When Hermione stood outside the classroom in the dungeons for the Potions lesson the day after her first kiss with Professor Snape, her stomach tingled terribly and she had to take a breath before entering. There had been only one subject on her mind all day since she had got up. Luna had nudged her at breakfast, smiling, because she had been staring blankly out the window, not noticing at all how the Great Hall had filled up around her. He had returned her kiss, had not flinched or been dismissive. The closer the double lesson in Potions had come, the faster her heart had beaten. As she had expected, Professor Snape showed no sign during the lesson that anything had happened between Hermione and him. He gave her a curt welcome back from her sick time in front of the students and from then on he held a normal Potions lesson.
"Miss Granger, a word," he called across the room as Hermione and Susan, who were the last to leave the room, were already at the door. Hermione said goodbye to Susan with a smile and turned around. She had deliberately taken extra long to pack up her bag, hoping that Professor Snape would ask her to join him. He waved his wand, whereupon the door slid quietly shut behind Hermione, and then looked across his desk into her eyes.
"I - About last night. I'm sorry. I didn't mean-" he began, but Hermione interrupted him.
"NO! Say that it's not possible, that it's forbidden, that no one would tolerate it. But don't say you're sorry!" she cried aloud, overcome by a sudden rage that made Professor Snape flinch in surprise. She could feel the hot tears on her cheeks and did nothing to stop them. He didn't seem to have expected Hermione's reaction and looked a little helpless.
"It ... I ... you're ..." he began again, but the words didn't seem to want to leave his mouth. Hermione just looked at him as tears rolled down her cheeks. She let it happen but prevented herself from starting to sob. He averted his eyes for a moment and then looked at her with a pained expression.
"Nothing you say can change what I felt yesterday," she said, looking into Professor Snape's black eyes, which were somewhat blurred by her tears. He dropped into his chair and buried his face in his hands.
"I already know everything you're going to say. That relationships and affairs between teachers and students are not tolerated. That I am too young according to the law. That you are too old for me. I don't care about any of that. I have waited one year for this and I will not give up until you tell me straight to my face that you do not want me and that there is not even a spark of hope," she said.
While she had been speaking, Professor Snape had removed his hands from his face and was now looking at her as if he had been hit by a bus. Silently, he looked deep into her eyes. Hermione, despite their agreement, used her power to read his emotions. She needed an answer. He jerked his head slightly as he felt Hermione effortlessly pushing past his mental barrier with her ability. She sensed his turmoil, but to her relief, she also found what she had been hoping for. Along with the fear and insecurity, she sensed affection and fear of loss in him. She smiled at him and took one of his large hands, which were resting on the table, in both of hers.
"Thank you. That was more than a thousand words can say. If I have to, I'll wait until I'm seventeen too."
She closed her hands tightly around his warm hand and looked into his eyes. Like the first time he had touched her to heal a wound, she felt a tingle shoot through her body that had nothing to do with lust or desire. It was more, almost as if her magic was reaching for his. He still seemed speechless, but Hermione could see in his gaze that affection had won. A single tear trickled down his cheek. Hermione took a deep breath and let go of his hand. Immediately she felt the urge to take it again and not let go.
"I would be happy to brew another potion with you this weekend," she said and then turned around. She unlocked the door with a wave of her hand and dried her face with the sleeve of her robe. She decided to attend the Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson, which had just started now, later with the Time-Turner and walked up to Ravenclaw Tower with the Disillusionment Charm.
Fortunately, there was no one in the common room, which she crossed with quick steps and, arriving in her bathroom, cooled her teary eyes with pleasantly cold water. As she looked at herself in the mirror, her mouth twisted into a broad smile, for she still could not believe how lucky she was. Once she got rid of her red eyes, she turned the Time-Turner once and waited until it was time to be just on time for her missed lesson.
The next day Hermione awoke with a smile on her face and the butterflies in her stomach went crazy when she spotted Professor Snape at the teacher's table at breakfast. She felt light, free of the heavy weight that insecurity and heartbreak had loaded on her shoulders. Even if she had to wait until she was 17, the certainty that he returned her feelings was enough to lift her spirits. She was aware that it was naïve to think that she would fall around his neck on her 17th birthday, but she didn't let gloomy thoughts of the future destroy this beautiful notion.
In good spirits, she helped Neville in Transfiguration to perfect his conjuring of a goblet in the afternoon. He had managed to conjure a vessel before, but with Hermione's help, he managed a beautifully decorated goblet by the end of the lesson, which earned him 20 points for Gryffindor.
"Hey, Hermione! Will you wait for me?" she heard Harry's voice as she had almost walked through the classroom door. She turned and smiled as Harry waved at her with a hand black with ink. She walked up to him and watched, giggling, as he tried to put his body between the ink stain and Professor McGonagall so she wouldn't notice as he tried to clean his parchment and the table. "Help me, please," Harry whispered, looking anxiously at the large stain on the usually spotless table due to magic.
"Tergeo," Hermione whispered with a grin, sucking the ink first from the table, then from the completely black parchment.
"Tergeo it was! Simply wouldn't remember it. Thank you, Hermione. Glad to see you're okay," Harry said with relief, pointing the wand at his blackened hand and sucking up the ink before putting his bag away with a red head.
"Where's Ron?"
"In the lavatory, trying to wash out the ink. I think he's pretty mad at me."
"But surely it wasn't intentional," Hermione replied, astonished that the two usually inseparable friends were arguing over such a mishap.
"Of course not, but try explaining that to Ron. He's been a bit thin-skinned lately. Well, he'll get over it when I show him the spell later. How was St. Mungo's? Is dragon pox painful?"
"It was fine, I got potions for the pain," Hermione said, thinking to herself that that wasn't actually a lie. After all, she had been in a lot of pain from her poisoning, which Professor Snape and Madam Pomfrey had soothed with potions. "I had a few books with me, so the week was over quickly," she said with a smile and Harry nodded with a grin. She could tell by the look on his face that he would probably be more bored with the books she was reading than not reading anything at all. "You were in the hospital wing too though, I heard."
"That's right, bloody dementors. Do you have a free period now too?" asked Harry as they left the classroom. Hermione actually had Ancient Runes next, but she decided to take the Time-Turner lesson and nodded. "Shall we go and find a classroom again?"
"Why not, or we could go to the courtyard. I'll keep us warm," Hermione suggested and Harry looked at her briefly with raised eyebrows, then shrugged and followed her down the Grand Staircase.
Once outside, Hermione conjured a large sphere of heat around the two of them so that they were comfortably warm, just like inside the castle. They settled on a bench in front of the fountain, which, like every winter, spat out hundreds of ice cubes instead of fine jets of water, which swirled around the fountain in beautiful trajectories before hitting the ice surface and instantly melting into it.
"That's bloody good magic," Harry said, marvelling as he formed a snowball that didn't melt any faster in his hand than usual because the sphere only warmed him from the inside. "Is this what you always do at the games in winter?" he asked and Hermione nodded. "That's why you were all so agile in November while our bones were rattling!" said Harry in an actedly incensed voice as he remembered the lost game against Ravenclaw.
Hermione shrugged her shoulders with a smile and laughed when Harry threw the snowball at her and hit her in the face from the side. A small snowball fight broke out, which awakened a childlike joy in Hermione that she had not felt for a long time. She forgot all her problems, chores and duties for ten minutes as they tried to dump as much snow as they could on each other.
"Tell me about the games," she finally said when they had sat back down on the bench with faces red from the snow and exertion, and Harry started by telling her about the Ravenclaw versus Slytherin game, which he thought her team would have won if Hermione had been playing. She fought against blushing but was very pleased to receive the compliment from Harry, who was still way ahead of her in terms of technique. She was glad that he was Seeker and therefore not her direct opponent.
Harry then told her first-hand how he had experienced the Dementor attack in the Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff game. She swallowed when he reported that he had heard his mother's scream before he had fallen off his broom.
"Then I blacked out and woke up in the hospital wing. Damn dementors. They've got it in for me."
"Did you hurt yourself badly?"
"Bruised shoulder, nothing wild. Thanks to Professor Dumbledore. Madam Pomfrey, as usual, insisted I stay there until evening, even though she charmed me like new in two minutes," Harry said and Hermione nodded with a grin. The Hogwarts Healer was known to be a little over the top when it came to the welfare of her patients, but Hermione was glad that she had been able to count on Madam Pomfrey's care many times before. "I was better off than my broom, anyway," he said sadly and faltered when Hermione looked at him with a furrowed brow. "Haven't you heard? My broom sailed away when I fell, straight into the Whomping Willow."
"Oh no!" exclaimed Hermione, who had actually not heard about this during her time with Professor Snape. "Was Dumbledore able to save it?" she asked, pressing her lips together in pity as Harry shook his head.
"Just bits and pieces," he said tonelessly, and Hermione could understand that his broom had meant a lot to him. Her Nimbus was also sacred to her and she tended to it after every practice and game so that it didn't lose its shine. "Now I hope the Firebolt gets through the inspection."
"Firebolt?"
"Yeah, you don't know that either. Last Tuesday Hedwig brought a huge parcel with the morning post. No sender and inside was a Firebolt!"
"No sender? That doesn't sound trustworthy."
"Yes, unfortunately. Professor McGonagall confiscated it straight away to check for curses."
"Hmm," Hermione hummed thoughtfully, wondering who gave away such an expensive broom. It did indeed sound at first like an attempt to trap Harry. "Then I hope for your sake it's clean," she said, smiling at the thought that perhaps Professor McGonagall herself had sent the broom and immediately confiscated it to disguise the fact that she was spoiling her Seeker Jewel. From what Hermione knew of the stern but kind-hearted teacher, it was to be expected of her. "If it comes through, I want to test-fly it!"
"Gladly," Harry said with a grin, and the two lapsed into a technical discussion about brooms and their proper care. The free period flew by and when Hermione got up to go to Defence Against the Dark Arts with Harry, she was a little sad not to be able to talk to him any longer.
"That was really cool, shall we meet again this weekend? Maybe you'll have the firebolt by then! And if not, can you fly on my Nimbus?" asked Hermione as they headed off.
"I'd really like to, but I have detention with Professor Snape."
"Oh. The whole weekend?" asked Hermione, her eyes widening as Harry scratched the back of his head and nodded.
"What did you do? Set fire to his robe?" she asked, though of course she had already learned the reason from Professor Snape. He had kept the extent of the punishment from Hermione, however.
"I was out in the castle after curfew. A whole weekend is completely over the top, but that's typical Snape."
"It really is a lot. And what did you have to do in the castle?" she asked, hoping to learn more about the so-called Marauder's Map that Professor Snape had taken from Harry on the night in question.
"I ...," Harry began, eyeing Hermione briefly as if he seemed to be weighing whether he could tell her, then he continued. "I ... had a map of Hogwarts, where you can see where people are in the castle."
Hermione frowned. She couldn't really make sense of this short description.
"It's really incredible, you can see the whole castle if you want to and at any second you see little name tags representing the people on the map. I saw Snape too late when he came around the corner of the corridor."
"Okay, that sounds really interesting! Can you show me?" asked Hermione, trying to mask her panic. If it was really true that Harry had been able to use the Marauder's Map to see where people were in the castle, he might have overheard that she had spent the previous week in Professor Snape's private chambers instead of lying in St Mungo's. Her face grew warm, but she managed with all her effort not to blush and pretended to be interested in the magic, which was indeed true. If Harry's tales were true, the map was an excellent artefact.
"Unfortunately not, Snape confiscated it."
"'Bummer."
"Yes really, the map was really useful, but at least Snape can't use it. Even insulted him when he tried. Probably why I got detention for so long," Harry said, and Hermione could see the same thievish delight in him that she had perceived in Professor Snape when he had told her that he had caught Harry.
"Why can't he use it?" asked Hermione, inwardly crossing her fingers in the hope that Harry would tell her how to use the map.
"It's password protected. I only just managed to lock it before he stuck his nose in."
"Oh, that's clever. Do you think he'll figure out the password?" asked Hermione in her last attempt to tease the information out of Harry before he became suspicious.
"I'm sure he won't, it's a complete sentence and that sentence will never leave Snape's lips. You have to say 'I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good' Snape is definitely up to no good, but he would never solemnly swear that," Harry said and they both laughed while Hermione jumped for joy inwardly.
"That's really interesting. And unusual. Also, do you really have to be up to no good for the card to accept the password?"
"I don't know, I got it from Fred and George."
"That doesn't answer the question, they're good-for-nothings too."
"Hey!" exclaimed Harry in amusement and Hermione giggled.
"True, I've never had to rescue you from any vines in forbidden corridors either," Hermione said, biting her tongue with a grin. Harry blushed and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.
"All right, all right! But at least I saved Ginny last year too."
"True. That gives you a plus point," Hermione quipped, giggling as Harry rolled his eyes playfully. "And you managed to say the whole sentence before Snape got to you?"
"The password to erase it is shorter, it's 'Mischief managed'."
"Literally," Hermione said with a laugh, trying not to show her delight. If the map lived up to its promise and she could persuade Professor Snape to let her use it, it would make it much easier for her to move around the castle unnoticed when she was using the Time-Turner to go back in time. "What were you actually doing outside at night?" she finally voiced the question that had been burning under her fingernails all along.
"I was going to stock up on sweets."
"What?" asked Hermione, puzzled, to which Harry grinned sheepishly.
"You probably thought something bad again. There's a secret passage marked on the map that leads directly to the storeroom of Honeyduke's. I've been there a few times to get some, but I always left a few galleons there, so I didn't steal anything."
Hermione chuckled and shook her head. Harry had gotten himself a weekend detention and the loss of his map for a few chocolate frogs.
"Typical, but also understandable," Hermione thought, wondering if she would be able to resist the temptation if she could use the map to get straight into the Honeyduke's warehouse.
"Well, anyway, I don't have much hope of ever getting the map back if Snape has it," Harry said and Hermione could now hear a hint of sadness in his voice. Hermione pressed her lips together.
"In any case, I wish you the best of luck with your tasks. Do you know what you have to do yet?"
"Snape said something about 'cleaning jars by hand'. I think jars that had some sort of Norse leeches in them before."
"Northland Leeches? My sympathies."
"That bad?"
"You can't imagine. Take something to stuff up your nose or look in the library for a spell. I don't know any by heart, I'm afraid."
"That doesn't sound good, thanks for the tip," Harry said and Hermione gave him a pitying look before hugging him and sitting down in the empty seat next to Susan in the classroom. She spent the rest of the day feverishly anticipating paying Professor Snape a visit that evening. She went to the library after dinner to look for a spell for Harry that would make his detention work at least a little more bearable.
She found a spell to temporarily lose the sense of smell and copied the page from the book to slip to Harry the next day. It would only help so much, but it was better than nothing. The worst part of Harry's upcoming task was that Northland Leeches produced a terribly smelly, but also very viscous, sticky secretion that was extremely difficult to remove from surfaces or skin. The way Hermione assessed Professor Snape, he would not allow Harry to wear gloves or anything like that.
She then headed straight for the dungeons, where, as the day before, her heart began to beat faster the closer she got to Professor Snape's office and private chambers. As always, the door opened just a tiny crack, allowing a black eye to peek out after she knocked on his door.
"Good evening. I don't recall summoning you," Professor Snape said after opening the door enough to fit his face in the crack.
"I'm sorry to disturb you unannounced, Professor, but I have a request," Hermione said, trying to mask her excitement. The butterflies in her stomach were going crazy, but she tried her hardest to ignore them. "I was wondering if I could take another look at that parchment you confiscated last week."
"Potter's?" he asked with raised eyebrows and Hermione nodded shyly.
"I wanted to see if I could figure out how it worked, maybe."
Professor Snape looked at her appraisingly for a moment, then wordlessly disappeared into his chambers and was back a moment later. He opened the door a little wider and held out his hand to her, holding the parchment. Hermione reached out, but Professor Snape withdrew his hand and raised the parchment beside his face.
"On one condition. If you really figure out how the parchment works, you report it to me. Also, if the parchment is dangerous, I'll confiscate it again," he said, holding the parchment out to her again.
"Of course," Hermione said with a smile and giggled as Professor Snape withdrew the parchment once more with a raised eyebrow as Hermione reached for it.
"If I overhear Potter getting it back from you, I'll let you keep him company for the weekend, understand?"
"I don't intend to. Harry deserves his punishment, although I think two days is a bit much, but that is not at my discretion. I'm only interested in understanding how it is enchanted and how to perform such enchantments," Hermione said, holding Professor Snape's gaze, who eyed her with a raised eyebrow.
"Good," he said, finally handing her the piece of parchment. Hermione waved goodbye to him with a smile before turning and heading up to Ravenclaw Tower as quickly as possible, full of anticipation and expectation.
Once in her dormitory, she pulled the parchment out of her pocket expectantly and checked again with a 'Specialis Revelio' to see if the same message as a week before appeared on the blank parchment. Hermione giggled and shook her head as the message appeared on the parchment, recalling the password Harry had given her that afternoon. She tapped the card with her finger and let some magic flow into it as she spoke the phrase to activate it.
"I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good," she said and with shining eyes, she watched as the ink spread on the previously blank sheet of parchment and drew the map of Hogwarts. She looked down at her own name displayed in her dormitory. She strode to another corner of the room and watched in fascination as the small nameplate on the map moved an inch.
She glanced around the coarser perimeter and recognised the names of her classmates in the common room and their small dormitories.
Intrigued, she walked over to her bed and spread the map out on it, which appeared to have been covered with a spell to expand further and further. When the whole bed was covered by it, Hermione could see about half of the interior of Hogwarts at once. The first thing she looked for was the room on the seventh floor where she had found the diadem a few weeks ago. She was surprised to find that the room was not listed on it.
She next looked for Dumbledore's office and giggled when she saw him pacing up and down in it. She thought about how she could use the map wisely. It would make it much easier for her to walk the corridors in the past if she could see if the coast was clear beforehand. She spent the evening scanning the rooms on the map, recognising several shortcuts and secret passages she had never heard or read about.
When fatigue finally overcame her, she cleared the map and decided to investigate the mysterious room on the seventh floor again the next day. She was still a little confused about the way to enter the room. It wasn't an invisible door and she didn't know any spell that required saying the code word three times while walking up and down in front of the seal.
When she travelled back in time the next day after class, it was much more pleasant to be able to see the area around her on the map. Hermione was able to move around the castle unmolested during class time and made it to the seventh-floor corridor much quicker than before.
"I need a room to hide something in," Hermione repeated three times as she paced back and forth in front of the wall hanging with Barnabas the Barmy. Just like last time, the door appeared instantly and Hermione stepped inside. The room looked much the same as it had when Hermione had been there and found the Ravenclaw diadem.
She pulled the map out of her pocket and realised that although it showed her the seventh floor, Hermione's name was missing. She left the room while looking at the map and immediately her name reappeared in the exact spot where she had appeared back in the corridor.
'Interesting,' Hermione thought. So if she ever needed a hiding place, the room was probably best suited for it, if even the map didn't find her there. She turned back to the wall that hid the room. After checking once on the map that no one was approaching, she moved on to her next experiment. "I need a room to hide myself in," Hermione thought, pacing back and forth in front of the door again. As she stepped through the door, she let out a surprised sound. Instead of the huge hall, crammed over and over with junk and shelves, Hermione was standing in a windowless cabinet not much bigger than her dormitory, with a hammock hanging and two torches giving light on the wall.
So she could change the room depending on what she needed. She left the room again and started to do some tests. The room seemed to be able to grant her almost any wish. First, she found herself in a room that looked like a clearing in the Forbidden Forest. Green grass covered the soft ground beneath her feet and Hermione stroked the bark of a thick tree in fascination. Next, she found herself in a large swimming pool, then in a room whose walls and floor were made of mattresses. With a grin, she dropped onto it and enjoyed the comfortable surroundings for a while. She set about sorting out the next question and made a wish while she was in the room.
To her satisfaction, the room granted her wish for a toilet, as with a small 'plop' a door appeared on the wall, behind which was a small toilet. Now there was only one question left. Would anyone be able to get into the room while she was in it? She couldn't think of a way to check without telling someone about the room and left it at that for now. She left the room again and paced back and forth in front of the wall.
"I need a room where I can practise my spells without wrecking the castle," she thought three times and opened the door expectantly when she had walked past the wall after the third time.
She found herself in a room that contained nothing except a wooden practice figure like the one she had used in class before. Hermione put her bag down and brushed her hand once over a wall. She couldn't tell, of course, if the room would hold up when she began her spells, but the room had not disappointed her so far.
She thought about what she should start with and finally decided on a vanishing spell. "I need a large, massive table," she thought, and there she was, standing in front of a large table that could certainly seat a whole school class. She concentrated and cast the vanishing spell. Immediately the room looked the same as before. She clapped her hands in motivation and asked the room for bigger and bigger objects that she could make disappear. When she finally found her limit at a massive tree that the room had simply grown, she settled down exhausted against its trunk.
"This really is perfect!" she said aloud, leaning against the rough trunk. To be able to test and perfect her magic like this was a true gift and she thanked in her mind the two house elves who had merely hidden a box of cider at the time. Having exhausted her magic to the maximum, she decided to wish for a bed and an alarm clock from the room so she could get some rest.
When she awoke two hours later, she set off hungrily for dinner. She sat down next to Luna and listened happily as she reported on her day. They practised Disarm and Shield Charms that evening as Hermione had promised. Luna's shield charms were still a little bumpy, but Hermione gave her tips on how to practice, which she would soon get better at.
"How's Ginny?" she asked as she walked back to Ravenclaw tower with Luna.
"Really good. You should have seen her at the Hufflepuff vs Gryffindor game. She was almost as good as you," she said and Hermione laughed in the face of Luna's patriotism. Ginny had made such progress over the winter that Hermione doubted she was a better Chaser than the redheaded Hufflepuff. "But everyone was just talking about Harry afterwards," Luna added.
"Yeah, the Dementors thing sounds really scary. Did they do anything to you?"
"No, they were all after Harry," Luna said, telling Hermione her view of what had happened on the way to the Ravenclaw common room, where they did their homework together on a couch afterwards.
A few days later, Harry's broom had been declared safe and free of curses and Hermione had watched him test-fly it enviously. She could feel the anticipatory trembling in her legs as she heard Harry's screams of delight as he flew at top speed from one end of the Quidditch stadium to the other. The Firebolt truly lived up to its name. Harry blurred against the white sky, whose clouds sent thick snowflakes trickling down, and it was hard for Hermione to follow him with her eyes. The other Seekers would have to be careful because if Harry spotted the Snitch before them, there would be no chance of catching up.
"You won't believe it until you actually try it yourself," Harry said out of breath as he dismounted from his broom with the widest grin Hermione had ever seen him wear. "Be careful when you push off, there's really no comparison with the Nimbus."
"Okay," Hermione said, swallowing as she accepted the broom from the still-grinning Harry. She stroked the polished surface of the perfectly crafted wood once before taking a breath and getting ready to take off. Immediately after pushing herself slightly off the ground, the broom shot up with her and Hermione couldn't help but shriek loudly with adrenaline. Her eyes began to water and she had to concentrate to get the broom out of its vertical flight and stop in mid-air, as the Firebolt would probably have launched her into a cloud like a rocket otherwise.
She took a laughing breath as the broom came to an abrupt halt in mid-air. That really was a whole new level. She drew a breath and leaned slightly forward, whereupon the broom immediately obeyed and catapulted her forward at dizzying speed. Again she couldn't stop a screech and it was about two minutes before it wasn't the broom flying Hermione, but Hermione flying the broom.
"Wow, that one really moves!" she exclaimed breathlessly as she flew back towards Harry, who was brushing a tear of laughter from his face. Hermione was glad she didn't wear her hair open and fumbled briefly for the diadem, which fortunately still sat firmly under her hair and was well hidden. "I'm glad we've already played you this year! Malfoy will have a surprise," Hermione said and they both laughed. She watched Harry become more and more familiar with the new broom and was happy for him.
In the days that followed, Hermione spent a lot of time with her friends and she treasured every second with them. The thought that she might never see them again occasionally flared up in her mind, but she fought it and tried to fully enjoy her time with them. She waited in vain for a message from Professor Snape and was already getting restless until Luna pressed a small roll of parchment into her hand on Friday evening. She happily read the short lines and was punctually in front of the Potions classroom the next evening. She beamed at Professor Snape as he let her in and looked around the classroom expectantly. Apart from a small vial next to a cauldron, she could see nothing.
"Have you had any success with the parchment?"
"Yes, though not until I asked Harry about it," Hermione said, pulling the Marauder's Map from her pocket. She ignored Professor Snape's raised eyebrow and tapped the map with her wand. "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good." Professor Snape snorted, but his eyes widened as he watched the fine lines of ink spread across the parchment. The last thing to appear was their names close together in the Potions classroom and Hermione levitated the map towards Professor Snape. "The map shows where everyone who is in the castle is at every second," Hermione explained, taking a few steps into the room. Professor Snape hummed with interest, watching the small nameplate that instantly moved to indicate Hermione's new position.
"Remarkable. What you were saying was the password?" he asked and Hermione nodded with a smile. "Is there anything else it can do?"
"Not as far as I know, but I still think it's very good magic!"
"No doubt," Professor Snape said, pulling the map a little larger. "Not bad," he muttered to himself as he placed the map on a table and pulled it bigger and bigger. Hermione watched him with a smile, recognising a little of herself in him as she saw the fascination with the enchantment in his eyes.
"Professor?" asked Hermione, feeling her pulse immediately shoot up as he looked at her. "Would ... would you allow me to keep the map? As you may know, I have a Time-Turner this year so I can attend all subjects. With the map, I was able to move through the castle this week much more comfortably in the past, knowing if anyone was coming towards me."
He eyed her with his black eyes for a moment and Hermione lost herself in them briefly until he opened his mouth.
"On the condition that you only use the map for that purpose. If I find you in a corridor on my next night watch ..."
"Of course!", Hermione interrupted his threat delivered with curled lips and felt herself turn pink around the nose as he looked at her with amusement. "Oh," Hermione said when she noticed the sarcasm and smiled sheepishly when she realised he assumed she wouldn't abuse the map anyway. "Thank you," she said quietly, accepting the card that Professor Snape floated towards her.
"Mischief managed," Hermione said, chuckling as he snorted loudly. "The passwords are really silly."
"I would expect nothing less from Potter. I have to say, I was a little disappointed this morning when I noticed that he had cast a nose protection charm before he appeared for his detention. You wouldn't happen to have anything to do with that, would you?"
Hermione just managed to keep from blushing, but she still couldn't withstand his penetrating gaze for long.
"Perhaps? Are you going to give me detention now too?" asked Hermione challengingly, giggling as his eyes narrowed to slits.
"Don't challenge me. Potter has been extremely slow at cleaning the jars. If he doesn't finish tomorrow, I may reconsider if you continue to be so cheeky," he said in the threatening voice he usually put on for class, but Hermione could see the twitch in the corner of his mouth and chuckled.
"Why not, as you may have noticed, I enjoy spending time with you. Even when we're cleaning Northland Leech jars," Hermione said with a smile. Professor Snape's features froze for a moment and the conflict was written all over his face. Hermione, sensing that it was better to change the subject, gave him time to compose himself.
"Well, if there are no more questions from your side, we can move on to the topic of today's individual lesson. As you can see, we will be making another antidote today. The poison is far more devastating and the antidote requires far more ingredients than last time. You will therefore have me at your side both as your teacher and as your assistant. First, please inform me of any step you intend to take. I would be delighted if we succeed in this antidote on the first try," he said.
"I'd prefer that too," Hermione said with a smirk and lit the fire under the cauldron with a flick of her fingers. It took all her concentration to reduce Professor Snape's presence to a professional ratio, but the thought of her accident sharpened her senses.
"We can add another drop of murtlap essence now, or Mistemper," she said after two hours of concentrated brewing, looking him in the eye with a raised eyebrow.
"Given your talent with Mistemper, I'd prefer Murtlap Essence," he said dryly and Hermione could see a smile flit across his lips as he went to the supply cupboard to retrieve the Murtlap Essence.
"Pretty mean! If you weren't the one who saved me, you'd deserve a Bat Bogey Hex!" said Hermione with mock indignation. Professor Snape, like a surrounded criminal, came back out of the cupboard with his hands up, a small vial in one hand, which made Hermione giggle. When she had added a drop of the yellow liquid with an eyedropper and stirred it a few times, Hermione crossed her arms in satisfaction and nodded.
"Good work. We should test it," Professor Snape said, waving his wand and conjuring a toad.
"You want to poison a toad?" asked Hermione indignantly, glaring at him. "That's animal cruelty!"
"Would you rather take the poison yourself?" asked Professor Snape smugly, eyebrows raised.
"Yes!" exclaimed Hermione, making the toad disappear again with a wave of her hand and snatching the poison vial from his hand with a calling spell. "I have you, after all, in case something happens to me. Are you still sure I did everything right?" asked Hermione, uncorking the vial.
"Watch it," Professor Snape said with narrowed eyes and a warning tone in his voice, but Hermione could tell he was amused. "I might drop the antidote. Do you really want to put your life in my hands?"
"Yes, I trust you," Hermione said with a serious look and downed the poison. It took only a second for it to take effect. She gagged violently and felt her pulse skyrocket. Her heart began to beat so fast that it hurt violently in her chest and her ears throbbed violently. Her arms and legs went numb as she sank to the floor, but never hit it.
She felt a liquid run down her burning throat. Her heartbeat returned to normal, but the pain remained. She breathed heavily and clutched her chest above her heart as warm tears ran down her cheeks. Another vial was held to her lips and she emptied it in one go without hesitation. Slowly the pain subsided and her arms and legs also tingled as the numbness slowly faded. She only now realised that Professor Snape had caught her with a levitation charm and was still holding her head to support her.
"That was really brave, Miss Granger," Professor Snape said, looking at her piercingly.
"Call me Hermione already!" she cried angrily, glaring at him. She ended the charm herself and stabilised herself with a levitation charm of her own before regaining her footing.
"I can't. I can't risk the possibility that even at any moment it will become apparent that ..." he said, but the last part of the sentence did not pass his lips.
"That?" asked Hermione, her lips pursed. This time it was Professor Snape who glared at her.
"That I have a closer relationship with you than I do with the rest of the students," he said and Hermione smiled at him.
"You'll have to explain that to me, Professor," she teased him with feigned cluelessness and he shook his head with raised eyebrows.
"I often forget how young you are," he said and was about to turn away, but Hermione grabbed his hand and held it tightly.
"I'm sorry, it was only meant as a little joke," she said, trying to beg his forgiveness with her best puppy eyes. It seemed to work because he snorted in amusement and nodded. She looked down at his hand and ran her thumb over his knuckles.
"'That's not possible,' he said, wresting his hand from her grasp. In his eyes, she could see that his head had spoken but his heart would have been only too happy to continue holding her hand.
"Because you're my teacher, or because of something else?" she asked and could tell by the look in his eyes that there was indeed more. "Is it because of her?" she asked, taking his hand again. He seemed so surprised by her question that he offered no resistance. "Who is Lily Evans, Professor?"
"That ... I ..." he struggled for words and his eyes glazed over. A single tear trickled down his face, which had taken on an exasperated expression. Hermione looked at him encouragingly, but he shook his head and pulled his hand out of Hermione's grasp again. Hermione pressed her lips together in disappointment but decided not to say anything. It was obvious that Professor Snape was struggling with himself.
"I will always have an open ear for you, even if it means losing you to another woman," Hermione said, looking into Professor Snape's moist eyes. "Good evening, Professor," she said and stood up. She left the classroom a little crestfallen and couldn't stop her tears as she walked up to the Ravenclaw tower. She really wanted to be alone and as she passed the hidden entrance to a secret passage, she decided to take a different route.
She pulled out the Marauder's Map and arrived unseen at the Switching Room, as she called it. 'I need a room where I can be undisturbed' she said three times to herself and opened the door to a small room with only a bed in it. It was exactly what she needed now.
She dropped onto the bed and curled up on the fragrant sheets. She thought long and hard about whether Professor Snape was really interested in her. What if in truth he still had feelings for his childhood crush. She realised that she still knew almost nothing about her mysterious teacher. Even though he had told her about his childhood and a little about his time at Hogwarts over the past week. Why had he returned her kiss when he really wanted Lily Evans? It didn't make any sense.
Her thoughts went round in circles and Hermione finally gave up trying to make sense of how Professor Snape was behaving. She jumped up and wished for a mirror from the room to check if she looked inconspicuous enough. Her eyes were still a little bloodshot, but otherwise, there was no sign of how much she had been crying.
She checked the Marauder's Map to make sure the coast was clear and waited until Peter Pettigrew, presumably a first-year or senior, had crossed the corridor and left when the corridor was empty. It was dark by now and Hermione, glancing at her watch, realised that it was only 15 minutes until bedtime. Hastily she crossed the castle to the common room, wished Luna a good night and went straight on to her dormitory.
When she got there, she realised she was wide awake and didn't feel like going to sleep yet either. She ran herself a bath and looked down over the dark castle grounds to Hagrid's hut while she waited for the bath water. Grinning, she imagined Hagrid sitting comfortably knitting in front of his hearth, talking to Fang. As she gazed out over the immaculate expanse of snow, her desire for an outing grew and so she decided to take her bath after a flight around the castle grounds. Hermione turned off the tap in the next room with a spell and opened the window. She slipped into her leisure clothes and changed into her raven form.
She closed the window behind her and dropped into the darkness, spreading her wings. Again her eyes wandered over the blanket of snow, lightly lit by the windows and torches of the castle, that lay over the grass of the castle grounds. She shooed away the memory of the Alps during the holidays, when she had searched a similarly fresh blanket of snow for buried people. She sucked in the crisp night air and took a lap around the clock tower in the eerie silence. As she flew down to the lake, she noticed that the snow cover there was not as pristine as at the back of the castle.
She noticed a movement and saw a four-legged creature scurrying into the shadows, leaving paw prints in the snow. She squinted her eyes to make out the figure in the shadows, but the black creature had already merged with the darkness. Her gaze fell to the sky. It could not have been Professor Lupin, for only a thin crescent could be seen of the moon.
She glided along, searching the castle grounds for the creature she had seen. Her raven eyes allowed her to perceive more contrasts in her surroundings and so it wasn't long before she recognised first the tracks in the snow, then the matching shaggy dog from which she had already fled once at the beginning of the year. Curious, she hovered over him in a circle. He seemed to have a destination. Hermione was still fascinated that a dog had been able to survive in the Forbidden Forest and was eager to find out its destination. She tried to read the animal's mind as she floated silently through the air above him like a shadow.
"That damn rat. How many times do I have to try to get in there? Remus isn't much help either, grrrr," she heard the dog's thoughts echoing in her head and snapped her eyes open. This wasn't an animal. The thoughts of animals were much more primitive, apart from magical animals like Fawkes or Lancelot, who Hermione had come to suspect possessed a higher intelligence due to his connection to the Elder.
That left only one conclusion. Below her, an Animagus in dog form ran across the snow-covered lawn. She wondered what she should do. Remus was the first name of Professor Lupin, who seemed to know the wizard. She turned a circle to avoid flying into the range of the Whomping Willow and wondered when she realised the dog was heading straight for it.
Didn't the Animagus know the tree was about to lash out at him? She was about to stun him and thus save him from his fate when she realised that the dog knew what he was doing. He deftly dodged a branch coming down on him and sprinted forward to the trunk of the aggressive tree. He raised a paw and Hermione watched in amazement as the Whomping Willow froze as he touched its trunk with one paw.
With his front paws, he scooped away some snow near the trunk and suddenly disappeared into the ground. Hermione stuck her head forward in wonder but decided to follow the dog and take advantage of the fact that the Whomping Willow was still rigid. She landed in a narrow and musty damp tunnel that was completely dark. Hermione's raven eyes at least gave her enough vision to see where to go next. She cast a Silencio charm on herself and hopped forward cautiously, always ready to defend herself.
She heard a loud rumble as she almost reached the end of the long tunnel. She was met by a musty smell of rotten, wet wood. When she had made her way through an opening into a room with nothing but a few old crates, she silently changed back into her human form and drew her wand, ready to use her full magic when she needed it.
Still cloaked by the Silencio, she listened into the house she was in. Again she heard a banging. It sounded like someone kicking one of the boxes that were all over the place in frustration. She ducked into the darkness and inched her way forward with her wand raised. Peering over the top step at the top of the stairs, she could make out a man dressed only in rags in the moonlight. She could not make out his face, but she had an unpleasant suspicion. The man never saw or heard the Full Body-Bind Curse coming, which struck him in the back and made him hit the ground hard with his face motionless.
"Homenum Revelio," Hermione thought, waving her wand to make sure they were alone. When she was sure that she and the man were the only people in the house, she hastily walked up to him and turned him around. Her suspicions came true. In front of her, with a bleeding nose and fear in his eyes, lay the motionless Sirius Black. Hastily, she pointed her wand at him to secure herself. A thousand thoughts flashed through her mind. What should she do? She saw that his nose was bleeding profusely and the blood was running into his mouth.
"Episkey," she said aloud to keep the trump card of nonverbal spellcasting still up her sleeve and heard the crack in Black's nose. With "Anabneo," she cleared his throat of the blood that had run into it. Now at least he wouldn't choke on his blood. His eyes were still staring at her and Hermione was astonished to see fear above all else in his gaze. She read his emotions and realised that he was irrepressibly afraid of her.
She watched him closely and weighed whether she should go back to the castle immediately to hand him over to Dumbledore. But something about the man's eyes did not match his run-down appearance and his profile. He looked at her like a young dog seeking refuge. She read his emotions again and could see no ill intentions towards her, only fear. She took a step back and lifted the full body clamp curse, but immediately replaced it with a paralysis spell on his body below the chin so that he could only move his head. A dog-like sound escaped him as his jaw unclenched.
"You are Sirius Black?" asked Hermione in a serious, authoritative voice.
"Yes," Black gasped. He was still looking at her with a frightened expression.
"Where are we?"
"In the Shrieking Shack."
Hermione gasped. She looked around the rundown room. There was a large knife on a table and, apart from the bed, the furnishings were so dusty it didn't look like anyone had been here in the last twenty years.
"What are you doing at Hogwarts?" asked Hermione, pointing her wand at his face.
"Who are you? How could you follow me?" he asked instead of answering and Hermione shook her head.
"You don't get to ask questions here!" she said and he growled softly, exposing his yellow teeth.
"I'm at Hogwarts to kill the filthy traitor who killed my best friend and his wife!" he growled through clenched teeth. Hermione looked at him in confusion. She had suspected everything, that he wanted to kill Harry to complete the work of his former master Lord Voldemort, or that he had simply gone mad, but this answer aroused curiosity in Hermione.
"Who's that supposed to be?" she asked.
"Peter Pettigrew!"
He literally spat out the name and Hermione didn't have to read his emotions to interpret the hatred and loathing in his voice. He didn't seem like an actor. She frowned, for the name was instantly familiar. She had seen it on the Marauder's Map only a little less than an hour ago, as she was leaving the switching room.
"A student is supposed to have killed your best friend?" she asked, confused, and this time it was Black who looked at her like she was talking complete bullshit.
"What student? Peter Pettigrew is older than me," he said and Hermione was fully confused. She conjured up a chair and settled down on it. She pondered as Black threw questions around again about who she was and how she had been able to follow him.
"Silencio!" she finally said, exasperated, and decided to use her skills to get a picture of the man in front of her, who she couldn't figure out. He didn't seem bloodthirsty or cunning enough for a murderer, but appearances could be deceiving, Hermione knew that. She thought back to Professor Quirrell.
She concentrated and a moment later was pulled through the black tunnel into the mind of Sirius Black. She gasped. Hermione had expected anything, but not an invitingly cosy room decorated in scarlet, very similar to her Ravenclaw common room except for the colours. She looked for the way Black's memories had manifested and recognised small photo frames all over the room. She went to a shelf that looked particularly nice and was surprised when she recognised Harry in one of the pictures. She looked closer and was drawn into the memory the picture represented.
Hermione was thrown onto the Hogwarts Express, where a handsome boy with shoulder-long hair sat opposite Harry. The landscape they were passing was covered in a blanket of white snow, which Hermione guessed meant they were on the train at the beginning or end of the Christmas holidays. Hermione shook her head in confusion. It didn't make any sense. The boy opposite Harry seemed to be Black, for he was addressed by Harry as 'Sirius'.
"Slip me another chocolate frog, James," Sirius said and Hermione was thunderstruck. She looked more closely at James Potter and realised that apart from the missing scar on his forehead, the only different body feature to Harry was brown eyes. She slapped her forehead with the flat of her hand. Fascinated, she looked at James Potter, who, except for said eyes, was the spitting image of his son.
"Such a glutton," James said with a smug grin that immediately distinguished him more clearly from Harry. It was an expression she had never seen on Harry's face before. It was a fond memory. The two of them joked and talked about their plans to become Animagi to make the werewolf transformation more comfortable for Remus Lupin. When Hermione returned from the memory, she searched for later memories that explained Sirius Black's background.
She revisited more and more memories that made her realise that James Potter had been like a brother to Sirius. She felt reminded of her relationship with Luna. Nothing matched the reputation Sirius Black had in the present. He had been in Gryffindor, best friends with James and good friends with Peter Pettigrew and, Hermione realised in amazement, Professor Lupin.
She avoided a part of the room shrouded in dark, torn cloths, for she thought she knew that behind them were the years in Azkaban. She walked on and was struck by another flash as she recognised the wedding photograph of James and his wife. She was drawn into the memory and recognised the girl she had seen in Professor Snape's memory.
"Do you, Lily Evans, take James Potter, present here, to be your lawful wedded husband?" asked a small wizard in a tailcoat.
"I do," Lily said and Hermione could tell how happy she was about that. Hermione suddenly realised many things. Professor Snape had fancied Lily, but she had married James Potter. That must have been where the dislike for Harry came from. Harry's appearance confronted Professor Snape every day with the memory of his great love who had married another man. She left the memory as it made her very sad herself. She continued to browse through the framed photographs, most of which seemed to show wonderful moments.
When she spotted a dark cobbled alley at night in one picture, with Sirius Black pointing his wand at someone, she hastily picked it up and was swept away into a cold night, with steaming manhole covers giving the alley an even darker mood.
"Peter! You gutless rat!" roared a Sirius Hermione estimated to be about 20. He pointed his wand at the street and as his spell hit its target, a chubby little man suddenly appeared. Hermione didn't understand where he had come from, but Sirius had definitely cast a spell.
"Sirius," the man squeaked in fear and scrambled to his feet.
"You betrayed them! You signed their death sentence!" cried Sirius through his tears. Tears welled up in Hermione's eyes at the sight of the broken Sirius herself. She thought she knew what it was all about and slapped a hand over her mouth.
"You don't know the Dark Lord, Sirius. You would have done the same," he said, whimpering.
"Done the same? I would rather have died than betray my best friends!" spat Sirius at the little man. Again Peter Pettigrew whimpered and Hermione's contempt for Sirius and James' former friend grew by the second.
"Please!" cried Pettigrew in fear as Sirius moved closer, aiming his wand between his eyes.
"Why should I spare you? You took everything from me. You disgusting rat don't deserve another day on this earth," Sirius said with a look of despise and Hermione could tell by the look on his face that he was ready to kill Pettigrew. His face showed such intense pain as if his heart had been ripped out. Hermione was close to tears but pulled herself together to follow up on the memory.
Pettigrew seemed to be looking for an escape route and just as Sirius lashed out with his wand, the fearful expression on Pettigrew's face gave way to a thieving, rat-like grin. Hermione cried out as Pettigrew went up in a huge explosion that knocked Sirius back and caused the surrounding houses to collapse. She heard muffled screams from the rubble and when the smoke had cleared, she could make out a huge crater.
She looked around for Sirius, who was struggling to get up. He seemed to have saved himself with a protection charm, for he had no external injuries. Then the haze above the street was filled with red lightning and Sirius sank to the ground, struck by Stunning Spells. The scene changed and a Sirius screaming in fury and emotional pain was dragged in front of a camera to have his photo taken for the arrest. In the silent, moving photo in the Daily Prophet, it would later look like he was laughing manically.
Hermione wiped the tears from her face as she landed back in Sirius' mind. She had seen enough. A moment later she was back in the Shrieking Shack, burying her face in her hands. Sirius looked at her in wonder, still silenced by the Silencio. For him, only seconds had passed in which Hermione had stared at him and then raised her hands in front of her face.
"Merlin," Hermione said after taking a breath. She looked Black in the eye. "Tell me about Pettigrew," she said, lifting the silencing charm. Sirius recounted in his own words what Hermione had just seen. She knew she had nothing to fear from Sirius and also lifted the paralysis spell after he had ended with the Halloween night Harry's parents had died. Astonished, he raised his hands and moved his fingers.
"You believe me?" he asked suspiciously and Hermione nodded.
"I'm sorry," she said, standing up. "I can't imagine how bad it is to lose loved ones like that."
Sirius looked at her with wide eyes. She could see a spark of mistrust in them and tried to explain to him why she believed him without mentioning her abilities.
"I saw Pettigrew, today," she said, and Sirius' eyes narrowed to slits. "On a map," she added, and to her amazement, a gleam entered his eyes that made Hermione momentarily recognise the handsome man in him that he had once been.
"You have the Marauder's Map?" he asked hopefully and Hermione nodded with an astonished face.
"You know the map?"
"Know it? I designed it with Remus and the others!" exclaimed Sirius, emitting a barking laugh that was very reminiscent of a dog. Hermione's eyes widened. She rummaged in her pocket and pulled the blank sheet of parchment out of it.
"Prove it," Hermione said, holding the parchment out to him, but he shook his head sadly.
"I don't have a wand anymore. But you have to say 'I solemnly swear I'm up to no good' to open it."
Hermione nodded and spoke the words as she tapped the parchment with her wand. Immediately, the detailed map of Hogwarts appeared, but the Shrieking Shack was not marked on it. Hastily, Sirius picked up the map and spread it out wider and wider.
"There!" he shouted, pointing a dirty finger at a room in Gryffindor Tower. Close beside Pettigrew's name, Hermione could make out the names of Ron Weasley, Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom, Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas.
"He sleeps in the same bed as Ronald Weasley?" asked Hermione in horror.
"He's an Animagus, he's in his animal form, a rat," he said and the final piece of the puzzle fell into place in Hermione's mind. Many times she had seen the rat Ron carried in his sleeve, even though the school rules did not allow rats as animal companions.
"I'll have to digest that," Hermione said, holding a hand to her forehead. Something occurred to her at the word and she let her gaze wander over Sirius Black's skeletal body.
"I'm sorry I have to do this, but I don't know if you trust me," Hermione said, putting a Full Body-Bind on Sirius again. To keep him from freezing in the cold cabin, she conjured a sphere of heat around him. "Don't worry, I'll be back soon. Trust me," she said with an apologetic look and hurried down the rotten stairs. She changed back into her raven form and glided along the narrow tunnel. She shot through the opening under the Whomping Willow and flew straight up to her room before the branches beating behind her could reach her. Immediately she emptied her box of sweets into her bag.
"I can't just bring him sweets," she thought, glancing around her room. Then an even better idea occurred to her.
"Dobby?" she whispered into the silence and sure enough, the friendly house elf who had brought her meals over during her week in Professor Snape's office appeared with a soft plop.
"Miss Granger," he said in his high-pitched voice, bowing low. "What can Dobby do for you at this late hour?"
"Dobby, I have a request. Could you bring me a balanced meal? I am really hungry and need a big portion! Could you do that for me?" he asked and Dobby nodded eagerly.
"Of course Dobby can do that, dear Miss Granger!" he squeaked delightedly and disappeared. Hermione, meanwhile, picked out a cloth to carry the food in. Behind her, Dobby reappeared with another plop and Hermione had to take some of the mountain of food he was staggering under from him. Hermione giggled and put it all down on the bed.
"Thank you, Dobby! You have done me a really great service!"
"Dobby would do anything for the clever Miss Granger. Dobby has always appreciated Miss Granger asking him about his well-being," he said with moist googly eyes.
"Thank you very much, Dobby. Have a pleasant night," she said and the little house-elf bowed once more before disappearing. Hermione looked over the huge mountain of food.
"He really needs it," she said to herself, thinking of the meagre figure she had found in the Shrieking Shack. Without further ado, she pulled a fresh sheet from her cupboard, carefully wrapped everything in it and shrunk the package. She hoped that the food would survive the shrinking.
Immediately she opened the window, jammed the shrunken bundle into her beak in raven form and flew off after locking her window from the outside. Since it was too dangerous for her to dodge the angry branches of the Whomping Willow, she let fly a stone with a levitation charm against the knot in the trunk after she landed in the snow out of reach of the thick branches. She hurried so as not to leave Sirius under the Full Body-Bind Curse for too long. She found him just as she had left him. At least he had spent the time on the bed and not on the cold floor.
"I'm really sorry, but I had to make sure you didn't leave," she said before releasing the curse. She took out the small packet and let it grow back to its original size before unfolding the cloth. Her eyes moistened as she saw the gleam in his eyes at the feast spread out before him.
"I thought you were bluffing and coming back with Dumbledore or Ministry officials," he said and Hermione shook her head. He was still looking at her somewhat suspiciously, glancing back and forth between her and the food.
"It's not poisoned or anything. If I had wanted to hand you over to the Ministry, I would have done so, as you said, instead of bringing this food," she said and he nodded thoughtfully, still not touching anything. "Okay, I trust you. I'll close my eyes and you can put whatever in my hand for me to eat from it to show you that it hasn't been tampered with," she added and closed her eyes. It was terrible for her to witness such a famished man nevertheless restraining himself so suspiciously.
Hermione felt something fall into her hand and brought it to her mouth while continuing to keep her eyes closed. She bit off a large piece, chewed it and swallowed it. When she opened her eyes again, Sirius was already biting off a large piece of the roast that had been lying in the middle. She could see tears streaming down his cheeks as he ate and he resembled a wary street dog who had been treated to something good for the first time in years. Hermione was overwhelmed by the starved man's gratitude.
"Easy," she said gently and stood up. She tended to the room they were in a little, first vacuuming up the dust with her wand, then fixing the furniture, and finally cleaning the bed with a cleansing spell.
"Don't eat too much at once, it's best to let your stomach get used to such full meals again," Hermione said and Sirius looked at her a little puzzled at first, but then nodded and put a large piece of bread back on the blanket. He let out a satisfied growl and Hermione smiled at the emaciated man.
"We need to think about where we go from here," Hermione said.
"A good start would be for you to tell me your name," Sirius said and Hermione only now realised that she hadn't introduced herself yet. It had all happened so quickly.
"Oh! Sorry, my name is Hermione."
"Thank you so much for the food, Hermione. And for your trust," he said, bowing with his hands clasped in front of his face.
"You're welcome. We should still talk for a moment about where we go from here. It's not a good idea for you to pursue revenge on Peter Pettigrew," she said, raising her index finger as Sirius bared his teeth and growled. "Think of Harry," she said and a sad expression came over Sirius' face.
"If you take revenge, you will become the very person the Ministry thought they had arrested at the time. I will catch him and hand him over to Dumbledore. Then everything will be cleared up. And you can meet Harry. He looks just like his father."
Sirius let a tear trickle down his cheek after her last sentence. He looked down at his hands and it was a few minutes before he looked Hermione in the eye and nodded.
"How can I ever repay you?" he asked and Hermione gave him a stern look.
"By not doing anything stupid anymore and waiting here for me to catch Pettigrew and for everything to clear up," she said and Sirius pressed his lips together. "I know you want to help, but I'm sure you've noticed that there are hundreds of Dementors scattered around the castle grounds. Please, think of Harry," she said and Sirius finally nodded.
"All right," he said and Hermione sighed with relief. She considered using her Time-Turner immediately to catch Pettigrew but remembered that she herself had come out of the Switching Room shortly after him. The risk of her running into herself was too high.
"You can still help me from here," Hermione said after thinking for a moment and stood up. Sirius looked at her in wonder, but Hermione pulled out the Marauder's Map again. She activated it and laid it out on the floor. "I'll leave the map here. Keep an eye on Pettigrew whenever you can. If you see him wandering around the castle alone, make a note of the time and place."
"And how will that help?" he asked, but Hermione smiled at him.
"Let me worry about that. I'll catch him when I get the chance. I'll be back tomorrow evening, will the food be enough until then?" she asked and Sirius nodded. "Ah, I almost forgot," Hermione said, reaching into her shoulder bag. Sirius' eyes lit up as Hermione set the sweets down next to the remains of the food. Then she conjured another large canister, which she filled with water, and a glass.
"Do you have a way to wash up?" she asked, looking around the now half-tidy room.
"Yes, I can bathe in the lake at night as a dog. If I'm allowed," he added with an ironically submissive look and Hermione considered for a moment.
"Aren't you afraid of the Dementors on the castle grounds?" she asked and Sirius shook his head.
"They can't identify me as a dog and they don't have that much effect on me. I've done a good job of avoiding them for the last few months."
"Fine, but take care of yourself," she said and he nodded with a serious face. Then he let his eyes wander around the room for the first time. His eyes widened. He had still been too busy with the food and Hermione's plan to realise all she had conjured up for him.
"You really are a gifted witch, Hermione," Sirius said with wide eyes and Hermione smiled.
"Do you have another wish?" she asked, looking around the room.
"No, you've done more for me than I ever expected from a stranger. Thank you."
"You're welcome," Hermione said, waving goodbye before turning and heading down the stairs. She was still completely overwhelmed by this day where so much had happened. It felt like a year had passed since she had brewed the antidote with Professor Snape that evening. Arriving in her room, she fell into her bed, dead tired, and fell asleep immediately.
She watched Harry the next day and especially Ron, who carried his rat up his sleeve everywhere he could. It would have been easy for her to call the rat into her hand with a summoning charm, but Hermione decided not to confront Ron so directly about keeping the animagus who had betrayed Harry's parents to Lord Voldemort as a pet. Besides, she didn't know how Pettigrew would react. The screams of the Muggles after the explosion in Sirius' memory still echoed in her mind. She had to wait for a situation where Pettigrew was alone and felt safe, like the night before.
She spent Sunday with Luna, Susan and Ginny and in the early evening she had her private lesson with Professor Dumbledore. He was, as always, delighted with her progress, but Hermione hadn't even shown him half of what she was now capable of through the diadem.
She had almost blown herself up during her exercise in the morning in the Switching Room when she had whipped a lightning bolt as thick as a ship's rope from her palm onto the wall. She was also getting better at the other elements by now, but nothing came close to the power she felt when she mobilised the energy of the air. When she had arrived in her dormitory after dinner, she thought about how she could best go about taking care of Sirius. Then an idea struck her. It had been right under her nose yesterday, she just hadn't weighed her options yet.
"Dobby!"
With a loud pop, the house-elf with the long pencil nose appeared, bowing low to her.
"Miss Granger, how can Dobby be of service to you today? Was dinner not to your satisfaction?"
"Yes it was, Dobby, it was wonderful as always! I do need your help, though."
"Dobby's help?"
"Yes. It's about Harry Potter," she said and as she had hoped, the elf's eyes lit up at Harry's name. He had told her about his liberation by Harry twice during her time in Professor Snape's living quarters and Hermione had realised already then how much he adored Harry.
"Haaaaarry Potter!" he said in a long, squeaky voice. Hermione nodded.
"You have to swear to me, though, that you won't spoil the surprise for Harry. If you can do that and help me, Harry might be happier than he's ever been in his life," she said, trying to remain as vague as possible while at the same time getting the elf excited about helping her.
"Oh, that would be wonderful, to help make Harry Potter happy. Dobby will do anything Miss Hermione asks of him."
"Good, it's really important that no one knows about this but the two of us. Harry will be happiest if no one knows before then," she said and the elf put his hand on his chest. Hermione didn't know much about house elves, but her intuition told her that Dobby was trustworthy. "I don't need anything else for this, except a lot of food, just like yesterday. And a basket or blanket to carry it in."
"Dobby will bring whatever Miss Granger needs," he said and with a pop, he was gone. She took a deep breath. It was a risk to drag the elf into it, but she knew of no other way to get the amount of food Sirius needed until they caught Pettigrew and everything was cleared up. He returned with an even bigger mountain of food than the day before and Hermione thanked him profusely. Happily, the elf bowed and disappeared with a bang, just as before.
"That settles that," Hermione said to herself as she shrank the large basket of all sorts of delicious dishes, loaves of bread and drinks that the elf had been swaying dangerously under.
"Wow. How did you get all this food? You can barely sneak that out under your robe at dinner?" asked Sirius, eyes shining as Hermione allowed the basket to grow to its original size.
"Good relations with the Hogwarts kitchen," she said with a smile and Sirius looked at her suspiciously. "Don't worry, no one knows you're here, Mr Black. Not even Dumbledore."
"Call me Sirius, please," he countered and Hermione nodded. Sirius began to eat and at the same time reported his observations.
"The vile rat is stuck to that boy like a teenager to a weela," he said and Hermione giggled. "He hasn't left his side today," he said, glancing at the Marauder's Map spread open on the floor.
"Be patient. We have the advantage. Pettigrew feels safer with each passing day as you become more forgotten at Hogwarts."
"Hey. I have an idea. We could write to the Daily Prophet that I've been spotted in another part of the country."
"But what if the reporters want an interview then? It wouldn't be very credible if an anonymous tipster can't be found."
"True," he said in a resigned voice, hanging his head slightly.
"Be patient. Take the opportunity to regenerate. It's a miracle you escaped Azkaban and survived the journey to Hogwarts anyway. By the way, how did you manage to do that anyway?"
"I slimmed down and slipped through the bars as a dog. Dementors can't affect animals as much as they can humans. That helped."
"And what made you think Pettigrew was here at Hogwarts in the first place?"
"That Weasley boy was in a picture in the Daily Prophet. With his whole family. He was holding the rat up in the picture while posing."
"You get the Daily Prophet in Azkaban?" she asked in wonder and Sirius laughed in a barking fashion.
"No. Remus recognised him in the Prophet and came to see me after thirteen years in Azkaban."
A light went on for Hermione. Ginny had told her that her family had won the lottery. The Daily Prophet must have written an article about it.
"Professor Lupin knows you're here?" asked Hermione and Sirius nodded with a frown.
"He's not much help, though. Brought me some food occasionally, but never enough."
"It would attract attention if a teacher took large amounts of food. Besides, he has to be careful anyway, there are a lot of rumours now. It might not be long before the students figure out he's a werewolf."
"You know about that? You really are a clever girl," he said appreciatively and Hermione smiled shyly. "You're probably right. But it still wasn't nice, just surviving here on rats and weeds while Remus feasted every day in the castle," he said with a frown and Hermione nodded in understanding.
"Shall I get you a book or something else to pass the time?" she asked as Sirius sat back, feeling full and content. He shook his head.
"I need to keep an eye on the map. I want to nab that bastard the first chance I get," he said, pulling the map towards him. "But it would be nice if you could keep me company a little longer. I know almost nothing about you."
Hermione told him a little about her time at Hogwarts so far and quickly steered the conversation towards Harry.
"He flies just as well as his father," Sirius said, eyes shining. "Did he get the Firebolt?" he asked and Hermione raised her eyebrows.
"That's from you?" she asked incredulously and Sirius nodded. "But how could you pay for it?"
"I intercepted an owl and had an order placed through Gringotts. Goblins are not particularly pleasant creatures, but they are discreet."
"I see. Can you tell me about Harry's parents?" she asked shyly and Sirius nodded.
"They were the best people I've ever met. James was a daredevil, brave and the best friend anyone could ask for. And Lily was the kindest and smartest witch I've ever met. You're giving her some serious competition, though. She always brought James back down to earth from his flights of fancy," he recounted with a melancholy expression on his face.
"How did Lily and James meet?" she asked and Sirius looked at her in wonder. She realised she had to be careful with her questions about Lily, but she needed to know what had happened between Professor Snape, Lily and James Potter.
"They were in the same grade at Gryffindor. It just developed. She didn't like him at all at first, but James went all out for her, really changed," Sirius told her, sighing.
"I'm so sorry, about everything," Hermione said and Sirius bowed his head. "Harry will be happy to meet you when this is all over," she said encouragingly and Sirius looked at her.
"You think so?"
"One hundred per cent. You wouldn't believe how lonely he is with those horrible Muggles he has to go back to every summer. Having a friend of his parents will make him happy, I'm sure."
"I'm his godfather too," Sirius said and Hermione's eyes widened.
"That's wonderful!" she said, clapping her hands together. She saw a glimmer of hope for a better life for Harry if her plan worked. Her thoughts returned to Lily. She hadn't liked James until later. That explained the looks she had given the young Severus Snape in his memory. He never seemed to have stopped loving her, even after her death. Hermione recognised the opportunity to free him from this prison.
She said goodbye to Sirius late that night, and he thanked her profusely once more. A little later, as she lay in bed, she thought again about how to deal with Professor Snape's grief for Lily Potter, whom he still called Lily Evans. She decided to take another hard look at the memories she had experienced in Sirius' mind. If she had to, she would also return to Sirius' mind to learn more about her.
Author's Note: Hey everyone, happy new year! I hope you are doing well. If you liked this chapter, I would be happy to read a few lines from you. Also thank you to all the people that already left reviews, favourites and follows, it really means a lot!
See you next time!
Kasing