Chapter 2

Magnetics 101

My sixth year at primary school was flying past. I always got straight A's without a struggle. This gave me plenty of time to read my first-year books for Hogwarts. I practiced things like simple spells. My wand—I love my wand—and I became friends. The people from Hogwarts checked in on me regularly. They took me to Diagon Alley a few more times so I could buy more books and get comfortable in a magical environment.

When school ended in June, my parents informed the school system in Chipping Norton that I would not be returning in the fall. I had been gifted a scholarship by a wealthy aunt to attend an elite school in Scotland. They were supportive of the situation because I was such a gifted student and deserved the best.

I divided my summer between playing with my friends and studying. They were all sad, as was I, when I told them I was going away for school in the fall. As Leaving Day, as it is called, approached, I became more and more obsessed with my magical studies. I was nervous about going to a school full of kids who had known they were magical all of their lives. How was I going to fit in with them? How could I compete with them? Would I be able to make new friends? I became a bigger and bigger ball of anxiety.

The night before my leaving for Hogwarts, I had a wonderful little party with my closest friends. We ate pizza and ice cream at a favorite restaurant. We tried to have a good time filled with excitement and happiness. However, by the end, we were all sad and teary-eyed about our looming separation. It was like we were never going to hear from or see each other again. Such are the minds of eleven-year-olds.

I was up extra early the next morning. Mom gave me a bowl of porridge and some orange juice. I could barely eat, I was so wound up. Professor Sinistra arrived precisely at 7:30 am. We were on our way a few minutes later. The train was scheduled to leave from King's Cross Station at promptly 11:00 am, so we had to press forward.

The traffic became more and more annoying as we neared central London. "We can't be late," I whined. "I'll die if I miss the train."

"We're fine, dear," said my father in his most reassuring voice. 'We have plenty of time."

His words only had a minor effect. I felt like a bag full of bees by the time we parked and made our way inside. Even though I did not know where I was going, I wanted to run down the platform between 9 and 10 pushing my trolley.

"This is your ticket," said the professor as she handed it to me. "Don't lose it or you will not be able to get on the train."

"It says Platform 9," I said. "There's no such thing."

"Just watch," she replied pointing at a family in front of us. "Watch that boy."

A tall slim, boy was pushing a trolley much like mine. It had an owl in a cage on top. Suddenly, he started to trot at a column between the trains. Then, he literally disappeared into the column. I nearly fainted.

Once I regained my composure, the professor told me to do the same thing. I did as instructed, wincing and closing my eyes just before impact. When I reopened them, I was standing on a different platform full of families helping their children onto an amazing steam train called the Hogwarts Express. A few seconds later, the professor and my parents were standing beside me.

The professor helped me give my trolley to a porter. She led me to the steps of a car. My parents and I shared a tearful hug as I climbed aboard. I picked out an empty compartment and went inside. A couple of moments later, a girl who looked the same age as me opened the door and asked if she could join me.

"Of course," I replied. I was delighted that someone wanted to sit with me. It was my first chance to make a friend.

"I'm Susan Bones," she said. "I'm a first-year."

"I am pleased to meet you, Susan," I said. "I'm Hermione Granger. This is my first time, too. It is so exciting."

"Yes, it is."

By the time the whistle sounded and the train lurched into motion, there were six of us in the compartment. We were all first years. Parvati and Padma Patil were twins. The other girls were named Hannah Abbott and Lydia Fawley. They were all purebloods. I felt intimidated. But they found my status of being muggle-born fascinating. They promised to help me adapt and fit in.

About an hour after getting to know each other better later, a very nervous, timid boy appeared at our door. He said his name was Neville Longbottom and that he had lost a toad named Trevor. He wanted to know if we had seen it.

I immediately recognized his last name as one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight I had read about. I was already in a compartment with two girls with another Sacred Twenty-Eight names. If I could make friends with classmates like this, I might stand a chance at the school.

My—my—my Gran bought him for me," he said with a hint of fear and desperation in his voice. "If I lose him, she will be angry."

"Let me help you look," I said, jumping to my feet. The need to go the extra yard was filling my mind. I instantly forgot all about my problems. Suddenly, I was on a mission to help this new acquaintance.

Our first assumption was that Trevor had to still be in this car. There is no way a toad could open the doors and make the moves necessary to enter another car. Neville started checking things toward the front. I started in the opposite direction. And that is when I saw him.

He was in a compartment with another boy. They were pigging out on a huge pile of candy. I cracked open their door and asked if either of them had seen a toad. A boy named Neville had lost one.

He looked up at me from under the most stunningly beautiful, unruly mass of red hair. He had a pair of dazzling, blue eyes, and a dirty smudge on his nose. My eyes were drawn to him like magnets to iron. I wanted to survey every inch of him.

"We already told him we hadn't seen it," he said.

"Are you doing spells?" I asked, looking for an excuse not to leave. "Let's see it, then."

"Errr—right," he said as I sat down next to him. He pointed his wand at the rat sleeping on his lap and said something about sunshine, daisies, and butter. Nothing happened.

"I asked him if he was sure that it was a real spell."

He hesitated before saying his brothers Fred and George had told him about it. He introduced himself as Ron Weasley. I knew that name as another member of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. The other boy said his name was Harry Potter.

"Are you really?" I asked, turning my attention to him and wanting to see his scar. "I've read all about you."

"You have?" he responded in a surprised voice. "I mean I am."

"Yes. You're really quite famous. I would think you would know that."

Harry showed me his scar. He seemed really shy and quiet.

"Well. I really need to get back to helping Neville find his toad," I said half-heartedly. I really wanted to stay next to Ron and bask in the glow of his red hair and blue eyes.

Look as we did, we never found Neville's toad. The train eventually arrived at a place called Hogsmeade Station. All of us first-year students were gathered by this enormous man with wild, bushy, black hair named Hagrid. He loaded us four at a time into boats. They sailed themselves across the lake as we sat mesmerized by the splendor of the castle on the hill. When the boats finally landed, Hagrid led us up the hill and into the castle. I was beginning to feel the magic all around me.

The most witchy-looking witch I could ever imagine met us at the top of the stairs. Hagrid called her Professor McGonagall. She instructed us on the basics of being sorted into houses and how our behavior and performance would affect our houses. I was standing next to, almost touching Ron as she spoke. I found it difficult to concentrate.

Once she finished, she led us into a huge room filled with cheering students to begin the sorting process. I had very little knowledge of the sorting ceremony and had never heard of the Sorting Hat. It was quite a sight to see it come to life and sing a song. Once it finished, Professor McGonagall unfurled a scroll and adjusted her glasses.

All of the students seemed nervous as she called the first person, Hannah Abbott. From there, the sorting proceeded alphabetically. By the time she finally called my name, I was a bundle of nerves ready to explode.

"Hermione Granger," she said. My knees weakened. My mind was short-circuiting. I wanted to grab Ron for support but he was standing too far away from me next to Harry and Neville.

"Focus, Granger," I muttered as I tried to get my lead-filled legs to move.

"Come along," said the professor in an impatient voice. "Don't dawdle."

All of the eyes in the room were on me. I was trembling inside. Once I reached my perch on the stool, the professor put the hat on my head. "Right. Right," it said. I could literally feel it probing my brain. "There's a brilliant mind here, plenty of courage, and a moral sense of right and wrong. I should probably put you in Ravenclaw," it said. "But no, it better be Gryffindor."

A cheer rose from the Gryffindor table as two boys ran up. They took my hands and led me away. Everyone was very welcoming and for the first time, I started to relax a little.

A few minutes later, Neville Longbottom joined me at the table, then Harry Potter. When the professor finally called 'Ron Weasley', I got all tingly inside. "Please, please, please," I begged, trying to will the hat to say Gryffindor. When it did, a jolt of electricity shot through me. I started to jump up to gather him but caught myself before I did something foolish.

"Hello, Ron. Welcome to Gryffindor," I chirped, as did Lavender Brown and several others amid the backslapping from his twin brothers Fred and George, and his more brother, Percy. I thought it strange that George grudgingly gave Fred some money as Ron took his seat. However, it did not matter as a strange tingling filled me in places I did not understand.

"Hey, Harry," he said with a big exhale. "I made it. Uh—hi, uh—uh Hermione."

"I was slightly hurt that he did not instantly know my name, but he did remember it. That was all that mattered. I had no idea of the stress release hidden behind that cleansing breath. If I had known all five of his older brothers were Gryffindors, as were his mother and father, I would have better understood the situation.

Once the sorting was finished, we were treated to a feast beyond compare. If all of the food at Hogwarts was this good, it was going to be a truly wonderful life as a student. The festivities lasted until Professor Dumbledore announced that it was time to head off to our dormitories. We needed to unpack our belongings and get a good night's sleep. Classes would begin in the morning.

The girl's dorm rooms were designed to be home to five girls for the next seven years. My roommates were named Lavender Brown, Samantha Larchwood, Parvati Patil, and Carpathia Skint. Our beds were organized alphabetically. I wondered if it was by design or inadvertent. But, it did not matter because my bed was next to the window.

We unpacked and giggled well into the night. While the others had known they were witches since they were old enough to understand, I had not. Still, it was not until just now that it was really sinking in for all of us. It took a long time, but finally, we put out the lamps and turned in for the night.

Classes started the following day. I jumped into them the same way I did back home. I was certain that being an outstanding student would put me on a path to amaze my friends, thrill my family, and be popular. I was sadly mistaken.

The other students began to shun me as a showoff that made them look stupid. Even Professor Snape, the most feared of the professors, chastised me for being an 'incessant know-it-all'. The fact that I was muggle-born made things worse. Still, the biggest sting was feeling unliked by the people I thought could be my friends.

My roommates started doing things together while excluding me. I do not know if it was intentional. However, I noticed it more and more. I would say hello to people in the corridors and dining hall without getting a response. I felt ready to cry all of the time. The desire to abandon the magical world I loved so much was starting to creep toward the front of my mind and poison my thoughts.

On Halloween, a day that I learned was of particular joy and wonder to the magical world, I was coming out of the school following class. I saw Harry and Ron walking together, so I hurried to catch them. Surely, they would not shun me like the others. And that is when I heard Ron say it.

"She's a nightmare," he said, probably still mad because he could not say 'Wingardium Leviosa' correctly in Charms class. "It's no wonder she doesn't have any friends." I had only been trying to be helpful. That made his words cut me like a knife. How could this boy I liked and thought I really liked above all of the others be so mean to me? I started to tear up as my stomach churned.

I crashed into him with my shoulder before turning back and running into the school. By the time I made it to the girl's lavatory, tears were pouring out of my eyes. " I want my Mom and Dad to whisk me back home. I am not a good witch. I'm a horrible witch. Hermione the Bad," I thought.

Time passed. It felt like the whole day. I know people knew I was in here but no one had come in to check on me. Suddenly, I heard a noise and the door crashed open. " Who's here? " I thought. " Who finally cares enough to check on me? " A couple of seconds later, my heart nearly stopped.

I peeked out of a stall where I was sitting and found myself confronted by a huge Mountain Troll. I had read about them. I thought I was about to die. All I could do was scream and run back into the stall.

The troll took a swing with his club. It destroyed most of the stalls but missed me. I cowered beside a stool. Just as it was raising its club for another swing, Harry and Ron burst into the lavatory. My saviors. Maybe they did care about me after all.

The troll took another swing that splintered the rest of the stalls. Harry yelled for me to move as they started throwing whatever was handy at the troll. I scurried under a sink. As I screamed, Harry jumped on the troll's back but the troll got him by the ankle and tried to hit him. Ron pulled out his wand and said 'Wingardium Leviosa' with a perfect swish and flick. He HAD listened to me. " YES! " I thought. I felt strangely good. The troll's club went high into the air and then fell, striking him in the head. He fell to the floor unconscious.

Seconds later, professors McGonagall, Snape, and Quirrell ran into the room. Once they were certain the troll was incapacitated, Professor McGonagall demanded to know what happened. I knew Harry and Ron were going to get into trouble even though their actions had saved me. I could not let them take any of the blame.

"It's my fault, professor," I said. I took all of the blame to spare them. I did not know it at the time but this was the beginning of a lifelong friendship.

Soon afterward, Harry, Ron, and I found ourselves entangled in a plot by an evil force to steal a magical object called the Philosopher's Stone. Before I knew it, we were in over our heads fighting a battle we did not fully understand against an enemy we did not know. After getting passed Hagrid's giant, three-headed dog named Fluffy, we were nearly killed by the Devil's Snare because I panicked.

Afterward, I was mad at Ron. He had saved us by remembering that Devil's Snare hates light. I knew that. I just could not remember it while I was panicking. He had showed me up. " Why does he always make me mad ?" I thought. I could not calm down until the end of the Wizard's Chess game. Ron sacrificed himself so Harry and I could proceed. At, first, I thought he was dead. However, he seemed to just be unconscious. How could I still be mad at him? " He's a hero, " I thought. " I knew he'd come through. "

Harry and I went on to face a Potion Test. We had to discover the vial containing the potion that would let him move forward. We had one chance to avoid the vials of poison and nettle tea. I used logic to solve the riddle. Harry was able to go on to face, as I found out later, the Mirror of Erised and Professor Quirrell. Quirrell was possessed by Voldemort. Harry nearly died but defeated the professor and retrieved the Stone.

Ron, so I found out later, was taken to the infirmary after his sacrifice. I was returned to Gryffindor Tower to clean up and change clothes. By the time I arrived at the hospital expecting to see Ron, Harry was there in bed. Ron was standing next to him eating a chocolate frog. I was so glad to see that Ron was alive and well that I ran over and hugged him. I wanted to kiss him, but I think I already embarrassed him enough.

Harry eventually woke up. He told us about the fight with Quirrel and Voldemort. After a talk with Dumbledore, we were informed that there would be a banquet to celebrate.

The next day, the school was treated to the banquet. Once I had my fill of the food and festivities, I returned to my dorm room to read and call it an evening. When I arrived, Lavender, Parvati, Samantha, and Carpathia were already there. They were giggling and acting very suspicious.

[I indicated in the introduction that I intended to give you the parts of my life–even the naughty bits—that were missing in the original series. So, anyway, here we go with the first of a few never-before-told 'naughty bits'. -Hermione]

"What's going on?" I asked. "You seem to be up to something."

"You know the prefects bath up on the fifth floor?" said Lavender.

"Yes, I have heard Percy boast about it more than once."

We're going to sneak up there and take a soak," Lavender continued. "Parvati overheard two of our prefects talking about it. C'mon. Let's go."

"No. We can't. That would be against the rules. We will get in trouble," I replied. "We'll lose points for Gryffindor and get detention."

"Blimey," said Carpathia. "You just broke a zillion rules and helped defeat the ghost of you know who. Don't go soft on us, now."

"Yeah," joined in Samantha. "The five of us are a team. We all stick together. That's been our code all year."

I had to agree with Samantha. Even when just about everyone else was being mean to me, my roommates mostly stuck to my side. We were, as she said, a team. I suppose all of the help I gave them with homework had something to do with it, too.

"Yeah. Well, I—uh—I—uh—" I replied hesitantly.

"C'mon," reiterated Lavender.

"O—o—okay," I relented against my better judgment.

A minute later, we quietly exited through the portrait of the Fat Lady and were sneaking through the corridors. Everything was calm. Everyone else was either back in their dorms preparing for bed or still celebrating in the Great Hall. It was a perfect opportunity for some shenanigans, even though I basically disapproved.

" Why am I doing this?" I wondered as we crept along. " This is wrong. I just know I'm going to get in trouble."

Before I knew it, we soon arrived at the statue of Boris the Bewildered. Parvati looked at it and said "Daisy Fresh". A door swung open and we entered.

"It's beautiful," gushed Lavender as we were greeted by walls of white marble lined with shelves and benches smelling of cedar. Against the left wall, were lockers. Each one had the name of a prefect on it.

We all disrobed and placed our clothes neatly on a corner shelf. We were all giggling as we entered the bath. Even though we were roommates, we were seldom naked in front of each other. We had a sort of decorum in our room to respect each other's privacy. Seeing all of us naked gave me an odd, tingly feeling I could not explain.

The main bath was beautiful with a huge chandelier hanging over the center of a tub large enough for fifty people. The marble walls of the room were decorated with stained glass windows featuring mermaids, forest animals, and mountains. All of the hardware, including the faucets were gold with jewels set in them. The faucets turned themselves on. Steamy, colorfully translucent water started flowing from the taps matching the jewels in their handles. Along the side were several shelves with towels, washcloths, soaps, shampoos, powders, and anything else a bather might require.

Within moments, the bubbly tub was filled. We carefully entered it. It was the most soothing, perfect water you could imagine. Before long, we were frolicking about splashing, dunking each other, and being foolish. I found it strangely exciting to touch my naked roommates and be touched by them. Lavender and Samantha were starting to get boobs. I could not help but stare at them. I wondered when I would start growing my own.

Samantha came up to me and made a face like she wanted to kiss me. I froze, stuck between wanting to flee and wanting to be brave enough to kiss her. Then, she squirted a mouthful of water in my face and started laughing. I was about to retaliate when we heard a noise like the door.

" OH NO! " flashed through my mind. " We're going to be caught."

We all hurried out of the water and peeked around the corner. We could see the shadow of a person opening a locker. We had to escape but our clothes were next to them. There was no way we could retrieve them.

A split-second later, five naked girls were scurrying through the hallways trying not to get caught. Mercifully, we made it back to our dorms and into our room with nothing more than a scolding from the Fat Lady about needing to be better behaved.

We got into our night clothes as we discussed how we would explain how our robes, shoes, and wands ended up in the locker room. It was decided we would go to our prefects in the morning and claim they were missing. We would suspect a prank of some sort. That way, we could be ahead of the situation.

Then, just as we were settling back to go to sleep, our door exploded open like it had been hit by a blasting charm. There, in the doorway, was prefect Cynthia Fawley with an armload of clothes. Her face was Gryffindor Red.

"WHAT IN THE FUCKING HELL WERE YOU THINKING? " she screamed. " Whose barmy idea was it to break into the prefects' bath and go playing about?"

We all looked at her. We were too scared to speak.

"I followed your wet path. You're lucky it was me who barged in on you, and that I was alone. If Percy was with me, your arses would all be in McGonagall's office by now. If it was a prefect from a different house, we'd ALL be in Dumbledore's office.

"I—I'm sor—sorry. It—it was a mi—mistake," I stuttered.

"YOU'RE SORRY? IT WAS MISTAKE? JUST A FUCKING MISTAKE?" she yelled. "We'd have probably lost a hundred house points. You'd have handed fucking Slytherin the House Cup on a platter. You'd be doing detention all summer if Snape had a say. You'd be hanging by your thumbs in the dungeons if Filch had his way.

We were all trembling. What was Cynthia going to do?

"NOW GET YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR BLOODY ARSES BEFORE YOU GET US ALL EXPELLED!" she hollered as she threw our stuff into the air before slamming the door. Our wands and shoes clattered across the floor as the cloud of clothes flew onto our beds and the floor.

"Holy shit," gasped Carpathia in a subdued voice.

"Yeah," wheezed Samantha.

I quietly cried myself to sleep. The thought of being expelled scared me more than anything I could imagine. We were all very contrite in the morning as we sat at the breakfast table. However, other than a couple of severe scowls from Cynthia. It seemed as if the worst had passed.

The last few days of school ended without incident. When we left for summer break, Harry, Ron, and I shared a train compartment. We were solidified as good friends. I was certain everything was going to be fine from here on out.