Redemption

Chapter Twenty Five:

Watching the whole exchange from her front table, Hermione was frozen in shock up to and including the interval where professor Snape exited the room, closing the door behind him. When the Potions Master came back inside, there was an unidentifiable smugness throughout his angry demeanor.

Biting her lip, Hermione lowered her eyes, wondering what had happened. Snape's curt announcement caught her off guard.

"That will be the last we see of Mr. Potter in this class."

'The last we see of Mr. Potter in this class?' Could Harry have been expelled? As the panic began to settle in, reason took over. Of course not. Snape was head of Slytherin House. He didn't have the authority to expel Harry. Then, he must have finally kicked Harry out of Potions. For good, or just this lesson?

"Miss Granger!" Hermione jumped and knocked over a bottle of Gnarish Acid, which proceeded to burn a hole through the wooden table.

"You stupid girl!" Snape flicked his wand and the acid disappeared but the hole remained. "You will report to me for detention every afternoon this week!"

Irrationally, tears began to well in Hermione's eyes and lump formed in her throat. "But, sir," she began weakly until those two words threatened to make the tears spill over.

This sudden turn of weakness had come from nowhere. The stress must have finally caught up with her. After everything that had happened between Lupin's attempted suicide and Harry's injury, Hermione had been ready to break down. She thought she'd finally come to some peace with Ginny, but now with the events of the potions class and Snape's full rage turned on her, the dam broke.

The first sob tore past her throat, causing her whole body to contract as her head fell into her arms. Hermione's rational mind kept telling her that she was crying in front of Slytherins and the school's most hated professor, but she couldn't seem to stop. Snape's furious orders to act her age didn't even reach her mind as the tears continued to soak through her sleeves. Nor did Parvati's uncertain attempts to calm her down.

Dimly, she registered being lifted and burrowing her face into somebody's shoulder, heedless of whom the person was. The echo of raucous laughter rang behind her, followed by a sharp bellow, which cut the sound off immediately. That was the last she remembered, aside from being placed on something soft, and choking on some sort of potion. The crying didn't cease until the Dreamless Sleep potion rendered her unconscious.

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The rest of the castle was oblivious of their top student's breakdown until the first lunch break when rumors began to circulate from Slytherin students and a buzz of worry spread throughout Gryffindor. Ginny Weasley was one of the first to find out, overhearing a conversation between Lavender and Parvati as she walked past them at the house table. No one noticed her abrupt change of direction, especially not her brother Ron, who was busy selecting his meal and hadn't heard the news yet. That is, until Draco Malfoy waltzed over with intentions of rubbing salt into Gryffindor's wounds.

"Well, well. If it isn't the little weasel," the blond taunted.

"What the hell do you want, Malfoy?" Ron snapped, with a piece of buttered toast halfway to his mouth.

"Just wondering why you haven't rushed off to comfort your mudblood girlfriend yet," Draco retorted, grinning smugly.

Jaw set, eyes narrowed, Ron rose to stand, one fist clenched so tightly around his toast that a droplet of melted butter ran down his wrist.

"Ron! He just wants to get a rise out of you. Don't react," Seamus yelled, grabbing at the boy's shoulder, but being pushed away.

"First of all, Hermione is not my girlfriend, but I warned you what would happen if you ever called her a - THAT - again." Raising his fist, Ron pulled back to land a punch squarely on Draco's nose.

Having tensed up his whole body to throw into the punch, Ron was caught totally off balance when a strong hand wrapped around his wrist, holding it in place.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a smooth voice told him. "At least, not in front of so many people."

The hand tightened and the mangled piece of toast dropped to the floor and Ron's wrist opened reflexively.

"Wha-? Oww! Hey, what are you doing?" Ron cried with a wince.

"I'm stopping you from making a big mistake, so stop making such a fuss, will you?" The mystery boy stepped into Ron's line of sight.

He was one of the four strangers and two of the others were with him. Something about this boy really annoyed Ron. That stupid smirk got on his nerves, and what kind of guy had hair that long? And in a braid no less?

"This is none of your business," Ron hissed, looking to see who had been watching, and then turning back to the newcomer.

"Oh, I think you'll find that in a roundabout kind of way, it is." The boy held out his hand. "I'm Duo, nice to meet you."

"You're another Muggle, aren't you?" Draco's voice was practically dripping with contempt and reminded Ron that he was meant to be pummeling the Slytherin.

At that point, one of the other boys stepped forward. He was short and blond with a very sweet looking face. "Look, whatever the problem is, I'm sure we can sort this out without any immaturity. And, to answer your question, Mr. Malfoy, yes. We are Muggles."

Malfoy sniffed, but apparently he saw the he was outnumbered in a situation that he wasn't quite in control of. "Filthy Muggles," he spat with a sneer, and walked off with the rest of his group in tow.

Ron wasn't quite sure what had just happened. He knew that he was very angry and had somehow lost a subject to take it out on. What he didn't know was who these guys were and what Malfoy had been talking about.

"Filthy? Does he have any idea of just how much time I spend in the shower washing this mop of hair?" the first boy asked as he watched the troop of Slytherins stalk off.

Completely unexpectedly, the third boy with brown bangs and green eyes started laughing. Then, he stopped abruptly and cleared his throat when he noticed everyone watching him.

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Ron asked finally. He decided to ignore the strangers and turned to Seamus. "What was he saying about Hermione?"

"You mean you haven't heard? She's in the hospital wing. People are saying that she had a nervous breakdown in Potions after Harry got kicked out."

"Kicked out? And, what do you mean she had a nervous breakdown? She's been much better lately, and-"

"She had that deep thinking face on, and then Snape yelled at her. She jumped about a mile and knocked over some acid. Snape obviously wasn't very happy, and he gave her detention for the rest of the week. Then, she just started crying, and crying. Eventually, Snape gave Dean permission to carry her up to the hospital wing," Parvati explained with a flair for dramatic presentation.

"I'd better go and see her." Ron was frowning worriedly. Hermione had always overworked herself, but after Lupin's suicide attempt, she'd shown that she was having some real trouble coping this year. Then, a couple of hours later, she'd been fine, back to normal. Apparently, that hadn't lasted very long. "Before I go, tell me about Harry. Why did Snape kick him out?"

"He was really late." Dean took over the story, now. "He ran in about halfway through class, and needless to say, Snape was pissed. He told Harry to get out, but then someone came running down saying he really needed to talk to Harry. Well, Harry asked him what was up and Snape tried to get his attention back. That's when Harry turned around and snapped at him. At first, everyone was in shock, and then Harry turned around real slowly. Snape ordered them both out and went into the corridor. He shut the door behind him so we couldn't hear a word, but I got a glimpse of Harry when Snape came back in, and he looked like a bus had fallen on him."

"Hey, um, this guy, was he Asian looking?" the first stranger asked before Ron could say a word.

"Yeah, why?" Dean asked.

"Longish black hair, right?"

Parvati giggled. "Ahuh. He was pretty cute."

"Was it the guy who was sitting with Harry and the girls in the common room last night?" Lavender asked with a grin. At her friend's nod, she giggled as well. "Oh yes, very cute."

"Oh please." Ron made a gagging sound and rolled his eyes. "If you girls are done, I'm gonna go check on Hermione."

"We'll go with you," the blond stranger said quickly, and before he had a chance to comment, they ushered him out of the Hall.

As they made their way to the hospital wing, Ron finally stopped and turned around. "Listen, I don't know who you guys are, but I'm pretty sure that you don't even know Hermione, so will you please just leave me alone?"

"Oh, yeah, that. We should probably explain," said the first boy.

"Not here." The one with green eyes pointed at the paintings. "For the moment, let's just say that we're here for Harry Potter's protection, and since the rest of you are likely to get involved, his friends as well."

Ron just growled in frustration and pushed open the door to the ward... Just in time to catch the kiss between Ginny and Hermione through a gap in the bed curtain.