Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

...

Hermione looked at her hair in the mirror, the pink monstrosity still in effect despite the fact that the allotted time frame had passed. She, along with several of the other girls, had opted to retain their current hair colour. When asked why she was doing so, Hermione simply shrugged and said that there was nothing wrong with having pink hair. Arguably the fashion statement had had an effect on her psyche but she knew that it wouldn't remain this way forever.

Throughout the first couple of days when they had accepted their 'punishment' from Professor McGonagall they had been badgered with questions, the most common one asking what had happened. While all of the girls had answered differently it mainly focused around the one thing; Potter Club had laid out the trap and they had fallen for it. Tracy had gone on to state that she would fall in the trap again and again. She was also the one to inform all of them that the password for the Prefect's Bathroom had changed.

She and Hannah had been most distraught at that.

With her appearance ready for the day, Hermione focused her attention onto more important matters. The end of term was coming up fast, which meant of course that there were final tests to prepare for. These however were not what her mind was on, constant studying had ensured that she was more than ready once these tests were upon her.

Hermione was contemplating her time frame for Potter Club. There were only six weeks until she'd have to board the Hogwarts Express to return home (by then she'd have definitely had her hair changed back to normal, heavens forbid what her mother would say). This of course meant that they only had five weeks and six days to perform Potter Club's finale before the end of the school term.

Harry had given them the runes when last they had had a joint meeting and explained the properties of all of them and what to watch out for. His words of caution had ensured that all of them had practiced the runes several times over. And just like that he had left the meeting, not wanting to interrupt them at all with their planning.

One of the pranks was easy to predict where best to use it, it would also be the one that provided the most danger. The time frame would be quite limited and they would have to cover a wide amount of space in order to ensure that it didn't fail on them or only perform half as well as expected. The plan for that one had already been set in motion with two of the club members, who despite being disguised Hermione could tell were Fred and George, volunteering to run distraction while everyone else did all the dirty work. Hermione somehow felt more comfortable with that.

The second prank had caused them to be stumped somewhat and had yet to construct a solid plan. They had argued about locations, allotted space, time frames, anything and everything they could think of. Hermione eventually just told them to come back during the next meeting with their plan written down and when everybody was acting more rationally they could come to a conclusion.

She had yet to come up with a solid plan.

Sighing, Hermione gathered her belongings for the class ahead. "What time is it?" came Lavender's voice, the girl buried beneath her blankets. For Hermione it was understandable, the girl always struggled to rise in time after Astronomy classes.

"We've roughly got an hour before the game starts," said Hermione as she finished packing her satchel for the day.

"Wake me up in ten then," said Lavender as she put her head under her pillow.

"Don't worry Hermione, I've got this one," said Parvati, the young witch now recognizable from her sister as she had opted to keep her hair the distinguishable pink while Padma had reverted back to her original colour.

Hermione smiled as she hoisted her satchel over her shoulder and made her way towards the Common Room. At the start of the year she had struggled to get along with Lavender and Parvati, the two girls seemingly having become best friends straight away and anything she tried to do otherwise resulted in her feeling like a third wheel. It didn't take much to realize her time with Potter Club had opened her up somewhat and now she was able to talk about much more than lessons and homework. The one topic she still shied away from, much to the amusement of her roommates, was boys.

It had been a while since she had gotten her Valentine's gift and it seemed to have just been a one off. Then again she supposed that the holiday was a romantic celebration, perhaps the person just had more to think about than romance on any other day. Then again she could just be overthinking the entire thing.

Perhaps she would understand more when puberty struck.

That was something she was not looking forward to.

Entering the Common Room she could see Oliver Wood bent over the table, half a dozen pages of notes in front of him. None of them however were in regards to anything she would consider studying. As lucrative a job as it may be, a Quidditch Analyser was not on her list of potential jobs.

She did have to admire his passion for the game, especially since Gryffindor needed to win this in or order to come second overall, the Slytherin team having already secured top position with wins against all their opposition.

Hermione exited the gathering area before it got too crowded, not wanting to get caught up in the stampede of students desperate to get something to eat before the big game. Making her way down the maze like structure that was the Hogwarts stairwell, she rocked back and forth on the spot whilst waiting for the stairs to come her way. During this time however her gaze fell upon the forbidden third floor.

It seemed like such a long time ago since the whole thing had been mentioned and she was honestly surprised that nobody had dared to go against the Headmaster's words. At the beginning of the school year she would have never contemplated going somewhere that could potentially have devastating results. Now though she couldn't help but be curious.

Harry had really been a bad influence on her.

As the stairwell clicked into place, Hermione's mindset shifted back to breakfast, the grumble erupting from her stomach reminding her of her current quest. Making her way down to the ground floor, Hermione spotted a couple of her fellow first year students standing near the entrance to the Great Hall, one of them clearly distinguishable by their identical colour of hair to her own.

While Hermione wouldn't say that she was on positive ground with the two Slytherin students after what they had been through they were at least not on each other's bad side, although Hermione did wonder whether one of the two students actually had a bad side. "What's going on?" she asked as she closed the gap.

"Oh hey Hermione," said Tracy, arguable the person who should not have been sorted into Slytherin in the slightest. She had an almost infectious bubbly personality that just seemed so out of place in the dungeons that Hermione was certain that the Sorting Hat had made a mistake. "Potter Club put up a notice."

"Really, what's it say?" asked Hermione having not expected this.

"Before you get too excited," said Daphne, having seen how interested Hermione was getting into the subject, "Know that this isn't the positive news you may have been hoping for."

"You mean...there isn't a foretold prank or something like that?"

"The opposite," said Tracy, her mood visibly deflating.

"Apparently Potter Club's going on break until the end of exams," said Daphne.

"Really?" said Hermione genuinely shocked. While the timing she and the rest of the members of Potter Club wouldn't be effected by the schedule update it was still surprising that it would be announced in such a way. "I guess it makes sense, you've seen what Potter Club can do, surely there must be a seventh year student in there who has to focus on their exams."

"Makes sense," said Daphne with a shrug of the shoulders. "Anyways, I for one am famished and require some breakfast."

"Wait for me," said Tracy as Daphne started to walk away. "Nice talking with you," she said to Hermione before she vanished into the giant dining room.

"You too," said Hermione softly before focusing her attention on the note. They hadn't been lying, it seemed that one of their members had put up a notification that they would be on hiatus until nobody's grades would be affected. Marching into the Great Hall, Hermione's eyes locked onto one of the sole occupants before casually striding over to where he was munching on a bowl of cereal.

"I take it the sign in the entrance was your idea," said Hermione as she sat down next to Harry, the Great Hall relatively empty at this time of the morning.

"The one claiming that Potter Club wouldn't partake in any activities during the exam period? Yes, that's mine," said Harry as he took another spoonful of cereal. "Wasn't sure when you guys were planning your big events but I took an estimated guess that you wouldn't do so during exams."

"And what if we were?" asked Hermione.

"You wouldn't," stated Harry keeping his eyes down at the parchment in front of him. "Do you really think I'd pull a prank while the seventh years are sitting their N.E.W.T.S, potentially throwing them off their game and preventing them from reaching their potential?"

Hermione's glare softened at that before she opted to focus instead on feeding herself, finding no fault with what Harry was saying. While such timing would be good from an entertainment perspective, perhaps it was best that they didn't meddle to heavily with each student's future.

"Are you ready for exams?" asked Harry shifting the conversation as more people began to enter the dining hall.

"As ready as I can be," beamed Hermione as she loaded her plate with two eggs and some bacon. "I think Potions will be the hardest though but that's mostly because Snape's…

"A dick?" offered Harry.

"I was going to say stern."

"No you weren't," said Harry earning him a playful slap on the shoulder. "Anyways, I've gotta get ready for practice, gotta defeat Hufflepuff and all that. Yay."

Hermione could practically see the sarcasm. "Speaking of Quidditch, are we going to go down and…you know, fix the problem?"

The problem Hermione was referring to was that during the Ravenclaw/Slytherin showdown the other day the Hufflepuff Badger had finally managed to burst it's way through the boundary separating it and the Slytherin serpent. Many ignored what was happening on the pitch as the two animated pictures had their natural instincts take over and they began to fight with one another. Even the commentary had switched to how the snake was getting torn to shreds as the badger ignored the bite marks inflicted on it.

Needless to say it was demoralizing to the Slytherin students who since then had seemingly distanced themselves just a touch further from their Hufflepuff peers.

At the end of the match, Hermione and Harry had waited behind after the game along with a vast number of students who were highly disappointed as Professor Dumbledore removed the sketches from the wall, no explanation given. They couldn't particularly blame the Headmaster, the battle had been short, sharp and surprisingly brutal. Of course the badger opting to eat the snake after having killed it probably didn't set a good example to the students.

"Nah, that one's done and dusted," said Harry. "Perhaps we can find one of the unused classrooms and make it an unofficial aviary by having Susan create dozens of bird sketches but that's a plan for another day. Think for this year I'm done and dusted, don't wanna distract myself from exams and all that."

Hermione couldn't help but scowl as she watched Harry get signaled over by the rest of the Gryffindor team who were about to head down to the Quidditch Pitch. She couldn't deny he was intelligent by any stretch of the imagination and arguably he was going to have an easier time in the exams than she was. The problem though was that she had rarely seen him do any actual schoolwork. Most of the time they were studying he would write out a foot of parchment in only a handful of minutes as if by memory before focusing on much more complicated topics that could be used for pranks.

Thus Hermione was quite perplexed when Harry had stated that he would focus on his exams. He was more than ready, she wholeheartedly believed that. If he didn't need the time to study on that and wasn't going to be pulling any more pranks over the course of the school year, just what was Harry Potter going to be doing?

...

Sitting in an unused classroom, Harry had opted to hide away from the celebrations that were likely going on in his honour. He had made quick work of the Quidditch game, having successfully tracked down and captured the snitch in only a handful of minutes. By all means he could have let the game drag on but he hadn't wanted Wood to have a go at him for having wasted time when victory was at hand.

In his moment of isolation, Harry was free to contemplate the battle that was to come, the second time in which Voldemort and he would confront one another, in this timeline at least. Despite having faced him or his lackeys on who knows how many different occasions Harry still knew that it wasn't going to be easy. Whether or not he still had his Mother's protection surrounding him was up for debate, especially since recently whenever he looked at the back of Quirrell's head he wasn't getting the searing pains that he once had. This could either be from his mother's magic no longer protecting him or possibly symbolizing that the Horcrux that had been buried in his forehead was fading away into nothingness for good.

Since there was practically no information on either form of magic in the library he really didn't have much to go on. This of course meant that he wasn't going to risk his fight with Quirrell by slapping the man in the face to see whether or not he turned to ash. Despite how humorous the entire situation could be in that regard, Harry, for the moment, chose life.

Which then raised the question; just what did he do from here?

Unfortunately, not confronting the possessed professor wasn't an option. While the charms that Dumbledore had cast over the mirror were more than impressive it didn't mean that they were unbreakable. Harry had to guess there was a ten percent chance that Quirrell would be able to figure out the secret and that was far too high a percentage for his liking.

Going by himself to follow Quirrell would likely be the safest option, not particularly wanting to endanger the lives of his friends. Whether Ron would even be keen to come was up to debate, Harry not really having become the long standing friend that he had the last time round. Heck at the moment he had to say that his friendship with Neville was stronger than the one he had with Ron.

He'd really have to look into fixing that next year.

The question though was that if he didn't have his mother's protection to guard him would he be capable of taking on Voldemort. Arguably he would only be facing a weakened version but he wasn't a dark lord for nothing. He wasn't quite keen to test his offensive capabilities where there were other options available, however few there may be.

The reckless (or safest, whichever way you looked at it) option was informing a teacher of his beliefs and getting one or more of them to escort him to the third floor and the traps that lay beneath. The question then became one of who was most likely to believe his story without inquiring too much into the reasoning. Professor McGonagall was right out, the deputy headmistress wouldn't believe him for a second, let alone give him permission to do something stupidly reckless. Professor Snape was an option but could turn out to be one that would have dire consequences in the future. Harry had no real clue just what the parasitic semblance of Voldemort actually was, nor the shade that had emerged from Quirrell later on. By all means Voldemort could command his 'loyal' subject to strike at Harry. Harry had no real idea what Snape would do at that time, and would rather not jeopardize the operation by finding out just how far Snape was willing to go to protect his allegiances to each side.

Pushing himself to his feet, Harry came to a conclusion and while he didn't particularly like the idea of lying to a teacher, he couldn't tell them the truth by any stretch of the imagination. Taking in a deep breath, Harry now had to figure out just what would be a believable lie for his intended target to believe him.

…

"…And that's why I believe you should accompany me to the forbidden third floor the day in which Professor Dumbledore goes to the Ministry of Magic," concluded Harry, praying that his speech was believed.

"So, let me get this straight Harry," said Professor Flitwick as he tried to summarize what the boy in front of him had stated. "You were walking down the corridor when one of our teachers grabbed you on the shoulder and stated that in the coming weeks Professor Dumbledore will vacate Hogwarts temporarily, a villainous fiend will try to retrieve a precious artifact, and this part I'm not sure how you deduced, only you and I are able to prevent him from succeeding. Is that correct?"

"Pretty much," said Harry with a shrug. "It kind of came out of nowhere and the teacher didn't even seem to recollect having actually said anything afterwards, she just skittered off as if the suits of armour were going to leap out and attack her."

"It seems then that you had a run in with Professor Trelawney, the Divination teacher," said Flitwick as he scratched at his chin. "While I'm not one for her arts I cannot deny that what she has said does sound like a prophecy."

"What would happen were we not to follow her instructions?" asked Harry.

"Grave things I fear," said Flitwick as he started pacing around the room. For nearly a minute there was nothing but the light patter of feet on floorboards before Filius turned to Harry. "Unfortunately, if things go in this manner then we have no option but to do as commanded. Even informing anybody else of this situation may cause great danger and deviate from the chosen path. For now, please remain quiet on this topic and if I learn of anything I will inform you after our next class."

"Thank you Professor," said Harry with a cheesy smile.

"Now off with you boy, you have given me much to think about," said Filius as he dismissed the young student, Harry having no problem with exiting the room as quickly as he could. Step one was complete, now he would have to be patient and wait for the rest of the steps to reveal themselves.

It would seem the game had changed.