Chapter 2

Hermione's Birthday

The next day, Remus woke up especially early only to find that it was one of the most important dates of year. Hermione's birthday. He scrambled out of bed and had a quick shower before making his way down to the Great Hall. Meanwhile, someone else had also woken up early, only to find that someone was guilty of prodding her into oblivion.

"Hermione, you lazy git. Get up!" Ginny said, now extremely tired of prodding her for hours on end.

"Ginny its 5:30! What is it?" she asked angrily. She really wanted to get back to sleep.

"Have you forgotten the most important date on the calendar?"

"Its most likely. What date is it then smart arse?"

"Its your birthday today you nitwit! I have a present for you."

"Oh my gosh! I'm eighteen already? Blimey I'm old!" Hermione said laughing in a tired voice.

After having a shower and getting ready for the first day of school, she sat back down next to Ginny who was waiting impatiently, saying that she had woken up specially for her and wanted to get a little bit more sleep in before breakfast.

"Finally. Right now I can give you your present." Ginny said in a tired voice.

"You got me a present! You didn't have to Gin. You're just the best of the best."

"Yeah, well, I don't like to brag but yeah I know the facts thanks. So open it already!"

She handed Hermione her gift and watched her as she carefully unwrapped it. She clapped her hand over her mouth and started crying with happiness.

"Oh Ginny. Its beautiful, thank you!" she exclaimed.

It was a photo of Ron, Ginny, the twins, Harry, Molly, Arthur, her and Remus in a decorated photo frame with red sapphires in the corners.

"It was nothing. I thought I should get you something special that you could keep."

"Its lovely. Those sapphires must have been expensive."

"That's my secret," Ginny said tapping her nose. "Anyway, Harry and Ron are waiting downstairs for you."

Hermione nodded and followed her down to the common room.

"Surprise, surprise!" Harry and Ron said in unison.

"Happy birthday Hermione!" Ron said handing her his present along with Harry's. She opened them and smiled with a twinkle in her eyes. Harry had given a huge badge saying 'HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY!' and a second edition of Hogwarts: A History. Ron had given her a necklace with a blue sapphire in the middle and a box of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans.

"Thanks so much you guys!" she said happily.

"Don't mention it. We're going back to bed, if that's ok because its only 6:30 and we're tired, so we'll see you later, ok Hermione?" Harry said yawning.

"Yeah that's fine. Do I have to wear this all day Harry?" she said pointing at the giant badge.

"Yes because otherwise at the end of the day it will jinx you with a powerful spell, but I don't know what one."

"Did you purchase this off of Fred and George by any chance, Harry?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah, I did actually. You don't mind do you?"

"Nope, that's great. Well, I'll see you all later then. Bye."

She waved one last time before exiting the portrait hole and making her way down to the Great Hall. As the sun rose through the trees, her hair became more natural and it fell out and just trailed along behind her as she walked. She entered the Great Hall, not even noticing that Professor Lupin was there and grabbed a piece of toast and headed out of the Hall.

"Good morning, Hermione." Lupin said cheerily.

She turned around and gazed into his gorgeous, amber eyes before returning a smile and muttering a small hello. She carried on walking out of the Hall and decided that she would go and sit under her favourite tree and watch the sun come up over the hills and trees.

"I wish this day could last forever. It's a pity it can't but nothing does last forever, except for some things." She said to herself quietly, thinking of someone in particular while saying this.

She rolled onto her back and gazed at the picture Ginny had given her as a present. She sat there on the bright green grass for another twenty minutes before realising that everyone would be up by now, so she got up and gracefully made her way into the Great Hall. As she entered, she saw that Harry, Ginny and Ron were only the 'starters' of their main meal of the day. She made her towards them, while waving and smiling at people she knew and people who had wished her a happy birthday.

"Hey guys how are you?" she asked politely.

The only reply she got was a load of grumbles and snorts from her fellow class mates. At this response, she decided that it was best not to talk to them until they were fully awake. She walked back outside and stared at the wonderful sun rising above the hills. She walked along by the lake for a while, until she realised the time and headed to her least favourite lesson, Potions. Not only was her Potions master a git but he seemed to pick on her the most, which got rather annoying for Hermione. So she decided that she wasn't going to take any crap from that idiot today, even if it meant getting detention on her birthday.

"Why are we all standing in the corridor like first years? You know how to open a classroom door so do it!" a familiar voice drawled behind her.

She followed her Potions professor into the classroom with many scared students trailing along behind her, sitting in their various seats. As Snape started the lesson, Hermione was brewing up an evil idea that was bound to embarrass poor, old Snape for the rest of his life.

"You may begin, in silence. You know where to get the ingredients. Well, move before you waste anymore time. GO!"

With that everyone in the room hurried over to the student cupboard, everyone except Hermione. Unfortunately for her, Snape noticed this and strode over to where she was placed.

"Miss Granger, are you going to work at all or just sit there doing nothing?" he asked in his usual sarcastic tone.

"Yes sir. I will get to work on the potion immediately."

He slowly turned and walked away but as he did, Hermione pointed her wand at his black robes and muttered 'colourious'. She smiled mischievously and got to work on her potion. At the end of class, Snape ordered them to do two rolls of parchment of the uses of Veritisum and why it is considered a drug.

"Class dismissed."

Everyone filtered out of the classroom while Hermione looked at Snape's robes silently laughing. Her plan was working; his robes were turning bright pink with flowers and hearts. She quickly hurried out of the dungeons and down to the Great Hall to have lunch. As she walked through the corridors, a certain person was in her thoughts.

He is rather handsome, NO! What am I thinking? I can't fancy my Professor-but he is single, NO! Bad thoughts, bad Hermione! Bad-

Her thoughts ended when she collided with a solid object in front of her. She fell back waiting to hit her head on the floor and be taken to the hospital wing, when a pair of muscular arms came out of nowhere and caught her. She looked into the eyes of her savoir and gasped when she realised it was…

"Remus. Thank you." She said blushing at the situation they were in.

"No problem. My fault anyway, I was deep into my thoughts. Thinking about Sir…"he broke off awkwardly looking at the floor sadly.

What am I supposed to do? He's so unhappy and I'm just standing here doing nothing about it. Hermione thought sadly.

"Again I'm sorry Hermione, for knocking you over. Good day and have a happy birthday." He started to walk away when someone caught his arm. He turned around to find Hermione clutching his arm. Suddenly, she flung her arms around him and tightly hugged him. Then she whispered in his ear,

"Whatever you think about Sirius and anyone else, you have to realise that it was never your fault and that you'll always have a friend close by to comfort you."

She reluctantly let go of him and walked away to the Great Hall. She sat down beside Harry and Ron and ate her lunch. A few minutes later Remus entered the hall with a head full of confusing thoughts. He sat down at the head table and started eating when Snape came in, still having not noticed that his robes were pink with flowers and hearts all over them.

"Hey, Hermione look at Snape. His robes are pink." He said trying not to laugh.

"I know Harry, I mean, after all…I was the one who turned them that colour." She replied with a twinkle in her eyes.

"You did that? Hermione you are the best."

"I know and he won't notice until someone starts laughing at him. It was another spell I placed on him." Answering Harry's confused look.

Soon enough, the whole hall erupted with roars of laughter from all the houses including Slytherin. Snape whirled around before looking down at his robes. His face turned crimson as he looked around for the suspect in embarrassment. Unfortunately, nobody was giving any impression that they were guilty.

"When I find out who did this, they will not know the meaning of evil when they see the punishment I hand out to them." He shouted but failed to stop everyone laughing. He strode out the Great Hall and down to the dungeons, still fuming.

"Hermione, you are a master of mischief in disguise." Harry said through his laughter.

"I think this is the best birthday I've ever had by far." She stated. She made a move to get up and go outside once more, when Harry stopped her.

"Where you going? We still have one more lesson don't we?" he asked confused.

"You do, I don't. I have a different timetable to you remember?" she took one more glance around the hall when she noticed that Remus wasn't at the head table anymore. In fact, she couldn't see him anywhere. She shrugged this matter off and headed down to the common room to get her swim stuff and a change of clothing. She was going swimming in the lake.