Hermione watched in slack-jawed horror as Draco sauntered back to the Slytherin table. Ron patted her on the arm.

'It's all right, Hermione – magic refill jugs, remember? Draco can drink as much of my pumpkin juice as he wants, as long as it shuts him up for a few second.' The others sitting around them laughed, but Hermione could barely fake a smile.

'I've just remembered…I forgot something,' she muttered, and walked out the hall. Ron and Harry looked at her, and then each other.

'What's up with Hermione?' said Ron.

'I don't know,' said Harry. 'She's been a bit funny for a while now. Do you think we should go after her?'

'No,' said Ron emphatically. 'Let her have some space. If she doesn't come back soon, we can go and check that she's alright, but other than that I'd say she wants to be alone right now.'

'But remember what happened with the troll-'

'Harry, not everyone needs to be saved by you!' snapped Ron. Harry's face reddened, and he opened his mouth to yell back. Next to him, Parvati's fact also darkened. Ron was saved as the hall suddenly broke into uproar. Ron and Harry looked around, and saw hundreds of owls swooping into the room. Everyone started cheering.

'They must've gotten rid of the gas,' someone said excitedly.

'Great!' said Ron.

'Yeah, great,' said Harry, not quite so enthusiastically. They both jumped as Dean Thomas, seated across from them, let out a loud yell.

'I've got it! It was you, Harry.'

'What are you talking about?' said Harry, who still hadn't quite recovered from Ron's outburst.

'This gas thing was some plot you cooked up so you didn't have to go back to the Dursleys'. You probably got Hermione to help you, or maybe his brothers,' here Dean nodded at Ron. 'Anyway, I reckon it's my duty to hand you over to the authorities. Think I'll get a reward?' Harry had obviously missed the twinkle in Dean's eyes, for he was steadily turning purple

'Look, you dimwitted idiot–' he choked off his insults as he realised everyone in the now-silent hall was staring at him. Sniggers floated over from the Slytherin table. Harry's face changed from purple to read as he turned to face the front of the hall, where Professor Dumbledore gazed at him over his glasses.

'Mr Potter, perhaps your character assassination of Mr Thomas could wait for a more appropriate time?'

'Yes, Professor. Sorry, Professor,' said Harry, and tried to sink lower on the bench.

'Well then,' continued Dumbledore. 'I notice the arrival of the morning mail has raised a few hopes in the room. I am sorry to have to lower them somewhat, although they should not be dashed entirely. I myself was somewhat confused when I received my first owl from the Ministry of Magic. Some other owls have been coming and going intermittently, such as those used by the seventh years to continue their studies. It appears, from some careful testing, that this gas is now only affecting humans. This means that owls are now free to come and go, which I'm sure will be a relief to those of you wishing to contact your parents and let them know you are well. Or perhaps ask them for some extra pocket money.' A few people laughed at this, while quite a few others looked guilty. 'All other animals are also unaffected, so you will still need to keep a close eye on your pets. That includes you, Mr Longbottom.' A few more people laughed at this. Some people, especially at the Ravenclaw table, raised their hands and tried to get Dumbledore's attention. He just smiled at them. 'I believe I know what you are going to ask. Professor McGonagall has tried to get through, as has Hagrid, but they were both unsuccessful.' A few people looked disappointed, especially those with Transfiguration assignments due. 'So, as you can see, excitement is somewhat premature, but the fact that the gas is now only affecting humans is a step in the right direction. Right now you must go to your lessons, but rest assured you shall be informed as soon as there is any news.'

There was a general scraping of benches and shuffling of feet that barely concealed the groans that went around the room.

'What do we have now?' Neville asked Ron. Timetables had been a bit haphazard during their first few weeks of confinement, and some classes were still being changed around suddenly. Ron pulled out his timetable and tried to hold it steady as people pushed past him on their way out.

'It still says Charms,' he said.

Neville looked relieved. 'I was a bit worried they'd change it and give us double Potions or something like that,' he said, with a little tremor in his voice. He walked towards the door. Ron went to follow him, but was stopped by Harry's hand on his arm.

'Harry, I'm sorry about before,' he said, but Harry shook his head.

'It's okay, I know we're all getting on each others' nerves at the moment. But do you think we should go and make sure Hermione gets to class. You know how she'd hate to miss out.'

'You're right,' said Ron. 'She might be upset now, but if she found out she'd missed something in class…' They both smiled.

'Where should we look?' asked Harry. 'Girl's toilets.'

'Maybe. But if I were Hermione…'

'Nah, you'd make an ugly girl,' interrupted Harry.

'Shh,'said Ron. 'You're not helping. I think Hermione might be in the library. It's the sort of place she goes when she's upset.'

'Good idea,' said Harry. 'Let's go.'

Sure enough, they found Hermione in one of the armchairs in the library, poring over some books.

'What're you reading?' Harry said cheerily. Hermione, who hadn't heard them come in, jumped and closed the books hurriedly.

'Oh, um, nothing important,' she said distractedly. 'You know, me and books, I'm always reading something.'

'And there was I thinking you'd left your homework to the last minute again,' he teased, but she didn't even smile. He shrugged his shoulders; she obviously didn't want to talk.

'Come on, time for Charms class,' he said, and strode out of the library with Hermione and Ron trailing behind him.

As they walked down the corridor Ron went to lay a reassuring hand on Hermione's shoulder, but she shrank away from him.

'Hermione, is anything wrong?' he asked.

'I'm fine,' she said quietly. Ron would have said something else, but they had reached the classroom.

Everyone quickly took their seats, and as soon as they were settled Professor Flitwick started the lesson.

'Alright everyone, today we are learning to work with unfamiliar wands. I want everyone to get into pairs, swap wands, and practice basic spells such as Wingardium Leviosa.'

Hermione quickly chose Harry as her partner. She thought Ron looked a little disappointed, but that was probably just because it left Neville as his partner. She looked hesitantly over towards Draco, but he seemed to be working steadily away with Crabbe.

The rest of the lesson went smoothly. True, Harry turned Hermione's wand green at one stage, but it was a very nice shade of green. Even Neville didn't have too many problems, apart from making his feather ricochet around the room at one stage. Even that could have been worse – at least he had been levitating the feather at the time, and not Professor Flitwick, as he had been earlier in the lesson. All the same, Ron looked quite relieved to have his wand back at the end of the lesson, and examined it carefully before putting it away.

Hermione had seen no untoward behaviour from Draco – he seemed just as obnoxious towards everyone else, and was apparently still treating her as a Mudblood unworthy of his attention. She sighed, and thought back to what she had read earlier in the library. The information she had found on love potions had been quite enlightening, and as hard as it was to admit, she'd realised that her potion probably hadn't worked.

The next few days were very quiet. Classes had become rather boring; the professors had run out of fresh ideas, and so were just repeating old lessons in the guise of revision. At least they weren't setting quite as much work as they had been, obviously realising that lots of homework meant lots of marking. In fact everything had become rather boring. The Gryffindor common room was a lot quieter in the evenings, with everyone seemingly bored with each other. This boredom had had some side effects, with everyone looking warily around them as they walked through the corridors, watching out for traps set by other students or even Peeves, who was about the only one enjoying their confinement.

A few owls were coming and going, although not in as large numbers as the other morning. Hermione had been able to get a letter to her parents to reassure them that she was fine, but looking forward to going home. Ron received a parcel from his mother containing a large box of toffee. Mrs Weasley was obviously missing her children, for Ginny produced an equally large box, making the Weasleys the most popular family in the Gryffindor common room that evening, as they shared the two boxes around the room. Even Harry was happy, for he hadn't heard a single word from the Dursleys. Not that they would send him an owl anyway, but it was still nice.

The following Saturday marked the start of the fourth week of their confinement. Everyone was extremely miserable.

'I could be down at the beach right now,' said Lavender as a group of the Gryffindors walked down to breakfast together.

'I could be playing tricks on my brothers,' said Ron. 'Actually, no, I could be running away from my brothers playing tricks on me.'

'Perhaps you could all gang up on Percy,' suggested Hermione.

'Good idea,' he said. 'We could…I don't know. It's too early to think of things like that.' The group fell quite again.

'I could be practicing Quidditch,' said Seamus.

'Me too,' said Harry.

'No, you couldn't,' said Ron.

'Oh yeah,' muttered Harry. 'Dursleys. I forgot. I could be…cleaning the cupboard under the stairs with a toothbrush. Or perhaps something exciting like listening to Uncle Vernon telling everyone what a good-for-nothing ingrate I am.'

'I don't think you're good-for-nothing,' said Parvati, squeezing his arm.

'Oh no, please don't start telling us what he is good for,' groaned Dean. 'Anyway, you're only reinforcing my feelings that I should turn you over to the authorities, Harry. We all know how keen you are to go home for the holidays.' Harry ignored him, and they kept walking to the Great Hall.

Everyone stopped suddenly as they entered the room. It had undergone a radical transformation overnight. The enchanted ceiling, which had been boringly overcast for the past few days, was now a clear blue and bathing the room in sunshine. The walls were decked out in palm leaves and bright flowers, while the tables groaned beneath large bowls of tropical fruits. Even the floor had been covered with sand, which explained why Filch was looking even more surly than usual as he sat at the teachers' table. Professor Flitwick was cheerily handing out leis to the students as the entered the room, although many of the Slytherins looked unimpressed as they took them. Even the teachers were wearing them, and Ron almost laughed aloud at the expression on Snape's face as he put his on.

As soon as they were all seated Dumbledore stood up in front of them.

'Now I'm sure you're all wondering what this is all in aid of,' he said, gesturing around the hall. 'We decided that it was rather unfair that you were missing out on your holidays, so we would bring a bit of the holidays to you. Now I know there's nothing worse than hearing from your teachers while you are on holidays, so tuck in and pretend we're not here.' He beamed at them all and sat down to a loud round of applause.

Hermione grabbed a handful of strawberries from the platter in front of her, and as she bi into one she felt herself relax for the first time in days. From across the room she could hear Draco holing court with the rest of the Slytherins.

'Of course, it's not a real holiday,' she could hear him say. 'there's no foreigners to torture.' She shuddered, and tried to tune him out.

'…glad they're not here; get and Fred and George near sand and it's never good news for me,' Ron was saying.

'They shove it in your clothes?' asked Seamus.

'Oh no, that I could cope with. I remember they're favourite trick was transfiguring piles of sand into icecream so that it'd turn back just as I was about to swallow.'

'Tasty,' said Hermione. 'Although, I sometimes wish I'd had brothers and sisters to go on holiday with. It can be fairly boring with just parents.'

'Boring?' said Harry. 'That's the least of your worries. You've obviously never been on holidays with the Dursleys.'

'Well, obviously not,' said Hermione. 'I think you'd have noticed.'

'I don't know, you could've been hidden behind Dudley. Wouldn't have been hard to miss you there.' The others laughed.

'You know, you should come on a beach holiday with us next time we go,' Ron said to her. There was a small cough from next to him. 'You and Harry, of course,' he added. Hermione just smiled.

After all the students had stuffed themselves silly on fruit, and were starting to get giggly from the sugar, they wandered out the Hall and heading back towards their common rooms. There was a bit of a squash as everyone tried to get through the doors at once, and Hermione got separated from the rest of the Gryffindors. The sand had been kicked up, and it made her sneeze. She reached into her pocket for a tissue, and frowned as her fingers encountered a piece of paper. Her jeans had been washed during the week, and she knew she'd only put a tissue in before she'd come to breakfast. She slowed down as she opened the paper curiously. There was a single line of writing on it. She read it, paused for a second, then dropped it as if she had been burnt.

One of the first years who had been dawdling on his way back to the common room watched as she ran towards the girls' toilets. He picked up the piece of paper she had dropped and read it curiously.

'Meet me at the entrance to the Great Hall at eight o'clock tonight.'