Sunlight poured through the open window and Hermione stretched with a yawn, thrilled that she was still in the small dormitory, in a futon opposite a girl curled up with a fat grey cat. She rose and looked out the window, forest and cleared trails stretched out below her, an almost emerald sheen cast on the ground from the sunlight. She craned her neck to gaze into the ocean far below them, sparkling a radiant blue in the pink and orange sunrise. She had to get dressed, but she wanted to stare out into the picturesque scene below her.
It was all real! Muggle Tokyo, meeting Yamato Minako, being collected by the headmaster himself, the nauseating flight on the back of a massive storm petrel, Sayaika, everything! She could barely contain herself as she looked around her. She would be meeting Hiro and Kaori! Her heart thudded in her chest, not for the first time since her arrival, but this time it wasn't nerves. She was elated!
"Ohayo!" Saiyaka greeted her, smiling as she put her glasses on. "Looking forward to classes?"
Hermione nodded with a smile. The girls got dressed into their pale pink robes, and grabbed their bags before heading down to breakfast together.
"We have transfiguration first," Sayaika explained as they wound through the ornate corridors to the meal hall. "Then we have Magical History, DADA, then we have Yokai Studies before lunch."
"Y-Yokai Studies," Hermione whispered. "We didn't have anything like that in Britain..."
"It's okay," Saiyaka adjusted her glassed with a nervous laugh."Think of it like Care for Magical Creatures, but instead with intelligent spirits."
"Erm, Saiyaka?" Hermione swallowed. She read through Yamato-sama's letter several times, but she was drawing a blank on the new subjects. She remembered there were many, and that they took 7 classes in summer term and 7 classes in winter term. Third year on, they add up to 6 electives, and mandatory club involvement kicks in (as a July Program Student, Hermione had to join them right away). "When do you guys start Care for Magical Creatures? We don't till third year."
"First boarding year," she explained. "Once we board we take fourteen subjects, and we narrow it down as we progress in years. Either by choice or by failing out. It's quite a to-do, but I want to do all fourteen plus all offered electives till seventh boarding year, then I'll have what I need no matter what I choose for my training years."
That was something Hermione would do, she felt like Saiyaka would be a good friend by the month's end.
"You would do that, wouldn't you?" a boy's voice groaned.
"Matou-san!" Saiyaka squeaked. "Sorry! I'll get out of your way."
Matou was a tall boy about their age with neat black hair, pale skin and hateful black eyes wearing pristine pink robes and a sneer that curdled Hermione's blood. Did every bloody school have a Draco Malfoy?
"Who are you?" he turned his gaze to Hermione. "Are you the July-exchange student for our year?"
Hermione nodded shrinking beneath his gaze as a rather pretty girl looking quite a bit like him came up to his side. Twins?
"Shiro!" she whined clinging to his arm. Not his twin.
Of course someone like that would look for someone who looked just like him. "Rie-chan, meet the July student for our year."
"Oh?" she laughed. "Of course the muggle-lover would pair her with Okasha. You're new and don't know anything yet, but there is a reason Okasha has no friends. Even for a-"
Hermione was about ready to speak when a cold female voice snapped from behind them. "Don't you idiots have somewhere to be?"
"Yes, Yamato-san," they grumbled before stalking off into the distance.
Hermione turned to see a tall, younger echo of Yamato Minako. This was Kaori, standing before them, with an air of unwavering confidence. Kaori had the same sweet, pale heart shaped face as her mother, dark brown eyes fringed with long lashes, her long black hair trailed past her waist with her forelocks tied behind her head with a red bow, she was slender, but didn't look weak, the gold-trim on her pink robes told Hermione she performed very well, and the only thing that seemed to remotely register as a flaw to Hermione was a single pronounced canine tooth that was revealed when she smiled. And even that Hermione found cute. Hiro was right to be intimidated by his sister, she seemed so perfect. I'm hopeless!
"Hermione-chan?" she asked with a smile. "I know you've seen my picture, but we haven't met. I'm Kaori. Hiro will be waiting for us at breakfast. He wouldn't shut up all week about you coming!"
"Thank you, Senpai," Sayaika bowed to her.
"You need to start standing up for yourself, Saiyaka-kun! Top of your year and you're just letting Matou Shiro push you around!"
The three girls made their way over to the dinning hall, where they came upon a very long table where both students and faculty sat, there must have been close to two hundred people all told at the table and Hermione didn't know how they navigated conversations over meals with so much noise, so close. A boy with messy black hair waved the three of them over. Hermione knew who waved them over in an instant when she saw his pale olive skin, round face and smiling hazel eyes, the boy was Hiro.
"Hermi-chan!" Hiro beamed as Hermione sat beside him.
Kaori took a cushion between him and a girl with short black hair tied who greeted her with a wide smile.
"Miyuki-chan, this is Hermione!" Kaori introduced.
"Hi!" she waved. "I'm Hitoromi Miyuki!"
Sayaika sat on Hermione's other side, but didn't engage Hiro, Kaori or Miyuki.
"Oh, Hermi-chan," Hiro said pointing across from him.
Two boys, one a petite Japanese boy with black hair and eyes behind square glasses, and the other an average height dark-skinned boy with cropped dark brown hair and brown eyes and a sea of freckles. They smiled and nodded at her.
"This is Mitzubitshi Toshio," Hiro introduced. "And Johnson Samuel, he's the July student for our year."
"You can call me Sam," he smiled.
"American?" Hermione ventured by his accent.
"Sorry, Canadian. Prince Edward Island to be specific," he corrected with a shrug. "You're British, right?"
"Oh, erm, sorry," Hermione bowed in apology. "Yeah, grew up in Scotland, but I know I have my Dad's accent. English of some kind."
"You don't know where your father grew up?" Hiro asked.
"He never talks about his past," Hermione shrugged feeling rather put on the spot and regretting her honesty. "Erm, Hiro-kun, how's your past week been?"
Like Kaori, Hiro had a pronounced canine that added a mischievous flair to his smile, under his untidy black hair, his hazel eyes shone as he described the most recent exploits of the Mahoukatoro Mercury the student run news paper, he, Kaori, Miyuki, Sam and Toshio all worked on. The socially awkward boy in Hiro's letters revealed himself from time to time during the meal, but it seemed his struggles after joining the school paper mostly vanished. She didn't mind it though, this Hiro seemed so much more at ease with himself, and still as kind and funny.
She wondered how Hiro could have ever struggled to make friends. Hermione found herself unable to break her focus, enraptured in every word, even more so than she had been by his letters. And his voice, she could listen to him speak all day, and judging by Sam and Toshio, Hermione was not the only one taken by his presence.
The food was infinitely better than the Hogwarts breakfasts, instead of focusing on eggs and bacon, she had steamed rice, an assortment of pickled vegetables and seaweed and a small bowl of honey dew. Though looking at the small dishes assorted in front of her and the others she felt bad for the house-elves who did the dishes.
Melodic chimes rang through the hall and Hermione rose with the rest of them after another 'thanks for the food'. Sayaika bowed and promised to meet her in their dorm, and Hiro excitedly took to the task of showing her around the school.
After corridors of classrooms and a co-ed common room, Hiro led her to an expansive garden that seemed to break the laws of physics bathed in golden sunlight. Sakura blooms opened, despite the season, on their towering trees like fluffy pink clouds in the crisp blue sky, a stone path lined with red lantern houses every few meters wound around the garden, a red bridge arched over a stream, and coy pond, willows in full bloom blew in the breeze and at the treeline Hermione spied another red structure with a pointed brown roof by the tree line with on a stone platform that she recognized as a shrine.
"This," she breathed trying to conjure the words in Japanese. "Is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
Hiro smiled with a laugh. "This is one of four gardens on the edge of the forest, we have one for each cardinal direction. South is the smallest, but my favourite. Y-you said in one of your letters you wanted to see cherry blossoms in person, so I wanted to show you the one where we've planted the most."
"B-but I wrote that letter a year ago," Hermione gasped. "I can't believe you remembered!"
Hiro's face flushed the colour of the blossoms they stood under and Hermione felt her own cheeks burn. She expected the delusion that he might like her to fade away once he saw her, but he had remembered every word she wrote, and she remembered his too. The two stood opposite each other in an awkward silence that Hermione was sure could only be achieved by a nearly twelve-year-old girl with a hopeless crush on a thirteen-year-old boy she barely knew. And the recipient of said crush. Ugh! I'm hopeless! I don't want to be that girl!
"Have you thought about which clubs you'll join, Hermi-chan?" he asked leading her down the path. "You have to do two outside of Culture Club."
"Erm," Hermione turned her attention to the circling coy in the water beneath her, leaning over the rail of the bridge. "I was, erm, hoping to join the Mercury. I'm fascinated by journalism and like writing...what clubs are there?"
"The Mercury would love to have you!" Hiro smiled joining her on the rail. "There's also the student council, but I think you have to be a year-round student, non-human welfare society, Junior Librarians, Go club, Literature club, board game club, each school subject has its own club, then there's sports; archery, kendo, dueling and Quidditch."
"Ha!" Hermione held out her scrawny arms. "I'm definitely not joining a sport! I think I'll do the paper and Non-Human Welfare Society."
"That sounds great!" Hiro exclaimed. "Mercury meets Monday, Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, I think Non-human Welfare Society meets Saturday mornings before classes and Wednesdays at lunch, and then Culture Club is Thursday afternoons. What're your eight summer-term subjects?"
Hermione showed Hiro her time- table, the two compared their schedules and found they were out of classes at the same time and on the same floor. That was great, they would meet up and he could show her where the team met up. "I have to go grab my things for first class, but I'll see you at lunch!" Hermione waved and she was certain nothing would wipe the foolish grin off her face this month.
Hermione performed well enough in her classes, though the fields she had no practice in, she didn't perform to her satisfaction. The professors all seemed kind, save the shrewd Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Kaname-Sensei, who perhaps had seen too many hexes and curses in practice. A short fat man, but in demeanour was incredibly like her father. She'd leave that out of her reports, she decided. Yokai Studies might have been Hermione's new favourite subject, and was Saiyaka's favourite, if it wasn't also taught by Kaname.
Being foreign bought her some lee-way, that she didn't want, from the professors (save Kaname, so she had to give him that) but ire from some of the students. A few older students acted as if the concept of having one July gaijin-student second year up was tad amount to an invasion. Though most just made cracks about British stereotypes. Matou Shiro and Inuyama Rie among the worst in short time. She had heard "You're British so you won't understand..." so many times in that first day that by lunch she wanted to scream.
What was worse was the general dislike for poor Saiyaka. A number of students even warning Hermione to be careful around her, with no context other than sly smiles. Some called her ugly, she was more plain-looking than anything, if not on the cute side, so it was clearly to shake her up, some made fun of her coming from Okinawa, and a select few, including Matou Shiro, made harassing comments directed at her Muggle parentage. Every time Hermione opened her mouth to shut them u, Saiyaka would take her by the shoulders and shake her head furiously.
"I'm the only muggle-born in our year," Saiyaka explained as they dropped their bags off after classes. "We're a very small school, so anything different is not taken well. But at least I get to see Matou Shiro's stupid face every time he's second to me in grades! That makes all the crap worth it!"
Hermione didn't doubt seeing that little idiot's face when he was bested by a plain little muggle born of all people was anything less than delicious. But she did doubt anything could make Saiyaka's troubles worth it. Hermione couldn't relate point-for-point with her, but she had been through similar treatment over her origins and appearance. Nothing made it worth it, and Sayaika's treatment seemed worse. It seemed Saiyaka didn't even have friends to lean on, unless her fat cat Momo counted.
"Erm, Sayaika," she asked. "I'm going to check out the Mercury, I have to join two clubs, and I like that one...erm, do you want to check it out with me?"
"Thanks, Hermione," she said quietly. "But I have so much homework, and I'm already on the Non-Human Welfare Society which takes quite a bit of time, and Juniour Librarians."
"Okay," Hermione smiled before bowing. "I'll see you later!"
Hermione walked to the library with Kaori and Miyuki on either side of her, smiling and describing their plans for the week. She found out that both Kaori and Miyuki were on the student council, and judging by the reception of passers-by, both girls seemed to be quite popular, Kaori was both the seeker and captain for the girls' Quidditch team, and headed the girls' kendo club. She was reminded again of how little she was involved in her own school back home during some of the conversations.
The library was smaller than Hogwarts's, but it felt cozy with massive windows letting the afternoon bathe the towering book shelves that extended to the mezzanine above them. A pattern which continued up three floors. Above her the vaulted ceiling boasted an intricate mural of scenes from the island, forest, sea, the castle, the gardens, and various floating orbs and creatures danced across them. Hermione felt a little dumb being awestruck by a library, but it was hit her with a mix of nostalgia from the smell of old books, and novelty as she was faced with thousands of books she had never seen in a wholly new environment.
"The room we booked for the club is on the fourth floor," Kaori explained.
"You'll love it," Miyuki nodded. "We have a magic printing press and complete access to the archives!"
"Complete access to the archives?!" Hermione had to stop herself from squealing.
"Shh!" shushed a spectral form in a kimono, and Hermione knew right away that the ghost of a young Kamakura-period woman was the librarian.
Another room that seemed to defy physics. The Mercury held meetings in a very large room lined with seemingly endless shelves of scrolls and hard-bound books, as promised a magic printing press sat in a corner with stacks of paper sitting on the table beside it. Hiro, Sam and Toshio sat together at a long table scouring over photographs before acknowledging the girls.
"Toshio's got the photographs for next week's issue," Hiro explained after they sat around the table.
Hermione leaned over to see photographs from different club meetings and team practices, all of them looking as if the club members had no clue they were being taken. They all seemed engrossed in the task at hand, perhaps their eyes would have betrayed some knowledge of Toshio, but they were respectfully covered with a long black bar. Perhaps seeing the expression on Hermione's face, Toshio explained that he retro-actively got permission from the photos' subjects, but the bar was expected for mass-circulated photos unless otherwise expressed.
"These are good, Toshio-kun," Kaori smiled. "I'll set to work on the layout. Miyuki-chan, do you have that article on the Ministry's decision to open a magical school for permanently blind and deaf children?"
"Right here!" Miyuki held out a paper scroll, beaming. "I also have the piece on the library bandit!"
"Library bandit?" Hermione asked.
"A book goes missing once a month," Hiro explained dramatically. "It goes like this: a seventh-boarding-year student will go to sign out a book for secondary completion papers and it will be missing. Not signed out, but missing. There doesn't seem to be anything in common but that their in their last year before they specialize! We've been interviewing loads of people with no luck. I suspect someone in the Junior Library club, but they all have alibis."
"Not much happens here," Miyuki explained. "So the Library Bandit is naturally front page news."
"Even though it shouldn't be," Kaori reprimanded. "This is just feeding the ego of whoever's doing it. We stop reporting on it and maybe they'll stop!"
"Oh, come on, Kaori-chan!" Miyuki pouted. "Hiro and I interviewed the librarian, the victim and five Junior Librarians! Let our hard work see the light of day!"
"So you've got my little brother in on it as well then?" Kaori sighed. "We'll have to report on it anyway, Watari Senpai and Anya will side with you."
"Fighting about the Bandit again?" a bubbly petite blond girl of fifteen or so skipped into the room. A German accent shining through her otherwise flawless Japanese.
"Anya-san!" Kaori greeted her with a smile.
"Not going to reprimand her for being late?" Hiro said. "Oh, Hermi-chan, this is Larsen Anya, fifth-year's July student. And that's Wateri Yosuke Senpai our editor."
Anya was followed by yet another person, this time a boy of about sixteen who stood at about average hieght of his age with dark brown hair, brown eyes and tanned olive skin. If Hermione had been asked to picture at random a Japanese teenaged boy, Watari Yosuke would have been what she pictured. He smiled and bowed in greeting to the group, which they met with the same greeting.
Once introductions were made, the group set to work. Hermione watched as Kaori and Yosuke debated on lay-outs, arranging and re-arranging them. Hiro provided a cartoon of cabinet members pressuring the Minister to do the right thing, which was paired with Miyuki's first story, and a three panel comic strip accompanied her article on the Library Bandit. Articles about club meetings, the most recent Quidditch match were provided by Toshio, Sam, Hiro and Miyuki. Kaori provided Yosuke with two advice columns, Anya presented an article on upcoming Summer Festivals in Wizarding Japan, and the week's horoscopes.
By the time they were done, it was supper and they would had the issue ready to print.
"Assignments!" Yosuke called before they left. "Anya, horoscopes and the School Summer Festival, Miyuki and Hiro I like the work on the Bandit, keep it up. Just also provide an article following the opening of a separate school for blind and deaf children, Toshio, you and Sam should cover the boys' Kendo Club and it's Hermione, right? I want you with Anya on the horoscopes and the School Summer Festival."
First day, and she was only there for a month, it was dumb to hope she'd be given something like the Library Bandit, or even be trusted as an outsider to accurately capture what was going on in their ministry by navigating third party accounts. However, she had hoped for something more exciting than horoscopes and festivals...No, you'll make the best of this! You'll be attending a Mahoukatoro Summer Festival. You've read about how incredible those are!
After supper Hermione immediately went to the dorm she shared with Saiyaka, who was bent over a massive volume and furiously scribbling something down. They greeted each other and Hermione set to work she wrote a passage to her father that read along the lines of "everything's brill! Love it here, alive, here are some specifics so you don't harass me. How are you?" and four letters addressed to Fred, George, Ron and Harry. Once she had detailed outlines for each class's workload, and finished her charms homework and read through her Yokai Studies text book until she felt she could no longer keep her eyes open.
The first week passed and Hermione felt both incredibly privileged and swamped at the same time. She spent a great deal of time in the library brushing up on her new subjects, quizzing herself until she was satisfied, and then the three clubs. She loved working with the paper, even if she and Anya made up horoscopes based on archaic information from Astrology for beginners, she loved listening to Hiro and Miyuki describe in detail their interviews and leads in the Library Bandit Case, which now were pinned on a cork board with red string, and watching the paper come together. She had wished Non-Human Welfare Society had been the same, but it wound up being Saiyaka by herself in a very small study room off the library.
"The president of the club graduated last year and Watari-Senpai quit in April," Saiyaka squeaked looking down at her issue of Ohayo! Nihon Mahou. "It's just me now. So not much more than research gets done. Sorry..."
"I-I-" Hermione stammered. "It's okay, I'm still interested. What're you researching now?"
"A Kappa off of Kyoto was killed by a wizard after attacking a worker for a company that polluted the river he lived in," she explained, eyes still on the article. "No charges were made. There's also a werewolf in Osaka that has been sentenced to life in prison. She was found guilty and is the single mother of a toddler, who she'll never see again. The woman didn't even get a trial."
"Shit," Hermione breathed sitting across from her. "That's a horrific miscarriage of justice!"
"Not many would think like us..." Saiyaka sighed. "Did you know that our food and basic maintenance is performed by unpaid house elves? It's like if you're not human you're life doesn't matter! Yet we still put cucumbers and tofu on shrines for Yokai..."
That meeting ended in a grim silence, both wishing they had more students to undersign an appeal for poor woman from Osaka.
Culture Club seemed to be an excuse to lump all the secondary-level July-students together, there were no Japanese save the Care for Magical Creatures professor, Haruno-sama, an short older woman with white hair and paper thin skin that hunched over a cane. She noticed that with the exception of Anya, all the other students hailed from English speaking schools. Canada, Sam, the United States, a tired looking boy of fourteen, New Zealand, an attractive sixteen-year-old boy with a permanent smile, South Africa, a tall, gangily boy that reminded her of Percy of seventeen and herself from Britain. Other than Sam and Anya, Hermione didn't really form an opinion one way or another on any of her program peers.
Any time not spent in study or at clubs that week, she used to gain her bearings with Hiro in part showing her around, and in part exposing the school's secrets to her. Did every school have secret passages and forbidden rooms? One evening after supper Hermione followed Hiro and Toshio up to their dorm with Sam to hang out without the crowds in the gardens or common rooms.
"Mochi is so big now!" Hermione played scratched behind the purring calico in her lap. "She's what, a year-old now?"
"Yeah," Hiro smiled sitting beside her on the futon. "She's a sweet kitty. I'd take her over a raven any day!"
"So," Sam ventured, he and Toshio sitting together on the opposite futon. "You and Miyuki got any new leads on the Library Bandit?"
Hiro mused for a bit before presenting a stack of papers from his bag. "Seventh year boarders draw up an annotated bibliography in May of the major books they'll use for research," he then dropped his voice to a whisper. "I may have swiped this from my grandfather's office...Don't worry, Hermi-chan, I'm copying them tonight so we have what we need but can return them tomorrow morning."
Hermione blushed furiously at this. Had she been so obvious that she was worried? How she envied Hiro's easy smile, had Hermione pulled the same trick with her father she would simply be in pieces, but Hiro seemed to care more about doing what was right than what ever his grandfather might have to do or say about it. Even worse, his grandfather was the headmaster, making the consequences greater than what Hermione would face in the same position. "Erm, you're not, erm, worried?"
"Terrified," he whispered and the nervous boy from Hiro's letters returned. "But, erm, I, erm-catching the Library Bandit...It's..."
"Catching the Library Bandit, is probably the most exciting thing any of us will get to do," Toshio explained. "And for Hiro-kun, the paper is really the only thing he has. Sure, his sister runs it, and Miyuki-san is helping, but this case, if he solves it-"
"It'll be because of us, not because my sister is perfect or because my grandfather is headmaster," Hiro finished looking down at his feet.
Hermione understood that desire all too well. She spent eleven years tied to her father with no true identity of her own or achievements, when she started school any success was undercut by growing up in the school, and the one thing she did to help actually people...She was convinced she was incidental. Hermione even wondered if she was actually clever enough to solve her father's puzzle on her own, or if it was just another lucky occurrence from being raised by him.
"Hiro-kun," she placed her hand on his and smiled. "You've got this. I know you do, but if there's anyway I can help...I want to."
"Hermione," Sam interjected. "As another international student, I should let you know, that consequences for rule breaking are much worse. You can be kicked from the program."
"I know," Hermione sighed. "But this is important. It's not life or death, but...let's just say I might have an idea of where Hiro-kun's coming from," she turned to Hiro and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. "If this is important to you, this is important to me. But I also understand if accepting help...it's hard to need people when you doubt your own abilities...but I am totally together with you on whatever you want!"
"Hermi-chan..." Hiro gasped. "I couldn't ask you to..."
"I want to," she asserted.
"You idiots realize she can help without direct rule breaking, right?" Toshio scoffed pushing up his glasses. "Give her the paper trail. We get a pair of fresh eyes on evidence, and she doesn't have to break a single rule."
You couldn't think of something that simple? Your father's right, you are a little idiot... "Arigato, Toshio-san," Hermione bowed her head and took the chronicled interviews and bibliographies.
"Is it true all Brits have teeth like that?" Matou asked with a sneer during Divination (Hermione's least favourite subject by far).
"No, Matou-san," Hermione sighed picking up her bamboo rods. "I'm just exceptionally ugly, and I've heard it all before so you can spare your breath."
"Hermi-chan," Saiyaka whispered from opposite her. "You'll make it worse."
"I doubt it," Hermione sighed. "What do your rods tell you, Sayia-chan?"
A week living together and Saiyaka and Hermione were now studying together and even hanging out outside of NHWS club on occasion, and spending most of their nights chatting away their worries. Hermione was never confident with where she stood in people's opinion, but Hermione felt secure in their friendship, and she was they only person the nervous girl spoke to, and the only one with a shortened name.
"That bamboo makes better forests than divining tools?" she laughed meekly.
The girls broke into giggles over that to a shush from the old short mustachioed man Tosaka-Sensei.
Inuyama Rie rolled her eyes. "We had to share a table with you. Okinawan Mudblood and a Limey."
Saiyaka's eyes cast down at her rods and she squirmed in her seat.
"Intend to marry your cousin to keep your bloodline pure, then?" Hermione hissed.
"So our little mudblood has a defender now?!" she yelled.
"Language, Inuyama!" the old man called.
Hermione joined Saiyaka in the nervous squirming as Inuyama Rie glared daggers at them. Hermione had once compared her mentally to Pansy Parkinson, but this girl was much smarter, and more conniving.
"Hermi-chan?" Saiyaka said as they left the class meekly.
"Yeah?"
"You're not you know," she played with one of her braided pigtails.
"Not what?"
"Exceptionally ugly," said Saiyaka.
"I think you need a new prescription," Hermione laughed. "You don't have to pretend-"
"I'm not just being nice," Saiyaka adjusted her glasses. "And my glasses are fine. I just, erm, think you should know that, y'know. And the teeth and curly hair are, erm, kind of cute."
"You're sweet, Saiya-chan," Hermione sighed. "Though I wish you could see that about yourself. You know you're adorable, right?"
Saiyaka adjusted her glasses and fiddled with her braids staring at the ground. Hermione's attempts to comfort her friend turned very awkward. She was adorable, but maybe Saiyaka thought Hermione was either awkwardly paying a compliment back, making the chances of her taking it seriously, or she thought Hermione liked her...which would make their new found friendship very awkward...
Shit, Hermione, you are such an idiot! No! You can't blame growing up with no peers! You had a whole damn year with kids your own age! Ugh! Why don't I know better yet?!
"There's, erm, something I have to do!" Saiyaka bowed. "Sorry! I'll meet you tonight!"
I am terrible at people!
Hermione spent that night after homework, which she did in the co-ed common room to give Saiyaka space, with Hiro and Miyuki in the Mercury combing over the Library Bandit paper trail.
"There's twenty-one seventh-boarding-year students, right?" Hermione asked. "It looks like the four targeted have one thing in common. They're writing on the relationships between Non-Humans and humans in the magical community," Hermione's stomach churned on two topics. "Uses of House-Elves for the Modern Wizard in Japan and Abroad. An Argument for a Public Registry of Were-Wolves. This is disgusting!"
"Don't British wizards use house-elves too?" Hiro asked. "I don't think it's right either, but you look disturbed..."
"I just thought my culture was sufficiently backwards...or hoped so at least," she sighed.
"I see," he said.
"Wait!" Miyuki cried looking quite pale. "Who do we know that's involved in the junior librarians and hates the current treatment of Non-Humans in the magical community?"
"No," Hermione breathed barely above a whisper.
"Okasha Saiyaka?" Hiro asked. "Miyuki-san-"
"Saiya-chan's too nervous to pull something like that off," Hermione said, once again digging her nails into her hands. This can't be happening again!
"Aren't you two dorm-mates?" Miyuki asked. "Any chance you can keep an eye on her for us?"
Hermione involuntarily gripped her hands tighter. Sure, no one was accusing Saiyaka of being a death eater, but Hermione felt as if the investigation of her father was happening all over again. It wasn't even remotely as serious, but she couldn't stop the panic rising in her chest. She was, from what it appeared to be, Sayaika's only friend and no she had to spy on her? Or if she had any desire to keep her friendship with Hiro and Miyuki she had to.
"If you're not comfortable with it," Hiro said quickly. "You don't have to."
What?! This case meant so much to Hiro, did he mean it? She stared at the list of proposals and bibliographies. Maybe there was something missing. Something that she missed.
"Hermione-chan?" Miyuki said. "Are you okay?"
"If the pattern persists," Hermione said looking at the sign-out history beside the proposals. "the next book to disappear should be Ningyo Psychology and it'll be Natsume Kikyo looking to sign it out. All we need to do is figure out when she intends to sign it out and stake-out the night before." And Saiyaka never has to know...
"I'll see if I can overhear her tell her friends anything," Miyuki said. "A stake-out! Ah! This is so cool! I feel like a real investigative reporter!"
"Me too!" Hiro beamed. "Thank you, Hermione."
"Actually," Hermione said. "There's one more thing you guys might be able to do."
Saiyaka was all too eager to forget the awkward exchange in the morning by the time Hermione got back from their meeting and things seemed normal again. Which given both girls' inexperience with other human-beings, was still often silent and Hermione wishing she knew what Sayaika was thinking as she poured herself into her homework.
The week past with no new developments from Miyuki on when the Natsume girl would sign out her book, Hermione even joined the junior librarians to keep an eye out. Though she had been so busy re-shelving newly returned books that she barely got a sense of the character of her fellow junior librarians. The only new information she got was that House-elves were responsible for books left on tables and new arrivals. She thought to ask one of them if they'd seen anything funny, but she didn't want to let on why she joined the club.
She knew she only had two weeks left, so she wanted to make the most of her time on Hiro's case, but she also wanted to leave feeling like Saiyaka would have someone to turn to. She'd hoped her plan would achieve both, but didn't hold out hope. Saiyaka was invisible to Hiro and his friends, so she hoped the best witch of her year could provide some insights that would earn her a shot.
"Hermi-chan!" Sayakia took off her glasses and furiously rubbed at the lenses with a pink cloth. She was still surprised at the number of people at the NHWS meeting this week.
"Hi, Saiya-chan," she smiled and waved. "I've brought new memebers! This is-"
"I know who they are," she hissed.
"Saiyaka, we didn't..." Hiro gulped. "It was a long time ago..."
Wait, do you two have a history?
Saiyaka stared at Hermione, her eyes wide and face drained. "Tell me you didn't know all along...that comment after divination..."
"Saiya-chan..." Hermione backed away. "I don't know what you're talking about..."
Miyuki sighed. "Saiyaka, Hiro and I used to be close friends..."
"Really?" Hermione bit her lip. "But why-"
"It's hard, y'know," Saiyaka said, shaking. "To find wizards that don't care about being muggle-born, or Okinawan, but I did, in Hiro and Miyuki. But that didn't last..."
Saiyaka pressed her lips together in a hard line tears pooled in her dark brown eyes, threatening to brim over, her hands were balled into white knuckled fists at her side. Saiyaka was angry. Fourteen days was barley anytime to get a read on a character, but judging by the others' shock, this was not something that anyone expected of the unassuming shy girl who simply took racial slurs without protest.
"I'm so so sorry, Saiya-chan," Hermione said. "I didn't-I wasn't-I-I-"
"I told them not to tell you, Hermione," Miyuki admitted. "When you invited us here to join the club, I thought it was time to...Saiya-chan, it's been two years!"
"You told!" cried Saiyaka.
Hermione was shocked to see Miyuki and Hiro hit their knees and press their forehead to the ground. A full bow of apology, and Saiyaka's tears rolled down her cheeks. What the hell did Hermione unwittingly set up? This, whatever it was, seemed deeply personal, like something that she, Sam and Toshio should not have been there to witness.
"I'm so sorry, Saiyaka-san!" she trembled.
"We're both sorry," Hiro repeated. "We were stupid. But we want to stop you before you get yourself expelled, even if you still don't want to be friends with us!"
"Expelled?" Sayaika cried. "What the hell are you talking about?"
Miyuki rose. "I'm sorry, Saiya-chan-"
"You don't get to call me that after what you did!"
"Saiyaka-san," she lifted her hands as if trying to calm a panicked hippogriff. "I know you're passionate about non-human rights, but sabotaging the theses of upperclassmen won't do anything! Return the books and we won't say a word."
"Oh, my god!" Saiyaka laughed. "You think I'm the library bandit?!"
"Erm," Miyuki looked off into the distance ashamed.
"I'm not!" she wept. "And I'm sorry I don't have an alibi, but it's hard to have one when you have no friends!"
"You left the group..." Toshio ventured nervously.
"After Miyuki and Hiro told everyone I was gay!" she seethed. "I had everything against me, I didn't need anything extra!"
That conversation suddenly made sense now...When Hermione complimented her, Saiyaka thought she was making fun of her. No wonder she was in such a rush to leave...
"We made a mistake," Miyuki explained. "You were ten, I was twelve, I thought it was a silly little girl crush at the time, so I didn't see any harm in telling Kaori or Aya. Notice Aya doesn't hang around us anymore? We only see her in Student Council now. And Hiro and Inuyama Rie were friends when he told her."
"I didn't expect her to spread it to your whole year before you even started boarding," Hiro sighed. "I had no clue how awful she was back then...It's no excuse, I know that now. I can tell you I've grown up, that I regret doing it, but I don't think that matters to you. I reckon it's trust, you trusted us with something personal and we violated it. I'm sorry, Saiyaka-san."
"And you apologize by accusing me of betraying my role as a Junior Librarian? To sabotage a couple of essays?"
"You hate us, that's fine!" Miyuki cried. "But I still don't want you to throw away your future!"
"I keep telling you, I'm not the bandit!" Saiyaka seethed.
A silence filled the room and she wished Mikyuki and Hiro had told her their plan to confront her before they were even convinced of her guilt. Hermione would have called the whole thing off. Everyone stared at each other in various stages of 'what the hell' written all over their faces. This should have never happened, Saiyaka shot daggers at stupid could Hermione have been? She just unilaterally decided a particular set of actions were best when they affected others a hell of a lot more than they affect her! What the hell was wrong with her? Get out of your own damn head, stupid girl! Fix this!
"S-Saiyaka," Hermione bowed. "This is all my fault. I knew Miyuki suspected you, I thought if she met with you she'd realize she was wrong. I'm sorry. I also thought, foolishly, I'll admit, that I thought you could help with the investigation and that they could sign the appeal for the Osaka woman. I-I thought it would be a win-win...th-that..." she didn't know where to go from there. Her struggle for words stopped when she felt a hand give hers a reassuring squeeze.
"Saiyaka," Hiro bowed, his hand still linked in Hermione's. "Please forgive us!"
"Here's the damn petition for the Osaka werewolf case," she sniffed. "Win-Win, Hermione? I thought you were smarter than this!"
Everything's great! I've made some good friends, I adore my classes, am enjoying clubs and realizing that British food is the absolute worst. Hermione wrote that night in the girls' common room. And everything's okay there?
The word 'vague' doesn't even begin to describe your accounts. Her father wrote back.
She really hated this cutting into time she needed to figure out what to do. Every night! Harry, Fred, George and Ron were all happy with the raven once a week or so. Well, Harry never wrote her, but the others seemed satisfied.
Running out of novel things to tell. Only so many ways to say everything's fine. Which it is, better than fine! It's wonderful here. Girls' prefect is calling for lights out, I have to go.
O.K. his writing appeared on the page. I'll let you go then. Behave yourself. Stay safe, don't forget to write tomorrow, love you.
He ended every damn exchange with that. She understood why, and, for all she knew, it was normal, but the demand she write daily was more oppressive than the Japanese heat, and the 'stay safes' made her feel five.
Write to you tomorrow. Love you.
Hermione shut the book and took to how to set things right with Saiyaka. Meaning well meant nothing, Hermione had about a month of modified memories to prove that. She tried to come up with a solution, but nothing seemed to pan out. Hermione would apologize sure, and Saiyaka was her own person, if she wanted nothing to do with Hermione, that was her decision and fine. But it hurt.
Wisdom was supposed to come with age, but nearly twelve years of being alive and Hermione hardly felt that was the case. She was so clueless! And Miyuki at fourteen was the oldest of the lot there and hardly seemed any wiser for it. All she knew was that Saiyaka was so hurt by Hiro and Miyuki that she would rather be alone for two entire years. Whatever she did, she had to be smart about it...something she was losing faith in her ability to do.
"Ugh!" Hermione slammed her head against the table.
"Hermione-chan?" Kaori sat beside her. "I didn't know anyone was still up."
"Sorry, Senpai! Neither did I," Hermione raised her head to address her but shrank in her chair. "I didn't mean to disturb you."
"You didn't," she said. "And I actually wanted to talk to you anyway."
"Oh?" Hermione bit her lip and dug her nails into her hand. How did you find out? I wonder if you were one of the ones spreading it...
"Miyuki-chan's my best friend," she explained. "She tells me everything. Including what happened at NHWS."
"I didn't mean for-" Damn it, Miyuki! You talking is the reason this whole thing started! No, that wasn't fair...
"I know," she sighed with a weak smile. "It was really hard for all of them...Hiro really just hung around with me and Miyuki after that, Toshio was assigned Sam, so he had an excuse not to get involved with the drama, and Saiyaka simply stopped talking to anyone, I don't think she ever trusted anyone after that. Miyuki and I were your age...Hiro was eleven, and didn't know Rie would become...Hermione-chan, we were all very stupid kids and Miyuki really only went to us for advice because she didn't know how to deal with Saiyaka's feelings for her. We didn't know Aya would be out for blood for a ten-year-old. But she and Rie are cousins, and Rie did take Saiyaka beating her academically pretty hard. Does any of this make sense?"
It did. Hiro and Miyuki should have kept Saiyaka's confidence, but she at least understood Miyuki's desire to go to Kaori for advice. She clearly still cared about Saiyaka, not wanting her to get expelled. And if Hermione found out one of her friends liked her that way and she couldn't reciprocate, she might have done something equally stupid in an attempt to preserve the precarious friendship. Hell, even Hiro's loneliness in his letters now made sense. It was like the group only just got back together...without Saiyaka.
"Thank you for telling me, Senpai," Hermione nodded. "I understand where everyone's coming from now. I just wish I never meddled..."
"You didn't know the history," Kaori said, somehow still smiling. "And you're not even twelve yet, are you? Meddling to try and get everyone you care about on the same page is understandable, and at your age it can be hard to see what harm can come of things."
"You sound like a grown-up," Hermione sighed.
"Just another stupid kid in over her head," Kaori replied. "But I hope I helped."
I honestly don't know if anything will help. "Yes, Senpai." she nodded. "Thank you."
"Are you planning on staying here all night?" Kaori asked.
"I'm certain I'm the last person Saiyaka wants to see after that stunt I pulled."
"I'll stay up with you, Hermione-chan," she said. "I'm simply drowning in homework."
"Hiro-kun! Hermione-chan!" Miyuki ran up to her and Hiro doing homework under a cherry blosssom tree.
"Miyuki-Senpai?" the said together tearing their eyes from their homework.
"I overheard Natsume-Senpai telling Yosuke-san griping about how she needs to get her final proposal done before July ends. And she said she would have to hit the library tomorrow!"
"You know what that means," Hiro leapt up. "We do our stake-out tonight! I have to go tell Toshio-kun and Sam!"
He took off like a shot. The spring in his step, Hiro's hard work would pay off and they would solve the case tonight. Hermione expected that to make her happy, but she couldn't shake the sight of Saiyaka during classes keeping to herself, or their eyes meeting over breakfast. Hermione had intended to apologize, but like a coward backed down at her glare. She hugged her knees as Miyuki sat down next to her.
"I'm sorry Hiro and I didn't tell you..." she said looking at the grass. "We should have...I don't know why we didn't."
"I don't think I'm the person you should be apologizing to, Miyuki-san," Hermione closed her book. "I-I," she sighed. "Look, what happened back there was a result of my meddling. If Saiyaka hates my guts, I deserve it. But I think Saiyaka deserves to hear your side of the story and an apology that's not accompanied by an accusation."
"I know you're right," Miyuki sighed stretching out on her stomach next to Hermione. "And I will. But I think I need to give her time."
"It's been-crap!" Hermione slapped her forehead. "I left my map of the library in my dorm room. I'll be back."
Hermione came up with the intention of grabbing the map and leaving before Saiyaka had to suffer her presence too long, but that all changed when she saw Saiyaka curled up in a fetal position on her futon sobbing, clinging to her cat. She was going to slide the door closed quietly and give her some privacy, but when she slid the door open Saiyaka locked eyes with her, as well as she could without her glasses.
"Sorry!" both girls stammered simultaneously.
"I-I'll go, I'm so so sorry!" Hermione turned to leave.
"Wait," Sayaika sighed sitting up. "Tell me, did you really not know after divination on Monday?"
"I didn't," she whispered. "I'm sorry if you thought I was teasing you. And, erm, for what it's worth, erm, I really do think they're sorry. It's not my place, but I got everyone's side of the story. It sounds like they were just not thinking. And if you still hate me after that meeting, I completely understand, but..." Hermione dropped to her knees and bowed. "I'm sorry for everything, Sayaika-san."
Saiyaka wiped her eyes and grabbed her glasses. "I don't hate you. I don't hate them either. If I'm honest, I miss them."
Saiyaka sat with her cat, scratching behind her ears and looked off in the distance for a while before joining Hermione on the floor with a surprising smile that seemed to even touch her tear-filled eyes with an extended pinky. "Promise not to ambush me ever again and I promise to hear them out."
Hermione took the extended pinky and the girls shook on it singing "This is a pinky-promise, if I break it I'll shove a thousand needles in my eyes!"
"So, Hermi-chan?" Saiyaka asked as they left the room in a whisper. "Did you mean it?"
"Of course I meant it!" Hermione rolled her eyes. "If I wasn't sorry, I'd be a monster."
"No, I, erm, never mind!"
Hermione dropped it figuring Saiyaka would tell her when she wanted to. They went down to the gardens together to meet Miyuki, Kaori and the others, with legitimate surprise from Hermione that Saiyaka wanted to go see them. "We all used to be so close, and it has been two years."
"Saiyaka-san!" Miyuki gasped. "I didn't expect...I'm..."
"Hermi-chan told me everything on the way down," Saiyaka played with one of her braids. "It's sounds like it was all a massive misunderstanding. And you did all sign my petition. So, erm..."
Miyuki shocked the group by leaping to her feet and wrapping her arms around her. "We missed you!"
"I hear you lot are looking for a pair of new eyes on the library bandit case?" she smirked breaking free of Miyuki.
"I can't believe we're doing this!" Sam whispered nearly shaking.
"You didn't have to come," Toshio said adjusting his camera lens. " you, Anya-san and Hermione-chan could have stayed in your dorms."
"And miss this?" Hermione scoffed, despite harbouring some of Sam's apprehensions. "Hell no!"
By some miracle the entirety of the Mercury and Saiyaka were able to stay behind in the study room after the doors had been locked. Well, all but Kaori and Yosuke.
"The book will be on this shelf," Saiyaka said.
Hiro nodded and circled five points. "Hermi-chan, you'll be with me around this shelf, Toshio you should-"
Toshio shook his head and circled a new point where shelves met in a T. "Sam and I are best here. I'll have the clearest shot without being seen. Miyuki and Saiyaka are best..."
"We're best here," Sayaika pointed to one of Hiro's original points. "We have easiest access to the exact spot on the shelf while still being hidden. Trust me, two years of hiding from everyone in this library gives me that insight."
"What about Ikigawa no Kagome?" Hermione whispered. "Librarian's a ghost, it's not like she'll be sleeping."
"Don't hate me, Hiro-kun," Miyuki blushed looking down at the map. "I told Kaori and she's agreed to help."
"We'll be making diversions elsewhere in the library," Anya explained. "I'll be here," she marked a point on the second floor with an X. "And Kaori will be on the main floor."
They all put there hands in on the table whispering "good luck!"before raising their hands into a contactless group high-five. They broke, sneaking to their positions hoping not to get caught by any house-elves or the spectral librarian. Hermione taught each of them the muffliatio spell so they wouldn't be heard, but told them it stopped people in a radius around them from hearing them by filling their ears with ringing, so it might not completely conceal them.
Hermione had memories of hiding in a library going so far back, ducking behind a shelf and peaking out to see who was around the bend was no new feat. It felt so familiar, yet so new. Exhilaration and fear warred within her. Fear she shouldn't have felt when she had been through so much worse, yet the idea of expulsion...whatever future she had would be destroyed, she'd never see her friends again, and her father would...she didn't know, but it wouldn't be pleasant. But she would live, not a guarantee last time, and the stakes were so, so much lower.
The war within her head quietened with a hand on her shaking one, Hiro smiled at her and Hermione returned his reassuring squeeze. The two made eyecontact for a brief moment before returning their gaze to the shelf. They didn't know how long they waited but at last they saw something.
A hooded figure crept through the library nearly melting into the shadows and shelves. This was it! The Library Bandit crept along the shelf opposite them. Hermione's heart-thudded in her heart, all they had to do was wait for the flash of Toshio's camera, and they could declare that they caught him red-handed! A hand crept up and lifted the book from the shelf.
A bright flash of light and click and a familiar voice shouted in surprise dropping the book. The six of them congregated on him before he could escape, leaping from behind their perspective shelves to form a circle what Hermione now realized was composed of much smaller kids around a full grown, what appeared to be, man. Though he was still covering his eyes.
"Muffliato!" Hermione cast.
"The hood," Hiro demanded. "Take it down."
The man complied, and they were greeted with a very familiar set of brown eyes under a messy dark brown fringe.
"Watari-Senpai!" they all gasped at once.
"Damn it!" he spat. "How'd you-why'd-"
"You asked us to investigate the bandit!" Miyuki said. "And you're the library bandit?"
"Tell me, Senpai," Saiyaka said in a tiny voice. "Please tell me this wasn't to get a good story before you graduate in March."
Toshio looked sadly at his camera not saying anything, Sam looked uncomfortable, his wand gripped at his side. Hermione felt she shared his expression. Neither of them really had enough time to feel betrayed by this, but the other members of the Mercury looked as if they no longer knew who they were looking at. Saiyaka though, she seemed livid. Hermione didn't blame her, she had trust issues and for good reason. Finally, she decided to let people in, and someone else lied to her...
"It started out as a prank on this guy," he explained calmly. "It was one book in his completion paper. Wouldn't ruin his life, but it would drive him mad. Then when rumours started flying and Hiro-kun asked to investigate it, I saw the potential for something that could look good when I applied for Ohayo, Mahou Nihon! Even without solving it, it would be I also noticed that seven of the twenty-one of us were writing on archaic ideas of the place of Non-Humans in magical Japan. I was hoping Hiro and Miyuki would report on that common thread as soon as they noticed it. I didn't expect the headmaster's grandson to risk stake-out. The camera...Toshio-kun, I won't force you to destroy the picture, but I will ask you."
"Did you really hope to accomplish anything that way?" Saiyaka asked. "All it would do is make people who care about non-human rights look petty."
"I guess I just felt like I was doing something, however little, in my power to shake them up," he sighed. "Stupid that I'm being shown up by a bunch of thirteen-year-olds, huh?"
Hermione and Saiyaka exchanged a knowing glance deciding not to correct him.
"You should have thought about that, shouldn't you have?!" cried Miyuki. "Did you know we actually thought poor Saiya-chan did it?"
"Sorry, Saiyaka-kun," Yosuke bowed. "I didn't mean for that. I honestly only wanted to ruin a few bigots' papers while making a great story. If I could also do something for non-human rights awareness, it was a bonus."
"Well, you did more harm than good!" Miyuki hissed.
"Wait," Hiro said. "There's a win for all of us here."
Hermione's stomach tensed. She hoped his win-win scenario was more thought out than her own.
"Write an anonymous letter from the Library Bandit," Hiro suggested. "Announcing your retirement."
"Oh!" Saiyaka piped up. "Erm,I, erm, you could even write about how it was all a misguided attempt to reveal the normalization human-supremacy in the school."
"Yes!" Miyuki beamed snapping her fingers. "You can even add a statement about how your views are still the same, but you now understand how juvenile your methods were, and the slippery to more extreme methods from there. It'll make you look sympathetic."
"Erm," Hermione bit her lip. She'd been there for three weeks, not long enough to say anything, but..."Maybe close with a dream of humans and non-humans living in harmony? You don't have to! But the sentiment, erm..." Stupid piece of shit! Hold your tongue!
"Hermione-chan's right," Toshio shrugged. "It'd tie it nicely together. And it'd work a hell of a lot better than yelling 'specist dumbass' at half the school."
"Yamato Kaori-san!" an ethereal voice below them shrieked. "Your grandfather will destroy you."
"It's not likely," Hiro muttered in Hermione's ear. "She's top witch of her year and the single best Seeker we've had in a century. She'll get off with community service. Let's go before we're caught!
"I'm sorry, Hiro-kun," Hermione as they lagged behind the group. "I know how badly you wanted to solve and write on this case."
"I didn't want the culprit expelled," he explained taking her hand. "I wanted to solve it, and I did. I don't think I would have without you."
"Kawaii!" Miyuki squealed pinching Hermione's cheeks.
"Cute?" Hermione scoffed looking at herself in the mirror. "I feel like walking cultural appropriation."
The girls had decided to get ready for the festival together in Kaori and Miyuki's dorm. Which had been an affair the Saiyaka and Hermione were completely bewildered by. Miyuki had worked away at Hermione's hair, forcing it into a coiled braid with locks hanging loosley over her shoulder, mimicking what Anya had done with Kaori's (though with much less effort), while Kaori brushed out Saiyaka's long wavy hair. It was communal and fun as they talked about whatever came to mind. Including the prospect of a trashy-romance book club.
Now that they were finished, Hermione examined Miyuki's handiwork in the mirror, and to her credit, she was almost pretty, which was no easy feat. But the kanzashi pinning her finge out of her face and baby blue floral kimono didn't feel right. Like she was playing pretend rather than taking part in local rituals respectfully.
"Yare yare!" Anya pouted gesturing to her own pettite form. "At least you can pass for half-Japanese, or at least half-East Asian!"
That was fair. Whatever Hermione felt, it was probably worse for Anya, who's blond curls were pulled from her blue eyes with chopsticks, and the pink of her cheeks of her otherwise ivory skin matched the sakura printed kimono she wore. As pretty as she looked, she was the most out of place among the dark-haired and eyed girls around her.
"This is my third Matsuri and I still feel like I have 'gaijin' stamped on my forehead!" Anya scoffed. "And I'm German!"
"You're both fine!" Kaori laughed straightening her red kimono. "School's been doing this program for I think fifteen years now!"
"What's everyone's stand schedules?" Saiyaka bringing a lock of her loose hair over her shoulder to fiddle with it.
Saiyaka's full face was visible for the first time all month with her long fringe tied out of her face with a red ribbon. She had a soft round face, and her dark brown eyes were larger than she had originally thought. She smiled nervously and went from playing with her hair to fussing over her navy kimono.
Hermione dug hers out and the other girls did the same, they had gone over the schedules before with the boys, but ensuring everyone knew where would accomplish two things; making it easier to find everyone before the fireworks launch, and it would let Saiyaka know they had no intention of leaving her to hide alone all night for the second year in a row.
"Alright!" Kaori said leaping up. "We'll meet up on the south shore to with the boys to watch the fireworks! I have to go watch the day students until they're collected."
"thirty seven-to-ten-year-olds," Miyuki sighed adjusting the fabric tsubaki flower on the side of her head. "Try not to have too much fun."
"I'll just get them playing Kagome Kagome until they're collected," Kaori shrugged grabbing her bag. "They're always so determined to figure out the others' footsteps!"
"See you at the festival!"
Hermione and Sam finished their shift at the Culture Club's ramen stand to be relieved by the boys from New Zealand and South Africa. They gave them their black aprons and hats before setting off to find Anya and Toshio. Hermione followed Sam quitely, or as quietly as she could in geta, watching the groups of students in kimonos and yukata laughing and talking. The crowds were much more managable then they had been in Tokyo, and despite Hermione's fears, she never lost site of Sam in the sea of people.
"Ready to try ramen and Yaki Soba from ten different stands?" Anya teased leaping to her feet. "Or matcha from eight? The clubs should really communicate what they're doing with each other! At least there's the candy-apple stand."
"You three get together!" Toshio ordered adjusting his camera lense. "I want a picture of the reporters assigned to the festival."
"Say cheese, kiddos!" Anya laughed throwing an arm around both her and Sam.
Sam and Hermione were both still looking at Anya in surprise when a sudden flash accompanied by a click assaulted their eyes.
"And they said Germans were grumpy," Toshio rolled his eyes. "Anya's the only one smiling."
And so began the night of games and too many noodles. Hermione still asserted she liked Japanese food better than British food, but miso ramen quickly went from her favourite dish to her least favourite. The four of them set to interviewing heads of each stand for the paper, Toshio ambushing patrons and servers alike with his camera. He would then write the names of those in the pictures in his notebook in order to get permissions before the print of the last issue of the Mercury before break.
"Hermi-chan!" a voice called and Hermione turned to see Hiro with Saiyaka.
It seemed the boys could get away with much less fuss than the girls. Hiro beamed at her under still very messy black hair and he looked like he simply threw on his yakata and left his dorm. Hermione was a little jealous, he looked so effortless, especially next to Saiyaka, but he still gave Hermione a stupid case of the butterflies. At risk of sounding like a protagonist in a trashy romance novel, she thought she could stare at his smiling face in the golden sunset forever.
"Hiro-kun!" she waved. "Saiya-chan!"
"First summer Festival, what do you think?" Hiro asked offering his arm to Hermione.
"It's fantastic!" Hermione gingerly took Hiro's arm. "I can't wait till the shrine offering! I read all abo-I might be the single dullest person alive..."
"You're not," Hiro smiled. "And you don't have to wait much longer! It'll be starting soon. Then after that is the fireworks!"
Hiro didn't lie. Once the group had been fully assembled they immediately made their way up to the southern shrine. They walked double-file through the large western garden following the lit path and floating paper lanterns after the professors. Igawa no Kagome lead the procession, but walked along side the cobbled path rather than on it. She was followed on the path by Yamato-sama Sensei and the rest of the school.
The garden came to life in the blue and orange glow of the lanterns, the foiliage and water glistening and reflecting a sparkle into the starlit sky. Hermione suspected some sort of magic prevented the light pollution from blocking the stars, making the whole scene appear more like a dream than something in real-life. She hoped that doing this every July-end before she was twenty wouldn't disillusion her from the beauty of it all.
The procession ended and everyone filed neatly into lines of ten in front of the shrine. Haruna-sama and Yamato-sama handed out onigiri to each of the students to offer on the shrine. She gave thanks and watched as everyone came up one at a time to leave their offering and say a silent prayer. She'd read in muggle novels about how certain experiences were "magical", growing up in a magic school meant she never fully understood the metaphor, but she thought she did now. It was so serene and surreal at the same time, like a dream that didn't end with a reminder she could never be wanted.
"Psst!" Hiro whispered in her ear. "It's your turn!"
"Oh!" she whispered back. "Thanks!"
Hermione walked up to the shrine, knelt and placed her onigiri down before clapping her hands together and bowing her head. A bountiful harvest and calm typhoon season. A safe autumn, she wished for that here, but back home as well. She rose from her knees and joined Hiro and the others in their row.
"The fireworks are starting soon!" Miyuki cried. "Where are Anya-chan and Kaori-chan?"
"Dunno," Toshio shrugged. "Sam?"
"I haven't seen them," he shrugged. "Saiyaka?"
"No," she shook her head sitting up.
"They'll be here in time," Hiro said offering his hand to help Hermione up. "Oh, erm, Hermione, do you have a moment?"
Hermione nodded, got to her feet and kicked her geta back onto her feet. She followed Hiro away from the group, her hand still in his. They found themselves alone under a massive maple tree. Hiro smiled and took her other hand sending a furious blush to her face.
"You said you don't handle crowds or loud noises well, right?" he asked.
Hermione nodded turning her face to the tree's roots. She thought back to muggle Tokyo and embarrasment washed over her. She wanted to blame her life as a shut in, but as always wondered if she were just a coward. She felt like a child...You are a child, idiot!
"I know you've probably read about them," Hiro explained. "But fireworks are loud. And we didn't exactly choose a place that'll be just us. All the best spots will be crowded. I, erm, just thought you might want a warning."
Hermione did in fact read all about fireworks as soon as she realised she'd be attending a Matsuri festival at the school. She knew what to expect, but if the past year taught her anything, there was a huge difference between reading about a thing, and experiencing it.
"Thank you," she bowed. "I really appreciate that."
"Oh, I also made something for you!" Hiro said.
"Oh, Hiro-kun, you shouldn't have, I-I don't h-"
"I didn't expect anything," he explained presenting her with a scroll.
Hermione opened the scroll to find a coloured painting of a three white lilies surrounded by sakura with the kanji for friendship written beneath it. "Hiro-kun, this is beautiful!"
Hiro opened his mouth to say something, but shook his head and smiled. "We should get back to the group."
"Thank you, Hiro-kun," Hermione nodded after furling the scroll and placing it in her bag. "Let's go!"
"Finally!" Miyuki called as they returned. "Kaori-chan and Anya came back just in time for you love-birds to go missing!"
"N-na-" Hermione stammered.
"Now I know my little brother isn't announcing an unexpected romance when I am!" Kaori teased holding hands with Anya, who beamed brightly at her.
"You and Anya?" Hiro asked. "After three years, it's about time!"
"Shut up, idiot!" Kaori stuck her tongue out.
A loud sound peirced their laughter with a whistling before a loud bang echoing through the beach. Hermione gasped and felt Hiro take her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. From her other side she felt Saiyaka squeeze her other hand. She felt her heart beat slow and she turned her eyes to the star-spangled sky with orange, red, green, blue and yellow blooms of light exploding in the sky. After that initial pop, Hermione settled,and enjoyed the fireworks with her freinds around her.
If Hermione lived a thousand years, she was certain she'd remember this night.