The next morning she sat on her bed with Crookshanks cuddled in her lap and absentmindedly disentangled the mats from his fur. He had gone off on one of his occasional adventures, probably into the Forbidden Forest by the looks of him. It wasn't unusual for the cat to disappear for days and end up reappearing a little worse for the wear. At least this time he had come back uninjured.

A steady low growl let her know that he wasn't exactly happy with what she was doing, but he did not attack her. She was the only one who could get away with grooming him without any scars to show later. While he had gotten his temper under control over the years... His personality still led him towards a more solitary lifestyle. Something she showed respect for by allowing him free reign.

She couldn't help the snort as the memory of how that had been such an issue between her and Ron in Third Year popped into her head. The benefit of hindsight allowed her to feel vindicated in the choice but now she could also understand where he had been coming from. If anyone tried to hurt her baby she would hex them into oblivion without a second thought... She leaned down and placed a quick kiss to the top of his head and murmured. "Should have let you eat that nasty rat..."

He huffed as if he understood and agreed with her assessment before jumping from her lap and finding his favorite napping spot on her pillow. She sighed as she stood up and wiped the excess hair from her skirt and blouse. There was no reason to look as disheveled as she felt from another night of no sleep. As soon as the sun had started to rise she was at the Owlery. The note she attached to the same school owl she had sent to her parents was short and to the point.

Meet me tonight where things go to disappear... Please?

It had taken her all night to make the choice not to elaborate. She was afraid of another Nott situation. Besides... If she gave it all away in writing he would have no reason to show up to hear her out... Manipulative? Just a tad, she could admit that. But she needed to play all of her cards if she wanted a chance to explain.

She added the standard black sweater to her uniform before she slipped into robes and grabbed her bag. Another quick scratch right behind the ears for Crookshanks was the last thing she did prior to leaving the dorm and heading down to an early breakfast.

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When she finally surfaced from the Arithmancy chart she was surprised to find that the tables were nearly full with students. During the time she had been working her deep concentration had blocked out the sounds that came from the other occupants in the room enjoying their meals. The sudden burst of volume that hit her eardrums had her blinking for a few seconds as she tried to reorientate herself.

"Ahh! There she is!" Ginny said teasingly from her right.

She startled but quickly turned to face her with a sheepish grin on her face. "Sorry... How long have you been there?"

"I'm finished eating. The look on your face told me to leave you alone unless I wanted to spend the day nursing wounds... So I let you be." The girl said, playfully pushing at the top of her shoulder.

"Come off it! I am not that bad!" Hermione replied with a roll of her eyes as she shifted from the shove.

It was Ginny's turn to roll her eyes and draw out the single word response. "Suuuure..."

"If I am such a horrid beast, why are you messing with me? You would think you would be afraid..."

"Oh please... I didn't interrupt you. I was smart, which means I am safe from a tonguelashing... For now." The redhead explained with a smirk.

She raised an eyebrow at the last bit and chose not to ask what she might need to complain about later. Much like Fred and George there was no trying to talk the youngest Weasley out of whatever she had planned. Better to leave it a surprise... She slipped her assignment in the bag at her feet before changing the subject. "How was your night?"

"It was... Fun, until we started arguing again..." Her friend answered as she reached up and brushed a lock of long hair behind her ear. "Yours?"

"Same old, same old."

"You didn't send loads of rule breakers to their deaths by detentions?"

She shook her head and glanced up as the owls started pouring in. A quick rush of anxiety had her feeling nauseous but she stopped herself from looking over her shoulder to see if he had received her summons yet. Nott's words about them not being able to keep their eyes off of one another had left a lasting impression…

"What?! You do not get them enough to know how dreadfully boring they are. I swear if I have to sit and write another lengthy essay for Snape or McGonagall again I will keel over before I finish!"

"Stop getting yourself into trouble then. It is that simple."

"For you maybe..." Ginny mumbled as she watched Dean feed a chunk of bacon to the owl that had dropped off a letter for him.

It was Hermione's turn to bump shoulders to get the other girl's attention. "Go talk to him."

"Huh?"

"Go. Talk. To. Him." She said slowly as if Ginny was daft. "Whatever the row was about, it obviously wasn't that bad. Otherwise he wouldn't still have eyebrows... So talk it out... Or don't... But you both shouldn't sit and stew. It'll cause more issues in the long run."

"I... I don't know..." The witch said, her features twisting with worry.

She gave her another gentle nudge. "What if you don't and you cannot even salvage a friendship? Do you really want to lose that? Go..."

"Alright, alright! Quit pestering!" Her friend said as she turned back to her, a slightly defeated stance to the set of her shoulders.

"I only do it because I care." Hermione sang as she stood up to go, hoping her disappearance would help with the decision on working towards a reconciliation, in whatever form that would take.

It wouldn't surprise her if they did break up. Dean had some deeply harbored jealousy towards "The Boy Who Lived", which she could not blame him for... The mutual crushage between the pair was obvious to everyone but Harry and she highly doubted the relationship would last till the end of the year. The only reason she had pushed was because she knew Ginny... Guilt from the surely vicious words that had passed between them would eat her alive. If she apologized and they left things on decent terms it would let the girl move on with no remorse.

"More like you can't stop yourself..."

"A smidge of both?" She conceded with a small smile before she shrugged her bag on her shoulder. She watched as Ginny's attention was diverted back to her boyfriend, who was hunched over the letter from home, purposely not looking their way. "It will be okay... No matter what happens. And well... If I am wrong and you need me, I will be in the Library."

"Hmmmm? Oh yeah... Sure." The girl said, completely distracted by the task she was about to undertake.

Hermione shook her head as she turned and started on her typical route to her destination. It felt nice to do something she had done a thousand times before. A return to normalcy after her self-imposed seclusion. If she wasn't waiting for a response from her paramour she could have convinced herself that it was like every other mundane Saturday…

-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-

After curfew that night she stayed in her favorite chair in the common room with a muggle fiction book in her lap, pretending to read. The pretense gave her an excuse to not interact much while simultaneously allowing her to gauge when she could sneak off without getting caught. She knew it was a futile gesture to go and see if Draco showed up when she had never gotten a response but the masochistic streak in her wouldn't let her accept the not-so subtle message.

So she waited for what felt like ages as the crowd around her slowly dispersed to their beds before clearing her throat and causing Harry to look up from the Marauder's Map for the first time in nearly thirty minutes. She offered an apologetic grin. "I am sorry to interrupt your search... But do you think I could borrow that for the night?"

His eyebrows came together in confusion. "Why would you want the map?"

"Well... I was thinking that I might have missed something in the Restricted Section when it comes to your problems. I don't want to get your hopes up but... I was translating a particularly tricky rune out of 'Advanced Rune Translation' when I remembered there was a book with the runes mannaz and isa on the spine..." The lies fell easily from her lips. She stared at him as if that should mean something more than gibberish before sighing. "Mannaz is a rare rune that means augmentation... Isa is usually used in the context of ego but can be interchangeable with soul... I hadn't made the connection back when I first saw it. It's probably nothing but there is a chance..."

The confusion fled his face and was replaced with an eager hope to get any more answers than he had already been given. An innocent gesture that sent another stone of guilt to settle on the pile in her stomach. He sat up straighter and nodded. "There is a chance?"

"A very small chance that the book might have some answers. But I don't know yet, Harry! That is why I want to be able to check it out and translate what I can before you get too excited, okay?! Truly, I think it will just be another dead end... But I should still try, right?"

She watched as the light instantly drained from his eyes and body as if the weight of the world had crashed back down on his shoulders. "And why do you need the map for that?"

"Pince and Filch have upped patrols around there for the foreseeable future because of the brainless fifth years that got caught in a very compromising position last night. All that I need to do is slip in and out, but I cannot end up with any more detentions..." She told him, when in all actuality she didn't want to have to worry about him continuing to obsess over the thing. At least for the night... And the boy needed some sleep.

"Oh... True... Do you want me to come with you to keep watch?"

"No. It will be a quick thing. I won't be dallying, I promise."

He shrugged before tapping the parchment with his wand and handing it over. "Do you want the Cloak too?"

"Uhhh... Do you think I should?"

"I think you shouldn't go alone but since you are sure you can handle it... It would make me feel better."

"O...Okay." She managed to choke out around the sudden stabbing pain in her throat. As good as she had become at it, she hated lying. Especially to him…

He rushed off to his dorm to get the Invisibility Cloak and she took the time to fold up the parchment correctly before slipping it into the book in her lap. While she understood the usefulness of it when they were trying to do something dangerous... The lure to become a voyeur was much too great for her to be comfortable with using it just to see what others were up to. One look at Harry's obsession with Draco was enough evidence to the fact.

So as much as she wanted to use it for a quick peek to see what his decision was... She picked up her bag from where she had left it next to the chair and put the book inside. The illogical thought that she would be able to ignore the helpful creation the farther away from her person it was compelled her to push it all the way to the bottom. Underneath all of the scraps and forgotten bits... She made her way over to the bottom of the stairs that Harry had disappeared up and waited for him to return.

It only took a few more moments and he came running down and jumped off from the fifth step up. A goofy grin on his face as he skidded to a stop in front of her. "Sorry... Didn't mean to take forever."

"Such a sloth..." She said jokingly as he placed one of his most beloved possessions in her outstretched hands.

"I know right!" He joked back with a roll of his bright green eyes.

She added the cloak to her bag before clasping the buckle shut. A gesture that she rarely wasted time on but with the added precious cargo she felt the need. Once she was sure everything was secure she looked back up and met his gaze again. "Thank you."

"Probably doing me a favor... It's not like anything eventful was happening anyway..." He said with a shrug before his look turned grave. "Be careful."

"I will be, as long as you promise to get some sleep." Her perfect imitation of the way Mrs. Weasley would purse her lips shattered the attempted seriousness of the moment.

"Yeah, yeah." He responded with Ginny's dismissive.

"I mean it... I will get McGonagall involved if I have to. Can't have our Quidditch Captain plummeting to his death because he fell asleep on his broom..."

Harry appraised her for a second, gauging her mood before smirking. "You wouldn't..."

"No... But I should." She told him with a mock glare.

"Fine! Going to bed now..." He said before walking backwards towards the staircase. "See!"

She shook her head at his antics and slipped her bag onto her shoulder. "Goodnight, Harry..."

"Goodnight, see you in the morning... I hope with some good news!" He told her as he took the first step up without even looking. The way he stared at her made it seem like he wanted to argue to come with but his gaze was gone before she could come up with another rebuttal. He turned and made his ascent, quickly receding from her view.

Hermione took a slow breath. Giving her heartbeat time to return to a more moderate range. Once she was certain she was as calm as she was going to get she reached across her middle and hitched the bag higher on her shoulder. The strap dug into her skin from the added weight but she ignored the sting and turned to start her own, much longer, trek to the Room of Requirement. She was prepared for another sleepless night... With a whole day with Snape to look forward to the next day.

If the Gods were feeling favorable, it wouldn't be for nothing…

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Random Hypothetical Question Time!

If Draco ends up showing up and everything is forgiven... Where in the castle do you think Hermione would bring him? Since they would have the night off with her having the map and all…

Hope your night is going well.

Mine is going to consist of sitting and counting down the next two hours before I turn an embarrassing age to be starting a fan fic, lmao. But I am glad I did it! I am loving the ride.

Anyways! As Always…

Much love,

SlytherclawLuv