Chapter 21: Missing
The rest of the summer passed very quickly, and before I knew it, it was September the first and it was time to go to King's Cross. When we got to the barrier, the three of us went through it in a line. I looked around the platform, but I could see that Harry and the Weasleys weren't there yet. They still had twenty minutes, and I figured they were just running a little late.
I hugged Mum and Dad goodbye and Dad helped heave my trunk onto the train. I felt pretty good about where we were leaving things this time around. Things still got a little weird from time to time, like when we'd had to run through a magical barrier to get to the train, but most of the time we were good. I felt sure that when I saw them for Christmas this year, it would be just like old times.
After saying our goodbyes, I found an empty compartment and settled my stuff in it, and then I returned to the platform. There were only about five minutes left before the train was set to leave and I hadn't seen Harry, Ron, or any of his brothers.
Just then, I saw Percy come through the barrier, followed by Fred and George. I headed in that direction, and Ron's parents emerged with Ginny, but Harry and Ron did not follow them. The train whistle blew, and though I was worried that Harry and Ron hadn't come through, I had to get back on the train lest it leave without me.
I helped Ginny with her trunk, and we both got onto the train before it started to move. I continued to watch the barrier, but Harry and Ron never came through it. I saw a worried Mr. and Mrs. Weasley eying it as well.
"Ginny, where are Harry and Ron?" I asked the girl.
Ginny shook her head. "They were right behind us," she insisted. "Ron's supposed to sit with me. Where am I supposed to sit if they missed the train?"
Shaking my head at Ginny's messed up priorities, I searched my brain for an explanation as to why Harry and Ron hadn't made it onto the platform.
As I did, someone came up behind me, crying "Hermione! " I turned around and found that it was Neville.
"Hello Neville," I said, and I decided we ought to get out of the corridor. "Come on, let's go sit down. Ginny, you can come with us."
I led Neville and Ginny back to my compartment and the two lugged in their things and settled in.
"Neville," I said, "this is Ginny. Ginny, this is Neville," I said, introducing them.
They smiled at each other and Neville nodded his head. Then he turned back to me. "Where are Harry and Ron?" he asked.
"I don't know," I said, "Ginny said they were right behind her, but they never came through the barrier. Maybe we should go look for them," I suggested. I hoped that at least they were somewhere on the train and that I had just missed them.
Neville and Ginny agreed to come with me, and so we began to walk down the train, looking in the various compartments.
We came across Seamus, Dean, Lavender, Parvati, Sally-Anne, and Lily all together in one compartment a little way down and stopped to talk for a minute but continued on our way pretty quickly. There was a reason we hadn't been invited to join them.
We also passed Lisa Turpin's compartment, but she was with her Ravenclaw friends, Sue Li, Kevin Entwhistle, Stephen Cornfoot, and Morag MacDougal. When I saw her in the train, I was hit with a memory of my first train ride, when I was with Neville and Lisa.
When we got to the end of the train, we still hadn't found them, so we returned to our compartment and decided that they weren't on the train. As worrisome as that was, we couldn't do anything about it. Ginny seemed exceptionally worried, and I tried to reassure her that they would be fine, and that even if they missed the train, they would get to school one way or another. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley would see to that. I was more worried about why they hadn't made it on to the train than anything else.
When lunchtime came around, I bought some pumpkin pastilles and Neville got three chocolate frogs. When Ginny shook her head that no, she didn't want anything, I passed her two of my pastilles. She took them gratefully and smiled.
When the train arrived in Hogsmeade, Neville and I followed the older years to the flying carriages, and Ginny moved nervously into the crowd of first years being called by Hagrid. They would be taking the boats to the school. Neville and I got a carriage together and sped off to Hogwarts. When we arrived, we entered the Great Hall and sat at the Gryffindor table. I looked up and down the table and around the room, but I couldn't see Harry or Ron anywhere. I watched the door, but they never turned up.
"Relax, Hermione, I'm sure they're fine," Neville said, but I wasn't all that reassured. I noticed that Fred and George weren't all that concerned with their brother's disappearance, and Percy was too far away for me to tell if he was worried or not, though he didn't look it.
Professor McGonagall announced that the Sorting would begin in a moment, and then the first years filed into the Hall. I spotted Ginny in the middle of the crowd, and I tried to catch her eye to smile encouragingly, but she never turned my way.
Professor McGonagall explained the ceremony to the first years, and then she began to call names off her list. The first student, Allen, Mary, was sorted into Hufflepuff. The first new Gryffindor was Creevey, Colin. As the sorting went on, I paid half-attention to the ceremony, and the rest of my attention was darting around the room, trying to figure out where Harry and Ron could be. While Lovegood, Luna was sorted into Ravenclaw, I noticed that Snape was absent from the head table, and I thought that rather strange.
When it was Ginny's turn to be sorted, I gave her my full attention, and when she was pronounced a Gryffindor, I clapped with the rest of the table, and smiled when she looked my way. She settled in with the rest of the first years on the end of the table, and soon the sorting was over.
The feast began, and I noticed that Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall disappeared for a little while. Then Dumbledore returned with Snape, and a short while later, McGonagall came back too.
When the feast was over, I got up with the rest of the students and began to file out of the hall. I was still looking around for a sign of Harry or Ron, so I wasn't paying much attention to my immediate surroundings.
"Looking for Weasley and Potter?" a voice asked as I reached the doorway. I turned to see Malfoy standing in front of me.
"That's none of your business, Malfoy," I said, not wanting everyone to know that something was wrong.
"You mean you don't know where they are?" Malfoy asked, mockingly.
"What are you on about, Malfoy?" I asked, knowing he was going somewhere with this and wanting it to be over with.
"They've been expelled, Granger, expelled. They flew a car to school and crashed it into the Whomping Willow, and now they're expelled," Malfoy said gleefully.
I couldn't believe it. I wouldn't believe it. Harry and Ron couldn't be expelled; Malfoy was probably just making up stories. I pushed my way out of the Hall and began to run to the Gryffindor common room. If Harry and Ron were back, that's where they would be.
On my way, I saw Percy, and I realized that I didn't know the password, so I asked him what it was, and he told me it was wattlebird. He was leading the first years, so they were going quite slowly, and I ran ahead, wanting to get to the common room quickly. As I rounded the corner and approached the Fat Lady, I finally found Harry and Ron standing in front of the portrait.
I exploded into a mess of emotions. What came out was mostly anger – I demanded to know where they'd been and why they'd worried everyone. On the inside I was mostly just relieved. They were here, and they were alright.
To my horror, the thing about the flying car that Malfoy had mentioned was true. Though Harry and Ron weren't actually expelled, I was a little surprised that they hadn't been. What could have possessed them to take Mr. Weasley's flying car to Hogwarts? It was idiotic, moronic – and probably a lot of other words that end in -ic.
I didn't have the chance to tell them so though, because as soon as the portrait swung open, anything I was saying was drowned out by applause. Apparently, the rest of Gryffindor house found Harry and Ron's exploits to be highly amusing and worthy of congratulations.
Rolling my eyes, I headed straight to my own dorm, not interested in being a part of the celebration. While I was glad my friends weren't going anywhere, I was exceptionally annoyed with them and had no intention of letting them off the hook for this any time soon.
They needed to understand that they couldn't just go around doing whatever they wanted. We'd broken some rules together at the end of last year, but it had been for a good cause. I had no intention of letting that become a habit.