Chapter Text
Dolores Umbridge sat back down at the high table and the student body shook itself out of its stupor.
The pink of her clothing did not hide the high quality of the fabric but something about it sat wrong. Hermione studied the lines of Professor Umbridge’s robes but couldn’t figure out what was out of place.
“Okay,” Harry said, ducking his head to whisper in her ear, “I got about half of that. This isn’t good, right?”
“The ministry is interfering this year,” Hermione agreed. “Though I don’t understand why.”
“It’s got to be Dumbledore, right?”
“I don’t know,” Hermione whispered. “A lot of that has blown over since Sirius’s trial.”
A trial where Sirius Black confirmed under veritaserum that Voldemort was back. That had quieted much of the debate over his return. The ministry had launched an investigation, though it hadn’t gone anywhere. Voldemort had vanished without a trace.
The newspapers had quickly learned to keep Harry’s name out of the headlines lest they wanted to be crushed under the might of House Black, or “the newly awakened paternal instinct of rake Sirius Black” as Rita Skeeter put it.
“Maybe it’s about the Triwizarding tournament?” Harry asked doubtfully. “Or the basilisk?”
“Maybe,” she echoed. It didn’t feel right.
The many rings Professor Umbridge wore on her fingers glinted as she took a dainty sip of her drink.
The student body’s murmurs returned the roar of conversation.
“First years!” Harry looked over at Lavender Brown and Neville standing at the end of the table nearest the doors and she watched him make the connection. “First years, over here please!”
“You’re not a prefect?” He asked.
“Why would I be?” She asked calmly. She’d already mourned the loss when her letter came by itself.
“Why wouldn’t you be?”
“Ignoring school rules, polyjuice potion, illegal time turner use, smuggling a dragon out of Hogwarts,” Hermione counted on her fingers. “I’m hardly the person they’d want to uphold the rules.”
Harry’s expression made clear he knew that was bullshit but some of his etiquette tutoring and Mrs. Tonk’s lessons must have stuck because he didn’t even turn to glare at the high table. “He’s mad because you ignored what he told you to do.”
“There’s no way to know,” she said.
Ron, Dean, and Seamus waded through the first years, laughing.
“You ready to go up?” Harry asked.
“Alright,” she agreed, sighing. If she were to get into politics, she needed to practice her small talk. There would be no reading in the library tonight.
They rose from the table together and joined the fray in a deadlock at the doors.
“Good lord,” Hermione sighed. “You think we wouldn’t forget how to do this every year.”
They watched as a third-year Ravenclaw tried to shove his way through only to succeed in getting squished between two sixth-year Hufflepuffs.
A Ravenclaw prefect had begun to direct traffic, coordinating with a Head Boy. Someone knocked into Hermione and Harry offered her his arm. She hated crowds like this, especially after this summer.
As the throng of students eased, she and Harry slipped through the wide doors, Harry automatically moving to keep her away from most of the crowd before stopping short and reaching for his wand. Draco Malfoy blocked their way, looking startled and leaning against the wall, waiting at the end of the line of the First Year Slytherins.
“Potter,” Malfoy said after the silence had gotten weird.
“Malfoy,” Harry said, cautiously.
Malfoy gritted his teeth and then said, “Ms. Granger.”
“Mr. Malfoy,” she replied, baffled and amused in equal measure.
“Right,” Harry said slowly, drawing out the word, and then they were moving again.
Once they hit the stairs, Harry took his arm back. “That was weird.”
“I might prefer the slurs,” Hermione said. “At least I know to expect it. I wonder if his mother is making him.”
“Why?”
“Mrs. Tonks made it clear that she supports me.”
“Why is life so complicated now?” Harry asked the stairs. “Why can’t it just be … be -”
“A madman who wants to kill you and prejudice?”
“Exactly! A madman who wants to kill me and prejudice. It was much simpler.”
“Harry!” Angelina came running up. “Quidditch tryouts, I need you there.”
Harry was lost to a rapid-fire debate around quidditch strategy as they joined the queue for the common room.
“Hermione!” Parvati came over. “We are going to invite the first years to a tour! Show them around the bathrooms and lavatory and then - if you are okay with it - host them for a slumber party. Some of them have never been away from home before. Would you like to join?”
The offer was genuine, but Parvati was expecting her to say no. Like she always did.
“Sure,” Hermione said. Watching pleased surprise spread across her classmate’s face. “I’d love to join.”
“Amazing! It will be after they have some time to settle in, the elves have already brought up their trunks.”
They spilled into the common room, the rich golds and deep reds soothing her as surely as her parent’s living room did.
“I’ll come find you when it’s time!” Parvati said. “I think there is a muggle-born this year, she looks very overwhelmed.”
Quite suddenly, Hermione was painfully aware of the rings on her fingers. Of the way her hair was braided back and up. Of the wand holster on her forearm. She wasn’t wearing her denims anymore.
“I’d bet,” her voice sounded far away from herself. Zippers. She needed something with zippers. Something muggle. Something to keep her anchored.
“Hermione!” Harry called from one of the couches. She moved on autopilot and joined him on the couch.
“So then,” Seamus gestured wildly, “Bam! It went up in smoke.”
Ron shook his head, smiling, “I could have told you how that ended.”
“It doesn’t always explode,” Seamus said. “It works sometimes. Anyway, what did you do this summer?”
Ron glanced at Harry before answering. “Quidditch, tutoring, my brother Bill moved home so I spent a lot of time with him, the usual.”
“Tutoring!?” Dean shoved at him. “Why?”
Harry took over at Ron’s second, more panicked glance. “Sirius was making me and decided to invite Ron and Hermione so I wasn’t alone.”
Lavender laughed, “I bet you loved that, Hermione.”
Something about the way Lavender had said that set Hermione’s teeth on edge. Still, her tone had been polite so she smiled and replied, “It was very informative.”
“So you had homework?”
“Only for divination,” Ron said with a shrug.
“Divination?” Lavender said, turning her whole body to face Ron. “What kind?”
Ron rubbed the back of his neck, an effect of the whole group paying attention to him Hermione knew, but didn’t blush as badly as she was expecting. “I have the best results with coins, but I think a deck of cards would work really well too. I just can’t figure out what deck.”
“What have you tried?”
The group quickly got tired of the various kinds of card decks Ron had tried and resumed comparing summers.
“So, obviously there’s nothing new with you,” Dean teased Harry.
Sirius and Mrs. Tonks had talked a lot with both of them on how to handle all the questions. It had boiled down to whatever Harry was comfortable with.
“It was a good summer,” Harry said, smiling. “I played a lot of quidditch.”
“I bet!” Angelina and Alicia leaned against the back of the couch. “Your birthday was really fun.”
“Hai Hai is cool too,” Neville said, settling on the floor next to Ginny and placing a plant in front of him. It looked like an ill cactus.
“Hai Hai?”
“My snake,” Harry said. “Sirius let me get a pet.”
“He let you get a snake?” Seamus asked.
“Yes?”
“Is that smart?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Won’t people think you’re the next, er, dark lord or something?”
Harry tilted his head. Many of the finer points of politics annoyed Harry. The lesson that had stuck was how to pretend to be polite and helpful. “Why would people think the boy-who-lived would be a dark lord?”
“Because of the snake,” Seamus said, sensing the trap but pressing forward anyway.
“Why would a snake turn me evil?” Harry asked, tilting his head the other way. The snake ear cuff curling around his ear stood out with his new haircut.
“You’re a parselmouth!”
“Which is why I got a pet snake,” Harry said, slowly. Angelina was trying to hide her smile. Neville was failing to do so. “If I got a cat or a dog I wouldn’t have been able to talk to them. Besides I can play fetch with Sirius.”
Angelina and Alicia’s giggles caused Seamus to nearly shout to be heard, “You-Know-Who is a parselmouth!”
“That’s probably why he went for a pet snake too,” Harry said, seriously. “He wouldn’t be able to talk to dogs.”
“Or bears,” Neville said. “If I were a dark lord I would use bears.”
“Really?” Ginny pushed herself off the floor and swung herself onto the couch next to Hermione, squishing the three of them together. “I would militarize garden gnomes. They have a mean bite.”
“You,” Dean accused, “are terrifying.”
“Thank you,” Ginny said, grinning.
Harry leaned slightly around Hermione to look over at Ginny. She didn’t appear to notice. Hermione cast her eyes to the heavens.
“The press isn’t going to like this,” Seamus said.
“They like Hai Hai,” Neville said. “They think his fashion advice is hilarious.”
“What?” Seamus asked flatly.
“Harry takes him to the Wizengamot sometimes,” Neville explained. "Harry translates for him."
“Only when Mrs. Tonks doesn’t catch him,” Hermione added.
“Which is most of the time,” Harry said. “She’s sneaky.”
“I’m sorry,” Seamus said in a way that suggested he wasn’t sorry at all, “the wizarding world is having a crisis about whether or not Dumbledore is off is rocker for backing you and you’re doing everything you can to be a dark wizard?”
Harry gave a smirk he’d lifted off of Sirius, “Sirius says I can’t dabble in dark magic until I’m seventeen.”
“I’m serious, mate,” Seamus said, standing. “My mother almost didn’t let me come back this year ‘cause of the nonsense you’re spouting and you’re off having a lark?”
“It’s not nonsense,” Hermione cut in calmly. “Voldemort is back.”
“You can’t bring someone back from the dead!”
“Then, obviously, he wasn’t dead,” Hermione countered.
“You’re only saying that because Potter has bought your -” A coin smacked off his face and he doubled over covering his eye before he could finish his hand gesture.
“Anyone else?” Ron asked tersely.
“House Black preparing for war was a pretty clear signal,” Parvati said, hands raised. “You’d have to be blind not to see that something’s on the horizon.”
Ron glanced around again before sitting down on the floor next to Lavender. She summoned his coin over to her and offered it back to him.
“Thanks,” Ron said, determinedly not looking at anyone else.
“Voldemort is back,” Harry said, all humour gone from his voice.
“Why should we believe you?” Seamus cupped his eye and glared at Ron.
“Sirius testified under veritaserum,” Ginny said.
“That he believes Harry,” Seamus said. “That’s all that proves. I’m sure that Sirius, in all his eagerness to prove himself, could testify that he believes Harry.”
“If you had paid attention,” Hermione said, “you would have noticed that Sirius cited Harry’s medical records.”
“Could have been the muggles,” Seamus insisted stubbornly. “You said they treated you worse than a house elf.”
Harry raised both his eyebrows and in a very mild tone replied, “Muggles can’t cast the cruciatus curse, mate.”
Seamus sat back down, red-faced.
“You had curse damage?” Lavender asked, in a hushed tone, gripping her wand tightly in her hands.
“From this year,” Harry said with a shrug, “and a couple of other times too.”
“I beg your pardon?” Parvati’s hand came up to hover by her heart.
“It’s not the first time I fought Voldemort,” Harry said.
“Well, yeah,” Seamus flapped a hand at Harry’s forehead. Hermione settled in, sensing the mood Harry was in.
“And then there was the time Voldemort tried to kill me first year,” Harry said, leaning back in his seat, arm coming up behind her. “The basilisk in second year and the dementors in third.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Seamus half shouted, drawing half the room’s attention to them.
“I didn’t have proof,” Harry said, the reasonable tone he was using Hermione recognized from Ted. “I was kidnapped in front of an audience this time and you still don’t believe me. All I had as evidence last time was curse damage and my word.”
“I thought my curse damage was more impressive,” Ginny said when the staring got to be a bit much.
Hermione looked over at Ginny to see where she was going with this.
“Oh?” Harry asked, obviously unsure.
“Enchanted by Voldemort for two whole semesters?” Ginny knew the effect she was having on the group. “Beats one measly Basilisk bite.”
“It bit you?” Angelina asked, horrified.
“Only a little bit,” Harry rolled back his sleeve to show his scar.
“You were enchanted by Voldemort?” Dean's voice was a high-pitched squeak.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“No one asked,” Ginny said with a shrug. “It’s not exactly easy to slide into the average conversation.”
“I’m feeling left out,” Ron said cautiously as the group dissolved into chatter. He was looking at her. Seamus was watching them.
“Speak for yourself,” Hermione said. “I had a time-turner last year.”
“I suppose I played death chess.”
A flurry of feathers occurred in the corner of the room, effectively stealing their attention. Hermione didn’t know who had been the poor student who was now a canary but she hoped they’d known what they’d been getting into.
Lavender jumped up to investigate, prefect badge shiny on her robes, and the group slowly followed along in her wake. Hermione stayed next to Harry who seemed content on the couch. Ginny and Ron stayed where they were.
Ron was giving her a hopeful look.
“You owe me several apologies,” Hermione said shortly. “And another for me having to tell you that.”
“Will you apologize to me?” Ron countered, hopeful look souring.
“For what?” Hermione asked. “I didn’t call you a whore.”
“That’s not what -” Ron cut off as Dean sat back down on the sofa.
“They’re giving out free pranks or paying you this year if you test products for them.”
“Not interested,” Ginny slumped further into her seat, settling in. “I’ve unknowingly tested enough products for them already.”
“Can they legally test on first years?” Hermione wondered. “Or anyone underage?”
“I’ll write Bill,” Ginny said, tipping her head back and closing her eyes with a sigh. “He’ll figure it out.”
“He seems to be home more,” Hermione said.
“It’s a nice change,” Ginny said. “He gets what mum and dad are like.”
Dean made a question noise.
“Our parents are amazing,” Ginny said without opening her eyes. “It’s just that there’s seven of us.”
A bang echoed and a cloud of sparkling purple smoke started to billow across the ceiling.
“And two of the seven are Fred and George,” Ron said.
“Ah,” Dean said, eyeing the smoke.
“Hermione!” Lavender called. “Are you ready?”
“I’ll see you later?” Hermione asked Harry.
“Probably,” he said. “As a responsible student, I may go to bed early in order to be ready for my first day of classes.”
Hermione snorted as she stood.
“I take offence to that,” Harry called as she walked away.
Lavender and Parvati stood by a small gaggle of first-year students looking up at the smoke in awe. One girl had no jewellery on besides a pair of muggle-made butterfly earrings. She was the quietest, glancing at her fellow yearmates as they chattered and then back up at the smoke nervously.
Hermione’s heart broke and remade itself in an instant. This year was going to be different. She was going to be different.
“Hello,” she said, approaching the group. They turned to look at her. “My name is Hermione Granger. I’m a fifth-year muggle-born. It’s lovely to meet you all.”