For the new moon this time, the Shadows decided they would spend it planting trees in the dark, with the coven lurking in the shadows and using their earth magic to try and help the baby trees rapidly grow. Susan and Luna tested this on a sapling by the edge of the Forbidden Forest to great effect.
"It's exhausting," Susan admitted, her eyes tired behind her tinted glasses, "but if our magic is linked as a coven, it will be much easier."
As much as Hermione liked the idea of planting more trees on her land, she was concerned by the practicalities of people digging holes with shovels in the dark with no moon in the sky. It took Draco exasperatedly pointing out that everyone there would still be magical and could just cast Lumos for Hermione to realize her error and flush in embarrassment, which made Draco smirk.
Susan, Tracey, and Luna spent the weekend carefully getting the saplings all to Exmoor in preparation for Monday. It involved having them delivered to Tracey's house (the only muggle home amongst the three), bewitching the trees to be fireproof, and then quickly taking them through the Floo and out through a bonfire that Theo and Harry were minding on the other side. The entire thing took hours, but according to Theo's report, they'd ended up entertaining themselves one way or another during the endeavor, making the task light work.
"By the end of it, Tracey and Susan were both flirting with Potter every time they came through," Theo told her, smirking. "I think they were having a competition to see who could make him blush redder."
Hermione laughed. "I'm just glad you all had fun."
Sunday evening after dinner, Hermione was approached by Terry Boot and Anthony Goldstein as she got up to leave.
"Hermione," Anthony said, eyes darting to Viktor, who stood up behind her, lurking. "We were wondering if you would come up to the Ravenclaw Tower for a few minutes this evening. A few of us had questions about ritual magic we wanted to ask you."
"Really?" Hermione felt her heart jump in excitement. "Yes, of course! Right now?"
"Right now," Terry confirmed.
Hermione beamed. "Then let's go."
The trip up all of those stairs was draining, but Hermione's heart felt lighter with every step she took. People were listening, now – they were paying attention, and people were curious. Ritual magic wasn't inherently Dark at all – it was just powerful, and people feared what they didn't understand.
Trust the Ravenclaws to want to learn more and reason through the unknown, Hermione thought fondly. Hopefully the other Houses would follow suit soon.
Once Terry answered the riddle ("The letter 'e'," he said, rolling his eyes) and the door swung open, Hermione followed them through the portrait hole only to be confronted with a rather large group of Ravenclaws. She froze, adrenaline jolting through her system as she took in their determined eyes, and she whipped out her wand.
"Wait! Hermione, we just want to talk. Really," Anthony pleaded, holding his empty hands up. "I promise."
"This is an awful lot of people who just want to talk," she sneered, and Anthony flinched.
"Some of us have been paying attention," Terry Boot said, stepping forward. "You and your friends vanishing off the grounds for hours at a time. Harry's incredible wandless power. And rumors of a ritual done on New Year's Eve amongst the common people – something powerful."
Hearing her little musical ritual described as 'powerful' made Hermione want to snort, but she refrained.
"And," Michael Corner said impatiently, stepping forward, ignoring a warning look from Anthony. "Some people overheard part of your plotting at the Werewolf Gala this past summer, before you remembered to block out eavesdroppers."
Hermione's jaw dropped in horror, and Anthony gave Michael a dirty look.
"Okay, okay, so Terry and I eavesdropped," Anthony admitted. "Can you blame us? We know you're part of the Cult of the Valkyrie, and people in it seem to be learning ancient magic and becoming more powerful. And we want in."
Hermione scanned the crowd, eyeing how many people. "Who is 'we'?"
"Err, maybe a dozen of us?" Anthony guessed. "We didn't exactly pass around a register—"
"Is that Sue Li?" Hermione demanded, cutting him off, and at the back of the crowd, Sue Li flinched.
"Um," Anthony said carefully. "Is that a problem…?"
Hermione glared.
"Luna's in my coven," she said curtly. "She gets veto power over any of you."
Sue Li looked abashed and nodded silently. Hermione wondered if Sue Li had genuinely stopped bullying Luna; Luna was strong enough now to handle matters herself, but she was still Hermione's first friend, and Hermione felt fiercely protective of her.
Hermione glanced around the group of them. In addition to her classmates, there were a few older students as well, including, to her surprise, Cho Chang. As much as Hermione didn't like the idea of bringing in people she didn't know all that well, Hermione knew that recruiting more people was, ultimately, a necessary part of the plan.
"Fine," Hermione said grudgingly. She gave Anthony a look. "The meeting for the new moon tomorrow is at Exmoor." She sneered. "You're responsible for getting there yourselves at dusk."
"Right," Anthony said. He tried for a professional tone, but his excitement betrayed him in his voice and the sparkle in his eyes. "We'll be there." He cleared his throat. "Ah – should we bring anything?"
Hermione looked them up and down, calculating.
"If anyone's got muggle clothes or trainers, wear them," she said finally. "For the rest of you – dress like you would for Herbology class. Bring your gloves."
When the Shadows met at the tree by the lake Monday evening, shivering against the cold, Hermione briefed everyone first thing on who they might encounter.
"There's a possibility of new recruits there today," she warned them. "Ones who don't know much of anything. As far as they know, we're part of the Cult of the Valkyrie. Let them think we're more advanced members or formally inducted ones or whatever from our pendants. But don't give away everything."
"There will be several Ravenclaws," Luna added, eyes bright with excitement. Hermione had forewarned Luna, asking her if she wanted to veto any of those coming and kick them out. Luna had only looked at Hermione, tilted her head, and told her she'd forgotten why she might want to. "There might be hedgewitches, too."
"What about us?" Daphne worried at her lip, exchanging a glance with Neville, who was also there, wide-eyed. "We're not full members yet…"
"You two are potential members that have been nominated," Hermione instructed them. "You've been taking part in group rituals and activities, but you haven't taken your final vows and learned the True Secret of the Shadows."
She enunciated it clearly, ominously, and Daphne and Neville both nodded.
"Right," she said. "Daphne, Neville: here's the Portkey. Everyone else, on three? One – two—"
There was a noticeable change in the energy of the ley line as everyone jumped it, one that Hermione was dimly aware of as her own little bubble of magic was swept away to the south. This used to be so difficult for her, she remembered – she'd practiced for hours so she could make it to Azkaban with minimal vomiting - and now, after having created her own ley line in her deal with the Fae, jumping a line was nearly effortless.
She reappeared at Exmoor, the others groaning and holding their stomachs around her on the ground, and Hermione smiled faintly to herself.
Well. Nearly effortless.
"I know it's a direct shot here, but ugh," Millie said, queasy, shakingly getting to her feet. "Someone remind me not to eat ahead of time next time."
"I did," Pansy told her snippily, giving her a judging look. "And you did anyway."
Millie grinned. "That's fair. I did. I really liked the beets."
They'd arrived ahead of dusk, before anyone else. Susan had made the point that they'd want to stake their claim, so to speak, before others showed up. They set up a few piles of dead wood for fires in cleared-out areas that could be used for light as well as warmth, and Hermione pulled up an awkward sort-of table made of dirt and stone for Tracey to unroll her diagram onto.
"The challenge is most of these trees tend to grow best among trees of the same kind, but a grove requires all thirteen," she explained to everyone, pointing to the initial grove, where there were thirteen small circles in a large circle, each a different color. "In order to make this work the best, we've laid out this pattern of trees in this distribution. We can start by some of us planting these other groves, and if there's any other people who show up, they can plant these fill-in trees."
Hermione knew next to nothing about trees and tree-care, and she was very, very glad that Tracey and Susan had seemingly self-delegated that task to themselves.
"Did you enchant the pots?" Draco asked, impressed despite himself. "So they match the colors of your sketch?"
"We did," Tracey said, a bit smug. "We did our best to color-code everything and make it idiot-proof for you, Draco."
Draco smirked, unbothered.
"That would sting more," he said airily, "if my class ranking wasn't consistently higher than yours."
A group of hedgewitches showed up just before dusk, arriving on brooms. Hermione wasn't surprised to see the ones she'd grown to consider almost friends – Derek, Jerran, Argin, Worm, Clover – but there were new ones that she didn't recognize. She looked at Clover quizzically, and Clover's eyes glinted.
"Some people were asking us about the group that did that ritual on New Year's," she said casually. "We told them we couldn't speak of it, but if they wanted to learn more, they could tag along."
The addition of new hedgewitches was a boon; when the Ravenclaws arrived all together, there were already potential recruits helping, moving around with pots and shovels, adding more credence to the whole thing.
"You made it," Hermione said, mildly impressed. She glanced down, where everyone was holding what looked to be a discarded kitchen drawer. "You made a Portkey?"
"I wish," Michael Corner muttered.
"Marietta's mother works in the Department of Transportation," Cho Chang said, speaking up. She nudged her friend. "She asked for a favor. She made sure it was off the books – untraceable."
Hermione didn't like the idea of someone within the Ministry knowing anything about anything related to what they were doing, but she had told the Ravenclaws to find a way to get there themselves. She hid her wince and gave them a small smile instead.
"We're working on planting Druid groves tonight," she said instead. "You'll likely want to cast a detached Lumos – the new moon nights are always dark."
Hermione kept an eye out as the Ravenclaws moved forward, breaking up and carefully moving forward, interacting with the others. The hedges were all friendly enough, helping explain what they were doing and how to read the diagram, showing how to fill in each circle with a sticker of the correct color once you'd planted a tree in that spot.
By the time a group of students from Durmstrang arrived with several loud cracks, everyone was working efficiently, teasing each other and talking as they dug holes. The Ravenclaws were visibly startled to see Viktor Krum arrive, who immediately strode forward to greet Hermione with a warm hug. Theo moved forward to greet his distant cousins, who'd come along with Viktor for the first time, and the Durmstrang students understood immediately what they were doing that evening with the trees, and they were more than happy to assist.
"Hard work is good for the body," one of them said, stomping on her shovel hard to get it to go into the earth. "Need strong body to hold strong magic, yeah?"
Though Hermione and her coven were quietly prioritizing going to the other groves that they were planting around the entire land to help the trees get a head start and grow, Hermione paid attention each time she came back to what had become the de facto 'mission command' center. She listened in as newcomers observed the circles of brightly-colored mushrooms, ones people constantly warned each other not to touch. She eavesdropped as Ravenclaws tentatively asked Durmstrang students what they were planting trees for, the Durmstrang students explaining in broken English about needing wood so they could each make a magical staff, the same as Merlin. She overheard the hedges telling other people about the mysteriously-cloaked figures that had appeared from nowhere on New Year's Day, and the incredible ritual of music and magic that they had done. That, in conjunction with all the magical glowing balls of light floating around (which the Ravenclaws hadn't known how to cast – they'd had to endure the embarrassment of a hedgewitch teaching them how to cast Lumos windlessly) – all that, Hermione thought, did a good job to making everything seem and feel a lot more mystical and mysterious than it otherwise might be.
The darkness of the night helped a lot, too, she mused to herself, looking up at the stars. Night was always more mysterious and spookier than the day.
They all worked for several hours, digging holes and planting trees. The already inducted shadows managed to plant two more full groves around Exmoor by the end of the night, and the coven, by syncing their magic and reaching into their earth elementals, had managed to give them a small burst of energy to start them growing a bit quicker than they otherwise would. It was nothing near the rapid rate of growth the Fae had caused on the original grove, but Hermione was pleased with the fact they managed anything at all.
As it came time for people to leave, everyone had kind of gathered back at the table with the diagram in a loose group, lurking around without a new assignment or tree. Tracey stepped forward, addressing the group. She thanked them all for their help and participation in planting sacred groves, for their effort in reviving lost magics and traditions kept hidden. Her wording was exactly the kind of tantalizing language it should be, Hermione thought approvingly, and as Tracey stepped back, Draco stepped forward.
"If you are an Initiate or Apprentice seeking to become an Adept, please stay behind," Draco instructed them all. "Everyone else, you are dismissed. Thank you so much for coming."
Hermione watched as this immediately caused whispers and wide-eyed looks among newcomers. Despite this not being discussed beforehand (or Hermione being unaware of such a discussion), Clover, Derek, Jerran, Argin, and Worm stepped forward, staying behind. Daphne and Neville did too, moving closer to Draco, and Hermione felt her heart warm to see Neville there. Hermione stepped forward, giving them all small smiles.
"In order to prepare for the next step of your journey," she told them, keeping her voice quiet, "you will need to learn to harmonize your song with that of Magic. Follow me, and we will practice."
She led them over to a quiet area, one outside the initial grove that had been planted. The stars twinkled above, and the chatter of the other people talking and gossiping before they began to leave one by one faded away. She sat down on the ground, folding her legs, and the others followed suit, sitting in a loose circle.
Hermione looked at Daphne and Neville, considering. "Do you know what a ley line is?" At Daphne and Neville's blank look, Hermione nodded. "That's fine. Just hang on a minute – I'm going to explain to the others what they need to do."
Neville and Daphne nodded at this, content to listen quietly and wait.
"You all have experience with pulling on a ley line, with using the magic of the earth as your own," Hermione said to the hedgewitches, meeting their eyes one by one. "This next step is going to be difficult. I need you to make your own magic harmonize with that of the ley line."
Argin gave her an odd look. "Doesn't it already?"
"Right now, the magic you're holding – well, it isn't yours." Hermione winced. "It's your birthright to use it, don't get me wrong, but it's magic you've pulled from the earth. It's not magic created from your own core." She took a breath. "I need you to meditate on your own magic – your own core, not the magic you've pulled – and feel it. Listen to it. That's the magic you need to make resonate with the ley line." She glanced around. "This is likely to particularly difficult for you, but it's critical to the next stage. If this takes a long time to get the hang of – days, weeks, months – that's alright. Don't be impatient with yourselves – just keep treading down the path of magic."
The hedgewitches obligingly closed their eyes, beginning to meditate, while Hermione explained to Neville and Daphne what ley lines were and how to feel them. Neville's eyes widened in alarm when Hermione explained that they ran between this realm and the Fae realm, but Daphne nodded as if this made perfect sense. By the end of the 'lesson', Neville and Daphne had managed to reach out and feel the ley line, though they hadn't managed to pull on any of its magic.
"That's okay," Hermione said encouragingly. "Hogwarts is right over a ley line, so you can keep practicing throughout the month. Once you can pull on the ley line, we'll have you practice casting with it."
"When do we take our vows?" Daphne wanted to know. "I know I need to take a vow of secrecy as part of the formal initiation, right?"
Hermione suppressed a laugh.
"After you can harmonize with the ley lines," she told her. "Once your magic can sing in tune with all of Magic, we'll schedule an initiation ceremony for each of you."
"Us too, right?" Clover interjected, intent. "If I get the hang of this quicker than the others—"
"Then your ceremony will be scheduled," Hermione said calmly. "There will be secrets imparted to you before the ceremony, to help prepare you, but you will each be undergoing your own trial and ceremony – alone."