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me?"

Saffron snapped at Harry and Ron with venom at the next morning. The pair had seemed unusually tired when they stumbled into breakfast, and once they told her that they had gone to visit Hagrid that night and had born witness to both Dumbledore and Hagrid being effectively banned from the school, she was furious at not being asked to go with them.

"What did you want us to do?" questioned Ron defensively. "Stroll up the stairs to the girl's dormitories, it's not like we would have gotten thrown off them by that enchantment,"

"Okay, okay, that's fair," said Saffron apologetically, regretting the tone of voice she had used. "I'm sorry, I'm just spent. I'm glad the two of you went at least, what did he say to you before he was taken away?"

"Barely anything," said Harry disappointedly. "We were only there for a minute before Dumbledore, the Minister and Malfoy's dad showed up," He paused and leaned in close to her. "But when he was about to leave he said that if anyone wanted to find something out, they'd just have to follow the spiders,"

"He also told us to feed Fang," added Ron matter-of-factly.

"Follow the spiders?" Saffron arched her eyebrows in thought before raising them in realisation. "You don't think this has something to do with the spiders we saw outside of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom a couple months back, do you?"

Harry nodded. "That's what we thought too. If Hagrid's saying that we should follow them, he must have a reason, maybe they'll tell us who's behind all of this,"

"But if Hagrid was taken away doesn't that prove that it was him after all?" said Saffron slowly, being careful with her words as she knew that Harry would defend Hagrid to no end.

"Dumbledore didn't think so," Ron said as though that settled the matter. "He told Fudge that himself,"

"That doesn't mean that it wasn't Hagrid," Saffron responded coolly. "Did Dumbledore think Quirrell was trying to steal the stone last year? Obviously not, otherwise he would have done something about it sooner," She paused. "I'm not sure we should follow these spiders, what if they just bring us straight to the monster? You can't tell me that Hagrid was arrested for no reason," Saffron said the last bit swiftly, aiming it directly at Harry.

Harry sighed. "No, you're right, we can't be sure that Hagrid has nothing to do with this. If Riddle thought it was him, proved it was him, even, that means that we can't be sure. But he wouldn't do this purposely, not to Hermione, not to anyone,"

"No one thinks that," agreed Saffron, taking a bite out of her toast. "We just have to be careful no matter what we do,"

"You two can do it," said Ron warily. "I'll do my best to avoid spiders,"

"Fine, if you don't care about finding out who or what did this to Hermione, then Harry and I'll do it alone," retorted Saffron hotly.

"Don't put words in my mouth," snapped Ron waspishly. "I just hate spiders, okay?"

Saffron nodded and stood up. "I'm going to go and visit Hermione,"

"You can't," Harry told her plainly.

"What?"

"We're not allowed to go anywhere by ourselves anymore," Ron informed her. "You'll have to get a teacher to go with you,"

Saffron groaned and begrudgingly resumed her seat, grumbling under her breath in irritation before the bell rung out for the first period of the morning.

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After the unpleasant surprise that morning of being banned from going anywhere without being in the company of a teacher, Saffron was met by yet another surprise before Charms that afternoon. She suspected that something strange was going on when Lavender noticed that Parvati's twin Padma was seemingly trying to coax Terry Boot and Lisa Turpin into walking towards them.

"If she's going to try and get them to apologise, I'm going to answer for you and tell them that it's apology not accepted," Lavender eyed the three Ravenclaws agitatedly. Terry and Lisa had been very vocal about Harry being the Heir of Slytherin and had therefore linked Saffron in with the attacks. Seeing as Olly was one of their best friends, they had taken out their frustration on Saffron in the form of accusations and blaming.

"No," said Saffron firmly. "If they do say something, just let them say it. I don't want to cause any problems,"

"Oh, you wouldn't be causing any problems," Lavender told her. "It would be me, I don't like how---"

"Sssh," Parvati hushed, turning away from the trio of Ravenclaws, all of whom were walking towards them. "They're coming this way,"

"Saffron," It was Lisa who spoke. She and Terry both stood in front of Padma and the pair of them didn't look particularly happy to be there. But nevertheless, Lisa continued to talk, even if it did sound very forced. "Listen, we just wanted to say sorry, Terry and I. We never should have said that you and Harry had anything to do with this, we were just frustrated about what happened to Olly. After what happened to Hermione, well, we know neither of you would ever do anything to hurt her. So sorry,"

"Sorry," added Terry begrudgingly. The boy was usually very lively and chatty. Saffron had never seen him so quiet before.

"It's okay," Saffron said to them calmly. "I get that you were upset, but I really don't think I'm the one you have to apologise to. There was no reason for Luna to be thrown into any of this, and Olly really likes her, so he's going to be upset when he wakes up to find out that she had to live with people thinking she had even anything to do with this,"

"Yeah," Lisa nodded. "You're right, again, I'm really sorry,"

The two Ravenclaws nodded at Lavender and Parvati and then turned to walk away with Padma who offered the three Gryffindor girls a smile.

Lavender rolled her eyes once they were out of sight, for Professor Flitwick beckoned them into the classroom.

"She can take her apology and shove it up her backside," remarked Lavender angrily. "I thought they were supposed to be smart? I mean how could they have seriously have believed that you had anything to do with this?"

All Saffron could do was shrug her shoulders as they were separated upon walking into Charms. But unlike Lavender, she was content with the apology. It felt like a weight was lifted off her shoulders and she hoped that soon enough more weights would also come off of her shoulders too, in the form of answers.