Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
More Important Than Any Broomstick - Chapter 9 - Leaving Hogwarts
The next morning, Harry woke up very early and snuck down to the common room. He was surprised to hear music softly playing when he got there. "Hello," he called out, causing the bushy-haired brunette sitting on the other side of the room completely absorbed in the music coming from her cd player to jump.
"Oh Harry," Hermione said panting from the shock. "It's you."
"Yes love," said Harry while approaching her. "I'm sure you're disappointed. I know you were hoping I was Ron com…"
"Ew!" shrieked Hermione while lowering the volume of her cd. "Don't even joke about me liking that prat!" Then she smiled mischievously. "Now that captain of the Hufflepuff team, Cedric Diggory. He's so handsome, and such a GOOD seeker. All it took for him to beat you was help from a hundred dementors."
Harry grinned just as mischievously as his girlfriend. "But did you see the seeker for the Ravenclaw team, Cho Chang? She's so…"
"Ok, ok," said Hermione. "I guess two can play at that game. I'm sorry."
Harry chuckled. "Me too. Anyway, I can see, or rather hear, that you got your cd player working here."
She smiled, "Yeah. I guess I should have told you earlier. I guess that since it gets its power magically, its operation isn't affected by the magic of this castle, so I'd guess that magical laptops would work here. If only we knew if they were legal or not."
"Why don't we write Mr. Weasley? We'll just say that we found out how to make magic batteries from the book we sent him, and were wondering if using magical batteries and Internet connections that don't change the behavior of the computers would be illegal. In fact, instead of write him, we can ask him at King's Cross Station today."
"All right, Harry," she said.
"Now, if we can do that, Hermione, I'd like to know if we can put the text of our books onto the computers."
She beamed at him. "Oh, that would be helpful!" she said excitedly. "We could easily search the text for words, and have only need to bring our laptops with us instead of the books!"
"I still think we should carry the books to classes," said Harry. "No need to call attention from the teachers. But I think we should get book bags that are magically weightless and bottomless for next year."
"You don't have to buy me…" said Hermione.
"I want to, Mine," said Harry.
"Er, don't you mean, `Mione?'" asked Hermione.
Harry blushed. "I prefer calling you `Mine' if you don't mind."
Now she blushed. "Er, well I guess you can call me `Mine' but only you, and ONLY when we're alone. But now I will have to think up a nickname for you."
"Well, the prophet calls me the `Boy Who Lived' and Draco calls me `Scarhead,'" suggested Harry.
"No. Don't be silly! None of those names suits you." She sighed. "I'll have to think about it and get back to you."
"Ok Mine, whatever you say. Did you get everyone in the school to sign our petition?" asked Harry. "Or will we have to take it to everyone on the train."
"I believe we got everyone we wanted," said Hermione. "One hundred and fifty signatures out of two hundred and twenty-four* total. That's nearly three-fourths of the students."
"That's great!" said Harry. "If that doesn't get Dumbledore's attention, I don't know what will."
"Yeah," said Hermione distractedly. "I, er, tried talking to Percy about education here."
"You didn't tell him about the petition, did you?"
"No, of course not!" said Hermione. "I was just trying to see what he thought, conversationally. You were right, Harry. When I even suggested that a few of our professors aren't doing a very good job, he about jumped down my throat. He told me that if I didn't stop badmouthing the school system, he'd have to take house points from me or put me in detention!"
"Well Mine," chuckled Harry. "I won't gloat over it. I'm sorry that I was right. I honestly don't think that Percy has a mind of his own. He's so full of rules and regulations he can't see past that badge of his."
"Did you let the Dursleys know not to pick you up today?" asked Hermione, changing the subject.
Harry smiled, "Actually, I told them to come an hour after the train arrives. After we get back, I'll rent an owl to send them a letter that says they'll never see me again. I wouldn't want to subject Hedwig to them."
"Of course not," said Hermione, stopping her cd player. "I don't know about you, Harry, but I want to have a shower before breakfast, so I'm going back up to my dorm."
"Good idea. I guess I'll do the same thing."
-
After they'd showered and had breakfast, they quickly found themselves on the train back home. They found an empty compartment, and sat down. Before they could get settled though, Neville approached. "D, Do you mind if I sit here?"
"Of course not Neville," said Hermione.
"Not as long as you don't mind watching us snog the whole ride," joked Harry, causing Neville to blush while Hermione slapped Harry's arm.
"Neville," said Hermione, "We weren't gonna…"
"It's none of my business," said Neville simply, as he took a seat.
"So," asked Neville, "W, When are you gonna present that petition to P, Professor Dumbledore?"
"After we get our grades, Neville," said Harry. "We figured that Snape would fail everybody who signed the petition if we didn't wait."
Neville smiled. "Good! He gives me a bad enough grade without that factoring in."
"Who gives you a bad grade?" asked a red-head girl who just stuck her head into the compartment.
"Professor S, Snape," said Neville.
"That greasy git!" said Ginny. "I think he just hates everybody who's not in Slytherin! May I join you guys?"
"Sure Ginny," said Harry, causing her ears to turn slightly pink. She was almost completely over her crush, almost.
She sat next to Neville, whose ears inexplicably went pink the moment she sat down.
"We were talking about our petition," said Hermione, filling Ginny in, "and how we're waiting to turn it in until after grades are handed out because we think Snape would give bad grades to everyone involved, no matter how well they performed in class."
"Yeah," said Ginny, "That's a good idea."
"What's a good idea?" asked Ron.
"You finding another compartment," said Ginny, smiling.
"It's all right if you sit with us," said Harry. "Hermione and I want to talk to your father at the station."
"What do you want to talk to dad about?" asked Ginny, obviously curious.
"He won't have the quidditch tickets yet," said Ron. "You're not changing your minds about going are you?"
"No, Ronald," said Hermione. "It's not about quidditch. It's about muggle artifacts law."
"Well, dad's the right one to talk about that with," said Ginny. "He's the head of that department."
"Yes we know," said Hermione. "We want to know if it's illegal to…"
"…to use magical batteries in muggle devices," finished Harry.
"Batteries?" asked Ron. "What are those?"
"They're a type of portable muggle power source that doesn't need plugs," said Ginny proudly. "Don't you ever pay attention to dad going on about muggles, Ron."
"That's right Ginny," said Harry.
She smiled. "Dad's taught me a lot of muggle stuff. I signed up for muggle studies. Of course, that was before you told me how pathetic the teacher is."
"Hopefully we'll be able to force the school to get us better teachers before school starts back," said Hermione.
The ride went by smoothly, and when the trolley came around, Harry treated everyone to whatever sweets they wanted. Harry and Hermione couldn't help but notice the way that Neville and Ginny were glancing at each other every now and then. Whenever their eyes met, both their cheeks would go red and they'd immediately become very interested in their shoes. When the train ride ended, Harry and Hermione followed the youngest Weasleys to their parents, signaling both the Grangers and Sirius, who appeared to have gotten new clothes and a haircut, to wait a few minutes. When they saw the adult Weasleys, they asked if they could have a private word with Mr. Weasley, to which he heartily agreed.
Once they were out of earshot of everyone else, Mr. Weasley said, "How are you two? I can't thank you enough for that book, by the way, it's very fascinating how the author managed to make magical plugs!" He then looked around, as though expecting someone to be eavesdropping. "I've even been experimenting with that myself."
"That's what we wanted to talk to you about, sir," said Harry.
"We read the book before sending it to you, and we think we could make one of their portable computers run on a magical battery and use a magical connection to the Internet."
"Really," said Mr. Weasley with the expression of a small child on Christmas morning. "A Pomcuter? You really think it would work?"
"Yes, sir," said Hermione. "We tried it with a muggle music player at Hogwarts and it worked."
"Incredible!" said Mr. Weasley.
"Anyway," continued Hermione. "We wanted to know if it would be illegal to do that to a computer and use it both at Hogwarts, and in the muggle world."
"Well," said Mr. Weasley. "That would depend."
"On what, sir?" both Harry and Hermione said together.
"On whether it functions any different than the device would with a proper muggle battery and Interestnet connection. The reason using a flying car would be illegal is because muggle cars don't fly."
"Oh," Hermione sighed. "Apart from the fact that the battery doesn't run out, it will function exactly as a normal computer."
"Then it's perfectly technically legal," said Mr. Weasley, "Although I wouldn't let a muggle get too good of a look at it if I were you."
"None but maybe my parents," said Hermione excitedly.
"You're not planning on doing underage magic are you?" asked Mr. Weasley seriously. "Both of you live with muggles, so it'll be easy for the ministry to catch you at it."
"No sir," they both answered together.
"We were just planning on buying the computers this summer and bringing them to Hogwarts this fall," said Harry.
"Then we'd perform the charms on them at school," said Hermione.
"All right then," said Mr. Weasley. "Was there anything else?"
"No sir," they both said while shaking their heads.
"Then I'll get back to my family, and I'll owl you when I find out about the world cup tickets."
"Thank you sir," said Harry.
"Bye then," said Mr. Weasley.
After he'd gone, the young couple found Hermione's parents deep in conversation with Sirius Black. As they approached, the adults all turned toward them.
"Ah, Harry, Hermione," said Adam Granger happily. "How was your trip home?"
"Great," said Hermione while Harry nodded his accent.
"What were you talking to Mr. Weasley about, dear," asked Marissa Granger.
"Nothing," said Hermione. "We were just making sure that charming computers to work without electricity and with a magical Internet connection was legal."
"Oh," Mrs. Granger said uneasily.
"Yes," said Hermione happily. "And it is legal, and my cd player worked at school, so Harry wants to by us laptops to use next year."
"That's great, honey," said Mr. Granger, "but we'll be glad to buy you a laptop. The only reason we haven't before was because you couldn't use it at Hogwarts."
"Really?" asked Hermione, hugging her father. "Thank you daddy! I'd like it as soon as possible so that we can set it up and program it with as much information as possible."
"So," said Mrs. Granger. "You're going to teach Harry arithmancy, teach us how to stop people from reading our minds, and set up magical laptops with all the information you can this summer."
"Yes," said Hermione. "Although I suppose the laptops can wait until after Harry's had his test in the middle of July. That reminds me Harry, did you get an arithmancy book or do you need to borrow mine?"
"I picked one up for him earlier today," said Sirius, revealing a book that he'd been holding at his side.
"Er, how'd you guys meet, anyway?" asked Harry. "I know I didn't show you any pictures of each other."
"We saw you wave at Sirius while you guys were walking toward the Weasleys," said Marissa.
"So we figured that he probably was the man Hermione wrote us about yesterday, and decided to take a chance and introduce ourselves."
"We've been invited to dinner at the Grangers," said Sirius, smiling. "And I accepted."
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Please Review.
* I arrived at that approximate figure of two hundred twenty-four based off of having eight Gryffindors in Harry's year. Multiplying that by four houses makes thirty-two students per year. Then multiply that by seven years.
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