Hermione Granger and the Paradigm Shift

Chapter 8 - Part 1

Hermione arose earlier than normal the next day but kept to her promise of delaying her mirror research until after they met as a group. Instead, she used the time to pen a letter to Klaus Dagworth asking for his advice regarding Kreacher. Harry had offered Hedwig's services the night prior and the owl seemed particularly willing to help the next day when she called her down from the roost, giving her an overly affectionate nibble on the ear before taking flight. Hermione idly wondered what Crookshanks and Hedwig were up to.

The remainder of the day seemed to pass at an excruciatingly slow pace as she forced herself not to work on the mirror project beyond brainstorming topics for their planned discussion that night. It was very frustrating and Harry seemed to pick up on her irritation. He seemed to find it quite humorous.

Finally, it was time to meet and she and Harry were ensconced in a corner of the Gryffindor common room, waiting on Ron's arrival.

"All right there, Hermione?" Harry asked in amusement after she had checked her watch for what felt like the millionth time. They had agreed to meet at 7:00 and it was now...she checked again...7:05. She idly wondered if Ron was purposely late to annoy her.

"Shut up, Harry," she replied, "if Dunderhead doesn't show up in the next few minutes I'm starting without him."

Harry nodded in agreement, smiling at her behavior. "I forgot to tell you, he asked if Lavender could join us and I said it was all right."

Her annoyance level rose at the news of the girl's inclusion. Unlike the Prince's spells this needed to be as secret as possible...and as well as they'd been getting on lately Hermione couldn't think of a thing the girl could possibly add to the discussion.

"Don't worry," Harry consoled as if he could read her thoughts, "I told Ron she will have to keep what we are doing confidential. Ron said he would have a word and I'll mention it when they get here."

Hermione nodded in thanks and tamped down the anxiety that was now growing in her consciousness. 'Be careful what you wish for,' she mused, realizing she was the one who had encouraged Harry to take a more active role in their projects. Losing even a bit of control over the trio's planning efforts had turned out to be much more maddening than she had anticipated.

"Here they come," Hermione advised as she spotted the couple entering the common room. Whatever Ron had said seemed to have worked as Lavender looked very nervous.

The pair quickly took seats and Harry discreetly cast Muffliato before speaking.

"Right, we all know what we are here to work on but I just want to make it clear to everyone that this isn't like the spells we worked through. This needs to remain a secret between us four. Everyone agree?"

Hermione thought it was a nice touch for Harry to address the comment to the entire group even though it was really meant for Lavender. The girl was nervous enough already and directing his comments solely toward her would only have made it worse. Not for the first time she thought about what a natural leader Harry was...especially after getting some experience at it with Dumbledore's Army. He was so charismatic and genuine...you couldn't help but l-...want to follow him.

While she and Ron methodically nodded their agreement, Lavender looked a bit confused.

"Are we just promising? I thought we'd need to sign something like Dumbledore's Army?" Lavender questioned in surprised disbelief.

It wasn't a bad idea, Hermione mused. Maybe it would be good to write up something so there would be consequences...nothing as severe or permanent as the DA agreement...maybe-

Her thoughts were interrupted by Harry's quick reply. "That won't be necessary," he answered kindly. "We didn't know everyone who joined the DA well enough to trust them. We trust you to keep it a secret...isn't that right, Hermione?"