Hermione Granger and the Year Hidden from Hogwarts

Chapter 21

Hermione Granger and the Year Hidden from Hogwarts

Harry Potter Fanfiction

Chapter 21

A/N: Wow, sorry. I got busy. But here's another chapter! Thank you as always for the lovely reviews! They keep me going.

April 25th, 1992

Saturday could not have arrived soon enough. She'd spent the rest of Thursday practicing the language magic, and then yesterday trying to convince Ms. Walker to replace her daily nine a.m. block of World Language—currently with Professor Li—with a chemistry class, something Hermione thought might be useful for potions or even transfiguration or alchemy.

She really needed more reading material on subjects other than charms to round out her working understanding of the classifications.

The switch had been a tough sell until Ms. Walker relented and summoned Professor Li. Hermione spoke like a fluent native and earned Professor Li's blessing.

Since they didn't have another linguist expert lined up to take her place, and Dr. Weisberg was already on the roster for teaching her microbiology on Fridays during her two-hour elective block, Hermione convinced Ms. Walker to make the alteration.

Ms. Walker had warned Hermione though not to expect for this change to take place until they lined up another language, reminding her that the Secret Service trained experts, not people good at a variety of different things, and their goal for her was to go on expeditions and uncover beings. Doing so would take her to all corners of the globe, so continuing her languages took precedence over science things.

"If we need a science expert for something on your case, we'll scour around for an expert opinion," Ms. Walker had warned.

Hermione kept her lips sealed, having been warned by Professor Flitwick to keep anything magical from MI5—at least, that which they hadn't already been exposed to.

She'd not had the heart to tell him about Ignis or Erl, not after his reaction to the demiguise incident.

So, she was keeping secrets from everyone these days, the biggest of which was from her parents—who somehow, might've been keeping an even bigger secret from her throughout her life.

Either way, she planned to go to Hogwarts in the autumn, if like Flitwick told her, it was possible without any repercussions befalling her parents. If Ms. Walker found another linguist, she'd just demonstrate her "proficiency" in that language as well to buy more time with chemistry.

It wasn't as if she was slacking off. Less than one percent of the world's population spoke five or more languages, and fit nicely into that category with her English, French, German, Albanian, Latin, and a fair bit of Mandarin. No, she wasn't letting magic make her complacent, she was prioritizing her time.

She'd be facing a year's worth of missing curriculum if they allowed her to start school as a second-year student with her like-aged peers.

Hermione glanced up to the corner of her room where Erl had made himself at home. He now had various baubles he'd pilfered here and there from the lab or Dr. Hampton's desk, decorating his shelf home. "Erl, listen to this. Goblins often have large families, oftentimes raising children together in a neighborhood, or repsnad, as if they belonged to the community rather than individual parents. Goblinkin, the infants and juveniles, are expected to obey the adults in the community as much as they would their parents. If one is found guilty of disobedience, they—"

"You are going to be late to your class with Trainer Hart," Erl interrupted, not looking up from his whittling, even when the slivers of wood shavings piled up on his chest due to his supine position, kicked back on his bed.