and the Messengers of Sorrow Ch-4
by: Cassy and Kammi
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns everything except Cho's friends, Cassy, and Kammi.
"Uh, yes. We're prefects," Harry answered nervously, looking anxiously at Ron's pale, shaking face.
"I'm not." Ron said slowly. Hermione said nothing; she just stared at Ron. "I'll be right back," Ron muttered. He got up and practically ran out of the compartment. Hermione and Harry looked at each other. Neither of them could think of what to say.
It was Hermione who finally broke the silence. "We'd better go to the prefects' cabin now, or we'll be late," she said hollowly. Harry nodded and they, too, exited the now vacant compartment. As they passed through the corridor, Harry caught glimpses of anxious first-years and jesting, jovial older children. Hermione finally stopped in front of a large room near the front of the train. It had a brass nameplate on the door that read "Prefects." Hermione took out her wand and said, "Arithmancy," as she tapped the handle. The door magically opened. "The prefect password," she explained after Harry gave her a blank stare. They walked inside the spacious compartment and a pretty girl with dark brown hair ran to meet them. Harry recognized her at once and blushed; she was Cho Chang, an extremely pretty and popular sixth year, who was the Ravenclaw Quidditch Seeker. Last year Harry had asked her to the Yule Ball, but she was already going with someone else.
"Hi Harry!" she intoned cheerfully.
"Er, hi, Cho," Harry replied nervously. Cho turned to Hermione, and her smile suddenly seemed painted on.
"Hello, Hermione," she gushed with an overly bright voice.
"Hello, Cho," Hermione answered coldly, and swept past her briskly. Cho turned back to Harry, her face shining again.
"So, Harry…you're a prefect, too! That's great!"
"Thanks, Cho," he said faintly. He gazed into her big, sparkling brown eyes. She was so pretty. "You're great too. I mean…. You're wonderful…. It's wonderful…. Er, I meant that, uh…." Stop! Shut up, Potter, while you're ahead said a voice in Harry's head. Harry just smiled at Cho. She looked flattered; either by the smile or if she had understood Harry's ramblings.
"Uh, well," Cho said, and Harry could tell that she was trying to make conversation. "My friend didn't make prefect last year. She was so bummed."
"Yeah," Harry murmured, thinking of Ron. "Yeah, I bet so." Someone nudged Harry in his back. He jolted out of his trance. "Oh, hi, Hermione," he said.
"I got the answer to my question, Harry, so I'll go back to our compartment now. Want to come along? Or," she said, looking warily at Cho. "Do you want to stay and, er, chat?"
"I'll, uh, stay," Harry muttered, without looking Hermione in the eyes. She scowled at Cho, then bolted out of the compartment.
"Want something to drink, Harry?" Cho asked.
"Sure," Harry replied. Cho led him to the back of the compartment. A huge table piled with food hid the back wall. Cho handed Harry a glass of pumpkin juice and a cauldron cake. Harry, who was famished, consumed them quickly.
"Harry," Cho started. "Do you want to meet my friends?"
"Oh, all right," Harry agreed reluctantly. Meeting Cho's friends was the very last thing that he wanted to do, but it was better then standing around looking like an idiot. Cho led him over to a corner. Harry recognized many of the people standing there talking as the people who were always surrounding Cho wherever she went.
"Everyone, everyone, listen!" Cho called. The talking immediately stopped. "Harry," Cho said proudly, "meet Angela Hankerson, Emily Grouser, David Branthson, Victoria Nott, Joanna McDonald, Jonathan Moon, and Frank Rendivichi," Cho pointed to them each in turn as she called out their names. The girl with artificially blond hair called Victoria came up to Harry and shook his hand.
"Why, if it isn't little Harry Potter. The famous Harry Potter. My, isn't this an honor," she sneered, dripping with sarcasm.
"Oh. Th-thanks," Harry muttered. Cho smirked.
"Harry," Victoria continued. "Have you met my baby sister, Kammi, and her little friend, Cassy? They're 5th year Gryffindors, just like you."
"Ah, yes I have met them." Harry said after searching his memory, and finally stopping on two girls with brown hair who were extremely quiet. He recalled Hermione mentioning some girls who slept in her dormitory who were silent as mice. She always forgot they were there. But thinking about Hermione made him think of Ron. "Um, I have to go, everyone," he announced. All of Cho's friends kind of nodded, like they really couldn't care whether Harry stayed or committed suicide with pineapples and sharpened toothbrushes. Cho looked deeply disappointed. "I'll see you around sometime Cho, okay?" Harry offered. Cho smiled.
"Okay, Harry. Good-bye."
"'Bye, Cho," Harry waved, and exited the compartment quietly.
Harry was walking along the corridors, thinking of Cho, when suddenly…. BAM! He tumbled to the floor.
"Oh, I am so sorry!" a musical voice said. Harry looked up to see a girl with short reddish-brown hair staring down at him. He recognized her as Cassy Moon, one of the girls that Victoria had mentioned back in the prefects' compartment.
"Please forgive us, Harry," said a second, louder voice. Harry turned to see another girl with long dark brown hair with a concerned look on her face, who was Kammi Nott. Cassy reached for Harry's hand and pulled him to his feet.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Kammi asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Harry assured them, and they walked their separate ways down the corridors. Harry reached his compartment, and was about to pull the door when he heard people yelling inside. He knew the voices at once to be Hermione's and Ron's. "Look, Ron!" Harry heard Hermione's voice yell shrilly. "It's not my fault that I'm a prefect; It's not my fault that I'm practically perfect, and that you are stupid and lazy! I even have to beg you to do your homework! And you want me and Harry to tell Professor Dumbledore that we don't want to be prefects just because you don't want to feel left out! That is so selfish! How we ever became friends I'll never know!"
"I'm selfish! Harry's my best friend, and now you are trying to take him away from me!"
"We'll see about that. Harry will come back any second, and you can tell him what you want us to do."
"But," Ron spluttered.
"I do not want to talk to you right now." Hermione retorted. Harry didn't hear anything else, so he quietly opened the compartment door. Hermione and Ron were sitting on opposite sides of the compartment, glaring at each other.
"Hi, you guys," Harry said into the silence. Both of his friends jumped and looked at him. Hermione spoke first.
"There he is, Ron. Tell him what you told me earlier." Harry looked at Ron, pretending that he hadn't heard what they were yelling. Ron said nothing; he just stared at his hands. Hermione must've been really angry, because she suddenly started yelling again. "Harry, he said that he wants us to tell Dumbledore that we don't want to be prefects anymore. Can you believe it?"
"Ron," Harry said softly. "If you don't want to be around us if we are prefects, of course I will tell Dumbledore that I don't want to be one, you know that our friendship means more to me then anything in the world." Ron looked up at Harry with a grateful grin.
"Th-" he started to say when Hermione cut him off.
"WHAT??!!" Hermione shrieked. "Harry, have you gone mad?" Harry sighed heavily.
"I know that it may sound crazy, but…"
"Crazy?!" Ron cried. "Harry's not crazy. He's being a friend."
"If being a friend means that you have to give up a great honor just because your friend is being selfish, then I guess I don't know that much about being a good friend," Hermione shot back.
"No, I guess you don't!" Ron shouted. There was another silence.
"Ron, you are a brainless git," Hermione whispered with quiet fury. Harry guessed that this was just too much for Ron, because he turned red with rage. "Hermione, do you know what it's like to have six brothers and sisters? Do you? NO! You and Harry both have no siblings; you have no idea what it's like! What it's like to have so many older brothers that everything that you own once belonged to one of them? To have so many brothers and sisters that your family can barely survive? To have the exact same thing for breakfast three months in a row because you didn't have enough money to have anything to eat except toast? You don't even know the half of it! Harry, you think that you have it rough because you have no parents, and you live with those muggles over the summer holidays? Think again! You have piles and piles of money! Hermione, too! She thinks that she has problems if she doesn't get A pluses on every piece of homework or tests that she does? Those aren't problems! Those are tiny little worries. They won't kill you. They just upset you. And now I am upset. With you! Hermione, at least Harry values my friendship! All you care about is showing off, being the best, becoming Head Girl! I've had enough with both of you!" Ron stormed out of the compartment. Harry and Hermione stared at each other; both of them lost for words.
"Well, well, well," a cold, calculating voice rang out from the corridor. "I see the inseparable three are in a little quarrel. What a pity." Harry and Hermione turned to see Draco Malfoy standing in the doorway, flanked, as usual, by Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. "I guess you'll have to tell Dumbledore that you don't want to be a prefect, now, Granger. You don't want to lose your friendship with Weasley now, do you? Stupid of you, really. Who'd want to be friends with a poor slob like him anyway? But what do you expect from a Mudblood?"
"Put a cork in it, Malfoy," Hermione said calmly. Draco laughed.
"But Granger, I thought he was a brainless git."
"Shove it, Malfoy, or you'll be sorry." Hermione ordered.
"Oh, I'm positively quivering with fear," Malfoy drawled lazily. Hermione walked right up to Draco and punched him in the stomach. He doubled over.
"Who's the brainless git now, Malfoy?" she said sarcastically, and slammed the compartment door shut in Crabbe's bewildered face. Harry stared at Hermione in amazement.
"You know, that's the second time that you have hurt him in two years." Hermione shrugged.
"He deserved it," she muttered. There was a pause. "Harry," Hermione whispered.
"Yes?" Harry said.
"Do you think I was too mean to Ron? I mean, am I so worried about my grades that I am mean to my friends?"
"Of course not, Hermione," Harry said. "Well, you were when we first met you." Hermione scowled.
"But," Harry continued quickly, "you've changed."
"Hmm," was all that Hermione said. She seemed to be lost in thought. Harry sat down in a seat and stared out the window, watching the sky grow dark. Hermione sat down across from him and grabbed her copy of The Standard Book of Spells Grade-5 and started reading. Harry didn't mind, but there was one thing that did bother him. Ron didn't come back into the compartment.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
One hour later….
Harry stared out of the compartment window on the Hogwarts Express; Ron's words playing over and over in his head. Harry hated being in fights with Ron. Ron was his best friend. Hermione was still reading The Standard Book of Spells. It had grown dark outside. Ron hadn't come back from wherever he stormed off to after he ran out of the compartment one hour earlier. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Hermione's head jerked up from the pages of the book.
"Who's there?" she asked quickly.
"I dunno," Harry replied. Hoping it was Ron, Harry called out, "Come on in." But it wasn't Ron. It was Fred and George.
"Hello there, Harry old boy!" George greeted him.
"Hi you guys," Harry answered. "Have you two seen Ron anywhere?" The two twins glanced at each other.
"Well," Fred began slowly, "he came into our compartment. Close to tears, he was. Rambling on about you two being prefects. He was mad that he wasn't one, but I personally feel sorry for you two. Prefects. That is not an enjoyable task." Hermione scowled.
"Well, young people," George said brightly. "Fred and I have something to show you." He reached into his pockets and pulled out three packages of Canary Creams. "Look. We got two hundred of these things manufactured last week. They're now sitting in what will be our shop next year. Cool, huh?"
"Yeah," Harry muttered, pretending to be interested in the Creams, but his mind was still on Ron.
"We also have a lot of—" But Harry didn't hear what Fred and George had a lot of, because the compartment door opened so hard that it slammed against the wall and bounced back again. Malfoy was standing there again, along with Crabbe and Goyle. "Back again so soon, Malfoy? Want another punch in the gut?" Hermione said, her eyes flashing dangerously. Malfoy sneered.
"That punch was so wimpy, Granger. I bet even Weasley couldn't do any better." He motioned to Fred and George, who were now glaring at Malfoy. "I'll even bet on that. They don't get enough food, so they're as weak as Granger. And she's a mudblood girl!" Draco laughed maliciously. Suddenly, George pounced on top of Malfoy. Crabbe and Goyle made movements as to pull George off him, but Fred held them back. Harry decided to make himself useful; he went over to help Fred. Hermione was no help at all, she just kept shouting that since she was a prefect, we better follow her orders or she would tell Professor McGonagall. Finally, the witch who pushed the food cart heard all of the commotion and came running in. She pulled George and Draco apart, gave them both detentions, and told them that she would tell Dumbledore about their fight. Then, she ushered Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle out of the compartment. Fred, George, Harry, and Hermione just stared at each other silently. Then the twins left without a word.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Harry and Hermione walked into the splendidly decorated Great Hall without looking at each other. Each of them knew exactly what the other one was thinking. They were both mad at Draco, and frustrated and confused about Ron. They took two empty seats at the Gryffindor table, and Harry watched enviously as Ron chatted with Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan happily at the other end of the table. At the staff table, Dumbledore stood up and smiled at all of the students.
"Welcome," he said, "to another year at-"
"Albus! Oh, Albus, it's gone!" Professor McGonagall came running into the Great Hall, frantic. Dumbledore's brow furrowed.
"My dear professor, what's gone?"
"The Sorting Hat, Albus," McGonagall said, breathing heavily. "The Sorting
Hat is missing."
Authors' Note: If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please put them in your review (by the way, PLEASE OH PLEASE review) or E-mail us at cassyandkammi@writeme.com
We hope you enjoyed it! Thank you! Tchao! Ü T_T*