Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns Harry Potter in countries including, but not limited to, the United Kingdom, France, and wherever it is that Durmstrang is.
Chapter 65
"Say, Hildegard," Hermione asked her roommate once she was settled in with her classes.
"Oui, Hermione?"
"How do I get to the kitchens here?"
"The kitchens? Er, I think you can go down the stairs to the left of the Grand Staircase, double back past the storage rooms for all the old, medieval furniture, and then curtsy to the portrait of the Comte de Saint Germain to get in. Why do you ask? Do you fancy a snack?"
"Actually, I wanted to meet the house elves."
"The house elves?" Hildegard said in surprise. "Why would you want to talk to them?"
"Well, I was good friends with the elves at Hogwarts. Plus I want to see how Dobby's settling in."
That got Adèle's attention as well. "You're friends with house elves?" she asked incredulously. "And who's Dobby?"
"He's an elf who I managed to liberate from a really abusive master. He's my at-will employee now, and I subcontracted his services to the school."
Both of Hermione's roommates stared at her with their mouths agape.
"I thought I mentioned that before."
They shook their heads. "You…you're friends with elves…and you hired a free elf?" Hildegard said. "Is this some new trend in England we haven't heard about?"
"No. Or if it is, I started it, and it hasn't really taken off yet," Hermione replied. "It's just that I'm muggle-born, and I have some major issues with slavery. Anyway, I'm going to go see him. You girls want to come along?"
The two of them regarded her sceptically. "Oh, why not?" Adèle said. "But honestly, Hermione, I've lost track of all the weird stuff you get up to. I don't know how your old friends kept up with you."
"Oh, trust me, Adèle; with Harry around, he's usually setting the pace."
Hildegard was correct about how to get to the kitchens, and Hermione resolved to pace out the path later. She was already making a map of Beauxbatons, larger than her personal map of Hogwarts, and laid out on nice parchment instead of graph paper. She hoped she might be able to enchant it later. They reached the kitchens, and the portrait of the Comte de Saint Germain opened to let them inside.
The Beauxbatons kitchens looked a lot like the Hogwarts kitchens—a replica of the Great Hall in the middle surrounded by the cabinets, stoves, sinks, and cookware, with dozens of elves going about their business. One green-eyed elf, the only one in proper clothes, ran over to her.
"Miss Hermione! Miss Hermione!" Dobby cried. "It is being good to see you."
"You too, Dobby. These are my roommates, Hildegard and Adèle. Hildegard, Adèle, c'est Dobby."
"Er, pleased to meet you, Dobby," the girls said uneasily, having never met a free elf before.
"How have you been doing, Dobby?" Hermione asked.
"Dobby is well, miss. The French elves has heard of Dobby from elves traded from England. Some of them is suspicious of Dobby, but it is being no worse than at Hogwarts."
"Well, that's good to hear, I guess."
"Please come, Miss Hermione," the elf squeaked. "Dobby will introduce you to the French elves."
Hermione had a pleasant time getting to know some of the French elves, although her roommates didn't seem very interested. It wasn't quite like it was at Hogwarts. None of the elves here instantly latched onto her like Sonya had, but they were nice enough, as all elves are. The one unpleasant bit was when she learnt that the French elves were not interested in Dobby's cooking advice.
"Please be pardoning us, Miss," one of the elves said when she pressed the issue, "but English food is not being liked so much in France."
"Well, it doesn't have to be English food. Dobby can do Indian pretty well. Do you know how to make curry? Or even something like Italian. I'm sure you've heard of pizza?"
In retrospect, Hermione decided she probably should have been a little clearer with her advice. Beauxbatons was in for an interesting dinner that Saturday.
Dear Hermione,
People say Professor Moody is really cool because he's actually been out there fighting dark wizards, but his first lesson was kind of creepy. He taught all the fourth years about the Unforgivable Curses, and then he did all three of them to a spider. First, he did the Imperius Curse and made it dance around the room. It was funny at first, but then he said Death Eaters used to use it to make people do all sorts of horrible things. Then he did the Cruciatus Curse, and it just started writhing and squeaking. Then he did the Killing Curse, and it dropped dead, just like that.
He also said I was the only person ever to survive the Killing Curse—H. Like we said, it was really creepy. Neville really freaked out about the Cruciatus Curse. We don't know what that was about, but do you remember Sirius and Barty Crouch arguing about Neville's parents at the World Cup? I think it has to do with that. I'm going to write Sirius and ask him.
The other weird part was how he kept yelling "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" all through the lesson. He says that's how he's stayed alive so long, and it's the only way to really protect yourself from dark wizards. He's probably going to get in trouble for showing us those curses, but he says we need to know what we're up against.
Moody and Snape look like they have some kind of feud going. Moody keeps making snide remarks about Snape, and Snape gets nasty again when anyone mentions him. He wasn't so bad at first.
We have good news and bad news about Winky. The good news is that she's here, and Dumbledore paid the tariff and bound her to the school. I guess they have to do that with the regular elves all the time, so there's a fund or something. The bad news is that she's taken being fired by Crouch really hard. She still thinks she's a bad elf, and she's started drinking, so we think she's probably not okay. The other elves don't respect her very much because she was freed. But there is one good thing: they're talking nicer about you. They still think you're weird for paying Dobby, but they liked how you tried to help Winky by getting her a new position.
How was Arithmancy class? Was it much different from Hogwarts? Did you clean up in there, too?
Your friends,
Harry, Ron, and Ginny
P.S. Sonya says hi.
Dear Hermione,
We bet the others already told you about most of the stuff that's going on here. We just wanted to update you on what's up with us. We have good news and bad news. The good news is that Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes is still in business. We had enough merchandise to start selling some around here and make a bit of money. And we've got the you-know-which room as a safe place to make more—we hope you don't mind.
The bad news is there's still nothing from Bagman. When we calmed down, we wrote him a letter. We didn't accuse him of anything—yet. We just politely suggested that he might've given us Leprechaun Gold by mistake, and he really needs to pay up to all three of us. But we haven't heard anything back from him. It's starting to look suspicious (which it is), so we're going to start looking at other options before long.
Not to worry, though, we have a backup plan—or a bit of a backup plan. Dumbledore isn't the one who picks the Champion for the Tournament. Some impartial judge does. So we figure we just have to convince him we're seventeen, and we can get in the running for the Tournament. We were thinking maybe an Ageing Potion will do the trick. If we can get one of us in the Tournament, we'll have a shot at winning double what Bagman owes us.
Anyway, we hope you're doing well down in France. It's not the same without you here, but we're getting by.
Sincerely,
Fred and George
Dear Harry,
This is a little awkward. What happened to Neville's parents is really his story to tell, but I guess you might as well know, since it's public record anyway, just not widely publicised. I'll ask you to keep it to yourself and your close friends, though, and especially not bring it up around Neville.
When your parents were killed and Voldemort fell, Neville's parents were also in hiding. After a little while, they thought it was safe to come out, but then they were attacked by three of the absolute worst Death Eaters—even worse than the Malfoys: the Lestranges. Unfortunately, Bellatrix Lestrange is my cousin and Mrs. Malfoy's sister. I told you I came from a dark family. The Lestranges thought the Longbottoms knew something about what happened to Voldemort, and they tortured them with the Cruciatus Curse to make them give it up. But of course, they didn't know anything. No one did. So they just kept torturing them until they went insane. Neville's parents have been in permanent care at St. Mungo's Hospital ever since. The Lestranges were caught and sent to Azkaban—I had to listen to Bellatrix screaming all the time. Barty Crouch Jr. was caught with them, but no one was really sure if he was part of it or not. His father sent him to Azkaban anyway, and he died within a year.
Remember, just try to keep this quiet, Pup. That was really in poor taste for Mad-Eye to do that. I get his point, but he should have been nicer about it—and about the Killing Curse, try not to let it bother you. There's no need to worry there, anyway. You're safe at Hogwarts with Dumbledore around.
Sirius
P.S. When the visiting students get there, watch out for the Durmstrang Headmaster, Karkaroff. He was a Death Eater who sold out his comrades to get out of Azkaban, and he might still have an axe to grind.
Dear Harry, Ron, and Ginny,
Professor Moody is starting to sound like a really disturbing teacher. Maybe he's good at teaching, but after the thing with Malfoy and now the Unforgivable Curses, I'm not so sure he should be teaching.
That's too bad about Winky. I don't know if there's any way to help her about that. It sounds like depression or something. Do try to help her if you get the chance, but I don't really know where to start. Dobby says working for the school will either help or it won't, whatever that means. I'm not sure I want to know.
Tell Sonya and Tilly hello for me. Tell them I miss talking to them. I've made friends with the French elves, but we don't see eye to eye as much.
Arithmancy is okay. It's a little harder with the seventh-year class, and M. Oppenord isn't as good a teacher as Septima, but I'm still doing well. There's one girl in the class named Fleur whom you'll probably see at Hogwarts for the Tournament. She's pretty good at it. In fact, at the class work, she's almost as good as I am. Also, I've been asking around, and I found out she's a quarter veela, so try to keep your heads around her, boys—especially you, Ron.
We started studying experimental spellcrafting in class. It's interesting, but it's really not what I'm used to. I'm still holding off judgement to see where it goes.
Good luck dealing with Moody and Snape and all the rest.
Love from,
Hermione
Dear Fred and George,
Have you gone mental?! Please don't try to enter yourselves in the Tournament. You could get in big trouble with Dumbledore and/or the Ministry, and more importantly, I reiterate that you should stay far away from anything that includes the words, "cancelled because the body count got too high".
And besides, this judge who's coming in could easily just look up your birthday in the school records.
That said, thank you for including me in trying to go after Bagman since I can't really do it from here. Twelve galleons isn't that big a deal, but I appreciate it. I'm glad to hear you're not completely out of business either. I won't bother trying to tell you not to sell your things at school, but please try to be responsible about it.
Love from,
Hermione
Dear Hermione,
So there's a part veela in your class? Why didn't you tell us sooner? Do you think you can get any beauty tips from her? Like, is it a spell that makes their skin shine and their hair blow on its own, or is it just natural magic? Does she have the best style in school, too? Do you think if you asked her to look us up when she comes for the Tournament, she would? Sorry to go all fangirly on you, but seriously, how often do you get a chance to meet a veela in this country?
Write back soon,
Lav and Parv
"Hey, Harry, what's up?" Ginny called when she saw her friend staring wistfully out the window.
"Huh? Uh, hi, Ginny," Harry said sheepishly when he saw her. "I was just, er, thinking."
"Arithmancy?" She pointed down at the homework in front of him.
"Oh, yeah. Ugh, I'm rubbish at geometry."
"Well, I'm rubbish with algebra, so we're even."
"The algebra's not that bad. I could give you a hand, if you like."
Ginny coughed and sputtered in surprise for a moment, but she quickly collected herself. "Yeah, that'd be great," she said. "Sorry I can't help you with yours."
"It's fine, Ginny," Harry assured her. "I mean, I'm not Hermione, so I can't make any promises…" he trailed off, lost in thought.
"Yeah, I miss her, too," Ginny said. "It's not the same without her."
"Mm hmm." He made to pick up his books and go with her, but he got distracted looking out the window again. This time, Ginny saw which direction he was looking: the Quidditch pitch.
"It's so unfair there's no Quidditch this year," she said, guessing his thoughts.
"I know. No practice, no games, no flying at all to do this year. It's like it's something else that's missing."
"Well, there's no reason you can't go out for a fly on your own," she suggested.
"Oh?"
"Well, why not? It's not like the pitch is closed or anything. Anyone can go out there any time. And besides, you need to stay in practice for next year."
"Huh…you're right. We should go out and fly sometime."
"We?"
Harry laughed: "You're the reserve Seeker, remember?"
"Right. Okay, then," Ginny agreed. "Let's go out there this evening. I just need to get my Arithmancy out of the way first."
"So we had just got out of the tunnel when those maudit détraqueurs came onto the grounds and attacked us. Of course, they wanted Sirius, but they tried to Kiss all of us. Harry and I cast our Patronuses, and we just barely held them off long enough for Professor Dumbledore to come and help."
"You must be joking, 'Ermione," Fleur said. With her great skill at Arithmancy, the seventh-year had asked Hermione to join her study group. For Hermione, it was a bit trying at first, but she made an effort to get to know the older girl because she was in a new country and wanted to make friends, and besides, hadn't she made an effort to get to know people who were different from her, like elves and ghosts? To her surprise, Fleur grew more tolerable with continued exposure, although right now, she was still being trying."Two third year students casting Patronuses? I cannot believe it. Even I struggle with that charm."
"It's true, Fleur," Hermione said. "I do not joke about les détraqueurs. I've never been so frightened in my life, not against the troll or the basilisk or Voldemort himself. It felt like all the happiness had gone from the world—like I was sinking into an endless oblivion." She shuddered."I still practice the Patronus Charm every night so that I'll never be without it again. I have trouble sleeping if I don't. I was uncomfortable about it all summer."
"Oh? Then you could cast it now?" Fleur pressed.
Hermione sighed and drew her wand. One of these days, people were going to learn to take her word for it when she talked about her life. Honestly, a lot of this was public record if one knew where to look. She closed her eyes, concentrating on her friends and family back in England, and spoke, "Expecto Patronum!"
A silver light emerged from Hermione's wand and began to take shape. Fleur gasped. It still took five or ten seconds' concentration and a strong act of will, but Hermione succeeded in forming it into an otter.
"Mon Dieu," Fleur whispered. "You are an extraordinary witch, 'Ermione. I am sorry I doubt you. It is only that I had thought people had adventures like yours only in books."
Hermione shook her head: "It's not like it is in the books, Fleur. It's not some glamorous fairy tale. When you're out there looking death in the face, and all your plans have gone wrong, and you have nothing left to keep you alive but your wits and your wand, it's not a glorious adventure. It's all you can do to keep from collapsing in terror. If it weren't for my friends, I would have taken this nice, quiet life here two years ago."
"I am sorry. It must be hard for you. You miss your friends very much?"
"Yes, I do. It's so hard not having them around."
"Most of my family is in Eastern Europe," Fleur said. "It is hard living so far from them as well. I will give you some advice, 'Ermione. You try to get to know people, especially the different or unusual ones. I know you are friends with the house elves, and you have told me of your friends, Luna, Hagrid, and Myrtle. You have seen that not many witches so value diversity. I admire that, and it should not be wasted. Many people think I am arrogant, but they do not try to get to know me. They are not worth my time. I am loyal to those who are. You should do the same, whatever some people think of you. My advice is this: wherever you go, find friends who are worthy your time, and stand by them."
Hermione smiled. Maybe her first impression of Fleur wasn't so accurate. "Thank you, Fleur," she said sincerely.
Dear Mum and Dad,
Thank you for the latest information on Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. I showed everything I had to M. Leverrier, the Astronomy teacher, but he seemed much less interested than Professor Sinistra. He doesn't seem to be nearly as informed about muggle astronomy as she is. It's really disappointing to be honest.
M. Oppenord isn't much better. He's okay as a teacher, but he can't help me at all with my independent study. Septima is trying to help me by letter, but there's only so much she can do that way.
I know I can't really do anything but try to stick it out here, but I really wish they could do justice to two of my favourite subjects.
Love from,
Hermione
Dear Hermione,
You won't believe what Moody did this time. He actually got special permission from Dumbledore to cast the Imperius Curse on everyone fourth year and up to try to teach us how to resist it. And you want to know the craziest part? Harry fought it off in something like thirty seconds. All the rest of us had to do everything he said. I don't get how Harry fought it so easy—R.
Neither do I—H.
The homework's getting crazy here. The teachers are already giving us more to prepare for O.W.L.s, and they're not till next year! And here we thought you were the only one—no offence. Is it that bad for you there?
Your friends,
Harry and Ron
Dear Harry and Ron,
Are you sure Moody had permission to do that? That sounds really fishy and kind of evil to me. That's good that Harry can fight it off, but I don't really see what good it did the rest of you—sorry.
My homework isn't as bad because the French exams aren't until sixth year. I'm still getting used to doing it in French, though.
Love from,
Hermione
Hermione,
I found out about the ball. What do you think I should do about Harry? I think he still has a crush on Cho Chang. We've gone out flying together a couple times, though—just flying because there's no Quidditch. I really enjoyed it, and I think he did, too, but nothing else happened. What should I do?
Ginny
Ginny,
The best thing you can do is to keep being yourself around Harry. After everything he's been through, he wants someone real, not fake, manipulative, or obsessed. (And don't worry; I don't think you're obsessed anymore.) The flying sounds like a pretty good thing, so keep that up, and try not to worry. I'm pretty sure you're the best female friend he has right now, and for someone like him, that should be enough.
Hermione
Dear Luna,
Thanks you for those sketches of the Skrewts. They were much more than I asked for, and they were very good. I still don't have a clue what the things are. Do you think they could be some kind of weird hybrid? I'm pretty sure that's illegal, but I can't think of anything else they could be.
So far, we're only doing very basic experimental stuff in Arithmancy—things like binding and separating individual magical fields of spells to modify them. We aren't even working with spells that move yet—mostly simple charmed objects. Honestly, it makes me a little nervous because I never quite know when a particular field will be stable or when it will break. Anyway, I'm more interested in how the shape of the magical field corresponds to the arithmantic expression of the spell. It reminds me of diagrams of electromagnetic fields in the muggle world, but more flexible. I asked Mum and Dad to find me a good book on the subject.
Anyway, how has your year been so far? I hope people haven't been giving you a hard time and that you're having fun in your new classes. Please don't hesitate to tell Harry and the Weasleys if you have any problems. I know they'll want to help you if they can.
Love from,
Hermione
Luna actually had found herself wandering the corridors shoeless again a couple times this year. Her roommates—and it was her roommates who gave her a hard time more than anyone else since the rest of Ravenclaw just sort of went along with it—were growing bolder again now that Hermione and her connections to the Weasleys were gone. Of course, Ginny had been trying to cultivate her friendship again this year, and she would surely come to Luna's aid. Harry probably would, too, for that matter.
Luna naturally didn't like to make waves, though. She had tried to bring up the issue with the prefects and even with Professor Flitwick in her first year, but it had never been much help. The bullying either changed to something more subtle or started up again later, and none of them ever really followed up, so she was very reluctant to try again and felt like she would rather just deal with it. After all, it had taken Hermione visiting the Ravenclaw dorms and threatening to unleash the Weasley Twins to stop it last year, and it obviously hadn't dispersed their underlying nargle problem. It made her sad, actually. These girls were so spiteful that it took an active threat of retaliation to stop them from harassing her just for being different. They must be very unhappy people to be like that, she thought.
Anyway, she felt very uncomfortable going out and asking for help again. It just wasn't in her nature. The thing was, Hermione was still encouraging her, even from overseas, to stand up for herself and get some help. And Luna admired Hermione very much. She was absolutely brilliant and always seemed so sure of herself. She had faced down demons that Luna couldn't imagine facing, and yet at the same time, she was so considerate to reach out to someone like her.
Maybe she should do something to get some help.
"A wizard is trying to cross a river," the door knocker said. "He has a fox, a rabbit, and a cabbage. He can only carry one of them across the river at a time, but the fox cannot be left alone with the rabbit, and the rabbit cannot be left alone with the cabbage. In what order must the wizard carry them across—"
"What?" Ginny interrupted. "What are you talking about? Just put a Freezing Charm on the fox and the rabbit, and conjure a bigger boat."
"An acceptable alternative," the knocker said, and it opened the door into Ravenclaw Tower.
"Ugh, stupid riddles," Ginny muttered.
Ginny Weasley was not happy. Luna had come to her yesterday, looking very nervous. Luna so rarely looked nervous or uncomfortable that the sight was shocking, and she also (very uncharacteristically) had difficulty talking about it. But actions spoke louder than words, and Ginny hadn't missed that Luna had come to her barefoot.
There they were: Dierdre and Melanie. They were the main troublemakers—the ones who turned their entire house against Luna in the first week of first year, when most of Ravenclaw otherwise might have ignored her. Everyone knew it, but no one who cared could quite prove it.
But Ginny didn't need to prove it.
"Hi girls," she said with exaggerated cheerfulness.
"Weasley?" Melanie said. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, Luna's shoes went 'missing' again, and I wanted to ask if you'd seen them." Ginny had a slightly more subtle style than Hermione.
"Why would we know where Loony's shoes are? She probably gave them to the nargles or something."
Ginny's face hardened: "Her name is Luna, Melanie. I expect my friends to be shown respect. And you really ought to care more about your roommate's well-being."
"Well, we haven't seen them," Dierdre said. "And you're really not supposed to be here, so…"
"Fine. I'll go. Oh, by the way, Fred and George are looking for testers for their new prank products. Are you interested?" Dierdre and Melanie blanched. Before they could launch into strenuous denials, Ginny continued, "Just something to think about. Toodles." She turned and left the tower.
Oddly, Luna's shoes reappeared quickly after that.
"Most counterspells arithmantically cancel out the spell they are designed to counter," Monsieur Oppenord told the class. "This cancellation is rarely complete even in theory because the counterspells most commonly have to be built from truncated power series. It is never complete in practice because spells are never cast completely accurately. However, the residual magical fields are usually small and dissipate quickly. Only with significant mistakes in the casting will lingering spells effects remain.
"It is also possible to reverse spells by manually stripping away the magical fields. However, for most spells, this is unfeasible for a wide variety of reasons. The unbalanced or unbound magical fields of a partially stripped spell could explode, cause a chain reaction that lashes out at the caster, or recombine into a different spell, and they can even cause damage to the target if they are working as intended.
"We'll be taking a closer look at that last point today. Again, if you strip away part of a spell from a target, the remaining parts can destroy the target, even if they are working as intended, and the next exercise will demonstrate that. Partner up; I will be passing several wooden blocks to each pair. You are to cast the Softening Charm on the blocks. The Softening Charm lays two layers on magical energy on the target, each with a different effect. Your assignment is to remove the two layers without destroying the wood. You may use any magic-shaping spells we have covered so far."
This sort of open-ended assignment was typical of the Advanced Arithmancy class, although Hermione was surprised that Monsieur Oppenord had given them so little information about how the exercise worked. She took the first block of wood and cast "Spongify," and the wood turned soft and spongy.
Her partner, Michel, touched his wand to the wood and tried the first spell: "Adheré." The two magical fields stuck to his wand as he lifted it away, still clinging to the corners of the wood like cellophane. They separated just enough to see the two layers, but they didn't peel away.
"Okay, so we need to unbind the layers a little," Hermione suggested. "Phosphoro." The combined magical field began to glow with a soft light that took on the approximate colour of the wood. "Stratuséparé." The two layers of the spell separated from the wood and from each other by about a centimeter. It was hard to tell, but it looked like the upper one was more brown, and the lower one was more yellow.
"Good," Michel said. "No reason not to just remove the top layer, n'est-ce pas? Excoria." He placed his wand at the corner of the magical field and pulled back. The cellophane layer of magic peeled away from the wood. He flicked it off his wand, and in rolled up like a scroll in the air and vanished in a shower of orange sparks.
The wood looked all right for a moment, but then, just as Hermione said, "So far, so good," there was a crack, and the block collapsed into a pile of sawdust. "Eek!" she exclaimed.
"Wow. I did not expect that," Michel said. "Evanesco." The sawdust vanished. "Well, if removing the top layer did that, it stands to reason we should pull out the bottom layer first."
"I suppose so," she agreed. They quickly cast Spongify, Phosphoro, and Stratuséparé on the next block of wood, but this time, Michel cast Adheré to pull back the top magical field without unbinding it. Then, Hermione touched her wand to the bottom layer and cast "Excoria." The yellow layer of magic didn't curl up in the air. Instead, gold sparks flashed across its surface, and it disintegrated into a little cloud of dust, then vanished.
Michel prodded the wood. The grain deformed, as if it were made of clay, by it didn't crumble. "Better," he said. "Excoria." The other layer of magic was peeled away. With that, the wood was a little bent, but perfectly solid again.
They looked up. Around the room, the other pairs were working out the same method, except for Fleur and her partner, who worked together to remove the two layers of magic at the same time. Once most of the groups had it, Monsieur Oppenord explained, "Very good, very good. Most of you have figured it out. The two magical fields of the Softening Charm have different effects. The inner field unbinds the fibres of the wood, allowing them to slide past each other, while the outer field makes the wood more flexible. If the fibres are unbound without being flexible, the wood crumbles at the slightest touch. If it is made flexible without unbinding the fibres, it merely becomes deformable, like clay. So you see, even simple spells can have unpredictable and dangerous effects if they are not disassembled carefully. Even a simple charm hides a lot of complexity.
"Mademoiselle Delacour had a good idea: remove both layers of the spell at the same time. This is effectively what the counterspell does; it nullifies both layers in succession quickly enough that the wood is not damaged. This is why it is always best to use a dedicated counterspell. These techniques are not very important for spell reversal, but it is essential that you understand the interactions of spell components—a little like how it is essential to understand the interactions of potion ingredients—if you want to attempt experimental spellcrafting safely."
Dear Hermione,
I admit I am surprised that there are so many potential applications of this "group theory". However, I'm afraid that I don't quite see the magical potential. Beyond the ideas of spatial symmetries and crystal structures you mentioned in your last letter, is it really that great an advantage to unify such diverse techniques as the solving of polynomials, passwords, spell frequency analysis, and combinatorics with this one model? Perhaps I'm thinking too narrowly, but these new techniques seem so abstract that I am not convinced of their practical value for spellcrafting. If you could construct a concrete example with them, even a partial one, it might go a long way.
I'm sure this would go better if we could meet in person, but unfortunately, that option is not available for the time being. All we can do is keep moving forward as best we can.
Sincerely,
Septima
The thirtieth of October came around, and the anticipation at Hogwarts was palpable. Today, the delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang would be arriving. Beauxbatons they knew a few things about, since Hermione had made the dubious decision to tell them to Lavender and Parvati. By now, the rumour was all over the school that a part-veela would be with the group, as well as word about the prodigious size of the Headmistress, which had Hagrid very interested.
The professors had been trying all week to make the students extra-presentable and sweep any academic or other shortcomings under the rug (although there wasn't much they could do about Snape). At dusk, the Heads of House lined up their students outside waiting for their guests to arrive. It was a chilly evening, but still, they waited, speculating on just how the visitors would get to the school.
"D'you think they'll take the train?" Ron suggested.
"I doubt it," Ginny said. "It'd have to run over water."
"What about broomsticks?" Harry said.
"Could even you fly that far, Harry?" Ron asked.
"No, I guess not."
"I bet they're trying to make a dramatic entrance," Ginny said. "It's like Dad says. We've always gotta show off when we get together."
A moment later, Dumbledore pointed the Durmstrang delegation approaching. All eyes turned to the Black Lake, where an enormous whirlpool began to form of its own accord. Then, a mast emerged from it, followed by a whole ship, which shot out of the maelstrom at great speed and coasted to the shallows. About a dozen students disembarked and climbed up the embankment to the castle doors, all wearing heavy cloaks with fur trim, but in front of them walked an older man in sleek, silver robes who greeted Dumbledore heartily.
"My dear Karkaroff, I do hope your trip was a pleasant one," Dumbledore said as the students applauded.
"It went swimmingly, didn't it?" Karkaroff replied, and then he laughed at his own joke. "Ah, good old Hogwarts," he said. "It's been quite a while since I've had cause to come here. I take it Madame Maxime has not arrived yet?"
As the two Headmasters were talking, whispers spread up and down the lines of Hogwarts students as they noticed the student at the head of the Durmstrang delegation, just behind Karkaroff. He was less impressive and a bit uncoordinated on his feet, but there was no mistaking the thick, black eyebrows and the distinctively curved nose.
"Bloody hell," Ron hissed, "it's Viktor Krum!"
Harry was just as awestruck as his friend. The greatest Seeker in the world was not only still in school, but he was going to be there at Hogwarts for the rest of the year. Many of the girls and some of the boys were already searching their pockets for quills, hoping to get an autograph, when another sight diverted their attention.
Something huge and dark was approaching from over the Forbidden Forest. One of the first years screamed that they were riding in on a dragon, but it proved to be something even larger; an enormous, powder-blue carriage the size of a large house flew over the grounds, drawn by a team of twelve giant winged horses the size of elephants. It raced towards them and landed with the force of an earthquake, causing many students to jump back in a panic.
A boy in pale blue robes opened the door and unfolded a set of stairs, and a giant woman stepped out of the carriage. The rumours weren't an exaggeration, the Beauxbatons Headmistress was every inch as tall as Hagrid. But unlike him, she was dressed opulently, in black satin and opals, matching her hair and eyes.
"My dear Madame Maxime, welcome to Hogwarts," Dumbledore said.
"Dumbly-dorr, Karkaroff," Madame Maxime said with a thick accent. "I 'ope I find you well?"
"In excellent form," Dumbledore said.
"Very well, thank you," Karkaroff replied.
"My pupils," Madame Maxime gestured to the carriage, where about a dozen boys and girls climbed out. Some of them shivered in the cold, which wasn't surprising since they were wearing pale blue uniforms seemingly made out of fine silk. Most of them wore something or other over top of them; some wore scarves; some wore shawls; one tall girl had a muffler over her face.
And then there was one who didn't seem to fit in. She looked younger than the rest of the students, who seemed to be in their late teens, and much more at ease. Most of the school didn't recognise her with her new look, but to her friends, with her well-behaved hair in soft curls, her wide and perfectly straight smile, and her stylish, forest-green snakeskin coat, her appearance was enough to distract them even from Viktor Krum.
"Hermione?!"
Phosphoro: Based on the Greek for "light bringing", meant in the sense of "phosphorescent".
Stratuséparé: Stylised from the French for "separate layers".
Excoria: Latin for "skin", "peel", or "flay".