Simple Twist of Fate

Chapter 3: Slowly Walking Down the Hall...
***

A/N: I've simply been overwhelmed with the reception that this story has had. I've never gotten this many reviews, unless I'm in a more intimate community like some of my first fan fics were in. I'm quite grateful to everyone who's taken the time out of their busy schedules to write a review on my story. With out all of you none of this would be possible.

With this chapter, I'm going to focus a bit more on Hermione, seeing as I really haven't done that yet. I really hope you all like the direction I take her in and continue reading this.

Also, I'm terribly sorry that I didn't get this up when I promised. The holidays were quite stressful. Not bad, by any means, but just a lot to do in a very small amount of time. I hope you all had a good holiday and now I'll be back and hopefully start a more frequent update schedule.

***

With the warning from the Sorting Hat fresh on her mind, Hermione's first walk towards the Gryffindor tower wasn't exactly an easy one. Her worries forced her to withdraw a bit from Harry as he chitchatted with a few of his new dorm mates. Maybe she was just worried, but for some reason she didn't see herself getting close to any of them. Loftily, she glanced off at the Ravenclaws going towards their tower in the opposite direction and felt a strong sense of longing for them. She felt a connection.

"What's wrong, Hermione?" Luna Lovegood asked her sweetly.

Delaying a difficult conversation, the bushy haired witch looked down at her shoes and sighed. "I'm fine, Luna... just a little overwhelmed."

"Oh... I sometimes get that way when I'm searching for a Dobhar-chu... I figure I'm bound to find one sooner of later." Luna smiled reflectively and put her arm around Hermione, who was obviously still in distress. "But that's not all, is it?"

Hermione nodded and looked up at Luna. "Yeah... Just something the hat said... said I'd do better in Ravenclaw, but I still picked Gryffindor."

"Ah... that hat is probably one of the most powerful things in this school... infested by Nalydbobs, probably. I really don't think it would have put you somewhere if you didn't really belong there." That was the third time Luna had mentioned something that Hermione really didn't existed. She decided that it was best to just let it go.

Arriving at the giant portrait that was sure to lead straight into the Gryffindor common room, didn't quell her fears any. Where was Harry? Where was the reason she chose this house? She looked around the crowd of about 150 students and felt even more lost when she saw Harry laughing and joking with a group of boys including Ron, Fred and George Weasley.

"Come on, Granger... did you really expect him to be with you all the time? He needs other friends... maybe I should try the same thing..." Hermione reasoned with herself and then caught the eye of Luna who was talking to a group of 1st year girls.

Luna's eyes brightened as soon as she saw Hermione's smile, making her quickly pull Hermione into the group. "Girls this is Hermione Granger."

"Lavender Brown."

"Annabelle Rothschild."

"Parvati Patil."

"Demelza Robbins."

"And of course you know me." Luna smiled dreamily. Hermione sat back and listened to all of their random talking. She never did have many friends, but she did know that girls could talk a lot and magical girls didn't appear to be much different.

With out even putting a word in, she could tell that she wouldn't like Parvati Patil at all. Parvati apparently was rich. Very rich. She had only designer robes, new books and of course, her wand was made custom for her. Hermione didn't want to throw in the fact that wands chose the wizard and the fact that it was custom didn't make it any better for her. She just turned to Luna and shared a quick laugh.

Parvati was enough to come to school with her best friend, Lavender Brown, who Hermione did like. She too was probably rich, but she wasn't shoving it in anyone's face like Parvati. Sadly, she was best friends with Parvati, so that kind of ruined the idea of getting to know her better. Deep down, Hermione was almost sure that Parvati would have been in Slytherin if it weren't for Lavender being placed into Gryffindor.

The other two really seemed to be nice girls, but way too shy for their own good. Annabelle was a muggle born and was completely overwhelmed with all the new things that she was seeing. It was complete awe... on the other hand, Demelza Robbins, another muggle born was downright terrified. Every time she heard something louder than the normal group noise, she jumped.

Once everyone was settled into their rooms, they all moved downstairs into the Common room to get to know each other officially. There were games all around the room, snacks on all the tables, including a vast array of sweets, a record player was in the corner playing the Weird Sisters' Greatest Hits and perhaps the most relaxing option were the comfortable chaires and sofas all around the fire place. "Knight to B7. Check." Ron declared arrogantly as the knight jumped into place destroying Harry's black rook. "I believe I see checkmate in about 2 moves." Harry hung his head and tipped his king. "Want another go, mate?"

"Not in the slightest. One can only take so much losing in one sitting." Harry spun around to find Hermione looking at the board in a dazed state. She reminded him almost of Luna. "Hey, you okay?"

In a state of shock, she looked up quickly and shook her head to snap herself out of her daydream. "Oh yeah, just a bit exausted. We all had a big day today... and an even bigger one tomorrow."

"Big week... sadly tomorrow is a Monday. We have to go through a whole week before a break... though we don't have any classes Friday afternoon." Harry explained to Hermione, as the schedueling had yet to be explained to the first years. "I'm sure McGonagall will all tell us this tomorrow morning at Orientation..."

"Harry... I think I'm going to go to bed... a girl can only handle so much stress in one day. A good night's sleep will do me some good..." Harry smiled up at her and gave her a big hug before sending her off to bed.

"Goodnight, Hermione. I'm really glad we ended up in the same house."

She froze when he said that. "Um... yeah... me too." She whispered half heartedly as he continued to hug her. She thanked God that he couldn't see her face. "Goodnight, Harry. See you at orientation." Before she made it all the way up the stairs to her dormitory, she turned around to Harry who was still looking at her. "Um... Harry? I noticed that my CD player wasn't working, do you know what's wrong?"

"Yeah... Muggle electronics can't work here. The magic disrupts them... sorry." Harry remembered that Hermione mentioned once that she really enjoyed Muggle music.

"Oh... no matter... I'll figure something out later." She turned around again and continued walking towards her dormitory for a good night's sleep.

***

While Hermione slept the night away, people in other parts of the castle only wished they could be as lucky. Professors Severus Snape and Quirinus Quirrell were disrupted from their sleep by Albus Dumbledore who had called them to his office as soon as McGonnagal left. "What is the meaning of this, Albus? Tomorrow is too crazy for us to be running around the castle at one in the morning."

"Ah, Severus... you should know that in my years here I've learned never to wake up a sleeping man unless there is a matter of war or a beautiful woman... and sorry for you, it's not the latter." Dumbledore said with a bright twinkle in his eye. Snape was almost worried that a man about to discuss darkness and death could be so cheerful.

Dumbledore walked over to what Snape believed to be a pensive as he pulled a large strain of light from his head with his wand and placed it into the pool. "I feel a dark power growing in the East... now I know that doesn't seem like much, noting some of our own students, but I feel this may be the big one... Vold..."

"NO!" Quirrell screamed before Dumbledore could finish speaking.

"My dear Professor Quirrell... how can you teach the class, yet not be able to speak the name of the darkest wizard of our time." Quirrell bowed his head in shame and embarrasment.

For a time, he was much like Dumbledore... that is until he faced Voldemort right before Halloween eleven years ago. That event would change his life forever. "Albus... what's going to happen?" Quirrell asked.

"I have no idea. Which is quite a pity, seeing as we now have both potential chosen ones in our midst... perhaps Mr. Entwistle wasn't meant to be in your house in the first place, Quirinus." Querrill spun his head towards Dumbledore with a look of shock and terror.

"You mean?" Dumbledore nodded with a smile.

Severus sat in the corner with a devious smile on his face. To him it wasn't that strange. Yes, Bellatrix had taken the young Longbottom, but it wasn't odd for parents of Death Eaters to trade children around to fit convinence. Ms. Lestrange didn't need the extra publicity of getting a random son, so she passed him off to The Entwistles... a more low key Death Eater family. "What he's trying to say is... your time is up. You know full well that Voldemort cursed your position. 'After I returned from hiatus, more powerful than ever, there will be no steady teaching of defense! No point in it."

Dumbledore and Quirrell looked uneasy at how well Snape had just rattled off the warning that Voldemort had given Dumbledore close to twenty years ago. "Yes... Quirinus... I would understand if you want to leave."

"Not at all, Albus. I've been at this post the second I finished my 7th year at Hogwarts... V--V--Voldemort's warning won't make me quit." Quirrell said affirmatively. He had been at Hogwarts for close to 30 years in one form or another, either as a student or teacher. He didn't know anything else.

Dumbledore nodded and gave a little bit of a half smile. "I believe that this year will have all our fears realized... I wish it weren't true, but I can't pretend. A war is coming gentlemen... and I fear that the wizarding world is not ready."

"What would you have us do, Albus?" Quirrell inquiered almost in a rushed tone.

Dumbledore walked over to the class roster on his desk and pointed to Harry's name. "I fear that the prophesy will realize itself before young Mr. Potter leaves these dusty walls... He needs to be trained."

Both Quirrell and Snape nodded in agreement. They both knew the prophesy very well and knew that if they were ever going to defeat Voldemort, Harry would need to be ready. "He's just a boy though, Albus."

"I know... but I fear that we don't have any other options... but that is for another day. As the Potions Master so elequently stated, tomorrow is a big day. We all need our strength." Albus released them and they both went to their rooms with out protest. "Good lord, Fawkes... and I thought after Tom graduated, this would all get easier..."

***

The orientations the next day went as smoothly as they always did. The first years meet with their respective house leader, who went on to explain everything that they would need to know to get by at Hogwarts. Most of the students used this as extra time to get ready for their year at Hogwarts and just relaxed through the whole thing, but Hermione was vigorously taking notes.

"You know, Hermione... you don't really need to take notes for this... you won't be tested on it." Harry reminded her, but before he could finish, she shot him a nasty glare and continued.

He had known since last night that something had been eating her, but he wasn't entirely sure how to ask. They were sitting together everywhere, but for some reason she seemed to be very disjointed and not all the way there. "Ron, I think something's wrong with Hermione." Harry finally confided in Ron.

"Oh, don't worry about it mate. Fred always has said that Muggle Borns have some trouble adjusting. Something to do with all the so-called 'supernatural.'" Ron explained to Harry and it did make a little sense, but he couldn't help, but feel that there was a lot more to it. "Either way, you have enough to worry about. Double Potions with the Slythrins after lunch. Fred and George say that Professor Snape is down right dreadful."

Great, was all that Harry could think. Not only did he have to suffer through wondering what was wrong with Hermione, but he had to do it with the one Professor that his father warned him about. Something about bias against the Potter name or something like that. He was not looking forward to his after lunch class, but deep down he hoped it really wouldn't be that bad.

"Welcome to Potions... I am Professor Severus Snape... please open your books and turn to page 37." Professor Snape demanded in the coldest voice Harry had ever heard, but without thinking, he swiftly pulled out his book and started flipping through the pages and when he reached the given page, he was shocked and disgusted at the images of potions gone sour. There were images of peoples bodies boiling and turning inside out and other things that left Harry turning green. "If you do not follow my specific instructions, the images you see before you will be what your parents will see you as in the casket."

"Potter! What would you get if you drank the blood of a unicorn?" Snape stapped towards Harry's direction, causing him and Hermione to jump.

Harry took a second to gather his thoughts. "Um... probably a one way ticket to jail. It's highly illegal."

"Five points from Gryffindor for your cheek." Snape shot back towards Harry. He then looked out of the corner of his black eyes at Hermione who was raising her had high in the air. "Yes... Miss Granger."

"Sir, it's so illegal that the Ministry of Magic rarely discusses the effect to prevent people from having the incentive to do so." Hermione pleaded, trying to get the points back that Harry wrongfully lost.

"Just because the ministry doesn't discuss it doesn't mean that it is impossible to find out. Insufferable know it alls like you are the reason the Ministry is as powerful as it is." Snape spat at her, making her sink down in her seat. Harry caught the god awful sound of Draco Malfoy laughing in the back corner. He looked back and saw Draco and all his cronies getting a big kick out of Snape's destruction of Hermione's self-esteem and sure enough, Oscar Entwistle was with them.

Harry's blood boiled at the sight of his own house mate making fun of another house mate with supposed Gryffindor rivals. When it came to loyalty, Harry was very much a Hufflepuff. He couldn't stand betrayal. That was always a value that his father and Uncles Sirius and Remus had tried to instill in him since an early age.

"'Mione... he's not worth it..." Harry put his hand on Hermione's shoulder to comfort her the second he noticed that she looked close to tears.

"I'm not? I will pity you for thinking that when your first potion blows up in your face and you are sent to the hospital wing for growing an extra head. DO. I. MAKE. MYSELF. CLEAR?!" Harry sat there with out making another move or another sound.

"You know... my father says you're all bark, but not bite... unlike my Uncle Sirius." Harry gave a bit of a half smile at the teacher who was literally six inches from his face.

"DETENTION, POTTER! This Saturday... now, may I move on?" Snape moved away from Harry and continued teaching the class, using mostly scare tactics. Once both classes let out, Harry and Hermione exited the room at the same time for the first time all day.

They were already half way to Gryffindor tower before either of them spoke. "Thanks for that back there, Harry... but you really shouldn't have gotten in trouble over it."

"My best friend's worth it. Either way, he was out of line. My Dad said he was exactly the same back when they attended school together." Harry explained as he put his arm around her in comfort. "Severus Snape is just a greasy-haired-git... nothing more."

"That so, Potter?" Harry spun around to see who it was, but he really didn't need to. He knew that it was Draco Malfoy.

Again, Entwistle stood in the back, hulking and looking menacing to back up his friends. "So, Oscar is this how you show loyalty? By tormenting members of your own house because Malfoy says so?"

Entwistle became furious and pulled out his wand. "You have no idea Potter... You have a Mum and a Dad that actually care about you... not all of us have that luxery, but at least my parents aren't blood traitors."

Harry was stopped dead in his tracks and pulled out his wand, pointing it straight at Entwistle. "You will take that back! DEPRIMO!" Harry yelled and Neville was forced down ot the ground.

"HARRY!" Hermione shrieked as she tried to pull him back before he shot another spell. "You already got one detention, you don't need another." But before she pulled him back completely, she heard Draco say something she didn't understand and a blast hit her and Harry knocking them both over.

Before Hermione could get her barings boils began to errupt on both she and Harry. "MR. MALFOY! FIFTY POINTS FROM SLYTHERIN!" boomed a voice that neither Harry nor Hermione recognized. They turned around and saw Professor Quirrell standing above them with a deadly look on his face. "I don't care if you're in my house or not, we do not use such spells unsupervised. Now, Mr. Potter... Ms. Granger... you need to get to the hospital wing."

"So, Mr. Potter... what happened?" Quirrell askedd the raven haired boy once they reached the hospital wing and Madam Pomphry began to work on Hermione's boils.

"I started it, Sir. Entwistle mentioned something about my parents being blood traitors and I snapped... it's a very derogotory term for someone who doesn't support Voldemort..." Harry put his head down, realizing how much of a mistake he made. Fighting on the first day. His Dad wasn't even that bold, Uncle Sirius maybe... but not his Dad.

Professor Quirrell nodded and patted Harry on the back, causing him to tense up in pain. "Sorry... but not to worry, Mr. Potter, I'll take care of Malfoy and I'll have a chat with Professor McGonnagal about Mr. Entwistle... now about your punishment... I'll have to take 5 points away due to fighting... but 10 points to Gryffindor for using the deprimo spell... interesting choice.

Harry quickly looked up and smiled at Professor Querril. "Um... yeah... I didn't want to hurt him or use a spell that I already had used on him... and that was all I could think of."

"It was quite clever none the less. Quick thinking will get you far." Quirrell said with a bit of a smile as he exited the room.

Harry looked over at Hermione, whom Madam Pomphrey was still working on. All though her skin wasn't entirely clear, it looked significantly better than Harry's that had yet to be treated. "Well, if this is any indication of what's to come... I can't wait..." Harry said to himself sarcastically.

The next week or so went on without much incidence. Harry could tell that he was going to have a lot of fun in Charms. Professor Flitwick was an aged little wizard, who was almost as much of a kid as his students were. Half of his lessons were him standing on a stack of books using the charms he was teaching about on certain students. His favorites were always when he was always to levitate unsuspecting trouble makers around the room.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was another favorite of Harry's. Ever since Quirrell had saved Harry from Malfoy and his gang, he had taken an extreme liking to Harry. It may have had something to do with the fact that Harry was a complete natural at the subject, which Professor Quirrell found to be particularly ironic. "You know, Harry (He was also the only teacher, besides Dumbledore to call him by his first name), you remind me a lot of your father. This was always his best subject." Professor Quirrell noted to Harry as he was about the leave the classroom.

"You knew my Dad?" Harry asked with a bit of a smile.

"Of course I did. I taught him, wish I could talk more, but I have to run. Meeting with Dumbledore."

That Thursday, when Harry and Hermione came in from the Greenhouses to attend D.A.D.A, they found a note on the door that said Professor Quirrell was away on business and that all classes were cancled until Monday. "Huh... wonder if that had something to do with his Dumbledore business." Harry mused out loud.

"Well, this is actually a wonderful birthday present," Hermione smiled as she turned around with Harry and walked back towards their common room.

"What!?! It's your birthday?" Harry was downright shocked. He couldn't remember her ever saying anything about it, but if they were as good friends as he thought, he should have known her birthday.

Hermione turned in front of him and put both her hands on his shoulders. "Harry... relax. You didn't know. No harm done."

"But, Hermione..."

"But nothing. Trust me, I'm not worried about it." She gave him smile and continued up to the Common room. Wondering what he could do, he spun around on a dime and ran out of the castle, towards Hagrid's hut.

"HAGRID!" Harry yelled as he began knocking on the door. Before too long, the friendly giant came to the door wearing a large apron, with his dog in tow.

"Harry? What's wrong?"

"I need you to Floo me home really quick... I missed Hermione's birthday..." Harry wasn't pleased with himself at all. First he forgot Hermione's birthday and now he was asking a friend of his to break a rule.

Hagrid scratched his head a bit and swiftly let Harry in and much to Harry's suprise, Dumbledore was sitting at Hagrid's oversized table. "Hello, Harry... so good of you to join us."

Harry stopped dead with his eyes with fear. "Umm... I... Uh..."

"No need to fret, Harry. I won't turn you into the headmaster... oh wait." Unlike at the sorting ceremony, Dumbledore didn't sound much like a powerful leader. On the contrary, he sounded quite old, almost grandfatherly. "No, Harry. There is no reason you should get in trouble fore being virtuous."

Harry calmed down a bit, but not by much. "Professor... Hermione never had many friends before coming to Hogwarts and she's having a bit of trouble fitting in with some of her housemates... this is something I need to do... if only to show her just a little bit about what it means to have friends."

"Very honorable, Harry. But, you know I can't allow you to Floo home... but I do think that I need to go to Hogsmeade today... I've all but run of of fizzing whizzbees... would you be willing to acompany me?" Dumbledore asked Harry with a twinkle in his eye.

James had told Harry of Dumbledore's willingness to bed the rules. He had mentioned that Dumbledore would start warping words and he would stop making a whole lot of sense. The twinkle in his eye would also get a lot more apparent.

Once they arrived at Hogsmeade, Harry went with Hagrid straight to the bookstore. "Harry, I thought you told me that Hermione has every wizarding book in existance."

"She does, but I don't. See, Hermione loves Muggle Music, but she can't listen to it here because Hogwarts has such a high concentration of magic. I want to learn how to charm her CD player to be able to play here." Harry explained to the giant. He rushed through the book store and quickly found a section on Charms and a book called Charming Your Everyday Muggle Electronics. "Well, that's oddly specific. Hagrid... could you help me out with this?"

"Um... no. I'm not exactly allowed to do magic. Long story... but I'm sure you could do it with the proper instructions..." Hagrid did his best to evade the subject and rather than pry, Harry simply let it go.

Harry nodded and began to walk towards the counter with the book when he saw something that really caught his eye. "Hogwarts, A History? Why haven't I seen that one before?" Harry picked up the large book written by Chroniclus Punnet and began to examine it.

"Ah yes, it's just been printed. More or less a compendium of everything ever written about Hogwarts. Quite the reference book." The store keeper said as she passed Harry with a feather duster, dusting off the table. Harry believed that she looked like she had been sucking on a rather tart lemon before their conversation, given by the odd expression on her face.

Harry continued to flip through the book and quickly realized that Hermione would love it, seeing that it had around 1,000 pages of just history about their school. "How much does it cost?" Harry asked with a bit of doubt. He knew that it couldn't be cheap. It weighed a ton.

"30 Galleons. And with your other purchase, it will be 45 galleons." Harry's heart sank a bit. He did have the money, but he didn't have it with him. No student would ever need more than 30 galleons over an entire year, especially seeing as they weren't usually allowed to Hogsmeade.

"'arry, ya gimme wha' you 'ave, an' I'll get the res'." Hagrid put his hand on Harry's shoulder and pulled out his money pouch. Harry looked as if he were about to protest, until Hagrid, but his other hand over his mouth. "'Sa loan, I 'spect I'll be paid back in full... I know you wouldn' 'cept it if it wasn'"

Harry sighed a bit as he nodded, giving Hagrid his 20 galleons. Once the books were paid for, they went to find Dumbledore who had quite a large bag a sweets. The group made their way up the the castle and Harry quickly ran up to his dorm room where he opened the book. "Hey, what's that?" Ron asked as he walked up to Harry who was lost in the book.

"Hermione's birthday is today. I've decided to charm her CD player to be able to play here... It doesn't seem that difficult... hey, would you mind asking Luna to bring me her CD player and her CDs?" Harry asked Ron without looking up from the book. The day was growing shorter and he still had to perfect the charm, which seemed easier said than done.

"Of course, mate. I'll be right back."

Sure enough, Ron came right back with Luna and all of Hermione's music equipment. "Here you go, Harry... Hermione was napping, so we were able to get it pretty easily... I sure hope the bed bugs weren't biting though. Pesky little creatures." Harry smiled a bit, taking all of the stuff from Ron and Luna. "Well, we better be going to History of Magic, care to join us, Harry?"

"No, I'm not going today. I want the CD player to be working when Hermione gets back to the Common Room." Luna looked as if she was about to argue, but she decided against it and walked out of the room with Ron, leaving Harry with the CD player and the books.

Harry starated to get a bit worried when he saw that he only had ten minutes before the class ended and he was no where closer to completing his goal than when he started. "That is pretty advanced magic to master in an hour..."

Harry spun around and saw Dumbledore standing in the doorway. "If you were able to do this at your age, I'd probably have to give you your diploma now." Harry's heart sank. He'd failed his first true friend. "But, there's no shame in getting a little help from those... wiser."

Dumbledore waved his hand over the CD player and it started to make odd sounds, as if it were trying to pick up radio wave signals. "There... that should sufice." Before Harry could thank him or do anything, he was gone.

Harry put one of the CDs in the player, and after closing the top it began to play. "Thanks, Professor." He said to himself as he ran downstairs and placed it on the table just as the Gryffindor 1st years were returning to the Common room.

"Bloody Hell, Harry, you got it?" Ron exclaimed, patting Harry on the back. He went over to examine it as if it were the first time he had seen something like it in his life.

"Yeah... wasn't easy. I had to get Dumbledore's help. So, where's Hermione?" Harry asked hopfully as he looked around the sea of Gryffindors for his bushy haired best friend.

"I'm here, Har... what's this?" She asked in shock as she heared the music coming out of her CD player.

Harry smiled widely. "Happy Birthday, Hermione." He then pulled Hogwarts, A History out for her. "I hope this makes up for everything."

Hermione just stood their speechless for a few seconds, taking everything in. "My God, Harry... This is the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me. Thank you." She walked up to him and gave him a big, loving hug.

"I'm glad you like it... now you'll have to explain all this Muggle music to me. I don't understand a word of it."

***

A/N: I'm really sorry this took so long. Now that I'll have the house to myself without a car, I can focus a bit more. The next one shouldn't take this long.

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