Hermione sat at a desk in the Gryffindor Common Room, scribbling her plan for the night over and over again on a scrap piece of parchment. Balls of paper already littered the floor around her feet, as the garbage can had filled up earlier in the evening after Hermione had returned from classes. Currently it was dinner time, and Lily, James, Remus, Sirius and Peter surprisingly enough, were serving a long detention with Professor McGongall. She called their prank yesterday, 'reckless endangerment of human life' and practically marched them all single file into her office before locking the door tight.
Hermione herself felt slightly guilty for letting Pettigrew take her place in detention, but it gave her time to plan in quiet, as well as give the others a chance to keep an eye on him. So now, while everyone was at dinner, Hermione sat alone, scribbling away the the lamplight. She had only just finished another well thought out plan when there were two distinct cracks somewhere behind her. Turning, Quitz stood there, holding the hand of Dobby. Hermione almost felt like fainting at the sight of him, living and breathing once more. She also took into account that he was no longer a 'free elf', at least not yet,
"Wonderful, welcome to Hogwarts, Dobby," Hermione stated with a smile, seeing the elf widen his eyes slightly,
"You know Dobby's name? Dobby has never been addressed so kindly by a great Witch, ma'am,"
"I'm not anywhere near great Dobby, as I was disowned and no longer hold my title-"
"Oh but my lady, already Dobby can tell you are a good person. Quitz told me so, ma'am,"
"Well thank you, Dobby. You can just call me. Hermione if you'd like. But know that I don't take kindly to house elves punishing themselves in front of me,"
Dobby's ears seemed to sink with guilt as he hid his badly bandaged hands behind his back. Harry told Hermione once that Dobby's way of punishing himself was to iron his fingers. That didn't sit well with her, not at all,
"Anyway, I'm sorry to have pulled you away from your duties at the Malfoy's, but I need to ask you something-"
"Dobby hates to speak out of turn, Missus Hermione, but Dobby has already found what you are looking for,"
Blinking in bewilderment, Hermione sat back as a white pillowcase tied with a spare piece of rope appeared in the elf's hand. Wincing as her arm began to burn slightly, Hermione already knew the Diary was inside,
"It has bad magic in it," Dobby complained softly, holding the pillowcase as if it would bite him, "my Master ordered me to hide it somewhere safe. I thought that it would be well protected here at Hogwarts, ma'am,"
Hermione smiled slightly and lifted a brow. She read in a book of 'Common Wizarding Classics' that House Elves were loyal to their Masters. But if they were betrayed, or didn't like their Master, they would exploit loopholes in the orders. Hermione herself had discovered that Kreature often did this, though it reduced greatly once Harry began giving him attention during Order meetings,
'This must be how Dobby disobeys Lucius,' Hermione thought, holding her hand as she winced. The dark magic was reacting to that of the Diary, as if it sensed another piece of Voldemort's soul, 'I can't believe Harry dealt with these phantom pains since he was 11,'
"Dobby, I promise I'll keep the diary out of reach of anyone. Thank you for coming here tonight,"
The little elf nodded his head and made a small motion to Quitz,
"If Dobby ever gets clothes from his master, missus, I will come to you. You are a good Witch, Hermione Black. A good, good witch,"
With that, the little elf disappeared as the pillowcase and diary fell to the table with a slight thud. Looking at it, Quitz poked the bag with a foot,
"Quitz, can you retrieve the Diadem from Aberforth? We're going to need it to get into the Chamber,"
"Of course, missus, right away,"
With another poof of magic, the little elf was gone along with the pillowcase. Groaning and stretching her black veined arm, Hermione was unable to get her focus back on the plans. Even while on the run, both Hermione and Ron told her, practically screamed at her that plans never worked. They started off well enough, but then spiraled into chaos and almost got one, if not all of them killed at once. Defeating Voldemort the last time was by pure dumb luck in its purest form. This time, there was little room for error.
'Voldemort will start noticing,' Hermione thought, leaning on an elbow and chewing her bottom lip again, 'keeping the Horcrux's around is too dangerous. They practically seep dark magic into anything that's near them, and if someone else were to get ahold of them, our only way of killing him would be destroyed,'
Hermione sighed heavily and ran a hand through her auburn locks, hauling them up into a messy ponytail bun as she glanced at the plan laid out on her desk,
'Harry and Ron were right, plans are useless. We just have to be prepared for anything. Even hordes of Death Eaters-'
Moody's idea about 'constant vigilance' came to mind as Hermione giggled slightly, looking up as the common room opened and four boys and a girl stumbled in through the portrait hole. Peter was quick to scurry away to the boys dorms as Remus, Sirius, James and Lily all collapsed down onto the sofas before the fireplace. Standing, Hermione gracefully swept herself towards Remus and landed with her back to his chest,
"How was detention?"
"Horrible. That witch had us write like, 50 foot papers about how we were 'guilty'. My poor hand is killing me," Sirius whined, whimpering like a puppy as everyone else groaned as well. Hermione felt slightly bad about not taking any fall, but she shook the thought away,
"At least I have some good news to give you," Hermione stated, smiling as Remus unconsciously wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, "a friend of mine brought me another Horcrux. After tonight, we should be able to destroy them both,"
"That's great, Mione," James said, tugging Lily closer to him as Sirius stretched out in front of the fire, "so what's the plan?"
"Constant vigilance,"
All of the Marauders and Lily looked at the witch like she had lost her mind. Smirking, Hermione made a move to explain her plan-less thinking,
"Every time I make a plan for something like this, it always goes wrong. There are too many variables to consider, and too many loopholes. The best we can do is to be ready for anything, and have as many resources at our disposal as possible,"
"Not to fault your logic, Hermione. But isn't going into this blind a tad bit risky?" Lily pondered, fine eyebrows knitted as she snuggled closer to James in slight fear. Nodding her head, Hermione sighed deeply and blew a ringlet out of her face,
"Yeah. But we're going down there to fight a giant Basilisk, it can't get much riskier then that,"
'Other then, of course, Mountain Trolls, Dementors, Mermaids, Death Eaters, Half-Blood Princes, and Dark Wizards named Voldemort,'
"I'm in either way," Sirius stared with a lazy raise of his hand,
"I am too, Mia," Remus whispered huskily, causing Hermione to shiver with delight as he laid back with her head on his chest. Soon enough, all of them were in a deep sleep by the firelight, too nervous to sleep deeply as they rested till the clock in the common room chimed midnight. Awakening to the noise, Hermione stood quickly to ready herself as the others followed in tense silence, packing anything they would possibly need in the Chamber. As they were finishing up, Hermione began to recount what she remembered about the Basilisk,
"It's a large snake, raised by Salazar Slytherin to protect his most cherished treasures. Kept in the Chamber of Secrets under the school, Harry told me it was larger then any dragon. It's teeth are filled with venom, and it's eyes can knock you dead with a single glance. Avoid both till it's incapacitated. If Fawkes comes to help us down there, he should go for the eyes. But the snake will still be able to hear you, so stay light on your feet. Prongs, Padfoot, you may even want to change while we're down there, if not for just the speed and agility your counterparts provide-"
"How do we kill it?" James asked, unfolding his invisibility cloak as Hermione shoved some medical tonics into her bottomless satchel,
"Well, hopefully with the sword of Gryffindor. It comes when a worthy student of the Gryffindor house is in dyer need. I'm guessing we're going to be in need down there, so I'm hoping at least one of us is worthy,"
"And what if we aren't?"
The silence returned as Hermione stiffened. That's the thing about constant vigilance. There was no 'Plan B' to be seen,
"I'll get back to you on that. Ok, is everyone ready?"
Hermione turned, seeing all of her friends holding packs of small items. Sirius and James wore their Quidditch Gear as armor, and even held their Broomsticks in hand. Lily had her wand, and Remus was carrying what looked to be a large shield. Lifting a brow, Hermione looked at it,
"Where did you get that, Remus?"
"I took it from the suit of armor in the boys dormitory. Nearly got into a duel for it,"
Quiet but nervous chuckles traveled throughout the group as Hermione nodded and shoved her bag into the pocket of her robes, motioning to Quitz who had just appeared at her side with his pillowcase filled with Horcruxes. Exhaling deeply, she clenched her fists and had everyone hold hands as Quitz side-apparated them all into the Prefects Bathroom on the third floor.
Looking between each other as Hermione approached one of the sinks, even Moaning Myrtle seemed silent as she removed the Diadem from Quitz bag and opened it with a wince. There was a moment of nothing before the sink began to rattle, sinking down to become a long and dark tunnel as everyone approached the edge to look,
"No turning back now," Hermione breathed. This would be the second time in the Chamber of Secrets. But now, there was an actual, living creature down there. Oh joy.