Forevermore

Hermione Granger had always thought of herself as a bright witch. The whole ‘brightest witch of her age’ was a bit on the nose, but it was true that she had always been able to depend on her brain. Now, during her first week back at Hogwarts, it had turned to wool.

They were welcomed back to school by Professor McGonagall at the grand staircase, who took them, along with all the returning eight years, to a wing in the ground floor, where they strode down multiple doors that Hermione had always assumed were classrooms. She proceeded to explain to them that all the eighth years would be sharing a common space. “This year, you will all be staying together,” she said tersely as they approached a large dark gargoyle. “There is a common space you will all be sharing and private rooms to sleep in, instead of your usual dormitories.”

Ron found this information extremely perplexing and so, eloquently asked “whaddumean share?”

Professor McGonagall huffed in irritation and turned around and spoke out to the Gargoyle - “initium novum”.

This time it was Neville who groaned. Neville had also come back and though he had become the school hero after last year, he still hated having to memorise passwords. The wall behind the Gragoyle moved to make way for an entryway,

As they all filed in, Hermione looked all around. They had stepped into a grand room adorned with furnishings belonging to all the four houses.

Right across the entryway, at her 12 o’ clock, was a wall covered with floor-to-ceiling shelves which were stuffed with books. In front of the book shelf were three round tables with chairs in blue and bronze. At her 6,  the wall behind her held an ornate fireplace with a couch, a few squashy chairs and some pouffes, all in red and gold. To her 3, on the extreme right of the room was a pair of large gothic windows, under which were couches and a thick silk carpet in the Slytherin colours of green and silver.  Lastly, at her 9, on their left she saw a long wooden table large enough to seat all of them covered in a yellow and black runner, and shelves next to it containing what seemed to be an assortment of games, throws, cushions, and tins of biscuits. Further beyond the table was a small kitchen.

“As I was saying,” continued Professor McGonagall, “you will all have a common space to share, which you may make use of as you wish. The door at the Ravenclaw wall leads to the boys’ rooms and the staircase leads up to the girls’ rooms. I understand this may feel unnatural to you, having always stayed with your houses, but this year we will be aiming to improve inter-house relations, and so I hope you will gradually find comfort within these walls. You are welcome to visit your respective common rooms, of course, and you may invite your housemates here as well.”

She sighed once again bracing herself for an uproar. However, she was only met with utter and complete silence. Before any of them could come to terms with their new living quarters, she hastily parted primly saying, “I will be leave you to get settled. See you tomorrow morning at breakfast.” 

The first day of school was extremely awkward. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville met up in their new common room and left for the great hall together. “So much for having a quiet and relaxing eighth year” grumbled Harry as they reached the great hall only for everyone to gawk and whisper.

“How you even considered that as a possibility after six years of surviving this school I will never understand. I have to say I myself am a fan of all this attention,” said Ron preening himself.  

The sorting ceremony had been held the previous night and the eleven year olds at the table were positively gaping at them.

They were handed their timetables and Parvati, also back this year along with her sister Padma, said with relief , “at least we still have classes with our own house.”

And indeed, it seemed their classes were merged with the seventh year of their house.

Harry could not stop grinning as he noted to Ginny “I guess this year isn’t so bad after all if I get to attend all the lessons with you.”

“Harry Potter being corny. Who would’ve guessed?” she jibed at him.

“You will always be the girl who said my eyes are like a pickled toad honey,” he retorted in a sickly-sweet tone.

“Alright you two,” said Ron in his big-brother voice. “We need some rules with you two in public. I will not allow –

“I don’t think you want to finish that sentence Ron.” interrupted Ginny, fire in her eyes. “My boyfriend and I will do as we wish, when we wish, how we wish, and you will tolerate it, capeesh?”

Ron was turning Uncle Vernon’s favourite shade of purple, so Harry quickly stood up pulling Ginny along.

“We will catch-up with you in transfiguration,” he said hastily, consulting his timetable, and they both left hand-in-hand.

“Can you believe these two?” fumed Ron.

 “We all survived ‘Won-Won’. This is nothing in comparison,” Hermione said reflexively and immediately regretted her words. “Um - you know, I think I’m just going to nip to the library. I’ll meet you in class as well.”, she said, obviously flustered, biting her lip.

She swung her bag over her shoulder and made a hasty escape. Only once she reached the library and hid herself behind a shelf, did she to dare to release the breath she had been holding. “What a complete arse you are, Hermione.”, she berated herself. Her words had turned Parvati white, Ron’s expression had slumped into a sad frown, and she herself had felt the overwhelming need to flee. Thinking of Lavender had immediately tied her stomach in knots. She still remembered the last glimpse she had had of her. Of Lavender’s pale and lifeless body. Her vacant eyes. She and Ron had never spoken about it, about her. About how much her death had impacted him. It was one of the many things they had swept under the rug, so they could just survive beyond the war. “Get a grip”, she scolded herself through barred teeth.

She closed her eyes and was trying to calm herself when she was startled by a noise behind her. She turned around to find Theodore Nott standing behind her.

“Um, hey Granger.”

All the Slytherin students had had to come back to Hogwarts as a part of their disciplinary action or whatever it was they were calling it. Hermione didn’t particularly care for the way the ministry had treated them. They had basically been sent back so they could be closely monitored while the ministry decided what action, if any, they could take against them. Malfoy had had a trial, having been a death eater, but the rest of them had not technically done anything unlawful. And yet they were being punished. Realising too much time had passed and she had been just staring back, she replied quietly, “Hi Theodore.”

“Hey, woah! I am Theo. None of this Theodore nonsense,” he smiled.

Hermione relaxed and dropped her shoulders.

“Excuse my manners. Hi Theo,” she smiled back.

“Much better. I was only wondering why the brightest witch of her age is skulking behind the shelves like a Sigben?” he jested.

“Trust me, if I could turn invisible I would.”

“Of course you know what a Sigben is. Here I thought I would put one past you.”

 “Didn’t you just call me the brightest witch of our age,” she bantered back.

“I concede,” he said raising his hands. “We have transfiguration together, mind if I join you?” he asked – a little hesitantly. 

“That depends,” she said in her most serious voice.

“On?” he quirked his brow.

 “Whether you can keep up.”

She was surprised when Theo laughed, a happy carefree laugh, at her words.

“That’s it Granger. I deem us officially friends.”

 And that was how Ron found Hermione and Theo walking in together for Transfiguration, laughing.

“For the last time Ronald, we were just talking. He was only being friendly!” exclaimed Hermione.

“Friendly? Of course, he was being friendly Hermione, you are the golden girl. The perfect way to fix his reputation,” fumed Ron.

They had come back from their lesson and the trio had gone straight to Harry’s room and silenced it because it was evident by the ugly shade of purple that Ron had turned, that he was at the brink of bursting.

“First of all, don’t call me that. Secondly, why do you find it so hard to believe that he was just having a normal conversation with me?” cried Hermione.

“Harry help me out here,” Ron said looking to his best friend.

“You both know very well that I hate getting in the middle of these fights. But – I honestly don’t think there is anything wrong with Hermione talking to Theo, Ron.”

“Excuse me? Did you both fall and hit your heads? When have we ever been friends with Slytherins?”

“I have actually been meaning to talk to you both about this.”, said Harry in his low and calm voice, the one he used when Ron was getting worked up. “I think we should try to be more friendly with the other houses. Not just Slytherin – all the other houses. McGonagall was right. We need to have better inter-house relations. Otherwise we will never get past our differences.”

After lunch they had double Charms, with Ravenclaw this time. This year was the first time that Hermione had not read her textbooks beforehand, and so she found herself not able to answer when Professor Flitwick asked “how do you combine two charms, such that they keep their desired properties, without cross-reacting with any ill-effects?”

By the time they finished dinner, and Hermione went up to the library - this time to truly study - her mind was already overstrained. She was behind in her lessons, Ron was once again fighting with her, and she had no idea if he was right and Theo really did want to talk to her for her newfound status in the wizarding society. Not to mention she still hadn’t told anyone about her nightmares and was dreading sleeping in her new room by herself.

It was going to be a long year.