"Of course," Hermione willingly agrees with a small nod. "I wouldn't do it before then. One of us might get hurt, and I've been practicing specifically to avoid that."

She pauses for a moment before realizing, "There aren't very many people like me - Muggle-borns, that is - when you think of how many people are either part of the magical world or aren't. It does place me in an interesting position. My parents, too, since all they know of magic is what they've seen when taking me to buy school supplies or meeting with my friends' families, since I make it a point not to do any in front of them." Except for the time that she'd had to modify their memories and make them forget they had a daughter, but she'd fixed that once it had been safe to, so it doesn't really count. Or so she tells herself.

"Well, there's that saying about how it's always darkest before dawn," she points out, putting together a small smile. "We can't really expect anything to get better until they get worse, or else life is just one constant barrage of positive things that don't seem particularly good anymore, since there's nothing negative to compare them to."