Chapter Seven

The Escape

"Um excuse me?" Jo called over to a girl with auburn hair. "Can I help you? Your looking a little bit lost at the moment. Are you looking for someone in particular?"

"My name is Alex. Actually it's Alexandra, but my friends from Australia call me Alex or Ali. I was looking for a Headmaster Dumbledore. Is he around anywhere?"

"Why yes he is around. We just have to go and find him. Are you a witch from Australia? I've never heard of any schools from there before. It sounds like a cool place. You know I've always secretly wanted to live there." Jo laughed. The girl had just entered the main doors into the castle. Her wavy hair blew behind her. She had beautiful blue eyes, unusual for someone with brown hair. She was wearing muggle clothes- a light denim skirt and a dark blue halter top with a lighter floral print. It looked like something right out of Jo's closet.

"Well I have always wanted to come to England. This is all very new to me. My old school was tiny compared to this. By the way, I haven't got your name yet."

"You can call me Jo."

"Jo? Isn't that a boys name?"

"Isn't Alex a boy's name?" She returned easily. Jo led Alex to the great hall, where Dumbledore was sitting down to dinner. The two cautiously walked up to him, making sure they weren't interrupting any conversations.

"Headmaster?" Jo asked patiently.

"Why yes Ms Granger, what can I do for you? Oh. It looks like I know. This must be Ms. Durstrom. Welcome to Hogwarts Ms. Durstrom! We are very excited to have a new student brought into the school. I don't in fact think that we've ever had one before." The old headmaster exclaimed.

"Thank you very much sir. I've always wanted to come here before. But I do have one question for you. How did you know my name? I'm quite sure I've never met you."

"Lets just say a little bird told me," he chuckled. "I see that you have made good friends with Miss Granger, so after dinner I think we'll have a brief meeting with the sorting hat."

"Uh, may I ask what the sorting hat is? Do you wear it?"

"The sorting hat will tell you which house you ought to be in. It picks one of the four houses for you to stay with. You are in seventh year correct?"

"Yup. That's me."

"Very well then. Go ahead and help yourself to some dinner while I finish myself. I tell you, catching flying toads can drain your energy in a hurry."

"So, Jo. Where can I get sorted into?" The transfer inquired eagerly. She hoped that it would be the same place as her new friend.

"Well there's Slytherin, my house, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff."

"All right. I am quite hungry. Where are you going to be sitting? If it's okay I'd like to have dinner with you and your friends. If not its totally find I underst-"

"Of course you can! Don't be silly!"

The girls approached the Slytherin table. Hermione gave her sister a puzzled look, but Jo ignored it, beaming at the rest of the students.

"Hey, Mione, who is that beauty with your sister?" Blaise asked staring at the unfamiliar face.

"I have no idea! I don't believe I've ever seen her before, not even one of her muggle friends I don't think." Hermione said, unsure of the blue-eyed girl. The boys at the table were apparently transfixed on the girl and the girls were whispering and mumbling amongst each other.

"Everyone, this is Alex, the new transfer student from Australia. Lets be polite and welcome her!" Jo explained. Her voice was followed by a couple hellos and grumbles. Jo pulled up a few seats beside Hermione, across from Blaise and Draco. Draco immediately stood up and greeted the new student.

"Nice to meet you, Alex, was it?" He said kissing the girl gently on the hand.

"My, my, what a charmer we have here Jo! Well I'll be polite too. Your both very handsome men," she smirked, forcing the boys too blush. "What are your names?"

"Draco."

"Blaise."

"Well Draco and Blaise, you two will have to show me around later. Who knows, it could be very fun."

Hermione and Jo rolled their eyes at the blushing wizards. They had the exact same reaction after meeting my sister.

"Sure." They responded simultaneously. Jo finally has some competition Hermione thought to herself snickering.

"How do you like Hogwarts so far?" Hermione inquired.

"It's a very nice, large school compared to the one in Australia. Stristoll School for Wizards and Witches. I myself did not enjoy it that much."

"Never heard of that before," Hermione replied, quite interested in the topic.

Hermione decided to accompany her sister and Alex as she went to be sorted. Along the way Hermione asked many questions about the transfer student's home and school. She found it all very enlightening.

"Blueberry Shortcake," Jo said to the gargoyle statues as they leapt aside, revealing a long spiral staircase.

"Uh Jos, how on earth did you know the password to Dumbledore's office? He doesn't go around giving it out to whoever wants it... unless you got from a guy! Please don't tell me that you fooled around with some immature loser to get the bloody pass-"

"Calm down sis. Dumbledore gave it to me when he met Alex here for the first time. You know, so she could get sorted later in the evening. Don't have a cow on me!"

"Oh."

The trio climbed the stairs until they reached large, wooden, double doors. Jo knocked three times and was answered with a "Come in," from Dumbledore. Jo twisted the handle and beckoned for Alex and Hermione to follow her. There sat Dumbledore, behind an ancient looking desk with Professor McGonagoll standing right behind him.

"Welcome, again Alexandra, to Hogwarts," The old man said. "I hope our students have been hospitable so far?" He added, looking at Jo and Hermione. He lowered his half moon glasses as he spoke calmly.

"Oh, yes! The school is wonderful! Everyone is being so nice to me." Alex chirped enthusiastically. It was true. This welcome was much better than her old school. The girls were all pompous bitches who thought they ruled the world. She couldn't stand them.

"Excellent. I would only expect the best from our students. Well then, it is time for you to be sorted, Ms. Durstrom." He said with a twinkle in his eye. "Minerva, if you would please,"

"Of course," Professor McGonagoll said, bringing forth the hat. She conjured up a stool out of mid-air and motioned for Alex to sit on it. "Just try it on. Don't worry. The old thing might yell, but it surely won't bite."

Alex confusedly lifted the hat onto her head and waited. Nothing happened for a couple seconds, until a tiny voice coming from the hat startled her.

"Well, well, well. A transfer student. This is quite new to me. Hmm…lots of ambition…Some intelligence as well. Rebellious and spontaneous…well then, it had better be…SLYTHERIN!"

Professor McGonagoll flicked her wand and the stool dissapeared. The battered ancient hat drifted off into a nearby room for safe keeping.

"Uh… Now what?" Alex asked nervously.

"Miss Durstrom you are now a member of Slytherin. That is the house that you will be in for the remainder of your stay here at Hogwarts. I'm sure that the Granger siblings will help you with your things, and help you find your way around the castle. That will be all for now."

"Thanks professor," Jo responded guiding Alex back to the door.

"Bye girls." Called Dumbledore as they left.

Finally after the three had gotten out of the office Jo squealed "Yay! You're a Slytherin! You can stay with us now. There's an empty bed in the girl's dormitory for you to stay in. They are actually surprisingly comfortable and very cozy. You'll like it, I'm sure."

"Sounds great! Thanks for being so sweet you guys. I can tell that I'm going to have a wicked awesome time here!"

"Wicked awesome?" Jo questioned.

"Yeah, It's just a phrase that we aussies like to use. You know, sometimes you guys say... bloody hell, or blimey. Wicked awesome is something that's well, really awesome."

With that the girls headed off towards the Slytherin common room, as it was getting quite late already. While walking down the dark corridors, Alex was trying to take in all of her surroundings. Finally they arrived at their destination. Hermione headed off to her dormitory, and Jo and Alex went to theirs.

Hermione had been exhausted. She looked around the dorm quietly looking to see who was occupying which beds. Three out of the five beds were filled with girls, all of which were snuggled tightly underneath the covers, filled with deep sleep. Hermione looked back to her pastel yellow pillow, which was now practically calling her name. It seemed so soft and inviting. As soon as Hermione's head made contact with it she fell into a deep slumber.

Hermione cautiously entered the potions classroom, dreading the detention that she was about to endure. Harry sat silently in the room alone, his foot tapping, waiting for Snape to arrive.

"Okay you two. I have more important matters to deal with at the moment, so I will be locking the door. I expect all of these cauldrons to be absolutely spotless when I come back in three hours," Snape said while leaving.

"Great. Now I have to miss my quidditch practice. Another chance to blow my spot on that team! Blimey."

"Hey Potter, don't you even think for a millisecond, no a nanosecond that you are the only person in here that wishes they were somewhere else. To add to that you are honestly the last person that I would want to be with at the moment. Cripes! I would probably even pick Millicent Bulstrode over you!"

"Wow you sound like you're in a good mood today Granger," he commented, scrubbing a cauldron with an old rag. He was wearing a white golf shirt, which had the Gryffindor emblem carefully embroidered onto the top left corner, as well as a pair of faded jeans, fitting him perfectly. Everything seems to fit him perfectly. Hermione shook off her dazed thoughts shortly, also noticing his jet-black hair, unkempt as usual.

"Yeah, well if it wasn't for you talking so loudly during class none of us would be here right now. I could be getting ahead on my assignments and you could be at your stupid quidditch practice. In my opinion quidditch is just a bloody waste of time. Grades and schoolwork are far too important if you ask me."

"Oh yeah, well i didn't ask you, and if I remember correctly Granger you were talking back to me, so really, it's both of our faults."

"Whatever Potter. Just keep cleaning." she snapped bitterly while also vigorously scrubbing a filthy black cauldron. How do these stupid pieces of junk get so dirty in the first place? Impossible! She thought as she attempted to scrape some goopy green gunk off the inside of her cauldron. Absolutely atrocious!

Twenty minutes had gone by before anyone had spoken another word. This has been the longest detention so far in my life Harry thought furiously.

"Blimey! I feel like I've gotten nowhere. I've only cleaned two cauldrons and its already half past three!"

"I may have an idea. He didn't say anything about magic did he?"

"I don't think so… why?"

Hermione responded by teaching him a simple cleaning spell that her sister taught her last year. She had learned it from Dumbledore himself. In another twenty minutes all of the cauldrons were looking spic and span.

"They look brand new!" Harry exclaimed, proud of his work. He moved towards the door and went two open it. "Shit I forgot! He locked the door. We still have about two hours to stay in here. Bloody brilliant."

"I'm going to sit down. My feet hurt already," Hermione complained. She sat in the middle of the room quietly. Harry came over beside her. Please don't sit beside me, please don't sit beside me, please don't- dammit. Harry pulled up a chair right next to the girl. He paused and took a deep breath before initiating a conversation with her.

"Granger, I really don't feel like I understand you at all."

"How blunt."

"Thanks," he grinned, which quickly faded. "You said you wanted a truce that day by the lake. But recently in potions class you've been putting me down. What is wrong with you?"

"How nice of you to mention Potter. Now I really feel like shit. Your pretty good at making people feel this way," Hermione yelled. She stood up and turned around, not wanting to look at the wizard.

"I'm serious. I just don't get you."

"Your not the easiest book to read yourself Potter."

"And why is that… Could you explain this to me?"

"Forget it. Never mind. However, I'm willing to put my hatred for you aside, if you help me out."

"Why would I-"

"Because I can get us both out of here. Now shut up and listen. See that window up there? I can't reach it, and I need you to boost me through," she said point to a small opening, high in the stone wall.

"Where does it go? And how am I supposed to get out after you? You're just going to run away aren't you?" He said suspiciously

"I don't know where it bloody goes Potter, but its better than here, wouldn't you agree? And stop asking so many questions!"

"Fine. Lets get a move on then. But stop. What are you going to tell Snape?"

"Uh, lets tell him that Peeves scared us and told us to get out straight away. He ought to believe that"

With that the two went over to the small opening. Harry lifted Hermione onto his firm shoulders and pushed her up as soon as she had a good grip. Hermione looked around, taking a minute to realize where she was.

"Potter! We are in luck! I'm in Filch's office! There's some rope right over here," she said excitedly, throwing over a rather thick piece of braided rope.

"Are you sure that you can hold me? I'm pretty heavy you know Granger, all that muscle that I carry around with me.."

"Climb the rope Potter," she said, annoyed with his boastful tone. The brunette used all over her strength to support Harry as he climbed through to the other side.

"Well that was amusing!" He said.

"Yeah… actually kind of fun."

There was a short awkward silence following that.

"Maybe we should, you know, do this again sometime. Who knows… we could have a good time," he said sheepishly.

"Oh, you mean get into detention, try to clean up disgusting cauldrons, use magic when we aren't supposed to, have a stupid immature fight, break out of detention, defy Snape, and hang out in the caretaker's office?"

"Yeah. We should."

"What do you mean 'we'? Are you trying to imply something here Mister Potter?" Hermione laughed flirtatiously.

"Well- I- erm- uh- em…"

"Well what…"

"Nothing… nothing at all."

"In that case, have a nice evening. I hope that we can break some rules again together sometime in the future."

Hermione felt a sudden urge inside of her. She unwillingly listened to it and gave Harry a warm kiss on the cheek. His cheek sent a wave of electricity through her whole body, making her shiver on the spot. There. You still haven't stolen my first kiss. The wizard simply stood there, his emerald eyes very unsure.

"Is that what you do? Kiss someone after saying goodnight and then just leave them there?"

"Uh huh." she laughed.

"Just leave them there to sit and ponder all alone? In the meanwhile they will most likely get caught because they've been standing aimlessly in Filch's office for the past hour or so. Is that what your trying to do to me Granger?"

"Yeah. I think so."

"Well in that case. You have a good evening too," he sighed, watching her set off down the empty hallway.

Hermione Granger your insane… but its kind of growing on me Harry thought as the brunette faded off into the distance.

A/N: YAY! Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!!!! EEEHEHEHEE! I absolutely loved writing that chapter. Honestly it was the bomb. What can i say? I'm supposed to like it. I'm the writer hehe. Tell me wut you thought about that chappie. Good? Bad? Ugly? Read and Review on your way out. THANKS :D

P.S. Thanks to all my reviewers. Your support and suggestions help me to continue on writing this fic.