The Unsung Hero- a Hermione Granger fanfiction

Diagon Alley

Only just one day left till school school, and all our stuff is in a mess. My books and Hogwarts attire and robes are already packed into my trunk, but I still have to pack my personal belongings. My muddle is nothing compared to Ron's- his socks lay strewn all across the floor and are all mismatched, just as if Dobby had been throwing them about happily. Ginny's things are all arranged nicely, but half her stuff seems to be spilling out of her trunk- it's too full. Harry's things are all packed, but rather messily. Oh well.

But I'm still lacking certain potion ingredients, parchment, and a new wicker carrier basket for Crookshanks. Just about everything else is with me.

I hurry down the newly lacquered and gleaming mahogany stairs. I guess it's way better than the rickety old, creaking staircase that spiralled to the top of the abnormally held up Burrow previously.

"Mrs. Weasley!" I call, arriving in the living room, I need to ask her for my jumper, I'd forgotten I'd given it to her for washing about a few days ago. It was the last gift I'd received from my now Obliviated parents, who, frankly speaking, live in Australia. They'd always been generous with gifts, although they disposed of every single sugary item in the house- but they didn't know about the parcels of wizard snacks (which are sugary) that Harry, the Weasleys, Luna, Neville, and, strangely, Ernie Macmillan had sent me.

"I'm in the kitchen!" she answers in a preoccupied manner. Quite ordinary, as she just bustles her and there doing house work, chores and such.

"Hermione, get changed, child, we're going to -" she starts, her pudgy frame visible as she pads towards me across the tiled kitchen floor, holding my freshly washed jumper.

"Diagon Alley?" I interrupt, smiling. I never get tired of that place.

"Yes, quickly now!" she says, grinning slightly too, and ushering me back up the stairs to change.

***

"Mum! I need a Pygmy Puff to match Ginny's!" Ron says giddily as we walk into Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. He examines the new variations of blue and yellow Pygmy Puffs, who float chaotically and haphazardly around their enlargened cage.

We'd just apparated into Diagon Alley, and all the boys wanted to do is behave like four year olds in a candy shop. I can't blame them, and I daren't.

"I'm gonna get this set of balding and hair dyeing elixirs!" Harry takes the set off the shelf, smirking as he whispers "Draco". And yes, Draco Malfoy is returning to Hogwarts too- nearly everyone except Hannah Abbott and Terry Boot is coming back.

I sigh exaggeratedly and share a look with Ginny, exasperated, as we head to the Wonder Witch section. I pick up a bottle of everlasting perfume, and it says, "One Spritz Perfume: One Spritz is All You Need, lasts for seven months and counting."

"My, my, my, is that Hermione Granger at the Wonder Witch section?" a vaguely familiar voice says huskily. 'This can only be a fairly exuberant case of trouble.' I think.

I turn around. Cormac McLaggen grins flirtily at me with a cocked brow as she leans against the wall. Oh he thinks he's so swaggy doesn't he? Thank god he left school already. I think he's secretly boiling about the way I ditched him at Slughorn's party two years ago.

I roll my eyes and whip my hair in his face sassily with a mocking expression, then turning back to Ginny, motioning subtly that we should go. We set off to find the rest of them, eager to escape that egomaniac Cormac.

I find Ron and Harry stocking up on packs upon packs of wet start fireworks and lots of puking pastilles.

"What, are you kids?" I laugh, unable to help myself. Would they really dare, after all, we're going to be seventh years.