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Chapter 5
A windy day rattled the windows of the common room, blitzing down the chimney of the unlit fireplace and filling the room with a sharp, whistling sound.
Perched on the back of a dark sofa, Harry's legs kicked and swung back and forth. Stomach rumbling as he hummed to himself,
"Honestly, Harry." A sigh that just made Harry grin, he turned to face the young lady who'd addressed him with such exasperation. Noting how long her frizzy curls had gotten; hair falling to her hips, where her hands were firmly planted, "Get down from there."
He slipped off with that same insufferable grin that drove her spare, quickly noting the veritable mountain of books and parchment she had hugged to her torso,
"Mornin' Mione." Harry greeting Hermione, the girl rolling her eyes in the face of his cheeriness,
"I don't understand how you can be so cheery this early." Hermione sighed through a yawn, shaking her head at the boy before dragging him around to sit down on the sofa, "There, better?"
"It's just a seat, Hermione." He flatly retorted, turning himself back so he could, again, see the staircase up to the boy's dormitory. Hermione followed curiously before arching a brow,
"Are you THAT excited to start with your mentee?"
"I wouldn't say that. More the excuse to skip lessons and explore for a day." He hummed, resting his chin onto his folded arms before finally turning to look at his friend, "So, who did you get?"
"Are you not going to try guessing?" A small chuckle, before she drew a hand into the pocket of her robes and flashed her slip from the night before, "The lovely, Ginevra Weasley."
It was Harry's turn to quirk up his eyebrow before smiling a little,
"Heh, good for her. It'll be nice for her to have her mentor also be one of her friends." A gentle look shared between the two of them before a dazzling, mischievous smirk danced across his whole face, "I don't envy you though. I've seen the variants she came up with before she settled on the Bat Bogey Hex, good luck with that."
"I'll be fine." She trilled, focussing on the books and parchment she was sorting through,
"No, you won't." He snickered,
She didn't quite grasp what he had said at first, but a playful glower settled on her face when she quickly caught on,
"What about you? A little bird told Lavender that you were caught sneaking into the Forest by Professor Flitwick?"
"Just testing a hypothesis."
"Oh? Do tell?"
"What, are you not going to try guessing?"
The wind left him at the punch she speared into his side, leaving him to glower at her smug expression as he caught his breath. In that time, Harry finally spotted his target and near vaulted over the sofa,
"See ya, Herms. Tell Gin I'll catch up with her in a bit." Hermione gave a wordless acknowledgement as Harry strode over to the mousy haired boy, peering wide eyed around the room,
"Hey, there." He greeted, Dennis jumping a bit at Harry's enthusiasm and the older boy smiled apologetically, "Sorry about that. My name's Harry, you're Dennis, right?"
Dennis Creevey shook like a leaf, rooted on the spot with his eyes growing wider by the second,
"Y-You're Harry Potter." He whispered, a little red dusting his cheeks as Harry chuckled a little,
"Yup, nice to meet you Dennis Creevey! Colin's told me all about you." Harry thrust his hand forward and smiled stunningly when he got the handshake he was vying for, "So, I don't know if you heard, but first years are assigned a mentor for their first three years at Hogwarts..."
"Y-Yeah, the prefect from last night sa- A... Are you my mentor?!" He squealed that last bit, stiffening as if a bolt of lightning had rushed through his system. Dennis receiving a smirk and nod in reply that had his face bursting into scarlet, "Wicked!"
Harry intended on leading him off, but Dennis near bolted out of the portrait hole at the slightest suggestion they go for a walk. Harry gently smiling along with Dennis's mile-a-minute questioning, despite being incapable of getting a word in edgeways.
All of this observed fondly from the sofa, before Hermione was rudely interrupted by a familiar redhead flopping down beside her in the most obnoxious way possible. Arms and legs splayed and just a little too close her, like some imitation of a starfish,
"Is our meeting going to be that cute?" The girl fluttered her eyelashes at her upperclassmen, said girl rolling her eyes and flicking her attention back to the book in her hand,
"Hardly, I'll take you somewhere to assess your abilities and then we'll go and get some food." Hermione grunted, before a half smile settled on her lips, "Though, I'm partial to sunflowers if you're looking for a more intimate time with me."
"Aww, come on! I haven't even got to Hogsmeade yet! Can't you be easier to proposition, I want a date with my mentor!" A croon teased a little grin out of the Gryffindor bookworm,
"You got one in your first year, I'm sure you'll cope." Hermione sniffed back, brown eyes flicking to playful hazel, "How did you know?"
Pink lips stretched into a smile on her freckly face as Ginny Weasley properly sat up,
"A girl can learn plenty of cheeky little wards and spells when her brother's a curse breaker."
"That doesn't exactly answer my question."
"Nope." She popped the 'p' with an infuriatingly smug expression settling on her face, "But it IS all you need to know, know-it-all."
Ginny's attention was drawn elsewhere,
"What are these?" the redhead inquired as Hermione leaned forward, towards the low coffee table in front of their sofa, depositing a small pile of loose sheets of parchment onto its glossy surface. The older girls distinct, cursive all over the page in black ink,
"Amongst other things, a short schedule. Mostly of when I am and am not available for consultations if you need me." A firmer edge entering her voice that had Ginny thinking of a particular Transfiguration professor, "I'm more than happy to help you with whatever you need, but I'm not-"
"It's not OWL year yet, though?"
"No, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared." She offered sagely, "And with the competition, my research and... some other things we're looking into, my free time will be quite limited this year."
"The competition? I thought we couldn't get in?"
"Ron and Harry scouted out the Goblet and, apparently, Harry's confirmed it's easy to enter if we want to." Hermione scowled as she spoke, no heat to her expression but still clearly irritated, "But he's doing that thing again."
"That thi- OH!" Light dancing in Ginny's eyes as she giggled to herself, "The one where he won't tell you stuff and makes you work it out?"
"He calls it 'Hermione's Common-Sense Training'." Hermione grumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose as she muttered, "I swear those two will hold that Devils Snare incident over me for the rest of my life-"
Ginny's interruption was sharp and loud, somewhat disinterested eyes having swept the Common Room and noted her older brothers also slipping out of the portrait hole (leaving the two girls as the last in the room),
"I'm hungry. If we're doing stuff before breakfast, let's get it over with." She rolled to her feet and offered a helping hand to the somewhat displeased Hermione,
"F-Fine." She sighed, accepting the aid before silently gathering up the pile of parchment with the flick of her wand, "But you'd better listen up, I have a lot of important things going on this year, and next!"
"Yeah, yeah!"
Ginny bit back a huff, Ollie hadn't been the most available mentor but at least he'd been fun and they'd shared interests. Gin loved Hermione and would knew she'd undoubtedly learn a lot but wished she could have gotten someone other than the school bookworm. Preferably a lad with pretty green eyes who she'd shared her previous mentor with…
As Hermione and Ginny slipped past the Fat Lady and off towards their first Hogwarts day of the year, Ginny absently wondered if she could convince her good friend to swap mentees somewhere down the line.
[TO BE CONTINUED]
HI ALL!
Thank you so much for your patience, it's been rough on my end but I'm managing.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter (it being a revamped version of the original) and hope you enjoy things going forward. Can't promise regular uploads but will post when I can.
On another note, you may have noticed this story now has a prologue and has been edited somewhat. Please feel free to read from the beginning again and let me know your thoughts x
Additionally, I have also cross-posted this story to AO3 (and am in the process of doing so with the other stories on this account). I'm editing everything on here for grammar and better continuity, so hopefully things will be a lot smoother going forward. As always though, please let me know if you see any errors. It's a huge help.
Take care guys, see you soon with Chapter 6!
