Hey guys. Well, I'm back in Mexico for the holidays, but I'll be back in Switzerland in less than two weeks. I know that now that I finally have time I should be working in "Second Chance", but not writing in such a long time has seemed to induce me a writer's block, so I hope that writing this will help me unwind and hopefully by the time I'm finished I'll have enough time left to write at least one chapter of SC before leaving.

Anyway, I'm writing this in response to challenge A Bet Between the Trio by Scout, so I'll try to meet the guidelines and hopefully I'm not too rusty after such a long time.

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Chapter 1

"Bloody Hell, Hermione! Can't you just stick your nose out of that book for two seconds?!" cried out a rather exasperated redhead to a certain overly studious bushy haired witch.

"Well, Ronald, you may not care about your grades, but I care about mine, and the N.E.W.T.s are right around the corner!" she replied snappily.

"Hermione…those are more than a year away!" Harry tried to talk some sense into her.

She, however, just ignored their comments and continued to browse incessantly through the 3 meter tall pile of books on the table.

Both boys looked at each other, sharing their concern. Their best friend had always been way too disciplined, or, in Ron's words: absolutely nutters, but these past few weeks she'd been even more stressed out than usual, and it was starting to worry them.

"Ok, that's enough" breathed out Harry while he made his way towards Hermione, grabbed her by her upper arms, forced her to look right at him and shook her with mild force, not noticing the slight blush that appeared on her cheeks "You-have-got-to-re-lax"

"Yeah, Harry's right! You've got to stop stressing out!" agreed the redhead.

"Of course I can relax, I just happen to care about my grades!" she answered with exasperation.

"Please! You couldn't stop reading a book if Vo-Volde-mort was knocking at your front door!" retorted Ron.

"Of course I could!" she snapped.

"Prove it then" Harry challenged her "If you can spend one entire week with your nose out of a book, Ron and I will be your slaves for a month. However, if you can't do it, then you'll have to do that for us"

"I'd never agree to such an immature thing…besides, it wouldn't even be fair. If I lose I'd have to serve the both of you, while if you lose you'd only have to serve me and you could divide the work between the two" she argued.

"Fine then" said Ron "If you lose you'll only have to serve us for two weeks, but if you win we'll serve you for a whole month"

"Come on, Hermione, this is all up to you and your will power. A little sacrifice and you'll have two slaves for a month!"

She stood silent for a few moments, then, with an audible sigh, agreed, leaving, books in hand, soon after.

"You know, mate, it wouldn't be that great being slaves, but I actually hope she wins the bet, she's seriously got to relax a bit" commented Harry while heading up the stairs.

"Yeah, I hope she wins too" muttered Ron "Besides, even if she wins, she'll probably just have us doing our homework and studying, so it's not like anything's gonna change".

If only he'd known how wrong he was.

A week later

"Bloody hell, mate!" cried out Ron.

"What's up, Ron?" questioned Harry.

"It's Friday!"

"So?"

"When was the last time you saw Hermione crack open a book?" he inquired.

"Last Fri…" his voice trailed off as he realized the implications of this.

A voice resounded from the doorway, interrupting their thoughts "Oh boys…" Hermione called them, a dangerous glint in her eyes, and a new resolution in mind.

Well, that's all for now, guys, I know it's short, but it's just an introduction, I'll probably have the next chapter up by tomorrow, and really try to upload this story very quickly.