Author's Notes: I know I normally wait a week between updates but Irene is heading right for where I live and I don't know how much computer access I'll have in the coming weeks. And yes, I know I'm being overdramatic. However there's a voluntary evacuation of the South Shore of Long Island, which is where I live, so I think I'm allowed to be at least a little dramatic. Anyway, I'll have chapter 3 up either tomorrow or after the hurricane has blown through. As it is, my family is talking about going to stay with my aunt and her family, as they live on the other side of Sunrise Highway-which is aparently a good thing because they're afraid of storm surges and our house is less than two miles from the bay.

Chapter 2

According to Chiriku, most of the samurai and shinobi kept their families at their estates or villages. However there were a handful of kunoichi married to some of the shinobi, a couple of civilian wives, and perhaps two dozen children. Unfortunately, the only females their age were kunoichi which meant that they had duties which took up their time.

For lack of a better idea, Hermione and Luna chose to spend their day in the small garden surrounded on three sides by the samurai and shinobi barracks and on the forth by the castle wall. There were the wives and daughters of several samurai in the garden, though like with the shinobi, most were on their husband's or father's estates.

The duo found a nice spot next to a tree which would be shaded during the heat of the day and set up. Since Xenophilius was busy, they were entertaining themselves. Luna set up paper and paint and began to work on a study of the courtyard. While she did that, Hermione pulled out the cittern and began to play.

The cittern was relatively flat with a round, pear shaped body and long neck. Hers had four courses of two strings, although other citterns had more or less strings in their courses. A course was meant to be played together like a chord. The sound of the cittern was generally higher than a guitar and rather bright and cheerful. Back when the cittern had been popular, it had been used much like the guitar.

"Do you know the Ballad of Aisling Walker?" asked Luna, when Hermione had finished the song she was practicing.

"The one about the witch who traveled from world to world?" said Hermione.

She'd been practicing for half an hour and was finished warming up, thankfully. The Ballad of Aisling Walker was a difficult piece and rather long. Until the day before, she'd thought it was a made up, fanciful tale. Now… now she wasn't so sure.

"That's the one."

"Alright. Now, mind you, I've only played this for my roommates before, so I'm not sure how good it is."

Lavender and Parvati were musicians as well and the three of them on rare occasion played together. Lavender played the harp and Parvati the tambura-an Indian lute. Eloise claimed that the sound of the three of them practicing was nice when she was reading or working on her homework. As for Sally-Anne… Hermione's mind shuddered away from the thought of the fifth member of the Gryffindor girl's dorm in her year. Nobody deserved what had happened to Sally-Anne.

Trying to distract herself from such distressing thoughts, Hermione's fingers danced along the strings as she played the first bars of the Ballad of Aisling Walker. By the time she finished singing the first verse which essentially outlined who Aisling Walker and her family were, there were several children sitting in a semi circle around her. She glanced at Luna who gave her one of those infuriatingly benign, I don't know or have an opinion on anything looks. Ignoring her companion, she raised her voice a little so that all the children could hear when she began the chorus. By the time she'd moved on to the second verse where Aisling stumbled through a cave and into another world entirely, the group of children had grown to include at least ten below the age of five and a further half dozen below the age of ten. Admittedly, the ballad wasn't exactly a children's song, but it was still relatively child friendly. The song was nearly half an hour long, but while the children fidgeted, they didn't wander off.

When the song finished, Hermione gave the children a smile. "Do you want to hear a song about samurai?"

At the nods and 'yes's, Hermione began to play a song about Sir Gawain, one of the knights of the round table. While the stories were more famous and well known among Muggles, among the Wizarding, the songs about King Arthur and his court had been very well recorded. She ended up singing all thirteen songs in the Morgan le Fay and Merlin cycle by the bard and witch, Nimue. The woman had been a contemporary of the infamous enemies. Hermione had to admit, that out of all the books of music she'd found in Hogwarts' library, the one which had contained Nimue's works was her favorite.

"That's it for now, but maybe I'll play some more after lunch or tomorrow morning," Hermione told the children as she packed her cittern away. "Now, I'm sure your mothers are looking for you."

At that, most of the children left, save a group of three who looked to be around the age of a first of second year student at Hogwarts. There was a girl with long brown hair tied back in a braid and red triangles on her cheeks dressed in clothing that was surprisingly modern in appearance. There were three puppies arrayed about the girl, though Hermione had to wonder why the dogs hadn't wandered off yet-they looked rather young-at least until she noticed that Crookshanks was playing with the puppies. Next to her were two dark haired, dark eyed boys. One was dressed in blues with a fan embroidered in his clothing, the other in khaki shorts and a cream colored shirt. All three, she noted, wore a metal plate with a stylized leaf tied around some part of their body.

"Hello. Can I help you?" she asked.

"Is your cat a nin cat?" asked the boy in tan.

"I thought only Uchiha had nin cats," said the girl.

"Slow down. Crooksie is just a cat-kneazle hybrid," corrected Hermione. This world was so much more in touch with the supernatural, they would understand. Both Xenophilius and Luna had told her to keep their ability to use magic quiet, but to otherwise be open about the supernatural and her knowledge there of. "A kneazle is a type of magical creature that… so far as I know isn't native to the elemental countries."

"What's a kneazle like?" asked the boy in blue.

"Well, they look almost identical to a house cat except that they have a tail like a lion. They're very loyal, but you can't just take one as a pet. The kneazle picks their own human, not the other way around. They're more intelligent than any cat could ever hope to be. A kneazle can almost always lead their human home and they know who is and isn't trustworthy. They can interbreed with normal house cats for generations and still stay true to their kneazle nature. In fact, nobody knows how many generations it would take for the kneazle's nature to disappear from a line. Let's see… did I forget anything?"

"They easily live as long as any human," supplied Luna.

"Thanks Lu. I knew I forgot something. And Crooksie here just loves dogs and puppies. Gets along with them great-almost better than his fellow cats."

The girl blinked, sniffing the air. "You smell like-"

"I know," Hermione cut the girl off. Now that she'd taken the time to notice, the girl had fangs and it seemed, enhanced senses. Unfortunately for her, the girl probably smelt her animagus form and Hermione was rather sure that qualified under things she shouldn't speak about. "I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you and I don't think anybody here wants that." At the way the trio tensed, Hermione had a feeling they'd taken her words more seriously than she'd intended. With a sigh, she said, "I wouldn't really have to kill you. But I'm not permitted to speak of my clan's secrets to somebody unless I'm related to them by blood or I'm married to them and if I told any of you three I'd have to have my cousin Chiriku-kun erase your memories or I'd face punishment from my clan. Blabbing like that is cause for banishment, at the very least, imprisonment if the indiscretion is particularly bad. We take our secrecy very seriously."

"Sensible," agreed the boy in blue.

"You would think that," grumbled the other boy.

"So, I'm Hermione Granger and this is my cousin, Luna Lovegood."

"I'm Inuzuka Hana and those're my teammates; Uchiha Ran and Mozuku, Hermione-san."

"Uh, honey, we have different naming customs among our clan," she said. "My given name is Hermione and my family name-the name of my branch-is Granger. I don't mind if you call me Hermione-it's not like I'm all that much older than you three-but only if that's how you want to refer to me."

"Are you three in the Chunin exams? Mione and I have tickets for the tournament," said Luna.

"Yep," said Hana as Mozuku nodded proudly and Ran smirked.

"Wow, that's impressive," said Luna. "I wonder… do you think that the villages only really allow these international Chunin Exams because they want to see the skills of their enemies and allies?"

"Uh, no offense meant, but shouldn't you three be training for the exam?"

"They took a break from training to take a short mission," announced a man in his mid twenties. He had a senbon in his mouth and his hair was covered by a bandana with a matching metal leaf plate. "It's time to head back to the village."

"Genma-sensei," they grumbled.

"Listen to your sensei," Hermione scolded. "And Lu and I will cheer for you three at the tournament, alright?"

"Although in all fairness, you're the only ones we can cheer for," said Luna. "We haven't met any of the others."

"Well Crooksie likes you, so I think that's reason enough to cheer you three on. He's a very good judge of character; saved my life more times than I care to admit."

The trio said their goodbyes and were ushered out of the garden by their teacher.

Luna waited until the trio were gone before turning to Hermione. "Did she smell your animagus form?"

"Yeah. You don't think I was too harsh on them, do you?"

"Oh no. If there's anything shinobi understand, it's clan secrets."

"Huh. I suppose we should go get some lunch."

"Are you a hawk animagus? You look like a hawk to me."

Hermione let out a snort of laughter. "No. And don't even think about bribing Hana to find out what sort I am."

"If I guess, will you tell me?"

"Sure."

Absently, Hermione's pencil scratched along the piece of paper, writing out another line. While she had the basic idea of a tune, at the moment she was more interested in creating the lyrics. Hermione wasn't sure if her song would every see the light of day, but she wanted to record it. Maybe she could put it in her will for it only to be released to the public when she, Harry, and Ron were all dead. History was written and manipulated by the winners, and Hermione wanted to be sure that there would at least be one relatively accurate version of events.

The poem she was working on chronicled her time at Hogwarts from when she learned she was a witch up until Harry and Ron rescued her from the troll. Admittedly, everything up until Ron insulting her after charms class was contained in a single verse, but Hermione had chosen to write it that way. Perhaps she'd be willing to write a more detailed description of what it felt like to learn she was a witch, but this wasn't the song for that. It would be a mournful song of crushed hopes and dreams. Perhaps she would write a song like that after all. Just not until after she finished the first draft of her song about the troll and had decided on what key the music would be written in.

Absently, Hermione strummed a couple chords on the cittern in her arms before jotting down the notes she'd played. It would be good for the chorus. Maybe she'd use the banjo or the violin for her song about a Muggleborn's experiences. They were both traditional Country and Bluegrass instruments and in all fairness, such a song would be well within both genres. Perhaps a series of Country or Bluegrass songs. Maybe even make it a violin and banjo duet.

She glanced up as Luna sat down across from her, putting the paper she intended to work on on the table between them. "Are you composing a song?"

"Yes. I'm not sure how well it's going, but it's going."

"May I?"

"I-" Hermione shook her head. "This song, this song will only be made available to the public if Harry and Ron give their permission or if all three of us are dead. I'll show it to you, but you must swear to speak of it only to me, and only when we're along until either of the events I've mentioned have passed."

"You have my word. But do you really believe I'll outlive you?"

"I know you will." She gave Luna a shake of the head. "I've been living on borrowed time since I was two. This war is going to get bad. And the only reasonable option I have is to stand and fight. I'm not going to run and I'm not going to hide. I'd only endanger others by doing either."

"You've survived more than any of our classmates have."

"Barely. Look, I've already come to terms with the knowledge that I probably won't live to see twenty. It's… there's a lot I want to do with my life, and I can deal with the knowledge that I probably won't get to do most of them." She'd already decided that if she survived the war, she'd become a bard, expectations be damned.

Luna took her hand and turned it over, so she could see the palm. "You have a long lifeline. You won't die young."

Hermione gave her a bitter smile, understanding the girl was trying to reassure her. "Luna, you don't need to do that. But I appreciate the effort."

She slid the scroll over, allowing the other girl to read the lyrics.

"Pay attention to the feeling of the wards," ordered Xenophilius. "You should notice them when we pass through the gates."

The girls nodded their understanding. It had been nearly three weeks since their arrival in the elemental countries. Nothing of any real note had happened during their time at the castle a couple miles from Konohagakure no Sato. Hermione had spent her mornings playing and singing, generally for the children of the samurai and shinobi at the castle and her afternoons composing songs. On one memorable occasion she, along with the local wives and daughters of several shinobi had presented an evening of musical entertainment for the shinobi in the service of the daimyo and those visiting. She'd even managed to acquire an invitation for herself to play at one of the Akimichi tea houses for what Chiriku had assured her was a very good hourly salary. Apparently an exotic musician would be quite the draw during the week before and after the Chunin Exams. Chiriku had taken the time to be assured by some man named Akimichi Chouza that Hermione would be treated with respect before he permitted Hermione to give her answer.

She and Luna had actually grown closer since her admittance that she believed she would die young. It probably helped that Hermione had challenged Luna about the existence of one of the many mythical creatures only to have a talking monkey say that Luna's creature was real. Likewise, the duo had spent many long hours learning about rune arrays from Luna's father.

It had been decided that they would stay in Konoha while Xenophilius worked on the village wards and then return to the castle with Chiriku. Xenophilius thought it safer to leave her and Luna in Chiriku's care than to take them with him to work on a set of wards for a nobleman up to the north. Hermione didn't know the specifics, but from what she understood, the man had something of a reputation with women and Xenophilius didn't want to expose Luna or Hermione to him.

"How long do you think this will take?" asked Hermione as she absently rubbed Hedwig along the neck. The owl had arrived about half a mile back and Hermione had taken the letter from her, though she'd requested Hedwig remain with them. She wouldn't have the time to read the letter, let along reply until they were inside Konoha and settled in their hotel room.

"The line is moving relatively quickly," commented Luna, cuddling Crookshanks in her arms and petting the cat affectionately.

"That's one large group ahead of us," said Xenophilius. "We're next."

"Say, how many of… our clan are there in the elemental countries, anyway?"

"There is the Utatane Clan in Konoha itself," explained Xenophilius. "Akimichi-san's wife is a daughter of the clan. It's why Chiriku-kun and I allowed you to take that job with the Akimichi. They understand that you're strictly a musician and not another sort of entertainer entirely. I think there might be one of two other branches in the village, but nowhere near so large as the Utatane. There are maybe two more in this country who are samurai clans and a dozen others who have chosen the civilian life. The other countries had roughly the equivalent population of our clan."

"Next," said one of the guards.

Like when they arrived at the castle, identification was offered and checked. Though she noticed that they gave Xenophilius looks of cautious awe. Apparently a fuinjutsu master was more important than she'd originally thought.

They ended up walking down the main street and down a side street several blocks before the main market to a hotel. The group was shown to a room on the second floor where they proceeded to unpack and settle in. Hermione had just broken the seal on the letter when there was a knock on the door.

Xenophilius opened the door to reveal a figure with gravity defying gray hair in a black, spandex light material and lighter armor with a white and red painted canine mask.

"One moment please, Wolf-san," said Xenophilius. He turned back to Hermione and Luna. "Here. This should be enough for lunch and dinner and some shopping. Stay on the main streets and if you get lost or into trouble, talk to one of the shinobi or the military police. And if I'm not back by then, you two are to be back in the room by sunset."

"Yes Daddy," said Luna as Hermione gave a quick nod.

"Thank you, sir."

"Have a good time."

With that, Xenophilius walked out the door with the man he'd referred to as wolf, closing the door behind him.

"Why don't you reply to your letter first and then we'll find lunch," said Luna.

Hermione nodded. "You can write a letter too if you want. I'm sure Harry would love to hear from you."

She read the letter, noting that Harry had inherited everything from Sirius and had been sent to stay with the Weasleys about a week and a half earlier. There was also something about Dumbledore using Harry to convince some strange man to work at Hogwarts as a Professor, but it was all a little unclear. Carefully censoring herself, she wrote to Harry that she was vacationing with the Lovegoods with Luna's permission. There'd been a change of plans and they'd ended up visiting Luna's cousin rather than going to Sweden. About half an hour and four pages of writing later, Hermione carefully folded and sealed the letter with a dollop of wax. When Luna was done, she tied both letters to Hedwig's leg and sent the owl off through the window.

The duo left the hotel room, Crookshanks trailing behind them. She and Luna had talked about it, and they'd decided that since Hermione was to start working for the Akimichi the next morning after breakfast, they'd play the part of tourists that day.

They slipped into the hustle and bustle of the market easily enough, though their clothing marked them as foreigners. There were hundreds of foreigners wandering the village and they didn't stand out too much.

"This way," said Luna, pulling her to a stand that sold hair ornaments.

"These are beautiful," agreed Hermione.

Hermione picked out a lacquered and painted hair comb and matching hair stick while Luna picked out a hair stick with dangling metal pieces on one end. Then the duo found a ramen stand and had lunch. They wandered the market for hours, mostly window shopping, though they bought the occasional souvenir. Hermione found a couple bolts of cloth and some skeins of delicate, thin yarn for a relatively cheap price while Luna found several paintings and some prints that she just loved.

After supper, the duo gave in to temptation and went to a bookstore. They browsed for a while, each going in their own direction. After finding an interesting book of history, Hermione went to find Luna, only to get side tracked by a prominent display of books. Books which were apparently meant for adult audiences only. She paused, and then gave into curiosity, picking up the first volume of Icha Icha Paradise. She flipped the book over and read the summary before opening it and reading the first page to see if she enjoyed the author's style.

"Hermione?"

"Oh, hello Luna. I was just coming to find you," said Hermione, closing the book. She thought she'd buy it after all. It looked rather entertaining.

"Find anything interesting?" asked Luna, giving the display an absent look.

"Oh hush. Like that could possibly be any worse than Muggle romance novels."

Luna giggled and shook her head. "We should leave before you start espousing the benefits of porn."

"I never said anything about porn," protested Hermione. "Honestly, one little rant, and the Sewing Circle will never let me forget."

Luna burst into full belly laughter at that. The Hogwarts Sewing Circle was a girls' only club open to all years that met once a month. Hermione attended more because it was expected than anything else. She enjoyed knitting more than sewing anyway. Although she did know how to hand sew her own clothing and had enjoyed learning the sewing spells. About a year earlier she had listened to one 'lie back and think of England' conversation from the seventh year girls too many and had given the entire group quite the rant about the female orgasm and the clitoris, which had stunned all the attendees into horrified silence. Admittedly, Hermione was a virgin, but her mother had ensured she knew everything a modern woman should and she and Viktor had certainly visited the realm of heavy petting on more than one occasion.

The duo made their way to the front where they bought their books. The proprietor had sniffed disparagingly at Hermione for her choice in book, but had otherwise had no reaction. Perhaps it would be best not to visit this particular bookstore again.

When the duo arrived back at the hotel room, Hermione set out her bolt of indigo wool. Apparently it was commonly used for more pedestrian clothing, but Hermione would not let that stop her. She unsealed her sewing box and portable manikin that could adjust to the size of any human female given to her as a group gift from her roommates a year prior and began.

While Luna pulled out her own cloth and began to embroider, Hermione carefully cut and pinned the cloth. By the time she was done, the cloth would be a seemingly simple masterpiece. Alright, so maybe not a masterpiece, she could not fool herself into thinking she was so skilled. But Hermione fully intended to make a beautiful dress.

It began with a turtle neck of gathered and smocked cloth that radiated outward in a circle, the smocking ending at the end of the shoulders on either side and a good eight or nine inches down in the front and back. The tailoring was minimal, relying on smocking to give the dress shape. It was empire waisted, the smocking beginning just under the bust and going down two inches before allowing the skirt to fall to the ankles unimpeded. The sleeves were long and full, gathered at each wrist with an inch and a half of cloth after the smocking that formed a ruffle which would cover the upper parts of the hands. She even had enough indigo cloth left over to make a veil. When it was done, it would be the perfect winter outfit.

Once everything was pinned in place, Hermione carefully removed it from the manikin. Then she set out a needle and matching indigo thread. She waved her wand and stepped out of the way a moment before the needle threaded itself and began to sew the seams of the dress shut before moving on to the smocking, and finally the hems.

"I love that spell," commented Hermione.

And she did. Although some of the girls in the Sewing Circle preferred to hand sew their projects, most spent the meetings designing new dresses and setting needles to sew them with magic. When the dress was done, she set the needle to sewing the hems of the veil up.

Luna shook her head, not bothering to look up from her new book. "What are you wearing to the Chunin Exams?"

She shrugged. "I don't know yet."

She put away the book and motioned to a roll of ocean blue silk ribbon, a bolt of slightly lighter blue linen, and a bolt of golden yellow silk crepe. "These would make pretty dress robes."

"What are you thinking?" Though Luna might dress like she picked her accessories in the dark, she had surprisingly good taste.

"Use the linen to make a square necked kirtle. The silk crepe to make a bell sleeved houppelande with a deep v-neck along with the ribbon along the neck and as trim for the belt. Make a, oval veil of the extra linen. Wear it with a turret hat made of the extra silk crepe and leave your hair loose. Don't you have a gold necklace with dangling amber leaves? That would go perfectly with the dress."

"That does sound lovely," agreed Hermione. "What are you wearing?"

Luna pulled out a beautiful set of rose pink, embroidered robes from her trunk. "This. It belonged to my mother originally."

"They're beautiful," agreed Hermione.

Hermione moved the handle of the leather case to her left hand before reaching with her right to knock on the door. She'd been instructed to come through the back entrance as it would be easier for all those involved.

A moment later the door opened to reveal a pretty woman in what had to be her sixth or seventh month of pregnancy. "Granger-san?"

"Yes ma'am," she said.

"Good. You're half an hour early. I'm Akimichi Natsumi, you've already met my husband, Chouza," she said, "Please, come in."

"Thank you, Akimichi-san." She paused, biting her lip unsurely. "Am I dressed appropriately? I have a more formal and a less formal set of clothing in my bag for just in case."

"If you could add a piece of jewelry or some kanzashi, you would look perfect," decided Natsumi after giving the girl a once over.

"Ah."

She took off her bag and found the appropriate inner pocket, pulling out a necklace with three silver chains studded with pearls that went well with her gray, sleeveless robe. She carefully inserted either side of the end of the necklace into the bun which confined the top of her hair under her veil with some wandless charms to keep it in place so the necklace formed a series of three bands that almost gave the effect of a circlet. The rest of her hair had been permitted to fall freely in ringlets to her waist, covered by a simple purple veil that matched her kirtle.

"Much better," agreed Natsumi.

"Do you have any preferences for what sort of music I play?" she asked.

"Unless they ask you to play something, stick with what Chouza said you called uh… jazz, classical, or folk music. Singing is acceptable, but nothing too loud or fast."

"No problem," she agreed. "I brought my dulcimer and my violin. But I have other instruments I can bring tomorrow, if you want."

They spoke about the sorts of people who would be coming in to the tea house and how to deal with any unwanted attention from noblemen or shinobi until it was time for her to begin.

She carried out the cases which contained her violin and her dulcimer and gracefully made her way between the scattered low tables to a pillow that had been set out for her next to a small low table-according to Natsumi, she received free tea as a courtesy. She set down the cases and then positioned her skirts so that they fanned our around her when she sat on the pillow, tucking her legs to the side. She wouldn't be able to kneel for hours at a time on her legs and she knew it.

This was it. This was her first paying gig as a musician and she intended to make the most of it. She opened the violin case and made a show of tuning the instrument before tightening the bow and rosining it. The she began to play a piece by Mozart, just loud enough for people all over the tea house to hear without being overpowering. She and Natsumi had spoken about it and agreed that she would switch between instrumentals with her violin and folk songs which involved singing with her dulcimer every hour or so.

Though most of her attention was on her playing, she kept an eye on the crowd to make sure that people enjoyed what she was playing and adjusting the music she played as needed. The shinobi-which were apparently the men and women with the metal plates with various symbols on them-seemed to prefer jazz while the nobles preferred classical. She switched to the dulcimer around noon when the tea house cleared out and began with English folk songs, the lyrics changed to Japanese. This, she noticed, both nobles and shinobi enjoyed, although she'd overheard a couple nobles talking about how quaint the music of peasants was. Thankfully that group had left relatively quickly.

At one, Luna stepped into the tea house carrying her portfolio. She sat herself at the table which held Hermione's cup of tea and waited patiently for Hermione to finish her song before the duo went back into the kitchen to eat lunch. They spent Hermione's lunch break looking at Luna's drawings and laughing over some of the things Luna described seeing. After lunch, Hermione headed back out to her place and began to play once more.

She blinked and then gave a smile when a new group of shinobi walked in, showing no other reaction. Asuma was with a pretty, black haired kunoichi, a ninja in green spandex who looked disturbingly like Bruce Lee, and a man she was relatively sure was really Wolf, from the afternoon before. He wore the uniform she was beginning to associate with Konoha and a half mask while his headband covered one eye, but Hermione recognized the hair.

The group spoke to one of the serving girls for several minutes who nodded and then laughed before walking into the back. Wolf-Hermione wasn't sure what his real name was, be presumed that Wolf was a code name of some sort given that he'd worn that porcelain mask the day before-stood and walked over to Hermione. She was used to this by now and knew to expect either a request or an attempt at flirting, so she drew her song to a close and put down the violin.

"Aiko-chan said you take requests," said the man. At her nod, he continued, "Could you play a song which tells a story?"

Hermione nodded. "What sort of story do you want?"

"Oh, the usual. Something with adventure, romance, drama…" The man seemed absolutely bored with everything going on around him and slouched in a way that should have been unbecoming of a shinobi.

She giggled, "You might as well ask me to perform a musical."

"A musical?" he asked, seemingly intrigued.

"I don't know what they call it in Hi no Kuni, but back home, a musical is a play where the story is told through singing and dancing."

"Maa, maa, nothing so long. Alas, I cannot spend all day listening to your dulcet voice."

"Oh, don't even try it," she laughed. "I know false flattery when I hear it. But I will still sing you a song," Hermione declared. "A song of the most fearsome of women a person ever had misfortune to meet; Mab the Black."

He inclined his head in acknowledgement before meandering back to his table. With a shake of the head, Hermione pulled out the case of her dulcimer and opened it. Queen Mab, as she was known to the Muggles was considered a terrifying faerie no sane person wanted contact with. Among the Wizarding, Mab the Black was one of the most quixotic figures of history from the seventh century. The House of Black had always taken great pride in using a variant of the word Black for their surname, in honor of the founder of their line and their most illustrious of ancestors; Mab. The woman had been both reviled and loved by the Wizarding of the UK depending upon the political leanings of the time. At the moment, only "dark" witches and wizards considered her a romantic heroine, but Hermione absolutely adored the songs and legends about the woman. Not that she had opportunity to sing or practice them in front of others all that often.