1 September 1992
Bill sent Harry to bed and he went up to his parents room to speak to them privately before Molly came rushing into the room with tears running down her cheeks. She held Hermione tight while Arthur made a call on the floo. Almost instantly a goblin and Healer Strout came rushing into the room. Bill and the goblin had a hushed, furious conversation in gobbledygook as the healer dragged Hermione up to her room to examine her. Hermione eyes drooped as the healer cast spell after spell on the 12 year old girl. Seemingly unsatisfied, she waved her wand and Hermione felt an intrusion in her mind. The healer forced her to walk her through all her interactions with the diary multiple times before nodding her head with determination. Healer Strout brought the goblin in next and he examined her, clicking his tongue and growling furiously.
Apparently, there would be no lasting effects because 2 hours later Hermione was sent to bed with a dreamless sleep potion. Her parents would stay up until sunrise with Bill and the goblin speaking of worst case scenarios and thanking Merlin something distracted Hermione before she could write more. The rest of the summer past quickly at the Burrow, Bill and her parents refused to speak of the diary. Stating that she was too young to understand. It infuriated her that they were being so evasive but eventually relented after both her and Harry were told not to speak of the diary to anyone, not even her brothers.
Luna was a permanent fixture at the burrow, as her father was always away, working on the Quibbler. Ron would tease the little blonde relentlessly so Harry and Hermione kept them separated as much as possible. Fred and George kept themselves locked in their rooms unless they were eating or flying. Some days, only the loud explosions coming from their room was the only indication they were alive. Harry was eating more than Ron after he started his potions. In only a month he grew 4in and was now at a healthy weight. Molly smiled at him happily, knowing she did the right thing, trying to fix all the damage those muggles caused.
"Hurry up, you lot!" Molly Weasley shouted up the stairs. As usual, the entire house was in disarray as the Weasley children tried to hurriedly pack last minute items. Molly finally relented to Arthur's constant pleading to let them use the car to drive to Kings Cross. Bill helped his father charm the car so the family and Harry could fit comfortably in the back seat as well as fit all the school trunks in the boot. Harry, Hermione, and Percy were the only ones packed and ready, waiting outside for the rest if the family.
"Scabbers! Mum I can't find Scabbers!" Ron yelled down hysterically.
"Are you a wizard or not? Summon him!" Hermione yelled, laughing at her brother who was standing on the small balcony outside his room. He had on 1 shoe and his shirt was inside out, it looked like he just rolled out of bed.
"DONT YOU DARE USE MAGIC, RONALD BILLIUS!" Molly shrieked, as she charged up the stairs.
"My prefect badge!" Percy gasped and rushed back into the house.
"Not missing anything, Harry?" Hermione giggled as she watched her family scrambling.
"No, as much as I love staying here, I can't wait to go back to Hogwarts. I thought we weren't allowed to use magic outside of school?" Harry turned to look Hermione over. She was grinning impishly, her red hair creating a halo around her heart shaped face in the sun.
"Rubbish, you can use magic...well, it's up to the parents to tell us not to, innit?" Hermione flashed him a mischievous smile.
"What about muggleborns?" Harry countered.
"I never thought about it, doesn't seem fair does it? I'll ask Eloise when we get back to school. She the only muggleborn I know." Hermione looked thoughtful as she twisted a red curl around her finger. Fred and George came running from the house, smiling manically with a very angry Percy stalking out behind them.
"What did you do?" Harry asked them, his eyes shining with barely contained mirth.
"Us?" George pulled a perfectly innocent face.
"What could we possibly do?" Fred mirrored his twins face exactly.
"Just a bit winded, Prefect Percy is." George smirked.
"Nothing to do-"
"-with us stealing"
"His prefect badge!" They finished together in a whisper with a smirk.
"Get in! Get in!" Molly shouted as she came barreling out of the house with Ron running after her. Arthur followed at a much more sedate pace, a small smile on his lips. The trip to King Cross passed much faster than expected. Fred and George took bets on how many chocolate frogs they could fit in Ron's mouth when he fell asleep, 6 muffled his snores. They reached Kings Cross with less than 5 minutes to spare. Arthur stayed with the car while Molly lead the charge, separating the crowds as Fred and George pushed the trollies. Hermione stepped through the barrier, Fred and George were tossing the trunks into the train and Percy went immediately into prefect mode, ushering stragglers onto the train. Molly rushed back, pushing Hermione onto the train just as the whistle blew.
"Harry and Ron never came through!" Hermione cried as the train started moving. Percy helped a crying first year step up and hopped on behind him.
"Don't worry dear, we'll get them there before you! Have a good year and don't forget to write!" Molly called as the train left the platform.
"Mina!" Luna threw her arms around Hermione, making her jump.
"Luna!" Hermione turned and hugged her friend tightly. "Harry and Ron missed the train!"
"Wrackspurts have invaded Ronald's brain again?" Luna asked with a cheeky smile. Hermione chuckled at her friend, happy that her friend was slowly coming back to her.
"Did you find a compartment?" Hermione asked as they walked down the corridor.
"I did but I lost it so I went searching for you." Luna smiled happily.
"Let's find Neville. I'm sure he's found a compartment for us." Hermione nodded decisively.
"Eloise!" Hermione smiled warmly as she opened a compartment with only her dorm mate inside. Eloise lowered her book a fraction to look up at Hermione with a shy smile, her acne had gotten worse over the summer, spreading over her cheeks now. Her inky black hair was longer, with thick bangs that reached past her eyebrows, her blue eyes looked at the girls nervously, as she did anytime someone tried to talk to her.
"Hello, Eloise, my name is Luna Lovegood. Mina's twin calls my Looney." Luna said as she stepped into the compartment and sat across from the second year.
"How was your summer, Eloise?" Hermione asked politely as she sat beside her, keeping a respectable distance.
"My brother uh came to visit. He lives in the states." Eloise said hesitantly.
"Oh, what does he do?" Hermione asked curiously, hoping for more of a conversation out of the elusive girl.
"He's..." Eloise cleared her throat. "A freelance writer. He was recently picked up by some music magazine so he brought lots of these mix tapes...he let me listen to them." Eloise blushed and looked down at her lap.
"Miss tapes?" Hermione tilted her head to the side, curiously.
"Oh, that's right...you're a pureblood. Uhh...well, there are these little rectangle boxes with a kind of film that lets you hear music. Much more portable than vinyl, anyway." Eloise shrugged.
"That sounds brilliant! I wish I could listen to some muggle music! Harry says muggles have loads of different kinds of music." Hermione babbled excitedly.
"Yeah, my brother is writing for an industrial magazine, it's a bit different than Weird Sisters." Eloise giggled, making Hermione gape. Luna reached forward and looped a long piece of red strong around her neck.
"The wrackspurts almost got you, Mina." Luna said, her eyes wide and glassy, her lips were pursed in the most serious expression she had ever seen. "It will protect you, never take it off."
"Uhh, right, brilliant, Luna!" Hermione stuttered. "Luna and I spent most of our time by the pond at the burrow this summer. Harry came to visit as well."
"That sounds nice." Eloise mumbled, picking her book back up.
"You know, you could come next summer!" Hermione blurted out, feeling slightly awkward.
"Really?" Eloise did not hide the surprise as she lowered the book.
"Sure, we are friends, right? I did write over the summer." Hermione said hesitantly.
"Oh, yes! We could all go hunting for the crumple-horned snorkack! " Luna added brightly, her usual serene smile in place.
"What is...that?" Eloise asked hesitantly.
"It's a very shy creature who can become invisible at will. If you catch one and rub its horn, it will give you good luck for 2 1/2 years! Daddy has been searching for them in Sweden but I think it's a bit closer to home than that!" Luna chirped.
"What do they look like when their not invisible?" Eloise asked curiously, forcing herself to relax. Hermione never made fun of her or mocked her and they did exchange a few short letters over the summer. Taking a deep breath she stowed her book away so that she could not try and hide.
"Purple." Luna smiled and grabbed her rucksack.
"We've been hunting it since we were really young."Hermione said with a slight blush. "Have you already read through your course books?"
"Oh yes, I've read them all...a couple times." Eloise mumbled, averting her eyes.
"We have too. Well, the Lockhart books, anyway. The rest of the them we've seen before." Hermione said absently as she watched the little blonde's arm disappear into her bag. Luna stuck her head in next, grunting in effort. Eloise watching in morbid fascination as Luna fought with her bag and appeared to be losing.
"Luna...what are you doing?" Hermione reached out and placed a hand on her knee.
"Pudding." Luna's reply seemed muffled as the first year struggled with the bag.
"How is she doing that?" Eloise cried.
"Undetectable extension charm. It was her mothers, Luna never empties it, just keeps putting more in." Hermione shrugged sheepishly. "Luna, summon it!"
"But I want butterscotch!" Luna's muffled voice cried back. Hermione and Eloise sat in silence for a few minutes before Luna resurfaced, a triumphant smile on her face. "Mmmm, Mina, did you tell Eli here how you saved Harry Potter this summer?"
The next few hours were spent telling Eloise all about her father's flying car and soaring through the sky over Britain. Eloise eventually relaxed to the point where she could laugh and even told them about her muggle home. Hermione listened with rapt attention as Eloise told them all about muggle cinemas, tellies, and her favorite topic, her brother Elliot. The trolly witch came and they bought a little of everything so Eloise could try some new sweets. It was getting dark and they all changed into their uniforms before Neville Longbottom came rushing into the compartment, red faced and out of breath.
"Is it true?! Harry and Ron stole a attamobile and charmed it to fly and flew to Hogwarts?!" Neville rambled hysterically.
"What?" The three girls turned to the red faced boy incredulously.
"It's all over the train! Malfoys walking around talking about how they are getting expelled and he's acting like he's responsible!" Neville moaned, wringing his hands in worry.
"Well, Harry and Ron didn't make it through the barrier so mum and dad will probably take care of them getting to school this year." Hermione said slowly. Luna reached over and pulled Neville into the seat beside her, he stumbled a bit and half fell on top of the little blond.
"Hello, I'm Luna Lovegood." Luna smiled brightly as she watched Neville's face turn bright red and scramble to get off her.
"N-Neville." Neville cleared her throat. "Neville Longbottom."
"Oh I know, Mina has told me all about you and Trevor." Luna said absently as she opened another pudding cup.
"What's that?" Neville asked.
"Pudding." Luna smiled and offered him a bite with her spoon. Neville's face turned red once again and shook his head.
"Her dad brings home pudding every time he going on an expedition." Hermione explained as Neville still curiously watched the little blonde.
"You've never seen pudding cups?" Eloise exclaimed, then promptly blushed and slapped a hand over her mouth.
"No, my mum makes pudding but uh- well, we don't have packaged pudding." Hermione shrugged.
"So delicious." Luna groaned happily. Eloise sat back and looked nervously between Neville and the girls. The rest of the trip conversation was stilted and slightly uncomfortable as Eloise refused to speak in front of Neville. Luna went to the boats with Hagrid and Hermione looped her arm through Eloise's so she could run off without her. She paused at the carriages, seeing the black horses again. Ron and Harry assured her that she was most definitely seeing things at the end of her first year and there was nothing pulling the carriages.
"I can see them too." Neville whispered.
"What are they?" Hermione turned to Neville, Eloise looked confused but slipped away to hop into the next empty carriage.
"No, idea. Didn't want Gran to think I was off my trolley." Neville shrugged helplessly.
"There's nothing about them in Hogwarts a History and Bill looked at me like I was barmy when I mentioned them." Hermione said sadly as she climbed up into the carriage with Eloise. When they arrived at the school, the first thing they saw was Harry and Ron standing at the doors being mobbed by students, blushing furiously.
"Oi! You lot! Clear off! Bloody vultures!" Hermione hopped out the carriage and raised her wand to the sky, a loud band was produced that sent students scattering.
"What took you so long? We've been here for ages!" Ron whined, although both boys looked relieved to see her. Neville rushed to catch up while Eloise disappeared amongst the crowd.
"You're not expelled, right?" Neville blurted when he was in front of his friends.
"Expelled? For what?" Harry choked.
"Stealing a car and flying it to school." Hermione said in a low voice.