The House Elves, when Hermione visited them, seemed oddly unconcerned with the removal of the Headmaster.
"We serves the school, not the Headmaster," Tolly told her firmly. "We is at the becking and calling of the Headmasters, but we is not their personal elfs."
"If he must be coming back," one elf told her, grinning wickedly, "maybe he can be coming back after Beltane?"
Tolly gave the rebellious young elf a vicious look, and the elf scampered off while laughing in glee.
"It is true us elves are not happy with the Headmaster's restriction on holidays," Tolly admitted. She scowled. "It is being wrong, banning the celebration of magic. But we elves is doing it anyway."
"Do you ever do anything about it?" Hermione asked. "When you dislike a Headmaster?"
"Sometimes we is moving his things around if we is feeling mean," a nearby elf chimed in. "I was turning his lemon drops upside-down in their dish."
Hermione giggled, and the elf beamed at her before skipping away. Tolly's eyes glinted.
"We elves is maybe being a little spiteful," Tolly admitted. "But the Headmaster should not be banning magical holidays. So we rearranges bits in his room or do other things." Tolly grinned wickedly. "Milly had his baby when he just so happened to be cleaning Headmaster Dumbledore's office, once," Tolly told her, before scowling. "Dumbledore was being very kind about it, though. He was even helping clean up the afterbirth."
Hermione blinked down at Tolly.
"Milly had a baby?" she asked.
"Yes," said Tolly, pointing. "That is Milly."
Tolly gestured to one of the other elves, who looked like all the other elves.
"And Milly is a boy…?" Hermione asked.
"Yes," Tolly said.
"But… Milly had a baby?"
Tolly laughed.
"Milly was not a boy when he was having the baby," Tolly told her. "But Milly is a boy now."
Hermione stared.
"Is that… normal?" she finally asked.
Tolly shrugged, uncaring.
"Sometimes," Tolly said. "We elves is being boys or girls when we want to. Sometimes elves is picking one and sticking with it. Sometimes elves is changing their minds."
There was a shimmer before her, and Tolly looked up at her.
"I is a boy now," Tolly announced.
There was another brief shimmer, and Tolly was still looking back up at Hermione.
"And now I is a girl."
"I see," Hermione said, who did not really see at all, but roughly understood the idea. "Thank you for taking the time to explain it to me."
Tolly beamed.
"Most wizards is not being interested in elves, Missy Hermione," Tolly said. "Is nice, knowing a wizard out there cares about us too."
"It's my pleasure," Hermione assured her with a smile. "I'm a witch, though, not a wizard."
"Witch, wizard, whatever," Tolly said, waving her hand dismissively. "Does not matter. You is both."
"I'm not," Hermione said. "Humans can't swap between being a man or woman whenever they like, Tolly. I'm a girl, so I'm a witch."
"You is a witch because you does witchcraft," Tolly chided her. "You is a wizard because you does wizardry. And you is a sorceress because you does sorcery."
"Um," Hermione said. She paused. "Is there a difference?"
"Witchcraft is being magic done with the magic in the world," Tolly said promptly. "You is using your magic, the world's magic, and the magic in the air, and you is doing it with your will and words upon the world." Tolly gave Hermione a sly look. "We elfs have been seeing your circles."
Hermione was taken aback. "Ah—that's—"
"We elves will not tell," Tolly assured her. "Wizardry is being magic done with a wand. Wizardry is being what only humans can do, now – wizards are not allowing other people wands."
Tolly's face twisted up in anger and indignation, and Hermione stared. An indignant House Elf was an odd sight.
"Sorcery is being the making of magic," Tolly told her. "When you is making a new spell with your wand, or you is making a new circle to do something new, you is making new paths for magic in the world. That is sorcery, so you is being a sorceress."
"That's… how have I never heard this before?" Hermione wanted to know. "I thought 'witch' and 'wizard' were interchangeable and just gendered terms!"
Tolly shrugged.
"Tolly suspects humans let it be that way on purpose," she said. "They is not liking witchcraft as much as wizardry – witchcraft is more wild. But Hogwarts is the school 'of witchcraft and wizardry', and they is not easily changing the name without people wanting to know why."
Hermione left the kitchens that day with her mind spinning, wondering what other mistaken assumptions she had made about the magical world.
Hermione found herself very conflicted as she continued her mental planning. The school was still uptight as ever around her, everyone flinching and worried about the next attack, and the professors were even more vigilant in the halls now that Professor Dumbledore was gone. Hermione alone was unworried – Tom had assured her the basilisk wouldn't come until it had been called.
The difficulty was her coven, as well as her friends.
Hermione had plotted and defeated the obstacle course the previous year alone, mildly deceiving some of her friends in order to do so. She had felt little guilt over the matter, if any – ultimately, it had seemed inconsequential, and she hadn't had very close friends at that point last year. But this… now...
To be planning how to save the school and frame someone else for trying to bring it down seemed too large a thing not to share.
People shared secrets and plans with their friends, didn't they? They trusted each other - that's what made them friends. Right?
But it was hard. It was so hard to share.
Hermione had been bullied for most of her childhood. Children would make 'friends' with her, wait for her to open up, and then gleefully go skipping and screaming out her secrets for the other children to hear and laugh about as they jeered at her. Hermione had eventually stopped trying to make friends altogether in muggle school; her books couldn't betray her like her classmates so often did.
Hogwarts made things better, to be sure. With other magical people around her, Hermione had been able to make real friends, true friends, ones who seemed as attached to her as she was to them. She did trust her friends, really. But her muggle childhood had left scars, and the idea of trusting a friend with something that would only implicate her, not both of them, seemed anathema to her. To trust someone with the ability to destroy her, just in the name of friendship... Hermione couldn't fathom ever being able to risk doing so again.
But if she didn't tell her friends what she was planning to do, and they found out about it later, they would be hurt. They would be hurt that she hadn't trusted them, and she might lose her friends, the only true friends she'd ever truly made. Imagining Harry's betrayed gaze or Blaise's disappointment made Hermione's throat swell with shame and anxiety, and she couldn't let that happen either. She'd have to defend her bonds with her friends.
There was a struggle there, trying to figure out a balance of how to trust her friends with how to trust herself.
Luna remarked on it one evening at dinner, coming over when she saw Hermione picking at her food.
"The holes in your aura are getting bigger again," she said, concerned. "Are you worrying your thoughts into a whirl?"
"I—I'm having some challenges," Hermione admitted. "It's hard – until we bond as a coven, it's hard not to have everything spiral out of control."
Luna tilted her head at her.
"We are to be your coven," she told her. "We will be your trusted cohorts to help with rituals and bind our magic together."
"Yes…?" Hermione said. "That's the point of a coven, isn't it?"
"Being your coven doesn't mean being your everything," Luna said gently. "You're allowed to have your secrets, Hermione. We all do."
Hermione paused.
"How do you know what I'm thinking about all the time?" she demanded, and Luna laughed.
"Your guilt is written across your face and staining your aura entirely," she said, amused. "It's self-inflicted, though. Hermione, so long as you're not endangering any of us, you don't have to tell us anything." Her eyes danced. "I'd like to think you can depend on us for help whenever you need it, but with some things, we're probably better off not knowing." She offered her a smile. "But you might find things a little easier to solve if you considered asking your friends for help along the way."
Hermione's eyes went wide.
"Ask my friends for help...?" she said, her mouth dry.
Luna gave her a small smile.
"Your friends like you, Hermione," she told her. "They would like to help you, if you have the strength to ask."
It was embarrassing, but Hermione hadn't truly considered getting help as an option.
She'd somewhat presumed no one else was mad enough to risk their life like this.
Hermione had been trying to put together a plan to handle everything that involved only her and the help of Tom Riddle; to take care of everything entirely by herself. She hadn't considered that other people might genuinely want to help her with something so big. If she could involve other people... if a few of her friends were willing to help her, and willing to do a couple certain things...
With help, her plans would be much easier to pull off.
Much easier.
"Even if..." Hermione cleared her throat. "Even if it might be at a risk to themselves?"
Luna's eyes danced. "Then don't get caught."
Hermione snorted a laugh, and Luna laughed as well.
"Really, though, Hermione," Luna said, resting her hand gently on Hermione's arm, looking up at her with wide eyes. "Isn't it their decision if they're willing to shoulder that risk? You can ask, and they can always say 'no'."
Hermione felt her thoughts waver and resolve, coalescing into determination.
"Okay," she said, nodding firmly. She gave Luna smile. "Thank you."
"Of course," Luna said. "Though…"
"Though…?" Hermione prompted, and Luna grinned.
"If you're planning on being a hero, you might want to ask Lockhart for lessons," she said, her tone airy but wicked. "It might help with your later planning, too."
Hermione groaned and held her head in her hands, and Luna laughed.
"It'll be fine, Hermione," Luna told her, patting her on the back. "Easter is coming up soon."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Hermione groaned, but Luna only laughed.