"Al—alright." Her logic begged to differ, but her heart told her not to push him on this. "That's fine, Draco. We'll focus on the Horcrux."

The lock sealed itself with a twist of his fingers, and he turned to face her.

Hermione shifted her weight to tuck a curl behind her ear. "We have to find a way to get into Hogwarts."

"We are not going anywhere, Granger. Only one of us has access to the castle." He reclined against the cabinet. "Tell me how to get into the Chamber of Secrets."

She stared at him. "You can't go alone, Draco. I can't ask that of you—"

"You didn't." He crossed his arms. "I volunteered for this, remember?"

She frowned at the tightness in his posture. "It's a sink in the second floor girls' lavatory. You need to speak Parseltongue to it."

"And how did Weaselbee manage that?"

Hermione blinked at the sharp edge in his voice. His sneer. He was upset about what he'd seen in the memory, and she'd been too focused on her grief to notice.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to choose her words carefully. "Ron picked up a bit of Parseltongue he'd heard from Harry. It was blind luck, truly."

Draco pushed off the cabinet and rolled his shoulders back. "There's a journal on Parseltongue in the library. I'll check when it's time."

She nodded slowly. "And when will it be… time?"

"We'll have to wait for an opportunity." He scratched his jaw. "I can make an excuse to visit the castle, but it will need to be when the Dark Lord is guaranteed to be out of the country."

"And when will that be?"

"I couldn't say."

Hermione huffed, standing up tall. "There has to be a quicker way. We can't wait indefinitely—"

"Granger, if I'm caught, how would you like me to explain to the Dark Lord what I was doing in the Chamber of Secrets?" He glanced away from the fingernails he'd been studying. "What excuse would you suggest?"

Her blood began to boil at his condescending tone, but now was not the time to argue. "We can come back to this later."

"We can come back to all of it," he said. "You should eat something more than toast today."

She glared at him. "Fine."

They closed up Lucius's study and headed to the kitchen to see what they could scrounge up before dinner. Hermione's mind was furiously running through possible ways to sneak into the Chamber of Secrets sooner rather than later while Draco brooded next to her.

They both froze when they turned the corner to the entry hall and found Narcissa waiting for them. Her lips twisted down in displeasure.

"Mother." Draco moved forward reluctantly, and Hermione followed. Her blood pumped faster with each step.

Narcissa folded her hands when they stopped in front of her, her eyes fixed on her son. "I was awoken in the early morning by a Floo call from your father. He was anxious to know why someone opened his study yesterday."