Chapter Three
The next day was Saturday, so in the morning everyone slept in, except for Hermione. She remembered early in the morning that neither Ron nor Harry had remembered to take their owls to the owelry last night, so she quickly ran into the sixth year boys' dormitory and took the two owls to the owelry. She greeted Hagrid who was there tending to the birds. They had made a plan for tea later that afternoon with Harry and Ron.
"Is it alright if I bring someone else along?" Hermione asked as kindly as she could. Hagrid looked suspicious.
"Someone else? Who would that be, then?" He asked back.
"Well, there's this new girl-"
"Oh, I know who yer talkin' 'bout. Holly's her name, isn't it? Sure, sure, Dumbledore told me about her. She's takin' Care of Magical Creatures with you lot. Bring 'er along."
"Thanks, Hagrid. I'll see you later then." She waved by and headed back to the common room. She found Harry already dressed in his robes sitting by the fireplace, looking worried.
"Good morning, Harry," Hermione said. "Something the matter?"
"Do you know what happened to Hedwig? Or Pig? Ron and I can't find them." He looked frantic.
"Oh yeah," Hermione answered. Harry looked relieved. "You guys forgot to take them to the owelry, so I took them there for you."
"Well you could have told me, I thought I was going crazy. Wait a minute." He ran up the steps to the boy's dorm, and ran back down with Ron following behind a minute later.
"Bloody hell, Hermione," he said. "You scared us half to death. We thought someone had stolen them."
"Sorry," Hermione apologized. "Have either of you seen Holly this morning? I thought we could all go to breakfast together." They shook their heads, but just as they did Holly came down the stairs in her robes.
"Good morning, guys." Holly started. "Hey," they all replied. "Are you all hungry? I could really go for some breakfast right now."
"Definitely," said Ron, and so they all headed down to the Great Hall. Harry, Hermione and Ron tried as best they could to explain to Holly more about Hogwarts. They passed Mrs. Norris in the hall, sparking another conversation about Filch.
"You know, Holly," began Hermione, "you should read 'Hogwarts, a History'. You could learn all about the history of the school."
"Yeah, there's loads of information in there," agreed Ron.
"Wow, Ron. I'm surprised you're actually encouraging someone else reading this book." 'Is that what I did?' thought Ron. Hermione smiled and faced forward, away from the other three. When he saw Hermione was looking away, he and Harry shook his head at Holly, telling her not to spend her time reading a book that would most likely put her to sleep.
They entered the Great Hall; it wasn't very full. A few scattered students at each table were eating their eggs and sausages.
They sat down, grabbed some food and waited for someone to start a conversation.
"So, Holly, are you interested in Quidditch?" Harry asked, trying to break the silence between them. Ron looked up at her.
"Well, it's alright to play. The only time I'd actually watch it was at school games. You know, Krum and all. Myself playing, truthfully? I'm terrified of actually playing it. I can't deal with being at such heights, and moving so fast on a broomstick. And you all?" she looked around at them.
"Ron and Harry adore Quidditch." Hermione answered for them. "Harry's been on the Gryffindor team since first year."
"I play seeker," Harry finally spoke for himself.
"Really? That's quite a difficult position to play, isn't it? Well, good job. And you've been playing since first year? Can't imagine many people saying they've done that." Holly said. Harry took the compliment and smiled at Holly, who smiled right back.
Hermione added her two cents. "Well, I take pleasure in reading rather than Quidditch." Ron and Harry looked amused. Hermione never enjoyed flying; she was always busy with some work or another, or at least, that's her excuse.
"Would you like to meet the other Gryffindors today? You didn't get to meet them all last night," Harry asked. Holly nodded and Hermione added, "Oh yeah. I told Hagrid that we would have tea with him later this afternoon. He said you're welcome to come as well, Holly."
"That sounds great," Holly replied. After they had finished breakfast, they had started heading back to common room, when they bumped into Professor Dumbledore.
"Hello Professor," Harry said.
"Hello Harry, Ms. Granger, Mr. Weasley. I see you've met Ms. Jones. Good, good. I trust you all had a restful summer?" he inquired. He looked at Harry.
"Yes, sir," Harry replied. "Things were a bit hectic in the beginning, but once I got to the Weasleys' my mind cleared up a bit."
"Wonderful," Dumbledore said, "now, Ms. Granger, Mr. Weasley," they looked attentively at him, "the other prefects have been informed already, I was hoping to find you, of a meeting we will be having tonight after dinner. We will meet in my office to discuss prefect duties and whatnot. But for now, I hope you enjoy your day. Goodbye."
They waved him goodbye and made their way towards the common room again.
"I'm so excited, guys," Hermione was almost jumping up and down, but that would be to uncharacteristic of her, "I've always wanted to be prefect, and now I am. This year is just going to be wonderful don't you think so Harry?" She turned towards him.
"Er, yeah. Sure Hermione, great." He smiled at her, but she knew that was the worst thing she could have said. Of course, she was ecstatic about being prefect and this year would be great for that, but, what about Harry? He's not prefect like he should be, or wants to be. She really thought he would be made prefect no matter his situation. And to deal with You-know-who being back, why had she said that?
"But at the same time," she said quickly, trying to change his mood, "we have OWLs this year. We'll probably have to study extra hard."
Ron groaned. But another thing crossed his mind that seemed to make him more cheerful.
"Hey Harry," he said. Harry turned to him. "Doesn't the Quidditch team need a keeper 'cos Wood's gone?" Harry thought for a second, and tried to comprehend exactly what Ron was trying to get out of this conversation. Then he realized…
"Bloody hell, Ron," Harry said, "you should try out! I mean you're great at Quidditch, and that would be completely!-" he looked at Holly and Hermione, then turned back to Ron, "I mean, that would be cool."
Ron nodded, "That's what I was thinking. Who's captain then, this year?"
"You know, I have no idea. I should ask Angelina. She'd probably know."
"Right, right." They trailed behind the girls and avidly discussed playing strategies, and how cool it would be if they were on the team together.
Hermione sighed, then laughed. Holly smiled. Hermione knew that Harry had had a rough summer and year last year, as did Ron, and they deserved to have Quidditch to keep their mind off of things. If only she had something to take her mind off the horrible events of last year.
'Well,' she thought, 'at least I have Holly to talk to about something other than Quidditch.' They all went back to the Common room and met up with the rest of the fifth year Gryffindors, before they started the rest of the day.
A/N: Hey, I hope people are actually reading this, cuz I've gotten 10 hits, but no reviews. So please R/R! Much more is coming very soon. It's about to get exciting.