Hermione Granger

Unaware of the terrible events taking place in one of Hogwarts' bathrooms, Hermione Granger was carrying out her part of the plan.

She found Michael Brown next to the Charms classroom, talking to some of his classmates. She wasn't able to hear much, but he was apparently trying to convince his peers that the books provided by the school to less fortunate students actually contained deliberately wrong information to sabotage the "undesirables", making them less likely to graduate. On any other day Hermione would have stormed in and exposed the absurdity of his words, but unfortunately she had something more important to do at the moment.

Like exposing his true nature by taking on the appearance of Luna Lovegood and forcing him to confess his crimes. That was why she was currently standing in the hallway in Lovegood's body, waiting for the crowd around Brown to disappear so she could engage him in conversation.

To be entirely honest, Hermione had her doubts about this plan. Although she thought she would be able to play Lovegood convincingly, the real problem lay in how she obtained her hair. Who in their right mind would voluntarily give their hair to literal strangers, no questions asked?! It just didn't make sense! And the worst part was that it was actually Lovegood's hair! Hermione would understand the girl playing a prank on her by giving her some fake hair, but she had used one of Lovegood's hairs beforehand and it worked! She turned into Lovegood!

She wasn't quite sure what to think about Lovegood's actions. Was it some kind of trap? Were Lovegood and Brown working together against her, deliberately trying to trick her? Or was Luna actually plotting against Brown, using Hermione to expose Brown as the charlatan that he was? Hermione had no idea, but she was growing increasingly worried that the real motives behind Lovegood's actions would be far more irrational than that.

Not wanting to sink even deeper into the pits of madness, she decided to simply treat Lovegood's donation of her hair as a stroke of luck and not think too much about the delusional girl's motivations.

It was safer that way.

And even if there was some sinister reason behind Lovegood's actions, she really had no choice but to approach Brown. After all, she had already created some distraction for Lovegood (an anonymous letter about the location of something called "nurgle," whatever it was), so this was the perfect opportunity to question Brown without any distractions. Moreover, Harry and Ron had already gone to talk to Malfoy, so she didn't want to be the only one to come back empty-handed.

For this reason, she took a deep breath, preparing herself for the illogical nonsense to come, and seeing that the other students were leaving him, she approached Brown, hoping to have a nice little chat with him about recent petrifications and the value of academic integrity.

"Hello Michael. I've been looking for you," Hermione began, trying her best to recreate the strange mixture of serenity and wonder that Lovegood's voice contained during that damned lecture. She also tried to add some friendliness to her voice, despite how hard it was for her to even pretend to show affection to this fiend Brown.

Upon hearing her words Brown tensed and turned around to look at her in surprise, apparently not expecting to see Lovegood. He narrowed his eyes upon seeing her, staring intensely at Hermione for a few seconds, like he was searching for something.

She began to worry, fearing that he was able to see through her disguise, but at that moment Brown relaxed, giving Hermione a huge, friendly smile.

"Luna, I didn't expect to see you so soon" Brown replied, his voice quite cheerful. For some reason he looked around, seemingly looking for something, but then he looked at Hermione again, focusing on her completely "Did something happen?"

"No, nothing is wrong. I just wanted to talk with you" Hermione said, forcing herself to give Brown a friendly smile. Despite her personal opinion about the boy, she couldn't really allow herself to fail her mission because of that. She would act nice as long as necessary "Do you have some time?"

"Of course, let's go to our usual meeting place" Brown responded, a friendly smile still on his face.

It turned out that the "usual meeting place" was simply some dusty, abandoned classroom located in Hogwarts dungeons. Hermione supposed that Brown and Lovegood having their meetings there made sense, as it certainly suited their warped, dark minds. They were probably spending their entire days there, planning to corrupt the educational system while inhaling the unhealthy amount of dust collecting in the classroom, clouding their minds even further.

The classroom itself was not very impressive though, as it looked exactly like other unused classrooms scattered around Hogwarts, with discarded furniture taking up most of the usable space in the room and various worn-out books lying in the most random places, forgotten by the world. The light, coming from a small window partially obscured by several abandoned plant pots, barely illuminated the room, making the interior even more unpleasant. The only object that stood out was a huge old chest at the back of the room, and that was only because it wasn't as dusty as the rest of the things in there, looking relatively clean compared to the rest of the room. It also seemed to be Brown's target, as he approached it immediately after entering the room.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Michael asked while starting to rummage through the chest, clearly looking for something. "Do you mind if I look for something while we talk? It will be more efficient that way"

"I don't mind," Hermione replied. To be honest, it was actually more advantageous for her if Brown was busy with something, because he would be more likely to accidentally say something incriminating during the conversation "Actually, I want to talk to you about our next lecture."

"Oh? What do you mean? Do you have any suggestions about...there it is!" exclaimed Michael, pulling a long piece of rope out of the crate and looking at it carefully "Yes, it will come in handy I think...Ah, sorry, what were you saying? Something about a lecture?"

"...Yes, I actually have some ideas about that," stated Hermione, rather confused by Brown's enthusiasm. It was just a rope, so why was he so happy to find it? Still, she had more important things to do than wonder about some rope. She was in the process of interrogating her target, "Our first lecture was a huge success, so we need to do something impressive to top that, right? That's why I was thinking, why don't we collect evidence for our theories and show them to our audience? That would really draw them in, don't you think?"

While her main goal was to find out if Brown was the heir, she was also trying to stop his corrupting influence. Therefore, she was trying to make him reveal his sources to the public. She was sure that the students would stop listening to him once they found out that all his so-called "evidence" was completely non-existent, concocted in the minds of two deranged students. Then everything would return to normal. She just had to convince Brown to do so. The boy, however, did not seem to be listening carefully to her, as he was more focused on finding some other object inside the chest, having already put the rope aside.

"...That's a really good idea, we should totally do it...where is it? I know I put it together with the rope...Yes!" ignoring Hermione, Brown pulled out a pair of ear muffs, quite similar to the model used in Herbology class. Hermione was beginning to get quite irritated by Brown's behaviour. First the rope, and now this? Was this how Brown normally treated Lovegood? She was actually beginning to feel sorry for the girl. Unaware of Hermione's thoughts, Brown went to the window and, for some reason, began looking through the pots, "Do you have any other ideas?"

Hermione swallowed. She was about to ask the essential question, but she didn't know how Brown would react. Would he freak out? Would he be confused? Would he attack her? She didn't know, and unfortunately there was only one way to find out.

"...Well, we can also talk about the monster responsible for petrifying Mrs. Norris and Herbert Burke." replied Hermione nervously, doing her best to hold back the tremor in her voice. If her theory was true, and Michael Brown was the Slytherin heir, she had to be ready for a hostile reaction to her words. Despite her concerns, however, Brown did not seem to react negatively, instead calmly picking up one of the pots by the window and placing it on the table next to her, unbothered by her words. Not expecting to see a complete lack of reaction, Hermione decided to be a bit more direct, "I just thought it would be a good idea, given your intimate knowledge of the subject. Don't you agree?"

"The monster? That's actually quite an interesting idea. But can I ask you a question first?" asked Brown, looking directly at Hermione. His gaze was still friendly and warm, though there was something in his eyes that Hermione could not decipher. Nevertheless, she nodded, unsure of his intentions, but unwilling to blow her cover by disagreeing. Seeing this, Brown smiled and put on his earmuffs, ignoring her surprise. Making sure he put them on properly, he picked up the pot he had selected earlier and grabbed the plant inside. Hermione focused on the plant, wondering why it looked suspiciously familiar. After a few seconds she realized what she was seeing. Wasn't that..." My question is simple. Did you use the Polyjuice potion to impersonate Luna, or are you a metamorphmagus? You know what? Nevermind. I'll find out soon enough."

"Wha..." Before Hermione could answer, stunned by Brown's unexpected question, the boy pulled the plant out of the pot.

The screaming started.