March 1991 - 5 months before Hogwarts

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Muggle school had taken a turn for the better. Though Hermione had begged her parents to let her teach herself from home so she could balance learning magic with learning the mundane, her parents had stood firm: she was to finish the school year, and that was final. Hermione had been aggravated, and dragged her feet, but she reached a compromise with her parents – if she kept her marks up, she was allowed to read her magic books wherever she pleased, so long as she kept the covers concealed.

Her parents bought her a set of stretchy, elastic book covers to fit over her books. Once equipped, Hermione always had a covered magic book or two with her, even though her usual bookbag was already filled with books.

Something had changed in Hermione, though, and the other students noticed. It was something subtle, starting around her birthday, when she'd had that altercation with the bullies. There was a vague sense that something had happened, because the boys had just muttered about it and passed the word along not to mess with the Granger girl. But Hermione seemed more self-confident, and it seemed to be growing out of nowhere. She still had no friends, and she still spent breaks reading to herself off to the side, but she'd toned down answering all the questions in class, and they'd noticed that she'd stopped asking for extra credit.

It was as if Hermione suddenly didn't care anymore. She still got top marks, of course, but she wasn't trying so hard. And the change was noticeable.

It was because of this that Amelia, abandoned one day by her friends, who all had the flu, cautiously approached Hermione, who was on a bench at the side of the recess field, drawing in the dirt with a stick. Hermione looked up with surprise.

"Amelia…?"

Her greeting sounded like a question.

"Hermione."

Amelia offered her a smile as best she could, though it felt awkward, and took a seat next to Hermione. Hermione continued to prod at the dirt with a large branch.

"How are you?" Amelia asked.

"Me? Oh, I'm fine," Hermione said, startled out of her thoughts. She looked over at the other girl. "And you?"

"I'm doing good," Amelia said. Hermione made a face.

"Well," she muttered, under her breath.

"Well what?" Amelia asked.

"You're doing well," Hermione corrected. "'Good' is an adjective; 'well' is an adverb. I am good; I'm doing well."

Amelia stared at her.

"This is why you have no friends, you know," she told her.

Hermione smiled a wry smile at the dirt.

"Yeah," she said. "I know."

She kept staring at the dirt, and Amelia felt guilt start to mount up in her.

"Though, you've been a lot better recently," she told Hermione, trying for an encouraging voice. "Like, you're still a swot, but you're not so unbearable about it anymore."

"I'm not unbearable anymore," Hermione repeated flatly. "That's good to know."

Amelia gave up. She watched Hermione, who was still scratching things in the dirt.

"…is that a lion?" she asked. "What are you even doing?"

"I'm wondering what environment built around a set of ideals I think I would fit best into," Hermione said. "I'm having a difficult time of it."

"…I have no idea what you just said."

"It's like this," Hermione said, poking at the ground. "Imagine that there are four clubs, and you have to join one. Only instead of activities, the clubs are about personality traits. I'm trying to figure out which one I would belong in."

"Oh." Amelia blinked. "Is this from a book?"

"Something like that."

Amelia looked again at the ground, where four sketches were laid out. "What are the traits for each club?"

"One club is a for brave people. They value courage, nerve, determination, and chivalry," Hermione said, poking one of the drawings. "They're the lions."

Amelia could kind of imagine it. Hermione had faced off against bullies constantly, and she was nothing if not stubborn.

"Maybe," she said. "What else?"

"This one values hard work, dedication, patience, loyalty, and fairness," Hermione said, jabbing at another dirt drawing. "That's supposed to be a badger, but it kind of looks like a dying skunk."

Amelia made a face. "Hard work and patience doesn't sound like any fun."

"It doesn't," Hermione agreed.

"The other two?"

"This one, the eagle one, values wit, knowledge, intelligence, and learning," she said.

"That one," Amelia said immediately. "You belong in the eagle club."

"That's what I thought too," Hermione said. "But there's one left…"

She pointed at the last drawing with the stick. It looked like just a couple wavy lines, but Amelia realized there was a forked tongue and eyes on one side.

"This one values ambition, leadership, cunning, and resourcefulness," she said. "They have a snake."

"And you think that you might fit in this club better than the swotty one?"

"I don't know." Hermione bit her lip. "What do you think?"

Amelia looked back at the dirt.

"…I can kind of see why you have your doubts," she said finally. "The other three, they all have set traits – bravery, hard work, intelligence, whatever. But ambition – that's more of a mindset, isn't it? You can be ambitious and still be brave. You can be a leader and still be smart. Y'know?"

She chanced a glance at Hermione, who was chewing on her lip.

"You always told everyone you wanted to grow up and be prime minister, or maybe a brilliant surgeon," Amelia said, shrugging. "That might take intelligence, but maybe it takes ambition more to get that far."

Hermione considered again.

"…I hadn't thought of that," she said. "Thanks."

Amelia smiled. "You're welcome."

Abruptly, Hermione's face lightened.

"What club do you think you'd end up in?" she asked.

"Oh, I'd join the lion club," Amelia said immediately. "Bravery and chivalry being the values? The boys would be like knights!"

Hermione rolled her eyes but laughed, dragging the stick through the dirt to erase the drawings.

"You're ridiculous," she informed her. "But thanks anyway."

Amelia smirked back.

When the recess bell rang and they filed back into the classroom, Amelia promptly forgot about their conversation in the face of a blackboard full of numbers and pre-algebra. Her friends were back to school the next day, so her break went back to normal – gossip and attempts at flirting with boys, most of whom were too immature to be interested yet.

But Hermione never forgot their discussion.