Author's Note: So after the first trial chapter this one has been WAY TOO LONG in the making, i'm so sorry...i hope i haven't lost too many readers. So yepp, hope you like it!! I just wanted to apologise and it's cos i've been busy vidding on youtube, and writing other stories as well as some not for fanfic so yeah :D love you all...
At the dinner table Hermione was only half listening to her parents discussing the start of term next week- the other half of her concentration was on the carefully crafted stick she was holding under the table. Her dog, Lily the Yorkshire terrier, was going mental trying to chase it but Hermione held it just out of her reach, practising the 'swish and flick' movement.
"Wingadium Leviosa." She muttered under her breath,
"Pardon Hermione? Don't mutter." Her mum scolded,
"Hermione!" Her dad warned, looking down at her hand under the table, "Of all the things to be doing at the dinner table. Don't tease her with it, and certainly don't play with her while you're eating the food. Get out from there Lily." Her shooed the little dog away and firmly confiscated Hermione's stick, placing it on the sideboard behind him and clicking his tongue in annoyance. Hermione sighed and went back to her food- this wasn't the first time her parents had caught her 'practising spells'.
Late that night, in her bedroom, Hermione was sat at her desk working on some of her summer coursework. Working, which involved a heavy amount of daydreaming; she'd practically convinced herself that this September she'd get a magical invite to Hogwarts even though she knew that the correct age was eleven. Ah well, dreaming can't hurt.
***
Hermione hovered at the park gate, watching a dark haired boy swinging kind of aimlessly on the kiddies' swing. When she was sure it was Harry she entered the park and raised a hand to him.
"Hey Harry."
"Hermione." He answered with a smile, "Haven't seen you in a while."
"I know, I've been busy. I met your friend Ron." Harry frowned for a moment and then his face cleared,
"Ah yeah, he said. He was a little creeped out." They both laughed, "Why were you all the way out there?"
"Oh I was just…" She didn't know, "I was out that way with my parents." She lied.
"Oh right." Silence, "I should be getting on."
"Oh but I only just got here." Hermione pleaded as Harry rose from the swing. "Let me at least walk you home, you live round here right?" Harry nodded,
"Surely it should be me walking you home. And how are you going to get home after you've gone all the way to my place?"
"I can handle myself." She told him firmly. And thought to herself 'I'm in a dream, I'll just wake up when he's gone'
They walked together in silence for a few minutes before Hermione asked,
"You still down about that girl?"
"Cho?" Hermione nodded, "No it's ok, I'm getting over it." Hermione noticed his smile and caught on,
"Oooh!" She teased, "With who?"
"With no one." Harry blushed,
"Come on, you can tell me…"
"Oh alright. With Ginny Weasley, you know, Ron's sister."
"Oh yeah, you told me about her. That's great." She enthused and Harry threw her a sheepish grin,
"But not a word to anyone."
"My lips are sealed." She told him teasingly. They turned down another street and four houses down Harry stopped pointedly. "This is your house?" He nodded. Hermione looked up the pristine driveway to the modern, red brick house, pretty much identical to hers. "Nice."
"I don't think so. I would invite you in but I've told you about my aunt and uncle, and-"
"I know, it's fine." Hermione gave a little wave and then watched him walk down the drive.
***
Hermione woke with a jolt, pulling her face off the book she'd fallen asleep on.
"Damn it." She said to herself, rubbing her sore cheek. Her cat yowled from the bed and she was distracted from her pain and the lateness of the night. "Hey Crookshanks." She crooned and picked up her big ginger fur-ball. Hermione curled up on the bed, fully clothed, and laid Crookshanks in a comfortable spot where he could keep her warm; she was far too tired to do any more work tonight.
"Hermione for the last time!" He dad lost his rag at the dinner table that night. He snatched the piece of wood from her hand and handed it to the dog to chew. "Will you stop messing around?!" Hermione shrugged sulkily, she had plenty more upstairs anyway. She'd meticulously made wands of all different shapes and sizes this summer and had them stored under her bed, just in case her Dad decided to confiscate another.
Hermione was walking moodily around her area late that night; her Dad really annoyed her, treating her like a child. She shoved her hands deeper into her jeans pockets and kept her head down as she walked. She turned onto Harry's road, she didn't know why, she thought maybe she'd glance in the window, he'd wave and then come out for a bit. Or maybe she'd bang on the door, say she had run away from home and there was nowhere for her to go except Hogwarts. Or maybe, she thought, she'd walked past the house, see someone else living there and realise once and for all that this was a stupid imaginative dream and nothing more. Nevertheless she crossed to 'his' side of the street. She casually glanced into the living room window of number 4 as she passed; she saw a family of three sat around watching football on the widest television screen she'd even seen and the boy in the middle was definitely not Harry. She sighed, disappointed despite what she'd convinced herself. As she came up to the corner of the road she slowed, hearing raised voices, she turned the corner and watched the scene unfold before her.
"I want to drive."
"No way! I'm a better driver than you anyway."
"Fred, George." The voice of someone familiar stepped in between the two arguing red-heads (obviously twins) "Fred, you drove here, it's got to be George's turn." The person she now recognised as Ron pointed out. One of the two twins pouted and stomped into the passenger seat, while the other smirked and ostentatiously opened the driver's door.
"All set." A dark boy with his back to her called to the front; it was Harry. He got in the car next to Ron and patted the seat next to him for the only remaining person on the pavement. It was a small, slight, red head (obviously another Weasley) girl beamed at him and jumped in the car next to him. Hermione made the connection in her brain and realised this must be Ginny- well she certainly was stunning. The Ford Anglia did a wobbly u-turn in the road and then sputtered into second gear. As it passed her Hermione lifted her hand in a wave, which Harry returned, a little bemusedly. Ron took a second to see who it was and then turned and gave a half wave out of the back window as the car turned off the road.
The wave meant nothing to anyone; except Hermione. She was suddenly alive with possibilities. Her very dream had just waltzed into real life and it wasn't her imagination. It's really real!
