Hermione, well aware she was obsessing, was in the library researching, obsessing over the latest revelation about the silver bond. She'd Time-Turned back to research during DADA class, gone to her other classes, Time-Turned back again to bury herself in the library more, and she hadn't left the room since noon.

Hermione had been so certain she'd been memory charmed. She'd been so certain she and Blaise had been caught and mind-wiped, and that they'd found the bond by sheer chance. Nothing else made any sense to her, and having her memories altered and erased had been the clear answer to the origin of the bond.

Now, though…

What was she supposed to think now?

She had done the Occlumency ritual with Draco at the beginning of second year, Hermione recalled, sketching out a timeline on a piece of parchment. She and Blaise had joined the others in uniting as a coven in May of second year, and there hadn't been any bond there yet. So that meant at some point between May 1993 and August 1994, she and Blaise had somehow made a bond.

"Researching?"

Hermione looked up to see Blaise looking down at her, his lips quirked. Hermione groaned, collapsing onto her books spread over the table.

"Can you blame me?" she despaired. "I feel like I have no idea what's going on."

"You've been at it all day." Blaise sat down at a nearby chair with ease. He seemed remarkably untroubled. "Find anything helpful?"

"Not really," Hermione admitted. "I've found information on different kinds of magical bonds, but… everyone uses different language to describe them, so it's hard to parse out the meaning and translate it into terms I can understand."

"Different language?" Blaise echoed. "What do you mean?"

"Remember when we were all trying to match the ley line over the summer?" Hermione said. "Harry kind of did it by feel, Tracey with some sort of sci-fi image, and Pansy with sound?" She glanced up at Blaise. "It's like that. Because it's magic, it's not actually a silver rope – you and I just see it like that. And the people who wrote these books, that's not how they interpreted the magic, so it's hard to figure out what relates to what."

Blaise looked intrigued.

"How do they interpret it then?" he asked. "I'd have thought visualizing magic would be the easiest way, really."

"The most helpful book so far is one where the author uses musical terms and sound," Hermione said, dragging over an old tome. "I'm trying to use your mum's gold marriage bonds as a base to translate from. Like you said a marriage bond is gold, whereas this author describes it as 'a chorus of beautiful voices, chorusing together in the musical climax of Beethoven's 9th symphony'."

"That's…" Blaise was visibly taken aback. "Honestly, that really surprises me. The magical world… they're not big on music."

"Not even the Ode to Joy? Hermione asked, glancing up at him.

Blaise's lips quirked. "Not even that."

Hermione sighed.

"This guy goes into a huge rant in the introduction about the wizarding world's ignorance about music, but I only skimmed it," she admitted. "He does describe a bunch of types of bonds. Apparently, our coven bond sounds like O Fortuna." She sighed. "Honestly, it might be really helpful if I perceived magic in a similar way."

"We could ask Pansy?" Blaise suggested. "She could tell us what it sounds like."

Hermione made a face.

"We could," she acknowledged, reluctant. "But then she'd know about the bond."

"Does that bother you?" Blaise asked. "If people knew about it?"

"I mean, kind of?" Hermione said, faltering. "Not that we have it – I stand by it obviously being a good thing, and my magic was constantly nagging at me to complete it – but it's embarrassing to admit we did it without knowing it. And depending on what it is – that might be embarrassing too."

Blaise's lips quirked. "Would it?"

"It might," Hermione shot back, her face red. Blaise grinned, but he let it drop.

"Are you going to keep researching?" he asked. "What's your plan now?"

Hermione shot him a look.

"I was going to," she said slowly. "Do you think I should not?"

Blaise shrugged.

"I mean, it's like you said, right?" he said. "Whatever it is, it's obviously good. I like that it's there, and now that it's complete, there's no sense stressing over it. It's not like we can undo it."

Just the thought of unwinding the bond with Blaise made something inside Hermione cringe and feel ill, and she nodded hastily to agree.

"So if we can't do anything about it," Blaise went on, "then I don't really see any reason to stress."

Hermione sighed.

"I mean, you have a point," she conceded. "But still! If we knew what kind of bond it was, we could learn how to use it and what all it meant. Like with the coven bond – we know how that works, how it can multiply and amplify all our magic together. And marriage bonds apparently let one person take on a portion of another person's labor pain? That's what Daphne said, anyway – so what does this bond do?"

"Besides mutually masturbate under the stars?" Blaise murmured, eyes dancing.

Hermione went scarlet, and he laughed.

"Well," he mused. "I suppose we can figure it out as we go. But Hermione – what's done is done. I'm not mad about it. And stressing like this over it isn't going to help anyone."

Hermione sighed, and Blaise gave her a soft smile. He stood, offering her a hand.

"Let's put all these books back," he said, "and then go get you some dinner."

She had been at it all day, Hermione knew. And passing out from exhaustion wasn't likely to help anybody.

"Alright," she conceded, taking his hand. "But after dinner, I'm coming back here."

Blaise laughed.

"If you insist," he said, eyes sparkling, "but I'm going to try to change your mind."

"Missy Hermione!"

"Hello, Tolly," Hermione greeted, smiling. She looked around the kitchens at the other elves, many of whom were wearing the robes they'd gotten from the goblins. "How are you? How's it being back at the school?"

"It is being very nice to be being back at Hogwarts," Tolly admitted. "It was being nice on holiday to be helping the goblins, but Tolly is very glad to be back at the castle."

"The goblins were getting a bit bloodthirsty at the end, there," Neemey said, drifting by, purple eyes glinting. "Not quite to the taste of Tolly."

"You be quiet!" Tolly admonished. "The goblinses is just being more—more violent than we is being. They was not hurting any of us," she told Hermione quickly. "They is… they is just mad about wizards, really. But they was being very grateful for us helping them."

Neemey grinned, mockingly. "Of course."

"I'm glad your summer went well," Hermione said. "I have a question for you about Hogwarts, actually. I'm trying to find a specific room in the school."

"Oh! We can be helping with that!" Tolly said brightly, clapping her hands. "House Elves is going everywhere in Hogwarts. Oh yes, we is knowing the castle like the folds of our ears. What is you needing help finding?"

"It's a room with a ton of junk in it," Hermione described. "Like, piles and piles many feet high. I think it's on the seventh floor, and the door isn't always there, but it can appear sometimes."

Tolly, who had seemed so excited a moment ago, visibly deflated in disappointment.

"Oh, this is being an easy one," Tolly dismissed. "You is talking about the Come and Go room."

"The Come and Go room?" Hermione repeated.

"It is also being called the Room of Requirement," Tolly told her. "It is being a room that a person can only be entering when they is having a real need of it. Sometimes it is there, and sometimes it is not, but when it is appearing, it is always being equipped for the seeker's needs."

"That's fascinating," Hermione said, intrigued. "Is the room sentient?"

"We is not knowing," Tolly admitted. "We is mostly using it when we is needing more cleaning supplies, but I is knowing that many lost things is finding their way to the Come and Go room."

"So how do I find it?" Hermione asked. "I just… need to need something very badly?"

"You need to be thinking of what you is needing," Tolly said firmly, "and then be walking in front of the wall three times. It is being in the left corridor on the seventh floor, and across from the tapestry with the ballet trolls. Once you is doing that, the door is appearing with the room having what you is needing."

"Be careful what you use it for," Neemey advised, smirking. "Don't go overboard, now. It won't break the laws of magic for you." Neemey grinned, viciously, showing many pointy teeth. "You need a Fae to do that."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Duly noted."