Thank you to everyone who has reviewed thus far. To those of you worried
about a Hermione/Krum thing happening, all I'm going to say is: don't
worry.
I also want to let you guys know that it's physically impossible for me to write a chapter every single day. I like to think about what to put into it, switch some things around, and figure out how to end it before I actually start typing it out.
Here goes!
Chapter Five
Hermione staggered through the portrait hole, flushed on both cheeks. She still couldn't believe what just happened. Maybe Ron was right - Krum wasn't just here on school business.
Still, Hermione thought to herself, what happened between us is over. He should have known better than to pull a stunt like that.
Hermione scanned the common room with her eyes and discovered Ron and Harry in a far off corner, piles of parchment and books on either side of them. Hoping that the splotches on her cheeks wouldn't give her away, she made her way towards them.
"Bloody bats' already given us enough homework to last us into our seventh year," Harry grumbled, crossing out yet another misplaced star on his map. From what Hermione could see, his "map" was just a piece of paper with cross out marks, but didn't feel the need to make the statement verbal.
Hermione perched herself on one of the arms of Ron's chair, looking at his map also. Its quality wasn't that far from Harry's. His hair looked as if he had been electrocuted; on end from his hands constantly running through it in frustration. Hermione sighed and brushed it back into place with her hand.
"Hermione, we need you back in Trelawney's class. How are we supposed to do this on our own?" Ron exclaimed.
"You guys could have followed me down the ladder, I left the door wide open after I left," she remembered. "But this is what I do know. This piece of paper," she said, brandishing it before Ron's face, "looks like it caught the chicken pox."
"What are the chicken spots?" Ron asked while Harry and Hermione choked down a laugh.
"Never mind. Here, I'll help you guys out," she said, sitting on the ground with Ron's paper, which she scourgefied clean with a wave of her wand. Twenty five minutes later, Hermione had helped both boys correctly mark and label their star charts. After packing away their things, Ron grabbed her hand to pull her to her feet.
As soon as she was standing, she realized that she and Ron were close. VERY close. Close enough to see that his eyes had a little green in them. (a/n: sorry, I'm a huge 10 things I hate about you fan!)
"Um.guys? It's really late and I think we should get going," Harry said, springing the two apart. Hermione looked around the room, and to her surprise found it deserted.
"I'll be right up Harry. I'm just gonna round up the rest of my things," Ron said, waving his friend goodnight.
As they both gathered up their things, Hermione tried not to note the awkward silence. She'd noticed that they had a lot of those lately, but she couldn't imagine why. They climbed the stairs until the boys dormitories branched one way and the girl's the other.
"Goodnight, Ron," she said sleepily.
There was a silence. "Sweet dreams, Hermione," he replied bashfully.
The next morning, Hermione dressed and went down the stairs and out the portrait hole. As she turned the corner, she walked into something extremely solid.
"Good morning, Herm-my-oh-ninny," Krum said, giving her a surly smile.
Hermione gave herself a couple of seconds for her eyes to focus back to normal. Walking head-on into something that hard and that fast couldn't be good for your face.
"Oh! Good morning, Viktor. What are you doing?" she asked.
"I can to find you for breakfast," he answered, walking her down to the Great Hall.
As she entered, she could see a few heads turn towards them. They automatically retreated and started whispering to their neighbors. Hermione felt herself blush. As she looked down the Gryffindor table, she could see Harry and Ron had saved her a place next to them. She silently begged for Ron not to look up, but seeing that he was in no way telepathic, he did so anyway. Realization dawned on his face, and he looked down with a scowl.
"Ah, Viktor, I really have to go. I've got classes today," she said quickly, still trying ever so dearly to push last nights happenings as far from her mind as she could.
"Alright then, I shall see you sometime later," he mumbled and slouched away, making her feel extremely guilty. It's not everyday an international Quidditch player gives you the time in the world, she thought to herself.
As soon as he had gone, she bolted to the Gryffindor table, sitting down next to Harry. She tried to avoid the prying eyes of her fellow peers as she grabbed three sausages from a gleaming silver plate.
"I thought you said nothing was going on," Ron said from out of the corner of his mouth, making Hermione choke on a bit of her sausage.
"Nothing IS going on," she sputtered between bits of flying meat. "He found me in the hallway and walked me to breakfast, that's all."
Not wanting to start a fight that would measure a 9.0 on the Richter scale, Ron shoveled a spoonful of sausage into his mouth as Hermione finished up her sausages. Once they were fed and full, the trio walked to their first class, Herbology.
The three filed into greenhouse five as Professor Sprout followed them in.
"Good morning class! Today we will be working with a new species of plant. This is called the Puff-Cheeked Pin Petal," Professor Sprout pointed out several of the plants lined on the tables in front of the students. They were, indeed, puff-cheeked and appeared to have many pins attached to their petals. Hermione recognized them right away from a book she had read over the summer.
"Professor, shouldn't we be wearing protective clothing? The Puff-Cheeked Pin Petal can detect any form of skin, and will launch their pins into it if they notice that it has been left unprotected for too long," Hermione said, not trying to sound like the know-it-all tag she had been given.
"This is true, Miss Granger. 10 points to Gryffindor," the professor said, looking very pleased. "You will all put on your gardening coats and dragon hide gloves, along with a mask I will give you. You will be collecting Puff- Cheeked seeds from the plants cheeks, and should have retrieved them all by the end of the lesson."
The students, now carefully protected, proceeded to open up the plants cheeks to find a dozen or so violet colored seeds in each pouch. It was slow work; some plants involuntarily spewed their pins if a student was too aggressive with its cheeks.
After an hours work, Hermione could feel sweat trickling down the side of her face. Although it was mid-November, it was still warm in all of the greenhouses, and with all the heavy equipment they were wearing, it felt like July.
"Stupid plant," Ron muttered angrily, as he was sprayed with pins for the fourth time that period. So far, his coat had done a good job at repelling the needles, so there was no need for alarm.
"What's the matter?" Hermione asked, setting aside her twelfth perfectly picked Pin Petal. "This piece of rubbish won't let me pick its seeds. I'd say it's good near out of pins now," he added.
"Here, let me try," Hermione said, taking his plant. It was getting harder and harder to see with the mask on; it kept fogging up from the humidity. Hermione removed it with the intent of putting it back on quickly. She gently pulled one of the plant's cheeks to the side with her finger, and very carefully starting plucking out the seeds with her tweezers.
"There," she said, placing Ron's perfectly pruned plant alongside all of hers. "That wasn't that hard now, was i-" she started, but was suddenly overcome with a pain on the left side of her face.
"Hermione! Bloody hell, why did you take off your mask?" Ron said, catching her before she hit the ground completely.
"Ow! What's wrong with my face?" she half screamed, for the pain she was feeling was absolutely horrible.
Professor Sprout came waddling around a table. "Ah, Miss Granger, I specifically asked for you not to remove your head mask! It seems that Mr. Malfoy's Pin Plant has injected its needles into your skin," she said, looking at Hermione wearily. She turned and saw Malfoy give her a malicious grin and mouth the word 'Mudblood', and Ron starting making furious and obscene gestures in his direction. "And oh, dear. It seems you are having an allergic reaction to the pins."
Hermione knew the teacher wasn't lying, for the simple face that her eyelid was now closing faster than you could say 'Ouch'. She felt so stupid for taking off her mask, but wouldn't let the tears threatening to spill out of her eyes run down her face.
"Mr. Weasley, please bring Miss Granger to the hospital thing. Its good luck that Madam Pomfrey just got in new vials of Puff-Cheek antidote," she said, turning back to the rest of the class.
Once they were outside, Hermione started to sniffle. "I'm so stupid.why did I do that? Oh, this really, really hurts," she warbled.
"Don't worry Hermione, everyone forgets something once and a while. Madam Pomfrey will make you look good as new," he said, placing an encouraging arm around her.
He helped her up back to the castle, where Hermione received funny looks from ghosts floating by. I guess having two inch long needles sticking out of your skin will get you some attention, Hermione thought inwardly.
Once in the hospital wing, Hermione sat down on one of the beds, Ron beside her. Madam Pomfrey came in, and walked out muttering something about "not following directions". She returned seconds later with some sort of paste, and applied it gently around each pin. Hermione's face relaxed; she could feel the pins falling out and onto the bed.
"There, almost as good as new. There should be a small bit of swelling for the next couple days, but it will eventually shrink with time," Madam Pomfrey said, closing the container and sweeping into her office.
Hermione grabbed a hand mirror of a nearby table. Her face was indeed, swollen like a balloon.
"Look at my face," she said, fresh tears starting in her eyes again. "I look absolutely dreadful."
Ron gingerly turned her head so he could see her entire face. "You look just as pretty as you did before," he said.
Hermione looked up, expecting to see a smirk on his face, for surely she had heard him say that with sarcasm. But as she looked into his green- flecked eyes, she could tell her meant it with all his heart.
So what do you guys think? I thought it was pretty good, considering I was doing my chemistry homework at the same time. Now just let me remind you, I can't be doing a chapter a day, not with my schedule hanging round my neck. I could possibly do one once every four days, and I guarantee that the quality of the chapters will be better. This one was just kind of thrown around and written in under three hours.
Please read and review like always! I read every single one, and it makes my day when I get some.
Thank you to Juliette4 and ThinkingOfAName for your constant reviews. It means so much to me!
3
I also want to let you guys know that it's physically impossible for me to write a chapter every single day. I like to think about what to put into it, switch some things around, and figure out how to end it before I actually start typing it out.
Here goes!
Chapter Five
Hermione staggered through the portrait hole, flushed on both cheeks. She still couldn't believe what just happened. Maybe Ron was right - Krum wasn't just here on school business.
Still, Hermione thought to herself, what happened between us is over. He should have known better than to pull a stunt like that.
Hermione scanned the common room with her eyes and discovered Ron and Harry in a far off corner, piles of parchment and books on either side of them. Hoping that the splotches on her cheeks wouldn't give her away, she made her way towards them.
"Bloody bats' already given us enough homework to last us into our seventh year," Harry grumbled, crossing out yet another misplaced star on his map. From what Hermione could see, his "map" was just a piece of paper with cross out marks, but didn't feel the need to make the statement verbal.
Hermione perched herself on one of the arms of Ron's chair, looking at his map also. Its quality wasn't that far from Harry's. His hair looked as if he had been electrocuted; on end from his hands constantly running through it in frustration. Hermione sighed and brushed it back into place with her hand.
"Hermione, we need you back in Trelawney's class. How are we supposed to do this on our own?" Ron exclaimed.
"You guys could have followed me down the ladder, I left the door wide open after I left," she remembered. "But this is what I do know. This piece of paper," she said, brandishing it before Ron's face, "looks like it caught the chicken pox."
"What are the chicken spots?" Ron asked while Harry and Hermione choked down a laugh.
"Never mind. Here, I'll help you guys out," she said, sitting on the ground with Ron's paper, which she scourgefied clean with a wave of her wand. Twenty five minutes later, Hermione had helped both boys correctly mark and label their star charts. After packing away their things, Ron grabbed her hand to pull her to her feet.
As soon as she was standing, she realized that she and Ron were close. VERY close. Close enough to see that his eyes had a little green in them. (a/n: sorry, I'm a huge 10 things I hate about you fan!)
"Um.guys? It's really late and I think we should get going," Harry said, springing the two apart. Hermione looked around the room, and to her surprise found it deserted.
"I'll be right up Harry. I'm just gonna round up the rest of my things," Ron said, waving his friend goodnight.
As they both gathered up their things, Hermione tried not to note the awkward silence. She'd noticed that they had a lot of those lately, but she couldn't imagine why. They climbed the stairs until the boys dormitories branched one way and the girl's the other.
"Goodnight, Ron," she said sleepily.
There was a silence. "Sweet dreams, Hermione," he replied bashfully.
The next morning, Hermione dressed and went down the stairs and out the portrait hole. As she turned the corner, she walked into something extremely solid.
"Good morning, Herm-my-oh-ninny," Krum said, giving her a surly smile.
Hermione gave herself a couple of seconds for her eyes to focus back to normal. Walking head-on into something that hard and that fast couldn't be good for your face.
"Oh! Good morning, Viktor. What are you doing?" she asked.
"I can to find you for breakfast," he answered, walking her down to the Great Hall.
As she entered, she could see a few heads turn towards them. They automatically retreated and started whispering to their neighbors. Hermione felt herself blush. As she looked down the Gryffindor table, she could see Harry and Ron had saved her a place next to them. She silently begged for Ron not to look up, but seeing that he was in no way telepathic, he did so anyway. Realization dawned on his face, and he looked down with a scowl.
"Ah, Viktor, I really have to go. I've got classes today," she said quickly, still trying ever so dearly to push last nights happenings as far from her mind as she could.
"Alright then, I shall see you sometime later," he mumbled and slouched away, making her feel extremely guilty. It's not everyday an international Quidditch player gives you the time in the world, she thought to herself.
As soon as he had gone, she bolted to the Gryffindor table, sitting down next to Harry. She tried to avoid the prying eyes of her fellow peers as she grabbed three sausages from a gleaming silver plate.
"I thought you said nothing was going on," Ron said from out of the corner of his mouth, making Hermione choke on a bit of her sausage.
"Nothing IS going on," she sputtered between bits of flying meat. "He found me in the hallway and walked me to breakfast, that's all."
Not wanting to start a fight that would measure a 9.0 on the Richter scale, Ron shoveled a spoonful of sausage into his mouth as Hermione finished up her sausages. Once they were fed and full, the trio walked to their first class, Herbology.
The three filed into greenhouse five as Professor Sprout followed them in.
"Good morning class! Today we will be working with a new species of plant. This is called the Puff-Cheeked Pin Petal," Professor Sprout pointed out several of the plants lined on the tables in front of the students. They were, indeed, puff-cheeked and appeared to have many pins attached to their petals. Hermione recognized them right away from a book she had read over the summer.
"Professor, shouldn't we be wearing protective clothing? The Puff-Cheeked Pin Petal can detect any form of skin, and will launch their pins into it if they notice that it has been left unprotected for too long," Hermione said, not trying to sound like the know-it-all tag she had been given.
"This is true, Miss Granger. 10 points to Gryffindor," the professor said, looking very pleased. "You will all put on your gardening coats and dragon hide gloves, along with a mask I will give you. You will be collecting Puff- Cheeked seeds from the plants cheeks, and should have retrieved them all by the end of the lesson."
The students, now carefully protected, proceeded to open up the plants cheeks to find a dozen or so violet colored seeds in each pouch. It was slow work; some plants involuntarily spewed their pins if a student was too aggressive with its cheeks.
After an hours work, Hermione could feel sweat trickling down the side of her face. Although it was mid-November, it was still warm in all of the greenhouses, and with all the heavy equipment they were wearing, it felt like July.
"Stupid plant," Ron muttered angrily, as he was sprayed with pins for the fourth time that period. So far, his coat had done a good job at repelling the needles, so there was no need for alarm.
"What's the matter?" Hermione asked, setting aside her twelfth perfectly picked Pin Petal. "This piece of rubbish won't let me pick its seeds. I'd say it's good near out of pins now," he added.
"Here, let me try," Hermione said, taking his plant. It was getting harder and harder to see with the mask on; it kept fogging up from the humidity. Hermione removed it with the intent of putting it back on quickly. She gently pulled one of the plant's cheeks to the side with her finger, and very carefully starting plucking out the seeds with her tweezers.
"There," she said, placing Ron's perfectly pruned plant alongside all of hers. "That wasn't that hard now, was i-" she started, but was suddenly overcome with a pain on the left side of her face.
"Hermione! Bloody hell, why did you take off your mask?" Ron said, catching her before she hit the ground completely.
"Ow! What's wrong with my face?" she half screamed, for the pain she was feeling was absolutely horrible.
Professor Sprout came waddling around a table. "Ah, Miss Granger, I specifically asked for you not to remove your head mask! It seems that Mr. Malfoy's Pin Plant has injected its needles into your skin," she said, looking at Hermione wearily. She turned and saw Malfoy give her a malicious grin and mouth the word 'Mudblood', and Ron starting making furious and obscene gestures in his direction. "And oh, dear. It seems you are having an allergic reaction to the pins."
Hermione knew the teacher wasn't lying, for the simple face that her eyelid was now closing faster than you could say 'Ouch'. She felt so stupid for taking off her mask, but wouldn't let the tears threatening to spill out of her eyes run down her face.
"Mr. Weasley, please bring Miss Granger to the hospital thing. Its good luck that Madam Pomfrey just got in new vials of Puff-Cheek antidote," she said, turning back to the rest of the class.
Once they were outside, Hermione started to sniffle. "I'm so stupid.why did I do that? Oh, this really, really hurts," she warbled.
"Don't worry Hermione, everyone forgets something once and a while. Madam Pomfrey will make you look good as new," he said, placing an encouraging arm around her.
He helped her up back to the castle, where Hermione received funny looks from ghosts floating by. I guess having two inch long needles sticking out of your skin will get you some attention, Hermione thought inwardly.
Once in the hospital wing, Hermione sat down on one of the beds, Ron beside her. Madam Pomfrey came in, and walked out muttering something about "not following directions". She returned seconds later with some sort of paste, and applied it gently around each pin. Hermione's face relaxed; she could feel the pins falling out and onto the bed.
"There, almost as good as new. There should be a small bit of swelling for the next couple days, but it will eventually shrink with time," Madam Pomfrey said, closing the container and sweeping into her office.
Hermione grabbed a hand mirror of a nearby table. Her face was indeed, swollen like a balloon.
"Look at my face," she said, fresh tears starting in her eyes again. "I look absolutely dreadful."
Ron gingerly turned her head so he could see her entire face. "You look just as pretty as you did before," he said.
Hermione looked up, expecting to see a smirk on his face, for surely she had heard him say that with sarcasm. But as she looked into his green- flecked eyes, she could tell her meant it with all his heart.
So what do you guys think? I thought it was pretty good, considering I was doing my chemistry homework at the same time. Now just let me remind you, I can't be doing a chapter a day, not with my schedule hanging round my neck. I could possibly do one once every four days, and I guarantee that the quality of the chapters will be better. This one was just kind of thrown around and written in under three hours.
Please read and review like always! I read every single one, and it makes my day when I get some.
Thank you to Juliette4 and ThinkingOfAName for your constant reviews. It means so much to me!
3