Catching Her Heart Pt. 1

Chapter 32

"What the bloody hell was that all about?" Ron asked Hermione as she met them in the hallway.

She wrinkled her nose, giving him a dirty look and then rolled her eyes at him a moment before she smiled and held up the note.

"Got it," she said in satisfaction.

"So, that's why you were sucking up to him?" Ron asked.

"Ugh!" Hermione groaned in frustration, rolling her eyes again. "I swear Ronald, you are so thick sometimes! No, I wasn't 'sucking up to him' it's called 'being nice', and that wasn't the only reason I was being nice to him, but that is part of it. Unlike some, I genuinely think he's a good teacher."

"Regardless," Harry piped up in an attempt to divert an argument in the hallway. "It's great she got it. Who else do you think would have given it to us?"

"I don't know," Ron said with a shrug.

"Nobody," Hermione said. "That's who. Everyone else would have asked too many questions, even if they do like me more than either of you two."

"Hey!" Ron said, taking offence.

Harry shrugged when the red head looked at him. "Well, it's the truth," he told his friend. "We got into too much trouble last year."

"Yeah... alright," Ron said grudgingly.

"Well, I don't know about you two," Hermione said. "But I have to go to the library."

"We'll meet you there," Harry said, and Ron gaped at him.

"Alright," Hermione said. "But you better bring your homework to avoid raising suspicion, and grab a table near the back if you can."

"Okay," Harry said. "See you in a bit."

"Do we have to?" Ron groused, but Harry elbowed him.

"Yes!" he replied, with a sharp look at the redhead.

"Okay, see you later," Hermione called and headed off to the library.

Hermione paused outside the doors, exhaling heavily as she steeled herself to face Madam Pince. She'd never done anything as underhanded as she had in getting the note from Professor Lockhart for the book she needed, but she knew that she'd need the book to find out who was behind the writing on the wall.

Unlike Ron, she didn't readily believe that Draco Malfoy was behind it, but she was hesitant, wondering if Madam Pince would see through her or not. She hoped not, and that the witch would be more enamoured of finding she was being given Gilderoy Lockhart's autograph as it were, than the request for such a book in the restricted section to a second year student.

"Oh!" Madam Pince said when Hermione presented her with the note. She blinked and dropped her hand, looking hard at Hermione before looking at the note again. "Oh! My dear! How on Earth did you get this!? Never mind. It doesn't matter." She stopped and looked at the girl again. "Do you know how long I have been trying to get this? Standing in line at every single appearance for hours only to have him leave just when I was close! Keeps to himself when he's not wandering the halls, he does. Doesn't really get together with the faculty much and never comes in here, so even though he's a teacher here now, I've not been able to get it."

The woman paused and looked at the note once more. "Oh, you are a dear!" she said, looking at Hermione again and smiled before beginning to walk off.

"Madam Pince," Hermione called after her. "I need -"

"Take whatever you like dear," Madam Pince called back with a wave of her hand, not looking at her as she wandered away, looking at the note again.

It was strange, Hermione thought as she watched the woman walk away, to see such a change come over the woman described by students to be the female version of Professor Snape, with the way she would creep around the library in an irritable mood as she policed the bookshelves for loud, misbehaving students, to see her practically glowing and singing to herself as she fawned over the autograph.