Hermione looked concerned. "And you think this'll work?"

"Absolutely certain. The second he eats those charmed beans, he'll never ask me for my treacle tart again. It's wicked," Ron whispered.

"But, isn't playing a prank on your friend… unethical?"

"Unethical? This is a protection of my interests! He can have all the treacle tarts he wants, so long as they're not mine."

Harry returned to the table the three had acquired for studying. Mid-terms were close at hand, and snack-filled evenings pouring over textbooks had become the order of the day for the last week. The bespectacled boy stuffed two hands into his cloak and produced two napkin-wrapped pastries.

"I managed to snag a couple treacle tarts from the Great Hall," smiled Harry.

"Taking after Ron, are you? Heaven help us," Hermione sighed.

"Wait, only two? There's three of us," noted the ever-observant Ron.

"I could only grab two. One of the ghosts would have spotted me. Here, you two take them. I see you've got some Bertie Botts' Beans there, they'll do."

"No, no!" interjected Ron with a concern that startled Harry. Hermione gave the Weasley a sideways glance. "Listen- you can have my tart. You went to the trouble of getting it."

"Oh. Well, thank you, Ron. They are my favorite."

"Don't mention it," replied Ron, idly scarfing down a few beans from the pouch. He paused, looked down, and moaned aloud.

"What's the matter, Ron?" asked Harry, worried for his friend. "You can have the tart if you really want it. It's fine by me."

"No! No!" wept the afflicted young wizard. "I'm fine, really."

"I insist," said Harry, pushing the syrup-soaked pastry to Ron's end of the table. Ron looked down at it with barely-concealable revulsion, and reluctantly took a bite, shivering with disgust. Hermione burst into riotous, if somewhat guilty laughter.

That Ron. He's just like that, even now.

"What are you laughing about?" asked Piccolo, seated in midair a few feet ahead of her. The two had been meditating in complete silence in the Namekian's vast, empty quarters until the girl's outburst had broken their concentration simultaneously.

"Oh… it's nothing. Just good old memories. Do you ever look back and think about when things just seemed simpler? And you feel like you wish it was that way again?"

A heavy green brow shifted under his turban.

"I… uh… I guess so."

"Those were the days," she sighed wistfully.

Piccolo gave a nod that indicated he was just going to go along with what she said. "Uh… huh."

"Blast, that just made me realize!" she shouted, her voice filled with frustration. "This… all of this-" she waved to her tween body- "and the reminiscing! I'm having a mid-life crisis!"

"Um," mumbled Piccolo.

Hermione stood up in midair, placing her hands on her head in exasperation.

"I can't have a mid-life crisis! I have to help save the metaverse! And more importantly, I have children to raise!"

"HEY!" roared Piccolo, quieting Hermione's conniption instantly. Once the Namekian acknowledged that she had his attention, he continued.

"Listen up, kid. Meditation is about looking deep inside yourself. Not because you want to relive the good old days and not because you want to blame the way things are now on yourself, but because that inner peace is the only way to achieve a higher level of understanding as to how the universe works! Now, did you actually do anything productive while meditating at all?"

"Well, yes," she said, sounding a little offended. "I devised a method of using my ki energy to augment spells."

Piccolo blinked. "Oh. That's- that's good."

"And I also have been theorizing a charm that allows me to enter a state of further-enhanced ki channeling."

"You're a smart kid, you know that?"

"I do."

Piccolo exhaled slowly and floated to the ground. Hermione followed suit, arms folded across her chest sternly.

"Listen, you can head wherever now. Just be back in a few hours. We've got to get you to practice your abilities before they send you out."

"Understood. I'm going to go pick up my new Scouter from requisition. Maybe I'll see if I can get you an AEGIS so you don't have to stay cooped up down here."

Piccolo made a short, snorting sound.

"I'd rather stay cooped up down here."

"I'm getting you one anyway."

And I think I'll get myself a treacle tart.