Room 308, Saturday evening

[smartestone]

Hermione is studying, and not thinking too much about roommates disappearing till late, or sending off any letters at all. At least until she hears the knocking at the window, and has to open it for a little owl, who drops a letter just inside the room before flying away again. She scrambles to pick it up, turning it over to see if it's from them. It can't be. Not already. Unless they just turned her down flat...

It's Harry's writing on the envelope, so any disappointment she felt at not hearing from the Ministry yet is quickly pushed aside by the fact that he actually wrote to her.


Dear Hermione,

I'm not sure if this will get to you before The Prophet. Before you say anything, no, I'm not endangering anyone by sending this. I'm being really careful. Umbridge is off her nut. One of Cho's friends snitched on us and the DA's done. Dumbledore took the blame and he's left Hogwarts, and now Umbridge is in charge of the school. Malfoy and his frends are part of some Inquisitorial Squad and are making things impossible. I'll tell you what happened when I can.

I just thought you should know.


Harry

P.S. Fred and George are insistent on more of those sock things. I know what they're planning. Send a lot.


She's again, not sure she wants to know. She knows she shouldn't be too surprised by this turn of events, but still, it's a little weird to see.

She gets her knitting supplies, sits down on he bed and starts trying to work. It can't be that much more difficult than socks, right?

Five miutes later she's muttering "I can't do this" and instead trying to just knit smaller socks so maybe they won't notice they're not the same thing.

[Expecting someone, but open.]

Comments

[smartestone]

"It's not religion, no. It's the organization that heads up Wizarding London. Though the rest of it is very true, at the moment," she grumbles.

"Really? And you don't need a wand or anything?"

[the_merriest]

"This book is ... this is all useless. I mean, this is supposed to be a fighting class, right? This is all about how not to fight. Great, wouldn't that be nice if that were an option? If only we could have talked to Sin and told it politely not to kill anyone!" She shook her head in amazement. "What a joke!"

"Government? Usually just as useless. Well, at least in Spira. Kind of like, here, let's cover up all those lies the church tells you. Nice system if you can work it." She took a deep breath and set the book down, stopping herself before she restarted her Why Authority Is Stupid rant. "No wand. Yunie had a staff, and Lulu had little charmed Moogle dolls, and I mean, it's easier with my Godhand, I don't know why. But I can ..."

She frowned. "Do you have a bucket? It's not much, really, but I can show you."

[smartestone]

"I have a glass, will that do?" she asks.

[the_merriest]

Rikku bounced up. "It's usually a little more than that. Maybe put it over your trash can? But I totally don't mind making a mess if you don't."

She shrugged, cracking her knuckles. "Fire and Ice and Lightning are way better attacks, but Water works on Lightning fiends and causes way less damage when you're just trying to show someone."

[smartestone]

Just to be safe, Hermione takes the bag out of the trash can and pulls it over to Rikku. "Lightning fiends?"

[the_merriest]

Rikku nodded. "Like the flans. And bolt drakes. Lightning and water are opposites, so that works best on them. You find them a lot on the Thunder Plains." She shuddered for a few moments. "Huge massive place. Nonstop thunderstorm. I didn't think I was gonna make it."

She cracked her knuckles again, taking a deep breath. Lulu never stressed over it. Right.

"Drink up," she told the can, pointing at it. It obligingly filled with about a gallon of water. She grinned. Still tickled her.

[smartestone]

Hermione smiles as she watches. "That's pretty impressive, actually."

[the_merriest]

Rikku smiled back, blushing a bit. "Nah, I mean, it looks cool, but it's not gonna help if you're up against anything. Lulu could ..."

Rikku stood up straight and mimed a sweeping bow with both arms scooping in. "And I don't know how her dress even stayed up, I mean Lulu ..." she held her hands out to indicate Lulu's enormous assets "... and then BOOM! It'd be, like, flare, and the fiend would just explode."

She bounced excitedly, and then sat back down. "Oh! Sorry. Your trash can. Uh, we can dump it somewhere?" She giggled.

[smartestone]

"I'll pour it into the bathroom sink," she says, looking at her. "You certainly seem to be in a better mood."

[the_merriest]

Rikku bit her lip, blushing a bit harder. "Oh! Oh, uh, yeah. I, I kinda am."

She looked up at her roommate, curious. "Did you hear anything about ... demonic possessions and charms and something weird like that going on with people?"

[smartestone]

"Only what's been said on the radio," she answers, sitting in her desk chair.

[the_merriest]

"I guess I missed the radio." Rikku hugged her knees. "Uh, Jude ... when he was being weird and not-like-Jude? He wasn't Jude. Or I guess it was him, but he was zapped with a ... something."

She shook her head. "Professor Deadpool called me when he snapped out of it. Jude didn't look like he'd been hurt or anything, so ... he's probably okay, right?"

You couldn't see internal injuries, but surely there'd be more bruises or something.

[smartestone]

"Oh," Hermione says, frowning. "Well, he's a teacher. I'm sure if Jude was hurt, he'd have taken him to the clinic at least."

Not that she's ever seen teachers turn people into ferrets or anything.

[the_merriest]

Rikku looked up skeptically. "I kinda meant ... I was scared that Deadpool hurt him. He kinda threatened to go after him with a shovel if he ever, uh, got friendly? And that was kinda ... friendly."

She considered. "It's kinda weird and all but ... at least it's not ... what I thought it was. Right?"

[smartestone]

Hermione's eyes widen as she tries to imagine a teacher- who isn't possessed by anything- threatening a student like that. "No, you're right. It's definitely a good thing if that wasn't really him. Well... You know what I mean."

[the_merriest]

"Deadpool's my mentor," Rikku explained, as if that magically made things logical and reasonable. "He's a bit protective."

"And yeah, I mean, of course it is. I just meant, you know. It's kinda ... weird, that's all." She smiled. "But weird I can deal with."

[smartestone]

"At least in Fandom, this sort of thing seems to be standard," she says, smiling a little. "You can get used to weird."

[the_merriest]

Rikku smiled back. "Yeah. The longer I'm here, the more I see that."

She motioned to the letter. "So ... what are you going to do about your friends?"

[smartestone]

"Make... cozies, I think," Hermione says, pulling a face. "I don't know what they're planning, but they're doing something. And there's not much else I can do from here."

[the_merriest]

Rikku considered. "Maybe when you go back, you can help. For the testing bits? And ... maybe if you told Alec what you needed them for, he'd make more?"