Prologue
It took Hermione a few moments to remember what had happened when she woke up. In fact, Madam Pomfrey had to remind her what happened. She had been petrified. All Hermione remembered were big yellow eyes staring at her in the tiny hand held mirror.
She was furious with herself for being stupid enough to get petrified. What worth was it to be the brightest witch of her age when it was that easy for her to get frozen in place. If she hadn’t thought ahead she would be dead, stuck roaming the hallways of the school for the rest eternity, just like Moaning Myrtle. Hermione grimaced at the thought.
A couple minutes after she woke up Dumbledore came in and explained what happened after she was petrified by the Basilisk. She was relatively annoyed when she found out how long it took Harry and Ron to figure out she was quite literally holding the answers in her hand. She was proud of Harry for fighting a literal Basilisk. And she was absolutely devastated after finding out what happened to Ginny. She quite liked the younger girl.
Hermione was in a state of utter euphoria when she saw her friends. She finally felt like she belonged somewhere, she had friends who cared about her. She started grinning the second she saw their faces brighten upon seeing her awake. She was absolutely beaming when Harry hugged her. These were her first ever real friends.
Much to her friends' confusion, she was extremely relieved when the headmaster announced that exams had been canceled. She was afraid she would burst if she had to learn and study 2 months worth of materials. Don’t get her wrong she was planning on learning all that she missed, but she needed time to recover.
Her friends were catching her up on what had all happened from their perspective, it seemed the headmaster had left out a lot when he came to see her, when Dumbledore motioned for silence.
“Students and faculty. Spirits are high tonight. And I hope you are all having fun catching up with those who were petrified. That being said, I have a big announcement. Working with the headmasters from both Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, we have organized a type of training program. We have selected students with the most academic and magical potential, to spend July and August learning and practicing with the other schools. Now, if I call your name that means you have been selected.
Cho Chang
Cedric Diggory
Hermione Granger
Luna Lovegood
Draco Malfoy
Fred Weasly
George Weasly
And Blaise Zabini.”
Hermione was beaming, this training program would be a great opportunity. Just thinking about learning from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang was making her leg bounce in excitement.
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Stepping off the train at Kings Cross Station, Hermione quickly moved out of the way to make way for Ron, Ginny, and the twins to start sprinting off towards their parents. It looked to Hermione like they were racing to see who could get there faster. Hermione and Harry waved at the huge family before taking off to the muggle side of the station.
Hermione was greeted by a full station. Towards the entrance she could make out a large man who she assumed to be Harry’s uncle by the way he was scowling and tapping his foot impatiently. She gave Harry an apologetic smile as he shuffled, albeit dejectedly, over to the man.
Looking around more, she saw her parents off towards the other side of the entrance. She walked as fast as she could, while carrying a trunk, over to her parents. As soon as they saw her they sent her huge smiles. Her mom and dad hugged her as soon as she was in arms reach. Her dad picked up her trunk, and they started their walk to the car.
“Aren’t you guys gonna ask me what happened?” she asked.
Her mom turned around from where she was sitting in the passenger's seat and gave her a confused look. “What do you mean we always talk about what happened at school during dinner?”
“I know but this just seems more important than usual.”
Now it was her dad that looked at her confusedly through the interior mirror.
“Did the school not tell you!” she practically yelled.
Now both her parents looked at her with concerned expressions. Her mom motioned for her to tell them more.
“In simple terms, I was frozen in place for 2 months.”
The car quickly turned into a parking lot, and came to a screeching halt in one of the parking spots.
“WHAT?!” both her parents yelled at the same time.
It was then that Hermione explained the events of that year. It was safe to say all 3 of them were furious with the school for not sharing anything with her parents. The whole rest of the way home all 3 of them ranted about how irresponsible and dangerous the school is. By the time they pulled into the garage, Hermione was feeling extremely better after getting that of her system.
During dinner she told them all about the training program. While her parents were sad they wouldn’t get to spend as much time with her as they hoped, they understood where her excitement was coming from. Infact, her dad and her had started talking excitedly to each other at a speed her mom couldn’t keep up with.
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Hermione was practically bouncing in excitement as she waited at the portkey for the other students to arrive. Hermione had received a letter the day after getting home with extra information about the trip. On July 2nd, they were asked to go to a field at 12am where a portkey would be waiting for them. They were also told that their adult chaperone would be Professor Snape.
In his letter Dumbledore stressed that he would have gone, but he was busy. Hermione sincerely doubted that. Ever since her conversation with her parents in the car ride home. She had been thinking over the experiences she had at school. The more she thought about it, the more she didn’t trust Dumbledore. He obviously knew more about what happened in Hogwarts, but decided to send out 3 underage kids to do his dirty work. Hermione wasn’t sure she would be able to look him in the eye anymore.
Hermione wasn’t sure whether to be ecstatic or terrified when she saw the Malfoy family approaching. On one hand, she thought her head would burst if she kept second guessing everything that had happened to her at school. On the other hand however, it was quite obvious the Malfoy’s didn’t like her.
Hermione had started to fidget with her necklace in nervousness as they quickly got closer. When they were about 7 yards away she started ripping out the grass next to where she was sitting almost absentmindedly.
They walked up to the other side of the portkey. They seemed to finally notice her sitting there, Draco and Lucius sneered at her. However, before either of them could say anything. They all saw Snape walking towards them..with Dumbledore. Hermione had completely forgotten that he said he was going to be there to send them off.
Hermione flinched as he smiled at them. Which to her utter dismay didn’t go unnoticed by Lucius and Narcissa. They seemed to also notice she had started nervously bouncing her leg. To Hermione’s relief neither of them said anything, though Narcissa did move closer to her, almost protectively.
“It seems we’re still waiting on the other students. No matter, it’s still early after all,” Dumbledore said cheerfully. It didn’t make Hermione feel better. Infact, she had started picking at the grass again.
Eventually all the other families started arriving. When the twins arrived they sat on either side of her, and all 3 got into a heated discussion about whether or not it should be illegal to set off fireworks in your own backyard. Everyone else that was already there at the time was confused as to how Hermione was easily keeping up with the twins.
Once everyone was there, Dumbledore started his speech. As much as she loathed to admit it, Hermione had completely zoned out during it. The twins shook her out of her thoughts when it was time to leave.
Soon enough, the students and Snape had their hands on the portkey, and they were off.
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Landing hard in the grass, Hermione was having trouble controlling her breathing from the panic that had started during the portkey trip. She hated to admit it but she was quite claustrophobic. However, she was determined to not show the others how much she was shaking.
Snape cleared his throat, everyone looked at him from where they were sitting on the ground. “If you look over there,” Snape pointed somewhere behind the group, “you will see where we will be staying during the next 2 months. There should be house elves to show you to your rooms. In about an hour, meet up in the entry room. Miss Granger, if you would please walk with me.”