Hermione Snape and the Divergence Point: Volume #1

Chapter 5: Sorting

"Trevor!"

"I got him!" Hermione shouted diving for the toad.

She had a hold of the round-faced boy's toad for about half a second before the bloody thing leapt from her hands and out of the compartment. There she was on her stomach, her outstretched hands empty. The girls on the bench opposite them giggled relentlessly as she got to her knees and she turned to the boy.

She couldn't be certain which of the two of them they were laughing at. The boy's round face pinked and his blue eyes threatened to brim over. Hermione had a chance to make a friend here and she completely blew it! He seemed so upset, she just wanted to fix it.

"I got this!" she leapt to her feet. "I promise!"

"Looks like the hairball has a thing for big fat cry-babies!" Pansy Parkinson cackled.

The blond girl and the brown-haired girl on either side of her giggled harder.

"That was uncalled for!" one of the dark-skinned twin girls snapped.

The other blonde girl in between the two twins stopped giggling after both girls shot her a withering glance.

"Ignore them," Hermione squeaked, taking the boy's hands. "I'll take the back end, you take the front. We'll cover more ground that way. Besides," Hermione cast a withering glance at Pansy Parkinson. "I can barely hear myself think over that Banshee's wail that qualifies for laughter. Honestly, I'd rather listen to a banshee."

"I'm Neville Longbottom," the boy said after they left the compartment, his eyes still downcast.

"Hermione," she smiled. "And we'll find your toad, Trevor, was it?"

"Yeah," he said.

Hermione stalked the narrow corridors between the compartments before swallowing her fear and knocking on each of the compartment doors.

"Aren't you Snape's brat?" asked an older Gryffindor girl.

"Katie," A boy with dreadlocks rolled his eyes—-Lee Jordan, that was his name.

"Can you blame me?" she hissed, obviously unaware Hermione could hear. "Her father's a complete monster and she probably is too!"

Lee Jordan sighed and turned to Hermione. "Was there something you needed?"

"I-er-I" she gulped and turned her gaze to her feet. "Aboylostatoadhaveyouseenone?"

"I-what?" answered a tall girl with long black hair. "Could you repeat that?"

Hermione repeated herself after a deep breath and focused on her words. The interaction was both embarrassing and fruitless as they hadn't seen the toad. She wished she could purge it from her memory. She'd read enough about self-memory augmentation to know that was nothing more than a fever dream. The girl named Katie was not the only one to recognize her of the upper year students. None of them were particularly kind or patient. One of the cruellest stood out to her.

All the other compartments so far had been full, but this one only had a third year Slytherin boy and a third year Gryffindor. One she believed was named Heather Vane, a girl who seemed popular and keen on picking on the vulnerable from what little Hermione saw. She once heard her say: "I feel just awful for the poor thing, she's a wee bit of a social retard".

The other was a boy with long red hair that sat opposite her that Hermione recognized from somewhere. She must have seen him around.

"Oh my God," Heather Vane laughed. "You aren't starting school this year? Oh daddy's ickle labradoodle is in for a hell of a time."