Hogwart's Again
Since their stay in the Leaky Cauldron there had been more muggle attacks. Mostly in France and Spain and one small attack in the Philippines. Everyday the Daily Prophet was filled with stories about the mass killings that You-Know-Who and his followers had committed. Each bore a picture of the Darkmark hanging menacingly in the sky.
Yet, will all the trouble brewing around in the Wizarding World life at the Granger's went on with relative peace. Their carefree summer days were not hindered by the outside world. Ron never ceased to be amazed by muggle objects like microwaves and aeroplanes. He seems most impressed by the Granger's cine-camera. He was often found recording the happy days spent in the backyard enjoying the fine weather.
The evening before term started they sat in the den eating a light dessert. "I can't believe that we have to go back to school already." Ron said his mouth full of pastries.
"Yeah," nodded Harry, secretly he was rather excited to get back to school. It was the only home that he could remember that had happy memory's and he was excited to get back to Quidditch.
"I am actually quite happy to be getting back to school, going back to classes, and seeing some of our friends." Hermione said brightly, polishing off a raspberry scone.
"Your only saying that because you're Head Girl and you want to study again." Ron said grumpily.
"So what if I want to study?!" Hermione said sharply. "You could do a bit more of it your self. Besides we have to start working on our N.E.W.T's, I mean to say that if you expect to get a good job out of Hogwarts you'll need a high score."
"Oh, bug off Hermione," Ron said running his finger's through his hair, "N.E.W.T's are not until the end-of-the year and we won't have to worry about them for ages."
"Ten months isn't exactly ages Ron, your entire career is going to rest of what you get on your scores."
"Stop lecturing me on my "life career" , Hermione!" Ron snapped, "Besides, it's going to be our last year at Hogwarts, well besides you Ginny," he said gesturing to Ginny, "In 7th year you always have to have a bit of fun."
Hermione looked as if she had something to say to that but Ginny cut in abruptly changing the subject, "So are you three excited about learning how to apparate next summer?"
"Yeah!" Harry said, he then added, "It'll be so nice to be able to apparate to Hagrid's hut and visit him on the grounds." He knew very well that Hermione would soon go in to her automatic speech.
"Harry!" Hermione gasped, taken aback, "You know as well as I do that you can't apparate or disparate on the Hogwart's grounds!" she hadn't noticed that the three of them were snickering wildly.
"I was joking Hermione! You've drilled us on that since our first year." he said trying to suppress his laughter.
They retired fairly early to finish the rest of their packing. Both Ron and Harry had to stand on Hermione's trunk so they she could close it.
"What do you have in here?!" Ron questioned after standing on the trunk for five minutes.
She finally managed to snap the lock shut and said, slightly out of breath, "Oh you know the usual. Books, robes, and other assorted supplies."
"So in other words," said Harry as he climbed off the trunk, "Books, books, and more books?"
Ron laughed and they made their way to the 'pink' room to finish packing their own trunks. They finished and bid good night to the girls and climbed into the bed for the last time before school started again.
***
It was very early on the first of September when Hermione came into their room and 'gently' shook them awake. She finally managed to get Ron and Harry out of bed and pushed a piece of toast in to both of their hands and told them to hurry up because they were running behind schedule.
There was a mad rush to get all four trunks into the Granger's station wagon and Ginny was moving so fast grabbing all of her things from around the house she seemed little more than a blur of red hair to Harry who seemed to still be half asleep. They had finally managed to get everything out and on the road in good time. It was a good three hour drive to King's Cross Station and they all sunk into a deep stupor.
"We're here!" Mrs. Granger said cheerfully, her voice has awakened the group from their sleep and they roused clumsily.
Dragging their trunks to find a trolley was another thing all together. Their sleepy hands were not ready to grip the heavy trunk and Ginny dropped hers on Ron's foot twice. The first time had been purely accidental but when Ron had started to curse loudly Ginny purposely dropped her trunk heavily on his foot again. Hermione giggled sleepily and they bid goodbye to her parents.
"Thank you so much for having us over!" Ginny said giving Hermione's parents a hug. She smiled happily and then disappeared into the barrier.
"Yeah thanks!" Ron said shaking Mr. Granger's hand he turned to Mrs. Granger and said, "Your cooking is great! Thanks for the food." Mrs. Granger laughed and winked back a tear.
Harry followed suit and shook Mr. Granger's hand thanked both of Hermione's parents for rescuing him from the Dursley's.
Harry and Ron walked through the barrier separating platforms 9 and 10 while Hermione said good bye to her parents. Her mother was crying freely now and even Hermione was trying to blink back tears. She hugged her father once more and then walked into the barrier where Ginny, Ron, and Harry were waiting.
***
Fifteen minutes later they had settled in on the Hogwarts Express. Ginny had been scooted off by her friends and was sitting with them so Harry, Hermione, and Ron found themselves a compartment of their own. Harry and Ron started to talk about Quidditch while Hermione became engrossed in one of her many books.
***
"Do you think that Puddlemere United has a chance against the Ballycastle Bats?" Ron asked while stuffing a chocolate frog into his mouth.
"No way!" Harry said sounding slightly outraged, "Ballycastle is Ireland's premier Quidditch Team, there is no way that Puddlemere could beat them."
"Yeah, but Puddlemere has Johannes, he is the best keeper that they have seen in ages."
"True but…." Harry began but Hermione cut them off.
"Do you two talk about anything but Quidditch?" she said shutting her book.
Harry and Ron looked at each other and grinned, "No,"
Hermione shook her head and muttered something that sounded like, "boys."
Harry laughed and continued with what he was saying.
***
An hour later Hermione had finally convinced them to change subjects, so they had resorted to Ron's next favourite conversational topic, Malfoy Bashing. Harry could tell that this was not Hermione's choice conversation but she didn't seem to mind too much.
"Malfoy must've had a really hard childhood if he is as mean as he is." Hermione reasoned logically.
Ron's eyes got huge and he retorted, "Hard childhood my a-"
"RON!" Hermione glared at him.
"What I meant," he said through clenched teeth, "Was that I don't think that Malfoy had a hard childhood. He was so bloody rich."
"Just because he was rich growing up doesn't mean that he had a good childhood. Look at his father for Merlin's sake, he was and quite possibly is still a Deatheater. Do you know how hard that must've of been for Malfoy growing up. He was probably never even hugged his father."
Ron gave Hermione the look he always gave her when he knew she was right and didn't want to admit it and grumbled, "Yeah…well…so…."
"Then again," Harry started, "Malfoy may not of known any different than not getting hugs and affection. His whole family seems pretty cold, that is probably what he is used too."
"You've got a point there," Hermione said slowly, "That still doesn't excuse it though."
"You bet it doesn't excuse it!" Ron shouted, "You think I like being bullied by him endlessly just because I was a Weasley or to see my two best friends being constantly pushed around because we are in Gryffindor. It makes me so mad when he calls you mudblood, or when he calls you scar head. I could just hurt him so much."
Harry and Hermione looked at each other stunned, Ron was never the type to show his emotion like this before. He usually kept his emotions bottled up. Hermione looked up at Ron and noticed that he was kicking the ground and his head was down but his neck was bright red.
"I didn't mean to go off like that…" Ron muttered
"Don't worry about it," Harry said, "Why don't we go change into our robes, we should be there pretty soon."
Ron nodded and Hermione grabbed her robes and went to change in the girl's lavatory while the boy's changed in the privacy of their compartment. Forty-five minutes later they arrived in the Hogsmeade train station and then made their to the horseless carriages.
***
"Can you believe that this is the last time we are going to be entering this hall as students?" Harry asked as they entered the Great Hall. He glanced up at the ceiling and saw the bright stars twinkling down at him.
"I know, it seems like yesterday we were walking in here for the first time." Hermione said looking at the first years who were noticeably scared. Hermione gave them a warm smile and they took their seats at the Gryffindor table.
The Sorting Hat went through his usual routine when McGonnagle called out the names of the first years who had identical looks of terror plastered on their faces.
"Poor little buggers," Ron laughed, "I wonder what their brothers told them they had to do."
"No idea," Harry said
Hermione shushed them as the ceremony progressed. Ron continued to grumble that the ceremony took too long and that he was starving. Hermione gave him the death glare and continued to look adamantly towards the Sorting Ceremony.
'Why do Ron and Hermione keep fighting so much?' Harry asked himself, 'I know that they fight a lot but never this much…strange….'
Soon the ceremony had concluded and Hermione was welcoming the new Gryffindor's when Dumbledore rang his glass and the hall went silent. He looked around and smiled warmly, his blue eyes sparkling. "Welcome to Hogwarts! For those new students I know you will have a great time here and will hopefully learn a lot. For those returning students I hope that your days here are happy ones and that you emptied your brains enough so that we can refill them again this year." Everyone chuckled and he continued.
"I have a few start-of-term notices to give out," the hall groaned and Dumbledore chuckled, "Now, now, I have to tell you these otherwise when you break, bend, or otherwise disfigure these rules you can't say, 'Well Professor Dumbledore, I didn't know that we weren't allowed to do that.' so that way I can tell you that I did tell you at the beginning of the year." the children laughed quietly looking at each other.
"Is he always that…what's the word I'm looking for here? Oh yeah, wacky?" a first year, Irish boy asked Harry.
"Yeah," Harry laughed, "But he is brilliant…you'll learn to love him."
"I would like to introduce everyone to our new Head Boy and Girl. This years Head Boy will be Peter Desmond from Ravenclaw."
The hall burst into applause but Ron looked at Harry, "Who is this Peter?"
"He is the Ravenclaw chaser and captain. He is pretty good actually, must be a good student as well." Harry said looking over at Peter, a good looking blonde boy who was waving at the crowd with his Head Boy badge gleaming under the candle light.
"Our new Head Girl is Gryffindor's very own, Hermione Granger." Dumbledore said winking at Hermione.
The Gryffindor table had exploded with applause, Hermione stood up, blushing madly and looking over the hall gave a small wave. Ron and Harry were clapping the loudest and Ron yelled, "That's my friend! That's my friend!"
The hubbub finally subsided when Dumbledore signalled them to, "Yes, I know we are all very pleased to welcome our new Head Girl and Boy. Please, if you see them in the hall be sure and say congratulations, this is an honour that every student at Hogwart's aims for."
Ron snorted along with many other people in the hall and Harry caught Dumbledore's eye, they were twinkling. Hermione had sat down but was still gleaming with pride. "This gives her total gloating rights." Ron muttered to Harry.
Harry nodded and smiled then whispered back to Ron, "Yeah, but she deserves it, she has worked hard for six years to get this."
"Yeah, yeah," mumbled Ron but Harry stole a glance at him and he was grinning stupidly.
Soon the feast was over and Hermione was leading the Gryffindor first years up to the common room. They all looked in awe at the moving staircases and living portraits. Nearly Headless Nick made a brilliant entry through a tapestry on the second floor scaring the first years half to death.
***
Ron, Hermione, and Harry were exhausted by the time they had reached their dorm rooms. They quickly changed into their pyjama's and were soon fast asleep. Harry was too tired to dream but not to tired to have a nightmare….
Authors Note: I hope that you enjoyed the third chapter of Journey Through Your Imagination. I know that things may seem a bit slow here in the beginning but it is all building chapters. Just stick with me and it'll get better…I promise. J Remember; if you want to be reminded when this story is updated just tell me in your review (hint hint…hehe) and give me your e-mail address. I'll add you to my list and then e-mail you when new chapters are updated. Cheers.
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