Well I finally finished chapter two! I'm really sorry it took so long, but I've been working on getting the first chapter of another story out.
I've just uploaded the first chapter of the new Draco story so please read and review that story too! It's called "Black Son, Silver Son," and is about Draco's experiences after HBP when he is sent to Durmstrang Academy.
I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed so far. I really appreciate it a great deal so thanks a lot! Enjoy!
C - H - A - P - T - E – R
II
Friday morning brought with it a heavy downpour to London. Hermione climbed out of the car and kissed her parents goodbye for a second time through the car window. With a final wave she ran across the road, dodging the puddles and pulling her cloak tighter around her shoulders. She didn't have to worry about Muggles seeing her in her cloak as the street was empty, the residents of London preferring to stay indoors today.
The Leaky Cauldron was extremely busy. The large fire on the wall opposite the bar crackled merrily and the voices of dozens of Wizard folk bounced off the walls. Hermione approached the bar.
"What can I get ye Miss … Granger?" Tom, the innkeeper asked warmly.
"Yes. Hermione."
"Hermione Granger! Of course!"
"Just a bottle of butterbeer please, Tom." Hermione sat on a stool and withdrew a small leather pouch from her pocket while Tom fetched her butterbeer. Tom returned a moment later with a glass bottle in hand. Hermione handed him a few coins from her money pouch.
"Keep the change, Tom. You could do with a butterbeer yourself! You seem run off your feet!"
A few taps on the bricks later Hermione was standing under the archway between Diagon Ally and the Leaky Cauldron. She made her way along the cobblestone street hastily noticing with a grin that a few of the shops had raised the price of their Ever-Dry fabric spray due to the rain. Fifteen minutes later Hermione was leaving Gringotts with leather bag of money and making her way to meet Harry and the Weasleys at Flourish and Blotts. The school term was to begin on Monday, so the bookshop was full of Hogwarts students. Hermione was about to join the students milling about the textbook section when a hand clapped onto her shoulder.
"Hello stranger!" Hermione spun around to see Harry grinning broadly at her. He pulled her into a warm hug which she returned wholeheartedly. She had missed her friends so much these holidays and she had been thinking of their safety non stop. She turned to see Ron who stook awkwardly by a pile of cookbooks.
"Hello Ron!" Hermione said, her eyes filling up with tears. Ron moved towards her but didn't quite know what to do.
"Oh, honestly!" Hermione cried, throwing her arms around him. "I've missed you two so much! I've been so worried about you now that … well now that circumstances have changed."
"What about me!" an indignant voice made itself known. It was Ginny. Her face changed from a frown to a cheerful smile. Moments later Mr and Mrs Weasley joined the group and many hugs were exchanged.
"I've missed you all so much!" Hermione was surprised at how emotional she felt, but then these were emotional times. Now that Dumbledore was dead it seemed as though a warm light had been extinguished. Everyone's glinting eyes lacked that sparkle they once had.
"And how's Bill? Is he any better?" Hermione asked Mrs Weasley.
"Oh yes, dear. He's coming along well." Mrs Weasley smiled at Hermione, though her eyes were sorrowful and her face paler than its usual rosy cheeked complexion. "He's been having regular trips to St. Mungos for skin treatment. He'll never be the same as he was before, but he will be almost back to normal in time. He and Fleur have scheduled their wedding for April. They want a spring-time affair."
"That sounds lovely!" Hermione replied affectionately.
"Come on!" Ron said all of a sudden, "Lets get our books and then we can stop by Fred and George's shop.
A few hours later Hermione, Ron, Harry and Ginny were seated around a table at Florean Fortescue's Ice cream parlour under a large umbrella. The rain continued to fall heavily and Hermione was surprised to see steam emitting from everyone's mouths as they exhaled. It was summer but the air was so cold.
"Could someone be so powerful that they affect the weather without even bothering to use enchantments?" Harry seemed to be reading her thoughts.
"I suppose so …" Hermione replied pensively, taking another lick of her inner warming ice cream – a new recipe of Florean's, "I suppose anything's possible now that V-Voldemort's back." Hermione noticed how miserable the mood was getting and decided to change the subject.
"So," She said cheerfully, "Fred and George are really successful now! They seem happy."
"Yeah they're doing really well," Ginny piped up, "Mum actually apologised for getting so angry at them for leaving school and starting the shop. They've been inducted into the Order now."
"Really? Well I suppose it's only a matter of time before we're inducted" said Harry.
"Nope." said Ron, "Mum wants us to concentrate on our N.E.W.Ts. She reckons we need to become more skilled at magic before we can join."
"I suppose she's right, really." Said Hermione approvingly, "I mean we can't be expected to hold valuable information and not know how to defend ourselves properly. We'd be sitting ducks. Plus there's the fact that Dumbledore isn't around to keep us safe. I think your mother just wants to keep us safe."
"But we're of age!" said Ron quickly, "And I'm strong enough to defend myself and even you if I need to." Ron puffed his chest out and jokingly flexed his arms, "I am the champiooooon!" Ginny rolled her eyes and thumped Ron over the back of the head with her new History of Magic textbook.
"OWWWWW!" Ron cried and slumped back in his seat. Hermione and Harry's laughter seemed to be causing Ron's face to redden slightly and he remained silent for some time.
"Run!" Hermione sprinted after Harry across platform 10 and through the barrier into platform 9 ¾. She continued along the crowded platform full of parents waving goodbye to their children to the train, which was already beginning to move. Abandoning her trolley she lugged her trunk up the step and onto the train before turning back to face the platform,
"Crookshanks! Crookshanks! Come here! Come on, quickly!" once she was joined by her bowlegged feline companion, Hermione followed Harry along the coach and subsequently to a compartment at the back of the train.
Ron, Ginny and Harry were already seated by the time Hermione took a seat by the window, facing the front of the train; she hated moving backwards, and clicked her fingers to summon Crookshanks to her lap. The cat, however was clearly more interested in Ron's owl, Pigwidgeon, in a small cage in the luggage rack than anything else.
"Don't you let him, Hermione. Pig's all I've got now." said Ron, eyeing the cat suspiciously.
"Oh for goodness sake, Ronald! He isn't going to hurt Pigwidgeon, but he's a cat. This is what cats do!" Hermione lifted Crookshanks onto her lap and began scratching his neck softly.
A few minutes of silence passed in which Hermione gazed at the countryside flying by, head bobbing to the rhythm of the locomotive as rain drops slapped the glass. Harry and Ron where playing a game of exploding snap, Ginny shooting them fierce looks over the top of her copy of "Advanced Potion Making" – by Libatius Borage every time another explosion occurred. Hermione tore her gaze from the heavy downpour outside and scanned the cabin. She saw Ginny reading her textbook,
"Getting a head start on your potions work, Ginny?" Hermione asked, an approving tone in her voice.
"Oh no!" Ginny laughed, "Goodness no! … Well I suppose I am really, but it's only for Slughorn. He asked me to read up on my potions early. I think he wants to give me private lessons." She sighed, "It's tough being one of his favourites. People don't like it when he ignores their hand in the air and asks me to answer his questions. And he always gives me extra work to 'challenge' me."
Hermione sat back in her chair, a bit disappointed before she suddenly spoke again,
"Guess what!" she ordered her companions excitedly.
Silence.
"I said guess what!"
Silence.
"Fine, I'll tell you … I'm head girl!" The immediate response from her friends was a "so-what's-the-surprise" look before Ginny finally spoke.
"Congratulations, Hermione! I always knew you'd get it!"
"Yeah," said Ron, "It wouldn't take much guess work to figure that out."
Hermione didn't know whether to take that as a compliment or not so she simply smiled and returned a hug from Harry.
"Wait a minute…" Ron cut in, "Who's the head boy?"
It was at this moment that a loud rapping was heard from the other side of the compartment door. Ron rose from his seat and slid the door open when,
"Good day, classmates," Ernie McMillan, a pompous Hufflepuff, barged past Ron into the compartment, "Lovely day, isn't it?"
Everyone gazed at Ernie for a few seconds before turning to the rainstorm outside the train and then back to Ernie. A few moments of awkward silence followed this before Hermione decided to break it,
"Yes. Yes it is." It was then that she noticed the shiny badge on Ernie's chest emblazoned with the letters HB. "Oh, congratulations, Ernie!" Hermione hugged her fellow school leader elatedly.
"What do you want anyway?" Ron said rather aggressively nudging Ernie a little too hard to be accidental. Harry and Ginny exchanged a look.
"I've been sent here to fetch Hermione. We're to host a prefect meeting at the front of the train. She wont be back until the journey's almost over, I'm afraid. Weasley, you are to meet us, along with the other prefects, at the front of the train in fifteen minutes."
Ron shrank back to his seat at the authoritarian tone in Ernie's voice before seemingly coming to his senses and standing again.
"Why can't I come now?" He said aggressively. Hermione turned to her Gryffindor counterpart,
"Ronald, Ernie just said that he I have to set up first. I'll see you in fifteen minutes, OK?"
"I can help!"
"Afraid not, old chap! Only the heads are supposed to be there before the meeting begins. You know how old McGonagall is when it comes to rules." Ernie said to Ron matter-of-factly before turning to Hermione, "We'd better be going, Granger. Come on." Hermione made her way out of the compartment, glancing apologetically into the compartment before snapping the latch of the door shut.