"Hermione, right?"
Hermione looked up at Milan Bexley, who was standing on her parents' front porch, looking highly amused. Milan was taller by Hermione by a couple inches, and Hermione felt very small looking up at the older girl.
"Yes," Hermione said. "Thank you for coming."
"Of course. It's not every day you get an owl from the Heroine of Hogwarts," Milan teased, and Hermione groaned, hiding her face as Milan laughed.
"Please, come in," Hermione bid. "I'll get the tea tray."
A few minutes later found them both sitting in the living room, sipping tea, while Hermione explained what she was looking for.
"I don't have much time," Hermione admitted. "Certainly not enough to 'shop around', so to speak, and find a place to teach me. Can you?"
"I don't know how much aikido I could really teach you in two weeks," Milan said, looking thoughtful. "I could probably teach you how to fall safely in that amount of time, but not much more."
"Even that would be helpful," Hermione said. "Learning other moves probably wouldn't help much – I wouldn't be fighting against normal-sized people, really."
"Really?" Milan looked amused. "And just what would you be fighting, Hermione?"
Hermione flushed.
"No one," she muttered. "Just… imagine fighting an eight-year-old with the mind of an adult. But one with sharp teeth and really long claws."
Milan started laughing.
"This is something you are determined to do?" Milan clarified, smiling. "It is going to hurt, you realize."
"It will hurt even worse if I get into a fight and lose," Hermione pointed out, and Milan set her tea aside and stood, smiling.
"Change into something easier to move in," she instructed. "I can conjure mats for us to practice on."
Hermione hurried to change, throwing on a pair of loose shorts, a sports bra, and a loose tank top. When she came back down, Milan was in a white martial arts sort of outfit with dark, wide-legged pants. Milan smiled.
"Perfect," she said. "Let's go."
Hermione led the way into the back yard. Milan looked around at the high walls surrounding the yard, nodding approvingly, before conjuring mats in the shade of the large tree.
"The most important thing you will need to learn is how to fall," Milan told her seriously, her smile wiped away. "If you fall incorrectly in a fight, the fight could end right there. You could break something or seriously hurt yourself. You must learn to fail before you learn to fly."
Hermione winced. "Alright…"
Learning to fall was painful and rigorous. First, Milan demonstrated the technique, falling to the ground and rolling and lifting herself up again immediately in one smooth, elegant movement that Hermione envied. Next, she broke down the parts of the fall, having Hermione try them alongside her very slowly, before she deemed Hermione ready to try.
Over and over again, Milan threw Hermione to the ground, Hermione trying to learn how to hit the ground and roll properly. She felt like a fool, legs pinwheeling in the air as she rolled on her shoulder only to miss and fall over again, but Milan was patient, guiding her through it over and over again.
By the time Hermione finally got it, she was sweaty and sore, but Milan beamed at her.
"Well done!" she said. "Now: we'll practice this fall…"
The next fall was more unpleasant – it wasn't about hitting the ground and getting back up again so much as how best to fall to minimize damage and pain. Over and over again, Hermione was told to tighten her core and make sure her hand hit the ground first, the rest of her body following in a soft curving motion.
After Milan pronounced her "adequate" for that one, Hermione called a pause and went inside to get them cold drinks, which they enjoyed in the shade of the tree.
"You seem to be having a busy summer," Milan commented to Hermione, smiling. "Testifying at the trial, now sending out fliers about the upcoming elections…"
Hermione jerked.
"How did you know I did that?" she demanded, and Milan laughed.
"Theo verified his list with Jade before giving it to you," she told Hermione. "He wanted to be positive it was complete and accurate before providing you with it." Her eyes danced. "Apparently, whatever favor you promised him was worth the extra effort."
Hermione squirmed. She'd let Theo have an open-ended favor, so long as it didn't endanger her or anyone she cared about. Now, she felt apprehensive about just what he would want.
"It's a good thing you're doing," Milan told her. "One of the things that has frustrated me the most is just how opaque wizarding society can be from the outside." Her smile was brittle. "How are we supposed to learn a new culture and set of customs if they won't teach it to us?"
"If they have Muggle Studies for the pureblood students, why don't they have Wizarding Studies for the Muggleborn students?" Hermione asked, and Milan shrugged.
"The purebloods like keeping it away from others, I think," she said. "As it is now, they can easily judge people from how they interact within society. If everybody knew how to fit in, they wouldn't be able to discriminate as easily."
Hermione sighed.
"Hopefully the fliers will help with this, at least," she said. "I wouldn't have even known about this youth election if my friends hadn't told me."
Milan smiled. "It's good of you to take initiative. Every little change helps push us towards bigger ones."
Hermione wiped her forehead off with her tank top. Though the shade was nice, she was still sweatier than she would have liked.
"How's your summer been?" she asked. "You've only got one more year left, right?"
"Oh, nothing special," Milan said dismissively. Her eyes sparkled. "Certainly not getting into potential fights with gnarled eight-year-olds."
Hermione flushed, and Milan laughed.
"Most of this summer has been studying for my NEWTs," she said, shrugging. "Jade and I study together sometimes, when she's free. We're both waiting for our school letters – we're eager to see who made Head Girl."
"Oh!" Hermione said. "Are you in the running for that too?"
"Probably," Milan said modestly. "My marks are high, and I've been a prefect for two years. I hope Jade gets it, though. She wants it more than anything."
"And you don't?" Hermione asked, blinking.
"While it'd be nice, I guess, I'd rather see Jade happy than have it myself," Milan said. She was looking away at the horizon, a soft smile on her face. "She's wanted it since we were kids."
Hermione felt like she was intruding, seeing the older girl slip into this almost-trance. But it was kind of nice, too, to see how much Milan clearly cared for Jade.
"I know this is probably a hard topic," Hermione said slowly. "But… what are you going to do after Hogwarts?"
Milan looked up at her, surprised.
"Oh, I was going to go to be a Healer," she said. "I've got the marks for it, and I'd like to—"
"No, not like that," Hermione said. "With Jade."
Milan paused.
"Has Jade said something about this?" she asked.
Hermione winced. "Of a sort. It was more 'I'll deal with that when I come to it'."
Milan smirked slightly, but her eyes didn't smile.
"That sounds like her," she said. "Focusing on the current goals, putting off the more unpleasant things to deal with until they're absolutely necessary to handle."
She looked reflective for a moment, before turning to Hermione.
"You realize that the wizarding world is not exactly widely accepting of us, right?" she asked. "That while we might be tolerated, we are looked down upon by most?"
"Yes," Hermione said. "Why is that, though?"
"Because the wizarding world is antiquated and disgusting," Milan said dryly. "Strictly speaking: it is because two women cannot have an heir, were they to wed. Without an heir to carry on a family line, what is the point?" Her smile was brittle. "The purebloods often think little of love when it comes to such things."
Hermione bit her lip. "Then… why…?"
"While Jade and I haven't flaunted our relationship, Jade has made a point not to hide it from her housemates or our classmates," Milan said. "I think she hopes that if she makes it plain that she doesn't want a husband, no one will offer for her, and she'll be free to do as she pleases."
"That's so barbaric," Hermione said, aghast. "She's a legal adult, now. Can't she do as she pleases anyway?"
"She could," Milan agreed, "but at the sacrifice of her name. A pureblood casting off their family like that is significant in the wizarding world. It would strip her of any inheritance she might get and would make it challenging for her to get a job."
Hermione looked at her. "Then… what are you…?"
"I'm trying to look on the bright side," Milan admitted. "I don't want to leave Jade. And we have a year to figure out a way to make it work somehow, after school." She scowled. "I'm really hoping we find something better than me being her mistress on the side."
"Mistress?" Hermione repeated. "You think Jade would get married so fast?"
"It's not uncommon," Milan said, shrugging. "Witches and wizards marry much younger than muggles do."
"Why?" Hermione said, confused. "With longer life spans, I would have thought they'd wait until even later."
Milan hummed, considering.
"It's odd," she said, "but there's kind of a feeling we have that muggles don't. Muggles have a concept of 'chemistry' with each other, when they date. Magical people have something similar that helps you know how compatible you are with someone, a sort of magical resonance, and similar tones are drawn together naturally." She gave Hermione a smile. "I'm sure you'll feel that someday, perhaps not all that far off. It's a wonderful, wordless sort of feeling, when your magic slots nicely into place next to theirs."
Hermione blushed.
"I'm only thirteen," she protested, and Milan laughed.
"Hogsmeade this year, right?" she teased. "Who are you going to go with first, Hermione?"
"Go with?" Hermione was confused. "Um. My friends, I guess? Who else would I go with?"
"Hogsmeade is generally the first public dates people have at Hogwarts," Milan told her with a smile. "You'll probably go with your friends the first time, but after that, I wouldn't be surprised to see some of your classmates pairing off and going together."
"I don't want to think about that," Hermione said, blushing brighter. "I want to know about you and Jade."
"So nosy," Milan teased. "Why so nosy, Hermione?"
"Because I like Jade?" Hermione poked at the ground with a stick. "I know it's not really any of my business, but I like you and Jade. I'm invested in your happiness, and right now with your Hogwarts years' end looming, it just seems so unnecessarily tragic."
Milan's face was empty, her eyes bleak.
"It is, isn't it?" she said quietly. Her voice was stark, her eyes looking out at nothing. "I try not to think about it, but it feels like a time bomb ticking down."
The older girl's voice was filled with pain and anguish, and Hermione felt her heart clench for her. She wasn't even involved, and she felt like crying for Milan and Jade.
"I would do anything," Milan said quietly. "Anything, if it meant I could stay by her side."
Hermione's eyes widened. She didn't know what to say.
After a long, heavy moment, Milan seemed to shake herself out of it with a sigh, and she stood up.
"Let's practice those falls again," she said. "After that, I can show you how to alter the hand grips I taught you a few months ago. If you're going to be fighting people with claws, you're going to need to go about things a little differently."
Hermione groaned.
"I'm really glad you're teaching me, don't get me wrong," she said. "But do falls have to hurt so much?"
Milan laughed.
"Pain is the body's feedback machine," she told her. "If you fall properly, it won't hurt much at all."
When Milan left that day, Apparating away, it was after Hermione had accumulated several new bruises, her body very sore. Milan had advised her to practice falling daily, her eyes sparkling at Hermione's groan. Though Hermione knew she was right, she was sore, and it was hard to think about doing this every single day for two weeks.
After all this, I almost want to fight a goblin, just so it all goes to good use, Hermione wrote to Tom that night.
Tom's handwriting seemed amused in his response, a quirked slant to his words.
Hermione, knowing you, he replied, confrontation is an inevitability.