Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction / Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Know Your Place ❯ Prologue ( Prologue )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Summary: An old acquaintance of Hermione's catches up with her. Chaos ensues.

Disclaimer: IWA and BK are in the same room

Brit*Kit: SUMMER!! *dances around the room wildly* It's finally SUMMER! I'M FREEEEE!!

it walks alone: ... *sweatdrop*

BK: SUMMER at LAST!! Sweet freedom is MINE!

IWA: *sigh*

BK: My parents will be at work all day! My brother doesn't care what I do!

IWA: Um... Brit*Kit?

BK: There will be no one to keep me from sleeping as much as I want! Going on the computer as much as I want! BEING AS LAZY AS I DAMN WELL WANNA!

IWA: Brit*Kit...

BK: No summer work! No classes—

IWA: BRIT*KIT!

BK: No—huh?

IWA: *mutter* Finally. *in normal voice* Didn't you say you got a job a few weeks ago?

BK: Yeah...

IWA: And aren't you taking driver's ed this summer, four days a week?

BK: *eyes wide* NUUUUUU!! My freedom is GONE! *sobs*

IWA: *rolls eyes* Such drama! Anywho, I don't own HP or GW, never have. And yes, Ashbourne is a real town, and yes, it's in the middle of nowhere, and yes, we did look that up in an atlas. Apologies to anyone who lives there.

A/N: Just keep in mind that they happen at the same time. At this point, the war between the colonies and Earth is almost over.

“Speaking”

Thoughts

/actions and sound effects/

(A/Ns, unless it's a number, then it's a footnote)

Prologue

Claire Granger looked up from the stove, deciding the sauce was cooked enough, and turned to her daughter. “Hermione, your father and I need to go to a dentist's convention in Ashbourne—”

“Middle of nowhere, right?” Hermione interjected.

“...Basically.” Her mother continued, “Anyway, we'll be there for a couple weeks, and we don't want to leave you here, seeing as how there's a base nearby.”

Hermione looked up. “And because Voldemort is after me, too.”

Claire winced. “That too. Anyway, your father and I have decided that since your cousin Emma's school hasn't let out for the summer, you can stay with her until the convention is over.”

“She goes to a boarding school, right?”

Claire nodded. “So, do you think you could do that for us?”

Hermione smiled. “Of course. I haven't seen Emma in such a long time. It would be nice to catch up with her.” She paused and sniffed. “Is that smoke?”

“Thank—Aaah! My sauce!” Claire turned back to the stove just in time to keep her dinner from burning.

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Wufei was extremely bored, staring at a spot somewhere over the man's head and idly wondering if the idiotic foreign teacher would ever shut up. Due to the fact that he had been prattling on the same things for the past three hours, Wufei guessed he wouldn't. He snuck a glance at Yuy. The perfect soldier looked every bit as interested in the teacher's information as he had at the start of the conference. He was probably checking every bit of information against what he'd already gathered.

Suddenly, the door opened, and three people walked in. Wufei was bored enough to actually look away from the teacher and at the newcomers. A bushy-haired girl was being escorted by two adults who were probably her parents. The Chinese pilot had just enough attention span left to pity the girl, as she would have to go through the same lecture he and Yuy had. Or perhaps just whatever they had left to be utterly bored by.

The teacher looked up. “Ah, Mr. Granger, Mrs. Granger, I presume? And this must be your daughter Hermione. I'll just finish up with these two and be right with you.”

Or maybe she'll be the one to get us out of here, Wufei mused to himself.

“After all, there's no reason for them to hear something they've already heard.”

Wufei snorted.

The girl—Hermione, was it?—shot him a very disapproving look.

Wufei snorted again. Easy for her to do, she hasn't been droned at for three hours.

“Oh, where are my manners? Hatori, William, this is the Granger family. Their daughter Hermione will be staying here for two weeks while her parents are at a conference. Mr. and Mrs. Granger, Hermione, this is Hatori Sohma and William Chang. They'll be staying at the school for three weeks to see if they want to attend next year.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Heero sent a nod in the general direction of the Granger family.

“Nice to meet you, too,” Wufei said, polite if nothing else.

“Alright boys, here are your orientation packets. Go join the masses!”

As Wufei walked out the door, he heard the teacher begin his lecture for the fourth time, this time with a new audience. He smirked.

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For the next two day, Hermione saw the two boys only in passing. Then on Monday, as she followed her cousin to her History class, she saw the two in the back of the room, involved in what appeared to be a serious discussion.

Emma slid into the seat next to her cousin. “Whatchya looking at?”

“Nn?” Hermione turned around. “Oh, nothing.”

Emma leaned over the back of the desk and noticed the boys as well. “Ah-hah. You are a teenager, dear cousin!”

Hermione quirked a smile. “I'm not that much of a bookworm.”

“Oh, yes you are,” Emma retorted, craning her neck to get a look at the two. “And my, don't you have taste...”

“Miss Watson, Miss Granger, care to join the rest of the class?” Emma and Hermione both cringed.

“Sorry, Professor Noakes,” they chorused.

“Apology accepted, girls.” She turned to the front of the class. “Now, since it's only a few weeks until finals, we'll be discussing current events today. How about...”

The professor turned to the blackboard and wrote 'The War with the Colonies: are they right or wrong?' She put the chalk down and faced the students. “Discuss.”

The classroom exploded. For a good fifteen minutes nothing could be understood. Then a female voice from the back of the room spoke up.

“What if the colonies are right?”

The teacher's head snapped up from the book she was reading. “Ridiculous. The colonists have nothing to complain about. There are inspections on each one and they have all been determined to be fit for human habitation. They are being petty and are foolish to think that they could go up against OZ and the ESA, and they will lose. This war will be over soon enough.”

Hatori placed a firm grip on bristling William's shoulder. “Stand down, Chang,” he whispered fiercely.

“Besides,” Professor Noakes continued, “we put the colonies and the colonists into space, we can bring them down just as easily.”

The room was dead silent for about five seconds. Then Hermione stood.

“Excuse me, Professor, but with all due respect—you're wrong.”

“Excuse me?”

Hermione lifted her chin and repeated herself. “You're wrong, Professor. The colonies had every right to begin this war.”

“What?”

“'Fit for human habitation' doesn't mean that the conditions on the colonies are good—it just means people can survive. Technically, parts of the desert are `fit for human habitation'. The colonies are exploited by the ESA and other earth companies for work and factory space.”

“Miss Granger, sit down,” Professor Noakes ordered.

“I will not sit down. The people of the colonies are sent the food, clothing, and medicines that the rest of earth doesn't want. New medicines are tested on them— without their consent. They are oppressed and have no say in—”

“Sit down, Miss Granger!”

Hermione was shouting now. “I am not your student and I will NOT sit down!!”

Professor Noakes was on her feet as well. “Then you will explain yourself to the principal! Discussion closed!”

Hermione stood her ground. “You cannot open a discussion to the class and then close it when it stops going your way!!”

Professor Noakes rounded on her. “Watch me! To the principal's office now, Miss Granger!”

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Heero and Wufei sat in stunned silence in the back of the room, Heero's hand still on Wufei's shoulder. Immediately after Professor Noakes and Granger's departure, whispers broke out, and Emma Watson melted into her seat in embarrassment.

“Where did she find that out?” Wufei hissed.

“Colony websites,” Heero responded. “If this gets out, OZ will notice.”

“And send someone, and then we'll be found out,” Wufei continued grimly. “Stupid onna.” He glanced at the hand still on his shoulder. “And if I get a bruise from this, Sohma, I will make it my personal goal to make your life a living hell.”

The hand was removed.

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Later, Wufei and Heero found Hermione outside the principal's office. Wufei, still incensed about the History class discussion, rounded on her.

“That was a very bad decision on your part, onna.”

Hermione glanced at him, obviously still in a bad mood. “Oh? What was? Perhaps if I knew what you were talking about, I could actually form an opinion.”

“The History class,” Wufei growled.

“Oh yes. Perhaps that was in bad taste, contradicting a teacher like that, but there wasn't anything else I could do. I hate it when people are so bigoted.”

Wufei glared at her. “You are a student. Teachers are authority figures. As such, they should not be screamed at in front of a group. They would lose face. Children are to show respect for authority figures at all times, and if there is a disagreement, it should be dealt with privately.” Wufei sniffed. “Women should know their place.”

Hermione spun to face him, furious. She wasted perhaps a millisecond glaring at him, then shot a fist out and punched him in the face. Then she turned again and stomped off.

Wufei, for his part, staggered back a step. Heero raised an eyebrow.

Wufei turned to him, one hand on the bridge of his nose. “Put this in the mission report and die, Yu—Sohma.”

Heero merely continued to watch the way Hermione had gone.

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Hermione's argument did not catch the attention of the military. The principle seemed determined to pretend the argument never happened. A few days later (at Heero's insistence) Wufei gave a forced apology to Hermione in the library. She graciously accepted, and attempted to return to her book, A Tale of Two Cities. Due to Wufei's rising bad mood, he saw fit to comment on the idiocy of Dickens to include a character such as Lucie. Hermione, naturally, disagreed. In roughly ten minutes the two were yelling at each other.

They were promptly kicked out of the library, followed by an impassive Heero.

From then on, the two saw fit to argue (or `debate' as they called it) on each and every topic they could find.

On one such occasion, Hermione and Wufei were yelling at each other in the library (no on else was in there, or else they'd have been thrown out by the librarian) while Heero was typing away on his laptop. Emma came in, took one look at the arguing pair, and edged over to Heero.

“Um, Hatori, right?”

“Yes.”

“Right.” She nervously twirled a strand of hair around her finger. “Um, do they do this often?”

“Yes.”

“Oh. Okay.” Emma looked at the pair critically for a moment, and then turned back to Heero. “Er, do you suppose they know that they're arguing on the same side?”

“No.”

“Ah. Do you think we should do something about this?”

“No.”

Emma looked at him, then back at Hermione and Wufei. “If you say so…”

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Two weeks later, Hermione was back at home with her parents, reading the newspaper.

Base Attacked! Gundam Pilots Suspected of Posing as School Students!

Hermione paused. That base was right next to Emma's school...

The article stated that the base had been attacked, and that since the Gundam pilots were suspected to be teenagers, and there was a high school boarding school nearby, it would be easy for them to hide out there. Especially since the school was in the habit of letting prospective students stay for a week or so.

Hermione considered this. Well, the base blew up about four days after I left, so they can't think it's me. But Hatori and William showed up about the same time I did, and they left after me. Could it be them?

She pondered this.

Ah, well. Even if it is them, it's not as though I'll see them again.

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