Hermione sent owls off that evening to the Quidditch shops in both Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, inquiring about the serial number. She was hoping the Bludger was sold in the UK; she didn't know where to look otherwise.

The next morning, Hermione got up early to visit Harry, only to be stopped and stonewalled by Professor McGonagall at the door.

"No one is allowed in, Miss Granger," she said sternly. "No one needs to go in and gawk at the poor boy."

Hermione's mouth dropped open.

"I'm not here to gawk at him," she objected. "I brought him some breakfast and a book."

"Breakfast?" McGonagall frowned.

"Yes...?" Hermione said, questioning. "I imagine regrowing bones would be hungry work…"

"Oh!" Understanding lit the professor's eyes. "I see, I see. I had thought… but you're in Slytherin, aren't you? Of course…" She muttered to herself, frowning at Hermione, before giving her a sigh. "Go in and see Mr. Potter, then. He's in the bed on the left."

She ushered Hermione through with a kind look in her eyes, leaving Hermione wondering exactly what was going on. She didn't have to wonder long — Harry was awake, sitting up, and his face crumpled with relief when he saw her.

"Hermione!" he said, gesturing her forward. He lowered his voice. "You'll never believe what has happened…"

Hermione shared her breakfast with Harry as he recounted the events of the previous night to her.

"Petrified?" Hermione whispered, a cold shiver going through her. Harry nodded grimly.

"Colin was frozen with his camera to his face," Harry said. "When they opened it to take out the film, it was melted."

"And Dumbledore said it meant that the Chamber of Secrets is open again?" Hermione repeated.

"Yes," Harry said. "He also said the question was not 'who,' but 'how,' too."

Hermione's eyes widened.

"That means he knows who did it the first time," she breathed. "Harry, Dumbledore knows who it is."

"But then why isn't he doing anything?" Harry argued. "And 'how'? Maybe the Heir of Slytherin is dead, and Dumbledore doesn't know how it's being opened this time."

Hermione bit her lip.

"I don't know," she said. "But Harry — as soon as you're better, we need to talk to Hagrid."

Harry looked reluctant, but he nodded.

"As soon as we can," he agreed. "After I get the all-clear from Madame Pomfrey."

"If not for that damned Bludger, we could have done it yesterday," Hermione groused, and Harry's eyes widened.

"The Bludger! I can't believe I nearly forgot!" he said, clapping his good hand to his forehead. "Hermione, listen: last night, I had a visitor…"

Hermione listened in astonishment as Harry recounted the story of a House Elf's visit to him in the middle of the night.

"He wanted me to miss the train," he said vehemently. "He closed the barrier. And he said that it was his Bludger, too. He's trying to get me to go home, to save my life."

"This 'Dobby' is the one who got you in trouble at your uncle and aunt's?" Hermione frowned. "You've met him before?"

"Yes," Harry said. "But listen — he said that the Chamber of Secrets was open once more, and that history was about to repeat itself. He kept going on about how Dark deeds were planned, and how I needed to go home to be safe."

"I believe him about the Bludger," Hermione said with a sigh. "Luna and I figured out yesterday that it was an elf who laid an enchantment on the Bludger to go after you. I just didn't know which elf, or how to track a particular one down. But this business about the elf knowing in advance about this Chamber of Secrets business… this doesn't bode well."

"His owner must be the one behind it!" Harry said. "We just have to figure out whose he is."

"That's not likely to be easy," Hermione warned. "I highly doubt the testimony of a House Elf would be admissible as evidence, at any rate."

Harry deflated at that. "I guess…"

"We'll talk to Hagrid as soon as you're better," Hermione said decisively.

"If you get out of the way, that might be sooner than you thought, Miss Granger," Madame Pomfrey said, bustling over. She examined Harry's new arm, bending and stretching the arms and fingers.

"All in order," she said, fixing him with a discerning look. "When you've finished eating, you may leave."

Hermione had never seen Harry eat so fast before.

Harry wanted to get Ron and Neville from the Gryffindor common room before heading to Hagrid's. "They might think of something we wouldn't," he argued. "Besides, we originally had all said we'd go together."

Hermione had acquiesced on the condition Harry got them now, and it was with a curious Neville and still-eating Ron that they headed down to Hagrid's hut, Harry briefing them on the way.

"I can't believe the monster got Colin," Ron said, munching on a muffin. "He's so harmless."

"He's Muggle-born, though," Neville said, uneasy. "And he was out alone after hours."

Luna's warning of don't go anywhere alone echoed through Hermione's mind, but she bit her lip and kept quiet.

"He's a Muggle-born?" Hermione said instead. "How do you know that?"

Ron gave her a confused look.

"He told us?" he said. "He was excited about sending his parents photos that moved. Muggle photos don't move, he said, and he thought they'd think they were fun."

Life in Gryffindor was so staggeringly different from life in Slytherin that it boggled Hermione at times. She could never imagine mentioning her Muggle parents just casually in the Slytherin common room. She often pretended her parents didn't exist in front of her classmates. Even Tracey never mentioned her Muggle father, and she was a halfblood.

"Okay," Harry said, pausing on Hagrid's stoop. He leveled them all with sharp looks. "This is going to be hard and awkward and painful as it is. Let's try to be nice about it and give Hagrid the benefit of the doubt, okay?"

"Sure, mate," Ron said, bewildered. "It's not like any of us think Hagrid is actually the Heir of Slytherin, here."

"Still," Harry said. "Be nice."

He knocked sharply on Hagrid's door, which creaked open a minute later.

"Harry!" Hagrid exclaimed. "Good ter see you! And Ron an' Neville too! And 'ermione, right? The Slytherin one? Come on in! Just put the kettle on…"

They filed into Hagrid's hut, settling around the table as Hagrid made tea and played host.

"I got some rock cakes that I made not too long ago here — got them somewhere here—"

Hermione gave Harry a look, who ignored it. Instead, Harry asked Hagrid how he'd been, and engaged in perfectly polite small talk with him about classes and Quidditch for the better part of a quarter of an hour.

Intellectually, Hermione knew the purpose of doing so here — it put Hagrid at ease, made him feel like he was amongst trusted friends, and would make him more likely to open up when they did start asking questions. Emotionally, though, Hermione was having a hard time not getting annoyed. This was one time she would have preferred the usual Gryffindor bluntness — go in and demand to know what was going on. Harry had a Slytherin streak of his own at times, though, and since Hagrid was his friend, she had to follow his lead.

But Hermione would have preferred outright intimidation. Hagrid could make pointless small talk for hours.

After Ron and Harry whined about the Slytherins' new brooms for a while, Hermione cleared her throat pointedly, causing Harry to flush and sit up, remembering himself.

"Right," he said, rubbing his head. "Anyway, Hagrid, after Quidditch yesterday when I was in the Hospital Wing…"

He relayed the story of Colin Creevey being found on the stairs and what happened when his camera was opened. Hermione watched Hagrid closely. Hagrid looked confused and then pale, his hands holding his tea cup trembling somewhat.

"Do you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets, Hagrid?" Ron asked. "They say it's been open before."

"If Dumbledore says it's been opened before, it probably has," Hagrid equivocated. "Nothin' much gets past Dumbledore."

"Were you there when it was opened before?" Harry asked. "You've been at Hogwarts so long."

Hagrid shifted uneasily. "I wouldn't know nothin' 'bout that—"

His lies hung heavy in the air, and Hermione gave Harry a dark look.

"Are you sure, Hagrid?" Harry pushed. "You never heard any rumors—"

"We know you were expelled for the death of Myrtle Warren," Hermione interrupted.

There was immediate, shocked silence following her pronouncement.

Hermione carefully surveyed her companions. Ron was glaring at her, but Hermione raised her eyebrows and moved on, uncaring. Neville looked shocked and uneasy, while Harry merely looked exasperated and resigned, whereas Hagrid…

She blinked.

Hagrid had gone pale — dangerously pale, as if he were about to faint or had hypothermia. His hand was shaking so badly he was sloshing his tea all over his lap, but he didn't seem to notice the scalding hot liquid seeping through his pants in the slightest. Instead, his eyes were on her, large and afraid.

It was odd, to realize that such a large man was afraid of her, all because of something she knew.

Well, she mused, they did say 'Knowledge is Power,' after all.

"We know you were blamed and expelled for her death," Hermione said. "We know you were found with a monster, and they blamed her death on it."

"But we know you didn't mean it, Hagrid!" Ron butted in. "We know it was an accident, and that it wasn't supposed to happen—"

"I DIDN'T DO IT!" Hagrid roared.

His tea cup shattered in his hand, and Hagrid had gone from pale and frightened to ruddy and flushed with rage.

"Them lyin' bunch o' snakes, they said it were Aragog who killed tha' poor girl, but it wasn't him," Hagrid said angrily. "They kicked me outta school, even tho' they all knew it wasn't me that did it."

"Aragog?" Harry repeated. "What's Aragog?"

"He was my pet, back in school," Hagrid said petulantly. "An' he was harmless. Sweet thing, he was. Wouldn'ta hurt a fly."

"What type of creature was he?" Neville asked.

"Acromantula," Hagrid said.

Hermione gaped at him. "You had an acromantula inside the castle?!"

"He was jus' a baby!" Hagrid objected.

The boys exchanged a confused look.

"What's an acromantula?" Harry asked.

"Oh," Hagrid said. "Giant spider. They get real big when they're grown, maybe the size o' a large horse? Can get up to fifteen foot in leg span, I think. But when I had him, he was just a titchy little thing, on'y about three, four foot in leg span then…"

Ron looked horrified.

"'Wouldn't have hurt a fly' indeed…" he muttered.

"What color were his eyes, Hagrid?" Hermione asked.

"Err," Hagrid said. "Black, I think? Spider-colored. They kinda glint in the light."

"You still have him?!" Ron shot to his feet. He looked around wildly. "Where? Where? I'm not staying around here if there's a giant spider—"

"No, no, it's alright! He's deep in the forest!" Hagrid protested, looking alarmed. "He ran away after we got caught — he's been hiding out there for years, now!"

Hermione looked over at Harry.

"Black eyes," she said simply. "Not yellow."

Harry took a deep breath and seemed to relax.

"Hagrid," he said. "We know Aragog didn't kill anyone. We believe you."

Hagrid stopped trying to calm down Ron, who was perched on top of the sofa and looking wildly around the room for giant spiders. Hagrid looked confused.

"Yeh do?" he asked.

"We do," Harry said patiently. "We know it wasn't you. You were framed."

"O' course I was framed!" Hagrid said loudly. "Like Aragog ever coulda killed anybody…"

Hermione very carefully did not mention the amount of venom acromantulas could produce, nor how virulent of a neurotoxin it was.

"How were you framed, Hagrid?" she asked instead. "Who caught you?"

Hagrid scrunched his face up.

"Ah, it was one o' the Slytherin prefects a' the time," Hagrid said. "I was tryin' to sneak Aragog outta the castle — he was going nuts, running around squealing all the time. I think he was scared o' the monster himself — anyway, I was tryin' ter sneak him outta there, and a prefect caught me. Said he'd have to take me in, that someone had died, that he couldn't turn a blind eye any longer."

Hagrid winced and looked down.

"I shouldnta had Aragog in the castle at all," he said, somewhat miserably. "If I'da just tried to raise him outside behind the green houses instead… Dumbledore tried to defend me, but Dippet said I had to go…"

Neville made a half-hearted attempt at comforting Hagrid over his lost monster pet, but Hermione tuned them out, dwelling on Hagrid's words. Something wasn't adding up.

Hagrid had been in Gryffindor. No Slytherin prefect would ever turn a blind eye to something a Gryffindor did unless they had a good reason as to why. For a prefect to know Hagrid had a monster, and not say anything until it suited them…

"Hagrid," Hermione said. "Do you remember the name of the prefect who caught you?"

Hagrid turned to look at her, wrenching his face up.

"Err, somethin' borin'," he said. "It weren't a pureblood name, I remember, 'cause I had that thought, in case he were the heir o' Slytherin…"

"What was it?" Hermione pushed. "Think back to that night. You're sneaking out of the castle, lugging Aragog in his cage, and a Slytherin prefect steps out of the shadows to stop you. What was his name?"

"Err…" Hagrid said. "...Tom, I think? Maybe Tim? I don' remember a last name — it was fifty years ago, realize."

It was something, at least, Hermione conceded. It was at least enough to have a starting point.

"When this happened last time, Hagrid? Was it the same?" Neville asked. "Did people get petrified?"

"Yeah, one," Hagrid said. "A Hufflepuff boy was found petrified in the dungeons. He was practicin' potions — found with his potion all knocked over on the floor, all silvery an' glittering. They eventually woke him up, but he'd hit his head or summat, an' he didn't remember what had attacked him."

"How did people know the Chamber of Secrets had been opened?" Harry pushed. "Did someone write it on the wall in blood?"

"I dunno," Hagrid said. "I just remember everyone sorta knowin' about it. The Slytherins were all whisperin' about it being reopened. I didn't pay that much attention to what was goin' on…" He frowned. "Wish I had. Coulda defended myself better if I had."

Harry and Neville reassured Hagrid that he would have had no way of possibly knowing he would be blamed for it and not to be too hard on himself. Gradually Hagrid started to cheer up a bit, and they thanked him for his help and gathered themselves up to leave.

Hermione gave Hagrid an evaluating look as Harry gave him a hug.

"Hagrid," she said, and the giant man looked to her, blinking.

"Yes?"

"I know you say Dumbledore believes you, but if these attacks keep happening, eventually it won't be up to Dumbledore anymore," she said. "If you were blamed before, you're the first one they'll lay the blame on this time and come for."

Hagrid's eyes grew large.

"Come for me?" he rasped. "You don' think — not Azkaban...?"

"If I were you," Hermione said, "I'd have an escape plan ready."