Hermione blearily opened her eyes to see sunlight pouring through the floor to ceiling windows, casting a glow about the room. As beautiful as it was, she was still quite tired from the previous few days of traveling, so she rolled over and shut her eyes once more, letting out a contented sigh. This was the best sleep she had gotten since the battle. She stayed there for another 10 minutes, and just as she was dozing off, an uninvited visitor burst into the room.

"Miss, you best be getting up now." The Faerie, Aria, chittered in a sing song voice. It was grating to Hermione's ears. Aria continued, "I have much to explain to you today, and if you aren't up soon, you won't be able to get answers…" The corners of the little creature's mouth quirked up in a devious smirk.

Forgetting her previous exhaustion, Hermione pulled herself out of bed and stared expectantly at the Faerie.

Aria grinned at her, and floated over to a door in the corner of the room. She flicked her head toward the door saying, "This is the bathroom. You and it really need to become acquainted; you stink of the forest!" She tittered before adding, "Meet me outside this room when you are done."

Hermione only glared at the Faerie as she dragged herself to the bathroom and washed up.

A few minutes later Hermione was much cleaner, and as Aria would put it, 'familiarized with the bathroom'. Stepping outside the door, the impish face of Aria zoomed into view.

"Wonderful! Let's get started, there is much information I must impart upon you." Aria slowly began to fly forward through the mess of bookcases until both she and Hermione arrived at the main door. She suddenly whipped around to face Hermione.

"You are, as I said last night, at the Library of the Lady, and I am the protector of it." She stopped to look at Hermione, who was brimming with questions. But before Hermione could ask anything, she continued, "This library, much like your old school, is sentient. It's magic obscures itself from those it deems unworthy, and reveals itself to those it deems worthy."

Rather than clearing up Hermione's questioning, it is only adding to her confusion. So,she stayed silent waiting for the little Faerie to continue.

"To put this simply, Hermione, you have been called to this library. For what reason is unknown, but you have a task to be fulfilled, and this library is going to help you do it." Aria smiled at her gently, "The room you found last night is yours to stay in for the duration of your visit. Should you require anything, concentrate on that need, and it shall be realized."

After Aria finished her little talk, Hermione fell deep into thought. All of her questions swirled about in a maelstrom of chaos. She thought for a moment more before asking, " That plaque," she turned to look at the glowing object, "What is it, and why is it there?"

Aria sighed before flying towards it, delicately placing a hand down on it. "This plaque is the final creation of the creator of this library," her hand caressing the the swirling runes. "It is her magic that enchants this library, and her magic that called to you."

Hermione slowly approached the plaque and stared at the runes, trying to decode them. The swirling symbols were nothing like anything Hermione had seen before, and it frustrated her to no end that she couldn't understand them.

Aria seemed to notice her agitation, and said, "The runes are of her original design. She was the only one to ever be able to read it. However, she left clues around this place. The person who is able to find them all and decode the message will receive a great power." The little Faerie continued to peer down at the plaque, her face slowly drooping in sadness.

Shifting her gaze from the plaque, she noticed Aria's sudden downcast demeanour. Wondering the cause of her shift in attitude Hermione said, "You seem to know her, the creator, I mean…"

"Yes, I did know her…" The Faerie trailing her fingers across the plaque once again. She took a moment before continuing, "When I was a young Faerie, there were some Faerie hunters prowling through the forest my colony was living in. They took every single Faerie but me. I was devastated, and had nowhere to go with no idea of how to survive…" Aria's voice began to break, and little golden tears ran down her face, splashing against the plaque below her. "She found me a month later, emaciated, and on the verge of death. She took me in, and under her care, I became healthy again… She saved my life, and now I am here repaying her kindness."

Hermione was at a loss of words. Nothing she could think of would adequately provide solace and comfort for her winged companion, so she stood there waiting for Aria to continue.

A moment later Aria looked up from the plaque and dried her eyes. Once again chipper, she turned to face Hermione.

"Well there are more things to show you and we need to get through the first floor at least, so let's continue on, shall we?" She remarked and flew forward.

Hermione sensed that Aria wasn't completely happy again, and was putting on a facade for the sake of Hermione, but trying to be nice, she didn't bring it up again, and simply followed Aria to the next part of the library. They wondered down to the map Hermione had touched the night previous, and Aria stopped again turing to explain to girl.

"This is the map of the whole library. As you noticed last night, it is enchanted." She turned back to the map.

"By pressing on one of the rooms," she touched a room to adjacent to the one Hermione selected last night, "A golden path will lead you to that location."

True to Aria's words, a path of golden light appeared to lead them through the intricate network of books.

"How do I know which room is which? I cannot read the labels on the map."

Realization flitted across the winged creature's face. With a snap of her fingers the strange runes she had seen earlier vanished, and were slowly rewritten in a swirling English script.

"Better?"

"Much."

Aria beckoned Hermione to follow her down the path of light. They arrived in front of a quite plain door. Aria pushed slightly on it, and it swung open to reveal a sitting room with cushy couches and a fireplace against the far wall.

"There really isn't much to this room, but it is very comfortable, so you are welcome to use it in what way you desire." Aria stated.

It then occurred to Hermione that there were several floors on the map.

"Aria?"

The Faerie turned, looking expectantly at Hermione.

"Where are the stairs? I just recalled seeing multiple levels on the map.

Aria smirked, "That is something that I cannot tell you. The upper floors of this library contain more powerful and dangerous information the farther you go up. The library will decide if and when you can go to the next floor."

"When will I know the library will let me go up to the next floor?"

Aria floated to Hermione's shoulder and landed on it.

"The map will glow a bright white light signaling you have opened up a new area of the library."

Humming in understanding, Hermione turned out of the sitting room and attempted to get back through the book shelves to the main area. On her journey back she bumped her left arm against the sharp corner of a bookcase. Letting out a cry. Hermione grasped her lower arm.

Aria immediately flew down to see the cause of Hermione's pain.

Blood was beginning to leak through the thick fabric of her jumper, staining it and her hand red.

Aria tittered and zoomed away before returning only moments later with a vial of runny golden liquid. Getting Hermione to release her arm, Aria gently removed the bloody fabric covering the wound and gasped in horror.

Carved deep into her arm, was the word Mudblood..

Shaking with anger and shock Aria asked, "Who did this to you?"

"An evil witch." Was all Hermione managed to get out before she fell on the ground in pain.

Aria's face set in a grim line, got to work looking at the properties of the wound. With a little bit of luck and Fae magic she ascertained that the wound was inflicted via cursed knife imbued with malicious magic that would cause intense pain whenever it was agitated.

She opened the vial she ran off to get and poured it over Hermione's wound. In an instant her flesh began to knit itself back together, and in mere moments the wound vanished with the pain.

Hermione lifted her head to look at the Faerie.

"What was that?" The curly-haired girl asked in wonder. "My pain and the scar is completely gone…"

"An emulsion of my tears and a Phoenix's tears. It creates a powerful restorative elixir." She replied.

Hermione could only gape. The scar that she was plagued with was gone. A reminder of all the pain and terror she went through was erased.

Her voice trembled, "Thank you," she muttered quietly.

"Think nothing of it, let's continue on, yes?"

Hermione nodded.

A short bit of walking and flying later, the duo reached the map once more.

"I have some tasks to get done, the rest of the day is yours to have." Aria quipped and began to flutter away.

Hermione called after her, "Okay, thank you again…"

Aria nodded and continued on her path away.

Now alone, Hermione began to wonder the stacks. The library was massive, and contained more knowledge than she could even comprehend. Looking at the titles as she passed them made her giddy with joy. There were so few texts she had actually heard of, and even then, they were the most rare books in existence. During her wanderings, she felt a small bit of magic tug at her consciousness. Following the pull she was directed to a certain shelf of books. Reaching up to grab one, she halted. There was still some leftover blood on her skin and clothing. Quickly muttering a cleaning charm the blood from her skin was gone, and with a slicing charm she cut of the sleeve of her jumper then vanished it.

Her eyes went back to the bookshelf, her hand skimming the spines of the tomes. Her finger stopped their exploration on a particular title. Grasping the book, she pulled it off the shelf and looked for a title only to find the same red leather the book was bound in stare back at her.

"No title…" she wondered aloud.

She opened the front page of the book to see large loopy penmanship. Skimming the contents told her it was a journal entry.

Puzzled she thought, "What use do I have of a journal? Why did the library want me to pick up this book?"

Absentmindedly, she meandered her way to a nearby couch on plopped herself down upon it. Gazing at the book again, she started to leaf through it. The rest of the pages were very much like the first one; all diary entries. Intrigued, Hermione went back to the beginning and commenced to read the book page by page. There must be some reason the library would prompt her to grab this book out of all the ancient writings available in the vicinity.

As Hermione read on, she found that the journal really was't as interesting as she was hoping it might be. In fact, the contents of it were quite mundane; there was only the recourse of the writer's days, and other such trivial matters. Her brain was begging to wander away from the book, but she stubbornly pulled it back to the mind-numbing contents. She told herself that as she finished the next entry she could go and find more interesting materials to occupy her time. However, she was finding it incredibly difficult to stay awake. Drowsiness was pulling at her consciousness. Ever so slightly, she began a descent into the dreamworld,the red book still lying open on her chest.

{The Clear Glass Stone}

Tick Tock, Tick Tock…

Hermione was slowly roused by the sound of a clock ticking away in the distance. As she opened her eyes, she noticed she was laying on a plush carpeted ground. Panic was creeping into her system, and in the quietness of the space she could hear the blood rushing through her veins. Standing up as quickly as she could, she looked for a place to hide. Spotting a wardrobe, she scrambled across the floor to get inside.

Just as she made it inside and closed the doors all but a crack, footsteps could be heard coming towards the room. Sending a silent prayer to anyone who was listening, she sincerely hoped the footsteps would pass the room she was hiding in.

Naturally, fate was not on her side, and the footsteps stopped; the door to the room was opened. Presumably, the owner of the footsteps was now in the room, but with the plush flooring Hermione couldn't be entirely sure. The adrenaline in her system reached all time highs when she peaked out the crack between the wardrobe doors and found a woman sitting at a desk across the room.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Hermione willed herself to calm down, then opened them to observe the woman more closely. She was a quite diminuative lady, long silvery blonde hair atop her head. She seemed to be writing something. Glancing down more intently at the item she was writing in revealed an oddly familiar shade of red leather. Finished with whatever she was jotting down, the woman closed to book and moved to open a side drawer of her desk. Reaching inside, she pulled out a little white stone and set it on top of the red tome. She grabbed the wand that was secured at her waist and tapped the stone with the tip of it mummering an incantation Hermione couldn't recognize. The stone glowed a bright blue for nearly 5 minutes before fading away to reveal a now clear stone.

The lady again opened the tome, and placed the clear stone atop the words she had written mere minutes before. Rubbing the glass-like rock against the words, she made her way down the page rubbing and muttering a chant of words unknown to Hermione. Gradually the words on the page disappeared leaving the parchment as clean as it had been moments ago. The long haired woman plucked up her quill and begun to write on the clean page. The white surface once again filled with loopy and curvy handwriting, and the woman let out a small sigh. Once she finished, the still clear stone was placed on the page, and as the lady tapped it with her wand, the room was filled with a bright glow. When the blinding light dissipated, the stone had returned to its original white shade; the words on the parchment remained.

The woman now finished with her task, relaxed against the chair and took a deep breath. Standing up, she quickly turned and stared right at the crack in the wardrobe doors. The last thing Hermione saw was a pair pale green eyes staring at her, piercing through her to the very soul.

{The Clear Glass Stone}

Ah wow! I wasn't planning on posting a new chapter until tomorrow, however, after seeing the amount of views and comments I felt compelled to update! You all are really amazing, and all of the comments you left were so uplifting and encouraging! Thank you for that! Anyway, please comment what you think so far, and any improvements you think I could make. I love to see comments that help me to improve my writing skills and the story! As a quick side note, I do plan on addressing Hermione's reaction to the death of all her friends, but right now my primary focus is getting the storyline progressing. It is moving at a very slow pace as I am getting everything set up, but I have plans of addressing the more mature part of what Hermione faced during the war in later chapters.

Sincerely,

Miss of the Manor