A/N: Hello! This chapter begins the 2nd year (Chamber of Secrets) for Hermione. This is a good place to pause and take a break. Do you need some water? Do you need to go to the bathroom? Is it 3am and you've been reading for hours and desperately need to go to sleep?
This is the place in the story to take a break and come back once you've refreshed yourself. We'll still be here waiting for you :)
Hermione's parents were incredibly pleased with her marks. Hermione hadn't anticipated their amusement with the story of the obstacle course.
"Wait, the fall was how long?" her father asked, grinning. "Did you use the 50 feet of rope?"
"The dog just fell asleep?" her mother repeated. "Just like in the myth?"
Hermione resisted the urge to stomp her foot. "Will you please just let me finish telling it?"
Her parents fell silent, but Hermione could tell it wouldn't last.
"Yes, the Cerberus just fell asleep. It was easy," Hermione continued. "And the drop was… I don't know how long. Really long. I used the 50 feet of rope, but it wasn't long enough. I had to climb back up it. It was exhausting."
"I feel like that should be against the rules," Hermione's father said. "Needing more than 50 feet of rope…"
"Actual dungeon exploring isn't the same as make-believe, darling," her mother pointed out, elbowing him. "Let Hermione tell her story."
Hermione loved her mother dearly.
"I had to go and get a retractable rope from the groundskeeper to use," she told them. "At the bottom of the pit was this layer of plants that try to strangle people."
"That sounds… dangerous," her mother said carefully.
"Well, if you don't know what you're doing," Hermione agreed. "I did know what I was doing, and I was able to make them curl away with a simple fire spell."
Hermione's mother looked cautiously approving. Her father looked proud.
"The next room after that had all these little flying keys and brooms, and the lock was resistant to magic. You were supposed to catch the key needed to unlock the door."
"I thought you didn't like flying," Hermione's mother said quizzically. "You managed to get past that?"
"In a fashion," Hermione admitted. "I used the lock picks dad gave me to get through."
Her father laughed uproariously.
"See? See?" he told his wife, elbowing her with a wide grin. "As if I could steer her wrong."
"I didn't doubt you." Hermione's mother sniffed primly. "I just thought you got a little over-excited, when Hermione wrote home asking for rope and things to help her explore a dungeon."
"I did not! I knew exactly what she would need-"
"After the flying key room," Hermione continued loudly, "there was a room with giant chess pieces. I had to play my way across and beat the white pieces to get through."
Her parents fell silent at that, exchanging a long look with each other before looking back at her.
"And… how did that go?" her mother asked.
Slytherin had changed her ability to pick up on nuances, Hermione realized. Before, she'd had classified her mother's tone as "curious". Now, though, it sounded more "carefully neutral".
"Not well," Hermione said, grimacing. "I had to go back at that – I knew better than to try. I ended up having a boy from my classes help me."
"You took an accomplice back with you?" her father said, nodding. "Smart. More members in the party."
"No," Hermione said, pushing aside her father's odd words. "He volunteered to help teach me when he saw me reading a chess strategy book. When he deemed me hopeless, he sent me a miniature chess set that was connected to one he had. He thought I was playing Ron. I just echoed the moves the giant chess set made onto the small set, and when he made a move, I echoed it with my pieces on the giant board."
"Smart," her father said, approving. "Much smarter than playing yourself."
"Isn't Ron the boy who was being so mean to you?" her mother said with a frown. "Why would you be playing him?"
"To beat him," Hermione said, sighing. "Anyway, it was a lie. The next room-"
"You shouldn't lie to your friends like that," her mother said disapprovingly. "That's no way to maintain close friendships."
Hermione briefly reflected on the fact that her mother would be eaten alive in Slytherin.
"Hermione was on an adventure and didn't want to share the loot," her father said, defending her. "The rules are different; it's not like she lied about anything important. What came next, Hermione?"
"Um." Hermione hesitated. "The next room held a troll."
Her parents both broke into loud objections, and Hermione winced.
"A troll?"
"Is this how the one got in on Halloween? It escaped this ridiculous puzzle?"
"A troll is a much higher-level encounter than a person of your year should be taking on alone!"
"I am going to write to that school and-"
"It was fine!" Hermione said loudly. "Mum, the troll on Halloween was a freak accident, and it all ended up okay. I even made friends from it. Freak accidents can happen at any school."
Hermione's mother gave her a disapproving look, her lips tightly pursed, but she fell silent.
"And Dad, I-" Hermione faltered. Higher level encounter? "The entire obstacle course was an optional thing. I wasn't in any danger at any time I didn't think I could handle," she went with. "And I didn't have to kill the troll, just get past it. I blinded it using a really bright light spell and ran past it."
"Brilliant!" her father proclaimed. Her mother still looked disapproving.
"The next room had magic fire spring up in the doorways, and seven bottles. There was a logic puzzle on the table to figure out which potion would help me move forward."
"The puzzle level," her father said, nodding. "Did you beat it?"
Hermione sniffed. "Of course."
Something in her tone amused her parents; her father burst into a wide grin and laughed again, and her mother broke a smile.
"You were always good at logic," her mother said, her face softening. "What came next?"
"The next room was… um…" Hermione paused. How best to explain this?
"Yes?" her father prompted.
"The next room was the last room, and it held a magic mirror," Hermione said finally. "You had to be able to look into the mirror and want the prize without wanting to use the prize."
"Use the prize?" her mother repeatedly quizzically.
"Like a magical weapon or special item," her father explained to her mother. He turned back to her. "Right, Hermione?"
"Something like that," Hermione admitted. "I managed this one pretty easily, actually. I didn't know what the treasure was ahead of time, so it was easy to get for me. I replaced it with a fake one, so other people wouldn't know immediately that someone had gone through first."
"How do you know that you didn't get a fake treasure from someone else too?" her mother asked.
Hermione frowned.
"Umm," she said. "I suppose I don't."
"Did everyone else know what the treasure was ahead of time?" her father asked.
"The other people I know who tried the obstacle course did," Hermione said. "There were clues left around the school, kind of? I just did the obstacle course first, and I didn't care about the reward. The others found out about the magical artifact first, and that's what lured them into the dungeon."
"Good for you for winning," her mother said, pleased. "Did you get any recognition for it, besides this prize?"
Hermione considered.
"I got 50 house points awarded to me at the end of the year feast," she said carefully. "It was enough to push my house into the lead to win the House Cup."
Her parents beamed at her.
"My little girl, an adventurer and dungeoneer in her own right," her father said. He looked incredibly proud of her, almost like he might cry.
"Well done, Hermione," her mother said, smiling. "I'm proud of you."
In the face of her parents' obvious joy, Hermione softened and smiled back. It was almost hard to – she'd grown used to hiding her true feelings, even if they were happy ones.
There was a whistle from the other room, and Hermione's mother stood up.
"That'll be the kettle," she said, going into the other room.
Her father sat there, looking at Hermione proudly. She shifted, a little uncomfortable.
"Hermione, I have been pretending to be a wizard crawling through dungeons for years now," he told her, and recognition finally sparked for Hermione. "The fact that you-"
"Is this that game you go over to Mr. Stalling's house for on Thursday nights?" Hermione cut in.
"Yes. Don't interrupt. Now," her father continued, "I know your mother might not seem the most supportive of you going to magic school, but she's just worried about your safety. But I want you to know that I am incredibly, incredibly proud of you."
"I… that's great?" Hermione offered. She wasn't really sure what her father was looking for.
"If you are going on any more dungeon adventures, or adventures in general, I would be more than happy to help you get whatever equipment-"
"Are you encouraging our daughter to get into trouble?" Hermione's mother said sharply, coming back into the room with the tea tray.
"No. I'm just offering our support as loving parents to our daughter," he shot back.
Hermione's mother sighed a long, put-upon sigh and settled into the couch with her tea cup, rolling her eyes dramatically. Hermione giggled.
"Hermione, what are your plans for the summer?" her mother asked, tactfully changing the subject. "Do you have any homework?"
"Oh! Yes, they gave us summer homework," Hermione said. "I also got an internship!"
"An internship?" her father repeated. "After your first year?"
"Hermione, you're twelve," her mother said, raising an eyebrow. "Isn't that something more for the older students to be looking into?"
"The Wizarding World doesn't even have internships, really," Hermione said smugly. "I asked my head of house, and he found one for me. I'll be working at a wizarding publishing company, helping get coffee, read manuscripts, and helping copy-edit for grammar."
Her parents exchanged a look.
"That sounds right up your alley," her father said, looking mildly impressed. "Good work experience, at any rate."
"Does this mean we shall have to drive you into London every day?" her mother asked.
"No! They've agreed to give me a work Portkey – it's like a, um…" Hermione trailed off. "Well, it'll take me to work and back every day at the designated times. Like… a teleportation pad, but without the pad?"
"That's incredibly practical," Hermione's mother murmured, approving. "And this will help keep you busy over the summer."
"Excellent," Hermione's father said, nodding. "We were worried you would end up bored. And we didn't figure you'd want to invite your school friends over here."
Hermione winced, imagining the things that Blaise or Millie might say unintentionally.
"Probably it's best I not," Hermione said hastily. "I do have one friend, though, that I might ask over…"