The Little Green Book

Chapter I

It rained. The girl hurried up splashing through puddles, her dark robes drenched. Her previously straight hair started to curl and frizz. Exasperated she dashed into a doorway and went inside. The Three Broomsticks was packed out. Nobody wanted to be outside on such a cold and dismal afternoon.

"Excuse me, 'scuse me," said the girl, elbowing her way through a particularly raucous group of Hags. She sat down at a table near the fireplace and proceeded to drape her wet cloak over a chair. Producing her wand from her sleeve she casually pointed at her wet things and with a flick of the wrist said, "Desiccatia!" The water evaporated instantly. She allowed herself a small smile; she'd thought it a handy spell when she first read about it in "Advanced Elemental Charms". Pleased, she ordered a Butterbeer and completely failed to notice the hooded stranger walk in.

* * *

He had to duck his head as he came through the doorway. Water streamed off his heavy coat onto the floor where it pooled into fragmented shapes. There was a brief lapse in the clamour of conversation as various heads turned to see who it was, then just as briefly dismissed him as a particularly soggy regular. They couldn't have been more mistaken.

Crystalline blue eyes surveyed the room searching, speculating. Then, his eyes stopped their wandering, having found who he was looking for. A smile curved the corners of his soft mouth. Drawing back his hood, he approached the table by the fireside.

* * *

The girl supped her Butterbeer, feeling the warmth flow back into her body. She wound a strand of her now bushy hair around a finger whilst she pondered on the day's happenings. Thankfully, she had everything she needed for a while now. Reaching into one of the multitude of bags around her, she pulled out one of her new books and began to read:

"Runes were the earliest alphabet in use amongst the gothic tribes of Northern Europe. The characters were employed either for purposes of secrecy or for........"

"Hermione Granger?" a voice interrupted.

"Hmm.. yes what, me?" Hermione said distractedly, putting down the book. Her eyes widened slightly when she saw the man who had addressed her.

"May I sit down?" he asked politely. Taking off his rain drenched coat he pulled up a chair and didn't wait for an answer.

"Why not, go ahead," Hermione pointlessly replied. Intent on ignoring him, she started to read her book but he spoke again:

"Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm Chade Elwin. I apologise for startling you." He smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. They remained crystallised and intense, like shards of ice Hermione thought uncomfortably. She sat up stiffly clutching her book.

" Well, Mr. Elwin..." she began but he interrupted again;

"Please call me Chade."

Hermione positively glowered, "Mr Elwin," she carried on. "I don't believe we have met so how do you know my name, and what exactly do you want?" She tried to keep a level tone. After all, he wasn't being exactly hostile with her; she just didn't trust this stranger and his gleaming eyes.

"So untrusting," he said knowingly. He leaned back in his chair in time to scoop a butterbeer off a tray carried by Madame Rosemerta. He took a large swig from it, keeping his eyes on Hermione from over the glass. Hermione frowned back, annoyed at his evasiveness. He was very tall, more than six feet and though she couldn't tell under his loose robes, she suspected by his arrogant and imposing demeanour that he kept himself exceedingly fit.

Increasingly uneasy, Hermione moved her hand down to her wand. If he tries anything, I'll hex him and run she thought to herself. Petrificus Totalus would be a good one. Intuitively, the man sat back up and gave her an earnest look. "Hermione, I have important information you need to know."

"About what?"

"You."

" Oh? Go on...."

"I, uh, what's that you're reading?" he asked, changing the subject again.

"I haven't got time for this!" Hermione snapped at him. "Either get to the point or I'm leaving. No wait, I'm leaving now." She grabbed her cloak and bags and went to get up.

"I'm sorry, please wait Hermione!" Chade apologised, sounding agitated for the first time that afternoon. He grasped her arm firmly so she couldn't walk off. "Here, at least take this," he said hurriedly, "you like reading don't you?" He handed her a leather bound book. Hermione stuffed it into her bag and shoved past him. He let her go and sat down resignedly. He had done his part, the girl had the book now. He just couldn't explain it to her, not here in the Three Broomsticks where the walls had ears. It was opportunistic that he'd found her here anyway. But now, he thought I'll have to find her again. He sighed, lost in thought.

Meanwhile Hermione ran in the downpour up the empty streets. She felt jangled by the encounter with Chade. Who was he? What was he playing at, messing her about like that, rambling on about who knows what?

Back at Hogwarts she got changed into dry clothes and armed with her new books, endless scrolls, quills and pots of ink, sat at a table in the Gryffindor common room to do some work. It wasn't long before Harry and Ron came in chatting animatedly. "Hello Hermione," Harry said as he sat down in one of the comfy armchairs, "have a good day in Hogsmeade?"

"Yeah, fine thanks," she answered a little too quickly. "How about you?"

"Hectic if anything, wasn't it Ron?" Harry grinned.

"Yeah," said Ron as he joined them, "we went down to feed Fang and then as he was so melancholy, missing Hagrid and everything we thought it might be a good idea to take him for a walk."

"Correction," said Harry, "Ron thought it might be a good idea to take him for a walk."

"Yeah, ok I might have suggested it first," he said sheepishly, "anyway as soon as we got his lead on him, he took of. Dragged us round the lake twice, then round the Quidditch pitch, churned up the grass pretty bad too."

"And as we were hanging on to his lead for grim death we got covered in mud," Harry said woefully.

"In the end it took us, six first years and Professor Sprout to stop him," Ron finished. Hermione couldn't help but laugh at the image that Ron's words invoked.

"Well, it was a better day than mine at least. My day wasn't fine at all really," she admitted and then told them about the strange meeting with Chade.

"What book was it Herm?" asked Harry, intrigued.

"I've not looked at it yet but it's this one," she said showing them a small green leather book, "there's no title or anything." She went to open it.

"Don't open it!" Ron cried, "You don't know what it is, it could be one of those books that you can't ever stop reading, Dad told me about them."

Hermione swiftly withdrew her hand.

"But then again it might not be," said Harry thoughtfully. He picked it up and turned it over, running his fingers down the spine. "There's not a mark on it."

"Harry, just put it down," implored Ron. Reluctantly Harry gave it back to Hermione. Ron breathed a dramatised sigh of relief. "Thank you, here let me have it a minute." He tied a length of string tight around it so it couldn't fall open. "We'll come with you next time you're in Hogsmeade, won't we Harry?"

"Yeah, if you want us to. We'll sort out any book-giving weirdoes."

Hermione smiled. Sitting in Gryffindor tower with her friends made her anxiety at meeting Chade seem unnecessary.

*

Dinner that evening in the Great Hall was a dreary affair. The ceiling showed black clouds turbulently swirling across the sky, punctuated by bolts of lightning. Hermione shivered as she looked up at it. The weather seemed to pass its sombre mood on to everyone. The rest of the Gryffindor fifth years seemed quieter than usual. The food even seemed more lack-lustre, which was surprising as the food was normally excellent at Hogwarts. It's only the second week into the new term Hermione thought, the house-elves probably need to get back into the swing of things. She poked the forlorn Yorkshire pudding around her plate again, considering it from all angles.........no way.

Back at Gryffindor Tower, Hermione said goodnight to Harry and Ron straight away and went to her dorm. Crookshanks was catnapping on her bed. Upon hearing her come in, he yawned showing his sharp teeth and luxuriously stretched kneading the pillow. She lay for a while stroking his soothing orange fur, hearing him purr contentedly, though she was far from his happy reverie. Restless, she got out the green book from the bedside drawer. It looked insignificant still bound up in string in her hand. She scrutinised it carefully again, turning it first this way then that. Then very slowly, Hermione untied the bonds Ron had constrained it with. It lay in her lap unobstructed. What was in it? Her hands briefly strayed over the cover. So inoffensive looking a thing. What harm could it possibly do to read it? A lot, her common sense reminded her. She jammed it back in the draw quickly before she could argue with herself and turned over facing away from it.