Hermione didn't have to put off the questions of her classmates for long; the Daily Prophet answered most of them when it broke the story the next morning:

SLYTHERIN'S MONSTER SLAIN!
Ancient basilisk lying under the school finally defeated!

If the headline had given Hermione any delusion that she might escape immediate notice, the photo on the front page completely eliminated that: it was one of her looking at the basilisk, her sword slung casually over her shoulders as she examined its eyes. The giant statue of Salazar Slytherin was clearly visible in the photo. As she watched the photo, the tiny depiction of herself glanced up at her and shrugged, helpless.

Hermione made a face. At least she looked confident and poised, despite the casual pose with the sword. She didn't even remember doing that in the chamber.

She skimmed the article's lead and followed the jump to the center feature, where there was a photo spread laid out, documenting the entire affair for everyone to see – her, standing in front of the slain serpent looking powerful and regal; Draco, sitting on the filthy ground and covered in muck, pointing at Hermione and talking, gratitude shining in his eyes; a close up of the basilisk's head itself and its cut; another closeup of her sword, showing the HERMIONE GRANGER etched onto the blade as well as the snakes curling up the handle; and one wide-angle shot of the entire chamber, capturing the immense size of it all, including the enormous statue of Salazar Slytherin, the snake corpse, as well as Draco, Hermione, Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape, and Rita Skeeter in the shot.

The photos were dramatic and compelling in black and white. Hermione would have to ask Ernie for a set of the originals in color.

Hermione went back to the front page, scanning it. There was another article at the bottom with an attention-grabbing headline:

STUDENT ARRESTED FOR ATTEMPTED MURDER!
Hogwarts student in custody for actions taken as the Heir of Slytherin!

This article, Hermione examined more closely. Currently, the Daily Prophet was refraining from publishing the student's name as they were still underage and had not yet been indicted. However, as soon as the expected indictment was issued, the Daily Prophet assured its readers that it would immediately have all of the details they so desperately craved.

The piece gave Hermione pause.

Indicted?

What was the judicial system like in the wizarding world, anyway?

"You look great in these photos," Tracey told her, excited. "What a way to debut to society for the first time, right?"

"Merlin's beard, Hermione," Blaise said, reading the feature article. "It says here you selflessly risked your life going after Draco to rescue him from the basilisk."

"She did," Draco bragged from across the table. "She saved my life."

Blaise looked up and shot him a look.

"Think that's something to brag about, do you?" he commented.

"I'm not ashamed of being saved by a girl," Draco objected. "The basilisk grabbed—"

"Hermione 'being a girl' has nothing to do with it," Blaise said, annoyed. "It has everything to do with her fighting a giant monster by herself while you sat on the ground and watched."

"She had a sword!" Draco defended. "She was ready to fight the monster, and I wasn't! All I had was my wand!"

Blaise raised an eyebrow. "And you couldn't have done anything to help?"

"No!" Draco was petulant. "When I made a noise and distracted it, the basilisk came charging after me, and Hermione had to come sprinting after it to save me again. It was better that I just stayed out of the way and let her take care of it."

"That's good advice for life, Draco," Tracey said, giving Draco a sweet smile. "Let Hermione take care of it and stay out of the way."

Draco rolled his eyes. "Go pound dirt, Davis."

"She had to sprint after the basilisk to save you?" Blaise's gaze was suspicious. "And it worked?"

"Yeah, she had to—" Draco broke off, confused. He paused, thinking hard. "I—I think she made chamber itself rise up and crush the basilisk to the ceiling to get it out of the way? It gave me time to scramble and get out of the way before the pillar collapsed down again and she kept fighting it, I think—"

Hermione held her breath as Draco mumbled to himself. It was clear she'd missed a connection or two from memory to memory, and Draco's mind was trying to reconcile the conflicting accounts. She had no idea how this would play out or what might happen here.

Draco muttered to himself a moment more, before shaking his head and shooting Blaise a nasty look. "Anyway, she finally defeated it with this epic flying leap to cleave off its head. I wish MacMillan had gotten that on camera."

As Blaise continued bickering with Draco, Tracey gave Hermione a sideways accusing look.

"Millie's had that expression multiple times now," she hissed. "I thought you didn't want to cast 'Dark' magic."

"Believe it or not, I had Draco's full consent," Hermione whispered back. "He knew I was going to mess with his memory, and he let me do it anyway. That makes it not Dark. For it to be Dark, you have to be forcing your will upon another, and I didn't force him at all."

Tracey looked mildly impressed.

"That's kind of pathetic, honestly," she said. "Not you – him, that he'd be so desperate for your favor that he'd offer you unfettered access to his mind. I wonder what's his game."

Hermione winced and shrugged.

"Me too," she admitted.

There was a loud ringing from the head table, and the loud chatter of the students quieted as everyone looked to the head table. Professor McGonagall was standing at the front, holding up a hand.

"Thank you," she said. "As many of you have seen, there have been several recent events at Hogwarts that require immediate attention by the staff, foremost of which is the handling of a giant basilisk hidden deep in the sewers of the school." She paused as a babble of chatter broke out, waiting a moment before holding up her hand again, calling for silence. "In order to keep the students safe while this is dealt with by the staff, the west wing of the first-floor corridor will be off-limits for the rest of the day, and all classes are cancelled."

Here, she paused.

"Thanks to the courageous actions of a few students over the past few days, there is now no danger lingering within Hogwarts," she announced. She smiled. "As such, all security restrictions are rescinded, and you may explore the grounds as you please, so long as you take care to avoid the first-floor corridor."

The immediate cheering resulting from this statement was deafening. The older Slytherins were clapping loudly, but the Gryffindors were hooting and hollering, the Weasley Twins actively jumping up and down, their swords swinging around erratically in sheaths as they did.

McGonagall seemed content to let the ruckus continue and reseated herself, smiling, and Hermione caught Snape roll his eyes in good-natured exasperation before she turned back to her own breakfast, pleased.

"No more security restrictions!" she said happily. "It's about time!"

"The basilisk has been dead for a day and a half, Hermione," Millie told her, smirking. "It's not like they delayed lifting them very long."

"Fair enough," Hermione admitted. "Still, though!"

"Thanks to you," Blaise added, giving her a wide grin, and Hermione smiled back, fighting back the sudden feeling of her heart flipping over in her chest.

"Everyone is staring over here," Tracey told Hermione, her eyes wide. "You can't see because of the side of the table you're on, but everyone keeps glancing over here at you." She paused, looking her over. "Good thing you took the time to fix your hair today."

"Oh, shut up," Hermione said, but there was no ire in her tone. "I have to fix my hair every day, now. Just because you don't have to jinx your hair into submission…"

"You jinx your hair?" Blaise said, amused.

"Oh no, not you too," Hermione moaned, covering her face with her hands. "We do not need to—"

"No, no, I want to hear this," Blaise said, amusement in his voice. "Why do you have to jinx your hair?"

Hermione shot Blaise a dark look, not saying a word, but Tracey was all too happy to spill her secrets.

"Hermione hair's been going crazy since Hermione went mad," she said cheerfully. "Even though Hermione's not mad anymore, her hair didn't seem to get the message. If she doesn't jinx it, it goes wild and gets sparks in it when she's mad."

"It gets sparks?" Theo cut in, looked intrigued. "Do they catch fire? Does it smell like burning hair?"

"Not that I've noticed," Tracey said. "They just seem to bounce along and spark off the curls."

"Please," Hermione groaned, hiding her face. "I'm the hero of the day; can't we leave off teasing me for my hair just the once?"

Blaise, Tracey, and Millie all laughed, but Daphne unexpectedly cut in.

"It's not necessarily teasing, Hermione," she said, looking at her sideways. "Magic sparking in a witch's hair is a sign of great power. The fact you have it happening to you as a second-year is a big deal."

Hermione looked at her incredulously.

"Wait, really?" she asked. "My hair going mad is a sign of prestige?"

"Well, not prestige, but power," Daphne said uncomfortably. "It's well known that many powerful witches had… kind of crazy hair."

"I've never seen this," Hermione said, astonished. "All the pictures in the books and on the Chocolate Frog cards have witches always looking well put together."

"Well, they would, wouldn't they?" Daphne pointed out. "They're posing for portraits, then, not fighting or casting spells. Hair only sparks if you're using powerful magic or feeling powerful emotions, not if you're sitting still."

"It's the kind of a thing that's passed along by word of mouth, not written down," Theo elaborated. "No one's going to write down 'oh, her hair sparked' because it sounds ridiculous. But rumors are passed around."

"Really?" Hermione was intrigued. "Have any of you ever heard of a powerful witch's hair sparking? McGonagall always keeps hers tied tightly up, so we wouldn't know about her..."

Everyone at the table seemed to very carefully not be looking at Draco, who stared at the table before looking up with a resigned sigh.

"Yeah," he said uncomfortably. "My aunt."

"Your aunt?" Hermione asked. "Is she a very powerful witch?"

"She… was," Draco said carefully. "I have no idea if she still is."

"Are you estranged?" Hermione said, her heart panging. "I'm sorry – I didn't mean to be awkward asking about something painful."

Draco looked torn, and Theo next to him laughed.

"One day, you'll learn the entire history of the recent war, Granger, and then you'll understand," he told her. His eyes glinted. "Draco hasn't seen his aunt recently because she's been in Azkaban for the past twelve years."

Hermione's eyes went wide. "…oh."

"Yeah. 'Oh'," Draco mimicked. He sighed, giving Hermione a commiserating look. "Awkward for the both of us, isn't it?" he said. "Let's just drop the topic entirely, shall we?"

"Yes, lets," Tracey said. "Instead, let's focus on the more immediate issue: Hermione, are you going to go back into the chamber to help carve up the basilisk?"

Hermione's eyes went wide.

"I—I guess so," she said. "It didn't occur to me before. But yeah, it's mine, right?"

"Yours by Right of Conquest," Blaise said, smirking. "Hooray, Hermione – you get a dead snake."

"Says here that it's estimated to be worth at least 12,000 galleons if she sells it as ingredients," Millie commented, her eyes scanning the article. "It'll probably be between 22k and 25k, though."

Hermione did the mental math to pounds and gaped.

"Really?" she asked. "That's a small fortune!"

"That's if you can sell it," Millie stressed. "Everything you get will be Class B Non-Tradeable goods, realize."

"I'll get my father to help work around it," Draco said. "She saved my life; it's the least the Malfoy family can do to help."

Draco was smiling at her now, and Hermione offered a small smile back. Draco kept mentioning how she'd saved his life, and it was beginning to make her uneasy. Was she missing something there?

As breakfast wrapped up, Professor McGonagall descended from the High Table to speak to Hermione, and Hermione made a mental note to look into the matter later.