Second year had started off with a bang. Literally.
As all the students sat down to for the Sorting Feast an earth-shattering boom was heard. The First years all thought it was normal so they clapped when they heard the noise, but all the other students knew that something had gone wrong. It was only until the next day, however, that everyone understood what exactly that was. Mrs. Weasley, Ron's mother, had made sure of that.
Those foolish boys had crashed a flying car - Hermione was very interested in the concept - into the Whomping Willow, but not before being seen by half of muggle London! Worse than "Ron's father now facing an inquiry at work that was entirely his fault", they had jeopardised the safety of the entire Wizarding World! The Statute of Secrecy had been put in place for a reason!
Hermione made up her mind to give the boys a good lecture about it.
It hadn't gone over well. At. All.
Ron had called her a goody-two-shoes, know-it-all - which was funny, because he hadn't minded when she had known the answer to their Nicolas Flamel question the year before - and stormed off.
Harry's response had really hurt though. "You shouldn't be worrying about us doing any harm, with a cousin like yours!"
They had had almost no interaction after the events of the "Night of the Stone" - as she had taken to calling it - so Hermione hadn't known how Harry would respond to Voldemort's revelations. Well, now she knew.
She had thought that after what they had been through together that they had become friends.
Apparently not.
The Chamber of Secrets had been opened - reopened if Draco was to be believed - and the attacks had begun. In quick succession, a cat and two students had been petrified.
What was worse than the attacks themselves - at least to everybody but the victims, and the bigoted purebloods - was the intent behind the attacks: whoever had opened the Chamber had done so with every intention of targeting muggle-borns.
Moreover, whoever had written on the wall in blood - "How barbaric!", Hermione had exclaimed - had claimed to be the Heir of Slytherin. As far as Hermione knew, the House of Slytherin had been extinct in the male line for centuries now.
After doing a bit of research, Hermione had discovered something very interesting, and very daunting.
The last of the Slytherins had been a quartet of sisters, who had all married into other pureblood families. The eldest, Metis, had married a Gaunt, and the younger three, the triplets, Leda, Semele and Alcmene had married into the Potter, Black and Malfoy families. Though, there were dozens or even hundreds of students descended from one, or possibly all, of the sisters - pureblood-inbreeding being so common -, somehow the focus of the school had narrowed down to three possible candidates for the "Heir of Slytherin": Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, - and to Hermione's great dismay - Hermione Granger.
All were direct descendants of one of the sisters, all were currently students of Hogwarts, all were rather talented sorcerers, at least for their age, and all three, according to the school rumour mill, had a motive.
Harry's motive was supposedly that he was a Dark-wizard, as only a dark wizard could have been able to defeat a wizard of You-Know-Who's calibre. Nevermind that Professor Dumbledore, a decidedly not-dark wizard, had managed to defeat Grindelwald, and that, of the three suspects, Harry was the least likely to target muggle-borns, being a the son of a famous muggleborn himself. Another factor that led students to believe that Harry had opened the Chamber of Secrets was the discovery that he was a parseltongue which was another supposed trait of a dark wizard, and one of Salazar Slytherin's own talents.
Suspicion of Draco was based on him being a slimy git. After that, it was because he was openly bigoted, had rejoiced in the attacks, and had even made threats to one of the students who had been petrified. Added to that, was his father's rather notorious history of having been an "imperiused Death Eater - Hermione snorted -, Draco's own reputation of being the Prince of Slytherin - a title Draco himself had circulated, and that no one else, except Pansy, actually used -, and the fact that his mother was a Black, and a sister to the infamous Bellatrix Lestrange.
Hermione's motive was the least developed, yet somehow the most damning. Hermione's many times great-grandmother, Metis, had been the oldest Slytherin sister. Thus, as far as magical inheritance went, her descendants were the legitimate "Heirs of Slytherin". Hermione, being the granddaughter of the eldest Gaunt, actually could claim that title.
Not for the first time did Hermione curse her decision to use the Gaunt name in her backstory. It had been a real pain. She should have chosen a simpler family, with no sinister secrets, and rotting-face cousins, like the Rosewaters - the now-extinct ancient rivals of the Greengrasses. She would have preferred a rivalry with Daphne over a kinship with Voldemort anyday. However, it was certainly too late to change her story, now that she was actually a real Gaunt.
Moreover, Hermione's intellect had once again become a problem for some. Many students were now claiming that only she could be intelligent enough to re-open the Chamber of Secrets, especially from right underneath Dumbledore's nose.
That she was a "sneaky snake" didn't help matters at all.
Her second year had truly gotten off to a rough start.
"Draco is a foul racist, and a spoiled brat, but he is definitely not capable of being the Heir of Slytherin. And poor Harry! I may hate him right now, but he really doesn't deserve the suspicion of the entire school. His mum was a muggleborn for Merlin's sake!", Hermione exclaimed to Tracey.
"Yeah it is a real shame. But what about you, Hermione? You do know they are saying that you are the Heir."
"Yes Tracey, I know. Hard not to, what with all the dirty stares the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors are throwing my way. I hate that anyone could think that I am capable of harming a muggleborn, for the sole fact that they are muggleborn. Colin is a really nice guy too! A bit obnoxious, but really nice! I even helped him with his Herbology assignment and let him take a few pictures of me. He is so ni-"
At this, Tracey, too polite to verbally interrupt, but unwilling to hear her friend call Colin "nice" again, sent a rather sharp glance in Hermione's direction.
"Hermione, it's okay. I know you don't actually like Colin very much. He is a bit annoying with that camera of his."
"Oh Tracey, he really was so annoying! Constantly being a bother. But I wouldn't petrify him because of that! I wouldn't petrify him at all! Just because I'm the Heir of Slytherin doesn't mean that I have to be a raving mad lunatic. And just because I'm a pureblood doesn't mean I'm a bigot. Bigotry is so stupid!"
"I know, Hermione, trust me, I know. You know, my grandparents threatened to disinherit my father when they found out he had married my mum. They thought she was just a no-good mudblood. When my uncle died, and daddy became the sole heir to the Davis' holdings, my grandparents couldn't risk disinheriting him anymore. But that doesn't mean that they welcome him back home or anything. Well, they do actually. But Mum, and I, and my little sister, Ophelia, aren't invited. Daddy won't go without us though. 'It's all or none!' he always says."
Tracey, who had been beginning to tear up as she told her story, giggled as she thought of her father's brilliance.
"Anyway, my point is that yes, bigotry is stupid, and I know you aren't stupid, so I will help you prove your innocence. After all, we're best friends, aren't we?
Still deep in Tracey's story about her grandparents, Hermione initially did not register Tracey's question.
"Huh?"
"I said. We. Are. Best. Friends. Aren't we?"
Was that a bit of sass she had detected? From Polite-Tracey? It was a great start!
Tracey was attacked by a quick moving mass, and she landed on the floor in a heap of tangled limbs.
"Of COURSE we are!"