In Wisdom's Creed

Here we go! Chapter Five!

And hot off the back of Chapter Four!

Since I've got a mostly-working computer again,
I thought I should use it whilst I can.

The title for this Chapter is "Hope's The Charm".

And the quote is:

"Hope, of all ills that men endure,
The only cheap and universal cure."
-- Abraham Cowley

Please review!

Email me at secretlysnape@yahoo.co.uk if you want to know when I update!

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"Hermione?"
"Hermione!"

Hermione looked up, shaken out of her reverie.
Ron was standing over her, looking impatient.

"Oh! Hi Ron, sorry, I was thinking about something."

"You were miles away there, 'Mione. I've been calling you for ages."

She smiled, the sound of the common room coming back to her. Her thoughts had been about Mr Malfoy, and to some extent Professor Snape.
She still couldn't believe he was being so horrible about it.

"Sorry Ron. I was, well, thinking about my Arithmancy essay..."

"All you think about is work you know, but that's ok, cos it's about work."

Hermione blinked. "You want to talk to me about school work?"

Ron grinned and nodded. "Yeah, remember, you said you'd help Harry and me learn that new altering spell from Transfiguration?"

"Oh of course I did! I'm so sorry, I completely forgot."

"That's OK, want to come do it now? Harry thinks he might have got the hang of it, but I saw his mouse; its bones were definitely still boney."

She smiled and stood, gathering the books from around her.
They were a combination of Defence Against the Dark Arts, Potions and Charms books.

She paused, and looked at them frowning. So far she thought the best chances they had against the Curse would come from Defence Against the Dark Arts, a Counter Charm, or a Potion.
She sighed realising that if she had to work on a potion, Professor Snape would no doubt have to be involved.

"Hermione?" Ron put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you ok?"

"Umm.. yeah..."

Ron looked at her worried. "Is this about Snape? He was a real git to you in Potions this afternoon."

Hermione half smiled. "Yeah... I know he's not very nice, but I guess I'm just not used to that kind of thing.."

Ron smiled. "Don't worry about it, he's like that to Harry all the time!"

Hermione smiled to Ron and turned her face away from him, making a show of collecting her books.
She didn't think Snape had any real reason to be horrible to her, not that he had a reason to be horrible to Harry, but she'd done something that could be really good for the world.
She caught herself from sighing and finished clearing her book.

Standing she grinned at Ron.
"Let's go see how wiggly Harry's mouse is, shall we?"

Hermione spent the rest of the evening with Harry and Ron, mostly joking about the state of their mice.
As a result it wasn't until she was getting ready for bed and picking out a book to read that she remembered Snape and even Mr Malfoy.

She resolved to ask Professor McGonagall if she could visit Mr Malfoy tomorrow to ask him some questions.

She picked out a charms book and took it to bed with her, deciding that if she could, she would beat this curse with a charm, which would get right up Snape's nose.


-- X --

"Well, all a curse is is a charm really isn't it, Professor? So we could look at coming up with a counter-charm to it."

Professor McGonagall paused in the doorway to the classroom. Hermione and Professor Flitwick had been in there for over an hour now, looking through books and no doubt discussing ideas, but it was getting late and she knew Hermione wanted to speak to Lucius today, and there was no way she was going to let Hermione go there alone.

She listened for a moment, Hermione's excited chatter occasionally joined by comments from an also excited Flitwick.

"Ah but Professor, it's not just a simple charm, or even a normal complex one, because you have to really have the desire to hurt inside you to do an Unforgivable... so maybe there's some kind of body chemistry reaction as well..."

"Body Chemistry? That's not very magic, Hermione!"

McGonagall knocked lightly on the door.
Hermione jumped and turned around quickly.
"Oh! Professor McGonagall! You scared me then!" Exclaimed Hermione.

McGonagall smiled at her.
"How's it going, dear?"

Hermione looked at Flitwick and grinned.
"Well... we've got a few ideas..."

"Oh Minerva! Hermione has lots of ideas! It's wonderful working with her like this!" Squeaked Flitwick excitedly.

Hermione blushed and stared at the books in front of her.

McGonagall smiled. She knew Hermione would love this kind of project, and she also knew she'd excel at it. She worried for her though. The subject was a very dangerous one.

"I know you want to see Lucius today, Hermione, so I thought I'd take you up to him. I don't want you to be alone with him at the moment, so whenever you see him there will be a Professor present. Hopefully when you get settled into this project more, we can have the Professors you're working with go with you more."

Hermione smiled gratefully. "Thank you, Professor McGonagall. I understand the need to have someone with me. If the curse takes over, I wouldn't want to be alone with Mr Malfoy."
She shivered at the thought.

"You're a very clever girl, Hermione. Let's hope that with your help, we can make sure this curse is broken quickly."