Contingent | D.M. + H.G.

Chapter 20: Intense

"Ginny?" Hermione asked. "Where'd you come from?"

"I could hear you lot all the way in the hallway. Next time, use a silencing charm. It would benefit everyone in the Tower," she'd said, rolling her eyes.

Hermione sighed. "You have a point." She rubbed at the bridge of her nose, getting back to the conversation at hand. "But he still doesn't need to be screaming. I can understand why he's mad, but his level of volume is unnecessary."

"Well, regardless, you all need to shut. Up," Ginny had said. "Relax for Godric sake. You won't get past this, or anywhere near solving this if you don't all work together and actually talk about everything.."

"She is right, as much as I hate to admit it," Ron said sheepishly. Hermione watched as he heaved a heavy sigh, realizing what he had to do. His eyes met hers as they darted between the two opposite him. "Okay, catch me up to speed."

Well, that had been easier than expected. Maybe he hadn't really come to terms with it yet, but she would worry about that later. For now, she had a failsafe to set.

-

Hermione didn't often feel out of control, but this was one exception.

She felt slightly sick to her stomach, the way it was all tied up in knots made her think that she truly needed to worry about her health. But she knew that it was all in her head. She had a lot to deal with – she needed to get the boys back on the same page that she was; not to mention, she still had to sit down with everyone and try to convince Harry that Draco wasn't a true threat.

That was undoubtedly going to be an interesting conversation.

Truth be told, she was definitely concerned. She didn't know how Harry would take it when he was finally caught up to speed, and she figured that Ron would only fight it because of the Malfoy-Weasley long standing family feud. But regardless of all of that history, she knew that she had something she needed to fight for.

Hermione realized with a start that she would inevitably go down fighting. The unknown part of that equation was who it would be. The last thing she wanted was to go against the boys for anything, but if it came down to it, she knew that she would

And she'd been fighting Voldemort and the Death Eaters for the better part of five years. That wouldn't be a new battle, but having a new ally on her side, someone – something – new to fight for would be a complete curveball.

Coming to terms with everything, she knew that the first thing on her list was that she desperately needed to get through to the boys.

Truth be told, everyone was upset with each other. She was upset with Ron (although she knew that he wasn't exactly overreacting), Ron was upset with both her and Harry, and Draco was upset with... well, everybody. She had yet to see a Draco Malfoy who wasn't sulking, brooding, or angsty.

She huffed indignantly to herself, sucking the side of her cheek in as she bit on it. Knowing Draco, that was more unlikely than Voldemort actually managing to kill Harry.

Regardless, Ron's perceived betrayal was hurting their progress, and they didn't have time for delays like this. Granted, it was technically her fault if you really thought about it, but she pushed that out of her mind. That was not the thing that she needed to be focusing on right now.

Taking one more deep breath, she decided that she needed to get herself together. Sitting up and walking over to her mirror, she stared at herself in the eyes.

"I am Hermione Granger," she said at her reflection. "I can do anything. Including dealing with these complete morons even though all I'm trying to do is help." She pushed a stray hair out of her face, setting her shoulders back and lifting her chin just a touch. Enough to find herself again.