Hermione and the Watch Part 9 (Patreon)

Hermione pushed the button then twitched as the sounds of the common room came back with a vengeance after the quiet and she ‘woke’ up from being slightly out of it. She blushed slightly as she glanced over at Ginny who was moving her chess piece like nothing had happened. ‘I can’t believe I groped her without permission, what the hell was I thinking?’ She turned to look at Harry and blurted the first thing that came to her mind, “Do you want to help me with my patrol?”

“Sure,” Harry replied then dropped his voice to a whisper, “I’ll get the map.” He turned and headed for his dorm to get his map.

“Thanks,” Hermione replied, trying not to blush as she thought about how soft Ginny’s skin had felt. ‘Great, Harry must think I’m insane, at least he managed to distract me before I did something worse like strip her or stick my hand down her pants without her permission.’

Ron turned to look at Hermione. “Just let me finish crushing Ginny then I’ll join you.”

Ginny used Ron’s distraction to move her knight a square to the left so it could cover her next move. “Best of luck with that.”

Hermione had to resist the urge to laugh as Ginny managed to move her piece without him noticing that she’d moved or that she’d just cost him the game. “No hurry.” She gave Ginny a smile after Ron turned back to look at the board. ‘I guess that’s one way to beat him in chess, cheat.’

“Check,” Ginny said enthusiastically as she moved her bishop to put Ron in check.

“You’ve fallen for my trap…” he trailed off as he realized her knight was blocking his counter attack which meant that he couldn’t actually avoid her bishop. “When did you move your knight there?”

“A while ago,” Ginny lied as she stood up. “I believe that’s checkmate.”

Ron stared at the board in disbelief as if it had betrayed him for several seconds before he pulled his attention back to Ginny. “Next time.”

“Sure, next time,” Ginny agreed with a shrug.

“Let me grab my robes the hallways are always cold,” Ron muttered as he headed for the stairs, trying to figure out how he’d gotten distracted enough that Ginny won.

Hermione grinned as she walked over and took Ron’s seat, knowing he’d take a couple minutes. She watched him vanish up the stairs then said in a whisper, “I’m not sure if I should laugh or tell you off for cheating.”

Ginny smirked as she noticed the amusement in her friend’s voice. “Laugh, I do.”

“I’m sure he’ll figure it out eventually.”

Ginny shrugged. “Probably, until then I’m going to enjoy getting some revenge for all the times he won growing up. I wouldn’t care if he wasn’t so smug about it, it’s just a game.”

“Like Quidditch?” Hermione teased innocently.

Ginny smirked as she flipped Hermione off. “Not even close, quidditch players can make a very nice living. Chess, not so much, at least not in the wizarding world.”

“Point,” Hermione admitted. “One thing I’m curious about, how did you keep his pieces from screaming about you cheating?”

Ginny gave the pieces on Ron’s side of the board a rather pointed look. “We have an understanding, they don’t rat me out, I don’t grind them into powder. Everyone still remembers that pawn, don’t they?”

“Yes, Miss Ginny, Sir!” the pieces practically chorused.

“That actually works?” Hermione asked as she noticed Harry rushing down the stairs with a rather grim look on his face.

“It does for me...” Ginny trailed off as Harry stalked over to where they were standing. “What’s wrong?”

Harry whispered, “Luna is outside her dorm and there are a pack of girls following her.”

Ginny scowled. “Probably the pack of Nargles she’s been complaining about.”

“Nargles?” Hermione asked.

“Yeah, the girls stealing her stuff and harassing her, let’s go,” Ginny stated as she headed for the door.

“It’s pretty close to curfew…” Hermione pointed out as Harry turned and stalked after Ginny, the pair mirrors of each other. ‘This can’t end well.’

0o0o0

“Looney, if I didn’t know better I’d think you were avoiding us,” one of the five girls taunted as they advanced toward Luna.

Luna plastered a smile on her face as she looked at the pack of idiots that had been harassing her off and on since she’d started Hogwarts. “Nope, just looking for some wrackspurts.” Her smile got a bit more real as she saw Harry, Hermione, and Ginny walk around the corner behind the girls. 

She was struck by how much like a pair of stalking lions Harry and Ginny looked. She was a bit surprised neither had bared their teeth or roared from the expressions on their faces. Hermione on the other hand... looked like a mother wondering how much blood she was going to have to clean up.

“See, that’s why you have no friends,” one of the other girls pointed out in a sickeningly sweet voice.

“That’s not true, I have friends,” Luna said softly, actually pitying them for a moment.

One of the other girls snorted. “Oh please, the Weasleys are so poor, Ginny’s probably just hoping for a couple of knuts.”

“Nah, we’re poor, not greedy,” Ginny pointed out with a touch of dark glee as the girls spun and looked behind them, rather shocked that they hadn’t heard the three of them sneak up on them.

The girl gulped as she took an involuntary step back as she noticed the look in the redhead’s eyes, it didn’t bode well for her continued good health. “Shit!”

The sixth year snorted. “Grow a spine, there are only three of them and I’m a sixth year.”

‘You really should be counting the girl behind you,’ Luna thought to herself as she watched the confrontation unfolding in front of her.

Ginny smirked as she pointed at Harry. “We have a Harry and we’re not afraid to use him.”

“Oh please, the guy that thinks he dueled Voldemort?” She sneered. 

Harry grinned slightly as he realized his reputation could work for him for once. “Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t.”

“What?” the sixth year asked, unsure which he was claiming.

“Let’s assume for a minute that I’m lying about Voldemort, what does that say about me?”

“That you’re a liar?” one of the fourth year girls asked.

“Sure, but it would also mean that I’m insane enough to lie about something that terrifies the wizarding world, while carrying the dead body of a Triwizard competitor… and got away with it.” Harry grinned as he noticed two of the fourth years back up a bit more. “If I’m willing to do that, what makes you think I’m not willing to lie about you falling up a flight of stairs or running into a door repeatedly?”

The sixth year snorted. “You’re assuming you can take us in a fight.”

“Without a doubt,” Harry said, as if discussing the color of his tie.

“Now I know you’re delusional,” she blustered. 

“Maybe, but consider this, I won the Triwizard Tournament, I out flew a dragon, made it to the bottom of the lake, rescued my hostage and made it through a maze of monsters without any real trouble. So the question you have to ask is, do you really think you can compare to any of the challenges I have already faced?” Harry asked as his glare swept over the pack of bitches.

One of the girls spoke up, “Miss Granger is a prefect, she won’t let you attack us.”

Hermione scowled at the girl that had just finished speaking. “There are two ways we can handle this, option one, we walk back to Flitwick’s office and you confess to harassing Luna or option two.”

“What’s option two?” the sixth year asked, amused that they thought they could beat her. “You try to attack us? I can’t see that going over very well.”

“I don’t have to attack you, I just have to take Luna and leave. It’s a bit of a walk back to the Ravenclaw tower, so I’m afraid I won't be able to report the unsanctioned duels going on in the halls until I reach the tower,” Hermione said, sounding innocent and earnest, despite the evil grin she was sporting.

Ginny spoke up, “Just for the record, if we’re going to get expelled, we’re going to make it worth it.”

“Worth it?” one of the other girls asked more than a little unnerved by the look in Ginny’s eyes.

“Hermione, the time please,” Harry said, knowing she would get what he meant. 

Hermione reached into her pocket and pushed the button and froze time. “Do you actually have a plan?”

“Yeah, we replace their wands with fakes then we haul them to Flitwick,” Harry replied as he started pulling fake wands out of his bag. “If they refuse, we stun the hell out of them, freeze time again and swap their wands back.”

Hermione looked at the five fake wands Harry pulled out of his bag. “Why did you buy five fake wands?”

“I didn’t, Fred and George gave them to me as samples when I mentioned wanting to prank some Slytherins.”

“They gave you five fake wands, why?” Hermione asked in disbelief. “It can’t be just to prank some Slytherins, as they like to be present to enjoy the results.” 

Harry shook his head. “I’m not sure I can answer that without you shouting at me.” He decided not to mention that he had far more than just five.

“Why is that?” Hermione asked, wondering what Harry had traded or agreed to.

“I might have invested in their company,” Harry admitted with a smirk.

“How much?”

“The winnings from the Triwizard Tournament,” Harry replied with amusement, enjoying the look of disbelief on her face.

Hermione laughed. “You gave them a thousand galleons? Mrs. Weasley is going to kill you,” she joked, knowing that Mrs. Weasley would get over it... eventually.

Harry smiled as he tapped on of the fake wands against the sixth year girl’s wand and it changed shape and color to match her wand. “To be honest, I invested the money.” He swapped the fake wand for her real wand then stuck her real wand in his robe’s pocket. “Nothing was going to stop them from opening a joke shop, it might have taken them longer but it was going to happen. Besides, if I was worried about money, I’d be robbing the Death Eaters or at least Gringotts.”

“Point,” Hermione admitted as he finished replacing the rest of the wands.

He waited for a moment as he watched Hermione.

“What?” she asked.

“Not going to grope Ginny or possibly Luna?” he asked, trying not to sound hopeful and succeeding… mostly. 

Hermione blushed. “I don’t know what came over me,” she admitted sheepishly.

“Yeah, I have an idea about that,” he said, relieved the book’s effect had worn off.

“What is it?” she asked eagerly. 

“The book you were not supposed to read for longer than an hour…” he suggested.

“Yes?”

“You read it for a bit longer than an hour…” he said seriously. 

“I…” Hermione sighed as she realized that she’d lost track of time while reading the book. “Magic book, gotcha.”

“At least you didn’t kill any chickens,” he said cheerfully, satisfied the effects of ignoring the book’s warnings were short lived and making a mental note to follow the rules to the letter himself. 

“There is that. Don’t worry I’ll ask before I grope her next time,” Hermione assured him.

“Sounds reasonable,” Harry agreed.

“Ready to restart time?” Hermione asked as she got back into position.

Harry stepped back to where he was standing. “Ready.”

Hermione reached her hand into her pocket and pushed the button on her watch. “Time to haul them to Flitwick.”

“Or you can resist, please resist,” Ginny said with gleeful look in her eyes which caused the girls to shudder as they realized it wasn’t worth getting into a fight with someone that could charge a dragon without blinking... and Ginny.

They’d seen what she could do when someone pissed her off. Hell, even the twins wouldn’t prank her, and not just because she was family, Ron was proof enough of that.

Everyone was a bit disappointed that the group of girls went willingly including the sixth year that would have liked to start something, thankfully for her health, she’d realized that attacking a prefect wouldn’t have worked out even if they had won.

0o0o0

Ginny yawned as she flopped down on the chair next to the fireplace. “That was almost enough to make me wish we’d dosed that pack of rats with Veritaserum.”

Harry shrugged. “Would have been easier, if a bit illegal.”

“At least Flitwick didn’t buy their story,” Hermione replied as she handed Ginny a bottle of butterbeer.

“I’m not sure it will matter judging from the sixth year’s smirk when he wasn’t looking,” Ginny complained then took a drink of the butterbeer. “She’s too sure they won’t get into any real trouble not to have some way for them to get out of it.”

Hermione said, “In that case, we should probably look into setting up a small dueling club now that Umbridge is gone. I’d like our friends to be able to take care of these little matters on their own, just in case we aren’t around to help.”

Harry raised his eyebrows. “Who are we going to get to run the dueling club…” he trailed off as he realized Hermione and Ginny were both looking at him with smirks on their faces. “Why me?”

“You’ve managed to live through everything so far and you’re better than I am at Defense,” Hermione said honestly.

“I’m just a fourth year,” Ginny pointed out as he turned his head to look at her.

“Fine, I’ll see what I can figure out over the weekend,” Harry grumbled good naturedly.

“Brillant.” Ginny took another drink of her butterbeer then glanced at the clock on the wall. “I should probably get some sleep.”

“First... if I accidentally felt you up while affected by a mind altering charm, would you forgive me?” Hermione asked, curious about her thoughts on the matter.

Ginny laughed. “In the unlikely event that you get magically manipulated, sure.”

“Brilliant…” Hermione said relieved then blurted out the question that had been in the back of her mind since seeing the Hag’s cookbook, “One more question, if we found an interesting ritual that would give us power, would you mind terribly if we stripped and ate you? We’d provide dinner afterwards as well.”

“Who is we?” Ginny asked more than a bit curious about Hermione’s joke.

“Harry and myself,” Hermione explained.

Ginny got a far off look in her eyes and began to blush. “I think… I might be okay with that,” she said eyes darting over to see if Harry was listening.

Harry blinked a few times, a poleaxed expression on his face, before slowly grinning in a way that caused Ginny to rub her thighs together. 

“And on that note, I believe I need a shower,” Ginny said. “We can discuss… rituals another time.”

Harry watched with amusement as Ginny ran off. He waited until she was up the stairs before he whispered, “You realize she was talking about sex, right?”

“Doesn’t matter, she agreed,” Hermione pointed out. “Besides, nothing says we can’t do both, right?”

“That’s…” Harry trailed off as he realized she made a good point, in the grand scheme of things, cooking and eating a witch for magic was no worse than cooking and eating a phoenix or a unicorn, especially if they never died in the first place.

0o0o0

‘Three more steps,’ Harry mentally complained as Filch paused and scanned the hallway suspiciously. He felt his breath hitch as Filch looked right at him. ‘Shit, how the hell did he spot me?’ He had to resist the urge to sigh in relief as Filch reached up and picked his nose then started walking again, completely oblivious to his presence. ‘I need to figure out a way to freeze the paintings.’ He waited until Filch walked past where he was pressed up against the wall then carefully stuck the tip of his wand out of his cloak, aimed at the man’s back, and whispered. “Stupify.”

He smiled as Filch collapsed to his knees then fell forward unconscious.

“We should be able to fix his nose,” Hermione whispered as she slipped out from under Harry’s invisibility cloak and walked over to check on the unconscious caretaker. She gave his arm a gentle poke then a not so gentle shove. “He’s out.”

“So far so good,” Harry agreed in a whisper, not wanting the portraits to hear anything or be able to place their voices.

Hermione pulled her watch out of her pocket and touched it to the back of Filch’s neck then pushed the button. She reached down and checked his pulse then smiled when she found that he wasn’t frozen. “So far so good.”

Harry pulled his hood back as he walked over. “Let’s hurry before he wakes up.”

“If he twitches, stun him again,” Hermione replied as she pulled a bed sheet out of her bag and spread it on the floor.

“Aye captain,” Harry said sarcastically as he studied the rune covered ritual circle that Hermione had carefully inked on the sheet.

“So hard to find good minions these days,” Hermione joked as she grabbed Filch’s arms.

Harry snickered as he put his wand in his pocket then grabbed Filch’s feet. “That’s because you don’t pay us enough.”

“I pay you?” Hermione asked with mock surprise as they lifted him into the middle of the circle with a bit of difficulty. “He’s heavier than he looks.”

“Let’s hope this works,” Harry replied as he helped her straighten out the sheet so she could get started.

Hermione hit Filch with a second stunner just to make sure he’d stay unconscious for the entire ritual then pulled a rubber tube out of her bag. She carefully threaded the tube down his throat and into his stomach then grabbed the container of minced unicorn heart and a funnel from her bag.

Harry looked away as Hermione started pouring the silvery liquid into the funnel. “At least he won’t remember this part.”

“It’s for the best,” Hermione agreed as she worked on getting more of the silvery sludge down the funnel and into his stomach so she could start the ritual.

Harry spend the next couple of minutes doing his best to distract himself with occlumency exercises until Hermione pulled the tube out of his throat and started casting. He turned to watch as Hermione went through the ritual to turn Filch into a wizard or at least give him a boost to his magic. 

Hermione was more than a touch surprised when she finished the ritual and nothing particularly noteworthy happened, no flash of light, no twisting of bones, or even silver skin. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say the ritual failed but I can feel his magic, it’s much stronger than it was.”

“We should probably give it a day or so before we use the process on Luna in case there are side effects that the reset doesn’t cure.”

Hermione glanced down at her ritual sheet. “Let’s get things cleaned up then we’ll lean him up against a wall and hit him with an enervate.”

“Sounds like a plan, any idea what we’re going to do with the rest of our evening?” Harry asked as he helped Hermione move Filch off the sheet.

“I was thinking about finishing off the occlumency book then working on my curse breaking skills so we can go through the stuff from Borgin and Burkes,” Hermione replied as she folded up the sheet and stuffed it in her bag.

“I’d be up for that,” Harry agreed.