Hermione didn't sleep much that night. She only managed to shut her eyes for a few hours before daylight shone through the windows, forcing her to wake the next morning no matter how much she silently pleaded with the sun. 

When she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked around the room she saw Hazel was still there, crossed-legged on her bed and reading a book. It was the same book she had been reading on the train.

"Morning." Hazel spoke, getting some glances from the other girls who bustled around the room to get changed and do their makeup, and kindly looked at the bushy-haired brunette. Hermione had never noticed her eyes were golden, even after months of spending time with her. She wondered whether they were contacts because surely they weren't natural.

"Good morning, how come you're not in the hall?" Hermione yawned and stretched her arms above her head with a satisfying click.

"Nico and Will want to talk to you. I'm just the messenger." She shut the book, left it on her bedside table and slid off of the duvet. Once on her feet she stuffed her wand into the pocket of her robes and carried one single textbook in her arms. Hazel left Hermione to get changed and went off to join her brother and possible brother-in-law at the breakfast table.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

When Dumbledore dismissed the students from the great hall to go to their first class, Will nudged Hermione and gestured for her to follow him. He took her to another abandoned classroom (the enormous castle was unsurprisingly full of them) where Nico was sitting on one of the desks flicking small dead flies onto the ground. Will tutted and made his return known to the very bored son of Hades.

"Hermione, the others and I have talked about yesterday. There's no way you'll leave us alone until we tell you the truth and we really don't need you, Weasley or Potter poking your nose around in our business." Nico got up from the tabletop while Will stood next to him.

"I think what Nico is trying to say is we have no choice but to trust you as long as you trust us." Will corrected his boyfriend.

"What he said. Listen, we are from a camp in America and your headmaster contacted one of our patrons, Lady Hecate. He said that Hogwarts was being targeted by some creatures that we know about and have the proper methods of dispelling them. He asked us to get rid of them, that's what we were doing when you decided to pay us a little visit." 

"That's it?" Hermione was certain there was more that they weren't telling her "But I heard you mention Sirius Black!"

"I am ninety-nine percent sure that in this world there is more than one human with the name Sirius." Nico rolled his eyes, cleverly not answering the question the way she had wanted and keeping Sirius Black's involvement as secret as possible.

Hermione begrudgingly changed the subject "You know you can't stop me from telling Ron or Harry all of this, right?"

"That's kind of the point, Hermione. Come on now, you're supposed to be the smartest witch around here." Excluding Hazel, he added on in his head.

Will realized where the conversation was going at Hermione's angry expression and decided he had to step in. 

He put an arm around Nico's waist, not letting a fight break out on his part, and sent the same smile to Hermione that he used to keep the peace between the Ares cabin and the Stoll brothers. "You can tell your friends but all we ask is you leave us to our job, we don't want you guys getting hurt or anything."

Luckily no one was attacked and the three of them went to their first lessons, Divination.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

It didn't take long for Hermione to fill in Harry and Ron about her little meeting with the exchange students. They all agreed there was something they weren't being told but they were best to not try and stop the exchange students from their job protecting the school.

That didn't mean they were going to leave them alone, however.

In a free lesson, they planned out a few things and came up with a few other questions to ask that might trick them into spilling the truth.

Were you really expecting them to let it go?

A/N

[PUBLISHED 20/09/2019]

It's that time of year, Friday! And also the Area 51 raid is here and blessed be the person who Naruto-ran behind the news anchor.

What do you think will happen next? Things are peaceful (well, sort of) in Hogwarts as of now, what may happen to stir up trouble?

I'll be going, I'll be seeing you next Friday!