Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.
New A/N (2/10/2021): Thanks to ILRB80, who is beta-ing this story.
Chapter Eleven
The Prank and Other Things
Hermione didn't get much sleep that night as she thought of everything that had happened that day. For the first time she could remember, someone had chosen to sit next to her without having the intentions of picking on her or asking her for help.
Even though she had to admit that she didn't like the fact that he had only sat there so he could try and rope her into doing something as ridiculous as pulling a prank on someone, she couldn't deny that she had enjoyed talking to Harry. He was really well read, intelligent and was rather funny, several qualities she never thought she would look for in a potential friend, but she found she rather enjoyed it.
Still, she was wary about getting too close to him. He had told her that morning (they had talked for a few minutes when she was waiting for her mum to drive her to school) that he was going to have to act friendly towards Chris and his friends and if they said anything against her, he was going to have to let it go. She couldn't help but worry that Harry might actually be pulling the cruelest prank on her, by pretending to be her friend and then…
She hated thinking this, that Harry would actually do something as terrible as that to her, but she had too much practice with cruelty to not consider it a possibility. The memories of her first week at school flooded her mind as she recalled how the other kids had made fun of her for her bushy hair and overlarge front teeth. It had almost crushed her when she found out that she wasn't accepted by most of her peers because she just happened to enjoy learning and was a little too enthusiastic about it.
Then there was the other thing that made people want to single her out more than anything else, and yet it was also the thing that made them a little afraid of her: weird things seemed to happen around her, things she had never been able to explain, no matter how hard she had looked for answers (and she had looked all over the place). Like the time when this girl had made fun of her bushy hair and the next thing anyone knew, said girl's hair was much worse than Hermione's had ever been. Then there was the time this one kid was picking on her mercilessly, and she wished that he would just stop talking already and then suddenly he seemed to have lost his voice. Hermione didn't care what her parents said (for she told them and only them about this) she knew that this was her fault somehow, though she didn't know how that was possible.
Still, as she thought of Harry's eyes when he had told her that he had to act like a git to her if the others were around, she couldn't help but believe him. Plus, she thought to herself, if I don't trust him now, it might stop us from becoming really good friends in the future and I don't want that. So, by the time lunch came around she was in a more cheerful mood than she normally was, though she decided to unpack her book along with her lunch, unsure if Harry would be spending this meal with her again or not.
"Hmm… I was hoping that you would have some time for me, but I see it's going to be all about your book again," Harry said, sitting next to her with a tray full of food from the cafeteria.
"I wasn't sure if you had to keep your act up today," Hermione said.
"Er… well, that's kind of a hard thing to make a comment about," Harry said, rubbing the back of his head, making his already messy hair look more ruffled than ever. "Seeing as from their point of view that's what I'm doing when I'm hanging out with you… so in a sense this is an act and yet I really do want to sit here so it's not an act at all."
"Er… whatever you say, Harry," Hermione frowned.
"I was just wondering if you wanted to come over to my place today," Harry asked, after he had finished eating most of his lunch, shoveling it in his face as quickly as he could.
"So I can help you with the prank of yours?" Hermione said.
"Yeah," Harry said looking up at her hopefully.
"No," Hermione couldn't help but laugh at his pouting expression, even if it had only lasted a second before he returned his attention to his food. "And you know it would probably be best if you chewed your food."
"I've heard that one before," Harry chuckled. "Moony says it all the time, but if I ate any slower I wouldn't get anything to eat whenever Padfoot is around."
"Why do you call them Moony and Padfoot?" Hermione asked. "Er… sorry that was rude—"
"Nah, it's fine," Harry smiled at her. "It was their nicknames when they went to school together, they call themselves that all the time and I just kind of picked it up."
"That makes sense," Hermione smiled, but there was another question she wanted to asked but didn't dare. It hadn't escaped her notice that Harry talked about Moony and Padfoot as if they were his parents, and she wondered what happened to his real parents.
"My mum died when I was one," Harry said, reading the question on her face. He wasn't looking at her; his concentration seemed to be on his now empty plate. "And my dad has gone a bit… mad. He can't take care of me…"
"Oh Harry, I'm so sorry," Hermione said and without even thinking about it, she put her hand on his shoulder to comfort him.
"Thanks," Harry said giving her a weak smile. "But I really am okay. I mean, I wish I knew my parents… but I love living with Padfoot and Moony. They're the best."
"I think I'd liked to meet them," Hermione smiled back at him.
"Then come over today," Harry said. "We don't have to work on the prank… besides, I think I have a good idea what I'm going to do anyways."
"Okay, I'll come over," Hermione chuckled. The rest of lunch Hermione read her book, noticing that Harry was lost in his thoughts. He had meant what he said about Sirius and Remus, he loved living with them, but there would always be an ache in him that wanted to know what it was like to be with his own parents… to have them talk to him.
O
Hermione was fuming by the end of the school day and was glaring out her window on the car drive home.
"What's the matter, honey?" her mum asked in a soft voice.
"It's nothing Mum," Hermione said stiffly.
"Hermione…" her mum said in the tone that state quite clearly that she knew that something was wrong.
"Some of the kids in class were picking on the younger students," Hermione mumbled, thinking about how cruel they were to these students just because… well she didn't know why, perhaps it was just because they were there. What hurt worse was that she couldn't go over to stop them. She could feel that her anger was building up in her and she was sure if she had gone, something… odd… would have happened. Luckily a professor came only a minute after she had got there, but that didn't make her any less angry now. Angry at the stupid bullies and angry at herself for just standing there watching them.
"Oh…" her mum said and there was the look in her eyes that told Hermione that her mum too was afraid that she might have done something odd.
"Don't worry… I didn't get involved," Hermione said bitterly.
"Honey," her mum sighed as they pulled into their driveway. She turned to her daughter and her expression was sad and understanding. "I know—"
"I get it Mum," Hermione interrupted her, not caring to hear her mum tell her that she did the right thing. "Harry invited me over to his house… can I go?"
"Okay," her mum smiled at her, and Hermione couldn't help but see how much hope was in her mum's eyes. It looked like Hermione wasn't the only one hoping that Harry was going to be a real friend to her.
Hermione then got out of the car and walked to Harry's house, there was a car in the driveway and she assumed that meant that he was already home. As she waited, her anger was getting the better of her, and she was starting to feel that Harry might have a point. She did want to help him prank those gits. But she couldn't… could she? It wasn't right… right?
"Hey, Hermione," Harry said when he opened the door and stepped aside to let her in. He noticed immediately that she was in a foul mood because she stormed past him, but he decided not to mention that. "So… er… what do you want to do?"
"I don't know, yet," Hermione said pacing the room trying to make up her mind. She knew it wouldn't be right to help Harry, but she couldn't stand watching those gits do whatever they wanted just because they could. It wasn't fair!
While she paced the room, Harry just stared at her with a raised eyebrow, wondering if this girl was always like this or if something had happened to annoy her. "Er… what's the matter?"
Hermione looked at him and said something that she never thought she would, knowing that it was mostly her anger that was talking, but she didn't care at the moment. "I'll do it."
"Er… what?" Harry said.
"I'll help you," Hermione said.
"Really? Cool!" Harry smiled at her and then frowned. "What happened?" he repeated, this time looking concerned about her. "Did they do something to you?"
"No, they don't have the guts to do anything to me anymore," Hermione said. "I'm sure that's why they sent you to do it…"
"What?" Harry asked.
Hermione blushed, and looked at the floor nervously; she really shouldn't have said that. She didn't like the idea of Harry finding out what a freak she was. She was sure that was going to happen at some point in time, but she was hoping it would be a while from now… and that he would accept her even after he found out. "It's a long story. Anyways, it wasn't me that they were picking on."
"So they were picking on someone else," Harry said, quite curious about what she had let slip but letting it go, for now.
"Yeah… I hate it," Hermione said. "These kids didn't do anything… and I couldn't do anything to help them—"
"Say no more," Harry smiled. "I'm sure with us working together we can think of something good."
Hermione then followed Harry to the kitchen where he offered her some snack food, which she sadly declined. She could tell that they were full of sugar and she thought that she was already planning on being bad enough that she didn't want to disobey her parents' request that she should eat healthy food.
That's when she saw it. It was a stick that was lying on the counter, and yet it wasn't just an ordinary stick. It looked like it was well taken care of and there was a handle on it.
"What's this?" Hermione asked as she picked up the stick.
"A magic wand," Harry said smiling at her, not showing any of the panic that was going through his mind. He couldn't believe that Remus had actually left his wand out like that.
"A magic wand?" Hermione said raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, Padfoot was planning on doing another re-enactment of a book for me about Gandalf," Harry shrugged. "It's a prop."
"Gandalf… he doesn't have a wand," Hermione said furrowing her eyebrows together.
"I know," Harry chuckled as he remembered the rather lively discussion Remus and Sirius had about this subject a few years ago, "but Padfoot doesn't. As soon as we told him Gandalf was a wizard, he went out and got a wand… Moony and I haven't got the heart to tell him that wizards in that story didn't use wands."
Hermione laughed at that. "Yeah, I'm sure you didn't have the heart—"
"Okay… so it's more like were waiting to see his face when he finds out that Gandalf doesn't have a wand," Harry laughed harder.
Hermione was still laughing, but she didn't put the wand down, she just looked at it carefully. It was odd, but she could swear she felt a power coursing through this wand that she couldn't explain. She felt a little foolish doing this, but she waved the wand around, thinking it would be cool if something happened… like the house would start organizing itself… Not that the house was messy, she thought but stop there because something strange happened.
A lot of things started to move about… seemingly flying to into places where they were supposed to be. She screamed and dropped the wand, which caused everything that had still been in the air to crash to the floor. And then she looked at Harry, who was clearly shocked, before she turned around and tried to leave.
Harry had been smiling before she had shown this little bit of magic, he didn't know why, but he found it really amusing to watch Hermione wave a wand… probably pretending that she was a witch. Before he knew it though, he had to duck because some kind of box was flying towards him with incredible speed. When he looked up at Hermione he was astounded. He couldn't believe this… she was a witch.
Well this just got better… he wasn't going to have to lie to her like he had to lie to all of his other friends in the past. He could truly be himself around her. He was about to smile but she turned away from him, her expression was terrified… so he reached out and grabbed her arm.
"Let me go," she said desperately trying to pull away from him. He thought she was a freak… there was nothing for it now, she had lost the only friend that she'd been able to make in years. She didn't want to see his face… the look of shock and fear that she had seen in everyone else' eyes whenever something odd happened around her.
"No… Hermione look at me," Harry said, not letting her go, and then he felt a stinging sensation in his hand and he couldn't hold her any more. Harry disregarded the pain in his hand and followed Hermione as she made her way to the door, making sure she couldn't leave.
"Harry!" Remus came in the room looking worried. "I heard screaming and crashing noises."
"Yeah," Harry said, not looking at him as he held the door shut, preventing a shivering Hermione from leaving.
"Please Harry, just let me go," Hermione said softly, she was nearly in tears, but she didn't want to cry in front of them.
"No Hermione," Harry said. "What happened—"
"I don't know what happened," Hermione said, sniffing.
"I do," Harry said softly and she looked up at him, with the same hopeful expression she had given to him the other day… the one that was very guarded.
"You do?" Hermione questioned.
"Yes, and if you sit on the couch we might be able to explain some things to you," Harry said.
Hermione looked at him warily. Could this be true… was Harry about to tell her why weird things always seemed to happen around her? How could he possibly know that… he just met her?
"Please," Harry said when she didn't move and she sighed but went to the couch.
"What's going on here, Harry?" Remus asked.
"You shouldn't leave your wand lying around, Moony," Harry said and Remus blushed and then looked for his wand, which was on the floor where Hermione had dropped it.
"His wand… I thought you said it was your uncle's," Hermione said, trying to pull up her inquisitive side, that way she wouldn't have to feel so nervous right now.
"Yeah, well that's when I thought you were a Muggle and couldn't know about real magic wands and such," Harry shrugged smiling at her, and trying not to laugh at the confused and shock look on her face (and Remus's too).
"What do you mean by Muggle?" Hermione asked, her voice was a mixture of hysteria, curiosity and suspicion, "And real magic wands?"
"Hermione, you're a witch." Harry said smiling at her.
"I'm a what?" Hermione said, looking offended. "That's not a very nice thing to say."
"Harry…" Remus said warningly, they shouldn't be getting involved in this.
"I mean a magical witch," Harry said excitedly. "Muggles are non-magical people… but you're not one of them, because you're a witch."
"What?" Hermione said shaking her head this time, that can't be real. Magic… real magic… doesn't exist. And yet, what about all of those weird incidents that happened around her… could this explain it? "I'm a witch."
"Yes," Harry smiled more broadly now.
"Harry," Remus said pulling Harry towards him and trying to speak to him privately, but Hermione could hear him. "What are you doing?"
"I'm talking to my friend," Harry shrugged.
"Harry, I'm serious… and don't give me that pun right now," Remus said, cutting off Harry before he could even open his mouth. His godson was now pouting at him but that didn't stop Remus from saying what he had to say, "are you sure she really is a witch?"
"Let's see, she waved your wand around and things started to fly about the room," Harry said in a mock thoughtful voice. "Then, when she noticed what was happening she dropped the wand and everything fell immediately… yeah, I'm pretty sure."
"You know that we're not really supposed to tell her about magic," Remus sighed, standing up straighter. "The Ministry thinks it's best if Muggle-borns don't know anything about our world until they are old enough to go to school."
"That's just stupid," Harry said. "Hermione obviously knows that there was something different about her… right Hermione?" Hermione nodded her head, unable to talk at the moment. "It would be better for her to know that she's not alone… that there's a whole hidden community with people like her."
"Really!" Hermione said, finding her voice at last.
"Yeah," Harry smiled at her and then looked smugly at Remus.
"I suppose she's the Muggle-born that Dumbledore told us about," Remus said thoughtfully.
"You knew there was a witch around here!" Harry exclaimed, a little put out that he wasn't told that information.
"Yes," Remus said, "Dumbledore thought it would explain away any of your accidental magic if another underage wizard or witch was living near you."
"And why all this security?" Harry asked, scowling at Remus.
"Not yet, cub," Remus sighed, and Harry glared at him worse than ever. Remus and Sirius were quite aware of the fact that Harry has grown rather suspicious about the constant need for secrecy, but they didn't want him to know the truth yet. They wanted Harry to have as normal of a childhood as he could without hearing about what had happened in his past and about how famous he was in the other community that Harry had mentioned but never had been to himself. Remus sighed, he was going to have to tell Harry the truth soon, and that was not a conversation he was looking forward to.
"What are you going to do to her… erase her memories?" Harry snapped a lot angrier than he should have been because of the other issue he was thinking of. He hated that Remus and Sirius were keeping something from him. "I want to have a friend that I don't have to lie to all the time… someone that I can be myself with…!"
Hermione looked at Harry at that moment and smiled. He had always seemed so confident when he was talking to her (and the others too), she never would have guess that he felt this way… the same way that she had felt.
"Of course I'm not going to erase her memories," Remus said rolling his eyes. "I was just saying that you weren't supposed to tell her… but now that everything is out… I guess it's too late for that."
"Well, then, I for one am really glad it's too late," Hermione said. "I have so many questions."
"Well, it looks like we'll have plenty to talk about for the rest of the day… and the next day and the next," Harry teased her with a chuckle.
Harry was right in a way, Hermione had asked questions about the magical world until it was dinner time, and Remus was having a good time explaining everything to her. He found that he rather liked this girl that had a thirst for knowledge that might actually be more than his own. Still, he had wished that she had left before Sirius had come home, because Sirius and Harry had both scowled at him (while laughing their heads off) about leaving out his wand.
"It's getting really late," Hermione said, and I haven't even done my homework yet, she added in her own head. "I should be going home. Er… what should I tell my parents about this…?"
"Hmm…" Sirius said and looked at Remus. "It will probably be best if we're their when you tell them… that way we can reassure them that this is all real."
"That makes sense," Hermione nodded.
"Why don't you ask them if they would like to come over on Saturday?" Remus said.
"Okay," Hermione said. "Bye Mr. Lupin and Mr. Black…"
"You're not going to call me that," Sirius said making a face. "Just call me Sirius… or Padfoot if you like, any friends of pup can call me Padfoot."
"Pup?" Hermione repeated, unable to hide her amusement as Harry groaned.
"And I would prefer it if you called me Remus or Moony as well," Remus smiled at her kindly.
"I'll try," Hermione smiled at them and left the house with Harry following closely behind her. "I see what you mean… it really must be fun living with them… pup."
"Argh," Harry groaned as Hermione laughed again. "Here, don't forget to take this."
"What is it?" Hermione asked raising an eyebrow.
"While you were talking to Moony, I thought of what we are going to do tomorrow," Harry smirked at her and Hermione bit her lip nervously. She had said that she was willing to help Harry, but now that she wasn't as angry, she didn't know if she really wanted to anymore.
"I've already included you in the planning, you can't back out now," Harry said, correctly interpreting her expression.
"Er… did you write this," Hermione said looking down at the pages that he gave her.
"Well, I couldn't tell you when Moony was there, now could I?" Harry said. "Besides, I thought you might appreciate how formally plan this was."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll read it. See you tomorrow, Harry."
O
"You've got to be kidding me!" Hermione hissed to Harry when she walked into the classroom, Professor Smith had decided to assign Harry a seat that was behind Hermione, much to Harry's delight. At the moment though, he thought it might have been better if that wasn't true.
"What's the matter?" Harry asked innocently.
"I'm not going to do this, Harry," Hermione said. "If I get caught—"
"Don't worry about it," Harry said. "You won't."
"But… you want me—" Hermione started.
"Just trust me, Hermione," Harry said.
Hermione sighed and nodded her head; well this day was going to be interesting that was for sure, but how it was going to end she had no idea.
O
Well it was all set up now; all she had to do was sit here and wait for it to happen. As she waited for Harry to come, she couldn't help but be a nervous wreck. She knew one thing for sure; no matter if he ever talked her into doing something like this again, she would never like this part of pulling off a prank.
O
"So Harry, is today going to be the day," Chris asked, the bell had just rung for lunch and Harry as well as himself were leaving their classroom.
"Yep, the plan is definitely going off today… it's even in the works as we speak," Harry smiled, trying to stop himself from laughing too much, in case this guy noticed.
"Good," Chris said. "I've been looking forward to this, don't disappoint me."
"Oh, I'm sure it will have everyone laughing," Harry chuckled and then he walked towards Hermione's table. He noticed that she was nervous as hell and he rolled his eyes. He remembered the first prank he pulled and he knew that he was nowhere near as bad as Hermione was, but he had felt the nervous excitement flow through him as he waited for the trap to be sprung. "Don't worry." Hermione didn't answer him; she was too busy staring straight at the table that Chris and the others would be sitting at. "And stop looking there, you're making yourself look suspicious."
Halfway through lunch, when everyone was still sitting in the cafeteria, it happened: there was a shriek coming from Chris's table as one of the girls fled for the lunch room. That caught all of the students' attention but all they were doing was murmuring about what was happening, for no one could see anything.
Harry started to snigger as he saw the tense looks on the other people at Chris's table faces; they should be feeling rather uncomfortable right about now. Then Chris stood up looking at the bench in astonishment, as the place where he had been sitting was covered in a slimy, gooey substance. Then he started moving his hand towards his backside but he needn't have bothered, judging by the ringing laughter that was filling the cafeteria, it was clear that the slime must have been all over him.
His face turned red and his eyes met Harry's, and the laughter and smug smirk told him everything he needed to know. The scrawny little git must have done this to him and by the look of the bushy haired freak, she had helped him.
"You really should clean yourselves off… you're a mess," Harry shouted and the laughter in the room got deafening. That was when Chris looked down and noticed the slime was covering his forearms and hands too. His hand that he had been rubbing through his hair a second ago… He ran out of the room, howling laughter following him.
Chris hadn't been the only one to get slimed and his was by no means the funniest reaction. It seemed, for some reason, most of the people at that table didn't like getting green slime all over them. Go figure.
O
"Now Mr. Potter, I've been told that you were the one that caused all this trouble today," Professor Smith said sternly and Harry just looked at him with his best confused face. They were back in class, everyone was still laughing, but the professor was told that he had to get to the bottom of this incident.
"Sir, it couldn't have been him," said one of the other students in the class. "I mean, he was always around someone, wasn't he?"
"Yeah… I saw him talking with Chris before—" another student jumped in but at the mention of Chris a fresh wave of laughter filled the room.
"Then maybe she did it!" Chris spat pointing at Hermione, his face was red in embarrassment and anger.
"Now, now, calm down Mr. Stevenson," Professor Smith said, shaking his head. There was no way that Hermione, the brightest student in the school, would do such a thing. "That really is enough."
"But he's always talking with her… I bet the two of them planned this!" Chris shouted.
"I said that's enough!" Professor Smith raised his voice. "I'm sorry, but if you're just going to be pointing fingers randomly at people, I can't help you!"
"But…" Chris said struggling to find the words (and Harry and Hermione were struggling to hold in their laughter and remain looking as innocent as possible), "…they did this!"
Professor Smith sighed, and shook his head. "I spent as much time on this as I can allow… we must get back to work."
At this the whole classroom started sniggering again, as Chris glared at Harry and Hermione as they shook with silent laughter.
O
"You should have seen their faces, Padfoot," Harry said laughing as he and Hermione (rather reluctantly) told Sirius and Remus about the prank.
"Harry," Remus said shaking his head. "You usually have more sense than telling me something like this. Now I'm going to have to punish you."
"I know Moony, but the first prank I pulled with Hermione had to be told," Harry shrugged. "Now let me tell you all the great details, and then you can ground me for a month—"
"What do you mean by first?" Hermione groaned.
"If you thought you could only do one… your sadly mistaken," Remus sighed. "I'm sorry… I should have warned you how dangerous hanging around my godson could be."
"Whatever Moony," Harry rolled his eyes. "I won't make you do anything Hermione, I swear… but come on, you had fun, didn't you?"
"Yeah," Hermione had to admit.
"Okay, so you told me the good part," Sirius said. "Now tell me the set up."
"Why do I get the feeling this isn't the first time cub has told you about a prank he's pulled?" Remus raised an eyebrow.
"Because it's not," Sirius shrugged.
"Sirius, you are supposed to set a good example—" Remus started.
"I am… I'm showing him how not to be a hypocrite, unlike some people," Sirius smirked. "Really Remus… you should be ashamed of yourself."
"Argh!" Remus groaned as he shook his head.
"Anyways," Harry said chuckling. "Basically I didn't do anything… my job was to keep the other kids busy which wasn't too difficult… none of them liked to show up to their table until at least five minutes after the bell… Why is that?" he turned to ask Hermione.
"I don't know really," Hermione shrugged. "But I always thought it had something to do with showing everyone that that's their table and they don't have to rush to go get it."
"Well then, that just makes the prank all the better, doesn't it?" Sirius chuckled.
"Yep," Harry laughed too. "Hermione had the hard job. She was the one that had to sneak to the table and put the slime on it."
"How did you do that without raising suspicion?" Remus asked glaring at Sirius, who gave an audible gulp.
"With my Invisibility Cloak," Harry said.
"Sirius!" Remus hissed at him. "You weren't supposed to give him the cloak until he went to Hogwarts!"
"Well it's his… I didn't see why he shouldn't have it," Sirius shrugged, trying not to show fear in the face of the glare that Remus was giving him.
"Anyways, I must say that it became a lot easier to pull off this prank with Hermione being a witch," Harry smiled at her. "You wouldn't have been able to use the cloak or the Slime Time product."
"Slime Time?" Hermione questioned.
"That's what it was called," Harry smirked. "Basically, it just means that the slime looks harmless, or like the surface it is covering, until it is time to revert back to its… slimy state. It takes about ten minutes."
"Oh, that explains why I couldn't see if the thing was on the bench and table or not," Hermione said. "I wasn't sure I had put enough on so I used it all and I only just got away before some of them started showing up…"
"Oh you definitely used enough," Harry said laughing along with Sirius and even Remus looked amused.
"You only need about a handful," Remus said, kindly, finally breaking down and smiling.
"You could have told me that before," Hermione muttered, but she too was laughing.
"And Padfoot, you haven't heard the best part by a long shot," Harry laughed. "The best part was when we came back to class and Chris told the professor that we were the ones that pulled the prank… and you know what happened?" He couldn't go on for he was laughing too hard to say a word, and Hermione was nearly as bad.
"What?" Sirius asked impatiently, dying to be in on the joke.
"The professor… he didn't… believe him," Harry choked out through his laughter. "No… way could… Hermione… Granger… do something… like… this!"
Everyone was laughing now, and Remus, though he would never tell Harry this, thought this was a brilliant prank to pull. He could also see that the friendship between Harry and Hermione had become a lot stronger since yesterday.