Hermione sat on her bed, lost in thought. Daphne went down to the common room after their promise. Saying she felt better with the silly little pinky promise and that she needed to talk to Pansy about something or another. Hermione didn't catch what exactly it was that she said but she let the blonde go. Understanding the need to getaway.
She feels a little bad for assuming Daphne was trying to hide something from her. While she sort of was, Hermione realized that it was the concern Daphne was feeling for Hermione that she didn't want her to see. Hermione sighs to herself and flops her torso down onto her bed, letting herself bask in the self-loathing she was feeling for a few minutes.
When her few minutes were up, Hermione stands up from the bed and goes back to her trunk. Kneeling in front of the still open lid she grabs for her journal. With the journal in hand, she's about to shut the lid tight when she notices something red in her peripherals. Looking down at what it was, she brings a palm up to her forehead and slaps it.
Staring up at her is a red bound book, a golden school crest in the middle of the hardcover with a golden border around the edges and decorative fleurs on the four corners. It was her favorite book and one she doesn't even remember packing, thinking her school load was too much to bring it along. But apparently, her subconscious felt otherwise.
Hogwarts: A History. I could have saved myself such a headache if I just looked in here sooner! She thought with another smack to the forehead. She gathered her favorite book, her journal and loose pieces of parchment then stood up to spread out on her bed. Hermione puts her journal down on the bed and places her loose parchment on top of it, she settles on her bed sitting with her legs crossed and her book in her lap.
Quickly flipping through the book, she lands on the small blurb on the Chamber. Scanning through the words, she groans when she realizes there isn't any new information available to her. Flopping down on her bed, she stares up at her canopy.
It is a very unfortunate thing when even your favorite book lets you down. Hermione lets out a full-body sigh. I'll have to go to the library tomorrow to see if I can't find books on animals that petrify their prey. Too bad it isn't Medusa, that would be truly interesting. But I have a feeling Greek mythology coming back to life would be a little too much even for the wizarding community. Hermione pauses in her thoughts and sits up. Grabbing her journal and her loose parchment paper, she leans over to her nightstand and rummages through it for her self-inking quill. It's a little ragged looking, so she never uses it outside of her dorm room.
"Appearances no matter how small, are important, you must remember that Hermione. You never know who is watching." Her mother once told her, she can't remember exactly why it was that her mother had told her that. But it was something Hermione held on to. Especially when she first started at her muggle private school. Everyone looked at her with noses up and sneers on their faces when they caught sight of the new girl with the crazy curls. The looks slowly stopped when they saw that she was on the same level as they were with her materials. The whispers about her hair and intelligence though never did stop.
Shaking her head away from where her thoughts were going she goes back to thinking about the monster running amok in her school. She starts to tap the end of her quill on her parchment.
What do I know so far? She thinks, and writes down that thought at the top of her page, underlining it for good measure. It's some sort of creature, Salazaar Slytherin was its master and only the true heir can call to it. Or control it. It can inadvertently petrify someone. Slytherin wanted to get rid of muggleborn and half-blood students, students that he felt didn't deserve to be in the school or to have magic period. What word was used? Hermione pauses. That's right, purge. He wanted to purge the school of muggleborn and half-blood students.
Hermione scrunches her face in thought. The school was founded around 990 A.D. Hmm, weren't muggles killing others because of the fear of magic? Logically you can't blame Slytherin for being wary and not wanting to include children that came from non-magical families, the risks than were huge. Hermione bites her lip. Obviously, times have changed now, there are safety precautions and spells now that almost eliminate all risks. So to have that viewpoint now is just primitive, and not to mention annoying.
Hermione shakes her head again. Ok, focus. The monster of Slytherin, I'm going to conclude that the monster is actually supposed to kill its victims. Slytherin doesn't seem like the type of guy to be… lenient on anyone. Especially those whom he didn't like. I know certainly that I wouldn't be. While killing should always be a last resort, if I perceive someone as a threat then… well. Ok, right. Focus Hermione. The monster is supposed to kill its victims, not petrify them. So then why are the victims being petrified? Hermione starts to tap her quill on her parchment again.
What do I remember about Mrs. Norris's crime scene? She bites her lip. There didn't seem to be anything amiss. Her mind goes quiet as she dredges up the memories from that night. She replays what she deems important. Maybe Mrs. Norris wasn't petrified there, perhaps she was moved. She was tied to the torch sconce by her tail. Hermione sighs. I'm going to have to revisit this. Maybe I can get into the infirmary to see the newest petrified victim. See if that helps at all.
Hermione stretches her arms up and arches her back with it, sighing in relief as the tension leaves her back. Ok, time to take a break. Hermione stands up and stretches some more. Maybe I'll see what Daphne is doing now. I'll do my advanced potion homework later. Hermione winces slightly, suddenly realizing her head was pounding. I definitely need to take a break. She thinks as she makes her way to exit the dorm room.
"Pansy, I've already told you to drop it! We aren't doing it!" Daphne's voice snaps, echoing in the suddenly quiet common room. "What?" Daphne snaps again to the quiet common room and suddenly it's bursting with life again. Hermione frowns as she ascends the steps and finally enters into the common room. Her eyes immediately finding her best friend, she walks towards her and doesn't spare Parkinson a glance as she fumes past her knocking into Hermione on purpose.
"Watch yourself you stupid mudblood." She seethes and Hermione rolls her eyes, ignoring the actual idiot. Hermione sits beside Daphne, smiling slightly at Nott and Zabini and ignoring Malfoy.
"What was that all about?" Hermione asks, her eyes going to Daphne. Daphne waves her hand as if she was dismissing a smell.
"She just refuses to leave some traditions, traditions that haven't been enacted in centuries, alone." Daphne huffs. "She just likes attention on her all the time, and sometimes I just can't deal with it when she doesn't listen."
"Right," Hermione says, knowing something isn't being said but she just decides it's best to ignore it for now. The group of 2nd years lapses into a silence that lasts for a few minutes before Zabini decides to break it.
"Granger, I hate to ask. But do you think you could help me with the charm's homework? I'm having an issue writing about the memory charm."
Hermione turns her attention towards where Zabini was sitting only now just seeing that he had a book in front of him with balled up parchment littering the floor. A quill was also in his hand and more parchment was in front of him.
"Of course Zabini." Quickly looking around the common room, she sees that there is a table with a couple of chairs that are currently not occupied. "Let's move to the table over there so it's more conducive to your writing."
Zabini's tense shoulders immediately relax. "Thanks, Granger." He shoves his parchment into his book and stands up, ignoring the pieces on the floor. Hermione frowns, a little annoyed at the mess he's leaving behind but decides to leave it. It's not a battle she needs to fight.
"Oi! Wait for me, I need help too!" Nott says as he bolts from the chair he was in and towards the entrance to the boys' dormitory. Hermione walks over to the table and sits down, Zabini taking the seat across from her. Nott reemerging and joining the duo.
"Well, now I feel left out!" Daphne says as she stands beside them her hands on her hips. Hermione smiles at her.
"Well, go get your homework and join us. I'm sure we can make room for you." Hermione says through her smile. Daphne smiles back and flounces to the girls' dormitory. Hermione makes the boys squish together more as she moves the chair farther away from the table. Making sure that when Daphne comes back she'll have enough room to work as well. After the trio gets situated again, Daphne comes back with her supplies as well.
"So, how would you guys like to do this?" Hermione asks her head tilted to the side.
"Could you just go through it all?" Zabini sheepishly said.
Hermione nods and looks to Daphne. "Would you mind if I use your book?"
Daphne shakes her head. "I'll read over Theo's shoulder." She says with a slightly evil grin. Nott sends a glare at Daphne but doesn't say anything as he moves the book in between the two. Clearly not a fan of someone looking over his shoulder. Hermione thinks but doesn't acknowledge it as she grabs the charm book. Briefly, she scans the chapter, even though she already has it memorized, she just doesn't want it to seem like she's not taking their asking for help seriously.
With her scanning done, she hands the book back to Daphne. Daphne, in turn, looks at her, confusion clear in her eyes. "That's it?"
"Yes." Hermione decides not to elaborate, instead, she goes right into talking about the memory charm. Hermione talks about the memory charm, pausing every so often to make sure the small group is following along. She can't help the blush that spreads to her cheeks when she notices that they are taking notes on what she's saying. Hermione makes sure to answer questions as they pop up, and even decides to start asking them questions as to what she's already talked about so far.
"Wow, Granger. How in the world can you remember so much about one single charm?" Zabini ends up asking out of the blue, completely stopping Hermione's small monologue on the difference between the memory erase charm and the false memory charm.
Hermione stares at him for a moment, trying to gauge if he's being sincere or subtly making fun of her. Realizing he's asking an honest question, she answers. "It's mostly due to my study habits, but it also helps that I have a photographic memory." Seeing the looks of confusion, she elaborates. "I have an easier time recalling information that I've read from books, or that I've heard from word of mouth. But that only got me so far, if I didn't study or read as much as I do, I wouldn't be able to recall half of what I do." The three next to her just stare at her, making Hermione shift slightly. "What?"
Daphne shakes out of the stupor first. "It's just really impressive Hermione." Daphne smiles and places her hand on top of Hermione's. "That's all. We've, well I've never heard of something like that before, didn't know something like that existed."
Hermione nods and looks at the other two boys. Zabini shrugs. "What Daphne said."
Nott nods his head. "Agreed."
Hermione stares at the trio for a moment more, ignoring the heat on her face. "Anyway. Iussoiate (ee-Oh-ss-ee-ate) is the false memory charm, Obliviate is the charm that erases specific memories from the intended target. The only true way to tell the two spells apart is just by the incantation. The wand movements are almost the same." Hermione demonstrates the wand movements for each spell, then puts her wand back away. "Obliviate is, of course, the charm that the homework is on." She says and goes back into talking about the memory charm that they needed to know about.
After helping the trio with their charms homework, Hermione decides it's time for her to start getting ready for bed. Tomorrow will be here before she knows it, excusing herself from the trio and saying goodnight she makes her way to the dorm room. Intent on gathering her showering supplies, she's always preferred showing at night before bed. If she had to think about a reason why she did, it would probably stem from her dance practice. She always practiced after dinner and a majority of the time she worked up quite a sweat that would simply require her to shower. Eventually, she just ended up adopting it into her routine, even when she didn't have a practice so it just kind of stuck.
Walking into the bathroom, she walks into one of the three shower stalls and places her bathing supplies on the ledge. With a flick of her wand, she starts the water going. Making sure the curtain behind her was fully closed she begins to undress. With that task done, she steps into the warm spray. Going through her routine, her mind starts to wander.
I really should have done Professor Snape's assignment today. I already feel so far behind even though our lessons only just started. It's really exciting though that he permitted me to take out a restricted section book. It is an amazing opportunity to work with such an accomplished Potion Master. She pauses in her thoughts as she thinks back to their brief lesson today. He seemed very adamant that I follow his instructions when it comes to preparing the potion ingredients. He already knows that I follow the book to a T. So why would he stress something like that. I guess it doesn't matter right now. But I do need to get to work on that assignment tomorrow. It's already eating me up that I haven't even written the first draft yet! Hermione stops her thoughts as she turns off the water with a flick of her wand. Quickly drying her body off, she steps into her pajamas.
Tomorrow I'll get the book from the library, start my assignment and hopefully find an empty classroom that I can practice in, both for my dance and my spells. Professor Lockhart doesn't seem to want to teach us anything… which is rather disheartening. He's supposed to be so accomplished and so talented, but he's just… not living up to the expectations that I had. Perhaps he just needs more time to get acclimated to a classroom setting. Hermione pauses in her thoughts. I hope that's it. She thinks with a frown as she slips under her covers.
