A New School
Chapter three: Companions
We walked out of the owlery and down the tower stairs.
"So I take it you weren't alone." She said as nonchalantly as possible for someone who was unbelievably nosy.
"Nope I sure wasn't." I said with a sigh as we walked through the halls.
"I thought as much." She said with a slight shake of her head. "Honestly Gwyn, he's just not a good guy."
"Yeah but when do I EVER fall for the good guy?" I asked more to myself than anyone else. "Plus if the good guy is Harry I think I'd rather be eaten by a barrel of monkeys."
Hermione laughed.
"Is he really that bad?" she asked. I nodded as we walked along. I liked this Hermione girl, we could have some fun if we were ever allowed off the damn grounds.
"Are we ever allowed off of school grounds?" I asked. Hermione nodded.
"We have weekend trips to Hogsmeade, and Christmas Vacation." She said. I nodded and carried on along with her. "The guys have Quidditch practice, I thought we could go watch." She suggested and I shrugged and nodded, we went down to the field and watched them fly around on their little broomsticks for the next hour. Hermione never once taking her eyes off of Ron.
"So how long have you been together?" I asked as they all landed and headed for the change rooms.
"Um about a year and a bit." Hermione said, pretending that she couldn't remember the exact date, time and place.
"So do you three always hang out together?" I asked, I was full of random useless questions that had nothing to do with anything.
"Yep." She answered without hesitation. "Since first year, Ron was the first person that Harry met and then I met them on the train."
"I've heard a lot about this so-called train." I commented staring at the sky.
"So did you have a boyfriend back in Canada?" Hermione asked, now that we were having girltalk.
"Several." I said with a grin. "No one serious. All of them got me in trouble more than once. But nobody special."
"Got you in trouble?" she asked as the guys came towards us.
"Yeah I have a tendency to go for the not-so good guys." I said with a shrug. "Luckily for me I have a troupe of overprotective brother figures that always bail me out."
"So was your school much different?" Ron asked as he sat down next to Hermione, kissing her temple on the way down.
"Yeah I guess, I'm not too sure." I said with a shrug. I didn't like talking about home, it reminded me that I missed it. I watched as the green and silver team sauntered onto the field and I had to smile as Draco came into view.
"Came to watch a real team practice I see." He said with a smile, but from a distance.
"Bugger off Malfoy." Ron said through clenched teeth.
"No, I prefer to watch real sports." I said with a yawn. "But if you insist on playing this than by all means don't let us stand in your way."
Ron stood and offered his hand to Hermione, Harry offered me his hand but I waited for Ron's. Hopefully Harry would get the point sooner or later.
"Alright boys, let's get this over with, I have letters to send." I heard as we walked away and smiled to myself.
"I think you guys are going to have to draw me a map of the castle. You know classes, library, owlery…all that good stuff." I said as innocently as I could. Ron and Harry agreed but Hermione just sent a playful glare my way. I shrugged I couldn't help it if I couldn't get enough of the kid, blame his parents.
We went back up to what they called the 'common room' and sat around, I randomly got introduced to people as they walked by, most of the names I won't remember.
"Hey guys!" a red headed child said sitting down in our little circle of chairs. I looked from her to Ron and decided that they had to be related. "Pardon their manners. I'm Ginny, Ginny Weasley. This goon is my older brother." She said jerking a thumb towards Ron who just shook his head at her and pulled Hermione closer to him on the couch they were occupying.
"Gwyn Braddock." I said extending my hand, which she shook eagerly.
"So I hear you're from Canada." She said. I waited long enough for the 'eh' joke and gave a sigh of relief when it didn't come.
"Yeah, I am." I said. She just nodded and looked to Harry who was engrossed in a Quidditch magazine.
"So Harry, how are your classes going?" Ginny said with a smile. He shrugged and kept reading; she rolled her eyes at him. "Any chance of you moving in to the Head rooms yet 'Mione?"
"And share a common room with Malfoy? Are you kidding me!" Hermione practically screeched.
"So Draco has a big room all to himself?" I inquired and Hermione just reached over and hit me. I bit my tongue as a million other comments came to my mind and just smiled.
"Don't tell me you actually like Malfoy!" Ginny exclaimed in a whisper. I shrugged and kept it to myself.
"No, she just enjoys bugging me." Hermione said. I grinned at her, and decided that she and I could definitely be cool together.
"Anyone care to explain the whole last name thing?" I asked looking at the four faces who just shrugged.
"It's been on-going since their first year." Ginny explained.
"How would you know? You weren't even here!" Ron exclaimed in frustration. It seemed to me that he wasn't all that happy with his sister hanging out with them.
"Play nice you two." Harry mumbled from behind his magazine.
"Well it was a real pleasure but I'm wasted, I'll be in bed if anyone needs me." I said. Hermione nodded and after a ridiculously long kiss with Ron she joined me upstairs.
"So you have a whole common room to yourself, with your own bedroom and bathroom and you CHOOSE to stay here?" I asked as we changed and climbed into bed. Putting a drop of bottled snow on my bed before I pulled the curtains.
"Anything is better than staying with Malfoy." She grumbled.
"Yeah but you and Ron could probably could use the alone time." I said, sitting up and looking across at her.
"And what makes you think that Malfoy would let us be alone?" she asked as her head hit the pillow.
"Well I could take care of Draco if you needed me to." I said with a grin.
"Goodnight Gwyn." She stated, trying not to laugh and let the curtain fall, covering her from view.
"Night Hermione." I said with a smile and watched the snow fall down on top of me.
I woke up in a cold sweat obscenely early in the morning like I always did. To my surprise Hermione was already downstairs in the common room, going over some Potions homework.
"You're up early." I commented sitting in a cushy chair across from her.
"I could say the same about you." She said. I shrugged and then rubbed one of my shoulders.
"So any possibility you could take a break from that and direct me towards the showers?" I asked. Hermione smiled and nodded and pointed me in the right direction. As I was leaving the girl's showers most of the girls were getting up. I sauntered back into the dorm room where Hermione was fussing with her hair.
"So how much trouble do you get in if you can't tie this stupid tie?" I asked holding the red and gold striped tie in my hand. She laughed and took it from my hands, placing it around her neck she tied it in the mirror and then loosened it and gave it to me.
"I hope you realize that now you're going to be tying my ties every morning for the rest of the year." I said and tightened the tie around my neck. She just laughed again before walking with me down to the Great Hall.
"So are you excited for your first day of school then?" Ginny asked as we ate as slowly as possible. It was a Monday after all. I shrugged and stared across the room at the Slytherin table, damn that hand mouth coordination.
"Come on, we don't want you to be late for your first class ever." Hermione said. I'm pretty sure she was more excited about this than I was.
"Yes because that would just be horrible." I said rolling my eyes at her. She just smiled and led me to our first class.
"Good morning Miss Granger, Miss Braddock is it?" the small man said as we walked in. I nodded curtly and followed Hermione to a seat. "Oh yes, please seat yourself next to Miss Granger, I'm sure she'll help you get caught up."
"Of course Professor…" I said searching my head for the name that just wasn't there.
"Flitwick, dear, Flitwick." He said as the other students began filing in. I nodded at the small man and wrote his name at the top of my parchment so I could remember. I half listened as Professor Flitwick explained the basics of a new charm that I couldn't pronounce even if I tried to do it. We weren't going to try it today anyway, so I sat back and every once in a while took down a few notes.
"Alrighty class, tomorrow then?" Flitwick said and everyone stood up. I looked at Hermione.
"It's time to change classes." She said standing between Harry and Ron. I stood up and walked with them.
"But how do you know?" I asked as we walked down the crowded hallways.
"Because we were dismissed." Hermione said like it was the easiest thing possible to understand. "How did it work at your school?"
"Chimes. After the hour was up. Apparently Hogwarts seems to think that you can get by without them." I said with a shrug. "So we have what next?"
"Double Herbology with Hufflepuff." They all answered in unison. I just nodded and followed them outside to the greenhouses, observing the large number one on the doors.
"Gather 'round class." The plump witch said. Hermione had a tendency to be at the very front of every class so gathering wasn't really necessary. "First of all I'd like to introduce the Hufflepuffs to a new student that has joined Griffyndor for the remaining year. Say hello dear." She prompted.
"Hey." I said, acting as cool as possible. I could practically feel all of them rake their eyes up and down me, a typical teenager's reaction to a new person.
"Now, today we'll be working with Croatian Tiger lilies. Can anyone tell me what part of them is the key ingredient to the Rilynslam potion- Ms. Granger?" Professor Sprout asked. I could remember Sprout, the witch taught Herbology, it made sense in my head anyway. I watched Hermione raise her hand and saw a couple of the Hufflepuff kids roll their eyes.
"Their pollen, if extracted correctly, is the key ingredient." She said, ignoring the other house.
"And can anyone tell me it's main use?" Professor Sprout asked, looking past Hermione's already raised hand. I raised mine and Professor Sprout nodded to me.
"The Rilynslam potion is used to help regain sight to people who got their eyes damaged." I explained.
"Very good Miss Braddock." Professor Sprout said and pulled out a Tiger Lily. "Now, these are teenage Tiger Lilies whose incisors have been removed, so they aren't overly dangerous - but watch your fingers just the same."
I didn't pay attention on how to extract the pollen from the plant animals. I went with Hermione to her table with Ron and Harry where our plant was waiting for us.
"How do you get it to open?" Ron asked standing half-behind his girlfriend. They all shrugged and I smiled. I reached out and stroked the stem with my index finger, the flower made a soft purr and opened up. I continued to stroke the stem and motioned for them to go ahead.
'If you're so cozy with it then you stick your fingers in his mouth." Ron said pointing at the plant. I shrugged and continued stroking it with one hand while I pried it's mouth open. I held it's mouth open and Hermione retrieved the pollen.
"How did you know it wouldn't bite you?" Harry asked, observing the entire operation.
"One, because it's incisors have been removed and two because I have one at home, they're wonderful companions." I said with a grin.
"Man eating plants are wonderful companions in Canada? Remind me never to go there." Ron said, I just shook my head.
We were dismissed from Herbology and the trio led me to Transfiguration. Luckily we sat near the back so I didn't really have to pay attention. I took a few notes down but mostly drifted off and made a list of every single thing I missed about home.
I walked along with them to the Great Hall for lunch.
"So I saw you taking amazing notes in Transfiguration class." Ron said sarcastically as he helped himself to Hermione's potatoes. I shrugged.
"I can't help it if I can't pay attention, it's practically impossible, especially when I'm used to my old classes and that lady scares me." I said.
"Professor McGonagall is amazing, she's the head of Griffyndor." Hermione explained and went back to eating. I ate in silence and listened to their conversation. I wondered how long it would take Bob to get to Canada and back.
k someone review just so i know someone's reading