Hermione sighed, poring over her Advanced Physics textbook and scrawled notes messily across a notebook page in her lap. It had taken some getting-used to, writing with pens and in notebooks again for the first time since she were a child, but it wasn't terribly difficult to get used to. On the up-side, there was no bottle of ink that threatened to spill, or papyrus-thin parchment ripping if she got too frustrated with her writing. Even if both problems were easily fixed with a First Year charm, it was still an inconvenient waste of time.
Hermione had decided to attend a Muggle University right after the war; the Wizarding world was in shambles, and everyone was busy rebuilding the broken families scattered across Britain. She'd stayed for a little while, but she approached Professor McGonagall shortly after the largest of the renovations of Hogwarts were made. She'd made a pathetic excuse to the Headmistress as to why she wanted to leave the Wizarding world for a while, mentioning something about her parent dreams for her or something, she didn't remember, but she had just smiled at her, nodding in understanding, and fixing up a packet o documents for Hermione to tae with her, including birth certificate, High School transcripts, and a spotless juvenile record.
She huffed, she had made another mistake in her writing. She hated that she couldn't fix her mistakes with a pen like she could with a pencil, but she hated writing in pencil for reasons she couldn't fully explain to herself. She looked around, seeing no one near her nor paying attention to her, and she sneakily rummaged through her backpack and found her wand. She held it under the table and pointed it upward at her paper.
"Accio pencil" Hermione froze, looking around the library, then at the bookcase behind which she had head the whisper. It was a deep voice; an obvious male. Surely, she had been hearing things. She shook her head, panicking; she didn't want to run into any witches or wizards, that was the sole reason for attending Muggle school! She tried to calm herself down, running her mind through different things she could have possibly heard that had sounded like a spell. She let out a breath she hadn't been sure she'd been holding when she realized there were many things she could have heard. 'A cute pencil,' and 'Fuck you, pencil,' were just two possibilities.
She laughed at herself for being so paranoid when she pointed her wand at her paper from under the table again. With a swish of her wrist and a Latin whisper, she fixed her notes, then focusing only on her book and notes, she went to write again. She was just nibbling on the end of her pen and thinking what else she could possibly need to know for the exam when she heard a heavy thud right behind her, on the other side of a different book case. "For God's sake, I don't have time for thi—Accio book!" Unable to deny it this time, Hermione quickly packed everything into her bag, sliding her pen into the metal spiral in the spine of her notebook, and pushing it to stand between Hogwarts: A History and her diary. She slung her bag over her shoulder, and went to investigate.
Slyly, she scooted into the aisle of books and acted as if she were studying the titles, though hardly paying attention. She pulled a few off the shelf, flipping through a few pages of each and then adding them to the stack in her arm she had started. Finally she managed to create a hole, because a large book was missing on the other side of the shelf, and she peered through it. No one was there; she sighed in frustration; he must have moved without her noticing. She'd have sworn she hadn't heard him move.
A loud pop beside her made her jump; her hand flew to her chest and she gasped loudly, spinning and finding a tall seemingly male, juggling dozens of books in his arms, obscuring his face. "Aw, damn it, not again." He muttered. He shimmied the books to one arm, and he pulled his wand out of his pocket and pointed it at her. "Oblivi—" Hermione quickly grabbed his wrist and pushed it to the side. "No! I'm a witch!" She exclaimed in a low voice, still nervous from having a wand pointed at her. He kept his wand in his hand and slightly tensed, he stood silent for a while and then said, "Prove it." She understood, she got her own wand out and pointed it at his, "Accio wand." His wand flew out of his hand and glided into her other one. He grunted, "Alright, alright gimme my wand." He said, blindly reaching for it and shoving it back in his pocket. "But what are you doing here?"
She smirked, deciding to be a smart-ass; "I was just doing some homework, you know. That's typically what University students come to their school's library for, isn't it?" She said in a sing-song voice. He snorted, "What are you doing at a Muggle school, I mean," then he muttered, "bloody bimbo." Hermione bristle, her voice quickly reverting to her know-it-all classroom voice, "If you must know, I was deemed Brightest Witch Of My Age, and I was only being a smart alec because you were being so rude! He tensed, and he was silent for the longest moment before she saw him peer around his pile of books; his mouth opened and he dropped them.
"Granger?"
Hermione gasped, "Goyle?"