"SPEW isn't the best acronym," Steven said gently. "Why don't you just call it the Elfish Welfare Society...EWS?"
Hermione stared at him for a moment.
"You know Ron will just make fun of the name if you call it SPEW, right? Draco Malfoy will be worse."
Biting her lip, Hermione said, "If I change the name, will you join?"
"I agree with all of your goals," Steven said. "Elves SHOULD have more rights. I'm sure I can get Hagrid and Professor Flitwick to join as well. We've got a...unique perspective on nonhuman rights."
As half-humans, they were all allowed wands and full Wizarding rights, but there were hard liners who wanted to repeal rights even for them. Getting rights for fully non-humans would be a harder sell, as it wasn't just the hard-liners who wanted to see the current system maintained.
"How is Winky doing?"
"She's still depressed, but she's doing better," Steven said. "Peridot is teaching her how to build things and Pearl won't let her have any butterbeer. Apparently it's terribly alcoholic for house-elves. The house-elves here treat her much better than they treat Dobby."
Dobby was still ostracized by the others, although he didn't seem to let it get him down. He was a proud elf, and he was happy about his freedom. The fact that he didn't seem to be ashamed at all distressed the other elves and made them avoid him.
"You still won't give her clothes," Hermione said disapprovingly.
"All she has to do is ask," Steven said. He hesitated. "She seems to think it's a threat instead of a promise though, so I try not to bring it up much."
Hermione stared at him for a moment, then smiled. She patted him on the hand. "You're a good person, Steven Universe."
If her hand stayed atop his longer than normal, neither of them noticed.
It was supposed to be an unforgivable curse. Yet somehow Professor Moody had justified using it on Steven's classmates and nobody had objected.
Whether it was because Moody intimidated most of the Hufflepuffs or because of his admonitions that knowing how to resist the curse might save them in the long run, Steven didn't see anyone complaining.
They danced and sang silly songs and did all sorts of things that they would never do, and not one of them resisted for an instant.
Moody was going by alphabetical order, so he was the last in his class to step up and volunteer to have his mind taken over.
When Moody pointed his wand and spoke the incantation, Steven realized that it wasn't anything like giving up his will during fusion.
He'd never been able to completely vanish into a fusion like Sapphire and Ruby or the others. His mind had always partially been there, as though he was holding himself back. It might have been because he wasn't fully a gem, or because his partner wasn't a gem at all.
It might simply be that he'd never stayed fused long enough for both sides to vanish into each other.
Possibly it was that he'd always valued Connie so much that he'd never wanted her to disappear, even into him.
This was different. It felt good; he felt like he was floating and all of his troubles were melting away. The pain of leaving his father and Connie behind, his worries about Garnet, Ruby and Sapphire, his fears that he wouldn't be able to protect his new friends or live up to the Gems expectations that he'd match his mother...none of it seemed to matter.
He heard Moody's voice telling him to dance over and over.
He actually liked to dance; next to singing it was one of his favorite things. But thinking about dancing made him think about Connie, and her shyness and fear of dancing in front of people. It made him feel sad, and he could feel the pleasant feeling washing away already.
Moody shouted the command. "Dance!"
He could feel the pressure of the command, but it was muted and he didn't feel like doing it at all. Instead he simply shook his head as though to wash out the cobwebs and he turned and headed back for his desk.
"Handy, that," Moody said quietly. He was looking at Steven with an odd and not entirely friendly look in his eye. "Magic just sloughs off you. If you've got an advantage like that, you should use it."
It wasn't completely true. Magic affected him; it just didn't affect him as strongly as it affected everyone else. Some of it was an act of will.
The thought that Moody would have been more complimentary if he'd been fully human came as the all the worries that had vanished when the spell hit returned all at once. Steven's thoughts were black for the rest of the period. Fortunately that wasn't much longer.
The other schools certainly knew how to make an entrance.
The gigantic flying horse drawn carriage didn't have to be the size that it was; given Wizarding tents they could have easily arrived in a normal sized carriage and emerged like clowns from a clown car. Instead the whole production was designed to impress.
Hermione glanced at Steven. He seemed to love the drama.
He wasn't the only one. All of the boys seemed entranced as the girls from the other school made a huge production of their arrival. One girl in particular seemed to draw the eye of every male in the the Great Hall and Hermione forced herself not to scowl.
Boys were too impressed by superficial things. After her experience with Lockhart during her second year she'd learned that physical beauty wasn't very important. Lockhart had been...impressively attractive and she had to admit that her objectivity had been compromised when he was around.
Still, she'd learned her lesson two years ago and she would have thought that the boys would have picked up at least something in the past two years.
At least Steven didn't seem enthralled. She glanced at him. He loved the spectacle, but he was watching the coach and the extraordinarily tall Headmistress and the dance moves. He wasn't drooling over one girl like everybody else.
"Look," Steven said. He pointed toward the lake excitedly.
The ship rising up from the depths was, if anything more impressive than the coach had been. Hermione took a moment to wonder how it had arrived if it wasn't by apparition. Hogwarts was supposed to be warded against that kind of thing.
Maybe part of the lake stretched out past the wards, much like Amethyst's and Pearl's underground temple.
She'd been surprised how much she liked Steven's newest aunt. Pearl actually knew what a work ethic was and she knew the importance of learning. As an astronomy teacher she was a revelation.
It was one thing to hear about what ancient astronomers in Egypt had thought; it was entirely another to meet someone who had actually been there and talked to them up close.
If Pearl had been a little cool and distant toward her, Hermione could understand. In her mind she'd been gone for an instant and suddenly Steven had a new set of friends. Steven had told her that she had always been the one least interested in humans anyway.
She'd bonded with Steven's friend Connie, but that had taken a lot of work and sword lessons.
Hermione blinked. Harry and Ron seemed excited about one of the boys emerging from the ship. It was Victor Krum, the professional Quidditch player.
Hermione forced herself not to sigh. She'd be lucky to get any work out of either of them for the entire year. All either of them could think of was Quidditch.
Steven liked it too, but he at least seemed to have a remarkably rounded lifestyle. He played Quidditch, but he also played in a band. He studied and he spent a lot of time with pretty much everyone. Hermione thought she'd even seem Steven petting Mrs. Norris once, under the distrustful gaze of an impatient Mr. Filch.
Maybe the TriWizard tournament would give them something to think about other than sports for once.
"Anyone interested in becoming champion will have twenty four hours to put their name on a piece of paper and put it into the cup," Dumbledore said. "At the end of that time the cup will determine who is the most worthy to participate."
"You should put your name in," Cedric Diggory said.
Dumbledore was talking about the precautions against underage wizards trying to apply.
Steven blinked. "I'm only a fourth year."
"You beat a troll with a door and you killed a basilisk in front of the whole school. What better champion could the school have?"
"I had help with the basilisk," Steven said dryly. "And I'm sure the challenges will require all sorts of spells that I haven't learned about yet."
"If you can't handle it, the goblet won't pick you," Cedric said. "I'm going to apply."
"Then why would you be asking me to put my name in?" Steven asked.
Cedric smiled. "I don't want to make it if I'm not the best candidate. If I am, I'll be proud to serve even if it's dangerous."
Steven frowned. The thought of putting his name in the Goblet had never occurred to him, but now that it had, it was curiously alluring.
What if he really was the best candidate? Dumbledore was even now talking about how dangerous the tournament was.
Would he be able to live with himself if someone else was chosen because he didn't apply and they died?
He was a lot more durable than an ordinary human. As far back as when they were fighting whatever monster it had been that had possessed his breakfast, he'd fallen fifteen feet onto his head and it hadn't bothered him at all.
A fall from a similar height had given Neville a broken arm. If he'd fallen on his head he might have died. Even with accidental magic making Wizards a little more durable than Muggles, they weren't nearly as durable as he was.
Plus, it might be fun. It might be a pleasant change from helping Harry survive all the assassination attempts that seemed to crop up on a yearly basis.
"We can apply together," Cedric said. He smiled widely.
"I'll think about it," Steven said.