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The Room of Requirement was more than just a room; it was a living, breathing miracle. Hermione had read about it, but the reality was something else entirely. It was a space that responded not just to need, but to desire. It was a physical manifestation of will, the most powerful and versatile piece of magic she had ever encountered. And now, it was hers.
She stepped inside, and the door vanished behind her, sealing her away from the rest of the castle. The space that had formed around her was a perfect, impossible fusion of her two lives. On one side, rows of alchemical workstations stood ready, their copper and brass fittings gleaming in the soft, magical light. Beside them, long, deep planting tables were filled with rich, dark, fertile soil, just waiting for the dangerous and exotic seeds she had acquired. On the other side of the vast chamber, the cold, hard stone of a Scottish castle melted away into a floor-to-ceiling panoramic window that looked out onto a calm, turquoise sea under a warm, sunny sky—a memory of a Malibu she had only just begun to call home.
This wasn't just a lab. This was her kingdom.
With a giddy, almost childish laugh of pure, unadulterated joy, she got to work. She carefully planted the seeds from Professor Sprout—Mandrake, Venomous Tentacula, and Chinese Chomping Cabbage—in neat, orderly rows. Then, with a series of sharp, precise incantations, she accelerated their growth, the seedlings bursting from the soil at a speed that would have given Professor Sprout a heart attack. She sent enchanted watering cans and bags of dragon-dung fertilizer floating through the air, a silent, efficient army of magical farming equipment.
Next, she turned to the alchemy stations. She emptied the contents of her ridiculously small schoolbag, and a river of rare and priceless materials floated out, arranging themselves neatly on the tables. The Philosopher's Stone appeared in her hand, its red glow now dull and listless. According to Flamel's notes, centuries of use had nearly drained it of its power.
She placed the Stone on a central pedestal. Following the intricate instructions from the alchemist's notebook, she began the recharging process. She wove a complex web of magic, drawing threads of raw, elemental power from the materials she had acquired from both Borgin and Burkes and the S.H.I.E.L.D. archives. The materials began to glow, their essential properties being drawn out, refined, and funneled into the hungry, waiting heart of the Stone. The red gem began to pulse with a new, vibrant light, its color deepening from a dull crimson to a brilliant, fiery scarlet.
Finally, the real work began. She stepped through an inner door in the Room, and the warm, salty air of the Malibu coast was replaced by the fresh, clean scent of a green, rolling pasture under a clear blue sky. It was the private farm she had envisioned, a place to conduct her more… biological experiments.
She opened a small, enchanted pocket in her bag, and a simple, ordinary white mare trotted out, blinking in the magical sunlight. With a gentle, soothing murmur, Hermione approached the horse and, with a swift, practiced movement, injected a single, shimmering drop of the unicorn blood she had collected in the Forbidden Forest. The horse shuddered once, then sank to the ground in a deep, magical slumber, its body already beginning to subtly shift and change.
She watched for a moment as a small, bony nub began to push its way through the white hair on the horse's forehead. So that's how it starts, she thought with a cool, scientific detachment.
Hours passed in a blur of focused, joyful work. When she finally returned to the main hall of the Room, her gaze fell upon the one part of the space that was not her own. In a far, dusty corner was a chaotic, mountain-sized pile of forgotten things—broken furniture, old books, discarded trophies, the lost and hidden detritus of a thousand years of Hogwarts students. This was the Room of Hidden Things, the default state of the space when one did not have a specific need in mind. She knew, from the books of her past life, that a certain diadem was hidden somewhere in that pile of junk. But that was a treasure hunt for another day.
Back in the castle corridors, Hermione was walking, a notebook in her hand, her mind already plotting out the complex potion recipes she would now be able to brew, when she heard the sound of jeering voices from around a corner.
"Lost something, Loony?" a sharp, cruel voice taunted.
"We're not telling you where your shoes are. Why don't you ask one of your imaginary creatures to find them for you!"
Hermione rounded the corner. Three Ravenclaw girls stood in the corridor. Two of them were flanking a third, their arms crossed, mean-spirited smirks on their faces. The third girl, the one they were tormenting, was Luna Lovegood. She was standing there, her expression its usual dreamy, detached calm, one of her feet completely bare.
The two bullies turned on Luna again. "You don't even belong here," one of them sneered. "You're so weird. And you had the nerve to talk to the Gryffindor Witch. She doesn't have time for freaks like you."
Luna just blinked her large, silvery eyes, about to say something in her strange, melodic voice, when she saw Hermione appear at the end of the hall. A bright, genuine, and welcoming smile lit up her face.
"Hello, Hermione!" she called out, waving as if they were just old friends meeting for tea, completely ignoring the two girls who were bullying her.
The two bullies heard the name and froze. They turned slowly, their faces pale with a sudden, dawning horror. Standing there, her expression as cold and hard as the stone walls, was the Gryffindor Witch herself. The Professor Slayer. The girl who had made Draco Malfoy cry.
"S-Senior Granger," one of them stammered, her earlier confidence completely gone. "We were just… we were just having a laugh with Loony… with Luna."
Hermione said nothing. She just stared at them, her silence a more profound and terrifying condemnation than any shout could have been. She had seen this a hundred times in her past life. The casual, thoughtless cruelty of children, the pack mentality of the insecure.
She waved a hand, a simple, dismissive gesture toward Luna. Luna, understanding immediately, hopped over to her side on one foot, her expression still one of dreamy curiosity.
Seeing that Hermione had no intention of interfering on their behalf, the two bullies bowed their heads in shame and scurried away, their whispered apologies lost in the echoing corridor.
"I should probably go and ask them where they hid my other shoe," Luna said, her voice a soft, musical hum.
Hermione looked down at Luna's bare, white foot. "Do you really think they'll tell you?"
Luna just shook her head, a sad little smile on her face.
"Then why ask?" Hermione's question was blunt, a logical query that cut through Luna's whimsical acceptance of the world's cruelty.
Luna stared at her, her large, protuberant eyes seeming to see something more than just a second-year student. "How else am I supposed to get my shoe back?"
"Where's your wand, Luna?" Hermione asked, her voice quiet but firm.
Luna pulled it from behind her ear.
"Can you use it?"
"Of course," Luna said, a little confused. "Should I try a Summoning Charm?"
"No," Hermione said, her voice dropping to a low, intense whisper. "You find them. And you hit them. Hard. With a hex so nasty it makes their teeth fall out. I promise you, you will never have to go looking for your shoes again."
She was imparting a piece of her own, brutal, hard-won philosophy. In this world, and in the other one, the only way to deal with bullies was with overwhelming, disproportionate force.
Luna stared at her, her head tilted, a strange, unreadable expression on her face. Then, a slow, almost beatific smile spread across her lips.
Hermione, meanwhile, had already used a silent Legilimency spell on the fleeing bullies, found the location of the shoe, and with a lazy, wandless Summoning Charm, sent it sailing down from the rafters where they had hidden it. It landed softly at Luna's feet.
As Hermione turned to leave, a small, cool hand grabbed her wrist.
"Wait," Luna said, her voice full of a new, urgent energy. "You have to come with me. There's something I want to show you."
And before Hermione could protest, the strange, dreamy girl, her shoes now on, was pulling her away, running with a surprising speed toward the edge of the Forbidden Forest.