Chapter 9: Hermione
Over the past few days, I had really bonded with the American students. Annabeth in particular. She was incredibly like me, sharing a love of books and loathing it when she didn't understand, or couldn't comprehend a certain situation. I was still quite paranoid and preoccupied and thought they possibly could be Death Eaters, but I had my doubts. But, yesterday something happened that redoubled my efforts to discover the truth about these students. Ron and Harry felt terrible about spying on them as they had really bonded with the Americans, as did I. However, I convinced them to do it a few more times, and Ron struck gold. Ron was waiting outside the boys' room when one of them, I think Leo said
"This feels so weird."
"What feels weird? Frank replied
"This body."
"I know what you mean, I hate being stuck in this body." Ron immediately ran down the stairs and told me this suspicious behavior. I immediately thought, Polyjuice Potion! They must be using Polyjuice Potion!
"Hermione, there's no way to check that they're using it, the Marauder's Map is only at Hogwarts and there are no stores of Polyjuice Potion in the house!" Harry exclaimed
"Harry, be reasonable, they said that this BODY feels weird. What else could they be using?"
"Hermione, it's not like Moody. They don't even have a separate flask or anything that they could be drinking from."
"Harry, four of them have tattoos on their forearm. Don't you think that could be the dark mark?"
"Look, if you're so worried about them being death eaters, just confront them with Mrs. Weasley right now. We can check the Polyjuice problem later."
"MRS. WEASLEY! WE NEED HELP!" I shouted. Mrs. Weasley scurried out of the kitchen and had a worried expression.
"What happened dears?"
"Mum, we need you to come upstairs and help us with something, bring Sirius aswell." Mrs. Weasley ran out and returned shortly with Sirius. We lead them up the stairs and into the boys' room. Percy and Leo stopped pillow-fighting immediately and turned to us. An expression of puzzlement on their face.
"We were just pillow-fighting Mrs. Weasley, we didn't do anything wrong." Percy protested.
"Percy, Hermione just wants to ask you a question." Mrs. Weasley replied, soothingly. Percy's face turned into a grin and he turned to face me.
"What is the question you want answered Hermione?"
"What is that tattoo on your forearm? You, Frank, Jason and Hazel have them. You are branded with the Dark Mark, you're Death Eaters." My voice began to quiver. Sirius and Mrs. Weasley drew their wands and had grave expressions on their faces. To my surprise, all of them threw their heads back and laughed. Leo collapsed and was beating his fists on the ground.
"Thanatos eaters, who the hell would want to eat him!" he cried. Frank and Percy doubled over with laughter.
"Death Eaters, I don't know why they call themselves Death Eaters, to be honest," Percy choked.
"You seriously think that we're in league with Voldemort." Jason asked quizzically.
"If you're not Death Eaters, what's that tattoo?" I demanded.
"This? It's a harmless tattoo I got, Hermione, not the dark mark." Jason claimed, as he lifted up the sleeve of his shirt. Frank and Hazel had different tattoos to Jasons'. Jason had an eagle tattoo with the letters SPQR under them. He then had twelve singular black stripes running down his forearm. Frank and Percy's tattoos were different. Frank had two spears crossed together with the letters, SPQR under them and two lines. Percy had a trident on his arm and SPQR under that. He only had one line under it though. They covered it up and replied
"We're not Death Eaters Hermione. We're just regular American Exchange students with a tattoo and lines on their forearm. Before you ask, Hazel's is a glyph, each of ours is unique." I was really stumped this time, I decided not to ask about Leo's comment earlier and resolved to check the Marauder's Map at Hogwarts instead of accusing them any further and making myself look more like a fool.
"Sorry, last year someone we knew was actually a Death Eater, I was just a bit paranoid."
"Hermione, we would never betray any of you, you let us into your house, we couldn't be more thankful." Frank said. They sounded genuine and I believed them.
"Sorry again." I repeated. With that, Ron, Harry, Mrs. Weasley, Sirius, and I walked out of the room.
"It was good to check, we must be sure." Sirius said. "But since we know that they aren't Death Eaters, let's treat them well." I nodded, I felt bad that I accused them, but I had a gut feeling that they weren't who they said they were. I decided to put the matter from my mind and act like nothing had happened. We were leaving for Hogwarts tomorrow and I needed to finish packing. I had taken out lots of my books for a bit of light reading. I put them in my trunk and drifted off to sleep.
Jason:
Hermione was on to us. I just hoped that she wouldn't keep investigating us, and our excuse was satisfactory. Today, I woke up and realised that we were finally going to Hogwarts and we needed to protect Harry Potter. I rocked up to breakfast and saw everyone else there. Hermione sheepishly smiled at me that I seemed to take as an apology for suspecting me.
"Jason! You got up after me. I didn't think that was possible!" Percy shouted, wide-eyed. I saw the shimmer and happiness in his eyes. It probably helped that his arm was around Annabeth and they were smiling. Frank had the same happiness in his eyes. His arm was around Hazel. I smiled at Piper and put my arm around her.
"You ready for Hogwarts?" I whispered in her ear.
"We've saved the world, Magic school can't be so hard."
"Children! We're taking the Muggle Taxis to Platform Nine and three quarters." The seven of us exchanged puzzled expressions and I replied
"Excuse me, did you say Platform Nine and three quarters?" Mrs. Weasley smiled and had a twinkle in her eye and simply muttered
"You'll see." With that cryptic message, she disappeared back into the kitchen. Only to re-emerge a few minutes later.
"Mad-Eye, Arthur, and Tonks will be coming as well, to ensure your safety. I couldn't wait to get to this Platform Nine and Three Quarters." An hour later, Mrs. Weasley's voice echoed through the house.
"GET READY! THE TAXI IS HERE. WE'RE GOING TO KING'S CROSS! HURRY UP OR YOU'LL MISS THE TRAIN!" I jumped up, grabbed my trunk and ran down the stairs. Percy followed suit and saw everyone else downstairs, crowded around Ginny. From what I could gather, Fred and George had tried to bewitch their trunks to fly down the stairs, to save the bother of carrying them. The result being that they had hurtled into Ginny two flights of stairs into the hall. I heard Mrs. Black and Mrs. Weasley screaming at the top of their lungs.
"- COULD HAVE DONE HER A SERIOUS INJURY, YOU IDIOTS -"
"- FILTHY HALF-BREEDS, BESMIRCHING THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS -"
"All the children had been cowering in a corner and quailed under Mrs. Weasley's furious stares. She screamed
"GET IN THE CAR!" In a hurry, we all rushed through the door and saw multiple taxis and loaded into each one. Percy, Annabeth, Frank and Hazel loaded into one. Mrs. Weasley, Hermione, Harry, and Ron loaded into the second. Mad-Eye, Leo, Piper and I loaded into the third. Fred, George, Tonks and Mr. Weasley loaded into the fourth. Funnily enough, a dog loaded into Harry's car. I put it from my mind. We got to King's Cross very quickly and arrived at Platform Nine and Ten. We were supposed to get to Platform Nine and Three Quarters. It was Percy who spoke up.
"How do we get onto the Platform?"
"You need to run right at that wall between Platform Nine and Ten. Harry replied, "I'll demonstrate." Harry and Ron ran straight at the wall between Platform Nine and Ten and they vanished straight through the wall. I blinked, unable to see what was happening. Hermione, Fred and George went through next. This left us alone with the adults. Leo, the daredevil decided to try it.
"They didn't suffer brain damage, even if I did, it wouldn't impact me as much, I'm already crazy." He said grinning. Everyone snorted and Leo ran through the barrier, dragging Hazel and Frank through with him. Deaf to their protests he dragged them through and they vanished. Percy and Annabeth gave each other a kiss for luck, and then ran too. They vanished, so me and Piper followed them in. I didn't die, instead I saw a beautiful red train, labelled Hogwarts Express. Annabeth had her mouth wide open; I knew her love for architecture. We all rushed onto the Hogwarts Express and found a compartment, only occupied by 'Loony Lovegood' according to Ginny. There was barely enough space for all of us. Us Seven, Harry, Ginny, Neville and Loony. Eleven in one compartment was a tight squeeze. Soon to be thirteen once the prefects joined
'Hi, Luna,' said Ginny, 'is it okay if we take these seats?'
The girl beside the window looked up. She had straggly, waist-length, dirty-blonde hair, very pale eyebrows and protuberant eyes that gave her a permanently surprised look. I knew at once why Neville had chosen to pass this compartment by. The girl gave off an aura of distinct dottiness. Perhaps it was the fact that she had stuck her wand behind her left ear for safekeeping, or that she had chosen to wear a necklace of Butterbeer corks, or that she was reading a magazine upside-down. Her eyes ranged over Neville and came to rest on Harry. She nodded.
'Thanks,' said Ginny, smiling at her.
Harry and Neville stowed the three trunks and Hedwig's cage in the luggage rack and sat down. The rest of us copied them and Luna watched them over her upside-down magazine, which was called The Quibbler. She did not seem to need to blink as much as normal humans. She stared and stared at Harry, who had taken the seat opposite her and now wished he hadn't.
'Had a good summer, Luna?' Ginny asked.
'Yes,' said Luna dreamily, without taking her eyes off Harry. 'Yes, it was quite enjoyable, you know. You're Harry Potter,' she added.
'I know I am,' said Harry.
Neville chuckled. Luna turned her pale eyes on him instead.
'And I don't know who you are.'
'I'm nobody,' said Neville hurriedly.
'No you're not,' said Ginny sharply. 'Neville Longbottom-Luna Lovegood. Luna's in my year, but in Ravenclaw.'
'I don't know who you are either,' said Luna in a singsong voice, gesturing to the seven. Thankfully, Annabeth talked.
"We're the American Exchange Students." She replied
"Hmmm, cool." Luna said, in an extremely dreamy voice. She went straight back to her magazine. I started at Percy and we smirked, we knew that Luna would be a bit of an oddball.
She raised her upside-down magazine high enough to hide her face and fell silent. Harry and Neville looked at each other with their eyebrows raised. Ginny suppressed a giggle. That effectively reflected our reactions aswell. I ended up striking a conversation with Piper. Hermione was talking to Annabeth and Harry was talking to Percy. Suddenly, Percy made a sound that made everyone, even Luna look at him.
"What?" Luna asked.
"THE TRIP IS EIGHT HOURS, EIGHT FRICKING HOURS WITH 6 ADHD De-, WIZARDS!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. All the demigods paled. Eight hours was going to be hectic. We decided to stay silent for a while.
The train rattled onwards, speeding them out into open country. It was an odd, unsettled sort of day; one moment the carriage was full of sunlight and the next they were passing beneath ominously grey clouds.
'Guess what I got for my birthday?' said Neville.
'Another Remembrall?' said Harry.
"What's a Remembrall?" Piper inquired.
"It's like a red orb that my gran sent, I usually forget stuff and the orb turns red if you forget something.
' To answer your question Harry, no,' said Neville. 'I could do with one, though, I lost the old one ages ago... No, look at this...'
He dug the hand that was not keeping a firm grip on Trevor into his schoolbag and after a little bit of rummaging pulled out what appeared to be a small grey cactus in a pot, except that it was covered with what looked like boils rather than spines.
'Mimbulus mimbletonia,' he said proudly.
Everyone stared at the thing. Clearly mystified as to what it was. It was pulsating slightly, giving it the rather sinister look of some diseased internal organ.
'It's really, really rare,' said Neville, beaming. 'I don't know if there's one in the greenhouse at Hogwarts, even. I can't wait to show it to Professor Sprout. My Great Uncle Algie got it for me in Assyria. I'm going to see if I can breed from it.'
I assumed knew that Neville's favourite subject was Herbology, but for the life of him he could not see what he would want with this stunted little plant.
'Does it-er-do anything?' I asked.
'Loads of stuff!' said Neville proudly. 'It's got an amazing defensive mechanism. Here, hold Trevor for me...'
He dumped the toad into my lap and took a quill from his schoolbag. Luna Lovegood's popping eyes appeared over the top of her upside-down magazine again, watching what Neville was doing. Percy, Leo and Frank were watching open-mouthily. Neville held the Mimbulus mimbletonia up to his eyes, his tongue between his teeth, chose his spot, and gave the plant a sharp prod with the tip of his quill.
Liquid squirted from every boil on the plant; thick, stinking, dark green jets of it. They hit the ceiling, the windows, and spattered Luna Lovegood's magazine; Ginny, who had flung her arms up in front of her face just in time, merely looked as though she was wearing a slimy green hat, but Harry, whose hands had been busy preventing Trevor's escape, received a faceful. It smelled like rancid manure. The rest of the demigods ducked and didn't get hit with much. Except Percy, as he conducted the liquid away. Hermione's eyes narrowed in his direction, but changed instantly. Percy smirked and teased us,
"Haha! I'm not hit, you guys are gonna stink for a while." Annabeth pouted at him and replied
"You're not going to kiss me until I clean up?" Percy paled and replied,
"You're beautiful no matter what Wise Girl," Piper squealed from next to me and I whispered in her ear,
"Your inner Aphrodite is showing." She quickly turned beet red and replied
"But they're so cute together. The wizards fidgeted uncomfortably and Leo had to put on an announcer's voice.
"UHHH! PERCY, ANNABETH, EVERYONE IS WATCHING!" They broke away and started blushing.
Neville, whose face and torso were also drenched, shook his head to get the worst out of his eyes.
At that precise moment the door of their compartment slid open.
'Oh ... hello, Harry,' said a nervous voice. 'Um ... bad time?'
Harry wiped the lenses of his glasses with his Trevor-free hand. A very pretty girl with long, shiny black hair was standing in the doorway smiling at him: he guessed that Harry had a crush on this girl, seeing as how he was blushing.
'Oh ... hi,' said Harry blankly.
'Um...' said Cho. 'Well ... just thought I'd say hello ... 'bye then.'
Rather pink in the face, she closed the door and departed. Harry slumped back in his seat and groaned. I had a feeling that he would have liked Cho to discover him sitting with a group of very cool people laughing their heads off at a joke he had just told; not covered in stinksap.
'Never mind,' said Ginny bracingly. 'Look, we can easily get rid of all this.' She pulled out her wand. 'Scourgify!'
The Stinksap vanished.
'Sorry.' said Neville again, in a small voice.
Harry, Ginny, and Neville had finished their pumpkin pasties and were busy swapping Chocolate Frog Cards when the compartment door slid open and Hermione and Ron walked in, accompanied by Crookshanks and a shrilly hooting Pigwidgeon in his cage.
'I'm starving,' said Ron, stowing Pigwidgeon next to Hedwig, grabbing a Chocolate Frog from Harry and throwing himself into the seat next to him. He ripped open the wrapper, bit off the frog's head and leaned back with his eyes closed as though he had had a very exhausting morning.
'Well, there are two fifth-year prefects from each house,' said Hermione, looking thoroughly disgruntled as she took her seat. 'Boy and girl from each.'
'And guess who's a Slytherin prefect?' said Ron, still with his eyes closed.
'Malfoy,' replied Harry at once, certain his worst fear would be confirmed.
"Who's Malfoy?" Hazel asked.
"A Slytherin bully, he absolutely loathes Harry, Hermione and me." Ron said, indicating himself. Percy growled
"I hate bullies!" Annabeth put her arm on his shoulder and he defused. 'And that complete cow Pansy Parkinson,' said Hermione viciously. 'How she got to be a prefect when she's thicker than a concussed troll...'
'Who are Hufflepuff's?' Harry asked.
'Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott,' said Ron thickly.
'And Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil for Ravenclaw,' said Hermione.
Everyone turned to look at Luna Lovegood, who was gazing unblinkingly at Ron over the top of The Quibbler. He swallowed his mouthful of Frog.
'Yeah, I know I did,' he said, looking mildly surprised.
'She didn't enjoy it very much,' Luna informed him. 'She doesn't think you treated her very well, because you wouldn't dance with her. I don't think I'd have minded,' she added thoughtfully, 'I don't like dancing very much.' I didn't have a clue what they were on about, but Ron was clearly stunned.
She retreated behind The Quibbler again. Ron stared at the cover with his mouth hanging open for a few seconds, then looked around at Ginny for some kind of explanation, but Ginny had stuffed her knuckles in her mouth to stop herself giggling. Piper and Hazel did the same, and tried to stop their giggling. Percy and Annabeth were looking extremely shocked. Ron shook his head, bemused, then checked his watch.
'We're supposed to patrol the corridors every so often,' he told Harry and Neville, 'and we can give out punishments if people are misbehaving. I can't wait to get Crabbe and Goyle for something...'
'You're not supposed to abuse your position, Ron!' said Hermione sharply.
'Yeah, right, because Malfoy won't abuse it at all,' said Ron sarcastically.
'So you're going to descend to his level?'
'No, I'm just going to make sure I get his mates before he gets mine.'
'For heavens sake, Ron-'
'I'll make Goyle do lines, it'll kill him, he hates writing,' said Ron happily. He lowered his voice to Goyle's low grunt and, screwing up his face in a look of pained concentration, mimed writing in midair. 'I ... must ... not ... look ... like ... a ... baboon's ... backside.'
Everyone laughed, but nobody laughed harder than Luna Lovegood. That is saying something as Leo and Percy lost it. They both doubled over and Piper shrieked in laugher. However, Luna let out a scream of mirth that caused Hedwig to wake up and flap her wings indignantly and Crookshanks to leap up into the luggage rack, hissing. Luna laughed so hard her magazine slipped out of her grasp, slid down her legs, and onto the floor.
'That was funny!'
Her prominent eyes swam with tears as she gasped for breath, staring at Ron. Utterly nonplussed, he looked around at the others, who were now laughing at the expression on Ron's face and at the ludicrously prolonged laughter of Luna Lovegood, who was rocking backwards and forwards, clutching her sides.
'Are you taking the mickey?' said Ron, frowning at her.
'Baboon's ... backside!' she choked, holding her ribs. Leo looked very amused and tears of laughter were leaking out of his eyes. Suddenly, the compartment door slid open and everyone craned their head. Everyone looked around and stared at the new boy. He was skinny and pale with white blond hair. The two boys flanking him looked more like gorillas. I almost laughed at the sight of them. However, Harry seemed to think the contrary.
'What?' he said aggressively, before the boy said could open his mouth. I assumed this was Malfoy as Harry was glaring at him.
'Manners, Potter, or I'll have to give you a detention,' drawled Malfoy, whose sleek blond hair and pointed chin were extremely irritating. 'You see, I, unlike you, have been made a prefect, which means that I, unlike you, have the power to hand out punishments.'
'Yeah,' said Harry, 'but you, unlike me, are a git, so get out and leave us alone.'
The compartment erupted in laughter. Malfoy's lip curled.
"Who might you be?" Malfoy asked, addressing all of us.
"We're American transfer students." I replied
"You pure blood?"
"No, we're all half-blood."
"Better than that Mudblood Granger anyways. You lot better stop hanging around Potty and Weasel, or their bad behavior will rub off on you." Malfoy sneered. He then turned back to Harry, oblivious to Percy trembling in rage.
'Tell me, how does it feel being second-best to Weasley, Potter?' he asked.
'Shut up, Malfoy,' said Hermione sharply.
'I seem to have touched a nerve,' said Malfoy, smirking. 'Well, just watch yourself, Potter, because I'll be dogging your footsteps in case you step out of line.' Hermione stood up, but Percy leapt to his feet and send Malfoy flying with a punch.
"Don't you dare talk to my friends that way," Percy growled.
"Ahhhhhh, you've killed me, my father will hear about this!" Malfoy shouted, before leaving." Annabeth pulled Percy back down, reproachfully. Hermione and Harry glanced at each other, obviously worried. Ron however, stood up, beaming.
"That was bloody brilliant Percy, you got rid of Malfoy!" Percy grinned and then leant on Annabeth's shoulder. Everyone remained quiet for the remainder of the trip, including Leo, which was a stretch for him. I looked outside and the weather remained undecided as they travelled farther and farther north. Rain spattered the windows in a half-hearted way, then the sun put in a feeble appearance before clouds drifted over it once more. When darkness fell and lamps came on inside the carriages, Luna rolled up The Quibbler, put it carefully away in her bag and took to staring at everyone in the compartment instead.
Harry was sitting with his forehead pressed against the train window, trying to get a first distant glimpse of Hogwarts, but it was a moonless night and the rain-streaked window was grimy.
'We'd better change,' said Hermione at last, and all of us opened their trunks with difficulty and pulled on their school robes. She and Ron pinned their prefect badges carefully to their chests. I even saw Ron checking his reflection in the black window.
At last, the train began to slow down and I heard the usual racket up and down of a train slowing down. Everybody scrambled to get their luggage and pets assembled, ready for departure. Ron and Hermione were supposed to supervise all this; they disappeared from the carriage again, leaving us and Harry and the others to look after Crookshanks and Pigwidgeon, along with all of our pets.
'I'll carry that owl, if you like,' said Luna to Harry, reaching out for Pigwidgeon as Neville stowed Trevor carefully in an inside pocket.
'Oh-er-thanks,' said Harry, handing her the cage and hoisting Hedwig's more securely into his arms. They shuffled out of the compartment feeling the first sting of the night air on their faces as they joined the crowd in the corridor. Slowly, we moved towards the doors. With so many pets, it made dismounting terrible. A brisk, female voice was calling up
"First years, line up over here, please!" The seven of us walked up to this teacher and Annabeth spoke up.
"We're the American Exchange Students, what do we do?"
"Go over to the carriages, follow the other students up to Hogwarts." We nodded and followed Harry and his friends, who was in heated debate with Ron and Hermione.
'What are those things, d'you reckon?' he asked Ron, nodding at the horrible horses as the other students surged past them.
'What things?'
'Those horse-' I paused as well. I saw those leathery horse things. Percy tilted his head and recited.
"The horses are thestrals. They can only be seen by people who have seen death, they are usually seen as omens of death, but they are just given a bad reputation.
Er ... yeah ... he's all right,' said Ron gruffly. 'Well, come on then, let's get in..." He looked slightly apprehensive as he got into the carts. Hermione was explaining further to him what thestrals were.
"So, all of you have seen death?" he asked. We all nodded. He didn't enquire further, so we were grateful. We continued in silence but it was broken by a gasp from Annabeth once she saw the castle. I wasn't interested in architecture, but had to admit it was beautiful architecture. The castle was expertly made. Percy was even paying attention to Annabeth's lecture, which was probably a first. We quickly dismounted and split up from The Golden Trio. We joined the first years, before some intimidating doors. Professor McGonogal, who was a witch not to be messed with walked up to us and whispered
"Demigods, now you will be sorted, right after the first years." She sternly whispered. Then she walked off to usher the first years into the Great Hall. I looked at my friends, but couldn't keep the nervousness at bay. We were going to get sorted.
BOOM WE HIT 1000 VIEWS! YEA BUDDY! Really long chapter to celebrate and also a thank you and an apology for not uploading earlier. I have an excuse. I couldn't upload because I was out shopping. I spent a long time on this chapter, please can I get some positive feedback. Next chapter will be the sorting. Read and Review, we hit 5 reviews, thanks FieryGirl101 and ClearcloudofRiverHuffle. Also shoutout to two guests, who reviewed as well. Thanks! 1000 Views means a lot.
~RedGods