Previously
"Well of course you're going." Molly laughed, and hugged him "What else would you do? Off you go, Ron's out in the paddock with the brooms. He's showing a couple of new friends how to fly." She shooed him outside and didn't notice the look of apprehension on his face.
Ron, Harry and Hermione were floating about a hundred feet off the ground and Ron was telling them about the finer points of Quidditch to them when Harry noticed a new boy come out of the house.
"Hey Ron, who's that?" He asked. Ron turned on his broom.
"Oh that's just Neville. We look after him sometimes cause his Gran's really old. He's pretty shy and clumsy but an all right bloke. Mum thinks he's a good influence on us cause he never tells when the twins do anything to him."
Hermione frowned in disapproval. "That's not very nice Ron. Come on, lets go down and meet him."
Ron just rolled his eyes but he and Harry turned their broom and drifted down after Hermione.
From the back porch of the Burrow Neville watched as the three figures casually float so far off the ground.
He had always found it beautiful. Flyers on brooms and the way they moved through the air. They looked so graceful. Something he had never been. His Gran had refused to get him a broom and he had never off the ground. The Weasleys were the only family that would let him anywhere near a broom and even then he hadn't been able to get it to jump to his hand. They had eventually given up.
As the figures came closer he was able to recognise Ron but the other two were new to him. The girl jumped of the broom a small ways from him while Ron flew up to him before climbing off. The dark haired boy, who Neville was beginning to think he might know, stayed on his broom as he floated so that they were the same height. Ron greeted him.
"Hey Nev how things?"
"Yeah good. Um… I got my Hogwarts letter last week. So it looks like I'll be going to Hogwarts after all."
"Of course." Why did people keep saying that?
The girl slapped Ron on the arm. "Ronald aren't you going to introduce us?"
"Oh, right! Neville Longbottom this is Hermione Granger-"
"How do you do?" Poor Neville seemed a bit shocked as he shook Hermiones hand.
"And this is Harry Potter. Yes that Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived. Hero extraordinaire. Knight in Enchanted Armour. Defender of the Light. Savour of witches, wizards and little puppies everywhere." He might have continued grandstanding but Harry spun the broom around in mid air and swung the tail at him, making him duck with a grin.
"Did you come up with all those names on your own then?" Hermione asked, trying not giggle.
"Nah I picked most of them up from Ginny." He grinned and Hermione snorted.
Harry turned to Neville and with as much dignity as he could manage said, "Hello Neville, its nice to meet you. Don't listen to Ron. I'm just Harry."
Neville was overwhelmed and didn't know what to say. Hermione took pity on him.
"Why did you think you wouldn't get your Hogwarts letter? Were you planning on going to one of the other schools?"
"Er no. I, ah, well we didn't know I'd have enough magic to get in, see. I never did any accidental magic till I was eight. The family thought… well, they thought I'd be a squib." This last was mumbled in shame. Hermione was confused.
"What's a squib?" she asked.
Harry was the one to answer. "A squib is a person born to magical parents that has very little or no magic of their own." He turned to Neville. "But I don't think you could be one Neville. I could tell you were magical when you shook Hermiones hand."
Hermione gasped in excitement. "Oh! Does that mean you saw the silver cord? Why couldn't we see it? Why didn't I feel it?"
Neville looked between them with a frown. "What are you talking about? What cord?"
Hermione explained. "Whenever we shook hands with a magical person Harry could see a silver cord connecting the two people. Ron and I didn't see it until the three of us joined hands, but I had been able to feel it."
"The cord was there, just not as thick as it was between us. Maybe you didn't feel it because it wasn't as strong."
Neville looked down at the ground. "Probably because I'm not very strong."
"I don't think so Neville. I think its because you've already got cords coming out of you. They connect to the ground and the grass. It's actually pretty strange looking."
All three looked at him in shock. Hermione recovered first. "But what does that mean?"
"Maybe it means Neville's likes plants better than he likes people. Mum's always saying how much of a help he is in the garden."
"But that doesn't explain why only Harry can see it."
It was Neville who answered this time. "Maybe it's mage sight.
"What's mage sight?"
"Mage sight?" Hermione asked.
"That's really advanced." Ron said in awe. "It took Bill years to learn." Ron explained mage sight to the new witch and wizard. It was the ability to see magic in people and things. It was supposed to make it easier to cast spells and wards.
"That's what Bill does see? He's a curse breaker for Gringotts. You have to know how they're cast before you can break them."
"Why would a bank need to break wards?" Hermione enquired.
"I dunno." Ron shrugged.
"Gran said they had a bank in Alexandria and when some dark lord attacked they school there it was destroyed. The buildings were all destroyed as well and the underground tunnels collapsed."
Hermione was fascinated by the correlation to muggle history. "People have been wondering what happened to the Museum of Alexandria for centuries."
"How do you know this Neville?" Ron asked in confusion.
"My Gran makes me learn all this. I only remembered about this cause Bill's in Egypt now."
"What about the old Egyptian tombs? They were always rumoured to be cursed."
Neville didn't remember much about that and when he asked Hermione if she was muggle born, the conversation turned to muggles and from there to their technology and innovations. Ron's dad was apparently obsessed with muggles so she knew a bit about them but it was in all the wrong context. They were stretched out, relaxing on the grass and Hermione was explaining a computer to a disbelieving Ron and a confused Neville when a dull explosion was heard and the glass blew out from one of the upstairs rooms in the house.
Harry, Hermione and Neville jumped up but Ron just snorted. "Don't worry it's just the twins. They're always blowing stuff up. Now if you listen closely you can hear Mum ream them out from here." Sure enough even with the distance between them and the house they could hear Mrs Weasley yelling at the twins.
Mrs Granger came out to se what the kids were doing and they had a fun time shocking her with their aerodynamic stunts. At least, Harry did but even Hermiones much more sedate flying made her catch her breath.
It was nearing lunch time and they were trying to coax Neville onto a broom when Mrs Weasley called them all in. The twins, who were sporting bright yellow feathers were setting the table while Percy sat at the table with his nose in a book. Harry snuck a glance at the title, '1001 Rules for a Successful Prefect." He made a note never to let Hermione see it.
They were all about to sit down and Ginny snuck in with hair that was still blue with patches of her normal red, that right now matched her face.
Mrs Weasley smiled at all the children. "Its so nice that you are all going to Hogwarts with year. I'm sure you'll all end up in Gryffindor."
Neville turned pink. "I'll probably end up in Hufflepuff."
"Well..." Mrs Weasley looked a bit uncomfortable. "There's nothing wrong with Hufflepuff. I had several good friends from that house."
Hermione was confused. "What are Hufflepuff and Gryffindor?"
Percy answered. "You obviously have not read Hogwarts a History. If you had, you would know that Hogwarts is divided into four houses. Each taking the name of one of the founders. There is Gryffindor, the house of the lions, where those of daring, chivalry and courage go." ("We don't know how Percy got in though." One of the twins muttered to Harry.) "Next is Ravenclaw, the house of ravens, who love to read and learn. Then there's Hufflepuff, the badgers, who are loyal and hard working. And the last house is Slytherin. The house of snakes." At this Ginny piped up with a shudder.
"They're really evil, Harry. All of You-know-who's followers were from Slytherin." Then she seemed to realize who she was speaking to. Her face flamed to match the rest of her families hair.
Mrs Granger interrupted. "Surely they can't all be evil? They are just children."
Percy glared Ginny. "As I was saying before I was interrupted. The Slytherin house accepts the cunning and ambitious. They are not evil or Dumbledore would have gotten rid of them years ago."
"Quite right Percy." Mrs Weasley said. "The house of Slytherin is not evil. They do, however, have certain prejudices. Their founder, Salazar Slytherin, was against letting any muggle born children into the school and be educated with the children of wizards. The other three founders disagreed and eventually he left the school. His house, though, has carried on the animosity and no muggleborn has ever been sorted into Slytherin.
Everyone seemed to be thinking this over when Mrs Granger said, "Well when you think about it, Salazar had a point." All the Weasleys looked at her in shock. "Well in that time very few people would even have known how to read and the only book most of them would ever have seen would have been the Bible. They would have been raised on the belief that magic was evil and witches would steal their children. Allowing the average 10 or 11 year old into a school of magic would have been an incredible risk. They would have to seperate the child from it's parents entirely, both for the child's sake and their own. Then there would be the problem of housing them all."
Nobody seemed to know quite what to say. In the wizarding world everyone was either on one side of the age old argument or the other. To hear a Muggle support exclusion was unheard of. The silence was awkward. Mrs Granger looked around the table. "I'm not saying that the opinion is still valid today. While I do understand the need for secrecy, out-right bigotry is ridiculous. Muggles, as you call us, have changed. It has been a thousand years. You should pity the Slytherin house. If their parents are so against muggles then they would probably never have even met one. As the saying goes you shouldn't judge children by the sins of their father."
Mrs Weasley nodded. "That's quite right Diane. You see children? Now I don't want to hear any more about calling people evil. They are children who don't know any better."
After lunch Ginny and Percy disappeared back up to their rooms and Harry asked the twins what had caused the feathers. They snuck a quick look around and seeing their mother talking to Mrs Granger they leaned over.
"See me and Fred here -"
"We have decided that things need -
"A little spicing up -
"Quite right George. So we…"
"They like to prank people." Ron interrupted. "And if you let them get started on their twin talk they'll keep on it all day and you can never understand them."
Fred and George glared at him. "But what where you doing today?" Hermione asked.
"We were trying a potion that's supposed to turn someone into a canary." Said George.
"But as you can see it's not quite right." Finished Fred.
"A canary?" Harry asked. "Is that anything like the animagus transformation?"
The twins looked at him in surprise. "Now how does an 'ickle firstie know about the animagus transforation?"
"Gran said my dad was going to be an animagus." Neville said. "She said his form would have been a wolf."
"What…? Hermione started.
"Anyway this is just a transfiguration, not a transformation. Nothing to do with animagi."
'But how do you deal with the displacement of mass? And what about…" She fired of some more technical terms that no one besides Harry who had once read a book on physics, had the slightest clue about. The twins looked at each other in glee.
"Well lookie what we have here Fred."
"A future Ravenclaw all nice and fresh."
"Just think, if we could get her on our side-"
"All that knowledge at our disposal." The twins were looking at Hermione with a strange hungry look in their eyes that made all four 11 year olds uncomfortable. Hermione gave them her best glare.
"If you think I am going to be helping you pull pranks and disrupt the school you had best think again boys. I will have no part in it."
At this point Mrs Weasley looked over. "You boys had better not be pulling those four into your pranks and tomfoolery. They are going to Hogwarts to learn magic, not troublemaking. Harry is the Boy-Who-Lived. He's going to be setting an example to the other students."
"Actually Mrs Weasley I'm not going…" Harry started to tell her he wasn't going to be at Hogwarts but Fred interrupted him.
"Aw com'on Mum. There's no rule that says role models can't have fun."
"No but there is a rule about magic in the hallways and disrupting other students and blowing up toilet seats."
"Blowing up toilet seats?"
"We've never blown up a toilet seat."
"Good idea though thanks Mum."
Mrs Weasley just sighed and Harry never did get a chance to tell them he wasn't going to Hogwarts.
Auther Note:
Well another chapter done. And it wasn't even late. Yey me! There should be one more chapter before he goes off to school. oh and Dumbledore makes an appearence next time.
Keep reviewing people. Reviews inspire me and while I propable wont update any faster I'll be inspired to keep writing. So please review even if its only to say great story, though the ones I like best are when you tell me what you like best or don't like. Constructive critisisim please.