Hermione hated coming second in class, yet she had found herself in that position far too often of late. Gellert may seem to inexplicably struggle with homework – struggle but still never ask for help, but he always ended up with full marks and he always completed the classwork faster than her. Runes was the worst followed by arithmancy because those had always been her favourite subjects and anything that involved spell casting was a lost cause. At least he was abysmal at Herbology and Snape seemed to hate him almost as much as Harry.
She pulled another book from the shelf; she had asked Professor Babbling what they would be studying next class so that she could study ahead and hopefully come out on top again. Gellert must have forgotten something in the years he was out of school and she was determined to best him.
Of course, Gellert was off doing who-knew-what somewhere, Harry and Ron were in detention with Umbridge and she had the evening free to research to her heart's content. She put the two runes books to the side, pulled out her almost finished drawing of the bowtruckle and quickly labelled the last part. At least she wasn't neglecting her prefect duties, she thought grumpily, seeing as she'd had to patrol alone for the last two.
Finally, unable to tear her mind from her supposed colleague, she shut her books with a snap and swept them into her bag. A quill magically took note of the books she was borrowing, its handwriting somehow managing to capture how displeased Pince would be if she'd caught Hermione treating her books that way. She strode from the library then hesitated, realising that she had absolutely no idea where to look. He'd been outside the castle last time they had checked, but he couldn't be leaving every night. She just needed to find a way to find out where in the castle he was.
Hopefully Harry wouldn't mind her borrowing the map for a while; he hardly needed it whilst he was in detention.
The twins had been taking advantage of her absence to test more products, which she would have been furious about if it didn't provide the distraction she needed to get into the boy's dormitory without drawing attention. All the same, she noted as she climbed the spiral staircase, she would have to come back unexpectedly another time and put a stop to them.
Dean was the only one in the dorm, but he was in bed with headphones on and a football magazine open, so he didn't even notice her as she crept across the room and rummaged in Harry's open trunk.
The map was beneath was smelled like a pair of dirty socks and what she sincerely hoped were clean pants. As soon as she had it in hand, she hurried from the room and ducked past the Weasley twins. Outside the portrait, Hermione opened up the map and tapped it with her wand, watching eagerly as the lines sprawled their way out from the tip. She read each name as it appeared, then doubled back as Gellert Grindelwald's name suddenly appeared on a seventh floor corridor.
He seemed to be pacing the corridor and she watched him go back and forth three times before disappearing again. Confused, she folded the map and hurried across the castle to the where he'd been. She arrived, pulling the map out and double checking. Grindelwald was still absent and she moved slightly further down the corridor until she was standing exactly where he had been.
He couldn't have just left the castle from here – the wards would stop that. So there must be a room that wasn't on the map. She turned to the troll tapestry; that was a likely candidate for a secret passageway and it was conveniently opposite where Grindelwald had last been. She decided to pace, because that was what the dark wizard had been doing and wondered if maybe there was a password of some sort.
She gave up after crossing the space seven times, the tapestry as obstinately in place as ever. She pulled out the parchment again, examining it to see if perhaps she had been wrong. Then she looked up and down the corridor. Then she looked again, realising a door had materialised silently on the opposite wall. For a moment she just stared at it, then opened it with a light laugh.
A jet of green light exploded above her head and she dropped to the floor, then a fiery dragon roared across the room and she screamed shrilly. The dragon exploded into a wall of flames, flared brightly once, then dispersed into a light rain of ash.
Then, 'Hermione!' Gellert called from across the room, followed by a rapid clacking of shoes as he hurried across the room towards her. She giggled slightly hysterically, lying on her back and looking up at the melted splotch of stone that the green curse had hit. In front of her eyes, the damage healed, fresh stone smoothing across like skin until all that was left was a paler splotch.
'Are you okay? I didn't get you did I?' He was kneeling beside her, hands brushing across her body as he checked for blood. Her breathing slowed as he finished checking her over, then suddenly his long blond hair was hanging in her eyes as he checked to see that she was conscious. It had grown, she realised with some surprise and he hadn't been styling it up like he usually did, so it hung in waves around his face.
'Yes, yes, I'm fine.' She managed to get out and an expression that could on be called relief flooded his face. He drew back and helped her to her feet and she took in the room with confusion. It was a massive, empty space with high arched ceilings. The walls and columns that supported the roof were made of black stone, in sharp contrast to the warm honey of the rest of the castle, there were no windows and the lighting was indistinct, coming from nowhere and everywhere at once.
'This is that room. It's changed from last time.' She realised suddenly, remembering the strange room that they had discovered when Harry had rushed out of the hall.
'I've been trying to discover how it works.' He answered, 'I think it gives you what you need.' He turned away and walked to the centre of the room.
'I've never heard of a room like that.' She decided, although she'd heard plenty of staff saying there were many rooms in the castle that nobody knew about. The chamber of secrets was plenty of proof of that.
'It was full of strange things the last time I came here. I thought it was recommending specific things for me at first but after reading a few of them...' He trailed off but she got the meaning.
'You'll have to show me when you come here tomorrow. Harry and Ron should be back from detention soon though.' She reminded him and he nodded quickly. They both wanted to know how it had gone.
They hurried up to the Gryffindor tower and thankfully arrived before the two boys because she still had to return the map. Grindelwald seemed disinterested as she wandered off up the stairs, already occupied with chasing the first years out of the seats by the fire. Usually the presence of 'Mad Harry' was enough to ensure they got the prime spots. Nobody wanted to aggravate the mentally unstable boy-who-lived. Silver linings, she supposed.
As it was, the boys were not back soon. In fact, the common room was deserted and they'd almost burned through all the logs in the pile when the portrait finally swung open. The two boys stumbled in and immediately headed their way. Both seemed surprised when they saw the duo sitting there waiting for them.
'You'll never believe what that cow made us do!' Ron exclaimed, dropping onto the seat opposite them.
'What?' Hermione asked curiously. Usually detentions meant cleaning or doing some other menial task without magic.
'Lines.' Harry said quickly, giving Ron a meaningful look. Hermione frowned in confusion; that was hardly a punishment worthy of complaint, although they had been at it for several hours.
'We've still got so much homework to do!' Ron moaned, pulling the corresponding books from his bag and Hermione snorted slightly.
'Don't say I didn't warn you.' Gellert said dismissively from behind his book.
'You sound like Hermione.' The redhead huffed as he massaged his hand.
'I think I'll do that dream diary first, we've got Trelawney first tomorrow.' Harry decided, pulling a blank form towards him. 'What should I dream?' He asked and Gellert made an amused huff.
'I know her type. Dream something dramatic.' He told them and the black haired boy moaned, even as Hermione looked at him in outrage.
'You can't just lie on a homework.' She told him crossly and he snorted.
'Yes you can, if it's a dream diary.'
For a moment the three boys came up with a couple of dreams, each more ridiculous than the last until they finally finished with Ron dreaming that he'd ridden a Grim into a house decorated for Christmas. As far as she could tell, they were really working at divination backwards, coming up with the message they thought Trelawney would like to see, then working out the signs and a dream to include those signs.
It was only when she noticed Harry rubbing at his hand for the second time in a minute that she finally wondered what was wrong. Usually the back of the hand wasn't the part that hurt after excessive writing.
'What's wrong with your hand?' She demanded and the boy quickly shifted so that his limb was out of reach of her.
'Nothing, just smacked it on a banister.' He said dismissively, but his voice was tight and he was giving Ron that weird look again.
'No, you didn't. Show it to me.' Grindelwald demanded, his voice sounding tight and dangerous. Harry tried for a minute to resist but the dark wizard just flickered his fingers and suddenly the appendage was frozen in clear view. 'You should have told me.' He snarled, although his aggression was clearly not aimed at either boy. He stood in a whirl of robes and strode form the room.
Hermione leaned forwards, catching sight of the faint red lines that were already healing into the irritated skin – the faint lines that formed words.