Chapter 12
Chapter 12
The summer so far has been just wonderful. I spent time in France with my parents. We’ve seen museums and beaches and tried the most delicious foods. It was nice to spend some time with them and meet a French slayer as well.
I also got to spend three weeks with Buffy and Xander in America. It wasn’t all slayer duties of course. I did get to spend time with Dawn shopping and sightseeing. The times I did train, however, were jam-packed. I got to meet a bunch of other slayers and had a moment of true sisterhood. I also got to meet Faith and to say she was interesting is the understatement of the century. She wouldn’t stop calling me ‘brains’. She also kept doing sneak attacks to keep me on my toes. Xander decided to stay in America for a while but promised he’d see me at school. All in all, it’s been fun, but I had to go back home sometime.
I thought it was weird that I didn’t receive any mail from Harry. I checked with Ron, and he hasn’t had any contact either. I decided to go check on him when I got to London, and what I found shocked me.
I walked up to Harry’s door at Number 4, Privet Drive, and knocked on the door. I brought with me some of the souvenirs I bought for Harry from my travels. I was wearing a simple blue sundress with a pair of leggings and flats. My hair was in two French braids going down my back. I heard the sound of very loud footsteps, and the door opened to reveal an obese man who resembled the walrus from Alice in Wonderland.
“Hello, how can I help you?” The man I’m assuming is Harry’s uncle said.
“Sorry to bother you, but I’m Hermione Granger, a friend of Harry’s from school…” I start but stop as the angriest expression crosses the man’s face.
“You’re one of those freaks? No! I won’t have it, not in my home.” He goes to shut the door, but I put my hand out and push the door back open. He continues to try and close the door, but I’m not moving. I see him put in more than a little effort but ultimately fail due to my strength. His eyes go wide.
“Let’s try this again like civilized people, shall we? Sorry to bother you, but I’m Hermione Granger, a friend of Harry’s from school. I’ve just gotten back from abroad and have decided to bring Harry the gifts I’ve gotten him. He hasn’t been answering my owl. Could I please speak with him?” I ask using a very insincere voice.
“He’s not home at the moment so, go away,” the man says.
“You see, that’s not civilized behavior. I gave you my name, now you give me yours. I also have business in the area and will not be leaving until very late tonight and have no problems waiting,” I say forcefully. I truly have no business here in Surrey, but I figured he doesn’t need to know that.
“Vernon Dursley and I won’t have you waiting here.”
“Either I wait for Harry now, or I’ll come back with more people, but as you can see,” I give the door an extra shove and move into the house. “I don’t need help. Now where can I sit?”
Mr. Dursley glares at me and growls out, “Wait here while I go get the boy.”
“No, I think I'll go with you seeing as you just said he wasn’t here, but now that I’ve decided to stay, he is. I may be one of those ‘freaks’ as you call us, but I am much more than that and I’m also not stupid. Now where is Harry?” Mr. Dursley grabs a key ring that has four keys on it and starts upstairs just grumbling away. We come to a door that has 4 deadbolt locks and a cat flap. “Do you honestly have him locked up like an animal? You better be lucky I do not call child services, and you also deserve this,” I say and kick the door wide open straight off its hinges.
I see Harry jump up from a thread-bare mattress and gaze at me with a shocked expression. “Hermione?” Harry rasps out, his throat sounding dry.
I look around at the state of the room and see bars on the windows as well as Hedwig— Harry’s owl — in her cage, which has a padlock on it looking sickly with molting feathers. Harry looks like he hasn’t eaten in weeks with dry chapped lips. “Hello, Harry. I did come to bring you presents, but I’ve changed my mind. You are coming home with me. Go and shower and we’ll leave to get dinner. I’ll send Hedwig to my house.” I move forward to Hedwig’s cage not waiting for a response and rip the lock straight off. I open the cage and move to the window. Opening the window, I pull two of the bars apart leaving a hole wide enough for her to fly through. Turning around, I find Harry still standing there and Mr. Dursley looking apocalyptic with rage.
“Harry go ahead and I’ll retrieve your things,” with a nod from him he takes off and I turn to Mr. Dursley. “Now, you are going to show me Harry’s things and you are going to act like the decent human being that you are not or else I’ll be forced to get angry.”
“You are not allowed to magic outside of school. You’ll get expelled.”
I step up one inch from his face. “That would be correct for everyone, but me, and I don’t need magic to deal with an abusive man like you,” I say with a smile. “Harry’s things?” Mr. Dursley grumbles and shows me Harry’s things in a cupboard under the stairs that resembles a child's bedroom. I pull out my wand and shrink Harry’s trunk, and broom, and place them in my bag. “You are lucky that I won’t notify the police. I wonder what other dirty secrets you have?” Mr. Dursley pales and I add. “I do hope we won’t have issues like this in the future.”
After that, I wait for Harry by the door. It doesn’t take long for him to appear, and we take our leave. At a nearby restaurant, we were sitting in a booth.
“Thanks for getting me out of there, Hemione,” Harry says gratefully.
I smile and reply, “I was not going to leave you there, Harry. Is it always like that?”
“The bars and such are new. There was a house elf that caused problems for me.”
“A house elf?” I ask.
“Yeah. He was trying to keep me from going to Hogwarts. He said there was something bad going to happen this year.”
“If anything gets too bad, we can involve the teachers, but I’ll give Xander a heads up.”
“Could you tell me more about the Slayer stuff? We never really got into it after everything?”
“Well, the short version is that I take care of the monsters in the night…” It continues from there just Harry asking questions and me giving answers. We take the Knight bus back to my house and after a bit of talking with my parents, I show Harry to the guest room.
The time before we got our school letters was fun. Harry and I went shopping — after a quick trip to Gringotts — and bought clothes that actually fit him as well as stuff for when he and Ron get to come with me for slayer stuff. We also got a letter from Ron about scheduling time to go to Diagon Alley for school shopping. We met up with the Weasleys’ on the steps of Gringotts and decided to divide and conquer then meet up at Flourish and Blotts to gather our books.
At the bookstore was a book signing for the man who wrote all the texts for defense! I was excited right up until I saw the man. Gilderoy Lockhart was pristine and pompous basking in his fame and jumping on Harry’s the second he saw him. He tried to grab Harry for a photo, but I held tight to Harry. “You may be famous, but that does not give you the right to manhandle children. Harry does not know you, so try that again.”
Mr. Lockhart just smiled and brushed off my words. “Of course, Harry would want a picture with me,” he turns and faces the camera, “Order of Merlin, Third Class winner.”
“I don’t care if you are bloody Merlin himself!” I turn to Harry, “Do you want a picture with him?”
Harry shuffles a bit. “Not really, no.”
I smile at Mr. Lockhart sarcastically. “Well, there you have it. Excuse us, we have schoolbooks to buy.” Before we could step away Mr. Lockhart made a show of his ‘generosity’ by gifting Harry his books free of charge and announcing his role as our new professor for DADA. I just roll my eyes; Harry helps me grab my books and make our way to the door to wait on the Weasleys’.
“Bet you loved that, didn’t you, Potter?” Draco Malfoy’s voice sounds out.
“Really Malfoy? Must you approach Harry at every turn? You are acting like a child.”
“Shut it, Granger,” he growls out.
I roll my eyes as Ron his siblings and father join us. “Come on children let’s go outside,” said Mr. Weasley.
“Well, well, well — Arthur Weasley.” Mr. Malfoy said joining our little group.
Mr. Malfoy proceeds to taunt and insult Mr. Weasley, which turns into a fight. Idiots the lot of them. Just as Mr. Malfoy goes to throw another punch, I grab his fist and flip him over my shoulder while pushing Mr. Weasley back. “If you two are done acting like teenage schoolboys instead of the grown men you are, I would like to continue with my day.” Mr. Malfoy gets up and gives Ginny her book back eyes me with trepidation and sweeps away.
The day came to leave for Hogwarts, and we arrived early like always, but for some reason, we couldn’t access the platform. A bunch of others started crowding around and eventually, the Aurors showed up. It didn’t take long for them to fix the problem though and everyone loaded up on got on the train.