"Friendship ... is born at the moment when one man says to another "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . ." C.S. Lewis.
Chapter 4
It was a very tired Hermione who made her way to the library at the end of the day. She had three essays to work on, as well as several chapters to read and a chart for Arithmancy to complete and she had only gotten through the first week. She wasn't the only one to be visiting the library. A number of seventh year Hufflepuffs had taken two tables near the back, a small knot of first year Ravenclaws were at another table nearby and several O.W.L level students had gathered at various tables. She made her way to an empty one near the window and placing her bag down beside her, sat down with a sigh.
"I believe you're in my spot," a cold voice said, interrupting her thoughts. She looked up to find a haughty looking boy with dark hair glaring down at her. Hermione thought she might have seen him once or twice in the Great Hall.
Hermione didn't budge. "Were you sitting here?"
"I was sitting there," he gestured towards the seat beside her where a small book was lying. "I put that there to save the spot."
"That spot maybe, but this chair is empty." She was not going to be riled, not even if he was wearing a prefect's badge.
His grey eyes narrowed. "That doesn't mean you can sit at my table. I don't need some Ravenclaw witch who's probably no more than halfblood at best spoiling my studying with her presence."
Her eyebrows rose. "Oh, so this is your table? I'm sorry, I didn't see the name 'Arrogant Git' written across it, my mistake; I'm just some little halfblood from Ravenclaw after all." She began digging through her bag. "Seeing as I didn't know, you will just have to excuse me while I do my homework." With that said, she placed her potions textbook and some parchment in front of her. He was looking furious as she dug out ink and a quill.
He sat down next to her. Staring coldly at her for a minute, he said: "I could assign you a detention."
"…and I could go to my head of house and tell him that a student is using his power as a prefect to bully students," Hermione said calmly as she wrote.
"You called me a git."
"Always a good reason to throw someone in detention."
"It would be enough of one if you said it to a professor." He had put his books on the table but wasn't looking at them. His eyes were watching her.
"I imagine so, but I also imagine it isn't standard for a professor to insult someone because of their blood status."
He scoffed. "It's not like I called you a mudblood."
At that Hermione looked up. "No," she said slowly. "If you did that, we wouldn't still be talking. You wouldn't be able to talk through the soap coming out of your mouth."
His laugh was very nasty. "Is that a threat?"
"It's a fact." Her voice was no louder than before but he could hardly fall to hear the venom behind the words. She looked into the arrogant face next to her and it struck her that his resemblance to the young Sirius Black that she had been seeing in class that week was uncanny. Could this be his brother that died, Regulus Black? "Your brother wouldn't say a word like that. He knows better than to believe in nonsense like blood purity."
His face flushed in anger. "My brother is a filthy blood traitor who turned his back on his own family!" He hissed. "He was born to the greatest, most noble family in the wizarding world and chose to throw away his birthright and consort with muggle lovers and filth."
"You love that word filth," Hermione said. "What makes a person who isn't a pureblood filth?" She wondered if he really had any ideas about this or was just spouting off all of the nonsense he had been taught by said family.
Apparently her question only angered Regulus further. "Witches and wizards are more capable than muggles," he told her. "Those who come from muggle families or spend time around muggles are destroying wizarding society by letting go of the old ways and mixing their blood, thus making for weaker witches and wizards. Everyone with a proper understanding of the wizarding world and its long and incredible history knows this."
Hermione shook her head. "That doesn't explain the large numbers or muggleborns and halfbloods that are immensely talented or the pureblood families that produce squibs."
"The halfbloods are only powerful because of their wizarding blood," Regulus told her. "As for the muggleborns, I have yet to see one that is worthy of being called 'immensely talented.'"
Hermione would have liked to have pointed herself out but she couldn't. Her disguise called for her to be a halfblood and it wasn't like he would know enough about her to believe her talented anyways. "Lily Evans."
"What, that mudblood that Potter is always chasing after?" He sneered contemptuously. "I see nothing talented or special about her."
"Snape certainly does and so does Professor Slughorn. She is one of the best in his class as well as in Charms." His face grew even more furious at this.
"Slughorn is a senile old fool, thinking that muggleborns are all fine and dandy, as though they weren't a corrupting influence. What do you expect from him, or the part goblin, Flitwick?"
Hermione had completely abandoned her homework by now. Even her grades seemed unimportant compared to this wizard sitting by her, not a day older than fifteen and yet spewing the prejudiced remarks that he must have been raised with from the cradle.
"It doesn't change the fact that she's a good student. Not everyone who sees that can be a fool." She began to gather her things. This conversation was going nowhere but it was starting to drag down her mood. That the wizarding world could accept and aid the growth of such prejudiced beliefs…
Hermione got to her feet. "It's best that we don't discuss this as neither of us can be made to agree." She slung her bag over her shoulder. "Oh, and Black?" she added, turning towards the dark-haired wizard, who looked smug at her getting up.
"Yes." He smirked at her.
"Scourgify. A jet of light flew from the tip of her wand and hit him in the mouth. Immediately, soap bubbles began to flow past his lips. Hermione turned on her heel and walked out of the library, leaving him there to cancel the spell himself.
Regulus was true to his word and soon Hermione found herself being cheerfully informed by Filch that she would be having detention with him the next night at nine. She took this fairly calmly, seeing as she had actually attacked a fellow student and one younger than herself at that. The only dilemma was getting through her homework which was starting to pile up. Luckily Hermione was not for nothing the brightest witch of her age.
"You're definitely a Ravenclaw," Pandora observed from her chair as she watched Hermione write at one of the desks in their dorm. "No one else could get through the type of work you do except a Ravenclaw."
Hermione bit back a smile. She remembered how puzzling all of her fellows in Gryffindor had always found her. Finishing the last of her assignments, she placed the cap back on her ink bottle and got up and stretched. It was almost nine already and Filch would kill her if she were late. She said goodbye to the others and headed out of the dorm. She walked past several Ravenclaws studying in the common room and several others thinking up riddles and made her way out of the portrait hole.
It was just nine when she met Filch in the entrance hall, his cat, a Madame Defarge, apparently, was right next to him. Madame Defarge hissed softly as Hermione neared.
"So it's you, is it," he leered at her. "I thought you were trouble from the moment I saw you, but Dumbledore is always too soft with the students. They should bring back some of the old punishments for the likes of you." He motioned for her to follow him. "It's the trophy room for you. Peeves made a mess in there and you're going to make sure that everything is back in place, and then clean everything so it's good and shiny."
Hermione fought back a groan. That would take hours.
"And you're going to do it all without magic of course," Filch added nastily as they headed up the stairs. Several ghosts, including the Fat Friar were heading down in their direction. Hermione shivered slightly as one of them brushed against her, wrapping her robes more tightly around her for warmth.
Filch dropped her off at the trophy room and to Hermione's disgust, left his cat there to watch her as she worked. She set to work, picking up fallen medals and torn down plaques, as Madame Defarge watched her with unblinking eyes, hissing softly whenever she came too near.
She worked in silence, putting things right and polishing each object. Her mind was awhirl with thoughts, and at the very least the busywork was giving her the time to work things out.
It was very strange to be seeing people that she knew were long dead: Harry's parents for starters, who didn't seem to get along very well, quiet Emmeline, who had died only weeks before she had gone back in time and Sirius, whose death had shaken Harry so very badly…
Turning over one of her rags, she found herself wiping the reward Tom Riddle had been given years ago for saving the school. How bitter it made her feel, that he had killed a girl just for being muggleborn and framed Hagrid for it all.
The trophy was the last thing she cleaned that night. It was with an equal mixture of pleasure and exhaustion that she was dismissed by Filch and allowed to go to bed. Hermione made her way towards Ravenclaw Tower, stifling a yawn as she went. She wondered vaguely if any of the Marauders were engaging in their midnight strolls. It would be very like them to do so.
She reached the entrance to the common room and knocked on the eagle. At once the musical sounding voice began speaking: 'What falls but never breaks and what breaks but never falls?'
Hermione blinked. "What falls but never breaks and what breaks but never falls? That sounds like yin and yang." She thought for a moment. "Let's see…it couldn't be temperature, no this is two things, I think…yin and yang, yin and…" She bit her lip. "Let's see, what breaks: clocks, people's hearts, and the day…daybreak?" The door remained silent. "Daybreak, snow falls, the night falls…" Hermione looked up at the door. "Is it night and day?"
"Well thought out," the voice replied coolly and the door swung forward. Hermione trooped wearily inside, feeling beyond tired. Once inside her dorm she undressed quickly and was asleep almost before her head hit the pillow.
Hermione found the next week pass by in a whirl of classes. She still had McGonagall and Flitwick for professors, but almost all of her other teachers were different. Professor Seedling was nice enough, and the Arithmancy witch, Professor Gosling was nice, but her ancient runes professor was more than a little sullen and her Defense professor, a witch called Madame Marchbanks, though clearly competent, had really only taken the job as professors for it were running scarce. She was only staying for the year as a favor to Dumbledore.
It was her potions class that proved the most dynamic however. Professor Slughorn was as jovial as ever, but it was clear that he played favorites. Lily Evans and Severus Snape, both the best in class, were the top favorites, his attention often directed towards one or the other. He did seem to like Hermione as well though, as she received an invite to a dinner he was holding the following weekend.
"It's the Slug Club," Pandora told Hermione as they headed to lunch. "He gives it for all of the students he thinks are special, the talented, and the well connected." She shook her head. "I've been to several of those and they are dead boring, all about him boasting about the famous people he's helped over the years."
They took their seats next to the already eating Aurora. "I suppose I will have to go though." Hermione said as she fixed her plate. "It'd be rude not to."
"You should take a date," Pandora told her. She gestured around the table. "There are several other Ravenclaws in that little club. Just pick one and make sure it's not Belby," she added, she gaze darkening as Charles Belby swaggered over to the table with some friends.
Hermione flushed. "I don't even know anyone."
Aurora's eyes sparkled. "You don't have to even take a Ravenclaw. Remus Lupin is a member as well."
Pandora shook her head fondly. "She fancies him," she told Hermione. The three looked over at the Gryffindor table, where Lupin was laughing at a joke James had just told.
"You could do worse," Pandora admitted as Aurora continued to watch him.
Hermione thought about it. "I'll pass thanks." She was not going to be wasting her time dating when she should be concentrating on keeping up her grades and waiting for Professor Dumbledore to find a way to send her back.
Just then, Regulus Black entered the Great Hall with his friends. Hermione felt a brief rush of annoyance at the sight of him, laughing and acting smug as he glanced around him with haughty superiority. His gaze landed on hers and his smirk seemed to freeze as he regarded her with a particular look of dislike.
Hermione turned back to her meal with a frown. She finished her meal, listening to Pandora and Aurora discussing an experiment Pandora was working on. She was trying to charm her books to sing when they got lost or ended up in the wrong hands. Aurora was suggesting a number of outlandish Wizarding and Muggle songs and Pandora was taking notes of ones she thought had possibilities. It was easier for Hermione to join in with them as they left the hall for Charms class, the ideas of Regulus Black and Remus Lupin leaving her mind.
Hermione found that studying in the Ravenclaw common room could sometimes be just as distracting as Gryffindor Tower. Small explosions were perfectly normal and it was not unusual for students to be practicing Charm work like Pandora's or something more complex. She found herself one day sitting in a blue armchair, a book in her lap, watching an experiment unfold.
"If we just concentrate a little harder on the lighter object, it should be fine," a black girl from seventh year said confidently. "The colors should mesh nicely."
The boy she was talking to, the dark-haired Ravenclaw boy Andrew Ryan from Hermione's potions class aimed his wand at the ink in front of him. It swelled impressively and then the color began to change, first yellow, than bronze, then green.
"Right, now let's combine them," she gave a flick of her own wand and the ink swirled into the newly colored jar she had before her. "There." She looked up proudly. "We now have a year's supply of color changing ink." She grinned at Ryan.
"It always saves money that way," he explained to Hermione. "Me and Trixie make all of our school things that way."
Hermione felt impressed. "All of them?"
The quills are easy," Trixie told her. "Color changing ink can be a bit harder to charm but we have regular ink of all colors down to a science."
"Parchment is annoying to make," Ryan admitted. "And Trixie still can't get over using the animals for it."
"I like using paper more," Trixie said. "That's one thing I could never get used to in the wizarding world. My parents are muggles and they send me paper to write my notes on."
"I prefer paper too," the little first year from the first night at the portrait hole, Justin Dernby agreed from where he was playing chess with the first year girl, Samantha Carter.
Hermione had never thought too deeply about it. Being in Ravenclaw made one consider all sorts of ideas that she had not taken the time to consider before.
Aurora slid into a chair beside her. "What's that you're reading? Something good, I hope?" She glanced with slight dislike at the cover of Hogwarts, a History. "Don't you ever read any book just for enjoyment, Rose? Some wizarding or even Muggle literature?"
"I enjoy reading Hogwarts a History," Hermione told her.
"I enjoyed the Alice books when I was younger," Aurora said from where she was sitting on the floor. "I used to wish I was Alice when I was little. Or maybe Dorothy Gale?" She looked at Emmeline, who was studying her notes in an armchair near the fire, her feet tucked underneath her. "What do you like to read, Emmeline?"
Hermione didn't hear Emmeline's answer. A loud bang had sounded from the corner where a small group of second years were practicing, startling her. Several of the students in the common room jumped, though most were laughing. One or two of the upper years got up to help out with the project at hand, probably to prevent the common room from being demolished.
Pandora shook her head. "They'll destroy the room one of these days."
"So will you with your own experiments," Aurora grinned at her. "They are just like a bunch of mini-you."
As the two settled into an old but friendly argument, Hermione looked back at her book. She thought there was something enjoyable in the constant presence of books and learning that she was now always surrounded with and it made her feel proud to be a Ravenclaw.
A reviewer asked me if I intended this story to bash the Marauder's. To answer their question, I don't want to bash Snape, Sirius or James. That being said, not a single one of the three came out of their school days smelling like a rose. Sirius and James were bullies plain and simple. Snape meanwhile was a bigot who wished to join the Death Eaters. They all were nasty people.
Sirius Black and Severus Snape are BOTH two of my favorites of the adult cast of HP so I'm going to do what I can to give both a fair shake. James will be of less importance than them but he will get his development in time for seventh year as well. Thank you for your interest in the story. Hope you enjoy.
