faderift | Our aspirations are wrapped up in books

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Our aspirations are wrapped up in books

WHO: Hermione Granger and Open!
WHAT: There's a new ~~witch~~ mage wandering around Skyhold. Come say hello?
WHEN: Backdated to her arrival near the end of Guardian and onward throughout Drakonis.
WHERE: ~~The library.~~ All over Skyhold. ~~But mostly its library.~~
NOTES: Feel free to run into her pretty much anywhere, or have her run into you. And be prepared for all the questions about your character and Thedas/their homeworld and everything in between.

If not for the fact that Hermione had spent so many of her formative years in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Skyhold might have been overwhelming

As it was, the sprawling fortress was a little hard to get used to, since the academic environment that had given Hogwarts some sense of structure amidst the chaos wasn't present here. There was a library, thankfully, and she spent much of her time there, though it was so small that she was certain she'd end up reading every book in there in two weeks' time if she didn't actually go out and explore the rest of her surroundings.

And so every so often, she pried herself away from the cold little corner she'd set aside for herself and wander the rest of the area, though granted, she more often than not was carrying at least one book with her. Usually it was one of the books that had survived the trip through the Fade; anyone who might spot her in the garden or tavern or a safe distance away from the sparring going on in the training grounds might notice her engrossed in such unfamiliar titles as Hogwarts, A History or occasionally digging through Spellman's Syllabary in the vain hope of finding recognizable runes on various inscriptions throughout Skyhold.

After all, just because she was endlessly fascinated by all the new people and cultures and history and magic, it didn't mean she didn't occasionally need a bittersweet reminder of home. Especially when her other major reminder was her wand, which - despite the fact that she'd taken to finding the most solitary places she could find and practicing with it harder than she ever had the night before an exam - still wasn't behaving properly at all. Apologies to those of you who end up slipping on some wayward ice or getting sprayed with pebbles from a spell gone wrong.

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"Well, yes, but that's mostly because Muggles - that is, non-magical people - have developed their society with the use of technology and ingenuity, rather than rely on magic. But when I'm spending time in the magical world, it actually doesn't look too different from this."

Glancing around and looking up at Skyhold, she cracked a small smile and mentioned, "This place reminds me a little of Hogwarts, my school for magic. There are differences, of course, but... well, I could have wound up somewhere worse." Such as Tevinter, for instance.

Drinking in every word, Ariadne led Hermione over to the tree. "We have plenty of species that don't use magic where I come from," she said. "And they develop through science and technology. But certainly, no one can deny the existence of magic. No more than they can deny the existence of science."

Although there were some Elves...

She plopped down unceremoniously on the grass beneath the branches. "But you must tell me about this school of yours. As a Human, I wasn't allowed to go to magical schools, but I've heard that they're wondrous places."

Hermione blinked down at the young woman who just sat herself down on the ground. She wasn't used to such casual behavior, and she already had enough to deal with when it came to getting herself used to this world. Or simply the idea of there being multiple worlds, and not just in the sense of several planets in a solar system.

"Humans don't attend magic schools where you're from? Do you mean to say that no humans have access to magic in your world? But they still know it exists?"

"Well, there are some that do," Ariadne said, looking up at her with bright gray eyes that flashed like silver coins. "But they're very, very rare. The Darucs have magic too, and they're a cousin species to Humans. But they don't use schools, really. It's mostly the Elves. There was a big, famous school of magic one town over from where I lived in Valeria. I had a friend who studied there. She always made it sound so mysterious."

And yes, Ariadne wiggled her fingers with the 'mysterious.' Like she was telling some kind of a ghost story.

She shrugged. "You're either born with it, or you're not. Just like you're born with red hair or you're not."

Trying to learn to ignore this girl's idiosyncrasies, Hermione nodded. "Yes, well, that's more or less how it works at home, too. But a witch and a wizard are almost always going to have a child with magic, and two Muggles - that's a person who can't do magic- will almost always have a Muggle child. Occasionally you'll get a Muggle-born witch or wizard, like me, and rarely you'll get a Squib, someone born to a wizarding family but who can't use magic. But essentially, anyone who can use magic has to go to school for it, so they don't just accidentally... blow up a restaurant or something."

It seemed that Hermione's world had a word for everything. Now that was truly fascinating. But Ariadne didn't like to get into lengthy linguistic debates with Humans. It often tipped her hand. And even when it didn't...most Humans...most humanoids...didn't have the same ear that an Alastrian had.

Instead, she gestured for Hermione to sit down with her. She seemed awfully uncomfortable, just standing there.

"So which one are you?" she asked curiously. "Obviously not a Muggle, based on the way you've described them."

In all fairness, Hermione would probably be more uncomfortable sitting down, especially since she still didn't know what to make of this girl.

Still, it would probably be rude to remain standing as though she was primed to walk away, so she conceded to sit down across from her. "A Muggle-born witch," she repeated. "Wizards would be the boys, witches are girls, and both of my parents are Muggles. I didn't find out about magic until I was eleven, when I received a letter stating that I was accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. My parents and I thought it was just a prank, until one of the professors came by and personally informed us about it."

"That must have been very...unnerving. To suddenly learn about the forces of the universe around you." Ariadne could easily see such a thing breaking a lesser spirit. Not that she knew much about Hermione's spirit. But she seemed...relatively unbroken.

She tried to imagine first learning about magic herself. But she couldn't really remember a time when it hadn't been a basic fact of life.

Science, on the other hand...

She'd been so very baffled by an electrical light, the first time she'd seen one. She must have spent a whole day flipping it on and off again.

"Oh, I didn't see it that way at all," Hermione remarked with a shake of her head. "That makes it sound almost mystic. No, magic is just another kind of energy, one that some people are able to access and utilize, and other people can't. There's no telling why, since it's not always a matter of genetics - wouldn't that be an interesting study, though! - but I don't think they're linked to anything necessarily preternatural."

Then again, that was the benefit of learning about magic at a relatively young age, even if she'd been fairly mature at the time. It was much easier to just accept something as truth when someone can pose it in a logical way and provide proof, regardless of how much it might shake worldviews.

"Oh."

It threw Ariadne off, that Hermione didn't see any wonder in it, but she supposed it was a natural part of her life. As much as words and song were to an Alastrian.

Hardly her place to question it.

"But that's magic in and of itself," she continued, "whether or not someone is born with one gift or another. It's the same as the magic of having brown eyes or green eyes. Or your father's nose and your mother's chin."

Hermione's smile faltered. "I suppose," she offered, though she didn't suppose so at all. Eye color and facial structure was all a matter of genetics, which was a branch of science. She supposed, if she really thought about it, the odds of two people coming together to make a person who looked just so would be considered something special, and recreating the conditions of the womb isn't yet something science has quite perfected in her world, so that does lead the entire reproductive cycle to be known as the "miracle" of life by some.

Still, she'd rather not get into all of that with a stranger, and so she only asks, "Do they have the study of genetics in your world? It would explain a lot about why some people have one eye color and others another. I'd teach you some of it myself, but there's no telling if things work the same way where you're from as where I'm from. I wouldn't want to give you false information."

"I don't...think so," Ariadne admitted. "But you have to understand that not every race experiences so much...variation. Elves are always born with blue eyes." And Alastrians were always born with gray. "Humans are almost always born without magic. A lot of things are set. And there are sometimes children who are half and half but...they're not treated very nicely."

She'd seen as much in the way the court whispered about Princess Amanda's daughter. The poor girl had to work twice as hard to prove herself even half an Elf. Ariadne's heart bled for her.

Not that it mattered much. Her unique combination of Human and Elf genes made her an effective warrior. And that mattered more than purity right now.

"My world is kind of under siege though," she said. "We don't have much time to think about that kind of thing. Not when we're too busy worrying about surviving."

Frowning immediately, Hermione rhetorically asked, "Why is it that no one knows how to treat people who are different? It doesn't matter what their parentage are; people are still people." She had a tendency of going off on very long rants when it came to this sort of topic, and so she had to force herself to stop before she got ahead of herself.

Instead, she focused on what she was being told, and she tilted her head, sympathetic as she told her, "I'm sorry to hear that. What sort of siege are you under?"

Hermione's rather enlightened view held Ariadne's interest. And she really would have enjoyed hearing more.

Ariadne had been fortunate, that she could hide who and what she was. And that the very few humanoids in her life who knew the truth didn't care. But there was a lot of hatred out there.

Too much...

But then Hermione asked her a question and she snapped back to reality. "Oh, it's very sad, really," she said. "A warlord named the Red Dragon has been taking over the realm."

The idea of needing to hide who she was from anyone boggled Hermione's mind. She couldn't imagine living in a world where that sort of thing was the norm, and she'd lived in a world where she'd been on the run for nearly a full year. That had been her world at its worse; living that sort of life when things were at their best was just unfathomable.

Though Hermione was a little perplexed at how blithely she spoke about a warlord "taking over the realm," but she wasn't about to make light of it. "But there are people working to stop this Red Dragon, aren't there?"

"Of course." Ariadne straightened up her spine a little bit, a ghost of pride crossing her doll-like face. "My aunt Lysia is one of the leaders of the resistance." Which, of course, meant that Ariadne was a part of it as well.

It was an enormous source of pride for her.

"Only..." The pride dissolved. "It's been a difficult battle. There is the chance for a perfect possible future in which everything will be all right, though. And the odds of creating that future are only eighty million nine thousand four hundred and twenty eight to one. More or less."

Resistance. That just made it sound as though this warlord had already acquired control, and people were still trying to fight back. It wasn't a comforting thought, but even Voldemort had nearly managed to come out on top, to the point where his Death Eaters were running Hogwarts and openly torturing students.

That last comment, though, was where the inward comparisons ended. "And do you have people figuring out the exact odds of such a thing?" Because, while she might not say it, those people might be better put to work actually attempting to fix the problem rather than working out the odds.

"Oh, no," Ariadne said, shaking her head. "I did that myself."

Said without the slightest hint of humor or irony.

But Ariadne didn't like talking about somber things. Especially when they were terribly far away, so far that she couldn't help. There was no point in lamenting that. For now, she could only try to help the people here in Skyhold.

"Thedas is on the brink of civil strife too. A lot of people are afraid of the native mages."

Hermione blinked, wondering if she'd just heard the punchline of a joke that had fallen a little flat. But that didn't seem to be the case, so she offered a brief, uncertain smile before focusing on the bit that still made a little bit of sense.

"So I've heard. Some people aren't exactly fond of non-natives who can do magic, apparently. But there has to be a way to set things right; there's no reason for so many mages to suffer or for non-mages to live in fear."

"That's so true," Ariadne said, nodding with enthusiasm. "People just get afraid of the things they don't understand. Or the things that don't move like them or sound like them or look like them."

Things that had green skin and could fly over the canopies on black wings.

Ariadne felt the scars on her back itch and tingle at the memory.

"I'm so glad you agree," she continued. "You seem terribly enlightened!"

"I wouldn't say I'm enlightened," Hermione remarked with a soft chuckle. "At least, I wouldn't want to say that. I'd like to think that most people would be able to think this way, if only they could allow themselves to look beyond stereotypes."

Of course, given that the stereotypes thing seemed to be common between worlds, maybe she was a bit on the enlightened side. That was a bit depressing to think about, in all honesty.

"Oh, everyone is able to," Ariadne replied. "But they get taught not to when they're very little. It's only the truly enlightened that don't learn it. Or aren't taught it in the first place."

She smiled a smile at Hermione. One that said, for better or for worse, Hermione was now her friend.

Poor Hermione.

"If you're a witch and you have magic, can you show me a spell? I'm sure it must be very different from the kind of magic the Elves back home use."

Hermione hesitated at that request before explaining, "I'm not sure if that would be a good idea, for the sake of my pride and possibly your safety."

Realizing how melodramatic that sounded, she automatically continued with, "My magic isn't dangerous, per se, but it hasn't been behaving as it should. I think I've managed to put together some of the simple spells, such as very basic Shield Charms and such, but I can't say I've perfected much else other than offensive and defensive charms for the sake of surviving another demons attack. And a Bluebell Flame, I suppose, though I'm a little reluctant to try it without something to keep it contained, just in case it doesn't come out the way it should."

Even as she said it, though, she was looking around, either for something that she could use as a container or at least little pieces of kindling she could use so she isn't simply setting the grass on fire.

Fire had made Ariadne a little nervous since she was a little girl. But she liked bluebells, so she was immediately curious. Even if warily so.

"Do all of your spells have such elaborate names?" she asked. "Shield Charms and Bluebell Flames? Is that a part of the spell itself?"

Questions. Always questions.

"Is that... elaborate?" Hermione asked, not sure what to make of that. "Most spells require a brief incantation of one or two words, but they all have to be called something, or else how do you know what spell to ask about?"

Absently gathering together a little pile of dried twigs and leaves, she explained, "Bluebell Flames are just called that because of their blue color. They're also known as Cold Fire, since they don't burn. Well, not people, anyway. Not if they're done right."

Being very careful about it, she got out her wand and slowly murmured the incantation, careful to keep the tip of her wand pointed towards the makeshift kindling. She was pleasantly surprised to see the familiar spurt of blue as it moved from wand to twigs, a little fire beginning to burn.

"You can feel heat radiating off of it, if you hold your hand above it. But you can also hold it in your hand without hurting yourself." Slowly, she poked a finger at one of the flames, only to find that it was a bit hotter than she was used to. "Well. Like I said, if they're done right. It looks like this one might be a bit too hot for that."

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