Chapter 4. A Day of Surprises
"Rise and shine you two! Breakfast is over in less than half an hour." Hannah sang out as she tied back the curtains that were hiding the sun from the two girls who were still snuggled down under their covers. The morning sunlight shot through the windows like a bullet and sharply brought the two still sleepy girls awake with a start.
"Go away Hannah, it's too early," mumbled Ginny as she pulled her blanket up over her head to cover even her fiery-red locks from sight.
"Now, now, now. It's the first day of classes. Don't want to be late do you?" asked the blonde as she pulled on her robe over her uniform and walked out the door skipping down the stairwell.
Slowly Ginny gathered her courage and pulled the blanket back down and glanced around the room. Dear Merlin, it was bright. Gradually she sat up and glancing around the room she noticed that all the other beds were empty too, except for the one right next to her where she could barely make out the top of a girl's head. Suddenly a barrage of loud chimes went off and Ginny jumped up in horror. Breakfast! Scrambling into her clothes she noticed that the other girl had sat up as well, revealing herself to be none other than Hermione, and was reaching for her uniform also.
Together Hermione and Ginny sat down across from Harry and Ron at the Gryffindor table while grumbling to each other about the lack of empty seats. Even though they scarfed down their food in order to avoid conversation with anyone else, they had barely finished when Professor McGonagall tapped them on the shoulder with their schedules.
Ginny glanced at Hermione's schedule over her shoulder as the Professor moved on down the table, "Hey we've got the same classes!" Hermione glanced at Ginny's schedule to confirm it, "Weird."
Professor McGonagall addressed them as she handed Ron and Harry their schedules, "Ms. Weasley, was advanced a year." she said with a sniff they knew was directed towards them rather than a cold as everyone else thought. Hermione's face stilled at the action but Ginny merely smirked at the Professor's expression.
"Hey! Why am I retaking last year's classes?" an outraged voice shouted from across the table.
"Mr.Weasley, both you and Mr. Potter have been held back a year due to your pitiful performance on your O.W.L.'s in certain subjects. I'm sure you do not need me to remind you of which ones those were." Professor McGonagall said as she headed back towards the front table.
Glancing over at the ever darkening faces of the two boys, who'd just seemed to have noticed the two girl's presence, Hermione and Ginny decided to head off to class, in effect avoiding the confrontation that was sure to come later on.
Just as they reached the double doors to leave Dumbledore's voice echoed from across the hall, "Quiet please, everyone, I have an announcement to make. Tonight after dinner there will be a resorting of the top two grades. That is all." and with that Dumbledore sat down while the stunned silence gave way to a thundering of whispers.
"What could it mean?"
"Do you think people will really change houses?"
Hermione and Ginny stood for a minute and let the information flow over them and then walked out of the Great Hall and down the corridor to their first class.
Together they slid into a front row seat of the potions class still chuckling from the scene played out by Harry and Ron in the Great Hall, although in the back of their minds they were both mulling over what the headmaster had announced. Both were so pre-occupied that neither had noticed that the tables were set for four people to sit at each one. As they began to set up their ingredient boxes next to the cauldrons on the table the room slowly began to fill up until the only seats left open for someone to sit in were the extra two at their table.
Blaize and Draco walked into the room and stalked over to the girl's table. Neither the boys nor the girls looked at each other as they set up everything for class until Ginny nervously let out a giggle. Hermione glanced over at her best friend who had almost made her knock over her ingredients box with that spontaneous giggle, "Gin you okay", she asked. When the crimson haired imp didn't respond she tried again, "What's so funny?"
Ginny couldn't help herself from continuously giggling as she replied, "I was just picturing the looks on Harry and Ron's faces when they hear our last names called out tonight at the re-sorting ceremony."
Blaize and Draco both glanced up at this comment and watched as a strange look came over Hermione's face. "A lot of things will happen this year to cause Harry Potter to make interesting faces Ginny. Trust me on that. The re-sorting ceremony is just the beginning." The two students looked at each other as identical smirks slid across their faces.
Typical of him, Draco's mouth opened with what was to be an insulting question about why the mudblood's name should be of interest to anyone, when he remembered the contents of the letter he had received that morning from his father, and shut his mouth with a snap.
The loud bang of the door slamming back into the wall didn't even faze them as Professor Snape strode in his face marred with both anger and annoyance. Quickly the room went silent and Hermione, who'd been about to explain her last remark to Ginny, hurriedly got out a quill and scribbled a note which she slid across to the boys after Ginny had taken a look and nodded.
You pretend we aren't here. We'll pretend you aren't here. Deal?
Blaize picked up the note first, scanned it, nodded and then passed it to Draco who did the same and pocketed it just as two boys walked dejectedly into the classroom. Snape looked up from the parchment he had been writing on and set down his quill.
"Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley? Just what do you think you are doing in my class? You were not accepted into my N.E.W.T level potions class."
From the red stain that crept up the two boys necks it was evident that they had hoped to escape notice. They shuffled up to the large oak desk and handed Snape a sheet of parchment. Whatever was written on it, of course, no one knew but everyone could tell that it did not sit well with Professor Snape.
Finally he glanced up, "Fine then, but you will sit at that desk over there" and at this he pointed to a desk in the far corner of the room that looked like it had not been used in over fifty years and then he turned to the class as the two boys retreated to the isolated desk, "Mr. Potter, and Mr. Weasley are not here. They are not in this class. You will not speak to them and you will not help them as they attempt to do their remedial class work", he smirked, "so they are nothing, ignore them."
Quickly he tapped the blackboard to the side of his desk with his wand and began to address the class again as writing appeared on the board, "Today you will be brewing a simple spell that acknowledges parenthood and will be providing a vial of it with your name on it for the Ministry's new hall of genetic records. Better yet, this month, you'll be making three potions at once and you will also create, write, and brew a potion of your own creation at this caliber of difficulty. It may be a remake of an older potion whose brewing length has been shortened and it's affect strengthened."
Several students gaped at him with their mouths hanging open.
"First you will need to brew 'The Draught of the Living Dead' then 'Verisatum' and the third is 'Soul Bind'. These are all advanced potions," he added as he noticed most of the class's still open mouths, "and congratulations, you are my N.E.W.T level class. Start with copying down the spells and then you may begin. You will be working in the group of those at the table with you. You will not have all the ingredients that you will need. You are welcome to the pantry behind my desk. Ginny, if you'll please come and collect for your group first."
All sound and movement in the room suddenly ceased after that.
"There's no need Professor, between me, Hermione, Malfoy, and Zabini we have all the ingredients we need." Ginny said as she pulled out a roll of parchment.
Snape nodded and then looked over the frozen class, "Don't you have something to be doing people?" He asked with a growl in his voice, "Did I happen to mention that you will drink these potions yourselves?" The whole room took on a somber note at that statement and quickly got to work.
"Are you sure we have all the ingredients Ginny?" questioned Hermione as she glanced over the potion due that day and the three that followed for the month "There are some really rare ones in these."
Ginny lifted her quill and looked at the doubtful faces of Hermione and Blaize, "Between Malfoy's private stores and mine we will be fine. Trust me."
The fear disappeared from the other two's faces and they all went back to writing down the complicated procedures. The potions were so complex that the four decided to write down the instructions carefully that class period once they had finished the potion that was due that day, and time code it and plan the other three potions out so that they could start them the next day with less chance of mistakes.
Deciding that it would be easier to regulate chores rather than do it all separately the four began the first four steps of the potion carefully making sure that nothing was messed up. Draco lit all the fires under the cauldrons and coaxed the water inside into a gentle boil as Blaize added the two ground up tablespoons of dragons' scale to each of the four cauldrons. Meanwhile Ginny carefully cut up the ginger roots into equal sized lengths for each of the potions while Hermione carefully measured out four droppers of unicorns' blood.
Each then stirred their potion the correct number of turns before adding each new ingredient. After the final thirteen turns counterclockwise the group stopped and watched as the contents of their cauldrons shimmered from a dark grey to a clear see through liquid with the density of glue.
Nodding to themselves they read the last line of instructions and then took a look around the room to see how the others had fared while they waited, letting their potions simmer for the appropriate five minutes, before adding one of their own hairs to it. One table that unfortunately contained Padma Patil, who was quite well known for getting steps mixed up, was trying to put out a fire that had erupted from two of the cauldrons. Another table had noxious fumes spouting from all four cauldrons. However the table of Ravenclaws to their left seemed to be only one step behind them and doing quite well.
Hermione and Ginny had to swallow their laughter when they glanced over at the corner where Ron and Harry had been sent and found that the two had managed to create some kind of bubbly orange goo that was overflowing onto the floor. Draco and Blaize however did not let the fact that they were in class disrupt their need for amusement and laughed out loud drawing the attention of Professor Snape.
"May I ask what is so amusing that you are drawn to laugh during my class?" He asked as he looked down at their perfect potions.
"We were just waiting before adding our hair, Professor and happened to see a flash of orange out of the corner of our eyes." Blaize said innocently.
"And where in my classroom would you be finding the color orange Mr. Zabini?" The Potions master asked unamused.
Draco answered for him, "Over in the corner. At first glance I thought Weasley's hair must have melted but unfortunately it looks to be a bit more than that."
Snape looked over at where the two Gryffindors were now trying to scoop up the orange mess and deposit it back into the now slightly deformed cauldron. "Finish your potions." He directed the rest of the class while he walked over to the now blushing boys and smiled. "A Zero for the day I think. And a weeks's worth of detention for the mess and aggravation." Smirking now he went over to his desk and pulled out a long pale parchment which he then used a spell to stick to the wall next to his desk. "For those of you on the last step, or near it, once you have added your hair bring a vial of your potion here and place a drop on the page next to your name. Then you may clean up and leave."
Draco was still laughing at the murderous expressions on the faces of the two boys over in the corner who were now covered in orange goo while he pulled out a blonde strand of hair and added it to his potion watching it turn a deep silver. Spooning some into one of his vials, he walked over to Snape's desk and placed a single drop next to his name watching as it slithered around into a grey ink and formed the names of Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black next to his name. Then the names disappeared and one word remained: Pureblood. He placed the still pretty full vial into the box next to the label of his name and went back to the table getting out his quill to write down the three out of class potions.
Blaize carefully used a pair of scissors to cut off a small section of his dark hair and drop it into the simmering cauldron. Amused he watched as the potion turned to a deep gold before he filled up one of his vials and went up to the board. Hannah Abbot was there before him and he watched as it listed her parents next to her name and then disappear only to be replaced by the word: Pureblood.
Putting a drop of his own potion next to his own name he watched as his father's name appeared and then his birth mother's name wrote itself beside his before turning into the word Pureblood. He scowled. Not many people knew that his mother was unable to have children herself. Her sister had volunteered one of her own eggs and also to carry the baby. Which she did. Until she died birthing him. So his mother and father had never told anyone about that little family secret. It had stayed in the dark. Until now. Everyone would know now. He really should write and tell them during lunch. Otherwise things could get pretty uncomfortable at home when he went back for the holidays. Walking back to the table he saw Draco was almost halfway done copying down the first of the three potions so he turned his quill to the second out of class potion.
Ginny quickly pulled out a few strands of her hair and added it to the mixture watching it turn deep blue before filling up her vial and going to the front of the class. She placed a drop next to her name and watched as Malfoy and her mother's name appeared next to her own in deep blue ink and then reformed itself in the word: Pureblood. Smiling she deposited her vial in the box and went back to the table
Hermione stalled and put up her ingredients box before adding one of her brown curls to the potion turning it a deep green. Filling up one of her vials she slowly made her way up to the board and let the rest of Hannah Abbot's table go before her. Once the last one, Ernie McMillan, had finished, she desperately tried to think of a reason or a way to wait until everyone had left before adding her potion next to her name. Unfortunately Snape noticed how she was dillydallying and came over.
"Come now Ms. Granger it is not that difficult." He said taking the vial from her frozen fingers. "You place the drop next to your name and out comes the names of your parents. Thomas Marvolo Riddle and Annabelle Prewitt...Pureblood..." The entire room stilled as Snape's mouth hung open after reading the two infamous names.
Tears brimming in her eyes, Hermione ran back to the table grabbed her bag and fled the room.
Barely taking the time to make sure that the two Slytherins would write down the instructions and meet them later in the library after dinner, Ginny ran after her friend. Hermione had not been lying when she said a lot had happened over the summer, the red-head thought as she flew down the halls towards the prefects rooms. Pushing a bunch of first years out of the way Ginny got quite a few strange looks as she neared her goal. Reaching the portrait she knew Hermione had been there from the way the miniatures of themselves were acting in the frame.
Hannah and Ernie were whispering and pointing at Hermione who was hiding in a corner of the portrait while she tried to coax her out of it. After acknowledging the password and getting through Ginny wondered exactly how much the portrait selves of them knew about how they felt at every moment of the day. The only explanation to what they had been doing when she arrived was that they knew everything the moment it happened. Creepy.
Ginny took the steps up to the girl's dormitories two at a time and paused at the door for a fraction of a second when she heard the music slipping from underneath the silencing charm. Opening the door the music fell over her in waves and visions and memories flew through her mind at an alarmingly fast rate only to slow down again and flow like a strange liquid of emotions. It was the music she had heard over the summer. The muggle band that somehow knew all about the people in the wizarding world. Of course, Ginny thought, just because they played the muggle circuit didn't mean they were all muggles and on the cover of the cd the girl who sang was always in the back her face in the shadows. But this wasn't one of the songs from the cd. It was different from the others. The words, the rhythm; all of it, was just slightly different.
Hermione heard the door open and immediately shut off the copy of her computer from her apartment that she had spelled up. She wasn't ready to trust anyone with that section of her life right now, especially on top of what had just come out in front of everyone else. Turning around in what she hoped looked like a nonchalant manner she spoke to the person who had entered what had been for a few moments, her domain.
"What do you want?", then noticing it was only Ginny she relaxed, "Sorry Gin, I guess I'm a bit stressed now."
"It's okay." the red-head said as she sat down on the bed next to her. "Life isn't supposed to be easy for us I guess. Besides it would have come out tonight at dinner anyways."
Hermione shrugged, "I guess."
Ginny motioned over to where the ghost of the computer could be seen. "So what was that all about?"
"Nothing really," Hermione said, hedging carefully. She really didn't want to deceive Ginny. She was all she had. "I just like to sing sometimes. It helps me get rid of pent-up emotions before I have to go somewhere so I don't blow up at someone who doesn't deserve it."
"You know over the summer a new muggle band hit it pretty big. The weird thing was that whenever their songs came on I was constantly remembering people here at Hogwarts and things that had happened but it was really weird, sometimes I remembered seeing things that I know I didn't ever see myself." Ginny said carefully gauging her friend's reaction.
Hermione quickly stood up and almost pulled the red-head's arm out of the socket as she pulled her up off the bed and out the door. "We're going to be late for Muggle Studies. Come on."
The next three classes passed quickly enough for the two girls with only the students who had been present in their Potions class giving the pair odd looks. Obviously the rumor mill had not quite gotten up to speed yet. So as it neared the end of the day the two girls relaxed a bit not completely paranoid over an attack from behind however, after the lunch hour was the one class that Hermione and Ginny had been wondering about the most ever since the slip up in Potions, Care of Magickal Creatures with Hagrid.
The red and gold draped Gryffindors approached Hagrid from the right and the green and silver decked Slytherins sauntered over as usual from the left. Hermione and Ginny walked straight down the middle and stopped in front of Hagrid. The Gryffindors glared at them icily and the Slytherin's watched them with open and frank curiosity. It was now quite obvious that their fellow sixth years had been told at lunch about both the incident on the train and the incident from that morning in potions. Hagrid however acted as though nothing was wrong and drew them all towards the paddock back in the front portion of the Forbidden Forest.
"Today I got yeh a back to school present. 'Is name is Norbert. An' e's a dragon. 'Eh Norwedgion Ridgeback to be precise. 'E's only a few years ol' so compared to other dragons e's still young and fairly easy to handle." Hagrid continued to ramble as the students all moved forward save Hermione and Ginny who grabbed hold of Draco and Blaize as they began to walk forward after the rest of the class.
"Don't." Hermione muttered.
"Wait." Added Ginny.
The two boys made as if to voice a rather loud protest at being told what to do but seemed to re-think their objections before settling with their backs against a convenient tree. After all the two girls were Hagrid groopies, they probably knew what was in store and to be completely honest neither had forgotten the letter from Draco's father the night before.
Within a minute Hagrid reappeared with several students looking rather crispy as they started off in the general direction of the castle and obviously Madam Pomfrey.
The two girls grinned at the shocked looks on the two boys faces and walked off back to the school for their next class in good spirits. However, their good mood didn't last long after they stepped into their last class of the day; Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall.
She was already there waiting on them in her feline form as they filed in and took seats in the front row with Draco and Blaize. For two full hours the Professor lectured over what they had done the year before and then as they were leaving she made the announcement they had all been waiting for.
"This year you will be learning how to prefect the art of transfiguration by managing to turn yourself into the one creature you have chosen by the next class period." Having finished with her announcement the Professor bustled out of the classroom and down the corridor towards the Great Hall. It was time for dinner.
Ginny slid onto the bench next to Hermione and waited as the rest of the students filed into the hall. This was it. After this everyone, even the lowest First year, would know. She glanced at the dark-haired girl sitting next to her. She didn't even look worried. Not even fazed by the fact that in about thirty minutes they would be amongst the most hated people in the whole school.
Hermione felt the other girl's eyes on her and automatically knew the reason. Taking Ginny's cold hand into her own clammy one she sat and waited trying to ignore the racing beat of her heart. This night was the beginning. After tonight there was no going back. After tonight nothing would ever be the same.
Up at the main table the Headmaster stood and the entire hall went still.
"Tonight there will be a change. The 6th and 7th year students will be resorted. This has never been done before. So let's not be here at it all night. 7th year students come forward first."
The hat rethought student after student but even at the end of the class only four students had been changed and the biggest move was a girl who went from Hufflepuff to Ravenclaw.
Then the 6th years were called forward and again there were no major changes until Professor McGonagall called out "Malfoy, Ginny" and the auburn haired girl walked forward. The entire Hall stared at the girl now sitting on the stool and then over to the Gryffindor table where her brother Ron was struggling to stand while Harry and Dean held him down in his seat. Barely had the hat touched her hair before it screamed out, "SLYTHERIN!".
Harry and Ron were just recovering from that when they realized that Hermione's name hadn't been called before Ginny's new name was called out. They were discussing it anxiously when Harry's name was called and he went to the stool where the hat was. The moment it was placed on his head he heatedly told it to call out Gryffindor like before, and not to argue this time. So it did and he began to head back to where Ron was waiting when the Professor McGonagall called out, "Prewitt-Riddle, Hermione."
The hat had barely sat on her head before it screamed out Slytherin as it had with Ginny and visibly folded in upon itself away from the turmoil of emotions he had felt inside her mind. He had never felt passion of such severity and depth before. Perhaps shielding her for the first five years of her time here at Hogwarts had not been the best idea. The sorting hat's frayed edges shivered, he had only meant to help heal the houses. Now he had probably broken them apart for all time.
The entire school stared, open-mouthed, as the two former Gryffindors laughed as they walked over to the Slytherin table across the Hall and sat down as if they owned the entire world.
After the last student, ironically, Blaize Zambini, a Slytherin sat under the hat and received a verdict the headmaster stood back up for another announcement.
"Changes have occurred and many I assume have been rather shocking and so I have one more announcement to make while you are already stunned", he paused with a twinkle in his eye to allow a few of the more recovered students to giggle, "say goodbye to the 7th year students. Tomorrow morning will find all 7th year students and their belongings gone from this school for their graduation exam which will be the new format used from now on. They will be gone for the entire year and will not come home for the winter holidays and they will return only at the end of the spring term. When they return they will be unable to talk about where they have been or what they have done. Anyone who attempts to break this rule will be immediately expelled."
Gasps came from every table. No one had ever heard the headmaster's voice turn that hard and unyielding before and no exam had ever taken a class full of students away from Hogwartz for more than a month before. It was unheard of.
Dumbledore continued on amidst the few whispers, "Due to the fact that the head-boy and head-girl are both going to be gone for the full year the teachers and I have decided to replace them here at the school with the two top students who have excelled not only in their class work but also in their extra-curricular activities; behavior towards teachers and fellow students; but also by their strength of character."
Dumbledore stopped and took a sip of water from his goblet before continuing, "The teachers and I chose these two students at the end of last year, however, we have unanimously agreed that these two students are still the best for the job as of this morning. These two students are Draco Malfoy as head-boy and Hermione Riddle as head-girl. All other prefects will remain the same but if they changed houses their prefect status will now go toward their new house. Well then, with no further ado, here's your dinner." Dumbledore practically had to shout the last two sentences over the uproar that had been caused by this head-boy and head-girl announcement.
The food went ignored by the majority of all the tables save the Slytherin table who basically wolfed down their dinner in good cheer. Both the head-boy and the head-girl were now of Slytherin house and the Golden Trio appeared to be officially broken up. All in all, it was a beautiful day.
After dinner Hermione and Ginny practically flew up the stairs to their common room where they fell onto one of the large couches laughing and trying to catch their breath.
"Did you see the looks on their faces?" Ginny gasped out between great big gulps for air.
"I thought for a minute Harry had swallowed his tongue." Hermione laughed out loud and turned towards the entrance as the Portrait swung open and then expelled a breath of irritation as it opened the last bit to reveal a certain pale blonde and a mischevious looking burnette.
"Well, well, well. Don't we have some explaining to do." Blaize drawled as the girls continued to stare at them.
Continued in Chapter 5