faderift | OPEN: And you can shake the mountains with a whisper

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OPEN: And you can shake the mountains with a whisper

WHO: Hermione Granger and YOU!
WHAT: Hermione ventures out of the library. Sometimes. But she's also in the library most of the time, because she's Hermione.
WHEN: Late Justinian, creeping into early Solace if need be.
WHERE: Throughout Skyhold, just outside of Skyhold, pick a place far away from Skyhold and find a reason to drag her there.
NOTES: If you'd like a particular starter and/or would like to hash out some minor assumed CR that can lead into this, feel free to let me know either via PM or plurk (

StarryOblivion). Otherwise, feel free to have them randomly bump into one another!

The Herald's Rest.

Hermione doesn't often come in here, not since receiving an odd look when she'd first asked for just some water (really, given how young everyone here seems to think she is, she'd been surprised that the surly bartender had thought she'd wanted something harder). But sometimes it's a nice change of pace, sitting among the mostly quiet chattering of the other patrons and enjoying the fire as she reads or looks over her notes. Presuming, of course, that no one is foolish enough to have too much to drink and try to bother her. Talking is a distraction she'll accept with no fuss, but Merlin help anyone who's had enough alcohol to think she's open to anything friendlier than that.

Stables.

When she'd first arrived at Skyhold, the stables had seemed relatively empty and were a fine place for practicing her magic without risking hurting anyone. She'd thought she could do the same now, only to find that there are considerably more horses - and, er, other creatures - residing there. Magic might only frighten them, she decides, but they're so pretty that she can't help visiting with them for a bit, getting as close to them as she dares. It's been years since she's ridden a horse, but she's entirely certain that these mounts aren't exactly the type that would trot gently along a given course for an inexperienced rider, so she isn't even going to ask after something so silly, even if the interest is clearly there in her eyes.

Courtyard, not too far from the healing tents.

When the stables prove not to be the best place to practice with her magic, Hermione decides that it might be best to find a little corner close to the healing tents instead. At least then there would be other mages around, and so it was less likely that anyone who stumbled across her would look at her disdainfully. And if anyone gets hurt, a healer wouldn't be too far away. Of course, she highly doubts that anyone would get hurt just because she was unsuccessfully attempting to transfigure leaves and pebbles and whatever else happens to be in the vicinity. Transfiguration doesn't seem to be an aspect of her magic that's carried over into Thedas, or at least Hermione can't manage it without more practice, given that she's growing more and more frustrated as she continuously taps rocks and other objects with what looks like a stick, muttering to herself in exasperation.

Library. Because of course.

If you've been to the library, you've seen her. Whether you know her and enjoy talking to her about rifter politics or think it's entertaining to scandalize her or have never bothered to approach her, Hermione can more often than not be found in the same little niche in the library, nose in a book or a quill hastily scribbling down notes. Or even, occasionally, dozing off, since she hasn't exactly claimed any sort of sleeping space for her own and more often than not loses track of the time when she doesn't explicitly have somewhere to be.

Wildcard!

Hermione wanders, and while she tries to be careful, sometimes it takes her places she just shouldn't go. If it doesn't look like a private room or setting, it's safe to assume that the young witch has made her way there, likely looking for a quiet place to read or do magic or just to get a few moments of silence. And while she doesn't often journey outside of Skyhold, she can definitely be tempted beyond its walls if she has the right incentive, or the right company.

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Hearing someone greet her, Hermione turned and needed a moment before she could remember Ariadne from the various other faces she'd met early in her stay at Skyhold. "Oh! Hello!" Managing a small smile before turning back to the horses, she kept her arms folded around herself as she peered curiously up at the horse nearest to her.

"I'm just looking at the mounts. I'd been looking for a place to practice a bit with my magic, but seeing that we actually have a few animals in the stables now, I'd rather not startle them." Glancing back at Ariadne, she asked, "Do you ride?"

Ariadne shook her head, walking over to stand beside Hermione. "No. But I've been in carriages before, a few times." Which really wasn't the same thing at all, but it was experience enough to know how dangerous it was to spook a horse.

Those hooves could be very unforgiving.

"I feel kind of sorry for them," she added. "Being cooped up in here all the time. It must be so boring, don't you think?"

"I'm sure they get plenty of exercise when they're taken out on missions," Hermione remarked, only a touch dryly. She'd never liked the idea of warhorses, even if they were technically bred for that sort of thing. The idea of marbari fighting alongside people was troubling enough, but at least dogs have a natural inclination for being protective towards their owners.

"Some of them might even prefer the quiet company of other horses," she continued, looking along the stables. "Though I'm not sure if some of these can rightly be called horses."

She smiled mildly, without looking at Hermione.

Ariadne was used to that sort of dry tone of voice. A lot of people used it around her. After all, her cover was her cover. There were times when she bent over backwards, trying to seem...well...backwards. Except that she wasn't trying right now. Normally, it didn't bother her much. But every now and then...

Well. It didn't matter. Not really.

"Do you ride often?" she asked instead, shaking her head, as if to cast aside her doubts.

Hermione hadn't meant anything by her comment other than to remark on the fact that the horses likely saw more than enough excitement when they weren't at Skyhold. If she'd been looking at Ariadne, she might have noticed that she'd said something that had been taken the wrong way, or maybe she wouldn't have known to. After all, it was hard to preemptively know to apologize when something one says gets misconstrued.

At that question, Hermione chuckled and looked back at Ariadne, shaking her head. "No, not at all. Well, I can't say at all. Occasionally while on holiday, my parents would put me on a pony or a horse when I got bigger, but I never really became enamored with it. Oh, I like horses well enough, but I didn't exactly consider them reliable modes of transportation." She hesitated before thinking back on the few times she'd traveled outside Skyhold. "I suppose I don't really have a lot of alternative options now."

Grimacing in solidarity, Ariadne nodded slightly. "Not a lot of options at all," she agreed. "Back home, if I needed to get somewhere really, really quickly, I could ask an Elf to teleport me there with a spell. Otherwise, it was mostly just walking or carriages."

Ships occasionally too. And they were her favorite. She loved to stand at the prow and close her eyes. It reminded her of flying.

Sometimes, Ariadne missed her wings so much that it ached. But she'd made her decision. And it was the best decision. Nostalgia, she had to remind herself, wasn't the same thing as regret.

But it was difficult to remember sometimes.

"The princess my aunt served had a carriage made out of gold, with purple curtains and wheels the size of more than a handspan. There were specially bred horses that pulled it, all of them so white it almost looked like they were glowing." She smiled fondly at the memory. "Sometimes, they would let me ride up front with the coachman." She paused. "It was very, very bumpy."

Hermione fell silent at the mention of teleporting. She hadn't really tried Apparating since arriving in Thedas, for any number of reasons. She wasn't familiar with the world outside of Skyhold, and so it wouldn't work properly; inside of Skyhold, well... the last thing she wanted was to suddenly appear besides someone who wasn't entirely comfortable around magic.

And that was to say nothing of the potential for Splinching.

Trying not to think about the one time she'd accidentally Splinched someone, Hermione shook her head to clear it and focused instead on the conversation. Smiling a touch, she remarked, "It sounds nice. And bumpy. But bumpy is something of a prerequisite for horse rides, I think.

"We have all sorts of different ways to travel back home. A popular way for those of us with magic is to ride charmed broomsticks. I'm... personally not a fan of those, though." Chuckling awkwardly, she explained, "No safety belts."

She had no idea what a safety belt was, but Ariadne knew broomsticks well enough. And she perked up a little with interest.

"What does a charmed broomstick do exactly?" she asked. It seemed like it had the potential to be just as bumpy as a carriage ride, bouncing along down a road. Potentially fun, but definitely not dignified.

In fact, just the thought of it made her want to giggle.

...she didn't.

"It flies," Hermione said simply, a little surprised. She wasn't surprised that Ariadne specifically didn't know about broomsticks so much as the fact that anyone wouldn't know about them. They're one of the worst-kept wizarding secrets in the world.

"They fly through the air like a boat on water. I've never been very good at flying and so I couldn't really give you much more information than that, but I suppose they're convenient enough for short jaunts or a quick getaway."

With that, her eyes lit up. Flying broomsticks? Flying broomsticks! It sounded like the most extraordinary thing in the world.

Maybe there was some regret mingling in and muddling with that nostalgia. But at the moment, Ariadne felt far too excited to think of such things.

"Can you do it?" she asked, turning to face Hermione and clasping her hand. "Can you enchant a broomstick to fly? Really fly? Like a bird over the canopies of the forest?"

A little taken aback by that sudden exuberance, Hermione blinked before commenting, "Er... well, I've never tried to actually charm a broomstick to fly. There are different companies that make special broomsticks specifically for riding. I don't think anyone really puts a simple charm on their brooms anymore, not unless they're really desperate."

Shrugging a bit helplessly, she added, "I wouldn't dare try it with a broom here, given how shoddy my magic's been. Even back home, it's not something I'd really trust myself with. But there are other ways to fly that I consider much safer, even if they're mostly not magical by nature."

She tried her best not to let her disappointment show. After all, everything Hermione said made perfect sense.

Actually, she felt a little embarrassed for getting so enthusiastic. She quickly let go of Hermione's hand, ducking her head contritely.

"I'm sorry," she murmured. "I just...thought it would be a lot of fun, you know? Feeling what it's like to...fly."

Remembering...

Just as she was surprised by that excitement, Hermione was also surprised by that apology, suddenly feeling inexplicably bad for something she had no control over. "No, it's all right," she told her, deciding that it probably would sound fun to fly, if one had never done it before. "It... could be fun, yes, and I rather enjoy it when I'm doing it in a much more stable setting. Broomsticks are just too... exposed for me, I suppose."

Ariadne probably wouldn't know what that meant, or how else one was expected to fly if they weren't exposed, and so Hermione continued, "We have things called aeroplanes, or just planes, that are basically large steel transports that can fly. They can carry many people, so they're widely used for travel, and they have proper seats and safety guidelines and you can have a nap or a meal on them with little fuss. I find them much more comfortable and stable than using a broom."

Now that was strange. Ariadne's disappointment gave way to curiosity. If Thedas had done anything to change her, it had made her feel much more mercurial. And how could it not? There was always something new and exciting to hear about, if not from Thedas itself than from her fellow Rifters.

"That sounds...like a ship," she said. And it had to be. Because she couldn't imagine any other circumstances where you would take a nap while flying. To say nothing of a meal.

But a flying ship?

That was incredible!

"Yes, sort of!" Hermione replied quickly. She wouldn't have described it as such, given that she knew what a plane was and how it fundamentally differed from a ship, but it wasn't the first time she'd had a conversation like this and explained it as such. "Someone else here likened it to an airship, if you have those where you're from. They've gotten much more advanced in recent years - aeroplanes, not airships, though I suppose you can refer to one as the other and vice versa, if you really wanted to."

But then, she's done the majority of her recent travel by train, so she's really not the expert on this sort of thing. Being in both the wizarding world and Thedas constantly serves to remind her of just how little she actually knows about things she takes for granted.

Ariadne nodded eagerly. "Yes, yes, I've heard of airships. I've never been on one though. Not safe with a warlord watching the skies."

It was yet another experience she desperately wanted to have, at some point.

The list was longer than Ariadne was tall.

"What does it feel like?"

"What, flying on an aeroplane?" Hermione asked. "Well, you're sitting comfortably enough in a large chair and have a belt wrapped around your waist, to keep you safely in your seat in the event that things get shaky. The plane has to accelerate quite a bit before it can take off, so you just feel yourself going faster and faster until suddenly there's an uncomfortable jolt in the pit of your stomach and you realize that the plane has left the ground."

Hermione was no fan of flying in any form, but at least planes had a long list of safety tips and procedures, unlike brooms or thestrals or dragons.

"There are little windows throughout the plane, so you can look out at the clouds if you want to. I prefer sitting by the aisle, further away from the windows, if I could help it."

"Do you feel the wind on your face?" There was such a painful longing in the pit of Ariadne's stomach that some of it crept into her words. But it was the part she'd always anticipated the most, when she took off. The resistance of the wind felt a little bit like flying into the heart of the gods themselves.

Which was something she couldn't even begin to explain, even to herself.

"And how high do you go?" she asked. "Above the canopies of the trees?"

"Oh... well, no, the entire thing is enclosed, since you're traveling so high and so fast that it would be dangerous for it not to be airtight." She almost felt bad telling her that much, since it seemed as though Ariadne wanted to believe that flying out in the open like that was a possibility. It was, just... not with planes.

"You can travel thousands of feet in the air in an aeroplane," she revealed, "which is another reason for it to be closed up like that; air gets thin when you're that high up, making it hard to breathe. Brooms don't usually travel nearly so high, though, so if you wanted to feel the wind in your face, that would be the better option for you."

Looking up towards the horses in the pens before her, she smiled a little and added, "Or you can just ride a horse. You're close to the ground then, so there isn't that far to fall."

Her disappointment at the idea of being enclosed was quickly squashed when Hermione told her just how high one of these aeroplanes could fly. The Alastrian body had its limits. She'd never been able to get much higher than a mile or so off the ground.

How small the world had to look from such a height.

She smiled slightly. And laughed a bit. "I'd rather try one of these aeroplanes than a horse. There's something just a little strange about riding another living creature."

"Well... yes, aeroplanes are generally more convenient for all sorts of reasons, but given that they're not readily available...." Hermione shrugged a bit before glancing back up at the horse.

"I've ridden a few living creatures before. Hippogriffs, thestrals,... a dragon. Needless to say, I'd rather not repeat those experiences again - especially that last one - but as they'd all been flying, that could just be my distaste for leaving the ground. Horses... I don't know. I suppose so long as they don't actively buck me off, they don't seem to particularly mind carrying people about, so long as that person is respectful."

As was ever the case, Ariadne was immediately ready to pepper Hermione with a thousand more questions. She was just so interesting. And unlike the natives of Thedas, she seemed genuinely willing to talk to Ariadne.

After a moment of debate, she finally settled on the most important question. And just one:

"What's a hippogriff?"

Hermione could hardly fault anyone for asking too many questions. It would be a painfully classic case of the cauldron calling the kettle black, and besides, she just wasn't the sort of person who would shut someone down simply because they wanted to learn.

And it could be much worse. At least Ariadne was actually listening to her and asking her things based on what she said, unlike, say, Luna Lovegood. Hermione was reasonably sure that Ariadne wasn't just making things up whenever she talked about her world. Probably.

"A hippogriff is an animal that sort of looks like a cross between a horse and an eagle," she explained. "Imagine a horse, but instead of its head, it has the head of an eagle, along with a pair of feathery wings. They're very proud, and can also be very dangerous if you don't treat them with the right amount of respect."

Hermione painted an intriguing image. Ariadne smiled slightly, tilting her head to one side. "It sounds...a little like a centaur. Do you have those? They're men with horse bodies. Also very proud. I met one once on Death Mountain. He didn't like me very much, he didn't like any strangers. I think he only let me pass because..."

...because she was also a demon...

Ariadne cleared her throat. "Because I spoke his language."

"Oh, they're nothing like centaurs," Hermione replied immediately. "Hippogriffs are sentient, but they're still animals at the same time, non-verbal and relying primarily on instinct. Centaurs are people. Why, I had a centaur for a professor, once. But they don't really seem to approve of humans all that much. My friend and I were once encircled by a group of them in the Forbidden Forest, and they'd only let us go because they considered us mere children at the time."

Never mind that they'd only been there because Hermione had fooled that foul Umbridge woman to trespass on their land and thus get carried away by them. She never had learned the specifics of what had happened to her during that time, but well... she could guess.

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