Unfortunately, Leon didn’t really have time to play with the Vivarium.
He hoisted the heavy thing and pulled it into Coldharbour, making sure it was placed in a large open courtyard within the mockery of the Imperial city before he retracted his consciousness back to his Earthly Avatar.
It was a shame that he hadn’t found the Diadem, but the Vivarium was a significantly more valuable find overall.
He checked the time and found that it was nearly 5:30 on Monday.
It was time to head back into Hogwarts proper and mingle with his classmates.
Next weekend he would dedicate some time to his Acromantula hunt.
But for the coming week he would be focusing on his classes.
Leon left the RoR with some help from Gasket.
A quick magical transportation from the stone chamber to the entrance.
After exiting the Room of Requirements and dismissing Gasket, Leon headed back down to the Hufflepuff common room.
He hadn’t actually seen the class schedule yet and he needed to know when and where to be.
The corridors and hallways were almost entirely silent and unoccupied.
He spotted no one as he made his way down from the seventh-floor corridor.
At the common room entrance, Leon tapped the correct rhythm on the correct barrel and the doorway swung open.
Once inside he quickly found the bulletin board with the class schedules posted and pulled out a piece of paper to copy it down.
First-Year Hufflepuff Weekly Schedule
Monday
09:00 AM – 10:30 AM | Defense Against the Dark Arts (with Ravenclaw) – Professor Quirrell11:00 AM – 12:00 PM | History of Magic (with Ravenclaw) – Professor Binns12:00 PM – 01:00 PM | Lunch Break (Great Hall)01:00 PM – 03:00 PM | Charms (with Gryffindor) – Professor Flitwick03:00 PM onward | Free Time / Independent Study
Tuesday
09:00 AM – 10:30 AM | Transfiguration (with Slytherin) – Professor McGonagall11:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Defense Against the Dark Arts (with Ravenclaw) – Professor Quirrell12:00 PM – 01:00 PM | Lunch Break (Great Hall)01:00 PM – 02:30 PM | History of Magic (with Ravenclaw) – Professor Binns02:30 PM onward | Free Time / Independent Study
Wednesday
09:00 AM – 11:00 AM | Herbology (Double Period) (with Gryffindor) – Professor Sprout11:30 AM – 12:30 PM | Charms (with Gryffindor) – Professor Flitwick12:30 PM – 01:30 PM | Lunch Break (Great Hall)01:30 PM – 03:00 PM | Transfiguration (with Slytherin) – Professor McGonagall03:00 PM onward | Afternoon Free Time11:00 PM – 01:00 AM | Astronomy (Midnight Class) (with Slytherin) – Professor Aurora Sinistra
Thursday
09:00 AM – 10:30 AM | Theory of Magic / Guided Study (extracurricular/guest speakers)11:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Flying Lessons (with Slytherin) – Madam Hooch12:00 PM – 01:00 PM | Lunch Break (Great Hall)01:00 PM – 03:00 PM | Potions (Double Period) (with Ravenclaw) – Professor Snape03:00 PM onward | Free Time / Independent Study
Friday
09:00 AM – 11:00 AM | Herbology (Double Period) (with Gryffindor) – Professor Sprout11:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Review and Independent Study12:00 PM – 01:00 PM | Lunch Break (Great Hall)01:00 PM – 03:00 PM | Potions (Double Period) (with Ravenclaw) – Professor Snape03:00 PM onward | Weekend Liberty Begins
Leon felt like the class schedule was extremely forgiving and left a huge amount of free time for the first years.
How anyone could be late for their classes was beyond him.
Although, as evidenced by the fact that he had disappeared for an entire day.
The students were awfully free to do what they pleased.
And children left to their own devices probably failed to be timely quite often.
Glancing at the schedules for the older kids, Leon couldn’t help but frown.
Comparing the different years basically confirmed a classic fan theory about the whole franchise.
The professors here were insanely overworked and completely undercompensated.
The school’s logistics were a total mess.
Every teacher had to manage seven different year groups.
Even with classes stretched to the absolute limit across a five-day week, a quick look at the schedules showed multiple overlapping time slots.
The only logical explanation was that the staff were using Time-Turners or some kind of cloning magic to patch the holes in the system and be in two places at once.
It was a wonder that the professors didn’t revolt.
Leon certainly would have if he was expected to run 27 hours of classes in a single day.
It was no wonder that Snape seemed to move around in a perpetual cloud of gloom.
The guy was putting in 30 hours daily since his classes were longer than everyone else’s.
On top of the absurd class hours, the professors also needed to spend time grading essays, tests and whatnot.
It was a miracle that any of them were even functioning human beings with schedules like these.
Add on top of all that, the fact that the professors were said to patrol the castle at night?
Someone like Professor Snape was probably living 48 hours for every 24 each day working.
If Leon became the headmaster, it would be a perpetual point farm aligning with his Domain of Cruelty.
Leon wondered how the classes with Professor Quirrell were going to go now.
Without Voldy’s perpetual influence on him, hopefully he would actually be a useful teacher.
Leon still had several hours before the start of classes.
So, he decided to head up to the Great Hall to socialize and get something to eat.
Leon managed to get seated in the great hall.
Tucking in to a meal of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast.
With his aura issue now sorted.
The slow trickle of his housemates coming up for breakfast inevitably led to social interaction.
Leon chatted with the various girls from his year that were early risers.
None of them were particularly interesting to talk to.
Especially since he had just flipflopped back and forth between his Coldharbour Avatar and his Earthly Avatar.
His thoughts were not nearly childlike enough at the moment to enjoy the conversation topics.
But he forced himself to engage and keep up with the children his age.
At 8:30 he disengaged and pointed out that they needed to head to class.
As they all stood up, they found themselves joined by the Ravenclaw first years who were also headed to the same class.
They arrived pretty early at the DADA classroom.
But even if they were early, Professor Quirrell was already present.
Setting up his classroom that distinctly lacked that garlic and herb smell that the books had described.
As the first years started pouring in Quirrell looked over his shoulder and smiled at the incoming students, waving them in.
“Good to see you all are eager to start, but we will be waiting until the bell to start.
Would any of you like to give me a hand in setting up?” Quirrell asked as he rolled a chalk board off to the side.
A distinct lack of any stutter in his voice.
And he actually looked excited.
And there was no stutter.
A couple of girls from both houses volunteered to help the professor set up whatever it was that he was he was preparing.
Earning five points to each house for their participation.
Leon watched as they set up a strange contraption where the chalkboard used to be.
Then Professor Quirrell handed the girls some chalk and had the draw lines on the floor leading up to the contraption.
Quirrell moved behind them utilizing his wand to secretly adjust the lines into perfect rows while thanking the girls for helping out.
Leon couldn’t help but shake his head in wonder at the difference.
When the nine o’clock bell finally rang, Quirrell stood up from the desk he had been sitting at and took rollcall.
Finding that everyone had made it on time he cleared his throat.
“Welcome to your first year in Defense Against the Dark Arts.
I will be your professor this year.
I am Professor Quirinius Quirrell.
You may call me my name or title, though I prefer Professor.” Quirrell paced before the class for a moment scanning the faces before him, “Now, you all may be wondering about the strange contraption that we set up over here.
It will help us with a few practical spells that we will be working on later.
But for right now, I trust you all have a copy of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection.
Please turn to chapter one, and note the spell, the Knockback Jinx.
Can anyone tell me what the spell is good for?”
Hands went up and students answered the question.
Quirrell then began to explain the Knockback Jinx in detail.
The variety of situations that it could be useful in, and how it was just as much of a utility spell as it was a self-defense spell.
He demonstrated the wand movements, and had the students follow along, and made sure that everyone could say the spell before he demonstrated the contraptions use.
With a flick of Professor Quirrell’s wand, the contraption extended a limb that held a target at the end of it.
“Now, I shall demonstrate, then we will take turns.” Quirrell said, stepping to one of the marks that he had had the girls draw on the floor and facing the machine.
“Flipendo!” Quirrell said, giving his wand a flick and twist, aiming at the target.
A shimmering purple burst of light flew from his wand slammed the target, pushing it all the way back into the machine which clicked and reset, extending the arm once more.
“I do not expect you all to be able to push the target all the way back immediately like I just did.
That is why there are markings on the floor.
You can measure how far you’ve made it and make adjustments for your next go.
First up, Abbott.
Show us what you’ve got!”
What followed was actually pretty fun.
The class time passed rather quickly and Quirrell assigned a short essay on novel uses of the Knockback Jinx due on Monday next week along with instructions to read chapter two of Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by tomorrow for their next class.
With a whole thirty minutes to reach the History of Magic Class, the group of Ravenclaw’s and Hufflepuffs easily made it there with time to spare.
Professor Binns, the ghost teacher, didn’t do a roll call, and didn’t even wait for the bell.
Once all the students were seated, he introduced himself, instructed them to open their books, then started droning on monotonously.
Leon had expected this, and he had already read the contents of today’s lecture.
So, he ended up just zoning out until the end of class.
Bored out of his mind until they were dismissed for lunch.
Lunch break saw Leon conversing with his classmates about their first two classes.
Professor Quirrell’s class in particular.
They all seemed to like it and were looking forward to the next DADA class which was in stark contrast to Canon.
Charms was a class that everyone was looking forward to. The source of this chapter is g.com.
Leon included.
He had tested out several of the first-year charms already.
And nearly blinded himself when he tested out Lumos, the wand lighting charm.
He had tested out most, if not all of the first-year charms already.
But aside from the wand lighting charm he hadn’t had much luck with the actual casts.
The spells were referenced in Magical Theory.
But it did not have the actual wand movements and their incantations.
Instead, Magical Theory taught the principles of wand movements, and what each movement generally meant in magic.
On top of the theories it presented about magical development of course.
However, after the pretty good class with Professor Quirrell, Charms was a major let down.
Professor Flitwick was a stickler for making sure that every student had a strong grasp of magical theory before he would even let the first years cast a single spell.
Leon understood the caution.
A wand was a weapon.
And charms could be deadly.
But it felt unnecessarily cautious after Quirrell’s class where they got to practice the Knockback Jinx already.
Leon had forgotten that in canon, Flitwick didn’t even teach the class their first spell until Halloween.
Two whole months of Magical Theory and drilling the core concepts of wandwork and precise incantation pronunciation.
Leon was seriously doubting why everyone made such a big deal about perfect pronunciation when you could literally cast spells silently later on.
The Magical Theory book didn’t even try to explain the loophole.
But it did mention one weird rule: wizards using certain wand woods, like Dogwood, could never perform non-verbal magic.
The text noted that several other wand materials shared this exact same limitation.
To Leon, the math was obvious.
Incantations weren’t for the wizard; they were basically voice-activated instructions for the wands themselves, having absolutely nothing to do with the caster’s actual magic.
Because of this sudden realization, Leon decided that he needed to get ahold of the complete series of textbooks from that African school, Uagadou.
They taught pure wandless magic.
The majority of their student body didn’t even use wands, which meant that their Magical Theory would be far closer to the source code of magic in this world than Britian’s Lore could ever be.
Wizarding Britian relied entirely on wands.
Take away a wizard’s wand and they were even more helpless than a normal muggle.
Leon tried to pay attention for the duration of Charms class.
But his mind was wandering due to his realization.
He was trying to figure out how he would get his hands on the wizarding traditions of another nation.
He highly doubted that any Uagadou textbooks were in the bookstores in Diagon Alley.
Though he would send them an owl to see if they had any or if they could special order them for him.
“Would you like to share your thoughts with class Mr.
McKinnon-Prewett… that’s a bit of a mouthful I’m going to just use Prewett from now on if you don’t mind.” Flitwick’s voice suddenly cut through his racing thoughts.
Leon flinched and straightened in his seat then coughed, “Um, sorry sir!
I just had a thought that distracted me.”
“Well, go on.
Share it with the class.
It must be important.” Flitwick said.
Leon knew about this tactic in teaching, it had always irritated him when teachers did this.
He just shrugged, “Well Professor Flitwick.
I was wondering why pronunciation is so important for casting spells.
Especially since I know that spells can be cast without a verbal component at all.
Then I remembered that in Magical Theory, I forget the chapter number, but it mentioned that certain types of wands will never allow for a wizard to cast non-verbally.
Which gave me the sudden realization that incantations have nothing to do with a Witch or Wizards magic.
An incantation is instructions for a Wand.
That realization led me to realize that the book, Magical Theory, should be renamed, because it is mainly dealing in the use of Wands.
So, it should be called Magical Theory: A wizard’s tools and how they interact with Magic.
Because wands are not actually necessary for spell casting.
Uagadou, the biggest wizarding school in the world, teaches mainly wandless magic.
Though they have started transitioning towards wands in recent years.
But it made me have another realization.
Which was that Magical Theory must be fairly far away from a true Theory of Magic, since it’s all about using and giving instructions to a tool.
I found myself thinking about how to acquire any Uagadou textbooks that would allow me to delve into real magic so that I could understand its source, not just how a wand interacts with its wielders magic.”
The entire Charms classroom went dead silent.
Professor Flitwick stood on his tower of books, his wand lowering slightly as his jaw dropped as Leon spoke.
Beside Leon, his nearest classmate looked like she wanted to slide completely under her desk to escape.
Over at the Gryffindor tables, Hermione looked like she had just fallen in love.
Harry and Ron both looked like everything that Leon had just said flew over their head.
A few students were blinking in utter bewilderment, completely unable to process what had just been said.
Flitwick adjusted his spectacles, looking at Leon with a mixture of profound shock, academic awe, and a tiny hint of professional panic.
A few seconds ticked by before the tiny professor finally found his voice.
“Ten points to Hufflepuff,” Flitwick said softly, his voice trembling slightly with genuine excitement.
“Ten points for…
quite possibly the most remarkably advanced, deeply philosophical, and dangerously critical assessment of modern spellcasting I have ever heard from an eleven-year-old student on their very first day.”
Flitwick clapped his hands together, stepping to the edge of his book stack.
“You are, of course, entirely correct about Uagadou’s mastery of wandless transfiguration and charms magic, Mr.
Prewett.” Flitwick continued, his squeaky voice filling the silent room.
“Their mastery is legendary and world renowned.
However, they are not all that up to snuff when it comes to dueling, where wands excel.
While the Ministry’s curriculum is heavily centered around the wand-centric traditions of Europe, I would caution you to think outside the normal boxes, especially those boxes that originate from muggle philosophy.
To call our Magical Theory textbook flawed because it focuses on the tool…
an extraordinary perspective young man.”
Leon couldn’t help following up, “Take away any wizard’s wand in Europe and suddenly they become even more helpless than a muggle.
Clueless about how the mundane world works.
Uagadou students?
Take away their wand and they are still just as potent of a force to be reckoned with.
If they even had a wand to begin with.
Honestly, I don’t see how Witches and Wizards of Europe can even be considered magical at all.
Completely and utterly dependent on a tool to do all their magic for them.”
The silence in the room deepened, pressing down so heavily that the scratch of a single quill from the back row sounded like a crack of thunder.
Maybe, just maybe, Leon had overstepped a bit with that last bit.
He could feel an aggressive tension in the air from the first year girls.
Though Professor Flitwick looked excited by the challenge of the statements that Leon had made.
Professor Flitwick’s hand trembled slightly, and he had to grip the edge of his desk to steady himself on his mountain of books.
Over at the Gryffindor tables, Hermione Granger looked like she was having a full-blown existential crisis, and she looked like she desperately wanted to talk with Leon, her fingers were white from gripping her quill, her eyes wide as she frantically took notes.
Harry and Ron, meanwhile, looked entirely blank.
Beside Leon, his classmate looked like she was actively trying to phase through the floorboards to escape the fallout of what was bordering on pure magical heresy.
“Mr.
Prewett,” Flitwick finally breathed, his high-pitched voice dropping slightly.
The excitement in his face was now warring directly with the professionalism of a teacher that knows so much more but can’t or won’t allow themselves to get in the way of a student discovering things for themselves.
“That is…
an incredibly bold, and dare I say, cynical assessment of the wizarding world.
And it is an opinion that you may find alienating if it is professed to loudly.”
He took off his spectacles, wiping them hurriedly on his robes, his eyes darting toward the classroom door as if expecting the Department of Magical Education to burst in.
“As for your question regarding the Uagadou textbooks.” Flitwick said, pointing his wand at the blackboard, causing a piece of chalk to frantically start scribbling notes on international magical law.
“The Hogwarts library does carry a few translated volumes of historical African treatises in the deep archives, though they are rarely requested.
However, if you are truly intent on studying the foundational mechanics of casting magic without a focus…
I might be persuaded to write a letter of introduction to Madam Pince to grant you access to the foreign methodology shelves.”
Flitwick recovered his composure and beamed at Leon, clearly thrilled to have a bright inquisitive mind in his class “But for today, Mr.
Prewett, I must insist we master the tool before we discard it!
Shall we return to the basic theory of the ‘swish and flick’?”
Leon nodded, “Yes Professor, and I would absolutely love it if you could write me that introduction.
And only a fool doesn’t learn how to use a tool that is at their disposal.
My interest in Wandless magic and critique of European tradition not withstanding.”
The rest of the class proceeded as normal, only now Leon had to deal with Hermione constantly looking over at him.
Seemingly desperate to talk with him.
He knew that he was about to get ambushed outside the classroom.
Hermione’s personality would never allow her to pass up talking with someone that seemingly had an academic bent similar to her own.
And no doubt she would be a walking encyclopedia of all the reasons why Leon had to be wrong in his assessment.
When the class ended all the students vacated the Charms classroom except for Leon.
Waiting patiently for Professor Flitwick to give him that letter of introduction for Madam Pince.
“Now, Mister Prewett. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
I must advise you to… keep the more, inflammatory statements about European magical traditions out of your interactions with others.
I may be receptive to and even encourage such trains of thought, but others… not so much.
The ministry,” Professor Flitwick held his hand up and pinched his fingers close together, “came this close.
To outright making wandless magic illegal.
Though they didn’t do it in the end.
They did make it almost impossible to import books or grimoire from nations that do not utilize wands as their main tradition.”
Leon could put two and two together.
The powers that be were intentionally gimping their population.
By making it so that their populace was dependent on wands they made it easier to contain them.
Much easier to imprison a person who cant just use magic to escape.
Azkaban would hardly be threat if witches and wizards could still use their magic without their wands.
“Indeed, I’ll keep it to myself unless directly questioned about it.
I suspect at least one of my classmates is going to want to talk about what I said.” Leon replied.
Professor Flitwick chuckled, “Miss Granger looked like she was struggling not to tackle you.
She is an inquisitive little witch.
And I can already tell that she has a sharp mind.
Do be careful young man.
Cynicism can be useful tool, but like you pointed out with wands, overdependence can be a bad thing.” Flitwick held out a letter, “Give this to Madam Pince in the library.
I don’t know what we have down there on wandless magic, as it has never been a topic I wished to pursue, but it may hold a few books that interest you.”
“Thank you Professor.” Leon said as he took the letter, “Now I’m off to deal with a rabid little scholar who is undoubtedly waiting to, as you said, tackle me the moment I leave the classroom.”
“hahaha, good luck my boy!” Flitwick said as Leon turned and left the classroom.
Leon made it all of about three steps beyond the threshold before he ran into Hermione Granger who was practically vibrating with intense, manic academic energy.
She blocked the stone corridor entirely, her heavy bag clutched to her chest like a shield, her eyes locked onto him with the laser focus of a competitive debate champion.
“That was absolutely incredible!” Hermione burst out before Leon could even take in the fact that she was there.
She didn’t bother with an introduction, launching straight into a high-speed monologue.
“What you said about the Dogwood limitation in chapter four of Magical Theory, I went back and checked my notes immediately!
Adalbert Waffling explicitly states that the wand is an essential stabilization matrix to prevent accidental magic from destabilizing the local environment!
If everyone cast wandlessly, the accidental magic triggers from emotional outbursts would cause localized spatial tears!
And what did you mean by the ‘source’ of magic?
Is that an Arithmancy concept?
Are you already studying third-year material?”
Leon was impressed.
She somehow managed to say all of that in a single breath.
He took a moment after she went silent to collect his thoughts, before he decided to go a little extreme in his approach.
Hermione, for all her brilliance, trusted authority far too much.
“Adalbert Waffling was a Ministry lackey, of course he would say that.
Africa has nearly a hundred times greater population of witches and wizards than Britian, and yet they still maintain the Statute of Secrecy just fine.
Africa is not an anomalous zone filled with millions of spatial tears and massively destabilized environments.
Yet the vast majority of their wizarding population has never even seen a wand.
Adalbert Waffling lied, plain and simple.
It’s obvious that the Ministry just wants an easily controlled population.
Wizards or witches not complying?
Break their wand and ban them from purchasing another.
Now utterly powerless, they have no choice but to live in the Muggle world, out of sight out of mind.
And for the really dangerous individuals?
Azkaban.
But how would they enforce their prisoners’ stay if those prisoners could still use magic?”
Hermione looked like Leon had just punched her in the chest, “T-that can’t be true!” she exclaimed, though her voice lacked any of its previous confidence.
She clutched her copy of Magical Theory so tightly against her robes that the leather cover groaned.
“The Ministry wouldn’t…
an entire society wouldn’t just accept a lie like that.
Books are peer-reviewed!
Historical texts are supposed to be objective!”
Leon laughed, genuinely laughed at that last statement, “Books, my dear Granger, especially historical books, are written by the victors.
Ever heard the saying ‘To the Victor goes the Spoils’?
Well that is incomplete, it goes, ‘To the Victor goes the Spoils and the History’.
Books are a fantastic source of information.
But books are written by people.
And people will purposefully lead you astray if it benefits them.
Especially when it comes to political ideologies.
Just look at the Americas, their ‘history’ books in schools have completely fictional versions of events as justifications for political movements.
Rosa Parks, for example, had to purposefully board like 13 different buses to engineer the situation to fit the narrative that is now pushed.
She and her husband owned their own vehicles, so it doesn’t even make sense that she was using public transportation.
I don’t say this because I think the end results were wrong.
In that particular case, change was desperately needed.
But to show that texts, especially historical texts, are never objective.
If you want the truth, then keep in mind that what books are telling you to think, and what the actual truth is, may be very different from each other.
Though, admittedly, that is not always the case.”
Hermione’s face was pale and her breath hitched, “Rosa Parks was a fraud?”
Leon shook his head, “No she was an activist who was part of a movement to affect change.
The narrative surrounding the whole incident on the bus was… sort of fraudulent?
But the reason for it and resulting push for equality was a good thing.
Those same activists tried to do the same thing a few years earlier with a different girl, Claudette Colvin, if I remember correctly, but she ended up getting pregnant out of wedlock, and they didn’t think the optics would stick with her as the subject.
I’m getting off topic, sorry.
But ‘Fraud’ would be too antagonistic of a way to think about it.
More like a paid actor doing a public service announcement.
The whole point is, that History and historical documentation especially, is meticulously managed to suit political needs.
And fictitious versions of events end up becoming the ‘truth’.”
Using the Rosa Parks analogy turned out to be a massive error.
Leon had used the analogy because he knew that she would probably have heard of her having growing up in the Muggle world.
Leon certainly had.
What he didn’t know.
Couldn’t have known.
Was that Rosa Parks wasn’t just a paragraph in a textbook to Hermione; she was a personal hero, a symbol of pure bravery.
The second he finished speaking, Leon realized he had crossed a major line.
Hermione didn’t look like a student having an epiphany.
She looked like Leon had just taken a sword and stabbed her through the chest.
Her breath hitched sharply, and her pale face flooded with a mix of heartbreak and pure rage.
To Hermione, Leon had just casually described one of her few heroes and icons of moral integrity as a “paid actor doing a public service announcement”.
It didn’t make her question the Ministry or whether information she learned from books was actually truthful.
It just made her absolutely hate him.
“You’re disgusting,” Hermione said, her voice shaking with pure venom.
She took a step toward him, her eyes flashing with a dangerous, brilliant anger.
“You think it makes you look brilliant to tear down good people?
To turn a historic fight for basic human rights into some cheap, staged conspiracy theory?
You don’t care about the truth at all, Prewett.
You’re just a cynical jerk who wants to feel superior to everyone else.”
Before Leon could even try to pivot or walk the statement back, she whirled around and marched down the hallway at a furious pace.
Leon sighed, seriously exasperated with his own lack of social awareness.
“Wrong analogy, I guess?” he muttered under his breath, shaking his head.
Maybe he should have gone with Harriet Tubman instead?
He stood by the stone wall, ignoring the weird looks from a few older Hufflepuffs walking past.
His little psychological shortcut of using something familiar to make a point had completely backfired.
He had totally forgotten that to someone like Hermione, those history lessons weren’t just sterile facts.
They were holy scriptures of justice.
Casually breaking her immersion by calling her hero a paid actor wasn’t an epiphany; it was a personal attack.
But knowing Hermione’s hyper-obsessive personality from the books, she wasn’t just going to cry about it.
She was going to investigate furiously to prove him wrong.
The actual historical records would definitely break her heart, but Leon figured that would be much better for her overall.
Learning to not simply trust everything handed to her as an absolute fact was a brutal but valuable lesson.
He did feel bad for the massive emotional roller coaster he had just strapped her into, though.
He’d just have to make sure he never, ever brought up Harriet Tubman.