She did not.
Hermione looked a little bewildered.
She was usually exceptionally sharp, not this slow on the uptake. Today, however, the tide of spirits was just beyond them, and most of her attention was focused outside, so it took her a little longer to process Poseidon's somewhat convoluted explanation.
Her reaction immediately excited the Ragdoll Fox.
She rarely had a chance to teach anyone.
"Didn't understand? That's all right!"
Poseidon hopped off the witch's shoulder with a soft thump and paced a few times along the railing, which was as thick as an arm. Suddenly, her eyes lit up, and she struck her palm with a fist. "Ah, I've got it! You know the story of Oedipus, right?"
"The tragic king from ancient Greece?" That name barely required any of Hermione's brainpower.
"Bingo!"
The Ragdoll Fox tried to snap her fingers in approval, but her cloth paws made a muffled noise, rather like a fart. After two attempts, she decisively abandoned the idea and eagerly returned her attention to the story. "Laius believed an oracle that said his son would kill him. Terrified, he abandoned the newborn Oedipus in the mountains, hoping he would starve to death. But a shepherd rescued Oedipus. When he grew up, Oedipus set out on his travels and unknowingly killed Laius. Then he saved Thebes by solving the Sphinx's riddle, was chosen as king, and married his own mother... What does this story tell us?"
She patiently retold the familiar story from beginning to end.
Then she posed a question in the same tone the professors used.
"If Laius had raised Oedipus normally, none of the tragedies that followed would have happened."
By now, Hermione had understood what the Ragdoll Fox had meant earlier. She nodded thoughtfully. "Out of fear of the oracle, Laius