Elf at Easter
Before Hermione explained the events of the night to Professor McGonagall they managed to find the broom cupboard where Ginny and Gavin had been stuffed into by Katrina (it was located in the Gryffindor common room). Hermione explained what had happened, Katrina, the cruciartous curse, polyjuice potion and the thing in the forest.
"What did McGonagall say then?" asked Ginny at the breakfast table, "That Katrina deserves everything that she has coming to her after what she did to me and Gavin."
"Well, she will no longer be repeating her fifth year." Said Hermione,
"What? You mean she gets to move up to her sixth year-after that?" Ginny had a raging tone of anger in her voice,
"No, she got expelled." Said Hermione,
"Good, that's a start, though I think that she should have a cell reserved for her in Azkaban." Declared Demelza,
"Isn't that a bit harsh?" said Luna in her dreamy tone, Ginny, Demelza and Hermione stared at her,
"No, no it isn't." said Ginny.
"Have you guys heard of the Easter egg hunt I'm planning?" asked Luna,
"Um, no, we haven't." said Hermione,
"It will all be good fun; the houses go head to head to find the most Easter eggs of the six hundred and forty three that shall be hidden around Hogwarts." Luna explained,
"Sounds great." said Ginny, "I didn't think that you'd like competitive challenges though?"
"I don't, that part was the head boys idea after I brought the hunt to his attention." Said Luna,
"Where will they be hidden?" asked Demelza,
"I can't tell you that, that would be cheating; besides, I don't know, Hagrid's going to be hiding them." Luan told them,
"Will there be any kind of prize?" asked Hermione,
"Well, I originally suggested that we give the winners a basket of dirigible plums at first but the head boy has changed it to a large Honeydukes lollypop for everyone in the house that wins and ten galleons plus a lollipop for the singular person who obtains the most eggs." She said, "You're all welcome to take part."
"Yeah, sure…we…could." Demelza struggled and the other two gave short nods.
"Anyway, Hermione, what do you think that thing in the forest was?" asked Ginny,
"Well, it was a man, definitely a man and, whatever or whoever he was, I'm pretty sure that it was whatever has been attacking creatures in the forest, it had sharp teeth and was covered in blood." said Hermione.
Hermione woke up on Easter morning with something at the end of her four poster bed; it was a tray full of delicious chocolate eggs from Mrs. Weasley. She looked over and saw that Ginny was also indulging in the eggs.
"So, we have that Easter egg hunt to, um, look forward too." said Demelza who had received a couple of larger eggs and was trying to crack the top of one with her teeth.
Ginny and Demelza were both wearing headbands with white rabbit ears upon them, then Hermione saw a pair of ears for herself at the end of her bed. She tore off the tag that said: From Luna. She put the rabbit ears on her head and continued to eat the chocolate eggs.
Hermione went down to breakfast with Ginny and Demelza; they had removed their rabbit ears. The three of them sat with Luna who was wearing the ears,
"Aren't you wearing your bunny ears that I sent you, I made them myself." said Luna's dreamy tone,
'Yeah, they're great; I'll just…put them on." Hermione pulled the ears out of her beaded bag where she had put them and handed Ginny and Demelza theirs.
"They really suit you, you know." said Luna.
"Yeah, they look great." Demelza forced a smile,
"You hate them don't you? It's okay, I don't mind." said Luna,
"No, we love them." Said Ginny
"Sorry I have to go, I've got to go and help set up the hunt." Luna left the table and Hermione saw that she was wearing a pretty white dress with a large daffodil sewn onto the front and well decorated eggs stitched along the bottom.
After breakfast most of the students went out into the grounds where a small stage had been set up, Luna stood there with a megaphone and yelled into it,
"LET THE HUNT BEGIN!" The students dispersed across the Hogwarts grounds, Hermione went in the direction of Hagrid's cabin where she saw something in a bush, she put her hand into it and pulled out a prettily decorated pink egg and put it into the whicker basket that she, and everybody else, had been given.
Over the next hour Hermione had found six more eggs, two in trees, another in a different bush, one in a suit of armor's hand, one in a gargoyles mouth and one inside a torch in a bracket which were all over Hogwarts. She got out into the transfiguration courtyard and she saw a group of Slytherins robbing eggs from a couple of first years. Hermione was walking up to them without thinking,
"Oi! Give them their eggs back." Hermione stated firmly in front of the Slytherins,
'What are you going to do about it you dirty little mudblood." said a Slytherin boy,
"I'll show you what I'm going to do.' Hermione had know idea where she was going with this, she surely couldn't duel with the dozen people opposing her, and she would definitely lose would she not?
A Slytherin shot a curse at Hermione, she dodged it, another curse flew at her, and she dodged that too. She took refuge behind the fountain and shot a jinx at them with caused a Slytherin girl to topple over which made the domino effect and knocked most of them to the ground. The first years ran away, Hermione shot up to fire a hex when all of the Slytherins had fired a curse at her and they were all coming for her.
Her legs wouldn't let her duck or run, all she could do was accept the twelve curses that were coming for her. Suddenly someone stood in front of Hermione; they used their wand to block the curses and sent the Slytherins back to the ground. They all ran away yelling things like,
"You wait until my parents hear about this!" or
"You should be expecting a letter from the ministry!"
Aberforth, the person who had saved her, turned around to face Hermione and asked,
"Are you alright?"
'Yes," answered Hermione, "Thank you."
"No problem, Hogwarts has always had trouble with that house; the ones I remember will be receiving a detention." Hermione plucked a blue egg out of the water, put it in her basket and ran along.
A few hours later Hermione gathered with everyone else who had taken part in the hunt, there didn't seem to be any Slytherins there though, odd. Luna stood on the stage with her megaphone and spoke into it,
"THE EGGS HAVE BEEN COUNTED, THE WINNING HOUSE WITHTHREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY SEVEN EGGS-RAVENCLAW!" all of the people clapped around the Ravenclaw house, Luan continued, "THE INDEVIDUAL WINNER IS…DEMMY ROBINS!" Demelza and the Ravenclaws stepped onto the stairs, they all received there large Honeydukes lollipops and Luna handed Demelza ten Galleons.
The crowd gathered around the stage clapped when they heard a yell,
"Fire at will!" cried a mysterious voice, suddenly, all of the Slytherins charged at the people around and on the stage with eggs. They threw them at the people, covering them in yolk and egg white. They kept on charging and throwing eggs everywhere, Hermione's rabbit ears and robes got hit and she saw one go into Ginny's hair. Then some people got into the eggs that had been counted and began throwing them back at the Slytherins.
Hermione got into the entrance hall to get away from all of the mayhem outside. She heard people talking in the great hall; she opened the door a crack and saw inside. Danielle was in there with a wizard,
"Is this a good price?" asked Danielle who handed the wizard a sack, the wizard looked inside, Hermione assumed that it was full of money,
"Oh yes, I'll get it done for you." Said the wizard, he was now walking towards the door of the great hall, Hermione panicked and leaned against the wall next the great hall trying to look nonchalant. The man came out of the great hall, he looked at Hermione,
"What, something you'd like to ask?" Hermione asked,
"No, nothing." The man left the castle.
Danielle then stepped out of the great hall,
"Ahh," she screamed, "Sorry Hermione, you startled me, good news, some of the house elves were willing to accept a Sickle per week."
"Great, just no wands with that hearing coming up." said Hermione, "Better get out there, Easter egg fight, pretty messy."
"Yes, I'll be off, nice ears, shame about the yolk." Danielle left the castle.
Hermione sat on her four poster bed awaiting a response. She had sent a question via patronous to Harry. She needed to find out what Danielle was up to, when she tried to follow Danielle out of the castle a curse flew in front of her, but when she turned to see the caster of the curse, no-one was there. Had this been the man that Danielle had been paying, had she paid him to kill Hermione? She wouldn't find out unless she carried out her plan.
Hermione pondered over this for about five minutes before a silver stag (Harry's patronous) burst though the wall, it spoke with Harry's voice,
"Hermione, I just got your message, of course you can use Kreacher, I've ordered him to obey you, sorry, kind of defied S.P.E.W, all you have to do is call upon him." The stag evaporated into silver vapor.
Hermione sat there and said,
"Kreacher?" suddenly, with the noise of a crack, the form of Kreacher the house elf stood in front of her,
"Yes Mistress Mudblood, I mean Granger?" said the old elf,
"Kreacher, I want you to stalk Professor Ruperts, find out what she gets up to, and you mustn't be seen by her whilst you do this, understand?" asked Hermione,
"Kreacher will carry out the task, Mistress."
"Just call me Hermione okay, and here." Hermione handed Kreacher a couple of silver Sickles,
"Kreacher cannot accept this." He said,
"Yes you can." Hermione put it in his hand,
"But Kreacher would be-" he started,
"Kreacher, I order you to accept this money, okay, goodbye." Said Hermione,
"Goodbye…Hermione." Kreacher disappeared with another crack; Hermione was determined to find out what Danielle was up to.