Hermione Granger and the Displaced Sorting

Chapter 8

Hermione Granger and the Displaced Sorting

Harry Potter Fanfiction

Chapter 8

A/N: This is going to be a running author's note, but if you read on fanfiction.net and enjoy this story, make sure to have my username saved in case my account is deleted. I post on AO3 and Wattpad as well under the same name.

We've got our official sorting now. Congrats to those of you that guessed where she would be going based on the title "Displaced Sorting."

September 2nd, 1992

There was a small snag with her "eat and flee" plan, and it all revolved around the fact that they would be getting their timetables during breakfast today, and she was the only person in the entire, echoing room—including the absent staff.

With a sigh, she resigned herself to having to wait around.

"I'd have to face the music eventually, right Ignis?" she questioned, feeling the critter do a little wiggle in reply. "Might as well get some studying done, I suppose."

Hermione opened the book, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, something she hadn't cracked open yet in her goal of passing her first year required subjects, and then later getting to know the secrets of Hogwarts. However, the "invisible" skeletal horses weren't in Hogwarts: A History, so either they were a fairly new thing, used after the book was published, or it'd been left out as unimportant.

She would get to the bottom of these "horseless" carriages. In addition, she needed to attend her classes, read ahead, complete any homework, write her parents, and track down the library.

Already, her day was packed full.

The first of the students began to trickle in, and Hermione dipped her chin low, her bushy hair falling forward and blocking more of her face. Hopefully, they'd just see her as another child first-year student beneath their notice.

It was only the first- and second-year students she worried about. Sure enough, as students filled the room, a group of the girls she'd joined with the prefects sat nearby but apart from her, close enough for her to hear their whispers, speculating about her, her heritage, her whereabouts from the night before...

She kept her eyes glued to her book. So long as they kept their conversation to a believable whisper where she could just pretend to be absorbed in the reading material and not hear it, she would be happy.

The longer breakfast went on, though, the braver they got, until one finally cleared her throat and spoke up. "You're Granger, right? We didn't see you in the dorm last night. Did you get scared of us real snakes and crawl into some dark hidey hole?"

Hermione paused, placing a bookmark in her spot as she considered how to answer, but hundreds of swooping owls flew in, carrying an interruption with them.

"RON-ALD WEASLEY!" a woman's voice screeched, causing all the chatter to die down. A red envelope jumped into the air, contorting into a mouth that yelled at the young boy with a face burning brighter than his hair. "HOW DARE YOU STEAL THAT CAR?! I AM ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED! YOUR FATHER'S NOW FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, AND IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT! IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE, WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT HOME!"

A resounding silence echoed around the room as the letter turned to a familiar redheaded girl. "—Oh, and Ginny dear, congratulations on making Gryffindor. Your father and I are so proud."

The letter huffed once more at what had to be another one of Ginny's six brothers that she'd mentioned on the train ride, blew a raspberry with its ribbon tongue, and then shredded itself up in some self-destruct sequence.