BEEEP, BEEEP
Hermione jumped out of bed landing face down on the floor, thoroughly surprised by the high-pitched alarm clock.
BEEEP BEEP
In a desperate attempt to silence the thing she threw it at the wall. Or tried to.
The clock hit her inkbottles on her dresser resulting in the dresser got covered in ink and crushed glass. Unfortunately Hermione's potions essay was on that same dresser.
"My essay!" Hermione shrieked and sprang to her feet trying to save her assignment.
Hurriedly she repario-ed the inkbottles and her alarm clock. She cleaned up the ink with a rag.
But it was too late; the essay was already soaked in the ink and un-rescue-able.
"Stupid alarm clock!" Hermione cried out and smashed the poor clock once again, this time successfully hitting the wall.
Grudgingly she stepped into the bathroom and started brushing her teeth with such furry that her mouth still ached when she joined Harry and Ron at the Gryffindor Table in the Great Hall.
"What happened to you?" Ron said giving Hermione's unkempt mess of hair a weird look. Hermione hadn't seen any reason to why challenging fate more by brushing her hair, it would've gone wrong as everything else had this morning.
"Shut up Little Red Riding Hair," Hermione grumbled,
"So-rry!" Ron muttered and turned back to his food. Girls and their mood swings!
Taking no notice, Hermione started stuffing her mouth with food; only to spit it out again as her mouth ached too much to chew.
Hermione gave a frustrated cry and stomped out of the hall, giving everybody on her way a death glare and an evil sneer that made most of the first years to simply turn around and run for their lives.
10 am.
Lunch had just ended and all 7th year students were making their way to the Quidditch pitch lead by Professor McGonagal.
The students looked at each other in confusion, on the holy pitch two highly unholy white lines had been drawn. Who had dared to do such a thing? Immediately they turned to Professor McGonagall.
"Please tell me those two lines can and will be removed?" One Ravenclaw voiced out.
"Don't worry Mr. Finch-Fletchely, they will be removed as soon as we're done," McGonagall responded,
The students sighed with relief; at least the two unholy lines were not permanent.
"What are we supposed to be doing?" A Huffelpuff girl asked,
"You all will be taking the Beep Test as it is called," McGonagal wrinkled her nose slightly over the unintelligent word Beep Test; she had to change it no doubt about it.
"Place your selves at the line facing the opposite line," McGonagall ordered, "At the beep you run to the other line and at the following beep you run back and the whole thing starts over. After 5 beeps you get into the next level where the beeps will be coming more frequently. If you do not reach the line before the next beep sounds you are out of the game, any questions?"
No one said a thing; everybody was focusing too heavily on the other line.
"Already get ready for level one" McGonagall said and charmed her pen to scream out the beeps.
"BEEP" and so it began.
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Hermione felt her world fall apart as she ran to the opposite line. Her breathing became irregular as she turned around and just in time for the beep ran back to the line, which she came from.
The same routine went on for ages; it sure felt like ages for poor Hermione. At last it got too much for her and she collapsed into the mud.
She was out of the exercise.
As she sat down she felt a bit humiliated that she had collapsed but still she felt proud of her self, she was positive she had reached at least level 6.
Her pride was though quickly replaced by embarrassment as McGonagall's rang out "Level 2,"
Hermione hurried to the score board which McGonagall held and checked her score.
She looked shocked at the number standing in front of her name. Had she really only been able to run two and a half lapses? This couldn't be, she was out of shape but surely she wasn't that much out of shape.
"McGonagall? This can't be right, I ran more then just two and a half," Hermione said to McGonagall.
"No, I remember watching you myself and you only made it back and forth two and a half times. I suggest you start take a run once a while," McGonagall responded and turned back to the students still running.
Hermione walked back to her seat and crossed her arms feeling everything was against her. Especially that stupid "2 1/2" it wasn't even a proper number!
But it was going to be added to her "Stupid, disliked and loathed numbers"-list. That'll show it!
After that thought Hermione felt much more perkier then earlier and turned her concentration to the students. Harry and Ron were still out there and Hermione's mood went down quite a few notches when she noticed Neville and Goyle were too.
She was in worse shape then Goyle. There wasn't anything more humiliating then that.
"Level 5"
Level 5? Didn't she just scream level 2 a second ago? She shrugged it off and focused on keeping herself from laughing at that trip-over-own-feet fall Neville did landing him face down in the mud just like her a few minutes ago.
"You alright?" She asked him as he sat down besides her,
"Yeah, " Neville mumbled looking utterly humiliated,
"Longbottom, I think you should go see the nurse," McGonagal called, "You have an awful gash on your arm"
Neville nodded and ran away happy to be free from any further embarrassment.
Hermione shook her head at him as she watched him run off, some people are just a danger to themselves she thought as Neville tripped over his own feet once again in hurry.
As level 13 began only a few Gryffindors and Slytherins remained including Ron and Draco.
Harry had been tripped by Blaise Zapini and was now sulking besides Hermione who was still perky as ever.
"GO RON!" She screamed in a moment of impulse.
After more tripping and avoiding being tripped they all tripped each other.
Somehow they all ended up in a huge pile on top of each other.
Except Draco Malfoy who conveniently probably started the whole mess, he simply ran along and reached level 15 before he got tackled by one of his Slytherin mates.
8 pm
Hermione and Draco were sitting in the common room in utter silence. Both concentrating on finishing the assignments they had received for the day.
Malfoy furrowed his brows as he reached a question he simply could not solve without help. He looked up looking for something or somebody to help him.
His eyes fell upon Hermione and before he could think twice he had already asked her for help.
"Granger, I don't get question 4" He said.
Hermione casually looked at the question, before answering.
"The answer is on page 132 in your history books,"
"I know the answer I just don't get it. Why did the Goblins want rights? They never were treated badly by anyone," Malfoy said looking at his history books.
"True, I guess they just wanted to be treated like humans. The reason they didn't get treated badly was probably because most people were afraid of them," Hermione said after a short second of thought, "You can't really say they're a pretty sight,"
"That doesn't make sense," Draco said, "Why would they want to be treated like humans?"
"Maybe not like humans specific, more like being treated like any other person," Hermione said, "Like an equal,"
"Getting rights doesn't necessarily mean they earn the respect they need to be treated like equals," Draco said,
"No, but it's a step in the right direction," Hermione said and turned back to her own assignment.
Draco shrugged and went back to his own homework and the silence was restored once again.
Both were oblivious to the fact they had had a civil conversation.
Both were oblivious to the comfort they suddenly felt in the presence of each other.
And both were oblivious to the raging storm outside.
Next chapter will be up on the 25th.
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A/N: Thinking about buying some glasses for our two favourite characters. I know I posted this chapter before the deadline but I just didn't feel like waiting for the 20th.
Back to what I talked about in last chapter: anyone who has seen the Goblet of Fire, tell me how it is. I really want to know.
Review! -Boogie