Hermione and the Watch Part 3 (Patreon)

“He’s always going to choose his stomach, isn’t he?” Harry asked with a bit of amusement as they headed back toward the common room, sans Ron because he wanted to keep stuffing his face, something he was actually thankful for, for once.

“You should be used to it,” Hermione pointed out.

“If I hadn’t seen Mrs. Weasley’s cooking, I’d swear she starved him.”

Hermione opened her mouth then closed it as she saw a group of Hufflepuffs turn and hurry away when they spotted Harry. “Do you want to get out of here?”

“Out of here?” Harry asked, curious what she had in mind.

Hermione glanced around at the various walls making sure there weren’t any portraits or people that could see her as she dropped her voice to a whisper, “Yeah, out of the castle.”

“Little Miss Rulebreaker,” he said with a smile, instantly perking up.

“If the teachers aren’t going to follow the rules, why should we?” Hermione asked as she reached into her pocket and pushed the button on the watch.

Harry smiled as the Hufflepuffs at the end of the hallway froze in place facing away from them. “Is it a bad thing that I want to tie their shoelaces together?”

“Probably, they’d just think it was a jinx, better to wait a bit…” she trailed off as she realized she’d said the last part of that aloud. “Ignore that last part.”

Harry snickered. “Okay, so where are we going?” 

“Hogsmeade?” Hermione asked unsure about sneaking out but wanting to do a bit of harmless rebellion because of her frustration.

“Sounds good,” Harry agreed as he turned and headed for the entrance hall so they could leave.

Hermione followed Harry down the hall then through the next hall, between the frozen students. She frowned as she saw a group of annoying Slytherins and found herself thinking about tying their shoelaces together now that Harry had mentioned it. “Damn it, Harry now you have me thinking about it.”

“Thinking about what?” he asked, not sure where her mind was.

“Thinking about tying people’s shoelaces together.”

“It would be fun and it’s pretty damned harmless compared to the crap they’ve pulled over the years.”

“It would still be wrong…” Hermione trailed off as they walked around the corner and saw Malfoy, “-ish?”

“Ish?” Harry teased.

“Wrongish?” Hermione offered lamely.

“I’m pretty sure that’s not a word.”

“Does that mean you don’t want to tie his shoelaces together?” Hermione asked with amusement.

“I didn’t say that,” Harry replied as he considered tying the idiots shoes together.

“Let’s go before we get carried away,” Hermione replied as she continued walking.

“Fair enough,” Harry admitted as he started following Hermione, figuring there’d be plenty of time to prank Draco later when he’d done something to earn it. 

Hermione blinked as they slipped out onto the grounds and saw the raindrops suspended in the air. “We’re going to get wet.”

Harry grinned as he thought about her in a wet t-shirt. “I’m sure we’ll manage, live a little.”

Hermione shook her head then carefully reached out and touched a drop of rain and smiled as it flowed down her finger like water. “We should be able to walk through it.”

Harry watched Hermione put her hands up then walk through the almost shimmering field of suspended drops, making a path as she headed toward Hogsmeade. He grinned as he followed her, avoiding the worst of the rain, waiting to see when she realized he wasn’t getting wet. It was eerily silent and unbelievably peaceful which was nice, after his frustration with the teachers. 

Hermione turned around to check on Harry then paused when she realized that he wasn’t wet and that she was leaving a trail of clear air. “You’ve been following me, haven’t you?”

Harry smirked. “Of course.”

“Your turn, I’m wet enough…” Hermione trailed off with a blush as she realized what she’d just said.

“You’ll have to catch me first,” Harry replied as he took off running, not caring that the water was cold, simply having fun for the first time in a long time.

Hermione stared as Harry bolted with a smile on his face. “Harry!” She shook her head then took off after him, trying to stay in his wake so she didn’t get hit in the face by the suspended drops of rain. Eventually her slight frustration of him bolting on her turned to laughter as they ran around like lunatics, getting soaking wet and not caring in the slightest.

0o0o0

Hermione winced as she used the stupid bitch’s quill to write, ‘I must respect-’ she stopped writing with the cursed quill, reached into her pocket and pushed the button on her watch and froze time. She glared at the smug pink toad that was frozen with her teacup next her lips. She glared at the obviously cursed quill the toad had insisted she use to write her lines. “I’m done. I’m taking this to McGonagall, she’ll have to do something.”

She reached into her bag and grabbed sample of Draco’s Draught of Peace, not sure if they could trace the exact potion but not wanting to use hers just in case they could trace it. She stalked over to the toad’s desk and poured a bit of the potion into her cup. “That should knock you out for a couple minutes.”

Hermione pulled out a quill and her wand and used a color change spell on the quill and the ink then stuck the blood quill in her bag. She sat back down, put her hand back in the right place then unpaused time and continued writing, trying not to grin savagely as the toad drank her drugged tea. Thankfully it didn’t take all that long for the toad to start nodding off, Draco’s potion being halfway effective. She waited until the toad closed her eyes a bit then froze time. She waved her wand at her paper and duplicated the lines then stuck the paper and the fake blood quill on the toad’s desk. “Screw this, no reason to wait.”

She collected her stuff then left, heading for McGonagall’s office bound and determined to get justice. She almost jumped out of her socks when she walked out of the door and saw Harry’s head floating in the hallway. “Don’t do that.”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Harry replied.

“Any reason you’re waiting here like a knight in… never mind, stupid question.”

Harry grinned slightly, glad that he could get somewhat of a laugh out of her considering the last couple of days of frustration. They’d snuck in some extra reading and homework but they hadn’t really used the watch all that much on account of not having potions the last couple days or Defense. “I can’t image she let you go early, so what happened?”

“The toad is using a cursed quill that scratches what you write in the back of your hand!”

Harry twitched as he saw the marks on the back of Hermione’s hand, they were faint and barely there but it was enough to make him want to charge into the bitch’s office and beat her half to death. “What are we going to do?”

“We’re going to take this to McGonagall and tell her what happened,” Hermione explained as she stormed off toward McGonagall’s office.

Harry had a sinking feeling that Hermione wasn’t going to get the answer she wanted. He was proven right, five minutes later after they restarted time and walked into her office. McGonagall brushed Hermione off halfway through her explanation because of a message from Flitch. He scowled as they were pretty much hustled out of her office despite their protests so that McGonagall could deal with whatever the damned caretaker wanted.

“Unbelievable, she wouldn’t even listen,” Hermione complained in a defeated voice.

“Just like first year when we tried to tell her about the stone. Just the fact that a couple of first years even knew about it should have been enough to get her to listen. I know I’d listen if a minion discovered a flaw in my grand plan,” Harry said putting on a kingly air.

“You don’t have minions,” Hermione said trying not to smile at his antics.

“Does Ron count?” Harry asked trying to get her laugh.

Hermione laughed. “Sorry, you’re not a dark lord, there is a certain amount of base loyalty required for light side minions.”

Harry grinned as he’d at least gotten a laugh out of her. “Ginny?”

“Fangirl, she’s just as likely to tie you up and stick you in a closet to keep you safe.”

“Huh, yeah, let’s avoid that. So… plans?”

“Yeah, we do research then take over the world,” Hermione said jokingly.

“That sounds like a lot of work, can’t we at least take over a better one?”

She reached into her pocket and pushed the button on her watch, freezing time. “Let’s hit the restricted section. I want to look up the quill.”

“Lead the way.” Harry was just glad that she had a better project to focus on than ‘saving’ some house elves that didn’t want to be saved.

0o0o0

Harry frowned as he glanced between the librarian and the restricted section. It was a weird not having her hover and glare at them as they walked around but it was certainly something he could get used to. “Where do we start?”

“I remember seeing a book on dark objects back in second year,” Hermione replied as she headed for the restricted section.

“How do you remember that?” Harry asked, honestly curious how she remembered everything.

“I have a nearly eidetic memory. Besides, it screeched at me, it was rather memorable,” she replied with a frown, still not happy that the magic world had corrupted books. 

“You know there is a good chance some of these are cursed, right?” Harry asked.

“That’s why I have dragonhide gloves and spell to copy them,” Hermione pointed out as she pulled her dragonhide gloves out of her bag.

“Point,” Harry agreed as he read the spines of the various books, looking for something that would help get rid of Umbridge.

Hermione finished putting on her gloves then started searching the shelves for the book she needed, being careful not to touch anything she didn’t have to, and making sure to read any instructions on the shelf carefully. She smiled as she found the book she was looking for after a minute of searching, someone had moved it. She pointed her wand at the dark objects book and said, “Liber geminae!”

Harry smiled as an identical copy of the dark objects book appeared on the ground next to her, they’d certainly put in a decent amount of practice over the last week copying notebooks and things until they had the spell down perfectly. “I’m pretty sure that’s your new favorite spell.”

“Probably,” Hermione admitted as she reached down and picked up the copy then headed to one of the desks to see if she could find the quill. “You might as well see if there is something you want to copy, just don’t touch anything.”

Harry briefly considered saying something about there being a cute witch he wanted to snog but decided now wasn’t the time. “I’ll see what I can find.” He was still reading the spines of books five minutes later when Hermione started cursing. “What’s up?”

Hermione slammed her fist on the table as she shouted, “Fucking ministry!”

Harry turned and walked back over. “You’ll have to narrow it down a bit.”

“Blood Quills are a controlled artifact, they’re not supposed to be used outside of signing certain magical contracts because prolonged use of them can result in permanent scars and nerve damage. They’re illegal to use on a minor except in certain rare cases by their guardian. In other words, the bitch should be in Azkaban!”

“I can’t see Fudge tossing her under the bus because of a couple complaints, he’d just pass an educational decree permitting their use or shuffle her off to some other department. This is the same guy that tossed Hagrid in prison back in second year so he could be seen to be doing something.”

Hermione huffed. “He’s not Merlin there is a limit to the shit he can get away with!”

“Is there?” Harry with annoyance, thinking about Malfoy and Buckbeak. “Buckbeak, the Daily Prophet, my trial… he was trying to snap my wand and expel me because he’s afraid of a name, afraid that he might actually have to do something productive. Hell best case, he’ll give her a fine, she’ll pay it and she walks away with a slap on the wrist, this can’t end well for us.”

“Fine, if we can’t take them out legally, how do we deal with them?” Hermione asked in frustration.

Harry smiled as he sat down on the edge of the table. “We get creative. The twins have been driving people insane for years.”

“They also get caught a lot, we can’t really afford to.”

“Only because they don’t care,” Harry pointed out.

“Assuming for a second we sink to their level, how does that help us?” Hermione asked curious where he was going with his pranking idea.

Harry grinned as he realized he might be able to get Hermione on board with making Umbridge’s and maybe Snape’s life a living hell. “First, we’re not sinking to their level, they cause chaos and destruction because it’s fun for them, we’d be pranking people for a reason.”

“I can sort of see that if tilt my head,” Hermione admitted.

“She’s a pureblood ministry flunky, she’s used to getting her way. If we make her life hell, she’ll leave or snap.”

Hermione shook her head. “Or she’ll decide to make everyone else’s life hell.”

Harry shrugged. “She’s already doing that, there is only so far she can push things before someone writes a letter home or walks to Hogsmeade and takes the floo home and tells their parents. Malfoy’s parents raised holy hell about a scratch the idiot got, can you honestly see Susan’s aunt taking this shit well?”

Hermione scowled as she was once more reminded that being a pureblood mattered more than intelligence or effort to the wizarding world. “I know I shouldn’t be surprised anymore about how screwed up the wizarding world is but I am.”

Harry reached over and grabbed the dark objects book now that Hermione was done looking up the blood quill and started looking for cursed chess sets as he explained his idea, “Fred and George made a fake wand that was good enough to fool Mrs. Weasley, do you think they could make one that looked like Umbridge’s wand?”

“She’d go ballistic.”

Harry smirked. “That’s sort of the point.”

Hermione shook her head. “She might go after them.”

Harry flipped through the pages as he replied, “If they didn’t kill her and hide the body, Mrs Weasley would. They’re purebloods and their father works at the ministry, they’re safer than we are. Besides, depending on how the fake wands work, it wouldn’t be their fault someone decided to use one of their products on Umbridge.”

Hermione shook her head, seeing a way to get Harry to actually study, put effort into something and show off his intelligence that she knew he had. “No, if we’re doing this, we’re doing it right, Sirius.”

“What about him?”

“The marauders made the map, Sirius managed to sneak into the castle when everyone including the portraits were looking for him, he’d have a better idea where we need to start if we’re going to catch up with the twins.”

“What?” Harry asked, uneasy about the gleam in her eyes.

“If we expect to be able to get away with taking out Umbridge and Snape, we’re going to need to know how the aurors catch people so we can learn to avoid them. Sirius was also an auror which means that he’d know the tricks they use to catch criminals. We have one of the best libraries around at our fingertips and all the time in the world to practice.”

“I’m not a genius,” Harry complained as he found the page he was looking for on hexed chess sets.

Hermione said, “You’re good at Defense Against the Dark Arts Harry, you managed to summon your broom from the Quidditch grounds last year, you scared off over a hundred dementors in third year with a spell most adult wizards can’t cast. With a bit of time, you’d be able to beat Voldemort in a duel instead of having to rely on luck and a weird magical side effect.”

Harry opened his mouth to argue then realized he didn’t want to, maybe he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but he wasn’t stupid enough to pass up spending some quality one on one time with Hermione, even if it meant he had to find something to research that he wanted to work on while she devoured an entire library worth of books. “Fine, huh, pieces that argue and fail to move like they’re supposed to, that sounds suspiciously like Ron’s chess board.”

Hermione briefly considered telling him that they were probably just disagreeing with him because they didn’t like his moves then decided not to discourage him from doing useful research. “We can’t really do anything until after curfew which means we might as well copy some books so we’ll have things to read while we wait.”

“Sounds good,” Harry replied as he hopped off the table and headed back to the shelves to find things to copy.

0o0o0

“We might have went overboard,” Hermione admitted as stared at the massive piles of books spread out on one of the library tables. “Any idea where we’re going to hide this while we take the floo to London to talk with Sirius?”

“We need somewhere we can get without opening any magical doors, what about the Shrieking Shack?”

Hermione frowned as she thought about the rather vicious tree that guarded the tunnel to the shack. “As long as the tree is frozen.”

“It should be easy enough to test, we just throw a rock at it, if it doesn’t try to murder everything, then we’ll know it’s safe.”

“You’re still bitter about your broom aren’t you?” Hermione asked as she thought about Harry’s Nimbus the tree had demolished.

“That and it tried to kill me and Ron back in second year,” Harry complained.

Hermione shook her head. “To be fair, you did hit it with a car.”

“No, Ron hit it with a car, I had no part of that,” Harry replied firmly, wanting to make sure the record was straight.

“You mean besides getting into a flying car with Ron behind the wheel?” Hermione asked dryly.

Harry opened his mouth to argue then realized there really wasn’t a defense for that whole bit of insanity other than the fact that he’d been twelve and an idiot for not just going back to the Leaky Cauldron or waiting for someone to come out of the barrier. “When you put it like that, it wasn’t my finest moment.” He glanced at the stacks of books on the table warily. “This is going to take a while.”

“We should be able to move them in shifts, we’ll move a stack to the entrance then come back for another stack then another, if we need a break we can always read for a bit.”

“Sounds, fun,” Harry muttered sarcastically then smiled as brightly as he could when she looked at him with a mock glare.

Hermione snickered as she she picked up a stack of books and headed for the door after hitting them with a featherlight charm. 

Harry pulled out his wand and levitated the rest of the books on the table, smirking as the entire collection of books floated into the air. He grinned as he followed her, curious how long it would take her to turn around and notice that they’d only have to make one trip.

Amusingly enough, they’d made it all the way down the stairs before Hermione had turned and noticed the large collection of floating books. “You could have said something.”

“I was waiting to see how long it took you to notice,” Harry replied with amusement as she set her books on the ground then levitated them. “You realize we’re going to have to fly to Number 12, right?”

“What do you mean?” Hermione as she started walking toward the entrance hall with her wand held pointing at her floating books.

“I’m fairly sure Sirius can’t exactly hook his fireplace up to the floo network considering he’s a wanted criminal,” he reminded her as he directed his massive collection of books through the hallway. 

Hermione walked over and opened the door to the courtyard while keeping her stack of books in the air. “I’m starting to understand one of the reasons the wizarding world doesn’t bother with exercise.” She looked out on the frozen courtyard, the lights from the castle barely up to the task of illuminating the rain soaked ground and lending everything a spooky and somewhat foggy atmosphere.

“I’m pretty sure it’s just because they’re lazy,” Harry pointed out as he followed her outside with the books. It didn’t take more than a glance at the unnaturally still Whomping Willow to realize that it was frozen like everything else. “Looks safe enough.”

“Hopefully.” Hermione floated the books ahead of her on the off chance it was faking, thankfully it wasn’t. She frowned as she got to the rather small dark and creepy entrance. “This isn’t going to work, here.” She stacked her books on top of one of Harry’s smaller piles. “Lumous.” 

Harry frowned as her stack of books made dealing with his collection of books slightly harder, still having the light through the creepy root infested third of the tunnel was worth the extra hassle. Thankfully once they got past the roots it was easy enough to follow behind Hermione and keep an eye out for spiders and other creepy crawlies. He warily glanced around the scarred and empty house, noticing how the layer of dust was slightly thicker than the last time they’d been there, not really a surprise as it had been over a year ago. He set the massive stack of books on the battered table, a bit relieved that he could cancel his spell and put his wand away.

Hermione glanced around. “We might need a couple cleaning charms if we’re going to use it for research.”

“Considering how much dust is everywhere, I doubt anyone actually checks the place more than maybe once a decade if that.”

“Useful for us,” Hermione replied as she cast a couple quick cleaning spells to deal with the worst of the dust. “We’ve got a couple hours until curfew, do we want to leave now or go to bed and then sneak out?”

“Let’s head back, we can make an appearance then retire for the night, close the curtains and sneak out while time is frozen. If I tell Ron that I’m tired, no one should even check until breakfast.”

“We’ll be back by then,” Hermione agreed as she headed for the tunnel.