Chapter Nineteen

Hermione POV

Harry informed the other two about what happened on the train to him with Draco. Hermione bit her lip as she realized that Malfoy had assaulted Harry. She wished she could've been there to protect him. "We better get going to the Great Hall. Let's go. We can talk about it more when there are less people in the common room." Harry said as his green eyes danced the room suddenly self-conscious of the other Gryffindor's that were beginning to fill the cozy common room.

Before they made it to the portrait hole, Hermione spotted a lime-green disk that she knew was one of Fred's inventions from this Summer. "Hey! You!" She grabbed the back of a fourth-years robe. "You know that Fanged Frisbees are banned, hand it over before a professor catches you."

As the blonde boy walked away, Ron's freckled face lit up. "I wanted to get one of these when we visited the shop but George wouldn't give me a discount that git! I've always wanted one."

Hermione wanted to hit Ron but was distracting by Lavender Brown who began to giggle obnoxiously from across the warm common room. The red-head boy gave the girl a flirty wink before darting out of the common room entrance. Hermione had to hold back a gagging sound at the look that the Brown girl gave him in response.

When the three got to the lively Great Hall, there was a buzz from the first day of term. Ron and Harry were talking about how excited this year would be with less classes to worry about. Hermione tuned them out knowing that she would be spending almost all of her time in the calming library, studying for her N.E.W.T classes. The owls came in and interrupted her thoughts of creating a study schedule. A copy of the Daily Prophet and a note that smelled like firework smoke and vanilla dropped in front of her.

She set the copy of the Daily Prophet aside and held up the letter, smelling it slightly and smiling thinking of George. "Mental you are." Ron joked and shook his head with a laugh on his face.

Hermione rolled her eyes as she tucked her finger into the thick envelope, tearing it open. When the parchment came out, she caught a stronger whiff of vanilla and smoke, she smiled thinking of him working over some new product they were inventing at the joke shop. She was thankful that he had found time during his busy schedule to write to her.

The note read:

To the brightest and most beautiful witch at Hogwarts,

I hope you have a great first day of term! I can't believe that I won't be there to see you panic over your full schedule and how you will possibly fit in all of those classes into your studying schedule at the library. Knowing you, you already have a rough outline of what that schedule will look like.

Everything is okay here. Fred and I are keeping busy with the shop being so popular! We were thinking of buying out the lot that Zonko's is on if the Diagon Alley location keeps succeeding. Of course, that won't be for a while… we are still trying to make sure that this location won't flop! By the looks of our sales, I don't think we will have to worry about that, but you can never be sure. The protective wards seem to be holding the shop in good shape. We have moved back home so that we do not have to worry about any raids at night. Again, you can never be too safe…

Anyways, enough of the heavy. How is Hogwarts going? Tell Ginny, Ron, and Harry that both Fred and I said Hello! I hope you are having a fantastic time. Soak in every moment of it. Who is the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher? Do I know them? It has to be better than Umbridge…

Well anyways, I have to go visit with my Mum and Bill. We have a plan to get lunch.

Please stay safe.

Sent with love.

Georgie

Hermione read over the letter once and then twice again. The twins had moved out of the flat back to the Burrow. She wondered if Ginny and Ron knew of that. How bad had Diagon Alley gotten since she left for Hogwarts? It couldn't have been that bad in such short amount of time…

It was also clear that he had another Order Meeting that he had to run off to. That had to have been his comment about lunch. Otherwise, he would never have mentioned a day plan with them. A lump formed in her throat as she thought of him putting his life in danger doing a secret task for the Order of Phoenix. It wasn't that long ago that he had saved her from an attack in the Ministry. It was clear that he was a part of the Order along with Fred. Any death eater who saw him that night would know and there was probably a price on both of their heads.

She shivered at the thought and tucked the letter into her planner and made a note in the pages to write to him tonight before doing her Ancient Runes homework. "George and Fred say Hello." Hermione added casually but bit her lip.

"Is the shop still standing?" Ron asked with his eyebrows raised in concern. It was not promising when they had visited Diagon Alley and saw all of the other damaged shops.

"At the time of him sending this I suppose. They aren't staying at the flat anymore… they're living at the Burrow again."

Ginny nodded and seemed to mull on that information as she munched on a piece of grapefruit. "It's all changing."

Professor McGonagall descended from the staff table and walked to the Gryffindor table. "Potter… why haven't you continued with Potions? I thought it was your ambition to become an Auror? Has something changed?"

Her friend blushed slightly before he managed to stutter out, "It was, but you told me I had to get an Outstanding in my O.W.L, Professor." His green eyes shot down to the ground in embarrassment, "I didn't get that high of a mark."

"Well… that may have been the rule when Professor Snape had been teaching Potions but now it is Professor Slughorn. He is perfectly happy to accept N.E.W.T. students with Exceeds Expectations at O.W.L. Do you wish to proceed with Potions?" The stern professor smiled just slightly and raised one of her eyebrows, encouraging the Gryffindor seeker to make the right decision and continue on his academic path to achieve his dreams.

Hermione nudged Harry encouragingly. "Yes," The Chosen One said. "But… I am not prepared. I haven't gotten any books or ingredients—"

Professor McGonagall held up a hand to cut his worries off. "No need. I am sure that Professor Slughorn will be able to lend you some." She scribbled Potions into his schedule before handing it to him. "I will let Professor Slughorn know that he is to expect you in class."

"Thank you, Professor!"

Hermione got up from the table and said goodbye to her friends. They were smiling at the thought of being able to relax in a free period while she was off to Ancient Runes. Just as she expected, she was already slammed with homework on the first day. She was assigned a fifteen-inch essay, two translations, and read an entire chapter of the book they were given. Thankfully, she had already done the readings, so she only had to write the essay and do the translations.

Still, when she walked into the common room Hermione sighed as she sunk into one of the squishy chairs. "6th year will be filled with homework. Look at all I have from the first day of Ancient Runes!" The girl held up her homework planner to Harry who glanced at it with a grimace of empathy.

"I bet Snape gives us an obnoxious amount of work." He shook his head furiously. "I can't believe that he is the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. There goes my favorite class. He's going to ruin it for me."

They all got up and began to walk to that class as they were guessing how much homework or torture that Snape would put them through. As they entered the classroom, Hermione could not shake how the normal Defense Against the Dark Arts room was usually bright with the large windows but now it was gloomy. He had covered all of the windows and the only light was coming from candles.

"Do not get out your books, yet. I want your full attention." Professor Snape drawled to the class as he slammed the door shut, silencing the classroom from the pre-class chatter. "You have had five teachers in this subject so far, I believe. Naturally, these teachers will all have had their own method and priorities. Given this confusion I am surprised so many of you scraped an O.W.L. in this subject. I shall be even more surprised if all of you manage to keep up with the N.E.W.T. work, which will be much more advanced. Now… you are, I believe, complete novices in the use of nonverbal spells. What is the advantage of a nonverbal spell?"

Hermione shot her hand in the air with the excitement of knowing an answer. She didn't let it bother her that Snape tried to wait for another hand before sighing and calling on her when no one else participated. "Your adversary has no warning about what kind of magic you're about to perform which gives you a split-second advantage." She dropped her hand and raised her chin with pride that she had the Standard Book of Spells, Grade Six almost memorized by now.

"Correct but it is an answer copied word from word, not your own. Those who progress to using magic without shouting incantations gain an element of surprise in their spellcasting. Not all wizards can do this, of course; it is a question of concentration and mind power which some lack. We will now divide into pairs and work on this skill. One will attempt to jinx the partner without speaking. The other will attempt to repel the jinx in equal silence. Carry on."

Neville was looking lost and had no one to turn to. Hermione smiled at the kind boy, "Would you want to partner with me, Neville?"

He blushed and glanced his eyes to his shoes. "I'm not sure you would want me as a partner, Hermione. You won't get much out of the lesson, I'm afraid."

"I'm sure that is not true. Let's go!" Hermione got up and they began to work on silently jinxing each other. Well, she was working on silencing jinxing or defending herself while Neville was doing his best to whisper the jinx and make it appear that he was attempting to do nonverbal spells. By the end of the lesson, she had managed to repel Neville's muttered Jelly-Legs Jinx without uttering a word. She felt her chest glow with pride and knew that this would end up in her letter to George tonight.

After Defense Against the Dark Arts, they headed straight to the dungeons for Potions with the new Professor Slughorn. Hermione sniffed the air and felt her heart tug. It was the smell of firework smoke, vanilla, and parchment paper. Of course, they would be learning about Amortentia, George and Fred got her upstairs to investigate their potion last summer with the promise of it being in the curriculum in the 6th year. She would do anything to smell the real thing of George right now, not an imitation.

Professor Slughorn handed Ron and Harry two extra copies of Advanced Potion-Making that he had extra lying around from past students. Hermione rolled her eyes as the boys fought over the newer of the two, which Ron managed to wrestle above Harry's head and smiled in victory since he had now grown about half a foot taller than Harry.

"Now that we are all ready for class, I've prepared a few potions for us to take a look at. All of these, you will be able to make after completing your N.E.W.T.s. You ought to have heard of them, even if you haven't made them." He smiled with a glint of excitement at his new students. "Can anyone tell me what this one is?"

Hermione glanced at the cauldron that he was pointing to which appeared to be a see-through pot of boiling potion. It was odorless which made her hand shoot in the air. When she was called on, she flipped her curly hair over her shoulder. "It's Veritaserum, sir. A colorless, odorless potion that forces the drinker to tell the truth."

Slughorn cheered and turned to the next one. The slow-bubbling and mud like potion made Hermione shiver thinking of her second year. It didn't stop her from shooting her hand in the air and answering that it was Polyjuice potion.

Professor Slughorn's eyes danced with glee as he realized how bright one of his students were. This made Hermione beam with pride and she heard Malfoy scoff in the back of the class talking about a teacher's pet. Finally, the professor walked over to the pearl shimmering potion that smelled of George. "That one is Amortentia. The most powerful love potion in the world." She sighed thinking of the joke shop and the Summer nights she had spent their wrapped up in his arms while she read.

"May I ask your name, my dear?" Professor Slughorn leaned his head to the side with a kind smile on his lips.

"Hermione Granger, sir."

"Granger? Granger? Can you possibly be related to Hector Dagworth-Granger who founded the Most Extraordinary Society of Potioneers?" His eyes seemed to boggle out of his head as he asked.

Hermione blushed as the Slytherins sniggered about mud-bloods. "Er—I don't think so. My parents are muggles."

"You must be the bright witch that young Harry told me about! I do recall you said one of your best friends is muggle-born and she's the best in your year! I'm assuming this is her, with all the answers."

Hermione beamed at Harry with a grateful smile before Professor Slughorn began again. "Now… this one here is a rather special one. This one is called Felix Felicis. Also known as liquid luck. It is a very tricky potion to make, and disastrous to get wrong. However, if brewed correctly, you will find that all of your endeavors tend to succeed… at least until the effect of the potion wears off. This small vile, will be the prize of our lesson today. This is enough for twelve-hours of luck and you will earn it if you can turn to page ten in Advanced Potion-Making and make a decent Draught of Living. I must warn you all, it has only been successfully made in my class once or twice before." He dramatically turned a sand filled time turner and told the class to begin as the white sand granulates cascaded down.

Hermione was desperately trying to get high marks in class. She wasn't even sure what she would use the prize for, she just wanted to be the best. To her annoyance, the potion was not going well. When it should have been a beautiful lilac color, it was turning into a deep purple. Out of the corner of her eye, Harry's potion was behaving, and he had managed to turn the potion lilac. "How did you do that?" She hissed at him.

"You have to add a clockwise stir after—"

She closed her eyes sharply. He must've been mistaken. "No, no, the book says counterclockwise, Harry."

Her friend shrugged and continued to stir his potion. Ron was cursing next to them and his potion had turned to an ugly tar looking color. She felt like cursing as well as Slughorn called out "Time's up!"

Professor Slughorn was looking at the Potions and gave Hermione's dark purple potion an approving nod before going wide-eyed at Harry's lilac filled cauldron. "The clear winner!" He handed the vile to Harry. "You are clearly your mother's child. You have inherited her Potions skill from her!"

Hermione bit her cheek and clapped for her friend, although it was only half-heartedly since she was a sore loser. She left the boys to go reply to George's letter, and avoid Ron's comments about Harry beating her in the Potions competition. Hermione took the stairway up to the Owlery two steps at a time.

When she got up there, she pulled out a piece of fresh parchment and began to scribble down a response with her muggle pen.

To my sweet George,

You will never guess who the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor is… Snape! I was so shocked when I found out. It is very glum in that room now; he likes to keep it as dark as the old Potions room I suppose. I got every answer right throughout the day, of course. He didn't give Gryffindor a single point for all of my participation. Typical.

Thankfully for you and Fred's mini Potions lesson last summer, I was able to answer questions about some of the more advanced potions that were introduced this year. Not to my surprise at all, the Amortentia potion still smells like you. It made me miss you even more. Harry for some reason is very good at potions… I'm not sure where that came from. Perhaps, he just enjoys it now that Snape is not teaching it. Ron… still not so good in that class.

I hope you are enjoying your time at home! Please tell your family members I say hi! How did Lunch go with you Mum and Bill? Anything exciting happen?

I must go and work on Ancient Runes homework. I am already slammed with homework and my planner is filled with assignments! Wish I could write longer. I promise next time it will have more information.

Sent with love.

Hermione.