A/N: The third chapter. Hope you are as thrilled as I am! I can't wait to the moment when the exchange actually begins! And again, thanks to you who adds my fanfiction to your story alerts. Please leave a review as well!
And as always, thanks to my beta Freakyella.
As they arrived to the great hall Hermione was as happy as she could possibly be. She was finally back! She really hoped that this exchange thing wouldn't affect her NEWT: s result. Because she knew that grades you got on them was very important later in your work carrier. She hadn't really thought about what she wanted to work with though. The ministry had offered her, Harry and Ron as well, a job as an Auror. But catching bad guys wasn't really her thing. She wanted to work with something slightly safer. Her adventures had thought made her realize that she needed to do something meaningful and with that thought she'd realized that she could never work at a desk at the ministry. Ron's elder brother Charlie had spoken with Hermione about his job, and she thought that curse-breaking might be something for her. So, in order to become a curse-breaker, she had to study hard and get O: s on all her exams. And in order to be able to study hard, this exchange thing could not take up to much of her time. But it could also be quite fun, she thought to herself while walking in through the doors with Ginny, Harry and Ron. They sat down at the Gryffindor table next to Seamus, Lavender, Neville and Parvati.
As soon as everybody had been seated, the doors opened and the first years entered the great hall. The sorting ceremony started and then come the moment she'd been waiting for, Dumbledore speech. He started it the normal way, telling the first years the main rules and then the interesting part came. "This year students, we have a new program to introduce you to. It's called the School Exchange program. And as the name say, we are going to have an exchange program with another wizard school. This school is located in Sweden, and is called The Aradia Institute. The special thing with this extraordinary school is that it's not only witches and wizards from Sweden, but from whole Scandinavia. That means that there are students from Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Sweden." He explained with the students' undivided attention, carefully not to miss a single word he said. Maybe Hermione had underestimated this whole exchange a bit. "The program will start in the end of November and continue through the year and will end in June. When you are there you will be joining the Aradia students' to class for 4 months, then they will, as expected in an exchange, come here for 3 months. Only last years are allowed to go, and of course we won't force anyone to go. In fact, there will be about 20 of you that are allowed to go. So if you are interested, please talk to professor McGonagall. I think that's all the information you need right now. Let the feast begin!" Dumbledore said to the students and the same second he said those words, the food stood at the tables.
Well, wasn't that interesting! Draco thought as he took a generous amount of food and put it on his plate. If he went to that other school, he hadn't really paid attention enough to remember the name of the school, he would get away from Hogwarts for four months. And that was, in his mind, always something. "Ahh, I am so going! I always wanted to see a polar bear" Daphne said really excited. She was really an idiot.
"Daphne, there are no polar bears in Sweden" Pansy kindly explained to her friend, who looked very disappointed. God, she REALLY was an idiot, but he had to admit that she was hot! "Well, I am not going" Pansy declared. Draco gave her a questioning look, and she took it as sign to continue. "Because I've heard that they are all very daft there, in Sweden. And I think that I need some normality in my life. And we are going to be there during the winter and then it is very cold!" Pansy said and of course Millicent and Daphne agreed with her. Then the moment he'd waited for came, "Are you going Draco" Tracey Davis asked him. Suddenly all eyes were at him,
"Well Tracey, not that it is in any of your business, but yes. I do believe so" He said in an arrogant voice that reflected his personality. "Someone's got to keep an eye at Blaise so that he does not get blown away by the beautiful girls Sweden is rumored to have"
"So you're going for noble reasons Drakie" Pansy asked with a tone that made it clear that she didn't believe a word of what he just had said. "
It's like you could read my mind Pa…" He abruptly ended the sentence when the deserts turned up on the tables and didn't start the conversation again.
"Miss Granger and Mr Zabini, If you follow me I will escort you to your new accommodations" Professor McGonagall said after the feast. Oh, she had forgotten that she would no longer share room with Lavender and the other girls. She would have her own bedroom and share to common room with Zabini. How could she have forgotten that? She and Zabini would even have their own fireplace. Not that she would have much use of it, but it was going to be fun to have one! The professor led them to a portrait on the third floor right above the kitchen she guessed. The painting showed a very beautiful lady that wore a royal blue floor length dress robe that matched her eyes. She had dark brown curly hair that seemed to float down over her shoulders and down to her belly. To keep the hair from her face, she wore a head band that matched the dress. Her skin was almost as pale as Malfoy's and she had pink lips, marked cheekbones and thick, dense eyelashes. She was absolutely the most beautiful painting she had ever seen. She shot a glance at Zabini and he seemed to thinking the exact same thing.
"This, Roseline, is our two new Heads this year, Mr Blaise Zabini as Head Boy, and Miss Hermione Granger as Head Girl. This, Mr Zabini and Miss Granger is Roseline. She is the protector of the Heads section in the castle. I'll leave you then to decide a password" Professor McGonagall said before leaving them alone.
"Welcome" Roseline said giving them both a big smile that immediately made Hermione trust her. "What would you like to have as a password?" she asked in a silky smooth voice. Hermione looked over at Zabini who said" What do you think about Aradia, Granger?"