Harry Potter and the Founding Lords

Summary: Someone new comes to Hogwarts, someone who may cause the break up of the 'Golden Trio' forever. Or will this person make a stronger group, a friendship that might be able to defeat Voldemort for good. WARNING: I DON'T LIKE RON; the git keeps ditching his friends over silly tantrums. First fanfic please be kind.

Hermione Granger was the smartest witch of her generation, one of the best friends of the boy who lived, all around nice person most of the time, except when there was a test or an exam, but right now she was extremely pissed off. Her second 'best-friend' and she used that term lightly considering the summer that she had had. It was the summer after their fifth year at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and what a year it had been. Dementor attacks, rows, a terrible Defence Against the Dark Arts Teacher, a crazy run through the Forbidden Forrest and finally a battle with the Dark Wizard Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters, deep in the bowels of the Ministry of Magic, in the Department of Mysteries. But right now her aforementioned 'best-friend' Ronald Bilius Weasley was really starting to piss her off.

Since the end of their fifth year at Hogwarts, Hermione and Harry had been staying at Harry's new home Number 12, Grimmauld Place, the secret Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. Professor Dumbledore, for Harry's sake, allowed Hermione to stay at Grimmauld Place to make things easier for Harry after the tragic death of his Godfather Sirius Black, the previous year in the Department of Mysteries. When this arrangement didn't seem to help Harry much at all, he called Harry's almost surrogate family, the Weasley's, to also come and stay, at what was now unofficially called Headquarters. This is where the trouble started Ron had somehow gotten it into his head that he and Hermione were going to get together as a couple, this in itself was annoying but it was, in her opinion, only half the problem. For Ron was not the only Weasley who thought that these two members of the 'Golden Trio' should be together, Mrs. Weasley, the short tempered matriarch of the Weasley family was also of the opinion that Hermione would be an excellent match for her youngest son. This made certain times of the day rather awkward, such as mealtimes and bedtimes, in Hermione's opinion bedtimes were far worse than mealtimes, mealtimes usually consisted of Hermione 'coincidently' being seated next to Ron, given Ron's eating habits this was usually more than a little disturbing, combined with the fact Ron was now taking any and all opportunity to touch her, mealtimes had now become downright disgusting. This had almost no bearing on how terrible bedtimes had become, every time Hermione was getting ready to head up to her room for the night, she was almost always stopped by Mrs. Weasley with little 'knowing' comments that ranged from "Now don't you too stay up too long tonight, you two have things to do tomorrow" as far as things went this was one of the more polite comments, usually saved if another family member, aside from Ron, or a member of the Order of the Phoenix, was around. The other, slightly more suggestive, comments included "Now no hanky panky you two, you both know what will happen if you're not careful" and even "Ron's a young man Hermione; he needs all the exercise he can get." Often it left Hermione thinking 'What kind of woman does she think I am?'

These disturbing events continued on for most of the summer until something happened that allowed Hermione, with good conscience, to leave Harry with the Weasley's at Grimmauld Place, and that was one Ginny Weasley. Harry told no one what happened, but Hermione was not the smartest witch of her generation for no reason, she had been able to piece together a rough idea of what had happened. Harry had been secluding himself in his room, not speaking to anyone, only coming down in the middle of the night to get himself something to eat, and even then when the early risers came down for breakfast, they could see that he had only eaten a sandwich, this changed after the Weasley's arrived. The Weasley's had been at Headquarters for a few days when Hermione noticed that Ginny had been conspicuously quiet most of the time, until one dinnertime she got up, go together a decent plate of food and just left the table. Later that evening as Hermione was heading for her room, thankfully avoiding Mrs. Weasley this time, she heard a noise coming from Harry's room. Upon closer inspection she noticed that the door was slightly ajar, a sliver of light being visible through the crack, indicated that there was someone or some ones inside the room. Peeking through the opening Hermione saw Harry and Ginny, they were sitting on Harry's bed, this itself was not strange, for when they were at Hogwarts Hermione often sat and talked with Harry on his bed, or indeed she sometimes did the same with Ron, that was before he started pursuing her like a dog on heat. But Harry and Ginny were obviously not talking, well not at the moment anyway, from the looks of things they must have talked at least in the beginning, as Ginny had a few tear tracks down her face indicating she had been crying recently, indeed this was what Harry was doing at this very moment his head was buried in Ginny's lap and great sobs were wracking his body as he let out the tension that had been plaguing him for the whole summer. Feeling like she was intruding on a private moment Hermione silently pulled the door shut, and headed to her own room, feeling happier than she had for a long while, at least Harry had opened up to someone, now the healing could begin. The very next day Hermione organized to return home, as she felt that Harry truly had someone he could talk to now, and she felt that she would do something drastic if she was cooped up in the same house as Ron and his mother for much longer.

The summer passed and September got closer and closer, and the Hogwarts student body, with the exception of Hermione Granger, was in a collective mad scrabble to complete the remainder of their holiday homework, buy their new textbooks and get any other school supplies that they had run out of, weather it be a new quill, more parchment or even something from the newly opened store of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, although many of these had to be purchased without the knowledge of their parental guardians. Even Harry had been able to begin to enjoy the remainder of his summer, his newfound relationship with Ginny Weasley helping more than anyone could know, he was at this moment walking into Kings Cross Station, with the Weasley's, and three Aurors for protection, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Nymphadora Tonks and Alastor "Mad Eye" Moody. He was looking forward to seeing Hermione again; he had missed her since she had left Headquarters in the middle of the summer he had understood why she left though, he could hardly put up with Ron at the moment as it was, all his "Well now that you and Ginny are together, Hermione will have to go out with me, wouldn't that be great, the four of us could so much stuff together. But not everything, right Harry mate" that last part was usually accompanied by a nudge in the ribs. To say the least Harry had a fair idea of what Hermione had been going through during her time at Headquarters.

But Ginny was his saving grace, she made him smile again, made him laugh on occasion, she also showed him that their were reasons for living, 'Also, snogging her is one of the upsides too' Harry thought to himself with a grin, as he saw Hermione go through the barrier separating Platform 9 from Platform 10, the entrance to Platform 9 ¾. Following Hermione and her parents, Harry and the Weasleys arrived on Platform 9 ¾ and saw the gleaming red visage of the Hogwarts Express. Harry managed to catch Hermione's eye almost as soon as they had passed through the barrier separating this portion of the magical world from the muggle, she returned his smile with a cheery wave and made her way over to where he and Ginny were standing, his left hand firmly clasping her right. As Hermione approached Harry wondered how he was going to tell her about him and Ginny, he wasn't embarrassed by being in a relationship with her, he just didn't know how to be in a proper relationship, and he really didn't count that disastrous date with Cho as a real date. Fortunately Hermione was not the smartest witch of her age for nothing, plus she had that helpful hint of seeing Harry open up to Ginny, something she was not planning on telling anyone. As she reached the new couple they noticed that she had a small smirk on her face, instead of waiting for any explanations, awkward or otherwise, she threw her arms around the both of them, so that they had no choice but to both hug her at the same time. "Well that's the awkward phase out of the way" Ginny quipped in as Hermione grinned and Harry blushed ever so slightly. "Hermione there you are, I've got something really important to tell you" said Ron as he approached the group. Hermione almost winced, she'd had the whole remainder of the summer to try and forget about Ron and his infatuation with her, even after all the times she had told him she wasn't interested in a relationship with him, and the problem came back in about three seconds. "Yes Ron, what would that be?" She asked sweetly, anyone who knew her really well, which Ron should, would know that she was in a fairly bad mood at the moment. "Well Ginny and Harry got together over the Holidays, isn't that great?" She nodded still with the fake sweet smile on her face "Yes I had kind of guessed it though, when I saw them just now." Ron, still smiling, said the one the one thing that would push Hermione from annoyance to anger, "Well then, all that's left is for you and me to get together th…"

SLAP

Ron stood there in stunned silence, Harry stood there in stunned silence, Ginny stood there and tried not to laugh, she had never really believed in her mother's and brother's ideas concerning her friend, and was really just glad that she had been around to see her brother put in his place. "For the last time Ronald, NO we shall not be together, we SHALL NOT go out, now get that through your head if you still want to have any form of friendship with me." With that she stormed off up the platform, giving a quick, but heartfelt goodbye to his escort and the other members of the Weasley family, including the mortified Mrs. Weasley, they left the stunned Ron on the platform and hurried after the retreating form of Hermione, as they wanted to get a compartment together, and hopefully discourage Ron from sitting with them until he had the opportunity to think over his actions and realize what a prat he had been over the last weeks.

Harry and Ginny were searching for a compartment by themselves as Hermione had told them that she was going to go to the Prefects compartment early to get her patrol timetable, so there would be less of a chance of running into Ron, and less messing around later on in the trip. Finally they found an empty compartment close to the carriage that held the prefects compartment, so Hermione finding them quickly was a guaranty. They hadn't been sitting long until they heard movement outside the compartment door, it slid open and a tall, blonde broad shouldered young man stuck his head in and said in a slightly strange accent "Excuse me but do you mind if I sit with you? Everywhere else seems to be full" Harry smiled at the newcomer and said "Sure have a seat; I haven't seen you at Hogwarts before are you a transfer student?" The young man raised his head in surprise as he dragged in his Hogwarts trunk and said "No actually I'm a new student. You could almost say that for most of the time that I would have been at school I was…being home schooled." His tone of voice left neither Ginny nor Harry in any doubt that this was a no-go subject for their traveling companion. Harry immediately stuck out his hand and said "Nice to meet you I'm Harry Potter" the young man shook Harry's hand with a small smile, indicating that he had already guessed his identity, thanks to Harry's ever present lightning bolt scar, but was polite enough not to mention it, he then shook Ginny's hand as he introduced herself as "Ginny Weasley". "Pleasure to meet you both, I'm Ragnar, Ragnar Thorkild Valerian is my full name, but my friend calls me Rags, so I guess you can to." Harry and Ginny cracked grins; neither could wait to introduce their new friend to Hermione.