When Hermione Fights

Tears and the Hogs Head Inn

Tears and the Hog's Head Inn

After recovering from my shock of having faced a real Death Eater for the first time on my own, I locked the passageway diligently and with routine. Compared to Snape, the unmasked Bole and Derrick had been a joke and even the sad figures at the Quidditch World Cup hadn't seemed threatening to me. Snape on the contrary... I might be brave and quite ruthless, but Snape as a Death Eater was a terrific figure and seemed ready to go over corpses. You could see that he grew into or was even born for this role.

So I started to head back to the common room, deeply in thought, preparing myself to face the questions and accusations of my friends. I didn't plan anything ahead; that would've been pointless. In battles like this you got the best results without much planning and by just reacting spontaneously. Everything always happened in a different way than you thought anyways, I almost gave up already.

Phew, I had no real desire to enter this room, but anyone who could face a Death Eater named Snape should be able to cope with the children behind that door as well, hence I took another deep breath and spoke the password. Go in and win! The common room was rarely so crowded, the tempers had apparently not calmed down yet since the unexpected appearance of Snape. As I entered an imminent silence hit me and I was appraised like prey. Hey, they were just living up to their name of 'lions'. It was as if they were on the verge of tearing me apart! I felt like I was on display, standing in the middle and all the Gryffindors were crowded together in bigger and smaller groups in corners around the room and had spoken excitedly with each other until I arrived back. There was nothing more beautiful than a scandal and the following gossip. Gossips, the whole lot, I thought contemptuously.

"Hermione!" Harry rose immediately from the couch. "What was that all about? What is going on? What did Snape want here?" he demanded vehemently, indeed very aggressively. Clearly, his temper got the best of him. His body shook visibly with suppressed rage, wonderful.

"Professor Snape, Harry!" I just couldn't leave it alone, some people gasped for air after what I'd said.

"What is going on? That he invades the tower to usher you out of here?" he shouted angrily, and Ron joined him.

"Yeah, and the way you talked to him. How could you?" Ron started to yell as well, and I could see the twins starting at the window, wanting to come to my rescue. But I wanted them to keep their cover and looked at them briefly, shaking my head. They regarded me doubtfully, but then nodded slightly and sank back down again. I took another deep breath. It felt like being on trial, right there in the middle of the room, and really every single Gryffindor was here, but Harry and Ron wouldn't let me talk about anything in private. Not yet, at least, as excited as they were right now.

"Umm, well, he just gave me a very impressive detention, that's all...?" I said brusquely, folding my arms defensively in front of my chest. It wasn't nice to be examined predatorily by the lot of them.

"Well, but you're the first one ever to be taken from the common room just for detention. He could've told you in class. The performance... was..." Harry was missing the words, but you could rely on Colin Creevey, this muggleborn, small, lousy, pompous smart arse.

"Oscar-worthy, Harry, the performance was oscar-worthy!" he said adoringly to Harry and Harry only nodded gratefully to Colin. You had to be blond, I thought very annoyed.

"Exactly, Colin, that's the right word, that does... not explain anything here!" And he invited the entire common room to join our conversation with his gesture. I wanted to hit my head against the wall. Oh, how... wonderful, thank you Snape, thank you! That revenge hit home, he'd done his thing well!