100 subs? That's 95 more than I ever expected…

A few days after the incident with the Troll found both Hermione and Ron leaving the Hogwarts library, Carrying brand new scrolls and spell books under their arm in a silent and introspective stupor, the sole difference between the boy and girl being the nature of their contemplations.

The redhead was both wary and excited about the stories his best friend had told him, though fairly certain his friend had chosen to skip some details for brevity's sake the general gist had managed to impart itself into boys brain. His mate had told him the basics at least,

Gods and Demons, Heroes and Dragons, all the stories his mom told him when she used to put him to bed. All of them existed in the world, alongside magic beyond anything a wizard had seen in centuries. Things his family couldn't see because of some ancient curse, but that the three of them now knew were real.

Magic he could learn, that'd allow him a chance to truly show the world his potential, to exceed the expectations his brothers had set for him.

So as Ron lay himself in his bed in the Gryffindor quarters, he started studying this strange new magic that his friend had talked about.

While Ron walked away from their discussion elated, and with a newfound drive, Hermione was of a different mind about Harry's tale.

A tale of a second society of wizards, also hidden from the world. One whose members had rewritten the history of countries like Japan to their whims, who served beings like this "elder brother" Harry mentioned, a wolfish man who enslaved the souls of the innocent and who cared little for the thousands he had killed, who could turn cities into salt and regularly desolated cities in divine storms all to fuel his passions.

A tale of gods, heroes and demons who could come down to earth whenever they wished and would cause naught but devastation, uncaring about the lives of the innocent. Even as she left the library they might be causing untold casualties the world over, how many of those natural disasters she saw on the news with her parents where caused by them? How many lives lost to these tyrants.

And unlike Harry, there was nothing she could do about it. Harry had stressed that much, how gods couldn't be fought by mortals under normal circumstance. How it'd only been because of a ridiculous and convenient mistake that he'd defeated Serqet. And how he didn't stand a chance against the horse-limbed archer Buer if it hadn't been for his venomous power.

And unlike her friend, she had no such power. A god could destroy her hometown at any time, and there'd be nothing she could do about it.

But even if she couldn't fight a god. At least she could help rebuild in the aftermath.

Sorry for the long wait and short chapter, originally this would've included "Harry's big infodump", where he explains the world of gods and kings, but it kept coming out wrong. Mainly because it ended up dialogue heavy and everyone kept feeling a bit stilted in the way they interacted together.

So after a week of trying to make the conversation work, I decided to in-medias-res the conversation and deal mainly with the fallout. It makes the chapter shorter, but I cant include later scenes without totally ruining the "feel" of this chapter, and undermining the importance of Hermione and Ron's revelations.

I decided that Ron would probably take it the best of them, his main problem in canon is not a lack of brains, it's a lack of motivation spawned from his belief that there's nothing he could do to outshine his brothers. The existence of magics more powerful then those known to wizards would probably give him the hope that there might be a chance to be more than just "the youngest son". a source of motivation he'd grasp onto like a drowning man to a life preserver. He'd still be second to Harry but standing out amongst the crowd at all would fulfil his life-long dream, and prevent the kind of jealousy that caused the trio to fracture during GOF.

But where Ron would probably take it as a newfound reason to live, Hermione would probably take it horribly a simple reason: Her moral convictions.

Hermione is shown to believe in fairness, and to be willing to fight for the "little guy" the existence of people like Voban and Lou Hao would shake her to her very core. And the idea that entire armies of mages are incapable of fighting them would really hurt her.

Hermione is going to be in a bit of a slump for now, she'll be ever so slightly depressed at her own smallness in comparison to the forces at play in the world, the text might seem written as to be "I'm going to help rebuild disaster-stricken areas", but it's actually meant to have the subtext of "Im going to distract myself from my own inconcequencial-ness". I hope I pulled it off but I doubt I've succeeded.

If anyone has suggestions for the types of spells Hermione and Ron could learn from the Campione side, I'd love to read them. I've got a few ideas but any ideas are welcome.