Hermione looked over nervously at the troll who had chosen to come with her as protection. She did not know what to make of them, these Alternians. This one, perhaps, made her the least nervous. She did not seem as dangerous as the others, for one thing. The others, especially Vriska, seemed quite fierce and entirely alien. She was still shaken from her encounter with the Thief of Light. Hermione had felt distinctly like a bug in a web in Vriska's presence. Kanaya, however, seemed calmer and quite a bit less intimidating. There was something oddly motherly about her... a quiet kindness that emanated from her presence.

Still, Hermione could not help but feel a soupçon of anxiety. Even though Kanaya wasn't as imposing as her compatriots, there was still something about her that made her uneasy. Rose had specifically told Kanaya to protect her. That meant something she supposed, but all things considered, it was quite hard for Hermione to trust the intentions of literal aliens.

They had made it to the cave safely, so she supposed that was something. Though the troll didn't betray much there was a distinct tenseness in her posture as they gazed at the path behind them. Rose had ordered them away, while the rest of the group stayed to fight the snatchers that had ambushed them. Hermione felt a mixture of guilt and irritation at the order - the Thief of Light's words still ringing in her ears. To these demigods, she was worthless without a wand and weak because she had to use one at all. She could have stayed and fought. The only reason she'd been unable to defend herself against the dementors last time was that there were just so many of them. Not that it mattered much now.

Jade had teleported them far enough away to escape properly. The woods surrounding them were quiet in a peaceful kind of way, but they were exposed out here. Going into the cave was perhaps the best idea, but Hermione wasn't entirely sure if it was allowed. Plus, it made her feel even more like a coward... still the smartest decision would be to enter the cave, all things considered.

As if reading her mind, Kanaya glanced at her briefly before her eyes began scanning the woods once more, intoning lowly, "we should go."

And with that, the troll entered the cave with enviable grace. Hermione followed, with considerably more trouble. The entrance was narrow, craggy, and the rocks were loose, crumbling beneath her hands when she attempted to find purchase to lower herself into the cave. She slipped and began to skid, and she would have fallen had Kanaya not steadied her with both hands. The cave itself was very dark, but for the thin stream of light from the entrance.

Hermione took out her wand but before she began the incantation, the troll shook her head and smiled. Her skin began to glow, going from dull grey to bright, glowing white in an instant. "You're... bioluminescent." The troll answered her with a nod. "Are all of you...?"

"No, it is specific to Jade bloods, like me," Kanaya answered with a delicate wave of her hand.

"Jade bloods? What does that mean?" Hermione asked, as they began to walk slowly into the depths of the cave. In the limited time she'd spent with them, she'd gleaned a bit about Alternia's culture and there was a fair bit in the Green Book but it was frustratingly vague.

Kanaya raised her index finger to her mouth, piercing it with one of her long, sharp incisors. Hermione couldn't help but flinch. The troll didn't seem to notice, she was more absorbed in pushing the wound to produce a small bead of blood which was, indeed, a deep jade color. Hermione couldn't help the surprised gasp drawn out of her. There were a thousand things she wanted to ask but it seemed so inconsiderate to push any further, after having the troll casually wound herself for Hermione's own curiosity.

"I'm sorry," Hermione stammered, embarrassed. "That was rude of me."

Brushing off the apology, the troll licked her finger absently and then replied, "It's nothing. You're curious and you have questions, no doubt. Ask them."

She attempted and failed to hide her obvious interest in the subject. "You said you were a Jade blood. Does that mean there are other colors?"

"Eleven accepted colors according to the Empress and at least two that are very rare and considered 'mutant' by our old standards. For instance, Vriska is Cerulean. Terezi is Teal." The Alternian trailed off. The failure to mention Karkat's blood color was obvious and her tone making any further questioning on that subject quite closed was even MORE obvious. Hermione worked out that he must have fallen into the rare 'mutant' category. "Our entire culture before it was destroyed was based around the Hemospectrum and thankfully that died with it. It has not mattered since we made our world anew, with help from the humans," she said with a tinge of fondness. "We have much to thank Rose and her friends for. It's why this work is so important."

"I don't understand, though, why is it only Jade bloods have this trait?"

"Our biology is very different from yours and we cannot reproduce as you do. Not to be indelicate, but there is a mother grub that gives birth to wigglers - baby trolls," she clarified when she saw the look of incomprehension on Hermione's face. "But she is vulnerable and needs to be protected and tended to. My caste has long been responsible for that care and protection," Kanaya explained without a trace of discomfort, understanding that humans were sometimes more squeamish about certain things than Alternians. "The caves the Mother Grub lives in are, naturally, very dark."

"So... this Hemospectrum - it's a caste system then?" Hermione asked, a trace of her old indigence at the suggestion of inequality coming into her voice. "Are all Jade bloods required to perform this service?"

"Yes, it is expected and, yes, it is a caste system. I would be considered a mid-blood as would Terezi. We are higher than low-bloods, which include anything from rust to gold. And lower than a high-blood, like Vriska, which range from blue to purple. At the very top would be sea dwellers, higher than all of us and almost like royalty."

"So, if things had turned out differently, if your planet hadn't been destroyed would you have...?" Hermione stammered, feeling more indignant by the moment.

"Most likely," Kanaya stated with a small shrug. "I didn't really want to, but in my world as it was then there would have been no choice. You either obeyed or you would be culled."

"Culled? As in-"

"Killed, yes."

"But... but that's barbaric... that's insane! Why didn't you-?!"

"Rebel?"

"Yes!" Hermione exclaimed, nearly breathless with outrage.

"There were at least two rebellions, if you believe the stories. But both were put down violently by the Empress. According to legend, after the second one she decreed that no adults could remain on home-world," Kanaya said, her eyes becoming unfocused as she tried to remember what had been relayed to her so long ago. "With the exception of those of my caste which were to remain in the caverns, all other adult trolls were pressed into military service."

"And the children?" Hermione gasped, appalled by the very thought.

"Left on the planet," the troll replied nonchalantly. "I know what you are thinking but, remember, we are not mammals like you. Leaving a human child alone would be unthinkable, but a wiggler... they are not quite as helpless and would have never been raised by an adult troll even when they were still on planet."

"Then who-?"

"We were raised by our lusus, creatures that had evolved specifically to take care of young wigglers. Each caste has its own specific types of creatures that could choose to take care of them. For example, most olive bloods were chosen by large meowbeasts - you call them big cats here, I believe. Sea dwelling high-bloods were generally chosen by some sort of sea creature and so on. Even now, that's how it is."

Hermione was quiet for a moment, taking it all in before asking, carefully. "What... what was your lusus?"

Kanaya gave her an odd look and Hermione was sure that perhaps she was offended and would not answer. The troll sighed, answering sadly. "A virgin mother grub. She chose to become my lusus. It was wonderful and I loved her dearly but it was also terribly sad. Mother grubs have only one purpose, you see. Refusing to propagate meant that her life would be very short and yet knowing all that she still chose me. I was very lucky to have her."

It was clear that the subject was a hard one for her to talk about, but Hermione did not sense that she had overstepped any boundaries. Equally clear was that she had loved the creature that had become her caretaker and that their time together had been very important, despite its shortness.

"May I ask how she died?" Hermione whispered, feeling terrible at her own curiosity.

Unexpectedly, Kanaya let out a harsh laugh but genuine laugh. "Depends on who you ask! If you ask Karkat, he's likely to say she died because of some silly computer virus he activated that supposedly would doom us all."

"How in the world could a computer virus do such a thing? That's completely ridiculous!" Hermione exclaimed exasperatedly.

Kanaya laughed again, this time more lightly. "That's what I told him! But when people get a thought in their head, no matter how silly, it's hard to convince them otherwise."

"Quite true," she mumbled, fingers twirling her hair absently as she thought of her own predicament, what with Ron leaving as he did. "So what do you think? Was it as a result of his computer virus? "

"No, no. I believe it was either simply her time or as a result of the Game."

"The game Rose gave me that book about?"

"Yes, that one. For reasons we don't entirely understand, any guardians associated with the players were doomed by some esoteric feature of the game. All us trolls lost our lusii and all the humans lost their guardians, but one."

"But one?"

"Yes, Jane... her father survived but we don't know why. There's a lot about the game we don't understand. Like why these cracks in reality still exist and why they appear across multiple universes that have had no fundamental contact with the game or its sanctioned OR unsanctioned constructs. I suspect we will never really know."

Hermione hummed softly, nodding as she mulled over the information she'd been given. "So, if I'm to understand what I've read. This game... when you play it, it destroys your universe and the only way to escape is to play and that the object of the game is to create a new universe. But if the new universe was created by humans, then logically there would be no mother grub as your lusus died and with the destruction of your planet - that would mean..."

"We would no longer be able to propagate our species, yes," Kanaya confirmed, finishing the sentence with a small, mysterious smile. "Except that after she died, I was able to remove the matriorb from my lusus. The matriorb would have allowed me to birth a new mother grub."

For a moment, Hermione was relieved, but the wording seemed all wrong. "Would have?"

Kanaya's eyes hardened and her lips thinned for a brief moment. "Yes, the original matriorb I recovered from my lusus was destroyed."

The look was enough to tell Hermione that she had found the line that could not be crossed. It was clear to her that the subject was a sensitive one and to push further would cause her new friend considerable pain. Shame that I've made things so awkward, Hermione thought as she debated on whether or not she should apologize. After all, she'd been terribly nosy and wanting to know more isn't an excuse to run roughshod over someone's feelings. 'You'd think I'd have learnt that after all these years,' she cursed inwardly. 'You put your foot into it again, Hermione. Nothing for it.'

Before she could even take a breath, Kanaya cut her off, "you don't need to apologize. You didn't know."

Absolution didn't feel all that good all the same. They walked for several minutes in stifling silence. Hermione pressed her lips together, trying to cast about for some kind of comment or topic that would lighten the mood somehow. Kanaya sighed deeply, as if she'd come to an inevitable but disagreeable conclusion.

"You were right to be outraged at how we were raised... separating us from our progenitors was a terrible mistake. The Condesce didn't stop there as you may have guessed. Our official history is a pack of lies. Anything that deviated from the Empress's version of events was destroyed. All we have are myths and conjecture." Kanaya stopped for a moment, her brows knitting together as she continued. "Some claim that there are records. Vriska thought she found some relating to her ancestor. So did another one of the twelve that played the game with us."

"I take it that you don't believe they were authentic?" Hermione asked, carefully.

"I'm not really sure," said Kanaya, with a small frown. "It wouldn't have mattered either way. Hope is a powerful aspect, one of THE most powerful, in point of fact. Since our Hope player believed in them it made them real enough for Vriska. And the contents of those records, whatever they really were... well, wigglers shouldn't have been allowed to have read them at such a young age and without anyone to guide them properly."

"What was in them?"

"According to Vriska, it was a diary of her ancestor's exploits. What I read of it..." She trailed off, making a harsh, throaty noise communicating her disgust. "It was ridiculous purple prose and no better than a smutty one caegar entertainment tome you'd buy off an illegal grubvendor. It fed into Vriska's need for drama and adventure, but I think it also made her more dangerous. And because of her relationship with Eridan, our Hope player, it made him more dangerous by extension."

"But it was only a diary," and even as she said it, Hermione realized how stupid the thought was. After all, the Horcrux Harry had destroyed in their second year had only been a diary. "But I suppose words do have power... even non-magical ones."

Kanaya nodded in agreement, continuing her tale. "Vriska's ancestor was supposedly a famous seagrift or as you humans might say, a pirate... not the fun kind of pirate that seems to be oddly ubiquitous in movies and books aimed at human wigglers, it was the more dangerous kind. Her supposed ancestor was disreputable - an all-around awful person with no conscience. She was pursued by our other friend's ancestor: a fellow seagrift. According to this diary, they had a rivalry of sorts." Kanaya paused, rolling her eyes as she scoffed. "His name was Orphaner Dualscar. He got that named because he often killed other troll's lusii, again if the records are to be trusted."

"Oh," Hermione whispered, not wanting to push but interested all the same. "I don't mean to pry but... who is this other friend, the Hope player? Was he...?"

"The one that destroyed the matriorb? Yes, he was but that wasn't really the worst of it." Hermione didn't dare say anything. The look on Kanaya's face was murderous. For a brief moment, Hermione was frightened of her. The moment passed however as Kanaya took a shaky breath. Her smile was brittle as she spoke. "Did you read any of the other information Rose gave to you when she thought we didn't notice?"

"Yes, a bit, but I didn't understand half of it."

"Which part did you read?" Kanaya questioned, finally looking over at Hermione for the first time since she'd began her story.

"All of them," Hermione squeaked, with a guilty kind shrug.

Kanaya paused to regard her for a moment, clearly impressed by her actions. The only other human that had bothered to read those tomes was Rose, the rest had been deeply uninterested in them. She had once regarded Rose as being a bit extraordinary, so it was a shock to the system to meet yet another human that defied expectation.

"So you read all of them, then? The two dealing on Class and Aspect individually and the other that dealt with them as a whole?"

"Yes, as I said, I wasn't able to make heads or tails of it, really," Hermione huffed, always irritated when there was a puzzle she was unable to solve. "I got the general theory but a lot of it was too opaque to understand without further context."

Kanaya nodded, looking into the darkness of the cave thoughtfully. "How much do you remember about Princes in relation to Aspect?"

Unable to help herself, Hermione quoted the definition verbatim from the book, "A Prince is a player who either destroys their Aspect or destroys via their Aspect. But honestly, that doesn't make any sense at all. It seems as if it would be rather a detriment than a boon. Why would you destroy your own Aspect? Moreover, what kind of game would allow a class that's so blatantly self-destructive? It seems entirely counterproductive to success."

"You're not wrong. Princes are a notoriously unstable Class. Roxy's friend Dirk, he's a Prince..."

"Makes sense," she muttered, thinking about the very few times she interacted with him.

"He is the Prince of Heart. Heart meaning soul, you see. Our roles as heroes are meant to challenge us. In the case of someone who is assigned Prince as a Class, that journey is often convoluted and very difficult. For Dirk, he was to master his own inherent selfishness and his tendency to manipulate his friends so that he would not become a destroyer of souls but rather one who uses their own soul to destroy for the benefit of his allies. He had to learn how to destroy through his heart rather than destroy the hearts of others."

Puzzling it out slowly, Hermione posed her question. "So, that lightening that came out of his hands... was his soul?"

"Correct! He used his own Heart to destroy the dementors so that the souls within might be freed."

Hermione let out a small, pained gasp, understanding almost immediately. "I take it then that this Eridan was a... Prince?"

"Indeed. The Prince of Hope." Kanaya sighed heavily. She was glad she wouldn't have to explain all of it, but... "You see, it wasn't just the matriorb that he destroyed that night. On the Hemospectrum the very top color is Fuschia. One shared only by the Empress and her heiress. As you might imagine, the Empress didn't often let them live, for very long anyway. Our friend, Feferi was a special exception, it seems. I'm not sure if it was because the Empress was so far from home or if it was something else, but Feferi was allowed to reach maturity." She took a steadying breath and continued, "Years before the start of the game, Feferi and Eridan were moirails... I believe the closest translation in English is best friend but it is imperfect. It goes beyond simply being very, very good friends."

The Alternian stopped for a moment, eyes turned to the cave's high ceiling. She was trying to think of a good way to explain it to a human. Most of the time they wildly misunderstood the concept, and it was more frustrating than anything as they really seemed to feel that best friends really covered it all. Rose had understood easily but not everyone was like Rose, and yet... Hermione had many of Rose's qualities.

Eyeing the young woman critically, Kanaya pursed her lips. "You and your friend... Harry, was it?" Hermione nodded, attentive but slightly confused. "You are best friends, yes?"

"Of course!" Hermione nearly shouted, almost offended that it could be questioned.

"You would die for him and he for you?"

"Well, I would hope it wouldn't come to that," she spluttered, nervously picking at her sleeves. Kanaya merely stared serenely at her, unsatisfied with the answer. Hermione closed her eyes and let out a breath. "But if it did come right down to it - yes, yes, we would, though we'd, of course, try to avoid getting into such a situation at all cost."

"So would we, if we were moirails. But that's not the point." Kanaya pressed further, "if Harry did something that was dangerous or ill advised... something that might get him hurt, you'd stop him, would you not?"

"Of course, I would! And HAVE done on multiple occasions, if you please," Hermione sniffed indignantly.

"And if he thought you were in danger, he'd do everything in his power to protect you?"

"Yes, he would." She was uncomfortably reminded of the number of times he'd recklessly put himself on the line to protect his friends. "Even though I wish he wouldn't take so many risks."

"That is what being a moirail means to us trolls," and Kanaya could not help the wide smile plastered on her face. How wonderful that there was another human in the universe that so easily understood. "There is, of course, a biological implication that you wouldn't understand but you do get the concept, I think. A moirail calms us when we are upset. They listen to our problems and we listen to theirs. They keep us from our most self-destructive impulses. They are there for us in every conceivable fashion," Kanaya elaborated, gesturing gracefully as she spoke. "This was what Feferi was to Eridan. But the relationship must be balanced for it to work."

"It has to be reciprocal," Hermione added, picking up on Kanaya's thoughts. "Give and take is necessary for the relationship to work - well, any relationship, really, and I take it that it wasn't, in this case."

"No, it was not. It was a terribly draining for Feferi, who bore the brunt of the burden without receiving anything in return. When the game started, she broke it off with him. She wanted a brand-new start, you know. Who wouldn't, after all he'd put her through. Once in the game, she took up with another friend, Sollux, who was far below her as a Gold blood. But he made her happy and she made him happy. Our entire planet was dead and the Hemospectrum with it. So the rest of us didn't really care."

"And Eridan," Hermione trailed off, brows knit worriedly.

"Did." Kanaya stopped briefly before continuing. "Well, he didn't really care. He was more obsessed with her, really. He was a Violet blood - just below Fuschia. He considered a deeper, more romantic relationship inevitable. They were royalty and therefore were predestined to be together in his eyes. He never once considered her feelings. The idea she'd chose some 'fudge-blooded' trash over him, he couldn't accept it." Kanaya noted the way Hermione flinched at the word 'fudge-blood'. "You know the term?"

"Not exactly," Hermione replied tightly. "It's just fairly similar to one used in the wizarding world. Mudblood; it's a foul term for people like me, who were born to mugg... non-magic folks."

Kanaya nodded thoughtfully, helping Hermione over a particularly tough grouping of rocks in their path. "I don't much care for the term, myself. Eridan was often prone to saying offensive things like that and then wondering why no one wanted to have anything to do with him. He was a douchebag, as Karkat would say, but none of us ever thought he'd go that far..."

"He... he didn't," Hermione whispered, hand covering her mouth, tears forming in her eyes.

"He did," Kanaya said simply, her eyes had a kind of faraway look. "I feel partly responsible. We never took him seriously. He really was a bit of a joke, honestly. We all thought so. He just whined all the time, it was relentless. So I made him this stupid fake wand to shut him up. And somehow he used it..." She sighed, her face losing all expression. "He attacked Sollux and murdered her in cold blood with a stupid wand that I made him that wasn't even supposed to work. And when he was done, he destroyed the matriorb. Destroyed our last hope, and then he turned the wand on me. I'm not entirely sure if I actually died or if I just came very close to death, but when I woke up, I was like this."

Hermione was sobbing quietly into her hands by now. Regretful for pushing Kanaya to remember such an awful memory, and yet the troll continued, unable to stop herself. It had been a long time since she'd thought about it. And she had only ever talked to Rose about it once. Her lovely Matesprit was always badgering her about it, telling her that there were unresolved issues she wasn't dealing with and that bottling it all up was harming her irrevocably. For the first time ever, she could admit that she'd never come to terms with what happened or the guilt she felt for making it possible.

"I got up. I tied that ridiculous cape he always wore around the wound he left me with and I hunted him down, even though it was hard to walk." She said it with a dull kind of finality, though her eyes had hardened with terrifying fury. "I found him and I took that stupid wand I'd made him as a fucking joke...it was such a stupid, laughable joke but he was Hope and he believed in the damned thing." She choked on the words, hands clenched tight at her sides as she walked numbly ahead. "I took that wand and I broke it in fucking half like the piece of shit it was and then I took my chainsaw and sawed him in half to match."

Kanaya realized, perhaps too late, that she had maybe gone too far. Humans, for all their strengths, didn't often approve of Alternian methods for solving certain problems. The look on the young witch's face had told her as much. She was crying, as it was a dreadfully sad tale, but she knew the end of it often left a lot to be desired. All the same...

"I know what you're thinking," Kanaya remarked, looking back at Hermione. "But I'm not ashamed of what I did. I know humans are different. You wouldn't understand or maybe you would but can't bring yourself to admit it." She shrugged mechanically, staring off into the middle distance. "Feferi deserved to be avenged. She was a good person. She... she was funny and sweet and kind. She was everything good and pure, and she would have made an amazing empress one day, far better than the one we had. She would have changed everything. He stole that from us. Stole every bit of hope we had left, and I made him pay for it in his own blood. But I refuse to feel bad about what I did. It had to be done."

"Actually, you're wrong," Hermione whispered, her eyes glassy but focused grimly on the path ahead. "I do understand. Harry and I... we're out here on a mission to destroy one of the darkest wizards of all time. Words make it seem much prettier, but I'd be lying if I said there wasn't an element of revenge to it. A lot of good people are dead because of him. So we're really no different than you. We're doing what has to be done, even though the task itself is unenviable." She paused, looking up at Kanaya while wiping away her tears. "I'm sorry for your loss. I would have liked to have met Feferi."

Kanaya smiled, dabbing at the corners of her eyes. "She would have liked you, and I think you would have liked her, even though she could be awfully silly sometimes."

As they walked ever deeper, she told Hermione stories about Feferi and Hermione shared her own stories and experiences. She spoke a little of her own losses. Dumbledore's death had been terrible, but she didn't know him as well as Harry had. The death that was the hardest was Sirius. She had spent a fair amount of time with the animagus, and for as sad as he was his last year of life… he was equally a bright and vibrant character, prone to more laughter than tears. And the antics he got up to were amusing enough (even though she often feigned offense, she couldn't hold his mischievousness against him.)

Laughter, after such dark tales, was integral to being able to move on from that darkness and embrace life. And there was no better cause for laughter than a young empress's fascination with truly terrible fish puns or Sirius Black's equal joy at making puns on his own name for no other reason than that he could. Eventually, though, things ricocheted back to their previous conversation.

Hermione wasn't known as the brightest witch of their age for nothing, as not even the smallest fact would dare escape her. After all, if the original matriorb had been destroyed then they couldn't have hatched a new mother grub. But Kanaya had said they had. It made no sense and Hermione pointed out, bluntly and awkwardly as always. Trolls, it must be noted, were far less offended by such things and Kanaya barely seemed to notice what would have been a faux pas had she been human.

Instead, she simply answered a question with a query of her own, "Do you know what Roxy's full title is?"

Hermione was puzzled, shook her head. "I don't understand how-"

"Do you know what her title is?" Kanaya pressed, with a sly smile.

"No, of course not, she never told me, but I don't see how-"

"She is the Rogue of Void. And I assume you know the definition of that class according to Sburb..."

"One that steals their Aspect for the benefit of others, but like everything in this game of yours, it makes no sense," Hermione spat, it was these kind of contradictions in that book Rose had given her that'd driven her round the twist. "Void is nothingness - how can you steal nothingness?! And even if you could, how in the world would nothing benefit anyone?"

"True, you can't steal nothingness," Kanaya admitted, her head tilting gently to the side. "But neither of us are Void players. Roxy is. Even I'm not entirely sure how she did it and, to be fair, only those whom Void has chosen understand how it works. She said that she stole its lack and somehow from that she was able to materialize the original matriorb. Not a duplicate or a reproduction, the very same matriorb I had pulled from my lusus. So, in the end, the humans gave us their hope - I suppose it stands to reason they would, having their own Hope player, and I'm sure his belief in Roxy made it that much easier for her to do the impossible"

"So that's how she got around Gamp's law," Hermione muttered to herself absently.

Kanaya titled her head, asking curiously, "Gamp's law?"

That question set along another spirited discussion, this time about Hermione's world. She gave Kanaya a quick rundown of Gamp's law and how Roxy violated it multiple times by making food out of nothing. As it turned out, Kanaya was every bit as curious as Hermione was and asked just as many questions. It lasted a good long bit, until the pervasive darkness of the cave was breached by a shimmering light at the end of a tunnel. Far in the distance Hermione could just make out what looked to be an exit, though Kanaya assured her it was not. As they got closer, it became obvious. It was an enormous fissure of coruscating light that reminded Hermione distinctly of a broken mirror. It was beautiful, but also terrifying.

Kanaya found an agreeable outcropping of rocks and settled herself on one. "We'll stop here," she declared, patting the flat rock next to hers. "Best not to go much closer without the others."

There wasn't much left to do but wait.

6/17/22

I am so sorry it's been so long. I can't promise more regular updates, because... well, it's been a rough two years, folks. i've been dealing with various and sundry mental health issues due to the panini and due to some personal things in real life I won't get into. Basically, I've been battling anxiety, depression, AND INSOMNIA. which reeeeealllly sucks. Plus, it's been hard wanting to work on Harry Potter stuff on account of a certain author's views, which I do not share. But i really love this story. and i'm so proud of this weird little thing I created. And i've been looking forward to posting this chapter!

this chapter. THIS CHAPTER. Dave walking through Hogwarts like he owned it started this story. And this chapter made me think this would be something i really fucking wanted to read. We get a nice extended bit with Kanaya and Hermione, who get along so dang well. I really wanted Hermione to get an in depth view of the trolls story, but they don't really have a Rose amongst the trolls. Realistically, none of the surviving trolls would see much point in writing out their story. Not even Kanaya. But I think she would wanna talk about some things to someone she vibed with. And Hermione in many ways has a lot in common with Rose. and this chapter and the conversation wthin sort of just...flowed onto the page. so I hope you enjoy Virgos being virgos. lmao.