Late at night on a Friday near the end of November, ten days or thereabouts after receiving an unexpected delivery via an apparently-not-as-extinct-as-it-should-be archeopteryx, Hermione was sitting on her bed, leaning back against the pillows with the curtains closed and some silencing and privacy charms in place. Her dorm mates had long since fallen asleep, soft breathing and the occasional slight snore coming from them, although she couldn't currently hear this. She turned the page of the book she was reading intently for the third time, feeling the same sensation she'd had many times since she'd first opened it, one of shock, awe, and excitement all rolled into one. The feeling was familiar, but still had the capacity to amaze her even so. "Unbelievable..." she whispered to herself, looking at an illustration that couldn't possibly exist on a flat page, even with magic. It had far too many dimensions to exist even in normal space, yet she was staring at it right now.
When she experimentally poked it with a finger, she gaped as it changed, the bizarre shape she couldn't have described for the life of her, not having the vocabulary if nothing else, warping and flowing around the end of her digit. She spent the next ten minutes playing with it, watching the shapes it produced. They seemed to conform to some specific set of rules, although so far she couldn't quite discern what those were.
Eventually she went back to the text, her head slightly aching and her eyes blurring for a moment as she looked away from the somewhat disturbing image. The image was part of the first practical exercise in the book on 'Pattern Theory' which was as far as she could tell the most in depth explanation of how magic actually worked that she'd ever seen. It made all her books on arithmancy utterly redundant, and indeed showed that they were largely just detailed instruction manuals on minor edge cases of the overall picture.
It was, she'd decided, the difference between something like being trained how to turn the lights on via a wall switch, and taught in depth how electricity worked from first principals up right the way through into advanced electronics. On the one hand, you learned that if you did a particular thing a specific result occurred but you didn't really know how it came about, merely that it did. On the other, you knew exactly why this result occurred, how to fix it if it didn't, and how to modify it to do other things, or design new ones from scratch. Wizard's spells in most cases, unless the wizard or witch in question ended up in a research field which very few did, were really just following a set of instructions akin to a cake recipe. This book and the methods detailed within were more than that to a level where it was almost funny.
Whoever wrote it was beyond brilliant, in her opinion. She'd never heard of either author but they were so far past anything she'd experienced that she was astounded. The brief preface hadn't expounded much on the writers, merely explaining that this was the end result of years of research and experimentation on advanced magical theory, delving into the underpinnings of how to make the Multiverse look the other way.
This first chapter had gone over the basics, and explained the vocabulary used. It had warned that to make full use of the system would require a decent grounding in some specific mathematical operations, including topology and number theory as well as a few even more esoteric areas. But it also said that much of it could be utilized without a full understanding by intuitive manipulation of the 'pattern' as it called what she would have thought of as a spell. Further reading showed her that the commonly accepted concept of spells in the magical world were a very crude approximation of what the book was referring to, a whole series of specific workarounds that bypassed a general solution to an entire class of problem.
Aside from anything else, the methods detailed in the book were wildly more energy-efficient, almost nothing being wasted. And, to her astonishment, didn't in any way utilize a wand or any other focus. In fact, the authors seemed to consider the use of such a device as positively detrimental to the true appreciation of magical theory, pointing out that reliance on such techniques almost always ended up making it anywhere from hard to impossible to learn how to do it correctly. There was an entire, quite long appendix dedicated to why this was so, delving deeply into aspects of biology and a number of other fields she hadn't got the faintest idea about. At the end was a suggested further reading list which mentioned half a dozen reference works, all of which she was very pleased to see were in the 'gift box' she'd received out of the blue from those odd reptiles.
Having skimmed a couple of them, she'd seen that she was going to need to dedicate a couple of years at a minimum to that subject, though, to really understand it. And it would require quite a lot of other research using textbooks she certainly wasn't going to find in the Hogwarts library, although she was sure she could get them from any decent university library in the real world.
That was the most remarkable thing, in fact. The book had told her quite firmly that this method of magical manipulation didn't absolutely need an internal magical ability, although that would certainly help, and could be learned, in theory, by many of what she thought of as 'mundane' people and the wizards rather insultingly called 'muggles.' It cautioned that this didn't essentially mean that everyone could do it, as it also required significant ability to visualize more than three dimensions, and a strong mathematical bent was needed to make the most of it. But it was certainly possible to teach a much larger quantity of people than the vanishingly tiny number who had the specific magical gene or whatever it really was that gave wizards and witches in her world their abilities, to at least some level.
It recommended starting the student off at an early age, as the results were normally better if they began with this method before encountering other magical systems, but it could be learned at any age if one had enough dedication and the right sort of mind. Someone who had spent a lifetime learning another system might well end up functionally unable to learn this one due to subtle changes in the brain caused by their magical use, and indeed might even find it painful to watch the method in use for a number of arcane reasons. There was another appendix detailing ways around this, but having read it she thought it so complex that most adult wizards wouldn't bother even trying. Assuming they could understand it in the first place, which she was pretty sure the bulk of them couldn't. It was right at the limit of what she could understand herself at the moment.
The chapter she was currently reading was the first one in the book which at the end went into practical exercises, this one being a form of test for the reader to allow them to find out if they could perform the necessary mental gymnastics required to use this 'pattern theory' in practice. The illustration, it turned out, was a visual representation of the required 'pattern' which was essentially a mental construct that in wizard terms would be referred to as a spell. It was far, far more than that, though.
With growing internal excitement, she carefully read the chapter twice, going over a few key points several times more, until she thought she had a good handle on it. Turning back to the picture, although that wasn't really the right word for the extraordinary thing she was looking at, she tried to get herself into the correct frame of mind. Eventually, after a few deep breathing exercises, she started to follow the instructions, building a copy of the image in her mind, part by part.
It was peculiarly hard. There was a sort of mental resistance to it, like she was trying to think around a corner that she'd never even noticed was there until this point. A headache slowly building, she kept trying, each part of the pattern coming into mental focus little by little. It helped that she had a strong visual component to her imagination, having spent a lot of her childhood picturing the things she read about.
After nearly two hours, she closed her eyes yet again, having found that it helped, checking the weird little image floating in her mind, then opened them and assessing how well it matched the one on the page. 'Close,' she thought with quiet excitement. 'Very close. I need to push this bit here over here, then turn this one like this...' The pattern shifted slowly, as she made tiny tweaks, her perfectionist nature insisting that it should be perfect. Finally it seemed to be an exact copy of the one in the book.
Her head now throbbing, Hermione smiled a little. Double-checking her work, she looked at the text for a moment, then nodded to herself. All she had to do now was activate it, and at least in theory she'd find out if she'd done it right.
Suppressing a building excitement, she closed her eyes and mentally prodded the relevant part of the immaterial thing in her head, watching as it abruptly snapped all by itself into a different shape. There was a weird sensation of something happening, not anything she recognized as magic, but definitely real. A sort of tug on her mind in a way she'd never encountered before. Cautiously opening her eyes, she stared, then began grinning like a fool.
The little ball of light hanging in the air a couple of feet away wasn't even as bright as a firefly, but it was there. Sure, she could have achieved the same result with an under-powered Lumos spell, but this was done with an entirely different method, one that she was fairly certain a trained wizard wouldn't think was possible. And it was far, far more versatile than Lumos. It was a general purpose illumination spell, with dozens of parameters that could be altered to do almost anything with light. She poked the construct she was holding in her mind, watching as the light brightened, then changed color, stretched out into a bar of softly glowing green, then into a blue ring. "Oh, that's amazing," she said very quietly, still grinning widely. "Just unbelievable."
All without a wand. Or a gesture, or a word. It was merely an effort of will. Admittedly, a pretty serious one, she was sweating with the effort, and her headache was horrific, but even through all this she was able to keep it going for nearly ten minutes. Eventually, though, she was forced to stop, slumping back against the headboard as the light winked out of existence. Staring at the top of her bed as she massaged her temples, aching internally in a way that was only partly physical, she moaned to herself.
Even so, she was as pleased as punch, as her father would put it.
She could do it. It was real, the book was right. And if it was right about that…
Almost everything she knew about magic was wrong. Or, more accurately, incomplete. Wildly so.
Rolling over and retrieving a small vial from the cupboard at the side of the headboard, she opened it and swallowed the pain relief potion, gagging at the taste even as the headache diminished. She always kept a few on hand, since it wasn't uncommon that her studying left her with a headache. Not normally anywhere near this bad, though. Putting the empty vial back she closed the cupboard, then the book, which she put back into the case which was sitting next to her pillow. Moments later, the case secured, shrunk, and stored safely away, she slid under the covers and closed her eyes having turned off the magical gas light equivalent above her bed.
It was going to take a lot of work to learn the things in those books, but now she was sure she could. And very, very pleased about that.
She went to sleep with a smile on her lips.
"I'll call you later this week, Harry," Hermione said as she quickly hugged her best friend. "I'm glad Sirius finally got around to getting a phone installed. Owls are fine, especially Hedwig..." She reached out and scratched the head of the snowy owl, who was sitting on his shoulder at the moment, the bird tilting its head into her hand and making a pleased little sound. "But I like to talk to you as well."
"I'll be waiting, Hermione," he replied, looking pleased. "Say hi to your parents for me."
"All right. You and Sirius will have to come to my house as well. But I'll certainly be over for Boxing Day."
"So will I," Ron added, from where he was watching them a yard away, the three forming a stationary island in the middle of the crowd of people scurrying to and fro from the Hogwart's Express, which had arrived in the station a few minutes ago. "Mum asked me to ask you to remember to come over to the Burrow too, Hermione."
"Of course I'll remember, Ron," she smiled, turning to him and giving him a hug too. "I like your family. Pity you don't have a phone, but we'll manage like we always do."
"Dad would love one, but Mom's against the idea," Ron chuckled. "Oh, well, maybe one day. Things seem to be slowly changing in that regard lately, since the Dark Wanker met his end."
"Met his end. How… literary," Hermione giggled.
"All right, then, carked it?" Ron snickered. "Is that better?"
"It'll do, "she grinned. "Give my best to your parents as well." Glancing at her watch, she added, "Got to dash, Mom and Dad will be waiting and parking at King's Cross is terribly expensive."
"Bye, Hermione," both young men chorused as she waved, then grabbed her lightened trunk and trotted off. Waving back over her shoulder, she passed through the barrier into the mundane side of the station, glancing around for her family. Spotting them sitting at a table outside a cafe across the station, she smiled and headed that way. Twenty minutes later, having had a cup of coffee and a pastry, she and her parents were slowly moving through the London traffic on the way home, both of them asking questions about her recent activities, friends, and plans for the holiday.
At the bottom of her pocket, the tiny form of the gifted library occasionally made itself known as she moved, reminding her over and over that she had far more options now than she'd ever have expected. And an awful lot of very intense reading to do...
Two and a half months later she had finally managed to make her way through all the books in a language that she could read, several of them more than once. She was slowly becoming quite good at the exercises in the Pattern Theory book, up to around chapter twelve, where it started to get complicated. Bearing in mind that the thing had, despite the apparent inch or so thickness, at least two thousand pages and over a hundred chapters, this was still very early days. It was going to take her quite a while to even get to the point she'd consider herself a novice in this new field, yet already it had opened her eyes to a whole series of insights into how her own wanded magic worked and how to make it work better. The wand was quicker and easier, as the book had said, which went some way towards explaining why wizards and witches used the things.
Wandless magic was, if you tried to do the same spells as the normal ones you'd use a wand for, quite hard. In fact, for most spells, it was implausibly hard, for the bulk of people at least. It required a lot of power as it was very inefficient without the wand to focus and guide the spell, which explained why so few wizards ever managed to do more than a small number of fairly simple spells at all competently in such a manner. Harry was better than most, partly due to the way he just kept trying until he managed it, and partly because he had power to burn anyway. She herself could do a few things without a wand but nothing like what he could, or Neville for that matter, who again had a lot of available magic, far more than most people.
But that was using wizard magic.
She was almost certain that with this new type, she had a lot less in the way of theoretical limits. It wasn't tied so directly to the individual's own internal power, worked in an entirely different manner, and was much more effective at making full use of the power you put into it. It definitely required a completely different mindset to use properly than traditional magic did, but if you could master that…? All sorts of things became possible. At least on paper.
After much thought, and reading some of the external references she'd found listed, all of which were available from a couple of academic bookshops in London, she was beginning to believe that she could see a possible way to link the pattern theory of magic into the wanded magic, in a rather roundabout manner. That had some interesting ramifications. The book did mention this, she'd eventually discovered, but not in quite those words.
Some of the other books went into more details on magical focii, including wands, as well as a whole series of other devices many of which she'd never even considered. One of them referenced a field it termed Magitech, which was a hybrid of magic and technology, something that normal wizards mostly didn't seem to think was possible. It also showed several ways that magical energy could be stored for future use, and even linked into a fixed spell to make the entire thing almost like a battery-powered device. You could just turn it on or off, even without any magical ability of your own. The possibilities of that made her eyes widen and her mind race when she read it.
However, one other thing had become clear to her as she'd devoured the information that had landed in her lap. This, as amazing as it was, was only the beginning. There were decades worth of learning just in the literature she had in her possession, which seemed to come from at least a dozen different worlds as far as she could tell. For some of the books she was going to have to learn an entirely different language to even read them, one that she was entirely certain was absolutely nothing to do with any human world. Helpfully, there were a couple of English to whatever the hell it was dictionaries in the library box, as well as a several thousand page book on the language itself, but teaching herself enough of it to actually read the references was going to take a considerable time. Speaking it was probably almost impossible, even with a tutor, since she was fairly sure that some of the required sounds couldn't be made, or heard, by a human.
Every time she thought about what she had on her hands, she found herself wondering yet again who these people really were, and why they'd given her this opportunity. Not to mention being incredibly grateful that they had.
It was the best gift that she'd ever received, bar none.
Hermione finally had to put the new books away to concentrate fully on her NEWT studies, although when she somewhat reluctantly went back to what she now thought of as a poor imitation of the real thing, she discovered that her extra-curricular work had given her a large number of insights into the normal work. She kept finding new ways to think about what she was trying to do, which had the effect that she found a number of the more tricky spells much easier to perform than they should have been. It didn't make them trivial, and didn't work with all of them by any means, but it gave her an edge she was very impressed with.
The studies into Pattern Theory and some of the other subjects the books contained also seemed to stand her in good stead with Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. The latter was almost childishly simple for the most part, compared to the intricate multidimensional arrays she was becoming used to manipulating in her head. Her forays in some advanced math techniques using reference books from the real world also aided her considerably. It had dawned on her that the 'Muggles' knew a lot more about mathematics than the wizards did, not that the magical world would probably believe that.
Overall, then, even though she'd slightly slacked off on her proper work to study this amazing new field, it hadn't caused her any real problems. Quite the opposite in some cases. Potions was about the only field that the books she'd been gifted didn't improve, and even there she had a suspicion that further study might lead to some interesting results. However, it was so complex that it was very unlikely that she could make any use of it for years, so she just went with the traditional methods as they did work well. It was a pity that Snape wasn't very good at passing on his encyclopedic knowledge of the subject, even though since a certain day when she'd… volunteered… him for a particular project, he'd definitely mellowed. Not much, he was still a sarcastic and grumpy bastard, but he didn't seem to go out of his way to be a total shit these days.
'Who knew that removing his Dark Mark would have such an effect?' Hermione mused with a small smirk. Not that he had the faintest idea who did it or how it had been done, of course, and it certainly wasn't something she was ever going to let him know about. Or anyone else, for that matter.
Finishing her current assignment with a few more lines from her quill, she put the thing down on the library table next to her, then blew gently on the ink to dry it. Quickly re-reading the essay to check for errors, she was eventually satisfied, rolling it up and putting it in her bag. The quill and stoppered ink-pot joined it. Standing, she picked up the four books she'd been referring to and wandered back into the stacks to re-shelve them herself, feeling it polite not to leave this to the librarian. This was one of the reasons that she got on unusually well with the irascible old woman.
When she'd finished, she headed out of the library, intending to drop the assignment off with Professor Flitwick then go back to her room for a rest, and some more revision. It was early on Saturday but since it was currently pouring with rain, she didn't feel like heading out to Hogsmeade like a number of the other students had done.
On the way out she smiled at Luna, who was sitting at another table, surrounded by books, which as far as she could make out were on magical creatures. This didn't surprise her at all, the blonde girl spent a lot of time reading such books. Usually giggling a little and mumbling about how they'd got something or other wrong, which seemed to amuse her.
Luna looked up at her, returning the smile, although there was an unusually intense look in her eyes as she watched the other girl leave the room. When she'd disappeared around the doorway, Luna went back to her book, examining the picture in it, then comparing it to a hand-drawn image on a scrap of parchment. The image showed a medium-sized birdlike creature that definitely wasn't the thing in the book, although it had some similarities.
Shaking her head slowly, she kept looking, determined to work out exactly what had delivered mail one morning months ago.
And then flown up into the rafters of the hall and simply, silently and without fanfare, blinked out of existence…
Turning pages, she smiled faintly. She liked a challenge.
"Help!"
"It's not that hard, Ron."
"Easy for you to say, Hermione," the red-head sighed, dropping his head back onto the top of the sofa he was sitting in and letting the quill in his hand droop while he closed his eyes. "I can't work this out at all. I hate Transfiguration sometimes."
Hermione twitched the piece of parchment he was holding in his other hand out of his grasp, then read it. "It's not… bad..." she said a little doubtfully. He opened one eye and rolled it towards her, grimacing at her tone. "Just a little… not quite right?"
"So where did I go wrong?" he asked with a tired sigh. Harry, who was sitting in a chair nearby listening quietly as he did his own revision, watched with him as the girl started unrolling the four foot long scroll of parchment, reading it backwards. Both of them waited as she kept going, Ron's face steadily falling, until she pointed at a line about four inches down from the start.
"Oh, bugger it," he muttered, while Hermione shrugged apologetically. "Right at the start, you mean."
"You made an assumption which wasn't entirely valid," she explained. "Then extrapolated from it. Your work is internally consistent, if that helps. Just… not quite correct."
"Damn. Now I have to start all over again." He sighed heavily as he accepted the parchment back.
"It's not that bad. Look, if you correct this part here..." she leaned over and scratched out a few words, inking in some new ones in a couple of places, "...the rest of it down to here is fine. A little change here, and here, and down there, redo those sections to match, and it'll work." She gave his quill back, smiling at him. "Just think of it as a first draft."
"I was hoping it was a final one," he groaned, examining her corrections. "You know I don't write very fast."
"You'll get there," she assured him with a small smile. "You usually do these days." As he looked slightly happier, she went back to her own work, which she was using a mundane pad and pen for. He watched as she wrote out a long line of symbols he couldn't make anything at all of.
"What on earth is that?" he asked curiously.
"Hmm?" She looked up, then down at the page again. "Oh. A project of my own, related to what I'm considering doing after graduating. Sort of… magical research, like I said, but a little unusual compared to the normal sort of thing."
Harry leaned forward to see her pad more clearly as she flipped back a couple of pages, checking her work so far, then resumed writing. "That looks complicated," he commented with a slightly awed tone to his voice. "Way past anything we learned."
She smiled again without looking up. "It's not a field we get taught here. I'm doing independent reading."
"On top of revising for the NEWTs as well? Merlin, Hermione, you need to slow down. Your brain must be full by now," Ron snorted, grinning. She glanced at him and giggled a little, before putting her pen down and flexing her hand.
"I've got lots of room in here yet," she replied. "And this is so fascinating. It's hard to stop thinking about it, but I suppose I need to get back to revising. The first exam is only a month away."
"Don't remind me," he sighed, looking at his aborted work. "I'll never pass at this rate."
"You'll do fine," she assured him.
"Not as well as you will," Harry chuckled, Ron nodding vigorously. "You're probably going to break every record on exams at this rate."
Hermione grinned at him. "I'm definitely going to try," she assured him. Glancing at her watch, she added, "Lunch soon. I'm going to put this away, I'll meet you down in the hall."
"All right," Harry nodded, as he and Ron got up. They left the common room as she went up the stairs to her dorm, carrying her books and notepad. A few minutes later, having washed her hands and put everything away, she was heading down to the Great Hall for something to eat. A familiar figure joined her as she was descending a flight of stairs. Looking sideways, she smiled.
"Hello, Luna," she said. "I haven't seen much of you for days."
"I've been very busy, Hermione," the younger girl said in her typically light and slightly absent-minded voice. "Looking things up, you see."
"Things?"
"Oh, yes," the blonde nodded. "Things. Things are important, don't you think?"
She seemed to be watching Hermione out of the corner of her eye. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, they headed down a corridor past various pictures and suits of armor.
"I would agree that some things are important, Luna," Hermione smiled. "Not all things, though. By the way, what things are we talking about?"
"Oh, just things," the girl said, waving a hand in a slightly dismissive way. "You know."
She fell silent, casting glances at her companion as they walked, her face showing nothing but her eyes oddly alert.
"Do you think you'll do well in your NEWTs?" Hermione asked as they went down the next set of stairs.
"I believe I will," Luna said quietly. "But I won't do as well as you will." Reaching the door to the hall, she stopped for a moment, causing Hermione to pause as well. "You will do very well indeed, I think," the blonde added calmly. "Your job will take you to some places I would like to visit one day too. Say hello to the lizards for me when you see them."
Hermione watched with a sense of bemusement as the odd girl smiled widely for a moment, then made her way to the Ravenclaw table, wondering what that statement meant, and what the girl actually knew. Eventually she shook her head slightly and walked over to her normal place at the Griffindor table. Luna was hard to understand at times, and tended to come out with peculiar statements like that every now and then. It was strangely apposite, though, all things considered.
Near the end of the meal, a few post owls flew in, dropping letters off to various students. Hermione was engaged in talking to Neville about a Charms assignment when he suddenly looked past her at something, his brow furrowing.
"Um, I think you have mail, Hermione," he commented. With an odd premonition of what she'd see, she turned her head.
The archeopteryx standing on the table beside her plate gave her a weirdly knowing look, then carefully put the letter it was holding in its toothed beak on the table. Reaching out, it somehow managed to use the claws on its wing joints to pick up the goblet of juice that was next to it, tipped the entire thing down its beak, belched discreetly as it put it down again, then flew off, not before somehow managing to produce a definite impression of a grin.
Everyone who was watching, which was most of the table, stared after it.
Then looked at her.
Hermione shrugged, smiling weakly, before retrieving the letter and opening it. Reading the contents, her eyes opened steadily wider.
"What is it?" Harry asked curiously from her other side.
"An appointment for a job interview," she replied after a long pause, carefully folding the letter up again and putting it back into the envelope, which went back into her pocket, next to the box of books. She was suppressing a laugh of mixed excitement and terror. "Nothing too exciting. It's after the exams, depending on how I do."
"Brilliant," he grinned. "You'll definitely be going to that, then."
"Hopefully," she nodded, refilling her goblet and trying to act as if an extinct dinosaur stealing her drink was an everyday occurrence. "I suppose time will tell."
Internally she was shaking. Even she didn't know how much was worry and how much was anticipation.
Luna peered upwards, watching as the strange bird-thing circled the hall once. It looked down at her, winked deliberately, and disappeared.
Smiling to herself, she went back to eating, casting an occasional glance at Hermione, who seemed to be in a funny mood. She hoped the other girl would have fun with her life, since it was going to become very interesting, she suspected.