A/N: My deepest apologies. It seems everything has finally caught up with me and I'm totally and utterly shattered. I don't even remember when I last updated and I'm sorry. 4 days ago maybe? I had in mind when I finally gathered enough energy to sit here and do this, that I might give you a twofer to make up but as I'm looking at the chapter list to the left I'm very very aware that we're very close to the bits I haven't written yet so... Please send good strength and writing vibes for me to get that under control post haste. I will, however, post another tomorrow to make up for it and get us back on the correct day. I adore you all very much, thank you for sticking with me.

-0-

Things did not get better as the weather warmed, just slightly, through February.

Valentine's day was a particularly low point in Hermione's life as she watched endless streams of loved-up friends and classmates send hearts and tokens to each other and declare their undying feelings obnoxiously while she sat and pined for hers.

It had not been pretty and she'd locked herself away in the Chamber of Secrets for a week. The other three had covered for her admirably but even she could not ignore a summons from the Headmaster when it came in the final week of the month.

"I know you are hurting, my dear, but you must go back to class," he said gently. "I will not have you waste away over this. I need you to learn all you can, and I need you to keep up appearances as much as you can."

She sighed and looked away. Minerva had apparently quite recovered from their run-in and had gone back to teaching the day after it happened. Hermione had not been back since, though she was still passing all her classes. Albus acknowledged that when she argued but asked again.

"There are enemies all around, my dear, and you are the best placed to keep an ear to the ground where we cannot."

"They're not in class with us," she rolled her eyes.

"But Harry is. You can teach him, and I will need you to. We," he hesitated. "I have done a woeful job of taking over to prepare you both. With this new thing, I need you to help him. Slowly," he said gently. "He needs the time to understand."

She bristled at the implication that she did not know her own best friend, but she also recognised, in the same thought, that Ginny was much better at explaining things to him because she presented the facts as they were.

"Fine," she sighed. "What do you want me to do about Transfiguration?"

"Ideally, I'd like you to return to that class too. You do not have to participate as you once did, you do not have to sit where you sat," he cupped her cheek. "But you should at least try for a while. If it is too painful, then we will make a contingency plan, but for the moment, would you try? I cannot be in three places at once; even I do not have that power and there are so many things I need to do before I can devote proper time to this."

She considered it for a long time. For weeks, now, she'd been escaping into the grounds after dark and simply sitting watching Minerva's window. By now, the woman had definitely noticed that she was there and some nights, Hermione could feel the sadness permeating the air. Some nights, Minerva would sit in the window and stare back and some nights the candles would extinguish early and Minerva would disappear into her bedroom around the other side of the tower.

It did, in the abstract, bother Hermione that she was forcing the woman to hide in her room but as Minerva was yet to complain; she pretended she hadn't even noticed.

"Fine," she nodded again.

"Thank you," he smiled. "Now. I believe your year is in Potions at present?" She nodded. "Horace has been singing Harry's praises to anyone who will listen."

"He's not so bad at potions when he isn't being scorned at," she said reproachfully.

Albus did not answer but he nodded her towards the door and she left, patting the gargoyle on the shoulder as she did. It was lucky that she'd done so, actually because right as she stepped away from it, she side-stepped again to avoid whoever it was that had just come around the corner.

Minerva McGonagall looked rather forlorn these days and Hermione tried not to stare, but she couldn't help it. Minerva stared back and they stood in silence until the staircase activated behind her again.

"Ah," Albus said awkwardly. "My apologies, I had forgotten we were meeting, Minerva."

The woman's name galvanised something in Hermione's brain and she stared a little longer at the woman who was looking everywhere but at her and shook her head. She stepped around her, deliberately not pushing past her like a small part of her wanted to, and went down to Potions. She slipped into the classroom just as Slughorn was introducing their second lesson.

"Hey!" Ron grinned, punching her in the bicep. "Thank Merlin, you're here. Harry's been getting top marks, it's disgusting."

Despite the static in her brain, she laughed and got out her books, content to follow along while Harry and Ron brewed. She wasn't sure how this was going to go, but she would do it for Harry.

-0-

The air was thick with tension as Albus welcomed Minerva into his office.

"You will need to sign these and then these came from you. Requests for -"

"Are we not going to talk about it, dear heart?"

"These?" she muttered as she shuffled the parchments. "No, usual requests and acquisitions."

"Minerva."

"Albus, I am simply doing my job. Something I should have been doing for months now. Luckily, we are not too far behind that we can not catch up but only if you sign these and if you -"

"Minerva."

She dropped the letters on his desk and sat down.

"Don't."

"I would like to. More than anything, I would like to talk to my best friend again. I have been your friend for long enough that I know what to expect when someone backs you into a corner. This has been the longest we've ever gone without speaking properly and I don't mind telling you, I miss you wholeheartedly."

"It makes you a fool for being my friend."

"I am a fool for many things, Min," he said softly. "But loving you is not one of them."

His heart broke as he watched so many emotions flutter across her face.

"I thought you -"

"You are the greatest friend a person can have, Minerva McGonagall. One spat is not going to break us."

"It was more than that and you know it."

He got up and went around the desk to sit beside her.

"Would you like to talk about it?"

"I would like to apologise to you," she said softly. "I hurt you with my abominable words. And I did not mean them."

"I accept your apology," he nodded. "Now," he chuckled. "Come."

He stood and pulled her up with him. She frowned but followed as he delivered her to the sofa and Summoned forth his chess set.

"We have a little time and it has been too long since you have tried to best me."

"Albus Dumbledore," she scoffed, a little of her old self in the words. "Best you. I'll have you know that my ledger is well in the black!"

"Well," he chuckled as he set forth his first pawn. "We shall see about that post haste."

-0-

Ron's birthday was a singular bright spot in the drab, lonely weeks that followed Hermione wherever she went. He was so excited that Hermione couldn't help but be happy for him. She'd already got him a gift and organised the others as well. She'd bought him a new chess set after she lay on the sofa one night a few weeks ago, listening to them play. He won, but he also did nothing except bemoan how Charlie's old set never listened to him.

They had a small party down in the Chamber between them where they'd had a cake that they'd begged from Dobby and Hermione had charmed the candles to wheeze out Happy Birthday until they started firing at them and tried to destroy them instead. For the first time in a long time, they'd had some fun together.

She'd set up a small range in one of the dead-end tunnels where they'd practised throwing their knives. Ginny, to no one's surprise, was the best at it and Harry, it turned out, was the worst. They were all getting better at it though, so she took some comfort in that.

Now, though, they were asleep and she was back in the Chamber of Secrets, working her way through the tunnel furthest away from the locked gate that required Harry's expertise to open. They'd only opened it once, so far, but the stench had knocked her backwards and she'd promptly thrown up all over her shoes.

It was not the best experience and she had no intention of reliving it.

She made a mental note to discuss it with Dumbledore at some point. It made a little more sense now that she knew what she was. A basilisk and a, well, whatever she was, would not necessarily have been friends. The stench that lingered that only she could smell turned her stomach most days, though the others were not as bothered by it.

For now, though, she stuck to clearing the disused tunnels of cobwebs and old bones. She was the furthest she'd ever been on that particular night and she'd done the same spell 3 times to no avail before she realised that something wasn't quite right. She stared at her wand and then looked down at her shoes, wondering why she suddenly felt hot.

Something was very wrong.

She ran along the tunnels, slipping and sliding where she'd not appropriately cleaned. She clattered up the steps to the bathroom, closing the Chamber behind her as she slammed the bathroom door open and stood still in the corridor, listening. She could feel it. It was like a persistent tug on her consciousness but she could not grip it.

She ran towards the tower and wished she hadn't as soon as she'd entered the main corridor.

Minerva rounded the corner as Hermione slid to a halt. They stared at each other and Minerva had just taken a big breath and a step forward when Hermione finally heard what she was missing.

HERMIONE!

She turned away from Minerva and took one step. She blinked as she stood in a new room she'd never been in before.

"Miss Granger?"

In the scant seconds she had, her brain processed Ron, laying on the floor of a living room she'd never been in and Harry scrambling through jars in a cupboard while Professor Slughorn stood off to one side.

While he did not feel evil, per se, she understood that she would need to use extreme caution as she moved to Harry's side.

"What the hell is going on?" she managed just as Harry made a noise and jammed something into Ron's mouth.

There was a moment of anticipation hanging in the air but Hermione's fingers were burning. She rubbed them on the palms of her hands and glanced at Harry.

"What is going on?"

"He -" Harry was as pale as she had ever seen him and she reached forward to touch his hand.

He blinked and came back to himself, staring at her in horror.

"He was poisoned," he whispered. "I -" He blinked over and over again and she realised he was in shock.

She looked around the room, spying a small portrait in the corner of a young woman in a veil.

"Go and get Professor Dumbledore, as fast as you can." The woman disappeared immediately and she looked up at her Potions professor. "Professor, what is going on?"

"Miss Granger, how did you -"

"Professor?" Her voice was like a whip crack as she tried to take the upper hand and console Harry who could do nothing but stare at their best friend.

"Um," Professor Slughorn blinked. "I, the mead I think. For Dumbledore."

Hermione frowned as the door slammed open and Albus came in brandishing his wand.

"Horace, what has happened."

At the moment before she could get Harry to speak, she decided she did not particularly like Professor Slughorn more than she ever had. He was an adequate teacher, but he would not be someone she would ever count as on 'their side'.

"Move," Albus muttered as he knelt beside her.

She got up and almost rolled her eyes as Minerva, too, followed Albus in. She took Harry to the sideboard and hugged him gently while he stared.

"Harry, what happened," she said again. He blinked and looked at her, staring at her until she took both hands and took a deep breath. As she let it out, she felt her whole body warming and looked down at their joined hands. They were glowing a little and she shifted just so she was in the way of Professor Slughorn seeing it. "Harry?" She said again. "We need to know what happened to Ron."

"He," Harry seemed to wake up a little as he nodded. "We'd opened some presents that he'd missed," he muttered. "It is his birthday today. We were messing about before bed and he found a chocolate cauldron box and thought it was for him. I didn't notice until he started acting funny, but someone sent them to me for Valentine's day. I just never got around to throwing them away."

"Who sent them?" Minerva asked imperiously.

"Um, I dunno if he didn't say Romilda Vane?" Harry blinked. He nodded at Hermione and she stepped away. "Um, he was totally out of it, talking about how he loves her and wants to date her and whatever so I decided to walk him down here to see Professor Slughorn."

The four of them shared a look and as Hermione's lips turned up just a fraction, Harry coughed. Trust Ron to prove the perfect excuse to go and see Slughorn after hours.

"Anyway. Professor Slughorn here gave him the antidote but then when we mentioned it was his birthday, we had a toast in his honour."

"I had," Slughorn mumbled. "A bottle of something I was keeping for you, Albus. The boy turned 17, seemed only fair."

Minerva tutted and Hermione spied the bottle on the table.

"You didn't drink any?" she asked Harry.

"No," he muttered. "I was talking."

She nodded but didn't pry further as Albus levitated Ron into the air.

"He lives. A bezoar, Horace. Ingenious."

"That was Mr Potter," Slughorn said with a brilliant smile. "Incredible thinking under pressure. One can only believe it is Lily's genes that -"

"Well, right," Minerva said. "You two, back to bed."

"I'll just -"

Professor Slughorn went to grab the bottle but Hermione was quicker.

"I'll take this to Professor Dumbledore's office, sir," she said in her most simpering voice. "I'll be very careful with it."

The atmosphere was already bizarre and quite frankly as Minerva made a noise behind her she grabbed Harry and almost dragged him from the room. Albus followed with Ron and Minerva muttered something before she closed the door on Professor Slughorn's apartments and sighed deeply.

"I have questions," she muttered.

"Soon," Albus muttered. "Take the bottle to my office, wait for me there." Hermione went to argue when she didn't specify who had to go but he gave her a look. "Wait for me there."

She sighed and dragged Harry with her as she walked.

"Come on," she muttered.

She gave the password to the Gargoyle and led Harry up the stairs, not even looking to see if Minerva was following. She dropped Harry on the sofa where he lay down and promptly fell asleep and placed the bottle on Albus' desk before she turned and saw that Minerva had followed them.

And was standing watching her.

"Hi," she muttered.

"Hello."

She nodded and sat beside the fire, which she lit with a lazy wave of her wand. Fire, especially, seemed only too happy to do her bidding and it was one of the spells she'd had the most success with in terms of wordless, and even wandless casting.

"Um," she looked up as Minerva leaned on the back of the chair Albus so often sat in. "How -"

"You're talking to me, now?"

Minerva looked at her hands. Hermione watched as she warred with herself before she raised her head again.

"How are you?"

"Fine," Hermione shrugged. She didn't ask after Minerva. Not that she didn't care. She cared more than anything, but it was time to practise some self-preservation.

"Hermione -"

She'd never been more thankful for the Floo opening as Albus stepped through.

"Wake him, I need to know what happened."

She did as she was told, rubbing Harry's back until he blinked awake. As Dumbledore questioned him about his evening, Hermione watched Minerva watch the proceedings. Her heart ached again. Prior to this, she'd managed to ignore everything in favour of not thinking about things, but seeing the woman and then speaking to her, had reopened all the wounds she'd managed to scab over.

"Hermione," Albus asked.

"Hmm? Sorry, miles away."

"Minerva was just mentioning that you were in the corridor and then you disappeared."

"Oh," she blinked. "Yes. I think," she winced. "It wasn't Apparition. It was something, though, because I definitely only took one step and was where I wanted to be, rather than one step further away."

"What were you feeling?"

"I knew something was wrong," she explained. "And I heard one of them calling to me. Shouting. I think it was Harry but," she shrugged. "I was too busy trying to figure out what was happening."

"Where had you been?"

Minerva realised belatedly what she'd asked and blushed, waving away the question. For some reason, Hermione wanted to answer.

"I walk when I don't sleep, which at the moment is often. I'd been on the second floor, doing a lap, when my feet got hot."

"Hot?" Albus questioned.

"Yeah. Very weird."

He nodded and steepled his fingers and stared at the fire. Minerva sat, awkwardly, on the arm beside Harry's head where he was, once again, sleeping. Albus seemed to realise and got up, summoning a soft blanket and draping it over Harry.

"There's no point in you being here just waiting on my thoughts to fall into order. I will see you all tomorrow. Hermione, Ron is fine, in the Hospital Wing, but do see him tomorrow morning." She nodded and got up. "Leave him," he muttered. "He'll be fine."

She realised that leaving Harry would mean that she would have to go with Minerva and she looked at Albus carefully. His eyes twinkled in a way that they had not for some time and she rolled her eyes.

"Fine," she muttered.

She got up and opened the door to the staircase. Despite her better judgement, she waved Minerva through first and followed as she descended the steps. They walked in silence but Minerva looked at her a third of the way around when Hermione should have turned to go to the tower, and opened her mouth.

"I'm walking you back," Hermione muttered. "Then I'll go up."

"I don't need -"

"Well, maybe you can think of it as something I need, alright?"

They walked on silently until they stopped outside of Michael where he stared between them like it was a tennis match.

"Will you come in for a moment?"

"I can't," Hermione winced. They stared and Hermione had to physically stop herself from stepping forward and hugging her. "But," she said finally, giving in to Minerva's beautiful eyes. "I will join you just after breakfast if you are free?"

Minerva nodded and cleared her throat.

"I would like that," she muttered and with that, Hermione took a deep breath and immediately wished she hadn't. Minerva's scent was everywhere and she closed her eyes to savour it.

"Are you -"

"Tomorrow, then," Hermione muttered as she turned. "Around ten."