Robert, a Ravenclaw, had asked Hermione to the Halloween Dance. Ginny was quite happy about this, as it calmed Hermione down quite a bit, often. She would still cry late at night over little Riddle. The girls learned to sleep through it. They would also give her a sleeping potion if she was crying too much. All the girls would try to cheer her up, though. She and Ginny went to Hogsmeade and had a great time buying new dress robes and accessories. They did, however, spend most of their time looking at books for Hermione. She bought a lot of books about Voldemort. She was rather intrigued by them. The "mysterious girl" was mentioned often; the one who he dated. Little Riddle was also mentioned, but it no one knew who the new little Riddle was. Apparently, Voldemort was mad about the mysterious girl leaving. It somewhat made Hermione feel worse, to know that she had caused so much trouble for people. She knew, though, that there was more to it. Especially where Harry and his parents came in.

The night of the dance came and went. Hermione had the best time she'd had so far that year. The food was great, the music was entertaining, and Robert made sure she had a good time. He was a marvelous dancer. They took a break halfway through the night and went outside to look at the stars and all the spooky décor. Ginny and her date - Dean Thomas, came out and sat at a bench across from Hermione and Robert. The four sat in silence for quite some time until they heard some screams. They figured it was something put up by the staff, but as the screams got louder, they realized that there were people screaming, and not over some scary decorations. The two couples ran towards the source of the cries for help. One student lay on the ground bleeding, his girlfriend and another couple were kneeling down beside him. His girlfriend was crying as well as the other girl. There was a note beside the boy. Hermione saw that it was addressed to her, Harry, and Ron. Things did not look good. She picked up the letter, not bothering to read it, and ran inside, leaving her date and the three couples outside. She bolted for the staff table. She quickly told them what she knew and a bunch of teachers got up to leave. The others stayed and stopped the dance, telling students they must return to their houses.

Hermione led Snape, Sprout, and Dumbledore to the bleeding student sprawled across the ground. Snape grabbed Hermione and led her away. Dumbledore knew why, and worked with Sprout to get rid of the other students then take the boy to the hospital wing. Snape looked at Hermione. She was frightened by the look he gave her.

"There was a letter?"

"Yes," Hermione replied shakily and reached for her pocket.

"Who was it from?"

"I don't know, Professor."

"Let me see the letter." He demanded. She pulled it out of her pocket and handed it to him. He opened it up and scanned through it.

"Just as I thought. . ." he said and sighed.

"Is it from him?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, here you go," Snape said and handed the letter back. Hermione stuffed it into her pocket. "You better get to the Gryffindor common room. All students were sent back." Hermione nodded and took off a few paces faster than Snape. Once she got into the common room, she sat in a corner of the common room and read the letter.

Ronald Weasley, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger:

Give up. I shall win this battle. I am growing stronger every day. Until you give up, more students will be hurt. Be careful. Hermione - How dare you take that name! I shall get you as well. No one deserves that name.

-Voldemort

Hermione could tell that he himself had not written the letter. One of his minions had. She could tell by his threat that he was quite mad at her for leaving him. It was a short note, and although she did not want Harry or Ron to see the threat made to her, she knew she had to show them the letter. Hermione waited for a while until they came down. When they did, she handed them the letter, told them it was important, and bolted up the stairs to her room. She just hoped they would not show anyone the letter.

The next day, Hermione woke up startled by the sounds of wildlife coming in from her open window. All the girls were gone. It was 12 o'clock. She slept in! She looked around and saw that the room was trashed. Her bed, though, had remained untouched. Someone was setting her up for a lot of trouble. She could only think of Malfoy doing this. Who else would need to or want to? Obviously, it was for Voldemort. She quickly got ready then pulled out books looking for cleaning charms. She smiled as she found some useful charms. She performed them, but to her dismay, it worked, then the room went right back to its previous state. She would have to clean it up the muggle way! This was going to take a long time. Hermione went to check in the bathroom and found Bianca glued to a wall, thrashing around. That was it. She was officially ticked off. She could understand why Tom was so mad, but hurting Riddle, then hurting Bianca was too much. She worked on freeing Bianca for an hour. She then went to find Snape. She ran down to the dungeons with Bianca and opened the potions class room door. She stopped dead to find that it was the class should would have been in if she had not slept in. It was double potions with Slytherin. Malfoy sniggered as he saw her and Bianca. She knew he had done it.

"Why, it's so nice of you to grace us with your presence, Miss Granger," Snape said.