Chapter 21

It didn't matter how much rest she had received the previous night. It also didn't matter how great her skills were as a chaperone. Hermione knew none of it really mattered when it came to her special class. Of course, there was the fact that they hadn't bothered to pull anything the day before, but there was the possibility that they were distracted by the test.

No kind of work, whether test or school work, ever stopped them before, she thought as she watched them from behind her desk. But she wasn't so sure she could think such a thing any more.

So far, it had been a quiet, peaceful morning. The kids were acting like little angels, which Hermione knew they couldn't possibly be. Once again, she found herself glancing back at them more often then she should have, or checking favorite areas for traps. The only thing she received from them was a laugh or two and a few questions as to what she was doing. There was no messy substance coming her way; no wands to rip off her clothes; and most importantly there were no curses, substances, or little hands striking her butt.

As things had continued going so well, Hermione released a sigh of relief and relaxed.

Maybe they're already tired of it, or they just can't think of anything else to do.

Either way, she had more important things to concern herself with, like the birthday party for Barrin which would come right after lunch. Mrs. Fogg had stopped her that morning to give her some party decorations and to tell her Mrs. Hopkins would stop by to help decorate the class and bring in other party necessities, like the cake. That would require Hermione to miss out on taking the kids to the cafeteria, but another teacher offered to deliver them for her and bring them back to the surprise. Mrs. Hopkins would bring her class back and leave them with Hermione to celebrate with Barrin.

If there was anything positive about it, it was that there would only be one class joining hers. She checked the clock and saw that it was nearly lunch time.

"Hey everyone!" Hermione jumped with Barrin's sudden cry. She instantly looked all around for a sign of a sudden gag. "Today's my birthday!"

"It's your birthday?" cried Tony.

"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" asked Aggy.

"That's awesome. How old are you?" asked Sammy.

" Six," he said smugly.

The kids continued to congratulate Barrin while he grinned.

"Alright, alright, settle down," said Hermione.

"Hey Hermione, did you know?" asked Torics. The rest of the class turned to her.

"Well, you could say I did," she said with a grimace.

"Then we need to do something for him," said Alice.

"Yeah! Like a party!" said Torics.

"You really think you deserve a party, after everything you did to me?" Hermione questioned. How she wished she didn't have to throw a party. She turned to Barrin and glared as she felt he was somehow setting her up. Him mentioning his birthday and Torics suggesting a party made her suspicious.

"Oh come on, don't be so sensitive," said Bruno. "We haven't done anything to you for a while."

A while isn't long enough, she thought angrily.

"I'm sorry, no." The kids' disappointed groans were music to her ears, but she knew she wouldn't be able to enjoy it for long. "Alright, it's time for lunch."

The class lined up just as someone knocked on the door. Hermione opened the door to reveal Ms. Thomas, another kindergarten teacher who would be escorting her class to lunch while she prepared the room for the party.

"Are they ready?" Ms. Thomas asked. She looked as if she was weary of Hermione.

"Yes, you can take them now."

"What? You're not taking us?" Barrin asked.

"Nope. So if you had something planned for me in the cafeteria, it's just too bad for you," she said sternly. At last, she saw the kids exchanging looks that told her they most likely did have something planned in the lunch room. "Go on, then."

Once they had left, Hermione gave a big sigh before turning to the hidden boxes of party items. She was in no mood to do any of it, but she still made an effort as she levitated the "Happy Birthday" banner across the ceiling. She magically inflated several red, gold, white and black balloons and tied them in various places in the room. By the time she got around to rearranging the desks, there was another knock at the door. Mrs. Hopkins poked her head in and smiled.

"Are they gone? Is it safe?"

"Yes, they've gone," Hermione answered.

"Good." Mrs. Hopkins disappeared for a moment, then returned with a large sheet cake floating before her via her wand. "Where would you like me to set it?"

"I'm using some of the desks to make a table," Hermione explained. "Give me a minute."

"Alright, I'll help you." Mrs. Hopkins set the cake down on Hermione's desk, then proceeded to help her.

A dragon themed tablecloth was placed across the desks that were made to be the table, which now held the cake. The cake, Hermione saw, was half chocolate and half vanilla with fiery colored icing. "Happy Birthday Barrin" was written in purple icing and placed in-between two toy dragons that roared and sprayed sparks at each other. Much to Hermione's concern, Mrs. Hopkins brought in four tiki torches that stood on their own near the corners of the room. When she lit them, red and orange sparks erupted, making them appear as if them were flickering flames. She assured Hermione they were completely safe. There were a few more party decorations in one of the boxes, including something that looked like a piñata, but Hermione didn't want to over do it, so she pushed it out of sight.

Streamers were strung around the hanging banner, and plates and cups were laid down upon the student's desks. Hermione cautiously opened a box that released three small flying dragon toys that chased each other in an imperfect circle around the room.

"Barrin loves his dragons, but we couldn't bring in a real dragon, of course," said Mrs. Hopkins with a laugh.

"Really, I couldn't tell," said Hermione sarcastically.

"Oh yes. Mrs. Fogg told me so after she asked his parents."

Hearing this didn't make Hermione feel so confident in gaining Mrs. Fogg's forgiveness, as she hadn't said a word to her about Barrin's favorite things.

Once the room was done, both Hermione and Mrs. Hopkins left to retrieve the cherry punch, and the ice-cream from the teacher's lounge. The only thing that was missing, were presents. Hermione, of course, didn't believe Barrin deserved any, but Mrs. Hopkins did bring it up.

"Well, no gifts, but I do have a few games you can borrow. I'm afraid it'll be up to you to entertain them further."

"Of course it will," Hermione said under her breath.

Mrs. Hopkins brought in a few simple kiddy games, like a wizard's version of Twister, little brooms that levitated about three feet off the ground, simple card games, and a squishy ball the kids could play catch with. The last thing Mrs. Hopkins left Hermione with was a music player and a box of self lighting candles that played music.

"Well, it looks like everything's settled," said Mrs. Hopkins as they both surveyed the room. "Ms. Thomas should be back with your class soon, so I'll go and prepare mine. Good luck."

She left Hermione with a sense of dread growing in the pit of her stomach. This was practically her last chance to prove herself to Mrs. Fogg. She was so nervous, she started to pace.

"It's alright, everything will be fine," she told herself. "They haven't been pulling pranks, so, it's going to go fine. They have enough entertainment, so..."

She trailed off as she heard the heavy knock against the door. She heard Ms. Thomas call out her name. Hermione took a deep breath and released it.

"Here we go," she whispered as she opened the door.

As expected, the kids were quite surprised. They stood in the doorway gawking at their transformed classroom. It didn't last as they quickly hurried inside, cheering.

"So we are doing something!" cried Alice.

"I knew Hermione couldn't resist!" said Barrin who was grinning from ear to ear.

"Happy Birthday, Barrin!" cried Lori.

The others gathered around him to grant him the same greeting, then they scattered to check out everything laid before them while Hermione and Ms. Thomas watched from the doorway.

"You and Mrs. Hopkins did a fantastic job," said Ms. Thomas as she smiled at them. "I can tell they're going to have lots of fun."

"I have no doubt," Hermione admitted bitterly.

Ms. Thomas turned to her, and her smile dropped.

"I hope you're able to do well as a chaperone. If you do need help, do come to me."

"Um, I will," Hermione replied. She hated how Ms. Thomas, who was known to be one of the most soft-hearted teachers in the school, was looking down on her coldly.

"It shouldn't be a problem," Ms. Thomas said before turning away.

Just as she left, Mrs. Hopkins came up with her class. Her group of eight entered the room laughing and cheering, and quickly united with Hermione's class as if they'd always been together.

"Well, I'll leave the rest to you," said Mrs. Hopkins. "If you have any problems, or concerns, come and see me."

Hermione only nodded with a smile, but inside she detested that yet another teacher didn't see her as being capable of handling a party.

Mrs. Hopkins left, but not before telling her class to be on their best behavior and to mind Hermione. Her class agreed, so she left. Hermione closed the door and leaned against it as she faced a class of eighteen.

"Okay, everyone, as you can clearly see, it's Barrin's birthday." Hermione had to stop as they kids started cheering and congratulating him. "Yes, Happy Birthday Barrin. Now then, I want you all to know that while this is a party, I still expect you to behave properly. Is that understood?"

The kids gave a brief nod before going back to exploring the goodies. The music player was turned on and a small group began to dance around. A few of the others settled together to start playing some of the games or chase the flying toy dragons. The rest, including Barrin, were gathered around the cake. Barrin was hovering a hand over the cake as if he was about to dig in, and without a fork.

Hermione hurried over to stop him, but Lori did it for her.

"Stop! We have to sing Happy Birthday first."

"That's right, Lori," said Hermione. "Everyone, gather around. Gather around! We have to sing Happy Birthday."

While Hermione was busy making sure all the kids followed her instruction, Barrin, Lori, Sammy, Torics and Bruno gathered in a huddle.

"Since Hermione was nice enough to give us this party, what do you say we return the favor?" the birthday boy asked slyly.

"Absolutely," Bruno agreed. "She's here to entertain us, after all."

"What? What are you on about?" asked one of Mrs. Hopkins's kids who was nearby listening.

"This is kind of a special class," Lori explained.

"Yeah, watch and learn, then follow our lead. You don't know how lucky you are to be in this class," said Barrin.

They broke their huddle just as Hermione ushered the last of the kids to the table. Barrin moved to stand before the cake while Hermione placed the candles. They automatically began to light. After all six were set, Hermione led the class as they sang 'Happy Birthday'. After the cheers and claps that followed the song, Barrin tried to blow out the candles, but the sparks kept changing colors. Eventually they went out, but not before performing a mini fireworks display which further delighted the kids.

"Wow, Hermione! You sure did a lot," said Barrin, "especially when you said you weren't going to do anything."

"I guess you can say I had a change of heart."

"So have we," said Bruno.

Hermione turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

"What's that suppose to mean?"

She received her answer when something exploded across the side of her face. She gasped, but her surprise turned to anger when she realized it was cake that hit her. She turned to the culprit who turned out to be Barrin with the evidence of cake crumbs and icing in his right hand. He licked his fingers innocently.

"Yum! Chocolate."

"Why you-"

She felt another strike and this time it was at the back of her head. The incident with the sandwich was coming back to her. Sammy grinned as he raised his empty, frosting stained hands.

"I knew you hadn't changed! It was all an act. You don't deserve this party at all!" Hermione cried.

Her class simply started to laugh and began to throw more cake at her while Mrs. Hopkins's class looked on in stunned silence. They weren't sure what to make of this. A couple of Hermione's kids noticed and took it upon themselves to reassure them.

"It's alright, we do this stuff all the time," said Barrin.

"Yeah, we're professionals," said Miles.

"Professional pranksters," said Ben.

"And your teacher just lets you get away with it?" asked a blonde girl named Jane.

"She must be pretty lame," said a freckle-faced boy named Charlie.

"Yeah, she is," said Alice. "Go on, give it a try."

Jane reluctantly took a hand full of cake. She hesitated a moment before launching it and striking Hermione right in the face. The whole class went silent as it was one of the new kids who dared to cross Hermione. The silence was only broken by the noises Hermione made as she wiped away the cake from her face. The icing and cake had smeared all over her. When she cleared her line of vision, she looked directly at Jane in surprise.

"You?"

"Get her!" Alice shouted.

No one was holding back any longer. Everyone was throwing cake at Hermione, and it was getting everywhere. With so many more kids than ten, Hermione was finding it difficult to keep track of them or to stop them in any way. She thought about using her wand, but she realized someone had removed it from her pocket.

"Who...took, my...wand!" she demanded in the chaos of flying cake. In response, a pair of hands grabbed her arms and pulled her forward while another pair of hands grabbed her waistband.

No! Don't show my butt to this class! she thought wildly. But they didn't pance her. They simply stuffed generous amounts of cake down her pants. She could even feel it in her underwear. Hermione shrieked and jumped up and down as if it was enough to shake the cake out of her pants.

Someone grabbed the front of her shirt and stuffed cake down into her bra. Hermione swung out her arms to capture Lori who was responsible for this part, but she missed the girl entirely.

Lori climbed onto the table where the last of the destroyed cake remained. Without thinking, Hermione jumped up onto the table in hot pursuit. While Lori missed the cake completely, Hermione slipped and fell face first on the cake's remains. Her humiliating fall created a great eruption of laughter, especially from Mrs. Hopkins' class.

"That was great!" said a boy named Jones.

"Mrs. Hopkins should have brought us to this class sooner," said another boy named Toby.

"And you don't get into trouble?" Janes asked.

"Nope," said Bruno with a confident smile. "We can't now, cause we have her word."

"What do you mean?" asked Toby.

"We'll explain later," said Barrin. "Right now, this is a party, and the entertainment's getting away."

They watched as Hermione struggled to make her way to the bathroom without slipping and slammed the door behind her.

"Alright, what's next?" asked Jones. The rest of Mrs. Hopkins' class came forward, eager to learn other ways to have fun with their teacher.

When Hermione left the bathroom, as clean as she could make herself, she found the kids engaging themselves in the Wizard Twister game simply known as 'Twist It'. There was a small, colorful disco like ball floating above them, projecting colorful circles on the floor which moved around slowly. Six of the kids were twisting to reach the different colored circles with their hands, knees, feet, and elbows. Bruno was standing on the desk with the spinner that directed which part of their body touched which circle, and called out the commands to them. Aggy tried to reach for a yellow circle with her right hand, but collapsed, causing Miles and another boy from Mrs. Hopkin's class to fall over. They didn't pout, but laughed at themselves.

"Oh, Hermione, you're just in time," said Aggy.

"I most certainly am, to end this party!" she shouted.

"Oh come on, don't you want to play?" asked Barrin.

Hermione was about to answer, but her body did it for her as it started to sway back and forth in a playful manner.

What?

She turned and saw that Torics had brought out the voodoo doll and was swaying it side to side.

Oh no! Not that...that...dreadful...doll!

Hermione was forced to place her hands on her hips, bend forward and shake her butt. It was the perfect timing as the song now playing on the player was, 'Shake Your Grove Thing'. Hermione was shaking her butt harder and in ways she couldn't imagine. The class was practically rolling on the floor. Hermione was dropped low to the floor, then brought to a standing position while shaking her butt up and down slowly. She did a cart-wheel and landed in the play area of the twister game.

"Let me! My turn!" said Barrin as he took over the doll from Torics.

Just then there was a knock on the door and Mrs. Hopkins poked her head in.

"Hermione, I thought I'd see how, oh my..."

She gasped at the sight of Hermione doing disco moves under the disco like ball. Hermione met her gaze with a similar stunned expression.

"Mrs. Hopkins, please..."

"Oh how fantastic! Showing these kids how it's done. The good old fashion dance moves never die."

"No, you don't understand!"

She turned to see which one of the kids had the doll, but she didn't see it in sight. They did, however, keep up her dance performance now that Mrs. Hopkins believed Hermione was doing this of her own accord.

"Well I'll leave you to it! Party hard everyone!" Mrs. Hopkins said before leaving.

"No! Wait!"

Hermione didn't get a chance to form more words as she was bent forward.

"Left hand red!" shouted Barrin.

Whoever had the doll moved Hermione's hand to one of the red circles. He called out the next command, and Hermione's right foot was moved to a blue circle. The next command required her left knee to hit a green circle. Hermione already felt herself wobbling, but the puppeteer made sure she didn't fall and kept her in motion with the moving circles.

"Twist it Hermione!" shouted Torics.

Her right hand was moved to a yellow circle. When a command called for her left elbow to hit green, she toppled over.

"Hey, watch this!" said Aggy as she raised Hermione's wand and pointed it at the circling toy dragons. They immediately changed course and started a beeline for Hermione's butt.

Little sparks greeted Hermione's rear. It wasn't enough to cause pain, but it was enough to startle her. She jumped up and started swatting them away, but they dove in and around her, breathing out sparks that targeted her in various areas and felt like little needle pricks.

"Stop it, you brats! I mean it!"

"I think things are just heating up," said Bruno as he secretly took down one of the tiki torches. When Hermione wasn't looking, he raised the sparking end to Hermione's end.

"Hey, what's that..." Hermione trailed off and looked down to see her pants sparking like a firecracker.

She screamed and jumped about, now realizing it was doing her no good. Though the sparks weren't as dangerous as real fire, they did create an uncomfortable, hot, prickling sensation against her butt. She had to get out of them, but to her horror, she saw she might not have to as the sparks were starting to eat up her jeans. The watching crowd cheered as Hermione hopped about while pulling off her shoes and attempting to get off her deteriorating pants.

She finally managed to and was left in her underwear as she collapsed on the floor in exhaustion.

"I'll show you," Hermione hissed through her teeth. "You can't get away with this."

"Speaking of show," said Bruno as he turned to the other class. "You guys need to see one of our best artworks."

Miles, Barrin, and Ben raced forward to hold Hermione down while Bruno and Alice pulled off Hermione's underwear. The draft hit her exposed rear instantly.

NO! Not my butt! Again!

Her cheeks became hot at the roar of laughter.

"We call it the Year-Butt!" said Miles proudly.

"That's great!" said a sandy haired girl named Emmie.

"And so creative," said Jones as he dared to pinch one of the eyes drawn on one of her cheeks.

Hermione cried out in surprise and got to her feet, but when she realized she was half naked in front of a group of new students, she crouched down again and tried to cover up.

"Alright, party's...OVER!"

"I don't think so," said Aggy.

"What now?" asked Charlie.

"It's time for another game," said Barrin as he pushed out the hidden box of party supplies. He patted the curious looking piñata object and grinned. "Courtesy of our teacher."

Hermione now recognized that the piñata object was in the form of pants, and she started putting two and two together. "Oh, no you don't!" She attempted to scramble away, but the three boys reaffirmed their vice-like grip on the teenager so that all Hermione could do was flail her bare legs. Aggy took the liberty to sit on her teacher's waist to help prevent that.

Barrin grinned like a madman as he came over and proceeded to put the piñata pants on Hermione. Lori, meanwhile, walked forward with a length of pink rope in her hands, which she started looping around Hermione's chest.

For the first time, Hermione tried playing the sympathy card. "Can't we just talk about this? Surely there's some other prank you'd…rather…pull?" The stupidity of her plea occurred to her as she said it.

"Did you really just say that?" cackled Barrin as he attached a hook on the rope to the waistband of the festive pants. He then took the wand from Aggy as she stood up, which allowed Barrin to magically lift Hermione into the air. The unused trail of rope instantly connected to the ceiling, resulting in Hermione dangling in the air like the human piñata she now was.

"Just wait until I get my hands on you!" Hermione snarled down at the party goers. She suddenly felt the voodoo force take hold of her once again, this time twisting her so that her butt was most prominent in this new position.

Of course…my butt…it's always my butt.

"And just you wait until we get our batting sticks on your big ol' butt!" sneered Lori as she passed out what looked like multicolored pipes, only not made of lead. "Okay, everyone! Let's see how many hits it takes to burst that Bubble Butt!"

"No, wait-"

Hermione was cut off as the kids swarmed around her and mercilessly began whacking her rear with their weapons. The blows were cushioned somewhat by the candy she could feel lining the inside of the pants, but they were still hard enough to make her go "Ouch!" and "Oooh!" with every hit. She even spun around a little, but the kids followed her butt wherever it went.

It got to the point where Hermione feared that her butt would be black and blue before the day was done, but eventually there came one tumultuous hit, powerful enough to cause the pants to finally break apart. At the moment of contact, Hermione could see that it was Barrin who was the one to deliver the pants-shattering blow.

Hermione shrieked as she fell in the middle of a shower of candy, hitting the carpeted floor with an "Oooof!" She sensed the kids greedily snatching up the candy, and even a few spanks delivered to her upturned rear.

Such insolence made Hermione awkwardly get to her feet, her arms still bound to her sides making it difficult. "Stop this instant!" she yelled.

"But we're not done playing yet!" declared Tony, who was standing level with her on an adjacent table. "We still have to play Pin The Tail on the Dragon!"

"What?" asked Hermione as she turned around, only to have a blindfold get tied around her head. "Hey!" If she currently had the use of her arms, Hermione would have simply removed it, but for now, it was stuck there.

Soon after, Hermione felt a brief burst of pain on her rear, as if she'd been stuck with a needle.

"OOOOH!"

"Oh, did we not mention?" said Tony cheekily. "YOU'RE the dragon!"

"Get the dragon!" proclaimed Barrin as if it were a war cry. In retrospect, it was.

Hermione literally started running blindly around the room, not wanting to be poked with whatever it was that the kids were attempting to prick her with. Twice during the mad dash, she felt that same sharp pain, signifying just how fast these kids were.

But Hermione knew that running without a field of vision would come back to bite her on the butt, much like the other three pricks she felt. That moment arrived sooner rather than later when all of a sudden, she ran straight into what felt like the crumbly remains of the cake, the tray of which had obviously been held up just so she could run into it. Groaning, Hermione remained standing, her face and chest planted into the upright cake tray. This, of course, provided ample opportunity for one more prick of the tail.

"OW!

"The dragon has been defeated!" cried Miles.

"Not quite yet," said Barrin slyly.

Oh, what now? Hermione moaned to herself, giving in to that very defeat.

"I still need a present to unwrap! And I can't think of any better gift to receive than you, Hermione! You're just like a doll; so much fun to play around with!"

Before Hermione could say another word, she felt many pairs of tiny hands hauling her down to the floor, where she had the sensation of landing on some smooth, paper-like surface. It didn't take her long to catch on.

Not that she could physically resist all that effectively anyway, but Hermione still didn't put up a fight as she felt the wrapping paper whip into place around her body in a virtual whirlwhind. She could sense tiny airholes being punched in above the facial region, of which she was grateful for.

She assumed the wrapping had been completed, because she soon heard Lori speak again.

"Go ahead, Barrin! Open your gift!"

"Glad to!" Barrin replied.

The sound of ripping paper filled Hermione's ears and before she knew it, she could see again. Barrin had ripped open the paper that had been above her face, removed her blindfold and was now smiling down at her.

"Just what I've always wanted! A person thick enough to keep falling for my pranks!"

"You -"

Hermione was rolled onto her front, and she didn't need three guesses what for. The kids ravaged the paper until her butt was framed by it, leaving the rest of her body gift-wrapped.

"Quite the thing to unwrap!" Barrin cackled above the fresh outburst of laughter.

By this point, Hermione simply didn't have the stamina left in her to verbally protest the kids' actions. If this was to be her fate until she returned to Hogwarts, and she had been so unsuccessful in stopping it thus far, then was there really any point left in fighting back?

She let the kids unwrap the rest of her, until she was back down to just her top. However, there suddenly came knocks at the door.

"Quick! Get her in her chair!"

Hermione's lack of energy practically made her go limp as the kids all grabbed hold of her and dragged her over to her desk chair. They pushed her in to fully mask her lack of bottoms. Hastily, her bonds were removed, freeing her arms.

The classroom door opened, revealing Mrs. Hopkins, who was accompanied by a barrage of parents. Most of the little troublemakers immediately ran into their parents' arms, except for Barrin, who stood happily beside Hermione while two adults who Hermione recognized as his parents made their way to them.

"So," said Barrin's dad as his son came up to him for a rustling of the hair, "it seems you threw our son quite the birthday party." He took in the festive surroundings.

Weakly, Hermione managed a fake smile. "Yes. He definitely seemed very...pleased with it." She threw Barrin a furtive look.

"Well, good," piped up his mother as she traced a loving hand across his cheek. "We regret we were unable to get off work today, but we're happy he still had a lovely time on his day."

"Oh, I did!" Barrin squealed in delight.

His father stuck his hand out towards Hermione. "Thank you for the hard work." He genuinely seemed satisfied, which shocked Hermione.

All she could do was take his hand and silently shake it. "Er...it was no trouble." She didn't dare move a single inch, lest she accidentally show some of her lower bare flesh.

I can't believe I'm thinking this, but this is a rare occasion where a Sticking Charm from one of those brats would come in handy. It would have made things SO much easier.

By now, all the other kids and parents had filed out of the room, leaving Hermione completely alone with the Jones family.

"What do you say to Miss Granger, darling?" prompted Barrin's mother.

"Thanks SO much for the party, Hermione!" The glee in his voice was undoubtedly genuine.

Hermione could do nothing but keep up the charade as she smiled her fake smile again. "You're welcome, Barrin. Now, you go enjoy your weekend and I'll see you Monday."

Barrin gave her a look that said "Oh, yes I will!" and accompanied his parents out of the classroom, leaving Hermione half-naked and alone with her thoughts.

And as she sat there, still recuperating from the onslaught that the afternoon had brought, an idea suddenly occurred to her. It was the kind of idea that seemed so obvious, and yet so risky, but it was still an idea that Hermione knew she had to try come Monday. For all she knew, it was the last ace she had up her sleeve.