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PEEVES' PRACTICAL JOKE
CHAPTER 1
Calm Before the Storm
Hermione sat down at the Gryffindor table for breakfast on the first morning of exams. It had been a hard year for all seventh years as the NEWT classes were nothing like any of them expected, even bossy, know-it-all Granger has struggled to understand the material.
"Morning Hermione" Ginny chirped, Hermione gave her a dirt look and took out a large Potions book from her bag, opening it to the marked page, Snape had given them an extremely hard assignment at the start of the year, to concoct a new potion, it was, at least , something that Harry and Ron could not copy off of her.
"Have you thought of a potion yet, Hermione?" Harry asked,
"Of course I have, I hope you two have started on it" Hermione replied, her potion was something that had little use in the world, but would be enjoyable to try nonetheless.
"Of course we have, I told you at the start of term, I am taking my schoolwork seriously this year, especially since I want to be an Auror"
"Have any of you noticed, how quiet it has been lately?" Ron interrupted; Hermione looked up from her textbook and studied Ron,
"How do you mean?" she replied, the seventh years had been noticeably more restrained in their usual antics, even a Quidditch win had not deterred them from their studies, which was how it should be, in Hermione's opinion.
"I mean that even Peeves hasn't been up to his usual pranks" Ron replied, Hermione gazed around the Great Hall, it was true, Peeves had been allowed to sit in the Great Hall at dinner since the start of term, Hermione assumed that he didn't want to spoil his chances so he had stopped reeking havoc all over the school, her eyes rested on Peeves who was bobbing next to Professor Sprout at the staff table, but he had been unusually quiet, he hadn't even taken the opportunity to tell on Hermione when he had caught her in the library at midnight the previous week.
"He has to be up to something" Ron added, Harry nodded his head in agreement and together they started to discuss all the things that Peeves could do to the unsuspecting first years.
After classes that day, Hermione headed to her dormitory, she had been made Head Girl that year and had to share a dorm with the Head Boy, it wouldn't have been so bad, if the Head Boy wasn't Draco Malfoy, the two had had some blazing rows, which usually ended with Malfoy calling her a Mudblood and Hermione hexing him, usually with boils or something equally painful. Hermione didn't understand how he had gotten the post, he wasn't responsible, he wasn't that good in classes, as far as Hermione knew, his Father had paid for his position, this however, did not add up to Hermione, as Dumbledore didn't accept bribes.
Hermione placed her school books on the desk that the school had provided for her and went to check her potion which was brewing in the small potions lab, it had turned clear as Hermione hoped it would, the potions was a form of Veritaserum, but would force the drinker to admit only their true feelings, unlike Veritaserum which forced the drinker to tell the truth about anything asked, this potion would only work if asked how they really felt about something. Hermione stirred her potion some more and then stopped dead in her tracks, something wasn't right here, her potion seemed to have shrunk, Hermione shrugged and assumed it was part of the brewing process that it would reduce when heated. Hermione reached over to the workbench beside her and pulled out her last ingredient, the tooth of a Cerberus, it had been extremely difficult to obtain this ingredient, she had, had to obtain permission from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures to get it, Hermione dropped the tooth in and watch ed curiously as her potion fizzed and sparked, Hermione turned off the heat and set to work on writing the accompanying essay for her potion.
Finally finishing her homework at midnight, Hermione bottled her potion to take to Snape the next day and crawled into bed, Malfoy hadn't actually bothered her all day, he had set to work on his own potion and worked silently next to her. Hermione reached into her draw and pulled out her diary, as childish as it was, Hermione enjoyed writing everything down, although she had taken extra precautions to charm it to identify only her, sucking on the end of a sugar quill she began to write.
Dear Diary,
So I finally finished my potion, it was odd though I noticed that at least half my potion was gone tonight, I assumed that it was part of the brewing process but it's niggling at me and I don't know if there is something I am missing. Perhaps Malfoy stole some as a way to cheat in his assignment but that wouldn't make sense because we all registered what kind of Potion we were making with Snape last week. Speaking of the devil reincarnate, he was fairly pleasant today, he didn't even insult me when I came in.
I know you get sick of hearing about him but he is an insufferable git and I wish Dumbledore had picked someone else as Head Boy, Harry or Ron even, I know Dumbledore will have had his reasons, something about house Unity no doubt but I wouldn't expect someone like Malfoy to put the past behind him and realise that I am a witch with magical blood just like him, not that he is a witch but you know what I mean.
I should probably go to sleep but I am a little excited about my potion, some of the ingredients are really rare…..I gotta go diary, I'll write tomorrow, there was an explosion in the potions lab.
Hermione put down her quill and made her way to Malfoy's side of the potions lab,
"What happened?" she asked, Malfoy stood stunned next to his cauldron, green goo covered him from head to foot,
"My potion exploded Granger, what do you think?" he snapped, Hermione rolled her eyes and started to help him clean up the mess,
"Scourgify" Hermione said, the green goo disappeared, leaving Malfoy clean again, he looked up at her
"Thanks" he said simply, Hermione as stunned, had Malfoy just thanked her? She made her way back up to her room and sat on the bed again pondering this, picking up her diary again she made a small note at the bottom of the page,
Malfoy just thanked me for helping him, have you ever noticed how stormy his eyes are? Liking looking at a fantastic thunderstorm!
Putting her diary down, she climbed under the sheets and fell instantly into a deep slumber.