Hermione's sobs grabbed Harry's attention. He placed the book in his robes for later reading and ran over to Hermione. "What happened Hermione?" Harry held Hermione until she settled down enough to talk to him. "I was looking at the bust" pointing to it "when I saw this diadem. It felt like I was drawn to it somehow. Now I know why. It was a memory from my parents. Or I should say my birth parents. They were giving me to my mom. Said that they only wanted my safety. I've never even heard of them. The man…my father kept calling the woman…my mother…..Bella. Do you know a Bella?" Harry shook his head. He couldn't remember anyone named Bella. "Why did they give you up?" Harry asked. "They said for my safety. Someone was after my father and he was worried because Lucius Malfoy told him that a man wanted to kill him." Hermione was starting to return to normal but now had a gleam in her eye that Harry recognized. It was a look of determination mixed with anger and curiosity. "Are you sure it was Lucius Malfoy?" "Yes, what other Lucius do you know of in the wizarding world?" she asked rhetorically. "They mentioned your parents too. They had gone into hiding because someone told them my father was going to kill them. Sounded like your mom and my mom were friends at one time." "Well" Harry said. "What do you think we should do now?" "Right now, I need to contact the only man I know of that can tell me the truth. I need to owl Lucius Malfoy."
Once they had written to Lucius and sent an owl to him, Hermione begged off to her room to get some rest. She felt drained. Soon though, her rest was interrupted with the arrival of Parvati and Lavender with their incessant gossiping. "Apparently, Ron had suggested to Seamus that he should get Harry back by asking Cho Chang out to Hogsmead this weekend." Lavender told Parvati not realizing that Hermione was in the room resting. "Why would he do that? He must know that she wouldn't say yes. She's dating Cedric Diggory." Parvati giggled. Hermione, being the clever girl she was made no sound. She couldn't believe her ears. Why would Ron want to do such a thing? "Well, he said that since Harry can take all the glory, he'll take the girl that Harry wants. Kind of pathetic really. He's not even as handsome as Harry. And he eats like a pig that hasn't eaten in two days." Lavender made a disgusted looking face.
Hermione waited until their gossip session was over. It was leading to whom was dating whom and Hermione really didn't care about anyone they were talking about. When they finally left Hermione waited ten minutes and then went to find Harry. When she went into the common room Harry was in a discussion with Neville Longbottom. Neville saw Hermione first and gave her a bright smile and a warm hug. They had been very close since their first train ride when Hermione helped Neville look for his toad Trevor. "Hermione, you feeling better? Harry said you went to lay down with a headache." "Yeah Neville. Actually, can we talk about something? Harry, will you come to the Black Lake with us?" "Sure." He said. "I can help explain a bit when you can't."
When they got to the Great Lake, Hermione drew out a ball from her bag and started playing fetch with the giant squid. "What you want to talk about?" Neville asked. Hermione and Neville never kept secrets from each other. A lot of people found Neville to be unintelligent and awkward. Hermione figured it was because of his mortification in regards to Professor Snape and his mishap with a broom in first year. Hermione could relate because she really hated flying. The heights made her sick to her stomach.
While she was playing fetch Harry and Hermione told Neville about what Hermione saw in the diadem. "Sounds like someone placed a memory charm on it. Kind of like a pensive but when you touch it, it shows you. They probably placed a compulsion charm on it keyed to you so that you would see it." Neville was very active in two of his classes. Charms and Herbology. He really almost rivaled Hermione with his charm knowledge and dominated her in Herbology. She just didn't have a green thumb like he did. "That's what I thought too. I wrote to Lucius to see if he could help since they named him in the memory. I just wish I knew who it was they were trying to hide me from."