Archive of Our Own

Hermione pauses after walking into the Ancient Runes classroom on the first day of fifth year, staring at the unfamiliar face standing next to Professor Babbling.  The young woman is completely unfamiliar to her, and hadn’t been at the staff table yesterday evening either. Considering the other new staff member this year and the speech she had given, Hermione is skeptical this new person will be any better – though she can hardly be worse. Hermione sits down in her usual seat and keeps her attention on the board as she gets her materials out for class.  Professor Babbling is one of her favorite instructors, and she isn't going to let another stranger’s presence ruin one of the best classes she has.

Fortunately, Professor Babbling begins class with an introduction.  "Everyone, meet Shikako Nara. She'll be studying for a mastery in Ancient Runes under me for the next year and helping out in class as something of an assistant teacher during that time." Professor Babbling then turns to face Ms. Nara instead of the class.  "Why don't you introduce yourself?" 

"Hello, everyone." the young woman says with a jaunty wave and a friendly grin. "You can call me Shikako. I studied at Durmstrang from when I was 13 until last year, when I got my NEWT in Ancient Runes and applied to study for a mastery under Bathsheba here. My primary area of study is in the practical application of combining living languages and ancient runes to create increasingly complex arrays, but that's a bit advanced for 5th year. I should be able to answer most of the questions you have regarding OWL level classwork, though, so feel free to ask me anything you need anytime."

She has something of an accent, but it doesn't have the same gruff consonants as most of the European accents Hermione had heard from Durmstrang last year.  It certainly wasn't Bulgarian. Hermione evidently isn't the only one to notice, because one of the Ravenclaw students from the other side of the room pipes up to ask "Where are you from?" 

Shikako doesn't seem offended by the blunt question, merely grinning as she tells him "Japan." She then sweeps her gaze over the rest of the room. "Any other questions before we get to actual classwork?"

Hermione raises her hand. When Shikako nods at her she launches into the first and most important question she has for the woman. "Have you ever successfully combined a living language with ancient runes in a way that was magically stable despite the evolving nature of living languages?" 

Professor Babbling smiles at Hermione as she walks forward and places a hand on Shikako's shoulder. "I suppose we'll be moving on to classwork after all," she says before Shikako can answer Hermione's very relevant question. "You can ask all you want about Shikako's research on your own time - I'm far too aware of how long you could each talk about an interesting academic conundrum to let my class get entirely away from me at the moment." Hermione slouches down in her seat, already plotting all the questions she can ask Shikako after class closes out. After all, everybody knows that you aren't supposed to use living languages in runic arrays because the changing understanding of words over time will destabilize the array. If Shikako has really managed it - well, she is at school.  Learning is kind of the point, isn't it?

Ahead of her, Professor Babbling begins class, while Shikako walks over to the side of the room and pulls out a notebook from seemingly nowhere.  Not a scroll and quill, either, but a muggle-style Notebook and Pen, the sort Hermione hasn't seen during the school year in ages.

She is dying to have a conversation with the assistant teacher.

It's unfortunate, but Hermione didn't manage to catch Shikako in a conversation for the rest of that week.  She has Arithmancy immediately after ancient runes, so there is never time immediately after class, and whenever she had enough free time to go look for the Assistant Teacher she’d had no luck whatsoever in locating her.  By the time Saturday morning rolls around she's about two near misses away from simply asking Harry for the Marauder's Map and hunting the woman down. 

At breakfast, however, she's distracted by a letter from Viktor. Though they aren't together anymore, the two of them still write each other regularly, and naturally she is curious about whether he's ever heard of Shikako - after all, they would have been in the same year if her statement about getting her NEWT last year is true, so it's possible he’s met her. 

Hermione , the letter began, because despite his struggles with pronouncing her name Viktor had never struggled to spell it correctly. 

The first half of the letter is typical - descriptions of how his career has been going, assurances of his good health, and politely-phrased complaints about his struggles with fame.  Near the end of the page, however, he begins to address the questions she had sent him in her own last letter.

I do know of the woman you wrote me about. Her transfer was one of the most discussed events five years ago - after all it is unusual to have a new student that isn't from Hogwarts or Beauxbatons.  Even more unusual to have one with magic as strong yet inconsistent as Shikako's. 

Shikako, you see, is completely inept at the oddest collection of spells, yet flawless from the first cast for all the rest. All or Nothing. She cannot banish a boggart, but she can wordlessly cast a Lumos wandlessly and has been able to since she first transferred in.

She joined our Dueling club when we were fifteen and proceeded to win match after match with the most unusual form we have ever seen. She does not duel like a wizard - her casting is inconsistent and slow, and she has never been known to cast a shield successfully. Still, she is never hit by a single spell, even when it appears it should have struck true. It is a shame Professor Malinova never convinced her to attempt competition dueling.

Last year my teammate Ivanokov accused Karkarov of not permitting her to enter the study abroad group because she would be the one selected for the Tournament instead of me. I wish I could say that wasn't true, but I have doubts. She is skilled and intelligent. If she were selected, she may have won where I could not. We were never close enough for me to ask her if she had wished to enter, however. She does not seem to care for quidditch, and I have no experience with runes, so we would have little to speak of and never became friends.

I fear for the same reason Shikako and I did not speak often, I cannot speak much of her research.  If Ivanokov's description is correct, however, she will undoubtedly be thrilled to discuss it with you. 

You are one of the few people I believe would be able to keep up with her academically. 

Wishing you fruitful studies,

Viktor.

Hermione sets the letter down, turning it over in her mind.  Viktor thinks that Shikako would have won the Triwizard tournament where he did not - clearly the assistant teacher is as talented with practical application as she seems to be with theory.  

"Can't banish a boggart?" Ron says, reading the letter over Hermione's shoulder. "How's she supposed to be a teacher if she can't even manage third year spells?" Hermione snatches her letter back off the table, twisting to glare at Ron for reading her post without permission.

"If Umbridge keeps on like she is, soon we won't be able to manage third year spells," Harry says across from her.  "Defense is an even more useless period than History at this point."

"We do need some more practice with casting for defense," Hermione says.  "It's good to study theory, but it's our OWL year -"

"Merlin, Hermione, don't you ever give it a rest?" Hermione turns to glare at Ron for his interruption, and he looks back at her with his mouth half-full. "I care a whole lot less about OWLs than the slew of dark wizards trying to murder my best mate." 

"Doesn't matter much, does it?" Harry says, stabbing his breakfast with glum aggression. "She's not going to let us practice casting either way." 

Hermione's lips draw tight at the somber mood that falls over the table, before the idea that has been taking shape in her mind solidifies a little and she shoves her letter back onto the table.  "That's it!" 

"What's it?" Ron asks, leaning over the table to see the letter better.  Hermione helpfully points to the section she wants him to read.  

“We need practice casting, right?” Hermione says. "Well, Shikako was in Dueling Club.”  

"Of course I'll help you start up a dueling club!" Shikako says. "That's a fantastic idea! I'm honestly a little surprised you don't have one already." 

"Our last dueling club ended in my second year, when the teacher that founded it left the school." Hermione says, intentionally leaving out how incompetent said teacher was.

"You mean Professor Flitwick never started one? Isn't he a champion duelist?" 

Hermione pauses, considering that. "He wasn't involved the last time the club ran," she says. "I'm not sure he's ever shown an interest in running a dueling club for students."

Shikako hums softly. "Well, I suppose I'll discuss with Bathsheba and the headmaster," she says. "I'll let you know when the first meeting will be." She raises a hand, as though to wave goodbye and prepare to leave now that the conversation has concluded, but Hermione jumps in before any goodbyes can be said.

"Do you have time to discuss your research?" 

Shikako's grin widens, and the hand that had been raised in the beginnings of a wave is brought down again with a notebook having miraculously appeared within it.  Wordlessly and Wandlessly , Hermione thinks, looking at what is probably the very same notebook Shikako had used in class. That sort of summoning or conjuration is unlike anything Hermione has ever seen before – the sort of legendary power that most would attribute to someone like Dumbledore.

"I always have time to discuss my research, at least outside the classroom." Shikako says, flipping the notebook open casually, as though that sort of casting is something she does every day. Hermione realizes then that it probably is – she’d probably even used it during their first class when pulling out this notebook. "Do you have any particular questions?"

Hermione nods. "You said that you were working on the practical application of combining living languages and ancient runes for increasingly complex arrays," she states, "but we've been told that you should never use a living language for a runic array because the ever-shifting meaning of words can affect the purpose and efficacy of any array they're placed into."

Shikako nods, setting the notebook on the table in front of her and pulling out a muggle-style pen from nowhere. She still hasn’t pulled out her wand in the entire time Hermione has known her, and it’s baffling.  "I did say all that," Shikako says, "and that's not a question. Are you objecting to the possibility of my arrays being stable, are you asking me to explain how they are stable, or are you asking me to explain why you were taught to treat information as an absolute that doesn't function as such in practice?"

"All of them, I suppose. It doesn't make sense to me how what I was taught could be correct and your research can be practical at the same time."

Shikako grins.  "Let's begin with the first." She flips the notebook open, to where a symbol - probably Kanji, if Hermione had to guess - sits in the corner of an otherwise blank page. "See this?" Shikako asks, pointing to the character. Hermione nods, and Shikako sets her finger on top of it. "This character is one that has been used for thousands of years, and is still in use today. If your teachers were correct, then using it in a runic array would likely result in either unpredictable results or in inefficient results, yes?" 

Hermione nods again, eyeing the character curiously. "What does it mean?" she asks.

Shikako shakes her head. "You don't need to know that." Hermione looks up, about to protest, when Shikako pushes the notebook toward her. "You've been taught how to activate a runic array, yeah? Give it a shot." 

When Hermione makes no move to reach out and activate the array, Shikako laughs, pushing the notebook more insistently at Hermione. "It's perfectly safe, I promise." 

Still a little hesitant, Hermione reaches out and activates the runic array. True to Shikako's word, nothing terrible happens when she does so. Counter to Hermione's expectations, nothing happened whatsoever. 

"Oh, it is broken," Hermione says, a little disappointed at the lack of result. Shikako just grins. 

"No," she says, "It's simply not an array. If you were to attempt to activate an array made up of only one rune, how many would actually do anything?" 

Hermione knows that the answer is ‘not many’, but she’s still skeptical that this demonstration has any purpose. She opens her mouth to tell Shikako as much when the assistant teacher flips to the next page in the notebook. 

This page has the same character as before in the bottom left-hand corner of it, but the rest of the page is covered in an advanced runic array, with the same character as before serving as one of the anchor point runes in the arrangement. There are several other characters, and even some English words, scattered about amongst ancient runes from three separate dialects that Hermione can recognize. 

It would take her ages to parse this array, but from what she can gather given the few runes and English phrases she does understand without pulling out references... it has something to do with writing, travel, and light? Shikako pushes the notebook toward Hermione again, gesturing to the page. "Activate this array," she says, and Hermione does. 

Once again, it doesn't seem like anything is happening, but Shikako seems satisfied as she flips back to the original sheet with that character in the corner before passing Hermione the pen. 

"Go ahead and write something," Shikako says with a casual wave at the page. "Whatever you'd like." 

Hermione doesn't have anything particular in mind at the moment, so she settles for writing her name before looking up at Shikako expectantly. Shikako simply smiles and points back at the character in the corner. "Activate that array again." 

"You said it wasn't an Array," Hermione protests, but she follows the direction anyway. 

As soon as she activates the character, the black ink that makes up her name on the page begins to glow, and in moments it has disappeared entirely. Shikako immediately flips through the notebook from the back, stopping on the first page that has any writing on it. 

It has Hermione's name, in her writing, in the upper left corner of the page. Hermione stares at it blankly. "It was supposed to do that?" What is the point of making an array like that?

"Yep!" Shikako says, grinning widely. "It's not a particularly useful array, per se, but it does serve as a simple and safe demonstration of an array that utilizes several ancient languages and several living languages together for a consistent, replicable function. If your teachers were right and using living languages is always infeasible, this would either have different effects every time it was activated, would fail to activate at all, would be dangerous, or would grow weaker over time. None of those things have happened. Instead, so long as the primary array is active when you press start, the writing you've put on the first page will transfer over to the first blank page behind the primary array, every time."

Hermione blinks. "That character means start?" 

Shikako laughs. "No, the character means dawn, it simply functions like a start button in this particular array." She shuts the notebook. "That's another thing - you've probably been taught extraordinarily strict rules for what runes can be used where and in which circumstances, right?" Hermione nods. "It's restrictive," Shikako says. It didn't sound like a question, but Hermione nods anyway. "I don't like restrictions, so I learned to work around them. It’s taught me a lot of what actually can and cannot be done, beyond the abstract."

Hermione stares at the assistant teacher, it just beginning to dawn on her just how crazy the girl must be. "How many times have you injured yourself?" she asks, astounded. Shikako's laugh isn't at all comforting.

"Hey! Most of the explosions I cause are intentional." 

"You intentionally cause explosions?" 

"I plead the fifth," Shikako states, and wasn't that odd?  Hermione is familiar with the phrase from an American television series her mother enjoys, but Shikako is neither American nor even a native English speaker, so her knowledge of foreign muggle culture seems unusual. "Moving on to your second question though; my arrays are stable because I make them so complex." 

Hermione blinks in confusion. "Complexity makes an array less stable."

"Complexity makes a static array less stable. Complexity makes a flexible array more stable. Have you ever heard the phrase if it doesn't bend, it'll break?" 

Hermione shakes her head.

"Ah, doesn't matter. Just something muggle engineers say a lot. The point is, ancient runes are static - their meanings are clear-cut, well-understood, and don't need to be clarified in the least. That allows you to manifest powerful effects with very few characters, and to cause dramatic differences with minor adjustments. When you add complexity to a static array like that, you risk breaking it entirely, because there are only so many effects any of those runes can have at any given time.

"The arrays I build, however, use living languages. You already know that language can evolve over time, but where that can cause uncertainty as to the effects of an array it can also permit you to make an array dramatically more complicated and specialized without breaking it. Adding more information to a static array is like adding more books to a weak shelf - eventually it hits capacity and breaks. Adding more information to a dynamic array, on the other hand, is like adding more words to a book or more paint to a canvas - it clarifies the meaning, ties things together, makes it more defined. There’s still a limit to how much you can add, at least in theory, but it’s a dramatically higher limit, and you need more initial information to form a coherent base."

"So, if your arrays weren't as complex as they are, they wouldn't be stable either?" 

Shikako makes a ‘sort of’ gesture with her hand, shrugging a little. "Some of them would, some of them wouldn't. I err on the side of caution either way."

"Probably wise," Hermione says. Shikako's nervous laughter at that is not at all comforting.

"Anyway," Shikako continues, "the reason they teach you not to use living languages in class as an absolute is because if you don't have enough skill and know-how, you are likely to make something either inert or dangerous. Most kids who take ancient runes are the types to do their own research, and most teachers don't want to deal with quite as many explosions as mine were willing to put up with, so they keep high-level concepts to higher-level classes. You might have come across this near the end of your NEWT year, or if you pursued a mastery, but if it wasn't my specialty, you probably wouldn't even have heard of it before obtaining your OWL at least." 

"How long have you been using living languages in your arrays, to have turned it into a specialty?" Hermione asks. 

"Since before I started at Durmstrang," Shikako says. "I had something of an unusual early education." She banishes the notebook, wordlessly and wandlessly again in a show of power any sane witch or wizard would find intimidating, then pulls out another notebook - this one significantly more battered. Shikako then flips to a page near the middle. "This was my first successful runic array." 

It is a monster of complexity, spiraling out from the page in a manner that looks completely foreign to Hermione. It is made up almost entirely of characters and symbols that she doesn't recognize, or symbols she does recognize used in ways that seemed incorrect, apart from the English words surrounding several of the symbols. Sitting in the center of the array is a triskelion, the dark ink in the center surrounding negative space in the shape of Sowilo, a rune meaning power.

"What is it for? Hermione asks, tilting her head to try and get a better look. 

"It's an energy conversion array," Shikako says. "I've simplified it a lot over the years, but this is the first functional version." She pulls the notebook back, closing it and banishing it with another wordless, wandless gesture. "All of that is pretty advanced stuff though - you probably won't have enough time to maintain a social life if you want to study it on top of your current curriculum, especially in OWL year. Something to consider for after graduation, maybe." 

Hermione wants to ask more questions now, but Harry and Ron are coming around the corner and she does need to give back the map, so she lets the subject drop for today. "Thank you for the help," she says. "I suppose I'll see you at Dueling club." 

Shikako grins.  "You absolutely will." 

Hermione waves as she walks away, meeting up with Ron and Harry and turning in the direction of Gryffindor tower. “So?” Ron says. “How’d it go?”

Hermione grins. “Exactly as I’d hoped.”

 The first meeting of the new, Shikako-led Hogwarts dueling club is far smaller than the first meeting led by Gilderoy Lockhart in their second year. It doesn’t take place in the great hall, there is no raised stage, and it seems to have only been advertised to fifth years and up. In fact, almost everybody there is in Hermione’s ancient runes class, one of the classes above hers, or is friends with someone in one of those classes. Overall, there are probably fewer than forty students there.

Still, forty students in a classroom – no matter how large – would be quite a few, so Hermione is only a little surprised that the meeting takes place out on the Quidditch pitch instead of in a classroom.  She’s surprised far more by Shikako’s approach to the Dueling club. 

“Alright everyone, who can tell me a duelist’s most important, and most often neglected, ability?” 

Malfoy raises his hand smugly, and Hermione glares over at him even as Shikako points to acknowledge him. “Casting speed.” The answer sounds confident, but it brings a smile to Hermione’s face because he’s wrong . Viktor had said as much in his letter - Shikako’s casting speed is considered abysmal, and yet she’s an exceptional duelist. Sure enough, Shikako is shaking her head. 

“Any other guesses?” 

A Hufflepuff Hermione doesn’t recognize - probably a sixth or seventh year - doesn’t bother to raise his hand before shouting out “Shielding?” 

“Nope!” Shikako says. “In fact, it doesn’t use your wand at all.” 

“Not this shit again,” Ron groans next to her, and Hermione elbows him as discreetly as she can manage because Shikako had heard that and is facing them now. The grin on her face isn’t very reassuring.

“Care to share?” She says, and Ron crosses his arms.

“Theory, right?” Ron’s hostile posture drops as Shikako bursts out laughing. 

“Don’t be ridiculous! Theory is important, sure, but you don’t win a duel through theory .” 

“You win a duel through casting ,” Malfoy says, sounding petulant, “not that you or Weasley would know that.” 

“Oh?” Shikako says, sounding amused. “I think you’ve just volunteered.” 

Hermione watches Shikako wave Malfoy over to the raised platform that Shikako had apparently transfigured from the quidditch pitch before their arrival. It’s similar to the one Gilderoy Lockhart had set up in the great hall during second year, except this one is entirely made of dirt and grass, as though the ground had simply been pulled four feet higher than it usually sat. Malfoy, looking smug, sauntered toward it before looking around to either side of the platform.

“Where are the stairs?” a few chuckles rise up from the crowd at Malfoy’s question, one of them coming from Shikako herself. 

“You don’t need stairs for this!” she said, waving as though to encourage him onto the platform. “It’s not that high up.” 

Malfoy sighs, and then climbs into the platform, brushing his now messy uniform off once he’s standing again. Shikako watches all of this with an indulgent expression on her face, and when Malfoy looks up at her it’s clear he notices because he immediately stands straighter and pulls out his wand, raising it to the salute position.

“What are you doing?” he demands, when Shikako merely stands in front of him calmly, hands down by her side. “Raise your wand.” 

“Didn’t I say this wouldn’t involve wands at all? It wouldn’t be a very effective demonstration if I went back on my word.”

“Fine.” Malfoy swings his wand down into the waiting position, turning around and striding into position on his half the platform. Shikako’s hands don’t move at all, but she also saunters over to the correct starting position on the platform, turning around to face Malfoy as he turns around and raises his wand. 

“Begin whenever you wish,” Shikako calls over, “We’ll go until-” 

She’s interrupted by Malfoy calling “Tarantallegra!”, immediately following the curse with a “Rictusempra!” 

The moment Malfoy began casting, Shikako was on the move. She ducked first, evidently managing to avoid the dancing feet charm, and when Malfoy’s wand aimed low for the laughing charm she jumped instead. Her eyes were trained on Malfoy’s wand, and she was moving forward even as he continued casting.

“Petrificus Totalus! Stupefy! Rictusempra! Stupefy!” Spell after spell flies from Malfoy’s wand, and Shikako gets closer and closer while dodging them all. Finally she arrives at the center - the end of the space she can legally occupy, if following Dueling traditions - and simply continues to dodge every charm or curse cast in her direction for what must be at least two minutes.

Finally the deluge of spells slows, and Malfoy is left glaring at Shikako, who simply smiles back. “You can’t win like this!” he yells at her, and Shikako sliders her hands in her pockets casually as she regards him.

“Neither can you,” she says simply.

“You can’t keep dodging forever!” Malfoy says, raising his wand as though to cast again. Shikako simply raises a hand to signal him to stop, turning toward the crowd.

“The point I’m making here,” she says, not addressing Malfoy anymore but rather the whole group, “is that even if not forever, I can dodge. There isn’t a lot of width to a typical dueling platform, so your dodging options are limited, but if you know how to move effectively you can save yourself casting time by eliminating the need for a shield entirely. It takes practice to learn, but it’ll serve you better than anything else, because not every spell can be blocked with a Protego, but any spell can be dodged.” 

“What about our NEWTs though?” a Ravenclaw seventh year student calls out from the crowd. 

“What do your NEWTs have to do with Dueling club?” Shikako asks, her head tilting like a confused dog’s. 

There is disgruntled murmuring from just about the whole crowd, while Ron and Harry both turn toward Hermione with accusatory glares. “I guess I didn’t specify well enough,” she says, hunching under the force of their attention. “We'll still have plenty of time to practice spells, I’m sure!” 

“It was kind of fun seeing Malfoy miss everything,” Ron admits. “Guess that’s why he’s not a chaser.” 

“We were told we’d get practice casting if we came!” someone calls out from behind Hermione. Shikako opens her mouth, but the voice that responds isn’t hers. 

“Casting?” An unpleasant breathy, feminine laugh emanates from behind the group, and the students turn around with irritation or horror on their faces. “Don’t be ridiculous.” 

“Professor Umbridge,” Shikako says. “What brings you here?” 

“I heard some unpleasant rumors,” the pink-clad woman says, walking forward while the crowd parts for her like the red sea. “I came to ensure that they were unfounded.” 

“What rumors did you hear?” Shikako asks, her hand in her pockets. “Oh, one moment, actually.” 

“What-” Umbridge begins, puffing up in irritation, but Shikako turns her gaze to the students around them.

“Regardless, first order of business for all of you, laps. Once you’ve circled the pitch five times and I’ve finished my discussion with Professor Umbridge, we’ll move on.” The students stand stunned for a moment, none moving to follow Shikako’s direction, until the girl insists “Go!” and starts waving at them insistently. 

“Now you can’t-'' Umbridge says, and that gets the kids moving where Shikako’s instructions had not. Hermione isn’t exactly dressed for exercise at the moment, but as the crowd thins and Umbridge’s glare starts darting about the remaining students she decides that discretion is the better part of valor and pulls Ron and Harry away from the unpleasant woman. 

“Well it was fun while it lasted,” Ron laments, easily keeping up with Hermione’s pace. 

“What do you mean, while it lasted?” Harry asks. “It’s not like she can do anything to stop us from practicing during Dueling club.”

“I hope you’re right,” Hermione says, but there’s a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Shikako is only an assistant teacher because Professor Babbling is presiding over her mastery research, so her position is already weaker than that of the rest of the faculty with the ministry interfering. “I’m worried though. We may need to come up with a plan B.” 

Sure enough, the next morning Educational Decree 24 is passed and posted on the board in the common room. Dueling club is officially disbanded, and Hermione knows without a doubt that they aren’t going to successfully get permission to reform. Hermione glumly regards the posting as Ron pats Harry’s back behind her. 

“Well, good thing we already decided on a plan B, huh?” he says. 

“I guess,” Harry says, and he sounds grumpy about it but resigned all the same. “Not sure how you plan to set up an illicit practice session for me to teach anyhow - there isn’t even anywhere to hold it.” 

“We’ll figure something out,” Hermione assures. At Harry’s glower, she amends her statement. “I’ll figure something out. You just focus on planning the first lesson.” 

The first order of business for setting up an unofficial, secret defense practice group is gathering the members. Fortunately, thanks to the one session of Dueling club that had taken place – brief and unhelpful though it was – Hermione has a good idea of who might want to come.

Of course, she isn’t going to invite all the Slytherins; she wants the people there to be people she can trusts, especially knowing going into this that they’re going against school rules.

The other issue with breaking school rules, Hermione has found, is that she can’t simply invite other students to join her definitely not allowed defense club. She’ll have to find some other way to make things work.

Of course, she has a couple ideas for that. The first Hogsmeade weekend should take place in only a couple of weeks, and what’s to stop a group of students from getting a drink together and having a discussion? As long as she doesn’t make it obvious that it’s a pre-planned meeting, they’ll be fine. It’ll be the perfect time and place to figure out who is joining, and ensure that nobody is a snitch.

Communicating with them after they agree to join is going to be a lot harder, though. Umbridge seems to always be watching Harry, Ron, and Her, and several of the Slytherins are obviously playing the role of her informants despite hating her classes as much as anyone else does. Hermione doesn’t understand what they think they’ll get out of it, apart from annoying the Gryffindors, but regardless of their motivations it’s going to make things difficult to arrange subtly.

With that in mind, Hermione approaches Shikako the first opportunity she gets.

“I have a question,” she says, taking a seat at the table Shikako has occupied in the library. “Well, a few questions. Are you free?”

Shikako smiles at her, closing the notebook she’d been writing in. “I have some time, sure. What’s up?”

“I’ve been thinking about telephones,” Hermione says. “Are you familiar with what those are?” Shikako nods. “Good, ok, well, Wizards don’t really have anything similar. I suppose they have the floo network, but not every room has a fireplace, and over the summer I saw an advert for this mobile phone that can be brought with you places. I mean, it’s fairly large, but it’s not as large as a fireplace, and really I think we should be able to do something similar enough with magic-“ she cut off, noticing Shikako holding a hand up in a clear signal to stop.

“You want to develop a method of speaking to someone from a distance that’s easily portable?”

“More specifically, I was wondering if it was possible to adapt the array you showed me last time to send the handwriting to one or more linked notebooks instead of simply to the back of the notebook you’re already writing in. Like sending a telegraph, but with magic.”

Shikako opened her notebook again, squinting at the array she’d shown Hermione last time. “It probably would… in fact, it probably wouldn’t even be that difficult to adapt, really…” She pulled another notebook from thin air, opening it to the second page and beginning to draw an array there. Hermione leaned forward to see what Shikako was doing, and the pen stopped writing as Shikako seemed to suddenly remember that Hermione was there. “Anyway, yes, it would probably be possible. Only, I think that’s a little advanced for your current level.”

“I could learn!” Hermione protests. It would be such a perfect solution.

“Yes, but there’s already a simpler way to achieve basically the same result,” Shikako tells her. “Have you ever heard of the Protean charm?” Hermione shook her head in the negative. “It’s a NEWT level charm that serves as a sort of long-distance duplication. If you enchant a group of objects with a protean charm to link them properly, it’s a simple matter of changing the anchor to make all the others shift as well. Besides, even though I can make an array that does what you want to achieve, I wouldn’t be willing to hand out that array to curious students who might attempt to replicate it without understanding what it does.”

Hermione nods, only a little disappointed. At least now she can look into the Protean charm – it should work just as well, even if it wasn’t what she’d been hoping for.

“Thank you,” she said, standing up. She paused before leaving, however, glancing over at Shikako. “Oh, and do you know whether students are allowed in the Hogs Head?”

Shikako looked at her skeptically. “Why in the world would you want to go to the Hogs Head?”

“I’ve never been,” Hermione says. She hadn’t thought up a better excuse.

“Well, sure, if you want literally everything you talk about to be overheard by literally every patron there, you’re more than welcome to go to the Hogs Head. Their glassware isn’t exactly clean, however, so I’d recommend bringing your own if you really insist on going over.”

“Overheard?” Hermione says. “But nobody goes to the Hogs Head.”

“If nobody went to the Hogs Head, it wouldn’t still be in business,” Shikako counters. “It’s just that they tend to get fewer people there than more popular locations such as Madam Puddifoots or the Three Broomsticks. Fewer people means fewer conversations, which means less noise, which means it’s a lot easier to overhear someone else’s conversation – or listen in, if you have any interest.” She grinned up at Hermione. “When I was a kid I tried to be sneaky and have a secret conversation with a couple of my friends where our teacher wouldn’t expect us, but I’d picked a quiet place and three different people reported our scheme to him before we could pull it off. Next time I made sure to pick someplace crowded.”

“I see,” Hermione said, wondering exactly how much Shikako knew about her plotting. She hadn’t said anything too damning, but… “I’ll keep that in mind, thank you.”

She’ll have to let Harry and Ron know that they’ll be meeting at the Three Broomsticks after all… and look up the Protean charm.

Hermione rarely sees Shikako outside of class for the next couple months, but when she does it’s always memorable. 

Homework  takes up almost all of her attention, and when she does have free time she spends it knitting hats for the house elves or helping Harry with the DA. Harry takes to being a teacher surprisingly well - he seems to take satisfaction in practicing spells behind Umbridge’s back - and Hermione is glad that they still have a way to practice even though, just as she suspected, Umbridge never gave the Dueling club permission to reform. Shikako, however, seems to be irritated that Umbridge made an educational decree just to spite the club, and that irritation manifested itself in the most unholy alliance Hermione has ever witnessed.

Yes, in the months since the Dueling club’s disbandment Hermione doesn’t see Shikako very often. When she does, however, it is almost always in the presence of Fred and George. 

She’s a prefect, and she should be stricter about cracking down on the twins - and she does crack down on them when they cross the line, like asking first years to test their products before they’re finished - but it’s just so satisfying seeing Umbridge upset over what amounts to schoolyard pranks, and yet unable to prove anyone particularly guilty for them. Fred and George had never been this sneaky before, and Hermione is certain that Shikako has something to do with it. 

Her favorite of the pranks thus far is the day where a blackboard eraser would fall on Umbridge’s head every time she walked through a doorway, whether that doorway had a door or not. Hermione has no idea how they managed it - she wouldn’t have known there were that many erasers in the entire school, given how the Professors that use the blackboards always write and erase using magic, not a physical stick of chalk and eraser. Regardless, Professor Umbridge spent that entire day with a light dusting of white in her hair no matter how she attempted to remove it, and by the end of the day had amassed quite a sizable collection of erasers at the front of her classroom to be investigated.

The next day the erasers were gone, and Hermione had never gotten an answer from Fred and George about whether Umbridge had moved them or whether the twins had gotten rid of them. The twins had, in fact, simply grinned and denied having anything to do with the prank at all. 

Things feel like they’re looking up somewhat - Umbridge annoys the students, then the twins and Shikako annoy her back. Harry has managed to avoid getting detention with Umbridge in weeks. Defense classes are still a waste of time, but the DA lets them get the practice casting that they need. Harry, Fred, and George get banned from quidditch, but Harry uses the extra time for his homework and planning for the DA while the twins seem to start spending even more time conspiring in corridors, often with Shikako. It’s not great , but it’s not the worst year Hermione has ever had.

Then Arthur Weasley gets attacked just before the winter holidays, and the Weasleys are all rushed to Grimmauld, and as Hermione packs to go home for the break she wonders if they’re really doing enough to prepare, because it’s not just OWLs and NEWTs that they’ll have to face in the next couple years.

Maybe she’ll skive off the family ski trip and head to Grimmauld instead… she’s sure she’ll come up with a way to convince her parents to let her.

Of course, the second half of the school year is more peaceful than Hermione had expected and far less than she’d hoped. 

Umbridge discovers the DA. Dumbledore is thrown out of the castle. McGonnagal is sent to St. Mungos to recover after being struck by four simultaneous stunners, cast by Aurors Umbridge had brought to attempt to arrest Hagrid. Professor Babbling is back to being a solo teacher, Shikako relegated to only studying under the runes master instead of helping out with her class. Fred and George cause chaos and leave the school, leaving the students and Peeves to cause chaos in their wake. 

Harry stops attending his occlumency lessons. He continues to have visions. 

Hermione insists they verify their information before running full-tilt into what is definitely a confrontation and may just be a trap, getting Luna and Ginny to help be a distraction as they break in to use the only unsecured floo in the building. The distraction isn’t enough; they get caught. Worse still, Umbridge reveals that she’s worse than Hermione’s most extreme hypotheticals. 

“ Somebody had to act,” Umbridge breathed, pointing her wand directly at Harry’s forehead. “They were all bleating about silencing you somehow - discrediting you - but I was the one who actually did something about it… Only you wriggled out of that one, didn’t you, Potter? Not today, though, not now…” 

The self-appointed headmistress takes a deep breath, then begins to shout the incantation of the Cruciatus before slumping to the ground.

“Headmistress!” Draco calls, redirecting his wand to point at Potter, who is sitting stunned and staring at the unmoving pink form of Umbridge on the floor in front of him. “What did you do, Potter?” 

“Is she alive?” Pansy Parkinson asks, her voice horrified. 

“She’s fine, relatively.” Hermione looks up, feeling her jaw drop as she realizes that Shikako Nara is in the room with them . How? When did she get here? She hadn’t been with the members of the inquisitorial squad… or themselves… Snape had entered and left alone. Her presence was baffling - frankly, impossible. “I only knocked her unconscious once she proved herself actually willing to cast an unforgivable curse on a minor. So!” Shikako clapped her hands together. “Who wants to play call the minister and ask for some Dementors with me?” 

“You assaulted the headmistress!” Draco puffs up, his wand shifting away from Harry to point toward Shikako, who seems supremely unconcerned with the implied threat. “You’ll be the one the Dementors are coming for!” 

“That is a risk I am willing to take,” Shikako says, slumping a little into her characteristic slouch and sliding her hands into her pockets. 

“We have to go ,” Harry says, looking toward Hermione before shifting his attention to Shikako. “We can’t stay here.” 

Shikako looks around the room, seeming to take in the number of wands pointed at Hermione and her friends in an instant, before sighing. “Are none of you going to put your wands away?” 

“You’ll put yours away!” Millicent insists, her wand digging more firmly into Hermione’s neck, “or they get it!” 

Shikako pulled her hands out of her pockets, completely empty, no wand in sight. She makes a show of flipping her arms over several times, showing her very empty hands and tattooed wrists. Tattoos that look kind of like runework, now that Hermione is seeing them uncovered for the first time - normally Shikako is very dedicated to wearing long sleeves at all times. “No wand,” Shikako assures the very stressed Millicent. “And it’ll stay away so long as you don’t attempt to cast any unforgivables.” 

“Are you threatening her?” Warrington asked, taking a step forward while keeping a tight grip on the top of Ron’s forearm. 

“We don’t have time for this!” Harry insisted from his spot on the ground.

“Time for what , Potter?” Malfoy sneered. Harry’s face was getting worryingly red - he looked just about ready to lunge at the other boy. Hermione tensed, ready to fight for her wand back if things escalated. Malfoy turned his wand away from Shikako and back toward Potter.

“Umbridge was right,” Draco sneered. “Some circumstances do justify the use, wouldn’t you say?” Hermione watched Harry’s face start to pale, and was so focused on him that she forgot to watch Shikako.

Only it became very important that she watch Shikako moments later, as every Slytherin in the room slumped unconscious. Hermione rolled Millicent over a little fetching her wand, and watched as everyone else went to fetch their wands as well. Neville appeared the most nervous of the lot of them, directing his wand toward Shikako, who looked no more concerned at this turn of events than she had when Malfoy had directed his wand at her earlier. 

“I did warn them about attempting to cast unforgivables,” she notes before raising an eyebrow at Neville. “Do you intend to cast any?” 

“Of course not!” He sounds offended at the mere implication. Shikako smiles at him. 

“Great! Then I’m not going to knock you out. Simple as that. Now,” she turned to face Harry. “Why are you in such a rush? You really ought to stay until the authorities arrive so you can give your statement.”

“I can’t!” 

“Why not?” 

“I can’t tell you!” 

“Why not?” 

“I just… Ugh!” Harry stands up, towering over the much-shorter Shikako. “Umbridge may be a bully, but Voldemort is out there, and I don’t have time for this!” He starts to rush over toward the door. “I’m leaving.” 

“I’m coming with,” Shikako announces. 

“No!” Hermione says, moving to follow Harry. “We’ll go with him. You need to stay and contact the authorities, remember? He probably just needs to talk to his friends for a little anyhow.”

Shikako raises an eyebrow at Hermione, clearly not buying any of her bullshit, but Hermione doesn’t know what else to say. We plan to break into the ministry to save a condemned criminal from another, supposedly-dead criminal, please don’t tell anyone? That would go over well. Shikako wasn’t a part of the Order - she wasn’t even British, had never seemed very concerned about Voldemort - so Hermione couldn’t get her involved in this. 

Mercifully, when Shikako responds, it’s with a simple shrug and a nod of her head. Hermione grins. “Thank you!” 

She and Ron dash out into the hall after Harry, and she can hear Neville, Luna, and Ginny thundering behind them. “What are you guys doing here?” she asks. 

“It seems important,” Ginny says. “You’re not benching us for this. I’ve been left out quite enough for one year.” 

“Where are we going?” Luna asks, her voice as airy and unconcerned as always. “Do you know how we’re getting there?” 

“We’ll figure it out,” Ron says, jogging faster. “Once we catch up to Harry.” 

“It’s got my name on,” Harry said, and he reached out and closed his fingers around the dusty ball. He lifted it down from its shelf, staring at it. Hermione held her breath for a moment, but nothing happened. She exhaled in relief as Harry started brushing dust off the orb’s surface.

“Very good, Potter. Now turn around, nice and slowly, and give that to me.” 

All around them, figures dressed in black were appearing, lit wands pointed directly at the group. 

“To me, Potter,” Lucius Malfoy said, identifiable despite keeping his face hidden.

“Where’s Sirius?” Harry asked.  Several of the Death Eaters laughed, when for the third time that night Hermione watched someone threatening her fall unconscious without warning. 

“Huh, you know when you all decided to break into the Ministry of Magic I was a little concerned about what you were doing, but this really does stink of a setup.” Shikako stepped out from around one of the shelves, her movements silent and eerie. Ginny and Neville both point their wands at her, and she slides her hands in her pockets unconcernedly again, wandering over to nudge one of the unconscious figures with her foot. “Glad I followed you. Are these really death eaters?” 

“How do you keep doing that?!” Ron sputters from behind Hermione. Shikako grins at him. 

“Runes!” She informs him cheerily, before her eyes catch on the orb Harry is holding. “Is that a prophecy?” 

“You know what this is?” Harry asks. “Do you know how to activate it?” 

Shikako shrugged at him, a motion that almost seemed to make her slump further in an effort to keep her hands in her pockets. “No clue. I’m just guessing that it’s a prophecy given that this is, y’know, the hall of prophecies.” 

Harry’s eager expression fell a little, as he returned his gaze to the orb. “We didn’t find Sirius.” 

“Sirius Black?” Shikako asks, and Harry’s gaze snaps back to her immediately. 

“Do you know where he is?” 

Shikako shakes her head in the negative and Harry slumps yet again. “I’ve heard of him in the papers though. Isn’t he, y’know…” she nudges the death eater next to her foot again. 

“It’s a long story, but no,” Hermione assures her. “He was framed.” 

“Not that long a story after all,” Shikako says with a grin. “You’re sure of that?” 

“Positive,” Ron says. 

Shikako looks around at the unconscious Death Eaters around her before turning toward the group again. “So… what are we doing with them? We probably shouldn’t just leave them here, but we can’t just call the authorities either given that we’re all just as guilty of breaking into the Ministry as they are. I don’t know about you lot, but I don’t particularly want to get deported before I finish my Mastery.” 

Hermione turns to the nearest unconscious Death Eater. “Incarcerous,” she casts, and magical ropes appear to restrain the unconscious man. She bends down to pick up his wand, pocketing it before moving on to the next prone figure. Shikako watches her for a moment before picking up the Death Eater at her feet and laying him down next to his restrained associates for Hermione to rob and restrain. In a matter of minutes, all of the death eaters are neatly tied up in a row, their wands all in Hermione’s pocket. Shikako stands at one end of the line of unconscious criminals, brow furrowed. 

“I’m not sure that’s solved the issue,” she says. “We do need to let someone know they’re down here eventually.” 

Hermione shrugs. “Eventually, sure, but does it have to be right now? I don’t think we can contact anyone without leaving this room, and knowing there are Death Eaters around I’d rather not split up.” 

“These were the only Death Eaters in the building when I got here,” Shikako assures her. Hermione thinks she sounds remarkably confident, and wishes she could feel so secure. Unfortunately she remembers her horror as the dark figures had melted out of the shelves surrounding them, and she knows that she won’t be able to tell if there are others lying in wait to ambush them. 

“Better safe than sorry,” she says - a rule she’s lived by most of her life. “Let’s get out of here.” 

“What about Sirius?” Harry insists. “They had him, I’m sure of it! They were torturing him, Hermione!” 

“It was obviously a trap, Harry!” Hermione protests. “A lie! He’s not here!” 

“You don’t know that!” 

“We came to check, didn’t we? They just wanted you to get that prophecy for them!” 

“He wasn’t home! If he isn’t here, then where is he? ” 

“If I might,” Shikako interjects. “He’s clearly not here, and they’re not in any shape to be torturing anyone right at the moment. We could always go use the floo to contact someone you trust, ask them to check up on him.” 

“Who?” Harry insists. 

“Bill,” Ron pipes up. “He’s in the order, he can go and check.”

“The order?” Shikako asks, and an awkward silence falls over the room again. “Fine, nevermind. Let’s go find a fireplace so you can call this Bill fellow.” 

Hermione sighs in relief, double checks the ropes holding the unconscious death eaters one more time, then follows the group out from the hall of prophecies. 

It’s clear that Shikako is better at navigating the strange Department of Mysteries than any of them, because she doesn’t hesitate once in her path and yet the first door she chooses takes them right out to the atrium. As they enter, one of the fireplaces flashes the easily identifiable green of Floo travel, and Hermione freezes to point her wand at it. In her peripheral vision she can see Ron, Harry, Neville, and Ginny doing the same. A little ahead of them, Shikako seems to just disappear . 

Out of the fireplace, wands out, rushed Sirius, Lupin, Moody, Tonks, and Kingsley. 

“Sirius!” Harry called, lowering his wand and rushing over to his Godfather, still clutching the prophecy in his hand. 

“Harry! Thank god you’re alright,” the man said, beginning to lower his wand before Moody stepped in front of him, wand still pointed toward Harry. 

“Where was I when we first met?” 

“At the bottom of your trunk, in the Defense professor’s office.” Moody grunts in affirmation, lowering his wand. 

Lupin is looking around the atrium in confusion, cataloging the unharmed figures of the five teenagers standing in the Ministry Atrium and the glowing orb in Harry’s hand.  “You’re alright? You didn’t run into any Death Eaters?” 

“We did,” Neville corrects, “But Shikako knocked them out. They’re in the Hall of Prophecies, tied up.” 

“Shikako?” Tonks asks, sounding intrigued. “Who’s that?” 

“She’s right-” Neville pauses, seeming to just then notice that Shikako had disappeared on them. “Where’d she go?” 

Moody, meanwhile, was glaring at a spot in the center of the room. “How are you doing that?” 

Shikako seemed to melt back into existence, a grin on her face. “Cool eye.” 

Moody didn’t seem any more comforted by her presence now that she was fully visible. “How were you doing that?” 

Shikako simply shrugged at him, strolling toward the fireplace. “I’m going to head back to the school and call the authorities about Umbridge like I’d been intending to earlier,” she announced to the room at large, making eye contact with Hermione in specific before stepping through the fireplace. “I expect to see all of you back there by tomorrow at the latest,” she said in the sternest voice Hermione had heard from her thus far. 

“Of course!” Hermione assured her, and Shikako grinned before grabbing some floo powder. 

“Good, I’ll let you figure out how to handle all the unconscious death eaters in the basement. Leave me out of it if you can, will you? I seriously don’t want to be deported.”

“How were you doing that? ” Moody growls one more time, but Shikako disappears in a flash of green flame before he can get any answers. 

“So…” Harry says, a little awkwardly. Kingsley and Tonks begin striding toward the elevator in the corner of the room. “D’you think we can invite her to the order?” 

Moody grumbles something unsavory under his breath, and Lupin sighs. Sirius simply laughs, giving his godson another hug.

Hermione grins, relieved. “Maybe, if we get back to the school quickly enough.”

The next morning, Hermione is expecting the headline of the Daily Prophet to announce the capturing of the death eaters she and Shikako had left tied with the Incarcerous spell in the Department of Mysteries, but it isn’t. 

HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED RETURNS is splashed boldly across the front page. It isn’t until the third page that the captured death eaters are mentioned at all. 

Hermione, Harry, and Ron all read the headline article eagerly. Apparently after they’d left the Ministry last night, ushered back to Hogwarts by Lupin, Voldemort and Dumbledore had arrived and dueled each other in the Atrium of the Ministry, being discovered by a whole throng of Ministry employees. Fudge couldn’t keep things covered up anymore. 

“Holy,” Ron says, looking over Hermione’s shoulder at the article. “Guess they’re not calling you crazy anymore, huh?” 

Harry snorts. “Guess not,” he says, looking around the great hall as muttering starts to rise from the student body. He’s been rather grumpy since he woke up this morning, and all he’d told Hermione was that he’d been dragged out of bed to go talk to Dumbledore after the headmaster got back to Hogwarts. 

Hermione meanwhile, simply smiled and folded up the paper. Things were, finally, looking up.