"Miss Granger?"
Hermione woke with a start, her face flat on a cold wooden desk. The haze that had settled in her sleeping, hazel eyes began to fade away and her ears started to burn with embarrassment as she realized she had fallen asleep in Professor McGonogall's class, yet again. Opening her eyes as wide as she could in an attempt to wake herself up, she cleared her throat. "Y-yes professor?"
Shooting the bug-eyed tousled-haired brunette a disapproving look, McGonogall spoke with a severity that made many of the students in the room shudder.
"Please. Meet me after class."
Shifting awkwardly in her seat for the remainder of the lesson, Hermione waited in silence for the rest of the class to shuffle out the door when they were dismissed. All the while, thoughts were whizzing around her head like a flock of golden snitches.
She must be wondering why I've been falling asleep in her lessons.
As the last of her classmates filtered out of the room in a flourish of dark robes and sideways glances, Hermione took a deep breath to gain composure and nervously made her way to the front of the room where Professor McGonogall was eyeing her suspiciously from a large worn wooden desk.
"Miss Granger, please sit." Minerva summoned a rickety seat from the nearest desk with an 'accio chair'.
"Of course."
Making a strong effort to avoid direct eye contact with her professor, Hermione slipped into the seat. She could feel the heat rising to her face and ears once again.
"As you probably know," she began with a stern tone, "This is the second time just this week that you've failed to stay awake through one of my lectures."
Hermione nodded silently, her gaze still averted.
"Miss Granger, look at me please."
"Sorry, professor." Still blushing like the dickens, Hermione raised her face to her professor. She wanted to look down again, to avoid the subject, but McGonogall's pupils were pinning her to the spot.
Her accusatory facial features softened a bit as she inquired, "You are one of my best students, Miss Granger. I cannot recall a single time you displayed behavior like this before now. It is completely out of the norm for you. Listen to me, and be honest with me here, please. Is there anything wrong? What has you so tired?"
Hermione quickly recalled the previous evening. She had to fight with all of her strength to conceal a smirk as she thought of what had been keeping her up all night. The forbidden kisses in the shadows of the corridors, the heat that radiated from his body as he pulled her closer, the shock upon first feeling the stiffness beneath his robes she had awoken...
Feeling a twitch somewhere deep inside her, Hermione was jolted back to her senses, her cheeks burning hotter now than ever before. She met McGonogall's eyes once again and mumbled, "Just a great deal of studying, Professor. It won't happen again."
Glancing out the window over McGonogall's shoulder, Hermione saw the sky beginning to fade from pale blue to a paler pink. She was running late, and he would be angry with her.