Hermione went to breakfast with Blaise the next morning, quietly discussing their tentative plans for their first true coven ritual on the way and over toast and jam. The babble of the normal morning conversation comfortably drowned them out to eavesdroppers.

"Are you sure we can do it?" Blaise asked, his voice low. "This sort of magic, Hermione – bad things happen to covens who try to do too much. It's one of the reasons they died out."

"I'm sure," Hermione murmured. "Honestly, I think we'd have the power to do it now, even without the coven bond. No – I'm more worried about potential replacements."

Blaise blinked. "That's – I never considered that." He smirked. "I never really logically considered the possible consequences of this."

"I don't trust Dumbledore," Hermione murmured. "Even if we pull this off and it goes as planned…"

"No, I see your point entirely. The situation could very well end up worse." Blaise grimaced. "Do you have a plan?"

"Not yet," Hermione confessed. "Only the vaguest beginnings of one, and it's probably really bad—"

"Attack!"

Hermione cut herself off, turning to see one of the prefects running into the room. It was someone from Hufflepuff, and she was screaming, nearly hysterical.

"Professor Burbage!" she screamed. "She—she's been Petrified! Just outside in the Entrance Hall!"

There was an immediate uproar.

Students screamed and leapt to their feet, panicking. Prefects yelled for order, to no avail. The professors hurried to try and keep students from leaving and going into the Entrance Hall, but they had been on the other side of the room from the great double doors, and students were streaming out to see the evidence of the attack or flee.

Hermione was frozen, her mind racing.

An attack?

How could there be an attack already? She had lost the diary less than a week ago!

Blaise was saying something to her, Hermione thought, but the sound of the room was like she was underwater. She couldn't make out what he was saying, but her eyes caught Luna's, which had a odd spark to them.

Luna tilted her head and raised an eyebrow, giving her a small grin, and understanding slammed into Hermione.

After all, nothing had changed…

Her hearing abruptly returned to her, and Hermione leapt to her feet.

"Blaise, stay safe," she directed him. "Luna!"

"Present," Luna said cheerfully from her side. Hermione jumped, startled. She had no idea how Luna had come over so quickly.

Hermione gave Luna a long look, before pulling out her wand.

"Come on," she said. "Let's go."

Hermione led the way, both she and Luna pushing and twisting through the crush of students stampeding from the Great Hall. After escaping, Hermione hesitated only a moment before taking off for Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

The bathroom was surprisingly clean, without any flooding around. The mirrors had been fixed, as had the stalls and toilets, and the only abnormal things about the bathroom was Moaning Myrtle floating above the sinks in the center of the room, and a long, dirty smear on the ground on the right side that seemed to come out from under the sink and lead to the door.

"Oooo, you just missed her," Myrtle cackled. "She panicked. You'll have to hurry to catch her, if you can."

Hermione didn't pause and took off, taking the stairs toward Gryffindor tower two or three at a time. Luna panted next to her, running after her on shorter legs, but Hermione didn't dare slow down.

She intercepted Ginny at the landing between the fourth and fifth floors, Ginny running up another staircase, and Hermione veered to purposefully intersect Ginny. She crashed into her, making Ginny yelp, but Hermione was shoving her against the wall and pinning her shoulders against it before Ginny could make a move.

"What were you thinking?" Hermione demanded. "What were you thinking, Ginny? I thought you gave this to me to handle!"

Ginny's eyes were large and afraid, and her bottom lip wobbled.

"I—I thought—you just had it so long, and I still saw you with it," she babbled. "I thought you were going to destroy it! So I thought—I thought he must have gotten to you too! And—and better I have it, when I have more experience with it, than you have it, especially when you're a Slytherin—"

"You are an idiot," Hermione hissed, furious. "I had everything under control. And now you've attacked a teacher!"

Ginny began to cry. "I didn't mean to—I thought I would be strong enough to not use it! But—Tom was so worried about me, worried about where I'd been, and I just—"

Hermione took a step back from Ginny and folded her arms, letting the younger girl slump to the floor, crying into her knees.

"Give me the diary," Hermione demanded. "Do not steal it back, do you understand me? I am going to fix this mess, but it will take time. Do you understand?"

Weeping, Ginny handed the diary over to Hermione, who took it with disgust. She slipped it into her school bag, jinxing it with a mild sticking charm to make sure it couldn't fall out.

"Luna, let's go," she said, but Luna tilted her head.

"We'd be leaving Ginny alone," Luna pointed out. "She's not allowed to go anywhere alone."

Hermione nearly growled. "That's her problem, isn't it?"

Luna looked at Hermione with wide, guileless eyes. "Are you blaming her for this?"

"She's the one who decided all on her own to steal this back!" Hermione said, holding up the diary and shaking it. "No one manipulated her into doing that!"

Luna just blinked at her.

"Why does your journal matter in the slightest?" she asked.

Hermione wanted to scream.

"Ginny," she snapped. "Get up."

Still sniffling and crying, Ginny moved, slipping on the floor, and with disgust, Hermione offered her a hand to help her to her feet.

"You might want to Scourgify your shoes," Hermione advised, "especially if you've got sewer muck on them."

"I don't know what I have on them!" Ginny wailed. "I don't know where I was!"

Hermione gave Luna a look, and Luna went to Ginny's side to comfort her.

"It will be okay, Ginny," Luna told her, petting her head and hugging her. "No one will know. It won't happen to you again. You will be okay."

Hermione rather thought that was a matter of opinion, as she led the way for their little trio, stomping down the stairs. If Hermione didn't manage to hold her temper, Ginny would most certainly not be okay.

Students were being herded and escorted to their common rooms when Hermione, Luna, and Ginny reached the Great Hall once again. Hermione was shocked to see that the Ministry had arrived already, in Cornelius Fudge with a small entourage, and from her vantage point on the stairs, she saw a flash of long, platinum blond hair before it departed, followed by the Minister and Dumbledore.

Blaise and Draco had all the details in the common room.

"There were owls in the breakfast hall when the Hufflepuff came running in screaming about the attack," Blaise said. "I bet multiple people immediately owled their parents or the Ministry about the new attack."

Hermione glanced at Draco. "Did you owl your father?"

"My father was worried about me," Draco told her, defensive. "Before I came back after break, he gave me a card. He said that if anyone else was attacked, to write their name on the card and tear it in half, and he would come up to the school immediately to help."

"Yeah, but he didn't exactly help, did he?" Tracey cut in, arriving with a haughty air. "All he's done is make the problem worse."

"Worse?" Draco scowled. "How's that even possible? It's not like he's been going around Petrifying people."

"That's a matter of opinion," Tracey sniffed. "He and the Board of Governors voted on an Order of Suspension for Dumbledore, and they've taken Dumbledore away. They feel he's not doing enough to stop the attacks."

Draco looked torn.

"Well, he hasn't," he argued. "They're still happening, aren't they?"

"And who's going to manage to do any better?" Tracey demanded. "Will it be any better with McGonagall in charge?"

The two continued arguing. Hermione took a few steps back from the fight, considering, and Blaise looked at her.

"That is the face of a girl with a plan," he said, but Hermione shook her head.

"This is the face of a girl figuring out a plan," she countered. "This is what Mr. Malfoy was maneuvering for all along, wasn't it?"

Blaise raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Let's presume, for a moment, that Mr. Malfoy is somehow behind this entire scheme," Hermione said. Blaise opened his mouth, his eyes going wide, but Hermione cut him off. "No, we're presuming – I'm not saying he is, I'm saying we're going to discuss the situation with an assumption. We're not trying to validate the assumption itself."

"…for now." Blaise gave her a very sharp look.

Hermione shrugged. "Fine by me."

She glanced over at Tracey and Draco, who were still arguing, and the argument had grown. Millie had joined Tracey's side, demanding to know how many governors' families Lucius Malfoy had to threaten to get their signatures, with Theo on Draco's side, fiercely arguing that Dumbledore was the worst thing that had ever happened to Hogwarts.

"Lucius Malfoy does not like Dumbledore," Hermione said. "Is it fair to say that he would likely risk the lives of Muggleborn students in order to bring down Dumbledore?"

Blaise scoffed.

"He'd likely consider it a bonus," he said. "Lucius Malfoy is an extreme blood purist. The only thing he hates more than Muggleborns are blood-traitors."

A flash of insight hit Hermione. "Like, say, the Weasleys?"

Blaise gave her a slow look.

"Like the Weasleys," he confirmed. "Though, I still think there's some kind of blood feud there."

"A blood feud," Hermione said conversationally, watching Tracey accuse Theo of secretly praying to the Heir at night. "You mentioned that to me once before, do you remember? At Flourish and Blotts?"

"When Mr. Weasley physically assaulted Lucius Malfoy?" Blaise said. "Probably. I don't exactly recall."

Hermione's smile was grim. "You did."

They watched the argument elevate to a screaming match, Tracey yelling that Draco was a stuck-up blood purist asshole, Draco yelling right back and accusing Tracey's mother of being a whore for muggle men and spreading her legs for anyone who wallowed in the dirt.

Hermione and Blaise watched as Snape stormed toward both of them, emerging as if from the shadows, other students who had been avidly watching the fight instinctively drawing away. There was fury and real anger in his eyes, not just frustration, and Hermione didn't envy either of them the trouble they were in.

"So what now?" Blaise asked Hermione, his eyes still on Snape demanding silence.

"I imagine the security measures will get even worse," Hermione said. "If I had to guess, I bet there will be a stricter curfew, and teachers will have to escort us from class to class."

Blaise made a face. "Not like that's going to be much use, is it? The Muggle Studies teacher already got attacked today."

Hermione shrugged. "Not like any of the security measures are particularly good at actually protecting people though, is it?"

Blaise conceded with a grimace as Tracey and Draco both lost 20 points for Slytherin and were assigned detention with Filch that night. Hermione watched on, drumming her fingers on her lips as her mind brainstormed.

There were a lot of moving parts going on, here. If Hermione was going to really pull this off and fix everything, she'd have to make sure not to miss anything as she went about her plans.