A/N: heyy guys! I hope that you are enjoying this fanfict! Keep on reviewing pleaz!
Disclaimer: This story was inspired by J.K. Rowling. I am only responsible for the plot, and nuthin' else.
I put on my prefect badge just when the train came to a complete stop. We couldn't have arrived at Hogwarts so quickly, we still have another hour at least. I thought as I peeked out of the compartment. The windows were laced with fog, the sky was such a deep blue, that it could have been mistaken for black.
A voice, harsh yet kind, kept calling out "Sixth years, sixth years only, c'mon out." I raced out of the train with my belongings, and ran into a large, hairy man.
"Oh Hagrid," I said, with a smile on my face, "I knew that it was you!"
"Where's 'Arry and Ron?" Hagrid asked, his brow knotted with concern.
"They went to talk to the rest of the Gryiffindor quidditch team to discuss their new game strategies in one of the front compartments." I answered absentmindedly, I put most of my attention towards Crookshanks who was wrapping itself around me with it's leash.
"Well then Hermione," Hagrid said with a soft chuckle, "you better go off to that cabin lodge over there, it's a bit nippy outside this evenin."
I started to walk towards the large mass of black robes who were also trying to squeeze into the cabin. Right when I joined the company, I felt a push from behind and I fell to the ground, sending my books with me. I didn't even bother to turn around and see who it was, my notes were in a messy circle around me. I went on my hands and knees. I started to back up to look at all of the papers, and I bumped into something.
I turned around, still on all fours and said, "Bloody hell! Whatever happened to personal space?" I asked, and then noticed Malfoy was kneeling on the ground behind me.
We both spoke in unison, " It was you! Stop that....urrghh." Malfoy started mumbling to himself, "What the fuck was that? Now I'm going to have to waste perfectly good detergent on these new robes, and if some of the dye fades....."
I cut him off with, "Will you just shove it Malfoy?" I said under my breath as I finished gathering all of my papers.
Malfoy looked at me with that playful rivalry in his eye that has survived strong throughout the years. "Well, I wouldn't have to do anything with them, but now you just exhaled on them. These robes are brand new! They won't even be accepted to be cleaned now!" Malfoy gave me his infamous smirk, and stepped on the folder holding all of my notes in it. There, in the middle of the manilla cover flap, was a muddy footprint.
I got up slowly, but fast enough to watch the smirk slide off of his lips. "Do you have any respect, for anyone, period, mal-ferret? No, really, I want to know. Is that your secret to getting girls? What, do they throw themselves at you..." as I said this I unbuttoned the neck of my shirt that revealed some tan skin, "Do they go, "Ohh, Malfoy, if you're this good at insulting people, ohh Malfoy the Great, take me!" I pushed against him and slid my leg against his. "Are there girls really out there that are that easy?" With a chuckle under my breath, I walked away from Malfoy, who was busy examining the thread count of his pants.
It's hysterical really, that Malfoy thinks so highly of himself. I mean, Neville is twice the wizard that the ferret ever will be, maybe not in talent or performance, but in character. I pushed through the large doors, and squished myself against the wall. I would have thought that the professors would place some kind of spells on the small lodge to make it larger, but they didn't.
All of the sudden, I felt the wall shake. I turned my head side to side, and that's when a whiff a red hair tickled my nose.
"Ron, what the hell is going on? Ron? RON?" I pushed Ron off of me and put him where I was standing only moments before. His head rolled to the side, his eyes were only slits.
"Mione, is that you? That bloody ferret. I-I can't feel my legs." Ron stuttered quietly. He slowly slid down the wall and became a puddle on the floor. Literally.
In the middle of the puddle, was Ron's face. "Oh bloody hell," Ron said looking around him, "Mione, did you get hit by an enlargement potion.?" I looked at him with concern knitted all over my face.
I stood up and made my way to the center of the room, where there was a circular space cleared out by everyone but Harry and Malfoy. Harry was standing in front of Malfoy, his wand at the ready. Malfoy had his arms by his side, his wand on the floor in front of him.
"You pathetic little.....," Harry started, but he was cut off when I stood beside him and cleared my throat.
I didn't even bother to look at Harry, I was too busy trying to lock eyes with Malfoy. "You....you disgusting, vile, poisonous,...urgh, idiot!" I spat at him. "I am pleased to inform you that you don't have a personality, Malfoy. In fact, you are just a heap of black robes."
Malfoy sent daggers at me through his eyes, his posture still erect as if he were at a cocktail party. Or something very large was up his ass, which ever you prefer. Malfoy bent down, picked up his wand, but then he put it away in his pocket. Not what I expected.
The circle didn't even begin to close, when Professor McGonagall appears at the head of the staircase with a loud popping sound. Most of the students who were muggle-borns jumped at the sight of it, culture shock, I guess. Professor McGonagall motioned for us to sit down. When we turned around, behind us were metal fold up chairs that were definetly not there five minutes ago. When all of the students were seated, some on top of others, Professor McGonagall placed a hand in one of the folds of her robes and fished out a roll of parchment.
"I would like to welcome you all back to Hogwarts. Even though this isn't the normal circumstances that we woild meet each other in, please, try and make the best of it." McGonagall said with an air of superiority as she eyed two Ravenclaws making out.
The entire room let out a low sigh, with some hidden surpressed chuckles as well. There was a sound of buckled boots coming closer and closer until Professor Dumbledore could be seen at the head of the staircase beside McGonagall.
"Sixth years, this part of the year is going to serve as an experimental study for the well-being of both the muggles and the wizards," said Dumbledore as he fingered the end of his wispy beard, "You all must realize, that you are still in our care. Therefore, we can still perform one of our useless but hopeful projects with the lot of you."
Harry and Ron were accompanied by long sighs of disappointment. "How much bloody homework can they pile on top of us before we suffocate?' Ron suggested to Harry.
"Anyway," Dumbledore continued with a slight smile at the corner of his right lip, "Lets consider the facts, shall we?" Dumbledore asked, more as a statement. "The seventh years are out of our control this year. They have chosen what they want to make out of their lives when they were your age. They have picked their classes and made aliances with the good, and the bad." Dumbledore said to the crowd in front of him.
"But you however, your destiny has still yet to be decided. How many of you take Muggle Studies?" Dumbledore questioned with a raspy voice.
A few hesitant hands raised into the air. Honestly, I think my hand was the only hand that was to be seen above my face.
"Well, let me inform those of you who haven't, or otherwise have forgotten. The muggle world has powerful leaders, a productive economy, and a system by law as we do here. But, like in every other case, there are flaws that can occur. But each ripple must start with a protruder. Now muggles aren't aware of our lives, or at least, they don't want to. But wizards can tap into this world as easy as opening a door. Unfortunately, most of the taps were not for the greater good." Dumbledore said, as he eyed the Syltherines cold stares.
"Each depression has been behind the acts of a wizard, usually in company with the Dark lord. We have reason to believe that the dark has come up with a new approach to attack. You see, if you control the muggle world, you have power over ours. All muggles would be enslaved, the wizarding world be discovered. There would be no safe place for any wizarding community." Dumbledore paused, and bent down wipe a smudge off of the toe of his boot.
"Now, some of you are to be active in this plan once you graduate. But, we won't think you will. You see, one only fears and hates what one doesn't understand. If you understand them, you might actually come back to school with more then cobwebs in your head fit for cleaning." Dumbledore said, incorporating part of his yearly speech to the student body.
"Which is why I have you here today, instead of greeting you formally in the great hall." Dumbledore stated, clapping his hands together with energy.
I could hear one of the Hufflepuffs whispering to their friend beside him, "Yeah, no offense or anything, but most of the people that you're trying to save already have the dark mark."
I couldn't agree more with that idiot, btu truthful wizard. This is the way that these people have lived, it's impossible to change their entire personality, including beliefs in a matter of months. But that fact didn't seem to bother Dumbledore at all, or at least he didn't show it on his face.
Professor fixed the crooked feather on the side of her hat and began, "This err-project, as Professor Dumbledore refers it, is going to last for 5 months. You will be partnered and given accomodations all across the world. No magic is to be permitted, you are now muggles." With that last word, she raised her hands, raising the wands as well, and then we were all blinded by a white light. McGonagall had a satisfied smile on her thin lips when she stated with confidence, "Now, I have set a timer on your wands. They are to be inactive until we meet each other at the end of February."
Dumbledore re-tucked his beard into the belt around his thin middle. When he looked up at all of our excited faces, he finished, "You will all receive pamphlets explaining the circumstances, but that will all be seen to after you have been assigned a partner."
Some of the students exchanged excited faces, probably wishing that they would spend the rest of the year together. Others were less optimistic whispering why the professors decisions couldn't be changed.
Ron and Harry weren't worried though, they were partners in everything. They both looked at me with questioning eyes. Ron motioned to Neville, who was trying to remeber what he forgot, "Well, try not to let the entire house on fire."
I looked at Ron with skepticism in my eyes and replied, "He doesn't need me to protect himself, and who ever said that I would be partners with him?" But I still had my doubts about my statement. How would I show Neville how to use the fire extnguisher?