17,032The first moment Ceridwen heard that magic was real, and that she was an honest to god witch, her heart had burst with joy. She had always dreamed of being one of those girls who went out, fighting monsters and bringing hope for everyone.
Everything was great, even if it looked highly outdated. Even better was learning that she had a large store of gold that she was allowed to use with limited restrictions.
Then she spent a year in Hogwarts, and reality sank in.
The wonders of real magic came with a system that was firmly set in it's ways, and harshly punished those who dared to break the mold. Even worse, there was a distinct old blood versus new blood mentality that made things pointlessly harder for anyone attempting to innovate.
It was disgusting, and horrible to see how broken the system was.
Second year was just as bad, if not worse. Seeing how quickly people turned on her for a really stupid reason and not bothering to think things through was awful.
It made her realize just how little she knew about the system.
"Is that the latest copy of Nanoha?" said Lavender.
Ceri looked up at her in surprise.
"You know of it?"
"Magical girl series are really popular among the half-bloods, especially those who live in the muggle world," explained Lavender.
Ceri sat up with excitement.
"Tell me more."
Finding out Parvati was just as big a fan of magical girl series was an even more fun surprise. Apparently her and Lavender discussed the outfits all the time, and Ceri had no idea. The recently healed Hermione would have been dismissive of the whole thing...had Ceri not pointed out what a huge magical achievement it would be to recreate some of the spells used.
It didn't take much to get her hooked on the Nanoha series, especially with how much math was involved.
"We should totally meet up during the summer and share magical girl manga," said Ceridwen.
"Won't your aunt and uncle..." started Hermione.
"They'd probably be thrilled if I left and never came back," said Ceridwen so matter-of-fact that it took Parvati and Lavender by surprise. "They hate the fact they have to raise a witch. If I knew how to get around without having to involve muggle transportation I'd escape the first chance I could."
"Why not use the Knight Bus?" asked Parvati confused.
"The what?" said Hermione and Ceri at the same time.
"The Knight bus. It's a double decker bus that's been spelled so that it can travel on muggle roads for those unable to apparate or are too young to have the license," said Lavender. "Not exactly pleasant, but more discreet than the Floo and fairly priced."
"Seriously!?" said Ceridwen, standing up. "Why did no one mention this before?!"
"It's common knowledge among those who live in the magical communities," shrugged Parvati.
Ceri gained a gleam in her eyes.
"We are so coordinating over the summer. I've always wanted to try out cosplay!"
Parvati gained a similar gleam, as did Lavender.
"Cosplay?"
"Costume play, which means dressing up as your favorite character and having fun."
"I'm in," said Hermione immediately.
"We can coordinate with Hedwig. She's dead bored anyway."
"We are so turning her into a magical companion," said Parvati.
"Absolutely!" said Ceri. "She would likely enjoy it, since she would be out of her cage!"
"The problem is that most owls aren't domesticated in muggle settings," said Hermione.
"Service animal," said Ceridwen immediately. "She's well behaved enough to be mistaken for one, and most muggles wouldn't know what a post owl is."
Rather than dispute her comment, Hermione looked thoughtful.
"Considering how well trained she is, we might actually be able to get her legally registered as a legitimate one. You've been in enough life and death adventures you could probably use one to deal with the trauma anyway."
Ceri winced at the reminder.
"Did you ever get therapy for what happened last year?" asked Lavender.
"No way my aunt would bother looking for an actual therapist," snorted Ceri. "Not like a muggle one would believe I dealt with a literal parasite in one of my teachers, or that he turned to dust after. And they'd never believe any story involving a seventy foot snake and a literal phoenix."
Parvati and Lavender shared a Look. This was a side of Ceri they had never seen before. It made them realize how much of the world had been on her shoulders all this time, and they had never known.
Either way, they all came to an agreement to get together during the summer.
The second she heard the words "aunt Marge" and "visit", Ceridwen was packing her bags for an extended stay anywhere else. Fortunately, she had Hermione's address memorized, and knew the location of a pay phone that was still somewhat operational...despite Dudley's attempt otherwise.
Hermione was waiting for her after getting the call.
She gave Ceri a hug and helped to carry the heavy trunk inside. Her parents were there as well.
"It's so nice to meet one of Hermione's friends," said her mother Emma.
"She's not my friend. We're practically sisters as this point," said Ceri cheerfully. Hermione beamed at her.
It was such a huge relief to be far, far away from the Dursleys. Ceri didn't quite miss the look Emma shared with her husband seeing Ceri's eating habits. Or rather the way Hermione would discreetly add more to Ceri's plate until she was actually full.
After a few days, the girls made plans to meet up with Parvati, Lavender and Padma.
In Diagon...
Ceri absently ate her ice cream.
"Wouldn't it be great if we could become actual magical girls, rather than just dress like them?" she asked.
"That'll never happen," said Parvati.
"Well, not the whole 'hidden destiny' nonsense, but like sorta like a coven," clarified Ceri. "I mean look at the aurors...they go through all that training, all that headache of learning the rules they have to follow, and for what? They're endlessly bogged down by a system that could see them sent into a hopeless situation by people who have likely never seen actual combat in their life."
"What about curse breaking?" said Hermione.
Ceri made a face.
"The amount of regulations for them are even worse than they are for the aurors. I've checked. And you don't even get to keep anything remotely interesting...the goblins or whatever Ministry you're working with gets first dibs on all the good shit."
"All the fun jobs are either taken by those with experience, or wouldn't look at a recent grad unless it was to sleep with them," sighed Padma.
"And the boring ones would run us down faster than anything," sighed Hermione.
"Too bad we can't go the route the twins are," said Ceri. "All those pranks are for research development of new prank products."
"Wait...do you mean Fred and George are developing new products?" said Parvati.
"I asked them why they kept doing so much work for minimal pay off after the last wide-scale prank they pulled after Hagrid came back, and they explained they planned to open up a shop to rival Zonko's. And honestly, I can't see them working in the Ministry anyway," said Ceri.
"That makes way too much sense," said Hermione.
"It's too bad there's no magical girl agency we could apply to," joked Lavender.
Ceri paused.
"Why not make one?"
Seeing the stares from her friends, she grinned.
"Think about it. There are no regulations on a magical girl agency that could deal with issues like the spiders in the Forbidden Forest. Why not make one and shake things up?"
"You're joking, right?" said Padma.
"What spiders?" said Parvati, eyes wide.
"There's acromantula in the forbidden forest," explained Ceri. "We had to escape them last year to get information on what the monster was since we didn't realize Hermione had already figured it out until Ron spotted the paper in her hand."
"Wait, wait, wait...Acromantula, as in the Class XXXXX species of dangerous magical creatures and a Class A non-tradeable good? That Acromantula?" said Padma horrified.
"Uh...I don't know about that," said Ceri. "All I know was it was a big ass spider and I normally don't mind spiders. And his kids were the size of large dogs and ugly as sin."
Seeing their reaction, Ceri wisely decided not to mention that the oldest spider was originally Hagrid's pet and the reason why everyone believed he opened the chamber last time.
"In any case, what would a magical girl agency do?" said Hermione sensibly.
That had everyone but Ceri stumped.
"We help people. We can be there when the aurors can't," she said firmly.
Seeing the looks they were giving her, she explained.
"Every time I've been on one of my misadventures, I tried to reach out for an authority figure for help. McGonagall willingly allowed us to enter a dangerous forest to find who had been attacking unicorns of all things, despite the fact we were all wet-behind-the-ears firsties with no combat experience. She dismissed us outright when we tried to warn her someone had found a way past the cerberus Hagrid had posted as if we were the boy who cried wolf," said Ceri softly, stirring her mostly eaten ice cream. "And don't even get me started on the sheer disaster last year was."
Hermione winced at the reminder...Ceri was branded overnight as an evil witch, without having actually done anything besides speaking to a snake.
"The adults claim we should be children, while doing absolutely nothing to actually protect us," said Ceri softly. "Do any of you remember the aurors coming to actually talk to us about the so-called monster? Or any of the attacks that happened? Because all I remember is the Minister showing up at Hagrid's house to take him to Azkaban without even a proper trial, followed by Lucius Malfoy showing up to kick Dumbledore out."
"Wait, seriously?" said Padma justifiably horrified.
"Makes me wonder who else they've done that to," said Parvati disturbed.
"The system has become so corrupt that it's become the norm," said Ceri in disgust. "Look at what that prat Malfoy and his cronies have been allowed to get away with and the teachers do nothing. If we did make an agency, I want it to be the place people could go to for help when the official channels fail them."
"A jack of all trades type of place," said Hermione.
"Those sort of places aren't often successful," said Padma sensibly.
"We're not trying to reinvent the wheel," Ceri pointed out. "Besides, we'll likely experience pushback from the men who officially run things because we're all females trying to make our own way in the world without their help or 'advice' instead of popping out babies."
"Plus all the good jobs would require far too many compromises just to get anywhere...and by the time we did obtain any power, we'd likely be too old and tired to really enjoy it beyond making our lives easier," Hermione pointed out.
"Plus if we did make our own business, we could do all the outfit designs. Imagine making clothing that's both cute and functional!" said Ceri.
That got Parvati and Lavender's attention. The current fashions were all drab, ugly and down right clunky. Just look at the aurors, forced to run around in bulky red robes instead of more sensible options.
Padma looked at her seriously.
"You're going to need a lot of marketing for something like that. Not to mention start up capital, a building..." she listed.
"Hermione can handle the research and development aspect, as well as the legal stuff," said Ceri. "Padma and Lavender can work on making the official uniforms, as well as helping to create rune sequences to bolster the armor we'd need. I'm the one to send out for assignments, and you can handle the money side of things."
"You're actually serious about this," said Lavender in shock.
"Well why not?" asked Ceri. "At the very least it wouldn't be boring. Plus we could easily rope the twins into helping us with development by offering to share building space with their joke shop."
"True," said Hermione. "And if nothing else we can hide behind them because they're pure blood males and it means we won't have to deal with someone trying to butt in because we're women."
Padma and Parvati shared a look. This was too intriguing to let go, and honestly sounded like a lot of fun. A ton of hard work, but the potential payoff would be worth it.
But first...they had ice cream to finish.