The next morning, Hermione did a double-take at the giant hourglasses – Gryffindor had plummeted overnight. She quietly pointed it out to Draco and Blaise, both of whom checked as well.
"They had to have gotten caught!" Draco said, barely able to contain his glee. "They lost 150 points! That means all three of them must have been docked 50 points each."
Hermione went over to the Gryffindor table after she had finished her own breakfast, where Harry, Ron, and Neville were sitting quietly and looking pale.
"What happened?" she asked. "Everyone's gossiping about it."
Haltingly, Harry told her – about the note from Charlie, about sneaking Norbert up to the highest tower, getting him off safely, but being caught by Filch on the way back and dragged to their Head of House.
"She was furious." Neville's voice quavered. "She thought Harry and Ron fed Malfoy a story about a dragon to get him out of bed and in trouble. She caught me too, but I was just trying to warn them about Malfoy…"
"At least she didn't get us with Norbert," Ron groaned, thunking his head onto the table. He looked up. "Can you imagine? We'd have been in detention until the end of the year, caught with an illegal dragon…"
"Malfoy got detention and points off too," Hermione offered. "He was sulking about it this morning."
"Yeah, twenty lost to a hundred and fifty," Ron snarled, and Hermione drew back, hurt.
"Shut up, Ron," Harry said shortly. "It's not Hermione's fault that we got caught."
"Yeah, especially considering we didn't even tell her," Neville said, glaring. "She could have helped, you know."
Hermione got the feeling that there had been an argument about whether or not to tell her about the dragon escape plan. She found herself grateful to have not known – it would have been hard to sabotage their plans without them knowing.
"Too late now," Hermione said, shrugging. She offered them an apologetic smile. "Include me in your next adventure? I know lots of spells – I can help."
Harry and Neville exchanged a glance, before Harry nodded firmly, once.
"We should have told you about this one," Harry told her. "Even though we could only sneak two of us at a time, you might have had good ideas for helping us silence our shoes or something."
Could only sneak two at a time…?
That sounded oddly specific.
With exams drawing near, Hermione was often found studying either with the Ravenclaws in their tower, her Slytherin friends in an empty classroom, or in the library with Harry, Neville, and Ron. The first group was excellent for animated and in-depth discussion and arguments, the middle group for quizzing each other, and the last group for quiet, focused self-study. Harry, Neville, and Ron had been very quiet since their nighttime adventure and getting caught with the dragon. They all seemed lost and sad.
From what Hermione could gather, her Gryffindor friends had been entirely ostracized. Even Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws seemed to be ignoring them, Neville had mentioned, which irritated Hermione – did Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff really want to see Slytherin lose the House Cup that badly? Gryffindor may have been in second, but Slytherin still had a fairly solid lead.
Their ostracization helped them focus on studying, if nothing else, which would help improve their marks.
When Draco got a note from Professor McGonagall on Friday telling him to report for detention that night, Hermione saw three similar notes being delivered to the Gryffindor table, and she again thanked her lucky stars that she hadn't been involved in the ridiculous dragon sneaking scheme.
"Report at eleven o'clock," Draco scoffed. "Get in trouble for being out after curfew, and then report at eleven o'clock. This seems like a grand idea."
"If you all lose points again, it'll be a 3:1 ratio," Blaise pointed out, smirking. "I'd say go for it – Hermione can make up the points for Slytherin in a day just by raising her hand."
In a gesture of solidarity, Hermione and Blaise both stayed up to wait for him – both studying for exams. The time seemed to fly by as Hermione memorized the dates of the Goblin Wars.
When Draco returned from his detention, he was nearly apoplectic with rage.
"They took us into the forest!" he ranted. "The Forbidden Forest! The one that's forbidden! And we had to hunt for a creature that was killing unicorns!"
"Killing unicorns?" Blaise looked alarmed.
"And I saw it! There was a cloaked creature drinking the unicorn's blood! Potter and I both saw it, and then it charged at us-!"
Draco was shaking with anger. He marched over, seizing Blaise's quill.
"I am writing my father immediately," Draco snarled, grabbing a fresh sheet of parchment. "Putting children in danger for detention like this is completely unacceptable. Detention should be scrubbing cauldrons or doing lines or something tedious and annoying – not risking your life–!"
"Harry was with you?" Hermione asked, trying to understand.
Draco looked up from his furious scribbling.
"That oaf Hagrid divided us into teams. I got put with Potter and the oaf's dog." He paused. "…there's something wrong with Potter, you know. He screamed and grabbed his scar when the man charged us, instead of running. I'm pretty sure he lived, but Merlin—what kind of survival instinct is that?"
Hermione began to get a bad feeling.
"I'll check back in with you later," she said. Draco waved her off, and Hermione bolted.
It was dangerous to sneak out at night, but Hermione had to know. She sprinted up eight flights of stairs as fast as she could, and she arrived panting at the Gryffindor portrait hole just as Harry, Ron, and Neville were arriving back, all three looking shaken.
"I just heard – you were attacked, Harry?" she said.
Harry's face was grim.
"Let's get inside – I'll tell you everything…"
It was a mark of how serious it was that Ron didn't even protest Hermione piling into the Gryffindor common room with them. A moment later, they were all sitting as Harry told them the tale of what had happened.
"There's only one person who would be so close to death that he needs unicorn blood," Harry said. He was pacing in front of the fire, shaking slightly. "Voldemort."
Neville "eeped" and hugged his knees to himself. Ron looked frightened.
"Snape wants the stone for Voldemort… and Voldemort's waiting in the forest… and all this time we thought Snape just wanted to get rich…"
"Stop saying the name!" Ron said in a terrified whisper. Hermione rolled her eyes.
Harry wasn't listening. He'd started talking about the centaurs who'd rescued him.
"…Bane thinks Firenze should have let Voldemort kill me… I suppose that's written in the stars as well."
"Will you stop saying that name!" Ron hissed.
"So all I've got to wait for now is Snape to steal the Stone," Harry went on feverishly, "then Voldemort will be able to come and finish me off… Well, I suppose Bane'll be happy."
Hermione couldn't contain herself any longer.
"I'm sorry, but what are you talking about?" she demanded. "What do you think Snape is trying to steal? What is going on?"
The three boys turned to look at her, and a look flashed over their faces. Harry looked vaguely guilty.
"There's a three-headed dog in the forbidden third floor corridor," he told her. "Behind it, a bunch of the teachers each designed some kind of protection, too. They're all to protect the Philosopher's Stone, which Dumbledore is protecting for Nicholas Flamel."
"You-Know-Who already tried to steal it from Gringotts, over the summer," Neville added. "Hogwarts is the safest place for it to be."
"The Philosopher's Stone?" Hermione repeated dumbly. Her brain felt like it was rejecting their words.
"The big prize of alchemy," Ron said. "Creates gold, makes the elixir of life. That deal."
"That's real?" Hermione said, stunned. "I- I didn't know that was more than a Muggle story."
"Oh, it's real, and Snape is after it," Ron said grimly.
"He's worked out all of the puzzles," Harry told her. "We heard Quirrell crying and giving in the other day, and Quirrell's was the last puzzle Snape didn't know how to get through. Now there's nothing keeping from Snape from going after the Stone."
Quirrell crying…?
Hermione held her head, the pieces of the puzzle finally beginning to click.
"You think that the Philosopher's Stone is hidden behind traps in the forbidden 3rd floor corridor, and that Snape is going to try and steal the Stone for Voldemort?" she summarized. She declined to even begin addressing the ridiculousness of the idea of Snape helping Voldemort.
"Exactly." Harry nodded fervently.
Hermione gnawed at her lip, considering.
"I don't know what you saw in the forest," she said slowly, "but Harry, everyone says Dumbledore's the only one that Voldemort was ever afraid of. With Dumbledore around, Voldemort can't come near you and won't touch you."
Ron looked bolstered by this, while Harry looked grim.
"The Philosopher's Stone..." Hermione said, careful to keep her tone neutral. "What might that look like?"
"No idea," Ron said, shrugging. "The books we found didn't exactly give a physical description, only said what it could do."
"And the Elixir of Life could help Voldemort return to power," Harry said. "He's around. I just know it. My scar's been hurting all week."
They kept talking until it was light out, discussing Voldemort, the stone, and going over the events of the detention again and again until all four of them agreed the best thing to do was stay alert and wary, but to trust Dumbledore to keep Voldemort at bay. It wasn't an easy decision for Harry to come to - Harry very much seemed like was expecting Voldemort to come after him personally, which Hermione couldn't exactly refute.
Hermione waited until it was officially morning hours before heading back to her dorm, promptly collapsing on her bed, sleeping until noon, dreams of Dark Lords and odd, twisted mirrors filling her mind.