I was going to post this part yesterday night
I was going to post this part
yesterday night... but I ended up re-writing it three times. I
just could not get it to sound right... Anyway, here is what I
deceided to use. Its not one of my better parts in my opinion,
but I have some greater things to come! I promise!
Lauren
Hermione's 15th Birthday fell on a
weekend that particular year, and the rest of the girls deceided
to treat their Hogwarts guest to a night in the village. Hermione
Granger, being her old self of course, didn't not accept at
first, claiming she needed time for her studies. But Heather was
determined to make her come, and soon enough, she had persuded
their new friend to drop her studies for just one night, and come
along with them.
She had been to Salem Village
before, four times in fact, on the previous weekends. It's size
and population was far bigger then Hogsmeade, but a majority of
that was of muggle communities. To enter the Wizarding part of
town, they needed to go through a most peculiar passageway... the
out of order toilet at the Chunky Chicken restaurant.
It must of been quite strange for
the muggle patrons to see so many school aged children go through
those doors nad never return, but the restaurant was owned by a
jolly old wizard who was quickly able to erase their memories of
any odd occurences.
Once in the village, Hermione was
dragged by the arm to each and everystore. the girls bought her
candies and trinkets and all sorts of little gadjets that she
knew she would never need. "Oh well," Hermione said to
herself, "perhaps and can send some of this home to
Ron..."
Before she was alowed to stand and
ponder her weighted down pockets much longer, Kate had grabbed
her wrist and informed her of their next stop. "We're goin
to see a movie!" She said joyfully. "Come on though,
we're going to be late!" Kate continued to Drag Hermione
down the street towards the rest of the group. "Have you
ever seen a 'Magical' Movie? Oh they're just fantastic!"
"No, I'm sorry to say I
haven't." Hermione replied, rubbing her sore wrist.
"Well!" Lizzy Exclaimed,
"This is a good one! It's a horror movie and very
scary!"
"I'm not exactely into Horror
movies..." But Hermione trailed off realizing that no one
was listening to her. Michelle gave her her ticket and they
entered the darkness of the theatre. They were quickly dismayed
however, to discover all the first floor seat were taken.
From up above they heard a
familiar voice shout. It was Steve Shepherd, and he informed the
girls that they had a couple empty seats up in the balconey if
they would like them.
Everyone agreed on it except
Lizzy, who was terrably afraid of heights. They moved up the
stairs, everyone but Hermione, who had to use the toilet. But
secretly she just wanted to get rid of the girls for a few
minutes... her poor wrist was throbbing, and her head was
spinning with all their nonstop gossipy chatter. Being around
them made her feel like she was surrounded by a flock of gulls.
To her luck she ran into Harry in
the theatre lobby. He was buying a popcorn large enough to feed
half of the gryffindor house, and a soda of equal size.
"Hungry?" She asked with
a grin.
"Starving." Was Harry's
response. "I've been walking around all day, and I haven't
had a thing to eat. So how was your day?"
"Painful, monotonous and
unexciting. Having fun just isn't the same when you and Ron
aren't there."
"I know what you mean. The
highlight of my day was when the other boys sat in the Quidditch
supply shop staring at and old Firebolt for over an hour... When
I told them I had one packed in my trunk they nearly passed
out!"
Hermione laughed. "Speaking
of your Firebolt... Don't they play quidditch here?"
"I overheard Jason and Chris
discussing the tryouts a few days ago. They're going to be held
next week." Hermione could tell her friend wanted to try for
the house team, and she knew he'd make it too. They Went up to
their seats in the balconey, and Harry took his on the very end,
and Hermione sat next to him.
Harry offered her some popcorn,
which she happily accepted as the previews began to show.
Hermione looked over to her far left and saw Lizzy trebling in
her seat, fearfully looking at the balcony rail just inches in
front of her. Either that, or the poor girl was nervous of who
was seated next to her.
Hermione rolled her eyes, she did
not understand Lizzy at all. Steve already knew about her adoring
affections, so what did she have to be so afraid of?
The movie started, and though
Hermione wasn't very fond of this type of film, she watched
intently. Although it had an all wizard cast, it seemed like any
muggle movie... though she deceided that most of the stunts and
special effects must have been real. She cringed through the
bloody scenes, resenting that she had even consented to see this
movie... it was her birthday afterall.
When a young blonde witch on
screen lost her head, Hermione jumped in her seat and grabbed
Harry's hand that was firmly planted on the armrest to the right
of her. When she realized what she had done, she pulled her hand
away, blushing as red as the blood on screen.
Feeling quite embarassed of her
recent action, she turned back and saw Lizzy, who now looked much
more relaxed in her seat, and then down to the other girls who
were all giggling for some unknown reason.
Looking over at the other girls,
Lizzy in particular, Hermione couldn't help but think she might
like Harry as more then a friend. The two had been close for
years, and she cared about him veyr much... but she never thought
it to be in that type of way.
When the film was over, Hermione
expressed her wanting to return back to the dorms. Almost
everyone felt the same way and they returned.
Hermione advanced then to her room
alone, while the others remained down stairs.She ignored the pile
of gifts laying at the foot of her bed, and layed down across her
warm quilt were Crookshank soon hopped over to rest beside her.
~*~
The next day Hermione wasn't given
a chance to think about her possable affections for one of her
closest friends. She woke up late, finding the dorm room
completely empty. This was strange because Hermione never before
had a tendency of sleeping in.
Hermione was forced to run down
the stairs as swiftly as her feet could carry her in order to
make it to Transfiguration. She knew the professor would be very
displeased with her if she were even a fw seconds late so she had
no time to spare.
Not even taking time to catch her
breath, Hermione entered the classroom to find the teacher she
had expected, but a pretty blonde witch in a turquoise robe.
"Professor Stengle has taken
ill today, so I will be your substitute." Explained she.
"I have looked over his lesson plan and have deceided to
make a slight change. Instead of changing these worms into
necklaces, we will be working on how to transfigure yourself a
costume for the Halloween festivities."
Hermione was unsure of what to
think. At Hogwarts, their Halloween celebration consisted only of
a great feast and some decorations. They never had any use for
costumes.
"I wish for you all to take
out three things, your wand, your quill and some parchment. I
want all of you to now take the next few minutes to draw
yourselves a simple outfit on one of the pieces of parchment. It
need not be anything intricate, just a simple design."
Hermione did as instructed, eager
to see where this project was going. But as her quil touched hte
parchment a voice disrupted her.
"Are you alright?" It
was Steve, Hermione recognized his voice without even having to
look up. She hadn't noticed him sitting at her table when she
walked in the classroom. She supposed it was because her mind was
to worried about being late for class.
Hermione turned her head towards
the red headed boy. "What do you mean." She responded
in a low whisper so that the teacher would not get angry and
scold her. "I'm perfectly fine, what would make you think
otherwise?"
"You ran up to your room as
soon as we got back last night, I was just wondering if there was
anything wrong." Hermione shook her head and prepared to get
back to her work before she was interrupted again. "Have you
seen Harry around?" She shook her head once again,
"Alright, well if you see him tell him Quidditch tryouts are
tonight after dinner, and remind him that he promised I could try
out his new broom."
Hermione was about to argue that
the boom wasn't exactlly new but she deceided to keep her mouth
shut and finish... or rather, start her drawing.
A few minutes later she had
suceeded in sketching a very simple looking dress that went down
past her knees. Hermione placed her quill into it's fountain
and sat back in her chair, trying to see what Steve was working
on next to her. Before she could get a peek, the teacher asked if
everyone was nearly finished, and received a positive response.
"Alright then. When your
Drawing is complete, place your non-wand hand onto the parchment.
Now take up your wand and tap it to your wrist three times, while
saying the phrase Fabricus Transmigrigum.'"
One by one, each of the students
did as instructed, each saying the phrase and then being
enveloped in a thick purple smoke. Hermione took a very deep
breath and muttered the command until she took was engulfed in
the violet cloud. When it faded, she found herself wearing the
very same outfit she had doodled just minutes before. It was a
pasting off white color, because the drawing itself had not been
colored in. When hermione lifted her left hand from the paper,
she noticed that her sketch was no longer present, but instead
her school uniform, as if it had been shrunk and pasted to the
parchment.
"In order to return to your
original clothes, just repeat the spell, but only switch the two
words around. I must warn you though, that this spell is often
called the Cinderella spell, as your new outfit will disappear
after seven hours. So you must be cautious, and keep careful
track of the time while using this spell. If you go past the
allowed time limit, you will... lets just say you'll be
de-clothed."
There were a few people giggling
from the back of the room, and Hermione couldn't beleive
people of their age could be so immature. But as Hermione turned
to grab her wand, she realized it wasn't the teachers
comment that was causing the commotion. Steve had just emmerged
from his purple cloud, wearing a parir of bunny pajamas (complete
with tail and ears) and a large frilly tutu.
"So what do you think?"
He asked her with a grin on his face that extended from ear to
ear. Hermione blushed, and wished, reeally wished that she had a
camera. It was then that she thought of Fred and george Weasley
back at Hogwarts, and how they would most likely pull a prank
like that.
When class was over, she had
almost entirely forgotten about her thoughts about harry from the
previous night. That is, until she bumped into him in the hallway
on the way back to her room.
As they walked together, her mind
raced. She couldn't deceide if she really had feelings for
him or not. But if she did, she knew exactelly how Lizzy felt.
To be continued...