Speaking of S.P.E.W
September had arrived now and Hermione went over to her letter box, she looked through the various envelopes until she came across one with the Hogwarts Crest stamped upon it, she retrieved her letter opener to tear open the envelope, she pulled out a sheet of parchment with writing on it and read the writing:
Dear Hermione Weasley,
As I am sure that you know, the Hogwarts school year has begun recently. I have been informed that your office at the Ministry of magic has been promoted and I would love for you to give a talk to the pupils about the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare (S.P.E.W) and explain to them fully what it is about. I intend to re-open it as a school club and I want the students to be fully informed about what they would be signing up for and the cause that they would be fighting for. I also intend to hold charity events in support of S.P.E.W and I hope that you will be happy to know that the house elves here at Hogwarts are being well-paid, having time-off and wearing clothes, I hope you will be arriving soon, go to Platform Nine and Three Quarters on the seventh where a train shall be waiting for you should you be interested and I very much hope that you will be,
Yours Sincerely,
Professor Minerva McGonagall.
Hermione was happy to receive this letter and was full sure that she would be soon arriving at Hogwarts to give a talk on S.P.E.W. She thought that she should bring along the people from her office and one more person who had supported S.P.E.W ever since she found out about it. Hermione quickly pulled out some parchment and a quill and began on writing two letters, one to McGonagall and one to Luna (wherever she was right now) Hermione put these in envelopes and attached them to the leg of Pigwidgeon who flew off to deliver them.
On the seventh, Hermione got out of bed and felt that she needed fresh air, so she walked out onto the balcony outside her bedroom and watched the horizon. She soon saw an odd sight, it was of a pink bicycle flying towards the house, as it flew closer, Hermione saw the person who was riding that bicycle, her straggly blonde hair blowing in the wind, Luna Lovegood, S.P.E.W member since nineteen ninety eight. She saw Hermione from her bike and started to lose altitude, she was landing, she came down to Hermione's front lawn and put the breaks on the bike, she got off and pulled Newt the Border Collie from the bag in the basket and put him on a lead. She walked backwards and looked up at Hermione on the balcony who was looking at her,
"Hello Hermione!" she cried,
"Hi Luna!" Hermione cried back, "One second, I'll come down to let you in!" Hermione rushed out of the bedroom and ran down the stair to the front door; she opened it and saw that Luna was standing on her porch. Newt ran inside to Hermione and Ron's crup, Leontes, old friends reunited,
"So good to see you." said Luna, hugging Hermione,
"You too." Hermione answered, "Come in, come in." she ushered Luna inside and led her into the living room where they sat on the sofa and chatted, "So, where did you just come from?" asked Hermione,
"Egypt." said Luna, "I was exploring around the pyramids, very fascinating, there may have been a small mummy attack but beautiful scenery, the sphinx is very nice this time of year, I had a picnic on top of it."
"Wow." said Hermione, "You discover anything new?" Hermione asked,
"Yes, I have now encountered every creature from fantastic beasts and where to find them and most beings known to wizards, I spent a few days living with a herd of centaurs in the Himalayas, they accepted me as one of their own because of the special perfume I had acquired in China when I walked along the Great Wall and encountered a group of seers, the Centaurs were great help when it came to climbing mount Everest." said Luna,
"So you've done a lot then." said Hermione,
"Yes, I'd say." Luna replied in her dreamy voice.
"Are you ready to return to Hogwarts then?" asked Hermione,
"I am actually. It'll be nice to see it again after my year-long absence of it." said Luna,
"I feel the same way." said Hermione,
"So are you enjoying being married to Ron?" asked Luna,
"Yes." said Hermione, "It's great."
"Ah, so the charm I gave you is working I assume." she said, gesturing the outside window where a set of odd, yet beautiful chimes hung on a tree, Luna had given them to Hermione at her bridal shower.
"I'd bet that's it." said Hermione,
"So have you been having fun?" asked Hermione,
"Oh, yes, it's a great experience that I highly recommend, my book's coming along great, and it's just a matter of putting my notes together with my photographs." she said,
"Oh yes, your book," said Hermione, "Have you thought of a title yet?"
"It's a working progress." said Luna, "I still have some things to discover, still haven't found the crumple-horned snorkack but my other discoveries are great."
"What if you were to find a genie?" asked Hermione jokingly,
"Oh, I know genie's don't exist, I'm not crazy." said Luna,
"Yes, that'd be ridiculous." said Hermione. "Let me just go upstairs and get dressed and I'll be ready to go to the train station."
"Okay, I'll be fine to wait down here." said Luna.
Hermione and Luna arrived at King's Cross station an hour later; with them were Tatyana, Aisha, Rupert, Freddie and Breeana. They ran at the barrier between platforms nine and ten when no-one was looking and went through the wall, the sensation was the same as when Hermione went through the tree to the forest, the stepped out at Platform Nine and Three Quarters where a steam engine was waiting for them. It was not the magnificent scarlet engine that was the Hogwarts Express, it was smaller and dark green with black and red stripes, it carried a single, dark green carriage that was slightly smaller than the carriages on the Hogwarts Express. The seven of them stepped into the carriage; it didn't have cabins but was instead like a common room in a train. It had sofas and tables and armchairs which were very comfy and a waiter that kept serving them food and drinks. They sat down and the train whistled and began to move forwards. They all chatted onboard,
"So have you prepared a speech?" asked Aisha,
"Yes." said Hermione,
"And we interact with the students and try to convince them to sign up?" asked Rupert,
"yes." said Luna,
"I'm sorry, who is this again?" asked Freddie,
"This is Luna Lovegood, a member of S.P.E.W long before you guys." said Hermione,
"Why doesn't she work on the office then?" asked Breeana,
"Because she's been out traveling the world." said Hermione,
"Yes, I've been doing S.P.E.W.'s work abroad." said Luna,
"Really?" asked Tatyana, interested,
"Really?" asked Hermione,
"Yes," said Luna, "I've freed many house elves by knitting them clothes and I've saved a couple of colonies from ferocious masters and this one time, in the west of America, I found this underground diamond mine where all of these house elves where swinging pickaxes and being whipped. I herded them in a mine-train and escaped along the track to the surface, despite the flames the masters shot at us, I then attached the mine-train to my bicycle, charmed it, and flew them to a distant state."
"Wow." said Breeana.
"Wow indeed." said Hermione who was surprised that Luna had never told her these things.
The train soon came to a halt and the seven of them stepped out onto Hogsmeade Station, it was nice to be back. They hiked up the hill to the amazing Hogwarts Castle, walked through a courtyard to the entrance, large oak doors that guarded the trespass. Hermione pushed them open and the seven of them entered the castle, they walked into the Great Hall where all of the Hogwarts students were eating lunch at the four house tables, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Professor McGonagall with her tight bun and square spectacles walked up to them,
"Ah, hello Mrs. Weasley." she said,
"Good to see you again Professor." said Hermione she shook her hand and McGonagall shook the rest of their hands.
"I hope you're well prepared." she said,
"Yes Professor." said Hermione,
"Okay then, come up front." she said, ushering her to the front of the Great Hall and the rest of them to the front of the hall, McGonagall tapped her goblet with a fork top claim the students' attention, "Settle down. settle down, now, I know that you've all seen the sign up sheets around the school for S.P.E.W, and we have a special talker here today, the founder herself and the current members, I'd like you to welcome Hermione Weasley." they gave a half-hearted clap and Hermione stepped to the front, she recognised a few faces in the crowd from her time there and began to talk,
"Um, hello, I'm here today to talk to you about S.P.E.W, or the society for the promotion of elfish welfare, some of you might be wondering what that is, and for those of you who don't know, it's a group that fights for house elf rights, making sure that they live well, get paid, time-off, etcetera and we could really use your help. I know that Hogwarts already uses S.P.E.W.'s policies and I hope for more people to enforce them to. About some of the work that we've done, so far we've abolished the wand law against house elves, we've illegalized abuse and abandonment against them, we've raised money and set up a house elf rescue squad and are currently trying to make sure that the conditions they work in are nice and clean…" the speech went on and Hermione finally got claps at the end (except from the Slytherin table).
They stayed at the school overnight setting up S.P.E.W, it took some work but the students eventually became interested about it and she got quite a few students to sign up for it by the end (again, apart from the Slytherins). Hermione, Luna, Tatyana, Aisha, Rupert, Freddie and Breeana all walked down to Hogsmeade station where the same train was waiting for them. The seven of them stepped into the carriage, it whistled and it began to move out of the station. They chatted again as it chuffed along the tracks,
"Well I think that that was a big success." said Breeana,
"Yes, me too." said Freddie,
"They did seem interested, didn't they?" said Rupert,
"Well I had a good time." said Aisha,
"Same here," said Tatyana, "I think we've started the next generation of S.P.E.W office workers."
"Yes, that's good, I'm so glad." said Luna,
"Let's just hope that out influence stays." said Hermione,
"I'm sure that it will." said Luna, "I've managed to change the ways of some abusive masters on my travels; you'd be surprised how much they stick with it once you convince them."
"I hope that's true." said Tatyana,
"I'm sure it is." said Hermione.
They continued to chat, drink and eat when the train turned and they looked out the window.
"I don't remember this part from te journey over." said Hermione,
"No, neither do I." said Luna,
"I'm sure it's nothing, probably just taking a shortcut." said Freddie,
"Yeah, that's probably it." said Breeana.
"Even so, I'll go and check with the driver." said Hermione, getting up,
"I'll come with you." said Luna, getting up also. They walked through two doors over the attachment of the train to the carriage and walked into the train. The fire was emitting large quantities of smoke and the driver was unconscious on the floor, Luna and Hermione coughed, Luna pulled her wand out and cast a spell to clear the smoke, it zoomed out of the window and the driver was still unconscious on the floor,
"What are we going to do?" asked Luna,
"I don't know." said Hermione, "We can start by resuscitating the driver."
"Good idea." said Luna, the train was moving with great speed and gaining more speed all the time. Hermione and Luna carried the driver to the carriage, the five of them and the waiter all looked shocked by his unconscious body,
"Okay, if any of you know C.P.R, use it." said Hermione, they rushed help him and Hermione and Luna went back into the actual train. "Okay," said Hermione, "Do you know anything about stopping a runaway train?"
"Yes, pull the break.' said Luna, she found a lever and pulled it back, the train slowed down but the lever snapped off and the train moved once again with unnatural speed,
"Oh no." said Hermione. Luna tried desperately to control the train, pressing things and pulling things, she did something wrong and they heard a loud click from behind them, they both turned around and saw that then carriage had detached from the train with the train moving forwards and the carriage stuck where it was, Hermione saw the now conscious driver look at them from the carriage as they moved further away from it, "Damn it." said Hermione, her and Luna turned to face each other and screamed.
The train continued to gather speed and Hermione and Luna tried to drive it but nothing worked, Luna looked forwards out the window, and said,
"You're not going to like this." Hermione looked out of the window and saw that the track ended ad a cliff edge,
"Why would they do that?" asked Hermione,
"I'm guessing we took a wrong turn when we realised that we hadn't come that way before." said Luna, the train approached the cliff edge, "What do we do? Hermione, what do we do?" asked Luna,
"Move out of the way." said Hermione, Luna did so and Hermione held up her wand, "Reducto!" the side of the train exploded,
"Do we jump?" asked Luna,
"Yes, we jump!" cried Hermione,
"When?" asked Luna, the train began to fall,
"Now!" yelled Hermione, they jumped out of the hole in the train wall, they were falling down the cliff, "Aresto Momentum!" yelled Hermione, the two of them hovered a few inches above a ledge and then fell those few inches safely. They watched as the train banged down the cliff side, crashing and breaking and smashing. It ended in a small explosion at the cliffbottom,
"Next time we come to Hogwarts," said Hermione, "We apparate."
"Agreed." said Luna, "How come we didn't apparate when the train was out of control?"
"That would have been a good idea but I panicked." said Hermione,
"Do you want to do it know?" asked Luna,
"Yes," said Hermione, "We should probably go back to the carriage first." Luna nodded and the two of them dissapparated off of the ledge.