Beautiful Scars

Chp 12

Hermione's Pov

I rushed out of the Great Hall and headed for the staircases. 

Rushing past corridors that could have been filled with unknown horrors. Never had I seen the castle move like this, and after the Battle of Hogwarts, you learn to take things like this quite seriously.

The patrol of prefects were on my heels, and when we reached the entrance to the spiral, I turned to face my group.

Everyone looked panicked. Breathing heavily and looking around, we were frightened.

What's the best way of doing this?

I looked over the group of students and tried to make up my mind about where everyone was going to go.

Someone needed to look down near the dungeons, but if something happened, how would we know about it?

Thankfully, we had a good group of students. Despite Aberfourth's questionable decision about his pick for Head Boy, he and McGonagall must've really given a lot of thought to the rest of the prefects.

Michael may have been an asshole, but he's a great fit for being a prefect. It's not easy giving orders to other students, but for him, it was like every other day. 

Actually, that's probably what Ginny hated the most about dating him.

There was always something about how he talked to other people that annoyed Ginny. She would always talk to me about it when we walked back from the DA meetings or when we went to Hogsmead.

But no matter many times I told her to just end it, she wouldn't do it. She liked the way he made her feel protected. He wasn't particularly large or intimidating, but his words could be very sharp.

Of course, the counterpart to having someone like Michael, the other Ravenclaw prefect was Luna. She's easily the kindest and most inclusive person at Hogwarts.

And she always makes you feel welcome- in her own dreamy way.

The Hufflepuffs were made up of Susan Bones and Zacharias Smith. I didn't know much about Susan, but Zacharias was in DA with us.

He's a little on the shady side, but he's determined and eager to make something of himself. I remember when we were practicing our Diminuendo jinxes and he didn't let Harry leave until he had shown him how to properly shrink his dummy.

Unfortunately, he did leave the group when we started getting into trouble, but after the war, he seemed to be different. McGonagall must've noticed and taken heart. Aside from me, she also admired Zach's interest in Transfiguration.

So if McGonagall trusts him, I'll give it a shot.

"Alright," I pointed to the Ravenclaws, "You two, go to the library and expand your search from there." I turned to the Hufflepuffs, "Go down to the Dungeons and work your way up."