Dark clouds were gathering overhead, threatening rain, as Hermione left the castle and headed towards Hagrid's hut.
'Hope I don't get soaked,' she thought, glancing up, and then smiled without meaning to as she remembered that spring day when she had sat on a bench while raindrops danced around her. Back then, it had seemed like a real miracle. Now Hermione knew that miracles really did exist, and that witches and wizards could quite easily keep the rain off with magic. The only problem was that she didn't know any spells like that yet.
The memory made her think of Tommy again. Hermione missed their walks and talks. They wrote to each other from time to time, but letters could not replace talking in person. Besides, she couldn't tell her friend about her magical life, and their letters had less and less to do with what was happening in her everyday life.
Hermione already knew a lot of people at Hogwarts, but she still hadn't found a real friend. She found it easier to get along with Percy Weasley than with most of the others. She respected him for following the rules so strictly and for wanting everything to be orderly. Once, he had even told her that after school he planned to work at the Ministry of Magic. Hermione thought that was a very worthy goal, and it made her respect Percy even more.
But he wasn't really much of a friend. He was much older than she was and didn't seem especially interested in being friends with a first-year. Besides, he was almost always busy and generally kept his distance. Hermione was glad that she had at least managed to get along with him, but it still wasn't enough. Despite all the new people she had met, she still felt very lonely at Hogwarts.
Pulling herself away from her gloomy thoughts, Hermione sighed and looked ahead. Hagrid's hut, where the Keeper of the Keys at Hogwarts lived, was already very close. Smoke curled from the chimney, and beside the hut was a small, already empty vegetable patch. His home seemed surprisingly small for such a huge man.
Hagrid's other job at Hogwarts was as the gamekeeper. That was why he lived away from the castle, close to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. From what Hermione had heard from the other students, this was actually his main job. People said that he loved animals, and some even claimed that he could talk to them. Hermione secretly hoped he was able to get along with people too. His appearance still made her a little uneasy. Still, Hermione hadn't formed an opinion of Hagrid yet. He didn't teach and rarely appeared in the castle, so since arriving at Hogwarts, she hadn't really had any dealings with him.
Soon Hermione reached the hut and knocked on the door. Loud barking immediately came from inside, followed by heavy footsteps. A few seconds later, the door opened, and Hagrid stared at Hermione in surprise.
"Er..." he hesitated, clearly not knowing what to say.
"Hagrid," Hermione said, getting straight to the point, "I need to talk to you. Can I come in?"
"Well..." the gamekeeper drawled, still staring at his unexpected visitor.
Then Hermione noticed Harry and Ron behind his broad back, sitting at a table covered with biscuits and other sweets. A large teapot stood in the middle, steam rising from it.
'What are they doing here?' Hermione thought in annoyance.
At that moment, Hagrid stepped aside to let her in.
"Well, now yeh're here, might as well join us. Reckon there's enough room fer everyone."
Hermione entered the hut a little stiffly. Hagrid pulled another chair up to the table and brought her a large cup.
"Hi," she said to the boys, keeping her tone reserved.
Ever since that midnight run from Filch through the corridors of Hogwarts, Hermione had been trying to ignore Harry, and Ron even more so.
"Hi," Harry replied calmly.
"Hi," Ron muttered, looking away sullenly.
Hagrid frowned slightly as he looked at them.
"Wha'? Somethin' wrong?"
"Everything's fine, Hagrid," Harry said.
Ron gave him an annoyed look but said nothing. Hermione decided not to say anything either.
Getting no further answer, Hagrid looked at Hermione.
"What's yer name, then?"
"Hermione Granger," she replied.
"Hermione, is it? Right, then. What're yeh here fer? Don't suppose yeh came just fer tea."
"I've got something serious and personal to talk to you about," Hermione said, giving Harry and Ron a pointed look.
They glanced at each other. Ron raised his eyebrows slightly and pulled a face, but neither of them seemed to have any intention of getting up. Hagrid, meanwhile, didn't seem to realise at all that Hermione would rather speak to him alone.
"Well... what d'yeh want ter talk about, then?"
"Maybe she wants to know whether the animals in the forest are behaving themselves, whether they're breaking the rules or roaming around after curfew," Ron said sarcastically, unable to resist.
Harry snorted with laughter. Hermione shot Ron an angry look and pressed her lips tightly together.
"How the animals are behavin'? Rules?" Hagrid looked at Hermione questioningly. "How'm I s'posed ter know?" he added with a shrug.
Harry and Ron burst out laughing. Hermione clenched her fists.
"No, Hagrid, that isn't why I came," she said sharply, clipping each word. "I wanted to know what happened to the unicorn."
"The unicorn?" The gamekeeper grew wary. "What unicorn?"
Harry and Ron were still smiling, but now they were both looking at Hagrid with curiosity, surprised by his reaction. Hermione continued, more confidently now.
"In the summer, my parents and I were at a nature reserve..."
She told Hagrid about the walk with her parents and the two unicorns she had seen tied to trees. By this point, the smile had vanished from Ron's face. Harry was listening closely too, but he seemed to know too little about the magical world to understand why what had happened had alarmed Ron so much.
Finally, Hermione moved on to Nora's story about the unicorn that had been brought to a veterinary clinic that summer. The moment she mentioned the numerous cuts on its body, Ron's eyes widened and he even exclaimed,
"That can't be!"
Harry looked at him in surprise, while Hermione noted with some satisfaction that there was no trace left of Ron's earlier sarcasm. Hagrid, meanwhile, was looking grimmer and grimmer.
When she had finished, Hermione asked him directly,
"Hagrid, was it one of those unicorns that had been tied up, the ones I told McGonagall about?"
All eyes turned to Hagrid, and the hut fell completely silent. Even Fang raised his head and looked at him, as though he too were waiting for an answer.
The gamekeeper's face darkened noticeably. For several seconds he said nothing, thoughtfully rubbing his forehead, then let out a heavy sigh.
"Yeah... It was one of those unicorns. Dunno if I'm supposed ter tell yeh about this."
"But who could have tortured it like that, and why?" Hermione burst out.
"Her," Hagrid corrected her dejectedly. "She's a mare. As fer why she was hurt so badly, we dunno that ourselves. But it's a very bad business."
He fell silent again for a moment, poured himself some more tea, then continued.
"Looks like someone badly needed unicorn blood. It can keep a person alive, yeh know, even when they're already close ter death. There yeh go."
"But who could bring themselves to do something like that?" Ron cut in. "Could the Death Eaters really be back?"
"Who knows? We didn't find anyone there. Could be anythin'."
"And the other unicorn?" Hermione asked. "Is it all right?"
Hagrid turned towards the fire, his expression sombre.
"We got there too late."
Nothing more needed to be said. They all understood.
For a few seconds, the hut fell silent. Hermione remembered the unicorn's pleading look, begging for help, and tears welled up in her eyes. If only she had gone over and untied them then... They had been only a few steps away. Just a few steps between life and death.
"And what happened to the injured unicorn?" Ron asked quietly. "I mean, the injured mare? Did she recover?"
"Yeah." A faint smile appeared on Hagrid's face. "She's all right now. An' so's the foal, far as I can tell."
"The foal?" Hermione asked, confused.
"Well... I mean... she's pregnant, yeh see," Hagrid explained, his smile growing wider.
Despite his intimidating appearance, he spoke about the unicorn with obvious tenderness.
"I go an' see her sometimes. She started trustin' me after we rescued her. Doesn't seem scared of me, an' she lets me come close. Lives not far from here, in the Forbidden Forest. Won't be long now till she foals."
"Wow!" Ron exclaimed. "I'd love to get even one look at her! I've never seen a real unicorn before, only in pictures."
Harry and Hermione nodded eagerly. Hagrid stroked his beard and looked at them.
"Well... reckon that can be arranged. I'll let yeh know when we can go an' see her. Only if she hasn't foaled by then. Unicorns get especially cautious then, an' skittish too."
He hesitated for a moment.
"There's one more thing... Er... don't go tellin' anyone about her. Don't want all sorts of rumours goin' round the castle. No point worryin' the students. An' as fer there bein' a unicorn in the forest... well... best keep that quiet too."
The three of them agreed to keep it secret. After staying with Hagrid a little longer, they started getting ready to go back to the castle.
"Well, see yeh, Hermione," Harry said as they reached the door.
Ron only muttered something that sounded vaguely like a goodbye, and the two of them quickly walked on ahead along the path.
Hermione watched them go. She was still angry with them, but for some reason she felt a little disappointed. Now the three of them shared a secret. They had just been sitting at the same table, talking about unicorns, but the moment they stepped out of the hut, everything went back to the way it had been before.
She trudged after them alone. By then, it was already beginning to get dark. Before long, the first large drops began to fall, and then the rain came pouring down. Hermione ran on, trying to reach the shelter of the castle as quickly as possible.
***
Professor Flitwick had to call the class to order several times before the noise finally died down and he was able to announce,
"Right, for the next exercise, you'll work in pairs and take turns trying the spell I've just demonstrated."
The excitement had been caused by Neville's escaped toad, which Flitwick had brought floating through the air straight back to its owner with a Levitation Charm. The little demonstration had clearly impressed the students. And now they were going to learn the same spell themselves.
Hermione wasn't worried about the task in the slightest. Over the summer, she had already managed to make a flowerpot rise into the air, even though it hadn't ended particularly well that time. But more than two months had passed since then, and now she was completely confident in herself. At any rate, today she was determined to outdo Miranda in their unspoken rivalry.
Hermione glanced at the Ravenclaw girl out of the corner of her eye, and at that very moment heard Professor Flitwick say,
"Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger."
'Oh, no,' she thought in annoyance. 'Of all days, I had to get paired with that idiot today.'
Ron was far from good at spells. So far, he hadn't shown any particular talent in Flitwick's lessons, and on top of that, he and Hermione already didn't get along very well.
Once everyone had been paired up, Professor Flitwick gave each pair a feather. That was what they were going to practise the Levitation Charm on.
'Couldn't be easier,' Hermione thought, already raising her wand with a pleased smile and getting ready to cast the spell, when Ron suddenly shouted first,
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
Hermione's smile vanished at once. She reluctantly lowered her wand. Now all she could do was wait until Ron finished his useless attempts and finally gave her a chance to show what she could do.
Seeing him waving his wand around with no sign of stopping, Hermione glanced anxiously at Miranda. She really didn't want to lose because of Ron, but when she noticed that the Ravenclaw girl hadn't started casting yet, she relaxed a little. Her partner, Elidor Lunette, had also gone first and was now carefully following all of Miranda's instructions. Elidor practically worshipped the 'Princess of Ravenclaw' and seemed only too happy to follow every piece of advice she gave him.
Hermione turned back to Ron. He was still making one unsuccessful attempt after another. The feather seemed perfectly happy where it was on the desk and showed not the slightest desire to rise into the air. From the start, Hermione had decided not to give him any help, even though she had immediately noticed several obvious mistakes. Ron's wand movements were far too sharp, and he was pronouncing the spell incorrectly as well.
'So much for being a pure-blood wizard,' she thought sarcastically. 'He could have come to school already knowing at least some first-year spells! His whole family are wizards, his father works at the Ministry of Magic, his brothers do well at school, and Percy's even a prefect. How can anyone be such a hopeless oaf?'
But then Hermione noticed that Miranda had taken over from Elidor and picked up her wand herself. Her resolve to keep quiet immediately began to waver.
Meanwhile, Ron was shouting "Wingardium Leviosa!" louder and louder and waving his wand more and more sharply. Eventually, on one of his swings, he nearly hit Hermione with his elbow, and she couldn't take it any longer.
"You're saying it wrong," Hermione said. After all, a bit of friendly advice couldn't hurt, she decided, although her tone could hardly be called friendly. "It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."
"You do it, then, if you're so clever," Ron growled.
'Finally!' Hermione rejoiced inwardly.
She got the spell right on her very first attempt. The feather rose from the desk and hovered in the air in front of her.
"Oh, well done!" Professor Flitwick cried, clapping his hands. "Everyone see here, Miss Granger done it!"
Hermione was already used to Professor Flitwick's praise, but she still enjoyed it. Especially when she managed to beat Miranda. Lately, Hermione had been coming out on top more and more often in their unspoken competition.
Ron, unlike Flitwick, clearly wasn't impressed by his partner's success. Hermione suspected that he had already prepared a couple of sarcastic remarks in case she failed and was now annoyed that he hadn't got the chance to use them.
'Let him be angry,' she decided, and left him to struggle with the feather on his own.
For the rest of the lesson, Ron kept trying unsuccessfully to lift the feather, but it stayed exactly where it had fallen after Hermione's spell. His mistakes were so obvious that several times she was sorely tempted to point out yet another one to him. But all it took was one look at Ron's gloomy face for any desire to explain anything to him to disappear at once.
'His own fault,' she thought at last. If he didn't want to listen, he could work it out for himself.
When the lesson ended, Ron silently packed up his things and headed for the door with Harry. Hermione followed them out and couldn't help overhearing Ron say to Harry,
"It's no wonder no one can stand her. She's a nightmare, honestly."
Hermione froze. For a few seconds, she was so furious that she wanted to run up to Ron and hit him as hard as she could. How dare he?!That useless excuse for a wizard…
She rushed forward, already raising her bag to hit him. But at that moment, someone nearby laughed, and Ron's words suddenly rang in her head again.
'No one can stand her.'
Hermione faltered. A lump rose in her throat, and her eyes instantly filled with tears. She really hadn't made a single real friend at Hogwarts. Ron had simply said out loud what she herself least wanted to admit. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She caught up with the boys and, instead of hitting Ron with her bag, angrily shoved him aside, nearly knocking him off his feet.
"Hey!" he protested.
But Hermione was already racing down the corridor, pushing past the students in her way and barely able to see through her tears. Without even realising it, she reached the girls' toilets, flung the door open, rushed to the nearest cubicle and slammed the door shut behind her.
She sat down and covered her face with her hands. Tears poured down her cheeks, and the hurt only grew stronger.
'This school is no better than a Muggle school!' Hermione thought angrily. 'The lessons are different, but the children are exactly the same! If you try to do well at school, follow the rules and do everything properly, nobody likes you anyway. But let someone behave like Ron, and somehow he always has friends!'
The smirking faces of Barbara and Jake appeared in her mind again. How many times had she dreamed of finishing primary school as soon as possible and never seeing them again? And now it was all starting over. Hermione sobbed even harder.
'What if it's the same here?'
She had been looking forward to Hogwarts so much. Magic, real witches and wizards, so many new things... Only a short while ago, she had thought there couldn't possibly be a better place.
'What if, in a few weeks, I end up dreaming of running away from here too?'
Hermione remained in the cubicle, sobbing and occasionally listening to the girls who came into the toilets. They were chatting happily about the Halloween feast. The sweet smell of baked pumpkin had been drifting through the corridors since morning, and the Great Hall had already been decorated for Halloween. Hermione had been looking forward to the evening all day too. Now she didn't want to leave the cubicle at all.
The last thing she wanted was to sit at the same table as Ron Weasley. She didn't feel like going back to the dormitory either. When Nora found out that Hermione had locked herself in the toilets and was crying, she made a point of coming in and making several spiteful remarks, speaking deliberately loudly. The other girls, hearing her sobs, asked what was wrong and tried to comfort her, but Hermione stubbornly refused to answer. Lila even tried to persuade her to come out and go to dinner with her, but Hermione still wouldn't open the door.
Eventually, everything outside the cubicle went quiet. Apparently, the girls had gone to the Halloween feast, and Hermione was left alone. That was exactly what she had wanted while they were pestering her with questions and trying to coax her out. But now that everyone really had gone, for some reason she felt even more hurt. They had gone off to celebrate, while she was still sitting here all alone. Another tear rolled down her cheek. Hermione drew in a shaky breath and sank back into her unhappy thoughts.
Suddenly, someone's head poked straight through the cubicle door in front of her, making Hermione gasp and jerk back. But a second later she realised that Moaning Myrtle was looking at her through the lenses of her glasses, the local ghost of a girl who had died at Hogwarts many years ago.
"O-o-oh, poor Hermione!" Myrtle began in a whining voice, putting on an exaggeratedly pitiful expression. "Sitting here all alone, crying, abandoned by everyone. And they're all off celebrating and having fun, and nobody cares about you –"
"Myrtle, not now! I'm not in the mood!" Hermione shouted, having recovered from the ghost's sudden appearance.
"Ha! Fine, then! Didn't want to feel sorry for you anyway! I can just leave," Myrtle huffed indignantly.
But she clearly had no intention of leaving. Instead, she came all the way into the cubicle and continued,
"You know, I used to go to this school too. Everyone picked on me, and even the ghosts wouldn't talk to me. But I'm talking to you. Tell me, who upset you?"
Hermione looked uncertainly at Myrtle. Talking to a ghost about her feelings seemed a little strange. But she wanted so badly to finally get it all off her chest, to tell someone who wasn't one of the girls. They might not understand her or, worse, might even take that Weasley's side. So she answered after all,
"Ron Weasley! He said nobody can stand me!"
"A-a-ah, that red-haired boy? They're all the same. I remember we had plenty of smug idiots like that too, always looking down on me. Especially that prefect, the teachers' pet! So polite when the teachers were around, such a model student..." Myrtle snorted angrily. "Oh, never mind. Don't worry. I can be your friend. I know exactly how you feel. Everyone used to laugh at me too, they hexed me, and then... they even killed me, many, many years ago!"
Myrtle's face moved until it was almost right up against Hermione's.
"But don't be scared. When you get killed too, we can fly around Hogwarts together –"
At that, Hermione grabbed one of her textbooks and threw it at Myrtle.
"Get out of here!"
The book flew straight through the ghost, hit the cubicle door and fell to the floor with a dull thud.
"Ow!" Myrtle shrieked, pretending to be hurt. "Oh, is that how it is?" She narrowed her eyes spitefully. "I was being nice to her, feeling sorry for her, and she throws books at me! Horrid girl! Now I see why everyone picks on you! Serves you right! You can sit here all by yourself. Nobody's ever going to be friends with you!"
With that, Myrtle shot upwards with a wail and disappeared through the toilet ceiling. Her words hit Hermione where it hurt most. Left alone, Hermione started going over everything that had happened again and again in her head, finding more and more reasons to feel sorry for herself and be angry with everyone else.
'And Harry Potter didn't even say a word against him! I thought I could be friends with him! And Ron's not fit to be a wizard at all! He's so full of himself, and he's as stupid as some troll with a wand!'
Suddenly, heavy shuffling footsteps sounded outside, and a few seconds later Hermione was hit by such a horrible smell that she couldn't help grimacing. She carefully opened the cubicle door a crack and peered out.
A huge creature towered right in front of her.
"Ron?" flashed through her mind for a split second.
But Hermione immediately realised that the comparison was completely unfair. However stupid and awful Ron might be, he was still a long way from being a real troll.
She screamed in terror. Hermione had never seen such a frightening magical creature before, let alone found herself face to face with one. Her scream seemed to stun the troll for a second. But it quickly recovered and moved towards her. Hermione sprang out of the cubicle and backed away until she reached the far wall of the toilets. She froze in terror. There was nowhere to run.
At that moment, the toilet door flew open, and Harry and Ron appeared in the doorway. They were shouting something to her, but Hermione couldn't hear them. Barely able to stay on her trembling legs, she couldn't tear her eyes away from the approaching monster. Everything else seemed to stop existing.
One more step, and the troll would kill her.
But the boys' appearance distracted the troll after all. It stopped and looked around in confusion, as if it couldn't decide who to attack first. At last, it turned away from Hermione and stepped towards Harry. Ron, meanwhile, had reached the opposite corner and started throwing everything he could get his hands on at the troll. The enraged creature roared and turned towards him. At that moment, Harry ran up from behind and jumped onto the troll's back. He wrapped his arms around its neck and, a second later, somehow managed to shove his wand straight up its nose.
The troll clearly didn't like that. It howled and spun around, trying to pull Harry off its back. At the monstrous roar, Hermione felt the last of her strength leave her. Her vision blurred, her legs gave way, and she slowly slid down the wall to the floor.
'He's going to kill Harry, and then me' was the only thought pounding through her head.
Suddenly, Ron shouted, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
The club flew out of the troll's hand and rose into the air. For a moment, it hovered directly above its head, then came crashing down with a deafening crack. The troll staggered and crashed to the floor.
Silence fell over the toilets, broken only by Harry's heavy breathing. Still hardly able to believe that she was safe, Hermione was the first to speak.
"Is it – dead?"
"I don't think so," Harry replied. "I think it's just been knocked out."
Then came the sound of hurried footsteps. A few seconds later, the door flew open and Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape and Professor Quirrell rushed into the toilets. At the sight of the troll lying on the floor with the three first-years beside it, they froze in the doorway. Snape was the first to recover. He walked over to the troll, quickly examined it and made sure it was still unconscious. Then the teachers turned their attention to the students.
"What on earth were you thinking of?" McGonagall demanded.
Her eyes flashed with anger, while Snape, standing beside her, wore his usual cold expression. Both teachers were clearly expecting an explanation from the boys. They only glanced briefly at Hermione, then seemed to forget she was even there.
'That's because I never break the rules,' Hermione thought with some pride. The first shock was slowly wearing off, and along with her usual clear-headedness, her familiar tendency to lecture others was returning too. 'And those two idiots deserve whatever they get. They probably came rushing here, breaking every rule they could, and then even got into a fight with a troll to save me...'
Hermione stopped short at the thought.
Perhaps because of the terror she had just been through, that obvious fact simply hadn't occurred to her until now. The boys standing in the opposite corner, now not daring to look up at the teachers, had risked their lives only minutes ago fighting a deadly troll.
And all of it for her. For Hermione.
She stared at Harry and Ron as if she were really seeing them for the first time. Whatever their relationship had been like before, letting the boys be punished now for saving her life would be completely unfair. The decision came quickly, although Hermione had to go against everything that came naturally to her to make it. For the first time in her life, she was going to lie to a teacher.
'Well, not exactly lie. Just give aslightly altered version of what happened,' she corrected herself at once.
"Please, Professor McGonagall – they were looking for me," Hermione said quietly.
"Miss Granger?" There was genuine surprise in McGonagall's voice.
"I went looking for the troll because... because I thought I could deal with it myself..."
With every word, lying became easier. To her own surprise, Hermione discovered that telling lies wasn't actually all that difficult, and that she could do it quite convincingly. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Harry and Ron. Both were staring at her with their mouths open. It seemed they hadn't expected this turn of events either. But the new version clearly suited them, and the boys readily backed her up.
McGonagall stared at Hermione in silence for several seconds, making no attempt to hide her surprise. But the story sounded believable enough, and most importantly, everything had ended well. So the professor limited herself to a stern telling-off for being reckless and breaking the rules, then ordered all three of them to return to the Gryffindor common room at once.
On the way back, Hermione occasionally wiped her cheeks with her hand, brushing away the last traces of tears. Inside, she was still struggling with feelings she wasn't used to. Ron's words still hurt whenever she remembered them, but now there was another feeling pushing against the hurt: gratitude towards the boys who had rushed to help her without a second thought. And little by little, that feeling was beginning to win out.
When they reached the Gryffindor common room, the three of them went together to the table, where the Halloween celebrations were still going on. And for the first time since arriving at Hogwarts, Hermione felt that she had someone to share the celebration with.
After that night, Harry, Ron and Hermione began spending more and more time together. They sat next to each other in lessons, always ended up in neighbouring seats at meals, and often spent their evenings in the Gryffindor common room. Before long, it became so normal that Hermione could hardly imagine Hogwarts without them.
A few days later, lying in bed and thinking back over the day, Hermione smiled at a sudden thought.
'Turns out making friends isn't so difficult after all. All you need is a troll.'