A/N: Sorry for the delay in updating. No idea what updating schedule is going to be like from here on out for anything. Starting junior year of engineering school, which is the worst one by far. I'll update when I remember/get any sort of free time.
Disclaimer: I don't own the right to Harry Potter and make no money off of my writing this.
Hermione made her way quickly to Compartment B after her scheduled patrol was over. Daphne and Tracey were already inside, waiting for her. She closed the door behind her and set her bag down on a nearby chair. Daphne came over to her.
"You ready for this? I mean all our work this summer comes down to this one meeting. If somebody backs out" she trailed off.
"Relax" Hermione insisted, grabbing Daphne's arms and holding them still. "You'll do great. Su Li was the toughest sell and I already talked to her before the Perfect's Meeting" Tracey coughed politely.
"Should I give you two some privacy or did somebody forget to tell me I was chaperone"
"Tracey" Daphne exclaimed, as they broke apart, blushing furiously. Tracey just wore a victorious grin on her face.
"What? I don't want to see you two snog each other senseless. And you had that look on your face Daph"
"Anyway" Hermione tried changing the subject. "Tracey is in for sure, you are in, I am as well. Padma is sympathetic at least. Susan you know how she'll react. And Su Li is now willing to hear us out. So breathe, you got this. I believe in you" Tracey made gagging motions in the background.
"To thick?" Hermione asked the room.
"Yeah, you could swim in the sickly sweetness" Tracey put in. Daphne only smiled, tension easing out of her posture.
"I liked it. It was nice"
"Ok, one question, who's bringing the Firewiskey" The three of them turned to see who had come in unannounced. It was Susan. They all gave her an incredulous stare.
"What? These kind of things need some liquid courage to make them more palatable"
"No, I get that, just didn't peg you as the type Suze" Tracey remarked, showing a flask. "I only got a little, and I'm saving this for later" Daphne looked like she was going to say something but was cut off by Susan.
"Fine, I get that, but Suze? Really?"
Tracey shrugged "Well, there already is a Su, and having two Sues might be confusing"
"And is there anything wrong with Susan?"
Tracey shrugged again, "Not really"
While those two bickered about Tracey's choice in nicknames Hermione leaned over to Daphne and asked
"What was that look you gave Tracey about?"
"Trace's family is big in the spirits business. Not as much as Ogden's but with more variety. She supplied all the house parties last year. Had a whole hidden compartment full of the stuff"
"They make anything I would know?"
"Not really, big seller is firewhiskey but also a lot of smaller experimental stuff. It's good just a niche market. People stick with firewhiskey for the most part"
"You'll have to get me some then" Hermione remarked, drawing a shocked look from Daphne.
"Hermione Granger wanting a drink, underage to boot. Be still my beating heart"
"Prat. You're almost as bad as Harry at times you know. And I will have a drink or two, I just make a point never to get drunk in public"
Daphne laughed, pulling Hermione into a hug. "I know that silly. But it is to much fun to to pick on you sometimes"
Their tender moment that followed was harshly interrupted by Tracey pulling them apart.
"Ok, enough lovebirds, save it for when I'm not around"
Grumbling they set to work finishing up the last minute details for the meeting, making sure all the handouts were there, they knew who would talk first and so on. Su Li arrived a few minutes later and wasn't noticed until a few minutes after that. Tracey scolded Daphne for that, then proceed to chat up the shy girl, making her uncomfortable at first, but she relaxed over time.
Daphne took to pacing while they waited for Padma and Harry to show up so they could get started. Hermione looked over her notes on the ritual, continuing to nail down color, shape and time for various parts of the ritual. The candle lighting was giving her the most trouble now. Tracey, Susan and Su spent the time getting to know each other better. Susan had briefly looked over what Hermione was working on but quickly decided that it was to technical for her and went back to hanging out with Tracey not long after that.
Finally, about an hour and ten minutes after Hermione arrived in the compartment, Padama came in dragging a reluctant Harry behind her.
"Somebody is thrilled to be here" Tracey snarked.
"Well forgive me for rather hanging out with friends than complete strangers thank you very much. And Snakes to boot as well"
The two Slytherins in the room protested that last part, while Padma shook her head.
"Hey if I have to deal with a Puff, you can deal with them" She turned to Susan, "You are way to damn friendly you know?"
"Ah, you gotta love Ravenclaws, way to easy to rile up. Almost as much fun as Gryffs" Susan shot back playfully.
"Come on guys, let's get focused so Harry doesn't have to spend any more time around us Snakes than absolutely necessary" Daphne cut in.
"I say he's been spending to much time around Ron though" Tracey added/
"Hey! What's wrong with Ron? He's a great guy" Harry defended his friend.
"Well other than his deep seated prejudice against my House?" Tracey responded bitterly.
"Can we please move on from all this interhouse bickering? It was old after second year" Hermione interrupted, feeling quite irritated.
They settled down a little after that, but it was still a tenser atmosphere than either Hermione or Daphne would have preferred.
"So, let's start off with going over the ritual" Susan chimed in "What ritual are we doing, cause last I heard all coven rituals were banned a century ago"
"Hermione made one. If you look in the packet there should be a description" Daphne answered.
"You mean the small book? I am not reading all that, got a summary?" Tracey responded, holding up a large packet of papers, held together by a sticking charm, as muggle staples weren't able to hold it together.
"Yeah Hermione, this is a little excessive even for you" Harry added.
"Ok fine, here's the short version then. Ritual will take place in a ritual circle, there's a picture on page 15, the charter will be placed under a lighted candle in the center. When the ritual starts we enter the circle and draw a rune in our own blood on each other. Then once that is complete we use the excess blood to make a handprint on the charter. The ritual concludes with us pouring candle wax over the charter, to seal the bonding. Overall a very simple ritual"
The others looked at her incredulously. Padma was the first to speak.
"So you needed, what was it" she flipped through the packet "30 pages to tell us what you did in five sentences?"
Hermione looked down, embarrassed. Harry and Daphne shared a knowing look.
"Well there are figures and calculations and how I got to the ritual there" Hermione defended halfheartedly.
"I don't care who you got there, I only care if it works, will it?" Tracey demanded.
"I think so, but I'm not a ritual expert. I'm going to have Professor Dumbledore look over it when we get to Hogwarts" came Hermione's response.
"So how are we going to get all this blood, cutting charm?" everyone turned to look as Su spoke up for the first time, her quite voice somehow cutting through and carrying more weight than what seemed possible.
"Ritual knife, I was thinking a cut on the palm would work"
"And what separates a ritual knife from a regular knife? And why not a cutting charm?"
"If we use cutting charms the magic of the charm will interact with the magic of the ritual, and that interaction is unpredictable, and I don't want to take that chance. As for the knife, I don't know. I think it may be something to do with the forging process, or maybe there are special runes on the handle. But I think there is a difference" Hermione replied.
"Just find out before we actually do the ritual" Hermione nodded at that.
"So, what's this charter thingy, any details?" Susan asked.
"It's the single sheet of paper filled with legalese hidden behind Hermione's book" Tracey replied.
"Oh, that thing. Confusing as hell, but at the same time a lot more manageable than I was expecting"
"I think it's ok, but I'm a little confused on the fourth section. What exactly does it mean, are we the only members ever, or what?" Padma inquired.
"It's actually a fairly standard coven clause, of the charters I looked at over 90% of them had similar wording. I updated the wording a bit for more modern times but it says that if you are a member of our coven then that is the only coven you can be a part of. Adding new members is in the seventh section" Daphne replied, Hermione may have written the first draft, but this version was hers.
"Okay, I get that. I am still a little wary of the secrecy clause though, what does that mean again? 'Hold our sister's secrets as our own'?" Susan spoke up.
"Basically don't betray each other's secrets. If you wouldn't divulge it about you, don't do it with a fellow coven member" Came Daphne's reply.
"Ok the sister thing threw me"
"Members of a coven are called coven sisters. It's wording basically"
"So looks okay to me, I mean there is an amendment clause in there right? Section ten I think. So if we decide later that we don't like something then we can always change it right?" Padma reasoned.
"Right, but this is the easiest time to change though. So if there is anything glaring, we need to address it here and now, as opposed to pushing it off until later"
"I think we need to schedule regular times where we all just hang out. If not this whole thing could come apart. Call it team building or something like that" Su spoke up again. She seemed to be coming out of her shell. But it was clear to all that she would never speak often.
Harry groaned at that suggestion. The last thing he wanted to do was to be forced to hang out with a group of Hermione's friends on a regular basis. Hermione was a good friend, but hanging out with her regularly without Ron was mindnumbingly dull. And the Slytherins in the group didn't bode to be much better company.
Unfortunately for Harry the others seemed to like the idea and he was out voted 5-2, with Tracey being the only one who sided with him. Not that he argued that hard for his case, discretion is sometimes the better part of valor, and in this case it was.
"So, do we actually have to do anything or is this just going to be one big party?" He asked after the decision was made.
Nobody in the compartment missed the look that Daphne shot Tracey, or her response. "Hey don't look at me. I only got enough stock for one or two parties. I'm not the Weasley twins. Never could figure out how they never seemed to run out of supplies"
"That's good to know Tracey, but I think the better question is not will we have a bunch of crazy parties, but rather what are we expecting out of this coven" Padma answered.
"Well what can we do? I mean none of us are experts at anything, and our skills are more general than specialized. I vote for parties" Susan said.
"I agree with our lack of focused talents but full time parties might hinder our studies" Hermione spoke up at the suggestion.
"Aww, come on Bushy, it'll be fun" Harry quipped, before hastily diving behind Su to avoid a flurry of hexes from Hermione. Everyone else dove out of the way as well.
"Harry" Hermione growled, "What have we said about that nickname?"
"But it's not public!" Harry defended. "What I want to know is what Tracey has to do with parties?"
"Ok, let's drop it. We have more important things to worry about" Daphne cut in, trying to get everyone back on track. "Call Hermione names at your own risk, that applies to everybody else as well. And as to the relevant question of what our coven will do I say tutoring" Hermione still grumbled and shot a subdued Harry nasty looks, while the rest of the group warily checked themselves over to see if they were hit by any stray hexes.
"Tutoring? Are you serious Daph? You've seen my grades" Tracey supplied.
"Yes and you know Potions. Don't argue, I've seen you work" Daphne cut off her objections.
"I can see that, we all aren't stupid, and Hermione could probably teach Transfiguration to the lower years" Susan supplied.
"And Harry taught NEWT level Defense last year" Padma continued.
"Don't remind me" Harry groaned. While the DA was fun for him at times it was a whole lot of extra stress and work in an already stressful year.
"But anyway it could work. And I mean it's not life or death if we just do nothing for the first couple of years anyway. Odds are that this whole thing will just blow over. If not we can always decide later after we graduate" Daphne continued.
"Ok, but I'm still going to set up a tutoring service anyway" Hermione declared. "If only because it will help me open up a bit. Feel free to give me a hand if you feel capable"
"Sounds good to me. Any other pressing business before we all go our separate ways?" Daphne asked the group.
Nobody had anything that they could think of so everyone dispersed back to the groups they were sitting with before they came to the meeting, all getting ready for another interesting year at Hogwarts.