A/N: This is my first Harry Potter fic, so if I make any mistakes please be kind
A/N 2: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! I was ever-so-slightly, just-a-little-bit shocked when I checked my e-mail and saw 7 reviews! Thank you, and keep reading and reviewing!
Disclaimer: I own nothing. If ya really wanna sue me then you can have what I got...Student loans debts!
Hermione closed her door and walked over to the bed. Sitting down rather abruptly, she pulled her feet up onto the bed, and hugged her knees tightly to her chest. For the next minute or so, she fought to stop the shakes that threatened to overcome her, and finally she got her breathing back under control.
She was glad that Harry and Ron were the only people she had run into so far…she had been terrified that she'd have to push her way through crowded hallways to get to her room. She shuddered, shaking her head to clear the hated thoughts that filled it.
That done – or as done as it is getting, at any rate, she thought disconsolately – she looked around her room slowly. The Head Girl's room. It looked overwhelmingly huge and empty. She glanced down at her things. They would soon make it liveable, she thought, and with that she reached over to her trunk and began to unpack.
She had missed a days worth of classes already, owing to her late arrival, but when she had spoken with him Dumbledore had assured her that it would not be a problem…the only class likely to have started anything new was, of course, Potions – Snape would never give an easy first lesson – and it had, in the last year, become her best subject, so she would cope.
xxxxxxxxxxxx
Ron had finally beaten Harry at chess – Harry's playing had definitely improved over the last few years. It was getting so that Ron really had to work to even scrape a win these days! As he looked at his watch Ron's stomach was quick to back up the thought that immediately presented itself.
Harry jumped at the rather loud rumbling sound coming from beside him, and grinned as Ron stated "Dinner-time!" and made his way to the common room door.
"Should we go see if Hermione wants to come down? She's probably hungry after all that travelling and unpacking," Harry suggested as he caught up with Ron at the portrait that acted as door to the common room.
"Are you kidding? She's probably asleep…I know I'd be!" Ron quickly headed out and started down the stairs.
"Yeah, I guess…if we checked it'd probably just wake her up, and then we'd both be in the dog-house!"
xxxxxxxxxxxx
Hermione was indeed, at that very moment, curled up under the covers of her newly-made bed, fast asleep. She was also wishing fervently that she would awake. She tossed and turned as she clawed and kicked at an unseen foe, tears streaming down her cheeks from closed eyes.
xxxxxxxxxxxx
The next morning saw an overly tired and slightly ashen looking Hermione trying to desperately to make herself look less of both. A bit of blusher helped with her colouring, but she could find nothing to hide the rather obvious bags under her eyes. Staring at her reflection in the mirror, Hermione sighed. Ron and Harry had not noticed them yesterday, so maybe no-one would today? She could always just blame it on her supposed extra long journey.
She thought back to the letter she had written to Dumbledore a week ago. She had told him that she had to visit family in Ireland at the last minute, and would therefore need to arrive a few days late for school. She didn't like to lie, and she hoped fervently that he hadn't been able to tell. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, definitely better than explaining…
She shook her head violently, blocking out the rest of that sentence and the thoughts that went with it. She didn't have time right now, she had to get to class. She had transfigurations first, and afterwards she would have some time to go to the library, where she planned to try and find some kind of glamour spell which would be more effective than make-up at hiding the effects of her less-than-restful sleep.
Hermione picked up her bag and walked to the door. She took a deep breath, composed herself, and began to make her way to class.
xxxxxxxxxxxx
Professor McGonagall huffed in annoyance. Students were supposed to become more mature – at least a bit – by the seventh year, weren't they? Apparently someone forgot to inform these particular seventh years of that fact.
"Mr Weasley!" She spoke as calmly as she could, which was not actually very calmly at all – this was the fourth time her lesson had been disturbed, and they'd only been there twenty minutes so far! "Ten points from Gryffindor, and half an hour of detention after your last class today."
Ron jumped at the sound of her voice, and as he did the empty chair beside him, which had recently achieved flight, crashed noisily to the ground. At the word detention he frowned…he hated McGonagall's detentions, she seemed to have a knack for choosing the very thing you wanted least to do as your 'task' for the detention – Neville had sworn blind once that she could read minds…how else could she possibly always know?
With a point of her wand Professor McGonagall righted the toppled chair, and then continued with the lesson.
Half an hour later McGonagall decided to call upon her class for a volunteer. She wanted to see the spell she had just taught them demonstrated. She got exactly what she expected when no-one volunteered…the spell was not the easiest, and her students seemed to sense that she was in no mood for anyone to make stupid mistakes. Simply put, the class as a whole was too nervous for any part of it to volunteer.
"Very well. Miss Granger, perhaps you could give it a try?"
Hermione looked up, startled. She quickly scanned the page her text-book was open to – the page she had been blankly staring at for the last 45 minutes. If she had been listening to the lesson, it would have been no problem. If she had read the page in the book, she could have fudged her way through it. She imagined hitting her head against the nearest brick-wall…it had been stupid of her to forget where she was, and now she had to figure something out before she joined Ron in detention. If she attempted the spell then Professor McGonagall would know in an instant that she hadn't been paying attention.
"Actually Professor, I'm not feeling so well, could I be excused for a few minutes? I think I need some air."
Her slightly uncertain, shaky voice backed up her statement perfectly.
"Of course Miss Granger. Perhaps you should stop by to see Madame Pomfrey?" There was no hesitation or suspicion in her voice. Hermione was not one of those who would skip lessons unnecessarily, McGonagall knew.
"Yes Professor." Hermione rose from her seat and walked quickly from the classroom.
"Mr Malfoy, please demonstrate the spell." Professor McGonagall continued immediately, not wanting to risk an upset in the calm which had remained unbroken over the class since Ron's little stunt.
As Draco stood and made an elaborate show of performing the spell – the results of which would completely destroy the 'calm' class within less than a minute, since Draco's showy casting turned the spell into something else entirely – Harry nudged Ron.
Leaning over, he whispered, "I hope Hermione's okay, it's not like her to miss even a minute of class…"
Ron had no chance to reply, as the whole class burst into laughter staring and pointing at the spot where, just a few seconds ago, Draco had stood. Now there was a small, rather scruffy looking ferret in his place. Harry and Ron quickly became caught up in the hilarity of it all, Ron very nearly falling off his seat.
At the front of the classroom Professor McGonagall allowed a small grin to slip unnoticed onto her face. She had known exactly what the boy's over-acting and embellishing of the movements would do, and should – as a Professor – have warned him, but she was of the opinion that it couldn't hurt to have Draco knocked down a peg by a slight mis-adventure. It wasn't as if the spell was permanent, after all.
There's chapter 2! This is the first time I've written a story that's gone past chapter 1! Yay me! As before, please let me know what you think...and, as before, if ya wanna find out more then Review Review Review!
