Moaning Myrtle, also known as Myrtle Warren, had died on June 13th, 1943. The Daily Prophet covered the death, citing she had been attacked in a tragic accident by a loose monster on the grounds, and that the student responsible had been caught and expelled, but to protect the student from threats of harm, their identity would remain hidden.

The rest of the article went on to detail how when Myrtle's family had come to retrieve the body, they hadn't been able to properly see the castle, instead seeing a mound of moldering ruins. When the caretaker had finally bodily dragged them past the wards and they were able to see the castle, they both kept insisting that they were forgetting an urgent appointment, and that they were desperately needed somewhere else.

The article devolved into an argument about how Hogwarts ought to put in a system to allow the parents of Muggle-borns to visit the school without having the wards affect them, countered by the argument that muggles were still muggles and any exceptions made could become very dangerous. Hermione scanned the rest of the article before tossing it aside, highly annoyed.

There was next to no actual information in the article, and the entire thing reeked of a cover-up. She handed the article to Harry, who read it over while Hermione scowled and sulked, her mind mulling things through to try and figure out what avenue to explore next.

"A loose monster?" Harry said aloud, his eyebrows raising. "I suppose that's one way to put it."

"It says they caught and expelled the student," Neville said, reading over Harry's shoulder. "But if that's true, why's it all happening again?"

"It's probably something unrelated then, isn't it?" Ron said, toying with a scrap of parchment. "A loose monster could be anything — Care of Magical Creatures class gone wrong, mistakenly-enchanted pet rampaging. Could even just be 'Hagrid', really, with his penchant for monsters. He had a dragon last year, remember?"

There was a pause.

"Hagrid was expelled, wasn't he?" Harry asked.

There was a poignant pause.

Wide-eyed looks were exchanged.

"He was," Neville said faintly.

Hermione went running for the yearbooks while the boys broke out into animated hushed conversation. She returned shortly with the yearbooks for 1943 and 1944, and they flipped the one for 1943 open, crowding around.

They found him, hidden amongst the third years.

"Rubeus Hagrid," Harry read aloud. "Gryffindor."

Ron whistled, sitting back. "He never mentioned he was in Gryffindor," he remarked. "You'd think he'd have said something by now, wouldn't you?"

"He probably doesn't like to be reminded of being expelled," Neville said, looking uneasy. "I know I'd feel ashamed."

Hermione was already cracking open the yearbook for 1944, searching.

"He's gone in this one," she said, pushing it over. "He's not listed with the fourth years, or even with the third years, in case he got held back."

Harry looked uneasy.

"It could just be coincidence," he said. "Maybe more than one person got expelled that year."

Ron scoffed. "Expulsion is rare, Harry. I doubt it."

"Is anyone else missing?" Harry asked, ignoring Ron.

Hermione leveled Harry with a look.

"Yes," she said flatly. "Myrtle Warren."

Harry winced.

"Look," Hermione said, pushing the books over. "You can go ahead and double-check to make sure no one else is missing. But if there's no one else missing, you have to agree that it's most likely Hagrid's the one they're talking about in the article."

"There's no way Hagrid would be the Heir of Slytherin, though," Harry protested.

"That's not what we're saying, mate," Ron said. "We're saying Hagrid's the one who was blamed for it. Which means he might have information on who actually did it."

Harry perked up a bit at that, and together they scanned the books, calling out different names to each other to cross-check.

"These photos all look funny," Ron said, tilting a book.

"They're autochrome," Hermione said automatically. "Color photography was different back then. Do you have Julia Norma?"

"Do you just know everything?" Ron demanded.

"Got Julia Norma," Neville said, ignoring Ron.

"Alcina Pteryson?" Harry asked.

"Got her."

They went through the entire book, comparing names. As they went through, Hermione kept a careful eye on the Slytherins of each year. If it had truly been an instance of the Chamber being opened fifty years prior, the Heir of Slytherin would be most likely to be in Slytherin. One of these students could be the culprit.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of them, and though Hermione recognized many of the last names, they all started to blur together after a while.

"That's it," Harry said grimly, closing the yearbook. "The only students missing are Myrtle and Hagrid."

Hermione gave Harry a look, and Harry sighed.

"We'll go down and visit Hagrid on the weekend, okay?" he said. "We'll do it Saturday."

Hermione silently acquiesced. She'd want to put off confronting one of her friends about possible manslaughter, too.