Chapter Text
As Hermione Granger left the Great Hall, Professor Snape looked at Professor McGonagall and said, “You know Minerva, there’s going to be an uprising in your cubs’ den tonight. I wonder how low Potter’s and Weasley’s grades will fall without the know-it-all keeping them in line?”
Professor McGonagall raised a brow as she stood to follow Hermione, “Hardly Severus, those three as thick as thieves.”
With a twinkle in his eyes, Albus Dumbledore added, “Minerva’s right, Gryffindors stick together, and those three are as close as the Marauders were in their day.”
Professor Snape huffed, “Yes Albus, and look where that led.”
Albus lost his twinkle, “Well, I doubt there will be any problems, but if there are, Minerva will handle it. I’m off for the ICW Conference. Enjoy the rest of Yule, Severus.”
Professor Snape nodded, “Yes Albus. I’ll be leaving as well. I will see you when I return to the Castle the day before term resumes.”
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“You can’t know that, Potter,” said Professor McGonagall, quite kindly, “not until you’ve flown it, at any rate, and I’m afraid that is out of the question until we are certain that it has not been tampered with. I shall keep you informed.”
Professor McGonagall turned on her heel and carried the Firebolt out of the portrait hole, which closed behind her. As Harry stood staring after her, Ron rounded on Hermione. “What did you go running to McGonagall for?”
Hermione threw her book aside, still pink in the face, but stood up and faced Ron defiantly. “Because I thought — and Professor McGonagall agrees with me — that that broom was probably sent to Harry by Sirius Black!” (PoA)
Harry became red in the face, puffing his cheeks and blowing are out of his nose, then he turned toward Hermione “You had no right Hermione to go behind my back! I thought we were friends! But I guess my feelings don’t matter to you! So, you know what! DON’T TALK TO ME EVER AGAIN!” He ran by her, hitting Hermione’s shoulder as he passed and ran up the stairs to his dorm.
Hermione stood there, tears beginning to run down her cheeks, mouth hanging open slightly, with a pleading look at Ron. But Ron looked at her angrily, shaking his head and then ran after Harry without saying another word. After a few minutes, Hermione ran to her dorm, threw herself on her bed and cried herself to sleep.
A few hours later, Hermione woke with a determined look on her face. She went to the bathroom and cleaned her face. Returned to her room and packed her bag with a few textbooks, parchment, ink, and a fresh set of robes. Then she sat at her desk and penned a quick letter addressed to Professor McGonagall and left it on her nightstand. Not quite curfew, Hermione left her dorm, walked out the Castle towards Hogsmeade.
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The next morning, Jean Granger descended the stairs to prepare lunch for herself and her husband Daniel, before they needed to leave for work. As she reached the bottom step, Jean saw Hermione’s coat and bag by the front closet door, causing her to retreat upstairs to check if in fact Hermione was home. Entering her daughter’s room Jean saw that Hermione was sleeping but had been crying. Jean sat on the bed and pushed Hermione’s hair out of her face and kissed her forehead. Realizing Hermione had woken, Jean quietly said “I’m glad your home, but something must have happened. We’ll talk later when dad and I get home around 3. Okay sweetie.” Hermione gave a slight nod, and sleep claimed her once more.
By noon Hermione had woken and began to think about what she had done and what she was going to do now. She had to tell her parents everything even though she was scared that they’d yell at her. Did she even want to go back to Hogwarts? First year was bad enough those first two months and without Harry and Ron, did she really want to be alone anymore? But if she didn’t go back would the ministry snap her wand. Would they make her a muggle, or even erase her memories? She definitely needed to talk to her parents, maybe that would help her decide what to do, if they didn’t choose for her.
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Once her parents returned home, and a light meal had been consumed without their normal chatter, the family moved into the livingroom for tea and to talk. Jean started “Okay pumpkin, we love you, but we really want to know why you’re home? We cancelled the family trip because you said that you needed to stay at school, but here you are. So, what has caused you to come home, and why have you been crying?”
Hermione inhaled deeply and began to talk. And talk she did, “Before Hogwarts I never had any friends. I was always teased about my hair and my teeth. When kids were bullying me really bad things would happen and I didn’t know what was causing it, so I tried really hard to be invisible. And when I got my letter, it explained everything. I so wanted to finally find a place that I could just be me. But it was worse when I got to Hogwarts. I was still teased about my hair and my teeth. But now I get bullied worse for wanting to learn or reading too much, for being a Muggleborn. Professor McGonagall said that your House is like your home and that Housemates are supposed to be family. But it wasn’t. It got so bad that by the end of October I just wanted to come home, even if it meant giving up my magic.
On Halloween Ron had said mean things about me to everyone, and nobody said anything. I wound up in the bathroom for the rest of the day crying. Later on, a 12-foot mountain troll came crashing into the bathroom. I thought I was going to die, and I froze. That’s when Harry and Ron came running in and together they knocked out the troll and saved me. I told the professors that I went looking for the troll so Harry and Ron wouldn’t get into trouble. That’s how we became friends.”
And on it continued through looking for information on Nicolas Flamel, Hagrid’s dragon, and getting detention for being found on the Astronomy Tower. And about the adventure through the traps for the Sorcerer’s Stone, and how Harry fought Professor Quirrel possessed by the wraith of Voldemort.
Then she told them about second year. How the Slytherins, especially Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson, constantly taunted her, and that hexes were thrown at her when she was alone and being called a Mudblood and what that really meant. She told how Harry had started hearing voices from the walls, and at the one and only dueling club meeting it was discovered that Harry could speak to snakes. She told them about the attacks on students and them being petrified by the monster that lived in the Chamber of Secrets that was supposedly built by Salazar Slytherin himself. How she finally figured out that the monster was a Basilisk, a giant 60 foot snake that kills by looking you in the eyes, and how she got petrified herself just after her discovery. She told them that Harry would visit and read to her when he could for the months she was petrified. She had overheard that it was Harry that had solved the mystery and killed the basilisk in order to save Ginny Weasley from a diary that was possessing her by a teen version of Voldemort.
Finally, she told them about the current school year. That Professor McGonagall had given her a time turner so she could take all the classes offered at Hogwarts, and that depending on the day she’s actually sat two or three classes at the same time. That she really didn’t like Divination as being a fake subject unless one had a “Seers’ Eye,” which she did not. That she took Muggle Studies mostly to see how the wizarding world viewed the non-magical world, and that the material was over a hundred years old and the professor that taught it never lived in the non-magical world.
She told them that the Dementors were guarding the school in hopes of capturing the escaped prisoner that was on the news over the summer Sirius Black because he was actually an infamous wizard. That just before Christmas, she, Harry, and Ron had overheard a conversation about him. That he had a group of friends including Harry’s father in school and that he was the one to betray them to Voldemort before Harry’s parents were killed. That only a few days later when Peter Petigrew, another friend, had confronted Sirius Black after the Potters’ death he killed Peter and 12 muggles.
Hermione started to cry at this point when she finally got to the reason she came home. That Harry’s broom, a Nimbus 2000, had been destroyed after he had been attacked by Dementors back in November during a Quidditch match. On Christmas he got a really expensive, new on the market, broom, called the Firebolt, without a note or card attached. How she feared that it had been jinxed or tampered with in some way, she had told Professor McGonnagall about it. That the professor agreed that the broom was most likely sent by Sirius Black and Professor McGonagall confiscated it for testing. How Harry became so angry at her and had yelled at her saying she was no longer his friend and for her to never to speak to him again. And that she had only stayed at Hogwarts to keep Harry company, so she decided to come home. She didn’t want to be alone and didn’t know if she even wanted to go back at all.
By the time Hermione’s story was done her face was blotchy and tears streamed down her face. Dan and Jean both jumped up and gathered their daughter in their arms, attempting to soothe her, but the tears just continued to pour down her face.