The Mirror of Erised
AU ((it's set at Hogwarts, but Hermoine's never been there before)): Hermoine Granger's school has just burned down, and she has been transferred to a new boarding school. When she gets there, she makes friends with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, and makes enemies with Draco Malfoy. So what would happen when you mix enemies, friends, frienemies, and a magical mirror?...
I struggled my way through the train station, dragging a trunk, two duffle bags, a messenger bag, and a purse. Dodging people and trolleys, I weaved my way across the platform and checked my ticket.
"Platform nine…and three quarters? But…Excuse me," I flagged down a station manager, "Can you tell me where I can find platform nine and three quarters?"
"Nine and three quarters? No games, Miss, I don't have the time," the station manager waved me off and continued on his way.
I huffed, threw my purse over my shoulder, and continued through the station. I approached a group of redheaded people and a boy with dark hair. The mother of the redheads was loud, but sounded very warm.
"Excuse me!" I called, running toward them, dragging my things behind me. "Excuse me."
"Yes, can we help you?" the loud woman asked.
"Well, I'm trying to find my way to platform…nine and three quarters." I said the last part quietly, and in a higher pitch than the rest of my sentence.
"Oh! You look a bit old to be a first year," she took a step back and looked me over.
"First year? Oh, you mean freshman? No, I'm a transfer student."
"I didn't know you could transfer to Hogwarts," the dark-haired boy said.
"So, um…where's the platform?" I readjusted my luggage as the woman piped up.
"Ah, yes, you see that column?" I nodded. "Just straight through it."
I had started to walk toward the column, thinking that the platform was just beyond it, but froze when I heard her last statement.
"Excuse me? Through the column? It's made of brick," I gestured at the structure. The entire group looked at me like I had asparagus sprouting out of my ears.
"They must've had some other sort of transportation at your old school," the loud woman said, shaking her head. She gently grabbed my arm and positioned me behind two redheads that looked exactly the same. Twins I assumed. They looked back at me, looked at each other, winked, and ran full tilt at the column…and then they were gone!
"How did they…where did they…?" my questioning was stopped with a firm push to my lower back, sending me forward and through the column.
When I emerged on the other side, I found myself on a hot, crowded platform. Before me were bustling people; parents saying good bye, children squirming out of their mothers' grasp, and station managers loading luggage onto the black and red train. My mouth opened in awe as I looked around at what I had just discovered.
"This is the trippiest train station ever," I muttered. I heard the clatter of a trolley behind me, and turned to see the dark-haired boy. "This is amazing!" I waved my hand at the platform.
"Well…yeah, I guess." His tone suggested that this sort of thing was everyday practice for him. A station manager came by, grabbed our luggage, and loaded it onto the train. "We better get on, or all the good cabins'll be taken," the boy said, more to the redheads that had just come through the entrance.
I boarded the train, separately from the group of redheads that swarmed around the dark-haired boy. I didn't want them to feel awkward just because they'd shown me the way to the platform. I wandered down the train, looking for an open cabin or one that had people that looked like they'd be willing to share with a stranger. No luck in the first car. Finally, in the third car, I found an empty cabin. I put my messenger bag and purse onto the luggage rack and sat down near the window. After a few minutes, the train made a big creaking sound and lurched forward, at a snail's pace. It began to gain speed, though, and after a few minutes the train was rocking back and forth. I had a feeling that it was going to be a great year, but my thoughts were interrupted when the cabin door was roughly thrown open. I jumped slightly at the clang, and looked up to see who the intruders were.
The first was a tall, blond boy, probably around my own age of seventeen. He had a muscular build, with perfect, porcelain skin, piercing gray eyes, and thin, pink lips. For a moment I felt like I was lost in some sort of fantasy, looking at the god Eros. But my thoughts were broken when he was followed by three others. There were two massive, dumb-looking oafs and a tall, lanky girl with black, shoulder-length hair.
"Um, can I help you?" My voice was quiet, but seeing as I was the new kid, I didn't want to attract too much attention to myself.
"Who're you?" The blond boy demanded. His expression suggested that he hadn't noticed me before I spoke up, but I was used to it. I was short, about 5'4", thin, with curly brown hair that fell to the middle of my shoulder blades, and brown eyes. Nothing really outstanding about me.
"I'm Hermoine," I muttered.
"Yeah, and where're you from?" He flopped down on the seat across from me as his posse filed in and sat.
"I'm from Liverpool."
"You don't look familiar," the girl spoke up as she wrapped herself around the blond's muscular bicep.
"I'm a transfer student."
"Oh, from where?"
"Saint Magnifique. It's an…well, it was an all-girls school. It burned down a month ago." I crossed my legs and scratched my nails over my jeans, directing my gaze to my very interesting ballet flats. Well, okay, they weren't that interesting, but I don't have a good history of looking at attractive guys and not blushing.
"Saint Magnifique? I've never even heard of that. Where is it?" The blond's eyebrows furrowed.
"Oh, it's in France. Calais, to be precise."
"I wasn't aware that there were any schools other than Beauxbatons in France." The girl readjusted herself to be more comfortable against the blond. "Draco, darling, do you think they've finally done something about the food this year? It's always so overcooked."
So the blond's name was Draco. A rather unusual name, but then again, so was Hermoine. Thanks for loving Shakespeare so much, Mom and Dad. "Um, if you would rather I leave, I can always do that."
"Why would you need to leave?" Draco asked.
"Well, you're all…well, you're friends, and I don't want to intrude. I mean, you probably haven't seen each other in a while, so you probably have a lot to discuss…" As I spoke, I made my way toward the door to the cabin. I grabbed my bags off of the luggage rack and exited the cabin quickly. Something about Draco's friends made me uncomfortable. I traveled down the hall until I got to the end of the train car, where I found the dark-haired boy sitting with one of the redheads. I knocked on the door before opening it.
"Um, do you mind if I join you?" I asked, attempting a friendly I'm-not-stalking-you-or-anything smile.
"Uh, yeah, go ahead," the dark-haired boy said. I entered the cabin and put my bags on the luggage rack and took a seat next the door, on the same side as the redhead. "I'm Harry Potter," the dark-haired boy began, "and that's Ron," he gestured at the boy I was sitting next to.
"Ron Weasley," the redhead corrected, not offering a hand to shake and barely looking at me.
"I'm Hermoine."
"Nice to meet you," Harry said, nodding at me. "So where are you transferring from?"
Great. I got to go through this again. "Saint Magnifique, in Calais."
"I thought the only school in France was Beauxbatons." Harry shrugged.
"Does everyone here think poorly of the French education system?" I had to admit, I was surprised by the France bashing.
"Well, no, it's just that. Well, Hogwarts is the only school in Great Britain," Ron shrugged this time.
"What are you talking about? I passed three schools on the way from my hotel to the train station."
There was a moment of silence. Then "Do you know what kind of school Hogwarts is?"
"Well I assume it's a boarding school, just like all the other ones I've been enrolled in. After Saint Magnifique burned down, I got a letter saying that I'd been accepted to this school."
Harry and Ron looked at me, then each other, then back at me. "This is a wizard school."
I started laughing. "Oh wow, you guys. Nice one, nice one. Okay, so word got around that there was a new kid and you all said, 'Hey, let's Punk her!'? You must not get a lot of transfers." I crossed my arms and leaned back in my seat. The boys looked at each other, shrugged, and leaned back as well. The rest of the ride was spent in relative silence, save the occasional joke, call for the trolley, or comment on sports. What the flip is Quidditch? About halfway through the ride, the boys left and returned wearing strange robes with red and gold coat-of-arms.
The train groaned to a halt, and I gathered my things. I left the train, followed by Harry and Ron, and made my way off of the train. Stepping onto the platform, I saw scores of children wearing similar robes, the colors ranging from red and gold to gold and black to blue and silver and finally green silver. Was there a uniform I was supposed to get? I assumed that I'd get one at orientation. I saw a figure looming over the children in the distance, and realized he was probably a teacher or something. I ran over, my bags bouncing on my shoulder. I pulled up short when I realized how tall the figure was. I mean, he was abnormally tall. Michael Jordan, Yao Ming, any of the MBA stars had nothing on this guy.
"Excuse me," I began, walking a bit closer, "I'm Hermoine Granger. I'm a transfer student. Can you tell me where orientation is?"
"Ah, transfer? I di'int know Hogwarts 'ad transfers. Well, you'll pro'lly come with me an' the rest o' the first years, then McGonagall can figure out wut ta do with ya." He had horrible speech skills. But, seeing as how he was the only one who knew where I should go at the moment, I followed as he bellowed for first years to follow him the boats. I was thinking ferry boats, but I was proven wrong.
Before me were two person rowboats. Except they fit the first years, not a teenage girl. Not comfortably at least…I climbed into one and the children began filing into their own respective boats. I was beginning to think that I might get a boat to myself when something leapt onto the floor of my boat, rocking it dangerously.
"Jesus Christ!" I screamed, clutching the edges of the boat, trying to steady it.
"Impressive, huh? I jumped in here from the shore. Not the dock, the shore," the child that had jumped into my boat said, smirking and winking at me. I glanced back and saw that the shore wasn't really much closer than the dock.
"It's not like that's some great feat."
"My name's Rollo Flick," he literally threw himself at me, laying himself across my lap.
"Yeah, well why don't you flick off?" I shoved him to the floor in front of me.
"Mm mm I like 'em feisty." He made some sort of growly noise, probably thinking he was being sexy, but I found myself laughing hysterically. Rollo's brow furrowed and he pouted. I was so lost in my laughter that I barely noticed that the boats had started moving on their own. When I finally calmed down, I peered over the edge into the dark water. Rollo was only too eager to join me, and enthusiastically threw himself in my direction. The boat rocked perilously and I pulled myself away from the edge.
"Watch it, kid," I growled at him.
"And what would 'it' be? Can 'it' be you, my little Love Muffin?" He moved toward me, but I leaned to the side to avoid him. He switched sides quickly, as did I, and soon the boat was rocking very close to the water.
"Seriously, kid, knock it off! You're gonna tip us over!"
"Oh, Love Muffin, you're so cute when you're demanding. Mm, just call me the Muffin Man." He launched himself at me (the little creeper), and I threw myself out of the way. Out of the way, and into the water. It was cold, black, and made my muscles feel like they were being stuck with pins and needles. I broke the surface gasping for breath and screaming. "Love Muffin!"
"DON'T CALL ME THAT!!!!!!!"