Hermione's Delusion

Not for a second did she stop to consider how the Dark side of magic got new recruits if it only worked for those who were already dark to begin with. Or if the only people who could use dark magic spells were those who were already dark by nature, how then could just using a dark magic spell make you evil?

It stood to reason if no light magic person could use dark magic than those who did use it, were born that way. But Hermione didn't realize that because she never stopped to think about it and she was too sheltered and cherished by her family to understand the world wasn't black and white.

Between their classes, the weekly meeting with Professor McGonagal, homework and countless unfair detentions from Professor Snape as well as the other teachers, they had very little spare time though. And that made it hard for Hermione to find the time she needed for her research. Which was why her homework had slacked off. She was slacking on it to try and make more time for research. Not that she had much time for homework any more anyway.

It had been surprising to them to find themselves being given more and more detentions and having to serve them either in the dungeons doing manual labor with Argus (Ron), in the kitchens with the elves doing more manual labor (Hermione)or with Hagrid still doing manual labor (Ginny).

Unknown to them, Minerva had actually had to go to the staff and request they not be given a detention during the hour she had set aside to meet with them to try and get them to understand their new social position and to leave them at least an hour per day for homework completion.

Naturally, none of them were actually getting all their homework completed in that hour making for a lot of late nights. So all three were suffering from a decided lack of sleep to add to their troubles.

The elves didn't allow Hermione to get on her soapbox and preach to them about how they should desire their freedom any more than they would've allowed Ron to spend his detention time eating. She was put to work doing the dirtiest, most disgusting job the elves could come up with. And they could come up with some very dirty jobs. The more she preached at them, the dirtier the job they assigned her the next time. But again she wasn't making the correlation.

Hermione definitely wasn't used to it as she was the cherished only daughter of mildly affluent parents. While they didn't have any servants, her Mum did have a maid service that came in once a week to clean the house and her Dad got a yard service to come mow the lawns and trim the hedges, driveway and walkways.

Her Mum did all the cooking unless her Dad wanted to barbeque or they ordered out. All Hermione had ever had to do along that line was maybe throw together a sandwich or cut up a bowl of fruit and pick up the clutter in her room.

Not even at Hogwarts had she been exposed to real house cleaning or manual labor. Any detention she'd incurred in previous years had been spent helping a Professor grade the homework of lower years or aiding Madam Pince in tending to the Library.

Well, except for the Forest of Death one and that was more Harry's fault than anyone's. If he hadn't gotten them caught by forgetting his cloak, Professor McGonagal wouldn't have given the detention at all. But he had and so she'd to punish all of them equally. But even that detention hadn't been manual labor. All she'd done was walk alongside Neville and Hagrid.

It further surprised them to discover Argus, the crotchety squib caretaker of the Castle, actually liked Harry personally. He claimed to feel sympathy for him for all he had been forced to deal with as a student here, which none of them believed.

He was just a mean-spirited old man jealous of the students for having the gift of magic when he didn't. It never occurred to them to wonder how he could be here at the Castle if he wasn't possessed of magic himself. Though all three of them knew the Castle wasn't visible to those not blessed to have magic of their own.

But because of his jealousy, he made their detentions with him as nasty and hard as he possibly could. And no matter what chore he assigned them to do, he always complained about the level of work they did on it. Telling them how Harry was much better at the work than they were and sneering at them for thinking they were better than he was in any way. Luckily, the girls only got detentions with him when the elves and Hagrid were too busy to supervise it.

Sometimes though they all had a detention with the House Elves whom all three knew were very fond of Harry Potter. He had saved Dobby from a very cruel Master and made certain Winky also got saved when her former master set her free for something outside of her control.

Harry had come to the kitchens as often as he could when Winky had first been released from service to her old Masters and Dobby had told him of her plight. He had spent a lot of time talking to her and helping her learn to deal with her new status as a free elf.

As a result both Winky and Dobby adored Harry Potter and as they loved him, the other elves did as well. Winky still wasn't happy being a free-elf but at least she was willing to live with it.

At first, the trio hadn't been worried about detentions with the elves. They'd thought their time with them would be a relaxing as all three knew House Elves weren't allowed to do anything that might cause harm to their human masters.

And all humans were the masters of elves. So they thought they'd us the time to plot their revenge on Harry and a way to get themselves back in good flavor with their classmates and teachers. They were wrong.

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