To Win her Heart (Part 3: Walk)


Here we go! part four! Once again without spell check... grr.... I'm trying! Really! I'm just a bit grammatically challenged lol. Anyway... here we go! I'm gonna try to get a little more of that romance in soon. But I'm still really clueless as to how. A lot of my readers want this to be a H/H story... and im not giving any hints to whether it will be or not. I'll just say... remember the title!

Lauren

The lunch feast ended before one, which really surprised Hermione until she realized that Salem was almost six hours behind Hogwarts. With this new realization she found herself suffering from unwanted jetlag. Classes didn't start until noon the next day, so until then Hermione and Harry had planned to tour the school... If they could stay awake that long.

"Students, when you are finished please head up to your dorm areas. You will have plenty of time to unpack and prepare for tomarrows activities." Harry noted how loud and commanding Headmistriss Cornet's voice was. Quite unlike the kind and quiet tone of Dumbledore. This place was so different for him, and he wasn't sure how to react to the new surroundings.

Padma on the otherhand... she flirted endlessly with any American boy that came within ten feet of her. Hermione overheard her saying something about "a definate shortage of good looking boys" back at Hogwarts. And Justin... well, lets just say he resembled a scared puppy in a new home. The poor boy looked so scared you couldn't tell he was sixteen years old.

At once the entire hall rose to their feet, joining together into three large groups. A very tall black haired girl rose to her tiptoes, elevating her further. "Excuse me!" No one heard her. "EXCUSE ME!" Her scream rang throughout the hall, quieting each and every person within it. "Thank you. Now all Chanide's, old and new! I am Laura, head of this house. If you need any help, come to me, I'm happy to answer your problems. Now if you will all follow me, it's time to head upstairs!"

"Happy my butt... She's so pathetic."

"Suck up overacheiver."

Hermione heard two girls whispering back and forth behind her.

"At least you don't have to live with her. Ever since she was appointed mom and dad have been showering her with praise..."

"I know how you feel, two years ago my cousin Jim was head remember?"

"I'd rather ben in Sainon then be under her command all year."

The conversation continued up the stairs, through two long halls and up another flight that was lined with bright portraits that winked at you when they thought you weren't looking.

Laura, the head girl of Chanide, clapped her hands together happily. "I hope you all kept note of where we were going." She smiled at a handful of first years who were trebling at her feet. "This is our dormitory. To get in, simply pull back this tapestry here." She placed her hand on the edge of a colorful hanging featuring a unicorn and pulled back slowly, "Now just say the password... Marshmallow Cow..." As she spoke, the wall appeared to melt away, exposing a very elegant room, decorated with velvet chairs, chandeliers, cherywood tables, and a fireplace that you could practically walk into.

At the back were two staircases, one with a sign that read 'boys' and one that said 'girls'. Hermione and Harry headed up their respective stairs, promising to meet up in common room in an hour. At the top of the stiars Hermione found doors to seven rooms, yet they seemed so close together it didn't seem possible for the rooms on the other side to very very big.

But remember that magic can do anything. As Hermine opened the door she found the room too big to be real. There were five king sized beds arranged in a circle. At each ones side was a night stand with an elegant lamp, and at the foot was a trunk. Hermione found her luggage next to the bed by the window. She sat down onto it, feeling the soft feather mattress below her, and the gorgeous blue quiilt above it. She admired the quiet settings for a few minutes before her four dormmates appeared. Hermione recognized the voies of two of them as the gossiping pair behind her on the way up the stairs. They other two she had seen at the lunch table sitting opposite of Harry.

"Hermione right?" Said one of the gossipers. She had short black hair with red highlight running though it, and was wearing a gray robe over a pair of shorts and tank top that bared her middriff. "I'm Heather." She said, while shaking hands. "This is Michelle, Lizzy and Kate." She pointed to a blond,a brunette and a redhead in that order.

Hermione received a simultanious "hello" from the three, and then her four bunkmates proceeded to unpack their trunks into a chest of drawers that was hidden under each bed. There was a knock on the door not long after.

"How are you guys doing in here?" It was Laura, "Remember to come to the party tonight downstairs! Oh and Michelle, make sure you write home before tomarrow. You know how mom always wants to know about our first days."

The blonde girl rolled her eyes and grunted a yes. After Laura had left she let out her complaints verbally. "I hate her! She's so annoying I can't take it."

"Laura is Michelle's sister." The brunette adressed Hermione. "She's a seventh year and she is so incredably full of herself. Take some advice and avoid her as much as possible. Once you get her talking you're due for a good lecture."

"Sounds like Ron's brother." Hermione recalled Percy Weasley, who was head boy during her thrid year.

"So Hermione, what do you think of Salem?" Asked Kate, plopping beside her on the feather bed.

"And what's it like in England?" Added Heather. The girls talked and asked questions until Hermione noticed the time.

"Sorry, but I promised to meet... hey, whould you guys like to show Harry and me around? We really need some help finding stuff around here." The four jumped at the offer, and thundered out of the room and down the stairs were Harry was waiting.

Harry was a little shocked to have four extra females follwing his every move, but eventually he didn't seem to mind very much. He did though, notice that American girls were very, very curious. As with Hermione, they asked him enough questions to make his head spin.

One in particular really bugged him though. "So are is there anything going on between you and Hermione?" Lizzy giggled as the question escaped her lips. Hermione immediatly turned away, while Harry's face redened with every passing second.

"No.. we... we... we're just uh... er..."

"Hey! No reason to be embarassed about it! I think it's great that you guys have each other!" Lizzy grinned broadly as they came down the great staricase near the front of the school. Harry tried to explain, but notihng came out.

Kate put her hand on his shoulder. "Ignore Lizzy... she's our hopeless romantic."

"Yeah, she has this obsessive crush on Steve Shephard. Too bad he won't even speak to her."

Lizzy's cheeks grew puffy and purple like a big grape until finally, "I DON'T LIKE STEVE!" Everyone occupying the main hall stopped and turned. There was silence, and then finally a huge roar of laughter. Two boys ran up the stais looking particularly amused. Lizzt began to wail like a hurt poodle. "Now you've done it... Chris and Jason are going to tell Steve and now they are all gonna have a great laugh about this..."

The three other girls seemed to have great amounts of fun picking on Lizzy about her little crush, as they teased her for at least another twenty minutes.

"You are too obsessed! You have his phone number memorized and you've never even called him!"

"Wait, you use phone numbers here?" Hermione asked, very interested. She was tired of hearing about the whole Lizzt dilemma, and this would be the perfect chance to change the subject.

"Of course! Over seventy percent of our student population is either muggle born of half bred." Michelle informed.

"For example, communication. We still use birds of course, but if it's urgent we might use the phone. It's up in the headmistrisses office, so we hardly ever get to use it though. And speaking of birds Harry, I saw your owl on the way in, preety one she is. We don't see many owls here."

"Yeah, we mostly rely on raptors, birds of prey you know. Since Salem school has students from most of the eastern United States and Canada, we need faster birds to get message sent on time. Owls are just too slow here."

They had been walking over the school grounds for some time when they reached a wide river. "This is were we go swimming in the summer." Heather noted. " And across from it are the woods. There is nothing much in there except for your nature trails, squirrels and the occasional unicorn."

Hermione was confused. "Unicorn? I thought they were only native to Europe?"

"They are. About half a century ago, the school started a program to import exotic creatures so they could start a class about caring for magical creatures. There was some sort of problem during one of the classes, and four Unicorns escaped and swam across the river, then escaped into the forest. They tried to catch them of course, but Unicorns are quick. Smart too. The only thing the administration could do was put a magical barrier around the forest so the Unicorns could never escape and be seen my Muggles. Since then they've been breeding." Heather took a deep breath. "Joe, he's our groundskeeper, he thinks there are about fifteen or so. And if you're lucky, you might see one drinking in the river. I saw one my second year, a mare and foal. I was coming back from an astronomy class around midnight and I almost wet myself."

"Ok, too much information Heather." Kate shook her arm, pulling back the sleeve on her robe. "It's almost time for dinner." She turned to Hermione and Harry. "Are you two going to that party tonight in the common room?"

"We are a little tired, but I suppose we can make an appearance."

"Cool."

Ok... Well basically this chapter was just a filler until i can work out something else in my head for the next one. Not bad huh? Anyway, the four girls are based on me and my three friends. Heather is my best bud Heather (wow original on names huh?) Michelle is Michelle, Kate is Kaitlin and Lizzy is actually me (Elizabeth is my middle name) The whole Steve thing is actually true... It was an incident that happened to me a few months ago... so embarassing... Anyway, the point of this rant is just to say that most of the American students will resemble me and my buds, and most of their situations actually happened. But that is another story....

Ok, well i gotta get chapter IX out for MotiY... till tomarrow!

To be continued....