Hermione's dilemma

Different test subjects. Different material. Different strength of the spells.

And at last when they were on Test Subject 39, they found a material that was able to hold under the assault of Bombarda Maxima*4.

Any other wizard would not be able to over power such a powerful spell but Harry was able to over power it up to 4 times.

That just went to show how much control he had over his spells.

Still, the protective vest was able to shrug off his Bombarda Maxima*4 and that was the best result they'd gotten all day.

And she could tell that the spell was powerful because even Harry looked winded after casting that large ball of destruction continued on it's path after bouncing off the test subject and opened a 6 meter large and 3 meter deep hole on the wall behind it.

The protective vest was made up of Basilisk skin with runes carved on it with Unicorn blood as any other kind of ink did not work on the highly magical resistant Basilisk skin.

And from the strength behind Harry's spell, she could guess that if that protective vest was able to throw off such spells, then it was highly unlikely that any other Exploding curse would not effect it either.

But the experiments were not over.

Far from it.

In fact, they were just beginning.

After that, Harry used another Protective vest made up of simply Basilisk skin which broke under Bombarda Maxima*1.

She was rather surprised by the large amount of difference between the spell resistance that was generated by his runic arrays but in hindsight, she should have been.

Harry's runic arrays were just that amazing and Unicorn blood was highly magical as well.

After that, they continued the experiments but this time, Harry used different kind of runic arrays on the basilisk skins to see which one would work the best.

She had a feeling that Harry would have to ask Besalla for more skin soon enough.

The process of taking skin was rather disturbing to her but the giant Basilisk seemed rather well the last time she saw it so she believed that it much have high regenerative power or something.

As for the Unicorn Blood, she had no idea where he got it from but she highly doubted that Harry had killed a Unicorn because anyone who kills such a pure being is cursed by magic. Or at least that's what she heard and Harry didn't seemed cursed in the least. So he most likely bought it from some shady person in the black market of the Knockturn Alley.

They spent half of the day in their experiments by which point, they had run out of both Basilisk skins and test subjects.

And she had finally gotten over the nausea she felt upon seeing dead bodies.

The nausea was not gone completely and she still felt a bit sick upon seeing their deaths but she was now able to do her work without stopping even once.

She counted that as a win.

—————

Hermione was bored.

She was sitting in a Transfiguration class and she was bored.

That one fact just made her realize how much she had changed since the start of the term.

Because at the start of the term, she never felt bored during a class.

Even when studying History of Magic in Professor Binns class, she was able to conjure up a little bit of excitement and listen to what the ghost professor was talking about intently while the rest of the slept.

But now she was bored out of her mind in a class which once seemed highly interesting to her.

The task given to them by Professor Minerva Mcgonagall was just that easy for her.

In fact, she was fairly sure that she would be able to complete all the transfiguration exercises of first year with her eyes closed at this point.

That's just how good she had become after spending a few months studying under Harry and practicing the Magic based on Will & Intent instead of the Magic based on Wand movements and incantations.

She was still not advanced enough to give life to her transfigurations like how Harry did but she was still sure that she would be able to do most of the transfiguration spells up to 4th year.

And yet, she had to sit in this class, bored out of her mind and witness her classmates swinging around their wands, trying to say the words in the correct manner so that they would be able to change a metal spoon into a wooden spoon.

Pathetic.

Oh how she wished that she could shout at them about how they were doing everything wrong and how magic was really all about will and intent and not whatever they were doing.

But all of her thoughts came to an end as she felt a slight burn in her heart and realized that the unbreakable vow she had given to Harry was still at work.

She had promised him that she would keep all of his secrets and Magic based on Will & Intent was one of his most important secrets so her Vow would never allow her to reveal the secret to others.

The most she could do at this point was practice with the Shroud of Concealment and hope that her classmates and teacher would not notice her until the end of the class.

Was this how Harry felt when he went to a class?

No, he probably felt like he was sitting between primitive savages who didn't even knew the M of Magic.

She giggled at the image of Harry's scrunched up face as he was forced to sit in a class filled with monkeys who each carried a wand and chanted Kuku kaka.

Then she remembered how despised him at the start of the year for disrespecting the teachers and missing her classes.

She was so very naive back then.

She had a feeling that in Harry's eyes, she was still a naive little child and she would not say that he would wrong because a part of her still respected authority figures to an unhealthy degree and sought for their approval.

But she had grown over the past few months.

And she could now understand why Harry never attended his classes and why he looked so constipated when she and Penelope forced him to sit in his classes in order to remove his more anti-social tendencies.

At that point in time, she had even thought that if she forced him to attend his classes then maybe, just maybe, he would start liking his classes and start attending them regularly.

She was so very naive and stupid back/ then.

She shook her thoughts and focused on the Shroud of Concealment.

She had better control over it now, but she was still no where near Harry who could use it like he was born with that ability.

Yet another thing he had that she was envious of.

And yet another thing he taught her that she was thankful for.

She wondered if she could find some way to pass her exams at an earlier date so that she would not have to attend the classes.

Maybe not.

For one, they would not be so partial as to hold a separate exam for her.

And even if that happened and she passed the exams, she would then be hailed as a genius and be forced to attend the classes along with the 2nd years.

She knew that no matter what, she would not get the same treatment as Harry who had already applied for leaving the school and which was denied to him by the Headmaster.

She was not the boy-who-lived.

She was not a genius born once in millennia.

She was not…

She was brought out of her thoughts as the rest of the class started leaving the room.

It seemed like the boring class had finally came to an end.

She let out a yawn and made to stand up when another figure stood in front of her and she felt a deja vu experience.

"Daphne" she said coldly.

Daphne was the source of a huge fight between Harry and her. A fight that she regretted ever starting.

She still remembered that moment when she was tending to Penelope and looked up just in time to see Daphne fall to the ground in an unconscious state.

Since she was the one who had brought Daphne to Harry, she felt personally responsible for the girl to see Harry knock her unconscious angered her to the core.

It took a good amount of time for her to calm down after which Harry told her the main reason why Daphne came to him was because she knew about his true abilities and that her father had ordered her to associate with him.

He had given her the cold shoulder for the next couple of days and only continuous insistence from Penelope's side and a huge amount of apologies from her made him forgive her at last.

But she had no doubt that Harry would never forget that moment. He could hold his grudges.

In hindsight, she realized that trusting Daphne over Harry was not something she should have ever done.

And why she had done that despite her promise to never leave Harry's side again?

Because of that, she felt a large amount of hatred for Daphne. For fooling her and using her to get to Harry and for being the reason behind their fight.

And now the girl had the audacity to stand in front of her with a simple apologetic expression.

Like she would ever fall for the Slytherin girl's plots ever again.

"Hermione." The other girl replied in greeting. "Please let me explain."

"There's nothing to explain Daphne." Hermione cut her off without any remorse "You used me to get to Harry. Just so you could get close to him and seduce him over time. I'll never forgive you for those things."

"Hermione." Daphne said weakly but she had already heard enough bullshit for the day.

"Stop. I don't care why you're here Daphne. And I'm not going to be fall for another one of your lies ever again. So don't even try. And if you know what's better for you then stay away from me." She said and picked up her bag in order to leave "I don't think Harry would like it very much if I told him that you're bothering me. So don't come to me ever again."