A/N: And things just continue to build...

Chapter 6

After three exhaustive days of pranks, courtesy of the kids, Hermione was now pondering a new method to deal with the brats. It was a method she'd used all her life up until this point, especially whenever confronted with ridicule of any kind, and it had worked so far.

Ignore them. Just ignore them.

Sure, it seemed like a daft idea, but Hermione had obviously thought it through. The kids appeared hell-bent on getting a rise out of her, as a result of utterly humiliating her, of course. If Hermione refused to express her anger after the inevitable future pranks, then that would hopefully undercut the kids' satisfaction at besting her again.

From Hermione's point of view, denying the pranksters this was like letting a student take a test, but not letting them see what they scored on it. In a way, it was similar to reverse psychology, and Hermione was all for using smarts as a method to accomplish something.

So, that morning, Hermione opened the classroom door ready for anything that the kids could throw at her next … except for what was currently awaiting her on the other side of the door.

Connected to the other side of the door knob was a string. That string was attached in such a way so that when the door was swung in and closed, just as Hermione had done, it released a bunch of pencils into the air. Once released, the pencils no longer served as the devices holding back what looked like a giant rubber band. In the center of that rubber band was an orange rubber ball, the kind normally used in dodgeball.

After the door had been closed, the pencils released and the ball let loose, Hermione innocently turned to re-face the classroom. Seconds later, the rubber ball collided dead-center into her crotch.

Usually, crotch injuries are something associated with males, but as Hermione clutched hers in pain and sank to her knees, she could confirm that females were just as susceptible.

"Direct hit!" one of the kids cried out amongst all the laughter from the kids. Hermione was too preoccupied to place the voice with its owner.

Since her eyes were closed as she comically clutched her private area, Hermione failed to see Miles load another ball into the "shooter." This one was red, and smacked Hermione square in the face.

"Mmph!" The action sent Hermione reeling back so that she slumped against the door, her face stinging almost as much as her crotch. The laughter continued.

When Hermione deemed herself able enough, she decided to pull herself to her feet. But since her lower half still hurt a fair deal, she was forced to turn herself onto her hands and knees without thinking things through.

This, of course, provided Miles with a new target.

Hermione was positioned so that her butt was sticking out in the air. Pretty soon, her butt fell victim to the ball launcher, too, much to her embarrassment.

Bloody kids' humor, she thought to herself bitterly.

True to her intentions, though, Hermione said nothing to the kids as she finally stood and made her way over to the sink. She did so in small steps and with quick exhalations of air.

Hermione turned on the cold water and began to splash some into her face to relive the stinging.

Behind her, though, there was a thin bulge in the carpet making its way toward her. It was a broomstick. And even after it had come out from under the carpet and was quietly floating its way toward her of its own volition, Hermione remained ignorant.

The broomstick came to rest directly between her legs, decidedly not in a desirable location at the moment.

Hermione turned off the water and in the same moment, she heard Bruno yell, "Up!"

All of a sudden, Hermione had a great deal of sympathy for all those men in Muggle movies who sustained groin hits. As the kids burst out laughing again, Hermione crumpled to the ground, once more holding the area that hurt.

She stayed that way for a good few minutes, not caring how she looked. Only when it felt like the pain had subsided enough did Hermione force herself back up and trudge over to her desk. Breathing out heavily as she did so, Hermione lowered herself into her seat. She then conjured a large bag of ice, which went onto the throbbing body part.

"Just please play quietly for now," she told her tormentors. She didn't have the energy, or the strength, to deal with them at the moment.

The kids happily followed her order for the next half hour. During this half hour, Hermione alternated between keeping her eyes on the kids' activities and closing them as she let the ice do its work. Once she was satisfied that she could handle regular strides again, Hermione got up and went into the bathroom.

This allowed Barrin an opportunity to consult with his fellow conspirators.

"Do you still have it?" Aggy asked him.

"Yep," Barrin replied, as he discreetly pulled a portion of something out of his pants pocket. It was a wand. "Dad's in charge of entertaining some Muggles today, so he left it behind at home."

"Excellent!" squealed Lori. "Now, all we need to do is cast the spell and enjoy the show!"

Everyone snickered at this.

The bathroom door opened and Hermione came out, the ice bag gone. Even though her steps weren't so miniscule now, she was clearly walking carefully.

Barrin gripped the handle of his father's wand tight and after Hermione passed him, he quickly whipped it out, aimed it at his teacher, and whispered a spell.

By the time Hermione was at the blackboard and had turned around to address her students, Barrin had slipped the wand back in his pocket. But the initial effects of the spell had already occurred, and most of the kids had to stifle their laughs.

"Alright, guys," Hermione said, still choosing to go down the 'ignore them' route, "before we begin today, I must mention I'll be spending the last part of the afternoon in a meeting with other teachers and Principal Fogg. And while I'm there, you'll have a different sub."

Some of the kids noticeably deflated upon hearing this, but others perked up.

"When that sub is here, I expect all of you to be on your best behavior. Is that understood?" She fixed them all with a pointed stare.

"What's the matter, Hermione? Tired of being the butt of our jokes?" asked Torics.

The kids immediately burst out laughing. Hermione's cheeks flushed with anger.

"That's enough! You will not pull anything on the sub. Do I make myself clear?" she said through gritted teeth. She waited as calmly as she could for the laughter to die down.

"Yes, Hermione," they all chorused.

"Good."

From there, the day officially began. Thankfully, the morning's activities were uninterrupted by any further mayhem, but occasionally Hermione heard brief outbursts of giggling from a few of the kids.

"Calm down, please," she would say politely.

But the giggling persisted.

At one point, Hermione even thought she heard Benjamin whisper something that sounded like, "Look how big it's getting!" but she wasn't entirely sure.

Before Hermione knew it, it was time for lunch, and in the cafeteria occurred something odd.

Her class was sitting at their rectangular table, chatting animatedly as they partook in sandwiches, juice boxes and the like. Hermione was standing by a column near where every kid stands in line if they get their food at school, using her right shoulder to lean into it at an angle. She had already finished eating, so like all the other teachers, she was making sure everything remained in control.

But while she was standing there, Hermione heard laughter come from behind her above the dull roar of cafeteria-wide chatter. Curious, she turned around to find a boy and a girl staring at her and laughing.

Hermione smiled slightly in an attempt to appear cooperative. "What's so funny?"

"Oh," said the boy as he tried to control himself, "just a joke." He and the girl dashed away back to their table.

While Hermione had her back turned to them, her class once again enjoyed their accomplishment by exchanging high-fives.

The brief encounter in the cafeteria stayed with Hermione even after they had all gone back to the room. There was just something about that boy's response that seemed suspicious to her, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

The kids, meanwhile, were continuing to watch Barrin's spell take effect, and the best part was that Hermione still couldn't detect anything.

Pretty soon, it was time for the teachers' meeting, and the sub arrived right on time.

Hermione met the sub, who was a middle-aged blonde woman wearing a light blue outfit, at the door.

"Class!" she called for attention, which she got. "This is Ms. Cooper. She'll be with you while I go to my meeting. Now, while I'm gone, I expect you to behave for her."

As Hermione was talking to the class, Ms. Cooper eyed her with a look of concern and confusion, a look which Hermione missed.

"I should be back before you all go home." She faced Ms. Cooper again. "They're all yours. Watch them closely."

Hermione attempted to squeeze past Ms. Cooper as she entered, but as she did, she found it to be more difficult than it should have been, which was strange, considering that the doorframe looked wide enough to fit them both.

Once out in the hallway, Hermione pushed the thought aside and made her way to the main office. When she got there, the main receptionist directed her to a conference room on the small hallway to the right. Said receptionist fixed Hermione with a curious look as the teenage teacher followed her directions.

Hermione reached the conference room to discover that she was the last to arrive. She couldn't help but notice everyone give her strange stares as she made her way over to an unoccupied chair.

"What?" asked Hermione. She glanced down at herself. "Is there something on my clothes?"

"No," Mrs. Fogg said quickly. "Nothing of the sort. Well … now that we're all here, we can get started."

Hermione nodded and lowered herself into the chair. However, she found her progress in doing so a bit harder than she had anticipated. As a result, Hermione was forced to wriggle and struggle slightly in order to fit fully into the seat.

During this, the rest of the teachers looked on with a mixture of what Ms. Cooper had shown: confusion and concern.

Finally, Hermione managed to get situated. "There," she sighed, trying to remain professional. "These chairs are a bit out of proportion, it seems."

"Yes," spoke up a red-haired teacher. "Mightily deceptive, they can be."

Mrs. Fogg shot the teacher a glare, which Hermione missed.

"Alright," the principal cut in as she put on a pair of glasses and consulted some notes. "First, I appreciate all of you taking the time to do this meeting now. My schedule was too hectic to do it later today. Anyway, our first order of business …"

The meeting went on to cover various topics concerning lesson plans and upcoming events. Everything was very general until the very end, when Mrs. Fogg began to address each teacher individually, concerning a sort of Open House. The event was to be held at the end of the first few weeks of classes so that parents could see how their kids were acclimating to the school.

The Open House was to include various activities, which each class would be assigned separately. Hermione's was the last to get their task.

"Ms. Granger," Mrs. Fogg said as she looked over a piece of paper. "Your class will be putting on a small play. It's an adaptation of a little-known magical folk tale, where young kids must defend themselves against an evil witch. And we thought it'd be fun if you could participate by playing the evil witch."

This left Hermione at something of a loss for words. Mainly because it sounded awfully like what was going on in her classroom already. Eventually, she managed a question.

"Is there a script?"

"Yes," confirmed Mrs. Fogg. "You'll receive copies of it tomorrow to pass out to your students. And rehearsal time will be every Friday and Monday afternoons until the Open House. But don't worry, it's not a very long play, so it won't be too difficult to learn."

But there was something nagging at Hermione about this whole idea. Still, she couldn't exactly say no, most likely because this was part of the deal with Ms. Stats and the Ministry, so she just smiled and nodded her assent.

"Great!" exclaimed Mrs. Fogg. "Well, that just about wraps it up. And right before dismissal, no less. Thank you all for your time."

Every teacher got up and filed out the door, except Hermione, who was once again struggling with her chair. It took a few minutes, but she was finally able to extricate herself.

Mrs. Fogg had remained behind. "I was about to help, but I didn't want to impose," she said sheepishly.

This confused Hermione. "How would you be -"

"Not important. Well, then, see you tomorrow, Ms. Granger."

Still unsure about all the weird occurrences of the afternoon, Hermione left the main office to see every student filing their way toward the Floo fireplaces with their parents.

"Bye, Blubber Butt," she heard Barrin say. Barrin was passing beside her and grinning. But before Hermione could say anything, he and his parents were gone in a flash of green flames.

That comment started to raise suspicions very high, but unfortunately, Hermione couldn't find an adequate reflective surface until she had Flooed her way home and stood sideways in front of her bedroom mirror.

Hermione was thankful her parents weren't home yet to her scream of anger upon discovering that her butt had been inflated to the size of about two watermelons.

"Little brats!" she hissed venomously.

Hermione spent most of the rest of the night trying to shrink her rear back down to its normal size, all the while trying to determine when the kids had done this. This had been what everybody had been noticing about her, and yet, they had said nothing.

After eating dinner alone in her bedroom, it became obvious no reversal spell was working in the slightest. It was then that Hermione remembered Fred and George recently talking about this very spell. And it was with a sinking heart that she remembered Fred saying:

"It lasts until the start of the next day."

So Hermione was effectively stuck like this until she woke up the next morning.

Just bloody fantastic.

Wise enough to know not to try and change attire, Hermione simply flopped face-first down on her bed and decided to call it an early night.

She slept on her stomach, keeping her oversized butt upturned and looking forward to it being appropriately proportioned again.

Why me? Hermione thought to herself miserably.