Hermione sat on her bed, arms around her knees, watching the clock tick closer and closer to nine o'clock. She hadn't found any mathematics in the book. She'd tried. Oh, she'd tried. She'd put all her mind into it for hours. But Alice's adventures through wonderland seemed to touch on everything but mathematics. It made a mockery of it. Nothing was consistent, not even the way things changed.
She hated failing at assignments, and she felt she had failed. Harry was the first person her age she'd ever met that could keep up with her, and now he was going to think she was stupid. Being smart was all she had. She wasn't athletic, or pretty, or popular.
The clock struck nine. Her execution was due.
The door opened.
"Good morning, Miss Granger." Harry walked through the door. The door closed with a definite click. "Are you ready for today's journey through the looking glass?"
"Ahh… well, Harry…"
Her teacher dragged a chair to the side of the bed, sat down, and stared at her. "What was the single most un-mathematical thing you found?"
"The single… un-mathematical?"
"The single most absurd occurrence, something that defies mathematics and logic."
Hermione was confused. She was grateful that Harry wasn't disappointed with her, but couldn't see how this was relevant to their studies. She thought about his question. "I guess it would be the Mad Hatter's party," she started, feeling a bit more confident "when time stopped at six o'clock but continuity continued."
"Ah, yes. That was a good one. I haven't figured that one out yet. Someone may have, but if they have, they aren't telling."
She blinked at him. Figured it out? Figured what out? Were they playing some kind of metaphor game?
"Can you give me another?"
She thought for a moment. "When the animals throw pebbles at Alice, and they turn into cakes."
"Another good one. Gamp's law stops us doing that one."
"Gamp's law?" Okay, this must be a setup for the introduction of a new concept. She'd seen something like this when someone tried to explain calculus to her using a story about a tortoise and an arrow.
"Not important right now," Harry said. "Can you give another?"
She was getting into the swing of this. "The drink labelled 'Drink Me' that causes Alice to shrink."
Harry's face broke into a wide grin. "Well done, Miss Granger."
Despite herself, Hermione felt the familiar surge of happiness for getting a question right, even if she didn't understand what she was getting right. This whole line of questioning was strange.
Harry reached into his pocket, and brought out a small bottle of acid green liquid. He placed it on the desk to his side. The bottle had a small label on it that said, 'Drink Me'.
She stared at it. Her confusion was growing.
"Miss Granger,"—Harry brought her attention back to him—"Do you ever find strange things happening around you?"
"W-what do you mean?" she said, but she instantly knew what he was talking about. This discussion of things shrinking, and changing, without rhyme or reason cast her mind back to those times. The times her rational mind desperately tried to force down, and ignore.
"You answered the last question correctly. Let's see if you can go for a more difficult one. Give me one example of a situation in your life where something happened that defied logic."
Hermione's breathing quickened, became shallower. He couldn't be talking about those times. If she said something so outrageous he'd think she were insane.
Harry reached over and took her hand in his.
"It's okay, Hermione. You know what I'm talking about."
When it finally came out her voice was quiet, almost timid. "I was being bullied at school. They took my books, and threw them across the playground. They started to hit me. The next thing I knew, they were all thrown across the playground. Some of them were badly hurt."
Harry nodded. He leant back, and made a hand motion to indicate she should continue.
"Another time, I desperately wanted this book from this shop. I was outside looking in through the window, and the next thing I knew, I was holding the book in my hands. I was so afraid of being caught stealing that I dropped it and ran away."
"Wow. Non-spatial summoning. That's amazing."
Her breath hitched, her voice got desperate, more urgent. "What is? Do you know what's going on? How these things keep happening?"
Harry produced an ornate looking stick of wood and waved it at the door.
"I do know." He was smiling now. "Because I am like you. You are special, Hermione. You have the talent."
"Talent?" Her nails were leaving imprints on the palms of her hands.
"Magic."
"Magic?"
"You are part of a secret community of witches and wizards. People who use magic in their every day lives to achieve feats the non-magical world can only dream of."
Her teacher pointed the stick of wood at the lampshade on her desk. It morphed into a vase.
Her body relaxed. She stared in wonder.
"Normally, because your parents aren't magical, you wouldn't begin your magical education until you're eleven, but…"
"But?" she whispered.
"You are special even among witches and wizards, Hermione. You have the potential to become one of the most accomplished witches ever. A prodigy if you will."
A prodigy. She'd always wanted to be one of those.
"But," Harry said.
"But?" she replied.
"Do you remember the scene in the book when Alice is in the court, and starts to grow in size?"
Hermione nodded.
"Do you remember what the dormouse tells Alice?"
She nodded. "It said that she had no right to grow so fast, and that she was taking up all the air."
"And what did the King and Queen order her to do afterwards?"
"They said, 'rule forty-two says all persons over a mile high must leave the court.'"
"The magical world can be like that. I want to teach you, Hermione, but it will have to be in secret, both now and when we go to school together."
"School?"
"At age eleven we'll go to a magic school called Hogwarts with most of the other witches and wizards of magical Britain. By the time we're ready to go, you'll have more than caught up to the other students who've lived with magic all their lives."
Hermione was ecstatic. Magic was real. She'd just seen it. And she could learn it. It was like all the fantasy books she'd ever read. And… catch up… Yes. She had to catch up.
"When do we start?" Enthusiasm radiated from her like a beacon.
"Right now. We'll go over your curriculum for the next two-and-a-bit years. What I'd like to teach you, and why."
She nodded.
"But before that, a few more demonstrations of what the other side of the looking glass can do. Sound good?"
Her eyes gleamed and darted to the bottle of acid green liquid, still sitting innocently on the desk.
"Yes, Harry."
.....
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