Aaaand it's me again. I hope all of you had a good weak :) I'm kind of happy I found the time to upload today, since most of my weekend is planned out already.
But it was easier than it should to decide if I should work on an university-project or the next chapter, I guess. Well, long story, short, Chapter 6!
There will be party, that could be described as 'major story-development', I guess. or at least it gets a little clearer what the story-plot will be about.
I am hella insecure about this, since I'm obviously not sure what you lovely lots think about it :) But now, I'll let you get your own opinion on it.
So as always, I hope you'll enjoy :) (funfact: fanfiction crashed so often right now, I hope every bit of editing got saved. Well, whaaatever)

Chapter 6 – Nocturnes

Show your face
Don't hide
Take off the mask now
Underneath is a deep dark secret

Emilie Autumn, Chambermaid

An hour later, Hermione laid in her bed. Wide awake and thinking a thousand thoughts and nothing at the same time. Thankfully, Hailey and Dee had been asleep when she had come back to the dorms. Carefully, not to make any sound that could wake the girls, she slipped out of her robes and into her pyjama, then tucked herself under her blanket. By the sight of the empty whiskey-bottle next to Hailey's bed to judge, she probably could have spared the effort of being quiet. Hailey laid in her bed the wrong way around, all limps in a different angle. Dee produced a quiet snore.

Hermione grabbed her forehead with both hands and groaned, silencing charm in place again. How could she let Bellatrix humiliate her that much? Now, in the piece and quiet of her dorm, she could think of a myriad of good answers to retort to Bellatrix. Well, technically, everything would have been better than whatever she had done.

What the hell were they doing? Well, that was obvious, actually, but why? Didn't Bellatrix bully everyone who wasn't a Slytherin? Was she actually like that and will be forced to marry Rodolphus in the future despite her not being into guys?

Shortly, Hermione felt pity. She shook the feeling of quickly, she shouldn't feel sorry for the biggest bitch in school. Probably it was all just a giant mindfuck to her, playing with the feelings of a fellow student. She didn't try to run after that girl when Hermione interrupted… Still, a little uneasiness settled in a corner of her head.

In the end, the situation had left Hermione, after thinking it over and over again, more confused than ever.

She really was not looking forward to the next day, when they would have class together again. She earnestly debated to call in sick for that day, but decided against it. it wouldn't help her in the long run to avoid the dark haired witch, eventually they would meet again.

Thankfully, the next day in transfiguration, Bellatrix showed no sign of what happened the last night. She seemed to be her normal, bored self, much to Hermione's relief. She seemed more often than not to pointedly not look in Hermione's direction, but this could also be the brunettes imagination. But then, by the state most of the students in her class were in, she probably could also have a theme-shirt on and waving a flagg about what had happened yesterday. Hermione, who thankfully had stopped drinking at her limit, only awoke with a slight headache that vanished after she drank a few jars of pumpkin juice and ate a full plate of toast, and so didn't suffer like most of the other students, who obviously kindly ignored their limits.

It seemed, most of them had to fight horrible hangovers and not only the Ravenclaws. The majority sat there with a tired and unhappy expression on their faces. Then there were the ones who were in so obvious pain, she wondered if they would have been better placed at the hospital wing right now. Hailey sat in her place with a very stoic expression. She hadn't eaten anything at breakfast, only drinking a small cup of coffee. Her face was unusually pale and she hadn't talked all morning.

Very uncommon indeed.

Another one who also was suffering obviously was Vincent. He sat in his place, looked smaller than usual and appeared like he could throw up any second. Well, it was self-inflicted, so Hermione had to admit her pity, even with Hailey, was pretty limited.

And even if she wasn't suffering through a hangover, she had her own problems and could hardly concentrate on the class. It was already over a week and she didn't feel any closer to anything she would have to do here, in this time. She knew that she probably couldn't rush this, but this wouldn't prevent her from trying. This morning, when the restlessness finally kicked in, she had created a plan to at least limit the things that may be the cause of her here-being.

There had to be something.

Her something occurred sooner than she would have imagined. When they sat at dinner, when even Hailey started to feel a little better again and even managed to eat a little food, they overheard some second-years who eagerly talked about something they called the Cataract.

Hermione frowned at them, she had heard that word one or two times in the Great Hall but never ascribed importance to it. But now she started to get curious.

„Guys, do you know something about this ‚Cataract'-thing anybody seems to be talking about?"

Hailey's and Dee's heads snapped in Hermione's direction.

„Dee, we forgot to tell her, that's right!"

„Calm down, it's not that important. Look, the Cataract means…"

„Oh come on!" Hailey whined. „She doesn't know the story, obviously, so could we please give this the appropriate dramatic input? Come, let's gather some snacks and head to the dorm. I actually don't feel like spending a lot of time in here… I can do with the calmness and silence of our dormitory."

„It's calm and quiet until you enter…" Dee muttered only for Hermione to hear who snickered at that.

They made their way back to their dorm, packed with snacks from dinner. While trying to handle what they brought, they encountered Charlene, the knocker. Hermione, to her own shock, noticed how she had started to refer to the Eagle with that name in her mind. She just hoped she wouldn't let it slip by accident in front of him.

„If I have it, I don't share it. If I share it, I don't have it." He said in his raspy voice.

„A secret." Hermione signs in the direction of the knocker, even if it had looked again at Hailey. But she still was so hungover, Hermione feared she couldn't find the answer. And hell, if Hermione knew about anything right now, It were secrets.

Back in their rooms, they sat down on Hailey's bed making themselves comfortable. Hailey dragged her knees to her body and chewing on an apple she had brought with her. So far so good, able to function again.

„Sooo… Jay. Are you ready to hear about the fascinating, albeit terrifying story that will shatter your–„

„Oh for god's sake, Hailey!" Dee hissed.

„Yeah yeah, alright. Have you ever heard of the Witch Agnes Waterhouse, Jay?"

Hermione frowned. Indeed, she had.

„Wasn't this one of the most feared witches from the late middle ages? The muggle-literature said she was burned 1566. But nobody knows what happened to her after." Hermione's frown remained. Why was that important?

„Well, she also attended Hogwarts at her time. And was the first and last witch who couldn't be placed in a house by the hat." Hailey made a dramatic pause at that, watching Hermione's reaction. When none came, she continued.

"The legend says she tried to fit in one of the houses and tried out every of them but neither worked out for her. So in the end, in her fifth year, she created a place for herself. The fifth house of Hogwarts that was only ever attended by one person. She called it the Cataract. It was unofficially approved but obviously never gained official status. It's location was completely unknown but it was rumored to have a black dog with the face of an ape as a symbol. And it says that, after she was officially burned by the muggles, she returned to Hogwarts, almost two years later, to proclaim her old house official. Needless to say, the teachers told her off. The situation escalated, Waterhouse demanding her house would become official, a fight started. They fought a rough battle, but it says she died that time. But the location of her house had never been found out. And you know what?" Hailey said, clearly wanting to create a tantalising atmosphere.

„What?"

„That was exactly 400 years ago! Every century, their is said to be a specific star-constellation that enriches the still working charms on the Cataract which makes it possible to enter the house! But, obviously, nobody knows how." Hailey finished her talk and looked expectantly at the Brunette.

„So?"

Hailey looked slightly stunned at Hermione's lack of excitement. „Well… this is thrilling, isn't it? We are in the cycle! Theoretically, we have the possibility to actually open Agnes Waterhouse old chambers." It can be opened roughly for 2 years every hundred years, it says. After that, the magic will grow weaker again."

Hermione crooked her head, arching an eyebrow. „I highly doubt that."

Now Hailey looked almost offended. „But how do–„

„Look. I doubt this is something proven, I have read most of the things about Waterhouse and never encountered something like that. It sounds like a fairy tale and a pretty bad one. There is no reason whatsoever to believe that could be true. Were did you get that information from?"

„I heard it last year from an older student…" Hailey admitted begrudgingly. „But it's said to be in the old diary of Agnes Waterhouse! It says it's hidden in the castle, so nobody until now was able to find it…"

„Hidden in the castle? How dramatic and utterly-unfindable. That's not really proving anything. And I am pretty sure, if there were anything behind that, the teachers within the last 400 years would have taken a look at it, right?" Hermione stood up, going to her bed „Sorry, but that's nothing that catches my interest. And shouldn't for you as well, we are in our final year, we have to concentrate on our exams more than ever."

Hailey looked at her, mouth agape, for at least a minute, while Dee snickered about their exchange.

„You know what Jay?" Hailey grumbled after flicking her wand to let the rest of the snacks vanish and tugging herself under her duvet. „Has anyone ever told you that you are the biggest know-it-all ever?"

„All the time."

The next day, first in the morning Hermione went to see McGonagall. Her teacher had told her, if there was anything she needed help with, she should ask and so she wouldn't have to ask for a permission to use the restricted section. She felt slightly bad when she excused herself from breakfast and made her way to the office of the transfiguration-teacher. She knew she had played Hailey a little. It was true, she doubted very much that there was anything behind that story, it sounded like one of the typical legends spreading around a school. But still, this was Hogwarts. And she remembered the chamber of secrets pretty well, furthermore, it was a little too much of a coincidence she was sent exactly to this year to not at least take one closer look into the subject. In the end it couldn't hurt to give it a try. it was the first hint she got since she came here. She tried to conclude logically where to search for clues of Agnes Waterhouse's' „lost diary".

The room of requirement was the first thing that came to mind, but she shrugged it off again. If it were hidden in there, she had no option to find it in the near future. Chances stood better if she looked it up for the next students in a hundred years to solve the riddle. The next guess was the library, especially the restricted section. She probably wouldn't be Hermione Granger if she wouldn't try it at least.

So she decided to go to the library this evening, when Dee and Hailey had astronomy.

But first things first, she thought, before carefully knocking at the door of her future headteacher.

„Yes" came from the inside of the room, so Hermione entered.

„Miss Gabor." Professor McGonagall said, using the brunette's fake-name, slightly surprised. "How can I help you?"

„I would like to have a permission to enter the restricted section, please."

A moment, the older witch was lost in thought, then nodded. „Yes, I don't see any reason why not. May I ask what's caught your interest? May I could be of help."

„Do you know anything of the school-legend of Agnes Waterhouse?"

To that, McGonagall snorted. „Yes, I do. And such nonsense it is! I've heard this rumor over and over again for the last years, but there had never been a single sign anywhere about a ridiculous fifth house. Waterhouse was a witch at Hogwarts who sadly had a terrible yet mysterious death, I give you that. But nothing like that." She lowered her voice a little and looked at her over her square glasses. „You don't really thing that's why you are here, right?"

Hermione crooked her head. „No, actually, I don't think that. But, if I got that information right, what I wouldn't doubt, you didn't really search for it, did you? At least not within the last hundred years."

McGonagall looked at her with a frown. „Well..no. I think there have been some tries earlier and the occasional student…"

„That, actually, catches my interest." Hermione smiled. „If nobody checked it recently, I'd like to take a look at it. Even if it's just for entertainment. So, about that permission…"

McGonagall handed her out the permission and dismissed her, still shaking her head slightly when Hermione closed the door. Whatever. This reaction reminded Hermione too much of the chamber of secrets years later. It was worth a try, at least.

She finally went to the library and showed Madame Pince her permission. She wasn't pleased and eyed the parchment from McGonagall like a hawk, as if to prove it to be a fake. But the permission was obviously okay, as she relented with an unhappy expression.

So Hermione strolled to the restricted section, luckily no other student was working here right now. From what she could remember, the restricted section looked completely like in her time. Dusty bookcases, which entailed books about the darkest and most vicious magic you could imagine. The dim light brought on by some candles only intensified the uneasy atmosphere.

So she put her stuff to one of the few tables and started her research, now eager to solve the problem at hand. In a library, there was nothing Hermione Granger couldn't handle.

In the next hours though, Hermione couldn't find anything that could be near helpful or that would lead her in the right direction in the slightest. The information about Agnes Waterhouse were very general, so something like that wouldn't be found in the normal parts of the library. So it seemed like she would have to, in the worst case, look through every single book from the restricted section.

Slightly frustrated at the sight of how much work this would become, and probably turn out to be a catch 22 in the end, she decided to stop for the day, her back was aching and she craved a shower and the warmth of her bed. She made her way back out of the library, nodded Madame Pince good night, who seemed quite happy to have her books for herself again, and slowly strolled to the Ravenclaw-tower.

That, until she heard steps coming in her direction. Technically she was legally out of bed at that time, but she didn't want to have to explain herself right now so she quickly hid behind a prominent wallpart. Her gut instinct helped her out as it seemed, because the figure of Bellatrix Black sleeked along in the shadows.

Hermione frowned, this was like a deja vu.

Again, Bellatrix out at night. Again, not in direction of her common room. Odd. Is she coming every week down here?

She makes a mental note to check on that next week again. Today, she didn't feel like playing with fire, their previous encounters still fresh in mind.

The next week was fairly uneventful. Slowly, it seemed the information that Hermione was something like a genius had spread and most of the Ravenclaws started to respect her for that. It was differently from her time in Gryffindor, where she was often made fun of for her academic enthusiasm, in Ravenclaw though, knowledge had always been priority. Some students even engaged her in discussions about statements she had made in class, instead of wanting to copy her homework. Dee, Hailey and some others liked it more to talk to her about different possibilities and theories they had come up with. Hermione missed the Gryffindor-common room and her friends deeply, yes. But she had to admit, this wasn't so bad, either. Still, she tried not to make a spectacle out of her. She was quieter in class and tried not to become to friendly with other students than Dee and Hailey. She was, after all, still in an undercover-mission.

Hermione found herself musing about things like that, when she sat, at the middle of the week, with Dee and Hailey near the Quidditch pitch, watching the training of the Hufflepuff-Team. They had agreed to meet up with Talos afterwards, wo apparently was the Keeper for the Hufflepuffs. She had to admit, they played fairly good, from what she could see. Talos especially, who caught most of the Quaffles thrown in his direction.

„It's a shame the Ravenclaw-team is so useless nowadays…" Hailey sighed, watching as the hunters flew around, tossing the Quaffle between them. „We didn't have the Quidditch Cup since our first year."

„Well…that's hardly our fault. With Slytherin winning 5 years in a row. Well maybe next year we have a chance again. You know, with Black being gone. We won't be here to see that, though…" Dee interjected

„Black plays Quidditch?" Hermione asked, somehow puzzled. She didn't think the pure blood would participate in something such mundane as sports.

„Well yeah, and she's a frickin' genius in it, like everything that woman touches – talk about fairness in life. She had been a chaser since her second year, made to the captain in her fifth year. With her, they're unstoppable."
„The chaser-trio is called the Furies for a good reason." Dee added." Bellatrix usually is a pain in the ass, but apparently she's on good terms with her teammates. Knows how to give orders and stuff."

Hermione just gulped at that. Her situation with the oldest black-daughter, after their not-so-comfortable previous encounters, could by now probably be described as complicated.

Occasionally, she would see Bellatrix out of class, where she only sneered arrogantly at the brunette and her friends, while, apart from that, mostly ignored their sheer existence. That was the comfortable version. When in class though, she seemed to make it her personal conquest to outdo Hermione. But the roles didn't shift that much, since Hermione also gave her best to surpass the Slytherin. Transfiguration seemed a head-to-head-race, while the raven haired witch kicked Hermiones ass- literally- in every DADA-lesson she got the chance to - which was often, considering Cranes absolutely loved her fighting performance.

In arithmancy though, Hermione still excelled and outdid Bellatrix at every problem they had to solve. Somehow, they were like counterparts for theory and practice, left and right, black and white. Everything they did went on on a very high level, though, so the teachers encouraged their encounters. They thought of it as a nice and healthy competition.

Almost, but not quite. Hermione saw too much anger in the Slytherins eyes for it to be somewhere near a "healthy competition", but luckily, that time in the library had been the only time she openly threatened Hermione. Well, until now, at least.

She really couldn't wrap her head around the witch. She was a pest, sure. Arrogant, unfriendly and absolutely not pleasant to be around, but so far from the Death Eater Hermione would meet later, that she simply couldn't see them as the same person. Well, luckily she wouldn't have to think about that too much, she had more urgent problems. And the steady competition almost soothed her mind about the other things at hand, they distracted her sometimes just well enough not to panic, sometimes.

Hermione loved research, but even the most determined researcher would get frustrated at this rate, she wasn't anywere near to find something in the Library. She had the feeling she checked every of the books that could have something to do with the witch. The most desperate attempt on Hermione's side was to search through an encyclopedia regarding everything „water"-related.

She also could not imagine that in the last 400 years, nobody tried to look into the Cataract-mysterium, even just for fun. It didn't seem to be like the Chamber of secrets, you didn't have to be a parseltongue to enter. It just became clearer and clearer to the brown-haired witch that this only was a load of bull.

It had been one week and she started to become highly frustrated. It was almost time to go to the dorm and she started to pack her stuff, when she noticed something. A part of the restricted section that was normally closed, hidden by a plain door. But still, mostly locked. Now it was opened a little and Hermione could see a bunch of paper-boxes standing in lines along the walls. She frowned, she didn't knew there was something like...maybe like an archive in the library?

She went to Madame Pince to ask if her suggestion was correct. To her surprise, Madame Pince looked disgusted at the mentioning of the room. „Well, an archive of trash, nothing more it is! Loose documents we gather since the foundation of Hogwarts, most of it is utter rubbish, but since about 200 years ago the headmaster at that time found the formula for a hair-growth-potion in it, he added to the school rules not to discard those ‚documents'. Otherwise, we would have got rid of this rubbish ages ago."

„Am I allowed to look through those?"

„Well, actually, students are not. But since Professor McGonagall gave you the explicit permission to use every part of the library, I guess you can. But be careful. Nobody looked through those in the last 30 years, I guess. And why should they? It's all nonsense anyway." With that, she shuffled along.

It was late and Hermione had started yawning about an hour ago anyway, so she decided to call it a day and start looking through the documents tomorrow. She went out of the library, when something started to stir in the back of her mind. Wasn't there something she wanted to do tonight? Just when she started to remember again, she heard it. As accurate as a clock, she recognized the sound by now, so she knew before she saw.

Bellatrix Black was on her way again.

Hermione was twisted. She was curious, she had to admit. Since she was here, every week Bellatrix came at least once at after hours to the exact same place. Did she meet with that Hufflepuff-girl? Somehow, Hermione doubted it. She blushed a litte at what she was considering, since Bellatrix had just recently accused her of spying on her. She twitched in indecision as the steps slowly departed.

Tic.

Do it.

Toc.

Don't.

Tic. Toc.

Bollocks!

In the end, curiosity almost naturally won and Hermione slowly and carefully started to follow the raven haired witch. She knew, if she would find her right now, Bellatrix would probably kill her for that. Leaving those not very alluring thoughts aside, she tried to be as quiet as possible when she followed the clangorous steps through the school. They walked for a good ten minutes, when Hermione saw Bellatrix' vanish behind a door. She waited for a few minutes if she would come back until she tiptoed closer.

Harry would call me a hypocrite, since I called him out so often about his obsession with Malfoy…he really can never know of this...

It was a room Hermione had never entered since she came to Hogwarts, the quire- and music-room.

Frowning, she tried to press her ear against the door, if she could hear anything.

Nothing.

Then again, Hermione remembered something she had read in Hogwars: A History years ago. Since the 12th. century, the music quire-room had been charmed with a silencing spell, since the time they tried out a - in that time - new instrument called Clamaturge. It apparently had been tuned wrongly and had been so loud, the whole floor, with exception of the whole quire, who were generally wearing charmed earplugs, loosing their ability to hear. A rather uncomfortable story, but it explained why Hermione wasn't able to hear anything through the door.

She pondered her options.

She could go away now, last chance.

The curiosity would probably kill her, though.

Open the door a little and just take a peek? No, then surely Bellatrix would do the job of ending her life.

She looked around a little and saw an empty classroom which shared a wall with the music room. Well, it was worth a try. She entered the room, put her stuff on one of the tables and lifted her wand. It was a little tricky, but she managed to de-cast the silencing spell, but only between the two walls, so in the other directions it would still be protected.

Hermione mostly hoped to hear the pacing of feet, talking in the best case. At least she would hear the witch leave later and then she could sneak around the room and search for clues. But this didn't seem necessary now, not at all.

God, I can't believe it. Hermione shuddered and closed her eyes.

Next to her, out of the other room, emerged one of the most beautiful sounds she had ever heard.

Someone was playing the Piano. But she had never listen to something so beautiful. Hermione didn't have enough knowledge of classical music, which it seemed to be, to say for sure, but it sounded like a rather difficult piece. It sounded calmly but almost melancholic as it made it's way through the walls.
Quickly, she casted another silencing charm, leaving the mutual wall free and only extending it to her room.

That someone in that school can play this beautifully…

But it wasn't just someone, it was Bellatrix Black. Future Death Eater, tormentor, murderess. The most infamous witch of her time, the dark terror to fight horrifyingly at the side of Voldemort. Now, still a schoolgirl, possessing a passion maybe nobody knew about.

„Who exactly are you right now?" Hermione whispered, leaning against the wall and closing her eyes, listening to the beautiful play that seemed to fill her mind, body and soul, shutting out everything else. Every fear, worry and pain she had felt those days. A single tear slipped through her eyelids.

The next day, Hermione was rather quiet. She ate her breakfast in silence, while Dee and Hailey babbled about their day. That, until Dee nudges her with her shoulder.

„You okay? You seem absent today."

„Yeah, everything is fine, just stayed up to long last night, reading."

It was only a half-lie. She did try to read after she came back to the dormitory, but couldn't concentrate, the events of last night leaving her completely awake. Bellatrix played for about an hour, different pieces, all beautiful. When she finally left, Hermione waited for a few minutes before re-arranging the silencing-spells on the quire- and the classroom. She couldn't prevent to take a look into the now empty room. It was bigger than expected, a quire and an ensemble would have fitted in perfectly. The piano stood in the right corner, a beautiful piece out of black wood. It stood next to the wall Hermione had sat against, she realised, only a few feet separated her from Bellatrix that time.

Again, the dark witch managed to stun her, except this time it had a completely different reason and, thankfully, she didn't know about it. She decided not to tell Dee or Hailey, not to tell anybody, in fact. Not because she didn't trust them both, but she felt it was a private moment for Bellatrix and she felt bad enough herself that she intruded on that.

The music had sounded magnificent, but also had a strange note in it. It sounded a little saddening, melancholic and, if Hermione should guess, lonely. It encouraged her to see the girl not for what she would become but for who she was right now.

Even if Hermione didn't exactly know what that was.

„So, what's up for you today?" Hailey ripped her out of her thoughts again, nibbling at her Sandwich and raising her eyebrows.

„Well, first I have to catch up on homework, then we have history of magic I think and after that I will go to the library I guess." Hermione listed her day to the both of them.

"Well… yes, even for a Ravenclaw, you are hella' studious, I get it." Hailey sighed. „I should learn from you, I guess. Buuut! - and I know it's only in about a month, but it's time to think about the Halloween Party. All the houses come together and have fun. The biggest get-together of the year, you could say."

Again, Hermione questions why they houses in her time do so little together. Need to research that, strange thing.

After class, she went to the library again. She had started to systematically go through the horrendous amount of boxes with, Hermione had to admit that Madame Pince was right, mostly completely useless garbage. Kitchen-supply-lists, catalogues of confiscated objects from 1929, and so on... Even if Hermione found it interesting for the first hours to look through the scribbled ghosts of the past, after going through hundreds of them it kind of lost it's perks.

The most interesting thing she had found was a small picture book. It was prescribed on the first side with ‚final year 1917', a bunch of Hogwarts students from all houses grinning and waving into the camera. Hermione looked through the picture if she would recognize anyone, without much hope, since she didn't know many people that old. But, to her absolute surprise, there was someone roughly half as big as anyone else in the picture that was waving energetically and happened to be a young Professor Flitwick. She chuckled a little about this discovery, but put the picture back after a short consideration. Sadly, this was still library property.

She sighed and wanted to make the next parchment her last, but now something odd happened. As soon as she touched the object, a strong sensation went through her body, as if given an electrical shock. She cursed under her breath as she dropped the wrinkled - and totally sappy- loveletter that caused that feeling on the floor. She quickly casted a protection charm on a pair of thin gloves she found in her bag before touching it again and putting it back to were it was placed, totally unimpressed with the girls attempts to talk about her feelings and who apparently didn't want the wrong person to read it. What was, Hermione had to admit, understandable.

Hermione at least planned to learn out of it and decided to leave the charm on the gloves. Who knew what strange things were waiting for her in that bunch of scribbles and papers. Still, nothing about Waterhouse on this attempt, again.

Enough for today. Hermione sighed inwardly, going back to the Ravenclaw-Tower.

It was neither the day nor the time where Bellatrix would sneak her way to the quire-room, Hermione knew that. But strangely, she felt disappointed about that.

She couldn't stop herself from stealing glances at the dark witch the next day, at the great hall she was sitting next to her sisters, talking to them. To Hermione it didn't seem stressed, so it looked like they, and especially with Andromeda, still had a fairly good relationship. Somehow, it made Hermione smile and let her feel sad in the same time.

Later in class, their tentative routine was showing again. Bellatrix excelled in DADA, while Cranes praised her to no limits. This time they trained some kind of duelling performance, where Hermione, at least in comparison to Bellatrix, missed the needed reflexes and intuition, nobody could lay a single hex on her. While Hermione did nowhere near as good as Bellatrix, she did at least fairly well, only hit with a few hexes – mostly by Bellatrix, who shot er a wicked grin every time – while most of the others more or less left the class bruised from hitting the floor to much. Not a generation of fighters, alright.

In arithmancy, they were talking about the crafting of wands that day, it was interesting to most of them, they had to combine the information about their core-item, the length and wood of the wand, do some calculation Professor Vector had written down to gather information about themselves. Actually, to Hermione, it looked a lot like one of those personality-tests from muggle-magazines - what says your eating-habit about your love-life?– but it was a rather fun and relaxed lesson, so she went with it. She took a moment to regard her 10 3/4, vine wood and Dragon-Heartstring-Wand. According to her wand, she is searching for a „greater purpose in her life" Ha! At least I am searching for that in this timeline.

Also, vine wood seems to be attracted to people with hidden depths. Yes, this is also especially true right now, I think.

Dreagonheart string. Temperamental and turns more easy to the dark arts. Well. Sounds more like for Bellatrix, actually. Or should I be concerned?

She heard the others talk about their revelations, while Bellatrix kept silent. but kind of with a victorious smirk that gave Hermione shivers.

This night, she stayed longer in the restricted section, thankfully McGonagalls permission included that she could stay as long as she liked in the library. It wasn't until 0:30 that she realized she almost worked herself into a frenzy for the sake of making progress.

Well, maybe not only for that.

Hermione tried to ignore it for the last days, when it came closer, first slowly, then faster than imagined. It was clinging to her, once making her happy, now making her feel utterly miserable.

It was her birthday.

Today, at the 19th of September, was her regular birthday. She didn't knew if it counted, cause in this timeline, she was neither born nor anywhere near that date. And since she left her timeline in June, it was technically still quite some time till her „actual" birthday.

Still, it hurt. Never had she been alone on her birthday, not even before Hogwarts. She may didn't have a lot of friends, but her parents had taken her somewhere fun or exciting every year since she was a little kid. Her most favorite vacation was her twelfth birthday, after she had attended Hogwarts for the first time. They celebrated in the Christmas holidays as her actual birthday was at the beginning of the regular term. She had told them everything about Hogwarts and they had been so proud. They ate in a fancy italian restauran and went iceskating afterwards. Her mother excelled in it, Hermione was fairly good and her father utterly miserable. The girl and her mother almost fell from laughter after hearing her dad curse, but with an amused glint in his eyes.
Afterwards they went to see the sunset. It was a beautiful day.

Later, she always had a small celebration in the common room with her friends, Harry, Ron, Ginny, Neville - and later, Luna - sat together, gave her more or less thoughtful presents, chatted and laughed with her till deep in the night. She was sure, if she would tell Dee and Hailey, they would love to throw a whole party or something like that, but she couldn't risk to tell them her actual birthday. She sighed, deciding to go to sleep now and somehow making tomorrow not the crappiest birthday she ever had. It still needed some time till she was able to sleep, charming her bed with a silencing spell again. She didn't shed tears this time, but curled up in a ball and feeling like the loneliest person on earth.

Luckily, Thursday was a relaxing day for Hermione. First, she only had history of magic, where she, for a change of pace, only let the information flow to her, not taking notes as eagerly as any other time. Hailey, for her part, slept through the whole class this time. According to her, when she groggily opened her eyes as the lesson had ended and Professor Binns went through the wall to exit the classroom, due to a heavy drinking contest with Talos.

On the one hand, Hermione argued to scold Hailey for her drinking habits, on the other hand she found her and Talos pretty cute together, so she didn't say anything. She still questioned, though, why Hailey was even taking this class, since she never seemed to pay attention anyway.

This free evening, which started pretty early, she refrained from either working for her exams or researching for Waterhouse, but went for a stroll on the lands, on her own. She walked much further than she usually would with Hailey and Dee, even exiting the school grounds completely, out of a specific reason. Out of the things Hermione had taken from the future, one piece of muggle-technology was her CD-Player. It was pretty new, her parents had bought it for her last Christmas.

Thanks to her enchanted bag, she was able to get quite a lot of Cd's with her. But obviously, she had to be far enough from Hogwarts to be able to use it, with that much magic around, electronic devices would just not work. She smirked when she remembered how often she had to remind Harry and Ron of that fact, for example when Harry explained the use of a Television to Ron, who was just to eager to get one for their common room. Obviously, she took some of her own favorite music, as well as - in hindsight of her long travel where she couldn't see them - some of her parents favorite music, to have something to remember them from, to somehow have a port of them with her. Her father was a huge rock and metal fan, and even if she didn't particularly like it, she took a fair share of ACDC, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin with her.

For today, she decided to go for her mothers taste instead, who loves the opera and classic music in general. She had to admit that her onse-sided encounter with Bellatrix hadn't played a small roll in that decision. After a walk of maybe half an hour, the brunette decided to rest. She went away from the street to sit in a rather cozy place behind a small rock that was just able to cover her when she sat down. Next to it was a small oak where she leaned against it when she put the first cd in her player. There she sat, completely relaxed and happy with her temporary solitude. She stretched against the tree and let out a satisfied sigh. She chose one of her mothers CD's at random and let the music flow through her system.

She had to admit, her mothers taste of music wasn't to bad. She was half into a CD with a mix of classic pieces by Chopin, when she frowned. She first hadn't paid attention to it, because of her cozy half-dozing-off-state in the still warm afternoon-sun and gentle blow of the wind. She grabbed her CP-Player and pressed the „back"-Button. This time she listened more concentrated. And again. And again. It was a little difficult at first, since the piece didn't have a vocal components, but she actually had been pretty sure at the first hearing. She only couldn't believe it.

This was the first song she had listened to a few nights ago, played by Bellatrix Black. She was, again, stunned. Did the witch know? Know that the music she liked to play, she actually broke the rules to play, had been written by a muggle composer? Hermione clicked to more of the pieces and recoginsed even more of them in Bellatrix play from earlier. The caption of the CD told her it were Chopin's Nocturnes. Somehow, a fitting name.

After a brief consideration, she chuckled. If Bellatrix knew or not, it didn't change the fact she enjoyed something muggle-made, what probably nobody in the wizarding world would expect her to.

Hermione leaned back at the tree again, starting the Nocturnes from the beginning again, closing her eyes.

She smirked. Bellatrix didn't know, but she had made Hermione a rather lovely birthday present.

So, that was it. What do you think, let me know if you find the time :) I'm hella curious about your opinion on this one!
Answering the last reviews, it is! (At first, thanks a bunch for your lovely support! :) Since it's actually almost all the time positive, I think I'm not doing TO bad with my first try on fanfiction^^ that's a rather good feeling!

Boomerang: Haah, thank you so much! I re-wrote that part SO often! But in the end I hoped I gathered what I wanted to say :D

MB: Yes, I agree :D I also had pity with her..Not enough not to write it, of course :D

Clemenmore: I would love to discuss this with you, but that would probably spoil a lot...maybe this chapter gave you a hint on where I'm going with it? :)

Lady R. Farris: Thanks for both the compliment and pointing it out! No, it wasn't planned and corrected it as soon as i saw your review. At first I planned to call Hermione by her real name, but thought it would be to obvious for her future, since the name is so unique. But that's why there is the occasional mistake that slips through my own proof-reading^^ my bad, I apologise and hope i got it right this time.

The twenty-fifth doctor: :D I fear you have to read the whole story to know where it ends ;)

Judy: You'll see in this chapter we tend to have the same thoughts on there relationship, I guess :)

MilandaAnza: Won't spoil you there ;) All I can promise is, Eloquentia will be put to good use in the future.

Not much more to say here. Hope you enjoyed and hopefully see you next week again!

- Hoshino-san out