Brews and Braids

Chapter 13

Hermione was glad it was a Sunday. Half of the school had slept in, so there weren't nearly as many people in the Great Hall for breakfast as there would've been on a weekday. Even still, she was uncomfortable as every head turned to stare at her and Pansy when they walked through the enormous doors.

Pansy crossed her arms over her chest, eyes flashing in a glare at the room. "What are you all looking at?"

The majority of students turned obediently back to their breakfasts.

Hermione laughed. "There was no need to scare them, Pans."

"Oh, they know I wouldn't actually hurt them — not permanently, anyway. But sometimes it's useful to remind them that I could, if I wanted to. Besides, you're glad they aren't staring anymore, right?"

Hermione grinned at her friend. "Yeah. Thanks."

Pansy playfully bumped Hermione's shoulder. "Come on, let's go sit down. I'm starving."

Harry hugged his his best friend tightly as she sat down. "'Mione! It's great to see you again."

The girl in question rolled her eyes. "Harry, you literally saw me yesterday." Her gaze turned to Draco, a brow raised. "Is he this attached to you?"

His deep blush was all the answer she needed.

"Oh, take pity on him. They're both still in denial," Blaise came to his defense.

"I remember everything I saw when I was little, including everything I saw between you and my good friend Neville. Would you rather I talk about that?"

Blaise wrapped a warm arm around Neville's shoulders. "We've got nothing to hide. Right, Nev?"

Neville nodded nervously, but Hermione could see he was happy.

"When did you become such a troublemaker?" A teasing voice said behind her.

Hermione turned around, rising to give Ginny a hug. 

"I think Hermione is being more of a matchmaker, love," Luna airily spoke from beside them.

Ginny glanced pointedly at Hermione. "I'd say it's a good bit of both. You only just changed back, Hermione, you couldn't give them a chance to take a break?"

Hermione shrugged, but her conspiratorial grin gave her away. "What can I say? I guess my four-year-old impetuousness hasn't quite worn off yet."

As the two girls joined the eighth years at their table, Harry said, "'Mione, you were the least impetuous kid I've ever seen."

Pansy snorted. "You should have seen her on her first night. I mean, it wasn't that bad, but I didn't think I'd ever get her to go to bed."

Draco looked at her with narrowed eyes. "How did you get her to go to bed?"

"Charm," she replied lightly, not meeting her friend's eyes.

Draco arched an eyebrow.

"What? It's not like I gave her a potion or anything! I just talked to her."

Hermione nodded in confirmation, chewing a bite of toast. Swallowing, she said, "She promised me a story if I got into bed."

"What story did you tell her, Pans? When Harry told her stories he always told tales of their ridiculously unbelievable adventures in their early years of Hogwarts but without giving away that the stories involved her. It was... interesting, to say the least."

Hermione snorted.

"Not that it's any of your business," Pansy huffed, "but I told her the story of Emerale. Since she wasn't raised a witch, she didn't know our fairytales." 

"Yeah, now that I'm older and can, you know, read again, I'm going to look into some of the wizarding fairytales I never heard as a child. I think it might be a good idea to adapt them to muggle versions — adequately different, of course — so that muggle-borns don't come into the wizarding world not having heard any of the same stories. A wizarding fairytale is part of how we won the war and Ron was the only one of the three of us who had ever heard it."

"Ron?" Blaise blurted out. "It's a wonder the light won." He paled. "Sorry, no offense to him. He just never seemed to be any of the brains of your trio."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, man. You're not wrong. He was helpful in other ways. We got there eventually, though. And 'Mione, I think that's a brilliant idea. You should get McGonagall to connect you to someone in the Ministry to work with on that."

Neville nodded thoughtfully. "I don't know how much time or effort you want to dedicate to the subject, but it would be a good thing to pursue through an internship with the Archives. That would give you access to wizarding stories from Britain but from other countries' Ministry Archives as well."

"That's a great idea, Nev! I've had enough adventure to last me a decade. A few years in the Archives working on a project like this sounds like a great next step. I'll look into that. Thanks."

Pansy looked at the boy appraisingly. "Any career suggestions for me?"

Nervously, Neville responded, "Well, you're pretty good at charms, right?" Pansy nodded. "Well, you could look into a charms apprenticeship, but from what I know of you I think you'd prefer to work as the charms witch at a shop, such as a boutique or something. You could do the typical and specialized charms on the products. You could even go out on your own and offer specialized charms to witches and wizards for themselves and their possessions."

Pansy's eyes lit up. "That's brilliant! Why didn't I think of that?"

Draco caught her attention. "We could go in together, you know. I could offer potions and you could offer charms. There aren't a lot of shops where you can get both at the same place, and I can't think of any who provide both in high-quality."

"And leave me all by my lonesome?" Blaise pouted. 

"Oh, shove off," Pansy teased. "You know we'd have you handle the business and advertising sides."

Blaise looked smug. "I know. I just wanted to hear you say it."

Hermione softly elbowed Pansy. "I know you're just talking about it right now," she said quietly, "but the three of you really should do that. There is definitely a need and you all are the perfect people to fill it."

"Thanks, Mini," Pansy whispered back. "I think we will. And let me be the first person to ask you to be one of our advisors."

"Absolutely."