The Hollow Beneath Hogwarts

18. You Only Have One Mum And One Dad

The compartment door opened almost immediately after Professor McGonagall spoke.

Harry stepped inside first, Hermione close behind him, with Draco lingering in the doorway looking deeply suspicious of the entire situation.

All three of them froze the second they spotted Sloane sitting comfortably across from the Headmistress with tea and cakes spread between them.

For a long moment, nobody spoke.

Professor McGonagall looked entirely unbothered. "It is good to see you three," she said calmly, as though inviting students for afternoon tea aboard a moving train was a perfectly normal occurrence. "Please, come in and take a seat. This will not take long."

The three of them still looked utterly bewildered.

"Tea?" Without waiting for an answer, McGonagall began pouring cups anyway.

Harry blinked slowly.

Hermione looked like her brain had temporarily stopped functioning.

Draco narrowed his eyes at the Headmistress like he was trying to identify the hidden trap.

Meanwhile Sloane quietly reached toward the cake stand and immediately spotted a lemon tart tucked near the bottom tier. Her eyes lit up. Lemon tart. Her favourite.

She carefully picked it up before anyone else could steal it.

Hermione noticed. And somehow that made the entire situation even stranger. Because Sloane looked... comfortable here. Relaxed. Like she belonged sitting across from the Headmistress drinking tea.

It completely threw Hermione off balance. Truthfully, Hermione was still nursing a disappointment she hadn't properly admitted aloud to anyone. All summer long she had waited for the Hogwarts letter announcing Head Girl. She had wanted it desperately ever since she first stepped into Hogwarts as an eleven-year-old with frizzy hair and too many books in her arms.

After everything they had survived... After all the years of rule-following and studying and helping save the wizarding world repeatedly... Part of her had truly believed she would get it.

So when no badge arrived over summer—

It had hurt more than she expected.

And when she and Harry had suddenly been summoned just now by Professor McGonagall, some small foolish hopeful part of Hermione had wondered if perhaps the letters had simply been delayed. Then she arrived outside the compartment and found Draco Malfoy standing there looking equally confused. That alone had ruined the theory immediately.

Draco, meanwhile, had spent the entire walk here convinced this was either:

A) a practical joke,
or
B) an official expulsion.

Honestly, both seemed equally likely. The idea of Professor McGonagall wanting him for something positive had never once crossed his mind. He was entirely prepared for her to calmly inform him he was no longer welcome at Hogwarts and should take the next train back to London.

Harry's main concern, meanwhile, was significantly less dramatic. He had just spent nearly all his money on trolley sweets. And he was about ninety percent certain Ron was currently eating them unsupervised. So his mood had already been deteriorating before he even arrived.

None of them expected to step inside and find tea, cakes, and Sloane Sage smiling faintly over a lemon tart.

Draco recovered first. Mostly because Draco Malfoy would rather die than appear visibly confused for too long. Without a word, he stepped further into the room and immediately claimed the only remaining armchair beside Sloane.