"What'd you get for Flitwick's question on the mixture of gravity and the levitation charm?" Theo asked Hermione on their way to the library.
Hermione scrunched her nose, "I don't think I answered as thoroughly as I should have. I explained how the charm warps the molecular cells of the object to cause it to defy gravity, much like objects in space, but I think I should have talked more about the individual cellular structures. What did you say?"
"I didn't think to say anything about outer-space!" Theo cried quietly as they headed for their preferred corner of the library. "I can't believe how inferior Wixen knowledge is scientifically when compared to Muggles!"
Hermione patted his shoulder consolingly.
"I know, but we can exchange those books and you'll have all summer to get caught up."
They had already agreed to exchange as many books as possible. Hermione was ignorant on the laws, traditions, and customs that Theo was incessantly raised on and Theo had no knowledge at all of any branch of the many Muggle sciences.
Theo murmured an agreement as he grabbed their stack of books and handed half of it to Hermione.
"Ready?" he said with an excited sparkle in his light brown eyes.
"Ready."
Hermione opened her book to the bookmark she had carefully placed during their last visit and settled in her chair to read.
"The Amazon Tree Boa (Corallus Hortulanus) is a non-venomous boa species found in the Amazon Basin in South America with no subspecies currently recognized. They kill their prey in various ways. Some snake species constrict their prey, some will press it to the ground or chew it to kill it and some just catch their victim and swallow their prey alive."
Not it, she thought with equal parts irritation and excitement. None of the students had any sort of bite marks or bruising that would show if this was the snake attacking them. She wanted to identify the specific snake that was petrifying Muggleborns, but she couldn't lie that the research challenge was a thrill in itself.
She flipped to the next serpent in her book;
"The Arabian Sand Boa, also know as Jayakar's sand boa, is a harmless boa species endemic to the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula and southern Iran. The species geographic range includes eastern Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, and Kuwait."
Harmless.
Next.
"Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam the Magical Lands, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it."
"Theo, oh my God, Theo," she whispered fiercely.
"What?" Theo's head popped up behind his own book about serpents only native to the United Kingdom.
"I- oh my God- I think I found it!"
Theo's jaw snapped shut with an audible sound in the silent library.
He snatched the book out of her hands and read the passage himself.
"Why do you think it's a basilisk?" he asked with a curious look.
"It fits!" Hermione whispered. "It must be very old to have been around fifty years ago when Myrtle died and to have been Slytherins personal monster! And remember how we heard Hagrid telling Professor Sprout about his roosters being killed? What if that was the Heir making sure they couldn't accidentally kill the Basilisk?!"
"But if anyone looked in the basilisks eyes they would be dead, not petrified," Theo said logically.
"Not if they didn't look directly in its eyes," Hermione said, thinking quickly. "No one must have looked it straight in the eye, don't you see? Colin saw it through his camera. The basilisk burned up all the film inside it, but Colin just got Petrified. Justin must have seen the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick! Nick got the full blast of it, but he's a ghost so couldn't die again! And Cheyenne was found beside that big mirror on the fourth floor, what if she only saw the basilisk in the reflection?"
Theo's eyes went glassy and he stared through Hermione for a moment, like he did when he was thinking hard, before he gasped.
"You're a genius!" he said. "You've done it!!"
Hermione beamed at her friend and pulled on his hand.
"Let's go tell the others!!"
"You guys! Hermione is a genius!"
Their friends looked up from the intense game of... poker?... as Theo and Hermione ran up to them in the Slytherin common room.
"Are you playing poker?" she asked them curiously, forgetting about her discovery for a moment. "I didn't know you knew how to play. I love poker!"
Harry gave her a small smirk, "I taught Draco over the summer, didn't I? Blaise already knew how to play-"
Blaise grinned, "Stepfather number four was something of a card shark."
"- and Ron's a quick study," Harry said.
"Luna, Neville, and I aren't playing," Susan added on. "It looks terribly complicated."
"Oh it's not! It's easy!" Hermione assured her. "You just have to learn the different hands and learn which hands trump which and learn the different suits and-"
Neville laughed at her rambling enthusiasm, "I think Hermione easy and average people easy are two different things."
Hermione smiled at what she was pretty sure was a compliment.
"Never mind that," Theo said shortly, narrowing his eyes slightly at Neville. "Hermione and I have something to tell you guys!!"
Hermione and Theo quickly sat down and showed everyone else the page in the book they had checked out. Hermione added on her theory on how each attack must have happened.
"A basilisk?" Ron whispered, horrified. "But those are supposed to be all but extinct... and huge! How would it be able to get around the castle?"
Hermione struggled to think of a logical answer, but Theo found it, "The pipes! I bet it's going through the pipes in the walls! That's why Harry heard it but didn't see it!"
"That sounds amazing," Harry sighed wistfully. "Can you imagine what all we could do with a pet basilisk?"
"No!" Draco jumped to his feet and pointed an accusing finger at Harry. "You are not going to adopt a basilisk that could kill us with only its eyes!"
Harry glanced at Susan who, thankfully, shook her head gently. Hermione has been momentarily worried that the other witch would encourage Harry to try and find it to keep as a pet. She could be just as impulsive and insane as he was sometimes.
"Fine," Harry crossed his arms and slumped down sullenly. "This is the tornado of inferi all over again," he glared at Draco who had returned to his seat. "One day I'm going to have something amazing like that and you're going to be so jealous."
"Tornado of inferi?" Hermione whispered to Theo.
"Best not to ask," he whispered back.
She nodded, quickly agreeing. Her and Theo had stayed up all night one night over Christmas break reading about Muggle Psychology. Theo had been fascinated by the subject as Wixen had no equivalent areas of study. They had realized when they read about some of the more severe diagnoses that Harry was probably more than just mad; he was probably actually clinically insane.
He was still their friend, and they loved him, but he was crazy, and had crazy ideas, and a pet basilisk or a tornado of inferi sounded just like the type of mad thing he would try and pursue.
"How do you kill a basilisk, besides using the crow a rooster?" Neville asked hesitantly.
"We can't kill it!" Draco said. "Basilisks are incredibly rare! Potions that use their venom are worth as much as my family home!"
"So a dead basilisk would be worth more than an alive one," Susan pointed out.
"Brill, let's kill it then."
Hermione gaped at Harry.
"I thought you didn't care if Muggleborns were being petrified," she said stiffly.
"Mione," Harry's green eyes looked momentarily hurt. "I didn't say it like that. I wouldn't care if it was purebloods that were being petrified either. You know that I don't care about that bloodline nonsense."
"I don't want anyone to be attacked," she argued. "Just because you don't care about anyone else doesn't mean the rest of us don't."
"Who says I don't care about anyone else?" Harry said, now looking angry. "What did any of those other students do for me, huh? Creevey was trying to sneak in to the Hospital Wing to take my photo while I was regrowing the bones in my arm. Justin practically called me a murderer in front of the whole bloody school, and I wasn't even here for that Ravenclaw girl! Why should I care if they're frozen or not? I didn't see any of them speaking up defending me when the whole fuckin' school was against me!"
Harry no longer looked hurt, he looked furious. Susan reached over to him and grabbed one of his hands gently, which he almost immediately shook off, still glaring darkly at Hermione. Hermione swallowed hard and glanced at Theo for backup.
"Hermione didn't mean it like that," Theo said immediately. "She's just worried. Who knows who the Heir might attack next? It sounds like it's just luck that it's only petrified the other students."
Harry still looked angry but less so now.
"If just one more person got attacked though we could be rid of Dumbledore," he said. "That's all I want- one more attack."
"See!" Hermione cried, unable to keep silent at such a callous remark. "This is what I mean! You shouldn't hope for another attack! You should be helping us find the Heir!"
Harry stared hard at her and Theo, his eyes flicking quickly between the two of them.
"I thought we agreed that we weren't going to get involved with the Heir," he said slowly.
The other students were all quietly watching the disagreement. Except Luna, who was whispering to the thin air because she was just as mad as Harry and Susan sometimes.
"We didn't agree to anything," Hermione said. "You said you weren't getting involved but I still want to know who is attacking the students that are like me."
All at once Harry, who had looked tightly coiled and ready for a fight, relaxed and gave Hermione a lazy smile.
"Mione nothing is going to happen to you. You're the smartest witch in the whole fuckin' castle, aren't you? No measly basilisk is a match for you."
Hermione would have called Harry out for his language except she was blushing just a bit at his words. Theo coughed lightly and rolled his eyes.
"I still say we should kill the basilisk," he said.
"Hear, hear," Ron called with a grin.
"Harry, can we?" Susan asked, turning her pouting puppy dog eyes on Harry. "Think of all the potions Professor Snape could make with the venom."
At the mention of Professor Snape Harry tensed up. Hermione and Theo exchanged glances again. They'd compared notes and knew that ever since Harry's guardianship had been officially cleared there'd been something weird going on between the two of them. But Harry wasn't the sharing type, so they agreed to just keep watching. Susan was constantly encouraging Harry to talk with her about it, but the Slytherin boy was stubbornly silent, insisting that nothing was wrong, he was thrilled about the guardianship, and he was fine.
Which was such a lie that Hermione nearly scoffed every time she heard it. Harry Potter was a lot of things, but she didn't think he'd ever been 'fine' a day in his life.
"We aren't killing the basilisk right now or finding the Heir as long as they leave us alone and that is that," he hissed. "We need the basilisk alive long enough to attack one more student so we can be rid of Dumbledore."
The rest of the kids seemed to shiver at the way the room felt colder when Harry said that.
They all went silent and after a few moments until Ron picked his cards back up with a pointed grin towards the other boys.
"Well if we aren't killing a basilisk then are we gonna play cards or not?"
"We should be revising," Hermione insisted, happier with the topic change since Harry looked more relaxed now that he'd picked up his own cards.
"It's only March," Draco said. "We still have eons until exams."
Hermione rolled her eyes and pulled a book out of her bag.
"I'll study with you," Theo offered.
"Me too," said Neville with a shy smile. "I could use all the help I can get."
"I'll help you," Theo said quickly.
Hermione smiled at Theo, he was always so quick to help Neville with his studies. Sometimes she was confused how Theo didn't end up in Ravenclaw with her. It would have been nice to have someone to sit in the tower with for quiet study sessions in front of the fireplace. Luna certainly never wanted to work with her.
They studied quietly for a few minutes while the other boys played poker and Susan whispered with Luna.
"If you were going to kill the basilisk though, how would you do it?" Blaise asked. Harry glared at him and the Italian boy raised his hands with a smile. "I know we aren't going to, but I was just thinking you'd probably have to cut it's head off right? That's how snakes are killed. But it's supposed to be huge so I bet it's got thick skin."
"So we'd use a sword," Ron snorted.
"A regular sword won't cut through basilisk hide," Draco said haughtily. "And we shouldn't be talking about killing it at all. They're all but extinct."
Theo seemed to be drawn in to the conversation, "What about a goblin made sword? If they can cut through dragon hide then they can cut Basilisks."
"Who is cutting open dragons?" Draco shrieked. "You shouldn't just go around cutting open innocent animals!"
"Draco's right," Luna said softly. "Dragons can be quite sweet if you treat them gently."
Hermione stared incredulously at Luna.
"Sweet? Luna are you insa-"
"Don't finish that sentence," Harry said quietly, staring down at the cards in his hands.
Hermione huffed but picked her book back up. Honestly if it weren't for Theo then she'd think all the kids in this school were completely insane.
Everyone returned to their previous activity, the conversation about killing a basilisk, or dragon, seemingly over until Harry hummed thoughtfully as he moved some of his chips in to the pot.
"I'd borrow Draco's dads sword," he said thoughtfully. "He said it was goblin made, didn't he? It looked wicked on his wall." Harry got another wistful look in his eyes and Draco gave him an exasperated look.
"You already have a knife," he said.
Harry shrugged, "Yeah but a sword would be way cooler, wouldn't it?"
"It really would," Ron agreed. "Imagine if the supposed Heir of Slytherin was walking around with a bloody giant sword."
The rest of the kids, except Susan, exchanged cautious looks.
"I bet Mister Malfoy would loan it to me," Harry muttered.
Draco's suddenly pale face all but confirmed it. Hermione hoped that he would write to his father immediately and make sure he never sent Harry a sword.
Harry was dangerous enough with a little pocketknife and his ridiculous amount of magical power. The last thing Harry needed was an actual sword. He'd decapitate someone just to test its sharpness.
***
Towards the end of March Hermione was starting to slightly regret becoming friends with as many Quidditch fanatics as she had.
Exams were only six weeks away and all they seemed to care about was the upcoming Slytherin-Ravenclaw match.
"Tomorrows winners get the Quidditch House Cup," Ron explained, as if that made it okay to not study.
"Exams are more important than a silly trophy," she said back tersely.
Theo gave her a sympathetic look but kept quietly reading his textbook and eating his dinner.
"Harry you have to eat more," Draco was nagging. "You cannot faint on the pitch!"
"I'm not going to faint," Harry sneered. He quickly glanced up at the Head Table before picking at his mash. "I'm not hungry."
"You'd feel better if you'd just talk to him," Susan muttered.
"Mind your own business," Harry snapped.
The other kids all stared slack-jawed at Harry before quickly turning their attention back to their own plates. Harry never talked to Susan like that. They were usually like two halves of the same mad brain.
"You said this is what you wanted," Susan said. "So quit being stupid and just go tell him how you're feeling."
Harry leapt to his feet and leaned down in to Susan's face.
"I do not need to go talk about my 'feelings'," he said nastily. "You don't know anything."
Hermione watched as Harry stalked out of the hall. She looked up at the Head Table and saw that Professor Snape was watching him as well and had a peculiar expression on his usually expressionless face. Almost like he was sad... but also confused?
Susan just looked sad.
"He's not handling things well," she said softly.
"I thought he wanted to live with Snape?" Neville said quietly.
"He does," Susan sighed. "It's complicated."
"Did Harry tell you why he's upset?" Hermione asked hesitantly. Susan wouldn't tell her anything if she thought Hermione was just being nosy about Harry. But Hermione had seen how odd Harry had been lately and she was concerned. He was her friend too.
"He doesn't have to say anything," Susan said cryptically, getting to her feet. "You just have to pay attention to what he doesn't say."
Theo was once again thinking the exact same thing that Hermione was.
"Well that was incredibly cryptic."
***
At breakfast the next morning Harry and Susan had clearly decided to move past whatever their disagreement had been about. Harry was sitting beside her as usual and they had walked in to the Hall this morning side by side and whispering gleefully.
"You guys will definitely win," Susan smiled at Harry and Draco as she subtly slipped a few sausages on Harry's plate. "I can feel it."
"I can't," Luna said with an uncharacteristic frown. "Are you sure the match is today? The nargles said it isn't."
Harry, who usually listened intently about Luna's 'nargles', gave her a crooked grin.
"Nargles might be wrong this time Luna. Flint's only been talking about it all night."
Luna hummed but didn't disagree. Hermione wondered how Luna had slept in the Ravenclaw Tower and not heard the constant conversations about today's match. Hermione hadn't even been able to read in the common room because of the constant Quidditch match.
"Perfect conditions!" Ron said cheerfully, making a few notes on a parchment in front of him. "Not a cloud in the sky!"
"What are the current odds?" Blaise asked.
Ron scribbled a few more notes on the parchment and studied it carefully.
"Conditions improved Slytherins odds, but Chang has only lost two matches in the last two years. So it's pretty tight. About 2-1 in Ravenclaws favor."
Hermione thought that if Ron would only put as much effort in to his studies as he did his gambling that he'd be a much better student.
"So if someone bet 5 galleons on Slytherin, how much would they win?" Hermione asked them. She'd made 7 galleons when Harry won his duel against the Weasley Twins and was able to purchase half a dozen new books. If she used the original 5 galleons she still had to bet again, and won, she'd like to buy one of the portable bookcases she saw over the summer at Diagon Alley.
"2 to 1 odds means you'll win 2 Galleons for every 1 Galleon you bet," Theo explained. "So if you bet 5 Galleons again and Slytherin wins then you'll get your bet of 5 back plus 10 more. If you put your 5 Galleons on Ravenclaw and they win then you get your original bet back plus 2 Galleons."
"When's the latest I can place a bet?" Hermione asked excitedly. She didn't like to make a habit of gambling, but Harry and Draco were excellent fliers. Harry had caught the snitch last game with a shattered arm and his contributions to the game were worth 150 points. Plus, 15 Galleons would be nearly enough for the bookcase she wanted. Then she wouldn't have to decide which books to leave at home every year.
"You have until Madame Hooch blows the whistle," Ron told her.
"Excellent!" Hermione hurriedly packed her bag. "I've got to run to my dorm for my money. I'll meet you guys in the stands!"
Theo gave her a sweet smile that made her cheeks turn the faintest shade of pink.
"I'll save you a seat," he promised.
Hermione was smiling all the way through the empty corridors. She scrambled in her trunk for her coin purse and rushed out of the Ravenclaw Tower. Hermione wasn't as concerned with her looks as most girls her age were, she thought it was ridiculous to waste so much time on things as silly as hair and makeup, but she thought of Theo's soft brown eyes and stopped to check her reflection in a suit of armor outside the library on her way to the pitch. She just didn't want her hair to look ridiculous or have a piece of strawberries stuck in her teeth or something.
The last thing Hermione saw that day were the large yellow eyes of the biggest snake she'd ever even imagined could exist.