The rest of the holiday progressed smoothly. Harry had finally been torn from the Mirror of Erised (backwards for desire! How could Hermione have been so stupid not to realise it?!) by Dumbledore himself, cautioning that he could waste away before it if he didn't leave. Apparently, the mirror only shifts and ebbs if the viewer doesn't know what they truly desire. So, Hermione spent the rest of the holiday wondering why they had such a dangerous artifact in the school and if she was broken. Who didn't know what they desired? Though their was a line of commonality. All she really craved was to be wanted. To be needed.
Hermione put it from her mind as she began with classes and her weekly exchanges with Hiro. The letters quickly returned to the only thing she could rely on as Harry and Ron continued to suspect her father, and her father's antagonism of the two hit an all time high, as if he knew they were on to him. The only thing outside of Hiro's letters that helped her pull through was her father lifting her detentions for the term on the condition she stay in the tower outside of class, meals and group (he really emphasized that bit) studying in the library.
"Start o' term and already hittin' the books?" Hagrid smiled with a massive arm clutching a book.
"Yeah," Harry jerked a thumb in Hermione's direction. "Rapunzel ("Bless you!" Ron said) here can't leave the tower unless it's here."
"Harry!" Hermione seethed. "We want to be prepared for exams, Hagrid. What're you up to?"
"Jus' a little bit o' readin' is all," Hagrid said, flummoxed. "You lot aren' still on tha' Flammel nonsense, are yea?"
Hermione brandished the batter copy of Goblin Rebellions of the Thirteenth Century. "Not exactly secrets of powerful objects or obscure wizards."
Harry shot a glance at Hermione that screamed 'he might help'. Did he not know that grown-ups were useless? Hermione longed for the days she could be so naive as to trust an adult.
"He was definitely hiding something," Harry closed his book.
"Let's look around and see what he was reading," Ron said.
Harry, Ron and Hermione had very different methods of searching for the book. Ron plucked books seemingly at Random from where Hagrid emerged, Hermione searched by likely topics and Harry met them somewhere in the middle. Plucking books from the section, combing the table of contents and reshelving before he pointed out exactly what all these books had in common.
"Caring for and breeding dragons," Harry whispered.
Hermione slapped her forehead. "Hagrid always loved dragons!"
"Relax, Hermione," Ron assured her. "It's illegal in Britain to keep dragons. And most are highly endangered."
"Wait," Harry whispered. "There are wild dragons in Britain?"
"Yeah, there's wild dragons everywhere." Ron said. "Charlie rescues and re-wilds dragons in Romania."
The three went to see Hagrid, Hermione glancing around for an owl or her father, happy that they seemed to both be better occupied, allowing Hermione to disappear between both boys.
"Hagrid!" Harry said when Hagrid opened the door, sending a wave of heat over them.
"Hermione isn' supposed to be here," Hagrid grumbled shooing them off. "You lookin' to get pulled ou'?"
"Hasn't stopped you before," Ron said. "And we know-"
"We know what you're up to," Harry whispered. "A dragon?"
Hagrid glanced around and ushered them into the broiling hut, sitting each of them down, Hermione perched herself on a barrell far from the window and close to the lit fireplace.
"That's a Norwegian Ridgeback egg!" Ron gasped before Hermione could at the sight of the egg sitting in the pot.
Hagrid explained everything, what he was reading, how he had to hatch the egg and why the hut was so damn hot. His little wooden hut had to be kept so hot, Hermione felt like he would set his home ablaze. Then she thought about what Ron said. Norwegian Ridgebacks were incredibly endangered. Keeping dragons were illegal...
"How'd you get the egg?" Hermione asked. "It's not like you could go to a legal menagerie..."
"Erm," Hagrid toyed with his black bushy beard, averting his eyes.
"Hagrid!" Hermione gasped. "What did you do?"
"Your father will have my head if he finds out I-"
"Hagrid," Ron cut him off. "If you don't tell us we'll find out. And you know how good we are at it."
A silence joined the smoke in choking the normally cozy hut's atmosphere, the three of them casting interrogating gazes on Hagrid, whose black eyes glistened either from smoke irritation or shame. Hermione came to his side and held his hand, looking into his eyes with an encouraging smile. "Your secret's safe with us. Please tell us?" She ignored the smoke as she put on her best 'baby unicorn' face.
"I won him in a match o'er at the Hogshead," he whispered. "Promise you won' tell anyone?"
"I'll do it," Severus volunteered to slack jaws in the staffroom.
"You hate Quidditch," McGonagall observed.
"And you said I have to get involved in extracurriculars," he reminded the stone-faced woman. "I'd sooner referee one of four matches in the year than waste my time with a club that no one will join."
"Don't be ridiculous, Severus," Professor Sprout said. "I'm sure someone would join..."
"If you don't want me to do it," Severus started leaning back in his chair. "We could always dispense with the mandate that teachers involve themselves with such nonsense. A number of teachers don't involve themselves with it as is."
His coworkers exchanged glances with each other, some with their lips pressed into hard frustrated lines, others wondering why they'd been involved in heading clubs to begin with. Some frusterated that the rules didn't apply equally to all. Quirrell was exempt, being his first year back in a long time, Binns headed a history club attended by no one, Trelawney made no effort and they all approved of anything that kept her from the students, and Severus had been exempt till Hermione started school. He was supposed to have involved himself long before now, but no one (save McGonagall) cared enough to remind him.
"Do we have a literature club?" Flitwick mused.
"After years of turning down proposals of Son of Hermes clubs we should not open that door," Severus muttered to agreements from the other teachers. It was not often he had been met with nods from his colleagues.
"If you're looking to cost Gryffindor their chance at the cup, Severus," McGonagall warned.
"Minerva," Dumbledore sighed peering knowingly over his glasses at him. "I'm certain Severus is only trying to meet his requirements. And wouldn't dream of purposefully rigging a match his daughter's house is in."
"Indeed," he sighed lazily. "If I wanted to give her another reason not to talk to me, I would be much more creative."
So volunteering to referee the next match didn't make him popular, but at least he could be certain Quirrell wouldn't try that stunt again. And if he did, Severus's counterspell would be much more effective as he was closer.
"It's hatching!" Hermione squealed. "Oh, but we have herbology! Ugh!"
"Hermione," Ron said. "When will we ever see a dragon hatch? We can do herbology any old time!"
"But what if we fall behind?" Hermione asked with a stomach churn. He is right though...
"We'll do the readings on our own," Harry assured her. "This is going to be fantastic!"
"Attendance..." Hermione bit her lip. "We've got to come up with some reason all three of us were gone...or my father..."
The three of them mused and before reaching a decision on how they could both be marked on the register and see the dragon hatched. All they had to do was adhere to their parts.
"Professor Sprout!" Hermione raised her hand interrupting her call of the register.
"Yes, dear?"
"I'm not feeling well, might I be excused?" she asked feigning weakness.
"Of course, dear," she nodded. "I'm sure your friends can help you catch up when they visit you after.. You can walk yourself right?"
"I don't know..." Hermione moaned. Nuclear option. She placed her head in one of the clay pots and made herself sick.
"Oh, oh dear," Sprout rushed to her side. "Come along..."
"Erm, Professor?" Harry said wrapping an arm around Hermione's shoulder. "Ron and I can take her. No need to stop the class, right?"
Hermione was certain if she lifted her head she would catch seventeen pairs of eyes glaring daggers at him.
"Both of you boys?" she asked.
"We'll get her looked after!" Ron said slinging one of her arms over his shoulders. "We'll see Neville for notes. Cheers!"
"I can't believe that worked!" Ron hissed in her ear as they got to Hagrid's hut.
"It's us!" Harry whispered and the three of them were ushered back into the sweltering hut.
Harry, Ron and Hermione craned their necks over the kettle to watch the fractures form in the stony egg. A tiny black claw picked its way out of the shell and an enormous lamp yellow eye stared at them. Hagrid cooed and urged the little dragon out. A black, scaly form slinked out of the egg and curled up cat like on the coals, staring at Hagrid to a "He knows his mummy!"
"Brilliant!" Harry and Ron gasped.
"He's adorable!" Hermione squeaked.
"Are you and Hagrid both mental?" Ron asked. "It's a firebreathing dragon."
"Norbert is a jus' a baby, Ron."
"But Ron is right..." Hermione sighed, her smile fading. "This isn't the best place for a growing dragon."
"Norbert is too young to go anywhere else. Look at him!"
He did look helpless, and Hermione was torn between knowing this was a terrible idea and wanting to hold him.
Harry, Ron and Hermione tried to convince Hagrid that he had to do what was best for him, but Hagrid being Hagird insisted that he loved the little dragon and would do anything for him, and sending him away was not for the best. Hermione wanted to make some comments on his feelings didn't matter if Norman didn't have room to breathe, but it wasn't Hagrid who needed to hear that.
Giving up, the three turned to leave spotting a pale, pointed face peering at them through the window.
"Get out of here!" Hagrid shouted at Malfoy and left Harry, Ron and Hermione wondering how they could fix it.
"Charlie?" Harry mused casting a meaningful look.
"Have you gone mad too, I'm Ron."
"No!" Harry said. "Charlie can take him, right?"
"All we have to do is keep Malfoy's mouth shut!"
"It's too late to write Charlie!" Ron huffed from the hospital bed.
Hermione's eyes fixed on Ron's green hand seeping puss and she hoped that the 'no questions' clause Pomfrey offered her father extended to him. It was obvious it was a dragon bite. Even worse, they now knew the reason for Malfoy's silence, and it was not the uneasy cease fire Hermione enjoyed with the Slytherins. He wanted to catch them in the act.
"I can't believe I so stupid as to leave the letter in that book!" he moaned.
"Think about it," Hermione said, not particularly believing it herself. "Malfoy will need proof, and he would have to tip off professors off in a way that doesn't suggest he kept it too himself."
"I'm not eaves dropping!" an exasperated voice announced behind her. "So you can save your breath, Potter."
Hermione turned to see none other than Pansy Parkinson clasping a book to her chest with one arm, her other hand grasping her arm. "You promised you would meet me at the library!"
"Right, sorry!" she turned back to Harry and Ron. "Sorry, guys, I-erm-I'll meet you in our common room, Harry. Feel better, Ron."
A quick pace to the library and Hermione and Pansy were pouring over books while whispering back and forth. Pansy's brown eyes combed over the library before leaning in.
"There have been no notices on our common room bulletin," she whispered. "But Professor Snape has agreed to referee the next Quidditch match. I haven't seen or heard anything else strange though."
Pansy wasn't the best eyes, but she was the only eyes Hermione could get in the Slytherin common room. Not that she thought her father would give away his scheme to his house, but she did think they were uniquely in position to see anything out of character. Like agreeing to referee a Quidditch match...Did he want to ensure he'd be able to kill Harry? He hated the sport. What other reason could he possibly have? Hermione had to tell Harry not to play. But how?
"My father hates Quidditch," she whispered back. "Did you find out why?"
Pansy shook her head. "All the upper years say so too. That weird boy O'Malley says it might because teachers have to take part in clubs and athletics."
"I see," Hermione mused before she dug two rolls of parchment out of her bag. "As promised."
"You have my hand writing down to a tee!" she said in amazement. "That McGonagall will die of shock when she reads this!"
Hermione bit her tongue, telling her that she would be fine if she just paid attention would do no good. She needed Pansy as eyes around the castle. Her father would never suspect her, and she turned no heads, where Harry, Ron, Fred and George would.
"I've also been tailing Quivering Quirrell," Pansy sighed bored. "You were right, he likes to spend a lot of time around the third-floor corridor. Keeps looking around, but I'm invisible to him. Professor Snape keeps close too, I don't know why. I'm sure you understand why I take off when he makes an appearance."
She did. Pansy was invisible to Quirrell, but not to the head of her house, and she would never keep out of sight.
"Though I'll give you this next piece of information for free since we're such good friends," both girls rolled their eyes. "Draco wants to alert McGonagall tonight about your little escapade. He's been bragging about how he'll finally get Potter expelled. Stay in the dormitory tonight. I think he might be able to."
"Tit for tat," Hermione whispered leaning in landing on a lie quickly. "We're not going anywhere. The whole dragon thing is just to get Malfoy in trouble. He won't be expelled, but detention and embarrassment will suffice. I got the idea from my favourite book."
"What book?"
"You know the scene in Son of Hermes where..." Hermione described the scene in detail and said that she'd forged Ron's letter from Charlie and that Ron was a willing sacrifice, applying a poison she'd swiped from her father's stores on his hand. All to get Malfoy in trouble. She was impressed with how her own story came together.
"Oh, Hermione," Pansy gave a surprising giggle. "I can't believe you! Naturally, I will have to tell Draco though."
"Poor Ron sacrificed so much," Hermione pouted.
"Oh, I'm leaving that bit out!" Pansy giggled again. "I won't be getting any more homework done if Professor Snape kills you!"
If they had more time, Hermione might have been able to work with Pansy's warning if she'd gotten it earlier. But at least they knew to keep their eyes out while they made their way to the astrology tower with a noisy crate between them. Out of habit Hermione ditched her shoes, but that didn't matter with Norbert ripping the head off his teddy and crying. I know there's a silencing spell! Why can't I remember it? The sleeping draught she dosed him with did nothing and she cursed their luck.
Suddenly there was a silence from the crate and Harry exchanged a grateful look with Hermione. Maybe it just took longer to act, maybe he tired himself out by raising hell, Hermione didn't care. The weight between them became much easier to manage and they were more assured as they crept around the corridors that they'd be safe.
"What did you think you were doing?!"
Hermione's heart paused in her chest, and the blanched look on Harry's face suggested his did the same. They were hidden under an invisibility cloak, but McGonagall stood before them, nostrils flaring and beady eyes glaring in a hairnet and dressing gown. But it wasn't them she was looking at. It seemed Pansy either didn't tell Malfoy or didn't convince him. It was Malfoy she snapped at. Not them.
She clung to his ear chastising him and dismissing out of hand his claims that Harry and Hermione were skulking around the school with a dragon. Hermione's heart nearly leapt for joy until McGonagall hissed: "We shall see Professor Snape about this!"
If he were up, they'd have to be extra careful. Hermione could hear his threats to pull her out, or his venom 'I asked you to keep yourself safe, but I'm just your father, what the hell do I know?'. Mounting dread replaced the glee as they climbed the tower. Until she saw Charlie and two others standing with him.
Charlie Weasley stood tall with broad shoulders and signature Weasley flaming red-hair, almost intentionally messy, blue eyes and freckles splashed over his face. He seemed very well put-together and regarded them with little shock when they threw off the cloak.
"Hello, Harry, Hermione," he nodded with a smile.
"We have him all set for travel," Harry said. "Thank you so much for this."
"No problem," he said. "I always did like Hagrid. I promise he'll be in good hands. You can tell him we'll be writing him so he doesn't have to worry."
Hermione grabbed the cloak and they covered themselves with it, creeping down the stairs with baited breath. Harry whispered to her a couple times, but instead, he saw her shaking hand holding out light with her wand. He picked up on the severity of the situation and the two made their way down in silence. Hermione turned her thoughts to getting Harry out of the match. She was so distracted that she bumped into a calf high furry creature tripping over it. She tried to catch herself, but fell to the ground at a pair of brown shoes underneath a lamp and a sneer.
Harry did something both very brave and stupid, throwing the cloak off and standing next to her, hiding the cloak behind him. Hermione stared at him in horror. Why sacrifice yourself? What are you planning? I'm not...worth it.
"We are in trouble, aren't we?" Filch sneered.
The two gulped facing each other and Hermione bit her lip as they followed Filch to McGonagall's office. McGonagall stood behind her desk, nostrils flaring opposite a shrinking Neville.
"Neville?" Hermione squeaked. "What-"
"He also fell for your cock and bull story about a dragon!" McGonagall spat. "What were you doing? 3AM in the astrology tower? Was it worth it?"
Hermione stared at her barefeet recalling the story she gave Pansy. McGonagall guessed it though, making Hermione's story fit if Pansy were ever asked. Hermione simply nodded, Harry's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates and he stared at her.
"I assume this was your idea, Potter?"
"It was mine!" Hermione squeaked. "I got the idea from a book I read. I, erm..." she turned to Neville. "I never meant for you to hear it. I'm so sorry!"
"I expected you to have more sense than this!" McGonagall huffed before turning to address them all. "You three will be joining Malfoy in detention and I'll be deducting fifty points from each of you for your foolishness. And I will be speaking to your father about this!"
All because she couldn't be bothered looking where she was going! How could she have been so stupid?! Hermione would be pulled out of classes for tripping over a damn cat! Her stomach churned and she dug her nails into her hands trying not to think about it. Tripping over Mrs. Norris! The only thing worse would be if they forgot the damn cloak, which Harry never would have! If Harry handled it by himself, she was certain nothing would have happened. This was all her fault.