Hermione very quickly came to appreciate Hogwarts' House point system. For the first time, she had a chance to influence the outcome of a real competition. And not by doing something stupid like running back and forth, but with her own brains and knowledge. She couldn't have imagined a better kind of competition!
From her very first days, she began earning points for Gryffindor, and it did not go unnoticed. After particularly good answers, some of her classmates would give her a friendly pat on the shoulder or congratulate her on the points she had earned. Even Nora, her not particularly friendly roommate, once admitted that at least Hermione wasn't wasting all those hours she spent with her nose buried in books.
Before long, a serious contest for first place developed between Gryffindor and Slytherin, and Hermione, well aware of her own contribution, had no intention of giving way. Unfortunately, not everything depended on her and the other hardworking pupils. There were plenty of irresponsible children in the House who somehow managed to lose points faster than everyone else could earn them. Hermione, of course, had no intention of putting up with that. If someone broke the rules in front of her, she immediately stepped in and sometimes showed even more zeal than Percy Weasley. The Gryffindors might have been pleased with the points she earned, but very few appreciated her constant remarks, and most resented her interfering.
What annoyed her most was that the worst offenders were the prefect's own younger brothers, Fred and George. They brushed off everything Percy said to them and, on top of that, were constantly making fun of him. Their own House prefect!
One evening after dinner, on her way back to Gryffindor Tower, Hermione heard muffled giggling. Peering around the corner, she saw Fred and George doing something to the handle of the History of Magic classroom door. One of the twins was just slipping his wand into an inside pocket of his robes.
"Now every time someone tries to open the door, the handle will yell in Percy's voice, 'Stop touching that door at once!'" Fred said with satisfaction.
Hermione immediately imagined the commotion there would be before the next lesson and how many points would be taken from Gryffindor.
"Have you lost your minds?" she demanded, trying to make her face look as stern as possible. "Gryffindor keeps losing points because of your stupid tricks!"
The twins exchanged a glance.
"Oh, somehow we didn't think of that," George said in mock horror. "Otherwise we'd have enchanted the door to shout in your voice."
"My voice?" Hermione asked, taken aback, but immediately frowned again. "What has my voice got to do with it? You're breaking the rules! Don't you understand?"
"Ah, Hermione," Fred said with a good-natured grin, "it's easy to be good when you don't know how much fun it is to be bad."
She opened her mouth to have another go at them, but the twins hurried off, chuckling.
"Hey, where are you going? Take that spell off at once!" Hermione shouted after them.
But within seconds they had disappeared around the corner, leaving her staring indignantly after them.
Strangely enough, the two Weasleys actually treated Hermione quite well. They took her remarks in good humour and never truly got angry with her, though sometimes their amusement only irritated her even more. Still, that was much better than the reaction of most pupils when she tried to point out their mistakes. Perhaps that was why the twins were forgiven for almost anything. They could drive someone mad and somehow still manage to be liked by them. Sometimes Hermione even envied them a little.
In the end, her determination to stop anyone from breaking the rules led to her breaking them herself.
It all began at dinner. When Hermione noticed Harry Potter arguing about something with Draco Malfoy, she immediately started listening in. Over the past few weeks, she had already learned that Harry and his friend Ron were quite capable of doing something reckless. Even so, Hermione had not completely given up on Harry yet. She still wanted to become friends with him and hoped that, in time, she could get him to behave more sensibly. Ron, on the other hand, she had already put on her list of hopeless rule-breakers, right alongside his older brothers.
Meanwhile, the argument was getting more and more interesting. Before long, Hermione's suspicions were confirmed: they were talking about a midnight duel. The duel itself did not concern her much. Harry and Draco were unlikely to take things too far. Far worse was the fact that Gryffindor would almost certainly lose points again because of this stupid idea.
As soon as Malfoy walked away, she went straight over to Harry.
"Excuse me," she began.
"Can't a person eat in peace in this place?" Ron Weasley cut in irritably, without looking up from his plate.
Hermione, already used to his remarks, brushed him aside like an annoying fly.
"I couldn't help overhearing what you and Malfoy were saying –"
"Bet you could," Ron muttered.
She shot him an angry look and continued, addressing Harry.
"– and you mustn't go wandering around the school at night, think of the points you'll lose Gryffindor if you're caught, and you're bound to be. It's really very selfish of you."
"And it's really none of your business," Harry snapped.
Hermione gasped with indignation, and Ron added,
"Goodbye."
The two of them got up from the table and headed for the doors. Hermione stayed where she was, glaring after them. Her cheeks were burning, and their insolent replies were still ringing in her ears.
'Fine! They'll understand when they get expelled.'
But almost at once, she pushed the thought aside.
'No. I have to stop them. I can't let them cost Gryffindor points over something so stupid!'
The most obvious solution was to find Percy. He was a prefect and would surely be able to talk some sense into Harry and Ron without getting the teachers involved. But Percy seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth. Hermione checked the common room, the library and several other places where she usually saw him, but he was nowhere to be found.
Eventually, she ran into Fred and George.
"Have you seen Percy?" Hermione asked.
George narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"What, planning to tell on someone? It's written all over your face."
Hermione instinctively raised a hand to her face, then immediately realised what she had done and felt embarrassed. The twins burst out laughing and walked on without answering her.
After several more unsuccessful attempts to find Percy, Hermione gave up.
'If I have to, I'll stop those idiots myself. Besides, there's still plenty of time before midnight. Maybe Percy will turn up yet,' she reassured herself, and went off to do her homework.
***
As midnight drew closer, the common room was empty. Hermione had finished her homework long ago and was now sitting in an armchair with a book for some extra reading. All evening, she had kept glancing towards the staircase, growing more and more irritated at the thought that Harry and Ron were willing to risk the points she had worked so hard to earn. Still, somewhere deep down, Hermione was hoping that Harry would think better of it and she would not have to interfere at all.
Gradually, it became harder to read. Her eyes kept closing, the lines began to blur in front of her, and she found herself increasingly losing track of what she had just read. There was very little time left until midnight, so Hermione closed the book, put it aside and turned off the lamp. Now all she had to do was wait.
In the dim light, the drowsiness grew even stronger. Hermione tried to keep her eyes open, but before long her head kept nodding. Eventually, she dozed off, but almost at once the sound of cautious footsteps upstairs woke her. She started, raised her head and listened. Her sleepiness vanished at once.
Harry and Ron were creeping down the staircase. They were clearly trying not to make any noise and seemed not to have noticed Hermione sitting in the dark armchair at all. At first, she wanted to call out to them straight away, but then changed her mind and kept quiet, deciding that catching them by surprise would have more effect. Only when the boys had almost reached the exit did Hermione switch on the lamp and say loudly,
"I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry."
Ron jumped in surprise, and Hermione noted with some satisfaction that her plan had worked. But as soon as he saw who was sitting in the armchair, he hissed angrily,
"You! Go back to bed!"
"I almost told your brother. Percy – he's a Prefect; he'd put a stop to this."
Hermione wisely left out the fact that she had kept quiet only because she hadn't managed to find him. Harry, unlike Ron, reacted much more calmly to seeing her there. He simply looked at her, then said to his friend,
"Come on."
Hermione blinked in confusion. For several seconds, she remained sitting in the armchair, unable to believe that Harry had simply ignored everything she had said. Meanwhile, the boys had already slipped out of the common room.
She jumped to her feet. Her first impulse was to shout and wake some of the older pupils, but she immediately bit her tongue. Then Harry and Ron would certainly be caught, and Gryffindor would suffer as well.
No. Absolutely not.
She hurried after them and slipped through the passage into the corridor. Harry and Ron had not got far yet.
"Don't you care about Gryffindor, do you only care about yourselves, I don't want Slytherin to win the House Cup."
The boys merely exchanged a glance.
"Go away," they said together.
Hermione felt her cheeks grow hot. She drew an angry breath through her nose.
"All right, but I warned you, you must remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so –"
'Idiots' never made it past her lips. Neither did 'puffed-up turkeys', which was already waiting to follow. Hermione pressed her lips together. No, she was not going to stoop to name-calling. Especially not with those who, by tomorrow, would most likely no longer be Hogwarts pupils.
She gave an angry huff, turned towards the portrait and froze.
The frame was empty.
Hermione stared at it, then looked back at Harry and Ron walking away, and then at the empty portrait again. The Fat Lady had gone off somewhere, and there was no one there to open the passage back into Gryffindor Tower. Her irritation quickly gave way to worry. Hermione had no idea how long she would have to wait for her to return. And what if a teacher came along the corridor first, or, worse still, Filch? It would not be easy to explain what she was doing out there alone in the middle of the night.
Hermione pursed her lips in annoyance. No, staying by the portrait was too risky, so she hurried after the boys.
"I'm coming with you," she said firmly.
Harry and Ron, of course, objected, but Hermione had already made up her mind. If they were caught, she would explain that she had been trying to stop them and that was the only reason she was there. Harry and Ron would confirm what she said. For some reason, Hermione did not doubt for a moment that they would.
After a brief argument, they continued on and almost immediately ran into Neville, who had forgotten the password and now could not get back into the common room either. When he found out where Harry and Ron were going, he was clearly not pleased. But with the Fat Lady gone, he had no choice but to follow them.
For a while, all four of them walked in silence. Hermione stayed a little behind, beside Neville, glancing at him from time to time. At last, she leaned towards him and asked quietly,
"Will you help me get them to go back?"
Neville looked at her in surprise.
"Me?"
"Yes. They're going to break the rules, and they could cost Gryffindor points."
Neville looked at Harry and Ron walking ahead of them and became visibly nervous.
"I don't know... How? I don't want to argue with them."
Hermione's mouth tightened in annoyance. It seemed she could not count on Neville's help. Still, having him there might prove useful.
"All right," she whispered. "Then if we get caught, at least say you were helping me get them to go back. That way you won't be punished either."
Neville looked at her again, clearly not understanding how he had already helped anyone.
"But I haven't..."
"You want them to go back to the common room so none of us gets caught, don't you?" Hermione asked.
Neville hesitated, then nodded uncertainly.
"Well... yes."
"Good," Hermione whispered with satisfaction. "If we get caught, say what I told you."
At that moment, Ron looked back and shushed them irritably. Hermione glared at his back but said nothing. They walked the rest of the way in complete silence.
The duel was to take place in the trophy room on the third floor. As they crept through the dark corridors towards it, Hermione wasted no time and worked out an explanation in her head in case they did run into Filch. During her first few weeks at Hogwarts, she had already heard enough about the caretaker that the nickname 'Mrs Filch', which some pupils still teased her with from time to time, no longer seemed even remotely funny. Rumour had it that the caretaker was always looking for an excuse to punish a pupil, and one first-year had even insisted that Filch had practised Dark Magic in his youth and that some rule-breakers he caught were never seen again.
At the time, Hermione had dismissed such stories as complete nonsense. Dumbledore would never allow Filch to mistreat the pupils. But now, creeping through the unusually dark and quiet castle, she no longer felt quite so certain. So she needed to come up with as convincing an explanation as possible. Yet the longer Hermione thought about what exactly she would tell the caretaker if they were caught, the more she began to doubt that he would listen to them at all. Following Harry and Ron no longer seemed like such a good idea.
Just then, they reached the trophy room. It was dim inside. Faint moonlight came through the windows and glinted off the cups, shields and medals. Malfoy and his second, Crabbe, had not arrived yet, and while they waited, the four of them kept looking around warily.
Hermione peered especially closely into the dark corners of the room. Every so often, she thought she saw something, or someone, moving there. 'Why did I ever have to tag along with them?' she thought, growing more annoyed with herself by the minute.
Suddenly, a noise came from the next room. Hermione flinched, and a moment later she heard Filch's raspy voice.
"Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner."
He was apparently talking to his cat, Mrs Norris, who almost always followed close at his heels.
Harry, Ron and Neville quickly headed for the opposite exit. Hermione's first impulse was to run after them, but she stopped. She was sick and tired of creeping through dark corridors and running away as if she were some kind of criminal. After all, she had done nothing wrong. Quite the opposite, Hermione had been trying to stop Harry and Ron all along. Maybe it would be better to stay and calmly explain to Filch what had happened.
While she hesitated, the others had already disappeared through the door. Then Hermione realised that Filch would find her there alone. Neither Harry nor Ron, nor even Neville, would be there to back up her story.
That was enough to make her change her mind and dash after the boys. As she ran out into the corridor, Hermione caught a glimpse of Filch entering the room, holding a lantern out in front of him. Its glare probably kept him from noticing her as she slipped through the opposite door at the last moment.
"They're in here somewhere." His voice came from behind her. "Probably hiding."
Hermione was no longer thinking about explanations. She hurried away with the others, trying to make as little noise as possible. But at that very moment, Neville tripped and crashed into a suit of armour standing by the wall. The noise echoed through the castle. After that, there was no point in being careful. All four of them took off running without any idea where they were going and did not stop until neither Filch nor his cat could be heard anywhere nearby.
Hermione stopped, breathing hard after the run. Her heart was still pounding, but the fear was quickly giving way to irritation. All of this could have been avoided if Harry had thought for even a moment before agreeing to that stupid duel.
"Malfoy tricked you. You realise that, don't you? He was never going to meet you."
She looked at him, expecting him to understand at least now how stupid he had been. But Harry only waved her off and repeated the same sort of response that was already starting to get on her nerves.
"Let's go."
Hermione stared after him for a few seconds. Is that all? He had just nearly been caught by Filch because of an obvious trap and was not even going to stop and think about what had happened. Hermione followed angrily. Not long ago, she had thought she might be able to become friends with Harry. Now she was no longer so sure. It was quite possible that he was just as stupid as his friend Ron Weasley.
They were just about to head back to Gryffindor Tower when Peeves, the school poltergeist, appeared right in front of them. Spotting first-years out after curfew, he was delighted. Harry tried to quiet him down, while Ron, for some reason, decided to threaten him. Of course, that only made things worse. Peeves immediately started yelling at the top of his voice, calling for Filch. They took off running again and soon found themselves faced with a locked door.
"This is it!" Ron groaned. "We're done for! This is the end!"
Not long ago, Hermione might have thought that was exactly what he deserved for being so stupid. Who in their right mind would threaten a poltergeist? But now she herself had no idea how she was supposed to explain to Filch why she had run away from him the first time.
"Oh, move over," she ordered, pulling out her wand. She touched it to the lock and said, "Alohomora!"
The lock clicked open. All four of them tumbled inside and hurriedly shut the door behind them. A few seconds later, they heard Filch and Peeves outside. Fortunately, the poltergeist was not particularly fussy about who he tormented and immediately turned on the caretaker instead. No matter how hard Filch tried to get him to say where the pupils had gone, Peeves refused to tell him anything.
Once she had calmed down a little, Hermione turned away from the door and froze. There was a dog in front of her. A big dog. No, an enormous dog, with three heads that almost reached the ceiling. And it had teeth. A lot of teeth.
For a few moments, Hermione simply stared at it. The dog stared back at the intruders, then growled. That was more than enough. All four of them tumbled out into the corridor, slammed the door behind them and, without a word, bolted for Gryffindor Tower.
This time they were lucky. They did not run into anyone on the way, and the Fat Lady had already returned to her portrait and let them into the common room.
For a while, they all just stood there trying to catch their breath. Ron was the first to speak.
"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?"
Hermione gave him a dismissive look.
"You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you? Didn't you see what it was standing on?"
"The floor?" Harry replied. "I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads."
No, she really had thought too highly of Harry.
"No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something," Hermione said sharply.
She headed towards the staircase leading to the girls' dormitory, but before going up, she turned back to the boys.
"I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed – or worse, expelled. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."
Back in the dormitory, she quickly changed and got into bed, but sleep would not come. Filch, Peeves and the enormous dog's three heads kept flashing through her mind. And then there were Harry and Ron. They were both unbearably stupid. Especially Ron.
Then, in complete darkness, she suddenly noticed a faint bluish glow. Hermione propped herself up on one elbow and pulled the amulet out from under her pyjamas.
It was glowing.
Before, the amulet had only flashed a couple of times and gone dark again almost at once. Now, though, it was glowing continuously. The light was barely noticeable, but it did not fade and showed no sign of going out.