Hermione followed Professor McGonagall out of the Great Hall and along the corridor towards her office, barely managing to keep up with the older woman's long stride due to her aching stomach - at least, that was her excuse. Even had she not been full almost to bursting, chances are she'd still have struggled. The walk wasn't far though, and soon Professor McGonagall was unlocking a door and shooing Hermione inside.
"Sit down, sit down." The Transfiguration teacher ordered and Hermione obliged, wedging her ponderous hips into the seat of McGonagall's guest chair. There was a brief creaking of tortured wood as she transferred her weight to the spindly construction, but it settled without incident. There was a fluttering of nerves in her stomach - either that or her breakfast was still digesting. At that point it could be either.
"Biscuit?" McGonagall offered, but before Hermione could accept she pulled the tin away again, lips thin as she eyes the girl's bulky midsection, "On second thoughts, perhaps not."
Hermione opened her mouth in confusion, but shut it again just as quickly. That didn't matter right then - she wanted to know why she was there more than anything, and after a few moments of awkward silence McGonagall obliged.
"Do you know what this is, Miss Granger?" asked the elderly witch, drawing something small and golden from her robe pocket and showing it to Hermione. She stared at it for a moment, before realisation hit her.
"Oh! Is this a Time Turner?" she asked, awed. She'd read about them a lot, of course, but never seen one in real life - immensely powerful and possessing the power to literally rewrite the fabric of time itself, they were subject to such strict controls as to be all but unattainable.
Unless, of course, you needed one to take some extra classes at Hogwarts. Then, apparently, the Ministry was willing to practically fling the things at you.
"Indeed, Miss Granger," the deputy headmistress confirmed her suspicions, "you requested one for use over this year's terms, so you could attend additional lessons," Hermione's hand reached out to touch the tiny hourglass, but McGonagall pulled it away before her fingers could meet it, "Be patient. You can have it in a minute. There are just a few legal things we need to go over first..."
But for once, Hermione Granger wasn't listening to a teacher – she was lost in dreams of a million possibilities, all enabled by the miniature hourglass that hung temptingly before her like an apple in the Garden of Eden.
To get to it though, first she had to deal with the paperwork. Sighing, she pushed aside her plans for the future and sat forward to Professor McGonagall's desk, and began studying the nigh-incomprehensible spread of legal documentation that lay before her.
Ugh… if only she hadn't eaten so much that morning!
A short while later, up in Gryffindor Tower, Ginny Weasley was doing exactly what Hermione wished she could do – lying on her bed. Unlike Hermione's, however, who had just found out she was going to be permitted access to an indescribably powerful magical artefact, Ginny's day was going dreadfully.
It had been nearly half an hour now since she fled the Great Hall, but she felt awful – her thighs were burning from the unaccustomed exercise of sprinting upstairs, her cheeks were burning with appalled embarrassment, she was still out of breath from the run, and her clothes were absolutely ruined. Of her skirt and shirt, she had lost too much to even cast a Reparo charm on – every single button was gone, and the stitching was torn and strained beyond the ability of magic to mend. As for her bra, it was probably still lying abandoned on the floor of the Great Hall. Right then though, she didn't care – she had never excessively bothered about modesty (how could she be, growing up with six older brothers?) but what had happened downstairs was mortifying nonetheless. In front of the entire school!
Interrupting her moping, however, was the sound of the dormitory door creaking slowly open. She hastily dried her eyes and pulled the blanket up to cover her bare chest as Hermione entered.
"G-go away," Ginny said, not wanting her friend to see her in such a state, "I'm fine, leave me alone."
Hermione shook her head at the sight of Ginny, ignoring her request completely and sitting down on the end of her bed. Ginny heard the bed frame creak slightly as it bore Hermione's weight, before settling.
"What could it be then?" the brown-haired girl pondered. She seemed to be in an unusually good mood, much to Ginny's resentment, "Fred and George really didn't seem to have any idea… I could have dispelled any mundane enchantment – and it's happened to all our clothing, so they can't have just shrunk in a wash. What else could possibly cause all our clothes to get spontaneously tighter over the summer though?"
Ginny stayed awkwardly silent. Denial is a powerful thing, but the evidence was piling up... right then though she didn't want to face anything, so she bit her tongue and stayed silent as Hermione pondered the options.
"I suppose I'll have to do some reading into it," Hermione resolved, "Oh, and that reminds me why I came up here."
She passed Ginny a slip of paper – her timetable for the term. Dread burgeoning in her bloated stomach, she saw her very first lesson; Potions. Of course. Just to make this day even better. She just wanted to burrow back under the covers and sleep for a week, but she knew Professor Snape would just make things even worse for her if she was late for her very first lesson of the new year.
But now again she was faced with the exact same dilemma she'd been dealing with this morning – what was she to wear?
She definitely wasn't going to use 'Espandere Aksis' again, not after today, but she also couldn't face squeezing herself into her old clothes again…
"Oh!" she gave a little cry as she suddenly had an idea. She slid out from under the covers and, as Hermione watched in bemusement, pulled open the trunk of another girl in the dorm and began rifling through her clothes. After a moment she pulled out a skirt and a shirt and held them up, smiling to herself.
"I do hope you're not stealing that," Hermione said, disapprovingly. Ginny rolled her eyes.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures, Hermione. I'll only be borrowing Dana's uniform for a day or two until I can get some other clothes sorted, don't worry."
She got to her feet and began pulling the uniform on. It was just the right size for her, buttoning comfortably – though that realisation caused the smile to fade from her face somewhat. She'd always thought of Dana as a distinctly chubby girl; and yet here she was wearing her uniform, and it fit perfectly. The evidence mounted higher…
Hermione bit back her disapproval for the time being. Ginny had had a rough morning – and as long as she gave the uniform back soon she supposed there would be no lasting damage.
"Well, your Potions lesson is starting in ten minutes, so get changed quickly. I need to head off for Ancient Runes," she said, checking her timetable – and almost grinning to herself as she saw that she was technically also due for Transfiguration that period as well, "I'll see you at lunch."
Ginny nodded absently, examining herself properly in a conjured mirror. The uniform really did fit very well; maybe she could ask Dana later what size she wore. Though on second thought, perhaps she didn't really want to know…
I'm back! Nearly a year later! Ah well. I've heavily edited all the old chapters to make them not suck, and even added this new chapter - I hope you all enjoy. Finally, Ginny is beginning to realise what's happened; ignorance can't last forever after all!
