Hermione stood looking in the mirror in the prefect bathroom, she was having trouble making the Hermione Granger, Hogwarts prefect, and the Hermione Granger half elf merge into the same person. Weren't elves supposed to be beautiful? Hermione was tall, skinny and pale, her hands were too long and her hair was too curly and her eyes were too owlish. She looked like she had spent her life in a book and had just crawled out. In a way that was true, but she couldn't see how she would ever look like the elves she had read about, it had to be a mistake!

Professor Dumbledore had promised to speak to professor Snape about the apprenticeship later that week, so she would soon have an idea as to how her future was turning out. Until she had her answer she was in the dark about what would happen to her, all she knew was that she was to have special training in powers she had felt nothing of, and was going to stay at Hogwarts in the upcoming summer.

A knock on the door startled her out of her reverie. "Hermione, the rest of us would like a chance to use the bathroom too!" Hermione smiled at Ron's voice, he always interrupted her when she was sinking into melancholy or other such rubbish. "I'll be right out Ron!" She gathered her things, noting that her hips were too wide and her chest too small while she hurriedly pulled her hair into a messy bun and opened the door. "Well it's about time Granger! I'll be late for classes because of you" Ron teased, on an impulse she hugged him and kissed his cheek. "Ron it's Sunday!" she said smiling before leaving him standing there, she didn't notice the triumphant smile that appeared on his face.

She headed to the library with a small smile on her face, Ron's teasing had cheered her up and she had a hard time not giggling at his antics. She was so absorbed in her thoughts of Ron that she didn't notice the person running her direction. With a yell she fell to the floor. "I'm so sorry, I was so wrapped up in my thoughts, I didn't look around" She apologized quickly. "Don't worry about it your highness, it was entirely my fault, it won't happen again. May I give you a hand?"

As soon as Hermione heard the familiar voice she looked up and stared, Draco Malfoy stood looking humble and would not look at her. He stood with his head lowered and his eyes on the floor in an informal bow with a small smile gracing his lips. "Have you gone off your rocker? Why are you being nice to me?" Malfoy chuckled and took her hand gracefully pulling her to her feet and going into his informal bow again. "I assure you, your highness, I am in possession of all my mental facilities. I am being nice to you as it is only proper to treat royalty with respect" Hermione paled, how could he know so quickly? It had only happened last night! Her confusion quickly turned to anger, so HE was the one to try to turn her, she had been sure it would have been Snape. "Oh? So you call the last 6 years treating me with respect Malfoy? I would very much like to argue that point" To her satisfaction she saw him flush and his smile faded, then he hunched lower and kissed the fold of her robe grudgingly. "I sincerely apologize for my juvenile behaviour towards you, your highness. I will do anything to make up for my past mistakes" A menacing smile grew slowly on Hermione's face. "Oh really Ferret Boy? I doubt it, now leave me alone while I figure out a suitable punishment" Malfoy's smile quickly turned into a scowl. "Why you little mudblood!" "Look ferret boy, you just threw away any chance at getting on my good side. Too bad!" Hermione laughed and walked into the library mind set on finding as many books on the subject of elves as she could.

******In another part of the castle******

"Come in professor Dumbledore"

Severus Snape was in an almost unheard of good mood, ever since he had seen the Seraph as he called her, he couldn't help smiling and humming to himself. Of course he refused to let anyone else see the considerable change from his usually dismal mood.

"Ah hello Severus, I see you are in a good mood. That makes my errand much less frightening" The headmaster chuckled. "Get on with it Albus, I don't have all day and I'd rather not waste it on keeping company instead of my potion research" Severus did not have to pretend to scowl, the old man's all knowing mind- set was the most infuriating thing he had ever put up with. Professor Dumbledore sat down in a chair and smiled almost wickedly. "As you know we have a student with. special circumstances, she was quite shocked at finding out about her heritage, but is grudgingly accepting that she will have to stay at Hogwarts until she is fully trained. I have offered her an apprenticeship in whatever field she chooses to study, to keep her safe. She assured me that her chosen field would be impossible to study here, considering the master of that subject hates all Gryffindors." "She was quite right headmaster, I will not spend 4 years teaching that know it all brat about potions!" "Severus, she needs to stay here until she is trained, it is unsafe for her out in the world when she is untrained, especially now when Voldemort is after her" "So make her choose another field of study, or simply lock her in a room until Voldemort is defeated" "She still has free will, I will not force her to do anything, and you and I both know that she could be the grain of rice that tips the scale in our favour, we can not loose her to the dark when she can be the one person that can help Harry kill Voldemort" "So you seriously want me to give that gryffindor know it all most of my free time so she can be a potions mistress?" "Not all of it, she also need defence against the dark arts and combat training as well as medic training, so you'll be able to cover several subjects if you want. I would ask other of the teachers to help but you're the only one with such extensive knowledge of all of the subjects. I had also considered getting a new potions teacher to take your classes while you take on this project, you will of course get a whole level of the castle for training and living quarters while the training is done, furthermore when she is done training I think it a good idea to turn that level into a training camp for the light side, making the both of you instructors. though that is still only in consideration" Severus sat stunned at the sheer size of the project before him. "I assume I have little choice in the matter Albus"

*************

Hermione was sitting in the library with large piles of books around her like a fort. She had looked through most of the library, which in it self was quite a task before finding the bookcases that held books on her chosen topic. She had finally found about 10 books on the subject, but most of them were rather biased saying that elves were dangerous creatures and needed to be killed.

After a lot of leafing through the different books, she found a small green book entitled "Elves the rulers of magic" that seemed to be neutral, or at least not full of elf abhorrence. She read most of it quickly, it was a rather thin book, but stopped at the more interesting chapters to read in depth.

Elves; how to know them from humans

It's quite simple how to spot an elf among humans, you don't. The elves do not lower them selves to mingle with humans, and with good reason, they once walked freely on the earth, but were subject to fear and hate because of their superior grasp of the very make up of magic. When the great race-war between the wizards and the elves broke out, the elves almost eradicated the very existence of wizards and pulled back from the open and into the magic realms, feeling that they had taught the humans a lesson and not wanting further confrontations. The elves have always been a peace loving people, only fighting when needed and otherwise spending their lives on the arts and knowledge. Elves don't use wands using their thoughts to do even the most difficult spells; their will power alone is enough. The appearance of the elves doesn't differ much from humans as such, but in general they are taller than most, have very long hair and sparkling eyes, they also are more intelligent and can master the basics of magic without trying. Elves have a love of learning that is extremely rare among humans. Dying of a broken heart is possible for an elf, when an elf bonds with a mate it is for life, if the elf is left or widowed she/he will usually die within a year.