A Scrapbook For Hogwarts
By: Allison "Hermione Potter" Joel
Hermione sat on the edge of the balcony of her little part of Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. It had happened. Hogwarts was gone. Forever. Snape had been dumped by his adult crush, Professor McGonagall and in a fit of rage, had burned Hogwarts to the ground, killing himself. All of the students at Hogwarts had been forced to leave and were all moved to Beauxbatons. Hermione thought of all this happening just the week before, and tears welled in her eyes. She loved Hogwarts. She had gone there and learned to be a witch. She would have been a Muggle all her life if Hogwarts wasn't there. And now, what made her a witch was gone. Now all of the students had a small room, which they had all to themselves, which was almost like an apartment, in Beauxbatons. Hermione herself had a particularly nice apartment that reminded her so much of Hogwarts because the scene outside was a beautiful lake. She loved to let her feet dangle off the side of the balcony and just sit there and think about Hogwarts.
There was a knock at her door that interrupted her little daydream about Hogwarts.
"Come in!" she said.
The door opened. It was Harry. Harry walked over to Hermione and sat down next to her. Harry and Hermione had been together ever since the time that Hermione had kissed Harry on the check at the end of their 4th year.
"What's up?" he said concerned. He had never seen Hermione sit on the edge of her balcony before, looking so upset.
"I was just thinking about Hogwarts," she said gloomily.
"Yeah. I miss it too. It's really a shame that Snape had to be such a horrible man to do that. I still can't believe he did that to Hogwarts," said Harry.
Hermione threw her arms around him and burst out crying. "And I thought that when Dumbledore died it was bad! This is worse!" she sobbed.
"Yeah well, there's nothing we can do. What's gone is gone," said Harry soothingly, "I wish it was back too. But even magic can't fix such a horrible thing."
Harry stroked her hair. "We have lessons to go to and Professor McGonagall is wondering where you are," he said.
"Alright," said Hermione getting up, "I'll get going then." And they both walked together down the mansion/castle building to go to Transfiguration ~*~
Hermione was extremely upset after she and Harry's little talk about Hogwarts. She missed it so much. But there had to be a way that she could…relive Hogwarts. But there was no time, because today was the last day of school, and they were going back home tomorrow at dawn.
"There's nothing I can do. There's nothing I can do," Hermione kept telling herself that evening in her apartment.
But then something hit her. There WAS something she could do. There just HAD to be. But what? She knew that she couldn't rebuild Hogwarts. That was impossible. But she could do something to keep the memory of Hogwarts alive.
~*~
Later that summer, Hermione got an owl from Harry:
Dear Hermione,
Hello! How's your summer been? The Dursleys are horrible, as always.
I got an idea on how you can relive Hogwarts. Go to Colin Creevey, you know, that annoying little kid that always hangs around us? Well, he's a photographer and he's bound to have at least one picture of Hogwarts and stuff. You could put together a scrapbook! I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier! Well, I'll talk to you later! J
Love,
Hermione loved the way he always signed his name is some magical way. But that was besides the point at the moment. A scrapbook! Why didn't she think of it before! She immediately wrote a letter in response to Harry and then started on one for Colin:
Dear Colin,
Hello. You may have seen me hanging around Harry Potter a lot. My name is Hermione Granger. Anyway, Harry wrote me a letter with an idea. He said that because Hogwarts is now gone to make a scrapbook of it. He also said that you have a lot of pictures of Hogwarts. Would it be possible for you to lend me some pictures for me to make duplicates of so I could make a scrapbook? Thanks! J
Sincerely,
Hermione Granger
Hermione tied the letter to Hedwig's leg and she soared out the window. Now all that she could do was hope.
~*~
Three days later, Hermione got a response from Colin:
Dear Hermione,
Hiya! J I have seen you hanging around Harry Potter a lot. You're so lucky to have him as a friend! (At this Hermione giggled a little. She thought that the whole school knew that she liked Harry.) I do have a lot of pictures of Hogwarts from my first year. I will be able to make some duplicates of them for you to put in your scrapbook. I will send them with another owl in a week.
Sincerely,
Colin Creevey
Hermione couldn't have been happier. She couldn't believe that a little kid had the pictures of Hogwarts. Now, she had to go out to Diagon Alley and get a scrapbook to put them all in.
~*~
Hermione arrived at Diagon Alley at noon the next day. She went to all of the stores and finally in Muggle Artifacts Made Non-Muggle, she found it. A scrapbook that played the Muggle songs, The Time of Your Life, Graduation, and You've Got A Friend. She couldn't believe it! It was perfect! Hermione went to the register and bought the scrapbook and started home.
~*~
A week later, Hermione got another owl from Colin. He had all the pictures possible of Hogwarts and everything else. Hermione flipped through them, there were wonderful pictures of the Hogwarts grounds, the Quidditch field, and the lake (At that, she wondered what happened to the Giant Squid.). Next there were pictures of all of the Professors. Including one of all of the Professors with Dumbledore right in the middle of the front row. This brought tears to Hermione's eyes. Dumbledore had died in the fire. He had decided that he was going to die with the school. Which was what he did. Next there were pictures of all of the students. There was even one of she, Harry, and Ron. They looked so happy in the picture that Hermione didn't find it possible that there could be such a horrible thing to happen in two years in that picture and they didn't know it. There was one group of pictures that Hermione just couldn't resist. It was of some of the couples of Hogwarts. There was even one of she and Harry at the end of their 5th year when they had kissed goodbye for the summer. Hermione made sure that that one was put into the scrapbook. Hermione put away the scrapbook and the pictures. She was extremely tired and she had to get to bed or otherwise, the scrapbook would never get done.
~*~
Hermione awoke very early the next morning. She had to get going on the scrapbook. She opened up the scrapbook and The Time of Your Life started playing. She slipped the pictures of the Hogwarts grounds into the slots. After about ten pages, she had used up all of the pictures of the Hogwarts grounds, the Quidditch field, teams playing Quidditch, and the lake. She started on the pictures of the professors and as she picked up the first picture of Professor Dumbledore, Graduation started playing. She put all of the pictures of the Professors into the pages. Twenty pages later, she started on the students. Hermione knew that that was going to take a LONG time to fill in. Hermione put the picture of all of the Hogwarts students on the first blank page after the Professors. As she slipped it in, You've Got A Friend started playing. After about a hundred pages of all of the students, she started on the couples. There were only a few of those because Colin was probably shooed away about fifty times. Hermione knew that three songs played in the scrapbook, but she didn't know that there was a fourth song. It was My Heart Will Go On. It started playing as Hermione slipped the picture of she and Harry into the last page.
After 6 hours of working on the scrapbook, it was finished. Hermione flipped through it, the music playing in the background. As soon as Hermione got to the tenth page, she had to snap it shut. It was making her cry. She wrote a letter to Colin thanking him and then sent it to him, asking for it back because she needed to give it to Ron and Harry so that they could see it too.
~*~
Hermione got the scrapbook back a while later. So she mailed it to Harry and told her to mail it to Ron and to tell Ron to give it back to her. She got an owl from Harry the next day.
Dear Hermione,
Hiya! How'd you do it? How did you do it? It's wonderful. I'd like to know where Colin got that picture of us at the end of our 5th year. J I'll have to talk to him about that. Just kidding. I didn't think that it was possible to do. But you did it. Well, leave it to you. You can do just about anything if given the chance. J I'll send the scrapbook to Ron as soon as I get your response. Well, I'll talk to you later!
Love,
Hermione started writing a letter back to Harry.
Dear Harry,
Hiya! J Well, I did do it! I just couldn't resist that picture of us. J It took me about six hours to do because of the students. Colin just had to get that huge one of Cedric didn't they? Well, I guess that was right of him to do. Well, I'll talk to you later!
Love,
~*~
Hermione
~*~
A week later, Hermione got the scrapbook back from Ron. Then she sent it to Professor McGonagall. She said that it was wonderful and wanted to put it up in the trophy room and that Hermione would get a special service award for the school, but Hermione declined. She didn't want it to be famous. She didn't want it to be on display for everyone to goggle at. All that she wanted was to keep the memory of Hogwarts alive. And that's exactly what she did.
***********************************************************************
After word
In two years, Hermione ended up marrying Harry Potter. She and Harry had 2 children. The scrapbook did not go onto display. Hermione in fact, still has it. It is not fading or yellowing, and the memory of Hogwarts stands brighter and stronger than ever. A new school is being built to accompany the students that went to Hogwarts. Platform 9 ¾ is still in use. It is being used to accompany the children to Hogsmeade on certain weekends, just like they would've done at Hogwarts.
Moral
(Hey! All stories have morals so don't complain!)
Hermione learned that with teamwork, a group of people can accomplish anything. Just like Hermione, Harry, and Colin did. Without Colin, the pictures would never have been taken. Without Hermione, the scrapbook would never have been made. And without Harry, Hermione would have never gotten the idea. Even the most annoying people, like Colin, can have good things about them. Muggles and non-Muggles alike must always remember this in life.
