HARRY POTTER AND THE PARADIGM OF UNCERTAINTY

Chapter 1: Arrivals and Departures

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Hermione Granger tramped up the stone steps leading to her home, her footfalls heavy and dispirited. Her shoulder sagged under the weight of her bag, full as it was of volumes she was bringing home to read. She was still adjusting to the grueling schedule of her new job as Head Charms Fellow at the Institute of Magical Academics, the premier wizarding research facility in the world. The position was her dream job, in which she could pursue her research interests ad nauseum and practice her casting as much as she wished in an atmosphere of intellectual stimulation and challenges...and yet after only a month on the job she was almost completely exhausted. She had set herself a punishing schedule of seminars, master classes and projects and there didn't seem to be enough hours in the day to accomplish everything. She always ended up reading her journals in bed with a cup of tea...tonight she was tackling her backlog of "The Journal of the International Casting Society" and the newly-arrived "Herbological Letters." The odds were good that she'd wake up the next morning with her face planted in the pages of one of these scholarly publications.

Despite her fatigue the sight of her home brought a smile to her face. It was an imposing stone mansion covered with odd bits of sculpture and full of nooks and crannies...yet the inside was warm and inviting. It always seemed to reach towards her as she approached and welcome her with a sigh of relief that she had returned safely. Its size was impressive: fifteen bedrooms, thirteen baths, two dining rooms, porches, gazebos, indoor glassed-in gardens...one might have wondered how six wizards and witches in their mid-twenties could afford such an edifice. In truth, they'd gotten it for next to nothing. The house had been vacant for years when she and her five housemates had banded together to purchase it...its reputation had been bad. Haunted, it was said...even cursed. They'd performed all the cleansing spells they could think of and so far hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary.

She let her bag fall to the hallway floor and hung her cloak on its peg, pulling off her robes as she walked into the living room to reveal ordinary jeans and a cable-knit sweater. The living room was darkened...Hermione stopped short and gasped, one hand going to her heart at the sight of two glittering points in the dimness. She sighed in relief as she realized it was only Harry Potter, one of the five wizards and witches who shared this mammoth house with her.

"Harry! Goddess, you scared the life out of me!" she exclaimed, flopping into her favorite chair. "What are you doing sitting here alone in the dark?"

"Just listening," Harry replied, one corner of his mouth curling into a half-smile. He was sitting slumped in a deep chair-and-a-half in the corner, his head hunched into his shoulders, nearly buried by his black robe...

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