Hannah was always one of those people who woke up really early in the morning no matter how tired they were. She woke up after her first exhausting night in the cottage and realized that the sun had not completely come up. She felt her way around to the entry room of the cottage, trying to remember where everything had been the night before so she wouldn't step on it this morning. Remembering that the girl's beds were all in the corners, she tried her way through the middle of the room. She wasn't expecting to make a sound, but after all she wasn't expecting to trip over a dresser sitting in the middle of the room either.
WHAM! Hannah yelped in surprise.
"Well you clumsy fool, now you have me up. Did you not receive adequate walking lessons as a child?" Pansy was NOT a morning person.
"I can walk, but obviously I have trouble seeing in the dark. Was this dresser here before?"
Pansy sharpened her vision to see the new dresser just sitting in the middle of the room. Marveling in its convenience, she levitated her belongings into one of the dresser drawers.
Turning back to Hannah, Pansy glared at her for a minute. How on earth could someone voluntarily get up this early? "Since you have indeed wakened me, you shall have to make the breakfast tea." Parkinsons never asked for things.
Hannah, barely functional enough to argue, stumbled into the main room, where the kitchen supplies were kept. Tea did sound nice. She would have to change the main room into a functioning kitchen if they ever expected to eat a cooked meal, and she would probably have to do that today. Hannah clamored around until she found the kettle and went outside to a nearby creek for some water. As she was outside, she heard a loud welp coming from…the sky?
Cho loved flying. The morning was the best time to fly because that was when the heat from working your muscles combined with the crisp morning air. She was elated that brooms were allowed on this little "assignment." She was not a happy person without her morning ride. As the sun was now starting to rise in the sky, she looked back at the cottage and saw a little white figure waving to her in the distance. She descended to find it was Hannah, getting water from a nearby stream.
"Good morning."
Hannah smiled at her. She was starting to wake up into her normal, cheery self. "Good morning, Cho. Here I thought that I would be the first one up. Would you like to help me make tea?"
"We have tea?"
"It's a gift from Dumbledore. We must have overlooked it in the main room in our hurry to get to bed last night. He gave us some nice black tea to last us at least three months as well as some seeds for growing our own garden."
"What can I do to help?"
"I do need fire wood. Can you chop some for me?"
"I can, but I don't need to. I saw a stash of firewood for us behind the house. I'll go fetch some logs."
Hannah walked back into the cottage with a kettle filled with fresh water. She looked at the fireplace. Somehow, it looked like it had been partially swept since the night before, but there was still a considerable amount of ash. Broom in hand, Hannah began attacking the mounting gray dust inside the fireplace, trying to sweep it outside. Although most of the dust ended up outside, a considerable amount was flung into the air, causing a few coughs from not only Hannah, but also Pansy and Hermione in the other room.
Pansy coughed loudly. What was Hannah doing in that room? She had specifically asked for some tea, not her daily dose of air pollution. She stumbled into the main room to see what was going on.
Hermione had been dreaming about sitting on her grandfather's knee while he smoked tobacco out of his pipe when she awoke coughing loudly. Wait, was that real? No, her grandfather had been dead for several years. It took her several moments to adjust her eyes to the daylight and assess the situation. She was in the cottage, and there were voices in the entry room. A snooty one, Pansy, and a cheerful one, Hannah, were talking. Remembering the new dresser, Hermione unpacked her clothes, leaving the to-do list and the book list on her side of the table top. She then proceeded to the kitchen in search of breakfast.
Hermione could hear the whistle of the tea kettle over the warm fireplace as she entered the main room. She sunk along the nearby wall in order to avoid Pansy's sudden rage in temper.
"What do you mean that there is no food? The old oaf didn't get us food but he was looney enough for some tea? How on earth did he get to run Hogwarts?"
"Calm down, Pansy. I brought along some chocolate frogs and chocolate cauldrons. We can eat that until we can deal with our food situation."
"Oh, count on the pudgy Hufflepuff to have some chocolate saved away for a rainy day. Parkinson's never eat chocolate for breakfast, unless it come straight from Latin America and it is drizzled on something equally expensive. I should have just quit school and left all the blood traitors and mudbloods to rot in this once prestigious Hogwarts!"
Hermione would have gasped at this statement, if she had not remembered that no one knew she was here. Cho did gasp; what horrible things Pansy said! Hannah just stood still. For once, she was not smiling. Calmly she took the steaming kettle off the fire and poured Pansy a cup of steaming black tea. Pansy eagerly accepted it and began sipping the tea. Hermione knew she had to add getting food to the top of her to-do list. She silently retreated back to the bedroom to brainstorm her options.
Five minutes crept by while Hannah and Cho waited for Pansy to finish her tea. After Pansy drained the last drop out of her mug, she slammed the cup on the table as an indication to pour seconds. Hannah obliged and poured a cup for Cho and herself as well. The three girls just sat there sipping their tea in silence. Cho was the first to finish, but she didn't jump up right away, but instead sat there silently. Hannah finished as well and followed suit.
Once Pansy finished, she looked up. The scowl had melted from her face. "How about that chocolate we've been hearing so much about?"
Hannah smiled and went to the bedroom to fetch her chocolate. As she was leaving she saw Pansy turn to Cho and say, "You see, I am not a morning person."
Cho almost died from laughter. Hannah had to hold the doorway for support because she was laughing so hard. Even Pansy's smirk turned into a smile. It felt good to laugh, even though they were still far from becoming friends. It just felt good to laugh.
Hannah stumbled into the bedroom and found Hermione scribbling away at some parchment.
"What are you doing still in bed, Hermione? The sun is up, and we are all going to have breakfast."
"Chocolate frogs and cauldrons, I know. I will be there in a minute."
"What is that you're writing on about?"
"Let me tell you in a minute."
"Can you take it into the main room?"
"In just a minute."
Oddly enough, Hermione's rude behavior was more offensive to Hannah than Pansy's little morning outburst. It was probably because Pansy said those things because she was cranky, but it seems that Hermione always acts like that.
Hannah found her chocolate and placed it on the dresser table in the middle of the room. She put her hands on her hips. "Honey, we are having CHOCOLATE for breakfast, not brussel sprouts. Breakfast will be gone in 'just a minute.'" With that, she collected her chocolate and left.
Hermione couldn't believe that Hannah had that much sass in her. She must have done something to piss that girl off. She gathered her materials and moved into the main room.
No one said good morning to Hermione as she sat down at the table in the main room except for Hannah. She didn't make Hermione feel guilty about being rude a minute before; she just passed along a chocolate frog and smiled. Hermione forgot that chocolate frogs were enchanted to jump, and as soon as she unwrapped it, it headed straight for Pansy's lap.
Pansy picked the frog off her lap and threw it across the table to Hermione. "I believe that this belongs to you." She was almost smiling when she said it.
Cho snickered a little and poured Hermione a cup of tea. Hermione graciously accepted the cup and munched down on her chocolate frog.
Cho looked at the pieces of parchment Hermione carried in with her. "What have you been scribbling about today?"
Hermione answered between bites of chocolate. "Its just a couple of things that need to be done around the cottage and for the salve."
Pansy started to read the To-Do list out loud. "Get food. Maybe hunt? Maybe plant?
Did Mrs. Weasley teach you anything at that despicable home of yours? Every pure-blood knows how to perform a quick-harvest spells, hunting spells and cooking spells. It's just that the food does not taste as good, or it requires more effort, so it is taught as a survival skill."
Cho chimed in. "That means that we can do withough several books – err, get me a quill, Hannah – Food for thought is out, as well as Magical meals…" Cho began mumbling to herself as she crossed out thirty other books concerning food.
Pansy resumed reading the list. "Fix Cottage: roof, fireplace, dusting."
Hannah piped up. "I need to get this room into a functional kitchen. Put that down there"
"Quill, Cho. Kitchen. Next, Ask Madame Pince for books under certain areas: unicorn study, salve study, potion making, life revival."
"I need the quill back, Pansy. We can do without all these unicorn books, I can learn more from just flying around and watching them like I did two summers ago with my uncle in Slovakia. The English unicorns can't be that different from the ones over there. So that rules out seventy-three books we don't need." Cho resumed eagerly scratching away at the parchment.
"While you're at it, scratch out the ones on potion making. We're in our sixth or seventh years next year! If you don't know how to make a potion by now then you're never going to learn."
Cho's scratching became quicker in pace. "A five-book Gilderoy Lockhart series on salves! Hermione, are you daft? Everyone knows that guy is a quack!"
Pansy smirked and looked back at the To-Do list. "Let's see here…acquire ingredients needed for salve according to current St. Mungo's research. I wish that you wouldn't insult my intelligence or my preparation skills, Hermione. I have done research on this salve and I am quite familiar with its current ingredients. I have my own stash of potion ingredients but we are also well stocked in the rare ingredients. The fresh things needed happen to grow abundant in the Forbidden Forest."
Cho finished marking up the parchment. She looked back at her work and sighed. Content, she passed it to Pansy, who nodded her approval as she sent it to Hannah, who smiled as she handed it to Hermione. Still shocked from seeing her valuable work destroyed in a matter of minutes, Hermione grabbed the parchment. Cho had crossed out all two hundred and ninety-two books except for fifteen. Only fifteen books! How was she expected to research a complex salve on only fifteen books? She stood up from her chair and fainted.
A/N: Jarr: I like that abbr. It kinda sounds like something a lion would say. Or a pirate. I hope you like it! Lately I've been cursed with amazing weather that makes me want to stay outside all day, not sit at home, so I haven't been writing for a while.