Train Trauma
"Come on now boys" a plump red headed lady said to the two boys who were sufficiently lagging behind her fast paced walking. "Wait up mum" another red headed girl said also lagging behind. "Well we'll be late if we don't hurry up Ginny!" Mrs Weasley scolded and picked up her pace, if that was possible. "Harry you first" She said once they reached the barrier between platforms 9 and 10. He took a running start, pushing his trolley straight towards the barrier, looking both ways casually to make sure that there was no muggles who were watching. When the cost was clear he ran straight into the divider and he disappeared.
As Harry came through the other side onto platform nine and three quarters, he saw the numerous young witches and wizards saying goodbye to their parents and putting their trunks on the train. A few seconds later Ron came through the same barrier that Harry had previously came from. Ron pushed his trolley towards Harry and waited for Ginny and his mother to come through. Once they did Mrs. Weasley hurried them onto the train to get their compartment. She gave each one of them a kiss and a hug, Harry got two, and then they boarded the train, dragging their trunks along the way. Harry also had to carry Hedwig's cage, and Ron had to carry little Pig's cage too.
Near the end of the train there was an empty compartment so they went inside right away. Ginny closed the glass door while Harry and Ron put all of their trunks onto the luggage rack and the cages on the floor. As soon as the three sat down they immediately started talking about Quiddich. When the glass door slid open, they momentarily stopped talking to see whom it was. "Hermione!" Harry yelled, and she grinned. He leaped up and gave her a big hug. "Harry, cant breathe…" she said and he let go of her still grinning. He grabbed her trunk and hoisted it up onto the rack and she put the cage with Crookshanks in it, on the floor next to Hedwig's cage. When they finally sat down, she asked "so what have all of you been doing this summer?" "Well we just hung around, played Quiddich a lot, how about you?" Ginny asked her. "Oh, me and my family went on a vacation to the Caribbean, it was kind of fun, there were a whole bunch of cute guys there…" she started. "Ooh do tell!" Ginny said and Harry and Ron just rolled their eyes and then continued their previously interrupted conversationabout Quiddich.
The train was rambling along the countryside now at full speed, and it wasn't until Ginny asked Hermione if she was Head Girl that she jumped up and said, "Oh I forgot! I have to get down to the head compartment! See you guys later!" and right after she left the compartment she came back and said, "Thanks Ginny!" and then sped off towards the front of the train to where the Head compartment was. "I wonder who the head boy is," Harry said to Ron. He snorted "with our luck its probably Malfoy"
Meanwhile in the compartment, Professor Magonigall was giving the Head boy and Head girl the lecture about duties.
"You two are in charge of the patrols, you are to tell the prefects what corridors they are in charge of and what days they are to do them and also you are to lead the first years on a tour tomorrow and answer any questions they have. Due to so many students getting lost last year Dumbledore has decided that a tour is very appropriate. Um…lets see, oh yes, you have your own common room and the password is bixleweed. It is located on the 3rd floor behind the picture of the boy and girl sitting under a tree looking over the lake. Well I think I've said everything, oh and please do a round of the train every hour or so to make sure that everything is in order will you?" Magonigall finished slid open the compartment door and left the two alone.
"Mudblood" A familiar voice said to her from the seat in which a cloaked figure was sitting, Hermione didn't know who it was at first because the cloak was covering his eyes but with that stone cold, snooty voice she knew it was Draco. "Ferret" She said back and he just smirked. "All I have to say to you is that you better stay out of my way this year." He said to her and then got up and walked out of the compartment. "Okay…?" Hermione said to herself and walked out of the compartment, closing the sliding glass door on the way.
She did one round of the train and then decided to go back to her original compartment with Harry, Ron and Ginny. When she opened the door she was surprised to see Neville, Dean and Seamus sitting with the three. "Oh hey guys" she said and sat down beside Harry and Ron. "Take a wild guess as too who the head boy is" Hermione said grimacing. Harry and Ron looked at each other and they knew right away. "Malfoy" they said in unison. Hermione nodded her head and looked grim. "Whoopee!" she said, her voce dripping with sarcasm.
They had a great time laughing and joking and when the lunch trolley came by they almost bought out the whole thing. For a while they sat there under the mass amounts of pumpkin pasties, liquorice wands, bertie botts every flavour beans, chocolate frogs and an assortment of other candy and just ate, not talking to anyone.
Hermione frequently went in and out patrolling and often Ginny or Harry would go with her to keep her company.
Once it started to get dark they all changed into their robes. It wasn't a fun experience for Ron because when the girls were changing into their robes Ron tried to peek at Hermione and she was forced to put a jelly legs jinx on him. "Hermione why did you have to do that!" He exclaimed not being able to stand up. "To teach you not to peak!" she exclaimed to him. Ron was pink around the ears. But he promised not to tell Hermione that is was a dare or else Harry Dean and Seamus would have to be forced to put an even worse jinx on him.
When the train finally stopped in the Hogsmade station and they got off, the three heard the familiar "First years over here First Years this way!" But not by the same familiar teacher. Harry was curious so he decided to walk over that way and see what was up. When he reached Professor Grubbyplank he asked her, "Excuse me Professor where's Hagrid?" She stopped her constant yelling of first years and gave him a very sharp look. "He will be back before the feast has ended, he is on important Hogwarts business, now run along" And then she continued to yell to the first years.
When they got to the carriages they found Neville and Ginny outside of one, holding it so it didn't leave without their friends. "Thanks" Hermione murmured as she stepped into the carriage. And they sped off.
As they got to the castle it was starting to really rain hard so as soon as the five got out of the carriage they bolted into the castle. Ron was stupid enough to run in his condition that as soon as they got into the hall his legs slipped on the wet floor and they also gave out so he fell hard. The other four were laughing so hard that their eyes were watering and when they finally got around to helping Ron up he said, "Oh HA HA very funny, I could have died!" "Oh Ron serves you right" Ginny said to him between laughs. "Its not funny!" Ron said but found himself beginning to laugh as well.
They couldn't stop laughing until they reached the Gryffendor table and on the way, a few people gave them quizzical looks. Dean and Seamus saw them looking for an empty spot in the table and then waved them over to the empty section right across from them.
Everyone in the Great Hall was talking amongst themselves until the double doors opened and there stood the soaked Professor Grubbyplank with her abundance of scared looking drenched first years. Professor Magonigall broke off her conversation with the Head Master and brought out the ratty looking sorting hat and the flimsy three-legged stool. Professor Grubbyplank led the first years to the front of the room and they followed like ducklings.
When they were all at the front of the hall the sorting hat burst into song and the shocked first years looked around at each other to make sure that they weren't the only ones who were seeing what they were seeing. Most of the seventh years including Harry, Ron and Hermione had seen this procedure so many times that it was starting to get a little boring, so they just sat there and whispered to themselves, clapping once in a while when someone got sorted into Gryffendor.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity Professor Magonigall took away the stool and the hat and the feast started. The food appeared on the golden platters and drink in the golden goblets. The second to seventh years started to dig in right away but the first years just looked awed, for they had not yet seen that happen. "I remember the first time when that happened to me" Ron began and then took a big bite out of his chicken leg and then swallowed as if he didn't chew. "I thought I was in heaven, still do."
They ate for a bit and the conversation was flowing easily. Harry, Dean, and Seamus were all talking about what classes they were going to choose when Ron added in "Not taken care magical creatures" through a mouth full of mashed potato. Hermione looked disgusted. "Ugh Ronald! You got some on me!" She said and tried to flick it off of her shoulder. "Oops sorry mione" He said and made an attempt to brush it off for her, but when he spoke he just got more on her. "Just get away!" she said and swatted his hand away. Ron shrugged and went back to eating. Harry looked up at Hermione and she was flicking the mashed potato off of herself with her wand. He laughed and then went back to eating also. Harry also noticed that she was a considerable amount farther away from Ron then when the meal started, and she was also listing into Harry and Dean's conversation. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow and she said, "What? I'm better off over here than being a human napkin over there with Ron!" Harry laughed and took a sip out of his goblet.
At the end of dinner and pudding and all of the food had disappeared from the plates, Dumbledore stood up and waited until everyone became silent. "Welcome first years and welcome back everyone else, now I am about to go through the rules so some of you are permitted to zone out but some of you have not grasped the rules yet, and you know who you are so I suggest you listen." He paused and looked at everyone. "Now what's off bounds you may ask? The Forest near the lake, I suggest you don't go in there if you don't want to be eaten by vampires and there is a few more items listed on the forbidden list down in filches office if you wish to view them. Now I suggest that you all get a good night sleep, the first years will be going on a tour tomorrow of the school by the two heads, Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy" He was cut off by an exuberant amount of clapping and cheering from the Gryffendor and Slitherens tables and some from the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. When the cheering died down he continued. "You are dismissed" And with that he sat down and there was a great shuffling and the benches were pushed back and everyone was going out the double doors to their common rooms.
The prefects took the first years to their dormitories so that left Hermione, Harry, and Ron to check out Hermione's new common room. Hermione's Common room was four floors down from the Gryffendor one and behind the picture that Magonigall had described earlier. "Bixleweed" Hermione said and the portrait swung open. The three stepped inside and found that it wasn't much smaller than the Gryffendor room. It had its share of squishy chairs, and coffee tables in front of a big fireplace. Like in the Gryffendor common room there was a staircase but not as big and this one went three ways. To Hermione's dorm, Draco's dorm and then they guessed the Library. Up in Hermione's dorm there was her trunk already set out for her and Crookshanks was sleeping on her bed.
"Hmmm, I don't know If I should sleep here tonight, I think ill come to the Gryffendor room instead" Hermione said and Harry offered to carry her trunk for her.
When the three were done exploring all three of them walked the four floors up to the Gryffendor common room and as they made their way through the portrait hole of the fat lady they saw a few of their friends sitting in the best of the squishy chairs. Ron went and sat with them as Harry helped Hermione bring the trunk up the stairs to her dorm room.
They made their way up the stairs and instead of going left to go up to the boy's quarters they turned right and went up those stairs instead. Harry went first and Hermione followed behind. "Harry" she said. "Yeah?" He asked. "Um I just remembered-"but they were cut off. The stairs turned into a slippery ramp and both fell tumbling down together, the trunk hitting the ground first, and Hermione on top of Harry a few feet away. The contents of her trunk lay sprawled everywhere around them and were sliding down the ramp to meet by their feet.
It must have been loud because all of their friends came running from the common room to see what had happened, and when they saw the condition that they were in all of them started to burst out laughing. "Geeze you guys couldn't wait until you got up to her dorm could you?" Seamus said wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. "Ha Ha, very funny, we just forgot that boys aren't allowed in the girls dormitories, is all" Hermione said groaning as she got up from Harry's chest. "Its Ok Hermione you don't have to cover for us." Harry said smiling. "I know you just couldn't resist these masculine charms" he said and posed. She rolled her eyes at him and they all chuckled.
"Hey Hermione what's this?" Ron asked pulling a pair of slinky underwear from the ground and dangling it laughing. "A bit revealing for you isn't it? I thought you wore big white knickers not this flimsy pink thing." He said and she grabbed it from him. "None of your business what I choose to wear and not to wear." She said snappily and piling all of her things into her trunk. Ginny went on the ground to help her, and in a few seconds all of the contents that had been all over the floor were now safely in her trunk.
All the others went down to the common room while Hermione and Ginny took her trunk up the stairs and onto the bed beside hers. They went down the stairs and back into the common room where they sat for the next few hours and talked until they were all yawning and fighting sleep. When they all finally decided to go to bed it was near twelve in the morning. And all fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillows.