Snape, to Hermione's immense surprise, did not want to come along. Or rather, he did, but he couldn't, for one reason or another.

"I must report to the headmaster," he said, scowling. He looked down at Hermione. "Nothing about this, of course. But some of my activities this weekend have proven… fruitful, and the headmaster has insisted on meeting with me now."

"I thought you were visiting my father this weekend?" Draco said, puzzled.

Snape gave him a warning look. "And…?"

"I didn't think telling Dumbledore anything would be more important than a student's safety," Tracey grumbled, mutinous.

Snape's eyes flashed.

"You are the ones who decided to find an ancient artifact of incredible power, and put it on your head," Snape enunciated clearly. He scowled at them. "If you are unable to break the curse on Miss Bulstrode, by all means, take her to the Hospital Wing." He rolled his eyes. "I shudder to think why you haven't, yet."

"You think Madame Pomfrey will be able to help her?" Tracey pleaded. Hermione gave her a warning look, but Snape sighed. He put a hand on Tracey's shoulder for a moment, and Tracey looked up at him.

"Madame Pomfrey has seen and cured more nonsense from students getting themselves into trouble than you could ever think of," he told Tracey, his voice gentle. "She would, at the least, know what to do."

Tracey relaxed at his words, shoulders slumping in hope and relief.

Snape made them promise to take Millie to the Hospital Wing if they couldn't break the curse themselves by curfew. They all agreed, but Hermione did so unhappily – while Madame Pomfrey might be able to help, she would undoubtedly tell Dumbledore, and then there'd be an investigation into how such Dark magic had entered Hogwarts' halls. Hermione wasn't keen on the points Slytherin would lose for that revelation.

They parted ways with Snape in the hallway, Draco and Blaise watching him go with a scowl, Tracey holding the unconscious Millie up.

"Wonder what he's been up to that's so important," Blaise said. "I figured he'd be a lot angrier with us than that."

"He doesn't know what's cursing her," Tracey said, mutinously. "He thinks it's some silly old curse, not a Dark object of incredible evil and destruction."

Hermione sighed.

"Let me go get the diary," she said. "Maybe Tom can help."


After retrieving the diary, Hermione considered the effort of lugging the unconscious Millie to the girl's bathroom, decided that would be miserable, and levitated her instead.

"Let's see if I can do the Disillusionment Charm again," she said. "Diss—"

"Don't!" Draco grabbed her wrist, twisting her wand away. He winced. "Just… that takes a lot of magic, doesn't it? If we already need you to… you know, fire... in the chamber…"

Hermione blinked. "I suppose you have a point."

Instead, Hermione and Blaise levitated Millie, and the group marched directly up to the girls' bathroom, doing their business flagrantly and out in the open. A few lower years caught them, but despite their pointing and whispers, no one approached them about what they were up to.

"I'm surprised Filch didn't catch us," Blaise said, helping steer Millie into the bathroom. "He's always showing up when he's most unwanted."

"Probably bothering Potter and the rest of them, then," Draco muttered.

Hermione approached the sink, considered the small snake etched onto the tap, and hissed, "Open." There was a loud thunk, and the sink began to move out of the way.

Sliding Millie down the pipe slide was simple, as was sliding down after her. Hermione led the way to the great chamber, hissing "open" to another door along the way. Once inside, Tracey was speechless, looking up and around with awe as Blaise and Draco carefully settled Millie onto the ground.

"I know we're in the middle of a very scary and dangerous mission," Tracey said, looking up at the stone statue of Salazar Slytherin, "but this is just so cool."

"It really is," Blaise agreed, unable to suppress a grin.

Hermione withdrew the diary and set it on the ground. Taking a deep breath, Hermione pushed her magic into the book, searching, and then slowly pulling Tom out once he'd caught hold. He emerged slowly from the pages of the book, impossibly, and once he was standing and dusting his robes off, complete, Hermione took a moment to settle herself before meeting Tom's eyes.

"We found another horcrux," she told him. "But… we might need your help."

Tom's eyes went wide. "Explain."

Hermione and Blaise quickly explained what had happened in the Room of Requirement to Tom, who kept darting looks over at Millie, still unconscious on the ground. He nodded absently at Hermione's theory on what part he should try to integrate first, but he scowled at mention of what the horcrux in the tiara had already done.

"So… do you want to threaten it, or do you want me to try and integrate it?" Tom asked. He walked towards the unconscious girl on the floor.

Hermione bit her lip. "I don't know. I want Millie safe."

"There may be a third way." Tom crouched to examine the tiara, before he plucked the tiara from Millie's head. "Have you tried simply removing the crown?"

Hermione stopped moving, her eyes going wide.

"…you're kidding," she breathed. "That'd be enough?"

"Did we really not try that?" Draco said, astonished. He looked around at the others. "We didn't think of that?"

"I don't think any of us wanted to touch it ourselves," Blaise said. He nodded at Tom. "But he isn't exactly a person, is he? Not like one horcrux can possess another one."

"Shall we test it?" Tracey looked around at them, withdrawing her wand. Hermione nodded, pulling out her own, and Tracey turned to face Millie again, determined. "Ennervate."

It took a few tries for Tracey to get the spell to work, but once she did, it was immediately clear – Millie sat up, took a huge, heaving breath of air, and coughed long and hard. Once she'd regained her composure somewhat, she looked around, eyes wide.

"…I take it we're not in the Room of Requirement anymore?" she said weakly.

Tracey started laughing, tears in her eyes, before throwing herself onto Millie and hugging her tightly, Millie squawking in surprise. Hermione rubbed her own eyes, ignoring the burning behind them, and turned back to Tom.

"What do we do with that, then?" she asked, gesturing at the horcrux. "Do you want to integrate with it?"

A flicker of uncertainty crossed his face.

"I'm not sure I know how." Tom fingered the tiara, turning it over in his hands as he examined it. "Saying 'remorse' is all well and good, but that's hardly instructional, is it? Am I just meant to sit and feel bad and dwell on that until something happens?"

Hermione folded her arms, annoyed.

"Are we supposed to wait until you figure it out?" she said pointedly. "Just continue to trust that you are remorseful, even if you refuse to put it to the test?"

"That's—I'm not—" Tom broke off, frustrated, and ran a hand through his hair. "Hermione. Please. Let me think on this. Anything to do with horcruxes – none of it's easy, realize."

"The equinox is on Friday," Hermione said flatly. "You can have until then. Four days, Tom. Four days."

Tom nodded, determined in his stance, even as a panicked "It's Monday?" came from the newly unpossessed witch behind him.

"Give me as much magic as you can," he said, holding Hermione's eyes. "And… then…" He shrugged, his smile a bit bleak, a bit wry. "Well. We'll see."

"Until then," Hermione echoed, watching as Tom stepped back into the diary, the magic holding him together slowly fading away.


The next morning, Hermione was happy to learn that Pansy and Theo's ritual had gone off exactly according to plan. Harry, Susan, and Luna together had been able to channel the magic necessary to close the circle while Pansy and Theo's magic mixed with the silver and each other. Theo and Pansy were now safe from Legilimency, as well as the Imperius Curse, meaning everyone in the Umbra of the Shadows was mentally protected. Hermione felt much better about this, now – now the innermost secrets of the Shadows would stay secret, unless they were betrayed.

The others, in turn, were extremely glad to learn that Millie was no longer possessed, though Harry had laughed and laughed when he heard the solution had been to simply remove the horcrux from Millie's head. Hermione had turned a steady red, but she accepted his teasing nonetheless – she had been rather stupid, panicking and not thinking of simply removing the crown. She'd been in such a state that the obvious, straightforward solution had been discarded as an option without so much as a proper discussion on the matter. Even if the others were willing to let it go, given they'd also collectively panicked, Hermione couldn't quite let go over her embarrassment of not realizing how simple the solution would be.

Millie herself was pleased to find her homework had already been completed and was ready to hand in, and everyone was glad that the horcrux was stashed safely in a bag, not on anyone's head, and could be dealt with another day.

Classes found them handling bubotubers in Herbology, a task Hermione wasn't fond of, but her other classes were light enough that Hermione was able to spend most of the day doodling and theorizing until Potions class. Potions required Hermione's full attention, after all – she wasn't about to blow up a cauldron just because she liked to daydream. Snape had immediately descended on Millie, glaring at her, before moving away, reassured it was the real Millie after she had glared back, and Hermione had been relieved to see Snape presume the matter had been handled properly one way or another.

After classes, Hermione left her peers, went to her dorm, and Time-Turned back. She put on her Wizengamot robes and went up to meet Dumbledore, who greeted her with a smile in his own black velvet robes.

"How are you, Miss Granger?"

"Well enough," Hermione admitted, shrugging. "Not looking forward to hearing more drama regarding the Triwizard Tournament, if I'm honest."

"I see." Dumbledore's eyes sparkled. "Did you know I brew my own tea in my office every morning?"

"—sir?"

"I'm very particular about my tea," Dumbledore went on, even as he went to the fireplace and retrieved the Floo powder, "mainly in that I change how I take it depending on how I feel that day. But today when I was brewing my tea, I knocked into a shelf, pushing over my tarot cards. This, of course, knocked my I Ching sticks off the shelf onto my desk, with precisely six landing in my cup, the rest all scattered about."

"Your… sticks?" Hermione repeated.

"Ah, yes – you dropped Divination, didn't you?" he mused. "No matter. Just know that the sticks that remained formed a hexagram, Miss Granger – Hexagram 49, Revolution, a rather auspicious one."

He threw the Floo powder into the fire, the fire roaring up into emerald-green flames.

"For fate itself to predict when I did not try…" Dumbledore remarked, his eyes twinkling. "Well. What chaos awaits us today, I wonder? After you, Miss Granger."

Hermione climbed into the fireplace, wondering to herself even as the Floo Network whisked her away. Not about the I Ching hexagram, or whatever Dumbledore had been talking about, but rather the fact he was talking about it at all.

If Dumbledore kept multiple methods of Divination about his desk… just how much did Dumbledore believe in Divination as a whole?