Don't Act Like You Know Me

Year 1 - Holy Cricket!

Hermione stepped out of the wall and into the opposing side of King's Cross Station. It was so much cleaner and nicer. There were notably less people there. But there it was, the train. The magnificent train. It was red and black and shiny and polished. It was amazing. Hermione saw Draco, the blonde boy, boarding the train. She wanted to board the train right along with him. She walked over to the ramp that was overflowing with overprotective parents that wanted to be with their kid until the last minute. Hermione wished her parents could've come with her, but they were 'muggles', as people in the magic world called them. Hermione wondered why Draco's parents didn't come with him. Judging by the way they dressed, she guessed they weren't non-magical.

She boarded the train and tried to look for a compartment that wasn't already full. She walked down the hall until the very end, where there was a boy sitting by himself. He was short and rather rotund with a brown-haired bowl-cut living on top of his head. He had a tooth gap and was wearing a gray sweater with black pants. He also had a toad in his lap. Hermione decided to opened the door. "Is anyone sitting here?" Hermione gestured to the empty seat across from him. The boy was startled and stood up fast.

"N-no. N-n-no. You can sit here," the boy said. "I-I'm Neville L-Longbottom."

"Hello, Neville. My name's Hermione Granger," Hermione said.

"That's a pretty name."

"Thank you, Neville." Hermione sat. Neville remained standing, staring wide-eyed at her. "You can sit down now, Neville." Neville sat, but did not break eye contact.

"So, where do you come from, Hermione?" Neville sat down in the pile of snacks he had surrounding him. He chucked a jelly bean in his mouth.

"Um- I'm muggle-born." Hermione felt awkward using that word. 

"Oh." Neville looked out the window. "Well, that's fantastic! I'm sure you'll make a great witch."

"Thank you, Neville. I'm sure you'll make a great wizard," Hermione smiled. "What is that you're eating?"

"Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans! Do you want one?" Neville offered the box to her. The box was red and white striped with multi-color jelly beans inside. 

"Sure," Hermione reached into the box.

"Just steer clear of the light green ones. Those ones are bogey-flavored."

"Gross," Hermione whispered as she picked a light orange jelly bean. She popped it in her mouth. "Mmm, peach!"

"The green apple ones are my favorite. You never really know what flavor you'll get in Bertie Bott's. Sometimes they come up with rather random ones." Hermione chewed the jelly bean. They had jelly beans in the 'muggle' world, but these jelly beans seemed so much more flavorful. "Here," Neville handed her the box, which was bout half full. "You can have the rest. I've got plenty." 

"Are you sure? That's very kind of you?" Hermione received the box from him.

"Yeah, I've got to put on my robes before we arrive, anyways." Neville retrieved a few things out of his trunk on the overhead shelf and left the compartment. Hermione knew that her parents had gotten her wizard robes in Diagon Alley, where she had gotten all of her wizarding school supplies. But apparently, she had to dress in them before the train arrived. Hermione fished another jelly bean out of the box Neville had given her. It was bright red. She popped it in her mouth and a red-hot taste started to dance across her tongue. Hermione made a sour face and spat out the jelly bean.

"A chili pepper flavored jelly bean," she whispered to herself. "How... odd." She gently placed the half full box of jelly beans back onto Neville's pile of sweets and took her trunk off the shelf. She found her black robe and slipped it on over her clothes. When she turned around, Neville had come back with a black robe on. 

"Hey, Neville?"

"Hmm?"

"Didn't you have a toad on your lap when I came in?"

"Trevor? He's right-" Neville reached out to pick up his toad, but it wasn't there. "Uh-oh. He must have escaped when I left!"

"Let's look! I'll help you."

"Thanks."

Hermione went around to every compartment to ask if anyone had seen a toad hopping around. She knocked and opened the third compartment's door to find the blonde boy sitting with two other pig-looking boys. Suddenly, her palms were sweaty. "E-excuse me," she stuttered. "Sorry to bother you, but have you seen a toad, by any chance?"

"A toad?" one of the pig-faced boys scoffed.

"Um- yes. A boy on the train has lost his."

"Haven't seen one," the other boy laughed as the two pig boys erupted into laughter. Hermione felt her cheeks flushing from embarrassment.

"Okay, sorry." The blonde boy said absolutely nothing as he watched her shut the compartment door. Hermione decided to shake it off. She came to the second to last compartment all the way on the other end of the train. She opened the door to see two boys sitting opposite each other. The boy on the right had jet black hair and bright green eyes. He was wearing a gray shirt with an oversized unbuttoned flannel with brown pants. Everything he was wearing had stains on it. The most notable thing about his appearance was a pair of battered looking round-framed glasses sitting on his face. The boy on the left had flaming red hair, blue eyes, and a bit of dirt on his face. This boy was wearing a navy cable-knit sweater with a green jacket layered over top of it. His pants were gray. The boys looked up when she entered. "Has anyone seen a toad? A boy named Neville's lost one," Hermione asked.

"No," the ginger-haired boy said. Hermione noticed he had a wand in his hand and a rat on his lap.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see then." Maybe this boy knew something. 

The ginger-haired boy cleared his throat. "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid fat rat yellow!" The boy violently waved his wand. The wand zapped and the rat cowered into a box of Bertie Bott's. 

"Are you sure that's a real spell? Well, it's not very good, is it? I've only tried a few simple spells myself and they've all worked for me. For example," Hermione sat down next to the ginger-haired boy. Hermione pointed her wand straight at the other boy's face and said, "Oculus Reparo." The glasses on the other boy's face magically repaired themselves. The boy took them off his face and stared at them in awe. "That's better isn't it?" The boy nodded and put his glasses back on. Hermione looked closer at him. She could just barely see a red lightning shaped scar through the parts in his scraggly hair. She knew exactly who he was. "Holy cricket! You're Harry Potter!" Hermione had read about him in a book about wizarding miracles. "I'm Hermione Granger." Hermione stuck out her hand and Harry shook it reluctantly. She turned to the boy she was sitting next to. "And you are...?"

"Ron Weasley," the ginger-haired kid said with food stuffed in his mouth. He stuck out his hand, but Hermione didn't take it. Instead she stared at it like it was an insect. 

"Pleasure," Hermione grimaced. "You two better change into your robes. I expect we'll be arriving soon." Hermione got up and began to walk back to her compartment when she turned around. "You've got dirt... on your nose, by the way. Did you know?" Hermione said to Ron. "Just there." Hermione pointed to a spot on her own nose, then walked away. They would be arriving at her home for the next seven years shortly.