CHAPTER 4:

HERMIONE

It was hard to settle down and relax. True, Robin knew intellectually that she was safe, as much as she could be. But knowing it intellectually didn't translate to her emotions being calm.

Harry knew the truth of it, at least to some degree. Aside from knowing what she went through, there was the fact that one of his teachers, 'Mad-Eye' Moody, often preached 'Constant Vigilance'. Well, he turned out to be a Death Eater in disguise, but the real Moody was as paranoid. Then again, it wasn't paranoia if they really were out to get you.

Certainly, for the next few days, her sleep was somewhat unsettled. Ironically, she got more rest in even the luxurious wizarding tent in Egypt than she did in a mansion in England. Maybe it was because she was used to sleeping rough since Ohara.

Still, speaking with Harry helped. Her mask of confidence wasn't wholly a mask, and she certainly enjoyed playing up her inner darkness to get amusing reactions out of people. But he had been a confidant she badly needed even when they thought each other to be imaginary.

And he was a friend. Her very first, even if you counted Saul or Professor Clover for that matter. True, she hadn't thought Harry to be real until now, but he helped keep her sane during her fugitive years…to say nothing of her rather poor childhood beforehand. Her uncle meant well, but he was ineffectual, allowing his wife, Robin's aunt, to run roughshod over Robin, treating her like a live-in servant. Much like how the Dursleys treated Harry. She was tempted to head to Privet Drive, and give Petunia at least a taste of what it was like to have one's vertebrae broken. But she refrained from doing so, as Harry felt that living well was the best revenge, at least where Petunia Dursley was concerned, and he was on good enough terms with his cousin now at least.

Even so, she felt a little ill at ease when Harry had her finally meet his friends and loved ones. The first meeting was with the Lupin family, and she got along well enough with them. For someone with as feared a condition as lycanthropy, Remus Lupin was a gentle soul, and 'Don't Call Me Nymphadora' Lupin, nee Tonks, was punkish and blunt. Their son Teddy was shy, though.

But then, after considerable discussion, Robin agreed to meet with Hermione Granger in the Department of Mysteries. And that would be an…experience…

Robin wasn't used to the degree of scrutiny she was getting as she had been escorted through the atrium of the Ministry of Magic. Unlike most of the wizards and witches, she didn't wear robes, preferring trousers, a shirt and a leather jacket, along with her habitual cowboy hat in remembrance of Saul. She knew more than a few were staring at her, wondering what a Muggle was doing in the company of Harry Potter.

Getting to the elevator was a relief. As they descended, Harry said, "Sorry about that. Anyone new in my company would get looked at, especially a beautiful woman. No doubt Rita Skeeter will catch wind of that."

"Oh, don't worry, I don't mind being perceived as your paramour, as long as we understand that is not the reality. Not unless we wish to make it."

Harry shot her a glance. "Why would it be otherwise?"

Robin chuckled darkly. "Believe it or not, in many corners of my world, and I am sure of yours, consent is considered optional, especially where the woman is involved," she said.

"Leaving aside the fact that I respect consent in general, Robin, I also know for a fact that if I tried to get fresh with you without your express permission, I'd live exactly long enough to regret it. I've had enough of broken bones to last a lifetime, and I like my genitals where they are, thank you."

Robin chuckled again. "Good to know."

The elevator chose that moment to stop, and with an overly merry ding, the doors opened. And there, waiting for them, was a woman Robin had wanted to meet for a while, if she had known she was real. A bushy mane of hair framing beautiful if intense features, even now, scrutinising Robin a touch uncomfortably.

"Good morning, Harry. And you must be Dr Nico Robin," the woman said, shaking her hand. "I'm Dr Hermione Granger…"

As they entered an office after being led through a series of dark and rather ominously-lit corridors, Robin remarked, as she sat down, "While I appreciate you using such a title for me, I am not sure whether my qualifications are equivalent to a PhD on Earth."

Hermione shrugged. "From what Harry told me, you actually passed a qualification exam on your island for becoming an archaeologist."

"Yes, my doctoral exam," Robin said. "However, I am told you require a thesis on an original subject to gain a doctorate normally. But we're not here to discuss qualifications."

"No, we're not. Harry told me about your life. True, most of it was in passing, and we didn't believe that the girl he saw in his dreams was a real person, but…I know enough about your life. As much as I am disquieted by you taking up work as an assassin for a time, I also understand why you did it. Being a fugitive from your World Government, and after they committed genocide against your island…I cannot imagine what it is like, and believe me, being a Muggleborn who is smart and capable amongst a society that puts inbred racist snobs up on a pedestal is no piece of cake."

Robin searched the bushy-haired witch's eyes for signs of condemnation or judgement, found little, before sitting back and nodding. "Fair enough. I do not kill unless I have to, usually in self-defence, and I managed to make my few actual assassination jobs against the deserving. I may be a morbid and macabre person, albeit partly as a coping mechanism, but I'm not a psychopath. I probably have Harry's influence to thank for me not becoming a sociopath either." She then smirked, cradling her chin with a hand. "Though I have to admit, there is nothing quite like the agonised sound of a would-be rapist being made to sing soprano…or is that castrato?"

"…Moving along," Hermione said after grimacing. "I find myself curious about your Devil Fruit, and indeed, the concept of them in general. Saul Croaker pointed me to a rather esoteric text that further confirms our respective worlds have had contact before."

Robin hummed thoughtfully. "The fact that that chamber I saved Harry in had something not unlike a Poneglyph, complete with lettering I have only seen on them, does suggest that."

"Gringotts is still trying to establish provenance," Harry pointed out. "A lot of the artifacts have been moved from elsewhere, though the gateway, the one that resembles the Veil, was present for at least eight centuries if not more. The stone cube, let's call it a pseudo-Poneglyph, has been there for a little less than eight centuries. They don't know exactly how long, even with carbon-dating, and there's other confusing bits of evidence."

"The same lettering has been found in various places across Earth, almost always in sites associated with the wizarding world," Hermione said. "It's rare, but it's notoriously hard to translate without a Translation Charm, and a powerful one at that. But back to Devil Fruits. You've eaten one yourself?"

"Yes. There are, broadly speaking, three types of Devil Fruit. Logias are powerful 'elemental' types. I had the misfortune to encounter someone who had the Ice-Ice Fruit. Paramecias can include 'elements', but they mostly include a wide variety of abilities, many of them seemingly weak or useless. Mine is the Bloom-Bloom Fruit, allowing me to spawn body parts from any surface within a certain range, as long as it's not Seastone or underwater. That may sound weak, but I have been training in its use ever since I fled Ohara. I can cripple or kill a person with ease by grappling them with spawned arms and breaking bones. Finally, there are Zoans, Devil Fruits that grant a transformation into another being. Different animals, for example, or different types of human. I know for a fact that the Fleet Admiral of the Marines, Sengoku, ate the Human-Human Fruit Model: Buddha, which turns him into a superpowerful humanoid reminiscent of a golden Buddha statue, though I believe Buddha had different origins on your world to mine."

Hermione nodded. "Yes, I am curious about the parallels between our worlds, but for now, I'm mostly curious about your Devil Fruit. Harry told me that immersion in sea water wouldn't just suppress your powers, but make you physically weakened."

"It's immersion in any water," Robin said. Uneasy as she was discussing weaknesses with a relative stranger, Hermione was Harry's friend. "A shower or rain is perfectly fine, and it takes significant immersion for the curse to take hold. But even a bath could be dangerous if I'm not careful. And Seastone, a rare mineral that mimics the 'wavelength' of the sea, so to speak, is also a weakness. And any injuries done to my spawned body parts are reflected on my body." She spawned an arm from Hermione's desk. "Care to test that?"

Hermione shook her head vehemently. "Robin, I do have many tests I want to run on you, but they will be with your explicit consent, and at a later date. Though I do have something I want to check." She took out her wand, and waved it at the spawned limb, and then at Robin herself. "I see…so there is a curse."

"I could've told you that, Hermione," Harry said. "I am a Cursebreaker. It's just…whatever the curse of a Devil Fruit is caused by, it's like nothing we've seen before. All that I could tell with my own scans is that Robin is cursed, and she already told me that."

"I just wanted to see for myself. Besides, I wasn't just scanning for curses," Hermione said with a frown, before gently prodding the summoned arm. "It's like a flesh and blood clone of your actual arm. Transfiguration of normal matter into something like flesh and blood and being able to be controlled remotely is astonishingly difficult. And yet your Devil Fruit makes it trivial, Robin."

"And this is the bare minimum of what I can do," Robin said. "Paramecias often include bizarre or even supposedly weak powers, but while I may not have untapped the full potential of the Bloom-Bloom Fruit, I am far more proficient with its use than most would believe. Imagination, experimentation, and training go a long way. Of course, staying ahead of the authorities was an excellent incentive to do all of that."

"…And how did you end up eating a Devil Fruit in the first place?"

Robin grimaced. "A prank played by my cousin, Mizuira. She didn't know it was a Devil Fruit at the time. She just wanted to feed her cousin the weird-looking fruit. And a Devil Fruit tastes foul, to say the least. I've tasted fouler things, though not by choice. I got punished for eating it anyway when that cow I called an aunt realised she could have sold it for millions of Berries, our currency. However, someone who has eaten one Devil Fruit cannot eat another. Apparently, it kills you, otherwise. And when a user dies, the Devil Fruit manifests once more in a nearby normal fruit."

Hermione frowned again in thought. She began murmuring softly to herself, writing down notes. Only the distant memory of more than a few Oharan scholars doing exactly that had Robin refrain from worrying about the bushy-haired witch's sanity.

Then again, sanity was overrated on her world, especially on the Grand Line…

After a few more tests, thankfully far from invasive, Hermione asked, "What do you intend to do now?"

Robin just gave her a flat look. "Hermione…I have been on the run for sixteen years, a full two-thirds of my life. My childhood before then wasn't a particularly happy one, even if it was far better by comparison. In this world, I am safe, I do not have to be as vigilant, though given my association with Harry, vigilance is still a necessity, even if it is mostly from jealous fangirls. Quite frankly, I just want time to rest, relax, and maybe do something I want to do for a change." An idea occurred to her, and she smirked. "In fact, Harry, or rather, where his mansion is situated has given me a notion. Cambridge is one of the seats of learning in your world, correct?"

"You want to study at Cambridge?" Hermione asked.

"Specifically archaeology and history," Robin said. "I know the techniques, techniques that would be applicable to your world as it would be to mine. I already have a basic knowledge of Earth's history. I'm actually genuinely curious about this world's pirates."

"Oh?"

"In my world at least, most pirates were ruthless brigands of the sea, as I'm sure yours were for the most part," Robin said. "But some were more than that. Explorers, vigilantes, even rulers in their own right. Shanks and Whitebeard are known for their even-handedness, amongst others, and their territories are most certainly under their protection, and Gol D Roger was known for his chivalry. Indeed, Gol D Roger reportedly viewed piracy as having the freedom to pursue one's dreams. Certainly, he was powerful and rich enough to become known as the King of the Pirates. And then, there's the curious phenomenon of the 'D' he has as a middle name."

"Why is that?" Hermione asked.

"For some reason, there are people on my world, people who have the capacity to shake the world to its foundations, for better or for worse, all of whom have the middle initial of 'D'. My mentor, Professor Clover, was actually named Clou D Clover. My first friend aside from Harry or Professor Clover was Vice-Admiral Jaguar D Saul, and without him, I would not be here today. Gol D Roger, I have mentioned, and there was his brutal rival, Rocks D Xebec. A famous hero of the Marines is Vice-Admiral Monkey D Garp. It's a strange phenomenon I have noticed. And nobody knows what that 'D' stands for. Devil, Destruction, Delusion, Desire, Dream, Deity, Destiny…I found many words starting with that letter that could apply to them." Robin shrugged. "But never mind that. In any case, I'd like your help in getting me into university, if you don't mind, Hermione. Gringotts has already provided me with identity papers, and I'm still getting used to having to call myself Robin Nico in public. If you could help me gain admission into university…"

Hermione smiled. "Of course, Robin. I actually went to St Cedd's at Cambridge(1). And it was Croaker's alma mater too."

"Thank you," Robin said, returning that smile. Harry might be her best friend, but she had the feeling that she would get along really well with Hermione, despite her dark past.

And studying here would be a welcome distraction. She was telling Hermione the truth: even with those she didn't trust, Robin had learned long ago that the truth could be as effective a weapon as a lie if used properly. For all the fact that she was a fugitive back home, ending up here, while serendipitous, was still only a temporary respite. She did intend to head back to her homeworld.

There were reasons for that. Poneglyphs weren't present here on this world, even if the writing used on them was. Whatever writings were here from her world, it may not tell the full story, of the Void Century, of the mysterious kingdom that was wiped out, of the Ancient Weapons…and of the mysterious figures known as the Joyous One and the one who sat on the Empty Throne.

And why did she want to learn such history? Admittedly, a major part of it was her dream, a dream she inherited from the scholars of Ohara, including her mother and Professor Clover. And a lot of it was genuine curiosity, and not just needing to know why the World Government would commit genocide to cover it up.

Yet a small but significant part of it, she knew, was a desire for revenge. Over a hundred people lived on Ohara, civilians and scholars, and yet they were all exterminated, because the World Government feared the truth. From the age of 8, Robin was forced into a criminal lifestyle just to survive, despite Kuzan's words. The World Government wanted her dead because of the crime of being born in the wrong place at the wrong time.

She was no 'D', Robin knew. But one didn't need that middle initial to shake the pillars of the world. One day, she was going to learn the truth about the Void Century…and use it to bring the Celestial Dragons, the Five Elder Stars, and anyone else complicit in the genocide of Ohara to their fucking knees…

CHAPTER 4 ANNOTATIONS:

So, Robin has met Hermione, and we see something of her endgame.

Sorry Harry wasn't involved as much in this chapter, but when you have two geniuses meet, it sort of drowns everything out. I also wanted to add little elements to Robin's life we never saw in canon, like how she ended up eating a Devil Fruit.

And Robin IS a genius. I'm not sure whether the doctoral certification she undertook at the age of 8 was equivalent to a PhD, but I'm sure it's at least equivalent to an undergraduate degree or even a Masters' Degree. But to do that at 8 is still immensely impressive, as is her ability to exploit human anatomy with her Devil Fruit. She also helped Crocodile run Baroque Works, all while working on her own agenda. She also has a fairly encyclopaedic knowledge of many parts of the Grand Line, or at least Paradise, as shown through the pre-timeskip arcs. If Ohara hadn't been wiped out, I can see her as getting multiple doctorate-equivalents by the time she reached her mid-teens.

As for desiring revenge, while I dunno whether Robin has that as a desire in canon, it's not a wholly unreasonable assumption. She witnessed her people be wiped out, she was forced to be on the run…it's a wonder she's not a genocidal misanthrope herself, that she has enough of a conscience and compassion left to join the Strawhats and get along with them. Her treatment of Chopper in particular is telling.

1. St Cedd's is a fictional college of Cambridge in the works of Douglas Adams. Specifically, his never-completely filmed Doctor Who story Shada (though an audio adaptation and a version bridging the gaps with animation are available), and Shada's spiritual successor Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.