The hat that reads your mind to sort you into a house: the Magic Sorting Hat.
And the white hat before her, except for being pure white, was its spitting image.
Oh, and also excepting the fact that this hat was clean as new.
So, what was a girl like Hermione to do?
Unaware of the old wizarding world adage not to touch things carelessly in a wizard's house, Hermione did something perfectly in line with the hat's original purpose.
That is to say—she put it on her head.
After putting it on and waiting for a moment, Hermione was slightly disappointed when, unlike the Sorting Hat, it said nothing.
Having read *Hogwarts: A History*, Hermione knew that a magical artifact of that caliber was unlikely to exist in a private home like this, but didn't the world run on 'what ifs'?
Just as she was thinking it was just a decorative hat and was about to take it off.
For some reason, Hermione felt a wave of drowsiness wash over her.
"*Yaaawn.* I'm suddenly so sleepy… I shouldn't fall asleep here…"
*It would be so rude to fall asleep like this when Aisen isn't even here….*
Hermione's memory, overcome by slumber, ended there.
***
*Ugh. Where am I?*
She remembered falling asleep. *Wait, does that mean I fell asleep at Aisen's house without a word?*
As Hermione muttered to herself in a daze, her consciousness was jolted awake by a voice that sounded like the Sorting Hat's.
[Hmm, a new child. Very talented in many areas. But your thinking is incredibly rigid. Good, very interesting. I think I know just the training you need.]
*What is this?* The voice kindly answered the bewildered Hermione.
[Hermione Granger, it is a pleasure to meet you. This is your dream, and I am the Magic Training Hat. From now on, you will begin your training.]
*A hat? Oh, right! Before falling asleep, I put on a white hat that looked like the Sorting Hat!*
Hermione asked, "Training? What kind of training are you talking about?"
[Training always means an ordeal. And an ordeal is a deviation from what you fear!]
It took precisely three seconds for Hermione to understand the meaning of those words.
She stared in confusion at the white smoke rising from the floor for a moment, but when the smoke began to take a familiar shape, she stammered, "Um, please, can you tell me this is a joke?"
Of course, it was not a joke.
What was the most terrifying moment of Hermione's life?
Her life before Hogwarts was out of the question. That was, so to speak, the mild version of her life.
Even when the Chamber of Secrets incident occurred, Hermione was never directly gripped by overwhelming fear. She was never attacked herself, and Aisen had led the final battle.
In the end, the memory that remained the most traumatic for Hermione was when she had faced the troll alone.
It was a primal fear for her life.
The direct terror of knowing that if that enormous club came down on her, she would die, was incomparable to anything else.
Although Harry and Aisen had appeared quickly to save her, what was scary was still scary.
And right now, that very fear was manifesting before her eyes once again.
*KRAAAAAAAAH!!!*
At that spirited roar, Hermione's face fell as she raised her wand.
"Excuse me! What happens if I die in here?"
[You simply start over from the beginning.]
Should she be happy that she wouldn't actually die? Or should she be sad that there was no end?
*Whoooosh!*
Her deliberation was brief. As she dodged the troll's ensuing attack, Hermione realized she had no time for such thoughts.
The troll's intimidating presence had the same power to make her legs tremble now as it did then, but she couldn't just stand there and take it.
*That's right, haven't I also grown a lot over the past two years?*
She had been on an adventure to protect the Philosopher's Stone and had taken the lead in closing the Chamber of Secrets.
Her experience was too valuable to be scared by a single troll now!
With that resolve, Hermione aimed her wand at the troll, but the pressure from the sheer difference in size was a difficult thing to overcome—especially when you had a history of being beaten by that same opponent.
*—KWAAAAANG!!*
"Hiiik…"
Her legs instinctively seemed to cower in fear, but Hermione forced herself to remember that this was her dream.
The twitching of her muscles as her legs recoiled couldn't possibly be happening in a dream!
"Petrificus Totalus!"
She yelled the spell at the troll.
With its naturally high magic resistance, the troll merely flinched for a moment after being hit by the Full Body-Bind Curse.
*CRASH!*
As the club swung down, Hermione realized a moment later that she was back at the beginning.
In other words, she had died, though without any pain.
At that, Hermione realized she needed to change her strategy.
*What should I do? The book. What did the book say?*
Because it was a dream, all sorts of books floated around Hermione: *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them*, *Dealing with Dangerous Magical Creatures*, *Basic Defence Against the Dark Arts*.
But none of the books had instructions on how a thirteen-year-old girl could fight a troll. For a moment, Hermione's mind went blank.
Suddenly, someone's words flashed through her mind.
*—Isn't magic too boring if you only look at textbooks?*
That's right. She had seen a way to fight a troll that wasn't in a book.
Hermione felt as if a lightbulb had switched on in her head.
She remembered how Harry and Aisen had dealt with the troll.
Aisen had… just blown it up with brutally strong magic. That was no help in this situation. Harry, on the other hand, was different. He had used the Aguamenti charm to suffocate the troll.
She had to use spells creatively, not just in the prescribed way.
*In that case, if an act created by a spell can inflict physical impact, it should be able to harm the troll!*
And then, Hermione's eyes fell on the enormous club the troll was holding.
So, she chanted a very simple, basic spell that even her first-year self could have cast.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
The club floated into the air and, with the help of gravity, came crashing down on the troll's head.
*—Kwaaaah…*
With a weak, dying cry, the troll collapsed.
Hermione watched the troll fall, and only after confirming that it wasn't moving did she let out a sigh of relief and slump to the ground. "Ugh, I almost died."
No, she hadn't almost died; she actually *had* died. It was just that because it was a dream, there was no pain.
After lying there limply for a while, a faint smile appeared on Hermione's face.
"...Hehe. I took on a troll by myself."
Wouldn't even Aisen praise her for this? *No, what am I thinking. Heh.*
Just then, the voice spoke again.
[Congratulations on the results of your training. We shall now begin the next session.]
Hermione's face, which had been grinning proudly at her achievement, hardened. "Excuse me, what do you mean?"
And as if on cue, four trolls rose up, and Hermione had no time to process her realization before her face fell into a grimace.
***
…*What is going on?*
Coming out after replying to Albus's letter, I blinked at the sight of Hermione sprawled out asleep in the living room.
Then my eyes landed on the Magic Training Hat, and I understood the whole story.
If I had to assign blame, this was all Harry's fault.
The Magic Training Hat I designed originally didn't have a forced-sleep spell. Its motto was training that happened naturally while one slept.
But the reason I added a sleep spell to that hat was solely because I was annoyed with Harry for trying to run away from my gift.
When Harry realized I would put the Nightmare Hat on him when he slept, he started using magic to stay awake. So, in retaliation, I cast a spell that made him fall asleep when he put the hat on. That's all. Really. It's not my fault.
Anyway, for that reason, it seemed Hermione, whether out of curiosity or some other reason, had tried on the hat and fallen asleep.
I thought for a moment about what to do with the sleeping Hermione.
Forcibly waking her up in the middle of training wouldn't cause any particular problems, but the residual impression left by the training would be fainter than if she woke up naturally after completing it.
And aside from that, watching Hermione sleep so peacefully, I didn't particularly feel the need to wake her.
First, I lifted the sleeping Hermione and moved her to the bed.
As I watched her for a moment, I saw her frown. "Trolls… hate… them."
Then Hermione started throwing punches in every direction. It seemed she was having a training session involving trolls, and her sleep-talking was quite violent.
Worried she might end up hurting her hand, I decided to shake her awake.
"Master, if you tie your friend to the bed, she won't get hurt even if she talks in her sleep, would she?"
Deek suggested that tying her safely to the bed would be a good idea, but I decided against it, thinking it would be quite awkward if Hermione were to misunderstand.
"Hermione, wake up. Hermione."
"Hweh?"
She must have been sleeping quite deeply, as it took a lot of shaking to wake her.
Blinking her eyes, Hermione opened her mouth, still in a daze. "Aisen… I don't remember clearly, but I don't think I can beat four trolls without a textbook."
*What is she talking about?*
***
Meanwhile,
High above the Mediterranean Sea.
Hedwig, back in her true dragon form for the first time in a while, was flying with leisurely flaps of her wings.
Atop her, Harry sat as if it were the most natural thing in the world, with Silly wrapped around his neck. Behind him sat Dumbledore, his white hair fluttering in the wind.
"Even I never imagined the day would come when I'd be fishing from the back of a dragon."
At Dumbledore's hearty laugh, Harry chuckled. "And I bet you never imagined you'd be fishing for Kraken, either."
"You've got that right."
Catching three Krakens was a rather time-consuming task.
Why three? Because Hedwig had promptly swallowed the first one they caught.
Since there weren't that many Krakens in the Mediterranean to begin with, at this point, their activity had become more about chatting than fishing.
Dumbledore asked with interest, "So, Harry. That Nightmare Hat… I mean, the Magic Training Hat. What exactly is it like?"
*If my sunbae-nim made it, its effects are undoubtedly certain.*
As Dumbledore thought about asking to borrow it later to try on another professor, Harry quietly recommended Professor Snape.
***