Author's Note: Before we start, I'd like to apologise to anyone left who was waiting for this fun little project to be updated. I'm afraid this story was put on the back-burner in favour of my Supergirl crossover when it took off out of nowhere. I still love this concept though, and I will never abandon anything outright (yes, Marauder's Legacy and MRLD included, they're being reworked), so I figured it was high time to revisit the hijinks of a very magical Harry Potter, this time from the perspective of Hermione Granger.

It's important to note that this chapter is kind of a diversion from my original plan, being that originally there was no plan. This fic was meant to be a fun little collection of interactions between a magician and the Wizarding World, but when I started it I had a very bad bias against Hermione. I won't go into the reasons right now, but her antagonistic role kind of just spilt out of my anti-Granger brain. I've since reread the series and I have a much deeper understanding of the character and her importance for Harry's journey. Ron as well, though I always loved Ron. I decided to actually write a character-focused plot, involving the entire Golden Trio because the world needs more Gen, friendship-focused fanfiction.

05. The Lady of the Library

"Granger?"

Hermione flinched, her ears burning red as her clenched fists turned white. Oh no.

"What do you want?" she bit out, hoping he'd take the hint.

He didn't. The smug little cheater pulled up a chair and sat across from her table, facing her.

"I wanted to say I'm sorry. I didn't think it'd actually work. I figured you'd be overjoyed if I tried to hypnotise you and couldn't."

"So you hypnotised me because it was best for me?" she scoffed, rolling her eyes. That was the best he could do?

"No. I hypnotised you because I thought it would make for a funny final reveal, plus it would further demonstrate my skills as a magician. I hypnotised Neville as well because I didn't think it would actually work. But I still wasn't fair to you. You didn't volunteer, that wasn't cool of me. I'll stop including you in my routines. We good?" he asked, holding out his hand.

Hermione eyed his outstretched fingers suspiciously. "That's it?" she asked pointedly. "You say you're sorry and everything is supposed to be okay?"

"Fair enough," huffed Potter, dropping it. "What would you like from me?"

Her stern eyes narrowed to glare into Potter's infuriatingly green eyes, suspiciously searching for any signs of insincerity.

"Stop with your little parlour tricks."

"'Fraid I can't. You can ask literally anything else—and if it's within my power I'll do it—but my magic is just too important to me."

"You are not doing magic."

"Five billion free-thinking minds would disagree," he stage-whispered conspiratorially.

"You shouldn't be one of them. You know the truth! Magic is about results. Perseverance and preferred outcomes! Your spitting on generations on innovation by passing off your cheap deceptions as real magic."

"Your definition of magic sounds an awful lot like science. And I haven't been 'passing off' anything. It just seems like everyone wants to believe I'm some sort of messiah. Who am I to correct them?" His self-satisfied smirk was beginning to stir certain urges in the bookworm's heart. Particularly of the throttling variety.

"If you won't stop, you'll explain yourself to Professor Flitwick and nip this 'wandless magic' nonsense in the bud!"

Potter nodded. "Done."

"And you'll stop substituting your tricks for real magic in class. You'll do the proper work, just like everyone else."

He seemed much less agreeable this time but nodded anyway. "Fine."

"Not just Flitwick's. Every class."

"I said 'fine'," he repeated, clearly annoyed. While a small smart of her knew she was pushing it, the vast majority was quite pleased by the turn of events. "I'll see you in class, if not the tower."

Surprisingly, Potter kept his word. He actually went above and beyond the terms of their agreement. Hermione caught him sneaking back into the room after class had ended. Worried he might have been trying to skimp on their deal, she followed him and hovered out of sight. To the girl's slight shame and substantial surprise, she listened as Potter apologised to the Professor for not submitting any real spells in class, going as far as to explain how he mimicked the effects. He ended the conversation by performing all of the charms they had learned thus far, accepting several house and class point deductions for cheating and late work. Flitwick sounded rather put out that Harry wasn't actually a savant of wandless magic but he took the blow in stride and invited the magician back for tea and a performance if he ever wished.

But even that wasn't the end of it! He'd perform silently if she was in the room (or as quietly as humanly possible when speaking was necessary). He'd fiddle with coins instead of cards to be less distracting in the Library. He actually did the classwork!

They weren't exactly friendly, but Hermione could no longer say in good faith that she actively disliked him. He was just another student. Plus—without the constant air of annoyance she felt when looking at him—she found that many of his tricks were rather impressive (though she would rather join a nunnery and take a lifelong oath of silence than admit such treasonous thoughts out loud).

"Alright, you've got your word?"

Speak of the devil…

"I've got it, Mr Potter."

Hermione jerked to attention. How on earth had he roped Madam Pince into his games?

"Now I'm going to ask you a very important question. I swear on my parents' graves I will not abuse this, but I would like your permission to scan your thoughts. Do I have it?"

The typically stern woman seemed rather bemused but nodded anyway. "Go ahead, Mr Potter. I seriously doubt an eleven-year-old would have any luck with Legilimency."

"Just… keep an open mind. Though you have underlined a very important point, I am young and underdeveloped, so we're going to stack the odds in my favour. I'm sure, as a Librarian, you must have quite the organised mind."

"I hope you don't plan on flattering my thoughts out of me."

"Not at all, but I am just starting out. The biggest hurdle in practising comes down to a very high hurdle of entry. Most minds are chaotic and raw, and consciousness moves faster than a kid like me could comprehend. But I believe that by starting with organised, consistent thoughts actively projected towards me, I might be able to do it. At which point I could memorise the feeling and continue my studies."

"That's another thing, Mr Potter. I'm not sure how comfortable I am helping a child learn Legilimency."

Legilimency? That didn't sound like a trick.

"Please, Madam. I need control."

But that definitely was. Hermione stomped to the front desk (softly, they were still in the Library) and gripped Potter's upper arm. "I need to talk to you," she whispered furiously.

"Kind of in the middle of something," he whispered back, not taking his eyes off of his mark.

"No, you're not. He's faking, Madam Pince. Whatever Legilimency is, he doesn't have it. It's all for a sake of a trick." Pince's face became extremely severe.

"Hey!" Hermione couldn't believe he had the gall to sound affronted. "What the hell!?"

"Language, Mr Potter. That'll be ten points from Gryffindor and twenty more for wasting my time. Get out of my sight. I don't want to see you in here for the next two weeks. Thank you, Hermione."

Hermione ignored Potter's protests as she dragged him out into the corridor.

"What's with you?" he scoffed, straightening his ruffled robes.

"What's with me!?" She couldn't believe the nerve of him! "You're tricking that poor woman! And for what? Your amusement!?"

"What are you on about?"

"What is Legilimency?"

Potter shrugged. "It's the wizarding term for mind-reading."

Hermione wasn't impressed. "Explain."

"Well, I was reading up on history to try and write a few routines based on real events. Contextualising magic can suspend disbelief for just a little longer. I've used ancient kings, local superstition, even Hitler's obsession with the occult as the basic premise behind loads of my tricks. I wrote a mentalism routine based on this woman, Queenie Goldstein. She was a very gifted Legilimens and one of Grindelwald's greatest assets before he killed her when she tried to betray him."

With every callous word, Hermione's face only fell further and further. "You can't do that!"

"Why not?"

"You're lying to people!"

Potter raised an eyebrow. "I'm a magician, Granger, it's kind of what I do."

Hermione threw her hands into the air. "To muggles!"

"To everyone, it's part of the performance."

"But muggles know your lying! They actively suspend their disbelief because you call yourself a magician. That has very specific connotations and they prime themselves to be fooled."

Potter nodded. "Yeah…"

Her face fell into her hands. She thought he was supposed to be clever. "Wizards and witches don't have that context. They don't know what a magician is."

He stared at her like she'd grown a third head. "What are you talking about? One of the Weasley twins asked me to teach him a card trick."

"Most of them get the general premise, but they don't know. Until you corrected them, every teacher assumed you were doing some advanced, instinctual magic. Their brains don't jump to mundane explanations for what you do. When you present yourself as a poor kid in need of help mastering a dangerous power, they aren't humouring you for the sake of the performance. Instead of impressing people like Madam Pince, you're just stringing them along. It's not entertaining, it's manipulative."

And with that, the girl turned on her heel and walked away, refusing to look back at the insensitive fool.

A/N 2: Emerald Library is a Discord Server and it's pretty cool. If you want to talk about any of my stories, bounce ideas with me or just bug me about my nonexistent update schedule, you can talk to me on there! I don't have a dedicated channel because I'm not sure I could maintain one, but based on the number of people who stop by that may change. Shoot me a ping if you do! I'll respond eventually. Just replace the words with punctuation and remove the hyphens.

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