On Thursday, there was news.
"I got a book that Weasley left the letter from his brother in," Draco announced, sliding onto the couch next to Blaise. His tone was gleeful. "They're sneaking it up to the Astronomy tower at midnight on Saturday."
"Sneaking a baby dragon?" Blaise snickered. "That seems like it's a recipe for disaster."
Hermione was pleased. "At least now they won't suspect me betraying them."
"We'll have to go out beforehand, to catch them in the castle properly," Draco said. "I know an alcove near the Astronomy Tower we can lurk in and wait."
"We?" Blaise's tone belied his incredulity. "I think not. Malfoy, if we get caught by anyone except Snape, it'll easily be 50 points off."
"They'll have two people out, with a dragon," Draco argued. "They'll lose more points."
"That doesn't mean we shouldn't minimize the risk."
Draco turned to Hermione. "What do you think?"
Hermione considered, biting her lip.
"Harry and Ron will almost definitely be the ones to go," Hermione said. "Neville is 50/50 if he goes or not – I would guess not. If there's two of them out, and two of us out, there'd be a net gain of 0. Better to send one person after the two."
Draco scowled, while Blaise nodded satisfactorily.
"Besides," Hermione said, turning to Draco. "If you're the one caught, you're much less likely than the rest of us to get in trouble. Your father has connections, and the teachers will go lighter on you because of it."
"That," Blaise said firmly, "is a damn good point."
Slowly, Draco nodded.
"I'll be the one to catch them," he agreed. "But if either of you two hear anything about their plans ahead of time, you'd better let me know."
Hermione and Blaise exchanged a glance and easily agreed.
"Now, if you're done playing with rocks, let's go plan Phase Three of Down with Weasley." Draco's tone was haughty and annoyed.
Blaise snickered, and Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes as they put away the Go set to follow Draco.
Though Hermione spent time with Harry, Neville, and Ron on Friday, none of them mentioned what the plan was with Norbert, just "that it was being taken care of." Hermione was torn between feeling angry that they wouldn't trust her because she was a Slytherin, and feeling vaguely guilty because she would betray Ron to Slytherin House. Down to Weasley and all that.
It was odd how reflexive the thought came now, Hermione reflected. 'Downfall to Weasley' had become so internalized with the Slytherins, it was difficult to remember a time when they weren't all looking for opportunities to get Ron in trouble. Even she had the thought come up frequently, and most of the time, Hermione was being friendly with him, with Harry and Neville around.
On Friday, she had to visit Ron in the Hospital Wing; apparently, Norbert had bit him earlier in the week, and his hand had swollen to twice its usual size and looked green. It was looking much better, Harry assured her, but Hermione thought it still looked vaguely gangrenous. She wondered how Madam Pomfrey was treating him, when he clearly wasn't being honest about what had bitten him.
On Saturday, Ron just got out of the hospital wing with the excuse of needing to study for exams, and it was heavily against medical advice.
"You really shouldn't be leaving the Hospital Wing with your hand still looking like that," Hermione warned him. "It smells, Ron. And it's not like you're actually going to study. Why not stay until it's healed?"
Ron and Harry exchanged a significant look, which Hermione nearly rolled her eyes at. She supposed they thought they were being subtle.
"Just don't like the Hospital Wing is all," Ron said airily. "I can't sleep well, there. The beds are crap, and I always wake up in the middle of the night when Madam Pomfrey does her rounds…"
Hermione dutifully reported to Malfoy that night in the common room after dinner.
"Their plan is still on – Ron's even gotten out of the Hospital Wing early for it," she told him. "His wound still smells from the festering – you might be able to track him by that, if nothing else."
Draco nodded, looking resolute.
"It's a Saturday night, so you know the teachers will be patrolling the castle as well as Filch. You might want to wear solid black, to help you blend into the shadows," Hermione recommended. "Take a black cloak to cover your hair with – the slightest bit of moonlight will reflect off it like a beacon."
Draco looked surprised, but then gave her a look of slow respect.
"Good thinking." He went off to get his cloak.
"This," Blaise drawled, sidling up to Hermione, "has the potential to go horribly, horribly wrong."
Hermione shrugged helplessly.
"He's determined to catch them with a dragon," she said. "We've done all we can to minimize the potential damage to Slytherin."
Draco returned with a thick black cloak, a heavy black velvet that light vanished into.
"I'll be back later," he said, donning the hood. "Wish me luck."
They both wished him well, Hermione idly wondering if there was a Good Luck charm, a kind of counter to the Bad Luck Hex she'd hit Pansy with.
Draco had wanted to get into place before curfew, leaving Blaise and Hermione to play Go in the common room for a couple hours. At 11pm, Blaise announced that he was going to bed.
"I'm exhausted, and I need my sleep, Malfoy be damned," Blaise said crossly. "I'll find out one way or another in the morning."
Hermione tried to suppress a giggle, not entirely succeeding. There was something endearing about Blaise when he was cranky like this.
Blaise gave her an odd look, and on an impulse, Hermione pressed a kiss to his cheek.
"Good night, then," she told him, smiling.
Blaise's eyes had gone wide, but he nodded at her, shooting her a smile in return as he headed off.
The common room slowly emptied, and Hermione entertained herself for a while by reading one of the forbidden ritual books, before she admitted to herself that she really shouldn't be reading such horrors right before bed. She moved to levitating herself inside the hidden guest closet by the common room entrance, which sort of worked – Snape had been right about it being easier to find her balance when she didn't have to worry about going too far up. By the time her magic was fully exhausted, the top of her head ached from the pressure of pushing against the ceiling, but Hermione felt like she'd made progress.
Draco Malfoy returned to the common room about twelve-thirty, and Hermione could immediately read the results off his face.
"McGonagall was patrolling," he said disgustedly. "I got twenty points off Slytherin and detention. She wouldn't listen to me when I tried to warn her about the dragon."
"They might still get caught," Hermione offered quietly. "They're not exactly quiet people, and they're carrying a dragon."
Draco snorted.
"They've got to have gotten a prefect to Disillusion them or something," he said. "I waited for ages, and I didn't see or hear anything."
Hermione blinked. "Disillusion?"
Draco waved her off. "It's some disguise spell Aurors use all the time. I don't know much about it. I'm going to bed."
Hermione copied him and retired to her own chambers, making a mental note to look up Disillusioning. A disguise spell sounded like it'd be too good not to know.