Hermione frowned at her own reflection in the mirror early that Saturday morning. She raised a hand and traced the face in the looking-glass. Her eyes were bloodshot and swollen from crying all night; she looked like death warmed over. She blamed Harry and Ron for not sending their replies, which had her resorting to rereading their previous letters from earlier in the term, only to end up feeling even worse, but then changed her mind and blamed the storm instead. She turned to eye a small window high up in the wall to her back. The sun had risen, but it was still pouring. She sighed; if there was anyone to blame, it's her. She shouldn't let such trivial things bother her so much. She looked back to the mirror, and thought up a way to better her appearance. Today, she would enjoy the visit to Hogsmeade with Ginny and Luna.
Still, when post arrived at breakfast, and none came for Hermione with a reply from either Harry or Ron, her mood took on a toll. She frowned at the last retreating owl before continuing to eat a piece of toast.
"You look depressed," Luna stated in her dreamy voice. "Harry hadn't replied you yet?" asked Ginny.
Hermione shook her head lightly. "Ron, too." She was absolutely dejected, she missed the meaningful glances exchanged between the two.
Draco awoke late Saturday morning to find his room bright in broad daylight. Granted, there wasn't much sunlight at all, but it was enough to tell him that it's late. His eyes first caught sight of the remains of his alarm clock still spotting one corner of the room. Despite of his stupor, a large part of him was panicking. It was the natural human need to know what time it was when you'd just woke up from a deep slumber into unmistakable daylight; what if you'd been unconscious for days? Frantically, he opened the drawer in the bedside table nearest to him and pulled out a pocket watch. It was twelve past ten in the morning.
'Ah' he thought, 'not so terribly late'. Never mind that he had missed breakfast. He slid off his bed and got dressed. Usually, he would spend almost the entire weekend in his dorms, only venturing out to patrol the castle afterhours, but today he needed to go down to Hogsmeade and replenish his school supplies; he was all out of ink and parchment.
He also hoped to run into Granger.
Hermione was sitting in a very crowded Gryffindor common room. The Gryffindors were no doubt waiting for the rain to die down so that they may venture out to Hogsmeade. Hermione had to admit, she had the weather to thank for this excuse to be in the familiar common room again. She couldn't help but feel nostalgic being there. She used to sit in this very armchair every night doing homework, together with Harry and Ron. Well, she did her homework, whereas the boys used to procrastinate till the eleventh hour. Ron even often persuaded her to let him copy her finished essay. Of course, she never let him.
Hermione stared at the fire and let out a longing sigh. Merlin, she missed them so.
It was two hours later when the rain finally subsided enough so that the students saw fit to leave the shelter of the castle.
Hermione, Ginny, and Luna were walking down the High Street when a young wizard stepped out from one of the shops to greet Ginny. He put an arm over her shoulder and Hermione could only stare open-mouthed.
"Awful weather, isn't it, Ginny?" he then inclined his head to Hermione, "Oh, and sorry I didn't reply your letter, it was just too long and I was too busy preparing to visit here for the weekend," he said in mocked regret.
Hermione let out a squeal that could easily be mistaken for a scream and launched herself on the dark-haired boy. "HARRY! IT IS YOU!"
Harry laughed and then said, "We've missed you too, Hermione."
"Blimey, you'd think we just got back from a war" another voice spoke from beside Luna.
"RON! OH MY GOODNESS!" and she buried her face in the other boy's chest. He was a bit taller than she remembered. Ron patted her back and almost squeezed her. Everybody in the group was laughing now.
Hermione didn't want to let go, afraid it to turn out to be her mere hallucination. But she needed to look into their faces again to confirm that it wasn't.
The three broke the almost-suffocating hug and were tearful in the eyes. Hermione fought the urge to break down crying. They stood there laughing for a moment.
"It looks like rain," Luna declared.
"How about that Shepherd's Pie you promised us, Hermione?" Ron asked as the five of them began making their way for the Three Broomsticks.
"What Shepherd's Pie?" she asked back with a grin, not remembering making such a promise.
"Well, we've had to abandon work and come all the way here, just to visit you; you should at least buy us lunch," Harry was grinning wide too as he said this.
Hermione laughed. She felt like it had been months since she last laughed for real.
Draco would attest to that. He was just leaving Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop when he looked up to see the reunion of the Golden Trio further up the street. Something akin to a cry started bubbling in his throat as he stood watching them. They looked so happy. She looked so happy. He waited for the inconspicuous group of five to clear the street before trudging back up to the castle, fearing his appearance might ruin the moment.
He wasn't sure how he felt at that time. He thought it was only fitting to feel crestfallen about not being in that group he just saw, but she had seemed so happy he couldn't help feeling a bit happy for her too. He decided to excuse her from her duties in the Great Hall that afternoon. The prefects were supposed to help out in the preparation for Hallowe'en Feast that night.
Hermione hadn't had that much fun in years. For one day, she was a youngster again. Her best friends saw to that.
The weather was relatively clear for most of the day, despite Luna's prediction earlier. After lunch, they ventured out to the streets again. They met Neville in front of Dogweed and Deathcap, and obliged when he said he wanted them to see something that the shop had displayed within. They passed a barrel of leaping toadstools and some Puffapods before reaching the very back of the premise to set their eyes on the tallest Mimbulus Mimbletonia they had ever seen. They left Dogweed and Deathcap with holes in their robes; Ron had accidentally provoked a small Fire Seed Bush which had subsequently sent miniature meteors off at them. Neville joined them on the remainder of their outing.
They were all in the mood for sweets, so, naturally, they headed off to Honeydukes. This time they actually tried to sample everything in the shop, including the blood-flavoured lollipops. At one point, they even thought to test every flavour of Bertie Bott's, which was not quite possible, as there weren't any visual ways of telling the various flavours apart. The shopkeeper was no fun; she had practically told them off and demanded that they at least buy something. Hermione settled for some Toothflossing Stringmints. Luna's teeth were still chattering and squeaking from the Ice Mice she'd been 'sampling', so she didn't buy anything. Harry however bought a whole load of crystallised pineapples; later in the afternoon as they sat down to rest their feet in an open quad in the heart of the village, Harry had the sweets passed around. They were finished off in under ten minutes.
They somehow ended up in Tomes and Scrolls; Hermione had wanted to check if they had any good fiction. Ron got bored quickly enough, and had started pretending to read aloud from the Invisible Book of Invisibility. The six of them then each took turns to read from the same copy. They had a good laugh, even after they got told off by the keeper for being too loud. They left the shop empty-handed, yet Hermione was happy they made the visit.
They even went to Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, much to the dismay of the other patrons; Madam Puddifoot's was the haunt of happy couples, and the group's presence there only destroyed the romantic atmosphere for which the shop was best known. Of course, they weren't allowed to stay in that establishment for very long too. Not that they intended to anyway; a little prankster in Hermione only wanted to put out the amorous mood hovering over the lovesick youngsters – most of the couples were Hogwarts third-years, much too young to be wasting time with the delusion that was puppy love, anyway.
The fun didn't end even when it started raining. The clouds were heavy and had been rumbling since morning, and when the rain finally came down, it came in sudden downpour and caught them in the midst of the heavy rainfall. Hermione had initially tried to shelter herself from the rain, but Ginny and Ron pulled her out into the open again. There was no thunder, thank Merlin, and so that was the first time Hermione played in the rain.
Later they were back in the Three Broomsticks again, sipping on mugs of warm Butterbeers. All six of them were still soaked from head to toe, and their shoes and the hems of their robes were muddy. None of them bothered to cast Scourgify upon their persons, however; it was all good fun.
"How about dinner, eh?" Ron asked the group in general.
"Nope. We have Hallowe'en Feast waiting for us in the Hall," Neville answered before taking another sip of his Butterbeer.
"Hallowe'en Feast! Man, I miss those!" Harry exclaimed.
Something began nagging at the very back of Hermione's mind.
"Yea, remember that year Dumbledore invited a troupe of dancing skeletons for a performance? Best Hallowe'en Feast I could remember," Neville recalled.
"Ah. Hermione, Harry and I got to attend Nick's Deathday Party instead that year,"
"Best Hallowe'en ever indeed," Harry murmured.
"What Deathday Party?" Ginny prompted.
"Hallowe'en Feast!" Hermione almost shouted and put one hand down on the table. "I'm supposed to help out in the Great Hall!"
Luna's tone was serene, "well, it's starting in under an hour. They must already be done with the preparations by now," but it did nothing to reassure her.
They were exchanging goodbyes at Hogwarts' front gate; Harry and Ron had decided to send them off despite the rain. Anyway, it wasn't raining very much anymore, Ron had said.
"Now, the next time you get no reply from us, just shrug it off okay? I can't believe you'd even think we had forgotten about you," Harry said as he hugged Hermione.
"I never think that!" Hermione said indignantly.
"No, of course you didn't," he replied with a grin.
"Take care 'Mione," the taller of her red-haired friends then pulled her into a hug.
"Take care of Hermione for us, won't you?" Harry said to Ginny before hugging her and then Luna. He then opted to just shake Neville's hand; the other boy was a bit too tall for him to hug properly.
"Oh, she can take care of herself, Harry," Ginny at last said. She had one arm over said girl's shoulder.
"We'll try to help out with anything we can, of course," Luna told Hermione.
"Take care, both of you," Neville said as they waved goodbye.
When they parted, the sun had completely set.
Draco had fallen asleep on a couch in the Heads' common room. Hermione wasn't the only prefect who hadn't showed up for the last preparations in the Great Hall. He was exhausted from having to do the extra work.
"Malfoy. Malfoy, wake up," Draco stirred, but he went right back to sleep.
He felt his shoulder being shaken with a little more certainty. He opened his eyes to meet the worried gaze of the Head Girl.
He sat up, a little unsteadily, and tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes. "What time is it?"
"I haven't checked yet. But I just got back from Hogsmeade and the Hall was still open when I passed through the Entrance Hall," Draco noted the delight in her voice. He then remembered that Potter and Weasley had come to visit her. He looked up to see Granger positively beaming at him. He didn't know what to make of that. He only leaned back on the couch and stretched.
"Don't you want to get dinner?" he didn't know what to make of that, either. Was she just asking, or did she mean to ask him to join her, or something? His eyes began sizing her up; he simply couldn't stop himself.
She needed cleaning up before she should go get dinner.
"Yea, in a minute. Aren't you cold?" he motioned to her robes which were still dripping wet.
"A bit," it seemed to Draco that she had only realised it as she answered him. She slowly reached up to clutch her sides and all.
Draco merely nodded. Suddenly it felt awkward. "Right," he said, and headed for the door. Granger stopped him.
"Wait!" he turned back around. "I'm sorry I didn't show up for the preparations earlier."
Oh. "Don't worry yourself. A lot of us didn't." Granger only nodded and then seemed to hesitate to say something. She never said it though. Instead, she turned to climb up the stairs to her bedroom.