Hermione in Kindelrum

by arog14038

Hermione in her sixth year is an exchange student for half a semester at Kindelrum, an all-witches school disguised as an oil rig off the coast of New Orleans, Louisiana. Written for the QLFC Round 4.

Title: Hermione in Kindelrum

Team: Tutshill Tornados

Position: Chaser 1

Prompt: Coven

Optional Prompts: "I feel like perhaps I am not being taken seriously."

(2) venture (word)

(3) dusk

Hermione sighed as she looked down at the parchment clutched in her hands. She could hear the laughter of her parents downstairs as she sat alone in her room, contemplating her next move. Professor McGonagall had given her the parchment right before Christmas break. She had discussed with Hermione the possibility of being an exchange student during a part of her sixth year at Hogwarts due to her exceptional academic performance with the promise that she would receive partial credit in her N.E.W.T. courses for doing so. Hermione had initially rejected the professor's offer due to her loyalty to Harry and her increased infatuation with a certain redhead who just happened to be her other best friend. However, her life took a turn for the worse not too long ago when she found said redhead and a certain Lavender Brown snogging. Despite this, she still had Harry as a best friend, but Harry had his own problems at the moment and was busier than ever. So, resignedly, Hermione signed the parchment and filled out the information on it, indicating that she didn't particularly care which school she went to as an exchange student (as long as it wasn't Durmstrang, for personal reasons to do with a certain professional Quidditch player who was probably still smitten with her). Hermione gave her signed parchment to the Hogwarts owl that came by her window in half an hour's time and rejoined her family downstairs. The remainder of the Christmas holiday was rather uneventful but enjoyable for Hermione as she relished the time with her parents and mostly went on small outings with them when they weren't at work.

Hermione received an owl from Professor McGonagall a week before Christmas break ended indicating that she would travel by a specially made, super powerful portkey that would transport her to a school far away called Kindelrum which was a private, all-witches school for American witches off the coast of New Orleans, Louisiana. To save her the trouble of riding back to Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall came to the Grainger's residence at dusk with the super-portkey in hand on the evening before the other students would be returning to Platform 9 ¾. Hermione and her parents enjoyed a short, lovely visit with Professor McGonagall before she informed her that her possessions would be specially transported by the Ministry of Magic to Kindelrum by the next evening. Hermione stepped outside with the Professor as she bid goodbye to her parents.

"This type of portkey requires an incantation to activate it," said McGonagall to Hermione after McGonagall had checked that there were no onlookers nearby. She then put the super-portkey on the ground in front of her. In fact, the portkey was in the shape of an American football. "You must grab onto the portkey and recite the words lacus transvectio Kindelrum."

"Thank you, professor," said Hermione. The two hugged each other. McGonagall gave her a melancholy smile as Hermione began to reach for the football.

"I know you will make all of us from Hogwarts so proud," said McGonagall sincerely.

Hermione gave her a sweet smile as she took the football, concentrated, and said the incantation with her eyes closed. Suddenly, she felt the sensation of being weightless and then weighing thousands of tons. She felt pushed and pulled, stretched and crunched, yet this portkey didn't make her feel nauseous or ache. It was almost as if her body was resigned to accept this strange phenomenon and didn't cause her any pain in the process.

Before she knew it, she landed with a painless thud onto something that felt like metal. She lifted her head up and immediately noticed the smell of the ocean. Although it was hard to see because of the darkness of the night, it appeared she had ventured to an oil rig in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. As she took in her surroundings, a friendly voice came from behind the oil rig pillar in front of her.

"Ahh, you must be Ms. Huuurm-ee-oh-nee Grainger!" said the lady. Hermione almost laughed at the way her name was pronounced.

"Oh, it's Herm-i-o-nee," she said politely, recovering quickly.

"Oh! Of course, of course, silly me!" said the woman. She was slightly portly with a dark complexion and beautiful, long kinky hair. She had a powerful, confident voice when she spoke.

"Welcome to Kindelrum school for Witches! My name is Salome Lipscomb, but the students all call me Miss Salome. I am the current headmistress here and the liaison between you and Professor McGonagall during your time here."

"Nice to meet you, Miss Salome!" said Hermione, feeling more excited now as she shook hands with the headmistress. "Umm, I have to ask. Is this the school?" she said, referring to the abandoned oil rig they were standing on."

"Good question, Hermione!" said Miss Salome. "Actually, this is the abandoned oil rig we use when we bring guests, to make sure they aren't imposters, misplaced persons or Muggles. However, the real school is disguised like an oil rig from outside the protective enchantments and is a few miles from here. Are you ready to go? I received word that your belongings should come to you sometime tomorrow."

"Yes, thank you," said Hermione. Miss Salome whistled a few notes and a huge, specially-made broom appeared from behind a different oil rig pillar which could have carried five people. Hermione and Miss Salome hopped on and headed towards the next nearest oil rig. They hit a rough patch of air which caused the broom to vibrate harshly and a thick fog appeared in front of them before they plunged into a huge area of dry pasture land surrounded by water and a massive ten-story house with antebellum architecture and all sorts of side chambers and diagonal wings stretching out from it. Although the house was very unique in its design, Hermione couldn't help but secretly prefer Hogwarts over this place.

"Here we are! A little bit different from your school, I presume?" said Miss Salome.

"Oh yes," said Hermione with a chuckle.

"Now then, we don't have Houses like I've heard so much about at Hogwarts. Rather, we have Tribes here at Kindelrum. These Tribes are not hard and fast groups that one must stay in like your Houses. Rather, students can change in and out of them from semester to semester, and they give our girls a point of commonality to help them as they blossom into young witches. While the names are not particularly endearing, most of the girls find them cute and inviting. The groups can also change from year to year, with faculty approval of course. At the moment, we have the TomBoys, the GirlyGirls, the Socialites, the Bookworms, the Introverts, the Activists, and the OldMaids. Now, tell me, what do you like to do in your spare time?"

"Er..." Hermione thought quickly. " I like to read and, uh, I might occasionally knit small clothes like hats and scarves and things like that, and, er…"

Miss Salome examined her. "Minerva did tell me you were quite the precocious student. Hmmm… We'll let you stay with the Bookworms for now to see how things go."

Thus, Hermione was sorted into the Bookworm Tribe by Miss Salome. Once they entered the house, it was much bigger on the inside than it looked from the outside, reminding Hermione of the Quidditch World Cup tent they stayed in two and half years ago. She was directed to go to her left and ventured down a dark, dimly lit hall in the style of an antebellum home. Hermione was surprised, however, to find herself scared of the house. Miss Salome seemed so friendly, yet her demeanor did not match this house. The long corridors creaked as Hermione walked through them, the rug underneath her old and battered. The portraits on the walls, of course, looked at her with curiosity, giving Hermione an eerie feeling in the pit of her stomach. Somehow they didn't seem as friendly or inviting as the portraits back home. There were also 19th century photographs on the wall which also moved, but they seemed a little faded and creepy as well.

"It could be personal bias," she muttered to herself under her breath as she made her way down the hallway. She finally found a door at the end of the hallway that had a cartoon drawing of a giant green worm with round glasses and a mortarboard.

"Password?" said the worm, who had a stifled and stuffy voice.

"Er, I don't…." began Hermione, but before she could speak any more the portrait swung open and Hermione was greeted with a surprise.

"Come on in, girlfriend!" said a friendly voice.

"Oh! Hello!" said Hermione, grateful to be out of the creepy hallway.

"Ooo! She sounds so British!" said another girl.

Hermione wasn't sure if this was a compliment or not, but said, "Er...thanks?"

"I'm Jess," said the girl that opened the portrait to let her in. She had red hair that was very curly and long as well as a lot of freckles. "I'm the Chieftess of the Tribe."

"Nice to meet you! I'm Hermione Granger."

"Hermione! I like the sound of that name," said Jess.

Jess proceeded to walk around and introduce her to the other girls in the Bookworms. A spare bed had been arranged for Hermione in Jess's room. Apparently she, being the Chieftess, got her own room to herself. She would be Hermione's roommate during her stay at Kindelrum.

Considering Hermione was in her sixth year at Hogwarts, she was placed with those students who had already turned 17 by September 1 because the American wizarding world was similar to the British Muggle world in that adulthood was reached by age eighteen, not seventeen. Also, training in witchcraft did not begin until a minimum age of twelve, instead of eleven like in the U.K. However, Hermione's own birthday being in September, she wasn't that different in age from them, and she quickly fit in with her peers in the classroom. She was surprised to find out how similar the curriculum was to that of Hogwarts except that some of the classes had different names. Transfiguration was instead called Transformational studies. Defense against the Dark Arts was surprisingly just called Defensive Magic, and Herbology was called Bewitched Botany. Hermione did notice that a few classes were conspicuously absent from the curriculum, most notably Divination. One day at lunch, Hermione asked Jess about it.

"It really stinks actually," said Jess. "I'm fascinated by Divination to be honest, but Miss Salome says it's a bunch of nonsense. Since she's the headmistress, she never hires anyone to teach the subject."

"Well…" began Hermione awkwardly. "It sort of is a bunch of nonsense. But I know some people at Hogwarts who really like it and believe that the professor really has the so-called 'Inner Eye,'" she finished, throwing quotation marks up in the air with her fingers.

"Still…" said Jess. "I think it'd be great if we could experience it for ourselves. Just to know what it's like, you know?"

"I guess…" said Hermione, agreeing with her mostly to be polite, but seeing that she and Jess did not see eye to eye on the more imprecise branches of magic.

However, things took a strange turn again on Friday night when Hermione returned to the Bookworm dorm from the study wing at dusk and found ten of the girls, including Jess, sitting in a circle around a mysterious looking board.

"Er, what are you all up to?" asked Hermione, a little nervous at how dimly lit it was and of their suspicious behavior.

"Lexi found this board over Christmas break and said it's a device Muggles use to communicate with ghosts. She said it only works if one of us has the Inner Eye," said Jess, her tone condescending on the last sentence.

Hermione eyed the board. It was as large as a big dinner tray with a sun in one corner, a moon in another corner, and the English alphabet in the middle with the words "yes," "no," and "goodbye," written on the bottom. Hermione could've sworn she saw a board like this in one of her Muggle studies classes, but couldn't remember the name of it.

"And….you think this will work?" asked Hermione to the circle of girls.

Lexi, who was sitting opposite of Jess, got up and huffed audibly at all of them. "Yes! It should!" She turned to Hermione. "Sorry, I didn't mean to get upset like this, but…" she looked at her friends still in the circle. "I feel like perhaps I am not being taken seriously!"

"We're taking this seriously!" said Jess defensively. Some of the other girls looked around as if they didn't agree with Jess.

"Maybe you are…" said Lexi. "But if you don't take ouija boards seriously, it won't work. You'll just be playing a game, and the Placebo effect will do the rest. You won't actually be communicating with anyone though."

Hermione winced, but thankfully no one was paying attention to her at this point. Now she definitely remembered hearing that weird name in Muggle Studies. But this was a device that Muggles used to communicate with demons as well. Hermione didn't believe in demons, but she didn't want to partake. She began to make her way to her room slowly.

"You want to join us, Hermione?" said Lexi, catching her movement.

"Er, I've got some reading to catch up on for Charms class," said Hermione, trying to look remorseful that she couldn't join in.

"Oh, alright…" said Lexi.

Hermione made her way to Jess's room to her temporary bed and opened up a book. However, it being Friday night, and Hermione having already read for several hours that day, it was hard for her to concentrate. She couldn't help but begin daydreaming about Ron and Lavender and wondered how their relationship was going. She wondered if Ron ever thought about her despite the fact that he seemed genuinely interested in Lavender. She wondered how Harry was doing, if he had learned anymore from Dumbledore about how to stop Voldemort, how Professor McGonagall was doing...

"AHHHH!" came several shrieks from the common room after half an hour. Hermione thought it was a joke, but it snapped her out of her daydream. Then she heard more shrieks and a horrible, harsh voice coming from the room, as well as a lot of wind noise.

"Where is the nonbeliever?" said the voice that Hermione heard above the wind noise. Surely the board wasn't talking about her? Nevertheless, she grabbed her wand just as a precaution.

She opened the door to see the room was filled with a lot of swirling wind and black mass. The board was floating in midair, the faces of the sun and moon on it replaced with angry, scary faces of a man and woman. The girls were covering their ears while some of the girls had passed out. Then Hermione heard it.

"Surely you don't think your friends miss you, do you?" came a voice from inside her head. The voice was loud and harsh and gave her a headache. "Ron and Harry are better off without you. Hogwarts is better off without you. Why do you even try? Just give it up and end it all. Join me, and I'll reward you greatly. Join me, Hermione Granger!"

Hermione covered her ears, but thankfully she had her wand. She raised her wand and thought of her and her friends fighting together in the Department of Mysteries last year.

"Expecto Patronum!" said Hermione. The otter emerged from her wand but vanished after absorbing some of the black mass swirling around the room. Hermione wasn't going to give up that easily. She thought of the time McGonagall praised her in front of the whole class for how hard she had been working last year.

"Expecto Patronum!" said Hermione. This time the otter issued forth but was more quickly swallowed up. It still vacuumed up some of the black mass, however.

"Foolish little girl! You think your magic can stop me?!"

"Keep doing that spell!" yelled a familiar voice. It was Jess who was able to resist the torture enough to yell at Hermione to keep going. Hermione through a pained expression, saw Jess and regained some confidence. She thought of the time Harry and Ron saved her from the troll. She thought of the time she spent at the Burrow with Harry and all the Weasleys. Then, she thought of the best memory she could've at the moment: the one time she and Ron went to Hogsmeade alone in third year. It was so close to being romantic…

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" bellowed Hermione. A blindingly white otter issued from her wand and absorbed the black mass in the room before charging into the ouija board and transforming it into sawdust which fell promptly to the ground.

"WOOOOOHOOOOOOO! HERMIONE YOU'RE THE GREATEST!" yelled Jess. Most of the other girls had passed out from the torture, but Jess had fought through it. "How'd you do that?!"

"Patronus charm," said Hermione, who for some reason was out of breath. "Had to learn it last year in a special Defensive Magic lesson," she said, referencing her experiences with Dumbledore's Army.

"That's one heck of a charm! Looks like we all need to learn that one!" said Jess. The other conscious girls nodded fervently in agreement as they regained their strength.

Later that evening, Miss Salome was informed of what had happened, and Hermione was lauded as a hero among all of Kindelrum in a special ceremony the next week. She received special rewards from the school for her service, including an all-expenses-paid trip to New Orleans, and was awarded the title of Joint-Chieftess of the Bookworms for the rest of her stay. The other witches, especially the younger ones, from all the different Tribes looked to her as a role model. Hermione could not have asked for a more rewarding study-abroad experience. Most of all, however, she couldn't wait to get back to Hogwarts and tell her friends all about it.