"Now that everyone has gone to bed," Hermione said later that evening after all of the Gryffindors had said their goodbyes to the Weasley twins and headed off for bed with bags of tricks in tow, "could we please have an update on Arial?"

            Fred and George were busily counting their money.  Fred held one finger up to stave her off as they finished sorting through the piles of galleons, knuts, and sickles.  "Ah," he said a few minutes later, "a regular fortune, wouldn't you say, George?"

            George nodded in agreement, "we should do this more often."

            Hermione cleared her throat.  Fred gave her a nasty glare as she started impatiently tapping her foot on the floor.  "All right, all right," he scowled.  He turned to Ron.  "You're dating her now, Ron?"  He looked at Hermione skeptically and shook his head letting out a long breath.

            "Yes," Ron said narrowing his eyes a bit while blushing furiously.

            George stepped forward, holding his hands out flat in surrender.  "Easy there Ron, he was just asking.  Anyway, we paid a visit to our two mysterious customers today."

            Ginny leaned forward.  "Please tell me you found something."

            "We found something all right," Fred sighed.  "Lara Paddington didn't turn out."

            "Yeah," said George.  "She knew us."

            "Knew you?"  Hermione said incredulously.  "I thought those were the names of people who had been to the shop that you couldn't remember."

Fred shrugged.  "We didn't remember her.  We didn't say that we knew her."

"Turns out that she used to work with dad," said George.  "Back when he first started at the ministry.  He did all sorts of errands for all the important people, you know.  She did the same sort of thing and they met."

"How did she know you, then," asked Ron.

George ran his fingers through his red hair, tugging on the ends.  "This, I suppose.  Actually, she knew that dad and mum had gotten married, and she had seen pictures of Bill and Charlie when the were babies.  We introduced ourselves as the Weasleys and she thought we were those two."

"She must not have much of a sense of time," Hermione frowned.

"Or eye sight," Ginny giggled.  "Imagine, thinking either of you looked like Bill."

The twins both scowled at her identically.  "Anyway," Fred went on, "she told us her whole life story.  There is absolutely no way that she's Arial."

"She went to Hogwarts," George explained.  "We asked her to tell us about the people that we knew today.  She told us about Snape and, trust me, there's no way that she would ever even consider dating him, let alone having a child with him."

"She liked him about as well as he likes Harry!"  Fred chortled with glee.  "Besides, she's never had any children.  She got married to another guy in dad's office a few years ago.  She said mum and dad went to her wedding."

"And potions was her worst subject," George added.  "So she was a definite no."

"Bought a fake wand and some ton tongue toffee from us though," said Fred happily.

"I thought you stopped making that," Hermione frowned, thinking of the chaos that would be causing in the weeks to come if they had sold it to any of the students that evening.

"Our backer was a big fan," Fred said.  "How could we disappoint him by refusing to manufacture that wonderful product?"

"Who is your backer?"  Ron asked hopefully.

"We went to the second house," George continued as though Ron had not spoken.  "That was interesting."

"And abandoned," said Fred.

"It looked like whoever was there had just packed up some clothes and left not too long ago.  There wasn't really any dust or cobwebs around anywhere.  The place still looked lived in."

"Minus the people," Fred added.

George continued, "We went walking around the village and asked people if they knew who had been living there and where they had taken off to.  It was Briana, and one lady said that she left for Diagon Alley just yesterday.  She said that Briana takes a trip there once a year and stays for a few weeks.  We asked if we could use her fireplace, and we flooed back to the shop.  We split up after we got there, and started looking for her.  I went to the Leaky Cauldron and Fred started at the other end."

"Did you find her," asked Hermione.

"Patience," said Fred, taking over the story.  "Tom said that she was there at the Leaky Cauldron.  George showed him the picture that you sent, and he said that that didn't really look like her.  He told him where he thought she might have gone though."

"I went to Madam Malkin's like he suggested," picked up George.  "She sent me to a quill shop, and from there I headed to Florence Fortescue's.  I finally found her from Tom's updated description."

"And…" said Hermione, tapping her foot again.

"And she didn't tell me much."  George frowned.  "I told her that I was doing a survey for the shop.  She said that she had been there before, so she was sort of cooperative at first.  I asked her what school she had gone to, and she said Beaux Batons.  The year she had graduated also matched what you told us, Hermione," he said.

"I asked her if she was married, and she said not anymore.  I asked if she had any children, and she said yes, she had three, one girl and two little boys.  I asked her for information about her mum and dad, and then she told me to get lost."

"I caught up with him just after that," said Fred.  "He was standing just down the street, and she was still glaring at him."

"Meaning we still don't know much more than we already did," said Hermione.

"Well," said George, "Not quite true."

"Oh," said Harry, who was suddenly interested.

"Yeah.  You see, I asked her to tell me more about her children.  Said that I could use the information for making better products.  She said the boys were really young, three and four, but the girl was a lot older.  Sixteen in fact.  I asked if she went to Beaux Batons too, and she said no.  As fate would have it, she's at Hogwarts."

*           *           *

            Ginny was scanning the Great Hall like a hawk the next morning when Hermione came down for breakfast, tentatively holding hands with Ron.

            "Any sign of her," asked Ron.

            "Oh, honestly," said Hermione contemptuously.  "We've already gone through everyone here, remember, and we had absolutely no luck going by looks alone.  What makes you think that that's going to change now?"

            "I don't know, said Ron hotly, his cheeks burning.  "Maybe now that we know she's here, we can do a more thorough job of looking."

            "I think I did a thorough enough job the first time, thank you," she scowled at him.  "I didn't see you helping any."

            "You told me not to."

            "Stop it!"  Ginny jumped in between the two of them.  "That's enough!  I was just looking to see if we might have missed someone, Hermione.  As for you, Ron, I happen to know that Hermione already did a through job of looking.  You ought to know that without me having to tell you after all of the times she's helped you do homework."

            Ron bowed his head in shame, and this time Hermione's cheeks started to burn with embarrassment.  "Sorry Ginny," she murmured.  "You too, Ron."

            "I'm sorry too, Hermione."  He hugged her gently, and kissed her on the cheek, pulling away quickly as he remembered where they were.

            "I just don't know what to do now," Hermione said, sitting down in the wooden chair before her and pushing it closer to the table.  "We've already looked for girls with brown hair and green eyes.  If I remember correctly, we came up with nothing.  Besides," she frowned, voicing aloud a thought that had been nagging at her ever since the Weasley twins had divulged the information their interview with Briana had yielded, "we don't even know if Briana really is Arial.  Just because she fits the profile doesn't mean it has to be her."

            "Well," Ginny said looking slightly miffed, "That's all we have to go on right now, so that will just have to be good enough."

            "I guess," Hermione said, still dubious.  "I still don't know where to start, though."

            "Ask everyone we know if they know anyone who has two brothers," Harry shrugged, joining their conversation.

            "I guess," Hermione repeated, looking crestfallen that the idea hadn't been her own.

            Ginny smiled at Harry and winked at Ron, who was trying not to laugh at Hermione's hurt expression.  "Well," she said clapping her hands together briskly and pushing strands of her red hair back behind her ears, "I think we had better get started."

            The four of them headed off in different directions, Harry back to Gryffindor tower, Ron and Hermione out to do their rounds before the first class, and Ginny to Transfiguration.  Ginny promised to chat with some of her friends and try to find the answer, while Hermione smiled and waved a goodbye to her, wishing her friend good luck in Potions.  She had a feeling everyone in Gryffindor was going to need it.

            "I wonder who it is," Ron said thoughtfully, pushing a finger to his chin as he strolled along next to Hermione.  "I know," he stopped excitedly and stared at her, "Do Parvati or Lavender have any brothers?" 

            Hermione frowned in concentration.  "Parvati has one brother, and I know Lavender is an only child."

            "Oh," his shoulders hunched slightly and he frowned.  "I don't know then."

            "Me either," she sighed, slumping back against a wall as the first period started.  "I hope Ginny can find some answers."

            "Me too," Ron said.  "Harry and I don't have much of a way with the ladies, and you don't have any friends that are girls."

            "I do too," she snapped indignantly.

            "Name one," he said.

            "Ginny."

            "Doesn't count."

            "Eloise Migdon."

            "Are you quite sure that she's a girl?  Harry and I have our doubts."

            "Shut up, Ron," she snapped, now in a very bad humor.  "Just because she's not the prettiest girl in our year doesn't mean that she isn't nice.  She's very smart too, you know."

            Ron looked at her like he could care less.  "Anyway," he said, clearing his throat and looking as thought he wished he had never spoken, "I think Ginny's our best hope."

            Hermione turned her nose up in the air and walked off in giant strides.  Ron, who was much taller, easily kept pace with her.  "Oh, come on, Hermione.  Why do you have to be like that?"

            "Like what?" she snapped, turning back on him, daring him to answer.

            "You said Ginny would be the best at this first."

            "I did not," she turned and started walking again.

            "Well, that's what you meant.  You know you did."

            "That's not what I'm angry about, Ron," she snapped, her eyes flashing fire as she continued to walk.  They were only steps away from Gryffindor tower.

            Ron stepped in front of her, cutting her off.  "Then what's wrong?  Hermione, you have to tell me or I'll probably do it again, you know.  Women," he muttered.  "You're always getting mad about something, but no one ever knows what it is.  Then you get mad when we do it again."

            She shook her head and let out a sound that could have been nothing but disgust.  "You're so shallow, Ron."

            He looked at her as though he had just been slapped.  "What are you talking about?"

            "All of those things you said back there, like how I don't have any friends and how Eloise Migdon is so ugly.  That hurt my feelings."  She shook her head again, still glaring at him.  "Then you have the temerity to wonder why you and Harry can't get any dates."

            Ron smiled lopsidedly.  "I've got you, don't I?"  He walked up to her and put his arms around her.  "Come on, 'Mione.."

            "Don't touch me," she snapped. 

            He backed away.  "Fine.  I should have known better than to try and be your boyfriend.  I should have known you could never love anything but a bunch of books and some quills.  You call me shallow?  You might know a lot about magic, Hermione, but you don't even know enough to try and make something work with someone who really cares about you."  His cheeks burned red, and he turned away from her, fuming.

            "Ron, wait."  His words infuriated her, but she didn't want to lose him.  Not yet, at least.  "I didn't mean that."

            He stopped and turned, shaking his head.  "Yes you did, that's what you've always thought of me.  I thought it might be different now."

            She sighed, trying not to cry from the anger and sadness that was coursing through her creating a mix that felt like pure, burning poison.  "Okay," she said, taking a deep breath and trying again.  "You're right, I've always thought you were a bit shallow.  That doesn't matter, though.  When you care about someone, you care about them in spite of what you think is wrong with them."

            He sighed and shook his head again.  The anger was cooling in him now, she could see it, and she felt her own feelings respond accordingly.  "So you do care about me, then," he said still sounding suspicious and angry.

            "Of course I do," she replied, feeling some of the coldness melt away from her smile.

            He walked slowly toward her and hugged her awkwardly.  "You know, Hermione, you're right."

            "Oh?"

            He grinned maliciously.  "Yeah, I like you even though you can be a raving lunatic."  He kissed her on the cheek and walked through the portrait hole, leaving her to stand in the hallway with her mouth gaping open.

            For once, Hermione Granger was at a loss for words.

*           *           *

            "I can't wait to see Snape being nice," Ron sniggered as they sat down for Potions class, their earlier row having been forgotten.  "Maybe Dumbledore told him he had to wash his hair as well."

            Harry looked gleeful.  "I just hope he can make it through the whole class without taking any of our points away.  That would really be something, don't you think, Hermione?"

            Hermione looked decidedly more dour.  "I hope we live to see dinner," she said unpleasantly.

            Ron and Harry shared a grin and rolled their eyes collectively. 

            Snape came billowing in from his office in much the same way that he did at the start of every class period.  The students continued whispering amongst each other, obviously wondering at the possible actions of what promised to be a kinder, more gentle Snape.

            "Miss Patil, please do be quiet.  Five points from Gryffindor.  Miss Brown, put that away.  Divination is upstairs.  Five points from Gryffindor.  Mr. Thomas, if you would kindly hand that to me," he summoned a note that Dean had been writing to his latest love interest, Hannah Abbot, and read it aloud.  Dean's face grew redder and redder as his classmates started laughing uncomfortably.  "Very well, then," Snape said spitefully, "Five more points from Gryffindor.  Would anyone else care to say anything?"  He glared abhorrently around the room at the students who had been stunned into silence.

            "So much for kindness," Ron murmured.  Hermione cringed.

            "Mr. Weasley, would you like to share your declaration of love for Miss Granger out loud with the rest of the class?"  Snape looked at him with utmost loathing, a twisted expression of amusement upon his sallow face.

            "That's not what I said, sir," Ron blushed.

            "Ah," he raised his narrow black eyebrows, "what did you say then?"  Snape walked up to the front of Ron's table and rested his hands upon it.  "I'm waiting, Mr. Weasley."

            "I asked Hermione what we were doing today," he stammered, his face growing even redder and clashing spectacularly with his hair.

            "Is that so," Snape said, raising an eyebrow.  "Fine points from Gryffindor for speaking out of turn.  Ten points for not properly reading your syllabus. I specifically wrote out everything we would be doing everyday for the entire year and handed you a scroll with all of it on the first day.  Haven't you been reading it?"

            "Um, I lost it, sir," Ron looked as though he wanted nothing more than to cower beneath the desk.

            "A pity," said Snape, "as I will be taking points away from anyone who is without their syllabus."  There were several groans of displeasure and dark glares of contempt towards Ron from throughout the Gryffindor side. The Slytherins, Hermione noted with a hint of suspicion, seemed none too perturbed by this declaration.  "Now, now," said Snape mockingly, "I told you all to carry each year's list with you back on the first day of the first year.  Have you forgotten so quickly?"  The class did not answer.  "Pull them out, then," he said, brandishing a red quill.  "Hurry, now."

            The Slytherins, Hermione noted, all pulled forth shining rolls of parchment that looked as though the had just been created.  Hermione was the only Gryffindor able to produce hers, and she noticed how Snape's face fell as he was forced to give her points.  "Let's see then," he said after he had finished prowling about the classroom listening to various excuses about scrolls upstairs in trunks and just back on their owner's desks in their dormitory, "Fifty points from Gryffindor for your utter lack of responsibility.  Fifty points to Slytherin for your keen grasp of the same," He smirked at the Gryffindors, and then turned to the board where normally he would have written out the day's potion.  Hermione noticed that there were no instructions nor ingredients listed. 

            "Well," he snapped as the students stared expectantly, "what are you waiting for?  Get out your cauldrons and get started."

            "Sir, please," said Lavender, "we don't know what the assignment is."

            "Miss Brown," Snape said, turning towards her with a look of utmost disgust that rivaled the one he usually reserved for Harry alone, "if you would have brought your syllabus, you would know what we are working on today.  Or," he added with a touch of fury, "if you would have read your textbook instead of spending your time roaming through the castle looking for trouble."

            "Please sir," Parvati tried, "if you could just list the ingredients and the name of the potion."

            "Shut up, Miss Patil," he said looking as though he were going to explode.  "If you can't do your homework, then leave my class at once!"

            Parvati grumbled, but remained seated.  Hermione and all of the Slytherins pulled out their cauldrons and set to work.  Ron looked at her pleadingly, but she knew better than to return his gaze as Snape's eyes were locked directly upon her.  "Mr. Weasley," he said, not looking at Ron, "Please return your attention to your own workspace."  The Gryffindors with the exception of Hermione continued to sit and look at each other with lost expressions.  Only Neville was trying to create the enlivening potion, but he was so upset by Snape and so poor at potions anyway that his rendition of the potion looked nothing as it should and began sparking furiously when he added the goat's hoof shavings at the wrong time. 

            "Idiot boy," Snape roared, swooping down upon him.  "When are you ever going to learn to follow the directions!"

            "Th-th-th-there are no directions," Neville choked.  Instantly, he knew that this was the wrong thing to say.

            "There are directions," Snape fumed.  "They are in your text.  You need only to read it as you were assigned to understand!  Anyone who cannot do the potion leave now!"

            All of the Gryffindors except Hermione stood up from their seats and moved through the doorway.  As each one left Snape deducted fifteen points a piece from the house and marked his grade register with a huge red zero by each of their names.  Ron turned towards the professor just before he stepped out of the door.  "Please, sir, are you going to give extra help for everyone who couldn't do the potion?"  Hermione closed her eyes and shook her head.  For all his likeability and friendship, Ron could be hopelessly idiotic.

            "Get out, Weasley," Snape snarled.  "There will be no extra help because you did not do the assignment as directed.  I only give extra help to people who try.  You do not fit into this category, as your abysmal grades will attest.  Now leave."

            Ron walked through the door looking as though he had been slapped for the second time that day.  Hermione quickly pushed the image from her mind and turned back to her cauldron.  So far, everything seemed to be working as the book had said it should.  She was glad she had reviewed the material over her lunch period.  Snape came billowing up the stairs towards her.

            "Are sure that that is correct, Miss Granger," he asked her.  She remembered the last time he had interrogated her with the same question.  This time, however, there was no way for her to check. 

            "I believe so, sir," she said as cheerily as she could manage.  She knew he was trying to pick a fight with her.  He was turning out to be as unpleasant as she had known he would ever since she had witnessed his dressing down by Dumbledore the day before.

            "Hmm," he said, still standing there staring at her.  She could hear him breathing in her ear, and tried to tune him out.  He shook his head as she added the last ingredient and scowled as she poured the potion into her waiting vial.

            She came back to clean up her mess, and found Snape ladling some of the mixture onto her book bag and everything inside.  She fought the urge to lash out at him in horror.  "If I may ask, Sir, what are you doing," she questioned him, her voice quavering with a note of strain.

            "Testing you potion, Miss Granger," he grinned.  "If it works, your things will be unharmed. If not all of your materials will be ruined."  Hermione could tell by the sound of his voice which outcome he would prefer.

            The whole class waited with bated breath as the potion leeched its way through Hermione's bag.  Suddenly, the bag started spewing out all of its contents.  The scrolls, books and quills all started scampering away frantically.  When Hermione bent down to pick up her bag so that she would have a receptacle in which to collect her things, the top began snapping shut on her as though it were trying to bite, and the straps tried to strangle her.  Scowling, she dropped the bag and began chasing after her things, which were now running all over the room.  Draco Malfoy had just stomped her favorite quill to pieces, and Pansy Parkinson was trying to pick up a stray piece of parchment.  Hermione was certain her intentions couldn't be good.  Fortunately, the essay turned on edge leaving the massive girl with a gaping paper cut.  She dropped the parchment and ran to the front of the room where Snape kept a utilitarian first aide kit.

            "Impedimenta!" Hermione shouted, pointing her wand at the scurrying objects.  "Stupefy!  She knew that, if left alone, the effects on the items could last for hours.  All around the room,, objects began to drop.  She stunned her bag into submission, and began filling it with all of the things that she could collect as all of the Slytherins turned in their potions and stayed behind to laugh at her.

            At last, she had managed to collect everything she could find.  Snape looked dour and humorless as she cast a biding spell on the bag to keep it from spitting everything out and starting the whole ordeal over again when it came to after the stun wore off.  She moved to her workspace, and cleaned up everything that she had left behind when Snape had brought all of her things to life in a most animated and frantic way.

            She marched up the stairs and straight out the heavy oak door after picking everything up, determined not to look at Snape.  As she turned left to head for the stairs that led to the foyer, she could hear a group of Slytherins giggling off to her left.

            "Hey Granger," Malfoy shouted.  "How did you like the new Snape?"  Him and his lackeys laughed heartily, and she continued walking, determined to ignore them even as they fell into step beside her.  "Much better than the old one, I would say."  The other members of his house nodded in agreement, and Hermione continued walking, determined not to let them get a rise out of her.

            "I can't wait to hear the commotion at dinner tonight," Draco tried one last time, beginning to sound deflated.  "It will be a regular row, you know.  Snape will have to win though.  It's not his fault Gryffindors don't know how to crack open a book."

            Her resolve to hold her tongue died, lost to the loyalty her house was famous for. Hermione rounded on him.  "Don't you find it a bit odd," she said, "that each and every one of you knew to bring those syllabi, which looked strangely unused, and knew how to brew the enlivening potion from scratch?"  She looked incredulously at Crabbe and Goyle, who were as thick as anyone she had ever met.

            Draco leaned forward.  "Come here, mudblood, let me tell you a secret."  He grabbed her roughly by the shoulder before she could get away and whispered in her ear.  "Snape is our head of house.  He likes to run ideas by us before he puts them into action."  He released her and she angrily brushed her shoulder off staring at it as though she had been touched by something foul.  She turned around and tromped up the stairs, not giving Malfoy the satisfaction of asking what he meant by that.

            It came as no surprise that Snape would let his own house in on a plan to humiliate hers.  She supposed Ron's saying that he was inquiring about the assignment had just played into the Potions Master's greasy hands.

            Hermione scowled as she entered the Great Hall for dinner, breathing deeply and standing up straight, ready to face the gloom of her housemates.

            "Hermione," Ron said standing up and looking as though he were deeply concerned.  "What did he do after we left?"

            "Brought my bag to life and watched me scamper about the room chasing after everything that was in it."

            "Why'd he do that?"

            "He was testing my enlivening potion."

            "I knew what we were doing," Seamus said angrily.  "I just didn't know how to make it without looking at any directions.  That was really low."

            "I thought I knew how," Neville whispered, still looking ashen as he always did until hours after Potions was over.  "It was too nerve racking."

            The others looked at him sympathetically.

            "Don't you think it's a little strange," Dean said slowly, "that all of the Slytherins knew how to make that potion when none of us did.  Except Hermione," he quickly amended, "but she doesn't count."

            Ron narrowed his eyes, and Dean shrugged.  Hermione put a hand on Ron's shoulder and shook her head.  It had been a compliment, of sorts and Ron had taken it the wrong way.

            "No," she said, sighing.  "Malfoy talked to me after class.  He as good as told me that Snape told all of the Slytherins what was going to happen today.  They all knew he was going to check for a syllabus, and they all knew we were going to have to do the potion that way."

            "Still," said Ron, "you can't tell me that blokes like Crabbe and Goyle could ever brew any potion without looking at the bloody directions."

            "I don't think so either," she said shaking her head.  "I mean, I'm sure that some of them got the potion wrong but they all seemed to be doing it adeptly enough.  I think that the directions were written on those scrolls they had.  Didn't anyone else notice how new they looked?"

            "No, said Lavender glumly, "I was too busy noticing how mine was missing."

            "I think we should go tell Dumbledore straight away," said Ron, moving to stand up.  Hermione pressed her hand down on his shoulder and forced him to remain seated.  It was Harry that spoke her thoughts aloud.

            "Didn't you learn anything today, Ron?"

            "I guess not," he said negatively, "since I wasn't allowed to stay in class."

            Harry rolled his eyes.  "Exactly, mate.  If Snape's this bad now, think of how bad he would get if Dumbledore went after him again.  He's gone for years without having to do anything he didn't want to when it comes to how he treats us.  You didn't think he was going to give it up that easily, did you?"

            "No," Ron said glumly, most of their classmates looking similarly crestfallen at this idea.

            Hermione continued.  "Harry's right.  I think what Dumbledore did out in the foyer was more for our benefit than anything.  If you think about it, it was a little unkind to Snape."

            Ron and most of the others looked at her as though she had just dropped from the sky.  "Oh, how terrible for him," said Parvati in a voice that made it clear she didn't think being evil to Snape was terrible at all.

            "Well, it was," Hermione huffed indignantly.  "We've all taken his classes.  We all know how much we hate public humiliation."

            Parvati and Lavender looked scandalized, and began whispering to each other vigorously, casting dark looks at their roommate.

            "I think maybe he was just trying to show Snape how it feels," said Harry.

            Suddenly Ginny Weasley rushed into the hall, looking as though she had been crying.  "You'll never believe what Snape did today," she said angrily.  "I sent mum an owl about it and she sent me back a howler saying we brought it one ourselves."  Everyone stared gloomily at her, and she continued.  "He made us a do a potion…"

            "Without telling you what it was," said Seamus.

            "Or what ingredients to use," added Dean.

            "Or how to do it," commiserated Neville.

            Harry yawned as though this happened everyday.  "Been there."

            "Done that," Ron finished, still sulking.

*           *           *