October had passed quietly at Hogwarts, the crisp autumn air settling over the castle as leaves turned gold and red. For Hermione, this year felt too quiet. After the revetions over the summer, the pns she had started making to deal with the Death Eaters, and her resolve to confront them after what Tom had done to her family, this quietness felt unnerving. Even Tom Riddle's diary, though a nagging concern in the back of her mind, hadn't revealed itself in any obvious way.
Though Ginny Weasley had been acting odd at times, she hadn't done anything arming yet. Hermione had been watching the younger girl closely, looking for any signs of possession. But so far, Ginny seemed fine—no unusual fatigue, no erratic behaviour, and she was socialising as usual with her yearmates. Nothing seemed out of pce. This was both a blessing and a curse.
"I've changed things more than I expected," Hermione thought, watching Ginny from across the Great Hall. "I don't even know if she has the diary or whether Lucius has some other pn instead." The uncertainty gnawed at her, adding to the weight she already carried.
Her presence here had shifted things; that much was clear. She'd hoped it wouldn't be so drastic, at least not this early. The only reason she had come to Hogwarts in the first pce was because she 'knew' what happened in the story, so she was sure she could change things. But she hadn't accounted for random variables. Chaos theory—the butterfly effect—had taught her this would happen, but it was always an impossible theory to test. Now, she had the empirical evidence, though being both the observer and the one impacted by it made for a very different experience.
While she was frustrated at potentially missing this crucial piece of Tom's soul, she couldn't compin too much. After all, she hadn't come to this world by choice. She had already accepted that her presence would somehow derail the plot. The trick was adapting her pns accordingly. Still, this would be the hardest Horcrux to get if she had missed it. If Tom resurrected and used the Malfoy home as his base, it would be the most protected Horcrux in his possession.
Fed up with this feeling of helplessness, she headed to the library to learn more about Runes. While Perenelle's notes were helpful, you needed a good understanding of Runes in the first pce to follow them. They were not an idiot's guide to enchanting, far from it, but they certainly expined the more nuanced aspects of it.
Finding a good seat in a nook hidden out of sight but near the restricted section of the Library, she sat down with the usual texts the students were asked to use in 3rd year: Ancient Runes Made Easy by Laurenzoo, Rune Dictionary, Magical Hieroglyphs and Logograms, Spellman's Sylbary by Spellman, and Advanced Rune Transtion by Yuri Blishen. Miss Prince gave her an odd look when she saw her with all of these books but said nothing of it.
Hermione's Occlumency had done wonders for her already impressive memory, so she could remember everything in them quickly enough, but understanding them? That would require her to write out her thought process. Luckily, her Mother had seen the never-ending notepad at Pce Cachée when they were in France.
Hermione settled into the nook, the dim light of the library casting long shadows over her stack of books. She carefully opened Spellman's Sylbary, turning to a section on ancient protective wards. Her eyes flickered with determination as she began to meticulously copy the rune sequences into her never-ending notepad.
"Fehu, Gebo, Uruz..." she muttered under her breath, her quill scratching across the parchment. These runes were part of a sequence meant to form a protective barrier, combining wealth and partnership (Fehu and Gebo) with strength and health (Uruz). The combination was intended to create a powerful ward against dark magic, which she hoped to use in their fight against the Death Eaters.
Her focus shifted to the next page, which detailed how to link the runes together using a binding rune, Isa. Isa would freeze the effects in pce, making the protection constant. Drawing Isa required precision: it was a straight, vertical line, but the magic was in the intention behind it.
She picked up her quill again and carefully traced Isa on the parchment. A faint blue light glowed as the ink sank into the parchment, indicating the rune had accepted the binding.
Hermione knew that she needed to bind the runes together through Arithmancy. She assigned numerical values to each rune using the system she'd learned:
Fehu (?): 1Gebo (?): 7Uruz (?): 2Isa (?): 9Adding them together gave her a total of 19. To reduce this number to a single digit, she added the individual digits together and split it into 2 lines.
1+9=10 : 1 + 9 = 10
And then further reduced:
1+0=1 : 1 + 0 = 1
So, the core power of her rune sequence was 1, which, in Arithmancy, signified unity and new beginnings. Perfect for a protective enchantment. The reason behind splitting it was twofold: 19 was a rge number which represented the amount of magical energy required to pour into the runes to power them, making them more difficult for her to power. This was great for training her core, which is why she would continue using it to make the ritual she did rather easy to tackle but in a practical situation? Her friends she wanted to keep safe? Her family? These kinds of power outputs would only be possible for the average wixen to manage. Splitting the numbers into two lines via the reduction would allow her to use two power sources instead of one to manage the burden of the shields. It also provided more stability as she would not be reliant on one stone/source. Not to mention, the Numerology allowed her to reduce the power requirement to a 2 instead of a 19. Since the Ministry had forbidden the standardised testing of core strength, it was difficult to know what an average was now, but Perenelle said it was around 50 in her notes.
As she leaned back, Hermione considered the nature of the energy involved. Maintaining a protective barrier required a continuous flow of energy, like keeping a shield raised against an onsught. It was a constant effort, always drawing on her magical reserves to counteract external forces. Destruction, on the other hand, was more like a hammer blow—a single, intense burst of energy that shattered defences in an instant.
It made sense that shielding would take more energy over time. After all, building and maintaining a stronghold required resources and effort, while tearing it down could be swift and devastating. She felt the weight of this responsibility settles on her shoulders. The protective runes she was creating would demand her vigince and strength, but the safety they would provide made it worth the effort.
"Fehu Gebo Uruz Isa, meld and protect, unite and shield," she chanted softly, her voice barely above a whisper. The parchment glowed with an ethereal light, confirming the enchantment. She tested the magical drain required, and it confirmed her thoughts on it. Although the shield did seem to be weaker, it wouldn't be useful for powerful spells, but it would be fine for weaker ones. As she considered the implications of this, the paper, which was not suitable for holding active runes, burned up rather quickly, leaving just ash behind.
Lost in her thoughts on the matter, she didn't realise that someone had walked up to her nook in the library, a cough roused her from her musings, and she looked up to see a pair of nervous Green eyes looking at her.
