Since the winter holidays, Maisie had spent most of her free time in the library. This confused her friends, but she was rabidly curious about Slytherin's monster. What sort of creature could petrify people?
She'd made almost no progress. Newt Scamander's book had nothing. Professor Kettleburn signed a permission form for Maisie to visit the Restricted Section without any questions, but none of those books had yielded results, either.
Now, Maisie sat in a fortress of enormous, dusty tomes of magizoology, searching for any clue about the monster's identity. Snow fell softly outside.
"Is this seat take—oh, hello, Maisie."
It was Cedric. Maisie hastily tried to cover the book she was reading (Horrific Beasts of the Magical World). "Oh. Hi, Cedric."
"Mind if I sit here? Everywhere else is full."
"Yeah, of course. All yours." Maisie cleared some space for him.
"What is all this, Mays?"
"Um, extra reading for Kettleburn's class."
"Since when does Kettleburn assign extra reading?"
Maisie squirmed. "Um. Actually, it's self-assigned."
"Sorry, I shouldn't pry." Cedric bent over his Transfiguration textbook. His hair was beautifully tousled.
"I'm…trying to figure out what Slytherin's monster is."
Cedric looked up. "To help Pippa and Justin?"
"That was the idea, but I haven't found anything." Maisie gestured to her pile of books.
"That's too bad. I'm sure you've been working hard at it."
Maisie sighed.
"Think about something else for a while," said Cedric. "Let it ruminate in the back of your mind."
Maisie reached for her book bag. "I could always study Transfiguration more."
"What are you studying? Cross-Species Switches?"
"That's it. It's really hard. I'm rubbish at it."
"Can I see your notes?" Cedric reached across the table.
"Oh, no, I don't want to distract you," said Maisie. "You've got your O.W.L. coming up."
"Cross-Species Switches will be on the O.W.L. It'll help me review."
"Really? You wouldn't mind?"
Cedric smiled. "Of course not."
Maisie's stomach fluttered.
They spent two hours studying. Maisie worried she was wasting Cedric's time, but he seemed genuinely interested in helping. Cedric Diggory, Maisie decided, was one of the nicest guys at Hogwarts.
By the time it got dark outside, Maisie felt reasonably confident with Cross-Species Switches.
"Thank you so much, Cedric," she said, packing up her bag. "I probably won't fail Transfiguration now."
"It was my pleasure." Cedric smiled. "I'm sure you're not as bad as all that."
Maisie rolled her eyes. "Last week I turned a guinea pig into a teacup."
"Hey, at least you're transfiguring!" said Cedric with a laugh. "Next step: doing the transfiguration you're supposed to."
Maisie laughed, her face bright red.
"I'll see you at practice," said Cedric.
"Yeah, see you." Maisie shouldered her bag and left before she said anything embarrassing.
Maisie left her bag in the dormitory and took a pot of marigolds away. She wanted to put them by Pippa's hospital bed.
Visitors to the hospital were heavily restricted. Madam Pomfrey was fiercely protective of her patients, and there wasn't much point talking to a petrified person. Pippa clearly didn't know Maisie was there, nor would she notice that Maisie changed the old flowers out for fresh ones.
Maisie sat by Pippa's bed for a few minutes, thinking about Cedric Diggory. He'd really helped her with Transfiguration. She hoped he'd be willing to do it again.
"Cedric's so nice," Maisie said to Pippa. "Everybody thinks so. And he's a really good Quidditch player. He's good at Transfiguration. …I wish you were awake, Pip, so I could talk to you about this."
Madam Pomfrey came in and disappeared behind a set of curtains. Maisie assumed there was another petrification victim back there, but she heard Madam Pomfrey speaking softly to someone. The matron reemerged and left the hospital without a word to Maisie.
Curious, Maisie approached the curtained bed. "Hello? Is someone there?"
There was a muffled gasp. "Pl—please go away!"
"I know that voice." Maisie took a few more steps. "This is Maisie Wood."
"I said go away!"
Maisie reached the bed and pulled aside one of the curtains. Her jaw dropped.
Hermione Granger was in the hospital bed—at least, Maisie was pretty sure it was Hermione. That was Hermione's dark, curly hair; but Hermione did not have a cat's nose and ears, as far as Maisie could recall.
"Hermione? What the—"
"None of your business," said Hermione quickly.
"… Does Ron know you're in here?"
"Of course. He and Harry visit me every day."
"I won't ask what happened, because you were clearly breaking about fifty school rules. I've been there."
"What, you've broken school rules?" Hermione shook her head. "Sorry, I just assumed—Oliver Wood never has detention."
"I haven't exactly followed in my brother's footsteps." Maisie chuckled.
"I guess that makes sense. You're friends with the twins, aren't you?" said Hermione. "Is it true they've been into the Forbidden Forest? I never know whether to take Fred seriously."
"Never take Fred seriously," said Maisie. "And, yes, we've been out there. Seen some crazy things."
"We had a detention in the Forbidden Forest last year," said Hermione.
"We?"
"Harry, Neville, and I got into trouble. Lost a hundred and fifty points."
"I remember how low the Gryffindor hourglass got." Maisie chuckled. "The twins were furious that Hufflepuff was ahead of them."
"Everyone in Gryffindor was angry with us," Hermione said. "It was a hard couple of weeks."
"I've always thought that Gryffindors were too competitive for their own good."
"I think so, too, honestly. Everyone is obsessed with Quidditch. It doesn't many any sense."
"I'm on the Quidditch team, so I can't empathize with that," Maisie said. "But we Hufflepuffs aren't so competitive. We just like to have fun!"
"That sounds nice," said Hermione. "I thought I'd be in Ravenclaw, or maybe Slytherin—because of the ambition, you know. But after what's happened, of course I'm relieved to not be in Slytherin."
"Every Slytherin I know is an asshole."
Hermione wrinkled her nose. "That Draco Malfoy is foul. You know he called me a Mudblood to my face? I didn't even know what it meant until Ron told me. It's horrid!"
"They've been bandying that word around too much lately," said Maisie. "It's not a word you use in polite company—or at all. But whatever is petrifying Muggle-born students is making the bigots bolder."
"You've noticed no Slytherin students have been petrified, of course."
"Of course! No Muggle-born would be allowed in the great house of Slytherin." Maisie rolled her eyes. "Just ignore them, Hermione. You've as much right to be here as anybody. Harry and Ron said you're the best at magic in your whole year."
Hermione's cat ears perked up. "Really?"
"Oh, yeah. They talked about you a lot, actually."
"That's nice to hear." Hermione ducked her head to hide her smile.
"How much longer are you going to be here?"
"I don't know," Hermione said. "It's a lot better than it was, but I want to be back to normal before I go."
"You didn't fully turn yourself into a cat, did you?"
"No." Hermione hesitated. "But I did have a tail and fur all over my face."
Maisie laughed, but tried to cover it with her hand. "Sorry, sorry. I'm sure that was traumatic."
"It was!" said Hermione indignantly. "And people keep trying to look at me because they think I've been petrified! It's embarrassing!"
"I'm sure it is," said Maisie soothingly. "I won't tell anybody you're in here, I promise. I should go; the dinner bell will ring soon."
"I have homework to work on here." Hermione reached for a pile of books on the nightstand. "I suppose I'll see you around."
"Yeah, I'll be back to visit Pippa," said Maisie. "I could stop by and chat, if you like?"
Hermione stopped mid-reach, a book held suspended in midair. "That might be nice," she said finally.
"All right," said Maisie. "I'll see you around, then."
The dinner bell rang, and Maisie was almost glad of the excuse to leave the hospital wing. The petrified students had nothing to say, and Hermione Granger was not the friendliest of girls.
