-Chapter One: Always Study For Tests-
The snow was falling silently on the grounds of Hogwarts as Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Lavender made their way back to the castle. They had just ended a very interesting class of the Care of Magical Creatures. Hagrid had specially imported Gallyworts from France to experiment on. Gallyworts were cute and tiny rabbit-looking creatures that melted and died if the temperature around them was above 32 degrees Fahrenheit. So as you can imagine, the classroom was very very...VERY cold.
"Brrr...I'm so glad that class is over. It was FREEZING in there!" Lavender exclaimed as she bundled herself up with her very large coat and tied her gold and scarlet Gryffindor scarf around her neck.
"Y-y-yeah, I agree," Hermione said. Her cheeks were flushed and her teeth chattered from the cold.
"What class do you have next, Ron?" asked Lavender.
Ron had been admiring Lavender's beauty-her blonde silky hair that flowed down below her shoulders, her chattering rosy lips, and those amazing blue eyes.
"Wha...H..huh?" Ron said startled, waking from his daydreams.
"I said, what-class-do-you-have-next?" she replied, spelling out every last word so he would hear her clearly this time.
"Oh, sorry I don't think I got enough sleep last night...uh," Ron continued thinking about his new winter schedule he recieved, "oh yeah! I have...POTIONS," he said with a groan.
Hermione perked up. "Oh awesome, I have that too, Ron!" she said with an excited tone in her voice. She had been listening intently to every word Ron was saying.
"What about you Harry?" Lav asked.
"Er...I think I have Potions, too," Harry said glancing over at Hermione who's eyes were fixed on Ron.
Lavender's cheerful face lighted up even more. "Ohhhh this is great! We all have the same class!" she squealed like a little kid.
Ron's stomach did some sort of flip from seeing Lavender so excited to spend time with him...or maybe it's: she's excited to spend time with her friends. . .?
"It doesn't matter. Potions is always so boring and uninteresting...especially with Snape teaching it," Hermione pointed out, with an annoyed tone in her voice. She was apparently not very fond of Lavender's sudden squeal. "That immature slut...," she thought in her head.
"Oh, yeah right, Hermione. You're practically the only one that raises their hand to answer the questions!" Ron said suddenly, breaking out of his trance.
Hermione narrowed her eyes in a playful way towards Ron.
"I hate him...yet I love him," she thought to herself. She sighed and opened the door to the dungeon as the others followed her in.
The dungeon was very dim, as usual and they squinted as their eyes were getting used to the dimness. The only light was from six floating candles that were placed mainly near Snape's desk.
Snape was working on something at his desk and barely gave the students a glance as they entered the classroom.
"Hey!" Lavender said to Parvati Patil and sat down beside her. She motioned for Hermione to take a seat beside her, so she reluctantly sat down.
Harry quickly took the seat beside Hermione and Ron sat down beside Harry. As Lavender and Parvati were holding an exciting conversation about the new collection of winter robes that they had seen in the window of Madame Marietta's Robe Shop, Harry tried to start a conversation with Hermione.
"So, um, Hermione," he started. His eyes couldn't look straight into Hermione's, so they kept darting all over the place-on her eyes, on something else, on her eyes, and then back to something else. "how was your holiday in the Baheemas?" he finally asked.
"You mean, Bahamas?" she corrected. She noticed the uncomfortable way his eyes looked at her.
"Yeah, err, that place." he said his face blushing a little.
Hermione's parents had decided to go to the Bahamas for their winter vacation to get away from the cold winter weather. You could clearly spot Hermione out of a crowd now because of her gorgeous bronze skin. Even her curly, messy brown hair had gotten a few highlights here and there.
"It was absolutely wonderful!" she said reminiscing about her vacation.
Harry replied, "Really? Tell me about it! I've been wondering what it's like to-," he was cut short by Snape's horrifyingly monotone voice.
"Welcome back students. I am sure you have all studied over the holidays for the 3-page exam you will have today on Transformation Potions."
Ron and Harry's eyes widened as they looked at each other. There were a couple of moans and groans around in the class.
"Oh my gosh...did you study, Hermione?" Lavender whispered.
"Of course! This exam is supposed to count for TWO test grades. How could I forget a test like that?" Hermione said matter-of-factly. "Oh no! Don't tell me you didn't study!" Hermione said feigning a dramatic voice.
"Shit, I didn't! Oh great, what do I do now?" Lavender panicked, biting her lip.
"Don't worry I'm sure it won't be THAT hard," was all that Hermione said as she grinned to herself. "Mwahahaha, I may not have gorgeous, blonde hair like you, Lavender, but I definitely have the brains," She tossed her curly golden brown locks behind her shoulder as she gave herself a smirk. She was pleased with herself today.
Snape was going around the desks passing out the exams.
"Psst! Hermione!"
Hermione's heart skipped a beat as she heard the voice that she adores so much.
"Yes, Ron?" she replied sweetly.
Ron passed her a small scrap of parchment. On it, it said in some very messy handwriting:
Pleeeease help me! I haven't studied for this test and I KNOW you have! ~Ron~
Hermione sighed and was in the process of writing a reply when another scrap of parchment was tossed to her, this time by Harry.
I haven't studied either and I would appreciate it if you helped me! Please? ~Harry~
Hermione gave both of the boys a scolding look as she began to write the replies.
"Ah, what's this?" Snape said as he snatched the notes out of Hermione's hand. Hermione froze and closed her eyes embarrassed.
"Miss Granger, I am shocked! Who would've thought that a bookworm like you would be passing notes...ESPECIALLY during a test?"
Hermione looked down at her feet while Snape took a moment to read both of the notes.
"Damn," Harry cursed under his breath.
"25 points from Gryffindor for passing notes during a test, and an additional 10 points off for each of you for attempting to cheat," Snape announced so that the whole class would hear.
The three didn't bother to argue. They had known Snape for six years now and knew better than to argue with him.
"And I will see each of you in detention today," Snape said in a low and threatening voice.
Hermione couldn't believe what she was hearing. She had never in her life gotten detention-well, except for that one time...but that's not the point!
Lavender tried to comfort her by giving her a soothing pat on the shoulder with an apologetic expression on her face.
But...there was a plus to having detention...she would be spending it with Ron. Her pink pouty lips curled up into a secret smile as she began her test.