Hermione walked downstairs to the Great Hall quickly, wanting to spend as little time at dinner as she could. She made her way to the Gryffindor table as if nothing unusual at all was going on. She found Harry and Ron and sat down with them.

"Good evening," Hermione said.

"Hey," Harry said.

"Hi," Said Ron, "What happened to your burns?"

"Oh, Madam Pomphrey got them off in about a second." Hermione said. "Turns out Snape was exaggerating."

"Figures." Said Ron. "Oh, you won't believe what happened. Malfoy disappeared, we think he shrunk!"

"Oh really?" Exclaimed Hermione as if this were news to her.

"Yeah," Ron said. "About a minute after you left, Snape made everybody stop working. Then he picked up some robes from under Malfoy's seat and started looking through them. Then he got all rigid and told everybody to turn out their pockets and he searched us all, as if one of us had a little Malfoy in our pockets!"

"Imagine that," Said Hermione.

"Yeah, it was weird!" Ron said. "Then Snape made nearly everyone go. He rounded up Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy and whispered something to them and they started looking all over the room on the floor. Then Snape searched Harry and me again!"

"Oh my!" Said Hermione.

"Yeah," Harry said. "He was really disappointed that he didn't find Malfoy in either of our pockets."

"I wish I did, though," Said Ron, his eyes misting over. "I wonder what punishment would suit him best, feeding him to a hippogriff or drown him in a cauldron of bubotuber puss."

"Oh really, Ron," Hermione said. "Do you really think Malfoy's shrunk?"

"Yeah," Said Ron. "You weren't there. His robes were sitting there and he was gone. Nothing else could have happened to him."

"So what happened?" Hermione asked.

"Snape took another ten points off Gryffindor for no reason, then made us get back to cleaning the cauldron." Harry said grumpily. "The other three kept looking around for Malfoy on the floor. After a few minutes Crabbe and Goyle complained they were hungry and Snape allowed them to leave. Pansy kept looking, though."

"Yeah, and she was cooing things like 'Here little Draco'!" Said Ron mockingly, "I bet she'd love a tiny Malfoy, she'd think he was a cute doll or something." Hermione sniggered.

"We told Snape we were done and he made us leave." Harry said. "But he told us something else: if we told anyone what happened in this room he would see to it that we were really sorry indeed."

This time Hermione was genuinely surprised. "What!" She exclaimed.

"Yeah," Harry said. "I think I figured out why though. You see, Snape's already on thin ice for almost killing Neville when he forced him to test his own relaxing potion and he almost was poisoned, remember? Well, if the other teachers knew Snape was still putting the students at risk, Dumbledore would have to sack him."

"Ah," Said Hermione, understanding. "Even at risk of his favorite student."

"That Snape cares about nothing but himself." Ron said. "Hey, we should tell Dumbledore! Snape'll get the sack for good!"

"No!" Said Hermione a little to forcefully. Harry and Ron looked at her. "Er, I mean…Snape's a bad guy and all but…don't you think we should keep this our little secret for now?"

Harry and Ron continued to look at Hermione, not understanding.

"I mean," Hermione said, "Why don't you two go down there and try to see if you can find him yourselves? Why leave the fun for Pansy?"

Ron suddenly looked excited and looked from Hermione to Harry. "Great idea, Hermione, let's do it!"

"You two go ahead," Hermione said. "I've got loads of work to do."

Ron looked shocked. "You're putting homework over finding a shrunken Malfoy?"

"I'm really behind," Hermione said. "Look, if you find him you can tell me about it, but I can't really risk any time if you don't."

"Oh," Ron said. "Well, it's your loss Hermione. Don't worry, you'll get a crack at him if we find him."

Ron got up to leave, but Harry stopped him. "Ron," He said quietly, "Do you think it's really a safe idea to go snooping about the dungeons?"

"Harry, Snape's here at dinner. He won't be back down for at least another hour!" Ron said. Harry conceded, looking a little excited himself at the prospect of finding a tiny Malfoy.

"Well, I'm going off to study," Said Hermione, getting up.

"Well, alright, but I still think your mental!" Shouted Ron after her gleefully. Before Harry turned to leave, he shot a look at Hermione of clear puzzlement, as if he knew she wasn't being entirely honest with them.

Hermione left the great hall and started moving back towards the dormitory, a lot on her mind. She hated to send Harry and Ron off on a useless venture like that, but she needed to give herself some time alone with Malfoy.

Snape was on to her, Hermione just knew it. The way she left the room today was just too suspicious. Hermione feared that Snape would be on her at any moment. But she still had one weapon at her disposal: the secret that he had seriously endangered a student. With the knowledge that she held the power to get Snape sacked she felt satisfied.

Hermione rushed back up to her dormitory before anyone else had managed to return from dinner. She eagerly opened the door to her dormitory and said, "Oh dungbomb, I'm home!"

But the flask Hermione had contained Draco in was not on the table where she had put it.