I am very happy to share the story, "Hermione and the Demon of Smoke" with you. I thought that it was lost to the sands of time, but I recently found a copy of it.
It was shortly after reading the following story that I got the idea for
"The Birth of Bethany". When I first read the story I'd just finished posting my first two stories, both TG, and was wanting to write something with a corruption theme. After finishing the story I found myself wishing that it was longer and not fan fiction. Then I thought, why don't I write my version? Three weeks later I finished writing
"The Birth of Bethany". I sure wish I still wrote that fast.
Hermione and the Demon of Smoke
By ???
Hermione was in the library when it happened.
There was nothing special about that.
Hermione was almost always in the library. If you were looking for Hermione while Hogwarts was in session, it was quite a safe bet that you’d find her in the library.
So it was no surprise that the demon would find her there that night. This particular demon didn’t look anything at all like a demon. At least not at first it didn’t. Even later it didn’t look like you’d expect a demon to look. At first it seemed like nothing at all. Just an oh so tiny almost invisible puff of smoke. You would have to be looking right at it very hard to have spotted it at all.
Hermione certainly didn’t see it.
She was far too busy pouring over an ancient book on disappearing potions to even notice the thing, even when it began to grow and take shape.
At the beginning it had no shape at all. Just smoke. Just a tiny puff of smoke lingering in the air. But then, as it grew, it began to a form into a kind of ball that seemed to shimmer and glimmer in the dim light of the dusty old library.
But Hermione didn’t notice. She was too busy reading.
She did however stop her reading long enough to sniff the air, when she began to smell smoke. Smoke at Hogwarts was hardly an uncommon thing. But smoke in the old library could be a very bad thing altogether.
