CHAPTER ELEVEN
Summary: Hermione has recently found out that she is a witch and is off to attend her first year at the prestigious Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Wizarding World. There she meets a strange family of red heads, the famous chosen one - Harry Potter, a tight nit group of pranksters and Quidditch players that don't feel quite complete, along with meddling professors and ghosts. What will happen when long kept secrets are finally revealed? Will the new bonds of friendship and love that develop at Hogwarts create the saviours that are needed?
Disclaimer: All canon/original characters, plot line and rights belong to the author J.K. Rowling. Non-canon events and characters belong to me. I am not making a profit from posting this story. Some of the characters may be OOC and the plot is a mixture of both canon and non-canon with some of the main events from Rowling happening differently to canon.
A guide to Oliver's speech. Refer to this if something doesn't make sense:
· A – I.
· A'm/ Ah am – I'm/ I am.
· Nae/ Naw – No.
· Aye – Yes.
· Af/ Aff - Of/ Off.
· Mae – Me.
· Me – My.
· Hoo – How.
· Doon – Down.
· Fer – For.
· Ferget – Forgot.
· Befere – Before.
· Tae - To/ Too.
· Twa – Two.
· Oot – Out.
· Ma/Da – Mum/ Dad.
· Feck – Fuck.
· Ye – You.
· Yer - Your/ You're.
· Onybody – Anybody.
· Wee – Small.
· Havnae – Haven't.
· Wisnae – Wasn't.
· Int it - Isn't it.
· Intae – Into.
· Dinnae – Don't.
· Dunno – Don't know.
· Cauld – Cold.
· Auld – Old.
· Anno – I know.
· A'thing – Everything.
· Abo'dy – Everybody/ everyone.
· Aboot – About.
· Cannae – Can't
· Pritty – Pretty.
· Mibbie/Mibay – Maybe.
· Lassie/Laddie –
Girl/ boy.
· Windae – Window.
· Efternuin – Afternoon.
Updated: 19/09/18
Page count: 20
Hogwarts - Thursday 5th September 1991
Surprisingly Hermione woke up from the best night's sleep she'd had since her arrival at Hogwarts. Her dorm mates didn't terrorize her in the early hours of the morning, although it was probably more to do with them being tired after the astronomy lesson, than it was out of the kindness of their hearts. Still she woke at six as usual; readied herself in the bathroom and went to wake the boys.
Entering the room she saw the boys all huddled together and she smiled softly at the sight. She took off her shoes and got on the bed before jumping up and down whilst making as much noise as possible by singing 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go' by Wham!
"Wake me up before you go-go, don't leave me hanging on like a yo-yo!" she sand loudly.
The boys sat up whilst they were being jostled about in bed and bumping into each other.
"What are you doing, Spitfire?" Fred asked.
"Waking you up in a fun way, obviously," she replied, still jumping up and down and rolling her eyes at him, as if he'd just said the most stupidest thing in the world.
"You almost gave me a heart attack, Love," spoke Lee, whilst rubbing his sleepy eyes.
"Would you prefer it if I woke you up with Aquamenti?"
"Nope, this way is a lot better; we might have to listen to your dreadful singing but at least we're not soaked from head to toe," chuckled George. Hermione feigned a hurtful look by pressing her hand to her heart.
"Are you saying that you didn't appreciate the fact that you didn't have to shower because I already took care of it for you?"
The boys just laughed at her, they stood up and began jumping on the bed with her. Well if you can't beat them, join them.
"Why are you so energetic this morning?" asked Lee.
"I slept amazingly; I got a full night's sleep without any interruptions except for my astronomy lesson."
"We forgot about your astronomy lesson," said Fred and the boys frowned. "Why didn't you wake us?"
"Because I didn't want to. Honestly, there's no point in waking you boys up so that you could take me to my lesson,-which I can find by myself by the way, for you to come back to your room to fall asleep again and then you having to get up to walk me back to the common room for you to go back to sleep afterwards, it's too much hassle. You boys need your sleep and you need to stop worrying about me. I can take care of myself."
"We can't help but worry about you, Princess, particularly with the way the girls at Hogwarts have been treating you," said George.
"Yes, well, I can handle it and when I can't I'll let you know, okay?"
The boys nodded at her and then George thankfully changed the subject.
"So, Princess, what was that terrible song you were singing? Sorry did I say singing? I meant butchering," George said, which earned him getting smacked in the face with a pillow.
Hermione hit him with such a force that he wasn't expecting and it resulted in him falling off the side of the bed and landing on the floor. The others burst into laughter and had tears roaming down their faces all the while still jumping on the bed. George pulled himself off the floor and mock glared at Hermione who winked at him causing him to chuckle.
"So are you going to answer my question, Princess?" George got back onto the bed and began jumping again.
"It's by a muggle band called Wham from the early eighties. The song's called 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, I love it because it's fun to sing and dance to and not to mention it's silly," she responded, and then she began humming, eventually breaking into song causing the boys to laugh at the lyrics.
They listened to the song and Hermione taught them the lyrics so they could sing along. She sent them off to the bathroom so she could ready their things. She left the beds the way they were but made them. Getting their uniforms and their bags ready Hermione got onto one the beds and the curtains were closed, when they were opened she made her way to each of the boys sorting out their hair and uniform and the boys were all singing Wham under their breath and she chuckled, humming along. They made their way down to great hall, all singing the song over and over again. The closer they got to the great hall the louder they got.
When they entered the great hall they were essentially shouting the words and laughing making their way towards the Gryffindor table and sitting down to eat. They were later than usual due to them messing around that morning so the hall was almost full. The quartet received a number of looks from the students and professors and they ranged from: confused to amusement to worrying that they had lost their minds and to annoyed that they could be so energetic before nine in the morning.
Today Hermione's schedule consisted of:
Thursday
7:30 – Breakfast
9:00 – Charms, Professor Flitwick, Gryffindors & Ravenclaws
10:30 – Transfiguration, Professor McGonagall, Gryffindors
12:00 – Lunch
1:00 – Defence Against the Dark Arts, Professor Quirrell, Gryffindors
3:00 – Break
3:30 – Flying lesson, Madam Hooch, Gryffindors & Slytherins
5:00 – Dinner
After eating breakfast they made their way to Hermione's charms class and the boys said good bye and made their leave. The charms class consisted of Hermione taking notes and perfecting yet another spell before the rest of the class and within ten minutes of her first attempt. They had been learning how to cast Lumos which caused the casters wand to emit a beam of light and it's commonly used as a torch.
Whilst the rest of the class continued with the Lumos Charm, Hermione read through her charms book and took it upon herself to learn the extinguishing spell Nox, which of course she also perfected before the end of the lesson. She received praise from Professor Flitwick and scowls from most of the class but she didn't let it bother her. After all it wasn't her fault that she was a quick study, now was it?
The class ended and Fred was waiting to walk with her to her next lesson.
Transfiguration entailed Hermione taking detailed notes as they were learning about the transfiguration alphabet; if they didn't have the knowledge of this then they wouldn't be able to successfully transfigure anything. So Professor McGonagall spent the hour and half lesson lecturing the class. At the end of the lesson McGonagall announced that the class would be continuing to work on the transfiguration alphabet during their next lesson.
Hermione packed up her belongings and made her way out of the classroom where her boys were waiting for her and they went to lunch.
"Hey, Princess, do you want to stay in our room on Friday night?" asked George.
"What, you mean like a sleepover?"
"Yep, exactly like a sleepover," replied Lee.
"And what do you have planned?"
"Well, first of all we need to start planning for Halloween, its only seven weeks away and we need to be prepared," Fred told her.
"Okay, as long as I'm allowed to show you some muggle sleepover traditions."
"What traditions?" asked Lee.
"You'll see," Hermione said, looking a little too pleased with herself. 'They aren't going to know what's hit them,' she thought, as she began to plan out exactly what she was going to put them through.
They conversed until they finished eating then they walked to Hermione's defence against the dark arts class.
"Boys, don't bother picking me up after class, I have a break and then I have a flying lesson."
"A flying lesson, you say? Aren't you afraid of heights?" asked Fred teasingly and Hermione punched him in the arm. "Ow! What was that for?" he asked whining.
"For reminding me of my fear of heights; I've been trying to forget about it and you were being a prat," she responded. Lee and George sniggered at the scolding Hermione gave Fred whilst he pouted at her.
Hermione entered the defence against the dark arts classroom and took her seat, then took out the necessities. She spent the double lesson learning about gnomes from the skittish Professor Quirrell which was difficult with his stutter, giving the students problems with the note taking due to his speech impediment, but Hermione soldiered on until the end of the lesson.
When she left the class room she decided to take a slow walk to where her flying lesson would be held. When she reached her destination she sat down on the floor and waited until the lesson began.
The flying instructor was called Madam Hooch; she was tall for a woman, had a pixie style hair cut with brown hair, wearing black robes and she was carrying a whistle in one hand and a broom in the other.
She approached the class and made them each stand next to a broom that was laid on the floor. First they started with the theory of flying, including broom control. Malfoy spent some of the lesson bragging about his flying abilities which not only annoyed her, but the rest of the Gryffindors who looked as though they were quietly plotting an "accident" that would land him in the hospital wing.
Once the basics of flying had been covered the class was then instructed to hold their hand over the broom and command it into their hand. Ten minutes later when the class had all succeeded they were told to mount the brooms and then she gave the go ahead to gently hover off the ground. Unfortunately, that's when problems began to occur.
Poor Neville kicked off the ground but he didn't have control and ended up flying in the air and he couldn't stop. The broom was out of control flying in one direction and then quickly changing and flying in another. He wasn't stopped until he fell off his broom, got caught on part of the castle and then fell to the ground. Hermione rushed over to Neville and hugged him, before Madam Hooch took him to the hospital wing to get his injuries healed, including the wrist that he was cradling to his chest.
But the trouble didn't stop there…..
Malfoy started acting like a complete arsehole, taunting poor Neville and he wasn't even there to defend himself, but Harry was. Before anyone knew what was happening both Malfoy and Harry where in the air fighting over a remembrall. Hermione couldn't help but be impressed with Harry's flying; he was a natural and a way better flier than Malfoy which he seemed to realise. The remembrall was thrown by Malfoy into the air and Harry dived from one hundred feet and caught it, pulling out of the dive and stopping at one foot above the ground and the Gryffindors ran towards Harry like a stampede, cheering and howling.
During this Hermione was silently coming down from the panic attack she had just endured. The crowd was dispersed by Professor McGonagall taking Harry away from the class with a stern look on her face. And everyone assumed that Harry was in serious trouble, but Hermione could see the excitement in the professor's her eyes. For some reason she didn't think that Harry was going to be punished. The class was dismissed early and Hermione ran to the common room and up to the boys' room, rubbing her stomach unconsciously.
"What's wrong, Love?" Lee asked.
Hermione told them the story of her flying lesson and the boys listened with rapt attention. Once she'd finished with recalling the events, Hermione took a deep breath and collapsed on Fred's bed. The boys were speechless, astonished by tale of Harry's flying.
"I swear I almost had a heart attack," she told them. "And I'm positive that Harry won't be punished for what just occurred. Professor McGonagall looked for too pleased by Harry's flying and reflexes with catching the remembrall." Hermione continued, with the boys still listening to her. Then she had am eureka moment and gasped.
"What is it, Spitfire?" asked Fred and Hermione grinned at him.
"Didn't you say that you needed a seeker for the team?"
"Well yeah. You don't think..." George spoke.
"I do, Georgie, I do. If you saw him fly the way I did, you'd probably drag him to Ollie yourselves, in fact, I bet that's where Professor McGonagall took Harry, to see Ollie," she said and they all grinned.
After the conversation they all went down to the common room and waited for Oliver to return. They sat down in one of the corners of the room. Fred, George and Lee had introduced Hermione to Oliver Wood during the welcoming feast and despite their age gap, Oliver and Hermione got on quite well and they had quickly become friends over the last couple of days.
When Oliver walked into the common room looking like he'd been hit with ten Cheering Charms at once, they sniggered at him. Oliver was five-foot-ten and Hermione was convinced that he was still growing. He had light brown hair, big brown puppy dog eyes and even she could admit he was quite handsome. He was a heartthrob -or so she had heard from most of the female population when walking in the corridors- with his Scottish accent and he was now the Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, making him one of the most sought after boys in the school.
"Hey, Ollie," Hermione called.
Oliver looked over to see Hermione grinning at him and he grinned even wider. He walked over to them and dropped down next to Hermione, putting his arm around her shoulders.
"Ye know, dinnae ye?" What was meant to be a question came out more like a statement of fact. Hermione gave him a knowing smile and he just chuckled. "Af course ye do, Lassie," he said, at which point her boys laughed. "So, is he really as good as McGonagall says he is?" he asked and Hermione smiled brightly.
"Professor," she scolded. "And yes, Ollie, he is. He almost gave me a heart attack; he scared the life out of me, and I'm not being metaphorical about that. He was over one hundred feet in the air when he dove to catch the remembrall, which he did in one hand by the way, before pulling out of the dive and hovering a foot above the ground," she explained.
"Seriously?" he asked excitedly.
"Seriously! He's never been on a broom before, he was raised by muggles like me and he was a natural. Madam Hooch hadn't even given us the instructions before he took off flying. It was like second nature to him, he knew exactly what he was doing when he flattened his body against the broom and took off like a bloody rocket. And if he did that on one of the school brooms, can you imagine what he'd be like on his own? Anyway, I know that Quidditch season hasn't started yet and that try outs aren't for another week or so, but I promise you, you'll not find anyone who can fly like him," she spoke animatedly and Oliver chuckled at her fondly. "Please tell me you told Professor McGonagall that he needed his own broom, Ollie?"
He nodded in reply and her grin widened. "Hoo did ye know Professor McGonagall brought Harry tae mae, Lassie?" Oliver asked.
"Come on, Wood, it's Hermione, she knows everything, didn't you know?" Lee said, teasing both Oliver who chuckled and Hermione who blushed.
"Hoo could a ferget?" Oliver replied jokingly and Hermione mock glared at him.
"If Professor McGonagall hadn't of dragged Harry to see you, I would've, Ollie. You should've seen the look on her face. I swear to Merlin, if she didn't have that stern look plastered on her face she would've looked like a six year old on a sugar rush at Christmas," she replied to their chuckles.
It was cold, even in the common room and with Oliver's arm around her, and she felt herself shiver which the boys noticed.
"Are you cold, Love?" asked Lee and she nodded.
"That reminds us we have something for you, come with me," George said, grabbing her by the hand and dragging her up to his room. After they entered the room George pulled her over to his trunk and opened it, rummaging around until he found what he was looking for.
"Aha got it!" exclaimed George, holding out the navy blue knitted jumper with a big yellow F on the front victoriously.
"Okay, why are you holding a jumper?" she asked.
"It's for you since you don't have a cloak anymore, your new one hasn't been ordered yet and we don't want you to catch a cold. I know that you can't wear it in classes but you can during the weekend and when you're in the common room and such," George replied.
"Are you sure? I don't want to keep taking your stuff."
"Yeah, we're sure, besides this one's Fred's and it doesn't really fit him anymore. Anyway, all Weasleys have one. Each person has a different colour and the initial of their first name apart from me and Fred as we have the same colour jumper; navy blue, this makes you an honorary Weasley," he replied, putting the jumper over her head and covering her school uniform. It went down to just above the knee and the sleeves were far too long so she rolled them up.
She thanked him with a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
The jumper was already helping to take the chill off Hermione and she snuggled into the warmth and George chuckled, put his arm around her shoulders and they walked back to the common room where Lee, Fred and Oliver were waiting for them to return.
~000~000~000~
When George and Hermione left the room Fred and Lee looked at each other concerned and Oliver who noticed the look frowned. He was about to ask what the look was about, when Fred and Lee began a conversation.
"We have to do something about her cloak," Lee spoke.
"I know. She had astronomy yesterday and I don't think she took George's cloak with her, she was probably freezing. You know how cold the tower gets, especially as the temperature in the castle has already started to drop and it's getting colder every day," Fred said to Lee.
"Giving her the jumper is fine, but she can only wear it in the common room and at the weekend. She can't wear it for classes and she has potions in the dungeons and you know how cold it is in there," Lee said.
"Yeah, I almost lost a nut from the chill in there last year," Fred replied.
Given the fact that the conversation between the two was serious, Oliver who had been listening with rapt attention couldn't help but snort at his statement, causing Lee and Fred to look at him. They had completely forgotten that he was there.
"What happened tae her cloak? Anno she has one, she was wearin' it on Monday," Oliver asked and by the looks of anger on the younger boys' faces, he guessed it was serious, so he sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees, giving them his full attention.
Lee spoke first. "The other day we moved her trunk into our dorm room and…" but he was cut off by Oliver.
"Why were ye movin' her trunk intae yer room?"
"When Hermione wasn't looking we placed a Privacy Charm on her trunk. You know what nosey bastards roommates are, and the other day Hermione asked us why her trunk was glowing bright red. And you know what that means? That someone had tried to get into it. And she let the subject drop but then the day after she asked us if Privacy Charms can be broken and how long the lasted for. Of course we told her and she informed us that someone had tried to get into her trunk four or five times in several days. So you see why we moved it into our room?" Fred answered, Oliver's face went from carefully listening to guarded and at his nod, Lee continued where he was cut off from before.
"So when we moved her trunk into our room she forgot her cloak in hers and went to get it. When she came back into our room she was hiding something behind her back so we called her out on it. She denied hiding anything from us and she ran to her trunk trying to hide it, but we got it off her and George held it up for us to see."
"What was it?" Oliver asked, he had an idea but he wanted his suspicions confirmed.
"It was her cloak or at least what was left of it," Fred answered his question.
"What do ye mean, what was left af it?" Oliver requested.
"It'd been destroyed. Hermione said that she thinks one of her roommates has a cat and that it clawed it by accident."
"Except?" Oliver put in.
"Except that it didn't look as though it had been clawed. It looked as though it had been shredded and Hermione told us that she had asked Bopsy if he could fix it for her before we saw it, but it was too badly damaged," Lee spoke.
"Ye dinnae think she's telling ye the truth, do ye?"
"No, we don't," Fred and Lee replied together.
Oliver looked up to see Lavender Brown walk into the common room and he looked at Fred and Lee.
"Have ye asked?" Oliver asked.
"What?" they replied confused and Oliver rolled his eyes.
"Hey, Brown," Oliver called, beckoning her over to them.
Lavender turned around with a look of shock on her face until she smiled and started giggling as she made her way towards them.
"Hey boys, Hi Ollie," she all but purred and the boys cringed.
"Dinnae call mae Ollie, I dinnae like it, mae name's Oliver. Anyway, yer Hermione's roommate, aye?" Oliver asked, with Fred and Lee wondering what he was doing.
Lavender showed a look of disgust on her face but it was gone almost instantly, leaving the boys wondering if they had imagined it. Of course they hadn't.
"Yes, I am, why?"
"Well, do any af yer roommates have a familiar? A cat in particular?" he asked slyly.
Fred and Lee smirked at each other. 'He's good,' they thought.
"No. No one in my dorm has a familiar, why?" she asked suspiciously.
"A'm jus' doin' some homework which involves mae havin' tae do a survey aboot familiars in the castle," he said, forcing a smile at her.
"What's that for?" she asked.
"Oh, ye know? A class," he replied and Fred and Lee sniggered. Lavender walked away and the boys breathed a sigh of relief when she left. "So tha' proves yer theory tha' it wisnae a cat tha' destroyed Hermione's cloak."
"I knew it!" both Fred and Lee exclaimed, getting them odd looks from the others in the common room and they smiled awkwardly at them and turned back to the discussion.
"Why do a get the feeling tha' this isnae the only thing tha' has happened? The trunk an' the cloak, there must be somethin' else as well."
"There is," Lee sighed.
"Well? Get on with it befere they get back."
"On Monday we found her down here asleep in one of the arm chairs, when we woke her up she told us that she was tired because she didn't get a lot of sleep the night before. So we grilled her and she caved and told us what happened," Fred explained.
"Dinnae keep mae waiting, what happened?"
"We told her on Sunday night to close the curtains on her bed and touch the knot in the wood."
"The one tha' creates a shield tha' stops people from getting through?" he said as a rhetorical question.
"Yeah, anyway, it was a good idea we told her to do it, because we found out that her dorm mates spent hours on early Monday morning trying to get through to her. She just thought it was a prank, you know them trying to scare her?" Lee told him.
"But?"
"But it happened again Tuesday morning and they tried to get into her trunk and again on Wednesday morning, I don't think it happened today because she was so energetic this morning. I swear, it was like she had taken five Pepper Up potions. I didn't think that we would be able to calm her down; she was like a bouncing bulb," Fred said elevating some of the tension caused by the discussion and they chuckled.
"Is tha' a'thing tha's happened?" Oliver asked, hoping that it was, but his hopes were shattered when they shook their heads and Lee spoke.
"We don't think so, she's keeping something from us but we don't know what it is yet."
"On Monday when she was walking back from her herbology lesson and towards the entrance hall where we were waiting for her, she was covered in mud and her knee was bleeding. She told us she'd slipped on the wet grass covering herself in mud and on her way out of herbology she had slipped on some spilled water cutting her leg." When Fred had finished speaking he had a frown on his face.
"But ye dinnae believe tha'," Oliver stated, rather than asked.
"No, we don't. We would believe her but on Tuesday when she walked into the common room we saw more injuries on her. She said she'd tripped on the stone floor in the dungeons and she'd scraped her palms and elbow during the fall. Her robes were covered in blood," Lee spoke and Oliver was sporting a look of disbelief and worry.
"There's more isnae there?" he asked gravely.
"Didn't you see what happened last night at dinner?" asked Lee and Oliver shook his head no, so Fred filled him in.
"She fell asleep at dinner and Angelina tried to get George, Lee and I to wake her up and when we blatantly refused she took it a step too far. We weren't expecting her reaction so we didn't catch her in time. Angelina grabbed a hold of Hermione and pulled her, so that Hermione hit herself off the bench and fell to the floor banging her head in the process."
Oliver's face was filled with anger. Angelina was a member of the Quidditch team and now Oliver was the newly appointed Captain. That didn't bode well for Angelina.
"And do you know what Hermione did?" asked Lee and once again Oliver shook his head no and Lee answered with a small smile. "She stood up, looked Angelina dead in the eye, shook her head at her and walked away. We found her curled up on Fred's bed with George's cloak wrapped around her. She ended the silence by asking and I quote 'are you boys okay?' I mean, she get's pulled to the floor, bumps her head and asks if we're okay?"
Oliver smiled. "Is tha' it?" he asked and he sighed when they told him there was more.
"Have you seen the looks she gets? For some reason most of the female population hate her. They look at her with disgust and hatred. Why don't you sit with us at dinner so you can see for yourself?" Fred said and Oliver nodded in agreement.
"Please tell mae tha' there's nae more. A dinnae think a can handle anythin' else," he pleaded.
"When she walked in after her flying lesson she was holding her stomach and she looked like she was in pain. Whatever is wrong with her we don't think happened today."
Oliver couldn't believe the way Hermione had been treated and it had only been five days since they arrived at Hogwarts and already she had been terrorised.
With that said the boys heard George and Hermione talking as they walked down the stairs and the boys plastered an innocent look on their faces.
"Did she jus' come from the boys' dorm rooms?" Oliver asked surprised. They nodded at him. "Hoo? Hoo did she get past the wards? Hoo long has she been doin' tha' fer?"
"She's been doing it for a couple of days now, and we don't know how she does it. I asked if she'd found a spell or used magic on the staircase, she just told me so walked up the stairs and the wards didn't stop her, I don't even think she knows about the wards existing," Fred said.
Oliver's surprised expression morphed into a smile when he saw her wearing the jumper that was almost bigger than her. She sat back down next to Oliver and he noticed her holding her stomach and wincing, which he frowned at.
"So, Ollie, did the boys tell you how I've been waking them up in the mornings, because I think they're rather creative?" she asked and he shook his head. "Well on Tuesday I was nice and woke them up gently but on Wednesday... not so much. They pranked me, Ollie," her voice rose at the end of the sentence and he raised an eyebrow at her.
"They didn't tell me that when I called for Bopsy that he would appear out of thin air. I almost had a heart attack and of course I promised them that I would show them my appreciation," she exclaimed and they all laughed.
"So, hoo did ye wake them up, Lassie, an' hoo did ye show ye appreciation?" he asked her smiling.
"I poured freezing cold water on them and I showed my appreciation by saving them time as they didn't have to shower thanks to my kindness."
At her words everyone was in hysterics with tears rolling down their faces and Oliver was slumped over himself trying to breathe.
"Yeah, but she left out a little bit of detail in her explanation," said Fred.
"I did? What?" she asked confused.
"She used the Aquamenti Charm to wake us up," George said and Oliver looked at Hermione with his eyebrows almost in his hairline.
"Seriously? Tha's a sixth year spell," he spoke.
"Yes, I know; I read it in a book on Tuesday night and started playing around with it and I perfected it thirty minutes later."
Oliver was speechless.
"Yeah and she taught us how to do it and now we have perfected it too, granted, it took us an hour and a half," Lee spoke.
"Ye taught them?" he asked and she nodded.
"Yes, do you want me to teach you too?" she asked with excitement.
"Can ye?"
She nodded and she agreed to teach him after dinner.
"Oh I forgot, this morning I woke them up by jumping on the bed and singing," she said laughing and they all burst into song with the exception of Oliver.
"Wake me up before you go-go; don't leave me hanging on like a yo-yo. Wake me up before you go-go, I don't want to miss it when you hit that high. Wake me up before you go-go, cause I'm not planning on going solo. Wake me up before you go-go, take me dancing tonight. I wanna hit that high," they sang badly and Oliver laughed
When they finished George looked at Hermione and mock glared at her.
"Yeah and when I said she butchered the song, she hit me with my own pillow, in the face, and sent me flying off the bed and onto the floor," George said and everyone burst into laughter once again.
"She's stronger than she looks for someone so small," spoke Fred.
"So tha's why ye were all singing when ye came intae the hall fer breakfast this mornin'," stated Oliver.
"Yes, it's a great song sung by a muggle band from the early eighties and I love it. It's fun to sing and dance to and just be silly really and I taught them the lyrics."
"It's time for dinner," Lee said, nodding subtly at Oliver who nodded back.
"Let's go then," Oliver said standing up.
He pulled Hermione up and she winced, he felt guilty for hurting her and she was obviously in pain. He put an arm around her shoulders and they all walked to the great hall. When they arrived they all sat together. Hermione didn't sit with her boys but with Oliver who still had his arm around her shoulders and they sat opposite the boys.
Conversation started flowing once they began eating and Oliver kept his attention on Hermione. When he felt a kick under the table he looked up and saw the looks given to him by the twins and Lee and he nodded. He carefully looked around the Gryffindor table and its occupants trying not to draw attention to himself and what he saw made him frown. They were right; almost every girl was glaring menacingly at Hermione.
She was cold, he could tell by the shivering she was so diligently failing to hide. So he carefully moved his arm from her shoulder and put it around her waist gently as to not hurt her stomach further and he pulled her to rest against him and she sighed gratefully when she began to warm up and they smiled at each other. He looked up and saw all the girls now sneering at her and he didn't like it. It didn't settle well with him, and he couldn't explain why, but he felt fiercely protective of Hermione.
"Hey, Ollie, we're..." Hermione was cut off by the sound of an angry Lavender Brown, who was sitting a few seats down from them.
"You said that you didn't like it when people called Ollie and you told me not to call you that," she said gruffly.
Oliver turned to look at Lavender and he spoke. "Yer right, a did, but she isnae jus' a person; she's Hermione an' she's me friend," Oliver smiled down at Hermione who smiled back gratefully. "An' it's rude tae cut people aff when they're speaking, not tae mention butting intae other people's conversations tha' have nothin' tae do with ye."
Fred, George and Lee shared an amused smile as Lavender huffed and turned back to her meal.
"Ye were saying, Lassie?"
"We're having a sleepover on Friday, the boys want to start planning for Halloween because it's only seven weeks away," she said sarcastically with a roll of her eyes and the others chuckled. And then she gasped causing the boys to look at her worriedly until she spoke. "What if we don't have enough time to plan everything? What are we going to do?" she said with mock sincerity causing them to laugh even louder. "I'm going to show them some muggle sleep over traditions," she told Oliver.
"Like what?" he asked curiously and she smirked, putting Fred, Lee and George on edge and Oliver smiled at her expression.
'She's up tae somethin',' he thought to himself in amusement.
"I'll tell you later," she replied and they continued chatting until they finished eating and they made their way to the common room. When they entered they came face to face with an apologetic Harry Potter and a furious Ron Weasley.
"What the hell are you wearing?" he glared at her.
"Umm, it's a jumper, Ronald. Look, you're wearing one too," Hermione said, pointing to his jumper with the boys sniggering behind her.
"Why are you wearing Fred's jumper? Why is she wearing your jumper, Fred?" Ron asked accusingly, look at the wrong twin and Hermione rolled her eyes at him.
"That's George, Fred's on the left," she told him and he glared at her once more.
"And she's wearing Fred's jumper because it's cold in the castle." Lee said.
"It doesn't fit me anymore, so I didn't see the point in keeping it when I could easily give it to Hermione. -" Fred spoke.
"- And because her cloak was "accidently" destroyed," George said, finishing the response to Ron's questions, glaring at him like he was the one responsible for Hermione's cloak being destroyed. Oliver stood next to Hermione with his arm slung over her shoulders.
"She isn't a Weasley!" Ron stated.
"Neither am I technically," responded Lee with a shrug.
"You practically live with us for Merlin's sake," Ron said.
"Yes, and Hermione's family now too," Fred and George spoke simultaneously, ending the conversation.
Hermione decided to stray the conversation on to a different topic, even though she was immensely happy they thought her as family.
"Hey, Ollie, do you want me to teach you that thing now?" she said trying to be discrete and nodding to the stairs that lead to the boys dorms.
"Aye, let's go, Lassie," Hermione and they boys went up to the third year dorms, and no one noticed Hermione being able to walk up the staircase.
Oliver entered the room and took in the surroundings. Their dorm was similar to his except they had a much larger room and a large cauldron in the corner of the room. The beds were still pushed together but Oliver didn't take any notice. Fred, Lee and George walked over to the cauldron and Oliver noticed looking over to Hermione who just shook her head and responded "don't ask."
She led him over to Fred's bed which was in the middle of the pushed together beds and they sat down; Hermione with her back against the headboard and legs crossed and Oliver sat opposite her.
"Are you ready, Ollie?"
"Aye," he replied.
Hermione took the book from George's bed and placed it on her knees looking for the Aquamenti section. When she found it she read out the passage aloud and showed Oliver the wand movements and the incantation. Whilst Oliver was practicing the spell Hermione had found a Duplication Spell in the book and decided to try it out. She perfected it on her third attempt.
"Gemino," she called softly, waving her wand at a pillow.
Every one stopped what they were doing and looked over to Hermione. Their mouths hung open when the pillow duplicated itself.
"Hermione, hoo did ye do tha'?" Oliver asked and Fred, Lee and George walked over to them, surrounding her as they took seats.
"I said the spell like any other normal person would."
"Tha's not what a meant. Tha's a fifth year spell, one tha' a should be learnin' this year in transfiguration."
"Well it was easy."
"Hoo did ye do it? Yer sat right in front af mae an' a dinnae even notice ye practicing."
"Well I perfected it pretty quickly so you probably wouldn't have noticed, Ollie."
"Hoo quickly?" he asked amazed.
"I got it on my third attempt."
"Seriously?" She nodded in confirmation.
"Can you show us how you do it, Princess?" George asked.
"What, the Duplication Spell?"
"No, we want to see you learn a new spell," Fred clarified and the others nodded in agreement.
"Umm okay, just let me look through the book for a spell."
Hermione spent the next couple of minutes going through the book until she found a spell she wanted to try. She told the boys the spell and then began reading the passage on it before trying the incantation and wand movements. It had taken fifteen minutes but she had perfected it.
"Avis." When she said the incantation a flock of birds erupted from the tip of her wand, flying around the room and making Hermione laugh in delight.
"That's a sixth year spell that you learn in transfiguration."
"Well it was really simple actually. In charms today I perfected the Lumos Charm in less than ten minutes and I completed the Nox Charm before the end of the lesson. The rest of the class still couldn't perform the Lumos Charm when the lesson ended."
"That's amazing, Love, but I don't understand how it's possible," Lee spoke.
"What do you mean?" she frowned in confusion.
"Well you're a Muggleborn, Princess," George said.
"What has that got to do with anything?" she asked irritated.
"He just means that you only discovered the existence of magic a couple of weeks ago and you've only started attempting spells less than a week ago. Whereas George, Oliver and I are Purebloods, who are not only older than you, but have been around magic all our lives and our magic can be traced hundreds of years back through our families. Lee's a Half-blood but he was raised in the Wizarding World so he's been around magic all his life too. But you were raised by muggles and you have perfected spells that you're not supposed to learn for another six years. I don't think many people have been able to do that except maybe Dumbledore and that's a sign of powerful magic," Fred explained.
"Professor," she scolded. "What happened at the sorting ceremony, was that normal?"
"No, not really; it usually only take a few seconds, no more than five minutes at most. The last students to take longer to get sorted were Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall and they are really powerful, but as far as we're aware, you took longer to get sorted than even they did," Lee said.
"How long did it take?"
"You don't know?" asked Fred and she shook her head. "It took you twenty minutes and as far as we know, that's the longest it has ever taken in the history of Hogwarts."
"Twenty minutes? It felt like I was up there for a while but I didn't think it was that long. When you boys where sorted did it talk to you?"
"Aye, it talks ta ev'ry student but naw one can hear except fer ye. Why, what did it say tae ye?" Oliver spoke.
"The hat said that it had been waiting for me for a long time and that I was destined for great things, and that I would be if I'm not already an enormously powerful witch."
"We can believe that, you've already proved it to us. Did it say anything else?" Fred asked. she nodded and then continued.
"It said something about Fred, George and Lee too."
"It did? What did it say about us?" asked George surprised.
"That you would be an important part of my future, but it also said a few others would be too," she said with a shrug. "It then said that it was going to be difficult to place me in a house. He told me I was kind, loyal and selfless and that I would be good for Hufflepuff but then said something about it not being my colours." The boys chuckled. "It said that I was intelligent, quick minded and witty..."
George cut her off by saying, "Don't we know it." Making everyone laugh and she continued.
"But then it said that he wasn't sure if I would be a good fit for Ravenclaw. It said I was cunning and resourceful and that I would do well in Slytherin but I was to kind hearted for the snakes. And he moved onto Gryffindor saying that I was brave and daring, finishing off by saying that I would be a great addition to any one of the houses. It told me that I made it even more difficult for him to place me because I didn't have a preference for which house I wanted to be sorted into. By then I was beginning to panic worrying that I couldn't be placed and what would happen to me. I think that the hat sensed my panic and made a split second decision placing me in Gryffindor."
"Wow!"
"Merlin!"
"Bloody hell!"
"Shite!"
"Anyway back to work boys, I'm trying to teach Ollie the Aquamenti Charm." Once the words left her mouth everyone went back to what they were previously doing, contemplating what they had just learned and what they already knew.
Thirty minutes later…
Oliver had finally managed to perfect the Aquamenti Charm and he was overjoyed.
"Hey, Ollie, can you help me with something?" she asked him.
"Aye, what is it, Lassie?"
She looked over at Fred, Lee and George to make sure they weren't listening to their conversation. She turned back to Oliver leaned closer to him and he did the same to her and they began a hushed conversation.
"I want you to help me prank them." Oliver and Hermione both smirked.
"What do ye need mae tae do, Lassie?"
"I need two things from you and they're fairly easy."
"What?"
"I need your help tomorrow for the sleepover and I need your help in a week or so but I haven't decided on the date yet, I'm thinking maybe the Quidditch team tryouts." Oliver smiled at her. "So I'm going to introduce the boys to some muggle girl's sleepover traditions and one of them includes makeovers." Oliver sniggered at her. "But since I don't have access to make up I am going to use marker pens."
"What?" he asked confused.
"They are used to write with and they come in all sorts of different colours, but this particular brand of maker pen is permanent so it takes a while to get it off. What I want is for you to help me give them their makeovers. I was thinking about slipping them a Sleeping Draught and then I would somehow convince them to come down to the common room. I'll even get Bopsy to help me slip it into something, maybe their pumpkin juice." Oliver laughed at her.
"Yer an evil genius; ye definitely give the twins a run for their galleons. A'll help ye because they pranked mae last year. What aboot the other prank?"
"I haven't decided what to do yet... maybe gluing them to their brooms and repeatedly casting the Aquamenti Charm on them? What do you think? Or should we come up with something else?" she told him.
"Sounds like a plan, let's go with tha'."
"Okay, can you meet me in the common room tomorrow after dinner?" He nodded his consent, they smirked at each other before Oliver started to explain Quidditch to her in more detail than her boys had previously done during the week.
"When I'm in the library I'll read some books about Quidditch and see what I can learn to help you," Hermione said, smiling at Oliver.
"Thank ye," he responded with a happy smile of his own.
Hermione got off the bed and started picking up items of thrown about clothing off the floor. She balled them up to a quaffle sized shape and threw them into the correct drawers or washing basket never missing her target.
"Yer pritty good at tha'. Have ye thought aboot tryin' oot fer the Quidditch team as a chaser?" Oliver asked and Hermione burst into laughter.
"Good one, Ollie, that was hilarious," Hermione said, taking deep breaths with tears running down her face.
"What's so funny? A dinnae get it."
"First of all, first years aren't allowed to tryout because they don't have the flying experience with the exception of Harry and..." George cut her off.
"And second of all, she's terrified of heights."
"Thank you, George," she said sarcastically. "Not to mention falling, I don't like the fact that I have to trust a broom for flying especially when I was using one not one week ago to clean my living room floor back home. No, thank you, Ollie, I prefer my feet firmly on the ground," she finished her ramblings and they looked at her amused.
"But ye have got one hell af an arm on ye and ye havnae missed a shot yet."
"Yes, but I'm on the ground and don't even think about trying to get me on a broom. I thought I was going to pass out in my flying lesson today and I was only hovering a foot above the ground."
"Yeah and don't remind her of it either, she's got one hell of a punch on her too," Fred said, whilst he rubbed his arm as he remembered her punching and scolding him earlier that day and the others chuckled at them as they bickered.
"Oh, Freddie, don't start pouting; you deserved it."
"I did not!"
"You were being insensitive and a prat, yes you did."
The others were doubled over laughing at this point. The group continued chatting teasingly until they decided to turn in for the night. Hermione grabbed a fresh pair of pajamas and a clean uniform before saying goodnight to the boys, kissing them on the cheek and going back to her room where she readied for bed and fell asleep.