The Power of the Potters ✔

Part 10: Another difficult beginning

As she stepped onto the train platform, Hermione Jane Granger couldn't keep her eyes from doing a thorough sweep of the area in search of a boy - no, man - who recently was the only one on her mind. The reunion of pupils, the loud chattering of owls and other animals, the eager discussions of unsorted and scared soon-to-be first years, and other noises all rolled over her.

She also couldn't help but to observe the apprehensive and darkened glances of the older students and most of the parents. You-Know-Who's return had many looking over their shoulders. Even the muggles on the platform, like her parents, were tense and skittish.

The newly elected Minister of Magic, Madame Augusta Longbottom, ordered that each family with a magical child be informed of what was happening in the wizarding world. This was a step that all of her predecessors had ignored for fear of witch hunts and the Statue of Secrecy. Hermione vividly remembered the uproar the eight-page pamphlet regarding You-Know-Who's return and his full history had been received two days ago.

Just as Harry planned and predicted it would.

Purebloods, as she had heard on the Wizarding Wireless, had been up in arms regarding You-Know-Who's, or now Tom Riddle's, true blood status. As Harry also foresaw, many denounced the illegitimate, bastard of the lowest half-blood pedigree after Gringotts and the Ministry confirmed the rumors. Hermione was surprised to find that there was the unexpected result of purebloods no longer fearing retaliation from You-Know-Who or his Death Eaters because of his blood status.

Apparently, half-bloods and muggleborns are not threatening to purebloods, she mentally grumbled.

Surprisingly, half-bloods were silent on the matter. Harry suspected that, since many of them lived in between the muggle and magical worlds, they didn't usually have the safety of centuries-old manor wards and Family Magik to protect them and feared attacks like those of the last Blood War. The newspaper reported that a third of the students with muggle parents were being sent overseas to the Académie de Magie Beauxbâtons or to schools in North America. Hermione had only barely convinced her parents not to move to Australia and send her to the Whitefriar College of Wizardry in Melbourne. The only thing that saved her was her upcoming OWL examinations and that she would have to repeat a year to catch up to the local syllabus.

I might not be so lucky next year. She departed from her nervous parents and made to store her luggage and Crookshanks' cage in the luggage cabin.

Her mother had pulled her to the side after the hot-tempered three-hour discussion about continuing her education at Hogwarts for a bit of girl chat about the true reason for her wanting to stay at Hogwarts, the green-eyed, black-haired reason.

Being the constant and only female companion of two boys since their pre-pubescence, she knew that the chance of her falling for one of them was rather high. Her constant fights with loyal yet hot-headed Ron had led her, and her mother, to assume that the two of them were developing feelings for one another that neither could express properly. Then her dear, sweet Harry, despite being socially inept, obviously neglected and impulsive yet mild-mannered, returned from his escapade in Australia.

She felt her stomach twist into none too comfortable knots.

Her mother had intuitively known that something had occurred between her and one of her friends when Harry disappeared.

Her mother looked at her with sympathetic eyes. "You know, my little queen, when your father and I saw the spark in your eyes from your professor turning the coffee table into a pony, we knew then we would have to share you - even let you go with... your own so that you could explore this other side of you. That does not mean that we would not be here for you, or that we would leave you to your own devices in this new world."