Chapter 4- New Friends
"Hi, I'm Alice," the girl introduced herself with a smile and a handshake, "It's almost dinner time. Why don't we go get the others and head to the Great Hall?"
The three girls set off, with Meredith waving goodbye in the hallway probably to catch up with her own friends. Turning, she said, "You can ask me anything anytime, and the same goes for any of the older students, especially prefects. I hope you really love it here."
'Come on, let's find them," Alice said with a smile, grabbing Hermione's hand and tugging her back into the common room. "We all like different things, so we really don't spend much time together outside of class, but the four of us always meet in the common room around this time if we can and go to dinner together."
They walked over to a group of three girls on a couch near the fireplace chatting with each other. "Everyone, this is Jean Smith, a new student that will be in our year."
"Oh wow. I've never heard of that before. Surely they'll make our room bigger?" from a dark haired girl with thick eyebrows.
"No such luck yet Ash. And Jean, that's Ashton Davies. Her bed is next to yours. She wants to be a potions mistress for a company, though Slughorn doesn't appreciate her like he should. Then there's Kate Morrow," Alice said, indicating the girl with short dark blonde hair who waived. "She wants to be a healer and she's on the quidditch team. And this is Rebekah Heart," she said, turning to the girl with straight brown hair that went down to her waist." She hasn't picked a path yet, but we're sure she'll be great."
"Haha thanks. Careers aren't the only thing some of us care about, Miss Future Auror. Come on, let's go to dinner," Rebekah said as she started to walk towards the entrance, looking back. As they walked, she said, "Alice is the most interesting of us. I think she started to want to be an auror because of Frank, but now she's caught the bug from him. She'll be great at it too. She's one of the best in our year."
"Frank?" Hermione asked, trying to take everything in.
"Frank Longbottom, Alice's boyfriend since last Christmas," Aston explained, "It caused quite a stir honestly, he being a popular Gryffindor sixth year and she a Hufflepuff third year," she said with a bit of a smirk. "He's head boy now. He'd be annoying in his incessant talk about becoming an auror if he weren't so sweet to Alice and nearly perfect in general. Suffice to say, he has won our approval."
"Haha," Alice laughed, "I'm glad to know he's passed. Heaven help him if the three of you were against him."
Hermione grew silent, wondering if this girl grew up to be the mother of her first wizarding friend, Neville Longbottom. Neville was the first person who she talked to on the train that had been nice to her. She wished now that they had become closer, but she had become friends with Ron and Harry, and somehow Neville was just there but never close. She knew that he had been raised by his grandmother, though Hermione realized now that she didn't know why or what had happened to his parents. She pondered that there was so much that she didn't know. She didn't like to think of anything hurting this sweet, welcoming girl.
Stepping into the Great Hall was an odd experience. It looked exactly the same, the same ceiling showing the sky above and the same house tables in their normal places. Her friends weren't there though. She stole a glance at the Gryffindor table, looking for the maurauders. Her heart jumped from seeing who could only be James Potter. He looked just like Harry, though a bit older. She could see the younger versions of Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew sitting right across from each other, the four of them looking thick as thieves. Those two were almost as painful to look as James, knowing what would happen to them.
She finally looked at Remus and saw that he looked even more tired than she felt. It had been hours since she had slept, because it was evening when she left and morning when she appeared here. And just the day before she had traveled in time to save the man sitting twenty feet from where she walked past. It was enough to give anyone a headache. She also noticed that Remus was looking up and down the table looking a bit sad. He met her eyes and smiled and waved when he saw her walk past. She received many odd and curious looks from other Hufflepuffs as she sat down at their table, but no one else seemed to notice.
After most people had arrived, the headmaster stood up and cleared his throat, an unusual action. Some magic seemed to be at work in the way he could gather attention so easily. "I would like to introduce all of you to our new student, Jean Smith, who is a transfer student this year." The students could be seen looking around the Great Hall for an unfamiliar face, with some of the Hufflepuffs looking right at her. "She is now a fourth year Hufflepuff, and I know all of you will make her feel welcome in her new home."
Hermione knew she was probably just being suspicious, but she thought that most of the student body had lost interest when she was not in their house (or their rival's house), but maybe that was just her own insecurity about not being in Gryffindor. The rest of dinner consisted of being welcomed by what must have been half of Hufflepuff, which was nice, though a little overwhelming.
Her roommates spent dinner chatting with each other and the people around them, trying to include Hermione whenever possible. Hermione apologized a few times saying she was too tired and a bit overwhelmed for proper conversation, which her fellow Hufflepuffs understood and respected. Hermione took this time to look around the Hall for other people she might recognize, trying to think of who might be the right age. She looked at the Slytherin table in search of her future potions master, Severus Snape. She found him rather easily, his greasy black hair being easy to spot and his beak-like nose and pale skin confirming his person.
The person next to Snape was a bit more of a surprise, but he could only be a teenage Lucius Malfoy. His blond hair already hung neatly to his shoulders and his face read contempt seemingly for everything he saw. He looked old for a Hogwarts student, but he must have still been a seventh year. The two young Slytherins did not seem to be talking to each other or anyone else. The whole table was much less talkative than the others, but these two boys and the ones around them especially.
As she emptied her plate, she was thankful that her roommates did not seem to want to linger after finishing eating, some of them saying they had homework to do, as Hermione didn't want to reveal how well she knew the castle already by walking back alone. Upon entering the common room, she immediately walked towards her new room. "I just want to get settled a bit, and I'll see you all later."
The girls did not follow, figuring that she might want a bit of time alone, a fairly rare thing in such a full castle unless you took time to seek out empty spaces. She had been worried about having things for the year, but Dumbledore had said her trunk would be there. Indeed, when she looked by her new bed, there was a new looking trunk beside it, which contained everything a fourth year girl might need from clothes to school books. There was even make-up and some hair care products that promised to tame uncontrollable manes. At first she was slightly affronted by this suggestion, but decided that perhaps a slight disguise might be best before classes started. She decided she would try them out in the morning, wishing to herself that she had gotten a chance before dinner that night. Hermione did occasionally wonder how all of this could possibly work out without every teacher and student remembering her, but she still trusted Professor Dumbledore to help her through.
There was a note to one side in the trunk that read: 'Here is the trunk that your grandfather left for you. If there is anything else you might need, let me or one of the house elves know. We all want this transition to be as smooth as possible. Sincerely, Albus Dumbledore.'
Hermione smiled, knowing she needed to thank the headmaster for her trunk sometime privately. She sat on her bed and opened one of her new books, glad for some time to prepare for her classes on Monday, but worried about the entire first week of school that she had missed. She would need to ask her roommates about her assignments.
A small smile grew on her face, wondering what Harry and Ron would say knowing that she was worried about having missed a week of classes when she was trapped in a past she couldn't escape from. Still, nothing needed to get in the way of a good education. She wondered briefly if she would have to repeat all of this when returning to her own time anyway, but pushed that thought aside as something that would only discourage excellent performance and therefore should not be dwelled upon.
For a few hours alone in the room she could almost believe that she was back in her Gryffindor room and nothing life altering was going on. The long day caught up with her and she drifted off to sleep in her four poster bed surrounded by her new school books before any of her roommates came to bed.
A/N: I'm surprised this chapter still ended up being short because I kept throwing more things into it. Lots of people were met in this chapter, so I guess that's exciting. I hope people still like my story, and I thank everyone who has reviewed for their kind words. It truly gives me the motivation to write. I promised a reviewer that this chapter would be up this weekend, or it definitely wouldn't. I'm glad it is though (or at least close to it, depending on your time zone). I'm writing a few scenes right now (not exactly in order but as inspiration hits. I've got part of the next chapter written, but I might add more to it before posting. I've also got a Harry/Fleur story bouncing around in my head that I might put into words soon. I might wait for a bit though. I don't want this story to suffer. Again, please review- it keeps me motivated.