"I still don't see why we couldn't just ask Snape," Theo complained as they walked to class.

"We need to give Professor Snape plausible deniability," Hermione argued.

"If you insist…" Theo sniffed. "If this doesn't work, though, we're doing it my way this afternoon."

"It'll work," Hermione assured him, tossing her hair. "Just watch."

Defense Against the Dark Arts was a joke, as usual. Hermione got a sort of perverse enjoyment out of watching Harry act like a werewolf. She'd asked him to go along with Lockhart today, but neither of them had expected he'd have to get down on all fours and howl.

She winced as Lockhart physically pounced on Harry, holding him down and instructing him to "moan piteously", but luckily class ended shortly thereafter.

"Homework – compose a poem about my defeat of the Wagga Wagga Werewolf! Signed copies of Magical Me to the author of the best one!"

"We already had to buy that book," Ron groused, helping Harry to his feet and out of the room. "What's the point in winning another one?"

Harry gave Hermione an annoyed, resigned look as he hobbled from the room, and Hermione shot him a sheepish, grateful smile. She lingered as the classroom emptied out, Theo standing in the back of the room, arms folded.

"Err – Professor Lockhart?" Hermione said. She attempted to sound nervous and breathless – flattering his celebrity would only work in her favor. "I wanted to – to get this book out of the library. Just for background reading." She held out a piece of paper. "But the thing is, it's in the Restricted Section of the library, so I need a teacher to sign for it – I'm sure it would help me understand what you say in Gadding with Ghouls about slow-acting venoms–"

"Ah, Gadding with Ghouls!" Lockhart said, taking the slip of parchment from Hermione and offering her a wide grin. "Possibly my very favorite book. You enjoyed it?"

"Oh, yes," Hermione enthused, wracking her brain for details. "So clever, the way you trapped that last one with – err – with a tea strainer—"

"Well, I'm sure no one will mind me giving the best student of the year a little extra help," he said warmly, pulling out an enormous peacock quill. He scrawled an enormous loopy signature on the note and handed it back to Hermione. "I look forward to seeing your poem!"

In the hallway, Hermione shot Theo a smug look.

"I can't believe it," Theo said. "He didn't even look at the book you wanted."

"Did you think he would care what it was?" Hermione said, smirking. "It was an opportunity for him to sign something."

Even Theo cracked a smirk at that.

Madam Pince looked at Hermione suspiciously when she approached. Hermione offered her the note wordlessly, and the librarian took the note and examined it, holding it up to the light as if detecting a forgery. The note apparently passed the test, and she stalked away into the Restricted Section, returning a few minutes later carrying a large and moldy-looking book.

"The older students use that one from time to time," Madam Pince informed her, fixing her piercing eyes on Hermione. "No renewing that one for months on end this time, got it?"

Hermione flushed. "I understand."

She and Theo retreated to the dungeons before finally opening the book in the common room, taking advantage of the break before Potions in the afternoon. Draco, Blaise, and Tracey wandered over, curious.

"You got Most Potente Potions?" Tracey said, impressed. "Really?"

Theo snorted. "Lockhart would sign anything that stood still long enough."

"Some of these look incredibly nasty," Blaise remarked, looking at the illustrations as Hermione paged through. "Is that man inside out?"

"Found it," Hermione said, stopping on the page headed The Polyjuice Potion. It was decorated with drawings of people halfway through transforming into other people, their faces grotesque and twisted with agony. "This looks complicated…"

"Powdered horn of a bicorn? Shredded boomslang skin?" Theo looked grim. "That's not going to be easy to get."

"Snape probably has it in his private stores," Draco remarked. "We could ask him."

"Yes, and tell him what, Draco?" Hermione said, raising an eyebrow. "'Please, sir, give us these very rare and expensive ingredients without asking any questions'?"

Draco flushed and muttered something under his breath, and Hermione turned back to the book.

"This'll take about a month," she estimated. "We'll need fluxweed picked on the full moon and we'll have to stew the lacewing flies for twenty-one days."

"Will Luna be okay for that long?" Tracey said, uneasy.

"We'll make sure she's okay," Blaise assured her. "This is just for the intimidating overkill afterwards."

Tracey winced but sighed. "Alright."

"Let me borrow this," Draco said, tugging the book toward himself. "I'll give it back after class."

Hermione shrugged. "Be my guest."

Potions came later in the afternoon. Hermione and Theo spent the rest of the break searching for a home base of operations. They had found an abandoned Potions classroom deep in the dungeons they could use to brew in if they set up the right privacy spells, which they were quietly arguing about as they walked to class.

"It would be the most secure!" Hermione argued. "No one unauthorized could enter at all, then!"

"I would rather us be caught brewing a forbidden potion than caught using forbidden blood magic!" Theo hissed. "Are you mad?"

Hermione sniffed. "It's not forbidden. It's just… extremely looked down upon."

"So is the potion," Theo pointed out. "It's not forbidden. It's just not expected for second years to try and brew it."

Hermione made a face but let him have the point.

Potions class itself was unusual. Snape was having them brew an odd, unnamed potion that seemed, from Hermione's assessment, like it would be best used as a sort of magical torch fuel. As a result, the potions were all extremely incendiary, and it seemed like the smallest of deviations caused fires and explosions. There were several during the class, mostly on the Gryffindor side of the room, and Theo and Hermione watched with astonishment as Snape swept around them, making cutting and cruel remarks.

"Why'd he assign this potion?" Hermione wanted to know. "It isn't even in the book."

"He's enjoying this," Theo said quietly. "Watch his eyes when he scolds the next one."

Hermione watched as Snape descended on Seamus and Dean with relish, his eyes glittering. As he looked away, he shot a dark glance back at another Gryffindor table, and realization struck Hermione.

"It's Quidditch tomorrow," Hermione said, eyes wide. "He's hoping Harry and Ron blow themselves up."

Incredibly, Theo began to laugh.

"Oh, that's devious," he said. "Make Potter unable to play because of poor school work? That's grand."

"Doesn't Slytherin already have incredible brooms that Lucius Malfoy bought or some such?" Hermione demanded. "Is jeopardizing everyone's health really necessary?"

"Necessary, no. Fun? Yes," Theo said, smirking. "And yes – Mr. Malfoy was very pleased when his son got on the team as seeker as a second year. He wasn't expecting him to succeed in the tryouts, and Draco had apparently made a bet with him to outfit the entire team if he got on."

"A bet? Hermione frowned. "What did Draco risk in the bet?"

Theo cast her a sideways glance. "Does it matter? He won, after all."

Hermione gnawed her lip but let the matter rest.

When class finally ended, it was to great sighs of relief. Everyone began cleaning out their cauldrons and putting them away, many students' robes stained with the results of their exploded potions.

"Professor Snape? Do you have a moment?"

Hermione glanced up from putting away her potions kit to see Draco at the front of the room. Curious, she moved to the supply closet, ostensibly putting away extra supplies, but putting herself into prime eavesdropping location.

"Yes, Mister Malfoy?"

Draco lowered his voice, and Hermione could only just catch it over the bustle of the classroom.

"I got this in a letter from my father," he said quietly. "He said to give it to you, and you'd be able to provide me with the necessary things."

Hermione peeked between the hinges of the supply closet door to see Draco hand Snape a piece of parchment. Snape scanned it and looked up at Draco sharply.

"Lucius Malfoy sent this to you to give to me?" he said. "Instead of sending it to me directly?"

"He doesn't trust your mail." Draco shrugged, uneasy. "I think he thinks Dumbledore is watching who sends you owls."

Snape gave Draco a long-searching look, before striding away in a billow of robes. Draco let out a breath of relief, his body releasing a bundle of bound-up tension, and he leaned slightly on Snape's desk as he waited. Hermione waited another moment to see if Snape returned, but he did not, and she made her way back to her desk to finish cleaning up and pack up her bag.

Draco was still lingering by Snape's desk as she left, curiosity mounting. Theo was waiting for her, one eyebrow raised. Hermione filled him in quietly as they walked back to the Slytherin common room.

"A letter from his father?" Theo said, contemplating. "It's possible. Lucius Malfoy's distrust of Dumbledore is legendary. I wonder why now, though?"

"You don't think…" Hermione bit her lip. "You don't think it has anything to do with what all's been going on, do you?"

"With the Heir of Slytherin, you mean?" Theo looked at her sideways. "The last time the Chamber was opened, it was long before Lucius' time at Hogwarts."

"That's not exactly an answer," Hermione pointed out, and Theo shrugged.

"I don't exactly know an answer, Hermione," he told her pointedly. "Your observations are probably not dissimilar to my own."

Draco still had Most Potente Potions, so Hermione and Theo contented themselves with arguing over a way to protect their abandoned classroom. They finally agreed on a strong Notice-Me-Not charm. Theo was confident in his ability to bribe an older Slytherin into casting it for him without asking questions, and he'd have them key both their wands into the charm so it wouldn't affect him or Hermione.

They were just discussing who was going to be the one to sneak out after curfew to pick the fluxweed when Draco loudly returned to the Common Room, holding a bundle wrapped tightly in white cloth, his eyes bright and smug.

"There," he said with satisfaction, setting the bundle dramatically on the table. "Look."

Giving him a skeptical look, Hermione carefully opened the bundle, not sure what to expect. But nothing jumped out at her – it was just a bunch of potions ingredients: knotgrass, leeches, fluxweed, lacewing flies…

"Oh, you're brilliant," Hermione breathed, holding up a glass container of carefully-measured boomslang skin. "Brilliant, Draco."

Draco flushed, pleased, and Theo began to laugh.

"You got Snape to believe your father needed all these things?" he asked. "How did you forge a letter from Lucius?"

"Dictation quill," Draco said, smirking. "My father would never leave his handwriting on anything that might be potentially incriminating, and Snape knows it."

"This is brilliant," Hermione said, examining the powdered bicorn horn. "We can get started right away, now – no need to wait to pluck fluxweed after-hours."

"I thought you didn't think asking Snape would work," Draco said slyly, and Hermione laughed.

"I didn't," she said. "I didn't think of asking for someone else as a ways to get what we needed."

"Ah, Hermione," Draco said, smirking, his eyes alight. "You're powerful and clever, but you have a lot to learn still about Slytherin cunning."

Hermione rolled her eyes, but she offered him a slight half-smirk.

"I suppose I do," she admitted. "I suppose I do."