Chapter Two - A Sum of Small Things

Dinner that evening was an enthusiastic affair, the duels were big news amongst the seventh years and since many had chosen to drop the class after OWLs, detailed re-enactments were required to sate the appetites of the masses.

The big story was, unsurprisingly, the duel between Neville and Malfoy. It was an impressive bout, Hermione did not have any illusions about that, but as was the way with such things, the story had evolved to become far more. If Seamus was to be believed, Neville had simply dodged all of Malfoys attacks, staring him down across the platform as Malfoy sweated, unable to land a hit on the passive Boy-who-lived. There were many problems with this story, not least that such a tactic was practically suicide in a proper duel. To dodge spells in that way consistently would require super-human agility or some sort of precognitive power that, despite all his positive attributes, Neville lacked. Even were that the case, placing yourself on the defensive in a duel was generally setting yourself up for failure, it gave the opponent too much freedom in their attacks, after all, curses were not the only way of bringing an opponent down. Had Neville been doing as Seamus said, Malfoy's conjured ropes still would have brought him down and suddenly his tactic would have been rendered impossible.

Nevertheless the Gryffindor table seemed to be lapping it up, and Hermione could only shake her head in dismay. It wasn't until Seamus began to go into great detail about how Neville had proceeded to walk towards towards Malfoy and punch him squarely in the nose that she saw any disbelieving faces. Seamus wasn't even there for Merlin's sake, he dropped Defence against the Dark Arts after his OWLs.

Had Neville been sat with them he would undoubtedly have denied Seamus' ridiculous fantasy but he had met Ginny outside the great hall as they walked down together and, after making his apologies, had headed off in the direction of what looked suspiciously like a broom closet.

Shaking her head ruefully, Hermione looked across at her own boyfriend, Ron had been no help at all in denying the rumours that were being spread. In fact, it looked like he was taking far too much pleasure in hearing them recounted again and again.

"You know this is a load of crock, stop grinning so stupidly." She muttered to him as he listened gleefully to Parvati's story, at least she had actually been there Hermione's supposed.

"Heh, yeah, but it's fun listening to everyone put Malfoy down." Ron said happily.

"Besides, it looks like Malfoy is having a grand old time telling his side of the story, and you can bet it doesn't end with Neville beating the bloody pulp out of him like he did." He continued, slapping that silly grin on his face again before returning his attention to Parvati's story.

Looking across to the Slytherin table Hermione saw that he was right. Malfoy must have had at least half the table listening to him, some of the younger years staring at him with wide eyes and open mouths, as he gestured wildly around himself, face retaining its confidant smirk throughout.

She heard the gasp from across the room as whatever he said provoked a shocked reaction in his attentive audience. She saw him gesture across to the Gryffindor table and the students turn around to look towards them with varying looks of contempt and shock. Catching her eye briefly he gave her a quick smirk that none of his audience saw.

Yes, Malfoy was definitely twisting the story to his advantage, it was almost a natural reaction for him it seemed. It was doubtful that he could have claimed that he had won the duel, especially with so many witnesses present. But he must have known that the stories of the duel would grow out of proportion and had deigned to add his own version to the mix. From the way the Slytherin's reacted, it would seem that he had decided to use the tried and tested 'He cheated!' defence, and it looked like he had done it well.

He wasn't the only one basking in the attention of his housemates. Those not listening to him were either listening to Daphne tell of her duel, or, for those who had sided with Montgomery, watching him in disgust. Daphne seemed to have taken rather well to the interest of her housemates and was talking quite animatedly with the group of students listening, obviously basking in the attention. It was funny, she hadn't seemed too thrilled with the duel in the lesson.

Even Terry Boot seemed to have rather taken to the attention. He was no duelist and he had been defeated rather soundly, nevertheless, the Ravenclaws had obviously bugged him into telling his side of the story and it seemed he had given in without too much fuss.

Ravenclaw, as a house, tended to be less interested in such gossip and rumours, given that the student that fitted the houses' personality were the ones who prided themselves on logic and learning. Nevertheless, whilst some remained stoically uninterested, it was with a more than passing interest that a group of ten or so students, mostly in the 6th and 7th year, listened to him speak.

It was only the Hufflepuff table that didn't seem to have been affected by the events of the Defence lesson. A few had come over to ask Seamus for his version of Neville's duel or for her to tell them about her duel with Harry, but there didn't seem to be much discussion at the table.

Hermione supposed that Harry probably hadn't wanted to talk about it, being beaten so soundly was not exactly fun, and Hufflepuffs, as a whole, tended to err on the side of truthfullness. Despite her mistrust of him, she couldn't see the green eyed wizard twisting his story the way Malfoy was.

Looking up and down the table for the boy she was startled to notice that he wasn't there. Turning to Ron quickly she nudged him in the ribs, just as he was about to dig in to some Yorkshire Puddings.

"Ow, what the hell Hermione?" he said, grimacing.

"Oh quit whining you baby, have you seen Harry since we got out of Defence?" she asked, eyes still scanning the room.

Ron looked confused but before he had a chance to reply, someone else did for him.

"Probably didn't want to show his face after you trashed him." A grinning Neville sat down across from the two of them, Ginny on his right arm.

"Hey Neville, the man of the moment!" Seamus called from down the table. "Come tell us how you broke Malfoy's nose wouldya?"

Neville rolled his eyes. "Seems like you don't need me to tell it mate, you've been doing fine on your own!" He replied, to a couple of laughs from those listening in and a flush of red on Seamus' cheeks.

As Seamus responded Ginny looked over to Hermione and raised an eyebrow.

"I guess Seamus is being Seamus again, right?" she asked, an amused glint in her eye.

Hermione rubbed her temples wearily while Ron just laughed.

"At this rate Neville will have taken on the entirety of Slytherin and Snape by the end of the day, and beaten them all. Without a wand." she said a little testily.

Ginny laughed loudly, attracting Nevilles attention.

"What?" He asked, looking between her and Hermione.

"Nothing, just discussing your duel." Ginny said with a wide smile.

"Hmm..."

"Seriously though Neville, I was really impressed, I never expected you to be so..." Hermione trailed off, searching for a nice way to put it.

Neville for his part looked flattered and slightly amused.

"Aggressive?" he supplied.

Hermione nodded, although secretly she didn't think aggressive quite covered it, it was more than an aggressive tactic, it was a brutal assault.

"Yeah, you really took it to him mate, the look on his face when you were pushing him back was priceless!" Ron continued for her.

"I'd love to hear it from you two, Neville's told me already but he does have a tendency to be a little too modest sometimes" Ginny said, giving her boyfriend an amused smile as he started to protest.

Seeing Seamus' ears perk up at the statement however, he quickly changed tactics.

"Enough about me, I wanna talk to Hermione about her duel!" Neville said, diverting conversation away from himself and leaving a disappointed Seamus to return to his food.

"Actually yeah Hermione, I haven't heard how you did." Ginny said, turning her attention back towards her. "Who did you duel?"

"Oh, Moody got me to duel Harry Potter, he's in Hufflepuff." She said lamely.

"She beat him of course." Ron said proudly, putting his arm around her and squeezing her into a one-armed hug.

"Yeah, well, he wasn't very good. Nearly caught me by surprise a few times but his spell work was atrocious." she said, trying to be modest.

Ginny looked like she was going to press for more details but Neville spoke first.

"Yes, it was, wasn't it?" He said pensively, gazing at brick on the wall.

Breaking his gaze and seeing the other three looking at him expectantly he continued.

"It's just, his spellwork was really, really bad." he started rather sheepishly. "I mean, first year bad. None of it was smooth or anything and I don't know what happened."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked in confusion.

"Well, I guess you probably don't know this but I knew Harry before Hogwarts, Professor Lupin would drop him round my house a few times to play while him and my Gran talked and we'd play a bit, pretending we were doing magic and stuff. Nice guy really..." he mused

"Hang on, I thought he lived with Muggles?" Ron interrupted.

"Oh, yeah, he probably still does, but Lupin used to drop in a lot to check on him I think, and to take him to see his parents at um, yeah" Neville said carefully, obviously not willing to divulge too much of Harry's private life to them.

Hermione could hazard a guess as to where Harry's parents were. She had read extensively about the history of the Wizarding world since she had first been introduced to it 7 years ago, and she had read more about the first war than any other period. Whilst most of the interest of historians was focussed on the Longbottom family and the tragedy that resulted in the fall of Voldemort, some did choose to expand their scope to mention the retaliatory attacks from Death Eaters in the weeks following his downfall.

It was barely more than a paragraph's mention in most of the books, but it had stuck with Hermione since she had first read it in her second year. James and Lily Potter, tortured to insanity under the Cruciatus curse by Bellatrix Lestrange. The thought made her squeamish, and she suddenly found the food in front of her unappetising.

"Anyway, I hung about with Harry a bit during first year, before I really go to know you guys," Neville said, obviously avoiding going into any more detail on Harry's personal life. "and he was never that bad at magic. Hell, he got that colour changing charm before I did, I had to ask you for help with it Hermione!" He said, giving her a grin.

"I mean, we kinda grew distant after first year and I haven't really been keeping an eye on him, but something must have happened. I can't believe he could have gotten worse since then." He finished, confusion evident in his voice.

"Well we are doing harder magic now, maybe he just couldn't keep up?" Ginny supplied.

"Yeah but it's not the spells that he's struggling with so much as the basics of spellcasting, you know the stuff that is standard, no matter what you are doing." Neville said.

"Maybe he's just bad under pressure?" Ginny tried again.

"Maybe..." Neville replied. Hermione was unconvinced, someone who was bad under pressure wouldn't have managed to get the required grade on the OWL practical to get onto the NEWT course. Before she had time to say this however Ron spoke up, a thought had obviously just occurred to him.

"Hey, wasn't he one of the people that had to go to Mungo's after Cedric... uh" he trailed off, not really wanting to say it.

Neville nodded grimly. "Yeah, him, those 7th years and that 3rd year. He was the only one that wasn't back before the end of the year. I didn't think him and Cedric knew each other to be honest." he said, obviously still uncomfortable talking about it.

"Well, maybe that was it..." Ron said.

"Maybe. Would make sense." Neville replied, lapsing into silence.

Hermione wasn't so sure. It seemed that the more she found out about Harry Potter, the more questions were raised.

"We are supposed to be patrolling, Ron." Hermione said as he dragged her up the stairs.

"We are patrolling, just checking the astronomy tower now, see. After all, everyone knows it's a favourite haunt for couples!" He said with a cheeky grin.

Arriving at the base of the ladder leading up to the tower lookout he made a big show of listening carefully, much to Hermione's amusement.

"Hmm, can't hear anything, but I think we better go up and check anyway." he said, giving her a wink before jumping up the ladder two steps at a time.

"You are incorrigible." Hermione said to his back as he climbed, he just laughed in response and disappeared.

Shaking her head ruefully, Hermione began to make the ascent. As her head poked out the top of the hatch she looked around to see Ron grinning down at her.

Climbing the last couple of steps to the top she had time to brush herself off before Ron grabbed her hand.

"No one here Hermione, guess I was mistaken. No one but you and me." He whispered in her ear, he was enjoying the act far too much in her opinion.

Turning swiftly to face him and pushing him against the wall she met his lips fiercely.

"You know, it would have been a lot quicker to just ask me to come up here with you." She said huskily, pulling him in close.

"Wouldn't be anywhere near as fun now would it?" Ron replied, eyes glinting in amusement and lust.

"Shut up, Ron" She said, smashing her lips against his in another searing kiss.

An indeterminate amount of time later she carefully extracted herself from his limbs and rose from the floor where they had inevitably found themselves.

Moving over to the edge of the tower she looked out over Hogwarts' grounds with tired, happy eyes. The moon was waning gibbous in the sky and the vast empty space between the castle and the forest was illuminated in a soft glow.

It was still early-ish, probably no later than half eleven. On the edge of the forest she could see light still coming from Hagrid's hut, though it was a dull deep red, like that of dying embers. It would not be long before the fire went out and the only light would be from the moon and the students still awake in the castle.

The grass on the grounds seemed to be swaying in a soft breeze, it didn't seem to reach them up here, the air was still, silent and tranquil.

"Pretty cool, isn't it?" Ron said as he rested his arms on the railing next to her, gazing out towards the forest.

Hermione could only nod in agreement, his talent for understatement was a strong as ever it seemed.

"I'm going to miss this castle." She said softly, not taking her eyes off the swaying grass. "It's been my home for so long, next year is going to be hard."

Ron nodded in understanding and wrapped his arm around her tightly.

"You'll manage, you've got great things ahead of you 'mione, someday maybe you'll come back here, you strike me as the teacher type." He said sincerely, normally he would have joked about it but she could tell he meant it. The idea gave her an odd sense of elation.

"Being a teacher isn't exactly flashy though is it, I always hoped to make a difference in the world, somehow I don't see teaching as way to do that." She voiced her doubts, but as she spoke them they sounded silly to her ears.

"Eh don't worry about that, I'll be flashy enough for the both of us! Can't get much flashier than a world-renowned Auror now can you." Ron said, winking at her confidently.

A bubble of laughter rose in her throat and she giggled softly, leaning her head against his chest.

"I've missed this." She murmured.

"I know, I have too. It's been... hard" Ron said, voice getting strained at the end.

"We'll work on it." Hermione said with perhaps more confidence than she felt. Ron looked at her face for a long time, simply taking her in. She felt his gaze on her as she stared carefully at the forbidden forest, unwilling to meet his gaze in case he saw in her the fear she felt. Occasions like this were wonderful, brilliant even, but they were few and far between nowadays, and she was worried she was beginning to lose him.

"'Maybe we could work on it a bit more now then." Ron said, breaking the awkward silence with false bravado. Just as he turned her face towards him to pull her into a kiss Hermione caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye.

"Hang on, stop." She said quickly and perhaps a bit too forcefully, causing Ron to jerk back in shock.

"Sorry, I just thought..." He said awkwardly, although there was unease evident in his voice.

"No it's not that, I just thought I saw someone going towards the forbidden forest." She said, eyes scanning the ground frantically. In doing so she missed the disbelieving look that flashed across Ron's face.

"Okay Hermione..." He said softly. "Look, our patrol finished twenty minutes ago, and I'm quite tired, so uh, I guess I'll see you tomorrow." With that he quickly began making his way down the ladder and out of the tower.

Hermione murmured her agreement before realising what had happened. She turned quickly to stop him, to try and apologise and convince him that she wasn't just trying to avoid him, but he was already gone, footsteps echoing up through the tower as he disappeared into the castle.

She let out a frustrated growl. The night had been so perfect until then, and it all fell apart so quickly, why couldn't she have just kissed him back. There was blatantly no one out there and she had just imagined it.

But suddenly, there they were. Hugging the dark side of one of the rolling hills, using the shadows to conceal themselves was a broom rider, drifting softly, ever closer to the forbidden forest. The fire in Hagrid's hut had obviously died out, the hut was now dark and silent.

Hermione watched as the mysterious broom-rider drifted slowly and carefully past the hut, dark robes fluttering softly in the breeze that swayed the grass. The rider's hood was up and it was too dark to make out the colour of their robes. As she pondered on what to do she looked on in shock as the rider began to pick up speed, covering the ground between Hagrid's hut and the edge of the forest in a few short seconds.

Without so much as a sound the rider disappeared into the tree line at full speed. Whoever it was, they were in a hurry.

Determined to catch them in the hope it would make it easier to reconcile with Ron, Hermione thought about her options. She would never catch them in the forest, especially not on a broom. Besides, it looked like they knew what they were doing and they were unlikely to be in any danger, she hoped. She would have to catch them as they were coming back into the school.

Making up her mind, she adjusted her robes and quickly climbed down the ladder and out of the Astronomy tower. Rushing through the halls and down the stairs she made her way quickly to the entrance to the castle.

Flashing her badge quickly at an enraged Flich as he shouted after her she soon found herself facing the great oak doors that marked the entrance. Whoever it was in the forest had obviously snuck past Filch to get out of the castle, and she wasn't prepared to trust the old squib to catch them making their way back in.

Setting herself up by one of the large windows next to the doors she conjured a rickety stool and began to wait.

The night was quiet and the grass lay still on the ground, no longer waving in the breeze.

She waited.

Just as she was beginning to think that the rider was gone for good a loud squawking of birds awoke her senses suddenly, bringing her gaze away from the treeline and upwards.

A large flock was rapidly making their way upwards and away from the tops of the trees, scattering in all directions. The reason for their rapid exit soon became apparent as the broom rider burst at full speed from the trees and raced towards the castle, robes waving violently in the wind.

Hermione watched in horror as they completely ignored the front doors of Hogwarts and directed themselves around towards the back of the castle.

Cursing her stupidity she ran to the oak doors and yanked them open, grabbing her wand as she did so, a spell already forming on her lips. Rushing out the front she snapped her wand up and let loose towards the flier, who was rising steadily, racing towards the far side of the castle.

Her spell was wild, flashing no closer than 10 meters to the rider as they raced by, lighting up the sky with its unearthly glow. She was almost glad her spell did not hit, she did not know why she had chosen a stunner. If she had made contact, she never would have been able to stop the fall of the rider before they hit the ground.

Bringing her wand up for another attempt but unable to think of any spell that would be useful in this situation she glared angrily up at the mysterious figure.

Watching them carefully she saw them turn their head and look directly at her, considering her carefully. Hermione's breath caught in her throat as she saw a flash of green before the rider disappeared behind one of the parapets.

Letting out a breath she didn't know she had been holding she slumped, standing defeated on the pathway leading up to the open gates of the old castle.

So much for not making any overt moves.

"I'm telling you, it was Harry!" Hermione said, exasperated.

She had returned to Gryffindor tower the night before, mind swirling with possibilities and theories. She had staunchly refused to think about her argument, if you could call it that with Ron, preferring to throw herself into the mystery of the identity of the rider. She knew she was doing it, it was a recurring fault of hers. When she didn't want to face a problem head on she threw herself into her other projects with a vengeance, attempting to convince herself that she was being productive, useful, rather than just avoiding an issue.

She was too clever to truly lie to herself this way though, and she knew that she needed to speak to Ron, to reconcile with him and repair the damage she had done. She couldn't though, she didn't know what to say to reassure him of her intentions in that moment in the astronomy tower. How did she convince him that she hadn't pulled away from him because she was struggling to deal with their relationship when in truth, she was struggling. It may not have been the reason behind her actions at the time, but when the emotions you are silently accused of ring true in your mind, defending yourself begins to seem futile. So she had kept her silence, and he had kept his.

Thus she found herself sitting across from him in the common room, having barely spoken to him all day, with the unenviable position of convincing him that there had even been a rider, let alone that it was who she suspected it was.

Ron sat with a stiff back and accusing eyes, eyes that looked anywhere but Hermione, but she felt the full weight of the accusations all the same. Neville slouched next to Ron, oblivious to the silent tension between the two, eyes engrossed on another book of battle tactics, barely paying attention to the argument that Hermione was one-sidedly presenting, even though he had been included in the conversation from the start.

He was becoming so distant, only Ginny seemed to still maintain regular contact with him nowadays. Of course her and Ron still saw him in classes and on occasions like this in the common room, but the golden trio was becoming merely a name nowadays. One of the three was there in body more than mind.

"You have no evidence Hermione, you can't just accuse him because you don't like the look of him." Ron replied testily. From the way he said it, it seemed that there was more to his rebuttal than a simple lack of evidence.

"But I do have evidence, I saw him fly towards the back of the castle, the Hufflepuff dorms are on that side of the castle-"

"So are the Slytherin dorms!" Ron interrupted, raising his voice slightly.

Annoyed, Hermione glared at him across the table, partly angry at his tone but also because she hadn't thought of that possibility, Neville remained oblivious to the increasing anger between the pair. Without looking up from his book he butted into the angry silence.

"Would make sense, what with the flash of green you say you saw, Slytherins wear green." He said simply, as if that solved the mystery entirely.

"It wasn't his robes, it was his eyes I swear, only Harry has those eyes!" She realised her mistake after she said it, Ron was looking at her wordlessly, eyes no longer avoiding her. She could almost hear the accusing thoughts playing out through his mind.

'Why do you know what his eyes look like?'

Before she could catch his eye he looked away again, staring stoically at the fireplace, crackling away softly in the centre of the common room.

Hermione slumped in her chair, defeated. Things had really gone to shit recently.

"It was him, I swear..." She murmured more to herself than to the two other participants of the conversation, but even she could hear the rising doubt in her voice.

Sighing Neville put his book down and looked at Hermione in what was almost pity.

"Look Hermione, Harry is a good person. I'm prepared to believe you that he didn't respond nicely to Dumbledore's death but he wouldn't be the only one, and I think that has coloured your opinion of him. You're seeing shadows because you want to see them." Before she could protest Neville continued, not noticing the dark glint that flickered across Ron's face at those words.

"Besides, it definitely couldn't have been Harry, he's terrified of flying."

Shocked Hermione forgot about Ron and turned to face Neville, who had a pensive look on his face, as if his thoughts were elsewhere.

"What do you mean, how could you possibly know that?" She accused, perhaps more harshly than she had any right to, but Neville didn't seem to notice.

"Don't you remember our flying lesson in first year? The kid that crashed into the ground and had to go to the Hospital wing for two weeks to individually re-grow like half the bones in his body?" Neville said.

"That was Harry?" She asked softly, seeing where this was going.

"Yeah, he never wanted to fly again after that. I tried to get him to fly a bit afterwards but he used to get cold sweats whenever I suggested it so I stopped bothering to. He didn't even come to see any of my quidditch matches after I made the team." His vacant expression disappeared suddenly at that.

"I was really put out at first actually, probably what started us kinda moving on from each other, now that I think about it." He continued, looking Hermione in the eye and smiling a little regretfully.

Hermione was struggling to take this information in, but if what Neville said was true, Harry couldn't have been the flier. Whoever it was, they were confident enough to fly straight into the Forbidden forest at top speed and escape through the treetops some time later. No, whoever flew into the forest that night couldn't have been him, though where that left her, she didn't know. She couldn't bring herself to bring her guilty eyes up to meet Ron's.

"Who could it be then?" She whispered, eyes firmly fixed on the floor.

"Dunno, Malfoy maybe? He's a pretty good flier. Though it could be any of the Slytherins to be fair, I don't know enough about any of them to say whether or not they could or would be flying around the forest at night." Neville continued, although he seemed to have lost interest in the conversation at this point and was eyeing her and Ron up thoughtfully. Hermione thought he might finally have picked up on the tension between the pair, how he had missed it up till now was beyond her, he was normally fairly observant.

"Hey, I was wondering..." He started, before pausing as if to consider his words.

"Would you two mind helping out with my practice a bit? It's just that, well, Moody wants me duelling regularly to keep myself improving, says that I need experience and whatnot, but in lessons I only get the chance like, once every 3 weeks, if that." He said nervously, probably aware of the impression his first duel had made on the pair.

Hermione met Ron's eyes determinedly and he returned the gesture.

"Do you want us to do it individually or do you want us to duel you together, mate?" Ron asked, speaking for the first time in a while, not breaking Hermione's gaze.

"Actually the two of you at once would be brilliant! More realistic and all." Neville said happily, looking between the two.

Something passed between Ron and Hermione before they finally broke their gazes to look at the boy-who-lived, waiting a little nervously for their response.

"Of course we would, Neville."

"Yeah don't worry about it mate."

Neville had more important things to worry about than their squabbles, and he needed them as a friend, perhaps more now than ever. They would be there for him, even if it was uncomfortable for them.

"It's not here." Neville said in confusion.

"What, but it must be! Let me try?" And try she did, but no matter how many times Hermione walked past the painting of Barnabus the Barmy the room of requirement never appeared.

"What the hell?" Ron said, confusion evident in his voice.

"It's no use Hermione, someone must be in there already." Neville said, sighing softly.

"Well I guess we'll have to wait for them, then." She said, and conjured a wooden chair to sit on. After spending god knows how long sitting on that rickety old stool she had conjured the night before, she was prepared to push the boat out in her choice of magical furniture. Smirking slightly at her success she began to walk over to the chair.

"There's no point Hermione, whoever is in there could be there all night, I'd rather we go find somewhere else to practice." Neville said, much to her chagrin.

"But aren't you the slightest bit interested in who is in there?" She said, eyeing her wonderfully conjured chair as she did so, what a waste of a successful conjuration.

"C'mon it could be anyone, it's not as if the room is a secret anymore, the entire DA knew it exists and you know how it is with secrets in Hogwarts..." Ron said with a speck of humour. It was the first time he'd spoken with any sort of normality that evening and she relished the change, brief though it might prove to be.

"I suppose, it still seems odd to me..." she said, but the last part was more for her own benefit and she wasn't sure if either of the two boys heard.

"Hmm, I reckon if we ask Moody he'll let us use his classroom." Neville said, nodding to himself as he did so.

"C'mon lets go."

Hermione followed after him and before long they found themselves standing on the duelling platform in Moody's classroom, standing at the vertices of an invisible triangle.

Moody had been only too happy to provide the room after he heard of Neville's planned use for it, he had been less happy that they interrupted his nap to ask him and Ron had nearly had a heart attack when he walked into the professor's office to find a wand to his throat and a small knife pointed at his heart. Moody has definitely still got it.

After the three agreed on the rules of the duel, Neville activated the wards around the stage and they began. It was a massacre.

Despite her and Ron being on the same team, Neville overpowered them both within 5 minutes, and it only took that long because Ron had become more than competent at his shielding. Neither he nor herself had managed to fire a single offensive spell past the first minute or so of the duel, and she had been stunned and disarmed within a minute and a half.

If the fight between Malfoy and Neville had been brutal from the sidelines, experiencing it yourself was something else.

Having been ennervated by Neville once the duel was over, Hermione took a few moments to catch her breath under the amused gaze of the boy-who-lived.

"How?" was all she managed to get out. He had used his tried and true tactic of sticking to a couple of curses for the entire duel, and having seen him do so before, she had thought herself prepared for it.

"Eh, I'm sorry to say you gave me a lot of opportunities 'mione." He said, but he didn't sound that sorry.

"You're more of a threat offensively than Ron, but your shielding needs work, you can't just dive out of the way of every spell, you have to trust in your shield sometimes." The first part was a limp compliment and she was sure he knew it, she had barely had time to be offensive in any way, it was just used to soften the blow of the following criticism.

"Also, you and Ron need to work together more." he said, frowning. "I only ever had to really deal with the both of you at the start of the duel, after that it was just a series of one on ones." he continued, shrugging a little.

He was right too, she had opened the duelling offensively with Ron, but neither had coordinated with the other after that point. Sighing she looked across to Ron, meeting his gaze. If they were going to provide a challenge, they needed to work together. They could sort things out later, duelling was not an important part of their relationship, nor would it ever be, it could be treated as something else for the time being.

An hour and a half later she finally threw in the towel.

"I'm done Neville, I'm exhausted." she said, picking her wand off the floor and making her way to the edge of the platform.

"Me too mate, not all of us can keep up with you." Ron said, his voice was joking but the statement was obviously true, he sounded knackered.

"Ah don't worry about it, I was going to stop us soon anyway, it's getting late." Neville replied, though he did seem a little disappointed.

They walked in silence back through the corridors of Hogwarts towards the Gryffindor tower, Hermione and Ron taking the time to catch their breaths, Neville once again lost in his own thoughts.

They had gotten better over the course of the session, they had starting working together more in their assaults on Neville, but where they improved he seemed to simply unleash a little bit more. It was disconcerting. Of course she was under no illusions that after such a short period of time there would be any massive change in their duelling ability, she was still as bad at shielding herself as she was at the start of the session, but it was still frustrating. Neville hadn't eased up at all, if she had been expecting an easier time of it because they were his friends, she was sorely mistaken. In fact, if anything, he was more brutal in his fight with them than he had been against Malfoy. Stopping to think about that, she tentatively broke the silence and voiced her thoughts to Neville.

He laughed.

"You think I was gonna show Malfoy what I could really do? Given what we know about him? I trust you guys so I don't need to hold back as much, but no way am I letting Malfoy give an accurate report of my abilities to Voldemort." He said.

"Besides, Moody already knows how good I am, he's been watching me most of the summer, I don't need to impress him any." It was arrogant, but undeniable. Neville was far and away the best in their class, and that had been him holding back to hide his skill. The fact that he had said he didn't need to hold back 'as much' didn't escape her either, and a shiver ran down her spine. He hadn't even revealed his true potential yet, just how good was he?

"Speak of the devil..." Ron said, staring down the corridor.

Walking towards them after turning off from the stairs to the 7th floor was Draco Malfoy.

"Hey Malfoy, what are you doing out after curfew?" Ron said, eyeing him distrustfully.

"I'm a prefect Weasley, I'm allowed out after curfew." The blond replied, tone suggesting he thought Ron might be the dumbest person alive.

"Your patrol isn't tonight though, why are you up here?" Neville asked, eyeing him distrustfully.

"As flattered as I am to know that you've memorised my timetable, scarhead, I have places to be and important people to see, people that are not you." Malfoy responded distastefully, noticeably avoiding the question, before stalking past them and away down the corridor.

"He's definitely up to something." Ron said suspiciously.

"McGonagall did tell us that at the start of the year, Ron." Hermione said testily. "And I distinctly remember her telling us NOT to antagonise him." she continued angrily, before continuing on towards the stairs Malfoy had entered the corridor by. She was being hypocritical she knew, but the situations were different, sort of.

"C'mon Hermione, he won't think anything of it, he'd probably be more surprised if we didn't accuse him of being up to something!" Neville's voice rang out down the corridor after her.

By the time she reached the top of the staircase she had calmed down a bit and had realised that, okay, perhaps she was more than a little hypocritical. Sighing she stopped and leaned on the banister to wait for the two boys. With how things had been going between her and Ron, she couldn't afford to have another fight, even if it was directed entirely at the redhead.

As she stared out into the gaping chasm that the staircase straddled she watched some of the stairs on the floors below move their way silently through the air. It was almost peaceful.

Listening out for the boys footprints as they approached she heard something else. A soft taping, getting quieter and quieter by the second. Realising suddenly what she was hearing she began looking frantically down at the floors below. The stairs didn't move unless people were using them, and someone was moving away from the upper floors very quickly, if the sound of their footsteps was to be believed. That someone might well have heard everything they had said after Malfoy had left.

Not seeing anything and with the footsteps almost silent now she rushed across to the opposite bannister just in time to catch sight of the messy hair and yellow lined robe of Harry Potter disappear down a corridor at the bottom of the stairs two floors below.

Fuck. That was it, she was convinced that he was involved with Malfoy's plan in some way, it was too much of a coincidence, he must be the accomplice McGonagall had been talking about, it presented her with a large problem though.

Hearing Neville and Ron's footsteps approaching she made her decision quickly, if she brought this up with Ron now it could send their relationship troubles past the point of no return. She would keep her silence until she caught Harry doing something nefarious, and then she would go to Ron and McGonagall. Until then she would just observe.

"Hey Hermione, there you are! We thought you wouldn't wait for us."

So it was that the next few weeks Hermione found herself watching Harry intently whenever possible.

In lessons he continued to confuse her, his work in charms and transfiguration was miraculously average. When the class struggled, he struggled. When the class seemed to grasp a concept, he was right there in the mix grasping it with them. He was never the first or the last to master something, nor was he ever able to perform and spell or transfiguration to any greater level of ability than anyone else in the class. His conjurations remained inaccurate in comparison to her own and his charm work was sloppy. But neither was inaccurate or sloppy enough to bring him to the attention of anyone except herself.

The most miraculous thing however was that he never got extra assignments unless the whole class did. The moment somebody else grasped a concept that would grant them freedom from a threatened assignment, mostly herself or Neville, he would soon follow in their footsteps and complete whatever task it was that was required.

This left two obvious conclusions to be made. Either he worked exceptionally well under pressure and it was just happy coincidence that things turned out that way every time, or he was masking his ability for some reason. She wasn't a believer in coincidences.

Thinking back on the year before she couldn't remember him achieving when it was needed so regularly, although she admittedly had not had any reason to notice such odd things. Nevertheless, she was convinced that, given as academically competitive as she was, she would have noticed someone consistently keeping up with her in class, even if they masked it with mediocrity most of the time.

This suggested something rather sinister to her, whatever Harry was doing with his time outside classes was more valuable to him than maintaining his cover in lessons.

She was sure that if she had had this kind of interest last year, she would have noticed nothing off about his academic achievements. He hid it well, exceptionally well even, but this year he was slipping, and she was determined to know why.

It was in the duelling that it was the most glaringly obvious, and she was now certain she knew why Moody had been staring at him so intently after that first duel. He had been holding back. She had seen that same look grace McGonagall's face the week before when he had miraculously conjured a complex tapestry at the last possible moment, making him the only person other than her to receive an exemption from the extra homework she was setting. Even the teachers were beginning to notice.

It comforted her slightly that he was obviously on the radar of some of the order members in the school, even if they did not yet connect him to the machinations of Malfoy. He was an unlikely candidate for a follower of the Dark Lord, his parents had after all been tortured to insanity by the person many considered to be his right hand. If that wasn't enough, the Dark Lord had been indirectly responsible for the loss of his godfather in their OWL year, estranged though the pair were. Yet unlikely though he was, it was often the most unlikely enemies that caused the most damage. Hermione would not allow the wool to be pulled over her eyes, especially not when her friend's life was at stake.

She had gone out of her way to keep an eye on him between classes but it was difficult to do so without making it obvious what she was up to. Outside of the regular meal times and classes she had little excuse to be in the same section of the castle as him, let alone the same room.

Gryffindor tower was on the opposite side of the castle to the Hufflepuff dorms, he never seemed to use the library and he did not hang about in any of the usual haunts of the students of the school, such as the courtyards or the lakeside.

She had used her capacity as Head Girl to justify her movements through odd areas of the castle when others had asked, but she knew even at the time that it was a flimsy excuse. It worked once, or twice at most. but it didn't fool people for long and she began to get suspicious looks. The Slytherins did not take kindly to her wandering about in their half of the castle, and although they said nothing to her face, she knew she was attracting attention. She had been beginning to suspect that it may be more risk than it was worth, endangering their mission with Malfoy in the hope of catching Harry doing something he shouldn't be doing. It wasn't until she found the bright green eyes of the Hufflepuff in question staring at her curiously as she loitered outside the entrance to the Hufflepuff dorms that she finally stopped. He knew she was watching him.

So that left her right where she started, sat in the great hall, glancing discreetly at him across the room, no closer to finding anything untoward about him apart from circumstantial evidence and uncertain glimpses of what could have been him. It frustrated her to no end.

She had even begun to wonder whether her interest in the mysterious boy was truly motivated by the mission they had been given, or whether it was a symptom of her deteriorating relationship with Ron. She was cynical enough to consider it.

Harry Potter was oddly handsome, in a gaunt way, she wasn't afraid to admit that. He was a loner, that much she had determined in her considerable hours of observation, but nobody seemed to dislike him. He got on amicably with those in his house, but seemed to be acquaintances with all and friends with none. It was the mysterious and distant stranger stereotype she had so loved to read about when she was growing up as a kid, Mr. Darcy had been her first crush, embarrassingly.

It wasn't as if she could say her interest in the boy hadn't been peaked by his hidden academic talent, it was exactly the kind of thing the stories were made of. There was also a perfectly good explanation for it, if the stories were to believed. The mysterious stranger always hid their talents because of some event in their past, emotional trauma and neglect were common themes, but sometimes outright abuse was involved. Whatever the reason, it was never through fault of their own.

He was ticking multiple checkboxes in her mental list of attractive things and it scared her. Maybe her interest wasn't so formal after all.

Her only comfort was that when she looked at him she did not feel the familiar flutter she had felt when she looked at Ron, her heart did not leap into her mouth when he looked in her direction, nor did she find herself worried about her appearance around him. No, all she ever felt was a deep suspicion, bubbling under the surface, and a sickly unease.

It didn't help that he had acted completely normal ever since she had begun to spy on him. After she was noticed watching him in the halls she wouldn't have been surprised if he had decided to lay low a little, but even before then he hadn't done anything untoward. He seemed to go to class, go to dinner and return to the common room every day, without fail.

Of course he could have been sneaking around without her notice, under an invisibility cloak perhaps. But those were rare, Neville's was the only one she knew of, and if she started assuming that, she might as well start assuming that he could somehow apparate in Hogwarts. It was a pointless exercise.

Harry Potter seemed, in many ways, completely normal.

"Hermione, can I talk to you?" Ron spoke softly but she heard it clearly over the chatter of the great hall.

Not checking to see if she was following him, he turned and walked out of the hall.

Hermione got up without a word, not noticing the concerned look Ginny sent her way, or the complete apathy of Neville. She had been expecting this, ever since that night in the Astronomy tower, there would be only one topic for this conversation.

Her eyes followed Ron's back as he turned left out the doors and took the first staircase up to the next floor. It was a familiar route, she already knew where they would end up.

The first floor was mostly taken up with empty classrooms, the exception being the Arithmancy class room on the other side of the castle. Because of this it was a favourite haunt for students desiring privacy, for whatever reason. On her prefect rounds she often found students locked away in the rooms with rudimentary locking spells and the occasional advanced detection ward. She had long suspected she didn't catch all of the students who used the rooms, but since they had started covering some basic ward detection in charms and in runes she had begun noticing the extra defences the enterprising rule-breaker could place in her way.

In most cases, if the student placed something of that nature on the classroom it warranted investigation. Quick locking charms were more the fare of the sneaky couple, those with enough forethought to use detection wards were generally up to something nefarious.

Or they simply shared her sense of perfection. She could distinctly remember using nearly all the wards she encountered at some point or other during the 6th year when she would sneak off with Ron for some private time. They had never been caught, but she had begun to suspect that that was more because the prefects had chosen to let them be rather than due to her spells.

She knew he was taking her to their old haunt, 3rd room on the right when you rounded the corner. Far enough away that when the detection ward triggered on the corridor they had time to make themselves look decent and, if it was after curfew, get out of the room and into the corridor where they could use their prefect status to get them out of trouble. Travelling down a corridor after curfew was well within the rights of the prefects, using abandoned classrooms for other activities, less so.

Opening the door to the room he ushered her inside with more formality than he had ever shown in this situation. The door was more accustomed to being barged through and shut haphazardly.

"So, you wanted to talk." she said softly, watching him as he walked over to a desk in the middle of the room and sat down on the chair sideways. Seeing his intention she walked over and sat similarly opposite him.

"Yes, I, uh." He started, but he was obviously struggling.

"Look, things haven't been great between us recently, I know you've noticed and it's been all I can think about." He said, regaining his courage. She could only nod her assent.

"In fact, sometimes, it feels like we aren't in a relationship at all. I barely see you nowadays, and when I do, it's... it's like you're far away, and I'm reaching out to someone who isn't interested anymore." He said, eyes shifting to the cold stone floor.

"Ron, you know I'm interested, please don't be like this, I just haven't had much time and I've had other things on my mind." She replied, urging him to accept her words but knowing deep down that he wouldn't.

"And how am I to know if you don't show me?" He said.

"How am I supposed to think you are still interested, that you still like me, when whenever I try and work on our relationship you have something to do, or you get distracted, or your attention is elsewhere?" he continued, his voice remained the same volume but it had an edge to it that it didn't have before. It hurt her to hear him talk to her like that.

"Is this about me not kissing you when we were in the astronomy tower?" she asked softly, this time it was her averting her eyes and him staring.

"Because if it was I want you to know that I didn't mean for it to be such a big thing, I just thought I saw something and I was thinking about the mission." she continued, and she heard him sigh to himself.

"Yes, that's part of it. But only a small part." he said, looking at her with an expression she couldn't comprehend.

"What do you mean?" she asked carefully.

"Well it's what got me to take a step back and look at us, and you." he said, voice almost a mumble.

"Explain." she said, knowing that whatever he said next, she would almost certainly dislike. Whenever he alluded to something that she wouldn't be happy with he mumbled. It was one of the things she had picked up on over the years.

"Whenever I watch you when you think I'm not there, or not looking, you are always looking at him." he said the last part viciously and she knew immediately who he was referring to.

"I'm watching him because I think he's up to something!" She said indignantly, aware that she was raising her voice.

"So you watch him every minute of every day? Like he isn't going to notice? Don't expect me to believe that, you'd be more subtle about it if that's what you were worried about. Don't think people haven't told me about you hanging about near the Hufflepuff dorms." he responded angrily.

She balked at that, had she really been so obvious that someone had thought to tell Ron?

"Well no one else was keeping an eye on him and do you know how hard it is to keep up with him? He's never anywhere except his dorms or classes, if I wanted to keep an eye on him I had to seek him out!" she said, but she could see her defence was weak.

He picked up on it.

"Uhuh, so what exactly is suspicious about that?" he said, eyes glinting dangerously.

"It's not that, it's how he acted at Dumbledore's funeral and the whole business with his duelling." She defended.

"And the broom rider you saw?" he asked, staring at her.

"...yes." she refused to lie to him, even if it wouldn't help her cause any.

"Hermione, we know that wasn't him! He hates flying, Neville said so!" Ron said in exasperation.

"So what exactly are you getting at? Do you think I fancy him?" she said, now angry herself.

"Do you?"

She was taken aback at the question, did he really think she fancied Harry?

He took the silence badly, turning away from her and staring at the blackboard at the front of the room.

"Can you tell me honestly, one hundred percent that you don't have feelings for him?"

"I don't know..." she couldn't.

He stiffened.

"We need to take a break, I need to take a break, I can't deal with this right now." He said softly, rising from his seat and turning to leave the room.

"When you know how you feel, come find me. If things haven't changed too much."

With that he left.

Staring at the door as it closed behind him Hermione sat, dejected.

She couldn't help it, she started crying, how had it come to this?

"Hermione, can I talk to you?"

She jerked at the words, still reeling from the conversation earlier that day. She was sat on a sofa in the common room, burying herself in her books. She hadn't seen Ron since that conversation after lunch.

"Um, sure Ginny, what about?" Ginny looked at her oddly, probably trying to understand her reaction to her question. Sitting down next to Hermione she nervously looked around the common room.

"It's about Neville, do you, um, do you think you could keep this between us?" she said quietly, as if she was worried someone was listening. Hermione prayed to whatever powers existed that the topic of this conversation wasn't going to be the same as the one earlier.

"I promise, Ginny." she said.

"Well it's just, I noticed he hasn't hung out with you or Ron much recently and he seems to be really distant, and well, I was wondering if you lot had had a falling out or if you knew why?"

Hermione tensed at Ron's name and by the look on Ginny's face she had noticed, but politely ignored it. It wouldn't surprise her if given Hogwarts' record with secrets, her and Ron's split was already old news.

"We haven't had a falling out, but I know what you mean. Ever since Dumbledore's death he's been a lot more solitary. Do you still see him?" she replied, the last bit a little tentative, she didn't want to press any emotional buttons when her own were in such a state.

Ginny smiled fondly to herself.

"Yeah, I see him a lot actually, he's been great to me." she said, a faraway look in her eyes.

"But I think I'm the only one he still talks to regularly, and I'm worried." she continued, suddenly serious.

"Have you tried talking to him about it?" Hermione asked, frowning. As much as she hated to admit it, she was jealous of Ginny, in more ways than one.

"I tried, but he refused to talk about it. It's the only time we've had an argument." Ginny replied, looking unhappy.

"He said I shouldn't worry about it, said he was just working a lot and that it wasn't anything else, but..." she carried on.

"Well as far as I know that's all there is to it as well, but I can see why you're worried, it's not like him." Hermione said.

"Yeah, he's also... changed since last year." Ginny frowned.

"In what way?"

"I don't really know." Ginny said lamely.

"It's hard to describe, but like, you know with the duel against Malfoy? I couldn't believe it was Neville when I finally got the full story of it out of Ron, I mean, since when has he been so..." she paused, searching for the right word.

"Brutal?" Hermione supplied.

"Yeah... Probably not how he'd like to be described but pretty accurate." Ginny said uncomfortably.

"If it helps, when we've practiced duelling with him he's been just as brutal, if not more." Hermione offered.

"If anything that makes it worse, if it had just been a vendetta against Malfoy I could maybe understand it, but you are his best friends!" Ginny was looking more unhappy by the minute.

"I suppose, what do you want to do about it?" Hermione asked.

"That's the problem, I don't know if it's something I should be worried about or encourage. I know he's gotten a lot better at duelling since last year, and I guess this personality shift is part of it, but I don't want him to turn into a single-minded robot about it!" Ginny said in frustration.

Hermione nodded her understanding, she didn't really know what to say, there wasn't an easy solution to this problem. Neville was changing and there wasn't much any of them could do about it, the war was coming and he was preparing, they couldn't deny him that because they were uncomfortable with him.

"I think Dumbledore's death hit him hard and he's been throwing himself into work ever since. He's training for war and that changes people, I guess all we can do is be there for him." she said.

Ginny was about to respond when Hermione noticed the portrait swing open out of the corner of her eye, turning to look she saw Neville climb through clutching a newspaper and talking to Ron hurriedly. Her back stiffened when she saw the redhead, but nevertheless she kicked Ginny discreetly to stop her talking. Luckily she got the message.

Scanning the common room Neville's eyes found her and Ginny sat on the sofas. Looking determined he made his way over to them, parting a sea of first years as he went. Ron trailed sullenly behind, avoiding Hermione's gaze. She wondered if Ron had talked to Neville about their breakup, if he had, it didn't look like that would be the topic of this conversation.

Slamming the paper down on the table in front of her and Ginny, Neville slumped into an armchair next to them looking angry.

"Tomorrows Prophet." he said, as if that was enough of a response to their enquiring glances.

As it turned out, it was.

Break in at the Ministry of Magic: You-Know-Who attacks Department of Mysteries

Soooo, chapter two! Little bit later than a week, but it was transfer deadline day in the EPL and I got lazy, so sue me! It's 10k words, I was half right!

Anyway, awkward chapter to write, I found it very hard to write a believable breakup scene and I can only hope I got somewhere close. They are such personal things and, being a guy, writing from a girls perspective is already hard enough without having to throw in a scene which requires you to really try and get in character to write!

Plot should begin to pick up from here on out, although most of the action for this fic will remain centered around Hogwarts so don't go expecting Hermione to go off on the warpath anytime soon. Similarly, a couple of people were asking about pairings changing and things like that, I must stress, this is NOT a romance fic. The focus has been a little bit more on romance so far as a means to an end. There will be romantic elements later on, but purely as a way to highlight plot points.

A couple of people were asking about the differences between this AU and canon. I'm going to attempt to bring these up throughout the fic as Hermione delves more and more into Harry's past, but as a general rule, things are pretty much the same up until after 4th year when they begin to deviate a bit, and then after 5th year they deviate a lot. The exception is, of course, the alternate fates of harry and Nevilles parents. I don't really feel the need to go into how this came about as it isn't relevant to the story at all, but you could assume something like Voldemort got to the potters first but they had sent harry away so he let his death eaters torture the two of them and went after Neville. Or you can come up with your own version.

I'm debating whether to have a scene where they discuss Sirius and why he didn't become Harry's godfather, but if i don't, the reason effectively comes down to not having proof of his innocence and Harry not being involved with the OotP like he is in canon. With his parents still alive, if in Mungo's, it was decided that they would wait until after they could prove his innocence to reveal Sirius to Harry. Then of course he fell through the veil.

ANYWHO, I hope you've read and at least partially enjoyed this chapter. Any criticism is most welcome, the more critical the better! Will hopefully get another chapter out soon!