Blaise was of the opinion that Susan Bones was a risky person to include in the coven.
"Her Aunt works in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," Blaise told her. "And she holds a seat on the Wizengamot, and she has a lot of sway there. We barely know anything about Susan; what's to say she won't go tattling to her Aunt about everything we do?"
"Hufflepuffs are supposed to be loyal," Hermione argued. "If we formally inducted her, she'd be loyal to us."
"Over her loyalty to her family?" Blaise scoffed. "Over her loyalty to the law?"
"But what if it was?" Hermione pushed. "If we could win her loyalty so she stood with us first, would you be as worried?"
Blaise groused a bit, considering.
"If we knew we could fully trust her, she'd be a smart person to pick," he conceded. "She could use her aunt's leverage for us, instead of against us. And it'd give us a person in every house at Hogwarts, so we'd always know what's going on."
Blaise agreed to go around and get the opinions of the others with her, seeing as she still wasn't allowed to walk around on her own (to Hermione's constant frustration).
Though once they got to Gryffindor tower, Harry didn't have much of an opinion.
"Susan's nice, and she's helpful in Herbology," he said. "She's a lot more outgoing now that she got her glasses. I think she was more shy before – maybe because she couldn't see?"
Hermione didn't bother to correct him on the purpose of Susan's glasses, but thanked him for his opinion nonetheless.
"Susan's aura is swirly and strong," Luna said, when Hermione sought her out. "She is very straightforward, and she is fully committed her sense of morals and her code of what to follow."
"What code is that?" Hermione asked.
Luna shrugged. "The code of magic? Maybe her family's own magic and traditionalism. You would have to ask her for more."
Hermione grumbled, thanked Luna, and left the tower, taking Blaise with her.
"Your own aura's attracting Nargles like mad," Luna called after her. "You need to repair the splotches in it while you still can."
Hermione hadn't the slightest idea what that meant, and she couldn't be bothered to care.
"We have until the end of the year to find another person for the coven, right?" Blaise said, as they left Ravenclaw to walk back down to the dungeons. "Or at least until Luna 'grows up' or whatever. What's the hurry now?"
"I want to have everyone set now," Hermione said. "I don't like leaving projects open, unfinished. It makes me anxious. I want to figure it out and have everything ready to go once everyone's ready."
"If Susan did join, would we do the snake ritual again?" Blaise asked curiously. "It hasn't helped much in figuring out the monster or the Heir, but it'd be kind of mean to leave the last person in the coven out, you know?"
"Probably," Hermione said, shrugging. "We'd have to try and see if another snake is willing to go for it. Or pick another animal, and we all then speak that."
This led to them wondering what other animal would be good to pick, debating if Susan would want to be able to talk to badgers.
As was fast becoming habit, Hermione opted to consult Tom to see what he thought of the idea.
She was still trying to get him to open up to her about what the monster in the Chamber of Secrets was, the last piece of the puzzle she needed. So far, she'd had little luck, but the more she asked Tom for advice, appearing to 'consult' him, the more he gradually opened in up turn. Hermione still held out hope that she'd be able to figure the entire thing out herself, presenting the answer to all the school's woes to Snape like an answer to Cluedo: It was the Evil Diary in the Chamber of Secrets in the Girls Bathroom with the [Evil serpent?].
It was a fun fantasy, to imagine solving it and saving the school, the resulting shock on Dumbledore's face and Snape's respectful look, the ensuing admiration of her classmates...
She just needed this one piece left: what the monster was.
Hopefully, with Hermione regularly asking Tom for advice, he'd open up to her about it soon.
That was the plan, anyway.
Tom approved of Susan as the fifth member of her coven, but only if Hermione could secure her loyalty.
She would be an asset to your group, especially if she grew up watching her own mother cast with a coven. She respects old magic, you would have her loyalty through her debt bond, and she ranks high in your class amongst your peers.
I'm just worried because I don't really know her, Hermione wrote. It's weird. How do you become friends with someone on purpose?
Start talking to her more regularly, Tom suggested. Let commonalities build a connection between you, and if she's a good fit, the friendship will come.
That was unusually good advice, given it came from a megalomaniacal sociopath.
That's hard to do when I'm not allowed to go and meet with anyone anywhere, Hermione complained to Tom. This stupid Heir of Slytherin business and monster attacking people is ruining everything.
And finally, finally, Tom took the bait.
The Chamber of Secrets was opened my year of school, too, he wrote. Hermione watched the next words ooze out, anxiously bouncing her leg. I can show you, if you like.
Hermione paused.
What do you mean? she finally asked.
I can show you. I can take you back to the memory of the day the perpetrator was caught; it's preserved in the diary.
Hermione didn't trust that for a second, and she was not impulsive or stupid enough to consent to an evil book doing anything with her memory or her mind.
That's not necessary, she finally wrote. I'm aware of whom the incidents were pinned on last time; I'm aware you caught him as well. But it's not him this time, and I severely doubt it was him the last; he was merely a convenient scapegoat to use to allow the panic to subside.
There was a long pause after her words sank in, before new words oozed out.
You continue to impress me, Hermione, Tom responded, and she snorted, watching as more words came out. What makes you so sure it wasn't him?
"I'm not an idiot," Hermione snapped at the diary, giving it a dark look. With a grumbling sigh, she resumed writing.
Acromantula venom doesn't work that way, and Hagrid has absolutely no motive to attack anyone. Whomever opened the Chamber of Secrets originally had a very specific plan they followed, and a similar plan is being followed now.
And what plan is that? Tom inquired.
Only Muggleborns were attacked last time, and nearly everyone this time has been a Muggleborn as well. Ink splattered on her hand as she wrote, trying to hold back her annoyance. I understand why, in theory – the Heir thought they were fulfilling Slytherin's legacy by getting rid of the Muggleborns – but I think the Heir didn't fully think through the implications of their actions or what Slytherin's concerns with Muggleborns actually were.
There was a pause, and Hermione smirked.
"Go ahead," she told the diary, snorting. "Tell me you're the Heir of Slytherin and I couldn't possibly know more than you."
What do you think Slytherin's true concerns were? Tom responded, and Hermione noted he was avoiding the part where she'd insulted the Heir.
With a smirk, she replied.
When Slytherin taught at the school, there was no Statute of Secrecy, she responded. Slytherin's concern regarding Muggleborns was most likely their connection to their families. I suspect that when Muggleborns would go home for the summer, some of their families would stone them or burn them, decrying them as witches.
Hermione kept writing, not giving Tom a chance to respond.
Slytherin never said anything in any of his writings about Muggleborns having less magic, or of them being 'lesser'. He wrote about the danger they presented, and how including them risked the others. It wasn't an issue over their magic, which is as valid and true as anyone else's – it was the concern their parents would form a mob, storm the school, and try to slaughter them all.
She sat back, waiting. It took a while for Tom's response to come through.
I've never thought of it that way, he admitted. You make a good point. You've researched this?
I read all I could on Slytherin when the Chamber was first opened, trying to figure out who could be the Heir, Hermione told him. No one's ever considered Slytherin's behavior from a safety point of view. It's blood purists who look at it to find an excuse for their prejudice. They see what they want to see.
Blood purists are quick to judge and condemn, Tom commented. I had enough run-ins with them in my early school years to know.
They like to feel superior, Hermione wrote back.
Tom seemed amused. But who doesn't?
Everyone might like the feeling of being special, of being better, but you have to earn it for it to mean anything, Hermione argued. If you work at your magic and rank above everyone else in the class, then you are better at magic, and you have the facts to back it up. Claiming superiority on some arbitrary facet of one's conception and lineage is foolish and delusional.
You are very interesting, Hermione Granger, Tom wrote back. I find I agree with rather more of your points than I thought.
Hermione scoffed.
"Yeah, I bet you do," she told the diary. "I bet that a school girl is going to completely change Voldemort's mind on genocide."
Hermione was at least amused that Tom couldn't actually reply with his real feelings – he clearly knew she'd run and not trust the diary anymore if he told her he supported the blood purist agenda and advocated genocide of Muggleborns.
If she had to fake it when writing in the diary, at least he did too.