"Horcuruxes," Ron said. "Never heard of them."

Hermione shrugged over her toast. She wasn't quite awake enough to care. Harry always seemed to bring up important subjects as soon as he could, but sometimes that was before Hermione had had enough tea to make her brain work.

"Slughorn will definitely give you the memory though," Ron finished. "He loves you."

"That he does," Hermione mumbled into her cup. She had just as many connections as Harry, but he was the shining star in Slughorn's eye. Not that she really cared that much. Fame wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

"You should just stay back after potions class and ask him," Ron said.

"If Won-Won says so, you must," Hermione grumbled.

Harry looked at her, concerned. "Are you alright?"

Hermione downed the rest of her mug quickly. She sighed. "Look, it's not that I'm mad at Ron and Lavender for dating. I might even be happy for them. But the nicknames and the public display of it all…"

"And it's hard when your person is so far away," Harry finished for her.

Hermione nodded. She shoved more toast into her mouth, trying to ignore as her eyes prickled with tears. She really didn't want to cry in the great hall. It would cause a scene, and she'd had plenty of those. More than plenty.

"You might as well just ask Slughorn," Hermione admitted. "Worst he can do is say no and then you'll just have to come up with something different."

Harry nodded, then picked up his books and headed to potions. While Hermione and Ron walked with him, he pondered. The look was obvious on his face.

"Yes. I'll ask Viktor," Hermione said. "But you've got to wait. I don't know what he's doing today."

That wasn't entirely true. Hermione knew the greater strokes of Viktor's schedule by heart. And they did speak, in a sense, just about everyday. So she had some idea. But she didn't know exactly when he would be free. Or if he would even be willing to answer such a question.

If Harry was asking her to ask Viktor, it was likely dark magic. And Viktor didn't like to talk much about dark magic. He feared that the implications of sometimes just looking could be dangerous. With any sort of magic there was a price to pay. And sometimes, the darker the magic, the higher the price.

She focused as much as she could on the lesson but her mind was whirling ahead. She hardly even noticed that Harry had skipped on yet another assignment, handing in a bezor instead. She rolled her eyes, but had to admit that for Harry, it was probably the best bet.

She hadn't even managed to finish her antidote, though she could tell it had been the closest out of everyone else's attempts. Of course, it would help if Slughorn actually taught them the theory and she didn't have to rely on her own personal study.