Deliver me 18- situations
Hermione went from teacher to student in one day. Her history class was first, were all history teachers like Binns? Then she had her wrist movements class. Who knew you could spend two hours on different types of swishes? Last was her Potions class. It was four hours. Hermione sat down on a bench outside the class she had thirty minutes until the class started. She just wanted to rest and not think. Teaching was hard but learning was harder. At least when you were teaching you could sit down and watch while the kids worked out problems on their own. Now she was the one working out the problems on her own. She laid down on the bench and covered her eyes with her arm.
It was warm and she had worn a black tank and a black skirt. She slipped her shoes off and got comfortable. Her self-conscienceness had disappeared during child birth. Having a room full of people staring at your naughty bits can do that. She laid like that and was dozing off a bit when she felt her hackles rise. Someone was watching her. She looked around and realized that every guy that walked by was watching her. She figured she had dirt on her or they thought she was some homeless bum. It never occurred to her that they were enjoying the view. She got up and slipped her shoes on and sprinted over to the potions building.
One of the really great things about college is that there are always plenty of people, lots of different ages, your almost sure to not be the oldest person in class. There is always the one really old guy that seems to be in every class. So it was in this class. Hermione was relieved that she wasn't the only adult taking the class. Maybe she would luck out and there would be a guy close to her age that was taking the class.
She stopped for a minute and realized, that was the first time she had thought about meeting someone, with out it coming from an outside source. She smiled to herself. Maybe she was ready to move on finally. It had been five months since she had heard from Draco, that didn't seem like enough time but she always had been a fast healer. She was expecting to hear from him soon. Miki's birthday was coming up. She couldn't fathom the idea that he would miss his son's birthday, even if it would be the first time he had seen him since the break-up. She pulled herself away from her frame of thought and back to class.
More people were coming in now. She noticed how different everything was to the dungeons in Hogwarts. First of all they were in a lecture hall, she assumed that there was a lab for when they began actually brewing. She looked at the students, she wondered if she would see anyone that she new here. The class was a cornucopia of wizards. She like many others were dressed in simple muggle styles. There were some who wore traditional casual wizard robes. One guy had come directly from quidditch practice, there was a dancer, still clothed in her leotard and tights with a ballet skirt on, some had on dress robes and others dressy muggle clothes. Of course they were all witches and wizards but it was so bizarre to see so many different attires, there was the obligatory rastafarian, the feminist nazi, and the sorority girl. Hermione could spend all day studying people and their habits. A very pretty woman slightly younger than her sat down in the next seat. She had a grin ear to ear. Hermione usually kept to herself but she couldn't resist a poke at the enthusiastic young woman.
"You must really love potions." Hermione grinned at the girl.
"Huh? Oh no, actually, I hate the subject. To messy, cutting up things, pickled body parts in the jars. Eww, nope, I'm here for the professor."
"Excuse me?"
"You know," Here the girl winked, "the professor. I need the potions grade, every professor picks one person who, well you know."
"No I don't know." Hermione was getting the innuendo, she just couldn't believe it.
"Your pretty and young, surely you've done it, taken the easy way out, just once?"
"No, I have, wait did you just say I'm young?"
"Yes."
"And pretty?"
"Yes, listen, I'm not that way, unless you are a professor." Here the girl looked Hermione up and down, "Nah, your too young, maybe a grad student or teachers aid." Hermione was baffled, all the thoughts running through her head didn't coincide. She grabbed at the first thing she could.
"What if the professor is really old or ugly, doesn't that bother you?"
"Yeah, I stay away from the ones like that. That's why I'm here for this class. I've heard this teacher is really hot and he only teaches in the summer. All the other potions teachers are pretty nasty. Otherwise I wouldn't have waited till summer school."
"So you do this all the time, for classes you don't like?"
"Well not all the time, I have to do some work. I'm a divination major, I can't get out of those classes, not that I would want to. I love my field of study, it's so challenging." Luckily for Hermione the door behind the podium opened just then and saved Hermione from the wonders of divination. A young man in his late twenties walked out. He had brown hair and was neatly dressed. He didn't really look like potions master material to Hermione. He walked to the podium and touched his wand to his throat.
"I need to begin with a few announcements. Will all the Pro-ho's go home now. The professor will not give anyone an easy grade even if you sleep with him. If you can not pass this class with your potions skills go home now." No one moved, the girl next to Hermione didn't even flinch, this must have been normal for them to do.
"Seriously, when the professor comes out he will insult you and embarrass you if you can not answer his questions, and they are not easy questions." Hermione began to get very nervous, she considered leaving. Still no one moved. "Okay, if your card does not say, approved by professor you need to leave. He will NOT be adding ANYONE, AT ALL!" Finally a few people started to leave. The quidditch guy, one of the girls in dress robes, three sorority girls, Hermione's divination neighbor, three in casual wizard robes and the feminist nazi. Hermione was surprised to see the ballerina and the rastafarian left. There were about fifteen people left in the class. Then the aid began speaking again.
"If you are here because of the rumor that we will be brewing certain illegal substances, you can leave." The rastafarian got up and to Hermione's surprise, the old man. Down to twelve "Okay, that's about it. I'm assuming that everyone else has been approved and is here for legitimate reasons. Classes will met daily from four until eight, you will all find a book and supply list under your seat," Hermione reached down and sure enough it was there. Just out of curiosity she reached under the seat where her neighbor had sat and there wasn't one. 'That's a neat trick.'
"We will met in the potions lab tomorrow, it is the next door down. You need to have all of your supplies and be prepared to begin brewing. See you tomorrow, good evening." He turned and walked back out tapping his wand to his throat as he moved. Hermione grabbed her list and made for the campus store. She didn't have much money, she had to be sure she got everything. On the way out the ballerina grabbed her shirt.
"Sorry, hi, I'm Persephone. I don't know if you noticed but we are the only girls left in class."
"No, I didn't notice, I'm use to being the only female." The girl gave her a look of respect.
"I'm not. I'm use to other girls, and guys tend to react strangely to this." She motioned to her wardrobe. "Would you mind terribly if we were partners?"
"No, I guess not, but couldn't you just transfigure your clothes?"
"Well, I could, but I really don't have time to get here, much less stop to wave my wand around, plus I have another rehearsal as soon as this class is over, so it kinda seems pointless."
"I guess, well Persephone, I'm Hermione. I'll see you tomorrow." Persephone had already started moving away, pulling things out of her dance bag as she left. She waved and was gone running toward the far side of campus. There was no apparating on campus, too many variables, so you had to run all the way across campus to do anything. Hermione assumed the ballet company was mostly muggle which meant the girl had to cross the barrier. Hermione shook her head. She had tried to do a lot during her school years, but she would never have tried to be both muggle and witch. It would be way too hard.
Hermione got home late and plopped down on the sofa. Her dad was watching the tele and her mom was half asleep in the chair. She woke up when she heard Hermione sit down.
"How were your classes dear?"
"Oh you know the first day, go buy this, go get this, this is what we'll be doing tomorrow, etc. It was fine."
"How about that potions class?"
"Same way."
"Well is the teacher anything like that one at Hogwarts?"
"I don't know? We didn't meet him, just his assistant."
"Well what's his name dear?"
"You know, I have no idea."
