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Late Spring, 1996
04-09-2013, 07:15 PM
Hermione looked out to the west across the Lake. The crescentmoon hung low in the sky, a red Cheshire Cat's smile hoveringover the hills that surrounded Loch Nevis. She wrapped her cloak
around herself more tightly and turned away from the cold wind
that whipped across the top of the Astronomy Tower. How anyone
could snog out here for more than thirty seconds without becoming
an icicle completely escaped her.
Then again, wasn't that what warming charms were for? Among
other things, that is.
She stood looking out over the waters of the Lake, as black as
the night sky above, for almost a minute more before nodding
briskly to herself and pushing forward with her purpose here
tonight. Stepping up to the battlement which ringed the top of
the tower, Hermione firmly grasped two of the merlons and pulled
herself up into the crenel between them. She glanced down and a
moment of vertigo seized her.
Tearing her eyes away from the distant ground, she looked up tothe sky once more. "Too late for second-guessing," she
whispered, and the words were torn away by the wind, never to beheard. "Too late to go back to sleep. It's time to trust my
instincts, close my eyes, and leap..." Murmuring a single word,she tapped her breastbone with her wand.
And then Hermione Granger stepped off the top of the AstronomyTower.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Hmmm. Two possibilities come immediately to mind, except that neither seems really right for what I've gathered about her personality. She could be testing a flying-without-broomstick spell she's found or invented. But why in the dead of night, without any safety measures? Or she could be testing how the mysterious DADA professor deals with a student hurling herself to what'll be certain death if he doesn't intervene. That strikes me, though, as even more out of character -- not to mention that it assumes that Doug ("Professor Sangnoir!") can find out in time to save her.
I am bewildered. I don't believe either of those possibilities I suggested, but nothing else occurs to me. Except that she's testing something, and it's something she needs to test in secret....
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True Birr, although atleast she picked a nice piece of music to do it with.
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Given the nature of the song itself, at a guess she thinks she's able to replicate the 'Song Magic' of Doug.
Unless the crazy of Doug's visit has her trying the H2G2 method of flying. You know, throwing yourself at the ground and missing.
Neither of which seems to be in keeping with Hermione's personality as I see it.
I'm pretty sure 1996 is too soon for the song too. The musical itself wasn't produced until 2003.
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Cobalt Greywalker Wrote:Given the nature of the song itself, at a guess she thinks she's able to replicate the 'Song Magic' of Doug.
Unless the crazy of Doug's visit has her trying the H2G2 method of flying. You know, throwing yourself at the ground and missing.
Neither of which seems to be in keeping with Hermione's personality as I see it. There is another possibility, considering she said a word and tapped herself with her wand ...
It's obvious to me what that possibility is, but I've seen Magic Users' Club more than once: "The Human Broom" - she's levitating herself.
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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Quote:Hazard wrote:
I'm pretty sure 1996 is too soon for the song too. The musical itself wasn't produced until 2003.
That's easily answered by the theory that she overheard Doug playing it from his helmet, and, as Cobalt Greywalker suggested, thinks if he can do it, she can. (A lyric from Anastasia comes to mind: "If I can learn to do it,
You can learn to do it.
Pull yourself together,
And you'll pull through it!
Tell yourself it's easy,
And it's true:
You can learn to do it too!")
I'm embarrassed, by the way: my sister is a big fan of Wicked, has the sheet music, and has played for me (and sung along to) "What is This Feeling" at least ... but I didn't recognize Hermione was reciting from "Defying Gravity." It certainly supports the "new flight spell" notion.
Also, though I didn't think of it before, just because no safety measures are mentioned at this point doesn't mean Ron, Harry, Ginny, and/or others aren't hovering around on broomsticks ready to catch her if it doesn't work. It still strikes me as a bit out of character.
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All I'll say at this moment is that I think I'll satisfy everyone's curiosity and objections when we finally get to this moment.
Also, this passage is a bit of an experiment. It's the first time I've actually written a scene(let) specifically as a teaser, as opposed to lifting one already written out of a dev file. The moment it displays has already been written (well, mostly), but the "actual" version is different in a number of ways from this one. The action is the same, but the framing is different. Anyway, as an experiment I think it's worked nicely, but you know, I don't think it's something I'm going to do often.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Oh, and since the lyric snippet has been identified, here's one version of the song I'm rather fond of. The performer, for those who don't know, is Kerry Ellis, who understudied and succeeded Idina Menzel as Elphaba in the original London production of Wicked. This version uses a lyric set that replaces most of the lyrics that are very specific to the story, so if you notice things you don't recognize or miss bits you know should be there, that's why. (I'd love to see a performance of the stage lyrics with this styling...) And if you're really interested, there's a YouTube video of her singing this live on stage with Brian May of Queen backing her up.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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... and two and a half years later, I've found the background music for what happens after this moment in the story:
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Hermione falls to her death and goes to Hell as a suicide? Because that music sounds to me as if something downright apocalyptic is happening, not just spell experimentation. I hope she's not going to become a "transcendent" being, like Clarke's Starchild.
(Edited to clarify the meaning of my first sentence.)
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That's a very "Triumphant Freedom in Wide Open Vistas" piece of soundtrack. First Flight, Adventure On The High Seas, or Blazing A New Trail.
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Hazard Wrote:I'm pretty sure 1996 is too soon for the song too. The musical itself wasn't produced until 2003. Hermione Granger is listed in the Wicked credits as a prereader, but obviously no one reads them.
-- ∇×V
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vorticity Wrote:Hazard Wrote:I'm pretty sure 1996 is too soon for the song too. The musical itself wasn't produced until 2003. Hermione Granger is listed in the Wicked credits as a prereader, but obviously no one reads them. LOL!
--
Rob Kelk
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This does beg the question about whether Wicked would even exist in the Potterverse, and how how the actual witches feel about it. :-)
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Well, in the Potterverse, The Wizard of Oz is actually an account of a young Muggle girl's adventures among an Australian Wizarding colony hidden in the middle of the Outback...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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"G'day, mate. We represent the Lollipop Guild...."
Edit: Invoking the Samurai Cat series, I have to ask, "Did she meet the Yellow Brick Road Warrior?"
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Isn't that what Australians use as a nickname to bag on their government? I thought that was part of the joke being made...
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woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
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Quote:DHBirr wrote:
"G'day, mate. We represent the Lollipop Guild...."
Edit: Invoking the Samurai Cat series, I have to ask, "Did she meet the Yellow Brick Road Warrior?"
....I imagine this being played by Mel Gibson, body-painted the color of a banana rather than in woad. With a bystander commenting, "Oh, that's just Max. He's rather mad...."
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