A/N: We have had good news regarding the fire. They are boarding up the building BUT we managed to get 99.9% of our stuff out. And we have a new apartment and I am so thankful. I despair for the 17 other families though. We only have numbers for 2 of them and we're doing what we can to help but it's just... A crap shoot. So here's to another chapter.

-0-

Despite her friends' best efforts, Hermione spent her days avoiding everyone. She refused to go to class and she didn't sleep beyond the times that she collapsed into bed with no other choice.

Her brain told her it was depression but her heart spent a lot of time telling her brain to shut up.

Some nights, while everyone else slept, she wandered up to the astronomy tower and lay on the observation deck watching the universe go by. It did not make her feel any better but it did make her problems feel smaller somehow. The stars burned on as they did before and she found some comfort in that. Even Professor Sinistra didn't bother her much after the first night. Her connection with Minerva was obviously a desperately secret thing, but their friendship was well-known and the Astronomy Professor had spoken with her quietly the first night she'd been discovered. Hermione had talked to her for a while, but the Professor had perhaps understood her need for space and had left her sitting on the floor with a gentle squeeze on her shoulder.

Dumbledore seemed to have spoken with her Professors as well because none of them had enquired as to why she was not in class anymore. They sent her homework with the boys and left her alone. Instead, she wandered between her bed and the Chamber of Secrets and the grounds. She did not go back to see Minerva, she couldn't. She wanted to with every fibre of her being but she never wanted to encounter those feelings from Minerva ever again.

Harry had tried to discuss it, and Ginny as well. Ron wasn't quite cut out for the same, but she appreciated his stalwart nods in the morning and the squeeze on her shoulder at night. Harry and Ginny were concentrating on fixing things, but Ron just let her be. She appreciated that more than she could say.

Dumbledore had been attentive but equally quiet. He had been back and forth to the Ministry and she was quite sure he'd been to a few different places looking for Horcruxes but she didn't really care. He asked after her when they saw each other between her sanctuaries but did not mention Minerva at all. It wasn't until the Friday after her escape from Minerva's quarters that he summoned her to his office and they sat together and drank hot chocolates while they discussed how little they could find on what she was and had become.

"I cannot even find a name for it," he muttered. "Though I have looked."

"I haven't even looked," she mumbled. For some reason, that embarrassed her and she looked at the mug in her hands.

"You have had other things on your mind," he said softly. "I am neither surprised, nor concerned about it. How are you feeling otherwise?"

"Like -" She shrugged.

"Physically, mentally," he shrugged and put his mug down. "How are you, Hermione?"

She sighed and took stock of herself.

"I'm, well, aside from -" She couldn't put words to it but he nodded and she trusted that he knew what she was saying. "All that, I feel like I can do more with less. I'm not sleeping well but don't get tired often. I go a few days before I need to sleep and I do so for a while and then not again. I miss it sometimes."

"I know of insomnia," he nodded. "And I understand the feeling. I know you have been walking at night. I would only ask that you do not go into the forest."

"I won't," she muttered. "Occasionally I feel like I need to breathe, you know?" He nodded. "But I don't really go outside much. The astronomy tower is good like that. Professor Sinistra said I could stay for as long as I liked when there wasn't a class." He smiled. "I need to figure out how to stop myself from getting so hungry though. Dobby is having trouble getting me enough."

"That's a side-effect of this change?"

"Yeah," she groaned. "My metabolism is firing. And I'm strong." She blinked as she realised that she hadn't had a chance to tell him that yet. "I can carry things, lift things that don't make sense."

"I will speak to the elves about getting you more food. And in time, we will sort out the rest. Anything new I need to be concerned about?"

"No," she sighed and leaned back on his sofa. It wasn't like Minerva's; this one was not quite as squishy.

"There is so much going on," he groaned. Her interest was piqued as he threw his glasses on the coffee table and rubbed his face. "Scrimigour wishes me to allow him access to Hogwarts. Owing to how it went the last time, I flatly refused, but he is not like Cornelius. He is sly even though he is true. His meddling, even for good reason, could become problematic."

"That was why he was here?" she asked airily.

"Don't play," he chuckled as he put his glasses back on. "I know you felt something from him."

"Deception," she muttered. "I was angry with him, I wanted to throw him from the Tower."

Albus Dumbledore rarely laughed, Hermione mused, but now he did. He had a lovely laugh really, a happy, bubbling laugh that echoed around the room like a running brook. She could not help but smile at it.

"Thank you for that," he said, still chuckling. "I needed it."

"He's the enemy?"

"No," he muttered as he sobered. "But I am more than afraid he has already been Imperiused. We can trust nobody outside our circle for now but even then," he sighed. "After Miss Bell's accident, perhaps we should not even trust them."

"I can tell when someone is not right," she muttered. "Our family is fine. I haven't been to class enough to tell you about anyone else."

He made no comment about the 'family' designation, though Hermione didn't catch it until she'd said it.

"Filius has been trying to meet with me for a week," he muttered. "I fear he is the one person we could not put off with lies."

"Do you trust him?"

"Undoubtedly. But the more people that know about you, the more danger you are in."

"I know him as far as class is concerned, and his birthday party, of course. My only concern is that he has people to lose. If Madam Sprout or his children were captured and payment demanded," she shrugged. "I'd want him to give me up if it would save them, but to do so would put us in a tough spot."

"Indeed," Albus nodded. "Perhaps I will simply let him tell me what he knows and we shall go from there."

He nodded and they fell silent. The crackling of the fire lulled her into quiet as the topic that neither wanted to bring up hung over them.

"Is she alright?" Hermione asked finally.

"No," he admitted reluctantly. "Like you, she is well, but not okay."

"She is cruel when she is uncomfortable," Hermione mused.

"I have told her so myself many times. It is one of her biggest failings."

"Otherwise perfect," Hermione sighed.

"No, Hermione," Albus said gently. "Not even close. She has many failings, many foibles. To hold her to a standard of perfection would be unfair to both of you. Remember that. Keep your love grounded, so that it may grow."

She stared at him and his words from their first proper meeting about this came back to her.

"Who was he?"

Albus paused halfway to putting his mug on the coffee table and stared up at her. She wondered if she could tell just by allowing her mind to wander, but she did not in respect to his privacy.

"I -" He put his mug down and got up. He made his way over to the fire and stared at it for a long time. "I have in mind that if you really wanted to know, you would know?"

"I was just musing that myself," she admitted. "But I have not and will not. Where possible, I believe everybody's thoughts should be their own. To invade something so private would make me no better than him."

Albus nodded and did not reply.

"I will leave you to it. I apologise for bringing up sad memories, Professor."

"Albus, once and for all," he muttered. "For we are now as equal as we could be. And it is alright to be curious."

"I won't ask again," she promised. "I do not know what the answer is to my issues, but I will begin looking for it, I suppose. And just in case you hadn't noticed, I asked Michael to go back to guarding her portrait."

"I saw," he mused. "I shall ask about that soon, you know."

"And I will likely tell you," she chuckled. Their chat had her feeling a little lighter than she had since running from Minerva's rooms in horror. "There is a bit to go over when we have the time. Sleep well," she smiled at him as he looked at her. "Albus."

"And you, my dear."

She allowed her legs to carry her wherever they wanted and despite her assurances to the contrary, she ended up skirting the Forbidden Forest while the moon shone overhead. The darkness called to her but she ignored it. She wandered to a part of the grounds, on the edge of the forest, where there was a circle of fallen trees. Hagrid had clearly pushed them together for a student or class and she settled against one of them and looked up at the moo. While she sat in the dark, she took note of the rustle of bushes to her left and the quickening heartbeat of what she guessed was a rabbit just a little behind her.

She played with her senses, stretching them as far as she could and taking note of the Centaurs hunting to the west and the Lone unicorn to the North, on the edge of the Lake. The night was suddenly an open book and as the Crups howled at the moon, she too looked up and caught sight of someone watching her.

It was a crisp and clear night, there would be frost in the morning, but the air was so still that she could see who was watching her from the window. Minerva stood regally, wrapped in her tartan throw, looking down on the grounds. Hermione wasn't sure whether she could see all the way down here, or whether she was simply staring, but she didn't move. Instead, she simply watched.

A low growl from her left shocked her and she stood, her wand in hand and ready. Nothing was forthcoming and she heard soft padded footsteps leaving as quickly as they arrived, but when she turned back to the Tower, Minerva was gone.

As another lone howl went up, Hermione could not help but feel the sorrow in it and want to join in.