Opening her eyes, she saw the clouds. It was a grey morning she saw looking up. It was not nearly as sunny as it had been in the past few days. The Scottish highlands must have gotten tired of the summer weather it had received over the past couple of months.

Sitting up she looked over the other four beds that filled the chamber. Only two of them were currently occupied and looking at the cleanly made ones. She could see that the occupants hadn't returned last night. Parvati was not present, 'might have spent the night in the Ravenclaw tower with her sister,' She thought. Lavender Brown was also missing but she had a hunch that if she went looking for her in the boy's chamber, there would be a peaceful picture of Ronald and her sleeping.

It wouldn't have been the first time that the girls spend their night elsewhere. She herself had been forced to share her bed with Ginny and Luna over the last couple of years. They had the problem that they would talk for far too long. Forcing Luna to spend the night as the curfew was in effect. 'not that that mattered much to the Gryffindor's," but Hermione had offered her bad ones. She had planned to spend the night on the sofa to give Luna a place to sleep. But the girl had grappled her to the bed and had just kinda fallen asleep like that. It had been quite adorable and she couldn't get it over her heart to try and escape from her grip then. Ginny had wanted to stick around then, so she enlarged the bed and they had spent the night with the three of them in her bed.

Those where the pleasant memories that she was recalling now. Now however was the moment of grey and sad days to come. Her experience with the weather here was excellent. If there was a sun in the sky in the morning it was fine for most of the day. But if there was a grey morning they would de in for a couple of days of rainy weather.

It was not like she minded the weather that much if it was grey like it was now. She would be spending her time in the library or one of the classrooms tutoring students that had asked her help. But for now, no one had asked her to help her she wasn't yet doing that.

Now she was looking through her clothes pile and found a pair of jeans that she had worn for a single day coming to the school that she put on. And her top was just an old t-shirt she wasn't sure if she had stolen it from Harry or Ron a couple of years ago during the quidditch world cup. It didn't really matter to whom it might have belonged. It was hers now.

Descending the stairs she was careful to step over Colin as she made her way through the common room. There were a plethora of bodies that were sleeping in all sorts of positions. Looking at them she could imagen that they had only just gone to sleep or in the past couple of hours. It would have been very late, or early depends on how you counted.

Swinging the fat ladies portrait open she saw that the fires had been lit in the hallways, providing light and heat to the old castle. Despite it still being summer the insides of the building would soon be freezing if no heating was used.

Now though it was a bit chilly descending the stairs towards the great hall. As it was still early enough they would still be serving breakfast for a bit. So there was no real rush getting there. Instead, she looked at the several leaded windows that showed several depictions of the school's history in them. They were part of the expansive number of works that did exactly that.

They where beautiful to look at and where unique because they didn't move like the other paintings. That was hanging in the castle, but that might just be because it was made of glass instead of paint.

She wondered as she arrived at the great hall. As expected it was similarly deserted as it was yesterday. She was happy to see Luna sitting at the Gryffindor table, it might not be her house but she had adopted it nevertheless. She was a loud supporter of both Ravenclaw during quidditch as she would be for Gryffindor. Even when both teams would be going up against each other, she didn't want to choose a side. It had been fun to see how she would combine both the houses in her costume during those matches.

"Morning Luna," she said taking her seat, looking out over the table as she selected a couple of pieces of toast. And some jam to put on there.

Luna seemed to be distracted as she didn't look up from the daily prophet, it was curious to see the girl read anything of newsworthy reporting that wasn't the Quibbler.

Taking her seat she looked over the paper that Luna had in front of her. It took her a bit before she could read what the headline was saying.

"Again Muggles Killed by Unknown Assailant," that had been going on for a while now. She had first read about a magical homicide at the end of the last school year. It had been unclear who had committed the crime and from what she knew of the ministry it probably wouldn't be solved till they had found a scapegoat. It was in their nature to cover this kind of stuff up. It made them look bad to the other ministry's.

Starting to spread out her jam on the toast she looked over at the teacher's table. Not having paid it attention since she had seen Luna sitting here.

To her surprise, the heads of the four houses were seated up there. It was not often that they would be here early on weekends, it was a day off for them too.

But not now apparently. They were all just sitting here, discussing something between the four of them. It must have been an urgent matter. She couldn't hear what they were saying but that didn't mean much. A silencing spell was easy to cast to keep the noisy people out of the loop.

Looking back to Luna, she jumped a bit. The was now looking fervently at her. Apparently having abandoned the paper she was now looking at herself.

"Hi, Luna," she tried again. managing a half wave to her.

"Morning Hermione," Luna replied. Still staring curiously passionate at her face and in her eyes.

"Luna, what are you doing?" she asked, at a loss for what was happening.

"Schuss, they might hear you," Luna said shushing her as she held her finger up to Hermione's mouth. It worked wonderfully, Luna discovered. Hermione stayed silent seemingly unable to start talking again.

"There are a bunch of Nargles hanging around your head. I've never seen this many together without it affecting the person itself. But," she suddenly snapped her finger next to her temple, which made her jump a bit again.

Released from the spell that had kept her silent for the moments gone by she asked her what she was telling her, or at least insinuating. "Luna, what are you saying, Nargles having to take a liking to my head?"

"It seems so," Luna replied.

"And that should be affecting me?" she asked the apparent expert on all things Nargles.

"Yup."

"Was that why you were studying my face?

"Sure let's go with that," Luna said sitting back in her seat. From where she was sitting, she was still studying her face and a bit to the side of it. Arguably she would say that Luna was looking for the invisible creatures that were hanging around her head apparently.

"Luna, do you know what might be attracting these to me?" she asked.

"We're not sure what exactly it is that pulls them to the wizard or witch, but it seems that smarter people," she gestured to her, "are more likely to be targeted."

'That seemed to be panning,' out Hermione thought as she recalled all the dark and forbidden magic she knew about. It was not unlikely that the creatures where currently feasting on her mind.

"But don't worry," she saw the look of worry pass over her face, "there have been no cases of brain damage in connection with Nargles." She told her.

"that's reassuring." She said, eating the rest of her toast.

"Morning mistress," Bellatrix heard from the side of her bed, it was her house elf waking her up. Well waking up was a large word here. She had been lying awake for a couple of hours already, not being able to get up but also no ability to fall back asleep. It was feeling spend.

The girl's notes had been descriptive and towards the end even helpful to follow along to. She had listened to her when she had asked for all the notes that she might have made during her preliminary research.

Opening her eyes she looked over towards the elf. "Any post for me?" she asked the creature.

"Only one item." He answered.

"Well don't stand there like that, give it to me," Bellatrix said while sitting up. She reached out and summoned it towards herself with a flick of her wrist.

Wandless magic might be difficult, but small feats of magic where still well within the possibility of her arsenal. And levitating a piece of paper about two feet was not exactly the hardest thing in the world.

Looking at it she saw that it was some internal mail that didn't need to be addressed correctly, so it was a guessing game from whom this might be coming. She opened it up, carefully. Knowing full well that she hadn't checked it for any traps of spells that might be cast on it.

It quickly became clear whom it was from. The handwriting fist and then the signoff that was so official.

'From miss. Granger
prefect of the Gryffindor house'

She snored when she read it all prim and proper written down. She wondered how the girl was holding herself when writing it. Leaning over her desk, the point of her tongue sticking out a little bit.

'What are you thinking about,' a voice asked her, inside of her mind.

'I'm just imagining her writing the letter how bad can that be?' she thought back to the voice that had fallen silent. 'Good.'

'but why with her tongue out a bit?' the voice asked cautiously.

'Because… it was because… I don't know, fuck you,' she managed to think. 'why had Hermione's tongue been out, even for a little bit.'

'I mean she is cute,' the voice called in what could be described as a last-ditch effort to derail the entire thing.

"Could you shut the fuck up!" she yelled out to the empty room.

A soft echo reverberated through the room from the loud and sudden sound she had just made, but that quickly subsided. Leaving her alone in silence with her thoughts.

'there is nothing wrong with it,' the voice started before she had whipped out her wand and exploded the small table that was standing next to the dresser. It flew completely to pieces shattering a couple of small ornamental glasses that were decorating the room. It didn't matter much to her. It wasn't her property that was being destroyed.

The voice stayed silent from then on. Apparently not wanting to anger her any more.

"That's what you get!" she called out ones more to the empty room. The splinters littered the floor and had been blasted onto her bed. It would need to be thoroughly cleaned before she could use it again. waving her wand she summoned the piece of paper that had set all of this off.

Looking at the handwriting she felt the rage coming on again. Breathing slowly she pushed it back and actually read what the message said before destroying what was written on it.

Reading over it she saw that it was just a list of books that miss Granger had requested from the forbidden section of the library. Looking them over she saw no immediate signs that the girl was trying to make a Horcrux herself, so she wrote a quick go-ahead to the librarian. Clearing her for those books and no others, just these books.

Arriving at the library Hermione looked out over the rows of shelves that lined the walls and the many bookcases that stood in the middle of it all. There were many books that filled the shelves but none of them could help her with her research. No from now on she would be reading the dark and forbidden books that were kept in the library.

"Good morning Madame Prince," Hermione said, greeting the librarian that was working behind the counter. Keeping track of all the books that were coming in and out of the library. It was a daunting task that no one possibly could have done starting from zero. But the librarians had been doing this job for a long time now. They had a record going back nearly nine centuries. The thick volumes that filled the shelves behind her were all that. Just books of books that had been written full diligently with the names of all the student that had to lend a book before. And what happened to it afterwards.

But now she would have to take out some books from the forbidden section. And that section had a book all for itself. It was a thin notebook in comparison with the others but that was to be expected. Not a lot of people would retrieve books from that part of the library. Only a few people could have access to these books, and even fewer could give access to them. Only the heads of the houses, the professor of defence against the dark arts and the headmaster could give out the order to release them from their caged location.

It was absolutely forbidden for the students that got access to these books to share them with other students. There wasn't only a school penalty bound to it but also a real punishment from the ministry. As it was still forbidden knowledge to the general public and they weren't changing their position on that anytime soon.

"What can I do for you today Hermione?" she asked, even though it was quite clear that she knew what she was going to say. She had received the note earlier that day from the house elf. It told her that any book on the list was fine for Miss Granger to pick up.

"I'm here for A Chronological Account Of The Forbidden Arts," she said. Holding the bag she had brought to carry the book in. She might be able to get a hold of the book, she didn't want to be questioned about it. So she had brought a bag to carry it in till she had reached her tower attic hideaway.

"Ah, If you could give me a moment," Madam Prince said before vanishing tough a door to the side of her working space. She was going to fetch the book Hermione surmised as she disappeared from view.

It had taken a minute before she appeared back, walking out of the door. Curiously without a book, the only thing that she had in her hands was a bustle of keys. "just a moment dear," she said walking past her to the other side of the library.

Following her along to their Hermione started to question how easy it might be to get the book she had asked for. "Madam Prince, why are you carrying those keys with you? Can't you just open it with a spell?" she asked the older woman.

A slight shackle could be heard, "Only if you want to clean the ashes from the floor she said, as she stopped before a door that Hermione hadn't seen before. Taking a particularly boring key and fitting it to the lock did she look over her shoulder; wanting to make sure that no one was seeing this.

Turning the key Hermione could see why she didn't want anyone to see this. Instead of the door opening, the floor started to lower down taking the door and a piece of the wall with it. looking to where the door and wall had been she saw that there must be some kind of spell masking it. There were a fake door and wall now occupying the space where she had just gone down.

The floor closed above them as soon as they had cleared it with their heads. Suddenly darkness surrounded them. It went on for a bit like that before madam prince realised the error of her ways.

"Oh, pardon me," she said changing the bustle of keys and grabbing a hold of her wand, "Lumos."

The chamber that they were approaching was massive. When she looked around from side to side, the realisation came over her face. This was as big as the library on top of it. only here there were fewer books in place on the bookshelves. It was quite a sad sight.

"Don't worry about the books," Madam Prince said as she noticed Hermione looking distraught about the books, "those are mostly old volumes or damaged books. Not everything down here is a book on the forbidden knowledge." She said looking pridefully over the low number of books that she had to move down here.

Waiting for the platform to come to a full stop, she was lead along the empty shelves till they reached one of the short sides of the room. There was locked chess placed inside of a big iron cage. The books that were inside of that chess were certainly well protected from thievery. Not that that happened often in Hogwarts, but these books had been given to the school from the ministry on very strict terms and conditions.

There was to be no interaction with unauthorized people and books. All interactions would have to be logged in a special ledger that was connected with the ministry through magic. Any time the chess was opened without writing in the ledger first would trigger an alarm that would send a squad of veteran Aurors to the location of the chess to apprehend the criminals that were taking the books.

But now whit permission Madam Prince picked up the Ledger and wrote down, first her name, and then Hermione's. With that all out of the way she moved over to the cage and took out a very similar boring key from the bustle and opened it up.

Going from there the put down the keys and reached over to the chess. Putting her hand on it she waited for a second.

"Oof, no alarm this time,' said lifting her hand from the chess, "the last time they had not looked at the ledger and made a right mess of the library above trying to get into this place."

Hermione looked shocked when she heard that information. The library had always been in pristine condition. She couldn't imagine it in any kind of disarray. It was just a place that she had seen in such peaceful times. "That is terrible," she managed to say as madam prince opened the chest.

"It was a mess to clean up," she responded digging through the books inside, "could you hold these for a second," she asked holding the keys up behind her. Quickly taking them Hermione saw them change shape when she took them in her hands. Suddenly they weren't all grey boring keys. Now they were all different shapes and colours, not two of them were the same.

It would be easy to see which one was which she now realised. All Madam Prince would need to do was look in her hand and chose the right key. The outside world would be none the wiser to what key was used.

"Here we go," she announced holding a book over her head. It was of small stature, bounded in some kind of black leather. The title was written in gold lettering on the spine. There where a couple of details that revealed themselves to her as it was handed over to her.

"The cover moves," she exclaimed almost dropping it on the floor.

"Does it?" Madam Prince said, "they do that." There was a nontrivial raising of her shoulders as she took the keys back to close the chest and the cage it was placed in.

Sitting back at her desk she pulled out the book out of the bag. The cover was still moving around, certain points were travelling from side to side and even just disappearing underneath the rest of the other impurities.

Opening the book she read the title as it was originally written before censoring had had its way with the book. It read 'The full and comprehensive history of the parts unwritten.' Apparently, that had been to reviling for the ministry. But alas she got to read the book now. Without any of the corrections or blacked out pages she had found in books they had left in the public eye with edits.

Going over the chapter list she was pleasantly surprised that the chapter had been ordered in decades with subdivisions where needed. It would easy to run through it, skipping the centuries that didn't matter to her research and she know roughly when it was invented.

So she could just focus her research on a couple of decades in the fifteenth century when the mention that she had found had been. The quickly skimmed through the first chapter to get a feel for the book. Like the letter size or the font, it was printed in.

The first page left her stopped in her tracks. The printing size was comedically tiny compared to what normally would be described as a small font size. 'this will take a bit longer then I had thought,' she realised looking over the page that was lying open on her desk.

The stack of papers that she had placed next to her for her notes would be shrinking in size quickly. She had prepared her usual amount to make a synopsis of most of the chapters. Now though she doubted that she had brought enough of them.

The time flew by that afternoon. When she had been halfway through dinner, a house elf had come up to the tower and offered to bring the meal to her there, not wanting to interrupt her if she was too busy. She had been thankful that they had found her.

The elves had been so friendly to look for her during mealtimes after she had passed out one day in her third year, she had been using a time turner and had yet to figure out how her schedule of eating was changed by it. They had been finding her after that moment and feeing her on the spot that she was that moment. After she had given the time turner back at the end of that year, it had been less necessary to keep up with her that much. But they still held an eye on her when they couldn't find her in the great hall.

The night had fallen before she had finished the "quick" look trough of the relevant chapters. The rest would have to wait for tomorrow and the week that followed. Now she was spent, it had taken too much out of her to keep it going through the night.