Hermione doubted anyone else would notice the missing books from the Restricted Section, though Madam Pince had put up a floating, silvery notice that anyone caught stealing books would be subject to every last one of the curses enumerated in the warnings written into the books themselves. In this way the magical notice made itself redundant except possibly as a display of seriousness, though soon enough she expected the old bird would connect the dots and realize the missing books were with the missing students, or one of them specifically.
It was a wonder, knowing Anthony Goldstein well enough to figure him for hyper-rational, yet not enough to realize he would fly the cuckoo's nest the moment the opportunity presented itself. The thought of having tried to do the same filled her with a new sense of guilt, as she had even encouraged him to 'seek educational alternatives'. As she tried out the repair charm on a ladder that had been used as part of a palisade to keep the invaders out, her own words seemed silly and trite, though mostly they rang of cowardice. It was true that a wiser witch would be trying to leave the library with what knowledge she could carry, but for personal reasons she could no longer stomach turning her back on the friends who had continued the fight while she was petrified. Perhaps I shall one day have a better reason for it, but where Anthony goes I shall not follow. My place is here, whatever the blood purists believe.
Having heard about them from Padma, who spoke with a listless tone, if in a balanced manner, it was no surprise to her that they would be after the ancient collections of Hogwarts, some of which had been filed away in the Restricted Section. They seemed to pride themselves on doing what was necessary before all else, and having access to more old magicks would expand their arsenal considerably. When she first thought about it, she decided it was a wonder people did not constantly read the time-honored tomes if indeed they contained greater secrets than what was currently in memory, and from seeing him last Anthony opined similarly, but she decided it was rather like all the wonders in the normal world. As rational as it was to go after knowledge when it was needed, it was rational not to pursue it until then, lest one spend her entire life in the library, looking up things that might be useful and never using them.
Hermione sighed. At least I can do a repair charm- should help with my practical exams.
Passing for the second time that day the hunched, studying form of Hannah, she saw something of her former self in the other girl, though the Hufflepuff appeared to have a better idea of what it was she wanted to learn. In addition, she had a pillow and a stack of prepared bagels far enough away from the books to keep the hawk-eyed librarian off her back.
Having gone into the Restricted Section after being granted permission, she looked for what she actually needed for class as per Cho's recommendations. It should really go without saying that most of what I'll be needing or wanting in my time at Hogwarts can be found without a note from a teacher. What a small wonder that people thought I was reading about dark magic.
Ebony's unfair first impressions aside, her actions toward the end of the term, while justified, did little to convince people that she had not 'gone bad'. Getting out the books she would need and levitating them, her attention turned to the still-present ward that the Inspector had placed on her wand. If I've learned anything about wards, I'd have to have someone else remove it. Perhaps Cho would be interested in the challenge.
Her History of Magic essay was leaving a little to be desired, but with a heavy heart she concluded it at half again the expected length rather than the usual double, which she managed to fit within the maximum length by means of her neat writing.
The discovery of dark magic was the discovery of light magic; the discovery of magic in general. One does not go into the dark to look for dark magic and into the light for the other variety, but rather one masters dark magic and brings it into the light of understanding, as the ancient wizards of ages past were bound by magical illiteracy to the endless cycle of discovery, loss, and rediscovery. For fear, legitimate or otherwise, there remains magic left in the dark where there is no understanding, and only passion may guide the daring wizard in his blind wandering.
Hoping to make up for lost time in Potions, Hermione had chosen a particularly ambitious brew for the advanced potion topic, summarized in the admittedly vague description of 'something you can't brew'. They were to write about the most likely method to bring about either it or a potion of similar effect, demonstrating the knowledge they were meant to have gained about the science behind the subtle art, though this would be difficult for her since Professor Snape seemed to lecture ways of brewing potions that were not written in books they possessed, either because he had read other books when he was learning, or because he had invented the instructions himself.
Made with the incredibly rare Acromantula venom, the Poultice of Permanence combines with any other potion to render the other effect permanent, comparable to an oscillating reaction. She considered striking the reference to Chemistry, but she remembered the instructor would grade what had been struck out if he were so inclined. Exceptionally difficult and prohibitively expensive, it has been many years since the potion has been attempted in an academic setting. A sudden fear of being watched compelled her to hide the latest copy of Le Journal Apothicaire, from which she was blatantly stealing the summary, hoping the potions master would not look too carefully at her citations. The potion intersects with Alchemy and the idea of indefinite continuation; if anything he should be glad I found one of the last works of Nicholas Flamel.
All of a sudden Hermione was overcome with an urge to strike herself in the head rather painfully.
Of course there are other uses for the Philospher's Stone- or at least the Elixer of Life- I hadn't even begun to imagine all of the applications in potion making! Writing quickly now, she decided there was really no reason to confine the ingredients required for her essay to those she could realistically obtain, since she would not be brewing a Poultice of Permanence anyway, not for the foreseeable future or until circumstances forced her to shoulder more responsibilities than she could handle once more. Thinking of Ron as she finished the introduction and set about the ingredients list, she wondered how the two of them had come to take so much upon themselves, though she supposed the Gryffindor had his reasons and most of the time she had only been trying to protect herself. It had been Hannah, if anyone, who had been the most proactive out of all of them, though Hermione had a suspicion as to what had gotten her involved.
Looking around at the students in the library, she decided that the past year and the one before had been perilous for all of them. Giving it some thought, the Ravenclaw realized if she were but to ask anyone, there would be a story to tell. It was a logical idea, though she had no way of proving it.
At the same time, she was more sure of that than she was of the idea that the Death Eaters wanted to know how to use the Philosopher's Stone to make an advanced potion, and probably more than once if they were so interested in learning if it could be destroyed or not. They must have imagined overuse would eventually exhaust it- or possibly they were just interested in protecting it for as long as possible.
Resolving to finish her essay for Professor Snape whenever possible, the witch decided there were still matters of greater import. We still haven't figured out how the Heir of Slytherin was controlling his monster. She had heard the potions master gathered ingredients from the corpse, arguing that he had helped kill it and as the Head of House, he essentially had a right to it. If nothing else, the school could not argue that the remains of the basilisk could be used for a better purpose than study, and such a responsibility would fall to him. As far as he had revealed, which was likely only about half as far as he knew, the beast was not being 'manipulated like an Inferius', which she assumed meant the master was less of a puppeteer and more of an effective communicator. If he really is Slytherin's Heir, I presume that would mean the monster would be inherited like some madman's hunting dog.
Cho and Terry had separately confirmed looking into the literal lineage of Lord Salazar had left them with more questions than answers, as it was not a matter of who was descended from him as who was not descended from him, at least ostensibly. All the old families that regularly favored Slytherin could trace their lineage back to its founder in some form. Had it not been for the conflict of interest, she would not have been surprised if several students had claimed to be the Heir at the same time, though she would be tempted to eliminate them entirely. The monster, or its master, had some wish to keep it from being seen, which was the only reason she could imagine for going after solitary targets. The Heir also seemed to desire to keep the students alive, though apparently the teachers were not afforded the same mercy. It was worth considering that the pair that died might point to some personal grudge, as there were still students with normal parents to target, but even if the Heir personally hated both of them, it did not narrow the list down much. Another matter, however, left her with an interesting question as soon as she backtracked to it.
Who could possibly talk with basilisks? Are snakes even intelligent enough to communicate with people?
Feeling like there were dots she simply could not seem to connect, she decided she would have to ask Professor Dumbledore about how he gained entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, but decided there would be no reason for him to tell her. All the answers have to be in there- and with the monster dead, there will be no one to stop me looking- no one except the Heir. Sighing again, she consciously knew she needed reinforcements, but the idea irked her. Going after the Heir alone had only rewarded her with half a term of assignments due in the near future, which she would complete, despite how the fairer teachers insisted 'consideration' would be granted in her case. At the same time, there was nothing wrong with the logic of it. Going alone should have substantially reduced her ability to be detected, it was only the fact that she was approaching the Chamber which made the advantage she hoped to have entirely moot. The Ravenclaw knew how to tell the difference between making a mistake and doing everything the right way but not having it turn out right, though this decision had her torn. Should I have known that I was approaching the Chamber, where the monster would likely be lurking? Or am I only thinking I should have known because everything seems obvious in retrospect?
That the monster was a basilisk in the form of a snake was obvious in retrospect, but neither she nor anyone else had known it ahead of time.
There were, of course, those who were still trying to solve the mystery. As she understood it, the Hufflepuffs had accused Adrian Pucey of being the Heir, which she found ridiculous, since he had never indicated he was willing to kill for blood purism, though in their eyes this only made him more guilty, since whoever had petrified or killed all the victims must have been someone who wanted to avoid being caught. The circularity of the reasoning notwithstanding, the older Slytherin had been unable to but turn his back on even the youngest of those in robes of yellow trim. He had not been the only one watching his back; an older witch Hermione did not recognize had been suspected purely because she always had an alibi.
It's really disgusting, the way they do this. They're only getting further away from real leads- if there even are any.
Working on her Transfiguration final, she looked up to see Padma proposing a bit of a study break, keeping her voice down.
"So, if you just want to do your work now, that's fine, I can help you with most of it..."
"What's on your mind?" she asked quietly, trying to be rude neither to her friend nor to the other people who were working.
"It's just that I heard you were looking for the Heir before you were, well, petrified for most of the term."
"Do you know something?" The answer to the question was perfectly apparent, but Hermione decided it would be polite to ask.
"Yes." the Indian witch responded, seeming to collect herself. "I was, well, really the whole time I was looking into who the Heir was, but I got caught up in a few of the things they're saying about him; well, it was all disconcerting."
"What?" she asked almost entirely uselessly. As far as I know, she's not on the list. Salazar Slytherin had been in favor of only teaching pure bloods, but would accept half bloods. 'We'll teach just those whose ancestry's purest', I suppose. In any event she's safe, if what I know is true.
"Have you ever considered if there might be a reason for it all? The idea had me interested."
"Well, maybe, though you must have heard of class-exclusion before, though, it's just a mechanism of-"
"So you're saying they don't believe it." Hermione's eyes narrowed. She was aware of the academic challenge the philosophy of purism presented, and why Padma would be interested in it, but what confused her was how uncertain the other girl seemed.
"I don't know whether or not they believe it, it may simply be a convenient thing to believe, something where it does not really matter if it's true or not." She explained as she magically erased a few lines and redid them. "Even if they believe it, it is still probably not true."
"Well, how do you know it's not convenient for everyone else to believe it isn't true?" the other Ravenclaw asked. "What if we've got a perception of them that's colored by everything the Heir's done? The other Founders wrote that the Lord Slytherin was one of the greatest wizards of the day, they greatly respected him though they disagreed with-"
"The Heir isn't tolerating dissent." Hermione answered curtly. "Just being here is a threat to their whole philosophy- I mean, logically there has to be a student with purer blood than I not getting the necessary attention I'm taking away, so he petrifies me in a bathroom- I can't imagine defending that-" She stopped herself before muttering anything improper.
"You can't base his being wrong on attacks against you." Padma continued more steadily. "Suppose you just happened to be in Berlin fifty years ago- would Britain be wrong in bombing the city if it cost you a leg? Secondly, he deliberately kept you alive and you know it."
"I doubt-" She could almost feel the gaze of the librarian fix on her. "I doubt that he did so out of the kindness of his heart." she continued in a whisper. "Voldemort himself kept me alive, and that man has killed children. I imagine the Heir shares his wish to keep Hogwarts open, though only with pure-blooded students, so killing me would have been out of the question."
"The monster could have just dragged your body down to the Chamber where no one would have found it. Three students have escaped, we have no idea if they're alive or dead and the school hasn't closed yet." Padma shook her head. "I'm not on their side or anything." she clarified. "I can even tell you what I've learned about the Heir and the Chamber."
Hermione said nothing in response. If she's going to say something-
"Have you ever heard of Parseltongue? It's not an easy language to learn, but the Heir is supposed to inherit the ability to speak it. This is how he can communicate with the basilisk and enter the Chamber through Moaning Myrtle's washroom."
"How did you learn this?" she asked in a neutral tone.
"It's more or less common knowledge in Slytherin. I've been talking with them- I gave Malfoy the most recent publication on nonmagical parentage. Apparently it relies on an outdated understanding of genetics." Leave it to Draco to know everything about genetics- he's probably not wrong about that, given the way the textbooks are written.
"So you've been talking with him."
"Well, not like that." Padma deflected, evidently not realizing Hermione had been going nowhere with the assertion. "He thinks he knows who the Heir is now- it's been staring him in the face the whole time. I decided you had the right to know."
"Let me guess-"
"No, he doesn't think he's the Heir, he was the first person he checked." She shook her head for some reason. "He's going to confront the Heir alone, though he has asked me to come along." Interesting- I'll need reinforcements of my own.
"When and where?" she asked somewhat more loudly, hoping Hannah could hear.
"Myrtle's washroom at midnight, of course. Draco has a flair for the dramatic."
This particular comment caused Hermione to raise an eyebrow.