Anyone But Me

Chapter Forty-Five

The anxiety that twisted a knot in her stomach did not let up all through break, but only intensified as the minutes ticked by and neither of the boys she kept an eye out for made an appearance. She found herself being incredibly grateful for the distraction the rest of the Quidditch team provided Ginny, Harry and even Ron. After a quick check in, where she did the whole "obligatory-complaints-about-Snape" thing, she was allowed to eat and worry in relative peace.

When she entered the classroom again she was surprised to find Draco already seated and working on grading another essay. The room was eerily quiet, as if someone had cast the Muffliato charm on her instead of the room. She saw Snape shift in his chair and both their quills scratched away but no sounds reached her ears as she made her way back over to her previous location. It almost startled her when the legs of the chair did, in fact, scrape against the stone floor as she pulled it out.

She glanced at both Draco and Snape, just to double check that they were not experiencing the same impairment, before she sat and resumed her assignment. The sound of her rustling the papers forward made her almost certain that she was in some sort of invisible bubble, where she could hear everything on the inside but nothing beyond its reach. A deep breath filled her lungs as she tried to stop herself from outwardly panicking. She knew she should alert Snape and head to Pomfrey immediately... But what if he thought she was faking just to get out of her punishment?

There did not seem to be any other effects than her sudden selective hearing loss... And chances were that whatever it was would dissipate on its own given enough time. If not, she could always make the visit after her time had been served, giving the still scowling man at the front of the room no reason to add on to her almost completed sentence.

Nearly an hour (and three very mediocre ramblings) later she had quit checking to see if her predicament had gotten any better. If anything it made it easier for her to concentrate solely on the task at hand. The tedium she had been dreading actually helped fill the minutes that would have otherwise been devoted to agonizing over what Draco and Theo's absence at lunch could possibly mean.

So she was thoroughly engrossed in Dennis Creevey's detailed explanation on how an advanced shielding charm placed on the interior of likely places for an infestation would be sufficient, when a loud bang vibrated her ear drums. A violent confirmation that she had been correct in the dwindling effects of whatever had caused her short-lived deafness, but she didn't have time to ruminate over the who, what or why of that entire situation.

Her body reacted instinctively: going into fight mode at the perceived threat long before her conscious mind could take in any added stimuli. In the next second she was on her feet, facing the door, her hand on her wand in the pocket of her thick wrap cardigan. A spell on the tip of her tongue to deflect any incoming curse...

Filch stood in the doorway, his shoulders heaving as he struggled to catch his breath, no doubt from running all the way from whatever had caused the explosion. His eyes widened at her reaction to his appearance but he ignored her as he made his way up the aisle to whisper something to Snape. Hermione's heartbeat thundered against her ribs as her knees threatened to buckle out from underneath her from relief. She quickly sat back down in the chair at her side, afraid that if she didn't she would end up on the floor.

The two men at the front of the room started to raise their voices above hushed whispers and she struggled to hear them over the hammering in her chest. She was able to catch the words "Peeves", "Dozens" and "Dungbombs" and was able to guess what was causing the caretaker such distress. Her hand shook from the sudden burst of useless adrenaline as she pretended to go back to the sentence she had been reading.

"He is lobbing them at students, Severus! You need to do something..."

"I still do not see how that is my problem. As you can see I am quite busy."