Recommendation: This chapter's recommended fic is "The Accidental Bond" by kb0. Harry discovers an amazing and disturbing ability that causes witches to bond to him. This story does an excellent job at showing what might happen if Harry had guardians who stood up for him — adults who put his interests first, not the interests of the school or the headmaster. This story was also the inspiration for the idea of "anti-permission letters."
Chapter 23 - Still Loving You
Sunday, January 10, 1995, Afternoon.
When Jasmine and Hermione entered Professor McGonagall's office that afternoon, everyone felt the tension in the air. They all knew that they were due for a very serious conversation, and none of them knew quite what to expect. Still, they had been through a lot together over the past month, so they were confident that they'd get through this as well.
After Minerva had poured tea for everyone, Jasmine started the conversation by saying, "I know we have something important to discuss, but there are a couple of issues Hermione and I would like to talk about first. You know that Sirius Black is innocent, right?" At Minerva's nod, she continued, "Well, he's been on the run, but because of the tournament he's decided to come back to Britain, and we'll probably see him eventually. The question is, do we tell him about us?"
Minerva leaned back in her chair a little more and sipped her tea while she thought about that. "I guess this was bound to come up sooner or later, but it's unfortunate that it's so soon," she finally said. "It would have been more convenient if this could have waited a while."
After a bit more thought, she continued, "He comes from a very traditionalist family which would have rejected such relationships, and while he broke away from his family, that doesn't mean he broke away from all traditionalist views — especially views like this which aren't considered 'dark.' So he may still hold to the idea that witches being together is wrong, if for no other reason than he learned it while young and never had any reason to question it."
Sighing, she concluded, "If he already knew you well and if you already had a good relationship with him, I could see telling him — in such a case, not telling him could even hurt your relationship. As it is, he's probably still suffering the effects of Azkaban, surely hasn't gotten any treatment for it, and barely knows you. I'm sure he wishes the best for you, but that doesn't mean he'll support you in something like this — not yet, at any rate. Once you've had a chance to get to know him better and maybe gauge his feelings about old, traditionalist views, then revisit this."
Both witches nodded at her advice. This was why they came to her: she could cut through the static and get right to the heart of an issue. "Thank you, that makes a lot of sense," Jasmine replied. "I wish we could tell him, but that's only because it would be nice to have his support. I suppose I'm just wishing for close family that backs me in things like this." As she concluded that, Hermione reached over to take her hand consolingly.
"That's quite understandable, Miss Potter," Minerva said in agreement. "Everyone deserves such support in their lives, and it's only natural that you would seek it from Sirius Black, as he's the closest thing to family you have in the magical world. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that he's ready to provide such support just yet."
"The next issue," Hermione said, "is a bit more complicated. We had a meeting with Fleur Delacour. She told us a bunch of interesting things about the veela, most of which we can't share because they're secrets. Most of it also isn't relevant to us, but what is relevant is that veela can 'see' or sense connections between people. She's been able to sense a connection between Jasmine and me ever since the Beauxbatons delegation arrived, and she's been able to tell that it's been growing. She says it's like a melody that's been gaining in power and harmony."
Minerva's eyebrows rose at that — she'd had no idea that veela were capable of such a thing. "So, she knows about your relationship?"
"No," Jasmine said. "She didn't know what the connection was, just that it existed. She wrote to her mother and grandmother, who she thinks know more than they told her. All they wrote in their reply was a confirmation that what she sensed was indeed a connection and that she should get to know us, even tell us those secrets about the veela. Fleur doesn't understand it, but she was willing to follow her instructions. We've asked her to try to get more information from them."
"She's willing to take an oath in order to hear about the secret," Hermione added, "So we might tell her. It depends on what she hears back from her family."
"I take it that you've never heard about veela having such an ability?" Jasmine asked. "Do you have any idea what it might be that she senses? She said she's never seen or even heard of anything like what she senses with us, but we're sure that she's seen romantic and even married couples before, so this 'connection,' whatever it is, can't simply be the fact that we're a couple. There has to be more to it."
Minerva groaned inwardly as she set her tea down. Merlin, but did this conversation go pear-shaped quickly! she thought to herself. I knew it would be difficult, but I had no idea that I'd be dropped right in the middle of a minefield like this. What on earth do I tell them? And just how much will the veela be able to figure out, anyway?
Hermione frowned, recognizing her professor's reaction as a tacit admission that she knew something. Looking up, Minerva met the younger witch's eyes and nodded, saying, "Yes, I do know something. Well, no, that may not be quite right. It would be more accurate to say that I suspect something. Several pieces of evidence I have observed all point to a particular conclusion, but I cannot say that that conclusion is true for certain."
She was tempted to get up and grab a glass of Scotch, but she had learned her lesson early on about resorting to that too soon in a conversation with these two. "That's not the problem, though. The problem is that I can't tell you what that conclusion is, even if it is only a suspicion. Magic would prevent me were I to try. And what I can say, I really, really shouldn't. Technically I can say some things, but it would just be a horrible idea to do so. There is the potential for serious harm if you were to figure it out based on what I can say."
"That… that… that makes no sense," Hermione sputtered. "How can knowledge be harmful?"
"It's difficult to explain, Miss Granger," Minerva said regretfully. "Unfortunately, the more specific and explicit I am in trying to answer your question, the more likely it is that I would tell you too much. However, to placate you somewhat, I can tell you that it isn't the case that you shouldn't know; rather, it's that you shouldn't be told."
"So its not the knowledge that's harmful," Jasmine offered, "but the being told? Or the way the knowledge is gotten?"
Minerva didn't answer; she simply picked her tea back up and sipped it some more. Hermione looked thoughtful at that explanation and finally said, "I'll bet you can't or won't say any more, but it sounds like this is something we're expected to figure out ourselves. Perhaps it's only in us figuring it out ourselves that it will work out? I'm still not sure that that makes any sense, but it's a little more palatable than being told that there's something important about us that we aren't allowed to know at all."
"There's something that came up today regarding the tournament," Jasmine said next. "As we discussed before, we expect that they'll be taking hostages, not objects, but we have a way to hide people where they can't be found. Where no one but I can get them. Would that cause more problems than it's worth, do you think?"
Minerva considered that for a moment. "This puts me in a difficult position," she started to say, but Hermione interrupted her.
"You don't need to answer her as a champion, but rather as a student. Would she, as a student, end up causing too much trouble by hiding other students?"
Smiling thinly, Minerva responded, "That's a very fine distinction you're making, Miss Granger, but I think it is one I can work with. To answer your question: yes, that would cause no end of difficulties. If the headmaster requires a student to, let us say, help him with some task, and he finds that the student is missing, he would then be obligated to do everything in his power to find that student, leading to a great deal of trouble. Furthermore, if he could not find that student in time to help him with his task, he would undoubtedly choose another."
Jasmine nodded in understanding. Hiding the potential hostages would probably cause too many problems. "Another idea we had," she continued, "is for the parents of potential hostages to write in with anti-permission letters, forbidding their children from taking part in the tournament in any way other than as spectators. That wouldn't cause so much trouble, would it?"
Thinking back to yesterday's staff meeting, Minerva smiled when she considered that the headmaster probably wouldn't really try too hard to get permission from any parents or guardians, so having them write proactively might have interesting consequences. "Miss Potter, I think that if any student suspects that they will be asked to participate in some task that lies outside academic requirements, and it is a task they don't want to be involved in at all, then it would be quite reasonable and responsible for their parents to send in a note denying them permission to do so."
Jasmine and Hermione looked at each other and smiled broadly, but their smiles disappeared when Minerva continued, "Unfortunately, that may not protect you, Miss Granger, if the headmaster decides that the matter is one which muggle parents cannot make an informed decision about."
"But magic isn't an essential part of the decision!" Hermione replied heatedly. "Their decision would be based on how dangerous it is!"
"True," their professor responded, "and he might say that they cannot understand how magic protects you, eliminating any danger." She raised a hand to forestall further objections and said, "I'm not saying that he'd be right, I'm simply describing how he might argue. Since there's no way to overrule him, and since he might consider this important enough to do regardless of anyone else's wishes, we have to assume that this will indeed be his position."
They'd have to think more carefully about that option, but it would probably help others, and it was at least worth trying in Hermione's case.
Everyone grew silent, and Minerva finally said after a long moment, "I guess I owe you two your explanation now." She stood and motioned the younger witches to follow her. "Let's go sit in my private quarters. We'll be more comfortable there, and this is a rather more personal conversation than we usually have."
Every Hogwarts professor was given a set of rooms that consisted of office space and private living quarters. The office space was a large room with a desk and a more casual reception area. The living quarters contained a bedroom, bathroom, guest room, and a comfortable living room. It was to the living room that Minerva took her two students, and she had them sit on either side of her on the couch.
Leaning forward, she picked up a thick photo album that was sitting on the coffee table. Inscribed on the front was a name: Bonnie Freya Roy. She was a little surprised at herself for being willing to reveal such closely-guarded and personal secrets with these two young witches, but for reasons she couldn't explain, it simply felt right. She wondered if it had something to do with the secret she couldn't reveal to them, but set that question aside for later.
Gently tracing the lines of the name on the album's cover with one finger, Minerva began, "We grew up together in the same magical village here in Scotland. Well, you couldn't technically call it a village — it didn't even have a name. It was just a collection of closely allied families that had lived in the same area for centuries. We were all farmers: crops and livestock, a mix of magical and mundane."
She opened the front cover of the album, and on the first page they could all see a magical photograph of two very young girls standing side-by-side with their arms around each other. One had dark hair and was obviously a very young Minerva McGonagall. The other girl had flaming red hair, bright eyes, and a mischievous smile. "Our two families had been close for centuries — for as long as the village existed, I think. As the two of us grew up, we did everything together. We explored the wild areas in the region, we swam in the rivers and streams, we worked in the fields, and we helped each other with the families' livestock."
Flipping the page revealed two photos. One showed the two girls working in a kitchen, the other had them sitting with their heads together over a book. "Of course we also helped our mothers in the kitchen and in keeping house — by working together, we helped get the other's chores done much faster, giving us more time to spend together as we wished. We were also homeschooled together, unlike with most families where children were homeschooled only within the family. Eventually we went to Hogwarts together, where we were sorted into the same house and took the same electives. While here we studied together, played pranks together, and of course served detentions together."
Jasmine coughed and said, "Pranks? You played pranks while you were in school?"
Minerva smiled and said dryly, "I wasn't always this old, Miss Potter. I was capable of having fun while in school. I still am, too — I just don't do it in such obvious and boisterous ways."
She flipped the page again, now revealing the two girls at a slightly older age and wearing Gryffindor robes. A second photo showed them sitting on a couch in the Gryffindor common room, leaning in against each other.
"Somewhere along the way," she continued slowly, "we also fell in love." Both Jasmine and Hermione gasped audibly at hearing this. They hadn't known what they would be told today, but they never would have expected this.
"Yes, you heard right," Minerva added. "I fell in love with my best friend, who was also a witch, and she fell in love with me. We didn't give any thought to the fact that it was taboo. That it was so taboo that people never talked about it likely helped. I think we probably didn't know any better, though we somehow knew enough to keep it secret. We just enjoyed each other's company so much that it seemed natural for our relationship to progress from being friends to best friends, and then eventually to lovers."
She once again turned the page, this time revealing a photo of Minerva sitting on the same Gryffindor couch as before, with Bonnie lying down, her head in Minerva's lap. Both were trying to read. "It was late in second year that we first started developing feelings for each other, but we didn't say anything for a while — not until the summer after our fourth year, in fact. It was towards the end of that summer that we pledged ourselves to each other. We were young, naive romantics, so we concocted a ceremony out of bits and pieces we had found in various books. We imagined ourselves to be so mature for doing that, let me tell you. We found a glade with a fairy ring and conducted our little ceremony, and we were shocked when a blue glowing light surrounded us. We assumed it was magic accepting our vows, so we felt pretty good about it.
"We kept our secret all during fifth year and we were blissfully happy, sneaking around the castle and trying to keep our relationship secret. The fact that we were already always together, practically attached at the hip, probably helped.
"It was during the summer hols after our fifth year that everything fell apart. We were in one of the barns... enjoying each other..." She looked at the girls to either side of her and saw their fierce blushes.
"Oh, really now," she said reprovingly. "The two of you will have to get over embarrassment at talk about sex. I know that the subject isn't brought up much here at Hogwarts, but that's mostly the headmaster's doing. He's a bit of a prude, and unfortunately, people like him have encouraged similar prudishness throughout magical society. It's not healthy. You will have problems with each other if you don't get to the point where you can discuss these things."
As she watched, she noticed Hermione gather herself together, but Jasmine continued to stare down at her lap, clearly bothered by something. "Anyway," she continued, not wanting to get sidetracked, "we were enjoying each other, which is to say that we were sexually active, though only to a limited degree. We had talked about waiting until after graduating before going very far." She watched their reactions for a moment, then went on. "Yes, I know, I seem too old for that, too; but believe it or not, sex is even older than I am." That at least got a laugh from the girls. "We had explored each other quite a few times — in the barn, in remote pastures, that sort of thing. Unfortunately, we picked the wrong day to get naked in that barn because my father came in and caught us — and at a very bad moment, might I add."
She sighed at a memory which clearly still hurt. "It was a very, very bad scene. I don't care whether you're lover is the same sex or a different sex: being caught in the middle of the act by your father and listening to him berate you as you and your lover get dressed while trying to maintain a little bit of dignity... well, I can't think of many worse things to have to endure. He then fetched Bonnie's father so they could both berate us together."
Minerva paused for a moment as she gathered her thoughts. "Our fathers obviously wanted to put an end to what we were doing. They were outraged and ashamed of us. They threatened and ranted. Neither of us were willing to just give in, but they said that they'd send one or both of us away if we didn't stop. To my everlasting shame, I must confess that their constant criticism and yelling started wearing me down. But not my Bonnie, no — it only seemed to fuel her own determination. She remained defiant, no matter what they said."
She flipped through a few pages until she came across a photo of a slightly older Bonnie. Her hands on her hips, she stood there with a determined look on her face, as if daring the viewer to challenge her. "As she started talking back to our fathers, rejecting their assertions, I realized that she was saying things I'd never heard before. Given how we'd always done everything together, I was more than a little shocked. Where were these words and ideas coming from, I wondered? Before long I figured that she had probably been reading a book or books that she hadn't showed me, and that made me a little angry. Did she not trust me? What had she been keeping from me, and why?"
With a finger, Minerva traced the outlines of the photo of Bonnie, causing the figure there to smirk slightly. "Whatever she had been reading, it radicalized her and made her willing to defy our fathers and challenge not only their authority, but the traditions of our tight-knit community. It helped her grow up and mature. Unfortunately, I hadn't been exposed to whatever caused those changes in her, so I wasn't prepared to do any of those things. I didn't want to break up with her, obviously, but I also wasn't ready to toss aside my family and community."
Sighing again, she continued, "I guess it would be fair to say that she had not only matured, but she had a more mature view of our relationship. That she was more serious about it. I, in contrast, was still more immature and naive. I was in love, but I was also having fun. I wasn't thinking long-term — either about our relationship itself or about what such a relationship might mean. Or even about my life generally, to be perfectly honest. Bonnie clearly had been, but she hadn't shared her thoughts with me." Her voice suddenly dropping to a whisper, she then said, "I wish now that she had chosen to confide in me."
Wiping a tear from one eye, Minerva went on, "She didn't seem to notice that I hadn't joined her in what she was saying. Instead, she simply stormed out. I wanted to follow her, but I was ordered by my father to go to my room, and I meekly obeyed. That night, very late, Bonnie came to me in my bedroom. Somehow she had managed to climb up outside the house and crawl in through the window. I've never woken in such a fright! She was there to ask me to run away with her. She had already collected from her house all of the things which mattered most to her and was willing to wait while I did the same."
"What about Hogwarts?" asked Hermione.
Minerva smiled, not surprised that Hermione would be the first to worry about that. "We had already completed fifth year, remember, and had taken our OWLS. We were now qualified witches and could legally leave school. We each had a little money saved up and could go anywhere we wanted — or at least, anywhere our funds could take us."
The tears started to flow a little more freely now, surprising Minerva, who needed to pull out a handkerchief to wipe them away. "I refused. I told her that I couldn't simply abandon my family, my community, and the beliefs I grew up with. I foolishly believed it was possible to keep both them and her. I'll never forget the look of utter devastation on her face when I told her no. She had never doubted that I'd follow her — like I said, we had grown up doing everything together. Where one of us could be found, the other was never far away. I doubt that we had ever been separated by more than a mile or so since birth."
She needed to take a ragged breath before going on. "I broke her heart when I told her no, I could see that plain as day on her face. I tried to make up for it by asking her to wait for me — to give me time. Maybe give us time, maybe finish Hogwarts. She wouldn't do it, though. Unlike me, she knew that our parents wouldn't give us an opportunity to reconnect. She knew that society wouldn't give us a chance. She knew that if we were going to be together, we needed to break from the institutions and traditions that were determined to keep us apart. So she gave me an ultimatum: I had to pick either a new life with her or my old life without her."
Looking back and forth between her students, she said, "I think you can guess which I picked. A part of me has regretted it ever since. It's why I've been so open to helping the two of you, right from that first evening when you told me your secret. I don't want to see you suffer the same fate I did or to make the same mistakes I did."
Sighing, Minerva continued, "I never saw Bonnie again after that night, and I have no idea where she went. For many days after that night I was physically ill, even to the point of being unable to leave bed, and ever since then I've never felt entirely right. Two years later though, when I graduated from Hogwarts, I received a book via owl post. It was the very book I gave you, Miss Granger. Did you bring it with you like I asked?"
Hermione nodded, unable to speak past the lump in her throat. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out the Pureheart book and handed it to Minerva. She opened the front cover and said, "There's an inscription here which I hid, but now that I've told you my story, I think I'll reveal it." With a wave of her wand and a short incantation, a message written in bold, flowing script appeared:
"Because true love will never die, nor will it e'er fade away."
"That's beautiful," whispered Jasmine. Too caught up in her own emotions and memories, Minerva was only able to nod.
"You said you never heard from her again," said Hermione, "but do you know what happened to her?"
With a visible effort, Minerva responded, "A few years later I heard from one of her cousins that she had... died. They wouldn't tell me how or where, so I assumed that something awful had happened to her, or that she had met with violence. I take heart from the inscription, though, and hope she never believed that I ever truly rejected her. But I'll never know for sure..."
With those words, Minerva did finally break down, and her two Gryffindors leaned in to put their arms around her, trying to offer the older witch what comfort and support they could. This was a problem far beyond their young years, though, and they knew it.
Nothing more was said that afternoon. Nothing more could be said, really.
Sunday, January 10, 1995, Night.
As Hermione lay in her bed, she found that sleep wouldn't come. Instead of relaxing, her mind kept turning back to the story that Professor McGonagall had told them earlier that day. Some of the reasons for this were obvious, but one in particular was bothering her: she had come to the realization that she might be repeating the mistakes made by her professor's friend, Bonnie.
Hermione had been devouring the book which Bonnie had sent to Professor McGonagall, who had then gifted it to them. The problem was, she had become so caught up in it that she was neglecting to share it with Jasmine. Instead of the two of them learning from it and growing together, Hermione had isolated part of herself from Jasmine and had been taking that journey on her own.
Now that she realized this, she didn't need her professor's tragic story to see that it was wrong. She needed to make some changes, though she wasn't sure how. Jasmine's schedule was already pretty full, what with classwork and preparations for the second task. I'll just have to start fitting it in in bits and pieces, Hermione concluded, rolling over and trying to make plans for how to fix this.
While Hermione was concentrating on plans and schedules, Jasmine was also thinking about the conversation with Professor McGonagall. She, however, was concentrating on feelings and emotions. Jasmine thought it was pretty clear, even to someone with her lack of experience, that McGonagall at one time loved that other girl and probably still did. This got her thinking about whether she loved Hermione.
Is this love? she wondered as she laid awake. I mean, I'm sure that I love her as a friend, and have for a while. But is it LOVE love? In love? True love?
This would have been a difficult enough issue for anyone her age, but Jasmine had it especially hard. She hadn't grown up with any decent role models for how people should express love or for what love should look like — she didn't even have the examples of television or movie characters to go by, since her relatives had prevented her from ever being able to see very much on television. So while she thought she could recognize it when she saw it, she wasn't truly certain.
And as she had no one she felt comfortable asking about this, she spent a long time thinking about it alone.
Monday, January 11, 1995, Late Morning.
As Jasmine, Hermione, and Neville walked to Care of Magical Creatures, the two girls stopped suddenly as they recognized a magnificent sight down near Hagrid's hut: a unicorn! Hagrid hadn't told anyone what sorts of creatures they'd be working with this term, but clearly unicorns would be featuring prominently. If nothing else, they were at least a significant improvement over those blasted Blast-ended Skrewts!
Every girl oohed and ahhed at the unicorn, which was standing unrestrained near Hagrid's hut. Every boy seemed to know instinctively that they needed to keep their distance. This was confirmed by Hagrid when he finally appeared. "Oh, good, I'm glad to see you fellas are stayin' back. All the male students need to stay at least this far away," he announced, pointing to an area that had been prepared in advance. "The girls can get closer, but only if yer, uh, well, if, uh..."
"Pure?" spoke up Daphne Greengrass, one of the Slytherin fourth years whom Jasmine and Hermione knew slightly from their Runes and Arithmancy classes.
Hagrid reddened and replied, "Uh, yeah, Miss Greengrass, tha's right. Any of you girls who aren't pure should stand back with the fellas."
"I was excited to have the chance to study unicorns," Hermione whispered to Jasmine, "but suddenly I'm not so sure. Is this really something that should be made so public and obvious to everyone? This could be really embarrassing to some girls."
Jasmine understood what Hermione was talking about and could hardly disagree. Looking around, though, she didn't see any of the witches walking away. "You're right," she said to Hermione, "but it doesn't look like it matters much. At least, not with this group."
Daphne, who had been standing much closer than they had realized, piped up suddenly, saying, "Thanks for having the decency to recognize the problem, Granger. I'm glad that none of us are being shamed by having to stand with the boys, but the possibility alone is outrageous. Still, I suppose it's better than the skrewts."
Jasmine and Hermione were Hagrid's friends and never hesitated to defend him, at least until now. They knew that his fondness for dangerous animals didn't mesh well with the responsibilities of a teacher, but it seemed as though even when he picked the gentlest and lightest of creatures, he still managed to create trouble.
"I'm not sure that this is a problem that's easily avoided," suggested Hermione in an attempt to salvage Hagrid's reputation. When Daphne raised a questioning eyebrow, she continued, "Well, unless unicorns are studied by the youngest age groups, there's always a risk that someone will have to step away. And unicorns are probably too advanced for those age groups. Separating people in advance might help, but the rest will know what happened."
Daphne looked more interested now, seeing that Hermione was making good points. "In the end," Hermione concluded, "the problem is people's attitudes towards those who aren't sufficiently 'pure.' That shouldn't be something to be ashamed of. If we tackle that, and shame those who make an issue of it, then this whole problem here is eliminated."
After thinking for a few moments — and recognizing the subtext that involved a purity other than virginity — Daphne responded, "That's a sound argument, Granger, but the chances of changing people's attitudes aren't very good."
"Maybe not," Jasmine conceded, "but people's attitudes do change. It's a fact of life. If we don't work to change them in the way we want, though, we have only ourselves to blame when problems aren't fixed."
Daphne gave them a slight smile and said, "I think there's a lot of naivete in that viewpoint, but that doesn't mean you're wrong. I'll keep it in mind. Good day, Granger, Potter." With that, she walked back to the other Slytherin girls, all of whom looked like they had wanted to listen in, but dared not.
"Well," Jasmine said, "that was an interesting conversation."
"I've worked with her more than you have," Hermione responded. "She can be OK. She's a Slytherin, which means she tends to have a very cynical outlook, at least in my opinion, but she's not a bigot. She always makes a good argument for her ideas and isn't easily intimidated."
Jasmine eyed her girlfriend slyly, then whispered, "Crushing on her, are you?"
"What?" Hermione asked, outraged. "No!"
"Oh, it's all right," Jasmine answered in an understanding tone of voice. "She's pretty. I get it. I can hardly blame you."
Hermione just sputtered until she saw the self-satisfied smirk on Jasmine's face, then her eyes narrowed and she said, "Just you wait, Potter. I'll get you back for that."
As the lesson on unicorns progressed, Jasmine and Hermione got to spend quite a lot of time with the unicorn that had volunteered to be there for the day. Both Gryffindors were able to pet it, brush its hair, and feed it some carrots. Neither of them noticed the tall, blonde veela by the Beauxbatons carriage who was watching their interactions very closely.
Monday, January 11, 1995, Night.
That night, Jasmine was visited in her bed by Hermione, who arrived stealthily and carried a large book.
"What's wrong?" Jasmine asked, sitting up.
Hermione laid the book down between them, and Jasmine recognized it as The Power of Love: Love is Never Dangerous. "What's wrong," Hermione explained, "is that after listening to Professor McGonagall's story, I realized that I might be doing the same thing that her friend Bonnie did. I've been reading this alone instead of reading it with you."
Jasmine just shrugged and said, "I haven't been worried. When preparing for the first task, you usually devoured a dozen books, then provided me with the most relevant spells or information. You read faster than I do and remember more, so it's worked out well."
Hermione nodded before responding, "Yes, and in some situations that does work. But I don't think this is one of them. This isn't a case of me picking a few relevant spells out of hundreds of pages of material that won't help you to accomplish some specific task. This book… this is an entire way of thinking about and looking at magic, at the magical community, at love and relationships, at sex and sexuality, and at being a witch. It's not something that can be summarized...or if it can, the summary would lose the full impact of the original material."
Jasmine looked down, obviously a bit intimidated. "So... you're saying that I have to read the whole thing?"
"Well, not this minute, of course..."
"Thanks awfully," Jasmine interrupted sarcastically.
"...But I think you should start now before I get even further ahead of you. I know that you already have tons to do, so I was thinking about reading a bit in bed, two or three nights a week? I'll sit with you to answer questions, then I can take it back and lock it in my trunk, where I already have good protections for it."
Jasmine sighed deeply and said, "OK, I guess we can do it that way, but can we start tomorrow night instead of now? I'm really knackered."
Hermione looked disappointed but gave in. She had, after all, sprung the idea on Jasmine at the last minute, and her girlfriend had been expecting to go to sleep now. "Alright, we'll start tomorrow night. Just leave yourself a little time." Lunging forward, she gave Jasmine a quick kiss on the lips before grabbing the book back and disappearing out through the bed curtains.
Jasmine shook her head and lay down again, and in a few short minutes she was asleep.