Hermione's Birthday

by Windrises

Hermione Granger's birthday is coming up. Harry and Ron want to give her a party, but Professor Lockhart has his own celebration on the same day. Harry and Ron are confused about how to celebrate two events on the same day.

Note: Harry Potter was created by J. K. Rowling and is a film series owned by Warner Bros.

Hermione Granger woke up and looked at her calendar. It was September 18th. Her birthday was the next day, but she wasn't that excited about it. Although she enjoyed bragging about how many books she read, Hermione was usually a humble person. Because of that, she often didn't tell people when her birthday was coming up. She wouldn't even be that offended if her allies forgot about her birthday and considering who her friends are, she assumed they wouldn't remember her birthday.

Hermione was about to head to class, but Draco Malfoy started walking up to her. She sighed and said, "Hi Draco. Can I help you with something?"

Draco smiled and replied, "Good morning, Ms. Granger. It's a delight to see you."

Hermione was confused, because she wasn't used to Draco ever giving her a proper greeting. She said, "You seem cheerful today."

Draco replied, "That's because today's an important day." He handed her a present and said, "I've decided to be nice to people, at least on their birthdays. Happy birthday, Hermione."

Hermione responded, "I appreciate it, but my birthday's tomorrow."

Draco replied, "Very well then." He grabbed the present, broke it in half, and put it in Hermione's hair. He had an immature smile on his face, while saying, "You could consider that an early birthday present." He walked away, while chuckling.

Luna Lovegood walked by Hermione and saw that she had a present in her hair. She smiled and said, "I also like putting things in my hair. Most people think it's a weird hobby, but I think it's a charmingly eccentric lifestyle."

Hermione took the present out of her hair and replied, "Draco put that in my hair. It's not something I enjoyed. I don't even want this present."

Luna asked, "Can I have it?"

Hermione answered, "Sure."

Luna pointed to the top of her head and said, "Put in my hair."

Hermione looked weirded-out, while saying, "Okay then." She placed the present in Luna's hair. Luna grinned and walked away.

Hermione was hoping that she could finally get to class, but her most immature friends, Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley, went into the hallway. Hermione put a book over her face and was hoping that her friends wouldn't recognize her. Ron didn't realize it was her, but Harry did.

Harry said, "Hi Hermione. What's up?"

Hermione replied, "Oh, nothing worth discussing. I'm sorry, but I need to get to class."

Ron responded, "Wow, that sounds boring." After Hermione walked away, Ron tripped over a jar of broken lamps and crashed into the hallway's calendar. He looked at the calendar and said, "Oh no, Hermione's birthday is tomorrow."

Harry nervously replied, "That is bad. Since we didn't know that, we haven't prepared a party or gotten her any presents. What are we supposed to do?"

Ron responded, "I have an idea. You go buy party decorations and presents.

Harry asked, "What are you going to do?"

Ron answered, "I'll be one of the party guests. It's not the easiest of jobs, but I'm always up for challenges."

Harry rolled his eyes and said, "We'll prepare her party after school."

Ron asked, "Can't we do it now? I want to skip school."

Harry replied, "Our teachers would never let us leave, for such a petty reason."

Ron responded, "I disagree, considering who today's teacher is."

Professor Gilderoy Lockhart was Hogwarts' Teacher of the Dark Arts, even though he wasn't that great of a teacher. After class started, Professor Lockhart said, "Go ahead and get started on whatever's today assignment is. If you write a paragraph about why I'm the best, you'll get extra-credit points."

Professor Lockhart was getting bored, so he started flipping through the pages of Hogwarts' calendar. He said, "Wow, this book is so boring. There's no plot or characters. It just lists of a bunch of upcoming events." He noticed that Hermione's birthday was tomorrow. He was worried that she'd get a party and get nothing. He stood up and said, "Kids, stop working on your cruddy excuses for classwork. I have an important announcement."

Harry asked, "What is it?"

Professor Lockhart answered, "I realized that tomorrow is the anniversary of my first day at Hogwarts. I'm not usually one to brag, but that sounds like a pretty important day. After all, I'm everybody's favorite teacher."

Luna replied, "I thought Yukari Tanizaki was everybody's favorite teacher."

Professor Lockhart responded, "She has never even been at Hogwarts."

Luna replied, "Fair point, but she's a better driver than you."

Professor Lockhart defensively responded, "Hey, I'm a quality driver."

Hermione looked out the window and saw that Lockhart had parked his car on-top of Dumbledore's car. She said, "No offense, but you're a bad driver."

Professor Lockhart gave her a disapproving look and replied, "Hermione, you're not supposed to be disrespectful to your superiors. After all, tomorrow is an important day for me and if you had any sense of manners, you'd forget about yourself and start celebrating yours truly."

Hermione sighed and responded, "Very well then. My apologies, Professor Lockhart."

Professor Lockhart replied, "I knew I could trust you to do the right thing." He looked back at his class and said, "Of course I would never force you or pressure you into giving me a party, but a party would be an unexpected treat."

Harry and Ron were confused about what they were supposed to do. Should they celebrate Hermione's birthday or Lockhart's one-year anniversary? If they had been given more time to prepare, they could of had two parties. However, planning two parties, in one day, was more than they felt like doing.

After class was over, Harry and Ron walked up to Lockhart. Harry said, "We have a problem."

Professor Lockhart replied, "I figured that was the case. After all, Professor Snape claims you're his most problematic students. So, what's on your simplistic minds?"

Harry said, "Tomorrow isn't just your anniversary. It's also Hermione's birthday."

Professor Lockhart replied, "Oh really? I wasn't aware of that."

Harry responded, "We want to give you a party, but we also want to give Hermione one. What are we supposed to do?"

Professor Lockhart replied, "Well, I would never tell you to do the wrong thing. After all, I'm not the boss of you, so all I can do is give you my advice."

Ron responded, "You seem like a trustworthy guy, so what's your advice."

Professor Lockhart replied, "Hermione may be a friend of yours, but she's just like any other Hogwarts student. I'm your most respected teacher and after you graduate, you won't see me again. A party, that's in my honor, would be a great to honor my legacy. Of course, I'm not telling you to forget about Hermione and focus on me. It's just a little suggestion."

Harry responded, "Thank you for the advice, Professor Lockhart. We'll think it over."

Ron asked, "Think it over? Are you bloody kidding me? Come with me." Ron pulled Harry away.

Professor Lockhart had a smug smile on his face, while saying, "I'm going to get a pretty amazing party." He laughed.

Ron pulled Harry into the hallway and said, "There's nothing we need to consider. Let's forget about Hermione and give Lockhart an amazing party."

Harry replied, "Hold on there. Hermione is our best friend."

Ron responded, "That may be true, but if she wanted a party, she would of reminded us that the day was coming up. When my birthday comes, I dance on your head and put reminders across Hogwarts."

Harry asked, "Shouldn't we get Hermione a present or something?"

Ron answered, "We might her a card or something, but we don't have time to focus on that. Let's start preparing Lockhart's party."

Harry replied, "Okay." Harry and Ron spent the res of the day preparing a big and fun party for Professor Lockhart.

The next morning, Hermione got up and started walking around the hallways. Draco walked up to her and said, "It's a treat to see you, Ms. Granger."

Hermione replied, "Thank you. I appreciate that."

Draco nervously chuckled and responded, "I hope you can pardon me."

Hermione looked confused, while asking, "Pardon you? What did you do?"

Draco said, "I was going to give you a birthday present, but because this is Lockhart's anniversary, I'm going to give the present to him."

Hermione didn't understand why Draco couldn't just get Lockhart a different present, but she tried to be nice about it. She said, "It's okay. I'm just glad to see you be nicer."

Draco replied, "No problem. Have a lovely day."

Hermione responded, "You too."

Meanwhile, Harry and Ron were starting to walk to class. Harry realized that he and Ron hadn't gotten Hermione a card or any type of gift, because they had been busy preparing Lockhart's party. Harry tapped Ron on the shoulder and said, "I think we're in trouble."

Ron replied, "We get in trouble all the time, so it's hardly worth being a scaredy-cat over." An overly-confident cat came by, stole Ron's textbooks, and walked away. Ron often lost and broke his textbooks, so he hardly cared about the cat taking them away.

Harry said, "If Hermione doesn't any kind of gift, she might feel left out."

Ron replied, "Eh, I think she's going to be fine."

A few minutes later, the students arrived in Lockhart's classroom. Professor Lockhart had an excited look on his face, while saying, "Hi class. I don't normally say this, but I'm glad to see you guys. I know you guys usually hate school, because of the dumb classwork. However, I think today's going to be a much different and better type of day." He paced around the classroom and said, "As you all know, today is the anniversary of when I first started teaching at Hogwarts and it has been an incredible year."

Ron replied, "Lockhart, because you're so important, we prepared a party for you."

Professor Lockhart started doing a tap-dance routine, because he was so excited. He asked, "Where's the party?"

Harry answered, "Follow us." Lockhart had his class leave the classroom, so they could come to the party.

Professor Lockhart looked around and saw a table for drinks, a giant cake, an area for dancing, and dozens of presents. He said, "This looks like a fantastic party. It's hard to find such considerate students. Forget about whatever today's assignment was. Let's start partying." He started opening up the presents.

Harry looked at Ron and said, "I'm glad that Lockhart's enjoying his party so much, but I feel bad about Hermione. Even if she didn't want a big party, we should of done something for her."

Ron sighed and replied, "I hate to admit it, but I regret not getting her a card or something."

Harry said, "It seems like the rest of this class day is going to be a party, so I don't think leaving and getting a card for Hermione would be wrong."

Ron replied, "Yeah, let's ask the professor."

Harry and Ron walked up to Professor Lockhart. Lockhart took a break from opening his presents, to ask, "What do you guys need?"

Harry asked, "Can we leave for a few minutes, so we can get something for me?"

Professor Lockhart sternly replied, "Harry and Ronnie, this is class-time. You can't leave during class. That would be irresponsible."

Harry sighed and responded, "Fair enough."

After opening up a bunch of presents, Professor Lockhart ate a bunch of cake and started dancing. He said, "This is my best anniversary party." He did a smug smile, while doing a corny dance.

Professor Albus Dumbledore heard lots of noise, so he stepped into the room. He had a confused look on his face, while asking, "What's going on?"

Hermione walked by them and said, "The kids are throwing an anniversary party for Professor Lockhart. This is the one-year anniversary of his first day at Hogwarts."

Dumbledore shook his head and replied, "That's incorrect." He walked up to the students and said, "Attention, boys and girls. Professor Lockhart's anniversary isn't today. The only holiday is Hermione Granger's birthday." Professor Lockhart nervously laughed and started packing up the presents.

Harry looked at Hermione and said, "I'm sorry we focused on a fake holiday, instead of your birthday."

Hermione replied, "It's okay. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of birthdays."

Harry responded, "No, we should of celebrated your birthday. You're Ron and I's best friend and we love you."

Hermione replied, "I love you guys too." She hugged Harry and Ron.

Harry looked around the room and said, "Since there's already been a party setup, we can use Lockhart's fake party and use it for Hermione's real birthday."

Ron replied, "That's a bloody good idea."

Professor Dumbledore looked at the class and said, "You kids can celebrate Hermione's birthday. I need to have a meeting with Professor Lockhart, so I can teach him the value of honesty." He pulled Lockhart out of the room and walked out.

Harry gave his classmates a cup of soda and said, "A toast to Hermione, one of Hogwarts' best students."

Ron added, "She's also the world's most dedicated reader."

Hermione looked at Harry and Ron and said, "Thank you for the party."

Harry replied, "You earned it."

Ron nudged Harry and asked, "Which of us gets to dance with Hermione?"

Ginny Weasley walked by Harry and asked, "May I have this dance?" Harry wasn't sure what to say.

Hermione said, "Go ahead, but just do me one favor."

Harry replied, "Anything for you. What is it?"

Hermione said, "Save the last dance for me."

Harry smiled and replied, "I will." Hermione smiled back. She used to think birthdays weren't important, but she realized they were a reminder of how much her loved her.