HARRY POTTER :Dark Kingdom

Harry nodded and quietly followed her back. There was some initial teasing when they entered the tent, but it quickly died off under their somber demeanor.

The rest of the day was spent in quiet retrospect. Hermione lost in thoughts of the parents she couldn't remember, and Harry pondering how it could possibly be made right again.

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Hermione returned home an hour earlier than usual. Normally, she would stay at the school until four, studying or talking with Harry or both. Today, however, neither had felt like company or studying the trade ban with Europe and the U.S. So now she found herself portkeyed to the back of the Malfoy estate just in time to see her adoptive brother Draco fall off his broom.

"Bloody sonofa-"

"Language, brother-dear," she chided from across the lawn. Draco looked up, clearly surprised to see her there, and then grinned. He brushed himself off and made his way over to her.

"Well isn't this a surprise," he said, hugging her by way of greeting. She returned the affection, a bit longer and harder than usual. He pulled back and studied her more closely. "Are you alright? Did that boyfriend of yours do something mean to you? If he did, I swear I'll curse him til Christmas when I see him next."

She smiled and rolled her eyes over his protectiveness.

"Draco, you know as well as I do, that Harry Potter is not my boyfriend and I am not interested in making him my boyfriend. And no, he didn't do anything mean."

"Then what's the matter? He didn't like your gift?"

"No, he loved the gift," she assured him, then let out a sigh. "It just brought up some unexpected issues."

Draco quirked an eyebrow at her. "You're eleven, Hermione. How many issues could you have?"

"Apparently, one pretty big one."

"Hey," he said, drawing her out of her depressing cycle of thoughts. "Whose your brother?"

She smiled a bit. "Draco Narcissus Malfoy."

"And whose the most clever, most wicked, and most influential family in all of Britain?"

"The Malfoy family," she said, dutifully.

"So who could possibly hurt the favorite little sister of the heir of the Malfoy family?"

"Absolutely no one," they said together in unison.

"See now," Draco said, "Don't you feel better?"

Despite the fact that his little proclamation resolved absolutely nothing, she did feel better. Her parents and any siblings she may have had in her muggle life were lost to her, and she to them. But she had Draco. Her arrogant, devious, charming, over-protective brother. He had never made her feel like anything less than a magical princess.

"Yes, I do feel better," she said, "In fact, I feel so much better I want to go swimming."

"Now you're talking." Draco grinned at her victoriously, reaffirmed in his own perceived perfection as an older (by two months) brother. He took her hand, as he always had since she had first arrived on the Malfoy estates and been too timid to go anywhere outside of her room alone, and led her home.

"I think I did alright, but there was that one question about the Founders. Perhaps I should have written a little more on Slytherin, rather than Gryffindor. I mean there wasn't a lot of space left, but I could have fit in a sentence or two about his-"

"Hermione, give it a rest!" lamented Clyde. "You did fine. I'd bet my wand you did the best in the class. So just stop!"

Harry nodded in agreement. While he had been stressing the last two weeks as much as she had been, once it was all over he was feeling much more confident. The questions had been fairly basic, considering all the research and reading they had done, and he wasn't absolutely dreading his future.

"Sorry," she said, "It's just-"

"Important that we get into Hogwarts-" Clyde continued.

"So that we can prove we are real wizards-" Natalie muttered.

"Despite our muggle heritage," finished Harry. "We knowHermione."

"Sorry."

They were spared further worrying by Professor Timbal stalking into the classroom, tossing down envelopes with their names on them.

"These are your test scores. You will open them at home. For those of you who may have failed, I don't want to witness the utter defeat of your self-worth. It's usually a big, loud mess and the rest of us still have more important things to do," he stated coldly. Reluctantly, they all set their letters aside, although they drew many longing and dreading stares.

It was Friday and normally they would have a test, but since they had already taken the most important test of the summer and the start of term was next week, their lesson plan took another route. Instead, Mr. Timbal went ahead and outlined the final field trip on Saturday.

"You will arrive here at the usual time, with your permissions slips in hand as usual. You should have on you at least forty galleons to purchase your wand and other school supplies, but I recommend ten or twenty more just in case."

The class broke out into excited murmurings, but their professors dark look quickly silenced them all.

"You will be divided into five groups, and escorted by a Hogwarts professor via floo to each shop. I recommend being on your best behavior, as this will give your future teachers their first impression of you. And no wandering off! These are Hogwarts professors, so they can and will assign you real detentions even before term starts if you make yourself a nuisance. Afterwards, you will all return here. You may do what ever you want after that. Any questions?'

Harry reluctantly raised his hand, but didn't need to speak a word before Professor Timbal pre-empted him.

"You are a ward of the school, Mr. Potter. Unless the headmistress, and later your head of house, forbids it, you automatically have permission to attend school related programs. You are also given a generous line of credit through the school to pay for your supplies and personal affects, but you will be expected to pay it off within ten years after you graduate. Does that answer your question?"

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

"Any other questions? Then we are done here."

With that, Professor Timbal disappeared through the door. All of the students turned to one another, rather perplexed. No one got a chance to speak the questions they were all thinking when all of sudden their classroom disappeared. Everyone was suddenly on the dusty ground, staring up at the clear summer sky. Groaning, they all climbed to their feet.

"Rude, much?" griped Natalie, brushing herself off.

Everyone grumbled their agreement, even Hermione who was notorious for being over generous with teachers. Of course, her inkwell had landed all over her. As everyone began to recollect themselves, many of them started to take notice of their letters, scattered about. Several of them started opening their letters right away, Harry included.

"You know you're not suppose to open that yet, don't you Harry?" Hermion said.

"No, he said we weren't to open them until we got home. Technically, the school is my home so..." Grinning he opened his envelope and pulled three pieces of paper out. The first piece was his E.L.F. score. "Huh, I got an excellent. Oh wait, there's a note at the bottom."

Harry read it to himself and let out a rueful laugh, handing it off to Hermione who read it and gave him an equally rueful expression. "'You would have gotten an 'Outstanding' if your handwriting wasn't so atrocious. Keep practicing'? Harry."

"It's not my fault I don't have enough practice with a quill," Harry pointed out. "Open yours. I want to see if they gave you a little note."

Despite her earlier protests, Hermione opened hers eagerly. She scanned it smiling at first, then frowning as she reached the bottom of the page. Harry leaned over to read the note at the bottom of hers.

"'You are a wealth of information, and I am certain you will do well at Hogwarts. However, please learn to write more concisely.' Yeah, that sounds about right."

She smacked him on the shoulder. "I was just being thorough!"

"Hermione, given unlimited paper space and time, you would turn a test question into a textbook," Natalie said, coming up to stand beside them.

"How did you do?" Harry asked. She smiled slyly at them.

"Outstanding, of course."