Hermione yawns into her hand as she makes her way into the Great Hall. Her bag idly thumping against her thigh.
"Hermione!"
Hermione opens her eyes again and sees Daphne walking up towards her.
"Come on, breakfast is going to end soon! I've already saved you a plate and some juice. Why are you here so late? You're usually here before me!" Daphne said as she pulled Hermione over to where Blaise, Theo and Malfoy where sitting. Daphne sat in front of Theo and Hermione sat in front of the premade plate for her, which just happened to be in front of Malfoy.
Hermione ignored the snarky blonde and started to dig into her food.
"I figured out something last night Daphne, on our way to first I'll tell you all about it." Hermione whispers towards Daphne her hand in front of her mouth.
"I was wondering about that, you weren't exactly quite in your celebrations."
"Sorry about that I just got really excited. It might help me get what I need."
"How?"
"Because if worse comes to worse, I can help them get past what they need to get past."
Daphne frowns but knows she won't get anything else out of her friend at the moment so she just goes back to sipping her pumpkin juice and listening to the boys talk some nonsense about Quidditch.
Hermione looked down at her plate, moving her fork around lost in thought. Somehow there is a three headed dog in Hogwarts guarding the way to something. It has to be valuable. Something worth keeping down most likely even further down from the dungeons. She bit her lip.
Flamal. She read about him in a book, once. Maybe it's time to look him back up. She must have missed something. Satisfied with her realization Hermione finally digs into her plate.
Hermione eats her food quickly but gracefully. Her mother drilled table etiquette into her brain, if she so much as even grazed her elbow on the table her mother was all over it.
Hermione, had to go over to the Gryffindor table during lunch a few days a go because she realized during a partner essay that Neville forgot to add something in his portion so she wanted to see if he would be willing to mend it.
(This is actually her third pairing up with Neville. She really quite enjoys talking to him. He's one of the few people still nice to her, which is obviously nice.)
While making her track towards the lanky male she has to walk past Potter and Weasley and she will never make the mistake of looking their way again because the way Weasley eats really should be outlawed. It was barbaric. Hermione actually lifted the upper left part of her lip and the rest of her face just kind of squished closer together. Really he was just absolutely disgusting. Finally taking her eyes away from the red headed disaster she found Neville.
Hermione blinked out of her thoughts once she fully realized her plate was completely empty. Blinking again she puts her fork down,takes her napkin from her lap to gently tap at her mouth making sure she was free of crumbs. With that complete she turn to Daphne only to see her friend staring at her with the boys holding back laughter.
Hermione only blinked some more, causing the boys to bust out laughing. Hermione finally frowns and goes back to staring at her only friend.
"What?" Hermione finally asks.
Daphne starts to pout and she crosses her arms as well. "Hermione I've been calling you for 5 minute now." Hermione puts her hand to her mouth.
"Oh Daphne! I'm so sorry. I just got so lost in thought that I completely forgot where I was for a moment."
Daphne pouts for a moment longer but ultimately she shrugs her shoulders. "It's alright. You have a lot on your plate at the moment. I'll forgive you this one time."
Hermione giggles into her hand but than places her other hand on top of Daphne's that is now resting in her lap. "Thank you Daphne."
Daphne giggles back. "You're welcome Hermione. Come on! Let's get to class!"
Hermione nods and picks up her school bag and follows Daphne out of the Great Hall making their way to their History of Magic course. Once out the great big doors Daphne links her arm into Hermione's and begins to skip off, forcing Hermione to begin to do it as well.
"Bye boys. We'll see you in class." Daphne throws over her shoulder. Hermione can't help but throw her head back and laugh, she has no idea what has gotten into her friend but she likes to see Daphne having fun, and including her no less!
After some more laughing the pair finally stops to catch their breath Hermione bending over putting most of her weight into her hands that were resting on her knees. Finally deciding she was tired of laughing she took a deep breath and exhaled really slowly. Calming her heart rate fairly easy after doing it two more times. With her breathing and heart rate now back under control Hermione turns to Daphne with a brow raised. "What in the world was that?"
"Did I surprise you?"
"Well yes, obviously." Daphne grinned at Hermione.
"Good! I finally got you Hermione!"
Hermione blinked a few times at her friend, and readjusted her backpack more onto her shoulder. "What are you talking about?" Hermione finally asks as she continues their walk towards History of Magic.
Daphne shrugs and follows. "You're just always surprising me for whatever reason. I wanted to know what that felt like from your end."
Hermione only smiled and shook her head her curls bouncing with each movement. "You are a strange one."
"Yes well, I am only becoming so to be more like you."
Hermione rolls her eyes. "Anyway. So I know what's guarding the passage to whatever caused the person to let loose the troll into the castle."
"You really think they are connected?"
Hermione nods. "They have to be."
Daphne merely agrees with her friend. "Ok. So what is it?"
"Cerberus."
Daphne stops walking. "What?"
Hermione rolls her eyes, grabs Daphne's wrist and begins to pull it forward with her. "The three-headed dog that's supposed to be guarding the underworld is in Hogwarts somewhere."
Daphne could only stare ahead of her, blinking her eyes and a frown on her face. "How do you get past that?"
Hermione waves her hand in the air. "That's not what's worrisome. The first thing is is that Potter and Weasley know more than I do currently. The second is I need to know what the dog is guarding because then I can figure out how many more safety precautions there could be and I can plan accordingly."
Daphne can only blink at her friend. "Plan accordingly for what?"
Hermione shrugged. "I actually have no idea. But whatever it is I need my wits about me, especially since I feel like it deals with the dynamic duo."
"Dynamic duo?" Daphne asks, confusion clear.
Hermione gives Daphne a surprised look. "What?"
Daphne gives Hermione an exasperated look. "You called something a dynamic duo. What are you talking about?"
Hermione stares at Daphne and then she can't help but to laugh. "Oh Daphne I'm sorry. That's just what I call Weasley and Potter."
Daphne shakes her head. "You are a strange one Hermione."
Hermione only smiles at Daphne. "I have some more research I have to do before I confront the two."
Daphne nods, then decides to shift the conversation. She then brings up a fashion article she was reading before breakfast and Hermione noticing the change in topic, quickly followed Daphne's explanation of the article. thankful she didn't have to think about the Dynamic duo anymore.
The Professor comes in causing Hermione and Daphne to quiet their conversation but not stop it. The two girls lock eyes when the duo comes rushing in at the last minute. Hermione shakes her head, she can't believe that the fate of the wizarding world rests on this idiot's shoulders.
Hermione turns away from the idiots and starts to pretend to listen to the lecture. She's already read this chapter, she has more important things to do. Like try to remember who this Flamel is.
Hermione and Daphne are both giggling to each other as they enter the great hall for lunch. Hermione can't even remember what started this round of giggles and when she voices that to Daphne, she agrees and then that causes another round of giggles. The two are sitting at Slytherin's table when their giggles finally stop.
Daphne ends up in a conversation with Theo, and Hermione is silently buttering a roll thinking about her next classes when Malfoy comes strolling in. She ignores him, even when he straddles the bench right next to her, staring at her with a smirk. She continues ignoring him, she can feel her eye twitching though with the strain of keeping her annoyance to herself. She hates being stared at.
He continues, his eyes not once leaving Hermione's form. She lasts 5 minutes.
"What." She snaps at him.
Malfoy only chuckles and grabs an apple, his smug attitude not leaving.
"If you keep staring at me Malfoy I'm going to start thinking you fancy me. Now. spit. It. out." Hermione snaps.
"The dragon's gone." He snaps a bite out of the apple.
She can feel the furry in her start rising up. Her full attention now on him. "What did you do."
He shrugs. "I'm merely letting you know that, that thing is gone, I wanted to see your face when you realize you couldn't save it."
The glare on her face never leaves. She's upset, she reached out to all of the sanctuaries for magical creatures she could find. Some of her post was returned without it ever being opened, she had a feeling it was because she was using the school's owls. But it just wasn't fair. That poor creature. But she refused to let Malfoy see her upset.
"Message received, you've watched my face. Now leave me alone." Hermione turns back to her plate, moving in such a way her hair curtains her profile. Her bushy hair blocking her view of the blond prat. Her eyes go straight to the Gryffindor table, looking for the dynamic duo.
She doesn't like the two, she's made that perfectly clear. But she knows that if they're upset something did actually happen to the dragon, if they aren't then Malfoy's information is missing pieces. When she finally sees the two she notes that they seem to be fine. She looks back down to her half filled plate. She needs more information. Again.
Hermione is angrily tapping her quill against her parchment. Her head in her hand, a glare on her face, parchments and books litter around her. Glaring at the wall of books in front of her. The only thing she can find on this supposed well known alchemist, is that:
he's an alchemist.
None of the books she's been able to check out has mentioned anything else, she can't find any of his achievements. It's almost as if whatever he did he didn't want a lot of people knowing about it. Her glare softens only marginally as her eyes start to lazily trace the books on the shelf in front of her. Her brows furrow though when she notices a book that seems slightly out of place. Curious, she decides to get up and pull the book. Maybe it'll help jump start her brain for something else.
She quickly takes the book off the shelf and places it on the table she's using as a desk. Alchemy, Ancient Art and Science by Argo Pyrities. Hermione tilts her head as she takes in the title. She bites her lip, she's trying not to get to excited because it could be a dead end but she can't help but feel as though this will be it. She flips to the back of the book, checking for an index. Using her finger as a guide she quickly goes through the alphabetical index.
Flamel, Nicholas, 310
She grins.
A while later Hermione is in shock. She can't believe it. Not only is the Philosopher's stone actually real, it's being protected by a three-headed dog, at her school. Suddenly everything just makes sense.
The troll, it was a distraction. Someone is trying to get to the stone.
Someone is trying to get the stone.
Someone wants to get the stone and they'll endanger whoever they want to get it.
Hermione suddenly breaks into movement. She returns the book to the shelf, grabs all of her scattered parchments, stacks them into a quick even pile. She quickly corks her black, blue and red inks, throws the three books that were lying wide open in front of her into her pack. Then she puts her papers on top and throws the inks into a seperate pocket outside of her main one. With the table now clear she quickly rushes out of the library.
She has to get to Professor Snape.
