"Come on Hermione, I really need your help with this"

A disembodied grunt came from a pile of bedding in the Gryffindor common room. Hermione wasn't a morning person at the best of times, and after a late night reading session of dark texts in the library and at 7.30am on a Saturday, it could hardly be called the "best of times".

"Are you sure you need me?" Hermione asked, emerging bleary eyed from under the blankets to see Ginny stood beside her bed in Quidditch attire.

"Yes I need you, you're supposed to set an example," Ginny rushed out, "and I'm nervous" she added after a moment's pause.

Hermione let out a long sigh and started to get out of bed, she was exhausted from her study session but also had her trepidation. Sport had never been her strong suit and the pressure to be an example to the younger students only made her feel more embarrassed for her future self when they saw her bandy armed and out of breath, with no strength, stamina or flexibility to speak of.

Unable to shoo Ginny out of her room due to the redhead's mixture of nerves and excitement, Hermione changed into some jogging bottoms and trainers, tactically turning to change into her bra and ducking down to get into her knickers without exposing herself to her friend. Hair tied back and a hoodie added to the ensemble, Hermione yawned as she followed Ginny downstairs to get some orange juice before they headed out for the first morning exercise session.

It had been easy to slip this little act of rebellion under the noses of the Carrows. As Snape had suggested, they made no connection between students becoming more physically fit and therefore more able to hold stamina in their magic to fight or run away in the case of the younger students. Of course it was put forward as a way to enhance the exercise prospects of students who didn't make the house Quidditch teams. With Ginny's keen and well known interest in Quidditch, it went totally unremarked upon by the faculty.

Thank goodness Snape was on their side, Hermione was sure that he would have seen through this ruse and put a stop to it. Umbridge would have put a stop to it too but because of a vindictive need to ruin everyone's fun rather than any semblance of intellect. Hermione supposed it was one way to lead despotically, but her lack of intelligence and allies had left her quite unprepared for an uprising.

A mix of students were assembling on the patch of grass as specified by Ginny's posters that had gone up in the common rooms. Mostly there were first to third years, with the numbers thinning out as they got to the older students. Hermione looked around and noticed she was the only 7th year there.

Fighting the urge to hide, she walked near to the front and faced Ginny where she was starting to speak.

"Okay everyone, welcome to the first exercise class of the year. Since it's really cold, we'll get started with a warm up right away. If anyone has any questions on how to do an exercise just yell and I'll come and help you, and if anything is too hard once you've given it a couple of goes, just take a little break and join in on the next thing. Don't push yourself beyond your limits, you've got a whole year to build up your physical fitness and you're going to want to avoid an injury"

Ginny turned out to be a good teacher. Well versed in a variety of exercises she had them jogging on the spot, stretching their hamstrings and doing crunches and push-ups. Hermione was as dreadful as she had expected to be, managing a single push-up on her knees (and only dipping halfway) and utterly failing to sit up using her abdominal muscles, resigning herself to laying on the ground for the 30 seconds that other students were managing their 10 reps.

Some exercises were further from her grasp than others, she was glad to manage most of the prescribed number of squats (must be all the stairs between the Gryffindor tower and the Library) but she was very glad for it all to be over just the same. She walked back into the castle with her hoodie over her arm, still warm from the exercise and feeling her legs begin to ache from the exertion.

Ginny bounded over to the weary witch, eyes full of excitement.

"Well, what did you think?"

"Eugh, horrible," said Hermione, closing her eyes. She didn't catch the redhead's face fall.

"It was bad?" Ginny asked, her voice uncertain

"Yes, I ache all over. I'll be glad for a shower and tucking into breakfast," Hermione replied.

The rest of the walk up to the tower was silent.