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Chapter 4: The Great Hall

Hermione woke up the next morning with a slight headache. Those boys were going to be the death of her. Not only are they missing but they might even get expelled for the stunt they pulled at the Dursley's. They did need to learn to be more careful. She stood out of her bed and mindlessly searched through her drawers for her school robes.

Once she had gathered everything she would need, she padded out her door and down the hall to the girls' lavatory. She found an unoccupied shower, turned the water as hot as it would go, and got undressed before getting into the steaming shower. She let the hot water wash away the sleep from her eyes as well as her worries from the night before. The sound of a sobbing girl enveloped her magnifying off the stone walls. She didn't know if she should help the girl or pretend that she didn't hear anything. She heard another sob and decided to get out and see what was wrong. She wrapped the towel around herself and opened the curtain looking around for the source of the sounds. Curled up in the corner with her head tucked between her knees was Ginny Weasley. Hermione rushed to Ginny's side and kneeled down beside her.

"Oh Gods, Ginny! Are you okay? What's wrong?" She had an idea what was going on but thought it best to let the younger girl get it all off her chest.

"Oh Hermione, I didn't know it was you in here. I came in here early this morning, so the other girls didn't have to see me like this. I hate when people see me cry. It's probably stupid for me to be crying, anyway."

"Ginny, if something is bothering you enough for you to cry then naturally it means something to you. Therefore, it can't be stupid."

"Thanks, Hermione. I'm just feeling anxious about Ron. I don't know what I would do if I ever lost him." Hermione wrapped her arms around the young girl as she buried her face in Hermione's neck. She started sobbing again, but Hermione continued holding her rubbing her back until the redhead stopped shaking and the sobs got quieter, eventually stopping altogether.

"I'll tell you what...how about you come with me to the Great Hall after I finish in the shower, and we can find out if they have any more news, okay?"

"Thank you so much, Hermione. Sorry I interrupted your shower by the way."

"It's okay, Ginny. I just want to help any way I can. Just let me finish up real quick, and we'll go, okay?" Ginny nodded, and Hermione went to finish her shower.

Once Hermione was done with her shower she went to the first-year girls' dormitory to get Ginny before heading to the Great Hall for breakfast. "Alright, Ginny, are you ready?" Ginny nodded but still looked a bit nervous, so Hermione tried to ease the other girl's mind as they walked. "I'm sure there's nothing to be afraid of Ginny. They probably just snuck off to do what any boy their age would do. Quite frankly I don't want to know half the things those boys get up to when I'm not around."

The younger girl couldn't help but chuckle at their expense. She knew all too well what they did when the responsible one of the trio wasn't there. "You're right you wouldn't want to know. Sometimes I'm surprised they're still alive. Thanks for being so sweet to me, Hermione. I know you're my brother's friend, and you don't have to, but I'm happy that you are. You and Harry aren't like his other friends; they usually make fun of me. Ron does his best to stick up for me, but they're his friends, so there's not much he can do.

"No problem, Ginny. You'll be making your own friends soon enough, don't worry. I'll even be your friend if you want."

"Thanks, that means a lot to me, but I'm not sure how Ron would feel about that. You were his friend first, and he'd probably see it as me taking you away from him. So, for now, I think I'll just stick to making new friends, but maybe someday we can be friends depending on how Ron feels about it."

"I understand that, and I'll be here if you ever need anything. For now, let's just make sure Ron and Harry are okay." They stepped into the Great Hall and made their way over to the Gryffindor table. As they approached the table a head full of fiery red hair caught Ginny's eye and she ran over to Ron, nearly knocking him over as she tackled him with a hug. Hermione was relieved to see him and Harry sitting there alive, but she needed some answers.

"Where in the world have you two been? You've had Ginny here, and I worried sick. Don't get me wrong I'm glad to see you two are alive and not lying in a ditch somewhere. Seeing as you weren't on the train how did you two get here? And you, Ron, what was so important that you had to miss your sister's sorting ceremony? Did you even think about how much that would upset her? She looks up to you, and you let her down. Well? What do you have to say for yourselves?

Ron gulped and spluttered for any coherent sentence that could begin to explain what happened the night before. He had no idea how he was going to be able to get out of this one. Ron felt terrible for missing Ginny's ceremony. He wouldn't be surprised if she were incredibly mad at him for what he had missed. He was supposed to be the big brother she could look up to but now wouldn't even look him in the eye. Harry took this chance to speak up on Ron's behalf.

"You can choose whether you believe me on this, but I'm going to tell you the story, anyway. At King's Cross, right after Ginny crossed the barrier to the platform, Ron and I tried to cross over, but the barrier was sealed. We might a right fool of ourselves crashing into a brick wall, but thankfully I don't think any muggles saw us. We still had five minutes until the train was supposed to leave so we have no idea why we couldn't get in. We had to borrow the Weasley's flying car all the way to Hogwarts, following the train. Once we got to Hogwarts, we flew straight into a massive tree that seemed to have a mind of its own. The car got stuck, and the tree began beating up the car with its branches while we were still in the car."

"Look at what the bloody tree did to my wand!" Ron held up his wand barely held together with spello-tape. "It's broken in half, what am I supposed to do now? No way mom and dad are going to let me get a new wand. I'm done for!"

"Ronald!" Hermione took Ron's wand from him and thoroughly examined it. "Using a broken wand could be very dangerous. You're going to have to get a new one eventually. There's no way that thing is going to work properly. How could you guys be so careless? Do you know how much trouble you guys could be in? Did any muggles see you?

"Calm down, Hermione." He snatched his wand out of Hermione's hands. "I don't have the means of getting a new wand right now, so this will just have to do until I can get a better one. As for the whole getting to Hogwarts situation, there wasn't anything else we could do. And yes, unfortunately, we were spotted by some muggles, but the ministry is going to fix that. Snape wanted us expelled for it, and honestly, we probably should've been, but Dumbledore decided to let us off with a warning. We were seriously lucky to get out of it the way we did, not to mention nearly getting killed by that tree. The year just began, and I've already had enough adventure to last me the rest of the school year."

"Well hopefully you two have learned your lesson, and you won't be doing anything else idiotic to get yourselves killed.

A chubby, round-faced Gryffindor boy called Neville Longbottom sat down next to Harry across from Ron and Ginny, who was hiding behind Ron and staying deathly quiet, probably afraid of speaking in front of Harry and making a fool of herself. Neville immediately started loading his plate with eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, muffins, toast, and anything else he could get his little stubby hands on. He took a huge bite of a blueberry muffin before he spoke, "mail's due any minute now. I think Gran's sending me a few things I forgot."

Sure enough, over a hundred owls made their way through the hall finding their owners to deliver their mail. Something large and gray fell right in front of Hermione knocking her food everywhere.

"Errol!" Ron pulled his old, unconscious family owl off Hermione's plate. It slumped on the table unmoving with a red envelope in its beak. Ron's eyes went wide. "Oh, no…she sent me a howler."

"My Gran sent me a howler once. You should probably open it right away. I didn't open mine and let's just say very terrible things happened," Neville said.

Ron looked around to everyone at the table hoping someone would tell him he didn't have to open it. He sat there for what seemed like an eternity trying to muster up the courage to open it.

"What's a howler?" Harry awkwardly asked. Being raised in the muggle world left Harry with a lot of questions that were for the most part common knowledge to regular magic folk. Times like this left him feeling a little embarrassed at what little he knew about the world he now lived in. Thankfully he was surrounded by people who were understanding and more than willing to explain even the simplest of things without making him feel like he was any less than them. Of course, there were still the obnoxious slimy serpents of Slytherin that taunted him occasionally. Though, they never really seemed to get to Harry.

Before he could get a response, though, the howler was opened, and a loud screech was released sounding throughout the hall as the envelope transfigured itself into a paper mouth. Everyone went silent, and all eyes were on Ron as the paper mouth floated into the air and took on Molly Weasley's voice echoing off the stone walls. Not a single person wasn't able to hear the angry words of the bewildered mother.

"—STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE— "

With every word, Ron sank lower in his seat wishing he could be anywhere else right then. He could only imagine what the other people would say to him after all of this was over.

"—LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME, WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS, YOU AND HARRY COULD BOTH HAVE DIED— "

Ginny looked like she could die of mortification. Why did her brother have to do something so stupid? Now everyone would know her as the sister of the boy who was so reckless that his mum had to yell at him even when he was away at school. It was bad enough with the twins getting into trouble but now with Ron heading in the direction he's going the Weasley name will be thought of as troublemakers. Ginny was nothing like her brothers and hoped this wouldn't make her teachers hate her before even taking the time to get to know her.

"—ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED — YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME."

With those last words, the howler fell back to the table and burst into flames. Silence fell onto the room as no one dared speak after what had just happened. Ron was shaking as he sat frozen in fear. He knew his parents would've found out eventually and he would be punished for what they did but didn't think it would be so soon nor did he think he would be so publicly humiliated. Moments later the Slytherin table erupted in laughter and applause at Ron's expense. Ginny stood up and took one look at her brother before, without saying a word, walked away towards the exit of the Great Hall. Gradually, the conversation began again, and Ron was pulled from his thoughts when Hermione spoke.

"Well, I don't know what you expected, Ron, but you— "

"Don't tell me I deserved that," snapped Ron. "I know what I did was wrong, but she didn't need to humiliate me in front of the entire school."

"Ron, your father could lose his job from what you did," Hermione pointed out. "Don't you think that you deserve at least a little bit of that?"

"Oh, what do you know about it, goody-two-shoes?" Ron shot back. "You've probably never done anything bad in your life. You're like the perfect child. Sorry, we can't all be like you."

With that, Ron shot up out of his seat and directed his attention to Harry. "Are you coming or what, mate?"

"Come on; we should get to class, anyway." Harry turned to Hermione as Ron started to walk away, still fuming." Hermione reluctantly stood up. Harry trailed behind with Hermione so Ron couldn't hear what he was saying. "Don't listen to what he said. I'm not sure why he's acting this way but what he said to you was uncalled for."

"Harry, you don't have to apologize on Ron's behalf," Hermione assured him. "Ron is responsible for his own actions and words. He'll learn that those words have consequences soon enough. You can't treat people like that and expect them to stick around. I understand that he's going through a tough time right now, but you have to admit he brought it upon himself."

"Yeah, you're right," Harry agreed. "I guess I'm just feeling pretty guilty about my part in all this. I feel terrible for all the trouble we caused Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, especially since Mr. Weasley could lose his job. If he did, I don't think I would ever be able to forgive myself."

"You can't take all the blame, Harry. Yeah, what you two did was rather reckless and dumb, but take this as a learning experience. Let me guess this was Ron's brilliant idea?"

"For the most part, yes. Ron did think of it, but I didn't necessarily say no. For that, I'm just as much to blame."

"You may be at fault, but you shouldn't beat yourself up about it. Next time Ron has another one of his brilliant plans stop and think about what the consequences could be if it were to go wrong. You don't have to go along with everything that he says."

Harry hung his head in defeat. "You're right. I just don't know what to do. It seems I'm always getting into trouble these days, but, on the other hand, Ron is my best mate," Harry explained. Hermione knew Harry was struggling in the friend department. Besides herself, Ron is practically his only other friend.

"Don't worry about it too much, Harry. You'll figure it out soon. Take the next few days to think about it more. Though, now is not the time. I'm afraid we've arrived at our first lesson. Try not to think about it too much for right now; wouldn't want you to miss anything. This man is an absolute genius." Luckily, first on the schedule was Defense Against the Dark Arts with the infamous Gilderoy Lockhart. It looks like Hermione's day was about to take a turn for the better.

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