to let go of her worries.

A/N: Dialego Kathar Magnesia: stylised from the Greek for "separate and purify magnesium".