The mortifying ordeal of falling in love with your entire secret study group

8th year: Hermione

Chapter Text

The girls' dormitory had five beds, and Hermione had already reserved two of them for her and Daphne. They were joined by Muggleborn girls of three different Houses: Lily Moon from Slytherin, Kellah Morris from Gryffindor, and Sophie Roper from Hufflepuff. No Ravenclaws made the list, though Hermione didn't know if it was because they'd all been in Hogwarts last year or if they had just self-studied for their exams. Either way, she was happy to never see Melinda Bobbins and her terrible Rune-writing ever again. Classes would become infinitely better without the Ravenclaws there to embarrass themselves with their arithmancy mistakes.

"Oh, I love that Bobbins isn't here with us," Daphne said as she flopped onto her bed. "I preached so much unity last year, but there were days where I was so tempted to just delete all Ravenclaw house points because they were annoying."

Hermione flopped onto Daphne's bed as well, halfway on top of Daphne. "We should threaten a Prefect into doing that this year. Professor Babbling said we can start a mastery in Runes this year without participating in class. But I think Professor Vector wants us to arithmetically destroy the seventh years, so we'll have to put up with them."

"Small wins," Daphne murmured into Hermione's hair. "I know you're smug about Diana, but listen! She was so adorable about her oranges, of course we thought she'd be a Gryffindor!"

"The fuck has that got to do with anything?" Hermione shook her head. "Whatever. I was right."

"You usually are," Daphne agreed. Then she pushed onto her elbows and glared over Hermione's shoulder. "What?"

"Oh, um, nothing," Kellah Morris said.

"Sorry," said Lily Moon. "We didn't expect..."

Hermione snorted. She faced her new roommates, who were looking awkwardly. Sophie Roper was opening and closing her mouth like a fish. "Alright. We're friends, and nobody is under the Imperius curse. Sure, take a moment to process."

Finally, Hermione and Daphne would share a dormitory. Hermione wasn't going to let anyone rain on her parade. Just one normal school year is everything she wanted. And she was going to get that.

... with a little bit of mischief.

After the other girls had fallen asleep, Hermione and Daphne sneaked out.

The eighth year common room was empty, though there were faint noises coming down from the staircase leading to Harry and Ron's dorm. The newly dubbed eighth year tower was small, hovering over the Greenhouses, and it used to be empty. The last time it had been used was over a hundred years ago as guest quarters. There were only three connected dorms, one for the girls and two for the boys.

Blaise and Theo quietly crept down from the designated Slytherin dorm.

"I can't believe everyone gets new roommates except us," Blaise whispered. "Another year with Draco should be illegal. But he does have his uses," he added, lifting up Draco's kidnapped Firebolt. The broom was even charmed to sparkle in green and silver.

"At least he didn't bring his Krum poster," Theo grumbled. "How are the other girls? I don't think I've ever spoken to Morris and Roper."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "They're both still taking divination."

Theo winced. "Ah."

"Do you ever think we're mean to people we think are stupid?" Daphne mused.

Blaise grinned. "No, why would you think that? Anyway," he gestured to the potted tree that was floating behind him, "the orange tree."

To avoid being caught after curfew the first night out – Hermione was certain that nobody would mind, but this was an adventure – they took the window route. The person-sized windows were ideal to read under, or bundle up in blankets and watch the snow in winter. And, of course: escape.

Theo first flew Daphne outside, then Blaise who held the tree in a levitation charm. Finally, Hermione got onto the broom behind him and waved her wand at the window to close it. Doing her very best not to look down, she wrapped her arms around Theo and waited until they reached the grass below.

"So," Blaise waved his wand, and the tree did a little spin. "Where do we plant this beauty? I'd have said in direct line of sight of Gryffindor tower, but with Diana in Slytherin now..."

Hermione hadn't thought that far. "If we put it next to the greenhouses..."

Daphne shook her head. "Professor Sprout will just use it for her own purposes."

"And my growth potion might affect more than just the tree," Blaise added.

"How about somewhere on the way to the Quidditch pitch?" Theo proposed. "Then it will be hard to miss, for anyone, and nobody will have reason to bother it."

Decided, they stumbled through the darkness around the castle and towards the Quidditch pitch.

"So, Theo," Daphne whispered. "How come you have so many feelings about Draco's Krum poster?"

Theo cursed as he tripped, but Blaise caught his arm and held him up. "Daphne..."

Hermione smiled to herself. "He has a good personality, you know."

"But not the looks?" Blaise sounded like he was smirking.

Hermione was just glad that the darkness would hide her blush.

They reached a point on the grass, closer to the castle than the pitch. Maybe it had a good view on the lake, but it was impossible to tell despite the starlight. Hermione and Theo wasted no time to wave their wands at the earth until a hole dug itself – a win for the theory of intent, a loss for the act of spell creation and its arithmancy – and Daphne vanished the tree's pot as Blaise lowered it into the ground.

"Planted," Blaise said. "Now for the fun part."

Daphne summoned water, and Hermione joined in until the grass they were standing on was soaked in a wide radius around the tree, as if it had rained for hours. Blaise knelt next to the small tree, freed a root from the dirt with his hand, and with a knife carved runes for growth, protection, and indestructibility.

"This is going to be such a tree," Hermione murmured.

Blaise covered the root again, then pulled out a handful of potions vials. They each took three, stood around the tree in correspondence with the cardinal points, and started pouring. The tree grew immediately. After they poured all the potions it was the size of Hagrid's hut and it was carrying oranges.

"Oranges?" Theo asked.

"I don't think we made it evergreen," Blaise replied, then shrugged. "We'll see. Maybe it'll need a few years to acclimatise."

Hermione poked it with her wand. The tree gave no reaction, and seemed stable – she'd be able to encircle the trunk in her arms, but it would be difficult. As four, they walked in circles around it while they cast mild but strong protections and spells that would let the orange tree flourish even in the Scottish highlands. Hermione was fairly certain that the tree would be okay, for at least a couple hundred years. But they couldn't entirely control how it grew, and of course it could just die anyway. Plants were like that.

Still, they returned to the castle in high spirits and ready to sleep. Theo flew them back up the tower, where they entered through the window into the common room. Quietly, they parted ways, Hermione and Daphne immediately deciding to sleep as much as they could before classes in the morning.

After brushing her teeth next to Daphne, whispering a goodnight to her over the sound of the other girls' breathing, Hermione went to sleep with a smile.