TPS Part 1: Hermione's New Book

Finally they got there. After a trip through the floo, which still after all these years feels incredibly disturbing to Onyx, they made it to the platform. Not many had shown up before them so they decided to grab a compartment in the middle of the train.

Darren helped Onyx with his trunk and then they got out to the platform again. Out on the platform there were a couple of stands with food, papers and a joke shop. It seems like Zonko's have a stand here. The family went to grab some cheese sandwiches as they didn't have breakfast at home.

After a bit of waiting, and trying to calm Onyx down, Neville showed up. He was also ahead of time, just not as much as they were. With Neville here, the parents went off to talk to each other instead and left the children alone.

Emma of course knew Neville well because of how often he and Onyx had seen each other, but in these conversations she always found it hard to get a word in.

"I can't believe it's finally time Nev! Soon we'll be there in front of hundreds waiting to be sorted. Still can't believe dad and mum refuses to tell me how it's done!" Neville was terribly afraid of that moment just months ago but being around Onyx had made him simply accept what's coming.

With a small chuckle he answered "Well at least we know it won't be something stupid like combat deciding it. I remember hearing someone who thought that." This brought a laugh to both of the Grey children.

They brought Neville's trunk and small terrarium into the same compartment as Onyx's and then they went to buy something fun to spend the time on. They couldn't just let Emma sit there while they read some texts.

"Any ideas for what to buy?" Neville looked at Emma and her eyes shone "We could get the imitations sweets!" Onyx gave her a wide grin and then bought the sweets before heading back to the compartment. They couldn't very well sound like an assortment of animals in public.

So there they sat for quite some time. One at a time they popped a candy and made an imitation of an animal. Neville first got a monkey and so he jumped around picking through the other's hairs while making noices. Onyx got a snake so he hissed and seemingly slithered around his sister, wrapping around her tighter and tighter. Emma got a frog and so she croaked and jumped around the small space. She had a staring competition with Neville's toad Trevor.

Eventually, after having finished the bag with quite a few laughs it was time for Emma to leave. The train was leaving in a bit and people were starting to fill the compartments. The boys went out to share a final hug with their families.

Onyx's hug with Emma especially took quite a bit of time and effort from Onyx's part to end. He whispered a lot into her ears ending with "I'll be back before you know it. And next year you'll be joining me" This seemed to calm her down and she let go of her brother.

Finally they managed to get onto the train. On the way Onyx thought he saw a blur of red and a little scrawny boy with black hair running around trying to make sense of the time. He paid it no mind and got back to his compartment.

When he entered he saw that there was a girl there reading 'Hogwarts: a History' and so when Onyx and Neville took their seats she introduced herself. "Hi, I hope you don't mind that I joined your compartments" She looked a bit nervous until the two boys shrugged and then she continued "I'm Hermione Granger, and who are you two?" Hermione gave the boys a bright smile as her mother had told her to. This was how she'd make friends.

Hermione had been told by her mother that she had to find a compartment to share with someone, a first train ride was sure to be one of the best places to meet new people. When you're forced to sit close to someone and converse you get to know them whether you intend to or not. So with these thoughts going through her mind she awaited their response.

Onyx winked at Neville which he returned by rolling his eyes as Onyx took Hermione's hand into his. He met her eyes with a fantastic gaze and finally kissed the back of her hand. "Pleased to meet you Ms. Granger. I'm Onyx Grey, and this boy here is Neville Longbottom." Hermione hardly heard a word he said as her mind was as fuddled as her cheeks were filled with blood. She blushed, hard.

A few seconds went by and then the two boys started laughing. Hermione couldn't understand what was going on right now so she looked back and forth between the two boys in confusion. Eventually her eyes landed on Onyx and she made a face that said 'Explain yourself'.

This caused Onyx to flash his patented calming smile at her "I'm sorry about that. I know that some of the older books on pure-bloods claim that we do those kinds of things. I figured you might have read one of them, hope you don't mind a bit of fun on your behalf."

There was something about it. She normally wouldn't have been all that fine with people laughing at her but his eyes, smile and the sincerity in his voice made sure that she couldn't be angry. She even found it amusing and chuckled herself.

"That's fine but ne-" and then she realized. What books? Should she have read a book about pure-bloods? "Um..What books are you talking about? Should I have read some specific book?" She kept going without letting them interrupt. The two boys thought she probably didn't even take a single breath in between.

"I have read most of the books on the list, I was born last autumn you see, so I thought I had prepared properly but is there something I missed? Should I have bought another book? But there wasn't any more on the list, I even bought an extra on magical theory." Hermione was stopped by Onyx placing a book in her lap called 'The wizarding world and its customs'.

"I recommend it to start with, but no. You're not behind, not at all. Most have probably not even opened their books yet even if they were born on the second of September." Onyx really hoped he managed to sound as calming as intended. Hermione's burst of words had started to discomfort Neville and he didn't want to handle a nervous Neville as well at this moment.

Hermione instantly started inspecting the book before turning to Onyx "Will you let me borrow this? I'd be extremely thankful" She looked at him with pleading eyes and Onyx simply put his hands up "That's fine, you can have it in fact." This surprised her but she didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth and so she accepted.

After a couple of moments she had started reading but she wondered how they knew she had no idea about their world. "How did you know I was a..muggleborn, was that the word?" The two boys nodded and Neville explained. "A mixture of your name, reaction, clothes and your.." he glanced down at her front teeth. They were slightly too large. Not large enough that it actually bothered him but too large for anyone with magic to ignore and not fix it if was on their child. "Posture, let's say that."

Hermione had obviously caught the glance down at her teeth and blushed a bit of embarrassment. Now that she looked at the boys she noticed how seemingly perfect it all was. Their robes were made out of a finer material, they hair was perfectly in control and laid right where they wanted it, even though Onyx had very curly hair.

Their faces were without blemishes at all, and although Neville was a bit on the chubby side, both boys were very handsome. Perhaps it was easy to spot the odd one out she thought. "I'm guessing you buy your clothes somewhere else than the recommended shops then? And you use magic to fix all irregularities?"

The boys nodded and Hermione mumbled 'interesting' before she got back to her book. Onyx was glad she didn't seem insulted and that's when the train started moving. It was time for him to do the task Jasper had given him. He had been given 15 of those books he handed to Hermione with clear instructions to hand them out to all new muggleborn students.

The books were written by Jasper and included all of the basics about the culture with recommendations about which books you could read after and also an invitation to the project.

Hopefully he could help as many as possible. With an expanded pouch with the books in it on his hip, he stood up and exited the compartment "I'll be back in a bit" he winked to Neville who knew exactly what was about to happen.