073.asc

// 12768
//== SA, The Sacred and the Mundane, Pt 8

// 12769
//__The red jet of fire took Hannah full in the face, flipping her
//end-over-heels and smacking her head straight into the stone wall, where her
//pale face seemed to linger for an instant, framed by flying strands of
//brown-golden hair, before she collapsed to the ground in a heap of robes, as
//the third and final volley of blazing green spirals brought down their foe’s
//Shield Charm.__

// 12770
//The March days marched by, filled with lectures and study and homework,
//breakfast and lunch and dinner.

// 12771
//__The Gryffindor boy stared at the eight of them, tension in every line
//of his body’s frame, his face working soundlessly; and then his hands released
//their clenched grasp on the Slytherin boy’s lapels, and he walked away without
//anyone saying a word. (Well, Lavender almost said a word - her mouth was just
//opening in indignation, maybe because she hadn’t gotten a chance to declaim her
//speech - but luckily Hermione spotted it and made the gesture that meant SHUT
//UP.)__

// 12772
//Then there was sleeping, of course. You wouldn’t want to forget about sleeping
//just because it seemed so normal.

// 12773
//__“Innervate!” said the young voice of Susan Bones, and Hermione’s eyes
//flew open and her lips drew in air with a gasp, her lungs feeling heavy like
//there was a huge weight resting on her chest. Beside her, Hannah was already
//sitting up, holding her head in her hands and grimacing. Daphne had warned them
//that this would be a ‘hard’ fight, creating a certain trepidation in Hermione,
//and indeed in all of them. Except maybe Susan, who’d just shown up at the
//appointed meeting-time, and walked alongside them without speaking, and fought
//the seventh-year bully until she was the last girl standing. Maybe the
//Gryffindor had been reluctant to fight the last daughter of Bones, or maybe
//Susan had just gotten very lucky; at any rate, when Hermione had tried to sit
//up again, she’d realized that her chest had felt heavy because there was, in
//fact, a rather large body sprawled on top of her.__

// 12774
//And you wouldn’t want to forget about magic either, even if the actual moment
//of casting a spell only formed a very small part of your day. It was the whole
//point of Hogwarts, after all.

// 12775
//__“Okay, how about if we all ride around on skateboards?” said Lavender.
//“We could get places faster than walking. And we’d look really awesome on
//skateboards, Muggle artifacts may not be as fast as broomsticks but they look
//cooler - we should vote on it -”__

// 12776
//As for the remaining fractions of time, you would fill that according to your
//nature: gossip about upper-year romances, or books and study sessions.

// 12777
//__Hermione reached out a trembling hand to grasp her copy of __Hogwarts: A
//History __from where it had fallen, the ever-comforting book only a pace
//distant from where she herself had ended up on the floor, after the red-robed
//upper-year girl had “bumped” her into a wall. And then the older Gryffindor
//witch had walked away without a look back, only a whispered “Salazar’s -” and a
//word that hurt her more than anything the Slytherins said about mudbloods,
//‘mudblood’ was just a strange wizarding word but Hermione knew the word the
//Gryffindor had said. She couldn’t get used to it, she just couldn’t get used to
//being hated. It still hurt just as much every time it happened, and somehow it
//hurt even more coming from the Gryffindors who were __supposed __to be the
//good ones.__

// 12778
//Harry had divided up eight of his soldiers among the other armies, as ordered;
//he’d voluntarily given up __two__ Chaotic Lieutenants, sending Dean Thomas
//to Dragon Army and then trading Seamus Finnigan to her for Blaise Zabini, who
//Harry had said was being “underutilized” in Sunshine. Lavender had elected to
//join most of SPHEW in Sunshine; Tracey had decided to stay with Chaos.

// 12779
//__“So you can work your charms on General Potter?” said Lavender, as
//Hermione ignored both of them as hard as she could. “I’ve got to say, Traces, I
//think our Sunshine General has him pretty well sewn up by now - you’d have
//better luck convincing Hermione that the three of you should have one of those,
//you know, arrangements -”__

// 12780
//Nobody had figured out yet what Draco Malfoy was plotting.

// 12781
//__“Certain?” said Harry Potter, sounding rather reluctant. “You know a
//rationalist isn’t ever certain of anything, Hermione, not even that two and two
//make four. I can’t actually read Malfoy’s mind, and if I could, I couldn’t be
//certain he wasn’t a perfect Occlumens. All I can say is that based on what I’ve
//seen of Malfoy, it’s a lot more plausible than Daphne Greengrass thinks, that
//he actually is trying to show the Slytherins a better way. We should… we really
//should try to go along with that, Hermione.”__

// 12782
//(Well, Harry seemed to think Draco Malfoy was a good guy. But then the trouble
//was that Harry also tended to trust people like Professor Quirrell.)

// 12783
//“Professor Quirrell,” Harry said, “I’m worried about the hatred Slytherin House
//seems to be developing for Hermione Granger.”

// 12784
//They were sitting in the Defense Professor’s office, Harry sitting far back
//from the teacher’s desk (and the sense of pending disaster was still
//noticeable, even then), the empty bookcase still framing Professor Quirrell’s
//balding head. The cup balanced on Harry’s thigh was filled with Professor
//Quirrell’s obscure, probably-expensive Chinese tea, and it said something about
//the way Harry had been thinking lately that he’d needed to make a conscious
//decision to drink it.

// 12785
//“And this concerns me for what reason?” said Professor Quirrell, sipping his
//tea.

// 12786
//“Yes, well,” said Harry, “I’m just going to ignore that - oh, stop that,
//Professor Quirrell, __you’ve __been plotting to restore Slytherin House’s
//reputation since at least the first Friday of this year.”

// 12787
//There might have been a tiny crack of a smile, at the edges of those thin pale
//lips; and then again, there might not have been. “I think Slytherin’s House
//will do well enough in the end, Mr. Potter, regardless of the fate of one girl.
//But I do agree that the present outlook is not favorable for your little
//friend. The bullies of two Houses, many of them with powerful and
//well-connected families, see Miss Granger as a threat to their reputation and a
//shame to their pride. As powerful a motive as that is to hurt her, it pales
//compared to the raw envy of the Gryffindors, who see an outsider gaining the
//laurels of heroism which they have dreamed of since childhood.” Now the smile
//on Professor Quirrell’s lips was definite, though slight. “And then there are
//those of Slytherin House who hear that Salazar Slytherin’s ghost has abandoned
//them to favor a mudblood. I wonder if you can even conceive, Mr. Potter, of how
//such as they would react? Those who do not believe it would cheerfully kill
//Miss Granger for the insult. And as for those Slytherins who wonder deep down,
//in some quiet place within themselves, if it might perhaps be __true…
//__their inner panic is something scarcely to be contemplated.” Professor
//Quirrell sipped his tea equably. “When you are more experienced, Mr. Potter,
//you will see such consequences in advance of your plotting. As it stands, you
//are being ill-served by your willful ignorance of all human nature you deem
//unpleasant.”

// 12788
//Harry sipped his own tea.

// 12789
//“Ah…” said Harry. “Professor Quirrell… help?”

// 12790
//“I already offered Miss Granger my help,” said Professor Quirrell, “as soon as
//I foresaw what would develop. My student told me, in polite terms, to stay out
//of her business. Nor would she tell you anything different, I expect. As I have
//little to truly gain or lose in this matter, I hardly intend to press the
//point.” The Defense Professor shrugged, his teacup held steady in the
//exactly-right polite grip, so that the surface of the liquid did not even
//ripple as Professor Quirrell leaned back within his chair. “Do not worry too
//much, Mr. Potter. Emotions run high around Miss Granger, but she is in less
//danger than you might imagine. When you are older, you will learn that the
//first and foremost thing which any ordinary person does is nothing.”

// 12791
//The envelope which the Slytherin System had delivered to Daphne at lunch was
//unsigned, as always; the parchment within named a time and a place and said,
//simply, __“Hard.”__

// 12792
//That wasn’t what had concerned Daphne. What had concerned Daphne was that
//Millicent didn’t seem to be looking in her or Tracey’s direction at lunch that
//day. She’d just stared straight ahead at her plate and eaten. Millicent had
//looked up just once that Daphne saw, in the direction of the Hufflepuff table,
//and then looked quickly back down again; though Daphne was too far away to see
//the expression on Millicent’s face, since Millicent had sat down far away from
//her and Tracey.

// 12793
//Daphne had thought about that during lunch, with a sick feeling in her stomach
//unlike anything she’d felt before, and which had caused her to stop eating
//halfway through her first plate.

// 12794
//__What I See has to come to pass… it probably makes being eaten by
//Lethifolds look like a tea party…__

// 12795
//It wasn’t any conscious decision that Daphne made, nothing like Slytherins were
//supposed to do, no weighing of the benefits to herself.

// 12796
//Instead -

// 12797
//Daphne told Hannah and Susan and everyone, that her informant had warned her
//that the next bully was going to target Hufflepuffs in particular, and that the
//bully planned to risk the teachers’ wrath in order to __really __hurt
//either Hannah or Susan, like __seriously__, and the two of them needed to
//stay out of this one.

// 12798
//Hannah had agreed to stay out of it.

// 12799
//Susan had -

// 12800
//“__What are you doing here?__” yelled General Granger, though it was sort
//of a yell and a whisper at the same time.

// 12801
//Susan’s round face didn’t change, like the Hufflepuff girl had suddenly
//developed the sort of experienced blankness that Daphne’s own Mother used. “Am
//I here, really?” Susan said calmly.

// 12802
//“__You said you wouldn’t come!__”

// 12803
//“Did I say that?” said Susan. She flipped her wand casually in one hand,
//leaning against the stone wall of the corridor where they were waiting, her
//reddish-brown hair somehow arranging itself in perfect order against the yellow
//trim of her witch’s robes. “I wonder why. Maybe I didn’t want Hannah to get any
//strange ideas. Hufflepuff loyalty, you know.”

// 12804
//“If you don’t leave,” said the Sunshine General, “I’ll call a mission abort,
//and we’ll __all __go back to our study halls, Miss Bones!”

// 12805
//“__Hey!__” said Lavender. “We didn’t vote on -”

// 12806
//“That’s fine by me,” said Susan, who was keeping a steady gaze on the other end
//of the corridor where it merged into the tiled hallway where they’d been told
//to expect the bully. “I’ll just stay here myself, then.”

// 12807
//“Why -” said Daphne. Her heart was in her throat. __If I try to change
//it, if __anyone __tries to change it, really terrible, awful, no good,
//extremely bad things will happen. And then it’ll come to pass anyway… __“Why are
//you doing this?”

// 12808
//“It’s not like me,” said Susan. “I know. But -” Susan shrugged. “People don’t
//always behave like themselves, you know.”

// 12809
//They pleaded.

// 12810
//They begged.

// 12811
//Susan didn’t even say anything anymore, she just kept watching, waiting.

// 12812
//Daphne was nearly crying, she kept wondering if she’d __caused __this, if
//trying to change Fate was making this happen __worse__ -

// 12813
//“Daphne,” said Hermione, her voice sounding much higher than usual, “go get a
//teacher. Run.”

// 12814
//Daphne spun on her heels and started to pelt down the other direction of the
//stony corridor, and then she realized, and she turned back to where all the
//other girls except Susan were watching her go, and Daphne, feeling like she was
//about to throw up, said, “I can’t…”

// 12815
//“__What?__” said Hermione.

// 12816
//“I think it gets worse every time you try to fight it,” said Daphne. That was
//how it worked in plays, sometimes.

// 12817
//Hermione stared at her, and then Hermione said, “Padma.”

// 12818
//The other Ravenclaw girl just tore right out of there without arguing. Daphne
//watched her go, knowing that Padma wasn’t as good a runner as her, and now
//wondering if maybe that would turn out to be the __only reason __why help
//would come too late…

// 12819
//“Bullies are here,” Susan said laconically. “Huh, they’ve got a hostage.”

// 12820
//They all whirled, and looked, and saw -

// 12821
//__Three __older bullies, Daphne’s eyes recognized Reese Belka who was a
//top lieutenant in one of the seventh-year armies, and Randolph Lee who was
//number two in the Hogwarts dueling club, and worst of all, Robert Jugson III,
//in his sixth year, whose father was almost certainly a Death Eater.

// 12822
//All three were surrounded by Shielding Charms, blue hazes that glowed beneath
//the surface in ribbons of other color and showed occasional faceting above,
//multi-layered shields like the three of them thought they were fighting serious
//duelists and had expended energy accordingly.

// 12823
//And behind them, bound and supported by glowing ropes, was Hannah Abbott. Her
//eyes were wide and panicked and her mouth was moving, though they couldn’t hear
//anything through the __Quietus __they’d put up earlier.

// 12824
//Then Jugson made an offhand gesture with his wand, and the glowing ropes flung
//Hannah at them, there was a small pop as Hannah’s body blew through the
//Quieting barrier, Susan’s wand was instantly pointing at Hannah and Susan’s
//voice muttered “__Wingardium Leviosa__” -

// 12825
//“__Run!__” screamed Hannah, as she was gently lowered to the ground.

// 12826
//But the corridor behind them and in front of them was now blocked with a
//glowing gray field, a barrier spell that Daphne didn’t recognize.

// 12827
//“Do I need to explain what this is about?” Lee said with false joviality. The
//seventh-year duelist was sporting a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Well,
//just in case, you little inconveniences, and that includes you Miss Greengrass,
//you’ve been quite enough trouble and you’ve told quite enough lies. We brought
//your little friend just to make sure everyone knew we got all of you - though I
//suppose the other Ravenclaw girl is hiding around a corner or clinging to the
//ceiling somewhere? Well, no matter. This is your -”

// 12828
//“Enough talk,” said Robert Jugson III, “time for pain,” and raised his wand.
//“__Cluthe!__”

// 12829
//Simultaneously Susan pointed her wand and said “__Prismatis!__” and a
//small rainbow sphere formed in midair almost instantly, the miniature barrier
//so condensed and bright that it stayed intact even as Jugson’s hex hit it and
//bounced off toward Belka, whose wand flashed to swat away the dark bolt; and
//then a moment later the many-colored blaze was gone.

// 12830
//Daphne’s eyes went wide for a moment; she’d never thought of using a Prismatic
//Sphere like __that __-

// 12831
//“Jugsy, honey?” said Belka. Her lips widened in a vicious smile. “I thought we
//discussed this. First we beat them, __then __we play.”

// 12832
//“P-please,” said Hermione Granger in a faltering voice, “let them go - I, I, I
//promise I’ll -”

// 12833
//“Oh, really,” said Lee in an annoyed tone. “Are you about to offer to turn
//yourself over if we let the others go? We’ve got __all __of you, now.”

// 12834
//Jugson smiled, then. “It could be funny,” said the sixth-year junior Death
//Eater, softly and with menace. “How about if you lick my shoes, mudblood, and
//__one __of your friends can go? Pick whichever one you like best, leave
//the others to get hurt.”

// 12835
//“Nope,” said the young voice of Susan Bones, “not going to happen,” and with a
//blindingly fast motion the Hufflepuff girl leapt leftward just as a red
//stunbolt erupted from Belka’s wand, Daphne could hardly __see __the
//movement as Susan seemed to hit the corridor wall and then bounce off it like
//she was a rubber ball and her legs smashed into Jugson’s __face__, it
//didn’t go through the shield but the sixth-year went sprawling backward with
//the impact and Susan followed him downward and her foot stamped down on the
//boy’s wand arm, again being repelled by the shield, “__Elmekia!__” shouted
//Lee and Parvati shouted ”__Prismatis!__” and the rainbow wall formed but
//the fiery blue blast passed right through it like it wasn’t even there, the
//bolt missed Susan by inches, there was a whirlwind of motion that Daphne
//couldn’t follow during which Belka had her feet knocked out from under her, but
//the older witch just rolled back to a stand and then -

// 12836
//Daphne saw it coming, and her lips started to mouth “__Pris-__” but it was
//already too late.

// 12837
//Three blasts of brilliance slammed into Susan at once, she had her wand raised
//as though she could counter them and there was a white flash as the hexes
//struck the magical wood, but then Susan’s legs convulsed and sent her flying
//into a corridor wall. Her head hit with a strange cracking sound, and then
//Susan fell down and lay motionless with her head at an odd-seeming angle, her
//wand still clutched in one outstretched hand.

// 12838
//There was a moment of frozen silence.

// 12839
//Parvati scrambled over to where Susan lay, pressed a thumb over the pulse point
//on Susan’s wrist, and then - then slowly, tremblingly, Parvati rose to her
//feet, her eyes huge -

// 12840
//“__Vitalis revelio__,” said Lee just as Parvati opened her mouth, and
//Susan’s body was surrounded by a warm red glow. Now the seventh-year boy really
//was grinning. “Probably just a broken collarbone, I’d say. Nice try, though.”

// 12841
//“Merlin, they __are __tricky,” said Jugson.

// 12842
//“You had me going for a second there, dearies.” The seventh-year girl wasn’t
//smiling at all.

// 12843
//“__Tonare!__” screamed Daphne, raising her wand above her head and
//focusing harder than she ever had in her life. ”__Rava calvaria! Lucis
//-__”

// 12844
//She didn’t even see the hex that got her.

// 12845
//Hermione felt the jolt of Innervation bringing her awake, and out of some
//intuitive strategism she __didn’t __roll to her feet right away; it had
//been a completely hopeless battle and she didn’t know what she could do but
//some instinct told her that leaping to her feet wasn’t it.

// 12846
//Just a crack, Hermione opened her eyes, and the thin rays of light that entered
//them showed Parvati backing away from all three bullies, the last girl standing
//that Hermione could see.

// 12847
//And her eyes also showed Tracey fallen not far away from her, and Hermione’s
//wand was still in her hand; and so, desperately hoping the Slytherin girl would
//show more sense than she usually did, Hermione made the wand movements as
//subtly as she could, and hardly moving her lips, whispered, “Innervate.”

// 12848
//Hermione felt the spell working, but Tracey didn’t move. Hermione hoped it was
//because Tracey was being cunning, and waiting to…

// 12849
//What __could __they do?

// 12850
//Hermione didn’t know, and the panic that had waited through the moments of
//fighting was starting to eat her up inside now that she was still, now that she
//was trying to think, now that she could see that it was all absolutely
//hopeless.

// 12851
//That was when Hermione heard a thud, and though it was out of her field of
//vision now, she knew that Parvati had fallen.

// 12852
//A moment of silence came, and passed.

// 12853
//“Now what?” said the voice of the scary-soft boy.

// 12854
//“Now we wake up the mudblood,” said the precise voice of the scary-formal boy,
//“and find out who’s __really __behind them, not Salazar Slytherin’s
//ghost.”

// 12855
//“No, dears,” said the voice of the scary-sweet girl, “__first __we bind
//them all __very __securely -”

// 12856
//And then there was a sound like lightning and thunder and Hermione’s eyes
//widened in shock before she could stop herself, and in her widened field of
//vision she saw the scary-soft boy convulsing as yellow arcs of energy crawled
//over him like giant blazing worms. His wand flew out of his hand as he
//collapsed to the ground, twitching, and then a moment later he lay still.

// 12857
//“Is everyone else asleep now?” said a voice. “Good.”

// 12858
//Susan Bones rose from the floor near where the scary-soft boy had stood, neck
//still oddly bent. Then she rolled her head around her shoulders, a casual loose
//motion, and her head was straight again.

// 12859
//The round-faced first-year girl stood facing the remaining two bullies with one
//hand cocked on her hip.

// 12860
//Grinning.

// 12861
//And surrounded by faceted blue haze.

// 12862
//“Polyjuice!” spat the bully-girl.

// 12863
//“__Polyfluis Reverso!__” roared the remaining boy bully.

// 12864
//Something like the form of a mirrored scarf spat out of his wand -

// 12865
//Passed without resistance through the haze surrounding Susan -

// 12866
//For an instant, she glowed in a strange mirror-color, like a reflection of
//herself -

// 12867
//And then the glow faded.

// 12868
//The young girl still stood there, hand on her hip.

// 12869
//“Wrong,” said Susan.

// 12870
//“And __this __is the truth,” said Susan. “In case nobody ever told you -”

// 12871
//In her small hand a wand rose up, blurred by the blue haze surrounding it.

// 12872
//“You don’t mess with the ‘Puffs,” said Susan, and with a grey flash so bright
//it hurt Hermione’s half-closed eyes, the real battle started.

// 12873
//It went on for a while.

// 12874
//Some of the ceiling got melted.

// 12875
//The girl-bully tried to cry a truce, that they would leave and take Jugson with
//them, and Susan roared out the syllables of a curse Hermione recognized as
//Abi-Dalzim’s Horrid Wilting which was illegal in seven countries.

// 12876
//Eventually the girl-bully lay unconscious and unawakenable on the ground, and
//the last boy-bully had fled leaving his companions’ bodies behind, and Susan
//was leaned over against one wall, covered in sweat and her scorched robes
//soaked through with wet spots, gasping for breath, and clutching at her right
//shoulder using her left hand.

// 12877
//After a while Susan straightened up, and turned to look back at where her
//fellow witches were sleeping on the floor.

// 12878
//Well, they __should’ve __been sleeping on the floor.

// 12879
//Lavender was already sitting up with eyes as wide as watermelons.

// 12880
//“That…” said Lavender.

// 12881
//“Was…” said Tracey.

// 12882
//“__What?__” said Hermione.

// 12883
//“I mean,__ what?__” said Parvati.

// 12884
//“__Cool!__” said Lavender.

// 12885
//“Oh, hell,” said Susan Bones. Her face had already looked a little pale beneath
//the sweat, and now it was getting paler, looking almost frighteningly white.
//“Ah… could I convince you that you hallucinated all that?”

// 12886
//There was a rapid exchange of glances. Hermione looked at Parvati, Parvati
//looked at Lavender, Lavender briefly locked gazes with Tracey.

// 12887
//The four of them looked back at Susan and shook their heads.

// 12888
//“Oh, hell,” said Susan again. “Look I’ll be back in a few minutes but I’ve
//really got to go now __please __don’t say anything bye!”

// 12889
//And Susan ran out into the hallway, moving surprisingly fast, before anyone
//could say another word.

// 12890
//“No, seriously, __what?__” said Parvati.

// 12891
//“__Innervate__,” said Hermione, pointing her wand at Daphne, whose body
//she hadn’t been able to see before; and Lavender pointed her wand at Hannah’s
//body and said the same.

// 12892
//Hannah’s eyes opened and she tried frantically to roll to her feet, but
//collapsed to the ground halfway through.

// 12893
//“It’s okay, Hannah!” said Lavender. “We won.”

// 12894
//“We __what?__” said Hannah from her little heap on the floor.

// 12895
//Daphne hadn’t stirred, but Hermione could see her chest rising and falling, and
//the breathing rhythm looked normal enough. “I think she’s okay,” said Hermione,
//“but -” She took a moment to swallow, her mouth was still dry. This had all
//gotten way, way, __way __out of hand. “I think we ought to take Daphne to
//Madam Pomfrey’s…”

// 12896
//“Sure, sure, just __give me a second here __and I’ll __probably be
//fine__,” said Parvati.

// 12897
//“Ex__cuse__ me,” Hannah said in a tone that was polite, but firm. “How did
//we win? And why does the ceiling look all melty?”

// 12898
//There was a pause.

// 12899
//“Susan did it,” said Tracey.

// 12900
//“Yeah,” said Parvati, voice only slightly shaky as she stood up and started to
//brush off her red-trimmed robes, “it turns out that Susan Bones is the Heir of
//Hufflepuff and she’s opened up the long-lost entrance to Helga Hufflepuff’s
//Chamber of Hard Work and Practice.”

// 12901
//“__Huh?__” said Hannah, who was feeling over herself as if to make sure
//all her body parts were still there. “I thought that was just something
//Professor Sprout says to teach us an Important Moral Lesson - __Susan
//__is?”

// 12902
//Slowly, Hermione was beginning to feel a bit more together. It hadn’t really
//been more than thirty seconds of extreme terror, at least not the parts she’d
//been conscious for. “Actually,” Hermione said carefully, as her mind started to
//work again, “I’m pretty sure that __is __just something Professor Sprout
//says, it wasn’t in __Hogwarts: A History__ or anywhere else I’ve read -”

// 12903
//“__She’s a double witch!__” shouted Tracey, her voice so high it cracked.
//“She__ is!__ She’s one of __them!__ She’s been this whole time!”

// 12904
//“__What?__” yelled Parvati, twisting around to look at Tracey. “That is
//the __looniest __thing -”

// 12905
//“Of __course!__” said Lavender, now all the way on her feet and starting
//to bounce up and down with excitement. “I should’ve__ realized!__”

// 12906
//“Susan’s a __what?__” said Hermione.

// 12907
//“A __double __witch!” said Tracey.

// 12908
//“You see,” said Lavender, speaking very rapidly, “There’ve always been stories,
//about these children who are born as super magicians who can cast spells no one
//else can, and there’s a whole secret school hidden inside Hogwarts with classes
//that only they can see and go to -”

// 12909
//“Those are just __stories!__” yelled Parvati. “That’s not how real life
//works! I mean, sure, I read those books too -”

// 12910
//“Just a minute, please,” said Hermione. Maybe her mind __was __feeling a
//little slow after all. “You mean even though you __already __get to go to
//a magical school and everything, you still want to go to a __double
//__magical school?”

// 12911
//Lavender looked at her, puzzled. “What?” said Lavender. “Who __wouldn’t
//__want to have super extra magical powers? It would be like this whole amazing
//__destiny__ and everything! It’d mean you were __special!__”

// 12912
//Hannah nodded to that, looking up from where she’d crawled to Daphne’s side and
//was checking the girl for broken bones. “I wish __I__ was a double witch,”
//Hannah said, and then, sounding a little sadder, “though I don’t believe there
//is any such thing, really… what did you see Susan do, exactly? I mean, are you
//sure you weren’t just seeing things after getting stunned?”

// 12913
//Hermione truly, truly couldn’t find any words at this point.

// 12914
//“Oh, no,” said Tracey. The Slytherin girl spun around to look at the entrance
//to the corridor, her robes fluttering around her. “Oh no! We’ve got to get out
//of here! We’ve got to get away before Susan comes back with someone who can
//Super-Memory-Charm us!”

// 12915
//“Susan wouldn’t __do __that!” said Parvati. “I mean, if there even
//__was __-”

// 12916
//“WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?” roared a high-pitched squeaky voice, as Professor
//Flitwick stormed into the partially melted corridor like a small, dangerously
//compressed package of pure academic fury, an ashen-faced Padma gasping along
//behind him.

// 12917
//“What__ happened?__” Susan blurted to the girl who looked exactly like
//her, except for the scorched robes damp with sweat.

// 12918
//“Ooh, great question!” said the other Susan Bones as she rapidly skinned off
//what was left of her borrowed clothes. A moment later the girl began to
//Metamorphose back into her more accustomed form of Nymphadora Tonks. “Sorry but
//I couldn’t think of anything myself so you’ve got about three minutes to decide
//on an answer to that -”

// 12919
//As Daphne Greengrass observed afterward with some acidity, the flaw in
//Hermione’s cunning plan to make sure that House points were taken evenly from
//all four Houses if they got caught, was that it didn’t work on
//__detentions__.

// 12920
//They’d all agreed to keep their mouths shut about Susan’s mysterious powers -
//even Tracey, after Susan threatened to have her Super-Memory-Charmed if she
//didn’t promise. Unfortunately, they discovered at dinnertime that someone had
//forgotten to tell the __bullies __about their agreement, and also that
//Susan Bones had sacrificed her soul to dreadful forbidden powers which now
//inhabited the hulk of her body and that was why they’d all gotten detention.

// 12921
//“Hermione?” Harry Potter said to her from beside her at the dinner table, his
//voice very tentative. “Please don’t take offense, and I’ll understand if you
//say it’s none of my business, but I think all this is starting to spin out of
//control.”

// 12922
//Hermione went on mashing the slice of chocolate cake on her plate into a
//seamless mush of cake and icing. “Yes,” Hermione said, her voice might have
//been a little acerbic, “that was what I said to Professor Flitwick while I was
//apologizing to him, that I knew things had gotten out of hand, and he yelled:
//__Really, Miss Granger? Do you think? __in a squeak so loud that my ears
//caught on fire. I mean my ears __actually caught on fire__. Professor
//Flitwick had to put them out again.”

// 12923
//Harry had put his hand to his forehead. “Excuse me,” Harry said. His face was
//perfectly straight. “Sometimes I still have a little trouble getting used to
//that sort of thing. Hey, Hermione, remember when we were young and naive and we
//still thought the world was a relatively understandable place?”

// 12924
//Hermione put her fork down and looked at him for a moment. “Do you sometimes
//wish you were a Muggle, Harry?”

// 12925
//“__Huh?__” said Harry. “Well, of course not! I mean, even if I was a
//Muggle, I’d probably have tried someday to take over the worrrrlllll-” as
//Hermione gave him a __look __and the boy hastily swallowed the word and
//said, “I mean __optimize__ of course, you __know __that’s what I
//really mean, Hermione! My point is, it’s not like my __goals __would
//change one way or another. But with magic it’s going to be a lot easier to get
//things done than if I had to do stuff using only the Muggle capability set. If
//you think about it logically, that’s __why __I’m going to Hogwarts instead
//of just ignoring all this and studying for a career in nanotechnology.”

// 12926
//Hermione, having finished hand-crafting her Chocolate Cake Sauce, began to dip
//her carrots in it and eat them.

// 12927
//“Why do you ask?” said Harry. “Do __you __wish you were back in the Muggle
//world?”

// 12928
//“Not exactly,” Hermione said, as she crunched into both the carrot and the
//chocolate. “I was just, well, feeling strange about having __wanted __to
//be a witch… Did you want to be a wizard when you were little?”

// 12929
//“Of course,” Harry said promptly. “I also wanted psychic powers and
//super-strength and adamantium-reinforced bones and my own flying castle and
//sometimes I felt sad that I might have to settle for just being a famous
//scientist and an astronaut.”

// 12930
//Hermione nodded. “You know,” she said softly, “I think the witches and wizards
//who __grow up __here don’t really appreciate magic properly…”

// 12931
//“Well, of course they don’t,” Harry said, “that’s what gives us our advantage.
//Isn’t that obvious? I mean seriously, that was bloody obvious to me within five
//minutes of walking into Diagon Alley.” There was a puzzled look on the boy’s
//face, like he couldn’t understand why she was paying attention to something so
//ordinary.