One Down

Hermione came into the common room from the Gryffindor Head Girl's suite with an armload of books.

From her seat in an armchair near the fireplace, Ginny could see that she was looking around for a place to sit. While the armchair across from Ginny was unoccupied, Hermione clearly wanted or needed to sit at a table.

Ginny stiffened when she realised that her friend had spotted Harry sitting at a table in a slightly shadowed corner of the Gryffindor common room. Ginny had been keeping an eye on that table and had watched him drive off several Gryffindors who tried to join him there, no matter what year they were in, and couldn't help wondering if Hermione would have better or worse luck than the others if she tried to join him. Probably worse, Ginny reflected as she saw Hermione nod and head over to where he was seated.

Harry ignored Hermione as she set her books down in the only clear space available on the table and set her school bag on the floor. It was when she started to clear a space for herself by moving his scattered books into a pile that he started paying attention to what she was doing.

Ginny noticed that Harry did nothing to stop Hermione, until she opened one of his books and started looking through it. Hermione's curiosity must have gotten the better of her, Ginny thought as she watched Harry snatch the book out of her grasp before she'd had a chance to look at more than a couple of pages.

In the sudden silence that filled the common room, everyone heard Harry growl, "I warned you, Granger, to keep your nose out of my life and out of my business."

"I was just curious about what you were reading." Hermione tried to defend her actions. "Those didn't look like school books."

"And they aren't," Harry told her. "But you lost any right you may have had to poke your nose into my affairs last year, remember. Then again the smartest witch of the age seems to be remarkably dumb, because she can't remember what she has been told several times by me. So perhaps you need a more permanent reminder of what can happen if you continue to try and poke your nose into my business."

Ginny had trouble seeing the gesture that Harry made in Hermione's direction before he waved his hand over the table in front of him. The books and papers on the table shrunk down and flew into his open book bag. Throwing the book bag over his shoulder, Harry told Hermione, "you can have the table," before leaving the common room.

Ginny saw the look of anguish on Hermione's face as she stared after the departing Harry. Closing her book, Ginny went over to join Hermione. Wanting to cheer her up, Ginny told her, "It'll get better. You'll see."

"I'm beginning to doubt that," Hermione disagreed. "Harry and I were the best of friends for almost six years, but I destroyed that friendship by not being willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I should have known better. The story was too pat, especially given the way Sirius had been framed, but I ignored that in favour of believing the Headmaster could never be wrong."

"Harry's got a lot of anger to work through before he will forgive what we did." Ginny told her, unwilling to accept that she might never get back the man she loved and wanted.

Laying out her books, Hermione reminded her, "Harry seems to be unwilling to let go of his anger. I'm fairly certain that one of the reasons Dumbledore forced him to come back here was so he could work through that anger toward us. He... I want Harry to be able to move on... with us as friends again. I want him to be able to get on with his life in the wizarding world."

"It's only been a few months," Ginny pointed out, sitting down opposite her. "It's just going to take time. What we need to do is continue to show him that we are here for him if he wants to talk... or anything."

Hermione noticed the blush that spread over Ginny's face. "You still want him don't you?"

"I have ever since I saw him that first time in King's Cross Station." Ginny told her.

Before Ginny had a chance to say anything more, Hermione let out a shriek as she stared at the page of the open book in front of her. The Common room fell silent and students came stumbling out of the dorms, wands out looking for the threat. Ginny studied the book lying in front of Hermione, trying to figure out what would have caused her to panic that way. Hermione was usually so calm and unflappable, but she couldn't see anything that would have produce this reaction.

"What's wrong?" Ginny asked.

"Can't you see?" Hermione gestured at the open book. "Harry has destroyed my book."

Picking up the heavy book, Ginny examined it carefully and found nothing wrong with it. Setting the book back down in from of Hermione, she asked. "What's wrong with it?"

"It's blank!" Hermione screamed. "He erased my book!"

Hermione opened another book then another. "HE ERASED ALL MY BOOKS!"

Ginny looked at the books completely baffled. The words were there. She could see them. True she couldn't understand some of the ones she read, but they were there.

Ginny slapped Hermione's face hard. Once the older girl was shocked into silence, she told her, "Hermione, the words are still there. Harry did nothing to damage your books."

"No they are not." Hermione insisted, looking down at the blank page before her.

Ginny picked up the book and began reading from the open page. "Inguz is the rune of Completion and Fertility. The presence of this Rune in any grouping or reading, suggests that tasks that have been initiated will come to completion. This Runic symbol is commonly associated with the Norse Gods Ing and Frey."

Ginny stopped at that point and looked at Hermione. The older girl had gone whiter than Nearly Headless Nick. "What's wrong Hermione?"

"Harry did something to my eyes," Hermione's voice was barely above a whisper. "I can't see anything on any of the pages of these books."

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Harry returned to the Gryffindor common room a few minutes before curfew. Instead of the older students studying that he expected to find on his return, Harry saw that Professor McGonagall was seated in the armchair near the fire that faced the portrait hole.

"Professor," he greeted her as he headed toward the stairs for the dorms.

"I would like a word with you, Mr. Potter." Professor McGonagall told him.

Turning around, Harry came over to stand by the fire. "Very well ma'am. What do you want to talk about?"

"First of all, where have you been?" McGonagall wanted to know. "We've had the prefects looking for you for several hours."

"I went to the only place in this whole damn school where I wouldn't be bothered by busybodies and those trying to apologise for things that can never be forgiven." Harry told her.

McGonagall didn't know how to respond to that in a way that wouldn't make him angrier and prevent her from getting him to undo the spell he'd placed on Miss Granger, so she decided to come straight to the point of why she was waiting here for him. "What did you do to Miss Granger? And when will it wear off?"

The smile that appeared on Harry's face worried Professor McGonagall. "I got tired of her poking her nose into my business. I told her several times to leave me alone unless it had to do with school business, but she couldn't seem to remember that simple warning, so I gave her something else to think about. As for when it will wear off, it won't. She will never be able to read another word, unless I choose to remove the spell."

McGonagall got to her feet. "How dare you interfere with another student's ability to learn?! One hundred points from Gryffindor for deliberate assault upon a fellow student and member of your own house. I demand that you remove the spell at once."

"You demand..." Harry laughed. "You demand.... oh that's very good. Why should I do anything you tell me to do? You are not my mother, nor are you responsible for me. If you were, I would have taken whatever steps were necessary to get the ties between us severed... ma'am."

McGonagall flinched at the contempt in the last word.

"When will you learn that your opinion no longer matters to me?" Harry continued as if he were discussing the weather. "It hasn't since the day you stood by and watched as the students in your house destroyed all the best memories of my life. Lord knows I had none during my time with the Dursleys, but then again no one in the wizarding world gave a damn about how their hero was treated when he wasn't in the wizarding world. Come to think of it, they didn't give a damn about how I was treated while I was in the wizarding world either. All they cared about was that I destroy Voldemort for them, so they could go back to their happy little hypocritical lives with their blinders fully intact and their brains turned off. To all of you I was nothing more than a weapon to be used against Voldemort."

McGonagall finally found her voice. "I cared about you and still do care. I care about all the students in my house, Mr. Potter. You are all my family and each other's family. I never thought I would live to see the day when a member of the noble House of Gryffindor would deliberately attack another."

"Then where have you been for the last twenty plus years, Professor?! Living in a bubble? Or maybe under a rock?" Harry's voice was filled with venom. "Have you forgotten about Peter Pettigrew, the Gryffindor Deatheater, who betrayed my parents? And let us not forget Percy Weasley who was both Prefect and Head Boy but yet he also joined Moldyshorts and killed Neville for the Dark Wanker. And what about last year, you stood there and watched as the members of your so-called noble House burned up the only memories I would ever have of my parents and godfather? You know you should really think about changing the emblem of your house from the lion to the jackal, madam, because during my time here at this school I have seen Gryffindors turn on each other at the slightest provocation and do it more often than the Slytherins."

McGonagall tried several times to respond to those accusations, but couldn't come up with anything to refute what he had said, given that it was the truth after all. Peter Pettigrew a fellow Gryffindor had betrayed his parents and not once but several times the members of Gryffindor House had turned against Mr. Potter and shunned or outright attacked him, while she did nothing to prevent it. True in some cases she did it to follow Albus Dumbledore's orders, because he said it would make the boy stronger and a leader who would be needed when the Dark Lord came back. He needed to be strong if the wizarding world was to survive.

Then there was Percy Weasley, whom she never would've suspected of joining the Dark Lord, but he had proved to be a bitter disappointment, both to her and to his family. At his closed trial last month, he had been condemned to death for his numerous crimes. No coercion had been necessary, to get him to list his various crimes, though once he had offered to list his crimes, they had given him veritaserum to make sure they got all of them. He had done it rather than face the prospect of having to deal with Harry Potter in an open courtroom. Now all they had to do was figure out how to kill him, given that there were no longer any Dementors to give him the Kiss, thanks to Potter. The Ministry was currently debating making the Killing Curse a legal form of execution, though McGonagall doubted anything would come of that, given that it had been an Unforgivable curse for longer than she'd been alive.

Finally realizing she wasn't going to get anywhere by trying to appeal to a sense of House loyalty, McGonagall decided to see what kind of bargain it would take to get him to undo the spell. "Mr. Potter, what will it take to get you to remove the spell you placed on Miss Granger? You may not care about your magical education, but she does. And your actions right now are no better than theirs were last year. You have taken away something she values. We may not be able to restore all of what was destroyed, but there is no need for you to sink as low as they did. You are better than that."

"A pity that didn't occur to you last year before you believed me capable of murdering one of my friends. Or before you allowed your House to set fire to my things." The expression on Harry's face was one of contempt, but then he looked thoughtful.

After a few moments silence, he told her, "All right I'll remove it... but only if she meets my conditions."

Instantly suspicious, McGonagall asked, "What conditions?"

"Oh, don't worry, it won't be anything dangerous." Harry laughed. "She simply has to get up in front of the whole school at dinnertime on Friday and swear the magically binding oath I will give you and she will have to swear it on her magic...Oh and she can't alter the oath in any way."

"Why not tomorrow at breakfast or even right now, in front of me?" McGonagall demanded. "Why make her suffer for a whole week?"

Harry's face took on an ugly expression. "Don't talk to me about suffering. She won't be suffering. Granger doesn't know the first thing about suffering and neither do you. Suffering is spending a year in Azkaban with the Dementors when you are innocent. Suffering is spending the first ten years of your life sleeping in a cupboard and being beaten or starved for things your cousin did or for working accidental magic. Suffering is watching your godfather fall through the Veil in the Department of Mysteries and knowing it was at least partly your fault he was there."

Harry stormed off up the stairs, before McGonagall come up with anything to say.

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The rumour mill at Hogwarts being one of the best in the wizarding world, before Friday, every student knew that Harry Potter had cursed his former best friend Hermione Granger so that she could longer see the words on a printed page and why. Nor, as they also found out, could she read handwritten notes, hers or anyone else's. The rumour mill also reported that not even Dumbledore could figure out what spell Potter had used and all possible counter curses had been tried to no avail.

The Ravenclaws and Slytherins had enjoyed watching Granger get twitchier and twitchier as the week progressed because she wasn't able to read. Granger attended classes, but they couldn't understand why she was doing so. It wasn't like she would be able to get anything out of the classes, until she was able to read again. The teachers had tried to find readers among the Ravenclaws for her, so she wouldn't fall too far behind, as well as someone to proofread the homework she had done with a dictaquill, but they always found valid excuses not to do it.

None of the Slytherin or Ravenclaw students were really very fond of her. The Slytherins disliked her because she was constantly beating their scores. And the Ravenclaws because of the arrogance with which she paraded her knowledge and her certainty that all the answers in life could be found in books. They knew this was not the case. The Ravenclaws knew that there were always new things to be learned and that old information sometimes had to be revised or eliminated when some new fact came along to contradict it. It was why they rarely if ever put themselves in a position of power in the Ministry or anywhere else. They disliked looking foolish like Minister Fudge was looking right now after his blunders with Potter and his own aide.

The Ravenclaw and Slytherin students had also enjoyed watching the show put on by the other Gryffindors and Potter as they made repeated attempts to get him to undo the curse he'd placed on Granger. It had been interesting watching him cut them off with a few well-chosen words. Ron Weasley, Granger's boyfriend, had been especially persistent and for two days had sported skin of deep green and hair of silver as well as a tendency to spout complimentary things about Slytherins whenever one happened to be nearby. The Slytherins were quick to pick up on this and had hung around Weasley to make this happen.

Because Granger was unable to read the written word a number of the sixth and seventh year Gryffindor students, her boyfriend Weasley included, had been forced into being readers for her and she had gotten very whiny and snappish when they didn't do it properly. Most of them refused to do it again after the first time and Professor McGonagall had no way of requiring students from other houses to do it. A couple of the more compassionate Ravenclaws had offered to proofread Granger's homework for the classes they shared with her on Wednesday, but they quickly left, and refused to do so again when Granger snapped at them they were wrong about an error in her homework.

The Ravenclaws also couldn't help shaking their heads in dismay at the stupidity of the Gryffindors. They kept trying to make Harry Potter forgive them on their timetable and not on his. The Gryffindors kept saying things like 'get over it', 'it's done and you need to move on'. The Ravenclaws however, or at least a majority of them had taken a different approach. While they were not experts on things involving emotion like the Hufflepuffs who were also being frozen out by Potter they did agree with them on one thing. The forgiveness, if it was going to happen at all, had to be on Potter's timetable not theirs. No one could maintain this level of anger forever, unless it was being stoked constantly and the Gryffindors were certainly stoking the fires that kept his anger going. About the only person in the whole school who could approach Potter for anything even remotely resembling a polite conversation, was Loony Lovegood, but then again, that girl wouldn't know a snub if it bit her on the ass.

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On Wednesday before he could get out of Transfiguration class, Harry heard McGonagall call out, "Potter, please remain behind. Mr. Creevy, tell Hagrid that Mr. Potter will be late to class."

Sighing, Harry turned away from the door and went to lean up against the nearest wall, his arms folded across his chest.

Once the classroom was empty, Professor McGonagall told him, "The Headmaster would like to see you in his office."

"When?" Harry asked not at all pleased by the prospect.

"Now."

Sighing again Harry followed the Transfiguration teacher up to the Headmaster's office. "Any idea about what he wants to discuss?"

"The Headmaster did not take me into his confidence about why he wants to see you, Mr. Potter." McGonagall told him crisply.

Probably wants to talk me out of making Granger swear that oath. Harry mused as they arrived in front of the gargoyle that guarded Dumbledore's office.

"Pepper imps," McGonagall told the gargoyle and it moved aside.

After waiting several minutes for the young man to go up the revolving stairs, McGonagall finally ordered, "Go on up, Potter. You don't want to keep the Headmaster waiting.

Harry gave her a sour look before heading toward the revolving staircase. McGonagall though she heard him mutter, "brown noser," as he passed by her.

When he reached the top of the stairs, Harry leaned back against the wall to wait. He was curious to see just how long it would take for Dumbledork's patience to run out and for him to open the door himself. He was quite content to stay there all day. He had nothing better to do with his time after all it wasn't like he wanted to go to any of his classes and if there was one thing Azkaban had taught him, it was patience.

His watch showed that fifteen minutes had passed before the door to Dumbledore's office opened. He would have thought the old man could hold out longer, but apparently not.

"Come in, Harry." Dumbledore requested as he took a step back from the doorway.

"It's Mr. Potter to you." Harry reminded the old man.

Looking disappointed, Dumbledore repeated, "Come in, Mr. Potter."

Harry settled in the nearest chair and didn't say another word.

Dumbledore went and sat down behind his desk. Waving his wand a tea set appeared on the desk and Harry could see steam rising from the teapot. Picking up the pot and a cup, Dumbledore asked, "Would you like some tea?"

Harry shook his head no and continued to stare at the picture on the wall of Phineas Nigellus, a former Headmaster of Hogwarts and the great great uncle of his godfather Sirius Black.

Dumbledore slowly sipped his tea waiting for young Potter to speak. Despite the fact that Harry had made him come and open the door when he wouldn't knock, Dumbledore knew the boy was generally impatient as all the young were. It was only with maturity that one acquired patience.

Dumbledore was on his second cup of tea and Harry still hadn't taken his attention off the picture of Sirius Black's uncle. Phineas had spoken to the boy several times requesting he look at something else, but Harry just continued to stare at him without saying a word.

Finally Phineas had had enough and tried to leave his picture and found he could not. Turning his attention to the current Headmaster, he demanded, "Dumbledore, make him release me."

Dumbledore turned to face Phineas' portrait. "Make who release you?"

"Potter. Somehow he has managed to confine me to my portrait."

"Mr. Potter, have you confined Phineas to his portrait?" Dumbledore asked the young man.

"Yes," Harry told him.

"Why did you do that?" Dumbledore wanted to know.

"Partly because I didn't like the way he is always looking down his nose at me and partly because I wanted to see if I could." Harry told the Headmaster, taking his attention off the portrait for a moment.

"Why would you want to confine the people in the portraits to their frames, Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore asked.

"Because I'm tired of being spied on by you through them." Harry told him. "I don't know if the other students have figured out how you always know what's going on but I did. I had a lot of time to think in Azkaban, when the Dementors weren't trying to drive me crazy."

"I do not use the portraits to spy on the students, or anyone else for that matter." Dumbledore denied.

The expression on Harry's face told the Headmaster he was not believed, even before he said, "Pull the other one, it's got bells on it."

"Harry, please release Phineas." Dumbledore requested, earning himself another death glare from the young man opposite him.

Turning his attention back to the man in the portrait, Harry said, "Hear me, Nigellus. I expect you to pass the word to the other portraits in this school. If any of you try and spy on me, I will confine all of you to the frames you are currently in. Is that clear?"

"You can't stop us from watching over Hogwarts and those within her." Phineas countered haughtily.

"I intend no harm to Hogwarts or those within her as long as they leave me alone." Harry countered icily. "I suggest you remember that and if you want to have an idea of what I can do to your kind, I suggest you go to Grimmauld Place and take a look at the portrait of Sirius' mother."

"Mr Potter, do not threaten the portraits with harm." Dumbledore warned him.

Harry gave him a sour look. "As long as they stay out of my business, they won't have to worry about what I might or might not do."

Before the situation could get completely out of his control, Dumbledore brought up the matter he had wanted to speak to Harry about. "Mr. Potter, I asked you here to request that you remove the curse you placed on Miss Granger, without making her swear that oath you wrote."

"No."

"Why do you want to cut Miss Granger out of your life?" Dumbledore wanted to know. "She is your friend..."

"Was." Harry interrupted. "She was my friend. She is no longer and will never be again."

"Harry, you can't let this anger consume you." Dumbledore began. "That is part of what lead Voldemort down the Dark road he travelled. We all want to help you work through your anger, but you have to let us in before the healing can begin. You shouldn't cut yourself off from those you once called friends. Angry and alone is no way for anyone to live."

"I've been alone all my life," Harry countered. "Why should the future be any different?"

Dumbledore sighed, knowing he was responsible for Harry's feeling like he had always been alone. Hindsight as the muggles had a habit of saying is always twenty/twenty. He'd never understood that until now. Now when he looked back, he could see all the mistakes he had made with young Harry, when at the time he had thought it was the best for all concerned, including young Harry Potter. He regretted his choice of leaving Harry with the Dursleys but it had been the only way of keeping him safe, even though he knew they wouldn't love him. No, if he were honest with himself even though he knew they would hate him. He had believed that once Harry arrived among his own kind that they could make up for what Harry hadn't gotten from the Dursleys, but that hadn't quite worked out the way he'd planned either.

Shaking his head slightly, Dumbledore returned to the topic at hand. "Harry..."

"Potter." The tone of the young man's voice warned him not to use his given name again.

"Miss Granger made mistakes." The Headmaster tried again. "She is trying to make up for them."

"How? By poking her nose into my private business?" Harry couldn't believe the old man was this dense. "I told her to keep her nose out of my business and I would be civil to her as long as it concerned school matters. But noooo, Miss Know-It-All has to know everything, even when it isn't her business. I gave her two more warnings, when she crossed the line, but she still couldn't seem to get it through her head, not to poke her damn nose in my business. Now she is learning her lesson and once she has sworn her oath on Friday, I will return what was taken from her. I won't have to worry about dealing with her attempts to regain my friendship any more because her own oath will keep her in check and if it doesn't then she can just return to the muggle world."

"Potter, we lost too many witches and wizards during both of Voldemort's reigns of terror." Dumbledore pointed out calmly. "We can't afford to lose a young witch of Miss Granger's calibre. Please reconsider the terms of the oath you want her to swear."

"No."

"Why do you want to drive her from our world?"

"I don't care whether she leaves your world or not." Harry felt pleased at the disappointed look on Dumbledork's face. Get used to it old man. This time I'm the one in charge, not you. "I noticed a long time ago, that you have to practically hit Granger in the head with a brick, to get something she doesn't want to think about driven home. Well this is my brick and from now on any time she thinks about coming near me, that brick will be beating her over the head, reminding her of what it will cost her if she does."

"There are easier ways to get your point across." Dumbledore pointed out. "Miss Granger is an intelligent and reasonable young woman."

The expression on Harry's face was one of disbelief. "Easier ways to get the point across to the witch who is still trying to free house elves, even though she has been told repeatedly by them they don't want to be free and that if they are freed that they will die. Do you know that to the House elves, she is Voldemort. They speak of her with fear in their voices, calling Granger "Her" and "She". They avoid her like the plague. She's been told repeatedly to give it up that she is causing more harm than good and that she is terrorising the House elves, but will she give it up... noooooooooo. She thinks she knows better than everybody else what's best for the House elves and she is acting the same way towards me. I told her to leave me alone, unless it concerned school business, but has she... nooooo. That is not intelligence it is pigheadedness. Well she has brought this on herself and now she will pay for what she has done. I will not alter one word of that oath. If she doesn't want to swear it, then send her home, because I doubt she will be of much use to the wizarding world, unless you want to turn her into a brood mare, and I think if you tried that, you and whoever was her husband would soon live to regret it."

"Is there anything that can be done to change your mind?" Dumbledore wanted to know.

Harry didn't even have to think about that. "No."

"Potter, there is still time." Dumbledore made one last attempt anyway. "Please, I'm begging you, reconsider what you are asking Miss Granger to do. Don't cut her out of your life. You may find out that you actually want her there and then it will be too late to get her back."

"She's the one who cut me out of her life, remember Headmaster." Harry reminded him. "When she thought I was guilty, she couldn't get rid of me fast enough. Now that she knows I'm innocent, she wants it all to be forgiven. Well that isn't going to happen and you and she had better just get used to the idea."

When Dumbledore couldn't think of anything else to say, Harry asked, "Are we done yet?"

Dumbledore nodded.

Harry left the room without a backward glance.

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Dinner on Friday was nearing its end when Professor McGonagall tapped on the side of her glass to silence the Great Hall.

In the ensuing silence, Dumbledore got to his feet and said, "May I have your attention please. A request has been made that you all act as witnesses to a magically binding oath." He paused for a moment an expression of disappointment on his face. "Miss Granger, Mr. Potter, if you would both please come forward."

The silence in the Great Hall was such that everyone could hear the tapping of the butt of Potter's staff. Some of the students who shared classes with Potter also noticed that instead of having a flickering light as it usually did, the deep green stone on the top of Potter's staff had a steady pulsing glow almost like a heartbeat. All the students watched Potter and Granger walk up to stand in front of the Head table. Some of the smaller students had to crane their necks to see what was going on.

"Face each other," Dumbledore instructed.

Once they had done so, the Headmaster told Hermione, "you may begin whenever you are ready, Miss Granger."

There were several minutes of silence before Hermione looked at her former best friend and begged. "Please, don't make me do this."

Those closest to the Head table saw that Potter's face was a blank mask, showing no emotion whatsoever and his voice made it clear to the rest of the room as he said flatly. "The choice is yours, Granger. I know that McGonagall told you my terms. You can take them or leave things the way they are."

Tears filled Hermione's eyes as she took out her wand and laid it across the palms of her hands. "I, Hermione Jane Granger, do hereby solemnly swear upon my magic that I will never deliberately approach Harry James Potter or deliberately speak with him ever again. The day I do so, I will lose my magic."

The students in the Great Hall gasped as a blue aura surrounded Granger and it seemed to be reaching out tendrils toward Potter.

"I, Harry James Potter, do hereby accept the magically binding vow of Hermione Jane Granger to never deliberately come near me or speak to me ever again. And I return that which you value over everything else in your life."

As soon as Potter finished speaking, a deep green aura surrounded him and tendrils flowed outward to meet the questing ones from Granger. As soon as they made contact, they seemed to tie themselves together and then both auras vanished.

"So mote it be," Dumbledore intoned and they could hear the note of sadness in his voice. "The oath has been given and accepted and it has been witnessed by those assembled here. I only hope that one day you do not regret was done here today, Mr. Potter."

"I doubt I ever will." Harry told him before returning to his seat at the end of the Gryffindor table.

AN: I got the idea of what to do to Hermione from an old Twilight Zone episode where a guy finally had all the time in the world to read as much as he wanted, but just as he was getting started, he broke his only pair of glasses and without them he was blind as a bat. I also know that for me taking away my ability to read, would be a truly horrible punishment.