Hermione woke up much too early the next morning, which she blamed on her excitement. She practised again most of the spells she had learnt in the last month.
"I should be quite prepared, shouldn't I?" she asked Lancelot. She laughed out loud, for he had only rolled his eyes. He had never done that before and Hermione didn't even know he could. She sensed he was proud of her and stroked his head and back. When it was time to leave, she retrieved her wand from Mr Ollivander's box, where she had always stashed it after her visits to Diagon Alley until now. She brushed it once and then tucked it into her Hogwarts robes, which she placed at the top of her suitcase next to her Blotts book so she could put them on right away on the train.
"I'm not sure what it will be like at Hogwarts with the two of us," she said to Lancelot. "I don't think I'll be able to take you to class. And with the dormitories, it varies from house to house. It's best you stay with me until we get to the castle and find a tree on the castle grounds. But make sure you don't fly into the Forbidden Forest or too close to the Whomping Willow. Promise me," she said sternly.
She could feel his trust and calmed down a little. She took the tube with her parents to Kings Cross station, where the Hogwarts Express would depart. In order not to miss the train in any case, they had left a little earlier. The day before, an owl had delivered a letter from Professor McGonagall, explaining how Hermione would get to Platform 9¾. When they reached the pillar with the signs for Platform 9 and Platform 10 hanging on the sides, Hermione looked around. They were relatively undisturbed.
"I'll go first, if you like," Hermione said, seeing her somewhat unsettled parents breathe a sigh of relief. "I'll take Lancelot, you follow with the luggage trolley when I'm five seconds away," Hermione explained, grabbing the cage with Lancelot and running towards the wall, her hair flowing. Just before the magical wall, she clutched the cage tightly and closed her eyes. A moment later she heard the hiss of a steam engine. She opened her eyes, beaming, and took a few steps aside to avoid being run over by her parents and the luggage trolley.
She had to call after her parents, who just kept running with their eyes closed, which gave Hermione a short fit of laughter. She wiped her tears and hugged her parents goodbye, who hugged her tightly. In order to let Lancelot out of his cage again, she boarded the train about three quarters of an hour before departure and chose a compartment close to the locomotive.
Mr. and Mrs. Granger stayed a little longer to watch the hustle and bustle of the wizarding families. They exchanged a little with other people who were obviously non-magical as well. Hermione entered the compartment and let Lancelot out of his cage first. Then she excitedly opened her trunk and put on her Hogwarts robes. A moment later, she drew her wand, which vibrated slightly in her hand as if eager to see what she would cast first.
She closed the buckles of the suitcase and brushed her hair off her left shoulder so that Lancelot could take a seat there. He understood immediately and was there a moment later. She sat down on the seat cushions opposite her suitcase and raised her wand.
"Wingardium Leviosa," she said loudly and clearly, waving her wand. Instantly the suitcase took off and she directed it to the shelf under the blanket. "Feels weird saying the spells out loud," Hermione thought, smiling to herself. She was going to have to bite this bullet whether she liked it or not. However, she had already noticed how much easier it was for her to cast the charm with the strong focus. As long as she was unobserved, she also tried an nonverbal spell with a wand. With one wave of the wand Lancelot's cage shrank and with another she levitated it onto the luggage rack.
Satisfied with herself, she tucked the wand into her robe and picked up the Blotts Book she had taken out earlier. She read a little in the Daily Prophet, which updated every day. Hermione was very pleased with her book. She read about a robbery attempt at Gringotts Bank on the first of August that the goblins had tried to cover up. A high security vault had been broken into on the same day that she too had been shopping in Diagon Alley. Since she herself had not noticed anything about it, the break-in must have been discovered after her visit. She was reading an article about the Minister of Magic, when the compartment door slid open.
A boy with a round face poked his head in and asked if there was an empty seat available. Hermione nodded with a smile and offered him the seat opposite her. She turned her attention back to the article when a loud croak made her look up. The boy was wrestling with a toad that seemed to be doing everything it could to get away from him. An almost inaudible crow beside her ear told Hermione that she wasn't the only one who had noticed the toad.
"You stand down!" she hissed softly to Lancelot. When the boy had subdued the toad, he introduced himself.
"I'm Neville, this here is Trevor. Rebellious beast, but my Gran gave him to me for my birthday," he said, sighing as he looked at the toad.
"I'm Hermione, and this is Lancelot," Hermione introduced herself and the raven. Lancelot crowed and flapped with his left wing. It was his way of greeting, Hermione had figured out by now. Neville, who had only just noticed the raven on Hermione's shoulder, got wide-eyed.
"Oh, he's beautiful," he said, waving uneasily at Lancelot. Hermione giggled.
"Then you're from a wizarding family I take it?" asked Hermione.
"How do you know that?" the boy asked, in surprise.
"Well, because your grandma got you a toad. With Muggles, that wouldn't have been a very great present," Hermione said, and Neville seemed to get enlightened.
"Ah, yes. But with wizards, it's not the greatest gift either, anyway," he said with a pained smile, which made Hermione laugh. "He's always running off. Anyway. Did you grow up with muggles then?" asked Neville uncertainly.
"That's right," Hermione replied with a smile. "I'm still getting used to the wizarding world a bit, but I've been to Diagon Alley dozens of times in August. I'm slowly finding my way around."
She liked Neville, he was very insecure still, as she could read from his feelings.
"Do you have a favourite yet, as far as houses go?" asked Hermione and Neville shrugged.
"Gran says I'd make her proud if I got into Gryffindor like my dad. But so far I haven't been very brave, well. Maybe it'll be Hufflepuff," he said and then asked her where she wanted to be sorted into.
"Ravenclaw," Hermione replied shortly and Neville smiled insecurely at her answer. Again he glanced at Lancelot, who was staring at his toad. Again the compartment door opened, which the toad seemed to have only been waiting for. With a great leap Trevor, who had realised his chance, leapt towards the door.
"Accio!" said Hermione calmly, pointing her wand at the toad. With a croak, Trevor stopped mid-flight, floated in the opposite direction and landed in Hermione's hand, gripping it tightly. She handed the toad back to the baffled looking Neville.
"Hello, is there a seat available here?" asked a blonde girl, who was wearing her long hair in a plait over her shoulder.
"Of course, sit down!" said Hermione, introducing Neville and Trevor. Neville blushed.
"Hello Neville, I'm Susan! And who are you?" the girl introduced herself and looked at Hermione.
"Hermione, nice to meet you. And this is Lancelot," she added as Lancelot greeted Susan crowing. Susan, like Neville, reacted with wide eyes and giggled when she saw the waving wing. Susan asked similar questions to those of Hermione and so the three of them got more and more into conversation. Susan's parents and aunt worked at the Ministry of Magic, which, when she mentioned it, earned her quite a number of questions from Hermione, who had read the least about the Ministry so far. The three of them were having a good chat and Neville was slowly starting to loosen up as well.
When a little lady came by with a trolley full of sweets, Hermione had to catch Trevor again, which was commented on by Lancelot with a cackling crow. They bought some sweets and Hermione fed Lancelot some raven snacks so he wouldn't get envious and end up pouncing on the toad.
As it grew dark outside, Hermione and Neville waited outside the compartment door as Susan put on her Hogwarts robe. She then switched with Neville so that everyone could change in peace. Slowly, but surely, Hermione's excitement was rising. When the Hogwarts Express finally stopped, the three of them jumped up and pulled their trunks from the luggage rack. Hermione held Trevor while Neville retrieved his trunk. She refrained from using a levitation spell to retrieve her trunk from the rack as well. The summoning charm earlier in the day had been enough magic for a Muggle-born first year who hadn't even arrived at school yet.
"First years! First years over here!" a deep voice called across the platform as Hermione got off. It was the huge man Hermione had seen in the Leaky Cauldron with Professor Quirrell. He had more hair and beard than face, but beamed at the students and greeted some students from higher grades by name.
When all the first years had gathered with him, he introduced himself as Hagrid and led them down a narrow, steep path. It was very dark around them, which caused many of the students to stumble. Hagrid shouted something from the front of the line of students, but Hermione couldn't catch it because two girls were chattering behind her. They turned a corner and were suddenly standing on the shore of a large, black lake.
As their gaze drifted upwards, Hermione's mouth dropped agape. Towering above the lake was a massive castle, its countless windows brightly lit. Hermione had read a lot about Hogwarts, but in her wildest dreams she could not have imagined this castle. The rest of the children seemed to feel the same way, for she heard sounds of amazement from everywhere.
"Come! Get on the boats!" shouted Hagrid and the students crowded towards the boats.
As they glided across the smooth surface of the lake, Hermione raised her forearm in front of her shoulder and motioned Lancelot to hop on it. He did as he was told and looked at her intently.
"We've talked about this before, haven't we? I'll see what the situation is and come and see you at the front gate in the morning, alright?" she asked him and the raven blinked once at her in the glow of the lantern.
"And watch out for the Whomping Willow!" she added as Lancelot fluttered his wings and pushed himself off her forearm. Instantly, he was swallowed by the dark night. Hermione had a queasy feeling in her stomach. Without Lancelot, a part of her was missing, and with it, her confidence. She looked up at the lit castle with an anxious gaze. Hagrid, after docking, led them up a seemingly endless flight of stairs towards the front gate. Once there, he raised his enormous fist and knocked three times on the castle gate.
Immediately, the gate opened and they were greeted by a black-haired witch in an emerald green robe, who turned out to be Professor McGonagall. Hermione, standing at the front, smiled at the stern looking witch. Professor McGonagall led them into a small chamber and explained to the first years the selection into the four houses of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. She left the chamber to check that everything was ready for the opening ceremony.
The other students were getting a little restless as Professor McGonagall hadn't mentioned what had been the deciding factor in the selection. Since Hermione had read History of Hogwarts, she knew everything about the Sorting Hat. Suddenly, she heard shrieks behind her and couldn't suppress a surprised yelp herself as about 20 ghosts came floating through the wall, arguing fiercely. Some ghosts paid no attention to the students, others spoke a few sentences to the students in the front row before being shooed away by Professor McGonagall, who was just returning to collect them for the Sorting Ceremony.
They were instructed to follow the witch single file. As they entered the Great Hall, the same reactions could be heard from the first years as when they first saw Hogwarts. Smiling, Hermione let her eyes wander over the scenery and finally looked up. The enchanted ceiling she had already read about showed the star-studded night sky. They were instructed by Professor McGonagall to stand with their backs to the teacher's table and wait for their names to be called. She placed a four-legged chair in front of them and placed the Sorting Hat on it. The hat lay motionless at first, but after a few moments a crack opened near the brim and it began to sing.
When the applause for the hat's song had died down, Professor McGonagall stepped forward with a long scroll of parchment in her hand and read out the first name. Hannah Abbott joined Hufflepuff, as did Susan Bones after her. After several more students, Professor McGonagall finally read Hermione's name and Hermione stepped forward.
She sat down with her back to the hall so that she could catch a glimpse of the teacher's desk behind the rest of the first years. She held eye contact with Professor Snape for a brief moment, but then remained on the pair of bright blue eyes that belonged to Professor Dumbledore. Smiling with interest, he looked at her over his glasses. She felt Professor McGonagall step up beside her and already a blink later heard the resounding voice of the talking hat above her shout 'Ravenclaw!'
She looked up and saw that the brim of the hat was still held in the air about half a metre above her by the somewhat perplexed witch. Cheers erupted at the Ravenclaw table and she looked back at Professor Dumbledore, who was now smiling broadly at her and applauding as well. She jumped off the chair and ran towards the long Ravenclaw table.
As she sat down, she noticed a shiny crest in blue and bronze appear on her robe. She looked at the crest proudly for a moment and shook a few hands. Neville was coming to Gryffindor and Hermione was happy for the insecure boy. Apparently the Sorting Hat saw some courage in him after all. A blond boy named Draco Malfoy was assigned to his house with similar promptness as she, though the Sorting Hat didn't call out "Slytherin!" until the brim had touched his hair.
As Professor McGonagall called out loud and clear 'Potter, Harry!', a sudden hush fell over the Great Hall and a loud whisper began to erupt. Hermione raised her eyebrows. Harry Potter was in her grade. She recognised the boy she had seen with Hagrid in the Leaky Cauldron on the first of August and now understood why the attention of the whole pub had been on him then. She empathised with the somewhat frightened Harry. It must have been hard growing up without his parents and dealing with this involuntary fame since infancy.
Professor McGonagall slid the hat down onto the boy's head, which instantly slipped over his eyes. Hermione saw Professor Dumbledore lean forward with interest. It took quite a while, during which the entire Great Hall was electrified by tense silence. Finally, after about two minutes, the hat called out, "Gryffindor!" All hell broke loose at the next table. The Gryffindor students whistled and chanted for their famous new member to join them at the table. More students were assigned to houses, but Hermione had by now turned her attention to the rest of the Great Hall.
She looked at the floating candles and the night sky on the ceiling before letting her eyes wander over the teacher's table. An idea occurred to her. The distance from the end of the long Ravenclaw table she was sitting at was not too far away from the teacher's table. She concentrated and tried to read the teachers' emotions. Sitting closest to her was the tall Hagrid, in whom Hermione recognised a childlike joy, though it showed.
Next to him sat a slightly chubby witch with dishevelled hair, on which sat a small rag hat, from whom Hermione received warmth above all else. Next to her sat a small wizard with white hair who exuded pure joy. Hermione was amazed by the range with which she could now read emotions. Next to the little wizard sat Professor Quirrell. Hermione could read nothing from him, which after a moment's thought Hermione blamed on the large turban the professor always wore on his head.
Perhaps it was enchanted to protect the wearer's head. To test her theory, she tried the teacher at the far end of the table, sitting furthest away from her. From her she felt a tremendous hunger sensation that was not Hermione's. So it wasn't the range. She also rattled off the rest of the side that was further away from her until only Professor Dumbledore and Professor Snape remained.
She first decided on Professor Snape, who sat to the right of Professor Quirrell. When she looked at him and tried to read the emotion, she bounced off as if off a wall, causing her to take a sharp breath for a moment. Instantly, Professor Snape's head snapped around. He wasn't looking at Hermione, though, but at Professor Quirrell, whom he eyed suspiciously.
Hermione had never encountered such a mental barrier before. It had been obvious that Professor Snape had noticed the access to his mind and had taken it as an attack. Hermione no longer dared to read Professor Dumbledore's emotions, knowing what a powerful wizard he was. She made a mental note to be more careful from now on. Finally, when all the first years were sorted, Professor McGonagall made the chair disappear and placed the Sorting Hat in front of Professor Dumbledore, who stood up.
"Welcome! Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet I'd like to say a few words and here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you very much!" he shouted smiling broadly, arms outstretched, and took his seat again. Hermione giggled and she thought she could see Professor Dumbledore wink at her. Everyone clapped and Hermione joined in the applause.
Hermione's eyes grew wide as large platters appeared out of nowhere in front of her, loaded down with delicious looking food. She saw that the other Ravenclaw first years were just as amazed as she was, but the other students were already happily loading their plates. Hermione, who was feeling very hungry by now, feasted on the wonderfully prepared dishes. Happy and with a full belly, she listened to the headmaster after dessert, who pointed out some prohibitions and rules. One corridor in particular on the third floor she definitely wanted to avoid during the year.
She was led by her prefects to the fifth floor, where a spiral staircase led to a plain old door emblazoned with a knocker in the shape of an eagle. After knocking on it, the eagle suddenly asked, "Every day I go out, yet I always stay at home. What am I?". Everyone began to ponder.
Hermione called out after a short pause, "A snail!". The eagle agreed with her and the door swung open to admit them. "Can anyone who answers correctly come in here?" asked Hermione of the prefect as they walked through the door.
"No, only when members of Ravenclaw or teachers knock does the eagle answer," he said and Hermione was reassured. She had heard a lot from Neville and Susan about the students in Slytherin, who she also assumed were capable of breaking into other dormitories. The first years were led to the dormitories. To Hermione's relief, there was a small single dormitory for each Ravenclaw student.
Happily, once in her dormitory, she put her books and clothes away in the small wardrobe that stood next to her canopy bed, which looked delightfully comfortable. The lock of each dormitory only responded to the wand of the student who inhabited it. Hermione, after changing her clothes and brushing her teeth, happily threw herself into bed. A voice rang out beside her.
"What time do you want it to rattle, Miss?" it rang out in a metallic voice from the wall clock that stood beside the bed. Hermione giggled and thought for a moment. Classes started at 10, if she wanted to have a relaxed breakfast and meet Lancelot, it was probably better to get up a little earlier.
"6:30 please," she said, to which the wall clock replied "The early raven catches the worm." Giggling, Hermione let herself fall back into the soft pillows. She conjured herself into a trance and fell asleep instantly.
Once inside her mind, she made a surprising discovery. Not only had new books been added to the shelf that belonged to Legilimency, but the Occlumency shelf had grown to the size of the Legilimency shelf. The previously full shelf had now become so large that the previous books only filled about half of the empty spaces. The plaques with the numbers had remained and the books were also still filled with their previous knowledge.
However, a new book with the number 256 had also appeared, which Hermione immediately sorted into place. When she took the book out again, she realised that like the other new books, it was empty.
"Interesting," Hermione thought aloud and put the book in its place. Seeing no other new books, she went to the shelves that belonged to the subjects on tomorrow's schedule and reviewed the first lessons again before being gently awakened by the wall clock the next morning. She shrunk her textbooks and put them in her shoulder bag before heading out for breakfast. At this hour, the Great Hall was still mostly empty.
A Ravenclaw student was sitting at their house table, but looked more like he hadn't been able to sleep due to excitement. Professor McGonagall was sitting at the teacher's desk in a morning cloak with a tartan pattern, reading the Daily Prophet.
"Good idea!" thought Hermione, also reading the Daily Prophet in her Blotts Book at breakfast. There was nothing really interesting in it, though. The break-in at Gringotts and the speculations about the culprit still dominated the headlines. As she strode out of the large entrance gate after breakfast, she took a look around the castle grounds.
By day, the landscape on which Hogwarts was perched looked truly impressive. The large lake with its still black water was surrounded by a lush green meadow and a large oak tree towered over the shore at the foot of the lake. In the distance she could make out a small hut in front of the Forbidden Forest with wisps of smoke rising from its chimney. She could also make out the Whomping Willow, which was just lashing out wildly at something on the ground that must have made the mistake of getting too close.
She looked around, worried about Lancelot. Then she recognised a black dot in the sky from which she could read pure joy. She smiled and stretched out her forearm as the dot grew larger. She was amazed at the distance, from which she could now read the emotions of animals. A few moments later Lancelot landed on her arm and blinked at her. Hermione reached into one of the outer pockets of her robe, in which she had carried some scrambled eggs from breakfast. Lancelot pounced on it and devoured it instantly. Hermione laughed and patted the happy raven.
"Did you have a good first night? May I have a look?" asked Hermione and Lancelot crowed and blinked at her. She had gone into Lancelot's memories a few more times after the first attempt at the Legilimens spell, always mindful to make it less exhausting for him, which she did better each time. She took the raven with her to the great oak tree by the lake and settled down against the trunk. Then, nonverbally, she performed the spell and looked at Lancelot's memory of last night.
There had been some squabbling with an owl over the mouse it had caught, but he had found something to eat and finally settled into a tree hole in a tree standing by the lake. When Hermione had arrived back at the castle grounds, she petted Lancelot once more.
"I'm glad you're comfortable and found a home quickly," she said with relief. She had been worried that the raven would have a hard time finding his way around in such an open space.
She spent some more time with her raven before leaving for her first lesson with Professor Flitwick, the Head of her House. Lancelot had looked at her sadly, but then fluttered off to explore the castle grounds in the daylight. In the first lesson of Charms, Hermione had no trouble answering Professor Flitwick's questions, which earned her five points from her beaming Head of House. She was careful to answer questions only when called upon.
She would not make the same mistake again as she had in first grade Muggle class, where after a week she had unnerved both her classmates and her teacher. She had learned from the resulting bullying. She seemed to have been the only one who had prepared for classes at Hogwarts. Even the other Muggle-born students hadn't seemed that eager to learn about the magic they would be learning at Hogwarts. So Hermione and, a few minutes after her, Terry Boot, a Ravenclaw boy, were the only ones who could perform the Summoning Charm without any problems.
Both were awarded another five points for their house by Professor Flitwick. The Hufflepuffs, with whom the Ravenclaws had Charms, struggled a little. In the end, however, Susan Bones, who was sitting next to Hermione, managed to do it, which also earned her points for her house. As homework they had been given practising the spell and a six inch essay on the Summoning Charm. The next lesson was Defence Against the Dark Arts, which disappointed Hermione greatly.
Professor Quirrell was very shaky and stuttered incessantly. She hadn't used her wand during the lesson either, because Professor Quirrell seemed to enjoy theory more. After lunch, she had a double lesson in Transfiguration. Professor McGonagall was strict, but kind and explained the background of the transfiguration spells excellently, Hermione thought. The teacher managed to summarise processes and prerequisites, which were explained in the textbook over several pages, in a few sentences in an understandable way.
Many of her classmates, however, seemed to be overwhelmed by the subject matter. Many looked at Professor McGonagall in confusion, even though she presented completely clear and unambiguous statements as far as Hermione was concerned. In the second hour of the double lesson, they were to get together in pairs and each received a match, which they were to turn into a needle. Hermione looked around the room when someone tapped her on the shoulder.
"Hi, Hermione," said the shy voice of Neville, whom Hermione greeted kindly. They looked for a free table, where they placed their matches. "Argenteus Tip!" said Hermione loudly and clearly, waving her wand. Instantly, her match turned silver, forming an eye of a needle on one side and a tip on the other. Neville looked at her wide-eyed.
"You're really good at magic!" he said enviously, and Hermione blushed. On Neville's first attempt, the tip of his matchstick had caught fire, whereupon he had had to fetch a new one from Professor McGonagall. Hermione corrected Neville's mistake kindly, eager to help him and not make him look a fool. After several attempts, the match finally turned silver.
Neville gasped and looked at Hermione, who gave him an encouraging nod. Professor McGonagall, meanwhile, had walked around and smiled broadly at Hermione when she caught sight of the perfect needle. She also praised Neville's attempt, the only one besides Hermione who had managed to change his match. She gave him ten points for Gryffindor and Hermione 20 points for Ravenclaw. Apparently, she had noticed and honoured her assistance.
At the end of the day they had History of Magic, which was not very exciting for Hermione because the teacher, a ghost called Professor Binns, was very absent-minded and only read from the textbook and did not involve the students in the lesson. Hermione, who already knew the part of the textbook, used the time to write the essay for Charms Class. When she went to bed that evening with the Trance spell, she was surprised to realise that in her mental library, the shelves of Charms and Transfiguration had grown just like the Occlumency shelf the night before. She interpreted the changes as unexploited potential, which she had unlocked through the teachers' explanations. The next morning she met Lancelot again, to whom she again brought some egg.
"That's a lovely bird!" she heard a thunderous voice behind her. She wheeled around and recognised the smiling Hagrid. She stood up and walked over to him to introduce Lancelot to him. Hagrid was very nice and even had a few tips on where Lancelot would be good to find something to eat. As she turned around, Hagrid called after her, saying she was welcome to have tea when she had time. She turned and nodded, waved to Hagrid and headed to the dungeons where her first double Potions lesson awaited her.
They had Potions in a large dungeon room that could accommodate all the first years. Apparently, Professor Snape didn't want to double up every lesson. She sat down at a table with Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones and waited for her teacher. As the door slammed shut behind them, the entire class turned their heads around and Hermione followed the fluttering robe resembling a large bat with her gaze. Professor Snape introduced himself curtly and gave a short introduction to his subject, making it clear that he considered very few students capable of understanding his art.
"Potter!" he called out suddenly and Hermione glanced at Harry Potter, who was sitting at a table further forward, next to Neville and a red-haired boy.
"Tell me, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" he asked the Gryffindor student, who replied that he didn't know. Snape's lips curled into a sardonic smile and Hermione furrowed her brows. He asked two more questions that Harry didn't know the answer to and then turned to the class.
"Fame just isn't everything, Potter," he said dismissively. Hermione wondered where this apparent dislike was coming from and didn't even notice she was entering Professor Snape's mind to read his feelings. Immediately, Professor Snape's head snapped around and looked towards the door, where he had obviously suspected the attacker to be. He paused for a moment in astonishment and let his eyes roam over the class. Hermione was too slow to avert her eyes. He fixed her with her gaze, then his eyebrows lifted in surprise.
Immediately he regained his composure. "Miss Granger!" he called, and Hermione gasped, startled to realise her accidental reading of emotions. Professor Snape appraised her with his gaze, and for the first time she felt something bounce off the mental barrier she practised maintaining every day. She then raised her eyebrows in surprise in return, and Professor Snape looked shocked for a split second. But a moment later he had regained his composure and did not let on to the class that something extraordinary had just happened.
"Can you answer the questions I asked Mr Potter?" he asked, the sardonic grin back on his lips. Hermione answered all the questions effortlessly, although she thought it had been a little unfair of Professor Snape to ask questions on subjects that were only covered in the final chapters of the Potions textbook. "Exceptional, Miss Granger. Ten points for Ravenclaw," he said curtly and turned to continue with the lesson, advising Harry to contact Hermione for tutoring. For the rest of the double lesson, Professor Snape studiously avoided looking Hermione in the eye. When he called on her to answer a question, he always seemed to be looking at a point behind her in the classroom.
He had the class brew a simple potion to cure boils, which was no problem for Hermione. She helped Hannah, who occasionally forgot a step. So in the end she too managed a passable potion. When they had bottled all their samples and handed them in to Professor Snape, Hermione packed up her book and stood up.
"A word, Miss Granger!" called Professor Snape as she was about to turn around. Her heart sank to her knees. She had hoped that Snape had forgotten the incident at the beginning of the lesson over the double period, but that did not seem to be the case. She took an audible breath and Susan flashed her an encouraging smile, which Hermione obliged. Hermione feared the worst. Entering another wizard's mind could end badly if you ran into the wrong person.
Sigmund Freud had also explained that in his book. Heart beating fast, she walked forward to the teacher's desk. Professor Snape waited until the rest of the students had left the dungeon room, then he whipped out his wand, causing Hermione to flinch. He waved it and the door fell shut behind her. She looked down at the floor and her eyes filled with tears.
"I must say that I am impressed with you, Miss Granger," Professor Snape said, and Hermione looked at him with moist eyes in wonder."Not only have you managed to penetrate my mental barrier, you have also become capable of Occlumency yourself. That's a skill even most fully trained wizards can only dream of," he said. To Hermione, he still seemed like a predator trying to lull his victim into safety.
"I - I'm sorry, Professor!" she said in a choked voice.
"Apology accepted, Miss Granger. However, I have been able to detect some weaknesses in your mental barrier. You merely had the advantage that I would not have expected such pronounced abilities in a first year," Snape said, his lips showing the sign of a smile. "Filius and Minerva speak very highly of you, and that is after only one day. I must say you have surprised me as well," he added. "I suppose you already tried to use the Legilimens spell on me at the Sorting Ceremony?" asked with a knowing look on his face.
"I ... yes. Actually, it wasn't the Legilimens spell, sir," Hermione said, wiping the remaining tears from her face. Snape's eyes widened and even without reading his emotions Hermione could tell he hadn't been expecting it.
"You used another spell? I'm not aware of any other mind invasion spell," he asked after a small pause where he eyed her with his black eyes. "It's not a spell, sir, at least not a defined one as it is in textbooks. At first I could recognise the feelings of animals and people when I touched them. As time went by, I could do it even without touching them. But the range is less with humans than with animals," Hermione explained.
"Extraordinary. Truly impressive, Miss Granger," Snape said, looking thoughtful. After a few moments of silence, he looked at her again with his black eyes.
"I am willing to forget the incident with your apology, as long as you refrain from trying to invade my mind from now on. Besides, you performed impeccably today," he said and Hermion was overwhelmed with relief.
"You were the first to notice the intrusion," she said and a knowing smile played around Professor Snape's lips.
"That's because very few people have mastered the art of Occlumency, Miss Granger. If the door is already open, one does not need to knock on it," he said and Hermione understood what he meant. "Hurry up now, I don't suppose you want to be late for your next lesson?" said Professor Snape, waving his wand again, whereupon the door to the classroom opened again. Hermione said goodbye and thanked the professor again before leaving the dungeon classroom.
On the way to the greenhouse, she first had to take a deep breath. She was still pretty much in shock. When she entered the greenhouse, she realised that she was too late. The somewhat rotund Professor Sprout looked at her sternly and advised her to put on a pair of gloves. Hermione stood next to Neville, who smiled at her. During the lesson, it became clear that Neville knew as much as Hermione about Herbology. More than that, he had a much better knack for handling the plants. Hermione was happy for the insecure boy that he had a subject in which he could shine and even outshine the others.
Professor Sprout was very generous with house points, so Neville quickly made up for the points Professor Snape had deducted from Harry Potter. This also seemed to win him some points with his Gryffindor classmates, as they all high-fived him at the end of the lesson. That night Hermione had discovered in her mind that there were a whole ten new books on both the Legilimency and Occlumency shelves. The borderline experience with Professor Snape seemed to have given her quite a bit of knowledge.
Hermione found herself on a flat grassy area on Wednesday morning, like the other first years, for her first flying lesson on a broom. Some students were already there and had lined up behind the brooms neatly placed on the ground. Madam Hooch introduced herself when everyone had arrived. She immediately began the first lection, the calling of the broom into one's hand. Since Hermione had only ever been noticed in Muggle PE classes for her thick sports glasses, rather than poor performance, she was cautiously optimistic about wizarding sports.
She had never been particularly good at any sport, but hadn't outright failed at any, like others of her classmates. They all stood next to the brooms as Madam Hooch commanded, raised their right hands and shouted "Up!". Many brooms just wobbled on the ground. Her own made a small hop in the direction of her outstretched hand, but immediately fell back to the ground. It was a different story for Harry Potter. After he had called his broom to him, it had instantly flown accurately into his hand. He seemed to be the most astonished about it himself.
Besides Harry, Draco Malfoy from Slytherin had also managed to summon the broom straight away. Hermione looked at her broom sternly and said "Up!" resolutely. It had worked the second time. Neville, on the other hand, was less lucky; his broom didn't move at all. After most had managed it, Madam Hooch paced the rows to check their grips. She instructed them to take off a few feet from the ground, and then land again, only at the sound of her whistle.
Before she raised the whistle to her mouth, however, Neville had already lifted off unsteadily. Higher and higher he flew, and when he was about twenty metres in the air, he slid sideways off his broom and fell to the ground. Hermione reacted instantly and without thinking. With a barely perceptible flick of her wrist, she performed a nonverbal levitation charm on Neville, while he was still about five feet off the ground. Instead of floating in the air, however, Neville was only decelerated in the latter part of his fall and still slammed down hard on the grass.
Hermione glanced around hastily to see if anyone had noticed anything, but all attention was on Neville. Madam Hooch bent over the face-down Neville and looked at the motionless student. Finally she murmured "Broken wrist. Come on boy, it's alright" and walked with Neville, who was limping behind her with tears streaming down his face, to the hospital wing. As she walked in front of Neville, she inculcated in the students to keep their feet on the ground or they would face expulsion. Hermione watched Neville worriedly, but was glad that she had probably prevented worse.
She wondered why Madam Hooch had watched silently as a student fell to the ground from 20 metres. She was still contemplating the incident when suddenly someone behind her yelled something. Hermione turned and saw Draco Malfoy pushing himself up high and waving to the partially cheering students. She rolled her eyes. A moment later, Harry Potter shot up after him. Hermione watched as he flew towards Malfoy and stopped at his height. Malfoy no longer looked as triumphant as before. They yelled at each other in the air and then Malfoy threw a twinkling object towards the ground.
Harry shot after it, cheered on by the crowd of remaining first years. A metre above the ground, Harry caught the object in a daring manoeuvre and brought the broom to a halt. The crowd jeered triumphantly, but fell silent a moment later, when they saw a fuming Professor McGonagall rushing towards Harry. Instantly, she commanded Harry to follow her.
"Well, it's his own fault!" thought Hermione, folding her arms. "But it looked pretty damn nifty too," she added in thought, the corners of her mouth twitching. Malfoy came down from the sky after a minute, smirking and gloating that Harry would probably be taking the Hogwarts Express home now. Outraged by this injustice, Hermione couldn't refrain from sending Malfoy's trousers whizzing to the ground with a little wave of her hand as he dismounted from his broom. Again, no one had noticed her spell, however, all but Malfoy's cronies Crabbe and Goyle burst out laughing. With a red head, Malfoy pulled up his trousers and kept his mouth shut for the rest of the flying lesson.
For the rest of the week, lessons went mostly like their respective first periods. Hermione had no trouble at all with the subject matter and generally held back a little more on the emotion-reading now, at least with the teachers. As Professor Snape had said, most wizards were incapable of blocking their minds and so did not recognise Hermione's intrusion. Harry Potter had become the new Seeker of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, to everyone's amazement. Hermione thought it was only fair that Harry was not punished, while everyone had completely ignored the fact that Malfoy had started it all.
She later learned from the recovered Neville, that the altercation on the brooms was about his Remembrall, which Malfoy had stolen. She was glad that everyone involved had gotten out of it without any negative consequences. She was also a little envious of Harry, who had become the youngest player in a century to make the Quidditch team. On Thursday, Hermione had been to Hagrid's for tea, which she had thoroughly enjoyed.
Hagrid was a very nice half-giant, as he told her. He had a cute dog called Fang, with whom Lancelot in particular got on well. He was often to be found standing on Fang's head, who didn't seem to mind. When she arrived for breakfast on Friday, only Professor McGonagall was already in the Great Hall. She unceremoniously called Hermione to join her at the teacher's desk.
"Miss Granger, the Headmaster would like to see you in his office tomorrow," she said with her usual stern look. "Be in the Headmaster's Tower tomorrow at 11am, the password is 'Fizzing Whizzbees'," she said, unable to avoid a twitch of one corner of her mouth as she said the password. Hermione grinned and nodded.