A/N: Hello everyone! Welcome back to another fic :) This was written in a hazy rush right before work, and I'm pleased with how coherent it came out XD To be honest, being able to understand animals and being able to talk to animals melded together in my brain when writing this, so apologies for anything on that end.

This one is for Round 1 of The Houses Competition, where I'm in Ravenclaw House and writing for Potions. This competition, we have to write a drabble (500-1000 words) as well as a standard (1000-3000 words). This fic is the Standard of the two. Prompts are listed below.

Thank you kindly to BeaWrites, AJ, and HadrianPeverellBlack for the beta!

Word Count: 1979

Disclaimers/Warnings:

Summary: After Hermione recovers from the Polyjuice incident, she realizes there are longer lasting consequences to her mistake than she anticipated. They might just save her life.

Prompts:

The Houses Competition Y10 R1

[Object] Broken Mirror

[Scenario] Being able to talk with animals

"I Hear You"

Hermione groggily sat up, wiping the sleep from her eyes. Last night she had taken her last dose of the potion that would revert her back to a human form. Humiliation burned in her chest, just as it did every morning she had woken up in the Hospital Wing with the reminder of how badly she'd blundered the Polyjuice Potion. Thankfully Harry and Ron hadn't been hurt, and it was only her own potion she had messed up.

Both Madam Pomfrey and Professor Snape had given her stern lectures, and Professor Snape had shown her a spell that allowed her to check the quality and identity of potion ingredients to help avoid all of this hassle in the future. While excited at the time to learn this new bit of information, Hermione had also been distraught to discover that her recovery plan would take two whole months, and that she wasn't allowed to go to classes in that time.

But now, her fur had finally disappeared, her sharp teeth finally receded, and her cat senses finally faded.

A frown appeared on her face as she picked up a sound in the corridor beyond the closed Hospital Wing doors. Hermione brought her hands up to inspect them, worried that there were some lingering traits that hadn't yet been fixed. There were no claws on her hands, nor fur covering her skin.

Then why could she hear the whispering group of first years hovering outside the infirmary as if they were shouting? Madam Pomfrey seemed oblivious to the noise, and Hermione just wanted to bury herself back under the covers to muffle the chattering.

But it was not meant to be. Only minutes later found Madam Pomfrey up and about, discharging Hermione to go to breakfast in the Great Hall once she declared Hermione to have a clean bill of health. After being surprised by the sight of a clowder of cats congregating in the hallways–who scattered at her approach–instead of the loud group of first years whom she had expected to encounter, Hermione made her way down the corridor. With hesitant feet at all of the new sounds and smells as she left the Hospital Wing, Hermione was tempted to skip breakfast in order to find a quiet place to sit down and read. Instead, she forced herself to the Great Hall, where she met up with her best friends.

Wincing as Ron explained the latest drama in the Gryffindor Common Room, Hermione laid down her fork before leaning across Harry to look at the redhead. "Ron, can you talk a little bit quieter?" she asked as kindly as she could.

"What do you mean? I am talking softly!" Ron seemed to bellow. Hermione winced again, making Harry frown.

"Hermione, are you okay?" Harry asked worriedly. It was Hermione's turn to frown. Harry was using his patented 'this is my quiet voice' which was an actual whisper, and yet it sounded like he was talking at normal volume.

Oh no…

"I'm alright, just a bit of a headache," she replied, lying through her teeth. Hermione flinched as a group of first years from the Hufflepuff table screeched in laughter at a joke.

"If it gets any worse, you have to go back to Madam Pomfrey for it…isn't that what you're always telling me about mine?" Harry asked. Laughter bubbled up out of Hermione as she nodded. Just then, the first screech of an owl rang out overhead as the post arrived. Hermione flinched in the middle of her laugh before plastering her grin on her face, raising a hand to smooth her hair to try to hide her reaction. She wasn't sure if she was successful or not.

"I suppose so," she said. Suddenly, her hand shot out and snagged a package out of the air before it could splatter the bowl of eggs in front of them. The Gryffindors sitting around them merely stared at her as it took Hermione a moment to realize what she had done subconsciously. "Oh!" she said in surprise. Looking at who the package was addressed to, she handed it to its recipient.

"Sorry Dean," she told him, but the other boy shook his head, grinning.

"Nah, that was cool! Maybe you should try out for Seeker! Be a backup for Harry here during our match against Hufflepuff this coming Saturday," he replied before snagging the brown papered package from her. "Oh, excellent! My mum sent me a few things." The package opened up and trinkets of all shapes and sizes spilled out. "I asked my mum to send me a few rubbish bits I could practice Transfiguration on. A broken microphone, a crisp tube, oh, she even sent me the extra nuts and bolts that my uncle forgot to put on the lawn mower after he took it apart and put it back together!"

"Dean, what's that?" Hermione asked, pointing to a blue round plastic disc. He snagged it up and opened it before grimacing. He showed it to Hermione. It was a makeup compact with a mirror, a giant crack running through the center of it. On one side where the crack started, several chunks of the mirror was missing, causing the mirror to have a jagged look. The makeup inside the compact was all gone, but the applicator pad was still there.

"Looks like old makeup. There should be some old tubes of lipstick too, but my mum always told my sisters to never share makeup because of germs, and stuff," he said.

"Can I have the mirror?" Hermione asked, really liking the color of the compact.

"Of course! Here you go," he replied, handing it over. Hermione inspected the broken mirror inside the compact. She had a spell to fix this. Reparo could only do so much, and one of the first things they had learned in Charms was that the coating on the back of some mirrors reflected spells back at the caster. Hermione had to make sure she wasn't going to endanger herself again by trying to repair the broken compact with the wrong spell.

"Thank you!" she stated before tucking the compact away. She tuned back into the conversations next to her. Hedwig sat on Harry's shoulder, preening his hair into an even bigger mess than usual.

"I'm sorry girl, I'll give you some letters to deliver soon," Harry said to his owl.

Startled upon hearing Hedwig's response, Hermione spoke without thinking.

"Oh, she's not worried about that. She thinks you're not eating enough," Hermione said before spooning another bit of potatoes into her mouth. She paused as the boys stared at each other, and then at her in confusion. Realizing her error, she blushed and struggled to recover. "I mean, it's obvious, isn't it? She always leaves you your food and steals bacon from someone else's plate or the platter itself. She and I have both noticed that you barely put a spoonful of any one thing on your plate, and you've been waiting a few minutes in between your small portions of food before helping yourself to seconds, if you ever do. A diet like that is fine when you're eating smaller meals more frequently, or eating snacks in between meals, but you're not," Hermione said.

Thank you, Hedwig barked at her, and Hermione nodded as minutely as she could. Internally, she realized that somehow her transformation into a cat had given her small details of the cat: sight, smell, hearing, reflexes…and the ability to understand other animals. With the cats from earlier outside of the Hospital wing and Hedwig just now, Hermione wondered what other animal she could understand.

Her moment to test her curiosity came only the next weekend, as they were walking from breakfast to head to the Quidditch pitch for the long awaited Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff match. Something that Ron had said made Hermione suddenly get an idea, when a hissing sound attracted her attention.

"You guys know when you told me to tell you if I heard the voice again?" Harry suddenly asked, his steps slowing. The trio stepped closer to the wall to get out of the flow of the corridor traffic.

"Is it happening again?" Hermione asked, her voice wavering.

Rip, tear, kill. Hermione shuddered as sibilant tones reached her ears, and in the next sharp intake of breath, she knew exactly what Harry had been hearing. Harry nodded.

"Professor Dumbledore should be at the Quidditch Match. You should go and find him and let him know," Hermione said. Sticking her hand in her pocket, she gripped the broken compact tightly. "You two go on ahead. I have to check something quick in the library." She pulled her hand from her pocket and smiled at her best friends. "Ron, save me a seat! I'll try not to take too long."

The two boys let her go too easily, but she forgave them in their excitement for Quidditch. Spinning on her heel, Hermione sprinted through the castle to get to the library, hoping for once that her hunch was wrong. It was easy to find the book on dangerous magical creatures. The book had an entire section on snakes that she flipped to, and as soon as she saw a ripped out page with 'Basilisk' splashed against the top mirroring the same exact page on the other side, a chilled feeling filled her chest.

Hermione licked her lips nervously.

"Granger! What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be down by the Quidditch Pitch?" Hermione looked up to find Penelope Clearwater before her. Hermione grabbed out the already ripped out page, closing the book quickly.

"Penelope! Just checking on something before the Quidditch match. Are you excited for Gryffindor to win?" she teased with a grin. Pulling out a pencil from her bag, Hermione quickly scribbled her thoughts on the torn page before shoving the ripped parchment into her pocket.

Penelope laughed, too distracted by her question to notice her movements.

"If Hufflepuff beats Gryffindor today, then Gryffindor is out of the running for the Quidditch Cup," Penelope pointed out. Hermione grinned back.

"Good luck to Cedric beating Harry to the Snitch," Hermione replied.

I smell food. I smell Mudbloods.

Her grin slid off her face as she heard the voice from earlier. It was much closer and much louder now.

Her heart thudding in her chest, Hermione licked her lips again in nervousness. "Want to walk down to the Quidditch pitch together? I'm just about done here," Hermione stated. The Ravenclaw Prefect nodded, making Hermione sigh in relief. If there actually was a basilisk out roaming the halls, it was easier to walk in groups. Hermione's hand tightened on the blue compact in her pocket. She hadn't gotten around to fixing the mirror, but that just meant they had a bigger chance of survival with it. After all, two mirrors were better than one, and petrification was better than death.

"Something is out, roaming the halls right now," Hermione suddenly stated seriously, startling Penelope with her tone. She pulled out the compact and opened it up, jabbing her thumb in the corner of the broken mirror to peel out the two halves of the mirror, ignoring the blood welling up. She handed one to Penelope. "Use this to look around every corner before we turn it. If this thing is what I think it is, then using a mirror will petrify us, like everyone else."

"Petrify! But–" Penelope stated but Hermione cut her off.

"If we don't use the mirror, then we die if we meet its gaze. I'd rather lose another few months waiting for a cure than dying here today," Hermione stated bluntly. Penelope met her gaze and nodded.

"Alright, I'll take your lead," the Ravenclaw whispered worriedly.

Kill, rip, tear.

"Okay," Hermione said, gulping nervously and keeping her eyes to the floor. "Let's go."