A/N: Hello, hello, everyone. Welcome to my second ever multichapter story. I promise this is going to be the first long A/N because I've got to explain a few things. I have quite a few chapters of this story written, and updates will be weekly (every Wednesday). This is a No-Voldemort! Jily Lives! AU. Hermione joins Hogwarts in sixth year, and since there's no death threat hanging over his head and his parents are alive, Harry's a tad more concerned about his academics. Oh, and did I mention, he's got a sister here. She's called Iris (because I wanted to maintain the flower tradition lol), and she's in Ginny's year.

Thank you for choosing to read this, and I hope you'll enjoy it. Do let me know what you feel about this!

Ok, I've babbled enough. Happy reading :)

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Of A Feather

Chapter 1

Hermione Granger was impressed.

And she wasn't impressed by your usual sight, mind you: she was a tough one to please. But when she stepped right through the seemingly solid brick wall at King's Cross and found herself in the midst of the several people milling on Platform Nine and Three Quarters, she was spellbound. There, in front of her, stood the dark red locomotive, white smoke issuing out of it, and the words Hogwarts Express engraved in golden on a black plate across the front of the engine.

Her parents seemed to have had the exact same reaction. Her mother's grip on her shoulder increased just a little bit, and her father, who was chattering away only a minute ago, had gone dumb. Hermione turned her head around to look at their faces.

"Oh, Hermione, darling, this looks wonderful!" Her mother, Dianne, said in a low voice, her brown eyes - identical to her daughter's - twinkling curiously.

"Wicked!" exclaimed Michael Granger, grinning widely as he took in his surroundings. Being a Muggle dentist, Michael was never not amazed by his daughter's world, even though he'd been introduced to it five years ago.

Hermione felt herself smile as well as she surveyed the scene, the different people - some in dark cloaks that billowed in the air behind them, some in weird-looking hats, some in their school robes. A large brown swooped past her, and Crookshanks, her cat, stood up on its hind paws and yowled at the bird.

"Come on," Hermione said, both to her parents and the cat, pushing her heavy trolley forward towards an empty spot near the train. Dianne looked nervously around herself, feeling quite out of place amidst everyone else, while Michael waved brightly at any wizard or witch who'd look at him, and they'd wave back.

"Friendly, these folks are," he remarked, as though he were seeing their kind for the first time. Hermione laughed at the expression on her father's face, before heaving her trunk off the trolley. Michael rushed forward to give his daughter a helping hand, and together the two hauled the trunk onto the train.

"Ten minutes to eleven," said Dianne, looking at her wristwatch. "Best get on the train now."

"Yeah," Hermione said, smiling wistfully. "I'll see you at Christmas, then."

For the fifth time in the last ten minutes, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley slid open the door to one of the compartments to find it occupied. By none other than Dean Thomas and Ron's sister, Ginny - who were attached to each other at the mouth.

"Er - "

Harry bit back a laugh at the look on Ron's face. He was turning greener by the minute, and right before he looked like he was about to throw up his breakfast all over the floor, Harry acted wisely by sliding the door closed.

"Ron!" he snapped at his best friend, who was protesting vehemently. "Honestly, I have a sister as well. You don't see me going around trying to hex whoever snogs her."

"For Merlin's sake, I want to rip that tosser Dean in two. Let me go, Harry - I said, let. Me. Go!"

"You can do that once we get back to school, okay? Get a grip on yourself."

Five minutes later, Harry was at the entrance of the sixth potentially empty compartment, tugging on Ron's robes, trying to keep him from running off to murder Dean.

"Here's hoping I don't find Iris snogging someone inside this compartment," Harry said sarcastically, ignoring Ron's angry grumbling behind him.

He slid the door open, relieved to find it mostly vacant - except for another student they had never seen before sitting in the corner. She had her bushy brown hair tied into a knot at the top of her head, and her nose was tucked in a fat book, and she barely heard the two boys open the door.

"Um, hello - " Harry said tentatively, effectively catching the girl's attention. She looked up, her brown eyes surveying the newcomers.

"Oh, er - hi, - " she said, giving them a small, polite smile.

"Er - do you think we could sit here? Everywhere else is taken."

"Sure," said the girl. "Thanks!" Harry grinned, pulling Ron into the compartment with him.

"I'm Hermione Granger, by the way," the girl continued further, putting out a hand. Harry shook it, and said, "Harry Potter. And this is my friend, Ron Weasley."

"Pleasure to meet you both."

And then Hermione went back to her tome, paying neither Harry nor Ron any attention throughout the first few hours of their journey together. About ten minutes later, Ron whipped out his chess set and flattened Harry five times in a row. Hermione kept her book down for some time after that, but only because she wanted "to give the eyes a bit of rest".

She then revealed that she was in fact a new student at Hogwarts. This intrigued the boys, and Harry made the mistake of asking her about her previous school. In response, Hermione went on and on about her former school - Beauxbatons, incidentally, the alma mater of Fleur Delacour, Ron's to-be sister-in-law, and how different she was finding Hogwarts until now. Ron managed to doze off halfway into her lecture with his head on Harry's shoulder.

Hermione only stopped when the the trolley witch came along some time later, and the boys treated themselves to a heap of Chocolate Frogs and Pumpkin Pasties. Hermione bought just a sandwich. Apparently, her parents were dentists and therefore had forbidden her from eating too much to sweet stuff.

After their hefty 'meal' of sorts, Hermione went back to her book and Ron left the compartment to visit his girlfriend, Lavender Brown, and never returned. Harry was compelled to start reading his Potions textbook instead, for he was sure Professor Snape would be more than delighted to deduct a few points off Gryffindor on the very first day of school.

"Hello, Harry, Ron, have a good summer?" asked Neville Longbottom as they proceeded towards the same carriage together.

"Yeah, it was fairly good," Harry replied. "Ron's was better, apparently."

The tips of Ron's ears turned pink. Neville raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

Harry smirked. "He spent two weeks at Lavender's." Ron blushed even more, and stammered, "Eh - nothing like that - "

"Lavender Brown's?" Neville asked.

"Yep, the very," Harry grinned, dodging a punch from his best friend. Neville laughed. "Then it must have been really good."

"Hello. What's good?"

The boys turned around to find Ginny and Iris, Harry's sister.

"Ron's summer," snickered Harry.

"Ah," Ginny said knowingly. "Yes, it was good. Ron bragged about how he'd taken dear Lav-Lav to her family dinner for a week when he returned home."

"Ginny!" Ron exclaimed, affronted, his face like a ripe tomato.

The girls dissolved into giggles while Harry and Neville continued to tease Ron about his new girlfriend all the way to their carriage. They finally stopped when they reached the castle doors, from where they shuffled into the Great Hall in a large, black-robed, murmuring mass of students.

The chatter died down when tiny Professor Flitwick scurried down the middle of the Great Hall, past the queasy looking first-years, carrying the tattered Sorting Hat in his arms. He set it down upon the stool near where Minerva McGonagall stood, and then joined the rest of the staff at the Head Table.

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat, her keen eyes surveying the entire hall shrewdly, before she clasped her hands together.

"Welcome and welcome back, to everyone of you, new and old. This year, I'm pleased to announce that we have a new sixth year student, transferred from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic in France. Please, join me in welcoming: Miss Hermione Granger."

The hall filled with a polite smattering of applause. Harry and Ron's eyes immediately shot to the girl in question, who was standing with the first year students, and had turned slightly pink and was smiling nervously up at Professor McGonagall.

"She's in our year," Ron whispered to Harry, who nodded. He already knew that, because he'd been able to stay awake through Hermione's speech back in the train.

"Now," Professor McGonagall's voice broke through the noise in the Great Hall. "Miss Granger, please come up to the Head Table for your Sorting."

A few of the students whispered 'good luck' to Hermione, including Ginny and Iris. Hermione, now sporting quite a stoic look on her face, walked smartly up to the Head Table, before sitting down on the stool. Professor McGonagall then placed the Sorting Hat on her head.

A few minutes of silence,in which everyone looked expectantly up Hermione. Her interlocked hands lay on her lap, and her eyes were shut tight, and she was murmuring something.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The Hat roared out after the while.

As expected, the Gryffindor table burst with cheers and enthusiastic applause. Hermione had a radiant smile on her face as she jumped off the stool. Professor McGonagall gave her a small smile, which she returned, before she returned to the Gryffindor table.

She plopped herself down on an empty spot beside Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, who started squealing obnoxiously about how ecstatic they were that Gryffindor had received a new student. They tried to indulge her in their usual gossip, pointing discreetly at this boy and that and giggling. Hermione looked distinctly annoyed, and with a polite sort of half-smile, proceeded to watch the rest of the Sorting instead.

"Benson, Polly."

A miniscule girl with her red hair in pigtails stumbled her way up to Professor McGonagall. The Hat dropped to the bridge of her nose and stayed there for a few seconds before it called out:

"RAVENCLAW!"

Polly Benson let herself join the Ravenclaws with an euphoric look on her face, and be thumped proudly on the back by her housemates.

"Bradford, Gregory."

Greg Bradford happened to be an even tinier boy, and it looked like he would fall face first on the floor any moment. When the Sorting Hat eventually put in Gryffindor, he scrambled to the Gryffindor table with a giddy grin on his face.

The next few students were all Sorted into Hufflepuff, and then came a row of Slytherins. When the last student, a girl ("Upton, Alice!") with gleaming golden hair, was Sorted into Gryffindor, Filch carried the Sorting Hat and the stool away, and Professor McGonagall joined the Head Table. Professor Dumbledore then stood up. His blue eyes roved over all the students over the rim of his half-moon glasses, before he smiled.

"Welcome, new students, and welcome back, old ones," he boomed. "I am sure we will have enough time for fancy speeches, but now's not it. So, without further ado, let's all begin our start-of-term feast!"

A few of the students laughed, while Ron patted his stomach thoughtfully. Soon, their tables were loaded with platters of food and goblets of pumpkin juice.

"Tuck in!"

*.*.*

A/N: Well, there you have it, a rather uneventful first chapter. Also, I think I kind of messed up that compartment scene. They should've talked some more. But in my defence, I have seen people who can survive overnight train journeys with their mouths completely shut the whole time. Dunno if that's a thing that happens in other places, too, though.

Thank you for reading, and do let me know what you thought of it :) See you next Wednesday!