Hermione wasn't thrilled at the idea of having detention. And was incredibly less thrilled about having it with Draco Malfoy. And she'd said as much in her previous letter to Viktor. She hadn't said anything about detention in her letter to her parents.
His letter was in her hands. And as usual it was in English that was written with a hand that was worse than Ron's. However, since English wasn't his first language, and the Roman alphabet wasn't his first either, she cut him far more slack.
The tone of his words was about as tense as it could be. Not at her. But he could definitely hold some animosity towards her friends. Which made sense as Viktor was the protective type of person. And he didn't like it when other people got his friends into trouble.
"What do you have there?" Ron asked. "You just sent an owl off to your parents yesterday. I don't think they would have responded that fast."
"It might surprise you Ronald, but I have other people I like to speak to," Hermione said as calmly as she could.
"Like who?" Ron asked.
"Like my grandparents," Hermione said.
Ron frowned but didn't push the issue further. He sometimes was able to sense tension when it came to Hermione. And she was relaxing a little more when it came to him, but he still irked her some.
Eventually she got a letter with instructions to meet Flilch in the entrance hall for detention. The time seemed rather late, but she decided that she would go along with it.
She wasn't thrilled when they got there and Filch was getting ready to lead them outside. Her mind sped through a thousand different punishments.
"You there Hagrid," Filch called.
"You're late," Hagrid said.
Hermione felt herself shiver and was glad that it was dark. And that she could blame it on the cool air. She'd worn her astronomy cloak, but was still feeling a bit of a chill.
"Wouldn't be if it wasn't for this lot of troublemakers."
"We wouldn't be in trouble if it weren't for Hagrid," Hermione muttered under her breath. "Him and his stupid wooden house."
"It'll be over before you know it," Harry reassured her.
Hermione glared at him. "And how exactly would you know?" she hissed. "You haven't gotten into trouble before this either."
"Not here," Harry admitted. "But detention never lasts as long as you think it might."
Hermione knew he was right. But they hadn't ever had detention at night. In the middle of the forbidden forest.
They listened as Hagrid explained what was going on and led them through the forest. Hermione found that as long as she ignored Harry and Draco she didn't mind the task so much. Yes, the forest was creepy. But it was hard to be scared of whatever might be lurking about with a huge man who had thrashed several temper tantrums out of a dragon.
"What's that?" Harry asked.
A few feet away was a small clearing off the path. In it was a small white lump. It seemed to be heaving a breath, but then stopped.
A roar sounded in Hermione's ears and she ducked in pain and cold.
A scream sounded high and piercing. It was deafening. And when it stopped, Hermione thought that she had gone deaf.
"What was that?" she asked.
"No idea," Hagrid said. "Never seen som'in like that."
"I hope I never see something like that ever again," Malfoy muttered.
Hermione had to agree with Malfoy, as much as she didn't like it. And when she wrote to Viktor she found that she had to mention it. She hadn't mentioned Malfoy before. But she found that she couldn't leave him out.
She signed and sent the letter out early in the morning before breakfast the next day. Since it was Saturday, most of the rest of the students took the chance to sleep in. Ron certainly did. Hermione found that even with the late night, she couldn't sleep in. Though she had tried.
But whatever it was that was in the forest, was haunting her dreams. She felt jittery. And knowing what she knew about Nicholas Flamel wasn't helping any. She thought she had a pretty good idea about what was hidden in the third-floor corridor.
"Rough night?" Harry asked as he sat down at the table.
"The worst," Hermione groaned. It actually hadn't been the worst sleep she'd ever gotten. Scared sleep was somehow easier to deal with than trying to sleep while excited.
"NIghtmares get you too?"
Hermione nodded. "Not that I needed any fuel for nightmares. I already had one about Norbert breathing fire on my exams."
Harry groaned. "I did not need that image in my head. I imagine that you'd be fine if you had less time for exams. But I'd certainly fail."
Hermione snorted. "I doubt that. Professor McGonagall at least likes you. I think so does Professor Flitwick."
"But Snape hates me," Harry moaned.
"I don't think they'd let him teach if he hated you. But it wouldn't hurt if you would stop pairing up with Ron and focused on the work."
"You know that would be no fun. And you're usually making things with Fey. I'm not going to pair up with Neville," Harry said.
"There are other people you could work with," Hermione attempted to remind him. "Parvati. Dean. I wouldn't recommend Seamus though."
Seamus had an unfortunate ability to cause almost every potion to explode. And most other things too. Hermione was looking into it, but didn't have a theory at that point.
"I wasn't planning on it. And Dean and Seamus seem to have a system worked out. I just wish I could focus. But I can't stop watching Snape like he's up to something." Harry was practically grinding his teeth. He took a deep breath and a piece of toast.
Hermione made herself a bacon sandwich and chewed as she tried to distract herself. She figured that she would probably wind up going to the library. If only to find something complex enough that it would distract her for a couple of days.
A/N: Sorry for not posting sooner. I've been not feeling grand. I did have an ultrasound on my gallbladder. Glad to know that it's fine. It means no surgery on that. But it's been awful. Hopefully I'll be inspired enough to create a new chapter soon.