The first week of school was the worst Hermione had ever had. The amount of homework was insane and Snape was making her Head Girl duties more difficult than necessary. If she hadn't heard from Dumbledore himself or the other members of the Order, she would have believed he was entirely for Voldemort's reign simply based on how he treated all the students who weren't in Slytherin. He had been vague in discussing her duties as Head Girl and she only knew about the Head's meeting with Snape on Saturday morning because Draco had been kind enough to wait for her in the dorm.

Hermione had not been planning for the meeting and was completely unprepared. Luckily for her, Draco seemed to have the answer for every question Snape pointed her direction and Hermione was saved from the extra embarrassment. The second Snape dismissed her, she darted from his office and raced up to the seventh floor where Ginny had arranged for all members of the DA to meet fifteen minutes ago.

As soon as she stepped into the Room of Requirement, she was attacked with multiple hugs from Ginny, Neville, and a few of the younger students she felt bad for not remembering. When she could breathe again, she took a second to notice how worried everyone looked and glanced at Ginny.

"You're never late," she said in answer, "We thought something bad had happened to you."

"I had a Heads meeting Snape didn't tell me about," she told her, reassuring everyone she was fine.

It was then she realised just how many students were in the Room. Surely not all of them had been in the DA last year, but she did recognise some as students from the year before. Apparently word had gotten out.  She'd have to update the lip-locking list, but she could do that before everyone left, not before seeing how each class was doing.

"The Carrows hate me," a third year whimpered when she brought up the topic. She spotted the blue lining on the girl's robes and glanced at Luna. Luna gave her a warm smile and nodded, promising to check up on her after the meeting.

"Why would Professor Snape even allow Death Eaters to teach?" another student asked. Hermione didn't recognise him, so she committed his face to memory in order to ask him to sign the list.

"Because he's a Death Eater!"

Hermione had no hoping of stopping the outcry that sounded throughout the room after that. She allowed a second of yelling and worrying before silencing everyone with a wave of her wand. All eyes turned back to her.

"I know you're all scared," she said, looking across the sea of students. God, how had Harry done this? It was terrifying to be the only hope these kids had. "Things are changing and this first week has been awful! Some of you remember the DA Harry led last year and some of you are new. Before I tell you what this is about, though, anyone who isn't prepared to defend themselves and others needs to leave right now. We'll understand, but you also need to know that you won't be alone if you do decide to stay."

She paused, waiting for people to move but no one did. When she was certain no one was going to leave, she conjured the lip-locking list that still held everyone's names from last year.

"Everyone will sign this," she said. She explained the purpose of it and why it was necessary. If anyone didn't sign it, they wouldn't be allowed back for more meetings. Levitating the paper around the room, the few new students that were there scrambled to write their name on the paper while she continued explaining they would meet every Saturday after lunch. She wasn't sure if the meeting with Snape would be an every week thing, but just in case it was, she wanted to make sure they weren't waiting for her.

"The Carrows are out for blood," Ginny murmured to her as the younger students finished signing the list and the older students chatted between themselves.

"I know," Hermione replied quietly. "I've seen it and I'm worried. They're itching to give detention and I don't want to think about what that entails."

"Has anyone gotten it yet?" Ginny asked, eyes wide. Hermione shook her head. Both of the Carrows had only threatened it so far, but she could see just how badly they wanted the students to mess up just to give them detention.

"I want you and Neville to check-in with the Gryffindor students throughout the week," Hermione told her, waving Luna and Neville over as she spoke. She relayed the same message to Neville and Luna, making sure Luna could find a Hufflepuff she trusted to keep an eye on the younger Hufflepuffs. "The Carrows are itching to give detention and the last thing I want is to see is young kids alone with them on the weekend."

"What should we do if they do get detention?" Luna asked. Hermione paused, not sure what they really could do. She promised to do some reading and come up with a solution before next week before dismissing the group with the understanding they were to meet next Saturday.

They let the students out a couple at a time so as to avoid suspicion and an hour later, Hermione was finally on her way to the library. The empty halls echoed her footsteps, but she hurried through them and to the library. When she finally reached it, she nodded quickly at Madam Pince and darted to a section where she was certain she'd find something to help with Luna's question.

After finding an armload of books she figured could be of use, she hurried through the halls back to the Heads dorm. She figured she could very well read them in the library, but she didn't want time to get away from her and discover it was late at night. Instead, she would read from the comfort and safety of her room with Draco nearby.

When she stepped into the dorm, Draco was hunched over on the couch, staring at the carpet in front of him. She paused, forgetting about the heavy door and jumping when it slammed shut. Draco jumped as well, looking up at her in surprise. He opened his mouth to say something but she beat him to it.

"I had a... thing," she explained weakly, lifting the books in her arms. He gave her a short smile and nodded as if that explained why she'd been gone for hours after the meeting with Snape. It was then she noticed something in his hands, a letter by the looks of it. She nodded to it and he covered it quickly. "Should I leave?" she asked.

Draco looked like he wanted to say no, but he nodded.

"It's a Floo call," he said, gesturing to the firepit. "You should probably silence your room for the next hour or two."

"Alright," Hermione agreed. She gave Draco an encouraging smile before heading up to her room and doing as he said.

As soon as she'd set her books down, she heard the whoosh of the fire pit and a shrill voice greeting Draco. Before she could eavesdrop longer, she cast the charm and her room went silent.

She settled on her bed, trying not to worry about the Floo call and if Draco was possibly letting more Death Eaters into Hogwarts. She doubted Snape would allow that, but clearly the Floo was available in the Head's dormitory. Originally, she'd thought only the teachers' offices allowed that, so either the Head's dorm was an exception or Snape had changed it specifically for Draco during the year.

Choosing to stop focusing on the Floo she couldn't hear, she opened her first book and began reading quickly. If she couldn't figure out a sure-fire protection method for the younger students before one of them got detention, she didn't think she'd ever forgive herself.

For a moment in the library, she thought about making all of them protection amulets like she had for Draco, but that would take too long and was much to detectable. She needed an undetectable way to protect them without involving more people than necessary. Unfortunately, most of what she was reading didn't make it sound like that was possible. In fact, it sounded like what she wanted wasn't possible at all and as she reached for her third book late that night, she wondered if the Malfoy Manor had books on the subject.

She was halfway through the first paragraph of the third book when she found exactly what she needed. Well, it wasn't exactly what she wanted, but it was much closer than anything else and she felt giddy with the idea. She flipped to the page it said had more information and eagerly read it. When she read what the downsides were, she felt her heart drop.

In theory, she could cast the spell on all the younger students, but it would need to be connected to an older student as well. Any harm inflicted upon the younger would be inflicted on the older one. At first, it would appear the harm was affecting the first person, but all scarring, pain, and fear would be felt by the older one.

Despite how horrible it sounded, Hermione kept the information tucked away in her head. Maybe she could trick the spell into accepting an inanimate object or a mouse as the receiver of the harm instead of another student. She would only consider the option again if nothing else became an option and she had two and a half more books to look through. She could wait and finish the rest of her research before jumping on the only idea she had so far.