Hermione looked at her arm. It looked fine. She didn't know why it hurt so bad, though. 'must be growing pains' she thought. She made her way out of bed. She noticed she was fully clothed, that made her even more confused than before. She stretched, looked at the clock and went down stairs. It was 8:15, Ron should be around, and so should Harry…hopefully.
She went downstairs into the common room, there, she saw Neville sitting at a table, a few books spread around.
"Whatcha got there?" Hermione asked.
"Divination…I can't seem to get these stars right." He looked up at Hermione. She smiled right away.
"There's your problem, you added that wrong." She took his quill and turned the parchment to face her.
"If you add these correctly, change this month and the placement of this planet, then here's where that star goes, then that one goes here…this one…hmmmm…wait, no, this one goes here, and that one goes there." Hermione put the quill back down on the table and nodded.
"Oooh., I see, Thanks, Hermione."
"Anytime, um…have you seen Harry and Ron around?" She secretly crossed her fingers, hoping he said yes.
"They just left to go to the library. They were looking for you, said they haven't seen you since Potions."
Hermione nodded. 'should have known.' she thought to herself. 'that's the first place everyone looks for me…I need to get a life, geeze.'
As she walked to the library, she bumped into someone she wasn't dying to see.
"Professor Snape! I'm sorry, I didn't see you."
"Figures." He sneered.
"Can I speak with you for a moment?" He asked, looking at Hermione with curiosity. That look scarred her. She had never seen his face do that before. Hermione nodded and followed Snape to the nearest spot without students.
"I'm sure you're wondering what went on when I called Harry to speak with me after class today."
"Yes sir." Hermione nodded.
"There's no need to worry. He is alive and well." Hermione sighed.
"Let me guess, detention?" She asked…she knew what the answer was, if it wasn't that, then she wouldn't know what to think.
"I'm afraid so." Snape nodded. He saw Hermione grab her arm and rub it.
"Is everything alright?" Snape starred at her motions. She noticed what he was looking at and quickly stopped.
"Yes, everything is fine. I bumped my arm coming down the stairs, that's all." Snape didn't quite believe her, but he nodded anyway. He had to get away from the cheerfulness.
"Um…Professor Snape?"
"What is it Granger?"
"What happened last night?" Hermione looked at Snape.
"Nothing that really concerns you. I would appreciate it if you kept to your own business."
"It's just that--" Snape could see what was coming so he cut her off early.
"I'm not going to kill Potter. I can assure you that. Now I must be on my way. I have papers to grade and lessons to plan, so if you will excuse me." With those words he left. Hermione stood in awe. How was he going to not kill Harry and save his own at the same time? Voldermort was powerful enough to see what was going on.
****************************************
"Where have you been?" Ron asked as Hermione approached the table they were sitting at.
"To tell you the truth, I'm not sure." Both boy's looked at her.
"You're not sure?" Harry said. Hermione nodded
"One minuet I was waiting for you outside the doors, the next I found myself asleep in my bed." Hermione shrugged.
"Wait, why were you waiting for me? I thought I told you to go." Harry said, pushing his glasses up onto his nose.
"Can't I wait for a friend?" Hermione wanted to tell them what she had heard that night, but she couldn't bring herself to do so.
"Do you know how you got to your bed?" Ron asked, closing a book titled One Hundred And One Ways To Crush Wormwood.
"If I did, don't you think I'd have told you by now?" Hermione stared at Ron, her face was glowing red and she didn't notice it, but her hands were balled into fists.
"O.K. geeze woman, you don't have to be rude about it, it was just a question." Ron rolled his eyes and sighed. Harry just stared at her. Noticing what she had done, she quickly tried to loosen up and sat down at the table.
"Sorry." She mumbled under her breath.
*****************************************
The night was cold, yet she didn't feel cold. Black figures were around her. She didn't know who they were, but she could have sworn she knew them. Something compelled her to move forward, to follow all the black figures. As she went deeper and deeper into the forest, she heard the same voice she heard that night she had detention with Snape, only this time it was far away.
"Bring me the boy…Bring him to me" It was saying. Hermione wanted to stop and turn around, but she couldn't. There was this force that was dragging her, pulling her forward. Deeper and deeper into the woods. She tried to struggle, she tried to turn around, but was whipped fully around each time she tried. She tried to stop walking and only found herself tripping when she did. She tried to speak…She could not. Suddenly the ground started to shake. She looked around herself and saw the black figures going among their business, then she noticed the ground wasn't shaking it was her.
"Hermione." The raspy voice said.
"Hermione." It kept repeating itself over and over again, suddenly she found her voice, closed her eyes and started screaming. She found herself shaking more violently and being tapped lightly on the face. She opened her eyes and saw she wasn't in the forest, but in the Gryffindor common room. She wasn't shaking, but Ron was. He was standing over her, Harry peeking out from behind his shoulder.
"You were asleep then you started dreaming." Harry said.
"Well duh, I think I know that." Hermione said. She quickly covered her mouth with her hands and sat up.
"Oh My Gosh! I'm sorry…where did that come from?" Ron and Harry looked at each other.
"You've been acting differently lately, Hermione. What's wrong?" Ron asked, sitting next to her.
"I-I don't know." She replied, looking away from them.
"Well, something's going on." Harry said, trying to get Hermione to look at them.
"And we've decided." Ron smiled.
"We aren't going to let you go until you tell us exactly what is going on." Hermione sunk back into the sofa. Should she tell them? No, she couldn't. That's all Harry needed now was more stress on the things he already had.
"Nothing happened, why won't you guy's believe me?"
"Because we know something happened. You've never been this quiet about something before." Ron said, playfully punching her in the arm. Hermione was getting angry. She didn't like being cornered and wanted to be left alone for awhile.
"Well, if something really important happened, I'd tell you. As of now, I don't remember anything but waking up, seeing Snape and a cement wall. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to go for a walk." Hermione stood up, pushing Harry out of the way and headed for the door. She was stopped by two pairs of hands clinging onto her arms.
"What else happened. Don't lie to us, we know that's not all." Harry said. Ron nodded in agreement.
"Buzz off and mind your own business!" Hermione screamed. Ron and Harry let go and watched Hermione sneak out of the portrait hole.
"Do you think we should tell her it's past hours?" Harry asked.
"No. Not if she's going to act like that towards us." Ron turned around.
"I'm going to bed, Harry."
"Nite." Harry said and continued staring at the door. Why was she acting like this? This was the first time in his life he'd seen her be violent in any way.
******************************************
Hermione walked the halls. She noticed it was past hours, but didn't really care. Dumbledore would understand. He always understood when he found Harry out and about after hours. She wanted to cry, to scream, to tear something apart, but she didn't know what. The pain in her arm started up again. She held onto it…it definitely wasn't a growing pain. Maybe it was broken…yeah, that had to be it. She had cracked it….landing on it, Hermione decided. All of a sudden, she started to get dizzy. She grabbed onto the wall nearest her and concentrated on her breathing. The room started going dark, she didn't know what was going on. She wished Ron and Harry were there right now. Then it happened, she blacked out and collapsed on the floor.
****************************************
Snape followed Hermione through the halls. Something told him not to stop her right away, to let her walk for a little bit. He could sense something wasn't right. She was holding her arm again. It looked painful and he wondered why it was hurting. He watched her grab onto the wall, he watched her slowly lean forward, he watched her as she collapsed onto the floor.
"Good Merlin!" He thought to himself.
"Why does it have to be me…every time! Me!" He rushed to Hermione's side and lifted her head. Nothing seemed to be broken, but what he saw made him gasp and almost choke.
