Hermione Granger and the Philosopher's Stone

The Train Part 4

'That's not normal,' was the first thought that came to mind when she laid eyes what had bumped into her or rather who. The boy's skin was as pale as a summer cloud, his platinum, slicked back hair only a few shades darker, though there was a pink hue on his cheeks as if he were flushed. His face was made up of hard lines: high cheekbones, a pointed chin and an aristocratic nose. She thought he was most likely the most beautiful boy she'd ever seen. That is if it wasn't for that ugly sneer on his face.

"Are you blind?" spit the pale boy haughtily, slapping away the hands of the two meat sacks that were trying to help him up.

"Am I blind? I'm not the one running around the corridor knocking people to the ground!" – well at least not this time – "You are the one that hit me!" Hermione felt her nostrils flare as she yelled back at the boy that was now standing up and looking down at her.

"Do you have any idea who I am?" sneered the boy, "I am Draco Malfoy."

Crawling onto her feet again, she scoffed: "Yes, well I'm Hermione Granger, but I'm not being a prat about it!"

Then she twirled around on her heels and elegantly strode of to the driver, leaving a bunch of gaping boy in her wake. On her way she huffed; so far she was not impressed by wizard kind at least not with their manners. Bumping into someone and then yelling at that person for it, honestly! Hermione didn't care if he was the Queen of the entire United-Kingdom, if he was going to be rude she'd tell him off.

At least the driver was polite when she asked him when they'd be arriving. Of course, he confirmed her suspicions; they were nearly there. With a satisfied smile, Hermione took off again, back to The Boy Who Lived.

"He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side," said the redhead ominously. Hermione's nose couldn't help but crunch up when she noticed he still had food in his mouth. Honestly was that boy raised in a barn? Then he turned around and faced her. He looked annoyed while he asked: "Can we help you with something?"

His voice was dripping with sarcasm, but Hermione was determined to not let it - 'Do you actually think that's normal, that hair of yours?' followed by cruel giggles and the running off of equally cruel girls - get to her. She'd stay friendly and make up for making the kind, dark haired boy uncomfortable by helping him out.

"You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up front to ask the driver and he says we're nearly there," she managed to say all this without letting her annoyance shine through and was quite proud of herself. The kind boy appreciated it too, it seemed; he smiled at her. That was when she noticed what a mess their compartment was. Her brain immediately linked the scene to the boys that had bumped into her in the corridor and her eyes flew open.

"You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"

She had just wanted to warn them, to be helpful, but again the redhead - what was his name again, oh yes, Ron - didn't take it as such. Instead he scowled at her. "Scrabbers has been fighting, not us," said Ron, his face becoming even redder than before, "Would you mind leaving while we change?"

Again his voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"All right -" Hermione said clenching her jaw, "I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors,"

Hermione pursed her lips and turned on her heels, letting her hair swing as she did and hoping against logic that it'd hit him in the face. 'Don't stoop to his level, Hermione, you're better than that,' she repeated to herself as she walked back to the compartment entrance. When he heard a snort behind her though it became too much. She twirled round again, molded her expression into a carbon copy of her most hated former bully and haughtily said: "And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?"

Then and only then did she storm out. Outside, Hermione was quickly swept into the maelstrom of people. The train had been gradually slowing down for the last few minutes and Hermione decided to go back to her own compartment to get her handbag seeing as she didn't know where Neville was anyway. She had to worm her way through all the children to get anywhere though, which became annoying fast. Honestly, they couldn't just make two lines was above her; it would be much more effective. On the way to her compartment she heard a cool, almost mechanic voice echo through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

She supposed the intercom had just given her one less thing to worry about, still she didn't feel comfortable leaving all her books and the rest of her luggage behind; what if someone stole something? Hermione decided to set it out of her mind and to follow the stream of children out the train; the school probably used magic to move the luggage anyway.

Thus Hermione pushed herself to the door and onto the tiny, dark platform it lead to. Once there she couldn't help but shiver, both from excitement and the cold. She pulled the long robes closer to her body and rubbed her arms because of the latter and felt her stomach lurch because of the former. Still, Hermione thought she looked fairly composed. That is until she saw a lamp hanging above the students followed closely by a big, hairy head. Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open. That couldn't be a man. It looked like one, but it couldn't be, he was way too tall, too big, to be human.

"Is that a - a giant?" Hermione wondered. She didn't even know she had spoken out loud until she got an answer.

"Oh yes, that's Hagrid, the gamekeeper. My sister told me about him. He's only a half-giant though." Hermione turned around to see that a nice looking girl had spoken. She had round cheeks and two pigtails holding thick, golden hair together.

"Oh," Hermione said, "that wasn't in the book I read, Hogwarts, a History."

The golden haired girl just rolled her eyes, but paired with the kind grin on her face it didn't seem so mean. What she did next though: "The important things never are," she laughed.

Hermione blinked a few times. Important - not in - never in - books. She was spared from having to answer - or maybe the girl was, depending on how you look at it - by the half-giant.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, kids."