Hermione hurried down the corridor towards the stairs to Dumbledore's office. Professor Babbling had asked her to go there after her Ancient Runes class. It was urgent.
She wondered why Harry and Ron weren't there, too. She couldn't remember the last time she had been asked to see Dumbledore without those two.
As she climbed the stairs towards the large gargoyle however, she heard other hurried footsteps behind her.
"Hey," Justin Finch-Fletchley gasped. "Well I guess we won't get in trouble after all if you have to show up, too."
Behind him, Hermione recognised Dean and Michael Corner.
"Told you," Dean grumbled in Justin's direction. "I'd know if I'd done something stupid with the two of you, wouldn't I?"
"As long as it doesn't take too long. I've got quidditch practice." With those words, Justin pushed past Hermione and hurried up the steps ahead of the others.
Arriving quite out of breath in front of the gargoyle he didn't even get to say the password, though. The statue was already moving, making the narrow spiral staircase appear in front of him.
A moment later, Professor Snape approached the four of them.
As always, with a scowl and merely a look of disdain, he walked past them and disappeared the same way they had just arrived.
"Ladies first," Justin commented, making an inviting hand gesture in Hermione's direction.
"Oh, suddenly? Scared of getting into trouble now, nonetheless?" scoffed Michael. "You were in a hurry a moment ago, weren't you?"
Hermione didn't dwell on the nonsense and trudged up to Dumbledore's office first, eyes rolling.
Once there, the Headmaster was already waiting for the group with Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout.
"Thank you for seeing us so quickly." He smiled softly as he stood up from his chair.
The boys remained standing in the doorway, somewhat perplexed, but Hermione stepped confidently into the middle of the room where four large chairs stood ready for them.
The house teachers stood next to Dumbledore's desk. Professor McGonagall smiled at Hermione and gestured to the other three to sit down as well.
"We have a somewhat unusual request," Dumbledore admitted.
"We underestimated the whole... issue with Muggle technology. We were aware that the internet was going to change things around here, but we didn't quite realise how extreme it was going to be after all."
Hermione noticed Justin and Michael breathing a sigh of relief beside her.
"That's why we had you come here, we need help from people who really know how to handle those things."
Hermione raised her eyebrows and looked from Dumbledore to McGonagall and back again in surprise.
"Well... I wouldn't call myself an expert regarding modern technology," she replied hesitantly.
"I'm sure there are people in this fair land who know more about this subject than you do," Dumbledor agreed, amused.
"But you are the ones from the last school year who have a very close connection to the Muggle world and am I not correct in assuming that you use mobile phones and the internet at home during the holidays?"
All four nodded.
"That's enough for me to be honest. We don't need expert knowledge, but we want to prevent our students from putting themselves in danger without even realising it. It's quite a challenge at this age to have all the possibilities of the internet in front of you all at once with no guidance at all. It can be overwhelming in many ways."
Hermione pressed her lips together to hide a smile. It sounded a little as if the headmaster had included himself in that statement.
However, she feared that there were probably already students who - intentionally or not - had done some harm with their new possibilities. Otherwise there wouldn't be an assembly here with (almost) all the house teachers. So her despair from day two of this school year had not been exaggerated after all.
"We want you to use one hour to teach the others the basics of internet use. We'll divide it up by house so there aren't too many people at once. Your house teachers will assist you in this so that you will get the attention you need," Dumbledore explained further. "Unfortunately, since we don't have anyone among the students in Slytherin who is eligible for this, one of you two will have to step in." He looked at Hermione and Dean, neither of whom was exactly bubbling over with enthusiasm. But Justin and Michael also looked rather annoyed.
"Will there at least be some house points for that?" asked Michael into the silence.
"There won't be a deduction," was Professor Flitwick's quick and stern-sounding reply to that.
"So when is this lesson supposed to take place?", Hermione wanted to know.
"As soon as possible, it's actually quite urgent," Professor McGonagall replied. "We were thinking of next Saturday. At eleven o'clock before lunch."
The day after tomorrow. Hermione nervously tapped her foot under the chair. It was doable, if you put your mind to it. But would the boys do that? This wasn't just a trivial presentation in front oft he class, this was serious business.
It was a big responsibility and there really weren't many people at Hogwarts who lived in muggle England. There were a few in the younger years, but it was only logical not to put that burden on them.
"I can do the lecture for Slytherin," Dean's voice rang out, snapping Hermione out of her increasingly loud thoughts.
She looked back at him in surprise.
"Very well, thank you Mr. Thomas." McGonagall nodded at him with a satisfied smile.
"If you need anything, please feel free to come to us at any time." said Professor Sprout hastily.
"Only... I'm afraid we won't be much help with that either."
"At least we can help you structure the lesson," Professor Flitwick suggested.
"Thank you very much," Hermione spoke up. "We very much appreciate your confidence in us."
Dumbledore grinned pleased into his beard.
"We have to thank you," Professor McGonagall replied. "If there are currently no more questions on your part, you may leave now."
The four of them hurriedly stood up and left the office. There were probably different reasons for the hurry for each of them.
Hermione wanted to start preparing for the lesson as soon as possible, Justin probably mainly wanted to get to quidditch practice.
"We very much appreciate your confidence in us," Hermione heard Michael's squeaky disguised voice a few feet behind her. He didn't bother to be particularly quiet about it.
She gripped the hem of her jumper, but didn't bother to look back at him. She was long past that. After six years as a straight-A student, she was used to the teasing.
"Don't listen to him," grumbled Dean, who had caught up to her with a few quick steps. "Someday he might learn that manners aren't embarrassing."
"Don't worry," Hermione replied. "After all these years here, it's going to take more than that to make me cry myself to sleep at night."
She walked a step faster, leaving Justin and Michael behind, until she was finally on her way to the Gryffindor common room. Dean had no trouble following her. When she took two quick steps, he took one.
Arriving in front of the large portrait, they could already hear a booming bass. Hermione took a deep breath, realising what was waiting for them inside.
The fat lady had already stuck a few grapes in her ears and had to be yelled at several times with the password until she cleared the way.
As soon as the door swung open, the two of them were met by music that was far too loud.
"I guess that was Seamus' new speaker in the owl post this morning after all," Dean called over the music.
"What the hell?" murmured Hermione more to herself than to him, entering the large room with a furrowed brow.
Usually at this tome of the day students were still sitting over homework and thick books, playing chess or comfortably sipping a cocoa in front of the fire. But today it seemed the party was on.
Ginny, Collin and two third years were dancing frisky in front of the fireplace, while Harry, Ron and Seamus stood by laughing boisterously.
In the middle of the room, on a large table stood Romilda Vane, waving her smartphone around, with which she was apparently filming.
Hermione had to force herself not to slap the flat of her hand against her forehead and started to walk towards the dormitories.
It was the middle of the week. She had an important lecture to prepare for and what was that strange song anyway?
"Hermione!" she heard Ron call out. She just turned around for a moment and shook her head. Work first, pleasure second - though her pleasure didn't involve dancing wildly around the common room, anyway.
"And that's why it's not only important that you think carefully about what you upload of yourselves to the internet, but also who else it might affect." Hermione looked at more interested faces than she had expected.
Many Gryffindors were actually listening reasonably okay. At least no one tried to sneak a look at their phone during her lecture. McGonagall's stern look from the side of the room probably made sure of that, though.
"Please remember that we have to be extra careful at Hogwarts. If we just post photos or videos of quidditch matches or spells online, the Ministry of Magic will confiscate all the phones faster than you can blink," Hermione continued. "You really have to pay attention to every little detail in the process. It's easy to miss that you're taking a picture of a sunset or some friends and there's someone flying on a broom in the background, or a magical animal creature can be seen. It is in fact true that the internet never forgets. Once online, a file can be copied and saved countless of times. So it's no use deleting a photo after a few days. If you're unlucky, it will haunt you for the rest of your life."
Hermione placed her last notecard on the desk in front of her.
"Are there any questions?"
Lavender spoke up. "How does the internet know how old someone is?"
"Um... it doesn't if you didn't enter and save it anywhere."
"But some homepages do ask how old you are. Can you just select something? Or will the site know if you're lying?"
McGonagall stood up from her chair and cleared her throat.
"I strongly advise you all not to visit sites that require you to be of an age that you have not yet reached."
From the looks of Seamus and Lavender, that was probably already too late. Hermione decided to ignore it for her own sake.
She was more than relieved when they all walked towards the Great Hall, chatting happily. She felt that everything she thought of as important had received at least the minimum of attention. If something went wrong now, at least it wasn't because she hadn't warned her classmates.
Already seated at the long wooden tables were a few Hufflepuffs, most of the Slytherins - and Dean.
"Well, how did it go?" asked Harry as the trio arrived beside him. Dean raised his eyebrows and snorted loudly before taking a big gulp and hiding behind his glass.
"That bad?" pressed Ron.
"Oh, as expected," he sighed. "Everyone was bored to the max in the first place, and they are all just too good at displaying that. I don't know if they took any advice seriously, but honestly -" Dean raised both arms in the air defensively. "Not my problem. I've mentioned everything they need to know to keep themselves and others from getting into trouble. If they don't listen, there won't be any internet here soon, but it's the last year for me anyway."
"Thanks again for taking on that part." said Hermione. "I think if Pansy had kept interrupting me with snide comments, I would have..."
"Remained professional and dutiful?" added Harry to her sentence.
"Probably, but then in a bad mood fort he rest oft he day," she agreed.
"No worries." Dean grinned his usual sunshine grin and refilled his glass with pumpkn juice.
"Ron, seriously?", Hermione heard Harry's voice beside her. "We're coming out of Hermione's lecture and you..." Harry bit his tongue and fell abruptly silent. Looking questioningly at her two friends, Ron hastily put his phone away. After all these years, however, Hermione immediately noticed that his ears were glowing red.
"Do I want to know?" she asked, addressing Ron.
"I... huh? I was just looking something up..."
"Harry?"
Harry pretended that the plate of food in front of him needed his complete and undivided attention while he stifled a smirk.
"You guys are impossible," Hermione sighed.
"Ron, really? I wouldn't have expected that from you," Dean exclaimed, clearly audible to all of them. Ron's face turned completely red in seconds.
"Ron?" Hermione looked at him piercingly.
"I...I was just curious, that..." Ron looked at Harry for help.
"Insanely curious," Harry confirmed. "Curious and... so charming."
"What?" Hermione didn't understand anything anymore.
Dean drank the last sip from his glass, got up from his seat and walked along close behind Hermione.
"Ron downloaded a dating app last night in a party mood," he whispered to her as he walked past.
"Ron!" Hermione turned around in horror.
"Dean!" Ron made a move to run after him, but Harry pushed him back onto the bench.
"What...are you doing?" Hermione lowered her voice again to not draw the attention of the entire hall.
"I was just curious! Don't look at me like that." Ron moved away from her a little. "I'm not the only one, practically everyone has had a look."
"Everyone?"
"Everyone from our year. Almost."
"Those apps are eighteen and up," Hermione remarked grimly.
"We're all nearly eighteen, aren't we?"
"That's... Ron!"
Harry laughed into his plate beside her. To him, this seemed like prime afternoon entertainment.
"It's not funny. Harry" Hermione leaned back to look at him. "Please tell me you didn't do this too."
"No."
"Don't lie to me."
"Hermione..."
"Harry!"
"We're just having a look out of interest."
Hermione was at a loss for words. She had expected this from many, but Harry and Ron? Ron?!
Was she the only reasonable one in the whole castle?
