A/N: If you prefer to read in plot-related arcs and chunks, the following chapters are good places to come back and catch up: 356, 361, 367, 375, 382

Hermione awoke on Tuesday immediately wide awake, a feeling of excited anticipation already vibrating under her skin. She got dressed in her school robes as per usual, and she did her best to be present and participate in the conversation amongst her dormmates (who were wondering if breakfast would be back to normal, or if they'd be cooking their own eggs again), but it was a challenge.

In a matter of hours, Narcissa would be presenting Sirius' complaint to the Wizengamot.

Breakfast was the usual fare, so conversation turned from the House Elves' recent oddities to what people had done over the extended break. Daphne had evidently spent it in Switzerland, to the envy of all, but Tracey and Millie had the best stories, involving Tracey's parents' hunt for the perfect Easter ham. Everyone was laughing as Millie described, in painstaking detail, the getup Tracey's mother had donned in order to go to the muggle grocery store to 'hunt' the perfect ham, and though Tracey's face was bright red in embarrassment, she was laughing along with the rest of them.

As Millie was recounting the confusion of Tracey's father upon seeing his wife, and then his decision not to say anything about her attire, Blaise nudged Hermione's side. Hermione turned to glance at him, and Blaise flicked his eyes down the table. Hermione gave him a questioning look, and Blaise shot a pointed glance down the table again.

"What?" Hermione whispered. "It's just Draco."

"He's just sitting there," Blaise hissed. "Hermione, he hasn't glanced up at you once. And he hasn't said a word. What did you do to him?"

Hermione felt her defenses prickle. "What makes you think I did anything to him?"

"Because he was in a mood last night as well," he told her, keeping his voice quiet. "We were talking about the House Elves, and all of a sudden, Malfoy just up and asked Theo if it ever bothered him knowing his Dad was a Death Eater."

Blaise gave her a pointed look, and Hermione winced.

"That's—why do you think I—"

"After Theo got over the fact that Malfoy apparently had actually believed his father had been under the Imperius Curse," Blaise continued dryly, "Theo read Malfoy the riot act, going on about how he didn't give a damn what his father did, because he wasn't going to follow in his footsteps regardless."

Hermione was surprised. "Really? I thought Theo—"

"I think it was more a comment based on his mother than on the Death Eater thing, if I'm being honest," Blaise said. "But then Malfoy asked Crabbe and Goyle, and both of them were kind of dumbfounded. It was like they'd never considered it at all."

Hermione bit her lip.

"But surely that's a good thing, right?" she ventured. "That he's thinking about these things now? That he's seriously considering what he wants to do in the future?"

"Sure," Blaise said dryly. "That'll make it all the better when he disappoints you – knowing he thought over all the details and chose to be an evil git anyway."

"He might not!" Hermione objected. "He could not follow in his father's footsteps, you know."

"And Snape might do a jig," Blaise countered. "It's possible, but I don't think it's likely. Malfoy doesn't have the strength to go against his father like that."

Hermione glanced down the table at him. Draco was determinedly not looking at her, lifelessly picking at his food.

"I suppose we'll see, won't we," Hermione said with a sigh. She glanced up at Blaise, offering a sort of half-shrug. "Not much else we can do."

"Just don't be surprised when he disappoints you," Blaise warned. "It's all he seems to know how to do."

"Hermione!" Neville exclaimed, catching her as she entered the Transfiguration classroom. "I'm a Gryffindor again!"

"Were you ever not?" Hermione asked, trying to suppress a smile at Neville's enthusiasm. "I thought you were just taking refuge in another house."

"Well, that's true," Neville acknowledged. "But they made me an honorary Hufflepuff while I was there. They gave me a tie and everything."

That was nice of them, Hermione thought fondly. She was glad they'd grown protective of Neville and supported him when he was down.

"But Professor McGonagall came and found me," Neville went on. "And she apologized – said she was partially to blame for putting a bad portrait to guard the common room, and that she spoke out of anger." He lowered his voice. "She apologized in front of all the Hufflepuffs in the common room – and I think she meant it, honestly. Professor Sprout was there, too, and she said, 'Neville, do you accept her apology?' and of course I was going to say 'yes', but there was this heavy moment where everyone was just looking at me, and I realized that if I said 'no', they would have let me stay…" He trailed off for a moment, shaking his head. "But I did, and now I'm back in Gryffindor tower, allowed the password and everything. McGonagall might be kind of mad at you, I think – I heard you tore her a new one – but I think it genuinely helped everything."

Hermione couldn't find it in her to care if McGonagall was mad at her – seeing Neville's face alight at being welcomed back to Gryffindor and being treated like he mattered by his Head of House was worth it.

"Settle down, settle down," Professor McGonagall said, entering the classroom. "Take your seats. Break is over."

Hermione quickly went to her seat, Neville hurrying to his.

"Today we are beginning indefinite transfigurations," McGonagall said, flicking her wand at the chalkboard. "This is a very difficult skill, but one of the most useful. It involves your use of Transfiguration basics and mental imagery to 'sculpt' a material from one form into another, without changing its base nature."

Hermione took notes as McGonagall explained the properties of different materials in indefinite, shape-to-shape transfigurations, and it was only when McGonagall plopped a lump of copper on her desk that Hermione quite realized what they were expected to do.

"Try to form a definite shape," she told the class, distributing lumps of metal. "Allow your magic to naturally form the metal into something else. A cube, a sphere – you will need to exert your magic over the metal to coax it into matching whatever mental image you hold."

Hermione bit her lip, holding back a smile, and she withdrew her wand.

The copper was much easier to work with than the silver she'd used over the break with the hedgewitches, and soon Hermione was done, while her classmates struggled manipulating their metal around her.

"Done already, Miss Granger?" Professor McGonagall came over, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, Professor," Hermione said. "I think I am."

She watched as Professor McGonagall picked up a solid copper statuette of a lion from her desk. Hermione had managed to get some good detail in the mane, she thought, and the lion's expression as it roared proudly made her wonder if there was a charm to animate it and make it actually roar. The haunches probably weren't entirely anatomically accurate – Hermione had no idea what the backside of a lion actually looked like, so she'd modeled after Crookshanks – but all in all, it was a good effort, she thought.

Professor McGonagall looked it over, then looked at Hermione, eyebrow raised.

"Attempting to flatter me, Miss Granger?" she asked archly.

"Not at all," Hermione said, smiling. "Just a thank you. For finding a lost lion and welcoming him home."

Professor McGonagall's lips twitched, but she turned away, setting the lion back down on Hermione's desk as she moved on to another desk.

"Ten points to Slytherin for an excellent first Transfiguration," she said as she passed. She glanced back at Hermione. "One would almost think you'd done this before."

The rest of classes were terrible for Hermione to endure. Nothing exciting was happening, and it felt like time was positively crawling as the afternoon wore on. The moment Herbology was finally over, Hermione was running back up to the castle, taking a quick shower and getting ready, determined to look her best.

Though she usually Time-Turned first and ate dinner on her second go-around, she lingered long enough to eat dinner this time, wearing her Wizengamot robes at the table as she bolted down her food.

"Dumbledore's not here," Tracey observed. "I wonder why."

Hermione glanced up at Draco, who met her eyes for a moment before hurriedly looking away.

"I wonder," Hermione said. "Who knows?"

Blaise's eyes were steady on her as she stood, adjusting her robes, and he touched her hand for a moment.

"Good luck," he told her quietly. His eyes glinted. "Have fun, with whatever madness you've got planned now."

Hermione grinned. "Thanks."

She dashed off through the halls, ducking into a bathroom on the fifth floor to time turn back. The bathroom blurred around her, and when she left a moment later, light was filtering through the castle windows once more as she hurried to the great statue guarding Dumbledore's office.

"Sorry I'm late, sir," she said, panting as she arrived. "I know I'm cutting it close—"

"We have plenty of time, Miss Granger," Dumbledore assured her. His blue eyes sparkled behind his half-moon glasses. "Don't you look sharp today."

Hermione glanced down at herself. She was wearing her black velvet Wizengamot robes with her official member pin, as she did for every meeting, though she had taken the time to make sure her hair looked good and touch up her spots a bit with makeup.

"I do hope today's not too long," Dumbledore admitted, flicking his wand and a blaze of fire effortlessly appearing in the fireplace. "I have dozens of owls to answer – parents inquiring about the extended break."

Hermione hesitated.

"Sir," she said slowly. "You weren't at dinner today – I ate before I Time-Turned back."

Dumbledore turned to look at her, his gaze scrutinizing.

"Well, then," he said. He shrugged easily, and he went over to open his desk. To her astonishment, he pulled out an entire sleeve of Jammie Dodgers from his top drawer, and he gave her a wink as he put them into his robes. "Best to be prepared."