New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|27| Chapter Twenty-Seven

T W E N T Y  S E V E N

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It didn't take Saffron too long to disperse from her siblings when the train started to make its way north. The only difference was that this year, people left together. She was with Harry and Rachel and Rowan were sticking together. Last year, they all went off by themselves, whereas this year it was only Maya. Knowing that her younger siblings would have each other more than they did last year really eased Saffron's mind and left her with few worries when it came to them, as she and Harry ventured down the train to find Hermione and Ron.

It didn't take too long to find them, but to their surprise, they were in a compartment only a few from Draco Malfoy and a bunch of his Slytherin friends. It was nice catching up with them and finding out how their past few weeks had gone. It was relatively uneventful and filled with suspense as to what exactly this big surprise was in Hogwarts this year. They hadn't gotten any closer to that answer yet, as the older members of the Weasley family had been good at keeping their lips sealed about it all. 

As nice as it was to see the pair of them again, it was when Lavender and Parvati walked into their compartment, saying that they had been looking for her, that Saffron squealed with excitement and took them both into hugs. They were what she had missed most of all during the Summer, considering she had got to see Hermione during it, she didn't really count. Both had certainly matured in how they looked over the Summer and Lavender had gotten noticeably taller.

"I was hoping I'd see you at the world cup," Saffron said to Lavender and Parvati, who had taken seats in their compartment. 

"I spent the whole Summer in Malaysia, only got back last week," sighed Parvati sadly. "As you can imagine, I loved it, every day with Padma is like a dream,"

Saffron frowned sympathetically. "What about you, Lavender?"

"We were going to go, but the second Ireland got into the final my dad was put off going," Lavender explained. "He has a grudge against the country, don't ask," She let out a laugh. "Anyway, I'm looking forward to tonight," She looked from Saffron to Hermione. "I think we should use it as our opportunity to make any adjustments to the list,"

Saffron, Parvati and Lavender all giggled whilst Hermione sat there blushing. Had Harry and Ron not been there, she might have grinned at the prospect as it was usually quite a comedic night when they spoke about the list. But having Harry and Ron giving each other curious looks and knowing they'd enquire certainly irked Hermione. The second the other two Gryffindor girls left Ron jumped on their case.

"What's this list?"

"That's for us to know, and for you not to find out," stated Saffron shortly.

A while after that, they were greeted by Harry and Ron's roommates Seamus, Dean and Neville. They had seen two of the three, excluding Neville, at the world cup but only briefly. The annoying thing was all they spoke about was Quidditch for over forty-five minutes. Not wanting to engage in that conversation, as they didn't have much to contribute to it, Saffron and Hermione played a few rounds of exploding snap and then discussed their theories for why they had to buy dress robes. Obviously, they knew there was going to be some sort of formal event on, but what they consisted of they wouldn't know. Their best guess was that it would be a dance which, if correct, wouldn't be a surprise at all, it seemed rather obvious. It was the reason behind the dance that had ambiguity over it and neither girl felt like they were thinking along the right lines as to the ultimate reason.