Back to School - (character) Susan Bones

1st September Event - During the train ride to Hogwarts.

618 words.

Hermione made her way through the train, not wanting to ask the upperclassmen if she could sit with them. She may not be socially ept, but she knew that that - at least - was something that was not done.

But her trunk was heavy, and soon she just knocked at one of the compartments, hoping the person inside would be nice enough to let her in. She was past caring at this point.

The door slid open to reveal a ginger-haired girl with kind brown eyes. Hermione's eyes went to the Hogwarts badge at her breast. There was no specific symbol assigned to it yet. Good, she thought. She's a first year, like me. Taking a deep breath, she decided to take the plunge.

'Hello,' she said, holding out her hand. 'I'm Hermione Granger. May I please sit in your carriage?'

'Sure,' the girl replied, frowning a little before shaking Hermione's proffered hand. 'Um… I'm Susan, Susan Bones.' She stepped out of the doorway, gesturing to her fellow occupants. 'This is Ernie MacMillan, Hannah Abbot and Anthony Goldstein.'

Ernie MacMillan held out his hand the same way Hermione had earlier, vigorously shaking her arm as he greeted her. Hannah was blonde, but shy. She gave Hermione a quick smile before her gaze slid to the window. Anthony was also blond, but where Hannah's hair was light and her eyes pale blue, his was dark and his eyes were a golden brown. He gave Hermione a wide grin and patted the seat next to him.

Hermione took it with a smile of thanks, though she didn't know where to go from this initial social greetings. Quickly, she racked her brain for something to say.

'Have any of you read Hogwarts, A History?' she asked, hitting upon a topic idea.

'No,' Susan replied. 'We don't really need to; we all grew up hearing about Hogwarts from our families.'

'Oh,' Hermione said in a small voice, sitting back against her seat.

'Are you a Muggleborn, then?' Ernie asked curiously.

'Yes,' Hermione replied, remembering Professor McGonagall's words. 'I'm the first in my family to go to Hogwarts.'

'Really?' he asked, his eyes glittering. 'What do your parents do for a living?'

'They're dentists,' Hermione replied.

'What's a dentist?'

Susan's question caught Hermione off guard. She was silent for a few seconds. How could someone not know what a dentist was?

'They're… tooth doctors,' she said eventually.

'Oh, and doctors are like Healers,' Ernie said, nodding sagely.

'I guess so?' Hermione said, but it was more of a question. She would need to do more research on the wizarding world to find out if that was the same thing. 'What do all of your parents do?'

'Oh, never mind about us,' Susan waved a hand dismissively. 'It's boring, and besides, there are more interesting topics, like the Sorting. What House do you think Parvati and Padma will be in?'

Hermione assumed that the question was not addressed to her, as she had no idea who these people were. Soon, she gathered that they were twins, but that their personalities were drastically different. As the conversation wore on, Hermione found her concentration slipping. It was all very interesting, but she didn't really know who these people were, and it was hard to remember who they were talking about, as the names came and went. Soon, her eyes were drooping and she fought hard to bite back a yawn. The train was warm and rocking her to sleep.

Suddenly, the compartment door slid open abruptly, to reveal yet another boy with blond hair and a round face that would have been friendly had it not such a morose expression on it.

'Has anyone seen my toad?'