Back to Hogwarts
"Harry, is your trunk packed?"
"Yeah," Harry closed and locked his trunk. "Y'know, I think we should apologize to Ron. I think I was a bit too unforgiving to him when he wanted to apologize. He really liked you, and I was . . . I didn't consider what he would feel if he knew you didn't like him."
"Yeah," Hermione sat down on a chair and hugged her knees. "But what if he doesn't want our apology? He was pretty mad last night. Now he isn't even talking to us."
"Well, we have to try."
"WILL YOU TWO GET DOWN HERE PLEASE!!" Mrs Weasley's voice traveled up the stairs and Hermione jumped. They were obviously the only ones left upstairs. They heaved their trunks down and hopped into a borrowed Ministry car together with a red-faced Mrs Weasley.
"Arthur had to practically beg Fudge to lend us cars," Mrs Weasley explained. "We couldn't borrow cars from anyone else."
They reached King's Cross with fifteen minutes to spare. The drivers found Mr Weasley trolleys, dumped their luggage onto the floor in front of them, tipped their hats rather coldly than usual and drove off, leaving the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione standing beside their heavy trunks. Mr Weasley's face turned a deep crimson, loaded their trunks with a lot of puffing and panting and set off towards Platform 9 and Three-Quarters, sweat pouring off his brow, swearing under his breath, eyes narrowed.
"I don't know what is wrong with Fudge these days," Mrs Weasley muttered angrily, taking big strides and ignoring everyone's stares. "Just because he made a fool out of himself in public . . . well, that's his fault . . . why does he have to shame Arthur as well . . ."
"Looks like we got to be careful around those two," George whispered to Harry hurriedly, glancing anxiously at his parents. "Once they're like that, there's no telling what might happen . . ." George broke off, shuddering. Harry thought George was exaggerating, but from the look of Mrs Weasley's face, which was black as thunder, Harry kept a wide berth from Mr and Mrs Weasley.
As they neared Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, they met the Malfoys, Draco Malfoy being Harry's arch-enemy. Draco and Harry were shooting vengeful looks at each other; so were Mr Weasley and Mr Malfoy, though they didn't make it look so obvious.
"So . . ." drawled Mr Malfoy, his hand firmly glued on Draco's shoulder. "Here to fetch the kids to school, eh, Arthur? I hope you didn't walk here . . . you wouldn't have enough energy to apparate back, seeing that the Minister would never lend you a Ministry car." Draco smirked and there was a trace of snobbiness in Mr Malfoy's "speech".
"No, no," Mr Weasley grunted in a strained voice. "the Minister lent me cars . . . I wouldn't want to make the kids late for school, would I?" Mr Weasley's hand was gripped so tightly around Ron's shoulder that Ron could distinctly show a feeling of pain. When Mr Weasley removed his hand, his hand marks were clearly shown on Ron's shoulder.
"Well, Draco, we'd better get going now, shall we?" Mr Malfoy made to steer Draco towards the barrier between platform nine and ten. "We wouldn't want to embarrass ourselves in their company." Mr Weasley's mouth, if possible, turned even thinner and he made to grip Harry's shoulder to have something to do with his hands. He looked as if he badly wanted to punch Mr Malfoy straight into his face.
"Wait, Father," Draco walked towards Hermione who looked slightly surprised. "I want to do a gentlemanly act like you always encourage me to: helping Miss Granger here push her trolley through the barrier. Here, Hermione, let me." Hermione looked between surprised and shocked; Draco had never called her Hermione before. Harry's mouth thinned and his expression was wooden. His hand, which was fixed firmly on Hermione's trolley, refused to let go.
"Come on, Potter," Draco muttered angrily. "I'm just doing a gentlemanly act. Don't make me jinx you."
"Don't think I don't know what you're doing, Malfoy," Harry said dangerously. "I know perfectly what you're trying to do. You're trying to suck up to Hermione here. Well, too bad, because you're never going to get a chance to do that, with me around." With that, Harry walked resolutely through the barrier first with Hermione who had absolutely no expression, pushing Hermione's and his trolley through after cautious glances at the crowd, leaving Draco, face black as thunder and his mouth wide open. Mr Weasley glanced at Mr Malfoy grinning slightly, as if saying, "Sucks to you!" and pushed Ginny's trolley through the barrier and entering it together with Mrs Weasley, after anxious looks at the passing crowd. Ginny and Ron followed his lead.
"Well, Draco," Mr Malfoy said slightly angrily, "looks like your plan that you set up behind my back to get close to that Mudblood has failed. You are never going to do this kind of disgraceful act again, you hear me?"
"Yes Father," Draco said sulkily, and entered the barrier together with his father.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- ~-~-~
"Erm . . . Harry, why don't you go and find a compartment first," Hermione said nervously. "We'll catch up with you and Ginny later after we meet with the head Prefect, right Ron?"
"You can go and join them afterwards," Ron said aggressively. "I'll go and join Dean and Seamus." Harry thought, what is his problem? Harry and Ginny set off looking for an empty compartment. Finally, they found one with only Neville occupying it. Ginny practically squealed with delight; well, of course she would. It was the first time she met Neville, her boyfriend ever since the Yule Ball, after the summer holidays. They had left each other with plenty of kisses and tears . . . well, I guess I won't elaborate, you get the idea. Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes and tried to pretend he didn't exist as Ginny kissed Neville sweetly, sitting on his lap.
Harry covered his face with a book and raised it just enough to see Neville; he didn't get to see him properly since Ginny blocked all view of him when they opened the compartment door. Neville had certainly done some pumping up during the holidays; he was more muscular and good-looking. He also had distinctly slimmed down during the holidays. Trying to ignore the fact that his own girlfriend, Hermione, was not around, Harry tried to finish his Charms essay while waiting for the food trolley to pass by.
An hour went by. Neville and Ginny finally stopped kissing and waited for the food trolley, feeling extremely hungry. Soon, the plump food trolley lady passed and handed Harry some Pumpkin Pasties, Liquorice Wands, Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Botts' Every Flavor Beans. While they were happily tucking in to the food, Hermione slid open the compartment door and squeezed in beside Harry.
"I'm starving," Hermione mumbled between mouthfuls of a pumpkin pasty. "Today, the Heads gave a particularly long speech. We practically had to endure her speech for three-quarters of an hour." Harry, Ginny and Neville laughed. "So, what did you two lovebirds do while I was out? Kiss for forty- five minutes and act as if you were in bed together?"
"Well . . . actually, we did," Neville said nervously and was about to kiss Ginny again when Harry forced them apart, saying, "Tsk, tsk, tsk, you two are even worse than the both of us! Do you have to kiss for every minute you're together??"
"Both of you?" Neville said, apparently confused. Ginny nudged him sharply. "Oh . . . don't tell me you're both - " his face lit up with a triumphant smile.
"Yes, yes," Hermione grinned. "Just don't spread it around. We don't want girls to come rushing to Harry and jinxing me, don't we?"
"No, ma'am!" Neville and Ginny sprang to a salute together. Harry and Hermione burst into peals of laughter.
"Harry, are you in here?" Cho had just appeared at the compartment door.
"Yeah, why?" Harry asked curiously. "What do you want?"
"Um, nothing . . . I just wanted to say hi." Cho said breathlessly just as she saw Harry's arm around Hermione's shoulder. "Oh. I shouldn't have disturbed you two pairs of lovebirds," she said coldly, looking around at Neville and Cho. "I guess I should make myself scarce." She Apparated with a pop.
"She passed her Apparition test then?" Harry snorted. "Even though, she doesn't have to act like that, does she?"
"Yeah," Ginny nodded her head vigorously. "She has become quite a show- off."
"Yeah, well . . . Ginny, good luck with your OWLs. It's a hard year, fifth year." Hermione said looking out the window which rain was splashing against, clearly determined to change the subject.
"Thanks, Hermione," said Ginny awkwardly. She glanced at Harry and looked as if she was saying, Take her mind of Cho!! Harry got the message and immediately started launching into a "speech" about other things. Hermione took her view away from the rain and clearly looked happier.
The train went on and on until the sky turned a clear, star-less black. Rain came down in big droplets and splashed noisily against the compartment door. Ginny, Neville, Harry and Hermione changed into their Hogwarts robes, Hermione and Ginny pinning their prefect's badge carefully unto their robes. Ginny had received her letter during the holidays. Having a little cough that day, she was excused from the prefects' meeting
They hurried out of the train, Harry carrying Hedwig, Hermione carrying Crookshanks, Ginny carrying her new owl Trouble (well, he was always getting in trouble and that was the only name he would answer to), Neville maintaining a firm hold on Trevor and ran towards the carriages awaiting them, trainers splashing in the mud.
Hermione shut the carriage door and it set off towards the castle, moving unsteadily in the mud. After a few minutes, Hogwarts castle loomed over them and they stepped out, Crookshanks purring and Trouble zooming around in his cage, hooting noisily like a non-stop blowing whistle. They entered the Entrance Hall, sopping wet, and sat down in front of the long Gryffindor house table. Harry scanned the table for Ron. He was seated beside Dean, talking with less-than-usual enthusiasm and looking equally wet as Harry. Harry glanced up at the enchanted ceiling. It was an ominous black, thunder bolts occasionally flashing across and lighting up the Entrance Hall. Noise gradually filled the Entrance Hall when a bang ceased all talk. The first-years had arrived with Professor McGonagall. The Sorting was about to begin.
(A/N: Hi folks! Sorry that this chapter's a bit short . . . only four pages. It's kind of lame but it was all I could think of. The seventh chapter's going to be posted up soon, so wait for it! Write, write away!!!)
"Harry, is your trunk packed?"
"Yeah," Harry closed and locked his trunk. "Y'know, I think we should apologize to Ron. I think I was a bit too unforgiving to him when he wanted to apologize. He really liked you, and I was . . . I didn't consider what he would feel if he knew you didn't like him."
"Yeah," Hermione sat down on a chair and hugged her knees. "But what if he doesn't want our apology? He was pretty mad last night. Now he isn't even talking to us."
"Well, we have to try."
"WILL YOU TWO GET DOWN HERE PLEASE!!" Mrs Weasley's voice traveled up the stairs and Hermione jumped. They were obviously the only ones left upstairs. They heaved their trunks down and hopped into a borrowed Ministry car together with a red-faced Mrs Weasley.
"Arthur had to practically beg Fudge to lend us cars," Mrs Weasley explained. "We couldn't borrow cars from anyone else."
They reached King's Cross with fifteen minutes to spare. The drivers found Mr Weasley trolleys, dumped their luggage onto the floor in front of them, tipped their hats rather coldly than usual and drove off, leaving the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione standing beside their heavy trunks. Mr Weasley's face turned a deep crimson, loaded their trunks with a lot of puffing and panting and set off towards Platform 9 and Three-Quarters, sweat pouring off his brow, swearing under his breath, eyes narrowed.
"I don't know what is wrong with Fudge these days," Mrs Weasley muttered angrily, taking big strides and ignoring everyone's stares. "Just because he made a fool out of himself in public . . . well, that's his fault . . . why does he have to shame Arthur as well . . ."
"Looks like we got to be careful around those two," George whispered to Harry hurriedly, glancing anxiously at his parents. "Once they're like that, there's no telling what might happen . . ." George broke off, shuddering. Harry thought George was exaggerating, but from the look of Mrs Weasley's face, which was black as thunder, Harry kept a wide berth from Mr and Mrs Weasley.
As they neared Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, they met the Malfoys, Draco Malfoy being Harry's arch-enemy. Draco and Harry were shooting vengeful looks at each other; so were Mr Weasley and Mr Malfoy, though they didn't make it look so obvious.
"So . . ." drawled Mr Malfoy, his hand firmly glued on Draco's shoulder. "Here to fetch the kids to school, eh, Arthur? I hope you didn't walk here . . . you wouldn't have enough energy to apparate back, seeing that the Minister would never lend you a Ministry car." Draco smirked and there was a trace of snobbiness in Mr Malfoy's "speech".
"No, no," Mr Weasley grunted in a strained voice. "the Minister lent me cars . . . I wouldn't want to make the kids late for school, would I?" Mr Weasley's hand was gripped so tightly around Ron's shoulder that Ron could distinctly show a feeling of pain. When Mr Weasley removed his hand, his hand marks were clearly shown on Ron's shoulder.
"Well, Draco, we'd better get going now, shall we?" Mr Malfoy made to steer Draco towards the barrier between platform nine and ten. "We wouldn't want to embarrass ourselves in their company." Mr Weasley's mouth, if possible, turned even thinner and he made to grip Harry's shoulder to have something to do with his hands. He looked as if he badly wanted to punch Mr Malfoy straight into his face.
"Wait, Father," Draco walked towards Hermione who looked slightly surprised. "I want to do a gentlemanly act like you always encourage me to: helping Miss Granger here push her trolley through the barrier. Here, Hermione, let me." Hermione looked between surprised and shocked; Draco had never called her Hermione before. Harry's mouth thinned and his expression was wooden. His hand, which was fixed firmly on Hermione's trolley, refused to let go.
"Come on, Potter," Draco muttered angrily. "I'm just doing a gentlemanly act. Don't make me jinx you."
"Don't think I don't know what you're doing, Malfoy," Harry said dangerously. "I know perfectly what you're trying to do. You're trying to suck up to Hermione here. Well, too bad, because you're never going to get a chance to do that, with me around." With that, Harry walked resolutely through the barrier first with Hermione who had absolutely no expression, pushing Hermione's and his trolley through after cautious glances at the crowd, leaving Draco, face black as thunder and his mouth wide open. Mr Weasley glanced at Mr Malfoy grinning slightly, as if saying, "Sucks to you!" and pushed Ginny's trolley through the barrier and entering it together with Mrs Weasley, after anxious looks at the passing crowd. Ginny and Ron followed his lead.
"Well, Draco," Mr Malfoy said slightly angrily, "looks like your plan that you set up behind my back to get close to that Mudblood has failed. You are never going to do this kind of disgraceful act again, you hear me?"
"Yes Father," Draco said sulkily, and entered the barrier together with his father.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- ~-~-~
"Erm . . . Harry, why don't you go and find a compartment first," Hermione said nervously. "We'll catch up with you and Ginny later after we meet with the head Prefect, right Ron?"
"You can go and join them afterwards," Ron said aggressively. "I'll go and join Dean and Seamus." Harry thought, what is his problem? Harry and Ginny set off looking for an empty compartment. Finally, they found one with only Neville occupying it. Ginny practically squealed with delight; well, of course she would. It was the first time she met Neville, her boyfriend ever since the Yule Ball, after the summer holidays. They had left each other with plenty of kisses and tears . . . well, I guess I won't elaborate, you get the idea. Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes and tried to pretend he didn't exist as Ginny kissed Neville sweetly, sitting on his lap.
Harry covered his face with a book and raised it just enough to see Neville; he didn't get to see him properly since Ginny blocked all view of him when they opened the compartment door. Neville had certainly done some pumping up during the holidays; he was more muscular and good-looking. He also had distinctly slimmed down during the holidays. Trying to ignore the fact that his own girlfriend, Hermione, was not around, Harry tried to finish his Charms essay while waiting for the food trolley to pass by.
An hour went by. Neville and Ginny finally stopped kissing and waited for the food trolley, feeling extremely hungry. Soon, the plump food trolley lady passed and handed Harry some Pumpkin Pasties, Liquorice Wands, Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Botts' Every Flavor Beans. While they were happily tucking in to the food, Hermione slid open the compartment door and squeezed in beside Harry.
"I'm starving," Hermione mumbled between mouthfuls of a pumpkin pasty. "Today, the Heads gave a particularly long speech. We practically had to endure her speech for three-quarters of an hour." Harry, Ginny and Neville laughed. "So, what did you two lovebirds do while I was out? Kiss for forty- five minutes and act as if you were in bed together?"
"Well . . . actually, we did," Neville said nervously and was about to kiss Ginny again when Harry forced them apart, saying, "Tsk, tsk, tsk, you two are even worse than the both of us! Do you have to kiss for every minute you're together??"
"Both of you?" Neville said, apparently confused. Ginny nudged him sharply. "Oh . . . don't tell me you're both - " his face lit up with a triumphant smile.
"Yes, yes," Hermione grinned. "Just don't spread it around. We don't want girls to come rushing to Harry and jinxing me, don't we?"
"No, ma'am!" Neville and Ginny sprang to a salute together. Harry and Hermione burst into peals of laughter.
"Harry, are you in here?" Cho had just appeared at the compartment door.
"Yeah, why?" Harry asked curiously. "What do you want?"
"Um, nothing . . . I just wanted to say hi." Cho said breathlessly just as she saw Harry's arm around Hermione's shoulder. "Oh. I shouldn't have disturbed you two pairs of lovebirds," she said coldly, looking around at Neville and Cho. "I guess I should make myself scarce." She Apparated with a pop.
"She passed her Apparition test then?" Harry snorted. "Even though, she doesn't have to act like that, does she?"
"Yeah," Ginny nodded her head vigorously. "She has become quite a show- off."
"Yeah, well . . . Ginny, good luck with your OWLs. It's a hard year, fifth year." Hermione said looking out the window which rain was splashing against, clearly determined to change the subject.
"Thanks, Hermione," said Ginny awkwardly. She glanced at Harry and looked as if she was saying, Take her mind of Cho!! Harry got the message and immediately started launching into a "speech" about other things. Hermione took her view away from the rain and clearly looked happier.
The train went on and on until the sky turned a clear, star-less black. Rain came down in big droplets and splashed noisily against the compartment door. Ginny, Neville, Harry and Hermione changed into their Hogwarts robes, Hermione and Ginny pinning their prefect's badge carefully unto their robes. Ginny had received her letter during the holidays. Having a little cough that day, she was excused from the prefects' meeting
They hurried out of the train, Harry carrying Hedwig, Hermione carrying Crookshanks, Ginny carrying her new owl Trouble (well, he was always getting in trouble and that was the only name he would answer to), Neville maintaining a firm hold on Trevor and ran towards the carriages awaiting them, trainers splashing in the mud.
Hermione shut the carriage door and it set off towards the castle, moving unsteadily in the mud. After a few minutes, Hogwarts castle loomed over them and they stepped out, Crookshanks purring and Trouble zooming around in his cage, hooting noisily like a non-stop blowing whistle. They entered the Entrance Hall, sopping wet, and sat down in front of the long Gryffindor house table. Harry scanned the table for Ron. He was seated beside Dean, talking with less-than-usual enthusiasm and looking equally wet as Harry. Harry glanced up at the enchanted ceiling. It was an ominous black, thunder bolts occasionally flashing across and lighting up the Entrance Hall. Noise gradually filled the Entrance Hall when a bang ceased all talk. The first-years had arrived with Professor McGonagall. The Sorting was about to begin.
(A/N: Hi folks! Sorry that this chapter's a bit short . . . only four pages. It's kind of lame but it was all I could think of. The seventh chapter's going to be posted up soon, so wait for it! Write, write away!!!)