Things were going quite well if Hermione did say so herself. As she had suspected would be the case, Luna was making remarkable headway with Snape; it was becoming a common occurrence to see them huddled together somewhere talking about some potion or another. Lily seemed to be on her way to forgiving Severus with a little encouragement from her new muggle-born Slytherin friend.
"But Hermione he called me a mudblood," Lily had finally confessed to Hermione in hushed tones one day after bumping into each other in the halls and chatting for a bit about their friends with one another.
Hermione snorted much to Lily's surprise and replied, "it's just a word Lily, one that you and I didn't even know the existence of before entering the wizarding world. You shouldn't let it get to you in any situation, let alone one where you're almost certain the person didn't even mean what he was saying. He was just feeling humiliated and spouted off a term he'd been hearing all the time within his house without really thinking about it. And he has apologized right?"
Lily was speechless. When Hermione laid it out like that, her grudge did seem a little childish. And Sev had apologized profusely whenever he got the chance since then. Lily knew she had some serious thinking to do.
"You really think she might forgive me?" Severus asked Hermione upon hearing the news of Lily's wavering resolve.
"I really do. Just give her a little time to work things out in her head then apologize again to her. Tell her honestly how you feel and I have a feeling things will work out just fine," Hermione stated in matter of fact manner.
"Do you love her Severus?" Pansy suddenly asked cutting a sidelong glance to the Gryffindor table where Luna was sitting.
"Like she was my own sister," Snape answered as if it were obvious, "she's the only family I've ever truly cared about."
Pansy looked surprised by his answer but Hermione nodded knowingly. She had been suspecting this for a while.
"Awwww,' Hermione intoned for effect, "That is just so sweet. Now, how do you feel about our Luna?"
Severus's instant blush did nothing to help his case. "I find her take on potion making to be intellectually stimulating. Nothing more."
Hermione raised an eyebrow at that but let the matter drop.
Progress was happening in a more substantial way as well. The girls had already set a date to fight the basilisk for the first Hogmeade visit. This was crucial if the girls wanted to have a safe and easy way of destroying the horcruxes. Fiendfyre was just too magically exhausting to be using repeatedly.
"You know, it's nice that'll I'll be able to fight the basilisk this time around. Last time I was laid out in a hospital bed petrified while Harry and Ron had all the fun,' Hermione huffed.
Pansy rolled her eyes at the blasé statement, having heard all of Hermione's Ron and Harry stories before. Hermione had a sick sense of humor sometimes; implying that battling a basilisk at the age of twelve was any sort of fun.
"It should be quite an interesting experience for all of us," Luna put in happily as they approached Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. "I should be able to get some valuable ingredients for potion making from the carcass."
Pansy scrunched her nose. Something about Luna using the word carcass was off-putting. "You think you'll be able to open it Hermione?"
"I've done it before with Ronald. I remember the Parseltongue for open," Hermione informed her lightly.
True to her word, Hermione opened the sink door without issue and the three hovered themselves lightly into the chamber.
It was after the second door that things got a bit trickier. The witches had to keep their eyes shut from this point on so as not to drop dead upon meeting the basilisk's gaze. They'd trained fighting blind before though and were therefore not at all worried about the outcome of their venture.
At that moment a soft hissing noise was heard to their right and before anyone could even react Luna, of all people, had sliced the creature's head clean of its body with a powerful swing of her wand.
"Lun—a," Hermione, taking in the bloody scene before her, whined, "That's cheating! You can't just use you're super power to sense where the thing is and take all the fun out of it. I was really looking forward to this!"
Luna smiled unapologetically, "I was under the impression that we were trying to accomplish the task as quickly as possible. I would have waited on you if I'd known you needed more time."
"My, my look who discovered her cheek all of the sudden. That's it! No more basilisk hunting for you. The next one is definitely mine," Hermione said deftly.
Pansy grinned at her friends' antics before looking back to the basilisk in disgust. "I don't know about you, but that thing does not look sanitary."
"Afraid of dirt are we Pans?" Hermione asked laughingly.
Pansy grimaced and said, "only the dirty kind."
After the warriors made quick work of the basilisk, their next course of action was naturally to destroy the horcrux that was the only one near by but also the easiest to acquire. Since Luna destroyed the beast with startlingly speed, the girls decided that they should still have time to pop over to the Room of Requirement before most of the student body returned to Hogwarts. The seventh floor hallway was predictably deserted when the girls arrived and Hermione was quick to open the room of hidden things.
"It should be right over here," Hermione said lightly as she lead the two who had not been there the last time in the direction of the diadem.
"Not a bad piece," Pansy said upon their arrival before Ravenclaw's head piece, "other than the tangible evil emanating from it, I'd say it's quite lovely."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Yes, it's just so hard to find jewelry these days that isn't infested with the evil soul of a dark wizard."
Luna looked upon the diadem gravely. "I can hear it screaming. Please, let's put it to rest quickly. I can hardly bear it."
Hermione and Pansy sobered immediately at their friend's distress. They had forgotten how sensitive Luna was to the souls of creatures, even detached souls.
Hermione took the lead as usual, deftly grasping a basilisk tooth in one hand as she inched closer to the diadem. The horcrux began to shiver upon sensing the danger but before it could even try to convince her otherwise, Hermione plunged the tooth into the center of the diadem, whereupon it screamed audibly and began to smoke in protest. The girls watched as the horcrux slowly fizzled out and the diadem once again became merely an object, albeit an object with a basilisk tooth jammed through the middle of it.
"That wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be," Pansy piped up curiously.
"We didn't give it much time to sniff out our fears," Hermione replied simply.
"Let's go out to the grounds to plan some more then. I rather fancy sitting outside under a good tree today," Luna suddenly suggested.