the light had slipped through the window

One of the aspects that Hermione best enjoyed about starting school at Hogwarts was all of the structure. Knowing exactly which textbooks and materials were needed to get her through the first year — at least, up until the philosopher's stone came into play — and having a schedule to get through day to day helped ground her and drew a clear road towards success.

In her goal of starting some type of magical institution in Darrow, one of the things Hermione has had the most trouble with is figuring out how to organize a curriculum that can be valuable to people with a wide range of different abilities.

But being unable to conceptualize the model doesn't mean she shouldn't try.

"Okay," she declares as she steps into The Lamplight, holding the door open for Lafayette and heading directly towards the widened back room. "I want for this session to be one where I understand what the inherent powers you have are. Consider it a stress test of a sort. All of the abilities that you've described to me are very situational, very contextual, and it becomes hard for me to assess which principles I should share with you or how you should practice."

Hermione sweeps her wand sharply across the room, drawing a curtain in front of the few cauldrons simmering at the perimeter of the room.

She glances sheepishly over her shoulder. "Does that sound okay?"

temporary battles can take up half your life

Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration has five principal exceptions. And plastic identification cards aren't supposed to be one of them. Identification cards are created by humans for the convenience of humans, not in any way critical to the functioning of society, let alone to the world's survival.

Which is why Hermione's brow is furrowed as she sits on a bench at the edge of the forest, curled over her identification card and trying every trick in the book to try and change its appearance. She tries to alter her name, her height, her eye color — even the immobile photograph of her on the front, embossed with a holographic design.

None of it will budge.

Far from wanting to hide any part of her identity, Hermione instead wonders if the spell used to keep her card intact is related to the magic that holds everyone within city limits. Some type of shield, or perhaps something to negate the use of any force towards the object. Whatever it is, it's far more seamless than even the wards that she's put up around The Lamplight, and even the greater part of a few hours does nothing to bring her closer to any answers.

She's about ready to punch something out of frustration, cheeks pink as she finally sets her wand arm down and holds the card up in the air, heaving a sigh.

Well, it would be too easy to solve that problem in a single day.