Harry Potter and the Famous Five's ice-cream man

Part 1

Harry Potter was sitting in the shade of a large elm tree in the grounds of Hogwarts, trying to turn himself into a cat. His friends Ron and Hermione stretched beside him, enjoying their last day together before returning home for the summer holidays. Hermione looked a lot older than normal – about 14, Harry guessed - but the boys were getting used to that. Other first-years waved and smiled as they passed by - Harry was still the hero who had fought evil wizard Lord Voldemort in the dungeons only days before. Ron and Hermione had been there too, but no-one cared about them.

"Ooh, I think I got whiskers that time," said Harry, sneezing.

"I've told you," said Hermione, looking up from the enormous tome she was reading. "You won't be able to do it. And even if you could, you'd have to get permission from the Ministry and go on a register. They're really not very libertarian about this."

"Don't listen to her, Harry," said Ron. "You've got this. I believe in you."

"This isn't Oprah Winfrey," said Hermione, acidly.

"What's Oprah Winfrey?" asked Ron.

Hermione looked momentarily confused. "I'm not sure. It's definitely something from the Muggle world, but I'm not sure if it's happened yet. It's so confusing being a time traveller. Oh, whoops, I'm not supposed to tell you about that until the third year. Forget I said anything."

God, there she went again, banging on about secret time travel. Harry ignored her. If he was honest, he was feeling a little begrudging about the time travel thing. Definitely not jealous – of course not! But perhaps a bit, how could he put this, nettled?

Ron and Hermione were his friends. They were people in their own right. They weren't just his sidekicks – definitely not! But even so, after all he'd faced this year, and having beaten Lord Voldemort by himself ...

Well, if anyone was going to be having time-travelling adventures, Harry just thought it would be him, that's all. After all, he was the Chosen One.

He wasn't supposed to know about that either, but sixteen-year-old Hermione had visited them a few nights ago and she was a right blabbermouth when she was drunk.

"Yeah yeah," said Ron, rolling his eyes. "Whatever, Hermione. Back to the whole turning yourself into a cat thing. It'd be a very handy skill if You Know Who makes another comeback, wouldn't it? I mean probably he won't, and the rest of our time at school will be totally uneventful. But Harry should definitely try and learn, just in case."

"But there are rules ..." said Hermione.

"There are rules about time travel too, right? But it doesn't stop you sending your older self back to sit tests for you."

"Ron!" Hermione slammed her book shut. "I would never do such a thing, if I could time travel which obviously I can't because it's illegal. But Harry's famous – if he gets caught breaking the rules ..."

"They'll give him a detention or something and then it'll be fine," said Ron. "You don't half make a mountain out of a molehill sometimes, Hermione. Remember how you pointlessly told everyone you'd gone looking for the troll at Hallowe'en? All you had to say was you'd gone to the loo, and we came looking for you. Then no-one would have been in trouble and we'd not have lost any points for Gryffindor."

Hermione stuffed her book into her bag and got up. "I've had quite enough of your company," she said icily. "Also I need to get back to fourth year, I just wanted some summer sun to warm up after a night in the lake. Ooops, I mean, a totally normal night in the dormitory. See ya."

She hurried away, passing George and Fred, who dropped to the grass next to Ron.

"Hermione's looking, ummm, very mature for her age today," said George.