Chapter - 41 : Resurgence
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"Why do we call it yesterday, anyway?" Hermione spoke, trying to change the subject after wiping away her tears. The two others had tried to console her, but hadn't interrupted her cry, either. "Really, it's the same day as today, it's just we had regular classes then and Muggle Studies today. Tomorrow will be Arithmancy, but they're all the same day. So, really, we ought to call this Muggle Studies Day, to keep it distinct from Arithmancy Day, and Regular Classes Day."
Then she looked at Luna and gave a horrified gasp over what stress had made her reveal.
Luna smiled softly in reply, dragging the older girl to her feet. "Don't worry about it. I knew you were time traveling all along by the wrackspurt infection. They get most dreadful around those who are temporally displaced."
Harry coughed into his fist. "And... I sort of have been sharing my Time Turner with Luna, so she could get some extra study done."
Hermione paused and stared at them for a moment, before giving up and rolling her eyes. "Well, it is against the rules, but why should I care? If only the man who GAVE the rules followed them... but he doesn't, so why should I?"
"That's the spirit!" Harry gave her a spontaneous hug.
Hermione gave her loyalty fully. She was either for something, or against it (or didn't care one way or the other, but that was only the case on issues she felt didn't concern her) and whichever way she committed herself fully.
Just minutes ago she had been totally committed for Dumbledore. Now she was against him, Harry could read it in her thoughts. It had taken a great force of persuasion to change her mind, but that was the way she was.
That worked in his favor now that she was on his side.
Luna, however, didn't have his ability to passively read minds, so the blonde Ravenclaw had to check another way. "So," she probed delicately. "Do you believe us? The quality of our instructors is his responsibility, and he's had the job too long to blame anything on his predecessor. Snape alone..."
"It's true!" Hermione interrupted, bursting into tears once more and shaking her head over the situation. "Insulting students in any way, shape, or form (such as referring to them as dunderheads) is enough to get a teacher fired by a school board and put a mark on their record! Calling a student 'stupid' got my third grade teacher fired! That's enough all alone. But Snape is so much worse..." she drew in a ragged breath, "Before you even count all the not-teaching, man-handling, yelling, and assigning dangerous projects to first time students, things that explode over the slightest mistake! In the muggle world, Snape's behavior would have gotten him arrested... and Dumbledore as well, for allowing it to happen!"
"And that's just his teaching style. We've not even dipped into his little side projects and extracurricular activities, like belonging to a club of murderers. If he'd had any remorse over that he would NOT have been tacitly advocating that philosophy over all those years he's been at Hogwarts!" Harry insisted.
"And this goes SO far beyond Snape!" Hermione wailed, tears flowing. "I think in your grand tally of Good vs Bad teachers you missed some of the worst of the lot! All the defense against the dark arts teachers, who not only include bad teachers, but those who've actively tried to kill Harry or other students! We start that count with a Voldemort possessed teacher, then a complete fraud ... and all this under the impression that the great Dumbledore has a phoenix to help him detect evil!"
"Not to mention his skill at legilimency," Harry added.
Hermione looked up, pausing in her tears for confusion, while Luna looked as though she'd been pricked by a pin. "Legilimency? What's that?" the love of his life inquired, while Luna looked on.
"The art of reading minds. If you're good enough, it can be done without any spoken incantation or wand movements at all - And Dumbledore is among the best of this century. He routinely uses it on staff and students. It would be impossible for him not to have known Quirrel was possessed or Lockhart was a fraud... or all of the stuff Snape does to students."
Hermione now looked downright angry.
'Yep,' Harry reflected. Dumbledore had lost what had to have been one of his most loyal and devoted followers - because Hermione's whole character was built around loyalty and devotion.
Well, knowledge and learning, too. She was nice like that.
"Need I mention that it is extremely illegal to use legilimency without the subject's knowledge and consent? Or that it is illegal to use on minors in any case?" Harry asked brightly.
Hermione now looked furious.
"We'll have to protect ourselves," Luna observed soberly.
"Yes, for now don't make eye contact with either Dumbledore or Snape - they both do it as a matter of routine." Harry shrugged. "I've got the books for Occlumency, the defense against legilimency, back in my room."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Hermione grabbed both their hands and started back towards the castle.
Harry dug in his heels, bringing her to a stop. "Wait! There is a reason we are out here, and I'd prefer to get that done first. There's a clearing just ahead that I need to use, and I was hoping you'd use with me."
"What is it for?"
"The Clearing of Solstices and Equinoxes?" Luna asked, then informed her friend. "It's an Old Magic circle, dating back from before Hogwarts, but it's not anything tremendously special. It's only property is a simple one - every day or night there is, mystically or astrologically speaking, the same as the last solstice or equinox to pass. All it does is make timing less inconvenient for certain rituals. So," she turned back to face Harry, "the question becomes, what ritual are you hoping to accomplish there?"
"One requiring heat, and the summer solstice is the longest day of the year, so, mystically and astrologically speaking, a symbol of Fire," he answered.
"So you would want to get there before the Fall Equinox, which is coming up, as the circle resets to the most recently passed solstice or equinox, and the end of September is fast approaching," the blonde reasoned.
"Which wouldn't do at all. Fall is the harvest, so a symbol for Earth, not the sort of mystical connection I'm looking for," he agreed.
"Wait. They haven't covered this in Astronomy class, nor is it in any of my books," Hermione objected. "What are these elemental connections you're talking about?"
"They only come up in very old styles of magic," Harry reassured. "Nature based styles, for the most part. The Hermetic tradition taught at Hogwarts, which does not use it, naturally leaves that information out."
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