Matt woke early the next day, for he had much to accomplish in a short amount of time. He and Professor McGonagall had spoken at length about how he was to get the necessary funds to replace his clothes, books, and various belongings. Matt had a vault in one of the American branches of Gringotts. Although the Americans used different monetary denominations, Gringotts stilled operated branches in the U.S.
Matt's memory was spotty at best, so remembering if he had his key on him or if it was in his trunk had become a gut-wrenching moment, until he remembered he found it in his robes. With Ilvermorny being destroyed, proving he was alive and who he claimed to be, could be difficult as well. Matt did not personally know any Goblins who would vouch for him at the bank.
Matt had not thought much about the brunette girl from the papers until now. Yes, he had seen her and wondered what her real story was, as anyone does with celebrities in the news, but he did not imagine meeting her ever. He could not quite get her out of his head, her accent and hair. She was a little tense around strangers, but he could not hold that against her.
After getting down to the Great Hall for an early breakfast, Matt was quick to begin penning a letter to the Goblin bank. He hoped that it would be enough to send a letter and ask for instructions on transferring his funds from America. He had no idea how this process would work; it was uncharted territory.
McGonagall had also mentioned that she would ask Hermione to accompany him to Diagon Alley in London to purchase whatever he needed. That made him smile. Hermione was a nice girl and spending more time with her would be a welcome change. He had not noticed that he was yearning for social interaction. Now that he had some outside of the staff at the school, he was hungry for more.
After his letter to Gringotts was completed, he took it to the owlery across the grounds.
Along the way he stopped to talk with Hagrid, the half giant groundskeeper and Professor for Care of Magical Creatures. Matt had not gotten to spend a lot of time with the well-meaning Professor, but he did look forward to their interactions.
After Matt's long walk to the Owlery, the climb to the to the top was a bit more than he had bargained for. He was out of breath and clutching a stitch in his side, when he had made it to the room full of owls. His leg was hurting as well, the activity was a lot more than he had been doing recently. Matt would have literally cursed himself if he could, for his lack of exercise and how badly out of shape he had become. He made a mental note he would need to do better in the future.
With an owl off to Gringotts, Matt took his time returning to the castle proper. He seriously considered a swim in the shallows of the Black Lake but thought better of it. He wanted to, but it would mean skinny dipping in the middle of the day, and that seemed like a bad idea, at least with knowing there were people around. Although the right company would persuade him otherwise.
Once again, he thought of Hermione, but he tried to keep any impure thoughts out of mind. He wanted to be friends, but he did not know if she was interested in that or not. He sighed, he really had become lonely, had he not? Desiring company from the pretty girl just because he sensed a kindred spirit.
Matt shook himself mentally as he made his way back into the castle. He needed to keep his mind on the present and not the what ifs or might be. He liked to explore possibilities but that often led to simple unproductive daydreaming. There was no time for that now!
By lunch time Gringotts had responded, and Matt would need to show up and present his key for verification before the funds could be transferred to a new vault. They did, however, inform him the shops in London and Hogsmeade could directly charge his old vault until the new one was set up. The level of discretion was appreciated. Professor McGonagall had suggested he keep as low a profile as possible. If for some reason, he was the target of the attack at Ilvermorny and not the school itself, the last thing he needed to do was attract undo attention to himself.
"Professor!" Matt said as he was finished eating, calling out to McGonagall. "They've given me a line of credit until I can show up with the key and establish a new vault here. Those Goblins are fast. So, how should I get to London?" he asked. "I'm gonna' stick out like a sore thumb if I'm not careful."
"Quite so. I'll see if Miss Granger would be willing to accompany you." Professor McGonagall responded.
Matt felt his stomach flutter and his heart skip a beat. Hermione had an effect on him, and he was trying not to show it. It was just simple logic though, obviously, the Headmistress could not just up and leave the school as preparations for the coming year were in full swing, her attention would need to be here. There were not many other people who could simply up and leave their duties just to show him around London.
Hermione was the only choice really; she was the only other person he knew here. Matt smiled to himself as he went to the Hospital Wing. There were worse things that he could be doing besides going shopping with a beautiful witch. Matt decided, once he collected his tattered remains of robes, that he would go to the library.
"Madam Pomfrey?" he asked.
"Yes?" came the matron's response.
"If anyone comes looking for me, I'll be in the library." He spoke. She nodded her acknowledgement and Matt limped his way across the castle to do some reading. Madam Pince, the librarian, was not at all shocked that he was back again, checking out newspapers and reading by a stack near a window.
He had not told anyone what he was really doing, he was researching. Matt looked for anything and everything he could find with information about Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, and Ron Weasley. Dozens of articles, some years old, others only a few months. Harry was much more prominently featured than the other two. Hermione's name came up a few times though, although not all of it was to be believed.
Matt scoffed at Rita Skeeter's attack articles on her and Harry during the Triwizard Tournament a few years prior. It was clearly biased and over exaggerated. He doubted that there were any truths in them whatsoever. Hermione did not come across as a harlot. Matt would know, after he encountered a few at Ilvermorny.
"There you are. I might've known you'd be here, buried under newspapers." Came a gentle, yet somewhat amused voice? Matt put down the paper, intentionally folding it so the front page was buried.
"Hermione! I didn't expect to see you so soon." Matt said, genuinely surprised to see her.
"The Headmistress said you'd be needing help getting to London and getting your supplies. And time is running out, after all. You've got less than two weeks until term starts." Hermione said as she sat down across from him.
"Well, yeah, I could use some help with that. I wasn't expecting this quick of a turnaround though!" Matt mused.
"What are you reading?" she wondered, seeing all the newspapers spread around, recognizing a few.
"Doing a little catching up, current events and all." Matt grinned.
"Four years is hardly 'current'." Hermione said tapping a finger on one of the tournament articles.
"Well, no, but…" Matt leaned in "I figure if I'm going to go here, I don't want to have to stop every few minutes and ask what someone's talking about. Although there's not much relevant beyond that. Anything going back older doesn't seem to involve the school much. Except for this." He tapped on an old article showing the entire Weasley family in Egypt. "Your boy got lucky, his family winning the lottery."
Hermione scoffed.
"I wouldn't call it lucky. There's been a theory going round that the Ministry rigged the lottery so they would win. I think it was compensation." Hermione replied.
"Compensation?" Matt looked puzzled now. "For what?"
"For the Basilisk and Ginny, Ron's sister, nearly dying." Hermione responded without thinking,
"Basilisk? His sister was almost killed?! That wasn't in any of the papers!" Matt was confused as he started to sift through the stacks. Hermione squeaked when she realized she may have said too much, as she got up to leave.
"Well, come on then, we should get going." She was quickly heading for the door.
"Hey! You're not getting off that easy!" Matt said as he stood, "Hey! Wait up!" Matt called after her, getting stern looks and tuts from Madam Pince as he followed Hermione out of the library, her bushy hair bouncing as she walked.
A short while later, Hermione was leading Matt out of the Leaky Cauldron and into Diagon Alley. He continued to ask her questions about her and the boys' adventures during their first few years at Hogwarts. Matt knew that he was woefully behind on what would be considered common knowledge at the school, but this was all part of the catching up process.
"So, let me get this straight, someone fooled an insanely powerful magical artifact that comes auto-equipped with a binding magical contract into thinking four schools were entering something called a Tri-wizard Tournament, and no one thought to pause the whole thing to see if they could, oh, I don't know, break the contract?" Matt asked as they walked out of Gringotts.
"That's right." Hermione nodded with a giggle a little at his incredulity.
"On top of that, Harry and Ron were so wrapped up in their own drama that they didn't notice, you, their literal closest friend, was dating a guy from another school?"
"Well, calling it dating is a rather strong implication..." Hermione confirmed, amused at this.
"And then you got roped into the tournament yourself. They placed you in a state of suspended animation and dunked you in the Black Lake and waited to see if your champion was going to rescue you. What would have happened if he had been a dunce?" Matt asked.
"Oh, I don't know actually." Hermione admitted.
"I'm just saying, the riddle sounded permanent. If this guy, Krum, was a bum, you might still be down there?"
"I rather doubt it. But I don't want to think what would have happened…" Hermione ran her hands along the outside of her arms in a shudder. Matt placed a hand on her shoulder, he knew she was not cold, it was hot outside as they moved from shop to shop. Hermione gave a sad smile at the small bit of comfort he gave her.
"Do you ever think that was intentional?" Matt wondered.
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.
"Well, you look at it, you, Harry, Ron, all three at the center of every major threat to the school, every year for the past three years. Do you think it's possible the teachers were sitting in the staff room going 'Ok, here's our chance to get these three little jerks back for all the trouble they caused us the last three years. Let's dunk 'em in the Black Lake.'" Matt theorized.
"No! They would never! The professors all love me." Hermione chuckled. "I'm their top student, they wouldn't do that just because I broke a few rules now and again…"
"Fair point. And I suppose if they really wanted to get you back without any evidence of true wrongdoing, there are other ways to go about it." Matt had wistful look in his eyes as his imagination wandered, he almost knew what she was about to ask.
"Like what?" Hermione crossed her arms and paused in the middle of the alley.
"If it were me, I'd make everyone used special cauldrons in potions class, that I provided." Matt began as Hermione raised an eyebrow. "That way when something goes wrong, and I would make sure what you were brewing, did in fact, go wrong, you'd have a hell of a mess to clean up."
"I'm going to need watch out for you, aren't I?" Hermione said with a little chuckle in her voice.
"Oh, I'm mostly harmless." Matt grinned with a wave of his hand.
"I'm sure that's what all the Slytherins say!" Hermione teased.
"Hey, I haven't been sorted yet! You don't know, I might be Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff!" he mused as they resumed walking. He looked the list over and sighed. "Just need robes now…" Matt looked at Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "I hate clothes shopping." He said downtrodden.
"I'll go in with you if you want." Hermione offered. Matt nodded his appreciation. Harry and Ron were incredibly lucky to have such a good friend as Hermione Granger.
"May I ask you something?" Hermione inquired as Matt was measured for new robes. Madam Malkin had all but screamed when she saw Matt walking in, his clothing barely hanging onto him. Some of his clothes under his robes were able to be repaired to a point, but dark magic had stopped total recovery. Yet another mystery to add to the pile.
"Go ahead." Matt replied.
"What house did you belong to…at Ilvermorny?" Hermione was gingerly approaching the topic. She knew the loss still hurt and didn't want to upset him.
"I was in Wampus, a Wampus is kind of big cat with six legs. It's supposed to represent the body and Wampus favors warriors." Matt told her.
"I see…" Hermione responded thoughtfully.
"Trying to figure out where I'll end up at Hogwarts?"
"Well, you are an unknown, and as long as I've gone to the school, we've never had a transfer student before, much less one in my year." Hermione replied. Never had a transfer student. Her words echoed in his head, that was not right. Why was that not right? There was something wrong with that.
"Headmaster Morrow, you wanted to talk to me?" Matt said as he entered the office of the Headmaster at Ilvermorny.
"Yes, about that report you were working on for me." The Headmaster said. He was a tall Black man, with a bald, head and a thin mustache.
"Oh right!" Matt said and sat down at the desk in the brightly lit orange colored office.
"What have you come up with?" Headmaster Morrow asked.
"I've got it down to three people but really…" Matt began.
"I know what you're thinking, I know what you're going to say, the answer is no."
"I'm the best choice for this." Matt argued.
"If you look at purely based off academics and test scores, yes. However, as President of the Student Council, you're my right hand and my eyes and ears amongst the students. You can't be that half a world away."
Matt could not argue with the Headmaster's logic there and he sighed, relenting.
"So, if not you, then who are your top choices?" he pressed.
"Well, there's Cori Andrews. She's smart, capable and plays well with others. Her aptitude isn't that great, but she's a hell of a secret keeper. Girl doesn't know the meaning of the word 'gossip'."
Headmaster Morrow nodded his approval. "Go on."
"John Robertson is next. Good head on his shoulders, excellent duelist, his techniques aren't pretty but he's talented enough to get away with it." Matt replied.
"I don't like Robertson for this. He and Joe Pachi are too close for my liking." The Headmaster frowned.
"I know, but I would be remiss if I didn't include him. Then the obvious choice has to be David Harding. He's the senator's son. His grades are almost as good as mine, he can handle himself if things get sticky, plus his older brother is already working for MACUSA, and his diplomacy is as good as any of his family."
"He's also your best friend. Are you sure about this?" Headmaster Morrow asked.
"Yeah," Matt let out a deep breath. "I don't like the idea of convincing my closest friend and ally to move to Great Britain and transfer to Hogwarts, but it's the only way we'll know for sure. We have to get someone on the inside and talking to this Harry Potter guy. Make sure he's on the up and up. Because if the reports are true and this guy the British Ministry is saying is a liar, really is, in fact, a liar and looking for more fame, we need to know…we're a target."
"Believe me, Matt, you don't have to tell me that. I knew something like this was possible when I took this job. Just never thought I'd see the day." The Headmaster said standing up and moving to the window behind him. "You go talk to Harding; I'll start sending owls."
There were voices behind Matt, and he slowly blinked back into reality.
"Are you alright?" Hermione asked, standing at his side as he staggered a bit on the platform.
"Yeah, sorry, zoned out there for a second." Matt said with a weary smile.
"A second? More like five minutes. You're sure you're ok?" Hermione looked concerned.
"Yeah, just a memory shook loose, is all."
"Was it…" she looked over at his ruined robes.
"No, not that. But something related. I'm not sure what it means at this point," Matt gave her a much wider and happier smile, at least he hoped it looked like he was happier. "It's nothing you need to worry about." He stepped down and collected his old clothing. He did ask for a modification to his new school robes before they left, his right shoulder now sported his old House logo from Ilvermorny, removed from the old robes. "You hungry? Let's grab some food before we head back."
"I could eat." Hermione admitted and Matt offered to pay, before they returned to the castle.