Author's Note:
Bit of a calm chapter, an interlude of sorts.
I reread my work on chapter 36 and felt that on some critical points, it sucks. So Imma tear that down and rebuild it again. If it's done by next week, that's when it would be up. Otherwise, expect to see it a fortnight from now.
This is a bit delayed from my usual update hour because one of my maternal younger cousins is getting married and the extended family gets pulled into helping him iron out the kinks of the ceremony/reception. Which meant meetings (over meals, thankfully). Which dragged for a bit. Which meant I am seriously considering ditching the entire ceremony if I ever tied the knot and just sign some papers for the civil registry.
'-
35 Tea and Precocity
At the Ravenclaw common room with A. Transfiguration homework. Tea with the Ravenclaw witches. Hermione receives a message.
'-
"You're doing your homework," Lakshmi commented as she'd walked down from their dorm to the common room.
"Yep," Hermione said.
The brunette was leaning on one of the couches, sitting on one of the large floor pillows they apparently have. The Persian rugs were apparently not just decorations, as more than one furnishing actually had the same theme. It was a nice accent. Next to her was Julia, who was doing the same thing that Hermione was doing (an Advanced Transfigurations essay), and one of Julia's sixth-year friends from the same class.
"On Friday afternoon," the dark-haired witch said in disbelief.
"Would you rather I be doing this on Saturday or Sunday?" Hermione asked.
"Not really."
"Come on, Chakravarty, she's not going to spend hours doing this. She's already really good at it," Julia pointed out. "And I'm really doing this much faster with Hermione's assistance than alone."
"Yes, Chakravarty, please have pity on us," said Julia's friend. Her high ponytail was drooping a bit after one hour of studying and doing her homework. Hermione was desperately trying to remember her name. Sarah? Cynthia? Sally? Celia?
Lakshmi stared at them before nodding. "You have a point, there. Anyway, what are you all doing for Hogsmeade weekend?"
"Restock my parchments, ink and quills. I'd like to check out new books at the bookstore. What? Hey, you asked, and for your information we are in Ravenclaw House." Julia said, commenting on Lakshmi's unamused expression.
"Yes, but surely there are many forms of knowledge than that bound in books? There are more things in heaven and earth than is dreamt of in your philosophy?"
"Well, that came from a book," Julia's friend astutely remarked.
Lakshmi rolled her eyes. "I remembered it better because I've watched the play more than once."
"Whatever else is there, I'm quite certain that you won't find a theatre at Hogsmeade," Julia said.
"Checking out the bookstore doesn't sound like such a bad idea," Hermione mused. "Considering the size of Hogsmeade, I know it's going be small, though. So, is it worth it?"
"Well, they manage it by rotating the books quickly—they really only stock the newest books, unless you specifically order something from them. But it's certainly better than settling for months without new books." Julia answered.
"Oh, Kali. I can't believe we're back to that small book store again." Lakshmi complained as she dropped herself on the couch behind them, an arm laid over her forehead. "Come on, isn't anyone about to try something else?"
Julia was the picture of contentment with her selection. She merely seemed amused at Lakshmi's insistence. Julia's friend seemed more willing to find something else but was equally stumped.
"Well. Hogsmeade simply isn't that big…"
"It actually is, Sykes," Lakshmi disagreed as she turned to the other witch. "You just have to venture a little farther from the usual spots visited by Hogwarts students."
That made Sykes (whatever her first name is) looked a little glum and the quiet was a bit awkward. Hermione, for one, would rather just get back to her Transfiguration essay, but reluctantly accepted that it wouldn't be happening anytime soon.
"Well, apparently there's this nice restaurant, there?" She hazarded.
"It's not the Maid in the Moat, is it?" Lakshmi asked warily. "Which is nice if you like the meaty English fare, but not if it doesn't fit your taste. People usually floo-in from, I don't know, Manchester or something. People who'd worked hard the whole day and wanted a hearty meal that reminds them of home."
"No, it's The Hare and the Fowl?" Hermione's answer ended up sounding more like a question than a statement in her own doubt.
"Is it nice?" Julia's friend had perked up.
"Well, I heard it's nice. I've never been there myself, hence why I'm going to try tomorrow."
"Oh, really?" Julia asked. "Wow, now you've interested me in trying it out! What do you think Celeste?"
Celeste smiled. "It does sound interesting, doesn't it?"
Oh, so that's her name, Hermione thought. On the other hand, she was now placed in the awkward position of having to clarify that she wasn't trying to invite everyone else to go out with her at all. But that meant mentioning Tom. And her date.
Well.
Inwardly, she sighed. And she'd been doing so well at not saying anything too…
"Well! Good luck to you all if you wish to go out and try it," Hermione said, smiling a tad too wide.
Celeste, Julia's sporty friend—Hermione remembered that the sixth-year was a Ravenclaw chaser—turned to her with a confused look. "You're not coming with us at all? I thought you said you were interested in trying it out?"
The brunette bit her lip.
"I can go with you next time, Celeste, Julia?" She offered. "The thing is, I was going to try to visit it this weekend with Tom."
Right. I didn't say the D-word. Hermione assured herself. From the wide-eyed, startled deer expression they had, it didn't seem to make much of a difference.
"Merlin's balls!" Celeste spluttered.
"Celeste!" Julia elbowed her still flabbergasted friend. Not that her shocked expression was any better.
"Morgana's tits," Lakshmi dryly added.
"You're not helping, Chakravarty!"
Julia's friend had eyes as wide as saucers. "Sorry! I mean. You—how—I thought—"
"Don't say anything, take a deep slow breath and count to five. Are you doing that? Good. Now, slowly exhale at the same speed. Repeat until you feel better." Lakshmi ordered, before she moved in front of Hermione. "You're not going to tell that to anyone outside us and the girls of your dorms, Hermione. Promise me."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "It's just going to be—"
"There's no just about it," unexpectedly, it was Julia who hissed in a low voice at her. They had all moved closer now, sudden co-conspirators in a secret cabal. "Who would be the Head Boy from your year is already obvious even from now. Do you know how many witches have tried to set their cap at Tom Riddle? Do you?"
"I…no?" The brunette wavered. The glint in Julia's green eyes burned like St. Elmo's fire, and it made Hermione uncertain about what her answer would mean.
"There was even one I would not name who tried to follow him into the prefect bathroom. I won't name names since I believe that we've all done foolish things from time to time, and even a silly chit such as her doesn't deserve to be ruined over it."
She heard Lakshmi's snort along with a muttered, someone that stupid does.
"No," she disagreed. "She hasn't done anything harmful to anyone yet so I feel I can be merciful so far," Julia said without looking away from Hermione.
"Others have sat so close to him they're practically draping themselves in his lap. He barely even reacted, simply removing them from his person when he left with the ease that I'd remove a recalcitrant feral cat."
"Ha! That analogy is priceless," her dormmate said.
"It was true, though," Celeste commented. "I was at that quidditch match. I couldn't believe the audacity of that bint either. Was rather ticked off myself, but seems like one of the Slytherin chasers was thinking exactly the same thing that we just glanced at each other and shared our pain—well, it was embarrassed pain for me and a lot of piss and vinegar on her side. Probably because someone from her House was humiliating themselves and making her look like the fool—you know how those people from old families are."
The Chaser snapped her fingers. "Ah! I remember! It was Beatrix von Blankenstein. Not just a useless nob, that one. It was also after we'd just finished a match with each Slytherin! So, imagine the size of our irritation for that to have happened."
"The boys are ruining your vocabulary," Julia said with a sigh.
"Basically, Hermione, it can easily get life-threatening. You can't underestimate the idiocy that people devolve into when they let their passions overrule their good sense, do you hear me?" Lakshmi insisted. Considering that Hermione can personally attest to that when she found herself shoved down some stairs, she agreed.
"Ah, alright, then."
"Thank goodness," Lakshmi murmured with relief.
"So…" Julia continued, "what dress are you wearing?"
Hermione couldn't quite understand all the attention on her. She felt like a blood sample slid under a microscope.
"I think I have a nice one I bought along with everything else when Professor Merrythought helped me shop in Diagon Alley." She said.
Lakshmi groaned. Celeste seemed to still be too surprised to say much as Julia turned to Hermione's dormmate. "Is she always this bad?"
"Yes."
"It was a nice dress!" Hermione insisted.
"But we don't want nice," Julia explained. "We're looking for elegant, for something sophisticated that nonetheless doesn't look like it's trying too hard. Something that can channel effortless grace."
Hermione was sceptical. "Are you looking for a dress or a miracle?"
"It can be done. Come on. Goldstein, Sykes, we've got to get together in this. You can finish your transfiguration homework and who knows what else in the next half hour or so. After that we'll have tea. I'll be going through my wardrobe for anything that I think can fit Hermione, both in style and in size, and I'm sure I can trust you to do the same? I'll try to reach Eugenie and Lucretia too." Lakshmi determined all this with the gimlet eye of a general giving her troops their marching orders.
Julia firmly nodded.
"Certainly. You can rely on us."
"Guys, it's just eating out at Hogsmeade."
"Hermione," Celeste asked her seriously. "You do want to look nice, don't you? Or would you prefer to just pick the first dress that you find in your wardrobe?"
"Well, I do want to look nice, but—"
"Then why don't you trust us and let us do this for you?" The Chaser asked.
"Um, well. Isn't this a little too much? I'm sure you guys have other things you want to do on a Friday afternoon, right?"
The three witches shared a look.
"No, Hermione. This is definitely not too much." Julia assured her. "Besides, I'm not delusional enough to think I'd ever end up with Tom—not that I personally like him or anything, but he is very pretty. It's hard not to stare, you know? Anyway, we get to live vicariously through you!"
"Yes. Very easy on the eyes, that man," Lakshmi observed dispassionately.
Celeste nodded. "Trust me, we're enjoying this a lot."
'-
She'd finished her transfiguration essay (and helped Julia and Celeste), and was making the first draft of her arithmancy one. That made Julia remember her arithmancy homework and she tried to do that at the same time as Hermione so she could discuss some topics she wasn't quite clear on. She was still amazed at Hermione's grasp of some of the concepts. Celeste had moved on to her Charms homework instead.
"Hermione, you should've just taken Advanced Arithmancy II. I'm quite certain that you'd be able to keep up," Julia said. Hermione shook her head.
"I don't think they'd allow that. I mean, I've taken the tests equivalent to OWLs, but my class records certainly don't say anything about my already taking the advanced classes. That would be like skipping a class, right?"
"But you could just show them what you know!" She insisted.
"And if the class gets too challenging, I'd be hard-pressed to juggle it along with the eight other classes I'm also taking. So, no. I'll just take that next year, like I'm supposed to."
Julia sighed. "Oh, fine. You really do have to join our study groups sometime, though."
She mused about it for a while before giving an answer. "Ask me when my schedule happens to be free and I'll take you up on it. Just don't try it on a Sunday, because I'm certainly a lot more reluctant to do anything too strenuous then."
And they went back to their respective homework.
They spent longer than half an hour at it, though it wasn't quite to a whole hour either when they decided to just wrap it up and call it a day. Julia was a lot more excited at the idea of having tea at Lucretia's dorm than Hermione was, and Celeste was also thrumming with anticipation as they ascended the stairs.
Hermione wasn't sure whether she was supposed to be flattered or weirded out that when they reached her dorm, Lucretia and Eugenie was there, instead of being away and socialising with their other friends.
"Hello, Hermione. Good afternoon Goldstein, Sykes." Lucretia greeted.
Julia smoothly replied and her friend followed not long after. More greetings were exchanged and introductions were made where it was necessary (Julia and Eugenie already knew each other as they were both prefects, but Celeste didn't know the fifth-year). They all sat down at the table in the middle and it turned out that the tea service was already prepared. Lucretia played hostess, asking for Julia and Celeste's preferences as she poured tea for everyone. The cake was taken out and Hermione had to facepalm at Lakshmi's insistence on telling everyone that Tom brought it yesterday for Hermione.
The dark-haired witch was the one who promptly opened up the topic and explained to them why she said the tea time was 'urgent'. Hermione had to hold back the urge to cringe as Eugenie turned her stunned face to her while Lucretia was more…impressed? She had to focus back on that point again.
Wait, why was she impressed?
"How…how did it happen?" Eugenie was the first one to speak up.
"How what happened?" Hermione replied.
"How you ended up going out with Tom tomorrow?" the blonde clarified.
"Well, we were just talking and he thought there was this nice restaurant we can try out." She said.
It was Eugenie's turn to stare at her in disbelief. "I thought it would be more, I don't know, romantic?"
"I think his suggestion that we can drop in at Honeydukes on the way was nice," Hermione insisted. "He told me they have an actual chocolatier there. And the I certainly appreciate the little bits of Honeydukes history that he'd somehow found out. Like, do you know that they actually have a Royal Charter? It was given to them by Elizabeth the First."
She was mildly disappointed that her friends were not more interested in the historical trivia.
"Merde." Eugenie covered her face with her hands.
"I think even Tom Riddle can get cold feet in the face of Hermione," Lakshmi replied dryly.
Hermione huffed. "You're the one who's trying to make this out to be more than it could be. Really, this is just eating out between good friends…" the other witches' faces were an interesting array of disbelief, denial, annoyance and resignation. They could easily make a set titled 'the five stages of grief', or in this case, 'the five stages of accepting the Hermione Curie experience'.
"Oh, alright. We're a bit more than friends. But it's just a wee bit more! Really!" The brunette insisted.
Celeste put her cup down.
"I'd never thought I'd say this, but you know what? I'm pitying Riddle right now. I mean, sure, he's talented, highly intelligent, good-looking, charming…"
"And yet, he can't bring himself to directly ask her out," Eugenie noted, her soft voice belying the tone of her observation. "I mean, Hermione, I know you simply prefer not to think too much on these things, but I'm sure Riddle himself isn't that blind. Auguste didn't make it a secret that he'd call upon you, he must have known about it already."
"Neither did Evariste hide his intentions," Julia added. Eugenie turned to the other prefect with wide eyes.
"What?"
"Yes. Saw him almost coming to blows with Murat over it until Murat told him to go ahead, that he didn't mind the competition and presumably said something about 'may the best man win'"
"He didn't say that! That's far too dramatic than what actually happened." Hermione said with exasperation. "Auguste is just a friend!"
"Notice that she didn't say anything about Evariste," Lakshmi murmured to Celeste.
"Evariste is also just a friend," she insisted.
Julia shrugged unapologetically. "Well, I was seeing it from some distance away. I had to give my best guess at their lines, right?"
"So, um, that actually happened?" Celeste asked with the honest interest of someone who'd never thought school could be this riven with drama. She was staring at Hermione with the star-struck awe of people who recognised an actress on the streets. "Is Riddle really feeling the pressure?"
Hermione scoffed.
"Pressure? Oh, I doubt it. I'm sure he has a plan for every contingency that nothing worries him. You do realise that he's just that good a politician that no one notices that he's two-faced, right? Though in his case, I think he has more than just two. There's got to be at least ten. His ambition is less of a drive and more of an all-consuming obsession. If he's not careful, it's going to kill him." She observed.
The Ravenclaw chaser was too surprised to say anything. "I—what? He's what? But-but he's just so nice and helpful."
Lucretia sighed as she met Hermione's gaze. "He's one of the best Slytherins, dear. They all suffer from chronic ambition and there's no cure for that. They just learn to manage it."
Julia had a baffled expression on her face. "I don't know. I'm aware that he's Slytherin, and it's not possible to be that high-achieving without ambition and frightening levels of perfectionism. Still, I don't think he's that bad…"
Eugenie nodded. "Even at the Hogwarts express, at the prefects' roll call? He was more prepared than some of the sixth-year prefects! And I didn't have much of an idea of what being a prefect is about at that time, while he could already pass suggestions to others based on what he'd gathered from previous prefects. I think all the fifth-year prefects owe him then. He's really nice and helpful."
Hermione harrumphed in frustration.
"His ambition, as you call it, is what I'd put at pathological levels if I was a psych—a mind healer."
Lakshmi was the only one among them grinning, and she was grinning widely.
"And yet for all those things you've managed to notice about him, he doesn't scare you off. You're not instantly taken in by all his accomplishments either but you're still around him instead of getting out of his sphere of influence. Now, what does that tell us about you?"
"That you can't intimidate me?" Hermione raised a challenging eyebrow back.
"That you still find him interesting on some level." Lakshmi answered.
Hermione shrugged. "Look, he is interesting. Find me a person in Hogwarts who is aware of him and doesn't think that he's his own mystery."
"So, it turns out that you do like riddles after all," Eugenie said in deadpan.
Lakshmi laughed at the spot-on zinger and Julia snorted, while Hermione groaned at the awful pun. Lucretia only afforded them a small smile.
"I think he's on every witches' list," Celeste finally said as the laughter and sniggers died down.
"What list?" Hermione asked.
"Oh, you know, 'The Ten'? The wizards are usually asked by their friends about the ten most interesting witches of Hogwarts. The witches did the same. Sure, the higher years don't look far to the younger years while the opposite is true, but I think even fifth years had started to consider him when we're in our fourth years." Celeste said, before shrugging. "Of course, the same probably happened with Murat or von Moritz. Or Abbott or the Prewett twins back when they were in their fourth years. Just name any other interesting guys."
Hermione's mind, on the other hand, was following a different track.
"But when did it start?" She asked.
"Um, what?" Julia was the first one to reply.
"Making the lists. I'm sure that no one in their first or second year would do that. Yet it seemed to have started earlier than I expected." She was pretty sure that the median age of puberty was fifteen.
"Third year, of course," Celeste replied with the easy certainty of one who'd heard it all. She did pause and look around to get some sort of consensus. Eugenie was biting her lip in thought while Lakshmi nodded easily with the same sort of certainty. Lucretia's delicate shrug could mean anything while Julia also nodded.
"That was still a bit of a joke between ourselves. It's more of a 'which of the wizards are nice' than anything. I'm sure the wizards' side isn't that much different. At the second half of the third year, everyone starts treating it more seriously because, well, you're also changing by then. When fourth year started, everyone's in it. It's really in full swing." Celeste finished.
Hermione froze in her seat. Everyone was already hormonal when fourth year begins? She wasn't following the conversation anymore as other chimed in about their own experience, or who in the upper years they found interesting.
She had wondered more than once whether the use of magic and thus the presence of magic in the body affected human physiological development. Now, it seemed, she had her first lead.
Were wizards and witches naturally more precocious than the non-magicals? Perhaps the greater their magic potential and the more frequently they practised magic, the faster it boosted their growth? After all, she'd been wondering why the heck Tom Riddle seemed mature for his age. And it wasn't just him, for that matter, as she'd interacted with other people in her year.
If her theory was proven, it would explain the relative stability and survival rate of marriages occurring at young adulthood among the Hogwarts set as she'd noticed that many, if not most, married right out of school. Yet they all fared well years later when compared to the survival rate of such marriages in the non-magical community. Alright, it was still a non-randomised survey of the people around her, but she wasn't just counting the ones who were married but miserable—even if they weren't the most romantic couples, they were genuinely in a stable marriage.
"Miss Black, who did you put on your list?" Julia asked.
Lucretia's smile was on the inscrutable side. "I'm sure a good many of them have already graduated Hogwarts. I am a seventh-year, you know."
"You mean, you've never updated them after you first made it?" Lakshmi asked sceptically, amber eyes half-lidded. "Come on, Lucretia. I know you're not blind. We were admiring von Moritz's seat on his broom in the Slytherin-versus-Hufflepuff final of last year's quidditch cup."
"He has a very good seat. Very fluid riding posture. I'm sure he's just as experienced with horses." Lucretia replied with the same smile, her voice soft.
"And he's a sixth year. Are you saying you haven't modified your list of 'The Ten' to include him?" Lakshmi retorted. The sixth-years were judiciously keeping quiet in order not to miss any word.
Lucretia shrugged demurely. "I might have."
"Aww, that's not an answer!"
Hermione's mind, on the other hand, was still somewhere else.
Maybe I could…oh, I can compare the semi-annual height and weight statistic of Hogwarts' students with a non-magical cohort! She decided. She knew Hogwarts did it as part of a routine general check-up, and she knew that the Head Nurse had access to years and decades of such data. She probably would need to invent some sort of MRI spell to be able to see the difference in the brain activity and networks and see how mature the connections in a magical individual compared to the nonmagical one. It couldn't be impossible—the wizarding world did invent the magical version of photograph paper not long after the muggle world invented photography. They developed it faster than the non-magical world developed photography too; clearly, she'd manage to create that spell faster than the time needed to develop the MRI machine.
Of course, that was before she realised there was a larger impediment in place.
Wait, even the technology for MRI hasn't been developed yet in the 40s, right? After all, nuclear physics had only just got started now. Damn. Alright, that idea is shelved for now. It would probably be faster if she tried to find healers who are researchers and are probably already working in that direction than trying to invent it from scratch, and without even having a working machine to base it on!
"I'm afraid I can't be very specific," Lucretia said again, her expression apologetic. "As the daughter of the main Black family, I can't take the risk of raising unwarranted expectation in any wizard. But I'm sure it's not difficult to guess who would be on my list than not. It's not exactly that different from the average witch."
Lakshmi raised an eyebrow at the seventh-year. "'Average' is the last word I'd use to describe you, dearest. So, clearly von Moritz made the cut. Who else? Murat? De Breteuil? The Prewetts? Our knight-in-shining-armour of a Head Boy?"
"Ah, yes, Abbott. How did he balance between being the Hufflepuff captain and the Head Boy, by the way?" Celeste wondered out loud.
"I swear, Andrew and Agatha are still peachy keen in evening prefect meetings. I have no idea how they manage that. Perhaps it's in the Abbott blood to be naturally energetic," Julia mused aloud.
Eugenie nodded in agreement. "Andrew is nice. He's a gentleman."
"Oh, I agree. He's genuinely a good person. I share several classes with him and I'd know." Lucretia informed.
"He's a Hufflepuff. Niceness goes without saying." Lakshmi huffed, unimpressed. "What I do want to know is whether the quidditch uniforms are accurate and whether his chest is that impressive. Do you remember that friendly match nearing the summer, where at the end he was only wearing his shirt and he just poured a bottle of water over his head? Is that real or did someone cast some sort of Illusion there to boost Hufflepuffs reputation?"
Julia burst into laughter while Eugenie blushed and covered her face, "Melusine and Morgane."
"I can't be the only one who wonders about it! It's not as if he'd actually taken his shirt off!"
"Well," Lucretia began diplomatically.
Lakshmi had a Cheshire cat grin on her face. "Ah ha, I know that smile, Lucretia. You were staring too! Alright, so I know that Abbott is definitely on your list."
Back to the population comparisons of prepubescent and pubescent children for now, then, Hermione mused, the rest of the conversation barely registering in her conscious thought. Where would she get the data for non-magical children, though? She wondered if St. Bart's at London has a comprehensive enough record of children growing up through several years. It didn't have to be St. Bart's—after all, some large hospital right in the middle of London's population must have archived something like that, right?
She could get the data by getting some sort of liaison going between the Ministry of Magic and Ministry of Health. If the DMLE could join Her Majesty's Government in the 21st century, she was sure that she can get the Department of Magical Medicine to work with their non-magical cohort at a limited level, with top secret clearance layers put in place and everything.
This is doable. Yes.
If her hypothesis is right, there should be a statistically significant difference between the growth rate of the two populations. No one has tried comparing them before, right?
"Hermione?"
Eugenie carefully waved a hand in front of Hermione's face. The brunette hadn't noticed, much less reacted, to the ongoing conversation around her.
"I think I have a promising idea for a paper. And some bureaucratic reform to plan, but I think that's just a side effect of getting the data for the paper."
Celeste stared at her, still with the wide-eyed disbelief of a tourist suddenly stranded in the middle of the wrong side of town. Julia yelped from Hermione suddenly standing up next to her, half in a daze.
"What the…" Lakshmi stared.
Eugenie was faster. She stood up at the same time and managed to tap Hermione's forearm to catch her attention before her friend marched away.
"Hermione. Hermione. Where are you going?"
She blinked and stared at her blonde friend, trying to remember what she was doing before she was thinking of the precocity of wizards and witches along with MRI spells.
"I was thinking of getting my bags and maybe going to the library? Because of the preliminary research I wanted to do?" Hermione said. "Um, yes, I know. You don't need to look at me like that. It sounded less strange in my head. But I just came up with an interesting avenue to investigate. I don't want to forget it…"
"Slow down, Hermione. Let's start from the beginning. What was your idea about?" Lucretia asked. Her voice was steady and calming. "I saw you getting distracted after Sykes' explanation. Perhaps if we can start from that point?"
"Oh! Right. Celeste, you were telling me about how everyone makes their list of 'The Ten', right?" the brunette checked. "Well, it got me thinking…"
Her friends helped her talk through her idea. It did end up showing Hermione that no, she wasn't going to forget it any time soon. The possibility that magic may possibly cause wizards and witches mature faster was something that the other Ravenclaws agreed as an interesting hypothesis to check. They also agree that the variables Hermione chose to use to measure maturity were good enough, at least in their non-expert opinion.
Lakshmi had set off to find some parchment and quill from somewhere to hand to Hermione to just 'jot the outline down and get back here', preventing Hermione from suddenly deciding to bury in the library or infirmary records for several hours. Or perhaps even pull an impromptu overnighter. This, they assured her, wasn't really going to take that long. Really. All she had to do was try out several dresses and pick one from among them.
Really, yes, it's that simple, Hermione. Don't worry, you'll have the rest of the evening to spend in the library, Lucretia assured her.
'-
Hermione was in the library, deciding that she'd been social enough for the day and now deserved hours upon hours of being a hermit.
The Ravenclaw witches were actually very good at guessing which of their dresses were to Hermione's taste and preferences, to her chagrin. Lakshmi's wardrobe didn't have much for her, unfortunately, simply due to the sheer size of the other witch's bust. Anything of Lucretia's tend to have hems and sleeves that fall lower on her, since the Black heiress was tall, but not all of them actually look bad on her even with the difference in length. The last two dresses came down to something of Julia's and Eugenie's. Eugenie's Peter Pan collar dress won, but by a slim margin.
For some reason, Julia was pumped that she'd only narrowly lost, and made Hermione promised that the next time she's out, she'd borrow hers. It wasn't a difficult promise to make. Merlin knows she still hadn't had the time to shop, and she hadn't check how much ease in pocket money that she had from the Hogwarts' orphan funds.
Once that was done, Hermione made her escape, bag at hand. It was already prepped and waiting for her by the door from when she picked it up to go on a jaunt with Pendleton and Starkey.
The library was nicely peaceful. She spent a productive half an hour continuing her arithmancy essay. The next half an hour was her slowing down as she ran out of ideas and had to go back to reading through several books. It was during this time that the patter of small feet caught her ears. She looked up, pose still casual, but her wand had slid down from the holster to her hand.
"Finally! Your friends said you were in the library, but they didn't tell me which part. It took me ages." Hattie complained in a low tone.
Hermione grinned. "Well, now you know. Next time, you'd be faster."
The first-year was still pouting, but she didn't say anything much. Her wavy hair was loose down her back, but this time, it was less messy than what Hermione expected from a little witch that had been running around.
"So, that hair-brushing charm worked rather well, I see," she commented.
Hattie beamed, green eyes shining. "Yes! It's not falling into my face or anything, see?"
"Good for you," Hermione answered in good humour.
"Oh, you're making me forget what I was doing. There's this Slytherin first-year who asked me to pass a message from Tom to you. I've seen him before in my classes. He's…Rosier? Yes, Rosier, I think."
"Jonah Rosier?"
"Yes. That's him."
The first-year had scrambled up to the seat next to Hermione's while she patted her pockets at the same time.
"Here."
Hermione patted her own pockets before sighing. She took the envelope with a regretful expression. "I'm sorry. I thought I still have come candy on me, but it turns out that I don't."
"Oh, it's alright! Though I'd be happy if you have some. Rosier shared some of his candy with me. So, it's fine."
"Thanks all the same, though."
"You're welcome!"
And with that, Hattie dashed away again, hair flying behind her. Hermione had to admire the amount of energy she had because she had a hard time remembering whether she was that unstoppable when she was a first-year.
Tom's message was brief. He didn't even bother signing it or specifically addressing it to her, but she could recognise his handwriting easily that it wasn't an issue. She did wonder if he was a tad paranoid about the message not reaching her that he'd removed the most common identifying features. Even the message was brief:
Room found to use as base for search. Pendleton would be waiting at Rowle's statue to take you there.
Hermione could ignore it for another half an hour. Merlin knows that Tom wouldn't even know when she finally received her message or if she was easy to find for Hattie. On the other hand, she was also just as certain that Pendleton would be waiting for hours if need be. Yet she didn't have any beef with him to want to torture him with boredom—and she preferred to only trouble people she actively disliked. The pale blond was alright for a Knight of Walpurgis.
Oh well, I was slowing down on the essay front, anyway.
She started rolling up her parchments as well as securing her quills and inkpots. She may not dally, but she didn't move in a rush either, merely keeping a slow and steady pace. Her curiosity was tickled enough to wish to see what Tom had found, but she would certainly have no concerns about simply leaving again if it was still in the setting up stage and there was nothing interesting that she could do yet.
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End Notes:
List of Stuff One Might Try to Look Up:
MRI, Magnetic Resonance Imaging: (Medicine, Medical Technology) A medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the body's physiological processes. MRI scanners use strong magnetic field, radio waves and field gradients to generate images of organs in the body. MRI's basic scientific principles are based on nuclear magnetic resonance, in which atomic nuclei* in a magnetic field absorb and then re-emit electromagnetic radiation. So, the picture is the result of the electromagnetic radiation those nuclei sent out as they return to their ground state once more. (Credit mostly to Wikipedia, again. I can't possibly remember all the terms at the top of my head. I'm definitely not in biomedical engineering).
The word 'nuclear' was dropped from MRI's name because people had become leery of anything with it on the name after the nuclear bomb. This is why the technology was first developed at the time nuclear physics was experiencing a boom in the 1940s. Hence why it's still in its infancy right now.
*you know, the core of an atom that the electrons orbit around?
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Additional Notes:
…she'd noticed that many, if not most, married right out of school. Yet they all fared well years later when compared to the survival rate of such marriages in the non-magical community: This seems like a well-known and uncontroversial result of many studies in sociology, but I did try to find the exact sources to reference instead of just relying on my gut feeling/vague memory. The ones I did read are: a) the book by Holman et al, Premarital Prediction of Marital Quality and Breakup from 2002 (I skimmed the methodology and went straight to the divorce section to be sure), b) the rather well-known Booth and Edwards 1985 study ("Age at Marriage and Marital Instability") that involved 1,715 people from all across the US. Both are pretty readable, and both also provide a list of related previous studies inside them, so you can dig deeper in that particular topic at your own time if you wish.
Why I even made an endnote about all the happily married couples right out of school is because I think JK Rowling overreached a bit in adding too many details to the epilogue when she doesn't have the space to expand them to actual stories with depth and complexity instead of mere summary. It sounds too perfect to be true partly because of the blankness of brevity. (Often enough, people do need time and distance to grow into a better version of themselves - sometimes you don't even know who you really are to be able to say with certainty that you know what/who you want). A subtler ending where we see their kids meeting up again at the Hogwarts Express with hints of who their parents are (as well as their last names), to use one example, would've worked just as fine.
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