A Forgotten Gryffindor Tradition

"There was a time," The Fat Lady began, "when young ladies of Gryffindor house would partake of a task of courage and daring, proving they could embody the traits of Godric Gryffindor without any sort of magic or protection!"

Hermione swallowed. This was already beginning to sound less than ideal.

The Fat Lady continued. "They would leave their wands and robes inside that urn," she pointed at an urn across the hallway, "and make their way down to the greenhouses. There, they would pick a flower, return to the one who dared them, and eat the flower!" The Fat Lady's face broke out in a grin. "You will do this task to prove you're a Gryffindor. Only then will I let you in!"

Hermione's eyes widened. This task wasn't just foolhardy, but dangerous! Setting aside what would happen if Filch or Mrs. Norris found her, many of the plants in the greenhouses were just dangerous!

Then a thought occurred to her. "Hang on," Hermione started. "If this was a longstanding Gryffindor tradition, how was it not written in Hogwarts: A History?"

The Fat Lady sighed. "When Bathilda Bagshot wrote that book, she had wanted to include it, but the headmaster of the time, Phineas Black, was rather against students engaging in frivolous activities that neither further education nor embolden our culture!" She had spoken that with a nasally, somewhat cruel voice, before wistfully continuing. "So through Black died the rites of passage used by young witches... The Hufflepuff Polyjuice Swap, the Slytherin Creature Night, the Ravenclaw Stripped Quidditch..."

Hermione's mouth was agape. This surely couldn't have been true, but she had heard the ghosts talking about how they missed the days when their houses were better at these other subjects. But whenever students came near, the ghosts hushed up their conversations. "How is this the first time I've heard about this?" She asked. "Why wouldn't ghosts, other paintings, or even former students say anything?"

"Who says they hadn't tried?" The Fat lady continued. "Black put a spell on the castle years ago to stop all mentions of it. A taboo was placed on each of those tasks, and he swore that any ghost or painting that spoke of them would be removed permanently from the castle!"

"But then how..."

"After becoming headmaster, Dumbledore knew that students would want to misbehave." The Fat Lady, went on before Hermione could ask her question, waving her hand dismissively. "If they couldn't fulfill certain urges within them, then surely they'd get into further trouble. So he chose to remove the enchantments himself, but not tell anyone. So if they wanted to experiment, they could do so in secrecy, thinking they were getting away with it and thus not causing further trouble."

Now that sounded like something Dumbledore would do, Hermione thought to herself. Secretly allowing students to misbehave in lighter ways could satisfy an itch to break rules for students that figured it out, and thus they wouldn't have to break rules about dueling or running into the Forbidden Forest.

"And now that your history lesson is over," the Fat Lady said in a tone that indicated it was time for Hermione to decide what to do, "You must perform the Gryffindor Greenhouse Streak!"

Hermione stood there for a moment, weighing her options. If she chose to wait, she'd be found in Slytherin robes, which could result in detention if a teacher found her, or worse, another student might make her return them, leaving her naked anyway. If she decided to look for any other option to contact people inside or find Gryffindor robes to be allowed in, she could be caught out of bed, risking detention or being caught by anyone else again. But if she did this 'Greenhouse Streak,' she would definitely be naked, but would also have an end to the evening that she could be in control of, bringing her back to the Fat Lady at the end to get inside the dormitory and get some clothes.