I'm glad y'all liked the Catherine Tate sketch in the last chapter. I was worried it wouldn't go over well, but I'm glad I left it in.

"The information of a horcrux's true nature will reach you in due time," said Dumbledore. "In the meantime, Harry must be willing to die and convince you that it is the only way. All you know of them is a tidbit from a book that claims they are too dark to bear mentioning. You'll forget all about your plans to handle this yourself. Your only duty is to support Harry in all his endeavors."

Hermione stared at Dumbledore in open-mouthed shock as his own magic tried to pull the memories of horcruxes from her mind. She got an odd sensation as they flickered and shrank like they were trying to be snuffed out, until Dumbledore lowered his wand. She didn't know if her magic was stronger, his was just too weak, or if the jewelry she wore protected her, but they stuck steadfast in her mind.

The Headmaster seemed to judge her shock as confirmation that the spell worked.

She blinked rapidly. If he knew he was unsuccessful, he might try to get her removed from the school. Nobody would believe a wizard as great as him would resort to this. If she were gone… She had to play this carefully.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I checked out. What were we talking about?"

"I imagine it's all quite a shock," he said, the twinkle in his eye returning. "Dubbing you Slytherin's new prefect. Professor Slughorn is already giving the news to Miss Parkinson. I think your experience would be much better suited to the position."

Meaning she would be too busy to nose into what he and Harry were up to.

"Er… thank you, sir," she said. "I won't let you down."

"I know you won't. That is all."

Hermione shakily rose to her feet and swayed.

"Sorry," she said. "I don't… feel right. I think I need to lie down."

"Yes, I'm sure you need to take it all in," he said.

She looked at her research papers on the table.

"This is all mine," he said, sweeping it closer. "Dull paperwork. Nothing to worry about."

Hermione hurried out of the room as quickly as she could. Clearly, she had not made a mistake in returning. How could she tell Harry that his mentor tried to obliviate her? Manipulate her into giving up her horcrux hunt? A surge of anger exploded in her chest, burning to the point she thought she might faint from the heat in her veins.

She ran towards the Room of Things. It seemed to sense her urgency and a door appeared rather than require her to pace. She dove in, slammed it shut, and screamed.

When she finally calmed down, she went to the Slytherin Common Room. As soon as she walked in, she dropped to the ground to avoid the curse.

"You bitch!"

"Ma?" Hermione called and sat up. "Oh, hi Pansy."

"How dare you take the prefect title from me!"

Hermione raised her arm against another hex. Rather than bounce off the enchantments of her bracer like it was supposed to, it seemed to absorb the curse instead until it dissipated.

"I didn't even want it!" said Hermione, standing up and blocking another one. "Dumbledore gave it to me."

"Argh!" Pansy threw curse after curse, her anger increasing when none of them landed. "You no-good mudblood! Why don't you just go back to where you came from?"

Hermione inhaled sharply and stormed across the room. The torches flickered and dimmed considerably. A first year girl screamed and her anger ebbed. She stopped her advance and the common room brightened back up. Taking a deep breath, she pointed straight at Pansy.

"If you ever call me that word again or tell me to go back to where I came from, I will put so many curses on you it will take St. Mungo's years to remove them all. Got me? Whether we like it or not, I am the Slytherin prefect and I will uphold my duties as prefect by being there for the younger years, patrolling hallways, and making sure people like you don't make others feel unwelcome." She looked around the room. "If anyone else has a problem with me, take a number and we can duke it out after the new year. Until then, find something better to do with your time."

She strode over to the record player. "So, what are we listening to?"

"Esperanza Sanchez," said a second-year girl, turning her nose up. "You've probably never even heard of her!"

Hermione stared at her, then broke into peals of laughter.

"Thanks, I needed that!" she howled and headed towards her dorm, chortling to herself.

"What's so funny?" the girl demanded.

"Esperanza Sanchez is her cousin," she heard Blaise say.

She shut the door, sat down on her bed, and shivered. If she told anybody what Dumbledore tried to do, there would be a confrontation. She needed to know what those lessons entailed before completely burning that bridge, so for now she would keep that little tidbit to herself. The only other person she would trust to tell is Sirius. She couldn't tell Professor Lupin, he felt he owed too much to Dumbledore. She couldn't tell any of her friends.

Jolting out of her thoughts, she waved her hand to open the door. Shaylyn poked her head in.

"Hey," she said. "Busy?"

"No. Just thinking." How had she known Shaylyn was coming? The thought just… appeared in her head. Almost like she could see her walking down the corridor.

"Mind if I have a seat?"

"Not at all." Hermione patted the empty space next to her.

Shaylyn sat down and unpinned her hijab before letting her hair out of its bun. She scratched her scalp and stretched.

"My friend Cássia, she uses pins like earrings," said Hermione. "If you'd like, I can ask if she'd send a catalogue where she gets them from."

"You know, I always did want to have stylish earrings," said Shaylyn, touching her unpierced ears. "I'm sorry… if I had known you didn't want the job, I wouldn't have asked for you to be designated the sixth year prefect."

"Mm. I thought Dumbledore just wanted to keep me busy."

"Well, that might be why he agreed to do the switch." Shaylyn folded her scarf neatly and looked at Hermione. "I do think you'd be good at it. I mean, you cared enough to make maps. They're now passed out with class schedules. I know they'll have been here for a week, but I still think it would be good to have a school tour. Show them more than just Classroom A to Classroom B to the Great Hall."

"Yeah… we can do that," said Hermione. "I might not want the job, but I'll still give it my all. After my detentions this week, of course."

"Thanks." Shaylyn handed her a green prefect tote bag. "Supplies, walkie-talkie, let me know if the schedule for rounds is no good so I can see if anyone will want to swap with you. First meeting is Saturday. Oh, can't forget this, your badge."

Hermione studied the small, enamel pin with a P on it, the background in green.

"You have more people on your side than you think," she continued. "People like Pansy are just… really loud."

"Mm… Part of me still wonders if she's not too far from hope. Like… if I could just say or do something to really make her think. Cause really, her arguments are not sustainable and if she really argued about them she would see that there's no justification."

"Yeah, I hear you." Shaylyn chuckled drily. "Though, I think she'll at least leave you alone. That thing you started doing was pretty scary. Did you learn that at Castelobruxo?"

"No. I don't really know how I did that." She touched her forearm. "Anyway, my detentions with the house-elves start tomorrow. Any requests for dinner?"

"I dunno. I'd try anything new as long as it's halal," said Shaylyn. "I really wish I could've seen Snape lose it though. I was getting really sick of him making comments about my hijab."

Hermione took out her video camera and rewound the footage, showing Shaylyn. She watched wide-eyed and broke into a fit of giggles.

Before she could start winding down, Hermione was called back out by Professor Slughorn.

"Miss Sanchez y Granger," he said. "Congratulations on your prefect status. Though, I understand that there was a ruckus in Defense class this morning."

"Actually, I would call it a hullabaloo," said Hermione. "Won't happen again sir, though I was hoping that since my detentions will be served with the house-elves if I could serve them during my breaks rather than after classes. I would hate to disrupt the prefect rounds."

"I think that should be alright," he said. "Just so long as it doesn't become a regular occurrence. Of course, you don't seem the type."

She never seemed the type.

"Don't worry, sir," she said, crossing her fingers behind her back. "It won't happen again."

~o0o~

Tuesdays were Hermione's lightest days. The only class she had was Charms. Professor Flitwick was pleased to see her and shook her hand heartily when she entered the classroom. Though Professor Flitwick wasn't one to assign a lot of homework, the lesson was still quicker paced than usual and he gave them a list of charms to memorize by next class.

She sat with Luna again at lunch.

"Can I pay you for a poster?" she asked.

"Certainly. What for?"

"I want to start a multicultural club," she said. "Tuesday evenings. Nobody ever schedules anything on Tuesday. I'm thinking just… little fun things. How to make food, learning music, folk songs, stories, art. Raising awareness that there is more than one way to live your life."

"I'll run something in the paper too," said Luna. "And I'll be there."

"Thanks." Hermione handed her a galleon. "You get the pop rocks when it's completed."

"What are you doing after this?"

"I'm going to visit Hagrid. Then I'm serving detention with the elves."

"Have fun."

"I will."

Hermione walked down to Hagrid's hut, looking up at the cloudy sky. She hadn't seen the actual sun since she came back and she doubted she would for a long time. There wasn't anyone around Hagrid's hut and he was outside tending to the pumpkins around his garden.

"Hello, Hagrid," she said. "Bad time?"

He brightened up. "Not at all, Nia. I didn't expect yeh ter come visit so soon."

"Well, I had a feeling you didn't have a class at this hour and thought I could visit you during one of my free periods."

"I'd like that very much," he said. "Would you like some tea?"

"Yes, please. I've also got something very cool to show you."

While Hagrid made the tea, Hermione set up a bigger mirror to show the video.

"I would've thought now would be the hour for sixth years," she said.

"Oh… well… nobody signed up fer the class," he said. "I've got enough seventh years and there's a good batch from third to fifth, but… I guess no one in your year is really that interested in creatures."

"That's too bad," she said. "I would have taken it but…"

"Nah, I understand yer reasonings," he said. "Part o' me wishes I had taken up Ms. Claudia's offer to work fer Castelobruxo."

"I think you would have been great at it, but I understand not wanting to leave your home," she said. "I meant to ask, they gave you a replacement wand, right? The ministry. After I proved that the Chamber of Secrets incident wasn't your fault either time?"

"O' course," he said, bringing out a wand the size of a cane. "Beautiful innit? Ollivander made it special. I'm not the best at magic, but this does make it a might easier than when I was a young'un."

"Very lovely. You know, you could probably finish your education at Castelobruxo. They have a summer program for adults who weren't able to finish or were late bloomers or had to quit to take care of their families." Hermione took a sip of tea. "At the very least you'd get the opportunity to meet dracones up close."

"I'd like that," he said. "But, I think I'm a bit too old to go back ter school. I'm almost seventy years old, y'see."

"I don't think it should matter," said Hermione. "But if you don't feel like you'd get fulfillment from completing school, then don't stress about it. I'm just glad you have the right to carry a wand. Sorry for not following up sooner."

"A lady like you is always worrying about something," said Hagrid. "Don't worry about me none. Now, what did you want ter show me?"

Hermione smiled and hooked up the crystal from the day she was adopted by Wyvern Mama.

As she suspected, Hagrid loved the video and gushed over the wyvern and how lucky Hermione was to have been adopted by one.

"Oh, I miss little Norberta," said Hagrid wistfully. "Can we watch it again?"

"Sure." Hermione rewound it.

Once their tea was done, she stood up.

"I've got detention," she said. "But I'll be by again next Tuesday."

Hagrid blinked in surprise. "Now how did a good kid like you get detention?"

"I had a loss of self-control," she said. "Have a good rest of your day, Hagrid. I'll let you know when I'm presenting the documentaries so you can come by and watch them."

"I'd like that very much."

"Here, I wrote down the spell so you can watch this whenever you want," she said, pushing the crystal towards him.

She hurried up to the castle and went straight to the kitchens.

"Hello everyone," she called.

"Hello, Miss Hermione!" said Meenie. "Would you be liking a snack?"

"Oh, no thank you," she said. "Snape assigned me to detention with you for the next week. So…" she rolled up her sleeves. "What do you need me to do?"

"Well… we are about to start dinner."

"Then I'll prep veggies." Hermione went over to the massive cookbook on its stand and opened it up. "What are we making?"

"Miss! That's Miss Hufflepuff's cookbook."

Hermione looked down at the recipe and frowned. She'd never seen this served before. She carefully turned to the next page.

"Is this her original cookbook?"

"Yes, Miss!" said Meenie, jumping onto the stool. "In her handwriting."

"Huh…" She couldn't read Old English, yet somewhere inside she understood every word. "Rosemary, currant, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, peppercorn…" She tipped her head from side-to-side and skimmed through the other recipes. "You know… a lot of this reminds me of Indian cooking. And North African. Tajeen. B'steeya. Why did we ever stop using these recipes?"

"Well, Hogwarts: A History claims we use Miss Hufflepuff's recipes," said Meenie. "However, elves are ordered to make whatever the Headmaster wants. Headmaster Dumbledore insists on modern cuisine that the students would enjoy."

"But it gets so dull, doesn't it?" said Hermione, looking at her. "Making the same things day in and day out… You're free to do as you wish. Would you want to break out some old recipes? Try some new ones? I got some great recipes. I can teach you how to make them."

The head elf looked at the recipe and drummed her fingers on the bookstand.

"It would be interesting to make something different," she said and looked to the other elves. "What say you? Shall we bring Miss Hufflepuff's recipes back?"

The elves chattered amongst themselves.

"All those who agree, raise your hand."

Hermione raised hers along with the majority. Only a few seemed unwilling.

"And who would like Miss Hermione to teach us new recipes?"

Roughly the same amount agreed.

"I'll bring my recipe binder tomorrow," said Hermione, tying her hair back and accepting an apron from Rikki. She turned to the recipe book. "Let's go a little simple. We've got fresh lamb, don't we?"

"Yes, Miss," said Meenie, giving her a curious, almost interested, look. "What do you think we should use?"

"Zucchini… tomatoes… carrots… the recipe doesn't call for potatoes but let's include them anyway, the children are using lots of energy they need starch and… sugar. Brown sugar. Ginger. Onions. Stock—any will do. Honey. Almonds. Raisins. We'll put those and olives on the side. Not everybody likes raisins. I think we've got the right cooking containers. Do we have stone dishes? Something with a lid that will allow the steam to drip back down and really make this a stew. Should we use rice or lentils? Which do we have?" She wandered over to the wall with dishes and, using her wand, took down a massive stone casserole dish with a domed lid, finding many more behind it. "Yes… all of these. And… dessert. Should we include a dessert? I think that's more of a weekend thing, isn't it?"

"Yes, Miss, but what if we served honeyed fruit?" Meenie suggested.

"Oh, that'd be nice." She washed her hands and went to the table where the elves had accumulated all the ingredients she listed. "Perfect. We'll set up the lamb tagine on this table, the vegetarian tagine on this one, and the fruit dish on that one. We'll have to give them a good amount of time to stew and really get all these flavors in. Let's do rice for the vegetarian and lentils for the lamb."

"Have you ever made these before?" asked Meenie.

"Ye—" Hermione blinked and looked at the book. "No… but I feel like I have. I'm… actually not that good of a cook but… I don't know. It's almost like I've always been doing this. Maybe I'd better just help by prepping the vegetables. Mind if I play music?"

"I don't know."

"Well, I'll play some and if it bothers you I'll turn it off."

She set up her boombox on a clear space and played a mixtape her dad made for her. She danced over to a table and got to work slicing up the zucchini in long strips before dicing them. Nobody complained about the music, though she was sure a couple elves stuffed wax in their ears. Rikki came by and took the full bowl of zucchini, placing a new one down for her to fill up.

Snape entered the hall.

"Good afternoon, Professor," she said. "How can I help you?"

He curled his lip. "Just making sure you were following through with your unorthodox detention."

"Well, as you can see," she said. "I am."

"Get those tagines lined up!" Meenie called. "I want the lentils and rice ready to go!"

"Add butter and salt to the water for the rice," said Hermione. "For the lentils, use bay leaves and kombu."

"We don't have kombu, Miss."

Hermione summoned a jar of kombu kelp that she forgot to give to her dad out of her bag and placed it on the counter. "Just use mine. It'll prevent a musical act from following dinner." She went over to the elf mixing spices and dabbed the mixture on her finger, tasting it. "It needs… something else. It's a little too sweet. Maybe try adding more turmeric? Or perhaps some… cayenne. What do you think?"

Tipsy tasted the mix and nodded. "Cayenne."

"Dinner is in an hour!" Meenie called. "I had better start smelling onions cooking!"

The elves picked up the pace.

"Excuse me, sir," said Hermione, moving around Snape to get to her own tagine. She placed it on the stove top and lit the burner, moving as if she had done this a million times before. Tikki tagged on as her partner, passing her the perfectly measured ingredients she needed.

"Do we have the ovens heated up?" she called.

"All at the right temperature," said Meenie.

"Granger!"

"Sir?"

"When I assigned you detention it was to punish you and yet here I find you playing head chef!"

"Let the child have her fun!" a voice not belonging to Hermione, yet still coming from her mouth said. "This is a good lesson in the history of cuisine!"

"I—what? What game are you playing?"

"No game, Severus! We are here to stay!"

"No, you're not," said Hermione. "Ignore her, Professor Snape. If this bothers you then I can serve detention with you starting tomorrow evening."

"You're mad!"

"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"No wonder you've been rejected from the other schools!" he spat. "Fine! Stay with the elves, but if you continue this strange behavior in class, I'll see you're a permanent resident at St. Mungo's!"

"Okay. Thank you, sir." Hermione passed off her tagine to be put in the oven.

When he left, she realized her vision was turning strange again. The chatter was changing, fading in and out of her ears. She sat down on the nearest bench and rubbed her temple.

"Are you alright?" asked Meenie. "You almost didn't quite seem like yourself."

"I'm fine," she said. "I just…" she looked at the runes on her forearm. "I think I'm a little tired. First week of school makes everybody go crazy." She poured herself a cup of water and downed it. "I'm fine. I'm ready for the next tagine."

Just before the dinner bell rang, the meals were ready and they were able to set them all up on the tables. Meenie made sure there was an equal amount of vegetarian and meat options. For the pickier, there were still plates with sandwiches. The rest of the space was filled with honeyed fruit salad and the jugs of water and juice.

"You know," said Hermione. "I bet we could recycle the leftovers into a soup for lunch tomorrow."

"I had the same thought," said Meenie. "What time will you be here tomorrow?"

"Well, I usually work out at five. If I cut it short I can be here at six?"

"That would be just fine."

Once the bell tolled, the food was sent up to the dining hall. Hermione went about cleaning up, taking rubbish to the crates for the compost heap outside.

"Go on and eat dinner," said Meenie. "We can manage the clean up."

"You sure?"

"Yes. Go sit with your friends."

"Alright. Actually…" she took out her video camera. "Can you send me up?"

"Of course, Miss!"

Hermione looked up at the ceiling and found her friends, taking her seat in the empty space they left for her.

"Okay, beam me up!"

She felt an odd sensation and phased through the floor of the Great Hall, settling in the seat across from Harry and Ron. They screamed and she giggled.

"Stop doing that!" said Ron. "I thought you couldn't apparate within Hogwarts!"

"I didn't apparate." She picked up a potholder and removed the lid of the tagine.

"What is that?" asked Daphne, leaning forward. "It smells good."

"It's kosher. It's a recipe I found in Hufflepuff's cookbook. Apparently, they haven't actually been used in centuries."

"What meat is it?" asked Padma, inhaling deeply. "Please don't say beef."

"Lamb." Hermione scooped rice into her bowl and topped it with the stew. "The meat we can all eat. There's a vegan option, too. Carrots, zucchini, potatoes, and tomatoes."

"It smells like curry," said Parvati.

"It uses a lot of the same spices as curry," Hermione said and took a bite. "Mm! Good. I think it's a keeper. What do you guys think?"

"I don't know," said Hannah, poking at it and taking another bite. "I think I'll eat all of it… and I'd eat it if it's served again… but I wouldn't cook it for myself. Does that make sense?"

"Yes."

"So… it's Indian?" asked Harry, taking another bite.

"No. Meenie told me this is the sort of stuff they ate in medieval times. It wasn't until spices became more accessible did the fashion move towards pairing flavors that "match" each other. It is a lot like Indian cooking, though. Stews and curries are pretty similar and, really, the most modern part of the dish is the fact that we used potatoes, which are from the Americas."

"Well, I like it," said Ron.

"Are you going to make something new each day?" Daphne asked.

"I'll push where I can but it also depends on the budget," said Hermione. "I will be teaching them new recipes to dabble here and there. Maybe we can involve people more. You know? Like… hamantaschen for Purim or moon cakes for Lunar New Year. I'm already starting a multicultural club to get people more open-minded."

"I draw the line at attending classes with ghosts," said Ron.

"But Ron! Ghosts do attend classes at Castelobruxo!"

"What on earth could they possibly study?" asked Harry.

Hermione grinned. "Dead languages!"

Her friend groaned, but someone behind her started giggling. She looked over her shoulder at Cho who quickly turned back to her friends.

"She thinks I'm funny," Hermione said and took a sip of her water.

There wasn't anything overly negative about the new fare for dinner. The following day, she went to the kitchens during fourth period and showed them her recipes. She and Meenie made some dumplings after prepping for the actual dinner. The few eating during the test runs made Hermione full, so she took a nap in her dorm before she had to go on her prefect rounds.

Duties? Patrolling the hallways for students out of bed. Her partner? Draco Malfoy. They would be walking the third and fourth floors and would mostly be making sure the kids in Astronomy went straight to their dorms after class let out.

"Suppose you think you're clever," Draco spat once they were alone.

"I mean… yeah, but I'm assuming I've done something to annoy you."

"Don't play dumb!" he growled. "This is all some ploy to get close to me so my mother will help you with… whatever the hell you're doing! What are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry, that's a level five friendship question and therefore I am unable to answer it," she said. "And get over yourself. If you want your girlfriend near you so bad, we can fake it out and I can go do my stuff while you and Pansy snog in some corner."

"Well, I don't want that, either," he said. "We're not together. Haven't been for a while."

"Hm. Does she know that?"

"Shut up!"

Hermione smirked and stuffed her hands in her pockets. "I'm just saying. She's got an ugly thing coming her way when you decide you want to date someone else."

"I don't have time for dating," he muttered. "So… what, are you spying on me for Potter?"

"Nah. Actually, I'm trying to get him off your back."

"Why would you do that?"

"He has more important things to worry about."

"Oh…" he scowled. "Hey!"

"You want to see something cool?" she asked.

"No."

"Too bad." Hermione went over to the wall and knelt down, working out a loose stone. She reached inside and took out a velvet bag. "People hide the craziest things in this school. You know adults studied here too until the 19th century? It changed when it became easier to get here via the Hogwarts Express." She tipped it over and dumped the contents into her hand. Galleons. Not a lot, about ten of them.

Draco raised an eyebrow and tentatively took one, examining it by the light of his wand.

"This is… this is the Morgan le Fay edition," he said. "Only five hundred were put in circulation in 1768 and most were smelted down to make the Merlin version in use today. These are… priceless. How did you know it was here?"

"Just knew."

He rolled the coin over his fingers thoughtfully and placed it back in her hand. "Does it have to do with that thing you pulled in the mirror in the Room of Requirement?"

"Yeah." Hermione gave him the galleon back and put the rest in her bag. "I wouldn't go telling everyone about that, though. If they knew I could sense everything going on inside the castle, I might get in trouble for privacy violations, che?"

He hummed and scowled. "Why are you being friendly to me?"

"Because I'm tired of having enemies," she said. "You've been bitchy, but you haven't been the tosser you used to be and I'm not the priss I used to be, so I think we could possibly exist in the same space for a limited amount of time."

"Fat chance."

She clicked her tongue. "Worth a shot."

They spent the rest of the patrol in relative silence, only speaking to give updates through their walkie-talkies. Once they were sure the students from the Astronomy class were in their dorms, their patrol ended and they were allowed to return to Slytherin house. They entered the Common Room to find Pansy awake and fuming.

"Have a good patrol?" she spat.

"Eh." Hermione shrugged and went to her dorm, locking the door before Pansy could follow. She hoped the girl found a new distraction soon. She was getting tired of all the confrontations.

The rest of the week proved no less stressful. Hermione's busiest day was Thursday with arithmancy, Charms, and double potions. They would be forming their own spells for Arithmancy, and in Charms they were working on last year's spells, only nonverbal. Hermione had already almost mastered nonverbal and, to everyone else, she was moving on to wandless. It did get her extra points and the Slytherins who were upset with her for losing them fifty points the first day had gotten over it when their numbers steadily rose.

She definitely made an impression each day with her wildly differing outfits. When she showed up to class in full goth attire, complete with studded platforms and scary makeup, she was sure she almost gave Professor Slughorn a heart attack. When asked about her choice in wardrobe, she simply replied, "It's Thursday."

The lift in her shoes gave her a better view over her cauldron and she could see everyone else's. She could also see the writing covering Harry's textbook much like the notes on her own.

"You didn't say it was edited," she said after class.

"What, mad that he's as good as you now?" asked Ron.

"Not at all. I mean, you're my equal, probably better, at Ancient Runes and you don't see me getting my knickers in a twist about it. I just didn't realize that his was edited and not simply a better edition."

"Did you want to copy?" Harry asked. "I offered it to Ron, but he couldn't read it."

"Well, duh." Hermione took the textbook and flipped through it. "That's spaghetti right there. My brain doesn't even like that. Frankly, it'd be better if you set aside some time to go through it and make the notes in your own textbook."

"That'd be cool," said Padma. "Think we can copy, too?"

"I'll let you copy from mine," said Hermione. "We'll do that this weekend."

"You know, I bet if all of us improved and said it was you two who helped, he might show all of us a bit more favoritism," said Daphne.

"It would be nice if he learned my name," Ron muttered.

"Great," said Hermione. "Let's start it after dinner and we'll finish… Sat— no, Sunday."

"Why not Saturday?"

"School tours, prefect meeting, plus it's Shabbat," said Daphne. "Sundown Friday to sundown Saturday."

"Besides, you've got enough to worry about Saturday," said Hermione. "You need to fight to the death with the other Quidditch Captains on when you're holding tryouts."

"We don't fight to the death for timeslots."

"Well, you should," said Padma. "It'd be way more entertaining."

"I already put the bid in for next Saturday morning."

"Boo."

"Can we walk a little slower?" Hermione asked. "I'm not used to these lifts yet."

"Why are you wearing those, anyway?" asked Ron.

"What, salty that I'm your height now?"

"No, but you never dressed like a vampire before."

"Vampires don't actually wear all black, they're more inclined to wear white because it reflects light while black absorbs. And I dress like this because I look good in it."

"No argument there," said Padma. "I'd like to give something like that a try."

"We're around the same size, you can come down Saturday evening and try a couple outfits on," said Hermione. "We can have a 'we survived the first week of school' spa party."

"I wouldn't say no to that," said Daphne.

"THAT'S MINE!" a boy yelled ahead of them. "Give it back!"

Hermione stretched out her hand and grabbed the thief by the back of his shirt as he ran past. He gagged and stumbled back. In his hand was a remembrall. Déjà vu.

She stared down at him and held out her other hand for the stolen remembrall.

"I better not catch you stealing again," she said.

The boy nodded vigorously and handed her the remembrall in time for the other boy to run up, panting heavily.

"Hi there," said Hermione, holding up the remembrall. "Is this yours?"

"VAMPIRE!" he screamed and took off in the opposite direction.

"He's in Ravenclaw," said Padma. "I'll get it back to him."

Hermione passed it over.

"Do I really look like a vampire in this?" she asked.

"Yes," said Daphne. "Sort of."

"Cool."