Chapter - 30 : Sweet Surprises and First Encounters

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"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know. Chocolate Frogs have cards, inside them, you know, to collect. Famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."

Harry unwrapped his Chocolate Frog and picked up the card. I peeked over at it curiously. It showed a man's face. He wore half- moon glasses, had a long, crooked nose, and flowing silver hair, beard, and mustache. Underneath the picture was the name Albus Dumbledore.

"So this is Dumbledore!" Harry exclaimed.

"Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore!" said Ron. "Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa – thanks."

"Pitch me a couple too," I said curiously, and Harry sent three flying my way as he read about Dumbledore.

I opened mine up. There was a picture of a wizened old man with eyebrows that nearly swallowed his eyes and a staff carved like a snake. I flipped it over. Apparently it was Herpo the Foul, an Ancient Greek Dark Wizard who invented Basilisks.

"He's gone!" Harry exclaimed suddenly. I looked up and saw him staring at his picture of Dumbledore. I flipped mine back over and stared. Herpo the Foul blinked back at me, gave a sigh, and reached up to scratch his nose. I stared.

"You can't expect him to hang around all day," Ron said carelessly. "He'll show up again. Ah, Morgana again. Want her? You can start collecting?" His eyes strayed to the packages waiting to be unwrapped. We'd loaded up on those, figuring that if we didn't like anything else, chocolate was universal, magical or not.

"Go ahead," Harry bade. "But in the Muggle world, people stay put in photos."

Ran gaped. "Seriously? Weird."

We tore open all of the other Chocolate Frogs. Ron knew about most of the people featured already, but Harry and I read the little bios on the back in interest. If one of us got two of the same card, we passed it over to the other. By the time we'd finished them all, I had Herpo the Foul, Dumbledore, Morgana, Cassandra Vablatsky, Helga Hufflepuff, Godric Gryffindor, and Merlin.

I kept glancing back at Herpo. He gave me the willies. He seemed to know it too, because every now and then he'd give me these menacing grins. I shuddered and thrust him under Merlin, who gave me an understanding smile. Morgana rolled her eyes and made a rude gesture. He responded by blowing her a raspberry.

"Be careful with those," Ron advised as Harry picked up a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. "They mean every flavor. There's normal candy flavors like peppermint and apples, but then there's also liver and spinach. George swears he got a boogey-flavored one once."

We had a great time going through the beans, delighting when we got a good one and teasing each other when we landed on a bad one. I became the ultimate loser when I bit into a pink one, expecting it to be bubblegum just like the last pink one I'd picked up. Instead it turned out to be rotten fish.

I bowed out after that.

Not too long after my bean debacle a knock sounded on the compartment door. The round-faced boy from the platform who was missing his toad stepped inside and asked, "Sorry, but have you seen a toad at all?"

"If there was a toad in here, Artemisia would let us know," I said, pointing to my owl. "She loves 'em."

"I've lost him!" the boy wailed.

Harry gave me an uncomfortable look. "He'll turn up."

"I hope so," the boy said glumly, and left.

Ron shook his head. "If I brought a toad I'd lose it as fast as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."

Scabbers was still dozing in his lap. Ron looked at him in disgust.

"He'd have died and you wouldn't know the difference. I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but it didn't work. Look…" He drew out a battered wand, the unicorn hair poking out of one end. Ron cleared his throat. "Unicorn hair's poking out. Anyway-"

The toadless boy suddenly reappeared, a frizzy-hair girl on his heels. She was already in her robes.

"Has anyone seen a toad?" she asked. Her voice was very bossy. "Neville's lost his."

"We already told him we haven't," Ron huffed. Her eyes flicked to him and his wand.

"Oh, are you doing magic?" she asked. "Let's see then."

Ron blinked, clearly startled. She looked at him expectably. He cleared his throat, pointing his wand at Scabbers.

"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow. Turn this stupid fat rat yellow."

Scabbers stayed gray and asleep.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard. I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough - I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"

She said this faster than I'd thought was humanly possible. I stared at her, nonplussed.

"Ron Weasley," Ron mumbled.

"Harry Potter."

"Lorena Potter."

Her eyes widened in interest. I sighed. This was going to get old really fast. I could only hope that after a few weeks the fascination with us would wear off.

"Are you really?" she asked. "I know all about you both, of course. I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."

"Are we?" harry asked faintly.

"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad... Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."

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