The Unluckiest Birthday
By: Theo Javier
Hermione Granger did not need to glance at the calendar hanging on her wall in her dorm. No, she could already tell what today was. Things were not going to go very well on a day like today... It was Hermione's sixteenth birthday, and that meant a few things. It meant that she would be turning sixteen, and it also meant that today was going to be a very, very bad one. You see, Hermione Granger's birthday was cursed. No matter what she did, it always went disasterous. It didn't matter wether she tried to make it better, or she stayed in bed all day. If she stayed in bed all day, something good would happen and she would've missed it. If she tried to make it better, something so bad would happen that she would have wished she stayed in bed instead. And this year, since it was her Sweet Sixteen, she could only imagine that it would've been worse.
"Come on, Hermione," shouted Lavender Brown in a warning voice. "You're going to miss breakfast if you don't get up right now!"
Grumbling, Hermione threw off her blankets and stood up, stretching like she always did. Her messy brown hair was tangled as always in the morning, and she looked well rested. Her light brown eyes were somewhat anxious, but she didn't care. No one would notice probably. Shrugging into her robes, she ran a brush through her hair and then tied it back, half up and half down. She spotted Parvati Patil and Lavender gazing at her with make up in hand. She knew that if she didn't let them do it on this day of bad days, she would have to do it on another day and make her even more unlucky.
"Fine, fine, do what you wish," Hermione said in a devil-may-care way. Lavender and Parvati squealed and rushed over, quickly applying blushes and gloss and eye liner and many other things. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of sitting still, the two Gryffindors backed away and sighed, hands on their hips.
"You clean up pretty well," said Parvati, then glanced at her watch. "And in record time!" she sounded ever-so cheerful about that fact. Hermione rolled her eyes, disbelieving. But then, before she got a look at her watch, she had to hurry out of the room with her backpack, before classes started so she could get at least a muffin.
After clamoring down the stone stairway, she found Harry Potter and Ron Weasley (her two best friends) waiting for her at the portrait hole. Nervously flipping her hair, but stealing herself for the badness to come (from her unlucky birthday and her most-likely clownish makeup). She stalked up to her best friends, an unhappy look on her face.
"Hermione, you look-" Harry started, but Ron cut him off.
"Where have you been? Breakfast -" he stopped too, staring at her, blue eyes caught on her face. He scanned her appearance and said, "You look, different, not bad..."
"Thank you, Ron, it's my birthday. So nice of you to notice!" she spat sarcasticly, then climbed through. Just great - her best friend, not to mention long time crush, thought she looked 'not bad'. 'Must be that on a regular basis, I look horrible,' she thought to herself as she walked very quickly down the hallway. 'Thanks so much, Lavender and Parvati,' she thought as she saw more boys turning and staring at her. She sighed and wished she had time to go scrub all the makeup off her face.
Making her entrance into the Great Hall, she saw the only open seats were between Seamus Finnigan and Neville Longbottum. Sighing, she headed over and said, "These seats taken?" Ron and Harry finally made it to her sides, both sharing looks that Hermione could only see out of the corners of her eyes.
"Sure, have a seat," Seamus said with uncertainty.
Hermione grabbed a blueberry muffin and started picking at it, while Harry and Ron sat down on either side of her. She sighed and mumbled, "Sorry, just having a bad day..."
"It's ok," Ron said, definately not going to say anything other than that.
"Hm, wonder what we'll be doing in Potions," Harry said, making the mistake of thinking he had chosen a safe topic.
"Probably writing another ridiculous essay," Hermione snapped. She shook her head and sighed. Deciding that she was in no state to talk, she simply continued to pick at her muffin. Ron gave Harry a look that said, "Drop It." Hermione of course missed this, as she was feeling somewhat depressed due to her cursed birthday and clownish makeup. But then, before she could do much else, it was time for class. Getting up, she slung her backpack over her shoulder and stalked out of the Great Hall. Above her, the sun was shining in a light blue, cloudless sky.
***
"Now, please do what the board says. Follow the instructions closely and please, lets not melt another cauldron," Professor Snape said, gazing loathingly at Neville Longbottum, who gulped audibly. Hermione sighed, and waited as Snape waved his wand and the instructions appeared on the board.
"Great, just great," she heard Ron mumble. They had to cut things up into very small pieces. It was not Ron's best subject. Knowing this Hermione held out her palm. Ron spotted it and slid the Floren Root into her hand. Thankfully, Neville had melted a cauldron. Hermione quickly cut it up and then nonchalantly put the remains into Ron's cauldron.
"MISS GRANGER!" Snape roared. Hermione flinched, eyes wide in shock. "I WILL NOT HAVE YOU CHEATING FOR YOUR POTIONS-CHALLENGED FRIENDS! TEN POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR!" He glared at her, and Hermione had gone very, very pale. It was not very often that she got points deducted from her - mostly, she was gaining them for her smartness.
Snape turned around, and the startled class timidly went back to work.
"Sorry," Ron said out of the corner of his mouth. He raked a hand through his hair, and Hermione found herself wondering what it would feel like under her hands. It looked pretty soft, like fiery red silk or something. Hermione snapped out of her daydream soon enough and told him it was no problem. But she soon found her thoughts wondering, after she finished her Potion (which turned the light green color like it was supposed to). What would kissing Ron be like?
Hermione didn't know what kissing anyone would be like. She had never been kissed before in her entire life. Not even by Viktor Krum, who happened to think that Her-mo-ninny was still his girlfriend, even though in countless letters she had told him the oppositte. Viktor, though he was a professional Quidditch player, was very, very dense. But kissing Ron... She wondered what it would be like. Would he be good? Would she like it? Would he like it?
She quickly shook these thoughts off and filled the flask she had with her potion and went up to Professor Snape's desk. He graded her (full marks, yet again!) and she went back to her station to start cleaning up.
***
By lunch, Hermione had lost five more points, but gained them all back during Charms. She was ravenous by lunch, and thankfully they were serving something good. Luckily, she had forgotten she was even wearing makeup, until her cursed birthday struck again.
"Look, the Mudblood went and tried to impress the Weezey," drawled an all- too familair, sneering voice that belonged to an un-beloved Slytherin. "Doesn't look half bad, though."
"God, would you give it up already?" Hermione asked, in a very annoyed voice.
"What do you mean, Mudblood?" Draco Malfoy grinned catishly.
"Don't call her Mudblood!" Ron exclaimed, jumping up. Obviously, he had had enough of Draco Malfoy as well. "She's smarter than you'll ever be so just shove off all right?" He looked angry enough to beat Malfoy to a pulp.
"Shut up, Weezey, I think the Mudblood can fight her own battles," Draco said, causing Ron to lunge furiously at the other student, landing a punch right in his face. The force of it caused him to fall back against some Ravenclaw students. By this time, Hermione had gotten out of her seat and was standing in front of Ron to hold him back. Harry was sort of watching in an amused sort of way.
"Come on, Hermione! Let me fight him!" Ron said. The Hall had gone quiet, and everyone was watching the long awaited fight.
"Yeah, Mudblood, let him fight," Draco sneered.
Hermione, in a sheer moment of abandon, shook her head and pulled her hand back. She made a fist and sent it flying, and it crashed with the flesh and bone of his nose. And as soon as she did, blood started running down his face. Ron stared at her, very amazed, as did the rest of the Hall. Harry started clapping, and then a bunch of the Gryffindor boys in the sixth year started clapping as well.
"Just great," Hermione mumbled. "Now I'm going to get a detention!"
***
After getting ten more points and a detention, Hermione Granger was sitting outside school, knees drawn up to her chest. She felt horribley ugly, very cursed, and slightly like a very bad girl. But the bad girl part was not a horribley bad feeling. Punching Draco Malfoy... Well, it was a very good way to get rid of tension. She felt almost exactly like she did when she slapped him last time. Only, the blood made it a tad bit more satisfying.
"Hermione?" Ron asked, appearing beside her. He must've come from practice, because he was in his Quidditch getup, scarlet and gold robes and broom with him... 'He looks very nice in those robes,' Hermione decided. 'I ought to start liking Quidditch a bit more.'
"Yes?" she asked in a sort of sniffley manner.
"Um, I just wanted to say, good job... You know, belting Malfoy a good one," he said, raking a hand through his hair. He grinned and patted her shoulder awkwardly. "Um, and sorry about Potions and all. You know I can't cut things without wrecking my fingers." He held up his left hand, which had a few slowly healing cuts and calouses.
"No problem. Because, that's me, Hermione, Help Girl," she said, sighing.
"Is.. erm, something wrong?" Ron asked, his ears turning pink.
"Only that it's my birthday, no one remembered... But it's cursed anyway. Lavender and Parvati did my make up, and now I look like a clown... Just a bad day," Hermione finished, glancing up at him shyly through her light brown locks. He was staring at her, looking surprised.
"But you don't look like a clown! You look rather... Um, nice, today." He glanced around, not looking in her eyes. A sure sign of lying.
"I'm so sure." She sniffed lightly, beginning to cry. She felt like a baby, sitting in front of her crush and crying like a prat. She knew that she had other things to be worrying about. Like her second ever detention. "You don't have to lie for my sake, Ron Weasley."
"Why would I lie?" he asked. But then she felt his fingers touch her chin and turn her face gentley to look at him. "Hermione Granger, you were the prettiest thing in school today. Why'd you think Malfoy had the ba- I mean, guts, guts, to approach you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said somewhat tearfully.
"Hermione, don't play dumb! You saw your reflection this morning -"
"No, I didn't," she snapped. "Sorry, I'm just not in the best of moods tonight."
"Ok, you should know that you look beautiful, even though your crying," Ron said, using his other hand to brush away her tears. "And your sweet, and bloody brilliant. And, I -"
"What?" Hermione asked, gazing up at him.
"I... erm," Ron said. He leaned forward then, closing his eyes. Hermione leaned forward, turning her head so their noses wouldn't collide. Their lips met, and Hermione lifted her arms to wrap around his neck to pull him closer. Ron didn't exactly complain, but simply leaned forward farther, putting his hands on either side of her.
"I erm you too," she said, grinning.
And as the sun sank into the unruly hills of someplace in Europe, Hermione Granger decided that this years birthday wasn't too bad. Not too bad at all.
By: Theo Javier
Hermione Granger did not need to glance at the calendar hanging on her wall in her dorm. No, she could already tell what today was. Things were not going to go very well on a day like today... It was Hermione's sixteenth birthday, and that meant a few things. It meant that she would be turning sixteen, and it also meant that today was going to be a very, very bad one. You see, Hermione Granger's birthday was cursed. No matter what she did, it always went disasterous. It didn't matter wether she tried to make it better, or she stayed in bed all day. If she stayed in bed all day, something good would happen and she would've missed it. If she tried to make it better, something so bad would happen that she would have wished she stayed in bed instead. And this year, since it was her Sweet Sixteen, she could only imagine that it would've been worse.
"Come on, Hermione," shouted Lavender Brown in a warning voice. "You're going to miss breakfast if you don't get up right now!"
Grumbling, Hermione threw off her blankets and stood up, stretching like she always did. Her messy brown hair was tangled as always in the morning, and she looked well rested. Her light brown eyes were somewhat anxious, but she didn't care. No one would notice probably. Shrugging into her robes, she ran a brush through her hair and then tied it back, half up and half down. She spotted Parvati Patil and Lavender gazing at her with make up in hand. She knew that if she didn't let them do it on this day of bad days, she would have to do it on another day and make her even more unlucky.
"Fine, fine, do what you wish," Hermione said in a devil-may-care way. Lavender and Parvati squealed and rushed over, quickly applying blushes and gloss and eye liner and many other things. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of sitting still, the two Gryffindors backed away and sighed, hands on their hips.
"You clean up pretty well," said Parvati, then glanced at her watch. "And in record time!" she sounded ever-so cheerful about that fact. Hermione rolled her eyes, disbelieving. But then, before she got a look at her watch, she had to hurry out of the room with her backpack, before classes started so she could get at least a muffin.
After clamoring down the stone stairway, she found Harry Potter and Ron Weasley (her two best friends) waiting for her at the portrait hole. Nervously flipping her hair, but stealing herself for the badness to come (from her unlucky birthday and her most-likely clownish makeup). She stalked up to her best friends, an unhappy look on her face.
"Hermione, you look-" Harry started, but Ron cut him off.
"Where have you been? Breakfast -" he stopped too, staring at her, blue eyes caught on her face. He scanned her appearance and said, "You look, different, not bad..."
"Thank you, Ron, it's my birthday. So nice of you to notice!" she spat sarcasticly, then climbed through. Just great - her best friend, not to mention long time crush, thought she looked 'not bad'. 'Must be that on a regular basis, I look horrible,' she thought to herself as she walked very quickly down the hallway. 'Thanks so much, Lavender and Parvati,' she thought as she saw more boys turning and staring at her. She sighed and wished she had time to go scrub all the makeup off her face.
Making her entrance into the Great Hall, she saw the only open seats were between Seamus Finnigan and Neville Longbottum. Sighing, she headed over and said, "These seats taken?" Ron and Harry finally made it to her sides, both sharing looks that Hermione could only see out of the corners of her eyes.
"Sure, have a seat," Seamus said with uncertainty.
Hermione grabbed a blueberry muffin and started picking at it, while Harry and Ron sat down on either side of her. She sighed and mumbled, "Sorry, just having a bad day..."
"It's ok," Ron said, definately not going to say anything other than that.
"Hm, wonder what we'll be doing in Potions," Harry said, making the mistake of thinking he had chosen a safe topic.
"Probably writing another ridiculous essay," Hermione snapped. She shook her head and sighed. Deciding that she was in no state to talk, she simply continued to pick at her muffin. Ron gave Harry a look that said, "Drop It." Hermione of course missed this, as she was feeling somewhat depressed due to her cursed birthday and clownish makeup. But then, before she could do much else, it was time for class. Getting up, she slung her backpack over her shoulder and stalked out of the Great Hall. Above her, the sun was shining in a light blue, cloudless sky.
***
"Now, please do what the board says. Follow the instructions closely and please, lets not melt another cauldron," Professor Snape said, gazing loathingly at Neville Longbottum, who gulped audibly. Hermione sighed, and waited as Snape waved his wand and the instructions appeared on the board.
"Great, just great," she heard Ron mumble. They had to cut things up into very small pieces. It was not Ron's best subject. Knowing this Hermione held out her palm. Ron spotted it and slid the Floren Root into her hand. Thankfully, Neville had melted a cauldron. Hermione quickly cut it up and then nonchalantly put the remains into Ron's cauldron.
"MISS GRANGER!" Snape roared. Hermione flinched, eyes wide in shock. "I WILL NOT HAVE YOU CHEATING FOR YOUR POTIONS-CHALLENGED FRIENDS! TEN POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR!" He glared at her, and Hermione had gone very, very pale. It was not very often that she got points deducted from her - mostly, she was gaining them for her smartness.
Snape turned around, and the startled class timidly went back to work.
"Sorry," Ron said out of the corner of his mouth. He raked a hand through his hair, and Hermione found herself wondering what it would feel like under her hands. It looked pretty soft, like fiery red silk or something. Hermione snapped out of her daydream soon enough and told him it was no problem. But she soon found her thoughts wondering, after she finished her Potion (which turned the light green color like it was supposed to). What would kissing Ron be like?
Hermione didn't know what kissing anyone would be like. She had never been kissed before in her entire life. Not even by Viktor Krum, who happened to think that Her-mo-ninny was still his girlfriend, even though in countless letters she had told him the oppositte. Viktor, though he was a professional Quidditch player, was very, very dense. But kissing Ron... She wondered what it would be like. Would he be good? Would she like it? Would he like it?
She quickly shook these thoughts off and filled the flask she had with her potion and went up to Professor Snape's desk. He graded her (full marks, yet again!) and she went back to her station to start cleaning up.
***
By lunch, Hermione had lost five more points, but gained them all back during Charms. She was ravenous by lunch, and thankfully they were serving something good. Luckily, she had forgotten she was even wearing makeup, until her cursed birthday struck again.
"Look, the Mudblood went and tried to impress the Weezey," drawled an all- too familair, sneering voice that belonged to an un-beloved Slytherin. "Doesn't look half bad, though."
"God, would you give it up already?" Hermione asked, in a very annoyed voice.
"What do you mean, Mudblood?" Draco Malfoy grinned catishly.
"Don't call her Mudblood!" Ron exclaimed, jumping up. Obviously, he had had enough of Draco Malfoy as well. "She's smarter than you'll ever be so just shove off all right?" He looked angry enough to beat Malfoy to a pulp.
"Shut up, Weezey, I think the Mudblood can fight her own battles," Draco said, causing Ron to lunge furiously at the other student, landing a punch right in his face. The force of it caused him to fall back against some Ravenclaw students. By this time, Hermione had gotten out of her seat and was standing in front of Ron to hold him back. Harry was sort of watching in an amused sort of way.
"Come on, Hermione! Let me fight him!" Ron said. The Hall had gone quiet, and everyone was watching the long awaited fight.
"Yeah, Mudblood, let him fight," Draco sneered.
Hermione, in a sheer moment of abandon, shook her head and pulled her hand back. She made a fist and sent it flying, and it crashed with the flesh and bone of his nose. And as soon as she did, blood started running down his face. Ron stared at her, very amazed, as did the rest of the Hall. Harry started clapping, and then a bunch of the Gryffindor boys in the sixth year started clapping as well.
"Just great," Hermione mumbled. "Now I'm going to get a detention!"
***
After getting ten more points and a detention, Hermione Granger was sitting outside school, knees drawn up to her chest. She felt horribley ugly, very cursed, and slightly like a very bad girl. But the bad girl part was not a horribley bad feeling. Punching Draco Malfoy... Well, it was a very good way to get rid of tension. She felt almost exactly like she did when she slapped him last time. Only, the blood made it a tad bit more satisfying.
"Hermione?" Ron asked, appearing beside her. He must've come from practice, because he was in his Quidditch getup, scarlet and gold robes and broom with him... 'He looks very nice in those robes,' Hermione decided. 'I ought to start liking Quidditch a bit more.'
"Yes?" she asked in a sort of sniffley manner.
"Um, I just wanted to say, good job... You know, belting Malfoy a good one," he said, raking a hand through his hair. He grinned and patted her shoulder awkwardly. "Um, and sorry about Potions and all. You know I can't cut things without wrecking my fingers." He held up his left hand, which had a few slowly healing cuts and calouses.
"No problem. Because, that's me, Hermione, Help Girl," she said, sighing.
"Is.. erm, something wrong?" Ron asked, his ears turning pink.
"Only that it's my birthday, no one remembered... But it's cursed anyway. Lavender and Parvati did my make up, and now I look like a clown... Just a bad day," Hermione finished, glancing up at him shyly through her light brown locks. He was staring at her, looking surprised.
"But you don't look like a clown! You look rather... Um, nice, today." He glanced around, not looking in her eyes. A sure sign of lying.
"I'm so sure." She sniffed lightly, beginning to cry. She felt like a baby, sitting in front of her crush and crying like a prat. She knew that she had other things to be worrying about. Like her second ever detention. "You don't have to lie for my sake, Ron Weasley."
"Why would I lie?" he asked. But then she felt his fingers touch her chin and turn her face gentley to look at him. "Hermione Granger, you were the prettiest thing in school today. Why'd you think Malfoy had the ba- I mean, guts, guts, to approach you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said somewhat tearfully.
"Hermione, don't play dumb! You saw your reflection this morning -"
"No, I didn't," she snapped. "Sorry, I'm just not in the best of moods tonight."
"Ok, you should know that you look beautiful, even though your crying," Ron said, using his other hand to brush away her tears. "And your sweet, and bloody brilliant. And, I -"
"What?" Hermione asked, gazing up at him.
"I... erm," Ron said. He leaned forward then, closing his eyes. Hermione leaned forward, turning her head so their noses wouldn't collide. Their lips met, and Hermione lifted her arms to wrap around his neck to pull him closer. Ron didn't exactly complain, but simply leaned forward farther, putting his hands on either side of her.
"I erm you too," she said, grinning.
And as the sun sank into the unruly hills of someplace in Europe, Hermione Granger decided that this years birthday wasn't too bad. Not too bad at all.