The sky was cloudy, and rain softly dripped down the glass window. Hogwarts was never ugly, but this certainly wasn't the best the grounds of Hogwarts had looked. Not to mention, the witch named Hermione Granger was feeling under the weather. She could've easily gone to the hospital wing and gotten a potion from Madame Pomfrey, but she was being quite lazy today. Usually, on a weekend she was studying in the library or contemplating some mischievous childish adventure with her best friends Harry and Ron. She just wasn't up to it today, the sound of two babbling boys was not anywhere on her to do list.
"Hermione, Ron and Harry wanted to let you know they were going to Hogsmeade today."
"Merlin's beard, I completely forgot today was the trip to Hogsmeade." She said sniffling. "Ginny, I don't think I'll be attending. No, no I don't think I will be going at all."
"I'm sure Madame Pomfrey could give you something for those sniffles, Hermione."
"No, no Ginny, I'm sure with the horrendous weather changes the line in the hospital wing is quite long. I'll just stay here today and get some rest. I'll read, don't worry about my Ginny, now go on with Harry, I'm sure he's waiting for you."
"So I'll tell them not today then. Ron will be so disappointed." Ginny said as she walked out shaking her bright red hair.
Hermione slumped back down into her bed, and she couldn't believe the crudeness of people these days. Although, the thought of her and Ron had occurred to her many times before, he wasn't really all that interesting to her these days. His personality was predictable, and not to mention his ignorance to the world and… She stopped herself quite abruptly. No thoughts like this today, they were not suiting her mind, and these thoughts were in fact giving her even more of a headache. Ronald was her friend, sometimes a bit thick headed, but her friend nevertheless. She pulled out a book to keep her mind off things.
Although she was looking directly at the words in her book, she was not in the least comprehending anything that was on the page. Perhaps it was because she had read "Hogwarts a History" at least a dozen times, or perhaps it was the loud growling she heard and felt coming from her stomach. Granted that she hadn't moved from her very room since last night, she was quite famished. She got up and tossed her book down, not marking her page, threw on the most dreadful outfit she had ever put together, and hurriedly ran down to the Great Hall and sat down hoping food would pop up somewhere along the Gryffindor table. She sat down and desperately wished she had Harry's invisibility cloak, there were a decent amount of students here despite the rainy trip to Hogmeade.
Then, as she was about to take a bite into her favorite blueberry oatmeal, the bright blonde hair of Draco Malfoy caught her eye. She was caught in the pose, her Daily Prophet propped on her glass of milk, and the spoonful of oatmeal halfway to her mouth as she stared at him, feeling a fluttering sensation inside her stomach begin to erupt. He was sitting alone, quite alone, and of all things reading his Daily Prophet as well. Draco Malfoy read? She finally realized her awkward position and ate her spoon of oatmeal. Then she uncomfortably tried to find the part of the Prophet he was reading. Hermione Granger was quite intrigued by this side of Malfoy.
She had spent the next 5 minutes contorting her body to see that one particular article that he was so intently focused on; she barely noticed that he had left the table after she finished moving into another position. The Great Hall had become desolate in the small amount of time she had been obsessing over Malfoy. The Hall was so desolate in fact; she was the only one left in it. Then, quite suddenly, she heard footsteps coming behind her and without looking to see who was making these footsteps she immediately stuck her bushy hair back into the center page of her Prophet.
"You know Granger; the back cover has excellent articles. I suggest you read them intently."