Hermione of Hogwarts

Chapter One: She is important...

Hermione blushed, her cheeks the same shade as the rose Viktor had just given her. He was staying in the Hogs Head and sneaked into the castle grounds every night. A tiny part of Hermione knew that she was putting herself in danger, coming out of the castle alone when an evil wizard hell-bent on killing her and her best friends was at large but she tried not to think about that. She just wanted to sit, with Viktor watching her, blushing in front of him.

She felt his lips brush her ear and his fingers run through her hair. She let herself melt into his arms, her head resting on his chest, her breathing matching his. His steady heartbeat comforted her and she listened to it like an infant listening to a lullaby.

"Don't go," she whispered as Viktor got up.

"Hermione, I must," he said. "It's late and you'll have to go back to the castle before your absence is noticed." He kissed her mouth and walked away.

Hermione sighed and got up, innocent of the glittering eyes that watched her walk back to her dormitory.

Harry was pacing the common room when Hermione climbed through the portrait hole. He immediately started to tell her about the prophecy.

"But how did you hear it?" Hermione asked, losing her romantic shyness and assuming her business-like persona. "I've been out on the grounds since dinner."

Hermione cursed for not holding her tongue. Her evening absences were not something she wanted attention drawn to, but fortunately Harry wasn't paying attention.

"I must've been asleep," he muttered. "Hermione, who am I supposed to protect?"

"I don't know," Hermione snapped. She was tired and wanted the comfort of her bed. "Maybe it's V-Voldemort trying to trick you again."

Harry sighed. That was the thing the hero part of his brain wouldn't accept, even though it had cost him the life of his godfather last year.

~*~

Draco opened the door and walked in.

"What do you want?" Snape said. He was in a foul mood. Nothing new there, Draco thought.

"I need a favour."

Snape frowned. "What happened to all those sickles I gave you yesterday?"

Draco shrugged. He knew Snape wouldn't be happy to hear that he had lost them all to Blaise after betting the outcome of a Gobstones match

"I only need three Galleons," Draco muttered.

"Three Galleons? What do you mean, only?"

Draco edged towards the door, flinching at Snape's outburst.

Snape cursed silently and threw Draco a purse full of gold. He had sworn to Draco's father that he would protect the boy and was doing such a good job that care had evolved into spoiling.

Draco took the purse and ran.

~*~

"It was a real prophecy," said Ron, the next day at breakfast.

"How can you tell?" said Hermione.

"It's a thing that the unspeakables do," Ron answered, stabbing a sausage with his fork. "If there's a particularly urgent prophecy they send it to someone who's supposed to be able to do something about it. Dad told me."

"How can I do anything when I don't know who I'm protecting?" Harry snarled in frustration.

"It's a girl who's close to you," Hermione mused.

"You know who it is, don't you?" Ron said.

A metaphorical lightbulb illuminated above Harry's head.

"Hermione... it's you!"

Ron frowned. "But Hermione doesn't need protecting."

The three sat in silence, coming to terms with the knowledge (Harry), wondering why on earth Hermione needed protecting (Hermione) and trying to get some particularly rebellious baked beans to stay on the fork (Ron).

"Hermione, what were you doing before you came into the common room last night?" said Harry suddenly.

Hermione had been preparing for this moment ever since she heard Krum was in England so she barely moved as she replied, "That's my business."

"Hermione-" Ron began.

"Don't ask!" she snapped, forgetting her cool demeanour and leaping up from her chair. "Just don't, Ron!"

Harry was just about to ask what that was all about when Ron threw down his fork and charge after her. Harry decided not to follow. He had heard Ron talking in his sleep for long enough to work out how Ron felt about their best friend.

"Hermione," Ron said outside the hall, "What are you hiding from us?"

"Nothing," Hermione retorted, gulping back tears. She ran up the stairs.

Ron grabbed her arm. "Why won't you tell us?"

"Because it's none of your business!" she screamed, not caring that people were looking. "What's it to you where I go or who I see-"

"You're meeting up with someone then?" Ron said quickly. "Who?"

"No one," Hermione muttered. Her face had gone red.

Ron noticed her blush. "Krum," he breathed quietly. "You're meeting with him. You're still seeing him."

Hermione looked up, as sharply as she could manage and tried to look offended and angry. "It's not! Why do you make that assumption that it's him? Why can't it be someone else? Do you think there's no one else that likes me?"

Ron moved closer to her. "No, I don't," he whispered and kissed her.

Harry came out of the hall just in time to see Hermione push Ron away and run down the stairs.

"We have Charms in five minutes," she said.

"Come on Ron." They walked and Harry was not an idiot. He noticed the tense atmosphere and the flash of anger that crossed Hermione's face when he had motioned Ron to join them.

Anger and something else. Confusion? Why would Hermione, the cleverest witch in their year, look confused?

~*~

Minerva was frightened. She was trying not to remember how a man in a black cape had ran out of the Hog's Head and pointed his wand at an innocent bystander. She was trying to forget how the green sparks flew out of the end of the wand and smashed into the bystander's chest and how he fell, landing spread-eagled on the floor, still screaming long after he'd died. The murderer was still there, he still had his wand out and Minerva knew he was going to kill her too.

But before he could, people were running out, screaming at the body, fainting at the blood. Madame Rosmerta conjured up a barrel of mulled mead and dished it out to people who were suffering from shock. It took a surprisingly long time for anyone to ask who had done it at which point the murderer lifted his eyes and looked straight at Minerva.

"She killed him."

Minerva said nothing and had said nothing. She was in too much shock.

"No way! Don't you know who she is?" someone said. "That's the Professor of Transfiguration at Hogwarts!"

Still Minerva said nothing.

A witch walked up to the murderer and made no attempt to disguise the fact that she was using leglimency. She was forced to admit that the murderer was speaking the truth.

"No."

Minerva had woken up. Her wand was out and she turned around to run. About half of Hogsmeade followed her. Minerva was heading for Hogwarts, getting more desperate with every step. Albus was at Hogwarts, he's help her.

~*~

Harry, Ron and Hermione heard the frantic click-clack of their professor's boots on the floor.

"Mr. Potter!" she exclaimed, "Potter, have you seen Professor Dumbledore? He's not in his office!"

Harry tried to get her to calm down, before she got really hysterical, but he was distracted by the scene in the corridor behind her.

Ministry officials were charging down the corridor, wands out, screaming and shouting. Some were even frothing at the mouth.

Hermione put two and two together and grabbed Professor McGonagall's hand.

"Follow me!" she cried and the four of them ran.

Hermione had no idea where she was going, only that she was going down. She had read somewhere, that if you're ever running for your life it is a good idea to run downwards rather than up. Hermione knew that if they were cornered in the astronomy tower then their only way out would be to jump. So down to the dungeons it was.

"Albus!" Minerva screamed as a tall figure with flowing silver hair came into view. He took one look at the three students, the crowd of ministry officials and McGonagall herself.

"Yes, three should do it," he muttered and delved into his pocket, bringing out a small, brown sphere.

"Hold your noses," he commanded and threw the sphere into the middle of the officials.

A strong scent of manure forced the ministry officials out of the dungeons, some splattered with brown muck. Harry looked at his headmaster with a mixture of respect and surprise.

"Dungbombs?"

"Mr. Fred Weasly and Mr. George Weasly left me a box of fifty just before they left last year," Dumbledore chuckled, "I've still got thirty left.

"Now," Dumbledore said, suddenly getting business-like. "Our topmost priority is to protect Minerva. Have either of you three heard of the Fidelius Charm?"

Harry dropped his gaze. All three of them had, it was the charm that had protected Harry's parents from Voldemort before they were betrayed. Ron was about to mention this before he remembered that they weren't actually supposed to be in Hogsmeade at the time and so said nothing.

"An extremely complex spell," said Hermione, "which uses a secret taken from the soul of the protected to be immersed inside a single, living soul, the Secret-Keeper."

"Exactly," Dumbledore beamed. "The incantation is Fidelli." He positioned Harry, Ron and Hermione into a triangle and stood in the middle with McGonagall.

Harry, Ron and Hermione raised their wands and shouted the incantation. White jets of light shot forth and intertwined up, until Dumbledore and McGonagall could barely be seen, but Harry did see McGonagall whisper in Dumbledore's ear before she and the light from their wands vanished.