Warm Blooded Nature
Hogwarts: Second Year
Hermione spent the entirety of her first year working: hours in the library spent trying to fully understand what an Elemental Witch was, with no friends or anyone else who wanted to associate with her.
The sorting hat almost stalled out sitting on her head, and it seemed the whole of the great hall was waiting with baited breath to see where she would be sorted. When the hat called out: Gryffindor!!
The reactions of the student body was different than anyone else, while others cheered when people were sorted into their houses- Hermione felt like Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw let out relieved sighs when she was sorted into Gryffindor. And her own house? An almost collective groan of annoyance at having to take her on- like she was a charity case they would have to drag along.
Hermione almost cried, yet again. But instead walked to their table like nothing was wrong, she’d make them regret their bad attitudes, she swore to herself.
She was alone. But at the time, she was alright with that- somewhat.
Her research was incredibly informative, but what frustrated her more: was the fact that all the faculty here at Hogwarts clearly knew what she was… and yet they did nothing to help her understand herself. Every class she took, was the same curriculum as every other student- she was never pulled aside to be tutored specifically in who or what she was.
She was again treated as an outcast by everyone around her, including the adults.
So she did what she always had to do: forge ahead on her own.
Hermione discovered that the Hogwarts library had many texts that spoke of how loathed and despised Elemental witches were- but few spoke of the reasons why that was. She checked out every book she could get her hands on, no doubt making the head librarian detest seeing Hermione’s bushy head coming her way.
It wasn’t until half way through her first semester, that she discovered newspapers from the past were archived in a certain section for history. Clearly news outlets of the past and present greatly exaggerated their findings in order to sell papers- but they were less inclined to make people ‘read between the lines’
They did not believe in subtle implications.
These wizarding ‘journalists’ knew bold, crazy headlines got peoples tongues wagging.
Hermione deduced that Elementals were first despised by the Wizengamot- basically the wizarding world's form of government- because they had a freedom that other citizens did not have.
Since the late 1600’s every young witch or wizard was subjected to something called The Trace, which was a charm placed on children to help detect magical offenses.
The reason Elementals were so abhorrent to the Wizengamot was because Elemental Witches' powers were somehow able to circumvent The Trace. Though they didn’t do it intentionally, the result was the same- their use of magic was unable to be tracked.
Hermione theorized it was because Elemental witches were more attuned with their inner magic, and able to cast without the use of a wand. Though Elementals like herself are still able to use wands, it was not necessary in order to use wandless magic.
Of course this was a trait that was taken advantage of by certain people, it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. But the connotations and prejudice that came with being labeled an Elemental, forced many into hiding.
Being an Elemental was not as uncommon as it was made to seem, but in the wizarding world- once a family discovered their child had those powers, they would stop at nothing to hide that information from ever getting out.
The only reason Hermione was being so reviled was because she was a Muggleborn- which was apparently quite rare for an Elemental- and once her powers began to manifest, her parents were unable to hide what she was.
Part of what gave Elementals such a bad reputation was the fact that pureblood’s would vehemently hide if a member of their family were an Elemental, while at the same time they would happily use that juvenile Elementals powers for nefarious purposes. Apparently, many young Elementals were forced to perform magic that their family wanted kept secret from the government. So a pureblood family would publicly bash any and all mentions of Elementals in order to deflect suspicion, while also generously ‘loaning’ out their underage Elemental witch to people who wanted them to perform illegal magic.
It made Hermione understand a bit more why the subject of Elementals was so taboo, and also made her wonder how many undercover Elementals were secretly living amongst the rest of Wizarding London.
Strangely though, by the end of the year, Hermione had decided that by her being ‘outed’ as an Elemental, was actually an advantage. Where others spent nearly their whole life hiding who they were and denying the beautiful magic within themselves- Hermione was free to just be. And to prove the notion that Elementals were somehow inferior with wand magic as an incorrect representation of her kind.
She would be the smartest, strongest, unable to be patronized, most capable version of an Elemental Witch this world had ever seen.
And while she was lonely her entire first year, spite was an emotion she befriended quite closely.
Her only other companions were the generous and kind house elves who worked and lived in Hogwarts castle. With no one to sit with at breakfast, lunch, or dinner- she would often skip meals in favor of reading in the library. The elves that worked in the kitchens found out about this and did not like it, at first they thought she was insulting their cooking- only to find that wasn’t the case.
Hermione missed dinners with her parents, and the lonely meal times in the great hall were a sad kind of replacement- so she just wouldn’t go.
Somehow the elves found out why she was skipping meals, and felt a sense of compassion for the young girl.
In fact there was a kind of kinship between herself and elves, both creatures with inherent magic that was misunderstood by almost the whole of wizarding society. Hermione tried handing out socks, and sweaters as much as she could- once she found out about their ‘employment’ with the castle, but found most just chuckled and said this was all they knew, and that this was their home.
After that, many times she would find a charmed plate of food on her bedside table- or bananas and apples slipped secretly into her book bag.
If she could have, Hermione would have spent her entire free time, hanging out with the elves of Hogwarts- but they were busy, and claimed it wasn’t ‘proper’ to only have house elves for companionship. They tried encouraging her to find friends, and put herself out there- they spoke like they knew something she didn’t, and it frustrated her. But eventually she gave in and spent an hour a week in the great hall with everyone else, on the off chance someone might speak to her- other than that she was either in a classroom, the library or in her room.
She never was successful at her ‘attempts’ at socialization.
But by the end of the year, Hermione was first in her entire class, blowing her professors' minds and earning more points for the house cup than the Quidditch team did their entire season. People thought it was impossible, many accused her of cheating- and Hermione reveled in it. She was better than anyone could understand, and she didn’t let her type of magic ‘handicap’ her in any way, like this entire school- no, world- thought that it would.
She was giddy in her achievement, and that night she found a small cupcake with a lit candle waiting for her on her trunk- a gift from the elves who could see how hard she had tried all year.
It nearly brought tears to her eyes. And the elves at Hogwarts were the only people she said farewell to, genuine sadness at having to wait a few months before seeing them again. They promised the summer months would fly by, and Hermione would be back faster than she thought possible.
Hermione went home on the Hogwarts express that year, excited to get home and continue her research. Figuring as Elementals were so often cast out of wizarding society, that many might have chosen exile into the muggle world as an alternative, rather than a life of constantly being treated as less than.
She spent the summer at the local library, checking out books or perusing a brand new freshly invented research engine: the World Wide Web- which had been created while she was at Hogwarts during her first year. Other than that she was in her room reading those books, her parents were pleased that she seemed to have more of an understanding of her magic.
But in truth Hermione was still pretty in the dark, it frustrated her to no end that there were absolutely no books for people like her: in the Wizarding world or the muggle world.
So instead Hermione- at almost 12 years old- decided to create her own. She bought a lovely leather bound notebook from the local store with as much allowance as she could afford, and began writing down what she had deduced or discovered.
She penned that most magical and muggle researchers agreed there were four elements. And seeing as she was an Elemental witch, it wasn’t a huge leap to assume that had something to do with her situation.
The four elements are earth, water, air, and fire.
It wasn’t hard to imagine what her affinity was: her memories of her bedroom in flames made it pretty obvious she was likely a Fire Witch.
What each element represented was more disputed, but she had come to her own conclusions a bit.
Earth: represents solidity and fastidiousness.
Water: represents cohesion and unity.
Air: represents temperature and serenity.
Fire: represents motion and decisiveness.
Scientists in the muggle world provided examples for how these four elements were almost always intertwined in one way or another. One element was almost never alone in it's usefulness- which made her think a lot about what that might mean for herself…
It was theorized that the four elements were the key building blocks in the fundamentals of life. For example, if someone were needing to start a fire in order to stay alive- with the burning of a wooden log exhibited all four elements: the hungry flames represented fire, the smoke rising up represented air, the hissing steam from the moisture in the wood represented water, and the ashes that formed during and after represented earth.
All four seemed quite inextricably intertwined.
And it only made her wonder if she wasn’t meant to be alone? If there were others who she was supposed to create magic with…
Going back to Hogwarts began the same way as it ended the year prior: with Hermione being ostracized from her own House, despite the fact that she had been the major reason why Gryffindor won the House Cup the year before. Sure… they wanted what she could give them, expected her to work hard and earn those points for their benefit, but they certainly wouldn’t dignify her with the respect of a cheerful ‘hello’ or even an acknowledgment of her presence. She was just a useful nuisance to these people- and Hermione hated it.
Her latest realization involving her research into the elements, was that her powers were most likely reinvigorated by nature and time spent in the outdoors. She had always loved the rain, or a cool autumn nip in the air- so Hermione actually enjoyed the hour-long walks she was penciling into her daily schedule.
It was on one of those walks that she saw a girl, who was from the same year as herself, standing in the frightfully chilly and damp grass, looking up into the sky while staring at nothing- while wearing no shoes! The closer Hermione grew, she could see how pink the girls feet were turning.
What could this girl possibly be thinking? Walking around with no shoes?!
Maybe it was Hermione’s warm blooded nature- being a Fire Witch- but she didn’t really feel bone chilling cold that often, in fact at the moment Hermione was feeling rather toasty. But for some inexplicable reason, Hermione could feel the biting cold in her own toes. Like this strangers bad decision was slowly creeping up on her- so she had an idea.
Maybe it was foolish?
It probably was…
Maybe it was crazy?
Oh, it definitely was with her track record…
Maybe it was the outdoor air making her feel bold?
She should write that feeling down for later, if she didn’t wind up killing the girl…
Hermione wanted to try using her particular powers to warm up this girl's feet- thereby warming up her own in the process.
See? There was logic somewhere in this plan…
All she had to do was hope she didn’t light this strangers feet on fire- no biggie?
Right?
Trying to casually come to a stop, so as not to arouse suspicion, Hermione pretended to be interested in a particularly ‘fascinating’ bush in front of her.
Instead she raised her hand slightly, in the blond girls direction- and concentrated. On what exactly? She wasn’t sure. But Hermione persisted, thinking solely warm thoughts and imagining that her own feet would no longer feel slightly frosty.
After almost five minutes of sweaty concentration, Hermione felt it- it was working!
Slowly, but working nonetheless. And this girls feet were NOT on fire…
I’d call that a win, for sure!
Trying her best to hide her giddiness at her first real attempt at controlling her power into a singular direction- was next to impossible. But Hermione tried anyway, attempting to casually walk by the barefooted girl without a crazy looking grin on her face.
As Hermione passed the blonde girl, she suddenly spoke, and confused Hermione to the core, “Thanks, my toes have been awful cold these past few days. I feel much better now…”
What?
Huh?
How did she-
This girl could tell she was using her powers?
How?
Just….. how??
???