Hermione sat alone in the common room, long after midnight. Four hours she had agonized over one particular Arithmancy problem. Four hours she had struggled, and her frustration was about to boil over. There was little hope for her, and yet, she wouldn't let the equation go unsolved. She would do whatever it took – anything – she would get this right if it was the last thing she ever did.

Picking up her quill, her eyebrows furrowed so deeply that her vision was slightly distorted, she set to work once again. Her eyes shown brightly and anyone who looked at her then might have thought her insane. She wrote a few figures. She was so close! Scribbling furiously, she bit her tongue in excitement. Another wrong conclusion. She felt the frustration well up in her again. She wanted to scream.

But she began writing again, a few figures the same and a few different ones this time. She had a lingering hope that this solution might actually be the right one. She wrote faster than before; hope filled her, she knew she was on the right path. Her erratic breathing calmed slightly, but her eyes glittered madly in the candlelight. She was writing even faster, the goal so close in her sights. Another dead end. How many times would she make a mistake before getting it right?

She threw herself against the back of the chair in frustration. She thought her head might explode. She felt tears welling in her eyes, an inexplicable anger rising in her chest. And for a moment, she gave up, sighing as she closed her eyes and let the scratchy armrests leave their annoying marks on her underarms.

She felt a sudden excitement. She had all night! She began to write once again, her parchment rendered almost completely useless from the amount of equations she had written. But she was frantic now. It was for sure this time, the end was in sight! And then, she added one more figure.

It was there, she was so close. Her own handwriting became a blur before her very eyes. Her heart-rate increased ten-fold, her breathing stopped harshly. She had it!