"Yea, I don't know about you two but I think I have had enough adventure to last a life time." I finished with a grin. We talked about our summer and what we were looking forward to in this next year until we arrived at Hogwarts.
Chapter 2
As they pulled into Hogsmead station all three of us drew over to the window trying to look and see the castle, even Harry who was there for most of the reconstruction was still eager to see the differences in the familiar sight, although most of the differences would lie inside the castle because the outer walls were repaired to look the same as before.
The train lurched to a halt at the station and we stayed seated waiting for most of the other people to get off of the train before we tried to push our way through. After about five minutes we stood and left the train. Harry and Ron were deep in a discussion about quidditch when I spotted a younger girl – a first year- looking around a little frightened, I walked over to her and asked her
"Hey, are you okay?"
"No, I had to run back on the train to grab something that fell out of my pocket, I didn't want to leave it and risk losing it, it is too important to me" she said a little uncertainly. It was then that I noticed that she had a picture clutched tight in her hands
'That must be what she went back to get…. I wonder who the picture is of?' I asked myself 'It most likely is her family and she brought it because she knew she would be homesick' I concluded.
Just then a boy that also looked to be a first year ran over and said "There you are Alice, I have been looking all over for you. I saw you leave the group and you didn't come back so I stayed behind when the others left to come find you."
"Oh Thanks Jace, I had to go get something off the train, I didn't think they would notice it when getting our things off of the train to take to our rooms" she said to him blushing a little at the fact that he had stayed to look for her.
'Awww, how sweet!'
Just then I felt someone lightly touch my back and before I could even realize it I had pulled my wand out and had it aimed at the person behind me before I could even blink, I realized it was harry and quickly lowered my wand, the war had its side effects.
"Oh! Sorry Harry I-" I was cut off by Harry who said
"I know Mione it happens to me too" I smiled slightly at him before asking
"Where is Ron?"
"He said he was hungry so I told him to go ahead without us and that I would wait for you" harry told me
'Of course he is always hungry!' I thought as she put her wand away and turned to the two first years in front of them, Jace and Alice.
"Well, you two are going to miss the boat ride to the castle all of the other first years get BUT you get to be the only first years who have gotten to ride in the carriages" I told them
"Pshh the boat ride is overrated anyway" harry said with a grin, I rolled my eyes before saying "Well if we don't hurry, they will be the only first years to have walked to the castle."
"Ugh not again, I hate when we have to walk it, it is too bloody far" harry said
"Harry!" I hissed "Don't curse in front of them! You are supposed to be an example!" Harry looked away sheepishly and blushed saying "Sorry guys, pardon my French" before everyone started laughing, I tried not to but I couldn't help but crack a smile at it.
"Then my mom knows how to speak fluent French, you should have heard her last week when she saw my cellphone bill!" Jace said with a smile
"It is Hermione right?" Alice asked and I nodded before saying "and this is Harry"
"Wait- Harry potter?" Jace asked astonished and Harry nodded kind of embarrassed, he didn't really like the fame that came with the title 'The Boy Who Lived'.
"That's so cool! My dad told me a lot of stories about you," he said and then unexpectedly added "I am sorry about your mum and dad" Harry and Hermione were shocked, when Harry recovered he said
"Thanks, Jace I think you are the first person ever to say that to me other than close friends of my parents, everyone else is too worried about the fame, thank you"
"No problem" Jace mumbled embarrassed at the praise. A few seconds later Harry asked him
"Do you like quidditch?"
'Oh no here we go, it's like Harry and Ron all over again' I thought to myself rolling my eyes and winking at Alice who had the same expression on her face.
"Well duh! It's only, the best sport ever!" Jace exclaimed as they walked towards the carriages and climbed in "I can already play a little bit, my dad and brother have been teaching me how at home.
"Well that's good, if you want you can come to the try outs and tell me what you think of the players, who I should put on the team and what position and stuff" Harry told him
"Really? That would be awesome! Thanks." Jace said happily
Harry Just laughed and told him it was no problem and that he needed someone impartial to help him choose the team.
"How long have you two been together?" Alice asked them after a moment of silence
"Harry and I? We- um- are not boyfriend and girlfriend" I stuttered "Just best friends" Harry chuckled clearly amused by my loss for words so I elbowed him
"Ow! What was that for?"
"Oops sorry, did that hurt?" I asked innocently faking concern
"Oh that's it granger you're going down!" Harry said as the carriage pulled to a stop at the castle I jumped out and took off running trying to get away from Harry who tackled me and starting tickling me
"Harry stop—please?—harry!" I begged between fits of laughter he stopped for a moment in order to say
"Apologize for hurting me" he smiled smugly
"Never! I tried to get away but in seconds he had me pinned down and was tickling me again
"Ok! Ok!—you win! I am sorry for being mean and hurting you Harry!" I said breathlessly
"Good girl" he said getting up off me and pulling me to my feet. Alice and Jace were standing a few feet away smirking and whispering to one another. After catching her breath she said
"Ok we have to get you two to the rest of the first years so you can be sorted into your houses" they hurried into the castle and took them to the chamber where all of the first years wait in before going into the great hall to be sorted.
"Ok you two, be good" she said to them
"But- what if we get put into Slytherin?" Jace asked
"Slytherin is not as bad as it seems, a professor that helped a great deal in the war if from Slytherin" Harry told him comfortingly
"But, still I don't want to be put into a house with all of the stuck kids" Alice chipped in
"Ok, I will tell you a secret as long as you swear that you won't tell all of your friends, deal?" Harry asked and I smiled knowingly, the same thing had happened to me the sorting hat was considering Ravenclaw but I asked for Gryffindor and that's what I got.
"Deal" both of them said at once I smiled at how eager they were to hear what he had to say.
"If you tell the sorting hat you don't want to be in that house then it most likely won't put you there, just whisper anything but Slytherin and you should be safe" harry whispered to the two of them
"Really?" Jace whispered and harry nodded his head in confirmation, and that's when Headmistress McGonagall walked in to user them into the great hall
"Ms. Granger, Mr. Potter" she said nodding to each of us in turn "Nice to see you both again, but what are you doing with the first years?" she asked
"These two got left behind so we brought them here where we knew everyone would be waiting" Hermione explained nodding to Alice and Jace who were looking at the floor afraid they would be in trouble
"Very well then, thank you both, you may go into the great hall and take your seats to watch the sorting" she said dismissing the two of them with a small smile.
Harry and Hermione smiled back and walked to the Great Hall and looked for Ron, when they spotted him they rushed over and sat down Harry and Ron on one side of the table and Hermione on the other. They watched the sorting and cheered when a kid was sorted into Gryffindor, and cheered even louder and smiled at one another when Alice and Jace were sorted into Gryffindor. Then Headmistress McGonagall got up and gave her welcome speech
"… and now onto another important topic, our new prefects are…" she proceeded to list off people in which she had heard of before but didn't actually know she continued with "now to our Head girl and Head boy of Gryffindor…. Hermione Granger" everybody cheered and I stood up and gave a small wave before sitting down "and Harry Potter" the cheers got even louder and I cheered along with them. I glanced over and saw Ron he looked livid
'What in the world?' I thought to myself 'why is he so mad at Harry that he became head boy? It is not Harry's fault that he was chosen'
"Prefects, please escort everyone to their houses, Goodnight see you all in the morning" she said stepping down from the podium.
Harry, Ron, and I headed for the dormitories when Harry, getting annoyed by Ron's bad mood asked her what was wrong with him.
"You weren't even a prefect Harry, I just don't think it is right that she chose you when you didn't have to work for it like the rest of us" was Ron's reply as he pushed his way through the crowd ahead of us.
"What? I didn't work for it? Neither did he! He neglected his prefect duties completely!" Harry said slightly pissed off
"Harry you know Ron he is just jealous, it'll blow over, lets head up to our rooms" I said trying to change topics
"I thought that's what we were doing Mione" harry said clearly confused
"No our dorms are this way, didn't you head boy and head girl had a different set of dorms?" I asked him
"No…." Harry said "THAT is why Ron is upset about him not being head boy" he said in realization
"What do you mean?" I asked
"Well, um Mione he DOES still like you and you two were practically dating…." Harry said not finishing his sentence, but he didn't need to as the realization hit me
"Oh" I said
"yea he probably thought that since you two would have complete privacy that you two would get… uh…. closer" Harry said I cleared my throat before saying
"yeah, well to be honest I'm not that interested in him anymore… a lot happened over the summer that made me realize some things about myself that and the war changed all of us" I spoke so quietly that he had to strain to hear her clearly.
"Mione" Harry said grabbing my arm and pulling me into a hug in front of the portrait that would lead to our dorms "I am here if you want to talk about it, I always have been and always will be" he finished before he released me. I smiled tentatively at him and turned towards the portrait. It was a picture of… well it was hard to tell the figure wore a cloak and sat on a horse with a sword in his hand…. Wait a minute… that's… Godric Gryffindor's Sword… Which mean that must be…
"Harry that's-" I was cut off by Harry finishing my comment
"Godric Gryffindor, I know I hid the sword with him"
"You did what? When, why?" I asked confused
"After the war during reconstruction I came across him picture and decided that the best place for it was with him, in case there ever came a time it was needed" he explained "I bet that's why McGonagall put the picture HERE knowing I would be head boy" he finished with a smile
"Don't flatter yourself" I said smiling at him
"Well are you two done already?"
We both jumped at the sound of the voice before realizing it came out of the picture
"Um yes I supposed so..." I said a little flustered at his rudeness the portrait swung open and we walked in "On the desk should be the password this is the one and only time I will let you through without it" and with that the portrait slammed shut.
"He has to be the nicest person I have ever met!" I said sarcastically with a wink at Harry
"Look here is says our password is 'Sodalis vitae'?" he said struggling over the two words
"Hmm I wonder what that means?" said Hermione "I guess I could look it up, it is rather odd"
"If you want to, I'm more worried about being able to pronounce it when I need to get in here" he said and I laughed wholeheartedly.
"Well, then I guess you'll have to keep me around for a while" I replied with a smirk.
Harry and I both went into our own rooms to see what it looked like. I opened a door that lead to a closet and then another leading to a huge bathroom with a bathtub with curtains you could pull to enclose it, leaving just enough room to get out and dry off without being seen by anyone else, there was also a shower with glass that disfigured what was on the other side of it. Right then Harry walked in through another door I hadn't noticed before and realization struck.
"Well look like we will be sharing" I told him
"Oh" he said uncertainly "Well we can work it out, one bathes in the morning and one at night…" He said reassuring us both.
"Which do you want morning or night?" I asked him
"I honestly don't care, I guess I can take nights" he said looking to me to make sure it was ok
"Works for me" I replied with a smile while walking back to my room. He followed and leaned against the doorframe, as I tossed my suitcase onto the bed and began to unpack my belongings/ Harry watched me silently unpack my things until I got to a photo of my parents and I from about a year and a half before and stood there staring at it, tears welling up in my eyes. Harry must of noticed because he had a worried look on his face as he walked my way.
"Mione you ok?" he asked taking a few steps towards me
"Oh yea I am fine Harry" I lied and moved to the far side of the bed and placed the picture face down on the table next to it.
"Are you sure?" he asked me not buying my bad attempt at lying
"Yes, Harry. Now go take your shower" I said with a small smile to let him know that even if I am not telling the truth, that I would be fine
"Yes ma'am" he said with a smile before he turned on his heel and marched through the bathroom into his room to get his things before taking his shower. I walked over and closed the door, leaning against it before slowly sinking to a sitting position on the floor.
The war had done more than make me a little jumpy, before I left with Harry to search for Horcruxes, I took my parents memories away so they wouldn't worry while I was gone, if something were to happen to me, they wouldn't have to suffer, and so Voldemort wouldn't get them, they were relocated to Australia. I went after the war to find them and restore their memories, but it wasn't exactly how I pictured it, and looking back, I don't really know what I was expecting it to be like.
They were mad at first, but after I explained they calmed down and they were just grateful I was still alive, but things had changed between them. They started fighting more and talking to one another less and less and all summer it just kept going downhill. I tried my best to find out why, and fix the problem the whole time I was there to no avail, and while the assured me it wasn't anything to do with me, that it was their own faults that it was happening, I knew better. I know it is my fault they are getting divorced not so much because of what I did the THEM it was what happened to my brother, Thomas.
Thomas was 25 and living on his own, I his erased his memories and he was taken into hiding also. Voldemort found him and tried to find out what he could about where we were located, but of course Thomas didn't know a thing. And after torturing him Voldemort finally gave up and gave him truth serum and even under its effects he could tell him as single thing about us. Voldemort killed him in his anger but, thankfully, realized that my parents would be the same and abandoned that route and left my parents alone.
I was shaking uncontrollably and crying as silently as possible so Harry wouldn't hear me as I moved into my bed and curled up and cried until I fell asleep, not that sleep was any better. I have this dream a lot, it is the one where I see my brother being tortured by death eaters, it is beyond sick and horrible, they used countless curses and hexes on him, one after another until the point her was crying and begging for them to kill him, just to do it already. It killed me to watch him like that, my big brother who was always strong, always there for me, my best friend; who is why they left the charm on the door, they wanted to have to satisfaction of knowing that I had to watch it, and live with the memory for the rest of my life. I felt his pain in the dream too, as part of his was from his point of view. I woke up screaming with the flash of green light that ended my brother's life.
A/N This chapter is super long, I know it's like 3 chapter in one, I don't plan on most of them being this long (sorry). It kind of got on my nerves that in the book everyone was o happy at the end, no real side effects from the war other than having to 'rebuild' the school… Ginny didn't do much in the war other than a little bit in the final battle, so she would have NO clue about what they had all gone through so I don't think they would of stayed together so (naturally) I had to write my own story where its Harry and Hermione because personally I think Ron is a bit immature and annoying. Although I guess the war COULD of made him more mature and less annoying but I love Harry so… anyway I hope you liked this chapter and I have the next one ready to be up soon. ;)
