A Minor Awakening
Hermione immediately knew her and Lyra would be the best of friends. They’d sat together on the train back to home. Lyra was travelling around London visiting all the libraries, she claimed magic was just as much in the mundane as the mundane was in the magical.
Hermione didn’t immediately understand, but when Lyra took out a glass of water and explained the placebo effect, Hermione began to see the bigger picture. And boy was she grateful for it.
Hermione called her own parents and told them she’d be staying with Lyra for a couple days in London before getting back home. Her parents were just happy she was making a friend.
Lyra gave Hermione so many books. Hermione devoured them all. Even if some of them were definitely a bit darker than even the restricted sections.
By the end of the three days, Hermione had a better understanding of concepts of liminality, will, and the significance of intuition. Which she would have otherwise entirely dismissed as divinatory mumbo jumbo woo.
She still had a ways to go certainly, but she found herself standing a bit straighter, and a bit more confident knowing that her new found knowledge wasn’t just good for class scores, but also for protecting herself and her friends. Ron saw it in her as well. He whispered to Harry that she seemed a bit more slytherin, and said her smile had gone a bit scary. but Harry was just happy that she see her finding herself.
Harry didn’t really know where he himself was, so it was nice for him to see Hermione getting stronger.
Draco called her a mudblood once the other day, and Hermione didn’t even flinch. She floated (?) towards him with a grin on her face, and whispered some words into his ear, and his taunting turned to terror and he fled.
“Blimey Mione, what the hell’d you do to him? Not that I’m complaining, but you looked like dark witch of the century”, Hermione laughed, but she recalled Lyra telling her how a few words spoken with intent can be just as magic as spell written in an ancient language. “What? I just told him that I was his worst fear, and he believed me.”, she cheerfully replied, “It’s not exactly my fault that he’s so gullible.” Ron didn’t believe her but Harry whispered into her ear “you have got to teach me how to do that, or at least do it on draco more often”. They both laughed, Ron shuddered.