An American at Hogwarts

Creating a New Plan

As winter wore on, Hermione remained stuck in the infirmary. Christmas went well, I had gotten Marie a pair of earrings in the shape of hearts, one with my name on it and the other with hers, and she had gotten me a beautiful cloak emblazoned with crimson red velvet in the shape of a lion. We came no closer to identifying who the heir was, however, and rumors abounded about Harry and I being somehow involved in it, some even tying Hermione's mysterious illness in somehow. It was all nonsense, of course, and anyone who actually knew us personally knew that full well, but that didn't make it any less painful to hear. Me and Marie's lessons with McGonagall continued as well, and she said that at the rate we were going we would be ready to proceed with the ritual by next winter, something that we were obviously quite happy about. In early January, the four of us decided to check in with Hermione, not having spoken to her in a couple days because of classes having started back up. As we walked in, we saw she had improved drastically since the last time we had seen her. The whiskers had faded into a faint mustache, and her eyes were almost back to normal.

"Well!" I said, seeing her improvement. "You might well be out of here soon!"

Hermione smiled softly. "I hope so. It's awful missing classes, especially the first ones after break. You guys have been taking notes for me, right?"

I nodded, as Ron scoffed and mumbled something about never understanding her, which earned him a swift whack to the back of the head from Marie. "Yeah, not sure if they're quite up to your standard, mind you, but they'll do I hope."

Hermione smiled, taking the notes from me. "You're the only one in our year who can keep up with me, I think they'll do just fine. You guys have any luck with the heir?"

Harry shook his head. "Nope. Y/N thought he had a lead with an old book he found in the restricted section, but it didn't really go anywhere."

I nodded. "Yeah, it was just some weird thing from the late 19th century about bloodlines. Nothing that really helps us, it actually said that Slytherin's bloodline was dead, which we obviously know isn't true. I still think we need to consider the possibility that we're focusing too much on the whole heir thing."

Hermione frowned. "What do you mean? Thats all we have to go on?"

"Yeah." I said, nodding. "But couldn't it also be the case that whoever is behind this is using that as some sort of false lead to trick anyone looking into it? I mean, it's not like any of us are experts on dark magic, there could be some obscure spell out there that explains exactly what's going on. I've been meaning to ask Marie to mention the possibility to her dad, see if he can ask around at his office about it."

Hermione pursed her lips, thinking intently. "That's not a bad point Y/N. We shouldn't abandon the heir lead, but at this point it couldn't hurt to expand the search a bit. Marie, would your dad be willing to help with it?"

Marie nodded. "If it's Y/N asking, totally."

I blushed deeply. "I... what? What does me asking have anything to do with it?"

Marie giggled. "You really haven't noticed how much he likes you have you? He thinks you're like, some child prodigy genius or something. He's always asking about how you're doing and if you're working on anything interesting. If I tell him you asked if he could help he'll go to hell and back to figure out something we can use."

"I'm not quite sure how to take that. It's uh, pretty nice, I guess."

Ron and Harry were laughing in the back at me stumbling over my words, so I quickly looked around, trying to change the subject. "Hey, Hermione, what's that?" I said, grabbing a letter from under her pillow. I opened it up, not noticing her eyes going wide and halfheartedly grasping towards me. I couldn't help but start giggling as soon as I opened it up.

"Oh come on, you have got to be kidding me with this?"

The letter was gilded with about fifteen different types of silver and gold foil, and had probably twenty different colored letters in it.

Get well soon, Hermeone!

Best regards, Gilderoy Lockhart

His name was written in the most flamboyant, absurdly over exaggerated hand I could possibly imagine, the L in his last name taking up a solid five inches of space on the card. Hermione finally managed to grab the card from me, but the damage was done.

"Bloody hell!" Exclaimed Ron. "You sleep with that under your pillow? He couldn't even get your name right!"

"It was obviously a mistake, Ron! And what business do you have caring about what I think of him?"

Ron's face went red. "Hermione, I just think he's clearly a moron and wish you'd see it too!"

Hermione went to respond, but I interrupted, finally getting a hold of my laughter. "Guys, lets not fight about this please? You all know what I think of that man, but can we at least try to let Hermione rest while she's still recovering. Plus, I think I just caught Madame Pomfrey glaring at us, she'll probably kick us out if we start up an argument. Just... let it be for now, Ron?"

Ron huffed, but nodded, relenting.

"Good. Now, are we set on a course of action? You guys keep looking into the heir angle, I'll focus on other possibilities. Marie, can you send your dad a letter tonight? I'd like to get started as soon as I can. For all we know the answer is staring us in the face."

Marie nodded, squeezing my hand appreciatively as she did so. She didn't much like the simmering tension between the four of us and Hermione over Lockhart, and clearly appreciated me diffusing it for the time being.

"Alright." I said, hearing Madame Pomfrey get up, likely to come and demand we leave. "Let's get this done guys. I don't know about you, but I'd like to avoid a repeat of the end of last year."

AN: Hey guys! Been a long time without an update, I know, but here's one! This week might be slow in general because Starfield is out and I'm gonna be a bit busy playing that and doing work since my semester just started and it's my second year of grad school, but we'll see! Hope you enjoy :)