Messere is respectful, serah just is. She pockets that information, as she walks forward with stubborn determination to ignore the spirit. A spirit that lifts the axe anyway - she spots it in the corner of her eyes, a protego on the tip of her tongue before there's an arm around her, and

Then the spirit vanishes. Her eyes are wide, gaze travelling from the drone that buzzes around them, to Cedric. The drone vanishes, he says something, and Hermione's reason catches up.

"Wait - demon? That was a spirit, right?" She lets out a tiny, slightly hysterical laughter, tugging at the collar of her shirt. Someone's just realised how close to getting her head chopped off she came. By sheer dumb luck, resonates in her memory, McGonnagall's voice - the approval in it, despite the exasperation.

One of them - Harry or Ron - would've alled that brilliant, but scary. There are more ways to be scary, clearly.

"R-right, so - where to?"