Want to read the entire book FOR FREE. then join my p@treon right now.
Link: p*atreon.com/Divine_Quill (Remove the *)
Join Right Now
.....
Dumbledore frowned for a moment at being questioned.
Severus Snape had frowned when Mr. Malfoy voiced his objection so rudely but even he could see the logic in the boy's words. "I believe, Headmaster, that would be the wiser course."
"Fine, prefects stay here and guard your fellow students."
Susan Bones mean while was making a beeline for her head of house. "Professor McGonagall!
Professor McGonagall! Professor!"
"Yes, what is it Miss Bones?"
"Harry and Hermione Granger aren't here! They don't know about the troll!"
"Where are they and why aren't they here?" The stern woman asked.
"Well, Harry doesn't like celebrating today- his parents you know. Hermione was upset by Ron Weasley earlier and no one has seen her since the end of Charms. Harry said before the feast that he would track her down and talk to her if she wasn't here. But I don't know where either of them are."
"Thank you, Miss Bones, I and the other teachers will deal with it." Minerva was nervous at the idea of two of her students being in danger. But hopefully they were together and Minerva had enough confidence in Harry's training under Sirius that she wasn't going to panic. As the teachers gathered to plan their search for the troll she mentioned the two students to the other teachers.
Harry looked at the door of the girl's bathroom with disfavor. Sighing because there was no other course that he could see he pushed it open and conjured a doorstop to hold it open. He cast a cushioning and warming charm at the floor of the doorway and sat down.
"Hermione."
"Go away!Leave me alone!"
Harry encouraged Sheba to hop off his shoulders. Once she had, she looked questioningly into his eyes. He met her eyes then looked at the closed stall. Sheba looked at it then at him then she reluctantly began to pad towards it. Harry tried again. "Hermione, I thought you were more sensible than to let an idiot like Ron Weasley affect you this way."
"Go away! You're a boy you're not supposed to enter a girl's loo."
"Technically I haven't. I've only pushed the door open."
Hermione scrubbed at the tears on her cheeks; why wouldn't he just go away. Hermione had always been an egghead. Her mother in addition to being a dentist was working on a Doctorate in Literature and her father was working on one in particle physics. She had never in her whole life fit in anywhere between her intelligence and her magic. She had had such high hopes about coming to Hogwarts but she found that things were no better here. If anything there was one thing that made things worse.
That thing was Harry Potter. It wasn't fair, Harry knew more about magic and did more magic than any of the other students in their year. In fact it seemed he was more like a fifth year. She couldn't even be a teachers pet here because he knew more than she did and if that were not bad enough he was popular. He had friends in every house and he had such a beautiful familiar. Even worse he knew about both worlds unlike so many of the so called purebloods of the magical world he could actually discuss intelligently literature, music, movies, and the technological advances of the muggle world. And now here he was being nice!
"I hate you!" She screeched.
"If I thought that was more than embarrassment talking, I would be hurt. Hermione, Ronald Weasley is a git with no manners and very little intelligence. I take that back. He's smarter than Crabbe or Goyle but he has no ability to apply his somewhat limited intelligence. So why are you here hiding instead of enjoying the Halloween feast?"
At that moment Sheba finished crawling under the door of the stall and started to rub against Hermione's legs.
Hermione squeaked she hadn't noticed the cat before. "I thought you said you didn't come in!"
"I didn't."
"But your cat!"
"As far as I know there is no regulation against a girl cat entering a girl's loo."
Hermione pushed the door of the stall open. Harry's cat rubbed against her shins again. She couldn't help herself her fingers absolutely itched to touch the cat's soft thick fur. She stroked the cat and was rewarded by a purr. "Why do you care?"
"Good question. Why do I care? Well, I care because I don't like bullies in any form and what Ron did and frequently does is bullying. I care because you're my housemate, we're supposed to look out for each other the way siblings are supposed to. I care because it's witches like you that will influence the future of the magical world. Do I think you're perfect? No, but then again who is? Besides perfection in addition to being overrated, is very much in the eye of the beholder. After all, different strokes for different folks, right?"
"I don't like you!"
"Why?"
That question stopped Hermione short. She thought for a moment, then answered. "You're too good at magic. You question those in authority over you. What you did at the Sorting Feast was appalling."
"Okay. I'm too good at magic, thanks for the compliment. I would point out technically I have had more training that any other first year. I suspect than if you had had as much training in magic as I have you would be as good or possibly even better.
"I question authority. Okay, guilty as charged. However Albert Einstein said, "Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth." and Buddha said, "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it." I question authority because I oppose oppression I believe it is my right and my duty as a sentient being to do so.