Percy Jackson and the Mirror of Erised

14) Hermione Granger

"You want to be careful with those," Ron warned. "When they say every flavor, they mean every flavor — you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade (those are normal jelly bean flavors???), but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a booger-flavored one once."

Ron picked up a green one and bit into it, "Bleaaargh — see? Sprouts."

I got grass, blueberry, pillow, chocolate, rotten strawberry, boot, sock, skunk, smoothie, and what I think was puke. I almost puked after that one, but we had a good time with he beans anyways.

There was a knock at the door and it opened. Neville, the round faced boy, opened the door, "Sorry. Have you seen a toad at all?" He looked a little tearful.

We all shook our heads and Neville wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"

"He'll turn up," I said.

Neville nodded, "Yes. Well, if you see him..." he left the compartment.

"Don't know why he's so bothered," Ron said. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."

Socks was staring at the rat on Ron's lap. I don't think he likes him.

"He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," Ron was disgusted of the sleeping rat. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look..."

Ron rummaged in his trunk for a moment before finding a battered looking wand. He'd just barely raised the wand when the door slid open again. Neville was back, but with a bushy haired girl this time. She was wearing her robes already.

"Has anyone see a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. Her tone could have been mistaken for bossy, but I think she just states the facts and that sounds funny with the way her voice sounds. The girl had bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.

"We've already told him we haven't seen it," Ron said, but the girl was staring at the wand in his hand.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."

She sat down beside me and stared at Ron, who looked a bit surprised, "Er — all right."

He cleared his throat and pointed his wand at Scabbers, "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

That's not a spell.

Surprise surprise, the rat remained gray.

"Are you sure that's a spell?" the girl asked, "Well, it's not very good, is it. I've tried a few simple spells for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard — I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough — I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"

She talks fast.

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron said, looking down at his rat.

"Percy Jackson, it's a pleasure to meet you. You said you learned the course books by heart? Do you think you could help me with homework and books throughout the year? I'm dyslexic and you sound like you've got smarts to spare," I smiled and stuck my hand out for her to shake.

She accepted and smiled, "Of course I will. We'll set a time and place once we get our schedules. Is that okay?"

I nodded, "It's a plan, then."

Hermione nodded then looked at Harry, "And you are?"

"Harry Potter," he said. Probably forgetting he's famous again.

"Are you really?" Hermione said. "I know all about you, of course — I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twenty First Century."

"Am I?" Harry asked, looking a little surprised.

"Goodness, don't you know, I'd find out everything I could if it was me," Hermione said. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad... Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You three had better change, you know, I expect we'll be arriving soon."

Hermione Granger and Neville left the compartment.

"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," Ron said, rudely.

"I think she's brilliant. Literally. That's proof right there coming from a muggle household won't hold you back. It looks like it's yourself that would. Oh, and Ron, the spell you should have used is Colovaria, I think. It means color varied," I rolled my eyes.

Ron looked at his wand and pointed it at Scabbers, "Colovaria." The rat turned highlighter yellow.

Ron looked surprised, "How did you know that?"

"I speak Latin. Most spells are in Latin. So color means colo, and varied mean varia. Colovaria," I said, shrugging.

Ron nodded and put his wand back in his trunk, pulling out his robes.

Harry and Ron chatted while I changed into my robes. I hated them. I'd probably just keep the robe part in my bag during school. I'd wear it today though, so that I won't stand out too much. I don't want to do that.

I heard them talking about a vault at Gringotts getting robbed and just pretended to be interested.

Instead I unwrapped a chocolate frog and looked at the card.

Dumbledore was smiling up at me. He winked and showed me the scar on his palm before walking off. I smiled and pushed the card into my pocket.

I had a feeling this was going to be an interesting year.

I have so much work to do. It's been pretty rough lately. Work is harder, and more is expected of us. Not to mention that every teacher is stressed. Everyone is stressed to some degree. It's not often someone dies at our school. It's even less often that it's not by normal causes. We're fairly small, and almost everyone is involved in the community. We've had three kids die this year. Three. I didn't know the first boy who died very well. He had killed himself. The second was a girl in my grade. Haley. She was stabbed by her father. He killed himself in a head on collision later that night. The third and most recent was a boy in the grade above me. Last year I had my study hall period with him. He was stabbed by his younger brother, who is in my grade. It's been a rough year, and at this point, I'm just wondering what's gonna come next. Will I even be able to cry? I'm tired of missing people. I'm tired of wondering who's gonna be next. I'm tired of wondering if it's going to be someone I'm close to. Haley was bad enough, and she wasn't my closest friend. Will it be my friend, who cut himself once? Will it be Emblem, my sister, with her asthma and diabetes? Will it be me? I think I would prefer the latter. I am a selfish person.

I hope your years will be better than mine. Next post is on Tuesday.