Night.
It was not the first time she had quietly slipped out of her House in the middle of the night.
But compared with her previous experiences, the castle shrouded in darkness before Hermione now gave her the illusion that it was about to swallow people whole, along with a sense of danger.
Was it because Dumbledore was no longer at the school, so she could no longer feel safe?
Just as she was lost in thought, a sharp pain came from her forehead.
"Ow!"
"Pay attention. The Marauder's Map is in your hands, and I don't want to be discovered by those Death Eaters."
"I know."
When Draco appeared at the entrance to the Slytherin common room, what he saw was Hermione hiding in a corner, looking as if she had no idea what she was thinking about.
Only after Draco flicked her forehead did Hermione finally come back to herself and remember that they still had proper business to attend to tonight.
And from the direction they were heading, it was quite clear that their destination should be somewhere on the second floor...
"How is it? Is anyone patrolling nearby?"
"No... I barely see anyone at all."
It was frighteningly quiet.
Hermione even wanted to use those words to describe how she felt.
In fact, these professors, who were Death Eaters, could barely accept the existence of half-blood wizards, but they absolutely could not tolerate a Squib appearing before them.
In other words, after Hogwarts was taken over by the Dark Lord, the caretaker Argus Filch had been expelled from Hogwarts.
Perhaps that explained why no one was patrolling at night...
...
The second-floor girls' bathroom.
Ever since the Basilisk had been defeated, Draco had never set foot in this second-floor girls' bathroom again.
It was as if nothing had ever happened.
No wonder Dumbledore had sealed off all information about this incident.
After all, it involved the Dark Lord's Horcrux...
As for the measures Hogwarts had taken, aside from forbidding anyone from entering or leaving, they had also specially sealed the passageway to the Chamber of Secrets with unique magic.
In addition, Moaning Myrtle, who treated this place as her own home, had been assigned to watch over it, in case someone accidentally discovered this place.
In other words, within Hogwarts, only a very small number of people knew the secret hidden in this girls' bathroom.
And that secret was naturally the Chamber of Secrets, known as the Chamber of the Heir of Slytherin...
Now that Hermione had returned to this girls' bathroom, she looked around the all-too-familiar place with an extremely complicated gaze.
"I never thought I'd have the chance to come back here..."
Hermione's expression was rather complicated.
Although this was only an ordinary girls' bathroom, to Hermione, it was an extremely important place.
Here, aside from precious memories, many things had happened.
And without exception, every one of those memories had Draco in it.
Thinking of that, Hermione could not help looking toward Draco beside her...
It was here that she first learned Draco was not the wicked Dark Wizard she had imagined him to be, because he had saved her from the troll.
It was also here that she first witnessed and personally experienced the power of so-called dark magic.
It could be said that without that adventure back then, there would be no Hermione Granger as she was now...