(Disclaimer and author's notes at the bottom)
Chapter Three
Old and New
Ron reluctantly gave in. Ginny walked up the rest of the steps as they all started up the stairs to get their coats and letters.
"So, um, aren't you glad to get back to school?" said Hermione in an attempt to get Harry and Ron to talk to each other. Ron just grunted and Harry kept staring at the top of the stairs. Hermione frowned at let out a little, humph. When they reached the top of the creaky staircase, they all went towards Ron's room. Harry and Hermione both reached for the door at once, and Hermione whipped her hand away, as both of them turned red. Again, Ron was a witness, and he wasn't very happy.
"Um, I think that our letters are in your drawers (A/N: It's not how it sounds! Lol.)" Mumbled Harry to Ron, as Ron started toward his bureau. Hermione kept her head down, not wanting to look at Harry, and he blushed for a second time. Ron came back, wading through his articles of The Daily Prophet and shoved the letters in both Harry's and Hermione's hands. Hermione frowned as they got their coats.
"Are you all ready? It's getting late, try and hurry," chirped Molly Weasley, in what she hoped was a cheerful voice. Neither Ron, Harry, nor Hermione replied.
"Well then, let's go, you first Hermione," said Mr.Weasley as Hermione stepped forward and took a little of the floo powder in her hand and threw it at the bottom of the fireplace as she stood in the ashes from the burned wood in the iron grate. A brilliant emerald surrounded the remaining five. Ginny took her hand from her face as Ron stepped forward and repeated what Hermione had done, a minute before.
* * *
"One, two, three, four, five, and six," counted Mrs.Weasley, lastly pointing at herself, "Well, We'd better pay a visit to Gringotts," snorted Mrs.Weasley, laughing at her own joke. Harry and Ron both rolled their eyes.
"Let's go," said Ron, starting toward the bank without waiting for the others to follow, "Hermione, you, and I will go to your vault and mum, dad, and Ginny can go to theirs. No need for them," Harry stared at Ron for a moment before shrugging and continuing in the regal doors in Gringotts bank. Hermione kept her head down as they passed rows and rows of high desks that sat goblins either counting or stamping something. Hermione had never taken a liking toward the hostile creatures.
"Meet us at Flourish and Blotts at eight thirty don't forget ok?" asked Mrs.Weasley as she headed off with a goblin, already leading them to their vault.
"Yes mum, we'll be there," muttered Ron, who was visibly getting irritated. Hermione backed away as a nasty looking goblin lead them to a small cart on train tracks. Hermione was shaking slightly as she got into the cart with the goblin, Harry and Ron. Harry noticed this, and held on to her hand. Ron noticed this too, and he wasn't very happy about it. Harry caught all of the dirty looks he was giving him. Hermione rolled her eyes as if she was saying Grow up!
When they finally reached the vault, Harry let go of Hermione's hand as he stepped on the solid stone. Ron got out second and helped Hermione out. When the goblin was done unlocking his vault, he gathered a sackful of galleons, sickles, and knuts before jumping back into the cart.
"It's not eight thirty yet, we can still walk around," suggested Hermione. She started walking toward the sweets store, followed closely by Harry and Ron.
"What do we have here, a common sight, isn't it, the mudblood, the weasel, and the boy who lived, how sickeningly sweet," drawled the last person the three wanted to run into.
"You know, Draco, you could figure out more creative insults instead of the usual, it's really getting old, ya know," mumbled Harry as he rolled his eyes, "Where are your sidekicks anyway? Did they forget who you were?" Harry continued, looking over Malfoy's shoulder. Malfoy's face flickered with something that resembled pain, but he covered it up by adding another insult to his already lengthy chain.
"Wow, Potter. I didn't know you had the ability to think out of that thing you call a head…and it's really none of your business whether Goyle and Crabbe follow me around everywhere-" He was cut off when he realized that the trio had left him standing like an idiot in the middle of the street, talking to no one.
* * *
"Gosh, I seriously can't stand that pathetic ferret! I wish he would just disappear, it just gets so old!" barked an irritated Hermione, as they walked out of "Suweat's Sweets", pockets bulging with cockroach clusters and Bertie Bott's every flavor beans.
"Don't we all wish," muttered Ron as he stuffed his face with a chocolate bar. They were all walking on the cobblestone path in the middle of bustling Diagon alley, on their way to Flourish and Blotts.
"I wonder if your par-" Harry was cut off when a short girl with reddish, blonde hair stepped in front of them.
"You must be the famous trio, Pansy has told me so much about you," she said with a horrible voice that reminded Ron of Miss Umbridge's face.
"Uhh, yeah, who are you, then?" asked Harry with a curious look on his face.
"I'm Dello Malley, a first year at Hogwarts, I'm Pansy's friend," she croaked, looking at Hermione as if she were the plague, "You must be the dirty little mudblood that Pansy is always referring to…" Hermione blushed, but not before she gave Malley a dirty look. Ron averted his gaze from Hermione as a dumpy looking woman that resembled Dello, but with familiar flaming red hair stopped in front of her.
"Lo, honey, time to go home, say good bye to yo-" but she was cut off by an incredulous looking Ron, "Great aunt Millry?" he asked.
"You've got to be kidding me! She's your aunt?" asked Hermione as Mrs.Malley looked around for an escape, before nodding and turning back to Dello.
"Let's go."
"That…was weird," mumbled Harry, turning to Ron for an explanation.
"Ummm, I guess I should explain, huh?" asked Ron, looking at Hermione and Harry, "Well, Millry Malley is my great aunt on my mum's side of the family. My parents aren't fond of her, she's…sort of on You-Know-Who's side, if you know what I mean. She keeps it really secret, though. So she doesn't get caught."
"That's weird, because my parents are dentists, you know that, well, she was in their office about a month ago," whispered Hermione. Harry gave her a look that supposedly said it sounds suspicious. She gave him a slight nod.
"Oh…will you look at the time!" exclaimed Hermione, who clearly wasn't comfortable in the hot seat. Ron and Harry gave each other quizzical looks before they set of to Flourish and Blotts.
Harry was thinking of Hermione on the way toward the bookstore. He was worried about her sickness, but he was puzzled. How could she hold up so well? When he saw her in his room, she was visibly sick, but now she looked as if she was as healthy as he or Ron. Harry made a point of bringing it up when they were alone together. (A/N ;-)
* * *
"You're finally here! We were starting to get worried about you guys, try to hurry, we won't wait for you next time!" said Mrs.Weasley as she scolded Ron. He just shrugged as he followed Harry and Hermione toward a more secluded area of the store. He stepped over piles upon piles of what looked like large black, leather bound books the size of muggle computers as he made his way up the narrow staircase to the next level. He finally caught up with Harry and Hermione, who were sitting at a fairly large desk covered in atlases and ancient spell books. He pulled a crumbling chair up to one side of the desk, as Hermione scooted over, so he could fit.
"I wonder how the school is taking all that's been happening," whispered Harry, trying to keep the conversation to themselves. "Dumbledore's probably getting extra security for the school, there's definatly going to be changes this year,"
"Speaking of school, I wonder who's going to be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this year," muttered Hermione over the chatter of the crowds below, stating the all too familiar words heard every summer by the trio. Ron, who had just been sitting back for the conversation, now sat up strait and listened with mild interest playing on his face.
"Maybe it's going to be one of the Order…that would be wicked!" said Ron as he almost toppled over his tipping chair.
"It could happen, but I don't think that Dumbledore'll risk getting found out, I mean, the Order needs to be kept secret from anyone not in it. We shouldn't even know!" hissed Harry as they all bent their heads together to be able to hear well.
"And we all know that Dumbledore does think like that." Mumbled Hermione.
"We do know one thing though, it's probably not going to be Umbridge!" said Ron, trying to break the thick tension about the new school year that was quickly approaching. Hermione and Harry both started cracking up until they couldn't stop laughing at nothing in particular. They finally settled down when they realized that they were getting odd stares from the different customers in the store.
"We'd better get back to your mom, she's probably worrying about you," managed Harry while he was gasping for breath. Hermione and Ron both nodded as they gathered the books they had picked up earlier. Ron shook his head as Hermione struggled under the weight of the dusty and heavy books. Hermione led their way down the stairs toward the main level.
"You know," said Hermione in a 'know it all' tone, "We really should have been getting our school books, I was hoping to see what Defending and Cursing the Dark Arts by Nordila Stotinka is about. I hope it's normal!...Hey Ron, look-your mothers' gotten our books for us again," Ron and Harry turned around, and sure enough, there was Mr. and Mrs.Weasley with Ginny, all of whom were piled under thick, musty books.
"Well, these aren't as cheap as I thought that they would be, but that one by Sordidly Notak was surprisingly inexpensive!" bubbled Mrs.Weasley, as Ginny rolled her eyes, which were peeking over her pile of books. Ron turned red as he corrected his mother.
"Mum, its Nordilla Stotinka, isn't it already past Ginny's bedtime?" he mumbled as Ginny started to protest, "I'm fifteen now! Not five-!"
"Now kids! Lets just get these paid for, and then we'll sort things out," said Mr.Weasley, trying to smooth the creases out of the argument. Ginny huffed as she made her way to the long line for the poor cash register, which was endlessly *ringing* and *cha-changing.* Mr. and Mrs.Weasley followed her to the end of the line as the trio stayed in the secluded corner.
"Listen, we'll continue our little talk on the train, we have to get back now, we don't know who's listening right now." Whispered Hermione as they made their way back to the line. They got back in line with Ginny and her parents and Harry noticed that Ginny gave Ron a dirty look. He just rolled his eyes; Harry smiled and shook his head. Hermione was too busy in another one of her adventures in the depths of one of the ancient books to notice this little sibling tiff.
"When they were finally done paying for their books, Mr.Weasley led them outside and to the public floo-network building. Harry had been once before in his second year. The whole building was made of crumbling brick, even the fireplaces. Mr.Weasley was immediately waved through as they were assigned a fireplace.
"Number nine today, it's one of the newer models!" explained Ron as they made their way to a less-crumbling fireplace with a large barrel of what Harry new of as floo powder. Harry waited till he was the last one waiting for the fireplace. Before he could throw his pinch of floo powder into the grate, he saw Malfoy and his father, Lucious, enter the building. Draco caught his eye, and the last thing Harry saw before being pulled back into the Weasley residence was him mouthing, "Watch out."
* * *
I am sooooooooooooooo sorry that this took so long to finish. It's been a really busy week for me. School started today, so my chapters will be less frequent, but I'll definatly keep writing this story as much as I can.
Alphabet-Phsyco: Thanks, I planning on writing this till the end!(Holds up her computer mouse and brandishes it like a sword.)
Hollandgirl: Thanks, and again, I'm really sorry about it taking so long to update.
Metsmaniac2ks: Cool! I'm not planning on doing that to her, but it will be a hectic year for her.
Where's Waldo: Keep reading! :-)
Usha88: I'm glad that you appreciate my writing, I'm touched!(puts her hand on her heart and stares heavenward while her dog rolls his eyes.)
Slim: Thank you, keep reading.
(disclaimer on the default chapter)
Chapter four: Things go wrong for Hermione on the train.
~***~Broken Wings of Silver~***~