A/N: Hello ppl… I am SO SORRY I didn't updated this story earlier. I wanted
to post this chapter earlier but I had an asthma attack! Okay, some notice.
If I updated this thing late, that means I have lodes of work. My beta
readers and I are in our final year so that means we have to do lodes of
stuff. Okay, I'm crapping. On with the story… BTW, more A/N at the bottom.
Dudley goes to Hogwarts.
Chapter 9
First day
Morning came as usual at Hogwarts. Dudley shared his dorm room with four other students. None of them were a pure muggle like him. They were related to the wizardry world one way or another. No one spoke to him, as they knew he was a total outcast. An oddball. Who had no respect or gratitude for the great Harry Potter, the boy who lived. Nobody bothered to wake him, either. Fortunately for him, he got up with all the noise of his roommates excitement. They took no notice of him, but continued with their chattering.
Dudley washed up, still dressed in his normal clothes. He still didn't have his school robes yet. Somehow he felt worried if he were to wear his normal muggle clothes and walk to classes, receiving stares and puzzled looks from the other students. He felt so alone for the first time. So worried and unable to boss people around, as he knew they would only attack him or defend themselves with magic. But then he found a package on the other side of his bed. He sat down to unwrap it and found that Professor Dumbledore had somehow gotten all that he needed, except for his robes and wand.
Dudley sighed for he knew that he had to be walking around the school ground without a wand and walking around the school grounds wearing muggle clothes. Seeing that he couldn't do anything or knew anything, he decided to make his way to the hall when he overheard some of his roommates saying that breakfast was served there. He immediately jumped to his feet and scurried off for breakfast. As he had forgotten the way there, he actually followed his roommates without them noticing.
Dudley looked around the Great Hall for any sign of his so-called cousin. When he didn't see him or any of Harry's friends from last night, he sat himself down right at the end of the table. Grabbing a piece of toast, he began to smear it with butter. His eyes wandered up to staff table where he hoped to find his parents so that he could whine to his mother about what had happened last night. But they too were nowhere to be found.
"Mister Dursley. You are to see Professor Dumbledore during any of your free periods to get your robes and wand. Here is your timetable for this year. Please note that your first class will be starting in 10 minutes time. I suggest that you hurry," Professor McGonagall said as she handed Dudley a piece of parchment then walked away to pass out other timetables.
Dudley looked at the timetable and smiled to himself.
'Potions first,' he thought to himself.
His left hand absentmindedly brushed against the paperweight in his pocket. Harry had given to him the night before, saying that when given the paperweight, the Potions Master will favour him throughout his time in Hogwarts. Stuffing the last of his toast into his mouth, he gobbled down some pumpkin juice and glanced at his wristwatch. He smiled to himself when he noticed that he was only a couple of minutes late for Potions. Grabbing the books he had gotten from the dormitory, he walked casually down to the dungeon where the timetable stated that Potions class was to take place. He saw that the class was filled with Gryffindors and Slytherins of the first year.
When he had finally arrived, the class was already beginning. Straightening his robes, he pushed the dungeon's door open with one hand and entered. All eyes were looking straight at him and he found himself petrified at the entrance.
"You are late, Mister Dursley," Professor Snape said, as cold as ever.
Dudley gulped. He now felt extremely nervous and scared.
"I-I'm so-sorry Professor. I got l-lost," Dudley stammered while trembling from head to foot.
"Getting lost is not an excuse. You should have gotten here with the rest of your housemates if you are not familiar with the school ground. 10 points from Gryffindor!" Professor Snape snapped then turned his back on Dudley and walked towards the front of the class.
Dudley's hand brushed the dungbomb again and after gathering enough courage, he approached the nasty looking Professor. He took out the dungbomb and lit it with a lighter he had stolen from his dad behind his back. Then, he walked over to Snape's desk with the lighted dungbomb behind his back in his hands.
"Professor… I have something for you to make up for the mistake that I have made today," Dudley smiled his best smile that he could manage.
Professor Snape, who was looking at some notes he had brought along, looked up and glared at Dudley.
"Giving me gifts won't change my mind about the points I have taken, Mister Dursley," Professor Snape retorted.
Professor Snape sat down at his desk, still looking for what he was looking for in his drawers. He had just opened the second drawer when he was holding a bottle of what looks like livers, very small looking livers. He then leaned backwards to his chair and looked coldly at Dudley. Dudley's heart skipped a beat but he managed to keep the smile on his face.
"I know, Professor. I just want to give it to you anyway," Dudley said, a slight quiver in his voice.
Dudley took the dungbomb he had lighted earlier and placed it on the table, in front Professor. Professor Snape, being used to receiving "presents" from students, immediately stood up and starts yelling at Dudley.
"What do you think you are doing here? That is a dungbomb!" Professor Snape yelled at Dudley.
Before he could do anything, the dungbomb exploded right at his face, causing a panic. Professor Snape dropped the bottle and there was some reaction with the contents inside the bottle and the dungbomb because soon the room was beginning to be filled with purple, stinky smoke. All the other students ran screaming out the dungeon with Professor Snape right behind them. Professor Snape was holding Dudley by the collar. One of the students quickly closed the doors behind them so that the stench wouldn't spread to the corridors.
"You fool! That was a dungbomb! Don't you know that?!" Snape yelled at Dudley who now looked as if he was ready to pass out in a matter of seconds.
"I-I kn-know, Pro-Professor," Dudley stammered again, this time worse than before.
"Then why did you give it to me? Don't you know what the punishment will be? Who put you up to this?!" Dudley was about to say Harry's name when he remembered the warning Harry had given to him the night before about the curse.
"No one, Sir," was his only reply.
"You better tell me or you will serve a punishment for this!!" Professor Snape roared.
"No one Professor," Dudley repeated, looking straight into his eyes.
"Another 50 points from Gryffindor! And detention for 2 weeks!!" Professor Snape exclaimed loudly before Argus Filch came running down the corridor. Filch has a way of getting places where he is needed. No one knows how he does it, but it can be awfully terrible to be caught by him when you happened to be breaking some school rule.
"What happened?" he asked Professor Snape who had turned red with anger.
"This stupid student set off a dungbomb!" Professor Snape said through his gritted teeth, obviously trying very hard to control his anger.
Filch looked almost startled and looked at Dudley. Dudley was shaking from head to toe, still wondering if he had done something wrong. Some of the students were busy discussing on what punishment this Dudley fellow would be getting while there were a handful who were giving Dudley the thumbs up for his bravery for they would never have pulled a better one on Professor Snape even if they wanted to. One or two of the students were near the door, once in a while checking if the stench was still there or not.
"He doesn't know who you are, does he?" Filch smirked.
"Clearly he doesn't! Class dismissed! Go back to your common room until your next class! As for you, Mister Dursley, come back down here right after dinner for your detention!" Professor Snape said to Dudley and went back into his dungeon to see what was damaged with Filch.
The Slytherins smirked and laughed at Dudley before they went back to their common room which wasn't far from where they were while the Gryffindors were looking at Dudley with so much hate that if looks could kill, Dudley would be six feet under instantly, stabbed by millions of daggers on his fat, rounded body.
"Why did you go and do that for! Now we will surely lose the House Cup! Just because you decided to play a prank on the Potions Master!!" said Frank angrily, a boy with a dirty blond hair who had slept in the bed next to Dudley's last night.
"Yeah! To top it off, Harry's going to have a major pressure to win the Quidditch cup to get the Gryffindors to win the House Cup! It's his last year, for heaven's sake! You always like to make things rough for him, don't you?" said Randall, another Gryffindor.
"I didn't think-" started Dudley, trying very hard to defend himself.
"Yeah, you didn't think, all right! Now look what happened! It's all, your fault! C'mon guys, let's go before Snape decides to take more points," Frank mumbled and started heading towards the Gryffindor Common Room.
The rest of them followed suit, some shaking their head at Dudley's big mistake. Dudley just looked at them, not knowing what to do. Soon, he was the only one left behind in the corridors.
"Harry! Ron! Where have you been? You missed half of the Care of Magical Creatures class!" Hermione exclaimed as she saw the two boys walking towards her with huge grins on their faces.
Hermione was standing outside Hagrid's hut, standing beside something that looked like cats out of the dryer, with its fur fluffed out. Extremely fluffed.
"Just had to do a couple of things. Right Ron?" Harry nudged Ron.
"Yeah. So, what'd we miss?" Ron asked, walking over to the funny looking animal.
"It's a Pleepunk, a distant relative of the dragons. Very distant. You see, the dragons are violent while a Pleepunk is harmless. Look at its fur! Lavender and Parvati have been begging Hagrid to give one to them as a pet but I don't think Hagrid would give it to them," Hermione explained with a smile and pointed towards Parvati and Lavender.
Both of them had a Pleepunk each and were talking to Hagrid about something that they couldn't quite hear but Hagrid kept waving his massive hands in front of him.
Hagrid's eyes soon caught Harry's and he immediately walked over towards them. Lavender and Parvati soon got the message and sadly placed the cuddly Pleepunks with the others. The Pleepunk suddenly started humming softly together, jumping up and down with the fur perfectly moving in the wind. Lavender and Parvati then walked back into the castle, preparing for the next class. Soon, it was just Hagrid, Harry, Ron and Hermione all alone there.
"So Harry, how's that project of yours coming along?" Hagrid asked with a wink.
Harry and Ron looked at each other and then burst into laughter.
"You should've seen Dudley's face when Snape gave him detention! He was trembling from head to toe as if there was an earthquake at where he was standing!" Harry choked between laughs.
"That's nothing compare to how Snape looked like! I thought he couldn't look more gruesome if he tried!" Ron said.
Soon, both boys were gasping for air. Hagrid let out a chuckle but Hermione looked extremely confused.
"What are they talking about, Hagrid?" she asked anxiously.
"They didn't tell yeh?" Hagrid asked.
Hermione shook her head.
"Well, last night, Harry and Ron-" started Hermione.
"Don't tell her just yet, Hagrid. I think it'll be more fun if we showed it to her," Harry said, cutting Hagrid off.
"Show me what?" asked Hermione, her curiosity was obviously getting the best of her.
"Tonight, after dinner, meet us back at the Common Room. I don't know if you'd like it but I know the rest of the 7th year Gryffindors would wanna see it," Ron said, smiling away.
Hermione was puzzled and didn't know what to expect but nodded her head anyway.
"Okay. Now that we've got that settled down, both of yeh need to pay more attention in class. Both of yeh missed a good deal of work while yeh all were gone," Hagrid said.
He then walked over and grabbed a yellow Pleepunk, which was nicely bouncing on Hagrid big palm.
"Granger!" Hermione turned around and saw Draco running towards her.
Hermione slowed down and told Harry and Ron to go on ahead without her and that she'll meet them later for lunch at the hall.
"See ya Herm. Don't be too long!" Harry said as they leave Hermione behind.
Draco soon caught up with her, his bag swinging from his right shoulder.
"What is it?" asked Hermione coldly for she didn't approve Draco calling her by her last name.
"Dumbledore wants to see us right now. He needs to talk to us about the thing he was saying last night," Draco explained.
Hermione nodded and followed Draco towards Professor Dumbledore's office.
"Chocolate covered cherries," Draco mumbled and the gargoyle jumped aside.
They soon found themselves in front of Professor Dumbledore's office. Draco, without glancing at Hermione, knocked on the door.
"Come it," Dumbledore's cheery voice called out.
Draco pushed the door open and he let Hermione walked through before himself and closed the door behind him. They could see that Dudley was there, Madam Malkin preparing his robes while Mr. Ollivander was finding the right wand for him. Professor Dumbledore was standing nearby with a cup of cocoa in his hands. Hermione could see that Professor Dumbledore was happily adding marshmallows into his cocoa.
"Ah… Mister Malfoy and Miss Granger. This won't take very long. Please, do take a seat," Dumbledore gestured at them.
Hermione nodded and sat on one of the chairs opposite Dumbledore and Draco sat beside her.
"Hmm… how about 11 and 3 quarters with oak and claw of dragon?" asked Mr. Ollivander, handing Dudley the wand.
The moment Dudley held the wand sparks of green and white came from the wand and formed a pattern. No one could identify what it was as the image was blurred and fast. Dudley quickly gave the wand to Mr. Ollivander, he didn't want his nose to turn to a snout again. Hermione could see that even Mr. Ollivander was taken aback while Professor Dumbledore was looking curiously at the image, placing his cup on the table.
"I think that we have found an owner for this 156 year old wand. Or should I say it has found its owner?" said Mr. Ollivander.
"Here you are dearie. Your robes," said Madam Malkin, handing Dudley a nicely wrapped brown package.
Mr. Ollivander placed Dudley's wand in its case and gave it to Dudley.
"I won't take long," said Professor Dumbledore suddenly to Hermione and Draco.
Professor Dumbledore then showed Mr. Ollivander, Madam Malkin and lastly Dudley to the door.
Draco was nicely looking at the portraits in the office while Hermione was looking at all the books on the shelf. Professor Dumbledore soon was in the room with them, taking his seat behind his desk.
"Now, I called both of you here so that I could explain about the Prophecy," said Professor Dumbledore, putting away his cup of cocoa.
"What prophecy?" Hermione asked.
"I might have forgotten to mention that last night. There is this one Prophecy about the four teens that can defeat Voldemort. But we are unsure who they are. We haven't been able to detect any of them quite yet except for Mister Potter. He's one of the four," Professor Dumbledore explained.
"How do we identify any of these three other people?" Draco asked his arms folded in front of his chest.
"Good question. Unfortunately it is to remain without an answer. What we know is very little. Now, this is where you two are needed. I need you two to find out all you can about this Prophecy. It might be right under our noses if we look hard enough. I take it you two have no problems with this?" Professor Dumbledore continued.
"No. I'm sure we'll find something. Won't we, Malfoy?" Hermione asked, glancing over at him.
Draco just nodded.
"Excellent! Now, I'm sure that both of you are hungry so I'll let you go for your lunch. Thank you very much for your time," Professor Dumbledore said, getting up along with Hermione and Draco.
"Thank you, Sir," Hermione said as she exited the room with Draco behind her.
Both of them walked towards the Great Hall in silence.
"Malfoy, do you think that-" Hermione was trying to make conversation when Pansy's voice interrupted her.
"Draco! Draco honey, where were you? I was worried sick!" she exclaimed as she threw her arms around Draco's neck.
"Pansy, get off me!" Draco yelled, pushing her arm away from his neck.
"Aw… honey, you don't have to be shy in front of the Mudblood. It's not like she has any idea what we're doing anyway," Pansy smiled.
Hermione shook her head in disgust and walked ahead, leaving Draco behind. The sight of those two could make anyone sick. She continued to walk towards the Great Hall, which was not very far away. When she got there, she looked for Ron and Harry.
"Herm! Over here!" Harry called out, waving his arm above his head.
Hermione waved back and joined Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean, Neville, Ginny, Lavender and Parvati at the table.
"What kept you?" Ron asked, piling his plates with some more mash potatoes.
"Dumbledore wanted a word with me and Malfoy. Nothing important," she lied quickly. "So, what were you guys talking about before?" Hermione smiled.
She poured some pumpkin juice into her glass before taking a sip from it.
"We were wondering when we should be doing Quidditch tryouts. Dean said it should be as soon as possible," Harry said.
"Yeah. The season will be starting soon and we do need a well trained keeper," Dean said.
"I agree. The faster we find one, the faster you'll be able to train together," Hermione agreed.
"Okay then. How about tomorrow afternoon, after classes?" suggested Ron, who was now pouring lots of gravy on his mashed potato.
"I think that'll be enough time. But you'll need to put up a notice though," Neville pointed out suddenly, who was sitting beside Dean.
"Consider it done!" Hermione exclaimed.
She mumbled something under her breath and a beautifully decorated red and gold colour paper appeared on the table. Harry picked it up and read it.
"Wow! Where'd you learn to do that?" Harry asked; looking at the notice that Hermione just conjured up.
"I read it in this book. It teaches you how to make stuff like fancy notices and cards. It's pretty useful if you've forgotten to buy anyone a birthday card or something," Hermione said, now putting a piece of chicken onto her plate.
"I'll put this up later on the board. Thanks Hermione," said Harry, while passing the notice for the other to see.
"No big thing," she replied.
They kept eating and talking about everything they could think of, from Quidditch to flobberworms. Dean even offered to teach them how to play Soccer (or football. Some of you call it that. Like me!) but Harry was the only one who seemed interested. Finally, 10 minutes before the next class started, they went their separate ways, Harry and Ron to Divination while Hermione to Arithmancy. After saying their goodbye, they left each other for their own class.
My thanks to:
Spair Llewillah/Moonstone: Thank you so much! I love you!!! I read your story before but never did get to review it. Sorry. I will review it as soon as the next chapter is up!
Kimbra: My favourite reader! My thanks to you for reading the story!
chirstina wilborn: you will see that soon!
keja Wilson: now you know
Emma lOu: Here you go!
Shauna: Thank you SO much for the suggestion for the story.
Amy: I am sorry but it seems as if you've fallen into my trap!
Cassie: Soon to be written!
YSL: Good to have last year senior read this story!
Snow_wolf: MY beta reader. Too bad Miss Hameeda had to put you at the other side of the class!
Oh yeah, I have one more beta reader. Her nick is Wolfsun. Go read her story. I promise you won't be disappointed!
Dudley goes to Hogwarts.
Chapter 9
First day
Morning came as usual at Hogwarts. Dudley shared his dorm room with four other students. None of them were a pure muggle like him. They were related to the wizardry world one way or another. No one spoke to him, as they knew he was a total outcast. An oddball. Who had no respect or gratitude for the great Harry Potter, the boy who lived. Nobody bothered to wake him, either. Fortunately for him, he got up with all the noise of his roommates excitement. They took no notice of him, but continued with their chattering.
Dudley washed up, still dressed in his normal clothes. He still didn't have his school robes yet. Somehow he felt worried if he were to wear his normal muggle clothes and walk to classes, receiving stares and puzzled looks from the other students. He felt so alone for the first time. So worried and unable to boss people around, as he knew they would only attack him or defend themselves with magic. But then he found a package on the other side of his bed. He sat down to unwrap it and found that Professor Dumbledore had somehow gotten all that he needed, except for his robes and wand.
Dudley sighed for he knew that he had to be walking around the school ground without a wand and walking around the school grounds wearing muggle clothes. Seeing that he couldn't do anything or knew anything, he decided to make his way to the hall when he overheard some of his roommates saying that breakfast was served there. He immediately jumped to his feet and scurried off for breakfast. As he had forgotten the way there, he actually followed his roommates without them noticing.
Dudley looked around the Great Hall for any sign of his so-called cousin. When he didn't see him or any of Harry's friends from last night, he sat himself down right at the end of the table. Grabbing a piece of toast, he began to smear it with butter. His eyes wandered up to staff table where he hoped to find his parents so that he could whine to his mother about what had happened last night. But they too were nowhere to be found.
"Mister Dursley. You are to see Professor Dumbledore during any of your free periods to get your robes and wand. Here is your timetable for this year. Please note that your first class will be starting in 10 minutes time. I suggest that you hurry," Professor McGonagall said as she handed Dudley a piece of parchment then walked away to pass out other timetables.
Dudley looked at the timetable and smiled to himself.
'Potions first,' he thought to himself.
His left hand absentmindedly brushed against the paperweight in his pocket. Harry had given to him the night before, saying that when given the paperweight, the Potions Master will favour him throughout his time in Hogwarts. Stuffing the last of his toast into his mouth, he gobbled down some pumpkin juice and glanced at his wristwatch. He smiled to himself when he noticed that he was only a couple of minutes late for Potions. Grabbing the books he had gotten from the dormitory, he walked casually down to the dungeon where the timetable stated that Potions class was to take place. He saw that the class was filled with Gryffindors and Slytherins of the first year.
When he had finally arrived, the class was already beginning. Straightening his robes, he pushed the dungeon's door open with one hand and entered. All eyes were looking straight at him and he found himself petrified at the entrance.
"You are late, Mister Dursley," Professor Snape said, as cold as ever.
Dudley gulped. He now felt extremely nervous and scared.
"I-I'm so-sorry Professor. I got l-lost," Dudley stammered while trembling from head to foot.
"Getting lost is not an excuse. You should have gotten here with the rest of your housemates if you are not familiar with the school ground. 10 points from Gryffindor!" Professor Snape snapped then turned his back on Dudley and walked towards the front of the class.
Dudley's hand brushed the dungbomb again and after gathering enough courage, he approached the nasty looking Professor. He took out the dungbomb and lit it with a lighter he had stolen from his dad behind his back. Then, he walked over to Snape's desk with the lighted dungbomb behind his back in his hands.
"Professor… I have something for you to make up for the mistake that I have made today," Dudley smiled his best smile that he could manage.
Professor Snape, who was looking at some notes he had brought along, looked up and glared at Dudley.
"Giving me gifts won't change my mind about the points I have taken, Mister Dursley," Professor Snape retorted.
Professor Snape sat down at his desk, still looking for what he was looking for in his drawers. He had just opened the second drawer when he was holding a bottle of what looks like livers, very small looking livers. He then leaned backwards to his chair and looked coldly at Dudley. Dudley's heart skipped a beat but he managed to keep the smile on his face.
"I know, Professor. I just want to give it to you anyway," Dudley said, a slight quiver in his voice.
Dudley took the dungbomb he had lighted earlier and placed it on the table, in front Professor. Professor Snape, being used to receiving "presents" from students, immediately stood up and starts yelling at Dudley.
"What do you think you are doing here? That is a dungbomb!" Professor Snape yelled at Dudley.
Before he could do anything, the dungbomb exploded right at his face, causing a panic. Professor Snape dropped the bottle and there was some reaction with the contents inside the bottle and the dungbomb because soon the room was beginning to be filled with purple, stinky smoke. All the other students ran screaming out the dungeon with Professor Snape right behind them. Professor Snape was holding Dudley by the collar. One of the students quickly closed the doors behind them so that the stench wouldn't spread to the corridors.
"You fool! That was a dungbomb! Don't you know that?!" Snape yelled at Dudley who now looked as if he was ready to pass out in a matter of seconds.
"I-I kn-know, Pro-Professor," Dudley stammered again, this time worse than before.
"Then why did you give it to me? Don't you know what the punishment will be? Who put you up to this?!" Dudley was about to say Harry's name when he remembered the warning Harry had given to him the night before about the curse.
"No one, Sir," was his only reply.
"You better tell me or you will serve a punishment for this!!" Professor Snape roared.
"No one Professor," Dudley repeated, looking straight into his eyes.
"Another 50 points from Gryffindor! And detention for 2 weeks!!" Professor Snape exclaimed loudly before Argus Filch came running down the corridor. Filch has a way of getting places where he is needed. No one knows how he does it, but it can be awfully terrible to be caught by him when you happened to be breaking some school rule.
"What happened?" he asked Professor Snape who had turned red with anger.
"This stupid student set off a dungbomb!" Professor Snape said through his gritted teeth, obviously trying very hard to control his anger.
Filch looked almost startled and looked at Dudley. Dudley was shaking from head to toe, still wondering if he had done something wrong. Some of the students were busy discussing on what punishment this Dudley fellow would be getting while there were a handful who were giving Dudley the thumbs up for his bravery for they would never have pulled a better one on Professor Snape even if they wanted to. One or two of the students were near the door, once in a while checking if the stench was still there or not.
"He doesn't know who you are, does he?" Filch smirked.
"Clearly he doesn't! Class dismissed! Go back to your common room until your next class! As for you, Mister Dursley, come back down here right after dinner for your detention!" Professor Snape said to Dudley and went back into his dungeon to see what was damaged with Filch.
The Slytherins smirked and laughed at Dudley before they went back to their common room which wasn't far from where they were while the Gryffindors were looking at Dudley with so much hate that if looks could kill, Dudley would be six feet under instantly, stabbed by millions of daggers on his fat, rounded body.
"Why did you go and do that for! Now we will surely lose the House Cup! Just because you decided to play a prank on the Potions Master!!" said Frank angrily, a boy with a dirty blond hair who had slept in the bed next to Dudley's last night.
"Yeah! To top it off, Harry's going to have a major pressure to win the Quidditch cup to get the Gryffindors to win the House Cup! It's his last year, for heaven's sake! You always like to make things rough for him, don't you?" said Randall, another Gryffindor.
"I didn't think-" started Dudley, trying very hard to defend himself.
"Yeah, you didn't think, all right! Now look what happened! It's all, your fault! C'mon guys, let's go before Snape decides to take more points," Frank mumbled and started heading towards the Gryffindor Common Room.
The rest of them followed suit, some shaking their head at Dudley's big mistake. Dudley just looked at them, not knowing what to do. Soon, he was the only one left behind in the corridors.
"Harry! Ron! Where have you been? You missed half of the Care of Magical Creatures class!" Hermione exclaimed as she saw the two boys walking towards her with huge grins on their faces.
Hermione was standing outside Hagrid's hut, standing beside something that looked like cats out of the dryer, with its fur fluffed out. Extremely fluffed.
"Just had to do a couple of things. Right Ron?" Harry nudged Ron.
"Yeah. So, what'd we miss?" Ron asked, walking over to the funny looking animal.
"It's a Pleepunk, a distant relative of the dragons. Very distant. You see, the dragons are violent while a Pleepunk is harmless. Look at its fur! Lavender and Parvati have been begging Hagrid to give one to them as a pet but I don't think Hagrid would give it to them," Hermione explained with a smile and pointed towards Parvati and Lavender.
Both of them had a Pleepunk each and were talking to Hagrid about something that they couldn't quite hear but Hagrid kept waving his massive hands in front of him.
Hagrid's eyes soon caught Harry's and he immediately walked over towards them. Lavender and Parvati soon got the message and sadly placed the cuddly Pleepunks with the others. The Pleepunk suddenly started humming softly together, jumping up and down with the fur perfectly moving in the wind. Lavender and Parvati then walked back into the castle, preparing for the next class. Soon, it was just Hagrid, Harry, Ron and Hermione all alone there.
"So Harry, how's that project of yours coming along?" Hagrid asked with a wink.
Harry and Ron looked at each other and then burst into laughter.
"You should've seen Dudley's face when Snape gave him detention! He was trembling from head to toe as if there was an earthquake at where he was standing!" Harry choked between laughs.
"That's nothing compare to how Snape looked like! I thought he couldn't look more gruesome if he tried!" Ron said.
Soon, both boys were gasping for air. Hagrid let out a chuckle but Hermione looked extremely confused.
"What are they talking about, Hagrid?" she asked anxiously.
"They didn't tell yeh?" Hagrid asked.
Hermione shook her head.
"Well, last night, Harry and Ron-" started Hermione.
"Don't tell her just yet, Hagrid. I think it'll be more fun if we showed it to her," Harry said, cutting Hagrid off.
"Show me what?" asked Hermione, her curiosity was obviously getting the best of her.
"Tonight, after dinner, meet us back at the Common Room. I don't know if you'd like it but I know the rest of the 7th year Gryffindors would wanna see it," Ron said, smiling away.
Hermione was puzzled and didn't know what to expect but nodded her head anyway.
"Okay. Now that we've got that settled down, both of yeh need to pay more attention in class. Both of yeh missed a good deal of work while yeh all were gone," Hagrid said.
He then walked over and grabbed a yellow Pleepunk, which was nicely bouncing on Hagrid big palm.
"Granger!" Hermione turned around and saw Draco running towards her.
Hermione slowed down and told Harry and Ron to go on ahead without her and that she'll meet them later for lunch at the hall.
"See ya Herm. Don't be too long!" Harry said as they leave Hermione behind.
Draco soon caught up with her, his bag swinging from his right shoulder.
"What is it?" asked Hermione coldly for she didn't approve Draco calling her by her last name.
"Dumbledore wants to see us right now. He needs to talk to us about the thing he was saying last night," Draco explained.
Hermione nodded and followed Draco towards Professor Dumbledore's office.
"Chocolate covered cherries," Draco mumbled and the gargoyle jumped aside.
They soon found themselves in front of Professor Dumbledore's office. Draco, without glancing at Hermione, knocked on the door.
"Come it," Dumbledore's cheery voice called out.
Draco pushed the door open and he let Hermione walked through before himself and closed the door behind him. They could see that Dudley was there, Madam Malkin preparing his robes while Mr. Ollivander was finding the right wand for him. Professor Dumbledore was standing nearby with a cup of cocoa in his hands. Hermione could see that Professor Dumbledore was happily adding marshmallows into his cocoa.
"Ah… Mister Malfoy and Miss Granger. This won't take very long. Please, do take a seat," Dumbledore gestured at them.
Hermione nodded and sat on one of the chairs opposite Dumbledore and Draco sat beside her.
"Hmm… how about 11 and 3 quarters with oak and claw of dragon?" asked Mr. Ollivander, handing Dudley the wand.
The moment Dudley held the wand sparks of green and white came from the wand and formed a pattern. No one could identify what it was as the image was blurred and fast. Dudley quickly gave the wand to Mr. Ollivander, he didn't want his nose to turn to a snout again. Hermione could see that even Mr. Ollivander was taken aback while Professor Dumbledore was looking curiously at the image, placing his cup on the table.
"I think that we have found an owner for this 156 year old wand. Or should I say it has found its owner?" said Mr. Ollivander.
"Here you are dearie. Your robes," said Madam Malkin, handing Dudley a nicely wrapped brown package.
Mr. Ollivander placed Dudley's wand in its case and gave it to Dudley.
"I won't take long," said Professor Dumbledore suddenly to Hermione and Draco.
Professor Dumbledore then showed Mr. Ollivander, Madam Malkin and lastly Dudley to the door.
Draco was nicely looking at the portraits in the office while Hermione was looking at all the books on the shelf. Professor Dumbledore soon was in the room with them, taking his seat behind his desk.
"Now, I called both of you here so that I could explain about the Prophecy," said Professor Dumbledore, putting away his cup of cocoa.
"What prophecy?" Hermione asked.
"I might have forgotten to mention that last night. There is this one Prophecy about the four teens that can defeat Voldemort. But we are unsure who they are. We haven't been able to detect any of them quite yet except for Mister Potter. He's one of the four," Professor Dumbledore explained.
"How do we identify any of these three other people?" Draco asked his arms folded in front of his chest.
"Good question. Unfortunately it is to remain without an answer. What we know is very little. Now, this is where you two are needed. I need you two to find out all you can about this Prophecy. It might be right under our noses if we look hard enough. I take it you two have no problems with this?" Professor Dumbledore continued.
"No. I'm sure we'll find something. Won't we, Malfoy?" Hermione asked, glancing over at him.
Draco just nodded.
"Excellent! Now, I'm sure that both of you are hungry so I'll let you go for your lunch. Thank you very much for your time," Professor Dumbledore said, getting up along with Hermione and Draco.
"Thank you, Sir," Hermione said as she exited the room with Draco behind her.
Both of them walked towards the Great Hall in silence.
"Malfoy, do you think that-" Hermione was trying to make conversation when Pansy's voice interrupted her.
"Draco! Draco honey, where were you? I was worried sick!" she exclaimed as she threw her arms around Draco's neck.
"Pansy, get off me!" Draco yelled, pushing her arm away from his neck.
"Aw… honey, you don't have to be shy in front of the Mudblood. It's not like she has any idea what we're doing anyway," Pansy smiled.
Hermione shook her head in disgust and walked ahead, leaving Draco behind. The sight of those two could make anyone sick. She continued to walk towards the Great Hall, which was not very far away. When she got there, she looked for Ron and Harry.
"Herm! Over here!" Harry called out, waving his arm above his head.
Hermione waved back and joined Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean, Neville, Ginny, Lavender and Parvati at the table.
"What kept you?" Ron asked, piling his plates with some more mash potatoes.
"Dumbledore wanted a word with me and Malfoy. Nothing important," she lied quickly. "So, what were you guys talking about before?" Hermione smiled.
She poured some pumpkin juice into her glass before taking a sip from it.
"We were wondering when we should be doing Quidditch tryouts. Dean said it should be as soon as possible," Harry said.
"Yeah. The season will be starting soon and we do need a well trained keeper," Dean said.
"I agree. The faster we find one, the faster you'll be able to train together," Hermione agreed.
"Okay then. How about tomorrow afternoon, after classes?" suggested Ron, who was now pouring lots of gravy on his mashed potato.
"I think that'll be enough time. But you'll need to put up a notice though," Neville pointed out suddenly, who was sitting beside Dean.
"Consider it done!" Hermione exclaimed.
She mumbled something under her breath and a beautifully decorated red and gold colour paper appeared on the table. Harry picked it up and read it.
"Wow! Where'd you learn to do that?" Harry asked; looking at the notice that Hermione just conjured up.
"I read it in this book. It teaches you how to make stuff like fancy notices and cards. It's pretty useful if you've forgotten to buy anyone a birthday card or something," Hermione said, now putting a piece of chicken onto her plate.
"I'll put this up later on the board. Thanks Hermione," said Harry, while passing the notice for the other to see.
"No big thing," she replied.
They kept eating and talking about everything they could think of, from Quidditch to flobberworms. Dean even offered to teach them how to play Soccer (or football. Some of you call it that. Like me!) but Harry was the only one who seemed interested. Finally, 10 minutes before the next class started, they went their separate ways, Harry and Ron to Divination while Hermione to Arithmancy. After saying their goodbye, they left each other for their own class.
My thanks to:
Spair Llewillah/Moonstone: Thank you so much! I love you!!! I read your story before but never did get to review it. Sorry. I will review it as soon as the next chapter is up!
Kimbra: My favourite reader! My thanks to you for reading the story!
chirstina wilborn: you will see that soon!
keja Wilson: now you know
Emma lOu: Here you go!
Shauna: Thank you SO much for the suggestion for the story.
Amy: I am sorry but it seems as if you've fallen into my trap!
Cassie: Soon to be written!
YSL: Good to have last year senior read this story!
Snow_wolf: MY beta reader. Too bad Miss Hameeda had to put you at the other side of the class!
Oh yeah, I have one more beta reader. Her nick is Wolfsun. Go read her story. I promise you won't be disappointed!