Into a new world
Disclaimer: None of the characters you recognise or the Harry Potter world are mine. All belong to the fantastic JK Rowling. The bits highlighted are taken from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
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Chapter 11: Back to Hogwarts
31st August
The last two weeks of summer passed by very typically, with nothing unusual happening. This dampened Sirius' spirit as he had hoped that his brothers would come out of hiding, but everything seemed very quiet. It almost seemed too quiet at work. All of the Death Eaters they were tracking seemed to either disappear entirely or try too hard to get into their good graces. Something was definitely brewing under the surface.
In the Potter household, things were turning around. Megan had realised that being super distant from Harry meant he was talking to Caleb more, and then Caleb had less time to hang out with her. Her feelings for the young Snape only seemed to grow and develop as time went on, and she still had no idea if he felt the same way. So she softened and talked to Harry more, slowly forgiving him, mainly for this reason.
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1st September
"Come on! We are going to be late." A soaking wet Hermione nearly yelled, dragging her equally soaked bemused parents to Kings Cross Station. The station breamed with people, and excited chatter filled the air, mixed with the heavy rain that descended London. A huge flock of people descended on the station, trying to be inconspicuous with their owls and suitcases, but failing miserably.
"Hermione, we have half an hour," Her father, Robert Granger, tried.
Her mother, Kathryn Granger, shook her head, "There's no point, Rob. You know how punctual she is, especially today."
Onlookers would have assumed she was talking about maybe Hermione's birthday or celebration. They would never guess she'd be this excited to go to school. But then the school she went to was Hogwarts, and that was no ordinary school. Finally, they get the black stretch of wall in between platforms 9 and 10. Hermione leaned on the stretch of wall and quickly slipped inside of it, and she came out on a hidden platform. Platform 9 ¾ was the place the Hogwarts express came to, the only train that was ever on the platform or that Hermione knew about. Her parents followed behind her as it slowly got busier.
Hermione looked around to find anyone familiar enough to go and stay with. She knew her parents were uncomfortable on the platform. Thankfully she saw the Weasleys and walked towards them, who all equally looked like drowned rats.
"Ah, Hermione!" Fred grinned (one half of the Weasley twins, the rain dripping off of him. "Good to see you. Make sure you keep Ron from failing this year."
Hermione laughed, "Don't I do that every year?"
Ron went red, "I do my own homework, you know." He defended.
Hermione raised an eyebrow, "I guess that means you don't need me to write any essay structures, read through your essays, or do your references?"
George laughed, "We should hang around you more; you're fun."
Hermione started blushing without really meaning to but was saved by the Potters arriving. She wasn't stupid enough to miss the change in Harry and Draco and knew they were going through stuff they weren't sharing. Harry smiled when he saw them, he was almost reserved lately, which was concerning.
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Harry was nervous. Trying to act naturally when he was so anxious was a problem. Trying to calm his shaking hands, Harry walked onto the platform, his knees nearly buckling. The Hogwarts express looked the same as it did in the other world, although he didn't really expect it to be any different. Megan was ahead, talking to her father about the Triwizard Tournament. And with his twin brothers running to speak to the Weasley twins, he stayed with his mother.
Lily started talking low to him, enough that only he could hear. "You'll be fine, Harry, but please make sure you owl every week minimum. Keep your brothers from killing each other. Megan will come around eventually and know that we love you, son." Lily continued talking, but Harry couldn't take any of it in.
"Thanks," he said, clearly distracted.
His mother looked like she would say something about it, but they arrived at the Weasley's first. Just as Molly was saying, "now behave, won't you? Won't you Fred? And you George?"
Harry ignored the conversation and walked to Hermione and hugged her tightly. He found they were less close in this world than the one he was from. Probably because of Draco and Neville being around (and because of the lack of traumatic events binding them together). This made him sad, but he didn't know how to change it.
Ron looked to his friends holding the cage that held an excitable Pigwidgeon's cage said, "I've already found a compartment for us." He pointed to a compartment a few meters away, "Let's put our stuff in it." They did as he suggested. Soon they were back on the platform.
"You're going have an interesting year," Bill said to Megan as they neared his eyes twinkling. "I might even get time off to come and watch a bit of it…"
"A bit of what?" Megan asked curiously.
"How do you not know?" Ron asked her incredulously, but before she could reply, the whistle blew. Lily and James hugged their children.
"I'll see you in a few hours," Lily said, "No mischief on the train." She eyed her twins, "especially you two,"
They looked at her innocently as they all got onto the train. The Weasley twins, The Black children, the Potter children, Neville, Hermione, and Ron all piled into the compartment to continue talking to their parents.
Megan looked between them, "Tell me what is happening at Hogwarts!" as the train started rolling. Still, the remaining family only smiled and waved. The thick rain splattering the windows made it very difficult to see out of them. Ron opened his trunk in the compacted space and got out his maroon dress robes that was given to him earlier in the day, over Pig. His friends wisely didn't comment on them; even Draco didn't, although he looked like he wanted to, which caused Harry to stand on his foot in warning. The action went unnoticed in the cramped carriage.
She turned on her brother, but he shrugged, and frustrated, she left the room, as did most of the other occupancies. This left just Harry, Ron, Hermione, Draco, and Neville. As Draco opened his mouth to say something, they heard a familiar drawling voice drifting through the open door. Draco tensed, he knew that voice anywhere.
"Father actually considered sending me to Durmstrang rather than Hogwarts, you know. He knows the Headmaster, you see. Well, you know his opinion of Dumbledore, the man is such a mudblood-lover – and Durmstrang doesn't admit that sort of rift-raff. But mother didn't like the idea of my going to school so far away. Father says Durmstrang takes a far more sensible line than Hogwarts about the Dark Arts. Durmstrang students actually learn them, not just the defence rubbish we do…" Gregory Goyle sounded from the corridor. Draco failed to hide his shock; he was such a thick-minded, mindless body-guard in Draco's world, but clearly not in this one.
Hermione got up, tiptoed to the compartment door, and slid it shut, blocking out Goyle's voice.
"So he thinks Durmstrang would have suited him, does he?" She said angrily. "I wish he had gone, then we wouldn't have to put up with him."
"Durmstrang is another wizarding school, right?" Harry posed as a half question. Trying to hide his blatant ignorance.
Hermione nodded sniffily, "it's got a horrible reputation. According to An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe, it puts a lot of emphasis on the dark arts.
"I think I've heard of it," Neville said vaguely. "But it's a secret as to where it actually is. Beauxbatons and Durmstrang have a long history of competing to see whose school is the most concealed."
"How do you know so much?" Harry said suspiciously.
Neville shrugged, "I went through a phase a few years ago, wanting to know as much as possible about the other wizarding schools."
"How do you not remember that?" Hermione laughed, "He went even more crazy on research than me."
The rain became heavier and heavier as the train moved further north. The sky was so dark and the Windows so steamy that the lanterns were lit by midday. The lunch trolley came rattling along the corridor, and the friends bought half the trolley. Several of their friends looked in on them, Pansy who smiled at Neville, gave Hermione a huge hug, and all but ignored Draco to his dismay. Theo Nott and Blaise also came to see them, which cheered Draco up.
The quidditch world cup was still a hot topic in all the friends that dropped in. Hermione, growing tired of the endless Quidditch talk, buried herself in the Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4.
"I was stuck in Italy with my mother and her recent Husband, so I couldn't go," Blaise muttered miserably.
"We were in the top box-"
"For the first and last time in your life Weasley." Seamus Finnigan had appeared in the doorway with Goyle, Crabbe, and Dean Thomas. Harry tried hard to act naturally, but seeing his friends as his enemies was more challenging than he thought it would be. Evidently, they heard the conversation through the crack compartment door, which Theo and Blaise had left ajar.
"I don't remember asking you to join us Finnigan," said Neville coolly.
After the whole commotion with the Finnigan finding the dress robes and trying to embarrass Ron, They left with little more than an excited gleeful smile.
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George was sat on the Hogwarts express with his twin and Lyas, who he was currently ignoring. After how he treated Katie, he didn't know how Fred kept everything normal. He found himself watching Hermione; she was so fascinating to watch. She was so fiercely loyal, brilliant, pretty, and was still hilarious. He knew his little brother fancied her and couldn't work out how she felt. He was beginning to care for her and enjoy her presence even more than Katie and Angelina. He kept up appearances as much as possible, but he found it hard to know Fred saw through it but wouldn't push him.
He wasn't really engaging in conversation until Lyas poked him (his first mistake). George whirled around to face him.
"You okay, George?" That was his second mistake.
George looked at him with deadly venom, "You do not have the right to ask me that. You do not have the right to sit here and act like everything is okay. You treated one of my best friends horribly, you lied about it, blamed it on your little cousin, and now are trying to act like everything is normal?"
"George," Fred warned.
George shook his head, "Sorry, Gred, but I can't do this anymore." He turned back to Lyas, "If you didn't want to be with her, you could have broken up with her."
"I didn't want to break up with her; I just wanted a little fun." Lyas tried to explain hopelessly.
"A, a little fun?" George fumed, all the building rage over the past few months coming out, "Katie is one of the best girls I know. She is kind, smart, fun, and you have the nerve to say that cheating on her was a bit of fun? How can you treat someone like that?"
Lyas at least looked shaken, "everything was just so intense, I needed release, I needed to shake things up a bit."
George was shaking with burning rage, "She loved you, Lyas. You lost a real relationship. You lost something special for what? For a bit of thrill? This mistake will burn you, Ly. It will cause you pain. Maybe not now, but eventually."
"Is that a prediction?" Lyas raised an eyebrow.
"I don't need divination to be able to tell that," George said, still fuming. "I'll see you at Hogwarts, Gred." George stood up and left the carriage without looking back. He walked down the opposite end of the train and stood outside by a window.
He took a few steadying breaths before punching the wall. Hard. He swore loudly and jumping up and down on one foot, cradling his hand. The door to the carriage opposite opened to find Hermione coming out to investigate the noise. She looked to George, concern clouding her features.
"George? Are you okay?" Hermione could always tell him and Fred apart. It was one of the things he liked about her.
"I, I kind of had enough with Lyas, we argued, and I came out here and punched a wall." He admitted.
Hermione raised an eyebrow, "Okay, that wasn't what I was expected you to say. Let me see your hand." She held her hands out to the older boy, who put his hand in her hands. His hand was about twice the size of hers. "Okay, you haven't broken anything, but this should clear it up," she waved her wand, and the blood cleared, and the bruising went down.
George stared at her. "Did you just do non-verbal magic?"
Hermione shrugged, "I can do some non-verbal magic."
"I even struggle with non-verbal magic, and I'm two years above you."
"I didn't think you cared about studies?" She posed as a half question.
It was now George's turn to shrug. "I actually really like studying certain subjects. We want to open a joke shop that requires Transfiguration, Charms and Potions, some Herbology. We just aren't great at Revising for tests."
"We could always study together sometime?" She offered shyly.
George beamed, "I'd love that. I may forget to invite my twin, though." When Hermione looked surprised, George added, "He isn't one of my favourite people right now. Well, he's always one of them, but he is really annoying me right now."
"Wanna talk about it?"
"Maybe when we get to Hogwarts, there isn't enough space on this train to talk completely privately."
Hermione nodded, "Well, you know where I am when the time comes." Not if but when.
"Thank you, Hermione." George smiled, and before Hermione could reply, he disappeared.
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Ron's bad mood from the incident with his dress robes continued for the rest of the journey. He didn't talk much as they changed into their school robes and was still glowering when the Hogwarts Express slowed down at last and finally stopped in the pitch darkness of Hogsmeade station. As the train doors opened, there was a rumble of thunder overhead. Hermione bundled Crookshanks (her half kneezle). Ron left his dress robes over Pigwidgeon as they left the train, heads bent and eyes narrowed against the downpour. The rain was now coming down so thick and fast that it was as though buckets of ice-cold water were being emptied repeatedly over their heads.
"Hi, Hagrid!" Harry yelled, at least one person was the same in this word, seeing a gigantic silhouette at the far end of the platform.
"All right, Harry?" Hagrid bellowed back, waving. "See yeh at the feast if we don' drown!"
First years traditionally reached Hogwarts Castle by sailing across the lake with Hagrid. Harry noticed Lauren Snape and Tyler Longbottom grinning widely at Hagrid.
"Oooh, I wouldn't fancy crossing the lake in this weather," said Hermione fervently, shivering as they inched slowly along the dark platform with the rest of the crowd. A hundred horseless carriages stood waiting for them outside the station. The carriages only carried 4 people. So the boys went together, and surprisingly, Hermione went in the carriage with George Weasley, Lee Jordan, and Katie Bell. Once the doors were snapped shut, a few moments later, with a great lurch, the long procession of carriages was rumbling and splashing its way up the track towards Hogwarts Castle.
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Authors note: In this chapter, there is a lot of highlighting, but that will decrease as the story goes along. At First, there are not many changes between worlds, but you can probably tell some stuff has already changed. The story's format with the actual book takes inspiration from literatekatana's American in the dungeon series on . If you haven't read it, you will not regret it; it is excellent.
