One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

There was a mixture of witches and wizards waving the train goodbye. Some were crying and others seemed excited on behalf of their children. Neville waved at a grumpy-looking old woman in a hideous dress, whilst George waved at Remus who was standing right at the end of the platform. There was no one for Hermione to look out for, but she kept watching the crowd until they left the station.

George gave Hermione a gentle nudge, "hey, Hermione. Did your mum cry when you said goodbye?"

Hermione turned away from the window, "no, but my father did. He'll cry over anything."

"I don't think I've ever seen my grandma cry before", Neville contributed.

George decided to lighten the mood, "alright then. What are we all looking forward to the most? Oh wait, don't answer that."

He held his index fingers to his temple, "my future vision powers are telling me that... Hermione is looking forward to scouring the Library, and Neville wants to see the greenhouses."

Neville gasped, "wow, how did you know that?"

George gave him a wink and said, "I've already told you. It's because..."

Hermione tutted, "it's because you already know our interests and made a simple deduction."

George conceded, "okay clever clogs. But I wasn't wrong, was I?"

A slight smirk formed on Hermione's face, "well, I am maybe a little excited to see the famous Hogwarts Library. I read in 'Hogwarts: A History' that the Library has over a hundred thousand books. It's not as many as the British Library in London, but the Hogwarts collection will be full of exclusive copies unobtainable anywhere else in the world."

And with that minor push from George, the conversation got underway. As the journey progressed, they predominantly talked about Hogwarts and what they thought it was going to be like. He could tell the children had bought into the hype surrounding the oh-so-famous school, they were so excited that they didn't seem worried about being taken away from their homes. Neville was so excited that he didn't even notice his toad jumping out of the compartment for the second time.

Just as Hermione was discussing the scientific principle of making an object levitate, an old woman's voice could be heard coming from down the corridor of the carriage.

The same short phrase kept on being repeated, "anything from the trolley."

Then an old woman with a trolley full of exotic sweets appeared at the entrance of their compartment, "anything from the trolley dears?"

Neville didn't look very happy as he whispered, "nan says that I shouldn't spend my money on sweets."

Hermione was much more confident in her refusal, "my parents would never approve of me eating sweets. It's bad for maintaining healthy teeth and gums."

George found their reactions quite funny, "you guys have got to live a little. I'll have three Chocolate Frogs, three boxes of Bertie bott's every flavour beans, three packs of Drooples best-blowing gum and three Liquorice wands, please."

The old woman's cheeks wrinkled as she smiled, "that will be three galleons and fifteen sickles."

George pulled out his Gringotts pouch and gave the woman the requested amount of money.

Hermione was quick to say, "thanks for the offer, but I don't think it would be wise for me…"

George interrupted her as he was receiving all of the sweets, "nonsense, I've already paid for them anyway. These are all magical sweets, they're not going to rot your teeth. What do you think we should do, Neville? Should we eat them or just throw them out the window?"

Neville appeared to be in his own world, he was completely distracted by the pile of sweets forming on George's lap. George didn't hesitate to pass him his portion of the sweets. Whilst Neville was stuffing his face, Hermione was being quite obstinate about her refusal. She continued to sit in her corner with her arms crossed whilst looking out the window.

George poked her with a liquorice wand before saying, "is this your way of saying you don't want to be my friend? That would be really sad because I had so many things I wanted to discuss with you. Well... I guess I'm going to have to study Advanced Transfiguration all by myself now, it's such a shame. Neville and I will have to eat all these tasty sweets alone and talk about Herbs instead."

George let his head slump down to his chest, and he stuck out his bottom lip with an exaggerated tremor.

He could feel Hermione's gaze burning a hole in the side of his head, "well, if you're going to be like that?"

Then she snatched the liquorice wand out of his hand and started chewing on it aggressively. Her attitude might suggest otherwise, but her eyes were clearly showing that she was enjoying the sweet treat. After finishing the liquorice wand, her damaged pride had settled which allowed her to join in eating with the boys.

The entire journey going from King's Cross to Hogwarts was spent socialising with Hermione and Neville. George didn't have a single moment of peace as both of his new friends never stopped talking about their respective interests. The nearly six-hour-long conversation only ended once the train finally stopped at Hogsmeade station. At roughly the same time, Neville finally noticed that his toad had escaped.

Neville's calm and happy mood flipped on its head as he went into a blind panic. The poor boy tried fruitlessly looking for the toad inside the sweet packets and underneath the seats whilst shouting the name 'Trevor' repeatedly. To help the search, Hermione and George agreed to split up and go along the carriages whilst asking to see if anyone has seen the toad.

They reunited after five minutes having not found the toad. Neville was not willing to leave the train until he found his pet, but Hagrid could be heard outside calling for the first years to leave the carriages.

"Hey, Neville. You shouldn't get so worked up. This won't be the first time a pet has got loose on the Hogwarts Express. The professors will have precautions to find Trevor. We should just worry about getting off this train before it sets off back to London", George reassured.

Neville looked back at George, "really? So they'll be able to find Trevor."

George nodded confidently and put his arm around Neville's back, "of course they will. This is Hogwarts we're talking about, finding a measly toad will be easy as pie. Ain't that right, Hermione?"

Hermione gave George a look which suggested that she was aware he was making this up. She seemed to understand why George lied and decided to go along with it.

She looked at Neville and smiled, "yes, Neville. I'm sure the professors will be able to find your toad."

The boy gave a massive sigh of relief, "oh, okay. If they'll be able to find Trevor, then I guess…"

"We should leave. That's indeed correct", George finished the boy's sentence whilst practically pushing him out of the train.

In the end, Neville, George and Hermione were the last first-years to leave the train. They stepped out onto Hogsmeade station and saw the other first-years had already formed a messy line on the platform. George and his new friends positioned themselves so they were standing at the back of it. At the front of the queue was Hagrid who towered over the children. The half-giant was organising the students whilst holding a large lantern that illuminated the platform.

Hermione's attention had been utterly stolen by Hagrid, she wasn't even trying to hide the fact she was staring. Hermione looked like she was about to push through the line to sate her curiosity, but she ended up hesitating. George followed her line of sight and noticed two boys already talking to Hagrid with a degree of familiarity. Then Hermione's curiosity vanished as her face flushed red.

After seeing that all the first-years had left the train, Hagrid told everyone to follow him as he walked away from the platform. George advanced with everyone else and kept one arm behind Neville's back to prevent him from falling behind. Neville was so distracted that he didn't appear to have noticed Hagrid, whereas Hermione had gone very quiet.

George leaned over as they walked and whispered, "is something wrong?"

Hermione attempted to hide her face from George, "it's none of your business."

George nodded his head with a knowing smile, "you don't have to be embarrassed about it, I'm sure plenty of people find him intimidating. His name is Hagrid, and I think he's a half-giant. I can introduce you if you like, I already met him before in the Leaky Cauldron."

Hermione's brow furrowed as she glared at George, "I'm not scared, I was actually planning on asking him until..."

"You noticed those two boys", George finished her sentence, "was it love at first sight? I wonder which one stole your heart, or was it both of them? You will have to remember to invite me to the wedding."

Hermione was briefly shocked by George's assertion before becoming furious. She gave him a hard push in retaliation. George was fine because he had anticipated her outburst, and Neville behind him had absorbed most of the impact.

Hermione showed no sign of guilt as she reprimanded George, "don't say such ludicrous things so loudly, you'll spread rumours and I'll never hear the end of it. I'll have you know that one of those boys is thee Harry Potter."

George snapped his fingers and pointed towards Hermione, "oh, so you're a fangirl. Did you get his autograph?"

Hermione was gritting her teeth so hard that she might chip a tooth, "do you want me to hit you again?"

George held his hands up as a gesture of surrender, "okay, okay. So what's the problem then? Maybe I can help."

Hermione paused for a moment before giving George an answer in a hushed voice, "for some untenable reason, those two had forgotten to put on their uniforms. I could hear voices inside their cabin, and the door was slightly ajar, so I went straight inside. I wanted to ask them if they had seen Neville's toad, but... they were in the middle of getting dressed."

Hermione looked like she'd been traumatised by the event. Her body shivered as she finished speaking.

George crossed his arms and gave Hermione an ominous smirk, "it all makes sense now. I was an idiot for not seeing it clearly. Of course you're not the sort to fall in love so easily and you're not a fangirl, that's completely out of your character..."

Hermione was visibly relieved to see George finally see sense, however, he hadn't finished.

"It's simple, you're a peeping Tom. To be fair, I don't blame you for being embarrassed. It's not something I imagine you want people to know about. But don't worry, your secret is safe with me."

George managed to accomplish something quite impressive. Although he hadn't even arrived at Hogwarts Castle yet, he had managed to get the attention of every first-year. It turned out that being wailed on by an extremely angry girl with a massive textbook could make quite a lot of noise.

The assault ended almost as quickly as it had begun. Hermione paused mid-swing and her face relaxed as if nothing had happened, then she resumed walking in Hagrid's direction. Everyone who had stopped to watch the show copied Hermione and kept walking after the giant. George was reeling in shock, he only lowered his hands after hearing Hermione walk away.

Neville looked very concerned, "George, are you ok? I thought she was never going to stop, Hermione looked like she had gone mad. What did you say to her to make her freak out like that?"

After what had just happened, George just shook his head in response. He was never going to repeat those words just in case Hermione ever found out. Once he'd regained his composure, George straightened his beaten-up uniform, picked up the angry owl, and ran with Neville to catch up to the group. The first years were about to board the boats, it wouldn't be good if they were left behind.

George and Neville kept running along the path until they reached a small wooden pier connected to a vast lake. The pier was roughly forty feet long and seemed to be hundreds of years old, any one of the wooden panels looked like they would break underfoot. Tethered to the pier were roughly thirty small wooden boats, these rickety old things would be the student's way of traversing the lake.

They caught up to the group just as Hagrid was about to finish distributing the students amongst the boats. By the time they'd run up to the half-giant, the last of the students were climbing down into the boats and getting seated.

Hagrid turned around after noticing George and Neville, "come on you two, get a move on. Can't be having you late on your first day?"

There were roughly four to five people seated on each boat, and there were only two with room for two or more people. Since Neville was giving him the 'don't leave me' eyes, George scanned the remaining two options. One was empty but was reserved for Hagrid, its seat was extra wide and was reinforced for the additional hefty occupant.

The other boat had a sulking Hermione with a boy having a one-sided conversation. For the sake of keeping at least one of his new friends happy, George got ready to jump aboard. Holding onto Blinkie's cage ruled out the ladder, so he decided to go for the more dramatic option.

"Geronimo!"

Hermione and the boy turned around at the same time to see George confidently jumping down from the pier like a superhero. He plummeted over four feet towards the boat and perfectly landed on top of the back seats. Due to George's weight, plus a well-fed owl, the boat started rocking back and forth. The boy appeared to be mightily impressed, but Hermione just let out a tut before turning her head back towards the castle.

The boy stood up and welcomed George aboard, "I like your confidence. I think we'll get on just fine. The name is Theodore Nott, but you can just call me Theodore."

Theodore was taller than the average eleven-year-old, but not quite as tall as George. He also had quite a weak build which looked like a strong gust of wind could carry him away. He had long black hair which was combed neatly back, his face was quite anaemic but still generally handsome.

George returned the friendly gesture, "pleasure to meet you. I'm George Linwood, and this here is… Neville?"

George turned around and saw Neville clinging onto the mooring post like a child hugging their mother's leg.

George demanded, "climb down already, you're showing me up In front of my new friend here."

"W what if I fall in, there might be monsters in there?", Neville stuttered.

George jokingly spread his arms out wide, "just jump as I did, It's only like four feet anyway. Don't worry, I'll catch you so you don't fall in."

Unfortunately, Neville seemed to take George's advice literally, he jumped down into his waiting embrace. George didn't have time to react before he was crushed under Neville's body with his head firmly pressed against the ground. He had Neville's rear end flattening his face, whilst his hair was being soaked through on a slimy patch of the boat's hull. Worst of all, whether due to shock or sheer ignorance, Neville showed absolutely no signs of moving.

George shoved the butt to one side and locked eyes with Neville, "comfortable as I'm sure you are, I would appreciate it if you could get off me. Right. Now. Neville!"

George's infuriation had leaked out with desirable effects. Neville didn't take much longer to get back on his feet. Once there wasn't a child sitting on top of him, George stood back up and dusted off his clothes. Without giving it much thought, he clicked his fingers and summoned a grape-sized flame to act as a hairdryer. He waved the flame around his head, and steam could be seen rising from his hair. After a few seconds, he was back to looking moderately presentable.

Theodore appeared quite surprised by George's drying technique, "my father told me that only very powerful wizards can cast wandless magic. I never thought I would meet one."

George realised his error instantly, he'd forgotten to get out his wand in the heat of the moment.

He decided to make the most of it, "your father sounds like a very smart man. You will have to introduce me one day."

Theodore twitched slightly before responding, "erh yes... maybe. My father... he's very busy. He has a very important job in the Ministry. What does your father do, George?"

George thought about it for a second, "he's an investor."

"Does 'investing' earn a lot of money?", Theodore enquired.

"You could say that. My father can be rather affluent", George answered smugly.

Their conversation halted as Hagrid boarded his private boat.

"Right then, everyone. Remember to keep your arms and legs inside the boats at all times. Other than that, just sit back and enjoy the ride", the half-giant shouted over all the murmuring children.

Without any prompting, all the boats started to sail to Hogwarts by themselves. George and Neville quickly sat down at the end of the boat whilst Theodore and Hermione remained at the front. Blinkie's cage was left in the middle to act as George's footrest, at least until the owl started to chew through his shoelaces.

It only took a few minutes before they were in the centre of the lake. All of the children's eyes, except for George, were glued to the castle ahead of them. The Hogwarts castle was exceedingly grand as its silhouette cut through the night sky. The building's lights illuminated every tower and steeple to mesmerising effect.

George lent toward and swiftly formulated an apology, "Hermione, I'm sorry about what I said earlier. You know I didn't mean it. It was a bad joke."

Hermione did not move and kept looking towards the castle just like everyone else.

George insisted, "come on, please forgive me. I need to know that we're still good. Don't make me resort to begging."

Hermione flinched, but after a little shuffling, she didn't turn around.

He continued his plea, "alright Hermione, you win. What if I give you all of my notes on Transfiguration, including how to conjure a flame? Will that be enough to get your forgiveness?"

Hermione took a moment to consider before turning back around to face George, she looked him dead in the eye. Her expression was blank, neither showing any joy nor disappointment in his offer.

Hermione opened her mouth to say only one word, "okay", before turning back around.