Once more beta-read by the lovely Oralindie!
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Chapter Two: Possibility
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Hermione stretched slightly as she finished sorting the cards she had just been given. She felt her neck pop and winced at the tension in her back before sliding onto the floor and yawning luxuriously. She felt she that she should probably look at the book her mother had given her as well, but flipping thought the cards she had half a notion of how to play. The game play didn't seem anywhere as complex as Magic: The Gathering, but it presented more opportunities for change and last-minute victories.
Also it had holograms, a definitely interesting factor. After all... holograms...
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"I think she's having a rapture," Emilia Granger whispered to her husband, Jonathan.
"Really? Did she discover she could get owled books from the library?" he asked, exchanging newspaper sections.
Emilia snorted, and shook her head. "No, I think it was the idea of holograms."
The newspaper he was reading was set aside, and he smiled at her, "She always did have a fancy for technology," Jonathan said fondly. "I suppose you're about to tell me to start checking prices on the holographic projectors?"
"No, not yet, but I think I can convince her to go shopping with me tomorrow... She's really does need some new clothes; I think that shirt she's wearing she got the year she started Hogwarts. I should probably get her a cellphone, too."
Jonathan nodded, Hermione had barely bought anything that wasn't wizarding in almost three years; it was long past time for her to have a shopping spree. "Want to take my car?"
Emilia smiled. Jon had bought the car less then a month after they had found out that their daughter was not just a witch, but going away to a boarding school as well. He called it his "mid-life crisis car" and she agreed. It was a fast red convertible that cost just a touch too much.
"Sure, we might as well do this in style."
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Hermione flipped past the chapter on international duelists, pausing only briefly to look at the British champion. Flipping to next section she saw with disgust that it was a list of tournaments, and winners. Hurriedly she flipped though the rest of the book and was appalled to see that it had little more on game itself then the common set of rules and well as a list of basic deviations.
It was simple ridiculous the amount of ways it could be played, in most of the more recent versions, a monster was sacrificed to summon another, stronger one. It was there that any similarities ended. Some versions (national and international level) had an ante of a card, some didn't. The number of life points differed drastically, ranging from two thousand to eight thousand. There was, however, a version that only had one thousand life points, but was primarily played in Sydney, Australia and had not caught on in the rest of the world. The version typical played in England was a fairly simple using four thousand life points, one monster summon a turn, with sacrifices.
It was, nonetheless, blatantly obvious that any truly competent player had at least an extra fifty or so cards to adapt to any situation. She did find it rather odd that almost no major players had multiple decks.
No matter how much she tried to categorize it, it was completely at odds with almost every other CCG she had every played. The half hints on strategies found in the book made her pause, and look back to her cards. After flipping though the cards further, she decide she need at least another dozen booster packs to solidify the theme of the deck. She should probably pick up some card protectors, as well as a binder or two for the rejected cards. Maybe a deck carrier too...
After being told of the impromptu (to her at least) shopping trip, Hermione tried not to bounce too hard, and had trouble finishing the theoretical combination of Nillian's Shield and the Icarus Curse. She rubbed at her eyes, weariness overtaking her, but she had been working on this particular combination for almost three weeks now, going of on tangents that had slowly led to the completion... if she could just finish it, it would be the seventh such untried spell she had created. She hoped to have a dozen or so by the time she returned to Hogwarts.
It was, after all, the least she could do for Harry and Ron... Slowly, her grip on the pen relaxed, and as it slid out of limp fingers she began to dream.
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She had very strange dreams, she reflected the next morning, years of practice allowing her to eat almost automatically as she figured the arithmancy problems at breakfast. Dragons, wizards, and moving crates had seemed to dominate the dream, and as near as she could figure, she was trying to build a staircase out of the crates so she could leap from above and take the wizard by surprise. She wasn't entirely sure where the dragons came in nor why she, a nymph, and two elves had been playing poker with a tarot deck with at least four Death cards in it and she wasn't even sure if she wanted to know.
She watched her mom finish an omelet and tried not to mess up her calculation, even though she probably already had the answer. Once more, Hermione was drawn into the complex arithmancy of merging the two spells. She finished checking her first set of calculations as her mother dumped her empty plate into the sink.
Hermione quickly swept up her papers, and straightened them into a pile before sliding them into the arithmancy textbook to keep her place. Shoving her feet into her sandals and yanking a comb though snarled hair, she ran up to her room searching for her ever elusive purse. Shoving the books under her desk aside with one hand, she darted below. Hands batting away crumpled paper and parchment, she found the strap and pulled. Banging her head on the other side of the desk, she breathed out a word she had picked up from being around Ron day in and day out. Slinging the strap over a shoulder, she grabbed her porto deck and slipped them into one of the side pockets. Once more combing her hair, she scampered down the stairs. A few seconds later the door slammed closed and the garage door opened as a car back out of the driveway.
The day was thankfully sunny, and Hermione was grinning slightly as her mother grumbled about traffic. She wrinkled her noise at the smell of petrol, but continued to watch the city roll past her eyes. Letting herself go, she wondered what it would be like to be a normal muggle teenager. Well, just a muggle teenager. She might be on her way to see a movie or going to a book-club. She frowned as other possibilities came to mind, finding only a few appealing.
The shopping had been, informative Hermione would later say when asked, but when during that seemingly infinite time her mother dragged her from store to store, she believed it to be a minor hell. Give her Death Eaters trying to kill her any day! Dragon smuggling, dentition, anything but accursed shopping. Time spent standing in queues ticked by, and clueless shop-assistances. It was past four when they finally managed to buy what her mother had deemed necessary. More little technological gadgets then what Hermione knew what to do with (or how to use for that matter) two new pairs of shoes, and a few new outfits her mother had insisted she buy. Hermione felt lucky that she had managed to escape anything more.
A constant mantra had run though Hermione's mind as she endured. Half formed theories and ideas for combos also flowed though her mind as she waited. She had managed not to hex a clueless saleswoman more then once by thing of the deck resting within her purse.
Taking in a deep breath and closing her eyes, she pushed open the door.
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Hermione did not look at her mother as the cashier rang up her bill, busying herself with the bags. As her mother wrote the check, she ran her eyes over the small display on the counter of advertisements, and offers.
One flyer caught her eye, with the Duel Monster logo. Before she could examining it further the slight murmuring of her mother and the cashier ended, and Hermione was handed the receipt by her mother.
She grabbed on of the fliers, and crumpled it into the bag, vowing to look at it later.
She should probably look at the receipt as well...
Hermione's reluctance was well found she discovered as she upended the bag on her bed in search of the receipt.
She had spent well over a hundred pounds in the game store.
Tearing the excess packaging off one of the popular Duel Monsters magazine, she wonder if it was worth it.
But by simply flipping though the magazine and looking at the pictures, she thought it was.
Moving pictures were very interesting and the like, but the spirit that was captured by them was often lost by their antics. Just looking at the pictures of two sweating duelist, she smiled, before deviling into the details continuing her crash course into Duel Monsters.
The rest of her week was spent as she attempted to find a balance between her new obsession and her own research.
At night she often chided herself for spending so much time concentrating on the cards, some stupid, infantile card game with ridiculous laws and rules, rather then the much more deadly, and important strategies that she was trying to devise.
This often led to at least half an hour of inner (and not so inner as she became frustrated with herself) debate. Weighing the pros and cons almost became a ritual, and was sure that if anyone heard her she would be committed to an asylum.
In the end, she continued to create a deck, tempering it, and reading the magazines she had purchased.
And, at least once, usually twice a day, she took the flier she had grabbed from the game shop and smoothed it carefully out.
In faded ink, probably from the last set printed before the ink cartridge was changed, was printed a tournament announcement. It was only for a local tournament, but the winner would go on to another tournament for a chance to become one of the UK's two champions, and go for the world title.
It would be completely impossible for her to even get past the local tournament, let alone the nationals.
However, this did nothing to stem the daydreams she had. After all, hadn't she thought nearly everything else in her life impossible as well?
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By the way, I now have a LJ. To bug me, go to: http/ste llawin d.livejo m/ (remove the spaces).