We're On Our Way

"What's with the long face?"

Her young friend looked up from the parchment he had been staring intently at since she entered his common room and took the seat across from him at the study table he was situated at. Harry blinked and furrowed his brow, eyes roving away from her face to look around the sparsely populated room. Finally, he returned his pretty green eyes to her and asked, "How did you get in here?"

She rolled her eyes and waved a flippant hand. "I bribed a girl with my first-year transfiguration text. I promised she'd pass the class with flying colors because of it and she was all too happy to let me have the password." She realized next year Eileen would be out of luck, but didn't feel too badly. The girl was clever and most definitely primed for Ravenclaw. She'd pass on her own merits just fine. It was Essie she worried for…

Harry's face took on a confused hue. "Are you allowed to do that?"

"No, probably not," replied Darla, putting her elbows on the table and cradling her head in her hands. "But what do I care? Just about anyone with half a brain can break into Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff."

"Hmm," he mumbled, eyes still darting now and then to the other students occupying the room. "Can they see you?" he asked. "None of them are even looking at us…"

She laughed. "It isn't as if I walked in and announced 'It's Darla Snape, boys and girls, and I'm here to infiltrate Gryffindor!'" she told him, throwing her arms up in her theatrics. Smirking, she continued, "I just kept to the edges and put up my brother's privacy spell before I started talking to you. I imagine the buzzing they're hearing from us has joined the background din for them all well enough no one's bothered to find the source."

Harry's expression became thoughtful. "D'you think I could do the same and come into Slytherin?"

Darla shrugged. "Perhaps." Teasingly, she leaned in and said to him, "Though, I wouldn't do it alone if I were you. You seem to draw attention to you like happy memories draw a dementor, even for one of your fame."

"Yeah," he replied agreeably. "If I did, I bet your housemates would hex me senseless."

She could wish it wasn't so as much as she liked, but she knew Harry was right. Especially if that mouthy little Malfoy was there to take the helm. For whatever reason, he'd taken great offense to Harry's sorting and disinterest in Slytherin beyond Darla. "Most definitely." Silence lapsed between them a moment, during which Darla recalled her initial question upon sitting down with Harry. "So, what was with your long face earlier, Harry?"

A dejectedness returned to the boy's gaze. "Ron yelled at Hermione again and made her cry." Dropping his eyes to the table, he began to trace imaginary shapes into the parchment in front of him (Darla suspected it would become a letter to his parents and sister later), "He says he doesn't like her at all."

"Why is that, you think?"

Harry cocked his head. "Um. He said she's bossy." Softer, he added, "And a know-it-all cow."

She sniffed at the insult. Usually, Darla would dismiss anyone's thoughts on anything once they started insulting others, but she reminded herself she was dealing with a little boy and not a Slytherin peer. Of course Hogwart's littlest Weasley insulted Granger, he was eleven, and as far as she could tell, rather average intelligence-wise.

"Is she bossy?" she inquired. "And a know-it-all? Because I know for a fact she is not a cow."

The boy hesitated to answer. "I like talking to her about books," Harry said finally. "She read a lot of the same stories I did when I was a little kid and it's nice not having to explain stuff all the time when I talk about Muggle things." Brows furrowed, he went on to say, "She's really not a know-it-all, either, I don't think. She just read all our textbooks through before the school year started because she was afraid she'd be behind otherwise. I read the ones that looked most interesting to me too, so I like talking about that stuff I read in them also, 'cause it's all so new and interesting to me." He met Darla's gaze then. "Ron gets sort of frustrated when I want to talk about what's in our textbooks too, sometimes. He thinks it all boring and stuff that everyone already knows." His face took on an impassioned red as he exclaimed, "But not everyone does!"

"You're right everyone doesn't," Darla agreed soothingly. "Sometimes, us witch and wizard raised kids forget that, though. Sort of like when you talk about the telly and going to the cinema and they stare at you and have to ask you a dozen or more questions before you can move on in a conversation."

Harry nodded. "Is first year always this hard?"

"I'm afraid so."

His shoulders slumped in what could only be defeat. "Oh."

"You know, you never did tell me if you think Granger is bossy," Darla questioned lightly, almost jokingly, in hopes of clearing the grief from her young friend's face.

He pinkened. "Um. A bit," he murmured.

Darla laughed. Then, reaching across the table to ruffle his hair, she told him, "I'll tell you what. I have a wicked idea for how to make the two of them start to get on— Maybe even become mates. Tomorrow after class I want you and them to meet me outside on the north side of Black Lake, got it?"

Harry seemed a bit miffed by her secret plan, but said, "Okay. Do I get any hints?"

"It's a favorite game of yours we'll be playing!" she told him.

The boy looked utterly stumped and Darla had to giggle. "Alright, I'll let you think on that. Ta, Harry! See you tomorrow!"

-o-O-o-

George Bones on her right and Susan Bones on her left, she beamed in delight when Harry appeared over the grassy knoll with both Granger and the littlest Weasley. The redhead and brunette didn't look particularly pleased, but when Harry saw her and what she was holding in her hands, he let out a whoop of joy. "Where'd you get a football?" he yelled, hurrying over to her.

Handing the ball over to the boy, she replied, "I transfigured it after I convinced one of Jason's dormmates to bring out his signed photograph of Ian Rush kicking a football for me to use as a reference for transforming an old quaffle I had."

"Wicked!" Harry marveled as he turned the ball in his hands. "It's even about the right weight!" While Harry continued to babble over the ball and Granger half-heartedly joined him in his observations (it seemed to Darla she'd not been nearly as much as a sports enthusiast when she was a small girl as Harry had been as a boy), Weasley crossed his arms and looked between the three of them.

Finally, he said, "Harry didn't say you'd be bringing people along too."

She made sure her smile stayed fixed on her lips as she informed the redhead, "I didn't tell him. This was all supposed to be a surprise. He's looked a bit glum these past few days and I thought a pickup game of footie would cheer him up." With forced peppiness, she asked, "Didn't you notice?"

The boy looked troubled by her explanation and contrite at her veiled jab; he fell quiet, much to her satisfaction. Susan snickered, however, bringing more attention to the dressing down and caused the redhead's ears to turn bright red. Darla was about to chide her, but Susan's cousin (brother, really, after a decade of being raised side-by-side) beat Darla to it. He reached around Darla and punched the girl in her arm. "Belt up, Susan."

In response, the girl turned and flashed George a face of outrage, but didn't laugh anymore.

Darla cleared her throat and explained. "I thought since Harry knows footie best, he could take the lead, explain it to us all, and divide us up into teams to play." She looked over the group of firsties. "Any objections?" The Bones pair, Harry, and Weasley seemed agreeable enough with her suggestion, but Granger had her chin wrinkled in a way that showed she obviously didn't. "Well, come now, speak up if you do," she goaded, staring at the girl.

"I know how to play football too," she started.

Darla, however, decided she wasn't going to have it. "I imagine you do," she said. "But as well as Harry does? Do you even know who Ian Rush is? What team he's on?"

Granger ducked her head, causing her frizzy mane to fall inward on her face and hide her embarrassment at the fact she did not, in fact, know. Harry, on the other hand, brightly told them all, "He's the best forward Liverpool's ever seen!" At the blank faces around him from all but Hermione, who gave a tiny nod, showing she did understand a bit, he explained further, "He makes most of the goals for his club."

While that really didn't clear things up as much as Harry probably hoped it would, all of the magic-raised children did understand what a "goal" was, though a little differently than Harry. Buoyed by the lights he saw coming on in the eyes of his peers around him, Harry began a more detailed explanation of football and how to play.

Within half an hour, Darla had two goals put up for them and was standing in front of one with Susan mimicking her stance at her team's goal. The game was kind of clumsy and Harry had to remind all of his peers of the rules from time to time, but they all appeared to be enjoying the game a great deal. From her spot, Darla watched as her teammates, Weasley and Granger, stole the ball away from George and ran it down the lawn to Susan's goal.

Harry sprinted to get in front of Weasley, who had the ball, while Granger went and positioned herself at a favorable angle not too far from the goal as George hurried to go and block her after taking an ungainly tumble to the ground in his haste to catch up to Harry and the ball.

The littlest Weasley, seeing he had no way of making a goal of himself, appeared to take a leap of faith and yelled to Granger, "Get ready!" and with a wide kick, sent the ball flying at her. By the grace of Helga, she managed to stop the ball with her foot. Pivoting, Granger gave her own swift swing of her leg and sent the ball right past Susan's outstretched hands to be caught by the net of the goal instead.

George gave a dramatic yell of defeat and fell to the ground once again, much to the annoyance of Susan, who rolled her eyes at his theatrics, as Harry gaped a moment before turning to Granger and telling her, "Wow! You have great aim, Hermione!"

Granger offered a shy smile in return. "Do you think so? My classmates always said I was no good…"

"They didn't know what they were talking about!" proclaimed Ron, coming up to the two. "You were brilliant! I'd love to be on your footie team again."

The girl blushed bright red and pulled her hair forward to hide her inflamed cheeks. "Thank you."

Harry threw an arm around each of their shoulders. "We should make this a weekly game until the snow comes! What do you think, Susan, George?" he called, looking over to the Bones children, who were now in the midst of their favorite pastime— Annoying one another until one of them snapped and hit the other. George froze in the middle of his infamous 'I'm Not Touching You Game' while Susan stared at them with big eyes and her arm wound back in preparation to sock her brother in the chest.

"Sure," she replied after being the first of the two to regain her bearings. "This was loads of fun. Next time I want to be on the field, though."

Enthusiastically, Harry agreed. "Yeah! Of course. We can take turns playing on the field and being the goalie."

Darla watched on with pride as the firsties continued to hash out the details amongst themselves. Things had gone even more swimmingly than she had expected and she held a great deal of hope the good-will from this game would carry the kids through the week until the next game and then the next until they were all the best of friends and would (years from now) haven't the foggiest idea why Weasley and Granger hadn't gotten along at the start of their first year at Hogwarts.

I thought you all might like a little something light-hearted from Harry's first year and getting to see the infamous trio come together as friends once more (and a little less dangerously!)

Also, be on the lookout for the next story in the "Family Branches" series guys! It's an Eileen-centric one-shot called Secrets and will be out on Monday.

Thanks for reading :)