Chapter Four

"…And then these are your rooms of accommodation to your left. Here, there is enough time to show you them before it is time for dinner." I followed Minerva and Dumbledore silently. We had just passed through what I had always thought was just another tapestry. But, as had just been told to me by professor Dumbledore, it was just a transfigured doorway that was to be kept hidden from students at all times.

"Hermione?" Dumbledore quietly informed me it his firm, but gentle voice. "Just to let you know, the password to your chambers for the time being is epsilon. Though you can change it whenever you please, as long as you remember what it is. And be sure that no one that you do invite into your chambers is a student, for as I have told you, it is against school policies for students to know where their professors reside within this castle."

I nodded. That seemed logical to me. Over the seven years that I had been a student here, I had never once found out where any of the professors lived within the castle. "Is there anything else that you would like to tell me before you show me my rooms professor?" I timidly asked. The awe that I felt at first coming to Hogwarts was swiftly returning to me, leaving me rather breathless and shy again.

"No, that should be all." Spoke out Minerva again. " Here is a key to your rooms if you are to forget the password, though I do not suppose that you will need it, speaking about how you remember things so well and such. Now, you can use the password that I have given you… so you can see your rooms."

Hesitantly, I stepped forwards towards the awaiting door. "Epsilon." I spoke out, quite clearly. I could hardly wait to see the chambers that awaited my eyes. The door swung open, and ass I stepped through, my foot hit a package that was partially hidden amongst the shadows around my doorway. Without stopping to wonder about that mysterious package, which I did not think much about, I stepped boldly into my rooms, and opened my eyes. What I saw took me clear by surprise.

I do not know what I had been expecting, but it was not anything like what I was seeing just now. The rooms were not decked out with the gold and red of the Gryffindor colors, but instead, the colors that it sported were the colors that I had always called my favorites. Greens, and blues, mixed in with a frothy gray the color of the wind tossed ocean, greeted my eyes. I gasped. I had never before seen anything so beautiful in a very long time.

Both of my former professors must have sensed my awe at my surroundings because they were looking at me with an indulgent gaze, much like the one that my mother once set upon me when I was younger. "This is… these rooms are… they are perfect!" I cried out in sheer amazement. This was more than I had ever expected. I do not know anymore what I had been expecting, but most certainly, it was defiantly not anything near as lovely as these rooms were to me now.

"Well, Professor Hermione Granger," Dumbledore's amused voice called to me through my amazed stupor. "Minerva and I will leave you here. Make sure to unpack and get acquainted with these charming quarters of yours. We will all be expecting you down for dinner at around six thirty, if you do not mind." He paused, before continuing. "And maybe you would enjoy seeing what is in this quite unusual package by the door. It looks quite intriguing if you ask me." And before I could say another thing, the two of them had disappeared suddenly through my door, as suddenly as if they had apparated out, though I know that that was quite impossible.

After I had explored my chambers for another fifteen minutes, I suddenly remembered Professor Dumbledore's comment about the mysterious package that was just outside of the doorway that led to my rooms. I also remembered the fact that I had almost tripped over it in my haste to get inside of my new rooms and that it had not been a hard object. If I had remembered correctly, my foot had made a soft indent into the side of the packaging.

Intrigued, I went over to investigate it. It seemed relatively normal at first… as it was wrapped in an old edition of the Daily Prophet. But what startled me was the fact that it was dated from a little over three years ago… about the time of the Death Eater attack that had claimed the lived of my parents. As I started to untie the brown cords that bound the package… I noticed the heading. Well not the actual heading, but the date. It said November the Nineteenth… the day that the attack on my parents had happened… the exact date.

Shaken, I continued to slowly unwrap the mysterious package. I had suddenly realized that maybe I should have scanned this package for curses or any other type of dark magic that it may possess. But it was too late to do that. It was much too late, because the wrappings were starting to unfold… revealing to me the most startling contents.

"Was this some kind of joke?" I thought franticly to myself, as I pulled from the packaging… something that I had just recently, the day before actually, seen in a shop window. For there, hanging limply in my arms, was the dress that I had noticed in the shop window, just the other day. Then I noticed a piece of paper float down from the wrappings in my hand.

I stooped over to get a closer look at the note. "Maybe it would tell me something about my mysterious benefactor." I mused to myself as I gently unfolded the crumpled piece of parchment. At first, I did not notice any writing on it. And then I noticed a spidery handwriting on the other side of the paper. It was a handwriting that I did not recognize at all. It seemed to be enchanted so I could not figure out the sender. And then I read the note. Though it did not say much at all, in terms of words, it also seemed to say many things to me… many of which I suppose that the writer did not intent to say.

To: Ms. Hermione Granger

May you have as many opportunities,

To use this gift, as there are stars

In the heavens above. And may you

Use it just as wisely as I know that

You do everything else.

"Surely I am dreaming." I thought softly to myself. "Why would anyone want to give me such a gorgeous dress? Even if this person wants a favor from me in return." After musing this over in my mind for another couple of minutes, I turned quickly and began to head back into my new abode. "If this gift were truly what it seems," I mulled over to myself, "Then there will be no more need for me to transfigure my other dress into something more suiting. This dress will do just fine. Though I do wonder who sent it… maybe I will able to figure that out."