Hermione Granger and the Year Hidden from Hogwarts

Chapter 27

Hermione Granger and the Year Hidden from Hogwarts

Harry Potter Fanfiction

Chapter 27

A/N: The Trials are over. Woo, now we can move on. Hopefully they weren't too drawn out. It's the only boss battle for this story in the series, and I didn't want to skim over it after we'd spent so long building toward it.

April 25th, 1992

Hermione assumed they were yelling at her until she glanced around and saw that they were actually cheering her on.

Her sluggish mind couldn't process the abrupt change in attitude since, until this point, they'd been eager for her death.

The announcer came on. "Dear goblin nation, our cherished horde, I would welcome and introduce to you our winner, Wand-Waver the Willful!"

If she'd had more energy, she'd have scowled.

After all that, and they were still going to call her their derogatory term for wizards? But then she'd heard the rider added on at the end: Wand-Waver "the Willful"

Apparently, passing the Trials was what earned the status of having undergone great adventure and heroics.

She could hardly believe it, even when the outer dome disappeared and the nundu's herders returned to guide the creature away. It was much more docile this time, especially when she ordered it to go with them, and she kept her eye on it as it disappeared from sight.

Flitwick and Wudrok rushed out to greet her as the spectators began to spill out into the arena from the stands and join in celebrating her.

She leaned in close to her original "team," rushing out her words to beat the crowd's arrival. "I don't get it. They hated me as an outsider. Why are they cheering now?"

Wudrok flashed his teeth. "Because, Wand-Waver, goblins would only take in that which makes them stronger."

With that, Hermione was whisked into the air, held up on the wave of the crowd as they chanted her name with none of the derision they had before. "Wand-Waver the Willful, Wand-Waver the Willful!"

It took an order from the announcer and a repeated one by the head of Gringotts for the crowd to leave her be and dissipate, but she was thankful they'd stepped in. She was a stiff breeze away from collapse.

Gorlug ventured out onto the emptying arena to meet the three of them. "Wand-Waver the Willful," he greeted at length.

She bowed her head. "Gorlug the Greedy."

He nodded and turned. "You would follow me. Come Goblin Spokesperson of Granger and Wudrok the Wise. You would be at this meeting."

Hermione followed in a state of shock, distantly taking in the arched viewing portals in the bedrock to the left of the walkway that overlooked an entire metropolis buried deep beneath the ground. She glimpsed activity and celebrations in the narrow streets that bisected the town into individual buildings and houses, all crafted from the existing stone, nearly glittering with the pockmarked pattern of uneven chips.

It was no less fascinating that Diagon Alley, and she itched to explore the city. Only her body's limitations quelled the urge to insist, especially when she stumbled, and Flitwick had to reach up and catch her hand to steady her.

"Thank you, professor."

"Of course, Hermione. Though I must insist you stop giving me heart attacks with your antics. You're worse than the Potter and Weasley boys."