Hermione's focus was entirely on her opponent as they circled one another in the Tir Nan Og outdoor arena, wands raised.
Harry smirked at her, but she wasn't about to take the bait.
No.
Cool and calm was the way to go.
He was just attempting to rile her up.
Harry had returned from wherever it was that he had been and after talking for a while and catching up (somewhat, as he was still quite mysterious about his whereabouts, to her annoyance) on their various activities, he had suggested that they do a few practice duels from time.
This duel didn't feel like practice though.
This felt like the real thing.
They had both agreed to use anything short of lethal spells in this particular duel, just to test their limits.
She side-stepped a spell with a dark blue light that came from Harry's wand which crashed into the ground behind her, frosting it over slightly.
She ignored the entertained looks from most of the small crowd of fairies (notably Morgana and Nebula), refugees from Britain (and Zing) that had gathered in the arena and the worried expressions of a few (especially Roxy and Camilla) to see what they could do.
Hermione jabbed her wand forward, sending a sickly grey beam of light at him, which he conjured a shield to deflect.
"Try again, Hermione!" he grinned.
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Aguamenti!" she moved her wand in a sort of tilted S motion and a powerful stream of water blasted out of her wand and headed towards Harry, who quickly conjured up a wall of flames around himself, which immediately dried up on impact with the flames, leaving behind a wall of steam, which Harry waved his wand to dispel.
Over the years, she realised that what Harry may have lacked in theoretical knowledge of magic, he made up for in both power and sheer natural talent, which kept them fairly even overall in their skill.
However, she could see and feel that Harry's training at Red Fountain, built on top of his Hogwarts education, was making him into quite the formidable opponent indeed.
His next spell whizzed past her as he recovered from her onslaught; its sheer heat as it barely grazed her side nearly stopping her in her tracks, before she ignored the slight pain it caused and pushed on, showing her stubborn side in refusing to give up.
Her wand was performing quite well for her, despite being both new to her and an experimental wand of sorts that even Ollivander was not yet sure of the particular effects that this wand/core combination would have.
Hermione clenched it firmer; giving it quite the workout for it being the first time that she performed powerful magic with it.
She missed her old wand, but this replacement was more than satisfactory in all aspects.
Feeling the power coursing through her and into the wand as if it was actually a part of her, she upped the ante, firing off several spells in rapid succession, not giving Harry time to go on the offensive again.
"Goodness, Hermione. You're getting better at this!" Harry sounded vaguely surprised, which left her feeling vaguely insulted.
"What? Do you think I just sit around all day and read?" Hermione raised an eyebrow as she shot a spell at Harry's feet, which made the ground reach up and engulf his feet around his ankles.
Before Hermione could get another word out, Harry had already dispelled that spell and fired yet another one at her.
Reacting quickly, her own white light spell collided with his purple one and the two spells collided exactly between them; creating a lighter shade of purple where they met.
A split second later the force of them exploded, sending both herself and Harry backwards and falling onto their backs.
"Oof..." Hermione groaned as she felt a hand offering to help her up. "Thank you," she smiled at the blue-haired Warrior Fairy that offered her assistance, the fairy nodding in acknowledgement, looking vaguely amused.
Across the arena, she saw Harry being helped up by Roxy, the animal fairy fussing over him.
"I think that we should call this one a draw," Nebula flew to the very centre of the arena, clearly not trying to hide her amusement.
"Good work, both of you," Morgana nodded. "You both will need to work a whole lot more on your duelling skills to truly put Voldemort and his minions down for good, but I think you are well on your way to that."
"And to think, I've only had this wand for three days..." Hermione twirled it and smiled, before casting a few healing spells on herself and stowing it in her wand holster.
"Three days or three decades doesn't matter if the wand was made for you," Harry smiled, having been healed up by Roxy and brushing the dirt off himself. "at least you won't be running away from boggarts now, right?"
Hermione rolled her eyes as Harry chuckled and Roxy and her family looked curious. "Ha, ha, ha. Very amusing. Let's not forget that I know a lot of things about you that I'm sure you'd rather not let people now. Embarrassing things. Two can play at that game, Harry."
It was Harry's turn to roll his eyes.
The crowd soon started dispersing, leaving herself, Harry, Roxy, Camilla (who had perched herself on her shoulder) and Zing (who was currently seated atop Roxy's head) behind.
"So... what are you going to do now?" Roxy asked them.
"I don't know about you, but Camilla and I were planning on spending a nice, quiet evening in our room with Crookshanks. Goodness knows I could do with the rest and I can always do a bit of reading, perhaps a few simple spells as well. I'm still working my way through some of the books I borrowed from the library." Hermione stated.
Harry laughed. "It's good to know that even with everything we've been through, you're still the same Hermione Granger beneath it all..."
"Of course," Hermione put on a snobbish air. "Why should I let a few insignificant Death Eaters change me?"
"You said it, Hermione!" Zing exclaimed, pumping a fist into the air. "You and Harry will get those nasties for sure!"
"Don't forget about me," Roxy piped up. "do you really think I'm not going to help out where I can?"
"You're not going to be in the final fight though," Harry insisted, starting on a line of thought that he had mentioned to her before.
"Oh?" Roxy raised an eyebrow. "How are you going to stop me?"
Sensing a brewing squabble, Hermione excused herself and Camilla, moving away as quickly as she could.
"How likely is it that Roxy will actually listen to Harry and stay out of your war?" Camilla asked once they were some distance away.
Hermione shook her head. "I don't think that's very likely, from what little I know of Roxy... I guess they're perfect for each other that way. Or not... they both can be rather stubborn at times. Just like..."
She felt her mood drop as her mind wandered off to herself and Ron... he had been equally as stubborn as she could be at times...
She felt a pang in her chest, stopping suddenly.
Camilla flew ahead of her, turned around, and put a hand on her forehead.
"You're thinking about Ron, aren't you?" she asked softly. "They remind you of you and him together, don't they?"
"A little, I must admit," Hermione's tone was soft. "It still hurts."
"Of course it would. He was your love wasn't he? I guess it hurts to lose someone you love. You love them so much and then they're gone... especially with the way he was taken from you." Camilla smiled sadly.
"That's why all this practice, all this study, getting my new wand..." Hermione lightly brushed her hand over its holster. "...even though I'm scared of what could happen, that's why I have to do all of this. Not just for revenge... but because it's the right thing to do. Justice for him, justice for my parents, justice for everyone Voldemort has ever brought harm to... justice... justice for me."
Camilla hugged her and Hermione hugged her back snugly. "I can ask Amore to talk with you if you want," the little pixie offered. "She's the Pixie of Love, but she's great at handling all the feelings. Plus she's really nice!"'
Hermione chuckled. "I don't think so, Camilla. Perhaps... perhaps I should forget about the studying now and let my brain get a bit of rest, huh?"
"How about instead of you showing me what you can do, how about I show you what I can do?" Camilla suggested. "You haven't seen me use much of my illusion magic yet."
Hermione perked up a bit. "That's right! Perhaps you can teach me a little of your magic!"
"Uh-uh!" Camilla shook her head. "No more studying today! We're going to be doing fun magic!"
"If you insist, sweetheart," Hermione felt her mood going back up slightly.
"Of course I insist!" Camilla exclaimed. "First, we're going to freshen up. Then, we're all going to have some nice, light snacks and tea. Then, we have a little fun!"
At the look on Camilla's face, Hermione forgot all thoughts of bringing back up the topic of the brutal way taking place back in her home country.
Hours later, Hermione sat cross-legged on the floor, dressed in a tank top and shorts, with her hair pulled into a messy bun.
A steaming cup of the same sort of tea that she had been introduced to by Morgana on her first day in Tir Nan Og, was on a saucer that she had in her hands and a small plate of sandwiches and biscuits was by one leg.
Crookshanks sat next to her, purring softly as he rubbed his head against the side of her other leg and curled in his tail, accepting a small piece of ham that Hermione pulled from one of the sandwiches and offered to him.
She scratched him behind the ears idly.
Camilla flew up in front of them and smiled.
"Welcome to Camilla's Picture Story Time!" the little pixie beamed. "Today, I'm going to tell you all about one of my absolute favourite stories: The Legend of the Crystal Lake."
"Go on ahead then," Hermione took a sip of her tea. "I'm eager to hear it!"
"And I'm eager to tell it!" she exclaimed. "Now listen."
She flew away from her a little bit and turned back to face her direction, closing her eyes as if in deep concentration.
Glowing softly, the lilac light coming from the pixie started to twist and coalesce above her head and got rapidly bigger in size, before it reached a decent size, before turning white, then filling with various images, which remained still on the illusion screen.
Hermione looked mildly impressed.
She would definitely have to see if Camilla could teach her a bit of her magic one day.
"We have a few storytellers in Pixie Village and some that come to us from other places. It is one of those travelling pixies that told us this one," Camilla explained. "Now you are going to listen and enjoy this story! Forget about the bad thoughts for a little bit! I won't have my bonded one depressed or angry all the time!"
Hermione was about to object, but her bonded pixie cut her off.
"LISTEN!"
Hermione immediately shut up.
For such a small, young and (allegedly) timid pixie, Camilla sure was being rather commanding.
Perhaps it was a bit of herself rubbing onto the pixie.
Aisha had mentioned that it could happens that both members of a bond could take on traits of the other with time, but she and Camilla hadn't been bonded that long...
"Now, here's how the story begins." Camilla waved her hand at the screen and the images on it started to move, although they made no sound.
"Once upon a time, in a realm far, far away, there lived a young fairy named..."
Hermione smiled, letting herself get absorbed into the story.
Perhaps she could relax, just this once.