janus ~ hermione granger

xlii

snape had managed to get madison out of a couple detentions after the breakdown she had in his classroom.

the interaction had made them closer, but it was for all the wrong reasons. his heart ached for the damaged girl who had to put up a mask again.

she hadn't done that in over a year.

"what's wrong?" the gryffindor quartet asked maddy as she almost crashed into them in the hallway.

"uh, nothing," she smiled. "just have a bunch of detention."

"i told you to keep your mouth shut," hermione playfully rolled her eyes, interlacing their fingers as she turned to harry.

of course she could make maddy feel better with only one single movement.

"look, harry, you don't understand what it was like after it happened. you arrived back in the middle of the lawn clutching cedric's dead body-none of us saw what happened in the maze-we just had dumbledore's word for it that you-know-who had come back and killed cedric and fought you."

"which is the truth!" harry raised his voice.

"i know it is, harry, so will you please stop biting my head off? it's just that before the truth could sink in, everyone went home for the summer, where they spent two months reading about how you're a nutcase and dumbledore is going senile!"

they arrived to the gryffindor common room and sat at their usual spots.

as soon as maddy laid herself down on hermione's lap, crookshanks jumped up and got comfortable, purring as maddy starting running her hands through his ginger fur.

"how could dumbledore have let this happen?" harry suddenly said, staring at the fire, scaring the other four, including crookshanks, who started scratching at the seat. "how can he let the terrible woman teach us? and in our o.w.l. year, too!"

"umbitch-"

whack.

"doesn't want me in her class anymore."

"so what are you going to do?" phoebe and ron asked in unison.

"there's nothing we can do. dumbledore and snape both told her that she just has to deal with me."

"well, we've never had great defense against the dark arts teachers, have we? you know what it's like, hagrid told us, nobody wants the job, they say it's jinxed."

"yes, but to employ someone who's actually refusing to let us do magic? what's dumbledore playing at?"phoebe questioned as well.

"and she's trying to get people to spy for her," ron added. "remember when she said she wanted us to come and tell her if we hear anyone saying you-know-who's back?"

"of course she's here to spy on us all, that's obvious, why else would fudge wanted her to come?" hermione snapped, so maddy leaned in for a quick kiss.

"don't start arguing again," the younger taylor spoke wearily.

"can't we just-let's just do that homework-get it out of the way."

they all stood and got their bags from the corner, going back to their spots as people started coming through the portrait hole.

the taylor twins noticed harry sort of being affected by the stares, so they readjusted themselves so that they were covering the entrance from harry's view. he sent them a grateful smile as ron opened his mouth.

"shall we do snape's stuff first?" the red-head dipped his quill in ink and mumbled the title. "there-so what are the properties of moonstone and it's uses in potion making?"