When Harry and Hermione climbed through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room, they found Ron and Ginny sitting at a table with a wizard chess board in front of them, both still wearing Quidditch gear complete with brooms leaning against the wall beside them. At the sound of the fat lady letting someone into the room, both Weasleys looked up.

"Where the hell you'd go, mate?" Ron asked at once when he saw it was they who had arrived. While Harry and Hermione, toting Hermione's books that they'd recovered from the corridor floor on their way back to their house tower, made for the empty table space beside their friends to dump their armloads, Ron resumed talking. "You said you had to come in to take a piss, and that was almost two hours ago. What bloody kept you?"

Harry, unburdened of his share of the library books, sucked in a breath and cut a heavy look at Hermione. He did not relish this explanation. From the look she returned to him, she wasn't particularly thrilled with the prospect of going into the whole mess so soon after extricating themselves from it, either.

Ron interpreted their looks toward one another quite differently. "Oh, if you stole back here to snog, please, don't tell me. Just say you should have passed on the mince pie last night at dinner and I'll sleep better."

Ginny smacked her brother on the arm. "Really, Ron, don't be such a git."

Ron scowled at his younger sister. "Hey, I think I'm being a right good sport about all this. Haven't made a ruckus about Hermione creeping into our room nights to sneak into Harry's bed, have I?"

"You're a real saint," Ginny quipped, but turned her attention next to Harry and Hermione. "Really, if you two just wanted some time alone you could have said so and we'd have found something to do on our own to give you space. No need to be crafty about it."

As Ron grumbled something about being under-appreciated, Hermione sat down next to Ginny. "Thanks, Ginny, but that's not what had us tied up. We were in Dumbledore's office."

Ron sent a confused look up at Harry, who had remained standing with arms folded over his chest. "Dumbledore's office? What for?"

"For a scolding."

Ginny's eyes widened. "A scolding? Why? What happened?"

"I almost killed Malfoy."

Ron rolled his eyes understandingly… in the sense that he completely misunderstood Harry's meaning. "Yeah, can't count the times I'd like to murder the little bastard myself. You two had a row then, did you? Expect a teacher caught you dueling in the halls or something. But hey, you're here instead of sitting in detention, so it must have been Malfoy's fault and Dumbledore must have seen that, right?"

Hermione cast her eyes upward in a momentary 'heaven help me' look. "No, Ron. Malfoy is not in detention. He's in the hospital wing."

"Whoa!" Ron ejaculated, equally stunned and impressed, while Ginny covered her mouth for a second's span at the news.

"What did you do to him, Harry?"

"I told you, I almost killed him. Literally."

Ginny looked over at Hermione, who could offer only a nod in verification.

"Shite! Well, come on, sit down and tell me what happened." Ron gestured emphatically to the bench space beside him, still agog but painfully curious to hear about this nearly mortal row between Harry and his childhood school enemy since first year.

Before budging an inch to take the seat next to Ron, Harry tensed and his eyes flicked and came to rest on Ginny. He stood and stared, measuring and close-lipped. Ginny frowned at his expression then sat back when she realized Harry was hesitating to recount the story because she would hear it. The youngest Weasley did not take kindly to the slight. She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms, stubbornly planting herself. "Oh, no, I don't think so. I want to hear what happened, too."

Ron, cottoning to the fact that Harry was reluctant to speak in front of Ginny, turned to his sister. "Shove off, Ginny… go write a disgusting letter to Seamus or something."

"No," Ginny retorted and looked obstinately between Harry and Hermione. She liked their stonewall expressions not at all. "Come on, why can't you tell me?" Seeking support, she turned naturally to Hermione seated beside her, face imploring the older girl to come to her aid.

Hermione avoided Ginny's eyes in favor of looking up at Harry.

He was looking questioningly at Hermione, seeking guidance as surely as Ginny sought a champion. Hermione shrugged. "It's up to you, Harry. I'm fine with her knowing."

After a moment weighing his choices, Harry relented. "All right, then, you can stay, but you have to promise you won't tell anyone what you're about to hear," Harry said to Ginny.

"I promise."

Harry sighed and at last dropped down to the bench space offered him. Ron and Ginny were watching him raptly; Hermione gave him an encouraging half-smile when he glanced her way.

"Well," he began, "I did come in to use the loo, like I said, then I… well, I was just curious what Hermione was up to. We'd been outside having fun for a long time, and I suppose I wanted to make sure that she wasn't having a terrible time cooped up in here all by herself. I knew she'd most likely be in the library, so I thought I'd just drop in on her and see what she was doing.

"I was walking down the corridor toward the library when I heard Malfoy talking, sounded like to himself because I didn't hear anyone else so I hardly paid attention at first, then I came around the corner and saw that he'd cornered Hermione in the hall."

Ron's face darkened visibly and fire glinted in Ginny's eyes, but neither spoke.

"Malfoy had her backed up against the wall and he was aiming a wand at her, and I just… lost it."

"What'd you do?" Ron asked.

Harry winced. "I… changed."

Ron nodded for Harry to continue. When Harry didn't, Ron thought on it a bit. Ginny was trying fervently to decipher the remark, but it was Ron who had the information to hit upon the meaning behind Harry's words. When he did, his eyes took on the likeness of saucers and his jaw dropped. "Bloody hell!"

"What? What?" Ginny looked between those at the table with her, confused.

Hermione chewed for a second on her bottom lip before she gave the room another cursory look to make sure it was empty but for them. They'd seen no one come in, but prudence still made her check. When Hermione was confident there would be no one unwanted who would hear what she was going to say, she shifted on the bench to directly face Ginny. Ginny was on the razor's edge, primed to hang on every word Hermione said.

"Now, you mustn't tell anyone, Ginny," Hermione insisted.

"You know I won't, Hermione. I'd never betray my friends."

"Well, you see…" Hermione took a breath and figured it was best to just have out with it. "Harry and I are animagi."

Ginny gaped for a moment. "You're…" she turned it over a few times as her eyes grew increasingly wider. "Really?"

"Yeah, they are," Ron nodded, "It's true; I've seen them."

"Since when?"

"Just the start of this term," Hermione answered.

"Wicked," Ginny mumbled, eliciting a brief smirk from Hermione despite the situation. Ginny looked up again at Hermione then over at Harry. "What animals are you?"

"I'm a black jaguar. Hermione is a lioness."

"Wow." Ginny shook her head. "That's all I can think to say. Wow. And maybe another wicked for good measure." Ginny's expression went from awed to shocked when the full implications of that confession connected with the earlier topic of Draco Malfoy. "Wait, so you… Harry, you changed into the black jaguar and attacked Malfoy?"

"Let the man tell it, Ginny," Ron groused, but Harry only gave an affirmative nod to Ginny's question. "Yeah, I did. I was blind mad. All I could think was that Malfoy was trying to hurt her. I kind of lost control of Knight."

"Hold on, I'm lost… what does nighttime have to do with this?" Ron asked.

"No, not 'night'. Knight's the name for when I'm the jaguar. Like my dad was Prongs and Sirius is Padfoot. I'm Knight."

"Oh…" Ron looked puzzled, as though to ask how long Harry had had a pseudonym when in animal form, then shrugged and apparently decided it wasn't important. "All right then."

Harry gave a lackadaisical shrug and crooked smirk. "It's a new thing."

"So what happened then?"

"I attacked Malfoy."

Ginny was sitting quietly and digesting all the new information at high speed. "It's a wonder you didn't kill him, Harry," she remarked soberly. She was looking at him oddly, as though trying to picture this powerful animal that he became.

"I would have, but Dumbledore stopped me."

Ron gulped. "Oh, crap… Dumbledore saw you… saw Knight?"

Hermione took up the recount there. "Yes. Just after Knight tackled Malfoy to the floor, Dumbledore came charging up. He used magic to cast Knight off of Malfoy and put a body bind on him so he couldn't finish what he started, the whole mauling Draco to pieces business, that is. Dumbledore took Draco to the hospital wing while I stayed behind with Knight. When Draco had been put in Madam Pomfrey's care, Dumbledore came back, released Knight from the body bind, then it was to the headmaster's office for a long talk."

"Oh, that can't have gone well… are you two in trouble for being rogue animagi?" Ron asked uneasily.

Harry frowned and shook his head, as though still puzzled himself how it was that that was not the case. "No, actually… Dumbledore already knew we were animagi."

"You told him?" Ginny asked. Something in her tone seemed to suggest that, while she might forgive Ron being in on the secret (considering how close the three had always been), she couldn't help but feel a little snubbed if Dumbledore had been privy to the same secret while she'd been kept in the dark.

"No," Hermione replied, "we didn't, but… well, he knew just the same. I suppose we were silly to think we could hide something like that from him in the first place, as smart and powerful as he is."

"Suppose not," Ron mumbled in a distracted manner.

"He said he wouldn't turn us in for being rogues. He said, all things considered, it would do more harm than good to let on to anyone what he knew about us being animagi," Hermione said.

Ron nodded, still preoccupied with something catching in his thoughts, then he scowled mightily. "But fine if Dumbledore knows, you're still in big trouble, Harry. Malfoy saw you, er, Knight. Little chance he's going to think some random, big fuck-off panther with a scar exactly like yours was just passing by and decided to pop into Hogwarts for a walk-about."

Ginny gasped. "Merlin! Ron's right! That little ferret will go running straight to his father about what happened. He'll tell his dad all about Knight and you'll be in for it, Harry. He's had it out for you since, well, probably since you stopped You Know Who when you were one year old. If you hurt Draco as badly as you say…"

"Just how bad was it?" Ron interjected. "I mean, you said you 'almost killed him', but any chance that's a bit of an exaggeration? Lucius Malfoy will probably try to have you thrown in Azkaban in any case, but… couldn't have been that bad, right?" Ron asked hopefully, fishing for the possibility that his friends weren't in as deep as it would seem at first glance.

Harry shared a look with Hermione then shook his head. "No, I wasn't exaggerating. If Dumbledore had shown up any later than he had, Malfoy would be dead; I'm certain of that."

"As it was," Hermione took up with saying, "Knight only had the opportunity to tear up Malfoy's arms with his claws, though Madam Pomfrey seems to believe she can mend him well enough to avoid him suffering permanent damage or loss of function in his arms."

Ron and Ginny's eyes were wide as Hermione detailed Draco's injuries.

"But as far as him ratting me out to his father," Harry picked up from Hermione's last words, "Dumbledore's taking care of it.

"When he broke us up in the hallway he also put Malfoy into some kind of coma. When he brings him out of it Dumbledore's going to perform a memory charm on Malfoy to make him believe he was attacked by a feral hippogriff."

Ginny frowned. "You know, there aren't a lot of wild hippogriffs about Hogwarts grounds… won't that look a bit dodgy?"

"Malfoy still thinks Buckbeak is around and on the loose after attacking him during third year then escaping execution," Hermione pointed out. "Malfoy was convinced of Buckbeak's desire to see him ripped to pieces, like all animals are going to be as vengeful as he himself is. When Malfoy's told that he was attacked by a hippogriff, chances are he'll probably assume it was Buckbeak that did it. No doubt he'll imagine Buckbeak's still out for his blood. That's the kind of rubbish a twisted, vindictive git like Malfoy would think."

"All the better if he thinks so, then," Harry decided. "Buckbeak's far from here, and Malfoy wants to see him killed anyway, so it doesn't really change anything."

"Here's to hoping he blames Buckbeak, then," Ron said in agreement. The redhead rubbed at the back of his neck and his expression screwed as he tried to put everything Harry and Hermione had said in its proper perspective. He finally glanced back up at Harry. "So are you in trouble for what you did to Malfoy?"

"Amazingly, no," Harry answered.

"Unbelievable, only Harry Potter," Ron muttered with a wry smirk and shake of his head. "So how'd you manage to get off without so much as lines when you go and nearly rip the arms off old ferret-boy?"

Hermione was the one to answer. "It was a concession on Dumbledore's part. Because he'll have to wipe Malfoy's memory of the attack, he obviously can't punish him for accosting me in the corridor."

"Oh, damn, he gets away with it?!" Ron groused.

"Don't complain, it's worth it. He let Harry off with nothing sterner than a warning." Hermione considered Ron and Ginny's faces and added, "It's well worth it. Harry could have been in serious trouble for such a vicious attack on a fellow student. He could have been expelled. They might have even brought the Ministry of Magic into the whole fiasco."

"Yeah, I know, for the best, I get it, but I'm still not happy about that rotten bastard getting away with cornering you like that."

"Neither am I," Harry added, his tone low and a shade hostile.

"Neither of you better do anything stupid and undo all that Dumbledore did to sort this mess. I can take care of myself, you know," Hermione stated peevishly.

"Hmph. Sounds to me like you were in a real tight spot today before Har-Knight rescued you," Ron mumbled.

Hermione's nostrils flared and she leveled a venomous look at Ron. "I wasn't expecting Malfoy to take it that far. You know him, mean-spirited and rotten to the core but in the end a lot of talk with no bite. He hasn't the courage to be evil. Real milk-snake, that particular Slytherin."

"He wasn't going to just leave it at talk this time, Hermione," Harry said sternly as he looked at her, his concern just offsetting what would have otherwise come across as fury in his face.

For the layer of devote affection in Harry's expression, Hermione was conciliatory rather than caustic when she said, "I know, Harry. I wasn't expecting him to take it that far… but I know better now. He's playing at a different game than his usual bluster, he's playing for much bigger stakes than he ever has before, and I'm wise to that now. I won't let myself be caught like that again. I don't want you to risk being expelled because of me."

Harry didn't offer a retort, but the pinch of his lips and the knit in his brow said it all. He thought her worth that a thousand times over, and worth risking a thousand times worse, but he wasn't fool enough to say that to her. He did know Hermione well enough to see an impossible wall of stubbornness when she put one up. And unlike Ron, he never fancied the practice of uselessly throwing himself against it.

Hermione leaned forward and touched Harry's hand to stress the importance that he listen to her. "Harry, please… trust me. I know you just want to protect me, but I really can look out for myself. He won't disarm me again like he did today, and if he does…" Hermione's expression hardened, even as her eyes shone at Harry, "remember, Harry, you're not the only one who could physically rip Malfoy apart without a wand.

"Malfoy may be serving a darkness bigger than himself that has given him the bollocks to go farther than he would on his own, but here in Hogwarts, as a boy with a wand, he's no match for either of us."

Harry studied Hermione a moment then relented with a sigh. "I know… you're right. I just…"

"I know," Hermione said softly and smiled while he considered her. Harry waited a beat before finally giving a relenting nod, none too happy about it, but aware of a battle he would have to concede.

With the stand-off between Harry and Hermione resolved, the atmosphere in the room seemed to relax by several degrees.

Ron sat back and blew out a breath. "Well, it's never a dull moment with you, is it, Harry? Though I have to say I'm really sorry I missed seeing you, uh, seeing Knight tear into Malfoy. Boy, I'd have given my new Cleansweep to see that! Well, maybe not my new one, but definitely my old one."

Ginny favored her brother with a long-suffering but affectionate look. Then she turned to Hermione. "So, do you have an animagus name, too, Hermione? Like Knight?"

She nodded. "It's Sagehunter."

"Sagehunter?" Ron repeated with a look on his face like he'd just stuck his nose in a manky old shoe, "Who came up with a name like that?"

"It was given to me by a house elf."

"Oh, well, that explains it."

"What exactly does that mean?" Hermione asked with a faint edge to her voice.

"Uh… nothing, nevermind."

"I thought so," Hermione returned airily, but there was a light in her eye that told Ron that she was not as riled as she pretended. After the near-miss with absolute disaster from Knight's attack on Malfoy, she couldn't find the ire enough to be mad at something as tame as a bit of house elf disparagement by the likes of Ron.

Ron smiled, knowing the bullet he'd dodged and duly grateful for it.

"Hermione?" Harry said lowly as he looked across the table at her. Hermione saw a seriousness in his face as well as heard it in his tone that sobered her at once to possible calamity. Harry, unmindful of the two Weasleys at the table with them, asked, "Can I talk to you a minute? Alone?"

Hermione already felt the first tickle of dread. "Sure." She rose from the table just as Harry did, they met at the far end, and Harry lightly took her arm and led her silently toward the boys' dorm stairwell. Without question, Hermione went with him.

When they were in Harry's dorm room he let go of her arm and Hermione naturally gravitated toward Harry's bed. She sat down on top of the comforter and thought, in passing, how second-nature it had become to go to his bed. In a part of her mind, she even thought of it a bit as their bed. She looked forward to one day when it truly would be a bed they shared… preferably one with more room for… moving… than the slender beds of Hogwarts.