Demyx was wandering around the castle for lack of anything better to do and in the vague hope that he'd run into someone familiar. Instead he came across a bushy-haired girl a couple years younger than his own apparent appearance leaning against the wall outside the Great Hall and looking dejected.
"I'm just fine," Hermione said through clenched teeth. "It's Hogwarts that's gone completely nutters." And that was saying something, considering that was an expression Ron was more likely to use than she.
Hermione could only shake her head helplessly. "I am strangely compelled to ask you to explain that," she said. "I don't understand any of this. At all."
"Well, I dunno how it worked before, since I wasn't here then - even if I was a wizard I wouldn't've been, I'm American - but..." Demyx scratched his head. "People randomly show up in a room, and get sorted. Others who're already here vote on where to put them, but it's the Hat that makes the decision. And it demands bribes. And is totally insane."
He grinned. "Luckily it's got a short attention span. I've been here most of two years now - it demanded I write a song for it, but luckily it forgot. Don't tell it I said that."
Demyx raised an eyebrow. "Is it actually possible to hex a talking hat? And wouldn't it have worn off by now? I think it had been going on for quite a while even before I got here."
"Well, there are certain hexes with delayed effects," lectured Hermione. "It could be possible that the hex wasn't triggered until recently." If only it were really that easy.
"I don't think so... Like I said, it's been going on since before I got here, and I've been here for almost two years now." He paused. "You must've just been unpopped, if you don't know this stuff already."
"Unpopped? Oh... Yes. The room with the giant kernels of popcorn. Does that happen often?" Hermione didn't think she would ever be capable of dealing with popcorn again. She would always now worry that she was eating her fellow students.
"Yeah. Occasionally people get turned into popcorn. When they come back - if they do - they don't usually remember much. Just the House they got sorted into." Demyx frowned for a moment. "I've had a few friends get popped before."
Hermione shook her head slowly. "Then... I must have been here before... since I graduated... Or that wouldn't have happened, presumably. But I don't remember any of that." And she was still not acknowledging Ravenclaw as her house.
"Like I said, the Hat's crazy - it probably had something to do with it. The... I think she's the Transfiguration professor... is younger than I am. And an alien." That had come as a shock.
A thought struck him. "Oh, haven't introduced myself. Demyx, Hufflepuff House." He held out a hand.
"Search me." Demyx wasn't about to let on that he'd actually read the Harry Potter books as a kid. "Either she's popped or this is some strange alternate dimension or something. It'd explain a lot - I've heard about her, and I think she'd probably take her best shot at actually making things make sense around here."
Hermione wasn't sure she understood exactly what the popcorn thing had been. She would not soon forget that room full of giant popcorn kernels. It would be with her in her dreams, she was sure.
He stopped. "Hey. Something wrong?"
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He grinned. "Luckily it's got a short attention span. I've been here most of two years now - it demanded I write a song for it, but luckily it forgot. Don't tell it I said that."
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A thought struck him. "Oh, haven't introduced myself. Demyx, Hufflepuff House." He held out a hand.
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"I hope she's in a better place," she said.
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