Chapter Four
Hermione woke to a different ceiling, frowning slightly she remembered where she was and why, blinking back tears she looked around, she always had been an early riser, all of her family was, she looked over at the other bed in the room, Ginerva Weasley was still sound asleep. Rolling over Hermione checked the time 6am, no wonder there was no one awake, just then she heard a crash downstairs. Ginny grumbled to herself and then rolled over to face away from the door.
Hermione lifted the covers off, feeling them cool down as she stepped out of bed, they were charmed to warm up and cool down when needed. She grabbed her things and rushed into the bathroom down the hall. Jumping in the shower she let the warm water wash away the soreness from her tired body. She lost herself in the soothing water before climbing out and getting dressed, once she was ready she picked up her wand from the bathroom sink and dried her hair. It frizzed out making her have to use another spell to tame it into a tumble of curls. She avoided looking in the mirror when she could; her brown hair was as wild as ever, but her skin was pale and her eyes bloodshot. Taking her things back to her room, she carefully placed them in her trunk and put on shoes, making sure she didn't wake her still sleeping roommate before she headed down the tumbling maze of staircases that made up the tower of the Burrow.
She found Molly Weasley in the kitchen conducting an orchestra of pots and pans with enviable efficieny; she was used to making large meals, Harry was expected to arrive today, Ron had been grinning madly aboout that last night, Ginny too.
"Oh, hello my dear you're up early!" Molly exclaimed after seeing Hermione walk into the kitchen.
"I've always been a morning person, you know that Mrs. Weasley," Hermione said looking around before asking, "Is there anything I can help with?
"Oh no, you just sit yourself down and join Harry." Mrs. Weasley said, gesturing to the table.
Hermionelooked over at the table already heavily laden with crockery, she hadn't noticed him when she'd come down. Taking a deep breath, she sat down opposite Harry, "When'd you get there?"
"It must have been around 5am. Lord, I'm tired." He answered, stretching.
"Have you been up all night?"
"Yes, Dumbledor took me to a couple of places, before bringing me here."
"Doing what?"
"Well we recruited a new professor and then visited Grimald Place."
"A new professor?" Molly asked, speaking above the commotion happening in the kitchen.
"Yes, a professor Slughorn. Do you know him?"
"He taught Arthur and me. He was at Hogwarts for ages, started around the same time as Dubledore, I think."
Just then the screech of a parliament of owls could be heard, there were 4 of them, two went to Harry and Hermione where as the others went to Mrs. Weasley.
"It's our book lists for this year." Hermione exclaimed, for once having to feign interest in soemthing that usually excited her.
"Perfect timing for our trip into Diagon Alley today!" Mrs. Weaslet exclaimed before shouting up the stairs for her children to get out of bed. Hermione frowned slightly, it was uncanny sometimes how well Mrs. Weasley's planning went. Shaking her head, Hermione dismissed the thought, it was probably nothing. Looking up she saw Ron and Ginny stumbling downstairs they were yawning and bickering.
"Charlie went out ages ago mum, and Bill said he'd be down soon." Ron said through another massive yawn.
Shaking her head Molly waved the deliciously smelling food over to the table and everyone started digging in, aside from Hermione. She picked at her food and the moment she noticed someone watching she ate more, Molly kept glancing at her and Harry as if they both needed fattening up. Normally Hermione would have cracked a smile at the thought, but now. She smiled and pretended to be following the conversation as people ate, Mr. Weasley came home, saying that he'd been woken up early because of an incident with Mundungous Fletcher, he'd recently been happily promoted, he looked tired but insisted he was going with them to Diagon Alley.
"Hurry and get ready all of you, I want to leave at 9 at the latest! Yes, we will visit Fred and George, only after we've gotten everything else we need!" She said answering her children's questions before they'd even been uttered, "Now go get ready!"
Hermione stayed downstairs, helping Mrs. Weasley wash up, an hour or so later everyone was lined up and ready to get the floo to The Leadky Cauldron. Hermione always wondered why it was used so much, there were other pubs, inns and shops that acted as bridges from the muggle world to the magical one and even ones that didn't that you could floo to. She watched Bill and then Charlie go through, hoping that taking the floo was safe, there'd been a rash of rumours about floos stopping or changing direction mid journey, of underground networks disconnected from the ministry. It was probably all talk, trying to frighten and scare, but it had to come from somewhere and at least have a viable hint of proof to get the rumours started.
Steeling her breath she picked up the grey powder before enunciating Leaky Cauldron, Diagon Alley very clearly and being surrounded by heatless green flames that danced around her, she didn't realise she'd been holding her breath until she walked through them into the entry room. Once everyone was through they dusted themselves off and walked out towards the once cheerful shops, buying things they needed, Ginny wanted new robes, Harry wanted owl treats and Ron, well he just wanted to go to his brothers' joke shop.
"Can I go to Flourish and Blotts?" Hermione asked, "I'll me you at Fred and George's."
"Hermione, dear I don't really want to go off on your own, besides we need to go there anyways." Molly said.
"We could always go there now and I could stay with her whilst you go and get rest of things." Charlie suggested.
Hermione jumped not expecting him to say anything, she'd never talked much with Charlie, talking to Bill on the other hand was fascinating, curse breaking and working with goblins.
Aruthur nodded, "That sounds like a good idea, besides we need to get the books out of the way, that's the main reason we're here, after that we can do rest."
She mumbled her thanks to Charlie as they headed to the bookstore. It only took them a couple of minutes to locate all the books they needed, they had them displayed in sections according to year, both new and second hand books. After another couple of minutes the books were bought and the party was on their way, aside from Hermione and Charlie. "I'm going to go look at the Magical Creatures section." He announced smiling as he walked off, leaving Hermione to browse through the sections she wanted to.
Hermione slowly lost herself in the books, they were her haven but she'd read most of the books that has interested her and even some that didn't, she moved away from the Defense, Transfiguration and History sections and wandered over to the Potions room, only to be knocked into my someone tall, blonde and rude; Draco Malfoy. He pushed past her with a muttered insult. Barely batting an eyelid she continued into the room, noticing a book wedged out of place, 'Was that the book Malfoy was reading?', she wondered before heading over to check it out, it opened to a page about the Libertas potion, her eyes widening as she read it, turning the page it noted a book that the recipe could be found in. That would be a very useful potion to have at hand, but why on earth did Malfoy want it? Frowning to herself she re-read the title of the book mentioned; 'Unyeilding Potions and their Masters', the title certainly sounded pretentious enough, she didn't bother to look for the book though, she'd seen the potion in her collection, but never had the chance to brew it. She rushed outside of the bookstore and ducked into and alleyway, she reached into her bag to find the book she was looking for, it took a couple of minutes as she'd put a lot of her things in her bag, not wanting certain things to be left in her trunk. After wrestling with the bag a few minutes she withdrew the right book and flipped the pages over until she found the Libertas potion and frowned, it took more than one person to make it, which explained why she hadn't tried it over summer. Jotting down the ingredients on a spare bit of parchment she then put it back in her bag, groaning when she heard a crashing noise. Then without thinking she whispered to her wand, "Point Me, Draco Malfoy."
She found him staring into the dark window of Olivanders, the shops was usually dreary but this year it seemed to have taken on a whole new level, though most of the shops had.
"Malfoy." She said quietly.
Turning around sharply he hissed at her, "What do you want Mudblood?"
Holding up her hands she turned to move away, "I just thought you might be interested in something I had to say."
"Oh, yeah and what would that be?"
"The directions for the Libertas potion." She stated calmly.
Draco's whole body froze and how the next things that came out of his mouth was a hoarse whisper, "How do you know about that?"
"You didn't put the book back correctly." Hermione said, watching as Draco snorted to himself.
"That book didn't have anything interesting in it."
"Yes it did, but that aside it contained the name of another book which does have directions in it." Hermione said, neglecting to mention that that book wasn't where she'd found the instructions.
"Give it me." Draco hissed.
"First, you should know you'll need someone to make it with you if that's your intent."
Draco regarded her thinly, "Give. It. To. Me." He repeated himself.
"I will, if you tell me why you want it so badly."