She was awoken by the sound of keys jingling in a lock. "Wha-"
She heard Levi's monotone voice but couldn't understand his words. She held up a palm, signaling for him to wait as she released the silencing charm put in place to hide her nightmare-induced screams. They weren't too common, but one could never be too cautious- especially after yesterday morning's debacle. She then cast the translation spell.
I'm getting real tired of this stupid translation spell- hope Armin's a good teacher 'cause I need to learn this language A.S.A.P. She motioned for him to continue.
"Get up, lazy ass. The Commander's here."
"Rude," she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She stiffly stood up to greet the Commander, clothes still in array, but she tried for a smile, "Hello Commander Erwin."
She spotted Hange and Armin behind. She gave them a small, tired wave. Armin waved back shyly while Hange waved back with both hands and a wide smile.
She did a double-take at Armin. He had his hair tied in a messy ponytail. Long blond hair framed his face while his bangs still fell loosely over his eyes. He looked... good.
To hide her silent appraisal, she turned her nose up in mock snobbery, "Hello to you too, Levi."
"Yes, hello. Let's hurry this up shall we?"
She sighed, "Yes, of course."
The Commander sat on a chair in front of her cell. He pulled out the notes from yesterday and-
He's one-armed... How did she not notice he only had one arm? How did he use the 3D maneuvering gear?
Yesterday, one of the first things she asked was how the gear worked. Hange had perked up at the question- though, how someone could perk up from an already perky state was a mystery to her. From what they'd explained it seemed quite difficult to use... So just how good was he then?
She eyed Armin as he sat down next to the Commander, essentially being his scribe for the day.
"Miss Granger- you claim to be a witch from another world. There's obviously evidence to the former- but how can you truly prove you're from another world?"
"As of now- I can't," she shrugged. "All I have is my word and a promise to show you any information that may help you believe me as you begin to learn about the outside world."
He nodded.
"In addition to the examination held yesterday by Section Commander Hange and Captain Levi, Private Arlert has let us know everything you've told him so far. We'd also like for you to clarify some things, and of course, answer any additional questions."
She looked over to where Armin was sporting a bright red blush. He mouthed a "sorry" then sought to avoid her gaze. She smiled.
She didn't blame him for "snitching", she was highly aware of the possibility- welcomed it even.
Armin and her got along relatively well. And hopefully, his sentiments would influence their decision- and besides, she knew he was genuine in his kindness and interest.
"I agree to those terms."
"Good, let us begin-"
For hours they went back and forth. Somewhere in the middle of their talk, Erwin pulled out a black and white photograph of a family. "What can you tell us about this?"
She stared at them incredulously, "About... the photograph?"
"Aha! There's that name again! Photograph. So it really just burns the light reflected from a scene into a special kind of paper?"
Hermione nodded at the Section Commander, "Yes, muggle ones. Magical ones work a bit differently. We don't use special paper for ours... also... ours move."
They'd already gone over the basic structure of her world, especially the magical vs muggle dynamic. So they already understand what she meant when she referred to muggles.
Armin hummed in understanding and his eyes held a satisfied gleam.
"How do you get them to move?"
"An enchantment to any material- doesn't need to be paper per se."
"I see," Commander Erwin looked up from the notes, "The ones in your tent are obviously magical- but the color, is that magic too?"
"No Sir, muggles in my world also have color photos. See, we've had them so long that most have shortened the word and just refer to them as photos."
She leaned forward to take a closer look at the picture, "Judging by the aging on this photo, I'd say they may be already referring to it as such outside the walls."
He raised his brow at Hermione- that... might've been a very suspicious thing to say...
She cursed.
Unfortunately, Hermione couldn't help herself; she liked making logic-based inferences, conclusions, and everything else under the sun. But internally, she was beating herself up at the slip.
She chose to act oblivious to the mishap, continuing on, "But all the colors we can see are just what light is not being absorbed into the object, but reflecting it instead."
"The colors that we can see?"
"Yes. Different organisms see colors and the world differently than we do. Even some humans do not have full-color vision and are limited to seeing the whole world in black and white or in limited/skewed ways."
She went on to clarify anything that they might not understand. These were entirely new concepts to these people, she had to be thorough.
"There are different spectrums of light that pertain to different spectrums of color and..."
There was much more questioning that day. They slid in many "trick" questions about someplace called "Marley"- that she was sure she would've remembered if there was one in her world and a race of people called Eldians- which just sounded straight-up fantastical.
It was another long day- though, much more tiring than the last. At one point, she even yawned halfway into the middle of her answer. But she powered through, knowing that cooperation was her best chance of getting back home.
Truly...? She could've escaped the moment they took her prisoner- but that would've cut off her access to any useful information. Because militaries always had some secret stash of knowledge that not even their own governments knew. Working with them was just her best chance.
One of the last things they'd discussed before she received their verdict was about the extent of her magic- mainly battle-oriented, which she could only lightly touch upon. They must want to use me as a weapon or form a military alliance of sorts...
"It's true, is it not, that you could've left these cells anytime you wanted? Why do you stay our prisoner? What's in it for you?"
"Information," she said simply, "I need to know more about this world to get back home to mine, and running away from it seems like the foolish thing to do."
"You could easily enter any government building, any military base-"
"-Oi, Erwin-" Levi interrupted, taken aback by his Commander's candor.