Chapter 5 - Back to Hogwarts

"Oh thank goodness, thank goodness!" Mrs. Weasley came running across the front yard of the Burrow as the Weasley's, Hermione, and Harry came trudging back to the house in the early hours of the next morning. Hermione watched her throw herself on Mr. Weasley as the Daily Prophet came falling out of her hands. There was a short welcoming home and apology from Mrs. Weasley (to the twins) before they went into the house, all of them jammed tight into the kitchen of the Burrow.

"Here, Mrs. Weasley," Hermione said as she made the distraught Molly a cup of tea and gave it to her while Mr. Weasley and Percy looked at the paper and the others stood around silently. Hermione stood back and watched as Mr. Weasley looked over at his wife and then got up and got out a bottle of Ogdens Old Firewhiskey, pouring Mrs. Weasley a shot. Hermione didn't notice much more as she began staring off into space, her mind still on poor little Winky. She remained in her daze for a few minutes until Harry's voice broke into her thoughts and she turned and looked at him as he spoke to Mrs. Weasley.

"Mrs. Weasley, Hedwig hasn't arrived with a letter for me, has she?"

"Hedwig, dear? No... no, there hasn't been any post at all." Ron now joined Hermione in looking at Harry who began to talk to him now.

"All right if I go and dump my stuff in your room, Ron?"

"Yeah... I think I will too," Ron said as he caught on to what Harry was truly meaning. "Hermione?"

"Yes," she said a little more quickly than she had intended in her hurry to get out of the kitchen and hear about something else rather than the events of last night. They were on their way up the stairs when Ron finally spoke up.

"What's up, Harry?" They were now safely in the silence of Ron's attic room as Harry began to explain what was going on.

"There's something I haven't told you. On Saturday morning, I woke up with my scar hurting again." This came a quite a shock to Hermione as she wondered what this could mean. 'The last time Harry's scar hurt, Voldemort was at Hogwarts. And then those horrible events of last night! What could it all mean though?' In Hermione's moment of pondering, she had missed a few things Harry and Ron had said, but this didn't stop her from distinctly hearing the name Professor Trelawney. Hermione gave a sort of tutting snort that meant she disapproved as she broke in on their conversation.

"Oh Harry, you aren't going to pay attention to anything that old fraud says?"

"You weren't there," Harry said. "You didn't hear her. This time was different. I told you, she went into a trance – a real one. And she said the Dark Lord would rise again... greater and more terrible than ever before... and he's manage it because his servant was going back to him... and that night Wormtail escaped." Hermione remembered all too well the night of their third year that this had happened.

"Why were you asking if Hedwig had come, Harry," Hermione asked as she suddenly remembered Harry's question from the kitchen. Her real reason for changing the subject though was because she didn't want to admit that Trelawney could have had a real prediction. "Are you expecting a letter?"

"I told Sirius about my scar," Harry said with a shrug of his shoulders. "I'm waiting for his answer." Hermione was happy to hear this. 'At least someone listens to me and has come to some kind of sense! I'm glad he told someone.' "I hoped he'd get back to me quickly."

"But we don't know where Sirius is... he could be in Africa or somewhere, couldn't he? Hedwig's not going to manage that journey in a few days."

"Yeah, I know," Harry sighed heavily as he looked to the window. Hermione knew he was missing Sirius and wishing that Hedwig would come soaring through the window right at that moment. 'Poor Harry.'

"Come and have a game of Quidditch in the orchard, Harry," Ron said, trying to brighten Harry up. 'I understand that he's trying to make Harry feel better, but I don't think Quidditch is the thing. Why do guys always think the answer to everything is Quidditch?' Hermione sighed and turned to Ron as she spoke.

"Ron, Harry doesn't want to play Quidditch right now... He's worried, and he's tired... We all need to go to bed..."

"Yeah, I want to play Quidditch," Harry said suddenly. "Hang on, I'll get my Firebolt." Hermione sighed as she shook her head and got up and left.

"Boys!" Hermione entered Ginny's room and sat down on her makeshift bed as she stared out the window. 'I wonder what Mom and Dad are doing?' Hermione jumped up and grabbed a piece of paper and a quill from Ginny's desk and sat down as she started to write a letter to her parents.

Dear Mom and Dad,

This is just a letter to see how you are doing. I am having a wonderful time here at that Weasleys'.

I am just sorry that I have to wait until next summer to see you since I will not be home for Christmas. I am afraid that I will be staying on at Hogwarts to keep Harry company. Besides, Percy (one of the Weasleys' eldest boys which you have yet to meet) says that there is going to be some big to-do at Hogwarts this year that we might want to stay for. I really do not know what it is all about, but I am sure I will find out all in good time.

I will be sure to write again when I arrive safely to Hogwarts!

Love,

Hermione

Hermione sighed and laid her quill down as she read over the letter. She hated to lie to her parents, but then when she thought about it, she wasn't really lying, just not telling the whole truth. She hadn't said that everything was going smoothly with no problems, she had just said that she was having a wonderful time there at the Weasleys'. This was true, it wasn't like the accident at the Cup was destroying her stay totally. They had all got home safely and she as still with her friends. With her mind made up about the letter, Hermione folded it and went upstairs to Ron's room.

"Pig...? Here, Pig!" Hermione looked around Ron's room and in the cage, but she didn't see the little bird anywhere. Then Hermione remembered that Ron had let him out when she had been leaving. Hermione went to the window and looked out, but still there was no sigh of the tiny owl anywhere. "I guess I'll just have to send this lat– OUCH!" Hermione began massaging her temple as she looked out of one eye for what had hit her in the side of the head. There was a crazed twitter and Ron's owl, Pig came flying into the window. "You crazy bird," Hermione grumbled as she picked up her letter and walked over to where the little owl sat bouncing up and down with its leg out. Hermione attached the letter and carried the little owl to the window as she gave it instructions. "Take this to Hermione's, my, house." With that, she tossed him out the window, gasping as she did when he plummeted a few feet before taking to a difficult flight.

Hermione had went the rest of that week pretty much in silence, reading the new books Mrs. Weasley had picked up in Diagon Alley for her as the rest of the Weasley family and Harry would play chess or talk about Mr. Weasley and the news he brought home from the Ministry. Hermione had made it the whole week listening to the talk with nothing to say because she knew that the culprits were still out there and it scared her, that was until Percy had opened his mouth about one of his favorite subjects, Mr. Crouch. Percy had been talking about how it had been an embarrassment to Mr. Crouch what his elf, Winky, had done and Hermione had heard enough of Percy's pompous talk.

"If you ask me, Mr. Crouch is very lucky that no one at the Daily Prophet knows how mean he is to house elves!"

"Now look here, Hermione! High-ranking Ministry official like Mr. Crouch deserves unswerving obedience from his servants–"

"His slave, you mean! Because he didn't pay Winky, did he?" Hermione had burst so passionately that it made Percy swell up with pompous anger, but luckily Mrs. Weasley stopped the contest of voice raising between the two and told the children to go upstairs to check their new things.

"Thanks for having us stay, Mrs. Weasley," Hermione called as she boarded the big scarlet engine that was the Hogwart's Express. She, Harry, and Ron went to their train compartment as they train left the station while rain poured down outside. They were talking about how Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Charlie, Percy, and Mr. Weasley had seemed to know about something happening at Hogwarts when Hermione spoke up.

"Shhh!" Upon obeying her order, the trio heard Malfoy's voice coming from the compartment next to them.

"... Father actually considered sending me to Durmstrang rather than Hogwarts, you know. He knows the Headmaster, you see. Well, you know his opinion of Dumbledore – the man's such a Mudblood-lover – and Durmstrang doesn't admit that sort of riffraff. But Mother didn't like the idea of me going to a school so far away. Father says Durmstrang takes a far more sensible line than Hogwarts about the Dark Arts. Durmstrang students actually learn them, not just the defense rubbish we do..." Hermione had obviously heard enough, in fact she had heard enough after their first year at Hogwarts. She got up and shut the compartment door while seething on her way back to her seat.

"So he thinks Durmstrang would have suited him, does he? I wish he had gone, then we wouldn't have to put up with him."

"Durmstrang's another wizarding school?" Harry's lack of knowledge in the wizarding world was sad considering he was one of the most well-known wizards of his time.

"Yes, and it's got a horrible reputation. According to An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe, it puts a lot of emphasis on the Dark Arts."

"I think I've heard of it," Ron broke in, sounding slightly confused and distant as he spoke about the school. "Where is it? What country?"

"Well, nobody knows, do they?" Hermione's information had often proved valuable, but right now it was only making the subject more confusing seeing as she couldn't tell them where the school was.

"Er– why not?" Harry's confusion hadn't cleared and if anything, it had only got worse.

"There's traditionally been a lot of rivalry between all the magic schools. Durmstrang and Beauxbatons like to conceal their where-abouts so nobody can steal their secrets," Hermione stated as though reading from a book.

"Come off it," Ron laughed. "Durmstrang's got to be about the same size as Hogwarts – how are you going to hide a great big castle?"

"But Hogwarts is hidden. Everyone knows that... well, everyone who reads Hogwarts: A History, anyways." Hermione's book knowledge was at times helpful, but now it had turned to an annoyance as she stated what she had in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Just you, then," Ron sighed. "So go on – how'd you hide a place like Hogwarts?"

"It's bewitched. If a Muggle looks at it, all they see is a moldering old ruin with a sign over the entrance saying DANGER, DO NOT ENTER, UNSAFE.

"So Durmstrang will look just like a ruin to an outsider too?"

"Maybe, or it might have Muggle-repelling charms on it, like the World Cup stadium. And to keep foreign wizards from finding it, they'll have made it Unplottable–"

"Come again?"

"Well, you can enchant buildings so it's impossible to plot on a map, can't you?"

"Er... if you say so," Harry mumbled, he felt better agreeing with her than trying to really answer the question.

"But I think Durmstrang must be somewhere in the far north. Somewhere very cold," Hermione said in a know-it-all manner, "because they've got fur capes as part of their uniforms."

"Ah, think of the possibilities," Ron sighed as he gave the expression of a distant thinking. "It would've been so easy to push Malfoy off a glacier and make it look like an accident... Shame his mother likes him..." Ron's comment had made them all laugh, the conversation continuing gleefully on the way to Hogwarts with the brief visit of their other Gryffindor friends, and even the usual annoying visit from Malfoy. He had been drawing out about something and finally fed up with his childish teasing, Hermione interrupted.

"Either explain what you're on about or go away, Malfoy," Hermione sighed with exasperation as she lowered her book and looked at him in mild disgust. His usual smirk dawned on his face at this and he continued in a know-it-all tone that was typical of Hermione when she was excited about something.

"Don't tell me you don't know? You've got a father and brother at the Ministry and you don't even know? My God, my father told me about it ages ago... heard it from Cornelius Fudge. But then, Father's always associated with the top people at the Ministry... Maybe you father's too junior to know about it, Weasley... yes... they probably don't talk about important stuff in front of him..." Hermione was growing tired of his teasing games and was thankful when he and his goons turned to leave. 'I think a year in a Muggle military school would have done him some good' Hermione thought as she watched Ron get up angrily and slam the door, breaking the glass out of the door's window.

"Ron!" Hermione rolled her eyes and pulled out her wand, pointing it at the glass on the floor. "Reparo!" The glass shards flew back up into the window in one piece, unbroken and flawless as it had been before Ron closed the door so violently.

"Well... making it look like he knows everything and we don't... 'Father's always associated with the top people at the Ministry'," Ron said in a mimicking voice of Malfoy. With an irritated roll of his eyes, Ron resumed his tone as he continued speaking. "Dad could've got a promotion any time... he just likes it where he is..."

"Of course he does. Don't let Malfoy get to you, Ron–," Hermione hated to see her friend worked up over something so stupid as Malfoy and his games, but she knew that there had been meaning behind the part about Ron's family, a subject that was very touchy with Ron.

"Him! Get to me? As if!" Hermione tried to suppress a giggle as Ron picked up a Cauldron Cake and squashed it in his palm, making a bit of a mess on himself. The rest of the train ride went off a little more comfortably than that as Hermione sat staring out the window, watching the downpour of rain and struggling to see the silhouette of the castle getting nearer. The train finally jerked to a halt with the release of a steaming whistle and Hermione sighed as she prepared to go out into the ran, bundling Crookshanks into her cloak. He clawed her side as first years moved excitedly off the train and out into the rain, but the cat finally settled as it decided it would rather be in there than in the downpour.

"Oooh, I wouldn't fancy crossing the lake in this weather," Hermione said in an ardent manner after hearing Hagrid say he'd see them later. She inched along with Ron and Harry toward a carriage, Neville joining them somewhere along the way, she wasn't quite sure when because it was hard to see through the rain as it teemed down on them. Her hair was a wet, stringy mess by the time she reached the carriage, she gratefully pulled it back from her face and wrung it out, water dripping from it in a steady stream. Feeling about ten pounds lighter, Hermione followed Harry and Ron out of the carriage. She wasn't really paying attention when suddenly Ron began bouncing around. Balloons were dropping, the first of them hitting him and the second one narrowly missing her. Hermione was further surprised when McGonagall came out yelling for Peeves, slipping on the floor and grabbing Hermione's neck for support.

"Ouch – sorry, Miss Granger–"

"That's all right, Professor!" Hermione wasn't very reassuring though as she gasped for air and massaged her throat. Hermione watched as McGonagall told Peeves off and then told them to get into the Great Hall, the lot of the students slipping, sliding, and skating clumsily into the Great Hall. Hermione sighed as she sat down at the Gryffindor table, preparing for the usual start of term speech, the Sorting, and the magnificent feast. Hermione scanned the staff table and made an interesting discovery, there was no one up there that could be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. "Where's the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" After a few more minutes, Hermione came to another deduction, a more worry-filled one. "Maybe they couldn't get anyone!" Ron though didn't seem to have the same worries as he spoke up.

"Oh hurry up, I could eat a hippogriff." Hermione rolled her eyes at his comment while thinking in an annoyed way to herself. 'You're always hungry... what's new!' Hermione looked up as she heard the Sorting Hat begin its song, her heart feeling lighter at the thought of another year. She had been so delighted with her thoughts, that she was only broke from them when she heard Harry and Ron shouting in unison.

"Hear, hear!" Hermione looked around and saw the golden dishes fill with mounds of food as Nearly Headless Nick joined them. Hermione smiled to herself and began filling her plate with all sorts of delectable looking foods. She had been silently listening to the conversation between Nick, Ron, and Harry about Peeves when something horrifying was said that really snagged her attention.

"Oh the usual," Nick sighed, answering Ron's question about what happen. "Wreaked havoc and mayhem. Pots and pans everywhere. Place swimming in soup. Terrified the house-elves out of their wits–" Hermione had been reaching for her goblet and knocked it over when Nick said this.

"There are house-elves here? Here at Hogwarts?" Her tone was nothing short of shocked as she stared at Nick wide eyed as he answered her.

"Certainly. The largest number in any dwelling in Britain, I believe. Over a hundred."

"I've never seen one," Hermione said, sounding as though she was trying to convince herself that Nick was wrong about the house-elves.

"Well, they hardly ever leave the kitchen by day, do they? They come out at night to do a bit of cleaning... see to the fires and so on... I mean, you're not supposed to see them, are you? That's the mark of a good house-elf, isn't it, that you don't know it's there?" Hermione was silent for a minute, but Ron and Harry knew exactly what was coming. When Hermione found her voice to speak again, she only confirmed their thoughts.

"But they get paid? They get holidays, don't they? And – and sick leave, and pensions, and everything?"

"Sick leave and pensions? House-elves don't want sick leave and pensions," Nick said to her as she sat there looking still more horrified. Nick's information about the house-elves had made her loose her appetite as she put down her utensils and pushed her plate away from her as though suddenly feeling sick, definitely looking the part too.

"Oh c'mon, 'Er-my-knee," Ron said through a mouthful of pudding, sending bits of it flying across the table at Harry. "Oops – sorry, 'Arry–" Had Hermione not been so distraught, she would have found this funny as Harry grimaced and wiped the pudding off of himself. "You won't get them sick leave by starving yourself!" She had to admit that Ron was right, but the thought of house-elves slaving all day to make her meals made her sick.

"Slave labor. That's what made this dinner. Slave labor." Hermione watched in disgust as Harry, Ron, and the other students continued to eat, not bothered by the information of who had made the food. She felt like standing up and yelling at the entire students body as well as they staff who seemed to be eating just as merrily, talking and going about things like nothing was wrong. 'Surely they must know who makes the food. I can't believe it' Hermione thought as she shook her head and looked away from the staff table.

"Treacle tart, Hermione! Spotted dick, look! Chocolate gateau!" Ron was obviously trying to get Hermione to give in and she hated to show it, but her stomach was rumbling rather loudly by now and her mouth was watering for just one more bite of the delicious food. But she wasn't going to give in and she made that apparent when she threw Ron a disapproving look that made him finally give up. Hermione sat angrily watching as everyone ate still more food. 'I guess this is how the ghosts feel when they watch us eat' Hermione thought as she looked around at the students. Finally the torture was over and the dishes cleared as Dumbledore got to his feet to give his start of term speech.