Written for the "Whose Fic Challenge" (Anniversary 2013) at daydverse . livejournal . com. Based on the DAYDverse by thanfiction.

Prompt: "In seeking wisdom thou art wise; in imagining that thou hast attained it- thou art a fool." ~ Lord Chesterfield. Hermione Granger

When she was a child, Hermione thought books held the answer to everything. Her parents always had books around the house, where she could find out anything she wanted. Her favourites were the encyclopaedias - first the children's ones, then, when she grew a little older, the grown-up ones. Anything she wanted to know about anything at all seemed to be held between cloth-bound hard covers.

When she learnt she was a witch, it was a shock. Here was a whole new world that no book had ever told her anything about, and it scared and thrilled her equally. Then, on her first visit to Diagon Alley, she saw Flourish and Blotts, and everything made sense again. Here were the books that would teach her everything she needed to know about the wizarding world.

How foolish, how childish, how naive, she had been. Books couldn't teach you everything. Nothing could. No book could teach you how to stand against Voldemort with nothing but the knowledge and bravery of eleven year olds. No book could teach you how to keep doing it, over and over. Nothing could teach that. Nothing could teach you how to do it yet again when a new shadow rose. Nothing could teach you how to deal with the ghosts of memories you shouldn't even have.

Each time, she'd thought she had the answers, thought she finally knew everything. Each time, she'd been wrong.

She couldn't be wrong this time, though. She knew what had to be done to save the wizarding world from sinking, and she would do it. She was right.

She had to be.