The ghost hovered in front of her for a moment. "If it pleases your lord, have him meet me on the first day of the dying month, Heiress Greengrass."
Daphne nodded, thanked the ghost, turned and walked back to the celebrations. Task accomplished.
Harry watched Hermione pace back and forth.
Three weeks had passed. For the first three months, Hogwarts had ignored Harry, content to let him skulk in his peer enforced pariahhood. However, in the three weeks after the duelling tryouts and the first quidditch game, the castle jumped and held him with the clinginess of an insecure lover. Everywhere he went, people whispered and pointed.
The Hogwarts rumour mill was almost magic itself, and just like magic, if a wizard was inexperienced, and said F instead of M, they'd find their conjured story landing back on them like a buffalo on their chest, crushing their social life until the hoard moved on to its next piece of titillation.
But it wasn't magic, and it couldn't extract information without a willing source.
The events of the duelling tryouts were on rumour mill lockdown.
Harry knew Volf had threatened retribution on anyone who gave away their strategic advantages, and he was pretty sure the Gryffindor captain had done something similar.
Still, his stunt in the Slytherin common room had made its way to other houses, even if they weren't sure what to believe about it. Coupled with the similar rumours of his twin's performance at his trails, and the rumour mill was happy to make up whatever it felt like.
For the ten years a slave, ten years a prisoner that was Harry Potter, It was both intoxicating and disconcerting.
It became bad enough to persuade Harry to allocate more of his time to scouring the library's restricted section, hoovering up as much of the knowledge that Tom Riddle had missed as possible, hoping to find an elegant solution to Angelystor's request, even as he continued to receive oddly knowledgeable updates from Alexandra and Luna about their own progress on this obscure and arguably dark branch of magic.
Daphne and Hermione, meanwhile, were busy with their own projects.
Daphne was using the extra time from not researching the defences around the stone to improve her duelling, magical toxin resistance, and occlumency.
Hermione, by contrast, refused to let up on anything, and when December rolled around, it was to find his muggleborn friend in a state of near panic over her very first lesson as a teacher, even if only in a supporting role.
"Hermione, it will be fine." Harry leaned on one of the dusty desks of a rarely used, empty classroom.
They'd arrived half an hour early, gone over the curriculum one last time, cleared a blackboard space off to one side, and arranged half a dozen chairs in a semi-circle facing the wall. Then Harry had entered his shrunk trunk and exited again, carrying a large, silk-covered, flat object, which he'd proceeded to stick to the wall, while Hermione started the task which would consume her next fifteen minutes — pacing a hole into the floor.
"But what if I mess up?" The young witch kept stealing glances towards the door. "What if they ask me a question that I don't know? What if I make a fool of myself!"
Harry couldn't help but smile. "There are always casualties in war." "That's not helping!"
Harry pushed off from the desk, strode over to his frantic friend, put two hands on her shoulders, and gazed into her startled eyes. "You — will — be — fine."
The door creaked.
Harry grabbed Hermione by her shoulders and looked deep into her eyes. His emerald orbs seemed to wipe all thoughts from her mind.
"You — will — be — fine."
The door creaked.
Hermione whipped her head around just as the door opened halfway.
The pressure on her shoulders vanished and when she looked back, so had Harry. "Hermione!" Sophie Roper bounded into the room, followed closely by Padma.
She quickly gathered her wits. "Hey Sophie. Padma."
Padma strolled up to the semi-circle of chairs and leaned on one, eyes slightly widened. "Hermione,"—she gestured towards the silk covered object on the wall—"is that what I think it is?" Sophie landed in a chair and started fishing in her bag.
Hermione smiled. "Probably."
Padma let out a long breath. "Whose?" "Introductions soon, I promise." They chatted for a few more minutes and were soon joined by Justin and Kevin.
Dean was last, a few minutes after their agreed time. "Sorry about that, had to shake John Potter."
Padma frowned. "Didn't he want you to come?" Dean shrugged. "I didn't want to tell him. He hates Slytherins." He indicated Hermione. Padma looked ready to say something else. Hermione frowned. Best not to let this get political. She cleared her throat.
Her five classmates turned their attention to her. "Umm, thank you for coming." She took a breath and continued. "So, in the last year, you all found out you were magical. Except Padma, of course."
Padma nodded.
Hermione continued. "I found out a few years earlier, but this is still all pretty new to me too. I've been doing much of the same education that many of our friends do before they go to Hogwarts, but I still didn't walk down Diagon Alley until I went to buy my wand."
The semi-circle nodded. Sophie had a muggle notebook on her knees.
"This world is very different from the world we come from. We're all given an introduction lecture when we're given our Hogwarts letters, but it leaves out a lot of things — a lot of important things."
She took a breath. "When I was in Diagon Alley, I met Justin here." She nodded at Justin who smiled back. "And we talked briefly about this. He asked if we could set something up to teach the details that the school can't or won't teach. And here we are. Sorry it took so long."
Her audience all made 'it's all right' motions. Kevin grinned.
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