Harry Potter and the Kid and the Tiger
Chapter Seven-Dumbledore's Great-grandson
Back at the Granger's Harry and Hermione spent a noticeable amount of time together. Harry hadn't gotten up the nerve to try and kiss her again since the attempt to kiss her at Diagon Alley. Harry wished he wasn't so nervous around girls. He wished he could be like Fred, "Oy, Angelina, will you go to the ball with me?" Maybe, he could kiss her on the Hogwarts Express, as it was now September first, and in a few hours they would be leaving for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Harry sighed and was soon shaken out of his thoughts we he heard Ron excitedly talking to Hermione and pointing at several Muggle objects, "Hermi, what's this? And this? This? This? And this?"
Harry looked at Hermione who looked sort of bewildered and answered, "A beeper, an electric table-lamp, a microphone, a flute, a few banknotes, Muggle money, as you'd call it, and a tape recorder."
"Wow!" Ron enthused, "A grape precorder! Dad doesn't even have one of those!"
Harry could tell that Hermione was struggling not to bust out laughing as she told Ron that he could keep the tape recorder.
"So," Harry said, "We've got everything packed, right?"
Hermione nodded immediately, and Ron nodded absently, ignoring Harry. At the moment, he had learned how to record his voice and replay it in fast-forward, making him sound like a chipmunk.
Harry drummed his fingers on the table. He looked over to the clock, it was almost 10:30 in the morning. They'd have to be at King's Cross in half an hour to catch the Hogwarts Express.
Harry heard Hermione sigh.
"What is it Hermi?" Harry inquired.
Hermione sighed again, "Fudge and all of those other Ministry witches and wizards were killed in that Death Eater attack even though Dumbledore was protecting them. That doesn't make any sense."
Harry nodded, it didn't make any sense, usually Dumbledore and his forces were able to defeat the Dark Side, but this time they had failed.
Hermione continued, "Not to mention the fact that he hasn't written to us telling us what happened and such."
Harry shrugged, "Maybe he wanted to tell us in person, or maybe Sirius will tell us."
Hermione nodded, "Yes, your probably right. I always have worried too much, and besides we've got to go soon. I'll tell Mum to get the SUV out of the garage."
Hermione left in a rush and was back just as quickly as she had left. Hermione's mum was with her, as her dad had left for work already.
"OK," Mrs. Granger began, "Are you guys ready to get to King's Cross?"
Harry, Hermione, and Ron all answered with a hearty "Yes!" and they went out and piled into the car. Ron and Mrs. Granger went into the front while Harry and Hermione went into the back. A little less nervously then before, Harry put her arm around Hermione and was rewarded with another Hermione-smile. Harry blushed at this while Ron rolled his eyes. Other then that, the ride to King's Cross was rather uneventful.
After arriving at King's Cross, Hermione hugged and kissed her mum goodbye, and Ron and Harry thanked Mrs. Granger for letting them stay over. Then they walked up to the metal barrier on Platform 9 that was the entrance to Platform 9 and 3/4.
The trick about getting through the barrier was to go through with out the Muggles waiting for trains noticing you. Harry decided that he would go first, and while chatting nonchalantly with Ron and Hermione he laid his arm on the barrier and slipped through.
Harry quickly came out of the barrier and saw the scarlet locomotive that was the Hogwarts Express, as well as several of his friends. Harry suddenly felt a hand take his, and he looked at Hermione and smiled. Ron came out next, saw the two of them holding hands, smiled slightly, and walked up with them to the rest of the Weasleys.
"Oy, how are you there Ron?" Fred said heartily.
"Hey there, Ron, hullo Harry, Hermione," George said and then he noticed Harry and Hermione holding hands, "Well, what have we here? I do believe that you two are prefects, so I suppose, we have the-"
"Prefect couple," chorused Harry and Hermione.
George looked shocked, "Where did you-"
Harry cut George off, "Ron came up with the name." He gestured towards Ron.
Ginny Weasley, with her new black hair, shyly came up to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. She also had grown over the summer holidays, but not much. With her black hair and blue eyes, she looked somewhat like Harry's little sister might have, had he had one. Harry refused to dwell on this, he knew his parents were dead, and he really couldn't remember much about them. Nonetheless, Harry wished they were still here to see him go to Hogwarts.
Ginny looked almost on the verge of tears, and it suddenly hit all of them why. Ever since Harry's second year, and Ginny's first, she had a terrible crush on Harry which he devoutly wished she didn't have. Now, seeing Harry with his girlfriend, it must be painful, but Harry never had returned Ginny's feelings.
"Hello there, Ginny," Hermione said, "How are you?"
Ginny looked from Harry to Hermione, muttered, "Okay," and turned on her heel to leave.
"Sorry Ginny," Harry said, but Ginny turned around, shook her head and left.
"Just great," Hermione moaned, "Five seconds into the end of summer holidays and I already lost a good friend."
"She'll get over it," George said, "Don't worry, she always gets over these kind of things."
"Where's Malfoy?" Ron inquired, and Fred shrugged.
"I dunno, I'd rather hope he's not coming after that jumble of curses we sent at him last year."
Harry grinned, last year Draco Malfoy, his arch-enemy, and his "friends" Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle had come into Harry, Ron, and Hermione's section of the train, and taunted them worse then usual. All three and leapt up to curse them at the same time, and the Weasley twins had come in and cursed them as well. The result had been the three Slytherins had been knocked out, and gained what looked to be painful sores and blotches in the meantime.
"D'you really think so?" Ron asked hopefully.
"Nah," George said, "I don't think so."
They all sniggered a little bit and then George spoke up, "Well, I suppose we should get on the train."
They all nodded, and carrying their trunks, they boarded.
Sitting down in their usual compartment of the train, Harry, Ron, and Hermione begin wondering who the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher would be, and Harry put his arm around Hermione. At this Ron shook his head.
"D'you think Snape will finally get the job?" Harry asked.
"Nah," Ron said, "No way. Dumbledore's got to find somebody better then Snape, maybe Lupin will take the job back."
Hermione shook her head, "No, Dumbledore wouldn't let him back, not after it was discovered he was a werewolf. Maybe the real Mad-Eye Moody will come."
"Are you kidding?" Ron said laughing, "Moody's gotten worse then ever at thinking Dark wizards are after him. I would be too, mind you, if I'd been locked in my own trunk for ten months!"
They all nodded, and suddenly Ron got up, "I've got to go to the bathroom, I think they have one on the train."
Harry and Hermione nodded, and Ron left the compartment.
Harry now was alone with Hermione. He had planned to kiss her if this happened, but he wasn't sure if he should do it. He was nervous, and he didn't know why, she was going to kiss him in Diagon Alley wasn't she? Harry decided it would be best to ask her first.
"Um, Herms, do you mind, er, um, if I kiss you?"
Hermione smiled and was about to say yes when the compartment door opened. Harry turned around, fearing it was Ron, returned already from going to the bathroom, but it was worse. Draco Malfoy was there with his bodyguards Crabbe and Goyle.
"So, going to kiss your Mudblood girlfriend, Potty?" Malfoy drawled.
Harry suddenly had a look of instance hatred on his face. Malfoy had called Hermione, "Mudblood", the worst term possible to be given to a Muggle-born wizard or witch. He yanked out his wand but Malfoy was quicker on the draw and yelled "Stupefy!"
Harry froze, and fell over, Stunned. He should have seen that coming.
"Expelliarmus! Expelliarmus! Expelliarmus!" Hermione bellowed and quickly took Malfoy's, Crabbe's, and Goyle's wands, and they flew backward into the wall with a loud Crunch! She then pointed her own at Harry and yelled "Enervate!" and Harry Potter woke up.
"Excuse me, but what is all the commotion in here?" The plump witch who sold candies, cakes, and pumpkin juice to the students, asked them all.
"Er, nothing," Draco said sweetly, "May I have my wand back please Hermione?"
Hermione quickly tossed all of the wands back to their owners, and sat down blushing profusely.
As soon as Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle left, Harry ordered assorted cakes and candies one tray for him and Hermione to share, and another tray for Ron.
As Harry bit into the head of a Chocolate Frog, he asked Hermione what had happened with Malfoy after he'd been Stunned.
"Oh, nothing really. The witch just came in and that stopped everything. Gross!" Hermione quickly opened the window, and spat out a disgustingly colored Bernie Botts' Every Flavor Bean.
"You call that nothing?" Ron Weasley exclaimed as he walked back into the compartment, "You should have seen it!" After imitating Hermione yelling the curses, he continued, "Disarmed all three of them! Then she woke you up, and the snack witch came in!"
Harry smiled broadly and put his arm around Hermione, "Great job 'Mione! That's fantastic, now we're two up on Malfoy!"
Hermione's cheeks had more then a little bit of pink tint in them.
For the rest of the trip to Hogwarts, Harry couldn't find the courage to kiss Hermione, especially with Ron in the compartment. Malfoy had ruined everything. He sighed and nibbled on a Cockroach Cluster, while watching Ron eat like there was no tomorrow.
"Didn't we feed you enough at my house?" Hermione joked after Ron had stuffed down yet another Chocolate Frog looking in vain for Agrippa, know the only card missing in his entire collection after more then eight years collecting them.
Finally, the Hogwarts Express stopped at Hogsmeade Station, and it's magical passengers walked out as well, with Harry and Hermione holding hands. As they filed off to get into the carriages pulled by invisible horses that carried the students of second year and above to the Hogwarts castle to watch the Sorting and eat the welcoming feast.
"FIRS' YEARS, FIRS' YEARS 'OER HERE PLEASE!" a familiar voice roared into the night air, and Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of the Keys at Hogwarts as well as teacher of Care of Magical Creatures rounded up the first years for their annual trip across the lake over to Hogwarts castle. Spying Harry, Hermione, and Ron he beckoned them over.
"'Ello Harry, Hermione, Ron!" he began, then noticing Harry and Hermione holding hands he smiled widely, "Well, what d'we have here? Eh?" After Harry and Hermione had both blushed a fair enough shade of red, Hagrid continued on this time softer, "I'm goon be leavin' soon, so don't worry if I'm gone fer a while."
The trio nodded and walked off towards the carriages, Harry decided to offer Hermione his arm, but in a joking manner.
"Shall you take my arm Lady Hermione?"
Harry saw Hermione smile and laugh a little bit, and she linked her arm through his, "But of course, Sir Harry!"
Had Harry bothered to take his eyes off Hermione and look at his other best friend Ron, he would have noticed Ron glowering, something that he had been doing a lot behind Harry and Hermione's backs ever since they had hugged after becoming prefects.
Soon, they all reached the carriages and sat down on the leather seats, and of course Harry put his arm around Hermione, and they stared at each other for the entire ride up. Meanwhile, Ron stewed some more.
When the carriages arrived at Hogwarts, the students walked through the doors of the castle, and walked in followed by the first years who were talking about Hagrid, their trip across the lake, and how they were to be Sorted, ("Hagrid was huge! Is he really one of the professors?" "I think I saw the giant squid!" "Fred Weasley, he's a Gryffindor, told me you had to wrestle a troll! D'you suppose that's true?"
Soon, they were all seated in the Great Hall, under the enchanted ceiling that showed the cloudy darkening sky that was outside. Harry, holding hands with Hermione under table, turned to watch the Sorting. Professor McGonagall brought out a stool and placed in the center of the Hall, and took out a ragged, and patched wizard's hat that had been used for nearly a thousand years to place students into their respective Houses. This was the Sorting Hat.
Suddenly, a mouth appeared at the brim of the hat, and it began to sing,
"You may have thought this would be hard,
But it 'tisn't really,
Just put me atop of your head,
I'll read your mind quite easily.
Oh, you could be a Gryffindor,
Were come the brave it's said,
The Gryffindors are the ones
Fearless 'til the end,
But you could also be a Hufflepuff,
Were roam the nice and loyal,
Hufflepuffs, they are the ones,
Who are friends 'til the last toil.
Or perhaps you're even one that Rowena Ravenclaw,
Would think quite stunning,
Yet, if your a Ravenclaw,
You cannot lack cunning.
Of course you could be Slytherin,
Were snakes are quite adored,
The top quality of a Slytherin is,
One rotten save the core.
So if you want to find out,
What House you should belong in,
Just sit right down here on this stool,
And put me on your noggin!"
As the Sorting Hat finished, it bowed to each of the four tables to tumultuous applause. Then Professor McGonagall began calling out the names of the scared looking first years. Harry noticed that one of the first-years, one whose yellow hair was spiked strangely, almost as if static electricity was holding it up seemed taller then the rest. Harry pointed this out to Hermione as "Arnold, Amwillage" became a Ravenclaw. Hermione shrugged and wondered if maybe the kid had a growth spurt.
Ron suggested maybe he was a transfer student, as "Nabitt, Dagwood" entered Slytherin to great cheering and swaggered over. Hermione said that this was impossible, as Hogwarts had never allowed a transfer student in it's history, at least according to Hogwarts, A History. (Necberger, Yortimus, "RAVENCLAW!") Ron suggested that maybe it was wrong for once, and Hermione said that was impossible too. (Frytonne, Sixton, "GRYFFINDOR!") Ron then suggested to Harry that they throw Hogwarts, A History out the window. (Weezman, Tyluruis, "SLYTHERIN") Harry then decided that the time was ripe to change the subject, and mentioned that he didn't see the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher seated with the other teachers. (Zacharias, Zekestein, "GRYFFINDOR!") However the conversation ended as Professor McGonagall motioned the kid with spiked yellow hair over, she then bellowed over the post-Sorting noise for quiet, and soon got it.
"Here today we have a first for Hogwarts, it's very first transfer student!" Ron looked triumphantly at Hermione, whose face went pink and looked as though she wanted to die. Harry squeezed her hand and smiled at her and she smiled back. I made her smile! Harry thought happily as Professor McGonagall continued, "Calvin Arrow is here as a fifth-year transfer from the Salem Academy of Magic, normally we do not accept transfer students, but this is a special case as Calvin is Headmaster Dumbledore's great-grandson!"
There was a loud gasp from the Great Hall, Dumbledore was the most powerful sorcerer in the world, and he had a great-grandson?
Harry watched as Calvin Arrow put the Sorting Hat on his head, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. Fifteen minutes later, the Sorting Hat still hadn't made a decision and Harry, Ron, and Hermione were looking at each other nervously, then finally the Sorting Hat bellowed out very clearly, "GRYFFINDOR!"
Fred and George Weasley got up on the table and started chanting, as they had for Harry when we had been Sorted into Gryffindor, "We've got Arrow! We've got Arrow!"
"Say," Harry said suddenly realizing something and he turned to Hermione, "D'you think he's related to the Arrow who was a member of the Phoenix Underground?"
"James Arrow?" Hermione said thoughtfully as Harry nodded, "It could be. It could be."
As they were talking Professor Dumbledore got up and began speaking,
"Well," he began, "I'm certainly glad to see that you have all returned for yet another year of learning, and I hope that all you learned last year has not leaked out through your ears," Harry and Hermione chuckled appreciatively at this, and so did Ron. It was well know that while great, Dumbledore was a bit mad, "As usual, the Forbidden Forest is off limits to everyone, as is the village of Hogsmeade to anyone under third year. We will also be holding another dance around Christmas, as we did last year with the Yule Ball, this one called the Winter Ball and held before the winter holidays. This is done for us to have some fun, and let our hair down, since with the rise of Lord Voldemort," Several people, mostly first years, gasped, "that we have very black times ahead of us, I hope, however, that I am wrong. The fifth corridor on the fourth floor is off limits this year, due to the fact that some practical jokers," Everyone in the hall looked at Weasley twins who smiled innocently, "Seemed to have put several delayed practical joke items there that were clocked to go off on September the first, and it will be at least a year before we can charm the jokes away and make that corridor look normal. We also have a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Hobbes Siberia, but he will not be here until tomorrow, the weather were he is to dangerous to Apparate to Hogsmeade in. Now may you Figg, Extho, Nomaly!"
Suddenly, the delicious food that had been prepared by the house-elves down below appeared on the table and they all dug in, thoroughly enjoying the food, even Hermione who was against elf slavery. In fact, last year Hermione had formed S.P.E.W., the Society for the Protection of Elfish Welfare, to help out with this. She so far had very few members.
After the meal, when all of the students had at least thirds of everything, Professor McGonagall told the two Gryffindor prefects the password, "Diggory", in honor of the late Cedric Diggory who had been killed by Voldemort at the Triwizard Tournament last year. Harry, Hermione, and the two sixth year prefects had a very easy time leading the sluggish and tired Gryffindors up towards their dorms. When the two sixth year prefects had left for their own dorm, Harry decided he might as well kiss Hermione now.
"OK, 'Mione we've tried this twice. Now, D'you think that we can finally kiss?"
Hermione smiled, and said, "Yes."
Harry reached over and grabbed Hermione around the waist, she hugged Harry around the neck, and they leaned forward sort of awkwardly. Their lips met, and Harry felt a bolt of electricity run up his spine, and he hugged Hermione in closer. The kiss lasted for well over five minutes, Harry kissing Hermione, and Hermione kissing Harry back. We they finally pulled apart, they both said at the same time,
"Let's do that again."
And they did. And then they went off to their separate dorms.
