Hermione Granger and the Boys Who Lived

A Harry Potter Reimagining

Harry Potter x Hermione Granger; Neville Longbottom x Luna Lovegood

By Gabihime at gmail dot com

Prologue: Being a Scene Involving Some Mysterious Goings-on

Exspecta inexspectata.

It was just midnight in Diagon Alley before the narrow, shabby storefront of Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. when there came the low, repeated sound of gentle popping, as if a slowly boiling pot was lugubriously giving up gulps of oxygen to the atmosphere. Four hooded figures had appeared there suddenly, as if from the thin air. The tallest looked around them sharply, apparently wary that their arrival had been seen, while the other three figures stood together, one with arms around the shoulders of the other two.

The tallest produced what seemed to be a long, spiny stick from the inside of his enveloping cloak and tapped the doorknob of the dark shop door with it while he muttered something lowly and quietly. There was a soft clicking sound as the pins in the lock turned, and he deftly opened the door, ushering the three other figures through it and pulling it closed behind him.

He stood by the door, sidled up against the wall so he could not be seen easily, and anxiously peered through the shop window, apparently looking for any signs of pursuit.

"I don't think we were seen," he spoke softly to the three behind him, his voice quiet and measured. He glanced over his shoulder at them briefly, as if reassuring himself that they were safe, and the middle figure in the group nodded at him before he returned his attention to the mostly empty street outside the window.

When one took a better look at the three robed figures that stood in the center of the small space walled and gridded by tall shelves bearing piles and piles of neatly labeled, narrow boxes, one realized that they were most certainly a group of children. The tallest of the group, the one who had nodded at the figure by the door, stood somewhere between four feet and five feet. The other two robed individuals were even shorter than the central figure, and much closer to four feet than to five.

After the nod to the man who stood guard by the door, the tallest child fished into her pockets and produced a handful of soil that she threw upon the dusty floor at her feet. She also produced a slender stick from her interior pockets, although its length was much shorter than the taller man's stick, being barely the length of a common pencil.

She began to speak, slowly and softly, her voice lilting in a singsong way as she did so and the soil at her feet squirmed across the floor as if given life, turning itself into a circle figured with strange arabesques and odd looking numerals and ideograms. As the circle in the dust lit up with a faint glow, her pale, bare feet were revealed in the gloom. Then the circle seemed to sink into the plank wood floor and a brief flicker of light traveled across the surface of everything in the small shop, like a an electric current traveling through a circuit.

Then, as if satisfied with her work, she held up the pencil-stick and in a low, dulcet voice called out, "Lumos!"

The light that flickered on at the tip of her pencil was warm and golden, like a candle flame, although it gave off light more like a small pocket torch. As the room swam into warmer illumination than merely the flickering streetlights outside, a slender gentleman sitting perfectly still on a high stool was revealed to the four of them.

"Ah," he also spoke softly, but this seemed as if it was an element of his nature, rather than assistance offered to their conspiracy. "I had expected I would be seeing you two soon enough."

He was looking intently at the two smaller figures in their enveloping hooded robes with large luminous eyes, which seemed as bright as the moon in the light from the wand. Although they were all four hooded, now that the wand was lit, all their faces were plain to the man on the stool, as they had not worn masks or scarves or mufflers.

"Mr. Ollivander," came the low voice from the door, as the man there looked briefly back at them, "I would request that you do not call us by name while we are here or after we have gone."

The girl who had littered his floor with even more dust than was usually piled in the corners smiled perhaps a little uneasily and added, "You can never tell who might be listening."

The man on the stool thought about it, and then nodded. "Very well," he said. "I can't begin to wonder on the meaning behind this little arrangement," he paused and thought about it, "I suppose I can, can't I? I can wonder quite a great deal based on what I've seen this evening."

"You can wonder all you want, Mr. Ollivander," the girl agreed quite pleasantly. "But I would prefer it if you kept your wonderings to yourself. Just for a while, you know, just until - "

"You needn't worry yourself, Miss Yew, Five and a half," the wandmaker interrupted, getting to his feet and fishing a tape measure out of the pockets of his robes. "I have kept greater secrets than yours." He paused before the two boys, as if considering. "Besides," he said at last, "One of the greatest pleasures in life is simply watching, to see how things turn out."

Author's Note: While I am likely to write some proper notes along the way - when I have something important or useful to say - generally I will dispense with them, as I think they break up the flow of the story. If only ff net had a spoiler tag I could hide them in, I would be much more like to wax excessively. Anyway, I hope you'll all enjoy this story and leave your thoughts and your likes in the comment box or by following it. I really have no way of telling who's reading what otherwise.