The next day a heavy snow cancelled most of their classes, and Hermione delightedly spent the day reading in the Slytherin common room, enjoying being near the fire with a hot chocolate nearby. She was learning about Druid groves when Tracey came racing into the room.

"There's been another attack!" she gasped out. "Come quick! Come quick!"

Dropping her things, Hermione raced after her, down the corridor and up the stairs. They had to shove their way through the mass of people that had gathered in a corridor, but they were both lithe and small, only second-years, and they ducked and weaseled their way to the front of the crowd.

Ernie Macmillian was yelling at Harry about him being caught in the act, and Harry looked like he was about to be sick. Professor McGonagall was shooing Peeves away, who cackled and just floated higher. Hermione shifted and craned her head, and the victim came into view.

It was Justin Finch-Fletchley, lying on the floor rigid and cold, his eyes open staring blankly at the ceiling. Hermione felt dread well up in her stomach Justin being attacked like this, less than a week since the incident at the dueling club… it didn't look good for Harry.

Next to Justin, however, was the strangest sight. It was the Gryffindor ghost, Nearly-Headless Nick, but he was no longer a pearly white. Instead, he was black and smoky, floating immobile and horizontal, six inches off the floor. His face wore an expression of shock identical to Justin's, and his head was half off his neck.

"A ghost?" Hermione murmured. "Can ghosts even be petrified?"

"Apparently," Tracey whispered back. "Can you believe this, though? A double attack?"

Professor McGonagall was looking at Harry with deep eyes, and Hermione swallowed uneasily.

This didn't bode well.

Harry had to stand to the side while the logistics of handling the attack were handled. Professor Flitwick and Professor Sinistra took Justin up to the Hospital wing, but it was impossible to carry a ghost. Eventually, McGonagall conjured a fan and gave it to Ernie, instructing him to waft Nearly Headless Nick up the stairs to Madam Pomfrey, before she took Harry and went off.

"Crazy, isn't it?" Tracey said, her eyes alight. "I'm not happy people are being attacked that's terrible of course but the school year was so boring before Halloween, do you remember?"

Hermione snorted, watching the crowd trickle away.

"I once read in a book," she said, "that the Chinese have a muggle curse they use that seems particularly apt here."

"They do?" Tracey looked at her sideways. "What is it?"

Hermione smiled grimly. "'May you live in interesting times'."


The double-attack had the school in an uproar. Justin was a Muggleborn, and a lot of people had been expecting him to be attacked, to boot. But no one had expected Nearly-Headless Nick to be attacked. No one had known it was even possible for a ghost to be petrified like that, and whispers of Dark Magic flew around the school. The snow day meant people could go where they liked and do what they pleased, freeing the rumors from the usual chains of classmates and houses.

Hermione wasn't sure how the monster had managed to petrify a ghost, either, but she found it objectively fascinating. She'd presumed that whatever the monster did, it did to the body of a person rendering them unconscious and unresponsive through whatever method. But for a ghost to be attacked, whatever was happening had to either be happening to a person's magic, or to their life force, both things a ghost might still partially have.

No one else seemed to want to analyze the attack, though. Most people were busy gossiping about how Harry had definitely done it, and how McGonagall and Dumbledore had dragged him away to be expelled.

They also seemed uninterested in hearing that that hadn't been what happened at all.

Aggravated, Hermione left the library (where students were loudly whispering that of course Harry was the Heir of Slytherin, why else would he be able to talk to snakes?) and headed for the Gryffindor common room. She paused at the Fat Lady, considering, and the Fat Lady gave her a haughty look.

"You're not one of mine," she said, eyes peering down at her. "What do you want?"

"To go inside," Hermione replied.

The Fat Lady gave her a pointed look. "You need the password to be able to do that."

Hermione smiled sweetly. "Oh, like 'wattlebird'?"

The Fat Lady protested as her hinges swung open despite herself, cries of "how do you know?" and "they're not supposed to tell anyone!" echoing in the halls. Hermione smirked to herself as she climbed inside, enjoying ignoring the Fat Lady's cries.

There weren't many students inside, most of them exploring the castle, playing in the snow, or gossiping, she surmised. Her eyes scanned around rapidly before finding her friends by the fire, and she made her way over.

They were talking lowly, but Harry looked up at her as she approached. "Hermione!"

"Harry," Hermione said. She offered him a sympathetic grin. "Are you alright?"

Harry blew out a long breath. "Yeah, I guess."

"McGonagall took Harry to see Dumbledore," Neville said, to help catch her up. "Harry only just got back. He was telling us what happened."

"At least Harry came back," Ron said. "So we know he wasn't expelled."

"Dumbledore wouldn't expel Harry without concrete evidence," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "Did you really think Harry was in danger?"

Ron muttered something under his breath, which Hermione ignored.

With gentle prompting, Harry started his story over, beginning with his encounter with Hagrid in the hall, running into Justin and Nearly-Headless Nick, and Professor McGonagall insisting he see the Headmaster. He mentioned the trip to see Dumbledore (involving a rotating staircase and the password 'lemon drop'), as well as all the knick-knacks in his office, including the Sorting Hat. Hermione was careful to keep her face neutral she'd never mentioned to these friends that she'd been sent to see Dumbledore herself.

"So there I was, panicking about this stupid bird catching on fire, only for Dumbledore to tell me it was a phoenix and it was supposed to catch on fire!" Harry gesticulated wildly. "I thought the whole office was going to go up in flames!"

Ron was laughing, while Hermione was trying to suppress a smile. Neville gave Harry a commiserating look.

"Surely that's not that bad, right?" he offered.

"Yeah, it wasn't that bad, really," Harry said, but his eyes didn't meet Neville's. "Hagrid came in, waving a dead rooster around and saying I couldn't have done it because I'd just run into him in the hall and wouldn't have had the time, and Dumbledore told him he didn't think I was responsible for the attacks."

"He didn't?" Ron repeated. "Well, that's a relief, isn't it?"

"He just asked me if there was anything I wanted to tell him," Harry said. "Anything at all…"

Hermione's mind flew to their knowledge the monster was a giant snake being controlled by Parseltongue, the fact Harry had been invited to join her coven…

"I told him there wasn't anything," Harry said. He frowned. "Still. Even after being 'cleared' by the Headmaster, everyone is avoiding me like the plague."

"The attacks have everyone nervous," Neville said. "The list of who wanted to go home over the holidays ended up so long today that McGonagall had to tack up another piece of parchment."

Harry scowled and sighed, and Hermione felt her heart go out to him.

"It'll be okay," she told him gently, resting her hand on his arm. He looked up at her, and she offered him a soft smile. "We'll figure out what's really going on, and we'll get this whole thing cleared up. You'll see."

Harry gave her a tremulous smile back, and Hermione gave his arm a small squeeze.