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Room 308, Thursday evening

Hermione was writing. A lot. Several pages in her notebook had been covered in her own handwriting, and years of writing superfluous reports far longer than they would have ever needed to be in any universe meant that her wrist wasn't even tired. If anyone asked, she wouldn't tell.

Crookshanks and Wadsworth were fed, she'd already checked her voicemail, and she was fully prepared in case anyone's hand was bleeding.

[Open!]

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Rikku was ... grumpy. Today had not gone how Thursdays were supposed to go, dammit.

She wobbled back into the room and grimaced. "Hey, Hermione? Do you know how long crap like this is supposed to last?"

Hermione looked up, a little startled when she saw her. "Did she reverse your knees?"

Rikku was still seething. "I dunno if it's my knees, or my whole legs, or what. She said I needed an attitude adjustment, and I guess that meant, 'here, let me screw up your legs!'"

She managed - somehow - to sit down on the edge of her chair, making a face. "It's ... I'm okay, it doesn't hurt. Well, except when I fall and bang my face off the ground. And when I did that in her office, she laughed. That woman is a bitch."

"It'll wear off," Hermione assured her. She really, really hated that woman. "I can try to lift it. It didn't work entirely when I tried to uncurse Aravis, but..."

"What happened to Aravis?" Rikku asked, eyes widening. "I mean, what'd that bitch do, not, uh, what happened when you tried to lift it. Although ... what happened when you tried to lift it?"

Note to self: please cut down with the swearing so much. Even if "bitch" was sort of invented for this woman.

"Conjunctivitis Curse," Hermione said. "Her eyes were all red and she was having trouble seeing. Nothing worse happened to her, but I couldn't make it go away."

"Oh, wow," Rikku gasped. "I had no idea. I mean, she's just zapping people all over the place, isn't she? That's such a ..."

She made a face, balling her fists on her lap. "Dammit! I had stuff I wanted to do today! And it so didn't include 'stumble around like a drunken cripple'! I wasn't even mouthy with her! I mean, I just kinda sat there, like, yeah, total attitude problem, but dude, I was almost civil!"

She folded her arms. "And she totally asked about you, too. I just said you're fine. She's sick, isn't she?"

"She is," said Hermione grimly. "Which probably means she's getting really upset and she's just lashing out. She called Luke down, too. I'm worried about that meeting."

"Me too," Rikku said quietly. "I, uh, I had class with Luke's dad today, and he was really ticked about my legs and all. And then right in the middle of talking he suddenly looked up and got all, 'I have to go now' and glare-y. I think ... I think maybe she tried something, with Luke?"

She shivered. "I mean, I'm sure he's fine, 'cause he's Luke and all? But ... if she did, then Professor Skywalker's gonna flip out."

"Maybe she'll listen to an adult," said Hermione, who'd met Anakin all of once. "Oh, what am I saying, she won't listen to anyone. How can she actually think any of this is suitable! She's supposed to be an authority figure!"

"She ... she gets off on it, doesn't she?" Rikku asked. "The ... abuse of power thing. Control. Dance, puppets, dance, and ... it's almost like she's trying to make it impossible for us to follow the rules, so she's got an excuse to do whatever she likes."

Hermione nodded, considering this. "And what's horrible is, we can't just sit down and take it. She can't be allowed to get away with it. She really would let it keep getting worse."

Rikku made a frustrated noise. "She's ... you know, I don't even care about this stupid leg-crap. Okay, I do? But it doesn't hurt, it's just annoying. But she's ... she did bad stuff to Aravis's eyes, and she's after you, and now Jude's ticked at her, and ... if things keep getting worse? She's gonna hurt someone. Like, for real. And if it's one of you guys, or Dawn, or she really did mess Luke up ..."

She shivered again. "I'd ... I'd just want to march in there with my Godhand and wow, what an amazingly bad idea, you know?"

"She's getting desperate," said Hermione, shaking her head vigorously. "We can't react that way back to her. It would only make things more out of hand."

Rikku nodded. "Yeah. And ... and then I'd be just as bad as her, you know? I mean ... you know what I mean."

She took a deep breath. "Is that ... a good sign, at least? That she's desperate? I mean, does that mean she's losing control and whatever we're doing is working, or does that mean she's gonna snap and start just ... raging?"

"I'm not sure," she frowned. "Both, maybe. What happened to her office could have been much worse, really. It might mean she'll slip up soon, but I just hope she doesn't completely lose it in the process."

"Yeah," Rikku said in a low voice. "That'd be bad all the way around. So ... so what do we do? I mean, how do we get her to leave without her ... I don't know. Snapping. Hurting anybody."

"I'm hoping she'll listen to reason," she said. "I'm fully expecting to be called down sometime, and I've been doing plenty of research. Or we may just have to pad her office."

Rikku raised an eyebrow. "You, uh, you really think you're gonna ... talk to her, and she'll go, 'oh, right, I'm crazy and evil, my bad' and just pack up and leave?"

"Oh, no. But I've spent the last few weeks looking up all of the American laws she's breaking."

Rikku burst out laughing. "Oh, that is awesome! Do you think it's gonna work? Ooooh! There's a cop-guy in town! And I might have gotten one of my teachers arrested but he totally deserved it 'cause ew, what a perv."

"You... what?"

Rikku giggled. "You know those guys who hang out outside the convenience store? They're kinda supposed to be teachers except one of them keeps saying rude stuff to the girls so, you know, when that cop-guy dropped by, I totally told him that." She sighed happily. "Okay, maybe I exaggerated a little? But still."

"Oh, them!" Hermione said. "I'm surprised they've never been charged with anything, actually. It wasn't too big an exaggeration, was it?"

Rikku burst out giggling. "No, he, uh, he always makes rude comments about the girls anyway? I just changed it into really bad pick-up lines and pretended I didn't get them. And like I was traumatized?"

She cleared her throat and looked tearful. "Officer, I don't understand. How can he give me rides? He doesn't even have a mustache."

Andrew took a deep breath and knocked at Hermione's door.

"It's open!" Hermione called, moving on to the next page of paper.

Andrew stepped into the room looking amazingly uncomfortable, he was holding a plate of cookies. "Um, hi there," he started, but found he didn't quite know what to say next.

"Hi," Hermione greeted him, smiling. "I kind of didn't expect to see you."

"Well, um, I wanted to bring you these," he said, holding out the plate of cookies. "They're oatmeal craisin. I used dried cranberries instead of raisins. I think it gives them a, um, nice flavor."

He found himself staring at Hermione's forehead, as though he could see an addled brain behind it. "How are you? Is everything okay?" he asked, very maternally. Then he checked himself, remembering that that particular reaction was why he wanted to apologize in the first place.

Hermione stood to take the plate, surprised. "Thank you. That's very nice of you," she said. "I've been all right. Social. Yourself?"

"I've been great," he lied. Andrew took another deep breath, "I, um, I owe you an apology." He thought about how he had expressed his false concerns about Hermione to Umbridge and suddenly felt about three inches tall.

Hermione frowned and asked, "What for?"

Clearly, she'd missed any signals there might have been.

"For being a lousy date!" If she didn't know what he had done, maybe it was best to not clue her in.

"And for going to Umbridge and telling her that I thought you were unstable and might harm some of the students -- I am so sorry, it was so very wrong, I'm a horrible, horrible person and I hate myself for it." Or he could be honest for a change.

He grinned weakly and braced himself for yelling.

Hermione blinked, stunned, and wasn't entirely sure how to react. "You... you told Umbridge you thought I would hurt people?"

Andrew tried to hide his face behind his hands, "I, um, I heard that announcement she made about you and then we were on a date and I was all, hey, it the mentally unbalance girl spreading lies, and you were all angry about people from your old school, and I thought I should let someone know..."

He turned away from Hermione, "I didn't know."

"Oh," she said, taking this in.

"Because I wouldn't, you know," she said quickly. "I'm usually the one telling everyone else not to do things and don't get people hurt or in trouble. Except that one time with Malfoy but that was years ago and he deserved it. I really wouldn't."

"I know that now. Nothing that woman says can be trusted. I'm totally going to try and make this right. I'm setting myself firmly against her evil ways!" Andrew jabbed a finger in the air for emphasis.

"In fact," he took a step towards Hermione, arms open for a hug.

Hermione grinned despite herself. "You realize that would put us within eight inches of each other," she warned.

"Maybe we should take a picture," Andrew suggested, moving in to complete the hug.

She hugged him back and said, "I do appreciate your honesty."

And if he was pulling a double cross, she knew she'd have to sic some canaries on him or something.

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Room 308, Thursday evening

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