(A/N: This is my first fanfiction. I hope you like it. It would be nice to know what you think. ♥)
Hermione Granger had never been one to point fingers, but one hot and stuffy Monday afternoon she realised that the ghostly Professor Binns, lecturing his class from the front of the classroom, was the sole reason why History Of Magic was so utterly dull. Even she, "goody-two-shoes-know-it-all-teacher's-pet" Granger, fell into some kind of hypnotic stupor every time the man opened his mouth. She was convinced she would learn much more studying by herself in the library, but then again that wouldn't be difficult. She looked down at the parchment in front of her, where her usually word-perfect notes should have been. Hermione rarely, if ever, found herself copying down anything that Professor Binns said.
She laid down the quill that she had been absentmindedly tapping on her desk and looked to her left. Her best friends, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley sat at desks, one in front of the other. Ron was slouched low in his chair with only his closed eyes and shockingly red hair visible. Harry, however, was writing earnestly on the piece of parchment in front of him. Hermione smiled approvingly and leaned over slightly to see what had caught his attention. She rolled her eyes as she watched him scrawl "I'm so bored" for the hundredth time across the page.
Slumping back into her seat she rested her chin in both of her hands and let her wildly curly brown hair fall across her face, hiding her from view. It was only then that she realised that she could feel someone looking at her.
It started with that strange prickling on the back of her neck, and then a shiver that was peculiarly hot and cold, as well as pleasant and unpleasant, at the same time snaked its way up her spine. She felt herself blush. Nobody around her was whispering her name and Professor Binns wasn't calling on her from the front of the room, but somebody was definitely trying to get Hermione's attention. In a room full to the brim with Slytherins she didn't dare to take even a peek over her shoulder, but curiosity made common sense hard to obey. For all she knew it was probably Lavender Brown hoping to copy Hermione's precise notes after yet again falling asleep under Professor Binns' natural sleeping spell… but it certainly didn't feel like that. These eyes held an intense and seemingly unbreakable gaze: hot and fiery on her skin. It was almost as though they were talking to her. 'Hermione,' they said, 'Hermione.'
A spiky elbow in the ribs brought Hermione back to the room.
'Hermione?' Harry said again, 'Hermione!'
'Hm? What?' She mumbled.
'Class is over,' he told her, and then added a muttered, 'Thank God… Come on, let's get out of here!'
Hermione shook her head to clear it and rubbed her eyes. Apart from a few stragglers, she, Harry and Ron were the only people still in the History Of Magic classroom. The eyes on her had gone. She felt boring and normal again.
She stood up, shovelled her belongings into her bag and followed her friends from the room.
'What is it about History Of Magic?' Ron was saying exasperatedly as she caught up with them, 'It's so bloody boring. I don't know how anybody can stay awake.'
'Well you've certainly proved that you can't,' Hermione teased.
'I think we caught you having a bit of a snooze at the end there too Hermione,' Ron replied haughtily, 'Who would've thought it? Hermione Granger asleep in class! Wait 'til the Daily Prophet hears about this…'
Hermione slapped him lightly on the arm and tried to laugh along, but a sudden thought had made her shoulders droop. Maybe she had fallen asleep in class. Maybe those eyes on her had just been in her imagination. She wouldn't be surprised: the number of muggle romance novels she had been reading in her spare time with a wistful smile would explain that. She had begun to feel starved of romance. She had hear enough times that girls like her didn't have the time to waste on such things, but she couldn't help resenting that having brains made her any less appealing. Unless she just wasn't appealing to start with.
'Hermione?' Harry was saying to her again, looking concerned, 'Are you okay?'
She nodded at him and tried to smile convincingly, 'Just a bit dazed,' she told him, 'Nothing a good bit of Potions homework won't fix.'
Ron groaned and shook his head with a long-suffering look on his face.
Hermione shrugged with a grin, 'At least I'm easy to please.'
'You may be many things Hermione,' Harry said as they reached the Gryffindor common room and flopped down on chairs around the fireplace, 'But you're definitely not easy to please.'
'Is that a bad thing?' She wanted to know as she scrabbled in her pockets for a quill.
Harry smiled at her caringly, 'Probably not.'