After that, exams were the only problem. Mostly. Though Hermione agreed that the teachers could take of any thieves after the stone, it became increasingly clear that Potter and Weasley didn't think so.

"You've been in the library for more than our study hours allow for this week Hermione. Pretty sure that's against the rules we made up. "

She started. Theo was lounging against the back of her chair in the back of the library, trying to look like Draco.

"Are you alright? You kind of look like you have to go to the bathroom..." She asked, confused.

He straightened, and coughed a little.

"Ahem, no it's nothing. Anyways, what are you doing in here? I calculate that you, " he looked at his pocket watch for effect, making Hermione laugh at how old fashioned he looked. "You are precisely three hours over your allowed study time for this week. "

"If you two aren't quiet, I'll have the both of you thrown out!"

For a moment, Hermione thought Theo had conjured a grumpy vulture to tell her off. It turned out to be Madame Pince, a horridly grumpy librarian who probably itched for an excuse to disembowel someone and throw them out.

"Yeah anyways...what are you doing in here?"

He continued in a whisper.

Hermione hesitated.

"Honestly? I'm researching the Mirror of Erised and three headed dogs and trying to figure out the defences for the stone. "

"You're doing what?!"

"Shhhhhhhh!"

Leaping up, Hermione clapped a hand over his mouth and smiled at Madame Pince, who was practically growling at the corner of two bookshelves.

"Look, you and I both know that this is a set up to catch the thief. That it's not our business. Well, Potter and Weasley don't. "

"So what exactly are you trying to do then?"

He whispered carefully. For a long moment, Hermione was silent. Then she sighed and gestured at the table in front of her.

"Well, I was considering figuring out the defences and selling it to them. "

"Seriously? Who are you and what have you done with Hermione Granger?" Theo questioned, a secretive smile playing on his face. Hermione laughed.

"Hey. You're the one who said I wasn't much of a Slytherin. "

Ruefully, the boy nodded.

"Yeah I guess I did. "

He went silent again, leafing through the parchments spread out.

"What do you know so far?"

"A lot of it is guess work. Considering the fact that the Mirror is here, far away from its usual residency, and clearly isn't for students, I think that's one of the defences. We also know about the three headed dog from Hagrid. I suspect there are layers, like something to get past from each professor. Because that's the hardest isn't it? You need to get past something a master of each genre of magic has put up. This requires more than just being a jack of all trades. "

Surprised, Theo nodded at her logic, and flipped through, stopping at a paper.

"So what's this then?"

"It's s list of what I know, and conjecture beside it. I know Hagrid and Dumbledore have defences for it. I also know that since Dumbledore personally is involved, this is very important. I assume each professor has helped with it. As to what the things are, I don't know. Sprout, I think she's going to go for Devil's Snare. "

"Why do you say that? "

Turning away, Hermione picked up another book and pointed at the page.

"Because she always warns us away from it and said its perfect for dealing with intruders. Not to mention, I looked it up. It's difficult to differentiate and so on. Plus if the plant kills, someone, they're still recognisable afterwards, which is important. "

Both of the first years looked throughly sickened at the thought of death by plant, or looking at a dead body.

"Anything else?"

"Well we assume the thief is Quirrel right? So I think the defense will be something easy for him to get past, but still have the appearance of difficulty. Probably another troll, since it's pretty likely he was behind the Halloween one."

Theo nodded, frowning.

"That still leaves…McGonagall, Snape, and Flitwick right? Flitwick, well, I'm sure his will be pretty simple and we shouldn't need to figure it out."

Hermione sighed, then pulled another book out. Halfway into flipping the pages for something, Theo stopped her.

"No listen, wait. Flitwick always insists that the nature of charms is not to curse someone, but to give an object the ability to do it for you."

"Well that really clears things up. Thanks. Even so, we still should-"

"Goodness Theo, if I had known you were enacting the Old Rules now…"

Both of them started, then whipped around to cover the books and parchment.

"Draco! Oh thank heavens, I was afraid_"

"Afraid that Madame Pinched-Head had wandered back here? What are you two up to?" He added suspiciously. Reaching forward, Draco snatched the parchment and glanced over it, his eyes growing wide.

"Hermione…This is a lot of trouble you're looking at here."

"Well I think, and Theo agrees with me, that Potter and Weasley, like the Gryffindor idiots that they are, will still try to go after the thief. They've completely forgotten about Dumbledore. Probably wants to be some comic book hero hero. " Hermione added.

"First of all, what even is a comic book hero? Is that some muggle thing? And also, you've spoken your first proper Slytherin opinion! 'Like the Gryffindor idiots that they are'" He added happily.

At that, Hermione and Theo laughed.

"Alright alright, Hermione, why don't we explain things to him, and see what he thinks eh?"

Quickly, the two of them outlined what they had found, then stared expectantly at Draco.

"I think," He grinned slowly, "That we need to get the others in on this so they can help figure out how we want to play this. "

Three weeks later, the six first years finished their exams and celebrated with a glorious day of sunshine and nothingness by the lake.

"Think those Gryffindors would be petting the giant squid if they could see him through the dungeon windows?" Daphne asked lazily.

"Nah. They'd probably be running. So that begs the question_"

"Always formal this one. We need to break that habit-" Blaise playfully shoved Theo, who bumped into Draco. Immediately a mock brawl broke out among the three boys, wrestling and rolling on the ground 'like somebody insulted their hair, honestly' Pansy snickered.

"You know Slytherin boys: they'll defend three things to the last. Their house, their mothers, and their hair." Daphne said gravely.

"Yeah seriously Hermione, did you have to give them that box of, what was it? Hair potion?"

The girl laughed and then slyly pulled something out of her robes.

"No, it's a muggle thing. Hair gel, we say. And since its muggle...it's not warded against enchantments!"

"No!" The other two gasped mockingly.

"Who's replaced our Hermione with this relaxed and devious little girl?"

"Well," Hermione began, raising her eyebrows at the still fighting boys, " Perhaps it was a relaxed and devious girl who got replaced by Hermione. "

"Amen to that! Your parents certainly trained it out of you well, because it only took a year of hard work to undo it all. "

Before them, three shrieks broke up the fight as the boys' hair began to change colour in rapid undulating waves whilst standing on end swaying back and forth.

All three girls laughed as the trio in front of them tried spell after spell to fix it

Today, reflected Hermione,was the perfect day. Exams have finished, a delightful prank played, and most importantly, the other houses hadn't done much other than the usual name calling and dumb insults lately. Now they just had to make the deal with the Gryffindors. What does someone even say though? 'Hello yes we have every piece of information that can help you, and in return we want your soul please? Potter and Weasley would certainly try to protect the Stone, but they wouldn't be able to get anywhere without her aid. Besides, what had they done to warrant this information? They, and every other Gryffindor Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, wished that she would crawl into a hole and die. They wished that for her whole house too: the only people in this world that had accepted her and made her welcome. Even the teachers pursed their lips and glanced around before calling on her or awarding points. They were far to willing to believe the worst of Slytherin and hand out punishment. Wearing the green and silver was tantamount to asking for detention.

No, Hermione decided. Tomorrow she would talk with Daphne. Think things through. They needed to play this exactly right and had to ask for the perfect price, or it would be a waste.