Chapter 2-Diagon Alley

Hermione woke quite early and got dressed silently. She'd had the dream again that night but this time it was more real and she had heard the message clearer.

"Pack" she muttered and all her stuff flew from different places in the room into a neat pile in her trunk. All her robes were folded underneath her books.

"It's always good to take the old books as well as the new ones back to school you don't know when they could come in handy." She thought before going downstairs and into the garden where she lay on the grass thinking over the dream and stroking Crockshanks who purred loudly. What would the man do to her? she wondered either way she was going to die but she didn't even know who the man was. The only thing she knew about him was that he had a menacing voice and threatened her. Hermione played the dream over in her mind a few times but couldn't make much sense of it. What was the point in threatening her? She was a mudblood but why would anyone want her to die?

"Hermione how long have you been out her? It's like 7:00."

"Oh I don't know how long I've been here but I woke at like 5:30."She looked up recognising Ron's voice.

"Straight after breakfast we are leaving for Diagon Ally." said Ron "and why did you come out here at 5:30 anyway?"

"I couldn't sleep and I didn't see the point in staying in my room as I was awake. I've packed everything."

"Did you have a bad dream?" asked Harry from behind her.

"Yep I did. And you already know what it was about so please don't ask. Oh yeah one thing that I didn't mention before was that he called me a mudblood."

"Well he's a very foul wizard then." said Ron in an outraged tone.

"It's probably nothing but then I have had the same dream the whole summer."

"Ron, Harry, Hermione. If you don't come down here this instant we'll take the flo powder with us." shouted Mrs Weasley. They ran down the stairs and grabbed some floo powder. Hermione went first and found herself in a back room. Soon after she had slid through the grate Ron and Harry followed.

"Be at the Leaky Caldron by one o clock. Please don't be late or we'll leave for Grimland Place without you." Harry shivered loathing the place he had to go back to.

As they walked out of the Leaky Caldron and turned to go the way by the robe shop Hermione said "I'll catch up with you. I just have to get something." Then she raced towards the bookshop. Once inside she slowed down and walked as calmly as she could towards the shelves with Seers books on. She took one out the bookshelf and looked through it. It surprised her that all the things in the book she understood. But then maybe it wasn't that surprising as she was a seer herself this fact she had never told anyone as she thought they might make fun of her for not staying with Divination. Her reason for not continuing Divination was quite simple she didn't want people to know she was a Seer. Hermione looked at a page called deciphering the future. Her dream she realised was going to happen to her in the future but Harry and Ron would be there too. Hermione looked at the title "The Seer's Guide to everything by Cassandra Trelawney." Professor Trelawney's great great grandmother must have written this she thought because it was a very old edition written in 400AD. Hermione looked at the price. 7 Sickles and 3 Knuts. It wasn't much and she decided that she would need it. Quickly she pulled another book off the shelf. It was volume 1 of Looking into the Future by Tipsybird Blue. Then she looked at the price it was only 3 sickles. Quickly she took volumes 1-6 off the shelf and added up the prices of what she was going to buy. 35 Sickles and 3 Knuts wasn't much to pay for a set of books. I'll get myself a Crystal Ball as well I can see that I'm going to need it in the future. Quickly Hermione paid for her purchases and went out of the shop where she met Ron and Harry.

"What did you buy?" asked Ron.

"A set off books." She answered vaguely.

"What are they about? 'cos I know you've got all your school books already."

"I read other things other than school related books." she said even more vaguely.

"Hermione are you feeling alright?" asked Ron.

"Yes perfectly." Hermione said calmly.

"If you don't want us to ask we wont but if you want to tell us sometime we won't object." said Harry quietly knowing that whatever the books contained they would find out when she wanted to tell them.

Hermione looked at them and decided that her secret wasn't a good one to keep from her friends.

"Well maybe I should tell you." she said and looked around. "But not here. Can we go to the Shrieking Shack?"

Harry looked at the floor and said "If you want to."

Quickly they ran to the Shrieking Shack. Once they were inside Hermione locked the door and put a soundproof charm on the whole shack.

"There's something in my dream that I haven't told you about. The man in the chair didn't just call me a mudblood but he said 'Mudblood and Seer is what you are.' Someone knows I'm a Seer. But I don't know who they are."

"But Hermione if you are a Seer who could know?"

"I don't know. The only people to my knowledge who know are the Order."

Harry remembered in third year when Hermione had walked out of divination and called the subject a load of crap.

"Hermione if you're a Seer why did you walk out of Divination?"

"There's an obvious answer to that. I didn't want people to know."

"Why did you keep it a secret from your friends for so long?" asked Ron quietly.

"I'm sorry but I didn't know it was safe to tell people."

"Did you buy a Crystal Ball?"

"Why do you assume that?" asked Hermione in surprise.

"Well Professor Trelawney said that the most precious and useful thing to a Seer is a Crystal Ball."

"Yes I did buy a Crystal Ball." said Hermione as an after thought she added "Weird question."

Ron looked at his clock "Hey we'd better go back or my mum will get even more annoyed with us for being late. We were supposed to be back five minutes ago."

They rushed to the fireplace and took some flo powder which lead them to Number 12 Grimland Place.