Blaise's excitement when she approached him about joining her in a ritual was almost a palpable physical thing.

"What will we be doing?" he said eagerly, practically vibrating with energy. "When will we do it? I know the full moon is in a week, and we can—"

Hermione laughed.

"I have to figure out all the details first," she told him, amused. "But I don't think the phase of the moon will matter."

Harry looked relieved when Hermione approached him about trying a ritual.

"Anything to get my mind off of this Heir of Slytherin business," he said. "Did I tell you the Hufflepuffs are all thinking I'm planning to off Justin? Said I don't like Muggleborns because I don't like the muggles I live with…"

"I'm not sure how much this will help with getting your mind off of it," Hermione admitted. "It's to help figure out more about the Heir of Slytherin…"

"Even better," Harry said fiercely. "The sooner we figure out who it really is, the sooner I can clear my name."

Hermione spent the next few evenings in the Slytherin common room with a couple books, reading and researching to put together what little she already knew about the ritual she wanted to do and what other parts she would need to make sure the ritual worked. Blaise finally realized that nagging her about when they were going to do the ritual was making everything take longer, so he'd shooed everyone off from bothering her from the past couple days, which was a huge help.

She was just figuring out what the incantation they'd need would be when she was abruptly dropped into a sea of ice.

Cold consumed Hermione, choking her, and it took her a solid moment to realize she wasn't drowning or floundering — but somehow, she was in a pool of chillingly cold water. She was under the water, yet she could still breathe. There was a thick layer of ice above her head, within someone banging hard on the ice above — trying to break her out, perhaps…?

Curious, she swam closer to the surface, only to see a very familiar face with familiar black eyes trying to see through the ice to her, and realization crystallized in her brain.

A minute later, she was back in the Slytherin common room, reeling back and gasping loudly. It took her a long moment to realize she wasn't soaking wet, her hair wasn't dripping all over the table, and she could breathe just fine.

Blaise and Theo had raised their heads from their nearby chess game and were staring at her, both of them with wide eyes, but Hermione felt a hot flare of anger consume her.

"Blaise, watch my things," she directed, standing and grabbing her wand. A moment later and she had run out the door, racing down the dungeon corridors.

She skidded to a halt in front of a familiar office, and she pounded loudly on the door before forcing it open a moment later, darting inside and coming to a halt, chest heaving.

Both Draco and Snape looked very surprised to see her. Draco look somewhat taken aback by her appearance, but also somehow curious. Snape now looked only mildly annoyed.

"Miss Granger, your impatience for knowledge knows no bounds," he drawled. "As you can see, I am with another student right now—"

"Violating his mind?" Hermione cut in fiercely. "Legilimency is illegal if not consented to and unauthorized, Professor. And from Draco's expression, I severely doubt he consented to anything."

Snape sucked in his breath sharply, and Draco turned to look at Snape in shock. "Is that true? You're a Legilimens?"

Hermione had never seen the expression on Snape's face before. His eyes were glinting, and there was a tension there that was terrifying in its intensity. There was a gust of cold wind that sent the candle flames all fluttering, and a sharp jab from Snape's wand silently locked the door.

"And how, Miss Granger," Snape whispered, his eyes glittering, "do you know that?"

Hermione fought the urge to recoil from the professor. She often thought the lower Snape's voice got, the worse trouble you were in. She took a breath and steeled herself.

"You were trying to read Draco's mind," she said steadily. "I could tell."

"You could tell?" he repeated dangerously, but Draco frowned and looked up at her.

"I couldn't tell," he said. "I thought I was supposed to be able to tell when someone was trying to get in my head. How come you could tell when I couldn't?"

"Because you fell unconscious during the ritual," Hermione told him, keeping her eyes trained on Snape. "I had to seal both sides of the connection, both yours and mine. So now I'll know when either of us are under attack, and you'll know when neither of us are."

Draco sat back in his chair and scowled, but Hermione ignored him. It was his own damn fault, anyway.

"This was your little ritual?" Snape breathed. "You performed a ritual to detect Legilimency?"

"It was more for a sort of foreign-magic Occlumency shield," Hermione said. "I wasn't having much luck with meditation or studying Occlumency, and Draco agreed that he'd want his thoughts shielded from Dumbledore too—"

"You did this to hide your thoughts from the Headmaster?" Snape's voice was a more normal volume now, but sharp. "What have you so important to hide that you would do an untested ritual to protect it?"

Hermione tossed her head, shaking her curls.

"That," she said, "is for me to know, and no one else."

Snape's eyes gleamed in response.

"Draco," he said. "You are dismissed for now. We will continue this conversation later."

Draco glanced from Snape to Hermione.

"If it's all the same, I'd rather stay—"

"You are dismissed," Snape hissed, his eyes fierce, and Draco fled.

Snape fixed his eyes on Hermione next, and she fought the urge to flinch.

"Miss Granger," he breathed. "Sit."

Hermione sat.

She watched as Snape took a moment to visibly collect himself. Being discovered as a Legilimens had thrown him, she could tell, and she suspected learning what the secret ritual she and Draco had done hadn't made the shock any better. Snape settled back into himself, his back straightening and his breathing normalizing, before his eyes flickered open to meet Hermione's.

"Miss Granger," he said evenly. "You will explain."

Hermione attempted to raise an eyebrow. She ended up kind of winking with both of eyebrows going up at the same time, but she trusted her accompanying sneer would at least get her meaning across. She'd have to practice raising her eyebrow alone in the mirror before trying it again.

"Explain?" she said, haughty. "Explain what?"

"Let's start with why you felt the need to keep the Headmaster out of your thoughts," Snape said conversationally. "After that, we can address this secret ritual."

"I didn't want him in my head reading my mind," Hermione said flatly. "How is that an unreasonable thing to want?"

"It isn't," Snape said. "But it isn't something that worried you at all last year."

"I didn't know Dumbledore could read minds until this year," Hermione objected. "Theo told me after the Sorting Feast, after that weird remark Dumbledore made. And then Dumbledore summoned me to his office, and I just got so mad…"

"The Headmaster summoned you?" Snape repeated.

"Yes! And it was so unfair!" Hermione said vehemently. "He was being unfair and suspicious of Slytherins without justification, and he wanted me to stop being friends with Harry—"

"Miss Granger, stop." Snape's voice cracked like a whip. "Take a deep breath, settle your emotions, and start again." His expression was stern from across the desk. "I want to know the facts of what happened — not your emotional rant about it all."

Hermione paused and took a deep breath. Trying to settle herself, she met Snape's eyes.

"To truly explain it, I'll need to start earlier, this summer," she began, "when I helped rescue Harry."

Snape's eyes gleamed, but he remained silent.

Hermione told him all that had happened — how Harry had stopped writing back, how she'd discovered he was locked up in his room, and how she had gone with the Weasleys to break him free. She said how Dumbledore had heard from Harry that she had rescued him, and Dumbledore had called her to his office to chastise her.

"He relaxed as soon as I mentioned the Weasleys were involved," Hermione spat, "because then he knew Harry wasn't alone with a Slytherin corrupting him…"

She continued, detailing how Dumbledore had wanted her to promise not to interfere and to leave Harry to be tortured next time, to tell an adult and do nothing if something arose that threatened Harry at home again. By the time she finished her entire tale, Snape was pinching the bridge of his nose tightly.

"So let me get this straight," Snape said, closing his eyes briefly. "Over the summer, you, a twelve-year-old child, helped kidnapped another twelve-year-old child from his legal guardians—"

"I rescued him!" Hermione objected. "He wanted to come with us and escape!"

"—and then when the Headmaster asked you, a legal child, to not kidnap another legal child again, and to speak to an adult instead about any concerns, you refused to agree." Snape's eyes glittered. "Have I missed anything?"

Hermione's face flushed a hot red.

"It wasn't like that," she objected. "He relaxed as soon as I mentioned the precious Weasleys—"

"So the Headmaster being relieved that Potter, again, a legal child, had spent the summer with a safe wizarding family is discrimination?" Snape raised an eyebrow. "And him being relieved that Potter was at least with adult wizards who could provide some form of protection to him, instead of being kept defenseless in a mundane muggle house for weeks, is somehow discriminating against Slytherins?"

Hermione sat in her chair, arms folded, and glowered at the floor.

"…it wasn't like that in person," she said, scowling. "He doesn't like me because I'm in Slytherin and I'm Harry's friend. I could tell at the feast last year, when we won the House Cup."

"While it may be true that the Headmaster holds no love for Slytherin house and would prefer if Potter discontinued his association with you," Snape said, pinching the bridge of his nose tightly, "none of what the Headmaster requested of you was in any way unreasonable."

Hermione scowled, and Snape rolled his eyes with a sigh.

"…Nonetheless, what's done is done," he conceded. "I understand that you felt unjustly persecuted, regardless of whether you were or not. This made you want to shield your thoughts from the Headmaster?"

"Something like that," Hermione admitted, her mind flickering to the secret trunk under her bed. "I felt like he was kind of threatening to me – not that he threatened me, just sort of a looming threat — and I needed to do a ritual with Draco anyway, so it seemed efficient to handle both issues at once."

"You needed to do a ritual with young Malfoy?" Snape frowned. "That is a very specific choice of words, Miss Granger. What caused such a need?"

"Draco's not allowed to talk to me unless I'm seen as his equal, and I'm not, according to my blood," Hermione said shortly. "Draco said his father allowed it last year because we were both seam in the Slytherin Fallen Foe ritual, which meant Magic had acknowledged us as equals. If I wanted us to break the Fallen Foe ritual bind, I needed to do a different ritual for Magic to acknowledge us as equals again so he wouldn't keep getting in trouble."

Snape's eyebrows had gone up.

"Is that so?" he queried, and Hermione made a face.

"I wouldn't have agreed, except his father beats him for talking to those he deems 'lesser' as equals," she said. "I didn't want a classmate to be hurt because of me, not when I could prevent it."

An emotion flickered over Snape's face, but Hermione couldn't catch what it was.

"And so you did this ritual with young Malfoy?" he probed, and Hermione nodded.

"Yes — I combined a ritual for protection and a ritual for clarity of thought and some other bits to get what we needed," she explained. "The idea was to build a shield of magic in front of the others' thoughts. That way, when a Legilimens attempted to come through, we would become aware of the attempt from the 'banging' on the shield, as well as the foreign shield blocking off our thoughts." She made a face. "Draco put too much of his magic into making the shield he made for me — we had to match each other's magical output, and he wanted to show off that he was the stronger one. He wasn't, of course… so he passed out. I had to finish the ritual as best I could and run him to the Hospital Wing… but that's why I can feel people in his head as well as mine, now." She frowned. "At least, I think I'll be able to feel a Legilimens try and read my mind. I don't know if anybody's tried it yet, really."

Snape was pinching the bridge of his nose tightly again. Hermione got the feeling he did that when he was exasperated with her.

"Miss Granger," he began, sitting back up. "You do realize that ritual magic is finicky and dangerous?"

"Not if you know what you're doing," Hermione objected.

"You Frankensteined two rituals together, did you not?"

"I combined them to meld to a new purpose," Hermione shot back. "Ritual magic is all about guiding your intent and magic. If you're careful and you follow the underlying rules, it's not that hard."

Snape gave her a sharp look.

"Where is this ritual?" he wanted to know. "Show me what you did, and explain to me how you knew it was safe."

"Umm," Hermione said. "I don't have my copy anymore."

Snape's gaze was sharp and immediate.

"You don't have it anymore?" he demanded.

"No…" Hermione swallowed. "The— the ritual components were kind of pricey. Draco had to ask his father for help, and in exchange, we promised him a copy of the ritual, and I just gave him mine…"

Hermione braced herself for Snape's wrath, wincing, but it never came. Her eyes flickered open a moment later, puzzled, to find Snape staring at her.

Snape just stared at Hermione.

Stared and stared and stared.

Hermione bit her lip nervously. She'd never seen her professor do such a thing before. She fidgeted in her chair a bit, uncomfortable, but she stayed there, waiting for whatever was happening in Snape's mind to finish.

After nearly five full minutes, Snape shook his head slightly, his gaze refocusing on Hermione. This time, there was a pensive, calculating note to his eyes.

"Miss Granger," he said. "You have no idea what you have done."

Hermione winced.

"Sorry?" she ventured.

"On the contrary," Snape said, "what you have done may have saved us all."

Snape didn't explain that enigmatic remark, and Hermione didn't want to ask and risk his ire once more. Snape stood up, and with a wave of his wand, his shelves slid away, revealing his chalkboard.

"Miss Granger, will you please draw your ritual circle and explain to me what you did?" he requested, and Hermione was surprised by the politeness in his tone. "The fact that this previously untested ritual worked is fascinating to me."

Hermione gnawed on her lip.

"If I teach you how it works, you might be able to figure out a way to get around it," she objected, and Snape's eyes gleamed.

"And you have things to hide from me in your thoughts?"

"Reading someone's mind without them knowing and agreeing to it is a violation," Hermione argued. "If I teach you how I did the ritual, I want you to teach me real Occlumency instead."

She looked at him, her expression fierce, and Snape gave her a long, considering look.

"Agreed," he said finally. "Once all the fervor of the Heir of Slytherin business has died down, I will tutor you in Occlumency."

Hermione flushed with pleasure. Snape thought her capable enough to learn Occlumency, even at such a young age! Happy, she skipped to her feet and took the chalk, beginning to sketch out her ritual circle.

"So the triangles aim our intent, these circles protect us, these circles contain the components, and these veins channeled the magic and the energy…"

She explained what each part did as she went, detailing each step of the ritual they went through. Snape's expression remained neutral as she did so, though Hermione suspected there was a note of interest in his eyes.

"And this worked?" Snape wanted to know. "Exactly as intended?"

"If Draco hadn't mucked it up, yes, it would have," Hermione said. "Everything went perfectly."

"Fascinating," Snape murmured, stepping closer to the chalkboard. He ran a finger along the outside of the circle, examining. "And you came up with this yourself."

"Yes," Hermione answered, though it hadn't really sounded like a question. "I like rituals. I like the idea that if I want to do something, anything, I can figure out how to make it happen."

"Ritual magic is generally considered a field of great difficulty," Snape said, raising an eyebrow. "And yet, you took to it so easily?"

"It's not hard if you learn the underpinning elements," Hermione explained. "If you learn it by learning what each piece means and what does what, you can learn to assemble rituals as you go for what you need, instead of memorizing a huge list of already-created rituals just in case you need one."

Snape was still looking at her, an unreadable expression in his eyes.

"This is impressive," he said finally. "Very impressive, Miss Granger."

Hermione flushed. "Thank you, sir."

"No, thank you." He gave her a short bow. His eyes glittered, but his emphasis felt real. "This ritual does more than you know. Though you do not know why, I suspect I am in your debt."

Hermione gnawed on her lip as Snape straightened up.

"There is one thing, professor…"

"Oh?" Snape had circled around to behind his desk to sit down again. Hermione gathered her courage.

"Well, I like ritual magic, and I'm getting good at it," she said, "so I… umm… I…"

"What is it, Miss Granger?" Snape said. "Spit it out."

"I'm forming a coven," Hermione rushed out. "I've already got four members and we need at least five so I wondered if maybe you would want to be our fifth…?"

She winced, bracing herself for Snape's anger, but she got incredulity instead of fury.

"A coven?" he repeated. "A coven? You are forming — no, of course you are."

He tilted his chair back, pinching the bridge of his nose tightly and looking at the ceiling. Hermione waited nervously, trying not to fidget.

"Would you believe," Snape said conversationally, "that last year at the Sorting Ceremony, I thought it would be Potter or Malfoy who would give me the most trouble in your year?"

Hermione flushed, embarrassed. "I don't cause trouble…"

"That is an entirely subjective statement." Snape sat back up, his eyes coming to rest on her. "Miss Granger, while I will not forbid you from forming a coven, as to do so would go against the very nature of this school—"

Hermione tried not to smile too widely.

"—I cannot join your little coven," he said. He looked down at her. "Coven members must be of approximately equal magical strength. I would be the only adult; the balance of your coven would tilt, and your rituals would be ruined."

"Oh." Hermione frowned. "That's… I didn't realize that. That's a problem… I think I'm probably much stronger than a couple of the others by now…"

"Let me rephrase," Snape said. "It is not so much the power capacity that each member needs to match as much as the level of magical maturity." He steepled his hands. "You will need to choose members of an approximate age to you."

Hermione sighed.

"That makes sense," she admitted. "But sir…"

"Yes, Miss Granger?"

"Can we come to you to learn ritual magic?" she asked, biting her lip. "Like as an advisor sort of thing? We could come to you if we had questions, and you could help us learn what you know…"

Snape let out a long-suffering sigh.

"You would tax more of my time, Miss Granger?" he said dryly, and Hermione flushed.

"We wouldn't need help that often," she objected. "Probably only once a month or so, unless you wanted to teach us more often."

"I hope you realize, Miss Granger, that most covens are not run like schoolyard clubs." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "If it would comfort you, I will be available for questions." He snorted slightly. "Better to help prevent trouble ahead of time than try to clean it up afterward."

Hermione flushed, and Snape smirked.

"Though," he admitted, glancing at the chalkboard that still held her ritual circle, "you do seem to have a good grasp of it so far."

Hermione grinned.

"Twenty points to Slytherin for creating a groundbreaking magical discovery," Snape said, and Hermione gasped and beamed at him. Snape rolled his eyes, but Hermione could see his lips were twitching fighting the urge to smile. "Now get out of my office and leave me in peace."