Hermione Granger and the Paradigm Shift

Chapter 18 - Part 3

As promised Ron and Lavender had replaced Neville and Ginny for Saturday morning's excursion to the Room of Requirement with Luna happily joining as well.

"I can't believe I agreed to get up this early to protect you lot and now I'm going to be late for breakfast," Ron mumbled good-naturedly as they made the trek to Slughorn's office two hours later. Neville and Ginny had joined them as well, strengthening their numbers even further.

"You already had breakfast...in fact you had it earlier than normal thanks to Dobby," Lavender informed.

"That was almost two hours ago," he scoffed.

"So does that mean you won't be joining us to help Slughorn? That leech juice isn't going to extract itself you know," Harry replied.

"I would join you but I think Hermione wants to spend time alone with you Harry," Luna observed casually, drawing a chuckle from the group.

"You're more than welcome to join us, Luna," she quickly replied, pretending to ignore how on the mark the girl had been.

"Oh, I know that," Luna continued, "but I imagine it's difficult having everyone around you all the time now."

"It's not too bad," Harry replied as Slughorn's classroom came into sight. "Except for Ron. Bloody annoying he is."

"You have no idea," Lavender and Ginny replied in unison, drawing a cry of protest from the redhead.

"We'll see you in two hours," Neville said with a happy wave as the group departed for the Great Hall.

It was clear that Dumbledore had spoken to the staff as Professor Slughorn seemed much more reserved than normal. He even went so far as to cast several enchantments on the door, presumably meant to prevent any surprise visitors from joining them.

Slughorn quickly set them to work, ironically enough, extracting juice from a rather rambunctious bunch of leeches, before returning to his office to finish up some grading.

"This is torture," Harry grumbled several minutes later. "I finally have a chance to be properly alone with you and I'm stuck doing this," he lamented, gesturing to the gelatinous goo dripping off of his hands.

She snorted her agreement. "I don't think we'll have a chance to be properly alone again for a long time."

"It was okay, wasn't it?" Harry asked hesitantly. "We haven't really talked about it but...you don't regret it do you?"

She stopped what she was doing and looked at him. "Are you really worried about that?"

He was nervous but unafraid. "I thought it was amazing and I thought you did as well...but yeah...a bit."

She took off her gloves and cradled his face. "If I have any say about it we are going to be doing that again as soon as we can manage it. It's you and me now, Harry. Never doubt that."

The tender moment was broken spectacularly as Harry's leech let out an undignified squelch of protest. According to the reading she'd done leeches quite enjoyed the 'juicing' process and apparently this one was annoyed at the temporary stoppage.

"Thanks for ruining the mood," Harry muttered to the leech as he resumed his task, drawing what amounted to a contented sigh from the subject.

Hermione's amusement at the scene was broken as she felt her HDF coin warm. It was a message from Astoria.

Something is going on. Daphne says a large group of JDE's just left Slytherin together and they looked excited.

"We should go," Harry informed over her shoulder. "You tell Slughorn what's going on and I'll check the map."

Hermione quickly knocked on the office door and opened it without waiting for a response.

"Professor, Harry and I-"

Her voice caught in her throat as she spotted Professor Slughorn sitting at his desk, staring straight ahead. He was flanked by a very familiar, very worried face.

"What's going on, Mr. Dagworth?" she asked.

"They've threatened my family..."

"What have you done?" she asked.

"I'm sorry Miss Granger but I can't let you leave," he informed.

"What have you done?" she repeated as she drew her wand.

"The door won't open!" she heard Harry call from the other room.

"He won't be able to open it. I had Horace place several enchantments on the door," Dagworth supplied.

"He's Imperiused?" she surmised.

He nodded as he slowly and purposefully placed his wand on the desk. "I'm just trying to protect my family," he mumbled, "I told you I was a coward. I'm sorry."

"What are they doing?" she asked.

"I don't know...all I had to do was make sure you two were locked in this room," he answered.

Blaise's prior warning echoed in her brain. She and Harry were the targets.

"Stupefy!" Harry shouted from behind her and Dagworth crashed backward, slumping to the floor.

"This doesn't look good," he muttered, handing her the Marauders Map.

It was a river of red names and they were all headed their way.