Castle Guard by greenflowerpot

Chapter 1

- NOT MY STORY!! ALL CREDITS TO @greenflowerpot ON A03!!
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In Hermione's defense, some ingredients simply had to be gathered by moonlight.

She should not have been blamed for this being the case, just as she should not have been blamed for the fact that mother and father still refused to permit her out of the castle at night, even knowing that Hermione had under-moonlight ingredients to collect. They had been very strict about her curfew ever since she had nearly suffocated while trying to find hinkypunk eggs ("the quicksand incident", as it soon became known). The presence of Royal Guards down on the paths below Hermione's bedroom attested to as much.

Luckily for Hermione, the guards mostly focused on the door, leaving the gardens below her windows less surveilled.

Every night for three weeks, Hermione had been clambering out of said window and down a rope she made of bedsheets knotted together. From there it was a brisk, brief walk to the neighboring river, where she would trudge through a bit of mud to procure a fresh snippet of Devil's Snare blossom under the light of the midnight moon. One snippet was needed a day for the twenty-four days of the potion's brew cycle, and the snippet had to be freshly picked—gathering a bunch at once wouldn't do.

For weeks this process had been going seamlessly and Hermione had no reason to anticipate that this night would be any different. Which is why it was most startling when she made it all the way down the side of the castle wall only to turn in the normally empty garden and find a member of the Royal Guard watching her.

"Oh, bugger," Hermione said.

"Your highness."

He had the nerve to sound amused.

Hermione looked up at him, irritated. The guard was quite tall, but other than that it was too dark for her to see his features.

"I have a quick errand to attend to," Hermione said, trying to walk past him.

"My apologies," he said, stepping into her path. "All members of the Royal Guard are under strict orders to prevent you from leaving the castle after dark."

"I'm—I'm permitted to go out tonight," lied Hermione.

The guard looked at her for a moment before turning his gaze up the castle wall to the rope of bedsheets hanging out of Hermione's window. He did not say anything.

"Oh, alright," she huffed. "I'm not allowed out. But I'm making this potion—an improved recipe on Pepperup Potion, to be precise—and I need Devil's Snare blossom. Picked under moonlight, you see. And I know it's against the rules but I'll only be a few minutes."

"Devil's Snare blossom?" he repeated. Then, a short pause. "Is that to offset the nausea in the original recipe?"

Hermione's eyes widened. Finally, someone who understood!

"Yes, that's exactly right!"

"Interesting. Wouldn't you need to add the blossom multiple days in a row for it to make a meaningful difference?"

"I have been! I've been going out every night for the last twenty-one days," Hermione said, pleased. "And I only need to do so for three more days before this phase of brewing is complete. So now that you understand—"

"Hold on. You've been sneaking out of the castle every night for twenty-one days?"

"Um..."

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to escort you back inside," he said, his words suddenly clipped. "You should also know that we added a new station point here as of yesterday morning, so this particular blind spot is no more. "