"And in my world, magic is the only logical explanation for some of the things that happen," Hermione replied easily. "There's certainly a science to it, though there are also certain things that work simply because they do, with no other explanation behind it." She frowned a little, though, as she admitted, "Divination would be one of those topics, but it's a dodgy sort of science, at best. I've seen some prophecies come true, but one can argue that they'd only come to pass because the people involved knew about them and were bolstered by the fact that certain things were supposedly 'meant to be'."

Even if she had come to look at Harry as the Chosen One, she acknowledged that that had been because Voldemort had chosen to make him his enemy. If something like "fate" had anything to do with it, that still remained to be seen.

Though he seemed good-natured enough, Hermione could tell that Kirk was still holding back laughter, even if he claimed to respect their differences of opinion. As though to prove her point, she reached into her sleeve and slowly withdrew a wand with a delicate vine-like design, the very tip of it looking slightly frayed with the barest hint of something stringy visible beneath the chip of it. "Every wand is different, unique to the witch or wizard who possesses it. Mr. Ollivander, the local wand-maker, he was fond of saying that the wand chose the wizard, rather than the other way around. I'd been forced to use someone else's wand before, and here, using mine is having similar effects as using someone else's. It's... disconcerting."