Hogwarts

Again, I don't own this! Thank you for the positive reviews so far, it keeps me motivated.

Hermione sat for a while by herself in the empty compartment, thinking over all the information she now had about house elves. She had never considered that they may feed off the magic of witches and wizards, and it put everything into a different perspective. She had just about decided to research it but wait until after Hogwarts to do something about it when the compartment door opened and Ginny stuck her head in, followed by a girl with long blond hair that Hermione dimly recalled was in Ginny's year.

"What are you doing in here by yourself, Hermione?"

"Just thinking," Hermione replied, ignoring the redhead's knowing look. Ginny had, after all, been around Hermione for the whole week and knew all about her quest for house elves.

"Decided to free all house elves from ingrained slavery yet?"

"No…" Hermione paused thoughtfully, still thinking hard. "No, it would be cruel to separate house elves from their families… maybe a law to ensure they are treated well? With relocations if they aren't…"

Ginny raised an eyebrow. Her blond companion looked dreamily at Hermione. "I think the narrows are affecting her, Ginny."

At that, Hermione looked up curiously. "Nargles?"

"Oh yes," the blond replied, still with a dreamy expression. "They are invisible creatures that feed off negativity and plant troubling thoughts."

Hermione looked at the girl sceptically. "I've never heard of nargles…"

"Hermione, have you met Luna?" Ginny interrupted loudly, trying to head off a long description of nargles. "Luna's family live not far from the Burrow."

Hermione smiled at Luna, getting an unfocused smile back in return.

"We just passed Diggory in the corridor," Ginny continued, sitting down next to Hermione. "His attractiveness is unfair for the rest of us. I mean, how can we compare?"

"Please," Hermione snorted.

"Oh don't pretend you haven't noticed Hermione! And he's smart, you must appreciate that."

"It's not like I would know Ginny, having had a total of one conversation with him ever." Although that wasn't quite true, Hermione realised. They had spoken today, for example.

"Oh, he's the one in sixth year." Luna's voice was as dreamy as her appearance.

"The one?" Hermione was definitely confused by the blond girl.

"The one that got away," Luna's gaze sharpened as she regarded Hermione. "It's a Ravenclaw thing, choosing the person in the year that should have been sorted into our house. You are the one from your year, Cedric is the one from sixth year."

"Oh right," Hermione replied, feeling oddly pleased. "Well, that's nice…"

"See! Smart." Ginny grinned triumphantly. "Anyway, not that we have managed to get Hermione to admit she may find a boy attractive-"

"I do not!"

"-it's probably time for us to go change into our uniforms! Coming, Luna?"

The younger girl smiled and followed Ginny out of the compartment, leaving Hermione wondering just what had happened in the last five minutes. She distantly heard Luna's voice coming down the corridor "I think maybe I was wrong, it wasn't nargles, it was blitherwings…"

Hermione realised the time herself, hurrying back to her original compartment with Harry and Ron. Waving aside their questions on where she was, she pulled her own robes out of her trunk and went to get changed before the train chugged its way into Hogsmeade.

Hogwarts was now so familiar to Hermione that it felt like coming home, riding up in the driverless carriages to the front gates. She couldn't enjoy it as much as usual though, the rain was lashing down by now and the castle was mostly obscured by the low cloud and darkness. There was no relief inside the gates either, as Peeves (Hogwarts resident poltergeist) had decided the best way to cheer everyone up in the weather was to make them more wet by pelting water balloons at them all. Professor McGonagall came storming in but slipped on the water and grabbed Hermione around the neck, which hurt quite a bit.

All in all, Hermione was very relieved to be sat in the warmth of the Great Hall, nursing a cup of pumpkin juice that was steaming away (so what if she occasionally used a warming charm on the pumpkin juice? She liked it, it reminded her of the hot squash her parents had always packed in the thermos when they went hiking). Harry and Ron sat with her, watching the new first years, one of them was absolutely soaking, almost as though he'd swim through the lake instead of boating across it.

Professor McGonagall brought in the sorting hat and placed it gently on a stool at the front of the hall. Hermione didn't pay much attention to the song this year, although she did hear Harry comment on how it was different to the song it had sung for their sorting. She was about to point out that if he'd read Hogwarts: A History he would know, when Ron beat her to it for once, which was probably a good thing. She didn't mind that the boys didn't read as much as her – well, she didn't mind much, anyway – but it did frustrate her when they always made daft comments on things they would have easily known if they had.

The sorting over, and with many nervous-looking eleven year olds now seated at one of the four house tables, food suddenly appeared. Hermione eyed it with a level of suspicion, now that she was aware it was probably all made by house elves, but still dug in anyway. She did have to admit, it was delicious. Fred and George, sat a few seats away, were discussing how to get into the kitchens with Ron. Hermione paid attention, wanting to visit the kitchen herself. Generally, it was a good welcoming feast, and a lovely start to the year at Hogwarts.

Looking back, Hermione felt that it was all too good to be true.

When the meal was over, and even Ron had put down his cutlery, Professor Dumbledore stood at the front of the hall and raised his hands for silence. It was amazing really, Hermione felt as she looked around the hall at every single eye now fixed to the headmaster, how much respect he garnered with all the students. The whole hall fell silent immediately, leaving only the noise of the howling wind and rain from outside. Even those such as Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherins, who were not aligned with the headmaster's policies still respected him.

With a start Hermione realised she had not been listening to the headmaster at all, and tried to catch up with what he was saying, when suddenly the doors of the great hall flew open with a bang.

One of the strangest men Hermione had ever seen was stood in the doorway, black cloak billowing around him and hunched form illuminated by lightning. He moved towards the teachers table, limping with an odd clunk that suggested one of his legs was a prosthetic. When she saw his face she gasped aloud, it was covered in scars and pockmarks and half seemed to be missing. What had really drawn her attention though was the bright blue revolving eyeball in place of one of his eyes.

Professor Dumbledore then introduced this man, Professor Moody, as their new Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher. There was a transfixed silence in the hall after this pronouncement.

Against this silence Professor Dumbledore resumed his speech, announcing that the Triwizard Tournament would be returning to Hogwarts. The loud exclamation by Fred Weasley dispelled the tension, and the hall was suddenly full of excited murmurs. Hermione felt herself go cold, knowing Harry's luck he would end up in the middle of it – and people had died. A lot of the tension was relieved by Dumbledore's next words, where he assured them (well maybe just her, everyone else seemed really put out) that there was an age restriction of seventeen and over.

She walked to the Gryffindor common room with Ron, Harry and the Weasley twins, who were bemoaning the age line and agreeing to enter anyway. Fred was trying to think of ways around the impartial judge, when he asked Ron if he wanted to enter.

"What d'you reckon?" Ron asked, turning to Harry. "Be cool to enter, wouldn't it?"

"Why would you want to!" interrupted Hermione. "I know there is money and glory, but every year we are here something terrible happens! This tournament is asking for trouble, particularly if Harry is involved!" She glared at Harry as she said this, who raised up his hands in a pacifying gesture.

"Don't look at me; I only want a nice, quiet year without a megalomaniac trying to kill me. There are other ways to impress girls." With that Harry shot a wink at Ron, who smirked while Hermione huffed good naturedly. Neville just looked terrified at the thought of girls, the mere mention causing him to sink into a false stair. Harry and Ron helped him out and they carried on up to the common room, laughing and bantering all the way. Hermione smiled as she followed them, looking forwards to a year that promised a lot of fun and far less worry than the last few.

She didn't know how wrong she was.