Chapter 5: The unlikely social butterfly

Summary:

Neville and Hermione explore the train and its occupants.

He's not quite sure how she decides the way she will interact with certain people.

We meet the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan.

Hermione is prone to befriend the familiars before the humans.

Harry is sure he saw this girl at the station, but what is her name?

Notes:

Sup y'all. I was going to start with 'bitches, bros and non binary hoes' but i reckon we are not at that level yet, I should wait at least until i make y'all cry. (We'll get there, don't worry :D )

Now, i'm sorry for the delay, couple of weeks ago one of my dogs died and i wasn't feel much up to writing.

But now, here i am \o/

As per usual my dears, happy reading!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

If Neville thought that he had an inkling of what Hermione Addams behaviour was like, that thought went right out the window as soon as they met the conductor. Since Trevor decided to go in the direction of the end of the train, Hermione took the route to the front of the vehicle. Whilst she was rude and annoyed with the sweet trolley lady, effectively stunning the witch into silence, the conductor received a well behaved, if shy personality from the girl who admittedly made Neville question his sanity, which at this point has happened more than once ever since meeting Hermione Addams at the platform.

The confident cold young witch disappeared as they were approaching the cabin of the conductor of the Hogwarts Express, with every step taken her shoulders dropped and she lowered her head whilst shuffling her feet when she knocked on the door, it was like he was looking at a completely different person. The conductor found a timid tiny witch playing with the sleeves of her jumper with a messenger black bag thrown over her chest who wouldn't quite maintain eye contact. Asking very politely about how long until Hogwarts so she and her friend could put on their uniforms without creasing them.

Neville watched in astonishment the conductor, a tall burly man with a very intimidating beard, melt to his knees, hold one of Hermione's hands sweetly and inform her about how long the ride would be. He watched as the girl wrapped the man around her little fingers chatting nervously about looking forward to her classes whilst bouncing on her toes in barely contained excitement. Her enthusiasm was so contagious that the man had a nostalgic smile on his face, reminiscing about his own first year at Hogwarts, which prompted him to give reassurances that she would be fine and telling her about his favourite spots when he was a student. After thanking him for the kind words and promising to visit him again when she went home for Christmas, Hermione beamed at the man and waved enthusiastically, who waved back at her fondly, as they walked down the corridor towards the first compartments.

The moment the conductor's door closed, the witch went back to her emotionless blank expression and quiet demeanour as if the last ten minutes had never happened. Neville felt that if Trevor was there, he for sure would be laughing at his mind boggling at the easy way she made the conductor give in to her charms. 'I told you she was going to eat us alive.' It would be what his familiar would say accompanied by a nervous chuckle. He watched Hermione open her messenger bag, that he didn't even notice her taking with her and retrieve a black leather notebook and a strange looking black pencil.

"What is that?" He asked curiously once he had enough control of his jaw to scoop it off the floor. As she opened it, he noticed that the nib was similar to one of Gran's fancy quills.

"Fountain pen." She answered distractedly writing in her notebook, and whatever she was taking note of, he was not privy to.

"Now…" She closed the Notebook with a snap, making him jump a little, immediately freezing under her stare. "Do not forget about our agreement, Longbottom. Observe everybody in the compartment whilst I talk to them, tell me everything that you know after, understood?"

He nodded and they were off towards the compartments. The shy act came back when Hermione knocked on the prefect's compartment, politely asking if they saw a toad hopping around. "We looked away for one second and he was gone." She informed them with her eyes cast on the ground, when the prefects denied seeing the toad she sighed disappointedly and apologized for interrupting. After stepping away and starting their trek to the next compartment, one of the Hufflepuffs prefects stuck her head out of the compartment and offered to summon the toad to them. Addams smiled shyly and thanked her, grabbing his sleeve lightly as she informed her. "But you see, he got away because I didn't close the door properly. I want to be a good friend and help find his toad."

The prefect smiled fondly at the first year "Okay, good luck, if you aren't able to find your runaway toad, come to me and I'll summon him for you.", his friend smiled and nodded in thanks before turning around and pulling him by the sleeve she was still holding.

The notebook was back the moment the door was closed, and Neville was stared down until he told her all that he knew about the people in that compartment. They went to every compartment asking about his lost toad, and Hermione's personality was like trying to figure out which flavour he would get when eating Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. With most of the students already in their uniforms it was easy to identify the more friendly ones from the ones who would help the least.

In compartments where the majority was Hufflepuff, Addams personality was open and friendly, unable to keep still with an easy smile on her face, endearing herself amongst the badgers as if she was there all along. With Ravenclaws she was polite and respectful although still friendly with easy little smiles, asking a few questions about the books in hand which would promptly launch the Ravenclaws into explanations with plenty of difficult words he barely grasped the meaning of, but seemed to make perfect sense to his new found friend, as she kept up with them with no problem, going as far as being invited to study groups.

Slytherins received the version he met but somehow more frosty, she would stare unblinking at the occupants until they said something first, Neville didn't quite understand the point but was fairly certain it was one of those power games that he saw his Gran doing from time to time with guests. On those compartments Neville felt thoroughly examined, from his clothes to his behaviour. He could tell that they didn't know what to make out of Hermione, if she was pureblood or not. Since she was well dressed and had proper manners despite the unnerving staring contest and making them break the silence first, they decided to err on the side of caution and treat them both neutrally. Gryffindors were greeted with a puffed up chest and a roguish smile, the kind that promised fun and tall tales that would make you belly laugh. They knocked on one door that had a pair of ginger twins and a black boy bent over a box, judging by the mischievous glint in their eyes and daredevil smiles on their faces, they were up to no good.

Upon being questioned about the sighting of the toad, they lit up and told them that "Why of course we've seen it.". They said that they could tell them where the toad went, if one of them petted the animal inside the box, startling Neville that didn't want anything to do with whatever was in the box, feeling that he had been reckless enough already for that day by following Hermione around. Addams simply shrugged and agreed, prompting the twins to almost burst at the seams with barely contained giggles. The other boy opened the box, just for a big black spider with orange-red hues on the joints of its legs to emerge. Neville let out a startled "Yeep!" and hid behind his friend who looked fascinated at the arachnid.

"That's a mexican red-knee tarantula!" She exclaimed excitedly whilst flattening her palms so that the spider could crawl on them. "Hello my lady, you are so beautiful."

The biggest spider Neville has ever seen, seemed to perk up and crawled on Hermione's hands, seemingly stretching whilst the human cooed at it. The boys were stunned, they expected the girl to coward and scream but it appeared that that wasn't the case. Lee never saw his spider behave that way, she was always so grumpy especially during the day when she would prefer to sleep, and refused to give in to curious humans who wanted to pick her up. He could feel her preening at the compliments this tiny witch was showering upon her in the back of his mind though.

"What is your name, my sweet lady? If I am permitted that honour."

Lee watched as his spider practically vibrated with excitement, he could hear her tiny voice telling him 'I like her, you should treat me like she does.' making him roll his eyes to the entitled princess of a familiar he had. She moved as if trying to communicate with the girl like she did sometimes with opened his mouth to answer the question, only to leave his jaw on the floor alongside the others, as the girl continued to talk to his familiar as if they were having a conversation between them.

"It's a pleasure to meet you lady Mavis, I am Hermione Addams. I hope that your sleep was not disturbed by your master's and his friends' attempt to prank me."

Mavis decided she liked the little witch, she liked the little witch a lot, she was more than worthy of her attention and she was keeping her no matter what her master says. She quickly started to climb the girl's arms in the direction of her face, who, opposite to the panicked noise that the boy behind her let out, just smiled fondly as she made her way up to her shoulder. The boys watched in panic as the tarantula reached Addams neck and bit her behind her ear.

As the boys started to ask if she was alright over each other and Neville's whimpers behind her, Hermione scooped the spider from her shoulder carefully, thanking her for the affection and the honour of being chosen by lady Mavis, making the spider caress her fingers in a 'Of course dear' gesture. She gently deposited the spider back on her box, wishing a good night for the nocturne predator, before glaring at the three flabbergasted boys, especially the owner of the spider.

"I hope that you do not have the habit of using her to try to scare idiots that would cause her harm without thinking, she is not a toy."

"NO." Lee startled. "No, I know she's not a toy, she's my familiar and she's so cool that I wanted to show her off."

His shoulders sank in relief when the girl nodded in approval after a few moments of silence of her staring him in the eyes without blinking. He usually wouldn't care, but Mavis decided that she was hers so he would try to cultivate a friendship for the sake of his familiar. He couldn't deny though, the girl was interesting. Fred and George seemed to wake up from their gobsmacked state and immediately started surrounding the girl.

"Well, well, well, well, well, if we don't have a future little Gryffindor in our hands, Fred."

"Indeed George, that was pretty brave for a little girl."

In response Addams simply raised her chin, making the twins grin and practically bounce on their feet at her defiance. As if rehearsed, they both step forth giving an exaggerated bow and started speaking at the same time.

"Very nice to meet you, miss Addams."

"I'm Fred Weasley." Chimed the twin on the left.

"And I'm George Weasley." Ringed the twin on the right.

"Or maybe I'm George and he is Fred.''

"Or maybe we are both George." They echoed together with devil may care smiles, Lee rolled his eyes.

"Or maybe they are both idiots and I'm Lee Jordan, nice to meet you."

Hermione nodded and introduced Neville who wanted to check the spider's bite really badly but the girl just waved him off, reiterating her first question about the lost toad.

"Sorry, we didn't see any toad, maybe we can summon it for you." Said Lee apologetic.

"It's alright, we'll keep looking, there's nowhere for him to go on a moving train. Thank you for the assistance, see you at Hogwarts."

"Bye bye firstie, see you at the Gryffindor table." The twins grinned while waving out of sync ridiculously, bumping on each other every other wave.

"See you later, Addams." Said Lee starting to sit down and kicking one of the twins in the leg to make them stop, which promptly threw them all in a kick war amongst themselves.

She looked at their antics unimpressed, turned and stalked through the door not really waiting for Neville but being sensible enough to leave the door open for him. Her notebook was poised to take notes just as he finished closing the door. He didn't know much about the other students personally since his Gran preferred for him to be taught individually by his tutors, and he loved spending time surrounded by his plants, so his acquaintanceship with other children was not vast, but the insight Gran gave him when teaching about the houses was bigger than what the books about pureblood families held.

The next door they opened had two young boys the same age as them, those were not the first first years they've met up to this point. About five compartments down from the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan, they saw his friends Hannah Abott, Susan Bones, Ernie Macmillan and a muggleborn that was sitting with them called Justin Finch-Fletchley. Neville made the introductions this time, since he was friends with most of the occupants of the compartment. Hermione's personality bordered the one she used on the Gryffindors, but a bit more bossy know-it-all than before with her chest puffed up giving a sense of undeserved arrogance, it made his friends decide that they didn't need the help.

To be completely honest, Neville didn't know how Hermione was deciding what kind of personality she would present to the people of the compartments they visited when they were around their own age group. Many received the mix between friendly and curious, some the fun arrogant, and all the purebloods they saw from the dark and neutral families received the cold emotionless stare.

The two boys they were currently visiting were surrounded by sweets, the floor and seats were littered with all types of wrappers and empty containers stained with the remnants of half eaten sweets. Hermione's eyebrows creasing slightly and the ghost of a sneer of disgust at the sugary explosion before her was all Neville could see before she smooths out her features to her bossy know-it-all self, somehow managing to express a bit of concern over the snottiness.

"Have you seen a toad hopping around?"

The boys looked up, the ginger one with a half eaten chocolate frog with its back legs dangling out of his mouth had dirt on his nose that in retrospect looked like chocolate, probably from scratching his nose after holding one of the many chocolate items scattered around for too long. The other boy was a scrawny little thing that was swimming in clothes that looked way too big and worn out to just be a dress style. He had black messy hair and round glasses that were broken judging by the tape in multiple places holding the frame together.

Neville wasn't sure, but he looked just as tiny as Hermione, however, unlike the witch that seemed bigger by sheer will power alone, the boy seemed to try to blend with the wall, hunching his shoulders in an attempt to seem smaller. He waved at the boys over Hermione's shoulder in greeting with a small friendly smile, eyeing all the sweets they had with longing since Hermione scared the trolley lady away before he could purchase anything.

The ginger boy turned to the scrawny one deferring the responsibility of answering to him, but he was too occupied gawking at Hermione who raised her eyebrow in question.

"Oh." Harry scrambled to get his thoughts in order, realizing that they were waiting for an answer. "Sorry, we haven't seen any toad."

It was the girl from the station, he was sure, the one with the pale family where the father was hyperactive and worshiped the mother that smiled in amusement at every scathing word said by one of her daughters, even indulging the children's behaviour when her son hit the wall face first. She wasn't acting like she had at the platform, that girl was cold and cruel, and this one just looked bossy and arrogant. He didn't know what to make of it, maybe it was a defense mechanism? Like how he would avoid eye contact with uncle Vernon and keep his head down when the man was raging about something in hopes of avoiding any undeserved punishment, it tended to work when he was lucky.

"Wait!" He almost launched himself to his feet when he noticed her nodding and starting to turn around to continue their search. "I…Ah, would you like to sit? Maybe…" He quickly tried to clean the seat opposite to him that had been scattered with wrappers where Hedwig's cage wasn't resting on. His owl had turned her head as if offended by him and Ron littering her side of the compartment, how he knew that he didn't know, he just had this impression that he understood her. He always had these instincts about people and animals that would guide him to those who were good for him or helped him avoid something bad, the same instincts that were nudging him in her direction, after all these years he learned to trust them despite what the situation looked like.

"Maybe if we wait a bit he might pop around?" He cringed at his awful excuse to maintain the girl and the boy there. He apprehensively watched the girl looking back at the blonde over her shoulder that shrugged at her, and felt relieved when they entered the compartment and closed the door.

The girl greeted Hedwig and asked permission to sit by her side, to his surprise the owl nodded after analyzing the witch for a few seconds, she thanked her and complimented the bird of prey whilst sitting, making her preen and puff up her chest, his owl was such a prima donna.

The silence didn't seem to bother the little witch who maintained a perfect posture resting her hands on her lap and crossing her legs at the ankles with practice ease, but the boys were starting to shuffle uneasily on their seats. Harry rummaged his brain trying to come up with a conversation starter, he noticed the blond boy looking at the sweets and he perked up with the opportunity.

"Would you like some?" He gestured at the pile of many different sweets that he wasn't sure Ron and he would be able to eat it all.

"Thanks." The boy beamed and selected some pumpkin pastes. "I'm Neville Longbottom, nice to meet you."

Neville looked at them in anticipation prompting them both into introducing themselves. After his passing by through the Leaky Cauldron, Harry was a bit wary in announcing his name, but besides Neville's eyes widening and the girl raising one of her eyebrows they did not make a fuss nor did they ask about his scar, which was a relief. The boys fell into an easy conversation about what house at Hogwarts they expected to get in, Harry would glance at the girl every now and then, who kept her silence and just observed them.

Inevitably the conversation descended into what magic they could produce and Ron volunteered to show this spell his brothers taught him that turned his rat, that was sleeping surrounded by wrappers, yellow. Unfortunately Ron was tricked and he only managed to push some of the wrappers away from the rat. Somehow in his embarrassment he took offense at the girl that said nothing and did not express any reaction at his failed spell.

"What can you do then?" Ron accused, Neville was shocked and confused at the ginger's sudden change of attitude towards Hermione, who looked back at him from head to toe completely unphased, rolled her eyes, reached into her right sleeve and pulled a jet black wand that she promptly pointed to Harry's face, startling all inside the compartment.

"Oculus reparo." The tape that was keeping the frame together puffed out out of existence and yet the frame, now intact, held strong. Harry took his glasses off to admire the rims that now were adorned with little gold details and his prescription was finally correct after years of suffering through the blur of incorrect lenses. Aunt Petunia said that he should be grateful that they got him this one pair of glasses out of their generosity, but he knew they just found the cheapest frame they could find.

Even though Harry missed it since he was admiring his new glasses, Neville didn't, as he watched Hermione stare down the Weasley that dared challenge her until he looked away with a faint pink on his cheeks.

"Well that's enough entertainment for today." Hermione got up and Neville jumped from his seat in order to open the door and step out. "Pleasure meeting you two. Potter, I suggest you read over the books that mention you, that way you can deny any supposed accomplishment of yours that never happened. It might help you in the long run to make your decisions for yourself and not based on other expectations and stories." Harry felt the subtle jab at his admiration of Dumbledore via Hagrid.

The girl said her goodbyes to Hedwig and sauntered out of the compartment. Only after she was gone that Harry realized he didn't ask her name, he was such an idiot.

Notes:

Yay Harry can see \o/

And Hermione charmed the conductor, just imagine one of those big strong guys from bike groups that look scary but just melt at cute stuff, and that's the conductor lol

Do i have a healthy fear of spiders? Well, yes, and i keep a very healthy distance from them. I can't deny some are beautiful, you know, when we looked at them through a thick glass protecting you. Also i learned a lot about pet spiders, don't ask me why, blame Lee Jordan.

Harry Potter and his poor people's skills (don't worry Harry, i'm right there with ya), oh boy Ron is gonna have to calm down before Hermione loses patience with him, what a hot head.

At least Neville got his sweets lol

See you guys next chapter~