A/N: So here is round two of this thing, story if you are feeling particularly generous.
Again, If I owned any of the content you recognize I wouldn't be going to school. As I am still in school, I own nothing. And probably never will.
July 15, 1996: Granger Residence
Summer, the time when resonable students kick back, relax and recover from a stressful school year. By rights Hermione Granger should be realxing. Last year was especially stressful for her, between illicit study groups, to blackmail and threats of torture, one would think she would put all that behind her and just relax. But then that wouldn't be Hermione.
Hermione leaned back in her chair as she finished the last few lines on her letter to Daphne. Absent mindedly she rubbed her chest where faint bruising still lingered from where Dolohov had cursed her. She waited for Daphne's owl, like clockwork showing up at 6:00 every Friday. Hopefully this trip would enable them to write more frequently, and fluidly.
Three parchments sat on her desk, one an ordinary letter, the others charmed to an incredible degree in order to facilitate secure communication between them. Of course the farthest Hermione had tested them was about 100 meters, but still it should work. These two pieces of parchment had cost her countless hours in the last month in the library. These had given her a bigger headache than the Protean charm galleons for the DA last year. Partly because they were more complex, copying ink stains as opposed to Transfiguration, and partly because for the later part she had to get around Ministry regulations.
The Underage Magic office was a pain in the ass. Luckily they were only set up to monitor magic in the area around a young witch's home. Luckily for her the local university was outside that coverage, and she had spent most of her time in the libraries there where no one took notice of just another student cursing over some odd project, or obscure tome. That it was the summer and less students where there was even better. Oh she couldn't do anything flashy, that would attract notice, but she did get in plenty of practice with all manner of privacy charms. It was a pleasant way to spend her time, at least for her anyway.
The product she had now was a workable design, but it lacked many of the privacy features she would have wanted in a secure communications device. Just one more thing to write Daphne about. That girl confused, intruded and infuriated her all at the same time, but she was a better sounding board for ideas than Ron, and her letters to Harry had been unanswered.
She really needed to make more friends. Long hours of study and intense focus may have given her the top ranking in classes five years running but it did nothing but hinder her floundering social life. At least it was better than first year, where she made her first friends because of a bloody troll. The DA had helped a little, but there weren't many people she'd trust with this.
Luna would probably have a solution for her, just it would take her longer to figure out what Luna was suggesting than to come up with her own idea. The girl was smart and perceptive, she just operated on a totally different wavelength than herself. Hermione had taken ¾ of a year to figure that out. No contacting Luna was just not worth the massive headache that came with it.
Padma was another option, she was decent during the DA, but Pravati probably colored her experiences with her too much to really consider it. Plus, she had no way of contacting either of them, making that plan unlikely. With that in mind she sat down to finish composing her weekly letter to the introverted pureblood heiress.
Daphne;
I hope this letter finds you well. It has been a busy week for me as I finished the enchantments on the device I hinted at before we left for summer. I have included a prototype of the device with this letter. It is fairly simple to use, just write on it like you would any normal parchment. Be careful to only write on the left side of the device. The right is for receiving. I am hesitant to include more in this letter as it may be intercepted. A cleaning spell is adequate to reset the device in order to add more to it. If you would happen to know any privacy and misdirection enchantments I would like to hear about them. I have some idea for a desired effect, but again hesitate to say more. Simply put it is a pass word protection where a wrong password has the device respond in a derisive matter. Will answer questions through device, if said device works. I have seen similar protections on other devices and would like to recreate the results. No, I do not have it with me, nor can I retrieve it for further study at this time without raising undue suspicion. Any help would be appreciated.
On another note, your last letter has me strangely confused. I admit that no one has ever actually flirted with me, so I have no personal experience with it, but there was a tone that I would describe as flirting in your last letter. I sincerely hope that this is not a joke or prank, you know my opinion of the Weasley twins. I am still a little nervous about our relationship, these letters are helping, but 4 ½ years of prejudice and antagonism just doesn't vanish overnight. Granted you aren't one of Malfoy's cronies, but the Inquisitorial Squad didn't help either. Overall I'm confused on how I'm feeling about you and wondering if you can help put some clarity back in our interactions. I like you, but at time you can be just as infuriating as Ron. Ok maybe that was a little harsh, but still, you have this easy confidence about you that I like, but at the same time it's like you look down on me as well for who I am and who my parents are. In any case let's just say that thinking about you leaves me a confused emotional mess. Not that you would expect anything else from some brash Gryffindor.
Finally, before I finish up I have to ask if you have heard anything in regards to what is going on at the Ministry or Wizengamot. Because of my situation I have no contacts who could tell me, and am particularly vulnerable to the old codgers. Any heads up would be appreciated.
Regards, Hermione
Laying her pen down Hermione thought back to how she had got into this mess. Luckily Ron had bought her excuse of going to the Library when she was meeting with Daphne, he would not have liked one of his best friends to be meeting with a snake. Blackmail and bribery, what a way to start a friendship. That was what got her into the room the first time with Daphne.
Apparently Umbridge was a sufficiently bad teacher that even her favorites needed help in her class. Daphne had laughed at her idea to have Harry teach her, saying Hermione was smarter and Harry took after Ron too much. She couldn't argue with that too much so she had reluctantly agreed to help the Slytherin. Their first meetings where stressful, to say the least, whenever wands where drawn both parties tensed as they expected a hex from the other.
Finally, they both had had enough and spent one evening playing Gobstones and Exploding Snap. That seemed to break the tension between them somewhat, although Hermione wasn't convinced that the result was entirely a good thing. They had gotten comfortable with each other, but at time Daphne could be a little too comfortable with her for her liking. Daphne had even swung by and visited her while she was in the Hospital Wing, under the cover of trying to find out what Harry and his friends where up to of course. She even timed it for dinner time, so that they were the only ones in the wing.
Daphne wasn't quite ready to have a public friendship with the muggleborn teen just yet. Her last letter had mentioned that she was feeling out the social climate of Slytherin House right now to see if they were totally blinded by blood or if they could recognize the advantages of talent, wherever said talent came from. Hermione wasn't optimistic. Sure she had talent to spare, she had heard the other calling her the brightest witch of her age behind her back when they thought she couldn't hear them. And if she was honest with herself, she was one of the smartest. But her people skills where distinctly lacking.
And those where the skills she needed in order to carve out her niche in the world. Blood mattered less if the person was likeable, if not blood was all that was left. She had come a long way from the bossy bushy haired bookworm of First Year, but she was still pushy and convinced of her own intellect and reasoning. She still didn't know why she let Harry take the lead so much, was she really a masochist?
Did she like the adrenaline high Harry's crazy stunts caused. Probably, if she was honest with herself. Add to that Harry was dogged in his determination and the fact that he as stubborn as she was smart, and yeah Harry got his way.
She knew her faults, many as they were. Pride was chief among them, flowing from a certain arrogance that permeated her youth. Hogwarts had done its best to squash the arrogance from her, with the Stone, Basilisk, Dementors, and so on, but the pride that was its root still clung on. That pride was why she pushed herself so hard, took so much offense at people looking down on her parentage, because her parents where a part of who she was.
Daphne had helped to focus that pride, and resulting anger, but it was still an issue. An issue she was going to have to work through if she wanted to truly be the brightest witch in her age. Ahead lay a lot of work, 5 years spent ignoring or brushing off almost all of the school left a bitter taste, but her new goals required that she be more than the bossy Gryffindor bookworm they saw her as.
It was as much a part of her persona as Daphne's legendary Ice Queen act. Coping mechanisms of socially stunted youths unsure of themselves but to afraid, prideful or arrogant to admit to it. She let out a sigh as the enormity of her task hit her, she needed a plan, but that could wait until tomorrow as tonight she needed to deal with the Daphne Situation.
She knew her parents where decently progressive about sexuality, confirmed by some of the adult magazines she had found under their bed, she almost broke the Underage Magic Act to give herself a Lockhart Special after that. Seriously no 14-year-old should see that stuff.
But talking to her parents about this wasn't high on her list of fun things at the moment, hell she wasn't even sure if the feeling was mutual, real, imaginary or anything. Figuring out what she felt about Daphne was first, then came talking to Daphne about said feelings, and then maybe involve her parents. That is if her parents didn't pick up on her troubles first. They were remarkably perceptive about these things. Hopefully they would also perceive that she didn't want to talk about it at the moment.
She scanned the horizon outside her window as she thought, eyes seeing, but not comprehending. It was a perfectly normal skyline, the kind the Dursley's would appreciate. Her mind going at a breakneck pace, roiling waves of emotion churning inside her.
Books and cleverness. Books and cleverness was all she had in the end. And like she said to Harry back at the end of first year, as he prepared to pass through the cursed fire to get the Stone, there were more important things. Friendship and bravery. She scoffed to herself, facing down monsters that no child should know about she was fine, trapped in her own head it all came crashing down around her.
She had to be better at the other two, for herself. To prove, if only to herself that she was something more than test scores. That she actually mattered.
She was broken from her musings by the sharp hoot of Daphne's owl. The stern, regal looking black bird fixed it's disapproving golden eyes on her as she flinched from the unexpected noise. Quickly sealing up the letters in an envelope, she exchanged the letter from Daphne for her own. No sooner had she done so than the bird gave another disgruntled hoot and took off again.
Hermione watched the bird fly off in the distance, dumbly holding the letter she received. It was in response to her previous letter, so held none of the answers she sought at this time. But still it would help, or hurt, she didn't know. With only one way to find out she opened the letter.
