Chapter 55. Hermione’s Thoughts

“Even if it is either of them, how would we prove it? It’s not as if they would confess themselves.” Harry sighed, scratching his head. “Or perhaps we can…” Hermione muttered, both Harry and Ron staring, wondering what her mind was, easily concocting a plan for a potion she had read about in passing. “Granted… it would be difficult, and we’d be breaking over 50 school rules… And it would be dangerous, extremely dangerous.” Hermione watched as Harry and Ron nodded, prepared for the consequences of her plan.

She quickly took them to the library in hopes of finding what she had seen before. Luckily Lucas, Draco, and Pansy weren’t here to notice them as they searched the potions part of the library. Harry helped as best he could, but Ron only skimmed the spines of the books, figuring that Hermione would be best to find it anyway. She sighed, but since it was her idea, she would have to find it herself.

It took almost all of their lunch for Hermione to find it. “Here it is!” She cheered while showcasing the book to Harry and Ron, both their eyes glazing over the pages in confusion. “Polyjuice Potion?” Harry asked, looking back at Hermione to explain. “With this, we can temporarily transform into others.” Ron smiled devilishly. “Brilliant! If one of us is disguised as Draco, and you are Pansy, Lucas will tell us anything!” Hermione nodded, glad that they both liked her idea, but her momentum soon ran down. “But I’ve never seen a potion as complicated as this before… It will take some time.”

Harry glanced at the pages again, looking over the ingredients. “How much time?” Hermione scratched her cheek with a sigh. “About a month.” “A month!? Hermione, you realize that Lucas was the only one not present when everyone saw Mrs. Norris! If it is him, then half the school could be petrified by then!” Ron whispered as loudly as he could, Harry nodding along, thinking similarly. Hermione sighed and shook her head. “I know… But it’s our only shot.”

Weeks passed as Hermione continued to let ingredients mix, and painstakingly watched over her batch of Polyjuice Potion. However the next attack shook Hermione as soon as she heard the name of the victim. She rushed to the hospital wing, skipping her breakfast along with Harry and Ron to see Chiara laying petrified on a bed. Her expression frozen in shock.

“It’s clearly Lucas, you saw how he treats her!” Ron yelled while slamming his hand on the nightstand in anger for his injured friend. “Where was she found?” Hermione asked, suddenly touching her closest female friend’s cold skin as she laid like a statue in place. “She was found on the roof, looking through the telescope down near the lake.” Harry said, being the one who heard of this attack first hand from the teachers as he laid in bed mending his boneless arm. Hermione’s own belief of Lucas dropping along with the pit in her stomach. Knowing that’s where Lucas liked to be from time to time.

Hermione would take time everyday to visit her friend Chiara. Talking to her frozen expression, wondering if it was Lucas who did this to her. While she sat, bedside to Chiara late one night, the doors burst open revealing the teacher’s hurriedly moving another victim into the wing. The red hair gave Hermione pause, and she jumped to her feet to get a closer look. Professor McGonagall was among them, noticing Hermione, she allowed her through to the next victim, making way for Hermione to see Ron’s terrified expression. “I’m sorry Ms. Granger…” Hermione needed answers now, perhaps Harry or her might be next.

The next day, Harry and Hermione talked about their plans in the hospital wing, beside Chiara and Ron. “Parkinson will be gone for holiday, but I don’t think I can be Malfoy with our earlier plans…” Harry sighed, glancing at Ron, their earlier idea of keeping Draco busy with Ron, while Harry disguises himself as Draco to talk with either Lucas or Pansy had now fallen through, and they couldn’t risk Draco bumping into them. “Perhaps… You keep Malfoy busy, while I try to ask Lucas questions about the Chamber, and perhaps get some hair from him for you to ask Malfoy later as… Peterson.” Harry nodded at Hermione’s new plan, ready to distract Malfoy with any means possible for tomorrow.

Finally, the day came, and Hermione stood inside the girl’s bathroom holding the hair she had managed to get from Pansy’s robes she brushed aside. Harry stood beside her, watching with worry over how effective the potion might be. Hermione added in her hairs, and plugged her nose before tipping her glass of brown sludge down her throat. The mixture was clumpy and tasted foul, begging for her to spit out the contents, or risk throwing them up along with her breakfast. However her mind was filled with Chiara, and Ron. She couldn’t let them down, so she kept drinking more until her glass was nearly empty.

Hermione leaned forward in the sink, both hands covering her face, and its strange sensation of pinching and boiling. She gasped after the mixture settled in her stomach, and looked at Harry to see his reaction. He stood in awe as Hermione looked at the mirror before her. “You’re a genius Hermione…” Harry muttered as she studied her facial features with awe at her long straight black hair and dark colored eyes. “I only have about an hour, make sure Malfoy is distracted while I talk to Lucas.” Hermione reminded Harry of the plan as they both left.

Hermione rushed around the castle, looking in the spots that she had seen Lucas before. The lake, Great Hall, and finally the Library. She thanked her luck to see that he wasn’t inside of his House. With no password, this would have been wasted. She saw him looking at a Gorgon in magical beasts textbooks and gasped, finally seeing proof that it was Lucas. However his next words confused her, and gave her relief, he seemed to be just as in the dark regarding the Chamber, not a part of it. ‘Is it Draco then?’ She thought, before a black snake suddenly appeared from under Lucas’ robes.

Hermione fell back in her chair in shock, suddenly learning that he kept a pet with him at all times, most likely the hissing she still remembered from her first year. However that was nothing to his sudden speaking of Parseltongue. His expressions being something that she had never seen before with Lucas, as he smiled while giving her a hand back up from the ground. “It’s speaking Parseltongue…” “Well, it has to be controlled by an Heir of Slytherin… like you…” Hermione responded without a thought, before she slowed down, realizing she may have outed herself as an imposter since Lucas never spoke of it as a monster from the Chamber of Secret's, only as a creature speaking through the walls.

Thankfully, Lucas didn’t notice, his mind busy with following the voice he heard. Hermione stayed close, this being the information that she sought after for her friends, even if Lucas wasn’t the one controlling the monster, it didn’t matter if he pointed her to who was. Much to her shock, he led her straight to the bathroom she had spent hours, perfecting the potion she was still under the effects of. Her spine tingled in fear of the idea of being watched the entire time, and she needed something to keep her mind occupied.

She rattled off her idea for what the creature was, and how it was moving about, until she noticed Lucas stupidly trying to look down where he said the Gorgon went. She sighed with a frown at his un-Slytherin characteristics, rather than being cold and cunning, he was stupid and bold. His pet snake then opened the staircase, and Lucas went down to investigate a sudden screaming from below, leaving Hermione alone. Hermione had everything she needed, and wondered if she could really go to Dumbledore at Lucas’ request, but his sudden accident made her throw caution to the wind to help him. However he might act, she couldn't let him possibly die.

After following him, she groaned in pain before noticing her position overtop of him. Her heart jumped in surprise, before it became surprised over something different as she jumped to her feet. Her hair had already begun changing back. Although it was slow, her process was ending. Luckily, Lucas suggested having one keeping their eyes closed, and Hermione jumped at that opportunity.

While leading him through the sewer pipes, Hermione tried to remain focused on the threat that loomed about, and the continuous sobbing of the strange girl, echoing throughout the cylindrical halls surrounding them. However, keeping Lucas on his feet required her to hold his hand. Even during her last adventure with Harry and Ron, throughout it all, she had never held a boy's hand before. She kept shaking away the strange thoughts of nervousness at her palms suddenly feeling clammy, but that was soon to be outdone by the thing Lucas almost tripped over.

Now as Hermione's mind whirled with new information at the massive snake skin both Lucas and she discovered, she somehow calmed herself down, despite now being faced with a much more dangerous threat. Finally making it through the massive door, to the real Chamber with the help of Lucas, Hermione’s jaw slacked in shock at the sight of the real culprit that lay unseen by her eyes. Pansy.