AN: I realized I'm not covering all the bases I wanted to for Book 5, so it's undergoing some construction. I've been really busy and I appreciate y'alls patience with me.
Octubre
"Alright, Miss Sanchez, put your foot on the break. EASY!"
The car had lurched and Hermione gripped the wheel tighter.
"I'm sorry!" she cried, "These breaks are really sensitive!"
"It's okay. Put the car in park."
Hermione did so and looked at her instructor with wide eyes.
"Your arms are too stiff," he said, tapping her with his pencil. "Relax. If you do end up in a wreck you don't want to break your arms."
Hermione dropped her elbows but didn't relinquish her iron grip on the steering wheel.
"Now, get in drive and gently put your foot on the gas. If you're uncertain how much pressure to use, just use your big toe."
She pressed her big toe against the pedal and slowly accelerated. Her instructor talked gently to her as she maneuvered around the course. She managed to go a lap without hitting a single cone and her marks told her she was improving albeit slowly.
"You're doing a really good job, Miss Sanchez," said Senhor Barreto. "Especially considering the trauma you've faced. Even if you decide to live where you don't need a car, this will be a useful skill to have, okay?"
"Okay."
"Your practice hour is up. Go enjoy the rest of your day."
"Thank you."
After driving lessons, she had the rest of the day free, so she went to the library to return the books she finished and check out new ones.
"All done?" the librarian asked, seeing her check out date.
"Yes," said Hermione. "I was wondering if there are any books on astral projection."
"Second level, Metaphysics, 133.98."
"Thank you." Hermione shouldered her bag and went down to the second level. It was wonderful attending a school where the library was actually on the dewey decimal system. Books organized by color were fine for her personal library, but when she was doing research, she liked a universal organizing system.
She found shelves full of astral projection books. There were so many to choose from that she just put together a stack of the more comprehensive ones and went to the reading section.
The reading section was her favorite place in the whole school. It was like the Hufflepuff Common Room with comfortable leather chairs and low tables, except this place had a vending machine that dispensed warm drinks for the late night studier. The spicy chocolate was the best. It was a popular spot for loners while the study groups typically frequented the tables interspersed throughout the library.
Hermione quickly claimed an armchair underneath one of the baubles of light, switched on Cedric's mixtape, and got to reading.
It was astral projection in particular she was interested in, but she got to thinking about the Hogwarts portraits and how they could move between pictures or even other places so long as it was associated with the original portrait.
She wondered if she could do something similar.
Something like this would be dangerous, but danger was her middle name and she was determined to try.
Her goal right now was just to find something that mentioned it and hope that the book the sources page pointed her to was more comprehensive.
In the first three hours, she didn't find much. Mostly just the benefits and risks of astral projection as well as famous astral projectors. Then she found a footnote on using astral projection as a communication method which led to a book hunt that went on until dinner. She managed to find the right book and was barely able to check it out before the desk closed.
On one hand, it wouldn't have been the end of the world if she had to wait until after dinner to check it out, but on the other hand it wasn't guaranteed to still be there when she returned.
"¿qué lo que?" Noa asked when Hermione arrived at their table.
"Not much. Some research," she said.
"There's supposed to be a lightning storm in the morning."
Hermione perked up. "What time?"
"Around four."
Hm… not ideal, but she needed a lightning storm to complete her animagus potion. They'd been getting a whole lot of rain and not a lot of lightning. Of course… the meteorology club could probably recreate one for her, but Hana said a natural storm was best, especially if the potion had been keeping for more than a week. Which it had.
"Tomorrow there's gonna be a Quidditch game," said Bianca, sitting down with her tray of food.
"Who's playing?" Luiz asked.
"North Brazil vs. Northeast Brazil."
"Why are the teams divided by country like that?" Hermione asked. "Instead of by House? I mean dorm."
"It makes it easier for recruiters," Bianca explained. "They can view these teams as well as the teams for each country's official school. Plus there's only so many dorms and not everybody in each dorm wants to play Quidditch, can you imagine trying to condense students from over thirty countries to a handful of teams? Competition would be so cut throat."
"True…"
"There's been cases of teams trading players, but most people play for their division whether it's one country or three. Since Brazil is so big they have five teams and those teams also play against the other schools around Latin America."
"Seven teams," Bembe corrected. "There is Junior division collectively north and junior division collectively south."
"Right. Junior games are usually on Friday evenings and Varsity is on Saturdays and Sundays. There's going to be games every weekend from here on out and the finals are after exam finals week."
"That's cool," said Hermione. "I guess since there's a game tomorrow I should go ahead and get to studying tonight."
"Games don't last more than four hours," said Bianca. "If the snitch isn't found by then, the team with the most points wins and it just ends there. A lot of countries adopted that regulation."
"One time, a team couldn't replace their Seeker, their reserve was out, too," said Bembe, "so they held out the entire four hours by preventing the other Seeker from catching the snitch and they won."
"That's cool. Has there been any problems with, like, nationalism or a general sense of superiority?"
Bianca wiggled her hand. "Eh, sometimes. But you get that in the big leagues as well."
"I guess that's true. Hogwarts was pretty bad with superiority as well. Particularly with Gryffindors and Slytherins…" she then continued with a mocking tone, "Hufflepuffs are pushovers, Ravenclaws are too busy reading to pay attention to the game."
"Yeah and you'll see a little bit of smack talk around game day, but Doña Claudia doesn't stand for it outside the stadium."
"I think that's about as good as a person can hope for," she conceded.
"It will still be fun," said Bembe. "We can all sit together and make noise."
"Sure, sounds fun," said Hermione.
"Ei!"
She looked over her shoulder to see a boy who looked a lot like Benny Barbosa approach.
"You're Herminia, right?"
"Yes."
"I'm Estevo Barbosa. So, I hear you have this piece of technology that makes Quidditch games more… interesting. Plays music, sound effects."
"I do."
He clapped his hands. "Eba! Can I borrow it for tomorrow's game?"
"I dunno…" she said. "It's really important to me. How do I know you'll treat it right?"
"Please?" Estevo begged. "I'll give you my first born child."
"Alright, relaxa, I'm not that kind of witch," she said and summoned the sound board from her purse. "I just need you to promise that you'll return this to me in perfect condition."
"Nossa…" he whispered, touching it lightly. "How does it work?"
"You just connect this rune to your announcer's megaphone and it'll amplify the sounds," she said. "Each button has a sound, but these piano keys are blank for new sound downloads. Right now it just plays music notes which is good for improvisation."
She demonstrated by playing the opening tune for "Get Ready For This" and Estevo lit up.
"So I can use it?"
"Sure, for ten sickles and a pinkie promise that you'll return it after the game tomorrow."
"Deal!" He shook on it and gave her ten sickles from a pouch he wore around his neck.
She gave him the soundboard and wrote to Cedric that it was going to be used at the game tomorrow. He didn't reply, but she was trying not to worry about that.
Instead, she scarfed down the rest of her food.
"I'm going to hang out in my dorm. Get ready for that storm."
"Good luck," said Noa.
Hermione left the mess hall and realized that the meteorology club was right. She could smell the rain in the air and her hair frizzed on contact. There was going to be a heavy storm tonight. She jogged to her dorm and was greeted by Crookshanks as soon as she walked in.
She kissed him on the head and settled down onto the lounging chair next to her desk. The second book she checked out ended up containing the spell she was searching for. She read through it five times before deciding that she was ready to try it out. She set her open book on her dresser and picked up a tube of lipstick she didn't care for but hadn't thrown away yet. On her mirror, she drew out the germanic runic circle exactly as it was in the book, then sat back down.
Hermione cleared her throat and chanted the spell ending with, "I call upon: Cedric."
Her dorm faded and she found herself in an open space that was a dull shade of green. She tried walking around to figure out the parameters of the space, but found that no matter how much she walked she didn't seem to move anywhere.
Hm…
"Cedric…" she called.
Nothing.
"CEDRIC!"
"Hermione!"
Hermione's eyes fluttered open and she gasped. Her room was dark and thunder crackled outside.
"Sorry for letting myself in," said Noa. "But the storm started and I wanted to make sure you were awake for it. What were you doing?"
"Trying this spell to put me inside a mirror," she said. "It didn't quite work. I was supposed to see Cedric."
"Did you connect it to your compact?"
Hermione paused and slapped her forehead. Noa chuckled lightly.
"It's okay, you can try it next time. Come on. You have an animagus potion to complete."
"Right."
The pair of them went to the door as soon as Hermione opened it, wind blasted through her room, scattering papers and scaring Crookshanks into her laundry basket.
"Sorry, Crookie!" she called above the gale.
"Nia, your potion!" Noa shouted.
"Right!"
Hermione opened up her trunk and took out the potion before stepping outside. The rain soaked her in seconds and nearly blinded her. She drew her wand and touched it to her heart. Lightning flashed in the sky signaling her to begin her spell.
"Amato animo animato animagu!" she cried. Her wand tip flashed, she quickly holstered it and uncorked the silver potion bottle.
It was work to drink it without getting rain water in her mouth as well. Lightning sparked in the sky, illuminating the grounds. Hermione doubled over in pain as the potion took effect. Noa pulled her onto her lap and backed into the room, then used a spell to close the door.
Spluttering rainwater, Hermione moved over to her couch.
"Ugh…"
"Did it work?" Noa asked.
"Only one way to find out." She closed her eyes then focused on transforming.
Her aura became fuzzy and she felt herself shrink down. When she opened her eyes, the colors of her room were muted as if all the red had been leeched out. Instead of cold and wet, she was warm and dry. Noa looked absolutely delighted.
"You're so cute!" she gushed. "Look at your little pawsies!"
Hermione looked down at her hands and saw they were tiny and her arms were covered with thick brown hair. She felt her face and smushed her whisker-covered cheeks. Noa squealed, a sound often made by her sisters but never her. Guess she was really that cute.
She jumped off the couch and climbed onto her desk chair so she could look into the mirror.
She was… adorable.
Staring back was an otter with big eyes, smooth brown fur, and a fluffy face. On her chest were lighter brown markings in the shape of a turtle.
"Can I hold you?" Noa asked. "You're just the cutest thing I've ever seen!"
Hermione held out her arms and Noa picked her up.
"Oof! Otters are heavier than I thought," she said. "God, you're cute."
"I guess I am," said Hermione.
Noa made a face. "It's less cute if you talk. You got a gravelly voice and it kinda kills the image."
Hermione concentrated and tried to talk in otter… Ottish? Otterby… She made high pitched chitters like the little fidget toy on her desk. Noa giggled a most un-Noa-like giggle.
"Okay, you're cute again."
Hermione gave her a smacking kiss on the cheek and climbed down. She should probably turn back.
With just a thought, she was crouching on the ground in human form. She stood up and blinked away the spots.
"Whoa… head rush."
"It was a success," said Noa. "You're an official animagus. How do you feel?"
"Tired…" Hermione crossed to her water closet and grabbed a towel off the shelf she kept hitting her head on. "I should probably change. Don't want to catch a cold."
"Guess not. Want to camp out in my room and watch the storm? Eat some snacks?"
Hermione smiled. "Sounds like fun."
~o0o~
The next morning, after breakfast, Hermione walked with her friends to the Quidditch Pitch. The school had three. Two practice pitches and one Arena that could seat the entire school population comfortably. The day was beautiful and fresh after last night's storm. Perfect day for Quidditch.
Hermione had grown fond of the sport. She wouldn't follow it to the extent of Cedric, Harry, or Ron, but it was important to them and she could have fun at the games so long as she was prepared for the noise and crowds.
The Castelobruxo Quidditch Arena was amazing. It was all white stone with gold and turquoise accents. The designs on the older part of the field easily bled in with the new as the school expanded and the field did too. The golden hoops shone brilliantly in the sun and on opposite sides the scoreboard was set in stone. Set above the crowd were the announcers and special seating for recruiters. There were two Spanish speakers, two Portuguese speakers, two Japanese speakers, and one English speaker. Guess it was more fair to audition and keep multiple people than have one announcer.
Estevo waved at her from his perch and leaned into his megaphone.
"Bom dia a todos!" he shouted and pressed a button on the soundboard playing the Charge Theme.
The other announcers snapped their heads over and looked at the board enviously. Hermione grinned as she saw the crowd perk up at the new item and sent a note to Cedric that his soundboard was a hit and he should probably expect orders for them. She flipped through her past notes hoping to see a reply, but saw nothing.
Hm… he was probably just busy. She drew a doodle of a chubby cat and stashed her book away as the announcers chattered excitedly into their megaphones. They all basically said the same thing though some of the asides were different. Eventually, she focused just on the English speaking girl, she sounded American. Probably an exchange student from Ilvermorny or Rockwell Academy.
"Welcome to the first Varsity Quidditch game of the season!" she said. "Today we got East Brazil vs. West Brazil, and it looks like Estevo has something new."
"Yeah, I do!" he said. "This is a soundboard, I got it from Herminia Sanchez. It's just for rent though."
"Does it have any more sounds?"
"Discuss this after," said the Quidditch Coach behind them.
While all teams had captains, the school had a coach that was in charge of organizing practices and games to ensure there wasn't any clashing. It made Hermione wonder why Madame Hooch wasn't in charge of making sure House teams got more or less equal practice times so that one House couldn't hog all the slots like Oliver often did.
The Quidditch Teams flew out and were given their introductions. The seventh year players were received with wild cheers from the crowd. Several people had vuvuzelas and signs bounced in the crowd. Hermione grinned with excitement and began a "We Will Rock You" chant. She didn't have a favorite team, but she liked it when the audience was in-sync.
Once the game began, she realized that the way Castelobruxo played at Hogwarts was just the tip of the iceberg. She had never seen Quidditch like this. The ball was constantly in motion or even sneakily hidden. The Chasers had moves she'd never seen before like tossing the Quaffle over their shoulder or even bouncing it off the walls to another Chaser. One of the girls was able to aim it correctly by hitting it with her hip and faking out the opposing Chaser who was watching her hands instead. Hermione nearly lost track of the Quaffle a few times and finally a horn blew signaling the release of the snitch. Estevo announced this by playing the same notes Hermione did yesterday.
"The Seekers are off! Let's see how long it takes them to— oh, oh, Nascimento of West Brazil has caught the snitch. Alright then."
Nascimento pumped her fist in the air and waved the snitch around.
"Well, that was fun," said Hermione, standing up. "I'm going to get my soundboard."
"Okay," said Noa. "See you."
Hermione pushed through the crowd and climbed up the ramp to the announcer's box. Estevo was waiting for her.
"That was amazing!" he said. "Can I use it next time?"
"Hang on!" said the English announcer. "I want to use it next."
"I'd like a turn," said a Spanish announcer.
Hermione put the soundboard away.
"I suppose I could rent it out to you," she said. "And it would only be fair to take turns so we'll just start from left to right. However, I will need pinkie promises that you will take care of this soundboard when it is in your care and that you return it to me immediately after each game."
They instantly agreed, so Hermione took out her calendar and drew up a schedule for the games.
"Okay," she said. "I'll collect the rent from it before each game. See you around."
"Wait," said Estevo, "did you, uh, want to hang out?"
"Can't," she said. "I've got some things I need to do, but maybe some other time, okay? I love making new friends."
"Oh, right… friends…"
Hermione hummed to herself and followed the tail of the crowd. There was a long wait line for the ferries and she was just about to queue up when she realized that she wouldn't have to take the ferry anymore.
With a grin, she moved around to the edge and focused on transforming. She shrank down to her otter form and dove into the water. The bottom of the canal was decorated with mosaics and creatures swam about to get to the out flow locations.
Hermione did a corkscrew, feeling absolutely free. This was amazing! As she took the familiar route to her dorm, the canal floor changed from mosaic to river bed with lots of stones and aquatic plants.
She slowed and began to explore the area, pausing only to surface for air. At one point, she found a smooth, flat rock that was perfect for skipping. She turned it over in her paws and ended up tucking it away in the pouch on her chest. She didn't seem to be a specific type of otter, taking on qualities of otters from wherever she was from. Sea otter, common river otter, etc. She wasn't sure why she wanted the stone so bad, but it was hers now.
Satisfied, she swam the rest of the way to her dorm and jumped out onto the shore. Thinking hard, she transitioned to her human form and found only her hair to be damp. She patted her pockets and found the stone safely stashed away.
Neat.
She probably shouldn't think too hard about the parameters of her animagus form or she'd go crazy.