A/N: Here's Chapter 2. Oh and, by the way, if you haven't seen Deathly Hallows Part 1 yet...SEE IT! It's fantastic!
CHAPTER TWO
As it turned out, Hermione and Kendra would be sharing a private dorm as part of The Mentor Program for the duration of the school year. This surprised Hermione at first, who had been anticipating inhabiting the Heads' Dorms, but she soon decided that if it would benefit both her and Kendra in the end, then she could deal with it.
This private dorm was located to the left of the staircase that led to the regular dorms, and its door was concealed as part of the wall. The dorm itself wasn't very spacious, but it was still big enough for two people to live comfortably in. All told, it was fifteen steps from one end of the room to the other, with two single beds situated against each far wall. A pair of desks sat between them in front of a window that provided a glorious view of the Hogwarts grounds, including part of the lake. Continuing the pattern of twos, a pair of dressers was positioned against the left wall when one were to walk in, and a nice-looking red and gold rug covered the majority of the floor in the middle of all this.
Past the dressers and almost right on the intersection of walls on the furthest corner of the room was a doorway which led into a private bathroom, complete with a toilet, sink, mirror and shower. It seemed like all the essentials for a manageable living arrangement had been taken care of. But then again, Hermione wasn't surprised to find such convenience at Hogwarts. Even after seven years, there were things there that still surprised the average student.
Still full from the Feast, Hermione and Kendra didn't spend too much time chatting as they prepared themselves for bed. Once Hermione had changed into her pajamas and turned off the bathroom light, she found Kendra standing on her own bed, pushing what looked to be a large trunk underneath it.
"Are those some of your things from home?" Hermione asked curiously as she pulled back her bedsheets.
Kendra whipped around as if she had just been caught doing something bad, but her face was calm and collective. "Oh, uh, yes. It's just some…personal things to help me feel not so bad about being so far from home." She climbed into bed.
"Yeah, but I promise that by this time tomorrow, you'll feel right at home inside this castle."
Kendra pulled the covers up over her and gave Hermione a smile. "Can't wait!"
She snuggled deeper underneath the covers as Hermione flicked her wand and extinguished all of the lights. Hermione then placed her wand on her bedside desk.
Before Hermione fell asleep, she had to admit to herself that she really was looking forward to her first day of being a Mentor to Kendra. And across the room, Kendra was eagerly anticipating her time with Hermione as well…but for entirely different reasons.
"Wicked!" exclaimed Ron happily as he read over his new schedule at the Gryffindor table the next morning during breakfast. The Great Hall was flooded with brilliant sunlight that bounced off all the silverware and bathed the interior in an inviting glow. "This is the second year I don't have to put up with Snape and his bloody Potions class! It feels good to be liberated!"
"Good riddance!" Harry agreed as he examined his own schedule, which was free of his least favorite class.
"Well, I'm still taking it," said Hermione as she sipped some orange juice. Just like last night, she and Kendra were sitting on one side of the table while Harry and Ron occupied the space opposite them.
"Of course you are!" replied Ron in an unsurprised tone. "You were one of the few people who actually wanted to stick around after the O.W.L.'s."
"It's an important class to have in your education when applying for a job," Hermione fired back.
"But worth two more years of Snape's lip? I don't think so."
Hermione rolled her eyes and made an annoyed sound before going back to her breakfast. Kendra and Harry shared a look.
"Do they always do this?"
Harry grinned. "Oh, yeah. So you better get used to it, Kendra."
Hermione, meanwhile, had resumed perusing her schedule. "Um, Kendra, mind if I take a look at your schedule for a minute?"
"Go ahead." Kendra passed Hermione the item in question.
Hermione held the two pieces of parchment up beside each other so she could adequately compare them. As Hermione had suspected after her latest review of her schedule, she and Kendra shared a class with each other at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The name of said class was simply 'Mentor Session'. Hermione noticed that there was no designated classroom for it, so she assumed it must be in a private place, like their dorms.
Kendra was looking over Hermione's shoulder. "So we're going to have actual lessons together?"
Hermione glanced up from the schedules and saw Professor McGonagall coming towards them, her emerald green robes and large, pointed witches' hat prominent and instantly visible among the collection of students.
"Professor," Hermione said when McGonagall was close enough, "what does our schedule mean when it says 'Mentor Session'?"
"It simply means that you and your mentee will use that time alone, at a place of your choosing, to get started on covering the basics that you need to impart, Miss Granger," answered McGonagall. "It's much like a private study session."
"Oh," Hermione responded. "All right, then. Thank you, Professor."
McGonagall nodded courteously and proceeded on her way down the Gryffindor table, passing out schedules to those students who had not received them yet.
"I hope you're not too strict a teacher," Kendra smiled.
"Don't worry," Hermione grinned back. "We'll go at a pace you're comfortable with."
Just then, Hermione felt someone roughly tap her on the back. She turned around to see Lavender standing there, looking like it was a burden to be doing so. Lavender was staring at Hermione with quite a bit of annoyance, and Hermione returned the expression.
"Can we help you with something, Lavender?" Hermione's voice carried just a tinge of venomous defiance.
"No," said Lavender, the polite tone in her voice sounding strange. "It's more like how I can help you." She diverted her gaze to Kendra, who was giving Lavender a cold look of her own. "What I said to you on the train yesterday about your new friend, Hermione…that still applies to you."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Lavender, I think something may be wrong with your head."
"Maybe it has to do with her hair, which looks like it was done by chimpanzees," retorted Kendra. "I think that horrid haircut is affecting her brain."
She and Hermione laughed heartily at the joke while Harry and Ron sniggered into their fists. Lavender, meanwhile, was giving them all nasty looks.
"I mean it," Lavender pressed on. "She may appear to be cute and cuddly, but I spent enough time with her yesterday to know how deceptive she is. It might not be long before she's giving you the same treatment she did me."
Hermione cleared her throat. "Again, might I suggest, Lav, that Kendra acted that way because you somehow provoked her into it?"
"I didn't do anything!" Lavender snapped as she took a leering step forward. A few Gryffindors close by turned their heads in curiosity at the sudden outburst. Seeing the surprised faces, Lavender looked down at her feet, breathing deeply while composing herself. When she glanced back up, she was calm once more. "Fine. If you want to be that way, go right ahead. But don't say I didn't warn you. Because when this little brat starts torturing you, I'll enjoy watching you squirm for your mistake."
With that, Lavender walked haughtily away, never looking back at Hermione. Hermione watched until Lavender had taken a seat near the other end of the Gryffindor table, and then she and Kendra both swiveled back around.
"Is it me," Ron asked surreptitiously, casting a glance down at Lavender, "or has Lavender become even more mental since last year?"
"You should know," answered Harry. "After all, you dated her."
"Yeah, rub that in my face, why don't you?" muttered Ron as he refocused on his eggs and toast.
A few minutes passed and Hermione must've got caught up in conversation, because she abruptly checked her watch and gasped. "Oh, Merlin! We have to go, or we'll be late for class!" The trio, along with Kendra, collected their stuff, got up and headed for the doors.
They were nearly out of the Great Hall when Hermione was literally shocked by a brief burst of electricity on her butt. Hermione yelped and jumped into the air slightly before whirling around and searching for the source.
"Quite shocking, eh, Granger?" Pansy Parkinson asked from the Slytherin table, her voice brimming with snark and her wand held out in front of her. All of the Slytherins around her, including Draco Malfoy, laughed rather loudly.
"Ten points from Slytherin!" snapped Hermione. "What are you thinking, attacking the Head Girl, Pansy?"
Pansy shrugged, her pug face scrunched up into a smile. "I was just following the instructions."
"What instructions?" demanded Hermione.
"These," said Harry. Hermione felt him remove something from her back, which she discovered to be a piece of paper. On it were two big, bolded words along with a large arrow pointing down. The words above the arrow read 'Zap Me', and the arrow was pointing where Hermione's butt would've been while the sign was stuck to her back.
Ron took the paper from Harry and regarded it with a mixture of surprise and amusement. In turn, Kendra grabbed it.
"Next time you use magic outside of class," Hermione told Pansy sternly, "it'll be detention for you!"
Pansy went back to conversing with her fellow House mates as a thought came into Hermione's head. She looked down the length of the Gryffindor table where Lavender sat and saw that the expression she was giving Hermione was one that seemed to say, "See?" Lavender turned back to her plate of French toast with a smile like the Cheshire Cat's.
Out of curiosity, Hermione glanced down at Kendra, who was eyeing the paper with confusion. The expression seemed genuine enough that the possibility that Kendra could have done it was shifted aside in Hermione's mind.
Kendra handed Hermione the paper. She too, was glaring at Lavender. "She must've stuck it on you when she first walked up. Loser."
Hermione took the paper, balled it up, and stuffed it into the pocket of her robes. "Just forget it. Come on, we're going to be late for class."
The four of them exited the Great Hall and started making their way towards their first class of the day. Kendra soon departed the Trio's company to head for her First Year class.
But little did Hermione know that it had been Kendra who put the sign on Hermione's back in the Great Hall when nobody else had been looking.
Kendra arrived just on time to her first class of the day, which was Transfiguration. Although, there were barely any seats left but fortunately, she managed to find an empty one at a table currently occupied by two girls. Kendra made a beeline for the desk, which was at the front, and placed her bag down on the table as she sat.
The two girls regarded their new tablemate once Kendra got situated. The first one, a girl with dirty blonde hair tied into a ponytail and brown eyes, smiled.
"Hi!" she greeted warmly. "My name is Katie. And this is Tara." Katie indicated the girl on her right, who smiled sweetly at the introduction. Tara had a slightly rounded face framed by black hair that fell to her shoulders. Her eye color was blue. Tara also nodded her head in acknowledgement.
"I'm Kendra."
"I've heard this class is supposed to be pretty hard," said Katie as she flipped through her Transfiguration textbook.
"Well, I did some early studying before school started," replied Kendra as she pulled out her own textbook. "It seems simple enough."
"Okay, well, let's decide on this," piped up Tara as Professor McGonagall entered the classroom. "No matter how hard things may get in this class, we'll help each other figure it out. We can be study partners, and if that goes well, we might become friends!"
Kendra perked up at the idea of making new friends so fast. "That sounds great!"
The chatter of the students died down and McGonagall called, "Attention, please!"
As it so happened, Kendra hit it off pretty well with Katie and Tara during Transfiguration class, and the three girls had agreed to get together later that night to do homework.
It was just before lunch, when Kendra was walking the corridors towards the Great Hall all by herself, when she heard an urgent whisper come from a nearby classroom.
"Psst! Psst!"
The noise was coming from her right, and Kendra turned to find a door to an empty classroom ajar. Kendra looked up and down the hall; the other students were heading off in different directions, and apparently nobody else had heard it.
Uncertainly, Kendra hugged her books close to her chest and stepped into the classroom. She found Lavender inside, casually sitting on a desk.
"I'm not going to yell at you, or anything," Lavender said hurriedly. "I just want to talk."
Kendra narrowed her eyes. "About what?"
Lavender slipped off the desk and went to close the door. "A way in which we can help each other out."
"How?"
"Look, we obviously don't like each other. That's okay, I'm fine with it. But it seems we share a common dislike. Hermione."
Kendra straightened up just a bit. "Why do you think I don't like Hermione?"
Lavender smirked knowingly. "I've seen little kids like you before. Your sweetness and polite attitude are just a ruse. And you turn your charm up especially high around the people you really don't like." Lavender stared unblinkingly into Kendra's eyes, and within the course of ten seconds, Kendra's look of confusion changed into one of being caught in the act, but satisfied with it just the same.
"You caught me," Kendra replied simply. It was true; she had been acting extra nice towards Hermione because Kendra had chosen Hermione to torment during the school year. The niceness was just to throw Hermione off.
"Why don't you like Hermione?" asked Lavender.
Kendra skirted the question. "It's private. Why don't you like Hermione?"
"She stole my boyfriend Ron Weasley last year," Lavender answered bitterly. "Now I want her to pay. So what I'm proposing is a sort of deal. We both want Hermione to be miserable this year, so why don't we team up and make that happen together?"
Kendra considered the offer briefly. "Well, I suppose two heads are better than one. And as long as we don't grow to like each other too much, I guess us working together against Hermione wouldn't be that bad."
Lavender smiled triumphantly and nodded. "Excellent! So what kind of stuff did you have in mind?"
"Pranks," Kendra replied instantly. "The really good and humiliating sort."
"I like the sound of that."
Kendra glanced at her watch. "In fact, I've got some time before lunch. We can start coming up with ideas now."
"Sounds great. Oh, and by the way, nice touch with that sign this morning."
"Thanks."
And with that, Kendra and Lavender went about devising pranks to pull on Hermione. In truth, Kendra had started planning this campaign against Hermione before she even boarded the Hogwarts Express yesterday. Kendra's reasons for doing so were to remain secret, but one thing was for certain.
Hermione was going down.
