It was after breakfast the following morning, and in spite of the exciting evening the night before, all the students were in class. I wished I was a student here instead of back home in my world England. As I thought about what it would be like to go to school here, my thoughts strayed to who I would sit with at lunch and in class. Obviously I wanted to sit with the golden trio, but I also kind of wanted to sit with Harry… alone.
May, what are you doing? Harry and Ginny are meant to be! You can't screw them up.
Dumbledore cleared his throat, bringing me out of my daydreams. I had forgotten I was in his office.
"I'm sorry, sir, I just got a little distracted." Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at me.
Damn. I forgot he was a practiced legilimens. I would have to be more careful around him.
"You would like to go home, wouldn't you?" Dumbledore asked. I actually hesitated for a quarter of a second before answering.
"Yes. Yes, of course."
"Good. Then here is how you will do it." Dumbledore put the tips of his fingers together and rested his chin on them, as was his signature pose. "You must go to your house in this world, and where your room would be, you will find a bookshelf. On that bookshelf, there is a book series called May Green. All you have to do after that is smell the pages, and you will fall back into your own life."
Harry Potter was replaced with May Green in this world? Why me? My life wasn't interesting at all.
Until now.
I sat there, completely struck by shock, or surprise, or some kind of emotion that left you unable to speak, until Dumbledore cleared his throat again, politely. "Oh, sorry, sir. Um, wow. That simple." I was suddenly nervous. "And how am I going to get there?"
"I'll take you myself. I was thinking we could leave tonight."
"Tonight! Um…" I thought of Harry, of actually being at Hogwarts instead of muggle school, and leaving so soon, before I even really started exploring.
"I just thought you wanted to get home soon?" Dumbledore asked politely.
"I do, I just… This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, you know? And I've always wanted to come here, and now I'm here, and all I've done is thought about going home… It can't hurt to stay a few more days, could it? If you'd let me?"
"Of course not!" Dumbledore was smiling kindly now. "You may stay with Miss Granger again tonight, then go see Professor McGonagall tomorrow morning to get you ready for your classes." He then ushered me out the door.
I felt suddenly overwhelmed. Here I was, at Hogwarts, to start classes tomorrow, without any idea how to do anything, and I didn't even have a wand! The thoughts rolled around in my head as I made my way down the marble staircase and outside. I spent the rest of the day roaming around Hogwarts and the grounds, getting to know my way around.
I found Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the crowd at the Gryffindor table at dinner.
"Hi! I saved you a seat!" Hermione said cheerily, pouring me a glass of pumpkin juice. "Do you like potatoes? How about chicken?" Hermione started loading a plate for me with everything in reach. I gently took over the process of filling my plate.
"Thanks, Hermione." I greeted Harry and Ron, who greeted me back, then returned to stuffing their faces.
I bit into a chicken leg, and I immediately slouched down on the bench and closed my eyes. "This is so good! The house-elves really know how to cook!" I realized my mistake right after I said it, but luckily, Hermione just 'humph'ed and ignored it.
"When are you starting classes?"
"Hopefully tomorrow, but I'm supposed to go see McGonagall, and I don't know how long it will take."
"Well, I hope we're in some of the same classes! I could help you, if you need me."
"I will probably need help, thank you."
"How were your classes today?" I addressed the question to all three of them, but Ron answered first.
"Snape was bloody ruthless today." Ron had his mouth full.
"Ron that's disgusting. And he should be, exams are coming up." Hermione said disapprovingly.
Ron snorted. "I reckon he's just grumpy 'cause Harry didn't manage to get himself killed in the Tournament."
Harry agreed with Ron. "It wasn't just exams, Hermione, trust me."
By that time, dessert had arrived, and I reached for some of Harry's favourite treacle tart, and he reached for the treacle tart at the same time I did. His hand brushed mine, sending tingles up my arm. He looked over at me and smiled sheepishly. I smiled back, and blushed a deep red. I pulled my hand back quickly, without taking a tart, and hastily took a sip of pumpkin juice, which I spit out just as fast.
How could they drink this? Full of pulp, and tasting of… pumpkin, I guess. It was disgusting!
When I finished coughing, Hermione gave me a look, but didn't say anything. I knew from reading about her that she was very good at figuring out people's emotions. I rolled my eyes at her and nodded to Ron. Hermione blushed and quickly resumed eating her dessert, me following suit.
I woke up early the next morning to Hermione reading in bed and everyone else still asleep.
"Good morning." Hermione looked up from her book, and I sat up and yawned.
"Morning." I answered sleepily. Hermione put her book down and turned to me.
"So, you and Harry?" She asked, getting straight to the point. Damn, she was good. The books didn't say anything about what Hermione was like in the dormitories with the other girls.
I blushed. "No… I mean, nothing's happened yet."
"You do know Ginny's mad for him, don't you?"
"Hey, I'm not planning to act on this unless Harry feels the same way. I don't want to screw up anything that's meant to be." I frowned at her, then asked pointedly, "And what about you and Ron?"
"What about me and Ron?" Hermione avoided my eyes.
"Come on, Hermione."
"He obviously doesn't think of me as more than a friend, especially after what happened at the Yule Ball."
"Don't be so sure." I told her, then got up and got dressed.
Just as I was leaving the dormitory, Hermione said, "Wait."
I turned back towards her. She patted the bed beside her, so I sat down cross-legged, facing her.
"I've looked through all the books at the library, I even managed to get a note from McGonagall to go in the Restricted Section, but I couldn't find even a sentence explaining how it was possible for someone to travel between worlds. I didn't even know there were multiple worlds." Hermione said in a rush, and it was obvious that she had been dying to ask me about this since I got here. "How did you manage to do it? Why are you here?"
I shifted uncomfortably, very aware that other girls were getting up and listening in on our conversation.
"I don't know." I answered. "I was… I was reading, and I just sort of… fell through the pages. As to why I'm here…" I glanced around at the girls waking up and getting dressed, and lowered my voice. "Dumbledore said there was a prophecy that someone like me would come the way I did and save lots of lives. But I really have no idea how I'm supposed to do that." I added as Hermione's eyes widened.
"That's brilliant. What's it like, in your world?"
"It's the same as the muggle world here, I guess, except that there really aren't any wizards living in secret in my world. Magic doesn't exist there."
Hermione looked on the point of questioning me further, but my rumbling stomach cut off whatever she was about to say next, and we decided to go down to the Great Hall to eat.