It did indeed take 'a couple of days' for Hermione to be fully human again, if one counted over a month as a couple of days. Which, coincidentally, Hermione did not. Madame Pomfrey endured more than one outburst on missed classes, but took it all in stride.
"Dear, you're technically classified as a cat right now. And you want to be brewing potions with a nose that's been tampered with?" She'd said with a disapproving cluck, to which Hermione often conceded the point.
Of course, Hermione wasn't always so docile in hospital. Mrs. Pomfrey stopped any and all visitors at every turn insisting that Hermione's was a special case and no extraneous factors could interfere, including her Slytherin friends, and Hermione never let the matter rest. But February 1 was the last day. The last day of being alone in hospital. The last day of coughing of fur balls, of having the desire to sleep all day and run about during the night, of twitching noses and grilled mouse for dinner (the house elves were rather amused at that). It was quite the relief, then, to hear Madame Pomfrey cast the diagnosis spell and see it turn green.
"Well dear, I did say it would take a few days." The matron said primly. "Don't you go drinking polyjuice potion anytime soon though." And she shooed Hermione out, leaving the Slytherin dumbfounded at the doors wondering how Madame Pomfrey could have known.
"And she never said anything to McGonagall or Dumbledore?" Daphne questioned.
"No, no I don't think so. She spent most of the time trying to figure out how to set me normal again." Said Hermione thoughtfully.
"Well I for one am glad to have you back." Said Pansy decisively. "We've got loads to tell you!"
"Yeah! Like, Potter and Weasel admitted we don't have the Heir!" Said Draco excitedly, his mouth full of food. Theo glared at him, but turned to Hermione.
"Daphne, Pansy, and I snuck into Ravenclaw Keep and Hufflepuff House like you said. Didn't find anything to suggest the Heir is there."
"Not that we'd be able to tell. There's hardly giant signs declaring 'Heir Lives Here' or anything." Said Blaise sarcastically.
Hermione snorted.
"Are we still being ostracised?"
"Yeah but at least they can't claim we hold the Heir, what with Potter openly saying it couldn't possibly be us." Draco said nonchalantly.
It seemed rather strange to return to classes after a month of sitting in hospital studying by herself, but return Hermione did. Though she'd worried she'd be behind, the classes were just as easy as they had been before. Possibly because Hermione practiced her spells whenever Madame Pomfrey wasn't looking.
February 14 arrived cold and rainy. Though Hermione had considered sending a valentine to Professor Lockhart, in the end she opted not to. What had once been flamboyant fascination was now foolishness in her eyes. When Hermione walked into the Great Hall for breakfast, she felt great relief at her choice: the entire hall had been decorated in rather violent shades of pink and red with heart confetti gently falling from the ceiling. Up at the head table, Snape looked as if he had a lemon stuck in his mouth whilst Lockhart was grinning rather idiotically.
"Reckon we can ask Snape to make us some love potions?" Daphne asked quietly during Lockhart's breakfast speech.
"Not if you don't want him to force feed you poison I'd say," Pansy whispered back cheerfully.
They were interrupted briefly by the boys, who sat down and promptly began to gag at the sickly sweet perfume permeating the Hall.
"...and many thanks to the forty six valentines I received today!" Lockhart finished up brightly. Draco turned to Hermione with a rather evil expression.
"Goodness Hermione. I hope all of those weren't from you? I thought the line was drawn at ten."
"You could commission one of those singing dwarves of his to serenade him with your love." said Blaise, snickering.
Daphne, noticing Hermione's expression, frantically gestured to the boys to stop.
"Perhaps you'll persuade Professor Snape to give one of his love potions to Lockhart for you in return for winning Slytherin all those points," said Draco, ignoring Daphne. Hermione rolled her eyes and flicked her wand.
"Tarantellegra, and you can stop now." She drawled. Draco, meanwhile, fell over backward as his feet began to move beneath him. Blaise laughed until Hermione turned on him with her wand out.
There were no attacks through January, February, even March. Fear lingered, but fingers were no longer pointed in accusation. The petrified victims were nearly forgotten about, concerned friends aside. But then, did the Gryffindor boy with the camera even have friends? He seemed universally acknowledged as annoying, pushy, indifferent to boundaries and manners. Even so, the identity of the monster rankled at Hermione. What moved unseen, able to petrify people? It was like a brain teaser, a riddle with no answer. And though the books from Mr. Malfoy probably held the answer, Hermione rarely had time to read them. It became a habit to read an entry or two a night, then research the creature more in depth at the library.
"-and I know I should be looking at what creatures live in the Forbidden Forest but that's just so improbable! How would this thing be easy to reach by the Heir and able to get into the school without anyone ever seeing it?" She ranted more than once. To soothe her, Theo began to research with her, though the others often just left the common room. Hermione was unstoppable when on a tear. More than once, the two of them could be found asleep on a chaise lounge or slumped at the tables with books around them.
Of course, when May 1 came with the promise of the first quidditch match in months(even if it was only Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff), Theo and Hermione parted ways, she choosing the quiet library to his roaring quidditch stands.
Hermione groaned in frustration. She'd been at this for what felt like hours. And it hadn't even been research on the monster, it'd been all the pre-exam homework she was dutifully finishing. Then when she'd finally switched topics, the words just wouldn't stay put. Everything seemed more interesting than studying, even the torch brackets!
"Excuse me?"
Hermione whirled around. A girl stood next to her, a Ravenclaw prefect no less. The girl soldiered on.
"You'll have to forgive me, but could we study together? I don't feel it terribly wise to stay alone especially in a near empty castle what with monsters running around and, well, I'm a muggleborn. Like you."
Hermione was surprised. And flustered. Didn't the girl see the colour of her tie? Hesitantly Hermione shook off her wariness.
"Er, yes yes of course. Take a seat. I'm Hermione Granger," she added.
"Penelope Clearwater. Pleasure to meet you of course. What're you studying?" Penelope leaned forward to look at Hermione's books properly.
"I'm researching the monster, actually. Reading through Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them to see what might have petrifying powers."
"That's brilliant!" Penelope said brightly. "I've been doing kind of the same, only I've been researching freezing magics. Because they say it's a monster, but that might only distract us from an actual person doing it, you know?"
Hermione nodded enthusiastically. She liked this prefect. She wasn't rude or snobbish, didn't look down on Hermione for anything, and made for perfect conversation.
"Here look I was just going to read the next entry if you wanted to check it out…"
Hermione trailed off awkwardly, but Penelope didn't seem to notice.
"I'd love to! Let's see...basilisk? I haven't heard of that in ages."
"Well don't stop then," said Hermione eagerly. Penelope grinned at her, then adjusted the book.
"Ahem...Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, none is more deadly than the basilisk. Capable of living for hundreds of years, instant death awaits anyone who meets this giant serpent's eye. Spiders flee before it and the crowing of the rooster can kill it. The snake, known as the King of Serpents, may reach gigantic size and is born from a chicken's egg, hatching from beneath a toad. Creation of basilisks has been illegal since medieval times, although the practice is quite easily concealed by just removing the chicken egg from beneath the toad when the Department for the Regulation and Control Magical Creatures comes to call. However, since these creatures are uncontrollable except by parselmouths, they are as dangerous to most Dark Wizards as anything else. There has been but one example of a possible basilisk sighting at Hogwarts, though the possibility is highly contested due to lack of evidence. In the stead of the basilisk, a student was expelled and his pet acromantula given the blame for a series of petrification attacks, despite it being well known that acromantuli are not capable of petrification."
Penelope and Hermione stared at each other. For a moment, there was dead silence. Then-
"That, actually makes a lot of sense. Penelope...if this is it, if it's a giant snake, how's it getting around the school?"
Penelope thought for a moment.
"It'd have to be in the walls. There's no way a thing of that size could be wandering the corridors."
"What, then it's running around in the piping?" Hermione scoffed. After a moment both girls registered what she'd said and they turned to each other in horror.
"Hermione, you don't think-you don't think this is really it, is it?" Penelope asked fearfully. The library no longer felt isolated and cosy. It seemed somehow full of shadows, danger lurking everywhere.
"It'd make sense, wouldn't it? Salazar was a parseltongue, his emblem is even a great giant snake. If that doesn't say something…" Hermione trailed off. Penelope nodded, then shook herself slightly.
"We've got to tell someone about this. Dumbledore. We've got to tell him."
"Yes, yes of course. But it's dangerous if we just go running through a near empty castle, two muggleborns like ourselves." Said Hermione, mind wandering. After a moment she focused on Penelope again. "Do you have a mirror or something reflective? We can use that to look around the corridors and keep our eyes on the ground just in case. I for one would much prefer to be petrified over dead."
"Yes of course, hang on. Percy was going to meet me after the match and…" Penelope trailed off as she rooted around in her school bag. "Here we are. It's a bit small but it'll do."
As they put away their books and cleared their spaces, Hermione quickly ripped out the Basilisk page, wincing inwardly, to show to Dumbledore. Taking the mirror in both of their hands, the girls walked towards the library doors and pulled them open.
"If you're right and this saves our lives, I will forever regret your not being in Ravenclaw. Just so you know." Said Penelope tightly. Hermione didn't respond, but her grip on the mirror belied the nervousness underneath. Though the two girls stood at the doorstep to the corridor, they continued to scuff their feet and look anywhere but up and at the mirror.
"On three?" Penelope asked after a pause.
"And scare ourselves further? No let's just do this quickly and not get ourselves worked up." Said Hermione, sounding braver than she felt. Quickly she grabbed the prefect's hand and gave it a squeeze. They looked up as one, and knew no more.
A/N: this chapter covered a lot of time, I know, but I want to quicken the pace somewhat. Many thanks to the reviewers who said they enjoyed this. Also, I have honestly no idea how to write Sirius and/or Remus being 'on the Slytherins' side'.