Her parents took it all much more calmly than Hermione had expected. She bounded down the steps with loud thumps on the stairs while Crocell (his hand freed from her grasp) followed more sedately and quietly, but neither Emily nor her parents seemed disturbed by the tall winged man following her downstairs.

"Mummy!" she yelled happily, launching herself at her mother for a hug, while her father closed the door behind them and hung up his jacket and bag on the hallstand. "Don't be scared, alright? I made a friend. I called him with magic. His name's Crocell."

"Did you darling? That's very clever of you. I've really been looking forward to your surprise. It's nice to hear your friend is here at last. And where is he?"

Hermione drew back and gave her Mummy a serious look. "Don't you see him? He's just at the bottom of the stairs. He's coming to say hello to you."

"Oh yes," said her Mummy with a smile. "I see him now. Hello Crocell, it's nice to meet you. Are you staying for dinner?" She didn't seem to be looking quite in Crocell's direction as she spoke, and Hermione wasn't sure why.

"I rarely eat mortal food," said Crocell with amusement, his deep voice entwined with the noise of a gurgling brook.

Hermione waited politely while her Mummy chatted with Crocell, as she'd been drilled not to interrupt grown-up conversations, but her Mummy didn't seem to be answering him. Her Mummy waited quietly too, until she said with a touch of impatience, "You'll have to tell me what he said, darling."

"Didn't you hear him?" Hermione said with amazement. "He said he doesn't eat mortal food. He's right here!" She gestured with her hand at Crocell, but her parents didn't seem to even be looking at him right. Like they thought he was shorter than he was – they weren't making proper eye contact.

"Of course he is, and we're very happy to meet your imaginary friend," said her Daddy. "Why don't you tell us what he looks like?"

"He's not imaginary!" she objected. "He's real! I summoned him with a real magic circle and a magic triangle!"

"She's been working very hard on her project for a couple of weeks now," said Emily, widening her eyes and raising her eyebrows meaningfully at the Grangers in a silent attempt to communicate the importance of Hermione's introduction of her imaginary friend.

"Well I'm truly sorry I can't see or hear him," her mother said in a soothing voice. "Silly old me. But I'm very happy you've brought a friend to visit. Why don't you tell me all about him?"

"You can't see him either? No-one can?" Hermione asked, her gaze shifting questioningly between her father and Emily. They shook their heads.

"But I'm sure he's there," said her Daddy comfortingly.

"They appear to be ordinary mortals," said Crocell, "with no magical skill at all – magical blood must run stronger in you for some reason. How interesting! My kind are hidden from their perception. Watch." He poked her father's arm with one sharp-nailed finger, and her father absent-mindedly brushed his sleeve as if to remove a bit of lint, not noticing that he pushed Crocell's arm away in the process. When Crocell moved as if to walk straight through Emily (while Hermione worried they'd crash into each other), she stepped to one side, as if she coincidentally felt like moving. Emily wandered away to tidy up a small pile of books on the coffee table.

"Crocell says you can't see or hear him because you don't have any magic powers like I do," Hermione said apologetically. "I'm sorry I didn't understand that before. I'll describe him for you! He's a very nice man, a little taller than Daddy, with green hair, enormous black and green feathery wings, and black eyes."

"Oh, he's an angel?" asked her Mummy with a smile.

"No, a demon. But a very friendly one. Is that alright?"

Her mother hesitated and looked briefly concerned, but at a discreet nudge from her husband her smile returned. "That's fine, so long as he's friendly."

Hermione rushed to reassure her mother of his amiable nature, and chattered about how he loved geometry and his favourite colour was green, and he was going to study astronomy and magic with her, and help her with music theory.

Crocell, who'd been listening with amusement, and occasionally sharing very innocuous comments for her to relay to her parents, excused himself not long after that as the Grangers started getting ready for dinner, and the nanny left for her own home. "I should like to return home now, if you will grant me leave to depart. The next time you call upon me, if you use one of the new methods I taught you, I shall be able to arrive and depart under my own power. But for this evening, you shall need to dismiss me properly."

Hermione walked him upstairs and hugged him goodbye. He patted her back very gingerly – he didn't seem used to hugs. "What a remarkable young witch you are. I look forward to tutoring you in the future. And perhaps I could introduce you to some of my allies? They would like a chance to walk the earth too."

Hermione's eyes brightened. "More friends would be fun." It was sad he had to go, but he wasn't a pet – he was a friend. She showed off her magic circle to her Mummy and Daddy after he'd left, and then diligently scrubbed the floor clean.

Dinner was interrupted that evening when a strange man in a mismatched suit knocked on the door. Mr Granger talked with him for a while before closing the door and returning to the dining table.

"Odd fellow. Appalling dress sense," her father said, with a bemused shake of his head. "He wanted to know if there were any unusual problems with the house or the inhabitants this evening. Some kind of government poll, apparently. But it's been a lovely quiet evening, hasn't it?"

They all agreed it had been.

-000-

Hermione's parents hadn't thrown a birthday party for her when she turned eight. She'd still been upset about how none of the kids from school she'd invited had shown up to her seventh birthday party. So she'd refused to have a party at all, and they'd gone out to the ballet together as a family instead.

Her parents were heartened she wanted one this year for her ninth birthday… until they figured out that she only planned to invite her growing collection of imaginary friends. After a few rounds of negotiations, including some tears and stamping of tiny feet and insistent stubborn claims that they were real friends, a compromise was reached. Hermione would invite at least two other real children to the movies, and later on her parents would throw a small party for her less tangible friends with a cake and a few snacks to share.

So she issued two movie invitations – one to Lachlan whom she played in a string quartet with sometimes when her violin teacher wanted them to do group work, and the other to Claire, who was one of the smarter kids in her class at school and was friendly with her sometimes. And to her and her parents' delight, both children accepted their invitations to go and see "The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking" (and eat far too much buttery salty popcorn) for her birthday celebration.

And Hermione was just as delighted (though her parents were less enthused) to help throw a party for her demon friends. The table was set with seven plates, for her and half a dozen "imaginary" friends. Hermione did most of the work researching and finding appropriate foods for all her friends, and as her demands were fairly modest her mother indulged them.

"Strange party lunch you have there," her father said, looking the plates over as she fussed over them on Sunday. "Who gets what?"

Hermione chattered happily as she "The water is for Crocell. The berries are for Andrealphus, because he takes the form of a peacock and I read that peacocks love berries. Did you know that 'mensuration' means measurement? He loves that a lot. He loves geometry too, and he's been helping me learn how to calculate volumes and areas of two and three-dimensional shapes. The worms are for Camio – he looks like a thrush, but he has claws on his wings that act like his hands. He says he can teach me how to understand birds, if I want to. But I have to help empower him so he can fly about the mortal earth for a month, and go wherever he likes. Do you think that's a good deal, Daddy?"

"It sounds like an excellent bargain to me," her father said with an approving nod. "And who's this large raw fish for? Is there a reason they're sitting on their own at the end of the table? Do they fight with the others?"

"No, she's friendly too. That's for Forneus. She's a sea monster with lots of scales and tentacles, though she doesn't mind being out of water as she has lungs as well as gills. She's obviously very large so she needs more room. That's why she doesn't have a chair, too. She'd just break it."

"And does she have any special powers like Camio?"

"She knows all the languages of the world, and she's very good at rhetoric. She liked my persuasive writing argument for school about why everyone should recycle more rubbish, and she practices French with me."

Her father laughed. "Fascinating specialities for a sea monster!"

"The last two spots are for Bifrons, who likes the name 'Janus' better-"

"-Ah! The Roman god with two faces!" interjected her father.

"That's right, Daddy!" she said happily. "He looks like a fairly ordinary man compared to the others, except that he has another face on the back of his head. And that's why he gets two cupcakes. I don't actually know what he likes to eat, but chocolate cupcakes are a good guess, right?"

"Worth a try. And I'm sure he'll appreciate the thought even if you're wrong, and you can eat his cupcakes for him," he said, laughter dancing in his eyes. "What's he studying with you?"

"He's studying astronomy with Crocell and me, and teaching me about astrology and a few magic spells – like how to make a light with my magic wand. He says I can't show you though, it has to stay secret. Is that alright?"

"That's fine, sweetheart. And who is your last guest who also gets a delicious plate of worms from our garden?"

"Stolas. He is so cute, Daddy!" Hermione cooed. "He looks like a fluffy little owl with incredibly long legs, and he wears a crown. You might think he isn't a very important demon, but you know he's actually a very powerful Prince, and the others are a little afraid of him sometimes – I think maybe he outranks some of them. But not all of them. They don't like to talk about how their hierarchy works very often, so it's hard to tell. Anyway, they're always very respectful of him, even Crocell who I'm pretty sure has precedence over him. But he let me pat him once when I asked nicely – his feathers are very soft!

"He is teaching me all about magic herbs," she said seriously. "He says it's a crying shame that there aren't any magic plants anywhere nearby to look at, so we're just writing up some notes on them, and he's drawing the pictures."

"How does he draw with owl wings?"

"He makes the pencils float in the air, of course! He doesn't have clawed wings like Camio. Just ordinary wings."

"Well of course he does. And I'm sure he looks very handsome in his little crown."

Hermione and her friends enjoyed their party, and her parents took a few bittersweet photos of her laughing and looking so happy at an empty table. At least she was enjoying herself, they consoled each other. Better than last year's tantrum, or the birthday before that which had been spent in tears. And she loved her presents – a new telescope, some blank journals, a violin in the next size up (she was growing up so fast), and a new witch costume to play dress-ups in while she practised her magic spells.

Hermione happily pronounced it the best birthday ever.

Her parents hoped her friendships with real children would flourish as well as her imaginary ones, but it was not to be. She remained on friendlier terms with Lachlan, but they never bonded to the point of visiting each other. She latched onto Claire for a while at school, but their blossoming friendship floundered after a fight that resulted from Hermione's insistence that demons and magic were real – she'd hoped Claire might want to learn about them too, but she'd gotten really angry about it when she realised Hermione was serious, and said it was wicked and sinful.

Hermione wished she went to school with other witches and wizards. Maybe then she'd have some human friends. It would be two more years before it was confirmed that it was actually an option for her, like her demon friends hinted it might be.