Dangerous efforts.

Chapter 9 : The story.

She banged on the floor in her own time again, collapsing on the floor with disorientation fthe the long darkness of time travel. Shakinly, she stood in the Astronomy Tower glad it was very dark. She walked to the door, her legs protesting each step. Her inner thigh muscles screamed in protest. A goofy smile slid across her face as she reflected on what caused her soreness. Then reality hit her.

\"I shagged Snape!\" Chorused in her mind like a mantra, blocking out all other rational thought. Her nipples hardened at the memory. Hermione wobbled back to her tower on shaky legs. She approached the portrait that guarded gryffindor tower, stood there for a moment blankly before remembering the password.

\"Lemon pie.\" She whispered quietly, turning quickly when the sound of rushing footsteps reached her ears. Seeing Ron and Harry rushing towards her she gave a feeble smile.

\"Back already?\" They asked, grinning widely, not bothering to lower their voices. Hermione jumped.

\"Be quiet!\" She responded, a little put out at their exuberance. \"C\'mon, lets go in, and get a little privacy.\" She said, nodding meaningfully towards the interested look on the fat lady\'s face. Gingerly she stepped into the deserted common room.

As the portrait swung closed Harry blurted,

“How did it go? Did my dad pull down Snape’s underpants?” He fidgeted with some smudge marks on his wand, trying to smooth away the fingerprints marring it\'s finish.

Hermione wondered if her friends would ever learn the meaning of discretion, then felt, perhaps she was being a bit unfair. Casting a glance at the deserted common room she said,

“Someone might come in and hear us.” She evaded answering his question directly. \"Perhaps we should head up to the boys dormitory.\" She said instead, and turned towards the tower the boys slept in. Each step she took felt stiff, and causing a grimace of discomfort to cross her features.

“Why are you walking so strange?” Ron asked puzzled. Ron could sense she was uneasy about her visit to the past, but now he noticed that his best friend was walking as if she, well, now that was impossible wasn\'t it? Ron thought to himself. He dismissed it from his mind. Hermione wasn\'t one to do something like that.
“Am I?” Hermione said, not looking behind her. Her face was as red as a tomato. She adjusted her step and gritted her teeth to the pain the protesting muscles were shooting up into her pelvis. Walking as normally as possible, she continued up the stairscase. After they each had entered the room, Hermione turned and placed a locking charm, as well as a silencing charm on the room to ensure their complete privacy. Ron rolled his eyes at her precautions, but decided to say nothing. Hermione gingerly sat down on Harry\\rquote s bed. A groan escapted her lips as sitting down was uncomfortable.

“So?” Ron exclaimed eagerly, not noticing her discomfort.

“Well,” Hermione said teasingly, looking very satisfied. “They OWL-exam was a piece of cake.”

“Get on with you!\" Harry said, wanting to get right down to his question, \"Did he or did he not pull Snape’ s underclothes down?” Harry asked, fearing her answer to be yes. For his dad\'s sake, he hoped that he hadn\'t. Harry didn\'t know if he could accept that his dad would do something so awful.

Looking Harry in the eye Hermione answered.

“Yes he did, but,” she was interrupted by Ron, who had jumped off the bed, arms thrown in the air, a shout of glee ringing in his words.

“I knew it! I knew it! Well done, James!” Ron was so busy enjoying himself at his professor\'s expense that he didn\'t notice the look of rage that flashed in Harry\'s eyes.

“Well done?\" Harry practically shouted, \"Well done? You know what this means, don’t you Ron?” Ron’ s smile faded and looked at the angry face of his best friend.

“What does this mean, Harry?” Ron asked with a puzzled look on his face. Harry leapt from his bed, making Hermione yelp of the sudden move under her sore feminine core. Stifling her yelp, Hermione felt lucky that neither friend took notice of her odd behavior.\\par \\par \"Because, \" Harry started, emotion choking his words,

“This means, my dad wasn’t as nice as everyone said he was. He wasn’t popular because he was the ‘nice guy’ , he was popular because everybody was scared to become his next victim!” Harry finished, tears welling in his brilliant green e

Hermione felt as though she should say something to negate his interpretation. She was forming her first words when Harry cut her off.

They never knew what would happen if they said something that my dad nor Sirius or the other two didn’t like.” He ranted, pacing the floor like a caged tiger, restless, yet graceful in his anxiety. Hermione finally got a word in edgewise.

“That’s not quite true, Harry.” She shot a look of anger directly at Ron. She continued as she now had their attention.

“I saw the mirth in the eyes of the other students. They enjoyed watching Snape be humiliated. It was apparent to me that no one liked Snape.\" She paused for a breath, Ron could be heard muttering under his breath.

“That’s a huge surprise.” Hermione shot Ron a glare before returning attention to her distraught friend and continued, explaining \"Most of the students liked your dad, Remus, Sirius and even Peter.” They all shivered when she said Peter Pettigrew’s name.

“Your dad and his friends were young and restless, but they were not usually so cruel Harry. I think that had Snape not spoken ill of Lily, that he would have not goaded the others into that final humiliation. Really Harry.”

“Are you absolutely sure?\" Harry asked a glimmer of hope shining from his face. \"I mean still, what he did to Snape, I really hate it. He shouldn’t had done it. It was wrong.” Harry was taking this harder than he should, Hermione thought. She decided that Ron would be the best person to cheer him up. Taking action, she stood up, embracing Harry firmly in a hug, her slender arms clasping him tightly to her. She could smell his scent, of wind, and pine that clung to his skin. To her mortification Hermione\'s sensitive nipples tightened. Leaning away from him she kissed him lightly on the cheek and turned towards the door.

“Ron, I’ll leave Harry in your hands now. I’ll have to return this Time-Turner as soon as possible. I had it too long already.” Ron nodded.

Removing the locking and silencing charms, Hermione left the room quickly carrying Harry\'s invisibility cloak.

“C’mon Harry, sit down and drink a Butterbeer with me. You’ll feel better after that.” Harry did as he was told.

“Good luck.” The boys called out after her

She hurried down the stairs, through the common room, and out the portrait hole in a matter of moments. While heading to professor McGonagall’s office she had her first moments to ponder her strange actions. As she reached the statue of Mickey the Loony she realized that the hall was empty. Taking this as an omen, she tried spied through the hall and sneaked to the door. Hermione didn’t know Professor McGonagall\'s password, so she improvised. She thought for a moment, and reflected on the teachers\' animagus form. Smiling she said confidently,

“Catwoman.”

Hermione swallowed and sighed in relief. The door opened. She walked into the office and shut the door. Fulling intending to replace the time-turner. She pulled off the Cloak and walked over to the hearth.


~~--~~--~~--~~

Thanks for the reviews, you made me very happy.