Despite their best entreaties, they couldn't get Thalassa to explain her cryptic words, although she apologized for not being able to. Disappointed and yet curious beyond belief, they trooped back down the hallway after it became too late to stay and talk, heading back towards the common room. They made it all the way to the Fat Lady in silence, then Harry muttered the password. But before it could open, Hermione said, "Wait, don't open yet!"

The Fat Lady paused, looking down at Hermione superciliously, as if surprised the girl gave her an order. "Yes..?" she queried, drawing out the word.

"Do you know of a new portrait that's been hung up on the fourth floor?" Hermione asked, tilting her head a little in curiosity.

The Fat Lady sniffled a little. "I don't make it my business to gossip about every new addition," she drawled, "but I suppose I could greet whoever is there. Did you have a question about it?"

Hermione shook her head. "Just wanted to know who she was, that's all," she said brightly.

The Fat Lady inclined her head, regally. "I shall deign to look her up," she conceded, before sliding open and letting them into the common room proper.

Ron looked at Hermione with a modicum of respect. "Good idea, 'Mione," he said approvingly. "Get the other portraits to do our work for us. But why you think she's so keen on Snape not seeing her?"

Harry had been wrestling with the same thing all the way back to Gryffindor tower, and he could only come to one conclusion. "She knew he'd become a Death Eater," he said, his voice very low as they found a trio of chairs close together and settled into them. "And she said that he'd rebelled before my parents were killed, but after….after what, do you think?"

"After she herself had died," Hermione said, glumly. "I know exactly what you are thinking, Harry, and I agree. I think she means that…Snape," she pitched his name even quieter, "killed her, when he was a Death Eater."

Ron's mouth fell open, not having come to it as quickly as the other two had. "No way," he shot back, flabbergasted. "If he'd killed someone, they would never have let him teach here."

"But he was a Death Eater," Hermione hissed, "and we know he served as a spy to help the Order out, so it was likely that it got him the job here, as reward. I mean…if he helped them stop You-Know-Who, then maybe it was enough to overlook it."

"Overlook murder?" Ron said, aghast, making Harry and Hermione shush him, soundly. "There's no way," he repeated. "If he….killed someone, they wouldn't let him teach. Work at the Ministry, maybe."

"It makes perfect sense," Hermione stated, flatly, and Harry found himself nodding, grateful she had said it and not him. He couldn't deny he hated Snape and was more inclined to believe it of him…but Hermione tended to be more impartial. "But it wouldn't hurt to see if the library had some reference to her…"

Both Harry and Ron groaned. "What, just some painting in the fourth floor hallway?" Ron protested. "There's no reason it'd be in some history book."

"Except," Hermione retorted, irritably, "that we know she wasn't in that hallway all this time. She'd only just gotten here, remember? Dumbledore was telling Snape about where he'd put it, and Snape said that he…disagreed with the whole thing, isn't that right? I mean.." She bit her lip, thinking. "We thought he didn't like where it was placed, like he didn't want any students to see it, but maybe he meant he didn't want it in the castle at all!"

"Like maybe she's dangerous to us," Ron muttered darkly.

Hermione shook her head, with an almost pitying look to Ron, but it was Harry who spoke up. "Or maybe she knows things that Snape doesn't want her to tell us," he offered. "Like…secrets." Truthfully, he hated knowing any of Snape's secrets; he'd had enough during their Occlumency lessons. But she'd also said she knew his parents.

"It's too late now to work on it," Hermione said, decisively ending the conversation as she rose up. "We've got exams very soon, and I know you two haven't studied as much as you claim. The portrait isn't going anywhere…and neither are you two," she said ominously, "if you don't get your homework finished for once."

The two boys didn't even grumble; Hermione's dark threats simply rolled off their backs now, and they even half-heartedly resumed their conversation once up in the dorm, readying for bed. But Harry realized he didn't like thinking about another person that Voldemort…or perhaps even Snape…had killed. He fell asleep wondering what things his parents might have said to him from the confines of their own portraits, if they spoke at all.

It wasn't until the second afternoon class that Ron and Harry met up with Hermione again, in Charms class. He and Ron had conspired about the mystery all morning, and had lost fifteen points for Gryffindor in the process, so they weren't keen at all when Hermione said, "I've got a new idea to get more information about the portrait."

"Not the library," Harry muttered. When Hermione looked hurt, he said, quickly, "It's just that Ron and I have already gotten points off for talking in class, and I'm sure Madame Pince would be worse."

"Well, it's not the library," Hermione answered, with a bit of smug satisfaction. "Who else do we know was at the school when Thalassa, Snape, and your parents were all here?" she asked Harry.

Harry blinked at her, caught off guard. "Dumbledore?" he offered, hesitantly. "I don't think he'd tell us if we just asked-"

"No, no, not Dumbledore," Hermione sighed. "Think. Someone we could talk to…"

Ron made a face. "I'm not asking someone like McGonagall out of the blue…she'd turn us in for meddling for sure."

With a huffy expression, Hermione opened her mouth to rail at him, but Harry interrupted. "Hagrid!" he said, excitedly, before Hermione pinched him for being too loud. Luckily, the classroom was buzzing with voices reciting charms spells left and right. "Of course, Hagrid was here too," he said, much lower. "We can ask him about it."

Ron brightened. Anything that kept him from getting in trouble was a bonus. "Does that mean we don't have to go to the library?"