Hermione met Derek at Arden the next day as well. 'Arden' just seemed to be a clearing in the Forest of Arden where people hung out, as well as a sort of free market with a couple carts that had sprung up. Derek waved to her from across the clearing from next to a large rock. Clover and Worm were both with him this time, both looking pleased to see her again.
"Took the liberty of spreadin' the word that you would fix things for people," he told her cheerily. "Didn't think you'd mind."
"And I desperately need my skirt fixed," Clover said, holding up the cloth in her arms. "I don't want to take needle and thread to a tear like this."
With a smile, Hermione withdrew her wand.
"Reparo."
The skirt sealed itself seamlessly, and Clover beamed.
"Brilliant!" she said. She looked at Hermione, hesitating. "Can we bring more than one thing? Or do we each only get one?"
"I'll fix things as long as I'm able to," Hermione said, shrugging. "If we end up with a line, you might need to come through multiple times, but I don't think it would be a problem?"
Clover scurried off, undoubtedly to grab something else she wanted fixed. Hermione climbed up onto the large rock, fancying it a sort of seat where she could survey the clearing, and Derek and Worm laughed.
"Oh, hush," Hermione said, flushing. "I'm not as tall as you. I can't see over everything."
"No matter," Worm said easily with a grin. "Here – can you enchant my shears so they won't rust?"
Hermione didn't know a spell to prevent rust. She considered a long moment, thoughtful.
"Impervius."
The Impervius Charm might not prevent rust, but it would repel water and mist, and that would prevent rust, she figured. She grinned at Worm, who grinned back.
"It's just so easy for you," he said, shaking his head, admiring. "Wish I could do it too."
"You could try," Hermione said, offering, and Worm laughed.
"I know our way of life might seem mad to you," he told her, a sparkle in his eye, "but we're largely content with our lot. We work magic in the land, we cast our spells with cauldrons and pots, and we dance under the stars."
"Greater magic means greater responsibility," Derek said, nodding. "And who'd want to be locked up in a big stone room all day working on government-type things?"
Hermione said nothing, as she wanted to do just such a thing.
Word gradually spread, and people skeptically began approaching Hermione, asking for help with various issues. Adults approached her as well as teens, now, a few women asking for their aprons to be cleaned or mended, one woman for her glasses to be fixed. Hermione was happy to offer her help, and the women seemed pleased for her aid when they left to return to their stalls.
While she cast and others lined up, Derek and Worm took up a game of proclaiming Hermione as a candidate for the Youth Representative to the crowd, trying to outdo the other. Look, here was a person who actually wanted to help! And she was kind, not a stuck-up Sacred 28 scion! She killed some giant snake that was very dangerous! She could fix your clothes; give her a chance at fixing the government!
Hermione was hard pressed not to laugh as their loud attempts at persuading the crowd grew sillier and sillier. But she appreciated them nonetheless.
As she continued to help the hedgewitches, Hermione watched over the clearing, feeling very aware of who and what she was. It was such a culture shock, this community, and she felt very much out of place. She was determined to not look down on these people, but it was difficult for her to not try and help them. Surely if they were given the opportunity to get wands, to go to school, they could make a better life for themselves? She had just healed a boy who stood in line for a broken nose, for goodness' sake. Surely they'd prefer to be able to heal such things themselves?
But they had said themselves that they hardly wanted that. They didn't even believe they had enough magic to use wands, let alone go to school to learn wizardry. They wanted to stay safe, they wanted food, and they wanted freedom. Mandatory schooling would hardly help with that, Hermione knew. And she was determined to only help them in the ways they wanted, for now.
That was made somewhat more difficult by the way people kept coming up, asking for things mended or enchanted. It was part of their way of life, it seemed, to ask the local wizard who owned the land for help with magic. All the hedgewitches seemed unphased by it, but it still felt very odd to Hermione, like she had assumed some position of authority by being able to cast second-year spells.
She watched as more and more people came to the market as the day wore on. More carts and stalls got set up, with people trading mostly food - bread, roots, salted meats, ale. Hermione wondered if they sold what they could in their own villages, with this market a sort of inter-community trading hub to try and get some variety of foods in their lives. For a moment, she considered telling them about muggle grocery stores, before she paused - people here fought over 30 pence, she recalled. There was no way they were likely to afford muggle store prices.
Hermione kept her thoughts and did her best to just keep helping people, mending their clothes, enchanting their boots, and helping with whatever she could. Derek stood guard with her, helping to keep people in a line when there were a few of them at a time, and explaining about her running for Youth Representative. Though he didn't quite get the particulars of the Wizengamot out, he did get the gist of it across - if you're a 'youth', please come and vote, which more of the teens seemed happy to agree to.
People began asking for more complicated things over time, which was a fun challenge for Hermione to try. Someone wanted their shears fixed, and then for them to stop breaking, which had Hermione layering an Impervius Charm along with an Unbreakable Charm, though it was difficult. A young girl no more than eight asked for her kirtle to be purple, and it was with a laugh Hermione used a Color-Changing Charm to turn her skirts into a lovely violet shade. A few people wanted things made bigger or smaller, which she was able to do relatively easily, but one request stumped her.
"I'm sorry," she told the woman, "but I have no idea how to make the inside of the bag bigger than the outside."
"But they can do it!" the woman insisted. "I'd seen it! I'd seen it in the Alley! They got bags bigger inside than on the out!"
"I know they have them, but I don't know how to make them yet," Hermione said apologetically. "It's more advanced magic than I know. I can shrink things to fit into your bag, though, if you like?"
The woman moved off, grumbling, and Hermione winced. She was glad the woman was too old to vote for Youth Representative; she would have likely actively voted against Hermione, she seemed so perturbed.
Once Clover had returned and gotten another three skirts mended, she taught Hermione a bit more about how hedgewitch magic worked when the line lulled.
"It's a lot of runes and symbols and crystals," she explained. "Like when I leave in the morning, if the glass in the door is foggy, I trace a sigil on it before I go – usually a pentacle or Fehu."
"Or what?" Hermione tried to follow along.
"It's a rune," Clover explained. "It brings wealth and luck. And drawing the sigil helps my magic manifest what I drew into being." She shrugged. "See? Simple spells."
Others involved crystals, which was something new to Hermione.
"I keep a citrine crystal over my purse when I go to bed," Clover said. "It helps bring wealth. I keep a coin of rose quartz in my pocket when I go on a date. Sometimes at a festival, I'll wear an amethyst on a necklace – it helps you perceive magic more clearly and gives you more control."
"This is fascinating," Hermione said, her eyes wide. "Are all crystals magic?"
Clover shrugged. "Probably? They soak up the magic from the earth, don't they? If they get tainted, you have to cleanse them, but that's about it I think?"
Cleansing crystals involved washing them under running water and leaving them out in the moonlight overnight. Hermione listened attentively, but she couldn't help but feel somewhat boggled.
"Crystals just... soak up magic?" Hermione repeated. "How does that work?"
Clover frowned. "The same way any jewel can hold an enchantment well, I guess. I don't know how it works - it just does."
"I think maybe crystals grow close to the earth's veins of magic," Derek said, nodding wisely. "The places where magic is stronger in the air."
Hermione remembered the sense of magic vibrating heavily in the air with the House Elves on Wassail Eve.
"Tell me more," she pleaded. "What else is your magic like?"
As Clover continued explaining magic things she might do, Hermione found herself more and more lost. To her frustration, the hedgewitch form of magic didn't really seem to follow any sort of rules she could divine. There was no cast-effect spell path to follow, no certain outcomes for things. A lot of it seemed very wishy-washy to Hermione. And the hedgewitches seemed entirely fine with it. This was magic, to them.
"I pick a card from the tarot deck before I go about my day," Worm told her. "Tells me what to expect, what I might need to bring along."
"Divination," Hermione said, understanding. "I start that class this year."
"Helps a lot," Worm said, nodding. "Forewarned is forearmed."
"What'd you get today?" Clover asked Worm. "I got Queen of Pentacles."
"I got five of Pentacles reversed," Worm admitted with a grin. He looked sideways at Hermione. "Not much of a surprise, there."
Clover and Worm both laughed. Hermione felt a bit put-out, not understanding the joke, but she tried to keep her jealousy from showing on her face.
As she spent the day at Arden, though, Hermione began to see how the hedgewitches might be happy with their way of life. It was an easy flow of life, it seemed. They had more free time, certainly – they didn't toil in the fields of their landlords all day, just for a few hours – and they took delight in running about, playing games like they were still children. No one had jobs that took all day, and life seemed slower, but full of family and friends.
Hermione wondered if she could ever be happy in such a place. Maybe if she had been raised to it, she reasoned, but now that she knew what was possible, she doubted she'd ever be content with such a life. There was too much else to discover, too many other things to see.
Still, though – she was glad that the hedgewitches, even as loathed by the wizards as they were, seemed mostly content with their lot in life.