Chapter Six

'Are you sure you're ready for this?' Severus asked Hermione anxiously. 'You've only been learning Occlumency for a few weeks.'

'Yes, I'll be fine,' she reassured him. 'None of my friends can do Legilimency anyway.'

Hermione was keeping her promise to help Severus protect the school. If her classmates would let her, she was going to rejoin Dumbledore's Army. Severus was facing constant low-level mutiny from the students and, accepting that he could not stop it, had asked Hermione to monitor the disruption and report back to him – before the Carrows got to hear about any of it. It wouldn't have been possible before, but now he had gained her confidence, and she was fairly proficient in Occlumency, they had decided to go ahead.

They were both particularly glad her Occlumency skills were strong after last night. Nothing more had happened – they were both too dazed to take it any further, and Hermione had a feeling Severus hadn't wanted to push his luck. But, as Severus had explained, using Occlumency allowed one to lie more fluently, and they could not afford Hermione to blush or stammer if asked questions about her personal life.

'I'll be fine,' Hermione repeated. 'But if I don't go, I'm going to be late for Charms.'

By running all the way down from the second floor, Hermione managed to arrive breathless, but on time, for Charms. Ever since he had cried while signing her marriage register, Professor Flitwick had been extra-nice to her, and he awarded her fifty points when she managed to master the Gemino Curse in five minutes.

'Cool, sir!' called Seamus Finnegan. 'Does it work on Galleons?'

'Alas not, Mr Finnegan,' squeaked Professor Flitwick. 'Money is one of the five exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration. Otherwise the world economy would collapse.'

The entire class gave a groan of disappointment.

After the class, Hermione approached Neville. 'Neville,' she said in a whisper, 'I'm really sorry about you being sent into the Forbidden Forest!'

'No problem, Hermione,' Neville said, grinning. 'We had a good laugh with Hagrid.'

'I felt awful, though,' Hermione continued, steering Neville by the elbow away from the rest of the class pouring out into the corridor. 'I yelled at Snape about it.'

'Merlin's beard!' said Neville, shocked, 'Are you OK?'

'Yes, he just asked if I'd rather he handed you over to the Carrows, so I dropped it. Anyway, that's why I wanted to talk to you,' Hermione continued. 'I'm sick of it, so I want to rejoin Dumbledore's Army.' She looked hopefully up at Neville.

'Ah,' said Neville, looking uncomfortable. 'I'd love you to, Hermione, but what if Snape finds out what you're up to?'

'He won't,' replied Hermione, beaming. 'He's taught me Occlumency; he won't be able to see anything I don't want him too. What an idiot!' she added brightly.

'Why's he done that?' asked Neville, his eyes widening.

Hermione giggled. 'So no-one finds out what he looks like in that old grey nightshirt of his, I should think!'

Neville's jaw dropped. 'Hermione, he hasn't... you haven't... have you?'

Hermione determinedly suppressed her memories of kissing Severus last night and let out a deliberate giggle. 'In that awful old nightshirt? No way!'

*

Hermione took her contact Galleon out of her pocket and showed it to Severus. 'Well,' she told him, 'I'm in. What do you want me to do?'

'Firstly, let me know what they're planning, so I know what to expect and can protect them from the Carrows – as far as possible,' he added grimly. 'Secondly, teaching them Occlumency would be a good idea.'

'I can't do that!' exclaimed Hermione, horrified. 'I've only just learnt it myself! Besides, I'd need to know Legilimency to make sure they were doing it right.'

Severus considered. 'Maybe I am asking too much of you. What would you feel confident teaching?'

Hermione thought for a moment, then said slowly, 'Well, Harry taught us all how to cast a Patronus in our fifth year, but I can get mine to speak now. I suppose that might be useful.'

'You can produce a vocal Patronus?' said Severus. 'That would certainly be of use. It is normally the last exercise taught at NEWT level Defence, but Amycus Carrow is hardly following the approved syllabus.' He looked down at her with respect in his eyes. 'I am impressed. You could already teach NEWT in all your subjects, Hermione. You know,' he mused, 'I have often wondered if the Ministry matches candidates for the Marriage Law by intellect.'

'Do you really think we're equally matched intellectually?' asked Hermione, inordinately pleased at the thought.

'Don't fish for compliments, Hermione. It is not possible to learn everything by quoting large chunks of the textbook verbatim. You must be innately magically powerful to be top of the class consistently, as you are. What are you smirking at?' he asked suspiciously.

'Plato's three levels of pleasure.'

'I beg your pardon?'

Hermione picked up her philosophy book from the coffee table, flicking through it rapidly. 'The three levels: eros, philia and agape. Level One,' she said, blushing, but continuing resolutely, 'sex: sensual and physical pleasure. Level Two: aesthetic pleasure, beauty and marriage. Level Three: intellectual pleasure unsullied by physical interaction.' She looked up from the book, her face a fiery red. 'We seem to be doing them the wrong way round.'

At that moment the Galleon in Severus' hand started glowing. 'You're going to be late for your first meeting if you don't hurry up,' he said, handing it back without looking at her.

*

'OK,' Hermione announced to the Room of Requirement at large, 'you can all cast a Patronus, can't you?'

Nods and murmurs confirmed this. People were still looking suspicious of her, but Neville had promised he would explain everything to them before she arrived – everything she had told him, anyway. She hoped he had kept that promise.

'For those of you who can Apparate, making your Patronus speak takes the same sort of concentration. For all those who haven't learnt Apparition yet, I'll demonstrate.' She gazed around at the expectant, upturned faces, trying not to let her nervousness show. 'I'm going to need a separate room,' she said, speaking directly to the Room of Requirement now.

Immediately, a partition wall with a door in it appeared a little further down the Room.

'Dennis,' said Hermione, 'you go into that room. I'll send my Patronus to you, and then you come back and tell us what it said.' After the way he had been treated in the Dark Arts class, he deserved this moment to shine. Dennis nodded, then trotted happily off into the next room.

'Hermione?' asked Parvati Patil dubiously. 'You don't know what that room looks like, so how are you going to send your Patronus into it?'

'It doesn't matter about the place,' Hermione explained. 'You might not even know where the person you need to contact is. The important thing is to concentrate on the person him or herself. She thought how proud of her Severus was going to be when she told him everyone in the DA could cast a vocal Patronus, and a shining silver otter burst from her wand.

'Now I'm going to concentrate on Dennis and what I want to say to him,' she told the assembled students. The otter disappeared, they heard a loud shout of laughter, and a moment later, Dennis Creevey burst back into their room.

Hermione ginned at him. 'Go on, Dennis. Tell them what it said.'

Dennis glanced shyly at her. 'It said... it said, "Snape stinks!"' he giggled, then looked at Ginny, clearly embarrassed.

'Go on,' Hermione urged him.

'Then it started singing "Severus is a git" to the tune of "Weasley is our King".'

Everybody fell about laughing, and Neville clapped Hermione appreciatively on the shoulder.

Hermione smiled ruefully to herself. She felt horribly disloyal to Severus, but she seemed to have regained her friends' trust, and that was the important thing.

*

A few nights later, just as she was going to bed, Hermione felt her contact Galleon grow hot in her pocket. She took it out, read the coded message and felt her heart sink.

'What is it?' asked Severus, noticing her expression.

'The Carrows have got Euan Abercrombie chained up in the dungeons.'

'Who?' Severus asked, frowning as he tried to fit a face to the name. 'I'm losing track of the new students now I'm no longer teaching.'

'Gryffindor third year.'

'What did he do?'

'Wrote "Snape stinks" on the walls of all the boys' bathrooms, apparently. I feel so guilty. He got the idea from me.' She explained hurriedly about the DA meeting before Severus' expression could get any more thunderous.

But to her surprise, he laughed grimly. 'Unchain him and bring him to me. We will have to think of a suitable punishment for him – before the Carrows do.'

Hermione threw a cloak on against the chill of the dungeons and rushed downstairs. Euan Abercrombie gasped as she rounded the corner at a sprint, and she put a finger to her lips and mouthed, 'Shh!' urgently.

A non-verbal 'Diffindo' released his chains, but the clanking and clinking they made as they fell to the floor brought both Carrows out of the office which used to be Snape's, Alecto yelling 'Stupefy!'

Hermione threw a Shield Charm up around herself and Euan, bracing herself for a fight, be it magical or verbal.

'What the hell d'yeh think yer doing?' wheezed Amycus.

'The Headmaster wishes to speak to Euan,' Hermione said, her heart thumping wildly. She should have made Severus a contact Galleon in case she needed his help.

'We caught him, we punish him,' jeered Alecto.

Hermione swallowed. 'As the insults are personal, Professor Snape wishes to deal with this personally. He is very interested to know who has been defacing the castle walls.'

'How did yeh know he was down here?'

'One of the portraits told the Headmaster,' Hermione said, thinking quickly.

'There're no portraits down here,' Alecto pointed out.

'There are plenty on the way down here. I don't suppose Euan here kept quiet as you apprehended him, did he?' Merlin, this spying thing was mentally exhausting!

'Yer a student; yeh can't patrol the corridors!' snarled Amycus, his face very close to Hermione's. He had horrible breath.

'I was asked to by the Headmaster,' she replied, trying not to inhale. 'As I am sure you are aware, my marriage vows included the promise to obey.'

Amycus seemed to weigh up the pleasure of chaining both students to the wall, with the possibility of incurring Snape's, and by extension Voldemort's, wrath.

'All right, all right, get out of my sight, both of yeh!'

*

'Who told you to do this?' Severus barked, striding round the unfortunate Euan. The more he terrified the boy, the happier the Carrows would be when they inevitably heard about it. 'Presumably you are not the ringleader here? Whose instructions are you following?'

'Ginny Weasley's,' Euan stammered and immediately burst into tears.

Severus crossed his arms, folding the sleeves of his robes across his chest. 'I fail to see why Mr Filch should spend his valuable time cleaning up your mindless vandalism. You will clean every wall you have defaced.' His dark eyes flashed. 'Without magic. And you will write me two rolls of parchment on...'

'On why a historic building like Hogwarts shouldn't be subjected to "mindless vandalism",' supplied Hermione quickly.

'On my desk tomorrow evening, Abercrombie,' snapped Severus. 'Hermione, escort Mr Abercrombie to his common room to make sure he does not deface any more school property.'

Hermione ushered the stunned boy out of the office. When they were out of hearing of the gargoyles that guarded the magical staircase, she said, 'If I remember my third year History of Magic timetable correctly, you should be on the history of Hogwarts about now?'

Euan nodded solemnly.

'Right,' Hermione continued. 'Put in a load from Hogwarts, a History. Chapters twelve and thirteen should be useful. Then, when you've finished, point your wand at it and say 'Geminio', and it'll duplicate itself. Just take out all the stuff about graffiti, and that's your homework done for next week.'

Euan gazed up at Hermione in awe.

'Why do you think I suggested that particular essay to the Headmaster?' she asked, grinning.

*

When Hermione got back, Severus was sitting at his desk looking exhausted. By now it was two o'clock in the morning, and Hermione knew exactly how he felt.

'What am I to do with Miss Weasley?' he groaned. 'I have given her lines, detentions, cleaning duties in the hospital wing. I have even sent her into the Forbidden Forest. If she continues in this vein, I will not be able to save her from the Carrows' intervention.'

'Ban her from Hogsmeade?'

Severus considered this, rubbing his eyes against creeping exhaustion. 'Will that appear severe enough?'

'I'll start a rumour Fred and George are opening a Hogsmeade branch and that you've done it specifically to prevent her visiting her brothers.'

Severus looked impressed at the deviousness of this idea. 'Hermione, you should be in Slytherin!'

'How did you do this for twenty years?' she asked, yawning. 'I've been spying for a week and I'm exhausted!'

When, eventually, they were able to crawl into bed, Severus held out his arms to Hermione. She scooted over to his side of the bed and snuggled into his embrace. Warm, comfortable and exhausted, she was asleep before he could even consider kissing her again.

*

A/N: Apologies for the bitty nature of this chapter, but spying is a messy business!