She called it the incident with the dragon. She hadn't actually known about the dragon until the morning after it was sent off - Ron had somehow convinced Harry that she was too Slytherin and untrustworthy to know about it. The hundred and fifty house points that had disappeared from the hourglasses was impossible to hide however and for some reason Ron seemed to feel like she was somehow responsible for Slytherin taking the lead in the house cup.

It made spending time with Harry very, very difficult. He and the other Gryffindors that had been caught outside had become deeply unpopular, so he and Ron now clung to each other like limpets. The only positive was perhaps Neville, who had also suffered the damage of the night it did not have a peer to lean on. Hermione was more than happy to let him into her and Theo's studying sessions.

Neville was very shy, even after he got to know someone but he was well mannered in the way of all old heirs. He struggled in Gryffindor, which was a house full of people who had no clue about the many customs he had been raised on. He, like Hermione, found the way many people actively spurned ancient traditions to be grating. He hated that they celebrated Hallowe'en and Yule and Easter, that Beltane and Samhain were little more than vaguely familiar words to most people. Unlike most of her Slytherin peers, his grandmother had actually taught him about the rituals they had once used, many, many years before and he longed for a day when they could be performed once more. His attitude really was refreshingly European.

He'd been awkward with Theo at first, and Theo had been awkward in return. Both boys seemed to be skirting around some elephant that Hermione couldn't see. Then she was held behind after a transfiguration lesson - she'd refused to transfigure a porcupine into a pincushion on ethical grounds. She'd read enough of Gellert's ethics notes, and contributed to enough discussions to know that there were some serious issues to be considered, and the casual attitude towards train-sentience transfiguration at Hogwarts frankly appalled her. There were just so many unknown factors involved - did the animal remain sentient during the period of transfiguration? Was the process painful? And that was all before one had even considered the consequences of a failed transfiguration - animals stuck half way in between, or with certain body parts transfigured and others not. McGonagall had clearly never even considered her points, and with a strange look in her eye, she assigned Hermione to write a paper on ethical considerations of trans-sentience transfiguration instead of performing the class work.

However, when she'd caught up with the boys, they seemed to have had some kind of deep and meaningful discussion and had buried whatever hatchet had been between them. Neville looked like he was about to cry, but he was laughing at Theo as he recounted the story of the rebellions of Ulric the Oddball, trying to tell it from the point of view of the goblins. It was certainly memorable, even if it wasn't conventional.

'What did she say?' Theo asked as soon as she sat down. 'Do you still have to do it?'

'I have to write an essay. She'd never even considered it before.'

'I don't think many people have.' Neville pointed out sombrely. He had been horrified when Hermione had first mentioned the issues.

'Its ridiculous, they call rituals dark magic because they require the quick, relatively painless death of an animal but they condone repeated animal torture by school children.' She scoffed. Theo, who had listened to her rant for several hours on the matter after McGonagall had first announced that they would be moving onto porcupine to pincushions, sighed in resignation.

Hermione sneered at him, but didn't continue her rant. Both of her friends agreed with her anyway.

'Have you done your potions?' Neville asked after several minutes of silence.

'Theo has.' Hermione looked towards the Slytherin boy expectantly and he nodded, reaching down to pull out his thick wad of notes.

'I found some good stuff on Dittany, I copied it out of the book. I'd love to know if greenhouses affect the potency of the moon phase though but I couldn't find it anywhere.' Theo shuffled the papers and spread them out for his friends.

'It probably does.' Neville agreed, the resident expert on Herbology. 'Did you check Herbological Healing? It usually has pretty extensive information on moon phases.'

Hermione scanned through Theo's potions research and passed him her notes on the knock back jinx in return.

'This bloke really believes the knockback jinx shares a magical root with the blasting curse?' Theo asked after a moment.

'He does, but in Lines of Power, Webber actually sketches the magical currents for both and he proved that the knockback jinx is the antipode of the summoning charm.'

'You realise that kind of stuff is like, fifth year?' Neville checked, looking slightly intimidated. Hermione and Theo turned to look at him with identical raised eyebrows. Neville shook his head and returned to reading Theo's potions notes, annotating them with his own deep knowledge of Herbology and adding reading recommendations.

'I think Harry wants you.' Theo pointed out dryly, tipping his head towards where Harry was indeed waving frantically. Hermione sighed heavily because Ron Weasley was hovering behind him, which meant she would inevitably have to deal with him too but she stood and made her way over to them.

'It's Voldemort!' Harry hissed as soon as she was within hearing distance. 'It's Voldemort who's after the stone.'

'Pardon?' Hermione choked, taking a moment to shift gears and put some context around what they were saying.

'Voldemort's been living in the forest, I saw him whilst we were in detention. He's been living off unicorn blood...'

'Unicorn blood?' Hermione hissed in outrage. There were very tame unicorns on the Lintzen estate and they all loved Hermione. She didn't go to see them often because they hated Gellert with all the passion they loved her (she tried not to think about why that was), but she couldn't imagine willingly harming one of the magnificent beasts.

'Yeah, apparently he's cursed, but Firenze - a centaur - thinks he's only using it to stay alive until he's got the stone.'

'So You-Know-Who's making Snape get it, and he's finally intimidated Quirrel into letting him know how to get past his trap.' Ron continued, whispering so loudly that Hermione had to cast a quick privacy charm.

'All that's left now if Fluffy - that's the dog, remember? - and then Voldemort will be back to finish me off...'

'Harry?' Hermione interrupted quickly, stalling the boy. 'Dumbledore is here. If Professor Snape really is going to try something, it won't be right under the nose of the only person Voldemort has ever feared.'

'Oh.' Harry relaxed slightly. 'You're right. That's great... but still.'

'We'll work on shield charms, and keep an eye on Snape. If anything suspicious happens, you go straight to McGonagall.' Hermione instructed sternly.

'Hagrid won't give up his secret to anybody.' Ron declared, obviously feeling more positive with the reminder of Dumbledore. Hermione doubted that, Hagrid, whilst loyal to Dumbledore was not the brightest and he was far, far too trusting. It was probably only a matter of time until that obstacle was surpassed, if it hadn't been already.

A large part of her wanted to reassure Harry that the teachers probably already knew what was going on but her experiences with the Durmstrang faculty had already proven that school staff couldn't be relied on for anything outside their job description.

'I'll cast some monitoring charms over the door to the corridor too.' She finally decided. 'That way, we'll know if someone tries to get in.'

There were certain to be some good options in one of the family grimmoires, particularly because she'd have to make them difficult to detect. Most adult wizards probably knew how to check for enchantments, and she was willing to bet Dumbledore would misinterpret her work as an attempt to steal the stone herself. Perhaps she should write to Flamel with her concerns; she'd only have to use her name to get his attention?

Yes, she'd do that. She'd write to Flamel and offer her own services as a high priestess to help with the protections. There were ancient, forgotten wards and powerful enchantments that bordered on dark magic contained in her family texts. She didn't doubt that she could hide the stone where Voldemort would never find it.