Ron waited for Neville to wave him on with his sword before nervously approaching me. "Uh, mate, I was just with Hermione. She seems pretty upset. She says you think she's evil or something?"
"No," I said.
He grinned, speaking before I was finished. "Well, that's a relief 'cause –"
"I know she's evil."
Ron gaped. "Hermione's not evil. She's actually pretty nice."
"She usually curbs her urges," I said, "and that's admirable. But she's getting worse with time. If she keeps denying it, then people are going to get hurt. Important people. People who aren't Edgecomb."
"But she follows a lot of rules, way more than us, and she's really upset when we break them," Ron said.
I shook my head. "When Hermione does break rules, however, she has no distinction between stupid ones and basic human decency. Remember when she wanted to kidnap and interrogate those Slytherins? Or when she tortured that reporter?"
"…No."
Clearly, Hermione had already obliviated him, covering up her crimes by erasing all evidence that they'd ever occurred. Of course, she'd been wise enough not to try such tampering with me.