Cornish Pixies. Cornish. Pixies. CORNISH! PIXIES! After that test, which was less about the facts of his books and more about his biography, it was actually…kind of perfect in its own way, she had to admit. The test itself, long for a Hogwarts test, but her Sixth Form had given her more for the first test of the year to make sure you hadn't forgotten anything on the summer hols and needed to be brought back to basics.

Still, his general attitude was not what she would expect in a Professor of any subject, let alone Defense Against the Dark Arts. He was flippant and completely unprepared. He LOOKED good, his robes were properly pressed, his hair styled, and his speech sounded good, but at the same time, he seemed to not know anything about the subject itself, or how to talk to students.

And yet…some of that was an act. After class, she'd immediately gone to Hagrid and asked about the Pixies. They were, after all, Cornish, and wherever Hogwarts was, it certainly wasn't near Cornwall, so getting them had to go through Hagrid, right? And yet, he admitted that the Professor had brought them in himself, checking them with Hagrid sure, but he hadn't helped catch them or transport them, that had all been Professor Lockhart.

So then, why had he used a charm against them that hadn't worked? Perhaps he'd had someone else get them? Timing would have been an issue there, those things were pests, and would have escaped that cage he'd had them in a few minutes later, if he hadn't released them. That meant that for some time, he'd contained them in the cage with a charm of a kind that HAD worked on the things.

She took the time between classes, since she was in her free period, to go around and ask some more questions. Professor Lockhart had done similar things with other creatures in his other years. He brought in something that could be considered a pest, not dangerous in any way, but just enough that it would keep the students busy, while he mimed at being unable to deal with them, either using made up spells, as far as her witnesses could tell, or ones too underpowered to work.

However, any time someone was about to be put in real danger, or his hair was about to get mussed, he somehow immediately pulled out the perfect spell to disable them. Sometimes that took minutes on end, as he all but demanded someone in the class fix the problem, but when it became obvious they wouldn't be able to, he took command, and acted like it had all gone perfectly well, even though it hadn't.

So…she had no idea what was going on, and she finally had to drive it from her head, as Potions was next and she'd need all her focus to deal with Snape. Indeed, the greasy git was exactly as bad as she remembered, and worse, as they were in Second Year now, and the potions of First Year, safe even when you missed a step or two, were left behind for the far more dangerous waters of potions that could do some damage if you were not careful.

Interestingly, the first potion of class was the very same blood replenishment potion that was so popular with her parent's contacts in the NHS. She…was almost certain that Snape had no idea about her still, but she was equally aware this particular potion was typically taught later in the year. It, along with Professor Lockhart's oddities, kept her on edge, even as her experience with the potion shone through, allowing her to make a version, slightly modified, that would work over a slightly longer period of time, preventing blood pressure from climbing too high during its effects.

Snape, for all his typical bluster and looking down on his students, was actually struck dumb for a moment as she made alterations to the brew, including adding American Porcupine quills to replace the European Hedgehog quills that the recipe called for. She, almost without even having to think, went into the various reasons for that substitution, the reason she had the cauldron at a higher burn but shorter time than called for, and so on.

When it was over, looking at her potion, the Potion Master of Hogwarts, Head of House for Slythren, and just general git, pointed out all the ways her potion wasn't 'better' than the original, and yet…it was not worse either. She then pointed out all the ways her version would improve various kinds of surgery and the like, which only flummoxed most of the magical students, who knew little of that particular kind of healing.

Unable to do much else, Snape gave her her 'O' as was only right. As well as five points for Gryffindor, which as had happened in her First Year, caused a ripple of shock to go through the room, though not quite the same way. This, after all, was not only more, but for an entirely different reason, impressing him not in her ability to teach, but in her ability to master his own subject, with Snape himself recovering and directing the rest of the students to continue their meager efforts.

After that, the day proceeded to its end without much more fuss. Oh, the castle was gossiping about her. Some even claimed she was, in fact, Snape's love child from some dalliance he'd had in his youth, coming to Hogwarts under an assumed name. That, she realized, was coming mostly from the Slytherin side of things, since otherwise a Muggleborn would be beating them at the magic game, and that simply wouldn't do.

She ignored them as she rolled the problem of Professor Lockhart around and around in her mind. There was a mystery there. He wasn't as skilled as he was in the books, but those were written like the old adventure serials, so she was fine with that. But he was better than he pretended to be, and that was something that made no sense to her. And unlike the mystery with the boys from the prior day, it was one she couldn't risk solving by just demanding an answer from the center of the mystery.

Luckily, she had her projects to keep her busy. Potion brewing, taking more books in with her spell, though with little direction at the moment as no single subject seemed more important than any other. It took her most of the evening to select the load of books for the week and set them on her shelves, Madam Pince being absolutely giddy that she was continuing her extra education, and even hinting that the teachers were prepared for her to make her Challenge to them at any time.

She was happy to hear that, as her plan was to see just how the classes changed between years. She obviously had 'read' all the material, but her own experiences, with potions and with runes, had taught her that not everything could be learned from just the books. Some things were taught by experience. That was true of subjects in the non-magical schools as well, even if some people might claim otherwise.

If she didn't see enough changes, she'd still do self-study instead of wasting time in classes that benefited her little. After all, slogging through ninety-nine-percent of the material to get at the one precious percent they would teach her otherwise was a waste of her time. There was a reason, after all, that Defense Against the Dark Arts was not allowed to be 'solved' in the same way as the other subjects after all. That class was as much about the mindset it imparted as the information.

Her classes with Flitwick again proved just as simple, the man was even going back over the charm from his first class, since not everyone had gotten it thanks to how 'complex' it was. To be fair, it was more demanding of skill than anything in the first year, but to be equally fair, it was the sort of thing she hated classes that did it. Worse when it was obvious the students who had failed to grasp it the first time were equally unable, or more likely unwilling, to grapple with it a second.

She had the rest of that day off until Astronomy, and proceeded to send potions to her parents, getting updates on how well things were selling, and with questions from her father on the magic she was 'playing with' as he liked to put it. He made suggestions, as best he could, before praising her for her efforts. That lightened her heart as she informed him why his ideas wouldn't work, and then proceeded to take a nap until the evening hours, so as not to exhaust herself.

That evening, she was actually impressed as Professor Sinistra used a spell she'd never even heard of to make the sky light up before her eyes, the spinning galaxies, twinkling stars, and all the cosmos laid out before her. She then began to literally 'carve' lines into the image, showing the houses and points that Hermione was familiar with, the young woman aweing at the sheer spectacle of it all with the rest of the class.

Not to say she let the beauty of it all overcome her, as she recited for the class various reasons for each house, how they affected the various types of spells, and even discussed things not on the chart that had marginal, but cumulative effects. Such as the way Andromeda was moving towards them caused the spin it had to force a reevaluation of its place in the heavens, only slightly, which Professor Sinistra herself gave her points for.

The next day, just a little groggy, she went to her class for the afternoon, having been giving the morning off to recover from a late night. Her first Transfiguration class of the semester. It was…less than ideal. Professor McGonagall was still going exactly by the book. That was good, for the rest of the class, but it meant she was not only aware of the theory, but able to flawlessly execute the spell being taught on the first try.

Idly, she spent the rest of the class toying with the materials, causing them to change shape into various objects. From the match sticks she'd been given she constructed a small straight tower, one that stood on its own as she fused the bottom to the desk. She then caused it to flip end over end, and finally to strike the matches in sequence, before altering the colors of the flames, making them a rainbow that then floated off each burned stick into the air above her to make a halo.

Professor McGonagall chastised her for distracting the rest of the class, something she had to admit she was doing, but it was galling to be ignored like this. Even if after the display she was even more tired than she had been, her magical reserves drained. Not completely, but enough that she was lethargic as she left class, and then went back to her dorm room, telling her parents she would be too busy to send more potions for a few days.

That evening, she brought her leather bound bundle to the Great Hall, just as she had done back in her first year. Unrolling it, she lit the candles as she was supposed to, and spoke the words of the Rite, causing each object to chime in turn. The teachers, most smiling at her, rose to their feet, accepted her challenge, and then bowed. With that done, she took her place at the table, and the current crop of first years took to questioning what had just happened.

Luckily no spell was necessary to keep them from bothering her, as not even those in her own house approached her to ask, instead going mostly to Percy Weasly, as the most active Prefect in the house. Some looked at her in awe as they got the explanation, and Hermione allowed herself just a small smile, as she ate the rest of her food, and then proceeded to rest, as she had three days to prepare for her Challenge, and while she anticipated an even easier time than the first, it was best not to go in without all the power and knowledge she could bring to bear.