"So you were here all summer?" Hermione asked enviously. "With access to the libraries?"
"I didn't read a single book," Steven said.
Hermione stared at him, outraged. If it had been Ron she'd have expected it, but Steven liked to read for pleasure.
"Amethyst was back," he said defensively. "We spent the summer fighting monsters and milking acromantula and goofing off with Hagrid."
Steven's favorite fictional series didn't exist in this universe yet; his world was almost twenty five years ahead of Hermione's. Some of those books might never be written though.
"I hope you at least kept up with your homework," Hermione said. It astounded her sometimes just how little Steven seemed to worry about the important things. It might have been from the way he was raised; hardly any direction and allowed to do whatever he wanted.
Of course, from what she'd seen of her classmates, that same lack of concern wasn't unique to Steven. Sometimes she wondered if she'd have been better off in Ravenclaw. At least that house had its priorities straight.
Steven gave her a guilty look and turned quickly to his meal.
"I wonder where Harry and Ron are?" Hermione asked. "I looked for them on the train but I didn't see them."
"Harry was still staying with Ron, right?" Steven asked. "So they probably came together. Maybe they missed the train and they'll floo in."
"That'd be just like Ron to miss the train," Hermione said, scowling. "But I'd have thought Harry would be more careful."
"I'm sure they'll get here sooner or later," Steven said. "Everybody thinks Harry's pretty important, so its not like they'll just forget about him."
Hermione nodded, but she couldn't help but worry. She suspected that Steven sometimes forgot just how vulnerable normal people were; anything could have happened. Even wizards could get hurt in automobile accidents, assuming they bothered to ride in them.
The doors to the great hall slammed open and Snape stepped through, his face both thunderously angry and curiously self satisfied. He moved quickly toward the professor's table at the front of the room, his robes billowing around him.
Hermione glanced at Steven, a feeling of dread in her stomach.
The dread intensified as she saw the thunderous expression on Professor McGonagall's face. The woman stood quickly, leaving her meal behind, and the two professors stormed out of the great hall.
The headmaster looked troubled.
Neither Harry nor Ron were at dinner that night.
"A flying car?" Steven asked enviously. "That would have been cool."
"It almost got us expelled," Harry said grimly.
Hermione stared at the two of them stiffly. If it had been anyone other than Harry they'd have been expelled the moment they landed on Hogwarts grounds. They'd been SEEN, by muggles. It was a massive violation of the statutes of secrecy.
"I've been on a spaceship," Steven said. "Twice actually. But I've never gotten to actually drive one."
"Didn't you tell me you'd driven an escape pod of some kind?" Hermione interrupted. She'd been interested in his universe, of course. She'd asked questions over the last year of tutoring him. The idea that his...aunt...Pearl had been able to build a functional space ship out of old junk had impressed her to no end. She was anxious to get to know her when she finished...gestating, or whatever it was that gems did while they healed.
"It was on the ground," Steven said dismissively. "Not flying."
"You drove a drill once, right?"
"That was IN the ground," Steven said. "I got eaten by a giant bird once, but I don't think that qualifies as actually flying."
Hermione sometimes wondered if Steven's stories were embellished. It seemed impossible that he'd been in space atop a column of the ocean for example. Steven was so honest though that he was impossible to disbelieve.
She'd still like to get hold of a pensieve some time and get a look at some of his memories. The ministry hadn't done so, which surprised her, although she supposed it was probably illegal to force it. She hadn't researched wizarding law nearly as well as she should; there were just so many other interesting things to look into and there was never enough time.
The owls came flying in with the mail.
It hardly seemed hygienic to Hermione, but she couldn't help but feel a little bit of excitement every time she saw it. She loved magic.
Ron's family owl landed on the table; it looked half dead.
She reached out and touched it gingerly.
"I've got healing spit!" Steven said.
"No!" Hermione said quickly. "He'd just tired. Look!"
The bird had a red envelope in it's beak.
"A howler," Ron said, his face suddenly pale.
Hermione stared at him. Beside him, Neville looked just as pale.
"What's a howler?" Steven asked.
Hermione was grateful. She hated the fact that wizardborn sometimes just knew things that muggleborns had to learn by hard experience. She had no idea what a howler was.
Steven, of course had no fear of looking stupid. He wasn't stupid, but he was as oblivious as Hagrid in some ways while being uncannily perceptive in others.
"You might as well get it over with," Neville said, shuddering. "It just gets worse the longer you wait."
Ron closed his eyes and then he opened the envelope. A moment later they all learned just what a howler was.
Hermione couldn't help but feel that both boys deserved it.
"I've never seen a tree be healed in just that way," Professor Lockhart said, looking mildly disturbed.
Steven was walking between Professor Sprout and Professor Lockhart.
"My mother had a way with plants," he said proudly. He was wiping his mouth with a handkerchief.
Hermione stared at them. They'd called Steven away to spit on a tree? Of course, from what she'd heard Harry and Ron had damaged the Whomping Willow pretty badly with their flying car.
"I didn't even have to restrain it," Professor Sprout was saying.
"If Professor Lockhart hadn't kept dropping me, we'd have gotten done twice as fast," Steven said.
"Just testing your reflexes, my boy," Lockhart said generously.
He smiled and Hermione felt a curious flutter in her stomach. He really was something to look at. She found herself staring at him as he spoke to Harry and she didn't even really hear a thing that he said. The disgusted look on Harry's face was odd, but who could understand the twisted minds of boys.
At least Hermione was above all that silliness.
She couldn't wait for Defense class.
They'd gotten almost half the Cornish Pixies back in their cages by the time Steven came by to ask them how the class had went.
His face brightened as he saw what they were doing, and a moment later he was darting around the room catching the Pixies in mid-air and shouting "Skillz!"
It had taken them ten minutes to catch half the pixies; with his help they caught the rest in less than a third of that time.
Hermione always found herself flabbergasted at how fast and agile he was. He looked like he ought to be as clumsy as Neville, but somehow he zipped through the air. He was just so fast...
If he could perform magic that quickly, he'd be a brilliant duelist. He already had the dodging part down beautifully.
Of course, after a summer of milking acromantula it wasn't surprising that he was fast. Acromantula venom was terribly poisonous.
"So how was your first class?" Steven asked.
Ron gave him a dirty look. "You'll find out. Blighter doesn't know what he's talking about."
"This seems like great practice," Steven said. "If you can dodge a pixie you can probably dodge a spell."
"Well, we were the only ones who learned anything then," Harry said. "Everybody else left."
Hermione felt like defending Professor Lockhart, but the disgusted looks from the other two made her quiet down.
Hermione felt like a traitor sitting in the stands for the Hufflepuff tryouts. She should be supporting her own House, not the Hufflepuffs. However, she'd put so much work into helping Steven that she couldn't help but come out to support him.
Weirdly enough, the glances she was getting from the Hufflepuffs around her were not unwelcoming. Loyalty was a Hufflepuff trait, and everyone knew she was Steven's friend.
After what he'd done the year before, saving his entire year from the troll Steven could practically walk on water as far as the Hufflepuffs were concerned. It was inevitable that they'd push him into trying out, especially considering that it had been years since they'd won the cup.
Hermione leaned forward as they put Steven on a broom to try him out for beater.
She jumped as the bludger went crashing through the stands at the far end of the field leaving a hole. One of the older players repaired the stands with a spell.
"Heh, heh," Steven said uneasily. "I got a little excited."
His strength was soon apparent as a disadvantage as a chaser and keeper as well. He tried to control himself and he did fairly well at first, but he almost took a chaser's head off with a quaffle when he got excited.
Of course he barely seemed to notice it when he was hit by a bludger, which would be a massive advantage in any position.
It wasn't until they had the tryouts for seeker that he really shined, though.
"Skillz!" he shouted, holding up the golden snitch, much faster than any of the other players. Even better, if the beaters didn't have to protect him much that would mean they could concentrate more on protecting the other players.
Hufflepuff would actually have a chance this year.
Hermione only hoped that the competition didn't sour his friendship with Harry and Ron. Ron especially was a fanatic about Quidditch.
Still, with any luck this would be the biggest challenge they faced all year other than tests and homework.