"I'll be in touch, Harry," Hermione said with a smile and a small peck on the cheek. Harry raised a hand to his face, smiling back as he felt it.
"Good luck with your job interview," he replied, causing her smile to widen. "Do us proud, all right? I know you can do it, whatever it is."
"Thanks, Harry." The young woman looked pleased. Glancing past him, she chuckled. "Ron's stuck again. Better help him with his trunk." Looking back over his shoulder Harry sighed when he spotted the third member of their group swearing at the large trunk that he had somehow managed to wedge at an angle into the doorway of the train carriage.
"How does he keep doing that?" Harry grumbled, raising his hands in irritation. "Three years in a row. You'd think he'd either learn, or get a smaller trunk. Or remember to shrink it, for Merlin's sake!"
"He likes that one," Hermione laughed. "It was a good find, it's very high quality considering how cheap it was."
"Probably cursed bearing in mind how often he does something like this." Harry watched with slightly raised eyebrows as his friend delivered a vicious kick to his recalcitrant luggage, then yelped in pain and hopped around on one foot inside the carriage, while other people grinned at the show. Leaning on the trunk to inspect his damaged foot, the red-head shouted obscenities when it promptly unstuck itself and tumbled out onto the platform, closely followed by its owner who did much the same.
"Or that," he added dryly, turning back to Hermione, who was visibly attempting not to fall about laughing at their friend's misfortune. Biting the inside of her cheek she watched with bright eyes for a moment as Ron managed to get himself in order, then returned her attention to him.
"I have to dash, but give my best to Sirius when you see him. As soon as I know anything I'll call. Good luck with your NEWT results too."
He nodded, shrugging a little. "I think I'll do all right on them. Not as well as you, of course, but no one does as well as you do. Although Luna might give you a run for your money, and I'll bet Neville gets top marks in herbology."
"That goes without saying," she nodded. Both of them looked over to the young man in question who had just got off the train behind Ron, looking vastly amused at his antics, as did most of the other students and a number of the parents who were waiting. Arthur Weasley was standing to one side shaking his head, a small smile on his face, with Ginny next to him holding a hand over her eyes in despair.
Raising her hand in farewell, Hermione turned around, waving to Neville, Ron, and the two other Weasleys as she walked off towards the portal back into the main train station. He watched her disappear into the wall before picking his own luggage up and following, with a quick smile at Luna who had just got off the next carriage and was looking in his direction. The blonde Ravenclaw waved, smiling back, before busying herself with her belongings which one of the other students was handing down to her.
When Harry emerged into the main station, he looked both ways but couldn't see any sign of his oldest friend, assuming she'd either apparated home or disappeared into one of the cafes. Wondering how her job interview would go, while knowing that she'd most likely do very well whatever it really was, he headed towards the exit, intending to get a bite to eat in a greasy spoon he happened to know was just outside the station.
Then it was back home, to await his own exam results, relax for the summer, and work out what he was going to do now that he as no longer a student but a fully qualified and adult wizard in his own right.
Travel, he thought to himself. That sounded like a good idea. Sirius had some interesting ideas along those lines and perhaps it was time to try some of them...
Remembering the instructions in her last letter, Hermione slowed as she reached the magical exit, then took a deep breath. Walking two paces forward, she turned sharply to the right and took another step, something she'd never even considered doing before. No one did, they simply walked right through in a straight line. Slightly to her surprise, and much to her relief, there was a sensation of distinctly unusual magic washing over her before she emerged into bright light.
"Right on time, Hermione," a deep voice she hadn't heard in nearly two years said, sounding pleased. Looking to the side, she smiled at the large violet reptile that was grinning at her.
"That's a good trick, Ianthe," she replied, walking over and looking up at the huge creature, who appeared in a good mood. "Would it work for anyone else?"
"Not unless they were keyed to it like you were," Ianthe said, smiling back. "But it seemed somehow appropriate."
Looking back over her shoulder, Hermione inspected the glowing blue energy-lined portal she'd apparently stepped out of, then shook her head in wonder. "Very good trick. Is it magic, technological, or both?"
"Both." Ianthe tapped a control on the device like a large watch band she was wearing on her wrist, nodding in satisfaction when the blue hole in space vanished leaving only a blank wall. "The wormhole needs magic to transfer between worlds like that, it normally only works as a spatial transportation system. The math is fairly complex."
"I'd be interested in seeing it at some point if that's possible."
The large lizard smiled. "I'm not even slightly surprised about that. We'll see what can be arranged. All right, come with me and we'll give you a quick tour of the place, then we can sit down and talk for a while."
Hermione fell into step next to her much larger companion, who was close to two feet taller and probably several times her mass at a minimum. Despite that, she walked remarkably lightly, her toe claws clicking on the ground the only real noise. Looking around, the witch could see a building that reminded her of a small airport terminal, with a long corridor leading away from the medium-sized room where she'd come through the portal or whatever it was. There were doors opening off the corridor at intervals, with a couple of windows showing some sort of control room festooned with incredibly high tech displays that made even a magical equivalent look a little antiquated. A number of people were working at the consoles in there, none of them looking up.
"WCC operations," Ianthe said, indicating the window and the room beyond. "That's where we control the portal equipment and keep track of people in the field. Mostly to other locations in this universe, although we do have a number going to alternates like yours and a few other ones we've found that are interesting. Since there's technically an infinite number of them, we have a lot to choose from."
That little bit of information laid out all sorts of questions to her active mind. It would at a minimum tend to suggest the many worlds theory of reality was true, and wasn't that fascinating? But she held her questions for later, simply absorbing what she was experiencing.
"The original WCC was much smaller than this, it was only one converted warehouse built for a specific purpose," Ianthe went on as they walked. "We didn't use it all that much for a while, but it gradually became a lot more important, and these days we make use of the entire system and related technologies all over the place." She stopped in front of another window, Hermione standing next to her. The girl looked in at the huge floating display and gaped.
"That's..." she breathed.
"Mars. Yep."
"Good grief."
The huge lizard chuckled. "You'll get a chance to visit if you want."
Feeling a little faint, Hermione could only nod weakly.
"Come on, we're nearly at the exit. You'll like this next bit."
Her guide resumed walking, with her following and looking around at all the doors that didn't have windows next to them and wondering what was behind them.
Shortly thereafter they reached a set of double doors, which slid open silently when Ianthe put her hand on a sensor next to them. On the other side was another similar set, currently closed, like an airlock. "Security point," Ianthe commented as she went through. The doors closed behind them. A voice said something in a weird language unlike anything Hermione had ever heard in her life. The lizard replied, in what seemed to be a code phrase. There was a tone and the other doors opened. "It's all based on our own language, which only people we trust know, and if you get it wrong..."
Ianthe shrugged. "It wouldn't end well, but it would end quickly."
"You take it seriously," Hermione remarked, looking around a little uneasily.
"We have to. Bad things happen if you don't think about security." Her companion waved her forward into what looked like sunlight. Taking the last few steps, Hermione stopped dead and stared.
"Welcome to Brockton Bay, home base of the Family," Ianthe smiled.
"Oh, my..."
She couldn't think how to finish the sentence for some time.
"So, what do you think? Interested in an internship with BBFO?"
Hermione regarded Ianthe with an evaluating look for several seconds. "You surely know by now that there's only one answer I could possibly give."
The violet creature chuckled. "I could say that we were sorry to lose you, but that sort of joke is more Saurial's field than mine." Hermione smiled slightly. "Good. We've got some documentation for you to look at, it explains the travel arrangements, payment, perks, and so on. There are quite a few perks, believe me. We generally feel it's best with people from other universes to run the internship on a part time basis for the first few years at least, since most of them have other commitments and probably don't want to completely uproot their lives. What we're considering in your case is basically a summer job for the first couple of years, three to four months here, then the rest of the time at home."
"Is that enough for me to properly learn everything?" Hermione asked, a little worried.
"In your case? Definitely, no one thinks that you can't handle it, or we wouldn't have made the offer," the lizard smiled. "Your marks were the highest that your school has recorded for about three hundred years in most of your subjects, and the highest ever in that Arithmancy subject that's a subset of proper Pattern Theory. I suspect that our books might have helped there?"
"I learned more in the last few months of reading than in most of my years at Hogwarts," Hermione laughed. "Merlin knows what I'd have been capable of if I'd started off learning that system."
"You should still be capable of it, I think, it'll just take a little longer," Ianthe replied. "And it's not like you wasted your time there. Your system of magic is a bit odd compared to many we've encountered and we're hoping that will give you some good insights that otherwise might not have happened. Cross-fertilization of systems like that is always useful. Even though Saurial thinks that wanded magic is something of a dead end, even she isn't right all the time. And is honest enough to admit it."
Leaning to the side, Ianthe grabbed a box that Hermione recognized as a similar one to the one she'd received with the original books in. She opened it, and pulled out a folder. "This is the introductory info pack, the contract, and other useful stuff," she said, handing it across the desk she was behind. "Read it very carefully, make notes on anything you don't understand, and I and the others will explain anything you need to know more about. We'll talk again tomorrow when you've had a chance to go through it. When you're happy with everything, we'll move on to the next stage."
With a nod Hermione stood up. "Thanks, Ianthe. This has been more fun than I could ever have expected," she said eagerly.
Ianthe smiled. "Great, I was hoping you'd enjoy it." She spoke to the air. "We're done here for now."
Moments later the door opened, to reveal a very tall young woman who was a good six foot two or so, with long brunette hair in a sort of pony-tail held together with a number of silver bands. She looked at Hermione, then Ianthe, raising an eyebrow. "Taylor Hebert, this is our likely next intern, Hermione Granger. She's from one of those secret magic worlds."
"Ah. Those can be odd." The woman, who looked to be about twenty one or twenty two, smiled warmly at Hermione, who smiled back a little uncertainly. "A witch, then?"
"Just finished my schooling," Hermione nodded.
"Great. Sounds like we got to you in time to teach you how to do magic right, then," the woman, Taylor, grinned. Her grin was very good natured and made Hermione relax.
"Can you show Hermione to her room, Taylor?" Ianthe asked. "I've got to talk to a few other people. Maybe you can answer any questions she has left."
"Sure, no problem," Taylor nodded. "Follow me, Hermione. Do you have any luggage?"
"It's in my pocket, thank you," Hermione responded politely.
"OK. Well, if you need anything, we can provide it," the brunette said. "We're pretty good at that sort of thing. It's this way." She turned and walked out of the room, Hermione's steps faltering slightly when she saw that the girl had a long, strong, and dark scaled reptilian tail behind her. Very similar to what Ianthe had.
She glanced back at Ianthe who was watching her with interest, apparently wanting to see how she reacted. After a moment she hurried after the woman, who had paused to wait for her just down the corridor. It was odd, but compared to huge sapient lizard-folk with the highest tech she'd ever even heard of… Probably not important really.
"How long are you here for?" Taylor asked curiously as they walked.
"Ianthe's letter said to allow up to a week," Hermione replied. "I arranged with my family to have that long, and came here immediately after finishing with school for the last time."
"How does your world work, then?" The woman looked intrigued. "I've come across all sorts of ways that magic-rich worlds do things, and some of them are pretty weird."
"Well, we use wands, and when we turn eleven, we get a letter..." Hermione began. Her companion listened with interest as she led her onward.