A/N: Thank you all so much for continuing to favorite, follow and review! It means a lot to me! I have responded to chapter three reviews via PM. Here is chapter four, part one of second year. I would love to hear what you think! Be on the lookout for chapter five, soon!

Follow me on tumblr. My handle is nauticalparamour.

Hermione had had a wonderful summer with her father, but she was more ready than ever to get back to Hogwarts. Her father and she had spent part of the summer in France at their old house, enjoying the waves from the sea and the brilliant sunlight. She'd caught quite a tan in the weeks that they spent there.

She'd spent some of her time visiting Draco as well, but he was very preoccupied with his new friends, particularly Theo and Blaise. Hermione didn't mind Theo, but she thought that Blaise was always up to something, like she'd never be able to really relax around him. It seemed that the feeling was quite mutual as the boy couldn't stand to put up with her when she was "so swotty."

Daphne and she had traded loads of letters through the summer. Daphne would mostly complain about her little sister, Astoria, who was apparently a pain in the arse. Hermione had never met her, so she couldn't say for sure if it was true or not. She didn't have a sibling, but Draco was probably the closest thing she had to a brother, and he did get on her nerves sometimes. Recently, he'd been obsessed with Quidditch, much to Hermione's dismay. She liked him better when they tried to come up with new potions together.

Hermione and her father had gone to Diagon Alley on their own to pick up Hermione's textbooks, as the Malfoys had already gone. Apparently, Uncle Lucius said they had a most unpleasant run in with the Weasleys. Hermione couldn't say that she was surprised, from what she knew of Ronald Weasley. The best news was from Draco who said that Weasley had a little sister, who fancied herself in love with Potter.

She'd spent the final weeks before school more determined than ever to get more information. Voldemort had been living on one of her Professors all year last year, and she hadn't even noticed or heard a whisper about it. If she was going to make a difference at all, if she was going to be successful, she would need to be better than that.

Settling into her usual compartment on the Hogwarts express, she was soon joined by Daphne and Tracey. Pansy and Millie followed not much later. Hermione was sure that things with Pansy would always be strained, but she made every effort to cultivate the girl. You never knew who you could get great information from. Pansy was a wealth of gossip, but the best part was that she never seemed to realize everything that she'd given up.

"Hello Pansy, Millie. How was your summer?" She asked dutifully, though she doubted there would be much of interest.

Millie answered first. Hermione noted that she had grown at least two inches over the summer. "Father got me a cat." She said, pointing to the purring black lump in the cage shoved under her seat. Hermione looked at it's bright yellow green eyes and thought that it seemed a bit feral.

Pansy looked around the cabin with an air of superiority, her pug nose raised high in the air. "I spent the summer in Greece with my mother and sister. We spent nearly a month there." She paused, waiting for the other girls to coo over her trip. "Did you do anything interesting, Hermione?" She dutifully asked in response, perhaps thinking that she'd had a much better summer holiday than Hermione.

Hermione smiled sweetly at her roommate. "My father and I spent the majority of the summer at our house in the south of France. It was lovely to go out in the sun all day." Hermione knew that her father would hate the way she was bragging, but she knew it was the way that the Slytherin girls communicated. If she wanted to be one of them, she'd have to brag like them.

Pansy resisted a sneer. "Yes, I noticed you have such a lovely tan. You are so lucky."

Hermione shrugged. "It's where I grew up, so I was just happy to be back for a visit. It had been several years since I'd been for so long. I spent some other time with Draco, but he was quite busy as well." She could practically feel the envy rolling off Pansy in waves.

That news had Pansy and Tracey sitting on the edge of their seats. "And how is your cousin?" Pansy asked, very intrigued, all pretense out the window.

Hermione resisted the urge to roll her eyes. As if Uncle Lucius would ever want Pansy for a daughter in law. If by some freak accident Pansy and Draco ever had a relationship, Hermione would have a few choice words to pass onto Aunt Narcissa. "He's quite interested in trying out for the Quidditch team this year. I think he'll make an excellent seeker."

Millie, who was probably the most interested in the actual Quidditch, nodded in agreement. "Of course. Surely he will make a much better seeker for Slytherin than Potter does for Gryffindor."

Hermione looked slyly at Daphne, who was doing a good job of playing her hair to distract from the blush on her cheeks. Hermione nodded. "I reckon that they can with the Quidditch cup with Draco as seeker."

Tracey and Pansy cooed that of course Draco would lead them to victory. Hermione finally cleared her throat. "But enough about Quidditch - sorry Millie - what's this I hear about Gilderoy Lockhart being our new Defense Professor?" Hermione had already read all of his books, and was embarrassed to admit, spent several hours staring at the moving covers of his books.

The girls' train ride devolved into excited giggles about their dreamy new professor. Before they knew it, they were back to Hogwarts.

Hermione was on a mission. She knew that she should be focusing on learning more about her classmate's families, but she found that her focus was entirely distracted by one Professor Gilderoy Lockhart. Merlin, he was so dreamy. She'd read through all of his assigned textbooks in a matter of days over the summer, but she so enjoyed hearing him speak in class.

Although, his teaching style left a little bit to be desired. He seemed to get rather flustered during lectures, when any kind of practical demonstration was required. Just last week, he'd left the classroom after letting loose a bunch of pixies! Surely, he was just trying to see how the students would react in an unexpected situation.

She'd stuck around to watch Weasley's nervous attempts at stunning the pixies, and couldn't help but laugh when the pixies strung up Neville Longbottom by his underwear from a chandelier. Only Potter seemed to have any idea of what to do.

Finally, taking pity on the trio of dim-witted Gryffindors, she immobilized all of the pixies, proudly reviewing her handiwork. She wondered if she should let Professor Lockhart know so that he could assign house points? After Weasley berated her for being a showoff and a bloody brown noser, though, the only thing on her mind was sharing how ridiculous his squeals sounded to Draco and his friends. "Honestly, I was looking to see who'd let the pig into the classroom."

Luckily for her, Daphne was more than willing to help Hermione stalk Professor Lockhart through the halls. Two days ago, Daphne had gone with her Professor Lockhart's office to discuss his time traveling with vampires. They had, unfortunately, been turned out when Harry Potter showed up for a detention. It seemed that Potter was just as famous as their professor, and so he had no time for silly girls.

Tonight, however, Professor Lockhart wasn't in his office, so the girls were wandering the halls and looking for a glimpse of their Professor, waxing about his dreaminess. "I know he's won all kinds of awards for his smile, but I think his blue eyes are his best feature." Daphne whispered.

Hermione grinned. "Of course he is nice to look at, but I love how intelligent he is as well. He's accomplished so much. I guess that's why he was placed in Ravenclaw. I heard that he was almost in Slytherin." Hermione kind of wished that her idolized Professor had been a Slytherin.

"He wouldn't have done well in Slytherin." Daphne said confidently. "He's a half-blood, which is okay, I suppose. But, I've also heard that-" Her whispering got even quieter. Hermione was excited because she knew that it meant it was juicy gossip. "-his two older sisters are squibs. He wouldn't have been accepted well in our house." She flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulder.

Hermione knew that was probably true. "Well, being a half-blood isn't the worst thing in the world. I'd never met one before I came to Hogwarts." She admitted to her friend. "Most of them seem alright, even though the ones like Potter make me question if they have all their marbles."

"Don't talk about Potter that way, Hermione." Daphne said with a bright blush on her cheeks. "He's not so bad. It's Weasley whose the poor influence for a friend. They give purebloods a bad name."

Hermione hmmed in agreement. "I wouldn't get your heart set on Potter, Daph. Haven't you seen his new girlfriend? Ginny Weasley. She follows him around like a lost puppy dog." Hermione said with a sneer. She thought it was quite distasteful for an eleven year old to pant over someone else like that. Weren't her brothers aware of their duties as chaperone while she was at school?

Daphne giggled. "Oh, you're one to talk...here we are following around Professor Lockhart!" Hermione joined in to laugh with her friend. She supposed it was pretty ridiculous. "And, I don't have my heart set on Potter...besides, daddy would freak out if I ever even tried to marry a half-blood."

Hermione frowned at that. "Do you already have a contract written?" Hermione knew that some families tried to get them arranged marriages as soon as possible, but she would be surprised if the Greengrasses did, seeing as they had two daughters to marry off. It was hard to know who would be the most advantageous match this early.

Daphne shook her head. "No, not yet. Daddy did tell me to try to find someone that would suit me from my classmates, but honestly, everyone in our year seems so...I don't know. I think it's a bit too early to be deciding. And who knows, Goyle could end up looking really fit after puberty."

Hermione looked scandalized. "Daphne! He'd still be dumb as rocks!" She couldn't imagine settling for someone like Crabbe or Goyle.

"What about you, Hermione? Do you have an agreement?" Daphne asked, her green eyes curious.

Hermione shook her head. "No, my father and I haven't discussed it yet. Though Uncle Lucius has commented that I would make a good bride." She frowned. She hoped that her papa wouldn't make her marry someone she didn't like, but she figured that he'd probably talk about it with her first. "Come on, let's get back to the Common Room. I have to finish my Charms essay."

Draco had been so excited to tell everyone that he had been appointed to the Slytherin team as seeker. Hermione happily hugged her cousin, proud of his accomplishment. Uncle Lucius had been so pleased, he'd bought brand new brooms for the whole team. It was quite a generous gift, and it was sure to give them a leg up on the competition.

Hermione always knew that Draco was an excellent flyer, so it wasn't too surprising that he would make the team. She promised him to come to every game he had, and a few practices as well, even though she loathed the sport. She would go to support her family. But, she hadn't promised not to bring a book along to pass the time!

That was how she found herself walking across the courtyard with the rest of the Slytherin team, and Draco's mates. She was glad that Theo would be there, so that she could chat with him about something interesting, instead of playing gobstones with the others.

They met the Gryffindor team in the courtyard, who were also on their way to practice. Too bad for them that Professor Snape had given them a permission slip to use the grounds, Hermione thought triumphantly. Weasley took the biggest issue with Draco being their new seeker. "He bought his way onto the team with new brooms?"

"At least Harry got onto the team with pure talent." The Weasley girl - or Weaslette, as the boys had taken to calling her - piped up next to them. She was a spiteful little thing.

Hermione rolled her eyes at them. "Draco is the seeker because he was the best at tryouts. As if Marcus would give up the best chance at winning for a couple of brooms." Hermione was annoyed that they would suggest that her cousin had no talent, when they hadn't even seen him fly before. "You're just jealous because the Slytherin team got an upgrade. What are you still using? Cleansweeps?"

That got a chuckle out of her Slytherin compatriots. Marcus had even preened under her assessment of his character. She knew that if the older boy was obsessed with one thing, it was winning at Quidditch.

Weasley, on the other hand, looked as though he might be having an aneurysm. She'd never seen someone's face go so red so fast. He brandished his wand pointing it directly at her. It made Hermione start laughing because she'd never seen such a badly damaged wand before. He hadn't even done a good job of taping it together.

"Ha, instead of worrying about other people's brooms and start worrying about affording a new wand, Weasley!" Draco laughed beside her.

"Oh yeah?" Weasley asked, pointing his wand to Draco. "Eat slugs!"

Hermione wasn't concerned at all about Weasley's spell. Didn't he know that spells didn't work that way? Just then, though she saw his face turn a violent shade of green, and lean over heaving. He made a wet guttural noise, and then a fully formed slug dropped at his feet. Hmm, she guessed magic could work that way.

Potter and the Weaslette ushered a puking Weasley in the direction of Hagrid, the grounds keeper's hut. Hermione smirked. She didn't know what good that he would be able to do. Weasley should go to see Madame Pomfrey in the Infirmary, but then he would likely get in trouble for attacking another student.

Really, Hermione thought, she should tell her head of house. Weasley was liable to cause real damage with that wand of his, but she figured that this was punishment enough.

Content with the way that things had played out, she followed the rest of the Slytherins out onto the Quidditch pitch, before climbing up the benches with the rest of the boys. She'd brought a book investigating the differences between arithmancy and divination, so she was content to just read an lend Draco the support of her being here.

Still, she ended up spending most of her time chatting with Theo about what classes she was going to take next year. It would be important to make smart choices now, as it would affect which O.W.L.s and even which N.E.W.T.s that they'd be able to take in a few years.

Hermione knew it was a bit unpopular for a girl to be so interested in getting the best O.W.L. results in their year, but it was something that she wanted, so she was going to go after it. Anyone who tried to make her feel bad for it was just a sore loser.

The first indication that something was going wrong in Hogwarts occurred one night after dinner. Hermione was making her way to the library with Tracey and Daphne. The three girls had become quite close, leading to some jokes from people in other houses, mostly Gryffindors. Variations on a blonde, a brunette and a redhead. All focused on the perception that Daphne was a dumb blonde, which made Hermione quite angry.

While it was true that Daphne didn't have the natural talent for academics that Hermione did, she certainly wasn't dumb. She did study, and received quite acceptable marks - much better than Weasley did. It really annoyed Hermione, but Daphne didn't mind very much.

Tracey on the other hand, wasn't very studious at all, but always got her work done. Still, when there was a quiz coming up, she dutifully trudged to the library with her two friends to put in the time to get good marks. Tracey was very quiet when they'd first met, but Hermione soon learned that it was due to her being a half-blood. She was worried about being ostracized, so she was constantly sucking up the other girls in her year.

Hermione and Daphne didn't mind about Tracey's blood status, but they'd never explicitly discussed it. Pansy, on the other hand, always had a bit of an air around Tracey like she didn't completely trust her. Hermione figured that Pansy tolerated Tracey only because Hermione was her friend.

They were taking a shortcut to the library, when they stumbled on a wet hallway. "What happened here?" Daphne asked delicately trudging through the water not wanting to ruin her shoes.

"Should we go find a Professor?" Tracey asked, looking nervous.

Hermione shook her head, eager to see what had happened. "No, let's just walk a little bit further." She took the lead, walking through the standing water confidently, even though she had an eerie sense of foreboding.

When they turned the corner, they saw Harry Potter standing, looking stunned, in front of something that was levitating in the hallway. Hermione frowned, before asking out loud. "Is that Mrs. Norris?" She was confused. What was Potter doing with Filch's cat?

"Nevermind that!" Daphne squealed beside her. "Is that blood?" She was pointing to the wall that Potter was standing in front of. Daphne's squeal had gotten Potter's attention, and he turned, looking helpless and confused.

Before they could talk to him, more students came up behind them, fresh from dinner. Filch was walking down the hallway as well, and he gasped, seeing his cat's lifeless body hanging in the hallway. "You...killed my cat?" He asked, the rage already boiling under the surface.

Another student read the bloody message on the wall. "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir beware."

Even after the professors had shuffled everyone back to their own Common Rooms, the wheels in Hermione's head were already turning. What was the Chamber of Secrets? She'd read Hogwarts, A History several times, and couldn't remember anything being written about it in there. Also, who was the heir? And who were his enemies? She wanted to know everything to do with the Chamber of Secrets and the bloody message. She was certain that Potter wasn't the heir...he'd looked so perplexed standing in the hallway, and he'd been adamant that he hadn't done anything to Mrs. Norris.

Still, this sounded exactly like what her papa would want her to look into. She wasn't sure if Voldemort was involved, but it sounded like dark magic. She was determined to get to the bottom of this. Last year, Voldemort had been living in the same castle as she was, and she'd failed to even notice that anything was wrong.

She wasn't going to let this slip through her fingers.