Houses Competition - Hufflepuff- year 2 - Additional
Target: 689 - 706 - Actual WC 700 per Google Docs
Additional Requirement: Discovering you're not who you thought you were.
[Pairing] Hermione and Cedric

Hogwarts Challanges and Assignments - Ravenclaw

Task 2 - Hydra: Write about someone who does not believe in magic (at first).

Extra Credit: Hermione Granger

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"Come on, Mum." Hermione tugged her mother's hand, racing to the next bookshop on Piccadilly Street. Focused entirely on the windows that sparkled in the afternoon sun, she bumped right into someone and stumbled off the curb. It was all wild brown curls as she tumbled into the street.

Her knees and hands burned, and Hermione looked up into the headlights of a cab headed straight for her. Closing her eyes, she did her best to will the vehicle to squeeze around her. She felt a whoosh of air, and there was an odd squinching sound. Everything was magnetized; she and the cab were polar opposites. The smell of exhaust filled her nostrils before she was tugged from the street, only then trusting to open her eyes.

"Young lady, are you okay?" an oddly dressed man asked. She could do nothing but nod her head yes; her mother frozen to the sidewalk in shock.

"Miss, do you mind if I help you into the store? It looks like the both of you had quite a fright. My name is Amos, and this is my son Cedric." Amos had turned from Hermione to her mother.

"Let's see if we can't conjure you up a nice cup of chamomile." Not waiting for a response, Amos ushered them into a quiet corner of the bookstore while Cedric followed behind.

Amos was busy at a waist high bookshelf, pulling what looked like a full tea service from the satchel he was carrying. Hermione sat down next to Cedric, still a bit dazed.

"So, have you gotten your letter yet? Mine came last week. Gosh, I hope I'm in Gryffindor, or Hufflepuff. What about you? You look like a Ravenclaw, what with all the books you're lugging around." Cedric smiled at Hermione, confident he'd figured her out.

"I'm not sure what you mean. What letter?"

"Hogwarts; you are going, right? I just got mine because I have a September birthday. I had to wait almost an entire year after I turned eleven!"

"Well, my birthday is in September too and I will be ten this year. What is Hogwarts?"

"Only the best wizarding school in Great Britain!" This day kept getting stranger.

"You've got to be kidding me. Wizarding school? No, I will be going to a real school. Where they teach real classes, not fairytales."

"It is a real school."

"Oh yeah, where is it? You can get any book ever published at this store. Show me one that mentions anything about this Hogwarts."

"What did you do when you fell into the street earlier?"

"Nothing. All I could do was hope the car would go around me." She understood so much of the world, but, try as she might, there was no way to reason out what had happened. No way to explain how she escaped from the path of the cab that was barreling right for her. It had missed her completely and never even swerved.

"It did. The car squished together and never even came close to hitting you. I've never seen accidental magic that powerful before."

"There's no such thing as magic." He looked at her, with a knowing light in his eyes.

After they left, Cedric begged his father to go back into the shop and get the girl's last name from the shopkeeper.

Two days later, Hermione was reading a book in her bed when a large barn owl knocked on her window. She pulled the sash up to shoo the bird away, but it swooped into her room and dropped a brown paper package on her bed.

Her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she read the enclosed note.

'Hermione, This book doesn't just mention Hogwarts, it contains its entire History. It's an old copy from our library, so don't worry about returning it. I expect your letter will be arriving before you know it. In the meantime, stay out of the streets! From, Cedric.'

The tattered copy of Hogwarts: A History stayed tucked under her pillow for the next two years. When her letter came she allowed herself to move the book to her bedside table, and to finally believe in magic.

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