A/N: The Granger Enchanted awards are going on! And are almost over, really - I forgot about them for a while. But voting ends at the end of this weekend (April 3rd 23:59 GMT-8), so if you want to check out the nominees and vote, head on over to the 'Granger Enchanted Survivors 18+' Facebook page to find all the great fics! New Blood has been nominated in a few categories, which is always exciting and fun :)

Amélie Laurence & Jade Damien: Yes, you can nominate New Blood for the fanfiction list you mentioned. Anyone who wants to nominate New Blood for whatever fanfiction thing around the Internet is welcome to without asking, haha. If you really want to check with me, though, or communicate about something else, the 'Artemisgirl Fiction' Facebook page is the easier place to message me directly and receive a quick answer.

"So chimeras are both," Hermione said, leaning over. "Look. It clearly defines a chimera as 'she', but it's got a male lion's mane."

Luna peered over into Hermione's book at the ink illustration, huddling with Hermione in the back of the library to avoid Madame Pince's eye as they whispered.

"That's fair," Luna said slowly. "I never thought of that."

"Have you had any luck?" Hermione asked. "The only other things I've got are kappas and kelpies."

"Poltergeists," Luna said. "But they're amortal and were never really a person at all. Phoenixes, too – they don't reproduce, they're just reborn from the flames."

Hermione considered. "Let's keep looking. There's bound to be more… human-like beings, if we look hard enough."

Luna shrugged. "If you say so."

Hermione sighed and went to go get another book, while Luna stood and went off in another direction.

It was difficult to try and search for creatures based on minor details about them, Hermione was fast discovering. Need a list of XXXX-rated beasts? Not a problem. A list of all things that could be encountered in a lake? Easily done. But find a list of creatures that were both sexes or none at once?

That was much harder.

Hermione found a bit of luck in her next book, one of Japanese mythology.

"They have something called a 'kitsune'," she said. "It's kind of a shapeshifter, so it can be either. They play pranks on people and are kind of mischievous spirits."

"That makes sense," Luna said, nodding slowly. "That kind of legend… that seems similar to old tales of Fae we've got here."

"Really?" Hermione looked up, eyes wide. "Do… do you know such stories?"

Luna looked uneasy.

"Not really," she stressed. "I mean, I've heard stories, but they're just stories, aren't they? Passed down for year and year and years, so who knows what's true and what's not?" She shrugged. "You'd be better off asking the House Elves who gave you those faerie stones."

Hermione paused. "…what?"

Luna blinked.

"The faerie stones," she said again. "You said one of the House Elves got them to you, so you could 'pop' us safely, when we did the ritual at Beltane."

"Those are… those were faerie stones?" Hermione said faintly. "What—what's a faerie stone?"

Luna looked amused.

"According to legend, they give you safe passage through the realms of the Fae," she said, "but again, the House Elves would be better off helping you here."

"Oh!" Hermione said suddenly. "House Elves! They're one, too."

Luna blinked. "A what?"

"House Elves can change their gender at will," Hermione told her. "Literally at will – they just kind of shimmer, and then they're the other."

"Really?" Luna looked very interested by this. She looked up at Hermione. "Can we go talk to them? Right now?"

"Missy Hermione! You is remembering us!"

Hermione smiled down fondly at the little House Elf beaming up at her. She couldn't recognize it (they all looked nearly identical, except for Tolly, she found), but the House Elf's enthusiasm was contagious.

"Of course I remembered you," Hermione said. "Is Tolly around?"

"I goes and gets her," the House Elf told her, and it skipped off deeper into the kitchens. Hermione smiled at Luna, who was looking out over the chaos.

"They're very busy," Luna observed.

"They're making dinner for everybody," Hermione said. "There are a lot of students to feed."

"Missy Hermione."

Hermione looked down to see Tolly the House Elf grinning up at her.

"You is coming back," Tolly said with satisfaction. "And you is bringing a friend."

"Tolly, this is Luna Lovegood," Hermione introduced. "Luna, this is Tolly, the Head House Elf."

Tolly bowed very solemnly, and Luna smiled and dipped a slight curtsy.

"How is I helping Missy Hermione and her friend?" Tolly asked. Her smile grew sly. "You is not here to ask me about the upcoming feast, is you?"

"Not today." Hermione smirked back at Tolly, who looked pleased. "No, we have a few other questions today." She looked at Luna. "Do you want to go first?"

Luna took a deep breath.

"Hermione said that you can change sex at will," she asked. "Is that true?"

Tolly nodded. "Yes."

"How?" Luna asked. There was something in her tone that made Hermione's heart go out to her, a plaintive note. "How do you do it? Does it mean you're both?"

Tolly hummed.

"It is just a thing we is doing," Tolly said finally. "It is like knowing how you is moving your arm – you is not really knowing how you is doing it, you is just doing it." Tolly stood up, and the air shimmered.

"I is a boy now," Tolly informed Luna. "Now I is doing it again."

Tolly demonstrated again, the air shimmering once more. Again, there was no visible change whatsoever.

"Now I is a girl," Tolly said with satisfaction. "It is being like that."

"But – what does that make you?" Luna asked.

Tolly blinked. "What is what making me?"

"Are you a girl?" Luna asked. "Or a boy?"

"I is a girl," Tolly said very slowly, as if Luna were a young child. "I is not being a boy, now – I was changing back."

"But if you can turn into both, which does that make you?" Luna asked.

Tolly shrugged.

"Right now, Tolly is a girl," she said. "If Tolly wants to be being a boy some other time, then I is being a boy instead." She looked up at Luna with her big eyes. "It is not really being a big deal. Some of us just likes being one more than the other."

"If you can be both, though, does that mean your magic is both male and female?" Luna asked. "You can go in both girls' and boys' dorms?"

Tolly laughed uproariously at this.

"House Elves is not being subject to silly wizard wards!" she declared. "We is not wizards, so we is just ignoring wards like that. We is going where we please."

"Is that like how you do the popping?" Hermione asked. "You just ignore the Anti-Apparition wards, and pop up where you want to go?"

Tolly looked thoughtful.

"That is not exactly it," Tolly said slowly. "We is just stepping sideways to pop from one place to another. It is not being like Apparating."

"It seems like Apparating, only a little nicer," Hermione said. "How is it different?"

"Apparating, wizards is going wherever they is wanting to," Tolly said wisely. "Here, elves is only stepping sideways a bit. It is only working at Hogwarts."

"Wait, really?" Hermione blinked. "It only works at Hogwarts?"

Tolly made a face.

"It is being easiest at Hogwarts," she corrected. "Hogwarts has much magic here. It is making it easier to be popping from place to place."

"When you step sideways," Luna cut in suddenly, "where do you go?"

Tolly gave her a funny look. "That depends where we is wanting to be going."

"No – before you get to your destination," Luna clarified. "You loaned Hermione faerie stones so she could 'pop' us safely. Why did you have to do that?"

"Ohhhhhhhh." Tolly hesitated, suddenly looking uneasy. "I is sorry, Missy Luna, but I is not knowing all the details of popping and how it is working. I just knows it does."

"Is there anyone who does know?" Luna pressed.

"Bidum helped teach me last time," Hermione remembered. "Would he be helpful here?"

"Bidum is being a good teacher, but that is mostly being it," Tolly dismissed. She frowned, her elf face stretching out comically with the wide frown on her mouth. "I is having a thought. You is staying here."

Tolly hopped off the chair and went deeper into the kitchen. Luna and Hermione exchanged a look.

"Is this helping at all?" Hermione asked gently.

Luna made a face. "I guess."

A few minutes later, Tolly came back with another elf, this one somewhat taller than Tolly. The new elf's eyes were very large, and an unusual shade of indigo. To Hermione's surprise, Tolly looked almost wary.

"This is Neemey," Tolly said, introducing them. She hesitated. "Neemey is being a new elf."

"Pleased to meet you, Neemey," Hermione said, nodding to the elf. "My name—"

"This is Missy Hermione and Missy Luna," Tolly cut in hurriedly, waving her hand quickly. "They is wanting to be asking you some questions."

Neemey looked at Tolly, and Tolly looked determined.

"You is answering their questions," Tolly said firmly, "and you is only answering them, okay? You is not taking anything, you is not bargaining anything, you is being a nice and good House Elf."

Neemey sighed.

"Fine," Neemey said, petulant.

Tolly nodded in satisfaction and hurried away, while the new House Elf looked up at Hermione and Luna, blinking large eyes. "How can I help you?"

"We—" Hermione paused, an oddity striking her. "Ah, let's take a step back. You're a new House Elf?"

"I arrived at Hogwarts recently," Neemey said, nodding. "I lived somewhere else, before."

There was something odd about Neemey. Where Tolly and other elves were easy-going and cheerful, Neemey seemed somewhat aloof. And this elf held their body differently, somehow – just a little bit straighter, the eye contact a little more intense.

And the grammar. Hermione had never heard a House Elf speak with standardized English before. Did House Elves from different places have different dialects…?

"Where are you from?" Luna asked politely.

Neemey waved a hand. "Here and there."

Hermione narrowed her eyes.

"Are you a House Elf?" she asked.

Neemey gave her a pointed look. "I work with the House Elves of Hogwarts—"

"That is not what I asked," Hermione interrupted. "I asked you a binary question – 'are you a House Elf'. The possible answers to the question are 'yes' and 'no'."

Neemey looked severely annoyed, before giving Hermione a grudging look of admiration.

"No."

Hermione sucked in her breath sharply, her eyes going wide.

"To clarify," Luna said, "you are saying you are not a House Elf?"

"Yes," Neemey said. A smirk grew on Neemey's face, a decidedly odd and somewhat menacing expression on its face.

"What are you?" Hermione breathed.

Neemey glanced over a shoulder. Tolly was helping House Elves at the end of one of the long counters, a distance away, but close enough to come running should she be needed.

"Tolly told you to answer our questions," Luna reminded.

Neemey considered. "True."

There was a slight shift, somehow. Neemey somehow seemed slightly taller, eyes slightly brighter, and there was something sharp in its gaze.

"I… I am not a House Elf," Neemey said slowly, thoughtfully. "But I am not exactly not not a House Elf."

Hermione's eyes narrowed, trying to figure out what Neemey was indicating with such a word maze of a response. It was Luna, though, who was more accustomed to solving word puzzles (probably courtesy of the Ravenclaw door), who asked the next question.

"Were you always not not a House Elf?" she inquired.

Neemey looked at Luna in slight amusement.

"No," Neemey said. "I used to not be a House Elf."

"And when you were not a House Elf," Luna said, "what were you then?"

There was a gleam of what looked like approval in Neemey's eyes.

"I was a Brownie," Neemey said. Its eyes gleamed unnaturally.

"And," Hermione said, swallowing, "what is a Brownie?"

Neemey's smirk widened.

"A Brownie is a lower faerie," Neemey told them. "Brownies clean houses and dwellings, do domestic work, cook, that sort of thing, in exchange for small offerings left out."

Hermione paused. "How is that different than a House Elf?"

Neemey's eyes glinted.

"House Elves do it for humans," Neemey said. "Brownies work in the courts of Fae."

Hermione barely managed to hold back a gasp.

The Fae?

Neemey's eyes were sharp, almost uncanny, and Hermione exchanged a wide-eyed look with Luna. She knew very little about the Fae, but she knew just enough to be intimidated and wary of anything to do with them.

"So… before you came to Hogwarts," Hermione began, "you worked in… umm… where did you work?"

"In a court of Lesser Fae." Neemey's eyes glittered.

"And why do you work here now?" Luna asked mildly.

Abruptly, Neemey's countenance changed. Instead of slightly mischievous and daring, suddenly the Brownie seemed sharp and deadly, edges honed to sharp glass.

"I was sent away," Neemey hissed. "I do not want to talk about it."

Luna looked startled and taken aback, but Hermione was considering.

"Are you one gender or the other?" she asked, and Neemey gave her a curt look, as if she were stupid.

"No," Neemey said curtly.

"Really?" Luna's eyes brightened. "What are you?"

Neemey shrugged.

"I am neither. I am both." The Brownie shrugged. "Those are human concepts and words. The Fae do not have such things – even lower faeries do not."

Luna looked extremely excited, practically vibrating with excitement. Hermione looked at her quizzically, but Luna just stayed quiet, eyes alight, so Hermione eventually turned back to Neemey.

"Are House Elves… descended from Brownies?" she asked carefully.

Neemey's eyes gleamed.

"Yes," it said. "They are."

"Do House Elves count as fae?" Hermione asked tentatively.

Neemey paused.

"They don't not count as fae," Neemey said finally, "which is often close enough."

Hermione was fascinated with these new discoveries and the knowledge of an actual faerie here, at Hogwarts, that she could talk to. She had so many questions she wanted to ask (though with the glint in Neemey's eyes, she wondered how many she could get through before Neemey lost patience), but the original train of thought that had brought Tolly to introducing them to Neemey abruptly returned to her mind.

"Tolly said you could teach us about 'popping'," Hermione said, watching Neemey. "Is this true?"

Neemey stared at them both for a long moment, before starting to laugh. It was a high laugh that felt cold, though it was clear Neemey was genuinely amused.

"Yes," Neemey said finally, eyes glittering. "I can teach you what you want to know."

Luna had begged off, leaving Hermione in the kitchens alone.

"This is a lot for me already," she admitted. "I really—I really just need to go think alone somewhere for now, Hermione."

Hermione had hugged her slightly and assured her it was fine, before sending her off, glad Luna had gotten whatever answers she needed. Hermione had then turned around and refocused on Neemey, who had taken a seat and was looking at her across the table, eyes gleaming.

"So," Neemey had said, eyes daring, "what do you want to know?"

Talking with Neemey was like a verbal minefield. Hermione quickly realized that any question she asked would be answered truthfully, but not necessarily with complete detail. This led to many follow-up questions as Hermione tried to sus out all the nuances to the nature of popping, without anything being left behind.

"'Popping' is what I would call 'stepping sideways'," Neemey informed Hermione. "If one knows what they are doing, one can step sideways into the other realms and use the Earth's magic to take them where they want to go."

"Why is it easier to 'pop' at Hogwarts?" Hermione pressed, and Neemey shrugged.

"Hogwarts is at a nexus of power," Neemey said. "There is a lot of magic here to step in and out of very easily, all over the grounds."

One of those words tickled Hermione's memory.

"A 'nexus'…?" she said slowly. "Is 'stepping sideways'… is that using the ley lines to travel?"

Neemey's eyes gleamed.

"Clever girl," the Brownie purred. "Yes. 'Stepping sideways' is traveling via ley line and the ambient magic of the world."

Hermione's eyes went wide. The concept of using ley lines to travel…

That could be revolutionary.

Apparition was limited both by the power of the wizard in question and the distance to be traveled. If one could step sideways into a ley line, though… you could go practically anywhere in the world you wanted to go, so long as there was a ley line running through it or nearby. Why, Hermione could 'step sideways' to Fleur's very back yard, if she wanted to!

Why, then, didn't wizards travel like that…?

Hermione bit her lip hard, thinking. Other people knew about ley lines – Fleur had taught her, and they were mentioned in passing as what carried the ambient magic of the world in advanced books. If other people knew about them, they had to know that they could be traveled, and yet they were not.

Her impulsive thought was 'no one else has ever thought of it' and 'no one else has asked the House Elves how they pop'. It was easy to think that such a thing was the case.

But Neemey's eyes were gleaming, and Hermione was wary.

She needed to be careful here, she gathered. Now was not the time to be arrogant – if she had thought of it, it was likely someone else had also thought of it as well.

"If you step into other realms… is that realm the realm of the fae?" Hermione asked. "Is that why House Elves can step in and out of it easily?"

Neemey considered.

"It is not not the realm of the fae," Neemey replied. "House Elves can use it easily because they are descended very directly from fae."

Hermione groaned at the equivocation. Word meanings were so incredibly specific with Neemey, and it was fast becoming frustrating.

"Are the other realms or the ley lines under the domain of the fae?" she asked.

Neemey's eyes glinted. "Yes."

Hermione paused, remembering the time she had 'popped' her coven from one place to another. Luna had said they'd worn faerie stones…

"And what happens," she said slowly, "when a person 'steps sideways' into your realm without a faerie stone to promise them safe passage on their way?"

Neemey's lips curled into a cruel smile.

"They are subjugating themselves to the laws and ways of the realm," Neemey said. The Brownie grinned, and for the first time, Hermione noticed that Neemey's teeth were distinctly sharper-looking than those of the House Elves. "And the laws and ways of the realms of the Fae are very different than the laws and ways of the realms of men."

Muggle fairy tales her mother had read her floated up in Hermione's mind.

"Like trapping them?" she asked. "Or making them dance themselves to death?"

Neemey's eyes glinted.

"Yes," the Brownie said softly. "Like that."

Hermione sat back with a sigh.

"Well, that certainly explains why people don't just hop ley lines across the world," Hermione huffed. "No one's going to count that as a reliable method of travel if they could just get kidnapped at any point."

Neemey's eyes glittered, and something about Neemey's expression made Hermione pause.

"…can people 'stepping sideways' get kidnapped at any point?" she asked.

"They can't not not get kidnapped at any point," Neemey equivocated, and Hermione's eyes narrowed.

"Are there times when a person could travel through the ley lines," Hermione said, "and not get kidnapped?"

Neemey paused. "…yes."

"And what are those times?" Hermione pressed.

"There are certain times when the Fae allow free passage through their realms," Neemey said carefully. "During these times, a person could step sideways through the realms without subjugating themself to the faeries' rule."

"When are those times?" Hermione pushed, and Neemey's eyes gleamed.

"You'll have to be more specific," Neemey said, and Hermione sat back, considering.

If when wasn't specific enough of a question, Hermione mused, then when must not be the right question. It would probably make little sense to pick a time of day that varied over the world, like 'dawn' or 'dusk' or midnight, so… was it certain days that were safe?

She vaguely remembered stories of faeries coming out to ride on certain days of the year. In one story they rode on Beltane and Samhain, if she recalled correctly. But that didn't necessarily mean that humans had safe passage to the fae realms… just that the Fae had safe passage in the human realms.

"Are the times when the Fae allow free passage through their realms specific days of the year?" Hermione asked Neemey, watching closely.

Neemey's lips curled. "Yes."

"Are there four such days in the course of one year?"

Neemey's smirk grew wider. "Yes."

"Is one of them the autumn equinox?" Hermione asked, remembering the feeling of touching the ley line in the hedgewitch village during their ritual. "The day in the autumn when night and day are equal lengths?"

Neemey's eyes glinted. "Yes."

"Is another one the spring equinox?" Hermione pressed.

"Yes," Neemey said, teeth flashing in a sneer.

Hermione bit her lip.

"Are the other two the summer solstice and winter solstice?" she asked. "The day when it's the longest day of the year, and the day when it's the shortest day of the year?"

Neemey's eyes flashed with annoyance. "Yes."

Hermione smiled.

"Is it hard, to 'step sideways'?" Hermione asked. "To go farther than just one part of Hogwarts to another?"

"I could not possibly answer," Neemey said. "It is not difficult for me to do so. I have no idea how difficult a human would find it."

That was fair, Hermione supposed. She grinned to herself.

Well. That just meant she'd have to practice.