It took a few tries and getting lost again until Hermione finally found the place where she'd seen Belle's horse. As she opened the door into the yard where the horse grazed, he lifted his head toward her and began to trot towards her.
Hermione felt a sense of alarm that surprised her. She'd been around all manner of creatures, but for some reason this large animal made her nervous.
Stop being stupid, she thought. You've ridden thestrals and hippogriffs before.
But that had always been with Harry, who was so brave and made everything seem possible.
A memory came back to Hermione of being a small girl in the countryside at her grandparents' house. Her grandpère had been teaching her to ride a horse. She had gleefully enjoyed his lessons. Him placing her on the horse's back, telling her to hold on tight with her legs and not to rely too much on her hands for balance. She'd loved it. Until one day she had snuck away to watch her father helping her grandfather bringing in a new horse to the stables. When the two men had left, not knowing Hermione had followed them into the stable, she'd approached the horse in his stall. It had taken a furious look at her, reached over the stall door and bit her. Then reared up onto his hindlegs kicking his front hoof towards her. She'd scurried away just enough that it didn't hit her, but from then on she'd been uneasy around horses. That was at the end of the summer and her family soon left for England. When she'd come back to visit the following year, she'd declined continuing the riding lessons, preferring to read or begging her parents to go sightseeing.
Hermione missed her parents. So much. But she was afraid of what her magic had done to them. She was afraid to find out that they'd actually been happier in their new life. Without her. Wendell and Monica Wilkens didn't have a daughter after all.
With the memory of being young and scared by a horse, Hermione now knew where that initial alarm had come from. Hermione also knew now that the new horse that had bitten her was a stallion that hadn't been tamed. Theoretically, Belle's horse had been tamed. If this horse had cared enough for Belle and her father to bring Belle here to help her father, he must be a good horse.
As Hermione dismissed her fear, the horse drew nearer and stopped about two horse-lengths away from Belle. A safe distance. He looked at her in a way that seemed almost wary. She regarded him as well.
Looking him in the eye, she took a step closer. He reared back and cantered away.
"Come back!" Hermione cried in English, forgetting to speak French. "Oh bother."
"It seems that what you said earlier is true," said a deep, rumbling voice from behind her. Hermione jumped and turned to see the Beast, leaning against the doorframe that led inside the castle with his arms crossed.
"Your horse didn't recognize you. Animals always know when something is wrong," the Beast continued. "Plus, I just heard you speaking…English was it?"
Hermione nodded. "That's right," she said, drawing closer to where he stood and stopping at the bottom steps. "I guess you believe me now?"
"I didn't want to," he said, looking down on her from a few steps above. "But then I remembered that you did seem different. I couldn't put my finger on it. I doubted myself because I only just met you. But my instinct was correct. You felt…wrong…somehow and I ignored it."
Hermione tried not to get bothered by being called, "wrong." She understood what he meant, but being called wrong was something that rarely happened to her. After all, Hermione had an obsession with being right.
"Well, I'm glad that's settled then," Hermione said.
"I'd hardly call that settled," the Beast said, anger rising in his voice as he took two steps down towards her. "You stole Belle away and replaced her with some enchantress." He took a deep breath and yelled in her face, "I WILL NOT HAVE AN ENCHANTRESS IN MY HOME!"
Hermione stood there, frozen in the spot. Her heart picked up speed. Was he going to hurt her? Suddenly, she felt extremely vulnerable. She had no wand. No ability to defend herself. She held her ground though, fighting through her terror.
He stared at her for a few more moments, breathing heavily and turned around, whirling his cape, and went back inside.
Hermione let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.
Lumiere hopped out from the doorway and looked up at her. "Are you okay, mademoiselle?" he asked.
"I think so," Hermione said somewhat breathlessly. "He said that he 'won't have an enchantress in his home.' Is he going to kick me out?"
"If he didn't literally pick you up and throw you outside the gates or expressly tell you to leave, I zink it's fine for you to be here," Lumiere mused.
"Comforting," said Hermione. "I think he's going to hate me forever. And that'll be counterproductive. I want to help you all."
Cogsworth appeared. "And why is that?" he asked. "You appear out of nowhere, switching places with a kind girl, and suddenly announce your presence as an enchantress." At Lumiere's glare, he raised his hands. "What? It's my job to ensure the safety of this house and I must find out her motives."
"I suppose that's fair," said Hermione. "I'm a student at a magical school and invented this spell to switch places. I didn't know that it would work. And I'm not sure how to switch us back," Hermione admitted. "So, I want to try and help where I can here, so that my actions don't ruin your lives. Belle is supposed to break your enchantment and I took her away."
"See! I told you that she was ze one," Lumiere exclaimed, nudging Cogsworth.
"And yet, she's no longer here," Cogsworth said gloomily.
"And I'm sorry about that," Hermione said. "So let me help. Can you help me convince your master to let me help you all?"
"Don't you worry," Lumiere said. "It'll take some time, but we'll convince him."
"Time we don't have," Cogsworth muttered. "But yes, we will talk to him."