Life flows at a measured pace until Halloween. Classes in both schools take up ridiculously little time, and I've become slightly bored. In my free time, I study privacy charms and disillusionment charms. While the former started working almost immediately, I'm stuck with the latter—they disappear as soon as I start moving. And I desperately need them to get into the Room of Requirement, because the portraits are vigilant, and paranoia is everything! I've already been exposed in every way possible.
The girls and I have a cultural exchange going. They teach me ironing charms, fresh breath charms, light glamour charms—an incredibly useful thing if you didn't get enough sleep or if a pimple popped up on your nose. And an even more useful thing in my case—hair combing charms. And I teach them how to weave complex braids, although right now I'm mostly doing their hair myself, as it's still difficult for them to get the hang of it. In the age of accessible internet, such hairstyles wouldn't surprise anyone, but here they're perceived as almost the pinnacle of hairdressing art. Susan has such beautiful hair—I could work with it forever.
I've also got my house hooked on Muggle fiction. People became interested in what books I was constantly reading, and in just two months, they gained crazy popularity. I'm not the only one with nothing to do at Hogwarts. And since you can make as many temporary copies as you want here, very soon from different corners you could hear "Nasty Hobbitses! They stole our Precious!" and verbal battles were held on the topic of who was cooler, Gandalf or Dumbledore. They would be better off discussing who has less of a relationship with logic, Gandalf or Dumbledore—in my opinion, a more relevant topic. Around Sheckley's "Mindswap," a real scientific debate broke out among the upper-years. They decided that the author was definitely not a Muggle and certainly familiar with Occlumency.
On October 31st, I tried to stay with the group all day and made sure that none of my classmates wandered off either. We sat down to dinner, and I discreetly glanced around the hall—all of our people seemed to be in place.
"Troll! In the dungeons! Troll!" our local two-faced Janus bursts into the hall and artistically faints.
Dumbledore sends everyone to their common rooms. Okay, the Slytherins, but what did the Hufflepuffs do to upset him? As far as I remember, the troll is actually on the third floor right now, and no house crosses paths with it on the way to their common room, so I calmly go with everyone else.
In the common room, frightened and confused students gather. I consulted with the girls and went to the prefect with a suggestion to organize a general tea party. He appreciated the idea and sent everyone to their dormitories for cups and sweets to set up a common table. We brought tea bags with different flavors and a teapot from our room. Thanks to Engorgio, the teapot became quite impressive in size, and two such teapots were enough for the entire house. Hannah asked me to bring my guitar. They're not tired of it yet, since I usually play with silencing charms.
After two songs, Professor Sprout arrived and informed us that the troll had been neutralized. It was indeed found on the third floor. They poured her some tea too. We tried to ask where the troll came from, but she was silent as a partisan.
Since there was such a splendid occasion, I ask Susan to find out from her aunt the contacts of a good lawyer. Because who knows what else might happen, if trolls can enter the school as if it's their own home.
The next day, Snape was limping and looking at the world even more gloomily than usual, if that's even possible. And after dinner, the restless pair of Gryffindors approached me with a wonderful question:
"Hermione, do you happen to know who Flamel is?"
"As a matter of fact, I do. He's a famous French scientist, an alchemist. He made several outstanding discoveries. And our headmaster Dumbledore co-authored a paper with him on the properties of dragon's blood," —let them think in this direction rather than toward the Philosopher's Stone— "why?"
It turned out that after lunch, the boys had visited Hagrid, and he let slip that the troll might be connected to that very robbery, and anyway, it's not your business, but Flamel's business.
The next day, it turned out that the culprit was... right, Professor Snape. Although the Philosopher's Stone wasn't mentioned in the accusation. When asked what Snape had to do with it (it's difficult to fit Voldemort in here without the Philosopher's Stone), it turned out that he had quite a lot to do with it. After all, Snape is a potions master, which makes him almost an alchemist. And Flamel is also an alchemist. Surely Snape wants to steal some discovery of Flamel and Dumbledore to get all the glory and money for himself. Well, well.
By the way, regarding great discoveries. I made one such discovery back in September! And I don't intend to share it with anyone. At least, not yet. My Faraday cage actually worked. Alas, haste makes waste. I was genuinely surprised that it was all so simple and no one had thought of it before, and decided to check how the player would work without protection. It didn't. And after this bold experiment, the screen didn't work either. I should have conducted the test closer to Christmas, but I didn't think of it and was left without music for the entire semester.