Hermione was worried. Ever since the dementor attack on Ceri's home, no one knew where she was. Even Figg had no idea where the Dursleys were, as they were well past their expected return. More importantly Vernon's sister had come by the house and had people removing things from the house and a for sale sign had been put up a week after the attack.
It made her very worried that something had happened to Ceridwen.
So you could imagine her disbelief when she saw her friend sitting at the Gryffindor table with a new hair cut, glasses and looking much healthier than last year. She seemed a little bit taller too.
Hermione held her tongue, because she would rather confront her friend in the tower where they could at least have some privacy.
Ceridwen was completely unconcerned over the matter, and was downright cheerful while petting a new kitten on her shoulder.
"Where were you?" asked Hermione. "Everyone was so worried after the attack and the fact the house was empty for so long."
Ceridwen looked at her oddly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked baffled. "It's not like anyone's given a damn about what my summers are like. For that matter how do you know that the house was empty for an extended period of time? You've never come over once to visit, despite knowing my address."
Hermione soon realized she had stepped in it, but she still had to know.
"Ron and I were together most of the summer with Dumbledore and others," she said. "They've been keeping track of the house since the end of last year."
Dead silence as Ceridwen stared at her, her expression hard to interpret. A myriad of thoughts went through her head, before she settled on the only thing she could think of at the moment.
She calmly walked up to Katie Bell and bluntly asked "Would it be alright if I roomed with you for the next month?"
"What happened?" asked Katie, suddenly concerned.
"I don't think I can room with Hermione and her demands to know everything about my life until I stop being angry with her," said Ceridwen bluntly. "I know her too well, and she won't stop until she finds out exactly what I was doing this summer, which is none of her Merlin-damned business."
Especially since Hermione's first instinct would be to tattle to McGonagall and Dumbledore the second she told her anything. The last thing she wanted to deal with was the headmaster's insistent need to meddle in her life any more than he already had.
Katie looked at her, then at Hermione. Hermione's behavior was well known at this point, and it was unsurprising that Ceridwen had enough of it.
Katie looked to her roommates. They had an extra bed in their dorm that had mostly gone unused, and it was only for a month.
"Lets get your things sorted out. You don't snore do you?" she joked.
"Compared to what we hear from Ron?" Ceridwen shot back.
Katie laughed, and it took them all of five minutes to move her things into their dorm room. Considering Katie roomed with the other Chasers on the Gryffindor team, no one batted an eye at the fact their Seeker was sharing their room.
When asked by McGonagall, she claimed she simply wanted to work out some super secret strategies with the other girls to absolutely destroyed the Slytherin Quidditch team early.
Ceridwen also made a point to avoid looking Dumbledore in the eye after learning about Legilmency from Zatanna. She had a pendant that would provide passive Occulmency, but a powerful enough mage could easily bypass them if given a chance. Better not to risk it, especially with the way Dumbledore seemed to know things he shouldn't.
It took all of a week for Katie to confront Ceri about the real reason she asked to stay in their dorm room.
"Is it that obvious?" asked Ceri.
"You were as thick as thieves with Hermione last year, even though Ron was a toss up. So what happened?" asked Alicia.
Ceri made very, very sure to cast as many privacy charms as she could. You never knew if anyone was listening, and she had learned her lesson from Pettigrew.
"My family was killed about two weeks after I came back for the summer while we were in America," said Ceridwen bluntly. "Do any of you know who Batman is?"
"He's some muggle superhero, right?" said Katie.
"Well he was chasing one of his villains, who took their car and threw it at him...with them still inside. They drowned after hitting a fire hydrant that basically imploded from impact. Apparently Batman's benefactor felt so guilty about the matter he had me legally adopted."
Katie and Alicia stared at her.
"Wait...You became another one of Bruce Wayne's strays?" said Katie.
"It gets better. I'm legally Zatanna's apprentice since Batman put in a good word for me," said Ceri.
"Details girl, leave nothing out!" said Alicia eagerly. It was a known fact that Zatanna had a major following among the girls in the school.
Ceri appreciated the hug she got from the other girls after hearing about her family. Though they still demanded autographs.
Either way, Ceri became the unofficial fourth member of their dorm room because she was honestly tired of Hermione's demands about what happened during the summer.
~~*~*~*~*
Ceridwen just wanted to soak in a hot bath and relax. Sadly, she would have to wait on that because Hermione was there at the door waiting.
Sighing, she just stood there and waited.
"Ceri...what's going with you? You've never been so distant before."
"One, I have no interest in my personal life being reported to Dumbledore or McGonagall. All you need to know is that my personal life is none of your damn business. And two, did you ever think that maybe there's a reason I'm not telling you anything?"
Hermione looked hurt, but it was past time the girl grew up and learned that not everything in the world was as black and white as she wanted.
"What happened?"
"I ran into Zatanna while I was in America, and after a chat she went to the Ministry to have me officially labeled her apprentice," said Ceri. It wasn't the full truth, but it was enough to get Hermione to back the hell off.
"You met Zatanna?" said Hermione, perking up.
Sensing an opportunity to keep Hermione from asking about the Dursleys, Ceri enthusiastically told her about the mage. Hermione was beyond jealous that Ceri would have a chance to learn magic from the Zatanna, meanwhile Ceri tried not to laugh at how put out Bruce was over the fact she was more interested in the magician than she was about being adopted by the Batman.
Ceri felt zero guilt giving Hermione a half-story about Zatanna, and how she was living in the safe houses of one of the Justice League since Zatanna lived in a small apartment and didn't really have room for her apprentice. The man had zero issue with the arrangement, especially when he realized how effective her potions were.
"Ceri, you know it's illegal to use potions on muggles!"
"Funnily enough, there's no actual law against using common healing potions on muggles. Besides, this was Batman we're talking about. The American Aurors took one look at him and cleared it since I'll be staying in one of his safe houses...mostly because this means he'd be inclined to help them out on cases later."
"That actually makes sense," said Hermione. "So Batman offered you one of his safe houses in exchange for potions, since you're Zatanna's new apprentice?"
"Yup. I bet the Dursleys be pissed if they knew," said Ceri.
She was glad Hermione didn't know legilmency, because otherwise most of her cover story would be blown.
"That still doesn't explain why you never owled us!"
"And risk Hedwig flying that ridiculous distance? I tried calling you a week after Zatanna took me under her wing, and your parents told me you weren't there! It's not like I have your mobile number!"
Hermione grimaced, but then again she had been in such a rush she forgot to bring her cell phone with her.
"So what exactly have you been learning?"
"Since I had to attend one more year at this school, Zatanna mostly introduced me to the Justice League and the major players, and helping me get a few legal matters dealt with. I've been spending more time with Batman's group than anyone since I'm staying in one of his safe houses."
"What's the Batcave like?" asked Hermione.
"Glorified Man cave, I swear," she said without missing a beat. "Did you know he has a life sized T-Rex replica in there? On the plus side, he did say he'd be willing to help me get a full pilot's license once I'm old enough. He was really impressed with the scores I had on the flight simulators."
It was nice having Hermione back, but she wasn't moving back into their dorm. For one thing, she liked being in the older girl's room better. She didn't have to worry about being critiqued over her bath products, hearing endless gossip she could care less about, and more importantly the upper years had much better locks.
McGonagall couldn't say anything because technically, she was sleeping in the girl's dorm. It wasn't like she inspected the dorm rooms. She didn't have the time for that sort of thing.
Besides, the other girls would share stories of Oliver's mishaps or some of the things the twins had done during Quidditch practice that had them itching to hex those idiots silly.
At least Hermione had backed off on what happened during the summer.
~*~*~*
Ceridwen grasped her hand and did her best not to make a sound. Katie noticed and immediately pulled her over to find out what was going on...and hissed when she saw the angry, inflamed hand.
"What happened?" she demanded.
Ceri tried to speak, but found her voice wouldn't come out. Her hand hurt too much to write. Then her eye landed on her jacket, and an idea occurred to her. With a bit of help, she was able to start typing what happened.
The toad had weird black quills. Needed no ink, but I could smell blood.
"Black quills that needed no ink to write?" said Alicia, her expression horrified. "That sounds like blood quills."
"Aren't those illegal?" said Angelina. Katie nodded.
"We can't use Hedwig...she's too noticeable," said Alicia, her expression firm.
"Hedwig isn't here," said Ceri. "And I bet you anything the bitch would be monitoring Susan's mail along with anyone who had a detention with her."
"Susan?" said Katie.
"Susan Bones, her aunt is the head of the DMLE."
"Smart, and yeah she'd be stupid to not discreetly monitoring any mail she sends out if she's pulling this nonsense," said Alicia.
"I have an idea," said Katie, eyes glinting. "We'll need Neville's help though."
"Neville?" said Ceri.
"He's got a crush on Hannah," explained Katie.
Neville was incredibly nervous when the older girl approached him, but when she explained it was to help Ceridwen he didn't hesitate.
"What do you need from me?"
"You like Hannah Abbot, right?" said Ceridwen. Neville's face went beet red. "We need you to give Susan a message that she can send to her aunt...preferably through a third party."
"Why?" he asked.
"Umbitch," said Ceridwen. "If we're lucky, we can get rid of her before she completely screws us over for our DADA exams."
Almost everyone was self-studying at this point, and that crap she pulled with the Quidditch team hadn't earned her any favors.
"Only problem is who Dumbledore would get to replace her. He wasn't exactly swimming in candidates if he had to hire her," said Katie grimacing.
An evil, hilarious idea occurred to her. She took out her phone and began texting...slowly, but it was still good for someone who had never had a proper cell before.
She got a message back from Zatanna that was mostly laughing emojis...though considering her idea, that was understandable. She also got a thumb's up and knew Zatanna would likely contact the man to get him in on this massive prank.
Constantine would probably do it just to piss off the Ministry AND get paid in the process. That and relatively free access to the Hogwarts library.