Hermione Granger! Part-2
{Library, Hogwarts}
{4rd Sep 1991}
{3rd Person POV}
...
"Did I say something?" Hermine asked and Rigel turned back to look at the concerned look on her face.
"No..." Rigel replied as he waved away her worries, though he did not know how to explain the situation. Should he introduce the Slytherin bigotry right in the introduction phase?
'I hope she does not run away,' Rigel thought as he continued, "...it wasn't something you said, Daphne, well she is the heir to one of the oldest magical houses in Britain, so she is just a little tense around muggle-borns?" Rigel explained.
Hermione's face hardened as her eyes swayed from his face toward Daphne's retreating figure. "You mean she left because I am a muggle-born?"
"In a sense," Rigel replied. The conversation stopped there as an awkward air rolled through the table, Hermione seemed put out by the idea so Rigel had to shift the conversation, "...so how are you liking Hogwarts so far?"
'Requirement Analysis' Rigel thought, he pulled up Hermione's page once again as he browsed through the changes that had taken place. Of the 8 requirements he had already completed one, granted it was the easiest one since he already had practiced all of the spells beforehand.
...
[Requirements!]
[1. Get better marks than her in any class or test.] {Locked: LP needed- 100}
[2. Consistently beat her in performing a spell before her 3 times in a row.]{Completed}
[3. Explain to her your understanding of magic and agree to join her study group.]{Locked: LP needed- 500}
...
Since there haven't been many classes both Gryffindor and Slytherin shared just 2 classes together, for Potions and Transfiguration. Still in the first Transfiguration class itself, he learns all three spells before Hermione. Although only one of them was recognized as a spell by the system, it seems the requirements were set from Hermione's POV so he was fine.
With at least one requirement done, he could technically begin working on Hermione but he decided to hold off on seducing the brunette for the time being. Considering that she had just seen an ugly side of Slytherin, he didn't want to do something that would paint him with a similar brush.
'Though I would have to get to her soon, maybe after saving her from the troll... will the troll even be let loose in this world?' Rigel thought. The randomness of the world events and the growing distance between the current and canon timeline meant that he could not predict these smaller things.
'For now, I should focus on my current magical capabilities and prepare a fight with a Basilisk just in case.' Rigel thought. He looked at Hermione and decided on a simpler plan.
"Hogwarts?" Hermione repeated his question as she thought about it, although the style of teaching was definitely something she was unfamiliar with the vastness of the library itself stimulated her thirst for knowledge.
"What can I say, to someone who had no idea that something like magic was possible? The grandness of it all... is breathtaking and at the same time overwhelming." Hermione admitted as she tried her best to explain her feelings.
"I can understand that totally... I-" Rigel stopped as he looked around, his actions got Hermione's attention, and when he leaned forward and whispered Hermione leaned closer as well. "I grew up in an orphanage in London so I had to change a lot of plans to come to Hogwarts. Though I realize I have got quite a sum of money that has been left behind from my Father's side so now I'm stuck in a war against one of the other older families over my inheritance." Rigel admitted.
His words made Hermione go through an entire range of emotions from pity to surprise to confusion. Reading her was a lot easier than Daphne or other Slytherin girls that was for sure, "But I still can't get my hands out of the possibilities with magic. From what I could find about potions, most medwitches can cure almost any injuries so quite possibly cancer and other terminal illnesses could be cured. Can you imagine how good it would be for the world if we could modify the potion recipes by understanding their chemistry, we might be able to come up with a cure for cancer if we can recreate its effects..." Rigel gave Hermione an excited look.
Hermione was confused at the massive amounts of info that Rigel dumped on her, but still, she was easily able to appreciate Rigel's train of thought. Especially since she grew up with a deeper understanding of science after completing her studies and her graduation mastery was on the subject of chemistry itself.
"I know, but apparently magic and electricity don't mix and to study the chemistry of potion ingredients we need to absorb them through an electron microscope and other devices and experiments that need electricity to work..." She pointed out, that she had already searched through this avenue and couldn't come up with any good solution.
"Yeah, that might be a problem, though the reason behind that could simply be that the two forms of energies don't work together or cancel each other out. I can't tell anything without some experiments but over the summer I couldn't do anything since I was forced to be in a lockdown..." Rigel shrugged.
Hermione nodded, she looked over her shoulders and then replied, "I did manage to look at the Snake Fangs that we used today under a normal lens microscope before, and it worked fine, though I couldn't sense anything special about the ingredients, there were no hints of any kind of energy that might interfere with an electronic reading..." She whispered. Rigel looked at Hermione with surprise and then nodded. It would make sense that she would not wait patiently for a few months before Hogwarts.
Rigel knew Hermione was smart from the stories but in those, she was just depicted as booksmart. Now he was thinking that it may not entirely be true and other than her beauty, her smarts might be the greatest gain he could get upon dominating her.
'If Daphne and Hermione combine their knowledge of Potion and Chemistry, I'm sure they could come up with a way to make amazing new recipes...' Rigel thought, though the task of getting the two opposite witches to work together wouldn't be easy.
'For now, let's focus on the immediate task at hand.' Rigel thought.
"Hey, you have already scoured the library a lot right? Did you find any spell that can copy and repeat the sounds?" Rigel asked.
...
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AN - Sneak peek into late-stage empire-building stuff!
P.S- 36 Extra Chapters on P.atreon!