Hermione laid in her dormitory early the next morning, very much awake, having found that, not for the first time this week, sleep had purposely evaded her. Using the backs of her hands, she rubbed at her eyes weakly as she continued to stare upwards at canopy of her bed, watching it wearily as the deep breathing of those in deep sleep played through the room in whispered harmony. The large, aged heater standing in the middle of the dormitory persisted admirably in its effort to bask the room in its honeyed warmth, the fire licking at its iron rib cage, as the snow continued to fall outside. She rolled over onto her side and took a deep breath as she nestled her head further into her pillow.

It was finally the weekend at Hogwarts and, in according fashion, most students took advantage of the fact that they could perhaps stay in their beds a little while longer. And whilst all the others slept, Hermione couldn't help herself from thinking about what had happened the night before. When she had saved the Weasley twins from what surely would have been detention, or worse, and when Fred had talked to her for the first time in what had felt like months, albeit about a bruise. And, ever so slowly, she could feel a vague flutter of wings take to her stomach as her lips curled upwards into an honest smile. Today would be the day that all would be forgiven, and everything would be right again, she could tell.

And with that thought in mind, she slipped out of bed and opened the trunk at the foot of her bed, taking out her warmest clothes and pulling them on. Making sure to make as little noise as possible, she stepped out of the room and made her way down towards the Great Hall for an early breakfast. The corridors were eerily empty and still, but as she arrived at the large wooden doors, they swung under her touch and revealed, once more, the familiar hall with its four tables spanning the length of the room, lined with odd pockets of students and the gentle hum of conversations. As she had almost expected, the only two people sat at the Gryffindor table were a black-haired bespectacled boy reading an edition of 'Quidditch Through the Ages' and, sat across from him, a ginger-haired boy that was attempting to both wolf down a plateful of sausages and talk at the same time. The second boy drew his gaze upwards for a moment, and spotted her looking at them with an air of amusement. He gave her a clumsy smile, trying to wipe the food from around his mouth as she made her way over towards them and dropped herself by the left of Harry.

'I expect Quidditch practice will be cancelled won't it?' she said, indicating towards the frosted windows as her legs clambered over the bench.

'Yeah' said Harry as he too looked towards the high-rised windows, putting down his book, 'I don't expect that even Wood is that mad to try it in this weather'

Hermione made to reach for a plate of toasted bread far left of her and, as she did, she caught sight of Ron take advantage of her momentary absence and whisper something in Harry's direction, though didn't catch what he had said. She purposely lingered there for a moment longer, watching the two of them out of the corner of her eye as she saw Harry nod and apparently cease the hushed conversation. She reared herself back to their company, pretending as though she hadn't seen, and nibbled, somewhat enthusiastically, on her piece of bread as she gingerly looked at one, then the other. Harry was pretending to be inspecting the front cover of his book whilst Ron looked around the room quite uncontrollably, his cheeks beginning to blush under her gaze.

'Okay, what is it?' she demanded of them.

Harry looked up from his book, seemingly unaware of what was going on and tried to apply his best 'I-don't-know-what-you're-talking-about' face. Ron, however, was never as good as Harry at lying. His cheeks had turned a more violent shade of red that wasn't becoming of him.

'What?' he said in a pitchy voice 'It's not like-'

There was a loud groan from Ron, befitting of someone who had just been kicked under the table by their best friend, and he clutched at his shin, wincing in pain. Harry's eyes widened at Ron as if to warn him against saying anything more, which Hermione unfortunately caught.

'Seriously. What is it?' she directed at Harry, figuring Ron was in a little too much pain to be talking, sounding more worried than curious now.

'I-It's nothing, really..' he said, before sighing. 'It's just that we were going to ask you if you wanted to come to Hogsmeade with us today because... Well, we were planning on getting you early birthday presents to cheer you up because of the lousy time you've had. It was kind of going to be a secret. To surprise you'

Hermione was stunned into a temporary silence, and then threw herself upon Harry in appreciation.

'Oh, Harry, you didn't have to!' she squeaked as they embraced one another tightly.

'I know, I know' he laughed as he clutched at the folds of her jumper. 'But we wanted to.'

The second she drew herself from Harry, she had thrown her arms across the table and brought as much of Ron as she could into a hug also, showering him with the same magnitude of praise as he grinned widely in to her shoulder. After a short while, they let go of each other and Hermione gave a small laugh whilst wiping at her eyes with the sleeve of her jumper as she noticed that more people had dragged themselves from their beds in order to catch the last little bit of breakfast. The Gryffindor table was almost full now, as were most of the others, which had made what had happened next even more enjoyable.

Draco Malfoy had entered the Great Hall, covered head to toe in patches of a thick brown sludge, flanked by a large number similarly unfortunate Slytherin students that seemed to have fallen victim to the same predicament. They walked hurriedly over to their seats at their largely empty house table as the smell of the muck wafted through the room, turning a few stomachs on its way. Almost immediately upon catching sight of them, the hall erupted into deafening whoops of laughter, with the exception, of course, of the Slytherins, who shot looks of pure loathing in every direction. No one was more entertained, however, than both Fred and George Weasley who were doubled over as they howled with laughter, looking as though they were about to cry with sheer pleasure. When they had regained themselves, and as the rest of the houses continued to roar with amusement, they took turns to give short bows to those few sat around them whilst they were praised with applause.

Hermione leant forwards and peered down the table at the two of them. This was what they had been doing last night and she had never been so pleased that someone had broken the school rules. She watched on as George broke once more into fits of laughter, joined by Dean Thomas who looked as though he was about to burst with enjoyment. And Fred, he sat grinning animatedly at those around him. Shaking hands with his brother. And then looking directly at her. Only for a moment, but a moment that seemed to linger. She couldn't quite tell whether he looked happy, or sad, or neither, but she broke the eye contact first. She pulled herself back into her seat and turned to share a smile with both Harry and Ron, who looked just as, if not more, amused than everyone else at the current predicament.

'Bloody brilliant' Ron said, shaking his head as he looked on at his two older brothers.

Hermione stared into her lap and smiled once more.

'I'll just go grab my hat, it'll be cold in Hogsmeade' she mentioned as she clambered back off the bench, 'I'll meet you outside in a few minutes.'

Rushing back up to the dormitory, she found a pink woolen hat in a small compartment of her trunk and stuffed it inside her brown satchel, along with a matching pair of knitted gloves and a few sickles. She took a sweeping look of the empty dormitory and took a deep breath as she closed her eyes and smiled earnestly to herself. Today was most definitely the day everything would go right. Becoming aware of the time, she slipped quietly out of the room once more and went to join the two best friends she could ever have wished for downstairs.

Author's notes: What happens in the next chapter was meant to be included in this but it would be way too long with what I want to write.

And I'd just like to say thank you for putting up with my slow writing, I'm trying to do some more over Christmas.

Which leads me on to my next point which is that, for those of you paying close attention to the timeline of the story, technically only really a week has gone by and it's still sometime in September. Buuuuuuuuut, in a few chapters I'm planning on having a christmas chapter and what not so I'm just making the point now that I'm not really sticking to a 'real' timeline at all.

That did not make sense at all but I'm not even going to attempt to explain it.

And, as always, please review because it genuinely makes my day :~)