'I know something you want to know!' Hermione crowed. Ron Weasley looked at her in irritation, scowling over the massive, dry looking book he was reading.

'What?' He snapped. 'Can't you see I'm busy.'

'Oh, but you'll want to know this.'

She folded herself delicately into the chair opposite him, smoothing her pristine robes in a way that she knew he found incredibly "Slytherin".

'Hermione!' Harry moaned, 'Seriously, we've got so much homework. We really don't have time for this.'

'Well you should have done it earlier then, shouldn't you.'

Ron scoffed.

'Oh, obviously Harry, we should have wasted out whole holiday with homework.' Ron imitated in a high pitched voice.

'Well, if you're going to be nasty, I won't tell you what I know then.' She folded her robes over again and picked up her bag, bracing her hands against the table as if she was about to stand. 'Such a shame, I thought you were really interested in Nicholas Flamel.'

They took longer than she had expected to react and she was actually standing before Ron hollered at her to wait. She looked back down at him imperiously.

'What do you want?' Ron gritted, 'and nothing to do with quidditch - we're not sabotaging the cup.'

Hermione almost rolled her eyes. She couldn't care less about quidditch or who won the cup.

'I want to know why you're trying to find him - and before you say anything, I promise you won't find him at the rate you're going.'

The boys shared a look and could see Ron deferring to Harry. That was virtually a wrap then, Harry might not trust her with this apparently, but she doubted it would be much of a step when he already trusted her with everything else. It would be much more likely that Ron trusting her at least.

'You can't tell anyone, not Nott or any of the teachers.' Ron laid out. Hermione rolled her eyes.

'Do I look like the kind of person that blabs to a teacher at he first opportunity?' She took her seat again and used her wand to cast a privacy ward. The poor bit of wood took to the task with relish and she wondered if it had enough sentience to feel neglected when she did most of her casting without it.

The whole story spilled out, how they'd figured out that something very valuable was hidden within the depths of the school, and that they thought Snape was after it. Hermione took a moment to absorb the information, then shared what she knew of Nicholas Flamel and that the item was certainly the philosopher's stone.

They were missing some massive pieces of the puzzle, she knew it. She couldn't think of any motivation for Snape to steal the stone - if he was powerful enough to break into Gringotts, he certainly wouldn't be teaching at a school, he would be earning his fortune as a wardmaster. She also thought that whilst immortality would appeal to anyone, he would have to live in hiding if he actually achieved it. Immortality was hardly subtle, and exile would put a damper on eternal life.

She was more inclined to think that Snape was just a convenient scapegoat, particularly considering the vendetta that he and Harry already shared. Personally, she would have just put the stone in a box and buried it somewhere on Orkney. If nobody knew where it was, then nobody could find it and with so much powerful magic residue on the island, it would be impossible to track the signature.

She mulled over it for the next couple of weeks, unable to understand why they'd chosen a school of all places to hide something so valuable.

Unfortunately, the world wasn't willing to sit still whilst she pondered this. Exams were approaching and she was determined to do better on them than anyone ever had before, along with her friends. She set up revision meetings in the library, in addition to the wandless magic lessons she already delivered and they worked as a trio to try and remember every pointless fact about Ulric the Oddball and the reactions between obscure potion ingredients in unlikely conditions. Neville occasionally joined them, trailing Harry and offering up his mind boggling, natural understanding knowledge of Herbology.

At the same time, she spent hours researching Avalon. As the goblins had said, there were almost no mentions of it in any literature and anything that might have been even a vague location was conveniently damaged. She'd tried to ask at the barrows but even the statue of Morgana had somehow been magically gagged.

The best she had was actually her parent's muggle theory that it was in Wales... somewhere. Wales was an awfully big place to go hunting for an invisible island.

Her final project what the matter of Harry's seal and that at least had a clear pathway forwards. They'd spent hours writing and rewriting the letter, changing the wording and the presentation again and again until it was perfect. The problem was that none of them really knew Madam Bones. They didn't want the letter to sound too formal and pureblood, because then it would be obvious that someone other than Harry had done most of the writing but at the same time it needed to sound formal enough to pass as correspondence to an important stranger in the ministry of magic. They spent hours debating over whether it should be phrased as a request because Harry was an important person and he absolutely had a right to meet with his guardian, or whether he should plead slightly because he would certainly get he pity vote if he did.

Finally, they had to actually write the letter. Harry wanted one of them to write it in their elegant calligraphy but Theo insisted that the ministry would be able to tell if anyone other than him had written it. The pureblood had ended up writing it out for him and harry had copied every stroke and line until he too could produce the letter in confident, elegant strokes.

The reply had taken a week and a half to arrive, Hedwig spiralling down during breakfast. Harry had appeared at the Slytherin table a moment later with the missive clutched in his hand.

'Guys, its here!' He took the seat opposite him, oblivious to the glares of the Slytherins around him. He waved the letter then passed it over to them. Hermione took it, glancing over the DMLE seal on the back and the elegant writing that addressed the front. It was reasonable quality, no nonsense parchment that suggested that Madam Bones wasn't overly concerned with appearances, even as she held herself to the highest standard.

'You open it.' She prompted Harry, passing the letter back to him. The boy who lived took it and bent the seal between his fingers until it snapped, black wax crumbling across the table. He unfolded the letter and scanned it quickly.

'Go on, what does it say?' Theo demanded after a moment and Harry took a deep breath.

'Dear Mister Potter, I was most surprised and pleased to receive your correspondence. I once worked very closely with both of your parents and was saddened to hear that you know so little of them. I imagine it must be very painful for your aunt and uncle to speak of them.' Harry scoffed, shaking his head. He'd already shared the story of his aunt and uncle who were very much unaffected by his parent's death.

'I understand that you wish to receive answers, but I must caution you that Sirius Black is a madman. Particularly after ten years in Azkaban, you are unlikely to receive any valuable information. In the meantime, I have enclosed a photograph of your parents.

Should you still wish to organise a meeting with Sirius Black, I would suggest that we meet face to face over the summer and we can complete the necessary paperwork. You will require someone with a seal as well as identity documents from Gringotts.

Sincerely, Madam Bones... Blah blah.' Harry didn't bother to read off what Hermione knew would be an extensive list of titles that none of them really cared about until they actually had to meet her.

'We can use my seal, and I'm sure Ragnuk can organise the documents for a price.'

'You don't think... you don't think he's actually gone mad do you?' Harry asked uncertainly after a moment.

'You'd have to be pretty mad to kill thirteen people with a single curse.' Theo said sombrely.

'Not really.' Hermione pursed her lips. 'He could also have been really desperate. There's lots of area affect spells that could seriously hurt everyone in range.'

'Okay, but you'd have to be really messed up to use one in a crowded space.' Theo shook his head and Hermione shrugged, not wanting to mention that even a tickling charm could be made deadly if one overpowered it.

'Let's just write a reply in the library during lunch. We'll ask to organise a meeting at a later date, when you know that you'll be able to make it.' Hermione decided. Her two friends nodded and they all got up, heading to their classes.