Disclaimer:
I don't own Harry Potter or anything you can recognise from any books or TV series or movies. I do however take liberties with the plots or mentions provided by JKR or other writers. The only profit I'm getting out of it is improving my English.
Title:
Secrets & Keepers – Contentions
Rating/Warnings:
R/M [AU; Manipulative Dumbledore (therefore not Dumbledore friendly); teenage dramas that covers a bunch of issues, from included in previous instalments: past abuse, identity crisis and etc.; family feels (mostly oriented around Harry, Hermione and the Black family but not only); relationship struggles (amongst the adults but let's not forget about the teenagers, they are equally capable of that). Also includes profanity; canon typical violence; pureblood politics and good (or at the very least more sensible) Slytherins.
Characters and pairings:
The core cast will include the characters from previous instalments. Mostly in the flesh but due to certain circumstances mostly in spirit. The most important ones are: Harry Potter, Sirius Black, Regulus Black, Severus Snape, Remus Lupin, Bathsheda Babbling, Hermione Granger, Arcturus Black, Mrs Granger. The story will also contain appearances and mentions about the members of the Weasley, the Greengrass, the Malfoy and the Tonks families but the focus on them isn't as strong as it is on the main cast of the previous instalments. But the main focus is on Hermione's quest for truth and Harry coming in terms with his condition.
All adults behave more or less paternal towards Harry and Hermione as well as generally friendly or at the very least civil towards each other unless otherwise specified.
Pairings:
Adults:
Severus Snape/Bathsheda Babbling (as whole, in past references as much as in the present and with everything their relationship entails); allusions and references to Severus Snape/Lily Evans (Snape-sided);
Sirius Black – no current romance but the story will reference and most likely quite liberally Sirius's past crush on James Potter and past Sirius/OFC;
Regulus Black – no serious romantic relationship to speak of at the moment but let's not forget that he's a grown adult that's surrounded with hormonal teenagers and has his needs, he will definitely sneak out of Hogwarts to scratch an itch or two which might or might not get him in trouble;
Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks – still on it, in the same manner they had been in the past instalments, due to their current circumstances in lesser frequency, no great romance to speak of just yet, just a lot of occasional adult fun.
All of the remaining minor pairings from previous instalments are likely to also appear, mostly in mentions.
Teenage pairings:
I'm putting Harry/Hermione in the tags because they're my endgame romantic pairing for one another in this series. That said, at the moment neither of them is in a particularly good place for developing a lasting romance. Consider this tag as a promise of the longest, slowest, slow-burn romance on the planet (it took me 500 000 words to even get them into the same room). That said in this part I'm not going to concentrate on teenage romance, at the very least one that would last. They're teenagers, they're all bound to have crushes, first dates, first kisses, etc. with all of the accompanying drama those things entail. Plus most of them are 13/14 years old and the most physical thing I can write for them is at the most a very thorough snog, not that we're going to see a lot of it
Spoilers:
All seven books with occasional, brief references to ground work for HP & CC main plot as well as Secrets & Keepers – Collision Course, Secrets & Keepers – Supernova and Secrets & Keepers – Entropy.
Summary:
The new school year begins for Harry and Hermione after a quite eventful summer. There's work to be done, certain meddlers to be taken down a peg or two, new and old friendships to maintain and develop. There are also unsolved mysteries that are waiting to be discovered. It's also time to grow up and revaluate past decisions, behaviours, and relationships. Sequel to S&K – Entropy (direct).
Chapter summary:
The ride to Hogwarts.
Word count:
About 7000.
Author's note:
Overarching theme of this part is conflict as the title suggests. It's everywhere, at every turn, with everyone and over everything. And if it isn't there yet, it will be at some point. It affects everything and everyone. It leads to revaluating past decisions, behaviours and affects relationships.
I will, of course, focus also on individual story arches grounds for which I lied down in other parts of the series. My focus at the moment is concentrated on three: sorting out Sirius's freedom; Harry's mental struggle with being Voldemort's Horcrux (and he will continue to bounce between highs and lows); and Hermione's quest to find her biological mother. They will naturally be looking for and destroying the Horcruxes but at the moment primary focus will remain on the issues I mentioned above.
As for the certain reactions and behaviours, which some people might consider bashing? In so far the only character that doesn't learn from his or hers mistakes is Dumbledore. Anyone else is a temporal arsehole that has a potential for learning from their mistakes. It's called character development and I might or might not have an ulterior motive to draw it out a bit.
As usual I dedicate this story to all of you, my readers, for sticking with me for so long in spite of my shortcomings.
I adore seeing your reactions and answering your questions. They motivate me, and yes, sometimes an innocent question will make me go out of my way to write a nearly 100k words spin-off that I will integrate into the story. Am I seeking a form of validation from you? To a certain extent, yes, I do, as most likely does any other writer in any of the existing fandoms. We like knowing that what we do matters to someone.
Your comments and kudos are and always will be welcome here because they're my motivation.
Beta read by nexandvinny
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
~Margaret Meade
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
~Winston Churchill
Secrets & Keepers – Contentions
Chapter one: Tectonic Movements
Hermione Granger, 1st September 1993, The Leaky Cauldron, London.
She woke up with a start to incomprehensible screams coming from somewhere above the room that she was sharing with her Mum. The screams also woke up Mum and Grim and Crookshanks, the dog and cat most likely a little earlier than them and both pets were as happy about the abrupt wakeup call as Hermione and her Mum were.
Hermione groaned into her pillow and pulled the coverlet over her head. She really didn't want to wake up just yet. Last night they set their alarms for eight o'clock which gave them more than enough time to get ready, have a proper breakfast and even take a walk to King Cross's station.
"The pub isn't on fire," muttered Mum after a moment as she snuggled deeper into her pillow. "We can sleep some more."
"What happened?" Hermione muttered back in reply.
"Someone had been murdered," Mum replied sleepily. "Brutally," she added with a yawn. "Go and sleep some more while you can. I'm sure that someone will get to us if we will be needed."
The ridiculousness of that statement didn't register with her until about a minute later but when it had it woke her up completely. Someone had been murdered not too far away from them and in all likelihood the murderer could still be in the pub. She glanced down at Grim that was stretched out between hers and Mum's legs. His eyes were closed but his right ear was perked up slightly. Crooshanks appeared to be just as uncaring about a potential threat because he yawned widely before he head-butted into Grim's side and snuggled closer to the dog.
"Should we be worried?" she sighed, more to herself than to anyone in particular.
"I didn't hear summons for a doctor," Mum murmured. "If I had I would have headed out to help. That means that whoever had the misfortune of being the victim is most certainly dead. And I've seen enough procedurals to know that the police, any sort of police, will get to the witnesses in due time. Besides we didn't exactly seen or heard anything because we were sleeping. That's why I'm telling you to rest while you still can."
"That's absurdly cold and clinical," muttered Hermione as she lied down. "You aren't even a little bit curious?"
"Maybe a little," Mum replied with a yawn. "But curiosity killed the cat and no matter what people say about satisfaction it cannot bring anyone back. And I don't exactly fancy getting caught as a potential suspect, not in current circumstances."
Mum of course was right. The process of separating and removing Mum from her marriage to Mark Granger without his knowledge or involvement wasn't an easy task even if their 'divorce' lawyer was one of the best and versatile lawyers in the country. In so far Hyperion (with Damocles and Arcturus's help) had succeeded at thoroughly erasing Helen and Hermione Granger out of existence of any sort of Muggle archives just as they erased Mum and Hermione from his memory. As far as Hermione knew Hyperion's intention was to establish Mum as Helen Brooks, a dentist and a single mother of a teenage daughter.
With Mum he had a lot to work with, thanks to Arcturus's file on her parents and some leeway of having Mum's backstory even if it still needed to be filled out. But Hermione simply didn't exist, she didn't exist as Hermione Granger anymore and didn't exist as Hermione Brooks just yet. She was promised that the situation would be remedied in the upcoming weeks, hopefully before her fourteenth birthday and likely no later than the end of the September.
Arcturus assured her that her backstory as Hermione Brooks would be very thorough and unshakable. At the very least in Muggle world. Doing the same in wizarding world required much more finesse. She was known to people as Hermione Granger and she was still going to Hogwarts. Arcturus suggested two ways of handling the issue. The first was ignoring it altogether and remaining Hermione Granger for the rest of the school year since her third year invitation letter had been issued to Hermione Granger and as Hermione Granger she most certainly existed on all attendance lists. The book of administrative records of current Hogwarts' students was supposed to be self-updating and her fourth year invitation letter would be properly issued to Hermione Brooks.
Then there was ignoring the issue until she had a proper backstory as Hermione Brooks in Muggle world and making a statement about her parents' divorce to McGonagall and her friends.
As far as her friends were concerned at the moment there was nothing wrong with her parents' marriage. Dad simply wasn't there to meet or drop them off. Mum handled all of the Weasleys questions about him and his whereabouts while Hermione made sure that she had something to do with her mouth when that happened, a mouthful of juice or tea or a forkful of whatever she managed to shove into it.
Well that meant Ron and Ginny because as far as Harry was aware Hermione was spending the end of the holidays with her grandfather (not that much of a stretch of truth) and that was that. He had other things on his plate and his own secrets he wasn't telling Hermione about (and also lying about, both by omission and deliberately).
Knowing Harry he most likely didn't feel good with deception but with leaving the Dursleys once and for all at stake she couldn't bring herself to be angry with him for lying. Harry deserved a family that cared for him and protected him and if ensuring that meant pretending to believe in things she knew were lies she was going to do that. Because that's what friends do, they protect each other.
Not that she wasn't going to get the truth out of him, eventually because Harry was a lousy liar. What perplexed her was how to get it out of him without mentioning to him too soon how she knew. It was that or playing the waiting game until all of the ink required for existence of Hermione Brooks dried properly.
She shook her head, as Arcturus quite often said, it was unwise to count one's basilisks before they managed to hatch. Harry was at Hogwarts, she was at the Leaky Cauldron and the odds of them having a private conversation in upcoming days were minimal at best.
The knock on the door tore her from her thoughts. It was a gentle one and barely audible kind of knock. She ignored it until it repeated, a bit more insistently this time and with a mild scowl she made her way to the door to open it. She barely had a chance to unlock the door and turn on the knob before she was quite forcefully pushed further into the room by grim looking Ginny that slammed the door shut behind herself.
"What's wrong?" asked Hermione quickly.
"Ron," Ginny replied flatly. "He's…" she started and snorted. "Furious and looking for blood. Yours, well, that of your cat's specifically, for killing Scabbers, but at the moment he will settle for yours."
"Why?" asked Hermione sceptically. "Crookshanks hadn't done anything. He was here the entire time."
"Are you certain?" asked Ginny with a frown.
"Unless somehow during the night he managed to acquire and then lose thumbs in order to open a locked door, sneak out of here to murder Ron's rat, after entering what I'm presuming is another locked room, doing the murder part and then somehow repeating the process in reverse to sneak back into the room," replied Hermione, with an edge of sarcasm in her voice.
"Human transfiguration is taught at advanced level, is it not?" asked Ginny pointedly.
"Last time I checked it was," Hermione replied flatly. "And no, I hadn't been reading that far in advance. There's a reason why it's in advanced levels, I'm not at the appropriate of level of power and most likely I won't be for another year if not two or even three. Have I satisfied your curiosity concerned family member?" she concluded sourly.
Ginny snorted in reply and shook her head before she said, "I don't bloody care about that old pipe-cleaner, not since it started sneaking into the bathroom while I was showering. Unfortunately Ron does and he's going to be insufferable and therefore he's going to make the rest of the world suffer."
"He can fuck off," Mum muttered from the confines of the bed. "You can tell him if he as much as scowls at Hermione then I'm going to pull all of his teeth out, without anaesthesia."
"That might actually be funny," said Ginny with a small glint in her eyes. "But I'm afraid that Mum will be quite displeased with that."
"She can fuck off too," Mum replied. "She raised that anti-aircraft alarm siren and had failed to convey to him how one should behave in public establishments at the hour when majority of people in it are sleeping. If she as much as breaths a word I will cry out Muggle attack."
Ginny stared at Hermione's Mum in shock before she muttered, "She's always this intense in the mornings?"
"Not really," Hermione replied. "She just didn't have coffee and she was really counting on sleeping in a little."
"Tough luck," Ginny snorted softly.
"No shit, Sherlock," Mum muttered in reply
"What?" asked Ginny curiously as she turned towards Hermione.
Hermione yawned and shook her head before she asked, "Can I explain that during the train ride?"
"Sure," Ginny replied. "Now pardon me, I have to wake the twins if they had failed to get up and a funeral to organise. You might consider yourself not invited to it," she added before she slipped out of the room.
"Peculiar girl," said Mum a couple minutes later. "Are you good friends?" she asked curiously.
Hermione shrugged before she sighed, "I'm not sure, Mum." She paused briefly before she continued, "She wasn't exactly herself last year and there are certain subjects…"
"Boys?" Mum prompted.
"One in particular," Hermione admitted. "Ron claimed that she used to have a giant crush on Harry and even with everything going on last year…" she grimaced. "It's hard to tell. She went through a traumatic experience."
"So were you," Mum interjected. "Traumatic events," she added a bit more softly, "they impact different people in different ways. Some need time to return to even a modicum of semblance of earlier normalcy. Some bounce back right away, much like a rubber ball from a hard surface. And some," she paused, "some never do. If there's an advice that I can offer on the subject, start afresh, both of you."
"I promise to give it a try," Hermione agreed.
The next couple of hours were brutal. Naturally, Ron tried to pin Scabbers' disappearance on Crookshanks and Hermione but Mum got into his way with a comment about tearing other peoples' teeth out for a living and Hermione's explanation to Ginny about Crookshanks inability to open locked doors. Ron didn't appear to be convinced and quite bravely parked himself by Mrs Weasley's elbow. Mum's comment perplexed both adult Weasleys but her reasoning did not. Scabbers disappearance/demise was an unfortunate and saddening event but Hermione and her cat definitely had nothing to do with it and once Ron would calm down he would surely realise that too.
Out of shrews of sympathy towards Ron losing his pet rat Hermione spent majority of the time at watching whatever or not Crookshanks would cough up incriminating evidence. She was fairly certain that he wasn't going to do so but if that somehow could make Ron feel a bit better she could do that.
That by doing so instead of convincing Ron that she and her cat had nothing to do with it she was only incriminating herself in his eyes she failed to realise until Ron slammed the door to an empty compartment right in front of her nose.
"Fuck you and the unicorn you rode on," she muttered at the door before she shook her head and picked up the carrier with Crookshanks and her trunk.
By the end of the carriage she found Ginny seated on her trunk with arms crossed over her chest.
"Everywhere else is full so far," she explained simply. "I'm waiting for people to stop moving around before looking for a free spot."
"You don't want to sit with your classmates?" asked Hermione curiously.
"Have you seen my classmates?" asked Ginny pointedly. "Or ever talked to them by any chance?"
Hermione shook her head. Unlike Ron and Harry, she did see the sorting year prior but at the moment couldn't summon names of Gryffindor students from that year that weren't Ginny or Colin Creevey.
What she was thinking had to somehow show on her face because Ginny snorted softly before she explained, "Yes, I have classmates, Colin and I both do, at the very least we used to," she said with a shrug. "The Sawyer twins, brother and sister, inseparable to the point of practically oozing with weird vibes. Then there's Ogden's great-great-grandniece or something, she was distraught with being in Gryffindor and only talking to Hufflepuffs even though as far as I can tell the Ogdens were a majorly Gryffindor family. Boys were Gregson and Perkins and both talked about likelihood of switching schools. And of course there's Romilda Vane…" she grimaced. "She started out with me, that much I remember but when I started losing time…" she grimaced again. "Well, I certainly didn't remember seeing her in the spring and I don't remember seeing her on the train back."
"And you don't particularly care about Romilda," stated Hermione.
"Or Colin, really," she added and shrugged. "I mean he isn't bad or anything and I definitely have nothing against his upbringing but…" she said quickly before she paused for a deep breath. "It's just," she shrugged. "I spent a lot of time this summer talking with Bill. He and Charlie are the only ones that do so without making me feel…"
"Like a third wheel?" offered Hermione sympathetically.
"Or a pest," added Ginny. "And it's not that the rest don't care but…" she shrugged. "I don't feel small when I'm talking with them. Bill offered me a lot of perspective about everything that happened last year. Even sneaked me a couple of times to a Gringotts' mind healer that helps people deal with aftermath of being possessed. It helped a lot. But it wasn't the only thing we were talking about."
Hermione nodded, not really wanting to interrupt Ginny.
"I told him about Harry and how I…" she grimaced. "I still like him, very much so. He's cute and brave and occasionally funny. But I also realised that the way I behaved around him last year…" she paused and grimaced. "It was creepy and I didn't really give him a chance to get to know me, the me I'm around others and not this star-struck girl with a crush the size of France."
"Well, I had a crush the size of France on Lockhart last year," offered Hermione. "It still feels embarrassing."
"Because he was a grown man or because he was a fraud?" asked Ginny with a cheeky smile.
"Both," Hermione deadpanned. "I mean he was great to look at but…" she shook her head. "But you were saying."
"That I'm going to try and corral that star-struck girl into someone capable of doing more than squeaking and dropping stuff at the sight of the boy she likes," added Ginny. "And Bill said that at our age boys are still mostly stupid about girls and feelings and stuff like that and…" she paused for a breath. "So I will see how that approach will work."
"And if it won't?" asked Hermione with a small grimace.
She didn't want to discourage Ginny after everything the younger girl had been through during the past year. But giving her a false hope to hold onto didn't exactly seem sincere or good thing to do.
"Well, his loss," replied Ginny with a shrug but her voice lacked conviction. "There's got to be a boy at Hogwarts that would like me the way I really am. But I'm not going to deny that I hope that Harry will be that boy," she added. "Someday may be," mumbled. "Or not," she concluded.
"Well," said Hermione. "I'm going to try the carriage over there," she gestured at the next carriage. "If we're lucky we might find a free spot to sit."
They didn't find a free spot strictly speaking as all except the very last one were quite densely packed and with a mixture of relief and a little of trepidation Hermione discovered Daphne, Tracey and Astoria sharing that very last one compartment with a sleeping, adult-sized roommate.
Daphne and Tracey gestured at them with a grin and Astoria perked up when she saw her. Hermione didn't have to be looking at Ginny to feel that she was about to burst from curiosity.
"Yes, we know each other," said Daphne simply.
"I know," replied Ginny swiftly. "You're in the same year. But you weren't exactly friendly towards each other."
"Things changed," Hermione replied simply.
"They had," Tracey agreed. "Hermione here," she said as she gestured at Hermione, "spent the end of the summer with her grandfather. As did Daphne and Astoria, and I. Their grandfather I mean."
"And they know each other," added Daphne. "Our grandfathers. They decided that because we're the same or similar age then maybe we can try to get along."
"And we had," added Tracey. "She's great to be around when she doesn't behave like an over-compensating beaver."
"Tracey!" Astoria chided her.
"Not a beaver anymore," Hermione replied cheekily as she sat down next to the adult-sized lump before she smiled at Tracey widely. "I'm afraid that you need to find another nickname."
"Poodle?" Tracey offered.
"You're a Poodle yourself, Tracey," Daphne quipped. "The closest animal likeness I can come up with is a Cocker Spaniel. All sweet and cuddly on the surface but if you get on their wrong side they can show their teeth."
Hermione snorted at that. Arcturus said the similar thing couple weeks ago. It wasn't very funny back then and it really wasn't funny now.
"Cocker Spaniel yourself, Nymph," she muttered.
"I meant it as a compliment," Daphne replied in mockingly hurt voice.
"And the dog?" asked Ginny curiously as she looked at the puppy at Astoria's feet. "They aren't exactly…"
"Coco," explained Astoria. "He's a support dog for me. I have a…" she swallowed, "a condition and his presence helps me."
"McGonagall agreed," Hermione added.
"Didn't exactly had a choice," added Tracey. "That list of approved pets isn't worth the parchment it was written on. The school cannot deny the presence of familiars and support animals and has to accommodate to their needs. The only thing they can do is hoping that no one will come with a pet bear or a dragon."
"And it's not like people actually bother to adhere to it," agreed Ginny sourly as she finally sat down next to Hermione, without doubt she was thinking about Scabbers. "He looks really cute," she added as she gesture at the dog. "Would you mind if I pet him."
"Not at all," Astoria replied. "He loves being petted."
Soon enough Astoria and Ginny were sitting on the floor, petting delighted and blissed out Coco and talking about tricks he could already do and ones that Astoria was hoping to teach him soon, with Ginny making suggestions.
Hermione felt a little relief that they were getting along and when she looked up at Daphne she realised that Daphne most likely felt the same.
"Who's that?" Hermione asked curiously as she motioned with her head at the sleeping lump next to her.
"A R. J. Lupin," Daphne replied. "Professor allegedly but R. J. Lupin on his case looks older than the Professor part."
"New defence professor?" asked Hermione, feeling a hint of giddiness at the unexpected prospect of meeting the man, whom Arcturus speculated to be involved in whatever Sirius, his younger brother, their Metamorphmagi cousin had been up to with Harry.
"Most likely," Tracey concluded.
"Isn't that the only vacancy?" asked Hermione sceptically.
"Out of core classes sure it is," Daphne agreed. "But Professor Kettleburn from Care of the Magical Creatures had been threatening the board with retirement for the last couple of years and he could have retired."
"I would have," Tracey agreed. "Tommy occasionally exchanges letters with him and he had been complaining to Tommy about not feeling as strong and capable of keeping with the classes as he used to. Then there's that feeling of being a liability to the safety of his students with all of his artificial limbs."
"And the fact that teenagers are little shits with very little sense of self-preservation," added Daphne. "Oh, come on, we both know that this part was in the letter."
"And that teenagers are little shits," agreed Hermione.
"We're all teenagers," Ginny pointed out.
"And most of us are little shits," agreed Tracey.
"Me too?" asked Astoria timidly.
"You're a special snowflake, Tori," Daphne said quickly. "You aren't going to be a little shit until you deliberately set something on fire," she added looking pointedly at Tracey.
"Or try to brew an illegal potion from not exactly legally obtained ingredients," added Tracey sweetly looking at Hermione.
"Or until you will manage to convince the resident house queen that you're one of her minions when in reality you don't give a fig about her," added Hermione as she looked at Daphne.
"Or get yourself possessed by an evil spirit and sic a mythical monster after innocent people," added Ginny grimly.
"Well, no one actually died," said Daphne briskly. "How you're feeling with it, Weasleyette?"
"Better," Ginny replied. "Knowing that…" she hesitated. "Knowing that no lasting harm had been done to other students had helped a lot. And it's not as if I deliberately got myself possessed."
"Hardly anyone does," Tracey pointed out.
"Idiots do," Daphne muttered. "How are you doing?" she asked as she looked at Ginny.
Ginny shrugged and sighed, "Days aren't that bad and I have better ones more than the bad ones. The nights are more problematic though."
"Nightmares?" Daphne offered.
"It's more like an inability to fall asleep," replied Ginny grimly. "That's how it felt, the possession. I was doing something in one moment and in the next one I was in places I didn't remember going or remembering how I got there."
"Have your parents considered a service animal?" offered Astoria sympathetically. "They do help. A lot."
"I'm sure they do," said Ginny with a grimace. "But my parents…" she grimaced again.
Would have a problem with affording one and then there was the upkeep of one. Owls were common familiars and predators by nature, they could supplement their diet with pests. And speaking of pests, rats were small and ate very little all things considered. But a dog for example, that would have been costly.
"A cat maybe?" offered Hermione. "They're relatively easy to take care of and are also predators so upkeep of one wouldn't be too costly."
"Mum isn't exactly fond of cats," replied Ginny. "She finds them deceitful. Dad doesn't really care."
"Personally, I think that your mum should value your emotional well-being over her fondness or lack of thereof towards something that might have a potential of helping you get better after what you have been through," replied Hermione. "Avoiding sleep isn't healthy."
"I will think about it," said Ginny pensively. "Can I try and borrow Crookshanks first?" she asked hopefully.
"I'm sure that he won't mind," said Hermione as she looked down at the dozing cat that was sprawled next to her. "Would you mind?" she asked as she scratched his head.
The cat purred in reply before he shuffled slightly so he was lying on his back, presenting his neck for scratching that only made him purr loudly.
"He doesn't seem to mind," said Tracey just as the door opened. "Oh, hello there," she added as she looked up. "Longbottom."
"Hey Neville," said Hermione lightly as she looked at him.
He looked… well, surprised mostly, most likely at the sight in front of him that was Hermione and Ginny sharing the compartment with two Slytherin girls. But there was also a determined set in his jaw, one that she had seen way back when he caught, her, Harry and Ron sneaking out to get to the Philosopher's Stone before You-Know-Who. Someone had to get on his bad side and not even Malfoy could do that.
"Hermione," he said finally as he nodded at her. "Ginny," he added as he looked down at her which made her look up at him. "Davies," he added as he looked at Tracey. "Greengrass," he added as his gaze slid over to Daphne. "And…" he drawled out as he looked at Astoria.
"Little Greengrass," Astoria replied. "But you can call me Astoria if you want."
"And come and sit down," said Daphne briskly. "We're in a six-seater but I'm sure that we can all fit in."
At her comment Hermione shifted closer towards Professor Lupin, mindful to leave enough space to not elbow him in the side by accident. He looked like he needed sleep, most likely due to the full moon that set down just in the early morning.
For a moment Neville looked like he was considering denying the invitation but he decided against doing so and slid between Ginny and the seat before he tried to haul his trunk to the luggage rack.
At the sight of that Daphne shook her head and pulled her wand out of her pocket before she pointed it at Neville's trunk. As the trunk slid out of his grip Neville squeaked slightly and whirled around to look at Daphne.
"The law against the underage use of magic prevents us from legally using magic outside of school," replied Daphne simply. "But," she added with a grin, "we're on a Hogwarts' Express which is considered a part of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
"Ergo, we're permitted to do magic here because technically we're on the school grounds," added Tracey. "There's no need to throw your back by hauling luggage up and down."
Hermione snorted at that. Her and Ginny's trunks were under the window because in so far they failed to bother enough to throw them at the luggage rack.
"I was waiting for you to remember that," said Daphne dryly while Hermione levitated the trunks to the rack. "Unless you were the goody two shoes who hauls them up and down by yourself."
"No, she's the goody two shoes who utilises my older brothers for that," Ginny interjected. "So did I in so far. They don't remember about it either."
"Best not to advertise it otherwise they will stop helping," commented Neville.
"Will you?" asked Ginny cheekily as she leaned back and looked up at Neville.
"Continue to help those that ask for it nicely?" asked Neville. "I wasn't raised by wolves."
"No, you were raised by an elderly lady with a fondness for stuffed vultures," said Daphne. "How is she doing these days?"
"She's still fond of stuffed vultures," replied Neville simply. "Uncle Algie got her a new one for her collection and I think that Auntie Enid was hoping that she will replace Edgar but I don't think that she will ever bring herself to do that."
"It was a present from your Dad, wasn't it?" offered Daphne sympathetically.
"Yeah," Neville sighed heavily. "How is your family doing? Weren't you going to become big sisters sometime during the summer?" he asked.
"Supposed to, yes. Actually become them, luckily no," replied Daphne with a shrug. "Dad is getting an annulment because dearest Guinevere decided to procreate with another man."
"Sorry to hear that," Neville offered.
"I'm not," Daphne replied with a snort.
"Neither am I," Astoria piped up. "She was an awful person."
"With a name like that it's not really surprising," Ginny commented.
"Isn't that your name too?" asked Tracey pointedly.
"Strictly speaking it's Ginevra," Ginny replied. "And I always hated that name. For as long as I remember I was Ginny and for a very long time I believed that Ginny was a nickname for Virginia which in my honest opinion is a much better name. But it's not like Mum and Dad don't have a habit of coming up with names that we find embarrassing."
"Do any of you actually like your full legal names?" asked Daphne curiously.
"George," answered Ginny with a shrug. "He was the lucky one. Ron is the other one who doesn't break in hives at the sound of his legal name."
"Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George and Ron," muttered Neville. "That means…."
"Billius, Charlus, Percival, Alfred, George and Ronald," suggested Daphne.
"Almost spot on," replied Ginny with a chuckle. "Fred was baptised Frederick and only our senile great-something-grand-aunt calls him Alfred. And Bill and Charlie changed their legal names to William and Charles as soon as they turned seventeen."
"Could have been worse," said Daphne simply. "Our Aunt was a Morgenstern by marriage and our littlest cousin narrowly escaped being named Lucifer Morgenstern in the aftermath of a very bitter divorce and separation," she added. "Christian mythology and quite spiteful references to Satan."
"I actually know worse," Neville interject. "And it's not like your baby cousin actually is Lucifer Morgenstern."
"Samael Morgenstern," Astoria said quickly.
"Close enough," Hermione pointed out.
"But speaking of ill-fitted names," continued Neville. "Or maybe too fitting ones come to think about it. What must be going through people's heads to name their child Severus."
"That's it's a rare Christian name of Roman origin," replied Hermione sourly.
"Could be a compromise," Daphne offered pensively. "I mean, it's not something that's widely known…"
"Unless you like to listen to adults gossiping," added Tracey. "Tommy and Percy were in the same year with him. And way back then Professor Snape had been trying to go around, at the very least amongst fellow Slytherins by Half-blood Prince moniker."
"The Prince family is one of the old families," explained Daphne. "And by some standards they might be even considered as Ancient and Noble. I didn't hear a lot about the main line other than stuff that occasionally comes up in the Prophet's gossip column."
"Snape definitely isn't the descendant of the main line," added Tracey. "Main line adjacent maybe, a distant cousin to the current Prince heir, Sebastian I think, and most likely removed once or twice."
"His mother was a Prince though, one that rebelled against an arranged marriage or maybe it was a courtship," added Daphne. "Either way, she fled the family home and married a Muggle."
"Snape," nodded Neville.
"Well, I only know what I heard from Uncle Percy or Tracey's older brother and it's not like I make a habit of listening to them gossip about their former classmates," replied Daphne. "The last time I did hear them say something about it was that considering all of the rumours about Sebastian Prince and that's a direct quote 'it was a wonder that Severus had failed to brutally murder him'."
"Did they say if Snape hates his guts because he's a heir of the family…" started Ginny curiously.
"He's a cad," explained Tracey. "Your oldest brothers probably went to school with him. They might know more about the stuff he pulled off at school. But the stuff he pulls off now…" she shook her head. "He has a knack for seducing ladies and likes to swindle money out of them. Gambles a lot too."
"And most likely had many more less than dishonourable misdeeds that weren't aired out in public," added Daphne. "Who knows."
"Speaking of Snape," Ginny continued. "From your perspective I mean. What sort of head of the house he is?"
"Considering that he isn't obliged to butter our family up or bend to their will?" asked Daphne pointedly. "Much like McGonagall towards Gryffindors from what I heard about McGonagall. Yes, he's biased and he will not discipline anyone in public but if we do something to warrant it. Aside of that he's stern and just."
"Unless you're Draco Malfoy," added Tracey. "I'm not sure what's the deal between Snape and Malfoy Senior but he lets that shit get away with murder."
"I don't think that he would let him get away with the actual murder," Daphne said pensively. "I mean, think of the paperwork," she added with a snort. "The old house rumour has it that he really hates administrative paperwork. Once, supposedly many years ago and no one is sure if it was completely justified, some older students say that it was, some say that it wasn't, he banned the entire house from going to Hogsmeade. So in retaliation for that all of the students who normally were allowed to attend petitioned him for an extraordinary circumstances exemption from the ban. They also convinced first and second years to write one so they could visit their families."
"And since they were petitions and according to the status for the response to a petition to be considered valid it also needs to be written," added Tracey. "Imagine how much paperwork he had to get through within about a day."
"And we're only talking about responses," said Daphne with a smirk. "They were also appellations to his responses and further petitions to the Headmaster and the Board of Governors."
"According to seventh years he only started to fill out administrative stuff again only a couple years ago. Up until then if it was something related to a particular student he summoned them to his office and dictated his response to them and just signed it with his name," said Tracey. "Supposedly to make people think twice about getting into administrative disputes with him."
"Harsh," muttered Hermione.
"But effective," admitted Neville. "Auntie writes petitions, for sport she says," he explained. "What's sporty about a pile of parchment that refers to administrative disputes on the subject of stuff like the number of trees surrounding the theatre I have no idea. But she likes it or just really likes to rill people up."
"Everybody needs a hobby," commented Daphne. "She used to play Hippogriff polo, didn't she?"
"There's a Hippogriff polo?" asked Hermione sceptically.
"It's a very, very minor sport of little consequences," replied Tracey. "Used to be quite popular about a century ago but now the entire league of it consists of two clubs."
"And the age of their members averages at eighty," added Neville. "Hippogriffs are notoriously hard to train into carrying people and that's without involving a saddle and a bridle. Then there's the net and balls."
"They really don't like being hit with balls too," interject Tracey.
"And then there's the overall cost," concluded Neville. "Not really worth the hassle for a dinky cup."
"Don't let Malfoy hear that," Daphne said with a snigger.
"Or Wood," Neville deadpanned. "He's determined to win the Quidditch this year because it would look great on his resume. Saw him bothering the team earlier. But I didn't see Harry," he added as he looked at Hermione.
"He's already at Hogwarts," Hermione replied. "Got himself into trouble with his relatives and ran away from them."
"And he got caught," Daphne guessed.
"By your head of the house of all people," Hermione repeated briskly the cover story. "Spent past couple of weeks in his company."
"Sounds awful," said Neville sympathetically.
"It probably was," Daphne agreed. "Are you sure that he was really writing to you?" she asked pointedly.
"Definitely," Hermione replied. "I can tell Harry's chicken scratch from Snape's, thank you very much."
Over next hour or maybe it was closer to two their conversations continued to drift from subject to subject. Drifting from Astoria's prompts to reveal something about sorting process through favourite subjects. Ginny found herself talking about hexes she learned in Egypt with almost worrisome glee. Neville at some point drifted over to Daphne and they started talking about Herbology and Potions.
It was nice, pleasant, weirdly refreshing but it didn't really feel like enough. She did miss not having Harry and Ron around. Harry wasn't there and Ron…
She shook her head. She wasn't going to bow down and beg for forgiveness for something she hadn't done. Maybe last year she would have. But not this time. Ron had to understand that he was being ridiculous and apologise properly.
"Okay, so who spat into your morning tea?" asked Tracey as she pushed her way into the bathroom after Hermione.
"You at the moment," Hermione replied simply. "I'm trying to urinate here."
"Fine," said Tracey as she turned around. "Go ahead and pee," she added. "And then you will tell me what's wrong."
Hermione had done her business and washed her hands before she asked, "You didn't hear all of it?"
"Not really," she replied. "Tommy and I were watching sunrise on the roof," she explained. "We don't really get to have a lot of time as siblings but we always found time for watching sunrise when one of us was leaving the company of the other for a prolonged period of time."
"Oh," Hermione breathed out.
"It's weird, I know," Tracey replied. "But it's just something we always liked to do. It's one of the few things we always had for ourselves. I mean, I love Daphne and Tori and my step-siblings but Tommy is my older brother."
"You don't have to explain that," Hermione assured her. "I was only thinking that it somehow made it to you," she added before she explained everything that happened in the morning.
"What a moron," Tracey snorted. "I know that it's his pet and I would feel bad if something happened to my pet if I had one. But there's got to be a certain boundary…"
"I'm hoping that he will come around eventually," replied Hermione with a shrug. "I'm definitely not going to apologise for something I haven't done.
"And you definitely should not," said Tracey briskly.
There was a knock on the door.
"Occupied," Tracey growled at the door before she turned to Hermione. "I'm sure that he will come around in a couple of hours or a couple of days. The Weasleys are famous for their tempers and he might require a longer cooling off period."
"I hope so," Hermione sighed.
There was another knock on the door, this time more insistent.
"Occupied," Tracey growled again at the door and this time so did Hermione. "Fuck off."
"I really have to go and I'm coming in whatever you like it or not," came from the other side.
"Fine," Tracey snarled before she pounced at Hermione.
Hermione barely had time and enough reflex to brace herself for an armful of the other girl and she most certainly did not expect what followed.
Tracey was kissing her and it wasn't an innocent peck on the lips either and out of shock she opened her mouth. Tracey didn't waste time or opportunity to push her tongue into Hermione's mouth.
It was…
It was hard to tell what it was. It wasn't exactly unpleasant but it wasn't as if she ever considered kissing another girl the same way she saw couples do. It felt interesting though, a bit tingly and exciting, and maybe a little rebellious and Tracey definitely knew what to do with her lips and tongue for the world around Hermione to drop away.
"What the bloody hell is that?" tore through the pleasant fog around Hermione's brain, the indignant voice sounded somewhat familiar and although she hated the interruption she found herself pulling away.
"Good?" asked Tracey cheekily as she stepped away from her.
Hermione hummed under her breath.
"If you want more, you know where to find me," she added as she stepped towards the door, pushing her way past…
… a gobsmacked Ron who was looking from Tracey's retreating form to Hermione.
Great, just great, she groaned inwardly.
"You," Ron mumbled. "You were kissing a girl."
"An astute observation Ronald," replied Hermione tersely. "Do you have any more of them hiding in your sleeve?" she asked pointedly.
"You were kissing a girl," Ron repeated.
"We already established that," Hermione agreed.
"You sound as if you liked it," Ron mumbled incredulously.
"And if I did?" Hermione growled.
She didn't dislike it but she wasn't exactly certain that she liked it because it was Tracey or because she did like the whole thing. Ron's parroting wasn't helping her figure that either.
"She's a girl!" Ron protested. "Girls don't kiss other girls like that!"
Oh, it was only getting better and better. In addition of being a stubborn prat, ready to blame his pet's demise on Hermione and her cat against the overwhelming evidence of how nonsensical that idea had been Ron was also turning out to be a big, fat bigot.
"For your information, Ronald," Hermione said vehemently as she stepped towards him. "Some girls kiss other girls like that and they bloody like it. Some boys too kiss other boys like that and they bloody like it too. There's nothing, absolutely nothing wrong with that and if you still believe that it's wrong then you and I are done as friends until you will come to your senses and if you never do then once and for all. Now get out of my bloody way, you arsehole!" she concluded the tirade with a snarl before she pushed past him.
He didn't follow her.
TBC
Next Tuesday: The rest of the train ride and a visit from a dementor.
