Disclaimer: Owns the plot...nothing else
CHAPTER 3
Your first task is to find Glovesea Herbs. You all have learned from Herbology that these aromatic plants are red with a hint of green and very stringy shaped. As I have mentioned before, it is a vital ingredient in the potion you will all be making. Although they are rather exiguous, there should be enough to fill all of your jars. Remember to stay on the trails and please… do work together! Each and every one of you were selected because Professor Dumbledore and I felt that you all were worthy and responsible... do not let us doubt your abilities.
Hermione sighed, lifting her 'supposed' suitcase onto her full sized bed. The aged cabin was small but at least it was comfortable and quite homey. There was a separate dorm for the boys and a dorm for the girls. Hermione was still quite upset with situation and the whole 'get to know your roommates' ordeal added to her unpleasant experience.
It was stifling silent in the room while the girls unpacked and the occasional cursing from the redhead fueled the tension even more. Hermione silently concluded that her two roommates weren't the best of friends either as they both ignored each other's presence. The redhead, whose name Hermione later found out was Stella, grumbled again, muttering darkly about indecent bed sheets.
Hermione took out a pile of clothing from her suitcase and examined them, somehow not surprised that they fitted her perfectly. The whole situation was still extremely bizarre and unclear, but she fully trusted that the Dumbledore in this time could find a way back to her time. For now, the professor had suggested, 'act as you normally would'.
"Easier said than done!" Hermione thought grouchily.
Having Stella, as a roommate was rather unsettling as the girl occasionally glared at Hermione for no apparent reason. Hermione sighed again, disgruntled as she tried in vain to yank out her oversized pillow, which was squashed at the bottom of a medium suitcase. After a few futile yanks and tugs and the pillow still refused to budge, Hermione was ready to give up.
"Hello, need any help?" a voice asked genially beside her.
Hermione jumped, she had forgotten the other girl in the room. Hermione turned to her left to see the girl who smiled and waved at her earlier. The girl had already unpacked and was sitting cross-legged on the center of her bed, a star-shaped button on her black robe read,
MARIA D.
"Yes, please," Hermione said as Maria hopped over and helped her pull.
Stella watched them from behind a small book she was reading, snickering softly at their attempts. Both Hermione and Maria disregarded her and finally with a furious yank, Hermione had her pillow out.
"Well, thanks!'' Hermione said gratefully as she smiled at her helper.
"No problem. By the way, I'm Maria Davis, from Ravenclaw." She said cheerily, pointing proudly at her blue button.
"Nice to meet you." Hermione said genuinely. Hermione smiled, feeling in higher spirits that she may have found a new friend. Maria opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by a sharpknock on the door.
"Girls, you've got five more minutes!" Headmaster Dippit called loudly.
Hermione nodded to herself. "Five more minutes before the first task," She thought distractedly.
Then, she and Maria began talking while they packed their bags for the task. Hermione found Maria easy to talk to and instantly liked her. Until the third year, Maria had gone to Beauxbatons, than transferred when her parents found new jobs at the Ministry. Maria also has an older sister who had graduated from Hogwarts last year. Once, during the conversion, Maria asked about Hermione's family and Hermione, not wanting to reveal the truth, just said she didn't want to be reminded of home.
Stella who was on Hermione's right hadn't spoken at all, only occasionally staring at them. Hermione, hoping they too could become friends, asked tentatively, "What book are you reading, Stella?"
Stella snapped her book shut and stiffly replied, "Uses of Various Magical Herbs."
"Really?" Hermione said brightly. "That's a really good and very useful book"
"Not particularly."
Hermione frowned and stated disappointedly, "Oh, well that was just my opinion. So what do you"
Hermione never got the chance to finish her question, for Stella gave an annoyed huff, shoved her book hastily into her already packed bag and stomped out.
Hermione blinked in surprise while Maria glared.
"Don't worry about her, " she shrugged apathetically. "Stella's always like that. She thinks anyone not in Slytherin isn't worth talking to. None of her friends were chosen for this though. Tom, Xavier, and her are the only Slytherins chosen. The blond haired boy is Xavier Malfoy, I don't know much about him, except I heard he's pretty spoiled. The other guy you saw was Steve Wilkes. He's the only Hufflepuff, but really, he's a really interesting person. "
Maria paused, frowning and then continued, "Funny though, he was all nervous like on the boat and yesterday."
Maria checked her bag one last time and smiled at Hermione, "Okay, ready!"
Hermione nodded, deep in thought. As they walked outside, she asked curiously, "Is Stella just normally like this?"
Maria gave the question some thought and replied nonchalantly, "Oh, well, I suppose you being Head Girl might have something to do with it."
Hermione ducked under a stray branch, waving little bugs away from her arms. She didn't have the foggiest idea why the professors had them walking in the forest and then on the sand. Even thought the group was shielded from the blazing sun here, the short cut through the forest was harder. The trail clearly hadn't been used for a while; for the group had to walk over several large, fallen tree trunks. Occasionally, they used spells to get rid of wild plants that blocked their way. Some which were quite repugnant smelling. The headmaster and professors obviously wanted to test their skills as well. Despite the difficulties, some members of the group managed to converse with each other. Stella was talking quietly to Xavier who was looking rather blasé while Maria was chatting nonstop to Steve about school.
"Charms class is the best!" Steve said enthusiastically, using a quick charm to get rid of a shrieking crimson plant.
"Yeah, I like it too," Maria replied happily, beaming at Steve.
Hermione smiled and turned away from them and instead looked forward, to where Tom Riddle was walking slightly ahead of everyone else. Hermione frowned; she hadn't really talked to him yet and felt slightly relieved about it too. She didn't know what kind words to say to a soon to be Lord Voldemort.
After a quarter of an hour of walking, they finally came to small spot where a big patch of messy and stringy plants dwelled. Tom bent down and yanked one up, examining its appearance.
"These are it," He said finally and the whole group gave a collective sigh, squatted and started picking and sticking them into their own jars. They worked diligently in silence, each deep in their own thoughts. Hermione glanced over to Xavier Malfoy, who was continuously muttering about stupid and worthless tasks. She grinned; it really wasn't hard to see the resemblance between him and the ferret.
Hermione smiled to herself, thinking what Harry and Ron would say if they saw where she was and what she's doing. Ron would have-
Harry and Ron
Hermione's smile immediately faded away as she felt homesick all of the sudden. People's faces popped up inside her mind; her parents, the professors, and her classmates. She wondered if they knew she was missing, if the present time continued when she was gone, and... Hermione bit her lip, her hand shaking as she picked a herb. She was feeling extremely guilty for taking Harry's invisibility cloak.
She frowned, startled, as she realized that she hadn't seen the invisitbility cloak with her when she mysteriously got into this time! Hermione continued to ponder on this until...
Suddenly Steve yelped loudly, causing Hermione to jump and Maria to drop her jar and spill all her mushrooms.
Hermione bent down to help her as Steve stuttered"I, I, er." Everyone turned and stared at him. Steve suddenly aware of everyone's attention at him and stammered again"I, I left some of our bags over there and and... "
"And what," Stella hissed, her eyes flashing in annoyance. Hermione raised her head up and smiled at Steve, "What's wrong?"
"Yes, what is wrong?" Salazar's heir smiled darkly.
"Well Ileftsomeofourbagsoverthereandnowtheydisappeared." He said hastily, eyes darting around at everyone's reaction.
There was a moment of silence as everyone stared at him.
The first to recover was Xavier, who spluttered indignantly, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY DISAPPEARED?"
"Well, I left them there and...now they're gone," Steve replied, frightened as he pointed at a large tree trunk, which was quite a distance away from the trail.
Everyone stared at him again but no one said anything. Steve cringed, glancing around as if preparing to run. "I know I shouldn't have but I..."
Tom Riddle rolled his eyes and said coolly, "Well, what can you expect from a Hufflepuff? I'm glad I held on to mines."
Hermione scowled at him and involuntarily checked her side; relieved she had hers.
"Are you sure you left it there?" Maria asked desperately. Steve nodded weakly, shrinking away from Xavier's piercing glare.
"Well, go see if it's around the tree trunk!" Xavier snarled as he started pacing around Steve. Steve nodded quickly and hurried over. The rest of the group waited and after a few minutes, Steve called over sheepishly, "Sorry, I, I actually put them behind this bush."
Silence.
Hermione and Maria exchanged relieved looks, picked up their jars and walked over to where he was standing.
Tom followed slowly, his face contorted with disgust, "Merlin, imagine what the rest of the Hufflepuff House must be like! So tell me, what caused the Headmaster to decide to choose you?" Xavier and Stella whom were walking behind him chortled while Steve turned a bright shade of red.
Hermione frowned at him and came to Steve's defense. "He just forgot, its no reason to be so mean."
Stella sneered, "Sticking up for the poor boy, aren't you?"
"Well, " Maria snapped. "Both of them added up are better than you"
Stella turned to her and opened her mouth to retort, but before she could say anything, Tom let out a genuine sounding laugh, Hermione might have actually found the laugh pleasant if not for the current situation. "Calm now Stella, she's right. I shouldn't have said that, instead I should have said it later when he forgets something worst, like his name perhaps, " He smirked infuriatingly at Hermione.
Xavier and Stella laughed while Maria fumed and Hermione clenched her fists as she stared at the Heir of Slytherin in silent fury. Tom Riddle was everything she knew he would be. Infuriating, horrible, arrogant, and...and a complete git! Steve looked down at his feet, pretending to be interested at the ground when he suddenly spotted something shiny.
"Bloody hell, look at this everyone!" he quickly exclaimed, hoping to change the subject. In his hands, he held an old rusted compass.
The next few events went rather quickly and...disastrous. In fact, the group was going to be in that place for only another 10 seconds and this is how it went:
10s-Someone or something bumps into Stella.
9s-Stella starts falling, grabs for the nearest person.
7s-Stella grabs hold of Maria.
6s-Maria bumps into both Tom Riddle and Xavier.
4s-Steve suddenly taps Hermione's shoulder.
3s-Hermione is trying to untangle everyone.
1s-Hermione feels a disturbingly familiar tug at her navel.
Next Time: I think you might realize...
A/N: Weeeeee. All right, I'm so sorry for not updating so long. Nearly two months! Since I took such a long time, I decided to treat you all with a long chapter! I will be changing the first chapter this week as well; I realized I could have done a much better job at writing it, so probably this weekend you guys can take a look and tell me what you think.
I will also be working on my other story, 'Teddy Bear Love' too, which is a Draco/Hermione story. Although the name sounds cute, my plans for are not going to be fluff for a while.
Other Notes:
Emily: Ah, yes, about Tom Riddle and Dumbledore, if you look back at chapter 2 you will notice that Tom simply did what Dumbledore said when Dumbledore asked him to get the others. Also later on when Dumbledore said, "...ah, Tom, you are back", Dumbledore said it just to acknowledge him but he didn't know that Hermione knew Tom Riddle in the future. Dumbledore is suspicious of him but there isn't anything he can do about Tom. I'm glad that you noticed this though!
CeruleanShowers: LOL, thanks for e-mailing. Does this chapter answer your question?
Big thanks to: Emily, Raya Lupin, Tennis Angel, Rea, Bluberry-Gurl, Merja, mdemanatee, Malikfan66, Hermionefan03, kura52, cutemouse, CeruleanShowers, kas, WeasleyGirl-Yeah, sunny, Cheri, and Taren.
Chocolates to all!