Author's Declaration: I. Never. Abandon. Anything.
Chapter 5
"I admit, I am honestly surprised she didn't get Sorted in with us," Theo muttered into Harry's ear during their Charms class, watching as Hermione Granger, once again, shot her hand into the air to answer Professor Flitwick's question.
"Smart people wind up in every house," his friend replied, noting down what the Gryffindor girl said when their teacher agreed it was the correct response.
"Yes, but at least in ours, their smarts are appreciated."
The derision in his voice got Harry to look up with a frown. "What do you mean?"
"Just look at the other Gryffindors." It didn't take long at all for the dark-haired boy to take not of what his friend had seen - the scowls, the scoffs, the rolled eyes of Granger's housemates. Sadly, Harry understood all too well what was happening.
"She's just, alienating herself more with every answer she gives, no matter that they're right or all the points she's earning," he murmured, grimacing. "Theo, we have to do something."
"I was afraid you'd say that... Shall we track Ron and Neville down this afternoon?"
-N5WW-
"No," the redhead immediately stated, eyes wide as saucepans. "No way, no thank you, not gonna happen-"
"Come on, Ron, you can't be that heartless!"
"It's self-preservation! Tell them, Neville!"
The chubbier of the two Gryffindors winced. "...she is really bossy..."
Harry threw his hands up in despair. "Fine, then! If you two intend to be useless, I'll just have to pull out my secret weapon!"
With that, he stomped away. Both Ron and Neville stared after him, before turning their bewildered expressions in Theo's direction.
He shrugged. "No idea, mates."
-N5WW-
Dear Ginny,
I've encountered a conundrum I wanted to enlist Ron to assist with, but he's being decidedly unhelpful about the matter. Do you by any chance have something I could hold over his head to get him to cooperate? Or would I be better off asking Fred and George?
-Harry
-N5WW-
Dear Harry,
You can't just say you want my help and then not tell me what for, you clod.
-Ginny
-N5WW-
Dear Gin,
Sorry. Was in a bit of a hurry, earlier.
Anyway, there's a muggleborn Gryffindor by the name of Hermione Granger who really should've been Sorted into Ravenclaw. By which I mean she reads more than I do, and you know that's saying something. Trouble is, no one in Gryffindor seems keen on the idea of befriending the girl - Ron looked horrified when I simply suggested striking up a conversation with her at breakfast.
I'd talk to her myself, but for some reason she avoids us Ravenclaws (I suspect it's a matter of avoiding the pasture fence so as not to see how green the grass on the other side is). My current plan is to force Ron and/or Neville (I've mentioned him in my previous letters, haven't I?) to be civil towards her, and hopefully a little bit of social interaction will get her to ease off on the high and mighty attitude.
Or something like that, anyway.
And since Theo pointed out that I will inevitably need a follow-up if not an outright back-up plan, I'm going to owl order some books on psychology, too...
But, back to my first question: is there anything you've got that I can use to force Ron's cooperation?
-Harry
-N5WW-
Dear Dummy.
Just give me some time to scheme.
-Ginny
-N5WW-
Two mornings after Ginny's final, cryptic letter, Harry and Theo were on their way to class when Ron ran up to them in the hall, face redder than his hair.
"What did you do?!" He hissed at Harry. "Hermione Granger sat next to me at breakfast and asked when Ginny's birthday was, because she wanted to 'return the favor'. What favor? What did you put my sister up to doing?!"
The other boy could only shrug. "I have no idea what favor, Ron, because I didn't put her up to doing one - I didn't put her up to doing anything at all, actually, I just told her about Hermione and said I wanted to help somehow. What Ginny did after that, I was in no way involved with."
Ron continued to glare at him. "I don't believe you."
"Well, that's your problem," Theo jumped in. "But you probably ought to be worried about a more immediate one..."
"What?"
"Aren't you supposed to be at the greenhouses for Herbology in a few minutes?" His words caused Ron to go pale, and a moment later saw the Gryffindor sprinting back the way he'd come.
"That was mean," Harry commented as he and his friend continued on to the Transfiguration classroom. Theo didn't look particularly insulted.
-N5WW-
Ginny,
Am I allowed to ask what you did? Because Ron is convinced it's my fault. He doesn't know what it was either, but he still thinks I'm to blame.
-Harry
-N5WW-
Dear Clod,
Of course you can ask - I don't mind showing off. I wrote the twins and asked them to find out Hermione's birthday, by whatever means necessary. Since it's only a couple of days off, I wrote to her, explaining that I've got friends at Hogwarts who mentioned how big of an arse my brother is being and that I wanted to apologize on his behalf. Long story short, you and Theo are now in charge of throwing her a surprise birthday party this Saturday - I've got a list of the muggle foods she likes and the sorts of practical magical items she's read about but doesn't have yet.
Don't mess it up. I got her to promise to keep up our letters, so if it goes badly, I'll Know.
-N5WW-
When Harry showed Theo the letter and accompanying lists that night, the other boy slowly shook his head back and forth. "Now that, that is scary. I know everyone in Ginny's family go into Gryffindor, but she could be groomed to become a great Slytherin."
"Why not Ravenclaw? We got you to change what House you thought you were destined for, why not Ginny too?"
"You're barmy, Figg, she'd be a hurricane in this House - unstoppable and terrifying, leaving the rest of us to clean up the chaos later." Harry shot his friend an odd look. "What?"
"...I think getting you to read Isacc's Storm might have been a bit of a mistake..."
-N5WW-
Hermione had no idea what she was doing.
Part of her mind screamed that, no matter how nice she seemed in her letter, Ginny was still a Weasley, a younger sibling of Fred and George, who may very well be planning a long-distance prank in concert with her brothers. The other part, the one that had been feeling exceptionally lonely after only two weeks at Hogwarts, squashed down the doubt and kept walking.
When she arrived at the designated room, Hermione took a deep breath, and pushed open the door.
"SURPRISE!"
Freezing in place, she stared about in shock.
The small room was decorated with pastel streamers of pink and blue, hovering balls of golder light dancing around. A table set against the back wall held a huge assortment of snacks, including all the muggle finger foods she'd grown up with as well as more standard magical fare. Chairs were set up in a circle beside an enchanted music player, while the lone settee had a small stack of brightly wrapped packages sitting on it. And standing before everything were a handful of students her age in both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw uniforms, looking at her with hopeful grins.
Hermione burst into tears.
The other children began to panic, some of them asking what they did wrong, others just flat out apologizing, a few laying blame on someone else, but Hermione ignored them all, eventually managing to speak: "Thank you, thank you, it's fine, it's all wonderful, thank you..."
Eventually, after being given a glass of water and ushered to the clear spot on the settee, she calmed down enough to explain that no one besides her parents had ever cared enough to throw a party for her.
"You can thank Ginny Weasley, when you next write her," one boy said, standing beside her. Hermione was more than a little surprised to realize it was Harry Potter. "She's the one who hit upon the idea and told me to set it up."
"I will - and thank you, too, all of you."
After that, the others seemed a bit more at ease, handing over their presents with awkward offers of friendship. Lavender Brown and the Patil twins had pooled both their money and their ideas to get her a book about hair and skin care, while Micheal Corner went the surefire route of a gift certificate to Flourish and Blotts. Neville Longbottom practically threw the hand-wrapped miniature seed and garden kit at her, following Ron Weasley dropping a package of sugar-free chocolate into her hands. Theodore Nott offered up a complete set of books on magical nobility and etiquette through the ages, along with a letter opener designed to look like a miniature sword.
"That one's actually from my friend Blaise, in Slytherin," the boy said. "But he didn't want to risk anyone seeing him come to a birthday party for a Gryffindor - bad for his image and all that rot."
Hermione just nodded, before moving on to the last box. Inside, she found another gift certificate, this time to a pet shoppe she vaguely recalled seeing in Diagon Alley. Harry was grinning when she looked back up.
"I figured, since you don't have a familiar yet, you might like to get one," he explained. "That voucher covers one animal and half of whatever supplies you purchase. I recommend getting a cat, personally."
Theodore snorted. "Can't possibly imagine why."
Harry promptly kicked him in the shin, and the other boy's overdramatics at the "pain" set everyone else off giggling.
Presents set aside, the group jumped into a game of magical chairs, inciting more laughter and ridiculousness. Hermione gradually got over her self-consciousness as they progressed, even after she was beaten out and watched from the side. Three rounds resulted in a win each for her, Parvati, and Theo before they called it quits. Everyone loaded up on food and broke apart to play some muggle board games, and Hermione had to actually let Harry take the lead with explaining rules since she'd not played them in years.
Fred and George Weasley showed up after a while, carrying between them a large cake decorated to look like a book. Apparently, Ginny had schemed at home too, convincing her mother to bake it and send the thing to school via Professor McGonagall's Floo.
"And we swear, Prankster's Honor-"
"-we did nothing to rig it on the way here!"
Amazingly enough, the twins were being honest, and everyone got to enjoy the strawberry cake without their skin changing color or anything else.
With curfew approaching, the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors parted ways to return to their respective towers, and Hermione was quite touched that her yearmates didn't immediately distance themselves from her. Even up in their dorm, Lavender and Parvati promised to go through the self-care book with her sometime, before exchanging 'goodnights'.
Hermione fell asleep with a smile on her face.