Chapter 9 - The Attacks
“Moste Potente Potions, really Miss Granger? This is a very advanced manual,” Professor Snape looked over the parchment at her.
Hermione gulped. “Yes sir.” He arched a brow at her as she took a breath, steeling herself. “I just want to review a few of the potions, I’ve already read all of the texts through NEWT level.” Theo coughed behind her.
“Well, while Mr. Nott may find the pursuit of knowledge amusing, I most certainly do not,” he said, signing the slip of parchment. She took it turning to leave the classroom. “Miss Granger.”
She stopped dead, “Yes professor?”
“Do not make me regret it.”
A few days later, the second years were sitting together at lunch, most wisely using their time to study, choosing to save their evenings for more pleasurable activities.
“Blimey Hermione, did you know it was going to take an entire month to brew this?” Theo asked, indicating the old text Snape had lent them.
She rolled her eyes, “Yes Theo, I did that’s why I made it clear we needed to move now.”
“Harry and I got the ingredients you asked,” chimed in Draco from across from her. She smiled at him. He gazed back at her, opening his mouth, as if to say something else to her when a shrill giggle caused the pair to look away.
“Hey Pans, didn’t see you there,” she half groaned. As the witch in question caught her breath, she clutched Harry’s arm while he looked pleadingly at Blaise for help. Hiding her grin, Hermione let Theo pack up her things, giving her a slightly pained expression as they headed out of the hall. She glanced over her shoulder to see Pansy had wedged herself between Draco and Harry, both wizards playing the gentleman helping to fix her tea.
Lost in her own thoughts, she almost missed Theo’s quiet sigh. “And what’s got your wand in a knot?”
He shook his head, “Nothing, let’s just get started on this potion, you know if we want it done right I’m the only one who can help you.”
“You know Draco is pretty good at potions.”
“Yes but it looks like this is really more of a two person job.”
“Well do you want to go grab him for me?”
“I’m not going back in there.”
“Why Theo?”
“Drop it.” And his tone left nothing up for discussion. Hermione was momentarily stunned. Her friends were just children like her, but unlike her, they had been raised by a structured aristocracy, and Theo even more than the others could become Lord Nott, exuding the authority the position called for.
“So you got the lacewing flies from Draco?” And at his nod a moment later, she knew that the awkwardness a minute ago was already forgotten. The pair worked quietly through the rest of lunch and their free period choosing a solitaire table at the back of a private studio Professor Snape had given them use of. By the time they had made their way to charms with the others, Theo appeared to be in much higher spirits, although he ignored his usual seat next to Harry to sit with Daphne who smiled sweetly up at him, leaving a confused Blaise playing musical chairs as Pansy had taken the empty seat.
Classes seemed to pass in a whirl over the next few weeks as Hermione and her best friends were so singularly focused. Many of her free periods were spent with Theo in the private studio, though she refused to let her marks slip, which is how she found herself at least a few hours past curfew being woken up by a bleary eyed Draco in the library.
“Hermione, you fell asleep, we need to go.”
“What? What time is it?”
“Nearly 3 in the morning!” Came Harry’s disembodied voice from Draco’s right. She jumped up, packing her bag as Harry held up his invisibility cloak for her and Draco who slipped under, taking Hermione’s bag from her. The trio rushed out of the library as quietly as they could, keeping close to the wall in case a professor or ghost appeared suddenly. Creeping around corners, the group held their breath, aware of more noise than usual coming from the corridors nearby. Harry gasped.
“Shhh”, Draco hushed him, halting their movement as he paused.
“I can hear something, it’s -” he broke off, clutching his scar.
“What is it, Harry?” Hermione asked, starting to panic.
“It’s saying to kill, to rip, I don’t understand.’” Harry shuddered, Draco paled, staring wide-eyed at him. And before Hermione could process, Harry ducked out from under the cloak and was tearing off down the corridor. She and Draco exchanged a look before running after him, following the pounding footfalls of their friend.
They found him several corridors over standing stalk still staring at a body lying on the cold stone floor. Hermione vaguely recognized the young Gryffindor clutching a smoking lump of plastic. They stood staring for a few minutes before something snapped in Harry and he tore off down the corridor again, Hermione and Draco following a second behind. They caught up to him panting several floors below, his ear pressed to the wall between two portraits.
“Harry!” She gasped, clutching her side, “What. Are. You. Doing?”
“The voice, it was back, but I can’t find it now.” He muttered, still pressed against the wall.
“Teachers!” Draco whispered flinging the cloak over them all once more, as Sprout came jogging up the hallway muttering under her breath. “Not another one, we can’t take much more of this, it’s not safe”
“Come on, back to the common room,” hissed Draco urging the other two slightly in front of him.
“Theo!” Harry exclaimed, bursting through the entrance startling a very tired Theodore Nott. “There was another one.” At Theo's raised eyebrow launched into the story as Hermione nodded to him before heading to her dormitory.
A few hours later she woke panting, drenched in sweat, the images of a crowned figure staring back at her through a gilded mirror still plaguing her mind. She took several deep breaths, trying to slow her racing heart before rolling over and falling back into sleep. When she would wake mere hours later, the dream would be a distant memory.
-
The three boys stood over the cauldron. Theo busied himself with collecting vials while Draco peered into the cauldron apprehensively.
“Mate, is it supposed to look this..” trailing off Draco looked helplessly at Theo.
“Well according to the description, yes,” finished Harry smirking. Having lived with the Dursley’s he was used to eating whatever was in front of him, while Draco had never once had that problem. They all turned as Hermione burst into the room, clutching a vial.
“I’ve got it!” she exclaimed, grinning madly. “But only one I’m afraid.” They looked at each other.
“And you’re sure it’ll work?” asked Harry, taking the vial from Hermione. She nodded.
“For exactly 60 minutes.”
“I’ll do it. You three wait in the common room for me.” Hermione opened her mouth to argue but at a look from Theo she was silenced.
“Harry has the best bet of getting out of trouble if he gets caught, Lockhart loves him,” Theo reasoned. “Draco give him your robes.”
Draco grimaced but passed Harry his royal blue dress robes, which he tugged on. Hermione ladled out one measure of the disgusting concoction into a glass and added the hair. The potion immediately turned a violent shade of lilac that made her head hurt just looking at it. She passed the glass to Harry.
“Bottoms up!” said Theo cheerily, clinking an empty glass against Harry’s. Harry swallowed the potion with a grimace, and looked at her horrified as his skin began bubbling. After a moment, there in front of them stood Gilderoy Lockhart. She lengthened Draco’s robes to fit the taller wizard, and nodded.
“Right then, time starts now, 60 minutes, and we’ll be in the common room waiting,” she reiterated to the boys, who nodded. And with that Harry turned and walked out of the classroom.
Exactly one hour later Hermione, Draco, and Theo were gathered around a small table in the corner of the common room, as Harry, back to himself but still in Draco’s now too long dress robes entered and sauntered over to them.
“Well that was a waste of a month,” he huffed as he pulled off the robes and tossed them to Draco.
“Why? What happened?” asked Hermione sharply.
And Harry launched into his explanation. “The teachers gathered in the teacher’s lounge to wait for Professor Dumbledore, but when I approached any of the others they all seemed surprised I was there in the first place, and weren’t inclined to make idle chit chat, especially not about the attacks. When Dumbledore entered, he basically concluded that the Chamber of Secrets was open again-”
“As if we didn’t already know that,” huffed Draco.
“-anyway, and encouraged the other teachers to lock down the hallways in between classes and increase patrols, even putting locking charms on common room entrances after curfew. But that was it. I didn’t want to draw too much attention to myself just in case, since I only had about 10 minutes left, but I did ask if he had any leads on the culprit, and he doesn’t. Not a single one.”
“What a complete waste of potion supplies,” sighed Theo.
“It wasn’t all a waste, we learned to brew an advanced potion and it worked!” countered Hermione. Theo rolled his eyes at her.
“I just don’t understand how the board hasn’t done anything yet,” marveled Draco, “lives are in danger!”
-
As exams drew closer, students found themselves crushed under a mountain of schoolwork. The slytherins found themselves studying late into the night, though no one pushed themselves as hard as Hermione, who spent nearly every evening in a far corner of the library. What no one knew however, is that most of her studying wasn’t related to her studies. She had thrown herself wholly into research on the Chamber of Secrets, determined to understand what was happening.
Hermione’s breath caught as she read the passage again. This was so much worse than she could imagine. A basilisk, there wasn’t another specimen known to be alive, but it was the only logical explanation, even the roosters Harry had mentioned offhandedly in between jokes about the gamekeeper. She pulled out her bag praying she hadn’t forgot her small toiletry bag today. She located the small compact, packing up the rest of her bag after copying the page with a quick charm and adding a note about travel in the margin to explain later.
She recognized an older Ravenclaw leaving a few steps ahead of her, calling out, “Hey Penelope right?”
The older girl turned and looked at her, “yes?”
“This is going to sound odd, but can you trust me for a minute?” And she explained her plan as the girls headed toward Ravenclaw Tower. After about 10 minutes Hermione was starting to feel silly, there had been nothing out of place and it was slowing them down considerably, not to mention taking Hermione out of her way several floors. She pointed her mirror around the corner of the corridor, thinking that if this one was also clear, she’d turn around, leaving Penelope Clearwater to find her own way to her tower, but just then she heard an odd rustling.
“Mirror only, remember,” she whispered as she took a deep breath looking into her compact, seeing a strange yellow eye before it went black.