SERPENTIS

05⊙ Scylla

⊙FIVE⊙

scylla

A Monster of a Deadly Whirlpool

Hermione Jean Granger had been cuddled into her window seat, covered with plush blankets despite the warm weather and books of various thicknesses. It was her favourite spot to read, apart from her bed, as the morning light shining through the window would cast a fairy-tale-like aura that captivated Hermione, especially when reading fictions.

Before she had known the existence of magic, she would sit at her reading area, and pretend to be the heroine of a feminist-centric medieval fantasy adventure story; engaging herself in imaginative battles against evil dragons to save those in distress, damsels and knights alike.

Her first month and a few weeks of summer break had been marvelous; she had secretly brought a few memoirs of the wizarding world, if the not so discreet piles of magical sweets weren't telling already. She had received a fairly large stash of Honeydukes goods from the Weasley twins, and had gotten a few more as bribery when she had commented, "don't think you can get away from sneaking out of the school all the time, though these candies are yummy."

Smirking, she let out a contented sigh as she closed her eyes in the direction of the window, feeling the flashes of white and yellow swarm behind her eyelids as she allowed the weather to soak into her. Warm, but not too hot for her to remove the blankets, full of sunshine, with moments of cooling rain.

This was the very definition of a perfect summer vacation, she thought.

Hermione had almost fallen into the tempting realm of literary imagination, light sleep slowly consuming her, when the doorbell rang. She groaned, knowing she would have to get it herself as no one else was at home.

With trudging feet, she climbed down two stairs and crossed the living room until she came to stand in front of the door. She let out a sigh, hoping the person on the other side of the door was just a salesman or girls selling cookies. While she hated to be rude, they were easy to refuse and Hermione didn't want to be interrupted anymore; she very much needed her bonding time with her books.

"Coming," she called reluctantly. Hermione undid some locks, twisting and unchaining, until finally she turned the knob to reveal-

"Theo," she said in a shocked voice. "What? What are you doing here? I thought we were meeting near the end of the break."

The tall brown haired boy grinned widely, his eyes twinkling in a way only youngsters could manage to. "We were," he clarified. "But I missed you so much, and I thought you could come over where I'm staying for the remaining week of break!"

Hermione had missed the bright energy of Theo, and she grinned despite herself. Trying to keep an indifferent face, she raised her eyebrow. "And you thought coming over to ask without even a prior notice was smart? How did you even get here anyways?"

"The muggle way, MaiMai," said Theo as he gave her a smirk of triumph. "I took the tram and everything, but I swear someone's making them move with magic-"

"What about the money?" Hermione's eyes widened at the mental image of Theo holding out several sickles, and greedy adults who could recognise true silver taking the wizarding money with their grubby hands, forever imprinting a bad image of the muggle world in Theo's mind. She hoped desperately that Theo instead tried to pay in knuts.

Theo sniggered, opening his left fist to unveil a few sweat-wrinkled bills, folded to fit into his palm along with several crowns. "You see, I do have a brain! Enough for me to travel in the muggle world alone!"