Back To School

Mr. and Mrs. Granger walked through the barrier to Platform 9 ¾. They would never get completely used to it, but it wasn’t as disorientating as it used to be. Their only daughter, Hermione, came in just after them with all her things smiling broadly. Another new year at the school for those gifted with magic, Hogwarts, and another year without their baby girl. Though she was hardly a girl anymore at the age of 15.

Putting her stuff on the floor a few meters from a confection stand she hugged her parents.

"I’ll miss you."

"We’ll miss you to darling," her mother said softly smiling

"I’ll write to you too. Tell you about anything big going on."

"Good. If there are any giants walking around, let me know," her father said. Hermione giggled at that.

"Dad, my Care of Magical Creatures teacher is half giant. But I’ll let you know." Hugging her dad again, her mind turned from seeing her friends again to saying good-bye to her family.

When she let go, she looked around, her father doing the same. His eyes stopped roaming when she looked at a group of people not far from them. It consisted of two red haired adults, the parents, two red haired identical twins, a red head boy and girl. But there was also a dark haired boy who looked slightly out of place, presumably a friend of the family, and not actually a part of it.

The dark haired boy looked up and smiled broadly at her.

"Hermione!" he shouted, and then the others looked around, especially the red haired boy who wasn’t one of the twins.

"Harry! Boy am I glad to see you. I take it the Dursleys weren’t to hard on you."

"No more than the usual. Can’t mention magic, school, friends, or anything remotely like that. I can’t even say ‘hocus pokus’ without them going mental."

"They made him do all the house work as usual. Spoilt Dudley again and given him nothing."

"Usual life with my Uncle, Aunt and Cousin around. Dudley has gotten even bigger if you can believe it. Mind you they’ve started to avoid my room now as if it would kill them or something," Harry commented. Poor boy Mr. Granger thought, who would treat family like that?

"We should get Snape to pop round some time and tell him they love everything to do with magic, and are his greatest fans," someone new said, one of the twins.

"George, that would be no fun. What we would have to do is send the entire staff plus Dobby around."

"They’d probably have a heart attack," Harry commented, "It would be strange to see though, the entire staff trying to look like muggles."

"Now Harry, you may not like them much, but they are still teachers," Hermione pointed out, and Mr. and Mrs. Granger smiled, this was the daughter they knew, respectful to teachers.

"Now Hermione, you may not like rule braking much, but Snape is mean," a twin stated.

"Yes Fred, he is. But still..." Hermione stopped and looked at her parents knowing that they would be totally lost. She almost laughed looking at Harry who also grinned as if to say ‘Fred and George 101, how to survive madness’.

"Mum, Dad, these are my friends. Harry, Ron, Ginny, Fred and George."

"Nice to meet you all," Mrs. Granger commented "But you must hurry, the train will be going soon."

"Okay. Love you both," Hermione said hugging both her parents who soon returned the sentiment. She turned and walked off in the middle of Harry and Ron.

Another year away, learning about things they could never dream about. Another year of adventures and making magic happen. Another year away from home. It was a strange world, yet their daughter looked more at home in it than she had looked anywhere else before.

Mr. and Mrs. Granger turned to leave, knowing that they wouldn’t see her again until yet another adventure had taken place, and their daughter returned.