"Come on, Harry!" Ron yelled as he hung half out of the carriage that would take them to Hogsmeade station to ride the express back to London for the start of their summer after first year. "Get in so we can go! School's finally over and you don't want to miss the start of summer, do ya?!"
"Ronald, sit down so Harry can actually get in!" Hermione's voice drifted out of the carriage, causing Harry to smile a bit at the chastisement in her voice and Ron's retort.
"Don't tell me to sit down!"
His friends always seemed to be bickering with each other, at this point it was just normal. Just after Halloween when Hermione became his and Ron's friend he'd worried that they would get into a fight with all the sniping they'd done at each other. But they kept it to verbal sparring and it soon became normal to hear their snipes at each other. It really was amazing that despite very different personalities both his best friends were able to get along as well as they did.
Despite his friend's urging, he stood for another long moment to stare with longing at the castle that had been the only home he could remember. He certainly didn't consider #4 his home, it was the Dursley's home and his prison. He was just stuck there in until he came of age and could leave for good. Oh, how he wished he could stay at Hogwarts all year round, rather than being forced back to Dursley hell!
Harry knew there was going to be trouble with the Dursleys when he got back to #4. By this time the Dursleys have had a whole year to get over the shock that Hagrid giving Dudley a pig's tail gave them. He was sure they would be even more belligerent this summer, after all they did have the collective memory of a goldfish and wouldn't remember how afraid of Hagrid they had been before, or how they'd all been quite pleased to ignore each other all of August last year as they'd all been waiting for him to leave to go to Hogwarts.
'Even though I'm not allowed to use magic during the summer,' Harry thought, 'it doesn't mean I have to tell them that. I can use the threat of magic to keep them honest and muddle through this summer until I can come back home to Hogwarts.'
"Right, then. I suppose putting it off anymore won't help any," Harry muttered as he turned around to get in the carriage. He froze for a moment when he saw the skeletal looking horses with bat wings that were hitched to the carriages for the first time.
Even though the skeletal horse with bat wings looked freaky, they wouldn't be used here to pull the carriages if they were dangerous to students, so Harry got over the shocking sight quite quickly, shrugged at the oddities of the magical world, and hopped up into the carriage after Ron finally got out of the way.
Looking out the window for one last glimpse of Hogwarts, Harry spotted Neville walking out the front doors with slumped shoulders and a depressed look on his face. He immediately felt guilty for what Hermione had done to Neville when they were trying to sneak out of the Gryffindor common room to protect the Philosopher's Stone, when Hermione had used the full body-binding charm on Neville and simply left him lying in the common room all night. That had been a pretty poor thing for them to do to their roommate.
While staring at Neville, Harry suddenly thought that it was pretty bad of him and Ron to leave Neville to go it alone all year long. He certainly wouldn't have liked being alone all year long. Dean and Seamus had been pretty close, and him and Ron were too, but that left Neville the odd man out. He felt bad, especially because of how brave Neville had proven himself to be over the year.
Neville had come looking for them after curfew to warn them about Draco trying to get them in trouble when they'd been sneaking Norbert up to the tower to be taken away by Charlie Weasley's friends. Neville had also been there with them when they had first ran into Fluffy and he hadn't told on them all year long for the things they subsequently got up to. And then Neville had tried to do the right thing when he, Ron, and Hermione were sneaking out of the common room once more to protect the stone. It wasn't Neville's fault that he hadn't known all the facts and tried to stop them.
In fact, it was Neville's act of bravery in standing up to them that earned Gryffindor enough points to tip them over the edge and allowed them to win the House Cup, so Neville really deserved better.
"Hey Neville! Join us on the ride?" Harry yelled out the carriage door. The look of shock and disbelief on Neville's face made Harry feel even guiltier for not being a better friend all year long.
"What are you doing, Harry?" Ron whispered furiously.
"Inviting a friend and roommate to join us on the ride," Harry whispered forcefully back at Ron. "He's more than earned a place being our friend over the year, and I for one feel bad that we haven't been all that friendly with him."
"Harry's right, Ronald." Hermione chimed in.
"Of course you'd say that, Herms," Ron groused, but sat back down.
"Don't call me that!" Hermione snapped at the red head. "And what do you mean by 'Of course you'd say that'?"
"Well, then, don't call me 'Ronald' like you're my mum!" Ron shot back. "And you know what it means, always taking Harry's side on everything!"
"Well, of course I am. If you were actually right as often as you thought you were, I might take your side too." Hermione primly responded, causing Ron to growl at her but at a look from Harry the two settled down and stopped sniping at each other.
Despite how quiet Harry thought they were being, Neville easily overheard their argument and wasn't sure if he wanted to join the trio on the ride home. He was pretty down because his grades hadn't been very good and he was afraid of what Gran would say to him about it. He knew his parents were brilliant…but he wasn't. So he dreaded arriving home and hearing what Gran had to say.
"Come on, Neville, join us," Harry urged when he saw Neville hesitating about joining them. "I figure we owe you the whole story about what happened this year and what we were trying to do that night you tried to stop us leaving the common room. Sorry again, by the way, about Hermione petrifying you."
"Yes, I really am sorry about that, Neville," Hermione offered as she peeked over Harry's shoulder and offered Neville a kind smile.
Neville straightened up his shoulders and looked directly at the trio's faces. He finally used the lessons his Gran had always tried to teach him to straighten his spine, look more confident, and judge their sincerity towards him.
Hermione showed an apologetic expression and nodded at him with a smile. Harry showed sincerity and friendliness towards him. Neville figured Harry really was honestly inviting him to join them and wasn't trying to prank him like McGonagall said they were earlier in the year.
Ron was the odd man out and looked a bit stubborn and unwelcoming, but that was just the way Ron was to everyone that tried to get close to Harry, so Neville ignored the red head.
"Thanks, Harry, Hermione. I think I will join you." Neville easily hopped up into the carriage. Despite still being a bit pudgy and not being as nimble someone like Harry was as the star Gryffindor Seeker, he'd been working long hours in his family's greenhouse as long as he could remember so he was quite strong despite his appearance. Wrestling with magical plants was no easy hobby, but he loved it.
Harry sat back in the carriage as the bat winged skeletal horses began pulling it towards Hogsmeade. He smiled at his friends in satisfaction at bringing in another friend into his group, finally. It felt good to have more friends.
'I wonder why I haven't been making more friends here at Hogwarts?' Harry idly thought, before his mind went to the Dursleys. 'Oh, yeah. It's probably because of the habit I've got of being alone thanks to Dudley always driving off anyone that was friendly with me.'
After a bit of thought about the matter, and finally realizing that while at Hogwarts he was out from under the Dursley's thumb, Harry decided he would do better next year at being friendly with his classmates and get to know them.
'And while I'm at it,' Harry thought, 'I really should break the bad habit of doing poorly on schoolwork the Dursleys forced me into by punishing me every time I got better grades than Dudley. After all, Dudley isn't at Hogwarts to compare grades to, even if Vernon and Petunia magically got over their dislike of magic to actually look at my report card.'
Harry opened his eyes again and looked at Neville who had a sort of hopeful expectant look on his face. Even though he dreaded returning to the Dursleys, he was determined to enjoy the train ride and this last bit of fun before he went back to Privet hell. At the very least, making a friend of Neville before the summer started should allow him to have one more friend to exchange letters with.
"Where to begin?" Harry muttered aloud. "I guess it all started last summer on my birthday when Hagrid showed up to tell me I was a wizard and take me to Diagon Alley to get my school supplies. You see, before that I never knew I was a wizard, even with the odd happenings that I kept getting punished for…"
Over the next hour Harry told Neville, Hermione, and Ron more about his life than he had shared with Hermione and Ron all year long, only interrupted by their arrival at the station and finding a compartment on the train, buying some snacks from the trolley lady, and trips to the bathroom.
His tale started from his life with the Dursleys and how his relatives had been inundated with letters, to how Hagrid found them on an island at midnight, then to his visit to Gringotts where Hagrid removed a mysterious package from the bank. He had to backtrack and explain more sometimes when a casual mention of his life with the Dursleys was questioned by his friends, but strangely enough he finally felt like being honest with them about his life.
With plenty of interjections by Hermione and Ron to add details about their investigations at Hogwarts itself, Harry continued to tell Neville all about the mystery they had been working on all year at Hogwarts. About what the Cerberus on the third floor corridor on the right hand side had been guarding, and about how the shade of Voldemort had been possessing their DADA professor Quirrell all year long.
At the end of the tale Neville was slumped in his seat with an incredibly shocked look on his face. Harry looked back and forth between Hermione, Ron, and Neville and made note of their expressions. Hermione and Ron didn't seem so shocked about the enormity of what they'd learned this year, but seeing Neville's fear and near catatonic reaction to the fact that Voldemort wasn't dead and was behind the whole thing really set Harry back.
Thinking about why there was such a difference between Hermione and Ron's reaction compared to Neville's, Harry began to get a glimmer of an idea about how big a revelation it was that Voldemort wasn't actually dead.
Harry figured both he and Hermione could be forgiven for not reacting with the instinctive fear all the magicals seemed to have to Voldemort since they were raised in the muggle world. But what about Ron? Why was he so blasé about it when Neville was showing such a strong reaction?
Harry inwardly shrugged his shoulders and threw the question to the back of his mind. It wasn't important. What was important was that Neville's reaction made him aware that this whole "adventure" was a much bigger deal than he first thought.
Neville eventually seemed to reboot his brain, grabbed a chocolate frog still on the pile of treats that Harry had bought, and ate it in two bites without conscious direction. He then stared at Harry intensely.
"What did the aurors say about You-Know-Who when they interviewed you, Harry?" Neville asked.
"What are aurors?" Harry asked.
"They're the wizarding world's equivalent of the police force, Harry," Hermione authoritatively stated before anyone else could answer.
"Uh…no one like that came and talked to me, Neville." Harry looked at his friends. Ron had a supremely unbothered expression to that fact while both Neville and Hermione looked concerned. "Now that you mention it, it does seem like something they should be involved in, right?"
"Professor Quirrell died, Harry." For once Neville got to answer before Hermione, due to her chewing on her lip in thought about the matter. This situation wasn't a fact she'd read from a book, so she had to work out the issue based on what she knew of law, so it took her a bit to come to the same conclusion that Neville had. "A professor at Hogwarts, the school that has all the heirs and family members of the Wizengamot members, was possessed all year long and actually died.
"Whatever else you can say about how dangerous this whole situation was that caused a professor's death, which is a big thing all on its own, the fact that there was a possessing shade around their children all year long would cause the members of the Wizengamot to be furious and demand the Ministry do something.
"And if it was known that the shade of You-Know-Who was sitting under Dumbledore's nose this whole time without him knowing about it…I'm not even sure what the reaction would be, honestly. Everyone is convinced that You-Know-Who is dead, so it would be a huge deal, like bombarda in the pond big deal."
Harry wasn't sure what the Wizengamot was, or what a bombarda was, but he got the gist of what Neville was saying. He had been tempted to chastise Neville about using the "You-Know-Who" moniker instead of Voldemort's name by spouting the line that Dumbledore had told him about not giving into fear of a name, but he was distracted by Neville's mention about how Dumbledore didn't know that one of his teachers was possessed by Voldemort all year long.
It really made him wonder about how all-knowing Dumbledore really was if he was fooled by the shade of Voldemort for a whole year. The impression that Dumbledore gave Harry suffered a big hit right then, feeling like the Headmaster couldn't be as all knowing as he seemed to act.
Harry's trust in the headmaster suffered another hit when he thought about how Dumbledore hadn't even spent a minute investigating Harry's life with the Dursleys or asking questions about his relationship with them before he ordered Harry to go back to living with the Dursleys.
Before Harry could bring up the question in his mind to Neville about what they should do now, the door to their compartment slammed open. Standing arrogantly in the doorway was Draco Malfoy, flanked by his two large bodyguards, Crabbe and Goyle.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here, Potty? Consorting with a mudblood, a blood traitor, and a squib! How the mighty have fallen." Draco sneered at the four Gryffindors with a cruelly amused sneer.
"Really, Malfoy?" Neville spoke in a similarly posh sneering tone, interrupting Harry before he could explode at Malfoy's insults to his friends. "I understand that your foreigner father couldn't properly educate you at home, but I'd expect your mother from the Black family would have at least taught you something about our British culture. Too bad."
"Stop spouting rubbish!" Malfoy yelled, suddenly red faced and losing his cool. "My family has been here for generations! We're not dirty foreigners! When my father hears about this…!"
Harry was shocked and could only look back and forth between Neville and Malfoy. He'd never heard Neville speak like that, or stand up to anyone before with such force. And he'd never seen Malfoy lose his cool so completely before. Is this what Malfoy was like without the backing of Snape to beat down any opposition that got too much for him?
"Foreigner! Foreigner!" Ron cut off whatever Neville had been about to reply with to gleefully chant at Malfoy, seeing how much the insult had got under his skin.
"That's it! Vince, Greg, get em!" Malfoy yelled as he stepped backwards and pulled his wand while Goyle and Crabbe stepped forward while cracking their knuckles in an attempt to intimidate them.
Ron immediately jumped on Goyle, well familiar with wrestling with his older brothers, while Harry threw himself at Crabbe. Even though Harry was far smaller than the other boy, he'd been in plenty of fights with Dudley and his gang that were bigger than him, so he didn't feel any fear. Not to mention that Harry actually had friends now that would back him up, so the odds were even in his favor as far as he was concerned.
Hermione saw that Malfoy pulled his wand even while stepping back from the fray, so she pulled hers at the same time that Neville pulled out his dad's wand. Despite the poor showing that Neville had all year in the wand classes, or maybe because of it, he'd been practicing relentlessly and so he was also quick on the draw the moment he saw Draco pulling out his wand.
Hermione, despite going for her wand after Draco, was quicker on the draw and managed to send a tickling jinx at Draco just before Neville and Draco sent stinging hexes at each other at the same time.
Malfoy dodged to the side to avoid Hermione's tickling jinx and stepped right into the stinging hex that Neville sent at him. Even though the stinging hex was underpowered due to the incompatibility Neville had with his wand, the hex luckily managed to hit Draco right at the base of his thumb, causing his hand to spasm and drop his wand.
Neville merely grimaced as Draco's stinging hex landed on his left shoulder due to lacking room to dodge inside the compartment. He'd had worse over the years from his Gran for misbehaving, so he didn't let it stop him from sending another hex Draco's way.
Seeing that Draco was disarmed, Hermione then turned her attention down to where Harry, Ron, Crabbe, and Goyle were fighting on the floor.
"Stop fighting! Stop it!" Hermione yelled. She was nervous about sending a hex or jinx and hitting either Harry or Ron, so she began kicking Crabbe and Goyle in the arm or legs or wherever she could reach to get them to stop.
"What's going on here?!" A female voice shouted from down the corridor. Everyone froze as they recognized the voice of authority. Sure enough, a sixth year female prefect from Ravenclaw came into view to those still inside the compartment. "Absolutely disgraceful, fighting on the train home. It's too bad summer is starting, or I would have the lot of you in detention for a week! As it is, I'll be writing to your heads of house and recommending punishment when you come back to school next year.
"And don't think complaining to your father will help you, Mister Malfoy!" The female prefect snapped the moment she saw Draco's mouth open. "It's obvious from the way you've been needling Mister Potter all year long where everyone could see that you're the one who came to their compartment and started the fight, which I will explain in my letter, so you can get your two friends and go back to your compartment where you will stay and cause no further problems on the train ride home."
Just when it looked like Draco was going to complain even more, the prefect's wand lit up in an ominous blue glow, looking like a powerful hex was about to be shot at Draco. Being smart for once, he shut his mouth at the obvious intimidation. The prefect gritted out between clenched teeth, "Am, I, Clear?"
"Fine!" Draco snapped, even under the circumstances unable to be polite to anyone that didn't coddle him, even if said witch was much more educated and dangerous than him. "Crabbe, Goyle, come!"
Once the trio of Slytherin were out of sight, the prefect turned to the four Gryffindors in the compartment. She raised an eyebrow at the bruises and scrapes on Harry and Ron's faces, though noted that they had satisfied grins on their faces with annoyed her. "And don't think you're all getting off easy. I meant what I said, I'll be writing Professor McGonagall to let her know what you all did.
"Now, I suggest closing your door and don't react to any further provocations a Malfoy might give you to start a fight."
"Yes, ma'am." The four Gryffindors chorused.
"Enough of that! Do I look like I'm old enough to be a ma'am to you? Honestly, the nerve of some people!" The young teenage girl sniffed at them and stalked away, leaving them standing there awkwardly before Harry shrugged and closed the door before flopping down on the seat once more.
"Well, that was fun." Harry laughed.
"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed. "We just got caught fighting and are in trouble, how can you laugh?!"
"Come off it, Hermione!" Ron scoffed. "We kicked Malfoy's arse…"
"Language!" Hermione snapped.
"And it's the start of summer," Ron continued, completely ignoring Hermione's chastisement about his language. "Relax and have fun. Even if we get punished for giving that slimy git what for, it won't be for another couple months. So enjoy the summer while you can!"
Hermione's mouth opened and closed a couple times as she seemed to want to chastise Ron even more, but in the end she sighed, shook her head, and muttered to herself, "I don't know why I bother trying with him. It just frustrates me to no end how utterly uncaring and lazy he is. But in this case…he's not wrong. It is summer time and so I don't have to be so focused on school grades…Not to mention I'll have a couple months away from Ronald and his big fat mouth…yes, I think I will relax some and let my hair down."
"Oi! Not funny!" Ron grumped at Hermione's rant.
"Oh, yes it is!" Harry laughed at Ron's disgruntled expression and Hermione's smug one.
"It really is!" Neville joined Harry and laughed at Ron while Hermione began giggling.
Eventually Ron gave in and started sniggering along with them about the whole situation. "Did you see Malfoy's face when that prefect told him off?!"
The group of Gryffindor friends burst into laughter and joking around about the scuffle they'd just been in. Somehow the fight had solidified Neville's place in their group of friends and he no longer felt awkward like he was an odd man out.
Sometime later when their fit of amusement had died down, Malfoy's words were still stuck in Harry's head. He turned to Neville to see if he could get some answers.
"Hey, Neville. I know what Malfoy meant when he used that mudblood insult on Hermione since he's been using it all year. But what is a 'blood traitor' or a 'squib'?"
"Blood traitor is what all those pureblood snobs call us Weasleys," Ron answered before Neville could. "Something about how we don't hate muggles like they do."
Neville breathed in and out to keep his calm at how Ron interrupted when Harry's question was directed at him. He supposed he should be used to Ron's rude and sloppy way of acting after spending so long living with him in the dorm.
"My gran has taught me a bunch about history in my lessons growing up, so I know where the blood traitor insult came from." Neville began, ignoring what Ron had said as well as his disgruntled expression to tell what he knew. He was gratified to see he had both Harry and Hermione's full attention.
"The common use of the insult 'Blood Traitor' today is different from what it originally was. In the original usage, a blood traitor was someone who has betrayed his Family, his Blood. Such betrayals usually involved murder, the unforgivable Imperious curse, or other means to betray and take over the family. Greed for profit and power is what usually drove wizards and witches to betraying their family.
"Before the rise of You-Know-Who, there was another dark lord that started a reign of terror. Grindelwald began gathering his following in the 1920s and 30s under the banner of Pureblood ruling the world. And not just the wizarding world, he wanted us to get rid of the Statute of Secrecy and for wizards to rule the muggle world as well as the magical one.
"One of his followers in Wizarding Britain, Cantankerus Nott, published a controversial book in the 30s titled A Pure-Blood Directory, which supposedly listed the 'Sacred Twenty-Eight'. Twenty-eight families that were still considered pure-blood at the time of publishing."
"How was the book controversial, Neville?" Hermione asked when Neville paused.
"Gran explained to me that the list wasn't accurate and was mostly a means to drum up political support and make the families that Grindelwald wanted to court to his side feel more important and want to join his cause.
"For example the Ollivander family was listed as pure-blood due to them being the sole family in control of the wand making industry here in Britain, even though the wife of the head of the Ollivander family at the time was a muggle born.
"The Potter Family wasn't included in the list," Neville nodded at Harry, who stared at him wide eyed at hearing a small bit of his family history, "due to the family's stance being pro-muggle even though the Potter Family at the time was as pure-blood as any other.
"The Malfoy family also had a number of half-bloods in their recent family record at the time, so it wasn't like they were considered pure-blood by the standards set out in the book itself, but because of their money and power they were included to try to entice them into Grindelwald's ranks.
"And while the Weasley Family was included in the Sacred twenty-eight, probably because of their family's great numbers and powerful magic, they went on public record of being against the book and the list of Sacred twenty-eight. The Weasley family's political opposition to the movement, as well as many of them fighting in the war against Grindelwald, led to them being labeled 'Blood Traitors' by all the wizards and witches that bought into Grindelwald's movement as a means of demeaning and discrediting the family."
"Bloody wankers!" Ron exclaimed.
"Language!" Hermione immediately countered, causing Ron to scowl at the witch, which she promptly ignored. "So they began using an old wizarding term for a betrayer of their family to try to discredit the Weasley family, then?"
"Yes," Neville agreed. "Anyone that went against their pure-blood superiority agenda was labeled as a blood traitor, even if they weren't at all related to the people calling them that. The ironic thing is that those who joined Grindelwald were the true blood traitors since most of the sacred twenty-eight families fought with Britain against Grindelwald, so those wizards and witches in Grindelwald's service were fighting against their own families."
"So anytime that Malfoy calls Ron a blood traitor," Harry began.
"He's basically calling him a family betrayer in the original usage, but with Malfoy's understanding of the blood purity movement, he's probably calling Ron a traitor to the pure-blood movement."
"As if any self respecting Weasley would be involved in that stupidity about blood," Ron grumbled. "Magic is magic. If you've got it, you're magic, if you don't you're muggle. Anything else is hoity toity blather to make themselves look better."
"I'm surprised you managed to say that without using foul language, Ron. I'm proud of you," Hermione said.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Ron grumpily replied, not having registered that Hermione said she was proud of him as he only heard the negative comment about his ability to speak without using language she didn't approve of. He also didn't notice Hermione's smile turn to a grimace and glare.
"Okay, so the whole blood traitor insult is used because Malfoy's a stupid ponce that likes spreading around bile and making everyone feel bad." Harry briefly laughed, picking up a container of licorice to nibble on. "What about 'squib'? What does that mean?"
"Squibs are kids born to families that don't have magic!" Ron almost yelled the answer before Neville could explain. "Mum's got a cousin who ended up being one. Went to the muggle world and works as a Counter or something. Not sure, 'cause we don't really speak to him any."
"A Counter?" Hermione mumbled as she tried to decode what Ron was saying. By now she was getting used to how the people that were raised in the wizarding world always seemed to mangle words from the muggle world. She had yet to meet someone raised in the wizarding world that didn't mispronounce the word 'electricity'. "Do you mean an Accountant?"
"Yeah, sure, whatever. A Countanter" Ron lazily waved away Hermione's question while mangling the word in an even worse way, causing her to almost growl under her breath at his inability to be accurate with his language. He grabbed up one of the chocolate frogs, ate it in one bite and scoffed at the duplicate card he got, chucking it to the side carelessly.
"And why doesn't your family speak to your relative any longer?" Hermione asked, one eye on Harry as she knew that family was one of his weak points and wondering why Ron's family didn't talk to their own living family member any longer.
"I dunno, cause he's a bitter old squib that doesn't like being reminded he doesn't have magic?" Ron carelessly replied, causing Hermione to inwardly sigh as her suspicion about Ron's bias against anything non-magical was confirmed.
"I still don't get how Malfoy can call you a squib, Neville. I mean, you've gone through as much Hogwarts education as he has and you're doing fine." Harry shook his head. "I guess Malfoy is just a hateful bigot that wouldn't know the truth if it bit him in the arse."
"Language, Harry!" Hermione automatically said, though Harry just stuck his tongue out at her good-naturedly.
"It's cause I never had a case of accidental magic until my uncle Algie dropped me out the window, causing me to bounce. Word got around the social circles of our families and the rumor got started that I was a squib." Neville drooped as his insecurities reared up again. "Me and Gran were so relieved when I got my Hogwarts letter. Well, that and I've been struggling to learn the spells this year. And I'm horrible at potions. And I failed the flying class…"
"No one would be good at potions if they had Snape looming over their shoulder like you do, Nev." Harry patted Neville on the shoulder as he tried reassuring his new friend while looking at Hermione challengingly to see if she would correct him about calling him 'Professor Snape' rather than just 'Snape'. Hermione just stuck her tongue out at him in retaliation for earlier, causing him to laugh.
"And Hermione is arguably the most brilliant witch of our year, yet she also doesn't fly well." A light smack on his shoulder by said witch caused Harry to laugh again. "But I find it weird that you're not doing good in the wand subjects, Neville, 'cause to me you feel a bit more magically powerful than most of our class."
Silence greeted Harry's statement as his three friends stared at him, causing him to get nervous.
"Uh…guys? What's up with the stares?"
"Are you saying you can feel the magical strength of witches and wizards, Harry?" Hermione asked.
"That's a rare gift, Harry." Neville added on. "You might not want to mention that to anyone else if you don't like extra attention."
"Too right I don't like the extra attention." Harry muttered, resolving never to speak of this ability outside his close friends.
"Bloody hell, that's unfair!" Ron muttered, finally getting over his shock that Harry could feel magic.
"Language!"
"Dammit, witch, I'm allowed to curse, it's summer!"
"Just because you're not in school and a professor can't punish you for your language is no reason to get into bad habits!" Hermione argued, glaring right back at Ron.
"So if it's not your magical power that's the problem," Harry muttered before he began scrutinizing Neville from head to foot, completely ignoring Ron and Hermione's spat with the ease of long practice. "What could be causing…your wand!"
Harry's shout caused Hermione and Ron to stop bickering and stare at him in question, their argument completely forgotten a moment later like usual.
"What about his wand?" Ron asked.
"What about my wand?" Neville asked at the same time as Ron.
"It's kind of hard to explain, but it doesn't look like it reacts to you. I know Ron's got a hand-me-down wand." Harry saw Ron's embarrassment and tried to make him feel better by saying, "I know how it is, Ron. I only ever got hand-me-down clothes from Dudley. If you want, I could spring for a new wand for you before second year?"
"No." Ron flatly stated, his ears red from a mixture of embarrassment and anger at the topic. "No, mum and dad were talking about getting me a new one, no need to trouble you."
Harry couldn't tell if Ron was telling the truth, though he thought it likely his friend wasn't being honest. He was sure that if Ron's parents had really been talking about getting him a new wand in their letters to him, he would have been so excited he would have mentioned it to Harry. Maybe he could slip some extra galleons to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley at the train station so Ron really could get a new wand?
"Anyway…" Harry turned his attention back to Neville. "When I look at Hermione or my wand, they look very…close with us. When I look at Ron's wand, it seems a bit standoffish. And your wand looks like it doesn't want you at all, like it wants someone else. So I figure you probably need a new wand."
Neville pulled out the wand he was using all year long and stared at it. "It was my dad's wand. Gran wanted me to use it in memory of my dad. He was a brilliant auror, before…"
Harry nodded and patted Neville's shoulder in commiseration. "I hear you, Nev. The invisibility cloak I got for Christmas from some anonymous wizard belonged to my dad. If it had been his wand instead, I would probably have tried using it in classes as well. But it's important that you get your own wand next year. I guarantee that it'll work much better than your father's. Ollivander himself said that the wand chooses the wizard."
Neville nodded and put his father's wand away. "Yeah. He and mum would have wanted me to do good in school more than they would want me to use their wands in their memory. Thanks, Harry."
"Sure thing, Neville."
"So how are we going to get back at Malfoy?" Ron suddenly asked, causing the other three to stare at him blankly, wondering where his question came from. Ron rolled his eyes at their blank looks about something that seemed so patently obvious to him. And they called him the dumb one. "Listen, Malfoy was always calling us nasty names all year long. Not only was he getting everyone to laugh at us, but he even got Snape to punish us a lot for things we didn't do. If there's one thing being the brother of the twins and my sister has taught me, it's that payback will always come, even if it takes a while to set up. And one little fight here on the train in no way balances the scales of what Malfoy did to us all year long, especially when it was interrupted before we could finish kicking their…"
"Language!" Hermione grinningly preempted Ron on that one, causing the group to chuckle even though Ron also scoffed at Hermione being so on the ball.
"Anyway. My question is: what are we going to do to ensure Malfoy gets what's coming to him for being such a ponce to us all year?"
"Surely…" Hermione trailed off as her thoughts raced. She was going to say something about going to the Hogwarts professors to stop Malfoy's behavior if Ron thought it was so bad, but then she realized that with Snape protecting Malfoy, and even encouraging him, it was unlikely they could get one professor to counter another. They just didn't have the same relationship with any of the professors that Snape and Malfoy had.
Even their own Head of Gryffindor House more often acted in her role as the Deputy Headmistress rather than the Head of Gryffindor House. Rather than protecting her Gryffindors from Snape's unfairness, McGonagall more often got after them for not being respectful to professors or following the school rules or any number of things. She wasn't at all like Snape protecting his Slytherins or Sprout protecting her Hufflepuffs. Flitwick was a bit different in that while he didn't seem to protect his students outwardly, Snape and Malfoy never deliberately went and bothered the Ravenclaws like he did them.
"Even if we do something to get back at Malfoy, I'm not going to become like your brothers and end up serving detention after detention for pranking other students. We have to make sure that none of this can be traceable back to us," Hermione fiercely declared. "I will not have my academic standing affected by juvenile pranks." She spat out the last word quite forcefully and distastefully.
Harry goggled at Hermione, wondering if he really heard Hermione of all people agreeing to prank Malfoy to get back at him. He never thought his best female friend would have the desire to do something so unscholarly.
"What?" Hermione asked Harry when she saw his look of disbelief. She stuck her nose in the air and declared, "Even the most saintly of people will reach a breaking point eventually, and I guarantee that I am no saint. Malfoy has been getting on my last nerve all year and I'm ready for some payback."
"You've only been dealing with Malfoy for a year, Hermione." Neville said. "Try growing up in the same social circles as him and be forced to socialize with him at all the parties."
"You guys got to go to parties growing up?" Ron asked.
"While they are called parties, it's really just an excuse for all those in the Wizengamot and Ministry to get together and talk about business and make deals." Neville rolled his eyes at Ron's jealousy over those parties. "It's dead boring for any kids they drag along to show off to their peers. And I'll remind you, if your parents brought you along to those functions, you would be forced to interact with Malfoy in a polite manner or be punished."
"Yeah, good point." Ron nodded, suddenly not at all jealous that he'd missed so much growing up as a poor Weasley. "Don't think I could handle that, being polite to a Malfoy. And I don't want to know what Fred and George would have done to liven up the parties, let alone if anyone pissed off Ginny. Bat-bogies flying everywhere, probably."
"Bat-bogies?" Hermione inquired with a hint of disbelief that she'd heard correctly in her voice.
"It's my sister's signature hex." Ron gave a brief description of the hex to his friends, getting the expected reactions of disgust and awe at how effective it was as a deterrent. Anyone hit with it once would do nearly anything to avoid it a second time. "Bill, our oldest brother who is working as a curse-breaker at Gringotts, taught it to her. Not even George and Fred dare prank her after she learned it from Bill, so they started going after me and Percy even more. I swear it's why Percy is such a rule-stickler now, even beyond becoming a prefect, having to deal with Fred and George. It's certainly where I got my…never mind. Not important."
As much as Ron liked and trusted his friends, his twin brothers had taught him to never freely admit to any weaknesses that could be exploited, like his fear of spiders. Come to think of it, his fear of spiders was caused by the twins in the first place. Damn those twins!
"So are we really going to be pulling pranks on Malfoy all next year?" Harry asked.
"Well, no." Ron replied. "If we only target Malfoy, it'll make it easier for Snape to catch us."
"Not to mention it could be considered bullying if we exclusively target a single person." Hermione said with a bit of distaste at the thought of being considered a bully. "Certainly harassment."
"So…like what Malfoy and Snape have been doing to us all year?" Harry asked with a grin, causing Hermione to roll her eyes at him.
"If we're really going to be doing this, this pranking of those who deserve justice, we need a name for our group." Neville suddenly added his own idea into the mix, having been inspired by tales of his grandfather fighting Grindelwald's forces back in the war. "A name that doesn't sound like we're up to no good. We'll also need to come up with code words and phrases so we can communicate with each other without anyone else knowing what we're talking about."
"So no names for our group like the Pirates, Raiders, Buccaneers, Vikings, Marauders, or Desperados?" Harry dryly asked, getting a laugh out of everyone.
"We're going to school," Hermione pointed out, "what could be more normal than a study group?"
"You want us to form a study group?" Ron asked in disbelief, gaping at her in exaggerated horror. "You want me to study more than necessary?"
"No, Ronald," Hermione rolled her eyes at his obtuseness, missing the amused glint in his eyes. "I'm talking about naming our pranking for justice group…oh! You're having me on, aren't you?!" Hermione lightly slapped Ron on the shoulder in irritation while Ron fell into a laughing fit.
Harry and Neville exchanged glances and chuckled along, though not quite as bad as how much Ron was due to thinking his joke was hilarious.
"Okay, okay! I give!" Ron finally yelled when he realized the more he laughed the angrier Hermione got at him and the more she hit his shoulder. It was actually starting to hurt by the end. A bit. Not that he would ever admit it. "Sorry, it was just too funny. You should have seen your face."
Hermione scowled at Ron.
"Okay, so our name will be the study group." Harry said, interrupting Hermione from going off on Ron again. "All in favor?"
Four voices vocalized "Aye!" in their compartment.
"Then let the first planning session of the Study Group commence," Neville pompously announced, and four heads leaned forward as they began plotting in earnest.