Breakfast was amusing. Hermione still got the appreciative looks she usually garnered whenever she put makeup on, but her classmates' reaction to Daphne's gorgeous corkscrew curls was much more dramatic.
"Merlin, Greengrass!" One of the older girls, Flora Carrow, came over, looking on in envy. "What'd you do to your hair?"
"Do you like it?" Daphne said, turning her head back and forth to watch the curls bounce.
"It's stunning," Hestia Carrow, twin to Flora, admitted. "How'd you do it? I can never get my hair to look that perfect, even if I sleep in rags."
"Oh, Hermione and I were just playing around this morning," Daphne said dismissively. She smiled at Hermione, who shared her secret smile. "I thought it came out rather well."
The Carrow sisters slowly returned to their place with the other third years, looking on jealously, and Daphne smirked further. Pansy was looking on in pride and slight envy, and Tracey just looked amused.
The boys from their own year looked suspicious.
"What're you playing at?" Theo asked Daphne. "What'd you do with your hair?"
"Curled it," Daphne said promptly.
"Don't give me that," Theo retorted. "I've seen you and Pansy with your hair curled before. It's never looked like that."
"Hermione taught us a new way," Daphne shot back, with a winning smile. "She knows a way that uses magic. It looks quite different, yes?"
Daphne bounced her curls again, and Hermione fought the urge to laugh.
"…yes," Theo admitted, begrudgingly. "…you look nice, Daphne."
Daphne beamed, before eating her porridge in the smuggest manner imaginable for one to eat porridge. Hermione bit back her laughter before finishing a piece of toast and standing.
"You're done already?" Tracey asked.
"No, but I've other plans," Hermione said, gesturing across the hall. "Public reconciliation, right?"
The others looked at her with grave faces, nodding at her with respect.
"Good luck, Granger," Draco told her formally, and Hermione nodded back, straightening her shoulders and heading over.
Harry, Neville, and Ron had been at breakfast maybe five minutes so far – Hermione had been watching. So far, they'd seemed to have woken up a bit, but not yet gotten too far into their breakfast. Hermione headed over, slowing her pace to seem tentative as she approached. Instead, it ensured that everyone had plenty of time to notice her walking over, making sure all the first-years' eyes were on her, and a fair few from the Head table.
Ron was the last to notice, as he slurped down an orange. Harry elbowed him sharply, nodding towards Hermione, and Ron's eyes widened as she approached. Hermione climbed onto the bench next to Neville, across from Harry and Ron, nodding demurely, before looking at Ron, her eyes wide.
"Hi Ron." Her voice was a whisper.
Ron nodded heavily, still staring at her.
"I thought… I was hoping…" Her voice was tentative, faltering, and she looked down, pausing to take a deep breath, before looking back up. "I was hoping we could be friends again," she finished.
Ron looked surprised and stunned.
"I'm sorry for messing with your potion in Potions class," Hermione hurried on, earnestly. "I didn't mean to make you angry. I'd thought I would be able to help you, and I didn't mean to be so bossy or mean about it, and I'm so sorry I did. Please, Ron – I won't do it again." She bit her lip, plaintive. "Please. Can't we be friends again?"
Ron was still staring at her, stunned. Harry elbowed him sharply, giving him an angry look, and hastily, Ron nodded.
"Yeah," he said finally, still nodding. "Yeah, we're good, Hermione. And – I'm sorry for hurting your feelings when I said all those things about you."
He wasn't sorry for saying them, Hermione noted to herself, just for her getting her feelings hurt over them. Tucking away that piece of knowledge, Hermione gave Ron a brilliant smile, settled down onto the bench next to Neville, and helped herself to a half a grapefruit.
"Anyone know what was up with Harry's broomstick yesterday?" she asked them. "Who'd want to kill you, Harry? You've only been at school a few months."
Immediately, conversation turned to the boys' various conspiracy theories about who wanted to bring Harry down. Hermione noticed that most of the boys' theories involved either Snape or Malfoy, and Hermione ended up playing the devil's advocate, knocking each one down.
"If Professor Snape wanted you dead, Harry, you'd be dead," she told him honestly. "He's powerful and scary. He'd slip you a poison in class or at dinner, and you'd go to bed feeling fine, and just never wake up. Or he'd give you something that would mimic the effects of an actual disease, and when you died from it, everyone would presume you'd just had an awful case of Dragon Pox. The last thing he'd do would be something so obvious as jinx your broom in public in front of the entire school."
The boys reluctantly agreed to this. Snape was scary, no matter what, and they were able to recognize that anyone Snape wanted dead would, in fact, end up dead.
"Malfoy might hate you, but he's not exactly strong enough to jinx your broom, either," Hermione said. "He only knows as much magic as you. We haven't learned anything as strong as a jinx to do anything like what we saw."
Their grudging agreement soon turned into crazed theories about Death Eaters infiltrating the school as students to bring down Harry, and Hermione couldn't bring herself to stop them – it was too funny, too interesting to hear them go off on wild tangents like this. It was after Ron suggested that five of them could have burrowed into the school grounds through abandoned gnome tunnels that Hermione had an idea.
"You know who we could check with, who might be able to help us out?" Hermione said, brightly.
The other three looked at her in confusion, shaking their heads.
"Hagrid," she suggested. "The groundskeeper."
Hagrid was a massive man that Hermione suspected was not entirely human. He'd also been expelled from Hogwarts in his third year, was older than he looked, and, Hermione suspected, not all there. He was, however, friends with Harry, and Ron and Neville through Harry, so the three of them going down to visit Hagrid wasn't unusual for them at all. Hermione felt quite pleased with herself for finagling an invite as well as they all headed down.
Hagrid was pleased to see them, and even happier to see that the boys had brought her along.
"You brought a girl!" he exclaimed, looking on them proudly. "'ermione, is it?"
They were all shuffled inside and given tea and biscuits. Harry's wide eyes and slightly-shaking head warned Hermione against trying the latter, and Hermione managed a smile as she sipped at the weak tea.
Ron launched into a tale of what had happened to Harry and their theories, and Hermione entertained herself by looking around Hagrid's cabin and out the window. Hagrid had a large garden of sorts outside his house, and animal pens as well, though Hermione couldn't quite see all of them from her seat. The Forbidden Forest was eerily close to his hut, and Hermione wondered how often he ever ventured in.
"Ron, no one can burrow into Hogwarts!" Hagrid was laughing heartily now, slapping his knee. "You can't get past the wards on the grounds!"
Ron's face was red and he looked very annoyed, while Neville looked relieved. Harry looked thoughtful.
"That means it was someone on the grounds, then," Harry remarked, looking at the ceiling. "But who…?"
"I reckon you won't have to worry about it anymore, Harry," Hagrid said, ruffling his hair. "Professor Dumbledore will have heard about the jinxing, and he'll come to the next game. That'll make sure that nothing fishy goes on."
They made small talk about classes for a little longer, which was mostly Ron whining about Potions and Neville gushing about Herbology. Hermione let them go on a little, before giving Harry a pointed look.
"It's been great to see you, Hagrid," Harry said, standing and giving the man a hug. "We'd better get back up to the castle, though. We've all got that Potions essay to finish, still."
Hagrid smiled at Harry, and hugged each of them in turn, including Hermione. Hermione was surprised to be hugged, but slowly hugged him back. It was nice to be hugged – there wasn't much physical affection to be had in the Slytherin dungeons.
As they left, filing up towards Hogwarts, Hermione made sure she was last and lagged behind.
"It just occurred to me," Hermione lied, looking up at Hagrid, "that you might have some rope. I need some for an extra credit project. Do you have any extra rope lying around here?"
Hagrid grinned at her. "'Course I do, 'Mione. How much you need?" He walked around the back of his hut, Hermione carefully following.
"How much do you have?" she asked. "I'm not really sure how much I'll need."
"Here."
Abruptly, there was a massive coil of rope in her arms, and Hermione staggered under the weight.
"Oh! Sorry, there."
A moment later, there was a whizzing noise, and the rope retracted into itself, until all that was left was an embroidered sleeve the length of her arm.
"Retractable rope, that is," Hagrid said, nodding. "It's meant as a lead for a magical creature. Strongest rope there is. I'm not sure how much rope goes into it, but it's a whole lot."
Hermione stared. A lead? A rope this thick?
"I can borrow this?" Hermione said, clutching the magic rope sleeve. "Are you sure? I might need it for a few months, Hagrid…"
"Nah, it's fine," Hagrid said, waving her off. "Not using it anymore, am I? Only need the one for Fang, here."
He nudged the lazy dog at his foot, who raised his head, looked at Hagrid with wide, soulful eyes, before putting his head back down on his paws. Hagrid sighed.
"Lazy git…"
Hermione looked at the thickness of the rope in her hand, thoughtful, before looking back up at Hagrid.
"You had another dog, Hagrid?"
Hagrid's face brightened. "Yeah," he said. "Called 'im Fluffy. Great dog – good dog – 'e was as loyal as they come. 'E preferred the forest, really, but 'e was great at playing fetch and helpin' scare anythin' off in the forest when I had to go inside… I'd play him a bit o' music to help him go to sleep at night, and he was just the sweetest thing…"
Hermione's suspicions grew.
"I'm so sorry you don't have him anymore, Hagrid," she told him, looking up at him with sad eyes. "Did something happen to him?"
Hagrid shook his head. "Nah. I let a friend borrow him for a while… needed him, to protect summat. Fluffy's a great protector."
"Protect something?" Hermione said, keeping her voice carefully innocent. "Would just Fluffy be enough?"
"Nah, 'e got all the others to help protect it too, e'eryone in the castle helped out…" Hagrid stopped short, seeming to realize what he was saying, and gave Hermione a suspicious look, but Hermione smiled at him innocently, as if she hadn't realized he'd said anything.
"That's good, then, right, Hagrid?" she said. "Then you'll get to get Fluffy back once your friend doesn't need whatever the thing is to be protected anymore."
Hagrid brightened at that.
"Yeah," he said. "Should only take a year… that'll be good, then… I miss him…"
Hagrid suddenly looked like he might cry, missing his dog, and Hermione took the chance to thank him again for the rope and escape, hurrying up the hill to the castle.
"Hagrid is only person on earth," she muttered to herself, clutching her magic rope, "the only person, who would ever name a three-headed dog Fluffy."