Return to Hogwarts
The next few days before their return to Hogwarts were hectic to say the least. Once Mr. Weasley and Bill had brought the teens back to the Burrow, they didn't see him or Percy again until just before bed that night. Molly, of course, insisted on checking every one of her children over herself, twice. Harry was a bit put out when he got three checks himself, while Hermione barely got a second glance. Once the Weasley matriarch had assured herself of their well-being, she shooed them all off to bed, practically throwing them into separate rooms.
When everyone had woken back up, the oddness continued. Harry tried to talk to Hermione, even Ron, but Molly kept dividing them up, sending Harry and Ron outside to work while she kept Ginny and Hermione inside. As for the twins, well, Harry wasn't quite sure what they were up to. Harry figured it was just his imagination, but he couldn't help but feel like something was off. The fact that it took till the day before they left for Hogwarts to get time alone with Hermione, while he was practically shoved off with either of the Weasleys at every turn didn't help his suspicion.
While working with Ron wasn't bad, he'd actually gotten on Harry's nerves with his irreverence. It had gotten so bad that finally getting to talk to Hermione the day before they left for Hogwarts was a relief.
"You ready for tomorrow?" Harry asked quietly, hoping Mrs. Weasley didn't come across them talking in the laundry room before they were done.
"I..." Hermione hesitated, "I don't know Harry."
"What's wrong?"
"I just hoped I'd have more support." Hermione admitted, "Don't get me wrong, you've been wonderful, but I thought Ron and Ginny would be more helpful."
"I know what you mean," Harry agreed, "Ron has been a right prat, but I don't know if it's him or something else."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm not sure, something just feels off. Ron is still Ron, i think," Harry hesitated, "But it's almost like there's something he dislikes and is acting out, but I have no idea what it is. And Ginny, Ginny is almost too friendly. At least to me, to you she is almost hostile."
"I know," Hermione admitted, "I feel the same things but thought I was just being paranoid."
"Well, whatever it is, we only have one more day here." Harry reassured her, "Plus we'll get away from whatever that smell is."
"Smell?"
"Yeah, there's an odd smell, two in fact," Harry explained, "Started smelling them when we got here and they bother me. But we'll be gone tomorrow, so nothing to worry about."
"Yeah, then we just have a castle full of idiots to deal with." Hermione sniped.
"Hey now, I'm sure that they won't all be bad." Harry tried to placate her.
"No," Hermione sighed, "Just the Slytherins. The claws and the puffs will ignore it, and the gryfs will either isolate me or appear to support but disappear in the crunch."
"That does seem to be their modus operandi doesn't it."
"There you are dears," Molly sad as she burst in, "Hermione, Ginny needs help finishing packing, Harry, could you please help Ron finish degnoming the garden, dear?"
With a furtive glance at each other, they sighed and moved off their separate ways to do the Weasley Matriarch's bidding.
—
Platform 9 ¾ was a busy, bustling throng of people the next day, as it was every September the first. And as with every other September first, the Weasleys were running late.
Harry and Hermione quickly said their goodbyes to Mrs. Weasley as they arrived on the platform, claiming they were going to try and find a compartment. Whether they were believed, or Mrs. Weasley was too busy triple checking her own children all had their belongings, they managed to extricate themselves from the redhead swarm. Stacking their trunks and each taking a side, they made their way aboard and searched for a compartment.
"Hi Neville," Hermione greeted their classmate, whom they found sitting alone. "Mind if we join you?
"Wha?" Neville stirred, looking at them confused, "Yeah, sure."
"Thanks mate," Harry thanked him, "Trains getting pretty full."
"How was your summer?" Hermione inquired as she and Harry stowed their school trunks.
"Good, I guess. How was yours?" the shy Gryffindor asked.
"Rather good actually," Harry said, sneaking a glance at Hermione, "One of the best I've had for the most part. Could have done without the aftermath of the World Cup though."
"I heard about that," Neville said excitedly, "Was it as bad is they made it sound?"
"Not sure what they said," Hermione sighed, seating herself next to Harry. "But it was probably worse."
"Oh," Neville said quietly, "I'm guessing you don't want to talk about it then?"
"Not really, Neville," Harry admitted, "The match itself was nice, even looking around at the vendors was nice, but the aftermath was a nightmare."
"True," Hermione joined in, "The vendors were nice, thanks again for the omnioculars Harry, but I wish the Death Eaters hadn't shown up."
"I bet," Neville responded, "Did you see any of them?"
"Just one," Harry said softly, then jumped as Ron threw the door open.
"Hey guys, what're you doing here?" Ron asked loudly, ignoring Neville.
"We were talking to Neville about the World cup." Harry told his friend.
"Oh," Ron paused for a second, "Well, we got a compartment the next carriage down, Come on then."
"Why?" asked Hermione, "And who is we?"
"We is us, silly." Ron said exasperated, "The three of us. Ginny is there too, holding it for us. But she said she may go see her friends later. Come on." As he was speaking, Ron was reaching up and trying to pull the trunks down from the overhead. It was hard because the two he'd come to fetch weren't getting up to help him. "You two could help you know."
"Ron, leave my trunk alone." Harry interjected.
"Fine, get it yourself."
"There's no need Ron," Harry informed the redhead, "It's fine where it is."
"What?" Ron looked appalled, "You mean you want to sit here?"
"Why wouldn't i?" Harry asked.
"Well," Ron lowered his voice, "It's Neville."
"And just what, may I ask, is wrong with sitting with Neville?" Hermione asked haughtily, clearly upset with the implication.
"Nothing," Ron temporalized, before adding, "If there's no other options. But if you can have your own compartment, why not?"
"We do have our own compartment," Hermione pointed out darkly.
"Errr, ok then," Ron said, noting the glare "no need to get your whiskers in a twist."
Seeing Hermione's face shatter, Ron started to smile at his successful joke before he was staring into the hardest and scariest green eyes he'd ever seen. Ron knew Harry was powerful, but having those cold glowing eyes boring into him was something he never thought he'd see. Whatever he'd been about to say died as every thought other than Run left this head.
"Ron," Harry said softly, yet with more menace than Ron had ever heard, "Because of our friendship, you have three seconds to leave before you don't leave without parts missing."
"Mate…"
"One."
"Come on, Harry, it's just,"
"Two"
"Okay, okay, I'm going, don't get your tail in a..." Ron never got to finish.
The Hogwarts express saw its occasional tussles, as emotions ran high from leaving family and seeing friends after the long summer. Usually it was just heated words or the occasional jinx. And outright violence was rare. Even rarer was the sight of a fourth year redhead impersonating a missile as he was hurled bodily down the train. This year, however, that was exactly the sight many saw as Harry forcibly ejected Ron and sent him flying down the corridor. The 6th year Ravenclaw prefect that happened to see the incident noted no wand was visible, and the glowing eyes of the black haired teen radiating power as he turned back into his compartment, and decided to leave it alone. It was too early in the year for this and he was privately glad Harry had wised up to his friends' attitude. The slam of the compartment door followed.
Harry turned from closing the compartment door far harder than he usually did, to find Neville staring at him in shock. Hermione however, was where Harry's attention went. Her ears poked through her hair as she started to shake.
"It's ok," Harry said, pulling her into a hug, "He was just being a git, nothing new there."
"Why?" She sobbed, turning and crying into his shoulder.
"Damned if I know," Harry admitted, "I thought he was ok, but now I'm not so sure."
"Uh, guys?" Neville asked fearfully, "What was that about?"
"I'm not sure Neville," Harry admitted, turning his head to the Gryffindor, "He's been acting odd lately."
"He's been acting odd? Harry, your eyes glowed." Neville stammered out.
"They did?" Harry asked, shocked. He looked to Hermione for confirmation.
"They did Harry," She confirmed.
"Well that's new." Harry chuckled, then turned back to Neville, "Don't worry Neville, I promise not to toss you out. Least not if you are civil, unlike the redheaded git."
Neville nodded mutely, not trusting himself to speak to the pair yet. He did however notice something odd. It looked like… yes, Harry was idly stroking Hermione's hair, and when he did, something poked out of her hair. Curious, but not wanting to get too close just yet, the sandy haired teen leaned to the side. It looked like some kind of animal ear peeking out of Hermione's hair.
"Guys," Neville began shakily, and pointed to Hermione's head. "I'm not meaning to be rude, but are those ears?"
"Yes Neville," Hermione confirmed nervously. "It's one of the things that changed this summer. You remember..."
Hermione was cut off by the compartment door opening again. This time, a droll, snobbish voice interrupted them.
"I see you finally wised up, Potter," Draco Malfoy declared, "Got rid of the garbage you've been hanging out with." He looked at Hermione still in Harry's arms, "Well, some of it at least."
This apparently was rather humorous as both the boorish bookends known as Crabbe and Goyle, famous for following Malfoy everywhere, chuckled along with the blonde ponce.
"I see you still have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to find trolls dumber than you," Harry retorted, causing the aforementioned trolls to stop chuckling and look confused.
"Why I ought to..."
"You ought to what?" Hermione cut off the usual comeback, "Run to daddy? Cry because everyone else in the year scored higher than you?"
"I see while you did clean house, you tossed the wrong garbage away." Malfoy sneered, noting the ears on Hermione's head, "At least Weasley was a pureblood, blood traitor that he is, and not a Mudblood creature like..."
All Malfoy saw was a flash of green eyes, a rapid change in perspective, and blackness. Outside the compartment however, people saw Draco Malfoy, blonde prince of Slytherin, fly out of the compartment and impact the far wall 5 feet off the ground and upside down. Half a second later his overgrown henchmen followed suit and the pile fell to the ground in a heap.
"Excuse me," a tall teen in Ravenclaw robes and a Prefect's badge poked his head around the doorway.
"Hi Roger," Harry said, trying to seem cheerful and failing.
"I couldn't help but notice several people have been," Roger Davies paused, then continued with a grin, "Expeditiously expelled shall we say? Is there an issue I, or my fellow prefects, should be aware of?"
"Just some bigoted individuals that can't be civil and rapidly wore out their welcome." Harry explained. "As long as people are nice and don't make bigoted or derogatory statements about the people in this compartment, there is no issue."
"And what spells did you use?"
"No spells," Harry said slyly, "My wand is still in my trunk in fact."
"I see," Roger paused, "If I may, was there a particular issue upon which comments were made? Maybe something I should pass on to the other prefects to pass around as best to be avoided?"
"I guess that's not a bad idea," Hermione hesitated, then stepped around Harry to allow Roger full view of her. She pulled the hidden release for her tail wrap, and smoothed down her hair to reveal her ears. "The biggest issue would be my new look. If you recall, I had a potions mishap my second year. At the time it was thought I had no after effects. This summer proved that wrong."
"I see that," Roger smiled, "May I say Miss Granger these new features only enhance your beauty." He noted Harry looking at him appraisingly, then added "And I mean that sincerely."
"Thank you"
"I assume there will be an announcement about it at dinner?" Roger asked.
"Yes, Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey were consulted when it appeared," Hermione confirmed, "They told me there'd be an announcement about it at the welcoming feast."
"Good, I can tell everyone that they'll get the information they need to know at the feast, and to be polite about it." Roger paused, then forged ahead with the question burning in his mind, "Are they functional? I mean, do you hear out of the new ears or your old?"
"I'm not sure to be honest," Hermione admitted, recognizing true curiosity, "I'm supposed to have some tests with Madam Pomfrey to determine the full extent of the changes over the next couple months."
"Interesting. Well, as I can see no rules that have been broken, I'll wish you a pleasant journey." Roger told them as he waved goodbye and slowly closed the door.
