Hermione
The crowded bus that she was sat in slowly rounded another one of Paris's busy street corners. To the people sitting around her it would look like she was just an ordinary normal girl reading a standard student's literature book, but in reality she was reading something far more magical than any story in a literature book, and by far much more interesting. She lifted her nose up from the book on substitute potion supplies she had been reading to take a look out of the window next to her seat. Noticing as she looked out of her seat's window that the bus was at last arriving at her stop she put her book back into her school bag. As the bus pulled to a stop she got up from her seat and exited onto the busy street.
Her family had been in France for close to a month now, having left Britain just a week after finishing up her second year at Hogwarts. So far, thanks mainly to the gift McGonagall had given her at the closing-day ceremony, this summer had been a much better one than last summer had. Hermione had taken the professor's warning about third year's extreme difficulty to heart, and spent almost every available summer minute continuing to work on her studies and magic.
At first her parents had been against her doing so much work over the summer, and wanted her to spend more time with them, however, thankfully after her head of house, professor Flitwick, had come to talk to them about the summer dueling tournament they both seemed to lighten up a bit. They still found ways to make it as difficult as possible for her to get work done some days though.
Since Flitwick was one of the referees in the tournament he was not allowed to play favorites, or help her at all over the summer. However, Flitwick had called in a favor he was owed from one of his old dueling partners, who surprisingly was also a fellow Ravenclaw graduate, to send her a few books that would be of some help. Without breaking any rules Flitwick had made it clear that he was rooting for the Ravenclaw house in this tournament, which made her feel happy to have his support.
The books she was sent were all about advanced dueling strategies, techniques, and the one that was easily her favorite one so far was on the history of dueling. The books on the histories of dueling were a very interesting historical read that provided ample analytics of famous duels and the strategies of each renowned duelist. There was even a section on professor Flitwick in one of the books, describing his numerous victories in great detail. Those books along with the others Flitwick sent her had been extremely helpful preparing her for the tournament and had bolstered her confidence greatly.
So far this summer the largest majority of her time had been spent preparing and training for the dueling tournament, however, she also had been spending more than enough time on the rest of her studies in preparation for the demanding third year. She would not let herself get rusty like she had over the summer last year, especially after McGonagall's warning about third year's difficulty.
Thankfully with McGonagall's gift and the ability to practice magic outside of school had made it easy to not get rusty. Finishing all of her assigned summer work and readings for third year classes had only taken her a few days, so that meant she had an ample amount of free time after that to begin getting ahead in her third year courses.
She had decided that along with continuing her spell creation elective, that she would also be taking care of magical creatures and ancient runes this semester; which meant that she would have two more classes to work on next year with the same amount of time and possibly even less time to get the work done. So getting ahead now was no longer just an option, but instead it was now a necessity if she wanted to pass. She had given a lot of thought about possibly also taking divination class as well next year, but laughed about the idea after a few moments realising there was no way in hell she would enjoy that class. Plus there was no way she would physically even have the time for
another class with how busy her schedule already was.
After just a few days of initial research she had already fallen in love with the ancient runes course, and could not wait for the class to start so she could learn more about the subject. A large amount of time in her first week of vacation had been spent in Paris's magical library scouring the shelves for any books on the subject that she could find. Unfortunately, she did not have the tools and equipment needed to craft runes yet so she was stuck just researching as much as she could.
Even though she was practically dying of curiosity to continue her research on ancient runes, at the start of summer's second week though she decided to switch gears and focus more time and energy on dueling; since ancient runes and care of magical creatures would not help her at all with the approaching dueling tournament. After the tournament she would devote all of her time to preparing for her courses. So as the days grew nearer and nearer to the day of the tournament she had begun to put more and more of her time into practicing her spellwork and dueling strategies.
Unfortunately even with McGonagall's gift she was unable to practice a lot of the high powered spells she knew that she would need to win the tournament. However, just getting to practice spells in general and knowing she was not getting rusty was making her feel a lot better.
She was also still able to practice a lot of simpler spells that were mentioned in the books Flitwick's colleague had sent, and if she had learned anything about dueling in her two years at Hogwarts she knew that every spell could be used to win a duel, and it was not all about the big and powerful spells. Overall she would say that her studies and work so far this summer had been a success. With all of the studying and practice she had done so far she was feeling confident about her chances in the tournament. Of course to win the whole tournament that meant that she would have to beat Marik in the end, and she knew he was putting in just as much work as she was. Which meant winning would be very difficult.
Speaking of her friends, Harry, Marik, and Alina had kept up with writing her often over the summer, even with them all studying like mad men too. She had expected Marik to barely write her over the summer since she knew how competitive he was about winning the tournament again, but surprisingly he had wrote her by far more than anyone else so far.
Marik had also decided to take ancient runes this upcoming year, so the two of them had wrote back and forth with questions and findings on the subject often. While the subject of the tournament was often brought up, Marik, at least in his letters, seemed more excited about just getting to practice magic over the summer than dueling in the tournament. Which did not surprise her one bit.
While Marik surprisingly had been providing her with a play by play of everything he had been working on over the summer, Harry on the other hand only sent her a letter around once a week. After finding out that Harry had successfully added the third layer of his animagus form to his ritual, Harry's father and Alina's father decided to help him out with it some over the summer. Harry had told her that the three of them, for some reason, were taking a trip to a campground in Scotland to practice more. Apparently being out in the wild made the ritual process easier or something. Since Harry had left on his trip his letters had become even less frequent. It had been over a week since his last letter and even that one had been short and to the point.
Alina and her had been exchanging about two letters a week since the start of the summer. Even though Alina was only going into her second year she had also taken McGonagall's warning to heart. Since the start of the summer Alina had been researching and studying just as much as Hermione had been. Alina said that the more she got ahead this year, the less she would have to be worried about going into her third year, which totally sounded something like Hermione would have said when she was in her second year.
While her and Alina had certainly became close friends ever since Alina had started hanging out with them after everything in the Chamber, the two of them had become much closer over the summer. Outside of exchanging information and research with each other, the two of them had also exchanged a lot of personal information too. From this exchange, the two of them had learned a lot more about the other and grown closer to the point now where Alina had even said that Hermione felt more like her sister than Daphne did. Although she was sure Alina was just exaggerating that letter had still made her happy. After all she had never had a sister before.
Through her and Alina's letters it became clear to Hermione that Alina was not only studying and working hard because of her classes but for other reasons as well. While Alina would not admit it yet, the fact that almost every letter she wrote in some way mentioned Marik it had become clear that her newest friend had feelings for Marik. It made sense, since the two of them were practically inseparable towards the end of last year and had spent practically every minute outside of class together.
Alina had wrote countless times asking if Marik would be impressed with a spell she learned or discussing how she hoped he would keep giving her lessons and help again this year. It really was quite cute. Each letter from her friends made her miss being with them at Hogwarts a little more and more. Thankfully though, in just a short time she would be reunited with all of her friends.
They would all be meeting up in Germany in a week at the location that the European Magic Students Dueling Tournament was being hosted at this year. More exciting than that though was that in her last letter from Alina she had found out that Alina's parents had agreed to allow Alina to come stay a week with her family in France before the tournament. And to Hermione's joy that day was finally today.
Checking her watch as she walked along the sidewalk towards her family's condo she saw that Alina's portkey was set to arrive in just a few minutes. Picking up her pace she practically sprinted in excitement down the street until she arrived at her family's condo and quickly made her way inside through the front door.
"Welcome back Hermione, you have someone here to see you," her mom said as soon as she made her way into the kitchen. She looked around to see Alina sitting at the table.
"Alina!" she shouted and ran over to her friend to give her a hug. They embraced each other for a while, neither one of them wanting to let go.
"The way you both are acting you would think you two haven't seen each other in over ten years," her mother said, laughing at the sight of the two girls.
"It feels like it has been that long!" Alina answered her mother, releasing herself from the hug.
"How have you been? You got here early," she asked, sitting down next to her friend.
"I've been soooo bored! But good! I missed you if you couldn't tell! And yeah my mom and Daphne had to run some errands today in Diagon Alley so they sent me over here a little earlier than planned," Alina answered, a huge smile was lit on her face.
"I'm sorry for being late then, if I had known I would have got here earlier!" she replied, trying to apologize.
"I only arrived like three minutes before you did so it's fine. Your mother was just telling me a good story about you anyways!" Alina said giggling.
"What did you tell her?" she shouted at her mother, looking at her worried. Her mother was a gossip queen so there was no telling.
"Oh calm yourself Hermione, nothing bad! I was just asking Alina if she had any dirt on your friend Harry for me, and if she was as upset as you were that he wasn't writing that often," her mother said with a wink. Hermione felt her cheeks instantly start to blush.
"MOM!" she shouted, her cheeks fully red now and starting to burn a little.
"Don't worry Hermione I only told her the bad stuff," Alina joked, earning a death glare from her.
"Oh I like you already Alina," her mother said, laughing in response to Alina's sarcasm.
"You guys are the worst! Hey mom, how many times did Alina bring up Marik since she arrived?" she asked her mom, trying to pay Alina back. Alina's skin paled and her eyes went wide and scared at the mention of Marik.
"Hey that is mean! And has nothing to do with this! Marik is just my friend!" Alina shouted from her seat at the table. Her cheeks were also starting to blush.
"Ooh give me the details!" her mother asked, grabbing a seat at the table beside them. Her mother always got excited at gossip and girl talk. Hermione guessed it was because having a daughter like Hermione meant the chances to gossip were few and far between. "I remember Marik and his family from the tournament last year. He seemed like a sweet boy. Cute too!" her mother added. Alina was still blushing and looked like she had been hit by a bus. "So the two of you are a thing huh?" her mother asked Alina. Alina's mouth just opened and she was too in shock to answer.
"They had a romantic date by the lake outside the school one night, and ever since then Marik and her spent every night studying together!" she told her mother. Alina's shock worsened.
"It was not a date and if you will recall that night didn't end too well! And we all spent every night studying together!" Alina argued in defense, waking from her shock.
"Have Harry and Hermione gone on any dates yet? Hermione never tells me anything," her mother asked Alina. This time Alina had an evil smile on her face and instead she was the one blushing and looking shocked. She found herself not able to say anything in defense of her mother's question.
"No, but they do hold hands a lot!" Alina answered with a smirk on her face. With a smirk like that it was clear Marik had unfortunately rubbed off a little on her.
"Ohh Hermione, look at you!" her mother added playfully. She was enjoying this too much.
"W-w-we do not!" she tried to argue back. They had only held hands a few times and each time it was a high pressure situation. Everyone does that. Right. . ?
"Well I'll let you two girls go now before we break Hermione. Alina if you need anything please ask, and anything in the kitchen is fair game so don't hesitate to take whatever you want. Dinner's at six so you both don't be late. Hermione's dad is cooking lobster tonight so save some room," her mother announced as she stood up from the table.
"Ooh I love Lobster! Thank you again for everything Mrs. Granger and letting me stay here!" Alina replied, and Hermione's mom left the two of them alone.
The two of them got up from the table and headed to the room Hermione had been staying in for the summer. She had cleaned it yesterday, somewhat, knowing that Alina would be arriving today, but with the lack of shelves around the room she still had all of her books and school supplies scattered around everywhere. To most it was messy, to her it was home.
"This looks just like our potion's lab at Hogwarts, only a lot brighter! It feels like I'm home!" Alina said as she jumped onto the bed, causing some parchment to fly into the air.
"How is that?" she asked her friend.
"Books all over the place, the smell of potions, and the feeling of magic everywhere. I missed this!" Alina answered, smiling a warm smile.
"Sorry it is still a mess," she apologized as she tried to stack up a few piles of her books in a desperate attempt to tidy the room a little more.
"It's perfect don't worry. What are you brewing over there anyways?" Alina asked as she made her way over to her portable potions lab setup in the room.
"It's the wiggenweld potion. It's one of the first potions third year's brew. I already brewed it a few times in my first year, but I'm trying it again this time with a substitute of pixy wings and lemon juice instead of just the doxy to test the results."
Snape had challenged her at the end of last year to start working on going outside of the normal recipes' of potions. He had told her that anyone could read a recipe, but the true masters of brewing understood the entirety of their resources, brewing processes, and draughts.
It had been tough so far, especially for someone like her who was a by-the-books type of person, but she had slowly begun to understand Snape's point the more she practiced. It really did make understanding the subjects of potions much easier when you understood the entirety of everything involved, although it was also much more work and required a lot more effort.
"I brewed that one last year too! It was actually one of my first potions to get a positive nod from Snape. I just finished brewing a batch hairgrow potion the other day. Surprisingly my dad was a actually a lot of help with it. I think he just wanted to use it for a prank though," Alina replied. She had moved over to a pile of books and started flipping through them.
"That is a good potion to practice. It was one of the first one's Snape told me to work on in my second year. Oh yeah that reminds me," she reached into her bag and got the two books she had gotten at the library today for Alina,"here are the two books you asked me to get for you," she said, handing the books over to Alina.
"I can't believe you found them! I have been looking all over the libraries in London for them. Thank you so much!" Alina immediately flopped onto the bed and started reading one of the books Hermione had procured from the local wizarding library in Paris.
"If you don't mind me asking why did you want a book on the spell creation of lumos, and another on the muggles' studies of the science of light. The second one isn't even a wizarding book?"
Hermione had been curious to know the answer to this question since the moment Alina had asked her to try and find the two books for her. Neither one of the books seemed like the most interesting or useful subjects to be researching. Especially for someone like Alina who was trying to prepare for a dueling tournament and her second year at Hogwarts.
"Well it's actually kind of embarrassing. . . I will tell you if you promise not to tell anyone! Especially not Marik, or Harry!" Alina replied, looking up from her book.
"Okay, I promise," she answered, now even more curious to know.
"Well I don't know the best way to say it. . . It's like this: You guys all have like a signature magic, and I didn't want to be left out," Alina answered. Even with Alina's answer she was still confused.
"What do you mean we have a signature magic?" she asked, unsure of what Alina meant by her answer.
"Well like. . . Marik told me last year that Flitwick taught him that every wizard has a type of magic that they will excel more in than others, and every person has a special signature in their magic. For example like my dad excelled in charms when he was in school.
"When he and my mom both cast a charms spell it is easy to tell which one is my dads. His charms always seems to have a special color and aura to them. His magic has its own signature. Marik has his shadow magic, Harry has his transfiguration and animagus magic, and you with your potions are like the god of brewing. You all have your signatures and I wanted to have a signature magic of my own," Alina answered her, sounding embarrassed as she spoke.
"I guess I never thought about that. . . Well then why these two books?" she asked, still curious about Alina's choice in books.
"You promise you won't tell Marik or Harry?" Alina asked her again. Her cheeks were flushed.
"Yes Alina I promise, what is the big deal?" she asked, dying to know already.
"Well Marik actually gave me the initial idea a long time ago, before me and him even met, or he even knew who I was. Harry told me one time that Marik used a lumos maxima spell to beat him in your first year tournament. I obviously had not been there to see it but in my head it sounded like the most amazing thing to me. Because of that story the lumos maxima spell was one of the first spells I learned at Hogwarts.
"Ever since I heard that story I knew I wanted to learn more magic like it, the only problem was I still wasn't actually a student at Hogwarts along with the fact that I could not find any magic in my family's library close to what I was looking for. When I saw the dueling tournament over the summer and the incredible magic Marik had created all of my ideas clicked though.
"Well Marik's signature magic is all about using shadows and the dark. So it gave me the idea to try and use the opposite in kind of the same way. Last year once I started taking spell creation too I began to realise that some of my ideas might actually even be possible. I want to try and come up with my own signature type of magic that uses light in the same way Marik uses the dark," Alina answered, still looking embarrassed.
"Alina that is an awesome idea! That sounds so cool. I'm jealous I never thought of anything cool like that. Why is that embarrassing and why don't you want Harry or Marik to know?" she asked Alina.
"Well I was thinking if I could use light magic and Marik used darkness magic we would make. . . a good team. . ." Alina hid behind her book as she finished answering, mumbling the last few words. It all really made sense now.
"You are sooo cute Alina," she flopped onto the bed next to her blushing friend. "Anyways, I never really thought about signature magic before. I'm jealous that I don't have the imagination to think of something cool like that," she said to Alina.
"What do you mean? You have your amazing brewing as a signature. Everyone in the school associates potions with you. And we could all brew the same potion, but your potions always find a way to give better results. My sister has learned that the hard way."
"Yeah, but that's not really my signature. Lots of people are good at brewing potions. Not many people can do the animagus magic Harry can already do, and he is getting better at occlumency and legilimency everyday. That type of magic isn't even taught at Hogwarts!
"No one as far as I know can do what Marik can do with his shadow magic. And now you have a unique concept I can't think I have ever heard of anyone doing either," she responded, thinking to herself if she could think of anyone who had done anything similar to what Alina was looking into.
"Yeah, I guess. . . Well why don't I help you try to think of something then? I'm sure while we are researching it we could find a lot of cool magic along the way too!" Alina said, sitting up on the bed looking excited at the prospect of finding new cool magic.
"I don't know. I mean I have so much other stuff too work on. And you need to prepare for the tournament too."
She had tried in her first year during spell creation classes to think of something creative and original like Marik had, and had even tried again last year when Harry had discussed exploring more creative ideas with transfiguration magic. Both times though her lack of imagination had made it impossible. Alina did have a point though. When you had a signature magic that was particular to you it made so you not only stood out more, but specifically in dueling, it made you a much tougher opponent. It was one of the reasons Marik would be so hard to beat in the tournament. No one besides him knew how his shadow magic worked or how to defend against it.
"Oh, come on. Think of how cool it could be! Everyone in school will be in awe of us four and our powerful magic! They will all call us the fated four! I will be the queen of light, Marik will be the king of shadows, Harry will be the god of transfiguration, and you Hermione will be the goddess of. . ." Alina scratched her chin as she tried to think of something but nothing came.
"The fated four? I think you are just a little bit crazy Alina," she said, laughing at Alina's story.
"I thought that would be a cool name! Whatever! Come on let's at least spend a little time trying to think of something. In the end if we can't find anything at least we will have done some research, and that never hurts."
"Fine! I guess it can't hurt," she said, admitting defeat. Alina was right, the prospect of finding a signature magic for her did sound intriguing, plus maybe she might find something in the process that could help her with the tournament.
"Yay!" Alina shouted and jumped off the bed towards the first stack of books in the room looking for any cool ideas.
Her bed quickly became a fortress of books as the two of them looked through book after book for any intriguing ideas that she could use as a signature magic. Most of the books they searched through had led only to dead ends, and the only idea they had come across that had any promise was ice magic. However, there was already tons of common information on ice magic out there and they even learned some facets of it during their second year so she ruled it out.
After a few hours of getting nowhere, there research was interrupted by the loud tapping of a brown barn owl outside their window.
"Who is it from?" Alina asked her from the bed, as she took the mail from the owl's leg and gave the bird a treat before it flew off. Surprisingly the stack was thick and there were six letters attached. She looked through them.
"Three of them are for you Alina. One is from Marik, another from Harry. And It looks like one is from Hogwarts which means. . . Oh Merlin's mother! Our grades are here!" she announced starting to panic. At the announcement Alina quickly made her way over and snatched the letters from Hermione and quickly ripped them open.
She tried to open the Hogwarts letter, but it was a slow process as her hands were shaking uncontrollably. She was not mentally prepared for this yet. Last year grades weren't sent until after the tournament. They were early this year. After a few seconds of failing she finally opened up the letter.
Hermione Granger,
Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry
Second year End of Term Grade Report
Class Grade Class Rank
History of Magic: M 1
Charms: O 3
Transfiguration: O 2
Potions: M 1
Dark Arts: O 4
Herbology: O 2
Spell Creation: O 2
Overall Student Rank: 1
Based off of your grade report you will be allowed to continue your education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, as well as advance to Third year courses in all of your previous classes. In your third year you will also have the option to add any additional electives you wish to take to your schedule. If you chose to add any electives please write back as soon as possible with your desired schedule.
You will also receive special recognition during the opening ceremony due to your performance, grades, and class ranking. Further information will be given to you during the opening ceremony. Many congratulations on earning outstanding marks to go along with an outstanding rank.
Your current Third year class schedule can be found on the second paper in this letter. A list of all the required third year supplies has also been added. I and the rest of the Hogwarts staff congratulate you and look forward to seeing you again for your second year.
P.s.
Way to make Ravenclaw proud. I knew you would be worried about your grades and did not want you to have any distractions for the tournament so I made Albus send out the owls a few days earlier this year. I, and the entire house of Ravenclaw are rooting for you! I personally look forward to seeing you again next year.
Your Head of House,
Filius Flitwick
She was speechless. She could not believe what she was actually seeing. She was sure the smile on her face was one of the biggest ones she had ever had in her entire life. She had been ranked number one at Hogwarts for her year! She had beat Cho, Padma, Daphne, Harry, and even Marik! She could not believe it.
"Oh my god!" her daydream was interrupted as she heard Alina beside her. Alina had dropped her letter and had a face of pure shock on her face.
"What is it Alina?' she asked, looking worried. Alina didn't say anything but instead just looked at the letter on the floor. She knew Alina was nervous about her grades since she had started the year off rocky, but her reaction to her grades made things look real bad. Hermione picked the letter up off the ground and looked at what it was that had her friend looking so shocked.
Alina Black,
Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry
First year End of Term Grade Report
Class Grade Class Rank
History of Magic: O 3
Charms: O 2
Transfiguration: M 1
Potions: M 1
Dark Arts: M 1
Herbology: O 3
Spell Creation: O 2
Overall Student Rank: 1
"Oh my god Alina! These marks are incredible. Congratulations!" she wrapped her friend in a huge hug. Alina's marks were truly amazing. They were even better than hers had been her first year. Alina was in the top three for everyone of her classes, had earned three 'M' marks, and was ranked number one in her year too.
"How?" was all Alina said in return. She still looked shocked and in a state of disbelief.
"Oh come on Alina is it so hard to believe? Even with all that happened last year you were still miles ahead of everyone else in your year! Plus the second half of the year no one worked as hard as you did. I'm honestly not surprised at all," she said truthfully. Alina had been in their potions lab just as much if not more than she had in the latter half of the school year.
"Thanks Hermione. I still can't really believe it though. Let me see yours!" Alina seemed to come out of her shock as she took her letter from out of her hands. "Hermione these are amazing! You took the number one spot from Marik! He is going to be so pissed! And all of your marks are incredible too!" Alina jumped around as she spoke. In Alina's excitement she found herself quickly wrapped up in another hug. "Look at us two! The goddess and queen of the fated four being the two number one ranked witches in the school!" Alina said, beaming.
"You are really sticking with this whole fated four thing huh?" she asked sarcastically, laughing at her friend.
"Duh! Why wouldn't I when we are clearly the future of magic. Although they may end up calling us the fated two and their two not top ranked friends at the rate me and you are going!" Alina said, laughing like an evil scientist as she spoke. "The other letters are from Marik and Harry! I bet it's their grades. Let's see how they did," Alina said, as she tore open another one of her letters. Hermione followed her lead and opened up the letter from Harry.
Dear Hermione,
First off I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I know I haven't been able to write much so far this summer, but I am happy to tell you that I am now back home for the summer so I will be able to write a lot more. I have lots of exciting updates about my trip with my father and Sirius to tell you about, but I want to wait and tell you in person at the tournament. Which speaking of that, unfortunately because of my mother's work we won't be able to get to Germany until the day of the tournament, so I don't think our plan of hanging out the day before will work. I'm sorry again! Please don't kill me!
I'm guessing that by the time you get this Alina is already there so make sure you tell her hi for me. By the way I miss you, and wish that my parents would have listened to my idea to vacation in France for a week too so that we could hang out. Mother wouldn't budge though, and father just said something in French I couldn't understand.
Now that I am back home I have started doing a lot of reading ahead in my care of magical creatures book. I was surprised how interesting I am finding the subject. Did you know that this book has a ton of stuff on unicorns that we didn't know already. I am starting to finally get some ideas of what do use my resources for! Keep me updated on all the stuff you are working on in ancient runes. I still haven't decided if I am going to take it or not. I really am seriously thinking about taking spell creations now too, even though I didn't take it my first two years.
Anyways I know you are probably having a heart attack from finding out you were ranked number 1, (McGonagall was at the house to help mother with something earlier today and told me), so I will hurry up and end this so you can get back to celebrating. Congratulations by the way! I am proud of you and would not have expected anything less. My grades are attached on the next sheet. I can't wait to see you soon!
Miss you,
Harry
She couldn't help but pause and smile at Harry's letter. Whenever he wrote to her he always found a way to make her smile and she was happy to hear that he would now be able to write her more. Anxious to see his grades she quickly turned to the second page in the letter.
Harry Potter,
Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry
Second year End of Term Grade Report
Class Grade Class Rank
History of Magic: O 3
Charms: O 2
Transfiguration: M 1
Potions: E 5
Dark Arts: O 3
Herbology: O 4
Astronomy: M 1
Overall Student Rank: 3
She was proud at seeing the marks Harry had earned. Overall his grades were a lot more consistent than they had been last year and she was happy that all of his hard work had paid off. It was no surprise to see that he had earned 'M' marks in transfiguration and astronomy, however, it was a surprise to see that Snape had ranked him in the top five of potions. Even though Harry was actually very good at potions, Snape had made it clear to them that he was never a really big fan of Harry.
After looking over the letter one more time to make sure she didn't miss anything she went to the last unopened letter in her hand. It was from Marik.
Dear 'Mione,
First off it was a simple mistake that anyone could have made. So if you hear any news from the Daily Prophet that someone may or may not have set their house on fire. . . a little bit. . . while practicing writing an ancient rune it wasn't me! Thankfully I did not get in trouble with the ministry and the house is back to normal but yeah. . . I thought my dad was going to kill me. Never try to do runes on your mother's coffee table! Anyways!
One of Kingsley's good friends Marshall Queen just published an interesting article about the skin growing potion he is famous for. It is pretty neat and has a lot of information about changing properties of your brewing supplies to achieve different results. I know that is what Snape has you working on so I figured you would like it. I sent my copy of the article Kingsley gave me.
After reading the article I am currently trying to brew a pep-up potion with an enchanted onion instead of flobberworms, I will of course let you know the results. I currently am still focused on ancient runes more than anything else though. After making the. . . small fire. . . My dad isn't letting me practice a lot of the spells I want to, so I'm basically limited now to simple spells and reading. Which sucks! Oh well!
I still have no clue when I will be getting to Germany thanks to my dad's work schedule, but if I find out I will let you know. Can't wait to see everyone there. I attached my grades to the next page, try not to laugh to hard. And I know it was you by the way! You suck! But congratulations. You and Alina don't celebrate too hard!
Your Best Bud,
Marik
P.S.
Don't get used to being number one! This is war now!
She again found herself laughing at her friend's letter. Leave it to Marik to almost burn his house down practicing magic. She was excited to read the article he had sent her later. So far this summer she looked forward to all of Marik's letters because each one usually came with some interesting piece of research or finding in it. Before she looked at the article though she turned to see his grades.
Marik Ose,
Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry
Second year End of Term Grade Report
Class Grade Class Rank
History of Magic: O 4
Charms: M 1
Transfiguration: O 4
Potions: E 6
Dark Arts: M 1
Herbology: E 7
Spell Creation: M 1
Overall Student Rank: 2
Again she found herself smiling and proud at Marik's marks, just as she had with Harry's. Marik had again earned three 'M' marks this year, and even more impressive than that he had managed to bring up his potions and herbology ranks quite a bit from last year.
It was still hard to believe that he was ranked second this year and she was ranked first though. She knew he meant what he said in his letter. As hard as Marik always worked, getting beat by her this year would only make him, and Harry as well, work harder in their third year. That just meant she would have to step it up too. A challenge she was more than willing to take.
"Can you believe how good they both did?" Alina broke her train of thought as it seemed she had finished reading her letters.
"I can't believe how good we all did," she said back honestly.
"Harry told me that sis got ranked fourth and was pissed that she got beat again. I wish I was there to see her face when she finds out I got ranked one!" Alina again was smirking.
"I can't imagine her being happy even if she had been ranked one," she said truthfully. The girl never seemed happy.
"True," Alina said, laughing.
"Hermione, Alina! Dinner is ready," they heard her mom call out from outside the room.
"Ugh it's already dinner time! Time is just flying by this summer," she complained, as she headed to the door.
"I know right. I wish we had more time in the summer. I feel like I never have enough time to do anything anymore!" Alina answered following her.
"Time. . ." Hermione stopped suddenly as the thought came to her like a ton of bricks.
"What?" Alina asked. Alina collided into her back as she suddenly stopped in the doorway.
"Alina that's it!" she shouted excited.
"What is it? What are you talking about Hermione?" Alina asked, looking confused.
"Time is my answer!" she said and hurried off towards the kitchen table as quickly as she could. She would try to get through this meal as fast as she could. She wanted to get back to her room and books to start looking things up immediately. She had a great idea.
"So the fated four huh?" she stopped again suddenly, causing Alina to run into her back again.
"Yeah?" Alina said again looking bewildered.
"You the Queen of light, Marik the King of shadows, Harry the god of transfiguration, and me. I will be the goddess of time!"
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